Author's Note

Hope you like this chapter. Most keen-eyed people can probably see where I have taken inspiration to this chapter :D Hope you have fun while reading it.

To Canterlot

Dreamscape

Spike was having a good dream he was enjoying an evening with Twilight and they were butt naked and laying on the sofa.

"Spike how would you like to try me feeding some fruits for you?" Twilight asked with a smirk.

"Oh sure Twily. Always wanted to try something like that. How you want to do this?" Spike answered.

"Just lay there close your eyes and open your mouth." Twilight told Spike.
Spike did as told laid down there and closed his eyes and... THUD!

"Ouch! What's that for?" Spike asked and opened his eyes but there was nothing only darkness.

"Finally decided to join me?" ominous voice asked from the darkness.

"Where am I who are you?" Spike asked panic starting to show on his face.

A darker version of Spike appeared from shadows. "Don't you recognize yourself? Maybe you lost some of your brain cells during that fight." said dragon who looked exactly like Spike with a chuckle.

"You? But how? Didn't you die a while back?" Spike asked confused about the situation of talking to himself.

"Come now you can't kill yourself in your head." Spike's copy commented.

"So what are you exactly? If you can't be you know killed." Spike asked

"I'm you. Well, part of you at least. I'm your emotions the good and the bad ones you have kept chained down for so long, but I'm also part of your dragonic instincts. Do you remember that monster you fought against? It had enslaved me with the use of dark magic, but it also felt familiar it had a similar magical signature as we do." Spike's copy explained.

"So if you weren't to blame, what was that think then? And what was it doing inside my head?" Spike asked hoping to get some answers.

The copy just sighed "As much as I would like to tell you I don't know. My best guess is that it was some sort of magical creature that Sombra planted inside your egg with magic."

"Okay that's good enough for now. How are you here? Aunt Luna has told me something about your possible second darker personality but shouldn't you like try to take over or something like that then?" Spike asked panic returning.

"Didn't you listen to me at all? I'm part of you. I know about Nightmare Moon from our memories and I'm pretty sure her transformation was because of certain needs she didn't get to satisfy. Those same needs are the reason why I don't have to take action. You fulfilled them yourself with Rarity and now building your own harem Applejack already in it and soon Twilight Sparkle joins too." Spike's copy said with a wide grin.

Without a warning, a beam of black magic hit Spike's copy in the chest and chains appeared around him immobilizing him.
"Thou shall not harm our nephew again you monster" the booming voice of Luna yelled.

In an instant, Luna was next to Spike's copy holding one of her dual blades on his neck.
"Don't try anything now that I know there is a parasite inside my nephew and I know your magic signature now I'm prepared to retaliate on any of your attacks. You should have stayed dead. Would have been easier for all of us."

Spike run's next to Luna and takes hold of her hand to stop her from finishing off his copy.
"What thy meaning nephew? Thou lost your mind?" Luna asked anger clearly heard in her voice.

"He is part of me. What happens to me if you destroy him?" Spike asked worry in his voice.

"You should listen to him, Princess. I'm pretty sure if you kill me nothing good will happen to him."

Luna studied both Spike and his copy carefully. Not sensing any deception from either of them she yielded a little "Very well we will listen, and those chains won't be coming off unless you give me some very good explanations first."

After a fast explanation so Luna could catch up on the situation chains just disappear to nothingness around Spike's copy
"I see. Thy copy of you is a manifestation of your subconscious, a second personality you could say."

"I think so." Spike answered not sure of it himself while scratching his neck.

"You tell him, auntie. You should know all about personality shifts. So tell me is my theory true about your shift to Nightmare Moon correct?" Spike's copy asked.

A bright blush could be seen forming on Luna's cheeks. This wasn't really a conversation she wanted to do with her nephew no less. But he deserved to know the truth.
"Well your theory is partly correct my reason for turning to Nightmare Moon was the immense amount of frustration I felt. It can come in many forms like when some don't appreciate your work or lag of sexual activity." Luna explained while trying to keep straight face.

"So are you... You know." Spike asked while blushing.

"Yes Spike. I haven't had sexual intercourse with a stallion so I'm a virgin. You know how hard it is to meet someone who treats you like a mare and not like some divine figure. Every stallion I have shown interest in has either feared me too much or have been after title and possibility to have a royal lineage with me. There are also those irritating and stupid nobles who have voiced their opinion about me and my sister and demanded that both of us should marry and do the duty what mares were created for and leave ruling to stallions. Let's just say that they learned the hard way why it isn't good to anger Celestia." Luna said while giving a sly grin.

Spike just shook his head and growled. "Some things never change, do they? But how do you keep your frustration away then?" Spike asked without thinking and smacked himself to the head while thinking "Smooth move Spike surely she won't think you're a pervert now at all." He thought to himself.

Luna's blush just deepened. "Before my transformation to Nightmare Moon, there were just so many things a mare could do with her hands to release the pressure so to say. And ponies were really paranoid during those times towards me. Nowadays there are some toys to help release that pressure." Luna finished.

"Maybe the big fella over here can help you with your love life. you should see what kinda fantasies we have had about you in our dreams" Spike's copy commented to Luna with a sly grin while wrapping his arm around Spike.

"As much as I wouldn't want to know I have to say I already know. I have visited your dreams now and then and sometimes there have been dreams of sexual nature about me, my sister, or element bearers. Don't worry I'm not mad at you actually I'm flattered that a young male sees me like a mare and not as some divine ruler." Luna told Spike while giving him a wink.

"Anyway. Did you or mom find anything about that weird mark on me?" Spike asked trying to change the subject.

"Sadly no. We didn't, at least not yet. There are still books left to research, maybe you could ask Twilight to come to Royal Library and help us. Have no fear nephew we will find out what happened to you in time." Luna reassured.

Darkness started to surround Spike.
"It seems your time to wake up is soon we will see tomorrow I hope." Luna told.

The morning sun was shining through the window on Spike's room. Spike yawned a little got up and looked around just to notice Twilight sleeping in the chair next to him, book on her lap.
"What's this. Biology of the Dragon by Starswirl the Bearded of course it's his work." Spike thought while picking up the book on Twilight's lap. Spike started to flip pages of the book that Twilight had placed bookmarks. "These are pretty accurate and pretty graphic. I wonder how Starswirl did his studies on dragons." After a while of going through the pages Spike arrived at to last bookmarked page titled "Breeding". Spike's face went little red when reading the title. Then he heard Twilight mumbling something in her sleep that's when he decided to drop the book to the floor near her legs.

"Wha... Who's there?" Twilight asked while rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Morning sleepy head. May I ask why you are here and not in your bed? It's not really good idea to sleep on a chair your neck could get hurt." Spike asked.

"I was going to bed after doing my little study and heard you mumbling something about yourself while you were sleeping. And since I promised to look after you to Princess Celestia I decided to stay and watch over you just to be safe. Oh, there's my book." Twilight told Spike and grabbed the book from the floor.

"So what was so important to study about so late?" Spike asked hoping Twilight would tell why she was showing interest towards dragons.

"Nothing special. Just some boring princess stuff, that just came to mind at the last minute. But enough about that did you sleep well? Nothing bad happened?" Twilight answered while looking away from Spike.

Spike was about to answer but remembered that Twilight would probably get some panic attack if she learned about all that happened to him during his sleep so he decided to cut some corners. "Well nothing really. Luna visited my dreams just to be safe and asked you to join her and mom at Canterlot Royal Library to do some research about this odd mark on me." Spike told her.

"That's a fantastic idea! We should go as soon as possible. I send already a letter to Ember asking if she could possibly give us any info about your marking or if she knows something herself and a possibility to visit us." Twilight told with a wide smile on her face just the possibility to learn more of dragons made her mind race.

"Great... Well could you let me get dressed and pack my stuff before we go?" Spike asked.

"Sure just come to the map room after your done we can use the portal that's linked directly to my old quarters at Canterlot." Twilight said before leaving.

"Just make sure it's up to date on coordinates I would like to avoid another adventure deep in the Everfree Forest just cause you managed to link it to some random portal in some old ruins." Spike yelled after Twilight and just got some laughs as an answer. Spike got up from his bed and walked in front of the mirror and looked at his right shoulder with the weird tattoo on it. "This looks so weird and yet familiar I just can't place where I have seen it." Spike thought while studying his shoulder.
Spike put on his clothes packed his backpack with some clothes, comics, and showering equipment. Walking downstairs Twilight was already channeling magic to the portal. The Portal was a little bigger than a door and in a form of an arc. After a short moment portal opened up and you could see Twilight's old room through it.

"Hope you packed enough. I don't know how long we may be in there. This is going to be so exciting. Next stop Canterlot library." Twilight said with a wide smile.

"Well at least I get to learn more about my kind." Spike said and just sighed. And so they stepped through the portal onwards to Canterlot.

Dragon Lands

Yesterday evening

Ember was not having a good day he was in a meeting with all the high-ranking dragons to decide about the possibility to open trade routes with ponies in exchange for diamonds and other jewels ponies would provide help on repairing and enhancing their caves that dragons used as homes. But of course, there had to be one dragon who opposed the idea of accepting help from ponies. General Ingen was a well-built male dragon and was as black as the night sky he had a long and narrow snout with a horn growing on it and two long curved horns on his head. He was one of the most experienced warrior dragons there were so his voice carried a lot of weight in these meetings.

"This is an outrage idea! We don't need help from lesser races. We can and we have always taken care of ourselves. You may be Dragon-Lord but this is an insult towards our heritage!" Yelled Ignen.

"So tell me General Ignen would it be wrong to accept help and pay to your friend who could do the job?" Ember asked her anger clearly visible.

"What are you getting at. Of course, it wouldn't be wrong." Ignen answered.

"So why would it be wrong to accept help from ponies they are our allies and I am personally on good terms with all the four princesses?" Ember replied.

"It's because they are lesser than us!" Ignen yelled angrily.

Ember knew a little of her kind's history she didn't want to use this but it would shut the ignorant warrior for sure."Really now. I seem to remember reading about a certain breed of extremely powerful dragons who lost to mad tyrant Sombra's armies. The army was pretty much all under his spell mindless dolls and still, they wiped them out. Does the massacre of divinity ring any bells General?" Ember asked.

"But..." Ignen tried to answer

"And the royal sisters defeated that mad tyrant so how is it wrong to accept the trade from a race that would benefit both parties?" Ember continued.
There was no answer from the warrior. Seeing this Ember continued to vote.
"All in favor of accepting this trade?" Ember asked all except Ignen raised their arms.
"And against it?" she asked and there were no arms in the air.

"So we will accept the terms this meeting is over thank you to all of you." Ember spoke to her fellow dragons.

"There is still one matter you haven't yet accepted to be my mate. Think about it our hatchlings would be extremely powerful it would be good for all of us." Ignen spoke up.

Torch got up from his chair next to his daughter. "My daughter has told you no many times Ignen. Drop this matter now or I swear to Draco you will get beating you will never forget." Torch yelled.

Ember placed her hand on her father's shoulder to cool him off "I have already told you are not something I seek in a mate so my answer is still no" Ember answered.

Ignen was clearly angry "You stupid female you should learn your place. I can't wait to see you begging for me to take you."
That was it Torch shoot a large fireball towards the wall making others jumped out the way and a huge hole appeared on the wall. Torch jumped on Ignen and punched the lights out of him and threw him out of the hole. "I may be old but I still got a good punch. Hope you learn your lesson boy" Torch yelled after the dragon he just threw out the room.

Ember just sighed "Why father?r You know I can take care of myself. As much as I appreciate what you did. That one will never learn. I hope he survives the fall."

"You may be Dragon-Lord, but I'm still your father and my job is to protect you. And relax it's only 10 meters fall so he might just get few bruises and a fractured ego too. Your mom would be proud I tried to push peace between ponies and dragons but didn't get anywhere during my time as Dragon-Lord but you have managed to do so in just a couple of years. Your mom would be so proud. I hope she wakes up soon to see how her little star has grown up as a beautiful and capable dragon."

Ember's face turned red as a tomato. "Dad!" she screamed.
Other dragons in the room just looked with a smile at the touching moment
"I'm going back to my chambers could you send Smolder there I would like to spend some time with her." Ember told and left the room towards her chambers.

After arriving in her chambers and sitting on her bed a buff of violet magic appeared and a scroll appeared. The scroll had Twilight royal symbol on it, Ember grabbed the scroll and started to read it.

Short while late Smolder entered. "Hi Ember. Your dad said you wanted to see me." Smolder noticed tears in Ember's eyes while she was holding a scroll. "Ember you okay? What's wrong?" Smolder asked with a hint of panic in her voice.

"It's Spike something happened to him." Ember half lied to Smolder. "We need to get my father here." She told Smolder. "Okay I go get him shouldn't take long." Smolder told Ember and left the room.

It wasn't long that Torch entered Ember's chamber worry showing in his face "What's wrong Ember. Smolder told me you were crying over Spike." "Here this is why."Ember gave the letter to her father who read it with a grim look on his face. "We three need to go to Ponyville and meet with Royal Sisters and see if what this scroll says is true about him."

Smolder had a dumb look on her face. "I get you two going but why me?" Smolder asked.
"You are Ember's good friend and she needs a guard on this journey." Torch answered.
"Not to point out obvious but I'm not trained as a guard." Smolder told Torch
"No but your my friend and I trust you the most so you will be perfect for the job." Ember told her.
"Well okay. I'll come with you." Smolder said.

Ember hugged Smolder. "Thank you Smolder I'll find a way to make this up to you. But now go pack up and get ready to fly to Canterlot. I must send a letter to Princess Twilight Sparkle that we are coming to Ponyville." Ember told them.
"It will be nice to see both Princess Celestia and Luna again I haven't talked with them in a long time. Let's go Smolder I'll tell you what your duty as Ember's guard is." Torch told Smolder and smacked his hand on her shoulder
"Oowh.. sure Lord Torch but try not to kill me please." Smolder whined. and followed Torch out of Ember's chambers.

Ember walked to her desk and started writing a letter that would tell Twilight and her friends that she was coming to Ponyville with Smolder and her father to see Spike. After she had written the letter she ignited it with her fire magic and send it to Twilight. "I hope your okay Spike." She thought to herself. And left to pack her things.

???

A large disfigured dragon was moving in a dark cavern that was full of lava pools.
"So you finally made your move brother this time I have someone who can't lose to your champion. I hope he will prove a challenge to my champion and after she's done with your champion I will finally be free from this prison. You hear me brother!" the figure roared towards the ceiling of its cavern.