Spike raced out of friendship castle, not even bothering to shut the heavy crystal gate behind him. He didn't have time to waste if he was going to get to Rainbow in time. He had to find her immediately, before the Wonderbolts did... or else things were not gonna end well. The little purple drake was using his tiny limbs to their furthest extent, running on all fours for extra speed. As he ran, he heard a magical pop beside him, before the tell-tale tone of Discord's sing-song voice. "Now, now, Spike. You're never gonna find Rainbow Crash like this. She'll probably be napping on a cloud till noon!"

Spike skidded to a halt, looking at the chaotic entity with a panicked expression. "But I need to get to her now! Tw-"

Discord placed a single talon over the dragon's mouth, silencing him mid-sentence. "Oh, I know about your bug problem already. Why, I'm here to be a good friend and help you." With a wiggle of his talons and a flourish of his paw, he pulled a propeller beanie out of nowhere and placed it on Spike's head. The chin strap instantly locked up and tightened, fixing itself to the drake's scaly cranium like a vice.

"Gah!" Spike coughed out, the strap almost choking him with how uncomfortable tight it was. "How is this supposed to he-" He was once again interrupted, this time not by a finger to his lips, but by a sudden switch in momentum. Discord had given the propeller a gentle flick, which somehow caused it to begin spinning at an extreme speed, somehow quickly lifting the young drake off of the ground.

"Bon voyage!" The god called to the quickly disappearing baby dragon, waving and smiling innocently. Spike on the other hand was thrashing around wildly, trying in vain to gain some sort of stability or control over the ascending apparel strapped to his noggin. Unfortunately for him, chaos magic did not appreciate being controlled, and so it only sped faster towards whatever destination it was dragging the drake to. That destination turned out, unfortunately for the baby dragon, to be a large cloud. Had he been a unicorn or earth pony, this wouldn't have meant much, but he was neither. He was a dragon, a creature of the skies, so the massive volume of fluffy white moisture was much more like a wall than he would have appreciated. Upon coming in contact with the cloud, he bounced twice before coming to a skidding halt on his face, the hat getting knocked off and soaring off into the skies on its own.

"Uh... Spike?" Spoke a familiar gravelly voice beside him. The panting and gasping drake looked up to come face to face with the exact cyan mare he was looking for.

"R...Rainbow... Twilight... needs.... help..." Spike managed to say in between loud panting gasps. Rainbow stood up immediately, and turned towards the direction of the castle, her face suddenly serious.

"On it." She spoke simply, used to being called to action for adventures by now. With a flex of her powerful wing, she lifted the wheezing baby dragon onto her back. "Hold on tight!" She spoke to the little drake with a grin. "Cause we're going to get there i-"

"Hold it, rookie." A slightly less gravelly voice interrupted, as a pony in full blue spandex landed on the cloud, only to be flanked by two identically dressed pegasi. The wonderbolts had arrived, and the pony in front was clearly Spitfire, from her two-hued fiery mane and tomcolt voice.

Meanwhile, back at the castle, Twilight was scurrying around as fast as her hooves, wings, and horn could take her. Flapping, teleporting, and running around the palace in the most efficient way possible, she rapidly began casting as many protective charms over the contents of the building as she could. She knew it would be hopeless to try and reinforce the walls, as warding the entire castle against three fully grown alicorns would not be easy. Instead, she was focussed on making sure as few of her belongings were damaged in the possible destruction. The only walls she did end up reinforcing were the ones both restraining, and protecting, the changeling queen. Sigils danced up and down the walls as she etched runes directly into the crystal itself, imbuing them with as much magical power as she could spare. Unfortunately, she couldn't spare a whole lot, since her reserves needed to stay full for the upcoming siege.

Every single inch of the crystal wall soon had azure and white streams of energy bouncing around in complicated patterns, strengthening the very bonds of the molecules to where they could withstand the heat of a blazing sun. In between the atoms, she erected barriers of lavender magic, preventing any unicorn from projecting their physical or magical will into the room through teleportation.

Lastly, she put up a cubic barrier of null emotion. The very use of the spell disgusted Twilight, and she knew that for a emotion sensitive creature like Chrysalis, being in such a room would be extremely painful, but it was the only way she could protect the queen from an ECME (Emotional Catalyst Mana Eruption) like the one Shining and Cadence used to claim victory at the wedding.

From the outside perspective, it might have looked like Twilight was taking the news of the coming armada calmly and processing the next course of action with a clear frame of mind. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The poor alicorn was in shock, her teacher whom she placed so much trust in having gone against everything that Twilight had been taught. Instead of the usual advice of friendship and forgiveness, her teacher had sent a full scale army to the purple princess's door, and recommended Twilight torture the already grievously wounded queen. As much as she loved Celestia and hated Chrysalis, she could never stand aside and let such a thing happen.

Twilight, finished with all the preparations she could spare magic to make, let out a sigh and stood outside on the balcony, watching the morning sun begin its rise. Just like her teacher, the massive fiery orb felt somehow wrong, like it had been tainted. Closing her eyes, the Alicorn of Magic spread her wings. Today, she stood alone against the world.

Author's Note

Yeah, I know you guys might think Spike being able to walk on clouds isn't canon, But...