“….I repeat, the Baltimare Central Bank is currently being robbed by a gang of about ten men. The culprits appear to be wearing makeup to give them the appearance of goblins. However, that’s not their most eye-catching feature. It seems that they are all apparently armed with guns! This, of course, is why local authorities can’t move in close enough to either rescue hostages or subdue the culprits...”

A small group of people had gathered around a radio placed on the edge of a window. The group were listening closely to the pressing news from the radio announcer. Among them was a familiar, green-haired monster hunter.

“Oh my, this isn’t good. This has never happened in Baltimare before,” one woman said.

“How on earth did they get guns? The princesses have always ensured firearms remain out of the country and out of reach,” one man said, folding his arms.

“Well, we can’t worry about that now. Instead, we have to focus on the fact that the city is gonna lose a lot of money.”

“Money? Forget about the money! Those people in the bank are in danger of losing their lives! Not only that, but those monsters can basically do whatever they want if they are allowed to keep those guns.” As the various members of the crowd continued to speculate how the robbery would affect the city, Spike listened closely and silently considered their words.

’Dammit, these people are right! if I don’t do something soon, those goblins are gonna turn Baltimare into their own personal playground,’ Spike thought before he felt a vibration in his pants pocket. He pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID. It was Princess Luna. He swiped to answer and held it to his ear.

“Hello? Luna?”

“Spike! Listen closely! We don’t have much time! I just finished interrogating the goblins you brought in the night before, and I found out some extremely crucial information. First of all, their-”

“Planning to rob the Baltimare Central Bank?” Spike asked, cutting her off.

“….Y-Yes, but how did you know?”

“That’s because it’s happening right now. I’m listening to the radio and apparently there are ten of them. They also have hostages...and, well…”

“Well what?”

“...they have guns.”

“WHAT!” Luna yelled, using the Royal Canterlot Voice and startling some of the people around Spike.

“Uh, heh-heh, sorry,” Spike awkwardly apologized to the crowd before they returned to listening to the radio.

“I apologize, Spike; I lost it for a second there. How did goblins get a hold of guns? My sister and I took precautions to ensure that the production and supply of these weapons were severely limited,” Luna said.

“Well, figuring out whatever they did to get those things is gonna have to wait. We have to focus on what they’re doing now. That’s more important.”

“I agree. Suit up and head for Baltimare; you’ll have to do this now,” Luna said.

“I’m already here.”

“Wha-how?!”

“Twilight sent me to return one of her books back to the library down here, but I was also looking for more info on the House of Gore. I figured I might have better luck finding some answers there since my efforts back home came up empty,” Spike explained.

“Well, are you at least armed?” Luna asked.

“I have my butterfly knives.”

“That’s all?!”

“Well yeah,” Spike said looking through his bag. “Unless you count some biscuits, chips and grape juice as weapo- wait….this isn’t grape juice, it’s….no way!” Spike said to himself as he realized what was in his bag.

“What is it Spike? Something useful?” Luna asked hopefully.

“Luna….you won’t believe it…..”

The Baltimare Central Bank

“Hey, did you clean out the safe?” a goblin in a black jumpsuit asked one of his partners who–like the rest of them–wore the same attire.

“Yeah, I got every last ounce of gold they had,” he replied smugly.

“That’s great, you two. Now how do we get the fuck out with the entire equestrian guard outside?” another goblin asked as he walked into the room.

“Can’t we just shoot them? There may only be ten of us, but we got hundreds of rounds.”

“If it were that easy, I’d be mowing them down right now,” he said gesturing to his AK-47. Each of his partners were carrying an identical gun with them as well.

“Well, why don’t we just use the hostages? Just take them with us and use them as meat shields,” he suggested, looking over to all the blindfolded people. They all shook in fear and huddled close together as they heard the goblins plan their next move. One mother clutched her child close, worrying for his life more than her own.

“We can’t take them with us, that would just make them even more determined to follow us. Not to mention the boss would no doubt get furious if we brought this human garbage back with us,” a goblin pointed out.

“Yeah, you’re right...oh, I got it! Let’s tell them to get as far away as possible from the bank, and if they aren’t as far as we want them to be in the next few minutes, we’ll start killing the hostages,” one of the goblins suggested.

“Ha! That’s such a good idea. I’m glad I thought of it,” the lead goblin said.

The lead goblin walked over to the crowd of hostages and began inspecting them closely. He knew that if this was going to work, they first needed to show the guard that they meant business. In light of that, he wanted to pick a hostage that would really get their point across, and get the humans to back down.

He stopped to think as his eyes lingered over a few of the elderly. At first, they seemed like the ideal choice, but then he changed his mind. Humans might have a soft spot when it comes to the elderly, but the wrinkly seniors practically had a foot in the grave already. Threatening one of them might not have as big an impact as he would like. So, he continued scanning the frightened crowd until his eyes landed on the perfect subject...a little boy nestled safely between his mother’s arms. Well, not for much longer.

“Ahhhh! Mommy!” the little boy cried out as he was suddenly ripped away from his mother’s arms.

“NOOO! Ddon’t take my son! PLEASE!!” the boy’s mother cried desperately. She tried to get up and grab after her son, but she was immediately knocked back down with a blow to the face by one of the goblins.

“Alright little boy, let’s go tell the royal guard hi,” the lead goblin said, forcefully dragging the boy by the arm towards the front of the bank. Once he and the child were visible to the guards, he kicked open the doors and pointed the gun at the boy’s head.

“ALRIGHT, YOU SORRY SONS OF BITCHES!!! LISTEN UP, ’CAUSE I GOT SOMETHING TO SAY.....!!!”

On a nearby rooftop...

It had taken some time to calm Luna down. She had been pretty disappointed in him for confusing her terror toxin with grape juice. However, she seemed to have been more concerned with the fact that he could have gotten hurt than accidently exposing anyone to it. Sure, he was immune to inhaling the drug, but who knows what could have happened if he had ingested it instead.

“Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s find a point of entry,” Spike said to himself, looking around until he spotted an air vent leading into the bank. “Bingo.” Spike jumped a few feet from the building he was on and landed perfectly on the Bank’s roof.

Spike was just about to enter when he heard ranting and crying coming from the front. He approached the edge of the roof and peered over the side, making sure to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. He came across the head goblin threatening the child with death. Fortunately, the local authorities were too distracted with this latest development to notice Spike. When the guards began to move away from the bank, Spike knew he had to act fast, or else risk these monsters getting away.

He quickly moved back to the vent, quietly opening it before crawling inside. He continued to crawl until he looked through one of the vent holes. He saw that two goblins were guarding the back part of the bank. He slipped on the purple hood of his leather jacket and pulled out a purple bandana to tie around his lower face.

“So, you think we’re gonna pull this off?” one goblin asked the other.

“We better, or the boss will have all our heads spiked,” the other replied.

“If anyone’s gonna “Spike” you guys, it’s gonna be me!”

The two goblins turned around swiftly to confront the source of the voice. They were prepared to fire their guns at the target, but they were unprepared for the swift movement of Spike’s butterfly knives slicing through their throats. Their bodies hit the floor dead, purple slime-like blood oozed from their slash marks slowly. Spike stood above the bleeding corpses, preparing to move on to the next targets, when he heard more voices approaching.

“Hey did you hear that?”

“Yeah, let’s go check it out.” Having heard the sound of the brief scuffle, two more goblins were running over to investigate.

“Aw dammit,” Spike cursed as he ran towards the door as fast as he could to intercept them. Suddenly, the door flew open and the goblins spotted the purple-clad intruder. They aimed their weapons and pulled the triggers, sending a storm of bullets towards Spike. But Spike successfully avoided the bullets, barely dodging the lead projectiles aimed at his head by mere inches. The rest hit the floor and ceiling, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

“Oh shit, here he com-ahh!” one goblin yelled before Spike grabbed his forearm, pushed the gun harmlessly upwards, and sliced him in the jugular, killing him instantly. The other goblin couldn’t fire his gun out of fear of hitting his partner. But when he saw Spike eliminate said partner, he saw no point in holding back and opened fire at point blank range. However, Spike was so close to the armed goblin that he was able to successfully disarm him before jumping up high and bringing his elbow down–with earth shattering force–onto his collarbone. The collarbone broke it into several fragments, causing the goblin no shortage of excruciating pain. He screamed in agony, dropping his gun and grabbing onto his shoulder near the wound. His screams were cut off when Spike grabbed him by the neck and looked deep into his eyes with a cocky grin on his face.

“Twenty rounds a second, 800 rounds a minute, and you still couldn’t touch me!” he crowed before pushing the goblin down, picking up his dropped AK-47 and turning the machine gun on its former owner. Spike knew there was no point in trying to be subtle now. No doubt the other six goblins heard the gunshots and knew something was up. He only prayed that they hadn’t started killing hostages yet.

In the bank’s main lobby...

The lead goblin had just returned from stating his demands to the heavily armored battalions of troops outside. He felt that despite their guns, they had gravely miscalculated the determination and resilience of the local authorities, but that didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was that they had agreed to his terms, so now he and his cohorts needed to make their escape. He was rounding up his men and about to call up the ones guarding the rear entrance when he heard the sound of gunfire, followed by the a scream of agony so loud and drawn out that even he thought he could feel the pain. It was so bad that he reflexively gripped his left shoulder, though he didn’t understand why. Finally, he heard the brief sound of gunfire once more, followed by an eerie silence. He regained his composure and began to issue orders to his six remaining subordinates.

“Alright, everyone, lock-n-load! On my signal, unleash hell!” he cried as he held his arm up, waiting for the right moment to fire. The hostages bunched up together, save for the little boy who was still in the clutches of the goblin leader. The goblins stood completely still, waiting for the slightest movement so they had a reason to tear those doors to shreds. For a few moments nothing happened, and they began to let their guards down as they waited for their commander’s next order.

“Uh…boss…? What do w-”

“Put down the guns,” a calm, monotone voice said.

The mysterious voice came from just beyond the closed doors that lead into the hall, the source of the entire ruckus that was heard. This sent the goblins right back on the defensive. They stood stiffly facing the doors, pointing there guns towards it with their fingers held tensely against the triggers. As they prepared to tear the doors apart, only the sheer curiosity of the commanding goblin kept them from firing. He signaled for his underlings to hold their fire while he continued to face the doors.

“Who’s there?” he asked.

“Put down the guns…now, and leave,” the voice commanded again.

“Heh…or else what?” he taunted.

“Or else you and your gang of goblin trash will die….” the voice replied.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to be making threats. Even if you killed my guards back there, I know they probably emptied out all their ammo trying to kill you. Not to mention that I got six guys out here with enough ammo to blow you to kingdom come, so why don’t you just step out?” He waited for response, but none came. He took offense to that. “So that’s how it is, huh? Coward. Alright, boys...!” he called out to goblins behind him.

“Yeah?” the responded in unison.

“Light him up!”

And Just like that, all hell broke loose. The six goblin underlings opened fire on the two closed doors leading into the hallway. As the doors–and their hinges–were completely made of iron, they stayed in place due to their weight. However, that didn’t stop them from looking like Swiss cheese when the shooting started. After what seemed like an eternity of hellfire from the gang of heavily armed goblins, the commanding goblin gave them the order to hold their fire. He stood in place while observing the door, satisfied with the results and believing the owner of the voice to be dead.

He was about to order his men to disperse, but then he heard what sounded like a bottle breaking and saw a bluish smoke start seeping through the holes of the iron doors. Suddenly, a young man with a purple hood over his head slowly stepped out from the smoke. He had a purple bandana covering the bottom half of his face, wore a black and white leather jacket, and wielded two butterfly knives. But his most disturbing feature was his glowing, green, draconic eyes, which creeped the fuck out of the goblins who were seemingly petrified by his looks.

“I warned you, now you’re gonna have to face the music!” he bellowed as he dove back into the smoke. The goblins just stood and watched, guns pointed towards the smoke and ready to fire. But no one was willing to be the first to start shooting as they were frightened by the youth’s frightful appearance and threat. Eventually, the goblin captain ordered one of the others to investigate.

“Hey, go get him!” he ordered the nearest goblin.

“Why me?” the goblin whined.

“Just go, or I’ll really give you something to be scared about!” he threatened.

“Fine,” the other goblin relented as he walked cautiously towards the open doors where blue smoke was just pouring out. If he listened closely, he could hear some of his fellow goblins’ murmurings. “Don’t go in there!” “No, don’t go in there.” “He’s gonna kill your punkass!” But now the goblin was only a few feet away from the doors. He tried to look into the hall without getting close to the smoke. When he couldn’t see any movement, he believed that the person had made his escape.

“Hey, it looks good,” he said, turning back to the other goblins. “I think this guy ra-aahhhhhh!! he screamed as a pair of large, scaly, purple, and clawed hands came from behind him and pulled him into the smoke.

Immediately, all the other goblins in the room–except the commander–opened fire in an attempt to eradicate whatever beast was hiding in the mist with no regard to the goblin that was just pulled in. It was only after their commander yelled for them to stop that they halted their assault and observed their surroundings. The lobby was filling up with smoke, not to the point where they couldn’t see each other, but instead it just hung low to the ground.

They heard footsteps coming from the hallway and returned their attention to the doors. What they saw made them freeze on the spot. What was once a tall, broad-shouldered, young man wearing normal clothes, was now a literal eight foot tall dragon with dark purple scales wearing nothing but a pair of torn black shorts. His knives were now a pair of curved sickles attached to chains, and he was giving them a stare so cold that it almost made them want to drop dead.

“I warned you, now you’re gonna to have to face your fears,” he said in a louder, raspier, inhuman voice. What was worse was that his lips didn’t move at all. Instead, when he spoke, an ominous green light would shine brighter in his slightly opened mouth, which bore all those razor sharp teeth that gleamed like polished swords. The figure of his upper torso was broad and muscular, his stomach was slim and scaly, and his legs were moderately thick like young trees.

“What are you waiting for you idiots?! FIRE!” the commanding goblin yelled to the four remaining goblins behind him. They all acknowledged his order, then all of them–including himself–opened fire in an attempt to slaughter the mythical beast infront of them. The whole time, the young boy was screaming in panic as the head goblin kept him tightly within his grasp.

The dragon stood there for a few seconds, seemingly unaffected by wave of bullets, before he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke and reappeared right behind them. They all stumbled back a few feet, but then the dragon threw one of his chained sickles toward the nearest one. It hit its mark, tangling the hapless goblin in the connecting chain so the dragon could pull him in close. He stared the goblin straight in the eye and gave a gut-wrenchingly dark chuckle that made the green skinned goblin scream in horror. That was the moment that the beast blew fire directly into his open mouth, disintegrating the goblin entirely.

The dragon looked up to see the rest of them too scared to even remember they carried firearms. He selected another one of them and raised his empty claw upwards. The goblins were confused at first, until the one selected was suddenly attacked by a swarm of bees that just seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He screamed in terror as his worst fear came to life. He could feel the physical pain of the bees stinging him, and seconds later, he fell to the ground. His body laid there silent and motionless. The other goblins, stunned by the recent turn of events, just stayed silent and watched. But they were promptly shocked out of their paralysis when the dragon was suddenly on top of them and kicked another goblin, sending him flying across the room into oblivion. Before they could react, the dragon had once again evaporated into blue smoke.

The remaining three goblins started frantically searching for him. They looked up, down and around for the culprit, but failed to locate him anywhere. That was when two of the goblins suddenly realized that the third was no longer among them. They looked around for him, but didn’t locate him until they heard a groan of pain from behind them. They turned around and found that the source of the noise was the third member of their party. He currently off the ground, crying pitifully as all four of his limbs were held in mid-air by two sets of hands and being pulled in two opposite directions. Standing on his left side was the dragon, his massive muscles visibly flexing as he tried his best to rip the goblin in two. His his partner–who apparently was the young man with the purple hood they saw earlier–stood on the goblin’s right side, except instead of standing in place, he appeared to be struggling to walk away with the right half of the goblin.

“GAAAAHHHHH!” the goblin screamed in pain as he felt his body about to be ripped in half. Until….

*CRACK!*

A distinct cracking sound went off louder than a church bell on Sunday morning as the goblin suddenly did a perfect spit in the air. The goblin went silent, the dragon stopped pulling, and the young man disappeared like he had never existed. The two halves of the goblin fell simultaneously to the floor. Strangely enough, there were no tear marks, no bleeding, and no internal organs spilling out onto the ground. But regardless, he still seemed pretty dead. And so, the scaley beast set his sights on the final two goblins: the commander and his last remaining subordinate.

The dragon cupped his huge claws into a ball then shoved them forward, showing his palms. A plume of blue smoke flew from his palms towards the last remaining grunt. At the halfway point, the smoke split apart and became a group of seven bats, the goblin’s worst fear. The small colony of bats flew the rest of the way, swarming the terrified goblin. He suddenly found himself at the mercy of the furry, long-fanged, red-eyed, terrifying looking creatures. He desperately tried to swat them away, even as he found them carrying him off into another room. He screamed bloody murder the entire time, his voice sounding like it could shatter glass, or like a pig squealing as it was being slaughtered. As he disappeared into the smoke, his squeals of terror gradually softened until they were made silent.

The last goblin, the leader, allowed the horror of the situation to sink in. He had just watched all of his remaining men get taken out one by one, despite each of them being armed with guns. And yet….they just couldn’t shoot…they just stood there paralyzed with fear. And now he was all alone. He prayed for someone, anyone, to throw him a bone. Then he realized that he still had the boy in his clutches, and he knew that the brat was his only ticket out of here.

“Stay back! Or I’ll kill the boy!” the goblin screamed out at the dragon, whom had been silently watching the two of them.

“Release the boy and take your punishment with honor, or what you will experience will make what I did to your friends seem like a kindergarten class movie,” the beast threatened.

The goblin knew he was screwed either way, so he decided that if he was gonna go down, he would take someone with him. He threw the kid onto the ground, pulled his assault rifle up and aimed it at the boy. The child turned with tears in his eyes to look at his would-be murderer. Seconds passed. A thick, heavy tension was in the air. The goblin knew the moment he was done, the dragon would probably be bashing his face into the floor. With a determined glare, he let out a final war cry as he squeezed the trigger.

*Click*

“Huh!?”

*Click* *Click* *Click*

It was jammed…

The goblin stared at his gun in utter shock, but then a sudden realization hit him. He needed to get the boy back in his hands before it was too late. He threw the gun aside, surprised that the dragon had yet to move to seize him, but not so much that it distracted him from his goal. However, when he looked at his former hostage, he realized that the once trembling child was now grinning at him. The tears in his eyes were no longer those of sorrow, but of an almost maniacal joy. He began to chuckle in a way that made the goblin step back in fear. Then the chuckle grew into laughter, the squeaky kind of laughter that you’d expect to hear from a child his age. Then he disappeared into smoke.

“What the hell the just happened?” he asked himself in confusion.

“You should be worrying what the hell is about to happen to you,” the dragon answered.

He turned to see the dragon was still a good distance away, instead of up-close and personal like he expected. The dragon lifted his right arm, a chain sickle held within his grasp. The goblin braced himself for the sickle to fly toward him, entangle him, and drag him toward the terrifying beast, much like what happened moments ago to his comrade. However, instead of that, the dragon slashed his weapon forward, creating what looked like...a rip? No, he had created a portal that looked like a rip.

The former goblin commander didn’t know what to expect, until an absolutely massive version of the chain sickle came flying out at him from the portal. It happened so fast that he couldn’t dodge it in time. The sharp blade curved as it sliced downwards, impaling clean through the green-skinned creature from the back to the front. The rusty chain suddenly became taught then started to recede, dragging the impaled monster back through the rip-like portal. The goblin, still conscious after his impalement, screamed what seemed like his hundredth shriek of terror that day. He felt like he was on a rollercoaster that was now dragging him off to his death.

When he emerged through the portal, the immeasurable pain of being impaled finally caught up with him. However, it was dulled by the overwhelming fear of what he witnessed next. On the other end of the rusty chain, was a building-sized version of the dragon standing in the middle of a desolate rocky field. The giant dragon held up the chain and looked into his eyes with contemptuous rage before yanking the chain back and forth. The sickle–and its unwilling passenger–flew all around the landscape, smashing into the ground and the surrounding boulders. The dragon planted the goblin into the ground over and over and over again, never relenting even for a moment. Throughout the assault, the goblin was allowed neither the sweet embrace of death, nor the numbness of unconsciousness. He stayed awake and immobile, experiencing the excruciating pain of his impaled body being smashed apart, seemingly without any end in sight.....

Spike’s P.O.V (A few minutes earlier...)

Spike knew he couldn’t get past those goblins given their superior numbers, not to mention all that firepower at their disposal, so he broke his bottle of N.F.M. and waited for the gas to take effect. A few seconds later, he heard all seven goblins collapse onto the ground, along with the distinct clatter of their guns falling flat onto the floor as well. Unfortunately, as he gazed beyond the doors, he noticed that the hostages had also inhaled some of the toxin. He walked past the goblins, their bodies squirming and trembling violently as they succumbed to their worst fears made manifest. Spike couldn’t help but wonder what sort of terrors the group of monsters were witnessing in their minds.

“Damn. I don’t think I even want to imagine what kind of monstrous, gruesome things could be giving these kinds of monsters nightmares,” Spike said, as he watched them sweat profusely and shake uncontrollably. He recognized these symptoms all to well. First, it starts with the shakes and sweating. Then, as exposure to the gas continues, the symptoms grow visibly worse until the victims can no longer handle the sheer terror of their own personal nightmares and die of heart failure soon after. In short, they are literally scared to death.....oh dear. “I have to get these hostages out of here!”

Spike went about grabbing the unconscious men, women and children, dragging them outside of the bank and away from the gas. Many of them fidgeted and shivered as a result of the N.M.F., but he didn’t worry too much. Spike knew if they got enough oxygen in their systems, the effects would eventually disappear. After successfully pulling all of the hostages out of the bank, he stopped to observe the entire area. The area around the bank was completely deserted.

“Well, I guess that only makes things easier for me,” Spike mumbled as he looked around the empty area. “So this is how Luna feels when she’s on the job. No wonder she gets so lonely.” A few seconds later, a bright flash of magic suddenly shone right next to Spike. He instinctively took up a fighting stance, but was relieved to see that it was just some of the night guards Luna had placed under his command.

“Lieutenant Drake!” they shouted in formal salute.

“At ease boys. You hear to clean up?” Spike asked, gesturing to the bank full of goblins, whom were most likely dead at this point from over exposure to the gas.

“Yes sir, but we were also ordered to escort you back to Canterlot immediately. The Princess wishes to speak with you on the matter at hand,” one of the guards replied.

“Really? Hmm….that’s strange. I already stopped the bank robbery.”

“She fears this may only be the beginning of the goblin raids. She wants to make sure you’re prepared for what’s to come.”

“Ah, I see. Alright then, lets go,” Spike said as he grabbed his subordinates shoulder and teleported with him back to Canterlot Castle.

Canterlot Castle

Princess Luna waited impatiently in the throne room for her monster hunter to arrive. The goblins had revealed some very sensitive information before the gas became too much for their hearts to handle.

“Where is he?” she muttered to herself as she walked back and forth. Just then, a blue flash of light went off before her, revealing that one of her guards had returned from Baltimare with Spike. “Spike, we are so glad to see you safe. How did your mission go?”

“Well, there was a lot of panicking and confusion, but I was able subdue the threat. There were no casualties as well, so that’s a relief,” Spike replied.

“Excellent. I knew I could count on you.”

“Thanks, but why’d you call me here? I still had some research to do on the House of Gore and return….Twilight’s….book. Dammit! I knew I had forgotten something! Now I have to go back!”

“Never mind that, I’ll have one of my guards do it for you. For now, we have more important matters to deal with,” Luna said, taking a seat in her throne.

“Alright, so what did you learn from those goblins?”

“Well firstly, they were planning to rob the Baltimare Central Bank today…..”

“Heh. Well, that’s one more thing taken care of.”

“Yes, but that was just their plans for today. They also have plans to rob armored trucks passing through Equestria as well, and other banks in have been targeted for robbery,” Luna informed.

“Damn, talk about a goblin gold rush. But how did they get those guns? I thought you regulated and monitored the movement of fire arms too carefully for that to happen.”

“I did, but these goblins bought their guns from a band of pirates who are currently out at sea, stealing the materials for guns as they cross oceans.”

“Pirates?! Oh, this sounds like it’s gonna be fun,” Spike said rubbing his hands together.

“The pirates will have to wait, I’m afraid. Tonight, you have to stop those other robberies.”

“Right.”

“Oh, and one more thing. I asked those goblins about the House of Gore, but they said they didn’t know anything about it. They said that they belong to the Goblin Clan of Rough.”

“Hmmm, are you sure they weren’t lying? Those bastards can be pretty sneaky.”

“Humph, with how much N.M.F. they inhaled, I doubt they had the mental capacity to lie,” Luna chuckled. “Now it’s time for you to head back to Ponyville and prepare yourself for tonight. I’m sure that it will be anything but dull.”

“That’s just the way I like it,” Spike said as his body became fully enveloped by the princess’ magic. In the blink of an eye, Luna teleported him to the front door of the Castle of Friendship.

However, both Princess Luna and Spike failed to notice that there was a fly on the wall during their brief meeting; this, however, was no regular fly. It was slightly larger in size than most flies and was blood red in color. As soon as Spike had been sent home, it took off and flew out a nearby window. Once outside, it was suddenly sucked into a portal where its master was waiting in a dark room. The dark figure held open his palm, allowing the fly to land there. He gently closed his hand and absorbed all of the fly’s memories. After witnessing the discussion between Princess Luna and Spike, the figure chuckled.

“That boy might never know it, but he is just like his father.”

“Master, should we not send someone to do away with the boy before he becomes a problem?” asked another figure lurking in the shadows.

“No…let him deal with those trash houses first. Consider it as a test of sorts. Should he prevail, then we will see if he is truly worthy to face the House of Gore.”

Castle of Friendship

After arriving at the front door of the castle, Spike made his way inside to prepare for the night ahead of him. He walked past the library, only to find Twilight nose deep in a…..magazine? Spike was confused at the sight, knowing that his sister-figure hardly ever perused such flimsy periodicals unless prompted by her friends. Soon enough, his curiosity won out and he snuck over to Twilight to see what the studious princess could possibly find interesting in a magazine. He got behind her chair and stretched his neck to read what it said over her shoulder. Squinting his eyes, he briefly managed to read an article’s title, “50 Ways to Please Your Man,” before Twilight turned her head and caught him snooping. She franticly shut the magazine and teleported it out of sight before standing up and turning to face Spike.

“S-S-Spike! You’re back so soon!” she said nervously.

“It’s almost nighttime,” Spike said dryly.

“Oh, so it is. Well, you know how I am with my books,” she said as she began to sweat more.

“Yeah, but that was a magazine, not a book. You should know, since you once lectured me for an hour about the difference between the two.”

“Oh, well...you know, I just wanted to try something new,” she explained as she slowly backed away towards the exit.

“Uh-huh, then what was that it said about pleasing yo-”

“Hey, why don’t you go talk to Starlight? I think she got lost I the castle again,” she interrupted before bolting out of the room.

“Hmm…Twilight’s acting weird. And then there’s that ad. Why would she be interested in that type of stuff?” Spike wondered, making a mental note to find Starlight after preparing for tonight. But as it turns out that wouldn’t be much of a problem; she was in his room going through his stash of monster hunting gear, which had apparently fallen from its hiding spot.

“Starlight!” Spike screamed.

Spooked by the sudden shout behind her, Starlight accidentally dropped Spike’s guns to the floor as she jumped up in fright. Fortunately, the young monster hunter hadn’t kept them loaded. “Starlight, I can explain,” Spike said as he walked into his room, closing the door behind him.

“You better. There are like a million different weapons in here! And all these files on monsters, monster pictures and reports...Spike, is there something you’re not telling us?” Starlight asked, looking at the young man.

“Starlight….I….I...I’m a monster hunter,” he confessed. Spike knew that there was no way around it. She had seen far too much for a lie to be able to get him out, even with the aid of Deceitful Grease. The only option left was to come clean and hope for the best.

“A monster hunter?! How long has this been going on?”

“Since I was fifteen. I took the job from Princess Luna.”

“Princess Luna? Why’d she hire you if you were just fifteen?”

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t matter right now. You can’t tell Twilight, she’ll freak out!” he begged.

“I don’t know, Spike; I don’t like keeping secrets from Twilight,” she said, looking Spike right in the eye.

“Please! I’ll do anything!” Spike cried as he got right in-front of Starlight and begged her with his hands locked together.

Starlight eyed the young man before her with his emerald green eyes looking into her Persian blue ones, and his handsome face mere inches from her own. She turned her attention southward, observing his well toned body. At least now she understood how it was so well kept. Then, a devious idea crept into her mind, making her blush furiously.

“Anything,huh?” she asked.

“Yes, anything!” Spike replied with a sparkle of hope in his eyes. He figured she felt sorry for him and had some kind of work she wanted him to do in return for her silence. This train of thought, however, was quickly derailed when Starlight grabbed his pants by the front and began to undo his belt. “Starlight, what are you doing?!”

“Oh, just getting what I want,” she said as she dropped his pants and used her magic to toss him onto his bed.

"Which is?” he asked, crawling back before she jumped on him and pinned him down.

“Your cock…..” �}��RB[]��7

Author's Note

I got the idea for that Dragon fight in the bank from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpuP-SKm10M&t=7s
Also shout out to Starblade for editing the previous chapters, I appreciate you bro!