As Twilight and the group made it back Twilight turned towards Cadence.

“Cadance, I need access to several documents about tracer potions,” Twilight said.

“Alright,” Cadence said before relaying this to a guard.

“Twilight? What are you thinking?” Rarity asked.

“If we can use Ignia’s scale here, we can find her hideout and stop her, maybe get the cure in the process,” Twilight said.

“Brilliant,” Rarity said.

“That’s our Twi,” Rainbow said.

“Alright, I need directions to your nearest potions lab, without my magic we’ll have to rely on my potion-brewing spells,” Twilight said.

“And what about the potion to fix my situation?” Spike asked.

“I’ll work on that too, but this could be what leads us to her, I’ll need you to be patient Spike,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” Spike said disappointedly.

“Rainbow, just what were you doing before?” Twilight asked.

“Visiting my pen pal, Quartz, I felt that she could provide me some general ideas about how to be a dragon, since she studies them, I saw Spike and Ignia crash land outside of her house, and I intervened,” Rainbow said.

“Gotcha,” Twilight said.

“Thank goodness you were there or I’d be toast,” Spike said.

“No prob,” Rainbow said.

“Ok, let’s get moving,” Twilight followed the guard to a room that looked like a lab.

“Thank goodness we have one of these,” Cadence said.

“Thanks, give me some time, I’ll see if we have everything needed for a tracer potion,” Twilight said setting the scale down.

“What’s a tracer potion?” Rainbow asked scratching her head with her claws.

“Self-explanatory, it’ll create a link to the one we’re looking for, which is Ignia, if we’re lucky she hasn’t gotten too far from us,” Twilight said.

“Ok, what about me?” Spike said having turned into an adult dragon again making Rarity stumble a little in surprise.

“Tell you what, after I’m done here, you can have help in making it, but this takes priority,” Twilight said.

“Ok…” Spike sighed.

“Come, we need to go examine the Crystal Heart,” Cadence said and they made their way while Twilight got to work.

An hour passed and Cadance came back into the room the others were staying in, looking grim.

“Well? What’s the issue?” Rainbow asked.

“Is the Crystal Heart okay?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, but it seems Ignia stole some of its magic, she’s planning something bad, I know it,” Cadence said.

“Then we gotta stop her!” Spike said getting up, only to shrink again and he fell over.

“First we’d need to find her,” Cadence reminded them.

“Is egghead done yet?” Rainbow asked.

“Let us find out,” Cadence said as she and the others went out of the room and downstairs and they approached the science lab, as they opened it they saw several other dragons present.

“I’ll need another two drops of tree ichor,” Twilight asked.

“Got it… um… which one is tree ichor again?” Shining asked.

“This one,” Sunburst said picking up a vial of black liquid.

“You should learn more chemistry, Shiny,” Twilight chuckled.

“Science isn’t my thing, oh hey Cady,” Shining said upon seeing his wife and the others.

“Hey Shiny, how’d searching for Ignia go?” Cadence asked.

“Not well, she’s a slippery one, she may have gotten away,” Shining said looking upset.

“Don’t despair, we’ve only begun looking, speaking of which, how goes the potions?” Rarity asked.

“Almost done actually, I was just about to put Ignia’s scale into the beaker,” Twilight said before doing so.

“Stand back everydragon,” Sunburst said and they did so as the beaker shook and a burst of pink smoke came out.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Rainbow asked nervously, knowing this was the moment things started exploding.

“Relax, this is a potion I’ve done many times,” Twilight said before setting back on a burner and it bubbled before turning blue.

“Okay, here we go!” Twilight said before drinking it.

“Whoa! Were you supposed to do that?” Rainbow said.

“Yes, she now knows where Ignia is,” Sunburst said.

“Tch!” Twilight grunted as the info filled her head and she saw a vision of Ignia flying into a town and turning into a blue drake before moving towards a train.

“Sh-she’s in the nearest settlement, a town called Winterbrooke, boarding a train, we need to hurry!” Twilight said.

“Why?” Rainbow asked.

“This potion is only good for half a day,” Twilight explained.

“Then we have to move!” Spike said.

“We need to, you can’t,” Twilight said.

“What? Why?” Spike demanded.

“Your age shifts are too random, I don’t want you getting hurt, stay here and work on that cure,” Twilight said.

“I’ll help,” Rarity suddenly volunteered.

“No Rarity, we need all claws on deck here,” Rainbow said.

“No, let her stay, Shining will accompany you,” Cadence said.

“You're sure?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Cadence smiled at the two.

Shining nodded.

“Let’s move!” Shining said and he led the group away.

“Good luck everypony… er dragon!” Spike called.

“Alright, let us get to remaking that potion,” Rarity said.

“O-ok,” Spike said blushing at the bigger dragoness as she smiled down at him.

The group went out to the train station.

“Winterbrooke, it’s an emergency,” Shining said seriously.

“Yes sir!” The dragoness stationed at the kiosk saluted before moving things along.

After the group climbed onto the train, it departed and was off in a flash.

“Where is she now?” Shining asked.

“She just exited the train, near a mountain… she’s getting too far away to see,” Twilight said trying to focus.

“Hold on Twiley,” Shining said.

“I’m ready for round two with that scaly jerk,” Rainbow said snorting literal flames out of her nostrils and surprising herself.

“Careful,” Shining said.

“Ok, based on Twilight’s notes and Zecora’s and the ingredients needed, I figure that we need to begin by isolating the materials to mimic the effects of the mutant spell, and be careful, a process like this is highly experimental, it always is considering we’re dealing with a mutant spell,” Sunburst explained as he was gathering materials.

“How will we mimic the effects of runic dragon magic?” Rarity asked.

“Dragon runic magic is in some loose way similar to pony runic magic, theoretically at least,” Sunburst said.

“We’re going based on theories?” Spike asked.

“It is the best we’ve got,” Sunburst said.

“Ok, let’s get started,” Spike said.

“Ok, hand me the black root and Rarity, mix these two until they turn red, be sure to-” Sunburst’s voice faded as Spike looked at Rarity, the thought that the chance he and Rarity could be together seemed too good to pass up, he needed to figure this out, or else-

“Spike!” Sunburst called him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?!” Spike exclaimed.

“I need you to ground this dried herb up, now,” Sunburst said.

“Oh, sorry!” Spike grabbed it and ran off.

Meanwhile, in Ponyville

Pinkie handed out another platter of cupcakes, with gemstones in them.

“Come an get them!” Pinkie cheered.

“Gee, these are tastier than usual,” Rumble admitted as the dragon whelp took the cupcakes and went back over to the table where he and his friends were.

“Cooking with gemstones is different, and fun!” Pinkie cheered.

“I do admit I was always curious what they tasted like,” Mr Cake said as he scooped some ice cream into a parfait.

“Yep! And the best part, is the fire breath!” Pinkie said as she breathed some fire on a lava cake to cook it.

“Careful Pinkie, Discord made this place fireproof but I still don’t want any dishes ruined.” Mrs Cake said as she walked in from the upstairs with her two hatchlings on her back.

“Yeah well-” Pinkie suddenly twitched and her tail spasmed.

“Are… you ok?” Mr Cake asked.

“Yeppers! It’s my Pinkie Sense, took me a while to figure it out again with a dragon body,” Pinkie said and she looked at her twitching tail and ‘mhmmed’ again and again before her expression fell.

“What is it?” Mr Cake asked concernedly.

“Mr Cake, I need to leave, now,” Pinkie said.

“Why?” Mr Cake said.

“My friends are in danger,” Pinkie said seriously.

“Ok, Just be back safely,” Mrs Cake said.

“Thanks,” Pinkie said before ducking out of view and running outside “I gotta alert the others,” Pinkie said.

Razer grumbled as he sat atop a roof skimming around to look for Ignia.

“If only I’d kept my mouth shut, is it so wrong to hook up with a beautiful dragoness who happens to be the same pony who scared you off,” Razer asked himself.

“Hey!” He heard a female voice call up to him and he looked to see a familiar pink dragoness.

“What do you want?” Razer asked flying down.

“I need to find the others, it’s urgent,” Pinkie said.

“What do I look like, their babysitter?” Razer asked.

“No, but I know you’ve been keeping an eye out for Fluttershy,” Pinkie said.

“Uh, what?” Razer said nervously “I-I don’t-... h-how do you know?” Razer stuttered.

“I’m weird like that, now come on!” Pinkie said dragging him along.

“Why do I have to come?” Razer complained.

“Don’t you want to be there for Shy when things go south?” Pinkie asked.

“Well… yes, but she doesn’t like me back… and besides, I was ordered to guard the town,” Razer explained.

“You need to think outside the box, by capturing Ignia, you’ll be protecting everydragon,” Pinkie said.

“Well… I don’t know, Ember said she’ll take away half my hoard if I don’t-”

“What’s more important? Your Fluttershy or your hoard?” Pinkie asked as he was now running beside her and they entered the forest where Fluttershy’s cottage was in.

“...Is there a third option?” Razer asked.

“Razer!” Pinkie said disapprovingly.

“Alright alright, I guess you have a point, I’m going stir crazy anyways,” Razer said as they made it to Fluttershy’s cottage and saw the dragoness trying to feed the fish in her river, but the fish were too scared to get closer.

“Come on darlings, I won’t hurt you,” Fluttershy said.

“SHY!” Pinkie called.

‘Ah!” Fluttershy jumped and looked up but her expression softened seeing Pinkie and then fell a little when she saw Razer.

“U-uh, hi…” Razer said nervously before looking for a conversation topic and spotting the fish “You planning to eat those?” Razer casually asked and Pinkie facepalmed.

“No, I’m not,” Fluttershy said unamused.

“I….” Razer was nervous again and then Pinkie cut in.

“Later! We need to get moving, the others are in danger!” Pinkie said.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked approaching Pinkie.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Pinkie said before running off.

“Um sorry about the fish thing, it’s a joke we dragons-” Razer tried to explain but Fluttershy walked past him.

“Let’s go,” Fluttershy said.

“...” Razer sighed and followed them.

Applejack shook another tree and made the apples rain down, reaching up she picked any remaining apples.

“Nodragon’s botherin' me t’day, maybe ah’ll actually get to work fer once,” Applejack said fully expecting somedragon to show up and interrupt… and nobody did…

“Odd, was expectin-”

“HI APPLEJACK!” Pinkie squealed from above Applejack startling her.

“Ah!” Applejack jumped a little “Pinkie, how’d ya sneak up on me? Yer too big fer that now!” Applejack said looking a little miffed.

“I rode on the scene transition, so you didn’t see me coming, now come on, we got a job to do,” Pinkie said.

“Course we do, and just when ah was hopin ah’d get some work done round here,” Applejack sighed.

“C’mon!” Pinkie ran back to town.

“Alright,” Applejack said as she hung a ‘Be back soon’ sign she’s learned to carry whenever she’s working.

Comes in handy when your an element of harmony…

The group gathered in the middle of Ponyville.

“Alright, this better be quick,” Applejack said.

“Not likely,” Fluttershy said.

“We need to go to the empire, I experienced a Pinkie Sense unlike anything before, it was warning me my friends are in danger,”

“Pinkie what?” Razer asked.

“We’ll explain later, Pinkie, are ya sayin that you had some kind of sensory thing that told you all this? What makes you think it’s correct?” AJ asked.

“My Pinkie Sense has been acting differently ever since I turned into a dragon, I feel something wrong, and we need to get moving,” Pinkie said.

“We can’t go to the Crystal Empire based on a hunch,” AJ said.

“AJ, trust me,” Pinkie said before running off towards the train.

“Pinkie’s never led us astray, let’s go,” Fluttershy said.

“Ok,” AJ said following, leaving just Razer.

“I should remain here… but…” Razer thought about what Pinkie said.

“What’s more important? Fluttershy or your hoard?”

“Oh…. I’m sorry Ember, but I care too much for a certain dragon,” Razer said as he ran off with the group.

And they made their way to the train station.

As the group made their way to Winterbrooke they saw the wintery town and multiple dragons walking around.

“Ok, I’m still losing her, she’s good at covering distance,” Twilight said as they exited the train with Shining, Rainbow, and the guards.

“Whew, it’s a bit colder here than at the Empire,” Rainbow said.

“Dragons are reptiles after all, thankfully they're more warm-blooded, but not having fur is a problem,” Twilight noted and they turned to the mountains.

“Ok, we need to prep for the search, we’re on limited time, so let’s move!” Shining ordered before turning to his guards “Watch the train station, if she comes back, question each dragon heavily,” Shining said.

“Yes sir!” The guards said before scattering.

“Let’s move, if we stick to the trails we shouldn’t get lost,” Shining said.

“Ok,” Twilight said and they got moving towards a mountain trail.

Ignia approached a big cave, as she entered she looked around the cave and saw that Tirek had been busy since she left on her little errand.

“Hello Tirek, have you finished yet?” Ignia demanded to Tirek who was chained to a wall.

“Shut up, I’m working on it, creating a mass brainwashing rune spell may be even more complicated than it must have been for Magmus to make the dragon spell,” Tirek said as he scribbled down on a long piece of paper the runes necessary “Starting to wish I never learned draconic runes back in my youth,” Tirek grumbled.

“Hmmph, make it quicker, I fear I may be found eventually,” Ignia said.

“Whatever, do you have the power from the Crystal Heart?” Tirek demanded.

“Right here,” Ignia said revealing a glowing sphere made of stolen magic from the Crystal Heart.

“That’s it?” Tirek demanded.

“Those meddlesome whelps intervened,” Ignia said bitterly.

“This isn’t enough, we need enough stored power to span the globe, just like how Magmus somehow pulled it off, then will you let me go?” Tirek asked.

“Yes, now get to work, I’ll need that power attuned, ASAP,” Ignia said before moving over to the nearby bed she set up and she laid down.

“Rotten reptilian…” Tirek grumbled.

“Zuke,” Ignia said and a bolt of magic zapped near Tirek making him jump.

“Watch your mouth half pony…” Ignia said before going back to sleep.

“Mmmh…” Tirek grumbled some more before going back to work.

“Alright, use your firebreath, in moderation, to heat that tube, and don’t boil it too much,” Sunburst instructed.

“Ok,” Spike said as he breathed fire on the heat-resistant test tube.

“Rarity, how is cutting up the red tubers going?” Sunburst asked.

“Done!” Rarity said before handing the box to him.

“Excellent, we’ve finished… the first part,” Sunburst said.

“First part?!” Spike exclaimed.

“Did you think this was going to be easy? It’d be much much faster if we had access to those runes that Ignia used on you,” Sunburst said.

“I get that but, we’ve been at it for hours, how many parts will it take without the runes?” Spike asked.

“About thirty-two if my estimations are correct,” Sunburst said.

“Oooooh boy…” Spike groaned.

“I do admit we’ll be here awhile, shall we take a break?” Rarity asked.

“Alright, I’ll continue the research, you two take a walk,” Sunburst said.

“Thanks,” Spike said as he and Rarity left the room and walked towards the door.

“...Say, Rarity?” Spike asked.

‘Yes, dear?” Rarity asked.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you offer to stay and help?” Spike asked.

“Oh… I suppose… I felt that I could be of service,” Rarity said.

“That’s not it, I think we’re both dodging the question Rarity… You and I both know what happened at Canterlot.” Spike said.

“Dearie, can we discuss this later,” Rarity blushed.

“No Rarity, we need to focus on this now, I have a big decision to make when the potion is made, and…. I would be okay with making that sacrifice,” Spike admitted.

“Spikey, you really must think about this, am I really worth sacrificing your whole childhood for? M-maybe you and Sweetie Belle can-” Rarity attempted.

“No Rarity, I want to be with you…” Spike said looking like he was forcing the words out.

“Spike…” Rarity said.

“I know it’s kind of corny but, we’re both dragons now, and I have a chance to grow up and be with you, would you be able to pass this chance up?” Spike asked.

“I suppose not… but, I wish to be a pony again, a-and I fear that the difference in our longevity would make a relationship a problem, not to mention that what happened at Canterlot may have just been instincts flaring up, what if I go back to being a pony and those feelings fade?” Rarity asked.

“....What if you didn’t go back to being a pony?” Spike asked.

“What?” Rarity asked.

“Rarity, I’ve been wanting to say this for a long time…. I love you, and I now have a chance to act on that, I’m sick of being a kid, a burden, just the cute little assistant, I want to take real responsibility, and even if what this potion does is take my childhood away, I don’t care, it’s like I said…” Spike said as he suddenly turned into his adult form and Rarity looked at him with surprise.

“I’d rather lose a hundred years of my life than live a thousand years of regret,” Spike said.

“Oh… Spike…” Rarity said feeling a tear go down her scaly cheek, the fact that he’d rather miss out of childhood than miss out on being her beloved made her whole body heat up again, was it instinct telling her he’s a potential mate, was it real affection…. Who knows… but she doesn’t want to fight it anymore.

“Will you be with me, scales and all?” Spike asked.

“....Yes,” Rarity smiled and she raced forward and hugged him while crying and he hugged her back.

She raised her head and looked into his eyes…. And they pulled in and kissed, deeply…

Meanwhile, Sunburst watched from the window with a smile.

“Atta boy Spike,” Sunburst said before returning to work.

Author's Note

Sorry about the wait, still trying to get my mojo back, that and work and studying, but here's a neat little chapter for you all.

I hope to eventually get back to working on this soon, I know by the time the action comes, I'll have something that'll really knock your socks off. 👍

Till then ciao!