Simplified

Music fills the room as the unknown figure presents a grandiose show here in the confines of my basement. I'm more upset that this pony has even dared to just show up unannounced and have themselves a ball without even my knowing, let alone asking me for permission to host a rock concert. And I know it isn't the drinks that has me hallucinating because I didn't down that many. Three shots don't constitute as a permission for pink elephants to go on parade, much less this shit. And he's carrying on like he's got an audience of tens of thousands screaming his name.

"If you don't like...
The world you're living in...
Take a look around...
At least you got 'friends'...
You see, I called my old lady...
For a friendly word...
She picked up the phone, dropped it on the floor
'Ah-ssss-ah,' is all I heard!"

I immediately see a plug running from the bottom of the chest towards one of the outlets in the wall. The first thing I do is march my way towards that outlet as he continues his chorus.

"Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down?
OH NO, LET'S GO!
Let's go crazy...
Let's get nuts...
Let's look for the purple banana
Until they put us in the truck, let's go!"

The music intensifies, and as catchy as it may be, I'm still just as motivated to snatch that damn plug out from the wall. And as soon as I do, the light show comes to an end, the fog machines shut down, the sound breaks to silence and the figure looks at me like I'm supposed to be fired over disrupting his set. Meanwhile, I couldn't care less. "What. The FUCK... IS ALL OF THIS!?"

The figure sighs and takes off the guitar, tossing it aside to dissipate into vapor. "Oh... and here I pegged you as a party personality with all of that racket from upstairs. I was just trying to meet the vibe, buuuuuuut I suppose I should be on my way then."

"Who the hell are you sneaking around my basement, putting on a show I didn't authorize?"

The figure steams up a chair for him to sit on, patiently and annoyingly reclining himself against my wall. "Well I would say that I invited myself in, but I know that wouldn't be wholly true."

I quirk my eyebrow at the strange apparition. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I was brought here." He replies with a smirk. "Nice place by the way. I see it's a bit industrial, but I'll admit it's a better sell than some crude rocky cave with poor lighting."

As I'm about to ask him to leave, I take pause and notice that the voice he speaks with is a familiar one. "Haven't I heard of you before?"

The figure starts to inspect their own hooves. "Do I? I don't recall having met you, dragon."

"No, we haven't met." I clarify. "But I do remember having heard your voice from the prison."

The figure takes a second before rolling his eyes. "Oh yeah, that place."

"Who are you?"

"A simple question." He says as he flamboyantly points at himself. "I am Umi. Umi the Djinn. I grant wishes for all who seek my assistance. And I look to fulfill your greatest aspirations. What you seek, I will have, for I am all-knowing, all seeing, immersed in time and space itself, unlimited cosmic powers at my beck and call, even fates unwritten to you I know. All you must do is simply ask. Something-something, fine-print, you have three wishes."

While I would be privy to take him at his word, I remember a fairly fine detail about the world we live in. "A Djinn? Those creatures are just make-believe."

"I assure you that I am far from make-believe." He replies confidently.

It's hard for me to accept that everything he says is true, especially about the wishing part. But I understand that in legend, djinns will offer three wishes to anyone who asks, but there are always stipulations to those wishes, always a catch or some back-end consequence to follow. And I'm not going to take a chance on finding out what those consequences are by making a wish. So maybe there's some other way he can prove his so-called 'unlimited cosmic powers' and knowledge of 'fates unwritten'. "Prove it."

The pony shrugs as he replies. "Tell me an individual's fate you wish to know of."

I throw out a random name from off the top of my head. "Mrs. Cake."

"Ovarian cancer." I freeze in place as his answer is so quick and bleak. A powerful discomfort grows in the pit of my stomach as I realize that one of the things about djinns is that they are capable of telling you your own fate. To translate that, if I ask about my own fate, I could simply drop dead in that instant. "What, not easy hearing about the deaths of those you know and love? It's just a part of the life you creatures live. Surely you'd know that." He says, grabbing my attention. "Now come on, shoot another one at me."

Another name leaves my lips. "Pipsqueak."

"Air balloon disaster." The pit in my stomach grows a little more, but he laughs at my discomfort. "Oh come now, at least give me a hard one you don't want to know about. Go on... ask the question."

My mind immediately goes to an unlikely candidate for death to take. "Princess Celestia."

His answer is just as swift as the others he gave. "End stage dementia caused by rigor mana, complicating matters until the mind is essentially fried dead. Quite a peaceful exit if you ask me."

My knees buckle as I don't know how to process the news of Celestia's fate being read out to me, someone who's likely to live another thousand years getting wiped out from something so complicatedly common. She has to reach old age by then, and I don't think she ever will, at least not in a few lifetimes. So I go for a more intermediate character. "Nondis."

"Cardiac arrest, occurs in sleep." Again, quick and blunted. "Now I said give me a hard one."

Princess Celestia was literally my hardest one, at least of those I didn't want to put out in my immediate circle of friends and acquaintances. Instead he wants me to draw from that group. So I take a deep breath and utter under my breath one name. "Pinkie Pie."

"Diabetic complications, acute kidney failure."

I cover my ears as I shake my head with horror. "Okay, you proved your point!"

"Would you like to know how you die?"

I scream even louder trying not to hear him. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! BLAH BLAH BLAH!"

But instead of me hearing him through my ears, his voice booms in my head like he's my internalized thoughts playing over a high-definition sound system. "It's not as though I can't reach you in that thick head of yours." I stare back at him in horror as he looks down upon me. "As I said, I'm a djinn with all power. To speak and be heard is nothing but a trivial matter."

A voice from the top of the staircase startles me to unholy depths. "Spike, you okay down there!?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I reply to Smolder.

After I answer her, the djinn speaks out to me. "So would you like to know how she dies?"

"Please no." I beg.

He shrugs in disappointment. "Suit yourself. I won't spoil you the surprise then."

Needless to say that he's fully capable of reading out everyone's fates to me. There are a few I don't believe like Pip's and Celestia's, but there are others who wouldn't surprise me much if they did happen, like Pinkie's and Nondis' because of their believability. Pinkie has always been a glutton for sweets, so to hear her dying from a diabetic complication is nothing short of in-line with her life. Either way, I can't refute anything he says. "Okay. Say I believe you, but what does that prove?"

"It proves my power, that my abilities go as deep as fate and destiny itself." He reiterates calmly. "So tell me, where do you wish to improve, what do you wish to know, what is the power you seek?"

Smolder's voice rings from the top of the stairs once more. "Spike, who's that talking down here?"

I try to come up with an answer. It's not nearly as instant as the ones the djinn gave to me regarding the fates of others, but I come up with something reasonable. "Sorry, I just had my phone on full blast. I just like to listen to something while I'm doing the laundry."

"Oh... okay. I guess that's fine." She says as she starts to come down the stairs to greet me.

I turn back to tell the djinn to stay out of view, only to see he's beaten me to the punch. Not one hint of his existence remains in view. I just shake it off and try to carry on with my day. But after hearing the fates of many of my friends and acquaintances, I feel it's best for me to dull those thoughts as quickly as possible. "Say, is there anything upstairs to drink?"

"After last night, plenty." She answers.

"I think I could go for a bit more of that."

She tilts her head at me with confusion. "It's morning though."

"Yeah, but I got this hangover I'm trying to work through." I lie.

"You didn't even drink that much." She accurately points out.

"I'm still a bit on the bad end though." I lie again.

The dragon chuckles as she knocks me against my shoulder. "Lightweight."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

She shakes her head before reminding me. "You know, it's Ocellus day today. She's gonna want you to make her breakfast, preferably in bed."

My eyes perk up as I realize that it's a little too soon for me to get shitfaced in light of the revelations I've received. "Shit, you're right. I need to get on that!"

I run past Smolder and stumble up the stairs as she slowly follows behind me. But she stops midway and ponders to herself over what was taking place down in the basement.

"That didn't sound like a phone."

My time in the kitchen proves to be a fairly good distraction for the most part, it's hard to focus on the grim issue of knowing the demise of your friends when I don't want to cause misfortune to occur within my kitchen. And then it's even easier after getting Ocellus her breakfast, who kindly responds to the gesture with a very enticing mode of stress relief. But that post-nut clarity came back with the issue of me imagining how I can prevent the worst from happening to everyone.

Ocellus takes note of my change in disposition, seeing that I'm a lot more absent minded than usual. So she offers that we take a stroll through town to see everyone, all in the hopes to possibly cheer me up. I agree to go, but it only increases the amount of unease I have in seeing certain faces.

Sometime amid our venture, we make our journey through the town square, where a subtle fountain stands in the square and the traffic of a number of shops and business intersect. A variety of creatures stroll through, making way to their respective destinations. But in our passing, a set of voices snags our attention, much less the topic of the discussion.

"So you think somethings off with Discord?"

"I know it is." Fluttershy answers. "It's unlike him to just not show up for dinner, or even wake me up in the morning. He's always making sure that the first thing I see in the morning is him when I wake up. But instead he seemed like he didn't want to talk to me about anything other than the animals."

"And we know he's not a character to look after the animals, even while being comprised of many of them." Strapping answers with a hoof to the chin. "Did he say anything that alerted you?"

"Something about a familiar presence looming in the world." Fluttershy answers.

Cherry frowns as she tries to make any connection to what could be going on. "Well that's vague."

As Ocellus and I start to get in closer, Fluttershy is the first to notice me. And considering my height advantage over most everything else, I'm hard to miss. "Hey Spike!"

"Hey guys." I greet back as Ocellus walks beside me.

Cherry makes a comment of my closeness with the changeling. "Oh, look at you and her. You two seem pretty close."

"Babe, not everyone who looks close is together." Says Strapping to his wife.

"Well there you'd be pretty wrong." Ocellus corrects the orange pegasus. "Spike and I are having our day together. He's supposed to be taking me out for a day on the town." She pulls at my arm, trying to reinforce the fact that we're together.

"Aw! That's so cute, you got you a little something now!" Cherry coos while holding her hooves together in admiration.

"I see you, Spike. Way to put old anchors behind you." Strapping gives me a nudge in the side, showing his approval.

Fluttershy smiles at me as she makes a comment on our relationship. "Though to be fair, we already knew that you two have been an item for some time."

"Since when?" I ask.

"Well, I can't say." She says politely, giving me a subtle wink. "You'll just have to believe me when I say I have my sources."

Why do I have the feeling that she's probably seen that video Sweetie Belle had with me in the club? Cherry narrows her eyes at the yellow pegasus with a snicker. "Sneaky, Fluttershy. Holding out on the tea? For shame."

I shake my head, trying to change the topic. "Yeah, I'm a little involved right now. So what's going on with you guys? I overheard a little of the conversation passing by and I got curious."

"Nothing much. Just chatting up a conversation about Discord. He's pulled an unusual maneuver today. Nothing to really talk on." Cherry responds.

It seems that they're trying to keep this situation in-house. Guess I shouldn't press the matter for the time being. "I hope he's okay."

"He's fine." Fluttershy answers.

"Okay." Ocellus answers with a nod before popping her own question. "Hey, I gotta question."

"Shoot." Strapping points back at her.

"There was some goons that snatched up Spike on Saturday. Would you happen to know anything about them?"

Cherry seems a bit surprised by the news, seems Fluttershy didn't tell them that yet. "You got snatched up?" The stallion asks me. The stallion then purses his lips, unable to come to a clear conclusion. "Uh... not really." He turns his attention back to me. "Spike, man, what's going on where you getting snatched by pendejos?"

"Just some losers looking to rebuild an underground arena." I briefly summarize.

Cherry facehoofs in disgust. "Oh lord, that again?"

I go on to briefly explain how I got myself in that situation. "It's really on me. I did a marathon to Ponyville and back, and that's without the proper conditioning."

"Why'd you do something that stupid?" The stallion asks.

"A friend was in trouble, so I took off as quick as I could. I mistimed the train leaving town, and I had to fly back. Next thing I knew, I woke up in chains, getting punched in the throat, and we made an escape with a prince from Ponyland."

"A Ponyland prince?" Cherry asks. "How'd you come across him?"

"Again, we were trapped in a dungeon together. And we pretty much navigated our way out of jail. The search-and-rescue squad got us back to surface level."

The pink mare sighs with relief. "That's a good thing."

I mumble a side comment about one of the ones who aided in our rescue. "I never knew Mrs. Kalimba could kick ass like that."

That comment perked Cherry up, I could see it on the way she flicks her ears towards me. "Oh honey, she's a package. Back when Nondis and her worked the underground together, she used to bail him out of a lot of shit."

"What's important is that you're back in one piece." Fluttershy says with a gentle smile.

"Yeah..." Cherry cosigns, freezing up in a thought that pretty much has her go into a temporary thousand-yard stare. "That part."

Ocellus takes note of her distant disposition and tries to get her attention. "Ms. Cherry, you okay?"

Strapping Lad steps in front of his wife, snapping her out of her thought as he answers the changeling. "Nevermind her, she's got her mind on something she shouldn't."

The mare shakes her head, jumping back to the present. "Yeah! I'm sorry. But you two go and have your fun. Don't worry about us too much."

"Sure thing." Ocellus says as she pulls on my arm, dragging me away from the trio.

But before we can make distance, Cherry calls out to me. "Hey Spike..." I turn around to see her eyeing me intensely. "There wasn't anything too unusual going on down there, right?"

I shake my head, not wanting to fill her in on too many details. "Nah, just some guys talking to a djinn."

"A djinn?" She tilts her head curiously, but shakes it off and waves me on my way. "Alright, well carry on then."

"See ya!" I holler back as we walk away.

While we depart down the avenue, Strapping verbalizes a thought to his wife. "That's strange."

"What?"

"I thought genies didn't exist in this world."

Fluttershy answers in a low voice. "They don't."

Our day carries on without much of anything happening other than the run-in with Fluttershy, Cherry, and Strapping. Those three are always in constant communication with one another, at least maybe twice a week since little Jasper will sometime volunteer at the animal shelter she runs. Ocellus always shows concern for that fact, but I assure her by reinforcing the fact that he only deals with the smaller animals, like the rabbits, the cats, the smaller birds, and even some of the dogs they have there.

The journey of our day comes to yet another pit stop at a local restaurant, an outside eatery where they serve the usual fixings for many passing equines. Personally, I go with the more junkier options since I can easily digest those. It's much easier to pass a carrot dog with cheese and sauerkraut than it is a dandelion sandwich deluxe with extra alfalfa and dandelion petals. Ocellus, on the other hoof, eats pretty much everything you place in front of her. Since she's a changeling, her dietary limitations are virtually zero due to her need to be able to adapt to any species she transforms into. It's the main reason why she didn't have any issues digesting human cuisine like some others probably would.

We pretty much go over what all happened over the course of the week, especially since she's pestering me over what all happened with my time with Gabby. I just tell her that we've been binging on a show that I've ran into sometime during the course of her argument with now-ex. I don't spare too many details. "And then the guy pops out, and I'm like 'He's alive, through all of that!?' Like I was losing my mind when I saw that scene!" And I admit that I might be a bit of a fan of the show at this point. My enthusiasm is unlike anything else right now.

And the passion is clear to her. "Wow, seems you're really caught up by that show."

"I know it's human stuff, but they have some pretty crazy concepts in their cartoons!"

She's always a big consumer of human media anyhow, and that's in spite of harboring some fears about the species itself. I'm still pretty amazed that she can operate like that, but maybe it's not so much of the whole species she's scared of than it is one of the species that makes her feel uneasy. "Sounds like it's something we'll have to go back to the house and watch."

"Damn, had I known you would've been interested, I wouldn't have spoiled so much."

She fiddles around with her hayfries as she gives her response. "You're fine. What you told me up to this point is enough for me to be interested. Just stop there so I can have more to look forward to."

"I'll have it queued up first thing when we walk through the door." I assure her.

As I finish off the last of my meal, Ocellus gives me a look and grows curious over my interaction with the others from earlier. She begins to touch on the matter. "Hey Spike?"

"Yeah."

"That situation when you got captured, you said that those goons were talking to someone." She recalls. "Why didn't you tell them about the screaming guy?"

I wince in thought. "I mean it was weird enough, but I just didn't think I needed to drop that bit of trauma into it. The guy was apparently dead when they got to him."

"You could've told them that anyhow. It obviously wasn't that traumatic that you couldn't tell us, and you seemed to sleep pretty soundly after that."

I scoff at her suggestion of my manner of sleep. "Soundly?"

Ocellus leans into me, showing definite concern. "So you had a nightmare?"

I stir the straw of my drink, mentally piecing together the details of my nightmare. "Not about that, but about some other thing from the past. Guess you could call it a 'what-if' playback, maybe even an alternate universe take. It's happened to me before."

"What played back to you?" She asks.

I grow mum, looking back at the changeling in front of me. Looking at her directly, you wouldn't even be able to tell that her mother's currently encased in stone and under continuous heavy surveillance. "When I was captured by Chrysalis and she threatened to rip my wings off." I instinctively flex my wings at the memory, thankfully unable to recall much the pain. "Kinda hard to forget about that one."

"I'm sure." She starts to look down, she goes back to playing with her hayfries again. "Do you... resent me for what I am?"

"A changeling?" I ask.

"Her daughter. I'm literally the larva of the family." She clarifies.

I smoothly reach my claw across the table and rob her of a fry or two. "Did I ever show contempt at Thorax for what he was?"

"You could've." She replies.

"But did I?" I ask her once more, robbing her of a few more of her fries.

"I guess not." She says as she goes on the defensive, moving her plate away from my reach.

I toss back the fries I stole. "Then what makes you any different?"

"I don't know." She starts to nibble on one fry before pausing yet again to speak her mind. "I still can't shake what all my mom has done to everyone."

I try to fenagle my way over to her place since she seems to be low on appetite. I manage to successfully grab a few before she shifts the location of her plate. "The one thing I can tell you, don't go on an apology tour like your brother's doing. He does that well enough on his own. Just be yourself, don't worry about everyone else."

She takes a heaping wad of the fries and leaves me with a few crumbs on the plate as she teleports over to the side of the table I once inhabited. "You know, if we had taken your call a little more seriously instead of me just laying in bed with Smolder beneath my tail, you would've never been taken into that place."

"It's okay. I learned more about myself in the process." I comment as I see one last fry on the edge of the plate. "I mean, I can't help that someone didn't quite make it, but I can accept the fact that I did what I could for myself and the others that I was with. I learned how to escape a dire situation, with even more consequences than me just helping six other mares trying to save the world. Maybe it's just the dragon in me talking, but I had to do what I had to do to save myself. Ain't no wishing myself out of that."

As soon as I finish my statement, Ocellus' eyes dart over to me with a thought. "Say Spike, you mentioned something about a djinn. Are you sure that's what you ran into?"

And in this moment, I'm brought back to the same lingering mood that I was trying to avoid all day. The moment of that ghostly pony telling me what fate has in store for some of the others start to retake their positions at the forefront of my mind. "It might be crazy to think that I'm saying this, but I strongly believe that they exist at this point."

"Why?" She asks.

I want to tell her everything, but I fear if I say something, it may get back to someone it shouldn't. And that might complicate matters even worse. "It's hard to explain. But don't they have access to things like past, present, future, and destiny?"

"Beings like that would be supreme beings, and I doubt a supreme being would have even a remote interest in our daily goings. Plus there's all sorts of stipulations about the natural order that can't be broken, like wishing death upon someone, forcing them to love without consent, or bringing back the dead." She concludes with a light chuckle. "Though that last one is a bit of a stretch. No one's been able to bring back the dead before, so why would they be able to now?"

"...I met one this morning." She stops and stares at me with jaw agape as I give evidence of his ability. "He even predicted the death of Celestia."

"Celestia can die?" That seems to be the one takeaway from our conversation that has peaked her inquiry.

"Apparently." I shrug.

"...Where did you meet this djinn again?"

"Your basement?" Ocellus asks. "You met a djinn here in your basement?"

After a brisk walk back home, she pulls on my arm to guide me to the one place of the encounter. "Kinda weird, right?"

"More like unbelievable." She says as she looks around the room, seeing the boiler, the washer, the dryer, the breaker box, and a few other home appliances to regulate the home environment. "So that moment when you told Smolder it was your phone that was talking to you, that was him?" Figures that Smolder would say something about it to her.

"That's because I didn't know how to explain what it was I was seeing."

"She said you started screaming." Recalls the changeling.

"Yeah... I might've did that to not hear about my own fate." I say with a sheepish nod.

"It tried to tell you your own fate!?" Her eyes buck wide open, she starts to scrummage around the basement for something that looks like it could summon the unfamiliar figure back to the room. "Spike, legend says if a djinn tells you your own fate, you die that day!"

"Yeah, why'd you think I was being so loud?" I ask.

"Can you summon that thing right now?" She questions me.

"I don't think it's that easy." I respond to her.

She groans with dissatisfaction, but also annoyance. "Believe me when I say when we confirm what the hell this thing is, we'll be paying an urgent trip to Zecora."

"Honestly, I don't know how it showed up to begin with."

"So it just popped up?" She enunciates a little loudly.

"Yeah." I answer flatly.

"Where exactly did it pop up?" She says before looking over to a locked chest sitting in the corner. "What's in there?"

"A bunch of souvenirs from my capture. Also some stuff from recent excursions, a few treasured gifts─"

She interrupts me in the midst of my answer, making a firm demand. "You may need to get rid of that stuff."

"But what if we open the chest and it pops out?" I ask her.

She gives me a deadpan expression. "Spike, you realize you could've died today, right?"

"Fair point." I say as I walk over to the chest, unlocking the combination lock and popping the taps to keep the lid closed. I slowly open the lid, peeking inside to see nothing but darkness. "So, nothing happened as of yet." I say as I fully open the lid.

"That's good. Now take out everything you have as souvenirs from last weekend."

I only pull out three items. I first lay out the belt harness that was used on my wings. Next I lay out the heavy iron collar that was placed on my neck to discourage me from using my fire. And last is a scroll that I snatched up from the prison. I lay them all out in front of her and confirm them. "Okay, that's everything from last weekend."

Her eyes immediately land on the scroll. "What's the scroll for?"

"I just thought it was some sort of magic spell. I was gonna try to research what it does without activating it." I explain.

"So you just brought a random scroll into your house without even knowing what it does!?"

"Please, Twilight does that kind of stuff all the time. You be surprised the number of tentacle monsters and eldritch horrors she had to beat back into their bindings. And lucky us, I don't have the magic to activate the runes." I nonchalantly respond. "Having that said, if we research what it does, then we know what to do with it or how to seal it, maybe even both."

"Yeah, I can tell we're definitely going to be visiting Zecora." She mumbles under her breath.

"Hoping we don't resort to that." I say nervously as I pick up the scroll.

"Do you even know what's on it?"

"A bunch of runes, I didn't get a chance to read all the way through." I answer.

The changeling folds her forelegs and angrily chastises me over my possession of the scroll. "Spike, you know that magic runes and 'not reading things through' isn't a good starting point to prove how safe it is to have this thing here."

"Well what do you suggest we do, bury it?" I jokingly suggest.

"...Actually."

While I don't have a shovel to use at the moment, Ocellus braves up to the task of transforming into one. So for what I suppose is about twenty minutes of digging, it appears that I'm very much talking to myself. I can only imagine a passing viewer's perspective as they see me digging a hole, talking to myself in the middle of the Everfree Castle Ruins, they'd probably think I'm burying a body or something. But thankfully, I don't have to dig nearly that deep.

As my efforts come to an end, I hold the shovel to my side, asking it while still doused in sweat. "Do you really think this is a good spot?"

"I'd rather you keep that thing as far away from us as possible." Ocellus says as she pops from my possession and transform back to her normal self. "Plus it's near the tree of harmony, the soil will seal it shut anyhow. And as an added bonus, it can also purify the contents of that scroll. Win-win."

"You think the roots will try to wrap themselves around it if it's corrupted?" I ask.

"Do I think? More like I know it's gonna happen." She answers confidently.

I take a deep breath and show some signs of relief as I toss the scroll into the hole we've dug. "Well... no more strange djinns popping up and putting on concerts in my basement then."

"Good." She says as she transforms into a shovel once more. I start to cover the hole I dug, dumping the dirt on the scroll we've now rid ourselves of. All while this is going on, I'm still moderately amused that one of my partners happens to be a literal shovel as of this moment. I chuckle to myself. "What's so funny?" She asks.

"You being a shovel, me talking to said shovel, it's a weird way to spend our day together."

"And meanwhile, I found out that you can be both curious and stupid. But I also discover that you can be reasoned with fairly easily." She notes. "So I guess it's not for nothing, I have a boyfriend who's capable of thought."

"Is that a net negative or net positive?" I ask sarcastically.

"You be the judge."

I start to pat the freshly stirred dirt pile into a flatter surface to walk on. "Okay... I'll say positive."

"Positive it is." She answers as I come to a finish, promptly changing back to her true form.

"Well, it's been a day. So, how about we head back to the house and do what we were going to do when we first got back?" I suggest to her.

"Okay then." She shrugs as she takes my arm and skip ahead, pulling me along. "But don't think I won't try to be a distraction while we watch some of these episodes. I tend to get bored when the plot moves a little slow."

While we walk away, a few roots made of an enchanted amethyst-like wood start to seep out of the ground. The ground that was dug up and disturbed starts to shake up, more roots coming from below as a collection of them gather around the scroll. The roots glow faintly as they swallow the scroll, but a powerful aura surrounds the scroll, seemingly to protect it. As a result, an amethyst orb comprised of the roots of the sacred tree seal in the scroll and drags it back to the ground. But before it disappears, a faint voice is heard before being buried underground.

"It's not what you do for others..."

As soon as we get back home, we walk upstairs to finally get back to our regularly scheduled programming. But before we do, Ocellus really emphasizes taking a shower for herself because of the dirt she still feels on her body. I acknowledge her situation and opt to take mine after hers since I just got through doing the digging myself. Plus me working up a sweat and diving onto the couch would be counterproductive in terms of hygiene.

So I just go upstairs and start setting up the den for some entertainment. And before I know it, I feel a vibration on my side and hear a certain ringtone that starts to sound like nails on a chalkboard the longer it goes on.

♪Life in Equestria shimmers! Life in Equestria shiiiiiiiines! And I know for absolute certain♪─

I answer the phone, bemoaning the fact that Twilight's calling me again. "Hello?"

"Hey Spike. Just checking in."

I immediately read past the simplified greeting. "Let me guess, you want me to start picking back up this week?"

"Not that it should be a problem for you. But in actuality, I have a little something already in the works. It's a pretty important engagement."

I know that it's my job and that I should keep most of my complaints in the pending bin, but this one feels like I'm not gonna like it too much. "So what are you dropping on me this time?"

"I sending you out on a dignitary assignment." She says with a sing-song tone.

I groan over the news, now wanting more details of what I'll have to work with. "What kind of dignitary assignment?"

"One where you'll be heading out of the country for a bit." Of course she's still in that annoying ass tone of voice. In other words, she knows I'm not going to like it.

"Where to?" I grumble, tired of her games.

"Well.... Ponyland, of course."

I already feel my back crawling with anticipation, and by that I mean I feel myself already trying to find ways where I won't be hunted down for fucking sport. What an exciting time it will be to stop some blood-thirsty assholes from ripping and tearing me apart in a way that'll make Chrysalis blush with embarrassment. "That's an unusual location. What's the occasion?"

This time, she's a lot more forward with her response. "I wish you to return Prince Amor Ambrosia back to his homeland safe and sound. Not only will this be a gesture of good will between our two nations, but it can also be a beneficial channel to establish a favorable trade with the empire."

Great, geopolitical favoritism, the best kind of trip. "Twilight, I don't think that's a good idea. They wouldn't even barter to return the prince when he was captured by those thugs in the underground."

"That's because of who they were negotiating with." She responds. "I know that engaging in talks with someone of an official capacity will yield much more favorable results."

And dealing with a dragon, the very species they hunt down, is going to make a world of a difference than the ponies who live in caves and rob people in their sleep to fund their operations. "I get where you're going, but have you even asked him like what's going on with his folks over there?"

"I do know that there is some minor conflict, mainly arguments spouted up in the family over assets and land, but that's all there is to it."

I shake my head at her answer. "Are you sure you want to send him back?"

"Spike, you're talking like his life is under serious threat if he goes back home." She doesn't seem to take me seriously.

I try to illustrate the seriousness of the situation to her. "I know you, and that little comment was your way of showing sarcasm, but hear me out on your little thesis there... you're not wrong."

I can tell a bit of her energy just got sucked out of the room real quick with the way she falls silent. "Really?"

"Yeah, really." I answer.

She signs on her end, she takes a moment to ponder the alternatives, but she still comes away with an unchanged approach. "Well, that does bring up a troubling thought. However, Equestria can't be on the books for offering sanctuary to fleeing member of the imperial family of a nation who's diplomatic status with ours is in shaky neutrality. It could breed talks of a hostile takeover or insurrection. I don't want that to happen because it could be seen as an act of war, which is what this could easily turn into. The fact that those thugs reached out to the emperor leans towards a number of scenarios, one of which assumes that we contracted a group of bandits to abduct the prince and withhold him from his imperial duties, strong-arming them into a trade they don't want. I'm sure you understand that we can't allow for that to happen."

I understand that she wants to err on the side of political caution. But I don't see much of any good coming from this excursion in either case. "I'm sure I don't want to find out what that will turn into either. But I can't help but to feel like this will only play into their hooves here. We're operating on a loss, much less trying to gain a favorable trade out of this deal."

"Then look at it this way, if anything were to happen over on their end, then we can clean our hooves of it. I know this isn't exactly what I'm used to doing, but I have more than me and my friends to think about here. I have a nation of creatures that I have to protect, going this route ensures that they stay protected from any mess they may try to drum up. The decision is final, the prince has to go back home. I'm sorry."

Playing the safe route for the sake of the nation, always a cop-out. Sadly, this is just who she is. It's pointless to argue the logic of her decision when she has all but set it in stone, but I can still bring up the logistics of it. "Twilight, you do realize that dragons are explicitly hunted in those regions, right?"

And of course, she has an argument for that too. "I'm well aware of that, which is why I will enforce your protection. It won't be a large detail that will trigger an aggressive response, but it won't be without a detail of less than twenty staff to keep things moving. So if anything happens to you while you're there, it will be witnessed by others and trigger an international conflict the likes Ponyland hasn't seen to this date. I'm also sending a dignitary and a specialist to join you in your journey, this makes it an official peace-keeping assignment."

I grimace at the thought of all of this going wrong. For the most part, I don't feel safe going on this assignment. "I don't know, Twilight. This is just giving me all sorts of bad vibes."

Twilight sighs on the other end. "I'm sure you're just as nervous about the situation as I am. I'm playing a huge risk by sending you over there. But think of what we could be avoiding if we do this. I'm sure you've never experienced the atrocities of war, neither have I. And if there's one thing I picked up from Celestia's past, it's that we don't want to discover them for ourselves."

I rub the side of my head, feeling a slight headache starting to manifest. "Ugh.... When do I set out?" I ask.

"Tuesday morning. That should give you enough time to get your things together and rest up before the journey ahead."

Once more, short notice. Why am I not surprised? "I guess I'll start getting my affairs in order." I better update my will.

Midnight Castle, Ponyland Empire...

A fairly thin but speedy stallion unicorn trots down the halls of the castle, briskly making his way to the imperial overlook. The current overlook sees over much of the greater city of Midnight Castle, from the walls of the keep, the streets of the city, and the battlements of the outside wall. Flags hang on every pillar, a banner of checkered purple and powder blue, presenting two fencing equines and a golden fleur-de-lis with the words embroidered and outlined in silver reading 'Vince omnem potestatem, vivat imperium.'

Other servants walk by, many of them being male wearing purple shawls. The guards are dressed in a uniform of cloth instead of armor, but they wield lengthy pikes. The maids that do walk by travel in groups of two or three, but are very sparsely seen through the halls unless they are in the midst of cleaning sheets, towels, or dusting off the fixtures every day on the hour prescribed. One of the groups happen upon the travelling stallion informant, simply bowing as they make way for him to pass.

A pair of young mares giggle as they both are embraced by a much older stallion, one in the waning period of his golden years. The figure is donning an extravagant military uniform, decorated with many ribbons and crosses. He is a smoke-gray unicorn stallion with a silver mane reaching down to his legs. He elegantly makes another quip to cause the pair of young mares giggle once more.

The thin stallion briskly makes his presence known. "My lordship." He calls out in a humble and dainty voice.

"Mmm, can't you see I'm busy?" The decorated stallion turns to the informant, glancing at both his escorts. "I'm hosting some rather choice company as of the moment." He says as he leans in to kiss one of the mare's hooves. The one who seems to be left out of the act, pouts visibly, gaining his attention. "Oh I have not forgotten about you." He replies while offering her the same treatment. "Such a succulent choice of essence you've opted into today. What is that, Eau de Pomme?"

The second mare giggles even more bashfully, making the first even more jealous. Meanwhile the informant summons a silver plate with a letter with a broken red wax seal. "My lordship, a letter from her royal majesty of Equestria."

The older stallion rolls his eyes at the news. "Ugh great. What more of these pointless engagements does she wish to encumber our empire with now!?"

"Sire, to return one of your sons." He informs plainly.

The elder stallion mood sours. "The also-ran?"

"Prince Amor Ambrosia, yes."

"Well... this has become a point of misfortune then." He replies, his visible displeasure causing the mares to ease away from him. He turns to them and gives them a temporary leave. "I'll be back to entertaining you ladies in a bit. Just allow me to handle some business and I'll be right with you." He calls for one of the maids to guide them. "Maidens! Please have these two escorted to my lovely garden of roses, I shall be with them shortly."

Without a word, they bow and guide the pair to their destination. In the meanwhile, the informant slowly steps away, sensing the change in the air around the emperor. "Sire?"

He asks in a low tone of voice, his timbre so strong that it could rattle the wooden rafters above them. "Who does she plan to send?"

"Her royal friendship advisor, Spike the Dragon."

"A dragon, as a dignitary, IN MY EMPIRE!?" He asks forcefully.

The informant shies away, but continues to give his update. "I know it's absurd, but it seems that the dragons and Equestria have established some mode of ties. The dragons west of here don't seem to think ill of it."

"So let them." He replies with an uncaring tone. "And they'll continue this foolish endeavor until they grow weak from it."

"That's to our favor, is it not?"

"It can be." The emperor answers, walking ahead while looking out past the overlook. "Gander with me if you will. Do you see the machinations that line the top of our walls, the instruments of destruction that seek to hold our foes at bay? I do know that our siege craft is far more potent then that of their simple means of magic and 'friendship'. She honestly believes that sack of superficial nonsense is worth more than the hundreds of thousands I command, the legions that sing of our country's banner no match for a bit of sunshine and rainbows. You honestly believe that naïve purple prostitute is any more capable of negotiations than the many concubines in my bedchamber?"

"She has evidence of her victory over the likes of Lord Tirek, sir." The informant reminds his emperor.

He scoffs in reply. "A legendary washout."

"A washout he may be, but he did prove to be a substantial threat to our empire in his earlier years. Had it not been for the legendary─"

The emperor slams his hooves into the railing of the overlook, cracking one of the thick wooden rails slightly. "I grow bored of these monotonous history lessons, Gabranth! What more do I need to hear that isn't already confined to parchment and ink!?"

"Sir, those legends are the same ones who got us our start in our being able to build our military. For centuries, our forces have proven supreme over every nation, both in number and strength."

The emperor remains unamused. "As valuable as their contributions they may be, our perfection of their technology even more valuable, please find for me in the numerous grassy fields of my sprawling empire the cares I give." He says as he points to the lands beyond the outer wall.

"You make a fair point, sire."

"As I always do." He affirms with a slow nod. "The one son who proves himself incompetent, and yet he's the hardest to be culled off. Perhaps it was wrong of me to listen to Adelphos and his council to preserve the life of a career criminal, only to be employed to his protection."

"Adelphos has learned from his foolishness and optimism, sire. He was far too trusting of Xerxes." The informant reminds him.

The emperor sighs in thought. "To be poisoned to an early end, truly a fool's demise. What an unworthy son."

"I take it that we shall commence with the usual operations then?" Asks Gabranth.

The emperor perks up with a more optimistic tone. "But of course. We welcome him back like the prodigal son he is, let him feast and be merry, fill his cup, allow him a maiden or two, and let his brothers deal with him accordingly." He says as he starts to walk down the hall, his informant joining with him along the way.

"I'm sure Xerxes has much for him. He truly does love Amor."

The emperor giggles to himself. "Xerxes is a pervert, you know what he'll do should he find him alone."

"And yet you'll allow him to do as he pleases?"

"But of course, he's the one bastard I'll openly call a son. The fact that he has a bit of a tendency to practice dominance with his brothers is but a minor inconvenience at worst." He shifts his tone onto another topic of his conern. "But the dragon, however..."

"A fate far worse?" Gabranth concludes.

The emperor hums with a passing thought. "Xerxes has complained that his robe is short on it's feathery shawl. He's always peculiar about his roc feathers. I'm sure he'll find great use in the dragon's visit."

"And you think the Equestrians will permit it?"

"Of course not. But a dragon shouldn't be in our borders to begin with. His status will be no higher than the rest." The emperor's eyes narrow as he mutters to himself. "And to don the name Spike, no less. A truly cursed name for a truly cursed creature." He shakes himself of his internal monologue and readdresses the informant. "If Equestria brings complaint to the matter, I'll simply point out that they allowed my son to be abducted for ransom, and that they foolishly elected to send a creature that's well-known to be poached in our lands. And I'm quite sure Amor will cite many traumas to our purpose."

"And if they take things negatively due to the dragon?"

The emperor laughs boisterously. "What are they going to do? Take their 'magic and friendship' and field it on the frontlines against our symphony of cannonade and rocket spears? I wish them to try. Our nation needs a good flex of it's might, been needing it for the past eight-hundred years. Should be a simple mind to rediscover the lethality of our arsenal, and possibly make upgrades where necessary. I'm sure our commanders will be most pleased with that outlook."

"And with Celestia out of the way, it should prove to be easier." Adds Gabranth.

"Exactly." The Emperor cosigns proudly. "So let them come. We can turn this into an advantage."

"I will make arrangements for the parade, your imperialness." The informant announces eagerly. "Amor's homecoming will be a display of strength and perseverance in the eyes of our visiting host. I'll be sure to plan big."

"Make it so." The emperor orders.

As the informant takes his leave, he starts to spread word of the news of the celebration to ensue. Many start on the preparations as soon as the word gets out. The Emperor, however, occupies himself with one matter: The mares he has waiting for him in his rose garden. He makes his journey towards the garden, all while emptying his head of his powerful ambitions so that he may focus on the bounty that awaits him. However, it proves difficult when compared to the weight of a greater possibility laying at his doorstep.

"Amor... Your usefulness may yet be proven after all."