The Beginning

We need to speak, now.

-Celestia

Twilight finished reading the scroll Celestia had sent her and looked up in confusion. She looked at the back of the parchment to see if perhaps, in her confusion, she had read the end of the letter first, but the small message and signature were all there was to the note.

It was the middle of the night and Twilight was quite curious what could be so important that it could not wait until morning. Suddenly the still sleeping Spike gave another magical burp and Twilight levitated the new scroll over to her.

P.S.

Come Alone

-Celestia

She wanted her to come alone? Her curiosity grew and she decided against her original idea of simply writing back to the Princess. Twilight walked over to the window to her room, it offered a perfect view of Canterlot off in the distance, and Twilight couldn’t help but feel that Celestia was watching her, waiting for her to take flight off towards the mountain side city.

Twilight quickly wrote a note to Spike telling him where she had gone, should the meeting take all night, and then traded the warmth of her home for the cold night air outside. Twilight shivered, and wondered if she was up to the task of flying all the way to Canterlot, she was still a little unfamiliar with her wings after all. Still, the train to Canterlot would not arrive for another few hours, and something in the Princess handwriting told Twilight that this was urgent.

She took off, wobbling in the air a little, before gaining her balance and flying off towards the castle.

***

Celestia stood in the room hidden behind there thrones, staring at the statues, wondering what would happen after they cast there spell on them…

“Sister, Twilight is here.”

Celestia turned and smiled in greeting at both her sister and former student. Twilight looked surprised and curious at the hidden room she had been led into. Celestia smiled at the child like wonder on her favorite pupil’s face, it reminded her of herself when she had been so young.

“I came as soon as I could, Princess Celestia.”

She said going into a bow before she apparently remembered something and shot right back up. Celestia gave an internal sigh, even with all she and Twilight had been through, the purple princess still thought of herself as inferior. Celestia wanted to tell her to relax, that they were equals now, but she knew it would be better to get to the business at hoof. ‘Or at hand, rather.’ She thought, giving a quick glance towards the five fingered appendages of the statues.

“I’m glad your here Twilight. I apologize for calling you so late but this was the only time we could have access to this room without any of the guards seeing.”

Celestia paused then, ready to answer the torrent of questions her prodigy would no doubt have for her.

“What is this room anyway?”

Twilight drew a long slow gaze, taking in everything in the room before finishing her inspection.

“This…”

Celestia paused, more for dramatic effect then any reluctance at telling her.

“Is our parent’s treasure room.”

“Parents?”

Twilight seemed honestly surprised at the word and Celestia had to suppress a laugh.

“Why yes, Twilight even we had a mother and father at one time.”

Luna said and then muttered quietly.

“As terrible as they had been.”

Twilight hadn't seemed to have heard the remark and while Celestia couldn’t exactly disagree, she still felt a little shock at hearing her sister speak of them with such hate, she kept a neutral face though so as not to alert Twilight.

“I’m sorry…”

Twilight looked embarrassed.

“Of course you had parents, it’s just…”

Celestia raised a hoof to silence her before she began one of her ramblings.

“Of course Twilight I know it seems odd to think that at one point we had been little fillies, but that was long ago, and while our childhood is not completely irrelevant to what we will ask of you, there are more important things to discuss now, namely these statues.”

Celestia stepped aside and gave Twilight full view of the three statues, all creatures from a time long ago. A human, draco, and kitsune

“What are they? There not ugly, but I wouldn’t call them treasure’s either, they just look like the statues in the castle garden…”

A quick pause.

“Well, perhaps a little different to the one’s in the garden.”

“They are not valuable in the way your thinking of young Twilight.”

Luna said going up to examine the trio.

“They are just made of simple stone, and no jewels adorn them as you can see. No, these creatures hold a different value, one worth much more then simple gem’s or rare stone.”

Twilight swallowed nervously.

“There not like Discord are they?”

Celestia and Luna looked at each other and seemed to be thinking of the best way to answer.

“No, they are not dangerous.”

Celestia reassured Twilight who looked satisfied

“At least we think so.”

Luna said bringing Twilights panic up again. Celestia show a quick look at her sister before giving the other half of there answer.

“But yes, they are similar to Discord in that they have been petrified.”

Twilight looked at the strange creatures, frozen in time, and suddenly grew dizzy.

“There alive in there? Can they hear us?”

Twilight looked at the statues with a cautious look.

“I do not know, but we are going to find out soon enough.”

The three princess stared at the petrified creatures in a moment of silence before Twilight burst out.

“You want to bring them back! With all due respect Princess’s, why?”

Twilight really didn't want to see these creatures alive, the weapons they held and the looks of frozen anger on there faces were enough to convince her of that.

“The past few years have been fraught with many enemy's both new and old, and it has occurred to Luna and I, that it would be best to have a more… active source of defense for Equestria.”

Celestia answered calmly.

“Well… They are scary looking, but assuming they even agreed to help us, how could three monster’s possible defend all of Equestria?”

Luna had flinched at the word monster, but had said nothing.

“We do not need them to solve small crimes, only from serious problems. We plan to give them a base of operations to live in and stay prepared at, so that when an attack or other issue occurs we can summon them and have them lend their aid.”

“But we need your help to free them from their prison, Twilight. The magic that has been placed on them can only be dispelled by three alicorns casting a simple dispelling ray on them all at once. And with Princess Cadence so far away and unable to leave her kingdom, we must ask you.”

“Well, I suppose if you really think it’s best Princess’s.”

“Very well then, I suppose all that’s left is for you to pick which one you want to cast one, we will do the other two.”

Twilight went and examined the three statues lined up along wall. The first one was of a large armored creature, his face frozen in a battle rage that manged to still frighten Twilight even knowing he could not move. He held a small axe that, unlike the woodcutters tool she was familiar with, had two blades and looked designed for battle.

“Eric, A truly fierce human warrior, who while merciless to his enemy's, was kind and sweet to those he could call friend’s.”

Twilight looked back at Celestia with a disbelieving look. There was no way this angry fur-less creature could be friendly at all. Celestia gave a smirk and gestured towards the other statues.

The second statue was of a tall and lanky fox like creature, who wore an outfit that gave him the look of the fancy swashbuckling ponies Twilight had read about it stories. Unlike the last statue his face gave off a calm yet alert gaze, and he seemed to wield no weapon except for the sharp claws extending from his fingers.

“Gaizo, A member of a rare immortal race known as the kitsunes, they are occasionally born of human parents. Of course given that humans are now extinct it would appear that he is the last one of his kind to be born.”

Twilight looked at the noble kitsune. Though she recognized the previous statue as a human from old history books, this fox creature was very new to her. Still he looked very sly and deadly and she still wasn’t sure she wanted him alive.

The last statue depicted a short reptile with obviously feminine features, unlike her dangerous looking friends, she wore a simple robe and though her face looked surprised her eyes held great intelligence. There was something familiar about her, though Twilight could not tell why.

“Elizabeth, a draco wizard of great power, one of the few races outside of unicorns who truly understood magic.”

“Wizard? Draco’s could do magic?”

Twilight was amazed at the idea that there had been other races who could work the mysteries of magic.

“I had known you would take a liking to her, she shared your love of magical knowledge. Yes she is a draco, one of two left in the world, Her kind all but wiped out long ago in a great war. They were closely related to dragons but they lacked the fire breathing and flight ability's, though they more then made up for it with there greater intelligence. They were also known for there growing greed as they grew older, though each dragon-kin’s choice of collectible was different, Elizabeth here valued magic as the greatest treasure and she traveled the world learning all she could of it.”

“Where’s the other one? You said she was one of two.”

Twilight was fascinated by the draco. Even with only the brief history lesson they sounded like a much nobler race then regular dragons were.

“After she had been turned to stone the guards had checked there belongings, there really hadn’t been much of note, except an egg that was being kept in Elizabeth’s bag.”

“Egg?”

Twilight looked back towards Celestia, curious look on her face.

“Well they had taken it, hoping to hatch it and raise the draco to fight for them but it would not hatch without the mother nearby.”

“Finding they could not hatch it, nor could they destroy it, they eventually threw it in storeroom here in the castle. Where it eventually found it’s way to an aspiring young unicorn, wanting desperately to prove her power. And whether by luck, destiny, or sheer skill, that unicorn found the right spell to hatch the egg. Finally the young hatchling within saw the light of day after thousands of years in waiting.”

Celestia looked at Twilight a warm smile on her face and Twilight turned back to the statue of Elizabeth.

“She’s…”

Twilight trailed off and Celestia did not answer, knowing that Twilight knew what she had implied.

“I want to free her.”

Twilight looked at Celestia with a determined look and she nodded that they could begin.

The three alicorns took there positions. Celestia had chosen Eric, and Luna Gaizo. They each fired off a magical ray at the statues, which all hit at the same time. The statues began to tremble and slowly bits of stone fell off like skin flakes revealing the flesh of the heroes underneath.

They began peeling faster and faster and soon all three of there heads were completely uncovered, and they looked around, dazed and confused. Finally all the stone had been returned to flesh and the trio of friends looked at each other with amazement on there faces before jumping off the pedestals they had been placed on and giving a unanimous cheer.

“Were alive!”

Eric shouted, his voice deep and smooth.

“Of course Gaizo told you he would get us out of there.”

Gaizo said as he talked in the third person with an exotic sounding accent.

“I hate to break it to you Gaz, but I think we have these Ponies to thank for our freedom."

Elizabeth said, her voice sounding like an older, wiser, and of course female version of Spike’s.

Gaizo looked at the Princesses and made an exaggerated jump backwards. “Ponies? Looks like they’ve come to finish us friends, well Gaizo will not go without a fight, are you two with Gaizo?”

“Hold on Gaz, something seems familiar about the two big one’s.”

Eric scratched his beard in thought before snapping his fingers.

“Ah-Ha! I got it. It’s little Tia and LuLu! Course they don't seem so little anymore…”

Eric met Luna’s gaze and had to look up a little to accomplish the same with Celestia.

Eric let out a sharp whistle.

“Nope, they are definitely bigger. Looks like we’ve been in there quite awhile my friends.”

Twilight was bewildered. These three had apparently been imprisoned in stone for thousands of year’s and yet the two men just sat there conversing with each other like nothing had happened. Liz had begun looking through her satchel.

“Look Gaizo just saying, maybe ponies grow fast, I don’t think we've been in there that lo-”

“Where is it? Where’s my egg?”

Elizabeth screamed and her two companions instantly ran over to help her look through her bag again.

“Oh no little ass-kicker’s gone?”

Eric yelled with concern in his voice despite his comical words, apparently that had been his pet name for the egg that was now Spike.

“Perhaps you put it in other bag?”

Gaizo suggested.

“No I never left him alone he-”

Suddenly Liz looked up and sniffed the air. She quickly caught the scent of something and her eyes turned to slits and focused on Twilight.

“You, purple pony, what have you done with him? Do not lie! I remember his smell like it was yesterday and you reek of him.”

Eric and Gaizo had quickly grabbed a hold of Liz, not wanting to anger there saviors.

“Calm down Liz!”

Eric yelled.

“Yes Gaizo agrees!”

The kitsune was not very strong and he was quickly knocked away by the enraged mother.

“Let me go, she has him, you can’t smell it but I know she has him.”

She had just about knocked off Eric in her anger now and Twilight did not want to find out what she would do if she got a hold of her, those claws looked really sharp.

“I have your son Elizabeth!”

Twilight admitted.

“She admits it now let me go get my hatchling back Eric!”

“He’s not a hatchling anymore, he’s 12 years old and I assure you he’s quite happy.”

Liz stopped struggling not quite sure what to make of this new information.

“My son is in your care? He’s 12 years old?”

Liz’s eyes darted around in confusion, thankfully her eye’s had gone back to being full normal orbs.

“I want to see him.”

Liz said calmly.

“That can be arranged Ms.Elizabeth, but we have matters to discuss first.”

This was not going as well as Celestia had planned, which wasn't really all that surprising in hindsight. Of course the first thing Liz would look for would be her unborn child, and Celestia berated herself for such foolishness.

Elizabeth looked over at Celestia her eyes growing narrow again, and then she saw it was Celestia, though when they had met last the pony had just been called Tia…

“Remember me Liz?”

Celestia smiled as the look of friendliness seemed to come back on Liz’s face.

“I don’t know if were still friends but you said I could call you Liz that day.”

“Of course I remember…”

Liz had calmed down quite a bit.

“We had come to see your parents, and while we were waiting our turn you had come running up to me.”

Liz smiled at the memory.

“You told me you were playing of magic tag with your sister, that you were the wizard for that round, but you didn’t know any good spells to catch her with…”

“And I had asked if you knew any spells, that my daddy had talked about how powerful you were and I begged and begged you to teach me just one.”

Celestia had tears of remembrance in her eyes, Twilight had never seen her like this before.

“I said yes, I would teach you one, one your sister would never see coming…”

“Color spray!”

They both said at the same time.

“And I had chased LuLu around constantly dazing her with the…”

“That stupid rainbow spell, you never did tell me where you had learned it from.”

Luna said with a look of fake anger directed at her sister. Both princess’s started laughing like school fillies, with Liz joining in soon after and even Eric and Gaizo got in a few chuckles apparently remembering the sight of a young Celestia tormenting her sister with a spray of random colors.

Suddenly Celestia grew dour, and the rest of the room soon followed.

“What’s wrong Tia?”

Luna asked with concern.

Celestia took a quick a look around.

“Where’s Twilight?”

Everyone looked around for the purple alicorn, and after seeing she was gone, Liz grew upset again.

“Where has she gone? She has my child!”

Liz ran out of the treasure room to look for her, and everyone followed. Out in the throne room they could see that the large double doors leading in were cracked open.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Celestia called out for the young princess.

“Where is she, you must tell me!”

Liz said worry in her voice, though nowhere near as upset as she had been earlier, she still desperately wanted to find her son.

“Don't worry Liz well find her, and little ass kicker.”

Eric reassured his scaled companion, and Gaizo simply placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Liz calmed down significantly at her friend’s reassurances, And offered them a weak smile. Celestia’s heart warmed at the strong bond all three still shared, even after years in stone, and wished Twilight had been there to see the display of friendship.

“It would appear she’s flying back to Ponyville. I saw her headed that way through the open window.”

Luna reported after investigating the hallway outside the large throne room.

“Come, join me friends.”

Celestia gestured towards the trio of heroes.

“I can teleport us all there.”

The three friends walked over to Celestia, and after a brief flash of magic found themselves in front of Twilight’s home. It was early morning now, and Celestia was glad to see her sun raising spell she had set, in preparation of the long night, had gone off at the right time.

“This is Twilight’s home, knowing your son Ms.Elizabeth he should be just waking up.”

A crowd of ponies had already begun to gather around the two princess and started murmuring about the three strange creatures that stood with them.

Liz ran up to the door, and finding it locked, cast a simple unlocking spell on it. Though the spell was not flashy by any means, the crowd of ponies all gasped at the display of magic that came from the non-unicorn. Liz ignored this and threw open the door, quickly joined by her two companions.

Spike, who had indeed just awoken, jumped at the sound of the door crashing open, and looked in shocked surprised at the three strange intruder’s. Liz quickly noticed the young draco, and pulled him up into a hug before Spike could even register what was going on.

“Oh my little boy, you are safe! After all this time, we meet at last!” Liz had gone into full-on mother mode and was rocking the very confused Spike in her arms.

“I’m happy too Liz, but perhaps we should tell him who we are before making up for lost time.”

“Gaizo not so sure, little draco seem to not mind.” It was true, Spike had been a little weirded out at first, but something seemed oddly familiar and comforting about this female dragon holding him, and any friendly attention at all was welcome to him.

Liz gave a chuckle and set Spike down, much to his chagrin, and bent down to eye level with the baby draco.

“Of course you two are right, but I’m just so happy to see him safe and happy.” Liz smiled at Spike, who gave a friendly smile in return, just because he had never seen these people before, didn’t mean he was going to start being rude.

“I am your mother little one!” She beamed at Spike and his smile slowly turned into a frown, clearly this poor dragoness was insane.

“Not to be rude, But I’m a dragon and you’re not, I mean your not to different of course, but you don't have any wings.” Spike pointed out.

“Hate to point this out, little buddy, but neither do you.” Eric said. “I’m your Uncle Eric, by the way.”

“And I…” Gaizo did a dramatic twirl. “Am your Great, Uncle, Gaizo!” Spike let out a laugh at the dramatics of the kitsune, they reminded him of a male version of his long time crush, and Gaizo grinned. “Oh watch out Eric, I think I’m ahead for the title of ‘The Cool Uncle’!”

The three laughed and Liz said. “Well you are half-right my son, your father was a dragon, so I suppose that makes you a drake instead of a full blooded draco, but neither are you fully a dragon.” Spike was dumbstruck, he was a drake? He’d never even heard of that! But he couldn’t argue with the female draco, even when he had grown to adult size from his greed, he had still lacked wings. And now that he got a good look at her Liz did seem to share quite a few physical similarities with him, The purple scales and green rounded spikes adorning her head being the most notable.

“So you’re really my mom?” Spike asked, unsure of what he wanted the answer to be. On one hand, he was happy at the idea of meeting at least one half of his parents, on the other he was afraid that she would want to take him away from Ponyville and he really didn’t want to leave his friends.

“Surely you can feel it in your heart, my son. The bond between mother and child is unmistakable!” Spike couldn’t tell whether the feeling he got from her was the feeling she spoke of, but before he could really think about it a familiar voice said to him, a twinge of sadness in her voice.

“It’s true Spike, she is your biological mother.” Twilight pushed past the mob of ponies outside her home and walked in with a somber look.

“Twilight!” Spike ran over to his caretaker and gave her a hug, which Twilight returned.

“I’m sorry for running away, Elizabeth. When I heard that Spike was your son, I knew you would want to take him with you. I just wanted to say goodbye to him one last time.”

“Take him away?” Liz said, and Twilight looked up at her. “Why would I take him from the life he has built here and put him in constant danger with us?” Liz looked at Spike with love, and back to Twilight who looked surprised.

“Because he’s your son! Don’t you want to raise him yourself?” Twilight didn’t understand, the way Liz had acted earlier told her that she would have killed for her son.

“I love him with all my heart, of course I want him to travel with us and teach him all I know, but what he wants is what’s important, and unless I’m reading him wrong.” She gave a wink towards Spike. “He has a lot to live for here in this town. What kind of mother would I be to take him away from the place he loves?”

Twilight looked down at Spike who was staring at his mother with tears in his eyes. “Thank you… Mom.” Spike’s voice was full of sincerity. This had to be his mother, no other person could possibly care that much about his wellbeing, his friends came close to matching it, but this was the love only a mother could bring to her son.

Spike ran and gave his mother a hug, and everyone, Eric and Gaizo, Twilight and the Princesses, and even the large crowd of ponies who had been watching from the door, began applauding at the sight. They broke the hug and Spike gave a tiny kiss to his mother’s cheek.

The Princess’s looked back at the crowd of citizens, and they took there cue to begin dispersing and to go about there business. Celestia whispered something in Twilight’s ear and she nodded and called for Spike to come with her, after asking Liz’s permission of course, and the two left, shutting the door behind them. Both Celestia and Luna looked towards the three, who were looking back expectantly.

“As much as I hate to change the mood so drastically…” Celestia grew serious. “We have much to discuss with you three.”

Eric steeped forward falling into his old role as the groups leader and prime negotiator.

“Well I’m sure we can all agree that we owe our current state of freedom to you two.” Eric looked back at Liz and Gaizo, who both nodded in agreement. “Not to mention the addition of taking care of Liz’s son, no easy task, if her stories of raising young dracos are to be believed." Celestia smiled at the frequent destruction Spike had caused in his young life.

“With all that you’ve done for us, I would say that we owe you a great deal, do you agree, friends?”

“You have kept my son safe for all these year’s. I would be honored to do whatever task you have of me.” Liz gave a respectful bow.

“Gaizo is a kitsune, and we always repay our debt’s.” Gaizo gave a salute.

“Then it is settled, we will aid you in anyway we can.”

Luna sighed. “Before we begin I would like to apologize, on behalf of our parents actions.”

Eric raised his hand to politely silence the princess. “Your parent’s actions were there own, I blame our imprisonment on them and them alone, and while I can not speak for my friends, you two have nothing to apologize for in my mind.”

“I agree.” Liz said simply.

“Yes, Gaizo agrees also, though he would like to know, what happened to King and Queen of ponies?” He asked.

“They have long been dead. My sister and I share ruler ship of Equestria now.” Celestia said with no emotion.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and the way I see it, Liz’s egg was about to hatch before we were imprisoned, Liz’s son is only 12 according to Ms.Twilight, yet you two couldn’t have been older then ten when we last saw you, and your obviously fully grown now, and have been for quite awhile if were to guess. The math doesn’t seem to add up.” Eric scratched his chin in thought before giving up. “The only thing I can think of is if Liz’s son’s birth had been delayed, but that doesn’t seem possible, he was only a few days away from hatching last I saw him.”

Celestia was a little shocked Eric had figured all that out, of the things she remembered hearing of him, his observation had not been one of them. Eric seemed to notice this.

“Don’t look so surprised, I’m pretty smart when I’m not in a battle rage, It just so happens that most of the ancient puzzles in the dungeons we’ve explored have had plenty of monster’s to guard them.” Eric let out a chuckle. “Still I can’t figure out this gap in time.”

Celestia smiled at him “Actually you had it right, Spike’s birth had indeed been magically delayed, he refused to hatch without his mother nearby and it took many years for magic to get to the point that it could force him out of the egg.”

Eric smiled at finding out he had been right, and Liz looked amazed that magic had advanced to such a point as to force egg’s to hatch. Only the usually unobservant Gaizo saw the the real implications of this statement.

“So how long exactly, have Gaizo and friends been in stone prison?”

Celestia sighed knowing there reaction to the news would be a dramatic one.

“Luna and I have just recently celebrated our 2,000th birthday…” She said, choosing to avoid directly answering the question, hoping it would lessen the impact.

Sure enough it took them awhile for the three humanoids to process the indirect answer but once they did there eye’s grew shocked. Surprisingly though, that was all they had done and even that hadn’t lasted long and already they looked ready to discuss some other topic. Celestia was pleasantly surprised but decided to make sure they had really taken the news well, or if perhaps there minds had just shut off in denial.

“Are you three alright?” She asked cautiously.

“Yeah I think were alright. I mean yeah it’s been a long time and I’m sure we’ve missed a lot since then, but were adventures, discovering the unknown is what we do, and now the whole world is unknown, at least to us anyway.” Eric smiled at the thought of getting back out there and seeing how the world had changed.

“And just imagine the advances in magic in the last two thousand years!” Liz cried out getting a excited look in her eyes.

“And Gaizo gets to explore this new world with his two best friends at his side.” Gaizo cheered and the three friends all laughed.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other in surprise at there optimistic outlook on the whole thing.

“So what did you want to ask us?” Eric asked with Liz and Gaz both looking on in anticipation.

“We wish to offer you a job.” Luna said.

“Yes we wish to enlist your aid in the defense of Equestria.” Celestia explained

“What, like, guard duty?” Eric asked a little unsure.

“Not quite.” Celestia grinned knowing they would greatly enjoy what they were about to offer.

“We wish you to solve the problems that Equestria’s normal defenses cannot. We will pay you *very well* for your services of course and we even have a large base of operations for you to live in and do with as you please.” Luna said with a smirk knowing the three adventurers couldn’t resist.

“You want to give us a home and pay us, and all you ask in return is for us go on adventures and to fight any evil guy’s that show up?” Eric looked excited but quickly hid it and began to stroke his chin in thought. “Well I would have to talk about it with my friends first…”

“Of course.” The two princesses said. The three heroes huddled up together and after a very brief discussion Eric said.

“May we keep any treasure we find on our various missions?” Eric asked and the two alicorn’s smiled.

“Unless we deem an item too dangerous to be in anyone’s possession, yes you may keep any treasure you find on your journeys.” Celestia answered. Eric looked at his friends, who each gave a nod.

“Then I think we have a deal, your highness’s.” Celestia held out a hoof, and Eric shook it gladly, thus forming the team that would come to be known as Equestria’s greatest defense, for years to come.