Spike, the girls, and Dragotron stood before Shining Armor and the guards present with the girls in shock, and Spike aggravated.

“On your knees and hands in the air!” the guard continued to order Spike like he was the boss.

Before Spike could respond, Sunset stepped up, “Now wait just a minute!”

The guard continued, “Sunset Shimmer and Luster Dawn, you and your friends please step away from the criminal.”

“Criminal?” Starlight asked in confusion.

“Spike Clawson, you're under arrest for destruction of private property, destruction of two cars, and mercilessly beating four innocent ponies.” the guard continued to do Shining Armor's job which was starting to irritate the captain.

Spike frowned, “Those assholes were anything but innocent!”

“Silence!”

“Stand down!” Shining Armor ordered the guard.

Dragotron approached, “These ponies threaten you, sir? Then let me deal with them.” he readied himself.

“He's got a robot to kill us all!” a guard panicked.

“WILL YOU ALL STOP?!” Twilight screamed grabbing their attention.

Once they were all calm, Shining Armor approached, “Twily, are you ok?”

“I'm fine, Shining Armor. As you can see we all are.” she said showing them no harm was done to them.

Another guard took noticed of Starlight and Dragotron, “Who're these two?”

“They're friends.” Luster assured them.

“I'm Starlight Glimmer; I'm basically a traveler.” the unicorn girl explained.

“And I am Dragotron, personal guard and friend to Spike Clawson.” the robot said.

Shining Armor sighs, “Jeez, leave the city for a week and so much happens.”

“A lot has happened, Shining Armor. Believe me.” Twilight agreed.

“Girls, what were you thinking?” Shining asked rhetorically.

“We felt it was time for a change of pace.” Rainbow answered, only for Applejack to nudge her.

“Leaving the sanctity of the city is a violation.” one of the guards reminded them.

“And aiding a convict.” the guard from before reminded them while shooting Spike a nasty look making him frown.

“Spike is not a convict!” Applejack argued.

“Have you just forgotten the list of crimes he was accounted for?” the guard asked.

“Well, he wouldn't have done it if the Equestrians in our city weren't assholes to humans like so many of them were including all of you!” Rainbow argued back before speaking to Shining Armor, “Not you of course, Shining.”

Spike spoke up, “Yeah, maybe I did do that stuff, but you think that's the worse compared to what several Equestrians did to humans? They actually killed them out of biased spite, but I did not to those four!”

“Oh, this cannot end well.” Fluttershy shivered.

“And we didn't just leave without making a plan.” Sunset added.

“Then why go with him?” Shining asked.

“We're trying to find The Garden.” Pinkie answered with a smile.

“The Garden?” the guards asked.

“That's just a myth.” the one guard spat.

“Actually, I looked over Spike's notes, and it's very highly it does exist.” Twilight answered.

“Twilight, as much as I commend you for your desire to discover new things, mom and dad are worried, same as all your parents.” Shining told the girls.

“Yeah we figured.” Rainbow admitted.

“We know they'd worry about us, but we just had to come for Spike's sake.” Rarity said.

“And it's good that we did.” Luster agreed.

“He has so much potential that everyone in the city just overlooks and treats him like a plague like they do all other humans.” Sunset said.

“And we love him,” Fluttershy declared, “All of us!”

This left the guards and Shining in shock, “Twilight?” he asked.

“It's true. We left with Spike not just to look for The Garden, but because we love him. More than anyone ever did.”

“But we never showed it in public because we were afraid of what others thought,” Rarity continued, “But not anymore.”

“We're stickin' to Spike like glue, and there ain't nothin' you can say or do to change our minds.” Applejack said.

“And we found something here that may change history.” Twilight added.

Shining and the guards were confused, as the captain spoke, “What do you mean?”

Twilight motioned Spike forward feeling he should explain, “Permission to speak, captain?”

The nasty guard spoke, “No you may-” he was silenced by Shining Armor who spoke to Spike.

“Permission granted.”

“Thank you,” Spike said before giving the one guard a nasty look in return, “This complex we just came out of was once used by human and pony scientists who were hoping to find a way to make humans feel stronger and faster compared to the ponies so they wouldn't constantly feel inferior. My parents were two of the scientists leading the project. But we found something else happened here.”

“And that would be?” one of the other guards inquired.

“The virus that turned humans into ferals was also made here.” Twilight answered.

“What?” Shining Armor gasped.

The nasty guard looked at Spike angrily, “Your parents created the outbreak?!”

“They did not!” Spike argued, as Twilight calmed him and spoke.

“We did some decrypting and discovered the formula should've worked, but there was an act of sabotage to it.”

“Someone sabotaged it?” Shining Armor asked in confusion, as the other guards were just as curious.

“Yes. We don't know how or why, but someone there sabotaged the formula and launched it prematurely resulting in the creation of the ferals.” Twilight continued.

“You're absolutely sure about this?” Shining asked.

“When have I ever not been sure?” his sister challenged him.

Shining Armor sighed knowing his sister too well wouldn't lie about something like that, “What else did you find?”

“Only that we have a lead.” Sunset spoke.

Twilight showed them the picture they found and pointed to Cinch, “Abacus Cinch, who is known as the Human Rights Activist in Canterlot was previously a scientist who worked here when the virus was launched. It's a long shot, but she is the closest lead to finding out who tampered with the project creating the feral virus.”

“I know I committed a few crimes back in the city before, and I will face them eventually, but for now all I ask is you talk to Cinch and see if you can find anything.” Spike pleaded.

“Shining Armor, we could be uncovering the greatest conspiracy here. Doesn't that count for something?” Twilight asked.

Shining Armor looking at all the facts and such was torn between being the understanding big brother and captain of the Royal Guard. He finally spoke, “Stand down, everyone.”

“Huh?” the guards asked.

Shining Armor turned to them, “This goes beyond what we were sent for. If there's any chance we can uncover who really turned the humans into ferals, then we should do what we can to uncover the truth.”

The guards were started to get curious about it, but the nasty guard looked at Spike as rage started to fill his eyes before screaming, “NOO!!!”

This got everyone’s attention, “Jeez, buddy, don't pop a blood vessel.” Rainbow told him.

“We came out here, to apprehend this criminal and bring these girls home!” the guard argued with his superior and fellow guards, “Now suddenly you're telling us to just abandon our job and listen to this twisted conspiracy?!”

“Get back in line, soldier!” Shining Armor ordered.

“NO! You've gone soft, Shining Armor, but not me. I'm not going to be swayed from my command. I'm gonna bring this scumbag human back to Canterlot. EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL HIM AND DRAG HIS CORPSE BACK!” he screamed in fury as he ran at Spike with every intent to end him.

Before Spike, the girls, or Dragotron could react to the insane guard, a feral beast that looked like a crocodile leaped out of nowhere and chomped onto the guard ripping him in half instantly killing him. This caused the groups to back away and the new feral roared at them.

“Feral!” the guards called, as they armed themselves.

“A Leatherhead!” Twilight gasped while identifying the feral species.

“And it's not alone!” Rarity motioned around as more Leatherhead ferals approached.

“These ones have incredibly thick hides.” Twilight warned everyone present.

“So let's get in the game!” Rainbow pumped, as Applejack passed off some of the rifles they found in the compound to the other guards.

“Let's take these varmints!” Applejack called, as they started shooting the Leatherheads.

Though they were nailing the ferals, it was as Twilight said their bodies had tough hides, but it wasn't their aim to kill them with the rifle shots, but just to distract them. Twilight and Sunset started blasting the ferals back with their magic, along with Spike using energy blasts from his gauntlets.

Dragotron observed the scene and spoke, “Activating defense protocols.” he extended blades from his claws, “I'm at your command, Spike!”

“Then show us what you can do.” Spike ordered.

“With pleasure!” Dragotron flew in and tackled one feral wrestling with it while jabbing its blade into its chest multiple times making sure to pierce it hard enough to kill it.

“Good robot!” Pinkie smiled, as she started shooting at another feral leaving it wide open for Shining Armor to blast it with his magic.

Rarity was using her shield magic to block the ferals attacks and push them back, as Applejack continued to pour it on them. As the guards kept shooting they ran out of ammo.

“Reload!” One of the guards ordered, as they started to reload, but two of the Leatherheads started coming right for them.

As they panicked fearing this was their end, the two ferals were blasted at the side by Spike with his gauntlets smoking. The guards looked at Spike in surprise, as the human nodded as they resumed fighting.

Dragotron started firing laser shots at some of the Leatherheads that recoiled from the shots. The robot flew at one of them grabbing it from behind and wrestled it. Dragotron started prying its mouth open, and ended up making him open it too far back it killed him.

Seeing this Spike got an idea as he looked at the remaining four ferals, “Dragotron, pry their mouths open. I got an idea!”

“As you command.” Dragotron confirmed, as he attacked one of the ferals and made it keep its mouth open.

“Time for some medicine.” Spike said, as he launched a small metal ball down the feral's throat.

“Spike, is that?” Twilight began.

“Yeah. Time to put them to the test.” Spike answered.

Twilight catching on used her magic with Sunset and Luster's to ensnare the other three ferals and open their mouths allowing Spike to shoot another small metal ball down their throats.

“Everyone take cover!” Spike ordered, as the group took cover behind something, as Spike pulled out a switch, “Kaboom!” he hit the switch and suddenly the four ferals exploded from the inside killing them.

Everyone poked their heads out seeing the remains of the group of ferals, “Ugh.” one of the guards gagged.

“Those mini-bombs we worked on worked like a charm.” Twilight told Spike who smiled.

“They sure did.” Spike nodded.

“Spike.” one of the guards spoke up as the others approached.

“You-you saved us.” another said.

“Even after all that was said to you, you helped us?” a third said equally confused.

Spike nodded, “I could've let those ferals eat you because of how you'd treat me and so many other humans, but I didn't. I'm not a monster, not like your former comrade there.” he motioned to the two halves of the deceased psycho guard who tried to blindly kill him.

Shining Armor approached, “Spike, you did good coming to our defenses along with my sister and her friends. I've always thought there was more to you than what others said. And now this confirms it. You really do have a heart of gold.”

“Yeah, we could've told you that.” Rainbow boasted.

“I appreciate the words, Shining Armor. But aren't I still a criminal?” Spike asked.

Shining Armor smiled and answered, “Criminals don't help others in life or death situations. You're a hero, Spike.”

“Let's hear it for Spike!” one of the guards declared, as they cheered.

Spike looked at the guards in shock never seen them express this amount of emotion before and for him none the less.

Twilight smiled as she leaned close to him, “See, not every pony is like that.”

Sunset leaned in on his other side, “They just need time to get to know the real you.”

Spike smiled knowing how right they were on that, “Yeah. There is hope.”

Later on, the group met back up at their rides with Shining and the guards to discuss everything. Shining was admiring the camper they recreated, while some of the guards were playing with Jack.

Twilight spoke to her brother, “So as you can see with all this data Cinch is the best chance as of now to find out who created the virus at the lab.”

“And if she doesn't know either?" Shining ask.

“Then we'll have to figure it out ourselves.” Twilight answered.

“You know mom and dad will be worried when I go back and tell them this.”

“I know, but we have to. For the sake of the human race.”

Sunset spoke to Shining Armor, “And tell mom and Aunt Luna, we're all fine. We're not sure when we'll return, but one day we will.”

“It won't be easy telling them that, especially when one of my guards tried to assassinate Spike and ended up getting killed by a feral.”

“That's how the ball rolls out here.” Luster replied.

Shining Armor nodded, “Alright, guys we're heading back. Just us.”

“Captain, that could take awhile.” one of the guards reminded him.

“Not without my help.” Twilight said, as she used her magic to create a sling portal and appearing on the other side was Canterlot almost as if it were right next door.

“Impressive use of portal magic, Twilight.” Starlight gasped.

“Learned it from Princess Celestia. Only an alicorn has the magical prowess to create a portal like this.” she explained.

Shining turned to Twilight, “Keep us updated in what's going on out there.”

“We will, as long as you keep up up to date with your investigation too.” Twilight said.

Shining looked at Spike, “And, Spike.”

“Yes?”

“Look after my sister and her friends ok?” he requested.

Spike smiled and nodded, “You got it.”

The guards entered the portal returning to Canterlot, as Twilight closed the portal. When they were gone the group sighed in relief.

“And here I thought I was going to be courted off to the slammer, or publicly executed.” Spike joked.

“The second one wouldn't happen unless mom and Aunt Luna allowed it.” Luster Dawn assured him.

“I'm just glad Shining Armor's on our side.” Applejack said.

“I know.” Rarity agreed.

“My brother would never betray me like that even as a royal guard.” Twilight said.

“Well, let's get a move on.” Spike suggested, as they all packed up and headed on the road.

Back in Canterlot, Shining and the rest of the guards presented themselves before the two sisters relaying all they learned about Spike and the girls.

“And that's everything your highness’s.” Shining finished.

Celestia sighed in relief, “First I am so glad to know my daughters and their friends are safe.”

“Same for Spike.” Luna put in.

“And now this raises a bigger question,” the eldest sister continued, “The virus was staged by someone who worked along side Spike's parents by tampering with their project.”

“And it could be anyone in this picture.” Luna said looking over a copy of the picture Spike and the girls found in the lab.

“So far we've only identified one of the people being Abacus Cinch.” one of the guards said.

“Yes, we're aware of Cinch's status here.” Luna replied.

“With your permission we can bring her in for questioning and see what she might know.” Shining Armor said.

“Maybe even get the names of some of the others present in this photograph.” a second guard added.

Celestia nodded in agreement, “Very well. Bring Abacus Cinch in for questioning.”

The guards nodded and saluted before taking their leave. The two sisters, sighed as Luna spoke, “Sister, how do you feel?”

“Overwhelmed, Luna,” she confessed, “My daughters and their friends are out there helping one human boy discover a place many thought was a myth and now discovering the virus was all set up by someone. There's so much to take in.”

“I know, but we must believe Sunset, Luster, and the others know what they're doing and staying safe out there,” Luna comforted her, “And remember they're doing this not just for the good of humankind, but because of their love and devotion for someone many others in this city have shown nothing but contempt for. That's something to be proud of.”

Celestia couldn't help but smile and shed some tears, “Yes. I am very proud of all of them. Even Spike. Despite the hardships he's endured he's willing to protect them with his life. Even protect the very ponies who never paid him any mind.” she said recalling how Shining Armor told them how Spike protected the guards from getting killed.

Celestia and Luna walked to the balcony of the office and looked out into the distance past the wall. Celestia thought to herself, 'Good luck out there, all of you.'

Back with Spike and the girls, after leaving Obsidianville, they stopped and made camp at a secure spot. As nighttime came they sat around the campfire to keep warm, while Pinkie mad s'mores for everyone. The girls looked and noticed Spike had a look of discomfort on his face.

“Spike?” Twilight began.

“Is everything all right, darling?” Rarity inquired.

Spike looked up, “Oh, sorry, girls. Just had a lot on my mind.”

“With what happened today, I can't blame ya.” Applejack replied.

“Yeah, from almost being arrested to attacked by ferals, is enough to really shake things up.” Pinkie chuckled.

“I'm just glad we all got through it alive.” Fluttershy said in relief.

“Same.” Luster Dawn agreed.

“Not to mention the discovery we found.” Starlight put in.

“Yeah. Who would've thought the virus was all staged by someone working along side your parents?” Rainbow asked Spike.

“Well in our discovery we got a new friend to help us.” Sunset motioned to Dragotron who nodded.

“Uh-huh,” Spike nodded before sighing, “I had really hoped this would just be a simple search for the Garden, but now it's more than that. We learned about how the feral virus was created, but by who and why?”

“And if we can actually find a way to reverse it.” Twilight noted.

Spike stood up, “Whatever the case, we'll find the Garden and uncover the truth behind this virus. And I'm glad to say I won't be doing it alone.”

The girls smiled, and stood up with him, “Yeah, you're stuck with us now.” Rainbow smirked.

“For life.” Pinkie smiled.

“We're all here with you, Spike.” Twilight assured him.

“Forever.” Fluttershy smiled.

“Because we love you, darling.” Rarity said.

Spike smiled and shed some tears, “Thanks, girls. I love you all.”

“Bring it in, ya'll!” Applejack chuckled as they all gather around Spike and kissed him with Jack nuzzling against their legs.

Elsewhere in a room sat a figure in an armchair, before a beeping sound could be heard. They looked over at a monitor and saw a beacon blinking.

“Someone found the lab,” the figure began, “Which means they may know the truth. I must not let this go unturned.” the figured whistled, and flying into the room were two ferals that appeared to be crow-like.

“Go my Tengu's. Fly for Obsidianville and follow from there for anyone who may be out to discover the secrets.”

The two ferals squawked, “Yes, master.” the two flew out an opened balcony window and into the night. The figure looked up as lightning cracked and the light from it revealed the figure was an adult man with short dark hair and smirking devilishly.

{To be Continued}

Author's Note

This ain't over yet. But with all that's going on, I should divide it up into another part with this serving as the opening, and next half focusing on them continuing their journey to find the Garden and discovering who made the virus. I can't say when I'll make the next part, so just enjoy this and keep reading until next time.