The Dragon Lands were known to be a harsh place to live; freezing temperatures at night, scarce sources of water and food, and little to no safe shelter. What little wildlife lived here was fierce and ruthless and many more equally deadly dangers meant that only the strong and mighty could possibly hope to survive these lands. And the creatures that gave these lands their name were the proof of it.
Dragons, each of them just as dangerous and deadly as their land itself. Brutes that held no government or nation, only clans, scattered across these lands, that fought between themselves for control and against anyone that opposed their rule. Mindless savages that frowned upon all other creatures for their weakness, but they couldn’t be blamed for thinking that way, after all, what could possibly best a mighty dragon when not even their own deadly land could?
The Dragon Lands, the closest thing to resembling Tartarus itself, a place where survival was a daily struggle, where only the mighty could prevail, that is the norm.
Or it was, until the arrival of Spike Solaris.
Most of the dragon clans, and dragons in general, had knowledge at some level or another about the pathetic weak dragon prince of Equestria, an insult to everything that represented dragon might and power. For years Spike was known to be the living representation of shame in the Dragon Lands, his name was the definition of cowardice and weakness, even the hatchlings were threatened that if they did not prove to be ‘True Dragons’ they would be exiled into Equestria, so they could live like the weaklings they truly were.
Then, one day, the rumors began, the rumors about how this shameful excuse of a dragon defeated not only the Princesses of the Day and Night, but also the Princess of Friendship and the Elements of Harmony and the entire military forces of Canterlot, all by himself and without getting as much of a scratch from either his opponents or the power of the Elements themselves. It was impossible to believe such a thing could be true. Dragons, while powerful, knew that the princesses were dangerous and powerful as well, even more so than most of their elders, warlords and clan leaders. In their eyes, the nine princesses and Discord were the only creatures that deserved their respect.
In the following days the rumors were confirmed to be true, creating an uproar in the Dragon Lands, and just a month later that same dragon retreated from a fight that, in the words of those who had seen it from a safe distance, had ended in a draw. The question was, however, where had this dragon, this once beacon of shame, retreated to?
The answer became clear a week later after that massive fight against the Six Bearers. Spike Solaris entered the Dragon Lands, shouting and proclaiming to the four winds he was the new absolute ruler of ‘OUR’ lands. Every warlord, leader and elder opposed him, demanding what right he had to make such an assumption.
“Because I can,” was his answer.
Enraged, Warlord Drulcharus attacked Spike Solaris for his insolence and was promptly defeated by a foe just a tenth his size with a single hit. After Drulcharus fell, Spike Solaris offered a week to the rest of the leaders that had confronted him to join and accept his rule, or fight him for their independence, then he left the same way as he’d come.
During that week something that had never happened in dragon history took place. All clans joined to fight as one against this fool, this weak, pathetic, pony lover, harmony-worshiper, heretic, and self-imposed ruler. After the promised time ended Spike Solaris came back and a fight that shook the entirety of the Dragon Lands took place. A fight that proved how wrong their assumptions about the one they held as inferior were.
The battle proved that the rumors about Spike’s Solaris strength were true, and more. It lasted for a complete day filled with strife, blood, struggle and death, but in the end three things happened. First, Spike Solaris came out of the fight, bruised and injured but victorious, all his foes either dead or unconscious. Second, the Dragon Lands had themselves their very first king. And third, Equestria shuddered in fear, knowing their most recent and powerful enemy, one that they once called prince and lived between them, one that had aided them in their times of need, now had his eyes set upon them. For Equestria, Spike Solaris had died and was reborn as--
“‘Typhon, The Traitor’,” a dragoness hatchling said while sitting on her desk. “Am I right, professor?”
“Quite correct Verikatia, but the story doesn’t end just yet.” An orange dragon the size of a minotaur said while he held a book in his left hand as he stood upright in front of about a dozen of hatchlings inside a classroom. He cleared his throat before continuing “That day also marked the beginning of a new Era for the Dragon Lands, an Era of prosperity that was thought to be impossible. The clans united under the banner of Spike Solaris and formed a kingdom out of the dust. Our Lord began to teach us everything he knew about culture and any kind of intellectual pursuit, such as mathematics, literature, arts and many, many more things that were utterly unheard of by almost every dragon.”
“Not only that, but our King also taught us something far more valuable than all the gold and gems in the world, he taught us control. Dragons are powerful, yes, but without control that power only ends up controlling you and during the first years of our Lord’s rule, that was exactly what he focused on teaching us.” The dragon stopped when he saw a raised claw.
“Yes Verikatia, do you have a question?”
“Excuse me professor, but I was wondering, what happened to the warlords and clan leaders after the fight?”
“Yeah.” The rest of the hatchling said in unison.
“Ah!, that’s a very unheard but equally important part of our history. You see children, after the fight, most of the remaining warlords, clan leaders and elders decided to join and serve under the rule of our Lord without a second question, but there were others that wished nothing but to see the destruction of their new King. As the years ran along though, and after many failed attempts to kill our Lord and seeing how much better King Spike’s changes were making life in the lands, those who remained decided to finally be a part of the kingdom. Me included.” the hatchling gasped in surprise.
“Then you must be super old!” a boy hatchling said.
“You fought against the King, professor?” another asked, his voice filled with doubt.
“That is so cool!” another one exclaimed as the whole classroom began to bombard their teacher with questions and proclaiming their admiration.
“Children, please! Behave.” The professor said, making the hatchlings cease their noise. “First off, I’m only eight hundred and seventy one years old, thank you very much, and second, yes, I fought against our Lord all those years ago, that’s how I got my scar.” he said pointing to the four mark scar starting at some of his missing head spikes, going down his face, barely missing his left eye and stopping just below where his heart was.
“Cool.” muttered most of the hatchlings at the same time.
“Back to our history lesson, ahem. Once the last clan finally joined the newly found kingdom, there was nothing else that could oppose our Lord and his plans to turn the Dragon Lands into an even mightier force. Before the arrival of our King, as most of you know, size meant everything for a dragon, your size determined your strength and the respect you’d get and the size of your hoard, your worth. Simple as that, and we were powerful, but with a great cost that at the time, seemed so natural.” His expression turned deadly serious.
“Be thankful, my students, for you have been born in a time where we know the true meaning of power, all thanks to King Spike. No longer will we spend a hundred years asleep caused by our lack of control, an experience you will never know.” the professor looked down at his left hand and clenched his claws into a fist, engulfing it in blue fire “We are no longer puppets of our emotions. I, as any other dragon, once was hot headed, irrational, hateful and arrogant, but after learning how to control myself and my powers, I saw the light.” he chuckled.
“But we are getting off track.” he sighed lightly before continuing “To King Spike Solaris this was merely the beginning. Soon commerce began to flow in force, the land was tamed and a paradise emerged from the fields we thought only death could come from. Cities began to rise, including the pride and glory of our new kingdom, Dracoshire. A city that soon took its place among the most beautiful, grand and majestic cities of all the world, rivaling even Canterlot.” the dragon smiled at his class, closing the book.
“Our King gave the Dragon Lands and dragons the chance we deserved, a chance to prosper and grow. His arrival, four hundred years ago, marked many things, but most of all it marked the beginning of a new Era for our kind.”
As soon as he finished a ring echoed in the distance “And that concludes your first class of this year. Since it’s the first day I won’t assign any homework.” the hatchlings squealed in delight at the good news “See you tomorrow, my students.”
“See you tomorrow, professor!” the hatchlings said simultaneously before breaking into whispers and talk of how awesome their king was.
As he was stepping outside the classroom, a hatchling approached him. “Excuse me, professor?”
“Hum?” he said looking back and down at the hatchling “Is something wrong Verikatia?”
“I have a question.” the dragoness asked shyly.
“Yes?”
“Is...is it true that King Spike hates Equestria?”
“Well….no one knows the answer, actually. His actions against Equestria are very cryptic, we don’t know if he wants to rule it, destroy it or simply prove that there is no one more powerful than him in the world. He has attacked Equestria repeatedly over the years but he always goes alone, our King never even bothers to announce it, he just…...gets up and goes.” the dragon hummed in deep thought. “But no matter what our Lord is trying to do, we will follow him to the pits of Tartarus and back again if we have to. We owe him that much.” his answer seemed to please the hatchling, she thanked the professor and returned to her seat. The professor turned around and opened the door. Just then, a white dragon collided with him, sending them both to the ground.
“Hey, what’s the big--” the professor began but was cut off as the white dragon got up as fast as he could and ran along the corridor, heading towards the castle main entrance “--idea?”
“Headmaster Drulcharus, are you alright?” a blue dragon asked with concern as he approached, offering a claw to help the headmaster.
“Yes, thank you.” he said accepting the aiding claw “Who was that?”
“I believe that was Fizzle, headmaster, one of the royal messengers, he’s always in a hurry but I’ve never seen him acting like that before.”
“Must be very important then.”
“Certainly.”
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“Where is King Spike!?” the white dragon with pink spikes known as Fizzle asked in a hurried tone to the two hulking guards that stood outside of the enclosed throne room.
“The King is currently attending matters of great importance and has ordered us that he is not to be disturbed.” the guard on the right said.
“I don’t have time for this! This is important!” Fizzle said, advancing just to be stopped by a pair of wings blocking his way. “Let me through, dammit. Spike really needs to see this!” he shouted back at them holding a scroll in his right claw.
“You will show proper respect to the King, messenger.” the guard at the left said angrily.
“What could be so important to bother the King at this hour?” asked the other one.
“I can’t tell you, what lies inside this scroll can only be seen by his eyes.” Fizzle said, holding up the scroll “This is an urgent report from the Equestrian borders, he must see this immediately, now stop wasting my time and let me through!”
The guards exchanged a few glances before dropping their wings “Very well, you may proceed.” both said in unison. They then softly hit the ground with their tails and the gates opened. “The King is currently in the private garden, go now.”
“Thanks!” Fizzle said as he ran inside as fast as he could to his destination, he didn’t even notice when the gates closed behind him. For minutes he ran through the empty corridors of the inner side of the castle, he knew this was a “private” time his King would enforce from time to time, what he did during those times was a mystery.
Approaching to his destiny he heard a distant noise that as he got closer became more louder and clearer, until he could easily hear what the noise was.
“The grins are the funniest, the smiles the sunniest.
Way Back home!
Don’t know why I left the homestead, I really must confess.
I’m a weary exile, singing my song of loneliness.”
King Spike stopped singing to a music coming out of nowhere and hummed as the echo of something metallic hitting the dirt reached the white dragon’s ears. Fizzle slowed down but never stopped moving towards Spike, who apparently hadn’t noticed him.
“The food is the spreadiest, the wine is the headiest.
The pals are the readiest, the gals are the steadiest
The love the liveliest….. the life the loveliest!
Way back, way back, way back, home.
No place like home. Sweet hoooooome.”
Fizzle was now just a few meters away from his Lord, who was on his knees in front of a small beautiful garden, and he had to admit his singing skills were...acceptable. As soon as the music stopped so did the singing of his King who only continued to plow the small patch of land in front of him. Fizzle stood unmoving for a second, in all of the years he had come to know, serve and befriend the mighty dragon in front of him, this was the first time he heard such a happy and mellow tune but at the same time so sad, almost mournful even, come out of his mouth.
“There isn't time for this silly thoughts, Fizzle!” He thought as he shook his head to the sides a few times. He was about to speak when Spike got up.
“Finally finished.” Spike said wiping his forehead “Is something the matter, Fizzle?”
Fizzle’s mouth was taken aback at the words of his King and was about to respond when words left him as his King turned around and showed him the yellow apron-like thingy he was wearing. Fizzle closed his eyes for a second, trying to erase the image that was now burned into his brain.
“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t just see you with whatever the heck that is.” He said shuddering.
“What? It’s for gardening, that aside, why are you here Fizzle?”
“Here.” he said handing over the report “This report came in just half an hour ago, I don’t know what’s in it but there was a note from Matchflick stating that only you could read this.” Fizzle explained as Spike ripped the seal and unfolded the parchment.
As he read what was written in the report, Spike’s expression morphed from indifference to anger and then into seriousness.
Suddenly, the report burst into fire and a second later landed on the grass as nothing more than ashes. Fizzle took a step back in surprise, looking up he saw his King smiling in a manner he couldn’t quite describe, it was almost…..hungry.
“Gather our best five hundred soldiers, tell them to pack just their weapons and light armor. I will be in the courtyard waiting for them, you have twenty minutes, understood?” Spike said as he began to walk away, Fizzle a few steps behind him taking mental note of his orders.
“Yes my Lord, it shall be done as you command. Though, if the troops ask who is in command and where are they going, what should I respond?”
“Tell them that I will be leading them, personally. As for our destination,” Spike stopped at the first stair leading towards the corridors and looked back at his stunned friend, “Equestria. It seems there is someone who dares to steal my prize.”
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*Equestria- 3 hours Later*
“Drive those monsters back, don’t let them through!” A unicorn stallion clad in the royal guard armor ordered to his troops. “Protect the citizens at all costs!”
“Sir, our changeling allies in the east have been breached, those things just ripped them apart!” A blood covered pegasus guard said from above the stallion trying his best to rally his troops.
“The south is about to fall too, commander! We won’t be able to stop them for long!” A changeling clad in their own battle armor said, supported by a mare unicorn guard.
“Celestia dammit.” the stallion cursed “Full back, full back! Retreat to the castle grounds, we will be able to hold them off there, go now!” he shouted to the few remaining ponies and changeling officers around him, looking up to the gray skies he saw bright flash of light signaling another attack coming from the ongoing battle between the leader of the smoke-like creatures he, his troops and allies had been fighting all morning, and their own rulers. It baffled his mind as to how this creature, this monster that came straight out of Tartarus, could hold his own against so many powerful beings, and be winning for the most part.
A few minutes later he stood in front of what little remained of his troops, them being the only thing between the civilians secured deep inside the castle and the merciless monsters who sought nothing but death and blood. He gritted his teeth in anger before shouting. “Charge!” His command was heard and with an unified battle cry, both ponies and changelings alike charged with all their might against the mist monsters.
“Please, let victory be near for you, I don’t know how much longer we’ll hold them off. Please, aunt Celestia, hurry!” The stallion leading the charge thought before clashing against a mist creature.
*Elsewhere near*
“Uffff!” Twilight groaned as she hit the ground again. She was tired and bruised, much like her friends who were near her. Getting up again she saw Discord and Luna taking Tirek head on while Chrysalis, Cadence and Celestia did their best to distract him or create an opening for them. “Perfect.” she thought as a smile creeped over her face when she saw a massive combined attack hit Tirek and send him to the ground, about thirty meters in front of her. It was now or never. “Ready girls?”
“Ready!” her five friends said in unison, taking their respective places beside Twilight.
Twilight began to channel the energy of the Elements of Harmony for the upteenth time since the start of their fight. Tirek had been relentless and had cut off all their attempts to use the powers he knew could defeat him. ‘Not this time.’ she thought as her eyes began to glow white thanks to the powers of the Elements.
“Do it,” the deep, masculine, and somewhat terrifying voice of Tirek was heard, but she gave no heed, “and Equestria will be destroyed, along with anything that lives in it, by my minions!” Twilight hesitated, making the glow of her eyes flicker.
“Don’t listen to him, Twilight, do it now!” a bruised Luna yelled at her, her left eye covered by a patch.
“Do it now, destroy him!” Chrysalis shouted back, her green blood covering most of her body.
“Watch.” Tirek said as he stepped out of the dust cloud his impact had created. His newly-found powers made him a formidable opponent, but not invincible. He had many bruises, cuts and other injuries, blood pouring out of the deepest and ugliest ones, and his left eye was missing, but even so he didn’t stop. He snapped his fingers and an orb appeared in front of him, showing the last stand of the unified pony and changeling armies against his minions, the battle clearly getting out of hoof for the defenders. Tirek snapped his fingers again, this time, his minions stopped attacking, the defenders, uncertain as to what was going on, decided to take the chance to pull away their injured brothers and sisters after a few seconds.
“I may have brought them with me, but they aren’t a part of me or my magic, princess Twilight, I can merely tell them to stop attacking for a short time, but if you end me here and now, they will be free to destroy and kill everything they see; and believe me, they are eager to do just that.”
“...No….” Twilight whispered, the power of the Elements fading away.
“Don’t listen to him, Twilight! This is our only chance to beat him once and for all!” Discord said as he created spaghetti ropes below Tirek’s hooves, keeping him in place.
“He is but a liar and a coward, if you waste this chance all will be over!” Luna said, creating a magic rope across Tirek’s neck, her rope was soon joined by another green one coming from Chrysalis, another two ropes gripped his arms, one belonging to Cadence and the other to Celestia.
“Twilight, please.” Celestia plead weakly.
“How about a trade, princess Twilight? Like the one we did during our first encounter, only this time instead of your friends the whole of Equestria is at stake. Just toss aside those silly Elements of Harmony and I promise Equestria will be safe and sound,” Tirek smiled, letting small tendrils of dark mist come out of his horns, “or you can blast me with them and let Equestria die at their teeth and claws.” The tendrils made their way to the chains of magic holding him in place and slowly began to set him free, making the owners of his ropes struggle to keep it from happening “And we both know you don’t have the strength to fight all of them off. So, what’s going to be then, your victory or the survival of Equestria?”
Twilight looked down, unsure of what to do.
“Blast him now, Twilight!” Discord said dropping to the ground, barely maintaining his spaghetti ropes on Tirek. “He only wants to destroy Equestria himself.” he spat.
“Now Discord, why would I do that? There would be no kingdom to reign if I did.”
“........Do you promise to bring no harm to Equestria?” Twilight asked, shocking all others present except for Tirek, who only smiled.
“I promise, you know I DO fulfill my promises.”
“Don’t do it Twilight, KILL HIM NOW!” Chrysalis shouted at her as Tirek broke free from his chains except for the spaghetti ropes. “Arrgg--” she grunted tiredly.
“I..I’m sorry…….I can’t sacrifice three entire nations just to achieve victory.” Twilight said before cancelling her channel and using her magic to toss away her crown. Once her friends were on the ground they broke from the trance-like state and saw what was going on as Twilight tossed away their crowns as well. Before they could react or say anything on the matter, dark tentacles captured all of them. Discord, barely avoiding them, prepared a monstrous chaos ball between his paw and claw, ready to launch it against the dreaded centaur. Tirek, however, merely tightened his grip over the yellow pegasus causing her to groan loudly in pain.
One quick glance at Tirek’s eye was enough to turn his chaos ball into bubbles and drop his arms in defeat as a tentacle wrapped itself around him.
“Equestria will be fine, you don’t have to worry about it……….but those who live in it are of no concern to me.” His fingers snapped and the orb presenting the battle on the castle showed as the mist monsters began to attack again, catching the retreating soldiers by surprise.
Twilight panicked and shouted back angrily at him, “You promised you wouldn’t harm Equestria, you monster!”
Tirek laughed at her. “And I will keep my promise, Equestria won’t be harmed. But I don’t need weak and useless ponies, emotion sucking leeches or cowardly crystal ponies as my subjects.” He laughed again, making each of his foes try to get free. His eye darkened and a series of black bolts ran through the tentacles, making his prisoners scream out in pain and agony. “Pathetic.” he said as he tossed them out in front of him as if they were mere rag dolls.
“You are defeated, Equestria has fallen and you will soon die by my hands.” Tirek turned around, looking at the half-destroyed city of Canterlot while his minions swarmed the streets and fought against the last defenders at the entrance of castle. “I will create a new kingdom, a powerful kingdom, one that will make the world tremble at my very name, no one can stop me now, nothing can come across my vic--”
*RRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR*
A mighty roar cut him off abruptly, the defeated rulers of Equestria, The Crystal Empire and The Changeling Emperium froze completely in utter fear. They knew that roar very well, oh so very well.
“No….” The six friends whispered at the same time, trying their best to move or hide or anything really, but only managed to stay awake, and even that was a struggle at this point.
Tirek turned around slowly, trembling as he did so, only to see in the distance a massive form heading toward his direction while leaving a trail of green fire behind it. It took only seconds before the figure reached them and with a mighty flap of its wings shot up into the clouds, creating a gush of dust and strong winds below it. Then, a loud sound of something hitting the ground hard just a few meters in front of him made Tirek open his eye to see what the creature was. He found two bright green piercing eyes looking straight at him through the dust cloud, and for a second he froze in fear.
A few seconds later the dust cloud faded away showing the bipedal form of--
“T-Typhon, The Traitor?” Tirek asked to no one in particular, being imprisoned meant he got little to no news about the world, but the tale of this dragon was so great that it was impossible not to know of him “What are you doing here?” he asked, surprised.
Spike looked at him indifferently for a second or two before looking behind his shoulder at the defeated set of ponies, changeling and draconequus laying on the floor, all of them sharing an expression of fear and defeat, then back at Tirek. He crossed his arms before asking “Care to explain?”
“Pardon?” Tired asked confused.
“Care to explain why are you trying to steal MY prize?” Spike asked sternly.
“Your prize!?” Tirek said angrily, finally shaking off his initial surprise and fear “It was me who defeated them, me! Equestria shall be mine!”
“I’m not talking about this useless piece of land, Tirek, you can have it if that’s what you want. I’m talking about taking the lives of my ultimate prize for yourself?”
Tirek stared at the dragon for a few seconds, then he smiled wickedly “If that’s all you want, you can take them……..for a price that is.”
“Mmmh?”
“Don’t worry, it’s something rather simple, I’ll let you kill them and in exchange we will form an alliance, you and I. I may have been trapped in my prison for centuries but that doesn’t mean I’m not well informed, I know of you and I take you know of me, am I right?”
“Quite.”
“Think about it, Typhon, the only two beings to have ever bested not only the royal pony sisters but also the master of chaos, the changeling queen, the crystal princess and the Elements of Harmony, we would be unstoppable.”
“Is that so? Then you want me to be your friend?”
Tirek huffed looking at the fallen heroes “Just look at them, pitiful and weak, ‘Friendship’? Bah, just look what ‘friendship’ turned Discord into. He was once a powerful and feared being, but now he can’t even take me head on alone. Or Chrysalis, the changeling queen, one that had lost all respect for herself by asking her food source for shelter and protection, pathetic.”
“Buck you,” Chrysalis muttered. “It was either my pride or my subjects, and I chose my subjects, and I’m glad I did.”
“See? No, I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to be your ally, Typhon, and together we’ll rule this world. Imagine all that we could achieve,” Tirek smiled at him, “just look at what you did once you broke free from your slavery.” Tirek walked past Spike to smile down darkly at his defeated foes, especially at Twilight.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“Yes, just look at them now, weak, injured and ready to die at any moment.”
“Just like the bugs they are.” Spike said.
Tirek laughed a little at the insult. “They were quite the challenge, but thanks to the power of the Nightmares, I became a parallel of invincibility.”
“Nightmares, huh? I was wondering about your size, so I guess no soul-magic sucking this time?” Spike said as he now noticed that Tirek was barely taller than the average minotaur.
“Ah, I see you know the story of my…...previous attempt.” Tirek said angrily “Pony magic is powerful, I’ll give them that, but it carries more problems than what it is worth. Nightmares though, well, you can say we ‘hit it off’ perfectly.” he laughed darkly.
“And now you have the perfect chance to finally strike them down, I know how much you want them dead, so go ahead, kill them, strike the final blow and be done with it, and then all shall tremble at our names.”
Spike walked next to Tirek. Spike being just a bit taller than Celestia made a clear size difference between the two. “But I still haven’t agreed to this ‘Alliance’ yet, Tirek, although,” he took a step forward as green flames emerged from his claws and eyes, his appearance changing just in front of Tirek and the almost trembling bunch laying on the ground. He grew taller, two heads above Tirek, his back spikes grew and sharpened. His claws grew, too, making them look all the more deadly, his scales turned a bit more dark and more pointy and his eyes turned white as a maniacal expression adorned his face. “only a true idiot could refuse an offer like that. At long last I can finally get rid of you useless, pathetic idiots.” He looked at Celestia, who was looking back at him with utter disgust. “But don’t worry, it’ll be as painless as possible, you know? For old time’s sake, mom.”
“Don’t call me that, monster. You are no son of mine, I regret the very day I found you.” Celestia said, trying her best to hold back her tears.
“Oh, how you wound me,” Spike joked as he raised his right claw up “but now it’s time to die.” he clenched his claws into a fist as Tirek was smiling like a mad man at his side, almost drooling in anticipation to witness the deaths of his most hated foes. The ones on the ground either looked at Spike, trying to kill him with their glares, or simply closed their eyes expecting the end. Except Discord, who only smiled broadly, unnoticed by all but Tirek.
“What are you smiling for you fo--!?”
Tirek was cut off again as something hard and powerful hit him in the face with such force that it sent him crashing against a tower of the castle behind and below them.
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*Elsewhere*
“That’s the signal, move in!” Fizzle said as he and the rest of the soldiers soon took flight to fulfill their King’s commands.
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*Canterlot Castle-- Main Entrance*
‘First Tirek and these monsters, then Typhon and now something destroyed a tower, what else can bucking go wrong?!’ The stallion leading the resistance thought as he pierced a mist creature with his spear, making the creature squirm back to the rest of its kind with a hole on its chest, a second later the hole was filled by more of the strange mist. Five more of the creatures joined the one he had repealed and together charged at him from different directions, their limbs turning into sharp claws as they did so. ‘So, this is it then?’ he thought dropping his spear, his eyes never closing or turning away from his impending doom.
Just as the mist monsters were about to tackle him and rip him apart, the same way they had done to so many of his troops and allies, a white dragon landed in front of him smashing two of those creatures, grabbing another two with his claws and breathing fire upon the final two before throwing back the ones he was holding, making them crash against more of their kind.
Briefly stunned by the sudden appearance of the dragon, the stallion looked to his sides in rapid succession as more dragons dropped from the skies, most of them wearing armor and carrying a weapon, creating a wall between him and his remaining army, the mist monsters and the castle. He saw the other four creatures the dragon had dealt with reconstruct themselves.
“Nightlings, eh?” The white dragon whispered loud enough for the stallion to hear before drawing a sword at his side, a group of mist monsters screeched in anger before launching themselves at their new foes, only to be stopped by the weapons of the dragons. Almost all of the Nightlings that got hit by their weapons froze, screeched in what could be described as pain and then evaporated.
“Don’t let a single one of those demonic bastards through; kill them all, destroy them!” the white dragon shouted to the four winds, his fellow dragons roared and shouted back in response.
The stallion got up and saw how the so called ‘Nightlings’ and the dragons shared a moment of silence before both sides charged against the other violently. He had no idea what was going on, all he could understand was that, apparently, the dragons were on their side and, more importantly, things were finally looking in their favor. Looking back he saw that most of his still battle-ready troops were getting up, picking up their weapons as they looked back at him one by one, nodding until he himself nodded back at them.
A roar of pain forced him to return his attention to the front again, he saw a dragon clad in armor fall to the ground, overwhelmed by the nightlings, before being ripped apart form the inside by them. The stallion gritted his teeth in rage as he saw in the distance another dragon fall victim to those blasted monsters. The dragons were putting up a fierce fight and for the first time he saw a light of hope for Canterlot, but even so the nightlings proved to be just as relentless on their dragon enemies as they had been with them.
Looking back again he nodded one last time before him and the rest of his forces launched forward to help the dragons with the fight. Yes, the dragons might turn against them in the middle of the fight. Yes, it was crazy to help their sworn enemies for the last three hundred years, just as crazy as they helping them in turn. Yes, this was certainly a trick of some sort.
“But there’s hope to win this battle with them on our side, that’s all I care for.” The unicorn stallion thought as he tackled three of the nightlings off of the same white dragon that had saved him just a minute earlier, the dragon wasted no time and with his sword in claw he destroyed the other two nightlings clinging to him before doing the same to the other three.
Both pony and dragon shared a second long glance before charging against their enemy.
Meanwhile at the top of the destroyed tower Tirek groaned in pain, holding his face with both hands trying to ease the pain he was feeling. Stumbling around a little in a daze he began to hear roars, screams and screeches below him. Finally letting go of his face he opened his eye to see what was going on. He walked towards the hole at the side of the tower, no doubt caused by him on his crash against it. He was just about to reach the border when a brown dragoness flew in front of him with four of his nightlings clinging to her, the dragoness spun gracefully in mid air, managing to free the arm that held a double edged axe, then in a swift combination of hits and slashes the four nightlings vanished into thin air, the dragoness roared at her victory before flying down and out of his sight.
Tirek reached the border of the hole, his mind blown at the scene he had just witnessed, looking down he was greeted by a scene even more mind blowing for him. He did NOT believe what he was seeing. There were dragons of many shapes and sizes around the city, utterly exterminating his minions with the aid of the pony and changeling survivors. Tirek growled angrily, ready to bring death upon the meddling dragons when a voice behind him made him look back at the owner.
“Your fight is with me, Tirek.” Spike said looking the same as after he’d transformed on the side of the mountain.
“Typhon…” Tirek snarled as tendrils of black smoke began to envelop him “...I will make you regret you didn’t accept my generous offer.”
“Really? Because I plan to make you regret your decisions.” Spike took a step closer towards Tirek, making the floor shake “I’m going to enjoy ripping you to shreds, coward.”
“Why are you doing this? They were helpless!” Tirek shouted back angrily.
“Friendship, you underestimate its power, Tirek. Friendship is something you will never understand, a power that makes yours look like nothing.” Spike smiled cockily at him.
Tirek fired a beam of darkness against Spike who didn’t even bother to move, once it hit him instead of an explosion the beam of energy vanished into mist, Tirek opened his mouth in surprise just before a purple claw grabbed him by the neck and brought him up against Spike’s face. His flaming eyes glowing with rage and his sharp fangs promised a slow and painful death.
“How?” Tirek asked, trying to free himself from Spike’s grasp but as soon as his tendrils of mist touched the dragon they simply vanished, just like his beam had.
“You’re not the first foe I’ve faced who was foolish enough to sell themselves to the Nightmares in exchange for power, and I know how to deal with those demons very well.” Spike freed Tirek as a powerful hit to the side of his head sent him back a few steps, looking up he saw Tirek’s left arm injured from touching him with his powers like he did. Spike spit out a bit of his blood and smiled wickedly at Tirek. “Ah yes, I’m going to enjoy killing you, Tirek. For every life you took this day I will make sure to make you feel their pain ten fold.”
“The only one who is going to die today is you, Typhon, and then I will be truly invincible.”
“And for the record, my name is not Typhon. MY NAME IS SPIKE SOLARIS!” Spike shouted before breathing out a massive column of green fire against his foe, who in return fired another beam of dark power. The result was a massive explosion that echoed throughout the battle below.
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Twilight got up with great effort as a series of explosions circled around the great city below her, she walked until she reached the border of the cliff and looked to the city. She opened her mouth in surprise when she saw a small dragon army scattered across Canterlot fighting off Tirek’s minions, what was more surprising however was seeing changeling and pony guards aiding the dragons as much as they could with the fight. She looked back when she heard the sound of hooves walking towards her. She smiled weakly, seeing all of her friends up again.
Applejack limped her way next to Twilight to see the ongoing carnage in the city. “Whoa, nelly,” she said before spitting out some blood. “Twilight, am Ah dreamin’? Cause from ‘ere it looks like them dragons are helpin’ us.”
“I...I don’t know what’s going on, Typhon was about to kill us but then he hit Tirek instead! This doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight said as her body trembled in anger “He’s been trying to kill us all for almost four hundred years and then he suddenly pops up to help us!?”
As soon as Twilight finished her sentence another explosion followed by a pillar of green flames emerged from the central plaza. As the flames faded she, along with everyone else at her side, made out two figures clashing against each other in rapid and brutal clashes, they could even hear the echo of their impacts. For a second they retreated before a scream of pure rage filled their hearts with fear followed by a mighty and powerful roar that, strangely enough, did the exact opposite. The two figures clashed against each other again creating a shockwave so strong that it destroyed an already damaged tower nearby.
Suddenly the figures launched themselves at their direction and stopped just close enough to make out who said figures were. It was Tirek and Spike going at it with everything they had, Tirek was almost completely covered in darkness, his size increasing by each passing second, meanwhile Spike breathed fire at his claws, engulfing them in his deadly and powerful fire. Fire erupted from his feet, sending him directly against Tirek with a speed that could match that of Rainbow Dash.
Tirek managed to catch him in mid air using dark whips coming out of his arms, Spike roared in pain as the whips squeezed him hard for a couple of seconds before they turned to smoke. With a mighty shout Tirek kicked Spike on his back with his four legs sending the mighty dragon to crash against the land down below them. The centaur shouted and snarled as fired a massive dark beam towards where he had sent Spike, upon impact it created another great explosion.
Tirek smirked as the seconds passed and no sign of Spike being alive were shown until a projectile of fire came his way. He barely dodged it before he felt a terrible burning pain in his stomach. He looked to his front only to meet the flaming white eyes of the dragon that tricked him with his previous attack. Tirek growled angrily, a bit of his blood dribbling down his mouth, and in a swift move he encircled the dragon in a tight hug, attempting to crush him with a massive bear hug, but immediately let him go as fire erupted around Spike, burning him instantly. He sent out a punch at Spike, who managed to block it with one of his own as he sent out a punch of his own against the mad centaur, who in turn blocked it. Each attack was followed by a powerful shockwave that made the nearby rocks shake, almost as if a small earthquake was the cause of their movement. Their exchange of blocking hits continued for almost thirty seconds until Spike breathed out a powerful stream of orange fire at the unguarded Tirek.
Tirek created a sphere around him just in time to block the deadly flames, for a few seconds the fire consumed his barrier until it was finally gone, he prepared another one of his beams when he noticed the dragon was not in front of him. A weak growl behind his back made him turn hastily to face his hated foe, but what he found sent a shiver of terror to course through his entire body. There, in front of him floating in mid air, was his dragon foe with his mouth open and pointing his way as flames came out of it, but these flames were not green or orange, they were in fact colorful, very colorful.
His dark powers seemed to notice it too as it tried to flee from his body. But it was too late.
“Impossible.” He muttered before a rainbow colored stream of fire hit him entirely on his chest, and it hurt.
“AAARRRRRRGGgggggggghhhhhhhhh!” Tirek screamed in pain, his voice turning dimmer as the stream of rainbow fire sent him crashing against the castle, the impact creating an enormous explosion of rainbow colored light.
A few seconds later the light faded and Twilight, along with the rest of her friends, looked up at the still floating dragon above them, his back facing them. Spike let out a loud sigh before flying to where he had made Tirek crash.
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Spike landed among the rubble of the destroyed section of the castle he had sent Tirek crashing against. He huffed tiredly every so often; there were some bruises and cuts all over his body, some of them still dripping blood. Tirek had been a formidable opponent after all. He walked around for a few seconds until he found the now small centaur laying in a black stained circle while he panted heavily.
Tirek opened his eye and saw the purple dragon approach him slowly. “T-that was *pant* the p-power of the Elements….h-how did you get them?”
“Buck you, that’s how.” Spike chuckled. “No, but seriously, it’s nothing but a cheap imitation, not nearly as strong *pant* as the real deal, but strong enough to purge any Nightmare from its host, though *pant* it really takes a lot out of me.”
“D-damn *cough* you…...the n-next time I will--”
Spike laughed darkly. “Oh Tirek, do you really think I’m foolish enough to *pant* actually let you live after what you’ve done?” he said, snarling the last four words “Besides, I promised to kill you, didn’t I? *pant* And I always fulfill my promises.”
Tirek panicked, trying his best to move away from the dragon, his choice of words sounding frightenly close to his own “W-wait! W-w-we can sort this out *pant* I...I promise to n-never come back o-or try to escape f-f-from my *pant* prison again!”
“You know, I always wondered why you guys always plead for your lives after *pant* everything you’ve caused, I mean, do you really think I’m going to *pant* take sympathy on you? No, I will not.” Spike said, the fire coming out of his eyes changing to a deep purple one, before he smiled down at Tirek “You hurt not only my friends, but my home, too. *pant* Countless ponies and changelings lost their lives today, and for that I will make you pay.” he said remarking the last word with a deep emotionless growl.
“Pl-please I--” He was cut off as a claw grabbed him, covering his mouth and pulling him up to meet the eyes of his executioner.
“I hope you’re a masochist, Tirek, because this is going to hurt a lot.” Spike said before placing his other claw around his neck as Tirek squirmed as much as he could, his weak hands gripping his wrists as tears began to fall from his eyes. “But I’m not without mercy *pant*, your pain will be great but no one will hear your screams of agony, not even me, I will tell how you stood proud and strong until the end.” Tirek felt his claws heat up as purple emerged from Spike’s entire body. A look of pure terror flashed through his eyes as he saw the dragon smiling softly at him “Now, for hurting my friends,” Spike whispered, “feel true pain and die in agony.”
The purple fire around his body passed to Tirek’s and instantly every muscle of his withered body tensed up, his tears of pain evaporating in an instant as his entire being burned slowly, very slowly, he squirmed even more trying to set himself free. Then his eyes snapped open as the same agony traveled down his throat and inside his body. Tirek managed to trade glances with the purple dragon, who was not even batting an eye, before his pain erupted into unworldly limits. He silently begged in his last moment of sanity for his life to end quickly.
It didn’t.
For ten minutes Tirek continued to burn endlessly until his body finally stopped convulsing and only then did the flames stop. Spike let go of the corpse, it turning to ashes as soon as it hit the floor.
Spike clapped his claws together to clean whatever ashes remained on them. He turned around, giving a soft sigh of exhaustion, his body transforming back to his normal form. He brought a claw up to his left cheek and rubbed softly against it. Stepping out of the castle, he could make out the roars and screams of victory from his troops and the surviving defenders. A smile formed over his lips as groaned in pain, holding his back as he walked.
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The stallion shouted victory over and over to the skies, many of his troops and allies doing the same, some of them even crying in happiness, thankful the battle was already over or that they had survived. The dragons were roaring and shouting as well, some of them shooting fire to the skies as a proof of their power.
It had been a bloody and hard fought battle but in the end every single nightling had been destroyed and the city recaptured, his concerns about their dragon ‘allies’ reemerged once more in his mind but he was too happy to care at the moment.
Suddenly every single dragon of all shapes and sizes stopped and went silent, the ones in the sky landing wherever they could before kneeling as the big dragons shrank down and kneeled like the rest of their brethren. His troops and changeling allies noticed it too and silence reigned around the city that was full of cheer just a second ago. He noticed all dragons were kneeling and facing to the same direction, just by their reaction he instantly knew who had won between Typhon and Tirek, yet only when his own troops around him began to tremble and back away did he turn.
He saw the dreaded Typhon walking towards them calmly, a high and imposing aura was emanating from the mighty dragon, making the stallion feel strangely uncomfortable. He noticed several bruises, cuts and even blood coming out of him. The fire in some of the already destroyed houses and buildings adding a light that made him uneasy to even look at. The stallion gulped loudly as the purple dragon arrived in front of him. And boy was he scared of what the dragon might do to him.
“You are…..Blueblood, right?” The purple dragon asked.
The stallion gulped “Yes, I am.” his answer short but steady.
“Did you command the defense from the beginning?” Blueblood nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving the face of the dragon. “I remember your great-great grandfather, Blueblood the one hundred and fifty seventh, a total disgrace to the royal family, but boy, your great grandfather and grandfather were even worse! And your father, well, I honestly thought Bluebloods couldn't get any better than him, until this day.” the dragon smiled down at Blueblood.
“What are you getting at, Typhon?” Blueblood said, minding his tone and volume, the dragon in front of him deserved no respect of any sort for all his actions against Equestria, and more directly to his dear aunt Celestia and the Element Bearers, but he wasn’t stupid enough to insult him with his troops around.
“I-oh dear Luna, my back hurts-” he whined a little, patting his back for a few seconds. “As I was saying, I wish to congratulate you personally for such an outstanding performance, General. I see my teachings of old are still being applied today.” Spike reached out, offering a friendly claw to the white stallion who only looked at it with disgust. “Any other would have lost or worse in half the time, but you endured and held Tirek’s forces at bay, even with such little chance to win. You are the best commander I’ve ever seen since Shining Armor.”
“Don’t you dare speak his name, monster.” a voice behind the dragon said with great remorse.
The dragon troops nearby that heard her got up, growling and snarling at her as they did. “Stand your ground, we didn’t come to fight Equestria this day.” Spike ordered and his troops obeyed. “Also, get up already, it’s kind of embarrassing.” Almost at the same time the rest of the dragons got up and watched their king vigilantly. Turning around, Spike saw the ones that had fought against Tirek for several hours before his arrival.
“Oh, c’mon Cadence, that was a compliment!”
Cadence was about to say something but the wing of her sister-in-law interrupted her.
“Why did you help us, Typhon?” Twilight asked seriously, her Element crown already placed over her head once more. “You’ve been trying to destroy us and Equestria for such a long time, why did you help us?”
“Why, Twilight, you wound me, are you implying I don’t have an ulterior motive for saving you all?” Spike teased.
“Out with it, you brute, we don’t have time for your little games!” Rarity said as she stomped the ground with one of her hooves.
“How dare you, you insolent--” Fizzle said, walking towards the elegant white mare, but a simple raised claw from Spike made him retreat without a word.
“Why, you ask?” Spike chuckled “Quite simple, my dear Rarity, why would I let anyone else take away my prize?” his eyes turned white as green fire erupted from them “Don’t you even dare to think for even a second that I did this because of the past or something stupid and pointless like that.” He took a step forward, making the changeling and pony soldiers pick up their weapons, as with the dragons all it took was a signal from their leaders to stop their actions.
“I will kill you all one day and Equestria will burn, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone else do it for me. Cause you trouble and make your day miserable? I’m okay with that, but trying to deny ME the pleasure of ripping you apart with my own claws is something I will not tolerate.” Spike chuckled, seeing their hateful glares “Tirek knows that now, he was a worthy foe and stood proud up until he was nothing but ashes.” out of the eleven beings standing in front of Typhon only Fluttershy gasped. They were no strangers to death and how brutal Typhon could be, that much was true, but Fluttershy could never get used to it.
“I could have easily killed you back then or even now, but that’s not the point, I wish to kill you at your best, your prime, when you’re so strong that only I can be a threat to you.” Spike glared at them, sending a shiver to course through their spines. “But you dare call yourselves my arch-nemeses when you almost got beaten by someone other than me, and that I can’t forgive, you still need more training, you need to be stronger to defeat everyone that challenges you, except for me of course, you will never be strong enough to defeat me, so you’d better not die until the day I finally claim your heads.” the fire coming from his eyes stopped and their colour returned, he turned around and extended his claw again to Blueblood.
“Congratulations, General, you’re the first Blueblood I’ve met who is worth his title.” Spike smiled at the stallion. The stallion looked at his claw then at his face for a few times until he reached out with a hoof and placed it over his claw. Spike gripped the hoof gently before shaking him softly a few times, he then let go and spread out wings from his back.
“I will send a shipment of gems and gold in the next few days, that will help you fix everything up more quickly. Oh, before I go, could you give me some ointment please, Discord? My back is killing me.” Discord simply snapped his fingers and a small blue bottle appeared in front of him, he grabbed it with his paw and tossed it to Spike. “Thanks, I owe you one.” Spike said, catching the bottle with his tail “Ciao.”
“Wait.” Luna said, halting the dragon. “The fire, why did it had a very faint trace of the power of the Elements?”
Spike turned his head to the side just enough to see his aunt and smirk. “Funny thing is, it seems that once you get hit by the Elements of Harmony, and absolutely nothing happens to you, mind you, so many times,” he said mockingly making almost all of them grit their teeth in anger, “some of it stays with you. I was going to use it against you in the future, but, oh well, I’ll just try something else instead.”
“Wait.” A soft voice said.
“Now what? I’m kinda in a hurry Fluttershy.”
“........Thank you.” She said making almost all of her companions look at her incredulously, even some of the soldiers around her. “Thank you for helping us…...Typhon.”
Spike just looked at her for half a second before turning around and fly away, his troops following right behind him.
“Thank you, Spike.” Twilight whispered to herself, with the attention focused on Fluttershy nopony heard her.
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*Canterlot-- One week after Tirek’s attack*
“Twilight, are you here darling?” Rarity asked as she entered the personal library of the lavender princess, but she received no answer. “It seems she isn’t here either.”
“We’ve already searched all over Canterlot for her, she has to be in here.” Rainbow said as she walked past Rarity and into the almost dark library. “C’mon, follow me.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t interrupt her, she must be working on something important….I think.” Fluttershy said.
“Be that as it may, darling, but we haven’t seen her since last night and I’m afraid something awful might have happened to her.” Rarity said while following Rainbow.
“Ah agree, if Twilight had somethin’ important to do she would’ve said so. Not worryin’ and leavin’ us hangin’ like this.” Applejack said.
“I guess you’re right.” Fluttershy admitted, finally working up the courage to follow her friends. They walked slowly, searching for any trace of their dear friend. After a minute or so one of them saw something.
“Hey, I think I see a light over there!” Pinkie Pie said as she pointed to the source of the light with a hoof. Making their way to the light they soon noticed it came out from a parted door. Poking their heads inside, they managed to see the inside of the room, it was fairly illuminated and the walls were littered with photos of them, the princesses and many others. They recognized the room instantly, it was the ‘Room of Memories’, a place where they could put their most memorable and special moments of their lives.
Opening the door completely the five mares made their way inside the room. Soon enough they saw their lavender friend sitting in front of a desk unmoving. Instead of saying something they walked towards her, Twilight either didn’t hear them or simply ignored them.
Rainbow, being the closest to Twilight, stretched her neck to see what Twilight was reading or seeing. She gasped as she saw several old photos portraying them in numerous occasions, but the one on top was the one that caught her eye, it was a photo of them together celebrating the third birthday of Spike back in Ponyville. All six of them were embracing him in one way or another while he had a big toothy smile across his face.
“Twilight, I thought all photos of that…...that backstabbing liar were burned.” Rainbow said seriously, her wings flared at her sides. The other four mares were either looking at Twilight with wide eyes or covering their mouths in disbelief.
“I couldn’t burn them all, I just couldn’t; I managed to save at least one of each photo with Spike in---”
“His bucking name is Typhon! The Spike we knew never existed, it was all a lie from the very beginning. The bucker made it very clear, don’t you remember?” Rainbow said angrily, making the rest of her friends look down to the ground. Tears began to form on her eyes. “He was never our friend.”
“He was to me.” Twilight whispered as she made the picture levitate and move until it was behind her, the photo facing her friends. “He was to us.” She mumbled while levitating more and more photos with Spike in them, in almost all of them he was smiling and embracing them, in some he was laughing and at others he was simply waving at the camera.
Twilight passed several of them in front of her friends, all the good times they had shared over the years. Rarity took one of them with her magic, it was the day when Spike had learned to control his emotions, he was tired but happy nonetheless, in that picture he was smiling at the camera while Celestia embraced him happily with tears running down her eyes while the rest of them were on the background smiling proudly at him.
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie grabbed another photo at the same time with their hooves, in this one Spike was holding the six of them in a bigger body, it was the day of his official coronation as a prince of Equestria. He was giving a big toothy grin while Rainbow had an annoyed face trying to free herself from his arms and Pinkie Pie was returning the hug as best as she could. The others were simply smiling up at him.
Fluttershy grabbed a passing photo with her wings, in the photo Spike was sleeping peacefully with bandages all over his body while she and Celestia were at his side wearing nurse hats. It was taken just a few hours after the fierce battle in the return of Sombra. Spike had acted as a barrier for them, blocking and getting in the way of the attacks from the mad stallion just to give them time to once and for all finish the mad king.
Applejack simply stared deeply at the photo in front of her before grabbing it between her hooves, in the photo she saw Spike standing up in an elegant tuxedo with a small smile on his face with the six of them and Cadence at his sides. It was taken during the first ever Grand Galloping Gala in the Crystal Empire.
Suddenly all the photos were yanked away by Twilight’s magic and put inside a lockbox nearby. The princess of magic turned around to face her friends with few tears on her eyes.
“Maybe the Spike we knew was a lie but I want to keep those memories even if they hurt. He was my little brother, my very first friend after Shining Armor and my number one assistant. And that’s how I will remember Spike, not as the monster he is now.” she sniffled a little “Typhon saved us and Equestria for his own selfish desire to destroy us himself, but I know deep inside Spike is there, somewhere trapped in the body of that abomination. He has to be, he just has.” she said defeatedly.
“We already tried everything *sniff* w-we could for him. Twilight, accept it, our dear Spikey-Wikey never existed in the first place.” Rarity said, barely holding back her sobs.
The six friends shared glances between themselves before breaking into a group hug, crying softly and finding a bit of solace in each others’ embrace. For a minute they hugged, easing the pain in their hearts, they had come to somewhat accept it over the years but it still hurt to fight their once dragon friend and remember their old days together. Slowly they parted, drying their tears away.
“Y-yeah, you’re right, I guess I’m just a little nostalgic.” Twilight breathed slowly to calm herself before continuing “If my calculations are correct it’s well past noon, I should head to oversee the reparations on the east wing of the castle. It took considerable damage after, you know. Want to come with me?” the other five mares hummed in agreement.
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Bright Duster was having a good day, some could even feel she was feeling quite lucky for some odd reason. Yesterday she was working in the center of town, it was total chaos even after a week since the attack. She knew the rumors and the tale of the battle alright, how could she not when it was the talk of Equestria as a whole?
She had been down in the lower parts of the castle secured from harm, but even then the wreck of the battle could be heard clearly. A deep silence settled in for what felt forever once the battle seemed to be over, and a changeling soldier had come running to deliver the news of victory and the unexpected allies that had arrived.
But victory had come at a great price, almost five thousand ponies and changelings alike had perished, she was silently thankful that none of her friends or family had been counted among the fallen heroes. She stopped her work for a moment to give silent prayer to those who had fallen.
Today, unlike the previous day, she was helping clean up the east wing of the castle, the part of the castle that had suffered the most damage thanks to the fight between the two monsters. The large amount of income the dragon had provided meant there were more tools to work with and the means to reconstruct the city quickly. Thanks to that, her work was rather easy and light; the most she had done was to clean where the walls once were.
Using her shovel to clear the dirt covering her view she saw a golden spark coming from below the earth. Curious, the earth pony mare used her shovel again to uncover the item more, after two or three more uses of her shovel she could see the royal seal looking back at her. She dropped her shovel and sat down to reach the object with her forehooves, and with a few pulls and grunts a cylinder like container came out of the earth mostly covered in dirt. Using her tail to clean the object as much as she could she noticed that, in fact, there was a royal seal mark on both ends of the cylinder. She shook it a few times to see if it had something inside, nearing the cylinder to one of her ears she was able to hear a noise coming from inside it.
Bright Duster was about to try and open the cylinder when she saw princess Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Element Bearers walking through the hallway. Smiling at the chance to get a small reward out of the object she had just found she got up and walked straight to the princess of friendship with a big smile on her face.
She was feeling very lucky indeed.
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*Dragon Lands- Castle of Dracoshire-The Next Day*
“You think you can defeat me, the king of the Dragon Lands? Me, who has bested demons and many a creatures of darkness and untold mythical power? Me, who has bested the Elements of Harmony and the princesses of Equestria and the Crystal Empire?” Spike said glaring at his dreaded opponent, who in turn glared back.
“You are a formidable opponent, I’ll give you that, but you will not defeat me, I shall conquer you and fulfill my duty and once I’m done with you, you will be just a bad memory.” His opponent still remained silent.
“So, you think playing the silent game is going to do you any good, eh? It’s no use, for you see,” Spike said, grabbing his mighty weapon, “I already have everything I need to defeat you.” he lifted his weapon of justice and valor up to the skies as a ray of light illuminated his hand, his foe didn’t try to move, it was as if it was accepting its destiny.
“Now, begone foul creature of darkness!” Spike declared before smiting his opponent and ensuring its demise.
“Sir,” a green dragon at his right side began, a look of amusement and shame over his face “you are aware that this, ehem, ‘enemy’ of yours is simple paperwork, right?”
“Shut up! You don’t know the ruinous powers of this monstrosity you call paperwork.” Spike said before signing another paper with his quill. “If you let your guard down it will control you, trust me, I know.” he said with such a serious face that the green dragon didn’t know if his King was being really serious or just joking around. “Besides, just look at this!” Spike said pointing at the desk in front of his throne, more specifically at the four piles of papers resting on it. “Just how many of these must I read, sign, reject and approve today? There must be over five hundred papers per stack.” Spike groaned tiredly. “I hate paperwork.” He groaned again before continuing with his job.
The doors to the throne room opened, revealing a red dragon walking towards the throne where Spike was sitting. Upon reaching the stairs leading up to said throne the red dragon took a knee.
“King Spike, there are some….visitors at the main entrance who wish to speak with you.”
“Garble, as you can see I’m very, very, very busy right now, whoever they are just tell them to come another day,” he said, making a tired emphasis on the third very.
“They’ve come bearing a truce flag with them and are completely unarmed.” Garble said without moving from his spot.
Spike sighed as he signed another paper “And who could these visitors be?”
“The Princess of Friendship and the Element Bearers, my King.”
Spike stopped his writing for two full seconds before continuing, “Completely unarmed?”
“Yes Sir, none of them wield any sort of weapon or the Elements themselves.”
Spike hummed. “Tell them they may enter, but warn them if they try to do anything stupid, I will take care of them personally, understood?”
“Yes, my Lord.” Garble got up and retreated to fulfill his King’s orders.
Spike continued to work on his paperwork for five more minutes until the doors of his throne room opened again. This time Garble stepped in with six mares behind him and several guards around them. He took a quick glance at the mares, noticing there was something strange about them, but he couldn’t tell what.
Spike waited until Garble signaled them to stop before he spoke, “So, what can I do for you, Princess Twilight and company? Do you need more resources to help you reconstruct your city or something else?” The mares said nothing “Or maybe you are here to curse my name for some reason? I lost one hundred and sixty seven of my best soldiers for helping you, I hope you can appreciate their sacrifice before you say anything.” Still nothing “Well? I don’t have all day, I’m very busy at the moment so whatever you’re going to say, say it.”
“Can we talk in private?” Twilight asked softly.
Spike stopped writing and put his quill down, he got up from his throne and walked past his desk “Didn’t commander Garble tell you not to do stupid things? I’m sure I told him to tell you so, did you tell them, Garble?” Grable nodded a couple of times. “Okay, since he did, please tell me why are you suggesting such a stupid idea where I would be alone, even if you don’t have your precious little toys, with you?”
Twilight lifted her left wing abruptly, making the guards and the other dragons, except for Spike, point their weapons or claws at them.
*Cling* *Cling* *Cling*
Was the sound that echoed through the room, every dragon present looked at what had dropped from beneath the head Princess of Friendship, left wing. It was a rusty cylinder like container, which rolled on the floor until it hit Garble’s feet.
“We read it.” Twilight said softly again, the upper part of her face, same as the other Bearers, was blocked by her mane.
Spike felt something jump from the bottom of his stomach that threatened to erupt through his mouth, with enough force to break through black granite, the moment he heard those words come out of her mouth.
“Leave us.” Spike ordered in almost a whisper.
“Sir?” the green dragon asked.
“Leave us, please.”
“But Sir, we can’t--”
“Are you implying I can’t take care of myself?” Spike asked, glaring at the green dragon.
“O-of course not, Sir.” the dragon cleared his throat “You heard the King, everyone leave the room this instant!” The green dragon ordered and, reculently, all guards and other dragons present left the room.
Once the doors closed behind the last guard to leave the room, Spike ignited his hands in a purple aura of magic and cast a spell that expanded and touched every wall, door and corner of the room. He looked down to see the mares still in their same spots. He began to walk down the stairs to meet them properly, his heart beating madly against his chest. When he was in front of them he finally spoke.
“Hi.” silence met him “So…..uhhhh…..ummm……..I got nothing, he he.” Spike gulped soundly before giving a loud defeated sigh “Alright, fine. Throw me your insults and hexes, I deserve them.”
The mares didn’t even move.
“I’m not sorry in the slightest if that’s what you wanna know, I did what I had to do.” Still the mares remained silent and unmoving, Spike huffed, crossing his arms “And I’m freaking proud of myself for doing so.”
“Was it worth losing your family, home and...us?” Pinkie Pie asked somberly.
Spike was about to retort something cynical to the pink mare but instead he held silence for a few seconds before answering without hesitation “Yes, it IS worth it, even now.” the dragon chuckled. “But it wasn’t easy, oh boy it wasn’t! I had to plan out every single detail of that day for months! I nearly backed down, but I had to do it.”
Silence met him again.
“Well? Aren’t you going to give me a little speech of what was I thinking or how much I made you suffer because of my decision?” he gritted his fangs when silence met him. “WELL!?” Silence remained.
Spike took a step forward, green fire coming out between his fangs. “Then, before you can tell me all that bullshit, let me ask you something, do any of you think it was a walk in the park for me? That it was so easy to leave everything I knew and loved behind me and force you all to believe a lie?” he took another step, creating small cracks in the floor.
“It bucking wasn’t!” he snarled at them. “I had to force myself to do it, to believe it was the best course of action, that it was the only solution to save my most beloved thing in the world. And you know what? I was right, I saved your friendship, my precious treasure. If you ask me, the price I had to pay was nothing compared to the joy I felt when I saw you together again.”
Silence met him once more, he snarled before another one of them spoke up “You didn’t have to do that.” Rainbow said sadly, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
Spike grew in size in front of them, now standing at the same height as when he fought against Tirek “Don’t YOU dare say my choice is wrong, I saved you all! I forced you to live close and not in the Celestia knows where in distant cities around Equestria. ME! Not another meaningless villain, but me! I single handedly ensured the future of Equestria.”
Spike turned around and rose his arms up “Just look what I did, I forged a kingdom of my own, a threat so close that couldn’t be ignored! With my treason I made you, and mom, and aunt Luna and Equestria strong. All because of me, you owe your friendship to me, even before my treason.” he turned around again.
“Your friendship is my pillar, my strength, and ever since I was a baby I was always close to protect it. Sure, I wasn’t really necessary and any other could have taken my place, but it was ME who had the honor to guard it! It’s my duty, my responsibility as your guardian to be there for you, always!” Silence. The dragon’s eyes ignited in purple fire. “Say something dammit, curse me, insult me, praise me, anything besides your silence, I deserve as much!”
Only silence met him after a few seconds.
Spike kneeled until he was at their same level and roared at them with all his might but they didn’t even flinch. “I will murd--” he began to say but stopped as Twilight looked up to meet his eyes, her own eyes were filled with tears and reflected pain, disgust, sadness and many other emotions. His body began to shrink as his gaze was locked with hers for what felt like forever. Then, once he was back to normal, Twilight hit him as hard as she could straight in the face, sending him back a couple of centimeters. Spike looked at her trembling hoof pressed weakly against his face.
“You’re such an idiot, Spike.” Twilight finally said. Spike scanned the rest of the mare’s faces, now revealed to him and in no better condition than Twilight.
“I know.” he whispered “What I’ve done has no excuse, therefore,” he said seriously, closing his eyes as he held Twilight’s hoof with both claws “I accept my punishment.”
He opened his eyes again and locked gazes with all six of them for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly the six of them jumped at him, crying, weeping, sobbing and wailing at the same time.
Spike rested on his marble white pristine floor as the mares above hugged and nuzzled him relentlessly, their hot tears washing his scales, his own eyes filled with tears for the first time in years as he hugged them back as best as he could.
Author's Note
Special thanks to all who read this!
Special thanks to Bennet001 for proofreading.
Special thanks to Legion222 for editing. Go and give him love, now!
