Lockheart

Nat’s breathing became erratic as he looked around the Badlands, blinking rapidly, as if that would somehow make the hive, his home, reappear as it had been before he set out the day prior. Starlight Glimmer continued to stand a short distance from him, watching the Dragling while she continued to stare off into space with an entranced and docile demeanor. “It’s supposed to be here. It has to be. A whole damn tower can’t just vanish like it never existed!” Reaching down, he grabbed at a stone, clenched it tightly, and tossed it with all his might. The stone flew through the air a short distance then tumbled to the ground till it came to a complete stop.

“Maybe the tower can turn invisible,” he suggested to himself as he grabbed more rocks to chuck in every direction while praying one would suddenly bounce off thin air and prove him to be right. “Holes open and close in it all the time. It wouldn’t be a stretch that it can magically vanish from sight… and nobody ever mentioned it to me.”

Nat’s rock-throwing frenzy was quick to die down as the fatigue of his overnight excursion to Ponyville caught up with him and his strength started to dwindle. Even so, he was still too worked up to stop as he reached for a much larger rock and started to grunt and groan as he struggled to pick it up.

“Huh? Wha the?” mumbled the rock before a pair of fully blue eyes appeared on it. Seeing them, Nat let go and fumbled backwards onto his rear.

“Oh!” cried the rock, sounding more alert as it suddenly transformed back into the Changeling, Cid, and hurried to help him up. “Sorry if I scared you,” he apologized. “I was hiding out here all night waiting for you and Zircon to return. Guess I must have dozed off. Sorry about that.”

“Sorry?” repeated Nat, his mood not improved after that scare. “Who cares about that? What I want to know is what happened to the hive and everyone else?”

“It’s gone and so is everyone else,” Cid answered Nat with what he dreaded to hear most of all. The color started to fade from his face and he looked completely destroyed. “Whoa! Wait! I didn’t mean it like that. Yes, the hive is gone-gone, but everyone is fine. They all got away before the attack.”

“What attack?” replied Nat, getting more questions than answers as they spoke. “Who did this? Who could do this?”

“It was attacked by Princess Celestia and her forces. They devastated the whole thing with some metal boxes that unleashed the most massive explosion I had ever seen. It was an inferno that would put an erupting volcano to shame.”

“But everyone did get out and is safe?” Nat asked, wanting to hear his reassurance again.

“Yes,” Cid nodded. “We grabbed what we had time to take and took off. I was the lucky bug that was tasked with staying behind to see the whole thing take place. It took all my mental fortitude to remain calm and rock-like after witnessing our home utterly obliterated; luckily, Celestia’s forces didn’t stick around too long after the attack.”

“Thank goodness,” the blue Dragling sighed with relief. “But if we knew an attack was coming, why did everyone retreat rather than fight?”

“I’ll give you all the details while we’re flying, but I’m glad that’s what was decided and, seeing how careful the Ponies were at handling those boxes, it was probably the right call. If they had gone off during a fight, both sides would have been burnt to a crisp,” he explained. “Now, we should get going. I was also left here to wait for you and Zircon to get back from your little fetch quest. Now that you’re here, we can finally get moving.” Cid then looked around, seeing only Nat and the Pony he had brought with him. “Wait, why isn’t Zircon with you? Where is she?”

“We had a bit of a complication during our mission,” Nat confessed as he took a seat to divulge all that had happened upon them reaching Ponyville and then how he worked his magic on Starlight. As Nat pontificated, he flexed and gestured to add some visual aids to his story. Snickering and rolling his eyes a little, Cid was able to tell this tale of his was rather tall at some points, but he didn’t interrupt him and simply enjoyed the ride to the end.

“And so, what happened after you gave into her lewd begging and cummed into the Pony for the seventh time in a row, Mr. Ultra Virile Alpha Stud?” he asked, barely able to restrain his laughter from everything he heard. “Or was that the eighth time?”

“Uh, I didn’t really keep count, but how many times I filled her isn’t important. What is is that I got her on board and Zircon and I were just about ready to leave with her when a couple more Ponies showed up. “One was the Princess, Twilight Sparkle, and the other was some braggart Pony named the Great and Powerful Trixie. Zircon pretended to be Starlight to hide the fact that we took her. She tried to get them both to leave, but that Trixie Pony screwed everything up. She took Zircon and transported them both somewhere else in Equestria to search for Spike. Now our princess is lost out there and I definitely don’t want to be the one to tell father or Queen Chrysalis the bad news.”

“This is definitely a problem,” agreed Cid, rubbing his temple at the aggravation this new issue was giving him. “Especially with the rest of the hive on the move to our new base of operations.”

“New base?” asked Nat. “What new base?”

“It’s the reason Master Tamati was acting so hastily with inventorying our supplies instead of plotting our next invasion,” explained Cid. “He figured we’d be under attack, though even he didn’t expect it to happen this soon. The rest of the swarm took what they could as they fled while I was left with my own job here.”

“To wait for the two of us to get back,” recalled Nat. “But Zircon isn’t here. She’s lost somewhere in Equestria and we have no way to know where she might be or when her cover will be blown.”

“Without a lead, there’s no sense in just the two of us searching for her blindly,” figured Cid. “For now, we can only trust that she can take care of herself until we’re able to reunite with her. Till then, it’d be best if we get going.”

“If that’s all we can do,” sighed Nat, struggling with the fact that there really was nothing they could do presently for Zircon. “Then we’d best get going.”

“It’ll be a bit of a flight, so I hope you aren’t too tired,” commented Cid, yawning too. “Though, admittedly, I didn’t get too much sleep last night either. At best, I was in a hazy half-asleep daze as a rock before you picked me up.”

“If it’s just flying in one direction for a bit, I think I can manage,” Nat yawned back.

“And what about your Pony friend over there?” he asked. “She’s a Unicorn. Are we gonna have to carry her?”

“I guess… Oh, but, with her, we might not even need to fly! She has the power to teleport,” answered Nat. “She could get us to where we need to go faster than the rest of the swarm. Heh. Won’t they be surprised to find us at the new HQ before any of them.”

“That’s useful,” stated Cid as the two of them approached Starlight Glimmer, still standing in place. “Uh, I’ve been meaning to ask why she doesn’t have any clothes on or you for that matter. Did you not have time to get dressed due to all that time you spent stress-testing your nuts?”

“It was a little magical mishap,” Nat explained to Cid before he turned to Starlight. “Uh, okay, um, Starlight. I need you to teleport the three of us somewhere else now.”

“Just tell me where it is and I can take us as close as I can, depending on how familiar I am with the area,” she replied.

“Right, um, Cid, where are we going?”

“Oh, well, the thing is, I was originally supposed to lead to some place in the Dragonlands,” he started to say. “But a little before you got back here, Tamati sent me a letter that had a couple bloody stains on it that I’m not certain if we should be concerned about, but it basically said there was a small change of plans to where we’re going.”

“Why? Where are we going instead?” asked Nat.

“We’re still going to the Dragonlands,” he explained. “But first we have to take a detour to a town called ‘Appleloosa’ first and wait there to see if some allies show up and to take them with us.”

“Sounds like more of a hassle,” groaned Nat, really wishing he could just get some rest.

“Luckily, it’s not too far away,” admitted Cid. “Though it’ll still be much faster if we could use magic to get there. Do you think she can teleport us there? Actually, a short distance from the town would be better so we aren’t seen? Maybe by a cave or something we can hide out in and rest for a while?”

“Can you do that?” asked Nat for Cid.

“I can send us just outside of Appleloosa, but I don’t know the town or the area around it too well,” she obediently answered. “At best I can bring us there. We will have to look around on our own after that if you want to find a place for a hideout.”

“Better than spending all that time flying,” agreed Cid. “Let’s do it.”

“Then let’s go,” instructed Nat to his love-locked Pony. “Uh, but who exactly are these allies of ours anyway?”

“Well, it all goes back to what was happening over here while you were away,” answered Cid as Starlight’s horn started to glow brightly. “You see it started when-” Then, in a bright flash, the three of them were gone from the Badlands.

“L-Let go of me!” cried Gabby as she squirmed and struggled to get free from the one restraining her from behind, but she couldn’t seem to break out of their arm lock. “I’ve got a sharp set of talons and I’m not afraid to use them!”

“Hey! Calm down! It’s me, Gallus!” the blue-feathered Griffin told her, as he kept her restrained.

Trusting him more from the familiarity of his voice rather than his actual words, Gabby, stopped struggling, but remained on guard as she turned her head to see who was holding her and sure enough, it was him. “Gallus, it is you.”

“Duh, it’s me,” he replied. “How many other blue-feathered Giffins do you know? Better yet, how many Griffins do you know that’d go out of their way to save your tail feathers? That one probably narrows it down a lot more.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely you,” she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Even this early in the morning, you’re still as obnoxious as ever. Mind letting me go now?”

“Not until I’m sure you’re not going to do something I regret,” he explained to her, tightening his grip. “Now how much trouble are you guys really in?”

“We finished our business with you so this has nothing to do with you,” she groaned as she panted a little and her tone softened. “Why are you even here and don’t say it was simply out of concern for us.”

“Maybe a little out of concern for myself, but I was mostly doing what any money-hungry Griffon would do in my situation,” he explained. “I was coming over to convince Spike to stay longer to do more shows and make me more bits. Unfortunately, you two had already left by the time I got to your place so I hurried to try and catch you both. Yet, what do I find but a full militia of Canterlot soldiers apprehending my new moneymaker! Now, I already knew he was in some sort of trouble, but figured it was nothing for me to worry about. However, after seeing all that, now I really need to know. Just how big is the trouble he’s in exactly?”

“Pretty big,” she confessed, looking back down to Spike. Tears welled up in her eyes as she was just barely able to make out as the Pegasi and Unicorns had started to restrain the unconscious drake and then proceeded to tie additional ropes to him for the winged Ponies to fly him back to Canterlot. Muscles tightening, she wanted so badly to hurry to his rescue, but with Gallus still holding onto her, she was able to maintain her self control. “Huge, actually. He’s in trouble with Celestia herself and I doubt it can get much worse than that.”

“Oh, this is bad,” replied Gallus, now the one starting to panic and reflexively squeeze Gabby tighter as he tensed. Looking down, he watched as the Ponies started to take their leave, the Earth Ponies and Unicorns making their way over to their concealed chariots for some of the Pegasi to help them fly off while the greater portion of the fliers were either carrying off Spike or keeping a close eye on him with spears at the ready and pointed at him. Letting go of Gabby, he clutched his scalp and started to run his talons over his feathery head with worry and even plucking a few out from the stress he was now exuding. “This is bad. This is very bad. I knew he was on the run, but not that he was on the most wanted list. Don’t tell me they were after him because he wanted that stone I gave him? That’s gotta be it, right? And now that they have him they have it too. Oh, I am a cooked goose when they find out I sold it to him.”

“Whoa, calm down, Gallus,” Gabby told him, holding onto the male Griffon’s shoulders as she looked into his eyes with far more care and concern for him than he had for her in the reverse. The sorrow and her own worries faded as she spoke and she even managed to make a small, compassionate smile despite the ache in her heart. “It’s okay. I don’t even think they know about that Element of Discord. Also, even if they are somehow aware of it, they won’t find it on Spike.” Reaching into her pack, she retrieved a small pouch. Opening up the string-tied piece of fabric, she revealed the trinket he sold them for such an outrageous and extortionate price. “I have it right here. Spike figured it’d be far safer if I was the one who held onto it.”

“Thank Grover for that,” Gallus sighed with relief, wiping his forehead with his forearm before he took a seat on the ground and breathed deeply. “With how much I was leading that drake around by his gonads, yesterday, I wouldn’t have expected him to act with such caution.”

“That situation and this one are hardly the same,” remarked Gabby, watching now as Spike’s body began to rise up into the sky as the team of Unicorns began to fly him out of Griffonstone and back to Canterlot. Clutching her heart, she continued to observe them taking her beloved master away, Gabby waited for all the Ponies to take their leave before she once more started to do the same and walk the rest of the way out of Griffon Kingdom. She didn’t make it very far, however, as Gallus once more got in her way.

“Whoa! Hey! Don’t walk away from me just yet,” Gallus told her, getting the female Griffon to stop in her tracks and listen to what he had to say. “Just what is that Element of Discord and what can it do? On top of that, why does Princess Celestia of all Ponies want him so badly?”

“Sorry, but for us and yourself, you’re better off not knowing any of that,” Gabby assured him, recalling all of what Spike had told her prior to them having breakfast. “If word that you sold us that Element of Discord got out then the only thing that’d keep you safe is remaining blissfully ignorant to its true value.”

“You won’t tell me what it’s true worth is, but, just from what you’re telling me, it must be something great,” he concluded. “Add to that the fact that it still got value in spite of Dragdonis being captured by the Ponies is something else to take into consideration as well. Either he has a plan to escape them or… he is working for someone else who is after this Element of Discord. Well, is that it? Am I right on the money?”

“And what if you are correct?” she questioned him, neither confirming or denying the accuracy of his inference. “Then what? What would you do with such information?”

“The most logical thing a Griffin would do in such a situation,” he answered, smirking. “Chase after this lucrative business opportunity.”

“Chase after?” Gabby repeated, not expecting that response from him. “You mean join us? You can’t be serious. I don’t even know if you can.”

“Then it’s clearly not up for you to decide and if Spike is captured then that means that decision has got to be up to someone else,” Gallus concluded from Gabby’s response. “In which case, wherever you were planning to go, take me with you.”

“You can’t be serious,” she told him. “You don’t even have the slightest clue what you’re getting yourself into. And what about all those bits you collected from Spike’s show last night? Are you seriously just going to abandon your home and everything you own for this?”

“I’ve already taken the liberty of converting all those heavy sacks of bits into gemstones,” he explained. “So taking all of that money with me is hardly an issue. As for Griffinstone being my home,” he continued as his tone turned more solemn. “Growing up with no family or place to belong hasn’t made this place feel like something I’d miss if I left and never came back to.” Gallus paused to rub his eye and sniffle and snort a little. “Maybe going with you, I might find that home I’ve really been searching for all my life.”

“You’re just trying to tug at my heartstrings again, aren’t you,” she stated bluntly, and showed not an ounce of sympathy for his sob story.

“Looks like I have been pulling your leg one too many times,” he confessed, his sadness gone as easily as he made it appear. “Still, I don’t have anything tying me down here and if I’ve learned anything, it’s to listen to your gut and mine’s saying that the way to greater riches is to go with you. Now, I am going whether you want me to or not, so might as well save time and put this discussion to bed.”

“If that’s what you want,” sighed Gabby as she waved him to follow her. “We’ll go together, but you are doing so at your own risk. I have no idea what to expect when we get to where we’re going.”

“I’ll just have to prove my use is all,” Gallus figured. “I’m plenty clever and, for the right price, I can be a very valuable ally.” Smirking, he gave a small chuckle as he followed after Gabby, both of them reaching the base of Griffinstone before taking off in a different direction than the Pegasi did with Spike. “And I certainly wouldn’t be foolish enough to allow myself to get caught so easily. Uh, no offense to Dragdonis, of course.”

“I don’t think he’d be offended,” replied Gabby, getting teary-eyed again as she spoke. “Because him being caught wasn’t on account of him being foolish in any way.” Hearing that, Gallus raised an eyebrow as he listened. “The reason he was captured and why they were here, lying in wait for him, in the first place, was because he arranged for all that to happen.”

“W-Where am I?”

Eyes slowly opening, Spike started to regain consciousness. The first thing to come to mind was the throbbing pain on the crown of his head, where Bronze Star had slammed the butt of his sword down on it. He attempted to reach up to rub and soothe the pain away, but he found his arms were restricted by the tight ropes wrapped around him. Even trying to force his bindings off proved futile as the large drake’s strength hadn’t yet awoken with the rest of him.

“Oh, right,” he thought, discreetly looking around to see the number of Pegasi and Unicorns riding on chariots surrounding him. “Probably better that I can’t move right now. I put up enough of a struggle and took enough lumps to make my performance a convincing one.” Doing his best to look while not moving his head, Spike attempted to see the Pegasus who had led them in his capture, but didn’t see him in his line of sight. Despite being unable to see him, Spike couldn’t stop seeing that smug smirk of self-satisfaction on his face or that look of superiority he had while looking down at Spike while calling him a, “worm.” Gritting his teeth, Spike did his best to resist the urge to hatefully snarl.

Spike then felt a different, shocking pain in his mouth from the empty spot on his gums where one of his fangs used to be. Sliding his tongue over that barren spot, he could taste his own blood though the bleeding had almost completely stopped already. “Everything went more or less as I expected it to, though this is definitely not something I want to have to ever do again,” thought Spike, casting cautious glances at the Ponies around him to see that his awakened state was still unknown. “But it was all I could think to do at the time. I just hope that I made the right decision… and I hope this won’t be the last decision I ever get to make. Luna… I really can trust you… can’t I?”

“Oh, Spike~” moaned Applebloom as he kept lifting her up while his cock slipped free of her pussy. “Being with such a lustful master like you is more than any Pony could ever hope for.”

“I try to do my best,” he responded modestly as he hugged her tightly, plunging his dick once more balls deep into her pussy while he locked lips and made out passionately with her at the same time.”

“You most certainly do,” swooned Pinkie Pie as she got her turn with his tail. Laying back with her legs splayed aparted, she watched and counted each green spike that slipped into her pussy, filling her insides and stretching them to her tremendous delight. “If only there were more of you to go around.”

“At least one for each of us,” wished Scootaloo as she and Sweetie Belle sat between Spike’s legs to rub and grope at his might dragon balls and even whiff and lick the salty muskiness like it was a treat that made their huge ice cream castle residence seem bland by comparison.

“I wouldn’t mind having two or even three Spike’s to serve,” Sweetie Belle stated, breathing in her master’s potent scent, filling her lungs with his attractive aroma. “To be loved and embraced by the sexiest, most wonderful dragon master in all of Equestria times three, what could be better?”

The first to answer Sweetie’s inquiry was Gabby, though her words came out muffled at first while she was currently the one squashed and smothered beneath Spike’s big scaly dragon ass. Rubbing and groping his cheeks while she had her beak poking in between his cheeks to revel in the potent smells from his backside.

“What did ya say?” wondered Applebloom, turning her attention away from Spike to listen to Gabby as she freed her face from her lover’s glutes to speak more clearly.

“I said, ‘why just stop at three?’” she restated. “After all, the more Spikes there are the merrier. I wouldn’t mind having a dozen sexy scalies around. After all, with so much of our draconic master around we’d always have at least one that is incredibly horny and starved for love and affection. Then we’d be able to love and pleasure him all day, from dawn to dusk.”

“Ooooh!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie as her eyes lit up at such a thought. Getting so excited she managed to push more of Spike’s tail into her lust-oozing pussy to fill her up even further. “Then we could have a never-ending orgy party. I better order a ton more party supplies.”

“Heheheh,” chuckled Spike, hearing their eager banter for what it’d be like to have a whole army of him to love and be loved by. “You’re all so adorable with lusts big enough to match my own, if not eclipse it. Unfortunately, there is only one of me that you’ll have to share, but I’ll always do my best to give you each the care and fucking you all deserve and crave.”

Picking Applebloom up off his cock, he held her firm as he smiled at her and gave her a look that told her to prepare. Seeing this, she took a breath, relaxed her body and slowly counted down from three in her head to mentally prepare as well. “Three… Two… One…” With a slight nod, that was the signal Spike needed as he plunged his harem member down onto his cock, one more time, as he filled her insides with his whole monster length till her rear slapped against his balls and he hugged her tight to his hot, abbed stomach. Hugging him tight, she could feel his cock throbbing and his balls quaking as he reached his climax and his spunk fired out, filling the inside of the Cutie Mark Crusader.

“Oh, Spike~” she murred, feeling his essense fill her up and warm her from the inside while the drake himself heated her up outside. “I love you so much, master!”

“And I to you,” he murred, slowly lifting her back off his length that didn’t soften in the slightest despite the big belly bulge of a load he had filled her with. Bringing her muzzle up to his, he locked his scaly lips onto hers and made out deeply and passionately as ever. “So, had enough or want to swap places with someone else now?”

“I got a lot of time with your dick just now,” she answered, rubbing her bloated gut. “But I think I’d like some time with that fine ass of yours now.”

“Then I can get a turn on your rod,” stated an eager Gabby, pulling her beak free from her makeout session with Spike’s tailhole.

“Well, I want a turn on Spike’s pogo stick after Gabby,” Pinkie called out next.

“Then me!” Sweetie and Scootaloo called out at the same time as they pulled their faces away from their master’s hot, sweaty crotch.

“Don’t worry,” smiled Spike, basking in the radiance of their overflowing lust for him. With a big snort he whiffed up the mixed scent of their lusts and sighed with delight. “You can each have as many turns with me as you’d like. Heheh. And going back to that thought of having more than one of me around… do you think I’d wanna have to share my special girls with anyone else, even if it is myself?” Hearing that, they all giggled and paused from basking in their master’s sexy bod to get up and embrace him with a hug somewhere on his huge body. Pinkie had to settle for hugging his tail while she had too much of the spiked thing inside of her to easily remove it in a timely manner.

“Spike’s harem dream certainly is a lot more amicable and adorable than most harem dreams I’ve oversaw,” noted Princess Luna, sitting on Spike’s throne as she continued to watch the group embrace and then get back to pleasuring themselves and one another. “It’s certainly a completely different experience from what I’ve seen of the likes of Tirek, Iron Will, and especially Big Macintosh.” Luna paused as she got goosebumps just recalling the last time she peeked in on one of the big, red stallion’s dreams. “I’ll certainly never forget what I saw there, but Spike’s dream here is certainly no less erotic, even if it is completely tame by comparison.”

Looking down, Luna blushed seeing she had been using three fingers to play and tease her pussy as she enjoyed the show and had left a small mess of her lust upon Spike’s royal seat, though that was hardly the first lust that had been spilled upon it. She blushed at allowing herself to do such a thing even if this whole world was merely a dream fabrication of Spike’s own unconscious design.

“I’ve clearly allowed myself to stay here much longer than I meant or needed to,” she admitted to herself and then looked over to the harem once more as Spike placed Applebloom down at his side and then picked up Gabby from the other to lift her up just over his tall, twitching phallus.

“Ready?” he asked his newest, avian member, talking in a flirting tone. “I’ll start off gentle.”

“Please don’t,” she cooed into his ear as she rubbed his soft cheeks. “I wanna experience all of that dragon might of yours.”

“Spike is definitely hiding out in Griffinstone,” noted Luna, no doubt in her mind. “The place is quite far, but no doubt Celestia has prepared a squad to send out the moment I return with his location. They’d have to travel overnight, but no doubt they could get there by dawn.”

“What do you think?” Sweetie Belle asked Pinkie as they had both moved from their current spots on Spike to sitting beneath his large, dragon feet, sniffing at his soles and sucking on his toes, the act of both made the large draconic ruler giggle and squirm from how sensitive he was on the bottom of his scaly feet. “With his cock as his obvious best feature, what do you think is number two? I’m still stuck between his nuts and his feet. Their smell, taste and texture is just indescribable.”

“Heheh, yeah,” giggled Pinkie Pie, nibbling on Spike’s big toe. “Plus it’s a lot of fun to play with his piggies.”

“For me, it’s definitely his claws,” moaned Applebloom as she felt the weight of Spike’s ass pressed down and imprinted her body in it like memory foam. As she enjoyed feeling those cheeks smother her body she took the chance to rub grope and embrace those glutes and the space between them like Gabby had before her. “Because just the thought of those magic fingers of his feeling up my body and rubbing and squeezing and tickling my sensitive parts just gives me goosebumps that feel like they won’t ever go away.”

“I like that too,” agreed Scootaloo climbing up Spike’s body to nuzzle and embrace his toned chest and belly, feeling up the plushness beneath his thick scales and the rock hard muscle he had hidden beneath that. Feeling all of that up, she reinvigorated her lustful desires as she ran her fingers across that big, powerful bod of his while she kept her eyes shut, letting her sense of touch become sensitive enough to feel each and every one of his tiny individual scales as well as the firmly-shaped muscle beneath it. “But I’m more a fan of how he uses those digits of his to finger our holes because damn if he doesn’t know just the best way to hit each and everyone one of our pleasure buttons.” The other girls nodded in agreement, drooling a little as the idea of getting a finger session with their master did sound very tempting to them all. “Oh, yeah,” Scootaloo added. “And he’s really good at giving massages. That’s very nice too.”

“That is great, but while you all can debate whether hands or feet are the best,” Gabby chimed in now. “I still have to say that that wonderful ass of his is simply the best thing ever. I wouldn’t mind getting smothered and buried beneath our king’s royal seat cushions every day for the rest of my life so long as I can revel in that equally glorious tailhole of his too.”

“Um,” commented Spike, finally chimining in now that they each cast their vote for the best part of Spike. “While I’m glad there’s plenty of me for you all to like, I was kinda hoping that my wonderful personality would have made number two on somebody’s list.” Looking at each of his lovely ladies, none wore an expression that showed they had even considered it an option. “Surely, it’s at least in the top five or maybe in your top ten.”

“S-Sure. Yeah. Of course,” answered Applebloom, nodding a lot as if that would make her answer more believable. “It definitely is, right girls?”

“It definitely is,” agreed Sweetie Belle.

“The competition between every part of you is just so fierce,” added Scootaloo.

“I’m sure it is,” replied Spike before every one of them simply burst into laughter over their mid sex discussion.

“Heheh,” quietly chuckled Luna. “As amusing as it is arousing, though I should probably really start to get going or I might end up never leaving Spike’s dreamscape.”

Rising up from Spike’s throne, Luna made her move to leave, but paused as she felt something drip onto her shoulder. Turning to look, she saw it was some chocolatey brown glob that was soon accompanied by a couple more drops on her arm. “Ice cream,” she pondered, looking up at the ceiling just as another drop of chocolatey brown treat landed on her face and ran down her cheek. “The castle… it’s melting?”

“Ready to go full throttle?” murred Spike as he gripped Gabby’s thighs and rear in his claws tightly.

“Oh, yes, please,” she nodded and panted. Give me all you got, Spikey~”

“Ohoh,” he smirked as he gazed his loving, green eyes into Gabby’s sparkly blue ones. Puckering his lips, he was prepared to go in for a kiss before he started really pistoning her pussy on his cock. He stopped, however, as he also felt some ice cream drip onto his head, followed by a few more elsewhere on his body. A bigger one hit his snout and ran down into his mouth, giving him a taste of his sweet home. “What the? Is my castle melting?”

“Did someone mess with the thermostat?” asked Sweetie Belle.

“No,” Spike shook his head. “This whole place is one big frozen dessert enchanted with permafrost magic. It shouldn't be able to melt under normal circumstances.”

“Uh oh,” thought Luna, holding a hand out to catch more dripping chocolate as the melting increased. Looking down at her feet, the frozen flooring was also feeling softer as her shoes were starting to sink a bit into the ground and checking out the rest of the room it was clear that no place was being spared from the melting. “When a situation takes a worrying turn like this, it can only mean that things have started to cross into nightmare territory. No telling what might happen next, but now I really need to get going.”

“Spike!” cried Pinkie as she and the rest of the drake’s harem gathered around their master to hug him as they looked around at their melting home. “What’s happening?”

“I… I don’t know,” answered Spike, swallowing hard and holding his girls for just as much support as they wanted from him.

“Dragon!” roared a very angry voice coming from overhead. Hearing it had Spike dropping to his knees as his body shook. “We’ve finally found you!”

“Spike!” shouted another voice equally as furious as the first. “We know you are there! No use in hiding!”

“Those voices,” thought Luna as she hurried to leave the throne room, but stopped and turned to look back over at Spike cowering on the ground as he hugged his loved ones tightly. “I guess it does make sense that he’d have nightmares of them.”

The melting overhead was quick to get a lot worse as big globs of ice cream splashed down onto the ground all around them, eventually allowing a hole in the ceiling to appear and two large Alicorn came into view, glaring down angrily. One was Celestia and the other Twilight.

“There you are!” stated Celestia, her voice like thunder as her words hit their eardrums like a series of explosions. “It’s time you paid for your crimes against Ponykind.”

“B-But I’ve done nothing wrong,” whimpered Spike, the bass lost from his voice and he now sounded like the little runt he had been prior to him finally waking his body to puberty.

“You defied the desires and expectations of those you were in service to,” countered Twilight, poking her head in to bring her furious face nose to nose with Spike’s whole body. “And for a sin that grave only one punishment will suffice.”

“W-Which is?” he cried, his body trembling and tears welling up in his eyes.

“That all you have will be stripped away from you,” Twilight answered, pulling her head back up. Her and Celestia’s horns then started to glow and a massive blast of magic washed down over Spike and his harem. It only went on for a few seconds, but that was enough to do the job as Spike now found his harem was gone and that the big, buff and chunky body he had built up from a mix of nature, exercise, and plenty of eating had all been undone. With all of that taken away, the drake had once more become the small pipsqueak he had originally been before his fateful encounter with Tamati.

Hugging his body, he curled up in a ball, appearing so frightened, tiny and exposed. “I-I’m sorry,” he sobbed as tears and snot ran down his face. “I didn’t mean to go against you. Please give me another chance.”

“There is no second chances for lambs that stray from their shepherd's flock,” decreed Celestia. “You will receive no forgiveness, only punishment eternal as you toil away in the gem mines for the rest of your days and doomed to never again witness the brilliance of the day or bask in night time’s majesty. Only darkness eternal awaits a failure such as yourself.”

“Please! No! I don’t want to!” Spike cried and begged as he started to sink into the melting ice cream of his own castle. Desperately, he tried to climb out of it, but the soupy dessert acted like quicksand, forcing him to sink even faster the more he struggled. It didn’t take much panic before only his head was the only thing still not submerged as he gazed up at the Alicorn Princess who had raised him since the day he was hatched. “Twilight! Please! Is this really how you want it to end for us?”

“...I’m sorry,” she answered after a short pause on a sorrow-filled visage. “But there is nothing either of us can do now. This is the end. Goodbye, dragon.”

“TWILIGHT!!!” Spike called out one last time before he sank completely into the soft-served remains of his castle. A few air bubbles reached the surface and then nothing.

“I HAVE SEEN ENOUGH!!!” bellowed Luna as her horn glowed brightly and a pale blue magic blast expanded outward from her horn at an incredible rate. It swallowed up the remnants of the ice cream castle and made it vanish without a trace, leaving only the diminished Spike behind to gasp for air and flail about.

“Wha- What happened?” he freaked, looking around to see his castle was gone and Luna, no longer disguised in her dream garb, was standing before him. “P-Princess Luna?”

“Sister!” snarled the giant dream Celestia angrily. “You would dare defy me?”

“Oh, I am going to enjoy this,” Luna stated, focusing her magic upon the two giant Alicorns, firing the same blast of magic as before to erase them from Spike’s dreamscape as well, leaving just the two of them in an empty black void within the drake’s subconscious.

“Twilight,” sniffled Spike, staring up at the emptiness where she had been moments before.

“I’m sorry if that was hard for you to see,” apologized Luna. “I had to get rid of them to rescue you from your distressed state. But, fear not, for all of this was merely a dream.”

“A dream?” repeated Spike, wiping the sadness from his eyes as he took a moment to consider everything. “Yeah,” he sniffled. “An ice cream castle and a freaky giant Twilight and Celestia, definitely the stuff of my dreams… and nightmares.” Turning back to Luna, Spike managed a smile. “Guess I was really lucky that you came upon my dream tonight.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” she confessed. “I was under orders to find your dream tonight, Spike. In order to learn where you are currently hiding out at.”

“Oh… that’s why you’re here…” replied Spike, much more somber as he looked for a place to sit down and sulk.

“This is still your dreamscape,” Luna reminded him, speaking in a kind and comforting tone. “You can dream up a chair or anything else you want in it.”

“Okay,” he continued to speak in a low tone, managing to create a simple wooden stool to sit upon and then imagined up a box of tissues to dry his face and then his baby blue blanket to wrap around himself and hug tightly in his claws.

“If there is anything you would like to talk about, I am here to listen,” Luna encouraged Spike as she knelt down beside him. “I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that you had a nightmare like that, considering what you’ve been going through as of late.”

“Yeah,” Spike nodded. “I can’t say I imagined my life would take a turn like this. But… but what do you even care?” questioned Spike once his sorrow was quelled enough for some anger to flare up in him. “I might have happened to have a nightmare for you to save me from, but you only really came here because you were trying to find out where I’ve been hiding out in the waking world.”

“Yes,” Luna confessed. “That is what I was told to do by my sister, though that is a poor excuse for abusing my power to peep on the dreamers I am supposed to help keep safe.”

“I wish I could say I am surprised to hear that,” snorted Spike, spewing some smoke from his nostrils. “But I’m not. You’re just another princess that looks like a ripe, red apple on the outside, but is completely rotten beneath the skin. No better than Twilight or Celestia.”

“I am NOTHING like my sister!” snapped Luna, Spike’s words hitting a nerve.

“Close enough in my book,” he retorted. “Now, would you kindly vacate my subconscious so that I can wake up. I’ve got to get packing and take my leave while the getting is still good.”

“Spike,” Luna said, managing to speak more calmly as she rubbed Spike’s head, bending the green spikes on it as she did. “You do not have to worry. I won’t reveal your whereabouts.”

“Sure,” he scoffed, raising up one of his legs. “Go on. Now pull the other one.”

“I am being serious,” she assured Spike. “I will just say I was unable to find your dreamscape.”

“And why should I believe that?” Spike questioned the Princess of the Night. “What would you even have to gain from letting me go?”

“Only the sweet satisfaction of getting to defy my sister’s wishes,” she confessed with a chuckle at the end. “And it feels so uplifting just thinking about getting to do it again after a thousand moons.”

“A thousand moons?” repeated Spike as he considered what that meant. “You mean all the way back to when you were…”

“Nightmare Moon,” she nodded. “Oh, that was a day I can never truly forget, like it only happened just one day prior. I’m sure you know the official story. The one about how I grew jealous of my sister and attempted to usurp all the power for myself.”

“What about it?” he asked. “Are you saying that it wasn’t true?”

“It’s not entirely false either,” she shook her head. “I was jealous of Celestia, but only because while we were supposed to rule equally there was rarely a time that she didn’t get the final say or the only one in a matter. Rather than being seen as a princess, I was viewed more often as Celestia’s sister as if I didn’t have any identity without her. Oh, how that burned me up and filled me with envy. I just wanted to do something… anything to outshine my sister for a change. As a result, I gave into my darkest yearnings and transformed into Nightmare Moon and I’m sure you know what happened next.”

“As Nightmare Moon, you fought against Celestia and she banished you to the moon till you escaped. Then, Twilight and the others defeated Nightmare Moon and returned you back to being Princess Luna and returned to ruling Equestria alongside your sister once more.”

“Exactly right,” nodded Luna. “I won’t deny that I made my choices at the time out of envy and desperation, however, Celestia deserves plenty of credit too, for her part in all of this.”

“Her part?” questioned Spike, looking up at Luna in astonishment. “You can’t seriously mean that your whole turn to Nightmare Moon was purposefully orchestrated by your sister.”

“No,” she shook her head. “Even she wouldn’t have intentionally made me fall to darkness and end up as such a great threat to her precious Equestria. I would more accurately say she did all she could to provoke me into rebelling against her so that she could thwart my ‘betrayal’ and truly seize all the power for herself. Me becoming Nightmare Moon certainly wasn’t something she expected to happen and I came close to defeating her too, but my sister was never one not to have a trump card. In this case, it was the Elements of Harmony that allowed her to banish me for a thousand moons. After that, she had plenty of time to prepare for my return and, in the meantime, control of Equestria became solely her responsibility.”

“And, when you did escape, that was when the Princess sent Twilight to Ponyville with me and we made friends with everybody,” recalled Spike. “And together, they defeated and saved you.” Spike paused for a moment to consider this. “So, that’s the plan Celestia came up with? Well, I mean, it’s pretty obvious that was what she intended in hindsight.”

“I imagine so,” Luna nodded. “And what a neat little scenario she concocted, rescuing her long-missed sister and creating a group to champion Equestria and protect it in its time of need at the same time. An impressive feat to manage without anyone being the wiser, but, then again, my sister was quite talented at killing two birds with one stone.”

“When you put it like that,” commented Spike. “We really were just dancing around Celestia’s palm from the very start and it wasn’t just me and Twilight either, but everyone in the Mane Six.”

“After that, I was once more beside my sister on the throne, however, the damage had been done and even though I am still considered a ‘ruler’ there is very little I get to decide that my sister hasn’t already done for me. And, thanks to my fall from grace, my sister now wields the perfect excuse to get me out of the way should I ever do anything to get in hers.”

“Then all this time, since you’ve returned, your own sister has been blackmailing you into obedience,” realized Spike, all this new info tugging at the sympathy in his heart. “I’m sorry. I wish I had known. I wish I could have helped you.”

“There is nothing you or anypony could have done,” Luna assured him, feeling a bit better to finally tell someone about this and managed a smile over seeing his concern for her. “It really hasn’t been much different from the time before I was banished. I just have learned to be more subtle about how I defy her, like I am going to do right now with you.”

“Then you really won’t tell her where I am?” he asked her. “But won’t she do something horrible to you to force you to tell and then banish you for your defiance?”

“I will merely state I was unable to find your dream,” she explained. “A simple and believable fib. We had no way of knowing if you’d even be asleep at this time or if I wasn’t able to find it amid the countless other dreamscapes I’d have to search to find one in particular.”

“I doubt she’ll be happy to find out you came up empty,” commented Spike.

“Oh, for certain, but, at the present, she is far more invested in another matter,” explained Luna. “And I’m certain that the success of it will more than overshadow my failings to find a single runaway dragon.”

“And neither of us will be worse off because of it,” the drake concluded. “That’s good for both of us, at least, though I do feel sorry for whoever Celestia currently has her sights set on.”

“That’d be the Changeling Hive,” the Princess of the Night informed him. “Even without any definitive evidence, my sister has decided that it was Queen Chrysalis and her drones that have attacked and conquered the Crystal Empire.”

“Well, I guess it makes sense she’d assume they were the ones- Wait!” cried Spike, his eyes getting wide as he jumped up from his seat and startled Princess Luna. “She went to attack the Changeling Hive even though she doesn’t have any proof that they were involved with what happened at the Crystal Empire?!?”

“There have been some sightings of creatures that have been described as ‘changeling-like in appearance,’ including one at the Canterlot Station when the last train from the Crystal Empire arrived. Though it’s still not enough to go by, my sister doubts if any of the other creatures will take offense to an attack on the Changeling Hive, considering their parasitic history and lack of having friendly relations with anyone. Though I don’t condone my sister’s actions in this matter, I also can’t deny that she does have a point. Regardless of whether or not they are involved with the siege of the Crystal Empire, Equestria will be a better place without them in it.” As Luna finished speaking, she looked at the nervous sweating Spike was enduring as she spoke. “But, apparently, you do not feel the same way. Why is that?”

“N-Nothing,” he stuttered. “Uh, but it’s probably best if we end our little dream chat here. There’s probably plenty of other dreamers in need of your services, now, anyway.”

“Spike,” Luna replied, looking down at the nervous scalie that clearly knew something huge regarding this matter. “I am providing you with great mercy by letting you go. The least you could do is answer my inquiry. What connection do you have with the Changeling Hive? Does it have something to do with the attack on the Crystal Empire? And your change in behavior as well?”

“Crud,” sweated Spike as his mind raced. “She’ll lose all trust in me if I refuse to answer. She might even rescind her promise to help me escape, but that’s hardly important now. Celestia is making her move far sooner than Tamati expected. If she’s already on her way then there’s no way I’d be able to warn him in time. Even if I sent him a message with my magic fire it’d take a while to reach him and it’d probably be too late to do anything about it then. My only option…”

“Are you going to tell me or not?” Luna asked him yet again.

“Might be to take the biggest gamble of my life,” he thought, swallowing hard while his heart raced and he wiped the sweat off his brow.

“Well?”

“...You really want to know?” answered Spike after his long, perspiring silence. “Okay, but I want you to hear everything I have to say, without interrupting, and then there is something I want to request of you. Those are my conditions. Do you accept them?”

“But, of course,” she answered her friend almost immediately. “Now, please, enlighten me.”

Clearing his throat, Spike told Luna an abridged version of everything that had occurred since the night he met Tamati. With every new bit of information, the Princess of the Moon’s expression changed from one expression to another, going from curious to surprised to sorrowful and even blushingly flustered. Eventually, he finally reached the present and their current situation. Not needing to retell what she had been there to see herself, Spike instead paused briefly to catch his breath after pontificating for so long. All the while the young, purple dragon gabbed, Luna remained silent as she listened to him, doing nothing but, occasionally, blinking, taking a breath and rubbing her chin as she took in all his words.

“And that’s essentially everything that’s been going on,” finished Spike, taking one more big, deep breath. Part of him felt relieved to finally get all that off his chest, but he was also nervous, certain the princess would never be able to look at him the same way ever again. Nonetheless, Spike steeled his resolve as he tensed his muscles tightly and prepared himself for whatever was to come next. “So… what do you think?” he asked her, clenching fists to keep them from shaking.

“If I was my sister, I’d label you the Greatest Traitor in Equestrian history and banish you to the moon for twice as long as I was sentenced,” answered Luna, making the drake’s eyes widen as he took a step back in worry. “As myself, I still see you as a traitor, yet, I also understand why you did what you did. You were stuck, trapped in a role that was never your choice and never given a chance to be anything else. An opportunity presented itself to you and you took it and the consequences of it are as we have seen. You have aided an enemy in gaining power that neither of us understand and have helped him to conquer Equestrian territory. Add to that, the Ponies you have lusted into becoming members of your harem and I’d say you would stand amongst the greatest villains Equestria has ever known, alongside this ‘Master Tamati’ of yours. On all accounts, I should be severely disappointed in you… however, while I cannot approve of the things you have done, I must admit that I am also impressed and envious over how far you have come. You and your master might have been able to conquer all of Equestria.”

“Might have?” asked Spike. “Are you referring to Celestia’s surprise attack on the Changeling Hive? Do you honestly think that something like that, with however many soldiers Celestia was able to assemble so quickly, would be enough to defeat a force that conquered the Crystal Empire in a day?”

“With plenty of preparation and the element of surprise your friends managed such a feat,” Luna pointed out. “But, now, they are the ones to be on the receiving end of the all and, knowing my sister, she made plenty of preparations for an attack on the Changeling Hive long before any of this began. All this just became the last bit of encouragement she needed to finally act. Add to that, how truly ruthless she can be and I doubt even the fiercest dragon in Equestria can stand against her.”

“That may be, but I know that Tamati won’t go down without a fight,” pointed out Spike. “And his children are plenty strong too. If a fight were to break out, the casualties on both sides would be heavy, no doubt. And, don’t forget, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor have been taken to the hive as part of Tamati’s harem and who knows how many other ponies might be in there as well. They could get caught in the crossfire too. Even Celestia wouldn’t dare do anything rash in a situation like that, right?”

“If my sister is made aware of such facts, I would hope that she would try to do all in her power to put rescuing them unharmed as a top priority,” Luna confessed. “However, even with hostages, I doubt she’d simply turn tail and retreat at the cost of showing weakness. I’m afraid she might even consider Cadance and Shining Armor as acceptable sacrifices for the sake of Equestria if push comes to shove. Of course, that’s only considering if she does find out that there are hostages in the hive. If she doesn’t, then she could wipe them out without even realizing it herself.”

“If that’s how it’s gonna be,” replied Spike, his voice getting frantic the more he worried about what was about to befall Tamati, his harem and everyone else living in the Changeling Hive. “Then I have to do something. I need to warn them before Celestia reaches them.”

“I can sympathize with wanting to help your friends,” Luna spoke earnestly to him. “However, by now you must realize how in over your head you are with all this. Your life was thrown into utter chaos after you met Tamati and it led you to where you are now, suffering, afraid and on the run. Honestly, you would be far better off fleeing to the Dragonlands and starting your life over, fresh.”

“You can’t mean that,” argued Spike. “I can’t simply abandon Tamati and the others, especially now of all times, when they need me the most! Also, why must I keep having to change and start over each time I do anything that displeases her. This is my life, not Celestia’s and not Twilight’s either.”

“I sympathize with your plight, Spike. I wholeheartedly do, but to aid them further would risk your own safety,” the Moon Princess warned Spike. “If Celestia was to learn of your involvement with them, I cannot even fathom how much worse things could get for you. You’d be much better off forgetting about Tamati and his plans and, instead, take this chance to enjoy your freedom. I will keep your involvement a secret and, so long as you remain beyond her reach, you’ll be able to live the worry-free life that you deserve.”

“I figured as much,” the drake confessed. “And I thank you for your concern for my well being. While I can’t say for certain which side would end up victorious, I’d much rather Tamati be able to follow through with his plan and have the entire hive evacuated before Celestia’s forces can arrive, like he originally intended. At least, this way, both sides could avoid a costly battle. Which is where my request from before comes from.” There was another pause as Spike gathered his courage and focused his mind, managing to will his small, chubby stunted dragon body back into his far more beefy, developed, and attractive form once more. Seeing him back to being a scaly stud, Luna couldn’t help blushing and did so even more as he extended an arm over to her. “Princess Luna, would you please join us?”

“J-Join you?!?” she stuttered, looking absolutely flabbergasted. “Have you taken a leave of your senses, Spike? You would dare ask me to join you in betraying not just my sister, but all of Equestria!”

“So, it’s fine for Celestia to betray you and me and who knows how many others for the sake of the Equestria she rules over?” countered Spike. “A world where she used me to see if dragons can be domesticated as servants to ponies and disposed of when I started to become inconvenient to her. A world where dragons are enslaved to work in mines and dig up gemstones for her. A world where she would rather get rid of her only sister than relinquish a single drop of her power!”

“Enough!” cried Luna, unable to deny the truths that Spike spoke.

“And I doubt that even covers half of the terrible things she has done before, during and after your banishment,” he breathed. “Are you just going to sit idly by and let her continue to have her way with Equestria, all while acting holier than thou, as if she can do no wrong?”

“N-No,” she shook her head. “I don’t want to. My sister… it isn’t entirely her own fault. The burden to glue that keeps the country together is enormous, more than any Pony should have to bear on their own, yet she does so, just as much out of care and concern for everyone just as much as she enjoys greedily keeping it all to herself. And, Equestria is not without its dangers and threats that we can both attest to. She truly does desire to keep Equestria safe and secure… but the fear and paranoia that something could very easily come along and destroy her kingdom has twisted her into a terrible and cruel monster that can and will do such unspeakable things to ensure that doesn’t come to pass. For so long I wondered if it would be best to not interfere, since she did want what was best for Equestria, but with all that has been happening lately, I know that what she does is definitely not the best thing for our country and I cannot just stand back and do nothing anymore.”

“Then, help us,” pleaded Spike, offering Luna his scaly hand once more. “Help us to save everyone’s Equestria and right the wrongs that Celestia has done. Only you can help us now, Princess Luna.”

Arm shaking as she extended it, Luna slowly reached for Spike’s hand and grasped it firmly as she accepted his proposal. “I cannot promise that I can do much, but I will do what I can.”

“Then, if you can, can you please warn the Changeling Hive about Celestia’s attack?” Spike asked. “Tell them they have to hurry and evacuate before she gets there. From where I am, I’d never be able to get a message to them in time, but, if you can communicate with anyone in Equestria through dreams then it should be possible for you to reach them before she does.”

“I can try,” she nodded. “Time moves much faster in the dreamscape and, at this present hour, I should still have enough time to find someone there to warn before my sister reaches the Badlands to begin her attack. Of course, she won’t be happy to find out that we’ve both failed our tasks. And if she is unable to locate Tamati’s group, she’ll turn her focus back to trying to track you down and I fear what measures she might take to draw you out in the open.”

“I was considering that too,” he admitted. “She fears what I know and she won’t rest until she captures me. So, let’s put her mind at ease and let her.”

“Let her catch you?!?” cried Luna. “Now you must have lost your mind! Do you know what will happen to you if you are captured?”

“The same as all the other dragons she’s captured, I assume,” he replied. “Taken to the mines, have my memory wiped, and forced to dig for gems for the rest of my life. At the very least it will keep her from doing anything drastic in finding me and if she does wipe my mind then she’ll erase my involvement with Tamati too. And look at it this way. You’ll get to one up your sister by succeeding while she fails.”

“As much as I’d love to outshine my sister for once, you cannot be serious,” Luna remarked. “You are resigning yourself to a fate worse than death if you go through with this. There is no getting out once you go in and you’ll be forced to toil your life away and, with the longevity dragons possess, it would be like living an eternity in the harshest pits of Tartarus.”

“If nobody has ever escaped from the mines then I’ll just have to be the first to succeed,” stated Spike. “I’ll make preparations with my allies before I’m caught and figure things out once I’m there and, while I’m at it, I’ll free all the other dragons that Celestia has enslaved too.”

“That is quite a tall order to fill and you certainly sound confident, but saying all this is far easier than actually doing it,” she promised him. “And, for all we know, Celestia could end up reaching the hive before we are even able to act. They could all end up wiped out and you’d just be letting yourself be captured for nothing. In truth, your impossible escape could be over before it’s even begun. Are you absolutely certain you know what you’re doing?”

“Not at all,” the purple drake confessed, forcing a fearless smirk while he did his best to suppress any fearful shakes. “But, I’m going to do it anyway.”

“You don’t fool me with your bravado, Spike,” stated Luna before she sighed and a gentle smile appeared on her face. “But, I admire your dedication and determination. While I would wish nothing more than for you to worry for your own well-being and seek out a sanctuary, where you might once more have peace of mind, I grant what you desire instead. I’ll warn your allies as swiftly as I can. Then… I’ll make the arrangements for your capture.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” replied Spike. “For all this… and for believing in me.”

“Okay, Zircon,” thought the Dragling disguised as Starlight Glimmer as she and Trixie finished teleporting. “You’re by yourself, in some random location in Equestria. No biggie. Just slip away from this Pony at the first chance you get, make your escape, and fly back to the Hive. Piece of cake.”

Turbulent and icy winds blew hard, the chill stabbing through their bodies like daggers. The pink and blue ponies were up to their shins in powdery snow while a heavy blizzard was pelting them with more flakes that were quickly accumulating on their bodies. Visibility was beyond poor in all directions, and what little the duo could make out was just more ice and snow.

“Where the hell are we?!?” cried Zircon, hugging her body tightly, the clothes she had on meant for much warmer weather than this and the same was true for Trixie.

“S-S-Somewhere f-f-far n-north, I th-th-think,” stuttered the magical Unicorn as she shivered uncontrollably and desperately clung to who she believed to be her friend for more warmth. “Maybe around th-the Crystal Empire or m-maybe Y-Y-Yakyakistan.”

“Do you seriously think that Spike decided to run away to this frigid wasteland?” questioned Zircon. “Last time I checked, Dragons don’t like the cold and when it’s this bad I doubt there are many Ponies who like it either.”

“The Great and P-P-Powerful Trixies, kn-knows that,” replied Trixie through chattering teeth. “But it’s not like I wanted to come here in the first place. The spell teleported us randomly for us to search, remember?”

“Well, let’s hurry and look,” Zircon replied, already losing the feeling in her body. Quickly, she turned her head to the left and then the right. “No Spike in that direction. And… no Spike over there either. Okay, let’s get the heck outta here and go someplace warmer.”

“Th-Th-The Gr-Great and P-Powerful Trixie agrees,” Trixie nodded as her teeth chattered. Her horn began to glow and just as they appeared there in a magical flash, they were gone in one too, taking along the snow that had started to cover them as well as any that was within the range of the spell she cast.

“That was just a case of bad luck,” determined Zircon. “I’ve still got plenty of time before my transformation comes undone and even if it does and Trixie does realize I’m a fake, I can just exert my influence onto her too… though, with the headache she’s already giving me, I hope it doesn’t have to come to that.”

“And now we can begin our search for Spike for real this time!” announced the Great and Powerful Trixie as they reappeared in another location in Equestria entirely. To their initial delight, it was much warmer than the previous place they ended up in, however, that relief only lasted for a few seconds as they realized it wasn’t simply warmer, but blazing hot. The snow they had brought with them was quick to melt and shortly after the chill vanished from them, they began to perspire as their bodies began to overheat from the harsh sun beating down on them from the cloudless sky overhead.

“Trixie,” said the fake Starlight as she did her best to restrain her anger. Doing a quick look all around her, there was nothing but sand dunes in all directions. “We’re in the middle of a desert. I think it’s safe to assume that Spike is nowhere near here either. So, maybe, you can try to narrow the randomness down to places that aren’t in the middle of wastelands.”

“You know better than anypony that I’m still having trouble teleporting with any real accuracy,” complained Trixie, the heat already getting to her and making her just as testy as Zircon was. “I do better when I’m going to places I’ve been to before, but at best I end up on the outskirts of the place one fourth of the time.”

“And you call yourself the Great and Powerful Trixie,” Zircon mocked her, not even bothering to try to be in character, but, with the sun beating down on them, making keeping their cool impossible, Trixie didn’t seem to detect anything out of the ordinary. “More like The Lousy and Remedial Trixie.”

“I’m the what?!?” snapped Trixie. “Okay, Starlight, if you’re so much better, then you take us someplace to search for Spike.”

“Okay, I will,” she started to say, only to remember after the fact that she knew even less than Trixie about the Teleportation spell and certainly not enough to even attempt it. Thinking fast, as Trixie looked to be waiting for her to perform the spell, Zircon gulped hard as she realized her only means out of this predicament was to swallow her pride. Wiping the sweat from her face, she took a deep breath and spoke in the most apologetic voice she could. “Actually, Trixie, I’m sorry for snapping at you. I’m just worried about Spike and Twilight hasn’t been making things any easier. I was already feeling testy and I’m letting it all out on you when you’re just trying to help.”

“Oh, is that what this was really all about?” asked Trixie, easily believing all that, but didn’t seem fully convinced yet. “And what do you believe Trixie to really be?”

Grumbling under her breath and rolling her eyes, Zircon fed Trixie’s ego. “I think you are Great… and Powerful.”

“Very well, the Great and Powerful Trixie forgives you, Starlight,” she spoke with a proud smile upon her face.

“Mother was being much too kind when she told me that spending time with some of these Ponies can be a complete, stomach-churning experience,” she thought as she held back the urge to wretch.

“Now, how about you give that teleportation spell another try?” asked Zircon, somehow managing to sound much more cheery on the outside despite how gross her stomach felt on the inside.

“Yes! The Great and Powerful Trixie will surely send us right to Spike this time!” she announced like she was doing a stage show. “Now, prepare to be amazed by the stupefying feats of my spectacular magic!”

“Please be some place I can get away from this pest,” pleaded Zircon internally before they vanished once more in a flash of white light.

“I know I promised Spike that I would help him warn his friends at the Changeling Hive,” Luna told herself as she made her way aimlessly through the dreamscape. “But that’s all easier said than done. I think this might be the corresponding point in which the world of sleep and waking intersect in the Badlands, but I am as much a stranger to this world as any other who would dare venture in here. Also, I still require a dream door in order to connect with a sleeper and none are even here. And even then, would they be so willing to trust anything that I have to say?”

Pausing for a moment, Luna allowed herself to momentarily leave her domain and peek back into her room in Canterlot. There she saw the sky was still dark. Checking her clock, she saw that dawn was drawing ever closer and her time was running out. Taking a deep breath, she shut her eyes and fully returned to her sanctuary of sleep.

“It is very fortunate that time does move so much faster here, but, no doubt, it won’t be long before my sister reaches the hive. To have them heed my words and then the time needed for a full evacuation to take place before Celestia arrives, I must find them now.”

“You did try your best,” she thought to herself, some venom in the words that made her mane stand on end. “Even if you did promise Spike, there was no guarantee that you would make it in time. This was a risk he was willing to sacrifice himself for. It’s not your fault that things worked out in such a way.”

“No!” snapped Luna, shouting at her own inner thoughts. “I won’t fail Spike, my friend. I won’t allow myself to think only of my personal gain, like Celestia… or my darker self. I want to be better than that. I have to be.” Panting heavily, Luna ran her hands through her mane as she took long, deep breaths to calm down. “Take it easy Luna. Don’t let the stress of the situation get to you, though, it’d be a bit better if I didn’t just have myself to talk to when I need a pep talk. Still, better to have myself to take to then nobody. Now, back to the task at hand. I need to warn Spike’s friends of the danger and I just… need to find…” As if granted by a wish, a dream door appeared before the Princess of the Moon. Taking a closer look at it, her heart raced with renewed excitement. “I certainly don’t recognize this door, though I can’t say I can recall every dream door I’ve seen and with how many creatures living in Equestria, I can’t have seen more than a handful of the ones in need of me.” Despite the odds against her, Luna’s heart started to pound hard in her chest as she felt certain that this really was the break she had been hoping for.

“This has to be it,” she told herself as she reached for the door, but became startled and jumped back as the way into the dream began to shake and shudder as something violently banged on it from the other side. Shrieks and beastly roars accompanied it as well, making it feel all the more foreboding to venture into.

“The sleeper is having a nightmare,” she knew without a doubt. “A bad one, by the looks of it too. Meaning, I’ll have to quell the terror inside for starters, though that could be to my benefit, if it will earn me some credibility with the dreamer.” Reaching for the doorknob, she turned it and made her way in to help whoever it belonged to to face their nightmare.

“This… this is a nightmare,” uttered Sting as he stared at the horrifying scene before him.

An army of Maulwurfs, ones far larger and stronger than the one he had battled against many times before had his family of Draglings and Changelings cornered in their underground dwelling. Along with them was his father, Tamati, his body battered, bruised and broken after attempting to take on the burrowing monsters himself. Unfortunately, even his might wasn’t a match to take on so many of those feral beasts at once. A number of his siblings had also attempted to fend them off, but that left them hanging onto their lives by a thread while those so far unharmed were doing their best to treat them and keep them safe, a task that didn’t seem possible with all those overgrown moles able to snuff the life out of all of them whenever they felt like it.

“Sting, help!” they cried out, arms reaching towards him despite how far away he was.

“Please, you’re the only one who can save us.”

“Our father’s down. It’s all on you now.”

“How could I have let this happen?” Sting questioned himself, reaching for the hilt of the sword at his side. Gripping it tightly, he unsheathed his blade as he took a step forward. His wings spread wide and in a red flash he sped right into the heart of the Maulwurf swarm, hacking and slashing at them. Their hides proved as tough as ever, but Sting’s training showed its results as most of his attacks did succeed in drawing blood at best and drawing the aggro of those he struck at worst.

Raising up their heavy arms, they swung down at him with enough force to crush his body flat against the ground. Not showing any dip in his resolve, Sting was quick to dodge and parry their arms no matter where they came from. Any moment the attacks stopped, he didn’t hesitate to capitalize on it by stabbing at one of the moles to add another cut to their bodies.

“That’s right,” he panted throughout his one-man assault on that mob of moles. “Come at me with all you’ve got! I’ll take you all on! Nobody is going to die so long as I can help it!”

As another Maulwurf swung down at Sting, he flew up to dodge and then landed on its arm. Running up the length, he reached its head. The beast snarled and bore its crooked buck teeth at him, but the Dragling didn’t flinch and instead showed his own sharp and pointy chompers before taking a deep breath and exhaled embers into its face. The unusually large rodent cried out in pain, but it was soon silenced as Sting leapt up and used all his strength to cleanly cut down across the mole’s body from its shoulder down to its waist. As he landed on the ground, Sting swung his sword to his side in time as the mole collapsed to the ground and remained motionless.

“One down,” he breathed and turned to the remaining Maulwurf that were still ready to attack. “And the rest of you to go!”

Taking his sword in both hands, Sting took flight once more, battling against all his foes and managing to cut them down one after another with a mix of swordplay and his flames. Their attacks kept coming as relentlessly as before, but the Draggling continued to do his best to dance around them. Some managed to partially strike at him despite his best to evade, bruising the parts of his body that made contact, but the fierce warrior merely shrugged the damage off to continue fighting back just as ceaselessly as them.

Finally, the last of the group of burrowing monsters fell and Sting dropped to his knees, exhausted and aching all over. “That… that’s the last of them,” he wheezed, looking around at the pile of their corpses and then at his family, checking to make certain he hadn’t allowed them to become any more injured than they were during his absence. “I did it. I kept everyone safe.”

Sighing lightly, Sting took the moment to revel in his accomplishment, however, it was a very short lived one as the ground started to rumble violently before it started to tear asunder and all too familiar claws emerged. “Ugh, it can’t be,” he groaned, forcing his body to stand up again as heads of more Maulwurf appeared as they climbed out from deeper depths of Equestria’s underground. However, unlike the batch he had just dispatched, this group was even larger, towering over them as much as they towered over Sting.

“These things can really get this big?” he sweated, craning his neck back just to see their heads. “No matter. I just have to dispatch them like the last.”

Despite his bold words, Sting rushed at them like he had with the others. His body remained grounded, much even to his own surprise and even more alarming to him was how his arms started to shake as his grip on his sword became slack.

“Ugh, calm yourself, Sting,” he coached himself. “They are bigger adversaries. Nothing more.”

“Sting!” cried his family once more, drawing his attention over to them. “What are you doing just standing around? You have to keep fighting! You have to save us!”

“Only you can do it! Do you want us all to die?”

“No, of course I don’t want that,” he breathed, trying with all his might to grip his sword tightly again. “I will save you all.”

“Then why are you just standing there shaking like a leaf?”

“Are you scared? Uncertain if you can protect us or if you can even protect yourself?”

“What are you more afraid of? Those overgrown moles or losing us?”

“Afraid?!?” he argued, drawing what strength he could to raise up his sword and take to the air. “I am not afraid of anything! And I won’t stop till you’re all safe!”

Letting out a fierce cry as he rushed once more into battle, Sting hacked and slashed and stabbed at his giant foes. This time, in spite of all the strength he put behind his attacks, he was lucky to even cut their flesh as their rock hard hides caused his attacks to bounce right off of them. When their arms started to swing at him, any further chance for the Draggling to go on the offensive was lost as it required all the strength he had to simply avoid getting swatted like a fly and, even then, most of their attacks from their large mitts still managed to clip him and threaten to send him tumbling to the ground if he didn’t use his wings to steady himself again.

For all that effort, he accomplished nothing more than to exhaust what little stamina that adrenaline managed to restore in him between this and the previous round of fighting. Running on fumes, Sting wasn’t even able to maintain any strength in his fingers, causing his sword to slip free of his grasp and drop to the ground. What few drops of energy he did have kept his wings flapping to keep him in the air. Sting could have made an attempt to flee the beasts ready to finish him off, but the cries and pleas from the Changelings and his Dragling brethren made turning tail no option to him at all. Instead, he stood his ground to keep fighting, but that was all he could do.

Another large Maulwurf paw came down on Sting and, this time, only possessing the strength to stare up at his incoming doom, was smashed to the ground, hard. His bruised and exhausted body was now broken, all that was left for him to do was gaze up at the moles as they moved in for the kill.

“In the end…” he thought, tearing up. “Despite how hard I fought… I didn’t have enough power… I couldn’t protect anyone.”

One of the large moles brought their claws up high and swung them down at the defenseless Dragling. While unable to do anything to avoid the crushing strike, his pride refused him to cower and show weakness in his final moments. He kept glaring up, prepared to witness his end.

Halfway down the heavy paw came when a bright light burst forth, halting its movement while also causing the underground dwellers to cower against it as they shielded their sensitive eyes. Sting had to squint against the brightness too, but he kept watching it, witnessing as a midnight blue Pony emerged from it, her mane dancing around her elegantly and sparkling like a star-filled night sky.

“Th-That Pony,” he uttered, managing to regain enough strength to sit up as he marveled at her appearance. After making such a grand entrance onto the battlefield, she began to look around, first at the Maulwurfs and then over at Sting’s fellow Draglins and his father. Then, she looked down at Sting and her focus remained upon him. “It’s one of the leaders of Equestria, the ruler of the night and dreams, Princess Luna. That has to be her, but why has she come?”

“So, that one is the dreamer having this nightmare,” noted Luna as she observed Sting’s body and saw it was unlike any creature she had ever encountered in Equestria. “He must be one of those new dragon-changeling hybrids that Spike mentioned, in which case, I’ve found my way to warn them of Celestia’s attack.” Snarls and growls from the Maulwurfs surrounding her drew the princess’s attention away from Sting. They had recovered from the flash of light caused by her arrival and had turned all their aggression onto her. “But, first, I’d best clear away this bad dream so that we can have a proper talk.

Her horn glowed brightly as she focused and channeled her magic. Despite the brightness, this time the moles didn’t cower and only snarled more viciously at her for it as they moved in to attack the Princess of the Night. Despite this, Luna boldly stood her ground as she allowed her magic to fire out in all directions, striking her aggressors and burning through their bodies like a flame to parchment. “Apparitions of fear,” she called out in a loud and commanding voice that didn’t just halt the moles from striking at her, but it left Sting in awe too on top of the magical power she just unleashed with relative ease. The swarm of rodents cried out in agony as their nightmarish figures got pierced by her magic. Their forms were breaking apart from her powerful attack and before long they all simply evaporated into nothingness, leaving Sting to ponder just how strong she had to be to overcome an enemy he was helpless against.

“She did it,” uttered an amazed Sting, seeing all the Maulwurfs had been wiped out. “She saved everyone.”

“Yeah, and you failed us, Sting,” criticized his fellow Draglings.

“A pony had to save us because you were too weak to do the job yourself.”

“Some leader you are. I can’t imagine anyone else being a bigger disappointment to us than you.”

“We’d all be dead right now and it’d have all been your fault!”

“I did my best but…” Sting started to say, but he cringed back, feeling so very small and depressed. “No. If I fail you I fail you. No words I could say could make up for letting you all down.”

“Yeah! We don’t want to hear any of your lame excuses.”

“That’s right! Talk is cheap!”

“You could apologize to us a million times and it wouldn’t make up for such a blunder!”

“What a waste of a sperm you were in my nuts,” Tamati added in, still too battered and bruised to do more than voice his insults to his son. “Hey. Can someone help me sit up so that I can properly shake my head in disappointment at him too?”

“It seems those Maulwurf were only one part of the nightmare,” observed Luna as she saw how each hurtful criticism and insult tore at the warrior Dragling while he merely stood there and took the abuse. She held off from acting further as she took the opportunity to observe the Changelings, Draglings, as well as that huge black Dragon that was slowly being rolled off his gut as he instructed. “These must all be the ones that Spike has allied himself with, both the Changelings and these new creatures. And that dragon… That must be Tamati, the one Spike told me leads this group against Equestria and my sister. He certainly has a frightful, villainous appearance, though…”

“Come on now,” instructed Tamati as half a dozen Changelings and Draglings worked together to roll him over. “Just a bit more. You can do it. You can do it.” They managed to almost get him on his side before they lost hold of him and the large dragon rolled back and pinned the whole group under his chest and gut. “Uh, I guess you don’t have it.”

“Ugh, dad!” complained one of the Draglings squirming and struggling to get out from under him. “You’re too heavy!”

“Hey now,” he retorted. “I’m no heavier than when I first arrived at the Hive.”

“Hardly, boss,” countered Biggs. “We know you’ve been sneaking into the food stores for a late night snack on quite a few occasions.”

“Oh, you knew about that?” replied Tamati, trying not to appear embarrassed by that. “Uh, well, I’m the leader around here so I am free to do such things. Anyway, I workout plenty to stay in shape.”

“Besides when you’re actually doing field work, which was like three or four times, last time I checked,” pointed out Chrysalis. “The most exercise you seem to get is when your harem makes love to you and when that happens we’re the ones usually doing work while you sit your ass on your throne or lay back in bed.”

“I’ll admit that I haven’t been particularly active as much,” he confessed. “But with everything going on I barely know if I’m coming or going. It’s a lot of big brain work to keep everything clear and organized, after all. As for sex, well, I haven’t received any poor reviews from any of you.”

“He certainly doesn’t seem to behave quite like any world-conquering villain I’ve ever encountered before, even if this is a mental representation of him from his son,” finished Luna. “He’s certainly nothing like my sister, at least seeing him in this light. I can only imagine what the real one must be like under more serious circumstances. Whatever the case, I’ve witnessed more than enough now.” Looking back over at Sting, she descended down to stand before him.

“You are Princess Luna, correct?” questioned Sting, the look in his eyes showing he was already confident in his assumption.

“I am,” she nodded. “And you must be one of those new creatures to now exist within Equestria, Draglings, a species cross-bred between Changelings and Dragons, well, so far, one Dragon, Tamati, correct?”

“Not many are privy to our origins, yet you seem quite well informed of us,” he noticed. “How is that?”

“I was told these things by another Dragon I’m sure you know quite well,” she answered. “One that goes by the name of, ‘Spike.’”

“Then, did he sell us out or…” he replied, slowly reaching for his sword as he prepared to lunge at the Alicorn Princess. As he gripped the hilt of his blade, he sprang at her, aiming to restrain and capture her in a flash. “Did you capture and torture him?!?”

Not even needing to move, Luna’s horn simply glowed and the young warrior found his body became completely motionless from the neck down. “I can assure you, I did no such thing to your friend nor did he admit such things to me as an act of betrayal,” she answered, not even flinching from his sudden attack that was halted, inches from cleaving her cleanly through from her right shoulder down to her left hip. “He only told me what he did because of his desire to help and protect you and because he trusts in me to do so while he cannot.”

“Again you’ve brought shame to us,” Sting’s companions criticized after he found himself so easily restrained.

“What happened to our great commander that had the strength to plow right through a cluster of Pony soldiers? You can’t lay a finger on one now.”

“I can do better,” Sting groaned, attempting with all his might to move his body, but even with all his strength and willpower, he remained still as a statue against Luna’s magic. “I can be better… Don’t give up on me just yet.”

“Please do not strain yourself,” said Luna, loosening her magical hold enough to allow Sting some movement, but only enough for very sluggish volition. “Though this realm separates our consciousness from our bodies that remain in the waking one, the pain and damage sustained in here can affect our bodies if our lucidity is too high.”

“Another realm? Awakening?” the red creature repeated. “So, this really is a dream then?”

“Then you were aware of this?” she asked.

“Not until you appeared, at least,” he told her. “Then I started to wonder how we even ended up like this and I couldn’t recall anything before being in bed. So, I was having a nightmare?”

“Boo! Sting sucks! Boo!” the peanut gallery continued to sling insults and putdowns at him.

“Still are,” she told him. “From what context I was able to observe, upon my arrival, I didn’t want to traumatize you by wiping out the dream cognitions of your relations, right in front of you, like I did those Maulwurfs, but if you’d permit me, I’d rather we discuss things just the two of us.”

Sting was silent for a second as he considered and then turned his head and shut his eyes. “Just be quick about it. “Even if they aren’t real, I…”

“I understand,” nodded Luna with a soft smile as she closed her eyes and channeled a softer glow from her horn that washed over the specters haunting Sting’s sleep, dissipating them one after another in a far more delicate manner than she had with the Maulwurfs from before. “And done,” she told Sting once the two of them were all that remained in his dream. “You can open your eyes now.”

Doing so, he was quick to look where his faux family had been and all that remained was silence. With a deep breath, he let out a deep sigh as all the tension in his body melted away. “I know none of them would ever really say such things to me, but it really is only a matter of time before something happens and I’m unable to protect them. I’m the strongest and their commander. It’s my duty and my burden to bear.”

“You have a lot of pride in the role you play,” the Princess of the Night praised him, releasing the young warrior from her magic to let him more comfortably rest on the floor. “But all that responsibility shouldn’t be yours to bear alone. If it is too much for you then hand some off because just as much as you worry over them they also are equally concerned for your wellbeing and there is no better time than now to put this into practice.”

“It is?” asked Sting. “What do you mean?”

“Princess Celestia, my sister, is on her way to attack your home,” she explained. “You must wake up and have everyone evacuate before they get there.”

“If she wants a fight then we’ll give her one,” Sting replied, growing tense once more as his biceps bulged.

“No, she doesn’t want to fight,” Luna shook her head. “She aims to wipe you out entirely and doing so with so few soldiers and such little preparation time can only mean she plans to do something very drastic.”

“Drastic? Just what does she intend to do?” questioned Sting.

“I can’t say much more than that, but it is what happens when one bears all the burden themselves,” she explained. “And to me that is reason enough to err on the side of caution. All I can advise is to avoid a conflict entirely. If not, I’m afraid that a battle would result in both sides being completely wiped out and for both side’s sake, I wish to avoid such a thing. I do not know precisely how long you have before she will arrive, but the sooner the better and best while you still have the cover of night to keep you veiled from sight.”

“This could all very well be a ruse,” he pointed out. “Using my nightmare as a means to gain my trust and lead us into a trap.”

“It’s understandable that you would feel this way,” Luna nodded. “But, for all your sakes, Spike is willing to risk his life and that is what has inspired me to aid him. No matter how I spin it, this is still high treason against my sister and all of Equestria, but I’m doing what I feel is right in my heart and can only hope that my actions can inspire you to believe in me too.”

“Everything you’ve said could have been a lie…” Sting began, before looking directly into Luna’s eyes. “But, I don’t feel like this is a deception.” Taking a knee, Sting bowed to the princess. “Very well, I will heed your warning and evacuate the hive. However, if this really is a lie then I will make it my new responsibility to become your own personal waking nightmare.”

“Very well and nicely put,” agreed Luna as her horn glowed. “I’ll awaken you now and ensure none of this is forgotten by you either, young warrior. Oh, through this all, I never did catch your name.”

“My name, it’s Sting,” he told her as he started to feel himself get swallowed up in a bright, white light as his dream started to end.

“It was nice to meet you, Sting,” she replied. “Until we meet again, either awake or in our dreams.”

“Urgh ha!” gasped Sting, waking to find himself in the Changeling infirmary where he had dozed off. The room was dark and many other members of the pack were sound asleep in the other beds on either side of him. Media was there too, snoozing at the foot of his bed while she had been watching over him.

“All that… wasn’t just a dream, was it?” questioned Sting, recalling his whole nightmare with the clarity that Luna had provided him. “No. I remember it all too vividly and, with what I’ve been warned is coming, I have no choice but to act upon it. Trying to sit up, Sting found himself unable to budge an inch and he soon saw and recalled how Media had strapped him to his bed as a measure to keep him in it.

“Media!” he called to her, not bothering to be quiet when getting everyone awake and aware of the danger was his top priority. “Media, wake up!”

“Five more minutes, mom,” Media mumbled and smacked her lips as she slowly started to stir.

“Come on! Wake up!” he called to her again, squirming and fidgeting again, doing all he could to force her to fully awaken. “You have to get me out of this bed and then we have to do the same for everyone else! There isn’t any time to waste.”

“Sting?” questioned the Dragling at his bedside. “What are you talking about?”

“I was told that we’re in danger,” he explained. “Princess Celestia is bringing a force with her to attack us and we’ll be wiped out if we don’t get as far away from this place as possible and fast.”

“Oh, you were just having a nightmare,” she yawned, moving over to the head of the bed to comfort him. “Everything is fine. The hive is perfectly safe and sound.”

“No, it’s not,” he argued. “Well, not for much longer. She’s coming and soon!”

“And how exactly do you know this?” questioned Media, looking around to see his outbursts had gotten everyone else up around them and they all looked grumpy at having their sleep upset.

“Because I was told so,” he answered. “In a nightmare I was having… by Princess Luna… after she rescued us from some nightmarish Maulwurfs that I was fighting. Uh, did I mention that she was there because Spike sent her to warn us?”

Media just smiled warmly at Sting and rubbed his head to help comfort him. “Now that you’ve said all that, doesn’t it all just sound a bit ridiculous?”

“Yeah, I know that it does, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” he explained. “It was a real warning and it will come to pass which is why we’ve got to get everyone up and out of here as quickly as possible. So, please, get me out of this bed. We can’t waste any more time debating this.”

“Media, can you try to quiet him down?” groaned the other Draglings in the room, cranky and groaning and attempting to get back to bed while they still had time to do so.

“Yeah, we need our rest. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.”

“There won’t be a tomorrow for us if we don’t act now,” he complained to them, fighting against his restraints, but still couldn’t draw upon enough strength to get himself free.

“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Media continued to try and comfort him. “You’re just continuing to blame yourself, thinking that you have to bear the responsibility of keeping us safe all on your own.” Sitting up, she walked away from his bed. “How about I fix you up a little tea with honey. That should help ease you up to go back to sleep.”

“That has nothing to do with this,” he tried to persuade her, but it was already clear that words weren’t going to convince her this was anything more than him panicking over a mere nightmare. Seeing no other alternative, Sting drew in a big breath and proceeded to exhale a heavy flame from his maw, covering his bed in a sea of flames.

“What the hell?”

“Sting just set his bed on fire?!?”

“He’s really lost it, hasn’t he?”

“Sting!” cried Media, rushing back to him and hurrying to free him from his bed as his own flames ate through his blanket to reach the mattress underneath. The flames were hot, though their Dragon genetics did prevent such limited exposure from burning them while she got her half-sibling free of the straps wrapped around his torso. Yanking him from his bed as Sting also sprang out of it, the two tumbled to the ground while a few other Draglings frantically hurried from their own beds to throw dirt on the flames to extinguish it. “I know that dream upset you, but this is going much too far!”

“I didn’t have any other choice,” he snapped at her. “I had to get up. I have to warn everybody before it’s too late.”

“But it was just a nightmare you were having,” she tried to tell him.

“It started out as one, but the Princess Luna that showed up was definitely the real deal and she was warning us about an attack.”

“For the sake of the argument, let’s say you’re right about this,” Media conceded, knowing full well that she couldn’t restrain Sting now that he wasn’t stuck in bed anymore and doubted that with the aid of all the Draglings in the room would they be able to overpower him with brute force alone. “Why would an enemy princess warn you about such a thing? Because she said that Spike told her to? Just her saying that doesn’t mean it’s true. All this could just be to lure us into a trap.”

“I know that,” he confessed. “But, if that’s the case then why warn us at all? It’d just put us on guard for that very thing when they could simply try to attack us while we are completely in the dark about it? If this is all part of some staged plan, wouldn’t she have been prepared with some better proof to the validity of her claim than what she gave me?”

“We know very little about these Pony princesses,” Media pointed out. “Who knows how their minds work or what they are capable of and that’s still assuming that she wasn’t merely a part of your dream.”

“But that’s a risk we simply can’t afford to take,” he stated confidently. “And… despite all the reasons we shouldn’t trust what she says, my gut is telling me that she was being truthful to us. Now, I’m not saying for you to trust in her, but in me.”

“Sting,” Media replied, looking at his red eyes that had been at times focused, calm, fierce, and angry, but looking at them now, they were frightened and sorrowful as tears leaked from them.

“Maybe this is just me being fearful that I’m not good enough to lead us,” he explained. “But I can’t just lay in bed and do nothing, especially now. I have to save everyone, but I need your help. I need you to believe me… to lend me your strength… otherwise… right or wrong… I really will end up crushed under all this weight.”

Crying herself, as she listened to Sting’s words, she wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Y-You feel this strongly about it?” she asked him once more.

“More than I have about anything else,” he nodded. “Please. I need your help.”

“Then… we shouldn’t waste any more time,” she nodded, helping him up to his feet. “Tell me, no…” She looked to the other Draglings in the room, all of them wide awake now from all the excitement going on around them. “Tell us what you need us to do.”

“It’s one thing if you want to entertain all this drama,” the Draglings started to complain before a death glare from Media had them all terrified into cooperation. “But if this is really an emergency then count us in too.”

“Yeah, we’re perfectly terrified- uh, I mean happy to help.”

“Then split up and wake everyone in the hive,” explained Sting. “Tell them we’re evacuating now and going to wherever father has been planning to take us. Have everyone grab what they can, prioritizing the essentials. We must leave as soon as possible, while we still have the night sky to conceal our movements.”

“You heard him,” Media added, speaking in the sternest tone she ever managed to muster. “Everyone spread out, making sure each floor in the hive is accounted for. Do not leave till every last Changeling and Dragling has evacuated and make sure that the ones out on patrol duty are informed too.”

Nodding and hurrying out, all the other Draglings were quick to either head up or go down to the different levels of the towering structure, making certain one or two stopped on each floor before the rest continued onward. This left Sting and Media in the room by themselves. As they listened, they could hear the shouts of their troops already in action as they began waking everyone up with expectedly chaotic results as yelling and crying was launched back at them.

“I hope everything goes well,” worried Media. “If it was papa, everyone would do as he says no questions asked.

“Which is why he’s where we’re going,” Sting told her. “No telling if he’ll believe me any easier than you or the others did, but we’ve already started things going and it’d make things more chaotic if he were to stand against what we’re doing now. Hopefully he won’t be too upset over this, but it’s the only thing we could do.”

The dark sky was all but completely gone as the large swarm from the Changeling hive migrated, most exhausted and irritable as they flew. Being burdened with overstuffed backpacks or hauling heavy boxes either alone or with the aid of others, further agitated them more as they glared bitterly over at Sting and Media. They flew close beside Tamati, the great, black-scaled dragon not wearing a smile on his face as his eyes burned redder than usual and he had some bags under them as well. A heavy yawn escaped his maw that he barely had managed to bring his large hand over to cover, but not soon enough before it spread and a handful of others in the group did the same.

“We’re sorry again for this,” Media told him, feeling small as a mouse while there continued to be no concrete proof that all of this had been anything more than a delusion from Sting that they had all been swept into. “But we had no choice but to act while we could.”

“I know that,” Tamati yawned and rubbed his eye. “And I know that, at the very least, you two wouldn’t cause such a commotion purely out of malice or as some dumb practical joke. Still, I don’t see why we couldn’t have just stood our ground and fought. With such little preparation time between our attack on the Crystal Empire and now, there’s no way Princess Celestia could have organized a powerful enough force to oppose us.”

“Especially, when my old throne would have made their magic useless against us,” added in Chrysalis, her mane a notable mess that she was attempting to fix while she flew. “And what about my Zircon? We just got up and left the hive while she was out on a mission of her own.”

“Nat was with her too,” commented Media, though a snort from the former queen showed she didn’t have as much concern for brood that wasn’t directly her own and her current level of irritability wasn’t helping her attitude either.

“I was planning our departure under the assumption that Celestia could possibly have a means to counter your throne,” commented Tamati. “I mean, it’s not like she wouldn’t be aware that non-Changeling magic doesn’t work in the Badlands.”

“She was quite aware of that fact,” confirmed Princess Cadance as she flew while using magic to levitate her former stallion husband and Sunburst as they accompanied the rest of Tamati’s harem. Shiny had her daughter in her arms, held securely. Unlike everyone else, the young Alicorn baby was happily getting her rest.

“Yeah,” the feminized Shining Armor nodded. “We made a point to ask if something would be done about the Changelings after they nearly ruined our wedding.”

“Well, it wasn’t anything personal,” scoffed Chrysalis. “At least that invasion in particular wasn’t, so don’t expect me to apologize for it.”

“How about for all those times when it was personal?” asked Shiny.

“Don’t expect me to apologize ever,” she amended herself.

“Moving on from the subject of Chrysalis’s lack of remorse,” Tamati resumed. “What did Celestia tell you in regards to the Changelings at the time?”

“Not too much, unfortunately,” continued Candance. “With that magic-canceling barrier it would be impossible to fight them successfully on their home turf. At the time, I was really frustrated that that horrible partycrasher could cause all that trouble and then hide away where we couldn’t go after her.”

“I wasn’t hiding,” hissed Chrysalis. “That was a tactical retreat mixed with plenty of scheming and brooding. It’s very different.”

“Uh huh. Well, while I was frustrated, Princess Celestia looked even moreso,” recalled the Princess of Love. “Possibly because of how it all went down under her watch and that she even lost to Chrysalis when they fought.”

“A highlight of the event I wish I could watch over and over again,” laughed Chrysalis. “Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate my cover was going to be blown that soon.”

“My point being,” finished Cadance. “She looked even more determined than I was to pay back the Changelings for that attack, so if she didn’t have a means to get around the barrier back then, that might not be true now.”

“I remember after the attack, we did manage to capture a few Changeling stragglers,” added Shiny. “Every day I went back to their cells to make sure they were still there and, admittedly, feeling some self-satisfaction at seeing them in the agony of relentless hunger while only being given enough love to just barely sustain them. Then one day, they were all gone. When I asked the guards that were watching them about what happened to them I was merely told they had finally perished. I asked if I could see their bodies, just to give them one last hateful glare, but I wasn’t allowed even that, despite, at the time, being Captain of the Royal Guard. I thought it was a bit strange, but, before I knew it, the Crystal Empire returned as did Sombra and my attention turned towards that.”

“Then it’s possible that Princess Celestia could have been doing something shady that even those close to her weren’t aware of,” concluded Tamati. “What do you think about this, Chrysalis?”

“I guess even Ms. Sunbutt does have some redeeming qualities,” admitted Chrysalis.

“I mean, could she find a way to nullify your throne’s power by using your drones?” he specified in his inquiry.

“Yes… No… Maybe,” she pondered. “I don’t really know. It could be possible, though that’s something I’ve never needed to look into myself.”

“Um, it definitely could be possible,” mentioned Sunburst, drawing everyone’s attention towards him. “I’ve read books on how creatures have distinct magical properties attuned to the biology of their species. In theory, one could change theirs to match that of another creature’s by ingesting enough of their magical essence till it overpowers their own. The effects would only be temporary and last only till it works through their system.”

“And by doing that, they could work around the throne’s magic-nullifying powers by disguising their magic to be like that of Changelings,” concluded Tamati.

“Yes, but that’s still only a theory,” Sunburst reminded him. “Without actually testing it, there’s no way to know if doing that would work. I don’t know for certain if anyone is even crazy enough to drink such a vile brew and if there are, it’s even more likely that one would simply receive nothing beyond the most awful stomach ache of their life.”

“But, if Celestia is the one behind it, then would any of you conclude that such a thing would only amount to a day wasted, stuck on the crapper?” questioned Tamati. Looking from Chrysalis to Cadance and then Shiny and Sunburst. None of them looked the least bit doubtful that Celestia would find a way to make it work.

“So, perhaps, Celestia really did figure a way around my magical barrier,” conceded Chrysalis. “We still don’t know for certain that she is or, more to the point, if she could have bested the entire swarm with whatever puny squadron of Ponies she brought with her. For all we know, we just abandoned our home and most of what was in it for nothing.”

“I did want us to have more time to transport more supplies with us,” admitted Tamati. “I had to settle for only taking a few pieces of the throne rather than the whole thing as a result. Still, if it was going to be a situation that was going to be so catastrophic that we’d all get wiped out, we made the correct choice.”

“I’m still certain this was all just an overreaction over a dream,” she continued to adamantly say as she looked over at the sun that was partially poking out by the horizon to greet the new day. “It’s officially dawn now and you said that the attack would happen by now, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was told,” Sting confirmed. “But I don’t know exactly how they were going to attack us, just that if we fought, in all likelihood, both sides would be wiped out as a result.”

“Forgive me if such a warning makes me feel the slightest bit skeptical,” Chrysalis replied. “But I’m starting to think we all fell for one huge deception and for Changelings, who are all about being the ones to deceive, there is no greater indignity than this.”

“We still don’t know that to be true,” Tamati started to say as a trail of smoke came into view as it maneuvered through all the Changelings and Draglings in its way until it reached Tamati. Holding out his claws for it, the dark Dragon watched as it reformed itself into a scroll that bore an “S” seal on it that he was quick to recognize. “It’s a letter from Spike!” he announced to everyone. “Maybe we can finally get this whole situation cleared up.”

Everyone watched as Tamati broke the seal and unrolled the scroll. They were all eager for answers just as much as he was. As Tamati got a look at the writing, the first thing he took note of the how sloppy Spike’s writing was compared to everything else he had penned prior, with a few misspelled words, some wonky penmanship, and even a number of ink stains on it as well, with some in the shape of his claws too. He did recognize the chicken scratch as Spike’s handwriting, however, removing his visage of skepticism, but replaced it with one of concern.

“I don’t doubt that this was made by Spike, but was he in a rush to write this?” wondered Tamati. Opting to inquire about that once he had read the contents of the scroll, he cleared his throat first and then gazed over at the topmost line.

“Dear Tamati,” he began.

Boom!

The sound of an explosion, way off in the distance, was quick to steal away everyone’s attention as they turned back in the direction they came from to see something akin to a small sun off into the distance. As they all stared at it, trying to make out just what they were seeing, birds nestled in the trees all from all over took to the sky, in a panic over this strange phenomenon as well. Moments later, a powerful gust of wind blew at the swarm, the temperature of it luke warm against their bodies.

“What in Equestria was that?” wondered Media.

“Nothing I’ve ever seen happen before,” confessed Chrysalis, still staring at the huge glow in the distance and trembling. “But whatever it was, it happened back over at the hive!”

“Are you certain?” asked Cadance, looking horror-stricken along with everyone else as they imagined what would have happened if they had been in the epicenter of it.

“I can’t be certain from this distance,” she admitted while clenching her fists. “But just looking at it, it’s tying my stomach in knots with dread and, if nothing else, that this is happening now of all times does line up with the Celestia’s attack on us.”

“What’s Spike’s letter say?” asked Shiny to his large dragon master who was just as shaken up by this as everyone else.

“Huh? Oh, right, the letter,” he mumbled before starting over. As he began to read, the group slowly started to move on again, knowing there was no longer a reason for them to go back the way they came.

Dear Tamati,

I hope that when you read this, it is already outdated intel that you’ve heeded. Princess Celestia is on her way to attack the Changeling Hive much sooner than you anticipated. I don’t know what she has planned, but from what Luna tells me and from what I’ve been coming to understand myself, she is not one to be underestimated in any regard.

Because of how much of a threat she is to not just you, but to Equestria as a whole, I think my allegiance to you is stronger than ever. Celestia needs to be stopped, for everyone’s sake and, right now gathering power and allies might be the best chance at succeeding. I’ll continue to do my part, but, unfortunately, I won’t be able to rejoin you for a while. In order to secure Luna’s aid in warning you, I chose to surrender myself to her. I’m going to be sent to the gem mines where all imprisoned dragons are taken too and never seen again, but I don’t intend for that to be my fate. Don’t worry about me. I’ll make my escape from there somehow and make it back to your side.

For now, just keep doing as you’ve been doing. Seek out the remaining Elements of Discord and grow your forces. Ensure that you stay as many steps ahead of Celestia as you can and try to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh a bit extra for me. ; 3 I get the feeling I won’t be enjoying the company of my harem anywhere but in my dreams for a while now.

Speaking of my harem, if you can, I’d appreciate it if you could help me out with a task. Along with this letter to you, I’m sending a message to the members of my harem telling them of my fate and giving them the choice to either join our cause or to go back to their regular lives and not get involved with what we’re doing. If they choose the former, could you send someone to meet them in Appaloosa at six in the evening.

It is very important that you do this as I’m sending a new member of my harem there as well to join up with you. She’ll be going there as well, with all the research I managed to complete and the Element I danced my butt off to earn for you. Normally, I’d have at least sent the research papers with this letter, but, while I have no idea how things will turn out on your end, it’ll be much safer to send it to you this way.

With how things are, I likely won’t be able to stay in touch with you as frequently or freely as I used to, but I’ll certainly try to find a way. Still, if this does turn out to be our last correspondence, then at least let me say that it was an honor to work for you and thank you for helping me discover that there was more to me than I could have ever hoped for.

Your eternally loyal friend,
Spike the Dragon

“What an idiot,” sighed Tamati, as he gripped the scroll tightly, almost tearing it in half with his strength. “What a loyal, brave, and downright wonderful idiot.” He took a deep breath as his muscles tightened. He felt ready to just take off like a bullet and rush to Spike’s aid, but he didn’t doubt that it was already much too late to help him. “You better not die on me or I’ll kill you myself.”

Reaching down, Tamati grabbed at Sunburst who had been floating just ahead of him while listening to him read Spike’s letter. “Huh? Hey? What are you doing?” he cried as the large Dragon searched his backpack.

“I need a quill and some parchment,” he told his minion. “I need to send a message to Cid with some new instructions before he joins back up with us.”

“Isn’t he with us?” Sunburst asked.

“I instructed him to stay behind while remaining hidden, just to see how things play out,” Tamati explained. “He’s also waiting for Nat and Zircon to return too to take them to where we’re already headed.”

“You think he’s still okay with whatever happened back there?” wondered Cadance.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about him,” commented the former Changeling Queen. “He’s always been one I could depend on for a job well done. I don’t doubt this time will be any different.”

“That’s enough to convince me,” stated Tamati as Sunburst gave him the materials he needed. “Okay, now let me borrow your back. I need something to write on.”

“Just try to be gentle,” requested Sunburst, looking nervous as Tamati placed the scroll paper on his back and then dipped his quill pen in the bottle of ink he held with his tail.

“Don’t worry,” promised the large, powerful Dragon. “I’ve been getting better at writing. Last time I wrote something, I only tore through the paper three times.”

“Only three?” sweated Sunburst, not looking less worried by that revelation. “Well, th-that’s somewhat comforting, I guess.”