Talking is Magic

Chapters

Talking to Nightmares
Chaos Doesn't Equal Evil
What Really is Love
The Light in the Darkness
Power to What End
A New Spin on Equality

Talking to Nightmares

Author's Note

Any resemblances to other works on this site are purely coincidental and are in no way copied.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Hasbro. I'm simply here to play in their sandbox while my muse demands it.

Enjoy!

Talking to Nightmares

“Remember this day little ponies for it was your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!” Nightmare Moon laughed, ensuring that several lightning bolts had gone off behind her for dramatic effect. She had also made a point of baring her unusually sharp fangs that she called teeth to increase the intimidation. No doubt the entirety of Ponyville was shaking in their hooves especially after electrocuting two members of the Royal Guard. That said, she was blindsided by what happened next.

“Why?”

Nightmare Moon blinked as she finished her admittedly satisfying wave of maniacal laughter. She scanned the crowd for the source of the question when she spotted the only creature who did not seem to be quaking in their hooves. If nothing else, it was because he had no hooves. No, this creature could only be one thing in Nightmare Moon’s books.

A dragon. A baby dragon if she was seeing this correctly. It had then occurred to her that the question was not asked fearfully as she had come to expect from her subjects if her maniacal laughter had been any indication. No, this question was asked with the intense curiosity that only a newborn foal could possess.

The self-proclaimed Queen of the Night felt herself going cold. She had spent her thousand year imprisonment on the moon stewing up many contingency plans should things not have gone smoothly. However, she had not in her thousand year banishment expected to encounter a curious purple dragon or any curious foals for that matter. Then again, she had banking on her scare factor being high enough such that they would not speak in fear of swift retribution. She had also suspected that the probability of a dragon living among ponies to be astronomically low that it would have essentially have been nonexistent.

She had also not expected the cheering of the foals who happened to enjoy Nightmare Night and enjoyed her existence as a means to scare them. Nonetheless it did make her smirk slightly knowing that ponies loved her. Nightmare Moon quickly shook her head and stomped her forehooves on the ground in a display of dominance, flaring out her wings for additional effect. That much had done the trick.

That’s what I get for make such assumptions. They always seem to come back to bite me in the flank. Nightmare Moon grumbled as she stared down at the fidgeting dragon who was currently sitting atop the back of the only mare who was able to foretell her return.

“You will have to be more specific, dragon,” the black coated alicorn stated. She paused. She had to give him points for standing up to her just to ask such a question. The foals didn’t count as they were too young to truly understand her and her intentions. She could guess that the thousand years that she had been gone had only served to increase their fear of her despite the cheers and laughter from the young ones. “Incidentally, dragon, what is your name?”

She saw him freeze from his perch atop the unicorn’s back before uttering back a single word: “Spike.”

“Very well, Spike,” she nodded, “Why would I what?”

“I mean why do you want to have the night last forever? I mean I’ve heard the legend about the two sisters who ruled and how one fell to jealousy and was then banished,” the dragon told her as he gave his brief description of the legend.

“The legend you speak of is in essence correct,” Nightmare nodded. “That said, I believe greater elaboration is required to understand my desire.” She had, much to the surprise of the entire town, sat down on her haunches before recounting her time as Princess Luna while explaining her desire to make her nights as pleasing to see and watch as Celestia’s days. Her continued failure had driven the mare into pursuing powerful and subsequently darker magic to make an eventually fearful populace love her and her nights which had thus led to her descent into insanity.

“No matter what I did. It seemed that ponies would never be around to appreciate all the work that is put into making the night sky the way it does,” Nightmare Moon finished her explanation turned rant.

The silence that followed was absolutely deafening and made Nightmare wonder if telling such a story was really such a good idea. Her thoughts snapped as she noticed that Spike had dismounted and stared up at her with more than a little wonder in his large green eyes.

His eyes... they’re just like mine. She idly mused.

“I can’t say I blame you,” said Spike with his arms crossed over his small scaly chest. “I mean, if I worked really hard to make something only for it to get thrown back in my face, I wouldn’t be very happy about it either.” He paused. “For what it’s worth though. Twilight and I enjoy the night just as much as the day.” He gestured to his unicorn companion who had been wearing a nervous look on her face ever since she had appeared and couldn’t help the smile that stretched across his face as she nodded in agreement.

Nightmare for her part was taken aback. Not once had she ever received a compliment for her hard work. But here was this baby dragon. Spike she mentally chided herself. When she had plotted her return, she had thought that she would have to force the ponies of Equestria to treasure her nights by getting rid of the day. But now...given that there was already two ponies who valued the night...

“It’s really ironic,” Spike continued, bellying a maturity that nobody present would have expected from him. It had the secondary effect of breaking Nightmare Moon out of her internal musings. “At least from what Twilight here,” he gestured to his unicorn companion, “has told me from her lessons. Astronomy has really taken off as a science over the past few centuries. Equestria has a ton of observatories and the ponies that work there spend their time studying the moon and the stars. Traveling ponies use the stars as a map to guide to help them find their way back to civilization when they are lost in the wilderness. Also, the constellations that the stars create have some really cool stories.”

He turned to Twilight, asking about a story about a constellation named Draco. Nightmare rolled her eyes. Somehow, she had a feeling that he would pick a constellation based on his heritage. However, it did make her wonder for the most fleeting of seconds. Did ponies in this time truly enjoy the night more than those of the era from which she was familiar?

In any case, Nightmare opted to give him the benefit of the doubt as she listened to Twilight’s stories about the many constellations that made their home in the night sky. She ended up losing herself in the many fascinating tales that Twilight and Spike had shared with her. That settled it; if ponies could come up with stories like that from whatever amount of time Celestia had allowed the night to last, she was certain more stories could be created if the night lasted forever!

“That only serves to prove that the night absolutely must last forever now!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed, clapping her hooves together happily.

XxX

“That didn’t work out like I’d hoped it would,” Spike mumbled as he stared up at the clapping Nightmare Moon. It was then that another idea struck him. If showing her that ponies did value her night wouldn’t dissuade her from her goal then maybe this will.

“But if the night lasts forever nopony will be around to enjoy it!” The clapping stopped immediately and room felt that it had dropped at least ten degrees at that statement. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say. Nightmare’s eyes narrowed as she locked eyes with Spike. No, it definitely was not the best thing to say.

“What do you mean?” she asked sharply, pinning the small dragon with an icy glare.

“Think about it,” Spike stated, sounding more confident that he actually felt at the moment. “If the night lasted forever, food wouldn’t be able to grow. Ponies will starve and die from the lack of nutrients as a result. Without sunlight, plants can’t run the photosynthetic reactions required for self sustaining by production of ATP, NADPH, and glucose. We need these in order to make all the important chemicals in our bodies to help us survive.”

Spike looked back up at Nightmare Moon, fearful of her reaction. However, what he saw was what he was hoping for. It was clear that his words were having an impact on her. It had the added effect of altering her thought process if her conflicted face was anything to go by. He knew that he had to keep up the pressure to show that while the night was absolutely important to the survival of Equestria, the fact remained that the day was just as important as well.

The fact that other ponies were chiming in their agreement and their own experiences of the night certainly didn’t hurt.

Moving right along, Spike had gone on to explain the pineal gland and its function to make ponies feel sleepy in the absence of darkness while also helping to regulate hormone balances in the pituitary. He had explained that it wasn’t something that can be controlled at will as it was a regulatory gland that served to help maintain proper sleep cycles along with hormone balance.

Spike noticed that Nightmare Moon was close to breaking if the increasingly conflicted expression on her face was any indication. He knew that this was his chance to go in for the kill. Princess Celestia had told them to make some friends while they were in Ponyville after all.

Besides if Nightmare Moon was really the Queen of the Night then she’d have to come to Canterlot with them since that’s where all princesses are supposed to rule from. Granted he only had one princess as a precedent but the thought process still remained.

Everypony watched with bated breath as Spike kneeled and offered a short bow to the black alicorn.

“I would be honored to call you my friend if you are willing to not make the night last forever,” Spike held out a hand for her to take. Nightmare hopped from her perched on the balcony to meet the dragon face to face. It was only fair as he had shown such bravery in confronting her. She continued to stare in surprise as she felt something in her burst. Her eyes felt wet and felt her mouth quirk up for the very first time as a genuine smile stretched across her face. Without another thought, Nightmare lifted a hoof and placed it in his hand.

“This is my promise to you,” Spike started, saying whatever came to mind as he smiled up at the mare, “I’ll always be your friend and admire your night like we’ve always done,” he threw an arm around a stunned Twilight, “you’ll always have a place in my heart just like I’ll always have a place in yours.”

The two suddenly found themselves surrounded by Nightmare’s mist, much to everypony’s surprise as Nightmare Moon began to flash and transform. Spike watched in awe as the mist slowly lifted.

Thank you Spike. He could hear Nightmare’s voice in his head. Thank you for showing me that the night has always been loved by my subjects and for your offering of friendship.

Spike could only nod dumbly as he stared at the spot where Nightmare Moon had stood. But where Nightmare once stood was where another, smaller dark blue alicorn lay, unconscious. Spike stared at the presently unconscious alicorn in awe. He could see the armor and hoof shoes that the taller mare had been wearing but were now reduced to little more than shrapnel strewn across city hall.

For a pony who’d apparently been banished to the moon for a thousand years, she looked quite beautiful in Spike’s humble opinion. He couldn’t help but wonder how she’d maintained herself while on the moon but decided to ultimately let the subject die in favor of more dire concerns.

Just where was Princess Celestia?

Noticing the slowly rising sun’s glow behind him, Spike, Twilight and the rest of Ponyville turned around as they saw a sphere of light as bright as the sun itself descend on the town hall. They all watched through covered eyes as the light dissipated. Once it was gone, everypony gasped to be in the presence of Her Eminence: Princess Celestia.

Everypony bowed in her presence. Twilight on the hand, trotted to her side and the two exchanged a quick nuzzle.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Celestia began, her voice gentle but still held the air of regality that one would come to expect from her. “My faithful student. I knew you could do it.”

“I wish I could say it was me who had done it, Princess,” Twilight admitted as she cast a sidelong look at her number one assistant. “But the truth is. It was really thanks to Spike that Nightmare Moon is gone.”

Princess Celestia stared at her student for several moments before turning to the purple dragon she had come to see as one of her own. It was clear that he was still fidgeting in her presence despite the smile she’d sent his way. She had still remained silent for several moments. She had actually expected for Twilight and her newfound friends to traverse the Everfree Forest and discover the elements of harmony in the Castle of the Two Sisters. She would have never guessed that Spike had managed to simply talk to her and convince her that what she was doing was not the right thing to do.

“From the bottom of my heart,” Princess Celestia began, her rose colored eyes holding Spike’s nervous gaze, “I thank you for rescuing my little sister.” Spike for his part was speechless as Celestia trotted toward her little sister. Twilight and Spike exchanged nervous glances at what Princess Celestia might do next.

“Princess Luna,” she began. The aforementioned alicorn’s eyes snapped open as she slowly met her older sister’s eyes. “It has been a thousand years since I’ve seen you like this.” she had laid on her haunches as she maintained eye contact. “We were meant to rule together, little sister.”

“Little sister?” Everybody breathed in unison. It was clear that whatever they had been expecting from Princess Celestia, it certainly wasn’t this. Then Celestia asked the million bit question that lingered in everybody's heads.

“Will you accept my friendship?”

Princess Luna squeezed her eyes shut as a pained expression overtook her otherwise beautiful features. Everybody else waited on baited breath and hoof as they eagerly awaited her reply. The dark coated alicorn stared down for the most fleeting of seconds, contemplating the question. Then with little to no hesitation, she darted forward to stare up into her sister’s eyes, her wings opened to their fullest span.

“I’m so sorry!” she cried to Celestia as she leaned in for a nuzzle. “I missed you so much, big sister.” The smaller alicorn said nothing else as she buried her head into Celestia’s alabaster coat as several tears trailed down her cheeks.

Celestia was not much better as she responded in kind, tears and all. “I missed you too.”

Overall it was quite a touching moment and it would have been beautiful. However, there was still the fact that the entire town was present to bear witness and they had all burst into tears at the reunion of the two sisters. Pinkie had already cried a literal stream of tears that the napkin in her hoof had done little to resolve it. That said, her crying had stopped in an instant as she pointed out there could really only be one way to celebrate such a reunion.

A big party! A really big party. A party that would go down in history books as the greatest party that Equestria had seen since Celestia and Luna became Equestria’s princesses.

XxX

Princess Luna had opted to stay by her sister’s side for the entire duration of the town’s celebration. She had, of course, spoken with several of the townsponies at her sister’s behest but even as she was talking to her little ponies, her mind drifted back to the small purple dragon who had essentially saved her from herself. She decided that she needed to, at the very least thank her savior face to face. After all, anything less would be a disservice to what he’d done.

As it turned out, Spike had been quite easy to find. Being a small purple dragon, he stuck out in crowds since he didn’t have a mane, a coat, and he wasn’t even equine for that matter! His green head spines only served to make him even easier to find as she spotted him surrounded by six mares. She could tell he wasn’t entirely used to being in the spotlight but couldn’t quite stifle her laughter as she watched him bask in it. Watching him like this made her wonder if she really ought to interrupt.

Unfortunately, the decision was taken out of her hooves when a mare with a violet coat and straight violet mane with a lone pink stripe noticed her conflicted expression and waved her over with a smile.

Immediately, the others mares and the small dragon had sunk into a deep bow. The smaller alicorn had insisted that they needn’t stand on decorum with her. “Your friend was the one that saved me after all. If anything, it is I who should be bowing to you.”

Spike had immediately jumped up and had attempted to dissuade her.

“I was happy to help,” he told her modestly. “It’s part of the philosophy that Twilight and Princess Celestia have been teaching me: talk things out with everypony instead of resorting to violence to reach some kind of agreement. I wasn’t sure it would work here but I’m glad it did.” His smile made her smile in turn in spite of its awkwardness.

“Would it be alright if I borrowed you for a short while,” Princess Luna asked. She received no protests as they watched Spike walk by her side. The princess of the night trotted toward a more secluded part of Ponyville before taking a seat on a bench and gesturing for Spike to join her.

“So what would you like to talk about Your Highness?” Spike asked, watching her curiously.

“You needn’t sit on decorum with me, young Spike. Just Luna will suffice for the purposes of our conversation this day,” Princess Luna replied. Spike nodded slowly while waiting for her to start the conversation.

“So about your feelings about the night…” she trailed off awkwardly, watching as Spike raised a curious eyebrow. Or at least he would have if he had eyebrows. The creases of his forehead were sufficient to convey the same idea.

“Well for what it’s worth. I like it. I’m not fanatical about it like Twilight is but I enjoy stargazing and the stories behind the constellations almost as much as she does,” he leaned in and whispered to her conspiratorially, “and believe me, she is practically obsessed with stargazing when she’s not stuffing her brain reading those dusty old books.”

Luna allowed her a small laugh at that.

“Besides, the night time means the work day is done and I have as much fun as I want and not have to worry about having work to do,” Spike paused. “At least until either Princess Celestia or Twilight make me go to bed which is kind of hypocritical of her since she gets to stay up all night studying,” he added as an afterthought, scowling at thought that he actually needed a bed time! It was outrageous!

Luna’s laughter was unrestrained this time as she and Spike’s conversation descended into laughter. It took a great deal to pull their laughter under control but a few minutes and several deep breaths later, they had succeeded.

“So tell me Spike, what do you intend to do after the Summer Sun Celebration has concluded?” Luna asked curiously.

“It’s really up to Twilight,” Spike shrugged. “I work and get paid to be her number one assistant so I’ll probably go wherever she decides to go but she also makes sure to take my opinion into account. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind either way. Ponyville and Canterlot both have their pros and cons and whatever Twilight decides, I’m up for it.”

Luna hummed in thought. “Irrespective of what you decide to do, would you be willing to establish correspondence with me? I believe that having such a correspondence would be beneficial with helping me catch up with what I’ve missed during my...time away from Equestria.”

Spike’s smile split his face as he eagerly accepted her invitation. He would have been foolish not to after everything he’d been through to save her. He had quickly explained his ability to send letters via dragon fire and had suggested that she ask Princess Celestia for the spell to send said messages.

There was little else to say as her older sister approached gesturing to Luna that it was time to go home. Luna nodded happily as she waved at Spike before hopping off the bench. Celestia for her part had given Spike another nuzzle before leading them both toward Ponyville’s central plaza where Twilight and the rest of Ponyville was waiting for them.

Twilight had told the Princess of the Sun her intention to stay in Ponyville to understand the magic of friendship as it had been at least a variation of it that had set Princess Luna free. Princess Celestia had been thrilled at Twilight’s proclamation and had decreed that Twilight would continue her studies in Ponyville alongside her new friends.

Spike and Luna shared one more glance as the latter boarded the chariot before it took off into the mid-day sky.

Spike suddenly found himself in Twilight’s embrace. The young dragon nuzzled deeper into his caretaker’s coat as they watched the chariot shrink as it got further and further away.

End.

Chaos Doesn't Equal Evil

Spike sighed as he burned another hedge in the maze that Discord had forced the seven of them to undertake in order to recover their respective elements. He’d yet to find any of the others and he’d found himself getting bored. From the impression Princess Celestia had of Discord, Spike thought that he’d at least make things more interesting.

Maybe since I’m not a wielder of an Element of Harmony, he doesn’t really see me as a threat to his plan to rule Equestria. Spike mused as he burned away another bothersome hedge. He may have made things difficult for the ponies but as far as Spike could tell, Discord hadn’t done anything to him.

That made him pause as he recollected how this had all come about.

XxX

“That chamber is protected by a powerful spell that only I can break!” Celestia muttered while pacing about the room after noticing that the Elements of Harmony were missing. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

It makes perfects sense from what Princess Celestia already told us about Discord Spike thought. I would bet every gem in my secret stash that he stole the elements to stop us from turning him into stone. It also raised the question of why Princess Celestia possessed the elements and not the actual wielders themselves. Spike made a mental note to ask her about that once all of this was resolved.

Just then, a fruity, malicious laugh asserted itself in the hall. It gives way to an echoing male voice whose semi-playful tone does little to disguise the malevolence buried not so deep down.

“Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?” The voice asked rhetorically. Spike for his part, couldn’t help but agree given what Pinkie did on a daily basis.

“Discord! Show yourself!” Celestia commanded, glaring around the room, scanning for her adversary. The only response she got was a second bout of contemptuous laughter rolling around the vaulted ceiling. The eight of them noticed the window’s figure of Discord had started to move about on his own and had taken to pulling at the ponies’ strings.

“Did you miss me Celestia?” the voice asked mischievously. They all stared at the image as it began to speak. “Because I’ve missed you.”

They watched as he moved from window to window explaining how lonely it was to be encased in stone before retorting that Celestia wouldn’t know what it was like since he’d never turned ponies to stone.

Celestia had demanded to know what he’d done with the elements of harmony. Discord had responded that he’d simply borrowed them much like a normal pony would borrow a library book. He’d soon managed to identify each of the wielders along with their respective strengths before giving them a hint to the location of the elements in the form of a poem before disappearing.

Twilight had mulled it over for several seconds before concluding that he must have hidden them in the castle labyrinth. Spike was dubious but decided not to say anything in lieu of an alternative as he followed them toward said labyrinth where the mares lost either their horns or their wings.

Discord had then appeared via a bolt of lightning while explaining the rules of his so called game: no magic and no flying. The second rule was that everypony had to play or else the game would be over and Discord would win.

“Good luck everypony!” he waved to them before he disappeared in a dramatic flash of light.

XxX

“Fortunately for me the rules don’t apply since I’m not using magical fire or flying,” Spike grinned to himself. “The fact that I’m not a pony also helps my case I think.”

It was at that moment that fate decided to mess around with him when he spotted Twilight a little ways ahead of him.

“Twilight!” He called rushing forward before coming to a stop as she trotted toward him. The odd expression on her face immediately had alarm bells going off in his brain. He'd never seen that unfocused expression on her face before. The purple unicorn had especially made of point of not making that fate since she been warned by Princess Celestia that it could be considered quite rude in certain social circles. He immediately suspected Discord was trying to throw him off balance with an impersonation of Twilight. Before she could even open her mouth, Spike had already noticed several flaws in her appearance. Namely the presence of her horn, the wrong shade of pink on the single streak in her mane and tail, and her cutie mark containing five points instead of six.

The Twilight before him hadn’t noticed his suspicious stance as she trotted forward.

“I’m letting you go. You’ve failed me as my number one assistant Spike.” Those would have hurt a lot more had the Twilight who’d uttered them been the real Twilight that had really raised Spike from birth. However, Spike was nothing if not observant thanks to his time well spent with Rarity as his expression remained the same.

“Nice try Discord,” Spike snorted in amusement, rolling his eyes as he placed his claws on his hips. “But you’ll have to try harder than that to convince me.” He puffed out his chest and reminded her that he was Twilight's assistant.

“But I AM the real Twilight!” she insisted, forcing her face into his own.

“And that right there just proved to me that you’re not in fact the real Twilight,” Spike was suppressing his laughter now. “The real Twilight would have stated at least five different reasons why I’ve failed as her assistant and that’s not including the flaws in your appearance that gave you away at first glance.”

‘Twilight’ was left a spluttering mess as Spike continued forward without a care in the world as he continued his search for the rest of his friends. However, his progress was halted yet again by the familiar draconequus that had decided to bare his path.

“You’ve been helpful for far too long!” Discord yelled before planking one of his talons on Spike’s head. “It’s time for you to be mean and unobliging!”

Discord smiled malevolently as the magic started to take effect and had started turning Spike’s scales an ugly shade of gray. However, as soon as it started, the magic reverse itself as though retreating as his scales regained their lustrous glow.

Scowling, Discord recast the spell only for it to fail yet again.

This back and forth magic casting and dispelling went on for several seconds before Discord finally gave up, throwing his arms into the air incredulously while wondering just why his spell wasn’t working.

“Dragon scales are capable of resisting if not outright blocking dark magic,” Spike explained. “That’s probably why your spell didn’t work which is actually really nice to know in retrospect.”

“Well it’s not like I have anything to gain by corrupting you as well. Mind you, it would have made corrupting Twilight Sparkle much easier but I’m sure I can come up with something to break her spirit nonetheless,” Discord shrugged as he prepared to teleport himself.

“Wait!” Spike said before Discord could teleport. “What do you hope to accomplish by having a world of disharmony?”

Discord sighed as he conjured two armchairs made out of the cotton candy clouds the baby dragon had seen earlier. The young dragon for his part blinked at how comfortable they were to sit in.

He could definitely market these. Spike mused. He’d definitely put quills and sofas out of business it he made more of these.

“Equestria under Celestia’s rule is so boring,” Discord explained with a lazy drawl. “All I wanted to do was shake things up and make things fun again albeit through unconventional means.”

“I can understand,” Spike nodded. “That pretty much describes Pinkie Pie’s existence she got her cutie mark. Her goal is to make ponies smile. I’m not entirely sure if that’s your goal as well but I can tell you that the chaos that’s been released has probably hurt a lot of ponies in the process.”

Discord frowned. He didn’t intend to hurt anypony while he was having fun but sometimes the thrill of using his chaos magic tended to get the better of him. He made a mental note to, at the very least, keep a closer eye on his magic as he used it. If it spiraled out of control and ended up destroying Equestria, or worse the entire world, then Discord would most definitely have a big mess on his shoulders.

One that would be really hard to clean up.

“You make a point,” Discord agreed. Spike smiled before continuing.

“Besides, there’s plenty of chaos around that at the very least keep our lives interesting. Ponyville’s continued existence is proof enough given all the crazy things that have happened there.”

Discord listened in genuine interest as Spike recounted several of his friends’ misadventures while in Ponyville.

“You’re probably right,” Discord agreed, “But that doesn’t mean that the rest of Equestria necessarily follows suit. Manehatten for example, everypony tends to keep to themselves.”

“I suppose,” said Spike uncertainly. “But personally, I think chaos in and of itself can be a good thing. I guess the main thing I’m trying to get at is that there needs to be a balance between harmony and chaos. If we have too much chaos then obviously the world will spiral out of control and lead to an apocalypse of epic proportions. But on the other hand, if we have too much harmony then it might lead to a dictatorship of sorts.”

Discord blinked. “The first one makes perfect sense but you’ll have to explain that second idea to me...wait, I never did catch your name.”

“I’m Spike. It’s nice to meet you, Discord,” Spike offered a claw to which Discord nodded and responded in kind.

“Well met,” Discord nodded. “So going back to the balance between harmony and chaos; how does too much harmony bring about a dictatorship?”

Spike had to think about this for a few seconds. He vaguely recalled Twilight reading him an excerpt from one of her books. What was it? He strained his memory but to no avail at the very least, he could generate a general recollection which would have to be good enough.

“Well if you think about it. If we have too much harmony, freedom can become restricted. When freedoms become restricted then some may gain more power which can possibly lead into a dictatorship where one pony will have absolute power over all others.” Spike shrugged, “It eventually leads to wars being fought and lives being lost and that’s something I’d much rather avoid if I can help it.”

Discord winced. Spike had raised some valid points but Spike was not done.

“That’s why we need you Discord,” Spike stated. “If you worked together with us, we can all maintain that balance.” He shot Discord a wry smile. “If nothing else, it makes great PR for you and ponies will come to respect and even admire you.”

It was clear that the young dragon had gotten the spirit of chaos’s attention. The possible PR and a relatively liberal use of his chaos magic was certainly appealing. And that was not even considering having ponies respect him despite his rather checkered past. However, from the look on Spike’s face, it was clear that Spike was not done yet.

“And that’s not even taking into account all the cool things you could do,” Spike gestured wildly to the cotton candy armchairs. “You could probably make a fortune just off of this alone. You’d more than likely have a monopoly and could subsequently charge as much as you wanted so long as you can keep other entertained. Besides, even if ponies might not be interested in such a thing, I happen to know that Yaks have quite the sweet tooth.”

Now Spike was talking in Discord’s language. The idea of sending Equestria into an economic crisis was an amusing one to consider but then there was the collateral damage that followed and would be unacceptable. And that’s not considering that economic crises were never really Discord’s style.

Actually, this entire discussion had gotten Discord thinking. Just why was Spike trying so hard to convince him to go down this route? What was in it for the dragon?

“So let’s just say that I was considering your proposition,” Discord began, “being safe from the Elements of Harmony is definitely a juicy incentive but what do you hope to gain by having this talk?”

“I want a guy friend,” said Spike simply. “The mare to stallion ratio is probably greater than four to one. It’s hard to find a stallion or a colt to have fun with since most of them are occupied with their mares. Most of the colts at the schoolhouse are either intimidated by the fact that I’m a dragon which somehow translates to: I’m going to eat you or they’re too caught up with each other to give me a chance. Also, there was this quote that I happened to like: I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends!”

Discord was more than a little taken aback by the dragon’s response. He probably would have gone through every other possible scenario before guessing that he had simply wanted to be friends with him.

“If there’s anything that I’ve learned from my time in Equestria so far is that everybody deserves a second chance,” he waved a claw to Discord. “Most of what you did before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna turned you to stone was comparatively harmless from what I can tell. She described it as ponies living in a state of unrest and unhappiness but if you really think about it, it’s almost impossible to be happy all the time. Ponies, dragons, draconequuses, and basically every other creature in and beyond Equestria is capable of feeling other emotions so that bit about those you ruled living in unhappiness isn’t altogether surprising.”

“Admittedly, most of what I’ve done was change the ground to make it appear more checkered since I thought it looked nicer that way. Plus I thought upside down houses also looked cool and that’s not even factoring in the idea of upside down hills,” Discord supplied helpfully. “I’d also changed the animals. For example, bunnies had been given multiple joints to augment their speed so that they could get to food and avoid predators much more easily. However, my favorite examples are definitely the cotton candy clouds that can move on their own and the chocolate rain.” He raised a hand to forestall the question he could see was on Spike’s lips. “Don’t bother asking me how I do it. Chaos is unpredictable in that sense.”

“That much is true,” Spike agreed.

“So just to be clear, you were quite serious to make a gamble to let me have my freedom in exchange for friendship with you,” Discord clarified.

“More or less. You’d also be helping to maintain balance along with the occasional burst of chaotic magic at your discretion. Just remember to give an advanced warning so that we don’t get caught in the crossfire of whatever you’re planning,” Spike told him. “Other than that, you’ve pretty much got free reign over your life as far as I’m concerned.

Admittedly, while Spike was the number one (technically the only assistant to Celestia’s personal student which made him number one by default) assistant to Twilight Sparkle, his word would have no legal binding without Princess Celestia’s approval.

Spike sighed. He could already feel the migraine coming on at the prospect of persuading the Princess of the Day while letting Discord remain free was a good idea.

“Aha! There you are!” The two looked up from their currently paused conversation to find Twilight Sparkle and her friends with their respective elements.

“How did you find those!” Discord exclaimed. “I didn’t even hide them in the labyrinth to begin with!” He narrowed his eyes at Twilight. “You used magic didn’t you. You broke the rules of the game!”

“Actually, Pinkie here happened to have a chainsaw tucked away in her mane,” Twilight pointed out, gesturing to a grinning Pinkie who did in fact have a chainsaw with the handle currently in her mouth.

“The rules said that we couldn’t use magic or wings but you never said anything about using power tools!” said Pinkie cheerfully as she cut down another hedge for emphasis. “You also never said anything about earth pony’s strength to knock down obstacles either so we were well in our rights to use both to get here,” she added as an afterthought.

“As for how we got our elements back,” Twilight explained how she’d managed to regroup with her friends while Discord and Spike were talking and re-evaluated their reasoning as to why they thought the elements of harmony would even be in the maze. Twilight had then thought back to when they’d first met and how she’d been researching them for Nightmare Moon’s return. She had then asked Pinkie and Applejack to go back to Ponyville and find the elements in a specific book.

“Technically, your rules only applied when we were in the maze,” Fluttershy pointed out, “so Applejack and Pinkie had the idea to just make an exit and then use magic to teleport them back to the library to collect the elements.

“Channeling magic without my horn was really difficult,” Twilight admitted. “I wasn’t even sure if it was possible but I did manage to teleport them with an arbitrarily set delay such that they had ample time to find the book and the elements and come back.

“I was able to track Spike’s scent through the maze since ponies are well known for their keen sense of smell,” Fluttershy supplied. “And that’s how we all got here.”

Discord was sweating bullets as he found himself face to face with the Elements of Harmony.

“Wait.”

All seven of them turned to stare at the dragon present. He looked between his old friends and his potential new friends.

“I promised Discord his freedom. I think that his powers could definitely be used for good if he learned the magic of friendship with the rest of us,” Spike suggested. The mares were dubious about this. This was the creature that had taken away what had defined them this whole time up until this point in their lives. He’d even corrupted all of them to behave in way that was essentially the polar opposite to where their strengths lie.

Fluttershy was the first to speak up.

“Um… Spike? Are you sure that it’s a safe idea to have Discord running around free? I’m just worried that somepony might get the wrong idea and it might hurt Discord’s feelings in the process.”

“You actually said it quite nicely back when we were only just becoming friends: Everybody deserves to be shown a little bit of kindness right?” Spike asked to the reluctant nods of his friends while an uneasy Discord watched on. “It worked with Nightmare Moon so I don’t see any reason why it can’t work with Discord.”

“Why don’t we talk to Princess Celestia about it?” Twilight suggested diplomatically. “We can have her decide what to do.”

XxX

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Princess Celestia decided once everybody present had shared their sides of the story. She paused to consider it further. “I’m more ashamed that I didn’t come up with such an idea sooner. Discord’s powers could most certainly be used to maintain the delicate balance between harmony and chaos.”

The two males had let out a whooping cheer at Celestia’s verdict.

“However.” The cheering immediately died.

She looked at them with the faintest hint of a smile. “I would like weekly reports about your progress toward friendship, Discord.”

“Oh very well, Celestia,” Discord drawled lazily. “I suppose I can accept these terms. I do get my freedom after all.”

“Indeed you do,” Celestia nodded before pausing as a thought came to her. “Incidentally, if you could all come back in a week. I would very much appreciate it.”

The eight stared at her as she explained that she had intended to commission a stained glass window of them and it would be ready to be shown in the following week. The eight decided that it was a reasonable request and let the notion pass.

Plus it would give everyone time to adapt to a draconequus in their midst and help Discord get started on generating good PR. Fortunately, Spike’s somewhat abridged explanation on Discord’s intention to reform had earned him more than a little forgiveness if only because his pranks this time had actually made pegasi jobs a lot easy since the cotton candy clouds had gone where they were supposed to go.

The fact that they rained chocolate measure could only be a good thing as far as fillies and colts were considered. It really should have come as no surprise given how the first time it had happened, all the fillies and colts had danced in the chocolate rain in a feeble attempt to get at least a drop of the fabled drink. Even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had, in essence, given up all sense of inhibition and mimicked everypony else and tried to catch as much chocolate rain as they could.

XxX

A week later found the eight of them in the Canterlot Castle throne room where both princesses greeted them. Admittedly, Celestia had been more responsive to Discord but Luna had very little time to adjust to Discord’s presence and it didn’t that she didn’t get any sort of forewarning about it before the fact.

Moving back to the ceremony, the eight smiled and waved as Celestia unveiled the newest stained glass window for all to see.

The window consisted of several panes featuring each pony wearing their elements right now and at the center featured Spike and Discord who were grinning broadly and arm in arm.

Discord for his part had never had screams of cheer permeating through the air. He was used to terror-addled ponies who had always known to fear him as opposed to cheering happily as he followed his friends’ leads and stared in awe at the picture his arm looped around Spike.

Discord stared up at the non-stained glass windows.

Today was a good today.

Author's Note

Discord is a really tough character for me to write. I guess I'll have to continue practicing with him at another time. Now we can move on to the next antagonist: Chrysalis. I'm really looking forward to writing this one and hopefully you'll like this chapter as much as you liked the last one.

Thanks for reading and remember, constructive criticism and helpful advice is always welcome.

What Really is Love

Spike watched worriedly as Twilight stomped away after she insisted that Cadance was an awful mare for her brother. Personally, Spike thought calling her evil might have been a stretch but Cadance’s behavior was definitely off.

“I’d better go check on her,” Spike told the five mares he’d come to call his friends. They nodded silently as he raced away to catch up to Twilight.

Finding Twilight hadn’t been anywhere near as hard as he thought it would. He’d spotted her peering through Shining Armor’s window and joined her when she waved him over.

Apparently Twilight had gone to see her brother and convey her suspicions about Cadance. However, before she could convey any of her suspicions about his bride, said bride had shown up and had asked to talk to him in private. Twilight had decided to take her leave and deciding for an altogether different approach.

Namely spying on them from a bush beneath the window sill.

Spike decided to give her the benefit of the doubt if only to (read: temporarily) alleviate her neuroticism. The two watched as Cadance and Shining Armor began to talk to each other.

Cadance appeared at the top of a small flight of stairs, asking for Shining Armor’s company stating that they needed to talk as they headed into another room. Twilight and Spike quickly followed them as they peered through the window, careful to remain unnoticed.

The two watched as Cadance and Shining Armor argued about the latter’s wedding attire. Clearly Cadance was not at all impressed with Shining Armor’s garb. Twilight and Spike on the other hand thought it looked great. The former because she liked the callback to her favorite uncle as well.

Spike on the other hoof just thought it looked really cool.

“Are you disagreeing with me?” she asked sharply at Shining Armor’s refusal to yield. Twilight and Spike applauded him for not being a doormat.

“Yeah I guess I am,” Shining Armor replied defiantly before he grimaced as he felt a migraine coming on. In an abrupt shift in character, Cadance fussed over him, her horn glowing with an ominous green aura. Two sets of eyes widened as she cast some kind of spell. They also spotted the stallion’s eyes glaze over and flashed green for a couple seconds while noting that the same thing had happened with Cadance when she cast the spell.

“Feeling better?” Cadance asked kindly. Her groom nodded with a grunt while rubbing his head.

Twilight and Spike ducked their heads beneath the windowsill as the soon-to-be newlyweds nuzzled each other while unicorn and her assistant exchanged worried looks with each other.

“That had to have been some sort of hypnosis spell,” Twilight muttered to her dragon friend. “There’s no way it could be anything else.”

“I’m not actually too sure,” Spike voiced his opinion. Seeing Twilight opening her mouth to protest, Spike raised a claw to stop her.

“We can’t definitively prove what we saw was a mind-control spell given his reaction to the spell,” Spike told her. “And besides we would end up in trouble for spying on them in the first place at least without more definitive proof.”

“Are you saying I should just give up?” Twilight asked incredulously. “I can’t let my brother get married to such an awful mare!”

“I’m not telling you to give up but we need to approach this carefully,” Spike explained. “Just think about it: if we charge and accuse Cadance of being or mind control without any solid evidence, we’re the ones that’ll have to take the heat. Everyone else will probably write us off as being jealous or something.”

“So then what are you suggesting, Spike? I should talk to Princess Celestia in private?”

Spike shrugged. “I was actually going to suggest Princess Luna since she's more likely to be awake at night but that works too, I guess. You can just explain it as a concern that Cadance might be losing her cool or something. I’m sure that Princess Celestia will at least keep a closer eye on her; if nothing else at least she can help alleviate her stress.”

Twilight sighed as she tried to calm herself down. The more she thought about it, the more Spike’s idea made sense especially after what happened with her desperation in getting her friendship report in despite not having learned anything about friendship that week.

If she wanted to prove that Cadance wasn’t suited to be Shining Armor’s wife, she’d have to actually be there to do so. She’d also need more proof that it was her nature and not the stress of the wedding that is contributing to her sour mood.

“Alright Spike. We can talk to Princess Celestia once the rehearsal is done. I just hope she’ll be willing to hear us out.”

“You’re her most faithful student and have been one of driving forces behind Luna’s acclimation following her return,” Spike replied dismissively. “I’m sure she’d be willing to at least hear you out.”

Twilight nodded as she led the way back to the castle where she found her friends standing right outside the altar. They had explained that they’d been asked to fill in as Cadance’s bridesmaids since her original bridesmaids were unable to attend.

Twilight, despite being suspicious of the change, decided not to question it as they headed inside.

As expected the wedding rehearsal had gone on without a hitch.

Afterward, Twilight had just managed to catch the Princess of the Day as she was just about to enter her chambers to retire for the evening.

“Princess Celestia!”

“How may I help you, my faithful student?” Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the familiar title as she and Princess Celestia exchanged a brief nuzzle.

“I was actually hoping to talk to you about Cadance,” Twilight explained. Her teacher raised a curious eyebrow but inclined her head to allow her student to continue.

“I’m worried about her, Princess,” Twilight explained. “I’m worried that the stress of the wedding along with the threat against Canterlot might be making her a little… Short tempered for lack of a better word.”

“I’m am well aware of the threat made against Canterlot, Twilight. I have ensured that the shield protecting it remains intact,” she replied without missing a beat.

“But even so,” said Twilight insistently, “Shining Armor’s the one who maintains it and I’m worried that the stress of the wedding might be impairing his ability to conjure the shield as directed. With his attention divided between both tasks, I’m just concerned that both tasks' results will suffer.”

Princess Celestia smiled at her faithful student, “I can promise that I will at least keep a closer eye on Mi Amore during the wedding preparations.” She leaned in conspiratorially, “Between you and me, she has seemed a bit off since the wedding preparations had started.”

“Thank you Princess. That’s all I could ask of you. Good night,” Twilight waved goodbye as she trotted away. Her teacher
offered her a kind smile before trotting into her chambers for the night.

“It went about as well as I could have hoped for under the circumstances,” Spike replied as he explained his conversation with Princess Luna. They had agreed to confide in both princesses such that Cadance’s movement would at least be more restrictive and she would hopefully not be as harsh as she had been. Spike had gone to the Princess of the Night to confide his concerns. She had responded with the promise of peering into Cadance’s dreams to make sure all was well.

Unbeknownst to them, Cadance was just around the corner. Her eyes narrowed as they continued their conversation about her. If what they said was true then things would only get more complicated.

I need to get rid of them before they can cause anymore trouble for me. She thought as she trotted toward the pair.

“Good evening Twilight. Spike,” Cadance nodded to them both as she passed the unicorn mare in the hallway.

“Good evening to you too Cadance,” Twilight replied evenly. “I’d like to apologize for my behavior earlier. I guess I didn’t think that planning the wedding would be as stressful as everypony made it out to be.”

“You will be,” Cadance muttered. Spike and Twilight’s eyes widened as they found themselves surrounded by a ring of green magic fire not unlike Spike's dragon fire.

A psychotic grin later, and the fire had become a domed shield that began to sink into the carpet, taking Twilight and Spike with it. Cadence stepped evenly through it away from the pair as Twilight and Spike descended out of sight.

The pink alicorn smiled as the two vanished out of sight with nopony any the wiser. With that she trotted away without sparing the floor behind her a lingering glance.

When the pair came to, they found themselves in complete darkness. This was quickly remedied by Twilight lighting up her horn to light up the room. The two stand up to survey their surrounds. A few more steps find them face to face with their own reflections on a mirror-like wall. He could see crystal formations jutting out from the walls and floor, serving to multiply their reflections by many times. It also gave the illusion of their prison being much bigger than it actually was.

“It looks like we’re in some barren cavern somewhere,” Spike offered helpfully as he glanced around at the other mirror walls. “It looks like you were definitely right though, Twilight.”

“I wish I hadn’t been,” she mumbled sadly as she searched for a way to escape, knowing full well that her magic wasn’t strong enough for a long range teleportation spell.

Spike and Twilight’s eyes narrowed as they could just barely pick up the sound of crazed female laughter. Laughter that sounded awfully familiar to them...

He moved closer to Twilight who responded in kind as they held each other for safety. It was here that the reflections abruptly disappeared and were replaced with green tinted copies of Cadance’s narrowed eye. They soon backed up to show Cadance’s entire face while Twilight and Spike stared back, transfixed.

“These are more than simple caverns. These are the caves beneath Canterlot of course,” came a reply from their resident alicorn bride as she stared up at nothing in particular. “Once home to greedy unicorns who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside.” Spike would have been salivating at the prospect of gems but the situation at hand had silenced that instinct.

Her image within the crystal faded away, causing the pair to close in to each other for support.

“And now…” she stated dramatically as her reflection reappeared in the crystal wall behind them. “…your prison.” The giant visage then faded away with a departing nasty laugh before reappearing on a crystalline rock formation behind them.

She had noticed their feeble attempts to escape and burst into a renewed hysterical fit as she watched as each attempt was met with the failure she'd been expecting.

“It’s no use,” she smirked, reappearing in a crystal formation all around them. “No one can hear you, and no one will ever think to look for you either.” The two watched as she faded away and then reappeared overhead. “Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans.”

Her laughter had only become even more maniacal with that statement. However, she failed to notice that both Spike and Twilight were pouring over a document, a quill in hand.

“Sincerely, Spike and Twilight Sparkle,” Spike finished as he wrote both his and Twilight’s names at the bottom of the parchment.

The illusion blinked at their words as she watched the scroll vanish in the green flames. She stared at where the parchment had disappeared to the dragon and unicorn and back. This sequence continued for several seconds as she tried to figure out just what had happened.

She stared as the dragon burped a small blast of green flame and from the ashes was a scroll that the dragon then unfurled and read aloud for all to hear.

“I’m coming,” he read to a relieved Twilight. A few seconds later, a part of the ceiling caved in. The three watched in surprise as a midnight blue alicorn descended upon them, teal eyes narrowed in suspicion while surveying the area.

The illusion, realizing that her plan was as good as foiled, vanished before the Princess of the Night realized what had happened.

“Young Spike, Twilight Sparkle. Are you both okay?” she asked, her sharp eyes scanning them both for any injuries before scanning the area for any threats.

“We’re both okay. We’ve only been here for a few minutes I believe,” Spike replied. “But how were you able to find us so quickly?”

“I used your dragon fire spell to track you down here. But pray tell, how did you two end up down here in the first place? These caves have been sealed for centuries?” Princess Luna asked curiously.

“We were captured and thrown in here by Cadance,” Twilight explained. Luna’s eyes went wide before sinking into contemplation as she mulled the words over. However, her thoughts grinded to a halt when she sensed a powerful magic source nearby. As far as she could tell, there could really only be one thing that could be the source of such a powerful magic.

Narrowing her eyes, she aimed her horn at the source and let loose a powerful burst of magic. Twilight and Spike exchanged a surprised look when the alicorn that had just been tormenting them was found behind the crystal formation. The pair, in the righteous fury, had made to rush at her to attack the pink alicorn but before they could so much as move, Luna had already caught them in her magical grip.

“Hold,” she said simply as she trotted forward to the presently terrified and rather heavily injured alicorn but remained still lest any sudden movements set her off.

Luna, for her part, simply connected her horn to Cadance’s forehead and Luna then saw everything from the ambush to the subsequent imprisonment.

“So that’s how it is Cadenza?” Luna asked grimly. “You were also attacked and imprisoned down here while an imposter took on your appearance as a disguise.”

“Auntie Luna,” Cadance hugged her aunt who hugged in her back in kind. Twilight and Spike watched on; one in shock and the other with a small smile on his face.

Luna explained how she had been able to sense Cadance’s magical signature which allowed her to free her niece. To test whether she was real, Luna had been able to use a variation of her dream walking spell to peer into Cadance’s memories. Given that her memories had shown her that her niece had been attacked, imprisoned and her identity essentially stolen, Luna had been able to rescue her niece while also being able to determine their threat against Canterlot.

“Come,” she gestured to her companions. “We must make haste and Cadenza will require a great deal of treatment before we investigate this further. We shall continue this on the morrow.”

All of them found themselves in Luna’s magic as she mass teleported them back to Canterlot Castle. It had been decided between the four of them that they would confront the imposter tomorrow since the real Cadance still needed medical attention.

“If anypony should see any reason why these two should not be wed, please speak now or forever hold your peace,” Princess Celestia intoned, glancing over to her little ponies while waiting for anypony to respond.

Silence reigned as they all glanced at each other, wondering why anybody would want to split up such a couple.

And then…

“Stop!”

The crowd gasped. Princess Celestia and five bridesmaids stared as they spotted their friend, Spike, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance standing at the entrance to the altar.

Wait. What?!

Two Princess Cadances!?

What in Equestria was going on here?

These were all questions that were rushing through everyponies minds as they took in the scene before them.

“That Cadance is an imposter!” Spike exclaimed, pointing an accusatory hoof at the Cadance standing next to Shining Armor. Well that certainly gave the scene some context at the very least.

“Do you have any proof to support your claim?” asked the Solar Diarch, an eyebrow arched curiously.

“Allow me, sister,” Luna turned to Cadance who nodded in turn. Luna lit up her horn and touched it to Cadance’s forehead. The whole room watched as this Cadance was attacked by a creature in black before being imprisoned and the attacker assuming her form.

The entire crowd gasped while the fake Cadance began to laugh. It was not the musical laugh that they’d come to expect from their resident Princess of Love.

No this laugh bellied maniacally malevolent intentions. This was confirmed a moment later when she began to transform. The beautiful pink alicorn they had thought was the Princess of Love had then turned an inky black riddled with holes. Even the horn had holes.

Spike couldn’t help but compare her to a really rotten wheel of Swiss cheese.

Silence reigned as her dark green mane billowed dramatically against some nonexistent breeze. Everybody present was either terrified or disgusted by her appearance or amazed by her dramatic entrance.

“Okay,” Spike began, breaking the tense silence as every eye turned to look at him. “I’ll ask if no one else will; who are you?”

“I am Chrysalis: the Queen of the Changelings!” she started dramatically. Without waiting for an interruption, she continued. “And as queen, it is my duty to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than anyplace I’ve ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!”

“Wait a minute,” said Spike abruptly as Chrysalis turned to stare at him. “You said that changelings feed off love right?” Chrysalis nodded, wondering what point Spike was trying to raise here. He then turned to Chrysalis, a question on his lips.

“Does it matter what kind of love it happens to be?” Spike asked. “I mean if you think about it, if you love your subjects enough to be willing to go through all this trouble then wouldn’t that be enough to sustain you? So why bother attacking Canterlot in the first place? Wouldn’t changelings be able to survive from the love of their queen?”

“While that I do care for my subjects, the fact remains that I am the only queen of my hive and any love I might have would not be enough to sustain them. If they do not get enough sustenance via love during their youth, they become feral changelings which are much more dangerous than normal changelings. This is why I’m invading Canterlot.”

“Even still, that still doesn’t explain why you would invade Canterlot at all,” Spike frowned. “Wouldn’t it just make more sense to take on the form of a pony and absorb love that way? Why bother with an invasion of Equestria.”

“It’s not like we haven’t tried simply blending into the crowd,” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “The only problem being that the rest of my subjects are only capable of absorbing love and wouldn’t survive if we simply blended into the crowd through our disguises. Besides,” Chrysalis added thoughtfully, “I think ponies would be quite alarmed to find ponies giving birth to changelings. They would probably be rounded up and studied like insects.”

The last word was spat like a venom. Spike couldn’t help but flinch away as she actually spat acid out of her mouth, causing the red carpet to fizzle as it frayed.

“Okay, so if you invade Canterlot then that might solve the experimenting problem but wouldn’t that also defeat the purpose of invading in the first place?” At Chyrsalis’s confused expression, Spike continued. “If you invaded and successfully took over Equestria, the love would dry up since ponies would be fleeing. Even if you rounded them up and locked them up, it’s not like love, real love, anyway is something that you can force. You would be ruling everypony with fear and that’s not even considering the likelihood of whether or not they could trust their special somepony yet alone love them.”

He paused for a second before adding the afterthought, “And that’s not even taking into the possibility that ponies might be afraid of falling in love since they don’t know if the pony that they’re attracted to are really who they claim they are given a changeling’s ability to take on anypony’s appearance at will.”

While Chrysalis was scrambling for a comeback, Spike decided to take charge.

“So going back to what you were saying about love; like I asked before, does it really matter just what kind of love you feed on?”

“As far as I can tell, not really,” Chrysalis shrugged, relieved for the change in topic. “I mean, it’s not like everybody in Equestria has a special someone and even then, those acts tend to be rather private. But it’s like I said, Equestria is so full of love that feeding off of it can only make us stronger. But the main importance is that a mutual relationship of some sort is formed between two or more ponies in this case.”

“So like friendship?” Twilight couldn’t help but speak up, finding herself fascinated by the topic of conversation.

“Exactly,” Chrysalis nodded. “That’s is, in essence, the seed that fosters the love that we feed on for survival. Think about it: while there are, of course, the romanticized cases in which two ponies fall in love with each other at first sight, more often than not, those types of feelings tend to be nurtured over time through bonds of friendship that then evolve into those of a romantic love. In the end, that’s what changelings feed off of to survive.” She paused for a moment to collect the rest of her thoughts before continuing. “But there is also the love between a mother and her foal that is possible as well but that’s not important for the purposes of this discussion.”

“So it sounds like the changelings have been suffering from a famine because where they live probably does not have a lot of love to sustain themselves,” Twilight surmised.

“I should also point out that we don’t actually drain love from a body,” Chrysalis added helpfully, “nor do we make an attempts to deprive any love they may have between them and their significant other.”

“So then how do you justify the mind control spell that you put on Shining Armor?” Twilight asked sharply. “If you weren’t feeding off his love then how do you explain that?”

“I cast that spell so that my changeling army could break through the barrier,” Chrysalis shrugged. “Mind control isn’t exactly a changeling exclusive art. Hypnosis, which is a variation of it, is often used in psychologist’s offices to help break certain habits or to deal with various long term conditions.” She paused, “Plus I’ve seen stage hypnosis being used to for entertainment purposes. What I did to Shining Armor was simply induce him into an altered state of consciousness while suggesting he weaken the barrier. It’s a relatively simple spell that a moderately powerful unicorn can cast but is heavily dependent on the recipient’s mental defenses against such things.”

“So when we’re talking about how changelings feed on love,” Spike continued, changing the subject as to stay on point with the main focus of the conversation, “are we talking about the altered state of conscious also known as the and I quote this from a neuroscience journal that featured this topic “the only acceptable kind of madness in today’s society” unquote or is it the series of chemical interactions that lead to the outward displays of affection? Or is it just the displays of affection that allows you sustenance.” Several chuckles met this statement as several ponies felt their muzzles quirk up in a smile despite the extenuating circumstances.

“It’s more of a combination of all of those to be honest,” Chrysalis admitted, frowning thoughtfully. “If you stop to think about it...love is not exactly something that is easily separated down to a definitive empirical form. It’s a symbiotic relationship and the mutual affection shared between two or more mates that causes love to manifest. For full disclosure, we changelings can tell when there’s love in the air by detecting the serotonin and dopamine levels in the air around populated areas,” she finished. “The higher the concentration, the quicker we are able to replenish ourselves.”

“Food for thought,” Spike mused before looking up Chrysalis again. “So going back to the types of love; does it matter what proportion of commitment, intimacy, and passion or if we were to go into broader terms: could this be like passionate versus consummate type love?”

“Not really,” Chrysalis replied, “I suppose love is a little too general for how us changelings nourish ourselves. The general idea is this...”

She had conjured a chalkboard and several pieces of chalk and drew out a standard earth pony nervous and endocrine system.

“So the brain,” she pointed to said organ, “produces signals that essentially promotes the synthesis of various neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and hormones. These three chemicals help libido, attachment, and partner preference. Those are regulated by other hormones like vasopressin or dopamine that are released in other parts of the endocrine system to regulate how much is released of the initial chemical is released.” She pointed to the respective glands responsible for secreting the aforementioned chemicals to help illustrate the point she was trying to make. “Those in turn help stimulate the sensations and the signs that we come to associate with ‘love’.”

“So are you telling me that when you feed on a pony’s love,” Spike began as he and Twilight looked over the diagram while the latter was scribbling everything she could get down on her notepad. “Are you in fact just feeding on these chemicals you’re talking about? And how does a changeling digestive system even metabolize love in the first place given that it’s an emotion that is felt?”

Chrysalis sighed. It was back to the drawing board with this one.

It was half an hour later, most ponies eyes had glazed over while Chrysalis, Spike, Twilight and Cadance were all huddled over what looked to be a schematic diagram of a changeling digestive system.

“So the love along with pheromones that are secreted from a pony is absorbed through special pores in a changeling’s chitin coat,” Chrysalis lectured as she pointed to the pores in question. “This love, through a series of several anabolic processes fueled by constant glycogen degradation, allows for the formation of glucose or one of its isomers which goes through glycolysis and later the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation to produce the energy that we use to survive.” She shrugged, stating that it really wasn’t all that different from a pony’s metabolic systems. The main difference being that instead of eating actual food, love was their main source of sustenence.

“Okay well that actually makes a lot more sense than I thought it would,” Spike mused aloud. Twilight and Cadance couldn’t help but nod in agreement. He turned to Chrysalis a thoughtful look on his face.

“So based on the way you’ve described all of this it all seems for the most part harmless,” Spike began carefully, while wondering if he would come to regret his next decision. “Let’s do a quick thought experiment; I want you to feed on my love for my friends and I’ll report my experience with it.”

Everybody present had immediately shot down the idea but Spike remained firm. He needed to prove that the changelings were not anywhere near as dangerous as they were out to be.

Besides, Chrysalis was already surrounded by her worst possible foes anyway: namely, the wielders of the elements of harmony and three princesses of Equestria. Between the nine of them, she would have been lucky to escape without getting her yet alone trying to fight them all.

With everybody keep their disagreement to themselves, Spike turned back to Chrysalis while awaiting instructions.

“Just open a claw and I will take care of the rest,” Chrysalis told him, still reeling by the idea that anybody would willingly let her feed on their love. Spike obeyed, while also closing his large green eyes.

All those present watched with bated breath as light purple aura radiated from Spike’s hand and toward Chrysalis’s mouth. Chrysalis opted to feed for little more than a few seconds lest anybody get the wrong idea and try to stop her. Spike had, for the most part, remained still until Chrysalis have finished.

“It didn’t really feel like anything Twilight. I don’t feel any different than I did going in and I didn’t feel anything while she fed,” Spike shrugged.

Twilight looked between Chrysalis and Spike warily before trotting forward and offering herself as a test subject. She wasn’t entirely convinced that Chrysalis was being honest and followed Spike’s lead as Chrysalis repeated the process and much to Twilight’s surprise had the same reaction as Spike.

“Well you certainly weren’t lying Spike,” Twilight admitted. “But that still leaves us at a standstill of what we can do. I mean, we know the problem and we have some useful background information about changelings and how they operate but we’ve yet to figure out a viable solution for this problem.”

“It seems pretty simple to me,” Spike replied. “If what the Queen said is true about how our perception of love is produced through those chemicals she was talking about, couldn't we make a synthetic one in a science lab?”

Twilight’s face turned contemplative as she considered the idea. A love made from concentrate.

“It’s definitely something worth looking into,” Twilight admitted. She turned to Chrysalis. “But I’m going to need your help in making this. Especially since changelings are more attuned to love than ponies are.”

“Very well,” Chrysalis nodded. “I look forward to working with you.”

“Also, I think it would definitely been great PR for changelings as a whole for some of them to also join the Royal Guard under Princess Luna since her division deals more with stealth and scouting new areas so you maybe your subjects would have an easier time making friends with them,” Spike added much to Luna’s surprise.

Admittedly, she may have not cared much for the changelings prior to her banishment. They had mostly kept to themselves during that time. That they hadn’t really done anything noteworthy during her banishment didn’t at least worsen her opinion of them.

Spike and Twilight smiled as they shook claw or hoof with Chrysalis.

It was definitely the start of a beautiful friendship.

Author's Note

Apologies about how long this took to write. Truthfully, I had written three different versions of this chapter but was still not satisfied before I just scrapped them and decided to start from scratch. I also had to do a bit of research regarding some of the science discussed in this chapter. And that's not even taking into the fact that I've been out of town and Wifi has been hard to come by as of late.

Ranting aside, this was probably the hardest yet the most entertaining chapter for me to write thus far if only because Chrysalis has a legitimate reason for her invasion (definitely more altruistic compared to the other villains we've seen) and so it's more challenging to write it in a way that doesn't end with either Chrysalis and her changelings being blasted by magic or with Chrysalis taking over Equestria. That's also not taking into account that Chrysalis wasn't the only concern but Twilight as well given how she handled things in the episodes in question. Since we're working with the theme of talking is magic, I decided to add the Twilight segment if only to act as a lead into the Chrysalis segment.

I hope you all enjoyed it.

Sombra's segment is next.

The Light in the Darkness

Twilight, Spike, and their friends had just discovered some very important information about the Crystal Fair and were heading back to Shining Armor and Princess Cadance to tell them what they’d learned so that they could set it up right away.

Spike, the resident baby dragon and Twilight’s number 1 assistant, had been following them, just as excited as his pony friends about the fair along with his role in said fair.

Namely the Royal Jester.

However, before he could take another step, he’d felt a strange feeling come over him. It wasn’t quite like being watched but that was a close comparison. Really, the best way to describe it was a like a wave of unease that stole over him. He then felt the inexplicable need to return to the bookshelf where they had found the book about the Crystal Fair. He'd tried to ignore it by simply following after his friends but as he continued his trek, his unease began to grow.

I doubt Twilight will mind much if I tell her that I’m just checking to make sure we hadn’t left anything behind. Spike mused about his studious unicorn friend as he told her that he wanted to check something really quickly. Twilight had offered no resistance as he turned tail and moved back to the table to check for any missing or important items. Sure enough, the table was devoid of anything remotely useful to their quest. That said, Spike suddenly felt a very strong pull.

Turning around, Spike felt the pull tighten as though it might pull his lungs out of his chest. It had reached almost painful levels when he noticed a wall with a glowing glyph on it.

Curiosity piqued, Spike stepped toward it and touched it. To his surprise, the wall slid open to reveal a secret study. The first thing he’d noticed was the multitude of busts of King Sombra’s head that were kept in there. The second were the bookshelves loaded with ancient books. And lastly, there was a lone book resting atop a desk.

As Spike stepped closer to the book on the desk, he’d noticed more details about the book in question: namely it had no title, was leather bound, and looked to be really old.

What he hadn’t noticed was the currently unconscious unicorn mare that was apparently fast asleep on the desk in front of the book. Naturally, when he noticed her, it caught him off guard and had made him take several steps back.

However, his gasp was enough for her to stir in her sleep and soon awaken. The two had then stared at each other for several seconds, blinking in tandem.

“Who are you?” They both asked in unison as they continued to stare at each other.

“I’m Spike,” said the young dragon.

“Radiant Hope, a pleasure to meet you,” replied the crystal unicorn with a small smile.

The two simply stared for another few seconds. During that time, Spike managed to get a good look at her before Radiant Hope decided to break the tension and take the initiative.

She was a crystal pony much like every other pony he and his friends had met ever since coming to the Crystal Empire. Her coat was a dark blue with her mane and tail a lighter shade of blue. He had noticed that her cutie mark was that of caduceus.

Whatever that was.

“There must be something special about you to be able to open the door to this room,” she told him. “Only a chosen few are able to gain access to this room.” Spike had blinked at that. All he’d done was touch a glyph that then allowed him access. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't really anything special about him. However, when he told her that, she simply shook her head.

“A really powerful curse was placed on that glyph which prevents just anypony from being able to activate it. That alone tells me that there’s something special about you. Maybe… just maybe, you might be the one that will be able to do it,” Hope told him. Spike was more inclined to think that his immunity to darker magic was what allowed him to dispel the curse without getting hurt but let her think whatever she wanted to believe. That said, he did want to know one thing.

“Do what exactly?”

“Rescue Sombra,” she stated. When she noticed Spike’s incredulous stare, she continued, “Sombra wasn’t always the tyrannical king that he was known as when the empire disappeared 1000 years ago. In fact,” she paused, wondering whether telling this next bit would help things before ultimately throwing caution to the wind. “He and I were best friends before all of this happened.”

Upon hearing that, Spike’s first inclination was to run and get back to the others but then he remembered one of the friendship reports Twilight had dictated to him to send to Princess Celestia: I’ve learned that sometimes the solutions to your problems can come from where you least expect it. It’s a good idea to stop and listen to your friends’ perspectives even if they don’t always seem to make sense.

I can at least give her the benefit of the doubt. Spike thought. Besides, Princess Luna always said that if you know yourself and your foe then you hold the key to victory and it worked for Discord and Chrysalis too!

“You’re going to have to explain this to me,” Spike told her carefully. “The only things I know about Sombra was that he ruled the Crystal Empire a thousand years ago and that he enslaved the crystal ponies.”

“Very well,” Hope nodded, looking as though she was ready to go into battle. Her horn began to glow with a sky blue aura as the mysterious book on the desk began to flip open, quickly flipping through the pages before settling on a single page to begin.

“It all begins here…” she began as her horn lit up more brightly.

Spike felt himself feeling that same pull that had ultimately brought him into the study as both he and Hope were pulled into the book itself. If nothing else, Spike was certain that he wouldn’t be leaving the room empty handed as he felt himself lose consciousness.

* * *

When Spike came to, he found himself and Hope standing outside the Crystal Empire with an unconscious colt being led to an orphanage by a pair of crystal guards.

“This was Sombra as a young colt,” Hope explained. “Sombra was the only word that he uttered when he came to so that became his name. He had never bothered correcting it later.” The two watched as Sombra was placed in the care of a pony called Chestnut Falls and it had been decided that Sombra would live at the orphanage as well as attend the local school.

Spike watched in fascination as the scene changed to show Sombra at the local school. Hope had explained that he had picked up the language quite quickly even if his speaking mannerisms were a bit awkward. That said, he had since been alienated by his peers because of that as well as his lack of a cutie mark as Hope had explained.

Now why does that sound familiar? Spike thought as his mind briefly drifted to three fillies who’d also been alienated by bullies in their class. In the end, they had found solace with each other and had formed a group in an attempt to discover their special talents.

Shaking his head, Spike watched as he noticed the filly Hope approach Sombra and invite him to play with her and her pixie friends. She had explained that they had treated her much the same way because she was apparently too weird as well. Eager to accept her invitation, the two had started to play together despite becoming more alienated from their peers. Neither cared as long as they had each other.

“If you want, you can be weird with me and we’ll be weird together. Would that be okay?” That had been the initial basis for their friendship. Hope had just offered a couple words of advice but the mare next to Spike had explained that Sombra hadn’t cared as he appreciated her vast imagination.

Spike watched as Sombra and Hope grew closer as friends and continued play numerous games together ranging from playing knights and dragons, to other improvised games in which only they knew the rules. Spike had begun to laugh as they argued over some of the rules much like he’d seen fillies and colts back in Ponyville argue when they didn’t agree on what the rules ought to be.

The scenes changed as Spike watched them collect gems into their mini dragon bank.

He couldn't quite control his drooling as he watched the two young ponies depositing their gems into the small toy dragon bank.

“I wanted to take Sombra with me to the Crystal Fair: the greatest celebration in all of Equestria,” Hope explained to Spike as her filly self showed Sombra several books featuring the topic. “The whole point of the Crystal Fair was to restore to spirit of love and unity so that we can protect it from harm. I think that helped pique Sombra’s fascination with the fair.”

“It sounds like it would be a lot fun,” Spike agreed. The way that his friends had described their potential booths, it certain sounded that this upcoming would definitely be an event to remember.

“Hurry up Sombra!” Hope yelled as she took the lead as she led her friend to the empire’s sacred relic.

“I’m coming!” Sombra was panting and sweating as he came to a stop next to his energetic friend, catching his breath. By the time that he’d managed to catch it, Hope had already started gazing into the crystal heart’s depths with Sombra following her lead.

“They say that if you gaze into the depths of the Crystal Heart, you will have visions of a possible future for yourself,” Hope explained to a confused Spike as they watched the two young ponies stare into the relic's depths. “I saw myself as a princess so naturally I was excited. But Sombra…” Spike moved toward the image of Sombra and managed to catch a glimpse of the colt’s possible future. The heart had shown him as an evil being of darkness leading an army of dark creatures on a siege. Sombra was clearly shaken by the experience.

It was then that a tall unicorn, Princess Amore, had approached them. The two had immediately bowed until she had commanded that they rise. The tall mare looked between the young ponies and the crystal heart before returning her gaze to her subjects, a gentle smile on her face as she addressed them.

“You know,” she began, catching both ponies’ attention. “They say that the crystal heart possesses magical properties. It reflects what’s in your heart.” That much was obvious if the fact that it was the relic that restored the many protections that allowed for the Crystal Empire’s continued existence.

“So does that mean that what we saw will actually happen?” asked Hope eagerly. “Because I saw myself as princess!” The mare that stood next to Spike silently shook her head. She had been so naive at that time.

“It might,” replied Princess Amore with a gentle smile, “I’ve personally taken what the Crystal Heart has shown me with a grain of salt. I’ve been a firm believer that we have the power to control our own fates.” She then turned to Sombra, “So Sombra, Hope tells me that she saw herself as a princess. What did you see when you looked into the heart?”

“Nothing.” Sombra replied quietly. Princess Amore arched an eyebrow as she held Sombra’s gaze.

“Nothing?” She asked gently.

“Just... some darkness like my shadow or something,” he admitted, casting a sidelong look at an oblivious Hope who was still riding an endorphin high from the prospect that she might be able to become a princess.

“That moment was probably the first hint that something was wrong,” Hope told Spike. “That vision that Sombra saw depicted him much as he is now. And I was too foolish to see it and help him because I was so caught up in my own foalish dream of becoming a princess!” She stomped a hoof on the crystal road.

“That’s not really something either of you could have predicted,” Spike protested. “I mean you both were still just a filly and colt and there was no way either of you could have known what that meant especially during that time. Besides,” he added, “the fact that you’re trying to do everything you can to rescue him makes me think that you’re making up for it.”

The two exchanged a brief smile before Hope’s smile melted into a more solemn expression.

“Unfortunately,” Hope began sadly as the scene transitioned into the dawn of the day of the Crystal Fair. The pair watched as a filly Hope barged into Sombra’s room insisting that he wake up. Her yelling had the additional effect of causing him to fall out of the bed. She had hustled him into movement but frowned when she didn't hear him following her.

“I can’t move my legs,” Sombra told her, grimacing in pain as he tried in vain to curl up in hopes of at least alleviating it.

It had turned out that Sombra was unable to move at all and had been bedridden the entire fair much to the mutual disappointment of both Hope and Sombra. Ms. Chestnut Falls had brought in a physician to look Sombra over but could not for the life of him find anything wrong with him no matter what sort of physical or psychiatric exam he could come up with, Sombra’s exam results came back normal or within normal limits for a unicorn of his build.

In the end, Sombra had been told to stay in bed and hopefully sleep it off. Hope had opted to forgo the festival and stay by Sombra’s side. She had told him that she probably wouldn't have had as much fun without him anyway. Sombra had appreciated the sentiment but the guilt that it was because of him that Hope wasn't attending the festivities weighed heavily on the colt's mind.

“There’s always next year,” she told him as he expressed his regret that he couldn’t go with her to the Fair.

The scene changed to show that the day after, Sombra had returned to full strength as if the ordeal hadn’t happened which in and of itself was quite unusual. However, neither had really questioned it and had simply gone through as normal. But every year on that day, Sombra would be bedridden for no apparent reason and it was clear that whatever his condition was, was weighing on his mind especially since it was because of him that Hope never got to go to the fair since they'd become friends.

One year on the day of the fair, Sombra’s condition worsened to a point to where his body had begun to crystallize, much to Spike’s surprise. Ponies typically did not make a point of crystallize and being friends with Twilight had made him privy to most pony diseases. Admittedly, his knowledge was nowhere near as extensive as Twilight’s but he could safely say that he’d never heard of a condition that caused somepony to turn to crystal. Desperate to save her only friend, Hope had lit up her horn and pumped out as much magic as she possibly could. The end result being that Sombra’s body had been restored and that Hope had finally earned her cutie mark: a caduceus and thus discovering her talent in healing any injury or ailment. Hope had found herself in Sombra’s forehooves as he hugged her tightly, a gentle smile on his face.

The scene shifted to a later point in time in which Hope had just finished telling Sombra about the princesses’s invitation to study with them in Canterlot. In response, Sombra had only run off.

“I don’t get it,” Spike frowned as he and Hope watched Sombra run off. “Why would Sombra run off like that? Shouldn’t he have been happy for you.”

“I’m sure that a part of him was happy for me,” said Hope carefully, “but you also have to keep in mind his position at the time: I was the only friend he had and he was the only friend I had at that time as well. The fact that I was most likely going to be leaving him behind to study in Canterlot hadn’t boded well for him. I also think that he thought that this would be the first step that would lead to my becoming a princess which would make his only destiny come true.”

Spike was dubious but decided to take Hope at her word. After all, she knew Sombra better than anypony around did.

The scene shifted once again where Sombra slowed to a stop into the frozen wasteland outside the empire. There, he ran into a strange red crystal claiming to be his “mother” and revealing that he was not in fact a pony.

“What do you mean?” Sombra asked dubiously, eyes transfixed on the pulsing red crystal. “I look and act like a pony. How can I possibly be anything else?”

“Haven’t you ever wondered,” the crystal asked, ignoring his question, “just why you were never able to attend the Crystal Fair?” That caught Sombra off guard as the crystal began to explain his true origins.

Apparently, Sombra was an umbrum: a shadow and smoke given physical form.

“You were created from the darkness to destroy the Crystal Heart which is Princess Amore’s weapon against the darkness and to set the umbrum army that rests beneath the army free,” it told him. That talk had then awakened Sombra’s dormant powers as he took on the more familiar appearance Spike had encountered through the busts of Sombra’s head.

“But… Hope,” Sombra had tried to protest when the crystal had given him an ultimatum: if he did not remove the Crystal Heart by the next Crystal Fair, said relic would destroy him. Sombra wasn’t the only one shocked by this ultimatum. Spike and Hope had both been caught off guard by the revelation.

Sombra’s only bothering with this because he wants to survive. He didn’t want to lose his friend and he wanted to see the Crystal Fair. But because of who he was and the life that he’d led up to that point, that had become a near impossible feat. Spike realized as he processed the ultimatum.

In any case, the pair watched as Sombra snuck under the cover of darkness to steal the Crystal Heart. Unfortunately, he didn’t get far before Princess Amore confronted him, trying to persuade him to not steal the empire’s key protection source while having admitted to knowing just what he was all along. That had enraged Sombra as he believed that the Princess had knowingly caused Sombra years of pain. As a result, he had turned her into a black crystal statue, much to Spike’s surprise. He’d never heard of anypony being strong enough to be able to turn them into stone without the element of harmony at least.

It was here that Radiant Hope had appeared, horrified by what her friend had done and had pleaded for him to stop.

“I knew that at that point, Sombra was past reason. I knew that by that point, I needed to warn the princesses,” Hope told Spike as they watched her other self refuse Sombra’s invitation to rule by his side. The refusal had caused her to destroy Princess Amore’s statue and scatter the fragments across the world so that she couldn’t be restored in time to try to stop him.

While Radiant Hope had sent word to the Princesses, Sombra had enslaved the crystal ponies and released the umbrum army that had been locked away beneath the city.

“Of course,” Hope added as they spotted Celestia and Luna confronting Sombra, “he knew that his defeat was inevitable so he enacted a terrible curse that caused the empire to disappear.”

Spike watched in shock as both Luna and Celestia were thrown out of the empire while Sombra had been knocked out cold.

* * *

“And now Sombra is back and wants to finish what he started,” Hope concluded. “He wants to rule all of Equestria and he needs to be stopped before that can happen.”

“He needs to realize that not everypony was responsible for what had happened to him,” Spike told her. “He can’t punish everypony for the actions of the few that had tormented him when he was a colt.”

“Indeed,” Hope nodded. “But I’m still certain that the Sombra that I knew and loved is still in there somewhere and I’m not giving up until he’s returned.”

“Well, I know that my friends are currently setting up a Crystal Fair to help the ponies here,” Spike offered. Hope told him that they would need to find the Crystal Heart as that was the central relic that powered the empire’s defenses.

“It’s actually hidden somewhere in the Crystal Castle. Sombra created a door that led to his own personal castle where he kept the Crystal Heart but if you decide to go after it, be careful, he has set up some curses to… dissuade those who would try to steal it back from him,” Hope warned. She had gone on to explain some of the protections surrounding the sacred relic. The most prominent were the door that forced whoever was perusing the relic to experience their own worst fears come to life and the second being a curse that sealed a unicorn’s magic when the Crystal Heart was removed from its place.

Forget the test. Spike thought defiantly. As far as he was concerned, this test was nothing more than a dumb farce. When ponies’ lives where on the line then all bets were off as far as he was concerned.

But he still needed to tell this piece of information to his friends. They needed to know this so that they could make the preparations.

“Thanks for all your help... Radiant?” Spike paused, looking around and noticing that his unicorn acquaintance had since disappeared. He scanned the room once more before taking his own leave.

* * *

Which leads us to now.

Having found the crystal heart, Spike and Twilight had made to escape and get the heart to the fair. Unfortunately, it was not quite that simply given that the latter had knocked the relic off its pedestal which activated several black stalagmites to emerge from the ground and trapping Twilight inside.

Her first thought was to use a standard teleport spell to escape.

And it worked! Except not really…

Sombra obvious had good foresight on such a thing given that the magic in the stalagmites reacted with Twilight’s horn and pulled her back inside.

Realizing that she was trapped and there wasn’t enough time for her to come up with a way to escape without putting the safety of the empire in danger, she knew what she had to do.

“You have to be the one to take the Crystal Heart to the fair,” Twilight told him.

Spike didn’t bother trying to argue, there wasn’t enough time anyway, so he did what anybody would do in such a situation.

Namely, he grabbed said relic and jump out a window. He also ran as fast as his small legs would carry him.

He was just lucky that there was already a spire right outside the tower for him to use to get back to the plaza. However, that was where his luck ended as he spotted Sombra practically flying at him with his blood red eyes homing in on relic.

In his panic to avoid the umbrum though, Spike had lost his grip on the relic and had fallen off the tower. In his desperate attempt to save himself, Spike tried to reduce his surface area to increase his speed so that he could grab the Crystal Heart before Sombra could.

It was right here that several things happened at once: both Spike and Sombra had managed to touch the crystal heart which triggered a reaction within the relic, pulling them both inside much to the surprise of everypony present.

* * *

When Spike came to, he blinked when he found himself in what looked to be a royal sitting room on par with those he’d seen in Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s sitting rooms. He could see the numerous comfortable looking chairs and the high ceilings that seemed to go on forever. The only major difference between them being was that unlike the Canterlot castle sitting rooms, this one was made up of pure crystal.

Being a dragon, Spike’s first instinct was to either eat everything or hoard it all for himself. The remembrance of what had nearly happened on his birthday was enough to dissuade him from hoarding it. As for the former…

Spike had tried a few crystals in the past and while they smelled nice and looked pretty they didn’t taste all that great to him.

Okay, that wasn't entirely true. Still, they certainly weren't rubies...

Frowning at the thought of having nothing to do. He was alone in this room, he suddenly found a tray with three cups of what smelled like piping hot tea along with a few biscuits sitting in a small container next to them. His stomach had stopped his thought process from questioning just where this had all come from as he’d been certain they hadn’t been there moments before.

However, before he could so much as pick up the cup or sample some of the delicious smelling biscuits, the young dragon could hear the sound of clattering hooves nearby. Looking up, he found himself more than a little taken aback when he saw the familiar face of Radiant Hope. What he didn’t expect was the pony that was with her.

More accurately, the umbrum that was with her.

Yes, King Sombra was in their wake. However, Spike, much to his relief, couldn’t help but notice that he seemed weaker in this place. That much was obvious by the fact that the tyrannical king hadn’t tried to attack him for stealing the Crystal Heart. The young dragon wasn’t sure if it was because of the power of the Crystal that weakened him enough to reduce him to such a state or if it was something else but he didn’t get a chance to think on it for much longer when Hope spoke up.

“Couldn’t be bothered with waiting for us, could you Spike?” she smiled wanly at him. Spike fidgeted while smiling sheepishly. Despite everything that had happened ever since he and Twilight had moved to Ponyville, Spike had, at his core, been a baby dragon and still had some semblance of childlike instincts in his psyche.

“Sorry Hope,” Spike replied apologetically. Hope, for her part, had merely shaken her head at him in amusement as she forcibly lead Sombra to an armchair and despite his protests as shown by his growls and snarls, she pushed him head first into said chair, however, she hadn’t accounted for how strong she was and the excess force exerted from her push had caused the chair to tip over. The king had soon followed with a rather spectacular faceplant worthy of a king of his stature.

Hope, at least, had the gall to look apologetic about her actions. Spike, on the other hand, held no such qualms at his almost childlike laughter echoed almost eerily across the hall as he fell off his own seat and clutched his small belly in a vain hope to stem the amusement from Sombra’s accident.

* * *

Now found the three of them properly seated in their respective chairs, a cup of tea close by while they munched on a plate of biscuits.

Spike sighed. He really didn’t like having such awkward silences and wished for nothing more than for Pinkie to burst in out of nowhere and break the abrupt silences with a party or music or anything really. He actually paused for a few seconds in the vain hope that it could possibly happen.

This was Pinkie Pie after all.

A few moments passed and Spike had to concede defeat. His friends had no means of rescuing them and he was on his own.

Well… since I’m here I might as well talk to Sombra. Spike thought. Maybe I can get his side of the story so if nothing else, I can at least understand him a little bit better.

“Why?” Spike asked, staring at Sombra.

Sombra finished off his biscuit before wiping his mouth daintily with a napkin before leveling Spike with a shrewd look.

“You’ll have to be more specific, dragon,” Sombra spoke coherently for the first time. “Why is but a single word with an open ended meaning that could be referring to any one of the many things that I have done during my life.”

Spike sighed. "First off, I have a name. It's Spike. Anyway, I don’t understand why you went through all the trouble of enslaving the Crystal Empire.” He paused. “Okay, that not entirely true. I can empathize with you about being different just by nature.” He gestured down at himself. “I’m a dragon that lives among ponies while you’re an umbrum that lives among ponies.”

“Granted, Sombra’s main disadvantages happen to be his speech patterns as well as his lack of a cutie mark,” Hope supplied helpfully. She pointedly ignored her friend’s glare as she maintained eye contact with Spike. “He didn’t even know that he was an umbrum himself until he’d grown much older and had become a stallion.”

Hope couldn’t help but blush a little as she said the next bit. “An attractive stallion.”

That had caught Sombra off guard.

Hope thinks I’m… attractive? He thought, staring at the unicorn mare in equal parts shock and wonder. Spike had to fight back a smile as he watched Sombra become more and more flustered in an ironic shift in character. However, the blushing was not meant to last as the red eyed stallion had quickly regained his composure despite Hope’s adorable pouting silently demanding otherwise.

Shaking his head, Spike decided to get the conversation back on what little track it had started with, “So going back to the dragon living among ponies bit.” He bit back a smile as he saw Sombra leaning in to listen to him. “I can relate because like I said before, I’m a dragon that lives among ponies ever since birth. Just because of the fact that I’m a dragon, I would always get these strange or scared looks from ponies as I went about my day.” He sighed, “It made making friends my own age a lot harder than it really should have been especially when they think that because you're a dragon, you're going to eat everything in sight.”

He paused.

“Although, I think it also might have to do with the fact that dragons tend to age differently from ponies and that also made them wary of making friends with me,” Spike admitted. There was also the fact that dragons were reputed for having among the sharpest teeth in the entire world. “But my point still stands about some ponies not liking me just because I was a dragon. But just like you, I had very quickly found a friend in Twilight and later in her family.”

Sombra sighed as Spike finished his account of what essentially amounted to his life story sans his move to Ponyville.

“I didn’t think that we would be quite so similar, dragon... Spike,” Sombra admitted while catching his near-slip up. “But even though you were fundamentally different, I would argue that you were lucky because you had grown up around a group of much nicer ponies who ultimately didn’t pick on you if the friends you’ve made are any indication. Not only did you have the purple unicorn but her family and friends had, from what I can tell, adopted you into the fold as well if what you say is accurate.”

Spike had to concede that point but fortunately was able to come up with some kind of rebuttal.

“Hope showed me what essentially amounted to your life story,” Sombra let out a growl while Hope was torn between giving a sheepish look to Sombra or a betrayed one to Spike. That kind of information was meant to be private for a reason. It also made Sombra wonder just how Spike had managed to break through the many curses that he kept on both the study where he kept the journal as well as the journal itself.

He looked at Spike.

And then it clicked.

And then he wanted to find the strongest earth pony in all of Equestria and ask them to buck him in the head as hard as they could. How could he have possibly have overlooked the possibility that a dragon with magic resistant scales might wander into his study to find some tasty gems to eat! The Crystal Empire was practically famous for them as well as their alliance with dragon tribes.

Or at least that had been the case before Sombra took over the Crystal Empire.

“And from what I saw,” Spike continued, either oblivious or purposefully ignorant to Sombra’s internal dilemma, “it seemed like you were adjusting to the empire just fine. I mean your speech had improved significantly and you seemed to learn really fast as well! So why didn’t you ever try to make any friends after the fact?”

“You’re forgetting that by the time that I managed to adapt well enough to consider the idea of making other friends, I already had Radiant Hope by my side and I figured why in Amore’s name would I even need anypony else? I already had my one true friend whom I’ve endured all manner of torment.”

Hope found herself blushing brightly. She hadn’t expected Sombra to feel as strongly about her as she did about him. All the while, it did make her happy to hear him speak so highly of her.

Even if he did end up a tyrannical king.

Bad Hope she chided herself harshly. Sombra’s not a bad pony. He’s just done some bad things that he had been forced by that dumb crystal to do if only to ensure his own survival.

Deciding that moving on was the best remedy, Spike continued. “So that vision you saw in the Crystal Heart…”

“Princess Amore always said that the images shown within the relic were reflections of what were in our hearts,” Sombra stated simply. “I didn’t want to believe it since things had started to look up: the bullies had started to back off, Hope and I had become better friends, and we’d had a goal: namely, going to the Crystal Fair. I was scared of what might happen if it came to pass.” He cracked a smile for the first time although it had the effect of making him look more intimidating than any of his snarling or growling could even come close to pulling off.

“Ironically, it was that same fear that led me to fleeing to the frozen north and finding my ‘so-called Mother’. Well that fear coupled with the news of Hope’s intention to travel to Canterlot to study healing magic under the Equestrian Princesses so that fear coupled with the fear of Hope’s inevitable departure led me to the very vision that I saw in the Crystal Heart.”

“Yes, but Princess Amore also pointed out that we all have the power to control how the future can turn out for each of us,” Spike pointed out. He’d explained that just because something we see in a vision might happen, didn’t necessarily mean that it would happen. He’d brought up Hope’s vision of becoming a princess which had clearly never came to pass if the lack of wings or any sort of royal adornments were any indication.

“Sombra,” Hope spoke up for the first time in a good while. “Did that crystal provide any proof that she was actually your mother.” Sombra stared at her while she shrugged helplessly.

“I just have an awfully hard time believing that a crystal can give birth to a pony or an umbrum for that matter,” she explained.

“That’s actually a really good point,” Spike agreed. “Since crystals are, well, highly ordered structures and ponies and umbrums, I guess, are not since we have water and other stuff inside us and we have more ability to move than a crystal can hope to achieve.” He paused. “Plus, there’s also the fact that you don’t have any crystal traits going for you that would make you attractive to a dragon since gems are, in a sense, crystalline in structure.”

The odd look that he got prompted him to respond with a shrug, “Dragons have had a flare for material science after all.”

Leaving that last remark aside, Sombra paused to consider this point. “The only evidence she offered was the explanation of why I had always fallen ill on the day of the fair. If you read my journal, then you probably know that, according to ‘Mother’, the crystal heart was a weapon that Princess Amore used to banish the darkness and keep the light and love strong in the Crystal Empire. If what she said was correct, it then explains why I wouldn’t have been able to move on the day of the Crystal Fair; that was the day when the relic would be at its most powerful since so many ponies would be using their light and love to feed and strengthen it to protect them until the next fair. If I wanted to continue to surprise, she explained that I would have to destroy the Crystal Heart.”

“Wait just a second,” said Spike abruptly. “If that was the case, why not just go with Hope to Canterlot in the first place? It would have been a double win for both you! Sombra wouldn’t have even had to bother with destroying the Crystal Heart since he wouldn’t live in the Crystal Empire anymore and Hope would have a friend that could provide emotional support in Canterlot which led a much different lifestyle compared to the life that the ponies in the Crystal Empire led.” In all honesty, Spike wasn’t entirely sure if that was true given that he wasn’t certain about what Canterlot was like a thousand years ago. He also pointed out that Sombra might have been able to find his special talent in Canterlot if he didn’t find it in the Crystal Empire.

Nonetheless, Sombra and Hope had paused and were genuinely thinking about it. In hindsight, it seemed like that would have been the best option.

Besides, seeing more of the world might have done Sombra some good if only because nopony would have known of his past and he would have had an easier time making friends. But even still…

“There was still the Crystal Fair,” Sombra pointed out. “Aside from Hope, my only other reason for living in the Crystal Empire, familiarity notwithstanding, was that I really wanted to see the Crystal Fair. It was something that I wanted to see and do when I was a colt since Radiant Hope made it seem like it would be a lot of fun.” He looked down, partially ashamed with himself and partially guilty that his sickness had prevented Hope from going as well.

“I wanted to take Hope out to the Crystal Fair just so we could see it together before we did anything else,” Sombra explained, an odd sense of passion in his voice that he’d never felt there before. “Even if it ended up destroying me.” That passion had turned into a desire to protect the pony he cared about most.

It was here that many things happened in unison. Firstly, Hope had practically lunged at Sombra, hugging him as tightly as her hooves would allow. Not satisfied, she had then gone in to nuzzle his neck which, to her delight, Sombra had returned enthusiastically. Secondly, Sombra had started to glow brightly before being bathed in the white light, blinding both Spike and Hope as they had been forced to shield their eyes from the radiance emitting from the umbrum.

That, in and of itself, was strange if only because umbrums were meant to be creatures of darkness and light had no business existing in them.

Then again, Sombra had always liked to challenge fate.

When the light faded away, the red eyed tyrannical king that Spike was familiar with was no more, and in his place was a light gray stallion with a black mane and tail. Once he opened his eyes, the blood red hue that Spike had been so accustomed to seeing was gone in favor of a bright green that seemed to radiate far more benevolence than the old red eyes could have ever hoped for. Hope had let out a gasp of delight while Spike stared in shock.

“How… did that happen?” he asked, speechless as he stared at the two as they nuzzled each other again. The scene reminded the young dragon of how Shining Armor and Princess Cadance interacted not long after their wedding ceremony. However, there was another revelation that came as a result of the improvised light show.

And it was on Sombra’s flank.

“Sombra,” Spike spoke, his voice belied his awe. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo are going to love this. “Check out your flanks.”

Sombra and Hope had blinked at the young dragon’s statement before they both obeyed and looked to Sombra’s flanks, curiosity being the chief emotion at work.

What was originally a pair of blank flanks now bore the symbol of a heart-shaped shield half covered in light and half covered in darkness with several small starts circled around the heart. Spike wasn’t sure what his talent ultimately meant but figured that Sombra and Hope would have a good time figuring it out.

“Your cutie mark,” Hope breathed as she threw herself back into his hooves. Sombra was too stunned to speak himself as he turned back to his friend while Spike watched them from the side while wondering when he would be lucky enough to be in that same situation, hugging his friend turned beloved.

One thing at a time, I suppose. Spike mused with a wry smile as the the three of them felt their surroundings start to warp and fade from their eyes…

* * *

When Spike came to, he immediately recognized a couple things. First, he wasn’t in the plaza like he would have thought; instead, he was in the palace in a small but comfortable bed. A quick view of his surroundings had told him that he was in some sort of infirmary. The fact that he was in the bed made him wonder whether the whole discussion he’d had with Sombra was just a dream of had it really happened?

The next thing he noticed was that he wasn’t alone in the infirmary. He could see Radiant Hope and a revived and possibly reformed Sombra resting on beds across from him. That ruled out the possibility that the conversation had been a dream.

The final thing he’d noticed was that his friends were at his bedside, fast asleep. However, it seemed as though Pinkie was stirring as she stretched her hooves and rubbed the remnants of sleep from her eyes. A smile appeared at the sight of Spike’s awakening so she had hastened to wake up the rest of her friends.

Grumbling aside, they had asked about what had happened after he’d disappeared into the Crystal Heart.

Their dragon friend had happily obliged as he recounted both the tale of how he stumbled on Sombra’s diary as well as how he and Sombra had talked to each other after they had apparently disappeared. That one had piqued Twilight’s interest as she asked why he didn’t tell her about it.

Spike had replied by stating that he’d gotten caught in the preparations for the fair and helping her search for the Crystal Heart that it kind of slipped his mind.

Thankfully, Twilight had let the subject go and let him continue.

However, they had mentioned one thing that had been rather curious. Namely, that the Crystal Heart had been pulsing violently while changing between its normal bright blue color to a dark shade of red bordering on black. That had led them to believe that Sombra and Spike had been absorbed into the Crystal Heart when they vanished on direct physical contact with the relic.

In any case, their attention was diverted when they noticed the mare and stallion in the beds stirring before awakening.

Twilight had decided to tell her brother and sister-in-law that the three had awakened and so with that as her motivator, she galloped out of the infirmary.

* * *

The first thing that Sombra had done when he met Princess Cadance was apologize for he’d done to both the empire as well to Princess Amore herself. As he reflected on his actions, he had come to realize that he had petrified her in his rage at her purposefully allowing him to suffer for years on end.

“She wasn’t able to help me like I was hoping she would and I got mad at her for it,” Sombra explained to a more sympathetic Cadance.

In the end, the crystal ponies, after listening to Sombra’s tale, had found it in themselves to applaud his reformation. What he said next would both shock and impress them even further.

“I’m going to find all the pieces of Princess Amore and hopefully, I can restore her,” he told the crowd of ponies assembled. A series of collective gasps met his declaration. However, that quickly died in favor of the stomping of hooves and the cheers at the thought of their long lost ruler returning to them.

“Is that even possible?” Spike whispered in Sombra’s ear once the ponies had dispersed.

“Yes,” Sombra nodded, addressing the ponies present alongside him as well. “I may have turned her to stone and scattered the pieces, but that does not equate to death since I did not cast a mortally dangerous wound on her. All my spell did was imprison her in the stones. If I can find all the pieces scattered around the world and bring them together, I should be able to revive her.”

That much was great news for all of them.

“Well you’re not going alone,” Radiant Hope pointed out. “I’ve only just found you again and I’ll be darned if anything takes you away from me again.”

Sombra looked like he wanted to protest but the determined look on Hope’s face killed any argument he may have had on his tongue. Besides, he liked the idea of spending some more time with Hope and he had always wondered what lay beyond the Crystal Empire's borders.

“Deal,” he agreed. He turned to Spike. “I owe you a debt of gratitude, dragon. If you happen to need any help or happen to find one of the pieces of Princess Amore, do let me know. Rest assured that your letters will find me.” His horn glowed a bright green as Spike glowed a similar color before said light dissipated. “Now you can send me messages via dragon fire.”

With Sombra and Hope away from the Crystal Empire searching for Princess Amore's shards, it had been decided that Princess Cadance and Shining Armor would rule the empire in his stead. The fact that Princess Cadance was her her descendant only served to solidify this sentiment. With that, the former King Sombra and his best friend Radiant Hope had set off to hunt for the fragments and bring back the long lost Princess Amore.

Spike smiled as he watched them walk away from the place they had called home. It was clear to him that they had found happiness together.

It was a good day.

Author's Note

This one was a tough one to write. I had gone through three different renditions of this chapter before I finally settled on this one which I liked the most out of the segments I wrote. All that being said, I should explain one thing for those who don't know.

Radiant Hope is not a pony of my creation. She was introduced in the comic book series: Fiendship is Magic (no I didn't misspell that) issue #1. This is where Sombra's backstory came into play and I came to understand him having more to his character than the show would have us believe.

All that being said, I hope you all like it and leave any suggestions for how I can improve in the comments. (Or you can PM me).

Power to What End

Spike listened with fascinated interest as Princess Celestia recounted the story of when Tirek had attempted to take over Equestria for the first time. Apparently Tirek had his younger brother Scorpan come to Equestria from a distant land, intent on stealing Equestrian magic. However, Scorpan had come to appreciate Equestria's lifestyle and even going so far as to befriend a young unicorn wizard.

Spike decided not to mention that he and Scorpan had become friends during the dragon migration. It had turned out that the two had a lot in common and had even begun to spend time together when time allowed for it.

Getting back to the main story, Tirek, despite his younger brother's pleas to get him to reconsider his plans, was vehement on stealing Equestrian magic. So Scorpan, in an attempt to preempt what would more than likely be a magical massacre, he went to the princesses to warn them about Tirek's intentions before returning to his own home in his distant land.

Thanks to Scorpan's warning, the princesses had been able to imprison the centaur in Tartarus before he could steal any Equestrian magic.

"But it seems it seems that he has found a way to escape..." Princess Celestia told all the ponies present. Namely, during the time when Cerberus left his post at the gates of Tartarus.

"But that was a long time ago," Spike pointed out inquisitively. "Why is he just now starting to steal magic?"

"His time in Tartarus left him very weak," Princess Luna pointed out. "He was most likely building up strength until he could start stealing magic again and with each passing moment, he grows stronger still."

Princess Cadence had then stated that she knew the perfect candidates to take Tirek down. Twilight and Spike had perked up in interest as Cadence wrapped her hooves around the pair. Twilight and Spike had eagerly started to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, Princess Celestia had nipped that idea in the bud before it could take root. She had then proposed that Discord gets sent in to capture Tirek before the centaur steal any more magic.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadence, and Princess Luna gasped at Princess Celestia's suggestion to let Discord handle the crisis that was Tirek's escape. She had explained that Discord could detect the most minute magical imbalances and the next time Tirek tried to steal magic, Discord could track him down and stop him.

Spike, for his part, being a young dragon, was more rebellious than his alicorn caretaker so naturally he'd done a couple of things. The first being that he sent a letter to Scorpan, telling him about how his brother had escaped and was determined to try to take over Equestria. The second was that he asked Discord to take him along when he went on his mission. To his surprise, Discord had agreed to take him if only to spite Twilight Sparkle.

* * *

Scorpan had met Spike and Discord outside of a small pony settlement in eastern Equestria where Discord had predicted where Tirek would strike next. He had given them an abridged version of Tirek's life story: apparently it had started with a childlike curiosity of exploring the Nether Lands. Their father's warnings against exploring such a place had only intensified their curiosity and in the end, they had decided to check it out. During their exploration, they had stumbled upon a cave housing a hermit named Sendak who had recently returned from a trip from Equestria and had kidnapped a unicorn stallion so that he would absorb his magic and become all powerful. Tirek had been fascinated by the ability and wanted to learn it for himself.

"However, Sendak deemed Tirek to be too young and undisciplined," Scorpan told them. "And before anything else could happen, we heard the bell calling for our return home so we departed."

"While this is quite the fascinating story," Discord interrupted. "How does this tie into the problem that we have now?"

"I'm only explaining how Tirek's thirst for power came about," Scorpan stated. "He continued to visit Sendak and one night he had tried to absorb the unicorn's magic." He grimaced. "The spell went horribly wrong and Tirek fled the cave, leaving Sendak to dig himself out. From there, Tirek was kept in his chambers while mother and father sent an envoy with the unicorn back to Equestria with an apology to Princess Celestia."

"This guy sounds like a real monster," Spike frowned. "Doesn't he realize how many lives he'd ruin by doing this?"

"That's the thing with bad guys who crave power, Spike," Discord told him, his features uncharacteristically grim. "They only care about getting the power that they're after and never think of the consequences or how their actions can have consequences on others. Why should they? Since they are only seen as obstacles to his end goal."

"It also didn't help that Tirek has never acted like a prince like Father had expected of him," Scorpan pointed out. "He'd always been a curious centaur and loved exploring and that's not even considering his gift with magic. It's normally quite a rare gift for a centaur to possess as far as I can tell."

"But there had to be more to it that Tirek would sneak off to continually seek out Sendak like the way you said," Spike pointed out with a thoughtful frown. Scorpan had conceded that his father had also sensed Tirek's thirst for power and had feared that he would turn that power on him.

"That certainly explains why the King had tried to do everything he could to prevent Tirek from learning too much magic," Discord mused. "If I had a son, I certainly wouldn't want him turning against me to usurp my kingdom."

Spike frowned as he contemplated the situation. Apparently, Tirek craved power as a result of his status as a prince as well as his gift for magic. He had intended to rule the kingdom one day but couldn't help but want more power sooner despite his parents' reluctance to grant him any such powers. Which had then led to the search for alternate means to achieve the power needed to conquer and rule the kingdom. Learning from Sendak had only made Tirek more ambitious which, in part, led to their present situation.

"He's only after magic power," Spike realized. Discord and Scorpan stared at him, waiting for an explanation. Spike had explained that Tirek had sought all the magic in Equestria so that he could be all-powerful. "But what he doesn't realize that there are other powers outside of magic that he can't harness." He grinned as Discord came to a revelation.

"He's only interested in super power or power that can be gained through force," Discord realized. "He either doesn't realize or care that there are other powers at work that could stop him at a given turn."

"Like us!" Scorpan chimed in enthusiastically. Spike and Discord nodded their agreement.

"I'm more grateful that Tirek's only interested in super power," Discord sighed in relief. "If only because I'd actually have competition if he tried to breach my monopoly on secret power and hidden power.”

Spike snorted back his laughter while Scorpan watched on, utterly bewildered. Noticing his friend’s confusion, Spike had explained how Discord had come to an epiphany after his “escape” and subsequent pardoning after seeing how efficient he was at forcing rivaling business to compete with each other which could naturally only serve to help boost the Equestrian economy.

And that wasn’t even taking into account all the new creations Discord had developed on his own time. Once Pinkie had gotten involved, then things really off. Heck, according to the Manehatten Times had stated that Discord had become the go-to for all things business. It really wasn’t surprising given how chaotic the field of business tended to be just by nature and Discord thrived on chaos and made it work for him.

Leaving that aside, Discord felt a tingle on his spine and pulled out his patented magic thief goggles before catching sight of their target. It had been decided that Discord would perform damage control while Spike and Scorpan would attempt to talk to Tirek about why he was doing the things he was doing.

* * *

“Brother?” Tirek blinked before his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Pray tell, what are you doing here? I would have thought that you would be back home… parading around your title of prince back home.”

Scorpan blinked before frowning. “I had heard about your release and had come to see you and take you back home. I’m certain they would be most delighted to see you again.”

Tirek snorted back a bout of laughter. Given how his father, in particular, had been blatantly ignoring his talent for magic along with his own actions as well as his subsequent imprisonment in Tartarus, Tirek very much doubted that his mother and father wouldn’t be pleased to see his return.

“Nice try brother,” Tirek rolled his eyes. “Mother, Father, and I didn’t exactly part on the best of terms if you recall.”

Scorpan sighed as his brother moved away from them and had made to scour the town in search of ponies for whom he could feast on their magic to restore his own power. He had soon frowned when he’d noticed that the town had been either abandoned or more likely, evacuated. He narrowed his eyes. His return was supposed to have remained a secret. He had been certain that he’d been able to sneak out without rousing any detection.

Eyes narrowed, he turned back to his brother and blinked when he noticed the small reptile standing next to him.

“How long have you been standing there?” he asked warily.

“I’ve been here the whole time,” Spike replied easily. “You just never noticed.”

Tirek had balked at the thought of some outsider having been privy to his family’s past history. He’d been so sure that he’d buried those memories and was certain that no one else had been listening in. Then again, he hadn’t thought to check to make sure that they were alone.

That’s what I get for spending a thousand years locked in a cage in Tartarus with only Cerberus as company. Tirek couldn’t help but grumble to himself. He then rounded on the dragon, demanding to know where the townsponies were hiding.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Spike shrugged while Scorpan snorted back his laughter. “The only one who knows for sure is Discord and he’s not around right now.” He paused. “At least not that I know anyway.” Tirek blinked at Discord’s name and made a mental note to congratulate him on his escape. At least, he’d been able to move around but spending a thousand years as a statue in the palace garden was not how he’d want to spend his time imprisoned.

Then again, with the way the royal guard was being trained, maybe that would have been better. It would have given him more magic to work with at any rate.

Spike and Scorpan couldn’t quite hide their disgust at the sight of Tirek’s slimy saliva, trailing down his cheeks. Scorpan had silently handed his brother a spare handkerchief to which the centaur had snatched and wiped up his face, silently sulking in embarrassment.

“Well,” Tirek grumbled. “Seeing as there are no ponies whose magic I can take, I may as well take my leave.”

Tirek had taken all of three steps when he found himself unable to move. Not because of a spell that would have rendered him utterly powerless. Although in retrospect, Tirek might have preferred that because, if nothing else, he would have been able to consume that power and more than likely would have been able to escape. But no, that would have been too simple.

It was because the ground beneath his hooves had been transfigured into a puddle of glue. Tirek would have faceplanted in surprise at the sudden change in surroundings but because of the glue, that was simply not possible. Nonetheless, the centaur’s eyes did narrow marginally. There was only one character that he could think of that would pull a stunt like this and get away with it.

Discord.

True to form, the draconequus had materialized out of thin air, a smug grin on his face as he watched Tirek continue to struggle in vain to escape while simultaneously reveling in the praise that was Spike’s laughter and Scorpan’s suppressed snorts of amusement.

Once the laughter had died down, Discord had dispelled the puddle of glue and Tirek glared at them mutinously. It was clear that he would have loved nothing more than to steal their magic and then blast with the biggest burst of magic that he could produce. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t possible.

“Aww, what’s wrong?” Discord asked, dressing up the disgruntled Tirek in a bonnet and diaper and simultaneously shrinking him down to the size of a child. Scorpan couldn’t help beam at how adorable his older brother looked as a small toddler.

“Discord you should probably stop,” Spike pointed out, “It looks like he’s about to throw a tantrum… or that baby rattle; whichever happens first.”

Discord, not wanting to deal with a cranky baby centaur or the prospect of a rattle being thrown as it head, dispelled the magic, leaving Tirek as the tall albeit weak centaur that they had first encountered. Tirek then decided that he had enough and started to walk away when he found himself staring into the pleading eyes of his younger brother.

Unbeknownst, to everyone save himself, Scorpan had felt terrible about betraying his own brother to the Equestrian princesses and felt that they needed to talk through this together. He wanted the brother that he had spent all his time exploring and playing all sorts mindless games with when they had been newborns. Unfortunately, Scorpan’s life had become much more dull and depressing after Tirek’s imprisonment. As a result, their parents had naturally decided to start grooming him when the time came to take up the throne.

Wanting to reconnect their family into the happy unit that it was supposed to be, Scorpan had resorted to his secret weapon. It had, after all, worked to make Tirek at least listen to what he had to say. While he wasn’t sure if it work now that they were, for all intents and purposes, fully grown, he knew that it was either going to be either this or nothing.

Which leads us to just what exactly this so called “secret weapon” happened to be.

The puppy dog eyes, naturally!

Oh no… Realization dawned on his face as he realized just what his younger brother was attempting to do. Not that face! Anything but that face! Tirek was silently pleading to whatever higher power existed. How he can still pull off that look after all these years, I’ll never know. Scorpan, not getting the desired reaction that he was aiming for, had decided to step it up a notch. Tirek felt his defenses crumble at the sight of the small tears and the quivering lip.

Contrary to popular belief, Tirek actually loved his brother very much. He had been his closest confident and even after his younger brother had betrayed him by selling him out to the princesses, Tirek still couldn’t squash the brotherly affection that he felt for Scorpan. He’d been the only thing keeping Tirek sane while the family dynamic had started to unravel and go up in flames.

Besides, he’d missed his brother. Being imprisoned in Tartarus could do that to a centaur no matter how tough an exterior or how many defenses they may put up to protect themselves.

The fact that there was a powerful draconequus nearby that had just turned him into a baby had nothing to do with his agreement.

Really it didn’t!

Now if only he could convince himself that much was true.

“Fine,” he conceded as he allowed his brother to grab him in what he felt was the biggest hug he’d gotten in a long time.

“But before we let you and your brother catch up,” Spike spoke up as Tirek turned to him. “I still want to talk to you.”

Tirek raised an eyebrow. What could this dragon possible have to say to him of all creatures?

I guess we’ll get to find out. Tirek mused as he and his brother sat down on newly materialized plush couches courtesy of Chaotic Parties Inc. Spike and Discord had sat across from the two brothers with only a table holding a pot of tea and several biscuits or gems in Spike’s case.

It was after a long pause while the four ate in relative silence. Tirek, himself, didn’t mind all that much as he reacquainted himself with just how tasty the spread was. Naturally, he’d come to realize how much tastier everything seemed now that he was free. It was a nice feeling in retrospect, especially now that he was spending time with who was, in his opinion, the most important member of his family.

Spike cleared his throat, prompting all eyes to turn to him. Remembering Cadence’s breathing technique, Spike took a deep breath and then started. “So how do you feel?” That was a good start. It was a fairly safe question to ask now that the tension had been broken.

Tirek, recalling half-processed memories of his etiquette lessons, took a polite sip of tea before setting the cup daintily on the table as he pondered his answer. In truth, his lust for power had come from multiple places, partly from watching his father rule the kingdom and partly from watching Sendak absorb that nameless unicorn’s magic. Seeing that had only served to amplify the power that he craved from watching his father rule the kingdom, this time, he was craving a different type of power.

“I suppose it started with my father letting me sit in during his court,” Tirek explained. “I’d come to realize just how much power he wielded being the king and I couldn’t wait until I could come to wield that power.”

“But my brother here, was impatient,” Scorpan jumped in. “He’d found the etiquette and politics lessons that father taught him to be too dull and boring.” That had earned him a glare from the centaur.

“So going back to what I was saying,” Tirek continued. “I had heard rumors about a centaur who could use magic. So being a magic user myself, I had decided to go see him. Unfortunately for me, I actually had no idea where he lived.”

“And you know the rest of the story,” Scorpan finished.

Spike and Discord took a moment to take a sip of tea as they let the revelation of what Tirek had just told them, sink in. A few moments later and the words sunk into the brains and had been processed.

“So basically this boils down to that you had a taste of power and liked it and now you want more of it,” Discord surmised. He had then materialized a bottle with the label that read ‘Power’ on it and ingested some of it. “I can see why you like it. It does taste quite good.”

Spike snorted back his laughter as he turned back to Tirek. “Even still, this sounds like a sort of addiction that you’ve got going on here except that instead of craving something like candy, apples, or gems in my case, you want power.”

“That much is true,” Tirek had to give him points for creativity. It would have never occurred to him to make that kind of comparison. Then again, it’s not like he had any friends outside of his brother. But he still wondered what point he was trying to make.

“So going off that, you start with a little bit of power and that’s all well and good, but you become dissatisfied with the power you have and want more,” Spike explained. “And it’s that hunger, no, that greed that drives you to get more and more power, doing whatever it takes to get it no matter what the cost.”

“What Spike is trying to say,” Discord jumped in, “is that you are walking a really dangerous path. One, dare I say it, more dangerous than chaos.”

“Right,” Spike nodded, “because you can fight chaos with harmony but greed is a much harder enemy to fight if only because it’s an internal fight that you have to face.” He paused, wondering if he ought to relay the next bit. “Trust me when I say this, I’ve been where you are right now and I’ve made that mistake before. It doesn’t lead to anywhere good.”

Tirek was fascinated. “How did you come to that conclusion?”

Spike sighed. “It was on my birthday. I had gotten presents from my friends and I liked them all but... as I opened and delighted what they’d given me, I could hear this small voice in my head that said want more…” He shrugged helplessly, “I hadn’t given it much thought at the time and had ended up asking the ponies in town for presents and naturally, they gave them to me.”

“What does this have to do with the power crave?” Tirek interrupted.

“I was getting to that,” Spike replied, “So as I got more and more stuff, I had begun to grow bigger and stronger.” The gears clicked in Tirek’s head as he came to realize what Spike was hinting at. Spike had noticed Tirek’s realization. “Did you connect the dots? It also ended up changing my personality as I ended up getting meaner and had even started stealing things from ponies.” He grimaced, “and I ended up abducting a friend before climbing up a mountain and fighting back against the Wonderbolts who’d come to stop me.”

“So how did you manage to fight your way out?” Scorpan asked, genuinely interested.

“My friend Rarity. I saw her wearing the Fire Ruby necklace that I gave her a week before and then it all started coming back to me: who I was and what I was doing and why it was wrong since I hurt a lot of ponies and I had to live with that guilt,” Spike grimaced. Definitely not one of his prouder moments.

“And you’re telling me that this same thing could happen to me?” asked Tirek skeptically. Spike shrugged.

“I don’t know enough about centaurs to say if by acquiring more magical power that they will actually get bigger but that was certainly true of dragons,” Spike explained. “It’s in our blood after all.”

“So greed is an inherent part of a dragon’s lifestyle: getting a hoard, at least, that’s what it sounds like you were doing,” Tirek stated. Spike nodded. “So how do you know the same thing could happen to me?”

“No one is immune to greed Tirek. Trust me on that,” Spike told him grimly. Discord had chimed in his agreement too. The business world was filled with greedy people after all and it was these kinds of ponies that he enjoyed toying with the most.

“Prove it,” Tirek challenged. Spike had rebutted by naming the first nobles that had come to mind that wasn’t Fancy Pants or Twilight’s parents. Tirek had wisely decided not to challenge Discord if his previous experience had taught him anything.

“Also,” Spike spoke up after a length of silence had passed. “Even if you had all that power, what would you even do?”

“I would rule Equestria like I had originally planned, taking as much magic as I could to become all powerful,” Tirek replied. “I had figured that if I had all the magic in the world then no one would be in any position to try to stop me.”

“Yes, but would you be able to use it as effectively as they could?” Spike asked. “Look, you are a single centaur. I have a hard time believing that your single mind could match those of potentially hundreds of thousands of ponies who’ve been using that magic for all their lives.”

“When you put it like that,” Tirek considered, “I would imagine that magic could very well overwhelm my senses.” Spike had been worried that Tirek might have tried to turn on them and attempt to escape.

“Plus,” Discord jumped in. “Even if you had all that magic, you would still be alone. These ponies rely on their passive magic abilities to help sustain themselves and to live the way they do. Without that magic, they wouldn’t be able to grow food, change the weather, or transition between day or night.”

Tirek held up a hand to interject but Discord pointedly ignored him. He knew for a fact that no matter how powerful a centaur was, there was no way they’d be able to do the things that the ponies did if only because they have no means of channeling that magic to manipulate it to do what he wanted it to do.

“Really, if what I’ve heard about you is true, the main use you have for your magic is that you are able to absorb it to increase your strength and resistances and you can use it to produce large bursts of energy that could very easily level mountains,” said Discord pointedly.

“So going off of that,” Spike jumped in. “What kind of subjects would you have if you had all the magic in the world. Ponies wouldn’t be able to do anything for you; Griffons would most likely try to rebel against you to which you would more than likely crush them along with any others that try to fight against you. Ultimately, even if you had all the power in the world, you would ultimately end up all alone.”

“Alone? But my,” Tirek protested. Spike cut him off, pointing out that in his lust for power, nothing else would matter and his morals would have long since been thrown out the window. The more Tirek thought about it, the less attractive the prospect of having power seemed to be. Yes, he would be able to rule the world but even if that goal did come to pass and he had come to wield all the power in the world, he would have most likely have crushed anyone and everyone to get to it so there would be nothing to wield.

Where would that leave him then? With nothing to fight for, Tirek’s life would have no purpose whatsoever.

He would be... alone.

Tirek didn’t like the prospect of being alone especially given how recently he discovered just how sweet freedom was.

“You’ve made some very interesting points dragon,” Tirek finally conceded. “But even if I come out, I will be arrested and thrown back in Tartarus.”

“Actually,” Spike and Discord spoke up. Spike gestured for Discord to go first. “Since you only stole one unicorn’s magic and not all of Equestria’s, I’m sure that as long as you return that magic, Spike and I can persuade the princesses to pardon you.”

“If you can persuade them to pardon me, I’ll do it,” Tirek conceded. Having learned what he’d learned today, Tirek wanted nothing more than to go home with his brother and sleep the day away.

* * *

So long as he returned to the magic he stole, the princesses agreed to pardon Tirek for his actions. So now stood the centaur as the crowd of ponies watched on, Tirek pointedly ignored the whispers in his head that told him how easy it would be to steal all the ponies’ magic. He’d caught sight of his gargoyle brother smiling and waving animatedly at him next to his parents who had surprised him with their presence as well as their overall more positive demeanor upon seeing him. That had certainly helped him ignore the voices that had demanded to be obeyed.

They had explained that Scorpan had told them of his imprisonment and realized that it was as much their fault that they didn’t guide Tirek down a better path. It was also Tirek’s own fault for acting the way he had. They had also realized that their family was in shambles after he’d been imprisoned in Tartarus. His father, in particular, had been especially emotional as he continued to blame himself for not seeing Tirek’s struggles sooner.

Shaking his head of the memories, Tirek turned to the unicorn stallion who’s magic he’d stolen and lit up his hands. The ponies had cowered in fear at the sight while Tirek closed his eyes, directing the less familiar magic that was clearly not his own down his palm. A yelp had ended up breaking his concentration when he saw the unicorn smiling, his coat brighter and his cutie mark having returned upon his magic being returned to him.

Tirek then turned to the audience that had assembled for this occasion and said, “I’m sorry for the fear that I had instilled in all of you from my past actions.” With that, Tirek stepped off the stage where his family, Spike and Discord were waiting for him.

What happened next blindsided the centaur.

Namely, his parents had grabbed him into the tightest hug that they could manage and had refused to let him go. Reveling in the warmth of their embrace, Tirek had leaned in and hugged them back. Not long after, he’d felt something moist on his shoulder. He had reared back and stared in surprise when he’d found his father, the most stoic and strict centaur he’d ever known, practically break down. Admittedly, his mother had not been much better, but still! Tirek had always known his parents to be quite stoic as they went about their day to day duties so seeing this change had caught him off guard.

He looked to his brother who had opted to grin at him. He’d get his hug in due time.

This must have been one of those changes that Scorpan had hinted to Tirek thought as he leaned back into his parents’ embrace.

Unfortunately, all good things had to end so Tirek was escorted, not in chains, but with his head held high, back to his parents’ carriage as it soon departed and Tirek found himself tired because of everything that had happened.

He was looking forward to being home.

* * *

“So is that really what happened?” Twilight asked as she and her friends along with the rest of the princesses sat at their grand dining table in Canterlot Castle. It was the evening after Tirek had returned the magic back to its respective owner before departing for parts unknown. The day after had been arguably one of the biggest parties that Canterlot had seen since Princess Cadence and Shining Armor’s wedding. Well, it was half a party and half a parade to celebrate the saviors that had managed to prevent Tirek’s rampage altogether.

Spike and Discord had, of course, enjoyed the attention. The latter especially had managed to get some great PR for his next start-up although he was still searching for a name.

“Yes,” Spike and Discord nodded in tandem. “We both thought that he shouldn’t need to be imprisoned for the same crime. The only thing that does is making them want revenge all the more so instead, we decided to talk to him and share our reasons why we think that he should, at least, redirect his ambition for powerful into some more useful to him.”

“His story was a lot sadder than I had expected from him,” Discord remarked as he dove into his ice cream.

“As was Sombra’s,” Spike agreed.

“Well, in any case,” Princess Celestia cut in. “I’m pleased to hear that the Tirek situation had been resolved without anybody getting hurt.” She smiled broadly at all of them as she stood up from her place at the table before declaring that she was going to retire for the evening.

The others were of a similar opinion given the scope of the festivities that were provided. They were even enough for Discord and Luna to feel tired.

Spike had smiled sleepily as he and Twilight reached their shared room in the castle and stepped inside. Being as exhausted as they were, neither had bothered with any sort of pre-bed hygiene, simply opting to faceplant onto their respective beds.

Or that’s what Twilight would have done had she not kissed Spike on the cheek much like Rarity had done earlier that day. Multiple times.

“Good night my little hero,” Twilight let out a tired giggle as she wrapped Spike in his covers before doing the same for herself and allowing sleep to overtake her.

All was well.

Author's Note

I'd like to preface by saying that all pre-reading and editing was done by The Pony Spartan and NyxKnight.

So given that the show has given me so little to work with in terms of understanding Tirek's character, I had naturally turned to the 'Fiendship is Magic' comics to help me get a feel for Tirek's character. Granted, I may have written him to be more affectionate than he may have been portrayed in the the comics and in the show. However, I'm still inclined to believe that despite his brother's betrayal, Tirek still held some measure of love for his brother. It's how brothers work after all.

The puppy dog eyes certainly didn't hurt Scorpan's cause either.

As for Spike and Scorpan's friendship, I worked it into the show by stating that they had met during the events of 'Dragon Quest' and had been meeting up on and off during main series. Plus, I had come up with this friendship to help facilitate the dialogue between Spike, Discord, and Tirek. The fact that they had been friends in G1 had brought this to light as well.

Discord's main purpose was to help with the comedic that I always strive for. Plus, like he said, it makes for great PR!

Thanks for reading!

A New Spin on Equality

“So let’s go through this one more time,” said Twilight. Six collective groans met her statement as her friends faceplanted onto the armrests of their respective thrones. Yes, the castle had come as quite a surprise to all of them especially with how Twilight had discovered her key. The story was quite fascinating in how unexpected it had turned out to be.

The dragon clans, having learned of Spike’s triumphs against some of the most feared villains in history, decided that they had wanted him to return to their clans and learned the lifestyle of true dragons. Twilight, for her part, had been quite reluctant to allow Spike to pursue such a desire as she saw him as her closest friend and confidant.

To her surprise, Spike voiced his agreement with her sentiment, stating that he would always be by her side. He’d gone on to explain that it was thanks to her and her friends and family that he had come to grow up as the young drake that he was.

Unfortunately, dragons were rarely known for being understanding and didn’t like being told no. Naturally, things had begun to escalate to dangerous levels and ponies were genuinely fearful of the prospect of having to fight the dragons. However, Twilight had taken the initiative to diffuse the situation and had offered to negotiate with the dragons to come up with some sort of compromise.

The dragons, having come to realize how powerful Twilight was magically, had come to respect her power, her dedication, and her will. In the end, the dragon elder, the leader of the dragon clan had decided that it would be more to their advantage to form an alliance of sorts as opposed to being enemies. Twilight had emphatically agreed as she and Spike had made the dragon clan elder halfway in a show of unity.

Friendships between the alicorn, her dragon friend, and the dragon’s head negotiators had bloomed not long after the discussions were complete. That Spike had also been involved had certainly facilitated things.

There had even been a gift exchange in which Twilight, at Princess Luna’s insistence, had gifted the dragon elder a sword hoof crafted from the finest of gemstones and of the strongest steel that they could hope to find. In exchange, Twilight had received a draconic medallion which had more or less declared her a friend of the dragons. At the same time, Spike had ended up becoming an ambassador of sorts to help ease relations. A few seconds later, the medallion had transformed into a key, much to everyone’s mutual confusion until Twilight had realized what this had meant had to bid farewell to the dragons’ entourage before she and Spike rushed back home.

The castle had been a result. None of them really understood how Twilight had managed to acquire her key given that there wasn’t any magic that they knew of being used.

The magic of friendship was a beautiful thing...

“There’s not really much to go through Twilight,” Spike rolled his eyes as he leaned on one of the arms of his throne. “We’ve been talking about this for four hours.”

“Yeah! We’ve already gone through this a million times!” Rainbow exclaimed. “We found all the keys and we got this sweet castle after unlocking that chest of harmony! End of story!”

“Yes, but why?” Twilight Sparkle asked. “Aren’t you, at least, a bit curious?”

“I dunno sugarcube,” Applejack shrugged, “Maybe it’s just your new house and there’s nothin’ more to it than that.”

“I must say,” Rarity began, “speaking strictly on aesthetics, there really doesn’t need to be anything more to it. It’s all simply divine!” The others stared at her for several seconds. Rarity began to fidget under their scrutiny before letting out a strangled noise that made them back off.

“I agree with Twilight. And Applejack. And Rainbow Dash. And Pinkie Pie. And Discord. Oh and probably Spike,” said Fluttershy skittishly. Spike stared at her incredulously.

“You do realize that you’re agreeing with two opposing arguments right? Also, Pinkie hasn't actually said anything,” he pointed out before pausing. Actually, that in itself was strange since Pinkie was not known for being quiet. Then again, she was known for being completely unpredictable.

It was no wonder why she and Discord made such great business partners.

“In any case,” Twilight interrupted. “As princess, I’ve been chosen to spread the magic of friendship across Equestria. So why would the Tree of Harmony want us to sit in a castle in Ponyville? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense!” Spike exclaimed, facepalming at Twilight's confusion. “The castle is like a base of operations where you can plan your friendship spreading endeavors. From what I can tell, since the castle is a physical manifestation of the friendship six of you share, it seems like the castle is a tool that you’ll be using to help you spread friendship across Equestria.”

All of a sudden, the entire castle began to rumble, causing several rocks to converge from their thrones and conjure what looked to be an entire map of Equestria made out of crystal. Spike frowned when he spotted his head spines on the map along with the ponies’ cutie marks before they all traveled together and landed on a seemingly random point on the map.

“But if this is Ponyville, what are our cutie marks doing over there?” Fluttershy asked, her gaze transfixed on the spot while all of their cutie marks continued to glow and vibrate. Spike had the distinct displeasure of feeling his head spines vibrate every few seconds.

“I don’t know. But from what I can tell, it seems like the map wants us to find out. The tree, the chest, this castle, and now the map. How can we not follow it?” Twilight replied eagerly.

The others had chimed in their agreement at the prospect of a new and possibly dangerous adventure before they all departed to pack for what would be a road trip.

Spike grunted as he hopped off the station platform from a mostly uneventful train ride alongside his friends. What they saw when they got there surprised them.

Not because it was exciting or anything. Actually, for the exact opposite reason. The town was so underwhelming and boring that it would not have been a stretch to call it monotonous. Frankly, Spike was more surprised that there was any color anywhere with how dull and boring everything here seemed to be. There was no flair or excitement anywhere. Fluttershy, for her part, seemed to appreciate the peace here compared to the madness that often frequented Ponyville.

All in all, it was a pretty depressing place to live in Spike's opinion.

The scene before them was only made creepier by the strange grins on the ponies faces as well as their matching cutie marks as Twilight had pointed out. And that was to say nothing of the rags that they seemed to enjoy wearing. It was a miracle that Rarity hadn't fainted from the sheer hideousness of their garb. But that was for another time.

It was actually a curious incident: it seemed that everybody in the village had the same cutie mark. While it wasn't particularly rare for multiple ponies to have the same cutie mark, the larger the group, the less likely it was to occur. What they were seeing was practically impossible. But there they were as they trotted about, going about their business as usual.

"Maybe we should ask around about what's going on," Spike suggested from his hiding spot next to Twilight as his friends surveyed the area from afar. "It's not like we'll learn much more just by watching them... that and it makes me feel like I'm stalking them so let's not do that." The six mares nodded uneasily while Pinkie quietly uttered her distaste for those smiles on their faces.

It's almost like they were too wide and seemed forced and Pinkie didn't like it.

* * *

As the seven friends stepped into the town, they found themselves being greeted warmly by the resident ponies. Fluttershy was now convinced that this village was the most pleasant place in Equestria and her friends watched as they continued to greet her warmly. Then again, Spike, privately, couldn't really blame her since madness seemed to be the norm in Ponyville.

Rainbow, for her part, was starting to regret agreeing to come on this so called adventure. They'd already been here for ten minutes and yet nothing interesting had happened yet. She was half tempted to turn tail and head back home but she doubted she could have lived with the potential guilt of leaving her friends to fend for themselves from some monster that might have been responsible for this strangeness.

Moving on, it was not long after they realized that there was an alicorn in their midst.

"That there's the Princess of Friendship," said Applejack proudly, throwing a foreleg around a blushing Twilight as the rest of her friends collectively crowded around her in a show of affectionate friendship. The resident ponies had responded that they had come to the right place if they wanted to experience true friendship.

A white earth pony stallion who had been leading the group asked what had brought them to their quaint little village. Twilight and Spike had explained how they had found it on a magical map they had back home.

"Well, all are welcome here," he smiled at them. "Like I said, I'm Double Diamond and this is Party Favor." He gestured to the sky blue unicorn stallion next to him. Applejack had responded in kind as she introduced all her friends. Double Diamond had noted their unique cutie marks. That had brought the main issue into the limelight.

"If you don't mind me asking, there hasn't been any trouble here recently has there?" Twilight asked carefully. There was no reason to imply that there was any reason to panic.

"Trouble?" Double Diamond rubbed his face with a hoof in thought. "I don't think we've had any trouble here since this village was founded, I believe."

"That much is true," Party Favor nodded to his friend before turning back to the seven newcomers. "Perhaps you'd like to speak to our founder: Starlight Glimmer. I'm sure she can help address any concerns you might have."

"Good idea," Spike nodded from his place on Twilight's back. "I actually have a few questions I'd like to ask so hopefully she'll be able to give us some answers." They watched as the two stallions slowly trotted away before Fluttershy spoke.

"I wish everypony in Equestria was as friendly as these ponies are," she couldn't but gush. She had wilted under the gazes of her friends while Spike looked on sympathetically. She did have a point after all. Everything here seemed peaceful and it seemed like the perfect world to live in harmony with each other. Heck, the only problems Spike had were the fact that this was all located in the middle of nowhere and the disappointing deficiency of any sort of gems.

Dragons had to eat something after all.

Pinkie Pie was still suspicious as she kept her cutie mark concealed from the onlookers while she scrutinized the town carefully while she followed her friends.

In any case, the seven of them watched as Party Favor and Double Diamond knocked on the door before opening it and trotting inside. Twilight and Spike exchanged a look with the rest of their friends before following the stallions inside.

Once inside, Spike had to stifle a snort of laughter as he heard Rainbow Dash whisper to Applejack of preparing herself for a fight. If his comic books had taught him anything, it’s that evil ponies tended to hide behind a mask of charisma especially if they had something to hide. Plus, he doubted that there would be enough room to fight all that well given how small it appeared to be compared to some of the homes back in Ponyville. The newcomers were on edge as they watched the door slowly open, giving off a more than ominous air as a silhouette slowly emerged from the darkness of the previous room. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were primed and ready to attack with the mysterious figure stepped into the light.

...It was just a normal pony. Particularly, a unicorn pony with a pink coat and purple and blue mane and tail. Much like all the other ponies in the village, she also bore the equal sign cutie mark.

"Welcome!" she smiled charmingly. "I'm so pleased to have you all here."

Rainbow Dash silently groaned. It was abundantly clear that she would have preferred some monster that had been stealing the cutie marks and forcing the townsponies to play along. That, at least, would be more exciting. This, on the other hand, was probably the most underwhelming experience she'd had since she met Twilight and became a wielder of the element of loyalty.

Double Diamond had already taken the initiative as he made introductions between the seven newcomers and the town's founder: Starlight Glimmer.

"Forgive my bluntness, but I'm assuming it's Princess Twilight Sparkle? We don't get many alicorns around here." Twilight had responded by inviting the unicorn to simply call her Twilight.

"I'm sure it doesn't help that there are only four alicorns in Equestria and one happens to be in the Crystal Empire while the other two live in Canterlot and the last one being right here," Spike pointed it out. Starlight's eyes darted to him as they widened marginally before a smile stretched across her face.

"Ah, I never expected that I'd meet your young dragon friend," Starlight smiled as she looked him over before turning back to Twilight. "He's quite well known for his work in simply talking to others instead of fighting them. That's a trait that I've come to admire about you, Spike."

"That's all well and good but how do you know about Spike?" Rarity asked curiously. Starlight's horn lit up as several newspapers soared from their place on a bookshelf. Opening them, Starlight pointed to an article featuring the baby dragon along with Twilight Sparkle who, at the time, was still a unicorn as they made the deal to help strengthen relations between ponies and changelings and solidified the deal by shaking hooves or a claw in Spike's case.

Starlight had gone on to explain that it was actions like these that motivated her to continue her own work as she sought to bring ponies closer together in true friendship.

"So does that make you the mayor of this town?" Spike asked, remembering that Double Diamond had mentioned she was the founder of the village. "Since you're the founder of this town and everything."

"Oh no," Starlight chuckled as she gestured for them to sit down. "We all live in this village as equals. Nopony here is more special than anypony else." She turned to Twilight while clapping her hooves enthusiastically. "So! How did you hear of our little village?"

Twilight had explained that they had simply found it on a map. Pinkie had interjected, explaining that it was more of a tree-chest-castle-map but the idea was still the same, albeit more impressive. Starlight hadn't batted an eye during the exchange as she continued to smile serenely at them. Clearly, she had seen similar explanations in the past.

"Well, however you found us, we're happy to have you! We're happy to have anybody," she nodded at Spike, "who wants to experience true friendship for the first time." She ignored the deadpanned glare that Applejack gave her as she continued to explain.

"That's why our village is so unique, you see," she straightened a picture of an equal sign. "Around here, we don't flaunt our special talents because we don't have any special talents to flaunt."

"Is that why you all have those cutie marks?" Twilight asked, pointing to the equal sign cutie mark on Starlight's flank. Starlight nodded as she explained that these were a symbol to show that nobody was more special or superior than anybody else in their little village.

"Okay, well that's good and all but I've still got some questions I'd like to ask," Spike raised his hand. Starlight had smiled and told him that before she answered his questions, she wanted to give them a tour of the village to help them get a feel for the kind of lifestyle that they led here.

The seven friends followed as Starlight led them outside.

"Heads high, ponies! Marching proud!" They watched as she conducted a whole song for them.

Long story short, Starlight Glimmer had been working to create a village where ponies knew only happiness through equality. Differences led to arguments which led to superiority complexes and over inflated egos. The ponies had promoted teamwork and pointed out that they could never have nightmares if they couldn't dream. In the end, they had told the seven friends that having a special talent leads to ponies not seeing eye to eye which would inevitably lead to differences in opinion which would eventually lead to friendship crumbling around them. So the obvious solution was to simplify things: give up the cutie mark and receive the equality one as a show of support for the utopia.

Well that certainly explains the concept that she's been after. Spike thought as they finished their song and dance. However, that whole routine had only served to bring about more questions for the young dragon to ask the first chance he got.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were at odds about the whole thing. On the one hoof, Dash was understandably reluctant to give up her cutie mark. Aside from the fact that it looked really cool, it was also thanks to this that she had found her talent with her speed which she had come to count on as both a key identifying trait about herself as well as a critical part of her skill set. This became, even more, important when she became a reserve member for the Wonderbolts.

On the other hoof, Fluttershy had noted that the singing ponies were perfectly happy with their choice. As far as she could tell, they seemed to be leading happy and productive lives, aesthetics not withstanding.

"Don't believe their smiles, Fluttershy," Pinkie warned.

Meanwhile, the Princess of Friendship and her dragon friend turned back to Starlight. The former admitted that she was a little confused by the whole song and dance.

"It's simple," Starlight started, "we have no judgments here in our little village. Each of us was confused once as well, blinded by the false promise of our cutie marks."

Twilight had then explained that when they were sent to the village, they were under the impression that it was to help the village out in some way. "But looking around, you all seem to be getting along just fine on your own and you don't really need any help."

Starlight rubbed a hoof to her chin. "Have you considered that you might have been sent here so that we could help you?" Seeing the incredulous looks on their faces, Starlight continued. "Think about, nopony has ever come to our village has wanted to leave so why should you be any different?" She paused.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself," she flashed a small smile, "whether you stay or not is your decision. But while you're here, I hope you enjoy our little corner of Equestria. We're all quite fond of it and I'm confident that you will be as well." She turned to Double Diamond and asked him to help their guests with anything they might need. The white stallion had agreed in an instant.

That done, Starlight had turned to return back to her own home when something stopped her.

"Wait." Starlight paused to look back to see the small dragon looking at her curiously. She inclined her head to allow him to continue.

"I still have some questions and I figured that you'll be the best pony to ask since you came up with this idea in the first place," Spike told her.

"Of course," Starlight nodded. "We can talk all we want in my home." The six mares had made to go off after him but Spike had flashed them a confident grin and mouthed, I got this. I am a big dragon after all. Twilight had smiled wryly as she watched the pair set off before turning to her friends, wondering aloud on what they ought to do first.

* * *

"So you had some questions for me, Spike?" Starlight asked as she sipped her tea while Spike sat across from her, favoring with a simple glass of water.

"Oh yeah," Spike nodded. "I was actually curious about how you came up with the idea that equality through giving up one's cutie marks would actually lead to peace because it evidently worked out quite well here."

Starlight looked uncomfortable but nodded to herself. It was an innocuous question and it wasn't really something that she needed to hide. She had begun to explain how she had come from humble beginnings. She was a filly with parents who were struggling to feed her. Because of her situation, few ever gave her the time of day yet alone became friends with her.

That was until she had met a colt named Sunburst. From there on, the two had stuck together like superglue.

And then came the day Sunburst had left her behind. Granted, he had saved her from a tower of books that would have otherwise fallen on her. His family had realized his talent for magic and sent him off to Canterlot.

"It was because he'd gotten his cutie mark and thus realized his special talent that I never got to see him again, no matter how hard I tried to find him or contact him, none of my letters ever went through and he never tried to keep in touch with me."

Initially, Spike had been incredulous about Starlight's reason for pursuing this ideology but as she told her story and how it had affected her, Spike had decided against commenting about it. After all, she had done everything in her power to maintain their friendship but it seemed that Sunburst had not reciprocated.

"But didn't you try to make other friends to move on?" Spike asked.

"I'm going to be honest with you, Spike," Starlight began, "After Sunburst left, it took me a long time to recover since it was such a personal blow to my self-esteem. After all, I was so emotionally invested in that friendship that when it ended the way it did, I was too scared to start making friends with other ponies so I ultimately withdrew into myself."

Well that made a lot more sense that Starlight simply blaming the cutie mark itself.

"So how did that experience translate into giving up cutie marks for equality?" Spike asked. "Because at that time, you didn't seem to give too much thought to equality in and of itself."

"That part had come later," Starlight replied. "Actually, it was an idea that I had come up with when I started traveling around and seeing all sorts of different places just to see how the ponies in those areas lived their lives."

Starlight had gone on to explain how cutie marks had ended up establishing a sort of unspoken caste system among pony society. That idea had come about when she had noticed how cutie marks were an indication of a special talent but also a means of ostracism among the younger generations. Spike could agree with that given how much flak Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had gotten for not having theirs. Still, he was surprised to hear that even after getting a cutie mark, if it didn't look impressive, it could become a means of ostracism.

From there, she had explained her desire to work to push for reforms that would allow ponies to shape their own destinies. She had proven herself a vehement believer that ponies should be able to define their own destinies and not have to be defined by a cutie mark.

Starlight's speech had definitely caught Spike off guard as he took in what she said. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense: a lot of the ponies from high society places like Canterlot or Manehatten had cutie marks that could lead those ponies to a high earning jobs like doctors or lawyers while several lower wage working ponies had cutie marks that seemed to discriminate against them especially given what species of ponies seem to earn talents in certain tasks related to their species.

"So you're telling me that only certain species of ponies can get certain jobs?" Spike asked incredulously while internally feeling grateful that he was a dragon and, therefore, didn't have to deal with the whole cutie mark thing.

"That's what I've gathered," Starlight nodded. "So I thought that if I could convince them to give up their 'special' talents then I could at least give them a chance to pursue a different talent that might interest them if they so desired."

The way Starlight was talking now reminded Spike of Princess Amore who had uttered similar words to Sombra and Radiant Hope when she'd met them looking into the Crystal Heart. Shaking his head, he turned back to Starlight.

"But even then, couldn't the equal sign cutie marks be easily mistaken for a talent in math... or in spell creation?" Spike asked. "Wouldn't it be kind of confusing since my first thought when I spotted all the equal signs was: 'Sweet Celestia, we've stumbled into a village filled with math wizards'."

Starlight had to stifle a laugh at Spike's question as she pondered it. She had to admit that it was a good question.

"Well I suppose I can see how you might come about that line of thinking if you came into town without knowing anything about it beforehoof," Starlight conceded. "But if all the ponies in this town had a talent in math then I think you'd see a lot more formulas in the dirt all around the place if only because we don't exactly have any chalkboards here."

"So what about economy? How do you all sustain yourselves if you live by this whole equality ideal?" Spike asked. "I mean, I doubt that you divide and conquer because that would lead to differences right and some ponies having some sort of superiority complex." Clearly Spike had been paying more attention to the song's lyrics that she and the others had sung that she'd expected.

Starlight grimaced. She'd hoped that he wouldn't have asked that but still, it wasn't like she had anything to hide.

Now if only she believed that.

Sighing, she explained how they had all worked together to get everything done where it was possible. Sure, it wasn't the most effective way of getting things done but it did serve as a team building exercise and had brought the community closer together through that teamwork.

"Well the town seems to get along well enough," Spike noted. "But the method that you described for equality doesn't really bring equality to the three pony races though does it? Because if you think about it: unicorns regardless of whether they have their cutie mark can still perform basic magic. Pegasi can still fly and earth ponies still have their strength and endurance. And what about the non-pony species? How do they play into all of this?"

Starlight grimaced. She hadn't really taken those factors into account when she'd come up with her plan as much as she hated to admit it.

Keep calm Starlight. He may have brought up some legitimate points but you also need to show why this is the best course of action Starlight thought as she watched Spike take a small sip of his water while she strained her mind for a suitable argument.

"I'll be honest. I'm not really sure what I can do to even the playing field especially for earth ponies who more often than not seem to get the short end of the stick since their talents lie in farming or construction which is part of the reason I'm going through with this.” She said. “With this route, I can, at least, give them a new lease on life so that they could, if so desired, try to find a talent in something else." She smiled at him. "But to everypony that has embraced equality, they've never wanted to leave and have lived simple but happy lives here."

"I guess," said Spike skeptically. "But humor me for a bit, let's say that, in the case of one non-pony species, gets picked on or teased for not being a pony, how could equality come into play here. I can only think of having them get equal rights and protections under the law as well as the equality of opportunity." Spike was more than glad that he'd been paying attention while Princess Celestia had begun to teach both him and Twilight the basics about politics after the changeling invasion.

"Well given that most species that aren't ponies don't have cutie marks then the magic that is used to remove cutie marks wouldn't work with them," Starlight grimaced. She hadn't considered the possibility of a non-pony coming to their village

"So doesn't it seem a bit unfair that this ideal of friendship that you're spreading is something that is exclusive only to ponies and by that line undermines everything you've been talking about up until now?" Spike asked.

Starlight was stunned. No, her mind had just been blown out of the water.

Spike, for his part, had grimaced. He hadn't meant for it to go in that direction as he watched Starlight's eyes go blank. He quickly moved to her side, snapping his claws to get her attention. Sighing in relief when he had, Spike continued on as a new a potentially wonderful idea came to mind.

But first...

"So you've been mentioning that ponies have been giving up their cutie marks," Spike started. "How do they do that?"

Starlight had explained the existence of an artifact called the Staff of Sameness. It was apparently one Meadowbrook's nine enchanted items which will allow a pony to use its powers to remove their cutie marks. She had gone on to explain that it was an artifact that could not be used to forcibly remove a pony's cutie mark when she saw the questioning look on his face. She had finished her explanation by explaining that their cutie marks were kept in a vault up in the mountains. The ponies were free to visit them as a reminder to the terrible lives that they used to live. With that statement, it was clear that these ponies had given up their talents entirely of their own free will if what Starlight was saying was the truth.

Spike noted that she really did want to make Equestria a better and happier place. He thought at that at the core, her ideas that ponies should been treated equally and fairly irrespective of their status or talents was in retrospect a good idea. He couldn't help but wonder if he could put a new spin on it and ask her to present her ideas to the princesses.

It would make for good PR in any case. When he posed the idea to Starlight, it had the effect her eyes go wide. If she did that then maybe she had a chance to explain her ideology to the most politically powerful figures in Equestria.

Spike stood up and thanked Starlight for taking the time to talk with him. It certainly cleared up a lot of questions he had about the village. Starlight had responded that she had enjoyed the conversation as well as she enjoyed talking with those who expressed a genuine interest and gave a great deal of thought about the lifestyle that she promoted. A mare had guided Spike back to the cottage she had lent to Princess Twilight and her friends and once she saw the door close, she heaved a sigh of relief before looking back at the mountain.

She had a lot of thinking to do.

* * *

“Are you sure about this Starlight?” Double Diamond asked cautiously as he and Starlight walked further into the cave. “What if what Spike was saying was actually incorrect and he is simply trying to force you from the path that you’ve worked toward this entire time!”

“As far as I’m concerned, Spike and I want the same thing: equal rights for all. Taking away cutie marks was just a means to reach that end and it wasn’t even an effective means in hindsight,” Starlight replied, her horn aglow as she unlocked the vault. At the same time, she thought back to the ponies she had spoken with and asked for their opinion about her ideology. She could tell that they agreed with it on the surface but to the extent that she had taken this, it was too far in her eyes.

“But Starlight!” the stallion protested, “what about the townsponies? Won’t it be seen as you undermining your past statements if you go through with this?”

“I’ll give them the choice,” Starlight replied without missing a beat as she collected as many cutie marks as she could in her magical grip. “If they want their cutie marks back, I’ll gladly help them and if they don’t want them, I’ll give them the container that holds them should they change their mind later. Talking to Spike, I’ve learned that there will never be equality if I force other ponies to conform to my desires. That’ll only serve to undermine the ideology that I’ve been preaching and that doesn’t exactly set a good precedent. It also makes me no better than the tyrants that I’m fighting.”

The stallion was clearly struggling for a counterargument. Starlight sighed.

“Look Double Diamond. I never said that I was giving up my dream of bringing equality to Equestria,” said Starlight wearily. “It’s just that there is so much more that I should have realized before I haphazardly went on this quest. What Spike’s been doing: helping those who've had bad reputation get a new lease on life and move past all the bad things they had done in the past. I should be doing more of that. All I’ve done by taking away these ponies’ cutie marks is potentially ruining their lives and possibly their well being.”

“What if somepony tries to claim a cutie mark that isn’t theirs!?” the stallion named Double Diamond asked. It was clear that he was grasping at straws now.

“Cutie marks only respond to their original owners, namely the pony whose flank they had originally appeared when they were earned so stealing somepony's cutie mark is next to impossible," Starlight replied.

“But what about the promises of a second chance?” the Double Diamond asked frantically. “You said that taking away their cutie marks would give them the chance to find a better lot in life.”

“Which is why I’m giving them the choice,” Starlight sighed as they headed out of the cave. “If they want their marks back. They can have them. If they don’t then they can still keep them contained while they pursue a new interest or if they change their minds about their lot in life.”

* * *

The next day proved to be quite a surprise to the seven friends as they stepped outside of their guest cottage at the commotion going on outside.

To the surprise of everyone, Starlight was carrying several glass jars containing cutie marks in a large wagon. She forced a smile on her face as she noticed the long line of ponies patiently waiting to get their cutie marks back. As each cutie mark was returned, Starlight noticed just how much brighter both the pony, and their coat's sheen have brightened, and the town itself seemed to be brighter. By the time she had finished returning the last of the cutie marks, the town was practically a festival. Ponies were talking happily, leaving Starlight stunned for more than a few reasons.

“I see you decided to return the cutie marks.” It was an offhand comment but it took the unicorn mare by surprise as she jumped a little in her seat as she spotted Twilight, Spike, and her friends watching the proceedings with interest.

“I thought I was bringing true friendship to these ponies by freeing them of their cutie marks but... looking at them now…” Starlight stared at them sadly before sighing and turning back to the newcomers. “I'm just not sure anymore.”

“You could always stay here and discover this new wave of friendship,” Twilight suggested. “I don’t know what the future might hold in store for you if you choose to stay here. But I think it’ll be interesting to find out. Don’t you think?”

"I suppose," Starlight conceded. "But that still doesn't change the fact that I want to make Equestria a better place for everybody although in retrospect, there were probably many different ways to go about doing that."

"So what will you do now?" Spike asked.

"Once I'm done here I'll probably go to Canterlot to talk to the princesses about some of the equal rights amendments I have in mind. If it goes like I'm hoping it will friendships between different species will be more easily forged."

Spike had then suggested she could come with them to Ponyville in order to learn from Twilight about the friendship she had in mind. Starlight had readily agreed. If she wanted to spread friendship and make ponies happier than learning more about friendship itself could only help her.

Twilight had her friends had blinked when they felt their cutie marks or head spine in Spike's case glow and vibrate. Twilight realized that this had meant that they had resolved the friendship problem that they had come to resolve.

Twilight, Spike, and all of their friends had led Starlight to the train station when they heard a voice call out to them.

The two turned around to find a light pink mare rushing up to them. Spike’s first impression was that she was a unicorn version of Pinkie given her poofy mane and cheery disposition.

“I’m so glad I managed to find you,” she panted. “I wanted to give you all something for your journey.” Her horn lit up as she pulled out a large box. The pair opened it to find a dozen cupcakes inside. Pinkie had been excited and only a burst of magic from Twilight that forcibly stopped her from eating them all herself.

At the confused looks, she explained. “I don’t where your journey will take you but I figured that it couldn’t hurt to have something to keep your spirits up. Starlight, while you did take our cutie marks, I can understand why you did it. Plus it did help build a friendship between ponies who would have probably had never talked to each other so I have to be thankful for that.”

Starlight’s face was tear-stained as she found herself hugging the mare. The mare in turn smiled awkwardly while rubbing her back soothingly. Starlight’s face burned with resolve as she separated and placed the box in her saddlebags.

“Last call!”

The eight nodded before the unicorn mare waved to seven and Starlight who boarded the train. That was when the most curious thing happened.

Namely, the sound of hooves against the ground like a stampede.

Starlight and Twilight exchanged looks as they spotted more and more ponies waving happily. Pinkie for her part was happy to note that they were wearing genuine smiles this time. It was clear that for all the anguish that Starlight had inadvertently caused, there were still plenty of ponies that understood what she was trying to do and had appreciated the fostered community that she created albeit unintentionally.

The eight of them quickly took their seats and continued to wave as the train rolled out the station. They had then stared out the window: one eager for her next big adventure and the others happy to be returning home.

Author's Note

So that concludes Talking is Magic for our main series antagonists. I'm honored that you all decided to join me on this ride and hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope my reasoning made sense and I hope you liked the way I managed to retcon in the Friendship Castle into the story.

Also, I'd like to thank The Pony Spartan for editing and pre-reading this chapter.

As always, thanks for reading.