The Dragon Code

by TheEveryDaySparkle

Rating: teen
Tags: Anthro, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Romance, Spike, Tragedy, Adventure
Length: 3982

Spike's Dragon Code is more than just simple servitude.

Ever wonder why Spike's Dragon Code is so Important to him? Ever wonder why he calls himself Twilight's number one assistant? Ever wonder why Spike is always sleepy in the morning? And Why exactly did Celestia pick 'that specific egg' to give to Twilight? I'll give you a hint. No? You don't want one? Well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see like the rest of us here in Equestria. Rated T for possible language.

Published 2017-01-01 03:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-01-02 19:24:26 UTC

Prologue- 1000 More Years of Peace

A shadowed figure stands upon a rocky cliff overlooking the Chaos Dimension. His arms folded and a scowl on his face, he confirms that his mission is completed.

Alongside him stands a woman. Her hands on her hips and a satisfied smile on her face, she does the same.

With each giving a glance in the other's direction, the two turn around and make their way back from whence they came.

The shadowed figure lifts a device to his ear and presses a button, beginning to speak into it.

"Princess? The mission is complete. We're returning back now."

The voice on the other end sounds regal and refined as it says, "Very well. Please return immediately and resume your post. Good job."

"No problem, Princess." The shadow figure responds before cutting the connection and placing the device back in his pocket. He adjusts his jacket slightly, letting it return to floating lazily in the wind as he walks when he's done, revealing a symbol on it as it flies in the wind. The two continue their trek back with no further interruptions.

Ever since Princess Celestia banished her sister for her crimes as Nightmare Moon, there has been peace for over a thousand years. And even now that she is back, peace still reigns supreme. All evil is kept at bay by a single group of four individuals. This special team of villain hunters is under direct supervision from Princess Celestia herself. They handle all of Equestria's not-so-simple problems. They protect the citizens from problems they have yet to know about. They operate in the shadows and are the first and last line of defense in the case of an extreme emergency. They act according to the rules set by their own honor. These rules are etched into the hearts and minds of all members of the organization. The life they live and the way they live it is all governed by one single thing. That is...The Dragon Code.

Mission Report 1- Discord

Ever since Princess Celestia banished her sister for her crimes as Nightmare Moon, there has been peace for over a thousand years. And even now that she is back, peace still reigns supreme. All evil is kept at bay by a single group of seven individuals. This special team of villain hunters is under direct supervision from Princess Celestia herself. They handle all of Equestria's not-so-simple problems. They protect the citizens from problems they have yet to know about. They operate in the shadows and are the first and last line of defense in the case of an extreme emergency. They act according to the rules set by their own honor. These rules are etched into the hearts and minds of all members of the organization. The life they live and the way they live it is all governed by one single thing. That is...The Dragon Code.

The dark figure appeared before Princess Celestia, bowing in a show of respect. Celestia returned the bow, which shocked the figure, whose face could be seen as she lit a candle to light the room.

As she raised her head, the princess said, "I've told you countless times, Spike. Given that you are now working directly under me, as well as your close friendship with both myself and my student, you have no need for such formalities in my presence."

Spike could do nothing more than lower his head in slight shame at forgetting her words. "I'm sorry, Princess."

The princess smiled, letting out a tired sigh. "What am I going to do with you?"

She took on her calm demeanor once more as she said, "Now, onto your report. Did the job go well?"

"Yes, Princ-Um...Celestia. As I said before, the mission was a success."

"I see. So I can rest easy in knowing that he will not attack my kingdom once more?"

"Yes, Celestia."

"Very well. And how is the team doing? Are you all faring well yourselves?"

"Yes, Celestia. Everyone is well. I checked up on them before I came to see you."

"I see. So their safety is more important to you than my own?"

"That's not what I meant at all, princess. It's just that-"

Celestia laughed at him. "Relax, Spike. I'm only kidding. It is good that you care so much for your comrades. After all, you are their leader."

Spike couldn't help but laugh at how nervous he had been. "Yes, Celestia."

"Consider that payback for calling me princess again. Now, i want a full report of the mission on my desk by noon tomorrow. Understand? Not a single detail is to be left out."

"Yes, Celestia."

With that, spike left through the window of the castle and made his way back home to Twilight's library.

Dragon Code Log- Mission #1: Discord

"I and my team infiltrated the Chaos Dimension successfully and confronted Discord, God of Chaos. This was done through the use of his own power. His attempts to escape created holes in this dimension that we used to pass through to his side. Naturally, being a god, it came as no surprise to us that he knew we were coming. After all, he was sealed away long before either of us were born. He had been expecting us the entire time, and he had a few surprises up his sleeve in store for us. But, unfortunately for him, so did we. I with my claws and fire, and Emerald Rose with her magic. We were more than a match for him in terms of resourcefulness as well. I used a gadget of mine to immobilize the poor fool, and with Emerald Rose firing off shot after shot of high power magical beams, it seemed we almost had this. But something told me that that wasn't going to happen. It seemed a little bit too easy. And If killing a god were easy, we wouldn't have need of the elements of harmony, now would we?

"He led us into a false sense of security by pretending to be dead, only to pop up in front of us in a different form. He had taken the form of a giant manticore. I unleashed my blades and charged him, slicing at his body as he swung his paws toward me, preparing to strike. The cuts weren't doing much damage and he knocked me away, only for Emerald Rose to back me up with a healing spell and her own return fire. She was even floating so that she was level with his eyes. He lunged at us with his tail and knocked her out of the air. This time it was my turn to catch her as I used one of my crystals to enhance the power of my fire breath and blast it at him, burning him quite a bit.

"She used one of her spells to enhance it further and I blasted him again, only to fail when he put up a shield. I used the blades on my claws to scratch through it and land a punch to his chin. He flipped over and that gave Emerald Rose another chance to use her magic. She charged up a full power blast and struck him in the face with it.

"When the dust cleared he was gone and had changed forms again. This time into a giant vampire fruit bat. This one was a bit easier as I simply took out my sword and slashed at his wings, only to miss when he flew at a speed I had never seen before. I deduced that he must have different forms for different things. Strength, Speed, Magic, etc. Something told me I didn't want to see what his magic form was like, but I also had a mission to compete, so I just decided to suck it up and keep going. I used another crystal to up my speed and Emerald used her magic, managing to up her speed much more than mine. But, that was mostly because her powers were natural, versus my own.

"I decided to rely on her this time, so I charged at him and attacked, only to just barely reach him every time. But what he didn't know was that I was simply a decoy, creating an opening for Emerald Rose to attack. And attack she would. She was already in place, her sword drawn and ready to deliver the blow that would send him into his final form.

"Quick note: I say final form, but I simply meant that that was his 'most favorite' form, as he put it while we were fighting. Would it be wrong to say I actually enjoyed talking to this guy?

"Anyway, he was getting closer and closer to her, which meant he was getting closer and closer to his demise. And, on the final push, she cast a spell on her sword to make it's attack stronger and faster. Then, on the final moments of this strategy, she managed to slice him from his head down to his tail, splitting him in half. But that was not enough to fully kill the god of chaos, as you know very well.

"As I expected, he moved into his final form and blasted us with the biggest magic beam I've seen so far. We just barely had enough time to dodge it. It singed my tail and Emerald's, but we managed to get away alive. I had no choice. It was time to pull out my trump card. Don't worry, I didn't have to use all of it. He wasn't worth that much.

"I pulled out my blue crystal and burned it with my fire. It turned to dust and began to circle me, at which point I began floating and glowing. Emerald, who had never seen this happen, was awestruck. Discord however, was just made more angry than before.

"I glowed brighter and brighter until the light finally died down to reveal me, in all my Shadow Dragon glory. But, you already know how this process goes princess, since you are the one who gave me the crystal.

"Anyway, I say 'all my glory', but it was really only my claws and fangs that got the upgrade. I shot a return blast of black fire at him, which he countered with another beam. But my fire was strong enough to overpower his beam and he got burned further.

"In a final attempt to defeat him, we decided to use the opportunity presented to us while he was recovering from the burn to make a final strike. I jumped and planned to finish him off with a slash while Emerald Rose distracted him with magic blasts of her own.

"It worked pretty well, and we were able to finish the job, but boy were we tired.

"I'm gonna sleep for a week after this. Anyway, that's the mission report. Your faithful knight, Spike."

With his letter finished, and his mission complete, he blew his fire at it and it disappeared in a puff of smoke, headed over to Princess Celestia herself.

He yawned. He was ready for some well deserved, and much needed, sleep. But before he could even make his way up the stairs to Twilight's bedroom, he heard a sound.

He hid as quickly as his advanced training would let him, and silently moved across the room and up the stairs. But what kind of magic nerd would Twilight be if she couldn't sense her assistant?

She found him and asked, "Spike? What are you doing up?"

Spike was a bit startled at being found so easily, but he quickly recovered and said, "Oh nothing. Just a bit thirsty is all."

Twilight rubbed her sleepy eyes and smiled. "Oh? Well don't forget to come to bed when you're done okay?"

With that, Twilight left, and Spike let out a breath he never even realized he'd been holding.

He smiled. Twilight always treated him like a little bit of a pet at times. No matter how many times he told her to stop, she would always say,

"You're my number one assistant and my best friend. But you're also my responsibility seeing as I hatched you."

They got into fights about it at times, but he still loved her to death and they both knew it.

He made his way up to Twilight's bedroom and got into his own bed, where he slept like a log for the rest of the night.

Mission Report 2- Queen Chrysalis

Ever since Princess Celestia banished her sister for her crimes as Nightmare Moon, there has been peace for over a thousand years. And even now that she is back, peace still reigns supreme. All evil is kept at bay by a single group of four individuals. This special team of villain hunters is under direct supervision from Princess Celestia herself. They handle all of Equestria's not-so-simple problems. They protect the citizens from problems they have yet to know about. They operate in the shadows and are the first and last line of defense in the case of an extreme emergency. They act according to the rules set by their own honor. These rules are etched into the hearts and minds of all members of the organization. The life they live and the way they live it is all governed by one single thing. That is...The Dragon Code.

Spike wakes up tired, as was usual for him at this point. He's always like this in the morning. He never gets proper sleep because of his secret. He does manage to rest throughout the day though. His current "schedule" is at least two hours at night, followed by whatever hours he's able to steal from father time in the morning, which usually consists of directly after he wakes up, whenever his friends are distracted, and surprisingly, before a mission. The princess is kind enough to make sure he knows about it well in advance.

Despite his sleepy demeanor being the truth, it is because of this that it also serves as the perfect lie. It is a deterrent against prying eyes who are snooping around for secrets. He has to keep what he does in the dark, for if it ever got out that there were threats out there besides Nightmare Moon, the world would fall into panic again.

Spike and his team were forced to leave Nightmare Moon's defeat to the Elements of Harmony. When Celestia banished her sister, she sent her to the moon. But what she did not say, was that she sent one of them with her to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't escape.

They were under orders not to kill her from Princess Celestia herself. Spike understood. After all, she was her sister.

Unfortunately, she escaped when the stars aligned and returned to Ponyville, where she was defeated by Twilight and her friends.

She was returned to herself by the Elements and returned to ruling alongside her sister.

Spike got up and went to the bathroom, where, after he finished the daily routine, he splashed his face with water so that he could fully wake up, and then smiled, remembering his victory over Discord.

It had been a while since anything happened after that, and Ponyville returned to peace.

His day, just like all of his days off, was uneventful, if not boring.

For him it was just the usual. Help organize Twilight's library, hang out with her and her friends, solve a daily problem or two. Maybe even grab a new comic.

He may have been using it as a cover for his true identity, but he really did love those comics.

Then he would just go to sleep, grateful to Equestria for allowing him an actual day of rest and recuperation.

Except this was not a day off. This was a day where he would be busy once more. Or more accurately, a night, for as soon as the sun had officially set for the day, allowing the darkness to take it's rightful place in the sky, he recieved a letter from Celestia.

"Dearest Spike, how are you? It pains me to be so blunt and straightforward to a friend such as yourself, but I am worried. I have need of your strength once again. Queen chrysalis has made her move. She plans to overtake Equestria and fill it with changelings in an attempt to confuse and disorient us. After all these years, does she really think she can pull one over on me?

"I have a plan in place for this. Now, please listen closely..."

After Spike read the letter, he quickly made his way to Canterlot Castle, where the princess and his partner were waiting. Once there, they were all briefed on the mission once again before Celestia saw them off on their journey to the badlands, where the two then had to traverse the desert just to make it to the entrance to the changeling hive.

It took them a while. Quite a while. But eventually they made it to the hive, and were now standing outside of the entrance, confirming each other's resolve and level of prep.

Once they were sure they were ready, they made their way in to confront the plotting Changeling Queen.

Dragon Code Log- Mission #2: Queen Chrysalis

"Great news, Princess. Your plan worked. By pretending to be captured, you were able to distract her long enough to allow us to sneak up on her. We made our way through the changeling hive relatively unhindered, save for the maze-like structure of the place. I'm sorry we took so long to get there, even after you teleported us there. If it weren't for you distracting her, we would've taken even longer.

"That reminds me, we caught her in the middle of a monologue! Considering the situation she had yet to figure out that she was in, that was hilarious! We almost got caught because we couldn't help but laugh at her.

"Anyway, it was also because of her little 'victory' speech that we didn't get caught. We know about the hive mind, which means we also knew that if she wasn't so busy stroking her ego, we would've been surrounded and the plan would've failed. The Queen and her changelings were too busy celebrating to notice.

"Not that we would've had too much trouble. Changelings are easy to defeat. But if there's one thing they are good at, it's deceit. They are masters of trickery.

"Emerald Rose had no trouble blasting her into a nearby wall, thus blowing our no longer needed cover and alerting her, and the whole hive, to our presence.

"Chrysalis turned around and glared at us, charging up her horn and firing her own little blast of magic at us. We dodged away from the cover we were using and I blasted back at her with my fire. She put up a barrier to block it. The fire bounced off and spread into embers that scorched the throne room a bit.

"We continued this shootout for a while until I decided to get up close and personal. I charged her and she smirked, not even bothering to put up a barrier. I had to wonder what she was planning. I raised my bladed claws to strike her across her abdomen, but upon making contact with her skin, my claws bounced off.

"Chrysalis simply smiled even wider, a smile I have to admit I would've liked a little bit, if not for the fact that I had to kill her. My attack had bounced right off of her like it was nothing. Add tough skin to the changeling repertoire. It felt like armor.

"Good thing we had just the thing for that. Emerald enchanted my sword, which was the next thing I planned on using if my claws didn't work. It helped quite a bit, as the next slash I managed to connect cut a gash in her side.

"I say 'managed' because by the time my claws proved useless in the fight, she began flying around. I had to resort to my fire once again, shooting fireballs in tandem with Emerald's magic blasts to pressure Chrysalis into feeling nervous.

"It worked as we managed a combined attack that knocked her out of the air. But, just as I was about to deliver the final blow that would end this fight, I was knocked into a wall by a force that felt like a flying train had just slammed full force into my side.

"I was in pain all over, bruised and bloody and tired. Emerald hid behind cover while the queen was distracted with me. She was now slowly healing me. My injuries were many, and it would take a while for me to be completely healed. Even so she tried.

"After a while she stopped. I wasn't completely healed, and she knew it, but we had a fight to win. I had to rely on her this time again.

"I joined her behind cover while the queen and her changeling guard were busy glaring at us/recovering.

"Emerald stepped out from behind the cover we chose and cast a spell, enhancing her speed and strength as she charged at the changeling guard, sword drawn. She knew about the armor-like skin and cast the same spell she used with mine on her own sword, cutting the changeling in half with a single slash. She stood in front of the changeling queen with a glare and a battle stance, ready for anything she could throw at her.

"Chrysalis, furious and saddened at the death of one of her beloved changelings, stood up and then began to float high into the air, green aura swirling around her. Her eyes began to glow and the magic surrounding her expanded, spreading out to cover more ground as it pushed us back, forcing us to move back into cover. But sadly, that cover was soon blown away, along with us, as we were pushed into and then bashed further, into a wall.

"We were both badly hurt now. Emerald Rose tried to heal us both, but using her magic on multiple targets has always been a weakness of hers. That, combined with her injuries, made it very hard to do.

"I, already having been injured once, was now worse. If Emerald couldn't use her magic, then It was my turn. I pulled out a green crystal and burned it with my fire before throwing it up in to the air above us and letting it wash over us like falling snow. Within seconds we were back to full strength with no injuries to speak of.

"The attack kicked up a lot of debris, and when the dust cleared, what we saw surprised us. Chrysalis was standing there with an army of changelings in front of her, ready to fight and die for her.

"You may have defeated one of my children, but let's see how you do against one hundred!" she exclaimed.

"We were surrounded by changelings, and even though we were okay now, we were still vastly outnumbered. Their attacks began. One after the other they charged. It became herd to tell where they were coming from, and we got hurt, but we still managed to defeat them all and come out the victors.

"In the final strike, taken while queen chrysalis was stunned from shock at how we managed to win against so many of them, we stabbed her with our magic enhanced swords, right through her front and back and out the opposite ends. She went limp after that and the deed was done.

"We left her hive and returned to Ponyville."

"With that, my report is done. Your faithful knight, Spike."