Fun & Fantasyby Yosh-E-OChaptersChapter 1 - Let's Liven Things UpChapter 2 - Sprites & SpiresChapter 3 - Dimensional SummonsChapter 4 - Team DevelopmentChapter 5 - "Nixi's Story"Chapter 6 - Tutorial?Chapter 7 - Sewing SombraChapter 8 - Treasure!Chapter 9 - The CraterChapter 11 - Refriending Princess EmberChapter 12 - Ultra Boss: Ashen GarbleChapter 13 - Of Gifts and GripesChapter 14 - The Final BossChapter 15 - The Boss BabyChapter 16 - Today's LessonChapter 10 - Crashing The CraterChapter 1 - Let's Liven Things UpTwilight had fallen over the peaceful town of Ponyville asSpike, the baby dragon, Big Macintosh, the not-so-talkative Earth Pony stallion, and discord, who is too chaotic to explain, gathered for their “Guy’s Night” of playing ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’. “Time for a new adventure!” cheered Spike as he sat at the table and reached for the official game guide for ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’. “Let’s see what the book recommends for our next quest!” “Bah,” scoffed Discord as he hovered and wisped through the air. “Can you stop being Princess twilight Sparkle II and come up with anything that doesn’t require that bothersome book?” “The book is important!” retorted Spike while facing the displeased draconequus. “It provides the structure for properly assigning monsters, items in shops-” SNAP! POOF! “-how to assign experience, item drops, treasures for dungeons…,” Spike trailed off as he realized he suddenly heard Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, talking. “Twi? Ar you back already?” Big Mac let out a deep chuckle as Discord grinned wide as he coiled around Spike. “Why don’t you take a look over there?” he suggested while poofing up a mirror. “Ah!” Spike shrieked as Twilight would upon seeing his whole head replaced with that of Twilight’s. “Not funny, Discord!” “Oh?” cackled the living embodiment of chaos itself. “But you make a splendid Twilight stand-in. Perhaps we should create a new character for you named Bookish Ponyface?” Big Mac started into another round of laughter as Spike’s altered visage grew expressions quite like those Princess Twilight would make. Spike huffed. “Fine,” he conceded. “What do you think we should do then, Captain Wuzz?” Discord went about teleporting all about the open chamber as he thought on all the possibilities. “You know,” he eventually said while hovering alongside Spike, pulling him into a hug, and snapping his fingers to return the purple dragon back to normal. “You do have a knack for putting things like your hopeless crush on Rarity into our adventures….” Big Mac nodded and smiled. “Eeyup,” he confirmed. Spike blushed while Discord positioned himself to loom overhead. “This makes me curious if there’s anything else going through that head of yours outside of prissy white Unicorns?” POOF SKEE-POP POP “Ah!” cried the emerald-eyed dragon as he felt the draconequus, in a smaller and worm-like fashion, glide into his right ear and out the left. POOF “Ah-ha!” proclaimed Discord. “Someone does have a little secret they’ve been keeping from us! Something that will make tonight’s ‘Guy’s Night’ the…” SHING Discord replaced his head with that of the yellow Pegasus, Fluttershy, to whom was his best pony friend in all the cosmos. “Guy’s Night Ever,” he said softly. “Yay.” “Wait!” gasped Spike as he suddenly had a rather worrisome thought pop into his head. SHING “What’s wrong, Spike?” Discord said with the cyan Pegasus’, rainbow dash, head now in place of his own. “This is going to be AWESOME!” FWOO RIP TEAR-RIP SHING “Prepare yourselves!” Discord heartily proclaimed as the rift in time and space he tore grew wider-and-wider to consume the trio. “TO ENTER THE WORLD OF OGRES & OUBLIETTES!” FWOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHH PING! Even more quickly than it appeared the portal closed leaving only the room as it was minus Discord, Spike, and Big Macintosh. Chapter 2 - Sprites & SpiresNixi, the Unicorn mare caretaker, watched as Leon and Parker played the super exciting new video game they got, ‘Sprites & Spires’. “C’mon, Leon!” grumped Parker, who was an ebon-colored dragon clad in overalls. “Heal me!” “I can’t!” Leon, who was a near twin to Parker in appearance except he was clad in a onesie. “My healing spell hasn’t come back yet!” Nixi felt tense as she noticed how Parker’s samurai character was nearly out of HP. “No, no, no-noNO!” cried Parker as the hammer-wielding minotaur bonked the last of his Health Points to zero. “So unfair!” “And I just now got my spell back,” pouted Leon as he tried to run from the minotaur but was unsuccessful due to the other special attack the boss monster had, which was a line of fire it could shoot out from wherever it slammed down its hammer. “Now I’m finished, too,” Nixi saw the disappointment and frustration in her baby dragon boys. “Hey, guys,” she said calmly while making her way in front of the television. “Why don’t you two play your own version of the game where you don’t have to worry about all these yucky rules that make you fussy?” Parker huffed smoke from his nose as Leon frowned at how apparent it was that this was less a suggestion than it was a command. “Come on, Parker,” pouted Leon. “Let’s go play in my room.” I know you’ll both have a lot of fun playing pretend ‘Sprites & Spires’ together!” cheered Nixi as she switched off the game system and TV. “I’ll work on bedtime snacks while you two slay that mean, nasty minotaur.” Parker let his controller drop to the floor without a care before following Leon back to his room. *** Leon and Parker sulked over their loss in the game until they felt truly inspired to take their caretaker’s suggestion of playing it themselves in the wonderful world of make believe. “Maybe we just need some training to beat that minotaur?” thought Leon. “In that case,” stated Parker. “We need to get in character.” Leon put a claw to his chin as he stared thoughtfully with his green eyes towards the ceiling. “I got it!” he proclaimed upon snapping out of his thoughts and hastily taking off his brother’s overalls. “Hey!” cried Parker as he soon found himself standing in just his diaper. “What gives?” Leon ran over to his door and plucked a bath robe from a mounted hook. “You’re a samurai, right?” he more stated than asked. “Epic ultra super awesome samurai!” Parker added emphatically. “With epic uber cosmic powers!” “Well,” beamed Leon as he tossed the robe towards his brother. “You need a kimono and samurai diaper to be one.” Parker thought for a moment. “I’ve only seen the girl characters in the game wear kimonos,” he said. “Guys do, too,” Leon replied while finding his security blanket and approaching his twin. “I’ve seen pictures and it will make you look ultra cool!” Parker started to slip on the robe as Leon stuffed one end of the blanket down the front of Parker’s crinkly garment, looped it between his legs, and stuck the other end down the back of his padding. “That feels weird,”panicked Parker. “It’s what you need to be a samurai,” assured Leon. “It’s called a fundoshi and boosts your defense!” “Well…,” considered Parker. “If it boosts my defense and makes me look more like a samurai than I’m okay with it.” “Great!” cheered Leon as he took his white bedsheet, through it over his head, and used a jump rope to tie it like a mage’s cloak. “I’ve got a wizard’s staff for me and a hero sword you can have in my toy chest. Let’s get all equipped so we can go show Nixi how we are true ‘Sprites & Spires legends!”” Chapter 3 - Dimensional SummonsBAP-CLUK FSSSHH Nixi peaked her head out from within the kitchen to see her boys battling it out with a foam staff and plastic sword in the middle of the living room. “That’s our problem!” announced Parker as he swung with his toy blade at Leon. “You are too much a healer with no combat skills!” “Healers aren’t meant to fight!” cried Leon as he blocked a strike from his twin. “But they can!” continued Parker as he went about gradually backing Leon towards the couch. “You just need some stat boosts!” “Huh?” wondered Leon. “Remember that town we passed before we took on the minotaur mission,” Parker said while narrowing his eyes and becoming determined to drive his brother to the couch. “I think there’s a guy there who can change your class without changing your ability to heal.” “Really?” thought Leon as he was unaware of how close he was to the couch. SWAP “Oof” gasped Leon as he bounced off the couch with his backside and fell on his padded rump upon the carpeted floor. Parker smiled as he pointed the tip of his plastic sword at Leon’s chest. “Really,” he replied. “Okay, boys,” said Nixi as she trotted into the living room. “That’s enough.” Both boys looked up at their Unicorn caretaker. “We were just strategizing,” stated Parker. “Yeah,” grinned Leon in hopes that it would keep the motherly mare from ending their game. “Well,” said Nixi as she used her Unicorn magic to remove the sword from Parker’s hand. “I think Parker won this game. You know it is not nice to point sharp objects at anyone.” “But it’s plastic,” argued Parker with a look that implied how unhappy he was for having the sword taken away. “Plastic, or not,” lectured the mare who had a blue mane. “It’s still not nice and may make you think it is okay to use truly dangerous things as play weapons.” “Mom,” both boys pouted. “It’s time for your bedtime snacks anyway,” she added. SHING! ZIP! The three were stunned as a zipper appeared in mid-air right in the middle of their living room and pulled itself down to reveal a blue void that soon had a clawed hand appear from within it. “Get behind me, boys!” cried Nixi as she prepared her magic to protect the young dragons. “No need for such dramatics,” a voice echoed. “I’m just popping by to pick up the rest of our team for our big ‘Guys Night’ game.” “What?” worried Nixi. SNAP! VOOP “Wha?” wondered all three as they were magically lifted off of the ground. “Come now, Leon and friends!” cheered the echoing voice as he pulled his clawed hand back into the open rift. WHOOSH! “Whoa!” the three cried as they were flung into the opening. ZOO-SHING! The opening zipped itself back up and disappeared in a plume of ethereal sparks. The house was now empty with it’s residents taken to an unknown place by an unseen force. Chapter 4 - Team DevelopmentPOP-POP-POP “Oof!” groaned Spike as he landed on his feet, lost his balance, and fell down on all fours. “Ungh,” groaned Big Macintosh upon appearing beside Spike, landing on his back hooves, and slamming his front hooves down with force to ensure he maintained balance. POP-POP-POP “Ah!” cried Leon and Parker as they appeared to the opposite side of Spike and Big Macintosh. “Eep!” gasped Nixi as she used her magic to ensure a safe arrival in the strange new world they had been taken to. PASHING! “Delightful!” announced Discord as he appeared between the two groups dressed as an archer. “Now this should be quite the adventure!” Leon, Parker, and Nixi noticed the large, red Unicorn knight and purple, baby dragon dressed as a wizard. Spike picked himself up and eyed up the twin, ebon dragons. They looked ‘familiar’ in some way. One was dressed as a cleric and the other appeared like a warrior from out of one of his comic books. “Huh?” he wondered as his eyes noticed a white Unicorn with a purple mane standing beside the twin dragons. “Rare… Rarity?” “Ha!” burst discord as he slithered through the air in front of Spike. “Don’t you mean ‘Princess Shmarity?” “Excuse me,” snorted Nixi. “What is the meaning of this?” “Oh!” the draconequus faux apologized while zipping towards the displeased mare. “Sorry for being so random but, well…” SNAP Discord suddenly started to juggle a series of toys, which included Spike’s Rarity plush, Big Mac’s smarty Pants he got from Twilight, Leon’s toy mech, and Parker’s portable gaming system. “…Random is sort of what I do,” he gleefully stated. “Well,” stated Nixi quite firmly. “It’s bedtime for my boys and I insist you return us to our home right now.” “Oh!” beamed Discord as he coiled around Nixi. “I was so right in making you our ‘Princess’. You definitely are as picky and snooty as one.” “Hey!” protested Leon and Parker in near unison. “That’s our mom!” “Now-now,” stated Discord as he flew to the twin boys. “The grown-ups are talking. Why don’t you play with your old friend, Spike, as your mother and I have a talk?” “Whoa!” Spike panicked as a wave of Discord’s hand brought him flying in front of Leon and Parker. “Uh…,” trailed Parker as he felt quite awkward in the sudden meeting. “Nice costume…” Spike, as Garbunkle, found himself completely at a loss for words as his mind recognized the look of both boys but couldn’t quite place how, where, or why they seemed familiar. “Do I know you?” he asked nervously. “I don’t think so,” replied Parker as he started to become more interested in how different his costume seemed. It was less ‘pretend’ and more real feeling. “Wait,” thought Leon as he fidgeted with his more genuine feeling staff. “Aren’t you that dragon from my dream?” “Huh?” baffled Spike. “There was a banquet and lots of dragons and this pony you really liked who looked like…,” Leon trailed off as he stared at how Nixi no longer had a blue mane. Her mane was now purple and quite styled. Her tail also looked very much like the Unicorn in his dream. “…My mom?” “What!” the purple dragon boomed. “Rarity is my very special some pony!” SHING “Oh, come now,” Discord stated as he suddenly appeared near Spike. “You can’t tell the difference between your silly crush and Princess Shmarity?” POP Discord disappeared to continue his discussion with a very agitated Nixi. Spike blushed. “Umm…,” he said nervously. “Maybe… I…” It suddenly came to him as his memory flashed back to when Princess Ember, the new Dragon Lord of all Equestrian dragons, visited Princess Twilight’s castle with a small delegation of other dragons to build stronger bonds of friendship between ponies and dragons. He lead a black dragon into the castle who kept insisting he should still be in diapers. This was extremely embarrassing and this particular dragon kept insisting upon it right in front of Rarity! This dragon also wore a diaper, which this one noticeably did under his white robe and onesie, and caused a lot of trouble and clean-up as a result of dropping a chandelier down into the banquet hall before suddenly just disappearing! “Wait…,” blushed Spike. “I do remember you!” “Where’s your diaper?” asked Parker as he realized the baby dragon before them had no padding. “Are you in the middle of a change?” “Oh!” cheered Leon. “You are real!” “Of course I’m real!” cried Spike. “DISCORD!” bellowed Spike angrily. SHING “You rang?” the draconequus said as he appeared with a series of tiny bells jingling about a sash he had created along his serpent-like body. “What’s going on here?” the purple dragon with emerald eyes inquired. “Just getting our game started,” the Master of Chaos replied. “Nixi and I have it all planned out and it will be so much fun!” Spike’s fin-like ears drooped as he took in the tone Discord had used in making his final statement. “Oh, boy,”he said with concern. “I don’t like where this is going.” Chapter 5 - "Nixi's Story"Time passed as Nixi and discord talked within a sound-proof dome. Nixi, being the caretaker that she was, didn’t want her boys hearing her talk all angry to the draconequus that had hijacked them from their home before bedtime. “Is this your home?” asked Leon as he fidgeted with his staff. The jewel near its top looked very real, because it was. “Nope,” replied Big Macintosh as his knightly persona, Sir McBiggun. “This is Spiketopia,” Spike stated. “The legendary land of adventure ruled by Princess Shmarity and being put in danger by the evil Squizzard.” Parker and Leon giggled. “What’s so funny?” blushed Spike with a blush. “This world sounds silly,” chuckled Leon. “Reminds me of one of the bedtime stories Nixi reads us that aren’t scary so we don’t get nightmares,” added Parker. “Just wait!” proclaimed Spike. “You’ll see just how serious this world is once we get our quest going!” “Hmm,” pondered Parker as he took notice that the fundoshi beneath his kimono had looked a lot more ‘real’ than the makeshift one Leon had made out of the bedsheet and his diaper. The diaper was still quite apparent but the garment between the front of his diaper and back seemed truly a part of the fundoshi instead of like a blanket that was stuffed in the front and looped between his legs to the back. “Yeah,” considered Leon as he noticed how real his cloak was before turning towards Spike. “But you are missing your diaper.” Spike snorted smoke through his nose as Big Mac chuckled. “Stop saying that!” persisted the purple dragon. “I’m not that kind of baby dragon! I don’t need diapers and, if you really must know, I haven’t sucked my claw in years!” “Seems fussy,” shrugged Parker. “Perhaps we have a paci in our new costumes we can lend him?” considered Leon. Spike growled as he glared towards the twin ebon dragons. “I do not need -“ SPOP! Spike was cut off as Leon inserted a pacifier with a crystalline nipple into his mouth. “You did have one!” cheered Parker. “And look!” The twin boys watched as a fairy appeared over Spike, sprinkled some magic dust over him, and said, “Berserk nullified. Resistance to fury status will last as longas Jeweled Pacifier remains equipped.” “Cool!” the boys cheered as they high-fived each other. “Eeyup!” added Big Mac as he knew of times this item would’ve come in handy when Spike and Discord argued over how to go about particular moves to do next during their missions. Discord knew how to get under Spike’s scales and Big Mac tried to remind Spike that he was getting all riled up over nothing. Perhaps this new item will keep that from happening? FWOOP A lanyard formed around the pacifier in Spike’s mouth that ensured that, if released,it would remain as equipment he could, for lack of better terms, equip again with little downtime. SHING! “Ah-ha-ha!” chortled Discord as he appeared before everyone. “I see you’ve already discovered some of the new aspects of our little game of ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’?” PTOOIE! Spike spat out the Jeweled Pacifier and glared towards Discord. “What are you doing!” he grumbled. “This is not how Spiketopia works! You’re going back to being a jerk and I don’t-” SPOP! Discord magically reinserted the pacifier into Spike’s mouth. “Now, now,” he teased. “No need to be all fussy over things, Garbunkle. We don’t want you using up all your stamina on throwing a tantrum.” Leon and Parker giggled as Big Mac couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Oh!”grinned the draconequus as he tossed a plush toy towards Leon. “This is for you.” “Huh?” wondered Leon upon catching and taking in what he now held. It looked just like Nixi! “What’s that?” asked Parker until he, too, noticed the resemblance to their caretaker. “It was a, how you say, ‘compromise’,” beamed Discord as the ebon dragons felt the plush of what strongly resembled their Unicorn caretaker. “She didn’t want to be out of your sight and our quest needs a princess to save so…” “This is our mom?” both boys gasped with disbelief. The whimsical serpent delighted in his dramatic pauses. They allowed him to enjoy the effects of his chaotic nature as it became more evident to those around him. “Allow me to explain,” continued the gleeful draconequus. “Every quest needs a goal and good ol’ Garbunkle here always has us do something for his childhood sweetheart. So I’ve changed things up a bit.” SPITOOIE Spike spat out the pacifier again and stomped his foot with a growl. “Princess Shmarity has no resemblance to Rarity!” he proclaimed while glaring down Discord. “I just don’t know how to draw other ponies as well as Rarity and I used her as a template for the tabletop piece!” “Right…,” trailed Discord as he fabricated a halo, angel wings, and a T-Shirt on Spike that had a picture of Rarity the Unicorn displayed in a large red heart. “Nothing untrue from our little angel over here.” “Hey!” cried Leon as he held the Nixi plush close to his chest. “How do we get our mom back!” SNAP! POP Spike gasped as his halo, angel wings, and shirt were taken away and he returned to his appearance as Garbunkle. “I really do need to work on my timing,” moaned Discord upon realizing his ‘audience’ had other matters on their minds beyond his teasing of the young assistant to Princess twilight Sparkle. Parker drew his katana, which definitely was not plastic, and pointed it towards Discord. “Turn her back!” he growled. “Or I shall send you on your way to oblivion!” “Already been there,” the draconequus shrugged. “Rather boring place.” SWACK! “Huh?” wondered Parker as his sword slammed with no effect upon Discord. “Oh!” perked the Master of Chaos. “Forgot to mention one of the conditions your mother made was that all weapons do no physical damage.” Spike went to talk but was silenced as a plunger-tipped arrow from ‘Captain Wuzz’ blocked his mouth. “see?” he delighted. “And nothing that could cause nightmares.” “The ebon dragon twins shrugged as Leon squeezed Nixi the plush tight and Parker smiled towards his plushified caretaker. “So,” stepped up Big Mac. “What do we do?” SNAP The world of ‘Spiketopia’ became awash in beautiful pastels. “We see where the story takes us until we find what we need to turn Nixi back to normal,” gleed Discord as he pulled another plunger arrow and shot it off towards a nearby city that shimmered with baby-blue and pastel-pink crystals. “That seems a good place to start.” Spike pulled the plunger from his face, tossed it aside, and glared towards Discord. “Hold up,” stated Big Mac while putting a hoof in front of Spike. “Let’s just see what happens.” “Fine,” grumped the purple dragon. “Let’s go.” Chapter 6 - Tutorial?Spike grumped as he and the band of heroes went through a peaceful forest filled with nothing more than birdsong and the chattering of squirrels, chipmunks, and other woodland creatures. “Where’s the trolls?” he pouted. “The werewolves? Ogres?” CHIRP-CHIRP RUSTLE “…ANYTHING!” the purple dragon exploded. FLAP-FLAP-FLAP Birds took to the skies as Spike’s roar boomed throughout the woods. “Hey!” cried Leon as he turned to face Spike. “You scared all the birdies away!” “This isn’t ‘Happy Foal Trotting Mane’!” the emerald-spiked dragon replied. “Someone is not enjoying the tutorial?” slithered Discord. “Tutorial?” glared Spike. “We can have this sort of adventure by just walking to Zecora’s hut!” “Okay, big boy,” gleed Discord as he took hold of Spike, slipped him into his archer’s bow like an arrow, and shot him towards the crystalline destination ahead. “Waah!” Spike cried as he flew into a crystal that, for whatever reason, seemed to cushion his crash rather than enhance upon it. “Anyone else not enjoying the tutorial?” winked the draconequus. Big Mac, Parker, and Leon said nothing. “Alrighty,” clapped discord. “Let us continue and play with our new friends’ abilities while Garbunkle, how you say, scouts ahead for us?” *** Spike had expected to feel a lot of pain and be sent back to The Castle of Friendship by taking lethal damage as a result of Discord’s antics. However he instead found himself perfectly intact sitting on a rubber street in front of a pillow-like crystal spire. “What the…?” he pondered. “Crystals…,” hissed a voice from what seemed like everywhere. “Someone has crystals…” Spike took to his feet and prepared to cast a protection spell. However there was nothing to be seen as a threat. “Best save my MP,” he said to himself with a bit of a shiver. He then reached into his bag, popped some jewels into his mouth, and blew a massive blast of white flame into the air that resulted in a cascade of crystal-like snow to twinkle all about him and the surrounding area. “Hmm,” wondered Garbunkle as his crafted revealing spell showed nothing to be hiding in secret. “Maybe I’m just hearing things?” “Crystals…,” the voice came again. This time it was deeper and felt like it be mere feet away. “More crystals…” Spike gulped as he found himself instinctively reaching for the pacifier. “You got this, Garbunkle,” he said to calm himself. “You’re near god level. Nothing can-” “-Crystals!” the deep and vile sounding voice cried. “Mine! All mine!” SPOP Spike popped the jeweled pacifier in his mouth and felt the magical relaxing effect of it kick in. “Hurry up, guys,” he thought while scanning the bizarre environment for the encompassing danger. WHOOSH! “CRYSTALS!” was the last thing Spike heard before seeing a blur of red, purple, and green rush towards him in a see of black shadow. Chapter 7 - Sewing Sombra“…Too cool!” gleed Leon as he made his magical staff shine a bright azure-blue. “It feels like warm bedtime cuddles!” “It seems you’ve taken a real fancy to that staff?” posed Discord. “However you must be careful. I do believe Nixi would be very unhappy if you misused your powers.” “Ha!” taunted Parker. “Told you!” “Hey!” snapped the staff-wielding cleric. “You’ve been goofing around with your sword.” “Yeah,” snickered the twin baby dragon in the samurai kimono. “But you got in trouble.” “Speaking of…,” gestured the draconaquus as they entered into the rubber streets of the textured crystal city. BURRNP SNAP-SNAP FWOOF “Yipes!” gasped Leon as his onesie snapped open to reveal his diaper for all to see. “That’s our cue,”grinned the Master of Chaos as he prepped his bow. “With Garbunkle ‘missing’ I’m in charge and order Sir McBiggun and Rubber Blade to defeat our adversaries while I maintain cover fire.” “Rubber Blade?” protested Parker. “Don’t look at me,” shrugged Discord while gesturing a claw towards Leon. “Your mom didn’t want anything nightmare inducing to happen and thought I should make a character sheet with a name that sounded, well, whimsical.” Big Mac had charged his horn to enchant his sword as the samurai dragon huffed, made his blade light with fire, and joined Big Mac in combat. “And what do I do?” stomped Leon. “You’re the cleric,” Discord replied without even facing Leon. “Get to those protection spells.” Leon felt quite upset at being sidelined but did as he was told. *** “Hyah!” cried Parker as his sword turned the last of the shadowy baddies into a puff of blue smoke. FWOOP CLIP-CLIP-CLASP “Huh?” wondered Leon as his onesie snapped itself back up. “Hmm,” shrugged Discord. “It would seem your onesie has been enchanted to let us all know when combat both begins and ends.” Leon blushed. “I think I could definitely get along with your mom,” he added while looking towards the Nixi plush. “She is far different than most ponies I’ve come to know in Equestria. Maybe I’ll even stop by for some tea sometime to talk about play dates with you and your brother with our baby of the group…?” “Hey!” a familiar voice called out. “It’s about time you got here!” Everyone faced forward to see Spike / Garbunkle darting towards them. “Sombra!” he panicked. “King Sombra is here and he stole all my jeweled relics!” “Now that is quite a canondrum,” Discord pondered while flipping himself upside-down and tapping at his chin. “So our opponent here steals magical jewels?” “Well,” huffed Spike as he caught his breath. “All my spell component gems are gone and the last thing I remember is seeing a big shadow rush over me before I woke up in this bouncy balloon-like prison.” Leon and Parker laughed. “It’s not funny, you guys,” insisted Spike. “I had no idea how to get out and kept falling over-and-over again with no exit to be found until I found this zipper-like thing tucked in a corner.” “That’s a ‘Bounce House’,” stated Leon. “They’re lots of fun.” “Want to go back and play?” Parker asked Spike gleefully. “Leon and I could show you how to have tons of fun inside a bouncy house?” CLAP-CLAP “Now,now,” interrupted Discord. “I think we have a mission to complete before we play in such silly things as a Bounce House.” “Good thing I still have my MP!” cheered Spike. “Garbunkle The Green will surely succeed in leading us into victory!” “Of course,” gestured discord. “Lead the way.” *** The party explored around the foam and rubber realm of shadowy creatures. With each encounter Leon’s onesie would pop open to alert all that combat was to begin as the team appeared to get ‘Charisma Bonusses’ for how much they laughed at their ‘Early Warning System’. “Hmm,” thought Spike as he lead the team into the pillow-like crystalline castle. “This is definitely an odd place.” SNAP-SNAP-SNAP FWOP “Thanks, Leon!” cheered Discord as he prepared his enchanted bow. “I must say your mom does think of everything. We should really have you all over for ‘Guy’s Night’ more often.” Parker chuckled as he nudged his exposed brother. “Time to heal everyone,” he teased while making his samurai sword blend with aspects of fire and ice. “At least I’m not Rubber Blade,” the ebon cleric shot back. *** Spike used a simple fireball spell to finish off the strange yarn-like creatures that formed from the palace tapestries. “I’m…,” he pouted. “I’m out of MP.” “Guess you’ll have to stand back with Leon as Sir McBiggun, Rubber Blade, and I finish the mission,” Discord stated with no remorse as he charged ahead. “Why bother?” a voice echoed as a shadowy black cloud with burning green and purple eyes appeared. “You shall all become a part of my fabricated empire.” “Whoa!” cried Leon as his onesie snapped so fiercely open that it was enough to make him fall flat on his crinkly bottom. “Oh, ho!” gleed Discord. “Boss fight!” VEEEE PSHEW “What the…?” wondered Sir McBiggun as he felt his body take on an entirely different feeling. “What?” gasped Parker as his sword became a threading needle and the rest of him turned to black and purple yarn. “Pooh,” sighed Discord as he turned into a plush snake-like being unable to do more than flop haplessly on the ground. Leon’s eyes went wide as he panicked over what he was seeing. “Momma!” he cried as he squeezed the plush version of Nixi tightly against his chest. FWOOM! “Huh?” the ebon cleric wondered as he noticed a force field form around him. As the rest of the party took on the forms of various fabrics and plush animals he remained unaffected. SPOP Spike flopped to the ground as a fully plush version of himself. “A little help?” he asked as best as his plushie-like parts would allow him to speak. “Parker!” cried Leon. “Can you still fight!” Rubber Blade felt like a toy you’d make at ‘Build-a-Buddy’ but he did still have a good use of his arms and legs. “Could really use some help!” he called back. Leon thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah!” he proclaimed. “This should be amusing,” the shadowy figure chuckled as he took form as a dark-colored Unicorn with a firery-red mane. “Show me what you got.” Leon looked deep into the eyes of plush Nixi prior to taking his staff, charging its magic, and pointing it towards Sombra. “Paralysis!” the shielded cleric called out as magic exploded out from the staff and towards the boss character. “Ack!” Sombra growled as he felt his movement severely hindered. “I’ll… Get… You…!” “Parker!” commanded Leon. “Get him! Get him now!” The twin ebon dragon took his samurai threading needle and shoved it right into the chest of Sombra. “No!” Sombra echoed. “I’m coming undone!” Everyone watched as Sombra was reduced to nothing but a giant pile of yarn with a crimson wig and shiny purple and green googly eyeballs. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK CLASP Leon’s onesie fastened itself and the shield protecting him dissipated. The battle had been won. Chapter 8 - Treasure!TWINKLE-TWINKLE PSHOO! “Ooh!” awed Leon and Parker as they noticed a collection of ethereal sparkles of many colors spiral around a central position in the room. SHWEEP! The team did their best to shield their eyes from the explosion of light that left behind a large treasure chest and a pair of yellow mice. The one mouse had a crescent moon on its head and on its belly while the other had suns, much like Princess Celestia’s Cutie mark, in the same places as its twin. “Congratulations!” the mice cheered. “You beat Sewing Sombra!” Leon moved alongside his plush-like brother. “Hey!” cried plush Discord as he flopped haplessly on the ground. “A little restoration magic would be great about now.” Oh!” gasped Leon upon realizing he was the only member of the team who had not been afflicted by Sombra’s status condition. SPOP! “Ah!” cried Parker as he felt something bulge out from his tail. Pulling it towards himself he noticed he was now on sale for ten bits. “Fix this, Leon!” The ebon dragon thought for a moment. He then turned his attention to the Nixi plush and smiled. “Ensuna!” he cried while raising his staff. BWEEP-BOOP-FWOO Streams of light radiated from the staff’s gem that engulfed the party, rose them into the air, returned them to their normal forms, and plopped them haplessly back down. “Ooh,” moaned Leon as he suddenly felt extremely tired. “I think I’m going to go nappy time.” THWACK! “Ow!” Leon cried as he felt something painlessly smack loudly upon his back. Turning he noticed that Parker had brought his sword down upon him. “What was that for?” he angrily asked while still fighting his fatigue. “You’re not falling asleep on me!” the more aggressive Parker protested. “You’re not bailing out on me like you did during Sprites and Spires!” “Ooh!” awed Discord as he snaked around. “I think I now understand why Nixi wanted the weapons to not do any real damage. How interesting.” “Hey!” cried the mice as they used their tails, which both had their respective sun and moon symbols, to apparently draw a picture within a circle on the floor. BWUM! “Ta-da!” the happy mice cheered as they raised their hands and started to dance around the now gleaming floor marking. “You now go to next area!” “First I restore all your HP!” the one with the sun cheered as it ran around each of the party members. The action made yellow sparkles appear about the team the felt warm as they realized their health stats had been returned to maximum. PSHOOP! “My turn!” gleed the moon mouse as his brother dived into the shimmering circle. “I return your MP!” Before anyone could react the twin of the sun mouse did the exact same thing prior to bailing into the sparkling circle. However the sparkles that arose around each party member were blue and felt like one may after having been told the best news they had ever heard in their entire life. “Eeyup!” proclaimed Big Mac. “Now that’s more like it!” Spike felt about himself with growing glee at discovering he was back to his old scaly self. “So now what?” he asked. “I don’t know how much I trust those, uh, whatever-they-weres.” “Those were Pokemon!” cheered Parker and Leon in unison. “They are helpful cheerleader types!” “So do we follow after em’?” wondered Big Mac. “If it’s like any of our other games,” stated Parker. “Then we definitely should follow them into the rainbow portal.” “What about the treasure chest?” considered Discord as he snaked around it. “Shouldn’t we take a peek inside?” “I don’t know,” thought Spike as he approached the colorful and elaborately decorated chest. “It could be a mimic.” “No way!” barked Parker. “We beat a boss and that’s always a free pass at treasure!” “Perhaps you should open it, oh fearless leader?” suggested the draconequus. Spike thought for a moment. “Not before it is tested for traps,” he replied to his snake-like colleague. “Are you implying I waste some of my newly recovered MP to detect if this innocent chest is booby trapped?” he asked with a hint of displeasure. “I am,” Spike stated firmly. “You’re such a baby,” teased Discord while slithering about the gilded chest. “Whatever happened to rushing headlong into adventure?” The emerald-eyed dragon wasn’t going to hear it. “Is it trapped, or not, Captain Wuzz?” he inquired. Discord slithered away. “No,” he stated in a very agitated tone. “Now I’m out MP and you still have a box to open.” FLICK “Oof!” gasped Spike as he was flicked by the draconequus’ giant paw towards the chest. “Here goes.” KA-REEK THWUMP! SHING! “Ah!” Spike cried as a burst of bright yellow light greeted his eyes. He then fell back to a very unsuspected easy landing. There was a brief pause in the room as everyone looked towards Spike. “What?” he asked as he worked to get himself up. It felt a bit trickier to do so but his dedication to check inside the chest that was now without the bright light kept him from thinking twice about the odd waddle he had taken to. “I don’t see anything in here?” Spike leaned into the chest enough to raise his stubby legs and chubby tail into the air. This revealed a massively puffy diaper now adourning his waist. The way it crinkled as his feet scampered during his deeper search of the chest brought the rest of the party to burst into total laughter. “Huh?” the purple dragon asked from within the seemingly empty chest before losing his hold and plopping with a puff of powder upon the matted floor. “Whoops!” Discord grinned while pretending to be sorry. “It seems I must of rolled a ‘1’ in my checking for that particular trap.” “What do you…?” wondered Spike until he looked beneath his robes to see the hefty white garment that was made of plastic and featured pink frills at the leggings along with jeweled designs all around its cover. The entire team laughed. “Discord!” snarled Spike as he worked to get the diaper off. However his attempts were met with an odd ‘clicking sound’ that soon was followed by the fairy from earlier appearing and stating, “Cursed Diaper of Ultimate Protection: This item allows the wearer to fall any distance without taking damage while increasing defense by 10. However it cannot be removed until the end of the current adventure and is not applicable to additional quests nor can it be sold or transferred.” More laughing ensued. “Well,” shrugged Leon. “At least your one of us now.” Spike grew a very upset face as he gritted his teeth towards Discord. “You didn’t check,” he snarled. “Did you?” “Oh, but I did,” shrugged the draconequus as he flew over to inspect the garment his colleague was wearing. “Apparently Rubber blade, Safety Pants, and his mom have more influence on Spiketopia than I first thought?” “Or you just didn’t care,” spat Spike. “Hey,” stated Parker. “You can at least fall as far as you like without losing HP and have a ton of defense!” Spike failed to see the benefits as much as he saw himself looking far from a high level magician. “Wait!” cried Leon as he dove into the chest. “I found something!” SHWIP! “Ooh…,” awed Leon as it attached itself with a flash to his staff. “I wonder what-” The fairy appeared again. “Emerald of Influence: Able to make violent enemies into friends if used prior to engaging into an attack phase,” it said. “Defense plus 1 and Magic Power and Defense raised by 2.” “What about me?” grumped Parker as he leapt into the chest to find nothing except a bunch of baby powder at its bottom. “Perhaps the next one?” grinned Leon in his small victory as being ‘just the cleric’. “Right!” boomed Parker as he got out of the chest and ran for the glittering portal. PSHOOP! “Parker!” panicked Leon as he chased after his ebon twin. PSHOOP! “I guess that’s that,” stated Discord as he took hold of Spike and threw him into the circular portal. “Ah!” cried Garbunkle the Green and Padded before disappearing to wherever the gate lead to. “Are you with me, sir McBiggun?” asked the draconequus. Big mac nodded. “Eeyup!” he exclaimed before the remaining two party members entered the portal to wherever it may take them next on their glorious quest through Spiketopia. Chapter 9 - The CraterThe portal instantly brought each of the party members into a wasteland that smelled strong of smoke and sulfur. “The Dragon lands?” wondered Spike. “We’ve been here before in Spiketopia.” “With your other crush,” added discord with a wink. “I’m not glorifying that with an answer!” blushed Spike as he tried to show great offense to his interest in Princess Ember. “Oh,” added the draconequus as he patted Spike upon his diapered bottom. “You just did.” “Hmmph!” the purple dragon huffed. “Look!” cried Parker as they peered down into a deep crater. The team gazed down to see another familiar face pacing about below. “Garble?” thought Spike. “He’s your bestie, right?” joked Discord. “You do know that I can turn you back into a statue in this world, right?” reminded Spike as he charged his magic. “Okay, okay,” the Master of Chaos pleaded while waving his hands in front of himself. “I don’t want the Element of Childhood bringing his tantrum-filled wrath upon me.” The remark reminded Spike of the diaper he had been cursed with and he blushed even more as he very desperately tried to hide it under his outfit. “You know,” thought Discord. “Since you two have such chemistry together I vote you go down there and show us how Garble fits into our little game this evening?” “Spike looked down to see the fall would definitely be one where he’d lose all his HP from the impact. “I suppose I could use my Owl’s Feather of Safe Falling…?” he considered. “Why bother?” further added Discord as he swatted Spike on his thickly padded rump. “EEp!” the purple dragon squeaked as he involuntarily bounced forward and started to fall towards the bottom of the crater. Parker, Leon, and Big Mac all glared at their rogue archer. “Oh, c’mon,” he scoffed while gesturing down to the ground below. “He’s just fine.” Sure enough, Spike was standing himself up amidst a giant white cloud. This appeared to get the attention of Garble who quickly approached to engage the mage in combat. “We need to help him!” proclaimed Leon. “Perhaps our diapers have the same effect as his?” thought Parker before taking a big leap over the edge. BYOO PLOP “Huh?” wondered the more daring of the two brothers as he found himself on his bottom back beside Discord and Leon. “How did I get back up here?” Leon thought as he watched his twin leap again over the cliff. BYOO PLOP! “What’s going on?” growled Parker as he found himself right back where he started. Something made Leon think to look at the Nixi plush he held. The eyes seemed like they were shimmering a bit. However it could just be the amount of open sunlight reflecting off of them. “You can ride with me,” suggested Big mac. “I have high stats for Dexterity and can get us down right quick.” The two ebon dragons got aboard Sir McBiggun as he started his descent down into the crater. “Blah,” shrugged Discord. “So much for watching our fearless leader in action.” *** “Well, well, well,” Garble ferociously glared as he noticed Spike appearing from within the cloud of baby powder. “If it isn’t the namby-pamby padded pony lover?” Spike was still trying to catch his breath after the fall. He thought he would’ve been turned into a spirit until the team resurrected him back. However here he was and looking up towards his dragon nemesis in as most embarrassing a position as could possibly ever be imagined. “I hate cute things!” stomped the red teenage dragon. “And you’re definitely too cute to not rip into far better looking shreds that I will incinerate with my fire breath!” BWARF! “Ah!” cried Spike as he barely rolled out of the way of Garble’s flaming assault. “Hold still!” demanded the agitated dragon as he opened his wings for effect. “It’s not like you can get away from me! You can’t even fly!” FWOO-SLASH! “Hey!” exclaimed the purple dragon wizard as he just ducked under a claw swipe by Garble. He was noticing that his reflexes were a bit slower. “This dumb diaper is messing with my reflexes!” “You won’t be worrying about that for much longer,” stated the assailant dragon while trying to pin Spike to the side of the crater. “Though I do hope you last long enough to be worth my time. You’ve been such a thorn in my scales that for you to just lose like the hatchling pony pal you are would be far too disappointing.” SLASH-SKRICH BWARF! Spike panicked to his feet as he tripped and stumbled to get his footing as quickly as the bulky diaper would allow him to. The sheer size of the plastic-shelled garment spread his stubby legs apart and made getting to his feet next to impossible. “Okay!” the purple dragon proclaimed upon finally getting his footing. “This isn’t Equestria, Garble, so I don’t have to be nice to you either!” WHOOO SHWEE “Ah!” the red dragon growled as he was encased in a pillar of ice. This did not last long before Garble freed himself in a cascade of melting crystalline shards. “That all you got!” boomed Garble. “What a joke!” Spike stared down his opponent and conjured all his magic to cast his ultimate spell. “You asked for it!” he announced. “Feel the full force of Garbunkle the Green!” Author's Note FUN NOTE: This story features a lot of little references to other fantasy games along with video games in general. So, if anyone has ever played a game like "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" or "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" you'll understand exactly what is happening to Parker when he attempts to jump down the crater. :) Chapter 11 - Refriending Princess EmberThe outcropping Big Mac was galloping towards turned out to be right in front of a massive cave that had an elaborate fortress built into it. “Here we go!” cried Sir McBiggun as Parker and Leon safely slipped off his back. FWOOP “Bring them on!” boomed Parker as he readied his samurai sword for combat against the cloud of colorful dragons swooping ever closer to them. “Wait!” insisted Leon as he leapt in front of his brother. “Leon!” barked Parker. “You’re the cleric! The ‘cleric’! Get behind us and start powering us up!” “No!” Leon snapped back as he raised his staff and firmly pressed the Nixi plush against his side. “I’ve got to do this!” “Do what?” baffled Parker with obvious annoyance. “Get yourself killed?” “Hold up,” interjected Discord. “Let safety Pants try whatever it is he wants to try.” “He’s going to die!” announced the angry ebon dragon. “Not for real,” dismissed Discord. “Spike and Big Mac, not to mention your mom, made me create this alternate dimension for play purposes where the worst outcome is being sent back to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Castle of Friendship.” “EEyup,” nodded Big Mac as he recalled how Discord had put them all in great peril during an arrow storm shot by the Squizzard’s henchmen. TING “Fine!” huffed Parker as he slapped his sword upon the stony ground. “Enjoy being by yourself in some froo-froo princess castle!” “You’re up,” grinned the draconequus as he slapped Leon on his padded bottom and sent him staggering forward. “Show them the power of…” Discord opened his palms, held them towards his sides, and made a rainbow appear to arch from hand to claw. “Friendship.” Leon narrowed his green eyes, lifted his staff, clenched the plushified Nixi, and called out, “Turn! Be our friends!” VRRRRRR “Ooh…,” awed Discord as a massive green light grew from Leon’s staff that burst out towards the flock of dragons. “Didn’t see that coming.” PA-CHOO PLOP-CRINKLE TICKA-TACKA Leon fell after the spell was cast. He was exhausted and obviously out of magic to do anything else. So he was pleasantly surprised when he opened his eyes to see a bunch of cartoon dragons smiling down upon him. “Hey,” said one. “What’s happening?” “Beats me,” another stated. “One moment I felt all depressed and hopeful to make some big red pony feel even more miserable and…” The dragons spotted Leon, Parker, and the rest of the team. “Oh!” another dragon chimed in. “You must be here to save Princess Ember!” “Huh?” wondered Parker as he noticed his fight was clearly not going to happen. “Who’s Princess Ember?” KA-CLICK CREEEEEK Everyone turned to see the entrance to the fortress in the cave was opening. An armored dragon carrying a staff with a blood-colored jewel emerged with a very infuriated look on her face. “I am!” she boomed. “How dare you challenge my dominance over my horde!” Parker drew his blade. “Ooh!” he gleed. “Boss battle!” “YANK “Hold up, Rubber Blade,” stated Discord as he took hold of one of Parker’s pink ear fins. “Why don’t we let Safety Pants try that little spell of his again?” Leon picked himself up and took the staff he dropped off the ground. “So… tired,” he moaned. “I’ve got some Aether Potions,” stated Sir McBiggun as he lit his horn and went about using up two of his magic restoration potions on Leon. “Alright!” cheered the ebon dragon as he felt awake again. “Now see the full power of the team cleric!” Parker folded his arms as Princess Ember awaited the robed challenger. “It was you!” she growled while grasping her staff in both hands. “You’ve made me so… so… MAD!” Leon gulped as he felt the final words of the tall blue dragon hit him like one of the speakers back at home when he or Parker would be listening to their movies too loudly. “Let’s be friends!” he proclaimed as confidently as he could muster while raising his staff. “Turn and be our friend!” VRRRRRR The emerald in the staff radiated with power and showed its brilliant light towards Princess Ember. SWACK! SHH-POP “Huh?” wondered Leon as he watched the infuriated princess use her scepter to hit the growing green light orb and send it flying away like a tee ball. STOMP! “DRAGONS DON’T DO FRIENDS!” she cried while quickly swiping her bloodstone scepter down upon Leon’s head. CRACK! The sound was heard but no pain was felt as Leon’s onesie quickly snapped open. “Ha!” announced the proud cleric. “You’ve been defeated for your weapon is powerless against me!” “Think again, short stuff!” growled Ember as she took a swipe at Leon in which the little dragon was quick to dodge. Perhaps a bit too quick. “Ha!” laughed Parker. “Since when did you start wearing Princess Mew-Mew training pants, Leon?” “Princess Mew-Mew…,” trailed Leon as he realized he was now no longer in his thick, comfy, dragon-print diaper and now wearing a very thin, pink pair of training pants that was adorned with cats and hearts.” “How do you feel now?” teased Ember. “You’re pathetic! You’re weak! You’re lesser than me!” Parker moved forward and charged his samurai sword with water and ice. “Just try that on me!” he dared. “I’ll cool you down and send you back to your mommy!” “Big talk from such a little dragon!” growled Ember as she seemed to charge the scepter with ethereal light. FWOOSH SHEE Parker felt as if a wind had been blown beneath his kimono after the bright flash of red light had resolved. Upon inspection he noticed that the fundoshi he was wearing had gone from being like a baby diaper to a simple and uncomfortable cloth version of itself. “Seems Safety pants and Rubber Blade have been defeated,” shrugged Discord. “Perhaps you’d like a go at her, Sir McBiggun?” “Provide me cover fire,” added the red Unicorn knight as he charged his horn and rushed forward. “Too weak!” announced Ember. “Not strong and tough! I’m strong! I’m tough! And I’m going to make sure nobody ever challenges my authority over all dragons ever again!” *** Spike huffed and puffed as he pulled himself up every possible shortcut the path had to offer away from the feral Garble. He swore he could hear some ominous music implying that the overpowered bully could pop out from anywhere at any second and he didn’t want to be anywhere along the small slopes, narrow edges, or caught trying to heft himself up to higher ground as the enchanted diaper served to make his legs useless while he swore the bulky thing was doing everything possible to tug him back down. *** Spike’s face was red with strain as he pulled himself up onto the areana-like platform that the rest of the team had already long been at. “SHEEE “And that’s all of you!” cried who Spike quickly recognized as Princess Ember. Garbunkle the Padded looked to see Ember’s back as he spotted a large mass of dragons looking like they had nothing better to do than shamble haplessly about like zombies. He also saw Parker and Leon appearing on the verge of crying as Big Mac appeared to be unable to stop talking and moving his hooves around wildly. This aspect was even more odd as Spike noticed that Big Mac wasn’t even moving his mouth. It was his voice but all he could do was wave his hooves around like they were under some sort of flailing enchantment. Discord didn’t look any better as he was standing on his feet and, strangely enough, was no longer a chaotic meshup. Instead he was symmetrical with claws, horns, and everything else about him being as non-chaotic appearing as the purple dragon had ever seen. “ember…?” Spike dared to question. “WHAT!” she snapped while turning about to see the exhausted hero barely keeping himself on his two feet. “Are you here to challenge my dominance over all dragons, too?” Spike felt his legs turn to jelly as he fell with a plop upon his diapered rump. He wasn’t ready to be yelled at in such a way and being as exhausted as he was didn’t help matters either. “A baby?” questioned the agitated princess. “What am I supposed to do with a baby? And a diaper? Dragons don’t do diapers! Dragons don’t do cute! Dragons don’t do everything you are doing! WHY DO YOU EXIST!” Spike pulled himself up and looked towards Ember. “What’s gotten into you, Ember?” he asked while still gathering his breath. “This isn’t how to be a good friend.” “ARGH!” she growled. “DRAGONS DON’T DO FRIENDS! Spike had noticed how Ember wasn’t acting like herself. He also realized he was somehow really getting under her nerves and making her open for an attack. “But what attack?” he thought as he slid on his crinkly bottom. It then came to him as he watched her wildly swing the scepter in her right hand. “That’s it!” “Now what?” questioned Ember as Spike wobbled to his feet and went with looking as all-out adorable as he could. “You’re everything a dragon is not! You shouldn’t even be a dragon! Why aren’t you running away!” “This is so humiliating,” thought Spike as he slid his claw into his mouth and started to toddle towards the infuriated princess. “No, no, no!” she boomed while swinging about the staff. “Wrong! Wrong! I’m not your mom! Go back to your mom! Why don’t you have wings! WHY CAN’T I DEPRESS AND BELITTLE YOU!” “Got her,” beamed Spike to himself as he faked a trip that had him land with a hug around Ember’s waist. “NO!” she growled while trying to shake off the ‘baby dragon’. “YOU DON’T EVEn HAVE WINGS! YOU ARE PROBABLY ALL WET! WHY WON’T YOU BACK DOWN TO ME!” YOINK SHWIP! With a skillful series of motions, Spike managed to take the Bloodstone Scepter from Ember and was now standing in front of her. His eyes grew in size as the scepter’s crystal let loose a ring of yellow light. WHOOSH Ember backed up as Spike pointed the scepter towards her. “As Dragon Lord, I command you to be friendly and nice again!” he proclaimed. “Ungh!” groaned Ember as she fell to her knees and a cloud of black fog rose from her body and dissipated into nothingness. Spike proudly twirled the Bloodstone Scepter in his claw before allowing it to slip down his claw and tap upon the stone ground. “I still got it,” he thought proudly. Chapter 12 - Ultra Boss: Ashen GarbleBZZT-CHICK BZZT-TICK! “You did it!” the twin mice from before cheered after appearing from a pair of lightning bolts that struck the ground. “Congratulations!” Spike watched as the moon and sun decorated rodents went about restoring the HP and MP of the party prior to holding hands in an open space away from everyone else. “Ready?” the sun one asked. “Ready!” the moon mouse replied. Both mice started to spark and glow with electrical energy until another massive bolt of lightning came down beside them to reveal an ornate treasure chest. “I open fortress door now!” the lunar mouse cheered as he glew with power and exploded in a shower of sparks towards the gate Ember had come in through. PANG! CRASH! “Oh!” the sun mouse chirped. “Don’t forget you unlocked the super-ultra-mega boss! He’s on his way right now!” BZZT BOOM! The rodent followed after his brother and disappeared into the fortress built into the cave. “What do you suppose-” pondered Spike until the answer suddenly flew and landed before him. FWOOM-FWIP CRUNCH “Puny pony lover,” droned the ashen Garble as he positioned himself directly in front of Spike. His claws, teeth, and talons were now radiating purple mist as fire truly seemed to be coming out of his eyes. “Waah!” cried Spike as he found himself on his padded bottom. “Spike…,” deadpanned Garble as he prepared to reach down and finish what he tried to start earlier. SWACK! CRACK-SLICE-CRACK! “Huzzah!” cried Parker as he launched into a fierce offensive against Dark Garble. “Super boss means super bonus!” Spike turned to see that the entire party had been returned to normal by the mice. “Grah!” growled Garble upon taking sight of his samurai sword wielding opponent. Parker had the sword enchanted with water and ice and appeared ready to net himself a big fat experience bonus for taking down such a powerful enemy. “Shouldn’t we have tried the whole ‘friendship thing’?” asked Leon as he moved alongside Spike and helped him to his feet. “NO!” boomed Parker while dodging fierce swipes, kicks, and fire blasts from Garble. “This time we do it my way!” “Well,” stated discord as he prepped his bow. “I’m sure not being left out on this fun.” FWIP WHOOSH PANG! The arrow Discord shot was enchanted with ice and started to freeze over Garble after it bounced off his back. “OOwah,” stumbled the feral bully before igniting himself with blue flames. “Crush.” May want to fire another one,” suggested Big Mac. “That could be fun,” considered Discord. “My bow can let me launch three at a time and I’d love to see how Nixi’s, uh, ‘edits’ alter the effect.” FWIP-FWI-FWIP PAP-AP-BAP “Oowah,” moaned Garble as his body started to nearly completely cover itself in ice from the marksmanship of Captain Wuzz. “Alright!” cried Parker as he prepared his samurai sword to deliver the finishing blow. “Time to go all to pieces!” “Careful!” called Leon. “Super bosses don’t-” Parker was now in the air with his sword drawn behind his back in preparation to deliver a mighty downward slash. “You worry too much!” he barked back. “Grah,” fumed Garble as he broke free of his icy prison and swiped ferociously towards the incoming ebon dragon. TEAR “Oof!” gasped the once confident samurai as he was now on his belly with a fully-abled super boss looming above him. “Destroy puny dragon,” deadpanned Garble as he went to pluck Parker from the ground. Fortunately, all he got was the tattered remains of the kimono that had protected the daring young dragon from taking a massive hit moments earlier. “Leon!” cried Parker as he scurried back. “Help!” Leon gulped as he realized the overpowered Garble was now towering over both himself and Spike. GALLOP-GALLOP THWA-PAM! “Ooh-ooh-gwoo,” moaned Garble as he was sent rolling backwards by a mighty buck delivered by sir McBiggun. “Did that do it?” wondered Spike. FWRISH! Garble’s wings expanded and even more purple energy started to radiate from him. “Nope,” stated Big Mac as he went about lighting his horn. His magic could improve his physical attacks and defense but he didn’t believe he could buck this particular boss into submission. “Wait!” cried Spike as he recalled now holding the Bloodstone Scepter. He then swished it outward as he commanded, “Be gone and never come back!” Ashen Garble stumbled a bit as the fire left his eyes. However the purple energy around him continued to grow and his teeth, claws, and talons only grew longer and sharper. “Hey!” proclaimed Leon while raising his staff up. “Perhaps we need to do this together?” FWOOSH SWAT “Ow!” moaned Big Mac as he was slashed by Garble. The attack didn’t actually ‘hurt’ as much as it caused his HP to drop to near zero while knocking him flat and unable to quickly get to his feet. “Nothing to lose,” stated Spike as he nodded towards Leon. PSHOOO VRRRR The stone on the Bloodstone Scepter glew as Leon’s emerald on his staff shined a brilliant green. “GO AWAY!” commanded Spike as he released the energy of the scepter. “And stop being such a meanie!” added Leon while putting all the magic powerhe he could into sending out the power of the Emerald of Influence on his staff. VRRSSHHH! The ethereal power of both staffs mixed together to create a beam that slammed into Garble. This resulted in him groaning and moaning as the purple energy seemed to evaporate from his body as he started to return to normal. PLOP-CRINKLE CRINKLE-PLOP Spike and Leon both fell on their padded bottoms after using up so much magic. Leon was also reminded quite quickly of how the training pants he was cursed with provided him little buffer from the rocky ground. FWUMP Garble fell over in a heep. “What…,” he gasped. “What happened.” “We’ve been saved by Garbunkle The Green and his friends,” stated Princess Ember as she moved ahead to aid the once cursed dragon up. “So you owe everyone here a big thank you.” Garble scoffed but knew he couldn’t push his luck with the princess. “Thanks…,” he said before unfurling his wings and heading back down into the crater. “He’ll get with it one day,” groaned Ember as she reached out towards Spike to reclaim her scepter. “I don’t know what happened nor why you’re wearing a diaper but I must say you wearing one doesn’t help your overall standing with the dragons of Spiketopia.” Spike burned red with embarrassment. “Well…,” he pouted. “It’s a curse and I can’t get it off.” “Hmm,” she thought while knowing for a fact she wasn’t going to touch such a thing. It was beneath her and her title. WHOOSH! “I command one of you to remove the diaper from Garbunkle this instant!” she boomed towards the other dragons while charging the power of the Bloodstone Scepter. *** Discord and Big Mac couldn’t help but laugh as multiple dragons did an array of things to remove the enchanted diaper from Spike. However none were successful and each was given a bit of a scolding by Ember for their lack of success. “I should make Garble do it,” she spat. “He’s the sort who’d fit right in a froo-froo diaper.” “That’s okay,” whimpered Spike as he was still recovering from being flipped, spun,pulled, and tugged by the horde. He was pretty sure Garble wouldn’t be anywhere near as ‘gentle’ as the other dragons and he had a feeling he had lost some HP as a result of one, or two, thinking that tossing him down on the ground was the key to success. “Didn’t the fairy say that the diaper couldn’t be removed until the end of our quest?” reminded Leon. “What quest?” asked Ember. “You know what? Just forget it! I’ll get this job done!” FSHOOO With anger in her eyes, Ember charged the Bloodstone Scepter and proclaimed, “REMOVE YOURSELF THIS MOMENT!” SNAP-PEEL PEEL-SNAP Spike gasped as the diaper untaped itself and gave him the first taste of fresh air in his midsection in quite awhile. “That’s how it’sdone!” the Princess declared to the horde. “Now let’s leave Garbunkle and the rest of these guys to their business and find an actual source of gems for our dinner!” The dragons watched as Princess Ember opened her wings and took to the skies. They all soon did the same and followed after their Dragon Lord. All except for Garble who was still somewhere down in the crater doing who knows what. “Umm,” blushed Leon. “As you didn’t use that diaper could I have it?” “Sure,” replied Spike. “I’ll even help you put it on.” “Hey!” cried Parker. “That should be my diaper!” “Oh, how cute,” cooed Discord. “Fighting over an infant’s undergarment.” Parker drew his sword. “It’s mine!” he threatened. “This fundoshi is annoyingly uncomfortable and you know that!” POOF PLOP Discord appeared over Parker and used a finger to get him to sit down. “Tsk-tsk,” he said playfully. “What would your mother think?” “Yeah, Parker,” stated Leon. “That wasn’t very nice.” POOF-SHOO Discord dressed himself in a black business suit as he held a briefcase in one of his paws. “As acting parent I say that Leon gets the diaper and, despite you being a meanie, you can have Leon’s training pants,” he dictated in an authoritative voice. “But…,” moaned Parker. “No buts, young man,” finger-wagged Discord. “It’s this, or nothing.” “So unfair,” Parker pouted as the team went about ‘changing’ their equipment in preparation for what awaited them on the other side of the fortress gate. Author's Note Anyone guess yet that Garble is a take on "Nemesis" from Resident Evil 3 and the mice are fun variants on "Plusle" and "Minun" of Pokémon? Chapter 13 - Of Gifts and Gripes“So what do you see?” inquired Parker as Spike stuck his hand into the total darkness that awaited past the gate. “I think it’s a sort of portal,” the purple dragon replied while realizing how his claw just vanished without any sort of lighting transition upon placing it into the void. “I vote Leon goes first,” smirked Parker. “He’s totally not afraid of the dark.” “Hey!” cried the ebon twin. “You’re the one who is aching for a fight. You should go in first.” “Who has the defense-up diaper on?” glared Parker as he tugged on the frilly Mew-Mew training pant that was all that remained of his ‘armor’. “I doubt I have more than a +1 to defense with this pathetic thing on me!” Big Mac rolled his eyes as the two went at each other in childish banter over who should do what and who’s being a cheater along with other things. FWEET! Everyone turned as they saw Discord holding a coach’s whistle. “What about the big treasure chest over here?” he inquired while gesturing towards the ornate box . “Don’t you think we should open it up and see what’s inside?” “I vote ‘No’,” replied Spike with folded arms. Discord slithered himself towards Spike. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Garbunkle?” he asked despite knowing the answer. “I’m sure I can’t roll a 1 twice when checking for traps.” “Why don’t you open it?” growled Spike as he stared down discord. “You like chaos and I’m sure more chaos would only be a benefit to you, Captain Wuzz.” “Perish the thought,” waved off the draconequus. “You do realize I not only have the best equipment for my character class but also a ‘Princess Wish’ that allows me to fabricate anything I could ever need.” “You mean you used the special rule of anything you can do out of game you can do in the game?” Big Mac asked rhetorically. “Hate the game,” shrugged Discord as his smile widened. “Not the player.” “I say Leon should open it,” stated Parker. “He’s already hogging all the best stuff so why not let him have more?” “Not true!” the cleric snapped back. POOF-SHOO “We have one vote for Leon to open the chest,” tallied Discord on a chalkboard he fabricated. “Any other votes?” “Forget it!” boomed Leon. “I’ll be the ‘bigger’ brother and just open it!” “What’s that supposed to mean?” growled Parker. Leon approached the chest and released the latch to open it. “It means Nixi will know who won’t get milk and cookies tonight because he’s being a potty head!” he replied. FWOO-THUNK BUB-BUB-UBBLE-GUSH “Wah!” cried Leon as a pink substance snaked itself out of the chest and bore itself down into the front of the diaper he had just gotten from Spike. “What’s happening!” GURGLE-BUB-GUSH Everyone watched as the pink gel oozed into Leon’s diaper. This changed its color while also appearing to put some sort of status effect on him as his color scheme went from black and purple to pink and red. BLUB-GUB TWINKLE-TWINKLE The fairy appeared above Leon. “HP and MP restored and increased by 50%,” she said matter-of-factly. “Defense +20- but status condition ‘Toddle-Waddle’ now in effect.” “Ha-ha!” teased Parker as Leon’s visible body was as girly as the training pants he had gotten from his brother. “You’ve been served!” Leon went to tackle his brother but found his footing quickly hindered as he tripped and magically spun about in the air to fall on the diaper that was now grey in color with black tabs and a purple landing zone. The team couldn’t help but laugh as Leon tried over-and-over to get up quickly and dart towards his snickering brother. However the ‘Toddle-Waddle’ condition appeared to make it so all he could do was walk like a duck at a very slow, awkward, and off-balanced way. “This isn’t funny!” whined Leon. “How can I do anything when I’m like this?” “Try one of your cleric spells,” replied Parker as he scurried to see if there was anything left in the chest. “I’m out of MP!” cried Leon towards his ebon brother. “Perhaps you could do something to help me as, like you’d put it, every party needs a cleric and you’d be so dead without me!” Parker scurried into the treasure chest and was quite disappointed when all he found was a blue-colored trading card with the word ‘Donate’ written on it. “How stupid!” he grumped. “Who’d want a magic card that gives non-party members your stuff!” Leon pulled himself to his feet and managed to achieve a degree of balance. “So tight,” he moaned while unbuttoning his onesie. It was properly snapped on after Spike had helped him with his new ‘armor’ but the chest caused its special effect to triggerand flop open until the danger had cleared. It then refastened after the fairy had informed everyone of what had happened. “Hey, bro!” stated Parker. “How about I give you this magic card in exchange for that onesie? You clearly don’t need whatever armor bonus it gives.” “Fine,” pouted Leon as he realized how the onesie genuinely did make it harder to move. Not that taking it off helped a lot but every bit of flexibility was good. “Hold my robe.” *** Discord, Spike, and Big Mac just waited patiently as the brothers went about griping throughout their exchange. “Good thing I have my healin’ potions,” stated Big Mac as he used his entire supply on himself and Spike. He was also able to remotely use them on Parker and Leon but they were too busy in their own affairs to realize their HP was recovered. “Got anything for lost MP?” asked Spike. “Just three,” the fighter-class pony replied while using them to replenish most of Spike and Leon’s MP. “What about you?” asked Spike towards Discord. “You have any healing items?” “Alas I do not,” the draconequus replied. “All my storage is dedicated to enchanted arrows, fanciful teas, and animal charming items.” Spike rolled his eyes. “And you get on my case about Rarity,” he stated in a bothered tone. “What do you call your thing with Fluttershy?” Discord’s eyes went wide as he grew a most ponderous expression across his face. “We’re just friends, of course!” he replied enthusiastically as he moved alongside Spike and tugged at one of his ear fins. “And, if it were something, it’d have more of a chance than your childish crush on Rarity.” Big Mac sighed as now two pairs of party members were acting up. “Don’tcha’ think we should get moseying on,” he said while trotting towards the dark opening. ROAR! FWOOM! “LOSERS!” cried Garble as he shot up from below the crater and into the sky. PUMPF-CLICK Everyone was snapped out of their respective actions as they spotted a small treasure chest lying open on the ground. “Don’t no one bother bickerin’,” stated Big Mac as he approached the box. “I’ll check it out.” “What’s inside?” worried Spike. “Looks like some magical artifacts,” replied the armored red Earth Pony. “I have a ‘Detect Effect’ spell I can use to determine if they are any sort of buff-” BZZT ZAP-CHOO “No need!” the twin rodents announced cheerfully after appearing from a ball of electricity that sparked in-and-out of existance. “Them again?” shrugged Discord. “I’m getting a little tired of this overly cute mouse thing.” “Artifacts for Sir McBiggun, Garbunkle the Green, and Safety Pants!” chirped the moon mouse. “Make all spells cost only 1 MP!” cheered the Celestia’s Sun mouse. CLAP! “We go now!” they said in unison as they clapped their little paws together. They then bent over, shook their rumps at the party, and pulled off some bizarre reverse lightning bolt to make their exit. “Did anyone feel like we got healed when they did that taunt?” pondered Spike as he realized his stats were maxed out. “I’d rather not think on it,” stated Big Mac. “Yeah…,” trailed Discord. “Perhaps bringing your friend Leon along wasn’t such a good idea.” Spike didn’t know what to say until he suddenly felt the urge to throw up. BWARF! Fire burst from Spike’s mouth before turning into a scroll. “Got it!” called Discord before quickly reading it. “It says, ‘Dear Everyone: It’s getting past Leon and Parker’s bedtime. Therefore I ask you return them home after you finish what is behind the gate. No stalling or I’ll end the game myself. Yours, Nixi.’.” Spike, Discord, and Big Mac appeared confused as Leon and Parker simply appeared upset. “Ah, mom!” they moaned. BWARF! Another letter burst from Spike’s mouth that was retrieved by Discord. “’No buts, young drakes’,” he read as a very curious look appeared on his face. “Now how is she doing this if I turned her into a plush…?” BWARF! “Stop asking questions!” gasped Spike as he tried to recover from having a third letter forced out of him. “Let’s just go!” Discord plucked the letter and read it. “What’s it say?” the twins asked. CHAR-CRISP Discord incinerated the letter into nothing. “Words not intended for children,” he growled. “Let’s just finish this adventure.” Spike equipped the magical sapphire pendant from inside the chest, Big mac placed the enchanted sapphire ring on his horn, and Leon slipped the ethereal jewel into an open slot on his staff. “Onward!” cried Discord as he rushed into the void. His eagerness making everyone else stare towards the Nixi plush in fear of something going on that the draconequus was holding back from them. However it appeared as it always had with Leon cradling it against his side. “Alright,” shrugged Big mac. “Let’s get a move on.” The team entered into the darkness beyond the gate with many thoughts on what could possibly be waiting on the other side. Chapter 14 - The Final BossThe party found themselves all standing within a large chamber that had an immense iron gate located ahead both on the left and right. To its center was a series of stairs which lead to a circular platform made of marble. “There it is!” cried Leon. “Just as we learned on our way down here!” Leon looked at the plush version of Nixi while his brother admired the shimmering alter at the raised platform’s center. “This was quite a quest!” he cheered. “Wasn’t I totally awesome against all those alligator warriors?” “Eeyup!” agreed Big Mac with a nod. “What about how I defeated a Glaremaster?” beamed Spike. “Those things can cast hundreds of spells at once but this awesome pendant allowed me to use all of my high level magic and totally take it down!” Discord rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he spat with disbelief. “We all just showed up in this room! There were no alligator warriors and you never took down a Glaremaster!” The party looked with confusion towards the draconequus. “Oh, c’mon!” he scoffed. “If you believe all that I have a plot of land in Pony Land to sell you!” Everyone blinked while exchanging baffled expressions. “You don’t remember solving those puzzles with your enchanted bow?” questioned Parker. “You were the one who made the ice platform bridges to get us to the Master Key for this dungeon.” Added Leon. TING Discord suddenly caught a flicker of light from the Nixi plush’s eyes. It gave him a most unsettling feeling. “Something wrong, Captain Wuzz?” asked Leon upon noticing Discord’s long face as he stopped hovering in the air and had genuinely allowed his feet to touch the ground. “Your mother,” he groaned. “What about her?” Parker glared. “Yeah,” added Spike. “What’s up, Wuzz?” Discord sighed and waved a paw towards the alter before them. “Let’s just get this over with,” he said. *** Leon and Parker knew it had to be the two of them to place the Nixi plush on the alter in order to complete their quest. However they were surprised when an unseen force field kept the rest of the party from even touching the first step. “I have a bad feeling, Parker,” worried Leon as he steadied himself in front of the sparkling alter. “You worry too much!” snapped Parker as he worked to quickly place Nixi upon the alter. FWUM! “Wha?” both brothers said as they stumbled backwards. Leon fell on his padded bottom as a result of the negative effects of the ‘Toddle Waddle’ status effect he was still bewitched with. CHING! CRASH! CHING-CRASH! “The iron gates!” cried Spike as he noticed monsters starting to crash through the broken bars that were located to the left and right of the raised platform. CRASH-UMBLE! BWAR! Leon felt himself slide back towards an invisible barrier at the marble platform’s edge as a huge minotaur burst through the wall located behind the alter. “Ha!” cried Parker. “I knew we wouldn’t be cheated out of an epic boss fight!” *** As Parker got thrilled at the upcoming battle, Spike, Discord, and Big Mac had some quick thinking to do. “What’s the deal!” growled Discord upon realizing he couldn’t get past the barrier leading up to the final boss. “We have more pressing things to worry about!” shouted Spike as a grouping of brown-colored monsters with axes for hands raged towards them from the left. “EEyup!” gulped Big Mac as lizard warriors wielding clubs charged from the right. “I got the left and you get the right?” asked Spike while preparing to use the power of his pendant. “EEyup!” nodded Big Mac while utilizing the ring on his horn to cast a series of attack and defense buffs upon himself. “What about me?” whined Discord while Sir McBiggun and Garbunkle started using their virtually limitless powers to beat back the hordes of menacing monsters that were attempting to flank them. Spike crashed a series of ice meteors upon a wave of axe wielders before replying, “Find a way to help Safety Pants and Rubber Blade!” “Blech,” grumped the draconequus while watching Leon struggle back to his feet and Parker charge his blade with elemental energy. “How anti-climatic.” *** “I think it’s just us!” cried Leon who was very thankful he could use the invisible barrier to aid in getting back to his feet. “GWAR!” boomed the minotaur as it raised its hammer to attack the little dragons. “That’s fine!” announced Parker. “You have all the MP in the world and can keep boosting me up while I take this guy down!” Leon gulped as he watched an exchange between his brother and the minotaur. Parker managed to land a few strikes on its leg but a swipe from the boss monster’s hammer sent the samurai flying against the invisible barrier. “Heal me!” commanded Parker. Leon did as told while also adding as many elemental protection spells as he could think of to aid his brother. SLASH-SLASH SWISH-FWUM BWAP! “Oof!” groaned Parker as he found himself, yet again, being launched back into the barrier. His HP, as before, was almost gone. “Heal me!” barked Parker. Leon did as he was asked and kept going about this process four, or twelve, more times. “Ah!” cried Parker. “Only a single HP left!” Leon raised his staff and healed his ebon twin while putting even more enchantments on him for attack and defense. “You can use your magic to see how much HP and stuff the minotaur has, right?” Parker asked with a growl. “See how close I am to beating this thing!” The discolored dragon used his magic to cast a spell to get the information he knew would help them towards victory. SHING! The fairy appeared above the minotaur as it stated, “Magna Minotaur. HP994,124 of 1,000,000. MP 25,000 / 25,000. Flame Element. Weak Against Water and Ice.” Both boys gulped. “Did she just say this thing had one million HP?” panicked Leon. “It also says I barely dented it!” whined Parker. “And I’ve been using water and ice with my samurai sword!” GWOOR! SLAM-CLANG! FWOOF! “Ah!” cried Leon as a jet of fire rushed from the hammer’s impact straight towards him. He then flipped in the air and found himself landing comfortably on his enchanted padded bottom. “What?” baffled Parker. “You didn’t take any damage?” Leon shrugged. “No…,” the currently pink and red colored cleric replied. “Didn’t feel a thing.” CLANG-FWOOM! The minotaur struck again with Parker taking the full assault of his fiery blast. This made the samurai dragon flip onto his bottom as he realized he was, yet again, at the verge of finding his HP at zero. “What gives?” he moaned while Leon instinctively healed him. “You cheat! How are you not taking damage?” “I’m not cheating!” defended Leon. “I haven’t cast a single defense spell on myself because I’ve been busy keeping you from getting a big game over!” SLAM-WHISH “Yikes!” both boys yelped in near unison as the minotaur hit his hammer on the ground and released an energy pulse that flew like a wave towards the young dragons. “Argh!” groaned Parker as he was pressed against the invisible shield prior to landing on his diapered rump. “Whoah!” gasped Leon while he nearly hit the ceiling before freefalling straight down to yet another safe landing on his crinkle-covered butt. “How aren’t you taking damage?” griped Parker. “Give me your cloak!” Leon didn’t have much choice as his brother stripped him of his robe and placed it upon himself over the onesie and training pants he already had on. “Let’s do this!” boomed Parker as Leon just healed him to, once more, engage the minotaur. BAP! BWOOM! “How!” the sibling pouted. “How am I always getting knocked down to almost zero HP?” “Perhaps there’s another way we are supposed to defeat this boss?” suggested Leon. Parker eyed Leon’s diaper that had changed his brother’s colors thanks to the odd goo from the earlier treasure chest. “Gimme!” he demanded while trying to remove the grey and black diaper from his brother. However it would not give in to Parker’s pulls nor tugs. SLAM-FWOOM! “Eep!” both boys cried as the minotaur’s fire attack hit both of them. Parker found himself flipped and dropped to two HP as Leon spun in the air and fell gracefully having taken no damage. “This is stupid!” tantrummed Parker. “How do we win?” Leon healed his brother as he noticed the card he had gotten from earlier was now lying on the floor before them. “I may have an idea,” he stated thoughtfully as he read the text upon the magic card. “Here goes nothing.” Chapter 15 - The Boss BabySNAP-SNAP-SNAP PYOO-CRASH-FWOOM Spike was smiling from ear-to-ear upon realizing how simply he could cast all his best spells in rapid succession. All it took was a stylish snap of his fingers to create a barrage of meteors, pillars of flame, torrents of water, and just about any other spell, or mix of spells, to keep the enemy back. “Show off,” pouted Discord while reluctantly drawing his bow. BAP! WUMP! BWAM! Big Mac was looking like a trained wrestler as he bucked, slammed, and pile drived the lizard warriors. Each wave coming out received a generous dose of attack, speed, and defense down buffs as Sir McBiggun only made all his stats stronger so he could effortlessly defeat the lizards. He’d even take a few of their clubs and use his Unicorn magic to swat them like baseballs back into the oncoming horde. “And I am supposed to find a way to break the barrier,” griped the draconequus as he finally took interest in his task at hand. It wasn’t long before he spotted a series of lit plates above where the barred doors once were. “Hmm,” he thought as he took in how gleefully Spike was thrashing the axe-wielding monsters. “I wonder…?” Discord loaded his bow with three arrows and let them loose towards the plates that shined above the opening that continued to pour out brown furry axe monsters. FWA-SHOO TICK-TI-ICK FWU-CRASH! Discord gleed as a huge stone slammed down to block the monsters from getting past the once open gate. Spike had his eyes closed as he did a dance to match his finger snaps that caused all his spells to go off without a hitch. However he was soon defeating nothing and totally unaware all the axe-wielders were gone. “Ahem!” coughed Discord. Spike kept singing and dancing as more magic just kept going off on the left side of the room. “Don’t do it, Spikey-Wikey!” “Huh?” the purple dragon gasped as his ear fins caught what sounded like Rarity’s voice. “Rarity?” Discord poofed himself in front of the lovestruck dragon. “Sorry,” he said quite unapologetically. “I just thought you’d like to know the monsters are gone and you don’t need to keep up that ridiculous song and dance number anymore.” Spike blushed. “Oh,” he nervously twitched. “I suppose not.” Discord readied his bow while taking to the air. “I’ll leave you hear to finish your fantasy within a fantasy,” he teased. “Sir McBiggun will be joining us soon.” The thrill of being so awesome was fading from Spike as he sighed, “Right.” *** The menacing minotaur was preparing to slam down its hammer once more as Leon held the ‘Donate’ magic card outward. “Lets see how you handle this!” he proclaimed while taking ahold of his enchanted diaper. “I donate my diaper to the minotaur!” FWIPISH! CUSH! FWUMP “Gwor!” roared the boss monster as it began to change colors as a result of the cursed diaper being firmly fastened to its waist. Its body colors, as like with Leon, were transferred to the diaper and replaced with tints of pink and red as the diaper colored itself in the greys and browns that were once dominating the minotaur’s body. “Why’d did you do that?” Parker asked with disbelief. Leon quickly took his robes back from his brother to make sure he wasn’t ‘exposed’. He also noticed his color had returned to match his twin’s purple and black. “Because,” grinned Leon. “Just look at him?” Parker gazed outward to see that the minotaur couldn’t get to its feet at all. It was having a tough time even keeping hold if its menacing hammer. “Ha!” he laughed. “Now I can take it down without worrying about being attacked!” Leon shrugged as he started to feel a bit uncomfortable having no padding between his legs. “I’m ready to go home,” he said to himself while enchanting his brother with elemental power to fight the ‘Toddle-Waddle’ effected boss monster. *** “Eeyup!” celebrated Big Mac once the last of the lizard warriors were defeated. WHUM “There!” cried Spike as he pointed to a giant button that suddenly appeared above the shielded central platform. “I think that will take down the force field!” “On it,” grinned Discord while preparing three more arrows to trigger the switch. THWOOM CLI-ICK-CLICK POOM! A flash of light made its way down the invisible shield. “You first, Garbunkle,” Discord stated while shoving Spike forward. “Hey!” the purple dragon cried as he awaited the face-first collision with the barrier. However there was none. “Alright!” cheered Spike as he headed up the stairs. “Let’s take down that…” The young dragon cut himself off as he spotted the hapless minotaur barely able to do anything as it noisily wiggled about on the marble platform. Rubber Blade was swatting at it ferociously with his enchanted samurai sword as Safety Pants appeared uncomfortable as he stood by the alter with Nixi’s plush. “Yeah…,” shrugged Discord. “Let’s just get this over with.” “EEyup…,” agreed Big Mac with a shrug. *** “Hey,” greeted Spike as he stood alongside Leon. “What’s going on.” The young ebon dragon stared at the plush on the pedestal and replied, “I just want to go home.” “Do you know what happened to the boss?” asked Big Mac. Leon blushed. “I used the ‘Donate’ card to give it my diaper and now it can’t move just like I couldn’t move,” he replied while making sure he was standing as close to the alter as possible. “It still has over 1,000,000 HP due to the HP bonus the diaper granted along with the extra defense that my brother fails to see is making his attacks do nothing.” “Hmm,” thought the red Unicorn. “Perhaps if we put all our powers together?” SCHING! The entire team felt the effects of Sir McBiggun’s speed, attack, and defense buffs while he went about casting similar spells on the minotaur to lower its stats. “Can you power us up with your elemental magic?” asked Spike. “Oh,” nodded Leon while using his sapphire crystal to improve the abilities of Discord, Big Mac, and Spike so they were extremely strong against the minotaur. “Ready?” asked Spike as he raised a hand to start snapping off spell-after-spell. “EEyup!” agreed Big Mac while running to join Parker. “This quest can’t end soon enough,” griped Discord as he readied his ice arrows. “Time to call it a night!” *** Thanks to the rule that Nixi had added at the adventures onset no party member could hurt another. So it was a ballistic barrage of sword swipes, enchanted arrows, magical spells, and physical assaults that pounded the flailing minotaur until he lost the last of his HP and became nothing more than a cascade of pinkish-red confetti. “Woop!” cheered Parker. “Now that’s how it’s done!” Spike smiled. “That was a lot of fun,” he added. “I wonder if we’ll be able to keep these special sapphires after this adventure ends?” “I’m afraid not,” a female voice spoke. SHING CA-CLOP-CLOP “Momma!” cheered Leon as he delighted in seeing his caretaker return to normal. “You’re okay!” “Of course, sweetie,” the white Unicorn cooed while nuzzling the ebon dragon. “And I’m very proud of you for being so smart. You really made the difference in ensuring this quest got done before bedtime.” “Hey!” moaned Parker. “What about me? I was pretty awesome, too!” Nixi giggled. “That you were,” she said. “However you need to be a little bit more thoughtful as ordering your brother around and just carelessly running into danger is not a good idea.” Discord’s eyes narrowed as he zipped towards Nixi. “I have a bone to pick with you,” he stated so only the caretaker could here. “Oh, really?” she asked in response while growing a wide smile. “I’m afraid I don’t have time for your silly antics right now. Perhaps another time?” Discord went to use his chaos magic to teleport himself and Nixi to another part of the room. However he soon found his hands frozen in place by the mare’s magic. “We’ll be in touch,” she said. “Time to go home, boys!” Leon continued to cuddle into Nixi as Parker pouted his way back towards their caretaker. SHING POOM-OOF “There gone,” gasped Spike. “I thought only you were able to take us out of these alternate worlds, Captain Wuzz?” The draconequus said nothing. His mind was filled with many thoughts on how Nixi had managed to manipulate ‘his’ game while breaking every single one of his chaotic actions. “She played me,” he growled lightly. “Nobody is supposed to get the best of Discord!” Spike appeared confused as he walked towards the disgruntled draconequus. “Is everything alright?” he asked. “It seems I made an error in judgment,” he replied simply. “We’re not inviting your friend to play ever again!” “What?” wondered Spike. “Game’s over,” grumped Discord as he prepared to return everyone back to The Castle of Friendship. “Let us not talk of this night and those who accompanied us ever again.” Big Mac appeared confused as Spike tried to get a solid read on Discord. He could be quite moody at times but this was far from the Discord he had ever known. “Was it Nixi?” wondered Spike. SHOOM! Spike gasped as Discord flew towards him, wrapped around his body, and glared at him with burning eyes. “Never mention ‘that’ name again,” he growled before snapping his fingers. The mission was over and all had returned to their rightful places. Chapter 16 - Today's Lesson“…And that is why teamwork is so important,” cooed Nixi as she smiled at her two baby dragons as they lied on opposite sides of her bed. Leon and Parker both took a moment to try and figure out what had just happened. “Wait…,” pondered Leon. “Weren’t we just in a dungeon fighting a giant minotaur?” “Yeah…,” gasped Parker. “I totally kicked its butt!” Nixi chuckled as she used her magic to bring the blankets over the three of them. “Oh,” she smiled. “I think my little boys fell asleep while mommy was telling her bedtime story.” Leon and Parker exchanged a look. “But…,” grasped Parker. “It felt so real.” Nixi took her hoof and rubbed it around Leon’s twin. “That’s what good storytelling does,” she stated. “It helps you have great dreams and wonderfully imaginative ideas.” Leon yawned as he checked to see that he was in his onesie and wearing a cozy nighttime diaper. “I suppose,” he replied while getting himself comfortable alongside his caretaker. Parker let out a yawn as, he too, realized he was in his onesie and night diaper. “Okay,” he conceded while nuzzling himself on Nixi’s opposite side. “I hope I get more of that dream.” “You will,” grinned Nixi as she used her magic to turn off the lights. She then magically activated a constellation-projecting night lite that played a lulling tune. It wasn’t long after that both Leon and Parker fell asleep. “Good boys,” she cooed while levitating a piece of paper and a pen in front of herself. After writing something upon the parchment, Nixi magically cut a tiny hole in the air and slid the letter through it. “And good night to you, too, Discord,” she giggled as she snuggled Leon and Parker against her warm white coat before joining them in slumber land. *** POOF! “Now that was an interesting adventure,” remarked Spike upon seeing the familiar interior of The Castle of Friendship. “Eeyup!” Big Mac nodded. There was an awkward pause. “Discord…?” wondered Spike. “Don’t you have any thoughts on our mission?” The chamber remained silent except for the crickets chirping outside. “Guess he up and went home,” stated the red-colored Earth Pony. “I guess so,” Spike shrugged. “Oh, well. More snacks for us!” Big Mac and Spike shared in the remaining treats they had gathered for their adventure until the time came for them to go their separate ways. *** “How?” Discord asked a smaller clone of himself while pacing in his pocket dimension. “How was I, the master of chaos and whim, outwitted by a mere Unicorn?” “No way!” the clone protested. “Nobody outwits you, Discord!” “You’re right,” the draconequus replied. “Perhaps I was just a bit too careless. Maybe just a bit too impatient to spice up the game that I let her have a bit too much control over how things played out?” FWOO PIP “What?” he wondered as a paper drifted over his long face. “What’s this?” Dearest Discord: I kindly ask that you talk to me before planning any play dates with my boys. They mean the multiverse to me and I want them to live very long childhoods under my care. Oh, as I know you’re probably grumpy about it, I apologize for manipulating your ‘game’. It needed to be done to ensure my precious children made their bedtime while also not getting hurt. Perhaps you could ask Fluttershy about what it means to feel so responsible for others if you are having difficulty comprehending what I’m trying to say. Also, so we’re clear, I am now keeping a better monitor on our dimension. I had wondered when another spirit would visit and I never thought it would be the one who embodies chaos. However, so you know, I am the spirit of order. Things are the way they should be and all mischief is managed. How do you think I’m such a good caretaker? Boys will be boys and someone must maintain order to ensure they and the world around them is safe. Plus my dimension is far larger than the one you have for yourself. So I have many things to keep ‘just so’ in order to ensure my children are eternally safe and happy. Thanks for respecting my wishes and do make sure to ‘knock’ should you wish to visit again. Cheers, Nixi Discord growled as he used his powers to turn the paper into a ‘stress ball’ that was shaped like Nixi. “Spirit of order,” he grumped while making the foamy Nixi squeak with each squish of his paw. “We’ll see who gets the last laugh. Oh, yes. I will definitely find a way to put some delightful chaos into your life.” The master of chaos gave the Nixi stress toy a great squeeze that caused it to pop under the pressure. POOF! Discord suddenly found himself in a nursery with a mobile of Nixi hovering above his now diapered self. “Thought so,” the Nixi’s on the mobile said mockingly. “Now use this five minute ‘Time Out’ to think on keeping cool when you’re feeling grumpy.” “Oh,” he scowled to himself as a pacifier now bobbed in his mouth. “It is on, little pony. You’re going to be my new, best, friend….” Chapter 10 - Crashing The Crater“Hang on!” cried Big Mac as he made his way down the crater. It wasn’t as direct a route as Discord had Spike take so Leon and Parker had time to take in the surroundings. “Other dragons?” wondered Leon as they kept passing groups of cartoon-like dragons who, upon seeing them pass, spread their wings and gave chase. “I think they want to fight!” cried Parker who was just itching to pull out his sword. POOF! “Have you noticed we’re being followed?” mentioned Discord as he appeared alongside Big Mac and the ebon dragons riding atop him. “Eeyup!” huffed Big Mac. “Spike needs our help first!” “Hmm,” thought Leon as he snuggled the plush of Nixi close and noticed the new gem on his staff start to glow. “I wonder…,” *** “METEOR!” boomed the purple dragon as the region around him and Garble grew totally black and turned itself into a galactic landscape. “Wha?” Garble baffled as he noticed a series of large glowing stones heading straight for him. “What is th-” POOM! CRASH-BOOM-POOM-BOOM! “Ha!” cried Spike as he started to feel very tired for spending the majority of all his magic power. However it was worth it to see the red dragon bully pummeled in intersteller rocks that exploded all over him in a plume of grey cosmic dust. Spike dusted himself off and grew a proud smile. He then struck a confident pose without even thinking for a minute how he looked with that massive diaper exposed in his statuesque stance. CRACK-CRACK BOOM! “No way!” cried Spike as he fell on his padded bottom. Garble now stood in front of him. However this wasn’t the same Garble as before. This one was black, snarling, and looking as if he had gone into some sort of ‘Second Phase’ that was far less pleasant than the original. “Garble…?” trailed the purple dragon wizard as he scooted away. “Gwah!” the new Garble spat as his teeth, claws, and talons all grew longer and sharper. His eyes burned red and he looked posed to strike. WHOOSH SLASH-SLASH “Yipes!” cried Spike as he noticed the enhanced Garble having far more speed and ferocity than the original one he was up against. “Help!” *** “Anyone noticing anything peculiar?” questioned Discord as more dragons gave chase after Big Mac and the twins. “Just that we’re going to have a big battle once we get down to where Garbunkle is,” stated Parker with a smirk. “We’re going to get tons of experience and gold and maybe even some rare item drops after we thrash them all.” “Hmm,” replied Discord as he patted Parker on the head. “That’s very optimistic of you to think, Rubber Blade. However I was referring to your brother’s snappy garment.” Leon appeared confused. “What about it?” he asked. “Well,” continued the draconequus. “I’d imagine it would have popped completely off of you for how many dragons are now chasing us.” “Right…,” Leon considered. “It always opened up when we were in for a battle.” “Eeyup,” added Big Mac as he noticed they were coming upon a larger space that also seemed to stand out for how colorful it was compared to the rest of the crater. “Are you saying we aren’t meant to fight those dragons?” asked Parker as he took in the numerous dragons trailing them. “Perhaps,” considered Discord with a groan. “Maybe we need to try that whole ‘Friendship’ thing with them once we get to that very obvious arena up ahead?” Leon suddenly felt a warmth against his side in which brought his attention to the plush of Nixi. “Hmm,” he suddenly considered while looking towards his staff. “I may just have what we need to do that.” “What’s that?” wondered Parker. “You’re the cleric and the cleric doesn’t have any weapons that can damage more than a slime or other low level monster?” “Keep your fendoshi on,” grinned leon. “We need to get there first.” *** “Captain Wuzz!” cried Spike as he struggled to climb up the crater as he was ferociously chased by the even more powerful Garble. “Sir McBiggun!” “Namby-pamby-pony-lover,” deadpanned the charcoal-colored Garble. “Tear soft pony hide.” FWOOM CRUNCH SLASH-SLASH “Whoah!” Spike cried as he had to fall hard on his padded rump in order to dodge Garble’s flying leap and slashing attacks. “Gotcha’,” the bully stated in a very monotone voice before plucking Spike up by the scruff of his attire. “NO!” the purple dragon cried as Garble reached his other claw back to reveal ghastly purple mist fuming off the tips of his claws. “Spike…,” the bully grinned ominously as drool poured from his opening mouth. Spike struggled to free himself but to no avail. However he did notice that the pacifier he had received had been returned as it flopped out of his robes and around his chest. “Here goes nothing,” he gulped as he tore the pacifier off and slammed it into Garble’s mouth. SLIP PLOP! Spike found himself in a cloud of powder as Garble released his grip and also plopped to the ground. “Ungh…,” he moaned as he couldn’t resist suckling the enchanted pacifier. “Spike…” The ppurple dragon didn’t want to wait around for when the pacifier’s effect would wear off. Taking a look upward he spotted that he was soon coming upon a wider area. He also could see a large group of dragons swarming behind what had to be Big Mac, Discord, and the twin ebon dragons. Wasting no time, Spike got his footing, adjusted his legs for the way the diaper split them further apart, and moved past Garble as quickly as he could towards reaching his friends at the location above.
Chapter 1 - Let's Liven Things UpTwilight had fallen over the peaceful town of Ponyville asSpike, the baby dragon, Big Macintosh, the not-so-talkative Earth Pony stallion, and discord, who is too chaotic to explain, gathered for their “Guy’s Night” of playing ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’. “Time for a new adventure!” cheered Spike as he sat at the table and reached for the official game guide for ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’. “Let’s see what the book recommends for our next quest!” “Bah,” scoffed Discord as he hovered and wisped through the air. “Can you stop being Princess twilight Sparkle II and come up with anything that doesn’t require that bothersome book?” “The book is important!” retorted Spike while facing the displeased draconequus. “It provides the structure for properly assigning monsters, items in shops-” SNAP! POOF! “-how to assign experience, item drops, treasures for dungeons…,” Spike trailed off as he realized he suddenly heard Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, talking. “Twi? Ar you back already?” Big Mac let out a deep chuckle as Discord grinned wide as he coiled around Spike. “Why don’t you take a look over there?” he suggested while poofing up a mirror. “Ah!” Spike shrieked as Twilight would upon seeing his whole head replaced with that of Twilight’s. “Not funny, Discord!” “Oh?” cackled the living embodiment of chaos itself. “But you make a splendid Twilight stand-in. Perhaps we should create a new character for you named Bookish Ponyface?” Big Mac started into another round of laughter as Spike’s altered visage grew expressions quite like those Princess Twilight would make. Spike huffed. “Fine,” he conceded. “What do you think we should do then, Captain Wuzz?” Discord went about teleporting all about the open chamber as he thought on all the possibilities. “You know,” he eventually said while hovering alongside Spike, pulling him into a hug, and snapping his fingers to return the purple dragon back to normal. “You do have a knack for putting things like your hopeless crush on Rarity into our adventures….” Big Mac nodded and smiled. “Eeyup,” he confirmed. Spike blushed while Discord positioned himself to loom overhead. “This makes me curious if there’s anything else going through that head of yours outside of prissy white Unicorns?” POOF SKEE-POP POP “Ah!” cried the emerald-eyed dragon as he felt the draconequus, in a smaller and worm-like fashion, glide into his right ear and out the left. POOF “Ah-ha!” proclaimed Discord. “Someone does have a little secret they’ve been keeping from us! Something that will make tonight’s ‘Guy’s Night’ the…” SHING Discord replaced his head with that of the yellow Pegasus, Fluttershy, to whom was his best pony friend in all the cosmos. “Guy’s Night Ever,” he said softly. “Yay.” “Wait!” gasped Spike as he suddenly had a rather worrisome thought pop into his head. SHING “What’s wrong, Spike?” Discord said with the cyan Pegasus’, rainbow dash, head now in place of his own. “This is going to be AWESOME!” FWOO RIP TEAR-RIP SHING “Prepare yourselves!” Discord heartily proclaimed as the rift in time and space he tore grew wider-and-wider to consume the trio. “TO ENTER THE WORLD OF OGRES & OUBLIETTES!” FWOOOOOOSSSSSSHHHHH PING! Even more quickly than it appeared the portal closed leaving only the room as it was minus Discord, Spike, and Big Macintosh.
Chapter 2 - Sprites & SpiresNixi, the Unicorn mare caretaker, watched as Leon and Parker played the super exciting new video game they got, ‘Sprites & Spires’. “C’mon, Leon!” grumped Parker, who was an ebon-colored dragon clad in overalls. “Heal me!” “I can’t!” Leon, who was a near twin to Parker in appearance except he was clad in a onesie. “My healing spell hasn’t come back yet!” Nixi felt tense as she noticed how Parker’s samurai character was nearly out of HP. “No, no, no-noNO!” cried Parker as the hammer-wielding minotaur bonked the last of his Health Points to zero. “So unfair!” “And I just now got my spell back,” pouted Leon as he tried to run from the minotaur but was unsuccessful due to the other special attack the boss monster had, which was a line of fire it could shoot out from wherever it slammed down its hammer. “Now I’m finished, too,” Nixi saw the disappointment and frustration in her baby dragon boys. “Hey, guys,” she said calmly while making her way in front of the television. “Why don’t you two play your own version of the game where you don’t have to worry about all these yucky rules that make you fussy?” Parker huffed smoke from his nose as Leon frowned at how apparent it was that this was less a suggestion than it was a command. “Come on, Parker,” pouted Leon. “Let’s go play in my room.” I know you’ll both have a lot of fun playing pretend ‘Sprites & Spires’ together!” cheered Nixi as she switched off the game system and TV. “I’ll work on bedtime snacks while you two slay that mean, nasty minotaur.” Parker let his controller drop to the floor without a care before following Leon back to his room. *** Leon and Parker sulked over their loss in the game until they felt truly inspired to take their caretaker’s suggestion of playing it themselves in the wonderful world of make believe. “Maybe we just need some training to beat that minotaur?” thought Leon. “In that case,” stated Parker. “We need to get in character.” Leon put a claw to his chin as he stared thoughtfully with his green eyes towards the ceiling. “I got it!” he proclaimed upon snapping out of his thoughts and hastily taking off his brother’s overalls. “Hey!” cried Parker as he soon found himself standing in just his diaper. “What gives?” Leon ran over to his door and plucked a bath robe from a mounted hook. “You’re a samurai, right?” he more stated than asked. “Epic ultra super awesome samurai!” Parker added emphatically. “With epic uber cosmic powers!” “Well,” beamed Leon as he tossed the robe towards his brother. “You need a kimono and samurai diaper to be one.” Parker thought for a moment. “I’ve only seen the girl characters in the game wear kimonos,” he said. “Guys do, too,” Leon replied while finding his security blanket and approaching his twin. “I’ve seen pictures and it will make you look ultra cool!” Parker started to slip on the robe as Leon stuffed one end of the blanket down the front of Parker’s crinkly garment, looped it between his legs, and stuck the other end down the back of his padding. “That feels weird,”panicked Parker. “It’s what you need to be a samurai,” assured Leon. “It’s called a fundoshi and boosts your defense!” “Well…,” considered Parker. “If it boosts my defense and makes me look more like a samurai than I’m okay with it.” “Great!” cheered Leon as he took his white bedsheet, through it over his head, and used a jump rope to tie it like a mage’s cloak. “I’ve got a wizard’s staff for me and a hero sword you can have in my toy chest. Let’s get all equipped so we can go show Nixi how we are true ‘Sprites & Spires legends!””
Chapter 3 - Dimensional SummonsBAP-CLUK FSSSHH Nixi peaked her head out from within the kitchen to see her boys battling it out with a foam staff and plastic sword in the middle of the living room. “That’s our problem!” announced Parker as he swung with his toy blade at Leon. “You are too much a healer with no combat skills!” “Healers aren’t meant to fight!” cried Leon as he blocked a strike from his twin. “But they can!” continued Parker as he went about gradually backing Leon towards the couch. “You just need some stat boosts!” “Huh?” wondered Leon. “Remember that town we passed before we took on the minotaur mission,” Parker said while narrowing his eyes and becoming determined to drive his brother to the couch. “I think there’s a guy there who can change your class without changing your ability to heal.” “Really?” thought Leon as he was unaware of how close he was to the couch. SWAP “Oof” gasped Leon as he bounced off the couch with his backside and fell on his padded rump upon the carpeted floor. Parker smiled as he pointed the tip of his plastic sword at Leon’s chest. “Really,” he replied. “Okay, boys,” said Nixi as she trotted into the living room. “That’s enough.” Both boys looked up at their Unicorn caretaker. “We were just strategizing,” stated Parker. “Yeah,” grinned Leon in hopes that it would keep the motherly mare from ending their game. “Well,” said Nixi as she used her Unicorn magic to remove the sword from Parker’s hand. “I think Parker won this game. You know it is not nice to point sharp objects at anyone.” “But it’s plastic,” argued Parker with a look that implied how unhappy he was for having the sword taken away. “Plastic, or not,” lectured the mare who had a blue mane. “It’s still not nice and may make you think it is okay to use truly dangerous things as play weapons.” “Mom,” both boys pouted. “It’s time for your bedtime snacks anyway,” she added. SHING! ZIP! The three were stunned as a zipper appeared in mid-air right in the middle of their living room and pulled itself down to reveal a blue void that soon had a clawed hand appear from within it. “Get behind me, boys!” cried Nixi as she prepared her magic to protect the young dragons. “No need for such dramatics,” a voice echoed. “I’m just popping by to pick up the rest of our team for our big ‘Guys Night’ game.” “What?” worried Nixi. SNAP! VOOP “Wha?” wondered all three as they were magically lifted off of the ground. “Come now, Leon and friends!” cheered the echoing voice as he pulled his clawed hand back into the open rift. WHOOSH! “Whoa!” the three cried as they were flung into the opening. ZOO-SHING! The opening zipped itself back up and disappeared in a plume of ethereal sparks. The house was now empty with it’s residents taken to an unknown place by an unseen force.
Chapter 4 - Team DevelopmentPOP-POP-POP “Oof!” groaned Spike as he landed on his feet, lost his balance, and fell down on all fours. “Ungh,” groaned Big Macintosh upon appearing beside Spike, landing on his back hooves, and slamming his front hooves down with force to ensure he maintained balance. POP-POP-POP “Ah!” cried Leon and Parker as they appeared to the opposite side of Spike and Big Macintosh. “Eep!” gasped Nixi as she used her magic to ensure a safe arrival in the strange new world they had been taken to. PASHING! “Delightful!” announced Discord as he appeared between the two groups dressed as an archer. “Now this should be quite the adventure!” Leon, Parker, and Nixi noticed the large, red Unicorn knight and purple, baby dragon dressed as a wizard. Spike picked himself up and eyed up the twin, ebon dragons. They looked ‘familiar’ in some way. One was dressed as a cleric and the other appeared like a warrior from out of one of his comic books. “Huh?” he wondered as his eyes noticed a white Unicorn with a purple mane standing beside the twin dragons. “Rare… Rarity?” “Ha!” burst discord as he slithered through the air in front of Spike. “Don’t you mean ‘Princess Shmarity?” “Excuse me,” snorted Nixi. “What is the meaning of this?” “Oh!” the draconequus faux apologized while zipping towards the displeased mare. “Sorry for being so random but, well…” SNAP Discord suddenly started to juggle a series of toys, which included Spike’s Rarity plush, Big Mac’s smarty Pants he got from Twilight, Leon’s toy mech, and Parker’s portable gaming system. “…Random is sort of what I do,” he gleefully stated. “Well,” stated Nixi quite firmly. “It’s bedtime for my boys and I insist you return us to our home right now.” “Oh!” beamed Discord as he coiled around Nixi. “I was so right in making you our ‘Princess’. You definitely are as picky and snooty as one.” “Hey!” protested Leon and Parker in near unison. “That’s our mom!” “Now-now,” stated Discord as he flew to the twin boys. “The grown-ups are talking. Why don’t you play with your old friend, Spike, as your mother and I have a talk?” “Whoa!” Spike panicked as a wave of Discord’s hand brought him flying in front of Leon and Parker. “Uh…,” trailed Parker as he felt quite awkward in the sudden meeting. “Nice costume…” Spike, as Garbunkle, found himself completely at a loss for words as his mind recognized the look of both boys but couldn’t quite place how, where, or why they seemed familiar. “Do I know you?” he asked nervously. “I don’t think so,” replied Parker as he started to become more interested in how different his costume seemed. It was less ‘pretend’ and more real feeling. “Wait,” thought Leon as he fidgeted with his more genuine feeling staff. “Aren’t you that dragon from my dream?” “Huh?” baffled Spike. “There was a banquet and lots of dragons and this pony you really liked who looked like…,” Leon trailed off as he stared at how Nixi no longer had a blue mane. Her mane was now purple and quite styled. Her tail also looked very much like the Unicorn in his dream. “…My mom?” “What!” the purple dragon boomed. “Rarity is my very special some pony!” SHING “Oh, come now,” Discord stated as he suddenly appeared near Spike. “You can’t tell the difference between your silly crush and Princess Shmarity?” POP Discord disappeared to continue his discussion with a very agitated Nixi. Spike blushed. “Umm…,” he said nervously. “Maybe… I…” It suddenly came to him as his memory flashed back to when Princess Ember, the new Dragon Lord of all Equestrian dragons, visited Princess Twilight’s castle with a small delegation of other dragons to build stronger bonds of friendship between ponies and dragons. He lead a black dragon into the castle who kept insisting he should still be in diapers. This was extremely embarrassing and this particular dragon kept insisting upon it right in front of Rarity! This dragon also wore a diaper, which this one noticeably did under his white robe and onesie, and caused a lot of trouble and clean-up as a result of dropping a chandelier down into the banquet hall before suddenly just disappearing! “Wait…,” blushed Spike. “I do remember you!” “Where’s your diaper?” asked Parker as he realized the baby dragon before them had no padding. “Are you in the middle of a change?” “Oh!” cheered Leon. “You are real!” “Of course I’m real!” cried Spike. “DISCORD!” bellowed Spike angrily. SHING “You rang?” the draconequus said as he appeared with a series of tiny bells jingling about a sash he had created along his serpent-like body. “What’s going on here?” the purple dragon with emerald eyes inquired. “Just getting our game started,” the Master of Chaos replied. “Nixi and I have it all planned out and it will be so much fun!” Spike’s fin-like ears drooped as he took in the tone Discord had used in making his final statement. “Oh, boy,”he said with concern. “I don’t like where this is going.”
Chapter 5 - "Nixi's Story"Time passed as Nixi and discord talked within a sound-proof dome. Nixi, being the caretaker that she was, didn’t want her boys hearing her talk all angry to the draconequus that had hijacked them from their home before bedtime. “Is this your home?” asked Leon as he fidgeted with his staff. The jewel near its top looked very real, because it was. “Nope,” replied Big Macintosh as his knightly persona, Sir McBiggun. “This is Spiketopia,” Spike stated. “The legendary land of adventure ruled by Princess Shmarity and being put in danger by the evil Squizzard.” Parker and Leon giggled. “What’s so funny?” blushed Spike with a blush. “This world sounds silly,” chuckled Leon. “Reminds me of one of the bedtime stories Nixi reads us that aren’t scary so we don’t get nightmares,” added Parker. “Just wait!” proclaimed Spike. “You’ll see just how serious this world is once we get our quest going!” “Hmm,” pondered Parker as he took notice that the fundoshi beneath his kimono had looked a lot more ‘real’ than the makeshift one Leon had made out of the bedsheet and his diaper. The diaper was still quite apparent but the garment between the front of his diaper and back seemed truly a part of the fundoshi instead of like a blanket that was stuffed in the front and looped between his legs to the back. “Yeah,” considered Leon as he noticed how real his cloak was before turning towards Spike. “But you are missing your diaper.” Spike snorted smoke through his nose as Big Mac chuckled. “Stop saying that!” persisted the purple dragon. “I’m not that kind of baby dragon! I don’t need diapers and, if you really must know, I haven’t sucked my claw in years!” “Seems fussy,” shrugged Parker. “Perhaps we have a paci in our new costumes we can lend him?” considered Leon. Spike growled as he glared towards the twin ebon dragons. “I do not need -“ SPOP! Spike was cut off as Leon inserted a pacifier with a crystalline nipple into his mouth. “You did have one!” cheered Parker. “And look!” The twin boys watched as a fairy appeared over Spike, sprinkled some magic dust over him, and said, “Berserk nullified. Resistance to fury status will last as longas Jeweled Pacifier remains equipped.” “Cool!” the boys cheered as they high-fived each other. “Eeyup!” added Big Mac as he knew of times this item would’ve come in handy when Spike and Discord argued over how to go about particular moves to do next during their missions. Discord knew how to get under Spike’s scales and Big Mac tried to remind Spike that he was getting all riled up over nothing. Perhaps this new item will keep that from happening? FWOOP A lanyard formed around the pacifier in Spike’s mouth that ensured that, if released,it would remain as equipment he could, for lack of better terms, equip again with little downtime. SHING! “Ah-ha-ha!” chortled Discord as he appeared before everyone. “I see you’ve already discovered some of the new aspects of our little game of ‘Ogres & Oubliettes’?” PTOOIE! Spike spat out the Jeweled Pacifier and glared towards Discord. “What are you doing!” he grumbled. “This is not how Spiketopia works! You’re going back to being a jerk and I don’t-” SPOP! Discord magically reinserted the pacifier into Spike’s mouth. “Now, now,” he teased. “No need to be all fussy over things, Garbunkle. We don’t want you using up all your stamina on throwing a tantrum.” Leon and Parker giggled as Big Mac couldn’t help but laugh as well. “Oh!”grinned the draconequus as he tossed a plush toy towards Leon. “This is for you.” “Huh?” wondered Leon upon catching and taking in what he now held. It looked just like Nixi! “What’s that?” asked Parker until he, too, noticed the resemblance to their caretaker. “It was a, how you say, ‘compromise’,” beamed Discord as the ebon dragons felt the plush of what strongly resembled their Unicorn caretaker. “She didn’t want to be out of your sight and our quest needs a princess to save so…” “This is our mom?” both boys gasped with disbelief. The whimsical serpent delighted in his dramatic pauses. They allowed him to enjoy the effects of his chaotic nature as it became more evident to those around him. “Allow me to explain,” continued the gleeful draconequus. “Every quest needs a goal and good ol’ Garbunkle here always has us do something for his childhood sweetheart. So I’ve changed things up a bit.” SPITOOIE Spike spat out the pacifier again and stomped his foot with a growl. “Princess Shmarity has no resemblance to Rarity!” he proclaimed while glaring down Discord. “I just don’t know how to draw other ponies as well as Rarity and I used her as a template for the tabletop piece!” “Right…,” trailed Discord as he fabricated a halo, angel wings, and a T-Shirt on Spike that had a picture of Rarity the Unicorn displayed in a large red heart. “Nothing untrue from our little angel over here.” “Hey!” cried Leon as he held the Nixi plush close to his chest. “How do we get our mom back!” SNAP! POP Spike gasped as his halo, angel wings, and shirt were taken away and he returned to his appearance as Garbunkle. “I really do need to work on my timing,” moaned Discord upon realizing his ‘audience’ had other matters on their minds beyond his teasing of the young assistant to Princess twilight Sparkle. Parker drew his katana, which definitely was not plastic, and pointed it towards Discord. “Turn her back!” he growled. “Or I shall send you on your way to oblivion!” “Already been there,” the draconequus shrugged. “Rather boring place.” SWACK! “Huh?” wondered Parker as his sword slammed with no effect upon Discord. “Oh!” perked the Master of Chaos. “Forgot to mention one of the conditions your mother made was that all weapons do no physical damage.” Spike went to talk but was silenced as a plunger-tipped arrow from ‘Captain Wuzz’ blocked his mouth. “see?” he delighted. “And nothing that could cause nightmares.” “The ebon dragon twins shrugged as Leon squeezed Nixi the plush tight and Parker smiled towards his plushified caretaker. “So,” stepped up Big Mac. “What do we do?” SNAP The world of ‘Spiketopia’ became awash in beautiful pastels. “We see where the story takes us until we find what we need to turn Nixi back to normal,” gleed Discord as he pulled another plunger arrow and shot it off towards a nearby city that shimmered with baby-blue and pastel-pink crystals. “That seems a good place to start.” Spike pulled the plunger from his face, tossed it aside, and glared towards Discord. “Hold up,” stated Big Mac while putting a hoof in front of Spike. “Let’s just see what happens.” “Fine,” grumped the purple dragon. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 6 - Tutorial?Spike grumped as he and the band of heroes went through a peaceful forest filled with nothing more than birdsong and the chattering of squirrels, chipmunks, and other woodland creatures. “Where’s the trolls?” he pouted. “The werewolves? Ogres?” CHIRP-CHIRP RUSTLE “…ANYTHING!” the purple dragon exploded. FLAP-FLAP-FLAP Birds took to the skies as Spike’s roar boomed throughout the woods. “Hey!” cried Leon as he turned to face Spike. “You scared all the birdies away!” “This isn’t ‘Happy Foal Trotting Mane’!” the emerald-spiked dragon replied. “Someone is not enjoying the tutorial?” slithered Discord. “Tutorial?” glared Spike. “We can have this sort of adventure by just walking to Zecora’s hut!” “Okay, big boy,” gleed Discord as he took hold of Spike, slipped him into his archer’s bow like an arrow, and shot him towards the crystalline destination ahead. “Waah!” Spike cried as he flew into a crystal that, for whatever reason, seemed to cushion his crash rather than enhance upon it. “Anyone else not enjoying the tutorial?” winked the draconequus. Big Mac, Parker, and Leon said nothing. “Alrighty,” clapped discord. “Let us continue and play with our new friends’ abilities while Garbunkle, how you say, scouts ahead for us?” *** Spike had expected to feel a lot of pain and be sent back to The Castle of Friendship by taking lethal damage as a result of Discord’s antics. However he instead found himself perfectly intact sitting on a rubber street in front of a pillow-like crystal spire. “What the…?” he pondered. “Crystals…,” hissed a voice from what seemed like everywhere. “Someone has crystals…” Spike took to his feet and prepared to cast a protection spell. However there was nothing to be seen as a threat. “Best save my MP,” he said to himself with a bit of a shiver. He then reached into his bag, popped some jewels into his mouth, and blew a massive blast of white flame into the air that resulted in a cascade of crystal-like snow to twinkle all about him and the surrounding area. “Hmm,” wondered Garbunkle as his crafted revealing spell showed nothing to be hiding in secret. “Maybe I’m just hearing things?” “Crystals…,” the voice came again. This time it was deeper and felt like it be mere feet away. “More crystals…” Spike gulped as he found himself instinctively reaching for the pacifier. “You got this, Garbunkle,” he said to calm himself. “You’re near god level. Nothing can-” “-Crystals!” the deep and vile sounding voice cried. “Mine! All mine!” SPOP Spike popped the jeweled pacifier in his mouth and felt the magical relaxing effect of it kick in. “Hurry up, guys,” he thought while scanning the bizarre environment for the encompassing danger. WHOOSH! “CRYSTALS!” was the last thing Spike heard before seeing a blur of red, purple, and green rush towards him in a see of black shadow.
Chapter 7 - Sewing Sombra“…Too cool!” gleed Leon as he made his magical staff shine a bright azure-blue. “It feels like warm bedtime cuddles!” “It seems you’ve taken a real fancy to that staff?” posed Discord. “However you must be careful. I do believe Nixi would be very unhappy if you misused your powers.” “Ha!” taunted Parker. “Told you!” “Hey!” snapped the staff-wielding cleric. “You’ve been goofing around with your sword.” “Yeah,” snickered the twin baby dragon in the samurai kimono. “But you got in trouble.” “Speaking of…,” gestured the draconaquus as they entered into the rubber streets of the textured crystal city. BURRNP SNAP-SNAP FWOOF “Yipes!” gasped Leon as his onesie snapped open to reveal his diaper for all to see. “That’s our cue,”grinned the Master of Chaos as he prepped his bow. “With Garbunkle ‘missing’ I’m in charge and order Sir McBiggun and Rubber Blade to defeat our adversaries while I maintain cover fire.” “Rubber Blade?” protested Parker. “Don’t look at me,” shrugged Discord while gesturing a claw towards Leon. “Your mom didn’t want anything nightmare inducing to happen and thought I should make a character sheet with a name that sounded, well, whimsical.” Big Mac had charged his horn to enchant his sword as the samurai dragon huffed, made his blade light with fire, and joined Big Mac in combat. “And what do I do?” stomped Leon. “You’re the cleric,” Discord replied without even facing Leon. “Get to those protection spells.” Leon felt quite upset at being sidelined but did as he was told. *** “Hyah!” cried Parker as his sword turned the last of the shadowy baddies into a puff of blue smoke. FWOOP CLIP-CLIP-CLASP “Huh?” wondered Leon as his onesie snapped itself back up. “Hmm,” shrugged Discord. “It would seem your onesie has been enchanted to let us all know when combat both begins and ends.” Leon blushed. “I think I could definitely get along with your mom,” he added while looking towards the Nixi plush. “She is far different than most ponies I’ve come to know in Equestria. Maybe I’ll even stop by for some tea sometime to talk about play dates with you and your brother with our baby of the group…?” “Hey!” a familiar voice called out. “It’s about time you got here!” Everyone faced forward to see Spike / Garbunkle darting towards them. “Sombra!” he panicked. “King Sombra is here and he stole all my jeweled relics!” “Now that is quite a canondrum,” Discord pondered while flipping himself upside-down and tapping at his chin. “So our opponent here steals magical jewels?” “Well,” huffed Spike as he caught his breath. “All my spell component gems are gone and the last thing I remember is seeing a big shadow rush over me before I woke up in this bouncy balloon-like prison.” Leon and Parker laughed. “It’s not funny, you guys,” insisted Spike. “I had no idea how to get out and kept falling over-and-over again with no exit to be found until I found this zipper-like thing tucked in a corner.” “That’s a ‘Bounce House’,” stated Leon. “They’re lots of fun.” “Want to go back and play?” Parker asked Spike gleefully. “Leon and I could show you how to have tons of fun inside a bouncy house?” CLAP-CLAP “Now,now,” interrupted Discord. “I think we have a mission to complete before we play in such silly things as a Bounce House.” “Good thing I still have my MP!” cheered Spike. “Garbunkle The Green will surely succeed in leading us into victory!” “Of course,” gestured discord. “Lead the way.” *** The party explored around the foam and rubber realm of shadowy creatures. With each encounter Leon’s onesie would pop open to alert all that combat was to begin as the team appeared to get ‘Charisma Bonusses’ for how much they laughed at their ‘Early Warning System’. “Hmm,” thought Spike as he lead the team into the pillow-like crystalline castle. “This is definitely an odd place.” SNAP-SNAP-SNAP FWOP “Thanks, Leon!” cheered Discord as he prepared his enchanted bow. “I must say your mom does think of everything. We should really have you all over for ‘Guy’s Night’ more often.” Parker chuckled as he nudged his exposed brother. “Time to heal everyone,” he teased while making his samurai sword blend with aspects of fire and ice. “At least I’m not Rubber Blade,” the ebon cleric shot back. *** Spike used a simple fireball spell to finish off the strange yarn-like creatures that formed from the palace tapestries. “I’m…,” he pouted. “I’m out of MP.” “Guess you’ll have to stand back with Leon as Sir McBiggun, Rubber Blade, and I finish the mission,” Discord stated with no remorse as he charged ahead. “Why bother?” a voice echoed as a shadowy black cloud with burning green and purple eyes appeared. “You shall all become a part of my fabricated empire.” “Whoa!” cried Leon as his onesie snapped so fiercely open that it was enough to make him fall flat on his crinkly bottom. “Oh, ho!” gleed Discord. “Boss fight!” VEEEE PSHEW “What the…?” wondered Sir McBiggun as he felt his body take on an entirely different feeling. “What?” gasped Parker as his sword became a threading needle and the rest of him turned to black and purple yarn. “Pooh,” sighed Discord as he turned into a plush snake-like being unable to do more than flop haplessly on the ground. Leon’s eyes went wide as he panicked over what he was seeing. “Momma!” he cried as he squeezed the plush version of Nixi tightly against his chest. FWOOM! “Huh?” the ebon cleric wondered as he noticed a force field form around him. As the rest of the party took on the forms of various fabrics and plush animals he remained unaffected. SPOP Spike flopped to the ground as a fully plush version of himself. “A little help?” he asked as best as his plushie-like parts would allow him to speak. “Parker!” cried Leon. “Can you still fight!” Rubber Blade felt like a toy you’d make at ‘Build-a-Buddy’ but he did still have a good use of his arms and legs. “Could really use some help!” he called back. Leon thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah!” he proclaimed. “This should be amusing,” the shadowy figure chuckled as he took form as a dark-colored Unicorn with a firery-red mane. “Show me what you got.” Leon looked deep into the eyes of plush Nixi prior to taking his staff, charging its magic, and pointing it towards Sombra. “Paralysis!” the shielded cleric called out as magic exploded out from the staff and towards the boss character. “Ack!” Sombra growled as he felt his movement severely hindered. “I’ll… Get… You…!” “Parker!” commanded Leon. “Get him! Get him now!” The twin ebon dragon took his samurai threading needle and shoved it right into the chest of Sombra. “No!” Sombra echoed. “I’m coming undone!” Everyone watched as Sombra was reduced to nothing but a giant pile of yarn with a crimson wig and shiny purple and green googly eyeballs. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK CLASP Leon’s onesie fastened itself and the shield protecting him dissipated. The battle had been won.
Chapter 8 - Treasure!TWINKLE-TWINKLE PSHOO! “Ooh!” awed Leon and Parker as they noticed a collection of ethereal sparkles of many colors spiral around a central position in the room. SHWEEP! The team did their best to shield their eyes from the explosion of light that left behind a large treasure chest and a pair of yellow mice. The one mouse had a crescent moon on its head and on its belly while the other had suns, much like Princess Celestia’s Cutie mark, in the same places as its twin. “Congratulations!” the mice cheered. “You beat Sewing Sombra!” Leon moved alongside his plush-like brother. “Hey!” cried plush Discord as he flopped haplessly on the ground. “A little restoration magic would be great about now.” Oh!” gasped Leon upon realizing he was the only member of the team who had not been afflicted by Sombra’s status condition. SPOP! “Ah!” cried Parker as he felt something bulge out from his tail. Pulling it towards himself he noticed he was now on sale for ten bits. “Fix this, Leon!” The ebon dragon thought for a moment. He then turned his attention to the Nixi plush and smiled. “Ensuna!” he cried while raising his staff. BWEEP-BOOP-FWOO Streams of light radiated from the staff’s gem that engulfed the party, rose them into the air, returned them to their normal forms, and plopped them haplessly back down. “Ooh,” moaned Leon as he suddenly felt extremely tired. “I think I’m going to go nappy time.” THWACK! “Ow!” Leon cried as he felt something painlessly smack loudly upon his back. Turning he noticed that Parker had brought his sword down upon him. “What was that for?” he angrily asked while still fighting his fatigue. “You’re not falling asleep on me!” the more aggressive Parker protested. “You’re not bailing out on me like you did during Sprites and Spires!” “Ooh!” awed Discord as he snaked around. “I think I now understand why Nixi wanted the weapons to not do any real damage. How interesting.” “Hey!” cried the mice as they used their tails, which both had their respective sun and moon symbols, to apparently draw a picture within a circle on the floor. BWUM! “Ta-da!” the happy mice cheered as they raised their hands and started to dance around the now gleaming floor marking. “You now go to next area!” “First I restore all your HP!” the one with the sun cheered as it ran around each of the party members. The action made yellow sparkles appear about the team the felt warm as they realized their health stats had been returned to maximum. PSHOOP! “My turn!” gleed the moon mouse as his brother dived into the shimmering circle. “I return your MP!” Before anyone could react the twin of the sun mouse did the exact same thing prior to bailing into the sparkling circle. However the sparkles that arose around each party member were blue and felt like one may after having been told the best news they had ever heard in their entire life. “Eeyup!” proclaimed Big Mac. “Now that’s more like it!” Spike felt about himself with growing glee at discovering he was back to his old scaly self. “So now what?” he asked. “I don’t know how much I trust those, uh, whatever-they-weres.” “Those were Pokemon!” cheered Parker and Leon in unison. “They are helpful cheerleader types!” “So do we follow after em’?” wondered Big Mac. “If it’s like any of our other games,” stated Parker. “Then we definitely should follow them into the rainbow portal.” “What about the treasure chest?” considered Discord as he snaked around it. “Shouldn’t we take a peek inside?” “I don’t know,” thought Spike as he approached the colorful and elaborately decorated chest. “It could be a mimic.” “No way!” barked Parker. “We beat a boss and that’s always a free pass at treasure!” “Perhaps you should open it, oh fearless leader?” suggested the draconequus. Spike thought for a moment. “Not before it is tested for traps,” he replied to his snake-like colleague. “Are you implying I waste some of my newly recovered MP to detect if this innocent chest is booby trapped?” he asked with a hint of displeasure. “I am,” Spike stated firmly. “You’re such a baby,” teased Discord while slithering about the gilded chest. “Whatever happened to rushing headlong into adventure?” The emerald-eyed dragon wasn’t going to hear it. “Is it trapped, or not, Captain Wuzz?” he inquired. Discord slithered away. “No,” he stated in a very agitated tone. “Now I’m out MP and you still have a box to open.” FLICK “Oof!” gasped Spike as he was flicked by the draconequus’ giant paw towards the chest. “Here goes.” KA-REEK THWUMP! SHING! “Ah!” Spike cried as a burst of bright yellow light greeted his eyes. He then fell back to a very unsuspected easy landing. There was a brief pause in the room as everyone looked towards Spike. “What?” he asked as he worked to get himself up. It felt a bit trickier to do so but his dedication to check inside the chest that was now without the bright light kept him from thinking twice about the odd waddle he had taken to. “I don’t see anything in here?” Spike leaned into the chest enough to raise his stubby legs and chubby tail into the air. This revealed a massively puffy diaper now adourning his waist. The way it crinkled as his feet scampered during his deeper search of the chest brought the rest of the party to burst into total laughter. “Huh?” the purple dragon asked from within the seemingly empty chest before losing his hold and plopping with a puff of powder upon the matted floor. “Whoops!” Discord grinned while pretending to be sorry. “It seems I must of rolled a ‘1’ in my checking for that particular trap.” “What do you…?” wondered Spike until he looked beneath his robes to see the hefty white garment that was made of plastic and featured pink frills at the leggings along with jeweled designs all around its cover. The entire team laughed. “Discord!” snarled Spike as he worked to get the diaper off. However his attempts were met with an odd ‘clicking sound’ that soon was followed by the fairy from earlier appearing and stating, “Cursed Diaper of Ultimate Protection: This item allows the wearer to fall any distance without taking damage while increasing defense by 10. However it cannot be removed until the end of the current adventure and is not applicable to additional quests nor can it be sold or transferred.” More laughing ensued. “Well,” shrugged Leon. “At least your one of us now.” Spike grew a very upset face as he gritted his teeth towards Discord. “You didn’t check,” he snarled. “Did you?” “Oh, but I did,” shrugged the draconequus as he flew over to inspect the garment his colleague was wearing. “Apparently Rubber blade, Safety Pants, and his mom have more influence on Spiketopia than I first thought?” “Or you just didn’t care,” spat Spike. “Hey,” stated Parker. “You can at least fall as far as you like without losing HP and have a ton of defense!” Spike failed to see the benefits as much as he saw himself looking far from a high level magician. “Wait!” cried Leon as he dove into the chest. “I found something!” SHWIP! “Ooh…,” awed Leon as it attached itself with a flash to his staff. “I wonder what-” The fairy appeared again. “Emerald of Influence: Able to make violent enemies into friends if used prior to engaging into an attack phase,” it said. “Defense plus 1 and Magic Power and Defense raised by 2.” “What about me?” grumped Parker as he leapt into the chest to find nothing except a bunch of baby powder at its bottom. “Perhaps the next one?” grinned Leon in his small victory as being ‘just the cleric’. “Right!” boomed Parker as he got out of the chest and ran for the glittering portal. PSHOOP! “Parker!” panicked Leon as he chased after his ebon twin. PSHOOP! “I guess that’s that,” stated Discord as he took hold of Spike and threw him into the circular portal. “Ah!” cried Garbunkle the Green and Padded before disappearing to wherever the gate lead to. “Are you with me, sir McBiggun?” asked the draconequus. Big mac nodded. “Eeyup!” he exclaimed before the remaining two party members entered the portal to wherever it may take them next on their glorious quest through Spiketopia.
Chapter 9 - The CraterThe portal instantly brought each of the party members into a wasteland that smelled strong of smoke and sulfur. “The Dragon lands?” wondered Spike. “We’ve been here before in Spiketopia.” “With your other crush,” added discord with a wink. “I’m not glorifying that with an answer!” blushed Spike as he tried to show great offense to his interest in Princess Ember. “Oh,” added the draconequus as he patted Spike upon his diapered bottom. “You just did.” “Hmmph!” the purple dragon huffed. “Look!” cried Parker as they peered down into a deep crater. The team gazed down to see another familiar face pacing about below. “Garble?” thought Spike. “He’s your bestie, right?” joked Discord. “You do know that I can turn you back into a statue in this world, right?” reminded Spike as he charged his magic. “Okay, okay,” the Master of Chaos pleaded while waving his hands in front of himself. “I don’t want the Element of Childhood bringing his tantrum-filled wrath upon me.” The remark reminded Spike of the diaper he had been cursed with and he blushed even more as he very desperately tried to hide it under his outfit. “You know,” thought Discord. “Since you two have such chemistry together I vote you go down there and show us how Garble fits into our little game this evening?” “Spike looked down to see the fall would definitely be one where he’d lose all his HP from the impact. “I suppose I could use my Owl’s Feather of Safe Falling…?” he considered. “Why bother?” further added Discord as he swatted Spike on his thickly padded rump. “EEp!” the purple dragon squeaked as he involuntarily bounced forward and started to fall towards the bottom of the crater. Parker, Leon, and Big Mac all glared at their rogue archer. “Oh, c’mon,” he scoffed while gesturing down to the ground below. “He’s just fine.” Sure enough, Spike was standing himself up amidst a giant white cloud. This appeared to get the attention of Garble who quickly approached to engage the mage in combat. “We need to help him!” proclaimed Leon. “Perhaps our diapers have the same effect as his?” thought Parker before taking a big leap over the edge. BYOO PLOP “Huh?” wondered the more daring of the two brothers as he found himself on his bottom back beside Discord and Leon. “How did I get back up here?” Leon thought as he watched his twin leap again over the cliff. BYOO PLOP! “What’s going on?” growled Parker as he found himself right back where he started. Something made Leon think to look at the Nixi plush he held. The eyes seemed like they were shimmering a bit. However it could just be the amount of open sunlight reflecting off of them. “You can ride with me,” suggested Big mac. “I have high stats for Dexterity and can get us down right quick.” The two ebon dragons got aboard Sir McBiggun as he started his descent down into the crater. “Blah,” shrugged Discord. “So much for watching our fearless leader in action.” *** “Well, well, well,” Garble ferociously glared as he noticed Spike appearing from within the cloud of baby powder. “If it isn’t the namby-pamby padded pony lover?” Spike was still trying to catch his breath after the fall. He thought he would’ve been turned into a spirit until the team resurrected him back. However here he was and looking up towards his dragon nemesis in as most embarrassing a position as could possibly ever be imagined. “I hate cute things!” stomped the red teenage dragon. “And you’re definitely too cute to not rip into far better looking shreds that I will incinerate with my fire breath!” BWARF! “Ah!” cried Spike as he barely rolled out of the way of Garble’s flaming assault. “Hold still!” demanded the agitated dragon as he opened his wings for effect. “It’s not like you can get away from me! You can’t even fly!” FWOO-SLASH! “Hey!” exclaimed the purple dragon wizard as he just ducked under a claw swipe by Garble. He was noticing that his reflexes were a bit slower. “This dumb diaper is messing with my reflexes!” “You won’t be worrying about that for much longer,” stated the assailant dragon while trying to pin Spike to the side of the crater. “Though I do hope you last long enough to be worth my time. You’ve been such a thorn in my scales that for you to just lose like the hatchling pony pal you are would be far too disappointing.” SLASH-SKRICH BWARF! Spike panicked to his feet as he tripped and stumbled to get his footing as quickly as the bulky diaper would allow him to. The sheer size of the plastic-shelled garment spread his stubby legs apart and made getting to his feet next to impossible. “Okay!” the purple dragon proclaimed upon finally getting his footing. “This isn’t Equestria, Garble, so I don’t have to be nice to you either!” WHOOO SHWEE “Ah!” the red dragon growled as he was encased in a pillar of ice. This did not last long before Garble freed himself in a cascade of melting crystalline shards. “That all you got!” boomed Garble. “What a joke!” Spike stared down his opponent and conjured all his magic to cast his ultimate spell. “You asked for it!” he announced. “Feel the full force of Garbunkle the Green!” Author's Note FUN NOTE: This story features a lot of little references to other fantasy games along with video games in general. So, if anyone has ever played a game like "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes" or "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" you'll understand exactly what is happening to Parker when he attempts to jump down the crater. :)
Chapter 11 - Refriending Princess EmberThe outcropping Big Mac was galloping towards turned out to be right in front of a massive cave that had an elaborate fortress built into it. “Here we go!” cried Sir McBiggun as Parker and Leon safely slipped off his back. FWOOP “Bring them on!” boomed Parker as he readied his samurai sword for combat against the cloud of colorful dragons swooping ever closer to them. “Wait!” insisted Leon as he leapt in front of his brother. “Leon!” barked Parker. “You’re the cleric! The ‘cleric’! Get behind us and start powering us up!” “No!” Leon snapped back as he raised his staff and firmly pressed the Nixi plush against his side. “I’ve got to do this!” “Do what?” baffled Parker with obvious annoyance. “Get yourself killed?” “Hold up,” interjected Discord. “Let safety Pants try whatever it is he wants to try.” “He’s going to die!” announced the angry ebon dragon. “Not for real,” dismissed Discord. “Spike and Big Mac, not to mention your mom, made me create this alternate dimension for play purposes where the worst outcome is being sent back to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Castle of Friendship.” “EEyup,” nodded Big Mac as he recalled how Discord had put them all in great peril during an arrow storm shot by the Squizzard’s henchmen. TING “Fine!” huffed Parker as he slapped his sword upon the stony ground. “Enjoy being by yourself in some froo-froo princess castle!” “You’re up,” grinned the draconequus as he slapped Leon on his padded bottom and sent him staggering forward. “Show them the power of…” Discord opened his palms, held them towards his sides, and made a rainbow appear to arch from hand to claw. “Friendship.” Leon narrowed his green eyes, lifted his staff, clenched the plushified Nixi, and called out, “Turn! Be our friends!” VRRRRRR “Ooh…,” awed Discord as a massive green light grew from Leon’s staff that burst out towards the flock of dragons. “Didn’t see that coming.” PA-CHOO PLOP-CRINKLE TICKA-TACKA Leon fell after the spell was cast. He was exhausted and obviously out of magic to do anything else. So he was pleasantly surprised when he opened his eyes to see a bunch of cartoon dragons smiling down upon him. “Hey,” said one. “What’s happening?” “Beats me,” another stated. “One moment I felt all depressed and hopeful to make some big red pony feel even more miserable and…” The dragons spotted Leon, Parker, and the rest of the team. “Oh!” another dragon chimed in. “You must be here to save Princess Ember!” “Huh?” wondered Parker as he noticed his fight was clearly not going to happen. “Who’s Princess Ember?” KA-CLICK CREEEEEK Everyone turned to see the entrance to the fortress in the cave was opening. An armored dragon carrying a staff with a blood-colored jewel emerged with a very infuriated look on her face. “I am!” she boomed. “How dare you challenge my dominance over my horde!” Parker drew his blade. “Ooh!” he gleed. “Boss battle!” “YANK “Hold up, Rubber Blade,” stated Discord as he took hold of one of Parker’s pink ear fins. “Why don’t we let Safety Pants try that little spell of his again?” Leon picked himself up and took the staff he dropped off the ground. “So… tired,” he moaned. “I’ve got some Aether Potions,” stated Sir McBiggun as he lit his horn and went about using up two of his magic restoration potions on Leon. “Alright!” cheered the ebon dragon as he felt awake again. “Now see the full power of the team cleric!” Parker folded his arms as Princess Ember awaited the robed challenger. “It was you!” she growled while grasping her staff in both hands. “You’ve made me so… so… MAD!” Leon gulped as he felt the final words of the tall blue dragon hit him like one of the speakers back at home when he or Parker would be listening to their movies too loudly. “Let’s be friends!” he proclaimed as confidently as he could muster while raising his staff. “Turn and be our friend!” VRRRRRR The emerald in the staff radiated with power and showed its brilliant light towards Princess Ember. SWACK! SHH-POP “Huh?” wondered Leon as he watched the infuriated princess use her scepter to hit the growing green light orb and send it flying away like a tee ball. STOMP! “DRAGONS DON’T DO FRIENDS!” she cried while quickly swiping her bloodstone scepter down upon Leon’s head. CRACK! The sound was heard but no pain was felt as Leon’s onesie quickly snapped open. “Ha!” announced the proud cleric. “You’ve been defeated for your weapon is powerless against me!” “Think again, short stuff!” growled Ember as she took a swipe at Leon in which the little dragon was quick to dodge. Perhaps a bit too quick. “Ha!” laughed Parker. “Since when did you start wearing Princess Mew-Mew training pants, Leon?” “Princess Mew-Mew…,” trailed Leon as he realized he was now no longer in his thick, comfy, dragon-print diaper and now wearing a very thin, pink pair of training pants that was adorned with cats and hearts.” “How do you feel now?” teased Ember. “You’re pathetic! You’re weak! You’re lesser than me!” Parker moved forward and charged his samurai sword with water and ice. “Just try that on me!” he dared. “I’ll cool you down and send you back to your mommy!” “Big talk from such a little dragon!” growled Ember as she seemed to charge the scepter with ethereal light. FWOOSH SHEE Parker felt as if a wind had been blown beneath his kimono after the bright flash of red light had resolved. Upon inspection he noticed that the fundoshi he was wearing had gone from being like a baby diaper to a simple and uncomfortable cloth version of itself. “Seems Safety pants and Rubber Blade have been defeated,” shrugged Discord. “Perhaps you’d like a go at her, Sir McBiggun?” “Provide me cover fire,” added the red Unicorn knight as he charged his horn and rushed forward. “Too weak!” announced Ember. “Not strong and tough! I’m strong! I’m tough! And I’m going to make sure nobody ever challenges my authority over all dragons ever again!” *** Spike huffed and puffed as he pulled himself up every possible shortcut the path had to offer away from the feral Garble. He swore he could hear some ominous music implying that the overpowered bully could pop out from anywhere at any second and he didn’t want to be anywhere along the small slopes, narrow edges, or caught trying to heft himself up to higher ground as the enchanted diaper served to make his legs useless while he swore the bulky thing was doing everything possible to tug him back down. *** Spike’s face was red with strain as he pulled himself up onto the areana-like platform that the rest of the team had already long been at. “SHEEE “And that’s all of you!” cried who Spike quickly recognized as Princess Ember. Garbunkle the Padded looked to see Ember’s back as he spotted a large mass of dragons looking like they had nothing better to do than shamble haplessly about like zombies. He also saw Parker and Leon appearing on the verge of crying as Big Mac appeared to be unable to stop talking and moving his hooves around wildly. This aspect was even more odd as Spike noticed that Big Mac wasn’t even moving his mouth. It was his voice but all he could do was wave his hooves around like they were under some sort of flailing enchantment. Discord didn’t look any better as he was standing on his feet and, strangely enough, was no longer a chaotic meshup. Instead he was symmetrical with claws, horns, and everything else about him being as non-chaotic appearing as the purple dragon had ever seen. “ember…?” Spike dared to question. “WHAT!” she snapped while turning about to see the exhausted hero barely keeping himself on his two feet. “Are you here to challenge my dominance over all dragons, too?” Spike felt his legs turn to jelly as he fell with a plop upon his diapered rump. He wasn’t ready to be yelled at in such a way and being as exhausted as he was didn’t help matters either. “A baby?” questioned the agitated princess. “What am I supposed to do with a baby? And a diaper? Dragons don’t do diapers! Dragons don’t do cute! Dragons don’t do everything you are doing! WHY DO YOU EXIST!” Spike pulled himself up and looked towards Ember. “What’s gotten into you, Ember?” he asked while still gathering his breath. “This isn’t how to be a good friend.” “ARGH!” she growled. “DRAGONS DON’T DO FRIENDS! Spike had noticed how Ember wasn’t acting like herself. He also realized he was somehow really getting under her nerves and making her open for an attack. “But what attack?” he thought as he slid on his crinkly bottom. It then came to him as he watched her wildly swing the scepter in her right hand. “That’s it!” “Now what?” questioned Ember as Spike wobbled to his feet and went with looking as all-out adorable as he could. “You’re everything a dragon is not! You shouldn’t even be a dragon! Why aren’t you running away!” “This is so humiliating,” thought Spike as he slid his claw into his mouth and started to toddle towards the infuriated princess. “No, no, no!” she boomed while swinging about the staff. “Wrong! Wrong! I’m not your mom! Go back to your mom! Why don’t you have wings! WHY CAN’T I DEPRESS AND BELITTLE YOU!” “Got her,” beamed Spike to himself as he faked a trip that had him land with a hug around Ember’s waist. “NO!” she growled while trying to shake off the ‘baby dragon’. “YOU DON’T EVEn HAVE WINGS! YOU ARE PROBABLY ALL WET! WHY WON’T YOU BACK DOWN TO ME!” YOINK SHWIP! With a skillful series of motions, Spike managed to take the Bloodstone Scepter from Ember and was now standing in front of her. His eyes grew in size as the scepter’s crystal let loose a ring of yellow light. WHOOSH Ember backed up as Spike pointed the scepter towards her. “As Dragon Lord, I command you to be friendly and nice again!” he proclaimed. “Ungh!” groaned Ember as she fell to her knees and a cloud of black fog rose from her body and dissipated into nothingness. Spike proudly twirled the Bloodstone Scepter in his claw before allowing it to slip down his claw and tap upon the stone ground. “I still got it,” he thought proudly.
Chapter 12 - Ultra Boss: Ashen GarbleBZZT-CHICK BZZT-TICK! “You did it!” the twin mice from before cheered after appearing from a pair of lightning bolts that struck the ground. “Congratulations!” Spike watched as the moon and sun decorated rodents went about restoring the HP and MP of the party prior to holding hands in an open space away from everyone else. “Ready?” the sun one asked. “Ready!” the moon mouse replied. Both mice started to spark and glow with electrical energy until another massive bolt of lightning came down beside them to reveal an ornate treasure chest. “I open fortress door now!” the lunar mouse cheered as he glew with power and exploded in a shower of sparks towards the gate Ember had come in through. PANG! CRASH! “Oh!” the sun mouse chirped. “Don’t forget you unlocked the super-ultra-mega boss! He’s on his way right now!” BZZT BOOM! The rodent followed after his brother and disappeared into the fortress built into the cave. “What do you suppose-” pondered Spike until the answer suddenly flew and landed before him. FWOOM-FWIP CRUNCH “Puny pony lover,” droned the ashen Garble as he positioned himself directly in front of Spike. His claws, teeth, and talons were now radiating purple mist as fire truly seemed to be coming out of his eyes. “Waah!” cried Spike as he found himself on his padded bottom. “Spike…,” deadpanned Garble as he prepared to reach down and finish what he tried to start earlier. SWACK! CRACK-SLICE-CRACK! “Huzzah!” cried Parker as he launched into a fierce offensive against Dark Garble. “Super boss means super bonus!” Spike turned to see that the entire party had been returned to normal by the mice. “Grah!” growled Garble upon taking sight of his samurai sword wielding opponent. Parker had the sword enchanted with water and ice and appeared ready to net himself a big fat experience bonus for taking down such a powerful enemy. “Shouldn’t we have tried the whole ‘friendship thing’?” asked Leon as he moved alongside Spike and helped him to his feet. “NO!” boomed Parker while dodging fierce swipes, kicks, and fire blasts from Garble. “This time we do it my way!” “Well,” stated discord as he prepped his bow. “I’m sure not being left out on this fun.” FWIP WHOOSH PANG! The arrow Discord shot was enchanted with ice and started to freeze over Garble after it bounced off his back. “OOwah,” stumbled the feral bully before igniting himself with blue flames. “Crush.” May want to fire another one,” suggested Big Mac. “That could be fun,” considered Discord. “My bow can let me launch three at a time and I’d love to see how Nixi’s, uh, ‘edits’ alter the effect.” FWIP-FWI-FWIP PAP-AP-BAP “Oowah,” moaned Garble as his body started to nearly completely cover itself in ice from the marksmanship of Captain Wuzz. “Alright!” cried Parker as he prepared his samurai sword to deliver the finishing blow. “Time to go all to pieces!” “Careful!” called Leon. “Super bosses don’t-” Parker was now in the air with his sword drawn behind his back in preparation to deliver a mighty downward slash. “You worry too much!” he barked back. “Grah,” fumed Garble as he broke free of his icy prison and swiped ferociously towards the incoming ebon dragon. TEAR “Oof!” gasped the once confident samurai as he was now on his belly with a fully-abled super boss looming above him. “Destroy puny dragon,” deadpanned Garble as he went to pluck Parker from the ground. Fortunately, all he got was the tattered remains of the kimono that had protected the daring young dragon from taking a massive hit moments earlier. “Leon!” cried Parker as he scurried back. “Help!” Leon gulped as he realized the overpowered Garble was now towering over both himself and Spike. GALLOP-GALLOP THWA-PAM! “Ooh-ooh-gwoo,” moaned Garble as he was sent rolling backwards by a mighty buck delivered by sir McBiggun. “Did that do it?” wondered Spike. FWRISH! Garble’s wings expanded and even more purple energy started to radiate from him. “Nope,” stated Big Mac as he went about lighting his horn. His magic could improve his physical attacks and defense but he didn’t believe he could buck this particular boss into submission. “Wait!” cried Spike as he recalled now holding the Bloodstone Scepter. He then swished it outward as he commanded, “Be gone and never come back!” Ashen Garble stumbled a bit as the fire left his eyes. However the purple energy around him continued to grow and his teeth, claws, and talons only grew longer and sharper. “Hey!” proclaimed Leon while raising his staff up. “Perhaps we need to do this together?” FWOOSH SWAT “Ow!” moaned Big Mac as he was slashed by Garble. The attack didn’t actually ‘hurt’ as much as it caused his HP to drop to near zero while knocking him flat and unable to quickly get to his feet. “Nothing to lose,” stated Spike as he nodded towards Leon. PSHOOO VRRRR The stone on the Bloodstone Scepter glew as Leon’s emerald on his staff shined a brilliant green. “GO AWAY!” commanded Spike as he released the energy of the scepter. “And stop being such a meanie!” added Leon while putting all the magic powerhe he could into sending out the power of the Emerald of Influence on his staff. VRRSSHHH! The ethereal power of both staffs mixed together to create a beam that slammed into Garble. This resulted in him groaning and moaning as the purple energy seemed to evaporate from his body as he started to return to normal. PLOP-CRINKLE CRINKLE-PLOP Spike and Leon both fell on their padded bottoms after using up so much magic. Leon was also reminded quite quickly of how the training pants he was cursed with provided him little buffer from the rocky ground. FWUMP Garble fell over in a heep. “What…,” he gasped. “What happened.” “We’ve been saved by Garbunkle The Green and his friends,” stated Princess Ember as she moved ahead to aid the once cursed dragon up. “So you owe everyone here a big thank you.” Garble scoffed but knew he couldn’t push his luck with the princess. “Thanks…,” he said before unfurling his wings and heading back down into the crater. “He’ll get with it one day,” groaned Ember as she reached out towards Spike to reclaim her scepter. “I don’t know what happened nor why you’re wearing a diaper but I must say you wearing one doesn’t help your overall standing with the dragons of Spiketopia.” Spike burned red with embarrassment. “Well…,” he pouted. “It’s a curse and I can’t get it off.” “Hmm,” she thought while knowing for a fact she wasn’t going to touch such a thing. It was beneath her and her title. WHOOSH! “I command one of you to remove the diaper from Garbunkle this instant!” she boomed towards the other dragons while charging the power of the Bloodstone Scepter. *** Discord and Big Mac couldn’t help but laugh as multiple dragons did an array of things to remove the enchanted diaper from Spike. However none were successful and each was given a bit of a scolding by Ember for their lack of success. “I should make Garble do it,” she spat. “He’s the sort who’d fit right in a froo-froo diaper.” “That’s okay,” whimpered Spike as he was still recovering from being flipped, spun,pulled, and tugged by the horde. He was pretty sure Garble wouldn’t be anywhere near as ‘gentle’ as the other dragons and he had a feeling he had lost some HP as a result of one, or two, thinking that tossing him down on the ground was the key to success. “Didn’t the fairy say that the diaper couldn’t be removed until the end of our quest?” reminded Leon. “What quest?” asked Ember. “You know what? Just forget it! I’ll get this job done!” FSHOOO With anger in her eyes, Ember charged the Bloodstone Scepter and proclaimed, “REMOVE YOURSELF THIS MOMENT!” SNAP-PEEL PEEL-SNAP Spike gasped as the diaper untaped itself and gave him the first taste of fresh air in his midsection in quite awhile. “That’s how it’sdone!” the Princess declared to the horde. “Now let’s leave Garbunkle and the rest of these guys to their business and find an actual source of gems for our dinner!” The dragons watched as Princess Ember opened her wings and took to the skies. They all soon did the same and followed after their Dragon Lord. All except for Garble who was still somewhere down in the crater doing who knows what. “Umm,” blushed Leon. “As you didn’t use that diaper could I have it?” “Sure,” replied Spike. “I’ll even help you put it on.” “Hey!” cried Parker. “That should be my diaper!” “Oh, how cute,” cooed Discord. “Fighting over an infant’s undergarment.” Parker drew his sword. “It’s mine!” he threatened. “This fundoshi is annoyingly uncomfortable and you know that!” POOF PLOP Discord appeared over Parker and used a finger to get him to sit down. “Tsk-tsk,” he said playfully. “What would your mother think?” “Yeah, Parker,” stated Leon. “That wasn’t very nice.” POOF-SHOO Discord dressed himself in a black business suit as he held a briefcase in one of his paws. “As acting parent I say that Leon gets the diaper and, despite you being a meanie, you can have Leon’s training pants,” he dictated in an authoritative voice. “But…,” moaned Parker. “No buts, young man,” finger-wagged Discord. “It’s this, or nothing.” “So unfair,” Parker pouted as the team went about ‘changing’ their equipment in preparation for what awaited them on the other side of the fortress gate. Author's Note Anyone guess yet that Garble is a take on "Nemesis" from Resident Evil 3 and the mice are fun variants on "Plusle" and "Minun" of Pokémon?
Chapter 13 - Of Gifts and Gripes“So what do you see?” inquired Parker as Spike stuck his hand into the total darkness that awaited past the gate. “I think it’s a sort of portal,” the purple dragon replied while realizing how his claw just vanished without any sort of lighting transition upon placing it into the void. “I vote Leon goes first,” smirked Parker. “He’s totally not afraid of the dark.” “Hey!” cried the ebon twin. “You’re the one who is aching for a fight. You should go in first.” “Who has the defense-up diaper on?” glared Parker as he tugged on the frilly Mew-Mew training pant that was all that remained of his ‘armor’. “I doubt I have more than a +1 to defense with this pathetic thing on me!” Big Mac rolled his eyes as the two went at each other in childish banter over who should do what and who’s being a cheater along with other things. FWEET! Everyone turned as they saw Discord holding a coach’s whistle. “What about the big treasure chest over here?” he inquired while gesturing towards the ornate box . “Don’t you think we should open it up and see what’s inside?” “I vote ‘No’,” replied Spike with folded arms. Discord slithered himself towards Spike. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Garbunkle?” he asked despite knowing the answer. “I’m sure I can’t roll a 1 twice when checking for traps.” “Why don’t you open it?” growled Spike as he stared down discord. “You like chaos and I’m sure more chaos would only be a benefit to you, Captain Wuzz.” “Perish the thought,” waved off the draconequus. “You do realize I not only have the best equipment for my character class but also a ‘Princess Wish’ that allows me to fabricate anything I could ever need.” “You mean you used the special rule of anything you can do out of game you can do in the game?” Big Mac asked rhetorically. “Hate the game,” shrugged Discord as his smile widened. “Not the player.” “I say Leon should open it,” stated Parker. “He’s already hogging all the best stuff so why not let him have more?” “Not true!” the cleric snapped back. POOF-SHOO “We have one vote for Leon to open the chest,” tallied Discord on a chalkboard he fabricated. “Any other votes?” “Forget it!” boomed Leon. “I’ll be the ‘bigger’ brother and just open it!” “What’s that supposed to mean?” growled Parker. Leon approached the chest and released the latch to open it. “It means Nixi will know who won’t get milk and cookies tonight because he’s being a potty head!” he replied. FWOO-THUNK BUB-BUB-UBBLE-GUSH “Wah!” cried Leon as a pink substance snaked itself out of the chest and bore itself down into the front of the diaper he had just gotten from Spike. “What’s happening!” GURGLE-BUB-GUSH Everyone watched as the pink gel oozed into Leon’s diaper. This changed its color while also appearing to put some sort of status effect on him as his color scheme went from black and purple to pink and red. BLUB-GUB TWINKLE-TWINKLE The fairy appeared above Leon. “HP and MP restored and increased by 50%,” she said matter-of-factly. “Defense +20- but status condition ‘Toddle-Waddle’ now in effect.” “Ha-ha!” teased Parker as Leon’s visible body was as girly as the training pants he had gotten from his brother. “You’ve been served!” Leon went to tackle his brother but found his footing quickly hindered as he tripped and magically spun about in the air to fall on the diaper that was now grey in color with black tabs and a purple landing zone. The team couldn’t help but laugh as Leon tried over-and-over to get up quickly and dart towards his snickering brother. However the ‘Toddle-Waddle’ condition appeared to make it so all he could do was walk like a duck at a very slow, awkward, and off-balanced way. “This isn’t funny!” whined Leon. “How can I do anything when I’m like this?” “Try one of your cleric spells,” replied Parker as he scurried to see if there was anything left in the chest. “I’m out of MP!” cried Leon towards his ebon brother. “Perhaps you could do something to help me as, like you’d put it, every party needs a cleric and you’d be so dead without me!” Parker scurried into the treasure chest and was quite disappointed when all he found was a blue-colored trading card with the word ‘Donate’ written on it. “How stupid!” he grumped. “Who’d want a magic card that gives non-party members your stuff!” Leon pulled himself to his feet and managed to achieve a degree of balance. “So tight,” he moaned while unbuttoning his onesie. It was properly snapped on after Spike had helped him with his new ‘armor’ but the chest caused its special effect to triggerand flop open until the danger had cleared. It then refastened after the fairy had informed everyone of what had happened. “Hey, bro!” stated Parker. “How about I give you this magic card in exchange for that onesie? You clearly don’t need whatever armor bonus it gives.” “Fine,” pouted Leon as he realized how the onesie genuinely did make it harder to move. Not that taking it off helped a lot but every bit of flexibility was good. “Hold my robe.” *** Discord, Spike, and Big Mac just waited patiently as the brothers went about griping throughout their exchange. “Good thing I have my healin’ potions,” stated Big Mac as he used his entire supply on himself and Spike. He was also able to remotely use them on Parker and Leon but they were too busy in their own affairs to realize their HP was recovered. “Got anything for lost MP?” asked Spike. “Just three,” the fighter-class pony replied while using them to replenish most of Spike and Leon’s MP. “What about you?” asked Spike towards Discord. “You have any healing items?” “Alas I do not,” the draconequus replied. “All my storage is dedicated to enchanted arrows, fanciful teas, and animal charming items.” Spike rolled his eyes. “And you get on my case about Rarity,” he stated in a bothered tone. “What do you call your thing with Fluttershy?” Discord’s eyes went wide as he grew a most ponderous expression across his face. “We’re just friends, of course!” he replied enthusiastically as he moved alongside Spike and tugged at one of his ear fins. “And, if it were something, it’d have more of a chance than your childish crush on Rarity.” Big Mac sighed as now two pairs of party members were acting up. “Don’tcha’ think we should get moseying on,” he said while trotting towards the dark opening. ROAR! FWOOM! “LOSERS!” cried Garble as he shot up from below the crater and into the sky. PUMPF-CLICK Everyone was snapped out of their respective actions as they spotted a small treasure chest lying open on the ground. “Don’t no one bother bickerin’,” stated Big Mac as he approached the box. “I’ll check it out.” “What’s inside?” worried Spike. “Looks like some magical artifacts,” replied the armored red Earth Pony. “I have a ‘Detect Effect’ spell I can use to determine if they are any sort of buff-” BZZT ZAP-CHOO “No need!” the twin rodents announced cheerfully after appearing from a ball of electricity that sparked in-and-out of existance. “Them again?” shrugged Discord. “I’m getting a little tired of this overly cute mouse thing.” “Artifacts for Sir McBiggun, Garbunkle the Green, and Safety Pants!” chirped the moon mouse. “Make all spells cost only 1 MP!” cheered the Celestia’s Sun mouse. CLAP! “We go now!” they said in unison as they clapped their little paws together. They then bent over, shook their rumps at the party, and pulled off some bizarre reverse lightning bolt to make their exit. “Did anyone feel like we got healed when they did that taunt?” pondered Spike as he realized his stats were maxed out. “I’d rather not think on it,” stated Big Mac. “Yeah…,” trailed Discord. “Perhaps bringing your friend Leon along wasn’t such a good idea.” Spike didn’t know what to say until he suddenly felt the urge to throw up. BWARF! Fire burst from Spike’s mouth before turning into a scroll. “Got it!” called Discord before quickly reading it. “It says, ‘Dear Everyone: It’s getting past Leon and Parker’s bedtime. Therefore I ask you return them home after you finish what is behind the gate. No stalling or I’ll end the game myself. Yours, Nixi.’.” Spike, Discord, and Big Mac appeared confused as Leon and Parker simply appeared upset. “Ah, mom!” they moaned. BWARF! Another letter burst from Spike’s mouth that was retrieved by Discord. “’No buts, young drakes’,” he read as a very curious look appeared on his face. “Now how is she doing this if I turned her into a plush…?” BWARF! “Stop asking questions!” gasped Spike as he tried to recover from having a third letter forced out of him. “Let’s just go!” Discord plucked the letter and read it. “What’s it say?” the twins asked. CHAR-CRISP Discord incinerated the letter into nothing. “Words not intended for children,” he growled. “Let’s just finish this adventure.” Spike equipped the magical sapphire pendant from inside the chest, Big mac placed the enchanted sapphire ring on his horn, and Leon slipped the ethereal jewel into an open slot on his staff. “Onward!” cried Discord as he rushed into the void. His eagerness making everyone else stare towards the Nixi plush in fear of something going on that the draconequus was holding back from them. However it appeared as it always had with Leon cradling it against his side. “Alright,” shrugged Big mac. “Let’s get a move on.” The team entered into the darkness beyond the gate with many thoughts on what could possibly be waiting on the other side.
Chapter 14 - The Final BossThe party found themselves all standing within a large chamber that had an immense iron gate located ahead both on the left and right. To its center was a series of stairs which lead to a circular platform made of marble. “There it is!” cried Leon. “Just as we learned on our way down here!” Leon looked at the plush version of Nixi while his brother admired the shimmering alter at the raised platform’s center. “This was quite a quest!” he cheered. “Wasn’t I totally awesome against all those alligator warriors?” “Eeyup!” agreed Big Mac with a nod. “What about how I defeated a Glaremaster?” beamed Spike. “Those things can cast hundreds of spells at once but this awesome pendant allowed me to use all of my high level magic and totally take it down!” Discord rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he spat with disbelief. “We all just showed up in this room! There were no alligator warriors and you never took down a Glaremaster!” The party looked with confusion towards the draconequus. “Oh, c’mon!” he scoffed. “If you believe all that I have a plot of land in Pony Land to sell you!” Everyone blinked while exchanging baffled expressions. “You don’t remember solving those puzzles with your enchanted bow?” questioned Parker. “You were the one who made the ice platform bridges to get us to the Master Key for this dungeon.” Added Leon. TING Discord suddenly caught a flicker of light from the Nixi plush’s eyes. It gave him a most unsettling feeling. “Something wrong, Captain Wuzz?” asked Leon upon noticing Discord’s long face as he stopped hovering in the air and had genuinely allowed his feet to touch the ground. “Your mother,” he groaned. “What about her?” Parker glared. “Yeah,” added Spike. “What’s up, Wuzz?” Discord sighed and waved a paw towards the alter before them. “Let’s just get this over with,” he said. *** Leon and Parker knew it had to be the two of them to place the Nixi plush on the alter in order to complete their quest. However they were surprised when an unseen force field kept the rest of the party from even touching the first step. “I have a bad feeling, Parker,” worried Leon as he steadied himself in front of the sparkling alter. “You worry too much!” snapped Parker as he worked to quickly place Nixi upon the alter. FWUM! “Wha?” both brothers said as they stumbled backwards. Leon fell on his padded bottom as a result of the negative effects of the ‘Toddle Waddle’ status effect he was still bewitched with. CHING! CRASH! CHING-CRASH! “The iron gates!” cried Spike as he noticed monsters starting to crash through the broken bars that were located to the left and right of the raised platform. CRASH-UMBLE! BWAR! Leon felt himself slide back towards an invisible barrier at the marble platform’s edge as a huge minotaur burst through the wall located behind the alter. “Ha!” cried Parker. “I knew we wouldn’t be cheated out of an epic boss fight!” *** As Parker got thrilled at the upcoming battle, Spike, Discord, and Big Mac had some quick thinking to do. “What’s the deal!” growled Discord upon realizing he couldn’t get past the barrier leading up to the final boss. “We have more pressing things to worry about!” shouted Spike as a grouping of brown-colored monsters with axes for hands raged towards them from the left. “EEyup!” gulped Big Mac as lizard warriors wielding clubs charged from the right. “I got the left and you get the right?” asked Spike while preparing to use the power of his pendant. “EEyup!” nodded Big Mac while utilizing the ring on his horn to cast a series of attack and defense buffs upon himself. “What about me?” whined Discord while Sir McBiggun and Garbunkle started using their virtually limitless powers to beat back the hordes of menacing monsters that were attempting to flank them. Spike crashed a series of ice meteors upon a wave of axe wielders before replying, “Find a way to help Safety Pants and Rubber Blade!” “Blech,” grumped the draconequus while watching Leon struggle back to his feet and Parker charge his blade with elemental energy. “How anti-climatic.” *** “I think it’s just us!” cried Leon who was very thankful he could use the invisible barrier to aid in getting back to his feet. “GWAR!” boomed the minotaur as it raised its hammer to attack the little dragons. “That’s fine!” announced Parker. “You have all the MP in the world and can keep boosting me up while I take this guy down!” Leon gulped as he watched an exchange between his brother and the minotaur. Parker managed to land a few strikes on its leg but a swipe from the boss monster’s hammer sent the samurai flying against the invisible barrier. “Heal me!” commanded Parker. Leon did as told while also adding as many elemental protection spells as he could think of to aid his brother. SLASH-SLASH SWISH-FWUM BWAP! “Oof!” groaned Parker as he found himself, yet again, being launched back into the barrier. His HP, as before, was almost gone. “Heal me!” barked Parker. Leon did as he was asked and kept going about this process four, or twelve, more times. “Ah!” cried Parker. “Only a single HP left!” Leon raised his staff and healed his ebon twin while putting even more enchantments on him for attack and defense. “You can use your magic to see how much HP and stuff the minotaur has, right?” Parker asked with a growl. “See how close I am to beating this thing!” The discolored dragon used his magic to cast a spell to get the information he knew would help them towards victory. SHING! The fairy appeared above the minotaur as it stated, “Magna Minotaur. HP994,124 of 1,000,000. MP 25,000 / 25,000. Flame Element. Weak Against Water and Ice.” Both boys gulped. “Did she just say this thing had one million HP?” panicked Leon. “It also says I barely dented it!” whined Parker. “And I’ve been using water and ice with my samurai sword!” GWOOR! SLAM-CLANG! FWOOF! “Ah!” cried Leon as a jet of fire rushed from the hammer’s impact straight towards him. He then flipped in the air and found himself landing comfortably on his enchanted padded bottom. “What?” baffled Parker. “You didn’t take any damage?” Leon shrugged. “No…,” the currently pink and red colored cleric replied. “Didn’t feel a thing.” CLANG-FWOOM! The minotaur struck again with Parker taking the full assault of his fiery blast. This made the samurai dragon flip onto his bottom as he realized he was, yet again, at the verge of finding his HP at zero. “What gives?” he moaned while Leon instinctively healed him. “You cheat! How are you not taking damage?” “I’m not cheating!” defended Leon. “I haven’t cast a single defense spell on myself because I’ve been busy keeping you from getting a big game over!” SLAM-WHISH “Yikes!” both boys yelped in near unison as the minotaur hit his hammer on the ground and released an energy pulse that flew like a wave towards the young dragons. “Argh!” groaned Parker as he was pressed against the invisible shield prior to landing on his diapered rump. “Whoah!” gasped Leon while he nearly hit the ceiling before freefalling straight down to yet another safe landing on his crinkle-covered butt. “How aren’t you taking damage?” griped Parker. “Give me your cloak!” Leon didn’t have much choice as his brother stripped him of his robe and placed it upon himself over the onesie and training pants he already had on. “Let’s do this!” boomed Parker as Leon just healed him to, once more, engage the minotaur. BAP! BWOOM! “How!” the sibling pouted. “How am I always getting knocked down to almost zero HP?” “Perhaps there’s another way we are supposed to defeat this boss?” suggested Leon. Parker eyed Leon’s diaper that had changed his brother’s colors thanks to the odd goo from the earlier treasure chest. “Gimme!” he demanded while trying to remove the grey and black diaper from his brother. However it would not give in to Parker’s pulls nor tugs. SLAM-FWOOM! “Eep!” both boys cried as the minotaur’s fire attack hit both of them. Parker found himself flipped and dropped to two HP as Leon spun in the air and fell gracefully having taken no damage. “This is stupid!” tantrummed Parker. “How do we win?” Leon healed his brother as he noticed the card he had gotten from earlier was now lying on the floor before them. “I may have an idea,” he stated thoughtfully as he read the text upon the magic card. “Here goes nothing.”
Chapter 15 - The Boss BabySNAP-SNAP-SNAP PYOO-CRASH-FWOOM Spike was smiling from ear-to-ear upon realizing how simply he could cast all his best spells in rapid succession. All it took was a stylish snap of his fingers to create a barrage of meteors, pillars of flame, torrents of water, and just about any other spell, or mix of spells, to keep the enemy back. “Show off,” pouted Discord while reluctantly drawing his bow. BAP! WUMP! BWAM! Big Mac was looking like a trained wrestler as he bucked, slammed, and pile drived the lizard warriors. Each wave coming out received a generous dose of attack, speed, and defense down buffs as Sir McBiggun only made all his stats stronger so he could effortlessly defeat the lizards. He’d even take a few of their clubs and use his Unicorn magic to swat them like baseballs back into the oncoming horde. “And I am supposed to find a way to break the barrier,” griped the draconequus as he finally took interest in his task at hand. It wasn’t long before he spotted a series of lit plates above where the barred doors once were. “Hmm,” he thought as he took in how gleefully Spike was thrashing the axe-wielding monsters. “I wonder…?” Discord loaded his bow with three arrows and let them loose towards the plates that shined above the opening that continued to pour out brown furry axe monsters. FWA-SHOO TICK-TI-ICK FWU-CRASH! Discord gleed as a huge stone slammed down to block the monsters from getting past the once open gate. Spike had his eyes closed as he did a dance to match his finger snaps that caused all his spells to go off without a hitch. However he was soon defeating nothing and totally unaware all the axe-wielders were gone. “Ahem!” coughed Discord. Spike kept singing and dancing as more magic just kept going off on the left side of the room. “Don’t do it, Spikey-Wikey!” “Huh?” the purple dragon gasped as his ear fins caught what sounded like Rarity’s voice. “Rarity?” Discord poofed himself in front of the lovestruck dragon. “Sorry,” he said quite unapologetically. “I just thought you’d like to know the monsters are gone and you don’t need to keep up that ridiculous song and dance number anymore.” Spike blushed. “Oh,” he nervously twitched. “I suppose not.” Discord readied his bow while taking to the air. “I’ll leave you hear to finish your fantasy within a fantasy,” he teased. “Sir McBiggun will be joining us soon.” The thrill of being so awesome was fading from Spike as he sighed, “Right.” *** The menacing minotaur was preparing to slam down its hammer once more as Leon held the ‘Donate’ magic card outward. “Lets see how you handle this!” he proclaimed while taking ahold of his enchanted diaper. “I donate my diaper to the minotaur!” FWIPISH! CUSH! FWUMP “Gwor!” roared the boss monster as it began to change colors as a result of the cursed diaper being firmly fastened to its waist. Its body colors, as like with Leon, were transferred to the diaper and replaced with tints of pink and red as the diaper colored itself in the greys and browns that were once dominating the minotaur’s body. “Why’d did you do that?” Parker asked with disbelief. Leon quickly took his robes back from his brother to make sure he wasn’t ‘exposed’. He also noticed his color had returned to match his twin’s purple and black. “Because,” grinned Leon. “Just look at him?” Parker gazed outward to see that the minotaur couldn’t get to its feet at all. It was having a tough time even keeping hold if its menacing hammer. “Ha!” he laughed. “Now I can take it down without worrying about being attacked!” Leon shrugged as he started to feel a bit uncomfortable having no padding between his legs. “I’m ready to go home,” he said to himself while enchanting his brother with elemental power to fight the ‘Toddle-Waddle’ effected boss monster. *** “Eeyup!” celebrated Big Mac once the last of the lizard warriors were defeated. WHUM “There!” cried Spike as he pointed to a giant button that suddenly appeared above the shielded central platform. “I think that will take down the force field!” “On it,” grinned Discord while preparing three more arrows to trigger the switch. THWOOM CLI-ICK-CLICK POOM! A flash of light made its way down the invisible shield. “You first, Garbunkle,” Discord stated while shoving Spike forward. “Hey!” the purple dragon cried as he awaited the face-first collision with the barrier. However there was none. “Alright!” cheered Spike as he headed up the stairs. “Let’s take down that…” The young dragon cut himself off as he spotted the hapless minotaur barely able to do anything as it noisily wiggled about on the marble platform. Rubber Blade was swatting at it ferociously with his enchanted samurai sword as Safety Pants appeared uncomfortable as he stood by the alter with Nixi’s plush. “Yeah…,” shrugged Discord. “Let’s just get this over with.” “EEyup…,” agreed Big Mac with a shrug. *** “Hey,” greeted Spike as he stood alongside Leon. “What’s going on.” The young ebon dragon stared at the plush on the pedestal and replied, “I just want to go home.” “Do you know what happened to the boss?” asked Big Mac. Leon blushed. “I used the ‘Donate’ card to give it my diaper and now it can’t move just like I couldn’t move,” he replied while making sure he was standing as close to the alter as possible. “It still has over 1,000,000 HP due to the HP bonus the diaper granted along with the extra defense that my brother fails to see is making his attacks do nothing.” “Hmm,” thought the red Unicorn. “Perhaps if we put all our powers together?” SCHING! The entire team felt the effects of Sir McBiggun’s speed, attack, and defense buffs while he went about casting similar spells on the minotaur to lower its stats. “Can you power us up with your elemental magic?” asked Spike. “Oh,” nodded Leon while using his sapphire crystal to improve the abilities of Discord, Big Mac, and Spike so they were extremely strong against the minotaur. “Ready?” asked Spike as he raised a hand to start snapping off spell-after-spell. “EEyup!” agreed Big Mac while running to join Parker. “This quest can’t end soon enough,” griped Discord as he readied his ice arrows. “Time to call it a night!” *** Thanks to the rule that Nixi had added at the adventures onset no party member could hurt another. So it was a ballistic barrage of sword swipes, enchanted arrows, magical spells, and physical assaults that pounded the flailing minotaur until he lost the last of his HP and became nothing more than a cascade of pinkish-red confetti. “Woop!” cheered Parker. “Now that’s how it’s done!” Spike smiled. “That was a lot of fun,” he added. “I wonder if we’ll be able to keep these special sapphires after this adventure ends?” “I’m afraid not,” a female voice spoke. SHING CA-CLOP-CLOP “Momma!” cheered Leon as he delighted in seeing his caretaker return to normal. “You’re okay!” “Of course, sweetie,” the white Unicorn cooed while nuzzling the ebon dragon. “And I’m very proud of you for being so smart. You really made the difference in ensuring this quest got done before bedtime.” “Hey!” moaned Parker. “What about me? I was pretty awesome, too!” Nixi giggled. “That you were,” she said. “However you need to be a little bit more thoughtful as ordering your brother around and just carelessly running into danger is not a good idea.” Discord’s eyes narrowed as he zipped towards Nixi. “I have a bone to pick with you,” he stated so only the caretaker could here. “Oh, really?” she asked in response while growing a wide smile. “I’m afraid I don’t have time for your silly antics right now. Perhaps another time?” Discord went to use his chaos magic to teleport himself and Nixi to another part of the room. However he soon found his hands frozen in place by the mare’s magic. “We’ll be in touch,” she said. “Time to go home, boys!” Leon continued to cuddle into Nixi as Parker pouted his way back towards their caretaker. SHING POOM-OOF “There gone,” gasped Spike. “I thought only you were able to take us out of these alternate worlds, Captain Wuzz?” The draconequus said nothing. His mind was filled with many thoughts on how Nixi had managed to manipulate ‘his’ game while breaking every single one of his chaotic actions. “She played me,” he growled lightly. “Nobody is supposed to get the best of Discord!” Spike appeared confused as he walked towards the disgruntled draconequus. “Is everything alright?” he asked. “It seems I made an error in judgment,” he replied simply. “We’re not inviting your friend to play ever again!” “What?” wondered Spike. “Game’s over,” grumped Discord as he prepared to return everyone back to The Castle of Friendship. “Let us not talk of this night and those who accompanied us ever again.” Big Mac appeared confused as Spike tried to get a solid read on Discord. He could be quite moody at times but this was far from the Discord he had ever known. “Was it Nixi?” wondered Spike. SHOOM! Spike gasped as Discord flew towards him, wrapped around his body, and glared at him with burning eyes. “Never mention ‘that’ name again,” he growled before snapping his fingers. The mission was over and all had returned to their rightful places.
Chapter 16 - Today's Lesson“…And that is why teamwork is so important,” cooed Nixi as she smiled at her two baby dragons as they lied on opposite sides of her bed. Leon and Parker both took a moment to try and figure out what had just happened. “Wait…,” pondered Leon. “Weren’t we just in a dungeon fighting a giant minotaur?” “Yeah…,” gasped Parker. “I totally kicked its butt!” Nixi chuckled as she used her magic to bring the blankets over the three of them. “Oh,” she smiled. “I think my little boys fell asleep while mommy was telling her bedtime story.” Leon and Parker exchanged a look. “But…,” grasped Parker. “It felt so real.” Nixi took her hoof and rubbed it around Leon’s twin. “That’s what good storytelling does,” she stated. “It helps you have great dreams and wonderfully imaginative ideas.” Leon yawned as he checked to see that he was in his onesie and wearing a cozy nighttime diaper. “I suppose,” he replied while getting himself comfortable alongside his caretaker. Parker let out a yawn as, he too, realized he was in his onesie and night diaper. “Okay,” he conceded while nuzzling himself on Nixi’s opposite side. “I hope I get more of that dream.” “You will,” grinned Nixi as she used her magic to turn off the lights. She then magically activated a constellation-projecting night lite that played a lulling tune. It wasn’t long after that both Leon and Parker fell asleep. “Good boys,” she cooed while levitating a piece of paper and a pen in front of herself. After writing something upon the parchment, Nixi magically cut a tiny hole in the air and slid the letter through it. “And good night to you, too, Discord,” she giggled as she snuggled Leon and Parker against her warm white coat before joining them in slumber land. *** POOF! “Now that was an interesting adventure,” remarked Spike upon seeing the familiar interior of The Castle of Friendship. “Eeyup!” Big Mac nodded. There was an awkward pause. “Discord…?” wondered Spike. “Don’t you have any thoughts on our mission?” The chamber remained silent except for the crickets chirping outside. “Guess he up and went home,” stated the red-colored Earth Pony. “I guess so,” Spike shrugged. “Oh, well. More snacks for us!” Big Mac and Spike shared in the remaining treats they had gathered for their adventure until the time came for them to go their separate ways. *** “How?” Discord asked a smaller clone of himself while pacing in his pocket dimension. “How was I, the master of chaos and whim, outwitted by a mere Unicorn?” “No way!” the clone protested. “Nobody outwits you, Discord!” “You’re right,” the draconequus replied. “Perhaps I was just a bit too careless. Maybe just a bit too impatient to spice up the game that I let her have a bit too much control over how things played out?” FWOO PIP “What?” he wondered as a paper drifted over his long face. “What’s this?” Dearest Discord: I kindly ask that you talk to me before planning any play dates with my boys. They mean the multiverse to me and I want them to live very long childhoods under my care. Oh, as I know you’re probably grumpy about it, I apologize for manipulating your ‘game’. It needed to be done to ensure my precious children made their bedtime while also not getting hurt. Perhaps you could ask Fluttershy about what it means to feel so responsible for others if you are having difficulty comprehending what I’m trying to say. Also, so we’re clear, I am now keeping a better monitor on our dimension. I had wondered when another spirit would visit and I never thought it would be the one who embodies chaos. However, so you know, I am the spirit of order. Things are the way they should be and all mischief is managed. How do you think I’m such a good caretaker? Boys will be boys and someone must maintain order to ensure they and the world around them is safe. Plus my dimension is far larger than the one you have for yourself. So I have many things to keep ‘just so’ in order to ensure my children are eternally safe and happy. Thanks for respecting my wishes and do make sure to ‘knock’ should you wish to visit again. Cheers, Nixi Discord growled as he used his powers to turn the paper into a ‘stress ball’ that was shaped like Nixi. “Spirit of order,” he grumped while making the foamy Nixi squeak with each squish of his paw. “We’ll see who gets the last laugh. Oh, yes. I will definitely find a way to put some delightful chaos into your life.” The master of chaos gave the Nixi stress toy a great squeeze that caused it to pop under the pressure. POOF! Discord suddenly found himself in a nursery with a mobile of Nixi hovering above his now diapered self. “Thought so,” the Nixi’s on the mobile said mockingly. “Now use this five minute ‘Time Out’ to think on keeping cool when you’re feeling grumpy.” “Oh,” he scowled to himself as a pacifier now bobbed in his mouth. “It is on, little pony. You’re going to be my new, best, friend….”
Chapter 10 - Crashing The Crater“Hang on!” cried Big Mac as he made his way down the crater. It wasn’t as direct a route as Discord had Spike take so Leon and Parker had time to take in the surroundings. “Other dragons?” wondered Leon as they kept passing groups of cartoon-like dragons who, upon seeing them pass, spread their wings and gave chase. “I think they want to fight!” cried Parker who was just itching to pull out his sword. POOF! “Have you noticed we’re being followed?” mentioned Discord as he appeared alongside Big Mac and the ebon dragons riding atop him. “Eeyup!” huffed Big Mac. “Spike needs our help first!” “Hmm,” thought Leon as he snuggled the plush of Nixi close and noticed the new gem on his staff start to glow. “I wonder…,” *** “METEOR!” boomed the purple dragon as the region around him and Garble grew totally black and turned itself into a galactic landscape. “Wha?” Garble baffled as he noticed a series of large glowing stones heading straight for him. “What is th-” POOM! CRASH-BOOM-POOM-BOOM! “Ha!” cried Spike as he started to feel very tired for spending the majority of all his magic power. However it was worth it to see the red dragon bully pummeled in intersteller rocks that exploded all over him in a plume of grey cosmic dust. Spike dusted himself off and grew a proud smile. He then struck a confident pose without even thinking for a minute how he looked with that massive diaper exposed in his statuesque stance. CRACK-CRACK BOOM! “No way!” cried Spike as he fell on his padded bottom. Garble now stood in front of him. However this wasn’t the same Garble as before. This one was black, snarling, and looking as if he had gone into some sort of ‘Second Phase’ that was far less pleasant than the original. “Garble…?” trailed the purple dragon wizard as he scooted away. “Gwah!” the new Garble spat as his teeth, claws, and talons all grew longer and sharper. His eyes burned red and he looked posed to strike. WHOOSH SLASH-SLASH “Yipes!” cried Spike as he noticed the enhanced Garble having far more speed and ferocity than the original one he was up against. “Help!” *** “Anyone noticing anything peculiar?” questioned Discord as more dragons gave chase after Big Mac and the twins. “Just that we’re going to have a big battle once we get down to where Garbunkle is,” stated Parker with a smirk. “We’re going to get tons of experience and gold and maybe even some rare item drops after we thrash them all.” “Hmm,” replied Discord as he patted Parker on the head. “That’s very optimistic of you to think, Rubber Blade. However I was referring to your brother’s snappy garment.” Leon appeared confused. “What about it?” he asked. “Well,” continued the draconequus. “I’d imagine it would have popped completely off of you for how many dragons are now chasing us.” “Right…,” Leon considered. “It always opened up when we were in for a battle.” “Eeyup,” added Big Mac as he noticed they were coming upon a larger space that also seemed to stand out for how colorful it was compared to the rest of the crater. “Are you saying we aren’t meant to fight those dragons?” asked Parker as he took in the numerous dragons trailing them. “Perhaps,” considered Discord with a groan. “Maybe we need to try that whole ‘Friendship’ thing with them once we get to that very obvious arena up ahead?” Leon suddenly felt a warmth against his side in which brought his attention to the plush of Nixi. “Hmm,” he suddenly considered while looking towards his staff. “I may just have what we need to do that.” “What’s that?” wondered Parker. “You’re the cleric and the cleric doesn’t have any weapons that can damage more than a slime or other low level monster?” “Keep your fendoshi on,” grinned leon. “We need to get there first.” *** “Captain Wuzz!” cried Spike as he struggled to climb up the crater as he was ferociously chased by the even more powerful Garble. “Sir McBiggun!” “Namby-pamby-pony-lover,” deadpanned the charcoal-colored Garble. “Tear soft pony hide.” FWOOM CRUNCH SLASH-SLASH “Whoah!” Spike cried as he had to fall hard on his padded rump in order to dodge Garble’s flying leap and slashing attacks. “Gotcha’,” the bully stated in a very monotone voice before plucking Spike up by the scruff of his attire. “NO!” the purple dragon cried as Garble reached his other claw back to reveal ghastly purple mist fuming off the tips of his claws. “Spike…,” the bully grinned ominously as drool poured from his opening mouth. Spike struggled to free himself but to no avail. However he did notice that the pacifier he had received had been returned as it flopped out of his robes and around his chest. “Here goes nothing,” he gulped as he tore the pacifier off and slammed it into Garble’s mouth. SLIP PLOP! Spike found himself in a cloud of powder as Garble released his grip and also plopped to the ground. “Ungh…,” he moaned as he couldn’t resist suckling the enchanted pacifier. “Spike…” The ppurple dragon didn’t want to wait around for when the pacifier’s effect would wear off. Taking a look upward he spotted that he was soon coming upon a wider area. He also could see a large group of dragons swarming behind what had to be Big Mac, Discord, and the twin ebon dragons. Wasting no time, Spike got his footing, adjusted his legs for the way the diaper split them further apart, and moved past Garble as quickly as he could towards reaching his friends at the location above.
