Beautiful Scales

by Obsidian Ink

Rating: teen
Tags: Diamond Dogs, Original Character, Spike, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 35979

After being just the teensiest bit greedy, Rarity opens up a can of worms that has farther reaching consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined.

After being just the teensiest bit greedy, Rarity opens up a can of worms that has farther reaching consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined.

(Description will be lengthened once i have more chapters up.)

Published 2014-01-22 04:50:04 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-10 05:06:32 UTC

Prologue

Author's Note

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is property of Hasbro, and it's characters are the brainchild of Lauren Faust. This is a not-for profit fanwork, so please don't sue.

Prologue

It was a long walk back through the Everfree forest to Ponyville, with or without giant, tangled, grabbing black, spiky vines everywhere. This gave a pony plenty of time for thought.

Well, some ponies anyway. Pinkie pie hadn't stopped talking at the princesses -all three of them- since they left the tree of harmony, and she occasionally asked the others to pitch in with their bits of the story, but the one unicorn in the group, Rarity, hadn't really contributed that much to the tale, so she'd been left largely to her own devices. This left the fashionista to muse on what, she soon realized, was a travesty.

The necklace she wore... was now devoid of the utterly flawless amethystine gemstone that had once been its centerpiece. The same with all her friend's pendants, and Twilight's tiara.

That was a travesty. A beautiful thing... six beautiful, treasured objects that had saved them and their country, were now less than whole. Despite what Twilight had said to Applejack, Rarity couldn't help but feel that somehow, they were less than whole now that the things hanging around their necks were as such. Rarity simply could not stand feeling that way.

“Princess?” she asked.

“Yes?” all three alicorns said, turning to face her... then glancing at each other and blushing.

A brief chuckle by the other ponies, Rarity continued. “I was just wondering... what's to be done with these?” she said, nudging her empty necklace with a hoof.

Princess Celestia looked thoughtful for a moment. “I'm not sure. They aren't magic, really. I sense no latent power from your jewelry, now that the elements are no longer within them.

“That's strange, they came with the elements when we defeated nightmare moon. I'd think there would be some magical activity within them.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Conjuring a few lumps of Aurum and shaping them into jewelery for the convenience of their carriers, not all of whom can levitate them with telekinetic magic? 'Tis something easily within their power.” Princess Luna said. “Think not too deeply upon it.”

“Aurum?” Rarity asked, the others all looked at their jewelery briefly.

“They are not normal gold, Rarity. They are comprised of an incredibly pure material called out of the ether itself, I think they call it 'Alchemical gold' now rather than Aurum though, sister.” Celestia said. “But they're not magically active by themselves. It just means they're a perfect conduit for the magic of what is placed inside them.”

“Still, what is to be done with them?” Rarity asked.

“I don't know... alchemical gold, or 'Aurum' if you really want to call it that, is easily worked with. I suppose it could be recast into common magic charms.” Celestia said.

“Oh, well, if that's all.... I was just wondering if, perhaps, I could see about doing something with them?” Rarity offered.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You're interested in them?”

“Oh, very much! That is... if every other pony is willing, of course...” Rarity giggled.

“What'cha gonna do to 'em rarity?” Pinkie asked.

“Well... it's a surprise!” she said, stalling, as she wasn't quite sure yet WHAT she was going to do.

“Well, if'n it's one of Rarity's projects, ya'll gotta know it'll be good.” Applejack said, unhooking her necklace and holding it out to the unicorn. A moment later, every one of the other five former element bearers handed their now empty jewelery over to the unicorn.

Beaming, Rarity looked around at her friends. “I promise, you'll all love the result!”

Chapter 1: A deal with the Dogs.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 2: A Special Jewel

Chapter 2: A Special Jewel

The next week and a half for Rarity were some of the busiest days she'd ever had. Negotiations with the diamond dogs only took a few hours, at most, but she then spent the next three days down in their tunnels using her gemfinder spell to lead them to the richest deposits of gems in the dog's territories. Not the small packets she'd pinpointed last time, those were all over the place, and that would take forever to dig up everything in the caves. No, she needed bulk gems she could sift through to find what would and what wouldn't work if she was going to fill this order, so she led them to where she sensed large seams of gems, and told them to simply 'start digging' into the dirt and rock, in the process expanding the dog's cavern home considerably.

They were, admittedly, very large gemstone deposits.

Their payment was interesting, to say the least. The diamond dog alpha female, who's name was Bella, was oddly more interested in clothing, medicine, tools, and weapons.

“Spears? Swords? Sheilds? Darling, whatever do you need these things for? I mean, you've got those huge paws, and those claws and teeth...” Rarity had asked Bella.

“Dogs fight creatures in deep caves.” Bella answered simply.

Dreading the answer she'd get, Rarity's morbid curiosity forced her to ask: “What creatures?”

“Lizards with many legs, hard hides, eyes that turn to stone when look in them unless lizard dead. Bugs that claw through rock, and eat dogs whole. Little things on two legs with wings of bat, that throw fire at us. Many others too.”

“These... creatures... do they ever come to the surface?”

“No, they stay close to fires deep in earth. They stay deep, far away from sun and moon.”

Rarity was never so glad that she lived in a house on the surface, like a sensible creature. Not that she'd ever insult the diamond dog's choice, they seemed quite suited to a life with conflict in it.

Odd that they caved so quickly to her whining, a couple of years ago.

In any event, she'd sent a letter to twilight promptly after finishing negotiations.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I hate to be a pest, darling, but I find myself in need of a number of bulk goods, here's a list of the kind of things I need, if you could put me in contact with some provisioners of these things, I’d be most appreciative.

-3 tons dry dog kibble.

-1.5 tons canned dog food.

-50 can openers.

-1 pictographic can opener instruction manual for species with prehensile paws.

-Approximately 900 doses of Flea and Tick Medication, canine, and a similar number of doses for G.I. Parasites.

-600 bottles herbal cold and fever remedies.

-1 ton iron ingots.

-1 ton steel ingots.

-three cartloads of seasoned oak logs, ready for carving.

-5 woodcutting axes.

-1 two-creature handled saw

-5 woodcarving sets

-4 anvils.

-4 sets assorted smithing hammers, tongs, and other metalworking accoutrements.

-4 metalworking grindstones

-2 smelting furnaces.

~Rarity

She'd sent the letter off via pegasus mail the day after she'd finished the negotiations. Unlike living with a baby dragon who had a magical connection to the princesses and who could receive teleported scrolls, she had to wait a whole two days for a response.

However, the very next morning, sometime just after breakfast, rather than a dragonflame delivery, a scroll appeared in the middle of rarity's bedroom via a standard teleportation spell.

“Oh, goodness!” Rarity started, the pulse of magenta colored spellcasting resonating in her own horn. Alicorn magic, orders of magnitude more powerful than a standard unicorn's, always made an impression on mere mortal unicorns when they were in the presence of it's use.

Rarity levitated the scroll over, and noted that the wax seal had the imprint of twilight's cutie mark in it.

Dear Rarity,

What's up with this list? It sounds like you're outfitting a group of mercenary verterinarians! Please, please tell me the stress of the fashion industry hasn't gotten to you. Reply by inserting your letter into this one and charging the seal with magic, it'll teleport back to me.

~Twilight Sparkle.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Oh goodness, mercenary veterinarians! There's a mental image! Nono, I’m doing business with the Diamond dogs, and this is what they wanted in exchange for their services and gemstones.

~Rarity

Dear Rarity,

The diamond dogs? The ones that kidnapped you, made you find gems for them in a dark, dank cave, haul a rusty minecart, etcetera?

~Twilight Sparkle

P.S.: I may have to sign everything 'Princess' now for all my official letters, but I really wish you, one of my best friends, wouldn't keep doing this royal deference thing to me. We went over this during the whole tree of harmony escapade. I thought you understood.

Dear Twilight.

I'm terribly sorry dear, I'm just caught up in the whole new title thing. If you prefer I just call you Twilight in private, than so be it.

And yes, the very same diamond dogs, though I've been mostly dealing with a female named Bella. She's got a good head on her shoulders, even if she talks like the others we met. I told her I needed a lot of gems, and that I was willing to pay her for it, only she wasn't interested so much in bits, but in other goods she could immediately use. It seems they have a hard time getting certain things down in their caves, as they don't seem to be... generally accepted in pony towns.

In any case, those are the things they needed most. There was some talk about weapons and armor they needed to fight some nasty things in the deepest tunnels that they have to deal with, but I insisted I wasn't able to procure such things for them.

~Rarity

Dear Rarity,

I'm really glad you didn't try to put weapons on that list, I know they might be dealing straight with you now, but they did kidnap you before, I wouldn't want to add anything dangerous into the mix with them. Though, it seems they'd know how to make their own, considering a bunch of the ones we encountered were wearing iron armor and carrying spears, rusty though it all was.

I'll talk to Celestia though, see what she thinks. I'll have the answer for you shortly.

~Twilight Sparkle.

The answer came a day later, in the form of a number of pegasus shipping sky wagons arriving in front of the boutique, filled to bursting with the supplies she'd requested. The iron and steel ingots, and the blacksmithing equipment was causing the shippers no deal of strain. Rarity paid them promptly, and just in time, the diamond dogs picked exactly then to come marching into ponyville, pulling eight big, rusty carts, heaped full of glittering gemstones. The shipping ponies were backing away enrvously as the huge, armor clad brutes came up, save for Fido, who was in his typical vest and collar, then looked over in confusion as rarity called out to them.

“Bella! Darling, wonderful to see you, and earlier than I expected!” Rarity said in all friendliness as the dogs approached.

“Miss Rarity have things for us?”

“Oh yes dear, Your food, medicine, materials and smithing equipment, as agreed.” Rarity said, gesturing at the sky wagons.

Bella hopped down off the cart and went over to the wagons, not even bothering to look at the pegasi as they backed off at her approach. She inspected the contents briefly, nodding in approval, then turned to the other dogs with her, and waved them over, then turned to rarity as they unhitched themselves from the carts.

“Pony good as word, everything here. You want more gems, bring us more food, medicine, wood, metal.”

“Oh, most definitely darling, infact, I'm going to be needing another shipment before the month is out, how does another delivery a week from now sound? I'll even throw in some cloth and sewing supplies if you're interested.”

Bella nodded with a grunt. “Could use more blankets. Pups get cold at night.”

Rarity looked horrified. “Darling, why didn't you say something earlier! I'd have included blankets with this trade.

“Needed medicine and metal more. Not want ask too much.” Bella admitted.

“You silly thing, wait here.” Rarity said, then turned to the gathering crowd, who were still keeping a wary distance. She looked about till she found who she was looking for.

“Thunderlane, could you be a dear and head over to barnyard bargains, and tell Mr. Rich I need...” Rarity turned back to Bella for a moment. “How many pups are in your pack dear?”

“Hundred twenty.” Bella said, a stunned look on her face.

“A hundred and twenty comforters, and he can charge it to my account.”

Thunderlane blinked, nodding rather dumbly, before he took off and flew across ponyville to the store.

“Hold on here for a few minutes dear, we'll get you those blankets to take back with you, allright?”

Bella looked like she was about to start crying. “We not even bring more gems.... why miss Rarity...?”

“Because it's the right thing to do, dear. I wasn't the bearer of the element of generosity for nothing.”

* * * * *

“Wow, out of your own pocket, just like that?” Twilight asked, sitting across from the white unicorn, steam from two cups of freshly brewed tea rising between them.

“Well what else was I going to do dear? Leave their poor pups shivering in those cold, damp caves? Good heavens, no wonder she wanted medicine. Turns out Bella's a mother herself. She introduced me to her litter when I visited a few days ago.”

Rarity smiled at the memory. Three rambuctious diamond dog puppies playing like... well, what else, puppies? Rolling around on the floor, chasing a ball, playing tug of war with a length of rope. They raised a ruckus, lots of play growls that sounded so vicious they sent chills up Rarity's herbivorous spine, but in the end the pups were sweet and affectionate little things, and she found herself being nuzzled and licked affectionately by the little trio that growled as ferociously as a manticore mere moments before.

“As always, that was very generous of you Rarity.” Twilight said, smiling back. “Just as it was to make me a new dress for the gala.”

“Oh don't be silly dear, you're one of my best friends, and this is your first as a princess, of course I'm going to make sure you look good for it. I'm just glad I managed to make something work for the old element tiara.” Rarity said, gesturing at the piece of jewelery on the table before them with a hoof.

Twilight, looked down at the tiara that once held the element of magic. The 6 pointed star shaped socket was once again filled, but this time by a gem that was a true purple, rather than the magenta stone of the actual element.

“It's really nice, but I'm a little surprised you didn't go for something matching the element of magic.” Twilight admitted.

“Twilight, darling, times change, these aren't the elements of harmony, and shouldn't try to be. As our friendships grow and change, so do we. This,” she said, tapping the simple jewelery on the table, “Is nothing more than a symbol of our friendship, a reminder of what brought us together. It's not a weapon for defeating great evil, and it's certainly not some kind of chain that holds us together, like Applejack thought.”

Twilight chuckled. “Of course not.” she said, then levitated the 5 pointed tiara of gold filigree and small spinel chips off her head, and replaced it with the tiara of Aurum and Amethyst.

“I still have to wonder where you found a gem the right shape though.” Twilight admitted, glancing in a mirror.

Rarity sighed. “I'm afraid I had to admit defeat on that one, dear. The shape, as distinctive as it is, is basically impossible to find naturally. I had to pick a particularly large, flawless amethyst stone and... well... cut it.” Rarity said, almost as if confessing a sin. “And sadly, this past week, it wasn't the only one.

“Really? I didn't know you knew how to do that Rarity.” Twilight said.

“Honestly? I don't. And for the record? It's really hard to find anypony in equestria who is, either. I actually had to ship this stone all the way to a gryphon jeweler in manehattan to have it custom cut. I was worried that the stone might be damaged, but they did a wonderful job with it, not a single crack or chip in the whole thing.” Rarity said, before levitating her teacup of the saucer and taking a sip. “Most of the others though, it's been a fun treasure hunt, sifting through the piles for gems and gemstone chips in just the right shapes to fit the sockets.” rarity glanced at the ceiling and put a hoof to her chin as she recounted. “I took a misshapen fire-ruby and a couple of emerald chips for Applejack's necklace. Then there were the three different jagged chips of ruby, yellow topaz, and sapphire for Rainbow Dash's, a teardrop yellow topaz and a pair of smaller diamond chips for Pinkie's. And for Fluttershy-”

“Twilight! I'm done sorting scrolls and- oh!” A rather juvenile male voice said, catching the attention of both mares sitting at the table, and the quartet of white pelted, blonde maned hoofmaidens. Standing in the open door to Twilight's chambers was the diminutive, rich purple and green form of Spike, the baby dragon.

“Uh... hey Rarity!” Spike said, slightly confused. “I uh... I didn't know you were visiting today.... I would've been here sooner.”

Rarity smiled. “Oh it's alright, the trip was a bit unexpected, but I’ve done what needed to be done and now My time is my own.”

“Y-you can stay for a while?” Spike asked, walking over to her side.

“Of course. I wouldn't head back to Ponyville without seeing how my little Spikey-wikey is doing, now would I?”

Spike smiled brightly, and toddled over. “So uh... what brings you up here?” he asked. It'd only been two weeks since he'd last seen Rarity, they were still technically living in the golden oaks library, but time to time, Twilight's new duties could not simply be relayed from Ponyville, and the two of them had to come to Canterlot, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a week or more. This had been one of the long stays.

“Oh, just finishing up my dress deliveries, dear.” Rarity gestured to the dress mounted on the ponyquinn in the corner. Made from rarity's new line of patented magic weave fabrics (Twilight had exercised her royal connections to get legal action taken against Suri for what she'd done with the cloth, which had been patent pending at the time) the dress draped off the alicorn shaped ponyquin in a wave of dark blues, pinks, and golds, in the colors of the sunset sky.

“Fantastic work as always, Rarity.” Spike said, smiling up at her.

“Well, I hope you'll appreciate my other effort as much.” Rarity said, grinning a little.

“You made something else?” Spike said, looking expectant. If it was Rarity's, it was sure to be lovely.

“Why certainly. Just look at Twilight.” Rarity said.

Spike turned and looked at his caretaker, and blinked, then his jaw dropped. “That's the...!”

“Element of magic? No, but as good a copy as a poor mortal can make. It's just an amethyst Spike.”

“A cut gem?” Spike asked.

“Sadly, yes. The element of magic is simply too unusual a shape to find naturally.” Rarity said, giving a dramatic sigh.

Twilight Sparkle's eye's widened slightly. “Oh! All this talk reminds me, Spike, I got another sack of gemstones from Cadence.”

“From the crystal empire?” Rarity asked, her curiosity piqued.

“Of course! For a while, Cadence foalsat for both me and Spike, and she still likes to indulge him.” Twilight said, levitating out a canvas sack that rattled with the sound of gemstones clacking against each other within.

Spike accepted the small pouch, as big as his paunchy little baby gut, and opened the drawstring to reveal a plethora of shining stones in all colors of the rainbow. “Homnia...” he muttered as he licked his scaly chops.

Rarity cringed internally. She knew Spike enjoyed his gems, but all those flawless specimens were just going to go down his gullet. Not that she'd ever say anything, of course, she wouldn't deny the little fellow his natural diet...

“What do you think Spike, eating, or hoarding?” Twilight asked.

Rarity blinked. “Huh?”

“Oh, I think I'll hoard these a little while. Some ripening and they'll go perfectly on my next cake... and yes, I'll have miss Cream help me with this one to make sure I don't eat the gems before they're actually IN the cake.” Spike said.

“Ripening?” Rarity asked.

Twilight looked back over at Rarity. “Oh, that's right. I never explained it to you. I'm not entirely sure how, since it doesn't make sense to me, but apparently Spike can taste a difference when a gemstone's been 'aged' a few months.”

“Yeah, it just keeps getting better and better, till it just... stops getting better. Then it's ripe.”

“Do they ever go bad?” Rarity asked, curious despite herself.

“Oh, no, not at all! I once had a gem for over a year, and I thought it'd surely gone bad, but I took one tiny nibble, and it was just aged to 'perfection'. Nothing different than any other emerald I'd aged for three months or longer.” Spike said, walking over to a small chest near his little basket bed and opening it, it was just barely big enough that, had it been empty, the little dragon could've curled up inside. As it was... the thing was already starting to overflow. So when he tried dumping the contents in, not only did all the gems he was pouring out spill over the side, they took some of the contents with them.

“Aw darnit!” Spike said.

“Language, master Spike.” one of the maids said, stepping over and immediately starting to pluck up the spilled gems with her wings.

“Oh dear, let me help.” Rarity said, instantly on her hooves and at their side, levitating up the spilled gems, when her eye passed over one of the exposed gemstones that had been buried deeper within the chest.

She froze.

Then immediately pushed the maid aside as she tried to put the gems she's picked up with her wing back into the chest, threatening to obscure what she'd seen.

“Rarity? Are you ok?” Spike asked.

“That's exactly what I’ve been looking for.” she said, her telekinetic grip reaching out and hefting a small, pure, and absolutely flawless diamond out of the chest.

A stone that looked almost exactly like one of the trio on her cutie mark.

Rarity levitated her saddlebags over, and out of it, she fished the still empty necklace of the element of generosity, and experimentally laid the stone against the socket.

It fit. Flawlessly.

“Oh my stars, it's perfect!”

“I thought you said all the necklaces were re-socketed?” Twilight asked.

“Everypony's but mine, dear. It may be a common shape, but for some reason nothing I got in any of my shipments from the diamond dogs worked.”

“Wait, diamond dogs?” Spike asked.

“It's a long story dear, I’ll tell you later, right now, I hate to do this to you, but could you possibly see to letting me have this gem?” Rarity asked.

Twilight sighed and muttered “Here we go again...” under her breath.

“Aw, but that one just got ripe!” Spike whined.

Rarity's lower lip started to quiver, and her eyes started to shine. “But... but I’ve been looking all over for a stone like this... Not many stones come in the shape of the element of generosity except...” Rarity stopped short, blinking, her face going blank, then looked back at the freshly socketed stone. “Good gracious, is this an arctic diamond?”

“A what?” Twilight asked.

“An arctic diamond. It's what my cutie marks show. They're an incredibly rare stone that you sometimes find in ancient, heirloom jewelery. Infact, the last time anything was made with them was a little over a thousand... years... ago...” Rarity blinked. “Spike, where did this stone come from?”

“Cadence sent it to me, so... the crystal empire?” he answered.

Rarity nodded. “I thought so. The crystal empire were where the arctic diamond mines were located. When the empire vanished, so did access to those mines.”

“Which Sombra had the citizens work in.” Twilight said, then realized what she sounded like she was saying. “Oh, but that doesn't mean this diamond was mined by enslaved ponies! The mines were re-opened, and the workers are given fair wages, and healthy working conditions!”

“Oh, well, that's good to hear.” Rarity said, then sighed, lifting the diamond out of the socket. “I suppose I'll just have to find a fresh stone down in the international gem market while I’m in Canterlot today.” Rarity said.

“You don't have to.” Spike said firmly.

“Why not?” Rarity asked, looking back at the little dragon, who reached up and pushed the hoof holding the gemstone back against the necklace, and popping the stone back into place.

“Because I want you to have this one. I mean... the necklace is from an element of harmony... the stone in it should be a gift from a friend, right?”

Twilight blinked. Rarity smiled.

“That's very sweet of you Spike. I accept.” she said, then leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Twilight furrowed her brows, then put on a placid expression. “Ah, Spike? Could you do me a big favor and go down to the kitchens and tell the cooks we need some fresh scones up here?” she said.

One of the hoofmaidens was about to open her mouth to say something when Twilight used her magic to hold her lips shut and fix her with a look.

“Oh, uh... okay Twilight! I'll be right back!” Spike said, jumping up and sprinting off down to the palace kitchens.

As soon as she was sure Spike was out of earshot, Twilight looked at the hoofmaidens. “Leave us please.”

The four mares bowed briefly, then made their way out the door, and closed it behind them.

“Twilight, is something wrong?” Rarity asked, confused.

“Rarity, seriously, I can't believe you sometimes. What is wrong with you?”

“Wrong with me!?” Rarity exclaimed. “Twilight, I have no idea what you're talk-”

“I mean you taking advantage of Spike like that!” Twilight snapped. “Oh my Spikey Wikey, that's a terribly lovely gemstone you have there, can I have it pleeease? I don't care that you spent months getting it just right for eating, I NEED it!”

“Oh, please twilight, I did not do anything like that-”

“Rarity, that's the SECOND time you've taken advantage of how Spike feels about you to wangle a rare gem out of him for free. Admittedly, the last time that gem was the one thing that prevented him from going full greed monster on us, but still...” Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples with a hoof. “You're one of the most generous ponies I’ve ever met, but when it comes to Spike, you just make more and more demands of him all the time.”

Rarity frowned. “how so?”

“When we went to manehattan, you had him doing ALL your heavy lifting. All your baggage, on his shoulders.”

“Well the little darling did insist-”

“Rarity, Applejack was right there, she's one of the strongest mares I've ever met, she could've taken at least half that load easily, and you know she'd be more than eager to help if only you asked. But since Spike was there, he ended up carrying EVERYTHING.”

“Well...” Rarity said, looking a bit sheepish.

“And then there's you using him as a living pincushion all those times.”

“He said he didn't feel anything...”

“And then you paid him to look after opal and only gave him a tiny ruby chip-”

“Now hold on, that was a fire ruby chip, and it was extremely valuable!”

Twilight blinked. “Seriously?”

“Of course. The way those stones amplify natural light into a radiant glow, it's impossible to miss. Why, I could easily purchase some large industrial equipment with the amount of bits that chip was worth.”

Twilight stared for a moment, then shook her head. “Ok, fine, but did you even tell that to Spike?”

“Twilight, I love the dear, but I don't think he has a care for bits. He was going to eat that gem, wasn't he?”

Twilight sighed. “Probably.”

“I do see your point though.” Rarity said, “I have been rather... greedy when it comes to him. Taking him for granted. Oh, why is it we always hurt the ones we love?” Rarity said, then giving a dramatic sigh.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, now that I've brought it to your attention, please try to think of Spike the way you think of other ponies.”

“Twilight Sparkle, you have my word.” Rarity said, putting her left forehoof over her chest.

Twilight smiled. “Good enough for me.”

* * * * *

The rest of the visit continued in quiet, idle conversation. Rarity bounced a few ideas off Twilight for the flight suits for the Ponyville Aerial relay race team, and had them shot down immediately by Twilight's logic.

“These outfits are loose, flowing dresses Rarity. They loose points if they or their clothes touch the rings. That's why the Wonderbolts wear skintight suits, besides also reducing aerodynamic drag and letting them fly faster.”

So much for the uniform dress idea.

Eventually though, the day began to draw to a close, and Rarity had to bid a fond farewell to her friends, both the alicorn and the dragon, and return to the train, and thence to ponyville, wearing the newly re-socketed necklace of generosity with its beautiful diamond glittering with a faint, internal luminescence.

The train ride was so uneventful that Rarity found that, for the first time in nearly two weeks, she had nothing to think about. She kept nodding off during the ride, only getting jostled awake every few minutes made it a considerably un-restful sleep so that when she arrived back at the ponyville platform, she stumbled off the train in a daze.

“Ugh... Come on Rarity, just get back to your Boutique... you can have a nice long sleep, then spend the day at the Spa tomorrow with Fluttershy like you planned... just have to get home first...” she muttered to herself in the darkened streets of ponyville.

Thankfully, in such a quiet town, nothing happened to her on her way home, and before she knew it, she was locking the door behind her as she dropped her saddlebags in the closet, and smiling as Opal came up to nuzzle on her mistress' foreleg. Unusualy affectionate for the normally grouchy feline.

Until Rarity realized that she hadn't left out any cat food for the pampered feline's dinner.

“Oh, right... sorry darling, mama will feed you now.” she said, trudging into her kitchen.

A few minutes later, with the cat munching away happily on meat chunks in gravy in her little food bowl, Rarity finally dragged herself up the stairs and into her bedroom. So tired that she didn't even remember to take off her necklace as she flopped into bed.

The hours crept by, and all seemed normal in the carousel boutique, until somewhere around 3:00 in the morning, when a creaking noise followed by a loud crack, which awoke the cat sleeping in the showroom floor, and made her look up, then sneeze as dust fell onto her nose.

If not for the cat's natural reflexes and speed, what happened next would've been... unsavory. An even louder crack and a crash preceded a humungous, thick, scale covered tail falling through a freshly made hole in the ceiling, followed by an even larger set of clawed, scaly hind-legs and hindquarters that fell into the showroom.

With a yowl of terror, Opal careened out of the boutique via the pet door, and ran straight up the nearest tree, where she remained, quaking with fear, for hours.

* * * * *

The next day, Rainbow dash was flying her usual circuit around town, doing weather maintenance. She was mentally laying out her plans for training Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps, her partners for the aerial relay, while she did the mind numbing work of arranging the weather clouds as per the weather team's protocol, when she noticed Fluttershy out for a walk.

Only, the yellow and pink pegasus was moving at a brisk, nervous trot.

Something wasn't right.

“Yo Fluttershy, where's the fire?” Rainbowdash called, swooping in towards her friend.

“Oh! Uh, hello Rainbow Dash. Uhm... there's no fire, but I was going to see Rarity.”

“Rarity? Why you looking so hassled then?”

“Oh, it's nothing... just we made an appointment at Aloe and Lotus' spa yesterday after she dropped off my dress and necklace, and she never showed up.”

Dash nodded. Rarity had brought her gala dress and necklace yesterday as well. “Fluttershy, Rarity's late for lots of stuff, don't let it worry you.”

“Dash, we made the appointment for ten o'clock this morning. It's almost one in the afternoon now. She's never this late, and I'm worried.” Fluttershy explained.

“Hmmm... you’re right, that is weird.” Rainbow said rubbing her chin with a forehoof. "Tell you what, I’ll come with and we'll both check on her, kay?”

“Oh! Thank you Rainbow, I’d appreciate that.” Fluttershy said, smiling.

Fluttershy took to wing to follow rainbow, but even her fastest couldn't keep up with what to rainbow was a casual pace, still, she didn't arrive at the boutique that far behind her friend.

It was there, though, that the two of them found the door locked.

“Maybe she's out?” Fluttershy ventured.

“Hmm... I can't tell... there's some kind of cloth over the window.” Dash said, trying to peer in through the glass panes on the door. “Gah, I’m gonna go check the upstairs window.”

“Oh! What if she's still asleep? She has been working awful Hard lately.”

“Working hard or not, sleeping till mid afternoon's still not cool, especially if you have plans with friends.” Dash said, then flapped up to the second story window and tried to peer in. “Darnit, more of this weird, scale pattern cloth, can't see a thing...” she groaned, then started rapping on it with her hoof. “Hey Rarity! You in there? Wake up already!”

* * * * *

An interminable racket, pounding away at her head, that was the first thing Rarity sensed upon regaining consciousness. Or, to be more specific, that was the thing that forced her back into consciousness in the first place.

The second thing she realized, was she could hear Rainbowdash's voice, albiet faintly, berating her to wake up. Oh dear, did she oversleep? Well, she'd better get a move on then.

It was then that she found she couldn't move, she was penned in on all sides by something hard and solid. Her limbs were pressed to her body in a strange fashion, and her whole body felt strange. Oh dear Princesses, had some uncouth pony of ill intent invaded her home?

She tried opening her eyes, to see what on earth was going on, but when she did, even though her eyes were open, she found she couldn't see a thing. It was too dark. Yet there was nothing she could feel pressed over her face, other than the surface of whatever it was that was holding her immobile.

It was at that point, that panic truly set in, and Rarity began to thrash in the tight confines of wherever she found herself. She tried to scream, but there was hardly any air... yet, the thing holding her... was it beginning to give? Oh thank heavens! She just had to push... a little... harder...

* * * * *

“Rarity, I swear if you don't come out of there I’m going to...” Rainbow was yelling when suddenly a crack formed in the window infront of her... and not from one of her hoof taps. Startled, she backed off a few feet in the air.

Before any pony could say anything else, cracks started forming in all the windows of the boutique, as well as some of the walls... then the walls started bowing outwards in seemingly random places, and the whole structure started to groan in complaint.

“R-r-rainbow Dash... what's happening...!?” Fluttershy called up, fearfully. Nearby, ponies just going about their day heard the ruckus and came to investigate.

Before Rainbow could respond, up in the tree next to the boutique, a feline scream sounded,loudly, before Opal leapt from her perch and hit the ground running, sprinting off into ponyville, but neither Fluttershy nor Rainbow Dash gave her any mind.

Because just then, With a resounding crack and crash, Carousel boutique split into several large, gilded pieces, and fell apart, like a hatching, gigantic Faberge egg...

To reveal a full grown dragon, white, with crest spines of rich purple and an underbelly of pale blue, that let out a roar as it threw off the roof and a good chunk of the wall of the upper floor of the building, coming down to land on all fours once it had room, the walls of the structure that had contained it now all knocked down. The dragon swung its tail through the air once before coming down to hit the ground with a resounding thud that left a long impression in the grass.

Fluttershy's pupils narrowed to pinholes, and he face drained of all color while Rainbow Dash's jaw went slack.

After panting for a moment from the exertion, the dragon looked around in apparent confusion, then down at the roof of the building it had just thrown off itself in shock, then confusion. “What in-OH!” it started to say, the dragon's voice a distinctly feminine and pretty one, though deep as one would expect from having a pair of lungs the size of a shed. However, she cut herself off, her paw going to her mouth.

Then it raised said paw into her view and looked at it. Then turned its head to look at the rest of its body.

For the span of several heartbeats she stared at first confused, then horrified.

Before the massive dragoness let out a horrified roar, that got every pony there screaming in terror.

Chapter 3: Panic!

Deep in the everfree forest, in a cave at the base of a mountain, there lived a dragon. He had a hide of rich green scales, and an underbelly and wing membranes of yellow. He owned a sizeable hoard of gemstones, but not a terribly large amount of gold.

This dragon had gotten his gems digging in the earth nearby his cave home, every gem coming out of the earth pre-cut and finely polished, it was a beautiful thing.

On this day, the dragon was out and about in the edge of the forest, closest to rambling rock ridge, digging at the earth with his tremendous paws and unearthing pockets of myriad, gleaming gemstones. And that was when he heard it.

A panicked draconic roar, carrying from afar. That alone would be enough to draw his attention, but what really startled him, was the fact that he distinctly heard a female of his species.

He threw the last clawfull of dirt and gems into a large burlap sack hung around his neck on a length of rope, and with a surge of his mighty wings he took to the sky.

* * * * *

Ponies are a herbivorous herd species, whichever of the three tribes you care to look at... unless you think of the bat-winged ponies that make up Princess Luna's personal guard, but that doesn't apply here.

As herbivorous herd creatures, they have a certain ingrained mental wiring, if one of the herd spots something scary, they scream and run away from whatever frightened them. Other members of the herd observe this behavior, and do the same, helping to spread the alert and get the rest of the herd moving away from the threat.

Admittedly, ponies are a notoriously flighty and skittish species to begin with, heck, the first half of training in the Equestrian royal guard is designed to get the recruit to actually stand and face whatever might actually be scaring the civilians around them.

Ponies in Ponyville demonstrate this trait, perhaps better than anywhere else in Equestria. What with disasters happening there every day of the week, one would think that they'd become inured to such things. Instead the residents of this quaint little village have, if anything, gotten even more skittish. Not only running away in terror from monsters, mad demigods, and rampaging star beasts, the ponies here would even run and scream from a stampede of frightened, adorable, fuzzy, harmless little baby bunny rabbits.

So it came as no surprise that, one cloudy afternoon, when a huge white and purple wingless dragon burst out of and destroyed somepony's house, everypony freaked out.

“DRAGON!” the cry arose from the populace as they went scrambling off in every which direction.

“W-what? No, wait, please! I'm not-” the huge white scaled beast tried to say, before one of the rare exceptions to the rule appeared before its face.

“What'd you do with Rarity!?” Rainbow Dash demanded of the towering white reptile. Startled, the dragon sat back on its hindlegs, now in an upright position

“What?! What're you talking abou-” The dragon tried to speak.

“Dash! Watch out for its firebreath!” Fluttershy cried out, cowering behind a tree. The dragoness lowered her paws to look at where the second voice had come from, and in a blink, Rainbow Dash streaked first away from, then almost immediately back, to the dragon, racing around the great beast's torso in a rapid blur.

“What is going on-OOF!” the dragon yelped as something constricted tightly around her middle, pinning the forelegs to its body. Immediately following, the blur came up and wrapped around the dragoness' long snout, which then cinched tight... a length of rope around the long jawbone, clamping the dragoness' mouth shut.

Suddenly hogtied, she struggled and thrashed inside the bonds, but, though its hindlegs were unbound, the creature didn’t seem to have good coordination or balance, and it's clawed, scaly paws slipped under it, and the massive white scaled beast toppled over in an arc, bringing it's head down hard onto an object that had been discarded in the backyard of the boutique over a year prior.

This object was a boulder, formerly nicknamed 'Tom'.

The dragon's head bounced off the stone once, then flopped back onto the grassy earth, out cold.

* * * * *

In ponyville, most ponies, indeed, will run in terror at the slightest sign of trouble. There are two exceptions. One of those exceptions was Rainbow Dash, who would charge headlong into danger just for the thrill.

Applejack of the apple family was one to charge in to protect her home, friends, and family.

She had been standing in the middle of the market square, selling apples at the family stand when she first heard the commotion, and was racing straight towards the noise while other ponies were running as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

Before she could even get out of the square though, Rainbow Dash cane up to her in a flash that made the earth pony farmer rear up on her hindlegs, nearly enough to fall over backwards.

“Applejack! I need rope! Lots of rope! Right now!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“I got a fresh spool in mah cart, but what's-” Rainbow Dash blew her off her hooves by blasting past her to the cart, where she grabbed one end of the coil of rope, and then zipped off back where she'd come from.

“What in Tarnation's goin' on?” Applejack muttered as she ran on towards the sound of.... whatever it was.

Applejack arrived just in time to see the colossal form of a full grown white dragon, wrapped up in every last inch of her brand new rope, topple to the ground before her.

And hit its head on the boulder that Rarity had once thought was a diamond with a resounding crack.

Applejack cringed.

“There! Now it can't breathe fire and smoke on us!” Dash whooped as she came in for a landing.

“Oh good.” Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief as she came out of hiding. “But uh... how is it supposed to tell us what's going on?”

“Uh...” Dash said, obviously not having thought that far ahead.

“Good question, conciderin' its been knocked out cold.” Applejack said, tentatively coming up to the dragon and prodding it in the nose with a hoof.

“Wait, I knocked it out? Dang I'm awesome!” Dash said.

“Ah think it had more ta do with the boulder it clonked its head on when it came down, Rainbow.” Applejack said, pointing at the boulder that the dragon's head had bounced off of... and where a small streak of blood now gleamed in the dull overcast light.

“Oh my goodness! That... that doesn't look good...” Fluttershy gasped.

“Oh... geeze, I didn't mean for that to happen.” Rainbow said, looking rather shocked.

“Well now we gotta get the doctors here. Ah'm no expert, but a hit to the head that lays a creature out like that is seriously bad news, to anythin', ah'm assuming dragons included... Speakin'a which, where'd this dragon come from, and... land sakes what happened ta Rarity's house!?” Applejack exclaimed, finally taking in the ruin of the boutique.

“That's where the dragon came from, we were just coming to check on-RARITY!” Fluttershy suddenly cried, then ran towards the wreckage.

“Oh mah stars, Rarity was in there!?” Applejack exclaimed, Taking off at a gallop to follow the yellow pegasus around the unconscious dragon's head, with Rainbow flying over the top.

They got about 10 pony lengths around the dragon's head when a vast shadow descended from above, causing all of them to freeze and look up, straight at a vast winged, green scaled form that was currently blotting out the sun.

“Not again...” Fluttershy whimpered.

* * * * *

The dragon of the everfree forest roared at the top of his lungs, diving straight on top of the ponies that had captured the female, and landing quite like a pouncing cat, with an impact that shook the ground like a miniature earthquake. The orange one and the yellow one scattered, while the blue one with the prismatic mane and tail zipped around him like a fly, at which he swiped with his clawed forepaws.

Then she came in and bucked him in the nose.

It mildly stung.

“Hah, take that!” the mare exclaimed.

The dragon rubbed it's nose briefly, and checked. No blood.

He glared down his snout at the tiny mare, and bared his teeth in an angry snarl.

“Aw crud...” The mare said, fear washing over her features.

The dragon took a brief inhalation, and then let out another stentorian roar, the force of which propelled the little pegasus down the road, rolling head over hooves.

With no more ponies to oppose him, the green scaled beast wrapped his forelegs around the female's bound and limp form and, laboriously, took to wing. Taking her aloft and carrying her off towards his cave in the everfree, and safety.

* * * * *

“Ohmygoodnessohmygoodnessohmygoodness...” Fluttershy whimpered in a mantra as she shook.

“What in tarnation's going on? It's dragon after dragon today!” Applejack exclaimed, watching around the edge of a building as the green dragon carried the white one away.

“Y... yeah... you... better run!” The voice of Rainbow Dash came as she stumbled back towards the ruined boutique.

Applejack turned as her friend approached. “Rainbow! Are you alright?”

“Yeah... yeah.... just give me a minute to let the world stop spinnin'...”

“Well shake it off quick, we need somepony ta get to canterlot and tell Twilight to get down here, and bring the guard with 'er. This' an emergency!”

* * * * *

“I must say Twilight, you've been coming along splendidly in your governmental skills.” Celestia said to the younger alicorn walking alongside her in the palace corridor.

“Well, I figure I have to, what with being a princess now.” she shook her head. “Sheesh, me a princess. That's still mind boggling.”

“I understand Twilight, it's a big adjustment.” Celestia agreed.

“I mean, my whole life I've been an academic of magical and sociological studies and one day suddenly I've got wings and a royal title? It's enough to make any pony's head spin.” Twilight sighed. “And then there was Discord's seeds and the crystal tree.” Twilight said, tapping the aurum tiara she was wearing, with the brand new amethyst gem.

“That certainly was an adventure, wasn't it.” Celestia chuckled, glancing at Twilight's regalia again. “I still can't get over how much it looks like the real thing.”

Twilight smiled. “Yeah, I’ve been getting that reaction all day. Discord actually asked me if I’d gone and taken my element back off the tree before he realized it was the wrong color.”

Celestia laughed quietly. “Well, in any event, I think it's past time you had some time to yourself again.”

Twilight blinked and looked up at her former mentor. “What? But, the gala, and the official meetings-”

“Are all perfectly alright on their own. I have professionals handling the gala arrangements, and I think you've done enough governance internship for a while. Go be with your friends, relax for a few weeks, Luna and I can handle things up... here?” Celestia stopped walking forward.

Twilight blinked, then looked down the hallway... where a unicorn guard was galloping up to them.

“Your majesties! Lady Rainbow Dash arrived at the gates with urgent word from ponyville!”

Twilight blinked in surprised, but Celestia's gaze narrowed. “What has happened?”

“The town has been attacked by dragons, your majesty!”

“WHAT!?” Twilight shouted.

* * * * *

“Dash, please, slowly this time, please tell us what happened.” Twilight implored of her friend, wind whipping past as the group all rode along with princess Celestia in the royal Phaeton.

The stunt flyer sighed. “Fluttershy got worried about Rarity because she missed spa day or something, so I went to see what was up with her. And when we get to Rarity's place, we can't see anything through the windows, so I go knocking at her bedroom window, and suddenly the whole place bursts apart and there's a full sized dragon inside. I tied the thing up fast, but before we could do anything another dragon comes out of nowhere and knocks me flying, then takes off with the dragon that came out of the boutique and heads off into the everfree forest.”

“Uh... was this dragon really big, and green, with extra sharp claws, and a really spiky tail?” Twilight asked.

Dash looked at her oddly. “Yeah... it was. How'd you know?”

“Spike and I ran into him once.” Twilight said, then looked at spike, who was currently shaking uncontrollably as he huddled under her wing.

The little dragon's brain was having problems processing all this. He didn't WANT to understand this. If he didn't, maybe it wouldn't be real. But reality kept slamming him in the face like the winds that buffeted them as they flew through the air.

Dragons had destroyed carousel boutique, and Rarity, the most beautiful mare he'd ever known, outwardly and inwardly, was missing.

Twilight would have wanted him to be spared this till she'd gotten on site to evaluate the truth of this, but fate had been against her, and he knew. And there was no shielding him from it.

They were at the head of a long column of royal guard chariots, each one pulled by two pegasi and holding two unicorn battlemages. A hundred chariots, four hundred guards. A greater military force than the little village had ever seen before.

Princess Celestia hoped it wouldn't come to a real clash. A dragon, she could handle. Doing so near to her little ponies without collateral damage? She wasn't so sure.

They came down over the western side of the village, and could see a large, multicolored blob around the western edge. A gathering of ponies, surrounding a pile of rubble.

Twilight bit her tongue.

The flight of chariots landed in the western field, and almost before they'd stopped, spike had already leapt out of the phaeton and hit the ground in a tumble, but recovered and was quickly running as fast as his scaly little legs could carry him towards the site of the boutique. He ignored twilight's voice as she called after him.

The local police force had taped off the wreckage and was keeping the crowd from encroaching it. Spike made a beeline for the tan stallion in the officer's uniform standing just at the edge of the stretched out yellow tape. “What happened?” Spike pleaded.

Spike's crush on Rarity was at best an open secret in ponyville. Everyone knew, but nobody said anything. The police chief got a pained look in his eye as he looked down at the desperate little dragon whelp. “I don't know yet, son. I'm sorry.” was all he could say.

“B-but-” Spike sniffled, before a magenta glow encased him, and levitated him back a few feet.

Twilight kneeled down and nuzzled the baby dragon, the only way she could think to reassure him.

Celestia walked up, flanked by the guard. “What has happened here?”

The chief glanced at Spike, then to Celestia with a meaningful look.

Celestia nodded. “Very well, we will discuss this in private. Guards.” she said, looking to the first rank behind her, which saluted smartly. “Set up a command tent, quickly.”

The guards nodded, then immediately went to work.

* * * * *

“Around one o'clock this afternoon, a large white dragon destroyed lady Rarity's boutique when it 'burst out of it', according to her friends Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were going to check on her after she missed a scheduled meeting with the animal caretaker earlier today. After confronting, and binding it with a length of rope, the dragon fell over and was knocked unconscious when it hit its head on a small boulder. Before anypony could further respond, a large green dragon swooped in, scattered the gathered knights of harmony, and took off bearing the unconscious white dragon with it back towards the Everfree Forest..”

“That mirrors what Rainbow Dash said. And what of lady Rarity herself?” Princess Celestia asked from behind the planning table in the command tent.

“No sign, your majesty. Not a single drop of blood, or a stray hair... save for what we found in her comb.”

Celestia nodded. “Do we have any working theories?”

The chief snorted. “Well, after our personal experience with a dragon experiencing greed growth, we currently think a dragon whelp, a stray, snuck into lady Rarity's home in search of gems to add to its hoard, and grew to full size still within the confines of the building, until it was roused this morning by lady Rainbow Dash's knocking.”

“And Rarity herself?” Celestia asked.

“We can't be certain, your majesty, but... well... Dragons are known to have carnivorous tendencies in the wild... If she heard something, went to investigate and found a growing dragon on her gem stores-”

“Oh stars above...” Celestia breathed.

“Your orders, Princess?” one of the guards asked.

Princess Celestia sighed. “Secure the border of the everfree forest, post pegasus scouts in cloud posts every quarter mile along the border with spyglasses to keep an eye out for dragon activity and keep me updated. No heroics, lieutenant. No-pony is to enter that forest without my consent, is that clear?”

“As you decree, princess.” The guard bowed, then turned and left.

Celestia sighed and sat back, a hoof coming to her face.

“Telling the girls they can't rush in to the rescue is going to crush them.” she said to the empty air.

Chapter 4: Aftermath

The great green dragon came to a careful landing at the mouth of his cave, the pale lady in his grasp still limp. Finally away from the ponies that had hurt her, he could actually inspect her injuries.

Slicing the tough ropes away from her body and muzzle with his claws, the dragon was surprised to discover she was more or less unmarked, save for the ugly swelling on the side of her head. Though that alone was more than enough to warrant concern. Cradling her to his chest, he dragged her into his cave as gently as he could. Once inside, he went to lay her down gently atop his hoard of gems, arranging her in what looked to be a comfortable position, when he realized he felt something warm and wet sticking to his claws. He looked down in confusion, and let out a gasp at what he saw.

His claws had torn bloody rents in her hide, simply by gripping her, and her blood was dripping down onto his sleeping hoard below her.

“Something's wrong here...” he said. Leaning back slightly, and looking over the female. He lifted one of his claws, still dripping blood, and scraped it against his own hide, raising the sound of metal scraping on metal. Then he gently lifted the dragoness' own paw, and made one of her claws scrape along her side, raising barely a sound, but peeling back the topmost layer of her scaly skin in a series of white flakes.

“Her hide is like snakeskin...” he said, then blinked, and slapped himself in the face. “Of course, new dragoness I’ve never seen before, she's young. So young she's barely matured and not even properly set. No wonder she got hurt so easily...”

He looked over her form, laying there. The bloody rents in her skin from his claws, and the large raised lump on her head, and slumped. Dragons rarely, if ever, got hurt or sick. So he had very little in the way of medicine, no way to heal her.

Or at least, none readily available.

The dragon padded around his sleeping hoard, and into a further recess in the back of the cave, beyond the pile of gemstones. In a bracket of iron in the cave wall was a log wrapped with a great wad of linen cloth that had been soaked in pitch. The dragon gently breathed a small puff of orange flame on it to ignite it. The life from the huge torch lit the room, and revealed the dragon's storage chamber. A giant, crude wooden larder, enchanted to store the rewards of his hunting trips for long periods of time. And several chests filled with various personal treasures, things more valuable to him than his sleeping hoard, and a broad, crudely fashioned stone slab raised on pegasus style stone pillars that came up to his hips when he sat on his hindlegs. A dragon sized table.

The dragon went straight to the largest chest and began to sort through the contents; enormous scrolls, tomes bound in leather and metal with text carved upon their faces.

Finally, he located what he'd been seeking, a particularly large tome, upon which was written an ancient language that resembled claw scratches. He opened it to a few pages in.

“Poultices, tinctures, tisanes... there we are! Proper potions!” his eyes lit up, then he flipped through the book rapidly to the page he needed, his claws skidding over the pages with a scraping of magical sparks, signifying the enchantment upon the pages to protect them from the ravages of the anatomy of the reader.

“Potion for broken ribs, broken legs, broken wings, broken claws... ah, head injuries! Let's see...” he peered closer at the page. “For one dose, two pounds of powdered timberwolf bark...” he blinked. “Is that a pun? Ngh...” he shook his head. “Twelve cragodile stonescales, two dozen deepwort mushrooms, twelve gallons pure spring water, one pint unicorn water, and...” he paused, then growled. “Damn it all.” he spat, grabbing a spare scrap of parchment and a large Roc's quill and a pot of ink (it was actually a re-purposed milk can) and scribbled something down upon it.

Taking his note, he went back to the main chamber, and went to where he'd stored the remains of a broken down wagon he'd found near the forest. It had been filled with crates and sacks of pony foodstuffs, which he'd long since devoured (say what you wanted about the little weaklings, but pony sugar was delectable). Taking a couple of large sacks he then turned back to his inner chamber and the chests there. He reached into one and pulled out a carved quartz bottle that glowed from within and dropped it into one of the sacks.

He turned to leave, but before he even got out the mouth of his cave, he paused, looking back at the female. Part of him wanted to remain at her side in case anything should come looking for her. But he couldn't stay and get medicine at the same time, and simply moving her was injuring her worse all the time.

With a snarl of frustration, he stomped out of his cave and headed into the Everfree.

* * * * *

Twilight walked through the remains of the boutique alongside one of Celestia's guards -she didn’t know his name- and the Ponyville inspector. A team of unicorn guards were lifting and sorting fragments, and as a byproduct, cleaning up the pile of wreckage. They were currently working their way through the collapsed remnants of her workroom.

Sitting there, like a shining mockery to the devastation about them, were Rarity's gem storage chests. Each one still neatly organized by type and color.

“As you can see, Lady Rarity had a considerable stock of gemstones.”

“For her dresses, yes.” Twilight said.

“Right, her business.” The inspector nodded. “As I told princess Celestia, The working theory is our perpetrator, possibly a young, wild dragon whelp got wind of a pony with a large store of gemstones and came to steal them.”

Twilight hesitated, remembering Spike's greed growth. “And Rarity?” she asked, taking a single cantering step to catch back up.

“We've been examining each and every piece of the building as closely as we can. Current theories are... unsavory, but we can't find any real solid evidence to back any of them up.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“To be honest, there's no sign of any kind of struggle, no hoof marks, no blood, no burns from self defense spells or dragon fire, and besides the ones that go along with the colossal pawprints in the main floor there are no no claw gouges in the wood.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin in deep thought, then glanced over at the cleared area that had once been Rarity's ground floor work area.

“Inspector, would you mind if I took a closer look at something?”

“Of course not princess. Just ask before you touch anything.”

Twilight glared at him for a heartbeat. “I'm not going to contaminate the evidence inspector.” she said, then turned and trotted over to the chests, then began walking around them.

The chests were still intact, for the most part, standing on their little wooden legs, save for one which had both legs broken off cleanly on one side. Something about that fact gave twilight pause, and she stared at them while her mind worked, taking in every detail.

“Inspector, did you notice this?” she asked.

“Notice what, your majesty?”

“These chests... does it look like any attempts at forced entry?” She said, gesturing with a hoof at them.

The inspector blinked, then narrowed his gaze as he peered at the chests. “Hmm... Hard to tell. They are damaged but...”

“But it doesn't look consistent with what a dragon would do, does it?” Twilight surmised.

“I'm no expert, princess, I couldn't say.”

Twilight frowned. He might not have been an expert, but Twilight knew dragons. Or, at least, she knew one. And a dragon attempting to get into chests full of gems, but not leaving any claw scratches, or even a little scorching on them?

Something didn't add up here.

* * * * *

A few miles past the border of the everfree, in a small, gnarled tree that had been hollowed out into a home much the same fashion as the golden oaks library, Zecora the zebra was busy grinding lungwort petals -an ingredient in a potion to help a young foal in ponyville who was having some trouble breathing- humming and singing a tune from her homeland as she worked.

It was right about then that her whole house started to shake, the branches outside swaying and creaking wildly, windows rattling and a wind howling like a monsoon had just arrived.

The zebra mare dropped her pestle and backed away from the workbench in alarm, then nearly fell over as the ground violently shook beneath her, accompanied with the sound of a heavy impact just outside her door. Several bottles and jars on her shelves toppled over.

“Alchemist! Come out!” A tremendously vast and deep voice filled the air, penetrating through the walls of her home.

Zecora froze. She knew of only one being in this forest with a voice like that. She'd encountered it once, long ago, when she'd first moved to the everfree. A creature that was known in legend, even in her homeland. A creature that filled her with fear and dread.

“I know you're in there, zebra! Come out at once!” the voice thundered.

Her legs quaking beneath her, she stumbled to the door and cracked it open just enough to peek out with one eye, holding her flimsy wooden door between her and the enourmous beast as a shield, useless as it was.

“Get out here damn you! I'll not speak to someone through walls and doors!” he growled.

Gulping convulsively, Zecora crept out of the door of her tree hut, till she was out on the grass, hunkered down low in a fearful crouch. “W-what do you wish of me, great dragon of the everfree?”

“I need you to brew a potion.”

Zecora's rhyming speech pattern short circuited.

“What?”

“That is what you do, is it not?”

“Y... yes, I do.” she said, staring up at him.

“Good. Then I have one other question. Do you have any Lavender?”

Confusion writ across her striped face, zecora tilted her head. “Lavender? Yes,yes I do.”

“Do you have two pounds of the petals?”

“Two pounds of petals of lavender? That is quite the tall order.”

The dragon snarled at her and she shrunk back into a tiny quivering ball. “Do not banter with me! Do you have the flowers or not!?”

“I have them! I have them! Please do not roast me!” She pleaded, rhyming once again lost as she covered her head with her forelegs.

The dragon snorted. “Quit your sniveling!” he growled, sitting down hard with a earth shaking thump. “Now go and fetch your brewing cauldron, and whatever tools you need for a large batch of brew.”

“Y-yes, yes sir, at once.” Zecora said, leaping up and dashing into her house, and going straight to her herb stores. Lavender was a fairly common ingredient in many of her potions, but two whole pounds of the tiny petals? She'd need to use her whole supply.

Less than five minutes later, Zecora was dragging her largest kettle out her door, her entire supply of lavender stuffed in and stacked high on her saddlebags on her back. “I am back with the petals and cauldron, what now needs be done?” she asked.

“That is all your lavender?”

Zecora nodded fervently.

“It shall have to do.” he said, then laid down, couchant style, and brought one paw up to the base of his neck, where Zecora only now saw that he was wearing a a tremendous, bulging sack like a pendant on a rope cord.

He removed it from his neck, and brought it down before her, and shook out the contents. Bark, still wet from where it had been peeled off a living plant, rock fragments that... that had blood dripping off one side, the sight of which caused Zecora to flinch. There were a large number of reddish brown capped mushrooms that she immediately recognized from potions she'd brew for healing lacerations and other grievous wounds, and...

And a carved quartz container filled with a sloshing fluid that glowed a brilliant cyan blue. That alone held her gaze with such rapt fascination that, for a heartbeat, she forgot about the dragon entirely.

“Fill your cauldron with water, and work your magic with these ingredients.” he said.

Knowing that failure to comply would mean her end, Zecora fought to control the primal fear within her, and got to work.

* * * * *

Twilight found her friends gathered in Sugarcube Corner, each one looking ready to go to war... in their own fashion. Applejack had another brand new length of rope, and saddlebags bulging so full of supplies the flaps wouldn't close, and Twilight could clearly see them. All apple products, naturally. Rainbow Dash had her rainbow warpaint on, and Pinkie Pie... was wearing forest camo military fatigues, a beret, a bandolier with cupcakes peeking out of pockets spaced around it and a slingshot sticking out of one of her jacket's pockets... and she was also busy loading cream pies into her party cannon.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, had long since retreated to her cottage home.

“What're you girls doing?” She asked.

“Gettin' ready to go with you.” Pinkie said.

“Who said I was going anywhere?” Twilight asked.

“Come on Twilight, it's us. Something major happened, now we're gonna go deal with it. 'sides, you don't think Rarity's gone, do you?” Pinkie said.

Twilight blinked. “Wha-? How'd you-”

“You aren't crying all saddy-waddy like Sweetie Belle and her parents, or stumbling around like Spike. You've got that look you get when something's not quite right and you've got to figure it out. We're here to help you with that.”

“And all this?” Twilight said, gesturing at the room full of her friend's 'equipment'.

“Well how else are we gonna head into the Everfree forest after two full sized dragons?”

“Who said that was what we're doing?” Twilight asked.

“Twilight, the only critter that knows what actually happened is that dragon. Like as not, we're goin' to have to talk to the critter sooner or later, might as well be sooner.” Applejack said.

Twilight shook her head, but had to give a small smile. “My friends are all crazy.”

“You know you love us Twilight.” Rainbowdash said with a smirk.

* * * * *

In a small, idyllic cottage a literal stone's throw from the border of the everfree forest, some few miles from the main path into the forest itself, a large number of animals sat, stood, perched, and generally hovered around the sofa in the middle of the living room.

Upon that sofa, lay their caretaker. The former bearer of the element of Kindness was sobbing, her face buried in the pillows.

Angel Bunny hopped up on the couch next to Fluttershy's head and reached out with one soft paw to gently pat her on the head.

Fluttershy raised her eyes from behind the pink barrier of her long mane, and stared at him with shining, tear filled eyes. “Oh Angel...” she sniffed. “I... I just saw her yesterday... and now she's gone...”

Angel's ears went down as he frowned.

Fluttershy reached out with her wings and forelegs to draw him in, but the rabbit hopped backwards and out of reach.

“Please Angel... mommy needs a hug...” she sniffed.

Angel pointed across the room.

“Is something wrong with Harry?” she asked.

Angel looked where he was pointing, and saw the resident bear standing in the way. He slapped his forehead, then gestured and squeaked at the big ursine, who, looking sheepish, stepped aside.

Revealing Fluttershy's writing desk.

“You... Oh angel.” she sighed, seeing the untouched food list sitting atop the table. “I-I know there's not a lot of food in the house, but I’m sorry... I can't do chores now... I’m sorry,.”

Angel looked, then groaned, then ran over to the table, hopped up to the surface, violently kicked the food list off the top, then grabbed a quill and a scrap of blank parchment, and a envelope, and ran back over to fluttershy, shoving the items in her face.

“Angel! What're you...” she said, then ground to a halt.

The envelope had a mark on it, a simple, solidly printed D, that occasionally quivered in a slightly unnerving manner.

“You want me to write Discord a letter?” she asked, and Angel nodded enthusiastically. “Why would you want me to...” her eyes went wide.

“Oh, I’m such a stupid pony!” she muttered as she began to frantically scribble on the parchment.

* * * * *

Twilight Sparkle, flanked by three members of the knights of harmony, were walking down the path to the Everfree forest, Pinkie hauling her party cannon behind her.

Considering they made absolutely no attempt to conceal themselves, they were spotted instantly by the guards in the cloud post next to the path.

“Halt! Who goes there?” an authoritative voice called down from above.

The four mares stopped and looked up.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Princess Twilight Sparkle and the bearers of -”

“Former.” Applejack reminded her.

“Former bearers of the elements of harmony!”

“Oh! Princess, one moment.”

A few seconds later, the owner of the voice, a standard colored Pegasus guard came gliding down before them, a compound bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to his saddle region. He back winged smartly and came to a perfect landing.

He saluted smartly. “Your majesty, as Princess Celestia instructed, we have observation posts extending along the Everfree border in both directions every quarter mile, and we have regular patrols planned out between them. The border of the Everfree is officially on lockdown.”

“Oh! That's... that's good, Sir... uh...?” she said.

“Corporal Straight Arrow, Your majesty.”

“Thank you sir Arrow. That was nicely done, now if you'll excuse us.” Twilight said, stepping around him and walking towards the forest again, her friends following suit.

The guard blinked in confusion, then turned to look at her. “Your majesty!” he exclaimed, leaping into the air and coming down in front of her again, wings spread wide.

Twilight fought the urge to groan. “What?”

“Princess Celestia specifically instructed us not to allow anypony to enter the everfree.”

“And?” Twilight asked, this time letting her exasperation leak into her voice.

The corporal gulped. “Uh... Due to her orders, I'm not allowed to let you pass.”

“Oh really?” Twilight said, eyes narrowing, and the other mares pressing in close as well.

Just as the corporal was about to consider waving the group through, another voice called down from the cloud post.

“Corporal, sir! Somepony's coming out of the forest, sir!”

“Rarity!?” The mares all gasped, trying to look past Arrow.

The corporal snapped his wings shut and whirled around.

Instead of being greeted with the sight of a white unicorn, they found themselves looking at a zebra, hauling a cart full of things.

“Zecora!” the group all exclaimed, then rushed forward so fast they knocked the confused guard to the ground.

“Zecora, what's going on? Why does it look like you're moving? I mean... again?” Twilight asked as they reached her.

The zebra panted. “Too many times, I'm threatened now. To this forest, I must take a bow.”

“Zecora, what happened?”

“The great ruler of the everfree, descended he did, upon my tree. He growled and roared, and told me to brew, and then with a cauldron full, without so much as a thank you, off he flew!”

“Wait... ruler of the Everfree? The Everfree doesn’t have a ruler.” Rainbowdash said.

“The greatest of beasts, green and full of fire, dominates this place, from plains to mire.”

“Greatest of... wait, Zecora, the green dragon came to you?” Twilight asked.

The zebra nodded.

“And he wanted you to brew somethin'?” Applejack added.

“A potion I have never seen, ingredients ripped from monsters, strong and mean.”

“Wait... ripped? You don't mean...” Twilight swallowed convulsively.

“Ah think we all get the picture, Twilight.” Applejack said.

“Eeeeeyuck!” Rainbow gagged. Pinkie looked a decidedly greener shade of pink than she had a moment ago.

“Compounds and magics, strong in the blood, mixed with unicorns water, I hardly understood. But ask he did, and so I did brew, and then, as I said, off he flew.”

Twilight's jaw dropped.

“Uh... what's 'unicorn water' 'zactly? 'Cus, ah don't wanna go and make any assumptions.” Applejack inquired.

“You don't know what unicorn water is?” Twilight said, turning to her friends, disbelieving.

“Uh... no. No ah don't.” Applejack said.

“Me 'neither.” Pinkie added.

Rainbowdash shook her head.

Twilight groaned. “Unicorn water is also known as 'panacea'. It's basically the strongest healing potion ever created, it's capable of curing any illness, or healing any wound short of outright death, and has been known to extend the lifespan of a normal mortal creature indefinitely if at least one dose is taken every fifty years. Only the magic ritual used to create it has been lost for centuries... and where did you even get any!?” Twilight said, turning back to Zecora.

“I did not. The beast, he brought.”

“Oh... the dragon had it...” Twilight blinked, then lunged forward and put her hooves on Zecora's shoulders, staring her right in the eyes. “He had you make a potion, and the panacea -the pinnacle of magical potion making- was just an ingredient in it!?”

“Simmer down Twilight!” Applejack yelled, physically dragging her off the startled zebra.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry, it just doesn't make sense! Why would...” Twilight paused, eyes widening. “Wait... wait wait wait... Dragons are naturally resistant to outside magical influence, so...”

“So what, Twilight?” a gentle, motherly voice asked from behind her.

“Princess Celestia!” Applejack exclaimed, who then bowed before Twilight could turn around.

“Hello my little ponies.” the tall, white alicorn said, as Twilight turned. “Twilight. Might I ask what you're all doing out here... is that a cannon?” Celestia's eyes widened as she glanced at Pinkie.

“Yup! And I've got plenty of pies and cakes for ammunition!”

Celestia blinked. “I'm... not sure what effect that will have on a dragon...”

“Thank you!” Rainbowdash exclaimed.

“What?” twilight said.

“Oh, just glad somepony else thinks Pinkie should've been packing regular cannonballs rather than cakes and stuff.”

“Where would she get them?” Twilight asked.

“Where did she get a Cannon in the first place?” Rainbowdash countered.

Twilight paused. “Fair enough.”

“Now what was that you were saying earlier, Twilight?” Celestia asked.

“I was... oh! Right, the panacea! Yes, dragons are naturally resistant to outside magical influences, so most normal potions wouldn't work on them. If they needed a potion for one of their own kind, it'd have to be ridiculously powerful just for it to be able to affect them. So, something like the panacea would probably act as a catalyst, overpowering their natural magical resistance and allowing the other ingredients to exert their effect... or perhaps the other way around, the other ingredients boosting the panacea, I couldn't be sure without studying an actual dragon taking such a potion.”

“Like Spike?” Pinkie asked.

“Well, I suppose. He is resistant to magic, but not as much as an adult dragon.”

“Twilight, I do not understand, why a dragon would come to me, with this elixir in hand.” Zecora said.

“What the heck is a hand...?” Rainbowdash muttered.

“Long story short, Zecora, there was a adult dragon in town, Rarity's missing, her boutique is destroyed, and the dragon that lives here came to rescue it after my friends here knocked it out. It probably came to you looking for help healing the one that we need to find. Do you know where it's cave is?”

“I know where this beast resides, but now, I'd rather run and hide.” Zecora said, glancing back fearfully at the forest.

“No-pony is going to make you return to the forest, my good zebra.” Celestia said.

“But-!” Twilight started, but Celestia cut her off.

“I'm sorry, Twilight, but you're not ready to confront a dragon.”

“Not ready to... I’m an alicorn! I'm immortal and more powerful than ever, and you sent me to deal with a dragon a few weeks after I first came to ponyville!”

Celestia shook her head.“That was a dragon entering its century sleep. They are weaker, slower, and much more easily manipulated than an alert, and obviously violent dragon. This one is defending a dragoness. Male dragons have been known to become incredibly violent when protecting a female. You're lucky ponyville wasn't razed to the ground when it came to her aid before. And besides that, if our potion master produced what I think she did for him, then the female is likely at full strength now as well. You cannot engage them head on.”

“Then what the hay are we supposed to do!?” Twilight snapped. “Sit on our haunches and do NOTHING!? Our friend is missing, and the only creature that possibly knows what happened to her is in there, and now you just want us to give up!?”

“That is not what I am saying at all, Twilight.” Celestia said in an even tone.

“Then what are you saying?” Twilght.

“I'm saying, we wait for backup.”

Twilight blinked. “Wait... backup? From who?”

“Your brother, for one. Ponyville needs protecting, and his shield seems admirable for the job. As for the other, Well, I’m expecting Discord to show up any minute.”

“Discord?”

“He is basically a deity, Twilight. You want beings like him on your side if possible when going after dragons.”

Twilight snorted. “I guess you're right.”

“Normally I wouldn't agree with you, but in this case, I guess Celestia does have a point.” the bored sounding voice of the god of chaos said with a long suffering sigh.

Everypony there jumped and looked to the source of the voice, where discord hovered nonchalantly in the air, Fluttershy held in a coil of his long, serpentine body.

“Uh... hello everypony. I hope we didn't interrupt.”

* * * * *

Back at the dragon's cave, the dragon crept along, holding up the cauldron with one paw, being most careful not to spill any of the contents as he walked with three legs back to the female.

She lay where he'd left her on his gem hoard, her chest rising and falling in slow breaths. He paused there, then, the medicine in hand, to finally take a moment to actually look at her.

Her primary color was alabaster white, while her underbelly was a extremely faint shade of pale blue, very nearly white itself. Her crest of spines, which went all the way down her back and along her tail, were deep purple. She had the same general body type as himself, long, elegantly proportioned, and sinuously muscled. He smiled at that, one of his own. They'd likely get along well. She was as long as he was, nose to tail, perhaps a few feet shorter, but nothing remarkably noticeable. She was slimmer and sleeker than he was, but still carried the common pear shape with a broadening of the body going from the shoulders back to the hip, along with the common pot belly. Her long tail was tipped with a diamond shaped tail spade in a similar color to her bellyscales, and he could just tell that she'd be one of the type with those rare, supremely prehensile tails, able to curl it around a tiny object, like one of those ponies, without so much as bruising them.

Her head -besides the injury- was adorned with a set of horns. Two coming off from the back corners of her skull, going up at first then sharply curling down and around her cheeks in the fashion of a ram's horns, framing -but not interfering with- her mobile ear frills. Curiously, she had a third horn erupting from the center of her forehead, above and between her eyes. This one was gently spiraled, and curved backwards slightly and, although quite short (a mere foot and a half long, barely more than a bump) it was sharp and pointy. Her face...

Narrow, slender and petit. Her snout was perhaps a quarter shorter than his, and much more effeminate than the long, rugged ones of males of the same body type.

Coming to her side he placed the cauldron down and took her head and long neck gently in his paws, being extremely careful with his long, sharp claws. Shifting himself alongside her, he rested her head against his chest, then reached out with his tail and picked up the cauldron again, bringing it back to his paws. He nudged her lips apart with one smooth scaled knuckle, and eased her jaws apart before bringing the lip of the cauldron up.

He poured the potion in a bit at a time, the fluid sloshing in her maw for a moment before the unconscious dragoness' body slowly, weakly, began to swallow on reflex. Then, the potion taking effect almost instantly, began to grow stronger. He poured more in, and she swallowed faster, and stronger, till before he knew it, she'd downed all of the potion.

The lacerations on her side vanished, the lump on her head shrank, and he could actually hear the bones in her skull shift and realign.

And then, she began to move.

* * * * *

A dull throbbing sensation in her head greeted Rarity upon this waking. Her eyelids, her head, her body, they all felt as though made of lead. She was laying on something that shifted under her, and gently prickled at her... like she was laying on a bed of rocks the size of grains of rice... pointy ones. Also, there was a strange taste in her mouth... she could detect...

Lavender?

She tried to force her eyes to open, and it came with great mental effort, but her heavy lids parted just enough for her to see... to her left a riot of colors, and a grey dimness ahead and to her right. She fought to make her eyes focus beyond the blur, but the effort was too much and her eyes slid slowly closed again, and she could not find the strength to open them again.

Denied, she let out a weak moan in frustration.

A second later, there was the sensation of someone at her side.

“Oh thank goodness, the medicine's working. Can you hear me?” a deep, resonant voice asked, in a voice that was far too loud for her addled brain.

“Oooooh....” she moaned.

“Pale lady? Please, say something...” the voice, very clearly male, insisted.

“Mmmmhhh... I...” she tried to say... something, anything. She was confused, what was going on? Why was everything so fuzzy? And why was her chest vibrating so as she spoke?

Before she could even contemplate trying to speak any of this, she felt a pang of hunger so intense it was like the stab of a knife, deep in her middle, coupled by a rumbling from her middle, demanding food.

There was a moment's silence, before she heard that deep, resonant male voice chuckled.

“Of course, I’m such an idiot. You need food. I'll get you something easy to digest.” the voice said.

The fog did not lift from her mind, but she was able to detect the environment around her grow brighter, and considerably warmer.

The next thing she was aware of, there was a smell that reminded her of canned vegetable stew, only there was something else to the scent -not at all disagreeable- that made her stomach growl and her mouth water. The hunger pangs now seemed to sharpen her mind and bring her to full wakefulness, and the smell of food gave her body an incentive to waken. Her eyes fluttered open.

To the visage of a great green dragon hovering over her.

He glanced down at her with those great golden eyes.

She screamed.

Author's Note

This chapter refused to cooperate for a long while, but i think i finally got it into a shape that i'm comfortable posting. hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 5: Awakening

Rarity pushed away from the green dragon with her forelegs, and then scrambled backwards across the cave till the curve of the cave wall came up and forced her to stop. The male stared at her in surprised as she hyperventilated.

“Who are you? Where am I? What's going on!?” she babbled.

“My lady, please! Calm yourself, you are safe. I am not your enemy.” the other dragon said, palm held up in a gesture of peace.

“Not my...” She said, then blinked, then looked down at herself. Pale blue belly scales framed by digitigrade legs ending in scaly paws covered in white scales dominated her view. And she saw very plainly that her barrel got considerably wider and rounder down by the abdomen.

She started giggling. “I'm dreaming... I have to be... there's no way I got this fat in one day... oh, and I’m a dragon... again... this dream doesn’t seem to want to end. Ha ha!” she babbled to herself.

The male dragon raised one eyeridge.

Rarity looked up and saw his perplexed expression and waved at him, giggling hysterically. “Oh, it's nothing, I just had this silly dream where I woke up stuck in a very small place, and had to push to break free, only I’d suddenly turned into a giant dragon and the thing I broke out of was my house, and then a friend of mine attacked me and I fell over, and now I’m suddenly here with you, and still a dragon. Ha ha! Oh, I’m sure I’ll wake up in a bit.”

The green dragon cocked his head.

She forced herself to stop giggling, and leaned forward, then came down on all fours... that at least felt natural to her, she looked herself over again. “Still fat... oh well. Anyway, it was very nice to meet you sir, but I really must be going. I have to ride this dream out, wake up and get back to reality.” she said, walking towards the mouth of the cave.

The green dragon frowned. Then, as she came past, he reached out and grabbed her right foreleg without a word.

Rarity stopped, and turned her head, looking him in the eye -Goodness that felt strange, looking a full grown dragon in the eye- and blinked at him. “I am sorry, sir, but I really must be going, now, as you're just part of a silly dream, I command you to release me.”

“A dream, my lady? Then what is this?” he asked, then lifted a claw and dragged it across her foreleg.

Rarity let out a draconic roar of shock and pain as she leapt aside, cradling her injured arm against her chest with the other, and stared down at it as a thin line of blood welled up from the superficial, but fiercely stinging injury. She looked up at him with horror dawning across her face.

“That, my lady, was pain. Something one does not experience in dreams.”

She looked back down at the cut, then blinked. The cut itself was sealing itself up. After a few seconds, she wiped away the lingering streak of blood, to reveal flawless white scaled hide. She boggled. “How did... what?” she said confused, looking back at him.

“The effect of the potion I gave you, before you woke. It's likely still working within you.”

“You gave me a potion?” She said, looking back at her foreleg, turning it this way and that.

“You had a nasty crack on the head, my lady. If I hadn't, you'd not be awake now, and I doubt you'd have ever woken again.”

“What? This.. this is... I...” Rarity tried to think, but was cut off as something hit her.

In the past Rarity had, occasionally, stated that she was ravenous. She had said this to her parents, to her friends, to her business associates, typically after engaging in some demanding work, or saving the day with the other bearers.

She'd never understood how utterly insignificant those bouts of hunger had truly been in relation to the use of that word.

This was a primal, all encompassing need to feed. It robbed her of all reason, replacing it with the need to fill the empty void within her before she started gnawing on her own limbs.

A loud growl came from her stomach, loud enough that even the male looked alarmed at her middle before she leapt at him, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

“I NEED FOOD!”

* * * * *

Spike awoke that morning to the sensations of a sore throat, puffy eyes, the feel of a warm furry body pressed against his back, and warm feathers draped over him. He opened his eyes, and everything was blurred, but a warm purple enveloped him.

He blinked twice, to clear his vision, and he saw that he was laying in twilight's bed, curled up with his caretaker, sunlight just barely starting to brighten the room. That was when everythign came flooding back.

Yelling at Twilight, at Discord, at Celestia, at every pony, breaking down in a fit of hysterics, smothered in a pile of pony hugs until he'd fallen asleep.

He sniffled again, as the emotions surged over him once more.

And then Twilight woke, she pulled him tight against her, and whispered words of comfort to him as he wept.

* * * * *

Twilight Sparkle, alicorn princess of Equestria, descended the steps from her room as quietly as she could, a near invisible spell around her hooves muffling the sound of them contacting a hard wood surface as she went.

Her friends had camped out in the library the previous evening. All to the good, since Spike had gone inconsolable for hours after they'd come back, empty-hooved. Princess Celestia, having seen that things were as secure as she could make them for the time being, had teleported back to Canterlot to inform her sister of what was happening.

The smell of cooking wafted out of the kitchen. A quick glance around showed that both Applejack's and Pinkie Pie's cots were empty.

She supposed she should bring Spike some breakfast, or something. But he'd just fallen back to sleep. And she was starving.

Sighing at how useless she felt, she plodded into her kitchen.

* * * * *

The dragon was practical. He hunted monsters and animals in the Everfree to keep the populations manageable and to keep himself fed, and dug in the soil near the border to Equestria proper to keep his sleeping hoard continually growing, as was what any smart dragon was supposed to. Hunting in the Everfree, while practical for keeping the area maintained, did not fill his belly particularly well. Monster meat was typically not very digestible, even to a dragon's stomach, and the tastier species of meat producing animals that lived outside the forest had all spontaneously grown brains.

And who wanted to eat the flesh of something that could have been discussing the meaning of life with you? Dragons were predators, not monsters.

The Everfree forest was excellent for keeping one well supplied with Fruits, gemstones and ore, but not so good for keeping one stocked with meat, so he often traded what he had with dragons from other realms to keep himself fed. Last night, as the female had nearly gone mad from hunger. The iron kettle, as wide around as his own hip and coming up nearly to his breastbone, had been filled to the brim with hematite and venison stew.. The white and purple dragoness had eaten every last drop, and then had gone on to raid his pantry of half his stores for the coming winter. By the time she'd finally been sated her middle bulged out tremendously, and she had then fallen into a stupor before passing out.

He had watched, amazed, but also amused. He had a vague memory of the time he had done quite the same, when first he had achieved his maturity some centuries ago.

Dawn arrived, and amazingly the dragoness' stomach had nearly regained it's original shape when the first rays of light entered the mouth of his cave, and began their journey across the central cavern. A beam fell upon her closed eye, and she began to fidget.

* * * * *

Rarity grumbled, shifting as she came to wakefulness because of a bright light. Where was her sleeping mask? If Opal had tugged it loose again...

She brought her foreleg to her face to search, and felt a clawed, scaly paw in place of her hoof. Not to mention the sensations from both her appendage and her face were telling her things were not normal.

Her heart sinking, she pulled the paw away from her face and opened her eyes. The glare of the sun framing it, she looked at the dragon's paw, then, carefully, experimentally, began to flex it. It was so strange, having a paw that could move individual digits where all her life she'd only had a hoof.

The third time now she'd woken like this.

This erased all doubt from her mind.

“Properly awake now?” a familiar voice spoke in deep, resonant tones.

Rarity raised her head on her now much longer and more flexible neck and looked over at the speaker. The same green dragon from earlier.

“Ah...” she blinked, then blushing, attempted to nip a bit of scaly skin on her foreleg, wincing at the tiny bit of pain, she pulled back and spat out a flake of scale. “Yes, quite awake this time, thank you.”

He flashed a grin at her. “That’s good, because I'm quite out of healing potion.”

Rarity slowly pushed herself to all fours, then, feeling the kinks in her bones, stretched... then finding the normal way she'd have stretched as a pony seemed inadequate, stretched further, and further, like a cat, till her joints all popped and loosened. “Ah... that's better.” she said, then sat down on her haunches and looked at the male across from her.

For a long moment, nothing was said.

“So,” the green male finally spoke. “Introductions are in order I suppose. My name is Vaeron Thorntail, good lady.” he said, giving a gracious bow from where he sat on his haunches.

“Oh! Well, good to meet you, mister Thorntail.” Rarity said, noting the tip of the green dragon's very spiky tail. “My name is Rarity.”

“Rarity... Rarity...” he said, testing the name on his tongue. “A very refined name, I like it. Good to meet you, my lady. Very good indeed. I am sorry it has taken this long to find your own kind. No female should suffer being an orphan.”

“Orphan?” Rarity said, blinking in confusion. “Why would you think I'm an orphan?”

“Well, no wings, for one. I can't imagine any good mother dragon not ensuring that her child gets its wings.” he said, and Rarity glanced at the wings furled on Vaeron's back, then glanced at her own back (momentarily thinking how odd it was having a neck this long and flexible to be able to do that so easily) and the flat expanse of scaled hide back there, broken by her own purple spines, but no wings.

“Is that all?” she asked, wondering at how that had been so easy to peg a dragon as 'orphaned', and what that meant for Spike.

“That and the fact that I found you freshly grown in a pony village, of all places. Can't imagine what you were doing there.” he said.

“Oh, that's simple good sir. I live there.” she explained.

Vaeron snorted in surprise.

“I do!” Rarity said sharply.

Vaeron blinked at her. “One moment...” he said, then turned and padded into a side chamber of the cavern. Curious, Rarity rose to all fours and followed him... finding it strange how her new legs moved, but adapting quickly, much like when she'd gained wings through Twilight's spell so long ago.

The chamber she wandered in to was, for lack of a better word, private library. The tomes were normal sized... to her eyes. A moment later she realized this meant they were actually enormous. Bindings as thick as a pony was tall, or more! The male dragon was looking at an open book, reading intently.

“What are you reading?” She asked, padding closer.

“Trying to see if that potion had any side effects.” he answered.

“Side effects?” she asked, anxiety creeping into her voice. “What... what kind of side effects?”

“Hallucinations, temporary insanity, that kind of thing.” he replied.

Rarity jerked back slightly, her mouth falling open and trying to work out a response, but her mind had just gone into shock.

“Ha... hallucinations?”

“Indeed.”

“You gave me a potion that causes hallucinations!?” she exclaimed, anger and a growl saturating her voice.

“Not according to this book.” he said, causing her face to fall back into a confused expression. “And I trust the dragon who gave it to me implicitly, so I’m going to have to assume that, healed or not, your brains were rattled by your injury.”

“My... Dear sir, I am not addled, I assure you.” Rarity said.

“I'd argue otherwise.” he said, slapping the book shut between both his paws.

“On what grounds?” Rarity asked.

“My lady,” he said, turning around and fixing her with a stare. “Dragons and Ponies do not live together.”

* * * * *

Spike sat at the table in the library's tiny kitchen, leaning over and resting his head on one arm and idly moving his spoon through the bowl of mixed small gemstones and milk that sat before him.

“Please Spike.” Fluttershy pleaded. “You should eat something.”

“I'm not hungry...” came the flat reply.

“Oh.... uhm...” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Hey now!” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing into the room. “Breakfast's the most important meal of the day! We all need to be in top shape today, you included. So eat something, ok?”

Spike mumbled incoherently, but he obeyed and picked up a spoonful of wet gemstones and shoved them into his mouth, where he began to chew unenthusiastically.

Out in the library's lobby, Twilight was circling the room, burning off nervous energy. “How much longer till my brother and Cadence arrive?” she asked.

“Noon, like princess Celestia said.” Applejack confirmed.

“And how long till then?” she demanded.

“About ten minutes sooner than the last time ya asked me, which was... nine thirty or so. A couple hours.” she replied.

Twilight groaned in frustration and went back to pacing.

The door to the library opened and two pegasus guardsponies stepped in, then stepped to either side of the door as Celestia stepped into the library.

“Apologies Twilight, my little ponies. My sister was upset at me and I needed to explain the situation to her before teleporting back from Canterlot.”

“Is she coming?” Twilight asked.

“She would have, were she not near dead on her hooves after being up all night worrying. I really should have left word.” Celestia sighed and shook her head. “We rushed so fast to get here.”

Twilight snorted, tossing her head. “And we stopped that as soon as we arrived.”

Celestia sighed. “Twilight, I'm sorry, but you know we can't simply charge into the Everfree..”

“I know, I know... but what about just talking? We can handle that, surely?” Twilight pleaded.

Celestia shook her head. “These two have extra reason to be defensive, the female was injured, and the other snatched it away from us in a bold attack on our soil. If the potion it had your zebra friend make is what I think it is, the female is now back to full strength, and has reason to fear us. That's two dragons, both on the defensive. We cannot rush into this half prepared, not with Ponyville so close.”

* * * * *

“You're kidding me.” Vaeron said flatly.

“I am most certainly not.” Rarity said, her forelegs crossed and her paws resting on the inside of either elbow.

“A dragon living in that pony village for four years.” he said, not convinced.

“That is what I said.”

“And that dragon was not you?”

“Of course not, his name is Spike.”

“Can you describe him?” he asked, challenging.

Rarity sighed in exasperation, but answered. “Well, he's barely tall enough to have his shoulders crest the top of one of your... uh... claws, I guess, when it's flat on the ground, and that's him standing on his hind legs. He's purple with a pale green belly with darker green rounded spines on the back of his head and all the way down his back to the tip of his tail which ends in a spade. He has green eyes, and he breathes green fire.”

Vaeron's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Green fire!?” Rarity nearly jumped at his exclamation. “The whelp that ate his own weight out of my hoard lives in that town!? GRAAH!” he roared, accompanying it with a gout of flame he aimed at the ceiling.

“Wait, what?” Rarity

“Gah! I should've known something was up! I heard another voice, and I SMELLED a unicorn! And then there was that blasted owl!” He snarled, reaching up and rubbing at a spot on his forehead where the scales were marred by a small round scar.

“Owlicious?” Rarity asked, blinking.

The green's head snapped in her direction. “You know that little monster?”

“He's Twilight's pet, of course I know him.”

“Twilight?”

“She's the Uni-I mean, Alicorn that Spike lives with, Owlicious is her pet, but...”

“You know all of them!?” he exclaimed, eyes widening.

“Well I did tell you I live in Ponyville. Maybe now you'll believe me.”

He snorted, deflating. “Well... if I did miss one dragon whelp, I suppose I could have missed two.”

“Oh, but I wasn't.” Rearity assured him.

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“Hmm?”

“What do you mean, you weren't?” he asked, perplexed.

“Oh, that's simple, I was a Unicorn.”

He stared at her for ten seconds straight.

“What?”

“Well, I suppose it is a bit much to swallow, given how I look and all I have is my word on the matter, but I promise you I was a unicorn yesterday morning... or was it the day before?” Rarity said, rubbing the bottom of her chin in thought with the back of a scaly knuckle.

The big male snorted. “Ok, now I'm sure your brains are addled.”

Rarity gave a dismissive “Humph!” and started padding towards the tunnel that had daylight spilling into the cave. “Well! The nerve!”

The dragon's eyes shot open and he galloped over to block her path. “Where are you going?”

“Home, I certainly don't need to stay here to get treated this way for speaking the truth.”

“The truth?” The dragon said, tilting his head. “My lady, what you say is impossible. I know of no magic that can change one species into another anywhere on this world. I see a dragoness before me, a lovely, vulnerable dragoness who nearly died not a full day ago. I will not let you throw your life away on an impossible thought.”

Rarity's expression softened. “My good sir... I thank you, deeply, for the concern. It's quite chivalrous of you honestly, not something one would expect from a dragon, but, I suppose if my young Spikey Wikey is anything to go by, there are good dragons in the world too.”

The dragon snorted. “My lady, honor is very important amongst our kind, I assure you.”

Rarity smiled. “That's wonderful to hear. But I hope you'll keep that in mind should your path cross with Spike's again someday.”

He snorted. “I was protecting my territory against an invader, that was perfectly within honor's bounds.”

“You were threatening a child, sir. Honor and territory have nothing to do with it!”

“Well, what would you have done?” he asked.

“If I found a lonely child sneaking a snack from my pantry? I'd ask him where his family was and escort him home, if possible.”

Vaeron gazed at her with those imposing orange eyes for a long moment, rolling this in his mind. Eventually, he gave a faint smile. “You are aptly named, my lady. You have something I've not seen in many of our kind.”

“What might that be?” she asked.

“A generous soul.”

Rarity smiled knowingly at him. “Why thank you Sir Vaeron.”

Vaeron returned it with a grin. But then his face sank. “But still, I can't quite believe you when you say you were a pony not two days ago. It defies everything I know.”

Rarity sighed. “Mister Thorntail, I have seen the return of a mad demigoddess, and seen her turned back to good. I have seen a race of insects that devour love, and I have seen, defeated, and then watched the avatar of chaos itself be reformed into -if not a model citizen- one who wishes to better himself. And inbetween that I have seen all sorts of magical 'impossibilities' with my own eyes. I do admit that this,” she gestured to her own body with a forepaw. “Is a bit more unusual than normal, but with the way my life has gone in the past few years, this isn't nearly as shocking to me as it should be.”

Vaeron looked into her eyes for a long moment, and Rarity looked back with a stern expression.

“If I insist that you stay here?” he asked.

“Well then, I may be a lady, and normally averse to fighting, but I will return to my home, good sir, and I will engage you if need be.”

With that, Vaeron seemed to deflate somewhat. “I thought so. You dragonesses are all alike, even the ones who think they're ponies.”

Rarity tilted her head. “Beg pardon?”

Vaeron turned and took a few steps out of the cave and into the morning light. “Independant, strong willed, and liable to do whatever they want, regardless of what we males say.” he sighed. “Besides, if I fought you, I might hurt you by accident, and then I'd never be able to live with myself.”

Rarity cocked her head quizzically. “So... what are you going to do?”

Vaeron sighed. “What else can I do? I'm not about to let a dragoness go back into danger, alone. Even if she might be crazy.” he said, which earned him a sour look from the white dragoness, but he simply looked over his shoulder at her and grinned. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on.” He said, then turned his head again and began moving east through the forest.

Towards Ponyville.

Rarity blinked, then smiled, then trotted forward, quickly getting used to the new form. “Mister Thorntail! Do wait up!”

* * * * *

The door to the library burst open and one of the guard came galloping in and screeching to a halt that shaved curls of wood out of the floor of the tree with his gilded hoof boots. “Princess Celestia! Princess Twilight! Your majesties, come quick!”

Princess Celestia was there in a flash, Twilight trailing behind her. “What has happened?”

“The dragons! Your majesty, they're... they're heading right for Ponyville!”

* * * * *

The Everfree forest normally abounded with sound. Birds, insects, and other small creatures that weren't quite as domesticated as those found in Equestria proper inhabiting it as they eked out their wild, uncontrolled lives. These sounds always fell quiet when one of the dominant predators, or large monsters went out on the prowl.

Now, with two great dragons strolling through the forest, things went dead silent. At least until the dragons nearly came upon a pack of one creature or another, and sent them off in a flurry of motion and sound.

Rarity giggled. It was so odd, seeing what would have otherwise been a fat oak tree seem like a bush that barely came up to level with her withers. And the trees further ahead looked even smaller.

“What's so funny?” Vaeron asked.

“Oh, just... it's so strange seeing these trees when I’m this big. I've walked this path several times before and usually the woods scare me so. But now? These trees look like topiary, and oh! That boulder right there! I use that boulder as a landmark. Now it's not even as big as my hoo-er... paw? What do you call these?” she said, pausing and lifting one of her forelegs and shaking the appendage.

“You had it right my lady, those are paws.”

“Ah, yes, well, that boulder's not even as big as one of the smallest parts of me. It's quite a drastic change.”

Vaeron chuckled. “Yes, I felt quite the same when I grew out of whelphood. Where once was a world that towered over me, now I towered over it. It was... liberating.”

“Whelphood?” Rarity asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“A young dragon is called a whelp, my lady.” Vaeron replied.

“Hmm. And we've just been calling him a baby dragon all this time.”

“Calling who a 'baby' dragon?”

“Spike of course.” Rarity said, glancing over at him.

“Ah, yes. The one that raided my hoard.”

“I'm not entirely sure why Spike was there in your hoard, good sir, but I would be glad to reimburse you the amount of gems he ate if it would help you forgive him.”

Vaeron stopped walking and looked over at her. “You would give of your hoard to repay what another has stolen?”

“Of course! I'm sure Spike had a good reason... or even if he didn't, he's not a malicious sort... usually... and I'm sure he didn't mean to intrude or to injure you by what he did. And I have an excess of gems at the moment. And even if he ate his own weight in gemstones, he's not that big.”

Vaeron snorted. “You truly are an unusual dragoness, Lady Rarity.”

“As I said before, I used to be a unicorn, not a dragon.”

“If you were a unicorn, what were you doing with so many gems you could afford to 'repay' me what was taken from my hoard?”

“I use them in dresses I design and make myself.”

“Dresses? You are a clothier?”

“I preferr Fashionista, but I suppose that's accurate.”

“And where do you get all these gems?”

“I have an arrangement with the diamond dogs, they get me gems, I get them other thigns they need.”

“You have diamond dog thralls?” Vaeron asked, his face a picture in surprise.

“What's a Thrall?”

“I'm not sure... it's what a couple of other dragons I know call the diamond dogs they have working for them to swell their hoards.”

“Well, they're certainly enterprising dragons then. I do believe I’m the first unicorn in Equestria to actually manage to arrange a mutually beneficial arrangement with the diamond dogs.”

Vaeron chuckled. “You misunderstand. Diamond dogs never respond to anything other than brute force. If you want to bring them into line and get anything productive out of them, you need to be stronger. It's rather hard to imagine a little unicorn doing so to a bunch of those dumb canines.”

Rarity snorted. “Mr. Vaeron, I am appalled! The diamond dogs I have been trading with have shown sense and appreciation for my efforts on their behalf, and have gotten more than their fair share back from the gems they have traded to me.”

“So you say.” Vaeron said.

Rarity snorted in exasperation. “I can see there will be no convincing you until I've proven I was a unicorn. Very well, let's go.” she said, picking her pace up to a trot which set the trees nearby to shaking.

“Hey! Slow down!” Vaeron complained as he took a few galloping strides to catch up to her.

* * * * *

Spike looked around from his vantage point on Twilight's back. The feathers of her wings tickled his legs gently. The camp was frantic with activity, but for the moment, immediately around them, it was calm. Celestia was giving orders to the commanding officers of the guard, who sped on their way to see her will done. But here, atop his guardian, surrounded by her friends, everything seemed calm as they slowly walked through the camp towards the edge of the everfree.

“Should I go for the 'knight in shining armor' motif, or maybe the 'barbarian warrior' getup?” Discord said, snapping his talons and lion claws and switching outfits back and forth while he floated alongside the group, large mirror keeping pace with him as he examined himself in a suit of gleaming full plate, and a rather barbaric outfit of furs and leathers, adorned with fangs, horns, and other such things.

“What for? You're indestructible without armor anyway.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Well I’ve never done this sort of thing before! I'd like to be properly attired.”

“Never done what before?” Applejack asked.

“Why, slain a dragon of course!”

Spike felt a chill run down his spine.

“We don't want it slain Discord, we need them subdued.”

“Oh, fine.” Discord said, waving his paw and banishing all his conjured objects and attire. “Very well. I'll keep it boring and just prevent any damage from being done. All very dull if you ask me.”

Spike sniffled.

“Discord, please. We're trying to find out what happened to Rarity, that dragon is the only one who may know.” Princess Celestia said.

“Horrid bit of business, that.” Discord sighed. “Very well, just let me know when you need me to start flexing my magical muscles.”

“Thank you Discord.

The group neared the front of the ranks of the guard. Celestia looked up to the guard post where two pegasi were, one looking into the forest with a telescope.

“Watchstallions, report!” she said.

Immediately, the ponies looked down to see her, and the one that had been looking through the telescope stepped aside and let the other take over, and leapt off the cloud, flapping a few times as he came down to the ground. Once there, he bowed. “The dragons are approaching, your majesty, but they're only moving at a walk. And they keep pausing.”

“Pausing? To do what?” Celestia asked.

“Oh, I hope they're not eating innocent woodland creatures!” Fluttershy said, shivering.

“Uh... no, Milady, they aren't hunting. They keep stopping and talking with each other.”

“Talking? What're they talking about?” Applejack asked.

“I don't know. We're not trained to lipread reptiles.” the guard answered. Pinkie giggled at this.

“Well, what can you tell from their body language then?” Celestia inquired.

“It's... confusing. The green seems to be hesitant, and anxious. The white seems very confidant... and a bit aggravated by the green's behavior... which seems to be setting the green even more on edge.”

Celestia's brow furrowed. “Very strange. How long till they arrive?”

“A couple of minutes, milady. Even at their rate, their size alone makes every step travel.”

“That it does.” Discord said, having conjured a spyglass and peered into the forest for himself.

* * * * *

Their walk had been quiet for the past few minutes, Rarity had realized, only when Vaeron made a loud snort.

“Well, I expected as much.”

“Expected what?” She asked, turning her head on her long serpentine neck.

“The ponies have gathered a veritable army at the edge of the forest. See for yourself.” he said, lifting his head as high as it would go.

Blinking, Rarity did as he did, and saw a field of shining gold and white. Ranks upon ranks of Equestrian royal guard... and... oh goodness. Even at this distance, which must have been a couple miles, she could pick out detail on every single one of them! Even... oh dear, that was princess Celestia out in the front, she'd recognize that magically flowing multi-colored mane anywhere.

“Oh dear... I do believe I've caused quite the fuss.”

“Rather an understatement, my lady. Shall we turn back now?” Vaeron urged.

“My good sir, I must repeat, this is all a misunderstanding. Once I explain the situation there shall be no trouble.”

Vaeron snorted. “I hope you're right. Because if you're not, there's going to be a whole lot more.”

Chapter 6: Return

The two great dragons approached, the Everfree forest parting before them. The ranks of guardstallions were, to a pony, sweating as the giant beasts came at them. Tales of legendary ferocity and power they'd all heard as colts playing through their heads. Crossbows and spears were shaking as the hooves and wings holding them quivered.

At the head of the ranks, princess Celestia stood firm, staring impassively at the approaching behemoths. The ground around her hooves trembled and shook, small pebbles bouncing around as the two of them came at a quick trot.

“T-Twilight...” Spike whimpered. “That's the-”

“I know Spike.” she said.

“But he's the one that-”

“I know Spike, don't worry, I'll keep you safe.” Twilight quickly said back to him.

“Safe from what? And who's that big dragon to spike?” Dash asked.

“Not now Rainbow!” Twilight hissed at her friend.

A few great draconic strides before they cleared the forest's edge the male pulled ahead of the female in two galloping strides, came to a complete stop and put his left wing out barring the female's path. The female came up short, ending up sitting on her haunches.

“Mr. Thorntail, what on earth-” The assembled ponies, baby dragon, and draconequus heard the female say in a deep, resonant, and cultured sounding feminine voice.

“Apologies my lady, but I must insist you let me go first.” the huge green male said in a deep rumble.

“Whatever for? I told you that-”

“Yes, yes, that everything would be cleared up, but look at them. Those arbalesters are shaking so hard they might loose their bolts without even meaning to.” Several ranks of Guardsponies blinked and looked down at their weapons, blushed, and forced themselves to stop shaking. “Allow me to go first, please. Your scales are not even hardened yet, and I would not bear to see you injured again.”

“Does this seem weird to anypony else?” Applejack asked those around her. There was a round of slow nods.

“More draconic honor, Mr. Thorntail?” The white female asked.

“Quite, my lady.”

The white female sighed. “Very well. I suppose I rather would not like to be stuck by spears and arrows over a misunderstanding.” She said, to which Rainbow Dash snorted. “Go ahead, but please try to be diplomatic.”

“I'll try, my lady.”

And with that, 'Mr. Thorntail' stepped out past the invisible barrier that was the Everfree forest, and into the open field between the trees and the small army of golden clad guardsponies.

“Before we begin, I will make one thing absolutely clear.” he spoke to the amassed group of ponies, though his enormous voice carried well into ponyville itself. “I am here to speak to you on behalf of the female behind me. She has asked that I forgive what occurred two days ago, and do naught but speak.” To this, a near palpable relief flooded over those present, but froze as he continued with; “I have agreed, but I assure you, if any further harm comes to her from any of you here, the retribution I pay upon you will be the stuff of legend.”

“Mr. Thorntail! There is no reason to be so threatening!” the white female said, aghast.

“I hear you, Sir Thorntail.” Celestia's voice cut through the air via a subdued form of the royal voice. “Guards! Sheathe your weapons. We shall not break the peace.”

“Well that's disappointing. And here I thought we were going to 'mix things up' as it were.” Discord said, forelegs crossed

The green dragon's orange eyes snapped to the source, and then widened in confusion. “What in the thousand peaks of Tartarus is that thing?”

“Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners, I haven't introduced myself yet.” Discord said, then snapped his talons and appeared in the air between the green dragon and Celestia. “I am Discord, Draconequus extraordinaire, and manifestation of the powers of chaos.” he finished, conjuring a hat and using it to elegantly bow.

“Charmed I'm sure...” the green dragon growled.

“Oh, no need to be testy, I mean, I was only called here to do battle with you,” at this the green dragon started growling. “But since you're not going to throw the first blow I’m hardly going to do much. Boring as it may be. I did promise a friend.”

“See that you don't. Believe me, it wouldn't end well for you.” came the response.

“Mr. Thorntail! For goodness sake, will you stop trying to pick a fight!” the white female exclaimed.

“I'm not picking a fight, I'm simply warning them what will happen.”

“In a very inflammatory way! What are you trying to do, make the avatar of chaos angry?”

“Sensible, that white one.” Applejack commented while the two dragons continued to argue.

“Yes... she's nothing like the dragons we met at the migration.” Twilight said.

“Just out of curiosity, sugarcube, how many dragons did ya actually meet, anyway?”

“Erm... Mostly this bunch of teenaged dragons.”

“Just teenagers?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Teenagers ain't 'zactly the most level headed folk to begin with, sug'.”

“Quiet! Something's about to happen!” Pinkie Pie hissed.

The others looked back up in time to see the white dragoness take a few steps forward, past Mr. Thorntail, just as Discord teleported back to Fluttershy's side. “Thank you for being so patient Princess, I know this situation must have been very stressful.”

Celestia had fixed on a neutral expression. “You're welcome. Now, if you would, I have some questions we need answering.”

The dragoness blinked. “Questions?”

“Yes, like what you were doing here in Ponyville, and what happened to the unicorn living in the house you destroyed.”

“Oh dear, I was afraid it might be like this.” The dragoness said.

“Afraid what might-” Celestia started to say, before a cry pierced the air and drew the attention of all eyes.

“What did you do to her!?”

Spike had stood up on Twilight's back, his hindpaws gripping into her barrel for stability (which was causing the young alicorn visual discomfort.

“Spike, calm down lil' fella-” Applejack started to say before the child yelled again.

“What did you do to her!?”

“What did I-” the white dragoness started, before Spike shouted again.

“Where is she? She was here, then you showed up and she's gone and we can't find her! What did you do?”

“I'm... what? I didn't-” the Dragoness started, looking confused.

“WHAT DID YOU DO WITH RARITY!?” Spike screamed at the top of his lungs, tears falling from his eyes onto twilight's withers.

“Oh for goodness sake Spike, I'm right here!” the dragoness said.

Celestia blinked. “What?”

“Huh?” everypony else chimed in.

The dragoness rolled her eyes. “It's me. Rarity.” The collected host of ponies stared at her with an expression of confusion... Though, escaping the dragon's notice, Celestia looked more shocked than anything. “The unicorn? Fashionista par excellence? Former bearer of the element of generosity? Your friend?”

Twilight blinked.

Spike sat down hard on Twilight's back, staring up at the white dragon with an open, slack jaw.

“Uh... I'm sorry but... that's kind of impossible... Innit?” Applejack said.

“I don't know... she is the right colors...” Pinkie Pie said.

“Right colors my haunch! Anyone with a couple buckets of paint can be the right color! How do we know you're telling the truth?” Rainbowdash retorted.

The dragoness sighed. “Two days ago, I went around and delivered dresses for the Grand Galloping gala personally to each of you girls, then went on the train all the way to Canterlot, delivered twenty more to the various nobles, and then finally gave the last one to Twilight.”

The ponies there, guards included started to shift at that.

“Okay... that's pretty good... but any pony in ponyville could've overheard that!” Rainbow shot back.

The dragoness' eyes narrowed. “Very well.” she said, then took a deep breath, which made every guard there stiffen and raise their shields, expecting a blast of flame.

Instead, the dragoness began speaking. “Rainbow Dash, I had to stand under your cloud house for nearly half an hour shouting at you before you woke up, at ten in the morning. Pinkie Pie-” she shifted her gaze to the pink earth pony. “You were in the middle of Snails' birthday party, and I was worried you'd get frosting or punch or something on your dress, so you told me to deliver it straight to your room in sugar cube corner, so I had to talk to the cakes to let me into your room. Applejack” She shifted her gaze again. “You were out in the southwestern fields monitoring the trees for any, and I quote, 'Apple scab', which you explained to me at great length for nearly forty minutes. Fluttershy,” Another shift. “you were home and just on your routine, but my hooves were aching, and you could tell without me even saying anything, so we shared tea from a teapot that Discord had enchanted to move about on its own, and it served any drink one would ask for. So I named a neighponese tea, and the set transformed itself into a complete Neighponese tea set, and performed, all by itself, the entire traditional tea ceremony. And Twilight.” She shifted her gaze once again. “When we had tea after I finally delivered your dress and tiara in the evening Spike showed me his treasure chest, and gifted me a single flawless arctic diamond for my necklace, after which you gave me a little private chat.”

Twilight and her friends all stared up at the dragoness, eyes went wide as saucers.

“Girls, is that accurate?” Twilight asked, turning and looking at her friends.

“Uh... yeah, I kept having a dream that Rarity was calling my name before I woke up and still heard her.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh, yeah! I was really into running that party and I only saw rarity for a moment, but the dress was in my room when I got home later.” Pinkie said with a nod.

“Apple scab. Yup, talked her ear off about it while she followed me around with that package.” Applejack confirmed.

“Oh my...” Fluttershy whimpered, still staring at the pale dragoness before them.

“Oh fer... she's dun locked up.” Applejack said, facehoofing.

“Is something the matter?” Discord asked, looking down at Fluttershy.

“She's got Dragon phobia.” Twilight said.

“Dragon phobia?” Discord's eyes widened. “Oh... dear me, she never mentioned such a thing. I mean, I’m part dragon myself.”

“She's only afraid of full grown dragons like those.” Applejack interjected.

“Oh, well that's distressing.” Discord said, prodding Fluttershy with his goat hoof.

“Discord, please, this is important. Did you enchant her tea set?” Twilight asked.

“Certainly! Being a good friend I wanted to help her out. Fluttershy drinks a lot of herbal teas to help her nerves. I figured having whatever tea she needed at nothing more than a spoken request would help her. I also thought the physical preparation bit was an inspired touch.”

“Ok, so that bit's accurate... Twilight?” Applejack asked the small Alicorn.

“Well... yeah, she did get Spike to give her a diamond from his hoard... and we spoke in private about tha-AH! Spike!” Twilight suddenly yelped as Spike leapt off her back and knocked her to the ground from his launch. He then proceeded to leapfrog from the backs and heads of a guard in each of the ranks until he was out in the open and sprinting as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Straight towards the dragoness.

* * * * *

I had gone from fearing for her safety, to fearing for her life, to hating this dragoness that had no doubt taken her from me. How couldn't I? Everything I saw, everything I knew was telling me she was gone. I'd never felt so empty in my life. That the most beautiful, perfect mare in the world was gone and it was one of my kind that had did it.

Now, she stood before me, big as a house and wearing the shape of one of my kind, one I’d never seen before, not even during the migration. But it's her. It's her and she's standing right there.

Twilight's calling my name from behind me, I'm running through the ranks of the guard and I don't even remember getting off her back. Then I’m out in the field, my face is wet, it's hard to see, and then I throw myself at her foreleg, wider than two pony lengths, and hold on tight, pressing my face against it and trying to stop my eyes from watering.

“Spike?” Rarity says in that new voice, but I can hear her in there. It's her. I know it.

“I thought you were dead!” I cry. I don't want to cry, I’m supposed to be happy, Rarity's back, why am I crying?

“Oh dear... Spike, it's okay darling, I'm here.” she says, lifting her leg, and me, up closer to her face.

I'm now laying on top of her foreleg as she holds me there. I look up at her face, it's still all blurry. I wipe my eyes and it clears. Her face is covered in thin, small scales that look like alabaster, and she has head spines kind of like the other dragon there, only shorter, covered in purple scales, and they don't curl at all like her mane. Her horn is still spiraled, but it looks longer than it should be, and it curves and comes to a really sharp looking point. But her eyes... eyes bigger than I am and with a pupil like mine, are still that deep, deep blue that I feel like I could just fall into forever.

I sniffle and wipe my snout with my foreleg, and give her the best smile I can, but I still hiccup from wanting to cry.

“Oh, Spikey, I'm so sorry I worried you...” She said, then brought my close to her chest, covered in pale blue scales, and lays me against it. Cradling me to her with her paws... it feels like a stone bench in Canterlot on a sunny day. Warm and smooth, but there's a little give... she's alive. Warm and soft and alive...

And I spread my arms out and return the hug she's giving me. And everything's finally all right again.

Chapter 7: Unfortunate Realities

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan work. All characters are owned by Hasbro, and are created by Lauren Faust.

* * * * *

Spike's happiness and relief was interrupted by a derisive snort. A rather loud one, coming from the multi-ton beast standing not far from where he currently was embracing the gigantic dragon Rarity had become. He froze, claws clenched, tearing into the top layer of her extremely pale blue bellyscales and raising small curls of the surface matter, but causing her no pain whatsoever.

“Gods, one would think you were his mother.” Vaeron said.

“Hmpf, I may not be his parent, but that doesn't mean I don't care deeply for him.” Rarity replied.

Vaeron shook his head. “So you really weren't hallucinating?” he said, changing the subject.

“Well, I'm glad you’re ready to believe me now.” Rarity said as Spike lifted his head and turned to look at the great green dragon.

Held to the broad chest of the dragoness Rarity had become, he was now easily saw that the two adult dragons were roughly the same size. Rarity WAS more petite than the male, but that barely counted for anything in the grand scheme. It was a matter of a few feet, out of what must've easily been over a hundred in length, maybe nearing two, but still, the dragon of the everfree forest's head loomed above him, and he had an imposing bulk and those fierce predatory lines to him.

As though feeling Spike's eyes upon him, the big male looked down at him, his eyes narrowing.

“Hello again, child.” he said, his voice level and dangerously calm.

Spike shivered.

“Spike,” Rarity said with a reassuring tone. “This is Mr. Vaeron Thorntail. He tells me you ate some gems of his some time ago.”

Spike gulped convulsively. “Y... yes...”

“Tell him you're sorry.” Rarity said.

Spike blinked. “Uh...?” he looked up at her.

Rarity urged him with her eyes, and a discreet little nod of her great head in the green dragon's direction.

Swallowing hard yet again, Spike turned his head to face the big green and, nervously clearing his throat, he spoke in a quavering voice.

“I-I'm s-sorry I ate your g-gems, sir...”

The big dragon nodded. “Appology accepted, just see to it it doesn't happen again and we'll have no problems.”

Spike blinked. “Wait... you're not angry?”

“Lady Rarity has offered to pay me back in gems from her own hoard to replace what you devoured, with interest.” he snorted. “Uncommon generosity from a dragon, but then I suppose if all this is to be believed, she was a unicorn.”

“Uh, excuse us? Down here?”

All three dragons looked down at the ground before them. Princesses Celestia and Twilight, Discord, and the rest of the knights of harmony stood there... though Fluttershy was cowering behind Discord. In the background, Spike noticed the ranks of the royal guard were dispersing and returning, reluctantly, to the camp.

“Rarity?” Twilight called up.

“Yes Twilight?”

“Could you please tell us what happened to you? We've been worried sick for days!”

Rarity sighed. “I was honestly hoping you could tell me.”

“You mean you don't know?” Twilight said, surprised.

“Twilight, I got home from a very full day, and barely had the presence of mind to drop a can of cat food in Opal's bowl before I went and collapsed in bed. When I woke up, I was like this.” Rarity pulled one paw away from Spike to gesture to her new form.

Twilight subsided. “I was really hoping for some kind of explanation. Now we have to run tests to figure out how this happened.”

Rarity sighed. “Twilight, can we please focus less on how I got this way, and more on me getting back to the way I was? This has been stressful beyond belief, and I’ve got other problems waiting for me after this is taken care of. Like the home and business my transformation destroyed?”

No one noticed the look of anguish that flashed across Celestia's face as Rarity spoke.

“You actually want to go back to being one of them?” Vaeron said.

“No offense, Mr. Thorntail, it's been interesting being a dragon for a day, and this may be perfectly all well and good for you, but I just wouldn't know how to get on like this. No, better for everyone involved if everything just went back to normal, and we go back to our lives, I think.”

“I... guess that may be best, then.” he said morosely, crossing his arms and looking away.

“Is something the matter?”

“Nothing... just mourning the loss of yet another treasure.”

Rarity blinked, then smiled. “Mr. Thorntail, that may be the nicest thing you've said to me since I met you.”

Spike glared at the bigger male, though it went totally unnoticed.

“Ah, Rarity?” Twilight's voice called.

“Yes Twilight?”

“I'm ready to go, but could you put Spike down first?”

“Oh! Certainly.” Rarity said, then gently lifted Spike off her chest and carefully lowered him to the ground in her massive, clawed paws. Once he'd safely reached the ground, he hopped out of her paw and stepped back... and found himself craning his neck back to look up at her.

“Uh, Spike? Could you come over here please? You're in the way.” Twilight said.

“Oh uh... sorry.” he said, shaking his head and coming over.

“Ok, now, Rarity,” Twilight called up to the dragoness. “I want you to just stand on all fours, normal, and just... well, I guess brace yourself.”

Rarity nodded, leaning forward and planting her forepaws on the grassy earth and causing divots to form where her massive weight pressed into the turf. She then pushed her hindlegs up and then spread them out to a normal stance.

“Alright, I guess we're ready. Here goes.” Twilight said, and concentrated hard. A moment later a ribbon of magenta light wove it's way out of the corona that formed around her horn, growing longer and longer as it slowly encircled Rarity in a long oval. It then rose above her, and then the space inside the ribbon became a pane of glowing pink light, before the whole thing lowered itself down the the ground, the light bathing Rarity's body on the way down.

Once it reached the ground, the conjuration, in it's entirety, faded away.

And Rarity stood there blinking... unaffected.

“Well it's flashy if nothing else.” Discord's voice chimed in.

“That... that's not right! She should be a unicorn again! That was one of my strongest counterspells! It should have worked!”

“Uh... why don'cha try that 'fail safe' spell.” Applejack suggested.

“Oh! Oh, yes, right. That's the strongest magic neutralizing spell in the book! Thanks AJ.” Twilight said, then charged her horn up far brighter, and unleashed a massive conical beam of white cored magenta light over the dragoness.

When she stopped the beam, yet again, Rarity stood there, this time looking a little dazzled, but still in her dragon form.

“Twilight, please, give a girl some warning!” She said, blinking. She then felt her snout with a paw and snorted. “Oh for... again? Oh heavens this just isn't my day.”

“Wh... what!? Bu-but the failsafe...!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Didn't work. Again. Like the last time. Sorry Twilight, I think whoever wrote that spell down was playing a prank.” Rainbowdash said.

“Last time?” Discord asked.

“Oh, she tried to use that spell to clean up what you were doing in ponyville the first time. Didn't do anything. I remember 'cause I got to have lots more of your chocolate milk rain.” Pinkie said.

Discord chuckled. “Well of course it wouldn't. Chaos magic doesn't operate on the same principles as unicorn magic. Or alicorn magic, for that matter. It's why you kept needing the elements.”

“Wait, so this is chaos magic?” Applejack asked.

“No, I’d know instantly if it was.”

“Darn, was hopin you'd have sumthin' fer this.” Applejack snorted.

“And why wouldn't I?” Discord said, sounding offended.

“Well... it's not Chaos magic, and Twilight couldn't-” She started to say when discord interrupted her with a sharp laugh of derision.

“Hah! Twilight might not be able to fix this, but I certainly can. All of you, stand aside!” he said, then flew in his undulating 'sea snake in the air' fashion into the field before Rarity.

None noticed the intense gaze Celestia fixed on Discord... not one of her usual glares for him, it was more... expectant, and anxious.

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, before she dashed under Applejack's legs.

“Aw consarnit Fluttershy, wouldja buck up already? It's just Rarity.” Applejack said while Discord put on a show of stretching and cracking his knuckles.

“I-I-I know, it's j-j-just...”

Applejack sighed. “I know, I know. Dragons.”

“Alright, one de-dragonized unicorn mare, coming up!” Discord said, then with a flourish, cast a rather dazzling lightshow around Rarity.

And with a crack and a snap, The massive dragoness was replaced with a rather dazed looking Unicorn mare with a white coat and a purple mane and tail.

A ragged cheer went up from the ponies assembled before him, and Celestia almost began to smile.

“There, see? Nothing to it!” Discord said, turning around...

Right before a crackling, hissing snap of a broken spell and a slight rush of outgoing air ruffled his fur.

“Well that's peculiar, didn't think we were scheduled for a lightning storm today.” Discord said. Then looked at the faces before him. Slack jaws all around.

Celestia... looked disappointed, but there was something more.

“What are all of you...” he said before it occurred to him to turn around.

Standing there, looking over herself, was Rarity, once more in the form of a dragon.

“Huh... that's odd...”

“Did'ja miss?” Rainbowdash asked.

“Of course not! I obviously just didn't put enough effort into it. Now, a little less showmanship this time.” he said, then simply snapped his fingers, and with a flash of light, the dragoness returned to pony form.

“There, nothing-”

CRACK. The dragoness was back.

“-to it-oh for...!” he snapped his talons and she turned back into a pony.

A moment later, CRACK, back to a dragon. “Ugh! Discord, I don't-” Rarity started

“Oh, tough guy eh?” Snap.

Crack.

“This is getting annoying...” Snap.

Crack.

“Let's try something else.” Snap, The dragoness was transformed into a white Camel.

Crack, the camel reverted into a Dragoness. “Discord, really! You can-”

Snap, Rarity was a Minotaur, and she wobbled on her hindlegs before falling on her rump.

Crack, the dragoness was there again, sitting on it's hindquarters.

Discord grit his teeth and growled. “Oh come on already!” another snap of his talons, and this time... there was a white airship where Rarity had been.

“Ah-hah! Beat that!” he jeered at the lighter than air vheicle.

With another thunder-like crack, the airship reverted to the dragoness, who's eyes wheeled in her head. “Ooh! What... what was that?”

Discord stared slackjawed. “Wha...? But...”

“Ah hate ta be the one ta say it, but, I don't think this' gonna work.” Applejack interjected.

Discord rounded on her, causing her and the others to rear up in alarm at the look of fury on his face. “So you think i'm beaten, do you!?” he shouted at her, then whirled around and started snapping his talons rapidly, causing Rarity to cycle through numerous species and inanimate objects, one going directly into the other with no pause.

“Discord! Take it easy!” Twilight yelled over the near deafening noise of the magical flashes.

“I refuse to be beaten by some two bit curse!” Discord snapped, continuing to rapidly snap his talons.

The flashes happened so fast it was nearly continuous, all the ponies and the two other dragons present there had to shield their gazes, but it one could have watched, you'd have seen things like a manticore, a lamp post, a narwhal, a wooden cart full of rutabagas, and a sundry list of other random forms that the thing that was Rarity rapidly cycled through, before he abruptly stopped roughly a minute later, and once everyone dared to look, there was the white and purple unicorn mare, dizzily teetering side to side.

“Ouuuugh... my head...” Rarity moaned.

Discord stared, “Did it...” he pulled out a comically oversized pocketwatch and checked it, then her, then the watch again. Seconds ticked by... a full thirty of them. A grin spread across his face, then he flung the watch over his shoulder as he let out a triumphant whoop, not even noticing as Celestia had to sidestep to avoid having the thing hit her in the head.

“Layered spells! I am a genius!” the Draconequus exclaimed.

“Ugh... Give a girl some warning will you?” Rarity said, dazed.

“Being a little more careful with large heavy objects also wouldn't go amiss...” Celestia commented wryly.

Spike and the remaining five knights of harmony, Fluttershy included, all charged forward and clustered around their unicorn friend.

“Rarity, are you ok?” Twilight asked as nearly the whole group tried to support her simultaneously.

Rarity 's eyes spun a bit. “Y- yes... I think so... Oh, girls, a little breathing room, please!”

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief as they backed off. “Oh good, everything's been so scary, I’m so glad it's back to normal now.” Fluttershy said.

Spike came up and hugged Rarity's foreleg. “I.. we... we were all really worried.”

the rest of the girls shared a not so covert indulgent smile at that.

Back off to the side, Discord turned to Celestia with a grin. “See? I'm perfectly capable of 'helping' when I want to, even if the situation is challenging.”

“I'm certainly glad to see it.” Celestia said, looking at the scene. Her gaze strayed to the great green male. Vaeron looked... considerably disheartened by the whole thing.

A slight commotion back at the group of friends drew her attention. Rainbow was up in her face again. “What was it like being a dragon? Could you breath fire? Why didn't you have wings? What was it like busting out of your boutique because that was-”

Rarity shook her head. “Rainbow Dash, I'd expect that kind of thing from Pinkie-no offense dear.”

“None taken.” Pinkie replied cheerfully.

“But I really don't want to get into all that right now, I have a dragon to pay and a home and business to put back together, and that's all going to be a massive headache so if you-” suddenly stopped as her whole body went rigid. A crackling of bolts of energy flaring from the tip of her horn and arcing all across her body, sending Spike stumbling backwards as it forced him away from her.

“Ack! What was...?” he yelped, then stared.

Everyone stared. Rarity was the epicenter of a growing storm of multicolored magical lightning, she didn't appear to be in pain... quite the opposite, she did, however, look alarmed.

“You've got to be kidding me...” Discord said.

“Uh, girls... you might want to take a few steps back.” Rarity said, only a few seconds before the energy grew too bright to look at, along with a rising high pitched hum.

“Run!” Twilight yelled, grabbing Fluttershy and Spike -the closest to her- in her wings and teleporting, Rainbow let out a yelp and flew off in a rainbow blur, and Applejack turned and started to run. Vaeron leapt backwards, wings flapping and taking him high into the air.

“Ooooh, pretty!” Pinkie said, before Applejack wheeled back, grabbed pinkie's tail in her teeth, and dragged her out of the area as fast as she could past the frozen draconequus and alicorn of the sun, right before a surge of light accompanied a thunderous boom from behind them.

* * * * *
A short while earlier...
* * * * *

The ponies of Ponyville had, for once, bolted their doors and remained in their homes for good reason. By all accounts, even the fully rational would be fearful of a visit by two dragons. Moreso those that had proven to be violent and destructive. Despite their deep, carrying draconic voices, they were still far enough away, and through enough walls, for no-one to have heard a thing that was being said.

In sweet apple acres, on the outskirts of ponyville furthest from the action, three little fillies sat in the kitchen. Applebloom looked at her two friends. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo was here because her parents thought she'd be safer as far away from the 'danger zone' as possible. Sweeite belle was there because her parents were out on another of their many trips, and, this time having decided their youngest daughter was old enough to look after the house herself, had left her alone. All the members of the apple family were well aware of this, so the instant trouble had arisen, big macintosh had gone out to fetch her. So now they were babysitting the cutie mark crusaders, attempting to keep them out of trouble.

Normally, this would have been an exercise in utter futility, as the girls were notorious for getting into trouble even when not looking for it.

Funny how the threat of rampaging dragons got even the most troublesome foals to behave themselves.

The three were currently playing a board game. They weren't particularly into it, but one of the three was even less so than the others.

“Sweeite Belle, you uh... gonna roll those dice?” Scootaloo asked.

“Oh, sorry...” The little unicorn filly said, scoping up the two cubes with both her forehooves and giving them an uninterested, weak toss cross the board. They rolled a few inches then stopped.

A moment's silence passed.

“You uh... gonna see what ya rolled?” Applebloom asked.

Sweeitebelle groaned, looked at the die, then picked up her playing piece and moved it across the board, then slumped back down.

Applebloom and Scootaloo glanced at each other, a look speaking volumes between them.

“Sweetie Belle...” Applebloom started to say, but ground to a halt, not knowing how to phrase it.

“You ok?” Scootaloo asked bluntly.

Sweeite belle lifted her head at her two friends, a look of confusion was quickly replaced on her face by one of anger. “Am I ok? Am I OK!? My sister's missing, a dragon destroyed her house, what do you think?”

Both of the other fillies cringed back.

Sweetie slumped in her chair. “No-pony will tell me anything.”

Sitting in her big easy chair, out of sight but not out of hearing, was the matriarch of the Apple clan, 'Granny' Smith.

“T'aint right.” she said.

“Mm?” her grandson, Big Macintosh, inquired, raising his eyes from the book he was reading.

“What that lil' filly's goin through. 'tain't right. Losin family. Ah should know.” She said, a distant look in her eyes.

Macintosh nodded, his own thoughts going back to his own youth.

Suddenly, there was a sharp whooshing sound that rattled the house, Big Macintosh was up in a second and at the windows, peering out.

“Macintosh?” Granny asked.

“Guards're movin. Left their posts in a awful big hurry.”

“Huh, Ah wonder why.” Granny commented.

“Maybe they spotted the dragon?” Mac said.

Less than a second later, there came from the kitchen the sound of a door banging on a wall as it was roughly thrown open.

“Whuzzat then?” Granny asked. Mac galloped across the room and looked into the kitchen. The chairs were pushed way back from the table, and the kitchen door to the porch as now wide open. He quickly made his way to it and looked out, only to see the dustcloud kicked up by a familiar and rapidly diminishing scooter and red wagon.

“Aw ponyfeathers.” He muttered.

* * * * *

“Sweetie Belle, are ya sure ya really wanna do this?” Applebloom asked her friend, speaking loudly to be heard over the rush of wind and the intense buzzing of Scootaloo's tiny wings as they propelled them forward at speeds not even the fastest earth pony sprinter could match.

“Yes.” Was her reply.

“Ya know, we'd probably hear about it pretty quick anyway.” Applebloom pointed out.

“I need to see this dragon 'bloom! All I saw was my sister's house destroyed, and her gone. I need to know what the thing that did this looks like, and get some answers!”

A minute later, they were at the edge of town, and the guard encampment sat between them and their goal.

“We'd better go on hoof from here. I think.” Scootaloo said, slowing to a stop.

“Why's that?”

“Well, we're really not supposed to be out here right now, if you wanna get close, we can't go in on my scooter with these buzzing away.” she said, gesturing to her wings.

“Right, let's try not to get spotted.” Sweetie Belle agreed.

The trio proceeded to creep, crawl, duck, dive, roll, and scuttle through the camp, eyes peeled for guards. After several minutes of this, they came to a realisation.

“The whole camp's empty!” Applebloom said out loud.

Two hooves, one white, and one orange, came up and shoved themselves into her mouth, along with a reproachful “SHHHHH!”

She Pushed their hooves down with her own and glared at them. “But it's true! There's no-pony here a-tall!”

The other two blinked, then glanced up out of their hiding spot (between a crate and a tent flap) and scanned their surroundings. No ponies.

“Huh, whaddya know. No-pony's here.” Scootaloo said.

“Then what're we waiting for? Come on!” Sweeite said, then ran out from behind the Crate and started barreling down the lanes between the tents.

“Hey, wait up!” Scootaloo called after her.

They'd very nearly reached the end of the acmp when they turned the corner around one tent and promptly ran smack into a large unicorn guard stallion's legs. The stallion was startled and reared, letting out a whinney. The girls, stumbling back, let out a yelp.

“Ahhh!” everyone yelped.

“We're so sorry we didn't mean it!” Scootaloo blurted out, the most coherent of the three as they babbled.

“Fillies? What the... what're you girls doing out here?” the big guard stallion, who happened to be standing at the head of an entire platoon, demanded of them.

“W-we came to see the dragon...” Applebloom said, knowing they were in trouble.

“Gawkers huh? Lieutenant,” the head stallion turned to a pegasus just behind him. “Take some stallions and get these foals back to town and make sure they stay there till we get the all clear.”

“No!” Sweetie belle cried out. “Rarity was my sister, I need to know what happened to her! Please!” She yelled as the three pegasi advanced on them.

“Wait... sister?” All the guards halted, and an awkward look came across their faces.

“My name is Sweetie Belle. Rarity's my big sister. My parents aren't in town and no-pony's told me anything about what's going on. Please...”

The first rank of guards looked at each other.

“You wanna tell her?” the unicorn looked at the pegasus again.

“The hay man? Why don't you tell her?”

“'Cause this whole thing is really weird and I’d rather not.”

“You're both useless.” another pegasus said.

“You want to explain it to her?” the other two shot back.

“If you two aren't, then yes.”

“Be my guest.” the leader said, gesturing to the three highly confused fillies before them.

The last pegasus stepped forward. “I'm happy to inform you that your sister is alive and well.” he said, which caused sweetie's face to virtually light up in joy and relief. “There's a... minor complication that the princesses are currently working on,” he said, which caused Sweeite Belle's face to fall slightly, and the other two fillies to raise their eyebrows in confusion. “but that should be taken care of shortly.”

Just as he finished saying that, there was a colossal explosion of magical energy from the field behind the line of guardstallions. The unicorn lieutenant lunged forward, with the speed of reflex, leaping forward, gathering the three up in his forelegs, then curling around them so his armored back shielded them from whatever the sound was, and for further good measure conjured up a small shield dome of blue light around them.

“What in blazes was THAT?” He demanded.

“I don't know sir! Too much dust to see, but the princess is holding up a barrier shield, and the male dragon is currently hovering at three hundred feet!”

“And the rest?” he said, lowering his shield.

“I can't get a solid count on the rest of the knights of harmony sir.”

“Rarity!” Sweetie squealed, then squirmed out of the guardstallion's grasp from between her two friends, and charged off, dodging between and under the legs of the startled guardstallions.

Within moments she was out in the open. Princess celestia was standing behind a glowing wall of golden yellow light, alongside discord, who was standing there with his eagle and lion 'arms' hanging at his side, and Applejack and Pinkie pie were laid out on the ground to one side, just barely behidn the shield. There was a flash of magenta, and Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike appeared off to the other side. Somewhere up above Sweetie could hear the sound of Rainbow Dash flying around, along with the great wooshing sound of the wings of the green dragon as it flew anxious circles overhead.

Sweetie Belle's mad gallop slowed to a canter, then rather abruptly to a walk as the wind from the dragon's wings blew away the huge cloud of brown dust that obscured everything beyond Celestia's barrier....

Revealing the massive form of the thing she'd only been told of in brief.

The white and purple dragoness.

It was laying in a crater that Sweetie was certain had not been there the last time she'd been out this way, but it quickly stirred. Pushing itself up on one foreleg, one massive clawed paw came up to its face and rubbing around the base of a long, spiraled, gently curved horn that sprouted out of the middle of its forehead.

“Ungh... great, now I have a splitting headache.” the dragoness said in a resonant, deep, yet still distinctly female voice.

“Is everypony ok?” Celestia demanded as she dispelled her shield, casting her gaze about almost frantically.

“We're okay.” Twilight's reply came.

“We're fine, we're fine... a mite singed, but we're fine.” Applejack said. Pinkie pursed her lips and blew upwards, blowing out a candle sized flame that had appeared on the very tip of her mane.

Sweetie Belle Looked around, where was Rarity? What just happened?

“Wha... I... but...” Discord was stuttering.

“What the hay's going on?” Sweetie said to no-pony in particular.

Pinkie's ear flicked her way, and then she looked over her shoulder. “Oh hey Sweetie Belle, when'd you get here?”

Six pairs of eyes snapped to her, Discord still standing there gaping.

“Oh, uh... hello Sweetie Belle.” The dragoness said.

“Guh?” Sweetie, normally a verbose little filly, found her tongue non-responsive. Then, after a moment, she shook her head, looked up at the dragoness again.

The dragoness sighed. “I know, I know, I’m not looking my usual fabulous self, but it really is me.” she said.

Sweetie blinked, then looked around. “Could someone please just tell me what in Tartarus is going on?”

“Sweetie Belle! Language!” The dragon scolded.

Sweetie flinched on reflex. “I'm sorry, it's just-” she froze, then looked up at the dragoness... really looking at her, not just looking in the beast's general direction. Looking AT her.

“Wait... how'd she know my name?” Sweetie asked no-pony in particular.

“Uh... how ta put this...” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her neck with a forehoof.

“Surprise!” Pinkie said, springing onto her hindhooves in an upright stance, forehooves skyward. “Your sister's a dragon! Discord just tried to turn her back but it didn't seem to work.”

Sweetie looked at pinkie as she spoke, but then shot her gaze back at the dragoness.

“No way...!” she breathed. “H-how did it happen?”

“We're kind of trying to figure that out right now, actually.” Rarity explained, while behind her the other dragon slowly came down for a landing.

Suddenly, all eyes were on Discord... who was still gaping at her.

“Discord... are you alright?” Fluttershy asked, coming closer.

Her voice seemed to register, but instead of turning to her, he instead clenched his paw and talon into fists, and ground his teeth. His face turning red with rage.

“N-now discord... please, calm down, you tried your best-”

“I KNOW THAT!” he whirled on her and screamed in her face, fire erupting around him, and his eyes blazing red. “I put everything I had into that! Multi-layering and binding a permanent transformation enchantment, something I never thought I’d have to pull out in the first place on a mere mortal, and it was still broken like a unicorn preschooler's first dabble in cursing!”

“Discord... y-you're scaring everypony.” Fluttershy said.

The draconequus groaned and stomped off.

“Whoah... you mean... Discord couldn't even fix... whatever this is?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Doesn't look like it.” Twilight said, looking after the draconequus as he stormed off... randomly pointing at rocks and turning them into various other objects. Twilight had to weave her way between a grandfather clock and a cotton candy cart to get to where he was sitting, Fluttershy directly behind her.

“Lousy curse.” The draconequus said. “Whoever cast it is probably laughing his rump off at this.” he shifted his voice slightly into a bad mockery of what he assumed to be the perpetrator's. “Oh look at me, I cast a curse that not even the lord of chaos can break! I'm soooo proud of myself!”

Twilight groaned. “Discord, there are no such things as curses.”

Discord looked at her. “Really?” he said, though from the tone it was clear he did NOT agree with her. More of a 'did you actually just say that' really.

Twilight backed up a half step. “Uh...”

Discord sighed. “Oh, Twilight, I would have thought better of you.”

“But... curses are just hocus pocus, charms and rituals that don't have any real power. We went through an entire misadventure with Zecora over all that.”

Discord groaned, then snapped his fingers and a book appeared in his paw. “Here.” he said, tossing it at her.

Twilight caught it in her telekinetic aura and looked at the cover. “The Mareiam-Halter dictionary?”

“I teleported that one from your own shelves.”

“Did you check it out?” She asked.

“Oh!” he groaned. “Just open the blasted thing and tell me what the definition of a curse is!”

Twilight and Fluttershy both blinked, and a second later they were both nose deep into the book. “Curse, curse, curse... ah! Here we go... 'a spell that causes any kind of discomfort, or pain, or disruption to harmonious life. Or secondly, any enchantment of which the recipient does not enjoy...” she ground to a halt. “Wait.. ANY enchantment?”

“Quite. And tell me, does your friend seem to be ENJOYING being a dragon?”

Twilight and Fluttershy cringed back.

“I just... I don't understand.” Discord said.

“Don't understand what?” Twilight asked.

“I mean... well, look.” he said, picking up a rock with his lion paw. It was about the size of an average pony's hoof. “This is a rock, yes?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes... it's a rock.”

“Well now,” Discord said, then snapped his eagle talon, and with a flash, it was a rather dazed looking mallard duck. “And now, it's a duck.” he dropped it on the ground, letting the thing faceplant “And now,” he snapped the lion paw, and a flash surrounded the duck, who lifted it's head entirely unchanged outwardly. It blinked, and then stood up, brushed its chest off with its pinion feathers, then took a deep breath, and started singing in some foreign language with a rich and sonorous voice. “Its an opera Tenor.”

“Who's Figaro?” Pinkie asked.

“I'll tell you some other time.” Discord said quickly over his shoulder. “My point is, these things are stable, the transmogrification isn't breaking down. This is how things are supposed to work. But I tried the same powers on HER-” he gestured at rarity. “And it breaks every time! Ugh!” he threw his paws up in the air in frustration. “I mean it's not like she's a real...” he ground to a halt, his eyes going wide.

“Discord, what're you thinking?” Fluttershy asked.

“Wait... that's... but it can't... I mean she's supposed to be a unicorn! But it would explain...” suddenly he teleported next to Rarity's head. “One moment my dear, I need to take a look at something.” he said, then grabbed... at the air, and pulled, and it was as if he was throwing off an invisible curtain, but suddenly there was a massive black screen infront of the dragoness.

“Ok, now what?” Twilight said, tilting her head.

Discord reappeared next to a oversized dial on the screen, and turned it. Suddenly there was an image on the screen of Rarity, only it was all pale and white. He turned it again, and it was as if her hide was gone, showing all her muscles. “Oh, sorry, sorry.” he turned it two settings and it was just her skeleton.

“I do hope you're enjoying yourself.” Rarity said, though it was rather unsettling watching the image of the skull move to the voice.

“Oh hold your... nevermind.” Discord said, then turned it one more time... and the image was replaced by a silhouette that shined and cast a glow into the surrounding black field. The interior of the glowing dragon shape was filled with color, white and blue and purple, flashing through in an almost kaleidoscopic fashion. Discord looked intently at this image.

“Ooooh, pretty!” Pinkie said.

“Yes, it's lovely...” Twilight said, but kept her eyes more on Discord than the image.

Discord snorted. “Well, that settles that.” he said, then clapped his paws together and the screen disappeared.

“Settles? Settles what? What did you see? I could barely even look at it.” Twilight asked.

“I'm rather interested to know myself.” Rarity said, draconic voice dripping sarcasm.

Discord sighed then looked at Twilight. “Do you remember when you and I had our little contest?”

Twilight glared at him. “It's a pretty big memory.”

Discord ignored the foul look. “Right, well, you remember how I hexed all your friends and pulled out the dark side of their personalities?”

All the assembled knights of harmony looked a little put out about that, besides Fluttershy, but they all nodded.

“Right, well, Twilight, do you remember when you broke my enchantment, by yourself?”

Twilight blinked. “I... well hey, I did, didn't I?” she said, suddenly sounding pleased with herself. Then something clicked in her mind. “Wait, I broke your enchantment.”

“So? What's the big deal?” Rainbow Dash asked, flapping slowly down to the ground.

“So, I was just a unicorn. Discord's power effected me and was making me other than what I was, but I broke through it on my own.”

“But he was just making you ACT different, he didn't turn you into another species.”

“I'm starting to think the two aren't so different.” Twilight said.

“Congratulations Twilight, you're starting to understand.” Discord said.

“Well... I don't think the rest of us are.” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Yeah, could 'ya give us the low down on all this, simple like?” Applejack asked.

Discord sighed. “It's like this, my powers are incredibly far reaching, but out of all of them, my powers of transformation are the most fickle. I could transform rocks into opera singing ducks, give rabbits extremely long legs, turn apples into corn, or turn beavers into vicious little ogre monstrosities all day long and not have them revert, but...”

“But what?” Twilight asked.

“Well...” Discord sighed. “Twilight, tell me, what was the first lesson Celestia taught you?”

“Uhm... how to properly focus my magic so I didn't have another surge?”

Discord rolled his eyes, in the normal fashion rather than in a chaos magic way he normally would have. “Well I suppose that would be the PRACTICAL thing to do... Celestia, help me out here, what's that first lesson you always teach your students?”

Celestia, who had been silent for quite some time now, looked from Discord to Rarity, then closed her eyes. “A unicorn's magic is rooted in their soul, the depth and power they can access is limited only by their own spiritual power and strength. As they grow as individuals, so too does their power in the magical arts.”

“Wait, so this has something to do with Rarity's soul?”

“Yes.” Discord sighed. “That rock had no soul, a natural duck is a simple animal and has a very small and weak soul, which I can craft into an enchantment to mimic one with a minimum of effort, and then further manipulate it into looking or acting any way I want. With regular animals I can transform their bodies and minds and have them be how I want them to be for long periods of time. Even simpler sapients fall to my powers quite readily, like those bison I had in tutus.”

“Wait... Twilight, what's he talking about?” Rainbow asked.

“I think I get it.” she flared her wings. “All free cast spells are powered by a magic user's inner reserves of power, which are rooted in the spirit. More advanced, intelligent creatures have larger, stronger souls, with plenty of room for growth, but some species have larger baseline reserves of power, or greater innate internal magic, which means...” she looked up at Rarity, a pained expression on her face.

“Which means... what?” Applejack asked.

Discord groaned. “Do I really need to spell it out?” he said, looking at the ponies before him. The blank, uncomprehending looks made him roll his eyes, and not in the ultra-literal sense he'd done once before. “Ok, here. When I hex someone, I’m pushing my magic onto someone else and making them look or act the way I want them to. It's a 'push and shove' between my magic and theirs. Between my 'soul' and theirs. Normally, I’m far, far stronger than anything I've ever come up against, but this?” he said, gesturing at Rarity. “The soul of a dragon is far and beyond the strongest thing I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. Stronger than any prodigy unicorn or alicorn in training. It's no wonder she keeps breaking out of it.”

“But I'm supposed to be a pony!” Rarity exclaimed.

Discord chuckled. “Well, admittedly, I did see a few fragments of a unicorn's soul in there when I checked. But you, our beloved dressmaker, now have a soul as vast and powerful as the body you're currently wearing. With a distinctly draconic flavor too. I should know, I’m one sixteenth dragon, and we've got both little Spikey and mister mean and green over there for comparison.”

Vaeron finally came in for a landing, cautiously approaching from a moderate distance. “Are you done flinging spells now?”

“Quite, I think. We're not going to get anywhere like this.” Discord admitted.

“But... I’m not a dragon...” Rarity said, dumbfounded.

“Well, maybe you weren't, but you are now, and I don't have the faintest clue how to undo it.”

A stricken look came over her draconic features. “I'm stuck like this?”

“Looks like it. Now if you'll excuse me, I’ve had enough of looking like a fool today. I mean, I like looking like a fool sometimes, but only when I want to, and I didn't!” he grumphed. “Good to see you again Fluttershy but really, don't call me again for a few days. Ta!” he said, then snapped his talons and was gone.

“Discord! Get back here!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“It's no good, he's gone.” Fluttershy said.

“I'm trapped in a dragon's body...?” Rarity said, voice hollow and eyes unfocused.

“You say that like it's a bad thing.” Vaeron grunted, crossing his arms across his chest.

“I'm trapped in... no, no, NO! T-this can't be happening!” She took a step backwards, pupils narrowing to panicked slits.

“RARITY!” Twilight shouted, landing on the white dragoness' muzzle with enough force to rattle both their skulls. “Rarity, look at me!” She shouted, the eyes nearly crossed, looking at her.

“T-Twilight?” Rarity whimpered.

“Breathe.” Twilight said.

“B-breathe?”

“Like this.” Twilight said, then demonstrated the same breathing exercise she'd been shown by Cadence a few weeks earlier.

Shakily, Rarity copied the motion by putting her paw on her vast scaly chest as she inhaled, then pushing it out with a slow exhalation. After several repetitions of this, the quivering in her breath stopped her eyes returned to a more normal appearance.

“Better?” Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded. “Yes, I think.”

“This is beyond stressfull Rarity, I understand... but at the moment you're a little bit too big to be having panic attacks. I promise you, I will do everything in my power to fix this. You just have to trust me.”

“I... I do Twilight, I'm just a little overwhelmed.”

“I know Rarity, I know. Really.” Twilight said, one forehoof stroking Rarity's smooth scaled snout underneath her. “I mean, look at me. I went from being a unicorn to an alicorn... I know it's not as big a change as suddenly being a completely different genus... and class, but still! You're still here, and healthy. I can fix this. I just need some time, ok? I promise I’m going to do everything I can to figure this out.”

Rarity blinked, then gave a weak smile. “I... yes, thank you Twilight.” she said, lowering herself back down to all fours, and bringing her head closer to the ground and the rest of the group.

“And all our friends will be here for you too, won't we?” Twilight said as she hopped off rarity's snout and flapped gently down to the ground.

A chorus of assent came up from the others, though Fluttershy barely being able to murmur out something when Applejack nudged her out of her wide eyed fugue as Rarity's head approached.

“Anything you need Rarity, I'll be there.” Spike said, coming forward and laying a paw on one of the toes on her left forepaw.

Rarity smiled. “Thank you, all of you.”

“Wow... Mom and dad are gonna freak out.” Sweetie Belle said.

Rarity's eyes shot wide open and her pupils narrowed as a vision of her parent's reaction flashed before her mind's eyes, before she forced a chuckle. “Haha... yes, well... one crisis at a time, Sweetie... please.”

Vaeron chuckled. “Well, I would be remiss if I did not offer my support as well I suppose.”

Everyone glanced over at the green dragon. “Really? Why would you? Not that I'm ungrateful...”

Vaeron snorted. “Despite the fact that you were a unicorn, it seems you will be a dragoness for some time to come. And it is the duty of any male of our kind to see to the wellfare of any female that is in need.”

Rarity smiled. “That is quite chivalrous of you sir. And kind, you have my thanks.”

“You can thank me by repaying what gems your little male friend owes me, with interest.” Vaeron said, turning around in a sinuous circle as he padded back towards the forest on all fours.

“Huh, well that's a fine how d'ya do.” Applejack said, watching him go.

“It's just draconic nature, I'm sure.” Twilight said, then let out a breath. “Well, we'd better go Talk to the Mayor, I'm going to need to set up some things for... oh! Oh, Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, cantering over to her former teacher's side. “I'm sorry, I'm going to have to rework my schedule! I need more time in the day than I'd have with my royal duties and-” She paused as she looked up at Celestia's face and saw... a flash of pain in the solar alicorn's eyes.

“Twilight, It's alright. You don't need to take care of any... 'royal duties' for now... and besides, I’m sure you're going to have plenty of time to figure this problem out.”

Twilight brightened up. “Oh! Oh that's wonderful! Thank you pri-I mean, Celestia.” Twilight bowed. Then turned and lead all her friends, and Sweeite and her friends, off towards town hall.

Celestia stood there by herself for a long moment , Staring at the retreating form of the white dragoness, still visible even over the roofs of the houses of the town.

“Plenty of time...” she whispered to herself.

* * * * *

A short while later, in his cave in the forest, Vaeron pulled a vast roll of parchment out of a stone rack, and carved wooden pole. He dipped the end of the pole in a pot of ink the size of a wagon, and proceeded to write a letter in a language unknown to pony-kind onto it in characters wider than a pony was tall. Once finished, he rolled it up, focused for a moment, and breathed a puff of fire onto the parchment. The huge scroll was consumed, and turned into a floating cloud of glittering ash, which then whisked itself out the mouth of his cave and far, far away.

Author's Note

This one was, unfortunately, delayed by forces outside my control, and for that i appologize. I should have the next chapter out sooner than this last one. Anyway, i hope you enjoy.

Chapter 8: Picking up the Pieces

Chapter 8: Picking up the Pieces

This is a Non-profit Work of Fan Fiction. My little pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro, and created by Lauren Faust, M.A. Larson, etc. Please Support the Official Release.

* * * * *

Mayor Mare had -over the past several years- gotten used to the fact that her town had become a magnet for disasters both large and small. Being close to the Everfree forest the town had always had a reputation for unusual phenomena, but ever since Princess Celestia had sent her protege to oversee that one summer sun celebration things had become more and more... 'interesting' to say the least.

Now, she was standing on the front step of town hall, and before her was the now ascended alicorn, Twilight Sparkle. Behind Twilight were four other mares she'd come to know very well, three young fillies she had regretfully come to know very well for completely different reasons, and behind them were two dragons. One she was very familiar with, the little purple and green baby dragon Spike. He was standing next to a full grown adult dragon of snowy white, pale blue, and rich purple.

“Let me get this straight,” she said, trying to absorb what she'd just been told. “What you're telling me is that-” Mayor Mare indicated the dragoness with a wave of a hoof. “is Rarity?”

“Yes Mayor.” Twilight confirmed.

“And you don't know how it happened?”

“No, Mayor. Not yet.”

“And you couldn't fix it?”

Twilight awkwardly rubbed her hoof behind her head. “Uh... no. Not with any stock spells, anyway. I need to research this transformation more completely to figure it out.”

Mayor Mare hesitated. “Is it contagious?”

Twilight blinked. “Mayor Mare, this is a magical affliction, not a biological one. Spells don't spread like that.”

“Twilight, when you enchanted that doll, it had every pony in Ponyville going berserk.”

Twilight glanced back at Rarity, who was looking extremely nervous and agitated. Normally when discussing technical things, Twilight's tact was -notably- lacking. But the look on her friend's face, even as a giant dragon, pulled at her heart. In a blink, she searched through her vast, encyclopedic knowledge of magical phenomena to pull up a plausible explanation that would sooth rattled nerves on both sides.

“Rarity transformed into a dragon suddenly, within hours of whatever it was that affected her. There have been ponies crawling through the wreckage of her home-” There was a decidedly draconic whimper as she said this, from a few yards behind and almost five yards up. “for nearly two days now and none of them have any detectable magical phenomena about them that should not be there. I'm confident that this enchantment will not spread.”

Mayor Mare nodded. “Well, if you're sure princess.”

Twilight blushed at that. “Right, thank you Mayor. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I need your permission to start setting up a research lab so I can figure this out properly.”

Mayor Mare sighed. “Princess... Twilight, you outrank me. By several leagues. You don't need my permission to do anything. If you need to build a laboratory, or a castle, or anything within ponyville, you have the authority to do so, and to take whatever resources you need for it.”

All of her friends blinked at this. And Twilight blushed. “Oh! Uh, well, I... I wouldn't just go over your head on that, Mayor. You're still important in this town, I wouldn't do that.”

Mayor Mare gave a tired smile at that. “I appreciate that, Twilight. I really do.”

“Of course, the first thing ya need ta do is let everypony in town know what's goin' on.” Applejack pointed out.

“Huh?” Twilight said, turning to her friend.

Applejack gestured behind them to mainstreet Ponyville... and its obvious lack of activity. The town looked like it once had whenever Zecora came around.

“Oh...” Twilight said.

* * * * *

There was one upside to being a princess, Twilight had to admit. When she needed things to get done, all she had to do was say so, and they happened. Taking advantage of the guards that had yet to finish packing up and return to Canterlot, she had a squad go around town and announce both an all clear, and a mandatory meeting in the town square.

In record time, the entirety of the town was gathered before town hall. It was a decidedly nervous crowd, but Twilight couldn't exactly blame them. Considering there was a giant dragon sitting right next to town hall. Twilight had hoped that the sight of guards nearby, unconcerned about the dragon's presence, would clue the civilians in, but the whole prey instinct thing was apparently still strong in these ponies.

She wondered for a second why she'd thought it would be any different.

“This is everypony, right?” she asked the sergeant as they stood just off the center of the front steps.

“We co-ordinated with the local constabulary, Princess. This is every pony, cow, sheep, donkey and mule, according to them.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you sir.”

Twilight walked up to the podium and tapped her hoof to it's surface, the knocking sound quieting the already subdued murmuring from the crowd.

“Citizens of Ponyville, I apologize for dragging you all out here like this. The past few days have been highly unusual, and for this town, that's saying a lot.” There was a brief stint of chuckling from the crowd at this self deprecating joke.

“Two days ago, as I'm sure you're all familiar with at this point, a dragon appeared inside Carousel boutique and destroyed it. The pony who lived there, an icon of this town, went missing. We now know the truth behind those events. Rarity, knight of harmony, and former bearer of the element of generosity, was not abducted, eaten, or anything else. She was in fact transformed into the very dragon you see to my left.”

The crowd's mass shout of “WHAT!?” nearly blasted her off her hooves.

* * * * *

“Well, that was awkward.” Rainbow Dash said, keeping level with Rarity's head as the dragoness padded towards the ruin of her boutique.

“Well, at least everypony ain't hidin' in their houses no more.” Applejack observed as she trotted briskly along beside said dragon, Rarity's steps were at what would have been a comfortable walking pace for a pony but with her size she took one step to every ten or so of an equestrian.

Rarity looked around, and noticed that, while some ponies were going about their business again, most of them were constantly glancing at her, and she could tell they were nervous. And those were the better cases. Others were hurriedly getting out of the road if it looked like she was coming anywhere near, and parents were ushering their foals indoors with haste.

“Mostly everypony...” she mumbled.

“Aw, don't worry Rarity, I used to get some odd looks when I first moved to ponyville, they warmed up to me. And they already know you. They'll come around.” Spike said from where he sat atop rarity's head, holding onto the foremost purple spine.

Rarity glanced up. “Thank you Spike... you're a very observant little baby dragon, you know that?”

“Eh, I like to think I'm smarter than the average dragon.” Spike said, polishing his knuckle scales on his chest.

A train whistle sounded in the distance. Most of those present didn't pay it any mind, but Applejack paused.

“Hey Twilight?” she said.

“Yes Applejack?” Twilight said, pausing.

“Wasn't yer brother supposed to be arriving on a train?”

Everyone else glanced at each other, then up at the sky as a magenta colored dome rose up to cover the entirety of the town.

“Oh ponyfeathers...” Twilight groaned.

Rarity let out a startled roar as several bands of magenta light snapped around her fore and hindlegs, just above the paw, and then drew in, essentially hogtying her, and dropping her with a ground shaking crash. All the citizens of ponyville, still shaken and nervous by everything form the past twenty four hours, bolted into their homes yet again as a mass of armored crystal ponies charged into the square and surrounded Rarity and the others, Shining armor was in the lead, but he was straining mightily to keep the magical bond on Rarity while she tried to free herself.

“Citizens, get away from that dragon! Hurry! Our prince cannot hold it forever!” one of the ones at the front barked.

“He doesn't have to hold her at all!” Twilight snapped, then stepped forward. “SHINING! Shining let her go this instant!”

“The beast has them charmed! Sir, don't let up, we'll get them clear!” The crystal guard said, before charging forward, several of his fellows following.

Twilight rolled her eyes. Then, with a flash of magic of her own, stopped every crystal pony in the square in their tracks. Their hooves rooted to the ground. With the second one, she disrupted her brother's spellcasting, freeing Rarity, and knocking her brother on his haunches with a startled whinny.

Rarity's limbs freed, she flipped over onto her opposite side, then got her legs under her and stood on all fours.

“Rarity, are you alright?” Twilight asked.

“I'm fine Darling. Feeling a bit ill used at the moment, but nothing a real lady cannot handle.”

“Good.” Twilight said, then walked, calmly, through the throng of visibly panicking crystal guardponies, and up to her stunned brother.

“T-Twiley?” Shining said, rubbing his head, then looked past her at the placid white dragon. “What's going on?”

“I'll explain that in a minute, just promise me you'll call off your guards and not start casting spells again, alright?”

Shining blinked owlishly, then glanced around at his men, taking in the glow of his sister's magic sealing their hooves to the ground. “Uhm... well, first you'll have to let them go...”

“Give the order first, then I’ll let them go. I don't want anyone getting hurt, pony or dragon.”

Shining stared at her blankly, then sighed. “Stallions, stand down and return to ranks once my sister has released you.”

Twilight glanced around at the crystal ponies, making sure they'd heard the order, and noted how they were now standing still instead of straining against their magical bonds. Satisfied, she nullified her previous casting, and suddenly all the guards stumbled as they were let go. After briefly shaking themselves off, and casting glances at the alicorn of magic, and the massive white dragon, they backed off warily and returned to ranks behind Shining Armor.

“Now will you please explain what's going on?” The Unicorn prince asked.

* * * * *

“So... she just... spontaneously transformed.” Shining said, more statement than question.

“Yes.” Twilight replied.

“Into a dragon.” Shining continued.

“Plain as day.” Applejack confirmed.

“And Discord himself couldn't turn her back to normal.”

“Noperoonie! And he tried REALLY hard!” Pinkie confirmed.

“And you have absolutely no idea how it happened?” Shining asked this time.

Twilight sighed. “No, I don't. But I promise I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

Shining glanced at the dragoness, who was laying curled up on the ground a few dragon sized paces away. Spike was standing next to her head, smaller than one of her eyes. Ponyfeathers she was huge...

“And you're absolutely sure that this isn't a contagious magic?”

Twilight gave a brief, chuckling snort. “That's the one thing I'm certain of. She's not emanating any form of magic I haven't seen in any other dragon I've ever met, and neither is anything left at her... well, where her boutique used to be. And trust me, I scanned everything within two hundred meters of the place. Nothing unusual at all.”

“That's... bizzare.” Shining said, then shook his head. “So... do you have a plan?”

“For the moment... nothing beyond getting some more advanced equipment set up here in town so I can start doing some tests.”

“Anything I can do to help?” Shining asked.

“Sorry big bro, I don't think so. This is something I have to solve scientifically.”

Shining nodded. “Well... I guess this'll just be a little sleepover then. I'm gonna have to get my men camped and fed, and we'll be heading back on the train... the day after tomorrow maybe.”

“Two days?” Twilight asked.

“Twily, we just made an emergency overnight train trip with full kit, on full alert and preparation for fighting dragons. We've been running on adrenaline and now that there's no emergency, I'd like to give my men a proper rest before carting them all back to the empire. Besides, I'd like to give them a chance to see heartland Equestria for a little while. Goodness knows I've missed it, and the ponies here.” he said with a smile, and gave his little sister's mane a tussle with a hoof.

Twilight flinched, laughing, then smiled at him. “I missed you too, BBBFF.”

* * * * *

Rarity sighed as she looked over what was once her home and business. The Carousel boutique was now a collection of smashed and shattered wooden beams, crushed furniture and haphazardly strewn cloth. There were a few more orderly piles of pieces arrayed on folding tables that the guard and the local police ponies had set up to do field examinations in their investigation. But still, for the most part the place was a pile of wreckage.

She saw some raw bolts she hadn't yet used, laying strewn across the grass or piles of snapped timber, some dust covered and crumpled dresses she'd had out on her showroom floor., and snapped ponyquins with ripped segments of dresses still on them.

Rarity was sitting up on her haunches so she could raise her head up higher to get a proper look over the piles of wreckage. Most of the other former bearers of harmony were now sifting through the wreckage, along with quite a few crystal pony volunteers, most of whom seemed to be working at the direction of, of all creatures, spike. Shining had given his guard stallions leave to explore the town and experience what it had to offer. Two whole squads had decided to turn their freedom to service to the little dragon, and everypony around had looked quite puzzled, while Spike looked bemused, but accepted their aid with a little smug grin.

When Twilight asked Shining why they were doing this, he grinned and said “I'll tell you at the Equestria games.”

Sweeite Belle and her friends had wanted to help, but Twilight had told them not to for fear of the little ones getting hurt. There were a few crystal guards there too. When Spike had offered to assist as well, they'd pushed themselves forward, and despite spike telling them it was ok, they politely refused and stayed by his side, apparently looking out for his safety as well as assisting him in the cleanup.

“Well, ah ain't so sure it's as bad as rebuildin' a whole barn... ah mean, ya got whole chunks of the place still intact... mostly.” Applebloom said, looking over a section of the lower wall that was laying flat on the floor of what had been the main level. Two windows were in it, one had the glass totally shattered while the other one only had a few panels cracked.

“'T'aint as easy as all that, Bloom.” Applejack called over to her younger sister as she piled individual lengths of broken timber onto the wagon she'd appropriated.

“Why not?” Scootaloo asked.

“You can't tell if the impact rattled nails loose inside the structure when it came down. Just putting the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle and connecting the seams wouldn't give you a house any-pony would be safe going into. It could easily fall apart from weaknesses you didn’t see.” Twilight said, levitating up Rarity's smashed fainting couch, and a number of her ponyquins, some of them beyond repair, others still reasonably serviceable. “So we have to tear everything apart, check all the boards and nails, get rid what can't be used again and get a bunch of replacement parts to fill in the gaps.”

“Huh, guess we got lucky when the barn came down last year huh?” Applebloom said.

Applejack gave her a look. “What we were lucky about was the fact that Big Mac had a whole pile of spare lumber we turned into planks to replace the broken ones from the old barn. Otherwise we would'a had to spend a bunch on new ones.”

“Oh...” Applebloom said, looking down, while a few of the others chortled a little.

Applejack chuckled. “Ya'll really thought nothin' broke when that barn fell down sugarcube?”

Applebloom blushed. “Guess ah was bein' silly...”

Applejack smiled. “No worries Applebloom.”

“Grrr... c'mon you stupid...” Rainbowdash growled with a bolt of cloth in her teeth, straining as she heaved backwards. The distal end of the cloth pinned under the edge of a full quarter of the first floor outer wall of the boutique.

Rarity's eyes darted to the disturbance and she snorted in alarm. “Rainbow Dash! Be careful, it's going to-!”

SHRRRRRRIP!

“Tear...” Rarity said as the cyan and prismatic mare got most of her prize loose from the debris.

“Eheh... sorry Rares.” Dash said, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment, the bolt of cloth at her feet showing the roughly torn end..

“Really Rainbow, don't just grab and tug, if you need help lifting something I can manage that I think.” Rarity said, before reflexively reaching out with her magic to lift an object that looked to her to be no bigger than her old fainting couch to lift it up into the air.

In the next instant, her horn flared brighter than twilight's had when she'd long ago dealt with the Ursa minor, and the glow that surrounded the chunk of building debris glowed to match. With an intense high pitched noise and a snap of magic not unlike a crack of lightning, the shattered segment of building was sent rocketing into the sky. Everypony leapt backwards away from the blast of noise, and ponies all throughout the town let out a yelp. Even Rarity herself flinched backwards in surprise.

“What the hay!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Rarity?” Twilight said, looking at the startled dragoness' face.

“I... I didn't... that was... I don't know! I just wanted to lift it a little bit and then...!” she babbled.

“It's coming back down!” Sweetiebelle yelped..

“Hit the deck!” Scootaloo shouted.

“Wait, I got this!” Shining Armor said, leaping forward and pointing his horn at the sky. His horn blazed with magenta light before a beam was sent rocketing towards the plummeting debris. Just before it got there, it seemed to stop, then flared out into an upturned dome, into which the debris crashed, square in the center of the depression. As it did so, however, the top half of the dome formed, sealing in any dust, wooden splinters, nails, or other detritus from the impact.

“Excellent work, prince Armor!” one of the crystal guard said.

“Yeah wow, nice work Shiny...” she paused as she looked at her bother's face, contorted with exertion. “Shining, are you ok?” Twilight said.

“Yeah... just... this thing's really heavy...” he grunted.

“Hang on, let me help.” she said, sending her own magic stream up to the bubble he was slowly lowering. Once she connected Shining relaxed visibly. Everyone backed off as they lowered the glowing sphere down to the ground.

“Leave the shield up, there's still a lot of dust rolling around in there.” Shining said.

“Good point.” Twilight said as she closed her power feed. The bubble stayed intact, flattening into a dome as it came to rest on the ground, still full of roiling brown dust.

“Ok, that's cool and all, but... what the hay just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked nopony in particular.

“I just... I just tried to lift that piece of wall... it looked... small to me and...” Rarity said, still somewhat in shock.

“So you grabbed it and used about as much force as you normally would for an object that big, compared to how large you are?” Twilight asked.

Rarity looked down at Twilight with a blank expression. “What?” she said, not quite understanding.

Twilight thought for a moment. “I mean... uhm... well... oh! That hunk of wall looked about as big to you as your fainting couch usually did, when you were a mare.”

Rarity nodded. “Well it looked about as big as my couch usually does...”

Twilight nodded as well, glancing at the shield bubble. “Well that confirms what Discord said earlier, I just wasn't sure it would manifest this way.”

“What would do what way?” Rainbow asked, confused.

Twilight looked at rainbow. “Discord said that Rarity's soul was as large and powerful as a dragon's.”

“Yeah, so?” Rainbow said.

“A unicorn's power is rooted in the soul. The stronger our souls, the stronger our magic.”

“Like... he said that was how she resisted his spell, I got that part, but this?”

Twilight sighed. “Rainbow, It didn't just make her resistant, it made her magic stronger.”

Everyone present had a look of mild alarm pass over their faces. Somewht nervously, Applejack cleared her throat. “Uh, so, how much stronger we talkin', sugarcube?”

“I'd have to run some tests... but considering how easily she shot a few thousand pounds of lumber and drywall and assorted other materials into the sky like that... I’d give a rough estimate of at least a hundred times more powerful than she used to be.”

“A hundred times!?” everyone shouted, while Rarity's jaw dropped.

“Concidering what Rarity's abilities were before this, and what it usually takes to perform a spell like that? I'd say so.” Twilight said before turning to face the dragoness. “In any event, Rarity, I think you should hold off on any spellcasting for the time being.”

“I... um... I suppose that would be... prudent...” Rarity said, staring at the shield dome that contained the chunk of building she'd launched.

* * * * *

The rest of the group went back to their salvage attempts, and things proceeded relatively quietly for several hours while the sun slowly dipped towards the horison. The collection of salvageables slowly grew, in particularly the raw cloth from Rarity's workshop which were relatively undamaged despite the ruin of the building. Her furniture and most of her personal belongings were far worse off, however.

“Well, this looks like it was a four-poster bed.” Pinkie said as Twilight levitated the next chunk of roof off of a section of the rubble pile.

Rarity whimpered. “I had that imported all the way from Prance...”

Twilight sighed. It seemed every time they uncovered something else broken, it about set Rarity off again.

“Ohh! Ohh! Lookit this Twilight!” Pinkie said, fishing something out from the silken sheets.

“What is it pinkie?”

“Rarity's necklace!” she said, pulling out a gleaming piece of golden jewelery. “Oooh! That IS a pretty gem!”

“Necklace? The element necklace?” Twilight asked.

“Uh-huh! And it's in pretty good shape... oooh, no, wait, the clasp's busted.” Pinkie said, fumbling with the clasp and finding it had snapped in two.”

“Huh, that's kinda strange. I wouldn't expect that kind of damage from being smashed by a roof in a bed.”

“Oh, that's just great. The universe couldn't just let me have my most sentimental possession still be intact.” Rarity said, her huge head snaked around to peer at the necklace from above her friends.

“It's just a clasp, I'm sure it could be fixed in no time.” Twilight said.

Rarity nodded. “I know, it's just... well, it still feels like a kick in the rear from the universe after all this.” she said.

“Prince Armor! Princess Twilight! There's a pack of diggers approaching the town!” A crystal guard called, running towards them.

“That and things just seem to not want to stop happening today...” Rarity groaned, her left forepaw coming up over her eyes and her dextrous digits massaging her temples.

“Diggers, private?” Shining said, turning to the approaching crystal soldier.

“They look like dogs sir, used to be a problem in the crystal empire before the curse. There's about ten of them, hauling large carts, towards the town.”

“Dogs?” Shining blinked.

“Diamond dogs.” Rarity said, rising to all fours. “Don't worry, I'll go talk to them.” she said, padding off towards where the runner had come from.

* * * * *

Bella strode alongside the first of the gem laden carts, heading to the ponyville meeting place. The white furred horn pony, rarity, had given them such needed things in exchange for their gems. Food, medicine, blankets, supplies for tools. Things that only female dogs seemed to truly understand the value of. Stupid males would whine and complain if they weren't comfortable, but all they ever wanted were more gems. Females liked gems too, but she, and all the other den mothers in the pack had instantly seen the value of trading the gems for these needful supplies, while the males had all whined about giving up any of their precious gems.

Worse, the three former joint pack leaders had whimpered about having anything more to do with the 'whiny pony'. Bella had endured hours of them whining and whimpering at her over this, but after their humiliation over the whole kidnapping and the following visit by the sun and moon ponies had demoted them to betas and put her in the alpha position, they had dealt with rarity when she'd come to them, and now they were far better off than they had been before. Now, she was hoping to get some more things to make their lives easier. A double load of gemstones would go a long way towards that.

The first thing they had to do was get to the village, which strangely seemed to have a bunch of ponies that sparkled like gems around it. They were rather pretty.

Oh, and they'd probably have to take a slight turn to avoid the huge dragon that was walking out of the village towards them.

Wait... dragon?

* * * * *

Rarity gazed down at the approaching gem laden caravan and instantly recognized Bella at the head of it with her new draconic vision, bringing a smile to her face. The diamond dog alpha was always a pleasure to speak to, despite her lack of culturing and formal education.

“Bella, darling, it's so good to see you!” she called out to her friend.

That was when, as a whole, the dogs started yelping in terror and started to turn and run, the dogs attached to the carts shucking their yokes and abandoning their cargo.

“What the...? Bella!” Rarity called out, but the dogs paid her no heed, pelting back the way they came in terror.

“Oh not again... Bella, come back here!” Rarity shouted, which carried like a roar as she broke into a draconic gallop, eating up the distance between her and the fleeing pack in seconds.

Even if she had never been in a true athletic mindset, rarity had always been physically fit, even as a pony. This translated into her new body, and her run had a fluid, effortless grace to it. She caught up to the pack in only ten rapid strides. Mid stride, she bunched herself up, then sprang forward, launching with her heavily clawed hindlegs and sprang through the air almost double her massive bodylegnth, and with a twist in mid air, landed in front of the dogs, her body directly over their path.

The dogs came to a screeching halt, their claws digging furrows into the grassy field.

“Bella, there's nothing to be afraid of-” Rarity started to say, before the pack scrambled to turn and run in another direction. Rarity rolled her eyes, and with another powerful leap, cut that direction off as well.

For a span of seconds, the dogs kept trying to bolt, and Rarity kept leaping into their path, keeping them corralled to an area a few dozen meters wide. But each time she had to jump, Rarity got more and more frustrated at the flighty dog's behavior, and it showed on her face, and in her voice every time she tried to tell the dogs to stop running every time she landed.

Untill, finally, with a snap of anger she roared straight in the dog's faces, the thunderous sound echoing faintly off the mountains around the town.

The dogs froze in terror, cowering before her.

Snorting, Rarity took one step towards them, and sat down on her haunches.

Whereupon Bella fell on her face in a kowtow as she whimpered. “Please mighty dragon beast, do not harm my pack, we will serve, just don't hurt us!” she whimpered.

Rarity's eyes went wide, then her memory flashed to the conversation she'd had earlier that day with Vaeron, and his mention of a dragon that had a rather unpleasant arrangement with another diamond dog pack.

“Oh for goodness sake Bella, I'm not going to put you in shackles. Stand up.”

Bella slowly raised her head, then shakily got to her paws.

Then froze, as a look of confusion came over her face.

“Uhm... how great dragon know Bella's name?” she asked.

Rarity snorted. “Because you told me it weeks ago when we sat down to discuss the terms of our deal.”

Bella looked up at rarity, this time actualy getting a proper look at the huge white dragoness. “Bella pretty sure she not make deal with dragon...”

Rarity pinched her temples with two of her draconian digits, again. “Oh for the love of... Bella, it's me. Rarity.”

Bella tilted her head. “But... Rarity white pony, not white dragon.”

Rarity sighed, lowering her paw and looking at Bella again. “Yes, well, I had a little accident a few days ago, and now I'm a dragon. Temporarily at least.”

The entire pack started murmuring amongst themselves.

“Ponies can be dragons?” Bella asked, sounding quite lost.

“Not normally. But then, nothing about this is normal.” she said.

Bella tilted her head again. “So... Dragon pony rarity... not making slaves of Bella and packmates?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I just told you I wasn't going to do that Bella. As if I'd do something so atrocious.”

Bella let out her breath in a relieved sigh. “Oh, good! Very good.” she said, then looked behind them in the direction of their abandoned gem carts. “Does dragon pony Rarity still want trade for gems?”

At this, Rarity smiled. Doing business, normal business, sounded absolutely wonderful right now.

“I most certainly would.” she said.

* * * * *

The next morning, on Equestria's eastern coast...

* * * * *

Coco Pommel sat in a cafe in lower Manehattan, looking out through the rain that pattered against the window. Scheduled rain, so she'd not been caught unawares, but she still saw the occasional pony rush by trying to find shelter from the storm. It was a late morning for her, to be honest. The run of the latest production she'd worked on was over and she was considering which of the offers she'd gotten from other stage companies. That favor Rarity had done her had opened up her world in ways she never would have imagined. Costuming departments all across the entertainment sector wanted her on their teams. But now, with one job done and quite a few promising job offers, she was taking an easy day to concider them, and starting with a leisurely breakfast in her favorite cafe.

The waitress, a pegasus mare, came up with a tray in her wings. “Here ya go Coco! Prench toast, scrambled eggs, and coffee. Two lumps of sugar, one cream. Anything else?”

“Oh, no. This looks wonderful.” she said, then began spreading butter and syrup across her Prench toast.

She was nearly finished cleaning her plate when the waitress came by again, a newspaper rolled up under her wing.

“Hey Coco, you know them 'knights of harmony' right?” The mare asked.

“Hmm?” Coco mumbled, looking up from her mug of coffee.

“Well... saw this on the frontpage just now and thought you should see.” she said, placing it down on the table.

The headline read; 'Dragon of Generosity?' Below it was a aerial shot of a full grown, albeit wingless, dragon standing next to and dwarfing a large building in a rural neighborhood, and a crowd of ponies. On the steps of said building was a podium and several ponies speaking to the crowd.

Coco blinked. “What?”

“Open it 'n read, hon.” the waitress said.

Confused, Coco opened to page two and began to read. Her eyes grew wide and her pupils shrunk in shock as she absorbed what was printed.

Dragon of Generosity?

Rarity, Knight of harmony, and former bearer of the element of Generosity, dissappeared late friday when her home and business was destroyed, seemly by an invading dragon. After an altercation with Rainbow Dash -the Lady of Loyalty- which injured the dragon that destroyed the home of Lady Rarity, a dragon that resided in the nearby Everfree Forest and fled with the first dragon.

“A giant white dragon burst out of the Carousel boutique! Like it was hatching from an egg! Then Rainbowdash tried to stop it, but another dragon came and took the first one away after it blew Rainbow down the street with a roar. It was horrible!” One eyewitness Recounted.

Her royal Highness, Princess Celestia and the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle, were quick on the scene with a legion of royal guard, intent on investigating the disappearance and the attack, assisting the local peacekeepers with the investigation into the disappearance and putting the border of the everfree on lock down in record time. Her royal highness, Princess Celestia, even called in Discord, the spirit of Chaos, to ensure that any aggression from the dragons would be dealt with, without damage to the town, or loss of pony life.

But the following morning, before a search party could be dispatched to brave the primeval forest, both dragons emerged and engaged in dialogue with Princess Celestia, revealing that the dragon that had emerged from the Carousel boutique was not an invader, but, in a bizzare twist, The lady of Generosity herself, inexplicably transformed into a dragon.

Despite repeated attempts at transforming the knight of harmony back into a unicorn, both Princess Twilight Sparkle and Discord were unable to reverse the effect of whatever spell caused the transformation.

When questioned, Princess Sparkle had this to say: “We don't have a lot of information to go on at this time. I will however repeat that I am confidant that whatever happened to Rarity is not contagious, and is extremely unlikely to repeat itself.”

The silence stretched on for a few minutes as Coco re-read the article, the waitress stood there, growing more concerned by the minute at the look on coco's face stretch more and more in shock.

“Uh, coco, darlin'? You ok there?” She finally asked.

“I gotta go!” Coco blurted out, tossing a hooffull of bits at the cash register as she galloped out... then back in to grab her saddle bags, and back out again.