The Rise of Species: Dragons

Chapters

Research
Origin of Species
Answers and Consequences
Finding 'Home'
Finding A Clue
Confrontations
Meeting Royalty
Talks of Change
On Their Way
Source of Change
Message Recieved
Huge Risks, Small Steps
Stirrings
Dragons: The Gathering
Divulging Displays
Cracking The Scale
The Changed Whole
First Contact

Research

Spike was pacing. He had never particularly liked pacing. It was something that was completely unnecessary and accomplished nothing but build up what was fueling the pacing in the first place. And he didn’t have a number one assistant to tell him he was overreacting.

It was early morning, far too early as Twilight would point out. Nopony in their right mind, perhaps aside from the Apples, would be up this early. But Spike had a problem from last night, and he really didn’t know how to address it, and he was sure the only pony he could talk to about this was heading to bed herself.

Spike had had a dream. Not a nightmare, but also not what he would be considered a good dream, or even his own dream. He had found himself in a rather large cavern, an enormous one, perhaps even being able to house Canterlot and its mountain with room to breathe, though what was in the cavern might have something to say about that.

A dragon that took up the entire floor lay there. At first Spike had thought it to be a well sculpted rock, but soon saw a rolling fire beneath its large scales, red scales that shifted ever so slowly to show the behemoth still drew breath. Spike had found it to be immensely satisfying to be able to see the whole thing as he did, because he was pretty sure standing anywhere near it would make the dragon eclipse his view. And so he walked around the dragon, taking in every feature, to its leathern wings that rested peacefully along it’s back to the spear-point tail that wrapped about the its stomach. The swept back spines that ran down its back made it seem so fast, even as it lay near stone still. But as he drank this all in, he began seeing other things.

Visions. Visions of battles nopony would remember because no pony had been there, only dragons, and fearsome ones at that. Visions of families that had been dearly loved, ones of battle and death. And visions of pain as those two lives clashed.

Over and over these visions ran, but none ever seemed to repeat themselves. There, a black crawling dragon drooled over an egg, melting the shell and fetus inside, but close by was the same drake being hatched himself. Over and over scenes of love and hate seemed to mingle and shuffle, and Spike didn’t know where to look next, because each of these scenes seemed to play upon the massive dragon’s scales.

Soon Spike didn’t know where else to look except for where there were no scales, the dragon’s closed eye.

It didn’t stay as such, for it slowly creaked open, a sky blue iris that dove into a deep purple going toward the black chasm of its slit pupil. Spike looked to the color in awe as the eye fully opened and the thin haw membrane slid back, granting the dragon full vision.

And what had happened next currently had Spike pacing.

The dragon smiled. “Welcome home, Little Spike.”

The voice hadn’t rumbled or shaken the room, but it had shaken Spike awake. Something in Spike’s core had whisked him away from the dragon and into the waking world, and now he didn’t know what to do. He was sure he had never seen such a dragon before in his, granted few, travels. Spike had barely been as big as one of the smallest scales about the dragon’s eye. He should have felt as small and terrified as he had with the green dragon he had run into in the woods, probably even worse in fact.

But the more he paced, the more he tried to think, and the more he thought, a single conclusion came to him. And it was one that continued to confuse him to no end.

He had to see the dragon.

He couldn’t say why and he couldn’t say where either, he had only seen the cavern after all. And why did he feel a need to see the dragon when four words made him run in terror? Or was that terror? Maybe it was a start for his journey. Or was it something else?

And so Spike paced about the hallway outside his room, confused about the whole situation. Spike eventually stopped and pounded his right claw into his left. He needed to know, and if there had been one thing Twilight had taught him is that if you needed to know something, read its book. Spike set off to the main floor to the library section of the castle. Twilight had decided near immediately that the library needed to be replaced, and as the castle had more room than she knew what to do with, she had turned the entire right wing of the first floor into the new Ponyville public library, it even had enough rooms to be filled by genre materials alone.

As Spike made his way down, he knew exactly where to go. Unfortunately, where he was going was going to be a mess. Not because of disorganization, Celestia knew Twilight wouldn’t allow that. It was because what Spike needed was going to be in the Hardly Researched section of their selection. Apparently Twilight had been wrong once in her life and didn’t know that there was actual research on dragons, but it was either on their history in relation to Equestria or examining their mythology as a psychological examination of the draconic species. And as that was thrown together with near any other throw away topic, there was going to be a bit of digging before he found what he needed.

As Spike opened the door to the Hardly Researched section, he hacked a bit from dust fluttering out to meet him. Spike grumbled as he put a hand over his mouth as he made his way to the opposite wall to open the window for a draft to enter. He might cough a bit more, but at least the dust would move after it was disrupted. So Spike began to search the shelves for whatever draconic knowledge they had acquired, moving past ‘The Minotaur’s Bloody Past?’ and ‘Do Sheep Dream of Electric Fences’ into the less concrete material. He spotted one that looked promising ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat, Mother of Dragons’, along with ‘Nestling’s Nightly Stories’, which seemed a bit more dubious, but sounded like a better read than the first one.

Not wanting to kick up more than he had, Spike walked to the door and contemplated closing the window, but upon remembering the schedule Dash had drawn up, he was good until at least 3 today to get back to it, so he decided to let the little used room to air out. Making his way down to the Adventure section of the wing, Spike decided to make himself comfortable. Not that it was hard, as it was Rainbow Dash’s favorite, she had personally taken it upon herself to set up the comfiest, body enveloping chairs she could find. Twilight had to shoot down the idea of perpetual clouds due to really only pegasi using them, and their ambient moisture would definitely ruin more than a few books.

Looking over both books, Spike decided to crack into ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ to get the boring one out of the way first. After skipping the tiresome opening and thank you of the author, Spike was greeted with the image of a massive dragon with five heads, one each of black, blue, green, red, and white, all of varied shapes and expressions, but all seeming to hold the same growl of disapproval. Massive wings and a scythe-like tail that had lopped off the top of a mountain made Spike’s eyes grow wide.

Tiamat, Mother of Dragons

Quickly skimming over the introduction, Spike turned the page and began reading the far more interesting history than he was expecting.

‘Tiamat had been born of five aspects clashing together, upon a solar eclipse as a dormant volcano erupted over its lush tropical island into the ocean, the resulting smog coalesced into the dragon upon the previous page. This birth had not been pleasant, as her roar ripped through the world, making even the newly awakened princesses shake in their shoes. It had been a roar of life, death, pain, and pleasure. The heads, naturally, fought for control, each pulling one way or biting for another to listen to it. Quickly tiring itself out, it had fallen over the island for a brief nap.’ Brief being five years.

“Spike?” A groggy Twilight inquired as she poked her head into the ‘Adventure’ section. “Are you in here?”

“Yeah Twi.” Spike acknowledged, looking up to see what was needed.

“Oh good.” Twilight smiled a bit lazily as she made her way to the reading area. “What do you have there?”

“Just a few, uh, dragon books.” He showed her the cover of his book. Twilight’s smile grew a bit more at ‘Nestlings Nightly Stories’, but dropped at ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’. She had skimmed both out of curiosity when they came in, and the first was surely something simple Spike could entertain himself with, but the second was something on a different level.

“’The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ huh? What brought about getting that out?” Twilight asked, and as an afterthought “Did you close the window in Hardly Researched?”

“I’ll get to that by three, and just some curiosity sparked, that’s all.” Spike said as he closed the book. “Was there something you needed Twi?”

“Uh, well, not really, just this isn’t where I normally find you is all.” Twilight answered. It was the truth, if she wasn’t getting him up, he was making breakfast for them. Having not found him in his room or kitchen had been quite the oddity. “What brought up the curiosity?”

“Just… a dream really.” Spike said in a halted tone. “Got some ideas running through my head and decided to read up on them.”

“A dream of dragons?”

“Yeah, just about. Haven’t had the best conversations with the dragons I’ve met, so I turned to your solution.” Spike gave a cocky smile as Twilight scowled. “But in all seriousness, this is pretty intense.” Spike pat ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’. “I think even Dash would want to read it.”

That made Twilight’s ear twitch. “How far have you gotten?”

“Not past the first five pages, but what five pages can do, you know?”

“You do realize it’s a myth book right? Not an actual retelling.” Twilight mused, remembering to the introduction.

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining. Besides, who knows how much could be true? I mean, if Nightmare Moon is any indication.” Spike shrugged.

“But Celestia was around to keep an eye on that story to make sure no radical changes happened Spike.”

“And who’s to say there’s no dragon old enough to know this one?” Spike skeptically eyed Twilight. This was quickly turning into a debate he knew he wasn’t prepared for, but he always did like to see how far he could push his logic against Twilights.

“Because this says ‘Mother of Dragons’ Spike, and from what I gleamed from it, I doubt Tiamat recounted this to Bold Venture. There are quite a few inconsistencies that clearly show there were alterations in generations passed.”

“But does that disregard the entire story? Does Bold Venture disclaim any inaccuracy?”

Twilight smirked. “If you had bothered to read the introduction, as I doubt you did, you would see he states he got this ‘right from the dragon’s mouth’, with more than a bit of gusto. He’s obviously engorged on his own ego in writing this.”

“Oh, and don’t say you weren’t proud about authoring that paper on draconic growth habits.” Spike smirked back. “I happen to remember you watching me very intently for those six months.”

“I was seven! And you were-“ Twilight quickly stopped. “Eight… months… old.” Twilight cocked her head to the side. “Do you really remember when you were eight months old?”

Spike blinked back at Twilight. He looked up to the ceiling for an answer, and found one. No, he didn’t remember when he was eight months old, he knew of when he was eight months old. Thinking back, one of the last scales he glanced over had been a small purple unicorn with a notepad and quill in a shaky magical grasp as she tried to write and observe a small purple dragon teething on his tail. The thought made Spike shiver, as not only was the dream not fading, what he saw was still etched firmly into his brain.

“Spike?” Twilight asked with a bit of worry.

“No Twilight, I don’t remember when I was eight months old.” Spike answered uncharacteristically somber, looking down as he clutched his claws together. “I know. I saw you taking notes of me teething on my tail.”

Twilight’s eyes grew and her pupils shrunk. She could give credit if Spike had indeed remembered something from that long ago, but remembering something from when he was asleep was on the verge of impossible. She wouldn’t throw it out outright, but she wasn’t going to look to memory as a first answer.

“And how do you know?”

Spike gave a hesitant sigh. “Because I saw it last night. I saw a lot last night, actually.” Spike rolled his tongue in his mouth an unsettling thought. “I’m beginning to think I got a message.”

“From Luna?”

Spike shook his head with a dark smile and chuckle. “Oh no, he was much bigger.”

“He?” Twilight asked with a bit of concern.

Spike stopped to think again. “Yeah, he. Most likely, it gave off a ‘he’ vibe.”

“Spike, what happened last night?” Twilight asked, moving to sit in front of Spike to make sure she had his full attention.

“I’m not quite sure, but it definitely wasn’t a normal dream. I was in this huge cavern, like, bigger than Canterlot mountain and a half huge, and lying there was this equally huge red dragon, and it looked like he had lifetimes of dragons on every one of his scales, and when I looked him in the eye, he looked back at me and said, get this, ‘Welcome home, Little Spike.’”

Spike waited for Twilight’s thoughts on his little story, but none seemed to be forthcoming. Twilight stared darkly at the ground as her brain seemed to go a thousand miles an hour. Spike was about to speak again when Twilight finally looked up at him.

“Spike, go make us some breakfast.” Twilight stated. “I have a letter to write.”

Spike was a bit confused at this sudden shift. “Twilight, you’ve said before-“

“That you write faster and cleaner than I do, and that’s true. But this letter is going to need to be… thought out.” Twilight gave a tight smile. “Please Spike, I think we’re both going to need this.”

Still a bit off put, Spike nodded. Twilight was about as bad as Rainbow Dash in impatience when something big came up. For something to make that do a 180 and make her carefully deliberate must be something really important. Twilight gave a short sigh of relief as she turned and left the Adventure section. Spike picked up his two books and hopped off the chair after her, being sure to properly close the door.

Spike made his way to the kitchen that was both unsettlingly big and warmly comforting at the same time. Applejack’s additions to the kitchen was more of an overhaul of the room, as before the counters and seats were a deep purple and rigidly angular, now the room had an overall worn wood feel with counter edges smoothly running around the edge or into the wall. Spike honestly couldn’t tell if Rarity hadn’t had a hoof in it as well from the flares of green leaves and red apples that were embellished amongst any non-interacted surface.

Spike decided that scrambled eggs sounded nice this morning, along with maybe some fire rubies for some extra spice, for himself of course. Spike had accidentally added crushed emeralds to a whole batch of cheese broccoli before, and the girls’ teeth had not taken kindly to it. Aside from Pinkie, who said they tasted minty-er than usual.

Placing his books on the dining counter, Spike flipped the burner on to its low setting with his tail as he scrounged next to the oven for a skillet. Walking over to a sink, he dashed some water into the pan and went back to set it down on the burner. The unfortunate truth of a kitchen in a royal palace was that it was made with the intention of at least ten ponies working in it, so while there was plenty of space to maneuver, there was also plenty of space between many of the appliances. By the time Spike got back with an empty pail and a pail of eggs, the water he had meant to help keep the skillet from getting food stuck was nearly evaporated.

Quickly cracking one egg open, emptying its contents, and tossing the shell into the empty pail, Spike picked up ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’, deftly holding it open with one hand while breaking up and stirring the egg with a spatula that had been hanging nearby. There had been many a time Twilight had asked him to stir a pot, and many a time he had found himself bored. Being able to read with one hand had become a handy skill.

‘After Tiamat’s nap, she had found many predators had come out of hiding and many birds were pecking at her back. Each head did its own job of clearing out the annoyances, by burning, flooding, or eating each pest. As food hit her stomach for the first time, the five came to a unanimous agreement. They had a shared stomach, and a shared hunger, so they would work together to eat. Each seemed to have their own preference, Blue wanted fish, Green wanted plants, Red wanted fresh meat, Black wanted the dead of any sort, and White wanted the essence of life. They scrounged the island for what it had to offer, but the island was soon desolate, and with a combined effort, the Mother of Dragons took flight for the first time.

Tiamat flew south and east for no other reason than Blue and White constantly scooping up ocean life. Upon finding land, Green, Red, and Black took up their own palate’s pleasure, quickly scouring the land and proceeding to make what is now known as the Badlands, thanks to Green, Black, and White leaving nothing to the cycle of life. Everything that could, ran. Anything that couldn’t, died. Tiamat was nigh unstoppable, until she stopped herself. In the middle of her feast, she stopped, and instead of Green eating its share, began to rip the trees out of the ground as Tiamat’s claws cleared the root system, with Red searing the ground into a sturdy hole, and Blue cooling it afterwards. It was then White who seemed to lead as-‘

Spike skipped the next two pages as he did not need that much information.

‘When the five eggs were properly arranged, Tiamat curled protectively about them. Four of the heads then began to sleep, as Black took an ever vigilant guard, keeping a very steady hold of Tiamat’s bladed tail.’

Spike put the book down as he felt the eggs begin to stiffen from overcooking and scrapped them onto awaiting plates. He sprinkled his own with rubies and took the two plates over to the adjoining dining room, which had Rarity’s name all over it. There were pink drapes that faded in nicely with the purple and blue crystal walls to make the place feel warmer, along with a white dining cloth that hid the dark purple dining table from the main focus of the room. Spike had actually hesitated the first time Twilight and he had used it as it had been made by Rarity, but Twilight had insisted that a dining room was meant for dining, so to was the cloth. Besides, it was a cloth. Spike put the plates down and pondered what else they would need, and shrugged as orange juice was the only thing to come to mind. So he fetched a pitcher, two glasses, and his books. Upon a second thought, he also picked up two heat retaining covers just in case Twilight took too long with her letter.

Covering the two meals, Spike sat in his chair and propped his book up again.

‘It was a year before the four awoke to the sound of hatching eggs. Each egg cracked and splintered to reveal five, near on clones of Tiamat, one of each head. As each mewed for food, the five collectively-‘ Spike was happy he hadn’t eaten yet ‘-regurgitated a pool of various things Tiamat had eaten. The five eagerly devoured the pool and began crawling about their nest. It had been at this point that Starswirl the Bearded approached Tiamat.’

Spike could only look at the last line dumbfounded and in complete and utter disbelief. Starswirl? Really? Had there been absolutely nopony else to look into this? It even said before that the Princesses were around already, why hadn’t they looked into Tiamat? And weren’t the Badlands a fair distance away from the Everfree where Celestia and Luna’s first castle had been?

The sound of the dining room door opening made Spike look up to see Twilight taking slow steps in. She made her way over to her chair and sat with a graceless ‘thump’. She lifted away the cover to find the fresh scrambled eggs beneath, but looking to either side, she gave a small smile.

“Forgetting something Spike?” Twilight asked, finally looking up to him. While he did see a playful spark, that was only on the surface, and something much heavier was behind her eyes. But finally looking at the table, Spike smacked his forehead. He had forgotten the forks. “It’s all right, I’ve got them.” Twilight said as a pair of forks made their way from the kitchen to the table.

“Heh, guess I see how it is when you’re reading now.” Spike chuckled as he grabbed his fork out of the air as Twilight let go.

“You’ve been reading that book still?” Twilight’s eyebrow raised as she stuck her fork in her eggs, seeming to forget what she had been brooding over.

“Yeah, and I think I might have found where something might be amiss.” Spike said as he flipped to his last page and turned the book towards Twilight. “Was Starswirl the only pony to do anything noteworthy?”

Twilight scanned the page and chuckled. “Yeah, you picked a good bit. Starswirl was studying and teaching Celestia and Luna 1,456 years ago, and from what I’ve found in some of his more… ‘personal’ journals, those were not days to leave the Princesses unattended. There’s no way Starswirl was there to meet Tiamat and her hatchlings.”

“But… somepony did, didn’t they?”

Twilight was silent for a moment. “I don’t know Spike, maybe. But remember that ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ should be-“

“Taken with a brick of salt, yeah yeah.” Spike wove Twilight off.

“A pinch of salt.” Twilight corrected. With a heavy sigh, she began eating her eggs as she poured both Spike and herself a glass of juice. Spike began eating and reading. “And put that book down, mister. It’s rude to read at the table.”

Spike looked up at Twilight with eyes that said ‘says the mare who does the same thing’. She huffed and busied herself in her basic eggs, and Spike began again.

‘It had been at this point that Starswirl the Bearded approached Tiamat. No words were exchanged between the two. Tiamat saw no threat in the unicorn, and was either planning to eat him, or let her little ones have their first hunt. The hatchlings White and Red seemed to give the most interest to Starswirl, but neither seemed inclined to attack him. Black, Blue, and Green mulled about in their mother’s nest, testing their legs and experimentally flapping their wings. Red gave up his interest and lay down to rest, but White opened his jaw, a cold mist of death rolling out as it began its first attempt at sapping life. But the mist went around the unicorn, both to Strswirl’s and Tiamat’s fascination and White’s irritation. When White was too exhausted to continue the mist, it had completely surrounded the unicorn, but came nowhere near to consuming him. Tiamat moved to kill Starswirl herself, but as she shifted, Starswirl disappeared with a flash of magic. White screamed in frustration, but Tiamat roared at the blatant defiance. She had shown weakness, and she could not, would not tolerate this.

Tiamat and her clutch soon moved as the six of them needed to eat. The young White and Black moved in tandem, White’s mist sapping the force of life out of his surroundings, while Black munched on their remains. Blue moved up river with Green moving beside her. The two set themselves about a giant lake, allowing the two ample time to taste test and learn. Red stayed beside his mother as she continued her path of annihilation. The Badlands grew substantially, but in time, Tiamat found she needed a proper rest, and returned to the nest she made for her first clutch.

Such a time was not upon her children however. Without his mother’s guiding force, Red began to roam to find what could interest him. Blue had long since left the lake and had made her way to the open ocean, feasting on whatever struck her fancy. Green had decided to stay in the forest however, and had even started becoming friends with the animal life therein. She garnered a high standing amongst them for eating troublesome plants. Black and White still moved side by side, but Black soon found he wanted to do more than eat and began to wonder what those he ate were like before White came along.

They would soon learn to play while their mother was away.’

Chapter Two: Proliferating the Races

Origin of Species

“Spike, can you please stop that? It’s rather annoying.”

“Huh?” Spike looked up from his book.

“Your fork, Spike.”

Spike looked down to his fork, which he currently had between himself and his plate, completely devoid of eggs. He then vaguely remembered he had run out of eggs a minute prior and had been putting an empty fork into his mouth as he read. Giving an embarrassed smile, he put the fork aside and took a deliberate drink of orange juice.

“How long do you think you would have been doing that if you had eaten alone?”

“I dunno.” Spike sighed a little as he put his juice down.

“Just how invested are you in that book Spike?”

“I’m… pretty far in actually. Listen to this. ‘As progenitors of their species, the five gathered and did what their mother would not, and talked to each other. Grunts, snarls, and gurgles became vowels and statements, allowing for four to name one with a name unique unto themselves.’ I kind of wish I could have done that.”

“I-Is there something wrong with ‘Spike’?” Twilight asked with a sudden amount of hurt in her voice, making Spike jump in defense.

“No! No, there’s nothing wrong with my name Twilight! It’s my name and I wouldn’t try to change it.” Both were quiet for a moment before Spike spoke again. “I’m sorry. It’s just… would you want to pick your own name?”

Twilight blinked for a second before looking down at her own, near finished eggs. “I… I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

Spike chuckled. “Well, this might also help to explain myself.” Spike cleared his throat before continuing to read aloud from ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat.’ “’Because of his overall indifference and breath of fire, Red was named Pyrathy. For her care of animals and diet of plants, Green was named Tiervu. Blue was named Serenava for her straightforward approach and mastery of the oceans. Between them, Black’s name was agreed upon as Animion because of his fascination with life, but relentless consumption of its end. And lastly White was given the name Miserhaze because of his overly self-centered ways and life sucking mists.’ Though if you really think about it, they got to just be themselves without having to really do anything.” Spike looked up to Twilight. “Not quite a luxury we have now is it?”

“No, it’s not.” Twilight smiled, then tilting her head in thought. “But if they named each other, who named Tiamat? Didn’t you say she wouldn’t talk?”

Spike only shrugged. “It does, but the book just always refers to her as Tiamat.”

Twilight frowned. “That’s some poor research on Bold Venture’s part. If you’re going to explain how each of her children became properly named, why not also explain the title character?”

“Well, who named Princess Celestia?”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but stalled on an answer. Had Luna and Celestia named each other like the five in the book did? Or did Starswirl? Or had they always just… been? Instead of answering, Twilight only came up with another question. “What did you mean ‘progenitors of their species’? Did the five of them really start… all other dragons?”

Spike got a smug grin on his face. It wasn’t all that often he knew more than Twilight, even if it was from one book. “Yes and no actually. It looks like Pyrathy is the root of all dragons like me. The other four started… others.” Spike was hesitant now because he knew Twilight was going to rebuke everything he said before he finished the claims from the book, and it wasn’t like he had other sources. Twilight seemed to pick up on this hesitance and looked off to the dining room door as if expecting something. A sad smile spread across her face. Her horn lit as she began setting the used dishes back to the kitchen to be washed later.

“I think I could use a distraction Spike. Why don’t you tell me what you found.”

“Really?” Spike perked up. This was a very odd offer from Twilight, of letting him tell her when she could easily read it for herself. “Can we go back to the Adventure section? This might take a bit.”

Twilight smiled as she teleported Spike and herself back to the Adventure section from the dining room. Spike went back over to his previous seat as Twilight rearranged the seats to allow her to sit face to face with Spike in her own seat.

“So, which do you wanna know first?” Spike asked excitedly.

“How about you tell me about Pyrathy. How is he the only root of modern dragons?”

“Well,” Spike flipped 'The Life and Fall of Tiamat’ to its fourth chapter, Life of Pyrathy. “Like I read before, Pyrathy was a very indifferent dragon. He never did what he didn’t wanna do, and didn’t stop when he was doing his own thing, so he never really did much of anything outstanding like the others. And, well, one of the things he wanted was… hatchlings.” Spike’s cheeks flushed a bit at what he just realized what he was getting himself into, but Twilight was confused.

“So wouldn’t he mate with… Tiervu or Serenava? Those sounded like the females of the five. Why aren’t they progenitors of modern dragons?”

Spike chuckled nervously. “Well, they were his sisters.” Spike thought that would answer Twilight’s question, but it apparently didn’t.

“And why would that stop him? It’s a myth Spike, and from what I read on griffon mythology, the only way to grow the family from so few is… to… you know…”

Spike assumed his face was now a cherry red from how hot it felt. “W-Well that isn’t how it happened here.” Spike hurried along. “But who Pyrathy did find was, majorly, other reptilian species. Lizardkin, Pterosaur, Naga, and others. He saw them either as equals or similar enough to himself to not eat, and some even seemed to revere him as a god, offering everything of theirs to him. Including their females.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “If I remember correctly, Tiamat, and by extension her clutch, were huge, easily able to climb over mountains by foot, presumably. They probably weren’t that big, but to exaggerate as such must imply some sort of size differential. So, how…”

“Hey, beats me, I’ve only got the one record. But yeah, from there, ancient dragons roamed and mated, making generations that lead down to me. Given from some of the descriptions, I probably got some Lizardkin in me somewhere, though the gem eating gotta come in from somewhere else. A lot of meat eating in the early days there.”

“Do you think… that if Pyrathy is the progenitor of dragons, that you could eat meat too Spike?”

Spike mulled it over for a second. “Naa, Pyrathy is way back in the lineage, that probably got kicked out somewhere for the gems. Although…” Spike kept thinking. “I’ve never really wanted any. I could probably, possibly eat meat. Doesn’t mean I would want to. Just like you could eat quesadillas.” Spike smirked, gaining a shudder from Twilight.

“Ok, I get your point. So what about Tiervu? She sounded like somepo- dragon we could get along with.” Twilight was a bit confused when Spike chuckled.

“Oh yeah, we all would have 'gotten along'.” Spike said as he flipped to chapter five, Tiervu is in the Air. “Turns out she was even more into other species than Pyrathy was, and since she didn’t eat any of them, they felt a safe attraction to her. And she to them, all of them.” Spike gulped a bit as he felt the heat returning, causing Twilight to look at him, confused yet again, causing Spike to sigh. “She mated with every male she could.”

Twilight blinked rapidly in shock. “All of them? How would that even work? I mean, how would Pyrathy even… but they’re myths… but some facts… but… but…”

“Twilight, set a lower gear on that brain of yours for one second.” Spike reached out and pat Twilight on the shoulder, causing her rapidly increasing ragged breaths to slow down. “Now don’t break on me again when I tell you this, ok?” Twilight gave him a small nod. “So Tiervu became the progenitor of chimera.”

Twilight’s brow scrunched for a second before a look of understanding passed over her. “Huh, that… seems to make a bit of sense. If taking all of those samples at once and combining them into one fertile egg… that seems rather overly simple, yet brilliant. But… aren’t chimera only a combination of ram, tigers, and snakes?”

Spike shook his head. “That a common one today, but a chimera as described here is what any animal of a combination of many dissimilar parts is able to live. So, in a sense of the term here, a manticore is a chimera, and thus a long descendant of Tiervu.”

“Huh. Well… ok then.” Twilight said a bit dejectedly. “What about Serenava? What is she the mother of?”

Spike’s face took a dower turn. “She’s the mother of kelpi.” He said flatly.

The sudden bluntness of Spike’s comment hit like a hammer hitting the bag of bricks that just fell on her head.

“The mother of what!” Twilight near on shrieked, causing Spike to wince. Twilight quickly noticed her folly and cooled down. “I’m sorry Spike. But, what do you mean Serenava is the mother of all kelpi.”

Spike sighed as he turned to chapter six, About the Serenava. “It starts with Serenava in her own territory of the open ocean. And you know, for being a giant, four legged, winged dragon, she seemed to be able to get from one edge of the world to the other in no time flat. And so she had just eaten part of a reef and decided to partake in some fish from another ocean, but as she moved, she spotted something in her ocean she hadn’t seen before, and decided she wanted a piece of it.” Spike was silent for a moment. “They were ship wrecked ponies. Only a hooffull and some were barely treading water with the driftwood of the wreck. So when Serenava came along and saw their legs kicking in her waters… she ate them. Turns out Serenava didn’t have the same taste for ponies that the brothers had and soon spat the ponies back legs out, but when she did, she saw the blood from twenty-four stumps in her water still kicking about.” Spike began to smile hesitantly. “However, it seemed like Serenava liked having things in their proper place and rose above the waves to show herself, and in turn found a rather windy day which had sailed an earth ponies boat into a rock outcropping they had been trying to avoid.

“Serenava said, I quote, ‘Creatures of the Land, what do you think you are doing in my waters?’. Quite naturally, this freaked the ponies who hadn’t passed out from shock even further, and one young mare answered with ‘We only sought better land than what we left. If this was your doing, then finish it.’ Now from what I’ve read, Serenava wasn’t all that kind of a soul, but she knew when something deserved respect, and that filly got hers that day. But since she knew she couldn’t heal their legs, she came up with her next best solution. So, to quote again, ‘I bare you no ill, but I cannot undo what was done, I instead offer my scales to see you to your new shore.’ So she plucked twelve scales from her own body and placed them over the pony’s stump legs, grafting to their bodies and forming what would become the kelpi.”

Spike looked up to Twilight to see how she would handle this story of his, and he could see she was in deep thought. He gave her a minute before she replied.

“So, kelpi are just some malformed ponies to dragons?”

After a moment of shock at her cold analysis, Spike chuckled. “Well, Serenava wouldn’t be much of a progenitor if that was all. Apparently along with the scale, her aptitude to the water and more than a bit of her personality transferred as well.”

Twilight merely nodded. “And does it say anything about the sirens?”

“Uh, yeah, just not here, hold on.” Spike flipped towards near the back, finding one of the final chapters, Children of Dragons. “Yeah, here.” Spike poked the small section of script. “The sirens, deriving their name from their goddess Seren, shortened from Serenava, are kelpi far more adept in feeding their magic on the emotions of others and sought to spread their goddess’s will through- ooh…”

“What? Through what?” Twilight sat up at attention.

“Survival of the Fittest.” Spike rolled out. “Apparently they would rouse conflict to weed out the weak of communities for the strong to flourish. Not quite the best plan if I say so myself.”

“And seeing as Starswirl sent them away, not that effective.”

“Uhhh…”

“Spike? What’s wrong?” Twilight arched her brow.

“Those three are of particular note here, as early converters of land masses.” Spike looked up apologetically. “Sirens themselves are still a small group in the deeper parts of the ocean, or so it says here.”

Twilight could only blanch. If the three from the other world were only a part of a bigger group, Equestria could have a bigger problem than she could possibly imagine. Were her friends and instruments here even be anywhere near as effective? And it had taken seven of them, specifically the Element Bearers, to match the three’s power of a small crowd, what would a group with sea life to feed off of be like?

“Twilight, I can see those gears turning again, but relax. Remember what I said about Serenava? She likes things in their place, and the sirens, seeing three of their own whisked away, knew their way wasn’t for us. It’ll probably be a long while before they think of trying again.”

“But that only brings up how long ago Adagio and the others were sent over.” Twilight muttered. She shook her head quickly to whisk away such thoughts. “But that’s something for another time. What of Animion, he sounds like quite the conundrum. What’s he the father of?”

Spike flipped the book back to its seventh chapter, Not So Black and White. “It’s kind of funny actually, Miserhaze and Animion made their races at the same time, basically by their opposite means.” Spike began to surmise as he quickly scanned the pages. “So, remember how the two of them were a hunting pair, and how Miserhaze didn’t kill the first pony he met?”

“Uh, no?” Twilight looked a bit upset and confused.

“Oh, well they were, and he didn’t.” Spike blushed a little from the blatant assumption. “The second part was from when I asked about Starswirl.”

“Oh, ok.” Twilight nodded appreciatively.

“So, yeah, well, the book paints how the two just went about eating willy nilly, with Miserhaze letting his mists suck up life-forces and Animion munching on the aftermath. But on one of those days as the two made their way through a forest, Animion smelled something alive in Miserhaze’s mist, so he went to check it out. He found a village with a bunch of dead unicorns lying about their streets, but he went to one of the outskirt houses and ripped the roof out to find a pregnant mare on her side gasping for air. Animion had seen it plenty of times before from animals caught out when Miserhaze started his mist, but he had never seen anything inside the mist doing so.

“So, curious, Animion picked the mare up in one claw and simply looked at her. She was scared and dying, apparently quickly looking between Animion and her stomach. Animion seemed to take it as a sign and… ugh… cut her open.” Both Spike and Twilight shivered at the thought. Medically sound removal was one thing, being sliced open in the wild by a dragon claw was something else entirely. “The mare passed on after that, not much of a shocker, but her foal came out near fine, as she had been late into her pregnancy. Animion hadn’t really learned to be gentile, a tried to pick the foal by its legs and horn, but punctured through them instead.”

“Wait, are you trying to say Animion ‘fathered’… changelings?”

Spike simply nodded and continued. “She was a charcoal foal, and having never really seen anything live outside his mothers and siblings, Animion found it strange for her to be without scales or wings and decided that she hadn’t fully developed yet. So, sort of like Serenava, he took his own scales and cocooned the filly in them while taking a pair of wings off a dead great ladybug. When the three grafted together, here we had the first changeling queen.”

“But if that were the case, why are changeling like they are now?”

“Well…” Spike flipped near the back again. “It looks like the ladybug and Tiamat had a thing or two to do with that, but mainly, Miserhaze deals with a majority of it.”

“Oh, right, what’s he the father of?”

Spike flipped back to chapter seven. “Well, being the greedy type, Miserhaze knew when he was missing a drop of food and went to see what Animion had done and came across the completion of the changeling, and it would seem the one thing that Miserhaze couldn’t consume was… pure love.” Spike looked up to see if Twilight would register the comment. She only looked back at him, hungry for more. “S-So that’s how the mare was at the brink, having unconditional love to her unborn foal, and that’s also what created… the windigo.”

Twilight's eyes widened in awe. “How? What happened Spike?” She was now quite enthralled with this creation myth.

Spike smiled, despite the morbid story. “Well, Miserhaze redoubled his effort to kill the new creature his brother had just ‘bothered creating’ as the book puts it. But the more he tried, the more the new changeling was bolstered by her mother’s dying love, because apparently… her spirit hadn’t left yet. And the more the changeling drained her mother’s spirit of love, the lager the void was to be filled with hate and rage. According to Bold Venture, as accounted by the dragon, as accounted by Animion, ‘The mother had not yet left, as to help guide her foal to the Beyond, awaiting the gruesome fate Animion would dole out to the unborn foal. She was horrified at the puncture wounds and confused at the cocoon, but furious at the out coming creature. What was before her was no longer her daughter, but a monster, and a monster that sapped the last of her love of the daughter that never was.’ And so, with that much negativity and Miserhaze’s mist, the mare’s soul coagulated into the first windigo.” Spike finished and sighed. “And there you have it Twilight, how Tiamat helped start it all.”

Twilight seemed to be snapped out of a daze from all the information and struck to lecture mode. “Or at least how some dragons believe it was started. I’m sure at least the changeling records would say otherwise.”

“Heh, yeah.” Spike smiled a little as he turned back to the fourth chapter’s opening to a picture of Pyrathy. The artist had done a fair rendition of the dragon’s likeness, especially if his dream had been accurate. “Still wonder about those scales though.”

“What do you mean Spike?” Twilight asked, making Spike jump in notice that he had wondered that aloud.

“It’s just… remember how I said that I saw lives of dragons on Pyrathy’s scales? I didn’t see anything about that in here.”

“Spike, what you had was a dream. There’s no way you actually saw Pyrathy. What you saw were probably representations of what somepony wanted you to see in the form of Pyrathy, there’s no way he or the others are-“

"If you’re going to say ‘there’s no way they’re alive’, I’m going to disagree.” Spike quickly interrupted, crossing his arms. “These stories are way to fantastical to be completely wrong, and if Tiamat essentially cloned herself for her five hatchlings, then I’m going to take a leap of logic to say that they don’t have a typically normal lifespan.”

“But Spike, if the five, heck, six of them were still alive, where are they? It’s not like dragons of their size can just hide in a cave in the mountains.”

At that, a purple/gold smoke cloud billowed out from under the Adventure sections closed door and made its way over to Twilight. As it swirled in front of her, collecting itself into one mass, the smoke became a rather big scroll with Celestia’s seal on it. Spike looked on with wide eyes.

“Well, I guess I’m just glad I didn’t have to get that out.”

Twilight gave a small smile as she broke the seal and began to roll out the parchment, her eyes quickly gliding over the passages as the scroll was rolled in its opposite direction. A quarter of the way through she stopped and stared in shock. Spike began to ask what the scroll was, but Twilight quickly kept going, never stopping until the scroll was fully through. Safely setting the scroll aside, Spike saw Twilight take some calming breaths that Cadence had shown her, and made him begin to worry slightly.

“Twilight? What did Celestia just send you?”

After one deep breath, Twilight’s eyes opened, relaxed and with a much calmer smile than she had been putting on for the last half hour or so.

“I guess Spike, we could say it’s your origin story.”

Answers and Consequences

“Uh, care to explain that a bit further Twi?” Spike prompted.

Twilight sighed. “Well, as you could probably guess, I wrote to Princess Celestia before breakfast today with both a simple, yet complicated question. That being, where you came from.”

“But, I came from Canterlot. Twilight, that’s the easiest thing there is about me.”

“Yes, as an egg, you were hatched at my entrance exam. But that’s not exactly where you’re from, unless there had been a dragoness who had given you up there.” Twilight looked down at the scroll with a small chuckle. “But the scroll probably wouldn’t be this big if that was it.”

Spike thought back to when Twilight left to write her letter and pondered, but couldn’t find his answer, so he asked. “What made you write to Princess Celestia about me?”

“Well, you said you felt that you had gotten a message in your dreams from somepony that wasn’t Luna, so that was one point of concern. But when you told me he had said ‘welcome home’, I began to wonder what that would mean to a dragon. It’s not like we’ve seen dragons settling down anywhere specific, or at least, not for long. So, to claim anywhere as home, I found that a bit odd. In the end, I wound up asking Princess Celestia where she found your egg.”

Spike eyed the rather fat scroll. “That seems a bit large for just a simple place.”

Twilight nodded, a smirk appearing a second later. “Apparently, you had quite the journey as an egg. To start, in technicality, you’re pretty much older than anypony you’re ever going to meet.”

Spike sat back in shock at that statement, but quickly leaned forward in his seat, setting The Life and Fall aside in thirst for this radical claim. “What makes you say that?”

Twilight took the scroll up in her magic and began from the beginning. “As written here, Celestia and Luna found your particular egg 1,016 years ago along the edge of the Badland Mountains without a scratch on you.” Twilight chuckled. “And apparently you looked tasty.”

It took Spike a second to get what Twilight had said before moving to the back of his chair in abject horror. The Princesses had tried to eat him! Before he had even been born, he might not have had a chance to live. After that moment of horror however, Spike calmed down a bit. He was here, apparently over a thousand years later, but he wasn’t going to come down from that heightened state for quite a bit. “S-S-So what did they d-do?”

Twilight gave an apologetic look as she began to paraphrase again. “When they found they couldn’t break you open, Starswirl, and yes," Twilight glanced back to Spike before he could ask. "Really Starswirl, berated the two for their rash action of trying to eat a strange egg for lunch. When he found out where they found you, he deduced that you were a dragon egg that had somehow been lost from your nest. Celestia and Luna went back to try and find where you had rolled away from, but they couldn’t find where you could have come from because they couldn’t even find the remnants of a nest. So, they decided to try and hatch you themselves.”

“And we can see how well that went.” Spike gestured down to his present state, making Twilight smile.

“Yes, well, they tried everything they could think of. And, in all honesty, either you’re the luckiest egg to ever exist or dragon eggs are sturdier than I could possibly believe. They tried the obvious of lying on top of you, as awkward as that was for them. They tried prompting you out with growth and aging spells. And apparently in frustration had tossed you in their fireplace to see if they were simply insufficient to help.” Both Spike and Twilight had a chuckle at imagining the frustration of the Princesses. “Eventually, Celestia gave up after Luna was banished as she turned to double duty. You were apparently forgotten for a good two hundred years before somepony found you in the back of the pantry, apparently having had the same idea the princesses did. He tried a thing or three from his expert cooking skills, but had about the same amount of luck cracking you open. After that point, Celestia had just plain given up on ever thinking you would hatch, so she had another idea. So you began a life of being a futility test on and off for the next eight hundred years where we met.”

“What do you mean by ‘futility test’?”

Twilight looked up from the scroll. “Oh, right. The last test to get into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns is a futility test. The unicorn is given what is consented to be an impossible task like leaving a room without moving, getting to the end of an endless hallway, or sorting a crate of rice by length. These, of course, can be done, like the first being solved with careful teleportation, but that one was quite a bit before teleportation was taught as a common mid to high level spell. Your egg was apparently a fall back if the school had just had their last futility test beaten. The point of the test being to show the proctors just how outside of the box somepony could think or try before admitting defeat.”

“Which you obviously couldn’t let happen.” Spike smirked, but only got a sad look from Twilight in return.

“It’s something I should have learned then, instead of in the Crystal Empire.” Spike was going to say something in comfort, but Twilight shook her head. “But that’s getting off topic. What your egg had done was shown that no amount of spell weaving or brute force was going to hatch you. Apparently the answer was instead brute magical force.” Twilight chuckled, but Spike was still a bit upset from her earlier comment. “But shortly after my little outburst, I got curious on what I had done and checked up on you, much to my parents and Celestia’s dismay, as they had no idea what a baby dragon could do, and I wasn’t particularly thinking. And apparently from there, you imprinted on me.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Spike rolled his eyes, just about catching up in the conversation. “I don’t see you as my mom Twilight.”

“Be that as it may, you couldn’t go two seconds with me out of sight when we were younger. You may not see me as a ‘mother’ figure, but younger you surely saw me as the ‘protector’ figure, as misguided as that may be.”

“Well, can’t fault the minds of the young now can we?” Spike smirked, making Twilight chuckle.

“Quite.” The short bit of merriment was left in the air, but Spike was still wondering what the other half of the scroll was for if Twilight already explained where he came from. Twilight was still looking at it, so he knew there had to be more, but she seemed to both want to blurt out what was on the page and burn the paper of its information forever.

“So… what’s the rest of it say?” Spike finally asked, tapping his fingers together. Twilight looked up with a finalized sigh.

“The rest goes into what dragons call ‘home’, and I’m not liking what Celestia’s saying.”

“Well, what’s ‘home’ Twilight? It can’t be that bad.”

With that, Twilight’s face grimaced. “Celestia seems to have it connected with the afterlife, Spike.” That gave both of them pause before Spike took a noticeable gulp.

“S-s-s-so I was met b-by a ghost? Am I being haunted!?” Spike began looking around, every shadow now beginning to look suspect.

“Spike, Spike, calm down, that’s what I’m not liking about this.” Twilight reached out and put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “From what Celestia has found with her talks with any dragon who was versed in the subject of history, dragons would only ever call one place ‘home’, and anywhere else that they lived would be ‘their nest’ or ‘their cave’. The only ‘home’ that any one dragon would recall was Tiamat’s nest.”

Spike now glanced down to the book he had been glued to all morning, now feeling a cold stone in his stomach despite just having fresh eggs. Had he picked this book out at random, or had something drawn him to it? And on thinking of that, Spike’s eyes seemed to glue to the middle part of the title. Gingerly picking the book up in both hands, Spike spoke in a hushed voice.

“Maybe they’re not talking about the afterlife Twilight.” Spike looked up as he turned the book towards her. “This book says ‘and Fall of Tiamat’, don’t these things usually say ‘Life and Death’ of a character? Or ‘Life and Times’? Maybe there’s a reason for the title.”

Twilight gave a concerned smile. “Spike that might be reaching just a bit. I may not like it, but half a phrase isn’t going to change what Celestia’s heard for over a millennium.”

Spike gave a wry smile. “Then let’s see what it says from the dragon’s mouth.” He said as he began to flip through the pages, landing on chapter thirty-four, The Betrayer and the Betrayed. Skipping a few paragraphs, Spike began reading aloud before Twilight could countermand him.

“Her power and wrath would not be matched by any. The carnage left behind Tiamat as she killed and consumed the realm was completely unlike her first landing, shredding forests and demolishing hills to find chimera and changeling alike, spreading the Badlands ever further. Upon reaching the sea once more, Tiamat was met by her five children, all with dead set determination in their eyes. They knew there was no reasoning with their mother, she only really knew or cared how to do one thing, and that was dealing death to all around her.

“As one, the five leapt into action to bring their mother’s rampage to an end. The fight lasted for days, neither side ever seeming to have one true advantage over another. While Pyrathy and his siblings had numbers, Tiamat had coordination. There was never a strike that hit more than once at a time. And as their battle raged through the skies, the creatures down below could only watch as the fight drifted further away, down the coast and slowly out into the ocean. It is told that Pyrathy and his kin had formed a plan within that fight and had begun to draw Tiamat back to the island of her birth. As they arrived, Tiervu and Animion drove Tiamat into the empty volcano, allowing Miserhaze to weaken the rock and Pyrathy to melt it, and letting Serenava reset the rock by cooling it with sea water. Tiamat would not be held down by molten rock alone, so she began to struggle and the rocks cracked.

"Upon his own realization that the impromptu prison wouldn’t hold long, Miserhaze began drowning the volcano’s crater with his mists, allowing them to sit and sap away the strength of Tiamat. Animion tapped into every sense he had ever consumed and began forming a viscus fluid to reinforce and seal the dead volcano up tight. Tiervu assisted Miserhaze by adding her own cloud of toxins to his mists to further weaken her mother and set her into a never ending sleep.

“But as the five rose above the island to make a final check that their mother would never rise again, there was one last, soul tearing roar that ripped through the five before all was quiet. They stayed until the sun rose the next morning, having kept vigil to make sure their mother did not wake before making their way back to the mainland.”

Spike looked up to Twilight to gage her reaction to the small tale. She still seemed to be a bit shocked from the impromptu story time, but after the shock seemed to end, she began to analyze the difference between her and Celestia’s assumption and what she just heard. Spike did the same as he continued to read the next part to himself.

‘As the five returned to the mainland, exhausted from their fight and wanting nothing more but to rest, all their thoughts seemed to turn towards their children instead. Any joyful laugh or cry of despair seemed to ring through their ears a thousand fold, until they all but crashed on the beach of the mainland. And it was only then, when they finally looked at each other to once again speak did they see what their mother did.

‘Their Mother’s roar had not just been a cry of defeat, but also a curse. Upon their scales, the siblings could see the lives of each other’s children as though they were watching each kelpi and changling with their own eyes. Their mother may not have ever spoken an intelligible word, but thinking upon that roar, something primal rang through them, and they understood the message.

‘Look upon these abominations and suffer.’

Spike read that last line at least five times, and each time he was caught on one word, abomination. How could she say that? To her own children? They were only the second generation of a being who was born from practically nothing. What could they have possibly done to be considered abominations to life?

And then a sickening revelation hit Spike that perhaps even Bold Venture, or even reciters had failed to pick up. Tiamat was born practically from nothing, and maybe, perhaps, that was the point. She was from nothing, and she had intended to make everything return there. The five heads of Tiamat did seem to cover everything, the living, the dead, the earth, the sea, and the soul. And she had made copies of herself to continue to do the same.

But they weren’t copies of Red, White, Blue, Black, and Green. They were Pyrathy, Miserhaze, Serenava, Animion, and Tiervu. They became their own dragons, and they lived outside their mother’s shadow of death. And they had been cursed for it. It wasn’t until a spot of water hit the page that Spike realized he was crying, which took both Spike and Twilight from their respective reveries.

“Spike, what’s wrong? What did you read?” Twilight asked, leaning in to be ready to comfort him.

“I-I found out why I saw the things I did Twi. It’s a curse.” Spike sniffed as he rubbed his eyes dry. “A-Apparently when they sealed Tiamat up, she cursed them to… to live and show the lives of the children they produced.”

“Well, that’s… an odd sort of curse. So they, what? Their scales play the lives of their foals for everypony to see? That’s not much-“

“It’s worse than that Twilight!” Spike snapped, making her reel back. Spike just looked back down at the page. “It…It looks like they hear all of it too. They might even feel it if Tiamt’s as bad as I can imagine. And from what I saw on Pyrathy, it can only get worse the longer they live as more and more generations come and go. I saw one where… where a dragon drooled over an egg and dissolved it, fetus and all. And the battling I saw, even just glances. To have to hear all of that? It should be maddening. And what about the other four? It’s not like Windigos and Changelings are a pony’s best friend. I’m sure Chimeras don’t have the most peaceful of lives, and Kelpi aren’t making the best of impressions.” Spike gripped his biceps with opposing claws. “But I think what may scare me right now, is how calm Pyrathy seemed with all of it. If it was a weird dream thing then it could have been symbolic, but to deal with a curse like that like nothing was wrong, I-I-I-I don’t know.” Spike’s voice dropped to a barely audible whisper to contest with Fluttershy. “I don’t know if I should see him.”

Twilight could only look on as Spike had his crisis, not sure what to do. She had never seen him get so emotionally involved as he was right now. Deciding on action, she quickly fluttered over to his side, scooting him over to snuggly fit the two of them on his seat and wrapped her left wing around him and squeezed him as close to her as possible. He was shivering, and he stayed as such for almost a minute before he seemed to accept the comfort around him and began to breathe slowly and steadily. Five minutes like this gave Twilight the courage to speak her mind.

“It’s been a long time Spike, they could have found a way to deal with the curse, or maybe they slept through a lot of it if they could." Twilight said soothingly. "One thing we definitely have learned is how hard it is to wake a sleeping dragon.” She gave a, hopefully, warming smile, which Spike thankfully reciprocated. “And I may have been able to think of a place where dragons call home.” Spike froze once again, but Twilight continued as she tried to placate him with a petting wing. “If Tiamat’s nest is ‘home’, well, she only ever made one of those, didn’t she? So somewhere in the Badlands near the western coast there should be a place that would be carved out for a massive primordial dragon to have her hatchlings. Of course, it been well over two millennia since it happened, but I think the impression should be there, if not the actual crater she carved out.” Spike didn’t seem to be taking the news for the better, so Twilight just held him close. “If you really think that you don’t want to see them, we don’t have to. We can always wait until later.”

That seemed to get a reactive move from Spike as he pushed himself away and looked up at Twilight. As she looked down, she saw a determined and searching gaze in his eyes. He looked at her for what seemed like hours, but only a few seconds later he looked away. With a huff and a frown, Spike hopped off the chair and made his way to the door. “It always seems to be ‘for later’ around here. But this is Present Spike’s problem and we’re going to solve it now. Get what you think we’ll need and meet me out front in ten. I’m going to re-shelve some books.”

A bit taken aback by the sudden action, Twilight shook herself back to reality and teleported back to her room and began picking through a list for camping and a bestiary for the Badlands.

Spike went back to Hardly Researched and found the room to be a lot more breathable than earlier. He left Life and Fall on one of the spare corner tables to pick up for later and began looking for the place for Nestlings Nightly Stories. Finding the slightly disturbed dust, Spike lifted the book that fell sideways to fill the gap to put the book back, but noticed the cover for the first time.

Five dragons lay from head to tail in a ring, colored in the not so surprising red, blue, black, green, white. They all looked the same though, which Spike attributed to laziness. Deciding he had pulled the book out for a reason, he opened the book to a random story. It was basically what he had expected from picking it up, a short bedtime story on one page and a depictive illustration on the opposite page. This one being a lot more foal friendly than Life and Fall of Tiamat.

The one he opened up to was a better depiction of Pyrathy surrounded by other dragons who seemed to be very happy and cheering. Pyrathy himself looked very content to be used as a climbing surface. Spike glanced to the story and read the small excerpt.

‘Pyrathy and his siblings were happy once more as their evil mother was driven away and their children were safe. They partied day and night for three whole days in celebration and all of them thanked Pyrathy for his help. He smiled and said ‘If any of my children need me, they only need to ask.’ So know that if anything ever goes wrong, you need only to ask Pyrathy for help.’

Spike quickly shut the book and was a bit happier with starting with the other one. He slid the book back into its proper place and went to the window to properly close it, but he hesitated as he got his claw on the window shutter. Hardly Researched did have a fair view over Ponyville, just like the rest of the castle, but it also had a view of the lone mountain. A mountain that had housed a dragon for a brief moment a few years ago, and now somehow poked Spike on the topic of dragons.

This was it. This was going to be big, he could feel it. No lone dragon in the woods, no bullying teenagers with apathetic adults, but looking for the first nest of dragon kind. Spike let out a nervous chuckle, thinking how this must be what it felt like when an ordinary pony was to meet Celestia. And that thought made Spike dig his claws into the shutter slightly.

He was that ordinary pony now. He wasn’t a dragon amongst ponies, he wasn’t a close friend of the ruler, he wasn’t going to be anything special here. He was a baby dragon who felt he had a message from a primordial dragon. Spike began feeling more and more confused in his resolve. Did he really need to go? Did he actually get a message? Did he have to go? Maybe he’d get another dream. Maybe he didn’t need to go anywhere. What actually made him think Pyrathy wanted to see him anyways? He had only said four words to him. Maybe this could be Future Spike’s problem.

Spike slammed the shutters in frustration. Frustration mostly at himself. He had made a plan, and he was going to follow through on it. He was going to do his best to find Pyrathy or his ‘home’, and he was going to get his answer as to why he felt like he needed to see him. And then the phrase from Nightly Stories struck Spike.

“If any of my children need me, they need only to ask.”

Well Spike certainly had a question.

Why did Pyrathy need him?

Finding 'Home'

Spike headed up to his room to gather anything he would need for this trip, and upon opening his door, came to the exact realization that he might have a problem in that department. As much as he liked his new room, it was also quite bare of anything that was his. He had been given an upgraded basket-bed by Twilight upon their upgraded living arrangement, and he even had a dresser all his own. That currently had his snare drum and sticks on top and his one tux within. The room had come with a built in shelf, so his previous birthday presents from Twilight had their own space along with a set of spare drawing paper for when he wanted to doodle on the one table he had.

But none of these things were particularly relevant to what he needed. In fact, what did he need from here? Aside from making his bed, Spike realized. Having such an abrupt morning, he had completely forgotten. As he reset the covers, Spike glanced about to his bucket of blocks, a ball, and even a strange contraption mobile Twilight had given him. Spike chewed the inside of his cheek as he seemed to truly consider his room, and really began to see how little of him there was in here. Maybe he would pick up a souvenir while he was out on this trip, spruce it up a bit.

Finishing setting the bed, Spike sighed as he really thought there was nothing to get from here. In fact, the last time he had left, it had been with a tea set and a few snacks, he had done just fine walking to the dragon gathering. He shrugged, guessing he would just have to wait outside for Twilight. As he headed back down to the foyer, he could have sworn to hear a tap of a hoof on crystal. Jogging a bit to get to the front door, he opened the door to find Apple Bloom beginning to walk down the stairs.

“Apple Bloom?” Spike called out, making the filly pause and turn.

“So ya are up. Ah’ve been knocking for like ten minutes.” Apple Bloom huffed as she turned back to talk to Spike properly.

“Well, it’s a big place Bloom. It’s why we have a door bell.” Spike pointed to a protruding rhombus of crystal that a shade darker of purple than the rest around it.

“Like Ah could see that thing, it looks just like the rest of the frame.” Apple Bloom huffed.

“Hehe, yeah, been meaning to take some paint to that.” Spike chuckled as he stepped out of the door frame, letting the door close behind him. “So, what’s up?”

“Well, I was meanin to get Twilight, we need a bit of help with the beaver dam.”

“Are they being a problem again? Shouldn’t you talk to Fluttershy about that?”

“Well sure, but it’s not the beavers bein around that’s the problem, it’s actually them leavin.”

“Leaving? Isn’t that a good thing? Twilight said they flooded up the orchard before.”

“Mah sister seems to have gotten somthin through over the years, she worked out with the beavers to set up a bit further upstream and help divvy up water streams for the orchard. But it seems that they wanna move somewhere new, ‘more exotic’ as Fluttershy said.”

“And that’s bad.” Spike guessed.

“Yeah, Fluttershy said that if the beavers aren’t livin there no more, then the dam’s just gonna break down. But the thing is, if the dam’s not there, then the side streams are just going to go back to the main one, and we’re gonna have to go back to haulin all the water to the orchard trees. Which Big Mac says ain’t gonna be as good ‘cause the side streams bring their own benefits than just carrying the water.”

“Okay, okay.” Spike shook his head from the information dump. “So what do you need Twilight for?”

“Well, Ah was wonderin if Twilight would have some sort of stabalizin spell so that when the beavers leave, the dam doesn’t fall apart.” Apple Bloom asked hopefully. Spike sighed at the news he had to deliver to the filly.

“I’m sorry Apple Bloom, but I can tell you right now that’s not going to work.”

“Well, yer not Twilight, now are ya?” Apple Bloom cut in.

“But I am her number one assistant, and even I know what Twilight would have to do. She’d have to set a stasis spell on the dam so that the water doesn’t corrode the dam even more, and then she’d have to come by on a regular basis to re-boost the spell, and we could easily be away during any of those times.”

“Is it hard? Could we get Rarity or somepony else to do it?” Apple Bloom asked, grasping at straws.

“I don’t know, but even then, do you want to pay somepony to constantly apply what’s basically a bandage on a broken support beam?”

Apple Bloom shifted a bit uncomfortably. “Ah don’t know.” Spike and Apple Bloom stood there awkwardly, shifting side to side as both tried to find something to say.

“Did you think of rebuilding something to the same effect after the beavers leave?” Spike asked, an idea suddenly popping up.

“Well, sorta. But Ah don’t l know how the dam’s built, or if we could afford to build something in its place.”

“But wouldn’t it be worth it in the end?” Spike prompted.

“A-Ah guess.” Apple Bloom scuffed her hoof. “Ah just thought Twilight could fix it.”

“Feels like she can, doesn’t it?” Spike chuckled half-heartedly. “Look, uh, Twilight and I are heading out for a bit, and it might take a while. Why don’t you head back and brainstorm a bit more with Big Mac and Applejack? And I’m sure if I bring this up with Twilight on our flight, she’ll have her own pamphlet of ideas when we get back.”

“Well, ok, but only if you promise to tell Twilight.” Apple Bloom eyeballed Spike.

“I promise.” Spike held his left claw up and right claw over his breast. “On my honor of the Dragon Code, that I will indeed tell Twilight of your predicament.”

“Thanks Spike!” Apple Bloom seemed to cheer up immediately. “Ah gotta go meet up with the others now, Sweetie said she thought what our secret talents were!” Apple Bloom started trotting off before Spike could exactly question that logic. So he sighed and took a seat on the top stair as he waited for Twilight to come out. And as he pondered exactly what books she thought were going to be necessary for the trip, Spike also came to another realization of this trip.

How were they going to get there? Spike had to admit, he was quite proud of his endurance to make that trek to the dragon migration ground, but a cursory thought did indeed place the Badlands a good three or four days further than the migration ground, and even then Spike had seen the dragons congregating to know where to go. If he was going to look for a giant crater, wouldn’t an aerial view be better? But would Twilight be willing to fly herself, himself, and everything she had packed, all by herself? Could she even fly like that all by herself?

By a sudden clopping of hooves and wheels bumping over gravel did Spike look up to see two Dawn Guard pegasi pulling a fairly large open air carriage, stoically standing parallel to the castle’s stairs. Before he could get up to greet whoever could pull the kind of weight to get such a deal from Celestia, he heard the front door open.

“Oh good, they’re here.” Spike turned to see Twilight walking out with just her saddle bags, which sort of off put Spike, seeing as she usually had at least two suitcases when visiting Canterlot.

“You were expecting somepony Twi?” Spike asked, garnering a confused glance from Twilight.

“Uh, no? This is how we’re getting to the Badlands. I wasn’t very confident in flying both of us there, so I contacted Celestia to see if she could spare us a pair of guards to make a round trip, specifically ones with sharp eyes. She even told me that at the rate these two can go, we might not even need to make this an overnight thing.”

“Oh.” Spike softly chuckled to himself. This made so much more sense, and of course this would take more than a day, no problem Twilight ever faced lasted long under her scrutiny. Except maybe Pinkie Pie. Although, something about this taking so little effort for Twilight dejected Spike a bit.

“Buuut.” Twilight drew out her word, gaining a quizitive look from Spike. “That doesn’t mean we can’t make it an overnight thing.” Twilight grinned mischievously as she activated her magic, popping three suitcases into the carriage. “I feel it’s been to long since it’s been just you and me Spike. So let’s make the most of this trip while we can.” Twilight smiled as she trotted down to the awaiting guards. Spike wasn’t sure why, but a small grin grew as he followed Twilight down the stairs.

“Corporal Steady Wing and Pointed Eye awaiting orders ma’am.” One of the guards saluted as Twilight approached.

“What were you told corporal?” Twilight asked, making Spike quietly debate how ‘secret’ this trip should really be.

“Just to be ready to transport the Princess of Friendship to whatever destination she would require ma’am.” Steady Wing replied.

“Well, we’re heading out to the Badlands corporal, and you are to spot and land near any crater or valley that could possibly hold five to ten full grown dragons comfortably. Is that clear enough?” Twilight hesitantly asked at the end of a rather imposing order on her part. The corporals looked to each other for a moment and nodded simultaneously.

“It shouldn’t be a problem ma’am. One concession though, if I may.”

“Proceed.” Twilight nodded.

“There’s a reason they’re known as the Badlands. I did overhear a plan of camping on this trip, I ask that we set up camp outside of the defined border of the Badlands. Not to question your abilities ma’am, but it would set us in a better state of mind for a defensible position.”

Twilight seemed to ponder the request of the corporal before nodding. “Never can be too careful, I’m alright with this precaution. Now, if you two are ready, we can…” Twilight paused looked down to Spike. “Did you have anything to bring Spike?”

Spike chuckled. “Not really. Did fine on my last trek with just a snack. Flying like this will be no problem.”

Twilight nodded. “Ok, then if you two are ready, we’re ready to leave.” Twilight and Spike boarded the carriage and the two corporals took off without another word. The wind brushed and then started to rush past the two before an enchantment upon the carriage reduced the incoming wind down to a gentle breeze. As the enchantment kicked in, Twilight shivered from tip to tail.

“Wow, that feels so much different now.”

“What does? Felt the same to me.” Spike said.

“Maybe for you, but having flown solo for a while now, I’m kind of used to the wind always blowing that fast. But now-“

“There’s a disconnect.” Spike finished, smiling.

“Right, exactly.” Twilight smiled back. It really had been a while since the two had just had their own company.

“So, how long are we looking at this taking?” Spike asked.

“Oh, somewhere around four hours I suppose.”

“Bring anything for the trip?” Spike asked knowingly. Twilight smirked.

“Like I wouldn’t.” Twilight said as she directed her magic to one of the suitcases, unzipping it and pulling out ‘The Life and Fall of Tiamat’. “I took another glance through this and the other one you pulled out and found some interesting commonalities and inconsistencies, and I thought maybe we could look them over together.”

“Really?” Spike looked at Twilight with a bit of disbelief. “And here I thought Pinkie would have slipped in a pack of cards or something.”

“Spike, Pinkie wasn’t even at the castle. Of course she didn’t-“ Twilight paused amidst closing the suitcase, taking another look in the sleeve on the lid. “I could have sworn that was empty.” Slowly floating out of the pocket came a deck of cards along with a sticky note simply with a ‘:P’ on it. “I must have forgotten them from last time.”

“Sure you did.” Spike smiled as he plucked the cards from Twilight. “Speaking of which, do you know what’s going on at Sweet Apple Acres?”

“No, what?” Twilight asked as she set the book aside.

“Apparently Applejack had a deal with some beavers to divvy up their stream, and now with the beavers moving out, the streams going to go back to normal, which apparently is a bad thing?” Spike laid out as he took out the cards and began shuffling.

“Hm, I can see why. Beavers are a keystone species after all, they sort of set the rules up for wherever they live. How did you come to know this?”

“Apple Bloom stopped by this morning seeing if you could set up a sort of freezing spell to keep the dam from eroding.”

“Well, I mean, I could, but for that type of situation, I would have to re-energize the spell at least every four days, faster if there’s outside factors.”

“Like water pressure and flow change.”

“Right, and I could be busy during any of those times. I don’t think a freezing spell is the best option here.”

“That’s what I said.” Spike sighed as he began laying out solitaire. “I told Apple Bloom that I would tell you and get your ideas while she headed home to brainstorm with Big Mac and Applejack.”

“I would do just that, but it’s not like I know everything about beavers and their dams. I’m not going to have anything solid to tell them until we get back and I can study up a little bit.” Twilight shrugged. “Sorry Spike.”

“Eh, it’s all right, I already gave my two bits in as it is.”

“Oh? And what’s your idea?” Twilight took a curious interest as Spike separated the ace of spades and hearts.

“I just think the Apple Bloom was too focused on the dam and not what the dam was doing. Applejack was able to get something working, so why not just let thing crumble and rebuild something sturdier later to do the exact same thing?”

Twilight seemed to mull Spike’s solution over. “Maybe, but it would be a whole mess in-between now and then. The dam would break, the wood would go every which way and everything they have would be gone.”

“I’m not saying it would be easy, or the same for that matter. But what the Apples have now is just unsustainable. It’s not like they could get somepony to do the beavers job. I even think Apple Bloom would be too big at this point.”

“Hmm.” Twilight hummed as she looked over Spikes board. “I think you lost Spike.”

“What?” Spike looked up to Twilight to see she was looking down. “No I haven’t.”

“Spike, the four of hearts and the ace of clubs are buried and you’re not going to get the two of spades with the way this is going.”

“We’ll see about that.” Spike said defiantly as he flipped his next card.

Twilight was right of course, though Spike would only admit that they really should have been playing together from the beginning. Twilight tried bringing up ‘The Rise and Fall of Tiamat’, but Spike shot the discussion down, both from the logical standpoint that they shouldn’t make too many presumptions about Pyrathy before meeting him, but also from the standpoint of not wanting to feel squeamish from following through on meeting such a legendary figure. After three lost rounds of Go Fish, a brunch snack, and learning and wining one round of Crazy Eights, Corporal Steady Wing called over his shoulder.

“We’re approaching the Badlands now ma’am!”

Spike and Twilight immediately forgot their second game of Crazy Eights and began looking ahead towards the red scene before them. Plains were quickly giving way to barren rock leading to rocky hills that dipped into a landscape that wasn’t a desert, but neither could it sustain any sort of greenery.

“All right Spike, keep a keen eye out for any impression that might remotely hold the nest. The Badlands are big, but not so big that we shouldn’t be able to make a fly by or two.” Twilight warned as she fetched two pairs of binoculars out of her suitcase, lifting one pair over to Spike. He resolutely nodded as he took the offered item and began to intently scan the hills surrounding the Badlands. The Dawn Guards flew a bit into the Badlands before banking to the right and circle the perimeter counter-clockwise.

And so the four began scouring for the long disused nest. Twilight seemed to gain a secondary mission of documenting something, Spike didn’t particularly care to look, but he could hear the scratching of pen on paper. But it wasn’t like his search was going any better, and watching the hills roll by methodically didn’t help the monotony. There was more than one time he began to feel his head droop.

The best Spike could make out for a possibility was a few crevices that might have lead deeper in, but to house the mother of dragons and five whelps? Nah.

“That was one round Spike, think you spotted anything?” Twilight said, pulling Spike away from his binoculars. He rubbed his eyes from the impression they made around them.

“Nah, nothing really over here, you?”

“No, but I think I have a few questions for Maud the next time she’s around.” Twilight rolled her scroll up. “Corporals! Find a place to land for-“ A gurgle came from Twilight’s stomach before she could finish, followed closely by Spike’s own.

“A very belated lunch.” Spike called with mirth. The Dawn Guard short affirmative nods, and Spike thought he spotted a small smirk on Pointed Eye. The party landed near the path leading into the Badlands from the plains. As the carriage came to a stop, Twilight picked up the suitcase the snack had come from and pulled a blanket out from another. The blanket became neatly spread out beside the carriage as Steady Wing and Pointed Eye unhitched themselves and took up posts beside the blanket.

“Oh, don’t worry about protocol here you two.” Twilight waved for the two to sit down. “This was rather sudden, but I did consider to pack for four.”

The two looked to each other, unsure. Spike chuckled. “We won’t tell if you don’t.” Both Steady and Pointed to a relaxed sigh as both sat across from Spike and Twilight.

“Permission to speak freely ma’am?” Pointed Eye asked, speaking up for the first time.

“Oh, Twilight, please. And please, go ahead.” Twilight said as she began pulling out granola and sapphires.

“This has got to be the longest I’ve had to pull a carriage. Are you sure this is somewhere to find a dragon nest?”

“I’ve got to agree with Point on this.” Steady Wing chimed in. “I didn’t see anything in there that could sustain as many dragons as you indicated.”

“We’re not exactly looking for a nest that could be sustained now.” Twilight emphasized as she began to pull ‘Life and Fall’ to her. “We’re looking for a place that could have sustained that many. Did either of make a mark?” Both corporals shook their heads as Twilight handed them their granola before pulling out a small kettle. “I’ll be back.” Twilight declared before popping away.

Both corporals forgot their meal as they jumped up, ready to take after the princess. Spike simply waved them to sit again. “She’s a big filly guys, she can get some water just fine.”

“It’s our job sir.” Steady Wing tensed back to formality. Before Spike could retort, Twilight popped back as if nothing had changed.

“Do you two want straight water or tea?” Twilight absently asked as she began to rummage for tea bags.

“Um, Twi?” Spike nudged Twilight, who looked up owlishly. “I think you should apologize.”

“Hm?” Twilight seemed a bit confused as she saw the two tense guards. “Oh! I’m so sorry. It was just for some water, and it was a good five-minute trot away, I thought this would be faster.”

“Ma’am, for however… eccentric Princess Celestia can be in her orders, she does employ us to be a bodily shield should unknowns occur. I ask that you please don’t do that again.” Steady Wing coolly chided.

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. “Uh, yes, maybe you’re right. I did ask you two to be here, perhaps I shouldn’t make light of your duties.” Twilight cleared her throat and sat a bit straighter. “That being said, water or tea?”

“Water for me.” Steady Wing relaxed as he sat again.

“What do you have?” Pointed Eye asked, similarly relaxing.

Eating and chatting soon picked up between the three ponies as Spike receded a bit and picked up ‘Life and Fall’, seeing as the three had somehow quickly gotten into wing maintenance. Spike began sucking on his sapphire as to make it last as long as possible out on the trip.

Spike began re-reading ‘Life of Pyrathy’ to see if there could any context clues as to where or how Pyrathy would set up a nest for himself. But apparently aside from being particularly lazy, Pyrathy had also seemed to be quite picky in his napping space. Being the Fire drake he was, Pyrathy tended to like living in perpetually hot places.

Spike glanced up to the Badlands, considering how the place seemed to be constantly under the sun, he guessed this would be the type of place Pyrathy would settle down. There was only a few scattering of rock formations to offer any sort of shade, but there also didn’t seem to be any good basking spots. At least, not in what Spike observed. Although, now that he looked at them, Twilight might have something on the rock piles. They did seem to singular and spaced as they were.

“Hey Twilight?” Spike spoke up, breaking the flow of the three’s conversation on barrack life.

“Yes Spike?”

“What kind of questions did you have Maud?”

“Oh, uh, well,” Twilight stuttered, a bit confused at the sudden change in topic, reached for her notes. “I was going to ask her if the formation of lone stone pillars were a common occurrence or if these could be anomalies. Also what rocks are common in this area and at what temperatures they melt at.”

“Melt?” Both Spike and the guards turned to such an odd question.

“I think I saw a few sloping formations among the pillars that seemed a bit to smooth to be from erosion, so I think something is happening around there. But then again, we were just doing a fly by, it might be completely fine if we were to get a closer look on the next round.”

“Could you see the abnormality without the binoculars?” Spike asked, garnering a thoughtful look from Twilight.

“…I think so. Why?”

“Because I saw some crevices that I thought could have been hidey holes, but not big enough for what we were looking for, but I definitely could see them without the binoculars.”

“Yeah, I came to the same conclusion.” Pointed Eye pitched in. “You did say a nest big enough for up to ten dragons, they looked big enough for two or three, but definitely not ten.”

“Well, I said ten, but that was really taking into account of the exaggerated size in this record.” Twilight said as she lifted ‘The Life and Fall’ out of Spike’s claws. “See, it says Tiamat here could easily scale over mountains, so comparing a vague notion to modern mountains such as the one Canterlot is situated upon as well as accounting for being a nest for five whelps, ten grown dragons came to a close guesstimate.”

“Yeah, with how she’s drawn in there, the Badlands would… be… nothing.” Spike began heartily, but then began to re-examine the Badlands. “Twilight, can I see the book again?”

Twilight handed the book back and Spike flipped back to the birth of the Five. He scanned the pages until he found what needed.

“So, uh, what if we got the scale a bit wrong?” Spike inquired as he turned the book around tapping the passage ‘with Red searing the ground into a sturdy hole’.

“Well, yeah, she cleared out a space for the nest, that’s a given. But like I said, the space for ten full grown dragons was a… guesstimate.” Twilight slowly came to the same conclusion as Spike, looking up to the Badlands with a new appreciation.

“I think the Badlands are her nest Twi.”

Finding A Clue

Both of the guards looked back towards the Badlands, Pointed Eye tilting his head slightly. “I’d say that would definitely fit more than ten fully grown dragons.”

“B-bu-but that’s completely improbable.” Twilight stuttered. “There’s no way Tiamat could be that big! Her own size and mass would make her unable to move!”

“Twi, have you ever noticed how light I am?” Spike questioned, Twilight just blinking owlishly at him. “When you went off to the Crystal Empire to get the Equestria Games held there, I took all of your pets on a walk, and Owlowiscious and Tank were able to pick me off the ground, while Owlowiscious was carrying Gummy. And there was that time that I grew after my birthday and my claw barely left a print that anypony would trip over. Face it, this is completely possible. Plus, factor in that Tiamat was basically born from primal magic, which has on nill mass, and the fact that gravity works near at all is impressive.”

Twilight kept looking at Spike, though now not in shock, but more in awe, even Pointed Eye and Steady Wing were looking a bit stunned. Spike looked back at them with a growing sense of unease. “What?”

“That’s… surprisingly well thought out.” Twilight commented before looking away to the Badlands. If she had to be honest, she hadn’t ever really thought about how light Spike was. She had berated him more than a few times to cut back on eating so he wouldn’t become fat and heavy, but even when he had kicked her sides that one time in the Diamond Dog mines, she had reacted more in annoyance than pain. Soon, a small nagging thought began to pester her.

How much did she actually know about Spike?

“If I may ask then, what is our next task if we have indeed found the nest we’re looking for?” Steady Wing asked. This seemed to snap Twilight a bit out of her reprieve.

“Oh, well, right. This is going to be a bit harder to do now. My original plan had us examining the nest for any recent activities and following the clues to our objective.”

“Our objective ma’am?” Pointed Eye asked. Spike looked to Twilight, who was already contemplating Spike.

“We’re here for you Spike, you decide what to tell them.” Twilight relinquished.

Spike nervously scratched his chin. “Heh, well, we’re looking for one of Tiamat’s brood.” Spike began as he clutched ‘The Rise and Fall of Tiamat’ closer. “I… had a dream of meeting the red dragon Pyrathy. And from what Twilight and I could piece together about the ‘home of the dragons’ being Tiamat’s nest for hatching her brood, we’re here to find Pyrathy.”

Steady Wing and Pointed Eye were both silent and stoic. Spike honestly wondered if they were considering on tuning tail right there and heading back to Canterlot. That was until Pointed Eye spoke up with a question.

“So how big are we talking here?” A question that threw both Twilight and Spike a bit off kilter. “I mean, if the Badlands are the nest we’re looking for, and taking into account of roam-able space, how big are the… whelps?”

“Well, it was a dream, but bigger than Canterlot Mountain? Oh! Also underground, Pyrathy was sleeping underground.”

“That certainly seems to make sense.” Steady Wing huffed. “If he were as big as Canterlot Mountain and not underground somewhere around here, I’d say you were pulling our legs.”

“Yeah, but then there also a logistical problem.” Pointed Eye pointed out. “How is a cave as big as a mountain not collapsing in on itself?”

“Are you a geologist Point?” Steady asked.

Pointed grimaced a bit and answered dourly “No.”

“Then better to not question it. Remember Point, the less you unravel-“

“The sturdier it stays.” Pointed sighed. “Sometimes I hate guard logic.”

“That said, why are we looking for Pyrathy sir?” Steady Wing asked.

“It’s a feeling really.” Spike shrugged. “Just something about seeing him. It’s not even like he gave me a message, he just said ‘Welcome home Spike.’”

“Hm.” Steady Wing contemplated. “Seeing as we’ve completed step one, I can say we have two things to go on.” Both Spike and Twilight perked up upon this announcement. “Of our initial sweep, we came upon two noticeable occurrences, the large crevices as noted by Spike and Point, as well as the rock formations as noted by Princess Twilight. Both could be viable starting points.”

Everyone contemplated Steady Wing’s assessment a bit as they each slowly made their way through their lunches. When everything was packed and placed back in the carriage, Twilight sighed.

“I guess we’ll do another fly-by of the crevices and see if there’s any potential for them to lead to the cave Spike mentioned.” Twilight glanced up to approximate the sun’s position. “Another four or five good hours of sun left. Spike, how many did you count?”

“Uh…” Spike paused as he prepped to get in the carriage. He hadn’t counted as at first he hadn’t really thought anything of them.

“At least twenty ma’am.” Pointed Eye answered for the drake.

“And to have been spotted by eye from our position… ugh. We might get to five if they’re not that deep.”

“Wait, twenty?” Spike asked, having taken his seat in the carriage.

“At least.” Pointed Eye nodded.

“And going on the hypothesis that this is Tiamat’s nest for five…” Spike lead on. Steady Wing and Twilight both groaned as each proceeded to face-hoof.

“How did I not see that?” Twilight grumbled.

“See what?” Pointed asked.

“They’re probably from the whelps crawling out of the nest a few times Point.” Steady Wing answered. “So that leaves us with the melted rocks.”

“Which may or not be a thing.” Twilight lamented. “Even then, they were scattered about the middle of the Badlands, there’s not going to be a cave entrance around there.”

“Says who?” Spike spoke up. “A cave is just some hollow space in the ground, that doesn’t mean it can’t be made in the middle of nowhere.”

“As that may be, I would’ve noted any cave entrance if I had seen it from the first fly-by.” Twilight answered as she propped herself on the side of the carriage to look Spike in the eye.

“But you weren’t looking for a cave then, you were looking for a nest.”

“A nest could be in a cave, I accounted for that.”

“Princess, if I may?” Steady Wing approached, Pointed Eye having opted to stay out of any argument and began to hitch himself up. Twilight took a deep breath as she dropped back down to all fours to address the corporal.

“Yes corporal?”

“There’s not much known on dragons as a whole, but we are aware they are on the higher end of the magical scale. If we are dealing with a dragon that is only a generation away from pure magic, couldn’t there be a way to track him?” Spike popped over the side of the carriage, curious of the answer Twilight would give to such an inquiry. Twilight herself began to contemplate that herself, but soon shook her head.

“I don’t think so. To even track magic, you somewhat need to know what you’re tracking, be that a type of spell or pony. I don’t know enough about Pyrathy to even begin to think of a tracking spell for him.”

“Well, we sort of do.” Twilight and Steady Wing looked to Spike. “He’s part of the fire aspect of Tiamat. Steady Wing is on to something Twi. It’s not like that many things live out here to begin with, so maybe a base level fire tracking spell would help point us toward him.” Again, Twilight considered the answer presented to her.

“But Spike, if I do that, I’m going to be half blind from sitting next to you. And I’m not sure I could fly and hold the necessary intensity for the spell.”

“That aside, your presumption on the inhabitance of the Badlands is off.” Steady Wing said. “They may not be out right now, but there are plenty of creatures living in the Badlands.”

“Which then leads into the impracticality of having the cave entrance in the middle of the Badlands where anything could stumble in and find Pyrathy.” Twilight concluded. The three fell silent, having no solution to their predicament.

“We’ll head for the rocks first.” Steady Wing finally said. “I think I remember what you described Princess, there were only a few of them, and their surface level, so they won’t take much investigating.”

“All right corporal.” Twilight nodded in agreement as she boarded the carriage. Spike noticed that Twilight had seemed to have lost her flair for this adventure, and was equally unsure now. They had little to nothing to track, and basically his gut feeling was their only reason for being here in the first place.

“Sorry for dragging you out on this Twilight.” Spike said remorsefully as the carriage began to move. Twilight jerked at the sudden apology, quite confused.

“What’s there to apologize for Spike? This is just a bit more mind-boggling, that’s all.”

“Yeah, but you could be back at the castle doing something important right now than helping me look at a barren wasteland.”

“Spike.” Twilight felt a bit hurt at his beratement of his importance to her. “This is important. It’s important to you, and thus just as important to me. Just because we’re stalled a little doesn’t mean this has become ever less so.” She put a hoof under his chin to lift his gaze to meet hers. “Is that clear?”

Spike looked back at Twilight, looking to see any resentment for being here. He nodded resolutely when he found none. “Yeah, just gotta keep going.”

Twilight smiled and looked back ahead to see how far the pillars were. Steady Wing had indeed remembered correctly what Twilight described, because they were soon approaching the first pillar that she noted the sloping formation. It was rather high up, at least at the castle’s second story, so the Dawn Guard kept in flight as the four slowly began to move about the pillar.

Spike noticed that Twilight had made an accurate assumption. Many of the freestanding formations were very rough and jagged, the only places with a smoother appearance were at the very bottom as rocks slopped away from the pillars, but what they were looking at were very smooth, convex formations. Something had blown over it rather than down it. But that was about where the oddities stopped. Twilight tried finding any magical resonance, but that came to nothing. Nothing stood out about it other than its odd formation.

“There’s nothing here corporal, move on to the next one!” Twilight called out, making the two pegasi pull away and make their way towards the next pillar Steady Wing could recall. In total, there were eleven pillars that Twilight and Steady Wing could recall and spot. Twilight and Spike came to a conclusion that the abnormality had to mean something, as there were to many to be a coincidence, but they couldn’t find a rhyme or reason to the formations. All they could determine that some seemed to be only slightly lower or higher than the first one they found.

Twilight finally called the search to be done for the day and for the Guard to find the place they wanted to set camp. Steady Wing nodded to Pointed Eye and both turned and began to fly up to the plateau tops of the Badlands border. Once they landed, both unceremoniously unhooked themselves and flopped forward.

“Oh no, I’ll get you two some water, I’ll be right back.” Twilight said as she pulled out their now empty canteens before popping off once again. Neither corporal seemed fit to complain.

“You could have told us you were tired.” Spike huffed as he hopped out of the carriage.

“It’s… not our… place.” Steady Wing panted. This just made Spike groan.

“Not our place this, it’s our job that. C’mon guys, consistency. Twilight’s probably frazzled now seeing you two like this for her.”

“We’re here to work.” Pointed Eye pointed out, having significantly caught his breath. “And that is what we’re doing.”

“Yeah, and you won’t be doing any of us any good if you drop out of the sky in exhaustion you nimrod.” Spike growled as he got back to the carriage, rummaging for some of their travel snacks, finding some left over sunflower seeds. Gathering up the last of them in two tins, he brought them back to the Guards. “It’s not much, but we -well, Twilight- planned for a day or two. I’ll let her pick out your dinner.”

Steady Wing lifted an eyebrow at the offered snack, but Pointed Eye took his share and started popping them in his mouth. Twilight came back with three water loaded canteens and one frazzled mane.

“I’m so sorry you two. You never said anything, but I should have taken this into account. I've never actually had to have scouted anything this long, I’m so sorry. Just try to rehydrate right now and I’ll fill them up as much as necessary.” She rambled as she nearly shoved two of the canteens to the Guards.

“See, what did I tell you?” Spike smirked before patting Twilight on her wither. “Calm down a bit Twi, they were just being a bit dumb like you were.” This gained a pointed glare from Steady Wing, a look of shock from Pointed Eye, and a sheepish smile from Twilight herself.

“Eh heh, maybe we should take some more regular breaks tomorrow?” Twilight offered, to which Steady Wing nodded, not quite losing his evil eye on Spike.

“As we should. This does seem to be taking a bit longer than anticipated.”

“Oh no, do you two need to be back in Canterlot?” Twilight’s mane slightly fringed in concern, making Spike kneed his brow.

“Not necessarily, we’ve had a few long missions before.” Pointed Eye responded offhandedly. “We just need to check back at base before doing anything else when we get back is all.”

“Oh, ok then.” Twilight straightened up a little bit, her previous stress seeming to fall away. “Tonight we have either dandelion and carrot salads or brussel sprout, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. One for the other tomorrow.”

“Salad please.” Pointed said.

“I’ll take the sandwich.” Steady replied.

Twilight nodded and headed to their bags, Spike would have followed for his evening opal, but Steady Wing held a wing out to block his way. Spike looked up to see a heated gaze from Steady Wing burning into him.

“You will not speak to the Princess like that again, am I understood?”

Spike raised a brow. “And what makes you think you can dictate how I talk to Twilight?”

“Because it is not the proper way to speak to a Princess.” Steady pressed his wing into Spike’s stomach. “And if you do-”

“You’ll what?” Spike cut off. “Twilight’s my friend. A close friend. I could speak this informally to Shining Armor and nopony would bat an eye.” Steady Wing actually began to growl, so Spike took a deep breath before continuing. “Look, this isn’t anything formal. We’re here to look for something we have no idea where it could be. We all need to be a team, and all of us being ramrod straight is going to make this a lot harder.”

“He’s got a point Steady.” Pointed Eye nudged his comrades wing. “Lighten up a little. Being on guard is all right, but snapping at every little thing isn’t helping”

“Hmph.” Steady Wing snorted as he folded his wing back. Spike gave Steady Wing a once over before proceeding to his snack bag, where he found Twilight with two salads and a sandwich in her magic.

“Everything all right Spike?” Twilight glanced over to the two waiting guards, Steady Wing finally nibbling on his sunflower seeds. “That didn’t seem to pleasant.”

Spike just shrugged. “Steady Wing didn’t like how I talked to you, that’s all.” He said as he began to pick through his prepared bag for the opal he spied earlier.

“Oh, should I talk to him about it? I mean, it’s not all that unusual for us, but for them…” Twilight tapered off.

“Maybe, if you think it’ll help. But I think Point is on the same page as I am.” Spike said as he finally pulled out his meal for the night.

“Oh really now?” Twilight leaned in to be right next to Spike. “And what page would that be?”

“That Steady Wing need’s to get that stick out of his-“ Spike was cut off by the opal being stuffed in his mouth.

“Be glad we don’t have any soap out here.” Twilight smirked. Spike grumbled as she walked off, licking the opal and savoring its vanilla like flavor. Spike made sure there was not bad mood between Twilight and the Guard before gazing out towards the Badlands, sucking on the gem. He began contemplating if they should really be out here. Twilight might have said this was important, but she also said that because she thought it was important to him. But was it really?

Yeah, he had felt a sort of attraction to find Pyrathy, but it was more of a compulsion than anything else. If he had really felt like it, he could have put this whole expedition off and ignored it. But then again, it might have just nagged at him until he did look into it. Spike just sighed in a bit of irritation, wishing he had the same level of laxation that Pyrathy did.

Spike’s head lolled to the side as he continued his meal, feeling Twilight taking the tent supplies out from behind him. His eyes began to droop as the thought of sleep crept up on him, maybe he might even find something out tonight that could help tomorrow. Though just another float around Pyrathy probably wouldn’t help all that much, and it probably wasn’t possible to get an answer out of a dream. Spike kind of wished the first dream had really had a point.

Spike kneaded his eyes and yawned, quickly grabbing his now half-sized opal as it fell out. He looked around to see if the other three had seen it, but was satisfied to see that they seemed to be focused on setting up the two tents. He sighed in content, and was about to head to them when he glanced the pillars they had looked at earlier, and two of the melted portions seemed to line up a bit to perfectly.

Spike quickly swallowed the remainder of his meal and finally hopped down from the carriage. The two sections seemed to stack on top of each other, making a sort of ‘z’ shape. Tilting his head to see if there was anything else about it, he saw the lower half seemed to be parallel to another melted portion on the same height. Walking a bit to his left, the second lower portion made a reverse ‘z’, which didn’t help much.

But now, further to his left, another melted section looked to be higher than both sections. Moving a bit further, the three concurrent melted rocks made a reverse ‘z’ staircase. The way the melted rocks seemed to mesh together seemed to convenient to Spike, so he ran back to the group, finding them in the middle of a disagreement.

“-and I haven’t flown at all today, I’m far more fit for the trip.” Twilight declared with a hoof to her chest.

“And it’s getting on sunset Princess. Far too many things around here are going to be coming out of the woodwork. We can be down and back with what we need for the night without risking your safety.” Steady Wing countered.

“Hey guys! I think I found-“ Spike began.

“Plus, we’re trained in spotting viable wood. No detriment to your abilities Princess, but a split focus is a dead focus.” Pointed Eye backed up.

“Guys! You should see-“

“And while I understand that, I reiterate that I am currently more abled body than both of you. I already conceded the night watch, but let me do this for you!” Twilight stamped her hoof.

“HEY!” Spike finally roared, startling the arguing the trio as well as a flock of birds far below. “Finally.” Spike snorted. “I think I found something you get a look at.”

The three looked between each other before Twilight got up and slowly followed Spike back to what he found. Steady Wing nodded to Pointed Eye towards the forest below before following. Pointed Eye sighed in relief as he went off for firewood for the night.

Spike walked back to his last observation, noticing Pointed Eye hadn’t followed. He rolled his eyes as he pointed towards his discovery. “Can you tell me if you see anything weird out there?”

Twilight and Steady Wing walked up and peered past his claw, but neither saw what he did. Twilight drew back and shook her head. “I don’t Spike, what do you see?”

“I see sort of this little zig-zag between the melted portions of the pillars.” Spike explained.

“I think I see what you’re describing.” Steady Wing said as he cocked his head to the side. “What do you think I means?”

“I’m not really sure, that’s why I got you two.”

“Two?” Twilight looked behind her and groaned in annoyance. “Well, spilled milk.” She said as she glared at Steady Wing. “As for this development, maybe we’ve been thinking a bit too small, literally.” Twilight looked back out to the Badlands, trying to remember the exact locations of each of the pillars. “Tiamat and her brood were massive, so even their smallest efforts were probably still huge on our scale. This actually might be a clue.” Twilight leveled her gaze back on Steady Wing. “Corporal, if you would like to accompany me.” She said in an icy tone as she took off, Steady Wing staying right where he was.

“Geez, you’ve gotta be AJ levels of stubborn, huh?” Spike smirked at Steady Wing before looking up at Twilight, who was currently hanging in the air, her horn aglow.

“You can’t budge on the right course of action.” Steady Wing said flatly.

“Well that wholly depends on who thinks they’re right.” Spike jabbed, gaining no further quips from Steady Wing. The two just looked up to Twilight expectantly as nothing seemed to happen as she beat her wings to stay airborne. Forever seemed to pass before Twilight suddenly did a loop-de-loop in place, a small cry of excitement closely followed as she descended.

“What happened?” Spike asked as she touched down.

“Progress!” Twilight beamed. “You’re right Spike, the rocks do line up, in an arrow!”

“As in…” Spike began hopefully.

“As in directly to one of the crevices!” Twilight hopped up and down. “I knew it wouldn’t be out in the open.”

“All right smarty pants, you were right.” Spike rolled his eyes. “At least we don’t have to check every nook and cranny now.” Spike allowed himself to smile.

“OOoohhh, this is just getting so exciting!” Twilight pranced from hoof to hoof. “I wonder what he’ll be like. The put’s him down as lazy, but I bet he’s just less proactive than the others. Oh! I wonder what he knows about the Princesses from the early days! I bet there’s a lot of things historians liked to gloss over! Do you think that-“

“Twilight, Twilight, pull it back.” Spike tried to calm the overexcited alicorn. “Save some of that energy for tomorrow. You won’t be able to sleep at this rate.”

“Right, right, you’re right.” Twilight smiled as she took a slow, calm breath. “Let’s head back and tell Pointed Eye.”

“Or, you know, wait for him to get back.” Spike noted nonchalantly.

Suddenly, a loud *CRACK* from a breaking tree rang out came from the forest behind them.

“Ech, does he really have to do that?” Twilight asked.

“No, he doesn’t.” Steady Wing said gravely as he began to run towards the sound.

Confrontations

Neither Spike or Twilight were particularly comfortable with the tone Steady Wing left off on and were soon running after him. Both, however, soon began to rapidly think of what they were actually doing. There was a cliff drop off before they could get to the forest, and only one of the two of them could fly.

Spike thought of the danger coming up. If the Guard was on edge, there probably wasn’t all that much he could do to sway the situation. He wasn’t all that great in a fight, and he didn’t want to test how well his scales hold up to any beast this far out and near the Badlands. But this was also his responsibility, he was the reason they were out here and he was going to make sure they all made it back in one piece, even if was only as an extra set of eyes. Spike kept running to the cliff face.

Twilight thought of the danger to Spike and the Guard. She had faced down Tirek, Discord, and Nightmare Moon, there weren’t many creatures that keep her shaken for more than a second. She could more than likely overpower anything in the forest below, as she had argued before, but the guards were focused on keeping her safe. She could count on them to stand for themselves, but Spike was another matter. He was a baby and not much for roughhousing. He needed to stay back and let them take care of Pointed Eye’s predicament. Besides, he would never make it down and back up the cliff.

But as the ledge came closer and Steady Wing took off, quickly diving down, Twilight glanced to her side and saw that Spike wasn’t slowing down. There wasn’t even a glint of hesitation as he steadfastly ran for the cliff. Twilight grimaced, the thought of Spike plummeting off the side flashing through her brain. She quickly shook the image away.

“Spike!” Twilight called out, getting a glance from Spike. Twilight dipped her left wing down as they continued to run, the signal clear to Spike. He altered his course and jumped, grabbing onto the offered appendage, and a combined effort between the two hauled Spike onto Twilight’s back in time for Twilight to take a running leap off the side of the cliff and fully spread her wings.

“There!” Spike pointed to the white streak that had just dipped beneath the thin canopy of trees. Twilight dipped to the left to follow, keeping sight on Steady Wing as another *CRACK* rang out again, now much closer, Spike and Twilight saw a tree not too far begin to fall and groan. They quickly followed, both winceing as branches began to streak by them as they broke into the canopy, but Steady Wing was still going.

Going in the direction of the felled tree, the three soon spotted Pointed Eye running on the ground, not looking too worse for wear. Scratches were apparent on his helmet and armor, but his wings didn’t look damaged and his gallop was steady. His eyes darted about until he spotted his partner, his eyes grew wide and his complexion a bit paler.

“Drop!” Pointed yelled, confusing Spike and Twilight, but Steady Wing immediately clamped his wings to his side and began hopping down branches. And not too soon, as barely a rustle of leaves came in warning as a dark mass darted through the air space Steady Wing was just occupying. Twilight back flapped to try and see where the thing went.

“Twilight! Drop down!” Spike yelled in her ear, making her wings snap to her side more in shock than command, and Spike held on for dear life as they began to fall. Twilight quickly regained her senses, and glanced over to Pointed Eye, and a short cast later, she and Spike popped out of existence for a split second, appearing next to the winded corporal.

“Princess?!” Pointed Eye exclaimed.

“Shock later, tactics now!” Twilight turned, readying herself with a concussive spell, eyes darting to spot their threat. “What are we dealing with.”

“Not sure.” Pointed Eye breathed as Steady Wing took position on Twilight’s right, keeping the princess between the two guards. “It’s fast, flight capable, and a striker, no open combat so far.”

“Intelligence?” Steady asked.

“High, probably sentient.” Pointed replied.

“And it still attacked you?” Twilight asked, aghast.

“Tried to crush my head first. It might just be experienced in-“

“Above! My 3!” Steady called as he shouldered Twilight aside as Pointed jumped aside as well. Spike’s legs clenched tighter to Twilight’s barrel, as he turned to see what Steady Wing was pushing them away from.

Time seemed to slow for Spike as he saw Twilight wincing from the body slam and Steady Wing focusing his energy on pushing the princess out of harm’s way. The mass that descended upon the group came down from the branches at an angle, it was elongated and black with white spines running down its back, its red, slit eyes focused on landing right on where they were. Spike could barely make the glint of a few unsheathed claws ready for a grab.

As the second ticked by, the creature landed, its claw sunk into the ground where Steady Wing had just stood, and Spike saw the predator’s eyes dart up and meet his. Spike felt his heart freeze as the lust in the creature’s eyes pierced into him. Its eyes spoke of hunger and, oddly, joy. He saw the experience of many hunts and many kills within the pools of amber that were her eyes.

And as the next second ticked, the creature’s wings snapped open, a stunning white encompassed Spike’s field of view as one beat sent dust and herself flying at a reflective angle to her decent, clearing over the group’s heads and disappeared once again into the trees with nary a rustle to show she passed through.

“Guards! Prepare to hover!” Twilight called as she regained her footing, her horn begining to glow brighter, drawing Spike’s attention back to her. He held tight as he was once again teleported, the sensation of twisting and stretching through ill-defined space gripping him before he had to squint at the sunlight suddenly in his eyes. Spike heard the flapping of wings and felt the sudden bounce of Twilight flying. Spike looked away from the sunset to see they were directly over the carriage they had come in.

Twilight, Pointed, and Steady made their way back to the ground, and all took a sigh of relief.

“This is exactly why I said I should-“ Twilight began.

“Twilight, berate later.” Spike cut in, gaining a sharp glance from Twilight over her shoulder. “Do you know any wards to keep up overnight?” Spike asked as he looked back toward the forest they had left.

“Spike, now’s not-“

“Twilight.” Spike looked Twilight dead in the eye, and Twilight saw it.

Fear.

“Yeah. Yeah, I dusted some off for this, sure.” Twilight dipped her shoulder, letting Spike slide off. “The tents are set up already, wait for me near one, all right?” Twilight asked, her tone having become significantly softer.

“Yeah.” Spike nodded as he headed to the tents. They were two pony A-frames, so there was nothing luxurious to them, but Spike was fine with that right now, he needed to process those three seconds of his life right now. He even glanced up to Steady Wing as he walked past him to see if he would have any words for him. And he even seemed like he did, but they apparently died on his lips as he looked at Spike, instead walking over to Pointed Eye to check on the stallion.

Spike moved the flap covering the front of one of the tents to find two relatively thin and long mattresses parallel to each other with two pillows and a blanket pile at the other end of the tent. Spike situated himself on the end of a mattress and began to re-evaluate the encounter.

And the first thing he thought of was a dragon. The claws, the wings, the spines, and those eyes, they all looked very familiar to the ones he saw in the mirror. But looking at his own claws, he couldn’t see the connection. Hers had been so sharp, as to slice and not hold.

Her. She. Female.

How did he know? It was a formless creature, and yet it seemed so defined to him. She was black, or maybe… more of a deep purple? Her spines down her back had definitely been white, and so had her wing’s membrane. A blinding, pristine white. Perhaps even better than Rarity’s.

But her eyes. Her eyes had told a story in that glance. She was proud, she was happy, and she was exhilarated. She was also young, not only told by her size, but by the glint in those eyes, the eyes of some…dragon who could and would go anywhere. Compared to Pyrathy’s deep, slow abyss, hers were quick, and hungry.

That brought a shiver down Spike’s spines. That hunger scared him. It was a boundless hunger, for her food, for the world, and somehow, Spike thought, for him. It was unnerving, and even now, just closing his own eyes brought her deep amber one’s to mind. Spike gulped.

“Spike?” Twilight questioned outside the tents.

“In here Twi.” Spike replied. Twilight lifted the tent flap and came in, proceeding to situate herself next to Spike, a wing reflexively extending its way around the young drake.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” She whispered. “That’s not something somepony like you needs to be a part of.”

“It is if I’m the reason it happens.” Spike replied dourly.

“Spike, you’re not-“

“Yes I am Twilight.” Spike cut in, not even deeming it necessary to look to see Twilight’s disapprovement of his constant interruptions. “I’m the reason we’re out here, and" Spike's exasperation started to show. "And I don’t even know why! Why do I need to do this? You didn’t need to know about this, I could have put it off, I could have ignored it, this isn’t something important to me, it’s just an annoyance! And now I’m putting you and those two in danger because of something I don’t even care about!” Spike ended up ranting at the ground, a trickle of tears beginning to make themselves known. “But you keep pushing! You’re so excited about it all! This is all so easy that you don’t even need any of us here. You can feed and protect yourself, Pointed Eye and Steady Wing are only here to help cart me along on this trip. You don’t need them, and you certainly don’t need-“

Spike was quickly silenced by a crushing hug. “Stop that. Stop that right now.” Twilight whispered. Spike’s surprise was soon replaced with guilt and sorrow as he embraced the hug, burying his face in Twilight’s chest. Twilight lay her head on top of Spike’s, gently petting down his back in a soothing manner, her own tears making themselves present.

They were quiet, the only sound being an off hiccup from Spike. When Twilight finally felt Spike’s breathing return to normal, she gingerly peeled herself away from her closest friend and family. Spike’s eyes were dangerously red, which he began to desperately wipe. Twilight chuckled as she wiped some tears off his cheeks with her wing.

“Spike.” Twilight said softly, gaining a very lost look from the drake. “I reiterate that I’m sorry that what happened went down the way it did, and I’m sorry if it felt like I ignored you or your feelings. I tried to take you into account when we went off for Pointed Eye, but you seemed determined to keep up, and I let you come with us.”

“But I did want to help.” Spike offered. “Even if it was only an extra set of eyes.”

“Well, you did get Pointed Eye’s warning through to me.” Twilight smiled, but it was soon dropped. “And I will admit, this is very exhilarating for me, but at the end of the day, Spike, we’re doing this for you.”

“And that’s the problem!” Spike snapped, Twilight's only reaction to the outburst being a deepening frown. “We don’t have to be here! This entire expedition is pointless! We’re here to find Pyrathy and I don’t even know why!”

“Then think.” Twilight near whispered as she drew Spike back into a hug. “What happened last night in the dream? Really think.”

So Spike did. He thought back to Pyrthay’s cave and size. He thought of the cacophony of scenes on Pyrathy’s scales. He remembered all of the fighting, all of the death that played on them, and the curse placed upon Pyrathy for such things to happen. Spike remembered having to look away, he remembered looking past his life in those scales, and something occurred to him.

There was a disproportionate amount of his life in those scales. His hatching, Twilight’s research, his first steps, his first belch of fire singing Twilight’s mane, his first words, his time studying with Twilight, his interactions with Rarity. And in all of them, he couldn’t recall one, major life event.

His greed growth.

In all of those replays, in all of those close scales, his biggest personal failure hadn’t been there.

And then there was that phrase, those four words. “Welcome home, Little Spike.” Pyrathy had smiled, not only with his teeth, but in his eyes. His deep abyss of an eye had glowed. A spark was lit in there, something that seemed to have died a long time ago. Something Spike recognized sparking before.

“Hope.” Spike whispered, pulling away from Twilight. “Pyrathy needs hope, I think.”

“Oh?” Twilight asked, more in polite prompt than in question.

“A lot of what I saw on Pyrathy’s scales were fighting. Fighting and killing.” Twilight’s face grew rigidly concerned. “And when I tried to look away from all of it, I looked to his eye, where there wouldn’t be any scales to show that violence, but when I did, I passed over my own life. And a lot of it. I-I don’t know if he can control what plays, but I didn’t really see any dragon more than twice, but my hatching and others were all there, but not my greed growth. And I think… I think that means Pyrathy was trying to focus on my positives. What I did with you and the other Elements.”

“And that gave him hope?” Twilight asked. Spike nodded.

“I think so, there was something in the way he addressed me that makes me think so.” Spike swallowed. “But I don’t know why he would reach out to me, the map at the castle-“

“Spike.” Twilight lifted his chin to look at her. “The map leads us to the problems of friendship. This seems by far removed from that.”

“Still wouldn’t need me here though.” Spike grumbled.

“Do you think he doesn’t need you Spike? You’re the one who believes he needs hope.” Twilight pointed out, neither seeming to dampen or lighten Spike’s mood. With a moment of no response, Twilight dredged up a question she really didn’t want to ask.

“Do you really think I don’t need you?” Twilight barely got out, a deep sense of hurt in her tone. Spike bit his lip and looked aside, but Twilight didn’t let him move his head. “Because I don’t know what I’d do without you. And that’s the honest truth.” Spike’s eyes quickly shot back to Twilight. “I’m sorry that you felt that I didn’t need you, but I need to know… how long have you felt like this?” She let go of Spike’s chin, and his head dropped, again looking away.

“Honestly?” Spike’s eyes looked back to Twilight, who nodded. “I guess… a little bit after you ascended.” Twilight’s grew wide. That had been nearly three years ago now. “You just got so busy, and you were able to get anything you wanted with a thought, that all I was good for was cooking at home. And then I wasn’t any real help, heck, more of a hindrance with Sunset Shimmer.” Spike began to tick off on his claws. “Then I tried helping others, but I overcompensated and ended up ruining that. And then when Tirek came, I was just as out of the loop as everypony else. Then the castle came, and the map had all of you go off to confront Starlight Glimmer, and I was completely left behind.” Spike looked Twilight full on, old wounds coming to the surface. “Hoofball isn’t all that enjoyable when you have to worry about what your sister is doing in the middle of nowhere because a random magic map tells her to go there. It was all Big Mac and I could do to not worry about you and AJ. But you never saw anything wrong with going off and solving unknown problems, none of you did.”

Spike sighed. “And then there was the time travel debacle. And I did nothing there either. Honestly Twilight, I’m not so afraid of what just happened, but more of if I left, by choice or not, would it matter?”

“Of course it would-“ Twilight began.

“No, Twilight, think. Don’t feel this answer, because I sure left that behind a while ago. Would it matter if I left?”

Twilight looked down at Spike, really looked. Past the determination, past the pain, past the bravado, to her scared little brother, who was unsure if he was important anymore.

“Yes Spike. You matter. You matter more than you may think. Past me, past our friends, you affect everypony you meet, even the ones you haven’t met yet.” It was Twilight’s turn to look away. “I may not need you as an assistant as I once did, but that doesn’t mean I need you any less.” She looked back with a sad, awkward smile. “Does that make any sense?”

Spike folded his claws as he let them sit in front of him. Did he understand? How could he affect ponies he hadn’t met before? Did it really matter if he said hi to Lyra Heartstrings or Golden Harvest in the mornings? Were they their friends? Spike had a shuddering realization that he had always seen them as Twilight’s friends that he got along with, which jarred him a bit. Had he picked up Twilight’s isolationist tendencies in a different way? And it still putted around the issue of if he actually important to Twilight. But would he actually believe anything she said aside from a negative to fuel his spiral? Spike uncoupled his claws and looked at them once more, contemplating this conundrum.

Twilight saw Spike blankly looking down at his claws and hesitantly reached her wing out to once again hug him, but twitched in hesitation while half unfurled. Maybe Spike didn’t need any more reinforcement from her. Maybe this was a time for both of them to think. He had told her he had been thinking about this for so long that a gut feeling had been ruled out. Twilight put her wing back against her side and pondered on how she had interacted with Spike in recent years, or all his years in fact.

She had been the one to hatch him and the one he had imprinted on. He never seemed to go five minutes without being attached to her one way or another. And when he wasn’t sleeping or grabbing for her attention, he was being a pain to feed. That was so long ago, but it was all that immediately popped up to Twilight. And even though she saw him as family, she somehow had always seen herself above him in authority, even in things she barely knew about. And as cold of a pit that it left in her stomach, Twilight did have to admit to herself that she had used Spike as a second brain and a spare body, rather than as his own person. So now, how could she support his efforts to be his own drake, when neither of them really knew what it meant to be Spike?

So the two sat in their tent on that mattress, thinking about what they exactly meant to one another. Both were so deep in thought that neither were disturbed by Pointed Eye as he lift the tent flap up. Only when clearing his throat did he at least gain Twilight’s attention.

“Princess, if it wouldn’t be a hassle, Steady Wing has conceded that you could gather the firewood we need in a concise and effective manner.” Pointed Eye said in his most level tone.

“There… shouldn’t be a need corporal.” Twilight glanced to Spike, who had started to pay attention. “The fire was for a more… lighthearted mood. The warding around camp and enchantments on the tents should be more than enough for our location. As an aside, any sort of night vision we would need would be hampered by a lit campfire.”

“I’ll inform him.” Pointed Eye nodded. He stole a short glance to Spike to see how he was doing, and he seemed to be a lot calmer and composed, but also noted the redness in his eyes as well. “Would there be a time to which we should be heading out in the morning?”

“9:30, 10 at the latest.” Spike said. “Packing by 9 should be ideal.” His tone was soft, but his voice was concrete. Pointed Eye wasn’t sure if their one misstep had changed Spike much, but he did seem to be a bit more resolute.

“Should be no problem, sir.” Pointed Eye nodded to Spike. “Ma’am.” Pointed nodded to Twilight before backing out and letting the flap fall back into place. Spike took a deep sigh before leaning back.

“It’s not an easy answer Twi.” Spike said as he lolled his head toward Twilight, a small smile on his lips. “But, it helps to have it out, you know?” Twilight mirrored his smile.

“Yeah, it does.” Twilight got to her hooves and turned her head toward the blankets and pillows, her magic lighting up and enveloping the objects. “Now, do you want to stand up for a second, or do you just want to be wrapped up like a burrito?”

“I dunno, you’ve never been one to wrap all that tightly.” Spike’s smile grew warmer as he stood up to allow Twilight to lay out their sleepwear. Twilight lay out the blankets neatly and one pillow a piece before letting them go.

“Now, I brought s’more ingredients, but seeing as we’re not having a fire, would you like any of them before bed?” Twilight asked, and Spike smirked.

“You do realize I could make the s’mores, right?” Spike chuckled, a moment of dumbfoudness crossed Twilight’s face before facehoofing.

“But you were right, s’mores are for a lighter tone than tonight, and unless you want any, I’m going to pass.” Spike said in all seriousness.

“And here I thought you would never pass up a sweet treat.” Twilight smiled as her hoof hit the floor.

“I think you’re thinking of Pinkie Pie.” Spike pointed out, causing both to laugh softly. Twilight took the opportunity to give Spike one last, soft hug.

“Goodnight Spike.”

“Yeah, night Twi.” Spike replied, reciprocating the soft hug.

Both broke away from the hug and made their way under their covers with no real ceremony. There was a shifting of accommodation before silence fell over the tent. Spike’s ear perked a bit at the absence of either of the guard’s voices.

“Oh, yeah, there’s a silence charm on the tents as well.” Twilight spoke up, seeming to read Spike’s thoughts. “Somepony would need to be shouting to override it.”

“Hm.” Spike grunted noncommittedly as his curiosity was sated, closing his eyes and wondering if the night would bring another dream of Pyrathy.

Spike was slow to come to senses as he became aware of himself. He felt odd, weightless and hazy, but a hardy shake of his head, the haze left, but the loss of weight was still there. He looked about to see he was in a cave of some sort with no entrance or exit to be seen, just a tunnel. And he soon found an answer for his sense of weightlessness.

He was floating and transparent.

There was a brief flash of panic at the thought of being dead, but a moment of reflection brought him to the realization that he had been like this seeing Pyrathy. Spike was a lot more aware of himself now, and the only question he had now was this:

Why wasn’t Pyrathy around this time?

His question was soon answered as a tapping of claws on stone echoed down the tunnel. Spike turned to see what was coming, and the cold stone in his stomach formed again. It was the dragoness, and his gut reaction and the clear view of her began to meld.

She was definitely more feminine than other dragons he had met before, her form was much more slender than the bulky builds of the dragons of the past. Walking on all fours, her steps seemed to flow into one another, leading to a smooth, almost unwavering gait. So transfixed on her approach was Spike, that he almost completely missed the fact she was coming right toward him! Spike desperately began to swim up in some inane attempt to get out of her way, as though she hadn’t seen him.

But as she proceeded to walk uninterrupted under him, Spike realized that she hadn’t seen him. Which confused Spike in two ways, 1) If he was dreaming this dragoness up, why hadn’t she seen him, and 2) If he had dreamed her of ignoring him, what could it mean?

As Spike watched her walk by underneath, he began to casually float along above, taking note of other features, such as the coloration of her scales. They were dark purple, Byzantium if Spike could place it, but he was also right in assuming black, as her color only darkened from her head to her tail, which stood in stark contrast to her white spines and, as Spike knew, equally white wing membrane. Her wings, as they were now, were folded to her sides, and the more Spike watched her body language, the more tense determination he saw in it.

Her wings were tight to her side as to not be a hindrance in any sudden moves. Her stride was flowing, but also purposeful. And from Spike could see of her deep, amber red eyes, they weren’t very concerned about immediate action, but resolute on finding what was ahead. When her eyes significantly widened and her gait turned into a run, Spike finally looked up to see what she did.

And it was a cavern, a very large cavern, probably big enough to fit Canterlot Mountain inside. Spike could already see a large, scaley, red mound lying just beyond the tunnel exit. The floor actually jutted out from the exit, Spike noticed as the dragoness he had been following kept running until she was nearly to the massive eye. Spike had actually stopped at the tunnel exit to see how this dream would act out, and as the dragoness came to a halt and sat on her haunches, Spike saw the eyelid trmble and begin to move, and once again Spike saw the abyss that was Pyrathy’s eye, and once again he was transfixed, even with a semi-greater distance. But almost instantly, Spike didn’t see the spark he had seen before. That spark that he thought was hope. But he wasn’t long to contemplate that before one female voice rang out.

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE MOON IS THAT!?”

Meeting Royalty

Spike quickly kicked about to see Princess Luna standing behind him, eyes wide and wings flared.

“Princess Luna? What are you doing in my dream?” Spike asked, making Luna’s amazed look snap over to the small drake. Luna snapped her attention from between the meeting of Pyrathy and the dragoness and Spike multiple times before slowly approaching Spike, her eyes now glued on Pyrathy. Spike was now more than a bit suspicious and scared of Luna’s actions.

Spike looked back to see what Luna was being so weary of, and noticed that Pyrathy’s pupil had shifted up, no longer looking to the dragoness, but him. And he once more saw the smile before being covered in dark blue feathers.

“Gah!” Spike yelped in surprise as he was dragged backwards, suddenly finding himself hit the ground. When Luna’s wings retracted, Spike was left looking into a void with white mists and pinpoints of lights. Looking down, Spike could see he was actually sitting on some of that white mist. When he heard Luna let out a long sigh, Spike’s ire was more than a bit touched. He looked behind him to see Luna sitting, looking more than a bit shaken.

“What was that about?” Spike asked hotly as he hopped to his feet. “There was nothing wrong with my dream Princess!”

Luna looked up, shock very apparent, and blinking a few times without understanding, tilted her head to the side. “Spike, that was no dream.”

“What?” It was Spike’s turn to blink in disbelief. Luna took the moment to stand and gain some of her composure back.

“When Twilight sent her letter, she indicated that you had been visited in your dreams by this Pyrathy. It was not my intention to disrupt such a meeting, only to be a safety net of a sort. But when I searched for you tonight… well…” Luna raised her left wing, Spike looking to see her indicating to three doors, one purple and pink, one white and light blue, and one lime green and dark blue. “These are the dreams I found out here.”

“And mine’s not there because I’m here, right?” Spike asked hopefully. Luna shook her head in disillusionment.

“Yours is as such.” Luna’s magic glowed, a purple and green door rising alongside the other three. Oddly, Spike noticed, the ones for Twilight and the Guards were square and wooden, while his was an arc and metal. “Dragons are naturally very magic resistant.” Luna stated. “Normally, I am unable to interfere with any dream a dragon makes unless under extreme duress or permission, even you Spike. But tonight, I did not find you here.” Spike’s door dropped into nonexistence once more. “Instead, I followed you to where you were.”

“So… that wasn’t a dream?” Spike asked, more than a bit confused. Luna sighed as she massaged the bridged of her nose, not liking what she needed to tell Spike.

“You were not dreaming Spike; you were astral projecting yourself.” Luna finally said.

“Wait, like, my soul left my body?” Spike began patting himself down. Maybe he really was dead! Only when Luna placed a reassuring hoof over his frantic claws did his panic stop rising. He looked up to Luna’s serene look.

“You need not worry young one, you are safe. What happened to you is essentially a much higher grade of the dream walking I do to ward away nightmares across Equestria. Except, where I manifest myself within the subconscious of our citizens, you had manifested in full within the world. And, to tell the truth, if I had not been following your trail, I do not know if I could have as easily done the same.”

“So, what I was just watching was actually happening?”

Luna nodded. “That is correct.”

“And you were surprised to see Pyrathy?”

Luna bit her lip. “Y-Yes. Spike, you must know, my sister and I have never seen him or his siblings before. And to be honest, to know that a dragon of his size, much less four more, exist within the world… it terrifies me.”

“Terrifies you?” Spike asked, aghast. “But you’re the princess of the moon. You and Princess Celestia control something that took councils of other unicorns to attempt to do!”

Luna chuckled. “And by all accounts, they are massive feats. But for all of our power, Spike, we are still ponies.” Luna looked up and gazed out into the sparkling void. “This Pyrathy seems to essentially hold the same rank amongst dragons that We do. And We do not know more than hearsay about them.”

Spike looked up to Luna questioningly. “Uh, I don’t know if Twilight told you or not, but we have an entire book accounting for Pyrathy and the others. It’s called The Life And Fall of Tiamat, Mother of Dragons.”

Luna’s expression only softened slightly. “And We know of it, but do not take too much of it for fact. I have read some of the accounts of Nightmare Moon that were written well after I was banished, least to say they had some…” Luna winced. “Interesting theories on how I fell so.”

“Oh?”

“A lot of which have been collected into fiction now.” Luna chuckled in embarrassment, before clearing her throat. “But what I mean to say, Spike, is to not believe everything you have read about him.”

“Not like there’s a lot to go on.” Spike mumbled.

“Be that as it may,” Luna gave a small smile. “I also do not mean for you to be hostile. Treat him as you would any new pony.”

Spike considered her words for a moment before resolutely nodding. “I will Princess.” Spike looked back out into the void, something still not sitting right with him. “So, you followed me?”

“That is correct.” Luna affirmed.

“How?” Spike looked back to Luna. “How could you tell I was… out of my body?”

Luna’s face twisted in thought. “This isn’t something I usually have to explain, so forgive any… foggy explanations.” Luna stepped beside Spike, again raising his dream door. “The magic that allows me to enter dreams allows me access the minds of others, asleep or awake. When accessed, my perception becomes that of the one I am reading, how they see the world, how others appear to them. I can then direct their vision towards a desired outcome, even involving other points of view,” Luna shifted Twilight’s and Spike’s doors to be side by side, their frames merging together. “Never changing how they think, only what to think about.”

“However, when I came to find what could be intruding on your dream, instead of this door to your subconscious, I instead found this.” Spike’s door melted away, the green and purple slag beginning to glow a dull red as it began to slither out from their white walkway. “I could identify your presence within the path, but not the aura around it, though it did seem benign. Following this path lead me to you.”

“So Pyrathy did call me out.” Spike concluded.

“It would appear so.” Luna concurred as the conjured path vanished.

“But then, what about the other dragoness that was there? Did he call her too?”

“That I cannot say, but for one as young as her to be out here may not be coincidence.”

“How so?”

“There is a dragon colony to the west of you, surprisingly about the population size of Ponyville. She may have been called or she may have come here herself, but coming alone speaks to the former.”

“Well it’s not like she can’t take care of herself.” Spike huffed as he crossed his arms.

“Oh? You could tell that by looking?” A teasing smile played on Luna’s lips.

“More like first-hoof experience.” Spike replied flatly, Luna’s smile dropping immediately.

“What kind of experience.”

“Pointed Eye went for firewood and got into a scuffle with her.” Spike explained plainly. “The rest of us showed up to see what was up, and then Twilight teleported all of us out. Camp’s been warded and I believe in Twilight to have made every precaution.”

“And you’re sure the one to attack Corporal Pointed Eye and the dragoness we witnessed were the same?”

“Unless there’s another purple-black dragoness with white spines, pretty sure.”

“I see.” Luna concluded, a letter already being drafted in her head. “Words will need to be had.”

“Really? With who?”

Luna sighed. “As little as We interact with them, there is a designated leader of the dragons. We may need to reiterate what preying conditions apply in Equestria. Especially when it comes to our Guard. Honestly, you would think they would notice the armor plating.”

“Mmm.” Spike groaned in dissatisfaction.

“My apologies, I did not mean to offend you Spike.” Luna took an apologetic bow.

“Oh, no no Princess!” Spike waved both of his claws frantically. “It’s just that Pointed Eye said she went for his head first, but her claws looked a lot sharper than the nicks that were on it.”

Luna raised her head and inquisitive brow. “Are you defending her actions?”

“Eh, yes and no?” Spike shrugged, unsure of exactly what he was saying. “Just, maybe think of how often a Guard would actually be out near here? She did seem rather… playful, at the time?” Spike said, but he remembered the look the dragoness had given him, and her ‘playing’ could be a lot deadlier than normal.

Luna chuckled, surprising Spike quite a bit. “I’ll take you on your word Spike. But should you meet her, and actually speak, maybe tell her to tone down her ‘playing’.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Spike saluted dutifully.

“Now, as for the rest of our night, I’m afraid since you’ve been conscious this whole time, a dream is not awaiting you this night. I could, however, send you into a dreamless sleep that will have you rested by the morning.”

“Yeah, sounds good enough.” Spike sighed. “Could you check on the other three, since you’re here?”

“I would not dream otherwise.” Luna smiled as she rose Spike’s door once more, this time the door swung inward without assistance. Spike happily walked into the hazy gray room beyond.

“Thank you Princess Luna.” Spike turned and waved.

“My pleasure.” Luna dipped her head in acknowledgment before shutting the door, and Spike’s consciousness went fuzzy once more.

…

“Spiiiike.” Twilight whispered overhead. “It’s time to get up sleepyhead.”

Spike smiled groggily. “Five more minutes.”

Twilight smiled mischievously, making Spike’s smile falter. “Sorry, but we need to pack.” She said with no remorse as her magic glowed, and Spike soon found himself rolling onto the hard ground.

“Mmm, I was kidding.” Spike grumbled as he proceeded to get up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“And I’m keeping to the schedule.” Twilight replied as Spike’s sheets were folded up and began to shrink. “We have granola if you want any for breakfast.”

“Eh, pass.”

“All right, suit yourself.” Twilight chirped as she made her way out of the tent. Spike noticed the tent was now entirely empty, so Twilight must have given him at least a little extra time while she had packed her things. He made his way outside to find Pointed Eye and Steady Wing sitting in front of the chariot waiting, eating their breakfast, their tent already gone and packed.

Feeling a bit guilty at his lack of help, Spike pulled the tent spikes out of the ground and proceeded to roll up the tent around its poles and spikes as tightly as he could before picking it up and carrying it over to Twilight, who seemed to contemplating how their supplies had been packed in the first place, as multiple shrunken sheets and pillows floated about her head.

“You might be missing a piece.” Spike smiled as he held up the tent to Twilight.

“Hm?” Twilight looked up a bit dazed. “Oh, yes, thank you Spike.” She said near absently as she lifted and shrank the tent, quickly finding the pattern everything had been packed in and shutting the case.

“Something on your mind?” Spike asked, pretty much already knowing it was probably something to do with Princess Luna.

Twilight sighed. “Did… you happen to speak with Princess Luna last night?”

“Yeah, thanks for that heads up by the way.” Spike chuckled, but Twilight winced.

“Sorry about that, I should have told you I asked her to look out for you.”

“Eh, no harm no foul.” Spike shrugged.

“But did she seem a bit, I don’t know, cryptic to you?”

“Uh, no.” Spike grimaced in confusion. “She seemed pretty straight to me.”

“Ugh, maybe I’m just not remembering clearly enough.” Twilight grunted in agitation. “I know she said something about the forest creature not being a threat, but-“

“Dragoness.” Spike corrected.

“What?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“What?” The Guards asked in accusation, their head’s snapping to the conversation.

“What? Wasn’t that one obvious?”

“Spike, none of us got a clear look at that thing.” Twilight informed him. “We barely had a second of sight on it before we got out of there.”

“And you’re sure something that fast and small could be a dragon?” Steady Wing asked as he rounded the chariot to enter the conversation proper.

Spike just looked up at the corporal with a deadpan stare as he gestured down at himself.

“Well, yes, if… she’s only a bit older, she could fit the body size.” Twilight contemplated. “But I’ve never accounted for a dragon being that fast…” Twilight facehoofed. “And that’s why she said it was taken care of, because if she’s a dragon then the Princesses contact the Dragon King.”

“They have a king?” Pointed Eye asked, still at the front of the chariot. “I thought they just lived as they pleased.”

“Which they can pretty much do because of the Dragon King.” Twilight explained. “The Princesses hammered out the details a long time ago and they pretty much haven’t been touched since.” Twilight gave Spike a nervous smile “I may have read up on modern dragon interactions while I packed.”

“But if we are dealing with a dragoness, and we have interaction settlements, then why were we attacked last night?” Steady Wing asked.

“Well… your armor is rather shiny.” Spike gave a nervous half chuckle as he scratched the back of his head, looking down and away from Steady Wing’s heated glare.

“Seriously?”

“Hey, I went for less.”

Steady Wing took a deep breath, and let out an irritated sigh. “The damage was rather minor, and it did seem like the scratches were more toward ripping off than puncturing.”

“Not to mention she seemed to be a lot faster than me, I was feeling pretty toyed with.” Pointed Eye added.

“She did seem to be having fun.” Spike admitted.

“How do you know so much about her?” Steady Wing asked.

“Careful observation?” Spike replied less than helpfully. “Also, we’re probably going to have to be on the lookout for her today.”

“Why? She’s in the forest.” Pointed Eye nodded in the forest’s general direction.

“Not from what I saw last night.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Steady Wing asked.

“Assuming all things to be true, I left my physical body last night and witnessed our dragoness having a meeting with Pyrathy.” Spike delivered flatly, waiting for reactions.

“I don’t believe you.” Pointed Eye said.

“I can’t believe you.” Steady Wing stated.

“That’s rather a bold thing to claim.” Said Twilight. “Astral projection is a rather theoretical magical practice and complicated shamanistic practice. To project your body on a whim is unheard of if not impossible.”

“And I would love for you to explain that to a near primordial magical being.” Spike smiled condescendingly, but soon recanted. “But I digress, Princess Luna showed me that Pyrathy basically picked me up and carried me to him.”

“So, two days ago…”

“The same thing happened, or so I think.” Spike nodded.

Twilight was silent for a moment, her face slowly scrunching in contemplation. With a final unsatisfied hum, Twilight sighed. “So, we’ve seen that this dragoness is formidable, but a bit benign. Not to take her lightly though, we need to be faster than her. Spike, we know where to start looking for Pyrathy, and since we can now, tentatively, say that what you’ve seen is where we’ll be going, is there anything else you can say about where we’re going?”

“The only way I know about to him is a singular tunnel, or at least, leading up to him is a single tunnel. It could more than likely have enough room for all four of us to move freely in, but if we needed to dodge around our opponent, I don’t know about that.”

Twilight sighed again as she addressed Steady Wing. “Which is why I’m going to be suggesting something I know you’re not going to like Corporal.” Steady Wing stood a bit more at attention at the mention of his rank. “I’m going to need you two to stay at the cave entrance with the chariot, and possibly leave without us in case of an emergency.”

“Princess! We can’t just-“

“You can and you will.” Twilight cut off flatly. “While I commend your sense of duty, you were asked to be here for escort, for which you and Corporal Pointed Eye have done excellently, but this has never been a combat mission or exercise. And as I demonstrated yesterday, I am more than capable of teleporting more than myself.” Twilight paused to cool her demeanor. “If necessary, the chariot can be left in an emergency, and I trust you and your partner’s judgment on abandoning royal property, as little as it may be. This is an order Corporal, is that clear?”

Both Steady Wing and Pointed Eye stood at attention and saluted. “Yes Ma’am.”

Twilight sighed and let go of her rigid posture she hadn’t even realized she had taken up. “Good, then Steady Wing, Pointed Eye, if you could fly us up, you’ll see a purple marker on one of the pillars, that is your destination.” Twilight directed as she stepped into the chariot and unceremoniously plopped down on the seat. Spike climbed in shortly afterward as Steady Wing made his way to the front.

“You okay Twilight?” Spike asked as he skootched in close.

“I will be.” Twilight said quietly. “I just feel bad about having to push Steady Wing around like this. He’s just doing his job, and I’m making it such a hassle for him.”

“But you did make a point Twi.” Spike pointed out. “We’re not here to fight, and honestly, Steady Wing has seemed on edge about fighting something out here from minute one.” With a slight gurgle from his stomach, Spike reached for the food bag and fished out a small sapphire. “If he only has to worry about himself and Pointed Eye, I think he’ll make a good snap decision. Like he did back in the forest.”

“I suppose.” Twilight conceded as the chariot began to move and lifted off the ground. They quickly ascended high above all of the pillars in the Badlands before banking and heading toward a faint purple beacon. Nothing was said as they approached and Spike snacked, and soon the four were hovering outside of three relatively close crevices.

“Well, which one is it Twilight?” Spike asked as he looked between the three.

“It should be the middle one. Hold on.” Twilight’s horn lit up and three bolts of magic shot out, one entering each opening. “Yep, definitely the center one. The sides only go back for a bit, but the middle one just keeps going.” Twilight turned to address the guards. “You can set us down!”

The two began their decent, slowly landing without a slightest fault. As Twilight and Spike got off the chariot, they heard one of their throats clearing, and turned to find Pointed Eye was catching their attention.

“Please, be careful Princess.” He asked with genuine concern.

“We will, I promise.” Twilight nodded. She dipped her shoulder once more, and Spike happily obliged to hop on. “We’ll come back out here one way or another. If you’re gone, I’m going to assume something went wrong and you had to leave. Until we get back, stay vigilant you two.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Both saluted.

Twilight spread her wings, and soon both she and Spike were making their way down the crevice. It wasn’t even as difficult as Twilight was anticipating, the crevice was wide enough to give even a larger dragon a good amount of wiggle room, and due to the open ended nature of it, there was a steady air current to assist her.

While Twilight was concentrated on flying, Spike was wondering how this confrontation was going to go. Was it going to be urgent? Was it going to be laid back? What was he going to ask? Would he be allowed to ask anything? He was purposefully being pulled to him, so there had to be some sort of conversation, right?

And would they run into the dragoness? If what he saw was what was happening in real time, then she had to be somewhere nearby, if not still here. And what would they do if they did meet her? Run away immediately, or would they try to talk? Would she let them talk? Spike’s claws gripped and twisted the bottom of Twilight’s mane in uncomfortable anticipation.

“Spike?” Twilight said.

“Oh, sorry.” Spike apologized as he let go of her mane.

“Oh, well, thank you, but I asked, which way?”

“Huh?” Spike looked up to see Twilight’s horn lighting up three distinct passages. Above to their left was a tunnel that looked just a bit bigger than they were, ahead of them the cave continued onward and downward, and to their right was a large mound of boulders that had only a small space above it.

“Uh, can’t you do what you did before?”

“I did, but each of them seem to go on equally as long until the spell fizzles. I was wondering if you could make anything different out, being this close.”

Spike looked between the three options before him and tried to feel anything different between them. Which really wasn’t something he thought he could do, but it was worth shot. As his eyes darted between options, Spike felt an odd sense of emptiness from the right, a radiating heat from ahead, an eerie feeling from the left. And something felt familiar about it.

“Left, the best I can say.” Spike responded.

“Are you sure?” Twilight looked over her shoulder.

“As sure as I can be.” Spike nodded. With an affirmative nod, Twilight lifted them up to the small entrance and landed. The cave seemed to be just about as tall as her castle’s hallways, and similarly as wide. Spike hopped off on his own and began walking forward.

“Spike!” Twilight trotted up alongside the drake. “Don’t go wandering off!”

“Sorry.” Spike ducked his head a bit guiltily. “Just wanted to give you a break.”

“Well, stick close, we don’t know if or when we need to leave.” Twilight said as she began to look around, trying to take in any and every little detail.

“Hey, Twi?”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay?”

“Do I seem that nervous?” Twilight smiled a bit in embarrassment.

“Well, yeah, but also, we’re basically meeting the dragon equivalent of Celestia here. Are you okay with that, because I’ve seen you before meeting the Princess.”

Twilight chuckled. “I should really be asking you the same question, really. But to answer your question, yes, I am nervous, quite a bit actually. To be honest, your descriptions haven’t given me a really good sense of what we’re dealing with, and to have the sheer power to pluck your consciousness out of your body honestly scares me. There’s a lot of unknown variables going into this, and it’s making me rather uncomfortable.”

“I hear ya.” Spike nodded. “But you know, I glimpsed at the other book I pulled out, and it had this one line about how if dragons ever needed anything, they could just ask him. But this whole thing makes it seem like he’s trying to ask something of me. And, I think, it’s making me a bit giddy, you know? Like when Princess Celestia called on you for something.”

Twilight looked up in thought, a relaxed smile coming to her. “I guess I know that feeling then.” She looked down to Spike who was mirroring her smile. “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Yeah.” Spike nodded and the two began walking side by side down the cave. Twilight still looked about, but Spike noted that it looked a lot less jittery than before. But even though he had acted rather casually about this meeting to Twilight, on the inside it felt like his stomach had liquefied itself. Apparently he was just better at hiding it than Twilight.

Spike wasn’t sure exactly how far or how long they walked, but at some point Spike noticed that his vision was becoming less purple tinted, and instead having a red glow. Suddenly, Spike was having an immense sense of déjà vu.

“We’re close.” Spike barely got above a whisper.

“Really?” Twilight asked, her horn glowing a bit brighter, her eyes going wide a second afterward. “Oh dear Celestia.”

“Do you want to stay back? He’s only expecting me.” Spike offered, but Twilight shook her head furiously.

“I-I’ll leave the conversation to you, but I’m definitely going to be there for you.” She said resolutely. Spike nodded in return and continued on. Going on, the red began to overtake Twilight’s light entirely, and soon, Spike could swear it was perpetual twilight in the cave.

“Is that really necessary anymore Twi?” Spike finally asked.

“Yes, it’s still pitch dark in here.” Twilight replied before fully assimilating the question. When she did, she was struck with the oddity of the question. “Why?”

“’Cause it’s as bright as a sunset now.” Spike began to look around for an adequate reason why he could see just fine.

“Odd, something to look into later.” Twilight mumbled.

Before Spike could ask what she meant by that, Spike spotted a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Quickly assuring himself that he was, in fact, not dead, he picked up his pace.

“We’re here Twilight.” Spike directed over his shoulder, not quite taking her protest’s to wait into account.

When he got to the end of the tunnel, he had to squint a bit at the sudden intensity shift. When he could finally look out, it looked exactly as he remembered it, if not a bit more red.

The cave was still larger than he could fathom, and he could see the massive, statuesque dragon laying in front of him. He watched and barely saw the rise of breath within the dragon, wings nestled comfortably and tail unseen. Even from the distance the platform he was on was the rest of the body, Spike could still make out some movement here and there where he knew scenes of dragon brutality were occurring.

Looking behind, Spike saw Twilight sitting at the cave entrance, a shimmering rock pile of magic attempting to hide her from sight, at which Spike could only chuckle at, but none the less smiled warmly to his family. Twilight smiled back and waved. Spike nodded and looked forward once more to the enormous closed eye, and with one last, deep breath, began.

“Hello?”

Unlike before, there was notable shaking as the eyelid slid up to reveal the royal purple iris and void chasm pupil. Its secondary lid shifted aside and looked ever so slowly downward, and once more, Spike saw a glimmer in that void. Without being violently ejected this time, a deep voice rumbled through the chamber in both an imposing, yet welcoming bass voice.

“Welcome home, Little Spike.”

Talks of Change