Journey to the past

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Happy Father´s day!
Chapter 2: The argument
Chapter 3: Regrets
Chapter 4: Arising hopes
Chapter 5: Answers
Epilogue
Chapter 6: The reunion

Prologue

“Hurry up Spike!” exclaimed Twilight. “They´ll be here anytime soon!”

Spike flew behind Twilight, trying to go as fast as she did. They were cleaning and ordering the whole castle. The reason why? They were having two important guests: Starswirl and Stygian.

In his most recent letters, Starswirl had told Twilight that he and Stygian, who has become his apprentice, have been travelling together throughout Equestria and beyond. As they were travelling, he reflected on Twilight´s lessons. Thanks to them, he fixed his friendship with Stygian, became a much tolerable pony and learnt so many things. An old unicorn´s knowledge is never satisfied, after all! He was so grateful to the princess of friendship. But he needed one last favour, which was the reason why wrote to her. He didn´t specify what was the issue, but he promised to tell her when they were face to face. This issue couldn´t be communicated by letters.

While they were setting the table, Spike observed Twilight. Seeing that the princess was struggling to keep it together, he left out a small chuckle. As much as she denied it, she still got a bit nervous when a big event was about to happen.

“I thought you were over your twilighting.” said Spike in a teasing tone.

“I am not twilighting!” protested Twilight. “I´m completely calm.”

“Look, Starswirl´s coming!” he exclaimed while pointing at the window.

“WHAT?” asked Twilight with a panicked tone.

She rushed to the window and took a quick detailed vision of the horizons. Much to her suprise, nopony was coming to the castle. Spike was just teasing her

She glared at the dragon, who was covering his mouth in laughter. Although she was a little angry, she joined the fun. She rolled her eyes as she flew towards Spike.

“Ok, you got me there. Very funny Spike”

Spike dried a tear.

“You can deny it all you want, but I know that deep down, you´ll always be the same old Twilight.”

“Yeah, I guess a bit.” Twilight laughed nervously. “But it´s not that easy, you know? Sometimes you are confident, yet there are times you can´t ignore that little voice in your head that tells you that things will go wrong!” Twilight sighed. “I just hope it doesn´t take over my mind when I´m Equestria´s ruler.”

“That might be true. But the important thing is that you´re managing to control them. I mean, you did fantastic at the Festival of the Two Sisters! And if that voice doesn´t get out of your head when you´re ruling Equestria, don´t worry! I´ll be there to settle you down to earth.”

“You will?”

“Of course! I´m your number one assistant, don´t you remember? I will always be by your side.”

“You´re more than that, Spike. You´re my little brother” said Twilight, pulling Spike towards her with her wing.

Spike always got so happy when he heard that from Twilight´s and Shining Armor´s mouths. It made him feel more as part of their family. Family… That word meant so much to him. He´s been seeking it ever since he began to wonder about his origins. He went through so many challenges and perils to find it. And he finally has. It might not be his biological family, but he doesn´t need it. Not anymore. Looking for them has only brought him pain, especially the Sludge incident. After that, Spike decided to stop searching for his parents and conform with what he has: Twilight´s family and her friends. They´re his family.

He returned the hug to his older sister. He felt the soft caress from Twilight´s wing feathers on his scales. They gave him warmth, safety… He felt like nothing could ever make him separate from his sister. That was until Twilight smelt something weird.

“Do you smell something?” she asked after sniffing.

Spike span his head backwards. He left out a small yelp when he saw a slight cloud of smoke.

“The cupcakes! I forgot to take them out!”

He rushed to the kitchen, Twilight following behind. She waited for Spike on the kitchen´s door. Once he took the cupcakes out of the oven, Twilight nervously entered the kitchen.

“How do they look?”

After taking a quick look on the cupcakes, she didn´t need his response. The cupcakes were burnt and black as coal.

“I think it´s better if I start all over again.” mumbled Spike.

“Agreed.” replied Twilight.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Twilight gasped in a mixture of joy and nervousness.

“It must be them! I´ll go open.”

“Ok! I´ll serve you tea in the meantime.”

She opened the door excitedly. Finally, after a long time, Twilight saw her two awaited guests. They had huge smiles in their faces.

“Twilight!” exclaimed Starswirl joyfully.

“Starswirl! It´s so good to see you!” she said while hugging him.

“It´s good to see you too, Twilight” said Starswirl between laughs of joy. He saw Spike approaching behind Twilight. “Hello young dragon.” he greeted Spike. “I see you grew a pair of wings”

“Yeah! Aren´t they awesome?” said Spike as he showed them off with a huge pride.

Twilight rolled her eyes playfully and Starswirl laughed. Stygian nodded in agreement.

"Indeed they are."

"It´s been so long since we last saw each other, Stygian." Twilight stated. "The only thing I know about you is that you´re a great writer. How are you doing now?"

“Actually, I´m doing great, thank you. There are some ponies that have written to me to tell me how much my books have helped to face up to their problems.”

“Really? That´s amazing! Um…. One little question Stygian” She laughed sheepishly “When is the next book coming?”

“I… haven´t thought about it. I haven´t begun writing yet! In fact, I decided to travel with Starswirl to get some inspiration”

“Yeah, but do you have an idea in mind or…”

“Why don´t you show us your castle, Twilight?” Starswirl interrupted, seeing that Twilight was overwhelming poor Stygian.

“Oh right! Come in!” Twilight welcomed her guests.

Spike giggled at Twilight´s excitement.

Chapter 1: Happy Father´s day!

“You´ve been beyond Equestria? That´s wonderful!” said Twilight as she filled her cup of tea.

“Yes!” answered Starswirl. “It´s been really fun and we´ve learned so many things about other creatures. Right Stygian?”

The small grey unicorn stallion nodded as he sipped from his cup of tea.

“Alright. Here you have some cupcakes. I would have brought them sooner but I had a little incident with the oven and I had to restart.” explained Spike, laying the cupcakes on the table.

“They sure look delicious.” commented Stygian while licking his lips.

“And where exactlty have you been Starswirl?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Let´s see… We´ve been in Mount Aris, Yakyakistan, the Dragonlands…”

Spike gasped.

“You´ve been in the Dragonlands?” Spike interrupted. “How did it go?”

“Well… There was some hostility toward us from some dragons , but the Dragon Lord Ember kept them under control. A good dragon indeed.” explained Starswirl.

“Although she told us we looked the same.” added Stygian, a bit annoyed with that memory. He sipped some tea.

“Believe me, it´s not the first time that happened. She also said to me and Starlight that we were alike” reassured Twilight.

Stygian shrugged.

“Talking about Dragon Lord Ember, she´s told us that she would like to see you soon." claimed Starswirl. "She´s really grateful with what you did for the dragon eggs. You must be really admired there."

Spike bit his lip.

“Well… Not really.”

Starswirl widened his eyes in surprise.

“I mean, sure, now dragons are friendlier than before, and some have accepted the ways of friendship such as Garble, but there are still dragons who still have the idea that friendship is a pony thing. Despite that, I´m much more appreciated now.” Spike continued.

“You didn´t fit with the other dragons, did you?” asked Starswirl, his eyes full of sympathy.

“Since I´ve always lived with ponies, I used to wonder where I came from. So, I decided to go to the Dragonlands on my own, however the experience wasn´t…. (how to say this) pleasant. That´s when I realized that these ponies are my family.” he said while hugging Twilight. “The best family I could ever hope for. But I do have some dragon friends. Like Smolder!”

While Spike was telling his story, Stygian was eating Spike´s cupcakes.

“Interesting.” he said before taking a mouthful.

Meanwhile, Starswirl´s eyes filled with melancholy. His story reminded him so much of another creature´s story.

Spike´s gasp made Starswirl come back to reality.

“Oh my goodness! What time is it?”

“I think it´s 12:00 A.M, why?” answered Twilight.

“I have to go!” Spike exclaimed.

He jumped from his seat and flew to the castle gates.

“Wha- Why?” asked Twilight, yelling from the table.

“I promised Smolder that I would meet after school! See ya!”

Spike slammed the gates.

The three unicorns were left astonished by Spike´s sudden exit.

“Well that escalated quickly.” commented Stygian.

“I´m curious Twilight, how did that little dragon of yours end up with you?” asked Starswirl.

Twilight sighed sadly.

“The thing is that I don´t really know where he came from. I hatched him from his egg in my test for entrance to Celestia´s school. I know nothing of his family. That´s why I always try to teach him about dragons so he doesn´t feel different from the other dragons. Fortunately, he feels part of the family, but still… I wish we knew about his parents. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, it´s just….” he stopped for a moment.

Stygian put his hoof on Starswirl´s shoulder. He gave out a warm smile and nodded. Starswirl smiled back. He breathed in and out and finally started talking.

“It´s just that he reminds of a very special creature I met thousands of years ago. A creature from whom I haven´t heard anything all this time and that I wish that I could talk with him again. But I don´t know if he wants to know anything from me...”

Twilight had her suspicions about who this creature was.

“Let me guess… You´re talking about Scorpan, right?”

Starswirl nodded.

“Let me tell you a brief story, Twilight: Thousands of years ago, in a faraway land named the Kingdom of Midnight, there lived a special gargoyle named Scorpan. He was the son of King Vorak and Queen Haydon and as you know, Tirek´s younger brother. Unlike his brother, Scorpan was kind-hearted and well-meaning and as different as they could be, Scorpan was loyal to the bone to Tirek. He even went to Equestria even if that meant to help him to steal magic from ponies! That, of course, changed when he met me. At first, I was afraid of this new creature, but then I saw that he was pure hearted. Slowly, we became friends, but he never talked to me about Tirek. And when I discovered his and his brother´s plan, I became furious. We fought. I told him that I never wanted to see him again. And so it was… From the moment he left Equestria, he never returned.”

“There´s something I don´t understand.” intervened Stygian, chewing one of Spike´s cupcakes. “You admitted yourself that before the whole Pony of Shadows incident you didn´t understand friendship and yet you befriended this creature before we even met.”

Starswirl shook his head. He laid his hoof on Stygian´s shoulder

“There was a time that I had friends. But certain events of my life, such as this one, made me lose all hope in friendship. But now thanks to you,” he said pointing at Twilight “I want to fix what I´ve done. In case you´re wondering, gargoyles have a long lifespan. I know this because Scorpan told me about his species when we were friends. However, they´re not immortal. In other words, there´s a chance that he´s either around or not. If we are lucky, we could find him in his kingdom.”

“Do you know where that is?” asked Twilight.

Stygian got a book out from his bag. He opened it and flipped some pages as he explained to Twilight the situation.

“Before sending you that letter, we did some research in Canterlot´s library. Since nopony has ever been to kingdom of Midnight, there´s really few information about it. But according to this book, that kingdom could be some kilometres away from Somnambula. You see this map?” he asked as he tapped the page. “If we keep going south from Somnambula, we could find it there”

“We´re planning to travel there and visit Scorpan.” claimed Starswirl. “However, I´m not an expert on friendship yet and this is a huge challenge for me. I don´t know what to say or what to do, so... I could use some help from you. What do you say Twilight, will you help me to make amends with an old friend?”

Twilight was stunned. Having letters written by your idol or being thanked by your idol was one thing. But having your idol trusting you this much to tell you something really personal and ask you for your help... That´s beyond anypony´s imagination! She felt so honoured and excited. Without anpony expecting it, she jumped and wrapped Starswirl with her hoofs.

“Of course! I´m so glad you asked me to join in your mission!” she exclaimed.

She hugged him so tightly that Starswirl could feel his eyes going out from his orbits. Stygian was a bit surprised by the sudden princess´ outburst at first, but then he suppressed a giggle.

“Ow I´m sure this isn´t the first time somepony has asked you this.” Starswirl said, a bit suffocated by Twilight´s hug.

“Yeah. But this is the first time her idol has asked her to help him fix a friendship problem.” replied Stygian with a smirk.

Starswirl smiled warmly at Twilight.

Spike flapped his wings as fast as he could. He slowed down once he was in front of the School of Friendship. Beneath him, was a crowd of students. He looked down to see if his friend was there, but the crowd was only formed by ponies

“I don´t think she´s here.” he muttered to himself. “Maybe she´s inside.”

He entered the building and landed on the hall to rest his wings.

“Smolder?” he yelled.

No response.

“Has anypony seen Smolder?” he asked to some of the students who were passing by. They shook their heads. Seeing no evidence of Smolder there, Spike opened his wings and flapped them again. He flew around the corridors.

“Smolder?”

Again no answer.

He searched for his dragon friend in the library, in the students´ rooms, in the classrooms, throughout the whole building while screaming her name. By doing so, he got shushed in the library, or thrown some frowns by Applejack for interrupting her class. He asked the student six but they didn´t know either.

After flying for so many time, Spike went outside and sat on a rock. He panted in exhaustion.

“Ok, she´s not in the school, nor with her friends, and nopony has seen her! Did she forget about our meeting?” Spike gasped. “What if I made her wait too much and she´s angry at me? Maybe she told everypony not to say a word about me if I asked them where she was because she doesn´t want to see me!”

After Spike said that, a tall shadow covered him.

“Don´t be such an idiot, pony boy.” A masculine raspy voice said behind.

Spike looked up. A tall red dragon was flying over him. He was wearing a huge smirk in his face, showing his sharp teeth. When Spike recognized this dragon he flew back a bit scared.

“Gah! Garble!”

Garble lifted his claws in the air to claim he came in peace.

“Don´t worry, I´m not here to pick up on you.” he said as he put a claw on Spike´s shoulder. “That´s all in the past.”

“Yeah, I know that. It just it surprises me that you, of all dragons, came all this way to Ponyville. So... Why are you here?”

“Why? To pick up Smolder of course!”

“You´re picking her up?”

“Yes! She wanted to come to the Dragonlands for some days.”

"Now?"

Garble nodded.

"But Smolder told me that we were meeting after class.”

“Oopsie….” a feminine voice said behind their backs.

Spike and Garble turned around. They saw Smolder approaching shyly. She was scratching the back of her head and laughing nervously.

“I guess I forgot to tell you.”

“Smolder!” Spike exclaimed. He flew towards her to hug her. “Tell me what?”

Spike noticed the two big dragons behind Smolder. At the left, there stood an orange female dragon with blue eyes. She really looked like Smolder. The only differences were that she didn´t have any horns or wings. Right next to her, there was a male dragon. He was red, muscular, almost identical to Garble.

“Oh…” mumbled Spike.

“So this is the pony dragon you were talking about, huh Garble?” the male dragon said.

“He´s… tiny I must say.” the female dragon said.

“I´m not that tiny!” complained Spike. “I´ve just had the molt.” he continued as he opened his wings.

The two big dragons burst out laughing. Spike felt a bit offended.

“Don´t worry. They´re not mocking you.” whispered Smolder in Spike´s ear.

Spike raised his eyebrow in confusion. Then, Smolder winked.

“I like you young dragon!” the male dragon finally said. “What´s your name?”

At first, Spike was a little confused. He looked back at Smolder, who urged him to continue to talk.

“Um… My name´s Spike.”

“Spike…” the female dragon replied. “That name is too cute for a dragon. I like it!”

“Smolder, is this your…. family?” Spike asked in Smolder´s ear.

Smolder nodded.

“Spike, let me introduce you to my parents: This is Kira, my mother, and this is Draco, my father.”

“Nice to meet you. What brings you to Ponyville?” asked Spike.

“It´s father´s day!” exclaimed Draco.

“Oh! So that´s why you couldn´t meet with me today. You´re going with your parents, right?”

“It´s been long since the last time we have been together as a family. And what Draco wished more than anything, was to be with his whole family on this very special day” explained Kira as she wrapped her husband with her wing.

“And for three more days too, remember?” Smolder reminded her mon.

“Exactly, my little Smolder.” said Draco as he rubbed Smolder´s head.

Draco, Kira and Smolder proceeded to hug each other. Garble drew away a little to avoid the hug, but his father made sure that didn´t happen.

“Come here you!” Draco exclaimed as he dragged Garble towards the hug.

“Daaaad! You´re embarrassing me!” complained Garble.

“Come on, don´t say that to your old folk!”

Smolder and Kira laughed.

Meanwhile, Spike watched the warm scene from the ground. His heart began to hurt. He never hugged his real parents, nor celebrated father´s or mother´s day with them because he never met them. He never saw them. He didn´t know what they looked like or how they behaved. Suddenly, the desire to meet his parents returned again. It was intense and hurt so much. It felt like a stab on the heart. He felt tears forming in his eyes. He wanted to cry, but resisted the urge so as not to bother Smolder and her family.

But they quickly noticed that something was wrong with Spike. He seemed a bit off.

“Are you ok young dragon?” asked Kira.

After he heard the big dragoness´ voice, Spike got back to reality.

“Oh! Yes. I´m fine.” he replied while rubbing his eyes and putting the most forced smile that the four dragons standing in front of him had ever seen.

That´s when it hit Smolder. Spike must imagine his dragon parents like hers. Big, strong, bold, but also loving and caring. And even though he loves dearly his pony family, he wants to feel his biological parents´ presence.

She flew down to talk to Spike face to face.

"Spike, please... don´t feel sad."

“I´m not sad!” Spike lied. “I was just… moved by your beautiful dragon family moment. So emotional!”

Smolder raised an eyebrow.

“Come on Spike, I know what you´re really feeling. If you just let me-”

“I´m fine, ok? Now, go before I interrupt all of you more on dragon father´s day.”

“Spike…” mumbled Smolder.

“I just-” Spike took a deep breath. “Need some time alone.”

Spike flew away without saying goodbye. Smolder tried to follow Spike, but Draco put his claw on her to stop her. He shook his head sadly to tell her to leave him.

“Don´t worry. He´ll be alright” he assured her.

The four dragons watched Spike leave in pity and sympathy for the little dragon.

“Thank you for accepting my request, Twilight. You don´t know how much it means to me.” Starswirl said, leaving Twilight´s castle.

“It´s nothing, really.” said Twilight humbly.

“When do you think it´s possible to set out?” asked Stygian.

“I´m not so sure. I´ll have to check if I don´t have anaything important to do these days.”

“Anyways, when you´re ready, write us a letter, ok?” Starswirl added.

Twilight nodded. The three unicorns waved goodbye to each other. Just when she was about to close the castle gates, she saw Spike in the distance. She raised an eyebrow in confusion when she realized he was alone.

“Spike!” she exclaimed.

Spike´s eyes widened when he heard Twilight´s voice. His breath stopped for a moment. The last thing he wanted to do right now was to talk about what happened with his pony family. What he needed was some time alone, that´s what would help him to forget about it. Besides, what would she think? He didn´t want to make her think that he didn´t love her anymore.

“Oh no…” he muttered as he watched her approaching in the distance.

He tried to fly away but Twilight had already caught up on him.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were with Smolder.”

Spike nervously clenched his teeth.

“That was the original plan.” he tried to explain. “But…”

“Yes?” Twilight asked, urging Spike to talk.

Spike struggled to find the right words. How to tell her?

The first thought that came to his mind was to lie to her.

“If I say that is nothing serious, she´ll leave it be.” he thought.

But Spike knew that lying wouldn´t do the trick. The best thing to do was telling the truth. He sighed heavily.

“It´s dragon´s Father´s day. Smolder wanted to spend some time of the week with her family.”

Twilight gasped softly. She slapped herself mentally for not remembering it until now. Smolder asked her for a week off so she could spend a week with her family for Father´s day and she accepted. Despite having written it down on her agenda, she completely forgot it was this week.

“Yeah… She mentioned it a long time ago. Do you want to talk about it?” she said while putting her hoof on his shoulder.

“It´s just… I want to know what happened to them! Are they still around? If that´s the case, why aren´t they with me? Did they-“ Spike paused for a moment. The emotion was making him choke in his words. “Leave me? What if they never... loved me...”

Tears formed in Spike´s eyes. Twilight pulled Spike closer to her. He started crying on her shoulder. Twilight patted his back to calm him down.

“It´s ok. Let it all out.”

Spike´s problem reminded her a bit of Starswirl´s, which gave her an idea.

“You know? You´re not the only one who´s looking for somepony from his past. Starswirl has requested me for a very special mission: to find his old lost friend Scorpan.”

Spike lifted his head from Twilight´s shoulder.

“There is an old kingdom called the Kingdom of Midnight. Starswirl and Stygian came up with the idea to go there. I was thinking that you and the girls could come too. Any help is accepted. It would be like a… family trip.”

Spike sniffed. He smiled softly, appreciating Twilight´s sweet gesture as he dried his tears.

“Ok. I´ll go.”

He hugged her tightly.

“Now, let´s go to tell the girls and specify a date to set out, shall we?”

Spike nodded. Twilight opened her wings and set out to her friend´s homes. Spike was going to do the same but he saw Smolder and her family flying in the blue and sunny sky. He sighed sadly and followed Twilight behind.

Chapter 2: The argument

Twilight was in her castle´s library at night. Normally, at a Friday´s night, she would go out with her friends because it was Guy´s night. However, since Spike wasn´t in the mood due to what happened a a few days ago, he decided to cancel it.
She was truly worried about him. He has been really sad since that day. He didn´t feel like doing anything, and he was most of this free time in bed. Most of Twilight´s activity was destined to support Spike in those days.

Right now, she was looking for Spike´s favourite book to cheer him up by reading it together. As a result, there was a huge pile of books on the floor. She couldn´t find it anywhere.

“Where is it? Where is it?” she repeated in whispers to herself and throwing books to the pile.

After a stressing time of searching, she finally found the book she wanted.

“Here it is! Gusty the Great! Spike loved it so much when I read it to him as kids. He´ll feel better this way, I´m sure! ”

“Or… we could play Ogers and Oubliettes with him.” another voice suggested.

Twilight looked up and saw Discord flying beneath her. She jumped back, screaming and dropping the book.

“Discord! What are you doing here? Don´t you know that Guy´s night is cancelled?”

“I know.” Discord simply answered. “And that´s why I´m here: To find out! Big Mac´s here too, by the way.”

Twilight took a quick glance at the window. She saw Big Mac outside the castle. He waved his hoof with an awkward smile on his face to say hello. She ignited her horn and transported him with her and Discord inside the castle.

“Ok. Now that everypony´s here, spill out the tea. There must be a reason why we can´t play Ogers and Oubliettes!” said Discord.

Big Mac rolled his eyes, smirking to himself, as he knew that Discord was more worried about Spike than the game. He just didn´t want to show he cares, as always.

“What Discord is trying to say is that we want to talk to Spike.” he explained kindly.

Twilight sighed.

“Maybe you do a better job at cheering him up. Come with me.”

Twilight led them to Spike´s room.

"Although I didn´t expect you to come, I´m really grateful. Spike´s not in his best moments. He´s been very sad and depressed for days."

Discord and Big Mac widened their eyes.

"Really? What happened?" asked Big Mac.

"If you´re lucky enough, perhaps Spike could tell you." Twilight responded as they got to Spike´s door.

She knocked at the door.

“Spike?”

Spike replied by growling.

“Umm, Spike. Big Mac and Discord are here. Wanna let them in?”

“I´m fine, really.”

But the pain in his voice claimed otherwise. Twilight and Big Mac looked at each other, not so sure what to do. Discord, on the contrary, took initiative.

“We both know perfectly that you´re lying. Come on, let us in!”

There was a brief silence. The two ponies and draconequus waited anxiously for the dragon´s response. Finally, after a small time of tension, there was an answer.

“Fine. Come on in.”

Twilight opened the door. When they entered, they saw Spike lying on the bed with a pillow on his head. Big Mac and Discord exchanged worried looks. Twilight approached Spike.

“Hey…” she muttered.

“Hey..” Spike responded equally.

“What happened?” asked Big Mac concerned.

“It´s nothing, really.” Spike lied.

“Are you sure about that?” Discord asked while raising an eyebrow in suspicion. Then, he scoffed “You are a worse liar than AJ, no offense.” he said with a smirk.

Spike glared at Discord.

“I don´t want to talk about it.” he told him. “But seeing that you guys came all the way to see me...” Spike sighed. "I guess I´ll have to tell you."

Without thinking it twice, Discord snapped his fingers. He changed Spike´s room´s appearance to a psychologist’s office, with Spike being lain on the couch and Twilight, Big Mac, and the draconequus being the psychologists.

“Now, tell us everything you feel.” he said as he adjusted his glasses.

“Discord!” exclaimed Spike, who was annoyed at his friend´s action. Twilight and Big Mac were also glaring at the draconequus. “Not like this!”

“Ok…” he agreed stubbornly.

He snapped his fingers and Spike´s room came back to normality.

“How eager I was to show off my new gown…” he mumbled annoyed.

Despite that, he raised his ears with a smile on his face to listen carefully to his friend.

Spike breathed in and out before talking.

“Today I was supposed to meet Smolder after school but it turned out she couldn´t. Why? You may wonder. Because that day was Dragon´s Father´s day.”

Big Mac bit his lip. Discord´s eagerness dropped when he realized what the issue was about.

"Ooooh nooo.... What did I get myself into?" he whispered in frustration.

“It made me think: how would my life have been if I had been with my parents? I love my pony family but... I also love my biological parents, even though they´ve never been with me. I would give anything to meet them. Or at least tell me why they aren´t with me.”

Big Mac trotted towards Spike´s bed. He put a hoof on Spike´s shoulder.

“You know?” Big Mac interjected. “I kinda know how you feel. I also miss my ma and pa. They were the best parents in the world and loved each other completely. Even though they´re not here physically, I´m sure they´re watching us somewhere. My sisters and I think their souls are together in the trees they planted, where Sugar Belle and I married.”

Spike put his arms around his knees and turned his back on Big Mac.

“But at least you got to know them.” he responded muttering.

Big Mac scratched the back of his neck. He turned his head to Discord, asking him for help with his look. Discord nervously snapped his fingers. After the flash , he was wearing a red jacket, a yellow shirt with a brown bow tie, a pair of glasses and grey pants. In his lion paw, he was carring a dark green umbrella and took out a pocket watch with his eagle claw.

"Oh! Have you seen the hour? It´s so late! I must head out right now!"

Twiligth stomped a hoof in front of Discord, blocking his way out. She pointed Spike with her hoof, telling him without any words to say something to the depressed dragon.

"Need I to remind you this was your own idea?" said Big Mac to Discord.

The draconequus rolled his eyes.

"Fine! I´ll stay!" he reluctantly decided, as he made his outfit disappear.

He approached Spike´s bed and sat on it.

“Look Spike, I´m going to be honest with you: I wouldn´t be worried about this, if I were you. In fact, you´re really lucky. It´s much better not having parents.” said Discord.

“Discord!” Twilight scolded him.

“What? I´m just telling the truth! The only things that parents do is underestimate you, insult you and yell at you when don´t do things the way they want. They´re just losers who use their children to succeed in the things they failed before. It´s better to be on your own.”

“Discord stop it!” begged Twilight.

He was going to follow listing harmful things that parents do, but stopped when he saw Spike. The poor dragon was in the brink of tears. Discord bit his lip. He didn´t mean to make him feel worse.

“But of course… Not all parents are like that! I mean, look at Big Mac´s parents! What I´m saying is that you don´t need to know your real parents only to discover the bitter truth that they didn´t love you.”

Discord covered his mouth. He saw Twilight and Big Mac glaring at him. He facehoofed at his stupidity.

“I´m only making things worse, am I?”

“Well, duh!” Twilight said.

“We get it, Discord, you have parent issues!” Spike snapped.

Discord gave out a small gasp. He frowned.

“Listen here, you ungrateful lizard. Be grateful that you have a family that loves you instead of looking for one who might have never cared about you!”

“I AM A DRAGON!” yelled Spike as he opened his wings to fly higher than Discord. “Treat me like one! And don´t talk of my parents like that!”

“Ok. Spike. Discord. Stop it you two.” Twilight took the two with her magic and separated them to prevent them from fighting.

“Stay out of this, Twilight. I can´t let him to keep insulting my parents like that.”

“Come on Spike. You know how Discord is like. He didn´t mean to say that.”

Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Or at least he didn´t have a bad intention. Still, just ignore him.“ said Twilight to lessen the tension.

“Stop patronizing it, Twilight! I´m fed up with all of this. From the day I first interacted with a dragon, I´ve been laughed at, underestimated, and conned by them only because I lived with ponies. And now I am told that this is because my parents never loved me?”

“I..”

“If I had been raised by my real parents, I would have turned out to tough and rough and no creature would have ever treated me this way! But since I´ve been raised by ponies, I´m not taken seriously!”

“That´s not true, Spike.” denied Twilight, very hurt by Spike´s comment, which minimized Twilight´s work of raising up her little dragon.

“Not true, huh? It´s taken you years to consider me a little brother! Have I only been a servant to you before you did?”

Twilight gasped. From the shock, her horn stopped glowing, dropping Spike and Discord in the process. Spike stood up and turned his back on Twilight. She looked at Big Mac and Discord.

“Could you leave us alone for a few minutes?” she asked them.

The two friends nodded and disappeared in a finger snap. Once they were gone, Twilight approached Spike.

“Did you really think that ? All this time?”

“OF COURSE I HAVE! Can´t believe the you realize this now. So much for the princess of friendship.”

Twilight was in the border of tears. But before she burst out crying, she maintained her posture.

“Spike… I- I didn´t know you felt this way. I´m sorry.”

Spike scoffed.

“As if that would fix my feelings instantly.”

“I´m trying to apologize! What do you want me to do?” asked Twilight, desperate and starting to get a little angry.

Spike had a lot on his mind right now. So many emotions, so many thoughts mixed up I his head. He needed to clear his mind.

“I don´t know. Just… leave me alone.”

Spike tried to push Twilight out of his room, but she stood still, which made the task a little more difficult.

“No, no, Spike, it was never my intention to hurt you and I´m so sorry you felt that way. But I want you to know that I´ve always loved you.” she said while Spike was sitting on his bed and hugging his knees

“Leave. Me. Alone. Please.” begged Spike angrily as his eyes met with Twilight´s.

Twilight´s eyes widened. She couldn´t resist her urge to cry anymore. Just like Spike, she needed to let her emotions go. Tears streamed down her face as she talked.

“Fine! You can think whatever you want! But raising you up hasn´t been easy either. I never judged you when you started exploring your dragon side and I´ve been nothing but supportive.” she sniffed. “I spent whole nights searching about dragon culture, trying to help you to reconcile with yourself. And every time I didn´t find anything, guilt would eat my heart. You´re no the only one who suffers because of this, you know?” she sobbed. “And now seeing you victimizing yourself... Makes it feel that all this guilt was only for a selfish dragon!"

Her last words ripped off Spike´s heart. Now, his eyes were full of tears. He turned his head to Twilight.

“I hate you!” he yelled.

But then he quickly covered his mouth when he saw his sister´s face. There she stood, tears streaming down her face and falling to the ground. She lowered her head. None of them said a word for some time. Spike tried to approach her.

“Twilight…”

“Go away…” she replied softly.

“But-”

“I said GO AWAY!” she answered yelling. “Don´t bother to come with us tomorrow. I should have never taken you out of your egg!”

Those words hurt Spike more than the ones from before. He had the urge to yell but he was too tired to keep on fighting. He just wanted to end it.

“Fine!” he said. “I would have been much better without you!”.

“If you are so fine without me, then go away! I never want to see you again!”

Twilight closed Spike´s door abruptly. He stared at the door for some time, trying to digest those hurtful words. Of course she wasn´t serious when she said that! But once again, she underestimated him.

“Like always Twilight, you don´t know what I´m capable of. You never do.”

It was midnight. Everypony was asleep except for Spike. He was awake, preparing to set out. He had packaged all his things in a handkerchief and tied to a stick. He decided to leave the castle forever.

But before he did, he needed to make sure Twilight wasn´t awake. He opened his bedroom´s door slowly and flew towards Twilight´s room, trying to make the least noise as possible.

Once he found her door, he looked through the small space the door had left open. There she was. Sleeping on her bed. As she was towards the window, he couldn´t see her face.

When he saw her, he started to consider if this was really a good idea.

“This could hurt her.” the voice in his mind warned him.

But he refuted its arguments with other thoughts.

“Bah! She doesn´t want you here. She never has. Why else would she have said that?”

He dried some tears from his eyes and flew to the castle´s gates. He opened them and looked back to the castle´s corridor.

“Goodbye Twilight. I hope you do well. I really do.”

And he flew away.

Chapter 3: Regrets

Finally, morning arrived in Ponyville. Twilight opened her eyes exhaustingly. She didn´t sleep well.

Her argument with Spike gave her a lot to think about. On the one hoof, she felt guilty for making Spike feel bad, yet on the other hoof, a part of her tried to take out the blame.

“If he hadn´t told you those awful things, nothing of this would have happened.” she thought to herself. “He deserved to be yelled at.”

After a long night of pondering, Twilight made her mind.

“At morning, I´ll come to check him. Just to see if he´s fine.”

But now… it might be a little more complicated than she thought. She didn´t have enough energy to get up from bed. Nonetheless, if there´s something stronger than fatigue, it´s guilt. So, with all her strength, Twilight sat on her bed to stretch her muscles and got out from her bed.

She trotted to Spike´s room slowly. She stopped at the front of his door. She gulped, breathed in and out, and opened it slightly. She timidly leaned out her head to take a detailed glance of the look. Everything was normal… except for the fact that Spike wasn´t in his bed.

“Huh… That´s weird. Spike usually wakes up long after me.” she thought aloud.

However, she did some logical reasoning. Who could sleep that much after such argument?

“It´s normal that he woke up soon.”

Despite that, where was he?

“I´ll check the kitchen. He might be having breakfast.”

Unfortunately, he wasn´t in the kitchen.

“Maybe he´s in the other rooms?” she asked to herself.

She flew all around the castle as she yelled Spike´s name. He wasn´t in the castle either.

“This is odd.” she told to herself, starting to get more worried. “Spike would never leave the castle without telling me first. I´ll ask if anypony has seen him in Ponyville.”

She opened the gates wide and rushed to Ponyville. She looked in every corner, but there wasn´t a sign of him. Everypony she asked didn´t see him. Twilight could feel panic slowly taking over her mind. But she managed to control her anxiety to think clear. The last place she didn´t check was the School of Friendship. There´s still a chance that he´s there. She frowned in determination and flew to the school.

When she finally reached the school, she saw Starlight talking to Trixie and Sunburst. She felt relief when she saw somepony she could talk to.

“Starlight!”

The three unicorns looked up. Sunburst and Starlight gave Twilight a welcoming smile. Trixie showed some surprise when she saw the princess.

“Twilight! Just the pony I needed to see. Could you tell me where do you keep Ogers and Oubliettes? I have this great idea for the next -”

“Have you seen Spike?” Twilight asked while holding Starlight´s shoulder.

Starlight looked to her two friends confused. Trixie shrugged while shaking her head as if she was saying she didn´t know what was happening. Sunburst was equally confused.

“Um… No, I don´t remember seeing him. Have you seen him guys?” Starlight asked to Trixie and Sunburst.

“No, I don´t think so.” Sunburst replied.

“Nope.” answered Trixie.

“Where could he be? Where could he be?” Twilight thought aloud as she sat down.

“Hey, What´s wrong?” Starlight asked in concern.

“I can´t find Spike! He´s not in the castle, he´s not in Ponyville nor in the school… I´ve been searching for him around the whole castle and he´s nowhere!”

“How is it that he´s not with you?” Sunburst asked curiously.

Twilight sighed.

“It´s kind of a long story. I can´t tell you now. I need to find a reason why he-”

At that moment, words that Twilight said to Spike came to her mind.

“If you are so fine without me, then go away! I never want to see you again!”

That´s when it hit her. Could it be that Spike ran away from home because of what she said? She gasped.

“What if he fled?”

“What?” asked Starlight confused.

“I said what if he fled? I told him that I never wanted to see him again after all!”

Twilight felt the heavy weight of guilt in her heart. Starlight, Sunburst and Trixie gasped in shock.

“Wow. That´s something you don´t see every day.” Trixie whispered in Starlight´s ear.

“Did you two fight or something?” Starlight asked.

“Yes, we did.” Twilight admitted embarassed.

“Ok, calm down. Where do you think he could have gone?”

“I don´t know. To Rarity´s? I´m not so sure.”

“Now that I think about it, Rarity can´t be in her boutique. Weren´t you supposed to meet her at the train station?” Sunburst said while stroking

Twilight gasped.

“Oh, it´s true! I forgot!” she exclaimed, putting her hoof on her forehead. “Well, I´ll have to tell to Starswirl that our mission has to be postponed. This is an emergency that must be fixed inmediately!”

Without thinking it, Twilight spread out here wings and flew away, without saying goodbye to her three friends.

“She could have said goodbye at least.” Trixie complained.

“Starlight, the dragon pupil, what was her name?” Sunburst struggled to remember her name. “Ah! Smolder, yes.” he cleared his throat. “Is she still in the Dragonlands?”

“Unfortunately, yes. We can´t ask her.” Starlight sighed. “I wish we could help, but we have to resume classes. All we can do is hope that she finds him safe and sound.”

At the train station, the mane 6 were waiting for Twilight.

“What´s taking her so long?” asked Applejack.

“This is very weird. Normally Twilight is the first one to arrive. Especially now that Starswirl´s waiting for her.” Rarirty remarked.

“Maybe she´s twilighting.” Rainbow responded jokingly. She laughed a little. “Saame old Twilight.”

“Or something bad happened to her.” Fluttershy suggested. “Ooh… I hope she´s alright.”

“Dooon´t worry.” Pinkie told Fluttershy in response. “I see no big meanie monster or villain attacking Ponyville” she said as she stood in two legs on AJ´s back to get a better vision of the city on her balloon binoculars, ignoring her friend´s angry glance. “So nope, she hasn´t been eaten or assaulted!”

“More evidence to my hypothesis.” Rainbow added.

“Ugh… Now when we were making some progress.” Rarity rubbed her temple.

“If that´s the case, I bet she will appear in a “poof!”and will say that she needs our help to calm her down!” Pinkie bet.

Right after she finished talking, all what Pinkie said came true. Twilight appeared in a flash where Pinkie was standing, making her fall onto her back.

“I need your help!” Twilight exclaimed worried.

“Told ya!”

“What´s wrong, sugar cube?” AJ trotted towards Twilight.

“Rarity!” Twilight ran to Rarity. “Have you seen Spike?”

“No, darling. I thought he was with you. Where is he, by the way?”

“That´s the problem, I can´t find him!”

“Why? Were you playing hide and seek?” Pinkie asked while raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not, Pinkie!” Twilight yelled desperate. “I think- I think he has run away!”

The five friends gasped.

“What makes you think that?” Fluttershy asked sweetly.

Exhausted, Twilight sat on the ground with her head looking down in shame.

“Spike and I fought yesterday.”

“Well... I don´t really think that´s the reason he´s not in here. Big Mac and I have also fought a lot when we were younger, and sometimes we do argue due to our stubbornness nowadays. But it´s normal to fight from time to time. It´s part of siblinghood! Don´t you remember at Shining Armor´s wedding? You two argued!”

“But…”

“Yeah! Sweetie Belle and I have also had our fair share.”

“Same with Zephyr.”

“I never fought with my sisters.” Pinkie said estranged.

The girls turned their heads back to Pinkie with a frown on their faces.

“What we mean is that every sibling argues from time to time.” AJ recapped. “But in a few minutes, everything is normal again. So, none of us think it was because of that.”

“But I said some horrible things. Really horrible things.”

“Like what? It can´t be that bad.” Rainbow said carefreely.

“I told him I never wanted to see him again. That I should never have hatched him from his egg…”

Her five friends stayed silent with wide eyes.

“Ok, that´s some pretty heavy stuff.” admitted Rainbow.

Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie agreed.

“But why did you two fight?” Fluttershy asked.

“I think I might have an explanation for that…” a new voice joined in the conversation.

The girls´ ears perked up. They turned around to see Discord scratching the back of his neck.

“Discord!” exclaimed Fluttershy. “I thought you were taking care of the Animal Sanctuary.” she tilted her head.

“I was I swear! But… I had a bad feeling about Spike, so… I decided that I´d visit Twilight and Spike but none of you were in the castle. And now I found you here! I heard every word.” He quickly turned to Fluttershy. “Don´t worry about your animals, Fluttershy, I put them a sleep spell so none of them would make any trouble, if that´s alright with you, my dear.”

“Hmm.. I´m not so sure what to say about that…”

“It won´t affect them at any stand, I swear. When they wake up, they will be bouncing, eating, and all the normal stuff that animals do.”

“Hmm… Ok.”

Fluttershy and Discord smiled at each other.

“Something tells me you had something to do with this, Discord.” Applejack pointed her hoof at him.

“I won´t lie to the Element of Honesty, yes I did. But let me explain: Twilight asked us to support Spike, even though Guy´s night was cancelled. We accepted and we came to her castle. It took some time to make him talk, but he eventually told us what was wrong: It was Dragon´s Father´s Day. Although I was telling the truth about parents, I do admit that maybe I shouldn´t have said those things to him.”

He laughed nervously.

Fluttershy had a look of worry on her face, while Pinkie and Rarity cringed and Applejack and Rainbow facehoofed. Twilight was still looking down.

“Of course it was Discord´s fault.” muttered Rainbow.

“I heard you!” exclaimed Discord. “I´m sorry, ok? But I want to make clear that I did not want this to happen, which is exactly why I come to help.”

“I must find him. I need to apologize!” Twilight told her friends.

“But what about Stasrwirl?” intervened Rarity. “You promised him that you would help him.”

“I´m afraid that this is an emergency. I´ll write him a letter.”

“No need to!” Discord exclaimed.

Immediately after, Discord snapped his fingers. In the blinking of an eye, Starswirl appeared out of nowhere. He looked around him perplexed.

“Discord!” Twilight rose her voice at him. “That wasn´t necessary!”

“It´s an emergency, isn´t it? If you had written Starswirl a letter, it would have taken a lot of time for him to receive it, now that Spike isn´t here.”

Twilight was going to replicate, but after listening to Discord, she thought about it twice. He was right. Sending him a letter would be a huge waste of time. She needed to fix this as soon as possible. There wasn´t time for this.

“What? What am I doing here?” the old wizard asked.

“I´ll explain you.” Twilight replied as she walked to him. “But first, can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

Starswirl nodded and followed behind Twilight.

“I´m afraid we´ll have to postpone the mission.”

Starswirl´s eyes widened in surprise.

“Why? What happened?”

“Spike´s missing. I´ll tell you what happened in a letter once this is solved, I can´t right now. I must find him immediately!”

“Did you two fight?” he asked sadly.

Twilight sighed sadly.

“Yes. Please, I don´t want to tell you the details right now, ok? I´m not in the mood. So, if it doesn´t bother you, do you mind if we look for Scorpan another day?”

Starswirl stroke his beard in thought. He took some time to answer, rising the nerves inside Twilight´s body. Once he was done thinking, he stopped stroking his beard.

“Fine. On one condition, though.”

“Tell me.”

“Let me come with you.”

Now it was Twilight´s eyes that were widened.

“What?!”

“This is exactly the same thing that happened between Scorpan and I, and when I finally got enough courage to apologize to him, I asked you for help and without thinking it twice you accepted. I think it´s fair enough that I do the same. I´m not so sure if I can help you to reconcile with him, but I think that I can lend a hoof on the search. So… Can I help you?”

Twilight´s eyes filled with joy, thankfulness and hope. She quickly surrounded him with her wings.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“I´ll write the pillars and Stygian a letter to warn them that our plans are cancelled. If we are lucky enough, they could lend us a hoof.”

Discord rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Why are you so determined to send letters rather than summon them?” he asked as he snapped his fingers.

The pillars and Stygian appeared in a flash. They looked around, estranged to find themselves all of the sudden in a new place.

“How did we get here?” Rockhoof asked.

“Discord brought you here.” Applejack explained.

“But why? Didn´t we all agree to meet at Somnambula?” asked Mage Meadowbrook, scratching her temple and tilting her head.

“Could somepony explain what´s going on?” Flash Magnus demanded frustrated.

“My friends.” Starswirl addressed the pillars. “You´ve been summoned here for something important. As you know, we owe so much to Princess Twilight Sparkle for getting us out of Limbo, and for bringing back Stygian with us.”

Stygian smiled in agreement.

“But now, she needs our help. Do you remember her little dragon, Spike?”

The pillars nodded.

“Well, he´s missing.”

Stygian gasped. The pillars were shocked as well.

“When she told me what happened, I decided to help her. Like I said before, Twilight has helped me a lot. It´s time I return the favour. So, what do you say? Will you help us on this quest?

“Aye!” exclaimed Rockhoof.

“Count me in.” replied Flash Magnus.

“Of course.” Answered Somnambula.

Meadowbrook and Stygian nodded.

“I would love to.” Said Mistmane. “But what about your old friend, Starswirl? Didn´t you desiremore than anything to reconcile with him?”

Starswirl put his hoof on the back of his neck.

“I don´t think he wants to see me that much. I´m sure it can wait.”

“Ohooh! How exciting! Going on adventure with my friends and ancient figures? I´m in!” yelled Discord excitedly as he took all the Pillars and Stygian in a hug.

Fluttershy giggled at her friend´s excitedness. The others shook their heads while smirking. Starswirl stared at Discord. Something was familiar about him but he didn´t know why. Was this the first time he sees a creature like that?

“So where are we going?” asked Meadowbrook, making Starswirl come back to reality.

Twilight put her hoof on her chin.

“The Everfree Forest is the perfect place to run away. There might be a chance he´s there. Come on!”

As fast as she made her horn glow, everypony disappeared.

Sunshine woke Spike up from his sleep. Despite having slept a lot of time, he didn´t feel rested at all. It had been a very long night for him. As he walked through the dark and mysterious forest, he debated whether this was a good idea or not. What would Twilight feel? Was this truly worth it? Yet his stubbornness told him to go on with the plan. So much time was spent ruminating that without realizing it, he fell asleep in the middle of the forest.

After opening his eyes, he incorporated quickly and gasped.

“Morning already?” he asked to himself.

Even though his muscles ached, Spike got up, took his things, and continued flying.

“Ok. You´re going to need a place to stay. Maybe I could go to the Dragonlands?”

Spike shook his head.

“But how would I explain Smolder and Ember? Hmm… If I asked Zecora to saty at her place, she would also ask for explanations. But I don´t know where else to stay! Aargh!”

In front of him was a small pond. He stopped flying and sat by its edges.

“Why did I think this was a good idea? Whyyy?”

He covered his face with his claws.

“Because you are a dragon and not a meek pony!” a voice said.

Spike uncovered his face quickly, perking his ears in surprise. He looked around to find the source of the voice.

“Down here.” the voice indicated.

Spike looked at the pond. He saw his reflection, but it didn´t have his sad expression. Instead, it was wearing a malicious smile on his face.

“Didn´t you say that you wanted to be taken seriously?”

“Well, yes but-“

“But what? All those ponies have done is prevent you to be a true dragon. As you said, if you had been raised by dragons, every creature would never doubt you!”

“I didn´t mean it seriously…”

“Oh really? Then why are here and not with Twilight?” the voice replied, putting sarcasm when it mentioned Twilight.

Spike hugged his knees.

“Anger drove me here.” he answered sadly.

“And why did anger drive you here?”

Spike sighed.

“I don´t know. But something tells me that I shouldn´t have told Twilight those things.”

“NO! You were expressing your true feelings! You don´t need those ponies.”

Spike stood up and spread his wings.

“Yes, I do! They´re my family! I don´t know why I listened to my anger.” he said as he took his things and prepared to set out.

“Go ahead! Try to return. Don´t know if you remembered what Twilight said.”

Spike stopped walking. He turned his head to the pond. His reflection changed to Twilight. She was angry, and tears were falling down her face. Spike´s soul fell when he recognized it was a memory from their argument.

“No…” he whispered.

“If you are so fine without me, go away! I never want to see you again!” the memory yelled. “I never should have taken out of your egg.”

Spike breathed heavily. He covered his ears.

“She didn´t say it seriously. She didn´t say it seriously!”

“She doesn´t love you. Not anymore.” Spike´s reflection sentenced.

“She said it because I was being selfish!” Spike denied.

“But don´t you see? Being selfish is part of being a dragon! Dragons only think on themselves.”

“That´s not true! Look at Ember, Smolder, even Garble! He is changing his ways.”

“Those dragons are affected by pony ways! Just like you. What are you? A pony or a dragon?”

“I DON´T KNOW!” Spike yelled with all his strength.

He looked at the pond. He gasped when he saw his normal reflection. Everything had been part of his mind. He spread some tears on the pond.

“Not a pony, not a dragon. All I know, is what I´m not…”

He broke down crying.

“I can´t go back, not after what I´ve done.” He sobbed.

Spike´s crying was interrupted by some hoofsteps. His ears perked. A chill ran through his spine. From those hoofsteps that he was not alone. Feeling in danger, Spike untied the handkerchief where he was carrying his essentials from the stick and took it as if it was a weapon. He strolled around his surroundings to find the intruder. He last checked under a cliff. He sighed relieved when he saw no danger around him. But just after he turned around, he bumped into a small zebra filly.

“Gah!” he yelped scared as he jumped back.

From the scare, he dropped the stick and hit his head against the cliff. He massaged it, clenching his teeth a pain.

“Ouch! How did you get here?”

Immediately after, the filly put her hoof on Spike´s mouth to shush him.

“Shh! We´re not alone, you know?” she said in a low voice.

“What do you mean?” he asked in the same tone.

“Where in the tarnation is that zebra?” a raspy voice wondered.

When the zebra heard that voice she gasped and leaned against the rock. She breathed at a quick pace.

“Don´t knooow. If you ooonly had listened to what I saaaaid.” A goat-like voice replicated.

“Don´t blame me! She wasss to fasssst!” another voice replied in defense.

Spike looked up. Those voices came from a chimera. A hungry chimera, it seemed, since the tiger licked her lips as she complained.

“Thanks to you, we won´t be having breakfast today!”

It was then when he understood the situation.

“They want to eat you, don´t they?”

The zebra rolled her eyes.

“It´s really obvious even to the oblivious. If you don´t stay quiet, we´ll be part of their diet.”

“Sshe might have climbed down the cliff.” suggested the snake head. “Let´ssss sssee if that´sss true.”

The tiger head and the goat head nodded. They started jumping down to the flat surfaces the cliff had to offer.

“They´re coming!” the zebra exclaimed in a whisper, trying to suppress the panic in her voice. “Ow.. It´s useless to run, they´ll catch me in a jump! Unless…”

She stared at Spike for a few seconds, which made him a bit uncomfortable.

“What?” he asked nervously.

“Of course, I was blinded by stress! You can spit fire!”

“Oh! Right.” he agreed.

“There she is!” exclaimed the chimera.

Both Spike and the zebra widened their eyes. They looked up, and saw the chimera smiling in victory. It jumped in front of them. Slowly, the predator approached its prey.

“There´s no scape now. What you´re gonna do?” the tiger head asked.

“No, you´re wrong my foe.” the zebra replied back proudly. There´s still hope for me, even though you disagree.”

“Oooh.. Whyyy do you say so?” the goat head asked tauntingly.

“I have a fearsome dragon!”

Spike flew beneath the chimera to intimidate it. However, the chimera didn´t seem impressed. Despite trying to hold it, they burst out laughing.

“That? You call that a fearssssome dragon?” the snake asked between laughs. “He´s too small!”

Spike blushed in embarrassment. He looked at his wings. No matter the fact that he had grown them, he will always be too small for any creature´s standards.

His zebra friend, however, didn´t seem to give up on him.

“Respect for him you require, for he can spit fire.”

It was then when the chimera´s laughs stopped.

“What?!” it yelled.

They looked up at Spike in fear. Spike smirked.

“Not so cocky now, huh?” he thought.

He inspired deeply. He was ready to let the fire inside him go. However, things didn´t seem to go as he had expected. Instead of fire, he let out a cough with some smoke.

Both, the chimera and the little zebra, were genuinely surprised.

Spike tried to spit fire again, but his attempt was in vain. He coughed smoke and almost choked with it. Anxiety slowly took over his mind.

“No, not again, not now. Please..” he thought aloud while holding his chest.

Once again, the chimera burst out laughing.

“Smoke? You can only cough smoke? Ha ha ha!” the tiger head teased.

“Sooo much for a draaaagon!”

“Disssapointing and funny at the sssame time!”

While the three heads commented how pathetic Spike was, the small dragon landed on the ground hyperventilating next to the zebra filly.

“I-I´m so sorry, but now I can´t spit fire. I´m not so sure why-” he said between his fast breaths.

The zebra put her hoof on his mouth.

“Less conversation and more action.” she replied, looking at the horizons.

At first, Spike didn´t understand her. But after seeing where her eyes were pointing at, everything was clearer. The chimera was distracted talking about his fail and not paying attention to them. It was a perfect moment to escape. They smiled at each other.

“Ok ok ok. I have an idea: What if we eat the dragon too?” the tiger head suggested.

“Great ideeea!” the goat head agreed.

“The zebra for lunch and the dragon for dinner.” The snake part added.

The three parts laughed together but the snake stopped abruptly.

“Hey, did we order our lunch and dinner to go?” the snake asked.

“Nooo, whyyy?”

“CAUSE THERE THEY GOO!”

Spike flew as fast as he could, holding the zebra by her forelegs.

“Sorry if I´m flying close to the ground, but a dragon needs to be free of weights if he wants to fly in the sky.”

“Even though I wanted to reprimand you, surviving is the thing we should do.” she looked behind her. The chimera was running behind them. “Fly faster my friend, this can´t be our end!”

“I´m trying!”

The chimera was very near the zebra. It opened its mouths to catch her, but it tripped over a rock, making Spike winning some time and advantage.

Spike was struggling to keep on flying but his wings were aching. It must be because he had been flying the whole night. He saw a tall tree. Maybe they could rest and hide in there. He first left the zebra on a branch and then he sat next to her.

The chimera was already bellow them.

“Great, we lost them! Thanks to you!” the tiger pointed at the goat.

“Dooon´t blame at me. You shouuuld have been paaaying attention toooo!”

The snake looked around. Between the leaves of a tree, he saw stripes of black and white and something purple too. There they were.

“Stop arguing you fools. They are in that tree!”

The goat and tiger squinted their eyes to get a better view of the tree. The snake was right.

“I think we´ve been discovered.” Spike mumbled.

“Indeed we´ve been.” the zebra agreed, leaning against the tree.

The chimera licked its lips and jumped to the branch where they were resting. Luckily, Spike was fast enough to catch his new friend before she was eaten. As they both were looking behind, the chimera caught them by surprise standing right in front of them.

“Boo!”

The two friends yelled from the scare. The chimera laughed and closed its mouths to get them. Once again, they dodged the attack. Spike knew they couldn´t go on like this. The chimera was too fast, he was too tired to keep on holding the zebra. She was slowing him down. It would get them both in no time. He stopped flying at the edge of a cliff.

“Why did you stop?” the zebra asked somewhat upset.

“I think it´s better if we go in different ways.”

“For that I´m not going to hop!”

“Think about it! If I´m not carrying you, we could take different paths and confuse the chimera, having more chances of survival.”

He was right. It was better that way. Even a small wise zebra like her couldn´t deny it.

Suddenly the chimera was very close again. Without thinking it, Spike dropped the zebra. As it caught her by surprise, she yelled scared. Fortunately, they weren´t too far from the ground, and the little zebra landed on a big stone at the top of a small hill. Her weight moved the stone across the hill. She held on tight to it and made it safely to the ground. Then, she ran away begging for help with her screams.

“Papa! Papa!”

Spike, however, wasn´t as lucky. As the zebra descended the hill, the tiger scratched his wing while he was flying. He yelled in pain. The tiger pushed him against the ground.

“We´ve got you…” it teased.

Nonetheless, Spike wasn´t willing to give up yet. Even though he failed before, he decided to try to spit fire. Much to his surprise, it worked. The chimera tried to protect itself, freeing him for a moment. He went down the hill and ran with all his energy. In the while, he massaged his wing. He stopped running abruptly when he saw a big rock blocking his way out. He turned around and saw the chimera approaching. Spike had nothing else to do, even if he wanted to. He was very weak, and was feeling very dizzy to defend himself.

“Well, well, it appearsss you´re at a dead end, my friend.” The snake said sarcastically. She then chuckled.

“Aaany last words?” the goat asked cruelly.

But before Spike could say anything, someone else spoke for him.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!”

Instanttly, the chimera was attacked by another creature. Spike couldn´t tell what the creature was, since his vision was blurry, however, he could see a big, brown silhouette and a smaller white and black silhouette behind. The only way he knew what was happening was by hearing their conversation after the brown silhouette tackled the chimera against the ground. Its three heads were complaining in pain.

“Hey! Please, please, calm down! Calm down!” the tiger begged

“SILENCE!” the brown silhouette demanded, with his voice deep and regal.

For some reason, that voice was familiar to Spike, even though it was the first time he heard it.

“Ok, we´re gonna shut up right now!” the snake agreed.

“We´re reeeally sorry!” the goat apologized nervously.

“If you ever come near my daughter and her friend again-“

The three fused creatures widened their eyes.

“Oh! This isss- This isss your daughter?” asked the snake sweting.

“Yours?” the tiger asked genuinely surprised.

The two of them laughed nervously.

“None of us knew that, we swear!” the tiger said, begging for forgiveness. “Right?” he asked along the snake to the goat.

The goat simply bleated.

“GO AWAY!”

The chimera directly obeyed and left running. The black and white silhouette ran behind and raspberried and laughed in victory.

After that, Spike fainted. As he did so, he moaned, alerting the two creatures of his presence. Even though his vision was black, he could still hear their voices.

“To home we must roam. His heart is pure, he deserves a cure!” a familiar female voice said.

The last thing Spike heard were the words spoken by the deep and regal voice

“It´s gonna be ok, little one. It´s gonna be ok.”

Chapter 4: Arising hopes

“Spiiiiike! Spiiike!” Twilight yelled aloud.

“Spikey-wikey! Spikey wikey!” Rarity also called out his name.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Starswirl, Stygian, Rockhoof, Mage Meadowbrook and Mistmane were by the unicorn´s and alicorns´ side.

So far, their search hadn´t been successful. No matter how much they yelled or walked, Spike wasn´t anywhere. Despite having been seeking for hours, Twilight wasn´t going to give up. Her little brother was her main priority. More important than eating or resting.

Her eyes filled with hope when she saw Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Somnambula and Flash Magnus flying in the sky.

“Did you find anything?” she asked anxiously.

“We looked throughout the whole forest.” Fluttershy replied.

“But there´s no sign of him.” Rainbow followed.

“But we´re willing to search again if necessary.” Flash Magnus added, raising his hoof on his forehead.

“If we are lucky, maybe the draconequus has found anything.”

After Somnambula said that, Discord appeared in a flash next to the pegasi.

“My name´s Discord, ma´am. You don´t have to name my species name everytime. As for Spike… No news.” he informed.

“Couldn´t you snap your fingers and take us to where he is?” asked Stygian.

“First, I need to know his location, genius!” Discord snapped back.

After Discord´s reaction, Stygian decided not to ask him more questions.

Twilight sighed.

“It´s ok.”

She looked down to the floor.

“Twilight.” Applejack approached to Twilight. “I´m as concerned about Spike as you, but I think you need to rest. You haven´t eaten anything!”

“I´m not hungry.”

Starswirl patted Twilight´s back.

Rockhoof stroked his beard. He gasped when he came up with an idea.

“Remember that time I was looking for my place in Equestria? Because I remember that I had to deliver something to a zebra that lived in the Everfree forest. Maybe we could stop there to rest and ask her if she has seen your dragon?” he suggested.

“I think that´s a great idea.” Meadowbrook agreed.

Although they didn´t say a word, Twilight saw in their faces that they wanted to rest desperately. Although would rather keep on searching, she was also worried about her friends. After all, they made the sacrifice to help her on this long search. With no choice, she accepted.

“I.. guess we can stop for a moment.” she simply said.

Everypony sighed in relief. Even though they were eager to help Spike, they were very tired. So having something to eat and rest their hooves was a blessing.

As they were heading to Zecora´s house, Starswirl accompanied Twilight.

“I´m so sorry about what happened.” he told her sadly.

Twilight sighed sadly.

“It´s not your fault.”

“I know this won´t help much, but I´m one hundred percent sure that you´ll find your little dragon,. If Stygian, my comrades, and I could come back after a thousand years, I´m sure Spike will also return. Even though it might take a while, at least it won´t be thousands of years!”

Twilight gave out a little smile. She looked at the sky reflexive, staying quite for some time.

“You told me that Spike was like Scorpan in some way. Were they close in personality?” she asked curiously.

Starswirl nodded.

“Celestia and Luna were very young by the time he came. He was close to their age, so he acted in an inexperienced way. He got so nervous when he had to talk to somepony.” he chuckled at the memories. “But much like your young dragon, he was always willing to help every creature, and despite his shyness, he made friends easily. And most importantly, he was the most loyal creature I´ve ever met, which I mentioned when I talked about him in our meeting. No matter what, he always stood on a loved one´s side. Unfortunately, that couldn´t be possible when his brother was blinded by greed. But at least he was loyal to what he thought was right, and if I´m lucky enough, he´s still loyal to me.”

Twilight thought about it. Spike was also always by her side, even when she fought with her friends. Spike was her most loyal friend.

“Spike´s is a good dragon.” Starswirl continued. “He´ll stay in that path. You are good Twilight, so he´ll eventually stick to you. You are his path.”

Twilight drew a happier smile in her face. She hugged Starswirl.

“Thank you.”

She giggled a little.

“You know? It´s just a silly thought, but… what if Spike and Scorpan are connected? The same way our elements are connected! Or how the rest of the pillars are connected to my friends. The same with Starlight and Stygian.”

Starswirl smiled warmly at Twilight.

“Maybe.” he said.

He put a hoof on her shoulder.

“We´ll find him. I promise.”

“Guys! Guys! I see Zecora´s house from afar!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly.

Somnambula, who was flying next to Rainbow Dash, saw a treehouse beneath her.

“Is that your friend´s house?” she asked, pointing at the treehouse.

Rainbow Dash nodded. The two pegasi landed next to her friends, Somnambula near Meadowbrook.

“It looks like your house.” she told her. “I reckon you two are going to be good friends.”

Meadowbrook blushed.

Zecora served everypony some soup, helped by Meadowbrook, who also assisted her on cooking.

“So.” Zecora said to Twilight, trying to understand the problem. “Spike and you had a dispute, which caused him to flee and leave you confused. If I´m not wrong, you suspect that into the Everfree forest he has gone.”

Twilight nodded.

“Have you seen him?” Applejack asked.

“I´m afraid not.” Zecora answered sadly, while shaking her head.

“Wow. He must have crossed the whole forest by this point. He isn´t anywhere!” Rainbow commented, looking at Applejack before taking a spoonful of soup.

“If that´s the case, that dragon sure has a lot of stamina! I mean, he must have been the whole night awake!” Flash Magnus added.

Somnambula and Rockhoof nodded in agreement.

“Poor Spikey Wikey!” said Rarity. “He must be tired, so hungry and alone!”

Her eyes turned into the ones of a puppy.

“Don´t worry, dear.” Mistmane reassured Rarity. “As Flash has mentioned, Spike is a tough dragon despite his size.”

“I wonder why that is.” Starswirl said, taking a glance at Twilight.

Twilight smiled a little.

“I agree with Mistmane.” Fluttershy commented. “Besides, the forest is friendlier than before. I don´t think he´ll face much danger.”

Discord nodded in agreement.

“He still needs to be careful.” Zecora warned her. “Being alone in the forest is quite stressful. Specially when a chimera is roaming around.”

Everypony gasped. Twilight bit her lip nervously. Pinkie, who drank all the soup in a gulp, spit it all away.

“Please tell me it´s not the same chimera that tried to eat my sister.” Applejack begged

“Forget what I just said.” Fluttershy muttered.

“Well, maybe it´s just roaming around.” suggested Pinkie, trying to look on the bright side. “Just because it´s around here, doesn´t mean it´s hungry!”

“I´m afraid that´s not case.” corrected Zecora. “He must have not eaten in days, which would be the reason why he ended up in this place. A hungry chimera is dangerous.”

“Ha!” Discord laughed aloud. “He might be bigger than Spike, but when it comes to intelligence... Let´s just say that for having three brains it´s not very bright.”

Fluttershy giggled at Discord´s commentary.

“Besides, he´s a darn dragon! With just oneflame, I repeat, one flame! The chimera runs away. He doesn´t need to burn it.”

“From what Ember told us, in order to do that, a dragon needs to be in good conditions. And I´m pretty sure that Spike hasn´t slept the whole night…” Stygian contradicted.

Discord shrugged.

“I still think he can handle it.”

“But imagine if he´s unconscious. The chimera could take a chance to attack or eat him.” said Meadowbrook.

Twilight got more nervous the more her friends talked about Spike. Every possibility was wondering throughout her mind. She was truly worried about her little brother.

“Why did I tell him that? Why?!” she thought desperate.

She was about to have a panic attack. All that she wanted to do was to run away to cry somewhere her friends didn´t see her. But bursting out in tears and panicking wouldn´t help. So, before she exploded, she begged to stop talking and follow the search.

“Can we just-“ she inspired before continuing. “Can we keep searching for him, please? I don´t feel quite comfortable talking about what could happen while he´s out there alone.”

Everypony stared at her, feeeling a bit guilty for saying those things around her.

“Actually, you´re right.” Applejack said apologetically. “We´re sorry.”

“What´s more, I don´t know about you, but after having a beauty rest, I have more energy. I think we can continue our search.” Rarity confidently got up from her seat.

Everypony agreed by nodding.

“I know you´ve been to the forest before, but to save you from a carnivore, I think I can serve as a guide. That´s of course if you don´t mind.” Zecora added

“Any help is accepted.” Meadowbrook said, holding Zecora´s hoof.

“Off to the forest!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Everypony left Zecora´s treehouse. As they did so, Twilight looked at the sky, thinking about Spike.

“Don´t wory, Spike. I´ll find you. I´ll take you home.”

Spike opened his eyes slowly. At first, his vision was blurry, however, after some time, it turned clear. He found himself in a different location. It seemed like the inside of an old cottage. Its walls were made of wood, the roof were various sticks attached together. As he glanced around the room, he saw a familiar figure. It was a small zebra filly stirring something with a spoon on a bigger pot than her. That was the reason why she stood on a tall stool. She was familiar to Spike but he couldn´t remember why. His head ached so much to do so.

Since he felt too nervous to talk to the zebra, he tried to pretend he was asleep, just in case she turned around. But a small drop of water fell on his nose, making him sneeze and call the zebra´s attention.

“Oh, I see you´re awake after a much deserved break.”

Spike rubbed his nose.

“What do you mean?”

The zebra kept some liquid in a bottle.

“It´s a pretty long story, I´ll tell you, don´t worry. It all began when I was being chased by a chimera, a creature from an ancient era. I was lucky enough to find you, because at that moment I had a creature to look up to. But you made yourself look like a fool.”

“What? Why?”

“Fire is your tool, isn´t it? You couldn´t use it!”

The image that the zebra described came to Spike´s memory. All the embarrassment that moment brought came back quickly to him. He looked down in shame.

“But to me you were very brave.” she said to make him feel better.

Spike upheld his head.

“Since I was slowing you down in your flight, you suggested to go on separate ways, and you were right! Thanks to your wise advice, we got out alive!”

Spike slightly blushed.

“Next time make sure that you don´t turn yourself into a bait. And check you wing if you don´t want it to aggravate.”

Spike widened his eyes. Then, he quickly looked at his left wing. He shivered when he remembered how sharp the tiger´s claws were.

“Don´t remind me that please.”

The zebra covered her giggle.

“The chimera had you at its claws. But according to nature´s laws, they weren´t the strongest creature. That´s because he came into adventure!”

Spike remembered a big brown silhouette attacking the chimera but the image in his mind wasn´t very detailed, as his vision was blurry at the time.

“That brown thing, right?”

The zebra nodded.

“Then, you became unconscious. Since I was a little anxious, we took you here to heal you.”

She approached Spike, carrying a tray with her mouth. She left it in front of him to open the bottle and spill some liquid on a cup.

“Drink.” she ordered.

Spike took the cup.

“What is this?” he smelt the scent it released. He wrinkled his face in disgust. “It doesn´t smell really nice.”

“Your medicine.”

He smelt the scent it released. He wrinkled his face in disgust.

“It doesn´t smell really nice.”

“I don´t care what you think. You should take that in.” she advised firmly. “It will help you recover your energies.”

Spike doubted for a second.

“Do I really have to?”

The zebra growled as she frowned.

“Never mind.” he gave out a sheepish smile.

He gulped before drinking. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and drank the medicine. It tasted as horribly as it smelt. Even though the urge to spit it was huge, he swallowed it slowly. He still tasted its awful flavour in his mouth, which gave him nausea, but he retained it inside. He sighed defeated. The little zebra laughed.

“I know it doesn´t taste good, but you have to get better by any means. Now that you´re in the mood, what´s your name?”

“Spike.”

“Mine´s Punja. I want you ask you something, mind ya?”

“Go ahead.” Spike accepted.

“Why were you alone in the forest?”

Spike fidgeted his fingers nervously.

“It´s ok if you don’t want to tell.” she said to calm him down. “Some creatures prefer to stay in their shell.”

Spike sighed as he put his arms around his legs.

“I had a fight with my family.”

Punja clenched her teeth.

“Oh..” she muttered.

“I told my older sister horrible things and she also did in response. I don´t blame her, though. It´s all my fault, I let all my anger on her. I want to go back, but…. I don´t know if she still loves me after doing such thing.”

“Of course!” Punja exclaimed confidently, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “Love is a great force. It has the power to forgive every creature. I admire dragon´s nature, I must say. You must have been flying for days, am I right? To come from the Dragonlands to here… That´s a pretty long flight!”

“Actually…” Spike interjected. “I come from Ponyville…”

Punja widened her eyes in surprise.

“How so?”

Spike massaged his temples.

“How is it that I always have to tell a stranger my biography…” he mumbled frustrated. “Um… You see… I have been raised by ponies.”

Punja blinked.

“Ok.” She simply said.

“Wait. You´re not surprised?”

“I was raised by a gargoyle myself, so that´s not a surprise itself.”

“A gargoyle?”

Their conversation was interrupted when a creature opened the door. Both Spike and the creature stared at each other for some time. Spike observed his monkey-like face and body and his leonile tale and mane. It was then he remembered Twilight´s description of Tirek´s younger brother.

“He´s a brown gargoyle. There are various types of gargoyles but from the pictures Celestia and Luna showed me, he looks like a mixture of a monkey and a lion.”

He looked exactly like Twilight had described him! If that creature was really Scorpan, he could help Twilight. That could bring a smile again after the horrible thing he´s done. He jumped excitedly from the bed, flapping his wings.

“I know who you are!” he exclaimed while pointing at the newcomer.

Immediately after, he complained in pain. He shouldn´t have flapped his wings like that, considering that one of them is hurt.

“When one is sick, they need to rest, not jump like a baby bird trying to leave the nest!” Punja scolded Spike.

“Hold up, hold up.” the creature said while waving his hands. “You know who I am?”

“You´re Scorpan! Tirek´s brother.”

Scorpan closed his eyes while sighing, his heart aching at the memory of having to betray his own brother. Spike covered his own mouth.

“Sorry, I shouldn´t have been too cheerful about that. But it´s just I´m surprised and relieved to see you here. I thought you were the king of the Kingdom of Midnight.”

Both Scorpan and Punja bit their lips.

“My kingdom… is no more.”

“What?”

“It was destroyed, ok?” he said, getting nervous just by remembering it. “Look. I don´t want to talk about it.” Scorpan answered, trying desperately to change the conversation.

“But Starswirl is going to the Kingdom of Midnight to see you!” Spike protested.

Scorpan and Punja gasped.

“No way…” mumbled Punja.

“S-Starswirl?” Scorpan asked stuttering. “I- It can´t be! It´s been a thousand years. He must be dead by now!”

“Wrong again, my friend. Not so long after you left, Starswirl and the pillars confronted the Pony of Shadows, and for that they were trapped in Limbo. But thanks to Twilight and her friends, they were brought back to Equestria, but the Pony of Shadows also returned. It turned out that the Pony of Shadows was Stygian an old friend of the pillars, who took their artefacts to be as powerful as them, but Starswirl mistakenly thought he stole them, casting him out and causing him to become the Pony of Shadows. And just when we were about to throw him back to Limbo, Stygian tried to get out of his shadow, But luckily Twilight, her friends and the pillars sent the shadow away and freed Stygian. So yeah, all the pillars are pretty much alive by this point. Any questions?”

Scorpan was perplexed and confused. Punja, on the other hand seemed to have loved the story.

“Huh.” Scorpan simly said. He couldn´t say more words due to his confussion and shock.

“I need to go to Equestria!” Punja exclaimed excitedly.

Scorpan knelt to talk to Spike´s level.

“So, you say he wants to talk to me?”

Spike nodded. Scorpan scoffed.

“You´ve gotta be kidding me.”

“What?” asked Spike annoyed. “Do you think I made all this up?”

“No, no! Many crazy things have happened during Equestria´s history, so this is not too far-fetched. What I don´t believe is that he wants to talk to me.”

“Well, he does. He came to Twilight, the princess of friendship, to ask her to help him look for you.”

“But why?”

“To apologize.”

“Impossible.” Scorpan said while shaking his head.

“This is getting more and more interesting as it goes. Just like how the wind blows.” mumbled Punja, quite invested in the news.

“Believe me! Twilight has made him change a lot. He´s more tolerant and forgiving than he was before.”

Scorpan sat on the ground. He put his arms around his knees. He looked down.

“He clearly stated that he never wanted to see me again. I don´t blame him, though. I didn´t tell him the entire truth about me.”

“The fact that you were Tirek´s brother and you were helping him steal magic, am I right?”

Scorpan nodded sadly.

“Well, at least he wants you back. I´m not sure if that´s also my case…”

Scorpan´s ears perked up.

“What happened?”

Spike sighed as he put his arms around his legs.

“I had a fight with my sister.”

Scorpan bit his lip.

“Yeah… I know how it feels. Did she send you away?”

“What? No! I ran away.”

Scorpan and Punja looked at each other.

“You two must have fought really hard.” Scorpan said.

Spike nodded.

“It´s all my fault. If only I hadn´t told her that hated her, she wouldn´t have yelled at me.” he sighed sadly. “If you went to the Kingdom of Midnight and made amends with Stasrwirl, she would be so happy.”

“What about you?” asked Scorpan.

“I´m sure she´s much better without me. It´s better if I didn´t come. I don´t deserve to see her after what I´ve done. I just-” Spike sniffed. “I just want to make her happy. I don´t care if she doesn´t forgive me. Her well-being is more important.”

Scorpan wrapped Spike with his wing.

“What you did to her was not as bad as what I did to Tirek. I had to betray him. A betrayal is way worse than an argument. An argument is just a sibling thing. You hate each other for some time after arguing, but minutes later you apologize and love each other again. Besides, from what you´ve told me, your sister seems to have a heart of gold. Those who are good-hearted are always willing to forgive.”

He dried his tears with his fingers.

“What I told you exactly.” Punja said as she elbowed Spike softly, making smile slightly.

“Besides, now that Starswirl´s willing to make amends, maybe I should take that chance now. I also miss my dear old friend a lot. And much like you, it would have never come up to my mind that he would be willing to be my friend again. Sure, the idea of returning to my destroyed kingdom isn´t very appealing, but hey, everything for Stasrwirl.”

“Woo! Sign me up too!” Punja added.

Scorpan got up and left the house. Spike and Punja followed behind. Scorpan was waiting for them outside, standing in four legs. He opened his wing so that they could ride in his back. Punja was the first to climb on his back.

“Let´s hope I remember the path to my kingdom.” Scorpan chuckled.

He observed that Spike was still on the ground, doubting a little whether to go with them or not. Scorpan winked at him, telling him that everything will be fine. Spike inspired and climbed to his back.

“Hold on tight!” he said.

And thus, as soon as Scorpan´s wings opened, they were soaring in the blue skies. At first, it took some time to adjust to Scorpan´s flying, since it was a bit different to his and Twilight, but he quickly got used to it. The cool breeze in the air made him feel calm. It reminded to his flying lessons with Twilight. Even though they were disastrous, they were also good a warm moments with his sister.

“Don´t worry, Twilight. I´m coming.” He muttered.

Scorpan heard the little dragon. He smiled warmly at him.

Chapter 5: Answers

The chimera strolled through the forest, limping due to the pain from the fight with Scorpan.

“That guy´s too strooong!” the goat complained. “This wiiill take a week to heaaal!” it said, looking at her leg.

“You think that´s bad?” the tiger asked upset. “He doesn´t have any claws, yet he managed to scratch my neck!” It pointed the scratch with her eyes.

“I think the worsssst part of all of thisssss wasss the humiliation.” The snake sighed. “At leasssst I have my two fangssss.”

“I´m sooo hungry! This caaan´t go oon like this.”

“Why can´t we get a huge feast?” The tiger asked desperately.

“Because you´ve always been a fused trio of idiots.” A new deep voice said.

It came from the darkness. Suddenly, a pair of yellow red eyes appeared. The chimera quickly adopted a defence pose. But as soon as it recognized the creature coming out from the darkness, it gasped in surprise.

The creature was an enormous blue ram demanding for respect by his frowning glance.

“Is that-“ the tiger tried to ask, but the shock didn´t let it talk.

“Our great emperor and creator?” the snake finished the tiger´s question.

Grogar nodded.

“Youu´ve been around the forest aaall this time?” the goat asked. “Then whyyy didn´t you attack soooner? Youu could have wipe away all thooose ponies a long time ago.”

The goat would have gone on speaking but Grogar interrupted her by raising his hoof. No matter how small and insignificant his gesture was, the Father of Monsters would always provoke respect in his subjects.

“Gusty left me very weak. It took me thousands of years to recover and gain magic. Conquering Equestria before was very tempting, but one of my most powerful tools is my patience. Besides, I didn´t and still don´t have my Bewitching Bell. But now, I am so close to take back my kingdom.” He explained while looking at the horizons, a smile appearing in his face.

He turned his head to stare at the chimera, making it feel a bit intimidated.

“Perhaps you could be of some help. Tell me, do you know where the Tree of Harmony is?”

The three fused creatures looked at each other.

“Do you mean that crystal thing at the Castle of the Two Sisters?” the tiger asked.

“Mhm.” Grogar affirmed.

“You can reach the cassstle going to the North. But it will take you sssome daysss to arrive.”

“I don´t mind. Like I said, I´m a patient ram. Thank you for your help.”

Grogar was going to leave, but the chimera stood in his way.

“What are you doing?” he asked upset.

If there´s one thing you should be afraid of is one angry glance from the Father of Monsters. He didn´t have to yell at you to let you know that you´re in danger. It was just enough with his look.

The chimera started to sweat and had nervous smiles on its faces.

“We would like to ask you a favour, great creator.” The tiger said as she and her sisters bowed to Grogar.

“I created you to serve me not to be served by me.” Grogar answered.

He tried to keep forward, but the chimera was still blocking his way.

“Maaaster, please!” the goat begged. “We haaaaven´t eaten in days.”

“That´s not my problem!” Grogar said in a menacing tone, making the chimera jump back.

“We´ve been trying to hunt for weekssss. We´ll do anything for you if you help usss!” the snake yelled.

Grogar stopped walking.

“Do you really wish to serve me?” he asked as he walked towards the chimera.

“Yesss.” the snake confirmed while nodding its head.

“You´re one of the very few creatures with intelligence I created. Limited, but it´s still intelligence.”

The tiger and goat raised an eyebrow confused, while the snake held her head high. Grogar stood silent, thinking to himself. The chimera anxiously waited for a response.

“What were you trying to hunt?” Grogar finally asked.

“A zebra filly and a little dragon.” replied the tiger.

Grogar widened his eyes in surprise.

“What did the dragon look like?”

“Weeell… He was small, buut he had groown wings. Hee was purple with green spiikes. Whyy are you interested on that?”

“Because that´s Twilight Sparkle´s dragon, you fools! Those two were an easy target, yet you failed miserably.”

“We almost won!” the tiger replied back. “If it hadn´t been for that monkey…”

Grogar´s ears perked up.

“A monkey you say?”

“Well, it wasssn´t a monkey per sssay, he wasss more like a mixture of a lion and a monkey.”

“That´s a gargoyle, idiots! And I´m pretty sure he´s Tirek´s brother.”

That gave him an idea. Grogar turned around to think clearly and conjure up a plan. The chimera knew what was going on. Everytime he had an idea, he´d always do that. After some time, he turned around and finally spoke.

“Listen up! I have something important to tell you. Come here.”

The chimera walked towards Grogar.”

“That dragon means so much to Twilight Sparkle. And that gargoyle, is also meaningful to an old enemy of mine. If something happened to them, it would be so unfortunate for the poor ponies, wouldn´t it?” a smile full of malice appeared on Grogar´s face. “You will be assigned that mission.”

The chimera gasped.

“You waaant us to beat that thing?”

“I´m not messing with him again!”

“Never again in our livesss.”

“SILENCE!” demanded Grogar, his eyes shining slightly.

The chimera obeyed in fear. Grogar´s bells flickered and so did his eyes. He smirked in satisfaction. Then, he took out a necklace with a ruby embedded from his bag.

“A few days ago, I found this on my cave. I was keeping this for later, just in case. It´s not as powerful as the bell, but it´s enough for your task.” he said while attaching the artefact to the tiger´s neck. They watched it in awe.

“What isss thisss?”

“This is an old artefact of mine. Treat it carefully!” he warned while slapping the tiger´s paw, since it playing with it as if it was a toy. “It will grant you enough power to defeat the gargoyle or any creature who stands in your way.”

The three fused creatures smiled at each other, showing malice in their faces.

“If you´re successful, you may join me in my future army of monsters, and I promise you´ll never go hungry again. But if you fail, you´ll suffer the consequences.. Understood?”

“Pft! With this thing, I´m sure we will win!” the tiger said smugly.

“Yeeah! Let´s goo for that monkey!” the goat exclaimed.

“I´ll wait here. Come to me when you´re finished and tell me how it went.”

“Yesss, master.”

The chimera left while smiling at Grogar´s artefact.

“I wouldn´t be so confident, if I were you.” the ram advised quietly.

The sun set and was replaced by the moon, initiating the night. Scorpan landed in some part of the forest to stretch and rest.

“Oof! I haven´t flown this much in a long time.” Scorpan said as he stretched his wings.

“Well, this was my first flying in the sky.” Punja shrugged. “I guesss there´s always a new experience to try.”

Spike got off Scorpan after Punja.

“How is your wing?”

Spike looked at it. He tried to move it slightly. It hurt a little, but not as much as before.

“I think it´s better. But I´ll follow your advice and not move it for a long time.”

Punja nodded.

“That´s right. I´ll go get some herbs and something to eat now that the moon and the stars are bright.”

“We´ll come with you.” Said Scorpan. “Due to what happened before, I think it would be wise to go with company.”

“I´d prefer to go alone, since I know where to find what I´m looking for in the unknown. But… I´ll feel safer. But if you don´t want to lose my sight you´ll have to go faster!”

Punja left Scorpan and Spike running. Scorpan rolled his eyes and massaged his temples, sighing a bit in frustration.

“This kid… She will never accept help.”

“What happened to her parents?” Spike asked curiously as they followed Punja.

Scorpan shrugged while shaking his head.

“I´m not so sure. I remember hearing the crying of a baby. I followed that sound, and what I found next… was not a beautiful sight. I saw the corpses of two zebras, with some pieces of flesh absent. My guess is that some Timberwolves must have attacked them. Miraculously, their baby survived. It would be irresponsible to leave a baby alone in the forest, so I took her under my wing.”

“Did she ever wonder about her parents?”

“There was a time she did. I told her when she was older. But she never really thought about them that much. She´s quite happy with me. The only thing, though, is that she´d like to meet another zebra.”

“Yeah… I know how that feels.”

“What´s your name kid?”

“Spike.”

“Spike, were you raised by ponies?”

Spike was genuinely surprised by the question.

“How did you know?”

“Well, firstly, you know a lot about Equestria´s history, almost as if you were by ponies! Secondly, you know Starswirl. Not many non pony creatures know him. And because…”

Scorpan inspired and expired. Spike thought he was about to cry.

“Are you ok?”

Scorpan took some time to answer.

“From the first moment I saw you, I knew it. I didn´t know if whether to ask you this or not. I didn´t want to overwhelm you. But now that we know each other a little, I think it´s time.”

Scorpan looked at the stars.

“Let me tell you a story. Thousands of years ago, some time after I betrayed my brother, my father died. So, I had to take his place. Days after my coronation, my mother died. At the time of my rule, I was in a very vulnerable state and had very little confidence in myself. I had lost all my family and was left to rule alone. I always had the idea in my mind that no matter what I´d do, it would always backfire But I tried my best and followed my father´s teachings, since it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, none of them prepared me for what that dreadful day brought. A satyr king known as the Storm King came to the Kingdom of Midnight. He came with the intention to conquer it. He gave me two options: If I surrendered, none of the citizens would be hurt. If not, he would take it by force. I had very little time to choose. I remember the citizens telling me not to worry about them, for they were willing to sacrifice themselves for me. I wasn´t willing to let them die, but I didn´t want to handle my father´s hard work to some king. I was paralyzed by fear and very indecisive. The Storm King grew impatient, so, he ordered to attack. I tried to protect everyone and do what a king would do but… Everything happened so fast. In just the blink of an eye, the castle was destroyed. Thousands of dead bodies were lying on the ground. Nobody survived. I was the only one standing alive. The Storm King could have decided to kill me at that moment and end all my pain. But he thought it would be more humiliating if I stayed alive. So, he turned me into one of his slaves.”

Spike was speechless. He felt really bad for Scorpan. He must have been very alone for a really long time. Spike couldn´t bear being alone for more than one day. He imagined the pain of being alone for a thousand years…

“Wow, Scorpan.. I- I am so sorry for what happened.”

Scorpan put his finger in Spike´s mouth.

“I´m not finished yet. And this isn´t about me. It´s about you.” he explained while pointing at him.”

“What?” Spike asked in surprise and confusion.

“During the time I was a slave, some of the guards laughed at me calling me “king”. Some slaves reproached me or wondered what kind of a king would let this happen to himself. Because of that, I started hating myself like I never did before. I hated myself for what I did to Tirek, for not being a good king… I even started to think that life didn´t make sense! Fortunately, two rays of sunshine gave me hope…”

He looked at Spike tenderly. Some tears formed in his eyes.

“I can see both of them in you.”

Spike raised an eyebrow confused.

“One night I was crying alone, outside the slaves´ chambers. Without expecting it, I heard a feminine voice asking what was wrong and if I was ok. I couldn´t see anything, only a pair of emerald eyes. At first, I didn´t want to talk about it and I told her, but she insisted on me to tell the truth. So, with no choice I told her all the story. When I finished the pair of eyes came closer to me, finally revealing her whole form. It was the most beautiful sight I´d ever seen. She was a tall purple female dragon with green spikes. Like yours.”

Spike gasped. His eyes got watery.

“Was she- my- mother?“

Emotions made him choke in his words, but Scorpan understood what he wanted to say. He nodded in response.

“Her name was Barbara. She looked so intimidating yet nurturing at the same time. She wrapped her wing around me and comforted me. Suddenly, another dragon appeared. He was a bigger dragon than Barbara. Like her, he looked very intimidating. But he also looked so majestic and noble. His name was Firestone. Apparently, he was looking for his wife. After Barbara explained to him what happened, he also offered me his support. From that day on, we became very good friends.”

“Was he tough and rough?” asked Spike.

“He was tough and rough.” Scorpan replied while rubbing the young dragon´s spikes.

Spike laughed. But his smile dropped quickly when he realized that his parents were slaves.

“Why weren´t they in the Dragonlands.?”

“Some dragons were taken by force by the Storm King. He wanted them to be part of his army, for he thought that they were the fiercest creatures. They were big, they could burn villages… The perfect destruction tool! Of course, he couldn´t take the biggest ones. But he could take small ones, according to dragon standards. Unfortunately, Firestone and Barbara were small…”

“I see..”

“And that was no the only thing! Dragon eggs were truly valuable. Many creatures took dragon eggs to sell or give them to the richest rulers. Fortunately, in my kingdom that was illegal. But there were others which didn´t forbid it…”

Spike was beginning to understand why dragons were so aggressive against other creatures. Stealing an egg from them is basically stealing a child! Those poor dragons…

Scorpan´s voice made Spike come back to reality.

“When they got enough trust in me, they decided to reveal me a secret. I couldn´t tell anyone, if the Storm King found out… he would take it away from them. They took me to their chambers. There was a cloth covering something with an oval shape. I had my suspicions of what was. They were confirmed the moment Barbara uncovered it. Can you guess what it was?”

“My egg…” Spike said softly, full of emotion.

Scorpan nodded slowly.

“I felt happy and scared for them at the same time. Happy because they were about to be parents. Scared because the Storm King could take their future child from them. I promised them to stay quiet. I wanted to see that baby dragon with his parents. Besides, I also wanted to be an uncle figure to that baby. I remember taking care of it along them!” Scorpan smiled at the memories of being beside that dragon egg. Then, he sighed sadly. “Unfortunately, it never happened.”

Spike got nervous. Something awful must have happened to them if they aren´t with him now, because they seemed to love him so much. He gulped and inspired before asking what happened next.

“What happened next?”

Scorpan inspired and expired.

“Apparently, someone discovered us. So, without expecting it, one day, the guards broke out in the chambers, trying to get the egg. By that time, I was working outside. But I stopped immediately when I heard Barbara scream. What I saw when I entered to their room…”

Scorpan looked at Spike, doubting if he should tell Spike everything. But the little dragon was begging him to continue with his watery eyes.

“Please…” Spike said softly. “I want to know the truth…”

Scorpan looked down.”

“I saw Firestone lying over a pound of blood. Your father died trying to protect Barbara and you.”

Spike gasped in shock.

“Their next victim was going to be Barbara, but she was determined to fight until the end. She blew fire at the guards, keeping them away from you. I had to do something. So, I tried to keep them away from her. The fight was long and hard. We were about to win. But then…” Scorpan stopped again. This was very hard for him, but he kept going for Spike.

“An arrow hit her. I remember yelling her name and holding her in my arms. Before she died, she asked me a very important favour: She asked me to protect you and take you somew. After that, she gave out her last breath.”

Spike stayed quiet. He couldn´t say anything. He just felt so bad for his parents. He broke down in tears. Scorpan noticed it and wrapped him around his wing.

“I´m so sorry. It´s very hard, I know. What happened to them was awful. They didn´t deserve to die.”

Some tears streamed down Scorpan´s face. One of them fell on Spike. Noticing his pain, he put his claw on his wing.

“It´s not your fault.” Spike said while caressing his wing.

Scorpan sniffed. He dried his tears and went on with his story.

“At that moment, I just felt so bad. I failed every loved one. My brother, Starswirl, my kingdom, your parents… But I was not going to fail you. It was the only thing I could do for your parents. I saw a guard taking your egg. I don´t know how, it just came out of me, but with only seeing it, a fire inside me travelled around my back and made me kick the guard so hard that I left him unconscious. I took your egg before it fell to the ground, and I flew away as fast as I could.”

“You were a slave no longer.” Spike said.

Scorpan shrugged.

“Yeah, but I was a fugitive.”

“How long were you with my egg?”

“For some time. My main priority was to take you to somewhere safe. So, I thought that the Dragonlands would be a safe spot. The problem was it was too far from where we were. Besides, your egg was getting cold. And normal fire couldn´t replace dragon fire.” Scorpan rubbed his forehead. “Oof, I spent entire nights trying to warm you up, singing you lullabies...”

“You talked to my egg?” Spike asked between laughs.

Scorpan blushed while looking away from Spike.

“Yes… It didn´t work either.”

“That´s why your voice was so familiar…”

“Huh?”

“When you and Punja found me, I heard a familiar voice telling me it was gonna be ok. That was you, right?”

Scorpan nodded.

“Smolder told me that sometimes, when baby dragons are inside their eggs, they can hear their parents´ voices. I guess my parents died before I could hear them.” Spike said sadly. But then he looked at Scorpan and smiled warmly at him. “At least I had the chance to hear you.”

Scorpan also smiled warmly at him.

“Your parents´ voices were very gorgeous, you would have loved them. Anyway, one night I camped at a forest. It was a very cold night. I was so worried about you. I knew if a dragon egg got too cold, the babies inside would never get out of their eggs. But suddenly, I saw something sparkling in the ground. It was a magical blue crystal. As soon as I watched the crystal, I got an idea. I wasn´t sure if it was going to work, but it was worth to try. I took the crystal and attached it to the branch, making a staff with it.”

Spike gasped.

“The staff of Sacanas?!”

Scorpan widened his eyes in surprise.

“How did you know?”

“It´s a long story…” Spike replied as he scratched his back.

“I used the staff to warm you up. Fortunately, it was as warm as dragon fire. That´s how your egg made it to the end.”

Spike smiled. Then, he got reflexive, thinking up a very serious question.

“Scorpan, why didn´t you keep me?”

“What?”

“You seemed to love me a lot. You could have kept my egg easily and raised me. But instead, you gave my egg to the ponies. I´m not asking because I don´t love them, they´re my family! I just ask because if you had kept me, you wouldn´t have been alone for so much time. Why?”

Scorpan breathed some air before answering.

“I did think about it, to be honest. But it couldn´t be possible. Not so long after I ran away, the Storm King´s guards almost caught us so many times. Not only that, other creatures tried to steal your egg from me! It wouldn´t be safe to keep you. Besides, I wasn´t so confident at that time to raise a child myself. I only got confidence when I found Punja.”

“I understand…”

“I couldn´t afford to keep you for so long. And we were still very far away from the Dragonlands. It was then that I saw a familiar castle far away. I realized that was the Castle of the Two sisters, which meant we were in Equestria! After thinking about it, Equestria would be a great place for you to live in. Ponies were warm, kind and cheerful creatures. Just like your parents! At first, I went to the Castle of the Two sisters, but it was destroyed. I didn´t know about the Nightmare Moon incident at the time. But fortunately, I saw a pony carrying a carriage. After asking him where he was heading to, he told me that he was going to Canterlot. I did want to reunite with Celestia and Luna, but I wasn´t sure if they wanted to see me. So, I asked him to take you to Celestia. And that´s how you ended up with ponies.”

At that moment Spike had so many emotions. Sadness for his parents´ fate, happiness because he finally knew they loved them, and satisfaction because he finally knew what happened to his parents.

“After all these years… I finally got what answers about them.” He hugged Scorpan. “Thank you much, Scorpan.” he thanked in tears.

Scorpan returned the hug. They were interrupted by Punja´s pants.

“Punja!” Spike exclaimed. “Did you get what you were looking for?”

“That´s not so important when the same thing that tried to eat us is roaming around!”

“Uh oh.”

Scorpan left Spike on the ground.

“Did he try to eat you?” he asked concerned.

Punja shook her head.

“If your first impulse is to attack, you should replace that thought by staying back. It has a weird jewel that can do magic! If you confronted it, your fate would be tragic.” Punja begged Scorpan.

“Wait. What?” asked Spike confused.

They hid after they heard three voices. They came from the chimera. They spied on it, making sure it didn´t see them. Punja was right. The chimera had a weird-looking ruby on its neck.

“I still don´t get how to use this thing!” the tiger exclaimed frustrated.

“Weeell you have too! We have to get that moonkey and draaagon.” The goat replied back.

Spike and Scorpan looked at each other. The chimera is looking for them? But why?

“Thissss isss ssso frussstrating.” the snake said.

“Haaaave you tried doing thiiis?” the goat asked, touching the ruby by the left side.

Suddenly, a yellow and black ray o magic went direct towards a tree, destroying it in the process.

“Huh! It worked.” the tiger said, genuinely surprised by what just happened.

“Indeed. With thiss deadly artefact, we´ll be able to feassst on thossse two.” the snake added, licking her lips and wearing a malicious smirk on her face.

The goat nodded. The tiger didn´t answer. It was busy smelling something.

“Whaaaat are you doing?”

“I smell something.”

At that moment, Spike, Scorpan and Punja hugged tightly, praying that the scent the chimera was smelling wasn´t theirs.

“I think it comes… from ponies.”

“Poniessss?”

“How maaaany do you smeeell?”

The tiger sniffed again.

“Thirteen. And there´s another familiar smell too. Hey, I have an idea. What about we feast on all those ponies? We´ll have plenty of food for days.”

“But what about the monkey and dragon? It´sss our missssion, after all.”

“He can wait! Like he said himself, he´s very patient. We´ll go after.”

“He? Who´s he?” Spike wondered in his mind.

“Weeelll. Considering weee haven´t eaaaten in days… Iii think iit´s a good idea.”

“That was close.” Punja said, sighing in relief.

“What are thirteen ponies doing in the Everfree?” Scorpan wondered.

“I don´t know.” Spike said. “But they´re in danger. We should warn them.”

Scorpan and Punja nodded in agreement. They left the bush they were hiding it running.

Author's Note

I thought I wouldn´t make it for this week! Oof! :twilightoops:

Epilogue

“Where do you want me to put this book?” asked Spike, flying in front of one the bookshelves from Twilight´s castle libary.

“That goes into the Fundaments of Magic section.” replied Twilight from the other side of the library.

He laid the book on its place and flew down to the ground besides Twilight. Both of them sighed in relief.

“Finally!” exclaimed Spike. “I thought we´d never end ordering the library.”

“Me too. Although, I always love organizing the disorganized.”

“That´s why it always takes longer than expected, right?”

“Hey, it doesn´t take that long, just a few minutes extra…”

“Only thirty minutes more.”

Twilight blushed in embarrassment and looked away. Spike laughed.

“But it´s more entertaining doing it by your side.”

“Oh you..”

Twilight pulled Spike closer to her with her wing and hugged each other.

“Ready for our cook of?” Twilight asked excitedly.

Spike elevated his hand in front of his forehead.

“Born ready!” he answered while smirking.

Before they got to the kitchen, they heard a knock on the castle gates. Together, they went to greet their unexpected visitor. When the door was opened, they had a pleasant surprise, especially Spike.

“Scorpan!” he yelled excited as he flew into the big gargoyle´s arms.

Scorpan cheerfully returned the hug, giving out warm laughs. When he saw Twilight, he bowed his head.

“Princess Twilight, greetings.”

“Oh please, you don’t have to act so formal.” Twilight told him. “It´s so good to see you. I know I´ve said it countless times but thank you so much for helping Spike. You don´t know how much it means to us.”

“It was my duty, princess. I promised them to protect Spike.” the gargoyle knelt, but quickly stopped when he remembered what Twilight told him. “Speaking of which…”

Scorpan opened his bag and searched for something.

“I didn´t come to your castle without a reason.” he told Twilight. “I have something for Spike.”

Spike gasped.

“Really? What is it?” he asked excitedly.

Scorpan took a heart-shaped dark brown locket. It was held by a small rope.

“I forgot to tell you that your father was a great artisan. In one of their dates, he wanted to impress your mother. However, he didn´t have much, and he couldn´t afford expensive materials like precious stones or gold. So, he had to make it with volcanic stones. I was lucky enough to take it before running away with your egg.” Scorpan explained as he handled the locket to Spike.

Spike grabbed carefully the locket. He smiled while observing it carefully. Despite being old and not shiny like every other locket, Spike could tell it was made with lots of love and effort. Twilight approached him to get a better view.

“It´s beautiful nonetheless.” he said.

“Oho! That´s not the best part.” Scorpan said. Open it.”

Spike nodded and obeyed. He and Twilight gasped softly when they saw its inside: It was the drawing of two dragons, a male and a female to concrete, holding their hands and pressing their faces against each other, with their eyes closed. Spike almost cried. Whenever he thought about his parents, he always wondered how they looked like. After so much time, he finally could see that, even though it was just a drawing on paper.

“They look so much better than I could ever imagine!” Spike said, almost choking on his words due to emotion. He covered his mouth as he sobbed.

“They were truly two gorgeous dragons.” added Twilight. “Just like you.” She wrapped him up with her wing.

Spike looked at Scorpan, with a huge smile of satisfaction in his face and tears in his eyes. He surprised Scorpan with a hug.

“Thank you.” Spike whispered.

Scorpan sighed happily and returned the hug.

“You´re welcome.”

Twilight waited for them to finish their hug.

“Would you like to have tea or something, Scorpan?”

“What?”

“Yeah! That would be great!” Spike agreed.

“It´s not necessary, really.”

“Yes, it is.” Twilight contradicted. “You´ve done so much, and we haven´t thanked you properly. Please, do come in.”

Scorpan was still a bit doubtful.

“Pleeease?” Spike asked with puppy eyes and a huge begging smile.

Scorpan rolled his eyes playfully.

“Fiine. But it won´t be for long. I have to be at Canterlot before afternoon.”

“We understand. Come on in! You´ll love the castle.” Twilight nodded.

“Come, come!” Spike held Scorpan´s hand, rushing him to the castle.

Scorpan laughed wholeheartedly.

It was morning at the Everfree forest. The chimera was peacefully sleeping and its snoring was so loud that it frightened the birds flying in the sky.

The snake opened its eyes slowly, due to the sun´s brightness. For the long reptile it was just another day, so it just stretched its body while yawning. But then it remembered why they were sleeping in the first place.

“How long have we been sssleeping?!” the snake thought aloud after gasping.

Immediately after, it started shaking her fused companions.

“Wake up you two!” she yelled.

The tiger and snake complained.

“Oooh, come oooon!”

“I was having the best of dreams!”

“Do you even remember why were sssleepping in the firsssst place?” the snaked asked while frowning.

The tiger and goat tried to remember.

“Um…”

“Aaaactually, we dooon´t.”

“We were ssssedated! Jussst when we had that monkey and dra-“

The snake gasped while looking at the tiger´s neck.

“What?” the tiger asked confused.

“Where´ssss the artefact?”

“Don´t worry, I have everything under-”

The tiger panicked when it only noticed fur around its neck and not metal.

“It was in my neck! How could it have disappeared just like that?”

“I don´t know. It wassss your ressssponsssability!”

While the snake was reproaching the tiger, the goat saw something on the ground that could give the answers to what happened to the artefact.

“Uuuh…. Guuuys…. You should seeeee this.” it said while pointing with a shaking hoof at the ground.

The snake´s and tiger´s panic grew when they saw where the goat was pointing at. The only trace of the artefact they had, were certainly ashes. The tiger took some ashes in its paw.

“How did this happen?”

“Thooose ponies! I´m suure they did thiiis.”

“What will we tell Grogar?”

“Tell me what?”

A chill travelled throughout the chimera´s back. Once again, the Father of Monsters was standing right in front of it. And he looked suspicious. He had noticed their fear from far away, for his bells were flickering.

“Our great emperor and creator!” the chimera knelt. “You know? It´s such a great honour whenever you come to visit.” the tiger laughed nervously.

“I don´t care what my presence brings to you. Did you accomplish your mission?”

“Of courssse! Of courssse! It wassss a piece of cake.” the snake lied.

“Where´s the artefact I gave you?”

The chimera´s foreheads were full of sweat. Grogar could clearly see that they were trying to hide something. He took a quick glance at the chimera´s paws and hoofs. There was something grey behind them…

“Move away.” he coldy demanded.

The chimera was going to complain but then, it thought it better. If they refused, it would be more suspicious. It gulped and let Grogar pass. After making its way through, the ram stopped walking when he saw the ashes. He stared at them and took some with his hoof.

“Are these from the artefact?” he turned to the chimera.

“Yeeeah… Aboouut that.” The goat cleared its throat.

“It wassss desssstroyed while we got rid of them.”

“You don´t say…” said Grogar with a smirk as he walked towards the chimera, making it walk backwards.

“Correct!”

“Well, I am sorry for saying this, but at that night I saw the gargoyle and the dragon walking with their friends, heading back to home. All, while you were sleeping.”

The snake, tiger and goat glanced at each other worriedly.

“I know you FAILED!” Grogar yelled, while stomping his hoof to the ground, letting out some magic. His eyes were glowing due to his anger.

The chimera fell to the ground. The monster usually thought itself as the scariest creature in the forest. But now… they were a mouse standing in front of a lion.

“And what´s worse… you LIED to me!”

“Mercy, my emperor. Please!” the tiger begged.

“We´ll do better next time. We ssssswear!”

“Doon´t hurt us!”

“You had a magnificent chance to come back to your glory and take back what belonged to you. You could have feasted on thousands of ponies, just like in the old times. But you threw it away. The only thing you´ve showed me is that you are no use to me. And you know what happens because of that.” Grogar claimed as channelled magic through his hooves. The chimera looked in horror, knowing what its fate would be.

That was the last time that chimera was seen or heard. Their last sound was screams of pain. The animals who witnessed the chimera´s fate preferred to look away.

Once Grogar was finished with his job, he continued his journey.

“My monsters might be terrifying when it comes to looks. But they lack intelligence! The only intelligent monster is my masterpiece. And he´s not accomplishing his duty.”

While Grogar was talking to himself, he saw a butterfly fly by. He smirked evilly, for he had just come up with a plan.

“But I know how to get him back. He has weaknesses.” Grogar watched some leaves falling from a tree. “And he, along the princesses, is somepony´s weakness too.”

He chuckled in a terrifying manner.

Author's Note

First multichapter fanfic! Wow. I never thought myself doing one of these until now. I feel so satisfied! :twilightsmile: Anyway, thank you so much to whoever read this! It´s really appreciated. The next story is my version of the finale. I´m not so sure when I´ll start uploading it. I think it will be in july, because in june I´ll be super busy with finals.
Hope to have served you as entertainment during this crazy quarantine. Remember, stay home and wash your hands. :raritywink:

Chapter 6: The reunion

Seeing that it was getting darker and darker, all the unicorns present in the search lit their horns.

“Night already?” Twilight thought. She was so focused on looking for Spike, that she didn´t realize how dark it was.

“I didn´t remember how terrifying the Everfree was at night.” Rarity said while shivering.

“But it´s also beautiful.” contradicted Mistmane to calm Rarity. “There are things that you can see here only at night.”

“Nonetheless, we still need to be on alert.” Said Rockhoof. “You never know what´s lurking around.” He held the shovel in his mouth and looked suspiciously around, as if a dangerous creature was near them. Meadowbrook giggled at his gesture.

“I quite agree. We need to stick together.” advised Zecora. “Only then, we´ll be safer.”

Everypony nodded. Twilight opened her wings to call out her pegasi friends.

“Guys! Come here! It´s not safe to fly now!”

Not so long after, the four pegasi appeared. Discord was flying next to Fluttershy.

“Aargh! I haven´t flown this much in a millenia!” he complained as he stretched his back.

“Yeah…” Fluttershy agreed between pants. “It´s nice to get the chance to rest our wings for some time.”

“I guess you have no news…” suspected Twilight.

They looked away sadly.

“Sorry…” apologized Rainbow.

Twilight sat down while sighing. At this time, Twilight was too tired to cry. She just didn´t have enough energy.

“Don´t lose hope.” Somnambula put her hoof on Twilight´s shoulder. “We´ll find him.”

“I know we will, eventually.” Twilight held her hoof. “I just wish it was now.”

Starswirl was glad to see that the princess went from fearing not to find her dragon to being hopeful. Twilight yawned.

“Do you want to stop, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

Twilight sighed.

“Maybe I should. If I don´t rest, I´ll never find Spike.”

“That´s the spirit!” exclaimed Meadowbrook. “If you don´t take care of yourself, you´ll never be able to take care of others.”

“CAMPING NIGHT!” Pinkie yelled, while spreading confetti with her cannon.

“Say no more!”

Discord snapped his fingers and conjured up a camping, with a bornfire, seats, and tents included.

“Who wants marshmallows?” he asked, while taking out marshmallows impaled in sticks.

“ME ME!” Pinkie was the first to take a stick. Eventually, everypony had their own stick and sat by the bornfire.

All of them spent some time chatting and laughing. Starswirl talked about Scorpan, telling what he told Twilight. Well, all except Twilight. She was watching the fire sadly. She had been quiet the whole time. Fluttershy, who was near her, approached her.

“Are you ok?” she asked concerned.

“I just miss him.” Twilight answered. “Spike would have loved to be in a camping with all of us. I can´t stop thinking about him. How alone he must be, how much sadness he must have been feeling… because of me.”

Twilight choked on her words. Fluttershy was about to hug her, but Twilight elevated her hoof.

“But I´ll make my best to change when we find him. I promise to never miss out on his emotions. Never again.” she claimed confidently.

“I understand.” Fluttershy replied. “Angel and I fought too, and it was because I didn´t pay him much attention owing to being so busy at the sanctuary. I also ignored his feelings. But, in order to understand each other, Zecora gave us a potion that swapped our bodies. It was then when I understood how difficult his life was! And Angel did too. At least you didn´t need a potion to understand Spike.”

Fluttershy playfuly snugged Twilight, making her giggle.

“Reconciling with your loved ones is one of the best feelings ever, isn´t it?”

“Yeah.” Twilight agreed with her friend while nodding her head. Then, she sighed dreamly. “I can´t wait to wrap with my wings and tell him how much I love him.”

They turned their heads towards Rainbow when they heard her voice.

“Guys, I have a question for you.” she told the pillars. “Did you interact with Scorpan at some time?”

They all looked at each other.

“We were informed about the whole incident, but we were never in the scene.” Flash claimed. “Or maybe that´s only my case.”

“Same goes for me.” Rockhoof said.

“And for me.” Stygian said.

Mistmane and Meadowbrook shook their heads.

“Now that you say that, I might have seen him without knowing it was him.” Somnambula touched her chin in thought.

Starswirl widened his eyes.

“You did?”

Somnamula nodded.

“I remember being in Somnambula´s streets when I saw a hoodened creature. I couldn´t see what it was nor I could see his face, but from the way he was looking at the ground and the way his back was curved, anypony could tell he was really saddened.”

Starswirl looked at the ground and sighed defeated.

“How can I have done the same mistake twice?” he asked to himself aloud while looking at Stygian. “And think that it was the right thing?” he sighed. “I feel truly awful.”

He looked sadly at the ground. Suddenly, he noticed his hat out of his place. He touched his head, looking for his hat. After he looked up, he realized that Discord had taken it. He frowned at him.

“Oh, the typical feeling of regret about things from the past. Yeah, I´ve felt that before.”

“Give me back my hat!” demanded Starswirl as he tried to reach his hat. Discord made it a bit impossible for him while he continued speaking.

“So did Luna, Starlight, Stygian… We were villains once and we made our mistakes. But the thing is that we didn´t remain villains forever.”

That hurt Starswirl. He knew perfectly well that Discord was referencing what he said about villains.

“The same applies to you.” Discord explained while facing him upside down. “While you might have never tried to rule Equestria, you also made harm to others.”

Twilight bit her lip when she saw Discord being so direct to Stasrwirl. Rainbow and Rarity rolled their eyes as if they were saying “here he comes again.” Twilight tried to tell him to stop, but before she could, Discord went ahead.

“Don´t tell me to stop, Twilight. I´m giving him advice.” then he faced Rainbow and Rarity. “And don´t presume what I´m saying is wrong before listening to it!” He flew towards Starswirl.

“But now you´re regetting your mistakes. Doesn´t that tell you something, beardo?”

Starswirl stared at Discord perplexed and confused. He didn´t understood what was going on, nor how was it that he felt no shame in his behaviour.

“Come on!” Discord spat after scoffing. “You´re one of the most intelligent creatures in Equestria! Surely you can understand what I´m saying.”

Seeing no answer, Discord massaged his temples and decided to explain the meaning of he was saying.

“What I mean is that none of us are perfect. We´ve all made mistakes. But that doesn´t mean that you are those mistakes. You can learn from them and be a better pony next time. You´re doing it already, so why focusing on the past and not in the present?”

Discord put Stasrwirl´s hat on the wizard´s face.

“See? Not every time I open my mouth I say something bad!” he said to eveypony.

He snapped his fingers and left the camping. Everypony was left perplexed. Fluttershy got up from her seat.

“I´ll go and talk to him.” she said in an apologetic tone and smiling sheepishly.

At first, Starswirl was mad at the draconequus. But while he was watching his hat, he reflected on what Discord said. Zecora approached him.

“While his manners were not adequate, the truth in his words is great. I think he was also talking to you, Twilight.” she told Twilight.

Twilight felt a bit bad for misjudging Discord at first, but then felt a bit better. It was the same for Starswirl. He frowned and put his hat on.

“He´s right, Twilight. We did wrong, but from now on, we´ll make sure not to make the same mistakes!”

While Stasrwirl was giving a convivncing speech, Stygian, Zecora, Meadowbrook and Rockhoof were more concerned watching something behind Starswirl´s back.

“Ah.. Starswirl?” Stygian tried to warn him.

“No, don´t interrupt me, Stygian. I know I have done wrong to you in the past, and I´m sorry for it, ok?”

“You might wanna turn around…” Meadowbrook suggested.

“Right now!” Rockhoof yelled.

“Wha- Why?” the wizard asked confused.

“Just turn around.” Zecora begged.

Starswirl finally listened and what he found was not a pleasant surprise. Right in front of him, there stood a chimera with a necklace on the tiger´s neck.

“Hello…” the snake said with a cruel smirk.

Everypony stepped back.

Spike flew through the starry night, hiding himself in the trees so that the chimera didn´t see him. Down below, Scorpan and Punja were making sure he was safe.

“Do you see anything?” asked Scorpan.

Spike shook his head, while flying down.

“Negative. No trace of a pony.”

“Well, they´d better watch out and run away when they see it without a doubt. The forest is too big for us to arrive in time!” Punja said worried.

“The only thing we can do is keep searching. And hope we´re faster than the chimera!” Spike said.

Suddenly, Scorpan´s left ear bended. He tilted his head in order to hear better.

“What´s wrong?” Spike asked.

“Do you hear that? It sounds like voices.”

“From the chimera?” Punja asked after gasping.

Scorpan shook his head.

“No. One is familiar, as for the other one, I´ve never heard it before. Maybe they´re the ponies we´re looking for.”

“Can I?” Spike asked Scorpan as he pointed his shoulder, meaning that he wanted to stand on his shoulder so he could hear better.

Scorpan nodded. Spike rode on Scorpan´s shoulder and tilted his head to hear better. His expressions went from curiousity, to strangeness, and lastly horror.

One was sweet and warm, while the other one was the opposite. It was witty and loud. Just like the ones from two friends he knows… Spike gasped when he realized those voices came from Fluttershy and Discord.

“I know those voices! They´re my friends´!”

Punja and Scorpan widened his eyes.

“What?” Punja asked shocked.

Spike did not answer. Instead, he let himself be guided by the sound of the voices. Scorpan and Punja followed behind.

“What are they doing here?” he thought aloud.

They got to some bushes. From the spaces the leaves left, they managed to get the view of a cream butter Pegasus and a much, taller dragon. No, it wasn´t a dragon. It was as if somepony took various parts of creatures and stuck them together to create this strange creature. The two of them were having a conversation.

“I´m not upset. I´m telling you.” the dragon-like creature claimed.

“Yes, you are.” the pegasus contradicted. “Why else would you be here on your own?”

The dragon-like creature opened his mouth to speak, but had no words to refute his friend´s argument.

“Ok. Fine, I am. There, you happy?”

“Not until you tell me what´s wrong.”

“It´s nothing, really.”

“Come on, Discord. We´ve been friends for so long. You know perfectly well that I can tell when somepony isn´t feeling well. Why don´t you tell me?”

“Because everypony always expects me to mess things up, ok?! And what´s worse, they think it is because I haven´t changed. It wasn´t my intention to cause Spike to run away into the Everfree and make Twilight suffer while looking for him!”

“Wait what?” Spike intervened.

Discord and Fluttershy widened their eyes and turned around. They gasped when they saw Spike flying in front of them, and without thinking it, they hugged Spike.

“Spike! You´re ok!” Fluttershy said relieved. “I started to think that we would never find you!”

“Why did you take seriously what I said? Don´t you know that I´ m the last creature you should listen to?” Discord scolded Spike while holding him.

“Twilight is looking for me?” Spike said in a broken voice.

“Of course!” Discord responded angrily, frustrated that the dragon didn´t see it was obvious. “She´s worried sick! Don´t you ever do this again, you hear me? NEVER AGAIN.” Discord pressed his face against his.

Spike´s eyes filled with tears.

“She still loves me?”

“Yeah!” Fluttershy exclaimed. “She couldn´t stop thinking about you. She wanted you to be on her wings. She told me that. Let´s take you to Twilight.”

When he heard his sister´s name, he snapped out of his shock, remembering that they were in danger.

“Wait. Where is she?”

“She´s waiting with the rest at the camping.” Fluttershy replied calmly.

“What do you mean with the rest?”

“Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow, Zecora, Stygian, Starswirl…”

“WHAT?!” Scorpan got out of the bush and flew to Fluttershy. “You mean he´s here?”

“Um… Yes.”

“Scorpan?”

The gargoyle looked perplexed at Discord.

“Discord?”

“What are you doing here?” Discord asked shock.

“You two know each other?” asked Spike.

“I used to work at his father´s castle. But then I quit. That kingdom wasn´t definitely my place.”

“Will you quit the surprises? All your friends are about to end up in pieces!” Punja said, as she got out from the bush.

“What do you mean little zebra?” asked Fluttershy.

“Oh right!” exclaimed Spike, slapping his forehead for not warning about the chimera sooner. So many things were happening at once, that he straight down forgot about the chimera. “There´s a chimera with a magical artefact and it has smelt all of you.”

“What?”

“We need to get to the others. Now!” Spike begged Discord.

“I hope your friends aren´t settled too far away, just to make sure we arrive there before it-“

Punja wasn´t able to finish her sentence, for Discord had already snapped his fingers, and thus, they disappeared.

“Well, well, well, if it isssssn´t Sssstarssswirl the Bearded himssself…” the snake smirked.

“Oooh look! He´s brought aaall of his friends too!” the goat pointed out, as it glanced the pillars and Stygian.

The pillars stood firm, but Sygian, while maintaining his posture, was also scared and shocked. He had heard about chimeras but he had never seen one. It was the first time he had ever witnessed a chimera with his eyes. The chimera took notice of this and teased him.

“You seem scared, huh?” the tiger head said while looking at Stygian.

Starswirl put himself in front of Stygian to protect him. Twilight joined him. She ignited her horn aggressively.

“What do you want?”

“We want to join you for dinner.” the snake answered for her sisters, who were a bit intimated by the angry princess.

“You wanna join us?” Pinkie asked, popping out of nowhere behind Twilight, which surprised her a bit. “We have plenty of food! We have apple pies, marshmallows…”

“Pinkie.” Somnambula flew next to her. “We are his dinner.” she explained.

“Ooooh! In that case, you´re not welcome!”

“Yeah!” Applejack agreed with her friend. “I ain´t having none of you here!”

“Heeey! Isn´t shee the pony whooo kicked us in the paaaast?” the goat asked her sisters.

“Weren´t you the same chimera that tried to eat my sister?” AJ replied back, confronting the chimera.

“Yessss. And now you and your friendsss are going to ssserve usss plenty of food that will lassst for weeksss.”

“Yeah? Well, you´re dealing with five unicorns and an alicorn! Not to mention a pretty cool wonderbolt too.” Rainbow said proudly. Flash Magnus, who was by her side, rolled her eyes playfully.

“Oho! But you´re also dealing with this!” the tiger said as she touched the ruby she yielded in her neck.

Suddenly, the ruby struck a yellow and black ray directed at Rainbow and Flash. Luckily, they were able to dodge that ray, and it hit a tree, cutting it in a half. Rainbow looked at her friends.

“What in tarnation was that?”

The chimera launched an attack on the ponies, but Starswirl summoned a force camp to protect everypony. However, he soon realized that it would serve temporarily, as their powers were clashing against each other.

“I can´t hold this for much long! We need to come up with a plan. Now!” he begged his friends desperately.

“Can it be destroyed?” asked Rarity to Twilight.

“I don´t know. I´ve never seen that artefact in any history book.”

“Neither have I.” Stygian added. “But we need to get take it from them.”

“Guess we´ll have to improvise!” Flash said as he saw that Starswirl´s force camp breaking.

And so they did. Everypony did what they could do. Twilight, Starswirl and Stygian threw magical beams at the necklace to destroy it. Mistmane conjured up a water dragon just as she did in her battle against Sable Spirit. Somnambula and Flash Magnus created a storm, while Rainbow flew as fast as she could to create a Sonic Rainboom. Pinkie Pie used her party cannon, as normal. Applejack and Rarity helped Rockhoof to kick the chimera. But no matter how big our friends´ efforts were, the chimera would always win. That artefact was too powerful for them to handle.

“We can´t destroy it. It´s too powerful!” Twilight exclaimed.

Rarity looked at Meadowbrook and Zecora, who were about to join the fight. It was then when she got an idea.

“Girls, do you have herbs or things with which you could make a potion? You know, to distract make him sleep or something.”

Since Meadowbrook had none, she looked nervously at Zecora. The zebra, however seemed pretty calm and opened her bag. She took a bottle fool of petals. She handled them to Meadowbrook.

“I always bring some in case. Prevention is always better than curing a disgrace.”

Meadowbrook sighed relieved and both the earth pony and zebra got down to the job of creating a potion to sleep the chimera.

“That´s a great idea!” Stygian congratulated Rarity. The white unicorn smiled graciously.

“We´ll have to keep fighting, nonetheless.” Starswirl said.

“Starswirl´s right.” agreed Mistmane. “Our mission is to keep the chimera away from Meadowbrook and Zecora.”

Twilight, Stygian and Rockhoof nodded.

“You heard him. Let´s go!” yelled Rockhoof.

“Aye!” everypony agreed.

Rarity´s plan was good. However, it was too complicated. They felt that the chimera could reach them at any moment. Some help wouldn´t do any harm…

Spike, Punja, Scorpan, Fluttershy and Discord, appeared in a poof near the camping. Punja, looked around her, realizing that she was indeed in a different place.

“How did you do that?” she asked confused to Discord.

Discord rolled his eyes playfully as he chuckled.

“Obviously you don´t know me very well.”

They heard some noise and hid behind the trees. They observed that the chimera had already reached the camping before they could. Spike and Scorpan panicked when they saw Twilight and Stasrwirl fighting the chimera.

“Oh no…” Spike mumbled.

“We must help them!” exclaimed Scorpan.

He was about to burst off but Punja grabbed his tail.

“Waaaait!” she exclaimed as she struggled to keep Scorpan near them.

She was helped by Fluttershy, Spike and Discord.

“You can´t show up in the scene just yet! Right now, that thing is a dangerous threat!”

“Your little zebra is right. Even I, the most spontaneous creature on earth, knows clearly that´s not a good idea. I didn´t know you were that impulsive.” Discord teased Scorpan.

“Says the one who joined my brother.” Scorpan replied back.

That caught Discord off guard. He had no words to refute that.

“Oooh! Busted!” Punja exclaimed.

Discord looked away angrily while growling.

“How did you know that?” Fluttershy asked curiously.

Scorpan shook his head sadly.

“I would never forget my big brother brother´s earth-shaking steps. Besides, sometimes I hear travellers by the Everfree talk about this things. But I never heard one talk about Starswirl´s return”

“Guys!” Spike called out their attention, pointing at their struggling friends to emphasize the real problem. Both Scorpan and Discord looked away apologetically.

“Discord, can you poof that necklace away?” Fluttershy asked worried.

Discord confidently nodded his head. But when he looked the artefact in detail, a big chill travelled throughout his spine.

“Actually…. It´s impossible. Sorry.” he apologized genuinely, with some panic in his voice.

“Wha- Why?” Spike asked confused.

“It´s protected by a spell.”

“How do you know that?” Scorpan asked.

Discord seemed very nervous to answer that question and took some time to answer.

“Leet´´s just say that during my childhood I played with things I shouldn´t have played with…” he gave out a nervous smile.

Spike, Scorpan, Punja amd Fluttershy wondered why, but right now, it wasn´t the right time to ask questions. They looked at each other worried.

“You seem to know about that artefact.” Punja said. “Tell us all the facts.”

“I.. I can´t rememeber.”

“But you just said-“

“I just can´t! Ok?” Discord replied while covering his eyes with his hands.

Fluttershy noticed that Discord was experiencing some anxiety.

“Ok. Discord you´re too nervous. Are you alright?”

“I… I´m not so sure.” He replied.

“It´s ok if you don´t want to want to talk about it. But we need you to calm down to remember clearly. Can you do that?”

Discord uncovered his eyes to look at Fluttershy. He didn´t want to, but who could say no to those teal eyes? He sighed reluctantly.

“Ok.” he stroke his beard. “Um… I think the spell only works on my magic, but maybe it doesn´t work on other´s. There might be a chance to destroy it, but in order to do that, it has to taken away from the user while it´s not glowing.”

“But how are we going to do that?” asked Punja.

Spike looked at the chimera. He remembered the chimera´s conversation when they were hiding in the bushes, which gave him an idea.

“I got it! Scorpan, the chimera said that we were the ones the chimera has to kill. Our friends are just a snack to it!”

Scorpan perked his ears.

“You´re suggesting to act as a distraction?”

Spike nodded. Scorpan bit his lip.

“It kind of contradicts to the promise I made to your mother, but I haven´t got a better idea…”

“Wait.” Fluttershy intervened. “You know about-“

Fluttershy was interrupted by some grunts. The chimera managed to defeat Twilight, Stasrwirl, Mistmane and Stygian. With the artefact´s magic, it was able to tackle them against the ground.

“Twilight!” Rainbow exclaimed.

She and the rest tried to help them, but they were bound by the chimera´s magic.

“You know? We´ve never tried roasted ponies before, have we?” asked the tiger maliciously.

Her sisters laughed evily.

“There´sss alwaysss a firssst time for everything.”

The necklace illuminated. Twilight, Starswirl and Stygian closed their eyes, but just before something happened, a small stone hit the chimera´s neck.

“Hey!” a familiar voice exclaimed.

Twilight opened her eyes. She recognized it immediately. It was a voice she had heard thousands of time. She never felt so relieved to hear it again.

“Spike?” she asked in a whisper, while looking at the sky.

Indeed he was. There he was, flying in the sky, and ready to fight. Twilight´s eyes filled with tears. But for the first time since she lost him, they were tears of joy and relief.

“Remember when you laughed at me because I couldn´t spit fire? Well, now watch it burn!”

Spike inhaled and threw out a huge green flame at the air. Everypony raised their eyebrows, for they didn´t understand why Spike would throw fire to the sky and not towards the chimera. Even the chimera itself was confused.

“What is he doing?” asked Stygian.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed as she ran.

“Fluttershy! Care to explain what is going on?” Twilight gave out a sheepish smile.

“Right away.”

While Fluttershy was explaining the plan to her friends, Spike dealt with the chimera.

“Reeallly? That’s aaall you wanted to shooow?”

As the chimera didn´t see any danger, the ruby was not glowing, which gave the chance to Scorpan to accomplish his part of the plan. He threw himself to the chimera´s neck, trying to take the necklace off it. The chimera activated the ruby, making Scorpan fly away before a ray of its magic hit him.

“Niiice try! But it diiidn´t work.”

The goat, snake and tiger smirked, thinking they had won. However, as soon as they lost sight of the ponies, Twilight, Starswirl, Stygian and Mistmane created magical beams that tackled the chimera against the ground.

“Meadowbrook! Zecora! How´s that potion going?” Mistmane asked as she struggled to keep the chimera in the ground.

“Almost there! But we still need time!” Meadowbrook answered. She and Zecora were striring as fast as they could.

“A sleeping potion, huh?” Punja said while looking at the pot. “I always stir with emotion, so I think I can help.”

“Help is what a healer needs. Specially from someone who´s from the same species.” Zecora accepted Punja´s help as she rubbed the little zebra´s messy curls.

“Ooh! She can rhyme!” Punja exclaimed. “This is definitely the best day in my life!”

And so, Punja helped Meadowbrook and Zecora to finish the potion. Meanwhile, the chimera was still on the ground.

“Can you activate it?” asked desperately the snake.

“I´m trying!” the tiger replied.

After some time, the tiger managed to reach its paw to the ruby, which allowed to break the magical beams. At first, they laughed in victory, but shortly after, out of nowhere, a heavy bargain appeared, and fell on them, forcing them back to the ground.

The ponies didn´t know what happened, but they quickly understood when they saw Discord cleaning his hands.

“Just because my magic doesn´t work on the artefact, it doesn´t mean that it doesn´t work on the chimera.” he said smugly.

Zecora put the liquid on a bottle. Meadowbrook took it and quickly put it in the chimera´s mouth.

“Sweet dreams.” she said with a smirk.

The chimera tried not to drink, but it soon did and fell into long sleep. The ruby stopped glowing and Starswirl to get it and destroy, freeing his tied up friends. The ponies cheered in victory. Spike landed in front of Twilight. He looked to the ground apologetically and fidgeted his fingers. He opened his arms to Twilight and gave her a small smile. Twilight´s eyes filled with tears and ran to her little brother´s arms.

“I´m so sorry!”

“What? No! Twilight, I´m the one who´s sorry. I ran away selfishly and made you suffer for long.” Tears started streaming down Spike´s face.

Twilight sobbed.

“But you wouldn´t have if I hadn´t told you those terrible things”

“I´m the one who started the fight, Twilight! I can´t change the fact that I said harmful words to you. But I promise to never do that again.”

“And I promise to never miss out on your feelings. Oh! I missed you so much.”

“Me too. I couldn´t stop thinking about you.”

“Neither could I.”

Spike and Twilight hugged tightly.

“SPIKEY WIKEEEY!” Rarity threw herself in Spike´s arms.

“We were so worried about you, sugarcube!” AJ said.

Fluttershy, Rainbow and Pinkie followed behind.

“Now, when we are back, how about doing some research about dragon culture?”

Spike shook his head with a smile.

“You don´t need to.”

“What? Why?”

Spike kept on smiling. After thinking about it. Twilight realized something.

“Wait. Did you find about them?”

Spike nodded warmly.

“Wow! I´m so happy. But… How?”

“Thank him.” Spike replied while looking at Scorpan.

The big gargoyle kneeled before the princess.

“Your majesty.”

“Scorpan.” Starswirl called.

Scorpan elevated his look and his eyes met with Starswirl´s. He jumped back in shock.

“Oh! Hello Starswirl…”

There was an awkward silence between the two.

“It´s been a long time, has it?” Starswirl asked.

“Yeah” Scorpan replied with a smile.

Starswirl looked nervously at Twilight. She and Spike nodded, saying with no words that if they could do it, he could do it. Starswirl inspired and expired.

“Look, I´m so sorry for behaving the way I did. I shouldn´t have been too hard you, considering the situation you were into.”

Scorpan looked away.

“Yeah, it´s ok. I should have told you about Tirek sooner, though.”

“So… We´re friends?”

Starswirl offered Scorpan a hoof. But Scorpan gave him a hug in return.

“Of course. I missed you. My friend.”

At first, the wizard was confused, but he quickly returned the hug.

“Oooh! Group hug!” Pinkie exclaimed excited as she hugged Scorpan.

The mane 6, Spike, the pillars, Stygian, Zecora, Punja and Discord joined Pinkie. Then, they decided to go home.

“Tell me about your parents. I´m so eager to know about them.” she asked Spike, as she put him on her back.

Spike joyfully agreed, and told the story, as all the ponies rode home. Everypony was happy. But Discord, despite being full of joy for finally finding Spike, he seemed tense and fearful, walking a bit slower and keeping some distance from everypony as he looked from side to side. Fluttershy noticed Discord´s absence, so she flew back and found him.

“There you are! You seem a bit off since you saw that necklace. We couldn´t talk about it before, but now we can. Are you sure you´re alright?”

Discord bit his lip, thinking carefully what to say.

“Yeah, I´m fine. But could you please keep me company? I.. don´t feel very safe.”

Fluttershy was going to ask why, but she didn´t want to pressure her friend

“Of course.” she agreed.

She grabbed Discord´s paw and walked together. Fluttershy´s presence made him calm, and soon they caught up with their friends.

The reason Discord was so nervous was because he knew somepony was watching them. And he wasn´t wrong. A pair of yellow and red eyes had watched the whole scene, and they also watched them leave.

Author's Note

One more chapter to go...