Oddworld Spike's Wrath

Flame and his party were standing in the rebellion's HQ, a cavern under the city of Thorngarde, gathered around a map of the Forgotten Continent, as they finished listening to the rebellions leader Spitfire tell them about what information the rebels had on hand. "So here's what we know, Sekto is located in the royal palace, it's the perfect place to command his troops. He also has Queen Solariea in the dungeons, with his forces numbering 30000 in the royal capital and another 20000 or so stationed in other cities in the kingdom..." Said, Spitfire.

Flame nodded. "That tracks with the info we got from one of his commanders when they attacked Ravengrove." Said Flame but then his look became serious and concerned. "But that was only 1500 troops, and we had about 420 in total." Flame looked at Spitfire. "How many troops do we have on our sides?"

Spitfire sighed. "As of right now, we only have around 2000. But most of them are former Royal guards, a few are powerful spellcasters, and others like myself are quick fliers, some are just really out there but their good ponies, but in terms of raw might, we are completely outclassed."

Flame sighed. "That's not what I wanted to hear. Do you have any spies in Sekto's army?"

"We do, but we haven't heard from him in a few days and I fear the worst."

"Crap," grumbled Flame. "So we don't have any current information about their troop movements, we're underpowered, and if we take too long to beat Sekto we're going to be overrun by reinforcements." Flame then looked at the map of the Forgotten Continent, he looked at the area of the royal capital of Dawnhallow and noticed the area was surrounded by a large forest, Flame grinned at the idea he was forming, he then looked at Serrata as he pointed to the map, more specifically the forest around the capital.

Serrata nodded. "It'll take some doing, but depending on how big you need them, I could probably make around twenty of the ones like Bloomberg, but if you want something bigger, it's going to take a lot out of me, at that point I think I'll start to lose control after the first big one, so they might go on a rampage."

"How big are we talking?"

"The same size as your greedy dragon size, maybe a bit smaller." Said Serrata as she shrugged. "From what I can guess it takes about 4 Bloomberg's to equal one Mighty Oak."

"Do you think you can make three of the big ones and, ten of the small ones? We can use the big ones as our main siege, and once we get into the city, we can use the small ones to handle some of their troops."

"Probably."

Flame then looked at Spitfire. " Spitfire, what kinds of animals live in the forest near Dawnhallow?"

She rubbed her chin in thought. "If I remember correctly, there were some deer, bears, and wolfs, plus in the southeast most point of the forest is a Hydra that made its home in a small bog near there, along with a few feelings of pride of Manticores and a couple of small packs of Timberwolves scattered around the area."

"The deer would be useless, but the bears and wolfs might be helpful, but the big ones are the Hydra, manticores, and Timberwolves." Said Flame as he looked at Ivy and McBiggin. "Ivy, I need you to convince them to join in on the fight, And Mcbiggin I want you to go with her for protection."

"I'll do my best."

"Yep"

"Good." Said Flame. "Do you have a map of Dawnhallow?"

"We do, give me a moment." Said Spitfire as she turned around holding out her hand. A light brown earth pony with a blond mane with blue tips that was pulled back in a ponytail walked over to Spitfire and handed her a map, Spitfire nodded at the stallion. "Thanks, Mars." Said Spitfire as she placed the map on the table.

Flame examined the map, the city was surrounded by high walls and many guard post, past the wall, the city was a maze of streets. "Ok, we should avoid using the streets at first, with all of those buildings, it's an ideal trap to take us out with archers. So once we take the city wall, we station all of the archers along the walls as they release volleys through the city. We let Serrata's golems run through the streets, as Shadow and the more agile of us make our way to the castle by rooftop. No doubt there will be many civilians hiding in their homes so we use the spellcasters to teleport them to safety. Do we have a rough idea of how many civilians are in the city?" Asked Flame looking at Spitfire.

"We do, last I heard there were only around 500 ponies still living in the city, the rest of the homes are being occupied by Sekto and his troops." Said, Spitfire.

"Good to know. How many of our spellcasters can teleport with multiple ponies, and how many can use a detect life spell?" Asked Flame.

"Most of them can teleport around 10 ponies a few miles, any more will be too much of a strain, as for the life spell, they all can."

"I can take around twenty in a single go, and with the help of Incantation we probably get around 35." Said Magic.

"Good, then I want groups of three to make trips in and out of the city before we get to the wall. Two spellcasters, one for each spell, and one fighter for protection. If we're quick enough we can save everyone before Sekto gets the idea to use the civilians as hostages."

Spitfire slowly grinned as she listened to the rest of the plan. The plan that she had thought up before was very crude and very unlikely to succeed, but with the aid of Flame and the others and as long as nothing goes wrong they could actually win.

Once Flame had finished, Spitfire looked at him and nodded. "It will take us about a week to get everything ready for the battle. Head back to the inn and get some rest." Said, Spitfire.

Flame and everyone nodded.

Flame was laying down on his bed thinking about the plan, but sleep was quickly taking hold of his mind, and soon he fell asleep. But before he was fully embraced by his pillow he mumbled, "Lunar Glare."

Flame dreamed of different scenarios while running various versions of a mock battle. Currently Flame was dreaming of the possibility of Sekto using small adorable cats to distract the rebels. He groaned at the absurd possibility of that actually happening. "No, and why cats? Dogs can be trained very easily, but cats can't, the phrase 'trying to herd cats' is a thing for a reason." Said Flame.

"I don't know, Discord did weirder back when he was still evil." Said a voice from behind Flame.

Flame turned around and noticed his aunt IRL walking over to him and watching the imaginary battle. "Good to see you Lunar, and what possibly would Discord of done that would make an army of cats seem practical?" Asked Flame.

"Goldfish. Not magic goldfish, just normal goldfish in small fishbowls." Said Lunar.

Flames dream changed to one similar to one that Lunar described. She saw the change in the dream and cocked an eyebrow. "Why did you change the cats to goldfish?"

"You have to remember Lunar, this world was created by Discord, I know he's changed but it's still Discord, nothing is out of the question when it comes to him."

Lunar nodded her head in agreement, as she noticed that the battlefield changed to one where an army of small tree golems rampaged through the city. "And what of this one Flame?"

"Serrata is going to unleash an army of tree golems after our initial siege, they will ram through any battlements Sektos troops will put up in the streets to slow the attack from reaching the palace. We have archers firing volleys of arrows as well." The dream then moved to focus on Flame and Shadow along with a flock of pegasi running and flying across the many rooftops of the city as they approach the palace. But before Lunar could see where this was going the dream paused mid-leap. Flame groaned. "This is the part I can't figure out, Spitfire didn't have a detailed map of the palace's interior, and from what I could gather from Fancy's knowledge of its interior was very limited." Said Flame as a not very detailed three dimensional model of the palace appeared. "From what Fancy told me, The main throne room is in the center of the palace, but in between the front gate and the throne room there are rooms and hidden passages, many of which he never saw." Said Flame as a large red dot popped into the throne room followed by a line starting from the front gate to the dot creating a visible path. "For all we know, those rooms could be filled with weapons or just some cleaning supplies. This is the most direct option and probably the riskiest, granted I could probably make it there alone relatively unhurt, but then I would have to face who knows how many troops that are protecting Sekto, and that's assuming that Sekto is even on the throne room, what if he is in the study or the war room?" Asked Flame as new lines appeared on the model going around the palace.

Lunar sighed as she placed her hand on Flame's shoulder. "Flame you must remember that even now, we have an ally in the palace." Said Lunar as she used her magic to pull up an image of Queen Solariea chained to the wall of her cell.

The image was more than a little rage-inducing for Flame, Queen Solariea was Celestia, and seeing the image of his mother imprisoned set something out from the depths of Spikes subconscious. Suddenly Lunar noticed a dark wisp slowly surround Spike, as the sound of a dark, sinister voice echoed in the dreamscape. "Look at her, our mother, we should kill the one who did this to her." Said the voice.

"No, I don't need you, I let you out before and that was real, this is a game created by Discord." Responded Spike slightly annoyed at the voice.

"But think about how easily we could save her, let me take control again, we rush into the palace, turn all of those who try to stop us into ash. Once everyone is dead, we save her. Isn't that what we want?"

"Yes, we want that, but that wouldn't be enough for you, would it?"

The voice chuckled darkly. "Awe, you know me so well, your right, I wouldn't stop there, it would be so easy to just stay in this world and rule, killing all that oppose us, having absolute power. We are a dragon, all we live for is wealth and power, but you are a disgrace to your heritage."

Spike quickly grabbed the upper portion of the wisp, pulled it close, and glared at it intensely. "No, you are the disgrace, so much so you are desperate to gain control over my body, you are not me, you are not a dragon, all you are is an overindulged thought of want. But instead of being a dream of being strong so I could help others, somehow you got corrupted and now all you stand for is Greed, wrath, and anger. I accidentally let you lose twice, and I regret both of those times. I will admit your words do hold some truth, I am not like other dragons, I don't hoard, I don't fight for fun, I barely eat meat. But you are a part of me, albeit a part I wish I didn't have, but a part of me nonetheless. I see us as two sides of the same coin. Without me, you would be nothing, and without you, I wouldn't be me, but until the day you see this fact yourself, you will stay away from my family." Said Spike as he threw the-wisp to the farthest parts of his mind. Spike then looked at Luna who was staring in shock at his control and chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry, you had to see him."

"Spike, who or what was that?" Asked Luna.

"That was me, more specifically that was me that wants power, gems, and anything valuable. He is my Greed, my anger, my hatred, and my...my....my.... let's just say he's everything that I'm not. I just call him Mal." Said Spike.

"How long has 'Mal' been here?" Asked Luna worried.

Spike chuckled. "To be honest, he's been alive as long as I have. Mom and Twi don't talk about what I was like when I was an infant, but part of me remembers. I was a pain in the ass back then, I hid from mom or Twi for hours and just watched them running around worried, I would steal Twilights notes or burn moms daily schedule, and they would play it off as a baby not understanding the difference between wrong and right so I always got away with it. But in truth, once was an accident, seven times was malicious, all those times were him, but every time I saw one of them start crying because of my bad behavior, thinking that they messed up somewhere when raising me, more of them started to show. Then the day I took over happened, I was like 2 years old and overheard one of the castle guards say the word 'bitch' as he talked about his cheating mare friend, and for some weird reason I liked that word so that night I called mom a bitch, I got grounded for a week, and was sent to my room, but he didn't want to stay in my room so we snuck out and walked around the castle. We walked past Mom's room and we heard her crying and saying 'I'm a horrible mother, where did I go wrong?' among other things. I was horrified to see her saying stuff like that about herself, while he was delighted at the sight. Then she said the words that broke my heart. 'Maybe I should return him to the dragon lands.'. When I heard that something inside of me grew, and grew until I became stronger than him. I forced him into the back of my mind and from that day I was in control. The next morning I apologized for saying that word and I became helpful and kind."

"But you said 'I let you lose twice'. When were those times?"

"Do you remember my tenth birthday?"

Luna nodded.

"Well, since I gained control, I didn't see him again until that day. I was young and naive, I thought he was gone and decided to lower my guard for just one day and enjoy my birthday. That was a mistake, he took over for a short time and my hoarding instincts kicked my growth into overdrive. Technically, I did rampage through Ponyville, but it wasn't me, it was him. But when I saw Rarity in my grasp, I was able to regain my control and reverse my growth. As for the second time, it was the time I was kidnapped by bandits, I let my anger take control when I heard them threatening the family, and then he stepped up. He bashed the outlaw's head in with a pipe after he pried the bars of my cell open. I was able to regain control after I saw what he had done. That was the first time I had killed someone."

"And how often does Mal pop up?"

"Every day, normally we only argue a little, and he is normally very weak, but as you saw, he found a way to wriggle his way up to me, when I saw mom chained up. This was actually the first time I had to throw him back by force, normally he would insult someone close to me and I'd gain the upper hand, but seeing her like that sent my rage through the roof. But now that I have so many years of experience it's taking a lot more for him to manifest, and as weird as it is to believe, I don't want him to just disappear. He is a part of me as much as I am to him. To me, he is sorta my brother, and I don't want to lose my family, but part of me thinks he will never accept this."

Luna started to chuckle. "I guess it runs in the family."

Spike looked at his aunt confused. "What runs in the family?" asked Spike.

"Aside from ungodly self-control. I had Nightmare moon when I felt underappreciated, Tia has Daybreaker when she gets stressed and wants to find the easy way out, Twilight might be just as vulnerable as her human counterpart becoming Midnight Sparkle from overwhelming power, and you have Mal. Spike we all have our demons, and each of us deals with them daily, but occasionally they pop up. Just look at what happened yesterday when Twilight reached the old castle, and the day before, your mother was on the verge of losing control, and I nearly lost control when Starlight switched our cutie marks."

"God, this family needs some therapy, don't we?"

"Yeah, but I don't think any pony is qualified enough to handle that much."

Spike then looked determined. "Aunt Luna, can you bring back the picture of mom for a moment?"

"Do you think that is wise?" Asked Luna worried that Mal will pop up again.

"Yeah, Mal's done for the day, I need to make a promise."

Luna returned the image of the imprisoned queen. Spike walked over to it. "Mom, I promise you I will not let Mal out ever again, and I promise to save you as soon as possible." Said Spike as he looked at the memories.

Spike then looked at Luna. "Lunar, we need a more detailed map of the palace. How long would it take to scan the memories of the castle's staff and construct the model?"

Lunar smirked. "What do you think I do when I'm not giving you some mental help, sit on my flank." Said Lunar as she conjured a much more detailed map of the palace and the city it surrounds. "First off Solariea is here." Said Lunar pointing to an underground room. "And most of the time Sekto is here, in the war room plotting his armies attack on those who still fight him." Added Lunar as she pointed to a room right above the throne room. "Normally he is surrounded by no less than 20 guards chosen by him personally. So you will indeed need support from the others."

Lunar then made multiple x's on the map showing potential entry points. "In my opinion, you have 5 good points of entry, that would lead you to either Sekto or Solariea. First is the main entrance, like you said there are many hidden rooms full of both weapons and some are full of cleaning supplies, this path is, in my opinion, is suicide."

"Agreed."

"The second is going to be difficult for anyone who can't fly, but if we can infiltrate from the highest tower and fight our way down we can secure parts of the palace as we go. This leaves many undesirable openings, if we are unable to fend off their defenses we will be trapped, but if we do make it to Sekto we will be tired from fighting, and lastly, this will allow for information between Sekto and his troops to flow naturally."

"The less they know about what's happening, the better for everyone."

"The third option is we wait till the city is ours and we go in for a full-force attack on the castle from all sides. This is our forces full, all directed at our goal. This is favorable in many ways but will force Sektos hand into doing drastic measures. Most likely including executing Solariea."

"If he touches a single hair on her head, I will kill him without mercy."

"And that would probably let Mal out, and I refuse to let that happen. Next, we have the first option focusing on Solarieas rescue then having her help beat Sekto. We fight past the main gates and instead of heading for the war room, we turn and head to the dungeons, this is not a bad option but it still has its negatives. Our fighting will alert many of the guards, and it will take time for us to return from the dungeons with Solariea, this will allow for Sekto to be moved and for more of the guards to regroup and set up defenses."

"Agreed, we may have saved her, but we still need to fight a full army, and we will be tired, even with the help of Solariea it's still going to difficult."

"Precisely, that is why I suggest we use the element of surprise to infiltrate the castle quietly and eliminate any guards in the halls, then we will either assume their positions, allowing for easy access to Solariea. Once she is free we can regroup all of the disguised rebels and face Sekto with our full force."

"I'm sensing a 'but' in this plan."

"...But this would be nearly impossible with a large group, so a small group of well-trained ponies would be best for the infiltration. Less support, more enemies per head, and vulnerable to an ambush." Added Lunar.

"So it's either, head-on fights, or slow and be out-matched?" Asked Flame.

Lunar nodded. "Yes."

Flame sighed, but then thought of a new plan. "What about a mass sneak attack?"

"That is a contradiction in terms, but let's hear it."

"I have trained Char and her swarm in scouting and infiltration, they can increase the potency of their venom which can incapacitate ponies with just one bite. So we have them sneak into the palace, having them move on the ceiling, when I give them the signal they attack all the guards in the halls leading to the dungeon and the throne room. This eliminates the threat of the guards, letting us conserve our stamina, and this will also allow us to bring in more of our forces without the possibility of being found out."

"A very practical plan, but there are a few problems, first won't you need the Bolamites during the fight, and how will you signal them?"

"No, I'm not going to need them for the fight. I'm not planning on leaving Sekto alive. As for how I'm going to signal Char and the rest, I'm going to use my 'roar'. It's strong enough to get the point across." Said Flame.

"This will definitely aid in the attack. But if I could just make one suggestion." Suggested Lunar.

Flame nodded. "I'm all ear fin." Said Flame as he wiggled his ear frills.

"The one called Celestial Gem, could she cast a powerful illusion spell on you to change your appearance to one of a fully-grown dragon. From what I have seen, dragons in this world can be just as terrifying as back in Equestria, and the sight of a massive dragon combined with your roar will scare many of the enemies."

"It's possible, we have about a week until the battle. I'll talk to Gem about it when I wake up."

"Marvelous!" Said Lunar happy. "I'll pop over to the one called Confetti's dream and ask her to write up the plan, knowing her, she will have a copy for everyone in the morning."

"Ok." Said Flame. "Hey Aunt Luna, thanks for helping me work through some things." Said Spike.

"Your welcome Spike, Just tell me if you ever want to talk. Your Auntie Woona will always make time to see you. But I would like for you to tell Tia about Mal when we return, can you do that?" Asked Luna.

"Yeah, I will. See you later Luna, have a good night."

"And you have a good morning. Also, you will be woken up in ten seconds. The sun is about to hit your face."

Spike groaned in annoyance. "Have I ever told you how much I hate the flow of time in dreams?"

"Yes, yes you have." Giggled Luna as she slowly disappeared.

Flames dreamscape went black as in the distance a bright light shined.

In the morning Flame gathered everyone except Fancy and informed them of his past interactions with Lunar. " So, I know I should have told you all, but last night I talked with Luna, she helped me deal with some problems I was having."

"Spike what kind of problems?" Asked Twilight worried.

"Twi, do you remember what I was like when I was only about 1, and how one day my personality just did a 180?" Asked Spike.

Twilight nodded. "Yes, you would steal my notes and hide around the castle for hours, but you were just a baby back then, you didn't know any better. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything, I never told you or Mom, but back then I wasn't in control of my body during that time of my life. The day I was born I was in control, but soon after when you or mom would leave me to study or attend day court, I was alone, I was so alone that something inside of me was born from the lack of attention. I called him Mal, he took control of my body for a while. He was the one who stole your notes and burned mom's daily schedule, he was also the one who would hide and watch you two run around like chickens looking for me. Mom probably never told you about this, but one day I heard a royal guard complain about his mare friend cheating on him, he said bitch a lot. Mal liked that word and that night he called mom a bitch, she got mad and grounded me for a week. But Mal had other plans, we left our room and walked around the castle and found mom crying about how she was a horrible mother, but then she said 'Maybe I should return him to the dragon lands.' and that broke my heart, but this also let me regain control over my body and banish Mal to the farthest parts of my mind."

Twilight was shocked. "Why have you never said anything about this?"

Spike sighed. "Because if I did then you would blame yourselves, he was most likely born from my loneliness, and what would you of done?" Spike looked straight at her. "Twilight, you lived for your studies, and mom had to run the nation. What if I did tell you, would you give up your studies, or would mom leave the throne to spend time with me? No, and I didn't want you to. Mal is a manifestation of everything I wanted. He is greedy, for what I truly don't know, but I think he is greedy for the time you two would spend with me, and he wanted more. I wanted to be stronger so I could help you and mom, Mal wants to be strong for the power. So from my wants, he was corrupted into what he is now."

"How do you deal with Mal?" Asked AJ.

"At first I didn't have to, after I regained control of my body, I didn't see hide nor hair of him until my tenth birthday."

"So that wasn't you rampaging through town?" Asked Rarity.

"That's right, Mal was gone for nearly eight years, I thought I could just relax for one day and enjoy my birthday. But when my hoarding instinct started working, he regained control. He was the one rampaging through the town, stealing everything. But when I saw Rarity, I was able to confront him, I regained my control and returned to normal. But since then I would have daily arguments with him. Some would be about trivial things, others were about how I was treated by everyone, but he was weak and I would just toss him away."

"What causes Mal to take over?" Asked Pinkie.

"It could be anything but, greed, anger, jealousy, and annoyance are his big triggers. Every time I give a snarky comeback, that's him. Every time I get angry, he seeps out and yells. When Owlicious showed up, it was my jealousy that let him make me want to frame him with that stupid fake mouse, and you saw what happened when I became greedy."

"So you have a hold on him?" Asked Rainbow Dash.

Spike nodded. "That's right, every day I control my greed, quell my anger, ignore my jealousy, and playoff my annoyance, all in the means of suppressing Mal from regaining control. But over the years, I was able to keep such a stronghold on him that now he is starting to struggle even showing up. I think he is going to just disappear soon."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Asked RD.

"If you asked me that before I was sent to Mudos, I would say yes, but now I'm not sure. He has been with me for all my life, he knows my fears, my hopes, my dreams, and my triggers, and I know the same about him. He is part of me and I am a part of him."

"And where is Mal right now?" Asked Fluttershy.

"He is back in the corner of my mind, but last night he was able to pop up, where he tried to convince me to let him take control and fight the battle to save mom. But then he would stay in control and take over the kingdom."

"That's horrible, thank goodness you stopped him." Said Starlight.

"Yeah." Said Spike. Spike then turned to Twilight. "Twi, I know this is a lot to take in right now, and I promise we will talk about this more, but right now we need to save mom from Sekto, so once we get back from the Crystal Empire we will talk about it."

"Very well, Spike I trust in your abilities to handle Mal, and I'm so proud of you for keeping him in check."

"Thanks." Said Spike as he returned to Flame. "So now that that's out of the way, let's get Fancy Pants in the conversation so I can tell you all about the plan me and Lunar came up with." Said Flame as he looked to Confetti. "Confetti do you have the plans Lunar entrusted you to make?"

The naga nodded and pulled out a large stack of the copied plan so everyone would be able to know their roles.

By now it was late afternoon and Fancy had joined in on the plan's debriefing. "... And once we have taken a secure area near the palace, I will release Char and her swarm and let them get ready to strike. When they are ready I will signal them with my roar. This will have two effects, one is the signal and the other, if Gem can create an illusion of agreed growth dragon, will scare all the guards and possibly cause a break in their defenses, that we can then exploit. Once all of the guards are incapacitated, we infiltrate and assume the guard's positions leading to the dungeons, where we will free Solariea. Once she's free everyone will regroup and face Sekto."

"This sounds like a great plan Flame."

"We wouldn't have it without Lunar." Said Flame. "Confetti makes sure all of the rebels get a copy of the plan so no one messes up, and so they know what we will need in terms of supplies."

"On it." Said Confetti as she returned the copies of the plan to her mane and just sat there. This was very confusing to everyone as it contradicted the nagas very excitable personality.

"Um...Confetti are you going to get going?" Asked Serrata.

"Hum... Oh, no need, they all have been delivered and plans are being made." Giggled Confetti.

"But you didn't move!" Shouted Fancy Pants.

Flame placed a hand on Fancy's shoulder and shook his head. "Just don't question it, if she says it's done, it's done."

Fancy facepalmed and sighed. "Ok."

"Good." Said Flame. He then looked at everyone in the room. "So we have about a week to get ready for the battle, lets all split up and go do some training to make sure we are at our best for the battle. Wuzz your to make sure you're hitting the bullseye every time."

"On it." Said Wuzz as he left the room.

"Magic and Incantation, practice teleportation and detect life spells, then when you have that down change over to offensive spells. You don't know when you're going to be attacked."

"Not a problem, come on Incantation." Incantation nodded as she and Magic left the room to start training.

"Ivy, I want you to go on ahead with McBiggin and start rounding up the animals near Dawnhallow. Here's a map of the area." Said Flame giving the map to Ivy. "Remember we need everything except the deer's." Flame then looked at McBiggin. "Biggin you're in charge of her safety."

"I'll do my best/ Yep." said the two as they left the meeting.

"Serrata, you have a large amount of magic but you lack control. So I want you to head out of the city and increase the number of golems you can control. We need at least 3 mighty oaks, and ten Bloomberg's."

Serrata shrugged. "It can't be any worse than apple harvest season. But it's going to take some work." Said Serrata.

"I know, but we all believe in you." Said Flame as everyone nodded.

"Thanks. I won't let you all down." Said Serrata as she left to start her training.

"Fancy I want you to head back to the rebel HQ and whip the fighters into shape."

"Not a problem brother." Said Fancy as he walked to the ground floor and opened the trap door to inform Spitfire of his training mission.

"Confetti, there are going to be a lot of scared ponies who we have rescued. I need you to step up your game. I don't want your run of the mill Confetti party, I want the Confetti party to end all Confetti parties, then I want you to turn it up to 15. Ponies are going to see many things and you are the only one we can trust with this task. I need you to promise me you will give it your all."

Confetti gasped and then her face changed to an uncharacteristically serious one. Confetti then pulled out a military helmet colored Pink and yellow and gave Flame a salute with one hand, and she used the other to do the actions of a Confetti promise. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a million cupcakes in my eye." Said Confetti as she slithered off to gather her supplies.

Flame then looked at Shadow. "Shadow, I'm a betting dragon, and I know you're a betting mare, so how about a little wager?"

"what do you have in mind?"

"I want you to stay in the city and hone your stealth and speed. So for the whole time, I want you to not be seen by anyone, as you make your way from one side of the city to the other. But if you're spotted even once you have to retry that run."

"What are the stakes?"

"If you can go one full day without getting spotted, I will use my powers as a prince to get you the full series of Daring Do books, signed by Daring Do her self, and I'll throw in a chance to join me in a bounty job."

Flame heard a gasp from Gem and gave her a look. "Yes, Rarity I am planning to help Equestria, not only as a prince but as a bounty hunter capturing dangerous criminals every so often. And yes I was planning on telling both Mom and Twi after we get back."

The flame then returned his attention to Shadow. "And what do you get if you win?"

"A few things to be honest. First I want you to wear a dress designed by the succubus in the room to the Crystal Fair next week, and on the last day of the fair I want to hear the words 'I am not the greatest' coming out of your mouth." Flame then heard some squeaking coming from his bag. "... And Banger wants you to teach him how to reach the speed of sound."

Rainbow thought for a few moments, as she weighed the pros and cons. After a few moments, she responded "Deal." Said Rainbow.

Flame smiled, but Rainbow added one condition. "But if I do lose, can the dress not be too frilly?"

Flame looked at Gem. "It's up to you."

Gem looked at Shadow and thought. "Even though I have dreamed of the day I could put you into something frilly, I don't think it would look appropriate on you."

Hearing this made Shadow smile. " You have yourself a deal." Said Shadow as she quickly opened the window of the room and jumped out to the streets.

Flame then turned to the only other person in the room. "That leaves you Gem, I need you to increase your magical control. From what you have told me, you were able to maintain an illusion of around two hundred ponies back in Ravengrove for a few minutes, but those didn't have to move or make sounds, all of that will consume your magic. That's not going to cut it this time. I need you to maintain the spell for at least fifteen minutes on a much bigger scale. So head to the forest with Serrata and practice on her Golems, from what I can gather, one Bloomberg is equal to 25 ponies, and as you heard 4 Bloomberg's equal to one slightly smaller greed dragon-sized mighty oak. So in total one oak is equal to 100 ponies. But we need you to make an image of a fully grown dragon like the one that was snoring smoke, and this one needs to be moving around. Without you we will have a harder time getting to the palace, can you do this?"

"I will try my best," responded Gem, as she left the room to allow Flame to plan his training.

Once Flame was alone he removed his bag and opened it to talk to the 'family'. "Ok guys, we need to talk."

Flame pulled out Sparks. "Sparks, I need you to store as much power as you can, we're going into the fights of our lives." Sparks buzzed fiercely. "Good." Flame placed him into his tube so the Zappflys can get ready.

Next Flame pulled out Fang and Banger. "You two, we are going to war, I need you both to let loose your full power, I know its stressful for all of you to go through the change, but I have a feeling we will need it." Fang and Banger nodded as they slowly started to change. Bangers wings grew slightly longer as one of his eyes closed and was replaced by an eye patch. Then multiple sticks of explosives started to grow out of his head. Fang's fur grew longer as the sounds of bones snapping and reconnecting was heard as Fang's mouth and jaws grew larger to accommodate his now three-inch-long razor-sharp teeth. "Thank you guys, I know it's hard for you all, but I think this is a necessary evil." Said Flame as he placed the two into their tubes.

Flame then pulled out Wallop and Queen. "Wallop, Queen, we're going to war soon, and we're going to need everything we got." Both Wallop and Queen nodded at the request. Wallop's shell became many times harder and changed color to a light purple, as his eye color changed from its dark red color to blue. As Queens natural yellow color darkened to orange, her normally black compound eyes changed to blue and she grew two more setts on her face, her wings grew longer as her main stinger grew longer and two more slightly smaller stingers popped out of her thorax. "Thank you, guys." Said Flame as he let them go back into their tubes.

Flame pulled out Alvin and Belch, and Alvin was about to start an insulting match but was stopped by Flame. "Alvin now is not the time, I need you both to change and get ready for war." Said Flame in a stern voice.

Alvin saluted and shut up, as his tail slowly split in half, and reformed into a pair of megaphones above his head, and half of his whiskers combined and became a microphone. "YES SIR WE WON'T LET YOU DOWN." Said Alvin, but due to the megaphones, it was more yelling.

Flame nodded, and then he looked to the scared Stunkz who has not changed. "Belch, I know you're scared of the change, but I need you to do this. Celestia is in trouble, and without you, we will be in trouble". When Belch heard this news, something in his head flipped. Like Alvin, his tail split into two parts. Belch moved one half to cover his face, and that part slowly changed into a gas mask, as the other part of his tail became flatter. Belches natural black and white colors changed as well, his black became lighter and changed to a toxic green color, as his white color became a dirty yellow. Thanks to the change, his body was now producing more potent gas, and it is so strong that visible stink lines were produced by his body.

"Thank you both." Flame then looked at Belch. "Belch, I need you to change the chemical composition of the gas, we need less nap, more blast." Belch nodded and went into his tube. Flame then looked at Alvin and smirked. "Don't forget to bring your best material, you overrated excuse for a politician's pet rat, but then again one of my shits sounds louder than you, so I don't expect much, but I need you to keep them safe."

Alvin nodded and gave Flame a salute before he hopped into his tube.

Flame then reached into his bag and pulled out Char. "Char, it's time for the change." Said Flame simply. Char was shocked and began to sign. Flame responded as best as he could. "Yes I know it's hard for you all, we need your more potent venom, Celestia is in trouble and you're an integral part of the plan to save her." Char was not happy but she looked at the seriousness of Flame's face and sighed. Her body slowly grew larger, as her black widow design shifted to a darker shade of red, her normal dark color brightened a few shades and her limbs grew longer as more hairs sprouted. Her fangs which would cause a few moments of pain with a single bite elongated and thickened, as her venom sacks started to produce more potent venom. Once the change was finished Char began to sign again. "Look, I know you feel uncomfortable about the changes, but you will always be my little Charlotte." Said Flame as he affectionately rubbed her head. Char signed once more. "You know it, but it's not luck, plus you look cute too." Said Flame as Char walked her way to her tube.

Now that all of the ammo has gone through the change, Flame sighed and walked out of the room, then out of the inn, and then out of the city to begin his training.