To The Dragonlands

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“It’s here, it’s finally here,” cheered Spike the short, little, purple dragon with green eyes and spikes running down from the top of his head to the base of his tail that ended in a spade-shaped tip. He was energetically gathering up anything and everything he could carry from his room and stuffed it into an already overloaded blue backpack. “I finally get to go to the Festival of Dragon Lords.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Smoulder told him. She was a blue-eyed, orange dragon with pink spikes running from the stop of her head to the back of it. Compared to Spike, she was almost twice his height though with a more slender build. “The festival is just about remembering how great the Dragon Lords are.”

“And about all their contributions to dragon kind,” finished Spike as he scratched his head while he pondered what else to grab from his room. “It was first started by Dragon Lord Scintilla and has been continued every year since then. That’s one thing Ember talked about when she was a guest speaker for History of Creature Kind 101.”

“Then you also know that it’s just a long, boring day of listening to the Dragon Lord talk about their past and future plans for their rule along with any former Dragon Lords taking the chance to regale us with their own stories to once more bask in their former glory or for their surviving descendants to do so in their stead,” she sighed. “It’s basically a day long lecture that no dragon would bother to attend if not for the Dragon Lord commanding us to participate.”

“I thought you were excited to go because Ember was extending the festival for a few days and adding in a lot more fun stuff to do,” reminded Spike as he grabbed a pillow from his bed and attempted to force it into his backpack, though it there was less than no space left for it now. “A lot of snack vendors, and games, oh, and the sky burning performance after the opening ceremony tonight. I can’t wait to see that.”

“Yeah,” admitted Smoulder with a smile. “That’s always fun to see.”

“Just one thing,” he added, a bit embarrassed to admit. “What’s a sky burning?”

“You’ll see,” she chuckled. “I’d hate to ruin the surprise. I have to say, it does sound like this year’s festival will be a blast, but I’m not so sure if all dragons will think the same way like we do. Ponifying a dragon festival doesn’t seem like a good idea, even if Ember is the current Dragon Lord.”

“It’s what Ember wants her legacy to be,” stated Spike as he managed to force half his pillow into his bag and then with all his speed and might attempted to pull the flap down enough so he could snap the two ends of the buckle together to secure it. He groaned and grumbled as he spoke, using all his strength to make them meet. “To unite… the dragons… to...ge...the-ARGH!”

Spike’s hands slipped and like an erupting volcano, everything in his backpack burst out, landing all over his room. Everything he had packed, comic books, bags of gems, some clothes, an extremely lengthy roll of scroll paper that looked like it could extend from the Castle of Friendship to Sweet Apple Acres, along with several quills and pots of ink, and three large pillows were now all around him while his backpack was flat and empty again.

“I can see you want to go to the festival badly,” commented Smoulder as she looked at the mess Spike’s packing had caused. “But you might want to think a bit more like a dragon and try packing only what is absolutely necessary.”

“But all of this stuff is necessary,” explained the purple dragon as he started to gather up his belongings once again.

“Do you really need to take all your Power Pony comic books or so many different bags of gems?” she questioned as she picked a few up.

“Well, I never know what issue I might be in the mood to read and some of the gems I’m bringing are for a snack and others are for buying things.”

“How about this blank scroll, quills, and ink?” she asked.

“That’s for Twilight,” he answered as Smoulder seemed bewildered at how long the scroll paper was as she attempted to roll it up with no sign of the end in sight. “She asked me to take notes on the festival.”

“And three pillows?” she asked. “I can understand one, but why three?”

“Well, one to sleep on, one as a backup in case there’s something wrong with the first pillow, and a third as a backup to my backup,” he answered. “No offense to the Dragonlands, but I don’t think I could get used to sleeping on rocks.”

“So long as you don’t take offense to getting eaten alive,” she warned him with a rather devious smirk on her face. “I don’t think I have to remind you, but dragons won’t hesitate to take advantage of smaller, weaker creatures and all those pillows would probably be a big target on your back.”

Hearing that remark, Spike gulped and quickly considered what he could do without for a few days. “Well, maybe, I could limit myself to just two or three comics, and only take half the length of scroll paper,” he conceded with a bit of intimidation in his voice. “I wouldn’t need as many quills and pots of ink as well then too. And I probably don’t need snack gems if there will be food vendors I can grab a bite to eat at.”

“And the pillows?” she questioned him.

“I’ll just take the medium one,” he sighed as she gathered what he decided upon and found it all fit in his backpack with no trouble at all. Closing it was effortless now and after connecting both ends of the buckle he was all set to go.

“That’s better,” she smiled and gave him a hard slap in the back. “I can’t imagine you flying all the way to the Dragonlands lugging around a backpack three times your size. Now we’re all set.”

“Ow!” wondered Spike as he rubbed his back. “Ugh, we are? Where’s your bag?”

“Right here,” she answered holding up a green backpack that was completely empty, save for the school of friendship yearbook she had in it.

“Isn’t that packing a bit too light?” questioned Spike.

“I came to the school with nothing so it’s not like I have a lot to bring back with me, especially for a short visit,” she pointed out. “Anything I need I’ll be able to get when I get back to my cave and meet up with the ole gang.”

“The gang?” questioned Spike. “Who’s that?”

“Just a few dragons I hung out with in the Dragonlands,” she explained. “Been ages since I last saw them.”

“You must be eager to catch up with them,” smiled Spike.

“I guess,” she sighed. “Though, I’m a bit nervous too, if I’m gonna be perfectly honest.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?” asked Spike as they took a seat on his bed.

“Well, I’m hardly the same dragon I was when I first came to the school,” she pointed out. “I know that’s a good thing cause I’ve learned a lot and made friends with Sandbar, Gallus, and everyone else, but I’m a bit worried that I might not fit in anymore.”

“There’s no way of knowing that till you try,” Spike assured her. “And if they were your friends before then that doesn’t mean you won’t still be able to be friends now.
I’m sure Twilight and the others would say the same thing too.”

“You really think so?” she asked with a bit of a smile.

“Of course!” answered Spike, giving her a hard slap on her back to return the one she had given him, though she didn’t even flinch.

“Awe,” whispered Twilight with teary eyes as she watched Spike and Smoulder sneakily from his slightly ajar door. Twilight was a purple pony with a violet mane and tail and along with a pink streak running down them both. On her flank was her Cuties mark, a six-pointed pink start surrounded by five smaller white stars. She was also an alicorn, a pony possessing both the horn of a unicorn and the wings of a pegasus. “I’m so proud of him.”

“Eavesdropping, I see,” spoke the unicorn Starlight. She was a pink pony with a purple mane that was similar to Twilight’s save the streak in her hair was light blue and she let her mane come down over only one side of her horn instead of being split by it. Her Cutie Mark was of a purple diamond with with points jutting out from its sides. Above it were some magical bluish green swirls.

“Shh!” shushed Twilight quietly. “I wasn’t doing that.”

“Relax, Twilight,” smirked Starlight. “I’m all for a bit of mischief every now and again. Besides, you’re just really anxious because Spike’s gonna be gone from home for a little while.”

“How do you know?” Twilight questioned her.

“Gee, I don’t know,” she replied sarcastically, tapping her hoof to her chin. It’s almost like I’m some sort of guidance counselor or something.”

“Oh… right,” blushed Twilight with embarrassment. “I guess I am feeling a bit nervous. This isn’t the first time Spike’s been away from me for more than a day, but usually he’s in Canterlot with Princess Celestia or in the Crystal Empire with Shining Armor and Cadence.”

“And he’ll be in the Dragonlands, this time, with Ember and Smoulder,” Starlight reminded her.

“I know, but I can’t help worrying that something bad will happen like he’ll slip and fall into a pool of lava,” she commented, her pulse racing as she finished her sentence and it reflected in the level of freakout in her voice.

“Well, if he does, he’ll be fine,” Starlight pointed out. “He is a dragon after all. And more important than that, he was raised by you and if I know you as well as I think I do then you’ve made certain that he’s ready for this.”

“You really think so?” hoped Twilight.

“You already know the answer to that,” she replied.

Taking a breath to relax herself, Twilight answered, “Yes, he is.”

“He is what?” asked Spike as he opened the door to see the Twilight and Starlight in mid conversation.

“I was just telling Starlight, as we were just passing by your room, that I think he, uh, you are just about done packing,” answered Twilight with a nervous chuckle. “And it looks like you are.”

“Yup, all done,” nodded Spike turning to show his backpack off as he and Smoulder came out of his room.

“I hope you’ll have a wonderful trip,” Twilight told Spike as she hugged him with one of her wings. “And know that I’m very proud of you.”

“Awe, you don’t have to make this into an emotional thing,” Spike told her. “It’s not like I’m gonna be gone for long or anything. I’ll be back before you even have time to miss me.”

“I promised myself I’d give you a proper send off before you go,” Twilight reminded him.

“You also promised not to make a big deal about this,” he added.

“Of course,” she nodded, as the four of them made their way through the castle. As they proceeded down the hall, Twilight stopped in front of the map room. “Oh, there’s something I need to get in here. Mind if we take a little detour?”

“A detour?” asked a confused Spike. Looking at Smoulder, she just shrugged her shoulders while Starlight looked away, feigning ignorance.

Twilight’s horn glowed with a purple aura and a similar light appeared on the door as it opened. Looking inside, they all course see a large, chocolate cake with gemstones baked in atop the map table. Along with it, there was a festive-looking banner hung across the room covered in glitter, that read, “Have a fun time Spike and Smoulder!!!”

Before the two dragons could process all this, all their friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Yona, Ocellus, Silverstream, Gallus, Sandbar jumped out to shout, “SURPRISE!!!” before pulling out party horns to blow or confetti to toss up in the air.

“Well, so much for not making a big fuss out of all this,” commented Smoulder, not looking disappointed at all by this.

All four entered the map room to join in the festivities. “Sorry, but we couldn’t resist, or, rather, Pinkie Pie couldn’t,” admitted Twilight.

“I could never miss out on a chance to wish my two bestest dragon pals the best on their way to the Dragonlands,” Pinkie Pie giggled enthusiastically. She was a pony that was the color of her name from the color of her coat to her incredibly curl-filled tail and mane. Her Cutie Mark reflected her love of all things party, three balloons.

“And we sure as pie wouldn’t wanna be left out of it either,” added Applejack in her southern drawl. “We hope you don’t mind.” Applejack was an orange pony with a blond mane that was almost always topped by her ten gallon hat. Her Cutie Mark was of three red apples as one would expect of one with as large an apple heritage as her.

“We did plan on getting an early start on the flight over,” commented Smoulder as she approached the cake and couldn’t deny how mouthwateringly delicious it appeared, enough to make her salivate. “But, then again, it’s not like we actually had an agreed upon time that we’d arrive.”

“Then maybe we can play some party games too,” cheered Silverstream, the light pink haired Hippogriff. She had magenta hued claws on her front legs and the same colored hooves in the back. She had a long mane and tail in pale blue and periwinkle. Around her neck was a shard of a magical pearl that enabled her and anyone else she wanted to use it on to transform into an different type of creature, in her case, usually back and forth between a seapony and a hippogriff. “How about a game of turn the hippogriff into a seapony?”

“Uh, what kind of game is that?” wondered Ocellus a light blue Changeling with a red shell covering over her wings.

“It’s a lot of fun,” the hippogriff explained energetically. “We take turns wearing a blindfold and tried to pin this tail onto a picture of a hippogriff on the wall. Whoever does it closest is the winner.”

“Oh, that’s just like game we ponies play,” commented Sandbar, a yellow pony a short cut bluish green mane on his head and a Cutie Mark of a turtle on his flank. “We call it, ‘pin the tail on the donkey.’”

“Whatever the game is, it doesn’t really sound all that fun,” Smoulder replied.

“Come on, just give it a chance,” encouraged Silverstream as she put a blindfold on Smoulder so she couldn’t see and then handed her the cutout of a sea pony’s tail end.

“Don’t forget we gotta spin her too” added Gallus with a smirk on his face. He was a blue griffin, a creature with a front half like an eagle and the lower half of a lion.

“Yona help,” the small, but no less mighty yak said. Out of the student six, she was easily the largest, with a thick hide covered in brown fur, hazel eyes and a small set of horns on the sides of her head. Approaching Smolder, she got her to to grab onto one of her braided hair loops and started to run around her, forcing the teen dragon to turn round and round in circles till her sense of direction was skewed as was her balance.

“Ugh,” she groaned after losing track of how many times she was spun around and even when Yona finally came to a stop, Smoulder could still feel the room running circles around her. “I bet you guys are really enjoying this.”

“Maybe a little,” admitted Gallus.

“So, I’m blindfolded and dizzy,” the orange dragon informed them. “How am I even supposed to find the hippogriff or donkey or whatever it is I’m supposed to pin this thing to?”

“We’ll help lead you in the right direction,” Silverstream assisted along with Sandbar. Carefully, they helped lead the off kilter dragon forward. Each step she took forward, almost had her stumble to the ground, but they were alert to prevent that and she trusted them enough not to do anything save for what they promised to do.

“Heheh,” she chuckled, unable to deny that despite how convoluted the game was to play, she was actually enjoying herself. “This is actually kind of fun.”

“And you’re almost there,” Sandbar informed her. “Hold the pin out in front of you and do your best to pin the tail on the hippogriff. You can use your other hand to help you feel around.”

“Here goes nothing,” Smoulder announced as she felt a thick piece or foam board on the wall in front of her. At the very least, she was able to determine that was what she was going to puncture with the pin, but as for where exactly on it was the correct spot, she had nothing else to go on. With her best guestimation, she pushed the pin in and let go. “Well, how’d I do?”

“Well, heh, uh…” Sandbar spoke as he failed trying not to laugh. “You managed to get it on the hippogriff.”

“Just not on the right end,” laughed Silverstream. Lifting up her blindfold, Smoulder had to take a look for herself and saw that he missed the flank and hind legs of the hippogriff and got pinned the tail to its head instead. Just seeing the ridiculous oddity she made was more than enough to get the dragon cracking up too.

“Seems this game is worth a few good laughs after all,” commented Gallus as he saw Smoulder laugh and snort so hard that smoke started leaking out of her nose.

“Careful now,” she warned them. “If I laugh too hard I’ll get the hiccups.”

“And we should be careful cause?” wondered Gallus.

“It isn’t as bad as sneezing, but a hiccuping dragon can still- HIC!”

A small burst of flame shot out from her maw and onto the foam board, quickly torching the it black and turning the picture of the hippogriff to ash. The seapony tail managed avoid the same fate as it fell onto the ground.

“At least seapony head managed to avoid getting burnt,” joked Yona. Hearing that, all the rest of the student six were in stitches with laughter.

“Looks like they’re having fun,” smiled Spike as he helped himself to a nice slice of the chocolate gem cake. “They sure have gotten really close since they first arrived at the school.”

“Just like all of us,” stated Rainbow Dash a blue pony with a rainbow mane and tail and a Cutie Mark of cloud with a lightning bolt. “But it’s a small wonder since we were their teachers after all.

“Yeah, I wonder what Smoulder’s dragon friends are like,” added Spike as he got a fork and took his first bite of the delicious treat, his eyes lighting up from how delicious it was.

“Smoulder never mentioned about her other friends,” commented Fluttershy, a yellow pony with a long pink mane and tail and butterflies for her Cutie Mark.

“I just learned about them a few minutes ago myself,” he continued. “She’s a bit worried that she might not connect with them as well after being gone for so long.”

“It can be hard to reconnect with old friends,” admitted Starlight. “After being apart from Sunburst for so long, I struggled to find something we still had in common.” After hearing her say that, Spike looked back over to Smoulder with a concerned look. “Oh, but we were apart for a so many moons. Smoulder has only been away from the Dragonlands for barely more than a year. I doubt there would be much disconnect from just being away that long.”

“You know,” chimed in Twilight. “When I sent a letter to Ember about having her enroll a student into the school, she did mention she had a few dragons she was considering while making her decison. Maybe she was referring to Smolder’s friends. If that’s the case and she thought they had just as much promise to learn about friendship as she did, then I doubt they’ll have any trouble.”

“I’m sure you’re both right,” agreed Spike, as he turned away just as Smoulder unleashed another hiccup that torched Gallus’s tail. Quickly, he started to panic and fly around while the others hurried to help put it out. Smoulder covered her mouth with her claws as she attempted to keep from hiccuping any more flames elsewhere.

“Oh, Smoulder, do you have a minute?” asked Rarity, a white pony with a fabulously elegant and regal purple mane and tail. Her eyes were blue while she had quite engaging eyelashes, though, in reality they were false ones. She had three diamonds upon her flank for a Cutie Mark.

“Uh, probably not,” she answered when she felt certain her hiccups were gone. Turning to look at her friends, she saw them douse Gallus with a fire extinguisher to put out his tail fire, covering him completely in the foam spray in the process. Just seeing him a foamy mess of soapy suds made them burst out with more laughter once more and as soon as the griffon saw his reflection in the crystal wall he snickered into full on laughter too. “I should probably go see if Gallus is okay.”

“If you say so, but I thought you would be interested to know that I have it finished for you. I just wanted to see if you wanted to sneak away for a minute to check it out,” she whispered in her ear.

“You don’t mean,” gasped Smoulder quietly, but no less ecstatic. Rarity gave a subtle nod to confirm it. “Gallus looks fine. So, let’s go!”

Hurrying out of the map room, Rarity led Smoulder into an adjacent room for them to talk privately. Quickly, Smolder made sure to lock the door behind them so nobody could come in and see what was about to transpire. Meanwhile, Rarity used her magic to levitate over a white box with a blue ribbon on it. Seeing it approach, Smoulder’s excitement only increased, barely able to restrain herself as it fell into her claws.

“I must admit, I was incredibly excited when you asked me to make this for you,” commented Rarity. “The only clothes I’ve ever made for dragons before this were for Spike. This is the first time I’ve ever been able to make a dress for a dragon. Oh, I can’t wait to see you try it on.”

“I can’t wait to either,” blushed Smoulder as she removed the lid and dropped it to the floor. Inside the box was a gorgeous, sparkling, blue dress that matched her eyes. It also had a white frilly trim on it and a ribbon around the waist. Along with the dress, there was a silver tiara included with a pink heart-shaped gemstone in the center. With it in claws, Smoulder was cautious to even breathe too hard on it, on the off chance some flames snuck out of her maw to possibly scorch it by mistake.

“I hope it came out right,” spoke Rarity, not sure if her words got through to the young dragon as she just stared in complete admiration for what she had been given. The fashionista pony did not need feedback for how her client felt about the dress. The look of complete joy said more than words ever could.

“It came out wonderful,” answered Smoulder. “Better than I could have hoped.”

“It’s my greatest joy to hear my client say such praises for my work,” she told her. “But some credit should go to the Tree of Harmony for creating the dress you described that inspired this one. I merely added a few personal touches here and there.”

“And I love it so much,” Smoulder told her again, practically crying tears of joy.

“Well, don’t keep me waiting,” continued Rarity. “Try it on.”

“Oh, uh, you mean right now?” Smoulder said not sounding so thrilled.

“Yeah, I wanna make sure it fits you properly,” she explained. “I occasionally need to add a nip here and a tuck there to to ensure everything fits properly. Besides, the fitting is the moment of truth, when dress and pony or, this case, dragon become one.

“Ok,” she nodded, placing the box down and carefully lifting up the dress, making sure her claws didn’t accidentally cut through the delicate fabric. Gazing upon it, a nervous look appeared on her face. “I’m just a bit embarrassed to wear it, is all.”

“Whatever for?” wondered Rarity. “Any pony would be envious of you for having such a lovely dress. I mean, it’s not like I’m making you wear one of Applejack’s faux paus made out of faux paus. I wouldn’t wish such a fashion disaster upon my worst enemy.”

“It’s not like that,” she explained. “There is nothing wrong with the dress. It’s me that feels wrong. Dragons have never been one to get all dressed up to look nice. The closest thing most dragons have to an outfit is body armor and none of that is cute or silly.” Smoulder let out a sigh. “I guess what I’m saying is that dragons don’t wear things like this.”

“If that were true then you certainly wouldn’t have asked me to make this,” Rarity pointed out. “And there is nothing wrong with embracing this part of you, dragon or pony, or whatever creature you might be.”

“I know all that and I’m happy I was able to experience this side of me,” she explained. “But going back to the Dragonlands now to meet with my friends, I’m afraid of how they’ll react, laughing and making fun of me.”

“Why do you think they would do such cruel things to you?” cried Rarity.

“Because it’s what I’d probably do if it was one of them in the dress instead of me,” she admitted. “Before I came here and realized all this about myself.”

“Such is the burden of a trailblazer,” spoke Rarity. “Those who try to stand at the forefront of trends often must risk ridicule, but to me, there is nobody braver than those willing to stand in the spotlight first. Few are given such a rare opportunity and, Smoulder, this could be yours, to be the first dragon to stand in front of so many and announce to them all, ‘LOOK AT ME! I AM PRETTY AND I LIKE IT!!!’”

“I’ll, uh, think about that part, but for now, I think I’ll just try to get used to being in a dress without some magical friendship lesson attached.”

“Yes, of course,” giggled Rarity. “Baby steps.”

“Urp,” belched Spike, letting some green flames slip out of his maw He had just finished eating his third slice of cake and as he rubbed his gut, he couldn’t delay their trip to the Dragonlands any longer. “As much fun as this party was, Smoulder and I really have to get going.”

“Yeah,” smiled Twilight. “Sorry we made such a fuss about you going away for only a few short days.”

“Eh, you know I love the attention,” he admitted with a smile of his own.

“So, are you sure you got everything you need?” she asked.

“No, but Smoulder convinced me to pack light,” he explained. “But I do have plenty of paper and quills for the notes you want me to take.”

“And when you are taking notes, here are a few things I want you to find out in particular,” she told him. Looking at Spike, she paused from speaking for a moment. “Uh, you might wanna write these down.”

“Oh, right,” replied Spike as he scrambled for some scroll paper and a quill. “All set now.”

“First questioned,” dictated Twilight. “Who was the first Dragon Lord and what did he do?” Twilight waited for Spike to write all that down. “Second question, who was the second Dragon Lord and what did he do?” The pony princess waited for her number one assistance to write and then continued once more. “Third question, who was the third-”

“The third Dragon Lord and what did he do?” figured Spike as he saw the pattern.

“I have more diverse questions than that,” Twilight assured him.

“And they are?” he asked.

“Uh, give me a moment,” she told him and rubbed a hoof on her head as she tried to think. Spike sighed and let out a little smile, happy for this little feeling of normalcy before his trip.

“All aboard the Ponyville Express,” called the conductor as he gave the final call for the train. “We will be leaving for Appaloosa momentarily. This is the final call.”

“We’re coming! We’re coming!” called out Spike as he and Smoulder descended onto the platform, winded from flying over to the station at full speed from the Castle of Friendship.

“Do you have tickets?” the conductor asked and Spike promptly pounded on his gut and belched out some green flames. When they faded, a pair of red tickets appeared and Spike handed them over to the conductor who looked them over before taking his hole punch to approve them. Handing the tickets back to the two dragons, he stepped aside. “Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the ride.”

“We will,” Spike nodded and the two boarded the train and searched for some empty seats, fortunate enough to find a train car completely empty save for a few ponies that were spread out all over it. Picking some seats, Spike sat by the window with Smoulder sitting beside him. They gazed out the window as the train’s whistle sounded followed by the screeching of the wheels as they started to slowly move and bit by bit pick up speed. The whistle sounded again once they got to the end of the platform and the train was starting to pick up speed as it hurried to it’s next destination.

“We’ve got an hour till we reach Appaloosa,” commented Spike as he watched the familiar scenes of Ponyville fly by as the train made its way through the center of town towards its southern end and headed towards Ghastly Gorge. After that we just need to fly the rest of the way to the Dragonlands.”

“I know,” yawned Smoulder. “Pretty much the reverse I took to get to Ponyville. Just wake me when we get to Appaloosa. I’m gonna get a little shuteye till then.”

With another yawn, Smoulder was fast asleep with some slight snoring. As she snoozed, Spike grabbed the comics he had taken with him and his pillow to make himself comfortable as he did his best to pass the time.

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve been back in the Dragonlands,” he thought as he licked his claw before turning the page in his comic. “I wonder what what will be awaiting me there this time.”

Opening Ceremony

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It had been quite some time since Spike and Smoulder had last laid eyes upon the Dragonlands, but they were just as they remembered them to be, a very arid and rocky terrain that felt like a scorching Summer day no matter what time of the year it was thanks to system of lava deep beneath the ground that connected to numerous volcanoes in the region. While stone was plentiful here, there was no trace of plant life anywhere due to the perpetual drought the heat caused. It was rare for rain to fall here, or at the very least hit the ground before evaporating. As a result, the ground was so dried out that it was covered in cracks from one end of the Dragonlands to the other like a true marvel of nature.

The only bodies of liquid that did exist in the Dragonlands were made of molten rock from the many still active volcanoes throughout the land. To most creatures this was a very dangerous land to live in that was even less habitable than that. The only creatures that could survive such a brutal environment was the current residents of this land, the dragons themselves. Thanks to being covered in scales capable of easily withstanding extreme high temperatures, they saw bodies of lava as ideal spots to going swimming or even lava surfing, if it had a strong enough current for it.

“It feels good to be home,” commented Smoulder, feeling the welcoming warmth blanket her body. During her stay in Ponyville the drop in temperature made the town feel almost frigid when she first arrived.

As she and Spike descended, they touched down upon the meeting grounds of the dragons, a large, flat area with a large peninsula looming over it that had been crudely carved into a throne-like shape. That was Throne of the Dragonlord and the place where there leader addressed their fellow dragons when they gathered just like they were doing now.

Already, there was a vast quantity of dragons gathered with many more coming in from caves all over the Dragonlands and some making their way from even the other end of Equestria just to be here for the festival.

“Looks like we made good time after all,” commented Spike seeing how other dragons were still just arriving and many were on their way and visible in the distance skies. “Looks like things won’t get started for at least another couple hours or so.”

“Allowing us time to unwind till then,” Smoulder smiled and inhaled the familiar scents of ashe and magma that hung heavily in the air. “Ah, you certainly don’t get air like this back in Ponyville.”

“You certainly don’t,” agreed Spike who had his claws on his nose, the odors here not so pleasant to one who had lived a life more accustomed to the aromatic fragrances of things like flowers and freshly baked confections.

“That’s the same face I made when I first arrived at the school,” chuckled Smoulder. “But after I got used to it, I found that flowers and plants do have a rather nice smell to them.”

“I’m still trying to adjust,” stated Spike attempting to wean himself into the environment by taking little sniffs of the air. “I haven’t stayed in the Dragonlands save for when some sort of event is going on and I’ve never been here for longer than a day. This’ll be the longest I’ve ever been here for.”

As Spike worked on his breathing, more and more dragons continued to show up. Looking around, Spike took notice of them all, each clad in bright colorful scales that rivaled the number of vibrantly hued ponies in Equestria. He also observed how much the mythical lizards varied in size.

The younger dragons were about as small as Smoulder, though many of the teens were easily larger than any adult stallion by at least a head or two. The adult dragons were even larger, most big enough to make even Celestia and Luna look up to have a conversation with them and they were by far the tallest ponies Spike knew. The more long-lived dragons were far more massive still, showing just how massive a dragon could become with both time and a body that never stopped growing. A few were even large enough to rival Twilight’s castle in height, while standing upright on two legs.

“And I’m still the smallest dragon around,” thought Spike unable to deny he had hoped that he wouldn’t be the smallest dragon every time he came around and from what he could currently see, that seemed to be the case this time too.

About an hour passed before Spike finally felt comfortable enough to tolerate the smells of the Dragonland and not cover over his muzzle. By this time, the meeting grounds were starting to get so overly filled with dragons that many couldn’t land and had to remain airborne. “Is it always so crowded with dragons like this?” wondered Spike as the two young dragons did their best as the room on the ground became increasingly confining.

“Hardly,” Smoulder answered. “Dragons aren’t typically the type to gather to such a degree unless something is going on like the Festival of Dragon Lords. Teen dragons usually gather in a small group to pal around with and kill time by competing against one another. Adult dragons typically enjoy spending their time in solitude guarding their treasure if they haven’t yet settled down and started raising a family.”

“I should probably write that down in my notes when I get a chance,” replied the small, purple dragon as he looked around in the crowd of dragons. “But, for now, I better focus on finding Ember. She’s gotta be around by now so better find her before things get started.”

“I need to find my friends too,” added the taller orange dragon. “But I’ll make sure you Ember, before that, of course.”

“Did Twilight ask you to keep an eye on me?” assumed Spike, not all that surprised if that was the case. “Things might not have gone as well as I’d have liked before, but I’ve grown since then. I’m not some helpless, little dragon who can’t take care of himself.”

“Hey, look! It’s the shrimp!” laughed a taunting voice that Spike quickly recognized.

“Ugh,” groaned Spike as he placed a hand on his temple as a migraine was coming on. “Not these guys again.”

Looking to where the voice had come from, it belonged to the teen dragon, Fume. He had purple scales a couple shades darker than Spike’s and was more than twice his size with a far more slender build, almost appearing scrawny. The scales on his belly were yellow and unlike most dragons, he had blond hair atop his head that covered over his eyes and the everything else above his muzzle, save for two large purple spikes that protruded out the crown of his head.

“Been a while since the runt’s shown himself around here,” said one of two dragons hanging out with him. This one’s name was Clump, an musclegutted, brown dragon, sporting thick, yet short arms and legs and a much meatier tail with a spiked ball tip. He had a pair of red wings that were questionable as to whether or not such small things could life his girth off the ground. He had beady red eyes with yellow sclera. Atop his head it he had a large, v-shaped shaped set of indigo horns.

While Spike turned a deaf ear to their laughter and mocking atitudes, he was more focused on the third member of their group, the one who was often the most antagonistic of the three, but remained unusually silent. Instead, he opted to give Spike a hateful glare that looked like he was trying to burn a hole through him just by staring.

This dragon was named Garble. Out of all the teenage dragons around, he always stood out as the most aggressive and sadistic when it came to picking on creatures smaller and weaker than himself. His build was the middle ground between the other two dragons, being strongly built, but not being round and unnecessarily bulky. He had dark red scales over most of his body and pale yellow ones on his chest. He had yellow wings that were slightly torn, but still flightworthy. The sclera of his eyes was yellow and he had black irises topped with bushy, black eyebrows. There were pointy, orange spikes running down his back, not the least bit uniform in any way and ended with a large spike on the tip of his tail. From the crown on his head to the middle of his neck he had spikes that were more like the crest of a chicken. As he scowled, his teeth were visible and every bit as pointy and gnarled as ever.

“Friends of yours?” asked Smoulder sarcastically.

“If by the first dragons I ever tried to connect with and failed fantastically then yes,” answered Spike before cautiously approaching them. “Hi there, I can see you two are doing just as well as ever.” Looking at Garble, he merely snorted smoke out of his nose when Spike looked at him. “Uh, Garble, are you okay?”

He didn’t answer with words, but spat some flames at Spike, making him just back in fright.

His two cohorts laughed hysterically at that. “Dude, nice one,” cackled Fume as he patted Garble on the back. “That’s showing the twerp.” Garble merely grumbled to himself and swatted his friend’s arm away before flying off as mad as ever, leaving the rest of them clueless as to what was eating at him.

“That dragon has issues,” stated Smoulder to Spike as they decided to move on before Fume and Clump turned their attention back on them.

“No kidding,” nodded Spike with a look of concern. “Last time I met Garble, Rainbow Dash and I got the better of him. It didn’t improve our relationship, but it wasn’t so bad as to make him hate my guts this much, could it?”

“Who knows, but no sense in dwelling on it,” Smoulder advised him. “We have better things to do than be concerned with a disgruntled dragon like him.”

Weaving around the countless other dragons, Spike and Smoulder did their best to find the Ember in a crowd of hundreds. The effort only growing more difficult as dragons continued to arrive while the ones already there moved around too. Any area that searched was filled with completely different dragons, essentially undoing all the looking they had just done and added to their frustration.

“I wish we had set up a meeting place with Ember before we came,” sighed Spike. “The festival will be over before we find her at this rate.”

“Yeah, but the Dragonlands don’t have too many landmarks, just a whole bunch of scorched rocky terrain,” Smoulder replied. “So, sending a letter to Ember about where to meet wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

“Actually,” pondered Spike as an idea came to him. “That might make perfect sense.” Going into his backpack, Spike retrieved a quill, some ink, and tore a piece of scroll paper from the roll. He simply wrote, “Hi, Ember.” on the paper and rolled it up. Then with a tiny puff of flames, he ignited it, quickly reducing it to a puff of smoke that began to swirl through the sky and weaved around the groups of dragons.

“Yeah, you can do that,” remembered Smoulder as they started to chase after the smoke, while attempting to maneuver around all the other dragons in the process. “But I didn’t think you could use it like this.”

“Neither did I,” replied Spike as they began to run after the sent scroll.

“Sorry. Pardon me. Excuse me,” Spike said as they scurried by, barely able to focus on their surroundings while they feared losing sight of the smoke as it’s trail dispersed in the air as quickly as it was made.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to go far before the smoke reached a svelte, cyan dragon that was taller than Smoulder. She had red eyes and dark blue spikes that were bent back atop her head. She also had horns on the back of her head that curved around for the pointed end to face forward. Her wings were purple and the scales going from the front of her neck and ran down her chest and belly were a lighter shade of blue. There was also a number of blue diamond marks all over her body.

“Hi, Ember,” she read upon unrolling the scroll.

“Hi, Ember!” called Spike, waving as he and Smoulder ran over to her ran.

“Spike! Smoulder!” she waved back to them. “What’s with this note?”

“It was all I could think to find you,” he explained as he gave her hug as he always did upon greeting her. Blushing, she patted him a couple of times on his head and waited for him to let go.

“That was clever,” she told him and looked at his back to see his folded up wings for the first time. “Glad to see you’re doing well and happy to see you’ve finally gained your wings.”

“Yeah,” he nodded stepping back to open them up and show them off. “I had always wondered why other dragons had wings and I didn’t, but I’m glad I finally have mine.”

“You know, I never expected to see a wingless dragon participate in the Gauntlet of Fire,” commented Ember. “My dad only called for dragons from our generation that had already left their dragon parents to come and compete. That typically would have just covered the dragons that have already undergone the molt, which is our rite of passage into adulthood.”

“A rather scary one involving lots dragon-eating predators in it,” shuddered Spike, as that massive roc that nearly ate him, Rarity, and Zecora came to mind.”

“Nobody ever said it was easy,” she admitted before continuing. “At first, I thought you might have just been some runt abandoned by his parents, but I guess dad’s call didn’t account for a dragon being raised by ponies.”

“I never considered why I was called to compete back then, when I was so much younger than everyone else there,” commented Spike with a chuckle. “But I didn’t do half bad, did I?”

“There were plenty of dragons who were considered a long shot to win the gauntlet, but who would have thought that, in a million years, a dragon who hadn’t even obtained his wings would end up becoming the Dragon Lord?”

“Hold on,” interrupted Smoulder upon hearing this tidbit of info. “Spike was in the gauntlet… the Gauntlet of Fire gauntlet… and he won?”

“I didn’t do it on my own,” admitted Spike. “I teamed up with Ember and we were able to make it to the end together. I grabbed the Bloodstone Scepter first, but, after that, I gave it to Ember to be the Dragon Lord since I knew I could trust her to be a better ruler and keep the ponies of Equestria safe from dragons who’d want to harm them.” Spike snickered a bit before he continued. “Oh, but I did issue one order to Garble, before that. I had him give every dragon he met on the way home a hug.”

“I’m starting to see why he has so much animosity towards you,” laughed Smoulder at such a humiliating thing for a big, strong dragon to be forced to do. “But more importantly than that, what kind of dragon just gives up the title of Dragon Lord after working so hard to get it?”

“I didn’t want to be the Dragon Lord in the first place,” Spike told her. “It would have meant having to leave my friends in Ponyville. I just did it to keep them safe. Luckily, I made a friend in Ember so I didn’t have to be the Dragon Lord after all.”

“Technically, you were the Dragon Lord,” pointed out Ember. “So, today is a festival celebrating you as well, Spike.”

“O-Oh, really? I had no idea,” he answered with surprise on his face. “But I guess I didn’t really achieve much of note from just holding the title for all of three minutes.”

“Well, if we didn’t work together neither of us might have become Dragon Lord at all and I might not have accomplished all I have if not for you and your friends offering me so much support. You deserve as much praise as I do for everything I’ve done. Plus, you do have a couple of accomplishments of your own.”

“I do?” asked Spike curiously.

“Uh huh,” she nodded. “You were the Dragon Lord with the shortest reign, not to mention, the first Dragon Lord to willingly give up the title to another dragon. All other dragons either had the Bloodstone Scepter stolen by another dragon or retired willingly and cooked up some challenge to decide on a successor.”

“Wait, anyone can become the Dragon Lord simply by stealing the scepter?” asked Spike not liking the sound of that.

“I guess I never did tell you the story, ‘A Dream Come True,’” said Smoulder. “But, yeah, a dragon doesn’t have to wait for the current Dragon Lord to choose to retire. Any dragon can take the title for themselves just by, well, taking it.”

“Most dragons believe that only the strongest have the right to be in charge,” added Ember. “So, if a Dragon Lord is weak enough to lose the Bloodstone Scepter then that just proves they are no longer fit to lead. But, if you are worried about me losing the title, don’t be. Just having the Bloodstone Scepter gives me influence over the other dragons so most won’t bother to try knowing I could stop them effortlessly. But even without its help, I’m more than tough enough to take on any dragon who would try to take it from me. I’ve already had my fair share of dragons challenge me, but none of them have even gotten close.”

“That’s a relief,” smiled Spike. “I definitely wouldn’t be cut out for Dragon Lord if I had to contend with dragons trying to take the scepter from me.”

“I’m sure you’d have done fine,” replied Ember, though it was hard to tell if she meant that earnestly or was just saying that to be nice since it was a moot point. “So, how have things been going for you, Smoulder? Have you learned a lot about friendship?”

“I definitely have,” she nodded. “And I’ve even made a few friends too. You remember… they were the ones I ran away with back at the start of the school year. Again, sorry about that.”

“Everything worked out for the best though,” Ember pointed out. “And I think you’ve grown from your experiences too. Just speaking with you I can see you’ve come far.”

“Maybe a bit,” she nodded and blushed, feeling happy that her hard work had been acknowledged for it.

“The opening ceremony is still a bit of time away,” Ember informed them as she looked up at the sky and used the position of the sun to guesstimate the time. Would you both care to accompany me to the Throne of the Dragon Lord?”

“It’ll definitely beat then being crammed together with a few thousand dragons down below,” joked Smoulder before she recalled that she had something she needed to do before the ceremony. “Actually, I’ll have to skip on it. I, actually, wanna try to meet up with my old gang. By any chance have you seen them?”

“No I haven’t,” the Dragon Lord shook her head. “It shouldn’t take them long to get here. Maybe check your old hangout to see if they’re in the middle of procrastinating.”

“We did do that a lot,” Smoulder admitted as she didn’t waste any time in flying off to check it out. “Okay, I’ll go take a look.”

“How about you, Spike?” asked Ember about her offer to join her on her throne. “It’ll be easier than having to find each other after the opening ceremony is over, plus it’s the best place to watch the sky burn.”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed and followed her as she flew into the sky towards the large plateau. “Uh, and what exactly is the sky burn?”

“Guess this will be your first time seeing it,” chuckled Ember. “Trust me, you’ll love it.”

“The old haunt,” Smoulder told herself as she flew down to an area a short flight from where all the dragons had gathered together. There she approached a narrow crevice that was extremely easy to miss seeing if one didn’t already know it was there. It was too small for any adult dragon to fit into or even the bulkier teens, but a dragon of Smoulder’s petite size was able to slip in easily and enter into a small cave within it. Once inside, she found there were three other young dragons there, lazily lounging around with a bored expression on their faces. They seemed to almost be in a trance-like state as they didn’t even notice that Smoulder was standing right there.

The first was one with his back flat against a large lumpy stone that’d make one get back pains just from looking at him. He was a green-scaled dragon with black scales on the front of his neck that went down his chest and flat stomach and even to the tip on the underside of his tail. This dragon possessed an unusually pointed muzzle that was shaped like the blade of an axe. There were some small, black spines running uniformly down his back to the tip of his tail that resembled a double-bladed axe.

Every few seconds, this dragon he blinked his blue eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled a green flame straight up at the ceiling. The spot he hit was scorched and blackened from just how many times he must have done this for. Seeing him not even attempt to budge from his uncomfortable-looking spot, it seemed likely that he’d just keep on doing this so long as no outside force disturbed him.

There next dragon was a short, white one that was only abou a foot taller than Spike, though with his heavyset build, it gave him the appearance that he was even larger than that. His round gut dropped down a bit, almost down to his waist and he possessed a small pair of saggy pecs. There were two rows of rounded spikes running down from the base of his neck to his tailbone. The end of his thick, stubby tail had three prongs like a fork. His eyes were gray and he had a number of pointy teeth poking out of his maw even when it was closed.

This dragon was preoccupied stuffing his face with a rather impressive stash of gems, eating like it was his first meal in weeks, though the extra space his gut took up in the cave said otherwise. The dragon’s muzzle sparkled from all the gems he had been eating and the floor at his feet was a mess with broken shards that broke from the gems as he slovenly chewed them up. Showing no concern for the mess he was making, he merely snatched up another clawful of gems to stuff into his maw and munch them up in a slovenly manner.

The last one was a pink dragon with a messy of droopy spikes atop her head that looked more like unkempt hair. She had purple eyes and star-shaped marks all over her body in the same hue. Out of the three, she was the tallest, almost up to Ember in height. Her dark purple spikes had a water drop shape to them and started from the crown of her head and reached down to the end of her tail. Her eyes were a lovely shade of gray and she also had a couple of stubby, gray horns poking out from the sides of her head and curved upwards.

She spent her time scratching into the walls of the cave with her claws, creating a graffiti of random designs all over it. There was hardly any room left to add more, but that didn’t stop her from trying to use up with little remained. Her work was actually very impressive, considering the difficulty the jagged and uneven cave walls proved to be.

“I thought I was away for a lot longer than a day,” commented Smoulder. “Cause it feels like you three lumps haven’t moved an inch from the time I left.”

“Smoulder?” wondered the green dragon, the first to answer as they turned to face the entrance of their cave and stared in awe. He sat up from his spot and stretched before making his way over to her. “H-Hey, Smoulder! Long time no see. We kept the place a mess for you.”

“That was… thoughtful of you, Ax,” she replied, pounding her fist against his. Looking around, Smoulder was not certain if the cave had been as musty and dirty back then as it was now. It was something she had never even considered back then, though her stay at the School of Friendship had gotten her into the habit of picking up after herself.

Compared to where she had been living, the cave looked to be an absolute pigsty with the floor as a trashcan, making it impossible to walk anywhere without stepping on something. Smoulder could hardly believe she had allowed herself to live in such conditions before or that she was only realizing this now. And it didn’t just stop with the mess on there ground either. There was a foul and musty odor wafting around that she could only compare to a bunch of sweaty clothes in a laundry basket after an exhausting workout in gym class. In fact, it was even worse than that as it even started to make her eyes burn and water a little. It forced Smoulder to have to cover her snout with her hands in order to tolerate it the stench. In contrast, her friends acted like such foulness didn’t exist, a clear sign that they were blind to it after living with it for so long, something Smoulder figured had once been the case for her as well.

“I bet you are glad to be back here with us in the Dragonlands after being all the way in, uh…” continued the fat, white dragon, his cheeks wobbling a bit as he spoke. “What was it called again? Ponytown or something like that, right?”

“Ponyville,” corrected Smoulder.

“Whatever. You’re probably hungry from the trip over,” he said carrying over his bowl of gems. He didn’t offer her any and just kept on munching on them himself. “You should really find something to eat.”

“Ever the bottomless pit, Gorge,” joked Smoulder. “Actually I ate before I came and had a little snack on the train ride on the way over. But If you want to talk about things to eat, there’s a bakery in Ponyville that makes the most delicious gem cake you can imagine, but even better.”

“Hmm? What was that about gem cake?” asked Gorge as he paused from eating to say that and only seemed to hear the part about delicious gem cake. Before Smoulder could answer, he returned to loudly munching on the crunchy gemstones and added more shards to the already messy floor with his hoggish eating tendencies.

“I’ll tell you when you’re finished eating,” she decided and turned to the last of her trio of friends. “So, what name are you going by now?” Smoulder asked the pink dragon. “It was Nails, last time, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yeah, but now my name is Karma,” the pink dragon answered. “So, tell me, what do you think of my latest masterpieces? Those two have been no help in critiquing it.”

“We said it looks nice,” stated Ax quite irate.

“Ugh, that is just a generic, safe response one makes when they have no real feedback offer,” she argued. “You probably can’t even tell which of my drawings is abstract realism or which are modern impressionism.”

“Like you even know what any of that means either,” commented Smoulder to Karma as she walked through the messy cave to where her friend had currently been digging her nails into the wall. “But this does look nice. I can’t tell if this is supposed to be a dog or a dolphin, but I definitely see some improvement. Now, maybe try on a material that isn’t a crude cave wall.”

“Yes,” cheered Karma happily.
“Brutally honest with a hint of praise and a dash of snark. Oh, how I missed you.”

“We all did,” nodded Ax. “The cave felt so empty, though Gorge has been trying his best to fill the void you left when they hauled your tail off.”

“Hey!” snapped Gorge. “Was that a fat joke? I just have big bones. Also, I have a gem deficiency. Also, also, shut up.”

“Yup, nothing seems to have changed here,” thought Smoulder, not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

“So, was the pony school as lame as we thought it’d be or even lamer?” asked Karma.

“Were all the ponies hugging, spontaneously starting to sing, and sharing their feelings,” added Ax. “And picking flowers to give to each other?”

“Well, we didn’t do anything like that,” retorted Smoulder. “Well, actually, we kind of did most of that stuff, but only a little. All in all, it actually wasn’t bad. It was-”

“You didn’t actually like going to pony school, did you?” asked Gorge spewing gems as he talked.

“Me? Enjoy silly pony stuff,” Smoulder replied nonchalantly. “An hour in and I was already ready to gag on all that cutesy frou frou stuff. They practically had to chain me to my desk just to keep me from ditching class every day and muzzle me so I wouldn’t burn the place to the ground.”

“Whoa!” gasped Ax as he and the others listened to her falsehoods intently. “Still as hardcore as ever. I bet those wussy ponies are glad you’re gone. They probably let you leave hoping you won’t ever come back.”

“Uh, yeah,” she continued to fib, sprinkling a bit of truth in as well. “They even threw me a going away party to celebrate.”

“So, are you back for good or do you plan to go back and terrorize them some more?” wondered Karma.

“They are probably relocating it somewhere else to avoid just that,” commented Ax.

“That’d be a shame if they did,” stated Karma. “I’d love to see the horror-filled upon their faces as you return for more pony school.”

“Can we please stop talking about the school?” suggested Smoulder, already seeing how deep she a hole she was digging herself into. “Shouldn’t we get going to the opening ceremony? It should be starting soon and it’s already getting pretty crowded over there.”

“Why do you wanna bother with that?” asked Ax. “It’s just the Dragon Lord going on about how great she is. I doubt you’d wanna see her since she’s the one who sent you to that stupid school in the first place.”

“Yeah, but she’d probably really send me to Tartarus if I don’t go,” Smoulder fibbed. “Besides, I hear they are going to do a sky burn and I’d like to get the see something cool after being in such a lame place for so long.”

“Good point,” Gorge agreed as they made their way out of the cave, the butterball of a dragon having a bit of trouble squeezing through the narrow crevice.

Smoulder was the last to leave, sighing as she rubbed her shoulders in an attempt to comfort herself. Every lie she uttered left a foul taste in her mouth. “Things sure are a lot different than I remember them being,” she thought to herself. “Or, rather, I am.”

“Smoulder? Hurry up!” Ax called to her, snapping her out of her momentary funk and she headed out with them to the opening ceremony.

“Nice view,” commented Spike from atop the throne of the Dragon Lord. Looking around, he could see countless dragons on the ground below, their colorful scales hiding the dried, cracked ground they stood on. There were many dragons flapping their wings as they remained stationary in the sky too. “It looks like every dragon in Equestria is here for the opening ceremony.”

“More likely for the sky burn,” answered Ember taking a few deep breaths. “But first, I have to get past my speech. I just… need… a few minutes.”

“I didn’t take you to be the nervous type,” commented Spike.

“Nervous?” replied Ember defensively. “I am the Dragon Lord. Why would I be nervous?”

“Cause you are trembling and look like you’re about to gnaw your claws off,” Spike point out.

“Oh,” replied Ember not realizing she was indeed biting on her nails. “I guess I am nervous about doing this.”

“What’s the problem?” wondered Spike as he gestured for Ember to sit down and took a seat beside her.

“I’ve been doing things a lot differently than most Dragon Lords have in the past,” she replied. “Mainly the whole being friends with ponies and other creatures. It was a rather bumpy transition with a few teen dragons who are at that age to rebel against authority and just cause trouble for no good reason. I’ve had to clean up quite a few messes and get them to apologize to reduce the damage they caused.”

“Did you use the Bloodstone Scepter?” asked Spike curiously. “Or did you just show them who is the top dragon around here?”

“Neither, actually,” she admitted with a smile. “I could have and it probably would have been a lot easier and faster, but after becoming the Dragon Lord I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about just what kind of leader I want to be. Certainly not one who uses magic and fear to get others to do what I want. What kind of leader would I be then?”

“King Sombra, Chrysalis, Starlight before she was reformed,” Spike listed off as he extended a claw for each. “Oh, and your father a little bit.”

“Yeah, not the kind of Dragon Lord I wanna be,” she chuckled. “But the young dragons causing trouble has been the least of my problems. The real issue is the older dragons. A lot of them are set in their ways and stubbornly oppose changing the way things have always been. It’s one of the times I’d have liked to use the Bloodstone Scepter to get them to cooperate, but forcing them to agree wouldn’t be the same as making real change. Instead, I had to be more strong-willed and patient till I could finally work out a compromise with them. Thanks to that, I was able to make the changes I wanted to for this festival and make it more than just listening to the Dragon Lord prattle on for hours.”

“And you should be proud of what you’ve done,” the young dragon praised her.

“I am, but this is the first time I’ve ever done something this big,” she explained. “I’ve set up stands for food vendors, and got a lot of games for the younger dragons to play like bobbing for gemstones. There’s going to be demonstrations for different dragon crafts glass blowing and fire shaping too. And of course some exhibitions with dragon dueling, gorge surfing, and fire breathing competitions.”

“Sounds like you really did put a tremendous amount of effort into this festival!” Spike told her. “I can’t wait to check all that out.”

“But all of that’ll be meaningless if I blow the opening ceremony,” she trembled. “The dragons might see me as unworthy to be the Dragon Lord and decide not to participate in the rest of the festival. If that happens no dragon would ever willingly agree to my ideas again and my rule as Dragon Lord will be a shameful one. Oh, is this why that pink pony friend of yours acts the way she does? The stress from all the big parties she throws all the time?”

“Pinkie is just Pinkie,” explained Spike. “And to be nervous about being in charge is natural for a leader who cares about doing the best she can for those around her and doesn’t want to let anyone down. Right now, you remind me a lot more of Twilight than you do of Pinkie.”

“Twilight’s always seemed so confident and fearless,” commented Ember. “I mean, she’s saved all of Equestria on multiple occasions. I can’t even imagine her freaking out over something like a festival.”

“Trust me,” he assured her. “I’ve been around Twilight enough and seen her freak out about far less than this even before she got her wings. Just remember, all the dragons out here believe in you and I do too. Ember, you got this.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, Spike,” smiled Ember standing up. “I think I’m ready now.”

“Go get them,” whispered Spike as he moved further away to watch over on the side.

“Ahem, Dragons of Equestria!” announced Ember as she held up the Bloodstone Scepter for them all to gaze upon. “Today begins the Dragon Lord Festival. It is a time we have celebrate every year to remember all the Dragon Lords who have helped shape our culture into what it is today. This chain of leadership has been made possible ever since the first Dragon Lord, the great dragon, Lord Critias, forged the Bloodstone Scepter countless generations ago. It has been the glue that has united us ever since and helped us to be able to come together as a society.”

“Dragon Lord Critias?” thought Spike as he listened to Ember speak. Taking out some paper and a quill, he jotted that down as a reminder for later.

“It is on this day we look back to commemorate his contributions and all the Dragon Lords that have succeeded him and carved out their own legacy in our history. Many proudly led to uphold the honor and dignity of the dragons. Many took up arms to display our might. Some even chose to be diplomatic and show the world we are more than large beasts that turn all in our sight to ash.” Her words got quite a few chuckles from the dragons listening. “Seriously, though, we’re more than living fire hazards and we’re not just creatures of the Dragonlands. We’re residents of Equestria living with many other creatures, but while we have coexisted, we have not taken many steps to truly live among them. I have been working hard to fix that. I wish for that to be the legacy I leave behind as Dragon Lord. To show the world the hand of the dragon, palm out and offering it in friendship.” As she said this, she gestured by holding out her own hand. “But this is not a goal I can reach alone. It will require the efforts of each and everyone one of you. So, I ask you, not as your Dragon Lord or even as Princess Ember, but as a fellow dragon to please try your best to help me achieve this.”

As her speech came to an end, the teen dragons started to cheer, some even began to chant Ember’s name. Many of the older dragons clapped their hands in applause. Hearing all this, Ember calmly caught her breath and gave a simple bow before turning to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

“That was great!” Spike told her. “They really loved you out there.”

“I’d say it was more because I’m the Dragon Lord and I kept my speech short,” she explained. “When my dad was making these speeches he’d go on till the sun went down and came back up again.”

“Heh, I knew he liked to yell a lot,” chuckled Spike. “But I had no idea he was such a big windbag too.”

“You might wanna keep it down,” commented Ember, pointing to where former Dragon Lord Torch sat way in the back. “My dad is out there and his hearing is quite acute.”

“It is?” worried Spike, looking out at the mountainous behemoth. He had bluish gray scales, reddish orange wings and curled horns like his daughter, albeit a hundred times as big. He had several teeth poking out from the top of his maw, each one as large as a teen dragon. Spike had always been the small one when compared to other dragons, but against Torch, he was but a tiny burning beside a raging inferno by comparison.

The tiny, purple dragon could make out Torch’s expression as a stern one, though it was hardly different then how he normally looked. He then took a breath, causing thick, black smoke to gush out of his nostrils like steam from a teapot. Neither indicated that Torch was upset at him given his usual gruff disposition, but Spike didn’t like the thought of a creature who could squish him beneath his pinkie claw being upset with him.

“But don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe,” she promised him. “If you’ll help me out with the festival.”

“Sure, anything,” agreed Spike quickly and she gave him a little pat on his head to give him some comfort.

With a smirk on her face, she turned to the dragons once more. “Before we burn the sky, I would like you all to hear a few words from a close friend of mine, whom without I probably wouldn’t be standing here today. His name is Spike and he is here with us today to take part in our celebrations as my special guest. Now, he’d like to say a few words to you all.”

“You want me to speak?” whimpered Spike, starting to think he’d prefer dealing with Torch. “But what do I say? I don’t have anything prepared.”

“Just tell them about yourself,” she replied. “I was only able to become the Dragon Lord and learn what it means to have a true friend because of you. I might be the one trying to advocate friendship, but, truly, you are the one who started all of this. All this is because of you.”

“M-Me?” replied Spike as he looked down at all the dragons now looking up at him. Shaking and sweating, now, he was the one who was getting stage fright.

“Just remember what you told me,” Ember whispered to him. “You’ve got this.” Hearing those words gave Spike the bit of confidence he needed to calm down and collect himself. Taking a breath, Spike looked over the dragons before him once more before starting to speak.

“H-Hello,” he called out to them. “My name is Spike the Dragon. As the name implies, I’m a dragon, like you all. But, unlike all of you, I did not grow up in the Dragonlands. Actually, I was raised by ponies all my life. For as long as I could remember, I was a dragon living among ponies, but I never really thought that was strange. Then the day of the Great Dragon Migration happened and I started to question who I was. Was I a pony or was I a dragon? To find out, I went to join the migration with the hopes of self-discovery. That ended up being a disaster, but I got another chance during the Gauntlet of Fire. It was there I first met Ember and we were able to connect as friends. That was the first time I was able to connect with another dragon just by being myself. That’s when I realized that she wasn’t all that different from all the pony friends I’ve made. In truth, it doesn’t matter if you’re a dragon, a pony, a changeling, or whatever kind of creature you are. We are all just as capable of being friends with each other no matter the differences. I think that’s what Ember wants us all to understand. Thank you, everybody.”

Looking around, the dragons didn’t start to applaud him like they had Ember. He got a few soft claps from some. Spike smiled, happy to have gotten that. “At least they didn’t decide to pelt me with tomatoes,” he thought to himself before he turned to walk back to Ember.

“Ready to see the sky burn?” asked Ember to Spike.

“Yes, if only to see what that is,” replied Spike.

“Trust me, you’ll love it,” she answered and raised the Bloodstone Scepter, the red stone glowing faintly as she called upon its power.

“I thought you didn’t like to use that,” he commented.

“It still has it’s use from time to time,” she explained. “Like giving the dragons their cue to begin.”

“Begin what?” asked Spike before several large adult dragons took off into the sky around the throne of the Dragon Lord, flying straight up into the heavens above. The way they flew in sync with one another reminded Spike of one of the Wonderbolt’s routines, but seeing it done by such large creatures made it all the more amazing. Reaching the zenith of their accent, they all opened their maws and unleashed a torrent of flames, each a different color and began to fill the sky above in a glow of flames that mixed and blended with one another’s.

“Pretty good, right?” said Ember as she turned to Spike, who was unable to look away from the spectacle above him with his mouth wide open in awe.

“It’s amazing,” he answered, refusing to look away or even blink as the dragons continued to fly, now separating into groups of two as they flew off in five different directions, leaving a trail of flames behind them as they continued to exhale them. “It’s like they’re all painting the sky with their fire.”

“That’s the general idea,” she told him. “And always a crowd pleaser for the dragons.”

“It definitely looks that way,” he nodded, taking a peek at the crowd below and saw they were all just as captivated by the multicolored embers flickering on the blue canvas overhead. “I definitely gotta remember to tell Rainbow Dash about all of this.”

The flames remained visible for several minutes before they ran out of oxygen to burn and bit by bit started to fade into pale gray smoke that slowly faded away too and returned the clear blue sky. It was a performance that only lasted a short time, but the psychedelic mashup of colors as the dragons flew across the sky and even through their own flames ingrained the image into Spike’s memory.

As the dragon descended back to the ground, the audience was quick to burst into applause and rush over to applaud the fliers for such a magnificent performance. “Looks like this opening ceremony was a big success,” commented Spike.

“Yeah, it was,” nodded Ember. “And with the rest of the festival just about fun and games there isn’t anything we need to worry about.”

Legend of the First Dragon Lord

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“So, where are you planning on staying?” wondered Ember as she and Spike descended from the throne to go for a walk now that they were done addressing their fellow dragons.

“Staying?” asked Spike scratching his head. “I hadn’t really thought of that. I figured I’d be staying with Smoulder, but she went to catch up with her friends so now I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Well, what do you usually do?” she asked him.

“If I’m off in Canterlot I’d typically be in a castle or in a hotel, if I was traveling elsewhere in Equestria, but I don’t think the Dragonlands have anything like that,” observed Spike looking around, but there was nothing but rocks and mountains as far as the eye could see.

“I guess you better hurry and find a cave to bunker down in for the night,” she suggested. “The Dragonlands might be hot during the day, but at night it gets pretty cold, frigid even.”

“I’m shivering just thinking about it,” Spike spoke with chattering teeth as he rubbed his claws over his body to try and warm up.

“That’s not even the worst of it,” she added. “At night is when all the predators come out looking for something to eat, particularly soft, plump, little dragons.”

“I’ve already had to deal with almost being eaten by a roc once,” worried Spike. “I’d rather not go through that again.”

“Then you’d better hurry,” she suggested. “Caves are first come, first serve after all. Best of luck.”

“No! Please!” begged Spike as he latched onto her tail. “Take me with you!”

“Relax, Spike,” chuckled Ember. “I was just joking. Just a little dragon humor is all.”

“Just a joke,” replied Spike as he sighed with relief. “Then that stuff about it being cold and predators isn’t true?”

“No, all that is true,” she explained. “But I’d never up and abandon you to deal with all that.”

“That’s a relief,” smiled Spike as he let go of her tail and got back up.

“It’ll be nice having a guest over for dinner too,” she added. “Usually, it’s just me and my father.”

“You live with Torch?” gulped Spike nervously. “And he won’t mind me coming over?”

“So long as you behave yourself you should survive,” she answered.

“Uh, more dragon humor?” he asked with a slight chuckle.

“Not this time,” she replied and made Spike wonder if he’d be better off spending the night outside.

“Excuse me,” spoke a tiny voice as he struggled through the crowd of dragons. “Pardon me. Can you move your tail, please. Thank you.” Maneuvering his way forward, it was a young, yellow dragon, still lacking his wings. He had white scales on his belly and orange webbed-like spikes on his head that ran down to the base of his tail that ended in a spad shape at the tip. His eyes were red and he had two fangs poking down out of his maw.

“Well, maybe I should give him a present,” suggested Spike as he dove into his backpack for something. “Uh, does he read Power Pony comics?”

“I’m not sure what those are, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” replied Ember. “Just relax. I’m sure you can survive one dinner with my father.”

“I hope you’re right,” he replied returning his comics to his backpack and closed it up. As he did, he turned his head, allowing the young dragon to get a clear view of his face.

“Green spikes, purple scales, green eyes,” noted the little dragon. “That’s gotta be him!” Rushing forward excitedly, he called out to Spike. “Spike! Spike! Hey, Spike!”

“Huh?” wondered Spike seeing the dragon coming at him fast. “What in the-” He didn’t even have time to react before the dragon pounced on top of him and knocked him to the ground.

“Spike!” the young dragon cheered from atop Spike’s gut. “Is it really you, Spike?”

“Yes, it’s me,” he groaned Spike, still confused at what was going on. “But, who are you?”

“My name’s Spark,” he answered excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to meet you.”

“You have?” Spike stated with surprise. As the young dragon got off of him, he got back on his feet. “First time another dragon has ever wanted to meet me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he smiled. “You’ve done so many incredible things. Like you won the Gauntlet of Fire and saved the Crystal Empire on multiple occasions. You even defeated an army of giant mutant cockatrices while riding upon an alicorn princess and wielding a magical golden trident.”

“I guess I have done a lot of stuff, but I’m pretty sure that last one was made up,” replied Spike blushing at all the praise he was getting.

“Looks like someone has a fan,” chuckled Ember as she gave Spike a nudge.

“I wanna be just like you,” he continued. “Cause even though you are small, you have still done so many great things.”

“Well, I’m glad I could be an inspiration to you,” smiled Spike.

“A little one,” teased Ember.

“Hey! I’m still growing!” snapped Spike with some irritation in his voice.

“Heheh, you’re funny too,” giggled Spark. He then took out a rock and offered it over to Spike. “Do you think you can give me an autograph?”

“Uh, sure,” nodded Spike as he turned back to Spark and took the stone in hand. With a claw extended, he scratched out his name as best he could into it. Looking it over, it was a far cry cruder than his penmanship with a quill and scroll paper. Each letter was capitalized and the ‘S’ was made with three jagged lines, making it look like an askew backwards ‘Z.’ The other letters didn’t look much better, but at least it looked like his name. “Here you go. I’m always happy to help out my fans.”

“Really?” asked Spark, his ears perking up upon hearing that. “Then… do you think you can take me to the festival tomorrow?”

“Take you to the festival?” wondered Spike. “Why do you need me to do that?”

“I don’t have anyone to take me tomorrow,” he explained. “My dad doesn’t want to go tomorrow and I can’t go by myself.”

“That’s not right,” stated Spike. “What kind of lousy, no-good, father would refuse to bring you back to the festival when all the fun and games are going to happen?”

“Spark! Spark!” roared a voice that not only overpowered the mingling of all the dragons in the vacinity, but silenced them as well. There was a sense of dread that came with it too that tied knots in Spike’s stomach.

“Him,” answered Spark, his voice the quietest it has been since he started talking. He became completely silent after that, his body unable to keep from trembling. A look of fear filled his eyes and he hid behind Spike for protection (another first for the small, purple dragon who was usually the one being protected).

Turning to where the voice was coming from, Ember and Spike saw a dragon that stood over a foot taller than most of the teen dragons. The glare in his orange eyes was like a laser that could focus all his explosive rage at a single point. His scales were a deep crimson with stone gray scales on his belly and matching three pointed spikes on going from the top of his head down to the end of his tail that more resembled a mace. To say this dragon valued raw strength was an understatement. Every muscle on his body appeared exercised and tones to perfection.

All across his body was a large number of scars, many appeared to be from quite deep wounds. From what Spike could see, some scars ran parallel to others and were likely from razor sharp claws. There were longer, thinner scars that appeared to have been caused by a bladed weapon, and most notably of all were the scars like puncture wounds in his body. While the smaller ones were likely caused by spears that managed to pierce his hide, the larger ones were undoubtedly inflicted by a powerful focused blast of unicorn magic. The scales around the later wounds had even melted and fused together, further evidence to this assumption.

“Oh, that’s daddy,” whimpered Spike as he prayed that this dragon didn’t have as powerful hearing as Torch did.

“Where are you, Spark?” he called out again, his voice sounding more like a beastly roar to the dragons around him and caused them to scatter in fright. “Answer me!” His irritation only grew the more he searched. That anger made him flex his muscles and only made him appear larger and all the more intimidating.

“Of course it had to be him,” groaned Ember, the only dragon around who wasn’t shaking in their scales at the sight of the hulking dragon.

“You know him?” questioned Spike, his voice cracking as he could barely keep himself calm as the dragon neared them.

“His name is Crag,” she explained. “Remember how I mentioned some of the older dragons being against my decisions to change things?” Spike nodded, already certain what she was going to say. “Well, this guy speaks the loudest in every sense of the word. I doubt this needs to be said, but best steer clear of him at all costs. He is not a dragon you want to end up on his bad side.” Ember then approached Spark and knelt down beside him to rub his head. “It’ll be alright. Just answer him and apologize for running off.”

“Are you sure about this?” Spike asked her. “Shouldn’t we wait for him to cool off a little, like for a century?”

“I’ve dealt with him before,” she assured him. “Everything will be fine. Just stay quiet and avoid making eye contact with him.” Looking back at Spark, she gave him a nod with an encouraging smile to help him break free of his fear.

“D-Dad,” he spoke, his voice sounding so gentle compared to his father’s. “I’m over here.”

“Spark!” he called, turning to where he heard his son and then stomped his way over. Any dragons still between them quickly moved out of the way to clear him space to move. “You know better than to disobey me and go wandering off.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I was just going to see-”

“Going to see what?” he demanded to know when Sparks’ words trailed off into silence. Looking over, he saw Ember. “Oh, Dragon Lord Ember, I didn’t see you there. I am still not used to having such a bite-sized Dragon Lord running things around here.”

“Insulting as ever,” she replied. “Listen, you might not like how I do things around here, but I am in charge and I give the final word around here. That goes for this festival and every idea of antiquity you have.”

“And like all the Dragon Lords before you, you fail to grasp a destiny that has been set before us by our two great pillars. Generation after generation and still we turn our backs to it. At this rate, it will slip through our claws forever.”

“That is for the Dragon Lord to decide,” she reminded him. “You had your chance to become the Dragon Lord and you lost out to my father. You’re welcome to try and take the position from me. I’m sure you shouldn’t have trouble overpowering a ‘bite-sized Dragon Lord.’”

Snorting and scowling, Crag looked at Ember, so small and slender compared to him he could have snapped her like a toothpick. Spike trembled as he watched their confrontation, worried that Ember was biting off more than she could chew by antagonizing him the way she did. The same was true for all the other dragons watching in silence for what was about to transpire.

Crag stared Ember down, appearing ready to strike at any moment. Then he turned his gaze to the Bloodstone Scepter that was securely fastened against her back. Without it in hand, she couldn’t use it’s power on him. If he was fast enough, he could easily restrain her and steal away the scepter.

“Come along, Spark, we’re going home,” he spoke calmly as he talked to his son. Not hesitating so his father wouldn’t get upset again, Spark quickly ran to his side. They started to walk away, but Crag turned around again. “Dragon Lord, you can only defy destiny only for so long, but our time will come and when it does, you will have a choice to be among the victors or the defeated.” He then started to leave once more.

“You were so cool,” whispered Spike. “I was trembling just watching you.”

“He makes me nervous too,” she admitted. “But being the Dragon Lord helps out a lot.”

“But wait, what about Spark?” asked Spike as he saw him walking away with his father. “He wanted to come back to the festival tomorrow.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Ember told him. “It was all I could do to resolve this peacefully. Spark understands.”

“Maybe,” replied Spike as he clenched his claws. “But I don’t.”

“Spike, what are you-” Ember tried to say, but she couldn’t stop him as he ran after Crag and Spark.

Taking a deep breath, Spike shouted, “Crag!” and ever dragon around fled further away as round two was about to start.

“Spike?” whispered Spark as he turned in awe at his hero standing firm.

“Hmm? What is it?” asked Crag, anger quick to return to his voice. Seeing the small dragon who had called to him, he stomped over, forcing Spike to have to crane his neck back to make eye contact with him.

“My name is Spike,” the tiny, purple dragon told the large, red one. Spike continued to speak calmly and clearly as he kept his gaze upon Crag’s like they were in the midst of a staring contest. “Your son came to see me. He asked me if I would take him to the festival tomorrow and I agreed to do it. So… I’ll be over to pick him up for it in the morning.”

“Spike,” thought Crag as he remained silent for a moment and looked at the dragon, standing up to him, curiously. “Purple scales… green spikes… small…” A couple minutes passed and finally, Crag spoke again. “And if I should refuse to allow him to go?”

“I wasn’t asking your permission,” Spike told him, his words getting all the other dragons ready to flee to avoid the inevitable eruption of anger from Crag he was causing.

“You sound determined to do this,” Crag said with growing tension in his voice. His muscles tightened and he lifted up his tail before letting it drop, the heavy tip landing and cracking the hard ground underneath it. “And you won’t reconsider despite this being against my wishes.”

“You have nothing to do with this,” Spike stated, standing his ground on the matter and digging his feet into it to prevent himself from turning tail like he desperately wanted to do as his heart felt ready to burst out of his chest from how fast it was thumping. “Spark wants to go, I want to take him, and nothing you can do will make me change my mind.”

“Is that so,” he smirked and knelt down as he extended and arm to Spike that was big enough to cover over his entire head with. A short distance away, Ember had been watching, her hand ready to grab the Bloodstone Scepter the instant Spike was in peril. Holding his ground, Spike looked at Crag’s claws, wondering what he intended to do. Out of all the things he considered, he did one thing Spike hadn’t even considered. He opened his hand up and offered it to Spike to shake. “Very well, you can take Spark to the festival,” he conceded.

“You’re not mad?” asked Spike as he accepted Crag’s hand, extending his own. As they shook, Crag was holding Spike’s arm past his elbow.

“More impressed than mad,” he admitted. “It isn’t every day that I see a dragon willing to stand up to me. There may be some hope for this generation of dragons if a pipsqueak like you is able to show some backbone. You’re a lot more impressive than that first born son of mine who turned out to be nothing more than a disappointing loser.”

“Uh, th-thank you,” Spike said feeling an incredible amount of relief as Crag released his arm.

“But don’t misunderstand!” he snapped. “An insignificant, puny, whelp like you having the nerve to oppose me is laughable! If things were different you wouldn’t be getting off so easy! You’d best not forget this because I won’t forget about you anytime soon, Spike!!!”

Picking up his son, Crag flapped his wings hard to quickly gain some altitude and flew off, quickly vanishing from sight. All the dragons breathed a sigh of relief that it was over and went on their way. Spike just remained frozen in such terror that it looked like it shaved years off his life.

“Remember those things I told you not to do,” Ember lectured Spike as she approached him. “Well, you did them and now you’re on his bad side. That was stupid and reckless, and just because I was here this time doesn’t mean I’ll always be around to protect you. That being said, that was probably the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen any dragon ever do. I honestly didn’t think you had it in you to go up against someone like Crag.”

“Neither did I,” Spike managed to utter before losing consciousness and collapsing, physically and mentally drained from that whole ordeal.

“It was worth it to go out and see the sky burn,” said Ax as he, Smoulder and the others returned to their hideout almost immediately after the opening ceremony came to an end.

“I bet they didn’t have anything this cool like that in Ponytown,” laughed Gorge as he returned to his gems like he never left.

“First, it’s Ponyville,” she corrected him. “And, they do have some awesome shows too. Rainbow Dash took us to a Wonderbolts performance once and then there was this time a group called ‘The Washouts’ came to perform in Ponyville.”

“Well, it sounds cool, but anything can with the right name,” commented Karma.

“Unlike your name or the thirty others you’ve had since I met you,” stated Smoulder sarcastically and got her friends laughing.

“Heh, so glad to hear your sarcasm again,” snickered Ax. “I was worried you’d come back and wanna break out into lame songs or whatever ponies do for fun.”

“They don’t break into song… too much,” Smoulder told them.

“But they were still lame, right?” mumbled Gorge spewing gems as he talked.

“Do you have to keep asking me about the school?” groaned Smoulder, irritation in her voice. “You know it’s dumb, I know it’s dumb so it’s dumb to keep asking me about it.”

“Someone’s getting hostile,” noticed Karma. “No reason to get upset with us… unless you actually liked going to the pony school.”

“I already said I didn’t,” she reminded them as she crossed her arms.

“You did, but how do we know being there hasn’t made you soft?” questioned Gorge.

“You’re one to talk, calling someone soft,” retorted the slender, orange dragon to the fat, white one.

“How about you prove it tomorrow with a little gorge surfing,” suggested Ax. “Let’s see if you can still wide the lava like you used to.”

“Fine, but you three better not have gotten soft while I was away,” she countered.

“Then it’s a challenge,” Ax declared. “And we’ll get to see just who is soft.”

“But for now, how about we have a little feast in celebration of Smoulder’s return?” suggested Karma.

“A feast,” drooled Gorge. “Sounds great. I’m starved!”

“Let’s see how our horde is doing,” said Ax as he pushed aside a rock and revealed a decent-sized pile of sparkling gemstones underneath it. “More than enough for a party.”

“Then let’s eat!” cheered Karma before the three dragons quickly started to snatch up the gems, attempting to be quicker than the others, even going to far as to push and shove one another away to get a moment to stuff their face with gems before they came back.

“Did we always use to eat like this?” wondered Smoulder as she watched their feast quickly de-evolve into a bunch of roughhousing as they wrestled one another with shards of gems in their mouths that they tried to munch while getting one another into a headlock.

Thinking back to her time at the School of Friendship, Smoulder couldn’t help thinking about her friends there and eating lunch in the cafeteria at a table big enough for six. Sandbar would have a small salad with apple slices in it. Gallus would have stocked up on as many sweets he could get his talons on. If Applejack, Twilight, or Rarity were on cafeteria duty at the time, he’d be getting a lecture on having a balanced diet and be given some fruit in place of most of his confections. If Pinke was in charge then everyone else would be getting overloaded with sugar too and end up awake half the night with insomnia.

Yona and Occellus would have some traditional Yak and Changeling cuisine respectively. Yona often had a hot bowl of Yakyakistan oatmeal, the best kind of oatmeal as Yona always claimed. She offered her friends some once and they found in incredibly thick, so much so that when they plunged their spoons into the lumpy food, they found their spoons stuck like it was quick-drying rubber cement. Even asking Starlight to help dislodge their spoons with magic proved too much even for a Unicorn of her ability. As for Occellus’s food, it varied from unusual to look at to gross things that appeared to be looking at them.

Lastly was Silverstream, who was bursting with excitement over straws, something that she didn’t have as a seapony living beneath the water. Because of that alone, she spent a lot of time drinking fruit in a semi-frozen form. It was a craze that started in a place called Sire’s Hollow and was bit by bit catching on all over the rest of Equestria, mostly with those in their age group.

Thinking of all that, Smoulder couldn’t help smile and see herself there too with a box filled with gemstones, mostly rubies, if she could help it, and even a few shards of crystal from Twilight’s castle, if she had a free period to sneak over to it and break some off, while nobody was around to see.

“We sure had some good times, even if we didn’t share lunches for one reason or another,” she thought to herself. “We had a lot of fun. Occellus would share her notes with us if we had a test to take next period. If Gallus didn’t have a study hall to do so he’d use part of the lunch period to take a nap and end up with a marker mustache courtesy of yours truly. If I did a good enough job I’d get Sandbar to laugh so hard that milk would come out of his nose and get the whole cafeteria laughing from that. Silverstream would eventually get a brain freeze from drinking her slushie too fast and act all bubbly about it. Then Yona would brag about how Yaks are the best at drinking cold things before demonstrating and getting a brain freeze herself.”

“Those truly were some good times,” smiled Smoulder as she spoke those words this time.

“What were good times?” asked Ax he paused from eating. “I thought you were hungry. If you don’t hurry, we’ll eat all the gems before you even get any.”

“They’re all mine!” roared Gorge as he attempted to belly flop onto the pile, only to be held back by Karma.

“I was just thinking of the good times I’ve had,” she answered.

“Well, now that you’re back here for good you can have lots more,” Karma told her. “Now that you’re back where you belong.”

“Is that still true?” she asked herself, but a rumble in her stomach told her it was best to eat now and worry later. She gestured like she was rolling up some sleeves and gazed upon remnants of the horde of gems. “You guys better get ready, because, here I come!” she warned them and charged forward to seize what she could of the gems.

“Please pass the salt, small one,” Torch told Spike in a tone that was more like ordering than asking.

Just as Ember had promised, she brought Spike back to the cave she shared with her father, one that was even spacious enough for him to comfortably fit in. Shortly after coming too, after facing off against Crag, Spike awoke just in time for dinner, a bowlful of gems for each. While Spike and Ember had bowls big enough to fit a few dozen decent-sized gemstones in it, Torch’s bowl was easily big enough to double as a swimming pool and was filled with several fortunes worth of precious rocks.

The humongous dragon sat at a table that was really just a large chunk of rock that was chiseled flat on top. The table’s surface was smooth and shiny. From what Spike could figure, it had been superheated till it reached a temperature to melt and remove any rough spots in it. As a result, it was a perfect-sized table for the former Dragon Lord and other creatures roughly his size. To Spike, Ember, and anyone else far smaller than Torch, it was like a mile long hike to go from one end to the other, a fact that came to his mind when Torch made his request.

“Salt’s coming right up,” the small, purple dragon said as he approached it and saw the glass bottle was larger than he was and filled with enough salt for all of Ponyville to use. Wrapping his arms around the large seasoning holder as best as he could, Spike managed to heft it off the ground, finding it not as heavy as it appeared, but certainly proved troublesome to carry due to its sheer size.

Carefully moving forward, one step at a time, Spike carried it over to Torch, stopping once he managed to get it in reach of the large dragon’s mitts. Torch was able to easily pick it up from the table with just two claws and turn it on its side. With a few light shakes, he sprinkled some salt out of it and onto his bowl of gems. He then put the salt back down, done with it even quicker than the time and effort it took Spike to bring it over.

“Thank you,” he told his cave guest.

“You’re welcome,” answered Spike as he rubbed his sore arms.

“Now, can you please pass me the pepper?” the large dragon requested.

“Pepper?” groaned Spike seeing the equally large glass shaker all the day at the far end of the table. Torch narrowed his eyes as he looked upon Spike, sending a chill through his scales and down his spine. “P-Pepper’s coming right up!”

“How’s your dinner?” asked Ember as she watched Spike lift up the pepper and hobble it over to her father.

“I’ll tell you when I get a chance to sit down and eat,” he replied as he could feel his arms going numb from all the heavy lifting he was doing.

“Thank you,” Torch told him once more and Spike hastily hurried back towards Ember before he was asked to fetch anything else. He sat down and looked at the generous pile of gemstones he had been provided. Picking one up a green one, he chomped down on it, breaking a piece off and munched it up.

“How’s it taste?” she asked him.

“Pretty good,” he answered. “Might need a pinch of salt and pepper.”

“Heh, well, you can always ask my father to pass it back to you,” she told him.

Spike turned to look at Torch and watched him munch up enough gems in one mouthful that could have fed him for a whole week. “It’s fine,” replied Spike, not wishing to get in the middle of a larger dragon and his meal. “I’ll manage.”

“It’ll be a busy day tomorrow with everything going on for the festival tomorrow,” commented Ember. “We might not have a lot of time to talk and I’m sure Twilight has a lot of questions she wants you to ask.”

“Well, I’m plenty curious to learn more about dragon culture too,” he told her.

“Now’s the perfect time to find out,” she smiled. “So, ask away.”

“I guess I’ll start from the top,” he replied as he reached into his backpack and took out a length of scroll paper that was still very long in spite of cutting it down during packing. “Who was the first Dragon Lord and what did he do?”

“Can’t get more basic than that,” she commented and paused to eat some of the sapphires on her plate. “Every dragon grows up hearing the story of the first Dragon Lord, Critias, but I suppose ponies wouldn’t be privy to the tale since this goes way, way back in Equestria’s history. Back before… well, before it was even called ‘Equestria.’” Hearing this, Spike had a quill in hand along with an ink pot and started to take notes. “I can’t say much how other creatures viewed the territories at the time, but for the dragons, the Dragonlands were constantly shifting as we fought one another tooth and nail for whatever we could. Day after day, the sky was blackened with smoke. The fierce roars of dragons deafened all other noise and the land was scorched and reduced to nothing but rocks and ash.”

“It sounds like dragons were even more violent and fierce than they are now,” shivered Spike at Ember’s tale.

“Naturally,” she continued. “We had no law or order. Dragons were only truly loyal to their families and the only thing they valued beyond the gems they guarded was strength. Those with great strength were able to control larger territories while the smaller, weaker dragons were lucky to find a tucked away cave to live in and carve out a meager existence. And so it was that day after day the dragons fought, their wrath destroying the very lands they coveted. However, one would probably wonder why these battles only took place in the Dragonlands while the rest of Equestria was spared?”

“That is a good question,” agreed Spike, moving closer as he was quickly captivated by the story. “Was it because of Celestia and Luna?”

“Nope, this took place way back even before them,” she explained. “I don’t even think there were ponies back then.” Hearing this only intrigued Spike more, so Ember continued her tale. “While it was a constant struggle to be on top in the Dragonlands, none of the dragons were attempting to strive for the absolute strongest. That position was held solely by the oldest of all the dragons at the time. He was one that many considered their king even if it was never his official title. His body was plated in golden scales from head to toe and his eyes were blue as the ocean and deeper than it. His horns were massive that he could pierce holes straight through mountains and a flap of his wings could send roaring winds clear across the land and clear away a cloudy day effortlessly.”

“He could do all that?” gasped Spike in disbelief. “I know dragons can be big and powerful, but could a dragon really do all that?”

“This one could,” Ember nodded. “He wasn’t just big, but Godly in size. Even compared to my father, he was massive in proportions. With his body sprawled out, he could rest completely along the range of mountains that made up the boundary of the Dragonlands from mozzle to the end of his tail. From his vantage point, he could keep an eye on the whole of the Dragonlands and guard his own territory, all that would become Equestria. This was the dragon, Critias.”

“So, for a time all of Equestria was under the control of a single dragon?” questioned Spike as he stopped writing to ask Ember.

“I suppose that’s one way to look at it,” she commented. “Though, he never took his watchful gaze off of the Dragonlands to ensure other dragons did not slip past him. Because of that, all the creatures living there at the time probably had no idea of what was transpiring in the Dragon Lands and, as a result, it became a piece of history only recorded by us.”

“Twilight is certainly going to freak out when she hears about this,” Spike chuckled. “She’ll probably try to amend every history book in Equestria.” He then sighed and rolled his eyes the more he thought about that. “Ugh, that’s gonna mean a lot of work for me as well.”

“Well, to save you from having to amend it more than once, how about I make sure you get it all written down?” the Dragon Lord suggested. “Now, where was I? Oh, right. Critias certainly didn’t have trouble with protecting his territory. No dragon could even close to his might to ever dare challenge him to a battle. No alliance of any number could have made a difference either. So, for a countless decades, he remained on guard of his territory without so much as a single attempt to fight him for it. However, there was an irony to it.”

“Ironic?” repeated Spike. “How was it ironic?”

“That despite being so big and powerful,” she told him with a smile. “He was more gentle than any other dragon there. Despite having the ability to effortlessly destroy the entire continent on a whim, he was incredible cautious to avoid harming anything. The reason he remained on the border of the Dragonlands was that he feared he would accidentally crush something underfoot or sneeze and accidentally turn a whole forest into ashes. So, for eons, he remained practically motionless upon the range of mountains, unable to do much besides watch his fellow dragons battle against one another and count the vast fortune of gems he had obtained in his lifetime. In truth, it was a sad and lonely existence. At the very least, other dragons had the pleasure of company from their family and, while never a pleasant meeting, words were exchanged as they engaged in battle with other dragons to take land or defend their own. Critias, on the other claw, had to other living relatives. His frightening size also scared away any chance he had at meeting a dragoness to have offspring. For the vast majority of his life, he was all alone, with but a single exception. There was one dragon who did know that Critias was a softie deep down and was the closest thing he had to a friend. His name was Brutus.”

“Did you kick the bucket yet, old timer?” asked a dragon almost half the size of a mountain and clad in silver scales. His eyes were yellow and he had a set of horns like corkscrews upon his temple. Like the many other dragons, the constant fighting left his body covered over in scars from claws slicing through his scaley hide and leaving tears in his wings.

“Hmm? Someone here or am I hearing things again?” wondered Critias as he stuck a claw in his ear to attempt to dislodge a massive clump of earwax.

“You aren’t hearing things,” the dragon told him, standing by his ear rather than his face. “It’s just me, Brutus.”

“Oh, well isn’t this a pleasant surprise,” smiled the huge dragon lifting his head up and turning it to look at him. “I believe this is the third time in one week. To what do I owe the pleasure of such frequent visits?”

“Just trying to make sure that I’m first in line when you croak,” he explained. “The second you do, every dragon is gonna wanna take all they can.”

“Heheheh, I figured as much,” the old geezer of a dragon chuckled, the luster of his golden scales had long since faded to a dingy brownish green. He had also grown a long, pale gray beard that had started to trail down the side of the mountain his head rested upon, nearly reaching to the base of it. “Not that I mind and eager gogetter, just don’t get any ideas about helping yourself while there’s still some life in these old bones of mine.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” he promised. “Unlike most other dragons, I don’t just rush in to fight whenever the urge hits me. I bide my time till my opportunity comes. It’s how I became top dragon around here. Well, not counting present company, of course.”

“You might as well consider yourself the top dragon,” Critias conceded. “You have done more to earn what you have obtained than I for mine. Needless to say, when I finally do die, you will likely be the one who would eventually come out on top to rule over the majority of my land too. But I’m afraid that the ensuing chaos that will come as every dragon fights over my territory will just cause it to become as scorched and charred as the Dragonlands are. Quite a waste, don’t you think?”

“Not much that can be done about that,” Brutus pointed out. “It’s just in our nature to compete and be greedy. We’ll do anything to get what we want, even if we must burn it to a crisp in the process. However, I see your point. We’d end up with more if we didn’t destroy half of what we fight over in our battles. If we could actually cooperate, just image what we could accomplish. The whole world could be ours rather than just this ugly scar we’ve burned into the face of the planet.”

“The whole planet?” chuckled Critias. “My, aren’t you the ambitious one.”

“You think there are creatures out there that fiercer and more powerful that us dragons?” he asked. “Something living in this world that is even larger than you?”

“If there is, I’d sure be terrified to meet them,” remarked the mountainous dragon before they both shared a laugh. Before their laughter could reduce to a chuckle, Critias began to cough and wheeze, large flames flying out of his maw and short, but fierce bursts and his voice booming like thunder.

“Cr-Critias!” worried Brutus. “Are-Are you okay?”

“Such concern from one who is counting the seconds I still have left in this mortal plane,” he commented. “Sadly, I fear it is not much. A few days… A week… Perhaps a month or a year… I cannot say when the fire within me will extinguish, but I do not wish to pass on with any lingering regret. So, to you, I ask you grant two requests to this feeble, old dragon. The first, is to gather the heads of every dragon clan in the territory to meet with me as soon as possible and all at once. Tell them there is an exchange I wish to make, one that will be greatly worth their time.”

“Getting all the families together at once,” commented Brutus. “It won’t be easy, probably impossibly, but I’ll do my best to figure a way to convince them. What about your second request?”

“A much simpler one,” he answered. “Can you fashion me a scepter. It doesn’t have to be large enough for me. Big enough for young dragon to hold properly would suffice.”

“Simple, but odd,” noted the silver dragon. “What do you plan to do with it?”

“That, my friend, will be revealed in time,” explained the golden dragon. “But can I trust you to support me in this endeavor? If I am allowed a third request, it would be this.”

“Because it is coming from you, yes, I’ll support you,” he nodded.

“Thank you,” spoke Critias before closing his eyes to rest.

“Please don’t tell me you passed on, now of all times,” wondered Brutus as he knocked upon Critias’s massive head to try and awaken him.

“Huh, who what?” mumbled the massive dragon as he opened his eyes and looked around. “Oh, Brutus, what do I owe the visit this time?”

“I brought the dragons like you asked,” he answered, showing a large gathering of dragons flying in the air, many close in size to Brutus, but most relatively small in comparison. Each kept their distance from one another, a suspicious look on each as they wondered why they were all brought together and none looked happy to be surrounded by so many enemy dragons. The tension all around them was so thick that the slightest disturbance could have started a brawl between them all.

“Oh, yeah, right,” he recalled. “I did say that. You certainly did that quickly. I merely closed my eyes and you have the task already accomplished.”

“You’ve been asleep for a full week,” Brutus told him.

“Have I?” he laughed it off. “Well, what do you expect from one who is over twenty-eight thousand years old… or was it twenty-nine? The centuries blend together after you live to a ripe old age like I have.”

“We probably should skip with the small talk,” suggested Brutus. “It was a lot of work getting them all to agree to come and I doubt we can keep their attention for very long.”

“Right, right,” Critias nodded. “And you are certain this is the head member of every dragon clan?”

“Every last one,” he nodded. “Even the handful of smaller clans that hid themselves away, I tracked down. Counting us, that should be a thousand and one dragons in total. Quite an accomplishment to get them all together in merely a week’s time, if I do say so myself.”

“And not counting me, that makes the count an even one thousand,” he smiled. “That makes the math rather simple.”

“Math?” asked Brutus scratching his head. “What are you talking about?”

“In a moment,” he said. “But, first, do you have the scepter I asked for?”

“Right here,” the silver dragon showed him. It was purple and looked unfinished with each side uneven and a bit distorted. The design quite quite simple too, with just three claw-like prongs at the top. “I carved it out of some violet crystal. It’s admittedly a bit crude, but it was the best I could make on such short notice. Being the size of a toothpick didn’t make it any easier for me to make either.”

“You have done a fantastic job in setting all this up,” smiled Critias. “I cannot thank you enough.”

“Also, you didn’t specify anything about what kind of gemstone you wished to place upon the end of the scepter,” Brutus added. “But I have a feeling you had something in mind for that.”

Critias’s scaly lips curled into a smile, indicating that he did indeed, but it was something he was not ready to reveal yet. Instead, he sat up upon the mountaintops for the time in countless ages. His joints cracking as he loosened up sounded like thunder to all who could hear it. “My fellow dragons,” he announced once he was ready to speak. “I am sure you are all wondering just why it is that I have called out all here.”

His words caught their attention and, at least, for the moment, they were no longer scowling at one another. With all eyes on him, Critias moved his body over some and revealed a shining, sparkling cave almost overflowing with gems. If it had been any other dragon who had revealed the location of his horde so casually, the dragons would have, without hesitation, rushed in and swiped all the gems they could from it, but with it being the dragon king’s they continued to listen to what he had to say.

“With my life soon to reach its conclusion, I have made a decision of what I would like to do with the time I have left,” he explained. “In my horde, I possess a total of one million gems saved up over my lifetime. If I left you all to your own devices, you would undoubtedly quarrel over them the second I passed on. To prevent that, I plan to divide them up among you all now, giving each and everyone one thousands gems. However, there will be a small price each of you must pay in order to receive your share. Merely a few drops of your blood is all I request. Hardly anything at all when compared to what you will gain in return.”

The dragons were quite speechless at this, quite skeptical too. It felt too good to be true that they could be given so much for essentially nothing. Their suspicions were now turned to Critias, not sure if this was a scheme of some sort or if his old age was making him delirious.

Lifting a claw to his maw, Critias sank a fang into the fingertip. Pulling it out, he let a few drops of blood drip out and fall into his palm, creating a small puddle of deep red. “As simple as that,” he went on. “Just add your blood to my palm. I know you have all shed countless more blood for far less than this.”

This didn’t make the other dragons any less hesitant. But before any of the others could make a decision about what to do, Brutus stepped before Critias and cut his finger with his fangs to let a few of his own drops of blood pool with his old friend’s. “The old guy’s got one giant foot in the grave and you all are afraid of his dying request to prick your finger,” he taunted. “I thought dragons were supposed to be fearless, greedy, and driven by ambition, but perhaps that was just me.” His words struck a blow in the pride of the many dragons around him and several more formed a line behind him, ready to draw their own blood in the same manner. More started to join afterwards, now that things were put into motion and, soon, every last dragon had formed a long line of a thousand to give their blood and get their gems.

“Thank you, my friend,” spoke Critias. “Now, you may take your thousand gems.”

“Gladly,” he smiled and spoke quietly after that. “I’m not sure what you have in mind for all this, but I look forward to seeing.”

“Then just gather up your gems and please count them while I watch. I have to make certain that no dragon takes even one more gem than I promised them,” he stated.

“Count them too?” pondered Brutus as he looked at the line that practically went halfway around the boundaries of the Dragonlands. “This is gonna take days.”

Days was right. For three long days and nights the dragons in line waited for their turn. Even for so many gems it might not have felt worth it to the dragons closer to the end of the line and those who possessed hordes that made an additional thousand a paltry amount, but to relinquish their place in line was not something their pride would allow. They waited it out and upon reaching the front they offered a few drops of their blood into Critias’s palm, that was easily large enough to contain every drop given to him without it being close to overflowing.

With blood given, the dragon would then look around the pile of gems, grabbing whatever one thousand they wanted, typically snatching up the largest ones they could find and counted them off as Critias watched closely. Some grabbed only certain gems, preferring to eat gems of a certain type shape or color while others were less picky and just gathered whatever was within reach.

With their new treasure collected, some quickly returned it to their homes for safekeeping before returning, merely out of curiosity for what Critias planned to use their blood for once he had finished collecting it all. Other dragons simply began to eat the gems they gained, hungry after hours of standing in line. A few even decided to pile up their gems into a miniature horde to rest upon while they waited for whatever was to come next.

Finally, the last dragon came and approached the dragon king as he rubbed his weary eyes. “Is it my turn?” he yawned. He was a blue dragon with green eyes and a pale blue underbelly. He a single horn at the end of his long muzzle. The spikes on his back could hardly be considered as such with how flat they were. They went from the base of his neck all the way to the end of his tail that ended in the shape of a horseshoe. Compared to most of the dragons there, he was still relatively young and one of the smaller dragons, hardly more than a single story tall.

“It appears so,” nodded Critias as he let out a yawn of his own, showing off his cavernous maw full of massive teeth. “You have waited quite a while, young one. What is the name of one so patient?”

“Caesar,” he mumbled and hobble over to the pool of blood and offered his portion.

“A fine name,” smiled the golden dragon. “Now, please take your gems.”

Entering into the cave that had once been packed to the brim with gems, only countless scattered pieces remained, mostly very tiny ones and a few larger pieces hidden away in the dark corners. Gathering them up, Caesar carried them out of the cave by the armful and counted them off to Critias as the other dragons watched, eager to finally see the end result of all this.

Just finding and counting all the gems took an hour to accomplish, but when he came out of the cave one final time, he counted, “997… 998… 999…” Everyone awaited to hear him finish, but he stopped there. “I, uh, couldn’t find the last one.”

“Do not worry,” promised Critias. “I will ensure you get your last gem, but, for now, I am finally ready to begin. Please move back some.”

Nodding, Caesar took to the sky and gave the golden dragon the space he requested. Then he, like all the others watched with anticipation. Taking in a deep breath, Critias unleashed an incredible flame upon the blood within his hand. The heat he unleashed was incredible, greater than even the heat of an erupting volcano. For the other dragons, they had to fly even further back as the heat was becoming too much for even them to be able to withstand.

“Wh-What is he doing?” the dragons cried as they watched the air around Critias bend and the mountains around around him start to melt into magma.

“He’s the king of dragons,” another answered. “So, I’m guessing, whatever he wants.”

The blood bubbled in his palm as it was super heated by his flames. Steam billowed out of the life essence as the heat began to evaporate the moisture and cause it to crystalize. Clenching his fist then, he applied all the pressure his strength could muster on the dried blood as he continued to sear his hand with his own flames. It went on for several minutes without him pausing, despite his claws blackening as it became burnt all over.

When the flames faded and the heat diminished enough for the melted stone upon the mountain to solidify once more, the dragons felt comfortable enough to make their way back over to the dragon king. Panting heavily as smoke ceaselessly billowed from his maw, they could see how fatigued he was after such an incredibly taxing ordeal. His claws that had been caught in his flames were hard to look at, though the burns appeared to mostly be on his scales instead of the flesh underneath as evidence by how he was still able to move his claws the same as before.

“I truly am not the spry, young dragon I once way,” he wheezed, his throat dry after unleashing such hot flames. “But I was able to muster the strength to complete it.”

“Complete it?” pondered Brutus as he was the first to approach Critias with the others close behind. “Would you care to tell us what is it you made?”

“I made this,” he explained as he carefully plucked up a tiny blood red crystal from his palm. They all knew that it contained their combined blood, but to have turned it into a crystal with nothing but his own strength and flames was unbelievable. They watched him carefully fit it into the scepter Brutus had provided for him and held it between his thumb and pointer claws. Lifting it up, it glowed brightly. All the dragons witnessing this sight could already tell it possessed a great power within it. “This is the Bloodstone Scepter. Now, what should I try first?”

“A scepter with a gemstone made out of blood from all of us?” asked Brutus. “What kind of power does it poss-”

“Oh, I know,” decided Critias, ignoring Brutus’s words. “All of you, on the ground right now and bow!”

Hearing his words, the silver dragon’s body suddenly froze and a slight burning sensation filled his body as he became compelled to drop to his knees and bow before Critias. All around him, the other dragons were experiencing the same thing. Any that attempted to resist only made the burning increase till they finally gave in and submitted like the others. Seeing all one thousand dragons bowing before him caused Critias to chuckle with delight that it had worked exactly as he had hoped it would.

“Born of our blood, it binds us all to the word of the wielder,” he told them all. “For if one whose bloods resides in this scepter holds it, he shall have power over the others and shall become the Dragon Lord and lead.”

Upon saying that, the feeling of their scales aflame vanished and all the dragons stood up in awe. They were certainly frightened, but at the same time intrigued at what they could accomplish if they could take possession of the Bloodstone Scepter.

“So, that scepter can control any one of us?” asked Brutus, unable to restrain all his excitement at the potential such an object possessed. “What about all the other dragons in our families?”

“As the heads of all the dragon clans, your blood is within them as well,” he answered. “They and all generations to follow will be bound by their blood to heed the call of the Dragon Lord. Only till blood be severed shall they be free of its control.”

“Severed?” pondered Brutus. “So, we are bound to it till we take our final breath.”

“With this, I hope to allow us all to obtain some unity and for these few drops of blood to hopefully be the last we all spill amidst our own kind. It is my final hope to leave behind before my passing. I only wish such a method was not needed to fulfill it. If only-” Critias began to cough and wheeze violently. His whole body shook and convulsed while a pained look appeared on his face.

“Critias!” shouted Brutus. “Did you truly use the last of your strength for this? Did you?”

“My time was better spent using it all up in this last moment than to stretch it any longer and accomplishing nothing,” he admitted with tears running down his face and a smile to hide the pain he was feeling. “But I do have time for one last act, to name my successor.”

“I-I will do my best to make you proud and prove myself worthy,” promised Brutus as he held his arms out for the scepter, already certain it was to be him. “I will lead our people, the dragons, to greatness just as I have always envisioned.”

“I did promise you, one more gem, didn’t I,” spoke the golden dragon to Caesar as he extended his large arm past Brutus and gave it to the blue dragon. Seeing this, Brutus just stared, mouth agape as he felt like a knife had been jabbed right into his heart. Caesar stood their in awe at what was now in his hands and all around him, the other dragons bowed their heads before the newly appointed Dragon Lord.

“M-Me?” asked Caesar unable to believe what had been bestowed upon him. “Why me? Just because I was shorted one measly ruby. How does that make me worthy?”

“It doesn’t!” spat Brutus as he finally found the words to go with his fury. “This is a mistake! The only one who deserves to be Dragon Lord is me! I was going to be the strongest and most powerful after Critias passed, Bloodstone Scepter or not! I have the ambition to unite us and together. We would all share in the bounty of this world beyond the Dragonlands. Tell me, Caesar, was it? What ambitions do you possess that could compare to mine?”

“I-I don’t have any… not really,” he admitted only stoking Brutus’s anger.

“He has a family that he loves and cares for,” commented Critias drawing the attention of all the dragons back to him.

“How did you know?” asked Caesar. “This is our first meeting, isn’t it?”

“I have watched you all for quite some time from my vantage point and learned a great many things about each of you as I bided my time to make this decision. When each of you came to collect the thousand gems I promised, you all had different motivations. Some of you came simply out of greed for more wealth, some for fear of refusing me, and others for many more reasons still. You, Caesar, came to feed your hungry family, didn’t you. And despite this, you lack ambition to fight and pillage from other dragons.”

“I could have done a lot more, but if I were to take from other dragons it would have left them struggling to feed their own family,” he admitted. “That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense for a dragon to think like that.”

“I can’t say it does,” chuckled Critias. “But, that caring spirit you possess, to think of others before yourself, is what caused you to end up at the very end of the line. It is also why I have chosen you to be the next Dragon Lord. In my eyes, you are the most worthy one here.”

“But… But what about me?” cried Brutus. “I cannot accept this! I have a family of my own that I provide for as well. Furthermore, you know me a lot better than him or any other dragon here.”

“I do indeed know you very well,” he acknowledged. “You helped me out greatly in preparing for this and have been a great companion for me in my twilight years. That being said, I had never once desired for a dragon like you to be my successor.”

“Not once?” he cried and turned to Caesar, the Bloodstone Scepter in his hands. With a savage roar of emotion, he lunged at him in an attempt to steal it away. “I may never have been your choice, but it doesn’t matter! Whoever holds the scepter is Dragon Lord, right?”

“St-Stop!” cried Caesar as he guarded against Brutus and caused the enraged dragon to collapse to the ground at his feet.

Despite the burning he had felt coursing through his body, he tried to fight it to no avail. The best he could manage was to gaze back over at Critias as he cursed his name, but his words never did reach his old friend. For it had already happened, Critias had passed away.

“Dead? No, you can’t be dead!” wailed Brutus. “You can’t die on me! Not now! Not like this! Critias!”

“The end,” finished Ember to Spike who didn’t look very happy with it.

“That’s it?” cried Spike. “It ended with Critias dying and Brutus hating him for choosing a different dragon to succeed him?”

“One of the great dragon legends,” she explained. “Dragon stories tend to end on a rather depressing tone. Would you like to hear the story, ‘A Dream Come True’ next?”

“I get the feeling I won’t like that one very much either,” admitted Spike, not looking very hungry to finish his bowl of gems now. “Whatever became of Brutus after that?”

“There isn’t too much to say about him in general,” she answered Spike. “He never became the Dragon Lord and faded into obscurity. The only thing that remains of him is his ideal of dragons coming together to rule over all of Equestria.”

“That sounds just like what that dragon, Crag, was talking about earlier,” realized Spike.

“Most dragons consider Critias as the only pillar of the dragons,” she told him. “But there are some, like Crag, who believe in Brutus’s ideals and see him as the second. Still, pillars or not, that those two were able to pass something down through countless generations of dragons is quite an amazing accomplishment. But, I have to agree with you. It is tragic that their friendship ended the way it did.”

“Yeah,” sighed Spike. “I wish there was something we could have done to help, but there’s no changing the past… well, there is, but nothing good comes from it. Trust me.”

“Uh huh… Did you wanna hear about another Dragon Lord, now?” suggested Ember, hoping to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“Do you know any that didn’t have such a depressing end?” wondered Spike.

“If you want a good Dragon Lord Story,” interrupted Torch. “Then how about I tell you mine?” He didn’t wait for an answer and just started to tell them. “After proving myself the biggest and strongest dragon around, I became the Dragon Lord. The only problem I had was, deciding what I wanted to do to make my mark first.”

“Uh, is he going to be talking all night now?” Spike whispered to Ember.

“Dragon Lord Scintilla had always been a personal hero of mine,” Torch continued to speak and it became obvious the more he said that he had told this very tale so many times before he had it committed it to memory word for word. “He had done battle with the Yaks far to the north and through his might they made him an honorary member of their tribe out of respect. It was something I wished to achieve as well. I thought to myself, ‘who could I challenge that is as mighty as the Yaks?’ and just like that, the answer came to me, ‘the buffalos, of course!’”

“Oh, yeah,” she nodded as she stretched and reclined on the table. “Might as well get comfortable. We’re going to be here a while.”

“Glad I was prepared,” smiled Spike as he retrieved his pillow and fluffed it up before resting his head upon it. Getting comfy, he resumed listening to Torch talk on and on, his long windedness actually helping to put him to sleep.

“Unarmed and without the aid of my fellow dragons, I flew towards the tribe of the Buffalos, determined to show them my might and earn their respect.”

Spark sat at a dinner table much smaller in scale than the one Spike and Ember stood upon. He had a plate of gems laid out for him and across the table was his father, Crag, with his own plate of gems too. Not a word was traded between the two, making the silent time feel like it stretched on endlessly. It was still far preferable to the little dragon compared to his father in a rage.

What finally broke that silence was the sound of footsteps, drawing their attention away from their meal and towards the entrance of their cave where Garble now stood. “Hey there,” he spoke. “Long time no see.”

“Well, well, well, my first hatched has decided to show his face before me,” spoke Crag in a belittling tone. “What do I owe the displeasure?”

“Good to know you are still disappointed in me, dad,” he scoffed. “I didn’t come here to speak with you. I want to talk with Spark.”

“He’s right there, so go right ahead,” Crag told him. “I’m not stopping you. It’d be a waste of time and energy on my part.”

Snarling and nostrils flaring with smoke, Garble looked ready to lash out at Crag, but a glare from his old man was enough to quell his flames. “Come on, Spark. Let’s talk outside.”

“Okay, Garble,” nodded Spark, shaking nervously from the confrontation that was narrowly avoided between his brother and father.

They walked outside and a short distance away. Looking around, Garble made certain they were alone before taking a seat and sighing. “So, peewee, how have you been? Dad hasn’t been too rough on you, has he?” As he asked this he looked over Spark carefully, making certain now a single scale was out of place.

“I’m doing well,” he answered. “Dad might act mean and scary, but he would never lay a claw on me.”

“Well, if he does, make sure you let someone know,” he instructed him. “Me, or the Dragon Lord, or pretty much any adult you can find, immediately.”

“Ok,” nodded Spark. “But dad doesn’t treat me any different than when he was spending all his time with you. You were always his favorite.”

“Dad didn’t have a favorite child,” Garble commented. “He had high hopes for me and I let him down. Now he doesn’t want anything to do with me and since I’ve already molted he’s no longer responsible for my well-being, so we don’t have to even see each other any more.”

“Still, I’m really glad to see you,” stated the small, yellow dragon. “I wish you’d come and visit more often.”

“Don’t count on it, peewee,” he grinned trying to sound like a cool, tough guy. “Your big bro does what he wants, when he wants. I just happened to feel like stopping by the old cave. Nothing more than that.”

“Still, I missed you,” smiled Spark as he sat beside his brother to give him a hug.

“Ewe, don’t get all sappy with me,” Garble told him and got his brother to let go of him. “Don’t start acting like… nevermind. Just don’t forget, never show weakness in front of anyone.”

“When you talk like that, you sound just like dad,” pointed out Spark.

“I was raised by him so what would you expect?” pointed out Garble. “He taught me to be strong and fierce, but that’s the only thing of value he ever gave me. I don’t care about what he wants and he doesn’t want anything else to do with me since I’m no longer of any use to him. As far as I’m concerned, the less I have to see him, the better.”

“Then why did you come over?” wondered Spark.

“Ugh,” groaned Garble. “I already told you. I just felt like it… But… I get the feeling he didn’t want to take you to the festival tomorrow. I suppose, I could take you. Not like I care about that sort of thing, but I’ve got nothing better to do tomorrow.”

“You really mean that?” replied Spark with delight. “You really wanna go with me?”

“As I said, I don’t have anything better to do, so sure,” he nodded with a little smile and flattened the spikes on Spark’s head flat as he rubbed his head.

“Tomorrow will be the best day ever,” cheered Spark. “I get to go to the festival with my big brother Garble and my hero, Spike!”

“Heheh, yeah- wait, what?” questioned Garble. “Your hero, Spike? Wha- How… When did this happen?”

“Earlier today,” he answered. “Dad didn’t want to take me so I asked if Spike would take me and he agreed. Now we can all go together.”

“Him again,” thought Garble as he could feel his anger boiling over inside. “Time and time again and now this too.”

“Is something wrong?” Spark asked Garble seeing him grip the rock they were sitting on so tightly his claws were digging into it.

“Nothing,” answered Garble with his emotions restrained. “Just forget I said anything.”

“But what about hanging out tomorrow,” asked his younger brother.

“You’ve already got plans with your hero,” he replied as he walked a few steps and opened his wings to take flight.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be there too,” he told him. “I know you two had your differences in the past, but can’t we all just have fun together tomorrow?”

“I only offered because I didn’t think you could go otherwise,” explained Garble. “Since you can go, it just means I have more time to do whatever I want. Lucky me.”

“But, Garble,” cried Spark as his brother took off into the air and flew off.

“See you around next time I feel like dropping by,” he called off and flew out of sight, across the dimming sky as night time fast approached. Spark sadly watched his brother leave him and walked back to his cave to finish his dinner.

Garble flew back to the cave he resided in, a decent-sized one for a single teen dragon. The only thing he had in there was a decent collection of gemstones and a few large rocks he used as weights for working out with. Now that he was alone and certain he couldn’t be heard by anyone else, he let out all the rage he had been restraining in one, big monstrous roar, but that was still not enough to calm him down. He then spat fire and swung his fists, making cracks in the cave walls where they smashed into it.

“Again and again!” he shouted in frustration. “Acting all good and innocent, but stealing everything from me!” Falling to his knees, Garble slammed his fists to the ground, panting and wheezing embers from his maw as his fury refused to subside. “Spike!” As much as he tried to conceal his anger in the confines of his cave, his voice leaked out of the entrance for anyone in the vacinity to hear. He went on cursing Spike’s name for some time as he thrashed about on the floor till he was sweaty and exhausted. On his back, he stared up at the cave ceiling and panted heavily.

“You want to have enjoy a fun day at the festival with my little brother,” he spoke to nobody. “Not if I can help it.”

Big Brother Spike

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“And so, as I hit my fist against the Buffalo Chief’s hoof, I became and honorary member of the tribe,” yawned Torch as the weariness of being long winded was taking a toll on him. The sun had been setting when he started and now it was rising back up. Spike was fast asleep with his head on his pillow. Ember was as well, her head nestled against the purple dragon’s gut as a pillow of her own. Torch didn’t noticed, too engrossed in his own story mixed with his own weariness. “I came to them with the intention of showing them the might of the dragons and left with their respect.” Letting out another yawn, the large dragon was on the verge of dozing off, his head becoming too heavy to hold up while sitting. “Returning… to the Dragonlands, I shared this tale… of my glory, but it was only the… first of many of my accomplishments as… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…”

Finally asleep, the former Dragon Lord fell forward onto the table, the impact causing a massive BOOM! that shook the table any everything on it. “Wha!” cried Spike as he awoke along with Ember. “Earthquake!” In a panic, Spike hid himself as best he could beneath his pillow, shaking as he waited for the tremors to stop.

“Relax,” yawned Ember, seeing her father passed out and a pool of saliva was now oozing from the side of his tilted maw onto the table. “My dad just finally fell asleep.” Gazing at the entrance to the cave, she could see light was already leaking in from outside. “At least he got us up at a decent time so we can get to the festival early.”

“I can’t believe he really went on talking all night,” commented Spike as he got up to stretch. Seeing his plate of gems from dinner still unfinished, he plucked a few up to munch on. “I can’t remember much of what he said after the beginning. Uh, he won’t be mad, will he?”

“Don’t worry,” the Dragon Lord assured her trembling friend. “I don’t think I’ve heard his whole story before and he’s retold it tons of times before. Trust me when I say, you’ll probably hear it again before the festival is over.”

“I can hardly wait,” chuckled Spike sarcastically after he finished the rest of his gems. The young dragon then reached into his backpack to grab a purple toothbrush with green spikes along the back end of it and a tube of toothpaste. “But right now, I gotta get myself ready to pick up Spark to take him to it.”

“Do you even know where to find him?” questioned Ember as they flew down off the table and headed to a part of the cave with a spring of sparkling water flowing through it.

With toothbrush in hand and toothpaste on the brush, Spike began to clean his teeth. Once he finished and rinsed out his maw, he answered her. “Um, you wouldn’t happen to know, would you?”

“Just head south from here,” she directed him. “It’ll be a cave by the gulch. If you reach the lava falls then you’ve gone too far.”

“By the gorge and before the lava pits,” noted Spike as he splashed some water on his scaly face and then cupped his claws to bring some to his mouth to drink. “Got it. I’ll see you later then.”

“See ya,” Ember called back to Spike as he then went to grab his backpack and fly out of the cave. “And try to stay out of trouble.”

Spike soared through the skies of the Dragonlands, looking down at the rough, rocky terrain below as he flew south as Ember had told him. When the gorge came in sight, Spike descended to get a closer look at the surrounding land. Standing on top of a large rock, he spotted a tiny, yellow dot that started jumping up and down excitedly, the instant he drew near. “Hey! Spike!” the dot called out, confirming what Spike already figured was that it was Spark. “It’s me! I’m over here!”

Diving quickly downward, Spike swooped over to his new friend and then slowed himself down by catching air with his wings and righted himself up again a few mere feet from the ground before landing gently. “Hey, Spark,” smiled Spike. “Nice seeing you too. Are you all set to go?”

“I think so,” Spark nodded, but then averted his eyes. “But…”

“What’s the matter?” wondered Spike. “Is something wrong?”

“My brother came over last night and I was hoping he would come with us to the festival, but… he decided not to,” sighed Spark. “I love my big brother, but I wish he’d spend more time with me and not just show up on a whim, whatever that is.”

“I guess he’s a teen dragon,” figured Spike. “I’ve met a few and they were very rough around the edges. If I could help you with him, I would, but I don’t know if I could get through to him any more than you could.”

“Yeah,” agreed the sad dragon.

“Hey, there’s no sense in getting upset over things we can’t control,” Spike told him in an attempt to cheer him up. “Today is a day for fun, so hang on tight and we’ll get going.”

“Right!” cheered Spark, quickly perking from Spike’s encouragement. He climbed onto Spike’s back and wrapped his arms around his neck. The combined weight of the baby dragon and everything in his backpack made it almost too much weight for Spike to fly with, let alone remain on his feet. Not wanting to embarrass himself in front of his fan, Spike gritting his teeth and drew upon every ounce of strength he could muster. “Okay, Spike! I’m all set to go.”

“Ok,” wheezed Spike as he opened his wings. With a passenger, Spike had to get a running start in order to get airborne. Running forward, Spike attempted to take off, his feet leaving the ground for a second before lowering to the ground. Trying even harder, he managed a few seconds more, but it still wasn’t enough to gain altitude. Once more, even faster still, he ran and finally managed to get off the ground and keep rising till the two were successfully soaring forward, albeit at a still low altitude.

“Are you okay, Spike?” wondered Spark seeing Spike’s struggles in flying. “Is it too much weight for you to carry?”

“N-Nonsense,” Spike told him and managed to force a laugh and a look of confidence. “This is n-nothing for Great and Honorable, Spike the Brave and Glorious to handle. Just focus on hanging on till we get to the festival.”

“Can do,” smiled Spark as continued to cling tightly onto Spike and cheered, excited to be flying on the wings of his hero.

“Good, the lava’s nice and hot,” Ax announced as he dipped a foot into the magma. “Perfect for gorge surfing and we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

“Well, the festival is still going on so everyone else is probably over there,” commented Gorge as he rubbed his stomach. “Still, I can’t remember the last time any of us have gotten up before noon. I didn’t even get to eat brunch.”

“Blame Smoulder,” chuckled Ax. “She’s the one who woke us up and dragged us out here. I guess she really wants to prove she hasn’t gone soft.”

“She could have at least let us eat first,” complained the chubby dragon. “I’m wasting away to nothing over here.”

“I think you’ll survive,” he snickered. “Right, Karma?”

“I decided to change my name again. Instead of Karma, my name is Xena.”

“We’ll try and remember that,” said Gorge. “Now, we’re just waiting on Smoulder carving out a gorge board.”

“I wonder what’s taking her so long,” commented Xena as she turned toward the direction she last saw Smoulder. “Is she having trouble finding a slab of rock she likes or something?”

A short distance away, Smoulder sat, hidden from her friends. At her side was her already prepared gorge board. On her other side was her backpack and in her lap was her yearbook, turned to the page with photos of her and the rest of the Student Six on it. The page was titled, “Hearth’s Warming Club.”

The whole incident happened on Hearth’s Warming Eve when Gallus poured goo powder onto the fiery heart of friendship atop the tree in the school’s rec room. It caused a flood of sticky, purple goo to run down the tree and covered over half the room as a result. Smoulder, Gallus, and the rest of their friends were the suspected of pulling the prank, but in the end Gallus confessed and admitted he had only done so just to spend a little more time with his friends and delay returning to Griffonstone where nobody was going to be awaiting his arrival. When the truth was discovered, they all agreed to stay at the school rather than go home, so they could be with their griffin friend.

As Smoulder looked over the pictures on the page, she was able to reminisce about the incident and the party that occurred afterwards. The first picture was of them all after they finally got the last of the purple goo cleaned up. The room was spotless, but they had all become a sticky purple mess as a result and couldn’t help laugh at how ridiculous they looked. The next photo was of them all at Twilight’s Castle, sitting in the dining room alongside Twilight and her friends, with a big feast set before them.

After that, there was a photo of Rarity helping them all make Hearth’s Warming dolls to put over the fireplace along with Twilight and all of her friends. Next, there was one of Silverstream giving Gallus a kiss under the mistletoe. The look on his face was priceless and would have been a shame not be included, but, fortunately, Spike was able to keep the camera safe, in spite of the embarrassed griffon chasing after him. In the chaos, a few other pictures were taken as Spike fumbled with the camera, getting a shot of an enraged Gallus. In another shot, during their run, Ocellus was in mid transformation, turning into a mouse, as she panicked. After that was one of Pinkie Pie cheering them on thinking they were racing, followed by Sandbar almost spilling his hot chocolate as they ran around either side of him, and ended with a photo of the two of them completely exhausted and slumped over Yona who had fallen asleep after eating too much during dinner.

Along with a several other photos of the festivities, there was a little message that still rang true even now. “The best time ever,” read Smoulder and couldn’t help agree as her memories of that time brought a smile to her face. “I haven’t even been away a full day and I’m already missing them,” she sighed.

“Smoulder,” called Xena. “Where are you? Did you get your board ready or not?”

“Oh, um, yeah!” she shouted back. “I got it, Karma.”

“It’s Xena now,” she corrected her.

“Whatever,” she retorted nonchalantly as she returned the yearbook into her backpack atop the box containing her dress. “You change your name so much, who can even keep track?”

“Whatever,” she countered Smoulder with the same uncaring tone. “Just grab your board. We’re waiting for you.”

“Not like it was my fault I needed a new one in the first place,” she pointed out as she grabbed her board and walked with Xena back to Ax and Gorge. “If someone didn’t break my old one…”

“It was Ax who broke his board,” Xena corrected Smoulder. “He just didn’t feel like making a new one since yours was perfectly fine.”

“Same thing, basically,” Smoulder countered.

“So, what do you got in that backpack you left back over there?” the pink dragon asked her orange friend as she glanced back towards it. “You haven’t let it leave your side the entire time you were here.”

“It’s nothing,” she lied. “I was just looking for a safe place to put it while we’re lava surfing.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing if you are so concerned about it,” Xena pointed out. “What is in it?”

“Nothing!” she answered her once more as she grabbed Xena’s hand and led her forward. “Let’s just go gorge surfing.”

“If you say so,” chuckled Xena as she looked back at Smoulder’s backpack with a devious smirk on her face that she hid as they reunited with Ax and Gorge and then proceeded into the molten lava to surf it.

“Here we are,” panted Spike as they finally reached the festival grounds. Already, a number of dragons had already started showing up, including a number working at stands to sell food or put on demonstrations and performances. It was everything that Ember had told Spike about the day before and more. However, as soon as they landed, the thing that caught everyone’s attention was Spike himself, particularly among the younger dragons around Spark’s age.

“Is that Spike?”

“It is! It’s him!”

“I knew I saw him yesterday!”

“Hey, Spike!”

“I wasn’t expecting this,” blushed Spike as he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of young dragons and felt unusually tall standing in the center to them all. “Let me, guess. You’re all my biggest fans too, right?”

“Is it true you stared down a Timber Wolf till it fell to pieces in terror?”

“Did you really save Ponyville from a giant rampaging beast on your birthday?”

“Is it true you’re a princess?”

“One at a time! One at a time, please!” cried Spike, not sure who was asked what or what to answer first. Quickly, he retreated back to the air to get some more breathing room and looked down at the dragons anxiously looking up at him. “How do you all even know about all this stuff?”

“We read this,” answered one of the dragons, holding up a very beat up book that Spike immediately recognized as a copy of the Friendship Journal that was filled with all the adventures Twilight, Spike and all their friends had recorded in it. A while back, when Twilight used a duplication spell on the original, she sent all the copies to have them distributed all over Equestria.

“The Friendship Journal,” said Spike as he flew down to take a look at it. Upon closer inspection, there was even more wear and tear on the pages inside it. A lot of the pages were missing and there were plenty of burn marks and tears from claws. Some of the pages were had been torn out and ended up in a different section of the book too, but a fair amount of it was still in tact and legible. “I didn’t think the journal had reached distribution in the Dragonlands.”

“My big brother brought it home with him one day with a lot of other stuff he found,” the young dragon who had the book explained. “He didn’t want it so he let me have it, after setting it on fire. It had a bunch of pony stories in it too, but when I saw it had stories about you outside the Dragonlands, I had to show everyone else.”

“I think there might have been a bit lost in translation,” admitted Spike as he looked through the book and could see where filling in the gaps could lend one to over dramatize the in between or completely misinterpret things.”

“But you won the Gauntlet of Fire too, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, I did, with Ember,” he nodded.

“That means you’re the best dragon.”

“That’s why you’re so cool.”

“You’re our hero.”

“I wanna be just like you when I grow up.”

“Me too!”

“I’m gonna be more Spike that even Spike!”

“You won’t be half as Spike as me!”

“No way!”

“Quiet!” shouted Spike, seeing his fan club was looking ready to fight over him, a strange, yet, flattering experience for him. They all went silent and looked to Spike for what he’d say next. Scratching his cheek, as he tried to figure out what he should tell them, Spike thought to himself, “I guess this is what Twilight and the others were dealing with when they published the journal.”

Once he got himself composed, he started to talk to them once more. “As great as I might be,” he told them. “You, uh, shouldn’t try to be like me because you think I’m cool. You should just be yourselves and try to get along with one another, and not just here and with each other, but everywhere and with ponies and all the other creatures that live in Equestria.” Taking the journal, Spike tried reading what bits he could of his friends’ entries. “I guess you didn’t bother looking through much of the other stories in here. I bet if you did you’d find a lot of them even more enjoyable than my own, but how about I try and bring you all some copies of the book that are still in one piece, next chance I get?”

“Yeah!” the young, dragon children cheered, clinging to every word Spike said and their brief quarreling was quickly forgotten.

“Now, enough about me, the festival is just starting up so we should all be having fun with that,” stated Spike. “So, what are you all waiting for.” Cheering, all the dragons ran off, eager to check out the festivities, leaving Spike and Spark behind.

“I was surprised when I found out I had one fan,” commented Spike, unable to keep from smiling ear to ear after so much hero worship. “But I never imagined I’d have practically a fanclub here. I wonder if this is how Rainbow Dash feels when she’s around all her fans.”

“Of course you are,” chuckled Spark like what he said was funny. “Everyone started talking about you after the Dragon Migration and you became a legend after beating all the other dragons in the Gauntlet of Fire. That makes you the best dragon around. Who wouldn’t want to be like you?”

“I don’t know about best,” admitted Spike, finding it hard to be modest. “Really great, maybe. I was just fortunate that things just happened to work out for me. But, enough about that. We came here for the festival, right?”

“Uh huh,” his little fan nodded. “Where should we go first?”

“Well,” pondered Spike as he sniffed the air and drooled a bit. “The food vendors are always my first stop and it looks like they’re already set up. I’ve always wanted to see how good deep-fried gems taste here.”

“They let’s go get some,” Spark replied and they hurried over to the stands.

“There they go,” grumbled Garble as he watched from a distance with his two goons, Fume and Clump. “And it’s bad enough that he’s got my brother with him, but pretty much every other squirt too, it seems.”

“What do they see in that puny, shrimp?” asked Clump. “We’re the ones they should be looking up to.”

“One problem at a time,” instructed Garble. “Right now, we’re just trying to ruin their time at the festival. It looks like they’re going to the vendors, but you two are going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“But we didn’t bring any gems,” Fume commented only for Garble to hold out a bag stuffed with them.

“It’s every last gem I have to my name,” he told them. “I don’t care how much it costs, just do whatever you have to do.”

“But what about you?” asked Clump.

“I’m the boss and I told you two clods to do it,” he snapped. “Now get going already!”

“Garble sure has been in a bad mood, hasn’t he,” commented Fume as they flew off after Spike and Spark.

“Well, we got all these gems so I’d say it works out pretty good for us,” chuckled Clump.

“Looks like I have my first customers of the day,” the dragon vendor said as Spike and Spark approached his stand. Taking a breath, he inhaled fire at the oil, causing it to bubble. Beside it was the the fry batter. All that was missing were the gems.

“Yeah, we’d like some-” Spike started to say before Garble’s two friends cut in front of them.

“We want some fried gems,” Clump told the vendor with a clawful of gems ready as he didn’t give anyone a chance to protest him cutting.

“Uh, coming right up,” the vendor replied as the gems were already in his hands. He took the gems, putting some away in a bag as the commission fee for his services and dipped the rest into the frying batter before placing them in a basket.

“Hey!” snapped Spike. “We were here first!”

“Then why are we in front of you?” taunted Fume.

“Yeah, or do you want to make us get out of the way” taunted Clump as he knew there was no way Spike could do that. All he could do was grit his teeth and wait till they were served.

The dragon vendor lowered the basket of gems into the oil, and cooked them for a few minutes before pulling them out to drip dry and cool off. Almost instantly, the aroma of the deep fried gems had every dragon in the area drooling with hunger, quickly extending his line of customers. Finally, filling a cup with the deep fried gems, the vendor handed it to the chubby, brown dragon.

“Good. You got your fried gems. If you’d be so kind, could you leave us alone? We just want to enjoy our day,” Spike told them, hoping they could at least be little considerate.

“Don’t tell us what to do,” Fume argued for the sake of arguing. “We’ll take all the time we want eating here if we want.”

“Then we’ll get some gem corn instead,” decided Spike as he and Spark walked away to another vendor, but just as soon as they were about to get in line, Fume had rushed ahead and beat them too it. “Ugh, seriously?”

“I wanted some gem corn too,” he laughed. “Got a problem with that, runt?”

“Hmm,” pondered Spike suspiciously. “I get the feeling you two are going to stand in our way here no matter what, aren’t you?”

“Maybe you’re just stuck behind us,” Fume chuckled, though he was the only one who found his remark amusing.

“Right, well, we’ll probably be back here later when you two are gone to get our snacks,” he told them. “I just hope someone doesn’t eat them all before then.”

“Now wouldn’t that be a shame,” grinned Fume as he looked back to Clump and decided to do just that.

“Come on, Spark, let’s go,” Spike said and led the yellow dragon away from the vendors and the bullies.

“Are they really going to eat all the snacks so we can’t have any?” asked Spark as he looked back at the two dragons, unloading all the gems Garble had given at all the dragon vendors.

“I doubt they have enough gems to do that,” replied Spike. “But, they’ll probably be here for a while trying and, at the very least, if they’re over there then they can’t bother us elsewhere. I just hope that’s the only bump in our day today.”

“Idiots,” groaned Garble, seeing Spike and Spark getting away while his two friends were blowing through all his gems pointlessly know. “It looks like I’ll have to ruin their day myself.”

“What should we do now?” wondered Spike now that eating wasn’t an option.

“How about we see what’s going on over there?” suggested Spark, seeing dragons flocking towards a stage where a slender, orange dragon was speaking. Above him was a sign that read, “Dragon Crafts: Glass Blowing.”

“Glass blowing is one of dragonkind’s most ancient crafts,” explained the orange dragon on stage as he tried to draw in as big an audience as possible to gather around his stage. “I’ll be starting a demonstration soon so come gather round and I might even pick some of you to give you a lesson in the art as well.”

“It looks interesting,” agreed Spike. “Let’s go get a closer look.” The two dragons slipped through the crowd of dragons, doing their best to make their way towards the stage. Their small bodies proved helpful and squeezing through to the edge of the stage. Spike was tall enough to peek over it, but Spark was a bit too short.

“I can’t see,” the little dragon cried as he attempting to stand on his tip toes and grab onto the edge of the stage.

“Here,” offered Spike as he kneeled down and offered to let Spark sit on his back. Happily, he sat on Spike’s shoulder’s and carefully hung onto his head as Spike stood up again. Like before, it was a challenge to remain standing while supporting another dragon, but he was quickly growing used to it and even enjoying it.

As the dragon continued to speaking, Spike and Spark looked around the stage to see what else there was to see. Beside the orange dragon, he had a table covered in fragments of glass and a large bowl filled with sand, to be used for his demonstration. Behind him were a number of glass figures resting upon a desk, many were in the shape dragons with quite intricate detail. There was also one of a castle, another of a volcano. Surprisingly, he even had glass figurines done of the Alicorn princesses Luna and Celestia, the detail and proportions on them so exact, from the design of their Cutie Marks to even the unique way their hair flowed that it could only have been done by someone who had met them in person.

“To those of you who don’t know,” he continued to lecture as he dipped his claws into the sand and scooped up a mound of it. “Glass craft was discovered by dragons thousands of years ago while several dragons were in quarrel on a beach over some gems. As their flames melted the sands it turned into glass, a fact that was not even noticed till well after their fighting had ended.”

Holding the sand in his claws, he breathed fire upon it, making the tiny fragments of stone melt together into a transparent liquid. Carefully controlling his breathing, he managed to freely reshape the glass like he was working with clay. By the time he finished, he had a crafted a dragon curled up asleep. Compared to the other stuff he had on display it was a lot simpler, but for a project only a few minutes in the making it greatly showed off his skill and impressed the crowd.

“Would anyone care to try their hand at some sand sculpting of their own?” he asked. “Just five gems and I’ll gladly teach you the basics.”

“Can you do any glass blowing?” Spark asked Spike.

Spike shook his head. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen glass being made, dragon or otherwise, but it looks fun to try.”

“It looks like we have our first volunteer,” the dragon announced, overhearing Spike and Spark talking. “Come on up.”

“Guess I got no choice now,” blushed Spike as he helped Spark onto the stage and then climbed onto it himself. Taking off his backpack, he retrieved a handful of gems to give to the dragon. He munched on one before putting the rest away.

“And what’s your name?”

“It’s Spike.”

“Well, Spike, the key to glass blowing is flame control. Fill your claws with sand and then just melt it with your fire as you try to shape it. If you let your flame burn to hot it’ll burn the glass and too weak and it’ll harden too soon and break. Understand?”

“I think so,” nodded Spike as he scooped up as much sand as his claws could hold and then looked down at the crowd, all their eyes on him eager to see how he’d perform. Ignoring the butterflies in his stomach, Spike took a few breaths as he tried to stoke his fire and let out some green flames. Right off the start, he blew too hard and blew some of the sand from his claws. The crowd chuckled a bit at this slipup, but in only seemed to make them enjoy the demonstration more. When he managed to finally let out some fire from his maw, he lost more sand as he moved his claws too soon before he allowed the sand to fully melt.

“That’s fine,” encouraged the demonstrator as everyone watched Spike struggle to do his best at shaping the liquid glass, showing the huge gap in ability there was between a novice and an expert. “Just take your time and do your best. This is a skill that requires a lot practice to get the hang of, but for a first attempt you’re doing just fine.”

“Thanks,” smiled Spike as he kept at it, some of the melted glass dripping from his claws, hardening as it fell to the ground, and shattered into dust when it hit. After five minutes, Spike finally finished working, managing to create a small, shapeless mass of glass with what little material he still had left. Looking at it, he couldn’t help feeling a bit embarrassed at how poorly he felt he had done. “Uh, well, I tried my best. I was trying to make a six-pointed star, but I guess that was a bit too hard for me to do.”

“A fine attempt,” praised the dragon as he breathed a few flames into Spike’s palms and used his claws to reshape it till Spike now held a star like he had wanted to make. “There you go. It just needed a few adjustments.”

“Heh, I guess,” replied Spike as he held up the star to show to the audience and quickly a lot of the other dragons started to line up wanting to give it a try as well. Hopping off the stage with Spark, the two made their way back through the crowd before taking another look at his glass craft.

“Wow, you did great,” commented Spark.

“I think it was mostly the other guy than myself,” admitted Spike. “But at least now I have a souvenir I can give to Twilight when I go back home. I just hope I can keep it safe till then.” Opening his backpack, he slipped the glass star into a pocket, hoping it’d be safe in there.”

“Who is Twilight?” wondered Spark curiously.

“Oh, she’s the pony who raised me practically since I hatched,” he explained. “I wouldn’t be the dragon I am today without her.”

“Then, she’s your mommy?” the little dragon pointed out. “Even though she’s a pony?”

“M-Mommy?” stuttered Spike, not expecting to be asked that. “I don’t know if I’d say our relationship was simply that. She was more than just a pony who raised me. Twilight is as much my friend as she is my family. The same goes true for Fluttershy, Applejack, and all the other ponies who have helped take care of me. I might be a dragon and they might be ponies, but our bond is just as strong as one made from blood.”

“That sounds nice,” smiled Spark. “I wish I could have-”

“Huh?” asked Spike. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, I was just thinking we should go check out the amory and the arena next,” he answered with a smile. “I bet that’ll be cool to see.”

“Uh, sure,” nodded Spike. “Lead the way.”

“I’ve forgotten how much fun lava surfing is,” breathed Smoulder after a couple hours of riding down the rapids of lava. She wiped some sweat from her forehead and looked around for her friends. “Still, think I lost my edge while I was away?” There wasn’t an answer. Looking at the top of the gorge her friends weren’t there or anywhere on the way down or at the bottom where she was. “Guys? Where did they go?”

Flying back to the top, Smoulder looked around for them. “Did they sneak off to grab some lunch without me?” she wondered. “Well, Gorge definitely would, but the others, I doubt it.” As she flew, she soon heard some snickering and her heart sank when she saw them crowded around her backpack. “Oh, crud,” she groaned, expecting the worst had already happened and flew down to them.

“Heheh, oh, hey, Smoulder,” snickered Ax. “Why didn’t you tell us you had this with you?”

“Had what?” she asked and saw them flipping through the pages of her yearbook and laughed, though she couldn’t see just what was in there that they found so funny.”

“We figured the school was going to be lame, but now we can see how lame it was,” Xena told her. “How could you stand being around all those namby pamby ponies for so long?”

“It-It wasn’t really as bad as you think it was,” she told them.

“Well, you certainly look like you were enjoying yourself,” observed Ax. “Who are these five? Your school friends? Uh, let’s see, a pony, a griffon, uh, another griffin, I think, a buffalo, and some big bug thing?”

“First off, Silverstream isn’t a griffon, she’s a hippogriff. Yona is a yak and Ocellus is a changeling. Secondly, I never said you could look through my things.”

“You didn’t say we couldn’t,” Xena countered. “And weren’t you the one who said it was nothing? I don’t see why you would be so bent out of shape just because we found out the school forced you to make friends with a bunch of lame creatures.”

“L-Lame?!?” cried Smoulder, smoke seeping from her nostrils as she tried her best to restrain herself. “How can you say that? You don’t even know the first thing about them!”

“And apparently you know plenty,” Gorge retorted as he turned to the Hearth’s Warming Club page. “We thought you were coming back for the Feast of Fire, but you never showed. We figured you got triple detention or something, but you decided to stay with them instead.”

“I was being loyal to them,” snapped Smoulder. “That’s one of the fundamental things they taught us there.”

“Well, where was your loyalty to us?” asked Xena. “Leaving us and replacing us with your new friends?”

“Where was it when you three abandoned me and I got sent to the school in the first place!” roared Smoulder very angrily.

“Wow, Smoulder,” commented Ax. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before. What happened to you at that school?”

“I grew up,” she explained. “I learned things about friendship and things about myself that I might never have found out if I hadn’t gone. I’m grateful I went and I guess it’s my job to try and teach you guys what I learned too.”

“That’s incredible,” gasped Gorge. “You were living next to a castle made of crystal and didn’t tell us.” Just looking at the photo of Twilight’s castle, the overly plump dragon couldn’t help drooling on the page. “It looks so tasty.”

“Is that all you have to say?” snapped Smoulder snatching her yearbook back.

“No, we’ve got more and it looks like you did go soft on us while you were away,” accused Ax.

“It was pretty obvious with how funny you were acting since you first arrived,” added Xena as she peeked to see if Smoulder was hiding anything else in her backpack and found the the box with her dress in it. “Now, what do we have in here?”

“Don’t touch that!” hissed Smoulder blushing brightly. “That’s mine!”

“Must be something really good to make her face turn red like that,” snickered Ax. “Let’s take a look at it.”

“Don’t you dare!” shouted Smoulder as she lunged at them and attempted to steal the box back. Her friends were quick to take the air with the box and flew off with it. Not wasting a second, Smoulder put her yearbook back in her backpack and chased after them. “Get back here with that!”

“If you want it back then take it like a real dragon would,” Ax teased her and their chase began.

“So this is the dragon armory,” commented Spike as he and Spark walked in a cave that even a dragon as large as Torch would have had space between the ceiling and his head. The walls were lined with armor of all shapes and sizes for dragons both big and small. There were some full sets of armor already assembled that were for dragons between Spike’s and Ember’s size while, for the larger, adult dragons, the large chunks of metal that made up their protect gear was displayed piece by piece. There was a helmet they walked by that could have made a spacious one-room home from the sheer size of it and an axe with a blade wide enough that it could have cleaved through half a forest in a single swing. As they continued on, there was even more weapons that made Spike shudder at the thought of what might have happened if Ember hadn’t become the Dragon Lord and some battle hungry one had instead. “I’d hate to imagine what Equestria would have done if the dragons ever went to war with this stuff.”

“The whole place would probably look as bludgeoned and burnt as the Dragonlands do,” a rather gruff, bulky dragon stated. With how flat his muzzle was and his thick pair of horns curved back behind his ears, his head did appear to be in the shape of a hammer. He had some very beefy arms that seems rather odd to be wielding a feather duster in one hand and a rag in the other as he inspected the armor and removed any dust before cleaning away any smudges on them.

“Who are you?” wondered Spike as he watched the burly, dragon spit into his rag before using it to polish a breastplate till it shined.

“Hammerhead,” he answered. “Been a smith most of my life, but there’s been very little need for any new weapons and armor. So, instead, I’ve just been spending my time maintaining what we’ve already got for posterity. But, truth be told, it always filled my heart with pride to see a dragon wearing one of my custom-made suits for them. After all, if you’re going into battle, one has to look their best bringing ruin upon their foes.”

“That sounds like something Rarity would say,” commented Spike. “Uh, well almost.”

“So, care to try anything on?” Hammerhead asked Spike.

“Try on?” he replied. “You mean armor? Am I even allowed to?”

“Heheh, aren’t you a curious one,” he chuckled. “Most little dragons can’t wait till they are old enough to be fitted into their first set of armor. And I’d say it’s probably been some time since you’ve molted.”

“What does molting have to do with it?” wondered Spike.

“When you molt you aren’t considered a baby dragon anymore, of course,” Hammerhead answered. “That’s how we’ve always done it. So, how about that fitting? I’m sure I can find a suit of armor that isn’t being used by any other dragons at the moment.”

“That would be pretty cool,” admitted Spike, unable to help fantasizing himself clad in armor and ready to rescue the faire damsel, Rarity, from distress. “Let’s see what you got.”

“Shouldn’t take more than a moment,” he answered as he inspected the numerous armor hanging upon the wall, flying up and down as he look over the smaller suits, picking them up to get a closer look before putting them back down and checking another. The two small dragons watched him for a bit till he let out a big, “Aha!” and flew back to them with a dingy, greenish brown, suit of armor in his clutches. “This one needs some polishing and a fair bit of rust removed from the outside, but the inside still looks to be in fine shape. Just leave it to me and I should get it shining like new by tomorrow. Right now, let’s see how it fits. Here’s the helmet for starters.”

“It looks about the right size,” noted the purple dragon as he tried it on and found that while it looked dingy and smelled of a mix of rust and dragon perspiration, it actually fit him well.

“The helmet is good. Now for the front and back plating. You’ll need to take off your backpack while we do this,” he told Spike. Nodding, Spike removed he backpack and leaned it against the wall before waddling back over to Hammerhead. The big dragon then helped equip front and back plates of armor onto the young dragon, showing him how to adjust the straps on the sides to lock the pieces together against his front, sides, and back. “Hmm, a tad small, but I can loosen that up easy. Next the gauntlets and the leg guards.”

Being given them, Spike slipped them onto the corresponding appendage and tightened their straps. “I think these need to be adjusted a bit bigger too,” he told the smith. “But other than that it looks good. It’s also surprisingly lighter than I thought it’d be.”

“Naturally, it’s meant mostly as training armor,” he explained. “If it were too much heavier it’d be hard for you to move and fly in it. Still, it’ll protect you plenty. In fact, how about we put it to the test?” Looking around, he grabbed a staff with a weight on both ends of it. He handed it over to Spark who struggled a bit with the weight.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he groaned and struggled to hold onto the heavy-for-him weapon.

“Just give him a good swing,” chuckled the dragon. “Let’s test to see how sturdy the armor is.”

“But what if it isn’t,” worried Spark. “I don’t wanna hurt Spike.”

“He’ll be fine,” Hammerhead assured him. “Younger siblings would always help the older ones test their armor in this way.”

“Oh, but Spike, he’s not-”

“I’m not frightened of getting hurt one little bit,” Spike answered confidently.

“But, Spike, we’re not,” he tried to say again, but stopped seeing the warm smile Spike gave him. “Bonds can be stronger than blood,” Spark recalled.

“That’s right,” nodded the armored up dragon. “Now, come on, lil bro. Show me what you got!”

“Heheh,” laughed Spark suddenly looking eager to strike at Spike. “Ok, but only cause you asked for it.” With the little might he could muster, Spark hit at Spike’s armor in the front, the impact making the metal vibrate, but it didn’t harm Spike in the least.

“Didn’t hurt a bit,” smiled Spike as he turned his body a bit. “Wanna try again, lil bro?”

“Uh, huh, you bet, big bro!” nodded Spark.

“Those two must have rocks for brains,” grumbled Garble as he entered into the dragon armory. “They’re spending all my gems eating and they let those two get away from them. I guess if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself.” Despite his words, Garble remained cautious to remain out of sight and slowly ventured forward. Looking ahead, he could see Spike getting fitted for his army and then saw as Spark swung the weighted staff at him. Watching that did improve the teen dragon’s mood for a moment, but it quickly soured as he heard Spark call Spike ‘big bro’ and almost lost it then and there.

“That little twerp!” he raged internally as he watched them test out the durability of the armor. He watched as Spark strike the side of Spike’s helmet. It didn’t hurt Spike, but it did causing a ringing in his ears and the vibrations made his teeth chatter and his face wobble. Spark burst out laughing at the sight of it and as soon as Spike stopped shaking, he started to laugh too.

Every laugh that came out of their mouths only served to stoke Garble’s rage. He wanted to do something, anything to get in their way and then he saw it, Spike’s backpack nearby and unguarded. Quietly, he approached while Spike was busy helping Spark up after he had laughed so hard he was in tears and rolling on the ground.

“Heh, are you having fun at the festival or just enjoy beating me up?” chuckled Spike.

“This is the best day I’ve had in ages,” panted Spark as he tried wiping the tears off his face.

“Well, we’re not done having fun yet,” Spike reminded him. “We’re going to the arena next.”

“Heheh, your armor needs a bit of an adjustment, but it should be fine if you want to try it out in a sparring match,” said Hammerhead. “I’m sure we can find another dragon in your weight class to go up against.”

“A match?” asked Spike.

“Yeah, two dragons step into the arena and battle it out,” he explained. “The first to get the other out of bounds or to admit defeat is the winner.”

“Uh, thanks, but no thanks,” Spike declined. “Dragon charades is more of my speed when it comes to competing.”

“Heh, mine too,” the smith dragon agreed. “But if you change your mind I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Yeah, I doubt- hey, my backpack,” Spike cried when he turned to grab it and saw it wasn’t against the wall where he left it. Immediately, Spark and Hammerhead looked to see it was indeed gone.

“Where did it go?” cried Spark as looked around frantically.

“Someone must have taken it,” figured Spike as he rushed toward the entrance of the cave, certain that’s where the thief would run off to. Sure enough, he spotted it just as he saw a dragon take to the sky with it.

“Spike,” the small, yellow dragon called out to him as he chased after Spike. “Where are you going?”

“Don’t worry!” Spike yelled back as he reached the mouth of the cave. “Just stay with Hammerhead and I’ll be right back!”

Taking to the sky, Spike flew after his backpack. Out in the open, it was easy for him to see it was Garble who had taken his backpack and that only upset him further. “Why am I not surprised?” he groaned as he kept on giving chase. He was so fixated on his pursuit of Gable that he didn’t even notice as Smoulder flew by in a chase of her own with her friends.

Eventually, Garble ended the chase himself and landed on the ground. Spike landed right after, panting, a bit winded from the chase. “I see you finally molted,” commented Garble as he spoke to Spike for the first time since he arrived in the Dragonlands. “Does that mean your pony pals finally kicked you out?”

“No,” Spike shook his head. “They wouldn’t let something like fire burps and a weird smell keep us apart.”

“You’re so frustrating,” grumbled Garble. “You can’t even molt right. The second I started breaking out my dad threw me out of the cave so I’d be able to toughen up and I did.”

“Toughen up enough to swipe my stuff when I’m not looking,” Spike pointed out, not impressed.

“I did what I had to do back then to survive and I did what needed to be done now, as well,” admitted Garble as he helped himself to the gems Spike had brought with him.

“Hey! Those are mine!” snapped Spike, but Garble just stuffed a clawful in his maw to munch and swallow with a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

“I just gave my friends every last gem I had to ruin your day,” he retorted like that somehow justified taking Spike’s. He tossed Spike’s backpack back over to him, not interested in the rest of the stuff Spike had in there. “So, I’m taking yours. Got a problem with that?”

Spike went to check on the glass star Spike had made for Twilight and much to his sadness, it was broken. “You broke it,” Spike said upset as he held up the shards.

“Big deal,” he scoffed uncaringly. “It’s just glass.”

“Ugh! What is your problem with me!?!” cried Spike. “I understand things haven’t gone well between us in the past, but can’t we at least call a truce for the festival? If you ruin my time then you’re going to ruin Spark’s time too. Don’t you care about anyone other than yourself?”

“No! You don’t understand!” snapped Garble as he dropped the bag of gems and stomped over to Spike. “My life was going great till you showed up. I was the biggest, baddest dragon around. I was tougher and stronger than anyone. All the little kids looked up to me and wanted to be just like me when they grew up.” Calming down a bit, Garble looked away as his voice started to sound glum. “Now… now they all want to be like you… even my kid brother… Spark.” Looking in Spike’s eyes, he didn’t seem as shocked as he expected him to be. “You knew?”

“Not entirely,” admitted Spike. “But I had a feeling after seeing what his father was like and learning he had an older brother. Then your friends showing up just to get in our way without you and then you sneaking off with my backpack pretty much convinced me.”

“Big deal,” he scoffed at Spike’s deductions. “Just go back to having fun with my- no, wait, he’s your brother now, isn’t he?”

“He’s still your brother, no matter how much of a jerk you are,” Spike told him. “And I’m sure he’d be even happier if you were there with him, as well. He said so when I went over to pick him up.” Managing a smile to his nemesis, Spike offered him a claw in friendship. “So, what do you say we get along, at least for today? For your brother?” Looking at Spike’s hand, he slowly reached for it, actually looking sincere for a moment, but merely swatted the offer of friendship away and flew off. “Garble!”

“Forget it!” snapped the stubborn dragon. “You are the last creature, dragon or otherwise, I want trying to help me!”

Refusing to give up, Spike flew after him once more.

Razing Garble

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“It looks like we lost her,” commented Gorge as he turned back to check on Smoulder as they flew.

“We did?” asked Ax as they stopped flying forward and remained stationary as they flapped their wings to maintain their altitude. Looking all around them, they couldn’t see any sign of their orange pursuer anywhere in the blue sky around them. “Yeah, I don’t see her. Guess she really can’t keep up with us now. So, should we see what’s in the box?”

“It was more fun getting a rise out of her,” admitted Xena. “But might as well see what she didn’t want to show us.”

As they turned their focus on the box, Smoulder was above them, quietly looking down from a small cloud drifting overhead. Patiently, she watched and waited for her chance to strike. As they got in close to open the box, her muscles tightened as she saw her opportunity. Going into a full nosedive she dropped straight down on them as fast as gravity could take her.

“That’s mine!” she shouted down to them as she shot straight down between them and grabbed at the box. She had hoped to snatch it away, but Ax held on tightly, falling along with her and the two suddenly found themselves in the middle of a freefall tug-of-war. “Ugh! Let go!”

“Wow, you really don’t want us to see this,” he chuckled, her struggles only spurring them on to not give it up. “You can’t even give your friends a little peek?”

“No!” she snapped pulling harder as she dug her nails into the box, threatening to tear right through it. “What kind of friends would even do what you’re doing?”

“We’re just messing around, like the good ole days,” Xena told her. “No need to get your spikes bent out of shape.”

“Bent out of shape?” she shouted at them. “All you’ve been doing since you found my yearbook is bend them out of shape! Now let go of my box now!”

“Fine,” Ax conceded and released his grip, causing it to fly out of Smoulder’s claws as she kept on pulling with all her might. The box tumbled through the air till it opened up and the tumbled dress out, getting carried on the breeze as it made its way to the ground, the area below littered with pools of lava, some with dragons relaxing as they soaked their scales in the molten rock.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Smoulder chased after her new, blue dress, desperate to save it from getting dirty of melted before she even had a chance to really wear it. At their current altitude, she had more than enough time to snatch it midair, as well as all the accessories that had been carefully tucked away with it. Then, opening her wings, she did all she could to slow her decent, before she ended up a pancake on the ground below. Luckily, she was able to bring herself to a full stop a few mere feet off the ground and was able to safely drop to the ground the rest of the way from there. Breathing hard, she quickly looked over her dress, making sure it wasn’t damaged or dirty and to her relief it appeared to have weathered the incident.

“Thank the Dragon Lord, you’re safe,” she smiled and hugged her dress, feeling happy before realizing her friends had been watching, along with the dragons soaking in the lava pools.

“This is what you were so worked up about?” asked Gorge. “Uh, what is it?”

“You wanna know?” groaned Smoulder, her cheeks pink with blush as she put it on including the ribbons and the tiara to show it off. “It’s a dress, my dress. Look at me! I’m pretty and I like it!”

“You like being pretty?” questioned Xena. “Since when?”

“Since always,” she admitted. “But I couldn’t tell any of you that. You were right. I’m not the same dragon I used to be. When I first went to the School of Friendship I thought it was going to be lame, but, you know what, it was anything but that. I had a really great time. I made friends with other creatures and learned there was more to me than just being a big, strong dragon. Now I see I don’t fit in like I used to. Coming home… Coming to the Dragonlands was a mistake. I should just go.”

“But Smoulder,” Xena tried to say, but their orange-scaled friend flew off, her dress fluttering in the breeze as tears ran down her face.

“Did we take things a bit too far messing around?” asked Gorge as he and the others looked at one another, a concerned look on each of their faces.

“Don’t we always?” replied Ax. “Only, this time we did it to our friend.”

“Over a dumb dress?” he asked scratching his head.

“It wasn’t dumb to her,” replied Xena. “Or that book or her new friends. Maybe we really can’t understand Smoulder anymore.”

They all looked back towards the dress clad Smoulder going further and further away from them. As much as the three of them wanted to go after her, they had no idea what to say that wouldn’t have likely upset her even more.

“How long do you plan to keep going after me?” grumbled Garble as he looked back to see Spike flying after him.

“As long as it takes to understand you,” Spike answered. “If I ‘ruined you’ as you put it, then you can at least tell me what I did.”

“Will you stop trying to help me if I do?” he conceded and descended to the ground once more.

“I’m helping Spark,” corrected the purple dragon as he landed next to his red-scaled foe. “But to do that is entirely up to you.”

“But that is entirely up to you,” mocked Garble, making Spike glare at him. After taking a breath, he began in earnest. “Well, it all started when we first met at the dragon migration. Back then, my life rocked. I was king of the horde, the best of the best. No dragon could compare to me. My little brother even looked up to me as his hero…”. As he said that last part a smile spread over Garble’s face, but it only lasted till he remembered he wasn’t by himself and tried not to look like it meant so much to him. “Uh, which was nice too, I guess. He was always curious about everything I did too, but who can blame him for wanting to be like his big bro? Anyway, everything was going great…” After saying that, and trace of a smile vanished from his face. “And then you showed up. I doubt I need to go into detail about that.”

“You mean all that hazing you put me through?” recalled Spike, the memories of that time not as fond as he would’ve liked for meeting fellow dragons for the first time. “Yeah, we can skip that part.”

“Still, that was an epic belly flop,” he laughed. “Well, at around that point, I was actually starting to like you a little. Sure, you were a runt in over your head, but you toughed it out and I had to respect you for that.” Garble chuckled a few times, as he thought back, but his smile faded again as good memories once more turned to bad ones. “Then we went out on a hunt and that’s where all my troubles began.”

“You mean how we disturbed that phoenix nest and you tried to get me to smash Peewee’s egg?”

“Peewee?”

“That’s what I named the phoenix after it hatched and I took care of it for a while,” Spike explained. Looking at Garble, Spike let out a sigh. “Why did you tell me to smash that egg? What reason could you have possibly had to even suggest that?”

“It was a matter of pride,” he answered. “We couldn’t let those birdbrains get the better of us. If some punk hits you, then you gotta hit them back harder, where it really hurts.”

“Did your dad teach you that?” figured Spike as he saw Garble tense up from saying that.

“Well, what else was I supposed to do?” he question the small, purple dragon. “It was that or show weakness. But that didn’t even matter in the end because you and your pony pals stood up to me and got away too. To think that some runt would get the better of us like that. It was even more embarrassing the second time.”

“Forgive me if I don’t exactly feel sorry for you,” Spike spoke flatly.

“Good. I don’t want any pity from you,” the big, red dragon scoffed. “We ended up getting back to the migration grounds to find out some other dragons must have seen the whole thing and started gossiping about it. Needless to say, it reached my father’s ears and my brother’s.”

“What is the meaning of this?” fumed Crag as he approached his son.

“Dad, it-it’s nothing,” he answered, cringing against every word his father spat at him. “Everyone is just making a bigger deal out of it than it really is.”

“It doesn’t matter if it is a big deal or not,” he replied. “That it is being made into such a big deal is the real issue. Now, who is this dragon and why haven’t you put them in their place yet?”

“I don’t know,” answered Garble. “It was some small dragon I’ve never seen before. He had purple scales, green spikes and his name was, ‘Spike.’ And, for the record, I was going to, but then some ponies showed up and they managed to get away from us. They’re probably long gone by now. Heh, I doubt they’ll even want to show their face in front of me again. I bet this whole thing will probably be long forgotten in a few days.”

“Excuses are the crutch of the weak, Garble,” Crag retorted. “That was not how I raised you to be. The day when Dragon Lord Torch will select his successor will be upon us before we know it and I will not allow you to go soft of me, not now, after all that work and effort. Think about what we’ve set out to accomplish, our goal. Do you understand me?”

“You mean your goal,” thought Garble, knowing any backtalk would only infuriate his old man more than he always was. Taking a breath, he answered him. “Yes, sir.”

“Good, but to make certain,” he continued. “I’m going to make work you twice as hard till that day to ensure nothing like this will happen again. You’d best enjoy the rest of the migration because after this, you’ll be living, sleeping, and eating training.”

“Ugh,” groaned Garble liking all this less and less. “Yes, sir.”

“Good, then you’re dismissed for now,” he instructed his son and turned to walk away, leaving Garble in a worse mood than anything prior to this had caused him to be in.

“Stupid dad,” he mumbled walking away, kicking a rock as he did. “Stupid Spike, putting me through all this grief, after all I did for him.”

“Hey! Hey, bro!” called Spark as he hurried over eagerly to Garble.

“Huh?” he replied, barely paying much attention to the world around him as he brooded, but noticed his brother running over to greet him. “Oh, hey, Sparky. Are you having fun?”

“Uh huh,” he giggled. “And is it true?”

“Is what true?” wondered Garble, seeing his brother unable to keep from snickering.

“That you were chasing a phoenix dragon and it tricked you into flying headfirst into some trees?” he snickered and held his sides and laughed till smoke leaked out of his nostrils.

“What? No. We just had some trouble with a phoenix and then a some runty dragon named, ‘Spike,’” he groaned. “Ugh, glad to know that the story of what happened is already being blown way out of proportion.”

“Still, it must’ve been very funny,” he snickered.

“Yeah, a real hoot,” answered the older brother as he rolled his eyes.

“So, all that happened because of me?” asked Spike as Garble finished. “Not that I regret what I did, but you’re the one who brought it on yourself.”

“I just wrote it off as a bad day and tried to move on,” he explained. “Clump got stuck in a narrow cave entrance trying to get some gems and ended up making everyone else forget about the whole phoenix hunt. Well, everyone save for dad and Spark. If dad is nothing else, he’s a dragon of his word and the second we got home he started my training just as hard as he promised it’d be.”

“What kind of training was that?” wondered Spike.

“To start, I had to wake up before dawn and have a light breakfast before he made me haul boulders up a mountain. After that was done, I had to fly them all back down. Without taking a break after all that, I then had run laps around the entire border of the Dragonlands till noon and come home for a meal consisting of whatever my dad’s Super Protein Shake was made of. After that, I’d be swimming laps in the lava followed by pushups and sit ups till it got dark. I’d have some dinner then fly laps around the border till I was absolutely exhausted and go home to sleep till the next day and repeat it all.”

“I feel sore just thinking about doing all that,” commented Spike as he rubbed his biceps.

“Well, it was all to get me in the best shape possible for the Gauntlet of Fire,” he explained. “Everyone else was getting ready too, though nobody was working harder than me. Heh, I can only imagine what kind of lame pony training you were going through.”

“I actually didn’t even know that was a thing until the summoning came,” admitted Spike. “But I did carryaround Rarity’s luggage when she traveled. Oh, and taking seven hour bubble baths was probably good training for when I had to swim to the flamecano.”

Garble looked even more irked upon hearing this from Spike. “How did I lose to you in the Gauntlet?” he groaned.

“I wouldn’t have stood a chance if it wasn’t for Ember,” he pointed out. “We beat you as a team, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” he nodded. “I also remember that stupid order you gave me that only made things a million times worse than they already were going to be for me because I lost.”

“You mean when I made you hug every dragon on your way home?” snickered Spike only to get a beastly snarl from Garble. “Uh, you were saying.”

Crag stood outside his cave, a less than pleased look on his face as he awaited his son’s return. He could already see him flying in, his body slowly growing larger as the distance between them diminished. As Garble got close enough, he could see by his father’s posture and expression that he already knew he wasn’t bringing home the Bloodstone Scepter and the title of Dragon Lord.

Desperately, the defeated dragon wanted to turn tail and fly away to avoid this encounter, but he had been ordered to return home and hug every dragon along the way. Garble couldn’t refuse the command of the Dragon Lord no matter how badly he wanted to. As he came close enough home to land, his desperation only grew as he father walked towards him with likely another lecture to give him.

“You had one job to do,” Crag spoke with great dissatisfaction in his voice. One job, to win the Gauntlet and become Dragon Lord and you-” He was suddenly speechless as Garble did as Spike had commanded and gave his father a hug. Doing so quieted him for a moment, but only made him all the more furious as a result. “Garble! What in blazes do you think you are doing?!?”

“H-H-Hugging you,” he answered, feeling his father’s body heat rise as his anger was about to boil over.

“Why?” he asked, his voice calm, but his rage was just below the surface.

“I-I can’t tell you,” he responded, the answer very obvious from that remark alone.

“Completely useless,” spat Crag as he shoved Garble to the ground and turned to walk away.

“D-Dad?” asked Garble not as relieved as he thought he’d be to have his father merely walk off like that.

“We’re done here,” he answered stopping, but not looking back. “I have no more need of you. The trial for the new Dragon Lord has been decided and you failed me. All I can do now is wait for another chance at another time.”

“So you are going to wait for the next trial?” asked Garble. “What good will it do you to wait without knowing when the next one will be? Will it be the next generation or the one after that and you’d still need to have a candidate to compete. How can you do that without me?”

“Why do you think I chose to have two children?” he asked coldly. “I wanted a spare in case the first didn’t work out. I can see now my precaution was well warranted and at least I can ensure I don’t make the same mistakes I made with you. Even more than that, this age we live in is far too peaceful. Your generation lacks the drive and ferocity like our ancestor’s possessed and it is only going to grow worse with every one to follow. Our chance is slipping away right through our claws and only I am trying to grasp at it.”

“Then maybe you should give up on it too,” suggested Garble. “If it’s so obvious that you’re the only one that even cares about such things.”

“You just don’t know what’s good for you!” he roared. “None of you do! You possess the blood of dragons that could have conquered this world together and yet time and again the chance is wasted by those who lead us holding us back. But our time will come. I’ll make certain of it no matter what it takes. But for that, I do not need any dead weight. I do not need any more of my time wasted on the likes of you.”

Is that what you think?” growled Garble holding back his own anger and sadness. “Well, fine! I’m better off without you!”

“He just ended things like that?” Spike spoke in disbelief. “I mean, I could tell he’s not a very pleasant dragon, but to do that to his own child…”

“It was a good thing for me in the end,” admitted Garble. “I was finally free of him. He didn’t care about me, just what I could do for him. Now that I was worthless in his eyes, I never had to see him ever again.”

“But you’ve gone back, anyway, to see Spark,” commented Spike. “Because you were worried what he’d do to your little brother with nobody there to protect him.”

“Well, right now, there’s not much to protect him from,” admitted Garble. “Spark is still too young to train like dad trained me. He’s waiting till he’s reached the age he’s allowed to fight.”

“You mean once he’s molted,” figured Spike.

“Yeah,” nodded Garble. “Dragons are considered old enough to take care of themselves at that point, meaning Crag can do everything he’s done to me but even worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if he dropped him into a roc’s nest at the first stone scale just as a means to toughen him up faster.”

“If he’d do that to his own child then he really is a monster!” cried Spike. “If you knew all this then how could you just leave your brother behind? If you really cared about him then you should have taken him with you!”

“Don’t you think I considered that? Dad would have just gone after us and taken him back from me,” he told Spike, a mix of anger and fear in his words. I could fight, but what good would it do? I’d just end up losing and if I tried. I could never beat him when we spared against one another and he was holding back to avoid injuring me. He wouldn’t be so merciful to me anymore, especially if I did anything to defy him. And I wouldn’t dare defy him because-”

Garble couldn’t admit anymore than he already had. His body was trembling and he was starting to cry, like all the pain and fear he had been holding within him was leaking out. Seeing all this, Spike didn’t need him to finish his sentence to understand. Instead, he attempted to move the focus to something less painful for him to talk about.

“So, you just left without even saying goodbye to your brother?” asked Spike, searching his backpack for something Garble could use to blow his nose with. He had to settle for tearing a piece of scroll off to offer it as a tissue.

“Thanks,” answered Garble as he dried his face and blew his nose, causing flames to burst out and turn the soggy parchment to ashes. After that, his voice started to return to normal. “No, I actually did see him before leaving.”

Getting up, Garble turned to leave his till then home, storming his way off. Not too far away, Spark was in the middle of practicing fire breathing. Taking in deep breaths, he then tried to exhale flames, but the best he could manage was some embers before he started coughing up smoke.

“Ugh,” he groaned after he managed to hack out all the smoke in his body so he could breathe properly. He did so just in time to hear Garble grumbling and turned toward him.

“Garble! Garble!” Spark called out as he hurried over. “How was the Gauntlet? Did you win?”

“Does it look like I won?” he sighed before giving his little brother a hug.

“Then why are you hugging me?” he asked hugging Garble back.

“I can’t say why,” he told him. “Just consider it a going away present.”

“I’m going away?” Spark replied confused.

“No. I am,” he answered. “I’m long overdue to leave and with the trial over there’s no reason for me to stick around this place. Now I can go wherever I want.”

“But you’ll come back to visit us, won’t you?” hoped Spark as he looked up at Garble with big, sad eyes. “I’m still having trouble breathing fire and I was hoping you could help me. You aren’t going to be busy all the time with training now, right?”

“If I’m around and I feel like it, I just might drop by for a bit,” he told Spark with his usual uncaring swagger. “And, yeah, my training is all done so I’m free to do whatever I want. How about I start, but giving you a hand breathing fire.”

“Okay,” nodded Spark eagerly. “What do I gotta do?”

“Well, what trouble are you having?” he asked, rubbing his chin. “Just tell me everything you do.”

“I take the biggest breath I can and then I exhale,” he explained. “But then I just start coughing up smoke. What am I doing wrong?”

“The problem is you are stoking the flames, but you aren’t letting them out right,” Garble told him as he pressed a claw gently to his chest. “You are making a rookie mistake by only exhaling from your lungs, but you need to exhale all the way down in your stomach.” As Garble explained this, he moved his claw down to Spark’s belly, getting a giggle out of him. “Okay, give it another try.”

“Here I go,” nodded Spark as he took a big breath and tried to exhale all the way in his stomach. As he did, orange flames started to pour out of maw till he ran out of air.

“That’s my lil bro,” praised Garble as he gave him a pat on the his shoulder.

“I really did it,” he panted as he tried to catch his breath.

“Well, you did it once,” Garble instructed him. “You still need to keep on training. And not just to breath it, but properly control it so you can create flames as big or small as you want.”

“What about shooting fireballs and fire shaping?” he wondered.

“Focus on the size of your flames for now,” Garble replied. “Fireballs are an advanced technique. As for fire shaping, that’s even more difficult to do. You have to be a master fire breather to make create anything, but simple shapes out of your flames.”

“Then I’ll work very hard to be able to do that,” promised Spark. “Um, and you’ll still come by to help me out?”

“As I said,” Garble reminded him. “If I feel like it.”

“Hooray!” cheered Spark as he gave his brother another hug making him feel a bit better before he asked him the one question that he didn’t want to have to answer. “So, who did win, the Gauntlet of Fire, if you didn’t?”

“It was that pipsqueak dragon, Spike,” grumbled Garble as he finished telling the story.

“I’m surprised you’d actually tell him it was me,” commented Spike.

“He’d learn about it sooner or later anyway,” he admitted. “Besides, not like I needed the scepter to do whatever I wanted with my buds. At least, till the new Dragon Lord wanted us to all get along better and to, ugh, be friends with ponies. All of a sudden, my entire world was turned upside down. Before, I was the cool dragon that everyone wanted to be like and who all the little kids looked up to. I had all the best qualities a dragon could hope for, strength, fierceness, heh, good looks.”

“That last one is debatable,” commented Spike.

“But over time the changes Ember made were turning things upside down around here. Normally, I’d suggest finding some ponies to scare and every dragon would wanna come with, but now I’m lucky to get Clump and Fume to join me if they aren’t worried that Ember might find out. Then, there’s all the younger dragons. They don’t see me as a hero anymore. After the news spread about how you won the Gauntlet of Fire and made Ember the new Dragon Lord, suddenly, everyone started to become curious about you. They’ve completely forgotten about me. Now they’re only eager in hearing stories about ‘Gross and Horrible, Spike the Naive and Superfluous.’”

“That’s Great and Honorable, Spike the Brave and Glorious,” the annoyed, purple dragon corrected him.

“Whatever,” huffed Garble. “My point is, because of all this, now I’m like an outsider in my own home while you are the hero to everyone… even to my brother. And that’s why I can’t stand your guts.”

“Even if your brother sees me as his hero now, it doesn’t mean he sees you as any less than you ever were,” replied Spike.

“Easy for you to say, Mr. Hero,” Garble rolled his eyes at him. “I wish things could just go back to the way they were before.”

“You can’t turn time back,” stated Spike. “But you can move forward and see that, even if things are different, you can still find a place to belong.”

“And where is that?” questioned Garble.

“With your brother,” answered Spike. “He really wants you to be there for him and I’m sure he’d love it even more if we could try to get along.”

“You mean we gotta do things like hold hands and, ugh, sing songs?” groaned Garble rubbing his gut. “I’m getting indigestion just thinking about it.”

“You won’t have to do any of that,” he promised. “But if you can try to keep that attitude of yours in check then we can do something I’m sure you’ll enjoy.”

“I’m listening.”

“There’s no doubt that you’re still big and strong, right?” asked Spike looking a bit nervous as he spoke.

“Duh,” confirmed Garble as he flexed his arm to show off the rock solid muscle housed in it. Spike discreetly flexed his own arm too and could already tell he was outmatched even more than he expected. “What’s your point?”

“That we’re going to have a duel together,” sweated Spike as he continued. “So, you can win and impress your brother.”

“You mean, you want to fight me?” chuckled Garble as he rose up and grinned. “Oh, that does sound like fun.”

“In the arena,” specified Spike. “As an official battle with armor and-”

“Weapons,” added Garble as he cracked his knuckles and looked the happiest Spike had ever seen him.

“And witnesses,” Spike also added as he was already starting to regret even suggesting this.

“Yeah,” agreed the big, red dragon as he began to look earnestly excited. He slung his arm around Spike’s head, giving him his prefered version of a hug, a headlock. “So they can all see my destroy you.”

“You mean that metaphorically, right?” Spike wheezed out the words as best as he could.

“That depends on you,” Garble told him. “I won’t hold back and you better not try to go easy on me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of pulling any punches,” Spike told him looking a darker shade of purple as air was becoming scarce in his lungs.

“Then we’ve got a match,” declared Garble as he released Spike from his grip to limber up for the upcoming fight. The small dragon gasped for breath, the proper hue returning to his scales as his lungs reinflated. “But, wait. What happens if we fight and you win?”

“I really… doubt… that I… have any… chance… of winning,” panted Spike as he answered him.

The Nature of Dragons

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“Heheh, careful now,” warmed Hammerhead with an amused look on his face as he watched Spark trying to lift up a mace that was longer than he was tall. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

“I g-got it,” the young dragon grunted, attempting to lift up the blunt weapon that was meant for a dragon more than twice his size to wield. He could hardly get his tiny claws to properly grip the handle. “I… got… it…” Despite his words, he could barely budge the heavy spiked ball end over his waist before dropping it onto the ground, creating new cracks in the cave floor. “I, uh, don’t got it,” Spark giggled before trying again.

“Any idea when your brother is going to be back?” the burly dragon asked. “It’s already been quite a while since he left.”

“He went to go after whoever swiped his backpack,” Spark replied happily despite what he was saying. “I can’t wait to hear how he gets it back.”

“You sure he’ll be able to?” wondered Hammerhead as he plucked up the mace with one hand like it was nothing. He carried it back to the notches on the wall where he had taken it down from and returned it. Then with his feather duster, he cleaned the dirt off of it. “I mean, he looks scrappy, but he’s still fairly young and small. Even if he could catch up with the thief, could he really do anything to get it back?”

“You clearly don’t know Spike,” Spark countered with a look like he was attempting to defend Spike’s honor. “He might be small, but he can do anything. One time, he found a heart of crystal to save an empire from an monster of shadows. Then he saved it again from a giant cloud of ice. Spike was also able to make friends with a change thing.”

“He made friends with a change thing?” Hammerhead scratched his head as he listened to Spark go on and on about his hero. “That’s really something. Uh, what exactly is a change thing?”

“I’m not sure,” admitted Spark. “But everyone else was very scared of it. I think it might be a living weapon cause its name is Thor’s Axe.”

“A living weapon, eh?” chuckled Hammerhead. “I never knew a weapon could be alive, let alone for anyone to become friends with them, though I’ve been known to chat it up with my hammer when I’m in the smithing zone.”

“Spark? I’m back!” called Spike as he made his way back over to where he left him.

“Spike! You’re back!” he cheered and hurried over to see him. “You managed to bring back your backpack, right?”

“That wasn’t the only thing I retrieved,” he added as he had Garble walking beside him, doing his best to smile, though it was clear he was trying too hard to look friendly and instead wore a sharp-toothed creepy expression.

“Big bro!” gasped Spark seeing the two of them. “What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want to come.”

“Well, I changed my mind, of course,” he answered trying to sound upbeat, but was just coming out more awkward than anything. “And now we can all enjoy the festival together… the three of us… yay…”

“Then today is gonna get even better,” smiled Spark happily.

“See, I told you he’d be happy to see you,” whispered Spike.

“I can’t wait to see how happy he’ll be when he sees the thrashing I give you,” smirked Garble.

“That’s, uh, just typical dragon trash talking… right?” worried Spike, his fears he managed to suppress on the flight back over to the armory, quickly resurfacing from that one comment.

“Well, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes,” commented Hammerhead as he approached Garble and gave him a slap on the back that had enough force to knock him to the floor. “Been a while since I saw you around here, Shiny Silver.”

“Shiny what now?” asked Spike, not certain where he’d get such a nickname.”

“I never forget a dragon once I fit them into some armor,” he explained. “This one here got geared up in one of my finest pieces with a nice silver finish.”

“Is it all ready to go?” asked Garble. “We’re going to have a little fight.”

“Polished and everything,” Hammerhead answered as he flew up towards where it was hung up without even needing to search around for it. Grabbing the suit from the wall, he flew it back to the ground and offered the teen dragon the pieces as he started to put them on. Hammerhead then looked at Spike, still in his rusted suit. “I guess you changed your mind, but are you sure you don’t wanna take on someone a bit more in your weight class?”

“I’ll be fine,” Spike replied not sounding so confident. “How bad can a little fight be?”

“Bad,” gulped Spike as he found himself standing upon the arena’s battlefield, a large slab of stone suspended over a pool of lava by heavy chains attached at the corners. With him and Garble standing at opposite ends, the platform leaned more downward on Garble’s side and rocked whenever a large bubble of lava burst beneath them and forced a gush of hot air upwards.

All around the perimeter of the pool of lava was the gallery where spectators could watch and cheer for the dueling dragons. For their fight, a few dozen dragons had gathered with more showing up, drawn to the commotion from the pre duel excitement. Beyond the rudimentary cheering, many were making bets over who would win. Spike didn’t need to eavesdrop on their conversations to know that the clear favorite was Garble by an overwhelming margin.

“Guess I can’t blame them for the lack of faith in me,” Spike thought. “If I wasn’t already prepared to lose I wouldn’t bet for me either.”

“Go get him, Garble!” cheered Fume from the audience alongside Clump. There was a ton of snacks surrounding them where they sat, around them. Garble couldn’t even look at them, knowing they needlessly spent all his gems on them. “Show that shrimp what you’re made of!”

“Kick his scaley butt!” shouted Clump, attempting to be heard over the roar of all the other dragons.

“Good luck both of you!” called out Spark one of very few actually cheering him on. “And remember to have fun!”

“Fun… right,” sweated Spike as that was the most encouraging thing he could hear from the crowd. Everything else was cheers for Garble and about crushing his opponent.”

As Spike stood upon the arena, he couldn’t shake the unease as the ground kept moving around, forcing him to constantly adjust his balance and step carefully to prevent the platform from shifting about even more haphazardly than it currently was. Garble, on the other hand seemed perfectly fine. Even worse, he looked very eager to start.

Wearing his silver armor, it shielded his body just as well as Spike’s did, though with the extra material needed to cover over his larger frame, it only widened the difference in their overall weight and added to Garble’s already overwhelming advantage.

In his arms, he held a long, metal staff as long as his body and about half an inch thick. Spike had a similar weapon at his disposal, though his was adjusted as long as his body, making it a proper size for him, but lacked the range that Garble’s staff granted him. Seeing Garble hold his in one hand like a sword, Spike did the same, and gave it a few practice swings as he attempted to warm up for the fight.

“Attention!” called out Hammerhead as he quieted the crowd to get the battle started. “A duel between dragons is about to begin. On one side, you probably know him well. Adorning his silver armor is a regular participant in dragon duels. I present to you, Garble!”

“Yeah! Woo hoo!” his two friends cheered along with the rest of the crowd.

“On the other side, we have someone very new to the arena. His skills might be as unpolished as his armor currently is, but who knows what potential might be hidden underneath. Let’s hear it for, Spike!”

There was an applause given to the young purple dragon, but it was clearly half-hearted compared to what Garble had gotten. Fume and Clump booed and jeered at him, even laughing, causing a number of the other dragons to stare at them, not certain what, if anything going on, was worth laughing at. At least, Spark did his best to cheer on Spike, his applause the most energetic against all the others who already saw this as a quick win for the larger, more powerful dragon.

“I guess dragons aren’t very interested in underdogs,” thought Spike as he saw Hammerhead wave them both to the center of the arena and facing one another.

The referee held the other end of their staves and positioned them to cross against one another and then kept them in place as he continued to talk. “The rules are simple,” he instructed. “The battle will commence once you tap your staff against your opponent’s three times. After that, you can battle freely. The limits of the battlefield are the arena and the air above it and the lava pit. Touching the lava or reaching to where the audience seats are is out of bounds and will result in your immediate defeat. Other than that, you are only defeated when you surrender. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Spike and Garble answered in unison. Hammerhead let go of their weapons and flew a fair distance overhead to watch without being in their way.

Spike did his best to keep calm, but his nerves were starting to get the best of him. Garble moved first, lifted his staff up to clang with into Spike’s with a good deal of strength. If Spike hadn’t been gripping his weapon as hard as he was, it might have got knocked from his claws from the force of the impact and the vibrations that went along with it.

As Garble got ready to swing it again, Spike, more ready to act, did the same, and metal against metal sounded throughout the arena as everyone around them watched deathly quiet. Then the final swing came and the clang sounded louder than ever. The match had finally begun.

Immediately, Garble made the first move, taking a leap back on the platform, forcing the end he landed on to quickly tilt down while the end Spike was on shot up and catapulted him up into the air. Not wasting a second, Garble swung his staff like a bat at Spike, striking him in his protected side. To his relief, his armor took the brunt of the attack just as well as it did when Spark had been testing it out, making the attack hardly even painful. However, the true problem caused by the attack wasn’t the damage, that it knocked him across the arena and right off the edge.

“No! No! No! No! No!” cried Spike as he opened his wings to catch the air as he flailed about in an attempt to stop himself. Just barely still in bounds, Spike regained control and flew back to the arena where Garble patiently waited for him.

“That was almost my easiest win ever,” laughed Garble, sounding back to his cocky self.

“I’m surprised you’d wanna beat me that way,” commented Spike. “With how eager you were to get back at me, I didn’t expect you to try to win so quickly.”

“Maybe I was feeling generous enough to give you an easy out,” he suggested as he swung his staff, single-handed at Spike once more who held onto both ends of his to block it. While Spike managed to fend off the attack, Garble didn’t let up. His barrage of strikes were slowly overpowering the much smaller dragon, pushing him back, one small step at a tim. There was no time to for Spike to fight back. “But now, I get to destroy you.”

As the next swing came from Garble, this time, Spike did a quick hop back to avoid it, rather than block it. Not expecting Spike to dodge, Garble was still in mid swing as the small dragon rushed forward as he swung back and made contact with Garble’s armored side. Despite getting hit, Garble was no worse hit than when Spike got hit by him. It didn’t even have enough of an impact to budge him an inch. Meanwhile, Spike’s claws were starting to get numb as his metal staff wouldn’t stop vibrating with each time it made contact with something. Despite the grips on it, it was becoming harder and harder for him to hold onto it.

“I’m a bit impressed you had the guts to go on the offensive,” admitted Garble looking rather amused at being attacked. “But was that the best you could do?” With his free hand, he grabbed the other end of Spike’s staff and moved it off his armor with ease. Spike struggled to pull it free, but other than hold on, he couldn’t wrest it free from the stronger dragon’s grip. Seeing this, Garble smirked and started to walk around the arena leading his opponent along with him.

“What are you doing?” cried Spike as fumbled behind Garble at first, till he regained his balance and walked normally.

“Just giving our audience a little show,” he chuckled as he started to move faster, forcing Spike to do the same. The audience couldn’t help laugh as Garble led Spike around in circles, moving from a walk to a jog and finally sprinting. Spike was staggering about, trying to keep up, but Garble was far too fast and his stride far greater than the short-legged dragon’s own.

“Can’t we go back to regular fighting?” Spike breathed as he grew short of breath.

“Who says we weren’t?” questioned Garble as he came to a stop without warning, causing Spike to crash into him and fall to the ground. “I was just tiring you out. Now for the end.”

“I’m not giving up yet,” argued Spike before Garble sat down right on top of him, pinning the small dragon to the ground.

“I wasn’t talking about your end,” he chuckled, getting more laughs from the audience. “Heh, I’m funny.”

“Ha… ha,” groaned Spike, unable to move anything but his arms and head. He didn’t have the strength to force Garble off of him, but stuck as he was, he wasn’t out of options. First, he undid the chin strip beneath his helmet, allowing him to remove it. Then, grabbing Garble’s tail, he brought it to his now exposed maw and sunk his fangs into it, making the big bully jump up in pain.

“Yeow!” he cried and ran around in circles, moving his fastest yet as Spike continued to cling to his tail by his teeth. The audience was laughing their hardest yet as they saw easily the most bizarre battle the arena ever held.

“The kid sure is scrappy,” Hammerhead couldn’t help chuckle as he watched everything from his vantage point.

Eventually, Spike opened his mouth and released Garble’s tail, much to the bigger dragon’s relief as he came to a stop to rub it where Spike’s fangs had dug in. “What was that?”

“You didn’t leave me much choice at that point,” spat Spike, trying to get the taste of scales of his mouth as he recovered his staff that Garble dropped in his panicked run. “Trust me, I wasn’t a fan of that either.”

“Well, no more messing around,” decided Garble as he picked up his own staff and held it with both arms this time. “I’d say we entertained everyone more than enough. Time for your crushing defeat!”

“Um, bring it on,” gulped Spike, already easily overpowered when Garble attacked with one arm.

Rushing at Spike, Garbe swung at Spike’s side with more power in his strike than ever. Spike guarded, but even though he was successful, the sheer force of the attack sent him tumbling to the side. Without his helmet on, Spike was quick to shield his head with his arms to protect it.

“Gah! Oof! Ow!” the small dragon cried as he rolled across the arena, the damage mitigated for the most part thanks to his armor, but Spike still felt it very well. He barely had time to get back to his feet and steady himself, after that dizzying attack, before Garble was already on top of him and attacking again. Being quick, Spike dodged his next attack by jumping back and then leapt forward to counter just as he had done before, but Garble didn’t come to a stop as he reached the end of his swing. This time, instead, he kept on going, turning his body to allow his tail to swing around and wallop Spike while he attempted to attack, sending him crashing into the ground once more.

“Did you think I’d just try to brute force my way to victory?” asked Garble as he approached Spike once more as he struggled to get up. “I probably could, but I’ve fought plenty of battles and this is your first? There’s no way you could ever hope to beat me.”

“That was pretty obvious from before this whole thing started,” groaned Spike, sore, but found himself more exhausted than hurt from the battle. Rather than trying to get onto his feet just to get knocked down again, he just remained kneeling. “I actually had more fun than I thought I would getting my tail kicked.”

“You did better than I expected,” Garble told him, a bit of praise in his tone. “Maybe you are more dragon than I gave you credit for.”

“Wow, you guys did awesome!” cheered Spark as he jumped for joy and then carefully hurried over one of the chains to the platform. “That was a great fight.”

“I was great, wasn’t I?” boasted Garble as he awaited his brother to run over to him and look up proudly at his big brother.

“You did great against my big brother, Spike,” Spark continued as made his way over to help Spike up, instead going to see his brother. “I bet if you try even harder, you could even win next time.”

“I don’t know about that,” chuckled Spike. “He’s a lot stronger than I am. It wasn’t even a close battle.”

“But you fought on, even though you are smaller and weaker than him,” Spark pointed out. “That you always try so hard despite being the underdragon, that’s why you’re my hero.”

“His hero,” fumed Garble, something inside him snapping as he watched his brother praising Spike rather than himself. His body trembled and his fists clenched his staff more tightly. His eyes locked onto Spike’s happy face, stoking his anger and hatred of the small dragon anew. “HIS HERO!”

“G-Garble?” asked Spike as he heard him rage and turned to see him lift up his staff, ready to swing it down at him with all his might. With Spark right beside him, he was in the path of Garble’s wrath as well. “Stop!”

CLANG!!!

It all happened in an instant, as Spike quickly rose to his feet once more, defending them both against the attack with his own staff, the sheer force of it enough to dent Spike’s weapons and crack the platform beneath his feet as he dug his claws in to hold his ground. As a result of the attack, the platform tilted down at Spike’s end and then back the other way. With his feet properly rooted, he didn’t budge as the ground swayed, but Garble, already off kilter mentally, lost his balance. He flailed his arms trying to get steady, leaving him open as Spike swung at his legs, knocking him off is feet and onto the ground with a mighty THUD!

“Ugh, ow,” groaned Garble as the fall appeared to knock some sense back into him. As he tried to get up, Spike pinned him to the ground with his staff, a very displeased look on his face. Close behind him, Spark trembled fearfully as he looked upon his brother. He had the same terrified look he had on when his father was on his last rampage. “Sp-Spark?”

“Stay down,” Spike spoke sternly as he glared at Garble angrily. “No more.”

“But, I-” he panted and looked around, all the dragons in the audience in just as much shock over what they had witnessed. “What happened? What did I do?”

“You’ve done enough,” answered Spike as he tossed his staff to the side and turned to carry Spark out of the arena and away from Garble. Watching them fly off, his brother held onto Spike tightly for comfort, his body still unable to keep from trembling.

“That was, uh, quite a battle,” Hammerhead tried to say as he met up with Spike and Spark back in the armory. “You did quite well for your first duel.”

“Thanks,” he answered, not very enthusiastically as he removed his armor and returned it to its proper place on the wall.

“I’ll make sure your armor is cleaned up and properly polished before the next time you need it,” he promised as he gave it a look over. “I’ll make the adjustments for it too so it’ll fit better.”

“You can if you want,” sighed Spike as he put his backpack back on, took Spark by the hand, and started to leave. “But I don’t feel much like fighting anymore. Not after that.”

“Well, just on the off chance you do,” he replied. “The next time you lays eye on it, it’ll look good as new.”

“What do I do now?” wondered Spike as he looked at Spark, holding his hand tightly, cutting off the circulation in his claws. Their fun day had been undone from that one horrible moment and nothing could have salvaged what was left of it now. Looking around at all the remaining festival activities, Spike found himself lost of the motivation to check them out and Spark didn’t seem all too eager himself. “I can’t make him forget what happened and try to enjoy himself and I definitely can’t just take him home either. Maybe I should try to find Ember. I did want to talk to her about Spark anyway and sooner will definitely be better than later.” Recalling earlier, Spike could easily find her merely by sending her a letter and chasing after the smoke trail it left behind. He attempted to free his hand from Spark’s to reach some scroll paper in his backpack, but the depressed dragon refused to let go.

“Sp-Spike,” sniffled Spark when he finally found his voice. “Promise you’ll stay with me. Please.”

“I… I promise,” Spike answered with a comforting hug. “I’ll stay with you as long as you need me. Just let me find my friend, Ember. She can probably help you even more than I can.”

“No!” he sobbed. “I want you to take care of me, Spike. I want you to be my big brother.” Spark hugged him back as his eyes began to leak tears down his cheeks and into Spike’s shoulder. “Please!”

Unable to reason with him while he was so upset, Spike had no other option than to smile and rub his head till he calmed down enough to stop crying. Then, getting on his knees to allow Spark to wrap is arms around his neck, Spike gave Spark a piggyback ride as they continued on their way. “Come on now, little bro. Let’s find you something to eat. I’m sure you must be starved by now.” His own gut gurgled with hunger. “Heh, I know I am.” The small, yellow dragon chuckled a little through his sorrow. That small, happy noise was a relief to the bigger purple one’s ears.

“Dude, what happened?” asked Fume as he and clump went down to see their friend, Garble, lying on the arena floor with no motivation to even get up. “You went all kinds of nuts out there.”

“I know,” grumbled Garble, not in the mood to hear this from them.

“You almost bashed your kid brother in the head,” added Clump further to Garble’s chagrin.

“I know,” he growled as he grew angry again.

“And you sounded just like your dad,” finished Fume, this getting Garble to his feet burning with annoyance at them.

“I KNOW AND I HATE THAT!” he snapped at them. “And you telling me all this stuff I already know isn’t helping! Just- Just leave me alone!” Taking two the sky, Garble flew away to find some place to be alone and those two didn’t follow after him.

“Anyone home?” called Ember as she returned to her cave, in the middle of the evening.

“Ember, I’m glad you have returned,” spoke Torch, awake once more. “How have things been going today?”

“As fine as I could hope,” she explained. “Some slingtails that were getting a bit too close to the festival grounds so I had to get them driven off before they’d decide to start tossing boulders on everyone. Other than that, everything seemed to go smoothly. I met with our archivist, Blacktip, to look at the figures for far from the festival. Needless to say, this appears to be one of our most successful events in decades, with quite a lot of positive feedback from even some of the elder dragons who were hesitant over a lot of the changes I made. They enjoyed themselves, if you can believe it.”

“First time I heard those fossils say anything was fun beyond pillaging villages and guarding gems,” commented Torch. “Seems you are doing quite well for yourself to get them to have fun without asserting your authority as Dragon Lord. There will be quite a lot expected of you after this, especially for next year’s festival.”

“And it’s fortunate this year went so well, for all dragons involved,” she added. “A lot of the vendors and the dragons in charge of the demonstrations are eager to get booked for next year. Not to mention, the several dozen other dragons wishing to do the same. I’ll have no trouble getting all that ready by then.” Her smile then started to fade as a more worried look appeared. “But I’ve also been asked about my other goals beyond just this festival. I can’t even fit in time to enjoy the festival myself, let alone take the time to think about what’s next till this is over.”

“It sounds as though you’ve become quite a popular Dragon Lord in such a remarkably short time in your reign,” chuckled Torch, seeing his daughter rant about all the new expectations her efforts were putting on her.

“I promised to better our relations with the other inhabitants in Equestria and that’s what I’m going to do,” she continued, a look of pride in her expression as she said that. “And it’s not just with the ponies either. Queen Novo wants to open up trade with us for some of our volcanic soil in exchange for some rare, underwater gemstones.”

“Rare gems never before tasted by dragon kind for some worthless, hot dirt?” spoke Torch in an amused tone. “I have never heard someone wish the trade gems for the dirt they are buried in before.”

“From what they told me,” she explained. “That soil is actually full of nutrients, making it a great agricultural resource. So, to them, it might be just as valuable as the gems buried in it.”

“To each their own, I suppose.”

“Then there’s Thorax who is preparing to throw a gala at the Changeling hive and is inviting everyone he can to attend,” she moved on. “He is doing his best to show the world that the Changelings are no longer the plague of a swarm they once were. It’s just like what I’m trying to do for us and that’s kind of how we became friends. Now, he really wants me to come so we can square dance together, but, the things is, I’ve never square danced before. I’ve never done any kind of dance before, period.”

“You appeared rather flustered by all this,” observed Torch. “Do you not wish to attend?”

Her face blushed pink as she went on. “No. I’m actually thrilled,” she admitted, before sneezing out a flame. “It’s great that the other creatures are willing to be so open with us in spite of our violent past. It feels almost too good to be true that they can be so kind and generous to a bunch of greedy lizards like us. A while ago, I didn’t care about becoming friends with them or other dragons. But ever since I became the Dragon Lord, ever since I met Spike, it makes me happy that we are being accepted. I just hope, at least, some of our fellow dragons will be able to understand and feel what I’m feeling as well.”

“Not many dragons are so bold to provoke so much change, if any at all, while the title is still so new,” he stated, only making her blush more. “You should be proud of all you have achieved, my daughter. I know that I am.”

“Thanks, dad,” Ember smiled as she flew up to the table. “I’m doing my best to bring honor to you and all the Dragon Lords who came before us. I’ll keep trying to make you proud.”

“But, do you know what would make me really proud?” he asked her.

“Find the zebras,” sighd Ember rolling her eyes.

“Find the ze- uh, yes,” he nodded. “But not just finding them, but to confront them in battle and show them the might of the dragons so you can be sworn in as a member just as I have with the Buffalo. Why, I remember it like it was yesterday. I had just become Dragon Lord and I-”

“Uh, hey, dad, is Spike back yet?” questioned Ember as she hoped to steer the conversation before she got stuck hearing him talk on and on for hours.

“No. I haven’t seen him since before I woke up,” he answered. “I assume he is probably still out enjoying the festival.”

“Probably,” agreed Ember. “Though, he should be finishing up and returning Spark home, to his father, by now, since it’ll be getting dark soon.”

“EMBER!” roared an all too familiar voice that echoed through the cave. “Where is he? Where is Spark?”

“I guess he got tired of waiting,” she sighed as the angry dragon stormed the cave. Flying down to meet him, she took a deep breath to prepare herself. “Hello, Crag.”

“Well, if it isn’t ole Craggy,” chuckled Torch taking this meeting the best of the three.

“Where is my son?” he asked again, containing his anger as he awaited how she would respond.

Torch started to move, preparing to defend his daughter from the aggressive beast, but Ember held a hand up, signaling him to remain where he sat. “For a dragon who claims to have plenty of patience, you are showing very little. Spike is probably returning your son home, even as we speak,” she answered. “So, perhaps, you should return, there yourself, to wait for him.”

Snorting flames to blow off some steam, Crag responded. “Very well, but he best return soon, for his sake. I let him have his way out of respect for him showing some backbone. He’d be wise not to cross me. Spark is very important to me and my plans for the future of dragon kind.”

“Still as ambitious as ever, I see,” spoke Torch. “You should hear about all the things that Ember is up to. She’s in the middle of trading dirt for gems with the Hippogriffs for starters.”

“Why?” asked Crag simply as he raised an eyebrow.

“Because they see value in our volcano soil, even if you might not,” Ember replied.

“No. why bother trading?” he specified. “If there is something we want, we should just take it. That is how we have always done things.”

“Not anymore,” the Dragon Lord reminded him. “We are going to show the world there is more to us than how we have presented ourselves for countless centuries.”

“It all sounds like a meaningless effort to me, but if that is how you choose to spend your time as Dragon Lord, I cannot stop you,” he told her. “I am sure that the next Dragon Lord will not make such follies. I’ll see to that myself.” With that, he turned to leave. “Oh, and if by some chance my son is not returned to me soon, please let that small dragon friend of yours know that he’d best dig the biggest hole he can and hide in it, because not even you will be able to spare him from my unbridled wrath.” With a grin from thinking about what he’d do to Spike, he continued walking away. “Farewell, for now, Dragonlord.”

“A walking migraine if ever there was one,” groaned Ember once he left. “Even if his intentions were good ones, why did Spike have to get involved with a dragon like that?”

“Yeah, Craggy still has a temper that’d make the flamecano’s eruption seem like a modest belch by comparison,” joked Torch, taking what transpired extremely lightly. “Seems even age won’t dull his edge.”

“Sounds like you know him quite well,” commented Ember.

“We do have a bit of a history,” he admitted. “I bet he still hates my guts from back then too. Oh, what a time that was.”

“Would you care to tell me about it?” Ember asked with real curiosity on the matter.

“I suppose if you really want to,” he replied. “I guess to start, the Dragon Lord at the time was, perhaps, a bit too laid back in his job of keeping order amongst the dragons. Because of it, dragons were constantly causing trouble all over Equestria. However, none were as determined than Crag. Time and time again, he’d fight to the limits of his strength against the ponies of Equestria, growing bolder with every attempt till he was even willing to attack the capital city of Canterlot itself and provoke the wrath of the alicorn princess who resided there.”

“He actually went up against the Pony Princess, Celestia?” commented Ember as she listened. “I’m surprised he wasn’t banished or imprisoned for doing that. The idea of even daring to pick a fight against Celestia is like declaring war against all of Equestria. Was he insane?”

“More like young and out to prove something,” he answered her. “But probably a fair bit insane as well. As for how he had managed to avoid being sent somewhere like Tartarus, Crag was plenty clever too. He knew that even if he could occupy a city in Equestria, it would only be a matter of time till it was taken back from him, by the Ponies in force. Instead, he fought to cause as much damage as he could and retreated before he suffered more injuries than he could fly off with. Upon returning to the Dragon Lands, he’d take the time to rest and recover. Once he was back at full strength he’d go back out again to attack anew. I doubt there exists a dragon who has been proven as battle hungry as him, but that was only part of the reason he went through the trouble despite never truly making any progress.”

“I would assume it was so he could brag about it,” figured Ember. “The ones that roar the loudest are always the ones who crave the most attention.”

“And what a mighty roarer he was,” laughed Torch as he went on. “He’d go on about his battles and show off his scars like they were badges of honor. I don’t think I’ve even a dragon who could stretch a simple story into a lengthy narrative that’d span hours at a time, like how he could.”

“I can think of one,” thought Ember as she looked at her father as he continued to speak.

“He inspired other dragons to join him as he continued to pillage Equestria. In the past, dragons had engaged in battle against the Ponies and other creatures for territory or one of a number of other reasons, but never before had we been rallied behind one as if he was the Dragon Lord himself, commanding us like a general into combat.”

“And you were a part of this too?” questioned Ember.

“No,” Torch shook his head. “I was plenty big and strong and I didn’t need to constantly clash in battle to prove it. Not to say, I didn’t enjoy chasing the occasional Pegasus from time to time, for the fun of it. However, Crag wasn’t doing this to have fun. He was a firm believer in Brutus’s ideals.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” she sighed. “He’s been talking to me about it plenty when we happen to cross paths. Still, to be so singularly obsessing over something for thousands of years like that, I can’t even imagine.”

“That might be in part my fault,” admitted Torch. “In time, he had amassed a following nearly large enough to achieve his goal, but at this point, even the current Dragon Lord could not sit on his laurels while he started a seig across all of Equestria. He stopped him there, but it was only a temporary delay as the Dragon Lord was preparing to select his successor. This was the very thing Crag had been waiting for, his entire life. With the power of the Bloodstone Scepter, he could fully amass every dragon and coordinate them to attack all of Equestria at once. When the day of the trial arrived, we discovered it to be a simple battle of strength and skill in one-on-one battles.”

“So, it was another test to decide who was the biggest and strongest and let them become the newest Dragon Lord,” Ember stated bluntly.

“What better way to pick the best dragon for the job than that?” questioned Torch. “It’s not like you have a reason to complain about it, considering you were the winner of my trial.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” chuckled Ember. “But, anyway, you were the one who won in the end.”

“I wouldn’t have been Dragon Lord if I hadn’t,” he stated proudly as he rubbed his chin and recalled that time back then. “It was quite a battle as we each faced one another in the arena. Crag was supported by all those who he inspired. The way he looked and smiled, as they cheered him on, I doubt he could have been any more jubilant. By the time we finally faced off against one another he already looked completely enthralled, like he had already become the Dragon Lord. Heh, but that happiness of his didn’t last very long once we started to fight and I began to overpower him. Fighting back, for whatever good that did him, it only prolonged his humiliation as I kicked his tail all over the battle arena, right in front of every dragon there. Even so, he stubbornly refused to yield, not caring how battered and bruised he became or how clearly outmatched and futile his struggles were.”

“He was very proud and ambitious,” said Ember. “I almost feel sorry for him to get so close to his goal only to fail.”

“That’s what is to be expected with the trial to become Dragon Lord,” he stated. “There is no prize for second place. Not unless you count those bitter feelings one gets as they’re forced to see all that glory given to another. On the ground, with barely even the strength to remain conscious, he got to see as I was handed the Bloodstone Scepter and coronated as the new Dragon Lord. I still remember glancing over at him, the look of pure hatred and jealousy in his eyes looked like it could have burned a hole right through me. Ha! It made my victory all the more satisfying than it already was.”

“And what happened to Crag after that?” she wondered. “I can’t imagine he’d just leave things like that and give up.”

“Hardly,” chuckled Torch. “He attempted to convince me to be the one to lead the dragons on a conquest of Equestria. To Crag, he had mostly hoped to unite all dragons to this cause even if he wasn’t at the helm. He was actually even more content to be a part of the muscle of the force than the general watching from afar. However, I refused his request no matter how many times he asked me.”

“So, you were actually protecting Equestria from him?” asked Ember astonished.

“Eh? Well, I suppose that’s a way to look at it,” he admitted just realizing that perspective himself. “As I said before, I don’t see the need to continually flaunt our strength like we have something to prove. If anything, I told Crag his efforts only showed how weak he truly was, fighting and surviving, only to return with stories of the new scars he had received, like he had actually accomplished anything at all. Hearing me say that caused many of the dragons still following him to give up on his cause. Many already had after he lost to me during the trial. Desperate to salvage himself, he began to challenge me for the title of Dragon Lord. Gladly, I accepted and just as before I defeated him. But even that did not make him give up. Day after day he came back to challenge me and every time he ended up defeated again. Whatever remained of the dragons following him soon became reduced to just him again. He was no longer seen as a powerful dragon who carried the pride of our kind on his back as he soared through the sky. Now he was seen as a joke, a dragon with a desire that was forever beyond his capability to reach no matter how much effort he put into it.”

“That’s different than how he is now,” commented Ember as she recalled their previous encounter. “I gave him the chance to battle against me and he turned me down saying it wasn’t the right time.”

“Eventually, he stopped coming to challenge me,” Torch added. “I grew worried that something terrible might have happened to him, but found that he realized it simply was not the right time for his aspirations. After that, he didn’t go out to battle against myself, other dragons, or even the Ponies. Rather, he stepped down to allow time to bury his humiliation in the past. In time, he settled down with a dragoness. I think he even started a family.”

“He did,” confirmed Ember. “And had two sons.”

“Well, at least Craggy seems to be doing well,” smiled Torch. “So things didn’t end up totally terrible for him, in the end.”

“I don’t think he sees it that way,” retorted Ember. “I doubt he considers it over at all. Now, I’m really worried. I should really go out and make sure Spike is okay before he runs into Crag.” Turning to head back out, she did so just as a trail of smoke drifted in and up to her. Embers then appeared, out of the smoke that formed together into a scroll that dropped to her feet. “Spike,” said as she picked up the paper and unrolled it to see what was written on it.

Dear Ember,

It’s Spike. I don’t have a lot of time to right now to go into much detail, but I won’t be back tonight. Don’t worry, I’m fine and so is Spark. But, tomorrow there is something important I need to discuss with you, regarding his well being. I know this is probably very dumb of me to ask this of you, but, for now, just trust in me and wait till tomorrow.
See you then,
Spike

“Ugh, that idiot,” grumbled Ember as she finished reading his letter to her. “He has no idea what he’s getting himself into, at all.”

“Something wrong?” Torch asked Ember.

“Spike is getting in over his head,” she answered as she rolled up the scroll. “Now I’m really worried. I have to find him before something bad happens.”

“Just make him come to you,” he suggested. “It will be a lot faster than searching around blindly for him. Heh, plus the burning sensation that comes with it will serve him right for causing you to worry.”

“That would be for the best,” she agreed. “I don’t know what he’s thinking, but this is just the sort of thing that’ll escalate if it isn’t handled right away.” Holding out the Bloodstone Scepter, the gemstone on it glowed with a brilliant shade of red. “Spike-” she began to say, but her words were cut off as she recalled the words in his letter, “just trust in me.” Gritting her teeth, she lowered the scepter and the glow faded.

“Hmm?” wondered Torch. “Is something the matter?”

“Yeah,” she said, lowering her head, as she placed the scepter onto the massive table she stood upon and sat down. “I’m going to believe he knows what he’s doing and wait like he wants. I just hope that things won’t get any worse before I see him again.”

“Perhaps a good story will help you to keep your mind off of it,” Torch suggested. “And I have the perfect one in mind.”

“...Go ahead,” Ember told him certain that if nothing else, it’d help her fall asleep.

“And done,” whispered Spike as he finished rereading the letter he wrote for Ember and burned it with a breath of green flame. As he did this, Spark was distracted, munching on a meal of gems.

“Spike, aren’t you going to eat too?” he asked as he turned to Spike.

“Uh, y-yeah,” stuttered Spike as he swatted away the ashes of the scroll as they turned to smoke and flew away in the breeze. “I was just letting you have your fill first. A big brother has to take care of his younger sibling before himself after all.”

“Well, my belly’s full,” he smiled. “You can have the rest.”

“Thanks,” replied Spike as he rested the bowl of gems on his lap and grabbed a clutch in his claws. Bringing them to his maw, he munched them up and swallowed them into his empty belly. They tasted delicious on an empty belly, but, at the same time, they tasted bitter at what they cost him.

“Can’t you spare me even a few gems,” pleaded Spike to one of the vendors.

“Sorry, kid,” he answered. “No gems, no food. Those are the rules.”

“But gems are food,” groaned Spike, his hungry stomach aching his whole body and made it hard to keep calm. “You don’t have to fry them or anything. Please, if not for me, then for Spark.”

“Well, I suppose if you don’t have gems we could try trading for something else,” he offered and scratched his head as he tried to think of what he wanted.

“Let me see,” replied Spike as he opened his backpack to look, but found it was lightly packed as when he had left the castle. But, reaching in, he pulled out a few copies of his Power Pony comics and offered them. “How many gems can I get with these?”

“Let’s see,” he answered as he took them and flipped through the pages of one and then returned to the cover and began to read through the pages more closely. Spike looked at his eyes as he read and could see he, at least, showed interest in it. After he felt content with what Spike had to offer, he closed the comic and scooped up a bowl of gems, placing them beside the comics. “I think this will be more than a fair trade,” he told Spike. “So, these gems for your comics.”

Looking at his comics, Spike couldn’t help feel like his heart was being squeezed in his chest at what he was doing, but in spite of this, he had to follow through. “Deal…”

“Mmm, these really hit the spot,” Spike mumbled as he ate and showed the happiest face he could manage.

“I was wondering,” commented Spark as he watched Spike eat his fill. “What did you give the vendor for these gems? And didn’t you bring your own gems?”

“Turns out I didn’t have as many gems as I thought,” he lied, not wishing to bring up that Garble had taken them. “As for what I traded with the vendor, it was nothing important.” Spike continued to eat, chomping down on another mawful of gems, hoping Spark would be satisfied with that and not try to pry deeper.

“I’m sorry,” Spark told Spike sadly. “I’m just a whole lot of trouble for you, aren’t I? If you stay with me you’ll only get in more trouble. My dad is probably already raging up a storm wondering where I am. If he finds us… I’m afraid of what he might try to do to you.”

“And what’ll he do to you if I just let you go back to him,” Spike retorted. “I’m not going to let that happen. I promised to take care of you and I will.”

“Even… though…” worried Spark before he let out a yawn and stretched. “My dad is… so big and… strong?”

“Looks like it’s time for little dragons to get some sleep,” commented Spike as he rubbed Spark’s head. “Heh, now I’m starting to sound like Twilight telling me it was my bedtime.”

“But… But…” protested Spark as he tried to stay awake only to end up yawning even bigger. “I’m not ready for bed.”

“And now, you sound just like I did when I was around your age,” Spike chuckled as he pulled out his pillow. “Well, you can stay awake as late as you want. But why not make yourself comfy while you do so. Lay down on this.”

“What’s that?” wondered Spark as Spike placed the big, fluffy pillow on the ground. Pressing his claws on it, he saw how soft and plush it felt. “It’s like a cloud.”

“It’s a pillow and I’d say this one is just as soft as a cloud,” he told his little brother. “Go ahead and lay on it.”

“Mmm, it is soft,” the little yellow dragon nodded as he hugged and rested his head upon it. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this soft in the Dragon Lands before.”

“Well, soft things and fire don’t usually mix too well,” Spike stated before he heard some snoozing and saw Spark was already out cold. “Heh, worked like a charm.”

“Ugh, stupid dragons, stupid friends,” came a voice from not too far away. “Stupid, stupid stupid.”

“That voice,” thought Spike as he listened more intently for it. “Is that… Smoulder?” Taking a look at Spark, snoring quite loudly for a dragon of his size, he then looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone around and then proceeded to follow Smoulder’s voice.

“Why’d I even bother to come here?” she asked herself as she walked around, aimlessly while she griped out her frustrations. In her arms, she carefully carried her folded up dress and kept it pressed against her chest. “Stupid me. I just don’t belong here anymore.”

“Smoulder,” Spike called out. “Is that you?”

“Sp-Spike?” she gasped turning to see him. “Oh, uh, hey. What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be back with Ember? It’s getting late and it’s dangerous for a young dragon to be out here on their own.”

“What about you?” he questioned her. “Why are you here and where are your friends?”

“I ditched them or they ditched me,” she answered. “I don’t even know at this point. I was just so upset with them and now I just want to be alone.”

“But you just said that it’s dangerous for a young dragon to be out here alone,” the purple scaled dragon reminded his orange-hued friend.

“I’m plenty old enough to be able to take care of myself,” she argued before her stomach betrayed her with a grumble.

“Far be it from me to argue with you,” replied Spike with a grin. “But, I do have some extra gems lying around. So, if you’re hungry, you’re welcome to have all you want.”

“No, I’m fine,” she attempted to refuse, but her stomach just growled again. “Though, if you are offering, I might as well take you up on it.”

Walking back to where Spike had left Spark and the gems, Smoulder didn’t waste any time, scarfing down the rest and patting her gut contently. “Oh, guess I was hungrier than I thought,” she commented as she looked at the bowl, empty now save for some sparkling gem dust. Rubbing a claw along the bowl, she gathered up all the dust she could and licked it off her finger. “Sorry.”

“I already had my fill earlier,” he told her as he took a seat beside his friend.

“So, who’s the kid?” she asked turning to look at Spark, sleeping like a baby as he hugged the pillow.

“Mmmm… ma… ma… mommy,” he mumbled, smiling a bit.

“That’s Spark,” he explained. “He’s Garble’s younger brother.”

“Garble,” Smoulder recalled from earlier. “You mean that big dragon that breathed fire at you when we first arrived? Why are you here with his kid brother?”

“It’s a bit of a story,” he admitted.

“I’ve got nothing better to do right now,” she told him.

Recalling all the events that transpired since the two of them parted ways the day prior, Spike told Smoulder about Crag, how Spark saw him as his hero, his battle against Garble, and everything else between then and now.

“So much for a fun festival,” she sighed and reclined onto her back to stare up at the stars.

“Things haven’t gone as I imagined they’d be when we were packing up to come, but once I bring Spark to Ember tomorrow, things should get better,” he explained. “She’ll be able to keep Spark safer than anyone else here in the Dragonlands and ensure his father can’t lay a claw on him.”

“What about Garble?” she asked.

“Him too,” sighed Spike. “For a while, I thought he had a caring side, at least, for his brother. But if he can lose himself in his anger like that then Spark is probably better off without him.”

“Dragons usually enjoy depressing stories,” admitted Smoulder as she let out a sigh. “But that is too sad, even for me.”

“So, what happened between you and your friends?” wondered Spike. “Did you have a falling out with them?”

“Spike, I’d like to apologize to you on behalf of all dragons,” she told him.

“Uh, apology accepted, but for what?” he asked her.

“I’m sure you’ve been ridiculed and looked down upon because you were raised by ponies and act so differently than other dragons,” she continued.

“Mostly by Garble,” he replied. “But go on.”

“For a while, when I first arrived in Ponyville, I didn’t think much of you and the whole idea for a school to teach friendship sounded… well, lame,” she explained. “However, as I made friends with Ocellus, Silverstream, and everyone else, I realized how lucky you were to live in such a place with others willing to accept you as you are, to be able to accept yourself for who you are.”

“I don’t think another dragon has ever thought I was lucky for being raised by ponies,” admitted Spike. “Till more recently I’ve just been seen as nothing more than the runt all the other dragons could make fun of and hardly even considered a real dragon by the ponies I lived among, for not acting all fierce and aggressive. For so long, I couldn’t stop wondering just who I was supposed to be.”

“At least you had the freedom to find out,” she pointed out. “Dragons always act fierce, tough, and even rude, but that’s always been a front so we can hide our vulnerabilities. You might have been saddened by what you weren’t, but we were frightened of what we were. Looking back now, I might have actually envied you.”

“I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side,” commented Spike.

“Especially when you live in a place that doesn’t have any,” Smoulder added. “At the school, I was finally able to be myself, and not just a dragon. It was the most freedom I’ve ever felt and… well, look at this.” Standing up, she showed off her dress to Spike. “I had Rarity make this for me.”

“Your dress,” he replied, not the least bit surprised. “I didn’t know Rarity finished it for you.”

“You knew?” she asked surprised.

“Well, Rarity doesn’t have a dragon-shaped model to use so she asked me to wear it as she made adjustments,” he explained.

“That’s why I admire you, Spike,” she told him. “You don’t let yourself become shackled by what others expect you to be. You’re your own dragon and that’s probably more than most dragons can say. You don’t let meaningless pride hold you back.”

“The same is true for you too,” Spike replied. “Ember picked you because she believed in you and look how far you’ve come since you first attended Twilight’s school.”

“Is that what you think?” she asked. “That Ember picked me for some special reason, like she saw potential in me or something?”

“Well, there had to be a reason she picked you out of plenty of other dragons she could have sent to the school,” Spike pointed out. “Why else would you be the one she sent?”

“And Ember had to practically drag me there in the first place,” she added. “I’m not sure if you remember, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of the school, at first.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure any dragon would have felt the same,” countered Spike. “Occellus was nervous to attend and Gallus disliked the school probably as much as you did.”

“Ok, but did either of them get sent as a punishment?” Smoulder told Spike.

“A punishment?” he asked, this news to him. “What did you do?”

“Along with my friends, we tried to steal the Bloodstone Scepter from Ember,” she answered, not eager to admit that by the tone of her voice.

“You did?” spoke Spike, shocked that this was never mentioned till now. “Why? How?”

“Well, it all began like this…”

Inside the cave Smoulder and her friends hung out, they were all lounging about, doing what they usually did when they had nothing better to do. Ax was on back, exhaling rings of smoke that floated up to the ceiling and bit by bit blackened it. Gorge was enjoying a snack of gems, working up his appetite before dinner. Xena, or, rather, Ashe as had decided to call herself at that point in time was digging a claw into the wall, as she carved designs and images into it wherever there was still unused space to do so. Lastly, Smoulder was in a daze, as she drifted between asleep and awake. She was trapped in a lethargic state, bored from doing nothing for longer than she could remember, but unmotivated enough to not want to get up on her own. It wasn’t clear how long they had been lazing about like this, or if it was day or night out currently, nor did they care for that matter. It was merely how they enjoyed spending their time till something happened to shake things up, if for just a brief time.

It was Ax who finally broke their monotony as he finally spoke and said,” I’m bored.”

Those words drew the attention of the others to stop what they were doing and they each awaited the next dragon to speak. It was Smoulder as she casually suggested, “Uh, why don’t we try to steal the Dragon Lord’s scepter?”

“Yeah, sure.” “Alright.” “Sounds like that could be fun,” her friends agreed and getting up, they made their way out to do just that.

“Hey, it’s already dark out,” commented Ax. “That means we don’t gotta wait for night time to do this.”

“Seriously?” asked Spike after hearing all that. “You were bored and that was the first thing to come to mind?”

“That was just how we did things,” Smoulder explained. “We were bored so we did whatever stupid things we could think of and typically ended up in trouble for it. Only, this time, we were headed straight for really big trouble.”

The cave of the Dragon Lord trembled as if a volcano in the vicinity was on the verge of erupting. However, it was only her Ember’s father, Torch, already asleep and snoring. Covering her ears, Ember, with the Bloodstone Scepter in one hand and a scroll in the other, made her way to the far end of the cave to her usual sleeping spot when her father was this unbearably loud.

Letting out a big yawn, she stopped along the way, at an old metal chest. She opened the lid to place the scepter within it and then affixed a lock to keep it safe while she slumbed. In the keyhole, the key rested with a long string running through the back end so one could wear it like a necklace. Ember placed it over her head and then continued, on her way, to a quieter spot in back of the cave, to rest. Before dozing off, she looked in the scroll, one more time, to read the message, that was sent to her.

Dear Ember,

Princess Twilight Sparkle is formally announcing that she is opening a school in Equestria for the purpose of spreading the teachings of friendship far and wide. With the hope that you will assist in this effort, the Princess of Friendship requests that you cooperate by selecting a candidate to represent the dragons and be the first of hopefully many to attend and help spread the magic of friendship far and wide. Enrollment will start at the end of the month, so please respond asap with the name of the dragon you have chosen.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle

“The end of the month is three days away and I still have no clue who to send,” she sighed as she had been struggling to pick her candidate since the start of the month with little luck. “A young dragon would be more open to this, but I doubt their parents would be keen on them going far away to a school run and populated mostly by ponies. An older dragon would probably be too close-minded and likely burn the place to the ground. A dragon somewhere in the middle of that age range would be best, but I haven’t found the one that has that special… something.” Letting out another yawn, weariness was making it hard for her to think. “I’ll have to try again… after I get a little rest.”

“So this is where all that racket comes from,” commented Gorge as they heard Torch let out another thunderous snore.

“Guess we don’t need to be quiet,” chuckled Ax. “If they can sleep through all this racket.”

“That’s assuming Dragon Lord Ember is a heavy sleeper,” pointed out Smoulder. “For all we know, she could still be awake, unable to get any rest. In which case, we’d end up busted the second she saw us.”

“Then maybe we should wait for when her father isn’t keeping all of Equestria up,” suggested Gorge nervously. “Who knows what she might do to punish us.”

“It’s what makes this all the more exciting,” smiled Smoulder as they ventured further into the cave, getting closer to Ember and the Bloodstone Scepter.

“But I’m so scared that I can’t even eat,” he cried as he munched on some gems.

“Uh, you are eating,” pointed out Ashe.

“I eat when I’m nervous and that overrides my fear,” he explained as he crunched some gems with his powerful teeth.

“Hey, look over here,” Ax said to the others as he noticed the metal chest. “You think it the Bloodstone Scepter is in here?”

“It could definitely fit,” agreed Smoulder as she got a closer look at the metallic box. Holding the lock in her claws, she took a deep breath and attempted to melt it with fire. After several seconds of unleashing her hottest flames, she closed her maw to catch her breath and saw that while the lock was burning hot, it hadn’t even warped a little and the same was true for the chest.

“A metal that even dragon fire cannot melt,” noted Ashe. “That’s definitely gotta be it, but how do we get it open?”

“We find the key,” answered Smoulder. “And odds are, Ember has it somewhere close to her person.” She continued to lead the way as they resumed their infiltration of the Dragon Lord’s home. Smoulder’s heart was pounding as this setback only added to the adrenaline-inducing thrill. “Now things are getting exciting.”

“Zzzzzz,” snoozed Ember as she slept far more soundly than her father, the key around her neck, as she rested with her back against the cave wall.

“Good, she’s fast asleep,” said Gorge with relief as he kept the most distance from her.

“Then why are you staying all the way back there?” asked Ax.

“I want to be as far away as possible in the event we wake her up,” he admitted. “She definitely won’t be happy if we wake her up and that’s before she even realizes what we came here to do. I don’t even wanna think about how furious she’ll be then.”

“Whatever, ya big, scaredy dragon,” teased Ashe.

“Well, which one of you big, brave dragons is going to try and take the key off her neck?” asked Gorge.

“Uh… well,” hesitated Ax.

“Ax should since he was the one who said he was bored,” pointed out Ashe.

“But this was Smoulder’s idea,” he argued. “She should be the one to-”

“Get this,” Smoulder finished his sentence and held up the key.

“When did you…” they tried to say, in disbelief that she had retrieved it so easily.

“While you three were bickering,” she explained. “Now, come on you three scaredy dragons, let’s go grab the scepter.”

“Smoulder you are just too awesome,” praised Ax. “You aren’t afraid of anything and tough as nails.”

“I don’t know about that, but do go on,” she chuckled as they returned to the room with the metal chest.

“What should we use the scepter for first?” wondered Ashe. “I mean, we can make all the other dragons do anything we want with it, right?”

“How about we have them guzzle down a barrel of sulfur seltzer and let out a big fire belch at the same time,” suggested Ax.

“Or we can have them bring us all their gems,” salivated Gorge at the thought. “Heheh, we would never go hungry again.”

“Well, maybe five minutes for you,” teased Smoulder as she put the key into the lock and turned it, but it didn’t open. “Huh? It isn’t working?”

“Did you put the key in right?” wondered Ax as he moved in closer to look and saw she did.

“Yeah, but it’s not working,” she groaned as she kept trying to no avail. “I don’t understand.”

“Maybe it’s the wrong key.”

“But then where is the right key?” she asked.

“Why not just ask me?”

“Ask you?” questioned Smoulder as she turned to look and saw Ember smirking at her from behind her friends. Her friends also turned to look and immediately freaked out. They all screamed as they made a run for the entrance of the cave, running by Ember as she gave them a few seconds head start before chasing after them.

“We’re dead!” cried Gorge as his belly bounced with each step he ran. “We are so dead!”

“I doubt she’d do anything that bad to us,” Ashe told him.

“Not her,” he panted. “All this running. My thighs are chafing! Can’t someone just carry me?”

“When things get serious it’s every dragon for themself!” stated Ax as they widened the gap between them and Gorge.

“Take it easy,” Smoulder assured Gorge. “We’ll all get outside and vanish into the night. After that, we’ll lay low in our hangout till this all blows over.”

“Huff! Huff!” wheezed Gorge, his out-of-shape body reaching its limit as he was already soaked in perspiration from that short of a run. In his exhausted state, he tripped over his own feet and dropped to the ground. “Owie…”

“Gorge is down,” commented Ashe looking back to see, but not stopping to help him up.

“Poor guy, but he knows the rule,” Ax replied. “Every dragon for themself.” As he said that, Smoulder rushed past them and back towards Gorge. They looked back quickly to see, but didn’t stop fleeing themselves.

Smoulder offered him a hand to help him up. “Smoulder?” he asked. “Why did you come back?”

“Don’t worry about that,” she groaned and tried to get him on his feet. “Just get up quick before Ember catches us.”

“Too late,” Ember said walking up to them with her arms crossed. “It’s not often that I have thieves invade my home. You bunch are either very brave or very foolish. Whatever the case, you will have to face the consequences of your actions.”

“Yeargh!” cried Gorge as he found the strength to get up and flee, leaving Smoulder behind as he did. “No! I don’t wanna diet! You can’t make me!” Smoulder and Ember just watched him struggle to get away, pausing every few feet to catch his breath and then run some more. The two female dragons just stared at him as he ran out of sight, remaining in awkward silence.

“That wasn’t the punishment I had in mind, but he probably would really benefit from it,” commented Ember.

“Well, he does love his gems,” stated Smoulder as she started to walk away. “Well, that was a hoot and a half. Let’s do this again some other time.”

“Whoa there,” smirked Ember as she grabbed Smoulder by the tail and pulled her back over. “You think you can try to steal my scepter and then leave without any consequences?”

“I didn’t plan to do anything bad with it,” she told Ember, like that made the idea of stealing it any better. “It was just for a little fun.”

“Well, you are in trouble regardless of your reason,” explained Ember.

“That is typically how our fun ends too,” Smoulder added. “Well, what’s my punishment?”

“I have some ideas,” she answered. “But, first, why did you come back for your friend? You didn’t have to and all it did was put you in trouble of getting caught.”

“I don’t know,” Smoulder admitted. “He fell and I rushed back to help him without thinking. Probably just a momentary lapse in good judgment.”

“Maybe, but that isn’t something most dragons would do if it wouldn’t benefit them or especially if it would put you at risk,” she admitted. “It actually reminds me of him.”

“Who?” asked Smoulder.

“Nevermind,” Ember replied. “I’ll go easy on you this time, provided you don’t ever try something like this again.”

“Deal,” Smoulder agreed, ready to rush off, but Ember didn’t let her go you.

“And,” she added. “You attend this new school Princess Twilight is opening.”

“Princess Twilight?” asked Smoulder trying to think of who that was. “Isn’t she a pony? Why would I want to go to school there?”

“I could give you a different punishment,” Ember offered her. “But this is a one time offer. Are you really sure you want to pass it up for something far worse?”

“Um,” worried Smoulder as she swallowed hard and answered weakly. “Yay, school.”

“Good,” smiled Ember as she patted Smoulder on the head. Internally, she sighed with relief, that she didn’t attempt to call her bluff. “So, are you curious as to where I hide the real key?”

“Uh, I guess so,” nodded Smoulder as her tail was released.

“Here’s a hint,” she said before Torch let out another monstrous snore. After that, Ember didn’t say anything.

“What’s the hint?” asked Smoulder.

“That was the hint,” she chuckled. “Now, go on back with your friends and enjoy the time you have left cause in three days you’ll be off and learning all about friendship.”

“I can hardly wait,” Smoulder grumbled as she made her way home.

“And that’s how I ended up going to the school,” she sighed. “Not because I was different from other dragons, but because I happened to go back for my friend on a whim. Out of a hundred times that probably would have been the only time I’d have actually gone back to help.”

“Are you sure about that?” asked Spike. “I mean, how many times have you ever been in a situation like that before?”

“Well… never,” she admitted as she thought back. “I haven’t really ended up in a scary situation like that before. Come to think of it, the Dragonlands aren’t particularly dangerous, for dragons anyway. Even molting was more embarrassing than dangerous. But, ever since I came to the school, my life has been in quite a lot of danger, on a fairly regular basis.” She began to count out the times on her claws. “There were the pukwudgies… the time Applejack and Rainbow led a field trip… the spellvenger hunt… that time the Tree of Harmony tested us under the school… and when Cozy Glow made the magical vortex to suck away all the magic in Equestria. Come to think of it, life has been a lot more dangerous since I left the Dragonlands.”

“Uh, anyway, during all those times, did you ever even think to yourself, ‘every creature for themself?’” asked Spike.

“No, I guess I didn’t,” she answered after recalling all those times.

“Ember did see something in you,” Spike told her. “You don’t abandon your friends when times are tough. If that isn’t loyalty then I don’t know what is.”

“Thanks, Spike,” she smiled. “Looking back at all that, I think I’m feeling a bit better.”

“Any time,” he smiled back. “Happy to help.”

“And, I guess I should go back and see my friends again,” she added. “If I’m loyal I probably shouldn’t let a little turmoil make me give up on them. I should go back and talk to them” She let out a yawn. “Tomorrow though. Right now, I need a little shut eye.”

Laying back on the ground, Smoulder folder her hands over her chest and closed her eyes. A few big yawns later, she was fast asleep. Doing the same, Spike attempted to get some shut eye too, but even after laying still on the ground for ten minutes, he opened his eyes and stretched. Looking over at Spark still resting comfortably on his pillow, the purple dragon let out a sigh. “Nope, I just can’t sleep without pillows.”

“Ugh, what is wrong with me?” groaned Garble as he stared up at the night sky, though his mind was too cluttered with thoughts to sleep. “Why couldn’t I control my temper? Why’d I have to be like that? Be like dad? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing at all,” came a voice from the dark.

“Huh?” wondered Garble sitting up and looking around, but he couldn’t see anything but darkness all around him. “Did I hear something or was that just my imagination?” After waiting and listening to only the sounds of insects chirping, he decided upon the later option and began to lay back down.

“You aren’t wrong at all,” the voice said once more, prompting Garble to his feet, certain that it wasn’t in his head. “It was that other dragon, that little, purple grub that’s been filling your head with self doubt.”

“Who are you?” shouted Garble, looking all around him, but there was nothing in sight no matter where he looked. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you believe me? Just look at what he’s done. He’s taken everything from you. Your pride… your destiny… your brother… everything. He might try to play it off as unintended consequences, but he’s poisoned the minds of all the dragons around him, turned them over to his way of thinking and as a result he’s become a hero in their eyes and left you the outcast.”

“Sh-Shut up!” snapped Garble. “Leave me alone!”

“What’s the matter? Don’t you want to hear the truth or are you afraid to admit that even you were starting to fall for his ruse? You trusted in him and all that accomplished was making you the villain and him an even greater hero.”

“No, it wasn’t supposed to be that way… I just…”

“Acted in the true nature of a dragon. You are an unstoppable force of rage and power, something that stands above all others creatures. How can you just stand idly by while he changes how things work around here and let him trick you into believing there is no way to change it all back to how things should be?”

“How do you know all this?” cried Garble. “Have you been spying on me? Why do you even care?”

“I heard about this Festival of the Dragon Lord and decided to check it out. I didn’t know what I would find, but lo and behold, I found you, someone who has quite a bit in common with myself. You see, I too have become an outcast from my home too, indirectly by that very same gnat, in fact. All I long for, now, is a new home to call my own and revenge on all those who have wronged and betrayed me. I believe that by working together we can both get what we want, so what do you say?”

Hearing those words cut deep into Garble, opening old wounds and helped bring back the ache that he had managed to mostly recover from in his time alone. Breathing heavily, he struggled to decide what to believe. Then in the darkness, he saw a pair of green eyes peer at him as someone… something approached. “Who- Who are you?” he asked staring back at the eyes.

“Someone who can truly help you. Now, shall we fix everything he has broken and make this world right again?”

Change

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“Hey… Hey, Spike,” whispered Garble as he nudged the sleeping, purple dragon from his slumber. He had his rested upon his backpack and while it wasn’t as soft as a regular pillow it was, at least, better than the hard ground. “Come on, wake up.”

“Huh? Wha?” groaned Spike as he stretched and yawned. “I finally managed to get to sleep.”

“Shh,” hushed Garble, looking to make sure that Spark and Smoulder were still snoozing. “Quiet.”

“G-Garble?” wondered Spike as he opened his eyes and saw the last dragon he wanted to see kneeling beside him. “What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you,” he explained. “But not here. Follow me. I know where we can talk in private.”

“I already gave you a chance and we saw how that turned out,” he reminded him.

“I know I screwed up,” he admitted. “But, please, just give me this one last chance. That’s all I’m asking.”

“I really should ask Twilight if there is a limit to how many chances at redemption we’re allowed to give someone,” yawned Spike as he got up and followed after the teen dragon. After a bit of a walk, they entered into a cave. Venturing into its dark depths, Spike took deep breaths to exhale a small flame from his puckered lips to help light his way.

When then reached a dead end, Garble turned back to Spike. “Yeah, this should do just nicely,” he commented.

“Ok, what do you want?” asked Spike, still sleepy and eager to get this over with so he could attempt to get back to sleep again.

“Just to apologize,” he told Spike. “I have been nothing but horrible to you since we met and despite all that you’ve tried to help me. You’ve even helped take care of my brother, something I should have been doing from the start. Instead I’ve just been cowering in fear of my father. All this time, I thought I was strong, but in the end I was just putting on airs to look the part.”

“Well, it’s not entirely your fault,” Spike consoled him. “You were raised to be this way. It’s not easy to escape the influence of those who raised you. I keep all my hoofball cards organized by their team, and then by the average point total of their stats. I also find myself reshelfing my comic books once a week. Heh, next thing you know, I’m gonna start making checklists for my checklists.”

“Uh, right, well, I just wanted to get that off my chest,” he sighed. “I don’t want your forgiveness or expect you to have any after I nearly… you know, lost my temper in the arena.”

“Well, at the very least, I can offer you some help,” replied Spike. “Some counseling for your anger and father issues would probably be a good place to start and I know someone with plenty of personal experience as a vill- uh, those in need of guidance. She’s a pony named, Starlight Glimmer.”

Glaring at Spike, Garble hissed viciously at him. Startled, Spike jumped back as a chill ran down his spikes. “Oh, uh, sorry,” Garble quickly apologized after momentarily forgetting himself. “I, um, don’t think I’m ready to open up to ponies yet.”

“R-Right,” agreed Spike. “Baby steps. I should probably ask Ember if she knows any good dragon counselors.”

“Thank you, Spike,” Garble told him. “You’ve been a really great help to me.”

“No problem,” yawned Spike as he rubbed his eye. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I really need to go back and get some more rest.” Attempting to go back the way they came, Garble was quick to get ahead of him. He then turned back around and stood with a smirk as he block Spike’s way towards the entrance. “What the?” wondered Spike confused at what was happening now. “Garble?”

“You seem to have misunderstood me,” he grinned. “I didn’t thank you for offering to help me. I just needed to make certain I could be convincing enough.”

“‘Convincing enough?’” questioned Spike. “What are you-” Grabbing Spike up in one hand, he started to laugh with a monstrous cackle. Witnessing this, Spike could tell something was now incredibly off about the dragon before him. Rather than the usual guffaws he typically made after cracking some jerkish, self-made joke, his snicker sounded downright evil, sending another shiver down his spikes just like he had moments ago. “That laugh… this feeling… y-you’re- gah!” Garble tossed Spike against the back the cave and then hurried his way to the entrance.

Rising back to his feet, Spike hurried after Garble, running as fast as his legs could carry him. “I don’t know what you are planning, but I will stop you,” cried Spike.

“I can’t have you disturbing my plans,” he told Spike as the sound of rocks shifting over the top of the cave could he could heard. As they neared the mouth of the cave, dirt and small rocks were raining down over it. As the big, red dragon made it out, the rocks falling were getting bigger, bit by big covering over the entrance, or, in Spike’s case, his only means to get out. “So, I need you to stay here for now. I’m sure you’ll find a way out… eventually. But, by then it’ll already be too late. If you can’t… well, then farewell. Hehahahahah!!!”

“No!” Spike cried as he neared the entrance and a the largest rocks yet came crashing down over the cave’s maw, sealing him inside. Pushing on them with all his might, the small dragon attempted to force them out of his way, but they were firmly wedged into place. Spike shouted angrily, but the only response that came was his own echoe on the cave’s walls. Other than that, Spike was trapped within dark silence. With him sealed away, time marched forward till the morning of the next day.

“Who are you? Where’s Spike?” asked Spark as he awoke to see he was being watched by a different dragon than the night before.

“I’m Smoulder,” she answered. “I’m a friend of Spike’s. As for where he is, I don’t have a clue. He was here last night and his backpack still is, but not him.”

“Did he wander off somewhere?” wondered the small, yellow dragon.

“I doubt he would leave without a good reason,” she commented. “I’m worried. We better find him. Come on, I know that if anyone can help us, it’ll be Dragon Lord Ember.”

Carrying both her and Spike’s backpacks and Spark, as well, Smoulder took flight and headed towards the home of the Dragon Lord. Luckily for her, she didn’t even have to fly all the way over there before spotting Ember in the sky as she scanned the area around her vigilently.

“Smoulder and… Spark,” she observed as they all converged on the ground. “That’s not the duo I was expecting to see.” She rubbed her temple certain that this was the moment she’d regret her decision not to act sooner than this. “Please don’t tell me something happened to Spike.”

“He was with us last night and now he’s gone without a trace,” explained Smoulder. “We were actually hoping you would be able to help us find him.”

“It’ll be easier to make him come to us,” she said holding up the Bloodstone Scepter. “Truthfully, I should have done this the second I knew there was trouble.”

“Trouble?” asked Smoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Spark’s father came looking for him last night,” Ember explained. “He was losing his patience of Spike bringing Spark home. I managed to convince him to go back home and wait, but I’m afraid he’ll be even more upset than he was yesterday. If we don’t find him first, then I’m afraid that Crag will kill Spike.”

“K-Kill?” whimpered Spark, hugging at Smoulder’s leg fearfully.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean that literally,” Ember said trying to console the young dragon. “Everything will be fine.”

“But, just to make sure,” added Smoulder. “You better make him get his scaley butt over here fast.”

“I just need to summon him,” explained Ember as she held up the Bloodstone Scepter.

“But will that actually work?” asked Garble as he and his two friends, Clump and Fume flew down to join them.

“Ugh, just what we don’t need right now,” groaned Smoulder as they walked past her and Spark, completely ignoring them to confront Ember.

“B-Brother?” spoke Spark as he watched as Smoulder kept him safely behind her.

“What do you mean, if it’ll actually work?” she questioned him.

“I mean, can it call a dragon to you under any circumstance?” he asked. “What if he physically can’t get to you like if he was trapped in a cave somewhere? Hypothetically speaking, of course.”

“You trapped Spike in a cave?!?” she snapped angrily.

“I was just giving an example,” he answered smugly. “But I suppose it is possible. The question then is, what would offer me in return for showing you exactly where that little gnat is trapped? If I might make a suggestion, the Bloodstone Scepter would be a fair trade.”

“Like I would ever hand over something like this to the likes of you,” she argued. “I could use it to force you to tell me where he is, but I don’t like relying on its power.”

“So, are you going to use force to make me talk?” he laughed. “Heh, you think you can beat all three of us?”

“No, first I’m going to see if we can talk this out and come to an understanding,” she told him. To free up both her arms, she wrapped the Bloodstone Scepter in her tail for safekeeping. “And right now, I really hope we can’t so I can move onto using force. Also, yes, I do believe I can take on all three of you at once.”

“Come and try it then,” dared Garble as he let his two cohorts act first, Clump charging ahead to grapple against Ember, pushing her back with all his weight and might. At the same time, Fume quickly got behind her, inhaling big as he prepared to unleash a blast of flame.

“Ember!” warned Smoulder. “Behind you!”

“Don’t worry,” she said with confidence as she waited for Fume to unleash a yellow flame at her and then quickly reacted by disengaging Clump, allowing him to charge forward while she swiftly stepped aside. The chunky, brown dragon stumbled forward, colliding with his friend’s flames as he did, taking the hit that was meant for Ember.

“Oh, sorry dude,” Fume apologized.

“No worries,” Ember told him. While he had been distracted by his friendly fire, Ember managed to quickly get behind him “A little flame like that wouldn’t hurt that much.” Taking in a deep breath herself, she unleashed a blast of magenta flames at him and knocked the tall, skinny dragon off his feet and onto the ground, next to his friend. “But a flame like that should really burn.”

“Got you!” shouted Garble as he snuck up behind Ember and tried to snatch away the Bloodstone Scepter. Quick to react, Ember swung her tail away, making Garble grab at nothing but air as he fell to the ground. She stood tall over her challenger and looked down upon him, sorely disappointed.

“Garble, is this, seriously, the best you can do?” she sighed.

“I’ll show you what I can do,” he grumbled and got up, swinging and slashing his claws at Ember, but she easily avoided his attacks and then grappled hands with him. As they fought to overpower one another, Ember quickly managed to force Garble to his knees almost effortlessly.

“I know you were stronger than this during the Gauntlet of Fire,” she pointed out. “You aren’t even as strong as your friend Clump is.”

“Sh-Shut up!” he snapped at her.

“Yeah! Kick their tails!” cheered Smoulder as she rooted for Ember, watching as she Fume and Clump got up to help Garble, no matter what they tried, she was able to outthink them every time and come out on top. Before long, her three opponents were sore and exhausted from the battle while Ember had barely broken a sweat.

“Oh,” whimpered Spark as he watched and hugged Smoulder’s tail nervously.

“Don’t worry,” the orange dragon promised him. “Ember’s only going to rough them up a bit so they’ll tell us where Spike is. She won’t really hurt them.”

“Something isn’t right,” commented Spark.

“Uh, what do you mean?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. Something doesn’t feel right about my brother,” he told her.

“Had enough?” Ember asked him.

“You can beat us up all you want, but I still won’t tell you anything,” he adamantly stated.

“Uh, dude,” Fume commented, not eager to fight anymore when she had already proven over and over again her ability to defeat them, without any trouble. “Maybe we should just give up.”

“We aren’t stopping till we win,” he growled at them. “Now, get up and don’t stop fighting!”

“This is just getting sad,” sighed Ember as she took the Bloodstone Scepter in hand and raised it up. The gem glowed red as she activated its power. “You three, stand down now.” All at once, the three dragons fell to their knees with their heads and hands lowered. “If you won’t willingly tell me what cave you’ve hidden Spike in, I’ll force you to tell me. Now, Garble, tell me, where is Spike?”

“H-H-He i-i-is,” Garble stuttered as he attempted to resist telling her the truth before he blurted out his answer. “I refuse!”

“What?!?” replied a shocked Ember, unable to believe any dragon could refuse the orders of the Dragon Lord. Then, a glow of green emanated from Garble’s forehead and blasted out at Ember, hitting her point blank in the chest. She let out a cry of pain as she was knocked off her feet and landed on the ground in front of Spark and Smoulder, their mouths agape in just as much shock. Even Clump and Fume couldn’t were taken by surprise by this. The Bloodstone Scepter had escaped Ember’s grasp when she was hit and it fell to the ground.

“Ember!” cried Smoulder when the shock finally wore off. Along with Spark, she hurried over to her side. “Ember! Are you hurt?”

“Ungh,” she groaned as she managed to sit up. “I’m okay, but whatever he did, it burned me right through my scales.”

“Dude, Garble,” Fume said in awe at he looked at his friend as the power of the Dragon Lord faded on him and Clump and they got to their feet. “What’s with that gnarly horn?”

“Horn?” questioned Ember as she, Smoulder, and Spark turned to look at Garble and saw a black curved horn with holes in it protruding from his forehead. “No, that horn. You aren’t Garble! You’re Chrysalis!”

“Hehahahah!!!” laughed the imposter Garble as she picked up the Bloodstone Scepter and stood in a triumphant pose as a ring of green flames rose up over her red dragon form and revealed what she truly was. She had a body like that of the ponies with a coat black as pitch. Her front and back legs were riddled with holes as did her long, moss green mane, tail and transparent insect-like wings. As she laughed a pair of sharp fangs were present in her maw and when she stopped, she revealed a pair of emerald green eyes that stared down at Ember with a smug grin.

“Garble, dude,” gasped Fume as Garble’s two cohorts were in even more shock after Chrysalis revealed herself. “You’re not a dude.” Hearing that unnecessary commentary made Chrysalis hiss, angered that her big reveal was being spoiled.

Smoulder became even more on guard to protect Spark while Ember brushed off the pain the villain’s magic had inflicted upon her as she was ready to defend herself and the others from the unreformed Changeling. And even more of a concern was the Bloodstone Scepter now in her possession.

“Why did you turn into some ugly bug thing?” asked Clump, finishing what his equally dense friend was asking her.

“Silence you fools!” she hissed. “You have done what I needed of you, now be quiet or you two shall face my wrath.”

“Y-Y-Yes, Garble, uh, mam,” they answered and then remained quiet as Chrysalis approached Ember.

“Greetings, Princess Ember,” she spoke to her formerly. “Forgive me for taking on such a form for our first ever meeting, but it was a necessary for my plan to work.”

“Can’t say which form I dislike more,” Ember admitted. “But what are you even doing here Queen, oh, well, I guess it is ex-queen now that you no longer have ant subjects or a kingdom to rule over.”

“A failing on my part, I’m afraid,” she admitted. “I had allowed an insatiable hunger to be the rallying point for my Changelings to followed behind me, but a traitor’s dangerous, new ideas ruined all I had built. Even so, it revealed to me that I require more than just a common desire shared amongst those I rule over to properly unite them. I need to have absolute control so that they are no more than an extension of will.”

“If you rule like that then you aren’t leading subjects, but manipulating puppets,” argued Ember.

“Coming from the one that has the exact power I seek,” she scoffed. “That sounds terribly hypocritical.”

“I have never used it in such a way and if you have plotted all this to take that power for yourself then I have bad news,” she explained. “The Bloodstone Scepter was forged with the blood of dragons from generations ago. While it affects all dragons descended from them, it can only be used by one of them as well. Even if you were to turn yourself into a dragon you still will not be able to use it.”

“Oh, I am well aware of that fact,” she stated with a sinister, little cackle afterwards. “And, already, I have found a way around that, thanks to my new ally.” Flying down beside her, with a snaggletooth smirk, it was Garble, the real one. “I believe you two have already met.”

“We have,” she nodded and stomped over to the grinning brute. “And what do you think you are doing, Garble?”

“Taking what should have been mine in the first place,” he answered as he took the scepter in hand and raised it up. The bloodstone glowed brightly as he could feel the power flow into him just like it had for all Dragonlords past. As the effects faded he continued to speak. “And that’s Dragon Lord Garble to you. Now bow before your new leader.”

“Ungh!” groaned Ember as she felt the power of the Bloodstone Scepter cause her body to glow and burn as she attempted with all her might to resist the red dragon’s orders. But, try as she did, inevitably, Ember found herself on the ground, bowing before him.

“Now, who is the Dragon Lord?” he asked her, really wanting to hear it from her.

“Y-You are,” she answered through clenched teeth.

“That’s right,” he smirked with delight.

“Garble, that’s awesome,” Fume told him as he and Clump walked over. “You’re the Dragon Lord now.”

“What are you gonna do with all that power?” wondered Clump.

“Bow,” he told them and made them join Ember on the ground.

“Ugh, G-Garble?” questioned the skinny purple dragon, not expecting his friend to do this to them.

“Yeah, Garble, what’s the big idea?” asked the fat brown one.

“That’s Dragon Lord Garble, from now on,” he told them. “As for what I’m planning on doing, I’m going to be changing everything back to how it should be around here.”

“Better even,” added Chrysalis. “After all, we’re going to work together to take over Equestria and get my- uh, our revenge on all those who have wronged us.”

“I know,” he answered. “You don’t have to remind me. Just don’t forget that I have the scepter so I’m in charge.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” she answered while trying to hide the bitterness in her voice of having to answer to another.

“Sm-Smoulder,” whispered Ember as she tried to get her attention while the others were conversing.

“Are you okay?” worried Smoulder, not sure how things could have gotten so dire so fast.

“I’m fine, but I can’t move while I’m under his control,” she explained. “For now, I need you two to get as far away from here as possible.”

“We can’t just leave you,” she argued.

“Listen to me,” she explained. “The Bloodstone Scepter’s power is strong, but you must be able to hear a command from the wielder in order for it to control you. The only thing it can do from a distance is summon a dragon, but you should be able to resist the call. Get away for now and get help. I’m counting on you two.”

“R-Right,” nodded Smoulder as she picked up Spark and took flight as quickly as she could. “Hold on tight,” she told Spark, having him wrap his arms around her neck so her hands were free to cover her ears.

“Fool, those two are escaping,” snapped Chrysalis, noticing them flying off. “Why didn’t you restrain them like the others?”

“Relax, I got this,” he said confidently and held up the scepter. “Come back.” Smoulder kept on flying. Shaking the Bloodstone Scepter, he tried saying it louder. “Come back here!” Still, it didn’t work. Angrily, Garble stomped the ground and waved the scepter wildly in his arm. “Garble says, ‘get back here!!!’”

“Seems you can’t control dragons if they can’t hear you,” figured Chrysalis. “It’ll be more difficult to our plans if we have to give orders to dragons one at a time.”

“Then we’ll just summon them all to gather at one spot,” figured Garble. “Then give them their orders.”

“Actually, a good idea,” she admitted. “But what about them?” She pointed back to Smoulder and Spark. “It would be foolish to simply ignore them.”

“Fume, Clump, go after them,” he ordered, making them rise to their feet and pursue. “Just obey my orders and it’ll be all the easier for you.”

“Y-Yes, Dragon Lord Garble,” they answered with a lack of enthusiasm in their voices. They then flew off in pursuit of Smoulder and Spark.

“Do you really think those two can capture them?” asked Chrysalis as they watched them leave.

“I doubt it,” he admitted. “So, we should act quickly. Let’s fly over to my new throne and call all the dragons over. No time like the present to take over the world, right?”

“And deliver plenty of delicious payback,” she cackled with delight. “Thorax… Twilight Sparkle… Starlight Glimmer! Their day of reckoning is close at hand. Oh, I can hardly wait.”

“I know the feeling,” he agreed before turning to Ember. “Come with us and praise me as we go. I feel like having my ego stroked.”

“Oh, Garble,” she told him, quickly growing sick to her stomach as she was forcibly made to tell him how great he was. The more she resisted, the brighter her body glowed and burned, urging to comply and avoid further pain. Even so, she resisted his control over her as best she could despite the pair and the forced praise still getting out. “You are such a strong and powerful dragon.”

“Don’t forget handsome,” he added in.

“Y-Yes, of course,” she gagged. “Truly the mightiest of dragons there ever was.”

“I do enjoy toying with my enemies,” admitted the former bug queen. “But do not grow complacent now that you have power. These fools tend to find a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”

“I’ve got this,” he assured her as he took to the air and flew towards the throne of the Dragon Lord. Chrysalis flew after him and an order from him forced Ember to come as well. “Nothing is going to stand in our way.”

“Where did they go?” wondered Fume as he and Clump looked flew down to the ground and started to look around, in every direction, but failed to see any sign of Smoulder or Spark. “They landed down somewhere around here, right?”

“I saw them fly here too,” agreed Clump. “The terrain is pretty rocky. There’s probably a lot of places they could be hiding.”

“And Garble and that bug lady will be made if we return without them,” figured Fume. “And who knows what they’ll do to us then.”

Realizing this, the two gave one another worried looks at just what they should do. “I, uh bet they’re hiding by the lava river.”

“That’s pretty far away from here,” commented Fume. “...Which is why it’ll be the perfect place for them to go.”

“It’s a big place,” added Clump. “We should grab our gorge boards to help us cover more ground quickly. Still, it could take hours to search everywhere… maybe even longer.”

“I’m down with longer,” agreed Fume, the two dragons looking rather eager now. “Let’s go! Uh, but we’re not goofing off. We’re just enjoying following Garble’s orders, right?”

“Right,” nodded Clump and the two slackers hurried off in a hurry, cheering as they did so.

“Looks like they’re leaving,” Smoulder sighed with relief as she peeked out from well-hidden crevice leading into her friends’ hidden cave. “Good thing those two aren’t very competent.”

“What’s going on, Smoulder?” asked Ax as she slipped back into their hideout. “Who are you hiding from and who is the kid?”

“I’m Spark,” the small dragon introduced himself. “Who are you guys?”

“This is Ax, today my name is Tia,” the dragon formerly named Xena told him. “And the dragon currently having second breakfast is Gorge.”

“Hey,” Gorge waved and then went back to eating.

“Ok, we’ve all been introduced,” Smoulder said. “Now, I need you to listen to me.”

“Before that,” interrupted Ax. “We want to apologize for what happened between us yesterday.”

“Apologize?” she asked. “Why are you apologizing to me? I mean, do you even know what you’re apologizing to me about?”

“Well, of course we do,” replied Tia. “I mean, we racked our brains on this all last night and we’re sure we figured it out.”

“And what did you come up with?”

“That you enjoy wearing dressing and being pretty because you are secretly a pony that was turned into a dragon,” answered Gorge.

“Yeah, no, completely wrong,” she told them, not sounding surprised by such an outlandish answer.

“That was what Gorge came up with,” Ax informedh er before Smoulder completely disregarded everything they said. “We think that you like wearing dresses and being pretty because… that’s just who you are… right?”

Pfft, and you guys thought my idea was dumb,” Gorge chimed in.

“Actually,” Smoulder spoke with a look of amazement on her face. “That’s exactly right. I’m a dragon that likes silly, girly things like tea parties and dresses. I know it sounds ridiculous for a dragon to enjoy such things, but it’s the truth. I can’t believe you were able to figure this out without me telling you.”

“Then do you accept our apology?” hoped Tia.

“Only if you’ll accept mine,” she replied. “I was so afraid none of you would be able to understand this part of me that I was afraid to even try. It was my responsibility to teach you all what I’ve learned, but it turned out that I needed a refresher course to understand I shouldn’t give up on my friends so easily.”

“You still wanna be friends with us?” asked Tia. “Even after we upset you.”

“Even though we’re just a bunch of good-for-nothings,” added Gorge, forgetting his second breakfast as he spoke. “And you have a whole bunch of amazing, real friends at that school of yours.”

“And after you’ve moved onto bigger and better things,” finished Ax.

“We’ve already made up,” she answered. “And you all are just as real friends as any that I made while I was at the school No matter what happens, you all will always be my friends. We’ve had too much fun and gotten into far too much trouble to just let it end like this.”

“Do you really mean it?” Ax wondered, this heartfelt conversation still a foreign experience to them, but this warm fuzzy feeling it filled the three of them with was not unpleasant.

“I do,” she nodded. “And there’s so much I want to show you all that exists beyond this dank cave of ours.” Smoulder turned to Ax. “So many fun and exciting things that you’ll never be bored. You’ll have trouble deciding what you want to do first.” Moving on to Tia she continued. “You can be whoever you wanna be, and I don’t mean by changing your name every day.” Finally, she came to Gorge. “Uh… there’s lots of tasty foods out there for you to experience, many flavors you probably never even imagined could be possible.”

“I’m sold,” salivated the little butterball of a dragon. “When do we eat- uh, I mean go?”

“Unfortunately, all that will have to wait,” Smoulder told them, returning the focus to the matter at hand. “I’m currently faced with a really big dilema and I could really use your help. The very fate of Equestria hangs in the balance.”

“The fate of Equestria?” questioned Gorge certain she was overexaggering the direness of the situation. “Heh, yeah right. If things are in such dire straits that we’re needed, then I’d have to just say, ‘we’re doomed.’”

No sooner had Gorge uttered those words, each of them started to glow as their scales started to burn slightly, in an all too familiar way. “It looks like the new Dragon Lord is already summoning all the dragons in Equestria over to him,” she told her friends. Scratching at her scales, the feeling even more bothersome than it usually was as she attempted her best to ignore it. “I had hoped they wouldn’t act this quickly, but it looks like they aren’t wasting any time moving forward with their plans.”

“What do you mean, ‘the new Dragon Lord?’” asked Ax. “What happened to Ember?”

“A dragon named Garble teamed up with the former queen of the Changelings and now they are planning to use all the dragons to conquer Equestria.”

“And that’s what you need our help with?” questioned Gorge as he started to nervous eat. “We’re doomed.”

“We’ll do whatever we can to help,” Tia answered, trying to stay positive. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, we can’t face them head on,” admitted Smoulder. “All Garble has to do is give us one command and we’d be at his mercy. No, we need to get non-dragon help if we’re going to stop them.”

“Then we have to find Spike,” Spark chimed in. “He’ll know what to do.”

“Uh, who is Spike?” asked Tia.

“A friend from Ponyville,” she answered. “And finding him would be a big help. He could send word of what’s happening here by just burning a letter. Unfortunately, he’s trapped somewhere and we don’t have the luxury to go looking for him right now.”

“Then what are we going to do?” wondered Ax.

“I need to get to Ponyville as quickly as I can,” Smoulder continued. “I should have time while the dragons gather by the throne of the Dragon Lord, but every second I can get will be a big help, which is why I was hoping you three could do whatever you can to distract them for as long as possible. You’ll need to keep your ears covered while you do it so that you can’t hear the Garble. From what Ember told me, the power of the Dragonlord only works if you can hear the commands.”

“How are we going to do that?” asked Tia. “Are we supposed to just cover our ears the entire time?”

“Um,” pondered Smoulder as she tried to think and then came up with an idea. Opening Spike’s backpack, she pulled out his pillow. “Sorry, Spike.” With a claw, she opened it and pulled out some clawfuls of cotton that she handed out to each of them. “Try using this stuff to plug up your ears.” Doing as Smoulder instructed, they stuffed as much of the cotton into their ears that they could fit. Smoulder gave it a test by speaking loudly to them. “Can you hear me?”

“You say something?” asked Gorge as he pulled the cotton out. “It can’t hear you.”

“It looks like that should do,” stated Smoulder as they all took the cotton out of their ears to finish conversing. “I know it’s asking a lot, but it’s all I can think to do right now. We’re really pressed for time.”

“Well, leave it to us,” Ax answered.

“You sure come up with the craziest things for us to do,” laughed Tia. “And I didn’t think you could top stealing the Bloodstone Scepter.”

“Oh, you guys,” smiled Smoulder as they started to head out of their cave.

“What should I do?” asked Spark.

“Stay here and hide,” she answered. “It’s going to be very dangerous, but don’t worry, you can count on us. Just enjoy some gems and we’ll be back before you know it.”

“Just don’t eat too many of mine,” added Gorge as he followed the others and struggled to squeeze out of the narrow crevice before flying to the throne of the Dragon Lord with the others while Smoulder headed in the opposite direction, going as quickly as she could to cross the border.

“Any ideas on how we can cause a scene?” asked Tia as flew.

“Hmm,” pondered Ax as he tried to think. “The tar pits should be warmed up enough by now.”

“Oh hoh, then this’ll be quite a lot of fun,” she smirked.

“And a lot of trouble too,” added Gorge.

“I know,” smiled Ax as they took a slight detour from the throne of the Dragon Lord. “I’m really glad that Smoulder’s back home.”

All around the throne of the Dragon Lord, the scaley inhabitants of the land were gathering once more to answer the summons. None of them were aware of what had transpired previously. They had no idea that they had a new leader with a far different goal for what to do as Dragon Lord.

Among the crowd, Crag was also there, a frustrated anger boiling within him after Spike had never brought Spark back home. “When this is over,” he grumbled to himself as he tapped his foot on the ground, his patience at its limit. “I am going up to Ember and getting Spark back. No more excuses or delays.” The dragons around gave him as much space as the could, fearing he might go into another rage at any moment like he had a couple of days ago.

Atop the throne, out of sight of the dragons, were Ember and Chrysalis waiting and watching as the number of dragons to have arrived increased by the minute. “Oh, look at them all,” grinned Chrysalis, unable to keep from cackling with delight. “My army is almost done assembling and soon they will anihilate all of Equestria and help me exact my revenge on all those fools.”

“You two won’t get away with this,” groaned Ember, her body bound in chains as an added precaution on top of the Dragon Lord’s orders to not move. “You will be stopped.”

“Oh, please, ex-Dragon Lord,” taunted Chrysalis. “In a few hours it’ll be too late. We’ll give the order to commence the attack and then regardless of us being defeated or not the dragons will battle it out across Equestria. From end to end, the entire land will be burnt to a blackened, barren crisp and destroyed.”

“And that benefits anyone how?” hissed the blue dragon as she glared defiantly.

“Destroying the world of my hated enemies is reward enough for me,” she explained. “And even if you savage creatures destroy yourselves in the process, I will survive and rebuild my kingdom upon the burnt ashes of what remains.”

“You’re a monster,” Ember told her.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” she chuckled as Garble flew back over to them. “Did you take care of it?”

“All set,” he nodded. “What’s going on over here?”

“Just having a friendly conversation with my new friend,” she said as she condescendingly patted Ember on the head.

“I mean about the dragons gathering,” he specified. “Are they all almost here?”

“It looks like most of them are and the rest are on the way,” Chrysalis answered. “At this rate, I’d say we just give them about another ten minutes before we can begin. From what I can see, most of the larger dragons are already here and two or three of them could easily topple a city like Canterlot with ease.”

“And with an army this large, all of Equestria will fall before us,” stated Garble.

The two fiends continued to wait as the remaining dragons continued to gather, soon their colorful scaley hides covered over the brown, cracked ground and filled the sky above as well. They occasionally scratched their still glowing bodies as they awaited to see what the reason was that the Dragon Lord had called for them.

“Looks like we’re all set to begin,” grinned Garble as he lifted the Bloodstone Scepter and a wave of red light gushed out and returned all the dragons to normal. As he stood out for them to see, he began to call out to them. “Dragons of Equestria, starting today, you have a new Dragon Lord, me, Garble! For my reign, there is only one thing I desire, to seek glory for the dragons by crushing all those around us. And for that end, I plan to-” He got cut off mid speech as a ball of sticky, black goo hit him across the chest. “Ugh! What in the?” Tugging at it, he found it was a tar that was now sticking his claws to his chest. “A tar ball? Who threw that?”

“Haha! Gotcha!” laughed Ax as he and the others threw some more of the sticky, black balls of tar at him.

“Gah! Hey! Stop it!” cried Garble as he tried his best to dodge out of the way, but still got hit all over. All around, the other dragons weren’t sure exactly what was going on, but couldn’t help laugh at the spectable before them. The more Garble moved around, the more stuck he began, even stepping onto some of the tar balls he missed and ended up stuck where he stood. His tail ended up getting stuck onto the side of his leg and his free hand ended up glued to his face when he used it to shield his head.

“In any other situation,” noted Tia, barely even able to hear her own voice while their ears were stuffed with cotton. “We’d get into so much trouble for this.”

“We still might if we can’t stop them,” Gorge reminded them. “How long do we gotta keep them distracted?”

“Long as we can, I guess,” answered Ax as he looked at the container filled with tar they had gathered and were almost out. “Which isn’t very long.” Gorge held onto the container as he exhaled flames against it to keep the tar hot and bubbling. Ax and Tia then scooped the gooey substance into their claws, forming it into a ball shape as fast as they could. While it was still hot, they tossed the balls of tar at Garble, the substance still hot enough to easily detach from their hands, but it cooled as it was flung through the air and hit its mark and clung firmly to him.

“You three,” roared Garble as he breathed fire on himself to melt off the tar and free himself. Then, taking to the sky before he got stuck again, he flew towards to make sure they could hear them. “Stop this at once!” The three came to a complete stop, unable to hear what he was saying, but able to read his body language enough to make a guess. With the projectiles no longer being pelted at him, he sighed with relief. Garble then turned back around towards his throne continue his speech, uninterrupted. “Not how I wanted this to go, but I’ll deal with them later.” As soon as he turned his back to them, Ax and Tia resumed attacking him, managing to his his backside before he turned and got more stuck to his front. “Oh, come on! I’m the Dragon Lord and I command you to stop!”

“Forget trying to order them around,” Chrysalis instructed him. “Just do as we had planned.”

“Fine,” he agreed and then called out. “Ok, big guy. Take care of these pests for me.”

“What did they say?” wondered Gorge.

“I don’t know,” answered Ax. “I can barely hear myself.”

“I-I think they were c-calling for him,” gulped Tia as they saw the largest of all the dragons approach them from behindt he throne, Torch.

“They already got control of him?” cried Gorge as they turned tail to flee as the colossal beast approached them. “Let’s get out of here!”

“Father, no,” cried Ember, unable to believe what she was seeing. As the three dragons attempted to fly away, they were like mere insects to him. With little effort, he caught up to them and easily trapped all three in one clenched fist.

“It seems I anticipated correct,” she cackled.

“Anticipated?” asked Ember.

“We Changelings are no strangers to espionage and diversions,” she explained. “I’ve anticipated something like this might occur and we took measures to ensure we were ready with a proper counterattack.”

“Hey! Let go of me!” groaned Smoulder as a couple of dragons restrained her as they brought her down to the throne and dropped down beside the previous Dragon Lord.

“Smoulder, are you okay?” worried Ember as they chained her up too.

“I’m fine,” she groaned. “But I didn’t think they’d have dragons already patrolling the border.”

“Guarding and patrolling are other specialties of the Changelings,” she added. “With my mind and the might of you dragons there isn’t anything that we cannot accomplish and I am not taking any chances this time with any who could ruin my plans.”

“Your plans?” asked Garble as he began melting the tar off his body once again.

“Uh, I mean our plans, of course,” she rephrase that. “So, I’d say we are all set to begin, now that those interlopers are out of the way.”

“Not just yet,” replied Garble as he knelt down in front of Smoulder. “Where is my brother, Spark?”

“He’s safe and sound in our cave,” answered Smoulder, truthfully. “What? Did you think we’d hold him hostage or something?”

“That would have been a more effective strategy than this little diversion of yours,” commented Chrysalis. “But I doubt even an insignificant little ant like that would have made him hesitate for more than a moment. After all, he’s moved onto bigger and better things. A familial bond could never compare to what he’s become now.”

Hearing her talk so lowly about his brother, Garble couldn’t help let out a restrained snarl before he got back up and turned his focus to the crowd of dragons. “It’s best that my brother isn’t around to see this,” he thought. “He’s too young. He wouldn’t understand.”

Looking down at the dragons, he was able to easily spot his father standing with a noticeable gap between him and the other dragons. He didn’t appear annoyed anymore, rather surprised in a delighted way. “Now that I know I won’t be interrupted, I can do what I really wanted to do from the start. Father, get up here this instant!” he roared, making certain he could hear him. “I can see you down there! Your Dragon Lord commands you!”

Not wasting a second to flying up from where he stood, Crag made his way to the massive throne with a big-toothed smiled on his face. He approached his son and patted him on the shoulder. “Garble, my son,” the sound of sincere praise and delight in his voice something the new Dragon Lord hadn’t heard in ages. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I like it. You’ve found an opportunity to become Dragon Lord and you seized it. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of you than I am now. Finally, the destiny of dragons that has been out of our reach for so long has finally been grasped. Our long desired dream is right before us.”

“It sure is,” agreed Garble saying very little as he looked upon his father with disgust. Crag wore a smile like he had never given up on his son and saw him as a failure.

“Well, I’m here so don’t keep me waiting,” he chuckled the happiest he had ever felt in forever. “Give the order.”

“Gladly,” nodded Garble as he pointed at his father. “Apprehend my father and put him in chains.”

“Wha- uh, Garble!” cried his father confused as the dragons wh already under Garble’s control grabbed at Crag to restrain him. Not willing to be restrained without a fight, he struggled against them. “What is the meaning of this?!?”

“Grovel at my feet!” ordered Garble, causing his father to slowly fall to his hands and knees. As he attempted to resist, he could feel his flesh and blood boil as the effects of the Bloodstone Scepter only increased with his defiance till he finally submitted. “That’s better.”

“After all I’ve ever done for you,” he snarled as chains were wrapped around his arms and legs to keep him bound. “You wouldn’t be where you are today if it wasn’t for me, your father! And this is the thanks I get?”

“Everything you did was because it was what you wanted,” stated Garble. “I was nothing more than something for you to use and I hated it. I’m not going to let you do that same to Spark. Now the dragons are going to go out and conquer Equestria without you.”

“You can’t do this,” he growled and struggled against the chains. “It’s what I’ve waited my whole life for! You can’t do this to me! You can’t! I’m your father! I’m your-”

“Quiet!” shouted Garble causing his father’s beastly shouts to stop completely. He sighed and smiled as he looked down at his father helpless against his power. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this moment.”

“Yes, you got your revenge on him,” agreed Chrysalis. “Now onto more important things, like my revenge and the conquest of the rest of Equestria, of course.”

“I know, I know,” he stood before all the dragons once more. “Dragons of Equestria! The time has come to take up arms! To go out and show the world that we are the true rulers of this land and that we are taking what should have been our countless ages ago. Show them the strength of dragons, the power, and the ferocity. Whatever might oppose you show it no mercy. Burn it to ashes and prove that there is nothing that can stand in our way.”

Spike the Brave and Glorious

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“Spike! Spike!” called out Spark as he looked around the Dragonlands in search of the missing, purple dragon in spite of Smoulder’s instructions to stay hidden. As he continued to search, he happened to make his way towards the very sealed cave that Garble and Chrysalis had trapped him in.

Approaching it, he recalled what Chrysalis had mentioned while disguised as his brother. “That bug lady did say something about Spike being trapped in a cave,” he mentioned to himself. “Could he be in here? Spike? Spike? Are you in there?”

There was no reply, but, rather than giving up, the young Dragon claws at the rocks covering the entrance, attempting to clear a path. However, in spite of his efforts, Spark was not strong enough to move such large stones, wedged tightly together or not.

“Come on!” he groaned, refusing to give up. When his claws scraped off the stone he clung to and tumbled backwards onto the ground. “Mmph! Ow… I can’t give up. I gotta do this. Spike wouldn’t give up.”

Getting back up, Spark was about to try again, but got distracted as the ground in front of him began to shift as something was attempting to emerge from underneath it. The small, yellow dragon watched curiously, unsure of what was happening and gasped as he saw purple claws emerge first, followed soon after by a head topped with familiar, green spikes, covered in dirt.

“Spike!” Spark gasped in surprise while Spike did the same to inhale some much needed oxygen.

“Finally,” groaned Spike as he averted his eyes from the bright sunlight. “I didn’t think I was ever going to get out.”

“Oh, there you are, Spike!” cheered Spark as he hurried over to him. “I was so worried about you when you weren’t there, this morning.”

“I’m sorry I disappeared on you,” he apologized as he attempted to dig the hole wider to get the rest of his body out. Spark gave him a hand and soon his dirt-stained body was freed.

“We know,” answered Spark. “Garble and that bug lady told us everything. Then they captured Dragon Lord Ember and went to take over the Dragonlands.”

“I was afraid that’d be the case by the time I got out,” Spike admitted. “What else happened? Where’s Smoulder?”

“She met with her friends and they attempted to delay them while she went to get out of the Dragonlands to warn about the invasion,” he explained.

“If she has to fly all the way to Ponyville there won’t be enough time for them to get ready,” stated Spike. “Spark, do you still have my backpack?”

“It’s back in the cave Smoulder brought me to,” he answered.

“I need to get there right away,” he explained. “I need to get a letter to Twilight immediately.”

“It isn’t very far from here,” Spark told him. “Just follow me.”

“I don’t know why things had to turn out this way,” sighed a solemn Spike. “I was just trying to help Garble, but was it my fault he decided to team up with Chrysalis of all creatures?”

“It’ll be okay,” Spark said, trying to encourage Spike.” Because now’s your chance to save the day, just like you always do, right?”

“No, not this time,” answered Spike as they reached the crevice that led into the cave. Leaning down to get a better look at it, Spike then turned around to slip in feet first and then stood in position to catch Spark, in the event he fell as he made his way down to.

“What do you mean?” wondered Spark, confused as he climbed down. When he got low enough for Spike to reach, picked him off the wall to plant his feet on the ground. “Something bad is about to happen. You can’t just do nothing.”

“I don’t think there’s anything else I can do besides warn Twilight about what’s happening,” explained Spike. “Something like this, it’s not something I can handle.”

“Sure you can,” Spark told him. “You are Spike the Brave and Glorious. You’ve saved the Crystal Empire before, won the Gauntlet of Fire, and done so many other amazing things. You can save the Dragonlands too.”

“Despite what you might think of me,” sighed Spike. “I’m not really much of a hero, to be honest. Most of the time, it’s my friends who end up saving the day while I’ve just stayed home, waiting for them to come back triumphant. When I am involved to save the day it’s only because I’ve had help from my friends. On my own, I’d have never been able to get as far as I have.”

“But,” whimpered Spark, saddened to hear all this. “You’ve done so many amazing things even though you aren’t some big, strong Dragon. Y-You’re a hero.”

“I’m nothing special,” Spike told Spark, simply trying to be honest, but his words were even disheartening himself as well. “I’m just a Dragon that tried to do the right thing and that just happened to be enough. It’s always been my friends who have had the power to save the day. They are the real heroes. I’m fine as a support, but I not like them. They were born with a great destiny they have probably only scratched the surface of, while I am probably just lucky to have even been born at all. My best, right now, is to alert those who can really fix this mess.”

“Then there really is nothing you can do?” asked Spark crushed upon hearing this. “You can’t stop the Dragons? You aren’t even going to try?”

“If Garble has the Bloodstone Scepter then what can I do against him?” he asked. “It has power over all Dragons, right? If the biggest and strongest Dragons can’t beat it, then how can I? What’s the point of trying if I know it’s already pointless?”

As Spike heard himself say this, he couldn’t help recall the conversation he had with Garble the other day. He remembered the anger and frustration the big, red Dragon felt being unable to beat his father to protect his brother. Clutching his chest over his aching heart, Spike imagined he was feeling that same powerlessness that Garble did. Just thinking of the word, “futile” filled Spike with despair to almost make him cry.

“I… don’t know,” Spark sniffled, just as upset as Spike was. “Is there really is no hope?”

“I didn’t say that,” replied Spike as decided it was best to focus on what he could do. Going into his backpack, he gathered a quill, an inkpot and some scroll paper. With his supplied placed before him, he started to write a letter to Twilight. “Help will come. We’ll wait this crisis out here. Everything… will be okay.”

As Spike said this, he heard the unmistakable roars of dragons outside, lots of them. Hurrying out to take a look, his mouth was agape as practically every dragon in Equestria was airborne and flying towards the border of the Dragonland. Many were equipped with armor and wielded weapons. Plenty had no extra defense beyond their natural scaley hides and some were going without the aid of weapons, but with large bodies, razor sharp claws, and the ability to scorch the land with a mere exhale of breath, they were hardly any less dangerous.

“I didn’t think they would be moving this soon,” admitted Spike, his eyes taking in the army of Dragons as they moved into his field of vision from on side and left it on the other. “At the rate they’re going they’ll be waging war in every city in Equestria in hours, if not sooner. Canterlot… Ponyville… My friends…”

Clenching his claws tightly, Spike hurried back in to continue writing his letter to Twilight, his quill moving much faster as he almost tore through the paper or snapped the tip of the feather from how hard he pressed it down. As Spark watched, he saw a different look in Spike’s eyes, the same one he had when he stood up to Crag, back when they first met. All the fear and doubt he had a moment ago was suddenly swallowed by a fierce determination that was reflected in how he swiftly and sharply he struck quill against paper and wrote words. Spark looked over Spike’s letter and what he wrote didn’t reflect what he had talked about earlier.

Twilight,

I don’t have time to go into much detail, but the Dragons are invading ALL of Equestria. You have to do whatever you can to hold them off for as long as possible. The source of this trouble is the Bloodstone Scepter and those misusing it. I’ll go into more detail about all this once I have taken care of the problem and put an end to it all. For now, just believe in just as I always believe in you and everyone else. I promise I won’t let any harm befall you or anyone else. You have my words as a noble dragon.
Love,
Great and Honorable, Spike the Brave and Glorious

P.S. I’ll send letters to Celestia, Luna, and Cadence to inform them too.

“But you said there was nothing you could do,” commented the scared, yellow dragon as he looked up at Spike after reading what he wrote. “Has something changed?”

“Nothing’s changed,” admitted Spike. “It is probably impossible for me to stand up to the power of the Bloodstone Scepter and it is probably senseless to try, but… my friends, they’ve had to face impossible odds before and found the strength of heart to win. If I could have gained anything from being raised by them, I would want it to be that.”

Placing a hand on his heart, he could feel it still racing from all tension he was feeling, but the aching was gone. “I can’t deny that I am frightened,” he continued. “More than I’ve been since… well, when I stood up to your father the other day, but right now none of that matters because I’m more frightened of what might happen to my friends if I don’t do anything. When I feel like this I think I feel most like a Dragon.”

“You do?” wondered Spark as Spike finished quickly writing letters to the other princesses and rolled them all up to burn simultaneously. “Why?”

“Because my friends are my treasure and I won’t let anything happen to them,” he answered and turned all the letters to smoke in his claws that flew out of the cave and to their proper recipients. “Maybe that is my true strength, that I’m not just a Dragon or a Pony. I am both and everything that is great about them is a part of me too.”

With the letters sent, Spike then started to climb out of the cave. Spark hurried after him and watched as he rushed off, making his way to the armory. “Where are you going?” called Spark, expecting Spike planned to head straight for the Throne of the Dragon Lord and confused why he was headed in the opposite direction.

“To get myself ready to fight,” Spike answered back as he flew low to the ground with all the speed he could muster. “If this is a war, then I’m going to have to be dressed for it.”

Reaching the armory, Spike saw that it had been picked mostly clean by all the other Dragons in their preparations to attack Equestria. However, to his luck, all the other Dragons had already come and gone, leaving him free to scavenge what remained. First he found a staff that had a familiar dent in it. It was the same staff Spike had used against Garble in his match.

“Looks like Hammerhead managed to fix it,” observed Spike as he saw it was properly straighten after guarding against Garble’s rage-filled attack hand caused it to bend. The purple dragon then noticed nearby, a small suit of armor covered in a golden sheen. “And I guess he did finish working on this too.” Picking up the helmet, Spike tried it on and found it a perfect fit. There was no doubt in his mind. This golden suit of armor was the very same one he had worn the day prior, but now it was a perfect fit as well as cleaned and shined back to its former glory. Eagerly, Spike put the rest of his armor, standing tall and proud with it on.

“I’m all set now,” he smiled and opened his wings. Taking to the air, he made his way straight towards the Throne of the Dragon Lord.

In the distance, Spark could just barely make out Spike as he flew across the sky and headed straight for the throne of the Dragon Lord. As he watched him head over, his golden armor shining in the light of the sun, Spark couldn’t help feeling a bit of the hope he had for Spike return. Then, unable to help himself, Spark started to make his way over, as well, on foot.

“Oh, this is all so exciting,” stated Chrysalis unable to deny her own excitement at finally getting her long awaited revenge. “I wish I could see the looks on their faces as our army of Dragons burn all that they hold dear to the ground.”

“Nothing’s stopping you from going to see it for yourself,” Garble told her. Like the other Dragons had garbed themselves in their armor, he too was wearing his silver pair.

“As much as I’d love to, just for the sheer satisfaction it’d bring, until we have secured our victory we must not lower our guard,” she stated quite adamantly.

“Lower our guard?” questioned Garble. “Against what? We’ve already captured any Dragon who would get in our way, not to mention with the Bloodstone Scepter in my possession I am unstoppable against them, even if they weren’t. Every other creature in Equestria will be too busy battling against our invasion force in vain to stop us. as well. How have we not already won?”

“I was on the verge of victory myself, many times,” she explained. “Take last time for example. I had captured all the Ponies that could have stopped me and even those who had come to rescue them. I had thought I had won, but in a brief moment of hubris they turned the tables on me and snatched my victory away. I will not allow us to repeat such a mistake again.”

As she spoke, she noticed something shining in the sky that was heading towards them. Squinting to see further, she did her best to see just what it was, she groaned and glared, her happy mood gone as quickly as it had come.

“What are you looking at?” asked Garble as he tried to look too. “What is that?”

“Someone come to oppose us,” she assumed before finally being able to see clear enough that it was Spike. “Ugh, that little dragon is coming here and he looks ready for a fight. I didn’t expect him to escape so soon, but we’re more than prepared to handle him.”

“You act as though he could actually do anything to stop us,” remarked Garble.

“We don’t take any chances no matter who it might be!” she hissed. “Now, do as we discussed and eliminate him without mercy.”

“Fine, but this is about as overkill as it can get,” he replied and lifted up the Bloodstone Scepter, making it glow as he spoke an order. “Okay, big guy. Go get him.”

Getting up from beside the throne of the Dragon Lord, Torch turned his head towards Garble, an even more angry expression on his face than usual. He snorted smoke from his nostrils and looked ready to chew out Garble for everything he was doing, but he didn’t and merely flew off towards Spike.

“Heheh,” laughed Crag chained up beside Ember, Smoulder and the other captured dragons. “It’s rather satisfying to see Torch finally put in his place.”

“You mean like you are?” Ember pointed out.

“Though I am furious at being unable to participate in this monumental moment in the history of dragonkind, by my own son, no less,” he admitted. “I am pleased that this moment has finally come at all.”

“How can you seriously think any of this is a good idea?” argued Smoulder. “Don’t you understand what’s about to happen to Equestria? Don’t you care about what is going to happen to everybody?”

“Of course I do,” he answered. “The Dragons will finally take their rightful place as the rulers of this world.”

“And what about everyone else?” she asked. “The Ponies, Hippogriffs, Changelings, and every other creature in Equestria? Don’t you care what is going to happen to them?”

“My goal has always been to unite all Dragons to strive for greatness,” he answered. “If any other creatures should choose to stand in the way of our glory then we will remove such a hinderance. It is as simple as that.”

“Simple?” snapped Smoulder. “Do you not see how terrible this all really is? Don’t you understand why no other Dragon Lord has ever attempted something like this before?”

“They were all too soft-hearted and weak,” he told them. “Countless centuries and not one leader who could do what needed to be done. Each and every one of their failures has only persisted in making our kind softer with every generation. It’s a disgrace to our great ancestors whose blood flows in our veins!”

“Well, for all your claims of being so big and strong,” Ember reminded him. “You never became the Dragon Lord.”

Her words forced a savage snarl from Crag as he tugged at the chains binding him, managing to bend them a little before he managed to calm down. “That was an unfortunate setback, but I learned to be patient and finally this moment has arrived. Garble is the Dragon Lord and he will be the one to lead all worthy Dragons to greatness.”

“Torch?” asked Spike as the massive dragon flew straight towards him, till he was close enough he could have snatched the pipsqueak of a Dragon right out of the sky. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello again, small one,” he greeted Spike. “I wish we could be meeting under different circumstances, but I have been ordered to stop you from interfering with the new Dragon Lord.”

“I knew the Bloodstone Scepter was powerful, but even you can’t fight it’s power?”

“Even I am helpless against it,” he admitted. “It was created from the very blood of our ancient ancestors, Dragons far greater and even more powerful than I and they too succumbed to its unrivaled might. When tasked by its wielder, our boils hot as the flames of Critias himself, if we try to resist. The burning and itching you may have experienced was bad a sample of its true potential.”

“But there must be some means to overcome it,” replied Spike.

“There have been many who have tried,” Torch told him. “But no raw strength has been great enough and no iron will resolved enough has ever prevailed. You had best turn tail and run away, while you can.”

“I can’t, not with everything that’s on the line,” he stated. “I will just have to be the one to find a way to beat it.”

“There is no way to beat the bond of blood,” he explained. “Only when the blood is severed can a Dragon be free of its control. That is how the legend goes. Do you understand what that means? Only in death can any dragon escape its influence. Knowing this, do you intend to still try?”

“I do,” Spike nodded.

“In spite of how impossible it would be?” he added.

“I have been raised by Ponies who eat impossible for breakfast,” Spike answered confidently. “I have a guy’s night every other Saturday with someone who does impossible as easily as snapping his fingers. If they can do it, then I’ve got to at least try.”

“Very well, but your first impossible task will be to get past me. Come any closer and I will be forced to stop you and… I do not wish to harm you, small one.”

“I’m glad to hear you don’t want to,” replied Spike as he took a few big breaths to ready himself. “But I’ve got to get past. I have to stop Garble before the Dragons start their attack on Equestria.”

“I’m afraid it’s already too late for that,” he informed Spike, his words making his heart sink. “Even if Garble were to lose possession of the Bloodstone Scepter to another Dragon, it would not change the orders he has already given. Until they have carried out his will, they will not be able to stop. I’m sorry to say this, but no matter what you or anyone else tries at this point, Equestria will soon be set ablaze.”

“No,” cried Spike. “That can’t be true! There must be something I can do!”

“I wish there was, but do you honestly believe you can stop the Dragon Lord on your own? Can you even get past me to do that? Does such a tiny, little dragon like you have the power to accomplish so many impossible things?”

“Just watch me,” Spike spoke and gritted his teeth.

“Then, one last bit of advice,” added Torch. “Dodge.”

“Uh, dodge?” questioned Spike. “Dodge what?”

“This,” he answered as swung his massive arm at Spike, attempting to snatch him up in his claws. However, thanks to Torch’s warning, Spike was able to just narrowly swoop downward and avoid his clutches.

“Whoa!” cried Spike as he attempted to steady himself in the air. “What was that for?”

“I can’t help it,” he reminded Spike. “It’s all I can do to restrain myself. Now, flee.”

“Flee?” asked Spike wondering what was coming next.

“This,” he replied again as he opened his maw to take in a big breath. The sheer force of the massive Dragon inhaling was on par with hurricane force winds, strong enough to pull Spike towards his maw till he finally filled his lungs to full and stopped. Knowing what was coming next, Spike turned to fly away just as a powerful flame erupted from Torch’s mouth. Even clad in both armor and fire resistant scales, the small, purple dragon knew better than the stand his ground against the raging inferno of a fully grown dragon’s flames, especially one as big as Torch. Just being close to them started to make his body sizzle against the metal of his suit.

As he reached the limits the flame could travel from Torch’s maw, Spike dove down below it, using it as cover as he made an attempt to sneak past the large Dragon. The heat, even from the distance he kept away from it, made him sweat over his entire body and aggravate his thirst.

When the fire died down, Torch’s gaze returned to Spike. Lowering his head, to aim his nostrils at him, this time, he snorted out a huge plume of smoke that swallowed Spike up covered his field of vision.

“Well,” coughed Spike, barely able to draw a breath without taking in some smoke too. “Nobody ever said doing something impossible was going to be easy.”

“Heheh,” laughed Garble as he watched Spike struggle against his massive opponent. “The runt’s finally getting what he deserves.”

“Some Dragon Lord,” scoffed Ember under her breath.

“What was that?” he asked, overhearing her comment.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she told him. “I just didn’t think you were such a coward.”

“Just ignore her,” Chrysalis told Garble. “All she’s doing is baiting you.”

“What do you mean, I’m a coward?” he questioned Ember as he ignored the former Changeling queen.

“Just look at what you are doing,” she continued. “You are hiding behind my father and the Bloodstone Scepter. When I was the Dragon Lord I chose not to use its power, but for you, it’s just a crutch you rely on.”

“It’s a crutch?” he wondered, looking hesitant.

“Don’t listen to her,” hissed Chrysalis attempting to restore his resolve. “She’s just trying to make you doubt your power. They are the ones relying on a crutch, this friendship of theirs, but that pales into comparison to the absolute power that you possess, the ability to command countless dragons with but a single word.”

“Y-Yeah,” agreed Garble, still not sounding completely convinced. “That’s right. He’s the weak one. Not me.”

“Are you sure about that?” wondered Smoulder aiding Ember in taunting Garble. “If you aren’t even willing to test your power against Spike’s, how will you ever know for sure? Or should we just take this that you are too weak to stand up to Spike and have to defeat him this way?”

Gritting his teeth as smoke seeped from his nostrils, Garble looked ready to blow his stack. “Just ignore them!” warned Chrysalis as she desperately tried to reason with him. “They are baiting you! This is exactly the thing we mustn’t let ourselves be taken in by. Do you hear me?”

“Graaah!” roared Garble.

“Watch out,” warned Torch from beyond the smokescreen.

“Ugh, what now?” wondered Spike as he held his breath to keep from inhaling the smoke. He flapped his wings, staying in place as he waited in anticipation for Torch’s next move. Mind racing and heart pounding, Spike couldn’t keep from trembling or his teeth from chattering. His eyes darting in all directions and his head kept turning every which way too, trying to make certain he didn’t miss a thing. “Where is the next attack coming from? The left side? The right? Above or below?”

A dark shadow appeared all around the smoke, in every direction. Swallowing hard, Spike saw both of Torch’s palms moving in together to crush him in between them. Quickly, Spike flew to where their shadow wasn’t and escaped before he was boxes in and crushed between them. As Torch’s hands collided, their impact sounds like two thunder clouds crashing together.

“L-Little one,” cried Torch as he pulled his claws from the dissipating smoke to see if anything was on his palms. “D-Did I smoosh you?” Opening his hands to check, he gazed down upon them, fearful to see if he had truly crushed Spike like a bug, but to his relief, there wasn’t a trace of him. Then, his ears picked up some panting and he adjusted his gaze to his right arm. There, he spotted Spike, running up it towards his shoulder. “Oh, I’m so relieved that you’re alive.”

Torch’s left hand came down, attempting to crush Spike once more, but the speedy, little Dragon barely escaped the giant set of claws. As Torch raised up his hand to strike again, it encouraged Spike to run even faster.

“You sure have a funny way of showing it,” wheezed Spike as he watched Torch prepare another strike, this time aiming for his shoulder as Spike reached it. Quickly, the small dragon leapt and slipped through the narrow gap in the giant Dragon’s claws as he successful escaped once more. Opening his wings, he took to the air again.

“Never thought I’d be so glad to be so small,” breathed Spike, exhausted before even reaching his final destination. “But at least I’m past Torch.” Turning to look behind him, Spike felt relieved to see Torch’s back, only to feel the dread return as he simply turned around and went from blocking to pursuing. “Oh, come on!”

Flying as faster as he could, Spike tried to escape, but it wasn’t enough as Torch easily to reached forward to grab him. “That’s enough, big guy,” instructed Garble to Torch, stopping him just as he was closing his claws around his purple prey. “Take a breather.” Snorting with as much contempt for his new Dragon Lord as ever, Torch complied with his new orders.

“Garble?” questioned Spike. “Y-You saved me?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” he told him. “There is something I need to prove and I need you alive to do that. Now come on, runt.”

Arriving at the Throne of the Dragon Lord, Garble gestured for Spike to fly down to the ground where Smoulder, her friends, and Ember all stood. Garble took a seat at the edge of his throne and looked down at them. His father was still at the back of the throne, chained up and helpless while a couple dragons kept an eye on him. Chrysalis approach Garble and sat down beside him, an upset expression on her face.

“As fun as this game of yours sounds,” she told him. “This is precisely the thing we should NOT be doing. Better to exterminate them all now that they are all together. Just one command from you and it’ll all be over.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he retorted adamantly. “I am going to prove to them that they are helpless against my power.”

“Smoulder, Ember,” greeted Spike. “I’m so glad you’re both okay.” He looked at the other three Dragons, unsure of who they were. “Uh, I’m guessing Smoulder’s friends?”

“Ax. Tia. Gorge,” they all introduced themselves.

“Wish I could have met you all under better circumstances,” he admitted.

“Let’s just save the awkward introductions for later,” Smoulder interrupted. “Provided we make it out of here alive.”

“When we get out of here,” corrected Spike, trying to remain optimistic.

“We’re glad you are okay too, Spike,” Ember told him. “We heard you were trapped in a cave.”

“Yeah and I spent all night and most of the morning digging my way out,” he explained. “After that, Spark helped catch me up on what had happened and sent word to Twilight and the other princesses.”

“At least you were able to warn them,” commented Smoulder. “After this is over, you’ve gotta teach me how you send send letters with your flames. If we get out of this mess.”

“When,” Spike corrected her again.

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” Ember continued. “But you really shouldn’t have come. If we didn’t trick Garble into stopping my father you’d never have made it here.”

“Yeah,” added Smoulder. “And even if, uh, when you rescue us, there’s nothing we can do about the Dragons going to invade all of Equestria.”

“Torch told me about that,” Spike told them. “But I refuse to give up. There has to be something we can do to prevent it. We just have to work together to stop Garble.”

“About that,” Ember started to explain.

“Time to see which is stronger,” announced Garble, certain he gave them enough time to catch up with one another. “The power of the Dragon Lord or your lame, Pony friendship.”

“Uh, what’s happening?” asked Spike, getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“While we managed to trick Garble,” Smoulder explained. “He decided to have us fight. It’s you and me against Ember and my friends.”

“He wants us to fight?” cried Spike as he turned to glare up at current Dragon Lord. “Garble! If you have something to prove then come down here and fight me yourself!”

“Why?” he questioned Spike. “Can’t your precious friendship help you overcome this? Well, let’s find out. Ember! Uh… you three! Fight them!”

“This is crazy,” Spike stated. “We shouldn’t fight against one another.”

“You think we want to,” asked Ax as he and the others struggled against power of the Dragon Lord as they gripped the weapons they were provided and took steps towards Spike and Smoulder.

“Ugh, it feels like I’m being barbecued from the inside out,” cried Gorge. “Someone, please, make it stop!”

“Just get out of here, you two,” Tia suggested. “Go now while you aren’t under his control.”

“If we do that then who knows what he might decide to do to all of you,” countered Smoulder.

“But what can you do against the power of the Bloodstone Scepter?” asked Ember. “No Dragon has ever been able to overcome its power.”

“If we’re going to stop them then we’re going to have to try,” stated Spike as he readied himself, gripping his staff tightly. “It’s the only way.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” questioned Garble, growing impatient for the fighting to start. “I told you all to start fighting!” As he gave the command once more, the Bloodstone Scepter began glowing even brighter than before. Ember, Ax, Tia, and Gorge’s bodies began to glow brighter too and their groans of pain turned to wails of agony.

“Are you all okay?” cried Spike only able to imagine how much their blood had to be boiling, roasting them from the inside.

“Th-This is nothing!” lied Ember through a pain-filled face. Even resisting with all her might, she was unable to keep herself from running forward to lash out at Spike who quickly backed away and blocked her attacks with a staff with his own. Just being close to her, he could feel just how much overwhelming heat her body was radiating. As he started to sweat, he had to imagine she was almost hot as Torch’s flames. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” screamed Smoulder’s friends, unable to keep up a brave front as well as Ember. They came at Smoulder, swinging clubs in the air wildly, most of their attacks missing or smacking into one another than actually coming anywhere near Smoulder for her to defend against.

“How are we supposed to do that?” asked Smoulder. “Garble’s the one doing this to you.”

“Just beat us,” instructed Ember. “If the fight ends then so should our order to fight.”

“But we don’t want to hurt you,” Spike started to stay, before Ember struck him with a horizontal strike that knocked him off his feet even though he guarded against the attack.

“I’d say you two have a greater risk of getting hurt compared to us,” pointed out Ember as she continued after Spike, not waiting for him to take his time and get back to his feet.

“Hurry and beat us already,” begged Ax.

“Please, Smoulder,” Tia told her.

“But no hitting me in my gut, please,” added Gorge.

“I’ll try not to,” responded Smoulder as she blocked her friends attacks as they moved in to strike, being careful not to be too rough as she aimed low to hit their feet and upset their balance. This was made simpler as her friends were already unbalanced as they struggled against the control they were under. Then before they could get back up, she kicked away their clubs and pinned them down, with a foot atop Tia and Ax and the end of her club pressed against Gorge’s gut.

“You said you wouldn’t hit me in the gut,” whimpered Gorge.

“Technically, I didn’t,” she pointed out.

“Not bad,” groaned Ax as he attempted to get up, but Smoulder made certain he remained underfoot. “I’m sorry we teased you about getting soft while you were away. If anything, you’re tougher than ever.”

“Thanks,” she replied with a smile before she turned to see how well Spike was managing against Ember.

“Hurry up and beat me already,” Ember ordered Spike. “It’s hard enough to restrain myself as is.”

“I’m trying,” Spike told her, backing up each time he blocked her attacks. “But I came to save you, not fight you.”

“They’re the same thing right now,” she told him. “Now, focus. I’ll give you an opening to hit me. Just parry to my side and attack. Think you can do it?”

“If it’ll save you,” Spike nodded.

“Then you better get moving,” she warned him as she swung her club down at him with all her might, to create the opening he needed. Already prepared for it, Spike rolled out of the way, and reached Ember’s exposed side. Aiming at her legs, he swung his staff low and knocked her off her feet and onto the ground with a thud. Before she could get up again, Spike pressed the end of his staff to her chest to ensure she didn’t get up again.

“Not bad,” she admitted with a smile on her face. “Perhaps, when this is over, we can have a real match against one another? Of course, I won’t be holding back when we do.”

“N-No thanks,” answered Spike, certain he’d get his tail kicked in that scenario. “I think I’ll have enough fighting, for a while, after this.”

“You make a good point,” she agreed. “There’s no way that Garble is done messing with us just yet.”

“Happy now?” questioned Chrysalis to Garble as the fighting finished. “You pitted them against one another and had a mildly interesting show. Now, finish them off, quickly, so we can revel in our triumph.”

“But the show isn’t over yet,” Garble pointed out and raised the Bloodstone Scepter in the air. “Congratulations, you two,” he announced to Spike and Smoulder, with a smug grin on his face. Their bodies starting to glow red as they could feel his influence heat their blood like it had the others. As much as they attempted to cover their ears to avoid hearing what he was about to say, it was already too late. “You both won your fights and as a reward, you get to finish off the defeated.”

“G-Garble!” snapped Spike, glaring fiercely at Garble. He wasn’t able to do it long, however, as he could feel the flesh beneath his scales start to burn as he struggled against the Dragon Lord’s orders. However, shakily, he started to lift up his staff up over his head to strike down Ember with it. At the same time, Smoulder resisted as best should could to keep from attacking her friends, but wasn’t have any more success than him. “Stop this at once!”

“What’s the matter, runt?” he mocked him. “They were going on about how much stronger you were than me, but it seems it was really just a bluff in the end. You really aren’t different than any other Dragon, after all. Weak or strong, you are completely helpless against the power of the Dragon Lord, helpless against me. It was foolish of you to even try. Absolutely futile.”

“Garble!” snarled Spike as he gritted his teeth while he looked down at Ember. She and Smoulder’s friends were also under Garble’s control, unable to move or defend themselves from what was to come. His arm trembled as he did all he could to avoid striking Ember, but his blood only boiled hotter, paining him to submit to the Dragon Lord’s command.

“I-I-I can’t restrain myself any longer,” cried Smoulder, her body burning so bad it was causing tears to run down her face and blur her vision. “I d-don’t wanna hurt you. Not, my friends.”

“I-It’s okay, Smoulder,” sobbed Ax, tears flowing from him and the others too. “We know you don’t wanna.”

“Despite how things have ended up,” added Gorge. “We did enjoy you being back with us. And sorry again for giving you such a hard time before.”

“Now you guys are starting to sound all sappy,” she told them with a little chuckle.

“What can we say,” commented Tia. “You’re our leader and we follow your example.”

“This is so wrong,” wailed Smoulder, barely able to fight against the pain anymore. “I’m finally starting to feel at home, right before I’m going to bludgeon you all to death. This has to be some kind of sick joke!”

“What’s the matter?” asked a grinning Garble as he looked down at Spike and Smoulder. “Are you finally starting to see how pointless it is to fight me? Well, I can be a nice and generous Dragon, when I feel like it. Just accept defeat and I’ll spare you all. I have proven my power is superior, after all. Just admit your defeat.”

“L-Like we would ever let you have the satisfaction,” snapped Ember.

“I… I sur…” Smoulder started to say, on the threshold of how much pain she could stand. What little bit of reasoning she could manage was debating over whether she should submit or resist. With each second that passed the former was gaining more ground.

“What’s the hold up?” shouted an impatient Garble. “Get on with it already! Do you surrender or not?”

“I sur… surren….” she struggled to finish saying that word, but, in the end, she just couldn’t bring herself to say it. Instead, she cried out, to her friends, “I’M SORRY!!!” In a pained shriek, like she was the one being attacks, Smoulder swung down her club at her friends, unable to keep from using all her might in the process.

KLANG!!!

Smoulder’s strike was blocked as Spike swung his staff and knocked her club right out of her claws. “Sp-Spike?” she spoke, only able to see a purple and golden smear in her tear-soaked eyes before she wiped them dry. Her friends were in just as much shock, as was Ember, and Chrysalis. However, none of them were more surprised than Garble, who just stared, jaw dropped at the sight of his orders somehow defied.

The first to break the silence caused by Spike was Spike, as he cried out in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching his sides. His body burning so hot, he felt like he was roasting alive and then it faded, much to his relief. “Ugh, thank Celestia,” panted Spike as he breathed deep and waited for the pain to subside.

“How did you do that?” Garble demanded to know. “How could you, of all Dragons, defy the power of the Bloodstone Scepter? You’re not big or strong! You’re just some runt that was raised to be soft by Ponies.”

“It seems like I wasn’t bluffing after all,” smiled Ember as she turned to Garble. “Spike might be far from the biggest and strongest of Dragons. He’s probably not the bravest either, but he does have a strength greater than any other Dragon possesses. It’s that power that allows him to stand up to even the dominating might of the Bloodstone Scepter and he has that power because he was raised by Ponies. It’s thanks to that strength of his that he’s done so many great things in his life. It’s also his power that I was able to become the Dragon Lord and it’s why I know he’ll be the one to stop you.”

“If you know what it is, then, tell me already,” barked Garble, clenching the Bloodstone Scepter tightly as his anger began to overflow. “What is this great power of his?”

“The Bloodstone Scepter might be able to control a Dragon by the blood in their body,” answered Ember, as Spike managed to rise to his feet once more, recovering some stamina while Ember kept Garble’s attention focused on her. “But it has no sway over his heart, a heart that’s filled with kindness and compassion for others. Even at his own expense, he is willing to endure any hardship, for the sake of those he cares about. I can’t think of many other Dragons who can be so noble. That’s how I see it, anyway.”

“A kind heart,” fumed Garble as he glared over at Spike, just about ready to resume the fight. “He has the power to challenge me because of something as stupid as that? That’s just a bunch of nonsense! That’s not strength. All those sappy emotions just make you weak and vulnerable.” He turned to Smoulder and her friends, still in tears, but embracing one another in a hug after such a terribly tragic fate was narrowly dodged. “And it’s contagious too.”

“Is that what you really believe?” questioned Ember. “If so, then why not fight Spike yourself and prove it to all of us.”

“Fine!” he agreed, opening his wings to fly down.

“No, no, no!” countered Chrysalis, attempting to keep control of the situation. “You will do no such thing! Don’t you see that this is exactly what they want, so they can turn the tables on you?”

“If I don’t do it,” he told her. “It’ll be the same as admitting that they are right and I’ll lose everything that matters to me.”

“And ruling all of Equestria with a scaly fist doesn’t matter to you?” she hissed.

“Of course it does,” he countered. “But what about Spark? I only agreed to do all this so I could make things the way they were before. So I could be his hero again.”

“Forget about him,” she snarled as she began to lose her patience with her partner. “Why care about some maggot you wish to idolize you when there are countless others you can have groveling in fear beneath you feet. Trust me when I tell you that, it is far better to be feared than loved. Now, use that scepter of yours and put it to good use already!”

“I think that’s just what I’ll do,” said Garble as he turned to the Dragons guarding Crag. “You two, restrain this cockroach. And if she won’t stop wailing like a banshee then put a muzzle on her.” Obeying Garble, the two Dragons quickly grabbed Chrysalis, each holding one of her front legs tightly to make sure she couldn’t break free or focus to channel any magic through her horn. Unguarded, Crag started to pull and tug at the chains binding his body.

“You’re betraying me?!?” she hissed as she thrashed about, but couldn’t escape the grip of the guards. “You, an oafish brute with rocks in his head?”

“I might not be the smartest dragon,” he admitted. “But I know you were only doing this for yourself and you wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of me the second I was no longer convenient for you. Luckily for me, you outlived your usefulness to me first, so, the one getting double-crossed is you.”

“Just wait till I get my hooves on you, you-” As Garble instructed, the Dragons muzzled Chrysalis.

“Are you in a decent enough condition to fight?” Ember asked Spike.

“Like I have a choice?” he replied as Garble flew down, his silver armor shining in the light of the sun. He had the Bloodstone Scepter strapped to his back and clenched in his claws was his battlestaff. “Do you really think I can beat him in a real fight?”

“It’s either you defeat him or all of Equestria is doomed,” she reminded him.

“Right,” he gulped as he readied his own staff as Garble landed across from him, appearing every bit as intimidating as ever. “No pressure.”

“It’s time to settle things between us once and for all, Spike!” declared Garble.

The Death of Spike

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“Is that them?” cried a worried Twilight as she flapped her wings to stay level in midair along with a number of Pegasus ponies. Beside Twilight was also her former magic teacher and fellow princess, Celestia, an Alicorn with a bright white body, pink eyes and mane and tail of pinks, greens, and blues that magically danced as if a wind was endlessly blowing on it. As the Princess of the sun, in charge of raising and lowering that bright star in the sky to start and end the day, it was quite appropriate that her Cutie Mark was a sun.

Starlight Glimmer was up there too, on the other side of Twilight. Despite being a Unicorn, her formidable magical prowess made floating in the air just as effortless as flying to her.

“Yes,” nodded Celestia, her voice far more steady than Twilight’s, but even she could not hide the look of worry on her face as the looming threat of the dragon invasion drew ever closer. “I have seen groups of dragons flying across Equestria, with the intent to attack and raid villages, towns, and even our cities, many times in the past, but never in such vast numbers like this. I don’t want to sugarcoat it, but I’m afraid what we are witnessing is nothing less than all our war.”

“Oh, I really wish Spike had gone into more detail about what is going on in the Dragonlands in his letter,” stated Twilight. “I’ve got so many questions I wanna ask him, but maybe it’s best if I don’t know. I’d just end up worrying for his safety even more than I already am.”

“Spike did sound really confident in his letter,” commented Starlight. “I doubt he would tell us to let him handle the Dragonlands if he didn’t think he could handle it. And if it is, he’s still got one thing going for him.”

“What’s that?” wondered Twilight.

“He was raised by you,” she answered. “And you got through to me of all Ponies when I was ready to doom all of Equestria to get my revenge on you. You couldn’t win in a battle of magic, but you still found a way to stop me. If he’s spent enough time with you to have list making rub off on him, then I bet that out of the box thinking has too.”

“Thanks Starlight,” smiled Twilight and took a breath. “I needed that pep talk.”

“Well, you made me the school guidance counselor, so it’s all in a day’s work,” she said, bragging a little. Also, we really don’t have the time for you to be distracted when the Dragons will reach us any minute now.”

“I just hope we can stop them,” replied Twilight as she contemplated the situation. “We outnumber the Dragons twenty to one, but, physically, the Dragons have a huge advantage over us with sheer brute force. Their scales provide protection than can even resist magic to a degree and their jaws are strong enough to grind up gemstones.”

“Don’t forget their sharp claws and the fact that they can breathe fire,” added Starlight with a sigh, seeing Twilight begin to get tense again after she managed to calm her.

“Also,” included Twilight. “Large, adult Dragons can easily take on a small army on their own and a few of them seem to be among the ones headed straight for us.”

“Things might look… bad,” Starlight spoke, starting to panic now too. “But, I’m sure Celestia knows what to do. After all, for a thousand years, she’s kept Equestria safe on her own.”

“I’m afraid you presume far too much from me,” Celestia admitted. “While it is true I have done a lot to keep everyone in Equestria safe, in all that time, there has never been an attack by Dragons even remotely close to as large as this. Even with all our might, we might not be able to prevail.”

“And now I’m completely panicked too,” Starlight statd dryly.

“It has been an unchanging fact that should the dragons ever unite in an assault like this,” the Princess of the Sun continued. “The rest of Equestria would have little hope of fending them off even if we were to unite with the other creatures. Only the fact that they were unable to come together of their own free will to do so and that the Dragon Lord had not issued such a command in the past is why such an event had never before occurred.”

“Till now, anyway,” added Starlight. “Whoever has taken the Bloodstone Scepter from Ember is the one behind all of this and making the Dragons attack us. But if Spike can get the Bloodstone Scepter from them, he can stop all this, right?”

“I wish I knew more about that scepter to know for sure,” said Celestia. “If it was powerful enough to force the Dragons into attacking, I would like to hope it could also stop them, but if it truly is as almighty as that, would a Dragon like Spike be able to overcome it and even if he can, is he able to defeat those in possession of it? I wish he could have elaborated more as well, but I fear he may not have had any more time nor knowledge than we currently possess.”

“All we can do is attempt to hold off the dragons and do our best and hope that Spike can come through for us,” nodded Starlight, attempting to sound hopeful though like Twilight and Celestia, she couldn’t help look more and more worried as the dragons drew nearer.

“Spike,” spoke Twilight, unable to keep her body from trembling. She wanted to believe that all of this would turn out alright in the end, but, whenever she thought of Spike, her heart ached painfully, almost bringing her to tears. “You will be just fine… won’t you?”

Further south, in Appaloosa, Applejack and her older brother, Big Mac had hurried over by train while Rainbow Dash flew on ahead with the rest of the Wonderbolts at her side as they hurried over to help the town, already under siege by a small group of Dragons, while the greater bulk of the army continued to fly northward towards the rest of Equestria.

Appaloosa was in a panic as half the town was already engulfed in flames. The citizens who could fight remained to do all they could to stop the attack and save their home, while those who couldn’t quickly fled into the wasteland for a safe place to hide till it was over.

“Alright, ya overgrown lizard,” hollered Applejack at a large green Dragon flying overhead. It replied with a roar before exhaling fire down on her. Quickly, she ran to avoid the flames as it chased after her. Fortunately, he ran short on breath before she did. Applejack then returned to standing her ground.

“Was that the best a varmint like you can do?” she taunted the beast, making it take a large breath to attempt to barbecue her again. With a rope tied into a lasso, she was ready for him this time. Applejack tossed the looped end at the Dragon and pulled it tight around the beast’s snout as it was about to exhale, causing the fire to erupt from it’s nostrils instead of its maw.

“Ha!” she laughed like it was somehow a victory. “How do you like them apples?” In response, the Dragon merely took to the air, taking along Applejack who still clung tightly to the rope. By the time she thought to let go, she was already too high up and being dragged around too quickly to risk letting go.

Scanning the ground below, she spotted a large red stallion with a golden mane and tail, green eyes, and a green apple half Cutie mark on his flank. It was her brother, Big Mac. “Hey!” she called down to him. “Big Mac! A little help up here?”

“Nope,” he answered as he ran for his life as a couple of teenage Dragons chased after him. Despite being much larger and stronger than the average pony, even he was outmatched against their size and strength.

Before Applejack could figure out another way back to the ground, another Dragon flew by and tore through the rope with one chomp from its razor sharp teeth, leaving Applejack to plummet straight down to the ground. “Whoa nelly!” she cried out as she watched the ground come up to her fast and all she could manage was flailing her hooves futilely.

Mere feet from the ground, however, a blur of rainbow swooped right at her, saving Applejack from a most horrible demise. “Getting a little practice in before the next rodeo,” joked Rainbow Dash.

“I’ll be happy as a hog face first in pile of slop if there will even be another rodeo after this,” she cried as she took a gander at the charred remains of Appaloosa. Then, looking towards the apple orchard they had spent years of toiling in, that hard formerly been a completely barren land, to cultivate it, to see it blackened and ashen was a terribly painful sight to the apple farmer. It made her think about her farm, Sweet Apple Acres and whether or not it would survive the invading Dragons and what would be left of it when she returned home.

Even as Rainbow Dash returned her safely to the ground, she didn’t feel any better about what she had seen. “I don’t have the faintest notion as to what’s made these dragons so ornery,” she stated with a mix of sadness and anger in her voice. “But we won’t let them have their way. Not with Appaloosa, not with Ponyville, not with any part of Equestria.”

“Easier said than done,” admitted Rainbow Dash as she looked around and couldn’t see any sign that they were winning. At best, they were preventing the dragons from causing more trouble by leading them around in circles, but such tactics were only effective till they caught on to them or simply lost interest in the chase. “But, just how are we going to do that?”

“I wish I knew, Rainbow,” she admitted the green dragon from before returned its sights onto Applejack along with Rainbow Dash and a couple more dragons had come to join him. “I really wish I knew.”

Inside Twilight’s Castle, in the lowest levels, half the town was crammed in as they bunkered down there for safety. For many, it was a scary, and nerve wracking event as babies cried and a few couldn’t stop shaking in fright. For others, it was tense and they were trying with all their might to keep calm and comfort those around them who weren’t as capable of maintaining a brave front.

“Come on, everypony!” cheered Pinkie Pie as she did her best to keep everyone’s spirits high during this dire hour. “Let’s have a hope the big scary Dragons don’t find us while we’re hiding party!” Her announcement was met with a lot of silence at best.

“Perhaps it’d be best if we just did something quiet to keep our mind off of everything, instead,” suggested Rarity as she looked around. “Fortunate for us, Twilight’s even got books stored down here. Oh, one of my favorites. How about I read us this one, ‘Shadow Spade and Case of the Dragon’s Diadem.’” After reading that title, Rarity flipped through the pages of the book and saw the word, ‘Dragon’ was used quite a lot. With a slight chuckle, she closed the book and put it down. “Uh, maybe not that one.”

“Is everything really going to be alright?” wondered Ocellus, sitting between Yona and Silverstream.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Sandbar replied. “Headmare Twilight, Guidance Counselor Starlight, and Princess Celestia are out there so those Dragons won’t get through and even if they did, we’re perfectly safe down here.”

“Yeah,” Gallus replied sarcastically. “Nothing keeps Dragons at bay more than crystal rock. No, wait. They literally eat that for breakfast.”

“Oh!” cried Silverstream as she hugged Ocellus tightly. “This is just like when the Storm King attacked Mt. Aris. I don’t ever want to go through that again!”

“Y-Yona not sc-scared,” shivered the young Yak as she also hugged Ocellus tight. “Yaks best at staying calm under fire.”

“Can you try being calm while not hugging me,” pleaded Ocellus. “You two are squishing me.”

“Sorry,” they apologized.

“Now, now,” Fluttershy spoke to the five members of the Student Six as she hugged Angel Bunny in her arms. He looked even less content than Ocellus did to be hugged so tightly for comfort. She had a lot of her other animal friends with her as well, all taking up refuge with the townsfolk. “Everything will be just fine. The princesses are out there ready to keep us safe. And it’s not just Twilight and Princess Celestia, but Princess Luna and Cadence are out there helping to protect Equestria with everyone else who is able to.”

“What about your buddy, Discord?” wondered Gallus. “Can’t he just snap his fingers and turn all the Dragons into butterflies or something else that’s harmless?”

“That wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do to the Dragons,” Fluttershy answered him. “And Princess Celestia ordered him to stay in his Chaos Dimension for the time being. She was worried that since he is part dragon that the Bloodstone Scepter might be able to control him as well and who knows what could happen then.”

“I wonder if Smoulder and Spike are being controlled too,” worried Silverstream. “They were with us just the other day for a party and now this had to happen.”

“I wish I knew more about Smoulder, but Spike was the one who sent the warning of the attack,” Fluttershy explained. “And he promised to do whatever he could to keep us safe and sound.”

“So, it is too dangerous for us to have an almighty spirit of chaos help,” summed up Gallus. “Just because he had a Dragon leg, but it’s perfectly fine that Spike, a Dragon down the last scale on his body, is potentially our only hope.”

“Spike might be small, but when his friends need him, he’s always there to lend a claw,” smiled Fluttershy. “I don’t think there’s a kinder Dragon in all of Equestria.”

“Well, considering that practically every other Dragon is out there ready to incinerate us,” he retorted. “I’d have to agree with you on that, but how is that supposed to save us from those lesser kind beasts flying right towards us?”

“Ugh!” groaned Spike, knocked to the ground for the dozenth time by Garble. His armor protected him from the brunt of the larger dragon’s strikes with his staff, but, unable to land even a single attack, of his own yet, things were not looking good for the underdragon.

“Do you give up yet?” asked Garble as he looked down at Spike, still on his back. “You might as well since you can’t win no matter how many times you try.”

“I’m just getting warmed up,” he answered as he sat up and grabbed hi staff off the ground.

“Don’t bother bluffing,” Garble told him as he watched Spike rise to his feet once more. “I know you well enough to see you can’t do better than this.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” argued Spike as he charged toward Garble again and swung his staff with all his might. With one hand holding his staff, Garble blocked it and was able to easily push Spike back at the same time. Not giving up, Spike ran around to Garble’s unguarded side, aiming to strike at him there, but Spike wasn’t able to move quickly enough to attack before Garble could swing his staff and send him tumbling back over to where Ember stood and watched.

“I know you aren’t stronger or faster than me,” he stated. “Not even close. That should be plenty obvious to you as well. Enough that you should know that you can’t win.”

“I’ve got friends that are in danger,” breathed Spike as he got up again. “And I will do anything I can to protect them!”

“Oh, is this because I wouldn’t try to fight my father to keep Spark away from him?” questioned Garble annoyed. “Well, congrats! You tried and all you accomplished was getting your tail kicked. They aren’t any safer than they were before. Are you satisfied now?”

“You just don’t get it,” cried Spike. “It’s not about trying or even if it is possible to succeed!” Running at Garble again, this time, as Garble attacked him, Spike jumped to avoid it. Flapping his wings, Spike was able to gain extra height to rise up over Garble. “It’s not even about winning this fight!” Closing his wings, Spike then dropped back to the ground over his foe, using the gravity to add extra force to his attack as he struck at Garble’s head. Unable to guard with his staff in time, Garble used his free arm to block the strike. Then, drawing in a large breath, Garble hit Spike with a burst of flames than knocked him back. With a swift kick, Garble knocked Spike back to where he started.

“You’re right,” scoffed Garble. “I can’t understand why anyone would act in such utter futility. Now, just give up already! Things are back to how there were before, how they were always meant to be, with the strong on top and the weak cowering at their feet.”

“I… am not… cowering,” panted Spike on his feet yet again.

“How are you holding up?” asked Ember.

“Sore, but my armor has protected me from getting hurt worse,” he answered.

“But you aren’t getting anywhere with how you’re fighting,” pointed out Smoulder. “You’re a tough, little dude, but even if you are going for a battle of attrition you won’t win.”

“I know that and, to be perfectly honest, there isn’t any way that I can win,” Spike admitted.

“Uh, but if you don’t win how are we supposed to save Equestria?” she asked him.

“Just trust him,” Ember assured her. “He has a plan.” Needing some assurance herself, Ember turned to Spike and asked him, “You do have a plan, don’t you?”

“Not so much a plan as a gamble,” he replied, removing his helmet and dropping it to the ground. “Can you help me out of the rest of this armor?”

“But that’s the only thing keeping you from really getting hurt,” warned Ember, growing worried to see the small, purple dragon remove his golden-hued protection. “If you are taking it off to be able to move faster, this won’t make much of a difference.”

“I’m not worried about my speed,” he explained. “As I said, it’s a gamble and that means some risk is involved.”

“And you’re sure about this?” asked Smoulder.

“I’ve earned most of my gems through bets and games of chance,” Spike said, attempting to sound bragging to instill some confidence in what he was doing. “This is about the same thing just with much higher stakes and the odds terribly against me.”

“And you’re not nervous?” wondered Ember seeing Spike had the shakes once he was only protected by his own scales.

“Petrified,” he whimpered, looking on the verge of tears. His heart was in his throat and he could barely force his body to move back towards Garble. “I wanna turn tail and run more than anything right now, but, even in spite of my own wellbeing, I have to do this. For you, for all my friends in Ponyville, and all the rest of Equestria… For Twilight. I have to put my life on the line for everyone.”

“Spike,” Ember spoke, watching him walk forward and her eyes started to water. “What kind of Dragon Lord am I to send him out to fight in my stead? I should be the one putting my life on the line and yet, right now, I can’t do anything.”

“Maybe because he really is the strongest dragon,” replied Smoulder unable to come up with any other response than that.

“What do you think you’re doing?” questioned Garble as he saw Spike approach him without his protective gear. “Do you think I’ll hold back just because you aren’t wearing your armor now?”

“Nope,” Spike shook his head as Garble removed his own helmet and tossed it to the side. “Come at me with all you’ve got. Oh, and you don’t have to take off your armor just because I decided to.”

“You know,” Garble informed his opponent. “Before you would have lost, but at least you’d only have suffered some minor injuries. Now, without that armor to protect you, you really could die.”

“I’m perfectly aware of that,” nodded Spike as he took to the air. “And let’s take this fight into the sky too.”

Gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Garble glared up at Spike who was waiting for him, several meters off the ground. “Ugh! Do you have a death wish or something?”

“It’s just a desperate ploy,” Crag called out to Garble from atop the Throne of the Dragon Lord. “He thinks you’d rather give up than kill him, but unlike him, you’re a real dragon. Show him that you won’t let him or anything stand in your way.”

“I know that,” snapped Garble at his father. “You don’t have to remind me.”

Flying up to Spike’s elevation, Garble clenched his staff with both sets of claws. He was shaking even more than Spike was as they glared at one another. “Last chance,” warned Garble. “Just admit defeat and that’ll be the end of it.”

“If you want it to be over so bad, you should just give up,” retorted Spike.

“You are so stubborn!” roared Garble as he flew at Spike, making the first move this time and swung at Spike. Spike blocked, but, without any ground to plant his feet, the force of the attack knocked him back. Spreading out his wings, Spike was able to catch some air and come to a stop, but Garble was already poised to strike again.

Flapping his wings to soar higher and dodge, Spike wasn’t quick enough and suffered a solid hit to his side. “Argh!” he seethed, the pain far worse than he expected it to be. “Ouch!”

“Do you regret taking your armor off now?” asked Garble. “I’ll give you a chance to put it back on.”

“I’m perfectly fine as is,” Spike responded without hesitation and flew at Garble to attack.

“Fine!” snapped Garble. “If that’s what you want then if you get killed you have nobody to blame except yourself!”

Garble met Spike midway in his flight and yet again they clashed with their weapons, the result no different from every other exchange, with the red dragon overpowering the small purple one and smashing him hard with another brutal swing from his staff. On his bare scales, Spike could feel each attack that hit him and cried out in pain. Yet, despite how agonizing it was, he never backed off and kept coming at Garble, pain and injuries ignored. However, his determination only served to get him hit again and again and again, much to Garble’s chagrin.

“If you think it hurts now,” stated Garble, seeing Spike’s bruised body. “Just wait till tomorrow when you’ll really be too sore to budge an inch.”

“Don’t talk like we’re already done,” groaned Spike, every part of his body in agony save his head and wings that had avoided any damage as of yet. “I haven’t given up yet.”

“Let’s see if you feel the same when you’re too sore to move for a week!” shouted Garble as he swung his staff at Spike again, this time disarming him of his staff before attacking him again. With no means to defend himself, the young dragon attempted to turn to avoid another hit to his right arm, but allowed his same side wing to get hit instead.

“Gah!” cried Spiked, unable to keep himself airborne with only one good wing. He, instead, started to plummet face first to the ground. “Waaaah!” he screamed as he flailed about helplessly as he came hastily closer to a very painful SPLAT! But, mere feet from hitting the ground, he came to an abrupt stop as something grabbed him from behind, Garble.

“Do you seriously want to die that badly?” he barked at Spike right in his face.

“I want to save my friends and I’ll risk my life if that’s what it’ll take,” he shouted right back in Garble’s.

Growling, Garble threw Spike to the ground and stomped on his tail to keep him from being able to move anywhere. “You can’t save them! You can’t beat me! Everything you are doing is pointless! Just give up before you die!” Turning his head, he looked at his father from the corner of his eye and then looked back at Spike. “...Please.”

“No,” Spike shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if you are twice as strong as me, ten times, a hundred, or even a million. I don’t care who it is I have to fight or whatever titles or powers they possess. If my friends are in danger I’ll keep fighting regardless of how impossible it might seem.”

“Why?” he fumed. “What’s the point of going through all this anguish for your friends?”

“Because,” Spike answered, his resolve as unwavering as ever. “I know, they would and have done the same for me and everyone else many times before.”

“What’s the holdup?” called Crag. “You got him cornered. Finish him already!”

“Fine,” sighed Garble raising his staff and aiming to end their fight with one quick blow.

“Garble!” cried a small voice that froze all the blood in Garble’s veins the instant he heard it. Turning to where it came from, it was Spark, wheezing and exhausted as he trudged over.

“Sp-Spark?” answered Garble.

“What are you doing here?” asked Spike, turning his head to see him. “Stay back. It’s dangerous.”

“Why?” he sobbed still moving towards them. “Why do you two have to fight? Is it because of me? Did I do something wrong?”

“N-No,” answered Garble. “It’s not your fault at all. I was just trying to fix things. Make them like they used to be.”

“Do you honestly believe you’ve done that?” questioned Spike. “Were things like this before Ember became the Dragon Lord? Tell me, do you feel like you’ve fixed anything?!?”

Garble looked at Spark, who looked at him through tear-soaked eyes and then down at Spike who stared up at him like with a sad, pitying gaze. Trembling, as his own eyes started to water, the big, red dragon let out the most sorrowful roar he could muster as threw his staff to the ground and bawled his eyes out. “N-No,” he whimpered. “This isn’t what I wanted. None of it.”

“Garble!” sobbed Spark as he ran over and hugged at his brother’s leg, tears running down his face.

“It’s okay,” sniffled the older brother. “You can stop crying. I-I’m not going to hurt him anymore. I’m not going to hurt you anymore.”

“I’m not crying cause I’m sad,” he explained, wiping the snot off his snout. “I’m crying cause I’m happy. Happy that you’re back!”

“I don’t know where I went, but I’m happy that you’re happy,” Garble said patting his little brother’s head.

“I’m glad you’re both happy,” groaned Spike. “But, do you think you could be happy while you’re not stepping on my tail?”

“H-He did it,” Smoulder stated in amazement. “Spike got through to Garble. But… how did he know that Spark would show up when he did?”

“I don’t think he did,” commented Ember. “He said this was a gamble, but against impossible odds, he won.” She let out a sigh of relief and wiped her own tears away. “Now, we can focus on finding a way to stop this war before it begins.”

“I can’t believe you are my flesh and blood,” snapped Crag, flying down from the Throne of the Dragon Lord, the chains restraining him easily broken while he wasn’t guarded. He landed behind Garble and snatched up the Bloodstone Scepter he had tied to his back while his guard was down.

“D-Dad?” sniffled Garble, turned to face him, only to get punched in the side of his jaw with all Crag’s might.

“Don’t you dare call me that,” he spat. “You! You finally had it, the Bloodstone Scepter! For this short time, I thought you might actually have been the son I had always hoped you would be, but look at you now! In spite of all your strength and power, you surrendered to this whelp in tears no less. You have brought me and all dragonkind nothing but shame. I will take care of you momentarily before you have a chance to drag our honor through the mud any more than you have, but first…” He looked down at Spike, who had only just gotten Garble’s foot off his tail and had not had the chance to get up yet. Lifting his foot onto Spike’s head, he applied enough force to keep him trapped underneath.

“Ugh!” groaned Spike, kicking his legs as used his hands to try and lift Crag’s foot off of him with no success. His efforts only served to make Crag apply even more pressure on the young Dragon’s head.

“Spike!” cried Ember and Smoulder as they and the later’s friends rushed over to try and save him.

“Bow to your TRUE Dragon Lord!” ordered Crag, aiming the Bloodstone Scepter at them and made all five Dragons fall to the ground to submit to him.

“Ugh, not this again,” groaned Gorge as he and the others were forced to obey, or suffer being boiled alive from the inside by their own blood again. “I thought we won.”

“We did against that one,” Ax pointed out. “But not this one.”

“And this one looks a lot worse too,” added Tia.

“What do we do now?” Smoulder asked Ember.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “Garble was bad, but Crag is by far worse. I don’t know what any of us can do against him, Bloodstone Scepter or not.”

Looking at the five Dragons bowing before him, Crag couldn’t find his smile. “This should be the greatest moment of my life,” he spoke to Spike whose head he had pressed against the ground with his foot. “The day that Dragons were finally given a proper leader to guide them to their true destiny. It should be, but I can’t be happy. Not while you still live. No, Spike, you are a dangerous element to Dragonkind. I have overheard plenty of tales about you and your ‘heroics’ and have just witnessed, firsthand, what you are capable of. My so- Garble, had obtained the greatest power a Dragon could have and yet, with nothing more than guts and determination, you bested him.”

“I learned from the best,” groaned Spike, his voice slightly muffled by Crag’s sole.

“You are a plague that’ll bring ruin to Dragonkind if you are not eradicated before you spread any further,” he continued. “Since that pathetic failure couldn’t accomplish this either, once more, it falls upon me to complete.”

“Leave Spike alone!” cried Spark as he leapt onto Crag’s leg and looked up at him with the biggest pleading eyes he could muster. “No more. Please, stop hurting everyone, dad.”

“Stay away from him, Spark,” warned Spike unable to do much while he was pinned down like that. “He’s dangerous.”

“He’s also my father,” he pointed out. “No matter what, he has never laid a claw on me.”

“Oh, Spark…” he said looking down at his child. He reached down to gently pet his head, a small smile appearing on his face as he removed his foot off of Spike’s head. Seeing all this, Spark smiled too, feeling a great relief that all the fighting was going to stop. Still smiling, Crag gently rubbed underneath Spark’s chin. Then, he gripped at his son’s throat and lifted him up high, over his head.

“D-Daddy…” gagged Spark, struggling to breathe as his body flailed is body about.

“You were my spare, and a pathetic one at that,” he continued. “Garble took after me and he ended up useless. You, on the other claw, did not, but I did not have any other choice save make the best of a less than ideal situation. But now, I have the Bloodstone Scepter, I have the power, and I no longer have any need waste any more of my breath on you.” Crag tightened his grip on Spark’s throat, the young dragon helpless to do anything about it.

“Let him go!” cried Spike, getting up and leaping at Crag, only to be kicked back to the ground. Not giving up, Spike hastily kept rushing at the monstrous dragon, desperate to get Spark out of his grasp, but at best he was able to draw his attention and prevent him from choking the young dragon’s windpipe any more than he already was.

“Sp-Spark,” trembled Garble, the sight of Spike completely ineffective against his old man only reminded him of the very same despair that had haunted him most of his life. “It’s just like I’ve been saying. Against an enemy that strong, there’s nothing that can be done so there’s no point in even trying. But…”

Despite how many times Spike was kicked to the ground, he got up to try again. He rubbed the back of his hand against his nose, wiping away the blood that leaked from it after that last kick to his face. “Let go of Spark,” Spike kept on saying adamantly as he lugged his battered body at the big brute once more, only to get swatted away as he leapt up to try and pry Crag’s hands off of Spark.

“Why is he willing to go so far for someone else?” questioned Garble as he watched. “Why is he risking his life when there is nothing for him to gain from it… like when he fought me… just to protect his pony friends.”

“Ugh,” groaned Spike, trying to get up again, but soreness abound, he struggled to find the strength to get up again after everything he already endured. However, looking at Spark, his face turning purple, it was evident he didn’t have the time to rest and recover his strength.

“I am not like Garble,” Crag informed Spike. “It doesn’t matter what the obstacle is, I will demolish it, be it a fellow dragon, my own flesh and blood, or even my own heart. I will remove anything that might hinder me and crush it with every last ounce of strength I have!” To make his point, he didn’t even wait for Spike to even get up. He just kicked him and watched his tumble across the ground helplessly.

“Let… my… brother… go,” demanded Garble, back on his feet as he shakily approached Crag.

“I’ll get back to you in a moment,” Crag told Garble, giving him no more than a side glance. “For now, just sit still and shut up.”

Growling, Garble could feel the influence of the Bloodstone Scepter, forcing him to comply to his father’s words. Crag then turned his focus back to Spark, slowly choking the life out of him. Still struggling to get up, Spike’s mind raced as he wondered how he could actually save his young friend even when he did. All his efforts at best were stalling for time that Spark didn’t seem to have much of as he didn’t even have the strength to struggle anymore. “No!” cried Spike. “Spark!”

“Don’t worry,” promised Crag. “You’ll be joining him shortly.”

Crag then felt a clawed hand on his shoulder, tug at him, forcefully, to look behind him. His eyes widened in surprise to see it was Garble a pained look on his face as he struggled against the orders given to him. Making a fist with his other hand, he roared as he mustered all the pain he felt from years of living under his father’s claw to throw the hardest punch he could, right into Crag’s face.

“Let go of my brother!” he roared fiercely, his strike knocking Crag off his feet and onto the ground. Spark was released as well, falling to the ground struggling for breath as he sobbed hysterically, tears running down his face. Ignoring his burning scales from defying the power of the Bloodstone, Garble did his best to comfort Spark. “It’ll be okay,” promised Garble attempting to help calm him down. “He won’t hurt you anymore. If he even tries I’ll-”

“Not a bad hit,” admitted Crag, rubbing his bruised cheek and then spat out some blood. “That actually hurt a bit. Care to try that again?” Rising up to tower over his sons, Crag waved for Garble over, giving him his full attention now.

Afraid, but no longer willing to back down, Garble threw a punch at his father again, however, without the element of surprise, the larger dragon was able to catch it. Garble then tried to attack with his other fist. Crag couldn’t catch this one, the Bloodstone Scepter already occupying his grasp. Instead, he took the punch to his jaw, but didn’t even budge. Hitting his father again and again, Garble tried to knock him off his feet again, but Crag remained unflinching.

“And you go right back to disappointing me,” he told him sarcastically. Clenching Garble’s captured fist, he brought him to his knees as he threatened to crush it with the strength of his grip alone. “Why am I not surprised? But, if you are so insistent on being the first to perish, very well. I’ll send your brother soon after and then finally, the little cretin who caused this mess in the first place.”

“You mean me?” shouted Spike, back on his feet during the time Garble had been fighting Crag. With his staff retrieved and in hand, he leapt at Crag swinging it with all his might. Instinctively, Crag attempted to block it with the weapon he had in his own claws, the Bloodstone Scepter. It only took a moment for him to realize his mistake, but that was already too late as the hard metal easily broke through violet gemstones and severed the red gemstone of Dragon blood from the part Crag was still holding onto.

“NNNOOO!!!” bellowed Crag, seeing such a powerful and ancient Dragon treasure damaged before his eyes and newfound rage filled them. Shoving Garble to the ground and tossing the useless remains of the scepter away, Crag attempted to attack Spike who swung his staff once more to fend Crag off. The big Dragon caught it just as easily as Garble’s punch and attempting to pull it and Spike towards him, but the small, purple dragon had already let go of it and turned to run for the Bloodstone that had ended up a few meters away from them.

“He got it away from Crag,” gasped Ember, still unable to move along with the others.

“This is your chance, Spike!” cried Smoulder. “Get it quick!”

“That is mine!” roared Crag, taking a step forward as he attempted to outrun Spike to the Bloodstone, but felt a tug on his tail, stop him in his tracks and made him fall flat on his face. “WHAT?!?” Looking behind him, it was Garble, anchoring him in place.

“Garble?” questioned Spike, turning his head to see he had just helped him.

“J-Just focus on getting the Bloodstone,” he grunted and groaned, doing his best to hold Crag back.

Anger only rising more, Crag kicked at Garble, not showing any restraint as he kept slamming his foot into his son’s face. Garble wanted to hold on, at least till Spike had the scepter in claw, but his strength gave out before too long from the beating he was receiving.

Getting up again, he charged after Spike, his larger size helping quickly close the gap between them. Not looking back, Spike could tell how close Crag was getting as his large body shook the ground as he charged forward. “Almost there,” the small dragon observed, seeing the scepter mere feet from him, but Crag had gotten extremely close behind. Diving for it, Spike could feel the shorted scepter in his claws, but only for a second as he felt claws tightly squeeze his tail before yanking him away from it. Dangling upside down, his heart sank to his throat as he gazed at Crag, taking in a few deep breaths after all that scare.

“Now, that was a close one,” he told Spike before lifting him up and slamming his whole body onto the ground.

King Thorax was waiting in his throne room, his heart pounding in his chest as he awaited terrible, but inevitable news. Unlike Chrysalis with her black as night coat, gnarled horn, and hole-filled body, these Changelings had embraced the ideals of sharing love, rather than stealing it from others. As a result, they had transformed from vicious-looking predators to creatures that appeared to be a cross between beetles and deer. Their bodies had a far greater variant of colors that blended from one gradient to another.

At Thorax’s side was his brother Pharynx, equally worried and couldn’t help to pace around the room due to anxiety. While Thorax had hues of green over most of his body, the shell covering his transparent, insect-like wings were purple, matching his eyes. Pharynx’s hue was a very dark blue with some red on his chest. He also had a purple shell to cover his wings, with his colored red while Thorax’s were purple.

Those two were the largest of the Changelings, with Thorax’s size on par with Chrysalis and Pharynx just a bit shorter. They both also had pair of orange and red antlers on their heads, respectively, unlike the rest of the pack, with Thorax’s being the larger of the two.

“Sirs! Sirs!” cried a Changeling flying over to them. “The dragons have been spotted nearing our territory. “They’ll be upon us in minutes.”

“Are all the troops ready to intercept them?” asked Thorax as he got up and stretched.

“They’ve been ready to go for a while now,” answered Pharynx. “I did all I could to make them into capable soldiers again so we could protect ourselves. I just didn’t think we’d be up against a swarm of Dragons as our first enemies. Isn’t the Dragon Lord a good friend of yours?”

“She is,” nodded Thorax. “And I really don’t want to believe that she’s making the Dragons go on a rampage like this.”

“Whatever the reason, we have no choice but to fight back to protect ourselves,” stated Pharynx as he opened his wings to take to the sky.

“Pharynx,” Thorax instructed him. “I’m going to lead half the force to intercept them. I want you to remain with the other half to protect the hive from any Dragons that manage to break through.”

“Um, no offense, but you’ve never been the warrior type,” his brother reminded him. “Going up against Dragons would be tough even for me. I can’t imagine you, of all creatures, fighting against a Dragon.”

“Well, I did turn into a bear once to fight against Dragon Lord Ember,” Thorax admitted, surprising Pharynx. “It ended as quickly as it began, but even at several times her size and weight I didn’t know if I could be here and the Dragons coming towards us are way larger than anything we can turn into. Depending on the outcome of this battle, our lives could completely change again… and if we lose, then I feel that the one best suited to lead the Changelings will be you, the one who knows best how to protect us. That’s why you have to survive this, no matter what.”

“When did you get so tough-skinned?” asked Pharynx, a bit choked up upon hearing his brother able to take charge and be prepared with a worst case scenario.

“I had to,” answered Thorax with a little smile. “You wouldn’t stop making me hit myself.”

“Are you certain we shouldn’t all evacuate into the sea?” questioned Commanded Skybeak of the Hippogriffs. His coat was a pale sapphire hue while he had a mane of light and dark grays that stood up similar to a mohawk. He had tail of similar hues to his mane. “We can avoid the conflict with the Dragons entirely, if we go where they cannot get us.”

“No way are we going to do that again. We have finally regaining our land, our pride, and our courage, after the defeat of the Storm King. We cannot simply turn tail and run away again,” responded Queen Novo. She was a pink hippogriff with a regal, purple mane and tail that flowed like a fish’s fins in water. Atop her head, she had a simple crown with three sparkling, blue feathers in it. “We’d never be able to return to the land again if we did and not simply out of fear of the Dragons, but the shame of abandoning all our friends to fend for themselves. That being said, at the very least we can send all civilians beneath the waves while we defend Mt. Aris.”

“All preparations have already been made,” he answered. “We were most fortunate that the Equestrian princesses were able to give us advanced warning. I shudder to think of how things may have gone if they attacked while we were ill prepared.”

“It is another debt we owe them now,” she agreed. “And that’s all the more reason we must survive this.”

“Here they come,” informed Celestia. “Are you two ready?”

“Worried, but yes I’m ready,” nodded Twilight looking up at her horn and then back ahead of her. The Dragons were close enough to make out the color of their scaly hides as they fast approached them.

“Are you worried of the invading Dragons or casting a spell together with Princess Celestia?” questioned Starlight.

“No, not that,” she replied. “Well, okay, I am worried about all that, but I’m more worried about Spike.”

“We’ve already been over this,” Starlight reminded her. “Spike’s taking care of things on his end so we’ve gotta do our part over here. Now, put him out of your mind. We need to focus on this spell.”

“...Right,” she answered after a brief pause and the three Ponies began to work their magic, their horns all glowing together. As the first large group of Dragons were almost upon them, a purple-hued barrier suddenly appeared in their way, blocking them from flying forward. In response, some dragons attempted to break through it with fire and claws or weapons, if they were armed. Others attempted to try and go around it instead. Both found their tactics thwarted as the shield held strong and went from a mere wall to a bubble the encased them all inside.

“We got quite a lot of them,” stated Starlight as she continued to focus on maintaining the magic with Twilight and Celestia.

“But not all of them,” added Celestia as more Dragons flew around the trapped ones and began to engage in the Pegasi who were waiting to confront them.

“This’ll help keep things in our favor for a little while,” stated Twilight as they watched over the captured Dragons, observing as they all vigorously tried to break out. In response, they repaired any damage they made as quickly as they could manage.

“But we cannot keep them contained indefinitely,” stated Celestia. “And, if the remaining Dragons cannot be driven off before these ones break free then we may be forced to retreat or risk being overwhelmed.”

“Maybe Spike will have done whatever he needs to do first before we even have to consider that,” suggested Starlight with a nervous chuckle.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s worried,” Twilight said giving her friend a supportive smile.

“Well, that makes three of us then,” added Celestia. “And I’m certain everyone else is just as worried. But regardless of any fears, we will all stand together throughout this ordeal. Each one of us is doing everything in their power to protect our home and one another.”

“And I’m sure Spike is doing all he can to keep us safe as well,” agreed Starlight.

“I’m sure he is,” nodded Twilight. “Doing everything he can to keep us safe… but that’s why I’m so worried for him.”

“Ugh… gah!” groaned Spike as he opened his eyes to see Crag’s feet. Looking up, he saw the rest of him, the top half of the Bloodstone Scepter in his claws. Turning to everyone else, they were all on the ground, helplessly bowing before their new Dragon Lord despite how badly they wanted to get up and help him. Crag even had Garble and Spark under his command.

“Well, the scepter will need to be replaced, but the Bloodstone doesn’t appear to be damaged,” stated Crag as he looked down angrily at Spike. “I am very fortunate that your foolishness hasn’t hindered me any further.”

“Why?” asked Spike weakly. “Why do you have to do all this? Hurt so many and, for what, for a stupid gemstone?”

“This is more than a gemstone,” he spoke. “It is the very essence of Dragonkind. It is what unites and binds us. Without it, we’d be nothing more than greedy beasts without any order or community. It is thanks to this that we have come as far as we have and it is the key to our destiny.”

“Our destiny?” questioned Spike slowly managing to find some strength to stand up. “A full-scale war against all of Equestria? That’s our destiny?”

“Against our combined might, nothing will be able to get in our way. This world could be all ours and, in due time, it will.”

“And what of every other creature? The Griffins, and the Hippogriffs, the Changelings and the Yaks… the Ponies, what about all of them?” wondered Spike his body aching as he breathed, his legs shaky as he tried to remain standing. With all the pain he was feeling all over his body, it was difficult for him to even remain conscious.

“What about them?” Crag asked. “They are not Dragons so I have no concern for them beyond taking what they have, what we should have. For them, I bear no malice or hatred. If they give me what I demand I need not get violent. Should they become an obstacle-”

“Then you will remove them from your path,” finished Spike.

“You are quite intelligent,” praised Crag.

“I was raised well,” replied Spike. “By Ponies.”

“I suppose it’s where you gained such a warped ideology,” he added.

“That is a matter of perspective,” countered Spike. “Your views are the warped one in my opinion.”

“And as a result,” he continued. “You have been the source of all Garble’s and, by extension, my troubles for quite some time. Even now, you oppose me and have gotten further than one would expect a runt of your stature.”

“It’s hard to tell if those are compliments or insults,” commented Spike.

“Oh, I have had great admiration for you, along with a seething anger that you have only managed to aggravate even further. Not many Dragons are bold enough to cross me so much, if at all. To be perfectly honest, I wish I could have raised a son more like you.”

“I am like this because of how I was raised,” retorted Spike. “I doubt I’d be like this if I was taken under your wing. However, you still managed to have two great kids and they got that way in spite of who raised them. Spark is caring, energetic, and the friendliest Dragon I’ve ever met. That he can be like this even while he has had to live with you is proof enough of how strong he is. And Garble… he’s a big, dumb brute and I can clearly see how he got that way, but he hasn’t become the cruel monster you are, that you wanted him to be. He is capable of compassion for those around him, weak or strong, Dragon or not. Every Dragon is capable of living together peacefully and sharing Equestria with every other creature that lives here. Don’t you see? The only one that wants this insane destiny is you!”

“They just don’t know what is good for them!” snapped Crag. “That’s why I have to lead them! I am the only one who is capable and deserving!”

“If that was true then you wouldn’t need the Bloodstone Scepter,” Spike pointed out. “No Dragon would follow you otherwise. A true leader wouldn’t need any kind of magic to get others to respect them.”

“So long as I can accomplish what I have set out to do, how I am seen doesn’t matter to me in the slightest,” he retorted. “When all of Dragonkind sees all they have because of me, history will see me as the greatest Dragon Lord that has ever lived. No, even more than that, I’ll be a hero, a true one to inspire future generations. And what better way to begin my legend than to end yours. All I need to do is utter one command and then I will sever your connection with the Bloodstone.”

“That doesn’t work on me,” argued Spike defiantly.

“In your current state,” he told the little dragon. “I doubt you can resist its power.”

“Stop! You can’t do this!” cried Smoulder. Ax, Tia, and Gorge teared up too, at a loss for words at everything they had witnessed.

“Spike!” warned Ember. “Cover your ears! Don’t listen to him.”

“Spike…” sobbed Spark, terribly frightened. Beside him, Garble just glared angrily, mostly because he still couldn’t move freely to do anything to stop this.

“Die,” uttered Crag like saying such a thing was the simplest thing in the world. The Bloodstone radiated a blindingly powerful, red glow, forcing everyone to shield their eyes, but they refused to look away. They couldn’t, not as they saw Spike shake his head weakly in refusal before he simply collapsed onto the ground. As the light of the Bloodstone faded, everyone watched, waiting and expecting the young dragon to rise up once more like he had so many times before, but he just remained deathly still.

Everyone couldn’t stop shaking, their voices lost despite their desperate desire to call out to Spike. For several seconds, all was quiet. The one who finally did break that silence was Crag, as he let out a laugh as he celebrated his victory. He held the Bloodstone Scepter over his head, delighted that he had finally removed such a stubborn obstacle in his way. Crag was so happy that he didn’t even notice as a small fragment of the Bloodstone broke off and crumbled away into dust.

Severing the Blood that Binds

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Way up north, the Dragons had even managed to reach Yakyakistan, the home of the Yaks, but upon arriving there, they found not a single soul within the wooden walls of the village. There wasn’t even anything there for them to demolish as all the homes and buildings were already in ruins like some other invading army had beat them to the punch. With their objective already met and no other orders to follow, the Dragons simply remained idle in the ruined village.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, the Yaks were hidden away in a series of ice caverns. A few guards watched the entrance, standing strong against the arctic chill as it blew through them. The rest of the Yaks remained inside, looking quite content despite the loss of their village. “That was fun,” one of the Yak children told their parent. “Can we smash up village again after we rebuild it?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but this was, uh, special occasion to smash stuff,” his mother answered, giving him a smile, happy he and all the other children were unaware of the danger they had narrowly avoided.

Sitting alongside the warrior Yaks was the leader of them all, Prince Rutherford. He, like all the other Yaks had on heavy coats of brown hair that helped keep them comfortably warm in the frigid climate. It even covered over the top of his head, covering over his strong, green eyes. “Hahah,” he laughed in a triumphant voice. “Dragons stand no chance against special Yak preemptive strike. I wish I could have seen the look on their faces when they made it all the way here and found Yaks smashed their own village better than they could have. Yaks sure showed Dragons.”

“But what Yaks do now?” one of the others asked. “Do Yaks just wait here till Dragons leave, then go to rebuild village?”

“That big plan,” Rutherford answered, though the others didn’t look so content to avoid a confrontation in such a manner.

“But what Yaks do about Dragons?” they asked. “Yaks can’t let Dragons get away with this.”

“Yaks should fight back. Show them what Yaks are made of.”

“Yaks should invade Dragonlands. Smash Dragon homes. Show the might of Yaks and become Honorary Dragons.”

“Enough!” bellowed Prince Rutherford, his voice echoing throughout the entire cave and silencing all the others. “Purple Princess Pony give us early warning so all Yaks get away safely. We wreck village so Dragons can’t. Yaks bear no ill will to Dragons. Only thing Yaks need be concerned with is rebuilding village and helping Pony friends out afterwards. Any Yak have even better best plan?” Looking around, none of the warriors were raising an objection now. “Then all Yaks in agreement and now Yaks prove they not only best at war tactics, but best at waiting too.”

Meanwhile, in a much warmer climate, another group of Dragons were in the midst of attacking Griffonstone. Homes were ablaze or already reduced to rubble while thick black smoke filled the sky above. Fortunately, like all the other creatures in Equestria, they were given advanced warning of the impending attack and quickly fled the city to escape from the invaders, most of them anyway.

“You think you are so tough!” ranted Grampa Gruff, an elderly Griffin with one blind eye, mostly bald of feathers from his neck up and wore a fez atop his head. The rest of his body was still covered in dark gray hair and his feathered wings were a few shades darker gray. Shaking his eagle-clawed fist in the air, he continued to verbally lash out while the Dragons kept causing havoc. “You all are just a bunch of overgrown lizards belching smoke!”

His insults soon caught the attention of a large green dragon that gave him a retort by opening her maw to unleash a torrent of fire to roast him alive. Fortunately, another griffin, Gilda quickly pulled him out of the way of the flames just in time. Gilda had white feathers from her neck up with purple highlights around here yes. The rest of her body was covered in brown hair all the way to the end of her tail that had a tuft of it on the tip. “Are you insane?” she snapped at him.

“Legally and clinically,” he answered. “But I’d rather be tarred and feathered before letting them torch our home.”

“It’s a little late for that,” pointed out Gilda looking at the devastation that was caused in practically no time at all. “I guess this is to be expected when you build your home centered around a giant tree. This is all like some horrible nightmare.”

“What does a spring chick like you care?” he scoffed at her while she practically had to drag him out of the kingdom like a child refusing to leave a toy store. “All you younguns talk about is flying out of this dump heap at the first chance you get. I’d say Dragon attack reducing this place to a pile of ash is a darn good chance if you’d ask me.”

“Maybe a short while back,” she admitted. “But I’ve just started to actually like living here. Griffons have been buying my scones as fast as I can make them. Greta and I have been hanging out a lot too. Ugh, why do things have to happen when I don’t want them to?”

Hearing her cry out, another Dragon turned at the two Griffons, attempting to roast them alive. Gilda moved quickly to lead them both out of reach of its flames, getting away with only a few scorched hairs on the tip of their lionish tails. Taking cover behind a still standing wall, Gilda blew out the smoke from her tail before it could get any worse.

“What are you two still doing here?” asked a griffin with pale green feathers on her neck and head, brown hair on her body and reddish brown wings. Around her neck she had a gray scarf with a golden crescent moon pin on it.

“Greta?” asked Gilda, surprised to see her. “I thought you were leading the others somewhere safe.”

“I was, but I got worried that you might have run into so trouble so I came back,” she explained. “So, I left Gabby in charge. Now, let’s get out of here before we’re spotted again.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” she agreed as the three Griffons snuck their way out of kingdom, managing to any further incident. “Oh, and thanks for coming back for us. I was a bit surprised. Normally, it’d be every Griffon for themself the second things got bad.”

“It almost was,” Greta replied. “But you were the one who gathered everyone together to lead them out in the first place and went back when you realized the old buzzard was missing. That was never the Griffin thing to do before.”

“You both still remember I’m right here,” Grampa Gruff spoke up.

“I know,” nodded Gilda. “It’s feel like baking soda was added to me.”

“Uh, baking soda?” questioned Greta.

“It’s just like when Pinkie Pie helped fixed my scones,” she elaborated. “Before, they were hard to the core, inedible and, well, nobody wanted them. Now, they are light and fluffy, and I have to close up shop to bake more before the demand from the lunch rush.”

“So, you feel all light and fluffy now?” concluded an unsure Greta as they reached the base of the tree their kingdom stood upon and took to the sky, certain they were far enough away now that the dragons wouldn’t pursue them.

“In a way,” she nodded. “I don’t feel so crabby anymore and other Griffins are happy to see me. I’m even happy to see them enjoying my scones. The Bits are pretty much an afterthought, if you can believe it.”

“I can see it makes you talk in weird metaphors,” she joked.

“A side effect, but one I think I can live with,” Gilda added with a smile on her face. “Uh, the sunny disposition is another side effect. Let’s just find everyone else before we get any sappier than we've already been.”

The shock of Spike’s death left all the Dragons at the base of the Throne of the Dragon Lord in absolute shock. The only exception was Crag, who moved about at his leisure, cackling triumphantly over the young Dragon’s corpse. As his laughter started to fade, he spoke in a tone that carried a sense of achievement on it. “At last, that nuisance will no longer be a hindrance to his own kind. Maybe now, I can finally lead the Dragons onto their proper path.”

“Proper path?” growled Ember, her shock being replaced with growing anger.

“It can’t be,” cried Smoulder, looking at Spike on the ground. Tears ran down her face and she couldn’t get them to stop. “No. Not him. He can’t really be gone.” As much as she tried to hold back the tears, they just kept on flowing, soaking into the dry ground beneath her chin. Ax, Tia, and Gorge were stunned with disbelief, that everything that had transpired over the last few days had comulated in the scene before them. They were at a loss for words at the insanity of the scene before them that was burned into their memories.

“Ugh, no,” growled Garble, holding his brother in his arms, attempting to comfort him as best he could and wished someone could have done the same for him. “I didn’t want this. He tried to help me and this is how I repaid him?”

“B-Brother?” asked Spark, his voice shaking as was the rest of his body. “Spike will be okay, won’t he? Dad didn’t really kill him, right?” He waited for Garble to answer him, to lie and tell him what he had witnessed with his own eyes didn’t actually happen. Spark wanted to wrap himself in that delusion, but his older brother just stared on ahead his insides twisted into knots from his own involvement. Tears began welling up in Spark’s eyes. A few fast blinks and they were streaming down his face, along with some snot from his nose. “No! I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna lose anyone else!”

“What’s with all the sadness?” questioned Crag seeing the sorrow all around him. “I did what was best for all Dragons, including all of you.”

“Aren’t you going to just kill us all too?” questioned Smoulder. “I don’t see how that is in our best interest.”

“With the source of the problem gone, that might not be necessary,” he explained. “Merely put this small blemish on the grand history of Dragons in the past and move on with me as I lead us to a brighter tomorrow. Refuse… and I would be more than happy to let you join him.”

“Move on and just forget about him?” asked Ember, forcing herself to her feet in spite of the power of the Bloodstone willing her to be on her claws and knees. “Do you think we would follow you or any Dragon would, for that matter? This bright future that you have envisioned, it’s just like Spike said, the only one who even wants that is you.”

“I am doing this for everyone’s benefit,” he argued. “All my life, I have dedicated it to our kind. I have endured countless battles, the scars covering my body a testament to my dedication. I have lived a long life and it has all been to create a better world for us all.”

“And yet, Spike has done more for us in the little time he’s had than in all the decades you have,” she countered. “Compared to the world he’s helped open us up to, you’ve just been wasting your time!”

“It was not a waste!” he snarled. “I won’t let it be! And if the runt’s convictions live on in all of you then I’ll have to kill you and every last Dragon that feels the same. Now, get back on the ground and grovel with the rest! I’ll end you all quickly.”

“N-No,” Ember protested, refusing to yield as she took a step forward. Her blood boiled and her whole body ached, but she ignored it to approach the current Dragon Lord.

“Heheh, not that it matters,” he taunted her as the slender, blue Dragon swung her fist at Crag. With ease, he caught it and did the same when she threw a punch with her free hand. “Even together, none of you stand a chance against me.” Smirking down at Ember, he savored the frustration as she scowled hatefully at him. “It is foolish of you to even tr- gah!”

Without warning, Ember opened her maw and belched a blast of flames right in the big Dragon’s face. Wailing loudly, he rubbed at his eyes with his claws, trying to remove the searing pain from them. As he did, Ember took the chance to snatch away the Bloodstone Scepter, but just as she grabbed at what remained of it, Crag managed to come to his senses enough to backhand Ember away and onto the ground.

“Almost had it,” she groaned, trying to get up again, only for Crag to kick her back towards the others.

“It really is a shame,” scoffed Crag. “Such determination, yet so tragically misguided.”

“That’s more a matter of perspective,” she groaned, trying to get up again, but Crag looming over her, was ready to knock her down again.

“If none of you will do as I ask, then you leave me no choice,” he spoke. “You will all share in Spike’s fate, death by the decree of your Dragon Lord.”

“Ugh,” groaned a voice that was very quiet compared to Crag’s loud bellowing. However, they all heard and knew it very well. Turning their gaze to their green-spiked friend, they watched in awe as he slowly picked himself up off the ground and rubbed his nose. “That really smarts.”

All the Dragons continued to stare, maws agape at what should have been impossible, Spike, alive and well. As the shock faded, smiles and tears of joy replaced their sorrow. However, none of those happily surprised expressions could compare to Crag who looked like he was staring at his worst nightmare incarnate. He trembled fearfully and sweated at the sight of Spike as he got up and approached Ember. Crag backed off, almost stumbling as he kept his distance from the little, purple Dragon.

“Are you okay?” he asked, seeing her on the ground, roughed up.

“Am I okay?” she repeated. “What about you? You just died! Crag just commanded you to.”

“Did I?” wondered Spike. “Memory is a little hazy. I remember him going on for a while about severing my bloodline or something like that and then I just blacked out from the pain.”

“Then, you’re okay?” questioned Smoulder.

“I feel a lot better now,” he nodded before wincing and rubbing his sore wing. “Ugh, well a bit better anyway. I’m still aching from head to tail.”

“H-How is this possible?” stuttered Crag when he gained enough composure to speak. “You were dead! I commanded it. You should be a lifeless corpse now.”

“Well, thank Celestia, I’m not,” replied Spike turning his attention once more to Crag.

“If killing you once wasn’t enough,” he snapped. “I’ll kill you again and again. As many times as it takes!”

“Spike, cover your ears!” warned Smoulder. “You can’t listen to what he says.”

Before the purple Dragon was able to do so, however, Crag shouted out his command, with the Bloodstone Scepter in hand. “I command you to die now, Spike.” His words were loud and clear enough for them all to hear.

All eyes became fixed on Spike, waiting for what was to come, but he just stood there, unmoving and completely unaffected. “Spike?” asked Ember. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he answered. “My scales aren’t burning or anything.”

“Ugh!” growled Crag, in disbelief at what he was seeing. Immediately, he began snapping out more commands. “Die! Die! Die!” However, his mad ravings had no more effect at killing Spike than the ones to come before it. “How? Why? Why won’t you die?”

“Maybe it’s broken,” suggested Spike. “Meaning, you have no power over us anymore.”

“No, that can’t be,” sweated Crag, growing more anxious as he saw Ember and the others rise to their feet, becoming emboldened to stand beside Spike. Panicking, he shouted out, “Back! Stay back, all of you!” At once, that same glow wrapped around the Dragons as their blood boiled till they were forced to obey and stepped back. The only exception to this was, once again, Spike, who looked back at the others, confused.

“Ok, maybe it isn’t broken,” he pondered.

“Why isn’t it working on you?” cried Crag. “You’re a Dragon! The blood of your ancestors is contained within the Bloodstone.”

“Why isn’t it working on him anymore?” thought Ember as she played back everything that had happened and something came to mind. “Crag, when he was grandstanding before, what did he say before he gave the command for Spike to die… he talked about severing Spike’s bloodline. He meant through death, but could he have accidentally freed him from its control?”

“M-Monster!” cried Crag, backing away as Spike kept walking towards him. He spat out one command after another at Spike, but nothing he said was working on him. “You aren’t even resisting its power. It’s just not working. Why? Nothing should be able to break the magic of such an ancient and powerful artifact!”

“Nothing except itself,” realized Ember as she watched Crag become more hysterical over the Bloodstone Scepter’s ineffectiveness. He had completely forgotten his vast superiority in strength as he attempted to make the Bloodstone work. He tried everything, from shouting at it to waving it about wildly, but nothing helped. Spike kept taking more steps forward.

“Stop! Stop!” he said almost beggingly as he tried jabbing at Spike with the scepter now. This didn’t work either, but it did provide Spike the chance he needed to grab at the Bloodstone. When Crag attempted to pull it away, the gem of Dragon blood broke off of what remained of the scepter and was now in the purple Dragon’s possession. “Gah! No! The Bloodstone!”

“I got it,” spoke Spike softly, looking down at the red jewel with little satisfaction on his face. He clutched it tightly in his claws, and gritted his teeth in frustration. “But what good is it? I can’t make the Dragons stop attacking with it.” The others heard this, but had nothing they could say to comfort him. “I managed to get it, but what good did that do? Equestria is still in trouble. Ponyville… my friends… Twilight… what’s going to happen to all of them… all because of this stupid gem!”

“H-Hey!” warned Crag. “Careful with that. The Bloodstone is more than Dragonkind’s most ancient treasure. It is the very glue that binds us as a race.”

“I know the story,” answered Spike. “Can’t say I cared for it in the least, especially now. The Bloodstone is causing so much trouble and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Well, if Dragons still have to rely on a dumb rock to have any sense of unity, then maybe we don’t deserve to be united at all!”

“Wait, what are you,” Crag began to say before his eyes bugged out at what he saw Spike was doing. Opening his maw, he brought the bright, red gemstone up to his fangs and bit down on with all his might. “NOOO!!!” cried Crag as he dove at Spike, attempting to stop him when he was already too late.

“CRUNCH!!!” went the Bloodstone as Spike’s teeth shattered it to pieces in one big bite. As it turned into shards, a powerful energy burst out of it, swallowing up both Spike and Crag within a brilliant, red light that shot straight up into the sky like lava from an erupting volcano. The others could only gaze at the power that Spike had unleashed, bright as the flames of the sun and it let out a noise that sounded like the fiercest Dragon roar any of them had ever heard before.

Twilight, Starlight, and Celestia fought with all their might to maintain the barrier containing the group of dragons within it as the large beasts fought to break free. Large waves of fire gushed from some of their maws while others scratched and slashed with their claws or hacked away with their weapons. Others just slammed their bodies at the barrier, putting all their weight behind it. All this strained the magic cast over such a large perimeter, creating cracks at every point or stress.

For a while, the three powerful Ponies had managed to repair the damage as it was made. However, over time, as their stamina neared its limits, the Dragons finally began to break free. They couldn’t keep up with enforcing where the cracks formed and pieces of their barrier chipped away. At best, they were able to buy more time by compressing the barrier smaller and smaller. This tactic only helped a bit, at best, as the Dragons’ attacks started to become more concentrated, with the limited space left to them.

“We can’t keep this up forever,” Starlight told the other two as she could the inevitable was coming quick. “Maybe we should drop the barrier in favor of helping the Pegasi on the offensive.”

“They’re barely managing against the ones that we’re not holding,” Celestia informed her. “If these ones get out they’ll break through and reach Ponyville, if they don’t come after us, out of anger for confining them, first.”

“It doesn’t look like we’ve got much of a choice,” warned Twilight as she watched their barrier start to shatter like a crystal vase dropped on the ground. Even with some strength left to keep the barrier up, they strength of the Dragons had won out and they were free to join the others in causing havoc.

“They’re coming right for us!” cried Starlight as she and Celestia flew away as to avoid a head on collision with the Dragons they would undoubtedly lose. Twilight, however, remained fluttering in place, rubbed her head, dazed after their magic had been broken so forcefully.

“Twilight! Watch out!” shouted Celestia as an orange dragon flew at the Princess of Friendship. Opening his maw, he unleashed a blast of flame at the purple Pony.

“Huh, wha?” mumbled Twilight as she came to her senses and saw the danger she was in. Barely managing to focus, Twilight created a barrier in front of herself to disperse the flames around her. The Dragon, still charging forward, broke through her fragile defense. In doing so, Twilight was startled into tumbling out of control and dropping right out of the sky.

“Twilight!” Starlight and Celestia cried, trying to fly down to rescue her, but the Dragons closing in on the two were giving them enough problems. Opening their maws, they readied their flame breath. Starlight and Celestia prepared themselves for it, not sure how to proceed from here or what options were even left available short of surrendering.

“Can this really be the end?” Starlight questioned, the scent of Dragon breath thick in the air as they prepared to attack.” Looking to Celestia, hoping that she had some magical spell she had been saving or even a few words of encouragement, the look of dread on her face only further proved that they really were out options.

Then, a fierce draconic roar erupted forth from the distance, like a powerful gust of wind sweeping across the land and blowing through everything in its path. After it sounded, all the Dragons closed their maws and simply maintained their altitude. The expressions each of these fearsome beast wore changed to ones filled with sadness and shame. This was a great relief to both Celestia and Starlight, no longer detecting any hostility from the scaly invaders. The same was true for all the other airborne Ponies who suddenly found the fighting had been brought to a complete stop by that roar.

“Uh, does this mean Spike did it?” wondered Starlight as they looked at all the Dragons, many tearing up now that they were free of the orders given to them by the Dragon Lord.

“And not a moment too soon,” Celestia took a breath of relief and looked down to where Twilight was, held securely in the arms of the orange Dragon that had sent her plummeting to the ground in the first place.

“W-W-Wings… and a horn,” stuttered the Dragon as he took note of Twilight’s features. “Y-You’re an Alicorn.”

“Uh, yeah,” nodded Twilight, confirming what he suspected.

“Then you’re a princess, right?” he asked her, his whole body trembling.

“That’s right,” she answered. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Frien-”

“I’m so sorry,” he wailed, shockingly emotional now. Tears ran down his face and onto her coat. It was a drastic change from the ferocious beast he had been before, but a change that was preferable. “Please forgive me!!!”

“It’s okay,” Twilight told him as he hugged her tightly, almost crushingly so as he begged to be forgiven. In spite of this, Twilight smiled, as she thought, “Spike, you really did it, didn’t you?” Then, as she started losing feeling all over her body due to the Dragon’s hugging, Twilight desperately had to get him to let go.

As quickly as it happened, it came to an end as the red energy dispersed with a mighty BANG! sending Spike and Crag flying out of it in opposite directions like they had been shot out of a cannon.

“Spike!” everyone cried, seeing him fly towards them. They tried to scramble to catch Spike, but it was Garble who had gotten up first to intercept him, cushioning him with his body and wrapping his arms around him to hold him still. His feet scraped across the ground and his wings were wide open as he tried to bring him to a stop, till his legs lost traction with the ground and they were both sent tumbling on the ground. Even while this was happening, Garble kept Spike safely against his body, till they came to a complete stop.

Crag wasn’t as fortunate to have someone in his corner to help him out. He flew straight towards the Throne of the Dragon Lord and smashed right into it, leaving a deep imprint in it with his body.

Atop the throne, the Dragons that were keeping guard over Chrysalis lowered their guard as the power of the Dragon Lord wore off on them. Seeing her chance, the former Changeling Queen took to the air and made her escape from the Dragonlands. “This whole thing has just been a complete waste of time,” she complained to herself. “I should have known better than to align myself with a bunch of overgrown lizards.”

“Spike! Garble!” cried Spark as he and the others hurried over to see them.

“Are you two okay?” asked Smoulder.

“Ugh, remind me not to do something like that ever again,” groaned a very woozy Spike. Slowly, he managed to come back to his senses and saw he was sitting atop Garble. “Uh, what did I miss now?”

“After you broke the Bloodstone, you went flying and Garble, he, got in the way to catch you,” answered Ember.

“Garble did that?” replied Spike, quite surprised. “He saved me?”

“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” he replied sitting up.

“Why?” asked Spike. “I didn’t say ‘thank you.’”

“Why you ungrateful, lil-” Garble began to say, but recalled a similar incident between them during the Gauntlet of Fire. “I guess I deserved that and plenty more.”

“I’m just kidding,” Spike told him. “Thanks, Garble. I guess you can be a good guy, after all.”

“When I feel like it, maybe,” he said trying to not look as happy to hear that as he was. It became even more difficult when Spark came over to hug him.

“You were amazing, Garble!” the young, yellow Dragon praised his big, red brother.

“Shouldn’t you be fawning over Spike, your hero?” he asked.

“Spike was great too, but he’s a hero so he’s used to doing things like this,” he explained. “Even though you aren’t a hero you fought so hard to protect me and Spike. I can’t think of anything more amazing than that.”

“How about how many of your bones I’m going to break when I get done with all of you?” snarled Crag as he pulled himself free from the throne. “I think the number will be very amazing.”

“Does nothing stop this guy?” asked Smoulder, as she and the others watched Crag approach them looking especially livid now.

“We could really use a rainbow laser right about now,” gulped Spike.

With only several meters separating them, Crag stopped and started to take in deep breaths to attempt to calm himself. “You may have destroyed the Bloodstone, but even that has merely hindered my plans,” he told them. “If I can’t make them follow my orders with magic then it just means I’ll have to use brute force instead. It’ll take some time to accomplish, but I AM A PATIENT DRAGON, AFTER ALL!!!” His attempt to calm himself failed.

“You just don’t know when to call it quits,” Ember retorted, as she stood in between him and the others. Garble got up too, as did Smoulder, Ax, Tia, and Gorge. Even Spike managed to get to his feet with some support from Spark. “Face it, you’ve lost.”

“No, all of you have,” he countered. “The Bloodstone was your only means of stopping me and with it gone I’m the biggest, toughest dragon around. Nobody can stop me now, but if you all think you can, give it a try. COME ON!” he taunted them, ready to fight tooth and claw against them all. “BRING IT…” Crag noticed a large shadow was suddenly cast over him, something that was normally impossible, mid day, in the Dragonlands, with its typically cloudless sky. Looking up, he saw what had created such a huge shadow. It was Torch looming over him, not the least big happy, as he pulled back his arm for a punch. “...on…” His voice cracked.

The mighty fist of the giant Dragon came down and even before it did, Ember and Garble were well aware of what was to come. Grabbing Spike and Spark, they started to run and Smoulder and her friends were quick to follow after them, moving as quickly as their legs could carry them. Crag was not so lucky as to have such an option as the larger than him fist flew at him like a meteor crashing down on the planet. Holding his arms up, he did the only thing he could do and attempted to use all his strength to catch the attack. Whether or not he could have managed this, it didn’t matter as the ground beneath his feet couldn’t take the immense force applied to it and crumbled away, allowing Torch to punch straight into the ground and take Crag along for the ride.

The intensity of the attack caused a quake, splitting the ground all around. A powerful shockwave was also unleashed in every direction, hitting Ember and the others as they fled, knocking them to the ground while they were already off balance from trembling Earth. As they fell to the ground, they got covered in bunch of dirt that had unearthed from that explosive punch. Fortunately, they had made it just far enough away to escape the worst of the damage that now had a billowing mushroom cloud in the epicenter.

“That works too,” spoke Spike as he emerged from the pile of dirt with the others. Looking at Torch’s arm plunged into the ground almost up to his shoulder sent a chill down everyone’s spine at the thought of being the one taking such an attack.

“Dad,” called Ember as they approached him.

“Sorry if I interrupted your battle,” he apologized. “But I was getting tired of this guy running his mouth on and on without end. I can’t think of anything more annoying than someone who just doesn’t know they drone on far too long.”

“Well, you shut him up just in time to save us,” she told him. “And the fact that you were able to get here must mean that the effects of the Bloodstone Scepter faded when it was destroyed.”

“Then the other Dragons were probably freed from it’s control as well,” stated a hopeful Spike. “But did we make it in time?”

“Whether we were or not,” commented Ember. “All this is going to reflect very poorly on Dragonkind in the eyes of the other creatures. I don’t think a simple, ‘I’m sorry’ will be able to make everything better.”

“Then what are we gonna do?” asked Smoulder.

“Well, this is a matter for the leader of the Dragons,” she pointed out. “And since Spike held onto the Bloodstone last, for all of ten seconds, that’d be him.”

“I gotta sort all this out?” he sweated at the thought of trying to handle this mess. “Where do I even start?”

“Relax,” chuckled Ember. “Just a little Dragon humor. If there are no objections to allowing me to stay in charge even without the Bloodstone Scepter I’ll handle damage control.”

“You got my vote,” voiced Spike.

“Ours too,” added Smoulder with a nod from her friends in agreement.

“I never even really wanted to be Dragon Lord in the first place,” stated Garble.

“Ok, then next we’ll need to hand over those responsible for this mess to face punishment,” she told them. “Unfortunately, I saw Chrysalis flee and she probably gotten far away while we were still dealing with Crag.”

“We’ll have to deal with next time she surfaces,” figured Spike.

“Then,” the reinstated Dragon Lord continued. “That just leaves Crag and-”

“And me,” finished Garble, well aware where all this was going.

“Oh, no,” cried Spark as he hugged his brother. “You did this all for me. It’s my fault. I should be the one to make up for this.”

“That’s absolutely not true,” Garble told him, kneeling to pet his head. “I was dumb and weak so I allowed that ugly bug lady and dad to use me. All you did was care for me and there is nothing wrong with that at all. I’ll take my punishment and I promise to be a better Dragon because of it when I return to you.”

“Brother,” sniffled Spark as the little yellow Dragon was hugged by his big, red brother.

“Now, for Crag,” continued Ember as she turned to where he still was, crushed deep in the ground where her father still had his arm impaling the Earth. “If he’s still alive. Uh, dad, could you…”

“I’m… ugh… trying,” he groaned as he struggled to free his arm. “Just a little… ugh… stuck, but one more… good pull… ought to do… IIIIIIIT!!!” With all his might, the former Dragon Lord managed to dislodge his arm from the Earth, along with considerable amount of ground in the process. Flexing his arm and claws, Torch smiled then brushed the dirt from his scales.

“That is the biggest hole I’ve ever seen,” commented Spike as they stared down into the abyss.

“Are you still alive down there?” called Smoulder. They all listened and a very pained and weak moan reached their ears. “Yup, he’s still kicking.”

In time, the Dragons that had left to start a war returned to their home in the Dragonlands, but they were not the only ones to do so. Twilight had come, naturally to find Spike, and several others had joined her, including that orange Dragon that was refused to leave her side till she agreed to do something for him. Celestia and Luna had arrived to handle the aftermath of the incident with the Dragon invasion and report to the other creatures on it, later on.

Along with them, they brought a number of the royal guard and a rather familiar looking Pony, to Twilight, with a pink and purple curly tail and mane, a pale yellow body, and a Cutie Mark of three candies in blue wrappers. She had on a white collared shirt with a black tie and coat over it. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of black glasses. Though Twilight was certain it was Bon Bon from Ponyville, the “special agent” that Celestia introduced to her was called, “Sweetie Drops.”

Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar, Ocellus, and Yona also arrived, concerned about their friend, Smoulder. Despite Twilight’s reluctance to bring them along after everything that had happened, she couldn’t refuse them for wanting to be with their friends. With Starlight as a chaperone, they all went together to the Dragonlands.

Upon their arrival, they managed to quickly meet up with Ember, Smoulder and her friends. When Twilight didn’t see Spike around, she quickly grew worried. “W-Where’s Spike?” she asked Ember scanning the area for her purple and green assistant.

“He was roughed up quite a bit in the battle,” she explained. “He’s fine, but I told him to take it easy and rest. He’s in that cave over there if you wanna-” Before she could even finish speaking, Twilight was dashing off toward Spike. “-see him.”

“While Twilight is taking care of Spike,” suggested Celestia. “Why don’t we discuss what has happened today.”

“Yes,” agreed Luna, an Alicorn with a dark blue coat and a mane and tail like the star-filled night sky. Her Cutie Mark was of a crescent moon. “This matter must be handled as quickly as possible to avoid further fallout. We trust you prepared?”

“I’m ready to take responsibility for it all,” nodded Ember. “Come with me and I’ll fill you in on the whole matter.”

“Smoulder!” called out Sandbar as he and the other students hurried over to her. “We’re so glad you’re alright.” Starlight followed after them, letting them have their reunion while still keeping an eye on them.

“Thanks, but there was nothing to worry about,” she told them. “Us Dragons, we’re made of tough stuff.”

“Still,” cried Silverstream happily hugging the orange Dragon. “We’re just so glad you’re okay!”

“Yona happy too,” the young Yak agreed, joining in on the hug.

“Glad I’m not the one getting crushed in a hug sandwich,” commented Ocellus, smiling contently to be there alongside her friends.

“So, what exactly happened over here?” wondered Gallus, trying to help free Smoulder from being hugged.

“I’ll get to that,” she groaned as she waited for the hug to end. “But, first, I have something I wanna my friends, both you and them.”

“Them?” asked Gallus, looking to see Ax, Tia, and Gorge who had been watching them curiously since they had arrived. “So, those are your friends from the Dragonlands?”

“Yep, so go get acquainted and I’ll be right back,” she told them as she grabbed the box with her dress in it and hurried out of sight, leaving her friends to try and break the ice themselves.”

“Spike? Spike?” called Twilight as she entered the cave in search of him. “Where are you?”

“Twilight?” she soon heard him call back to her and hurried over. “Is that you?”

“Spike!” she exclaimed excitedly as she finally spotted him and the two were once more together.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, Twilight,” Spike told Twilight as they shared a hug with one another, something they both yearned for, for quite some time. Their eyes watered up, as well, and they both shed tears of joy.

“I’m the one who should be saying that to you,” she replied to Spike as she affixed a bandage to his cheek from some nearby medical supplies that had already been used to treat him. She then applied a few more on the many minor scrapes he had on his body that were nothing compared to the ones treated before she had arrived. “Look at how hurt you are.”

Spike had one arm in a sling while his opposite foot had a brace on it. Some bandages were wrapped across his chest and one of his wings had an ice pack wrapped on it and taped to his back. Twilight, by contrast, had only a few light scratches on her body and some singed hair.

“Please, try to to move around too much.”

“It’s not that bad,” Spike explained. “I’m mostly just sore and have some sprains. Save for my wing, that’ll need about a month to heal, I’ll be all better in a week’s time, though I’ll probably be just fine after a good night’s rest.”

“In that case, you can get back to your chores tomorrow,” she teased him.

“Please, remain still.”

“Then again, it’s the doctor’s orders that I take it easy for a week,” he amended. “I wouldn’t want to hurt myself more washing the dishes, after all.”

“Oh, Spike,” she smiled, so delighted to hear his snark. She added a pink bandage on to his nose, despite there being no sign of injury there.

“Stop moving!” cried the orange dragon as he was in the midst of sculpting a life-sized figure of Twilight out of glass. He had tagged along with Twilight into the cave and as soon as they had found Spike, he had gotten to work. Already, he was making great progress, creating a basic Pony shape of glass in mere minutes and proving his mastery of the craft. “P-Please forgive me, Princess. I am just very eager that I have gotten such a rare opportunity like this to create a figurine of you, out of glass. Chances like this are incredibly rare.”

With some flames to keep the glass soft, he adjusted the shape to properly match Twilight’s proportions, till it was just about as tall as her. Then, with the very tip of his claw, he scratched her Cutie Mark onto the flank with great care and precision.

Just watching him work so diligently, distracted Twilight and Spike for a moment as they marveled at how he poured sand from his claws over the head of the figuring and then began to mold it into Twilight’s mane. As he did this, he was careful to keep the glass in a hot, malleable state with his fire breath. While one hand molded and the other held grabbed sand from a nearby pouch to be turned into more glass as needed.

“Uh, new friend of yours?” wondered Spike.

“Oh, um, sorry,” apologized Twilight as she tried to continue her reunion with Spike while staying still enough for the Dragon to continue to work. “He was incredibly determined to add me to his collection and he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Wait a minute. I remember you,” Spike recalled. “You were the Dragon from glass sculpting demonstration.”

“And you are that little purple Dragon who volunteered to take part in it,” he replied as he skillfully styled glass Twilight’s mane exactly as the real one wore it. Then with some more sand, he melted it with fire over the figuring’s forehead and began to add her horn. “I don’t think I properly introduced myself. The name’s Flare.”

“You’re amazing,” Spike told him, staring at Twilight’s likeness. “I think you had little ones of Celestia and Luna on display at your demonstration too.”

“Yeah, but I have life-sized ones of them in my cave,” he said braggingly. “I just love princesses, so regal and majestic, the Alicorn Princesses in particular and, with this, I have three of the four. Now, if I can just get an audience with Princess Cadence I can have them all.”

“Cadence is actually my sister-in-law,” Twilight informed him. “And, technically, there are five with her baby daughter, Flurry Heart.”

“There’s another?” he gushed with even greater eagerness. “Please say you’ll introduce me.”

“Sure,” Twilight answered a bit hesitant to see such a purely happy expression on a pointy-toothed, scaly-faced creature that wasn’t Spike. “I’ll ask her next time I see her.”

“Thank you sooooo much!” he answered giddily.

“Oh, I just remembered,” spoke Spike, seeing this as actually a great opportunity. “That glass star you helped me make, for Twilight, it got broken. Do you think you could help me fix it?”

“Oh, you made me a present,” smiled Twilight, moving to hug Spike, but a huff from Flare got her to remain still.

“Sure,” he nodded, as he carefully scratched out the spiral on the glass horn and moved over to help Spike out before he continued with his sculpture.

With his backpack retrieved after the battle against Crag, Spike took out the pieces of glass and held them out for Flare to pick up. “I was very careful with it, but, even so, it still ended up breaking.”

“These things can happen, even when we do our best to avoid them,” he stated taking the pieces in his claws. “But, luckily, things like this can be easily repaired. With a quick breath and some movements with his claws, he made the pieces whole once more. Opening his hands, he revealed the six-pointed star was good as new.

“Thanks,” smiled Spike as he took it to give to Twilight. “I just hope things with the Dragons can still be fixed after this.”

“I showed Celestia and Luna that second letter you sent, regarding the ones who caused all this trouble. They’ll make sure that the other creatures understand the Dragons were not doing any of this under their own free will and that most of the ones responsible have been apprehended. As for Chrysalis, she’s already on the Most Wanted for all the trouble she’s caused in the past so there is not really anything more we can do than what we’ve already done.”

“What about Garble and Crag?” wondered Spike. “What will happen to them?”

“Tartarus,” she answered. “And probably for life considering the scale of damage caused. Ponyville avoided the worst, but places like Appaloosa and Griffinstone were badly damaged. Forgive and forget won’t work here.”

“I just wish that Garble didn’t have to be punished,” sighed Spike. “At least not like this. He might have been a part of the problem, but he made the right choice in the end. He doesn’t deserve to spend the rest of his life in Tartarus, away from his little brother.”

“Well, you saved the day once, today,” Twilight told him. “If you wanna do it again, you’d better hurry. Celestia and Luna are probably getting ready to send them there very soon.”

“Then I’d better get going,” stated Spike as he hurried off as quickly as his bandaged body could move. Twilight started to go after him, but Flare cleared his throat to remind her of her current commitment and then got to work on making her wings.

“So, you’re Smoulder’s new friends?” asked Ax with a bit of a smirk on his face as he spoke with Gallus and Sandbar. “I kinda thought you’d be cooler.”

“That’s my line to say to you,” Gallus retorted.

“Come on guys,” Sandbar mediated them. “Smoulder wants us all to get along.”

“So, Smoulder says there’s a ton of fun things you guys do,” Ax recalled. “Like what?”

“There’s all kinds of things we do,” answered Sandbar. “Sports and games in the gym, the occasional field trip and there’s almost always something cool going on in town.”

“But the most fun usually comes during the times we’re in danger of bodily harm or worse,” Gallus chimed in, getting a chuckle from the Dragon. “Seriously, we almost got turned into pincushions by little woodland critters during our first week and that is not even the close to being the most dangerous time.”

“Nothing you guys did could possibly be as crazy and dangerous as the crazy adventure we’ve been on with Smoulder these last few days from going lava surfing to throwing tar balls at the then Dragon Lord. We even got to see Smoulder with a dress.”

“I saw her in one when we were forced into a trial by a sentient friendship tree,” Gallus said, trying to one up Ax. “Then there was the time we almost blew up the school when all the magic in Equestria almost all vanished into a black hole.”

“That’s nothing,’ Sandbar chimed in. “How about I tell you both of the time I almost got lost… in Manehatten.”

“Uh, sounds like there’s quite a story to be told there,” commented Ax, not sure how that compared to everything else they were talking about.

“Prepare to be surprised,” replied Gallus, certain this would turn out as anticlimactic as all his other “almost” stories.

“So, yesterday my name was Tia and today I’m thinking of calling myself, ‘Rose.’” the Dragon formerly known as Tia told Silverstream and Ocellus.

“Wow! That’s a great name,” the Hippogriff told her. “ And what are you going to call yourself tomorrow?”

“Uh, I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Rose admitted.

“How about Bermuda or Zelda,” suggested Silverstream. “Oh, how about Skystar, she’s got a great name!”

“It’s okay,” she blushed, surprised to find someone more into her constantly changing name than herself. “I’ll figure it out.”

“But why do you even need to keep changing your name?” wondered Ocellus. “What’s wrong with your regular name?”

“I want a name that makes me sound cool, cooler than my original name,” she explained. “So, I’ve been trying different names, but none of them have really worked for me.”

“And you only try a name out for one day?” questioned Ocellus.

“Well, I used to do it a name a month, then somewhere along the line every week and now pretty much every day, but none of them feel like the right name for me.”

“Take this from someone who knows all about changing,” the little love bug explained. “Changing your name has nothing to do with who you are. I can change into things big, small, scary, or cute, but underneath it all I’m still the same.”

“Me too,” added Silverstream happily. “Hippogriff or Seapony I’m still me through and through. I’m the same no matter what creature I am. I love things like stairs and bendy straws.”

“I’m not gonna argue with you there,” Rose admitted.

“What about you? What do you like to do no matter what your name is?” asked Ocellus.

“Well, I do like to scribble a little,” she admitted and looked around. “Um, uh…” Seeing a smooth, flat wall nearby, Rose got to work digging a claw into it. Silverstream and Occellus took a peek from either side of her as she worked quite intently on the wall.

“Wow, you’re really good at drawing, uh, scratching,” Ocellus told her.

“That looks so great!” exclaimed Silverstream. “That’s us, right?”

“Uh huh. It’s just a quick sketch,” she admitted as she looked at the drawing she made of the two of them. Despite being quickly done and just meeting the two of them for the first time, what she had carved into the stone was a crude, but rather detailed likeness of the two of them. “But I’m glad you like it. If I can get some paper later, I can try to draw you two on that.”

“Oh, and you gotta draw Gallus and the others too,” smiled Silverstream, hugging Rose. “You’re so great Tia or Rose or whoever you are!”

“R-Ruby,” she told them.

“Huh?” asked Ocellus.

“My name… my real name, it’s Ruby,” she admitted to them. “It’s a nice name, but nothing particularly special or rare in the Dragonlands.”

“I think it’s actually a really wonderful name,” Silverstream replied to her. “It’s so nice and pretty and so you. Ruby. Ruby. Ruby!”

“It’s actually kind of nice to hear that name after so long,” Ruby admitted. “Maybe I could stick with it for a while.”

“So, is true what I heard about that castle, in Ponyville?” asked Gorge, once more pigging out on gemstones. “Is it really made entirely out of crystal?”

“It is,” answered Starlight, not certain that telling a gluttonous Dragon about such a thing was a good idea. “But it for living in, not for eating.”

“I wouldn’t eat all of it,” he replied, the amount of drool running down his chin telling Starlight the contrary.

“There’s plenty more to the school than just… uh, lunch period,” Starlight reminded him. “And I’m certain your eating habits likely stem from some sort of anxiety you have, kind of like when Rarity has one of her ice cream depressions. As your soon-to-be guidance counselor, it’ll be my job to help you become the best you, you can be. So, tell me, what sorts of things trouble you.”

“Nothing at all,” he admitted. “I got a cozy place to crash and all the gems I could possibly want.”

“Obviously,” she noted as he stuffed his face with gems like they were popcorn.

“What more could a Dragon ask for?” he asked.

“I think I understand,” she analyzed with a smirk as her horn glowed and she lifted up his stash of gems out of reach.

“Hey, those are mine!” he cried attempting to jump up after them, but to no avail. He could have used his wings to fly, but, instead, just sat down and gave up trying. “I’ll just get some more back home, later.”

“Just as I thought,” she replied seeing him try to snatch his gemstones. “You lack proper motivation. It’s not uncommon for a Pony, or, a Dragon, in your case, to become unmotivated when they live a life that is overly secure. Typical signs of this are a slothful attitude, quick to quit at tasks, and, in some extreme cases, the inability to see your own feet.”

“Hey!” he snapped trying to look down at his toes, but his oversized stomach blocked his view. He tried sucking in his guy and pushing it out of the way, but it didn’t help. “I can see my feet just fine. They’re attached to my legs like they’ve always been.”

“I can already tell that you are going to be a long-term project,” she observed. “But, Guidance Counselor Starlight knows the cure. A little adversity can sometimes be the best fertilizer for growth and that’s exactly what you need.”

“I’m not a plant!” complained Gorge, seeing this as his chance to make a move while her guard was down. As quick as his sluggish body could move, he tried flying up to grab at his gems. Just as he was in claw’s reach, Starlight was quicker to move them out of the way, making the hungry Dragon grab nothing but air before crashing to the ground with a flab-jiggling thud.

“It’s a metaphor from a psychology book Twilight had me read,” she explained. “And I’d say the perfect bit of adversity would be double beneficial if it could help you shed a few extra pounds. Yona, can you lend me a hoof?”

“I don’t think I‘m going to like this,” worried Gorge as he saw Yak hurry over. Comparing size, the two of them were close in proportions, though Yona was clearly more muscular while Gorge was mainly comprised of softer stuff.

“Did you need something Guidance Counselor Starlight?” she asked.

“I need you to help our new friend here,” she explained. “Think you could chase him around a bit… in a motivating way?”

“Of course,” she nodded and snorted before digging her hooves into the ground, readying to charge forward. “Yaks best at motivating.”

“I know I don’t like this!” Gorge cried as he turned to run as Yona pursued him. She didn’t even have to move quicker than a leisurely jog to get the out-of-shape lizard to work up a sweat as he waddled as quickly as he could manage.

“Another successful therapy session,” Starlight said, patting herself on the back.

“O-Okay,” spoke a very timid-sounding Smoulder. “I’m ready everyone.”

“You hear that?” called Sandbar. “Smoulder’s ready. Uh, ready for what exactly?”

“Just take a look and see,” answered Ocellus and she and Silverstream moved to the front, after spotting Smoulder in her dressed, that reminded them of the secret tea parties the three of them had from time to time.

“We-Well, how do I look?” she asked as she approached the group, fully garbed in her dress.

Sandbar rubbed his eyes in disbelief that Smoulder was wearing a frilly blue dress and pulling it off quite nicely. “Whoa, you look totally regal in that.”

“Maybe the tiara is a bit too much,” she blushed. “Too princessy, I guess. Perhaps I should take that off.”

“No, it’s all perfect,” Silverstream assured her. “Embrace your inner princess.”

“Princess Smoulder does have a nice ring to it,” agreed Ocellus.

“What do you think, Gallus?” wondered Smoulder. “You were the first to see me wearing a dress before.”

“Well,” he answered averting his eyes as he blushed a little. “I didn’t have time to really appreciate it while we were attempting to escape the school’s catacombs, but you’re rather… cute dressed like that. This isn’t just a one time thing, right?”

“I’d say mostly for special occasions and when I wanna feel pretty,” she smiled looking more comfortable wearing her dress the more they talked.

“Um, well, I was thinking of wearing some nice dresses too,” Silverstream told everyone with a slight hint of jealousy in her voice. As she announced this, she was looking at Gallus in particular. “Maybe something pink with sparkles. What do you think, Gallus?”

“I th-think that’ll look really nice on you,” he answered, feeling the pressure of her gaze on him.

“I didn’t expect that kind of reaction, but I like it,” Smoulder chuckled. “But probably something I should expect from you two love birds.”

“Hey, we’re not-” protested a flustered Gallus, his face red with embarrassment like Smoulder thought she’d have been.

“How about you guys?” interrupted Smoulder as she turned to ask the others.

“Huff! Puff! Puff!” wheezed Gorge as he ran out of steam and collapsed on the ground nearby, drenched in sweat. “It… matches your eyes nicely.”

“Yona give it too Yak hooves up,” Yona stated. “No better praise than that.”

“I still don’t get what the big deal if of wearing soft frilly fabric,” commented Ax. “It isn’t even close to being as hard as Dragon Scales so it does nothing for protection and I can’t see myself in something like that. But, if you like it, then who am I to question it?”

“I’m sure after a bit of time in Ponyville, you’ll get a better appreciation for more leisurely wears,” Starlight told him. “And our friend, Rarity, would be more than happy to make you something more akin to your tastes.”

“I guess,” he conceded as he scratched his head. “What do you think, uh, Rose, today, right?”

“Nope, I’m thinking of trying out Ruby again,” she replied. “And I wonder what kind of dress would look good on me.”

“Isn’t that your real name?” asked Smoulder, able to vaguely remember it beneath the dozens of other names she had used over the years.

“Yeah, it is,” she nodded. “We were just talking for a bit and they just convinced me to give my name another try.”

“They’re not as lame as I thought they’d be,” joked Ax.

“You aren’t so lame yourself,” agreed Gallus.

“Well, this certainly worked out a lot better than I hoped,” Smoulder breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad to know everyone’s getting along before we get back to the school.”

“All of Equestria was nearly engulfed in a war that could have destroyed everything and you were still worried about how your new friend and old friends would get along?” asked Starlight.

“And about me showing off my new dress and embracing my girlish side,” she added. “Compared to that, armageddon doesn’t seems so bad.”

“I can’t deny I’ve been myself,” Starlight admitted with a smile.

Led by Special Agent Sweetie Drops, a group of Pony soldiers walked on either side of Crag and Garble as they proceeded towards a portal leading directly to Tartarus. Garble had a number of bandages wrapped on his body, most on his face where his father had kicked him during his struggle for the Bloodstone Scepter. His arms and legs were shackled while his wing were restrained against his back to ensure escape was impossible.

Crag was in far worse shape, his entire body was wrapped in bandages. He a broken leg and arm wrapped in a cast and used a crutch to help him walk, in spite of the offer to carry his bruised and broken body towards his confinement.

Overseeing their transport was Celestia, Luna, Ember, and Torch. In her hand, Ember had a new scepter, albeit one that was hastily made with a gemstone wrapped onto the end of a stick with a rope. And instead of a magical, red Bloodstone, a normal green emerald was used. Spark was there too, watching sadly as his brother was being taken away. Beside him was the blacksmith, Hammerhead, patting his head to try and comfort him.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay taking in Spark?” asked Ember.

“I’m more than happy to,” replied Hammerhead. “I met the little fella just the other day and I can’t deny that I’ve gotten a little attached to him. Sides, he needs someone to look after him and if he’s content with such an arrangement then I’d say we’re good to go.”

“It’s fine,” agreed Spark. “But...what about my brother?”

“I’m sorry,” apologized Ember. “But it can’t be helped, after all the trouble he’s caused.”

“It’ll be okay,” the large Dragon told the smaller one. “We’ll go visit him every chance we can. It’s not much, but it’s at least something.”

“Yeah,” a sad Spark sniffled.

As Crag neared the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, he stopped walking forward and turned to them. “Princesses,” he spoke rather casually. “Been a while, Celestia.”

“Uh, I guess,” she replied with uncertainty in her voice.

“Luna, a shame you weren’t around when I was causing havoc,” he chuckled. “The old glory days would have been even more spectacular.”

“Um, I’m sure they would have,” she answered for lack of a better response. She turned to Celestia to whisper to her. “Have you two met before?”

“Apparently,” she whispered back. “Hard to tell under all those bandages.”

“You certainly seem awfully cheerful for someone who is about to spend the rest of his days in Tartarus,” Ember told Crag. “And that is an especially long time for a Dragon.”

“It won’t be all that long,” he answered making what could barely be made out as a smirk.

“Ember!” called Spike as he hurried over, as fast as his bruised body could carry him. He stopped quickly when he saw Crag and decided to keep his distance. “Oh, good, I’m not too late. We need to talk.”

“In a minute,” she told him before returning her focus to Crag. “What do you mean, ‘it won’t be that long?’”

“The Bloodstone Scepter is gone and there is no means to recreate such ancient magic,” he explained. “In time, the fragile peace residing in the Dragonlands will crumble, now that the title of Dragon Lord is nothing more than that. Without any means to unite our kind, the Dragons will battle for territory and power once more and without Critias this battle will spread out across Equestria. In truth, the war to be waged across Equestria has not been stopped, merely delayed and rather than it be shared amongst the Dragons, it’ll all be burnt black by their all consuming greed to possess it all for themselves.”

“A riveting speech, but what does that have to do with your early release?” she questioned him.

“How else do you plan to restore the peace other than me, the one with the strength and drive to bring order amongst the chaos,” he told not just Ember but everyone. “It’s only a matter of time and I’m a patient Dragon. I can wait.”

“I can’t believe out of all the parts of him I broke,” commented Torch growing tired of him prattling on. “His mouth wasn’t one of them.”

“I’ve said my piece,” Crag assured him. “Till then, I’ll see you all soon.” He then resumed walking to the portal, not stopping anymore as he neared it. However, just as he was started to walk through, he turned his head to look back and looked directly at Spike, filling the young Dragon with a feeling of dread as he stared back. Fortunately, Crag vanished into the portal a second later, but the knots in the purple Dragon’s stomach remained.

“Did I really do the right thing?” wondered Spike. “When I destroyed the Bloodstone Scepter?”

“Of course you did,” Ember assured him. “We’re better off without it.”

“Then why do you have that?” questioned Spike, pointing at her replacement scepter.

“I kind of got used to carrying it around while being the Dragon Lord,” Ember admitted. “This is more a decoration.”

“Still, can you keep order without the real thing?” he asked.

“Well, I never liked using it in the first place, but just having it probably did help,” she admitted. “It’ll be hard for one Dragon to keep order over all the others, but, fortunately for me, I’m not alone. I have plenty of supporters, plenty of friends in the Dragonlands who will help me. And I know if I need your help, you’ll be there for me too, Spike.”

“Of course!” he nodded.

“Me too!” agreed Spark. “You’re the best Dragon Lord ever!”

“Heh, I gotta agree with the little guy,” added Hammerhead.

“Don’t forget me,” stated Torch. “Anyone who tries to cause trouble, well, just show them Torch’s Crater and I’m sure that’ll put an end to the problem right then and there.”

“Did he name the hole he punched into the ground?” asked Spike to Ember who gave him a nod. “Yeah, that’d do it.”

“And you have our support as well,” spoke Celestia.

“Indeed,” agreed Luna. “This could have been a great tragedy, but we can see the ideals of peace and friendship you have bestowed upon your people has not fallen on deaf ears.”

“Rather than continue to attack even after they were freed from the power of the Bloodstone, they chose to stop and return home. Clearly, this is the fruits of all your hard work and for that, we are all extremely grateful.”

“Thank you,” smiled Ember, true relief in her voice. “But we still caused a lot of damage, some we might not be able to undo, but please allow us to help fix what we can. Not just for all of you, but for every creature we’ve attacked.”

“They’ll all be delighted to hear that,” Luna told her. “We couldn’t ask for a better Dragon Lord or friend.”

“I’m glad everything is working out,” Spike commented upon hearing all this.

“Oh, didn’t you have something you wanted to talk to me about?” questioned Ember.

“I did?” he pondered for a moment before recalling why he originally ran all the way over. “Garble!” Turning to look, he saw the big, red Dragon was about to join his father in Tartarus. “Wait!” Spike called out, stopping Garble before he took his first step into his new home for life. “You can’t send Garble to Tartarus.” Hearing this, Garble stopped and turned back to listen.

“Spike, the matter is already closed,” Ember told him. “For his crime against all of Equestria, Garble has to face punishment.”

“But it was his father’s influence on him and Chrysalis who tempted him,” he tried to reason with her. “And maybe a bit indirectly from me as well. I tried to help him, but I just pushed him over the edge. If not for me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Spike, it wasn’t your fault,” Ember assured him.

“Of course it wasn’t,” agreed Garble, as he walked back, the guards at the ready in case he tried anything. “I ended up like this because of me. I caused all this trouble cause I couldn’t adjust to acting like a namby pamby Pony and singing songs and whatnot.”

“It isn’t as bad as you think, Garble,” Ember told him. “You don’t have to be a friend like them, just be a friend in your own way. I’ll admit I am not a fan of everything Pony, especially when they spontaneously break out into song, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. You’d see that too, if you could give it a chance.”

“Well, a little too late for that, now,” he pointed out. “I’m stuck in Tartarus forever.”

“Oh, Garble,” cried Spark, unable to restrain himself while his brother was so close. He wanted to go up and hug him, but he couldn’t get near while the guards were in his way. “I don’t want you to go!”

“I’ll be fine,” he sighed. “You can come visit me… when you feel like it, of course.”

“Every chance I get,” Spark sniffled.

“This is what I mean,” Spike stated. “I don’t want to send Garble to Tartarus, if not for his own sake, for his brother. Can’t we punish him some other way?”

“Well… maybe there is one way, but it’ll require a unanimous decision from all the leaders of Equestria… and you’ll have to agree to something as well.”

“Of course! Anything!” agreed Spike as he watched Ember discuss the matter with Celestia and Luna. He listened as best he could, but only managed a few words while the rest only sounded like mumbling. Finally, they turned back around to give their answer. “Well?”

“Garble,” spoke Celestia. “We still need to discuss the matter with the others, but, for the time being, your eternal stay in Tartarus will be suspended. Instead, you will be sent to Ponyville to be taught about friendship to help better yourself and you will remain there until you have properly graduated. You will also be required to take some counseling to help you better manage your anger and aggression. Do you accept this? If not, we will have no choice but to unsuspend your stay in Tartarus.”

“Both sound like horrible options,” he tried to sound cool as he considered them. “But… it’d probably be a bit easier for my kid brother to see me in Ponyland, so why not. At least I’ll be the biggest, baddest one there.”

“And to make certain you won’t be causing trouble, Spike will be your parole officer to keep you out of trouble,” Ember added.

“I will?” asked Spike, not certain how he got such a role.

“It’s what you agreed to before I could even tell you what it was,” she pointed out. “While he’s in Ponyville, Garble will be your responsibility.”

“Great,” worried Spike, thinking he would quickly regret putting his two bits into the matter.

“This really is great,” cheered Spark as the guards were now able to let him through to hug his brother. “You got a second chance, thanks to Spike. Isn’t he a great hero?”

“He’s not so bad,” commented Gable a little smile on his face as tears ran down his cheeks. “I’m starting to see that now.”

Seeing the two of them smile, Spike couldn’t help but smile too. “I’m starting to see that too.”

“Hey, dude,” commented Fume as he and Clump relaxed in a lava pool. “Do you think it’s all over yet?”

“Not sure,” Clump replied, rubbing his thick chin as he looked around. “There was a lot of noise earlier, but now it’s gone all quiet. Maybe it is.”

“Guess we don’t have to, ‘keep looking’ anymore,” Fume stated. “...But, it might not be a bad idea to stay in here a while longer.”

“Good idea,” agreed Clump and the two Dragons continued to goof off.

With Garble spared his one way trip to Tartarus, Spike made his way back to where Smoulder and the others were. As he arrived, he saw that Twilight had finished modeling and was now talking with Starlight. Smoulder was also there too, hanging out with all her friends. She had already put away her dress and had on her backpack as they were getting clos to wrapping things up on their end too.

“Hey, here comes Spike,” Starlight said as she spotted their purple-scaled friend approaching.

“Hi everyone,” greeted Spike, waving as he approached.

“How did everything go?” wondered Twilight. “Did you manage to help Garble?”

“Sort of,” he answered. “It looks like we’re gonna get another Dragon student joining us next semester and he’s going to need a fair bit of help from our trusty guidance counselor too.”

“Oh, wow,” marveled Twilight upon hearing the news. “To go from one Dragon student to five is incredible. I bet every other creature is going to wanna send us more students too. This is so great!”

“So, Garble is in need of some therapy?” wondered Starlight. “About dealing with his villainous past? Well, that is my specialty.”

“Maybe some of that,” Spike informed her. “ But mostly about helping with his anger and aggression. Oh, and he’s got some daddy issues too.”

“Daddy issues, huh,” she replied with a sigh as she remembered her own struggles with her father. “Well, those are my other specialty. As soon as he gets settled into the dorms, I’ll schedule a session with him.”

“Actually, Ember wants me to be his parole officer,” Spike continued to explain. “ So, it looks like he’ll be stay in the castle with all of us.”

“Hopefully he won’t see it as an all-you-can eat buffet,” commented Starlight as she turned to Gorge, completely exhausted after being chased by Yona. “We don’t wanna literally be eaten out of castle and home.”

“Do it for the castle,” Gorge groaned. “ Do it for that tasty, delicious castle.”

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about all that till the new semester,” yawned Spike as he rubbed his eye.

“Looks like someone’s in need of a nap,” Twilight stated, seeing the fatigue on his face.

“Can’t blame him after everything he’s been through,” added Starlight. “I think we could all use some rest after today.”

“It’s a shame the Festival of Dragon Lords had to end this way,” sighed Spike as he let out another yawn. “But there’s always the Feast of Fire, coming up, to look forward too.”

“That’s a positive way of looking at things,” agreed Starlight. “I’ll just go gather the students and then we can be off.”

As Starlight made her way over to Smoulder and the other students, Twilight helped Spike onto her back so that she could fly him home. “I already got your backpack,” she told him. “So, are you all set to go now?” Spike didn’t answer. “Spike?” Turning her head, she couldn’t help smile, seeing Spike already fast asleep, a light snoring escaping his maw. “Heheh, rest well, my chivalrous lil knight. We’ll be home before you know it.”

“This is completely out of the question,” snapped Smoulder as she noisily made her way over to Spike and Twilight. “When Dragons do things, we have to see them through to the end, no matter what.”

“Shh,” hushed Twilight. “Spike’s asleep.”

“Oh, sorry,” she apologized much quieter. “But Spike and I can’t just go home like this.”

“What do you mean?” wondered Sandbar as he and the others walked over.

“When Dragons set out to do something, we follow through till it’s done. The two of us came together to the Dragonlands and we planned on going home just the same. So, we have to go back home just the two of us. Also, don’t you all have to get ready to jump out and surprise us for our ‘Welcome Back Spike and Smoulder’ party? Pinkie Pie is setting one set up for us, isn’t she?”

“And after this whole ordeal,” added Ocellus. “She’s making it a ‘Welcome Home Heroes’ party and the entire town is going to celebrate your return.”

“So much for a little peace and quiet after all this,” commented Smoulder with a little smile.

“Since when is a quaint, little place like Ponyville known for being peaceful and quiet?” Gallus reminded her.

“Good point,” she conceded, but a short flight and train ride will probably give us a couple of hours more to rest first.”

“I don’t know,” admitted Twilight. “Are you sure you’ll be okay taking Spike back on your own?”

“Dragons travel light, taking only what’s absolutely necessary,” she explained, carefully picking Spike off of Twilight’s back and cradling him in her arms. “But what we do bring, we do our best to take care of. I promise you, Spike will be in good claws.”

“Then, I’ll trust him in your care,” Twilight told her.

“If all that’s settled we’d best hurry on home,” said Starlight. “Every creature, gather around and I’ll teleport us all back to Ponyville.”

“See you for your not so much of a surprise, surprise party,” Silverstream waved goodbye.

“Ready, everyone?” announced Starlight as her horn glowed brightly. “Here we go!”

“And have fun flying back home with your boyfriend,” teased Gallus, waiting for the last second before they all vanished in a flash of light, leaving Smoulder, Spike, Ax, Gorge, and Ruby behind.

“H-He’s not my boyfriend!” cried a flustered Smoulder, her face bright red now. Turning to her three Dragon friends, she was at a loss for words to say after that. Ax and Ruby just smirked at her, her expression saying plenty. Gorge was still too tired to do much else beside lay on the ground. “Uh, well, we should get going. Gotta a surprise party to get to.”

As her friends waved goodbye, Smoulder took to the air, making her way towards the train station in Appaloosa. She had Spike securely in her arms as they made for the border of the Dragonlands. As the sun began to sink over the horizon and paint the sky an orangish golden hue, Smoulder took a moment to admire it and then looked back down at Spike who continued to sleep with a peaceful look on his face. She smiled too, recalling all that they had been through on this crazy adventure and how heroic Spike had been. She also thought about the night they had spent together, the pain she felt in her heart when she thought he was gone and the relief when she found that wasn’t true. Without realizing it, she had started to cry a little.

“I guess stories with happy endings can be nice too,” she thought.