Sparkles to Flames

by InkedTapestries

Rating: teen
Tags: Zephyr Breeze, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Maud Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 34225

Pony or dragon, friendship is magic, no matter who those friends are.

You know the story of Twilight Sparkle. Celestia's unicorn apprentice gets sent to Ponyville, bumps into five friends, recovers the Elements of Harmony, releases the princess's younger sister from a dark enchantment, learns to embody the magic of friendship.

Though, what would it look like if the story wasn't about the original Elements, but their siblings? How would the story of Spike T. Dragon look if he was in his sister's place? If Spike was sent to Ponyville, met some friends, recovered the elements, and saved the day?

Sparkles to Flames is a re-exploration of MLP:FiM with the Mane 6, as well as a couple others, replaced with their siblings or characters close enough to be considered family. It's also a way to explore or expand on some aspects of the show that I personally felt somewhat unsatisfied with, such as Spike's seemingly unique fire. It's also an excuse for me to rewatch the show as a whole. Criticism and corrections are welcome.

Inspired by and originally meant for Nitro Indigo’s Role Swap contest from a bit ago and by this image by Doodle-Mark.

Published 2021-08-09 15:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-07-08 01:48:41 UTC

Friendship is Magic - Part 1

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the youngest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the elder brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and rested in the night her elder sister brought forth, but ignored and worked through her beautiful day. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the sun to make way for the dusk. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of fire: Nightmare Star. She vowed that she would scorch the land in eternal day. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the elements of harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.”

“Princess Luna..?” Asked a slim purple drake, a quill held hesitantly over an empty scroll of parchment. He had waited for her to finish her story before writing anything down. In his younger years he would scribble down every word, only pausing to sound out a word in order to spell it, but never interrupting for fear of upsetting the princess. A behavior applied to many things he did out of fear of scaring the ponies around him, even down to how he walked; with both his arms and legs under him, mimicking the trot of the ponies around him, despite his natural preference to stand tall among the crowds.

“Yes, Spike?” Responded the tall, winged mare, Luna. The drake’s confusion always amused her. Watching him attempt to interpret meaning from her tales and theatrics was often a wonder. Rarely would she give him a straight answer to his queries. Keeping her responses brief and cryptic was the best, if not only way to get him to ask questions and interact with others outside of herself and those that adopted him. A very few precious unicorns would seek him out, and so Luna often made it her goal to get him to ask others for help, if only to get him talking. One pony in particular, Morning Roast, had managed to actually grow close to the young dragon over the years. Comfortable, anyway. Enough to the point that he was willing to walk upright around her, his prefered stance.

“What exactly does any of that have to do with the Summer Sun Celebration?” Spike asked, tilting his head heavily to the side, drawing his quill away from the drooping parchment and rolling a wave of energy through his stiffening tail.

“More than many know, Spike.” Said Luna, eyes drifting closed as though the weight of her thoughts were forcing her to break her gaze, to tear her eyes away from the nearly full moon. Her moon.

Turning to match the dragon’s gaze, even copying the tilt of his head, Luna replaced her typically neutral, polite smirk with an expectant smile. A smile that somewhat irritated Spike, though he knew it well from his time as the princess’s personal assistant.

With a sigh Spike lowered his hands to the ground, gently releasing the grip of his claws from the scroll and quill as to prevent accidental damage to them but pinning them to the stony tiles in order to keep the nighttime winds from blowing them out of his reach. Without wings of his own he’d be unable to follow them from the castle’s high balcony overlooking the valleys from the mountain peak. Of course the princess herself could simply catch them in her magical grasp, but what kind of assistant would he be if he needed the aid of the one he was supposed to be aiding? A thought that Spike drove from his mind as he raised his nose to the sky, forcing his eyes to survey the constellations that the princess had been preparing and maintaining for the night.

“Once upon a time, there were two regal sisters…” Spike muttered, sight drifting to a pair of stars that seemed to take on the bright blues and pinks of cotton candy. “Your predecessors I’m guessing. Someone must’ve raised the sun and moon before you had, though it’s hard to imagine just a unicorn doing so.”

A chuckle escaped from Luna as Spike spoke, raising a hoof to her chest as though to manually silence the outburst. “I suppose I can understand. It’s still difficult for me to understand that I do this alone even though I’ve been doing so for centuries.” Luna explained, following Spike’s gaze to the pair of pink and blue stars. A mistake in her plan for the night sky, though not an unwelcome one. Perhaps she would make room for the pair in the night after the coming celebration. "Before I ascended and took the sky into my care, it was impossible for any single being to move the sun, moon, and the stars. It took a team of six unicorns just to wield the sun alone, and five of them would lose their magic forever once done."

“One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the sun, and she had transformed into a wicked mare of fire.” Spike paused, recognition appearing in his eyes as he lowered his head to stare at the tiles below his claws. “And the elder sister reluctantly banished her within the moon.”

Her gaze fixing on the rose colored star, sadness crept its way into her eyes, though the pride in her assistant’s abilities kept it at bay. It took only a moment to recompose herself before she tore her own gaze away from her work, fixing them once again on the young violet colored dragon in front of her, letting the shape of his emerald spines burn itself into her memory. His jade ear-fins and underbelly, his forest eyes, and his amethyst claws, tail, and body. He was still small for a dragon, only the size of a pony. For one reason or another, his wings were yet to come. A fact that would change eventually. Perhaps not soon, but it was inevitable.

“So… the Summer Sun Celebration is a holiday for Nightmare Star, or whoever she was before...” Spike paused to process, raising the tip of his arrow-shaped tail to his chin. “Probably created by the elder sister, as a way to give the younger sister the attention she never got before?” He asked, raising his head and meeting Luna’s stare. His claws tightened slightly, ready to write. He peeled his utensils off of the ground and held them from it by a few inches, though the loose parchment still partially rested on the stone.

Once again the princess’s smile shifted. From expectant to satisfied, she straightened her posture, letting her wings open slightly, and raising her neck but lowering her head to keep eye contact with her young assistant. “Indeed.” She said. “I’m impressed at how quickly you figured that out.”

“Just how old is that story? Why do we still celebrate a holiday for a pony that’s not around anymore?” Spike questioned, tail returning to the ground beside him as he sat up once more, ready to write his notes regardless of his confusion, finally removing his parchment from the ground.

“About a thousand years. It’s been told since around when my rule began. Give or take a century.” The princess admitted, her horn igniting in a pale blue aura, the magic enveloping the glimmering, jet black crown upon her head. Slowly it lifted off, turning and lowering to her chest to float beside its matching carcanet, her gaze following it down. “It has a prophecy to it as well. The Mare in the Moon, I believe. Have you heard of it?” She asked, staring into the crescent shapes embossed into her own royal ornaments.

“The old ponies’ tale? Yeah. Wasn’t it something about the silhouette on the moon escaping or something?” Spike answered absently, the quiet scratch of his quill on parchment filling the air over the sound of the pegasi’s gentle breeze.

“The Mare in the Moon.” Placing the crown on her head once more, she began to recount her second story of the night. “An olden pony mage, once defeated by the elements of harmony for her rage against Equestria, was cursed to gaze down upon the land each night. The same land she sought to destroy. The wielder of the elements had warned that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars would aid in her escape and she would bring about daytime eternal.” As soon as she finished, so did the scratching of Spike’s quill. He stared at his scroll, staring at the words with wide, worried eyes like they would jump out at him if he made any sudden movements.

“Do you mean to say that you believe that Nightmare Star could return soon, Princess Luna?” He asked, pupils contracting into diamond-like slits. A focused gaze, that of a reptile.

“I simply believe that this year’s Celebration is an important one.” She reassured her assistant, cupping his chin with her wing and raising his head to meet her eyes. “That’s why…”

“We’re going to Ponyville?!” Yelled a small, lavender, blank flanked filly in oblivious excitement. The young mare, ever so curious, would always tag along on trips out of Canterlot, whether she was allowed to or not. After finding her in a suitcase instead of the originally packed clothes during a trip to Manehatten, her parents gave up on attempting to keep her from joining. Of course, she’d grown enough that a stunt like that wouldn’t work anymore, but it was still far easier to plan for than against the little mischief master.

“Only to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration for Princess Luna. I have to go there personally in Ms. Harshwhinny’s place to ensure perfection, so don’t go galloping off. It’s gotta be flawless this time, Twilight.”

“Why?” Twilight asked innocently as Spike picked her up and placed her onto the silver chariot. “What’s special about this time when compared to the last time?”

“This time it’s in Ponyville, last time it was in Baltimare.” Spike said, dodging the truth. Ponies’ tale or not, he’d prefer to keep the ‘Mare in the Moon’ from giving his adoptive sister nightmares.

“What’s so special about Ponyville, then?” She asked, unsatisfied with Spike’s non-answer.

Spike took a moment to think of an excuse while their flying escort, a pair of batpony royal guards, hooked themselves into the chariot, dark leather straps looping tightly around their platinum armor. He turned around and sat next to Twilight, his legs resting just over the edge of the platform, feet hovering inches away from the cobblestone street as they waited for the escort to take off into the sky.

“It’s the youngest town, I guess. Apparently, Luna herself directed the family that founded it, the Apples, to settle there just a handful of decades ago. Seventy, maybe eighty years or so I think.”

“The Apples… Are any of them still there today? Do you think we could visit them and ask about their family history?” The filly pleaded, climbing Spike’s arm and using his shoulder as a balance in order to maximize the visibility of her patented puppy dog eyes.

Chuckling, Spike rolled his own eyes, gently pushing his sister off of him. “We’ll see when we get there.” He said, taking a breath and exhaling a small jet of green flame which quickly curled into itself and transformed into an open scroll with a flash.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked as her brother grabbed the floating scroll from the air, wriggling beneath his arm and reading it herself before he had the chance to respond. “Summer Sun Celebration official overseer’s checklist.”

“I wanna memorize what we need to do before we get there. The less time I spend rechecking the list, the more time you’ll have to explore the town. Not that you’ll want to.”

“Why would I not want to explore?”

“I arranged for us to stay in a library. You’ll have all the books you can read in the two days we’ll be there.” A quick glance towards his sister’s elated face was all the confirmation he needed that he made the right call with that decision.

“Music, Carousel Calliope, decor, Town Hall, weather, Scoot’s Repair, banquet prep, Sweet Apple Acres.” Spike quietly repeated to himself as the chariot flew, unfurling the checklist for what had to be the fiftieth time. “Music, Carousel Calliope.” He read aloud, confirming the task and its order to himself. “Decor, Town-” He continued, only to be interrupted by the unexpected halt of the vehicle as their escort landed, digging their hooves deep into the dirt road in order to halt their movement.

Like a bolt of lavender lighting, Twilight rocketed out of the chariot and started running around the road, staring up at all the buildings and signs, taking in all that she could of the unfamiliar town.

Tucking the checklist away behind one of the fins on the side of his head, Spike too left the chariot, thanking the pair of royal guards still hooked into it for their work as he passed by. Stopping a moment to look for Twilight, his anxiety spiked as he spotted her speaking a million miles an hour at a stone gray earth pony. Quickly walking toward the pair, Spike scooped up the young filly with a hand and plopped her onto his back, quickly bowing and apologizing to the mare.

“I’m sorry for my younger sister. She just gets really energetic when she visits somewhere new.” He explained, nervousness plaguing his features. Looking up to meet the mare’s eyes, Spike could see no reaction or sense any change in her emotions. After a few moments of awkward silence, she gave a small shrug and began to trot past.

As the mare left his sight Spike let out an exasperated breath. He turned his head to stare at Twilight as he rose from the bow, his annoyance clear to see. “What did I say about running off?”

“Eheheh...” The filly chuckled nervously while shrugging. “Sorry Spike. I just wanted to ask where Golden Oak Library is.”

“It looked like you wanted to ask a lot more than that when you were talking the ears off that poor pony.” The dragon chided. “I already memorized a map of the town. You’ll get your books after we finish up, okay?”

“Okay...” Twilight accepted sadly. And with that, the pair made their way to their first stop, Carousel Calliope, to see how the music was coming along and to assist the assigned pony if need be.

“Ah ah ah, aah-aahh...” Sung a white unicorn, tapping matching keys on a piano near the back of the room, her pastel pink and purple mane blocking her face from view as Spike and Twilight entered the building. A small bell rang as the door opened and closed, announcing their entrance to the building’s occupants. “You’ll have to return later.” She called, having heard the bell. “I’m practicing at the moment and won’t be available until the day after tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Spike looked around the room. There were instruments of all kinds displayed around the deceivingly large, circular room. From guitars to drums to tubas to triangles to xylophones, to even cups stashed near the furthest wall. It seemed as though every instrument conceivable was sold within the shop. Certainly not a sight one would see in Canterlot, a wooden piano next to a guitar painted with flames.

“Actually that’s why I’m here.” Spike began. “I’ve been sent from Canterlot to-” Before he could even finish his sentence, the mare was in front of him, bright green eyes staring into his own.

“You’re from Canterlot? Why didn’t you say so! Oh, I didn’t think anyone from somewhere like Canterlot even knew my name, let alone where to come to meet me!”

“Meet you-?” Spike tried to ask, only for him and Twilight to be pushed along by a green magical aura towards a display near the center of the room.

“Which song was it? Where did you hear my work?” The mare asked, lifting a poster of her own face from the display. ‘SWEETIE BELLE’ the top of the poster read, the line ‘Ponyville’s Premier Pop Star’ placed near the bottom. All along the sides were printed lines of random words that Spike couldn’t quite decipher the meaning of, ultimately assuming that they were probably song or album titles.

“Uhm, my checklist.” Spike said, still processing the sudden energy from Ponyville’s Premier Pop Star.

“’My Checklist’..?” She asked, trying to confirm, flipping the poster around and seeming to scan the word soup on the sides. “I don’t think I’ve written a ‘My Checklist’.”

“I- no, I mean...” Spike shook his head free of the confusion. Pushing the poster away with his tail, he locked eyes with ‘Sweetie Belle’. “Let’s start over. My Name is Spike. I’ve been sent to check up on your progress for the Summer Sun Celebration.”

“Oh.” She blushed, embarrassed at her outburst. “Right. It makes sense that the princess would sent someone to make sure things are running smoothly. I’m Sweetie Belle. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Spike.”

“A pleasure to meet you too, Miss Belle. Now, about your performance. Do you think that you’ll be awake enough to play tonight?”

“Yes. I was planning on doing a last couple practice runs through the song first before going to sleep.” Sweetie explained. “Everything’s already completed, I just want-” This time it was her turn to be interrupted as a spool of thread flew its way through the air and straight into Spike’s forehead.

“Get back you ruffian!” called a pure white, velvet maned unicorn filly as she charged down a set of stairs and straight for Spike, a roll of hot pink cloth held tightly in her sky blue magic, her thick, patchwork cloth ‘armor’ waving wildly in the breeze as she dashed forward. The moment she was within range she swung the roll of fabric as hard as she could at the drake, who caught it with ease and tore the ‘weapon’ from the child’s magical grasp.

“Rarity!” Sweetie called, the filly’s head and ears instantly drooping. “How many times do I have to tell you not to harass visitors?”

“But Sweetie Belle, he’s a dragon! And he’s kidnapped a young, innocent maiden!” The filly countered, igniting her horn in its blue aura once again to try, and fail, at yanking the roll back out of Spike’s grip.

“What are you-?”

“I’m very clearly older than you but whatever.” Twilight scoffed.

“Do you think you’re the one to defeat me and rescue this maiden, little knight?” Spike asked, glancing at Twilight. A great, evil dragon capturing a maiden for foggy, almost nonexistent reasons. A classic ponies’ tale.

“That’s Lady Rarity to you, you beastly beasty beast!” Rarity asserted, digging a hoof into the ground as though she were about to charge him unarmed.

“Oh.” Sweetie said as realization dawned on her, relaxing slightly.

“Oh nooo.” Twilight called tiredly. “Save me, Lady Rarity.” She mocked, lightly slapping at Spike’s green spines.

“Aaahg!” The drake ‘screamed’, releasing his grip on the roll of cloth, which sat in the air for a moment before zipping back over towards the filly warrior.

“Have at you!” Cried Lady Rarity, once again swatting at Spike the Terrible, the pony-eating dragon.

Spike rubbed at the back of his neck as he walked through the roads, heading towards the middle of the surprisingly large town. Despite Rarity’s lack of strength, the softness of the fabric roll, and Spike’s own durable scales, he definitely had a few sore bruises where the filly hit him. “Kids are rough, man.”

“Was that whole game really necessary? We wasted a whole hour there!” Twilight complained.

“I doubt many dragons appear in Ponyville. Playing out a fantasy like that is a rare opportunity for most fillies, Twi. Not everypony has a dragon for an older brother.” He responded, approaching the short wooden steps of the Town Hall.

“I guess not...”

Opening the large doors, Spike stared in shock. The place was basically empty, except for a single, lanky cyan pegasus stallion lying curled on the floor. Twilight let out an impatient groan as Spike moved deeper in, jumping off his back and walking away, likely to sulk like how the stallion was doing.

“Are you Zephyr Breeze?” Spike asked, earning a surprised scream from the pony. “What’s going on? Isn’t this the Town Hall? Where’s all the decorations?”

The stallion stared at spike with wide, panicked eyes, visibly growing more and more worried as the silence continued between them before... “Bwaaahahahh!” He cried, tears bursting from his eyes and wetting the fur beneath them.

“Woah! No, hey, I’m not here to hurt you!” Spike said, caught completely off guard by the sudden wailing. “It’s okay, really, I’m here to help!” Slowly, the stallion seemed to compose himself, even pushing up from the ground and sitting up straight.

“Really?” He asked, legs shaking beneath him as he tried to work up the courage to look at Spike. “You’re here to help me?”

“Really.” Spike said. “You’re Zephyr Breeze, right? The pony they put in charge of decorations?” The stallion, Zephyr, nodded.

“I just can’t bring myself to do anything! I keep thinking about all those ponies, the princess herself, judging my work for the Summer Sun Celebration, the contempt and rage clear on their faces for ruining the holiday with my subpar decorative skills!”

“It’s okay.” Spike soothed, wandering closer to Zephyr and sitting across from him, placing a gentle hand on the worried pony’s shoulder. “The mayor must’ve put you on this job for a reason. Nopony’s gonna hate your decorations. Honestly, they’ll all be too busy trying to judge the princess’s choices before they judge yours, trust me.”

“I...” Zephyr gave a shaky sigh, closing his eyes and taking a moment to process. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sorry you saw me like that, stranger. I’ve just been thinking about this all day.”

“Spike, and it’s fine. I’m just here to check up on things and see if I can’t help with anything.”

“Yes!” Zephyr jumped. “I could absolutely use the help, as you can...” He trailed off as he gestured to the room. “See...” He quieted when he saw the ribbons, banners, and reflective gems of the suddenly decorated room. “Huh...”

Looking around, Spike spotted Twilight tying a sparkling red ribbon to a pillar, a gem appearing in a violet flash over the tightened knot as she backed up to view her handiwork.

“Twi, did you do all this by yourself?” Spike asked, impressed by the filly’s speed. “Where did you even find all this stuff?”

“There’s a bunch of boxes filled with decorations in the hallway. Can we go now?” She asked smugly.

“That’s up to Zephyr here.” Spike said, turning to the stunned stallion. “Do you think this’ll work on it’s own, or would you like help altering things?” He asked.

Slowly, still trying to figure out and process what happened, Zephyr nodded. “This is good.” He said. “I can... I can take it from here. I work better without ponies- er, creatures, looking at me. Performance anxiety.”

“Alright.” Spike said, standing up and nodding to Twilight, who smiled and trotted over to stand next to her brother. “I’ll come back to recheck things in a few hours. If you’re not here I’ll assume you’re finished, so don’t you have to wait up if you have other things to do.”

Nodding, Zephyr thanked Spike and Twilight then flew away to adjust the sudden decor.

“Well, that was incredibly awkward.” Spike admitted as he walked with Twilight to their next destination. “And a little rude of you.”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed. “I helped him! And you! We would’ve been there all day if I left things alone.”

“You still should’ve asked if you could do that first. That job was his responsibility.”

“It didn’t look like he was having much fun doing it.” Twilight grumbled as they trotted along. Slowly, a shadow appeared over her, shading her from the warm rays of Luna’s day. Stopping to look up at the object providing said shade, she spotted an orange pegasus rocketing through the sky on some kind of scooter, slamming into a dark cloud, bursting it into a shower of mist and rain. Rain that soaked the pair of siblings below.

As the pegasus fell to the ground her unusually short wings flapped at unreal speeds to slow her descent, but she still slammed into the earth hard enough to splash up a considerable amount of the now muddied dirt. A splash large enough to, again, soak the siblings.

“Sorry about that!” She said, unhooking a thick plastic helmet from her head and rushing over with the somehow undamaged scooter. “I can go up pretty easy with a ramp, but I can’t really control myself when I go back down without something to slow me.”

“It’s fine.” Spike said, annoyed. “I’ll just... clean it off later, I guess.” He continued, carefully removing his now ruined checklist from behind his ear-fin. “Good thing I memorized this.”

“Let me help you with that.” Quickly mounting the scooter again, the mares wings started working again at mach speeds. In an instant she circled around the dragon and filly fast enough to generate a small, controlled twister, blasting away any mud and dust from the area nearby. “There we go, my very own, patented, Scoot-A-Loop.” She said as she slowed, the rushing pegasus’s blur fading to reveal a pair of clean, if dizzy, siblings.

Twilight growled and glared at the mare, her mane, tail, and coat having been twirled, tangled, and twisted about wildly by the wind. The mare simply smirked and cracked up laughing, falling to the ground and clutching her ribs at the sight of the young filly.

“You must be Scootaloo.” Spike stated. “You’re doing a decent job clearing the skies, I haven’t noted anything wrong with the weather until now.”

Quickly composing herself, she picked herself up off the ground and puffed her chest out proudly. “I didn’t think word about my skills made it to the Dragon Lands. Man, if a dragon’s come all the way to Ponyville just to meet me, I’ll be a shoo-in for the Wonderbolts!”

“I didn’t come here to meet you, Miss Scootaloo, and I’m not from the Dragon Lands. I’ve been sent by the princess to check on your progress.” Spike corrected. She deflated a bit at that, but smiled happily nonetheless.

“The princess, huh? That’s still pretty good. That’s one step closer to the ‘bolts either way.”

“I’ve never heard of a Wonderbolt who needs a ramp to get in the air.” Twilight said. Before Spike had the chance to scold her, Scootaloo responded.

“Actually the Wonderbolts always prepare cloud-slides for their longer shows. They use ‘em to build up speed quickly and out of sight as a way to conserve energy. Even the pros need a little boost from time to time. And even if I don’t get into the ‘bolts proper, and that’s a big if, they still have engineers like me designing the equipment they use to protect them from the literal explosives that they hide in their suits.”

“Explosives?” Twilight asked, shocked.

“What, did you think pegasus magic just let us generate fireworks out of thin air? The closest we can get to that is lightning, and that’s a rare skill to have. Pretty much everyone who does ends up in the storm-making industry.”

At the mention of magic, Twilight lit up, running over to Scootaloo and rattling off as many questions as she could think of about pegasus magic, questions that Spike could neither understand nor keep up with. Though, despite Spike’s inability to match his sister, Scootaloo certainly could, responding to each question just as fast with an answer or explanation relating to her tribe’s abilities. It was, if Spike was being honest, an adorable interaction, seeing Twilight meet with someone just as passionate as her about the technical workings of reality. Still gave him a headache to think about though.

After returning to Town Hall to find Zephyr missing, Spike decided to move onto his final task. Banquet preparations at Sweet Apple Acres. It took a good minute to get to the place, almost being on the entirely opposite side of Ponyville from where he and Twilight had bumped into Scootaloo, but eventually they managed to make it to the long white fence that was separating the farm from the rest of the town, despite the delay caused by a large crowd of ponies taking up the entire road as they moved the opposite way. Looking to his left, Spike could see it stretching off into the horizon. The map he’d studied made the property look as though it took up a third of the town, which he initially thought was an absurd embellishment. Seeing the endless fence for himself made him rethink that assumption.

Returning his attention to the path, he noticed an archway in the fence that seemed to serve as an entrance of sorts. As Spike and Twilight walked through it, they both stopped and took a moment to look around for anyone in the afternoon light, scanning the fields, barn, pens, and coops for any sign that anypony existed. Eventually they spotted someone. Four earth ponies off in the trees, moving around some kind of massive table.

Heading towards the group, Spike called out. “Excuse me!” He called, lifting an arm and waving to draw their attention. After a moment, a yellow, red haired pony with and a bright pink bow in her mane left the group to greet him.

“Howdy!” She said in a country accent. “What brings you to the farm?”

“I’m here to oversee preparations for the celebration. You’re in charge of the food, right?”

“We sure as sugar are!” The mare said excitedly. “Would y’care to sample some?”

“Sure.” Spike accepted, earning a grumble from Twilight. “As long as it doesn’t take too long. I promised my sister here that we’d meet the Apples and then head over to the local library.”

“Well you came to the right place then. Though, if you came for the Apple family reunion, I’m afraid you missed it.” Twilight perked up as the mare spoke, finally putting two and two together.

“Wait, is the ‘Apple’ in ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ not there just because you farm them?” Twilight asked.

Chuckling and shaking her head, the mare motioned for the pair to follow her as she began to walk back towards the table. “My name’s Apple Bloom.” She said. As the trio approached the table, the other three ponies lined up to meet them. “This is my little sister Applejack.” Apple Bloom said, gesturing towards a small orange filly wearing a hat that was far too big to comfortably wear. “My cousin Babs Seed.” She said, pointing at the older orange mare next to her. “She moved from Manehatten to help out at the farm.” She explained. “And finally, this is our grandpappy, Grand Pa. He owns the farm and keeps everything runnin’.”

Twilight ran up and threw out a barrage of questions as soon as Apple Bloom finished. “How long have the Apples been in Ponyville? Spike told me that Princess Luna told you to settle the town here, is that true? How did you meet her? Why did she tell you to settle here? How long ago was that? How old is your family tree?” She spoke quickly, not giving the family a chance to answer.

With a knowing, sympathetic smile, Apple Bloom handed Spike an apple fritter for him to try. Instead of eating it himself however, he shoved the treat in Twilight’s open mouth, silencing her. The filly’s eyes lit up the moment she tasted it, instantaneously satisfied by the heavenly food.

“What do you think, Twi? Good enough for the celebration?”

Still chewing, Twilight simply nodded in response.

“Glad you think so.” Apple Bloom smiled. “Hey, wait a minute. Ain’t you the new pair that Maud told us about?”

Confused, Spike turned to the mare. “Who?”

“Y’know, Maud. Earth pony like me, blank stare, gray coat, purple hair, difficult to read? She’s pretty unique by Ponyville standards.”

“Yeah, we bumped into a pony like that when we arrived. She didn’t really say anything when we talked to her, so I didn’t catch her name.”

“That’d be her. She can be a bit shy sometimes. Ain’t surprised that she didn’t say nothin’ to you, on account of you bein’ a dragon.” Apple Bloom explained. She blushed slightly when she realized what she’d said, quickly speaking to try and recover. “Er, sorry. Don’t mean nothin’ by that.”

“No offense taken. Dragon’s can be pretty imposing from what I’ve heard.”

“What you’ve heard?” She asked, confused.

“I grew up in Canterlot. Only thing I’ve ever seen of dragons is in a few burnt notes, a couple fantasy novels, and that one myth about the pegasus that beat some by leading them into a storm.” Spike said, thinking back to the stories he would read to Twilight when she had trouble sleeping, something she wouldn’t let anyone else but her foalsitter do.

“Oh. Well, either way, I look forward to workin’ with you.” Apple Bloom smiled, raising a hoof to him. A gesture that Spike happily accepted, taking her hoof in his hand and giving a single firm shake.

The sun was completely down by the time that they left Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight was practically dragging herself all the way to Golden Oak Library, their home for the next two days. Well, the next day anyway. She’d asked just about every question there was to ask about the Apple family and their history. The only reason they left was because Applejack started yawning and Grand Pa decided that it would be best if everypony got a nap before the big event. A sentiment that Twilight’s own yawning seemed to agree with.

She gave a weak, tired smile as the building, a hollowed tree, came into view. As they opened the door, they were surprised to see a familiar face standing in the middle of the room, a red book with what appeared to be gold on the cover and spine open on the center table, reading. The gray mare from earlier, Maud, turned when she heard the quiet squeak of the wooden door frame. Silently, she closed the book and picked it up, walking over to one of the shelves to return it to its, presumably, original spot.

She turned around and made her way over to Spike and Twilight, stopping in front of them and giving them both a slow, bored glance. “Hello.” She greeted in a dull, uninterested monotone. “My name is Maud Pie. Welcome to Ponyville.”

“Uh... Hi?” Spike said, feeling a bit awkward with how close the mare was standing. “I’m Spike The Dragon, and this is Twilight Sparkle.”

“I-” Twilight started, interrupted by a yawn. “-already told her my name. I think...”

“No. You didn’t.” Corrected Maud, staring at the lavender filly. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Twilight said, wobbling slightly while trying to smile.

“Can I ask what you’re doing here?” Spike probed.

Slowly moving her gaze over to him, Maud tilted her head slightly, her face unchanging. “It’s a public library.”

“Yes, but it’s closed until after tomorrow.”

“Oh.” She said, straightening. “I wanted to ask your names earlier. I got confused by Twilight’s mumbling, so I didn’t remember to do that when we met.”

“Wait, have you been waiting here all day just to ask us our names?” Twilight asked, shocked.

“Yes.” Maud responded simply. Stunned and impressed by her patience, Twilight and Spike found themselves unable to speak, leaving the room in total silence. After a moment though, Maud piped up. “You’re blocking the exit.” Shaking themselves free of their confusion, the siblings stepped aside, letting the mare trot quietly out of the building and onto the road, stopping to look back at the pair as they stared awkwardly at her from the doorway. “Aren’t you coming?”

“What?” Spike asked. The realization hit him like a brick as he glanced at a clock on the wall. Five AM. It was time for the celebration. “Shoot! We’re late!” He panicked, scooping up and tossing Twilight onto his back before rushing out of the door, slamming it closed as he left. As he galloped past Maud, eyes to the sky to gauge if Princess Luna was raising the sun already, as though it would make a difference, Spike noticed something odd. Movement in the stars.

The phenomena made him slow, allowing his eyes to follow their movement. Four orbs of light drifted towards the moon. “Is the princess doing a display of some kind for the event?” He wondered aloud. As the unicorn silhouette on the moon faded in a dull flash, he remembered. “On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape...” He whispered. He hoped to all hope that it was just a display.

“... The pony that gives us the sun and the moon each and every day.” Quietly, Spike snuck into the building, having missed most of the start of the event. He was lucky that Maud reminded him that... He paused, noticing Maud already in the crowd. He wondered how she got ahead of him for a moment, then remembered that she was a local. She likely knew shortcuts that he was unaware of. “The good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria, Princess Luna!” The mayor announced, pointing up towards a large balcony above the stage that she stood on that was covered with large, velvet curtains. The sound of a piano could be heard from the second floor, ringing out into the crowded building like the call of an angel. Sweetie Belle had definitely not been lying when she said she practiced.

Looking up, Spike watched Zephyr Breeze pull a thick rope, opening the curtains to reveal... an empty balcony. The crowd began to murmur, worry starting to wash over everyone. “Calm down Everypony. There must be a reasonable explanation.” The mayor said as Zephyr landed on the balcony and walked through the doorway to search.

“She’s gone!” Zephyr yelled, reemerging only moments later. He suddenly gasped and backed up once again through the door as an orange and crimson fire began to rise in front of him. A fire that created no smoke as it burned and grew. Gasps came from all around as ponies began to notice the flames.

“Oh no...” Spike said as the blaze contracted into itself before unfurling into the mane and tail of a tall white alicorn with a pair of draconic looking horns. The mare seemed to have flecks of gold sparkling through her coat and was decorated with a golden crown and shoes, as well as a thick golden collar, all with several deep, shining amethysts embedded into them and what appeared to be gilded chains encircling her wings and neck, attached to the heavy looking collar. Her violet, focused, reptilian eyes scanned the crowd and a sinister smile, filled with nothing but sharp fangs, grew on her face and she began to laugh. “Nightmare Star...”

“Oh, my beloved subjects!” The demonic alicorn called. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen your precious, little, night-loving faces.” She scorned.

“What did you do with our princess?!” A mare yelled. Scootaloo. Spike could hear the motor-like revving of her wings as she prepared to charge. How she planned to get up to the balcony, Spike had no idea, but he silently advised against the act. Something Apple Bloom seemed to pick up on, as he could see the mare’s iconic bow unfurling into what appeared to be a makeshift rope, lassoing somepony off in the crowd. As Apple Bloom pulled, he could see that she’d managed to tie down Scootaloo’s wings. He couldn’t help but admire the strength of the ribbon as it dragged the mare backwards, pulling her from the mob. Nor could he help but notice the similarity of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo’s cutie marks, similarly colored shields, Apple Bloom’s containing a heart within an apple and Scootaloo’s containing a lightning bolt within a wing.

Nightmare Star began to laugh, staring down at the pair of ponies from her perch. “Why? Am I not royal enough for you?” She straightened, eyes suddenly glaring with intense fury. “Don’t you know who I am? Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?” Her silent blaze of a mane suddenly roared into an inferno, showering the crowd below with embers and sparks. “Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”

“I did!” Spike called. The ancient princess blinked, searching the crowd for him. “And I know who you are. You’re the mare in the moon, Nightmare Star!” The crowd gasped, and ponies began to back away from the stage, pegasi in the air hovering faster and faster away from the balcony.

Her eyes fell on Spike and the sleeping filly on his back, her gaze softening but containing no less malice . “Well, well, well, somepony, or I suppose somedragon, who remembers me. Fitting, knowing your kind’s tendency towards destruction. Then you must also know why I’m here.”

“You’re here to...” The situation slowly dawned on Spike, fear setting into him. This mare had done something to Princess Luna. This mare could, and would, raze the village if he said something to provoke her enough. “To...” He gulped.

“Hnhmhmhm-hahaha! Remember this night little ponies, for it will be your last. from this moment forth, the day will last forever!” Nightmare cackled, her mane roaring to life once more as the sun rose behind the moon, completely enveloping its dark shadow, and painting the sky red with a malevolent heat.

Author's Note

Next time on Sparkles to Flames...

"There's just one problem. I don't know what they are, or what they do. I don't even know how to find them!" Spike explained, panic growing as he realized just how dangerous and untouchable the tyrant princess was.

"It's the most dangerous place in Ponyville!" Zephyr exclaimed.

"You're not really gonna go off to fight Nightmare Star, right?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"You're not gonna fall, honest." Apple Bloom tried to reassure, her bow turned lasso starting to tear loudly under his weight.

"We should take a break." Maud said as a warm breeze flowed through the leaves.

"We can't just leave him like that!" Sweetie urged, worry plain in her eyes.

Scootaloo scrambled for a grasp as the rope around her began to tighten.

“The day, will last, forever!" Cackled Nightmare Star. "Aah-hahaha ha ha!"

Friendship is Magic - Part 2

Everypony panicked and ran as flames fell down around them. Everypony but the tall, blazing alicorn looming above them on the second floor, raining down heat and hatred as she cackled at their collective terror.

“Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is!” The mayor yelled, directing a squad of batpony guards as they rushed past her, silvery armor shining like bronze in the light of the roaring flames.

“Yes, fly directly towards the living inferno while wearing heavy metal armor.” Nightmare Star berated, her eyes glowing pure white as fireballs flew from her mane, striking the lead guard and knocking out the entire squad in a single, powerful explosion that shook the building and woke the filly sleeping peacefully on Spike’s back.

“What’s... going on?” Twilight asked drowsily. It didn’t take long for her to notice the menace ablaze above them.

“Ah, the idiocy of youth. Are you tinfoil covered foals truly the peak of Equestria’s defense? How absolutely pitiful.” Once again, the crimson flames contracted and wrapped around the demonic mare and she rushed through the air as a stream of living flame. She crashed into and burned her way through the doors, leaving them as nothing more than scorched splinters limply hanging off of their hinges as she slunk off into the scorching scarlet sky.

Spike ran around the building as ponies fled, putting his fireproof scales to use to smother the small red flames and embers. Twilight used her magic to do the same, extinguishing several flames at once, as well as all the ones that Spike couldn’t reach himself.

Spike’s mind raced as he worked. Where was Princess Luna? What kind of dark magic did Nightmare Star use to turn into such a monster? How was someone supposed to defeat something that could turn into sentient fire? His frustration only built further when he finally left the Town Hall. Even as a dragon, a creature with resistance to high temperatures, he could feel the heat in the ground burning into his hands and feet as he walked.

He was relieved to feel a refreshing burst of icy cool air as he opened the entrance to the Golden Oak Library. He quickly rushed in and closed the door, quietly thanking the building’s owner, and possible arborist, for their foresight in installing a cooling device for hot summer days. He also wondered if it was magical or mechanical in nature, something he didn’t get the chance to check as when he turned around to face the room he was suddenly confronted by a familiar, angry, short winged, orange pegasus.

“You seemed to know an awful lot about that ‘Nightmare Star’ jerk.” Scootaloo stated accusingly, jabbing a hoof into Spike’s chest. “What are you two? Spies? Do you even have a name, dragon boy?” Before she could probe further, she was yanked back by her tail by Apple Bloom. “Whoa!”

“Simmer down, Scoots. They ain’t no spies.” Apple Bloom defended, though she looked to Spike with concern. “But he sure knows what’s goin’ on. Ain’t that right?”

Looking around the room, Spike met the eyes of each of his guests. Zephyr Breeze, Maud Pie, Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. All the ponies that the princess sent him to talk to, with the addition of Maud. Sighing, he began to explain. “The other night, before I came into town, Princess Luna recounted two stories, and told me that they somehow made this year’s Summer Sun Celebration important. I thought it was just a couple myths, like the ones Twilight reads all the time, but it looks like I was wrong.”

“Did these stories happen to mention how to beat her?” Scootaloo asked. Spike nodded.

“In the story, Nightmare Star’s sister used some mysterious objects called the ‘Elements of Harmony’ to banish her into the moon. As far as I’m aware, they’re the only things that can stop her.” The dragon explained, recalling the stories that Princess Luna explained.

“Easy, then! We just find these element things and send her to the moon again! Simple as one, two, three!” Sweetie Belle cheered.

“There’s just one problem. I don’t know what they are, or what they do. I don’t even know how to find them!” Spike explained, panic growing as he realized just how dangerous and untouchable the tyrant princess was.

“I was reading about them earlier.” Maud said suddenly. She trotted over to a nearby shelf and gently grabbed a book with her mouth, carrying it over to Spike. The same red, gold covered book that was open on the table earlier last night.

“The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.” He read from the cover as Twilight tiredly floated the book out of Maud’s hold with her magic, placing it in Spike’s claws. “Why were you reading this, of all things?”

“Mr. Paleo studies a lot about ancient culture. He told me about them once when he was reading about different myths throughout the world, so I got curious.” Maud explained.

“Huh.” Cracking open the book, Spike scanned through the pages for relevant information. As soon as he found something he began to read its contents aloud to everypony in the room. “There are six elements of harmony, but only five are known. Sympathy, Composure, Benevolence, Trust, and Dedication. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters.” A flicker of light caused Spike to glance towards the window. Seeing nothing but the rose red sky, he continued. “It is located in what is now the Evermute Forest.”

“The Evermute Forest?!” Repeated Zephyr, terrified.

“That’s what it says. Is that bad?”

“It’s the most dangerous place in Ponyville!” Zephyr exclaimed, prompting Scootaloo to roll her eyes. “I live right next to it. It doesn’t work the same as Equestria. The plants and animals take care of themselves, the weather changes on its own, and the few paths that exist seem to change anytime someone enters or leaves. It’s like the place is alive.”

“It’s a forest, Zephyr. Of course it’s alive.” Scootaloo chided. “Wait, why do you live so close to the Evermute if you’re afraid of it?”

“It’s super low maintenance. Plus the scary stuff tends to stay deeper inside the forest, where I’m assuming this castle is considering the fact that the only building I’ve ever seen near the place is my cottage.”

“Look, you should all get home while you still can. It’s probably gonna get a lot hotter before it gets any cooler. Until it does, I’ll head out to the Evermute to look for the castle.” Spike explained, closing the book and walking past the group, beginning to head up a set of stairs carved into the wall.

Walking through a second door, he gently slid his exhausted sister off his back and onto a massive bed.

“You’re not really gonna go off to fight Nightmare Star, right?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“I’ll find the elements of harmony and beat her as fast as I can. Even if I don’t find them, I’ll beat her. I’m a dragon, remember? I’m fireproof, she can’t hurt me.” Spike reassured, tucking his sister under the covers. The poor exhausted filly passed out before he even turned off the light and closed the curtains.

Walking back out of the room and quietly closing the door, he noticed the others still hadn’t left. Scootaloo climbed up the first step and looked Spike in the eye and told him, without a hint of hesitation they were going to join him. “We’re going too, Flame.”

“No you’re- wait, Flame?” Spike asked, bewildered.

“It’s a nickname, since you still haven’t told me your real one.”

“Oh, right. Sorry about that. It’s Spike.”

“Too little too late. Your name’s Flame now.”

“Ugh.”

“You seriously don’t have to come with me.” Spike tried to dissuade the group as they approached the forest’s entrance. All the ponies darted beneath the shade of the trees as soon as they could. Spike stood freely in the blazing sun, mostly unbothered by the heat. “This could get seriously dangerous if we’re out here too long. We might not even find the castle.”

“All the more reason to bring us along.” Scootaloo countered. “More eyes means a higher chance of spotting the big stone ruins among the greenery, right?”

“Well, yes, but-” Sweetie Belle hushed the drake before he could continue arguing.

“We’re not going to leave you to fight some ancient magic monster on your own. That’s not what a friend does.” She told him.

“We just met last night.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re here to help. So are we.” Sweetie turned and began to march into the forest, followed by the others. Spike sighed in defeat as he too began to follow.

The group decided it would be best to search high, to get as large a view as possible over the trees. It wasn’t particularly hard to find a hill large enough to fulfill that goal, spending mere minutes climbing the path up a shallow incline. Spike felt odd as he scanned the horizon though, feeling as though it was a bit too easy to climb above the treeline. He stepped out of the shade provided by the hill, approaching the edge of the path and peering downwards to the ground below.

“Jeez.” Spike said, awed by the sheer height of what he could only assume was a full on mountain, something he should have been able to spot walking into the forest but hadn’t. “How long have we been walking again? It really doesn’t feel like we should be this high up already.” He asked. Just as he turned around to return to the group, he heard Apple Bloom gasp. He was caught completely by surprise when a wave of crimson fire slammed into the ground with enough force to set it loose beneath him.

Reacting quickly, he jumped forward as he fell, kicking off the crumbling stone and clawing desperately at the dirt. He found no safety in his grip however as he slid rapidly down the newly created slope, narrowly missing getting hit by pieces of the once solid path rolling past him and over the edge. Not that it helped much.

His heart leapt into his throat as he crossed over that final border of safety. He tumbled over himself as he fell off of the cliff, getting a glance of the horizon as he fell. Despite being unable to fully process it, Spike thought that something didn’t seem right with the view. It didn’t look quite right to him.

Suddenly he felt something wrap around his tail and give a painful yank, sending the drake swinging straight into the face of the mountain with a loud thud.

“Aghk!” Spike yelped as he hit the wall. Shaking his head free of the dizziness, he pushed himself off of the stone and looked down, or up he supposed, at his savior. Apple Bloom, with a pink cloth wrapped tightly around her forehoof, stood in the hot sun. She’d used her bow to lasso his tail as he fell. His elation was soon cut short however when he heard the sound of thread snapping. “What do I do?!” He panicked, silently vowing to start taking climbing lessons if he made it out of his situation.

“Just stay there!” She yelled down. Turning her head, Apple Bloom scanned the group. Scootaloo had caught Sweetie Belle as she started sliding, digging her back hooves into the earth and using her wings to keep them both from sliding down the edge. Though rattled, Sweetie had done something similar with her magic, impressively grabbing all three of the other ponies with her magic. Apple Bloom had broken free of it though in order to save Spike, and Zephyr was obviously a non-issue, so Sweetie had released her grasp in order to focus her hold on Maud as Scootaloo dragged them both back up to safety.

“Zephyr!” She yelled. “I can’t drag ‘im up if my rope’s gone! Get down there and catch ‘im!”

“I’ve never lifted anything more than a bunny or two while flying before!” Zephyr called back, pale as a ghost. “I won’t be able to pull him back up here.”

“Then fly him down!” She ordered. Steeling himself, Zephyr rushed over the edge and hovered next to Spike, hooves outstretched but still trembling involuntarily.

Spike eyed the scared stallion’s shaking limbs with distrust before looking back up at Apple Bloom. “Are you sure about this?” He asked, hesitant to place his life in the hooves of a pony who looked like he was seconds away from just passing out from the heat and shock.

“You’re not gonna fall, honest.” Apple Bloom tried to reassure, her bow turned lasso starting to tear loudly under his weight. “Zephyr might not look like much, but he’ll get you down safer than I can.”

Taking a breath to calm his nerves, Spike reached for Zephyr’s embrace. As soon as the pair got a hold of each other, the bow snapped, forcing Zephyr to instantly bear the entirety of Spike’s weight. The pegasus strained as they drifted to the ground, only barely able to keep them both from plummeting into the rubble below as the full heat of the day beat into him.

He just about collapsed as they touched the scorching ground. Unable to stand on his own, Zephyr leaned onto Spike, who practically dragged the exhausted stallion beneath the shade of the nearest tree. They both sat together and rested, doing their best to steady their shaking bodies.

The group reunited after about ten minutes passed, Maud finding the two boys almost passed out together in the shade of the canopy.

“Ya’ll alright?” Apple Bloom asked the pair as they peeled themselves off the grass.

“Yeah, we’re fine.” Spike responded, finally untying the torn ribbon from his tail and handing it back to the mare. “Sorry for doubting you. And Zephyr Breeze.”

“S’alright, Hun. We all do fool things when we’re scared. I ‘bout near fell off myself when I went to catch ya.” Taking the ribbon back, she retied it into her hair, drawing her mane up from her neck and putting it into a big red bun.

Standing up, Spike took a step away from the small herd of ponies. “I think I might’ve saw what we’re looking for.” He explained, pointing deeper into the Evermute. “I’m not sure about it, but this way might be worth checking out.”

“Nice!” Sweetie cheered. “One step closer to getting out of this heat!”

“It’s still gonna be hot, even if we beat Nightmare Star.” Maud corrected. “It’s still summer.” Sweetie Belle let out an irritated cry towards the sky. The last thing she expected was for the sky to cry back.

A roar echoed off the trees, followed by the sound of large wing beats drawing closer and closer. Crashing through the trees appeared a massive, bat winged lion with a scorpion tail and dark spots all through its mane. A manticore. It swung a paw at Spike as soon as it landed, sending him flying through the air.

Crashing into the ground, Spike skidded a few inches. Dazed, he hadn’t realized the manticore was already over him, tail poised to strike as he tried to get up. As soon as he saw the beast’s tail in the air, stinger pointed at him, he felt a familiar heat well up in his chest. As quick as possible he took the deepest breath he could and let out a burst of emerald flame, forcing the beast to reel backwards and adorning it with yet another black mark. As Spike slowly rose, drawing in another, deeper breath, Zephyr flew between the fighters.

“Wait!” He yelled, shoving a hoof into Spike’s open maw. “Ow. You have sharp teeth.” He winced, quickly withdrawing. Spike coughed out a couple embers painfully as he backed away from the crazed stallion.

“What are you doing?!” He scolded.

“Look.” Zephyr said, carefully approaching the wild manticore. The beast stared at Zephyr, confused and hesitant, as he pointed to the black spots along it’s mane. “These are scorch marks.” He explained.

“Good. I should burn off all of the thing’s fur for attacking like that.”

Zephyr shook his head. “No, they’re all scorch marks.” He clarified as if that meant anything, the manticore eyeing him curiously as it glanced between him and Spike, slowly lowering its wings and tail. “Poor thing got hit with more than just your fire. And I’m willing to bet the flames that did this were more red than green.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Nightmare Star showed up, she set fire to the Town Hall. Then, as soon as we start looking for the elements in the Evermute, a fireball with a color that matches her mane just happens to fall from the sky?”

“She’s trying to stop us!” Spike exclaimed.

Zephyr nodded, looking up at the manticore with sympathetic eyes, gently petting its burnt mane. “You probably got targeted by her flames too, didn’t you?” Slowly it studied the cyan pegasus, nodding after a moment, seeming to have calmed down. “He must’ve thought you attacked him first, Spike, since you literally breathe fire.”

“Guess Nightmare Star didn’t count on my magic fire.”

“You’ve got magic fire, Flame?” Scootaloo asked suddenly. “Is that why it was green?”

“Ugh! Can we not talk about fire in the middle of a heatwave?” Sweetie growled, trotting deeper into the dark, cool forest. Carefully passing the manticore, the rest of the group followed after.

The canopy thickened as they traveled further in, to the point that it almost completely blocked the sun’s light and granting the six a blissful respite from the unending heat.

“We should take a break.” Maud said as a warm breeze flowed through the leaves. “We can spend more time in the sun if we take this chance to let our bodies cool off.”

The group didn’t hesitate to sit down and rest, letting the shadows absorb their unbearable warmth. Spike sighed as he leaned against a thick tree, mossy roots acting as a sort of cushion beneath him. He scratched at his sides, picking out twigs and pebbles from between his scuffed, violet scales. “I don’t think I’ll be playing knight with a manticore anytime soon.” He muttered, eliciting an amused snort from Sweetie Belle.

“What’re you on about?” Apple Bloom asked, confused.

“He doesn’t wanna get wailed on anymore.” Sweetie translated.

“Ah.”

“Historically, it was the pegasus’ Royal Legion that fought with dragons. Armored knights were mostly a unicorn thing.” Maud said, carefully using a hoof to dig through the dirt. Dragging a rock from out of the ground, she carried it over to the aching drake and presented it.

“Uh... Cool rock?” He said, eyeing it. “Very grey. Matches your frock.”

Slowly, she placed it on the ground in front of him and placed her hoof on top of it. She seemed to adjust the angle of her knee for a moment before drawing back and striking, cracking the stone in half to reveal that it wasn’t only hollow, but lined with several blue gems as well. “It’s a sapphire geode. I heard dragons eat gemstones. I thought you might be hungry.”

“Whoa.” Spike said, impressed by her utter ease in cracking stone with her bare hooves. “Yeah, I do. Thank you. How did you find this?”

“Maud sense.” She told him in that same bored monotone, walking away to lay next to her own tree without any further explanation.

Still confused but lacking the energy to follow it up despite his haunting curiosity, he happily raised one of the two halves to his mouth and blew a small green flame into the makeshift bowl, heating the gems to make them easier to eat. Before he got the chance to get too deep into his snack however, another red flame blasted through the leaves and into the grass between the group. Another attack by Nightmare Star.

The flames spread unnaturally fast above them, traveling down the limbs towards the base of the trunks, forcing everypony away from the trees that were just protecting them. Branches fell and flames roared around the six, trapping them in a circle of flame. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo tried to kick up dust towards the fire, while Zephyr panicked and tried to put them out with a breeze from his wings, as though he were trying to blow out a candle.

As a branch crackled and burned above Sweetie Belle, Spike quickly jumped over her, shielding her from the flaming limb as it fell from the canopy. Terrified for her own safety, she darted from under Spike, away from the flaming branch.

Calmly and gently, Maud trotted over to Zephyr and grabbed his wings to stop the ineffective breeze he was creating.

“What are you doing? We have to put out the fire!” Zephyr yelled as Maud held down his wings.

“You’re fanning the flames.” She explained. “That’s only going to make it grow more.” Letting go of his wings, she turned to Sweetie Bell. “Can your magic keep the leaves and branches from falling on us? She asked. Sweetie nodded and closed her eyes, igniting her horn in a green aura and generating a wide, transparent shield.

“You said you have magic fire.” Maud turned to Spike, looking him in the eyes. “Do you think it can put out the grass?”

“Not quite.” Spike admitted. “But I can send it away.” With a nod from Maud, he went to work, spewing emerald flames over the burning plant life beneath them, instantly burning it away into a lightly colored, sparkling smoke that contracted and disappeared. Moving to work on the ring around them, the ponies all rushed through the dirt path he created, Sweetie dropping her magical barrier. As Spike repeated the process one final time on the leaves above, Zephyr smiled at the grey earth pony.

“That was some good thinking Maud. I never would’ve thought to fight fire with fire.”

“We didn’t. We fought fire with magical fire.”

“Technically we didn’t fight fire at all.” Spike interrupted, breathing heavily. “We just sent it somewhere else.”

“Where?” Maud asked.

“The ocean. Well, the beach I visited last year on vacation, but still. Really hope nopony was there today.”

“At least the fire’s dealt with.”

Letting out an amused huff, Spike smiled. “Yeah. Fair enough. Let’s get moving before that happens again.”

As the group walked up to an odd sight, a bubbling river, they stopped. Slowly, Spike dipped his tail in the foaming water, immediately withdrawing with a short hiss. “It’s boiling.” He explained as he gently shook his tail dry, careful to not splash the ponies.

“You can breathe fire but you have issues with some hot water?” Scootaloo asked, perplexed.

“My scales are fireproof, but I think it’s a magical thing. Natural enchantments don’t tend to do well against stuff they didn’t specifically evolve to handle. Learned that the hard way when I fell asleep sunbathing. I can still resist the heat well enough though. I might be able to carry all of you across if Zephyr helps keep things steady.”

“Keep things steady?” Zephyr asked.

Pushing off from the ground, Spike stood fully upright on his hind legs, towering at nearly twice the height of the ponies around him. Slowly, he walked into the boiling river, moving all the way to the other side without the water even coming up to his waist. “If you all climb on my shoulders, I should be able to bring you over one at a time while Zephyr makes sure nopony slips off.”

“Isn’t that gonna hurt? If you’re in the water too long you could get burned, right?”

“I’ll be fine after a shed or two. Besides, it shouldn’t be a problem in the first place if we hurry up.” Spike assured as he waded back over to the others. Sure enough, they each climbed onto Spike’s shoulders, Zephyr holding them steady and adjusting each time someone began to slip. The moment the last pony, Apple Bloom, was lowered to the ground, a wail sounded from down the river.

Without a second thought, Sweetie Belle ran off, following the current towards the pained sound. Following the unicorn, the group stumbled upon a writhing purple serpent as he tried to crawl his way from the river. “We have to do something!” Sweetie pleaded as she conjured another green barrier to shield her from the splashing water as she approached.

“I don’t think I can lift that much weight.” Spike said, stopping Sweetie.

“We can’t just leave him like that!” Sweetie urged, worry plain in her eyes. Searching around the forest, an idea suddenly struck her. “Wait here!” She rushed away from the river and up into the trees. After a few moments, and a few concerned looks shared between the group, Sweetie rushed back with several long vines, running past the group and tying the plants around the serpent like ropes.

“Everyone, grab a vine and pull!” She instructed, chomping down on the closest one to her and using her magic to float the ends of the five other vines towards each of the five creatures. Following Sweetie’s lead, everyone bit down on a vine and pulled with all their remaining strength. Slowly but surely, the serpent was dragged out of the boiling water onto the dry, if still hot, shore.

“Oh, I can’t thank you all enough!” The serpent celebrated. “I was starting to prune in there.”

“What?!” Scootaoo yelled. “You were screaming because you were starting to prune?!”

“Well of course! Do you think I want to look like a wrinkled old sea monster?”

“What are you even doing in a river in the Evermute Forest anyway?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business, you rude little chicken.”

“Why you-” Sweetie shoved a hoof in Scootaloo’s face, shushing her before she could pick a fight.

“I’m glad you’re alright, Mister..?” She trailed off.

“Steven. Steven Magnet.” The serpent answered, giving a small bow towards Sweetie Belle. “Now for you, my little pony, I’d answer any question.”

“It’s alright, Mister Magnet.” Sweetie said, giving a small, satisfied smile. “Oh, wait, I do have something to ask! Would you happen to know where the ‘castle of the royal pony sisters’ is?”

“Doing a bit of sight seeing in the summertime are we?” Steven asked, giving a small laugh as he rose from his bow. “We’re right next to it. Keep heading west and you’ll come across an old rope bridge that you can use to get across the chasm, then it’ll just be another five minute walk.”

“Thank you very much for you help, kind sir. We’ve mostly just been moving on blind hope up until now.” Sweetie bowed to Steven before rising and leading the group once again into the forest.

True to Steven’s word, the ponies and drake stumbled upon an old rope bridge as they continued on their path. There was only one problem. The rope had long since come undone.

As the group turned to Zephyr, the stallion backed away, shaking his head. “I couldn’t tie a sturdy knot to save my life.”

Groaning, Scootaloo dragged up the bridge, plank by plank, on her own, tying the loose rope to her waist, and revving her wings. Before anyone got the chance to ask her what she was doing, she darted off the edge of the cliff at high speed, launching herself almost entirely across the chasm. Almost. Everyone gasped as they watched her fall.

Scootaloo scrambled for a grasp as the rope around her began to tighten. She needed a hold on the other side if she wanted to repair the bridge. The weight of the planks pulled her further down into the fog. A rock nicked the tip of her hoof as she was dragged away.

With a massive burst of energy, her wings pushed her forward just enough to cling to a single stone. A sun bleached rock that burned her hoof with its heat. With that hold, she pulled herself onto the face of the cliff, and began to ascend, the violent rays of the furious sun beating down onto her exposed back. Sweat caused her hooves to slip, forcing her to readjust her grip several times as she made her way back up the side of the wall, feeling as though she were being dragged down into the ocean depths by the tentacle of a mighty kraken.

Clambering her way back over the edge, Scootaloo rolled onto the solid ground with an exhausted sigh. Even on the ground, it felt as though she were being weighed down by cinder blocks. With an irritated sigh, she undid the rope around her waist and approached the stone post where it had been originally tied, looping it around several times before pulling a knot tight. Pulling up the other side of the bridge she repeated the process with the other rope before turning around and marching on towards the castle.

Quickly making their way into the shaded ruins of the ancient castle, the group instantly found the fabled elements. A pedestal in the center of the room held five stone spheres, each as big as the ponies’ heads. Carefully, Sweetie Belle used her magic to lift each of them off of the display, placing them in a circle in front of the group.

“One, two, three, four, that’s five.” Sweetie counted. “Where’s the sixth?”

“The book said that when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed.” Maud recited, looking towards Spike.

“What in the hay is that supposed mean?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I’m not sure.” Spike said, taking a step towards the elements. “But stand back anyway. I wanna try something.” Taking a breath, Spike let the warmth of his fire well up in his chest. Slowly, he allowed controlled orange embers to flood and fall from his mouth, pooling around the element boulders in an attempt to ignite them with a literal spark. The ponies backed away, watching as the flames built.

In an instant, the flames changed to a deep red color and swirled, carrying the elements into the air in a crimson twister. As the ponies gasped, instantly recognizing the inferno as it rose, Spike leapt into the fiery winds, unwilling to allow their only weapon to be stolen from their grasp. In a flash of light, everything disappeared into thin air. The flames, the elements, and Spike.

Suddenly Spike found himself in what appeared to have once been a throne room. Across the room before him stood Nightmare Star, each of the five elements floating in her fiery grasp, cackling maniacally as she placed the stone spheres down around her.

Without a word, Spike glared and lowered his head, dragging a hand across the ground as though he were about to charge the tyrant unarmed.

“Oh you’re kidding, right? Please tell me I didn’t just spend the last few hours trying to send you away, just for you to charge at me headfirst like a fool.”

Once again feeling the warmth in his chest, Spike indeed charged. With a sigh, Nightmare Star lowered her horn to the level of his head and began to run as well. Spike needed to get to the elements. It didn’t matter what she did if he could get the sixth element to appear. As the pair approached each other, Spike let loose a gout of ocean blue flames, though they didn’t seem to carry his momentum. As Spike charged through his own fire, feeling their heat wash over his scales, he suddenly found himself on the throne that Nightmare Star had been taunting him from just moments before.

He didn’t have time to figure out what happened. He looked down and let loose another jet of bright orange flames. History only seemed to repeat itself though as his flames once again turned red, condensing together and blasting him backwards with a powerful explosion.

The tyrant princess laughed as Spike flew past her, slamming into the ground hard enough to crack the already crumbling stone. Slowly, she trotted back onto the throne, standing in the middle of the now shattered elements. “You pathetic little whelp. Did you actually think you could defeat me? Now, you will never see your precious princess, or your moon. The day, will last, forever!” Cackled Nightmare Star. “Aah-hahaha ha ha!”

Spike stared up at the corrupted princess, defeated. Suddenly, the voices of the others approached from the entrance and Spike’s heart swelled in joy. Not only were they safe, but they were coming to help him! As their figures galloped through the doorway, a realization dawned on Spike.

“You think you can destroy the elements of harmony just like that?” He asked, pushing off from the ground and staring down the flaming tyrant with renewed passion. “Too bad for you that the spirits of the elements of harmony are right here!” He exclaimed as the ponies huddled around him. The shards around Nightmare began to glow and rise from the ground as he spoke, gliding over to each of the five ponies around him.

“What? Hang on, no! I already won! that’s not fair!”

“Apple Bloom, who believed in Zephyr when both he and I were in doubt, represents the spirit of Trust! Zephyr Breeze, who ended a fight with the manticore with his attentiveness and compassion, represents the spirit of Sympathy! Maud Pie, who guided us out of danger with clear thinking, is the spirit of Composure! Sweetie Belle, who saved a writhing serpent from a boiling stream without a moment’s hesitation or any benefit to herself, is the spirit of Benevolence! And Scootaloo, who leapt a burning chasm so that we could complete our quest, is the spirit of Dedication!” Spike monologued, the element shards circling the ponies and glowing brighter with each word. “The traits held by these five ponies got us through every single challenge you threw at us.”

“You still don’t have the sixth element! The spark didn’t work.” Nightmare sneered.

“But it did! A different kind of spark.” Spike said, turning to look at each of the ponies that came and helped him on this mission. “I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear and see you all safe. When I realized how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all...” He told them, tears welling up in his eyes. Taking a moment to wipe away the waterworks, he turned back around, ready to confront Nightmare Star. “Are my friends!”

A flash of white above him prompted everyone to look into the air. Everyone stared in shock at the floating stone, emblazoned with a six pointed star, a spark, floating above. In an instant Spike realized what it was and continued.

“When those elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, they create the sixth element. The element of Chivalry!” With that, the shards transformed with a bright flash into gems inlaid into platinum necklaces around everyone, each of the six gems having a unique shape. All but the last, the stone, that glowed and morphed around Spike’s head into a gem inlaid into a platinum crown. A rosy red apple for trust, a topaz feather for sympathy, a lavender boulder for composure, a pastel pink star for benevolence, a magenta wing for dedication, and an emerald green flame for chivalry. Almost the same colors as their manes. Or spines, in Spike’s case.

Magic radiated from the gems, enveloping their bearers in a prismatic light that sparked and twisted. As their wills ignited, so too did the fury of the elements, spewing forth into a rainbow of color and pure arcane force. Nightmare Star shrieked as the magic blasted her, washing away the stain of her vile form in a crumbling silhouette.

“Ugh... My head...” Scootaloo groaned as she peeled herself from the floor.

“Everypony okay?” Sweetie Belle called.

“I’m good.” Apple Bloom responded, followed by Spike and Zephyr.

“Where did this come from?” Maud asked, looking down at the element around her neck.

“It looks like your cutie mark.” Sweetie pointed out.

“So does yours.” Replied Zephyr, already examining his own.

“Gee, Spike. I thought you were spouting a bit of nonsense back there for dramatic effect, but I guess we really are the spirits of the elements.” Apple Bloom admitted, eyeing the crown above the dragon’s head.

“Indeed you are.” A voice confirmed as a shadow washed over the room. Looking to the nearest window, everyone could see the sky returning to a natural shade of blue as the sun released the moon’s shadow and began to lower back beneath the horizon, bathing the land in the cool shade of the night as stars began to dot the sky. A single moonbeam began to shine brightly through the aging, broken glass, and as it slowly faded it revealed the form of the missing princess.

“Princess Luna!” Spike called, rushing over to the dark blue alicorn as the ponies bowed.

“Spike The Dragon, my faithful assistant. I knew you could do it.”

“I thought you said it was all an old ponies’ tale...”

“I told you this year’s celebration would be important, nothing more than that. I might’ve implied something more, but I certainly didn’t say anything. I saw the signs of Nightmare Star’s return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart.” Luna explained. “Now if only another will as well.”

As Luna approached the ruined throne, everyone moved their gaze to follow, landing upon the crumpled form of a small white alicorn with short, pink hair, shattered gold and broken jewels scattered all around her.

“Princess Celestia.” Luna called. The smaller alicorn flinched and opened her eyes, gazing up to the princess in fear. “It has been a thousand years since I have last seen you like this. It’s time to put our disagreements behind us. For our sakes, as much as theirs.” Luna said, extending a wing to gesture to the six Equestrian citizens and crouching next to the cowering pony. “We were meant to rule together, little sister.”

“Sister?!” The onlookers all gasped in unison.

“Will you accept my friendship, and my apology?” Luna asked, rising.

Tears welled in Celestia’s bright pink eyes as she rushed forward, falling into Luna’s embrace. “I’m so sorry, big sister! I’ve missed you so much!”

“I’ve missed you too.” Luna said. Her horn ignited in its bright blue glow, and in a flash of moonlight everyone was out of the Evermute once again, finally free of that horrid place. Luna and her sister began making their way back into the town together when Luna stopped, noticing the gaze of Spike as he watched the pair with sorrow in his eyes.

“Why so glum, my faithful assistant?” She asked. “Are you not happy that your quest is complete, and you are free to return to your home in Canterlot at your leisure?”

“That’s just it, Princess. Just when I realized how wonderful friendship can really be when it’s embraced, I have to leave all of the ones I’ve made here.” The dragon explained.

Pondering for a moment, Luna tilted her head and chuckled. “You really are quite dutiful, aren’t you? How about this then; I, Princess Luna, hereby decree that the dragon known as Spike The Dragon shall take on a new mission for Equestria.” She announced, turning towards the group of friends, the bearers of the elements of harmony, and flaring out her wings. “He must begin to study the magic of friendship and report to me his findings, from his new home in Ponyville, no longer as my faithful assistant, but as my personal student.”

As Spike bowed in reverence, his friends cheered for him. “Thank you, Princess Luna. I’ll study harder than Twilight does for an upcoming test.”

“Wait, hang on a second, is ‘The Dragon’ part of your full name, Flame?” Scootaloo asked, snickering.

“I’m going home now.” Spike rolled his eyes, opting to ignore the fact that his ‘name’ was more of a title. “I’ve got a report to write.”

Author's Note

Dear Princess Luna,
Looking back on it, it was almost obvious that Nightmare Star was your little sister. I really should’ve picked that up sooner instead of assuming she was one of your predecessors. Just like how I should’ve recognized my friends as friends when they offered to walk headfirst into danger with me.

I guess it was just tough to get my head around the idea that anyone could, and especially would, make decisions like that. For anyone in your family to attack you, and for anyone outside of mine to not be at least a little afraid of me.

Thank you for sending me to Ponyville. I’ve met some great ponies here and I hope that, with their help, I can meet more in the future.
Your faithful assist student, Spike The Dragon.

P.S. Can you ask Princess Celestia how she blew up fire? I just can’t figure out how she managed to do that.

The Ticket Master

“Thanks for helpin’ me out, Spike, Scoots. I bet Babs I could get all these apples into the barn by lunchtime. If I win, she’ll have to do all the chores for a week, heheheh.” Apple Bloom chuckled as the trio walked down the dirt pathway from the orchard, the saddle baskets carried by each of them overflowing with the last batch of apples that they’d spent the morning picking, bucking, collecting, and carrying.

“Not a problem Bloom. I’m just glad the goal is lunch. I’m beyond hungry.” Scootaloo said, her stomach growling as if to emphasize her point. Spike nodded silently in agreement.

“I promised Applejack I’d help her get her cutie mark if I had the time. I’m not really sure where to start with her if I’m honest, so this week’s gonna be mighty interestin’.”

“She seems like a strong kid. I wouldn’t be too shocked if her special talent had something to do with hard work. What do you think, Flame?”

“I don’t have too much of an idea on how cutie marks work, plus I haven’t talked with Applejack a whole lot, so I’ve got no clue what it could be. Actually, I had a couple questions about your-” Spike felt warmth well up involuntarily within his chest. His fire. He paused, contemplating whether to hold the flame for later or to release it now. It was likely a message, possibly from his parents. Twilight Velvet in particular had been bombarding him with congratulatory messages ever since he became Princess Luna’s personal student. Of course, it could just as easily be a message from the princess herself, finally deciding to send him out on a specific assignment rather than just allowing him to sit around idly, waiting for him to accumulate friendship related wisdom through some kind of social osmosis.

He stopped, letting his friends get a bit of distance away from him before blowing out a small jet of his signature green flames. They curled into themselves, transforming into a ball of smoke before exploding in a bright flash, leaving a rolled up scroll it its place, a thin sparkling aura keeping it afloat in the breeze. Spike carefully snatched the paper from the air and unfurled it, a pair of golden tickets revealing themselves and beginning to float lazily in front of him, held by their own golden glow.

“Oooh!” The two mares voiced in unison at the display.

“Learn a new trick? I thought you could only send things away.” Scootaloo asked, marveling at the somehow unburnt un-burnt scroll in Spike’s claws.

“Nah, this always happens whenever someone decides to teleport a letter my way. Plus I can use it to move stuff I don’t wanna carry.”

“I really wanna study your breath, man.”

“Sure.” Spike half-jokingly accepted while shrugging. “Maybe you can make sense of the random theories that Twilight’s been writing up since she was six.”

Looking back down to the scroll, he began to read it aloud and continued walking. The other two kept up beside him. “Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Luna of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the twenty first day of July of the one thousand one hundred and sixth year, in honor of the return of her younger sibling, the ever-radiant Princess Celestia. Because of his involvement and efforts in reuniting the Two Sisters, it is with pride and honor that Princess Luna cordially extends an invitation to Spike The Dragon plus one guest.” Spike squinted at the paper quizzically. “The Two Sisters... Odd thing to capitalize. Also, ever-radiant is kind of a poor choice of words, considering what her whole goal was when she escaped.”

“Nevermind that! You got invited to the Grand Gallopin’ Gala?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, brushing off Spike’s critique of the invitation. “Shoot, Spike! You’re darn lucky to be invited to somethin’ that big.”

“It’s not too grand, believe me.” He said, waving her off. He took another short breath and lit the scroll ablaze. Scootaloo watched as the flames raced across the parchment, burning it away into sparkling yellowish-white smoke before it floated from Spike’s open grasp and back towards Ponyville to be deposited on some desk in the Golden Oak Library. “You want the tickets?”

“Now why the hay would you say somethin’ like that? If I could set up an apple stand up there at that gala, I’d be able to drum up enough business to fix up the entire farm! I could replace the saggy ol’ roof for the barn, and Babs could replace that saggy ol’ plow for the fields, and Grand Pa could replace his saggy ol’ hip for, well, him! Ab-so-tutly I want those tickets!”

“I had to help organize the last couple gala’s. The only thing ‘grand’ about it is the Wonderbolts performance at the start to get all the celebrities and nobility hyped for the party. It’s all downhill from there, really. It’s mostly just an excuse for the prudes and snoots to mingle.” Spike explained, the glowing tickets slowly drifting their way to hover next to Apple Bloom.

Before she could grab the floating slips, a bright blue flash appeared in front of her, another scroll falling to the ground in front of her. Confused, she snatched the scroll from the dirt and unfurled it, scanning the page as a second pair of golden tickets floated idly from the page next to her. “Hear ye hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Luna of Equestria... cordially extends an invitation to Apple Bloom plus one guest. Huh. Looks like I’ve already gotta ticket, Spike.” Apple Bloom smiled, pushing the first pair of tickets back towards the dragon.

“Lucky...” Scootaloo pouted. Another blue flash and a third scroll fell to the ground in front of her. “Yo, nice.”

“Guess we’re all getting an invite. Lucky us.” Spike said, rolling his eyes before sending his tickets away to join his scroll with a quick breath. “Who’re you guys gonna bring?”

“I’m not sure.” Apple Bloom paused, stuffing her scroll and tickets in her saddle basket with the apples. It had seemed like each of the newly founded ‘Elements of Harmony’ had been given an invite. She wasn’t sure of the options for her friends, but for her it left only three ponies to pick from.

Apple Bloom smirked when she glanced over to her fidgeting cousin, watching her anxiously roll a pebble under her hoof while Bloom poured empty her saddle baskets and closed the lid of the fully filled apple barrel. Babs’ eyes kept flicking between Bloom and the sky, looking as though she were trying to will the sun to move faster, begging for that new day princess to hurry it up to noon already.

“Uuuugh!” Babs Seed growled as soon as Apple Bloom pushed the barrel inside, Spike shutting the barn door behind her when she returned. “Now dat just ain’t no fair, Cuz! Ya got help.”

“You said, and I quote, ‘I bet you couldn’t win with all the help in the world’. Spike and Scoot are a bit short of the world, Bab.”

“Ugh. Me and my big mouth...” Babs hung her head and walked back to the house to sulk.

“Ah-ah! You’ve gotta go pick AJ up from school!” Apple Bloom called, a triumphant smile plastered on her face. Babs grumbled as she turned around and started off towards the archway in the fence. She took comfort in the fact that the schoolhouse wasn’t too far from Sweet Apple Acres.

“AJ?” Spike asked.

“It’s what they call Applejack.” Scootaloo explained. “It’s tiring to say the word ‘apple’ every four seconds. Same reason I call Apple Bloom just Bloom, or AB.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Wait a second, why is Babs leaving to get ‘AJ’ already? It’s barely noon.”

“Ponyville doesn’t have many, or really any, transport options.” Scootaloo explained. “It’s better to let the foals out earlier than to let them stay and spend whatever’s left of the afternoon light trying to get home.”

“I’d better join Babs then. Looks like I need to get Twilight home.” Spike sighed. “Kicking and screaming, probably.”

“I’ll join you. See if I can’t figure anything out about your weird fire before night falls.” Scootaloo offered, joining Spike as he too turned and made his way to the arch. “Later, Bloom!”

“See you later.” Apple Bloom waved goodbye and made her way into her house. Four generations now have lived in the home. This was an important place to not just the Apple’s, but to all of Ponyville. And, of course, to the Pear’s as well.

Apple Bloom spotted an old, light amber stallion dead asleep in his rocking chair, slowly moving forward and back from the force of his snoring alone. Her Grandpa, Grand Pa. Or, as she knew him, Grand Pear. In the absence of the Apple’s matriarch, he’d taken up responsibility as head of the house, raising herself and Applejack, as well as her younger brother before he’d moved away with other relatives, much like how Babs had done to come and help out at the farm.

Grand Pa had taken care of the Apple’s, and supported them all despite being from a rival family. If that wasn’t gala worthy, Apple Bloom didn’t know what was. He’d be the perfect pony to bring to the gala, she just needed to give him the extra ticket. She paused. Confusion grew as patted through her mane. Confusion turned to anxiety when she scanned the table, and anxiety turned to panic when she ran back outside, accidentally slamming the door as she did so, and searched the ground. “Oh no. Oh no, oh this ain’t good.”

A quiet creaking behind her notified her to Grand Pa’s exit. “Everything alright, Apple Bloom?”

“Everythin’s fine Grand Pa!” Bloom panicked.

“Hmm.” Grand Pa hummed in suspicion. They both stood there staring at each other for a moment before Grand Pa slowly turned back around and shut the door. “Whatever you say, Sweet Pea. Just be careful.”

Apple Bloom took a second to breathe and calm herself before rerunning the events to herself. She and Spike picked, bucked and then collected the apples from their buckets while Scoot ran them back to the barn and dumped them into the barrels that Apple Bloom had opened the night before. After they got to the last bucket, they all put on a pair of saddle baskets and walked back together. Midway through their walk, the invites got sent to them. After that they made their way back to the barn and filled the last barrel, closed them up, and put them in the barn.

Apple Bloom started trotting towards the barn to search around the barrels. Maybe she accidentally pushed the tickets under one of them or something. She hoped that they hadn’t ripped.

Apple Bloom thumped her head against one of the many, many apple trees. She’d spent the entire afternoon looking for her tickets. She even went back to the orchard and looked in, under and around the apple buckets. It got to the point that she climbed into some of the trees to look for those stupid little papers. She’d lost hope for finding them, accepting that she probably dropped them on her walk and they got picked up by a breeze.

She sighed, wondering if she might be able to convince Scoots or Sweets to come help her out. “Maybe I should’ve just asked Sweetie if she knew any fancy findin’ magic.” He ears twitched as she heard the sound of hooves on grass approaching, turning her head to see her cousin.

“There ya are!” Babs called. “I’ve been lookin’ everywhere for ya.”

“Hey.” Apple Bloom said sadly before turning back and resuming her forehead based abuse of the tree in front of her.

“Yeesh. Somethin’ bad musta happened for ya t’get like this. What’s wrong, Cuz?”

She opened her mouth to speak but stopped as a thought occurred to her. Could Babs have taken the tickets after losing the bet? Bloom shook the thought from her mind. Her cousin wasn’t a sore loser, nor was she any kind of thief. “It’s nothin’, Bab. It’s nothin’ you need to worry yourself about.”

“Well c’mon back inside. Gramps made pie.”

“What kind?”

“Threefold Fruit Pie.”

“Blech.”

“Hey, don’t knock my favorite food.”

“Babs, I love you, but oranges, apples, and pears do not belong anywhere near each other in a pie.”

“Pie is perfect no matter what’s in it. Besides that, you know how important that pie is to him.”

“It’d probably mean a lot more if it didn’t taste like he poured sour milk in it every time.”

“Aight, that’s it, c’mere. Nopony makes fun of my Grandpa’s lack of baking skill.” Babs said, stomping over to Apple Bloom. Before Bloom could flee she was put in a headlock and noogied vigorously.

“Ahk! Babs Seed! Get offa me!”

“Not until ya tell me what’s goin’ on, ya dork!”

“Uncle! Uncle!” Bloom surrendered. Babs immediately let her younger cousin go and stared her down, waiting for Apple Bloom’s reluctant explanation.

“I got an invite to the gala earlier today. Got a pair of shiny gold tickets and I uh... I lost ‘em. I wanted to bring Pa to the gala with me, let ‘im meet the princess, y’know? I got real excited for it all.”

“When and how the hay did you get tickets to the freakin’ gala?”

“Just before I got back home. The princess wanted to thank us for reunitin’ her with her sister.”

“Before ya got home..?” Babs rewound events in her head, a small detail she noticed suddenly coming to mind. “I think I know what mighta happened. C’mon.”

Apples scattered the barn floor as Babs poured empty one of the many, many filled apple barrels.

“What makes ya think it’s in there?”

“Somethin’ hit the light and glinted when you poured out your baskets. I thought it was just a screw’re somethin’ at first, but if your fancy shmancy tickets were gold...”

“They’d reflect the light just as well as a metal screw!”

“Bingo.” Babs said, popping off the lid of a barrel to find the corner of a wrinkled scroll, mashed by the surrounding apples. “This it?” She asked, pulling out the paper.

“Yes!” Bloom exclaimed, running over to the barrel and tossing aside the many, many apples held within until the barrel was practically empty in her frantic search for the golden glint of the tickets. Babs held up a candle to help light the inside of the barrel.

“Yesh!” Apple Bloom celebrated, pulling her head from the barrel, a pair of glowing tickets held in her teeth. Quickly stashing them in her mane, she hugged her cousin. “Thank you, Babs! I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t notice them!”

“Don’t think anything of it, Cuz. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it if you didn’t say anything. Remember, you can always come to me if you need help with somethin’.”

Apple Bloom looked out to the now apple filled floor and sighed as she let go of her cousin. “Whelp, looks like I have my work cut out for me for the next week.”

“What’ve ya got planned?”

“Nothin’ now. Just look at these barrels! Completely empty and it’s way past lunchtime.” She winked before beginning to clean up the barn.

Babs cocked her head in confusion for a moment before realizing what Apple Bloom was saying. “Oh! Heh. Thanks Cuz.”

“Don’t worry about it Babs. As far as I’m concerned, I still owe ya for this. Now go get your pie before Pa eats it all. I’ve got barrels to fill.”

Babs just smiled and nodded before leaving the barn to get some food.

Spike heard a knocking at the door as he flipped the contents of the pan. He quickly switched off the stove and moved the pancakes onto a plate already stacked high with them, carrying it over to the kitchen table and setting it in front of a groggy Twilight. She and Scootaloo spent the majority of the previous night poking and prodding him. By the end of it he was missing a few scales around his jaw, Scootaloo having yanked a few of them off by accident. He was pretty sure at least that it was an accident anyway. Either way she collected them up saying something about verifying a magical signature that she’d need to check out in the morning.

He yawned and scratched his side as he grabbed for the door handle, his claws eventually landing on it after a few failed attempts. While wondering just what weird magic nonsense Scootaloo was about to bring him, he opened the door to reveal, to his surprise, Apple Bloom.

“Howdy Spike. You got a minute?” She asked. Spike glanced back to the kitchen, where he watched Twilight tiredly lay her face into her pancake stack like a pillow while simultaneously chewing it.

“Depends on if I can make food or not.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you about somethin’ I learned last night. Thought you might wanna hear about it, you studyin’ friendship and all.”

The drake stepped aside and motioned for her to come in. “Sure. You look exhausted. Have you had anything to eat yet?”

“Not since yesterday morning.”

“Go ahead and grab yourself a plate. I’ll make breakfast while you talk.”

Author's Note

Dear Princess Luna,
Today I learned from my friend Apple Bloom that it's important to speak up about what's bothering you. A good friend will always be there to help you when you need it, you just need to find the courage to ask for it.
Your faithful student, Spike

P.S. Thank you for the tickets. - Apple Bloom

Dear Reader,
I really should've written more than the first two chapters before posting this story. Really would've been helpful to have just had a stockpile of episodes already written that I could take my time editing for a couple days, and then put on FimFiction without any level of hesitance. I'll be lucky if the episodes I really wanna do end up being any good.
The absolute lemon of an author, InkTape

Bridle Gossip

Twilight Sparkle was a curious filly. That curiosity drove her every action, and she’s known since she got into Luna’s School for Gifted Unicorns that she was destined to become some kind of mage, studying magic to further the world.

That being said, she wasn’t happy at her new school in Ponyville. It was nice to be the de facto ‘smart kid’, but it meant that she was completely alone in her studies. She was intellectually unchallenged by the maddeningly easy worksheets that the other students seemed overwhelmed with. As far as Twilight was concerned, the only foal worth talking to was Applejack, and that was only because of her family’s deep ties to the history of the town.

Unfortunately, by the time that Twilight had already completed the extra work sent to her by her professors at Luna’s school, everypony would have normally already left school, and Twilight had never had an excuse to check in with the young cowpony.

The school bell rang, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts. She watched the other foals putting away the day’s papers that she’d finished hours ago. It seemed like hours, at least. Probably more like ten minutes or so. Something interrupted her now daily routine though.

“Applejack? Why aren’t you getting ready to go home?” Twilight asked her desk neighbor. Usually the orange filly would be one of the second ponies out of the door, the first always seeming to be a pegasus with a rainbow mane and relaxed attitude. “I thought you liked taking care of the chores around the farm.”

“Uh, yeah, s’just... T’day that zebra lady’s comin’ into town. She always swings by the farm and chats with AB ‘bout weird stuff.” Applejack explained. “Plant stuff, I guess, but it always goes over mah head.” She decided to add on before the purple unicorn could pester her with questions that she couldn’t answer. “I get the willies anytime she comes ‘round, everypony in class does. Rumor is she’ll curse ya if she’s ever provoked, so I avoid her anytime I get the chance.”

“Zebra?” Twilight could swear she’d heard that word somewhere before, but couldn’t place it. “Wait, curse?”

The cowpony nodded, her oversized hat falling slightly and covering her face. She sighed and pushed it back up onto her head, entirely covering her blonde mane, ponytail and all, before responding. “She just kinda showed up one day, trottin’ outa the Evermute Forest like it wasn’t anythin’ special. Folks think she’s some kinda spirit, the Evermute herself. She comes into town once a month to do her shoppin’, digs at the ground every once in a while, and trots back into the Evermute after getting supplies.”

“Supplies... for..?”

“Dunno. Not exactly keen t’ ask.”

Well that simply wouldn’t do. This ‘zebra lady’ was completely unknown to Twilight, and what kind of a scientist would she be if she didn’t fill in this blank?

“Twi? Y’okay? Ya got a kinda... manic smile.”

“Quit leanin’ forward, stick close to th’ barn wall. Yer completely visible from th’ trail to the fence stickin’ out like that.” Applejack whispered. “Can’t believe I let ya rope me into this.” She grumbled to herself. Twilight practically carried the filly all the way from the schoolhouse to the farm with her magic. AJ had tried to fight back, break out of the pink glow and hide back in the classroom, but stopped because she realized that letting Twilight go alone to confront the mysterious figure could only end badly. Totally not because her attempts at escape were entirely foiled by being lifted a whole foot off the ground.

The pair of fillies spied from the shadow of the Apple family barn, watching as Apple Bloom spoke with Applejack’s mystery mare. Twilight tried to commit details of the unknown mare to memory, but too much of her appearance was hidden behind a tattered, old looking cloak. The most that Twilight could make out was the color of her coat. Stark white with gray markings on her legs. Twilight thought she could spot a few glints of yellow within the mare’s hood as she turned to leave. Her eyes perhaps?

Heeding AJ’s advice and ducking into the shadow of the barn wall, Twilight waited for the mare to pass. She was looking to learn about a possibly malevolent forest spirit after all, not get cursed by one. “In hindsight, it might’ve been a little bit risky to spy on her out in the open like this.”

“Ya think?!” AJ scolded, struggling to keep her voice below a whisper.

“Oh well. Too late to turn back now. Let’s follow her.”

“Right, ‘cause that’s obviously the smartest thing we’ll do all day. Go on ahead filly, I’m right behind you.” The orange filly lied, not even bothering to watch the unicorn stalk after the cloaked zebra.

Twilight immediately noticed the fib but didn’t really care. It would be far easier to follow and spy on the white and gray mare on her own. The lavender filly watched as entire crowds split to avoid the mare. She darted from shadow to shadow, struggling to keep up, having to use levitation spells on herself and objects to make an easy path. It only got worse when the pair made their way into the forest. Thorns and weeds seemed to jump into Twilight’s way whenever she seemed to catch up to the mare, as though the plant life itself were trying to hinder her efforts to study the anomalous mare.

“You cannot hide forever amongst the flora. Come little foal, introduce yourself to me, Zecora.”

And was succeeding it seemed. “How did you know I was here?” Twilight asked, carefully peeking out from the shrub that she was previously failing to hide behind.

“Your horn glows when you cast, so I saw you quite fast.”

“Glows when I cast..? Oh. A spell. Duh.” She smacked herself with a hoof, ashamed. Her masterful stealth, faulted only by the natural aura of her soon-to-be special talent. How ironic.

The mystery mare laughed and lowered her hood. Her face, slightly alien to the filly, was still clearly filled with genuine amusement. Not a hint of malice seemed to be hidden among her features. Not in her white coat, cyan eyes, or her grey markings. Stripes, Twilight noted. They were perfectly symmetrical, making the idea of them being scars a lot less likely than the unicorn initially thought. Either the mare dyed her coat to somewhat match her striped mohawk mane, or they were entirely natural. One thing was suddenly made clear though. “You’re not a spirit... You’re just a pony!”

The mare, Zecora, suppressed her laughter to a chuckle, taking a moment to collect herself. “I am not a pony, my little filly. To make such a claim, you are rather silly. I am a zebra, a creature to you unknown. Perhaps if you’ll allow, this truth to you can be honed?”

“What do you mean by that?” Twilight questioned.

Zecora opened her mouth to answer, but was cut of by a yell from behind the filly. “Twilight Sparkle! There you are! We’ve been looking for you all day! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!” Twilight heard. She didn’t even have time to turn around before she was picked up and tossed into Spike’s scaled back. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she noticed the entirety of Spike’s new friend group, all walking through a patch of knee-high blue flowers.

Twilight scrunched her face. She wasn’t gone long enough to warrant this kind of reaction from her older brother, right? School only got out a few hours ago... Actually, now that Twilight thought about it, it was far darker than she thought it should be. What time was it?

The filly looked up to try and see through the forest canopy. Only a few beams of deep orange light broke through the leaves. Not the golden yellow of the midday sun that she expected... A lot later than the was comfortable with, but at least there was still some sunlight left in the day. Did she lose track of time, or was the forest messing with her again? “Sorry, Spike. I didn’t think I was out that long.”

“Beware! Beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!” The zebra yelled, fading off into the darkness as the group made their way out of the Evermute.

“You can’t just follow strange ponies off into the Evermute. The only reason I even knew where to look for you was because Applejack got scared you were hurt and told us what you were doing. You can’t just stalk ponies, Twilight. You are so grounded.”

“Zebra...” The filly mumbled to herself by way of correcting Spike. As worried she was about what her punishment would be, she was more worried about what Zecora just said. That tone change was incredibly sudden. Was that what Applejack had told her about earlier? Was she just cursed?

After a night’s rest, Twilight could thoroughly confirm that she was not, in fact, cursed. No bad luck, no inexplicable pain, no evil undead monster chasing after her. Outside of her dream last night anyway, but that was pretty quickly taken care of by Luna’s night guards. At least, she thought it was. Dreams were always so hard to remember. And weird.

Spike didn’t seem to have much patience that morning, not even bothering to turn on the stove when Twilight sat down. He just poured pancake batter into a pan and took a breath, letting the heat well up in his chest as he held it in, a slight glow of whatever magic that created his fire snaking its way from beneath his scales. Satisfied with the pressure, he opened his jaw, releasing a stream of emerald green... bubbles.

Twilight was immediately unsure if she was still asleep or not. “Spike, did you... eat a bar of soap?”

“What on earth just happened?” Spike asked, watching as the iridescent green bubbles seemed to absorb the pancake batter into themselves before floating off to Luna knows where. At least Spike seemed to be aware of the oddity, mostly confirming that they both were at least awake. Unfortunately, it also seemed to imply something else.

Without warning, the library door slammed open, audibly splintering, and Scootaloo called out for Spike. “Flame! Are you okay man? Flame!”

The drake and filly duo made their way out of the dining room to meet the pegasus in the main room, shocked to find most of Spike’s new friends had seemingly been mutated. Maud’s coat was no longer her regular dull gray but was a bright shade of yellow, then it shifted to a sickening shade of green as she saw Spike, then changed back to yellow once more. Apple Bloom was covered with vines, leaves and blue flowers, a pair of branches jutting out of her head like antlers, both bearing various fruits.

The biggest change was clearly Zephyr. He wasn’t a pegasus anymore. He wasn’t even a pony. He wasn’t even a he, as far as Twilight could tell. Wings were replaced with blue spots, a styled mane with unreasonably long eyelashes, and his original lanky, bony figure was replaced with what looked to be several hundred pounds of fat and muscle. He couldn’t even fit through the door due to his newfound size.

“I have so many questions.” Spike started. “I think I’d like to start by asking why Zephyr’s a cow... No, actually. I can’t get over the fact that you just kicked my door in.” He cringed slightly, glancing over to the pile of wood chunks that was, at one point, the bottom half of the library door.

“I didn’t.” Scootaloo seethed. “I’ve been breaking things all morning. I ripped off the door to my pantry when I tried to get some cereal, crushed the cereal box, accidentally threw my bowl into a wall at mach 3, snapped off the handles on my scooter, and put a second hole in my wall with the door handle when I bumped it as I was leaving today. Maud keeps changing color, seems to be tied to how she feels, and Zeph’s been having an identity crisis since he woke up.”

“Yeesh. Guess we’re all weird now. I just started breathing bubbles when I tried to get some pancakes going. Well, except for Sweetie Belle, I guess. You seem completely normal.”

In response, Sweetie shook her head, backed up, and kicked the wall next to a bookshelf with what seemed to be all of her strength, her bare hooves utterly silent as they connected. A few of the tomes rattled and fell, hitting the floor with not even the slightest sound. Sweetie seemed to try and speak, but only seemed to be mouthing the words ‘I couldn’t play my piano either’.

“Huh. That’s probably the eeriest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Including the time Twilight dressed up as a ladybug for Nightmare Night.”

“You’re scared of ladybugs?” Zephyr asked, voice seeming to have changed to be more feminine.

“No. She is.” Spike nodded to his sister. “And she has a very active imagination. She glued hundreds of fake eyes to the spots on her costume and threw a bunch of glitter all over it. Imagine that running up to you at freaking midnight, lights off, moonlight catching every other speck of glitter and winking out as it gets closer and closer. Never screamed more in my life.”

“Can we get back on topic please?” Scootaloo interrupted. “What in the world is happening to us?”

“It’s a curse.” Twilight said. “That zebra, Zecora, she must be some kind of enchantress! Applejack told me about her yesterday. She must have cursed you all when you came to find me!”

Apple Bloom just shook her head and sighed. “Oh great, did that silly filly get in your head, Twilight? Zecora ain’t no forest spirit, she’s just a mare. Curses are just ponytales.” She explained before mumbling to herself. “Gonna have to talk some sense into that pony when I get home.”

The cursed ponies and dragon began to talk amongst themselves, ignoring Twilight’s attempts to inform them as they threw out their own ideas of what to do. It was up to Twilight to make things right, and that meant appeasing the wicked enchantress that had cursed her brother and his friends.

But what could a foal do to get Zecora to undo the damage? The most valuable thing within the library were the few books on ancient magics they had, and surely a creature capable of cursing six others with her words alone already knew the most ancient magics that existed.

As time passed, Twilight continued to wonder what she could offer that would work. Books? No, she must already know more than anypony, except maybe the princess. Gems? No, Spike would starve. Bits? No no no, magic, to cast or dispel, was invaluable. She’d need to do better than that to get Zecora to help. She looked around the library for something, anything, that might help. A trio of items on her brother’s desk gave her an idea. A rolled up scroll and two golden tickets, one of which he had offered her.

Twilight ran through the Evermute, following the path that Zecora had taken the day before as best she could, getting her saddlebag stuck on a thorn or two every so often in her hurry, tearing it slightly more each time she tugged to pull it off. With each pause and distraction, it took a little longer to find the zebra enchantress, but it eventually came to pass. Thankfully it wasn’t late in the afternoon by the time Twilight had found the mare’s creepy hut, but it still seemed later than she thought she could expect.

Wanting to waste no time, she ran up to the door and knocked, taking a minute to steady her breathing and go over what she’d say. As soon as Zecora opened the wooden door, Twi flew straight into her speech. “Miss Zecora, please please please release the dark magic that holds my brother and his friends. I know you’ll only accept the best of the best to undo the damage that has been done, so I’ve come with payment.” With that, the filly opened her torn up bags and fished around for a moment, pulling out a small golden rectangle. “A ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. With this, you can join my brother to meet Princess Luna herself and try to learn powerful, ancient magic, like how to use the stars themselves as spell circles for any of your enchantress rituals.”

Zecora’s eyes widened at the ticket, opening and closing her mouth, unable to speak. Taking a moment to process the fillies’ actions, she stepped back and beckoned for Twilight to enter the hut. She complied, dropping the golden slip on the nearest shelf as soon as she could.

“I am stunned to say the least.” Zecora said, eyeing the ticket with a hint of suspicion. “Why is it that you treat me with caution, as though I am a wild beast?”

“I-I just... You’re a stranger, you know? I wanted to learn from you, not chase you away with insensitivity. That, and I really want you to dispel the curse you put on my friends without getting cursed myself.”

“To learn from me is no easy task. Can you handle the challenge, and do what I ask?”

“Are you offering to teach me?” Twilight asked. The zebra nodded in confirmation.

“Your lessons start with this; the curses you speak of are not in my power. The troubles you suffer were caused by a flower.”

“A flower made my brother turn into a soap dispenser?”

Again Zecora nodded. “The words I spoke the other day were a warning for you to stay away. The poison joke has adverse effects. Though not quite dangerous, they can make quite the mess.”

“Poison joke?” Zecora motioned over to what appeared to be a carved up tree stump next to a bubbling cauldron. Upon it laid an open book that Twilight grabbed with her magic, floating it over to herself to read the page aloud. “Poison joke. A large blue flower that grows in places with high amounts of natural magic in the soil. This plant secretes an oily liquid from its leaves and petals, similar to that of poison ivy. The chemicals in this liquid can drastically alter the magical makeup of a creature that interacts with it, causing random, often humorous effects to those afflicted. It is best to avoid the plant altogether, but the effects can be negated if the chemicals are washed off before they can cause any damage. If the effects of the liquid have already manifested, there is a formula below that the afflicted must bathe in in order to undo the effects and flush out the tainted magic. If the ingredients are unavailable, the effects may wear off after a week or so. Huh. So you didn’t curse everyone...”

“In a way I did, and for that I am sorry. I would have followed to explain, but you all seemed in a hurry.”

“Nopony but you and I seem to want to be in this forest. If that poison joke stuff is common here, I can see why.”

“Yes, I suppose I can see the thought. Perhaps then I should hurry and finish this pot.”

“What do you mean?”

“While your friends ran off to avoid my path, I knew from the start that they’d need a bath.”

“Oh! You’re already making the cure? Did you know I’d come? Are you a psychic?!”

Zecora laughed. “No, little Twilight. I’m simply a friend who has fought the same fight.”

Twilight took a moment to process. “You... touched poison joke too?”

“The effects were quite horrid, it’ll scare you to hear it, but I’ll say that there is a reason that fillies think I’m a spirit.”

“Huh. Well then, what can I do to help?” Twilight asked. Zecora smiled, taking the book from the fillies’ magical grasp and leading her to the cauldron, letting the filly, her new student, mix the ingredients as she added them in, one by one. Not even an hour later, the duo returned to Ponyville and rounded up Spike and his friends, where Zecora explained to them the cause and solution to their problems.

Author's Note

Ponyville Journal Entry #4, June 6th, 1105
An exciting event happened this week. Yesterday Applejack told me about a mysterious zebra lady that comes into town every month. She said that the lady, who I've come to learn is named Zecora, was the spirit of the Evermute Forest given form, and that she curses ponies if she's ever provoked.

I followed Zecora into the Evermute to learn more about her, but Spike took me home before I could really learn anything besides her name. This morning after we woke up, Spike started breathing bubbles instead of fire! It looked like Zecora really cursed him!

I went into the Evermute to confront Zecora and get her to undo her magic, but it turned out that she didn't really do anything. More than that, she was already working on the cure that Spike needed!

I think I'm gonna start heading to Zecora's place after school and learn more about her and what she does. Even if she didn't curse Spike, all the masks and potions hung up on her walls seemed pretty magical. Maybe she can teach me a thing or two about alchemy?
- Twilight Sparkle

Dear Reader,
Eyyy, StF's finally off hiatus. I wanted to apologize for disappearing without a word. Things happened that threw me into a depression and my emotions just ended up spiraling way out of control. I couldn't bring myself to write for this thing for a while. I even ended up scrapping the original chapter that was gonna be posted before this one because it just reminded me of what happened, so that delayed the release of Ch4 chapter by a few days. Sorry. I'm back now though, and I'll try and explain myself BEFORE a full freaking month passes the next time something happens. Unless I die. In which case; oof. Anyway, I'll prolly go back and delete these bits from me after I finish doing the first season. I just wanted this space for letters and other character interactions that I didn't think fit/didn't feel like fitting into the chapter itself.
The absolute lemon of an author, InkTape

P.S. I based most of the poison joke effects on random name corruptions that I thought of. Soap E. Dragon, Sneaky Belle, Apple Bud, Brutaloo, Mood Pie, and Heifer Breeze. I had a whole document for these things man, at least ten for everyone that I spent a full week working through, coming up with different effects. Except for Zephyr. He had 2 functional effects that I could use, and the unused one just seemed outright cruel. I couldn't really think of anything for the poor guy. On the bright side, the voice change keeps open the idea that poison joke could come back in the Filli Vanilli episode, assuming I ever get to it.

P.P.S For anyone wondering what the effect that Zecora suffered from Poison Joke was, I'll tell you here because I might not ever get to explain it in the story itself. The corruption I thought of for her was 'Zeflora', which I tried to hint at with her first rhyme. It made her into a plant monster, like Apple Bloom's effect, but more intense. It's due to her already mysterious nature, coupled with the creepy, tattered cloak, that all of the local children freaked out when she came into town for her monthly supply run. Rumors spread like wildfire because of that visit, the most prominent among them being that Zecora wasn't just a mare, but the Evermute Forest incarnate.

P.P.P.S. Heifer Breeze canonically says trans rights.

Curses and Magic - Extra Episode

Dragons, the living weapons that they were, were capable of utilizing their natural fire in several different ways. From rendering cities to ash with a single cataclysmic fireball, to melting mountains with a steady stream of flame, to covering up the entirety of the sky with the smoke they generated alone. Spike, the wingless purple dragon, a drake, was the first to discover that dragon fire could have magical properties. To his knowledge he was at least, and to the knowledge of any living pony he could think of.

Ever since he was a little he’d been sending flammable objects all around him from one place to another with his unnatural green breath. His emerald flames came more naturally to him than their nonmagical amber variety. Mail and luggage were rarely an issue for the purple dragon. So long as it could burn, Spike could send it wherever it was needed, without worrying about distance. Eventually he learned he could also use this ability to hold onto objects that he needed to by simply sending them to himself, or by holding onto his breath for a moment whenever someone else sent an object to him, utterly unconcerned about size or weight.

For most of his life, this was the only one of abilities that had ever concerned him. The destructive capability of his orange fire was only to be used as a last resort, as self defense for himself, his family, or for the princess, should any of them need it. Or to light a birthday candle or two when dad inevitably forgot how to cast his rarely used spark spell. And his resistances to heat and fire, in both their magical and nonmagical forms, were only truly useful in the environment that dragons had evolved to be in, the ever so creatively named ‘Dragon Lands’.

Recently however, Spike had discovered another ability. He had been fighting Nightmare Star, Princess Luna’s estranged younger sister turned demon alicorn. He had ventured into the depths of a dark, possibly sentient forest with five ponies in search of a set of ancient artifacts with the power to stop Nightmare Star’s rampage. The Elements of Harmony. Just when he had found them, Nightmare had taken them, but Spike was not willing to let the monster pony have her way. He charged at her, ready to unleash the inferno within him and get to the elements, but just as he did, he found himself in the middle of the items. He had somehow passed by the burning alicorn entirely.

All that he could remember clearly from that moment after the adrenaline had faded was a flash of blue and the feeling that, at that moment, he needed more than anything to get to the elements and ignite their spark, to reveal the sixth element and put an end to Nightmare Star.

A glance at the clock told him that it was a bit more than a quarter after twelve. Twilight should be almost done with her extra work. Her teacher, Ms. Cherry Blossom, would only give it to her after school was already done, as per Spike’s request, and it always took the clever little filly about a half hour to complete it. She loved schoolwork, and always dove straight into it with endless enthusiasm, but her focus on the magical sciences always distracted her from her other, more basic studies. Not that it made them any more challenging to her of course, she was still the Twilight Sparkle, academic prodigy, but still.

Closing the book he had been staring blankly at for the last ten minutes, he rose from his ‘bed’, a pillow and blanket thrown vaguely in the corner of the bedroom, to put it away. As he descended the stairs, he looked to the empty place on the shelf that the book was meant to go in. He thought for a moment, pausing before he reached the last step. His ‘emerald dragonflame’, as his older brother, Shining Armor, had called it all those years ago, could move and hold objects, but he could never use it on himself. Not fully, at least. Normal flames fell away from his scales as water would on stone, but whenever he’d tried it with his dragonflame, he’d only manage to send away the dirt and dust that had accumulated over the day. It made bathing a complete nonissue, but it wasn’t particularly useful outside of a rapid wardrobe change for one of Canterlot’s many unsettlingly specific holiday events. For himself and a few other key royal servants at least. Most of Princess Luna’s closet consisted of inflammable materials, which made costume changes for everything a hassle.

But that wasn’t what happened against Luna’s sister. His fire wasn’t it’s signature grassy color, nor the amber of a nonmagical blaze, but a deep ocean blue. It didn’t just send away an everyday object, it had sent him away, something it shouldn’t have been able to do even if he wasn’t fireproof, as proven through rigorous testing by, again, his older brother, after he had learned a fireproofing spell from their dad. A spell that had proven to be more than worth it to have while Spike was still small and unable to control his breath.

Spike thought about the confrontation with Celestia’s evil self and glanced at the book in his hand. He took a breath, willing for the flame to send the book away to its proper place, and blew out a jet of sapphire fire. Sa-fire?

The flames curled around his claws and covered the book. He smiled slightly as he felt the volume swiftly growing lighter as it ate away the pages. That smile immediately faded when those pages fell to the ground in a pile of ash. “Huh. I saw that going differently in my head...”

Sighing, the drake continued down the stairs to grab a broom and dustpan, wondering to himself just what the differences were between this new flame and his signature ability. More pressingly, he tried to remember the title of the book that had just been burned so that he could order another copy and replace it before his bibliophile sister could find out that it was missing.

A frown found itself on Spike’s face when he glanced at the sun. It was far into the afternoon, and Twilight had not come home to continue reading her way through the entirety of their libraries’ collection like she normally did. Though he supposed that she was nearly done with that particular activity, and had been reading every day since they officially moved into Ponyville almost a week ago. It would make sense that she’d want a break, or would want to wait for another order of new books to arrive. He’d have to get on that soon.

Still, maybe he’d check in with Apple Bloom to see if Twilight was pestering the Apple family. She’d always talked about wanting to visit Sweet Apple Acres to talk to them again, but never seemed to muster up the motivation to go on her own.

Maybe it was Scootaloo that the filly was bothering then? The earthbound pegasus seemed to be the only pony capable of keeping up with his sister’s magic babble, and they both did seem to have a common interest in the form of technomagical engineering. Twilight was only beginning to grasp the basics of enchantment, but Scoots had a few years of experience under her wings already. Granted, from what Spike could gather, the three pony tribes had magic that was entirely alien to one another. What Scootaloo did to her creations might not even be applicable to how Twilight could cast, not that it would stop her from trying.

Sweetie Belle? She was the only other unicorn that Twilight really knew about, and despite her protests, she did really seem to have fun playing with Rarity on that first day in town. The little dragon slayer to-be certainly had a creative mind, a trait coveted by any mage, both aspiring and established. Twilight would likely become fast friends with her, if she would just let herself get away from her studies.

Making his way towards the door, he found himself worrying about his younger sister probably a little more than was warranted. She was still a filly, but she was more than capable of taking care of herself in just about any situation. She was probably just distracted with her studies or something. He was sure he’d be able to find her with Apple Bloom. Or the school, having finally met her match with a worksheet sent to her from her teachers back in Canterlot.

“Hey, Apple Bloom. You got a minute?” Spike asked as he approached the mare, not wanting to interrupt her while she was bucking apple trees and get kicked accidentally or something.

“I can chat for a second. What ya need, Spike?”

“It’s getting late and I haven’t seen Twilight all day. Is she here with you, somewhere on the farm?”

“Nope. Sorry Spike. Haven’t seen her all day.” Apple Bloom apologized. “AJ came home earlier than she usually does on days like these talkin’ about her though. Maybe somethin’ happened at the schoolhouse? Y’should check in with Cherry Blossom.” She offered. “I gotta get back to these apples now. They’re not gonna buck themselves offa these branches, but lemme know if’n ya need anything else.”

“I will, thanks. See you around.”

Opening the door to the school, Spike took a second to scan the desks for his sister. All empty. “Hey, Miss Cherry Blossom?” Spike called, knocking twice on the open door.

“Oh!” She yelled in surprise, quickly pushing closed a large drawer in her desk, something bright green getting stuck in it before being violently shoved back in and slammed closed. “Mister The Dragon- er, Spike Sparkle- wait no that’s not right...”

“Just Spike is fine. Sorry if I’m interrupting anything. I was just wondering if something happened at school today with Twilight?”

“No, nothing out of the ordinary happened at school today Spike.” Ms. Cherry explained, visibly calming. “Wait, no, that’s a lie.” She said, correcting herself. “Your sister left early. Couldn’t tell you why, though. I just saw her talking to Applejack, turned around to clean the chalkboard, and when I turned back she was gone. I had to put her unfinished work away in her desk.”

“I see. Thank you for your time.” Scootaloo’s then.

“Hey, Scoot. Has Twilight come by to talk with you about anything?”

“Nah, haven’t seen her since we helped Bloom with her bet. Even if she did come here, I don’t really trust her around any of my tools.” Scootaloo admitted. “I woulda sent her back your way if she came by without you.”

“I’m grateful you think about her safety.”

“I’m looking out for my stuff, man. Most of the junk I make is pretty easily torn apart, and she’s very clearly the kind of pony who wants to take things apart just to see the inside.” Hm.

“She hasn’t come by, no.” Sweetie said, her violent, violet maned sibling swinging a roll of fabric at Spike as her sister spoke, Spike lightly bopping it out of the way whenever it came too close to his face.

“Darn. I can’t really find her anywhere. This was kinda the last place I could think of to check.” Spike worried.

“You don’t think something might’ve happened to her, do you?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. She never really wanders off like this, she always makes sure to stay where she knows me or our parents can find her.” The roll smacked him in the nose the moment he stopped paying attention. “Ow.”

“Rarity, put that away, this could be serious.” The filly skulked off to her room. She seemed lonely. Spike made a mental note to ensure Twilight had time to hang out with her. “I’ll go get the others and meet you at the library. We’ll find your sister, don’t worry Spike.”

Sure enough, Sweetie Belle had gathered the rest of the newly founded ‘Elements of Harmony’. That didn’t really roll off the tongue, Spike thought. Spirits of Harmony? That’s not much better. Ponyville Gang? No, that made them sound like a bunch of thugs. Spike shook his head and focused, explaining to his friends the problem. Twilight was missing. She would likely be somewhere that she could learn. She favored magic, but other subjects could easily catch her attention. Neither she nor Spike knew the town very well yet, so she easily could have gotten lost, or worse.

With that, the group split up to look for the missing unicorn. Spike and Zephyr Breeze would patrol the areas that he’d been to so far, and would check the last place that he knew but hadn’t been to yet, the Town Hall, but it would likely be up to the rest of the group to really find her. Apple Bloom and Maud Pie explored the apple farm. Bloom hadn’t seen Twilight there, but it was a large place. She could have easily found herself stuck in the orchards, having passed by the mare entirely. Finally Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo worked together to sweep through the rest of the town, Sweetie using her magic to project her voice far and wide, calling out for the filly, while Scoot utilized her unmatched speed to zip from one side of the town to the other, only slowing for the tighter turns so that her momentum didn’t throw her through a wall or three.

It didn’t take long for everyone to conclude that Twilight wasn’t in any of their assigned areas, meaning that she was actively hiding from them, she wasn’t anywhere inside Ponyville, or worse. Spike leaned on the Apple’s fence for support, having a full on panic attack. He had tried taking deep breaths to calm himself down, but after almost setting fire to Apple Bloom’s house he had gone outside to have his fit.

Looking to Celestia’s orange sky, he wondered to himself where his sister could be. What did he miss? He’d thought she’d be with the Apple’s. They were what she was the most excited about when the two of them first came to town, but she wasn’t at the farm, and Apple Bloom hadn’t seen her...

Wait a minute... The sky’s color had reminded him about something. Apple Bloom wasn’t the only Apple. Twilight’s Teacher mentioned that she was talking to Applejack before disappearing. Hurrying back into the house, Spike called out for his sister’s classmate. “Applejack!”

Of course it was the Evermute. She just had to follow a mysterious spirit pony into the Evermute of all places, the single creepiest part of Ponyville. The last time Spike was in there he’d had to deal with falling off a cliff, getting slapped around by a manticore, almost having to watch his new friends burn in a circle of fire, being boiled alive, being blown up by his own fire, and getting into a physical altercation with the sun in pony form. It really shouldn’t have to be said, but the Evermute sucked. He just wanted to get his sister and get out.

Luckily, the Evermute seemed helpful today, more or less. Almost as soon as he and his fellow elements/spirits/thugs had entered the forest, he spotted his sister talking with, as Applejack explained, the spirit of the Evermute herself. They just had to walk through a patch of blue weeds that went up past their knees. Peachy. “Twilight Sparkle! There you are! We’ve been looking for you all day! Do you have any idea how worried I was?!” Spike yelled to the filly, immediately picking her up and tossing her onto his back.

Twilight scrunched her face and looked up at the canopy, partially illuminated by only a few struggling beams of deep orange light. “Sorry, Spike. I didn’t think I was out that long.”

“Beware! Beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!” The spirit lady yelled, fading off into the darkness as the group hurried their way out of the Evermute, Spike using his claws to cut the weeds out of the way in annoyance.

“You can’t just follow strange ponies off into the Evermute. The only reason I even knew where to look for you was because Applejack got scared you were hurt and told us what you were doing. You can’t just stalk ponies, Twilight. You are so grounded.” He didn’t know what he’d really do as a grounding. She didn’t really do much except read. Maybe he’d ask her teacher to start giving him the assignments sent to Twilight from Luna’s school so that she couldn’t do them until he said she was allowed to.

“Zebra...” The filly mumbled to herself quietly as they exited the forest, the moon rising into the sky as the sun was gently lowered below the opposite horizon.

Spike sat in the library and sighed to himself. It took him years to figure out everything he could do with his emerald dragonflame. What made him think that he’d be able to figure out the sapphire version of it after he’d used it just once? It was prideful of him to think that he’d had it already after one successful attempt. Greedy of him to expect that knowledge to simply come to him on its own.

But he was better than that. He could be patient when he wanted to be. He was more than willing to spend the time he needed to to practice with and use his newfound power. He took a breath and waited for the heat to build up in his chest, to rise up his neck and condense together in his maw. A small burst didn’t cut it for the book, but a larger, more powerful one had worked against himself. Looking down, he let forth a bright blue blaze along his scales.

The fire slid off his violet hide, almost appearing like it was repelled by him, and onto the ground. The wooden ground. He gasped as he realized what he just did, quickly moving to smother the absolute bonfire before it could spread, but he was too late to react. Before he could really process what happened, the bonfire had consumed every book in the library, making their way up the shelves and walls... up towards the bedroom.

“Twilight!” Spike screamed. He rushed up the carved stairs, but they crumbled away beneath him and he fell back into the inferno. He tried to grasp the wall, tried to sink his claws into the soft wood and climb up to save his sleeping sister, but it fell way at his touch and he dropped further and further, ash rising around him as his home and life burned to the ground around him. The blue coloration to the fire, his fire, shifted to a blood red, and over the roar he heard a sick laughter. A cackling that he thought he’d never have to hear again.

Tendrils of flame coiled together and exploded, spreading the blaze even more and revealing the tyrant princess, Nightmare Star. Spike closed his eyes and curled into himself in response to his fear and despair. He could do nothing to fight the princess of flame and rage. He could feel his tears rise as steam, instantly vaporized by the heat she gave off.

As suddenly as everything fell apart, there was silence. The roar of the fire and Nightmare’s wicked laughter faded away into nothing, leaving only Spike’s choked sobbing. A calm, gentle hoof found itself on his shoulder, telling him to open his eyes.

Obeying the silent call, he found himself being held by a large white unicorn stallion, his blue hair and eyes complimented by a warm looking indigo scarf, held in place by a platinum badge. The badge of Luna’s Dream Guard, the elite commanders of the Lunar Guard. Spike glanced around, noting the change in scenery. The inferno he had caused was replaced with a starry blue void. He sighed in relief and wiped away whatever was left of his evaporated tears.

Looking back to his savior, he started to speak. “I know what you’re gonna say. I know I’m worried over nothing. I’m just stressed out from today.” It wasn’t the first time that Spike had had this nightmare. He couldn’t quite recall the details, but he’d always had worries about accidentally burning down his home. It was the main reason why everyone in his family had learned spells to fireproof everything. To ease his mind.

Without a word, the unicorn guard nodded and lit up his horn, officially ending the nightmare and allowing Spike to rest peacefully for the rest of the night.

“Thanks for the save though, big bro. I really appreciate it.”

After a night’s rest, Spike found himself able to think a bit more clearly about the situation from the other day, not to say that he was happy about it. Twilight was just curious and was trying to learn about something she’d never gotten the chance to before. Beyond that, she was actually taking interest in another pony outside of the Apple family. That Zecora lady might be a stranger, but Ponyville was a safe town. Besides, even on the off chance that Bloom’s sister was right, and Zecora was some evil forest spirit, he was a dragon. Sure, burning down the Evermute might be a bit extreme, but as far as Spike was concerned, Equestria could do without it. Still though, he’d stay true to his word. Twilight wandered off without telling anyone where she was going, and there would be repercussions for that.

Heading down to the kitchen, he prepared breakfast for himself and Twilight. He didn’t really feel like bothering with cooking, just throwing the batter he had prepared into a pan and taking a breath to flash-cook it as the library’s local lavender unicorn made her way into the dining room and sat down. Something felt off though. The pressure was there in his chest, but it wasn’t heat that was forcing its way up his throat and building in his mouth. Opening his jaw, he released into the pan a stream of emerald green... bubbles. Spike was immediately unsure if he was still asleep or not.

“Spike, did you... eat a bar of soap?” Twilight asked, utterly dumbfounded.

“What on earth just happened?” Spike asked, watching as the iridescent green bubbles seemed to absorb the pancake batter into themselves before floating off to Luna knows where.

Spike was about to raise a claw to pop one of the bubbles, but without warning the library door slammed open, audibly splintering, and Scootaloo called out for him. “Flame! Are you okay man? Flame!”

The drake and filly duo made their way out of the dining room to meet the pegasus in the main room, shocked to find most of Spike’s new friends had seemingly been mutated. Maud’s coat was no longer her regular dull gray but was a bright shade of yellow, which then shifted to an odd shade of green as she saw Spike, then changed back to yellow once more. Apple Bloom was covered with vines, bark, leaves and blue flowers, a pair of branches jutting out of her head like antlers, both bearing various, seemingly random fruits at the end of each tine.

The biggest change was clearly Zephyr. He had gone from equine to bovine. He wasn’t even a stallion, er, bull anymore, as far as Spike could tell. In place of his wings were dark blue spots, his mane traded out for unreasonably long eyelashes, and his original lanky, bony figure was replaced with what looked to be several hundred pounds of fat and muscle. He couldn’t even fit through the door due to his newfound size. He could almost look Spike in the eye, were the drake to stand upright.

“I have so many questions.” Spike started. “I think I’d like to start by asking why Zephyr’s a cow... No, actually. I can’t get over the fact that you just kicked my door in.” He cringed, glancing over to the pile of wood chunks that was, at one point, the bottom half of the library door. He’d need to get that replaced. Maybe Scootaloo would be up for fixing it, seeing as she was clearly the one who broke it open for Luna knows what reason.

“I didn’t.” Scootaloo seethed. “I’ve been breaking things all morning. I ripped off the door to my pantry when I tried to get some cereal, crushed the cereal box, accidentally threw my bowl into a wall at mach 3, snapped off the handles on my scooter, and put a second hole in my wall with the door handle when I bumped it as I was leaving today. Maud keeps changing color, seems to be tied to how she feels, and Zeph’s been having an identity crisis since he woke up.”

“Yeesh. Guess we’re all weird now. I just started breathing bubbles when I tried to get some pancakes going. Well, except for Sweetie Belle, I guess. You seem completely normal.”

In response, Sweetie shook her head, backed up, and kicked the wall next to a bookshelf with what seemed to be all of her strength, her bare hooves utterly silent as they connected. A few of the tomes rattled and fell, hitting the floor with not even the slightest sound. Sweetie seemed to try and speak, but only seemed to be mouthing some words that Spike couldn’t understand.

“Huh. That’s probably the eeriest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Including the time Twilight dressed up as a ladybug for Nightmare Night.”

“You’re scared of ladybugs?” Zephyr asked, voice seeming to have changed to be more feminine.

“No. She is.” Spike nodded to his sister. “And she has a very active imagination. She glued hundreds of fake eyes to the spots on her costume and threw a bunch of glitter all over it. Imagine that running up to you at freaking midnight, lights off, moonlight catching every other speck of glitter and winking out as it gets closer and closer. Never screamed more in my life.” A shiver ran down his spine as he recalled the event, causing him the lash his tail and scraping it against the wood floor.

“Can we get back on topic please?” Scootaloo interrupted. “What in the world is happening to us?”

“It’s a curse.” Twilight said. “That zebra, Zecora, she must be some kind of enchantress! Applejack told me about her yesterday. She must have cursed you all when you came to find me!”

Apple Bloom just shook her head and sighed. “Oh great, did that silly filly get in your head, Twilight? Zecora ain’t no forest spirit, she’s just a mare. Curses are just ponytales.” She explained before mumbling to herself. “Gonna have to talk some sense into that pony when I get home.”

“Curse or not, it’s clearly something magical.” Scoot said. “Ponies don’t just turn into cows or start changing color. Or whatever is going on with Apple Bloom.” She motioned vaguely in the plant-ponies’ direction, her hoof suddenly jutting out uncontrollably and punching one of the fruits growing on the nearest branch, rocketing it into a wall and turning it into a fruit paste.

“Hey!’ The mare scolded.

“Sorry.” Scoots apologized, taking a step away from the group, making sure to keep away from any other nearby fragile objects.

“Right, so, how about we take care of this before Scootaloo breaks someone’s bones?” Zephyr suggested.

“Any ideas?” Spike asked.

“We could try the spa.”

“The... spa. For an affliction that we have determined to be magical in nature.”

“Yeah! I work there part time as a coat and mane specialist. Aloe and Lotus know the ins and outs of ponies bodies better than any doctor I know. They might be able to tell us if something is in or on us that’s making us like this, and maybe even how to fix it.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try it. Let’s get going.”

“You were wrong, you were so wrong!” Apple Bloom groaned as the light blue spa pony, Lotus Blossom, twisted her around into some kind of plant-pony pretzel. “Is that my tail?!”

“I am sorry that we can not help you two.” Lotus’ color flipped sister, Aloe, apologized to Spike and Zephyr. “We did not think about having ready any detailed services for not ponies.”

“It’s fine. We’ll uh... figure something out.” Spike said, grateful that he wasn’t over on a table with Bloom, Scoot, Belle, or Maud. Maud in particular looked to be having an odd time, her yellow coat changing from yellow to pink to green to red, back to pink, then to purple, all in the first few seconds of her own pretzel-ifying.

“Unfortunately we can not do what you have asked us to do. Outside of helping the orange and yellow ponies release the, and I can not stress this enough, un-be-liev-able amount of stress in their bodies, your ailment goes outside of our skill set.”

“Shoot.” A loud pop caused the trio to look over to Scootaloo. One of her wings appeared to be... longer than before, is the least grotesque way to put it. “You pull something out of place there, Scoot? Do you need a medic?”

“Please.” The pegasus pretzel whimpered.

A hop, skip and a jump later and Scootaloo had her joint snap, crackle, popped back into place. The group asked the actual medical professional, Nurse Redheart, if she knew what was going on with them, but the earth pony medic knew nothing about their ailments. She quickly sent everyone on their way after bandaging Scoot’s wing to her side and instructing her not to move it too much for at least a week.

“Whelp, I’m out of ideas. Sorry everypony.” Zephyr apologized.

“Maybe I should send a letter to Princess Luna. If I still can, that is.” Spike offered. Sweetie Belle’s jaw fell and she stared at him in shock before shaking the sense back into herself mouthing yet more words that Spike couldn’t piece together. “Can anypony translate silence?”

“She’s wonderin’ why ya didn’t just do that to begin with if that was an option that’s on the table.” Apple Bloom clarified. “Frankly, I’d like to know that too. I know you’re her student and all, but I thought the only reason that you didn’t already ask for help was ‘cause that wasn’t allowed or somethin’.”

“The princess is almost constantly busy juggling her responsibilities. Without me there to act as an extra set of hands, it’s up to her and Advisor Kibitz alone to keep everything on track. Plus, with Princess Celestia’s apparent return to the throne, I expect that Luna’s taken to a fully nocturnal lifestyle, so she’s probably asleep right now.” Spike explained. “But, if nopony local has any idea of what’s going on with us though, we might as well stop wasting our time and jump straight to the top.”

Taking in a small breath, Spike blew out a single, large green bubble. Sparkling smoke swirled within it before it popped in a green flash, dropping an empty letter and quill onto the dirt path. “Guess my magic still mostly works, even if my fire doesn’t, so there’s that at least.” He blew out a second, smaller bubble, again filled with smoke, which dropped a small puddle of some kind of ink next to the quill. Why it was just the ink without a bottle, nopony present could tell.

“That can’t taste too good.” Bloom stated, electing to ignore the lack of an ink bottle.

“You’d think that, but it actually tastes just fine. I guess its like, gemstone-based shampoo or whatever that I’m breathing out.” The purple dragon admitted, sitting down and dipping the quill into the puddle before starting to write his letter.

“Wait, if’n Princess Luna’s asleep, then why’re ya writing to her instead of Celestia?”

“Three reasons. The first is that she’s still acclimating to modern life. She was stuck on the moon for a thousand years. Her view of ‘modern medicine’ is likely entirely alien to our own, and possibly even dangerous.” Spike explained, blowing air on the letter to help the ink dry faster. “The second is that she might be sour from her defeat. Celestia and Nightmare Star seem like radically different persona’s, but that doesn’t mean she’ll take a loss any more gracefully than I expect Miss Star would.” Pausing to take a breath, he blew a final, iridescent green bubble around the scroll in his claws, the soap instantly absorbing the parchment into itself and beginning to float off towards the castle atop Mount Canterhorn. “Wow, that is slow. Anyway, the third reason? I’m not super thrilled by the idea of seeing her again so soon. I haven’t exactly been having pleasant dreams about our last encounter with her.”

“I thought she was being controlled by a dark spell or something though?” Zephyr asked.

“I have no idea about the real details that lead to her turning into a monster, all I know is that Luna’s story about it said it was caused by her resentment. You have to have some unreal anger issues to have the contents of your heart manifest like that, and the fact that they did doesn’t imply a whole lot of mental stability, if you ask me.”

“But what if we got hit by whatever she had though? Like, if this is some kind of centuries old alicorn disease that was passed to us?”

“We don’t even know if we all have the same thing. Sneaky Belle is utterly silent, Brutaloo is breaking everything around her, including herself, Apple Bud is some kind of treant, Mood Pie has turned into a walking mood ring, you went from being Zephyr to Heifer, and I’m breathing soap. That isn’t much of a pattern of symptoms. For all we know, we could all have different, entirely unrelated things going on. This isn’t really the time to be throwing out silly, unfounded theories, we need real, effective help before things have the chance to get worse.”

“You saw how slow your letter was going. It’s gonna be a while before that letter gets to the princess and we hear back from her, assuming she’s even awake right now, and that she decides to respond. We might as well try and figure out what’s going on while we wait, right?”

“I think it’s better that we don’t think about it at all. I’m not, at least. After what happened yesterday, I don’t think I’m in the right headspace for that. I’ll just fall down a rabbit hole of terrible, traumatizing theories and end up freaking myself out. Have fun the with idea of this being an ancient moon disease or whatever, I’m gonna go take advantage of the very unique opportunity that I just realized I have.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Yup. Gonna go get some ice cream.”

“Were... were you not able to do that before..?

“I could, but nothing ever makes it past my teeth without getting melted or burned. It has utterly destroyed my tastes. The only thing I’ve ever been able to feel in my mouth is food that is crunchy or liquefied. I have never, in my life, been able to just savor something that wasn’t some kind of rock.”

“Oh you poor child, you need to fix that right now.”

“I’m giving you a pass for calling me that only because I’m the youngest one here. Just because I don’t have my wings yet doesn’t mean I’m a baby dragon anymore, so please don’t treat me like one. I get enough of that from my family.”

“Sorry...”

“It’s fine, no harm done, I’m just telling you now so you don’t set me off later when I’m stressed.”

“Sorry..!”

“Seriously, you’re cool, I’m not mad. You didn’t know, that’s why I’m telling you about it.”

Dropping his spoon into an empty bowl, which at one point had been filled with the wondrous monstrosity known as ‘Chocolate Chip Charade’, which Spike found to just be chocolate ice cream filled with vanilla and strawberry flavored chocolate chips, he sighed, content in the knowledge the he had managed to actually eat a food as it was meant to be eaten. He now knew that he hated how ice cream felt in his mouth, but he was glad he tried it at least.

He couldn’t help but think about his curse, as Twilight called it. Something was off with his breath because of it, and more than just the fact it wasn’t fire. He recalled the letter he’d sent, the pancakes he failed to cook, and the items he dropped.

When items reformed from his flames and smoke, they would contract into themselves, but the smoke had fallen from the bubble along with the parchment and quill, almost like a fog. Maybe it was a fog, now that Spike thought about it. Why would he still have smoke if he didn’t have fire?

When he sent items away, they would burn into sparkling ash and be whisked away by his will alone to appear at his intended destination, but the bubble hadn’t deconstructed the letter into fog. It just took the parchment into itself and floated away lazily. And then there was the pancake batter...

The drake looked up to the roof, spotting the batter filled bubbles stuck to it. His fire wouldn’t have affected the batter if he didn’t want it to, which he hadn’t when he was trying to cook it, but the soap had absorbed it anyway, totally aimless in its journey to deliver the wet, pancakey ingredients. He wasn’t sure what to make of this, but he realized one thing; the rules to his fire didn’t seem to always apply to his new bubbly breath.

Glancing back down to his bowl, he thought about those rules he knew of. For his emerald dragonflame, he needed to have a destination in mind, he needed to be familiar with the area and/or creature he was sending something to, he couldn’t use it on animals, and he couldn’t use it on things that didn’t instantly burn, and the size of items he could send was proportional to the size of the breaths he took, the fourth rule being why he exclusively used oil-based inks. The bubbles had already seemed to break the same one, along with the first, if his failed breakfast was any indicator.

He took a breath, blowing a small bubble around the spoon. Just as he predicted, it floated lazily upwards, joining the almost food on the ceiling. He probably should have thought about how he was going to get it down before he did that. Maybe he’d ask Twilight for some help.

“Spike?” And there she was, like she was summoned by the thought.

“Yeah Twi?”

“I know what’s going on with your breath, and Scootaloo’s limbs, and Maud’s fur, and everything. I know how to fix it, and I’ve got the cure already made.”

“Didn’t you call it a curse earlier? You seemed pretty sure of yourself. What changed?”

“I went to Zecora to get her help in fixing things. I gave her my ticket to the Gala for it.”

“You gave her your ticket to the Gala?”

“I’ve been to it before. We both know I won’t be missing much.”

“Fair enough.”

“So... am I un-grounded?”

“You said you went to Zecora to fix the problem?”

“Yes. I think she wants to teach me stuff, too!”

“That’s fine, but you ran off into the Evermute, without my knowledge, for the second day in a row.”

“Oh.”

“You’re lucky you have a fix for things ready or you’d be double grounded. Now, what do I need to drink?”

“Bathe in, actually. You need a bubble bath.”

Author's Note

Suds
Rinse And Lather?
Shamp
Spume?
Soap E. Dragon

Dear Princess Luna,
Today I learned not to judge a book by its cover. Twilight taught me today that just because something seems silly, like the idea of a curse, that doesn't always mean that there's nothing to be learned from it. Especially if those silly ideas come from the opinion of someone you think you can trust. Maybe if I loosen up and let myself be a little more silly, I'll learn a little more from my friends, and be able to send you more reports. Maybe I'll be happier, too.

Also, it looks like Twilight gave away her ticket to the Gala. Looks like you've been spared from one of her question barrages for this year. Maybe we'll visit outside of the Gala, just to catch you up.
Your faithful student, Spike The Dragon

P.S. Ignore the crossed out stuff at the top of this note. I was using the space for something important.

Dear Reader,
Man. I really had the audacity to say that I spent weeks figuring out the poison joke effects for everyone and then did basically nothing with them. Take this original/bonus/special/whatever episode as an apology. I know it's one of the longer chapters so far, but I promise you, this entire thing was unplanned. I wrote this over the course of three or so separate sleep-deprived bouts of insanity.

Sorry if the nightmare scene seemed abrupt by the way. I saw the chance to expand on the dream thing from the last chapter, and a chance to introduce part of what Luna's version of the Royal Guard looks like, and I took it.

Also, In case you're wondering where the heck that 'Cherry Blossom' character came from and why she's the local teacher instead of Cheerilee, they're twins in issue #29 of the MLP IDW comic. Pretty sure that's the only evidence of Cherry's existence, so it's kind of the only thing I can guide you to as far as the original canon is concerned. In case you either can't or don't want to check out the issue of the comic, which I can't really blame you for, here's a link to all of the relevant information that exists of, and that you will probably ever need, about Cherry and Cheery's relationship.

If you don't know who Kibitz is, read basically any of the IDW comics that center solely on Celestia and you'll have a fifty percent chance of at least spotting him. He's the royal scheduling advisor for the princesses and basically dictates every move they make for the day. He's easily my favorite comic original character, it's great. Here's a link to a page with him introducing himself.
The absolute lemon of an author, InkTape

Griffon the Brush Off

“Oh, so that’s why you guys all seem to have the same shield cutie mark.” Spike said, finally having received an answer to a question he’s had since noticing a certain trio of matching marks.

“Yep. A little club we made as fillies. I miss that time a lot. We can’t spend as much time on our duties as crusaders anymore. The most we can do is act as counselors and help foals looking for their own marks, offering opportunities like learning an instrument.” Sweetie Belle explained.

“Or workin’ with a team of friends.” Apple Bloom chimed in.

“Or building machines and doing stunts. We’ve even got a little ‘Cutie Mark Camp’ thing that we’ve got coming up in fall to help kids get their marks. We set it up for a few days around the start of every season.” Scootaloo added.

“Maybe I’ll sign Twilight up for it.” Spike thought out loud. “She’s pretty confident in what she wants to do, but her mark still hasn’t appeared yet.”

“Yeah, that’s not as uncommon as you might think. Most of the time when someponies’ mark appears, it’s when they finally know what they want to do, but figuring out a goal isn’t strictly the cause of it appearing. Has Twilight ever mentioned what she wants to use all that stuff she’s learning for?”

“To further our understanding of magic, I think.”

“She wants to further her understanding of magic. Beyond that? She clearly doesn’t have much of a direction at all. I’d place my bets on that being the problem, that her special talent isn’t just knowledge oriented. She’s gotta have a more specific purpose.”

“I suppose so. Is there anything I can do to help her with that?”

“If you can get her to participate in something that she can apply her knowledge to, she might find a purpose and her mark could appear. Other than that, it’s just something that needs to happen on its-” Before Scootaloo could finish, something swooped by at mach speeds, pulling her completely out of the circle that the ponies and dragon had formed.

“Aaaaahahahahaha!” An unknown voice cackled in excitement.

“Gabby?” Scootaloo groaned. “What in the world are you doing here?”

“Are you kidding?! Did you think I wouldn’t fly straight here the moment I got your letter?”

“I didn’t expect that, no. I thought you were going to send a note back just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

“Is everything alright here?” Spike asked.

“Oh!” The unknown intruder was suddenly invading Spike’s face. She was some kind of light gray bird-cat. A griffon. “You’re not a pony! I didn’t know there was anything other than ponies in Ponyville. Hi! I’m Gabriella, but my friends just call me Gabby. What’s your name?”

“Gabby, focus.” Apple Bloom interrupted. “Not that I’m not happy that you’re here, but what are you doing all the way out in Ponyville?” She asked. Gabriella pulled out an opened envelope from a bag on her waist the handed it over to the yellow mare, before immediately returning to interrogating the dragon. Sweetie Belle peered over to watch as Apple Bloom pulled out the letter.

“Hey Gabby.” Sweetie Belle read aloud. “I just got an invitation for an important event that’s happening in the summer of next year. I can’t invite my parents because they’ll just try to embarrass me in front of the Wonderbolts and ruin my shot at getting in, so would you wanna use my extra ticket and come to the Grand Galloping Gala with a few other Crusaders as my plus one? It’s happening on July twenty first. You don’t have any holidays or birthdays around then, right? If you do, that’s fine.”

“Aw, it’s like a reunion.” Apple Bloom smiled. “We’re getting the band back together for an adventure at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“That’s a great idea! I should go offer my ticket to Babs, then. We can bring the whole club!” Sweetie smiled for a moment before a thought occurred to her. “But that would mean nopony would be left to watch the farm or Applejack, and I still need to get someone to look after Rarity while I’m gone too.”

“AJ can take care of herself and the farm. Only thing I’m worried about for her is cooking, so I’ll have to get that taken care of.”

“You guys could leave the foals with Twi for the days while we’re away.” Spike offered. “Her foalsitter already agreed to come into town to look after her. She loves kids, so looking after a few more shouldn’t be anything resembling a problem if I let her know what’s up.”

“Can we not bounce around topics faster than I can move?” Scoots said. “Seriously, I can’t switch gears that fast.”

“Sorry, Scoot.”

“Right! Sorry! You asked why I was here?” Gabriella apologized.

“Scoots’ extra Gala ticket, we already covered that.” Apple Bloom said. “You’re more than a little bit early though.”

The gray griffon, Gabby, giggled. “Yeah, but I’ve got a reason for that! I’ve been thinking about something for a while now, and Scootaloo’s letter ended up tipping me over the edge. I can’t make a whole lotta money back home, not like I can here, and if I wanna go to the Grand Galloping Gala of all places I’d need to be able to dress nice.”

“If you needed money for a dress, you could have just asked one of us, Gabby.” Sweetie Belle offered. “None of the Crusaders are exactly hurting for bits, and you wouldn’t be bothering us any to ask for help.”

“Nononono- no!” Gabby hurriedly shut Sweetie down before she could summon and reach into her bitbag. “That’s not it at all. I wanna earn my own bits. Not just for a dress, but a house too, and food, and furniture, and all kinds of other stuff that aren’t always easy to come by in Griffonstone. That’s why I’ve decided... I’m moving to Equestria to be closer to you guys!”

“Hi! I’m Gabby!” the excited griffon announced, pulling a random pony off the street and into a tight hug. “I’m new here. What’s your name?”

Spike leaned in to whisper to Apple Bloom. “So... who is Gabby and how do you guys know her?” He asked.

“We went on all kindsa adventures after forming the Cutie Mark Crusaders. One of our attempts to get our marks brought us to Griffonstone, where we met Gabby. She’s helped us out a lot through the years, and ended up becomin’ the club’s first official non-pony member.”

“First? There’s other non-ponies in your club?”

“Sort of. Sometimes Gabby gets a few little griffon cubs and chicks to come participate in the camp with the colts and fillies, but they only ever come if there ain’t someone else to take care of ‘em.”

“Hi!” Gabby zipped off to hug another random pony. Zephyr this time, funnily enough. “I’m Gabby! Who’re you?”

“I don’t think Twi’s ever met a griffon before. Any regulars like Gabby that she could hang out with?” The drake continued, watching as Zephyr absolutely lost it over Gabby’s remarkably soft fur and feathers. If Spike was honest, he might admit that he was a bit envious. He’d been hugged by a griffon once before during one of Luna’s meetings with Griffon Lord Gestal. Granted, the hug was part of a condescending remark by Gestal’s swan-mixed assistant towards how he was raised by ponies, but he couldn’t deny that well groomed griff-fluff was probably one of the softest things he’d ever felt.

“Gabby brings her siblin’s every time we set up, but I think that’s just ‘cause their grandpa makes ‘em go. None of ‘em really seem t’like the camp all that much.”

“If they’re anywhere nearly as friendly, or at least civil, as your friend seems to be, I don’t think Twi is gonna mind. Plus, I’d prefer her first interaction with a griffon be with someone like that rather than someone... well, more griffon-like, to be blunt. Oh, that reminds me, I need to go pick up Twi up from her grounding at Carousel Calliope.”

“I thought her groundin’ was just for the weekend?”

“It was.” Sweet explained. ”But Rarity has wanted to play some roleplaying games for a while and never had a playmate. Twilight mentioned that she knows how to play Ogres and Oubliettes and started a campaign with her. Now she’s with Rarity whenever she’s not with Zecora.”

“Zecora?” Scoot gave Spike an amused look. “Wasn’t your sis goin’ into the Evermute like, a whole thing with you?”

“My problem was personal, bad first experience, but it’s nothing that should stop Twi from learning and having her fun so long as she doesn’t go too far in. I have a condition for her learning there though. She needs someone to guide her in and out of the forest before and after her lessons, which is what I’m gonna go do now. Anyway, see you later.”

“Hold on, I’ll go with you to grab Rarity. She can get lonely when she doesn’t have something to do.” Sweetie Belle said, joining Spike on his walk.

Gabby watched as the purple and green dragon, Spike, walked off from the group with Sweetie Belle. She looked forward to getting to know the friends of her friends later. She had no idea that the Crusaders knew anycreature from a race other than ponies or griffons... Well, no, Apple Bloom talked about the cattle and sheep that lived on the ranch portion on Sweet Apple Acres. So cows, sheep, ponies, and griffons. And now she knew a dragon too! Exciting!

Oh wait, the ranch! She should probably introduce herself to everyone living on Apple family land, too, not just the ponies in the village itself. She maybe she’d ask Apple Bloom to introduce her to everyone after she was done in town. And ask how the whole ranch thing worked for creatures that weren’t animals. Wait, wasn’t everycreature technically an animal? Creatures with the ability to think and speak then, she supposed.

A tap on her back pulled Gabby out of her thoughts. She whipped around to look at the pony who’d been brave enough to tap a strange griffon. She liked them already!

“Hello. My name is Maud. Welcome to Ponyville.” A stone gray earth pony said, a bored expression plastered on her face.

“Hi! I’m Gabby! Do you live here? In this town I mean. Or is it a village? It has ‘ville’ in the name, so it’s a village, right? Or is it both? Does it matter if I call it a village or a town or a city or a kingdom or whatever other synonym?” The mare, Maud, just slowly blinked.

“I wanted to welcome you to Ponyville. I also was wondering why my friend looked so excited.”

“She’s so soft!” Zephyr exclaimed, darting under the griffon’s wing. “I’ve never seen feathers this soft! Even the feathers on my dove aren’t this soft!”

“Ah.” Maud looked Gabby in the eye and pointed towards her other wing. The griffon tilted her head in confusion before realizing what the gray mare was indicating.

“Oh, sure.” Gabby held out the wing in front of her for the pony to feel. Maud smiled briefly as she ran a hoof over the griffon’s feathers. That smile dropped after she took the hoof away and placed it back on the ground. She thanked the hen and walked away, leaving Gabby feeling somewhat awkward.

Creatures were pretty polarized with Gabby. They either loved her, or they hated her. There was very little in between, and she knew that. Fellow griffons tended to fall in the latter category, and ponies in the former. This pony on the other hand, Maud, was the first, and only creature that seemed to do the impossible and fall in the middle. Lightly shaking the aquamarine pegasus off her wing, she flew after the mare. “Hey! Where’re you going?”

“There’s a gem quarry about two miles outside of town.” Maud explained.

“Oh! I love gemstones! They’re always so pretty and cool looking! Mind if I join you?”

“No.” The mare said simply.

“No I can’t go, or no you don’t mind..?”

“I don’t mind. No one else should be there today, and it’d be good to have someone with wings there if one of the subterranean tunnels collapses under me.”

“Don’t you mean on top of you? Aren’t you gonna go into those tunnels?”

“No.”

“So... why are you going to the gem quarry then, if you’re not gonna go into the tunnels?”

“To collect a few rubies for Mrs. Paleo because she asked me to. She’s a jeweler, and gemologist.”

“But you’re not going in the tunnels for those rubies?”

“I haven’t found an entrance to them, and I don’t really need to.”

“You don’t need an entrance to use a tunnel in the quarry to find your gems?”

“No, the tunnels are under the quarry.”

“I’m so confused.”

“Gabby, hang on!” Scootaloo called, rushing up to the pair of gray creatures. “Don’t you want somepony to show you around Ponyville? I thought you came here to hang out with me and the girls.”

“I did, but I’ll need to make some more friends if I’m gonna live here, right? I’ll get somepony else to show me around, and we can hang out after.”

“Alright. Just don’t ask Spike, he only knows a hoofful of routes. He’s no more of a local than you are yet. Maybe Maud can help you. Right Maud?”

“Sure.” The mare accepted, her ever present monotone shifting slightly. Gabby couldn’t really tell if the shift was good or bad though.

Gabby had no idea what to make of Maud’s ability to find gemstones. The mare explained that she was studying with the Paleo family to be a geologist, but the rate at which she managed to completely fill the pockets of her frock with gemstones, most of which Gabby couldn’t identify, bordered on the edge of supernatural. Was that just how Equestria was, she wondered? Were gems so plentiful in places like the quarry that you’d have a more difficult time not finding one?

Then again, ponies practically overflowed with magic. Maybe earth ponies were more connected with the earth, like how pegasi were more connected with the sky? Was that why Maud was studying to be a geologist? “Hey, why are you trying to be a geologist anyway?” The hen asked as the pair reentered the town after their excursion.

“I like rocks.” Maud replied.

Okay, maybe not. Gabby found the mare really really difficult to read. It was kind of scary in a way. Even other giffons would express themselves. The emotions they expressed were usually negative, but still, Gabby knew what to expect. Ponies were kinder though. Patient. Maybe Maud was actually super annoyed, but was too nice to take it out on her..?

“Here’s the market.” Maud said suddenly as they passed by various stalls, ponies lining up to purchase random goods. The actual buildings seemed to be spaced pretty far apart from one another, creating something of a field to contain the stalls. “It’s open every other week for anyone to set up and sell things.”

“Oh, you’re just gonna do like, a regular tour?”

“Were you not expecting me to show you around?”

“No- I mean yes, I was, but thought you were gonna show me places that you liked to hang out at. Not... the market.”

“I did.”

“You hang out at the market?”

“No.”

“The... quarry?”

“Mhm.”

“You hang out at a quarry? Even though you were worried about a tunnel collapse?”

“I wasn’t worried.”

“But you brought it up as a possibility! I thought my wings were the reason you brought me along!”

“They were.”

“I- wh- I don’t-... you’re messing with me.”

Maud gave a brief smile. The second one of the day.

“You are! You are messing with me! Haha! Thank Grover! I was worried that you were mad at me.”

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Idunno, everycreature usually loves me or hates me right off the bat, and you didn’t seem to like me, so...”

“I don’t hate you. You’re like my sister, and I could never hate Pinkie.”

“Like your sister?”

Maud nodded. “Really high energy. She didn’t like just moving rocks around very much, but she always did her best to put a smile on everyone’s face whenever she was around.” She directed a smile towards a pebble she began to roll under her hoof.

“Oh- I... Sorry for your loss.”

“What? Oh-!” Maud’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked back up to the griffon. “No. She’s fine.”

“Why did you talk about her like that then?”

“She moved away a few years ago, a while before I came here, to become an entertainer. That’s actually the reason I’m in Ponyville to begin with, besides my studies. The circus that she’s part of comes through town every so often, and we get to catch up.”

“Oh! Maybe I’ll get to meet her then!”

“I’m sure you’d like her. Do you want to continue the tour? I know a few hidden shortcuts that you might find helpful.”

“Sure! The sooner I get used to the town, the better. I think I’ll love living here.”

Author's Note

Dear Diary,
Today was a fun one! I made a new friend, Gabby the griffon. She's really extroverted, unlike me. She doesn't have any problem at all with saying with what's on her mind.

Gabby really reminds me of Pinkie Pie. She even came with me to the quarry, on her own. I know it's not as interesting to others as it is to me, so I was really happy when she decided to follow me there! It made me feel like I was back on the farm with everyone, though we weren't there for very long. It really made my day for her to bring my thoughts back to my family like that, even if she probably didn't mean to.

Apparently she's moving to Ponyville. I hope that means that we can hang out more often.
- Maudileena

Letters to a Stranger - Special Episode

Spike yawned as he laid into his bed. It had been a long day. Zecora has needed his help for a lesson, Apple Bloom had needed his help because she overworked herself, again, and the mayor had wanted his help to promote some new store. Apparently his appearance at the opening meant that it had his, and by proxy the Princess’ approval, but frankly, what kind of store only sells quills and sofas?

Now, after finally sending Twilight to bed, he was ready to just go to sleep. A strange interruption demanded his attention however, sending him to the study to read.

A puff of sparkling green smoke floating towards him before transforming into a floating letter.

Dear Spike,
I apologize for not writing to you about this sooner. My sister is forcing me to focus on recovering from our encounter within Evermute Forest.

You and your friends had completely stripped me of my magic it seems, causing a bit of sickness in the first weeks. Only now am I able to use my magic to send this letter.

See, a dragon’s amber flame can be used to make magic unstable. I, as Nightmare Star, took advantage of your attempts to spark the elements of harmony by introducing my own magical flames which mimicked those of another dragon.

My “false ruby” dragonflame allowed me some control over the reaction, the explosion, allowing me to destroy the elements before you could truly to wield them.

Your grateful reformed friend ex-princess, Celestia.

Sitting there at his desk, Spike was confused to say the least. There was a lot to unpack with that letter.

First off, ‘mimicked those of another dragon’? Was it possible that other dragons had other abilities similar to his own? Were his abilities not simply the result of his unique birth?

Second, ‘false ruby dragonflame’? Was Celestia implying that dragons had abilities that not even ponies had complete access to? How did she know a term that he’d only heard his brother use to refer to his magical breath?

And her use of the term ‘false ruby’ implied the existence of a true version. Could Spike wield a power comparable to Nightmare Star? Was he more of a match for the fallen princess than he originally thought? That’s definitely a confidence boost.

Beyond all of that though, the last bit of the letter… she clearly didn’t seem to know how to refer to herself. Was she nervous to speak to him?

Grabbing a scroll and quill, he began to write.

Dear Princess(?) Celestia,
You don’t need to be worried about referring to yourself as my friend. I’m more than willing to be one. I have to ask though, why are you referring to yourself as an ex-princess? Are you not reclaiming your title?

Your friend, Spike The Dragon

Dear Spike,
I thank you for your words. It calms my heart to know that you at least have forgiven me for my actions.

So answer your question, no, I will not be returning to the throne just yet. After allowing my pride to consume me like it did, I don’t believe I should hold that level of authority again.

Perhaps at one point I will return to my sister’s side, but for now I must work on my collection of mental, physical, magical, and spiritual issues before I am worthy of the crown once more.

To avoid leaving this letter on that mildly depressing note, I must ask how it is that you, a dragon, came to be my sister’s most trusted assistant and student? Equestria has clearly changed much since my time, but this particular situation still seems quite unusual.

Your friend, Celestia

Dear Celestia,
I wish you luck on your journey to recovery. Maybe you could visit Ponyville sometime. This place seems to have a weird pattern of helping visitors with their emotional problems.

How I became Luna’s student isn’t really much of a story. I was found as an egg by her a long time ago, and was used as part an exam for her school. Luna had a close eye on me since I hatched, and even personally oversaw my education when I first developed my magic breath. I was kind of adopted by one of her students after that. My position is just kind of a natural evolution of the odd situation she found herself in after finding me.

Actually, this kind of leads into something I’m curious about. See, I try not to associate myself with dragons and dragon culture. I’m starting to get over it, but I’m still scared that everypony will be afraid of me if I go out of my way to improve that knowledge.

Clearly though, you, and apparently my brother, know some things about me and my kind that I had no idea about. I always thought that ‘dragonflame’ was just a cool sounding name that my brother used to refer to my magic green fire, but here you are using that apparently not made-up term.

Also, here you are talking about a ruby dragonflame when I only just discovered that I had a blue one during our encounter in the ruins.

Are these all abilities common to dragons? I honestly don’t have any idea.

-Spike

Dear Spike,
Found as an egg? Really? Strange. It’s a shame that you know so little about your species.

Other dragons do have the same abilities that you possess, but are not quite able to use them at the same frequency. See, while they can wield magic with their fire, they cannot produce magic by themselves, or at least not very much. They absorb as much of it as they can from the gems that they consume, which allows them to wield five different flames naturally. One of amber, of emerald, of sapphire, of topaz, and of spinel.

To my knowledge, any other magical flames only exist because of unnatural circumstances. Though I only know of three such unnatural flames, I’m sure that more exist. The ruby which only appears to the dragon lord, the onyx which I believe is a form of dark magic, and the opal which I’ve only seen used once and have no further knowledge of besides its existence. There is one other that I’ve heard about, but have no real information on.

Most dragons can only wield one flame at a time from what I’ve personally seen, two if they're skilled. Your third was a huge shock to me when I saw it. Mixing flames can alter the effects, such as what happened between your amber and my false ruby. An explosion from the unstable orange, controlled and directed by the commanding red.

As for the terminology, your abilities are actually known as ‘Dragonfire’. ‘Dragonflame’ is used when referring to a single type, and ‘dragonflames’ is used for a group of specified types.

I’m unsure if there’s been any evolution to the creatures of this world since my banishment however. Scrying spells didn’t work quite as effectively while was imprisoned, so any information I have is coming from over a millennia in the past. Apologies if something I say is… outdated, to phrase it nicely.

-Celestia

Any information is better than no information, right? Besides, even if things aren’t exactly the same as they were then, it’s kind of cool to hear about the ancient past from a direct source.

Do you have any idea what these other flames do or how I can use them? I imagine that I’d be able to use the other natural ones at least, right?

Your draconic student, Spike

Possibly. I’ll help if I can, but I always believed that, unnatural dragonfire aside, a dragon would only have access to the magics they were born with. Though perhaps that assumption is wrong. I hope that you can grow beyond your innate talents, learning new flames just as a unicorn may learn new spells.

Unfortunately, I only have direct knowledge of the ruby, spinel, and topaz flames, I seriously doubt that you can attain the ruby without assistance from the Dragon Lord themselves, and I can’t help to develop the emerald, amber, or sapphire. Though… As I mentioned previously, it’s possible to mix flames. This is called a ‘companion flame’, if I remember correctly. I cannot do it due to the counterfeit nature of my own fire. If I could, the encounter with Nightmare Star would have gone very differently.

If you can figure out how to mix flames, you should have able to improve your arsenal of abilities even if you’re unable to use the other dragonflames. For now though…

The topaz flame is pure yellow in color and acts as a way to modify what it’s used on. It’s how I was able to transform into a living fireball at will. If you have the right components, you can use it to create entirely new objects or improve existing ones.

The spinel flame is pink and is less like fire and more like pure magic. It has only slight heat, and can be used to burn away or empower magical effects. For the most part, this flame doesn’t have any obvious direct use aside from interfering with spellcasters. However, I found this flame to be one of my favorites for its ability to reinforce and empower the enchantments set into artifacts.

Assuming that it will work the same for you as it did for me, you should be able to wield these flames by tapping into the seven draconic impulses. Wrath, pride, envy, greed, etcetera. These impulses, and mastery over them, is how I was taught to wield my own flames. Learning how each impulse manifests within you, embracing it, and then conquering it.

To find the topaz, face your greed. To find the spinel, face your gluttony.

That’s good to know I guess. I’ll try and think of something, but the literal route is probably what I’ll end up going with anyway. I’d like to keep it simple, just out of the way of my normal life. Maybe I’ll keep a hoard of comic books in the basement or something.

Hang on a second, I just realized that your letters have been appearing by themselves, in a cloud of smoke. The same smoke generated by my green fire. How did you pull that off if you don’t have direct info on it like your others?

I didn’t contradict myself, young drake. I have the other basic flames, I just wasn’t directly taught how to use them. The amber, sapphire, and emerald flames all came to me naturally once I developed my False Dragonfire spell. The only things I know of them is that they’re represented by, the impulses of wrath, pride, and sloth, respectively.

In hindsight, that probably should have been a sign to step back and think about my life choices.

From how Nightmare Star acted, I get why you have the orange and blue flames, by why did you have green? You don’t exactly seem like a lazy pony to me.

It actually kind of has to do with the reason that I don’t want the throne that Luna is offering me. More-so than Nightmare Star even.

Both myself and Luna were naturally talented and powerful as fillies. That power only grew as we did. As an earth pony, Luna had to scrape and claw every ounce of strength she has. I, as a unicorn, was able to take the easy route.

I studied scrying magics. Clairvoyance. It was a crutch that allowed me to take shortcuts. It taught me things I couldn’t have known, showed the way to treasures I’d never have found, and it let me see things that no pony should ever have seen.

Luna earned her wings and her horn. I was born lucky and I still cheated to get mine. That is how my sloth manifests.

You feel like you never earned the throne to begin with.

Heavy.

Uh…

So you guys weren’t born as alicorns? And Princess Luna was an earth pony? I always thought she was just born as an alicorn.

I’m not surprised. considering the fact that I was nearly wiped entirely from history, I doubt any information from our shared reign and before has survived the tests of time.

No, an alicorn cannot be born, as far as I am aware. We had to earn our ascensions through some form of trial, something with difficultly and far-reaching effects. The one time someone attempted to challenge that idea, it didn’t turn out well. It was an ordeal that I, much like Luna, would rather forget entirely about.

As for Luna being an earth pony, well, there isn’t much to say. She was an earth pony. Simple as that. And I was a unicorn.

Well, what was you reign like? Apart from the whole jealousy and downfall thing.

It was a hundred and five years of pure bliss compared to my experience trapped on the moon.

Myself and Luna had to go out of our way to fight off monsters almost daily back then. New villages would appear in dangerous areas all the time, and so ourself and professional monster hunters would need to go out to fight off all kinds of threats.

Considering that one of the flames that came naturally to me was amber, you can probably guess how much I liked to do that. Those fights were some of the only times I felt fully appreciated by my sister and our subjects.

It seems that the royal guard has taken up most of those duties, but I plan on joining them myself, regardless of whatever else I plan to do when I fully recover.

Perhaps I’ll ask Luna to split a sixth of our soldiers off into some kind of “Solar Guard” or “Day Guard” and have them dedicated specifically to helping me fight.

I was going to say something about you just having trained fighters with you in a purely support role being a little irritating, but then I remembered how easily you knocked down a group of thestrals when you first showed up.

You should probably train them up to your level them instead of just keeping them around as eye candy. I’d very much prefer my brother to not get knocked down like a bowling pin if a threat of your caliber shows up again. Especially if you’re going to be taking guards out with you specifically to hunt threats like that.

That’s a good point. Effort to strengthen the guard could certainly prove useful in future events. Im just used to myself and my sister being the only consistently useful ponies around. In situations like a hunt, at least.

Spike wrote to Celestia through the night. By the morning, they both felt like their encounter in the Evermute was nothing more than a bad first .

Little did either of them know, a tired visitor from a molten wasteland was beginning to make his home in a nearby forest, carving his way into a mountain cavern to prepare his lair.

Author's Note

Dear Reader,
This is not a full return to the fic just yet. That’s probably not gonna happen anytime soon honestly. I’ve been busy, sad, frustrated, lazy, distracted, and bored with MLP since the last update. I’m only now genuinely getting back into the swing of things. If you have a fic to recommend, I’d love to hear it!

Anyway, I just wanted to replace Grounded because I was spectacularly disappointed in myself for that chapter and couldn’t get this specific idea out of my head for a while. Twilight really should have talked to Luna more in the show.

Also, if you’re wondering what the heck an ‘Evermute Forest’ is,
I decided to include a few headcanons I had about the Everfree and Gusty the Great. This being a sibling-swap fic, you probably have a rough guess as to what happened.

I already went through and replaced the name in the previous chapters, as well as a few other details, like the incorrect year in Twilight’s diary entry.
The lemon-scented author, InkTape