“Could you please chew those any quieter!?” Twilight snapped at the dragon next to her as he munched on several gemstones that she had found for him.

“Sheesh, well excuse me princess but I would think that you would want to hear me over all the forest noises. After all, we don’t want you to start freaking out at every cricket again.”

“Well I’m sorry that I was raised beside a princess in polite society, my life being bonded to a dragon till we die and being banished from the only life I know into the harsh world wasn’t something I planned for!” The two glared at each other before sighing and Spike went back to chewing on his jewels, a bit more quietly.

“...You forgot the part where you got us lost… You said it would be a day's trip but it has been nearly a week.” Twilight groaned and decided that they should stop for a drink in the nearby stream after she made sure the water was safe.

“Do you dragons have to be so… argumentative?”

“Argu… what?”

“Quarrelsome? Disputative?” Spike blinked at her and slowly put another jewel in his mouth, causing the pony to yell in anger and mess up her mane. “Stupid!”

“Oh, that one I know… hey! Look I’m not stupid I’m just not as smart as some know-it-all who was given everything on a silver plate! In the Dragon Lands, it is made very clear that if you aren’t the strongest than all you are is dead weight. I tried to use my head to actually help my people out and they laughed at me and where has that gotten me now? With some chain around my neck, me being branded as a traitor, and me getting the honor of being the first dragon to have ever been captured. Some help being smart did me.” He growled and put his jewels next to him while he washed his face and drank some water. Twilight stared at him before slowly moving closer and sitting an arm’s length away.

“...So how are the jewels?” Spike looked next to him at the sparkly stones and picked up the emerald he had been eating.

“Good… a bit soft and they had some still developing parts deep in them but juicy and still having a good crunch to them. Umm… thanks for finding them…”

“Heh no problem, besides you didn’t give me much of a choice with how loud you were complaining about the dandelion sandwiches and the growling of your stomach.”

“Yeah… Ember did say I had the appetite of a full-grown dragon.”

“So was what you said true? There’s no schooling or education in the Dragon Lands?”

“We been fighting this war for generations, with how stubborn and hard-headed we dragons are known to be you really believe that we wouldn’t want to just make the best fighters? Rather I like it or not, we aren’t known for our strategies.”

“No, I guess not… I studied every battle in the war and the strategies that had been used in them. We don’t know too much about Dragons, leading us to underestimate them many times and cost us victory in several battles.”

“This war has conquered and etched its way into every part of our lives, even mates are chosen for strength instead of feelings but I can’t argue with the results. When you do have dragons who are born out of love you get ones like me…” Spike sighed and angrily tossed a rock into the stream, watching it skip several times. Twilight softly put a hoof on his arm and gave him a small smile.

“I don’t see anything wrong with that… I know that I can be a bit much to deal with and even my brother says that I have a tendency to… overreact at times but I guess I’m not used to having somepony, or somedragon I guess in this case, that's by my side. I had my brother, the princess, and a good friend growing up but they all were too busy to truly be there all the time so I buried myself in my work. Now I’m out in the world that I only ever really read about with a dragon that can’t leave my side. I’m scared of more things changing… of not being good enough now that I have somedragon to take care of and who is watching me all the time. We’ve all been burned by this stupid fight and had our lives changed by it but we’ll work with what we have.”

“What do we have? A bit of money, a map that got us lost, some food, and books. Hey don’t worry about me watching you too much, you’re not that easy on the eyes~” Twilight smiled with a small giggle and lightly punched his arm, hurting her hoof in the process.

“Jerk. We have each other, that’s something.” Spike watched her shake her sore hoof and chuckled while rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, we’re something all right.”

. . .

Spike had volunteered to take first watch since he had talked Twilight into carrying him for the last little bit. The young dragon looked up at the moon and yawned before looking at his partner. Parts of him were afraid of her, of the magic she had and remembered all the horror stories of ponies doing anything to ensure a victory, even needlessly killing every dragon regardless of them being warriors or civilians. The dragons would get so desperate that they would shatter their own eggs to keep them from the ponies but Spike knew deep down that the fear went both ways. Dragons did atrocities to the ponies and were underhanded themselves at times, something he was even guilty of.

“I’m no better… using bombs to blow up a castle thinking the only one hurt would be their princess, of course, there were children and others inside a place like that… I was such a fool and now all we have are each other. I lost my family, best friend, and even the support of my people after what little they have ever offered. But then I look at her, she lost her friend, mentor, family, status, and is bonded to a being she was raised to fear and kill. I wonder how she can even sleep…” He touched the unicorn’s mane and moved it from her eyes before standing and stretching. “Dragons are said to be able to live entire generations should they survive. I could have been nearly immortal but now…” He looked down at the chain that reflected the moonlight despite not truly being real.

“I’ll die long before that even if we were to ever end the war. Ember once said that our lives were always on a timer when you are in a war but I never thought that I would actually ever die of age. Crazy that it’s not my age that is the deciding factor here.” Spike sat next to Twilight and yawned again before trying to stay awake, but losing the battle and falling into a deep sleep. Nearby, a shadow of a unicorn watched the two with interest before vanishing into the night.

. . .

A scream woke Spike as he jumped up and got a lungful of fire ready to attack only to find Twilight and on her hind legs and screaming while pointing at a large spider that had been crawling on her. Spike let the fire out in a small stream while walking to the spider and taking it into his claws before smirking at Twilight who was inching away. “Aww, what’s wrong Twi? Such a brave and strong general isn’t afraid of a little bug is she~” He teased her by threatening to throw it at her but she growled at him and glared.

“Very funny Spike, get that thing away from me and don’t think I didn’t notice that you fell asleep! We could have been killed! What if that spider had an army ready to kill us!?”

“I’m quaking in fear, truly.” He flicked the bug away while chuckling to himself until he turned to see the glaring unicorn who powered up her horn and surrounded him in a magical aura while making a small motion with her hand and causing him to float over to her until they were face to face.

“Listen closely Spike, we are in the Everfree and this place is known for being a place not fit for ponykind. Strange creatures are everywhere and I even read that Princess Celestia used to live out here somewhere with her sister when they first came to Equestria and for some reason even they couldn’t stay here so let’s take our safety more seriously before something crazy happens.” Suddenly the ground began to shake and the two turned to see two large eyes burst from the ground and the sound of growling as the creature erupted. The hydra roared at them as Spike blinked and looked at Twilight.

“You just had to say something didn’t you?”

“Oh shut up!” She started to run, using her magic to float Spike onto her back. “Well what are you waiting for?! Get that thing away from us!” It had fully burst from the ground and glared at the intruders before giving chase.

“Give me a sec! If I start blowing fire everywhere the whole forest could burn! I need clear shots so get us somewhere with fewer trees.” Twilight nodded while Spike told her when to dodge the heads as they attacked and would get them to slam into each other and into boulders. Spike managed to deliver a fireball to one of the heads when it missed them. They were getting near a clearing when she heard Spike gasp and she turned to see the center head was sneering at the other two and got them to all work together and attack at once, leaving no room to dodge. “T-Twilight!”

“Spike, hold on!!” She jumped and used a spell to cast a shield around them but when the three head slammed against it, it shattered and sent the duo flying into the clearing. Spike groaned and crawled towards the purple mount that wasn’t moving, checking her for injuries but only found that she had a few scratches and that she was tired after the shield.

“Twilight…” He looked up to see the hydra coming out of the woods and roaring at them again. He glared at the monster and back at the pony, knowing that either of them died that they would both go then he needed to protect her. “Okay you big lizard! You want a fight you got one!!” He ran towards the creature while attacking and getting its attention with several fireballs to the chest and faces. It snapped at him almost getting his tail before he jumped and slashed at its eyes before he changed direction and tried to get behind it. The injured head roared in rage and pain while shaking the blood from its eye and Spike was forced to roll under the giant tail as it was trying to crush him and he jumped at it with his mouth open, clamping his jaws deep into the appendage. Dragon jaws were strong enough to shatter diamonds and the hydra’s scales were no different as the taste of iron filled Spike’s mouth and he had the urge to gag but held strong.

The monster had had enough of this tiny dragon and smashed him into the earth several times and then flung him off high into the air, before he could hit the ground it smacked him with its hand and sent him smashing into several trees. Spike coughed and held his aching teeth and body before seeing the hydra was still after him. He forced himself to stand and grabbed a sharp branch before walking to the monster and when it attempted to grab him, he blew fire on the branch and used all his strength to force it deep in the monster’s hand. It grabbed him tight with the other hand and stared at the three heads that were all glaring with hate in their eyes but he managed a small smile seeing the bloody scar on the center head’s eye.

“Just a tiny thing to remember us by… I’m sorry Twilight… I tried…” It began to squeeze the life out of him, crushing him with the sound of a bone-cracking echoing and causing him to scream out. The pain started to fade and his lights danced in his sight as the edges began to blackout. The pain vanished fully and Spike felt his body carefully float to the ground as the hydra was pulled away from him and Twilight was back on her hoofs. Pain and anger fueling her as she used all her remaining magic to grab the Hydra’s tail and fling it high into the air and smash it into the ground. The attack caused a small earthquake and a cloud of smoke to surround the downed monster. Twilight huffed and took a few pained steps towards where she could feel Spike was but fell long before she could make it. She felt the ground shake behind her as the monster was recovering and she reached out.

“N-no… not yet…” She began to think she was hallucinating as a small group of dragons and ponies came from the woods in an orderly fashion and started to fight off the Hydra. Twilight could only hear the fight as she was losing her fight to stay conscious, the last sight she saw was a silhouette of a unicorn smirking down at her.

. . .

Twilight felt strange as she floated in her dark mindscape, knowing that you were in a dream that you controlled yet at the same time feeling foreign in your own mind as if you were an intruder there. She looked around the void and only then began to feel something, something nearby was calling to her. She followed the feeling to a small gemstone that was silently floating as if waiting for her. Looking around and finding nothing else Twilight reached out and touched the stone before the area around her changed into something she had only ever heard of. The Dragon Lands. She stared in awe at the place around her as her mind raced with the possibility of learning but those feelings immediately turned to fear as a dragon approached her.

“Hey what’s wrong Spike, you’re acting like you don’t know me.” Twilight stared at the blue dragon in shock as she took in her words and then ran away. She rushed past a few dragons, pushing them out of her way as she picked up a diamond and found Spike’s eyes looking back at her. The eyes blinked before Spike reached out of the diamond and pulled the girl into it. Twilight gasped as she was back in the black void but a mirror was in front of her and Spike could be seen knocking his fists against it. The two stared at each other with Twilight doing her best to calm the young dragon. Once he relaxed they stared at the other’s image and then slowly both reached out and touched the mirror, causing it to glow and something pulled them closer to it.

. . .

Twilight sprung up in bed before cursing and falling back as the pain hit her. She was in some kind of hospital room with several tubes connected to her body and pumping her with liquid.

“It’s a kind of natural remedy, also tastes great.” Twilight jumped at the voice only to find it was a pink earth pony with a soft yellow mane and a red cross cutie mark. “We found you and your little friend losing a lot of blood in a field not too far from here, you’re lucky that the mistress was there to help.”

“My little friend… Spike! The Hydra! Where is he? Is he okay?!” The pony put a hoof on Twilight’s chest and lightly shushed her.

“He’s alive and healing, dragons are naturally resistant against magic but we have natural remedies that have helped him.”

“Take me to him, I just need to make sure… please…” The pony looked around fearfully before nodding silently and carefully moving Twilight’s bed to the hallway and down a corridor where she could just see her sleeping partner covered in bandages and with something green and slimy on his chest. “What is that stuff?” The nurse hurried to get her back to her room.

“It’s an herb that can fill in the dragon’s scales that had been lost during your fight, it hardens and will keep his skin underneath safe from harm.” They got back to the room and the nurse was about to leave when a voice calls her over the intercom and orders her to go strange to the Mistress’s office. Her eyes widened in fear before she lowered her head and slowly left the room with Twilight hoping she hadn’t gotten her in too much trouble. The voice returned and addressed her directly.

“Ahh Twilight Sparkle, I am the Mistress of this village and it is an honor to meet you and your little dragon friend. Welcome to the first peaceful village in all of Equestria where all creatures live together with no troubles or pain. Welcome to Bliss Sanctuary”

Author's Note

A bit short for a chapter but it acts as more of a first parter so I hope you all still enjoyed and I'll get working on the next part real soon. I bet you can guess who the Mistress is and I promise that this all ties back to the main story of the war, this little side story before they get to Ponyville shows the effect that the war has had on others and we will see that much more in the next chapter which I will call Peace of Freedom. Thanks to all the commenters and people who thumbs up and favorited my story! I hope I keep making things good enough for you!