Twilight and Applejack followed Captain Dash through the rocky terrain as the bat pony kept an eye on the path ahead. With her bat wings, moving around without alerting any possible threats in the area.

Landing in front of the girls, Dash extended her wings to block their path. "Hold it." She hissed softly. "There's movement ahead."

"Ya think it's friendly?" Applejack asked.

Dash huffed. "Not my job to tell who's friendly or not. Just get you through safely. Remember?"

Twilight took a deep breath and sighed before quickly pushed past and looked around the corner. "Fluttershy?" She gasped.

"A friend of yours?" Dash asked.

"Seems like she's one of the friends we're supposed to find." Applejack explained, as her and Dash took a look. "What's that green stuff on her face?"

Twilight gulped and pulled the girls back into hiding. "Not good. I've seen that time line. It can only mean…"

"I have three new fools to feast on." A voice laughed.

Turning to the voice, the three mares saw the queen of the Changelings. "Chrysalis." Twilight whimpered.

Turning her head Chrysalis snapped. "Reeka! Draggle! Get your worthless hides over here!" Huffing, she gave the three ponies a crooked smile. "Good help is so hard to find."

Dash looked around before shoving the others into the open. "Go find your friends and fix this mess!" She shouted before shooting into the changeling's face with a right hoof. "I'll hold her off!"

Twilight turned to help but was shoved by Applejack to run.

Fluttershy blinked and watched them flee before glancing around the corner at the two fighting. Considering what she overheard, she ducked back and decided to follow the two fleeing ponies. At the least she'd make sure the enemy of the bug would get to safety.

As she passed a strange looking rock, she whispered to it before moving on. After a few moments it got up revealing a unicorn that used its magic to blend in with her surroundings.

Without hesitation, the unicorn sped over to where Fluttershy saw the fight in hopes to be able to help.

Once they thought they were in the clear, Twilight and Applejack stopped and collapsed. "That was close." Twilight sighed.

"Y'all think she'll be ok?" Applejack asked, glancing back in the direction they came from.

"I hope so. But right now. All we can do is hope for the best and press on." Twilight sighed as she pushed herself to her feet and started to make her way to where Spike likely went.

Applejack looked at her in concern for a moment before following her. "If y'all say so."

Looking around, the two had a bad feeling that they were being watched. And Twilight feared that Fluttershy wasn't the only one watching them.

Spike let out a sigh of relief when the two females ran off at the sound of what he guessed was their angry mother. He waited till the coast was clear before he ran off in the direction of the pull. He didn't know why, but he had a bad feeling he'd be seeing those two again.

As he traveled, the area around him slowly started to turn to look more like the dragon lands the farther he went. He had a bad feeling that if he didn't get this taken care of soon and get back to Twilight. Something really bad was going to happen. All he was able to do now was pray he would be able to take care of whatever it was quickly so he can find his friends.

It wasn't long before he saw other dragons flying overhead. Or running past him. "Hey whelp. Didn't think a shrimpie thing like you would actually show." A familiar red dragon laughed.

"Knock it off Gargar." An orange dragoness huffed. "The dragon lord called all of us."

"Ummm… thanks. Name's Spike." He introduced herself with a smile as they continued down the path.

"What did I do?" Garble huffed. "I was just having some harmless fun."

"Smolder." She replied. "And don't worry. Mom said today the dragon lord is supposed to be giving a dragon a special gift."

Wondering who it was and what the gift was. Spike followed them silently. It wasn't long before a dragoness he recognized came into view standing on a large rock the others were grouping up in front of. "Ember?" Spike thought in shock.

"Ok everyone!" Ember announced. "The dragon lord is going to make her choice!"

"Her?" He gasped a few moments before a familiar looking coloration came into view. "No way."

Author's Note

Looks like the girls got lucky this round. But there's probably something dealing with those two females Spike saw that's going to make things go from bad to worse.