Author's Note

A few things:
1) Zecora does not rhyme
2) Spike will find his ammo in this chapter
3) Unlike the ammo in the game, the ammo is reusable and has formed a bond with Spike, think of the Slugs from the show Slugterra, he also has names for the leader of each type.
Fuzzle: Fang
Zapfly: Sparks
Boombat: Banger
ThudSlug: Wallop
Bolamite: Charlotte/ Char
Stingbee: Queen
Stunkz: Belch
Chippunk: Alvin
4) This is going to be a long ass chapter so be aware

Night Under The Stars Pt.1

"Well that was delicious," Spike said as he patted his full stomach after he finished off his sixth sapphire cupcake.

Spike then released a loud burp accompanied by a small jet of green flames, making a bashful look appear on his face as he put his claw to his face to cover up another burp.

After the burp was silenced, Spike removed his claw and said, "Excuse me," which made all of his female eating companions look at him and sigh as they all lowered their heads and slowly shook them.

Spike saw this and asked, "What? I said 'Excuse me.'"

"It's nothing Spike, but please remember that you're in public," Twilight said as she looked at him like she used to when he was little, which made Starlight and Princess Celestia giggle as they both remember seeing this exchange happen between the two many times before.

Just then, both Mr. and Mrs. Cake walked over to the group to inquire how they enjoyed the food.

"So, is it still as good as you remember it, Spike?" Mrs. Cake asked.

"Nope, it's even better!" Spike said with a satisfied smile, "You both really stepped up your gem baking game in the last two years.".

"Thank you, Spike, but in a way, it was all thanks to you." Mr. Cake insisted.

"Me? How?" Spike asked, confused by Mr. Cake's words.

"Let me explain." Twilight spoke up, "Spike, after you disappeared, Dragon Lord Ember was quickly informed and she had ordered a large platoon of her finest dragon guards to accompany her to Ponyville to help with the initial search. At first, there were a few problems with having a group of dragons in town, but only two houses caught fire after someone accidentally planted a dragon sneeze tree in town, but thanks to the Cakes' help, we were able to feed such a large party of dragons but to accommodate for each dragons preference in gems they had to quickly learn more about using gems in there food. But after the search was called off some of the dragons said that they would like to visit Equestria other than during the migration. So Ember and I created visas to allow dragons to visit a few towns in Equestria as long as they follow our laws, so in many towns and city's gem treats have started to become very popular."

"That's great, though I wish I was around to see this happen," Spike said, feeling a bit upset that he missed so much.
Everyone saw the look on Spike's face and quickly understood why he looked as such.

"But, things are still in the testing period and only a few dragons have these visas, and we hope in the upcoming years having dragons living in pony towns will be a common sight." Starlight added, which made Spike's mood lighten.

"You're right, thanks Starlight," Spike said with a small smile on his face.

"No problem Spike, but remember this is all thanks to you becoming friends with Ember." Starlight said.

Spike then turned to the pair of bakers and said, "So, how much do we owe for lunch?"

"It's on the house." Mr. Cake insisted, "Let's just say it's our way of saying welcome back."

"Thanks," Spike said.

Just then, there was a large thud coming from the ceiling above the group, which made Mrs. Cake sigh.

"Let me guess, Pumpkin is throwing something heavy with magic or Pound flew into something and knocked it down?" Spike asked.

"That, or they both caused it, anyway it was great to see you again Spike, and remember that you are always welcome to visit, I want to hear all about your time away, and maybe you can play with the twins while we chat." Mrs. Cake said as she gave the dragon a quick hug before running upstairs to take care of the damage her kids have done.

"Same here Spike, I want to hear all about your adventures whenever you have the chance." Mr. Cake said as he gave Spike a pat on the back before returning to the back of the shop to prepare for more customers.

"So Spike, are you ready to get back to the castle and go to Zecora's before you go out to train in the forest?" Twilight asked.

"Yep, let's head out," Spike said.

With that, the group left the bakery and continued back to make their way back to the castle.

An hour after leaving the bakery, the group arrived at the castle (mostly due to them being stopped by ponies bowing to the two princesses or asking about Spike's changes). Twilight then opened the castle doors and allowed her companions to enter the large open foyer. Twilight then used her magic to close the large crystal door and she let out a loud sigh.
"I swear to Celestia, the second we get back from the Crystal Empire we're going to be holding a Q&A for anyone who has questions about you," Twilight said as she pointed towards Spike.

"That's still a week away Twi, but by the time we get back, the news of my return will have reached all of Equestria and the dragon lands, so I bet we will have a large group of ponies attending so we need to prepare," Spike said.

"Not to mention the griffins, yaks, Buffalo, dragons, and changelings who will also attend." Princess Celestia added.

"But until then, we still need to get ready for tonight, so I’m gonna go upstairs and grab my gear and then I and mom can head out to Zecora's." Spike before he turned his attention to Princess Celestia and asked, "Mom, are you sure you don’t want to head back to Canterlot to grab some supplies for tonight?"

"Don't worry Spike, I already sent a letter to Lulu asking her to pack for the both of us because she has agreed to join us as well, so run upstairs and grab your stuff and we will meet you back in about five minutes." Princess Celestia said.

"OK, I'll be back real quick," Spike said before he ran upstairs to grab his bag from the room he was staying in.
As Spike was running up the stairs, he thought to himself, 'This castle is still a pain to navigate around, but if I remember correctly the room I was in should be the seventh one on the left.'

As Spike walked down the Crystal hallway, he was reminded of the first time he and Twilight arrived in the castle after Tirek was defeated.

"Spike can you believe it, the tree of harmony gave me a castle and is so huge," Twilight said on the first night they stayed in the castle.

"I know Twilight, you've been talking about it all day, but have you noticed that all the door's look the same, isn't it going to be hard to find the room you want?" Spike asked.

"You worry too much Spike, but if you want, we can map out the castle's floor plan later." Twilight suggested.

"That would be helpful, thanks Twilight," Spike said with a smile.

'We never did get to that, but it's fine, the layout of the castle was actually easier to memorize then I thought it would have been.' Spike thought to himself.

Spike used his knowledge of the castle's layout and quickly found the seventh door on the left and opened it to find the same room he was in when he woke up this morning.

Spike walked into the room and noticed it was just one of the many spare rooms they had in the castle so it was furnished very sparingly with a small desk next to the window and a large queen size bed in the room along with a crystalline wardrobe on the side next to the bathroom door.

As Spike walked in, he quickly made his way to the wardrobe and opened it to find his tattered backpack.

Spiked and let out a long sigh and said to himself, “I wonder how my ammo is doing and I wonder if Rarity can fix this, but knowing her, she’ll probably want to re-design it completely. But maybe that’s okay, I've been wanting to keep more ammo with me at all times so maybe I can ask Twilight or Starlight to enchant my bag with a pocket dimension so I can store as much ammo as I need, but that can wait, I still need to get ready for training. Hopefully, I can find at least find some of my ammo that escaped when I landed in the forest, I just hope that they have not caused too much damage."

On the day Spike returned to Equestria, in the Castle of the Two Sisters all of Spike's ammo was quickly creating new homes for themselves which resulted in many new holes in the castle walls thanks to the Boombats. Many of the creatures of Everfree Forest quickly fled from the castle ranging from a swarm of Star Spiders to a pack of ten Timberwolves who were terrified of the new species.

Spike shrugged before saying to himself, "They're probably ok. What's the worst they could do?"

"Spike are you ready?" Twilight called from the bottom floor.

"Yup, just packing my bag," Spike called back as he quickly detached his crossbow from his arm and placed it in his bag along with his journal and some other things like some jerky that had survived the trip and a pair of binoculars that he used to spot his targets. He then slung it over his shoulder and walked back to the hallway.

As Spike rejoined the rest of the group he was met with the sight of Celestia with a large backpack on her back that looked packed full of whatever she may need in the forest with her mane tied into a ponytail with a hair tie. She was also wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

"Mom, did you remember to pack the Castle fountain too, or is Aunt Luna bringing that?" Spike jokingly asked, making Princess Celestia give an annoyed look at him.

"No, it's still at the castle, and for your information, I only packed the essentials." Princess Celestia responded, which made Spike raise an eyebrow that Applejack would be proud of.

"And what, pray do tell, are the essentials?" Spike asked.

"A change of clothes, a tent, a sleeping bag, nightwear, fire starters, a shovel, an ax, some food, a compass, map, some paper, and a quill and ink, plus some after-dinner snacks." Princess Celestia listed.

Spike was impressed by his mother's preparations, but there is still room for improvement.

"Mom, first off, lose the fire starters, the shovel, and the ax. Spike said, "I'm a walking lighter, I can dig through solid rock, and my claws are sharp enough that I make wood look like a soft sponge cake. Second, knowing Pinkie, you can lose the snacks. Also, the map will be useless because the only landmark we can use as a point of reference is the old castle, and at that point, even the cake twins could find their way back to town from there. Aside from that, you packed well."

"Ok Mr. smarty drake, what did you pack?" Princess Celestia asked.

"My crossbow, journal, binoculars, and some jerky from back on Mudos." Spike listed.

This left Celestia shocked at how unprepared her son was.

"Where are you going to sleep?" Princess Celestia asked.

"On the ground or in a tree, it's nothing new to me," Spike said casually.

Seeing that this was his area of expertise, Princess Celestia's rebuttal died in her throat as she removed the food and nonessentials from her bag.

As Princess Celestia emptied her bag, she removed what appeared to be a full three-course meal, a full cake accompanied with a full set of silverware, and a full map Equestria that made the cutie map look small, along with the shovel and the ax.

Spike let out a sigh as he looked at his mother and said, "Really mom, were you planning on starting a new town in the forest?" This made Celestia pout as she thought that she probably did overpack.

Ten minutes later, Spike and Princess Celestia were walking out the castle's front door as Twilight was going over a checklist of what she and the rest of the girls would need to bring for tonight's outing, and as only she could do she was completely unaware of the fact that Spike was talking to her.

"Twilight, we'll meet up near the edge of the forest before sundown, and we'll have the potion from Zecora with us so all you have to do is get us to the campsite and make sure the rest of the girls are ready." Spike said before turning to Starlight and added "And Starlight, I need you to repeat everything I said to her when she gets out of her rant after we leave."

Starlight nodded as Spike and Princess Celestia started to walk away from the castle as Twilight continued to create the checklist for the night.

"And that should do it, now Spike, I'll meet you before sunset with the girls so we can safely head to the campsite, and don't forget to go to Zecora's and get the potion for tonight," Twilight said as looked up from her list, only to notice that both Spike and Princess Celestia were nowhere in sight as she was alone with Starlight in the foyer.

Twilight then turned to Starlight and opened her mouth but was interrupted by Starlight.

"They already left about five minutes ago, he was heading to Zecora's for the potion and he will meet us around sundown, and make sure that the rest of the girls are ready for tonight, now I have to go pack for tonight so I'll see you later
Twilight." Starlight said before making her way to her room upstairs, which made Twilight close her mouth.

As the mother and son duo walked to the edge of Everfree Forest, they started to catch up on the times they were not able to talk to each other as they both had to deal with the responsibility of their lives.

"Well first, I think we should head to Zecora's to get the potion for tonight. Spike suggested, "Then, we should head to the old castle to set up a small base camp in case of any emergencies."

"That sounds like a plan, plus I have always wondered what happened to the old castle after we left it over a thousand years ago." Princess Celestia said.

"Well, the last time I was there was when I was looking for a book in the library for Rarity with Owlicious." Spike said before adding, "Let's just say that was not my best decision, she kind of went crazy redesigning the whole town in what she thought was for the better."

Celestia sighed as she remembered the spellbook that was supposed to be moved to the current castle during the transition for safekeeping.

"Spike, you probably found the dark spell book called Inspiration manifestation, it allows the caster to create whatever they could imagine, but has a drawback of corrupting the mind of the caster so much that it becomes an obsession and they lose all common sense until the caster experiences emotions stronger than desire." Princess Celestia explained.

"You're telling me, Rarity was about to cover the entire world in gold and gems because I constantly told her that the changes she was making were good," Spike explained, "But after I finally separated my feelings for her from my common sense, I finally told her that the changes were actually awful, and that snapped her out of the spell's effect."

"I'm glad you were able to see through your own heart, but that does raise a question." Princess Celestia said.

"What?" Spike asked.

"What happened to the spellbook?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I ate it." Spike simply said.

Celestia was so shocked to hear about this that she stopped on a bit.

"You what?" Princess Celestia yelled in shock.

"I ate it," Spike repeated.

"Why?" Princess Celestia asked.

"I had no other option, plus I was only eleven and was trying to get rid of the book," Spike replied.

"Well, I was going to destroy the book long ago, but I never got around to it so I guess this was a fate a thousand years overdue." Princess Celestia said.

The duo continued to walking as they soon entered the forest. They continued to talk about some past events as they moved through the dark forest as the canopy of trees only allowed for a small percentage of the sun's light to reach the ground as they made their way to Zecora's hut.

When they arrived at the witch doctor's hut in the middle of the forest, Princess Celestia walked to the door and knocked on the door seated in the old tree.

(AN: I'm not good at rhyming so I have created a good excuse for Zecora)

The sound of creaking wood was heard in the forest as an older zebra mare opened the door to greet her unexpected guests.

"Hello, what can I do for you this afternoon?" Zecora asked before she looked at the unusual pair who decided to visit the witch doctor's home, "Aw, Princess Celestia, it's good to see you again. And who might this dragon be?"

"It's good to see you as well Zecora, as for who this is I'll let him introduce himself to you again." Princess Celestia said before she moved to the side to allow Zecora to see the older dragon that was behind her.

"Hello, my name is Zecora, I am a creator of potions for all who require them, and it's nice to meet a new face in my neck of the woods, pun a little intended, and who might you be?"

"Zecora, I'm a little hurt you don't remember me, how many times had I come to visit you over the years with the girls? How many purple and green dragons do you know?" Spike asked before turning to his mother and asked, "Have I really changed that much over the years?"

"You did grow three times your old size, your voice has changed, and you're mostly covered up in that getup so it's probably hard to be identified." Princess Celestia said.

"Granted, but how many dragons are this open with a princess of the nation and knows exactly where to go to find the witch doctor from another land who lives in the most dangerous forest in the world? And was one of the only two creatures who did not judge her for being different just because she does not look like a normal pony when she first arrived in Ponyville?" Spike asked before he returned his attention to Zecora, a silly smile on his face as he added "And if all these clues don't help you, then Zecora, I'm sorry for not being a bigger part of your life."

The second Zecora saw that silly smile on the dragon's face, Spike was force-tackled to the ground as he was glomped by a crying zebra.

"Spike, it's you, but how?" Zecora cried between sobs.

"I'll tell you as soon as I can get the air back into my lungs," Spike said as he was turning a new shade of blue from lack of oxygen.

Zecora had a bashful look on her face as she let go of Spike and got up

"Sorry about that, I just can't believe that it's you. Zecora said before asking, "Where have you been and what has happened to you?"

Spike got up and dusted the dirt off of his body and poncho as he told Zecora, "I'll tell you inside. Plus, we need to talk to you about a couple of potions."

Hearing the request, Zecora quickly opened the door to her home and led the duo inside. Once inside, Zecora led them to a couch and ushered them to sit and relax.

"Would either of you like some tea?" Zecora asked the duo.

"No, but thank you Zecora, and it's good to see you again," Spike said.

"If you don't mind, I would like a cup of tea." Princess Celestia said.

Zecora left the room and went to her kitchen to prepare the tea for the princess. During this time, Spike looked around the room and remembered all the times he spent time with Zecora in this room when he had to visit her for Twilight. Spike then drifted off to his memories as he remembered the last time he came to visit Zecora before he was teleported to Mudos. During this time, Zecora returned to the sitting room and handed the princess her tea as she placed her own cup on the table and look to the duo.

"Thank you for the tea, it's wonderful." Princess Celestia said before taking a sip.

"Not a problem princess, but I do have a few questions for Spike and yourself, so if it's not too inconvenient might I ask
why you are in the Everfree forest," Zecora asked before she turned her attention to the spaced-out dragon and asked,

"Spike, how are you here, alive?"

The Question snapped Spike out of his memories and he responded, "Well it all started about two years ago...."

One hour summarization of chapters 4-6 and explaining the scars later.

"Oh my, Spike I'm so sorry you had to go through all that," Zecora said.

"Don't be, I never wanted to leave but we can't change the past…" Spike said before adding, "Well, we can, but that would be a pain in the ass. Besides, I like my life now, and I wouldn't change a thing."

"Well, I'm glad to know that you have no regrets and are satisfied with how your life turned out." Zecora said, "Now, as great as it was to have you visit me after so long, what brings you to my home?"

"Well, Pinkie wanted to throw me a party to celebrate my return, but I need to train so we compromised and agreed to have a camping party tonight in the forest, and of course if you're free to join us we would be more than welcomed for you to join, but first we need to have some predator repellent made for protection," Spike said.

"Not a problem Spike, and I would be happy to join you and the rest of the girls tonight." Zecora said, "I'll bring the potions, but I'm missing a special ingredient that wards off the larger creators of the forest, but I know of a place to get the ingredients and it's the one you're quite familiar with." Zecora said.

"And where would that be?" Spike asked.

"In the garden of the old castle in the forest, your looking for a plant called 'Green Fang'," Zecora replied, "It's a rare plant that is found near where large packs of Timberwolves live to mark their territory and repels other Timberwolf packs and manticores."

"That's easy enough, but what does it look like?" Spike asked

"It looks like a rose with green petals, it has a dark green stem and is covered in red fang shaped thorns that have what berries that appear to be red drops of blood at the tip of each thorn," Zecora said.

(AN: picture a combo of all three above)

"That's perfect, we were planning to set up a base camp in the old castle for my training," Spike said "We'll be back to pick you up in about twenty minutes before sunset with the plant. And then Twilight will meet us outside of the forest to take us to where we're staying for the night."

"Excellent, I will have the rest of the potion ready for your return." Zecora said before adding, "But be warned, I have seen evidence of a rather large pack of timberwolves staying in the castle, so I want you to be fully aware of your surroundings because I don't want to lose you again so soon."

"Don't worry Zecora, I promise you on my mother's grave I will return safely," Spike assured.

"Hey, I'm still in my early fourth millennium!" Princess Celestia exclaimed, feeling offended by her son's words.

"It's a figure of speech mom, I'm not implying anything," Spike said.

"I still don't like that saying." Princess Celestia grumbled.

"Thank you for the sentiment, and don't worry princess, back home we have a similar expression, and rest assure that you don't look a day over two thousand," Zecora said.

"Thank you Zecora, also I'm glad to see Twilights lessons are paying off." Princess Celestia said.

"Lessons?" Spike asked, "What lessons?"

"Spike, haven't you noticed something different about how I'm speaking?" Zecora asked, that's when it finally clicked.

"You not rhyming anymore, but why?" Spike asked.

"Well, in simple terms, after you disappeared I was tasked with leading a large search party through the forest." Zecora explained, "But many ponies were having problems with understanding my speech so Twilight decided to help me adopt a more understandable speech pattern, have I said anything incorrect?"

"No, not at all." Spike said before adding, "But even before I was gone, I never had any problems understanding you, and to be honest, I kind of miss it. But let's not get bogged down with my preferences, I'm thankful for your help in the search."

"I would do anything for my friends, so think nothing of it." Zecora insisted, "And if you're ever in trouble, I'll be in the thick of it with you."

"Thanks." Spike said as he and Princess Celestia stood up from the couch," Well Zecora, we need to go set up a camp near the castle? And don't worry, I think a walking bonfire like myself will be able to deal with some walking driftwood. Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"A few things, but that can wait until tonight." Zecora responded, "Just be careful while you're in the forest."

With everything arranged for tonight l, Spike and Princess Celestia were grateful for the kindness Zecora has shown them and headed to the old castle.

After leaving Zecora's hut, the mother and son walked through the forest while Singing a song together.

As they sang, they walked down a path that led to the Castle of the Two Sisters and came across a river. Due to a lack of a certain sea serpent, they walked down the river for a while until they came upon a rather large tree that had fallen due to erosion and was just the right length to span the river. Seeing no other way for Spike to cross, both he and Princess Celestia climbed atop the fallen tree and slowly and carefully walked across to the other side.

After crossing the river, the duo continued to sing the song as they continued to walk into the forest but unknown to them, there was a small timberwolf pack near the edge of the river and upon seeing a potentially good meal in front of them, the pack followed. However, one of the timberwolves was careless and accidentally stepped on a twig, snapping it and alerting spike to the pack's location.

"Mom we have a small problem," Spike said.

"Let me guess, Timberwolves?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yep, from what I can tell, there's about five of them, one alpha and four betas from the sounds of it... probably that pack Zecora told us about." Spike said before asking, "So you want to deal with them, or should I?"

"You go ahead Sweetie, just don't destroy the hearts I don't want you to kill them, they're important to the ecosystem." Princess Celestia said.

Spike shrugged and cracked his knuckles before saying, "Fine, head to the castle. I'll meet you there."

"Ok, have fun." Princess Celestia said as she walked away for the castle.

"Don't worry, I will!" Spike yelled before turning his attention to the timberwolves who were still hiding in the trees, "Ok, who wants to play?"

All that Princess Celestia could hear was the sound of wood snapping as she walked away from the one-sided fight.

Ten minutes after Princess Celestia had left Spike to deal with the timberwolves, she arrived at the castle's bridge and she was appalled to see the state the castle was in. There were massive holes in the outer wall of the castle and she just stood there in shock.

Princess Celestia stood there for a while as she was too shocked about the old castle's state to notice Spike carrying a large pile of wood in his arms enter into her view.

Seeing his mother's shocked look, Spike tried to snap her out of it.

"Mom, are you ok?" Spike asked, but got no response, "Mom, Hello?" again nothing, "This is not good. Well, time for my trump card. MOM Discord has turned all the cakes in the castle into vegetables!"

Immediately after saying that, Spike stepped back and waited for the reaction.

Princess Celestia's eye started to twitch and her mane started to smoke. A few seconds later her mane was totally engulfed in fire and she looked like she was going to kill discord

"HE DID WHATTTTTTTT!?! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM, HE'LL WISH HE WAS STILL IN HIS STONE PRISON!!!!" Princess Celestia yelled in the royal Canterlot voice.

In Discords Dimension, Discord was unwatering his house plants when he felt a shiver up his spine.

"That's odd, either I'm getting the blue flu again or someone is out for my hide." Discord said to himself before shrugging,
"Well, might as well go see whom I have pissed off."

With that, Discord snapped his fingers causing him to disappear out of his dimension.

As Princess Celestia continued to rant about what she was going to do to Discord the next time she sees him, Spike was just waiting for the inevitable.

"Three, two, one, zero." Spike counted, with Discord appearing in front of him immediately after he said zero.

"You have summoned me, o master?" Discord asked as he bowed to Spike dressed like a Genie.

Spike then pointed to his mother.

Discord sighed annoyance and asked, "What did you do?"

"I told her you turned all the cakes in the castle into vegetables," Spike replied.

"And why did you do that?" Discord asked.

"Needed to snap her out of a funk, and there are only three things my mother will die for, her family, her subjects and her cakes, and the first two I'm not willing to use," Spike said.

"But why blame me?" Discord asked.

"It's something you would totally do for a laugh, and you know it," Spike responded.

Discord was shocked that Spike was able to grasp chaos logic so well, that he reached under his arm and pulled out a sash with the words "Assistant God of Chaos" and placed it on Spike, and then snapped his fingers and made a party hat appear on Spike's head.

Then Discord started to cry as he said, "I'm So proud!"

Spike looked at the sash and gave an amused chuckle at the thought of being a Chaos God, and he actually liked the idea of it. But that could wait for another time as Spike still needed to snap his mother out of it.

Spike then snapped out of his thoughts and said, "Discord be a pal and snap mom out of it."

"And why would I do that?" Discord asked.

"Two reasons, one I'll let you be the D.M on the game night this week, and two I don't think you want to be roasted alive, or am I wrong?" Spike responded.

Discord pondered on the thought and was about to agree but then he thought about something he wanted.

"Okay, but on one condition." Discord said.

"And that is?" Spike asked.

"I also get the recipe for your special nachos." Discord said.

Spike thought over this and was really debating whether to accept the condition or face his mother on his own. And seeing that one of his greatest secrets was worth possibly saving himself from the wrath of his mother.

Spike sighed in defeat before saying, "Deal!"

Hearing Spike agrees to his conditions made Discord so happy that he changed his shape into a rocket and launched himself into the sky and exploded as fireworks were produced.

Spike was in awe of the display that he didn't notice that Discord had reappeared behind him in one piece.

Discord then placed both his hands on Spike's shoulders and asked, "Cool isn't it?"

Spike was shocked to see his friend behind him and but quickly snapped out of it as he started to become used to the randomness of Discord's actions.

Spike then looked back to the sky and continued to watch the fireworks before saying, "Yeah, also, if that was a real job offer, ask me in a few decades, and I might even say yes."

Discord just shrugged his shoulders before saying, "Fair enough, just remember, the offer still stands. All you have to do is just say yes and phenomenal cosmic power can be yours all without the need for an itty bitty living space."

Discord then turned his attention back to the still ranting Celestia and with a snap of his fingers, a pitcher of water appeared over her head and was promptly poured down on her head with the force of a waterfall. The water completely doused her and extinguished her flames and anger.

"What happened, where am I?!" Princess Celestia exclaimed as she looked around and saw Spike talking to Discord.

Spike turned to his mother and talked to Discord who was behind his back, "Thanks, and don't forget game night is on Wednesday. And I'll have a copy of the recipe ready. Now you should go just in case she's still mad at you."

Spike then looked behind him and noticed a lack of Discord as a piece of paper slowly fluttered to the ground which read 'see you at seven, I'll bring the popcorn', Spike shrugged as he accepted his friend's actions

"Yeah, that's about right for Discord," Spike said to himself.

Princess Celestia was now fully aware of her surroundings as she looked to Spike and quickly put two and two together.

She then got up and looked to Spike and asked "Shocked?"

"Yep," Spike replied.

"Tried everything?

"More or less."

"Trump card?"

"Trump card."

"What?"

"Discord, cake, vegetables."

"How angry?"

"Almost Daybreaker"

"Conditions?"

"Game night D.M, a job offer, my nacho recipe."

"Job offer?"

"Assistant god of chaos, but not for a while."

"Fair enough, but I'm sorry you had to give up your nacho recipe for me." Princess Celestia apologized.

"It was either nachos or a thousand years on the sun for you, honestly it was an easy choice," Spike assured.

"Aww, thank you, Sweetie, now if you wouldn't mind grabbing my extra pair of clothes from my bag so I can get dry." Princess Celestia said.

"Sure mom," Spike said before he opened Princess Celestia's Bag and pulled out a pair of dark gray cargo shorts and a blue Hawaiian shirt and handed both to her.

Princess Celestia then used her magic and removed her wet clothes and teleported them back to Canterlot and magically got dressed in her new outfit.

Now that the whole Daybreaker situation was dealt with, Spike was curious about what caused his mother to become so shocked that he had to use the trump card.

"So mom, what the hell happened to you?" Spike asked.

"Oh, that's right." Princess Celestia said before she pointed to the now swiss cheese looking castle, "Would you just look at the state the old castle is in. You said it was only a few years ago when you last saw it right?"

"Yeah." Spike said before he gave the castle a more thorough look and had to agree that this was pretty bad, "Okay fair enough, but what the hell could have happened to it? I mean, the first time me and Twilight visited the castle, I thought it was in pretty bad shape and that was after over one thousand years of neglect, but the way it is now is only a step up from a mountain of gravel."

(An: Something like this is what I'm going for)

"Maybe setting up camp in there is not the safest option, so how about we set up camp outside of the main gate and go retrieve the green fang Zecora needs?" Spike asked.

"That sounds reasonable, but we need to be careful about the structural soundness of the castle from now on." Princess Celestia points out.

"Kind of obvious, don't really want a ton of bricks to land on me again, once was enough." Spike said, earning a confused look from Princess Celestia, "Long story short, some guy planted explosives on the other side of a wall and I was buried in a lot of bricks, and it was not fun."

"I don't doubt it, but we're on a schedule right now so let's hop to it." Princess Celestia said, getting refocused on tonight's party.

So without a moment's delay, the two walked across the bridge and approached the dilapidated castle. But as Spike got closer, he noticed that there was something familiar about a thin silver thread creating a superstructure that were holding up the walls of the castle, and that there was a rock hard substance in the place of the mortar.

The closer Spike got the more noticeable the threads became and the stronger the smell of the new mortar became. It was all too familiar to Spike, but he couldn't remember from where, until it finally dawned on Spike what was going on.
Spike turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I think we will be fine if we stay inside of the castle, it's perfectly safe."

Princess Celestia was in utter shock at what she was hearing as not five minutes ago, her son said it was too dangerous.

"What!?!" Princess Celestia exclaimed in shock, "No way in Tartarus are we setting up in that massive building code violation! What has gotten into you?!"

"Trust me mom, plus there a few friends I would like you to meet," Spike said.

"What friends?" Princess Celestia asked.

"You'll see," Spike replied before he proceeded to the front door of the old castle. Using his dragon strength, he pushed open one of the massive wooden doors and quickly made his way inside the main hall. Seeing that her son was adamant about going in, Princess Celestia reluctantly followed after Spike.

As Spike and Princess Celestia walked through the main hall of the castle, Princess Celestia started to get worried and was questioning her son's actions.

"Spike, are you sure this is a good idea." Princess Celestia asked, "I mean, I do trust you, but this place is dangerous, and what if we get separated and something happens?"

"Don't worry, Twilight had me memorize all of the old 'traps' and secret doors too well, it'll be fine. And like I said, the castle is probably the safest it's been in the last thousand years."

"And how would you know that?" Princess Celestia asked.

Spike then had a sheepish expression as he was reluctant to tell his mother about his ammo, but Princess Celestia was
giving him the unbearable mom glare and his defenses were quickly crumbling away.

With a sigh, Spike finally said, "Well... I might have left out the part where all of my ammo that I brought home kind of escaped when I landed."

However, Princess Celestia knew there was more to the story continued to glare at her son until he confessed the whole story.

"And?" Princess Celestia asked.

"And they probably, probably found the castle and ran all of the creatures who were living inside away." Spike nervously.
Princess Celestia continued glaring and asked, "And?"

"And the reason I know we are safe is because Bolamite silk and Stingbee wax are both super strong and can support giant structures. And I noticed the silk threads color and the smell of the Stingbees wax as we approached the castle, and the holes in the walls were probably my Boombats making an entrance. Also, do you remember the timberwolves I beat?" Celestia nodded her head, "Well, it was actually very easy to do because they were already pretty beat up, probably by some Thudslugs and Fuzzles. Plus, they smelled like Stunkz spray, and if that happened, then the Chippunks are probably here as well."

"Anything else?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yeah, they are probably living here now, and that pretty much sums it all up." Spike said before he looked into his mother's eyes and asked, "Sooo... on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you right now?"

"For the damage, your ammo did to my old home or the fact that you lied to us about something this big?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Both?" Spike asked nervously.

"About a one for the castle, because it wasn't your fault." Princess Celestia said.

"And the omission about the ammo?" Spike asked.

"A solid seven, but you're not in trouble." Princess Celestia said.

"I'm not, sweet thanks, mom," Spike said as he sighed in relief.

"Hold on a minute, Spike." Princess Celestia said, "You're not in trouble with me, because tomorrow, will escorting all the girls and Zecora back to the castle and show them what has happened to it. And then I hope you're ready for a big
lecture from both Twilight and Fluttershy.

Spike then dropped to his knees and started begging for his life, "Please! Anything but a Twilight lecture! I can handle Fluttershy's, but twilights will last for days, and I don't want to lose my sanity!"

Just then, a piece a paper appeared in front of Princess Celesta and it read, "You owe him one for stopping Daybreaker, go easy on the kid. Love Discord. P.S. Tell him not to forget the cheese dip Wednesday."

Knowing that what Discord said was true caused Princess Celestia to sigh. She then turned her attention back to the sobbing pile of scales on his knees before her and said, "Spike, I'll make you a deal." This made Spike look up to his mother, "If you promise to keep track of these new creatures and promise to take care of them, you don't have to deal with either lecture. But you still have to come clean about them to the girls and Zecora, understand?"

The news that he wouldn't have to suffer the wrath of a double lecture instantly brought Spike out of his freak out and in no time.

"YES MA'AM!" Spike exclaimed happily.

"Good, now, you told me about who these friends of yours?" Princess Celestia asked.

"That's easy," Spike said as he wiped away his tears and got back on his feet, "But first, cover your ears."

"Why?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Because this is going to be loud, and the last time I did it, I was nearly run out of town for doing so," Spike responded simply.

Hearing this made Princess Celestia quickly cover her ears as Spike drew in a large breath and placed his two pinky claws at the side of his mouth before he blew with all his strength, causing a long, window shattering whistle that could be heard for miles around. It was so strong that it created earthquakes that ponies felt all the way in Canterlot.

After a good fifteen seconds, Spike removed his claws from his mouth and looked towards Princess Celestia, but he was met with the sight of his mother still covering her ears and crouched into a ball. He then walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. This action told her it was safe to uncover her ears. She then looked up at her son and was sure it was safe to get up, she got to her hooves and gave Spike a glare, which only confused him.

"What?" Spike asked, "I told you it was going to be loud."

Princess Celestia dropped the glare before saying, "Your right, but did it have to that loud?"

"Yes," Spike responded.

"Why?" Princess Celestia asked.

"A few reasons." Spike began, "One: Fuzzles and Chippunks are hard of hearing, so a lot of volumes is required. Two: Bolamites, Stingbees, Zappflys, and Thudslugs don't have ears, so you need to create a lot of vibrations to get their attention. Three: Boombats like to live in dark caves so, I bet they live in the lower levels of the castle so the range was needed. And lastly, Stunkz likes to live in moist areas with a lot of mushrooms, so they are probably living near the tree of Harmony, so I needed the echo to reach down the cliff. Anything else?"

"Two things." Princess Celestia said before asking, "first, how did you do that?"

"It's similar to the royal Canterlot voice, but I add my ability to roar to increase the volume and range." Spike explained, "Then, I compress it into a whistle. What's the other thing?"

"I hear by ban you from ever doing that again." Princess Celestia said.

"But why?" Spike asked.

"Spike, that was so strong that the tremors were probably felt in Canterlot, and knowing how jumpy the Canterlot ponies are, I bet nearly everyone is panicking. Princess Celestia said explained, "So I'm going to give you an out, you either tone it down, or Twilight's going to lecture you on all the ways that whistle causes problems. Understand young drake?"

With a combination of both understanding and fear Spike agreed to find a compromise, "I'll figure something out, and I'm sorry for frightening you, and everyone else."

"It's fine Spike, just be more aware of your abilities and surroundings." Princess Celestia said.

"I will, so we have about five minutes until the first one arrives." Spike said before asking, "So, is there anything you want to talk about?"

"At the moment, I want to understand why you would need to use that whistle in a town." Princess Celestia said.

"Oh, well that's simple." Spike said before explaining, "Stranger taught me how to summon a few at a time, so I just put it all together. As for why I used it in a town, I was kidnapped and robbed one day so I used my claws to cut the ropes and my strength to pry a metal pipe from a wall and escaped with my gear but no ammo, so I used my training to summon all of them and we defeated the whole gang. But in doing so, I might have gone overboard with the whistle and shattered the entire town's windows, but I got my moola from the kidnapper's bounties and that covered the damages, plus I got my friends back."

"You know, after hearing your story from before, I'm not surprised by anything anymore." Princess Celestia said before adding, "But next, you're going to tell me that on Mudos there is a race of one-legged aquatic creatures with three giant webbed toes."

"Wellllllllll, you're close, there was a race called Gabbit's who look exactly like that but they died out years before I arrived," Spike said.

"Not shocked in the least." Princess Celestia said, "So Spike, how much longer till I get to meet your friends?"

Spike was about to answer her question but the sound of buzzing quickly entered Spike's ears

"Now, and I think she brought her family along," Spike said as he then looked up to the ceiling and saw a swarm of large yellow and black insects enter through a large hole in the roof. He then extended his arm and a very large bee looking creature landed on it. The bee was buzzing happily at the sight of Spike.

Spike gave the bee a small scratch on the top of her chitin before saying, "It's good to see you too Queen. I'm so sorry I lost you guys earlier, can you ever forgive me?" Queen then left Spikes arm and landed atop Spike's hat and nuzzled his
exposed head spine.

"Thanks, also have you seen the others? There's someone I want to introduce everyone to." Spike said.

Queen buzzed a little as she was responding to Spike's question.

"I see, well, would you like to see Sparks?" Spike asked, making Queen buzz excitedly, "Okay, Okay, let me get him out of the ammo strap."

Spike then removed the armband that would normally hold his crossbow and pressed a little button on the side.

A few seconds later, a swarm of giant dark blue firefly-like insects with a light blue thorax emerged from the sides and quickly filled the room.

Princess Celestia was in utter shock as she said, "I stand very, very corrected".

A very large Zappfly stayed on the strap and quickly flew to Spike's shoulder and nuzzled him affectionately.

"Hey Sparks, sorry it took so long, but I didn't want your family to scare the town, but good news, we found everyone." Spike said, which caused Sparks to light up and wiggle with excitement, "But only Queen and her family have shown so far, so we might have to wait for the full family reunion." Sparks just buzzed and somehow shrugged.

Just then, the sound of an explosion was heard and Spike just let out a sigh, as he redirected his attention to Queen and said, "Queen, it looks like Banger and is cloud are up, could you please send some bees over and help them out, we are kind of in hot water already and I don't think the castle needs any more holes."

Queen then buzzed and most of her colony left to retrieve Banger and his cloud. Spike then made a disgusted face as there was a horrendous smell wafting into the room.

"Well, it looks like Belch and his surfeit are next." Spike said before he dug into his backpack and grabbed a rag and threw it to his mother, "Use this to cover your nose, it's about to get worse for you."

Princess Celestia quickly used the rag to cover her nose as a group of round skunk creatures hopped into the room and the leader quickly chittered something and made a beeline for Spike the moment he saw him as the rest of the group started to form a circle next to one of the walls.

The leader hopped his way to Spike and wrapped his long tail around Spike's left leg. Spike looked down and had a smile on his face and bent down and scratched behind the Stunk's ear, as the Stunk was chittering happily.

"I've missed you too Belch, and I'm sorry we got separated earlier, but nice job with the Timberwolves, I'm proud of you, Fang, and Wallop for protecting the rest of the family," Spike said, which made Belch chitter even louder. Spike then continued to talk to Belch, "Also Belch, do me a favor, can you guys stop the gas for a little while, I need to introduce you all to someone special and it's hard for her to breathe right now."

Belch nodded and hopped back to his surfeit and chittered something and returned to Spike's leg and gave him a nod.

"Thanks, Bud," Spike said with a smile.

Spike then turned his attention back to his mother and gave her a nod as well. Princess Celestia lowered the rag and took in a deep breath and looked like she was about to throw up after doing so.

Spike saw the look on his mother's face and added, "Trust me it could've been worse but the air will be clear in a minute, just bear with it."

Princess Celestia used all of her willpower not to pass out from the smell, and as Spike said, the air was slowly becoming breathable again.

Just then, the rest of Queen's colony returned, followed by a large group of round, brown bats with wings on the top of their heads. They all started to land upside down on the ceiling as a dark gray furred bat descended. Spike saw this bat and moved his tail to in front of him and allowed the gray bat to land while hanging upside down. The bat started to squeak a little but promptly fell asleep seconds after landing.

"Sorry for the early evening wake up call Banger, we'll talk later okay, but we'll need you up after everyone is here, but until then get some sleep."

Banger only squeaked one more time and nodded as he fell asleep again. The next thing Spike heard was the sound of insults echoing down one of the halls.

Spike then let out a sigh and turned his attention to his mother, "These guys are a tough pill to swallow so all I'm going to say is that they did not pick up any of the languages from me, but once they get to know you they will tone it down."

The next thing Princess Celestia saw was a pack of round chipmunks hopping into the room. They were led by a rather old looking chipmunk.

The second the gray chipmunk saw Spike, it started to yell, "Spike! You purple and green sack of fucking shit! Where the hell has you been you washed up cunt?! We thought you died in the forest! Also, where are we! We had to deal with a lot of shit in the past two days you know!"

"Yeah, I know," Spike said as he then began to smile. "Alvin, you rotten piece of shit, you look good for a ball of dragon jizz wearing a gray fur coat, but at least you helped the family-run the baddies away right, you quite ass rodent?"

"Damn right we did, you lazy fire shooting bag of scales." Alvin then turned to his scurry and yelled, "Right lads?"

"You know it you rotting piece of dragon jizz, Sir." all of the Chippunks yelled in unison.

"Good lads!" Alvin then turned his attention back to Spike and noticed Princess Celestia looking shocked from either the fact that it can talk or the fact her son used such horrid language in front of her, "Dragon, whos the slack-jawed bitch over there, she does know she's going to attract Zappflys like that." This comment made Sparks buzz angrily. "Present company excluded of course."

"First off, she is not a bitch, and if you ever use that word to describe her again, you're going to be my dinner, got it?" Spike said with the look of a killer in his eyes.

"Yes Sir," Alvin said before saluting.

"Good, and second we are waiting for everyone else to arrive, only Fang, Wallop and Char are missing," Spike said.

Just then, Princess Celestia noticed a large Spider lower itself onto Spikes' neck, and was going to shout for him to squish it. But before she was able to say one word, Spike opened his palm and caught the spider in his hand.

Once the spider was safe in Spike's hand, he brought his closed hand to the front of his face and slowly opened it, revealing a dark blue spider with large fangs, large red eyes, and a large red hourglass design on the abdomen, but instead of squashing it, Spike only laughed at it, which shocked Celestia even more.

"Nice try Char, but I saw the thread as you lowered yourself to my neck," Spike said to the spider, which made Char sign some things using her arms.

She continued signing to Spike as he slowly got the message. "Ok, so you were the first to find the castle and lead the rest of the family over and was the overseer of the whole operation," Spike said. Char nodded and continued to sign, "And during the operation, you, and the rest of the cluster did recon and supported both Wallop's and fang's groups. That's my girl, I'm so proud that you took the lead and protected your family."

Char nodded again as she had a twinkle in her eyes from the complement then she pointed to Celestia and cocked her head questioning who this was.

"She's someone I want to introduce everyone to, but we're still missing Fang and Wallop," Spike explained.

Char then used one of her arms and pointed it up to the ceiling, Spike followed the appendage and looked up.

When Spike looked up, his eyes settled on a rapidly descending fist-sized purple ball headed straight for his face. Seeing the incoming threat, he used his free hand and caught the object in his palm, and then brought it up to his face. Spike looked at the purple object and noticed that was slowly opening to reveal a pill bug-like creature with five red eyes and extending out from the shell were four insect-like legs.

Spike looked down in disappointment then looked back to Char and said, "Clever Girl, but you should have told me when he reached top speed, not before."

This made Char annoyed as she closed her maxillae quickly producing a 'Tch' sound, which made Spike laugh. He then turned to the other creature in his other hand and said, "And you, I'm so proud of you and the rest of the slugs for fending off those Timberwolves, Wallop. But guess what." Wallop pivoted his body to the side showing he was curious. "Well, thanks to you and Fang, I was able to deal with them relatively easily." This news made Wallop jump up and down in Spike's palm out of joy, seeing Wallop's reaction made Spike smile.

Spike then looked at both Char and Wallop with a questioning look and asked, "Where's the rest of your clusters?"

As if on command, dozens of Bolamites similarly descended from the ceiling to Char, and another couple dozen Thudslugs buzzed through one of the many holes in the castle's walls and landed at Spike's feet. Seeing that almost everyone was accounted for Spike questioned where his group of Fuzzles was.

Spike then asked all of his ammo, "Hey guys, has anyone seen Fang?"

There was silence for a few minutes as each leader thought about the location of the Fuzzle and his cete. One at a time each answered. Sparks, Wallop, Queen, and Char shook their heads, Banger was still asleep, Belch shrugged using his tail and Alvin responded with "Haven't seen the Dust bunny with teeth since we raided the castle."

This made Spike worry about his Fuzzles as he thought about everything he knew about them.

"Ok, Fuzzles, ambush and trap ammo, quick to attack if threatened, when developing a new home very reluctant to leave unless the leader orders it, the leader is determined by a show of dominance, and if the last leader is missing Fuzzles will try to determine the new leader as soon as it's safe. So I just need to reassert my dominance over the Fuzzles." Spike said to himself before yelling to every creature in the room "Everyone needs to get in the strap now. I need to win over Fang and the cete again."

This statement caught the attention of every creature in the room as they all quickly returned to their groups and one at a time entered into the storage system on the crossbow strap. After everyone was safe inside of the strap, Spike turned his head to his mother and told her, "This is not going to be as bad as last time, but it's still going to be bad. So I recommend that you use the paper and ink you brought and send a message to aunt Luna and Twilight to inform them to keep the citizens calm and that there is no threat."

Seeing the serious look on Spike's face and how his ammo quickly fled, Princess Celestia quickly grabbed the paper and wrote the message to both princesses. The second the messages were sent, Princess Celestia covered her ears again and waited for the upcoming audible assault.

Spike seeing that everything was ready started to inhale a large amount of air, once Spike was ready he opened his mouth and using his full strength released a blood-curdling roar.

The roar lasted for at least ten seconds and once it was over, Spike was so winded that he dropped to his knees and was panting.

"God, now I remember why I don't do that a lot." Spike between pants.

As Spike was trying to calm down after the roar, the sound of growling was heard coming from right outside of the castle's front doors. Fearing that his roar had attracted a rather large predator, he quickly grabbed his crossbow from his bag and attached it to the mounting on his arm. He then equipped both Banger and Wallop.

"You guys ready for a fight?" Spike asked the duo, earning a nod from Wallop, signaling that he was ready to go, and Banger was fully awake and was twitching with excitement, "Good, be ready to go. We still need to find Fang and the rest so stay safe."

With that said, Spike and his ammo slowly made their way to the front door and was about to attack the unknown intruder. But before he was about to kick open the door, the door was pushed open and a large mass of brown fuzzy creatures tackled the dragon to the ground.

The surprise of the sudden tackle triggered Spikes dragon instincts to kill his attacker, and he was about to unleash a torrent of emerald flames to reduce the attacker to ash in an instant, but as he was concentrating his inner fire towards his mouth Spike felt the sensation of soft fur rubbing against his scales. This feeling allowed Spike to regain control of his body and finally recognized the mass that tackled him was made up of a lot of small, round, fuzzy creatures with large sets of pointy teeth.

Seeing that he wasn't in any danger Spike let out a sigh and said, "I give, but can you guys get off of me?"

The group of fuzz slowly moved off the downed dragon, allowing him to sit up and get a clearer look at the new group.
Spike recognized the group to be the missing Fuzzle cete, and at the forefront of the cete was a single Fuzzle whose fluff was spiked so much that he resembled a hedgehog. The spiky Fuzzle had its tongue hanging out of its mouth and had the look of an excited puppy seeing its owner after being alone all day.

When Spike saw the excited Fuzzle in front of his cete, Spike looked into the Fuzzles eyes and said, "I missed you too Fang. I'm sorry for losing you guys the other day, but I promise you I'll never disappear again."

Spike then placed his hand on top of Fang's head and started to scratch his head. This elicited Fang to purr from the
the affection he was receiving.

As Spike continued to scratch the Fuzzle, he said, "Fang, I'm so proud of you for protecting the rest of the family, you and the cete did a great job." This made Fang purr even louder.

Spike then remembered that his mother was still covering her ears and curled up waiting for Spike to signal that the roar was over.

Spike then looked back to Fang and said, "Okay boys, I'll explain everything in a minute but I need everyone to go inside of storage."

The strange request caused Fang to tilt his head to the side but he trusted Spike's order as the rest of the cete followed him into the storage strap.

Spike then looked to the two leaders that were still loaded in his crossbow and said, "Sorry you two, false alarm, you can go back in."

Both Wallop and Banger looked disappointed but agreed, and went back into the storage strap. Now that everyone was inside the strap Spike, got up and walked over to his mother and tapped her on the top of her head showing its safe to get up.

Princess Celestia looked up to see the face of her son and her face instantly shifted to one of annoyance as she then got up and crossed her arms while glaring at Spike.

"I swear by me if you do that one more time you're going to get a full week-long lecture from Twilight about the repercussions that can cause." Princess Celestia said.

"Sorry, but I had to, or I would have lost my place as alpha of the cete," Spike explained, which made Princess Celestia let out an exhausted sigh.

"Fine, I can accept that." Princess Celestia said before asking, "So how long do we need to wait till they show up?"

"We don't, while you were still covering your ears and curled up into a ball, they arrived and we reconnected and they're now inside of the storage system already." Spike said before an excited grin formed on his face and he began to bounce up and down rapidly, "So, are you ready to meet the rest of the family?"

"Sure, but can I meet them one at a time?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Not a problem, but who do you want to meet first?" Spike asked.

"How about..." Celestia pondered on who would be best to start with, "...Oh, how about letting me meet the creatures that caused my newly acquired hearing problem."

"Ok, but I'm warning you, now they tend to be very defensive of the leader when around new faces so step back a bit." Spike warned, prompting Princess Celestia to take a few steps back until she was about twenty feet away from him, "That's good. Now, stay there and I'll bring over Fang. And once Fang accepts you into the cete, you can meet the others."

Spike then detached the crossbow on his arm and removed the strap from his arm. He then reached into the center of the band and pulled out a thin glass tube that has a button on the top and has a picture of a cartoon looking Fuzzle on it.

Spike then pushed the button and the whole cete returned with Fang at the front. Spike bent down and scooped up Fang and whispered to him, "Be nice, your about to meet the most important person in my life." Fang nodded as Spike used his other hand and covered him.

Spike returned to his mother and put his hands in front of Princess Celestia. He then opened his hands and revealed the Fuzzles to her.

When Fang caught sight of Princess Celestia so close to Spike, his mood instantly changed to one of vicious protection as his spiked fur was totally straight and was growling in a very threatening tone.

Spike saw the way Fang changed and became disappointed in the Fuzzle and said, "Fang, what did I say about being nice?"
Fang's mood shifted instantly to one of guilt as he had disappointed his leader.

Seeing this exchange between Spike and the one called Fang reminded Princess Celestia of the times she gave Spike the same look when he did something wrong.

Spike looked at his mother and said, "Sorry about him, he is really overprotective of me. But once he sees you're not a threat, you'll see how sweet he is."

Spike returned his attention to Fang and restarted the introduction, "Fang this is Celestia, she's the one I wanted you to meet, she is my mother." Spike looked to Celestia and said, "Mom, this is Fang. He is the co-leader of the Fuzzle cete."

Princess Celestia extended her hand and stopped it in front of Fang, wanting to see if she would be accepted by Fang. Fang was reluctant to trust the newcomer, but seeing that Spike trusted this figure, he slowly hopped towards Princess Celestia's palm before nuzzling his head against it.

Spike looked at the display and let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding and relaxed. He then wanted to expedite the exchange.

Spike then looked to his mother and said, "Mom, lay your palm flat and hold it there."

Princess Celestia followed his instructions, seeing this Fang cautiously hopped into Celestia's open palm and sat there while he stared at her. After a few minutes of just staring at each other, Fang's cautious expression changed to one similar to a dog meeting a new friend as he hopped up to Princess Celestia's shoulder and started to nuzzle her cheek.

"And there you go, your now part of the cete," Spike said a smile on his face.

Princess Celestia released a long-held breath as she was relaxed by the feeling of the Fuzzle's fur on hers. She then looked into Spike's eyes and admitted, "That was the most stressful thing I've done in years. Please tell me the hardest part is over?"

"It is." Spike assured, "Fang is like a father protecting his family from danger, and now that he has accepted you, the others will be more than welcoming. So, who do you want to meet next?"

"How about that little bat thing from earlier, he is probably nocturnal, so I want to let him get as much sleep as possible." Princess Celestia said.

Spike, seeing the logic in his mother's words, pulled the Boombats tube from the underside of his band and pressed the button. The room was soon filled with a large number of brown bats who all started to hang from the ceiling except for the same gray bat who perched on Spike's tail again.

"Mom, Banger is the grandfather figure of the family." Spike said to his mother before saying to Banger, "Banger, this is my mother, Celestia."

Banger let out a squeak and then looked at Fang nuzzling Celestia's cheek. He then gave a nod to Spike before he flew back to his cloud and landed upside down and fell asleep. Princess Celestia cocked a brow at the weird bat and looked questioningly at Spike.

Seeing the look, Spike told his mother, "He likes you very much, but he is still sleepy and didn't want to be rude and fall asleep during your conversation."

Princess Celestia was surprised by how well mannered the old bat was.

"Well that is very kind of him, and I can't wait to talk to him tonight with Luna." Princess Celestia said before asking, "So whos next?"

"Well, we have Alvin, Wallop, Charlotte, Belch, Sparks, and Queen left so it's up to you," Spike said.

"Let's get the worst one out of the way." Princess Celestia said, "Bring out the foul-mouthed rodent who called me a bitch."

"Are you sure? He can be very unpleasant and he will insult you even more." Spike asked, earning a nod from his mother.

"But before you let them out, is there anything I should know before we meet?" Princess Celestia asked.

"There's a chain of command among the group, and since you want to talk to Alvin, you're pretty much challenging his rank in the scurry, which is only second to me." Spike explained, "So if you want to outrank him you'll have to out insult him."

"What do you mean?" Princess Celestia asked, unsure as to what her son meant.

"Do you remember when Alvin first showed up?" Spike asked, earning a nod from his mother, "Well, it works like this; whoever has the better insult is made a higher up among the rest of the scurry, and there are only three rules you need to follow. One: you can't repeat any insult. Two: the rest of the scurry act as judges and their ruling is final. And lastly, it is all in good fun so there is no resentment if you win or lose. Now, are you ready?" Princess Celestia nodded.

Spike then removed the Chippunks ammo tube and pressed the button, and then the room instantly became full of the sounds of insults being flung between all the Chippunks, until Spike spoke up that is.

"Lad's form up!" Spike announced, the command made the room fall silent as all the Chippunks fell into rank with Alvin placed in the front.

"Reporting for duty Sir!" Alvin yelled as every Chippunk used their tails to salute.

"At ease lads." Spike said, allowing all Chippunks to lower their tails at spikes command, "Alvin come here."

Alvin approached the dragon and stood a few feet away from him. Spike bent his knees and opened his palm and motioned for Alvin to hop on. Once Alvin was safe in the hand Spike returned to his full height and let Alvin look Celestia in the eye.

"Alvin this is Celestia and she is my mother." Spike said, "Mom, I believe you remember Alvin."

"How could I forget?" Princess Celestia asked rhetorically, "It's nice to see you again you sundried piece of shit. But if I remember correctly, you called me a bitch, and I don't take kindly to that word, so please refrain from using it."

"My most apologies for my crass language earlier, I was unaware of your relation to the commander," Alvin said, his response catching both Spike and Princess Celestia by surprise. But then Alvin gave a weak chuckle and added, "But I can see you want to join the ranks. So, shall we begin?"

Princess Celestia hesitantly nodded.

"Good." Alvin said, "Now, I shall start since I have been challenged. Good luck, you over bleached, overstuffed, namby-pamby pony princess."

"Well thank you so much, but I won't need it you impotent nut munching furry testicle." Princess Celestia said back.
Spike was shocked to hear the insults his own mother said, but he snapped out of his shock and asked the rest of the scurry l, "Lads, your verdict?"

"Alvin is an impotent nut munching furry testicle, Sir!" They all yelled while saluting with their tails.

"Your new second in command is Celestia unless told otherwise, understand?" Spike announced.

"Sir, yes Sir." the scurry said.

Spike then placed Alvin back down on the ground and nodded to Celestia.

"Now, Fall in Lads!" Princess Celestia ordered.

"MA'AM, YES MA'AM" they all shouted as they all returned to attention at her command, as Alvin returned to the scurry and fell into rank.

"Good, now at ease." Princess Celestia said.

Princess Celestia then looked to her son and yanked on one of his ear frills.

"OWWWWWW!" Spike yelled, "What the hell mom?!"

"If I ever hear you use such language to anyone other than the scurry you will be grounded for a month and will get a lecture from Twilight about the common conversation to boot." Princess Celestia said.

'Ma'am, yes ma'am." Spike grumbled, hearing the rest of the scurry chuckling at his predicament.

After the laughter died down and Spike's frill stopped hurting, Spike said, "Let's meet Sparks and his swarm now."

Spike grabbed the Zappfly bottle and pushed the button on the top. The next thing Princess Celestia saw was the return of the large swarm of firefly looking insects flying around the room as the largest one left the swarm and landed on Spike's shoulder and began to glow brightly.

Spike gave the excited bug a loving pat on the head and asked, "Sparks are you ready to meet her?" The Zappfly glowed brightly and wiggled, "Good, look over there."

Sparks looked in the direction Spike was pointing and saw Celestia looking towards the duo.

"Sparks, this is my mother, her name's Celestia." Spike said before he looked at his mother and added, "Mom, this is Sparks, the Zappfly."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, Sparks." Princess Celestia said.

Sparks flew over to Princess Celestia and landed on her unoccupied shoulder and started to wiggle with excitement. This caused some electricity to the ark to Celestia.

"Ouch, what was that?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Sorry should've warned you." Spike apologized, "When a Zappfly gets too excited, they can produce electricity. But don't worry, it's only slightly stronger than a static shock. So it'll only sting for a few seconds. So you're fine."

"Why didn't you warn me about that beforehand?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Scales don't conduct electricity, Stranger told me about it, also he will calm down in a minute just pat his head and show him some affection," Spike said.

Princess Celestia followed Spike's suggestion and gave the excited lightning bug a small pat on the head and began to feel the electricity vanish as the Zappfly started to glow a bright blue. This caused Princess Celestia to cock an eyebrow and look to Spike.

"Is this normal?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Pretty much, that signifies contentment." Spike said, "Now try making him annoyed."

Wondering why Spike would like to annoy his friends, Princess Celestia stopped patting the zappfly on her shoulder and instead started to tap his head with her finger. This caused the Zappfly's abdomen to change to an orange color.

Princess Celestia saw the new color and stopped tapping his head and looked to Spike with a questioning look.

"I can explain." Spike said, "One of the lesser-known names for Zappflys is 'Light Bugs'. They can change the color they glow depending on what emotion they are feeling. Green means calm, relaxed, or tranquil. Light Blue as you saw means excitement while dark blue shows sadness. Orange shows annoyance, Red is anger, and Pink, love. There's also Yellow for curious, and purple for embarrassed. And depending on how dim or bright the light, the stronger the emotion."

After Princess Celestia heard the new information about the Zappflys as a whole, she just looked at Sparks with amazement in her eyes at the wonderfully expressive bug.

"That's amazing, I can't believe some creature like you exist." Princess Celestia said to the now purple glowing Zappfly on her shoulder. She then looked back at Spike and asked, "So who's next?"

"Let's go with Belch," Spike said, holding up the Stunkz bottle.

Spike then let Belch and the surfeit out of the bottle as the room instantly became slightly smelly, but it wasn't as bad as when they first arrived so Princess Celestia was able to breathe the air but still had to hold down her lunch.

Then, the same Stunkz from earlier hopped back to Spike and wrapped its tail around his leg. Spike looked down at his feet and saw Belch with his tail wrapped around his leg.

"Good to see you again, Belch are you ready to meet someone special?" Spike asked.

Stunkz chittered something and nodded his head.

"Good, now you see that person over there?" Spike asked as he pointed at his mother.

Belch looked over to where Spike was pointing and saw Celestia standing there.

"I know you don't know her, but rest assured that she's a good person and will not harm you, but I would like you to meet her, is that ok?" Spike asked.

Belch started to shake at the thought of meeting Princess Celestia, but he was willing to do it for Spike, so he nodded at him.

"Thanks, little buddy, I know it's hard for you when you meet new people, but I think you'll like her very much," Spike assured as he picked up Belch and moved back to Princess Celestia.

When Spike approached, Princess Celestia noticed the Stunkz shaking in his hands, so to make herself look less threatening, she put on a comforting smile and this seemed to calm the Stunkz down a good amount.

When Spike arrived, Belch was still shaking and looked more terrified than Fluttershy could ever be.

"Now Mom, This little guy is Belch." Spike said, showing Belch in his hand, "He's a little skittish around new people. I found him when he was a kit after his family's mushroom patch was destroyed by outlaws, so I've been raising him for nearly two years, so he trusts me." Spike then looked at Belch and added, "Belch, this pony is my mother, Celestia," Spike looked to the still shaking Stunkz and added, "Belch I want you to know that I lost my parents before I was hatched and she found my egg and after I hatched, she adopted me and raised me along with my sister who you will meet tonight. But in this world, dragons are very dangerous, but instead of tossing me back into the dragon lands, she let the kindness in her heart guide her and while raising me. She showed me that you should always let your kindness guide you, and that led me to meet you and the rest of the family."

After hearing Spike's story, Belch looked back at Princess Celestia, who was crying at both Spike's opinion of her and the news that Belch was just like Spike. She then slowly grabbed Belch from Spike and started to cuddle him, as she wanted to show Belch the love that he should have had with his parents. This action seemed to relax the Stunkz as Belch had stopped shaking and was snuggling into Celestia's arm.

Spike was stunned at how easily accepting Belch was with Princess Celestia, but he just shrugged it off as it being her motherly side taking control of her and wanting to protect Belch.

After a few minutes of cradling the Stunkz in her arms, Princess Celestia stopped before looking at Spike and asked, "Who's left?"

"We have Wallop, Char, and Queen," Spike said.

"Well let's not leave the queen waiting." Princess Celestia said with a shrug.

"One Hive of Stingbees coming up." Spike as said he pulled out the Stingbee tube and pressed the top button.
The room instantly became very noisy as a full swarm of Stingbees flew out. After every Stingbee was out of the tube, they all flew to the ceiling and just hovered there. Then the same larger Stingbee flew down and again perched on top of Spikes head spin. Spike looked up and moved his open palm and waited for Queen to move to his hand. Queen looked at the open hand and crawled onto it.

Spike lowered his hand and looked at Queen and asked, "So Queen, are you ready to meet someone important?" Queen buzzed and nodded, "Good, look behind you." Spike pointed at Princess Celestia as Queen followed his claw.

"Queen, this is Princess Celestia, she is the ruler of this land and my mother." Spike said before he looked at his mother, "Mom, this is the queen of the Stingbee hive, Queen."

"It's an honor, your majesty." Princess Celestia said, using all of her past knowledge about how to deal with other royalty as she bowed to the ruler standing in her son's palm and added, "And thank you and the rest of your hive for protecting my son. Without you, I don't know what might have happened to him."

"Ummm, Mom what are you doing?" Spike asked, giving his mother a questioning look.

"Showing my respect, what else?" Princess Celestia responded.

"She's not too big on formality's, she's more likely to go out drinking with you, then bowing to you," Spike said.

Queen nodded at Spikes statement and flew up to Princess Celestia's horn and landed on it. Princess Celestia looked up to her horn and looked at Queen, then she looked at Spike with a confused look.

"She trusts me, I trust you, so she is putting her faith in you as well," Spike explained.

Princess Celestia just looked flabbergasted as she stared at the Stingbee holding onto her horn. Spike just shrugged and grabbed the last two tubes from his ammo strap and pressed the button on both, as both Thudslug and Bolamite clusters were released and flooded into the room.

Princess Celestia took notice of Spike's actions and wanted to ask why he let both out, but Spike said, "They're a package deal because they work so well together, so I thought that it would be best for you to meet them together."

The same dark blue spider and dark purple pill bug slowly crawled up Spikes back and planted themselves onto his shoulders. Spike looked at his mother and using his hand pointed at his left shoulder.

"Mom, this is Wallop, he's a good friend who has gotten me out of a lot of sticky situations…" Spike then pointed to his right shoulder and added, "...and this is Charlotte, but she likes Char more. She's in charge of the rest of the family when I'm not around..." Spike then used both of his hands and pointed to Princess Celestia, "...You two, this is Celestia, she's my mother. Now, mom, this is going to hurt a little, but is the only way they will not see you as a threat."

Before Princess Celestia could ask Spike about what he meant, Charlotte shot a string to the ceiling and swung over to Celestia and landed on her shoulder and quickly crawled to the back of her neck and using her fangs gave Celestia a bite. But before Celestia could worry about the bite, Wallop extended his hidden wings and flew straight towards Celestia. Celestia tried to cover her face using her arms but to her surprise nothing hit her, but when she lowered her arms she saw Wallop hovering above her left hoof and then he stopped hovering and started falling, and landed on Celestia's hoof.

Princess Celestia started to hop on one leg and used one of her hands to cover the bite as she was shouting. "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!" She then looked at Spike who was chuckling at the silly sight of his mother and gave him the worst look he had ever seen, and it was clear that this was his last straw.

Spike just gave her a deadpan look back and said, "It could have been worse. I had to be bitten by her whole cluster, and he fell from at least two hundred feet and landed on my tail."

Hearing this piece of information Celestia dropped her look as she gave a thought to what Spike said and she was actually happy with the little amount of pain.

After Celestia was done hopping around she looked to her son and asked, "If I remember correctly, that was everyone right?"

"Right, so now that we know it's safe in the castle, let's set up base camp and look for the Green Fang. But before we go, I need to say a few things." Spike said he then placed the two tubes back inside of his wrist strap and moved to a wall and positioned himself so he could address every creature in the room. He then yelled, "Okay, I know the last few days have been stressful for everyone, but I have good news!" This caught every creature's attention, "Everyone, this is your new home during downtime, but we will start training again today, so everybody back inside. But I need to speak with the heads alone so you guys stay out!"

With the orders given, every creature in the room made their way back to the wrist strap and back into their designated tubes.

Once every creature was back in their tubes, Spike looked at his eight heads standing in front of him and said, "Okay, guys, we are not in Mudos anymore. We are in Equestria. There are no Clakerz, only ponies similar to my mother, so I need you to behave and not cause trouble, I mean it, Alvin." Alvin just shrugged and continued to listen, "Tonight after training, I'm going to let everyone get some shut-eye, but we will be attending a party where I'm going to introduce you all to the other side of the family. But there are a few ground rules..." Spike looked at Alvin, "No one is going to try and join in so no bad language..." Spike then looked at Belch, "...Ponies cant handle the smell so much so do your best to keep it down..." Then to Char and Wallop, "...no biting them, and no falling on them. Does everyone understand?" They all nodded in response.

"Good." Spike then looked at Char and said, "Char, I know you and the rest of the cluster inspected the castle already, correct?" char nodded, "Excellent. Have you seen a plant that looks like green rose with red berries on its thorns?" Char thought for a second and nodded again, "Good. Can you show me?" She nodded again and pointed down the hallway leading to the rest of the castle. "Thanks I need you to guide me to the flower so jump on..." Spike looked to the rest of the heads and continued, "The rest of you, join up with the rest and be ready for some training."

After Spike was done with his speech, char shot a string to the ceiling and swung herself around, and landed on Spikes's shoulder as the rest of the heads returned to their tubes.

Once the heads were inside, Spike grabbed his now full strap and placed it back onto his arm.

Spike looked over to Celestia who was just standing there patiently waiting and asked, "Do you want to stay here and set up the base camp, or do you want to join us and find the Green Fang?"

"The base camp can wait, I would like to see the rest of the castle." Princess Celestia replied.

"Fair enough." Spike said with a shrug as he looked back to Char, "So where to girl?" Char then pointed down the hallway, "Good, let's go."

With that, Spike and his two companions walked down the dark halls of the castle.