Flurry Heart’s Story: Go North, Young Dragon

by AleximusPrime

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Pound Cake, Anthology, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Flurry Heart, Spike, Pumpkin Cake
Length: 18916

A familiar dragon arrives in Ponyville to give Spike some news that will change his life forever.

After receiving some exciting news, Spike, Flurry Heart and her friends venture off to Nordo Dracos, where they find the Northern Drakes. These large, lovable dragons are ruled by a mighty king and live under the watchful eye of the mystical, living mountain: His Elevated Eminence. Will Spike finally get answers to where his family has been this entire time? He may get much more than what he bargained for!

Inspired by the official show, this is part of a fan-made sequel series I created called "Flurry Heart's Story", which documents the adventures of Flurry Heart as she makes friends and faces new and familiar villains, some of which may still be redeemable.

Next story: Oh Mother, Where Art Thou?

Flurry Heart's Story and its author are in no way associated with Hasbro or any of the creative team behind My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This series is entirely fan-made and is created in honor of the official show. No copyright infringement is intended or encouraged. Please support the official release.

Published 2023-01-07 18:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-02-12 17:00:21 UTC

1. An Unexpected Visitor

Above the rooftops in Ponyville flew a chubby female dragon. She was yellow with pink spikes, a bright yellow underbelly and lovely blue eyes. She was a young adult dragon that could have been the same age as Spike though she stood a bit shorter than him. She was very happy to be in Ponyville, for she too had spent all her life surrounded by ponies and was very fond of them. This young dragoness was Buttercream. Ponies of Equestria knew about her through a recent video game that had been released titled “Super Dragon Warriors” in which she was a playable character. Buttercream had been spending the past few years reaching out to dragons all around. She would often send them random presents in an effort to strengthen bonds with the dragons and ponies. She had been on many adventures in the past with her adoptive unicorn brother Nightwatch, but fortuitous circumstances kept her from ever meeting Spike or any of his friends until now. She was in Ponyville for a very personal and important mission.

“So this is Ponyville,” she said, happily, “This place reminds me a lot of Daleshire. So homey and welcoming!”

“Sis, look! Is that who I think it is?” shouted a young unicorn colt below.

“It’s Buttercream the dragon!” his sister replied.

“Hey down there!” Buttercream said as she turned and landed to greet the little ponies.

“Buttercream! We love playing as you in ‘Super Dragon Warriors!’” said the colt.

“You’re my favorite character!” his sister exclaimed as she gave Buttercream a hug.

“Daw, I appreciate that!” Buttercream replied, patting her on the head. “I think they kinda need to nerf the Cupcake-Throw move, but I love playing as me too! I’m more of a Smelt kinda gal, but my brother plays as me all the time!”

“Oh that’s right! You were raised by unicorns, weren’t you?”

“Sure was! Just like you guys!”

“Well hey, I’m Pine Cone and this is my sister Fern!” said the colt.

“It’s great to meet you guys!”

“Kids? What’s going on?” asked a stallion walking out of the house with his wife.

“Daddy, Daddy! Look! It’s Buttercream the Dragon! She’s in that one video game we play!” shouted Fern.

“Oh my goodness, that is her!” said her mom. “She looks just like she does in the game!”

“Yeah, I’m one of the few they got the look right for,” Buttercream said. “They kinda took some liberties with the designs of the more historical characters. Hehe.”

“Mom, can we get a picture with her before she leaves?” asked Pine Cone.

“Sure dear!”

The mother unicorn went inside real quick to get a camera. She came out and Buttercream kneeled down behind the kids with her arms around them.

“Alright! Say cheese!”

“CHEESE!”

The camera flashed and all three of them smiled. She took a few more photos in case the first one failed.

“Well thank you so much for coming by, Miss Buttercream!” said their mom.

“These kids really love that game. It’s great to see one of their heroes stop by!” their dad added.

“It was my pleasure, everypony!” Buttercream responded. “And I’ll probably see you again cuz I might be staying here a lot more frequently.”

“You will?” the kids both said.

“I am definitely considering it! By the way, do you guys know where I can find Spike the dragon? Princess Celestia told me he should be here in Ponyville at the moment and I really need to talk to him.”

“Spike? Yeah, he should be over at the Crystal Castle over there looking after Princess Flurry Heart and her friends,” their dad said, pointing to the castle in the distance.

“Ah, I see it! Thank you so much! Oh, here kids: a little present before I go.”

Buttercream reached into a satchel she was carrying and took out two small pillows. One of them was navy blue and had a picture of a telescope on it while the other one was yellow with little pink pom-poms along its side and had the message “You Can Do It!” written in blue letters.

“Aw, mine looks like you!” said Fern.

“Thank you, Buttercream,” said Pine Cone.

“My unicorn mama made those herself. And Pine Cone, yours has the cutie mark of my brother. Take good care of them!”

“BYE BUTTERCREAM!” said the unicorn family as the chubby dragon took off to search Ponyville for Spike.

“Bye Pine Cone! Bye Fern! Till we meet again!”

In the front lawn of the Crystal Castle, Flurry and all her friends were sitting down on a blanket, eating snacks and listening to a song by Melody Heartsong on Pumpkin’s boom box.

“Feels so good to listen to her music,” Flurry said, calmly.

“Yeah, especially after the other day,” Pumpkin added.

“You guys think we’ll ever meet Melody like we did Rara?” asked Annie.

“We might. Rara said Melody’s in an apartment in Canterlot right now but is thinking of moving to Ponyville,” said Flurry.

“Wow, really?” asked Pound. “That would be great to see her perform in concert!”

“Yeah, plus she sounds really friendly too,” added Chip.

“GUYS!” shouted Stormy who was looking at something off to the side.

“Stormy, what is it?” asked Pound.

“Look! Is that who I think it is?!”

Everyone looked to see what Stormy was pointing at. They saw Buttercream flying in towards the castle. She had just noticed them all and was waving.

“IT’S BUTTERCREAM THE DRAGON!!!” screeched Pumpkin as she leapt in the air with her legs flailing around.

“Hey, kids!” shouted Buttercream as she landed and ran over to meet them.

The kids all gathered around her and stared in amazement. Aside from Ember, they never thought they’d meet one of the characters from “Super Dragon Warriors” in the flesh.

“Buttercream? Is that really you?!” asked Flurry with her hooves on her cheeks.

“It’s really me! And you must be Princess Flurry Heart!"

"Yes, I'm Flurry, and these are my friends: Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, Apple Chip, Annie Smith, and Storm Streak!"

"It's great seeing you kids! I’m guessing you guys have played my game too?”

“Yeah, we unlocked you a few weeks ago!” Chip said.

“You’re my favorite character!” Pumpkin said as she hugged Buttercream’s plump, soft belly.

“Daw, thanks! I get that quite a lot!”

“It’s so awesome to see one of the Super Dragon Warriors characters here like this!” beamed Stormy as he flew around and examined Buttercream.

“You look just like you do in the game!” Annie said.

“Minus the polygons and the pixelated irises,” Chip added.

“Is it true you can stun someone by blowing a kiss to them?” Stormy asked.

“Hehe, I wish, but that’s just a typical video game effect. I can give some really strong hugs, but I’ll only demonstrate the softer version of that on you cuties!” Buttercream said as she held Flurry like a kitten.

“Aw!” Flurry giggled.

“So kids, do any of you guys know where I can find Spike?”

“Spike? Yeah, he’s inside right now doing some cleaning to the castle,” Pound answered.

Buttercream let Flurry go and then looked to the castle.

“The castle? He’s inside right now?” she asked.

“That’s the one! You wanna go talk to him? I’m sure he’d love to see another dragon, especially one from his favorite video game.” Pumpkin told her.

Buttercream suddenly looked scared. She took a gulp and started fanning herself with one of her hands.

“Oooooh! I can’t do this! I’m too nervous! What if he doesn’t believe me?”

“Uh...are you okay?” Flurry asked.

“I’m okay, it’s just…well, I might as well tell you kids right now, but then I gotta go tell him right away. Just a fair warning: this is huuuuuuuge news and it’s going to blow all your minds!”

“News? What sort of news?” Stormy asked.

“Alright, come on in…”

All the kids got closer to Buttercream as she whispered something into their ears.

All was silent inside the castle until the front doors swung open. Flurry entered and started screaming. She had never been more excited in her life.

“AAAAAGH! SPIKE! SPIKE, WHERE ARE YOU?! WE HAVE SOMEONE YOU NEED TO MEET!” she shouted as she zoomed down the hall.

The rest of them followed Flurry while Pound and Pumpkin pushed Buttercream along, sliding her over the ground.

“Do you think he’ll like me?” she asked nervously.

“Like you?! What kind of soulless monster doesn’t like Buttercream the dragon?! He’s gonna love you!” Pumpkin replied, exuberantly.

“I think his favorite character to play as is Grumblebog, but he loves playing as you too, so I’m sure he’ll be fine with you in real life,” Pound added. “I mean he has to be now that we know this!”

“You know what, you’re right. Based on everything Princess Celestia told me, he’s a really good dragon. Plus I’m sure he’ll be so happy to hear this news. I know I was!”

Feeling confident, Buttercream started walking on her own and followed the kids. Flurry led them into a room where Spike was positioning a portrait on the wall. He had just finished and went airborne to check its alignment from a distance. Suddenly, Flurry and the others entered and didn’t waste any time shouting for him.

“SPIKE!” Flurry hollered as the others joined in.

“Kids, what’s going on?” Spike asked.

Just as Spike turned around, he saw Buttercream enter the room. For a second he thought he was playing Super Dragon Warriors.

“Huh? Whoa! Is…is that?”

“It’s Buttercream, Spike!” Stormy shouted.

“We wanted you to meet her! She’s got something she needs to tell you!” Flurry added, not being able to keep in her enthusiasm.

Buttercream smiled bashfully with her hands behind her back. She trembled but still managed to speak.

“Hey, Spike,” she said anxiously.

“Buttercream…I never thought I’d meet someone from Super Dragon Warriors this soon! It’s great to see you!” Spike said, walking forward to shake her hand.

“I’m just so sorry it took me this long to find you. Honestly, this should have happened years ago; things just got in the way. I guess now is better than never.”

“Uh…what do you mean?”

“Well…you see…”

Buttercream started sweating and looked behind her. The kids had huge smiles on their faces and nodded their heads.

“Go on! Tell him!” Flurry whispered.

“I’ve always wondered where I came from, so I finally went searching for my parents the other day and I…I found them in Nordo Dracos…you know, the land of the Northern Drakes. They told me everything: apparently, my egg was stolen by a roc years ago and landed in a forest in Daleshire where I grew up with my unicorn family, but here’s the thing: I learned there was another egg next to me…a purple egg…your egg.”

Spike’s eyes widened and his heart nearly stopped at hearing this. He already knew what was going on, but he was not ready for this news.

“Princess Celestia showed me the remains of your egg. I took it to my real dragon parents and they confirmed it along with my own. The roc that Celestia rescued you from must have dropped my egg first in Daleshire, which is right between Nordo Dracos and Canterlot. Spike, don’t you see? I’m your sister. Me and you…we’re twins.”

The kids continued to smile and Flurry looked like she was ready to cry. Spike stepped back a few feet. He began to tremble. He had waited all his life to hear anything about his parents or siblings, and now he was standing face to face with a dragon he already knew about that was his own blood this entire time. Not only that, but the rest of his family was out there. A warm and happy feeling came over him. He put his hands over his heart and began to smile as tears formed in his eyes.

“Buttercream the dragon is my sister? I’ve…I’ve found my family?”

Spike locked eyes with Buttercream. She smiled and started crying too. For a few seconds they just stared as their lips quivered. Finally they both opened their arms and embraced each other in a big warm hug. The kids all started whooping and shouting for joy. Spike and his sister hugged for what seemed like an hour.

“I’m so happy I finally found you!” she cried.

“I can’t believe we finally met! Like, I’ve already forgotten that you’re famous through a video game. You’re not just that to me anymore, Buttercream… You’re my sister!”

“I’ve always wondered where I came from, but I still had good ponies taking care of me this entire time that I wouldn’t have traded for the world. Now I’ve got two families!”

“What took you so long to find me exactly?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

They both stopped hugging and parted as the kids danced around them.

“SPIKE, YOU ARE BUTTERCREAM’S BROTHER!!” shouted Pumpkin as she used her magic to float herself next to Spike.

“This is the coolest thing ever!” Stormy added as he flew around them in circles.

“Spike, I’m so happy for you!” Flurry said, wiping her tears. “I thought we’d never find your family!”

“I thought I never would either! I got pretty discouraged about it after that whole ordeal with Sludge, but Buttercream’s right: better now than never!”

“Uh, kids, Spike, what’s going on in here?” said Starlight Glimmer as she walked in with Sunburst and Trixie.

“Guys! We just found one of Spike’s family members! Or rather, she found us!” Pumpkin told them.

“Wait what?! Miss, you’re related to him?!” Sunburst said, adjusting his glasses, which nearly fell off.

“This is Buttercream the dragon! She’s from that one video game we play called ‘Super Dragon Warriors!’” Stormy told them.

“Wait, that’s Buttercream!?” Trixie exclaimed. “I’ve played that game before and that is her! Sweet Mother of Twilight Sparkle, Spike! You’re related to a celebrity!”

“He sure is!” Buttercream said as she hugged Spike again.

Spike stared up at the ceiling as he wiped more tears from his eyes. He continued to hug the chubby little dragoness as they rocked back and forth and everyone else continued to talk amongst each other. All he could think about was the fact that he had finally found someone he was related to and that his questions about where he came from were finally being answered. This was already the happiest day of his life.

2. Off To the North

Spike and Buttercream sat outside with everypony, discussing everything from the separation of their eggs to Spike’s family origins. She held in her hands the remains of her own egg along with Spike’s, which was lent to her by Princess Celestia.

“It’s not just the colors of the eggs that matter. See these little markings on the undersides?” she asked.

“Yours has the same scratch marks? So that’s how you knew we’re related!” Spike replied, examining the eggs.

“After they were laid, Dad branded them with scratch marks like all the Northerns do to avoid confusion. Our siblings have the same ones on their eggs.”

“Wait, so Spike has other siblings?” Trixie asked.

“Yup! Two brothers and a sister!”

“So there’s more of us? What are they like?” Spike asked Buttercream.

“Oh Spike, you’ll love them! First there’s Singe: he’s a bit older than us and he’s the jokester and kid of the group. Then there’s Scorch: he’s a such lovable jock and is really good at wrestling. Then the oldest, Barb: she’s the responsible one and keeps the other two in line. They’re all really close and you should have seen how happy they were when they found out I was one of their long lost eggs!”

“Awww! So then you and Spike are the babies! And what are his parents like?” Pumpkin asked.

“Chara, our mother is the kindest, gentlest dragon I’ve ever met. She’s such a great mother! King Smite, our dad is a great big, rough, tough, strong guy but a real softy deep down. And the coolest thing is, he looks a bit like you, Spike. That’s also how I could tell you were my brother!”

“Wow really? Gosh, it must run deep in the...wait…did you say, king? Our dad is a king? I’M A PRINCE?!”

“Hehe, they don’t always use that term for the kids unless it’s the oldest one. Barb is usually called ‘princess’ cuz she’s gonna be queen one day. But yeah, we’re technically royals!”

“SPIKE! YOU’RE A PRINCE!!” Flurry said, hugging her dragon protector.

“Sweet Mother of Twilight! What more is there we need to know about Spike’s origins?” asked Starlight.

“Oh you have no idea, Starlight! There’s so much I didn’t know this entire time that I’m still finding out!” Buttercream told him.

“I can’t believe I’m finding all this out! This is unbelievable!” Spike said as he fell back on the ground and stared up at the clouds, taking in all this news.

“Hehe, sorry if I’m laying a bit much on ya. I’ve been waiting a while for it,” Buttercream said, lying down next to him.

“No, no, it’s okay. At least this is way more believable than Sludge’s story.”

“That’s the second time I’ve heard you mention him. Who’s Sludge?”

“A dragon that came to Ponyville years ago and told me he was my dad. His story wasn’t very convincing, but his tears managed to sway us. Turns out he wasn’t my dad, he just wanted to live in the castle and mooch off of us.”

“Oh gosh. That must’ve been rough.”

“Yeah, but now I have you, Butter. Do you mind if I call you that?”

“Hehe, sure. My family’s always called me that for short.”

“Okay, well I always wondered about my parents, I just wasn’t sure where I could start looking for them. I didn’t know about Nordo Dracos for the longest time, but how did we manage to stay apart so long?”

“A lot of reasons. On my end, I was so close to my family and things just always got in the way by chance. There’s a lot more to that I could tell you when you meet my unicorn family another day, but one thing is clear: the dragons and ponies were pretty divided after Luna’s banishment, so that didn’t help. There’s a lot of weird politics behind the whole division. Even after Luna returned and the dragons started opening up to Equestria again, it took a while for everyone to come back together, but thanks to Twilight, it’s all good now!”

“Did Celestia ever figure out my egg came from Nordo Dracos?”

“Well she said the roc she rescued you from was flying northwest when it went by Canterlot mountain, so she got the direction mixed up. It must’ve circled back when it realized it dropped my egg over near the Unicorn Range where Daleshire can be found.”

“That does make sense,” Sunburst said, stroking his chin. “Daleshire is right between Nordo Dracos and Canterlot.”

“Why would the roc carry your eggs for so long?” Annie asked Buttercream.

“I think it was taking us to feed to its babies. Adult rocs can go for a long time without any food so the mother wouldn’t have eaten us. It could have been flying out there for days and its babies could have been on some random island on the East Coast. They tend to go after large fish in the ocean but sometimes they prefer dragon eggs and will search far and wide for them.”

“So Buttercream, you never figured out your egg was stolen by a roc?” asked Pound.

“We never would have guessed it since me and my unicorn family didn’t know about them. My unicorn brother Nightwatch found me in a forest and hatched my egg. Spike and I may be twins but Princess Celestia said Twilight used enough magic to cause Spike to hatch a bit earlier than expected. He’s two days older than I am.”

“Interesting. Celestia was too afraid to tell me about the roc until after I met one right when I got my wings. She didn’t know they’d be attracted to dragons going through their molt phase,” Spike explained. “It’s too bad she never figured out where I came from. If that roc was flying northwest, I’m guessing she went to Torch’s realm to ask them about me?”

“Yeah. At that time, Torch had all the migrating dragons in a volcanic island in the ocean on the East Coast and Celestia thought you might have come from there. She went and asked him, but they weren’t very welcoming since those dragons hated ponies then, so she didn’t stay long. She was afraid you’d be worse off with dragons so she just kept you herself.”

“That was another thing she kept from me when I was little and I can see why now. Twilight told her how I was venturing off to find the migratory dragons back when I was a kid. Celestia tried warning me by sending me a note through my magic fire, but then Garble scoffed when he read it and threw it into the lava. They weren’t too great when I first saw them either. The migrators were pretty nasty for a while. It took some time for them to warm up to us, and now even those guys are tight with Equestria thanks to dragons like Ember and Smolder.”

“Oooh, you know Ember?”

“Yup! Ember and I are good friends and I actually helped her win the scepter and become the new leader. I wish I could show you Smolder, but she’s vacationing right now.”

“Awesome! I never got to meet any of the migrators, but I got to meet a lot of other really great dragons over the years!”

“Buttercream, I don’t get it,” asked Chip. “What makes the migratory dragons different from all the other dragons like the Northern Drakes?”

“Well the migratory dragons are just a huge mix of breeds lead by Ember, but there are four major purebreds: there’s me and Spike’s kind, the Northerns that have spikes down their head and back but no horns, the Southerns who do have horns like Ember and her dad, the Easterns which have snake-like bodies and no wings, and then the Westerns which have no arms but really huge wings and spikes all over their heads.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard about the Westerns,” Spike said, stroking his chin. “Aren’t they also called wyverns?”

“Yup. They’re really wild and scary. No one dares venture into Western Drake territory. You will get eaten alive!”

“Gosh, we’re learning so much about dragon lore right now!” Flurry said as she took notes on a piece of paper.

“This is so cool!” Stormy chimed. “Spike, we gotta go see your family right now!”

“Oh, well I dunno if I can take all of you guys. Might be kinda dangerous,” Spike said, cautiously.

“Yeah, I’m not too sure their parents will approve,” Sunburst warned.

“Aw, they’ll be fine!” Buttercream told them. “It’s quite a hike to the Nordo Dracos island, but we can use the train till we need to fly. Chip, Annie and Pumpkin can ride with me and Spike,”

Buttercream pulled Pumpkin in next to her. Pumpkin giggled as she gave the big lovable dragon a hug.

“Okay, but what about the temperature. Is it that far up north?” Starlight asked.

“The temperature should be good enough right now to not need any coats. It can get pretty cold up there, especially in the winter, but the area our family lives in is nice and warm thanks to His Elevated Eminence!”

Everyone looked confusedly at Buttercream.

“Um…who’s elevated eminence?” Trixie asked.

“Hehe, that’s his name, silly. His Elevated Eminence is a giant talking mountain that watches over all the Northerns.”

“Oh gosh, there’s talking mountains too? My brain can’t handle all this knowledge!” Pumpkin squawked, with her hooves on her head.

“That’s why we gotta go now! What are we sitting around for? Let’s go!” Stormy said, taking off to the sky before Chip bit his tail.

“Hold on, Stormy,” he said. “We can’t go until we get approval from all our parents.”

“That’s right,” Annie added. “Mom and Dad will want to know what we’re up to, but I wouldn’t mind visiting this place myself. The Northern Drakes do sound really nice.”

“Oh, they really are nice! The Northerns are some of the most docile dragons out there. They’re tough and strong, but they don’t have any gripes with ponies, at least not in the area Mom and Dad live in.”

“Well I say we all go ask our parents if we can go with Spike and Butter to Nordo Dracos. If what she says is true, I think we’ll all be safe there,” Pound told his friends.

“Alright kids,” Spike told them as he stood up. “If your parents say yes, we’ll all leave tomorrow. But for right now, Butter, I think you and I have a little more catching up to do in Ponyville.”

“I’d love to have a look around here, Spike. It’s such a quaint little village and I’m dying to know what you’ve been up to all this time!” Buttercream said, hugging her brother.

That next morning, Spike, Buttercream and all the kids took off to head to Nordo Dracos. Their parents had all given them permission to go as long as Spike and Buttercream ensured their safety. They took the Friendship Express as far west as the rails would go and got off to continue by flight. Spike carried the Apple Twins while Buttercream carried Pumpkin so she would not tire of lifting herself with magic for too long.

Nordo Dracos was an island located above the “Undiscovered West” peninsula beyond Equestria’s political bounderies. It was further north than Canterlot, but not nearly as far as the Crystal Empire or Yakyakistan. Even Nordo Dracos would be warm enough right in the middle of summer, though the kids did notice a bit of a drop in temperature. The island was green with forests, but there were also plenty of tall mountains for dragons to live on. As they got closer, they started to notice other dragons flying around in the sky.

“Look, you guys! Dragons!” shouted Stormy, pointing to a large orange one flying by.

“Yup! Those are local residents probably traveling or delivering goods,” Buttercream explained. “You’ll see a lot of them flying by. Oh and look! You can see His Elevated Eminence from here!”

Buttercream pointed to a large mountain peak with a mouth and two eyes. It appeared to be sleeping at the moment but had a content look on its face. In front of it was a mountain range with tons of dragons all around on both the ground and in the sky. There were even dragons in the forested areas. They didn’t have conventional housing like ponies did. They usually lived in caverns in the mountains, but some could be seen sleeping on large rocks and mountains. His Elevated Eminence was positioned North of the mountains where most dragons lived in this area so he could observe and speak with them when they needed guidance. Although he was the tallest mountain, he had no snow on top nor did any of the mountains around him. He used his powers to keep them warm.

“Wow, so there really is a magical mountain!” Annie said.

“Mom isn’t going to believe this!” Chip added.

“I can’t believe this is where I come from,” Spike said, staring in amazement at the land around him.

“Right down here is where we’ll find our family! They should be out and about,” Buttercream said as she started flying low.

In no time, they all landed in a small clearing at the edge of a cliff. There were a few dragons around who waved to them. They weren’t used to having many ponies around but were polite nonetheless.

“Hi guys!” Buttercream said to a few young dragons that were taller than her.

“Hey, Buttercream! Is this the long-lost brother?” said one dragon.

“Yup! This is Spike and these are the cute little ponies he’s been assigned to watch after!”

A few worker dragons waved to Spike who waved back bashfully. He was still waiting to see which ones were his siblings but was still feeling very welcome by the others.

“Wow, he looks just like the king!” said one dragon.

“That’s totally Smite’s kid!” said another.

“I know right?! I can’t wait to show him to them! Are they around anywhere?” Buttercream asked them.

"I heard Smite’s out dealing with something, but Chara’s over by the main court and your siblings should be somewhere around the market.”

“Awesome! Well, guys, I think it’s time we go meet everyone!”

They all followed Buttercream into a corridor that went on for a couple hundred yards until they reached a large opening with dragons going about their business. Much like the Ponyville market, there were some dragons selling things in little huts made out of rocks and crystals. Most of these dragons were still quite young. Some were still kids and used this area to play in.

“This is what’s called the Youth Market,” Buttercream explained to the others as she walked backwards and showed them around. “The younger dragons come down here to do their business and the kids love playing around. The bigger adult dragons can come in, but they tend to stay on the bigger mountains that are fit more for them so they don’t walk on any of the kids. A little further on down is the recreational center and then the school.”

“Gosh, this place is amazing!” Flurry said with her eyes opened wide.

“EEEEH! Buttercream, you Northern Drakes have such a cool home!” Pumpkin said, tapping her hooves.

“So is this where Spike’s family lives?” Pound asked Buttercream.

“Well our siblings come down here a lot. They have their own special cave a little further up. That’s where the royal family lives."

“HAH! YOU’RE GOIN, DOWN, BRO!” shouted a voice above.

Everyone looked up to see two larger dragons wrestling each other midair and landed in the middle of the clearing. There was a tall muscular green one with darker green spikes, a light green underbelly, and yellow wings, eyes and head fins. The fat one he had in a headlock was bluish purple with a yellow underbelly, blue eyes, magenta spikes and orange fins and wings. He was smaller but still stood taller than Spike. They were wrestling quite hard but were enjoying it and laughing.

“Not today, Scorch!” giggled the fat one as he tried to fight back.

“That’s Scorch and Singe!” Buttercream said, jumping up and down. “Guys, look over here!”

“Oh hey, Buttercream! I’m about to get Singe…oh…”

Scorch, the green one let go of his younger brother and they both stopped and stared at Spike.

“I found him! I found our brother!” said the adorable yellow dragon as she pointed to Spike.

“That’s him? That’s our brother?!” Scorch asked in amazement.

“Whoa! Scorch, he looks just like Dad!” Singe said excitedly. “He’s practically the same colors aside from the belly!”

“You guys are my brothers?” Spike asked, nervously.

“We sure are! Butter said she’d find you and she did!” Singe said, giving Buttercream a noogie on her head as she giggled.

“Come here, little bro!” Scorch said as he hugged Spike and Singe joined in.

They both set Spike back down and walked around to inspect him. At this point, several other dragons in the vicinity started noticing Spike. They were already aware that Buttercream was Smite and Chara’s long-lost daughter so they had likely figured out that Spike was the missing son.

“Look at his build! He’s got the ol’ Grumblebog belly I see! I swear this is what Dad would have looked like at his age!” said Scorch, tapping Spike’s belly and feeling his muscles.

“And his wingspan isn’t too bad either!” Singe said, pulling out one of his wings to measure. “Nice tail, nice spikes…gosh, he’s a looker for sure!”

“I really look like my dad?” Spike asked.

“Definitely! Dad’s got a gut just like ours, buddy!” said Singe said, patting his stomach as it jiggled like a bowl of jelly.

“This family’s whole again thanks to you, Butter!” Scorch said, lifting Buttercream up and spinning her around as she giggled.

“Oh, and these must be your pony friends!” Singe said as he walked over to meet Flurry and the others. “Hey there, kids! I’m Singe!”

“It’s great to meet you guys! I’m Princess Flurry Heart, but you can call me Flurry,” Flurry said as she reached out to shake Singe’s hand. “And these are my friends: Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, Apple Chip, Annie Smith, and Storm Streak!”

“At last, the lost son returns,” said a female voice behind the dragon brothers.

A female dragon entered. She was red with purple spikes, a yellow under belly, red eyes, and pink wings and fins. She was a slimmer Northern Drake with wide hips and stood taller than Scorch. Despite her motherly appearance, Spike could already tell this was his older sister.

“Barb! We found him!” Buttercream shouted. “This is Spike! He was in Ponyville all along!”

“So that’s where you’ve been this whole time,” said Barb with a smile on her face. “I had no idea you’d be a spitting image of your father, little guy!”

“I’m just sorry I’ve been gone so long,” Spike said, walking forward to meet her.

Barb knelt down and gave him a hug. Spike nearly started crying till he heard footsteps in the distance. A much larger dragon was approaching.

“Everyone, make way! Queen Chara is coming!” said a dragon nearby as everyone else cleared out.

Around the corner of an entrance appeared the most beautiful dragon Spike had ever seen. She was a full-grown adult female. She had the same physique Barb had but was bright pink with turquoise in her wings, spikes and fins, while her belly was a more pale pink. Her eyes were blue just like Buttercream’s and there were small turquoise scales dotting her thighs, arms and tail. She was curious as to what was going on, but once she looked at her children and saw Spike, her eyes widened and she put her hands up to her mouth.

“Mom!” Buttercream called as she flew up to Chara. “I brought Spike here! He really was the missing purple egg all along!”

Chara slowly knelt down as Spike walked to meet her.

“M…Mom?” Spike said, looking deep into her eyes.

“My son…” she said in a lovely and endearing voice. “Is that really you?”

“I guess so…after all these years. I’m sorry I was gone so long and you never got to see me till now.”

“You don’t need to blame yourself. We had no idea the roc took you into Equestria. One night many eggs in the area just disappeared including you and Buttercream. We feared the worst when we heard several rocs had flown by. We searched as best we could, but we gave up once we found out some of the eggs had already been eaten.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I should’ve been better about finding you guys. I already had one dragon lie to me about being my dad and I just got discouraged.”

“Were the ponies good to you?”

“Oh yes, definitely. Just like they were good to Buttercream.”

“That is wonderful news. I can already tell by these little ones down here that you were in good hands all along…or hooves rather. Hehe.”

Chara giggled and then put her hands together and allowed Spike to step into them. She lifted him up and held him close to her snout. Tears formed in both of their eyes and he wrapped his arms around her snout to give her a hug. Buttercream and the kids all looked so happy for Spike to finally be meeting his mother after so long. Barb, Scorch and Singe put their arms around each other as they watched their little brother and mother finally unite.

“I’m so glad I found you, Mom,” Spike said, “Is Dad anywhere around?”

“He’s dealing with a dragon in rage mode right now, but he should be back in a few hours.”

“A dragon in rage mode? What does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you about that later. Right now, I am just so happy to finally see my lost son. After so many years, this family is finally together!”

Spike embraced his mother again as everyone watched. Pumpkin started sniffling as Buttercream lent her a tissue she got from her satchel. Everyone else stared lovingly at the sight of Spike with his mother. Flurry felt so much joy knowing they finally knew Spike’s origins and found his family. She recalled that Shining Armor and Cadance were ecstatic in their response letter to her about this yesterday. Shining had treated Spike like a little brother all along and would be overjoyed to know they had more additions to the family.

3. Some Time with the Family

Spike and the kids made themselves comfortable in a nearby plateau outside of the main cave where his family lived. Smite and Chara’s cave was decorated like a castle with large crystals on the outside and smaller openings that served as windows. Spike had been given a tour of the inside by his siblings and was fed a special meal of tasty gems. Stormy and Pound were spending time flying and racing with Scorch, while Chip, Annie and Pumpkin were bouncing on Singe’s belly like a trampoline. Flurry and Spike were sitting on top of a rock getting acquainted with Barb while Chara rested nearby, petting Buttercream. Barb was telling Spike about the time the eggs disappeared and the search that followed after.

“So we heard there were rocs spotted flying around here that night and everyone started to panic,” she explained. “There are some isles in the center of the four dragon continents where the rocs nest. They usually go after large fish, but they sometimes go inland to look for dragon eggs or young dragons going through their molt. We thought for sure that area was the answer to our questions, but we were too late. There were over a dozen eggs missing and none of them were found. We were able to find the shells to a few of the eggs on one of those isles, but you and Butter were never accounted for. We had no choice but to give up the search and assume we’d never see you again, but lo and behold, the roc that took you guys was nesting somewhere in Equestria.”

“It didn’t think to go into Torch’s territory he had the migrators in?” Spike asked.

“I guess not. The migrators might not have had any eggs or molting young at that time, but it could have also been living closer to Nordo Dracos. Ah well, it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters now is we’ve got both of you guys back.”

Barb put her arm around Spike as he smiled bashfully and hugged her back. Buttercream could be heard giggling behind them as Chara tickled her belly with her index finger.

“I’ve had such a great time here with you guys so far,” Spike said. “And I’m learning quite a lot about my kind too.”

“Yeah, for the longest time we didn’t know about the four main species of dragons until Smolder told us a while ago,” Flurry added.

“Well the migratory dragons usually do their own thing and don’t associate much with the four main tribe continents. Some dragons prefer to migrate every so often and join them. Due to intermingling, a lot of our traditions get lost in that group.”

“So what else is there I haven’t heard about my kind?”

“Well, Northerns have most of the same traits as the others: we breath fire, we have scales, and we grow to be really huge, but we’re unique in some ways. First of all, purebred Northerns don’t grow any horns, but we have spikes down our heads and backs. Second, we go through our molt and get our wings at a prepubescent stage. Third, while we aren’t the biggest of dragons, a lot of us can get pretty huge. It’s perfectly normal and even biological for some of us to grow round and fat like you, Butter and Singe. It also helps us to stay insulated from the cold. That’s why we thrive quite well up here. Even the thinner ones have enough chub to help with it.”

“I see most of you guys also really love gems like I do.”

“Oh yeah. Every dragon eats gems and His Elevated Eminence grows some really good ones here for us. Northerns are known for their large appetites and we love having big feasts. Another thing about us is we take long naps in adulthood. Some dragons can stay asleep for a really long time. See that guy over there? He’s been napping for almost a month.”

Barb pointed to an elderly black dragon that was sleeping on top of a nearby cliff. Several other dragons slept around him.

“Wow. Somehow they still manage to look majestic even when sleeping. So by the way, Mom, where did you say Dad was again?”

“There’s a dragon in rage mode that was spotted out by the ocean that he volunteered to wrangle. Oh that’s right, you don’t know what that is yet. Butter, you didn’t tell Spike about rage mode yet?” Chara asked her daughter.

“Oh that’s right. Sorry, there’s just so much we have to tell him and I got so excited it slipped my mind,” Buttercream laughed. “Why don’t you tell him, Barb? You know way more about it than I do!”

“Hehe, that’s true. Alright, Spike, let me ask you something: have you ever had this weird thing happen to you where you get a bunch of presents and it causes you to grow about a hundred feet and hoard away tons of things?”

“Yeah, that happened to me years ago when I’d been in Ponyville for about a year with Twilight. Does that happen to all of us?”

“Sure does. We call that ‘rage mode’. Every Northern Drake goes through rage mode at least once in their life, usually at a young age. In our society, we induce rage mode into a young dragon when they come of age. That way we can get it out of the way and it doesn’t happen by accident at a really bad time. We make preparations in case there’s any damage done to the land around. When we’re ready, we put the dragon in a safe zone and give them presents and food galore until they start growing. Every one of us has been in rage mode before, including Butter.”

“It’s true!” said Buttercream. “I grew into a big, ferocious monster of mayhem! RAAAAWR!”

Buttercream put her arms in the air in an attempt to look scary until Chara dangled a small gem above her. She then got on all fours, wagged her tail and put her tongue out like a puppy dog. Chara tossed the gem and Buttercream ran off to munch on it.

“So it’s called rage mode then,” Flurry said. “That happened to Spike some time before I was born. How do you guys stop it?”

“That’s where wrangling comes in. When the dragon is big enough, we wrangle them by wrestling them to the ground and holding them down. They always put up a good fight and sometimes it requires two or more wranglers, but once they’ve calmed down, they start shrinking back down to their original size. We then throw a celebration to congratulate the wrangler dragon and the young one for having gone through this rite of passage.”

“Is that why Singe and Scorch like to wrestle a lot?” Spike asked.

“Yup. It’s a big part of our culture. Pretty much every dragon here learns how to wrestle even if they aren’t going to become a wrangler. Singe and Scorch want to be wranglers someday when they get big enough. We have a lot of wrangler dragons here in Nordo Dracos, but our dad is the best wrangler there is.”

“Wow, our dad? That’s pretty awesome!”

“Yeah, except Butter’s story is a bit different. Butter, what happened to you again?”

Buttercream walked forward while licking gem crumbs off her lips and sat next to Spike to talk.

“Well I also got a lot more presents than I was used to, which made me all greedy and I grew huge, but Nightwatch actually managed to calm me down. All he did was remind me about the times we had as brother and sister and showed me old photos of us as kids. It was kinda too blurry for me to remember, but I guess that did it and I immediately shrank back down to my little bitty dragon form.”

“How uncanny. That’s like almost exactly what happened to me!”

“Ooooooh! Who helped you out, Spike?”

“Rarity. She’s the unicorn girl that I had a crush on. I kidnapped her when I was big and she had on the gem I gave her as a gift earlier. I saw it and somehow that caused me to regain my senses, so I shrank.”

“Daw, you had a crush on her? That’s so sweet, Spike!”

“Hehe, yeah. It was kind of a kid crush sort of thing, but I still really care about Rarity.”

“So it happened to you too?” Barb asked as she stood up and stroked her chin.

“Interesting,” said Chara. “So rage mode can actually be dealt with by other means.”

“That’s quite a find, though not surprising. It isn’t too hard to snap a dragon out of rage mode. Wrangling has always worked for us…well, except when the effect goes permanent.”

“Rage mode can be permanent?” Spike asked, cautiously.

“That’s another thing about Rage mode: if the dragon stays in rage mode for more than three days, they stay that way permanently and wrangling doesn’t work.”

“Oh no. What happens to a dragon that goes permanent?”

“We banish them to Oster Dracos where the Westerns or ‘wyverns’ live. They’re the nasty dragons. Nobody ever deals with a Western.”

“Thankfully that hasn’t happened in generations,” Chara added. “We’ve always dealt with rage mode through the ceremony of wrangling.”

“Have you ever wrangled before, Mom?” Spike asked, looking up to his mother.

“Several times. Your father and I wrangled all three of your siblings together.”

“You should’ve been there when Dad had to wrangle me. I was a real pain in the tailbone,” Barb snickered.

“Are you guys talking about wrangling?” Scorch asked as he and Singe walked in with the kids following close behind.

“Did you tell him how I nearly crushed Mom when I went into rage mode?” Singe asked.

“Hehe. Well, it was pretty close,” Chara giggled.

“Yeah, Singe was a pretty big one. Dad had to do the old headlock like this to get him to stand still.” Barb said as she went up behind Singe to demonstrate how Smite took care of Singe when he was in rage mode.

“GAH! EASY BARB!” Singe gagged while laughing.

“But after just a few minutes of keeping him down, it was all over.”

Barb then set Singe back down as the kids all laughed.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Barb!” Pound told the tough dragoness.

“She may not have my muscles or Singe’s chub, but she’s a tough one when she needs to be. Show em how it’s done, sis!”

Scorch crouched in a stance and Barb did the same. The kids all backed up and watched as they clashed. Barb was nearly overtaken by Scorch at first but managed to flip around him and lock his head in between her powerful legs. Chip and Annie were shocked at first but could see this was a fun and normal thing for Northern Drakes. Stormy was very entertained and pumped his hoof into the air, cheering Barb on with the others. They had seen enough action in Super Dragon Warriors to be familiar with this sight.

“ALRIGHT, I FORFEIT!” Scorch gasped as Barb finally let go.

Everyone cheered loudly for Barb. Scorch was a good sport though and gave his sister a big hug.

“Never underestimate Barb and her thunder thighs!” Singe said, playfully elbowing Flurry as she hovered next to him.

“That was awesome!” Stormy beamed. “Is that what wrangling is?”

“Well wrangling happens when a young dragon grows as a result of their greed, Stormy,” Flurry told him.

“Cool! Spike said that happened to him once! Can we go see one now?”

“Easy there, little guy,” said Scorch, flying next to Stormy. “It only happens when a young dragon is ready. That’s when they grow up real fast and get greedy from having too many gifts and go into what we call ‘rage mode’, so we wrangle them to calm them down. We usually have it all planned out. The next wrangling doesn’t happen for another two weeks.”

“Aw, darn it. Mommy probably won’t let me see one then. It’s probably too dangerous.”

“That’s alright, little Storm Streak,” said Chara, rubbing his head with the tip of her finger. “A protective mother is always a sign you are being raised right.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Stormy said bashfully.

“We’ll let you see a wrangling someday, little guy,” Barb told Stormy. “It’s quite a sight to behold.”

Suddenly, they were all interrupted by a low, rumbling sound in the distance. It was not loud enough that they needed to cover their ears, but it had the effect of a deep bass noise and caused tiny stones on the ground to bounce.

“Whoa! What was that?!” Pumpkin asked.

“That’s His Elevated Eminence!” Buttercream shouted as she went airborne.

“The mountain has awakened!” Chara said. “Spike, come with us. We’ll show you to him.”

The dragons all flew past the entrance to Smite and Chara’s cave and the kids followed them. They made their way to a cliff and saw His Elevated Eminence yawning as the large crevice beneath his eyes opened wide. The eyes finally opened to reveal empty holes much like his mouth with huge eyebrows above them. Spike could not tell if he had any pupils, but two shiny green orbs eventually appeared inside the eyeholes and looked down in their direction.

“Chara and family, good day to you all!” he said in a deep voice that echoed around them.

“Greetings, His Elevated Eminence. We are humbled to be in your presence,” Chara said, bowing down.

“Oh, but what’s this? Is that Smite’s lost son I see next to you?”

“Yes. This is Spike,” Chara said, lifting Spike in both her hands. “Buttercream found him in Equestria. He’s been living there this whole time.”

“Ah, another dragon raised by ponies, much like his sister. Come closer, child. Allow me to have a look at you.”

Spike flew towards the talking mountain. He was several hundred yards away from where they were standing with a small valley between them, but Spike flew till he was close enough. The green orbs in his eyes moved around and examined Spike. He began to smile.

“How delightful. You look so much like your father. I remember when I first saw Smite as an infant. He grew to be a strong, dedicated king and a fine wrangler.”

“Do you watch the dragons when they wrangle?”

“Oh many times. I usually see the dragons in this mountain range when they enter rage mode and are placed in a safe zone to be wrangled. Sometimes they even do it up here inside of my summit. Have a look and see.”

Spike flew up higher and saw that there was a wide crater in His Elevated Eminence’s peak. There were also tiny gems that glowed many different colors.

“That’s pretty big! So you let dragons wrangle in here?”

“It is usually a special place meant for wrestling matches and wrangling rituals. Sometimes there are older dragons that enter rage mode a second time and have their wings, so they do not stay put. In such a case, I use my powers to keep them at bay, but that hasn’t happened in centuries. With the power of my ‘heart stone’, I provide the Northern Drakes with warmth in the winter and I grow fine, healthy gems for them to eat. They grow all across this land, but the most exquisite ones grow in that crater.”

“So that’s why the gems taste so good here.”

“Gems grow around the world, but the best gems are grown by magic. I produce these gems so the dragons may have a healthy diet and grow strong like your father.”

“I still haven’t met Dad yet. They said he’s out wrangling a dragon in rage mode right now.”

“He will return, and when he does, he will be so happy to finally meet you. Oh! And do my eyes deceive me or are those ponies down there?”

Spike looked back to see everyone flying up while Pumpkin used her magic to lift herself along with Chip and Annie. She gave them both to Spike to hold in his arms while the others hovered around him, waving to the mountain.

“Hello, His Elevated Eminence,” Flurry said, happily. “I’m Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire. This is Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, Apple Chip, Annie Smith, and Storm Streak. They’re my friends from Ponyville.”

“So wonderful to see you, little ones! I haven’t spoken to a pony in over a thousand years!”

“We’re happy to see you too, His Elevated Eminence!” Pound replied.

“We’ve never talked to a mountain, but it sure is awesome!” Stormy added.

“Haha! Such charming little children. Much like the baby dragons of Nordo Dracos who come to see me every day. Both species really are not so different after all.”

Spike then noticed some red gemstones all around the mountain range were blinking on and off.

“That’s Dad!” shouted Scorch.

“Smite is returning!” shouted His Elevated Eminence. “Everyone take Spike to the southern platform and show him to his father!”

“Quickly, Spike!” Chara said as Spike carried Chip and Annie to follow his dragon family.

They all flew to a cliff facing the south where Smite would be arriving. Tons of dragons were gathering around there to welcome their king. This would be a very special moment, as Smite would finally get to see his son he had been missing for so long.

“So what’s with the blinking red crystals?” Spike asked Barb.

“Dad wears a crown with those same crystals, and when he returns, they light up like that until he’s back in here. We usually give him a procession and roar like crazy to let him know we’re glad he’s back.”

“Yeah, I can see everyone’s getting really excited.”

“Everyone’s heard about you returning, Spike!” Singe said. “They can’t wait to see him react to you being here!”

Everyone landed on a special part of the platform that was reserved for Chara and her family. They looked out at the horizon. Clouds covered the land below, but Smite would be above them any second now. Chara put her hand up to get the other dragons to quiet down. They heard the sound of very powerful wings flapping. Spike was trembling and his heart was leaping out of his chest. His smile grew bigger as the flapping grew louder. Finally something appeared above the clouds. The dragons started cheering, but they stopped as soon as they got a better look of what was coming toward them.

A colossal dragon appeared above the clouds that looked nothing like how Smite was described. Instead of being purple with green spikes, it was an ugly, dark shade of green with extra sharp purple spikes and long fins. He was the largest dragon Spike had ever seen and his wingspan was so long, it probably covered nearly a half a mile in length. It was muscular like Scorch but its eyes were white with no slit pupils visible. It was carrying the remains of a large sailboat with tons of treasure and other random objects stored inside.

“Uh…who’s that?!” Flurry asked as the kids all hid behind Spike.

“That’s…that’s not Dad,” Barb said, nervously.

The dragon got closer. He opened his mouth and roared so loudly, some of the dragons had to cover their heads.

“That must be the dragon Dad was wrangling earlier!” Scorch shouted.

“But where’s Dad though?” asked Spike.

“Guys, look! He’s got Dad’s crown!” Singe said, pointing to the stash in the dragon’s arms.

They all looked closer to see a silver crown encrusted with seven red crystals. Chara put her hands up to her mouth in shock.

“No…what have you done to my Smite?” she said with tears forming in her eyes.

4. A Dragon in Rage

Everyone watched as the unnamed raging dragon flew over their heads. It landed on a nearby cliff and roared loudly to make its claim to the land as several smaller dragons scattered.

“Well what are we waiting for?! Get that monster out of here!” shouted one of the large adult dragons as he charged the large brute.

“Everyone else, get the children to safety!” shouted another as he backed up the first one.

Three large male dragons began wrestling the raging dragon. The first one served as a distraction by flying around its head as it snapped at him with its powerful jaws. Another came up behind it and wrapped his arms around its neck while the third one grabbed an arm. Finally the first one landed and tried to grab the other arm, but the raging dragon threw the one on the other side right at him. After it discarded both of them, it reached behind and grabbed the one around its neck and tossed him aside like a ragdoll. It lost some of the loot from the ship it was carrying and began picking up. Several more large adult dragons came in to try taking it down, but they met the same fate.

“Who is that guy?!” asked Pumpkin.

“I don’t know, but he’s obviously the one Dad was out wrangling this morning! He’s got Dad’s crown!” shouted Scorch as he stood over the kids with his wings covering them.

“Scorch, we have to get the kids underground! It’s not safe for them out here!” Barb called as she picked up Chip and Annie.

“What about Dad? Is he even okay?” Spike asked.

“We’re gonna have to find Dad later, Spike!” Singe told his brother, putting his hand on his shoulder.

“Get the little ones to safety! I’ll take care of this brute!” said Chara as she blew smoke from her nostrils and lunged toward the raging dragon.

The dragon saw her and tried to snap at her, but Chara dodged it with grace. In the process, she wrapped her prehensile tail around its neck, grabbed one of its wings to prevent it from flying and dragged it off the cliff. The dragon was pinned down and its loot spilled everywhere. Chara had it with its belly facing down so its arms could not reach her, but her grip on its neck with her tail was slipping and the dragon reached up to untie it. It pulled her by her tail and threw her a hundred yards away where she crashed into a pathway that Barb and the others were headed to with the kids.

“MOM!” shouted Spike and Buttercream as they rushed forward to check on her with everyone else.

“He’s too strong,” Chara said, wearily. “I’ve never wrangled a dragon this tough before.”

“How are we gonna stop him then?” asked Singe.

“Everyone look! IT’S SMITE!!” shouted a random dragon on a nearby cliff.

Spike looked out to the south to see another dragon emerge from the clouds. This time it actually was his father, Smite. Although he was not as big as the raging dragon they were dealing with, he was one of the biggest compared to all the other dragons. He was very large and fat, with a long wingspan. He did bear a striking resemblance to Spike just as everyone had said. He was purple with green spikes, though his shade was a bit darker and his underbelly was yellow along with the inside of his wing flaps and his eyes. Spike wished he could have met his father under finer circumstances, but he was so glad to see him come in to save the day. Smite looked very mad, but it was the look of a powerful king who was not about to let his people down. Even though he did not yet know him, Spike already felt a sense of pride seeing his father like this.

All the other dragons erupted in applause. Spike’s siblings pumped their fists in the air and cheered loudly as Chara put her hands to her chest and smiled.

“He’s alive!” she cried.

The raging dragon was too busy picking up its loot to notice what the other dragons were cheering for, but it turned his head to see Smite getting closer, ready to take him out with a flying kick to the face.

“GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN!!” Smite shouted in a heroic baritone voice.

The mighty king of Nordo Dracos kicked the raging dragon square in its face and pushed its head into the ground. While the dragon was down, Smite lifted it up above his head and threw it into a nearby cliff. Finally, he leapt into the air and did an elbow slam onto the dragon with all his might. Smite picked up his crown from all the treasure that littered the ground before him. He put the crown back on his head as everyone cheered loudly.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, everybody. Complicated business,” he said with a smile as they continued.

“That’s Dad?” Spike asked eagerly.

“That’s our dad! That is the mighty King Smite!” Scorch replied, proudly.

As Singe and Barb were clapping and whooping, Buttercream had donned a cheerleader’s outfit she pulled out of her satchel. She started waving pom-poms and dancing.

“S TO THE M TO THE I-T-E, WHO’S THAT DRAGON WE WANNA SEE? GOOOOOO SMITE!”

Smite hadn’t noticed Spike or the ponies yet in all the commotion, but he started walking forward while addressing the crowd.

“Unfortunately, I think we’re gonna have to send this guy to Oster Dra…uh oh.”

As Smite spoke, the raging dragon got back up and lifted its head to shake off the pain. Smite turned around to see his fighting had barely any effect on it. The dragon roared in his face and Smite reached forward to grab it by the jaws. They both tugged at each other until the raging dragon gained the upper hand. It threw Smite into a cliff where he just barely missed a group of young dragons. Some siding from the cliff crumbled and plummeted toward them, but Smite reached out and grabbed the rock before it could land.

“Kids, get somewhere safe! This guy’s a real loose canon!” he ordered.

“Yes, King Smite!” said the kids as they rushed toward their mother.

Smite turned around to see more dragons step in to fight the raging dragon. They would need all the help they could get and Smite had an idea.

“EVERYONE HOLD HIM DOWN FOR ME!” Smite called before throwing the rock at its head to distract it.

Five of them grabbed the arms, legs, neck and tail of the dragon as Smite flew high up in the air. He let himself fall onto it again with far more force than before. This put the dragon out momentarily, but it was still moving so Smite started pummeling it with several powerful punches. This only made the dragon angrier and it managed to pull its tail out from the grasp of one of the dragons helping to keep it down. It wrapped its tail around Smite’s neck and threw him down before Chara and the others.

Smite skidded in front of them and stopped right before Spike, groaning as Chara tended to him. He opened his eyes and saw a small chubby purple and green dragon before him. He wasn’t sure who this was at first, but then he remembered something: Buttercream had told him that she figured out that Princess Twilight Sparkle’s assistant was the missing purple egg they had lost years ago. Smite shared glances with the little dragon that resembled him in color and physique.

“Dad?” Spike asked.

“Spike, it’s…it’s you. You came to us.”

“I had to.”

“Spike, I…”

Smite was interrupted by the sound of rocks falling and dragons roaring and grunting. He was so distracted by meeting Spike for the first time; he nearly forgot about the raging dragon behind him.

“Spike, I’m sorry, buddy. I’m a little busy right now. We’ll talk later; I promise.”

“Ok, Dad.”

“Chara, get everyone inside the catacombs. That guy might come after our little equine visitors.”

Smite pointed to the kids and Spike’s siblings began picking them up. They took off flying in the opposite direction of the fight so they could circle back around and head to the entrance to the underground passages. Smite watched them as they left and then turned back to see all his fellow dragons still attempting to wrangle the raging dragon.

“SMITE!” called His Elevated Eminence. “Bring him to me! I’ll take care of him!”

“Got it! Everyone, bait him toward His Elevated Eminence! He’ll use his beams!” Smite called to the others.

The dragons all started blowing fire simultaneously at the raging dragon. It finally got annoyed with them and carried its precious cargo to the northern end of the mountain range where His Elevated Eminence was. The dragon noticed the mountain peak with a face and began flying towards His Elevated Eminence, but his eyes turned red and fired a powerful beam at the dragon. The beam hurt it, but did not stun it for very long. It picked up some of his loot and ducked down behind some cliffs to avoid the beam. Although this dragon was in rage mode, it was smart enough to figure out how to avoid being hit again.

Meanwhile, Barb, Scorch, Singe, Spike, Buttercream and all the kids ran through an underground maze. They heard rumbles and saw dust and stones fall from the ceiling every few seconds. There were glowing crystals to light the way and Barb knew this area well enough, so everyone followed her. This was a special underground village where children and young adult dragons would come for clubs and other activities, but it also served as a safe zone when wranglings got out of control outside. They finally entered a large room where other dragons had gathered. There were a few large holes in the walls meant for large dragons to look through and communicate with the smaller dragons inside. Outside, His Elevated Eminence could be seen and the sounds of the dragon roaring carried through.

“Barb, will they take care of him?” Flurry asked.

“I don’t know, Flurry. I’ve never seen a dragon in rage mode that grew to be quite that large,” Barb said.

“You think maybe he’s gone permanent?” Scorch asked his sister.

“I’m afraid so.”

“Wait, that dragon can’t turn back now?” Spike asked.

“Not if he’s been like this for more than three days,” Barb continued. “Maybe that’s why he’s so huge and hard to keep down. That guy could have been out collecting things and growing for a week now and nobody saw till just this morning when complaints were sent. By the time Dad got there, it was already too late.”

“So what do they do with him now?” Pumpkin asked.

“They’ll banish him to Oster Dracos,” Singe told her. “That’s where we take raging dragons that can’t be reasoned with.”

“That’s what Barb told me and Spike earlier, but how do you guys get him to leave?” Flurry asked.

“Well His Elevated Eminence helps with that,” Barb explained. “He can fire a powerful beam from his eyes that should be enough to stun any dragon into submission. We then tie the dragon up in crystal cords and ship it off on a raft that leads to Oster Dracos.”

“His Elevated Eminence can shoot lasers from his eyes? AWESOME!” Stormy squealed.

“So those lasers should be able to take that dragon down?” Chip asked Barb.

“I’ve never seen a dragon that went permanent, but that’s how it’s supposed to work. His Elevated Eminence should be able to handle him.”

“Um…guys, about that…” Pound said as he looked out of the biggest hole.

Everyone walked over to the hole to see that His Elevated Eminence was firing repeatedly at the dragon, but it was doing no good. The mighty mountain was wearing himself out already and the other dragons had to go back to wrangling.

“Ah great. It’s not working,” Scorch said, gloomily.

“What? How’s that possible?!” one of the other young adult dragons asked. “King Smite said that’s always worked in the past!”

“Well that’s not good. How do we deal with it now?” asked another.

“Something seems a little familiar about that dragon,” Spike said under his breath, stroking his chin.

“What was that, Spike?” Buttercream asked.

“Er…nothing,”

Outside, Smite and several others slammed into the dragon, which caused the ship with all the treasure to fall out. The ship flew towards the hole that everyone was looking through. Barb and the others thought quickly and grabbed the kids to get them out of the way.

“EVERYBODY MOVE!!” shouted Barb.

“FLURRY! TELEPORT!” Spike called to the little princess.

Flurry used her teleportation spell on her friends and several baby dragons in the room to get them safely off to the side. All the larger dragons elsewhere shielded the young ones with their wings to protect against any debris. The ship crashed against the wall and it caved in, creating a large gaping hole. Some of the loot from the ship poured into the room and scattered everywhere. It was mostly gold from the ship, but there were also crystals, uprooted plants, rocks, tree branches, dirt and a few random household items that probably came from Equestria. Spike had Pound and Pumpkin covered with his arms while Flurry, Stormy, Chip, Annie and several baby dragons were behind them. Thankfully, no one was hurt from the barrage, but something on the ground suddenly caught Spike’s eye.

Before him was a white pillow with three grey lines. It was losing some of its stuffing and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. Spike slowly got up and walked over to pick it up. He looked closely at it. This was the same pillow he used to have on his bed years ago: the one that Sludge made off with when he left after admitting he was not his father. Spike looked out the huge hole in the wall and got a closer look at the raging dragon.

“No…it can’t be.”

“Spike, what’s wrong?” Buttercream asked.

“Butter, remember when I told you about Sludge?”

“You mean the guy who lied about being…oh wait, you don’t think-”

“Yes. That’s him. That’s Sludge.”

Spike took another look at the dragon. It was hard to tell at first since his colors were a slightly darker shade and his physique was similar to most dragons going through rage mode, but he could tell it was definitely Sludge. After taking the pillow, he obviously couldn’t help himself with taking other things. The treasure he found at sea probably caused him to start entering his greed-induced state again until he was in rage mode permanently.

“EVERYBODY, GET OUT OF HERE!” Smite shouted to them as he blocked the hole.

“HE’S RIGHT! RUN!!” Scorch hollered.

Everyone left the room where the treasure had spilled. Smite was grabbed and thrown aside by Sludge who began clawing away at all the treasure he lost in the cave-in. Smite came up behind him, but Sludge was so driven now to keep everything that he barely budged when Smite tried to pull him off. Several other dragons came in to help, but Sludge turned his head and blew fire at them till they backed away. He finished retrieving everything and made off again, only leaving behind a few gold coins and crystals. Spike had also managed to keep the pillow from him. This time, Sludge flew quickly out of range of His Elevated Eminence’s eyes so he could not be blasted. He flew up behind the mighty mountain and landed in the top of his crater where he set the ship inside.

“Smite, we are clearly at an impasse,” His Elevated Eminence called. “Let him stay up there and I will concentrate my powers. Perhaps I can chase him away once I’ve recharged.”

Smite sighed and hung his head. He flew down to land in the valley below to rest after all the action. Spike and the others returned to the edge of the cave-in and watched their king as he knelt in defeat.

“Now what?” asked Annie.

“I guess we wait,” Barb responded. “If His Elevated Eminence can concentrate his powers, he should be able to create a surge of magic that will annoy that dragon until he leaves. At least that dragon won’t be able to reach his heart stone. We’d be doomed if he got a hold of it.”

“Yeah, but he’ll just keep trying to take over other mountains in Nordo Dracos regardless. We’ll never get him to Oster Dracos,” Singe said.

“Princess Barb, will we all have to move away from here?” asked one of the female baby dragons, walking up to Barb.

“We’ll be fine, Flicker,” Barb said, kneeling down to console the little dragon. “But I just hope that dragon leaves His Elevated Eminence alone.”

“I think I know how to stop him,” Spike said, stepping forward with the pillow.

“What? Spike, what do you mean?” Flurry asked.

“That dragon is Sludge. This is the pillow he took when he left years ago.”

The kids all gasped as they noticed the pillow. They had all heard this story and knew what Spike was talking about.

“Wait, Spike, are you trying to say you can persuade him?” asked Scorch.

“Yes. It worked with me and Buttercream, it can work with him too.”

“Spike, wait!” called Barb.

Spike flew down to where Smite was kneeling. He had his hand over his forehead and looked very lost. He noticed Spike landing next to him.

“Spike? Son, are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m okay, Dad. Are you?”

“I took quite a beating, but it’s nothing. Spike, I’m so sorry this happened when you came to see me. We’ve never had a wrangling go this wrong before, at least not while I was king.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I think I know how we can stop that dragon.”

“What? How?”

“I know who he is. His name is Sludge.”

“Wait, you know this guy?”

“He came to Ponyville years ago and told me he was my father. Turns out he wasn’t; he just wanted a life of luxury in the castle I was living in at that time. He used me.”

“He lied about being your father?”

“Yeah, but I can’t help but feel like there’s still good in him. Right after he came clean, he willingly took off. All he left with was this pillow. Obviously his greed got the best of him over time.”

“Spike, that dragon’s gone permanent. He won’t turn back. Dragons that can’t be wrangled have to be sent to Oster Dracos to live with the wyverns.”

“But if I could talk to him, maybe he’ll listen. That’s what happened with Buttercream and it worked with me too. All it took was for my old friend Rarity to show me that fire ruby. I gave it to her as a gift and it caused me to remember her.”

“Butter told me about how Nightwatch did something similar, but who’s Rarity?”

“A unicorn girl I care about. She didn’t even know I was the huge rampaging dragon that captured her when it happened. It required barely any effort. I can stop him but I’m gonna need your help.”

“Spike, it’s too dangerous. We’ve only just met and I can’t put my own son whom I’ve been missing all these years in harm’s way.”

“Please, Dad. I want to help. I’m probably the only one who can do this.”

“Will he even remember you? Did he treat you right at all when you thought he was your father?”

“I mean he did take advantage of me, but I think a part of him still cared. Dad, I’ve been brought up all my life to see the good in others. I’ve been like a brother to the Princess of Friendship herself. She’s taught me so much.”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yes. And Princess Flurry Heart here has already helped out with reforming two major villains. We even got Lord Tirek to listen recently.” Spike said as Flurry stood next to him.

“It’s true, King Smite,” she said.

“So that was you guys.”

Smite stood still for a while to think. He was too afraid to let his own son he had just gotten to know near such a dragon, but he had a feeling he could trust Spike to do the right thing. He could already see Spike had had a wholesome upbringing. The Northern Drakes had always stressed the importance of family and building close bonds with communities, and much like Buttercream, Spike had been taught to do the same. He looked back to see Chara and the others behind him. Chara nodded her head to let him know she agreed with Spike. Smite finally turned back to his son and smiled.

“Alright, Spike. I’ll go with you. Just stay in my hands and do the talking. I’ll be there in case things get messy.”

Spike smiled back to his father and walked right into Smite’s large claws. Smite spread his wings and took flight, slowly ascending towards the top of His Elevated Eminence’s peak where Sludge had already made himself comfortable.

“I hope he knows what he’s doing,” Barb said, anxiously.

“Spike has a heart of gold, Barb,” Flurry replied confidently. “He’s got this.”

5. Spike Steps In

Sludge dumped his treasure out of the sunken ship onto the ground of the crater atop His Elevated Eminence. He spread it out evenly and circled around to find a comfortable position, surveying the sky around him to make sure no more dragons would invade his space. In this form, he only had one thing on his mind: guarding his treasure and chasing away anything that would disturb him or try to take it away. He did not remember who he was or what even caused him to steal these things. He was just a wild, dumb animal with selfish intent and a one-track mind. The effect of Northern Drake rage had taken him completely.

He finally lay down and curled himself up to begin his long slumber. He shut his eyes, but before he could fall asleep, he heard the sound of wings flapping. His spikes went erect and he grumbled while baring his teeth. He stretched his neck out to the southern end to check for the sound. Smite appeared flying over the edge of the rock wall in the crater. Sludge opened his mouth and roared as loud as he could to chase Smite away, but Smite did not move. Sludge walked out to the edge to roar again, but Smite still stayed hovering a hundred yards from the crater. Spike was standing inside Smite’s hands and holding the pillow. He finally spoke.

“Sludge! It’s me, Spike!” he called.

Sludge roared again.

“Sludge, you remember me, don’t you? Remember this pillow? Come on, Sludge, I know you can’t forget what you did to me!”

Sludge roared longer and tried to stretch his neck forward to frighten them, but they were not leaving.

“Sludge, you remember the pillow, right? You took this from me right before you left. Does that help?”

Sludge did not roar this time but stared at the pillow. His instincts were to want it, but Spike had already torn the pillow in half and threw both pieces onto the side of the mountain. Sludge watched them fall down and quickly scraped them up with his claws. He stared at the pillow in his hands, but didn’t seem to care that it was ripped to pieces.

“Go ahead and take it, but you’ve got to remember who you are!”

Sludge bared his teeth and grumbled but had already stopped roaring. He did not yet recall Spike or anything else. The pillow didn’t even help him remember. He turned his head and began walking back to his pile with the pillow.

“Sludge, please!”

“Spike, I don’t think it’s working. He’s too far gone,” Smite said, cautiously.

“Hold on, Dad. I have to keep trying.”

“Spike, wait!”

Spike took flight as Smite tried stopping him at first. Sludge looked around and grimaced at Spike again. Spike was not very close to him, but Sludge did not look like he wanted any visitors.

“Sludge, is there anything I can do to calm you down? Do you remember about the good times we had? I know you were using me, but you seemed so nice at first. Remember when my friends and I nursed you back to health after you had that bad fall? Come on, big guy, you’ve got to remember!”

Sludge just kept scowling. He held his treasure close to him as if he thought Spike would try to steal it. He wasn’t roaring anymore, so Spike figured he didn’t perceive him as a threat, but Sludge clearly still wasn’t himself. He finally rested his head on top of the treasure and closed his eyes.

“Sludge…”

Spike hung his head in disappointment. Suddenly, he had an idea. He stroked his chin and then took a deep breath.

“Alright, you leave me with no choice. Bear with me cuz I can’t remember all the lyrics.”

Sludge opened one of his eyes and grimaced again as Spike started singing.

Look at this castle where you live

You can’t be a dragon here

Uh…something, something, books upon the wall

Something, something, treasure I fear

Sludge looked curiously at Spike. Spike was a safe distance away from Sludge, but danced, did jazz-hands, and spun around as he sang.

Nothing about this place says ‘dragon den’, there’s too much fluff

Something, something, robes in a pile

Something, something goblets and dishes and…uh, stuff

Something that rhymes with piiiiiile

Sure it may look grandiose, da-da-da-da-da, it’s just gross

Da-da-da make something disappeeeeear

I…uh, can’t remember this part, da-da-da-da-da-da-da

You just can’t be a dragon heeeeere

As Spike kept singing, Sludge’s face appeared less angry and more quizzical. He watched Spike move about without any roaring or showing of teeth. Smite could already tell this seemed to be working, so he didn’t try getting closer to help Spike or Sludge might feel threatened and attack. Spike kept singing but started changing the lyrics.

Each and every dragon has a swagger of his own

Watch and I’ll show you what I meeeeean

Sludge, I hope you’re listening, cuz boy I gotta say

You really gotta turn back, pleeeeease

Northern Drakes don’t go around, stealing stuff from every town

We’re better than that, oh can’t you seeeeee?

Friends and family matter most, horded treasure won’t come close

You just can’t stay in rage mode heeeere

No, you just can’t stay in rage mode here…

The look on Sludge’s face now appeared surprised and confused. His eyes were opened wide. He blinked once and his purple irises finally started showing. He scrunched up his face and shook his head around. Spike could see it was starting to work.

“Sludge? Do you remember now?”

Sludge looked back up to Spike. For the first time, he finally stopped caring about all the treasure and started to remember this little purple and green dragon. Something seemed familiar about him and the song he was singing. Inside his mind he was brought back years ago in time. He saw a smaller version of this dragon dancing around with him in a crystal castle. He then remembered where the pillow came from and how he took it the last time he ever saw the little dragon. Days later, he was alone in a cave with nothing but the pillow to help him sleep at night. He felt miserable and disappointed in himself for ruining the little dragon’s day by lying to him about being his father. He wondered if he could go back and apologize, but he knew he would never be welcome at that castle again. Years passed and he stole a random chair from somepony’s back porch. A while later he stole a jacket. Later on he stole a random watering can that he would never use but liked the look of. The next thing he knew, the jacket was tearing and no longer fitting him so he just ripped it off but still kept it. Before he knew it, he was stealing anything he could possibly find, getting bigger and more mindless as he went. He couldn’t carry his things anymore, so he flew out to the sea and found a sunken ship near Nordo Dracos with treasure inside. He felt himself growing larger as he picked the ship up and put all his goods in it. He then started taking rocks and tearing trees and plants out of the ground and felt the need to find a tall mountain to keep all these things in. Finally he saw the battle from earlier that lead up to this very moment.

It finally dawned on Sludge what had really happened to him all these years. He had become so greedy that it caused him to enter rage mode a second time in his life. It took years to start growing, but once Sludge found the ship, it was already too late. He couldn’t remember exactly how long he had been like this, but it no longer mattered. He remembered who he was and what he had done. He put his hand up to his chest and looked deeply into Spike’s eyes.

“SP…SPI…SPIKE?” he said in a deep, grumbly voice.

“It’s me, Sludge.”

Sludge felt his insides moving around and his muscles tighten up. His bones ached badly and the pores beneath his scales emitted steam. He began to slowly shrink until finally he snapped right back into his true form several yards above the ground, landing on top of the gold. Sludge had grown taller and bigger since Spike last saw him, but he was only a bit taller than Barb and still much smaller than all the other adult dragons in this land. Spike watched as he slowly stood up and put his hands up to his head in pain.

“He did it!” shouted a dragon that had been observing from behind the walls of the crater.

“Everyone come quickly! Smite’s son has tamed that dragon!” said another.

Several other dragons flew down and landed on the edge while cheering for Spike. Spike looked over to see Smite land as Chara stood next to him. His siblings all arrived with Barb carrying Chip and Annie and Singe carrying Pumpkin. Flurry had a huge smile on her face. Pound and Stormy pumped their hooves and whooped loudly as everyone else did the same.

“I can’t believe it actually worked! And on a dragon in permanent rage mode too!” Singe exclaimed.

“That’s our baby brother!” shouted Scorch.

“S TO THE P TO THE I-K-E! HIS DAD ROCKS AND SO DOES HE! GOOOOOOO SPIKE!” Buttercream shouted as she waved her pom-poms around while still wearing her cheerleader uniform.

Spike smiled as he waved to the crowd, but he didn’t forget about Sludge. As he looked back, he saw Sludge sitting down on top of the gold, covering his face with his hands. He already had tears forming in his eyes. Spike then put his hands up to quiet everyone down and walked over to Sludge.

“Hey, Sludge?” he asked.

“Don’t look at me, Spike,” Sludge whimpered.

“Sludge, it’s okay.”

“How can you say that after everything I’ve done? I lied to you about being your dad, I stole your pillow and tons of other things, I made a mess in front of all those other dragons, and now I’ve incurred the wrath of King Smite.”

As Sludge cried, Smite had his arms crossed with a stern look on his face. Chara stood next to him with her hand on his shoulder. Smite was not happy with what Sludge had done, but he let Spike talk to him nonetheless. Clearly this dragon was not as bad now that he had been tamed. Spike walked over to Sludge and sat down next to him.

“Sludge, look, I may have only known my dad for a few minutes, but from what I’ve gathered so far, he’s a good king and he’s not going to banish you to Oster Dracos now that you’re back to normal.”

“It doesn’t matter, Spike. I never should have done any of that. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you just so I could stay in that castle. I deserve whatever’s coming my way.”

“Well you already feel sorry, so that’s a good start. I won’t lie, I was mad at you for what you did, but I’ve experienced worse. You were nice to me when you first came into Ponyville. Even after you admitted you weren’t my dad, you still left without me even having to ask you. Look, Sludge, forget about the pillow and everything else you did to me. I’ve seen how dragons in Nordo Dracos treat each other and how close they are to their families. It’s not too different from Equestria, so I’m going to treat you exactly how I’d want to be treated. I forgive you, Sludge.”

“But I didn’t even say sorry.”

“And you’ll never have to.”

Sludge took a few moments to reflect. He wiped his tears away and sniffled. Finally he smiled and looked at Spike.

“I’ve never had anyone treat me as well as you and your friends did, Spike. I guess that’s why I really wanted to stay in the castle. But I’m still responsible for this whole mess.”

Spike thought for a few moments and then turned to his father.

“Hey, Dad? He says he’s sorry. I hope you can forgive him.”

Smite looked at Chara. She smiled to him and Smite smiled back. Smite finally turned to Sludge as Spike helped him up.

“How about this: Sludge, I’ll sentence you to cleaning up everything you wrecked down in the plaza and return that gold to Princess Twilight. Judging by the emblem on that ship, that treasure was meant to go to Equestria years ago before it sank. After you’re done with all that, you can consider your debt fully paid and I’d be happy to give you citizenship to Nordo Dracos.”

“Thank you, King Smite,” Sludge said, bashfully.

The dragons all returned to cheering as Spike and Sludge hugged each other.

“Thanks for giving me a second chance, Spike. I still don’t feel I deserve it, but I’ll do what I can to make up for everything.”

“Hey, that’s what friends are for.”

6. Unbreakable Bonds

Later that afternoon as the sun was near setting, Sludge had already started helping clean up the mess he left while some large dragons gathered up all the treasure inside the ship to prepare to take to Equestria. Spike and Smite took some time to finally talk on a cliff near His Elevated Eminence, while the others helped with cleanup. They had been talking for over an hour now.

“This is quite a story, son. So you were in Equestria this entire time?” Smite asked.

“Yup, a little back-and-forth from Canterlot to Ponyville over the years. Right now I’m staying in Ponyville for the summer to watch Flurry,” Spike replied.

“To think you and your sister have been helping fight evil forces in Equestria all these years…and on top of all that, you have magic fire. That’s pretty rare in Northern Drakes nowadays. If only I had known where you and your sister were this whole time.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I didn’t know about Nordo Dracos for a while. I had no idea the division between dragons and ponies was so bad all these years.”

“Most of the dragons of the world resented Celestia after she banished Luna. They thought she could have handled it differently and that it meant ponies didn’t know how to treat their family right. I think that resentment waned over time and the dragons just simply kept to themselves, but Nordo Dracos would have gotten in touch with Equestria a little sooner if…”

“If what?”

“Well, let’s just say your old Grandpa Rubble’s not exactly fond of ponies.”

“He’s not?”

“That’s part of the reason why we never went to check Equestria for you or your sister’s eggs. Ponies were already prejudiced or scared of dragons by then and your grandfather was one of many that bought into this nonsense that Celestia hated her sister. Now we know what was up with the night lasting so long that one night years ago: that was the night Luna returned.”

“Yeah, as Nightmare Moon, but then she was freed by the Elements of Harmony. Sadly, that’s not a battle I was part of. But you guys didn’t know about that for a while?”

“No. Despite how close Nordo Dracos is to Equestria, we don’t get news from them up until recently with it traveling through word of mouth. I knew Dad would forbid me from going into Equestria and I figured you and your sister had already been eaten by rocs. I wasn’t king at that time.”

"Grandpa doesn't sound very nice."

“Not to ponies at least. Thankfully you don’t have to worry about him right now. He’s out in a cave miles away in the middle of a really long dragon nap with Mom. The day will come for you to meet him and I’ll have to tell him you were raised by ponies, but not yet.”

“What about you, Dad? Did you ever hate ponies?”

“I can’t say I ever did. For a while I didn’t think much about it. Dad was the one who told me ponies couldn’t be trusted. Mom just sort of went with it but I don’t think she really saw it the same way he did. After we started hearing about all these things happening in Equestria, it became obvious to all of us that the Equestrians weren’t as bad as we thought. With everything you’ve told me now, I wish Dad had known years ago.”

“So you aren’t mad that we were away from you for so long?”

“Maybe I could have been, but seeing you and Butter the way you are right now, I think it was all a blessing in disguise. I thought all these years that my two eggs were eaten by rocs and I’d never see you again, but both of you were being raised by good beings this entire time. From what I’ve already heard about you and your sister’s adoptive families, I’d say it was worth it. I never got to know you growing up, Spike, but you were in a good place all along, so I’d be remiss if I said it was a waste. I owe a lot to those ponies.”

Smite put his hand around Spike as he spoke. Spike smiled warmly as he noticed Buttercream walking in to join them. She sat down next to Spike and he put his arm around her.

“There’s so much I wish I could tell both of you. So much time has passed without you in my life, but I’m just glad we got to meet at last. I was going to ask if you wanted to stay, Spike, but I can see you’re in the middle of something important with the princess.”

“Yeah, Twilight trusted me with watching Flurry. I hate to just not be around you guys, but I’ll definitely come by to visit as often as I can. I’ve been working my way into becoming an ambassador for Equestria.”

“Then I won’t fight it, son. You take care of Flurry Heart and her friends. Everyone’s already labeling you a local hero for what you did this afternoon, so you’re always welcome to visit us in Nordo Dracos.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Smite lifted both of them in his hands and held them to this chest. They spread out their arms and pressed themselves into his warm pudgy body. He tilted his head down and nuzzled them with his cheek. He then set them both back down on the ground.

“This has been quite a day, Butter,” Spike told his sister. “Will I be seeing you again soon?”

“Course you will, bro!” Buttercream said, cheerfully. “I’ve already told my pony family back in Daleshire that I’ll be taking a bit of a sabbatical this summer. I’ll split my time between Ponyville and Nordo Dracos frequently.”

“Yeah, that’s another thing: we gotta arrange to see your pony family too.”

“I know! You have to meet my pony parents; they’re so nice! Nightwatch is such a great brother! Oh, and just between the two of us: Nighty and Twilight are totally made for each other!” Butter whispered out of the side of her mouth as she leaned in close to Spike.

“Is that so? Well Twilight is in serious need of a boyfriend.”

“Hehe!”

Barb, Scorch, Singe and Flurry and her friends all walked in as Chara stood next to Smite. Smite let Spike and Buttercream down on the ground to join their siblings as he put his arm around Chara. They happily watched as the young ones made conversation.

“Well kids, Twilight said she’d be coming soon to visit,” Spike said, looking at a scroll he received from Twilight earlier.

“Didn’t she say she’s bringing Dad and Grandma and Grandpa too?” Flurry asked.

“Oh you bet! Both my pony and dragon families have got to meet before we go home!”

“It’s been great having you all here,” Barb said, kneeling down to the kids level and rubbing their heads. “Like Dad said, we’d love to have you any time.”

“Yeah, plus we might be able to let you see a proper wrangling later this summer,” Singe added.

“So long as we’ll all be at a safe distance, I think that would be nice,” Flurry replied.

“Well we already saw a wrangling today!” Stormy beamed. “That was the coolest thing ever! Now I don’t feel so bad missing Tirek and Scorpan fight!”

“Yeah, that one was pretty crazy, but another successful way to reform a villain,” Flurry said. “Gosh, we’ve had such a productive summer. I didn’t think we’d be able to get to this many trouble-makers in Equestria like we did. First Anatankha, then Tirek, and now Sludge.”

“Hopefully we get Cozy Glow soon,” Pound added.

“There’s always a chance, bro!” Pumpkin said, putting her arm around Pound.

“Well Dad,” Barb said as she flew up to Smite “I think one great thing we learned from Spike today is that it’s now possible to subdue permanent rage mode; all it takes is a little pep talk.”

“That is still very surprising,” Chara said. “I guess there will be no need to banish dragons to Oster Dracos after all.

“I’m surprised it worked on Sludge too,” Spike said. “When I heard about how it can go permanent, I was a little scared, but we might wanna try that on the next dragon it happens to. Still, that should just be a last resort. I think we should keep doing the wrangling since it’s such a big part of our culture. I wouldn’t mind getting into it someday myself.”

Scorch then wrapped his arm around Spike while giving him a noogie.

“We’re always here to give ya a few tips, little bro!” he said.

Spike laughed along with everyone else. Suddenly he noticed a chariot being pulled by several royal guards coming towards them. Inside the chariot was Twilight with Shining Armor and their parents Night Light, and Twilight Velvet.

“Dad, Twilight, Grandma, Grandpa!” Flurry shouted as the others turned around.

Twilight leapt out of the chariot and rushed over to hug Spike and Flurry.

“Spike, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be here earlier!” Twilight said. “When I got your note last night, I was so happy for you and I had to bring Mom and Dad!”

“Better late than never, Twilight!” Spike told her. “And you brought Shining too!”

“I wasn’t going to miss meeting my little surrogate brother’s dragon parents!” Shining Armor said as Flurry went in to hug him before Spike did.

“Spike, we’re so happy for you!” Twilight Velvet said as she hugged Spike along with Night Light.

“And are these the folks?” Night Light asked, noticing Spike’s family behind him.

“They sure are!” Spike replied. “Everybody, this is Buttercream, Singe, Scorch, Barb, and back there are my parents King Smite and Queen Chara.”

“It’s an honor to meet the ponies who cared for Spike all these years!” Chara told them.

“Thanks for taking care of him for us, Princess Twilight,” Smite told Twilight as he bowed his head to her.

“King Smite, I’m so sorry we didn’t get in touch any earlier,” Twilight told him. “I had no idea Spike would be related to the royal family of Nordo Dracos. And I hear this little one over here was also raised by ponies, correct?”

“That’s right!” Buttercream said, shaking Twilight’s hoof. “It’s so great to finally meet you, Princess Twilight! I’m Nightwatch’s adoptive sister. Does that name ring a bell?”

“Nightwatch? Wait, the Nightwatch? The one I mailed his journal and telescope nob back to years ago?”

“That’s him!”

“I…I can’t believe it! I was talking with the stallion that had Spike’s sister all these years and I didn’t realize it!”

“Yeah, sorry we didn’t manage to get in contact with you guys. He tried replying, but one day he stopped getting letters from you.”

“That’s probably because the library I lived in at one point was destroyed during a battle with Tirek. I remember sending a response to him a few weeks prior. I lost my mail that day in the fire and his response letter was most likely in there. I thought he was the one that stopped replying.”

“Twilight, you never told me you were pen-pals with a guy called Nightwatch!” Spike said, nudging Twilight teasingly.

“I didn’t think he was of that much importance at the time. Gosh, this all really went out from under our noses all these years. I can’t believe we missed it all!”

Butter appeared nervous at first but then perked up and wrapped her arm around Twilight.

“Yeah, there are a lot of things that got in our way of reaching you guys sooner, but don’t worry your little head off about it right now. Someday we’ll get you and Nighty together to catch up. I think you and my brother are gonna really like each other, Twily!”

“Um…okay. I wouldn’t mind talking to him in person for once,” Twilight said while blushing. “Oh, and do my eyes deceive me or is that the mighty mountain I’ve heard about: His Elevated Eminence?”

Twilight walked over near the edge of the cliff to see the mountain greeting her with a friendly smile.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, welcome to our humble abode. It’s been too long since we had any contact with Equestria,” he told her.

“His Elevated Eminence, I am honored to meet you. I know ponies and dragons have been so divided over my predecessor’s decision to banish her sister to the moon, but we are long past that stage in our history. I would be more than happy to amend all relations with Nordo Dracos and Equestria.”

“And I would be more than willing to be in service to the Princess of Friendship.”

“Both of us would be,” Smite added.

Twilight bowed in reverence to the mountain and the dragon king. She then felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

“Hey Twilight, there’s someone else that would like to meet you,” Spike told her.

Twilight looked behind Spike to see two taller dragon guards walk in with Sludge. Twilight instantly recognized him and gasped a little. She always figured she would lash out angrily at this dragon if she ever saw him again, but she was not prepared to see Sludge like this. Spike had clearly already forgiven him so she remained silent and listened as Sludge spoke.

“Hey, Twilight. I owe you a huge apology for what I did years ago: you know, trashing your castle and hording everything in Spike’s room for myself, not to mention lying about being his dad. I got a little greedy over the years and I made a mess here, but I’m alright now.”

“Twilight, remember when I got all big and nearly destroyed Ponyville?” Spike explained. “Well that happened to Sludge today. It happens to all Northern Drakes at least once in their lifetime. He went out of control and did a lot of damage here, but I managed to help him remember who he was just like Rarity did for me that day. It’s going to take some time to get things cleaned up, but he’s learned his lesson.”

Spike put his hand on Sludge’s shoulder as Sludge looked remorsefully at Twilight.

“I know I don’t deserve it, but can you forgive me?” he asked the princess.

Twilight stood still for a moment and then smiled.

“All is forgiven, Sludge,” she said. “I thought maybe you’d learn your lesson someday. I’ve met and confronted many villains in my lifetime, but I never considered you to be the worst.”

“Thank you,” Sludge said as he knelt down to hug her. “Oh, and by the way, in my fit of greed-induced rage, I think I managed to uncover an old sunken ship containing treasure meant for Equestria ages ago. I believe it was somewhere in the Luna Ocean.”

Sludge pointed behind him to the ship and the gold around it that had been gathered up by the other dragons. Twilight’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

“Oh! That’s the H.M.S. Pinto! Celestia was wondering what happened to that ship for decades! Sludge, you’ve already done Equestria such a huge favor!”

Twilight hugged Sludge even harder this time. They then parted and Sludge stuck around to take a break from his duties to join the fun. As everyone from both sides of Spike’s family continued to make conversation, Twilight went to speak to Flurry.

“So would you like to fill me in on today’s friendship report, Flurry Heart?” she asked her niece.

Flurry looked around to all the others and smiled as she spoke.

“Well, not only did I learn a lot about the Northern Drakes, I learned a lot about the acceptance of family over material goods. Spike’s family was kinder than any of us thought they would be, and they were also very good about forgiving Sludge for what he did today. Sludge was definitely humbled because Spike gave him a chance, even when many others might think he shouldn’t have. Now that he’s been welcomed into Nordo Dracos, I couldn’t agree more that family and friendship will always be far better than horded treasure.”

Flurry and Twilight embraced one another until everyone heard a loud scream from a hot air balloon coming in.

“Spiiiiike! Happy Find-Your-Family Day! It’s a new holiday I made up just for you!”

Everyone looked over to see the balloon landing and a chubby pink pony with a blue hair-bow leaping out. Confetti shot in all directions and she rushed over to give Spike a great big hug.

“Pinkie! I didn’t think you’d be making it too!” he said.

“There wasn’t enough room on the chariot, so she had to use the balloon,” Shining Armor said.

“And this was too big an opportunity for Equestria’s number-one party pony to miss!” Twilight added.

“Oh my gosh! Spike, is this the fam?! Wow, they all look amazing! I had no idea Spike was royalty all along! Now Mama and Papa Sparkle have three royal kids! You guys are all so lucky! Oh wow! Is that a talking mountain? OOOH! And Sludge, you’re here too!”

“Hey there, Pinkie. I uh-” Sludge started saying before Pinkie continued for him.

“Got all lonely over the years and watched as it culminated into a greed-induced rage like Spike did years ago and then before you knew it you were stealing things left and right until you grew to gargantuan size and terrorized this whole kingdom only to find Spike persuading you to shrink back down and give everything back therefore cementing yourself as another one of Equestria’s reformed villains?!”

Everyone stared at Pinkie with their mouths wide open except for Spike and all of the ponies he knew who were just rolling their eyes and giggling.

“How did you know all that?” asked Barb.

“Just a hunch,” Pinkie said, smiling.

“Gosh, you kinda remind me of myself!” Buttercream said.

“Hey there! I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“I’m Buttercream!”

“You like parties and sweets and spreading happiness everywhere you go too?”

“Yeah! How did you know that?”

“Oh, just something about your cheerful and energetic look that makes it totally obvious! Hehe!”

Barb, Scorch, Singe, Smite and Chara couldn’t stop laughing at the sight.

“This one’s a keeper, Dad!” Singe told his dad.

“That pony does sound an awful lot like Buttercream,” His Elevated Eminence chuckled.

“Hey, Mr. Talky-Mountain! I hope you don’t mind if I bring in a little Ponyville cheer to Nordo Dracos tonight,” Pinkie told him. “It’s just I can’t not do it now that Spike’s found his family!”

“Oh, you are more than welcome, my dear! We are already preparing a celebration for what Spike did earlier this afternoon and we could use you!”

“Something tells me it’s going to be a long night!” Scorch jested.

Pinkie then randomly appeared between Barb and Scorch and managed to stretch her arms out and wrap them around Spike and all five of his siblings at once.

“We are all going to have the best Find-Your-Family Day party EVER!” she squealed.

“Get ready guys! When Auntie Pinkie says she’s ready to throw a party, she means it!” Pumpkin told the dragons.

“Think Mom will let us stay out a bit longer?” Annie asked Chip.

“Eh, she’ll be fine with it once we let her know just how great this all was. Only problem is, we’re going to get home at around midnight at this point.” Chip said, nervously.

“I can conjure up some magic to have you kids all teleported back to Ponyville after we’re done.” Twilight told them. “In the mean time, you’ll be safe here. I’m in the mood for a little celebration myself.”

“First, I think it’s best we get some pictures,” Shining Armor said as he took out a camera and tri-pod that his guards brought in the chariot with him.

“That’s right! Night Light and I have got to add these to our little family photo collection back at home!” Twilight Velvet added.

“I’m not familiar with Equestrian technology, but I’m guessing that contraption can make a portrait in an instant?” Chara asked.

“It sure can, Mom!” Spike replied. “Everyone, let’s go stand in front of His Elevated Eminence!”

Spike and all his siblings flew over onto a plateaued rock while Smite and Chara stayed on the same level but got right behind them so they would be close enough to their faces. Twilight used her magic to help Shining Armor get up to the rock and position the camera to make a portrait shot. With His Elevated Eminence right in view at the top, Smite and Chara put their arms around each other as their kids posed at the bottom.

“Alright! Everybody say ‘Rubies!’” Shining Armor said, as he readied the camera.

“RUBIES!” they all shouted with huge smiles on their faces.

The camera then flashed and the picture was taken. This photo and many others like it remained in Twilight Velvet and Night Light’s home with other family photos taken over the years. Twilight and Shining Armor took copies to keep in their respective castles, and one last copy was sent to Buttercream’s family back in Daleshire.

From this day forward, Spike the dragon no longer spent his life wondering where he came from. He was lucky to be related to good dragons that accepted his upbringing in Equestria. Not only had he found his biological family today; his family had grown stronger than ever before.

THE END