Plague and Fire

Twilight stood leaning over the table in her private examination room, levitating a variety of different scalpels among other medical examination tools with her magic. On the stone slab in front of her, a dead plagueling lay sprawled out, its chest cavity being held open wide for the purple alicorn to get a good look at its internal organs. Putting down her tools for just a moment, Twilight picked up her notes and spoke the words to a purification spell, making sure to read each word carefully to get the pronunciation exact. Even though this magic could keep the horrific diseases that these creatures were known to carry at bay on the small scale, the Princess of Friendship was not a mare who would be taking any chances. Better to ensure that any viruses would be cleansed before they could take hold, while also keeping a strict access limit to the number of individuals that could enter the room at one time, avoiding any accidental plague carriers.

A swift knock on the door drew Twilight's attention away from her work for just a moment, though Spike was already making his way to answer before the lavender Alicorn even needed to ask. After so many years together, Spike had become more than Twilight's number one assistant. He was practically like a son to her, one whom adapted to any new change in routine seamlessly; perhaps not so much as a duck would take to the water, but more so how a duck would take to a quack.

Spike has grown a fair amount in just two years, Twilight pondered to herself, scribbling down a few notes onto a blank page in one of the books beside her. Perhaps it's a result of the calling spell that beckoned him to the dragon lands, sparking his innate dragon magic. He still lacks any visible wings or horns—both of which are common features among dragon kind—but he is now more proportionally slender, and also closer in height to Lord Ember. This is still only a fraction of the size that dragons could grow up to be...but in any case, it's still a sign that the tiny baby I hatched as a filly is growing up fast.

Sliding open a small slat in the door around eye height, Spike met eye contact with a dragon whom to all physical appearances looked to be Lord Ember. Even so, he knew better than to assume he could trust the vision in front of him by naked eye alone, given how Twilight had recorded several incidents of the shape-shifting changelings still lingering among their deadlier cousins.

“Password?” the light purple and green scaled dragon asked with more than a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“Friendship is magic,” Ember replied, though she still couldn't help but cringe a little at the utterance of that phrase. A reaction that was more than enough to convince her younger friend that she was indeed the real dragon ruler.

“Right this way, My Lord,” Spike said with exaggerated formality.

“You still have to be such a tease, don't you, Spike?” his blue elder said with a chuckle in her voice. If there was one thing that her very first friend would never let her forget, it was how he was technically entitled to become the new dragon lord, having reached the sceptre of fire before she did. It was only through his loyalty to his pony friends that Spike gave up the title, trusting Ember to lead her people to forge the alliance between dragon and pony kind that existed today.

“So, have you two learned anything new yet?” Ember asked, “It shouldn't be long until we have enough weapons to arm every dragon in Equestria, although the training process has been difficult. I'm starting to worry about our chances against a full army of these things...”

Ember only realized that she was starting to become lost in thought when she felt Spike squeezing her hands between his. She snapped from it when Spike gave her a tight, comforting hug. “Do you remember the calming technique that Twilight taught you?” he asked.

Ember nodded, pulling in her right arm as she inhaled deeply, then proceeding to reverse this action as she exhaled. After a few moments spent re-focusing her mind, she looked back towards Spike and smiled. “I'm sorry, Spike. I never expected to encounter anything like this when I inherited my father's title of a Dragon Lord. Everyone has been pushing themselves to work day and night for the forthcoming invasion. It's been near impossible to find time to give myself a break, much less manage an entire army's worth of dragons.”

“Well that's why we are here, isn't it?” Spike replied, his optimistic smile already working wonders to ease her stress. “You are already achieving so much more than your father ever did. So let's try and avoid worrying so much and look at everything we've learned so far. You don't want to lose yourself to stress like Twilight did more than once.”

“I heard that!” Twilight called from the far end of the room. The duo glanced back at one another, restraining a smirk as they chuckled under their breaths. While much had changed in the dragon culture over the past two years, not least because of all the letter exchanges Ember had made between herself and the Princess, Twilight was the same old pony Spike had introduced her to.

Approaching the examination table, Ember couldn't help but wince at the sight of the dissected plagueling sprawled across the concrete slab. The basic anatomy of the thing was very similar to the changelings that were among the same family of creatures; four hoofed legs, two insectoid wings, and massive compound eyes protruding from their bulbous head. Few ponies ever got the chance to look at its insides, much less any dragon, so the sight was equally as fascinating in a morbid sense as it was repulsive. Green ooze for blood spewed forth from the severed veins, all connecting to organs that looked nothing like the typical structure one would expect to find in a pony, or any similarly equine beings.

What was different about these creatures compared to their image-enhancing counterparts made them extra disgusting. Their normally smooth, obsidian skin was instead withered and scarred, covered in patches of massive boils and rot. It was difficult to tell whether the semi-detached parts of their bodies—most strikingly their drooping jaws filled with a pestiferous bile—was a result of Twilight's dissection, or if it had died looking like that. The central horn from their forehead was now split into several tangled technicals, twisting around in ways that would be unnatural to anything that would support such appendages with a skeletal structure. Its fangs were still as visible as ever, but now considerably more decayed, which Ember knew from experience would kill a dragon of her size within moments of a single bite.

“I think I have discovered the key anatomical difference that makes the plaguelings the more dangerous creatures compared to others within their suborder,” Twilight said, levitating her scalpel over to the open throat of the rotting creature.

Well that much is obvious, Ember thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

“This is the area that would normally house the magic-producing gland which allows changelings to disguise themselves,” Twilight continued, pointing the scalpel at the swollen, spherical organ. “It also allows the mimicking of voices, especially of Ponies, to further add to their deception. While this would normally be a darker blue in colour, the magic has clearly become corrupt somehow, turning it into the rotten green we see here. All ability to shape shift has been removed in favour of the disease spreading acid, which makes me wonder if they have lost some cognitive function between the transition, as they seem to be considerably more single-minded than before...”

“I'll be honest, Twilight,” Ember spoke up as the Princesses of Friendship started to ramble. “I only understood about half of what you said. But what I really need to know is what this means for slaying these creatures before their infection can spread.”

“Well, I can tell you that striking the throat will be a bad idea, since it's likely to spray their juices out over the attacker, which will almost certainly kill them. I think your best bet is to sever the brain and burn the bodies. Not an easy method of attack, I know. But it's the only way I can guarantee they will die without spreading any further cotangents.”

“And that's why I'll be joining you on the battlefield, Lord Ember!” Spike said, his chest swelling with pride as he locked eyes with the former princess, showing a fierce sense of determination. “I've always dreamt of fighting as a valiant hero, now thanks to you, I've been training with Shining Armour to become quite skilled with the blade!”

Twilight winced at the sound of Spike's stern proclamation of his desires to join in with the battle. True, he wasn't nearly as physically weak as he used to be, but even so, it was still a huge risk. “You don't have to do this, Spike,” The Princesses of Friendship said, trying to hide the pain in her voice. “You've done so many amazing things for both the Dragon Kingdom and Ponyville since I met you. You can just rally the troops and they will fight for Ember with your influence in their hearts and minds!”

As much as the lavender Alicorn tried to keep her calm, it was still obvious to both Spike and Ember that the thought of her number one assistant going off to fight on the front line was painful for her to imagine. “I do have to agree with Twilight here, Spike,” Ember spoke up, hoping that her words would at least partially relieve the burden that weighed on her mind. “You've proven yourself worthy so many times, you don't need to put yourself in any more danger than you already-”

“It's not about proving myself!” Spike snapped back, clenching his fists in frustration. “I've long since grown out of that need to show my physical might. I'm doing this because I love you both! I've always had one foot in the culture of ponies, while the other stands firmly with those of dragons. After everything I did for the Crystal Empire, both during the return of King Sombra and the Equestria Games, it all taught me that I need to fight for what I love in order to maintain harmony. I can't sit on the sidelines anymore and watch as both Ponies and Dragons die from something that wouldn't even be around if it wasn't for me!”

That last statement came down on Twilight like a ton of bricks. Both Plaguelings and Changelings were thought to be almost extinct during the reign of Lord Torch, and now that his time was over, he had been the first to fall in defence of the Equestrian Dragons. “Spike, what happened at the Canterlot wedding didn't happen because of you, and neither did this!” her voice began to crack as those harsh words passed through her lips. “The only difference is that Ponyville would have been fighting a war of both the dragons and the plaguelings if it wasn't for your help in bringing Ember to the throne. Please Spike, think about your home. Think about our friends. Think about Rarity. Think about me...” dropping her tools to the ground, Twilight couldn't hold herself back from crying any longer. “I...I don't want to loose you, Spike. You've always been by my side, through any threat Equestria has faced. Don't leave me now...”

Lord Ember hung her head in guilt after hearing those tearful words come out of Twilight's mouth. She had never felt guiltier for accepting Spike's help, whom she had initially dismissed as little more than a runt. Yet, she knew that one thing about what Twilight said was right. This was the best possible fate that could have come out of the Gauntlet of Fire. Kneeling before the Princess of Friendship, Ember bowed her head and spoke to her in a formal manner. “Princess Twilight Sparkle, it is not my intent to put any of your friends in peril. Unlike my father, I will never force any dragon who doesn't feel capable of fighting to join us in this war; that includes Spike. As hard as it is, I also have to acknowledge that we need every dragon we can to defend our lands. I cannot turn down Spike's help, as much as I want to.”

Spike embraced Twilight. “If it makes you feel any better, I will fight side by side with Lord Ember through thick and thin. If anyone is going to win the day with my help, it's one of the finest dragon warriors ever to grace this kingdom!”

Ember also reached over to hug both Spike and Twilight. “I can only imagine how hard this is for you. I'm sorry, Twilight.”

“Thank you both,” Twilight said softly, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes with her wing tips. “I just hope everything I have given you is enough to save everything we know.”

Just as she had finished that sentence, the deep bellow of the battle horns rang throughout the caverns. Plaguelings had been spotted on the horizon, and this time, it was more than just a few small packs. The full army had arrived, so now it was time to put into practice everything that both Twilight and the dragons had been preparing for.

“I love you, Spike,” Twilight said, once more on the verge of crying. “Be careful out there.”

“I love you too, Twilight,” Spike replied, giving his surrogate mother one last hug before standing up next to Lord Ember. “I promise I will save everyone from what's to come.”

And with those tearful goodbyes, the two dragons turned and ran out of the door to arm themselves for what was to be one of the most brutal battles Equestria had ever seen.