Serpentina

by Aether Spark

Rating: mature
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Comedy, Romance, Spike, Dragons, Violence, Princess Celestia, Main 6
Length: 46425

An ancient rune has been triggered by a hidden evil, Equestria is changed, is it for good though?

Equestria, is the beacon of harmony for ponies everywhere, and recently, there have been new additions to Equestria's harmony.

Griffons, Hippogriffs, Yaks, Dragons, Changelings.

But when Spike gets strange dreams, beckoning him to the Dragon Lands, during a field trip there, he may inadvertently trigger the end of Ponykind.

Can Equestria move on? Is there a way to fix this?

Published 2024-01-03 23:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-05-04 23:25:13 UTC

A world of dragons

The light faded from the runes and they crumbled.

“Heheh… HAHAHAHA! IT WORKED!” Ignia laughed.

“No… I failed…” Ember fell to her claws and knees.

“We all did,” Discord looked over at two shapes by the wall.

“I will take my leave for now, and revel in a now pony-free world! Enjoy Dragonlord,” Ignia laughed before his eyes turned back into Spike’s eyes and he fell to the ground with a loud thud.

“This is going to get worse before it gets better… isn’t it…?” Ember said.

“Let’s focus on getting home for now…. We have a lot of work to do and mass panic to worry about now,” Discord said.

Two day’s later

Twilight cracked her eyes open and groaned.

“Ugh… my head… what happened…?” Twilight groaned.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am glad you are awake, I imagine what you're about to see will be shocking… so please, remain calm,” Celestia’s comforting voice said.

“Celestia? I… why does my voice sound different?” Twilight noticed her voice was slightly deeper with a slight growl to it… odd, she coughed to fix it only to jump with a yelp when legit flames came out of her mouth.

“Huh?!” Twilight panicked before she felt a claw grip her arm.

“It’s ok,” Celestia said.

“Spike, what happ-” Twilight turned to look at the owner of the claw gripping her arm but she saw the scaly hand was… white? Confused she looked up and nearly jumped out of her skin as a large white dragon looked down at her.

“Wh-who are you?!” Twilight asked.

“I must admit we both look different, but I assure you Twilight, it is me, Celestia,” Celestia said.

“Celestia…? No she’s a pony, like me!” Twilight said.

Celestia shook her head “You aren’t a pony… none of us are anymore,” Celestia said sadly.

“Huh?” Twilight said before looking at her hoof… or scaly claw! “HUH?!” Twilight looked at herself and rolled off of the bed she was on.

“Calm down Twilight! Panicking won’t solve anything!” Celestia said.

“Nononono! Twilight got up on all fours but suddenly finding herself falling back onto her hindlegs, and she stumbled back before looking in the nearest mirror.

And she saw a purple dragoness staring back at her.

She stumbled back with a scream but Celestia grabbed her in a hug.

“Calm yourself! Panicking won’t change anything!” Celestia said as Twilight calmed down.

“Where are the others?” Twilight asked.

“...Follow me,” Celestia said and she led Twilight through the halls of Canterlot.

Twilight gasped as she saw white dragons walking up and down the halls, as they passed a window she saw dragons walking around the courtyard as well.

“Why are there dragons everywhere in the castle?” Twilight asked.

“It is not just here…” Celestia said.

“Huh?” Twilight said.

“It is all over Equestria…. And the surrounding lands, the Pony race is no more…” Celestia said.

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Shh!” Celestia said before leading her into a room and what she saw stunned her.

Six dragons.

Her friends, including Spike.

Spike was still an adult dragon, he was tall and muscular and he had curled horns and wings, a far cry from the cute pudgy little drake he was originally.

Pinkie was smaller and looked like a pink dragoness with similar horns, she seemed oddly more suited for bipedal movement.

Fluttershy was slim and toned, And her muzzle was delicate looking. She wasn’t as big or tall as some of the other dragonesses, her wings, however, were quite large, and she had shiny scales.

Applejack was bigger and stronger looking, she didn’t have horns and her wings were smaller.

Rainbow was similar to Applejack, strong and big but she was more serpentine.

Rarity… she was pretty, even Twilight had to admit, she had bright white scales and purple spines, large wings, a slim-toned figure and a pair of curled horns.

“…How did this happen?” Twilight asked.

“It seems you and your friends were too late to stop an ancient ritual meant to turn all of Ponykind into dragons, and now it seems Ponykind is officially extinct as a result…” Celestia chuckled bitterly. “I knew I’d live to the end of pony kind…” Celestia said humorlessly.

“No… there has to be a way to fix this!” Twilight said.

“With what magic? Dragons cannot use unicorn magic, and the runic magic this Ignia character used is a dead language…” Celestia said in defeat.

“There has to be a way…” Twilight said.

“What we need to focus on right now is waking your friends, and helping them get used to their new forms… I need to converse with Luna,” Celestia said.

“What about the other ponies… dragons in Equestria? Surely there’d be mass panic?” Twilight asked.

“Let us just say you were lucky to have been out for so long…” Celestia said before leaving.

“What does that mean?” Twilight asked.

“Excuse me?” Twilight spun to see a white and pink dragoness that she must have missed on her way in here.

“Are you a nurse?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” She said “Listen, Celestia made sure to give them sedatives to keep them asleep, but you can pull them out one by one and they will wake soon, if we work together we can get case number 652 through 658 done with,” She said.

“Case?” Twilight questioned.

“There’s… a lot more than just them,” She said.

“Understood, perhaps I should start with Fluttershy, she’ll be the most delicate case,” Twilight said as she grabbed Fluttershy’s gurney and dragged it outside.

“Then I’ll handle the orange one,” The nurse grabbed Applejack’s gurney and pulled it out of there.

“Ugh… huh?” Fluttershy groaned as she began to wake “Twilight? Where are y-” She turned and saw a purple dragoness standing over her.

“AAAHH!” Fluttershy rolled out of her gurney and put a claw over her heart.

“Fluttershy! Calm down, it’s me, Twilight,” Twilight said.

“But… w-why are you-” Fluttershy intended to point a hoof, but when she was pointing a claw at Twilight and she saw it she looked horrified.

“M-my hoof! What happened to my hoof!?” Fluttershy said before she looked down at herself and saw her draconic form… and she passed out.

“Should have seen that coming…” Twilight sighed.

When Fluttershy woke again she seemed groggy.

“Oh… Twilight… I had a strange dream that we were-” Fluttershy looked and saw Twilight.

“Fluttershy, don’t-” Twilight tried.

‘AAAH!” Fluttershy backed up before seeing her reflection in a mirror in the hall… and passed out again.

“....This is getting tiresome…” Twilight said.

The third time she woke up she sat up immediately and looked around.

“Twilight, please tell me I’m not-” She saw Twilight but before she could scream, Twilight held her claws and looked her in the eye.

“Do not scream, do not faint, just look in the mirror and realize this isn’t a dream!” Twilight firmly told her.

Fluttershy turned to see the mirror, and she approached it slowly, she felt her scaly face and flexed her claws, opened her wings, and even examined her now sharp teeth.

She looked feint and Twilight slapped her on the back of the head.

“Ow! Why Twilight?” Fluttershy asked looking upset.

“I’m sorry to do that Fluttershy, but it was the only thing I could think of to show you that this isn’t a dream and to stop you from fainting again,” Twilight said.

“If this isn’t a dream then… how did this happen? Can it be reversed?” Fluttershy said hopefully.

“I am betting on it, but not anytime soon,” Twilight said.

“Oh…” Fluttershy said sadly.

“It’ll be alright, I’m sure everypony…dragon will find a way to move on,” Twilight said.

“I want to be a pony again,” Fluttershy said.

“Me too, but I gotta help the others, so just sit out here, I will be right back,” Twilight said and she walked back into the room.

“That took longer than I expected,” The nurse dragon said.

“Trust me, it was shorter, I think I’ll take Rarity next,” Twilight said.

“And I’ll handle the male dragon,” She said.

“Actually, handle Rainbow Dash, I feel like she will be easier,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” The nurse wheeled out Rainbow while Twilight grabbed Rarity.

Rarity cracked her eyes open and sighed.

“Oh… what happened?” Rarity asked.

“Rarity before you freak out, I want you to look at your hand and come to a realization,” Twilight said making sure to stay out of view.

“My… hand?” Rarity raised what she thought was her hoof to her eyes… and saw a white scaly hand.

“AAAAHHH!” Rarity rolled off of the gurney.

“Not again…” Twilight said.

“Wh-what?! M-my body is-”

“I know Rarity, please calm down,” Fluttershy said and Rarity saw her and opened her mouth to scream but Twilight closed her mouth with a claw.

“No! Rarity, calm down, we’re all in the same boat,” Twilight said before releasing her mouth.

“T-Twilight? My word! What happened to you? To us?!” Rarity asked.

“We all became dragons… and not just us, but all of Equestria too,” Twilight said.

“Oh… Oh dear…” Rarity said looking like she was going to faint dead away.

Thankfully Fluttershy picked her up and shook her to snap her out of it.

“Better?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes dear…” Rarity said before spotting her reflection, she winced at first but then got a real look at herself and began to examine herself… she had to admit, she wore this dragon look well…

“Alright! Better get Spike,” Twilight said.

“Did something happen to him?” Fluttershy asked worriedly.

“...You’d have to see,” Twilight said.

Twilight walked back into the room and saw the nurse already carting out Pinkie Pie.

“Excuse me,” She said and Twilight stood aside before collecting Spike and leaving the room.

Rarity was still examining herself and Fluttershy still looked like she was distressed when Twilight brought Spike out.

“Huh?” Rarity and Fluttershy noticed and they approached.

“Who is that?” Fluttershy said, Rarity didn’t know why but looking at him made her heart throb… odd.

“Spike,” Twilight said.

“What?!” They both exclaimed.

“That can’t be Spike, he’s… older,” Rarity said.

“Yes but-” Twilight didn’t finish when Spike began to wake up.

“Ugh… my head…..Huh?” Spike looked around and saw three dragons surrounding him… surprisingly he chuckled.

“Huh?” Twilight was surprised by his reaction as he got up.

“I’m having that dream again…” Looking down at himself he saw he was an adult dragon as well “Yep, having that dream again… but where’s Luna?...” Spike asked.

“Spike… it is us…” Twilight said with a deadpan.

“Yeah right dream Twilight, where’s the gem waterfall-” Fluttershy unexpectedly thumped him on the head.

“Ow!” Spike said and he looked at the yellow dragoness in surprise.

“Sorry Spike, but this isn’t a dream… I wish it was,” Fluttershy forlornly said.

“Wait… what? No way, this is real!?” Spike got up and Twilight was surprised at how tall he was, they were all bigger than when they were ponies but he was a head taller than them all.

“Oh my… Spike?...” Rarity found herself blushing a little when she looked at his new body.

“Huh? Wait… I know that voice…Rarity?!” Spike turned and when he looked at her his jaw practically dropped.

She was a dragoness… and there wasn’t so much as an ugly scale on her body, her figure, her face, her horns, her wings… her eyes…

“Spi-” Twilight was halted by Fluttershy who smiled and shook her head, wanting them to go on.

“Y-you… look…” Spike said.

“...I-I look… what?...” Rarity suddenly said with a hint of shyness.

“Y-you…” Spike said unable to speak.

“I look beastly don’t I?… unsightly? Like something a pony would run from?” Rarity asked feeling self-conscious all of a sudden.

“...Beautiful…” Spike said with a smile.

“...R-really?” Rarity said as she got closer to him.

“I-I do… I… think… this is the best dream ever,” Spike said.

“I don't think this is a dream, but if it is… don’t wake me just yet…” Rarity didn’t know what was coming over her, usually, dragons didn’t excite her like this… it must be a primal need dragonesses suffer from, like heat, the Spike she knew was a cute little child… this Spike… is, in her dragon eyes, a total hunk…

“I don’t want to wake up either,” Spike said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close for a kiss.

“This… is moving too fast…” Twilight sighed.

“I think it’s sweet,” Fluttershy said.

“I-i...” Rarity found herself leaning in and their lips…. Didn’t connect?

“Huh?” Rarity suddenly realized she was hugging nothing and she felt something around her leg and she looked down to see Spike was hugging her leg, he was back to normal… and thank the stars the feeling was gone.

“Uh… Spike?” Twilight said.

“Huh? Wait a minute… why am I small again?!” Spike exclaimed.

“I-I don't know, perhaps it was only temporary?” Rarity said flustered at what was just about to happen.

“Dang it…” Spike said honestly saddened by what just happened.

“Well Spike, I hope you realize that this isn’t a dream,” Twilight said.

“It has to be, you’re all dragons, I was big now I’m small, how is this not?” Spike asked.

“Because I’m right here,” They turned to see Luna and Celestia along with the nurse and the other members of the six, while Twilight and the others were big as dragons, Celestia and Luna were huge! Not fat, just big…

“Good save there author,” Pinkie giggled.

“Hey girls,” Twilight said seeing her friend group together again, Rainbow seemed proud of her new dragon form, AJ just looked annoyed, Rarity looked like she was still trying to cope, Spike was back to normal and he didn’t seem happy about it, Fluttershy looked calm but under the surface, she was most likely freaking out still…

“I trust you have all become accommodated with your... new forms?” Celestia asked.

“Yes,” They all said with varying emotions.

“Then… huh?” Celestia looked down and saw Spike was small again “Hmm… curious, but I’ll figure this out later,” Celestia said to herself.

“Good, then I suggest you all get moving back to Ponyville if it should even be called that anymore,” Luna said.

“How long did ya say that we’ll be like this?” Applejack asked.

“I do not know, I am currently in discussion with Dragon Lord Ember over this situation,” Celestia said.

“Celestia… how much of Equestria is now dragon?” Rarity asked.

“I will tell you all what I told Twilight, all of it… we’ve done check reports, ponykind is no more…” Celestia said.

“What about the other races?” Twilight asked.

"Unaffected… it seems whoever did this simply wanted to replace Ponykind with dragons,” Celestia said.

“This… happened too quickly… I need a bit…” Fluttershy said sitting down, Rainbow walked over to her.

“Oh come on Shy, you gotta admit being a dragon is kinda cool… right?” Rainbow asked.

“No… I want to be a pegasus again…” Fluttershy said. And Rainbow hugged her.

Rainbow felt her shiver uncomfortably and sighed.

“This’ll get fixed Shy, just wait,” Rainbow said.

“O-ok,” Fluttershy said.

The group got out of the castle and walked over to what looked like a modified carriage, bigger and fit for at least ten dragons.

“Celestia… how long have you had this?” Twilight asked.

“A while, we had it on the off chance we ever had a meeting with Dragon Lord Torch if he ever considered our offer of peace between the dragon and pony tribes… so it never saw use until today,” Celestia said.

“Alrighty then, let’s go home and survey the damage,” Applejack said climbing into the carriage.

“I want to fly there, see if I got faster or not,” Rainbow said.

“No Rainbow, you should get in,” Luna said and Rainbow sighed before doing so.

As the rest went inside the carriage Twilight turned to Celestia “Be straight with me Celestia… how long until this can be fixed?” Twilight asked.

“...You may have to get used to living like this,” Celestia said.

“...I was afraid of that,” Twilight sighed and she climbed in too.

“Excuse me!” Spike called as he couldn’t reach the step.

“Here,” Celestia said picking him up.

“I miss being big…” Spike said… before he suddenly sprouted into a big dragon again in a puff of magic smoke and Celestia couldn’t hold him.

“Ooof!” They both grunted as they fell backward.

“Spike?” Twilight poked her head out and gasped when she saw Spike sitting on Celestia.

“Wow… again?” Spike asked confusedly.

Author's Note

How will Dragonkind react to the new dragon-dominated society? How's Ponyville faring? And why is Spike shifting between adult and child forms?

Getting back to work.

The ride back to Ponyville was long and awkward, especially since the girls were sitting around an adult Spike, the group was trying to control their breathing to not let smoke fill the chariot… with little success.

“Ugh,” Applejack coughed as she opened a window to let the smoke out “How do dragons control this stuff?” Applejack demanded.

“It’s not easy at first but you’ll learn,” Spike said.

As they made their way they began to hear noises, and they heard screams.

“Huh? Does anypony… er dragon hear that?” Rainbow asked.

“I got a telescope! One sec!” Pinkie said and she reached for her mane… only to realize she didn’t have one anymore “Oh… well I can always-” She reached towards her tail only to remember it was scaly now “...Gimmie a sec,” Pinkie said as she searched herself.

“I got this,” Rarity said as she peeked out the window… and gasped.

“What is it Rarity?” Twilight asked.

“For one I cannot get my head back in!” Rarity commented as her horns prevented her from pulling her head back in. “Oh… and second the town is on fire,” She added.

“WHAT?!” They all exclaimed and when the chariot landed they rushed out to assess the problem.

“Um… hello! What about me?!” Rarity said trying to pull her head back through.

“I’ll help you,” Spike said as he approached and grabbed her and tried to pull her back through… the feel of her body against his made him flustered and he suddenly POOF’D back to his small form and found himself dangling from her arm.

“Dagnabit!” Spike said as he dangled.

Twilight and the others ran through the town and saw ponies turned dragons running around panicking as the town was burning.

“...I think I get what Celestia meant now…” Twilight said before she found a vaguely familiar grey and brown dragoness trying to calm the dragons down.

“Mayor Mare! Is that you?” Twilight ran up to her, and it startled her.

“Ah!” Mayor Mare yelped in fright.

“Sorry,” Twilight said.

“Nono… it’s alright Princess, I am still getting used to other dragons running at me and me not running away,” Mayor Mare said.

“What happened here?” Twilight asked.

“One dragon set a house on fire and it triggered a series of events to set the whole town on fire! As ponies we never had to worry much about fire, adding the fact that the town is flammable!” Mayor Mare exclaimed.

“We need to put it out,” Twilight said.

“How?! We can’t control the weather as dragons!” Mayor Mare said.

“Leave it to the professional!” Rainbow said before taking off.

“Uh… she did hear what Mayor Mare said right?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow flew up to a few clouds and spotted one that had rainwater in it.

“Perfect!” Rainbow said before trying to grab it… only for her claws to go through it “Huh? No way!” Rainbow then tried to buck it but it only dispersed it “Oook… that’s bad,” Rainbow then decided a Rainboom should do the trick, and she flew into the smoky skies.

“Now what is she doing?” Twilight asked.

“Ah think a rainboom,” AJ said knowing this could only end in disaster.

Rainbow flew high and then she circled around over the Everfree and picked up speed, she went faster and faster and she began to sweat from the exertion.

“C’mon! C’mon!” Rainbow pumped her wings harder to try and perform a rainboom… only to feel a sudden sharp pain go through her wing.

“OW!” Rainbow ended up crashing next to her friends “Owowowowow… Wh-what happened?... Rainbooms are supposed to be a cinch for me!?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh dear, I think you sprained a wing,” Fluttershy said as Twilight approached.

“But how? My wings are the fastest in Equestria!” Rainbow said looking like her world was crashing down.

“As a pony… but, and I am not calling you fat, but dragon bodies are bigger and heavier, not to mention that was because you had pegasus magic, you’re a dragon now,” Twilight explained as Fluttershy massaged Rainbow’s wing.

“I-I… can’t use pegasus magic anymore…. I can’t do rainbooms anymore… NO!” Rainbow exclaimed freaking out.

“Um, I’d hate to interrupt this but…. THE TOWN IS ON FIRE!” Mayor Mare exclaimed.

“I know I know, where’s Rarity?” Twilight asked.

“Here I am,” they turned to see Rarity walking in with a disgruntled Spike riding on her back.

She was also wearing the window that she had to break out of the chariot around her neck like a necklace.

“I got small again,” Spike said sounding upset.

“Later, we need to act, I have an idea, Fluttershy,” Twilight called.

“Yes?” Fluttershy asked.

“We need the local water tower, can you grab it?” Twilight strategized.

“Ok!” Fluttershy ran off.

“Pinkie, locate a river, we need lots of water,” Twilight said.

“Got it chief!” Pinkie saluted and she flew off.

“Ah’m not even gonna ask how she already knows how to fly,” Applejack sighed.

“Applejack, Rarity, Spike, aid in evacuations,” Twilight said.

“Ok!” They all ran off.

Spike ran around trying to stop the panicking dragons but he wound up having to dodge being stepped on.

“Watch it!” Spike said when he narrowly avoided another foot, ultimately Twilight had to scoop him up and put him on her back.

“Oooon second thought, just stay right there,” Twilight said before flying up to meet Fluttershy who was flying back.

“I got it!” Fluttershy handed the water tower to Twilight, she then used the available water in it to pour over the houses.

Pinkie returned and shouted up to Twilight “I found one! That way!” Pinkie shouted.

“Ok! Good job!” Twilight said as she flew that way and found the river and she scooped some water and flew back and poured the water, eventually the flames began to die down.

Twilight landed and the other dragons having calmed down cheered by stamping their hooves… or hands, and they ended up causing an earthquake.

“Ahh! Stop!” Twilight said and they all paused and realized they were too big to stamp their hands like hooves.

“Alright, we need to not set the town on fire again, let’s figure out a solution,” Twilight said.

“Solution? Most of us can't even fit in our houses anymore!” A dragon complained.

“How am I supposed to work when I am a big ole dragon?” Another complained.

“I had to sleep outside last night!” Another one complained.

“Quiet!” Twilight said to shut them up “I get panic is high but we cannot let ourselves fall apart, we’ll simply find a solution,” Twilight said.

“What do you propose Twilight? I simply cannot bear another cold night,” Mayor Mare said.

“...Ah I got it! Let’s ask real dragons for help,” Twilight said.

“Real dragons? Is that safe?” A drake asked.

“I’m sure Ember has a way to help us, Spike, take a letter!” Twilight said.

“Ok…” Spike still bummed he couldn’t help much here.

“And meanwhile ah guess we all try to return to the norm… much as we can,” Applejack said.

Fluttershy’s cottage has for the most part been fortified against dragons with wooden stakes sticking out of the ground and the bigger animals patrolling.

Angel walked out front with a carrot as his weapon, he walked along the dusty path, waiting for his pegasus friend to return.

He didn’t know what happened, one day things were normal, and the next, dragons were everywhere! He had to find Shy and escape.

Angel walked back and forth before noticing the ground was rumbling, he aimed his sharpened carrot and got ready to defend himself, but paused when he saw a large yellow and pink dragon poke her head around a set of trees.

“G-guys? D-don’t freak out, it’s me,” Fluttershy said.

The animals got in front of the house and got ready to defend themselves.

“P-please, it’s Fluttershy!” Fluttershy pleaded.

Angel stepped out front and gestured asking ‘Prove it,’

“O-ok…” Fluttershy walked out into the open and took a deep breath.

The animals scattered thinking she was going to breathe fire on them but instead, she started singing.

“You are my angel… my little angel…. From the sky to the ground… you are my lost and found… My sweet little rabbit… petting you is my habit… so says Fluttershy!” Fluttershy took a pose.

Angel dropped his carrot and he hopped over to Fluttershy, despite the other animals warning him not to.

He leaned forward and winced when she extended a hand for him to sniff but he did afterwards.

He looked up at her and then hugged her finger.

“It’s good to see you again darling,” Fluttershy said before her other animals carefully approached and began sniffing her as well.

“Yes, it is me,” Fluttershy said, it’ll take time to earn their trust again but she’ll be willing to try.

Rarity paused at her Boutique and sighed before calling out.

“Sweetie Belle! I am here,” Rarity called.

“H-huh?” Sweetie poked her head out of the window to her bedroom and true to the situation, she was a baby dragon “Rarity?... Oh thank goodness! I was so worried!” Sweetie said and Rarity leaned in and nuzzled her.

“I am glad you're alright,” Rarity said.

“What happened?” Sweetie asked.

“It is a long story, and I am afraid I cannot fit in the Boutique anymore, so I’ll have to tell it here,” Rarity said sitting down.

Applejack wandered through Sweet Apple Acres and she saw the wrecked farmhouse ahead.

“This’ll take a while to get used to,” Applejack said as she approached and called out.

“AB? Mac? Granny? Ah’m back,” Applejack said and soon she heard noises and turned to see A baby dragon about as big as Spike's small form running to her.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom ran up to her and an elderly dragon smaller than Applejack but bigger than Apple Bloom she guessed was Granny Smith wandered up to her.

“AJ! If ya’ll aren’t a sight fer sore eyes,” Granny said as she approached, surprisingly with a normal gait, not hobbling like she usually does.

“Granny? Yer walking normally?” Applejack said.

“Guess in Dragon years ah still got some vitality left, feels nice ta be able to cover more than a few feet a minute,” Granny giggled.

“Ah’m glad… where’s Mac?” Applejack asked looking around before the ground began to rumble and she turned to see a figure emerging ftom the forest and it was a giant red drake who was like a mountain, even next to her.

“Wow… Ah knew he’d be big but this?...” Applejack said feeling puny compared to him.

“Eeyup,” Mac said.

“Excuse me Applejack!” Apple Bloom called up to her.

“Hmm?” Applejack looked down at the baby dragon and she knelt down.

“What happened? Why are we all dragons? An how long will it take to turn back?” Apple Bloom asked.

“...That’s a difficult-to-answer question fer me… best ya’ll sit down fer now,” Applejack said.

Rainbow had to remain on the ground since she sprained a wing so she sent Pinkie to go collect Tank.

Pinkie flew to the cloud house and peeked in through a window.

“Heeey Taaaank!” Pinkie said.

If Tank could ee’p he would as he hid in his shell.

Suddenly the door broke down and Pinkie poked her face through “Heeere’s Pinkie!” Pinkie said, totally not referencing a movie, before reaching in and grabbing Tank's terrarium and she carried him to ground level and deposited him next to Rainbow.

“Here Rainbow,” Pinkie said.

“Thanks…” Rainbow still seemed depressed she lost what she felt made her Rainbow Dash.

“Hey Dashie… don’t feel bad, you're still cool,” Pinkie said.

“Leave me alone….” Rainbow said scooping Tank's cage up and walking away.

“...She’ll feel better eventually,” Pinkie said before hopping home… and stopping when she saw the fact that she was causing an earthquake “It ain’t easy being huge,” Pinkie said before walking off.

Pinkie approached Sugarcube Corner and she poked her eye into her room.

“Gummy?” Pinkie asked.

Gummy poked his head out and walked over to Pinkie and jumped onto her snout.

“Heeey my Gummy Gums!” Pinkie said pulling her head back and watching him stare blankly at her.

“Well, I suppose we’ll be sitting outside together for a while, wanna play hopscotch?” Pinkie asked.

Gummy just tilted his head.

“Makes sense, I'm too big for that now,” Pinkie said.

Gummy blinked.

“Good idea!” Pinkie said “We can go pay a visit to see how the cakes are doing!” Pinkie then walked towards the outskirts of town where she saw them with their babies, who were now hatchlings.

Twilight sat in the castle, thankfully the opening was big enough for her to climb in.

The problem is she felt like everything was too claustrophobic for her, climbing through the castle.

She managed to get Spike’s help with his smaller size and he ran around helping collect books.

“Maybe we can also find out my problem as well,” Spike asked.

“What problem?” Twilight asked.

“Me getting big and small,” Spike said like it was obvious.

“Maybe later Spike, right now we have a nation of dragons to help,” Twilight said as she tried to pick up a quill and she snapped it.

“Darn it!” Twilight grabbed another but she snapped it too, she got ready to exclaim in anger when Spike ran in.

“How about I write it,” Spike said.

“Good idea Spike, alright, write this,” Twilight said before she spoke the message to Spike.

The message was asking for a meeting with Discord, Celestia, and Ember, the sooner they find this Ignia, the better.

“You sure you wanna get Ember over here? She’s probably swamped with things to do,” Spike said.

“I am sure, and if you think of it they might have the solution to your problem too,” Twilight mentioned.

“Alright, now we’re talking,” Spike said sending the message.

“Now… we wait,” Twilight said.

A dragon wearing a cloak wandered into Las Pegasus, she quickly shed the cloak and snuck into the crowd.

“Now that everypony is my kind, I can hide amongst them, Magmus would be proud of me if he saw me now,” the orange and red dragoness said as she snuck around the dragons trying to go about their business.

As she made it to a train station she hid and uttered some words in an unknown language and changed into a smaller blue and green dragon, as a disguise and she went back out into the train, past a sign that said ‘Can only carry small dragons,’ she was stopped by a dragon guard.

“Give me your name please,” the guard said.

“Don’t order me pon-... Uh I mean, Glimmer,” She lied.

“Proceed on,” The guard said and she went on the train and saw a bunch of stressed-looking dragons.

“Now to get to where I need to go,” Ignia said with a grin as she sat down on the train as it left.

Author's Note

The next chapter of this dragon-filled story, next chapter we'll see how Discord can potentially help Ponyville at least recover from this incident.

A shy dragon's sleep and a meeting of royals

Three days later

Ember gave a stressed sigh as she handled some more written messages from the local dragon tribes.

And considering that these days, there are more dragons than ever she had problems keeping up with it all.

It’s gotten to the point she’s had to hire helpers and get Torch’s assistance with running things.

And now she had received a message asking that she travel to Equestria and meet with the royals and Discord to fix everything.

She’s a royal too, she had responsibilities!

“And the tribe integration pages are…” Ember said looking tired.

“In your hand, again,” A gray dragon said.

“Agh… you're so patient Dumas, I’m swamped as is…” Ember said.

“Well, it makes sense, now that Equestria is fully populated by our kind we’ll need to find accommodations for them, perhaps this can be the excuse we needed to spread the dragon lands a little,” Dumas said.

“And again, I’m not risking all-out war with Celestia, the dragon population has increased dramatically and we need to find Ignia, the problem is it’ll be like finding a gem in a boulder pile, due to her shapeshifting abilities,” Ember said.

“She was one of the dragon mages of old, honestly though, how she’s even alive still is amazing,” The dragon named Dumas said.

“Alert the border guards, I’m heading over to Equestria to hash out what we’re going to do until Ignia shows up,” Ember said.

“You’re certain?” Dumas asked.

“Yes, and then I’m going to need to think of hibernation and the great dragon migration and then the…-” Ember was cut off by her own snoring but Dumas snapped his fingers by her head and she jumped realizing she was dozing.

“Ugh… alright, hang tight,” Ember said as she got up and walked out of the room.

Ember walked into an open flying area and took off, she had two dragons by her side.

“Alright, never thought I’d say this but be careful in the pony lands, many ponies are still adjusting,” Ember said.

“Ok,” The two dragon guards said.

The next day

Spike woke up on his now crushed bed and sighed.

He had grown bigger and smaller again, what was causing this? Why can’t he just stay big?

Spike hopped off his bed, left the room, and went into the bathroom.

As he brushed his teeth he couldn’t help but let his mind wander back to Rarity…

She was beautiful as a pony but as a dragoness?.... She was perfect.

Her beauty was blinding, and from the way she reacted she seemed drawn to his older form… so why can’t he-

“OW!” Spike grunted as his head impacted the ceiling and he looked around and saw he was big again.

“Crud…” Spike said knowing he could not leave the bathroom because the door was too small.

After waiting until he shrunk down Spike walked downstairs and saw Twilight reaching into the kitchen.

“Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Hey Spike… could you go in and make some breakfast please, I can’t fit in there anymore,” Twilight said.

“Sure,” Spike said as he entered and he made as many pancakes as he could.

When he exited he gave them to her.

“Thank you,” Twilight said.

“Don’t thank me, that was pretty much all the pancake powder,” Spike said.

“And we only recently bought some,” Twilight said eating the pancakes in one bite “I never knew big dragons had it so rough,” Her belly rumbled and she looked to Spike.

“Hey now, I need breakfast too,” Spike said.

“I’m still hungry… normal pony portions don’t seem to cut it anymore, what’ll I do?” Twilight asked.

“Um… hello? What are the walls and ceilings made of?” Spike said.

“What? Are you suggesting I eat my own castle?” Twilight said sounding appalled.

“You let Ember do it,” Spike said.

“Yeah, because…. I just don’t want to ruin this place just to placate my hunger,” Twilight said.

“Then I don’t know what to say,” Spike said before walking to the door to check for mail and saw a message.

“Twilight! Mail!” Spike called.

“Alright, one sec,” Twilight managed to squeeze in through the door and she examined there was a message for her from Starlight Glimmer about the school possibly closing down.

“Ooh… that won’t be good,” Spike said.

“Not really a problem, I just need to let them know that the closing will be temporary until normalcy is restored,” Twilight said.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any sign of Starlight or Trixie,” Spike mentioned.

“They're in Canterlot, remember that message that you delivered to me yesterday?” Twilight said as she shifted through the mail.

“Oh…” Spike said remembering now, that before Twilight looked at the next envelope and saw a reply to her message about the meeting, she saw that it had been approved.

“Alright, that’s good, perhaps we can find Discord now, he’s been absent since the incident,” Twilight said.

“Let’s get packing then,” Spike said.

Twilight made her way outside…. And saw the damage of the last few days…

Multiple houses were burnt down, ponies turned dragons having to take shelter in the ruins of their old homes, and dragons in general looked depressed.

It was also cloudy.

“Odd, weren’t we scheduled for a sunny day?” Twilight said.

“You’ve been inside studying for several days Twilight, but don’t you remember that we have no pegasi anymore?” Spike said.

“Oh yeah, well, anyways I think we just need to find Discord,” Twilight said.

“Maybe Fluttershy knows?” Spike wondered.

“Alright, let’s check,” Twilight said turning to walk away.

“Um, what about me?” Spike asked.

“Spike, what if you get big again while you're riding on my back? You're a bit bigger than me when you transform,” Twilight said.

“...Ok,” Spike said as he followed her.

Twilight and Spike walked into the forest, thankfully because of Twilight’s size she didn’t have to worry about anything in the forest anymore.

As the two made their way to the forest they saw an unsettling sight.

Smoke, coming from Fluttershy’s house.

“Oh no, Spike come on!” Twilight and Spike hurried to where the fire must be… only to pause confusedly when they saw her lying curled up on the ground sleeping, her large body taking up much of the extra room in the Cottage area, and the weirdest thing was that she was cuddling her animals, who looked very uncomfortable sleeping with a giant dragon.

And to top it all off the smoke was billowing from her nostrils….

“This seems oddly familiar,” Twilight said remembering a certain red dragon.

“Hey Shy! Wake up!” Spike said.

Fluttershy just gave a loud yawn and resumed snoring out clouds of smoke.

“At this rate, she’ll cover Equestria in smoke clouds!” Twilight said finding this situation very ironic.

“Well? Wake her!” Spike said.

“You don’t just wake a sleeping dragon! You risk agitating them,” Twilight said.

“Didn’t you do that already? Besides this is Fluttershy!” Spike said.

“Who is a sleeping dragon, we need to let her sleep… unless this is one of those hibernation things…” Twilight said.

As they argued Fluttershy cracked a sleepy eye open and looked up, in her tired mind and blurry vision she saw two arguing purple blobs, suddenly a feeling of extreme defensiveness came over her when she found they were near her hoard, A.K.A, her animals.

She suddenly gave a roar startling them and she got up looking very irritable.

“What are you doing here? Get away from my hoard!” Fluttershy growled.

“F-Fluttershy? It’s us Twilight and Spike!” Spike said worriedly.

“LEAVE!” Fluttershy got up and her animals scattered as she stalked towards them.

“And I thought I was cranky when I woke up from a deep sleep,” Spike said backing away.

Twilight seeing only one chance scooped some water from the river next to her into her claw and she threw it in Fluttershy’s face.

“Agh! You-... Huh?” Fluttershy was still dead tired, but she could see the frightened dragons now.

“Spike? Twilight? Oh I’m so-” Fluttershy yawned “-Sorry!” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“What’s wrong with you?” Twilight asked.

“I… don’t know, I was working to the best of my ability to help my animals when suddenly I felt so… very tired, even now, I feel like sleeping for a long time,” Fluttershy said.

“It could be some kind of hibernating instinct, we should cancel and find out what is happening,” Twilight said.

“No, we got the meeting with the dragon lord, we should ask her,” Spike said.

“But what about Fluttershy?” Twilight asked.

“...We could bring her along? Discord will be there,” Spike said.

“...Makes sense, hey Fluttershy, want to-...” Twilight trailed off when she saw Fluttershy had fallen asleep standing up and Spike snapped his fingers to wake her.

“Huh?!... Oh sorry,” Fluttershy said.

“Come along Fluttershy, maybe Discord has a solution,” Twilight said.

“But what about-” Fluttershy felt a soft blow against her scales and she looked down and saw Angel gesturing for her to go and he and Harry would watch things.

“Well… if you insist,” Fluttershy said.

They hiked out to Ponyville and made their way to the train station, they could see the modifications were coming along well enough.

Due to how many big dragons there were they had to rebuild the train to be at least three times bigger, thankfully others pitched in since they didn’t have anything else going on.

Today the trains were running.

“That’s good,” Twilight muttered.

As they made their way to the train they saw a dragon guarding it.

“Medium and small only, big dragons need to sit separately to avoid balance problems,” The dragon said.

“Got it,” Twilight said and she climbed into the middle and Fluttershy climbed into the back while Spike sat with Twilight.

“Is it fine if I sleep?” Fluttershy asked.

“Go ahead,” Twilight said and Fluttershy curled up and went to sleep.

“Let’s hope this train moves fast before we get more smoke problems,” Spike said.

“Agreed,” Twilight said.

As they got to Canterlot, it was worse than they thought, most of the houses were destroyed and multiple dragons were living in similar squalid conditions as in Ponyville.

After waking Fluttershy again they moved on to the castle, looking around there were clear signs that ponies couldn’t function like they used to as dragons.

When they got to the castle Twilight saw a guard dragon watching them and they approached.

“Princess Twilight, my assistant Spike, and the element of harmony Fluttershy seek an audience in the meeting of the royals, and with Ember,” Twilight said.

“Very well, this way,” The guard said and he led them into the castle, they made their way around and thankfully the halls were always so spacious, that they didn’t have to worry about being cramped.

As they made their way into a room that was clearly adjusted for dragons, they entered and saw Celestia, Luna, and Ember chatting, and unexpectedly Starlight was there too.

“Hello my student,” Celestia said.

“Hello Celestia, why is Starlight here?” Twilight asked.

“I came to share some of my research,” the pinkish-purple dragoness said.

“I see you and your friends are used to your new forms,” Ember said.

“Still getting used to it as a matter of fact,” Twilight sighed.

“Wh-where’s Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“Right here!” Suddenly the guard pulled off his head revealing Discord.

“Ah!” Twilight yelped.

“Haha! It’s funny even with that look,” Discord laughed, poofing back to normal.

“Discord?” Fluttershy said.

“Hmm? Oh hello there Shy!” Discord said making himself as big as Shy and hugging her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Fluttershy said before turning to the others “If you don’t mind princesses, I have an issue I need to share first,” Fluttershy said.

“Go on,” Luna said.

“Ember, Discord, maybe you both can help me,” Fluttershy said.

“With what?” Ember asked.

“I’ve… been very tired as of late, and it seems no matter how much sleep I get it never seems to be enough, also I’m snoring and producing smoke clouds, I’m so confused and worried,” Fluttershy said.

Ember winced “Oooh, did that have to happen now?...” Ember asked.

“Did what?” Fluttershy asked getting worried something was wrong with her.

“You're having something called a ‘hundred-year hibernation’ pretty self-explanatory, you’re going to fall asleep for a hundred years, it happens to certain dragons, and interruption will cause grumpiness, bipolarism, and aggression,” Ember said.

“I-I-I’m going to fall asleep for a hundred years?!” Fluttershy gasped and the others looked shocked too.

“No need to worry, when you wake you’ll feel a lot better,” Ember said.

“That’s not the point! I don’t want to sleep for a hundred years! What about my animals back home?” Fluttershy said.

“Sorry, but there’s no avoiding it,” Ember said.

“But what about-” Twilight was about to say something but Discord got in front of them.

“Girls girls! I got the perfect solution,” Discord said before opening a portal and he pulled out a door and he opened it “Now get in,” Discord said.

“What? What is it?” Fluttershy asked.

“A certain continuity called it a H.T.C, but I call it a Sleep Zone,” Discord said.

“...A what?” Spike asked.

“Allow me to explain, a sleep zone enables you to enter a quiet and non-disturbing environment, I sometimes go there when I need some quiet time,” Discord said.

“B-but I still don’t want to go for a hundred years,” Fluttershy said.

“No need to worry, it can also be sped up to help time pass by quicker, I can make years pass by in minutes, so a hundred years is like a couple hours,” Discord said.

“So… I’ll only be gone for a few hours?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yep,” Discord said.

“And the smoke?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s pretty much a void, there’s not many places the smoke can’t go,” Discord said.

“This… solves everything,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Thank you Discord,” Fluttershy hugged him.

“No prob Shy, and look!” Discord presented her with a giant fire-proof plush bunny.

“Aw thanks,” Fluttershy grabbed it and turned to her friends “Well I should be getting some sleep then,” Fluttershy said, the tiredness evident in her eyes.

“Well, see you in a hundred years I guess,” Spike said with a chuckle.

“You guys too,” Fluttershy said before walking through the doorway into the white void curling up on the ground and giving a yawn before going to sleep, cuddling her bunny.

“Aww, even as a dragoness she’s so cute,” Discord said before closing the door, shrinking it, and putting it in his pocket.

“How long will she be gone again?” Starlight asked.

“A few hours,” Discord said before poofing them all into their chairs.

“Whoa!” Spike yelped as he landed on his chair.

“Now that we’re here, let’s begin,” Discord said.

“Alright,” Twilight said.

Author's Note

Which will continue next chapter, sorry about that, but I wanted to focus the meeting in it's own chapter.

Plus Fluttershy displaying dragon habits is fun to write about.

Till next chapter :raritywink:

A solution to one problem

Rainbow was not having a good time… She’s had to sleep on the ground for several days, Tank hides in his shell every time he sees her, and worse yet, she can’t do anything that she could do before!

She was enthusiastic about this at first, but now, she wants to be a pony again.

“I wish I could’ve done something to prevent this,” Rainbow said to herself.

Looking up she saw that Ponyville was in shambles as well, considering everypony was still trying to find out how to make this work.

Rainbow got up and made her way through town, she noticed several vaguely familiar dragons trying to rebuild their homes but the supplies were too small.

As she made her way through town on a walk suddenly she felt tugging on her tail.

Turning around she saw a familiar orange baby dragon.

“Oh, hey squirt!” RD said as she turned and knelt down.

“Hey Rainbow Dash! I’ve been looking around and I found some gem caves with Sweetie and Apple Bloom, wanna go check them out with us?” Scootaloo said.

“I’d love to Scoots… but I-”

“Come on Rainbow, we got nothing to do around here right now,” Scootaloo said.

“...Surprised you’d still wanna hang around me, considering that I can’t do a rainboom anymore… or barely fly faster than most dragons,” Rainbow said, looking depressed.

“You can’t do a Rainboom anymore? So what? You're still Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said.

“You… really think so?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, you still look cool as a dragoness,” Scootaloo said.

“...Thanks, I needed to hear that,” Rainbow said with a slight smile.

“No prob, now come on!” Scootaloo said and she ran off.

“Save some for me,” Rainbow said as she followed, it’s good to know some things never change.

Canterlot

“I’m thinking we need to find this Ignia character before she causes any more trouble, she should know a way to fix this,” Ember said.

“Easier said than done, it’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack, there’s dragons everywhere,” Starlight said.

“We need to think about the populace first, help them adjust to the current conditions,” Celestia said.

Suddenly Luna put her hand on the table alerting the others.

“What we need is to figure out how to maintain stability, the promise of a solution is the only thing preventing riots in the streets, dragons are being left out in the open because they cannot fit inside their own homes, and that’s not accounting for the habits and dangers of so many dragons around, I’d reason it is solely because of Discords efforts transferring any excess smoke to a void dimension that we haven’t been reduced to Equestria being blanketed in smoke for a million years rather than a hundred,” Luna said.

“And the livestock trade has ceased due to the fact that the animals are extra stressed from being around dragons constantly,” Starlight added.

“We’re grasping at straws, so any suggestions would be helpful,” Luna said.

“Why don’t you ask the only one in the room with chaos magic to help?” Discord said.

“How so?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I was thinking that I could perform some rewrites on this world to make it more habitable for all the extra dragons, I am capable,” Discord said.

“There’s an idea, Discord doesn’t follow any normal rules,” Starlight admitted.

“Could he undo the magic that turned all the ponies into dragons?” Spike asked.

“Wishful thinking,” Discord said with a shrug “This is draconic runic magic, it predates even my knowledge,” Discord said.

“So long ago that even amongst us dragons it’s a dead language,” Ember said.

“Then what do we do?” Spike asked.

“We focus on the current problems, and deal with those problems later,” Celestia said.

“Agreed, I’ll use my resources too, we need to dedicate everything to finding Ignia, and be careful, she’s a shapeshifter,” Ember said.

“How?” Twilight asked.

“She’s probably the last surviving runic dragon, she has access to runes that grant her a variety of abilities,” Ember stated.

“Then it’s worse than finding a needle in a haystack, as Applejack would say it,” Twilight said.

“Then it is settled, we’ll divide the work and make use of resources to return to normalcy as soon as possible,” Celestia said.

“And I’ll send some dragons to look for Ignia,” Ember said.

“One more thing,” Celestia said.

“Hmm?” Ember turned to Celestia.

“If you have any spare dragons I would like to have them instruct the equestrian dragons on dragon habits, it would help the process better,” Celestia said.

‘I’ll see what I can do,” Ember said getting up.

“Wait!” Spike said getting up… as an adult dragon.

“HUH?!” Everydragon present gasped.

“Huh?....Oh… uh look, you remember how Ignia turned me into an adult dragon right?” Spike said.

“Uh, yeah,” Ember said.

“Well, lately I’ve been shifting back and forth between a kid and an adult dragon, any idea what’s going on?” Spike asked.

“Hmm… this is new territory, to be honest, and frankly I’m too busy these days to focus on this, sorry,” Ember said.

“Ok,” Spike said disappointedly.

“Twilight can aid you, Spike,” Celestia said.

“Thank you, Celestia,” Spike said.

“If that’s all then I gotta get back,” Ember said getting up and heading for the exit.

“Good day Dragon Lord Ember,” Celestia said.

“And good day to you too,” Ember said leaving the room.

“So, what now?” Spike asked.

“We get to work,” Luna said.

Discord successfully teleported everydragon back to Ponyville.

“Why are we starting here and not Canterlot?” Spike asked.

“We have to start where the press will get the word out quicker, and trust me, word travels faster outside of Canterlot,” Discord said before pulling out a trumpet and playing it loudly.

All nearby dragons noticed and came on over, seeing Celestia and Luna they began clamoring about their worries but Celestia raised a claw to quiet them.

“Discord has the solution,” Celestia said before letting Discord speak.

“Yes yes, hello to you beings of scale and fire,” Discord said with a bow “If you guys wanted my help sooner then you should have asked,” Discord said.

“How can you help us?” A dragoness asked.

“Like this,” Discord said before snapping his fingers and suddenly all the houses in Ponyville repaired themselves, he then did a spin and snapped his fingers again and made giant crystals form out of the ground in patches.

“Whoa,” The dragons said seeing making improvements all over.

“Ready for the grand finale?” Discord then stuck out his tongue and it had a smaller Discord on it who snapped his fingers and suddenly all the buildings began glowing and growing bigger.

“Huh?” The dragons looked on in awe as the houses grew and changed in form to suit their now draconic needs.

When the transformation of the town was over the dragons cheered, and thankfully they knew by now not to stamp their hands and cause another earthquake.

“Whew!” Discord wiped his brow before turning to them “Ponyville is now habitable again, I expanded your houses, and real estate, added some caves nearby, and increased the number of gem patches here and there, that should help you all out,” Discord said.

“Discord, I never imagined I’d say this, but thank you,” Mayor Mare said gratefully.

“Alrighty then, if you’ll excuse me, I need a break,” Discord said walking away.

“This could work! With Discord's help we can turn Equestria into a dragon-friendly territory,” Spike said.

“This is true, we should get word out that a solution has been located and that should calm the populace,” Celestia said “Twilight, you should return to the castle while me and Luna get to that,” Celestia said as she and Luna left.

“Agreed, let’s head home Spike,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” Spike said.

Twilight and Spike entered a now bigger and more spacious castle.

“This is better, I think we’ll be good to resume our work here,” Twilight said.

“Now that things have calmed do you think we could focus on my problem?” Spike asked as he shifted back into a kid.

“Ok, I suppose so, maybe tomorrow we could pay Zecora a visit, and bring Starlight, between those two we’re bound to find out a solution,” Twilight said.

“I like that idea,” Spike said.

Ignia exited a different train and finally arrived at her location.

“Ok, now to begin my operations,” Ignia said as she made her way down a hill.

Towards Canterlot…

Author's Note

Sorry about the slow update, I'll try for a longer chapter next :raritywink:

Equestria tries to move on

Discord arrived back at Fluttershy’s Cottage, having been made bigger to accommodate the dragoness, Angel was helping the animals around the cottage, upon seeing Discord Angel hopped up to him and made gestures asking where Fluttershy was.

“Well she should be arriving in… three, two, one,” Discord said looking at a watch and he heard knocking on the door in his ‘pocket’ and he pulled it out, expanded, and then he opened the door.

And Fluttershy stepped out, somehow even bigger than before, not by much but she was closer in size in comparison to Rainbow and Applejack.

She gave a big stretch and a yawn before turning to Discord.

“Hello Discord,” Fluttershy said with a smile.

“Hello Fluttershy, you’ve grown a little,” Discord said.

“I have?,” Fluttershy looked around and sighed “I didn’t want to get bigger,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s no biggie, I supersized your animals and cottage in preparation for your return, so come along Shy, it’s been a hundred years since I’ve seen you,” Discord chuckled as he led her to the bigger cottage.

Twilight and Spike and Starlight wandered through Ponyville, their destination, Zecora’s, hopefully she’d been spared the transformation.

“Thanks to Discord things seem to have gone back to normal,” Spike said before avoiding another dragons foot “Mostly,” Spike said.

“Yes, we’re thinking of letting him terraform Equestria into a more dragon suited land for now,” Starlight said.

“While keeping the environment and managing the balance between the races?” Spike asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said as they entered the forest, upon entering they came upon a sight they partially expected to see.

Zecora’s as a black and white striped dragon watering her spice garden.

“Zecora!” Twilight called and Zecora turned to see them.

“Ah hello my now reptilian friends, what brings you around these ends?” Zecora asked with a smile.

“Spike is having an issue lately,” Twilight said.

“What is tha-” Zecora was cut off when Spike suddenly transformed into an adult dragon “...I see, come in,” Zecora said before heading inside with the two.

When they got in, Spike saw a series of new things, like vials full of liquid and various things from dragons.

“Where did you get these?” Spike asked.

“I simply collected my own saliva, scales or nails and with these, I will make more potent brews without fail,” Zecora said confidently.

“Eww,” Starlight said in response to that.

“Alright, alright well I was hoping we could pool our knowledge to get the prognosis on Spike’s condition?” Twilight asked.

“Let me see him,” Zecora said and she walked up to him.

“Stay still,” Zecora said with a pair of tweezers.

“What are you gonna-” Spike yelped a little when she plucked a large scale out of him and walked back over to a desk.

“Ow…” Spike said, rubbing his arm.

“Hmmm… I see,” Zecora and Starlight examined the scale and found strange magic all over it.

“This is odd,” Starlight added as she looked under a microscope.

“Well?” Spike asked.

Zecora wrote everything down and handed it to Twilight.

“I cannot help in this regard, but I would take it up with Celestia and the dragon guard,” Zecora said.

“I did, they didn’t do much,” Spike said and Twilight read the info and nodded.

“Ok, let’s go Spike,” Twilight said walking out.

“Huh? Wait!” Spike followed her out, as he walked beside her and Starlight he asked some questions.

“So what does the paper say?” Spike asked.

“That there is the possibility of a mutant spell on you affecting your growth patterns,” Starlight said.

“A mutant spell? What’s a mutant spell?” Spike asked.

“Two spells that become layered with one another too deeply make a new spell entirely, I need to research this, I don’t know if there will be any negative effects on you,” Twilight said.

“Good plan,” Spike said following her home.

Rarity found herself with much more materials than before, which was good, one of her concerns was that she would have to pay through the nose to afford to make one dress, but it seems Discord thought ahead.

Now came the issue, how does she make dragon based outfits? She’s never had to before, except for Spike, but his outfit was experimental at best.

Her thoughts wandered to Spike again, she remembered his adult form… and it made her excited thinking about decking that dragon out with a tuxedo and cufflinks and the way he’d wear it on a strong body like that…

Rarity shook her head.

“I have to stop thinking about his grown-up form,” Rarity chastised herself, she’d been doing that alot lately, was this some phase female dragons go through?

An apple tree fell over after Applejack had tried to buck it.

“Darn it! Not again,” Applejack griped, Discord had made the apples and the trees bigger but they still fell when she bucked them, She’ll have to work on a new way to get the fruit down.

“If only ah was a pony again,” AJ said as she pulled the tree back into a standing position and used her bigger hands to try and rebury the roots.

Suddenly Apple Bloom could be heard crying out in pain and Applejack turned to the animal barn.

“AB?!” Applejack ran to where the noise came from and she approached Apple Bloom who was lying on the ground next to a sheepish-looking cow who had apparently bucked her.

Granny Smith had run over too and they approached Apple Bloom who had a black eye.

“What happened?” AJ actually growled at the cow.

“I-I’m sorry, I turned and suddenly she was there, instincts just kicked in and… I kicked her…” The cow apologized.

“Ya’ll hit mah sister!? Ah have half a mind ta-” AJ snapped at the frightened cow but Granny Smith put her arm in front of Applejack.

“Ah get it, seein a dragon out of nowhere startled ya, jest don’t let it happen again,” Granny Smith said seriously.

“T-thank you…” The cow scurried off.

“Granny! What was that?” AJ asked.

“Ya gotta look at things from their perspective, living among a race that considers them prey, of course their gonna be jumpy, ah’ll give em a stern warnin about doin it again, but ah’m not gonna punish them for being scared,” Granny said helping Apple Bloom up and having her follow her away from there.

Applejack looked at the cows who were trying to look like they were intentionally staking out at the edge of the fence and she sighed some smoke.

“Ah guess…” Applejack then turned to go back to work.

Spike was attached to some devices and Twilight and Starlight examined him.

“Ok, with Zecora’s notes, we can allocate the spell wavelengths,” Twilight muttered.

“But without our magic it will be kind of hard to fix this affliction,” Starlight said.

“We’ll need to rely on our brewing capabilities and hope we can form a potion that will help,” Twilight added.

“Ready for anything,” Spike said.

“We’ve sent the message, we’re just waiting on a response so we know what to do,” Twilight responded as she went on to begin studying Spike.

“Hope this doesn’t take too long,” Spike said.

‘We just need to take some notes,” Starlight said.

“Ok,” Spike said, deciding to get some sleep in while they were doing their research.

Dragons throughout the Dragon Lands were woken abruptly from their sleep to head to a mountain where Ember was getting ready to make an announcement.

“This better not be another peace conference with the ponies,” A disgruntled grey dragon grumbled.

“Watch that be exactly it,” A brown dragon said.

“Gather around!” Ember ordered.

The dragons grumbled but did as their leader told them to, once everydragon was gathered Ember addressed them.

“I am sure you remember getting the announcement. If you didn’t, then it seems the banished dragoness Ignia has returned, and she triggered the runes of Magmus, and as a result Ponykind has been turned into a draconic state,” Ember said.

“That’s… great right? No more ponies?” A blue dragon said.

“NO! Think about resources, do you really think this new dragon population can survive the amount of resources and places to nest? It will be competitions left and right for mating rights as well, we need to find Ignia, so I will enlist most of you to aid the ponies in getting comfortable until things get better,” Ember said and the dragons groaned “Groan all you want, you have a duty to your fellow dragon, and more than that, it will give you a chance to keep an eye peeled for Ignia,” Ember said.

“What about our hoards?” A pink dragoness asked.

“I’ll make an order to not disturb any of the empty hoards, but we need to get moving,” Ember said and the dragons reluctantly went to get ready.

“What about my sleep? I still got a few seasons to go!” A red dragon called.

“You’ll get back to it when the search is over!” Ember called back before flying off.

“Dang it… and I finally found another mountain after that yellow pony drove me off…” The red dragon grumbled heading out with the other dragons.

Spike woke to a strange smell and he looked to see Twilight and Starlight making potions.

“Hey girls, how's things going with the cure?” Spike asked.

“We’re working on it,” Starlight said.

“How much longer?” Spike asked.

“As we’ve said due to a lack of unicorn magic we need to use less common methods, like potion craft,” Starlight said.

“Can I at least get off of this table?” Spike asked.

‘Sure,” Twilight walked over and untied him and Spike got up and hopped down.

“What’s the complication with it?” Spike asked.

“We’re unable to make a solution if we can’t figure out the mutant spells properties,” Twilight said.

“Mutant spell?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, based on observations and what Zecora has noted, we can detect a correlation with a draconic version of a mutant spell, basically when two spells become too layered and form a new spell, remember?” Starlight explained.

“Oh yeah,” Spike said, remembering that they talked about it earlier.

“We’ll have to layer some notes with Celestia’s help, when she’s figured out calming the populace first, it may take a few more days Spike,” Twilight said.

“Darn it,” Spike said knowing this meant more random age shifting.

“Until then why not try to make a good thing out of this, maybe if you can learn how to control this you can stay in your younger form,” Starlight offered.

“Thanks but I think I’d like to stay in my older form,” Spike said as he hopped onto the ground and began going up the steps to the upstairs.

“I get the feeling he has a special reason for wanting to stay big, and her name is Rarity,” Twilight remarked.

“He’s growing up so fast isn’t he?” Starlight ramarked as well and the two dragons shared a laugh.

A couple of guard dragons made their way down a hallway and walked past another guard who was examining some keys.

“Afternoon,” The guard said.

“Afternoon," the other guard said as they walked away, as he made his way down to a room he didn’t notice he was being followed, the being was following him closely, it followed him into a room and snuck up on him, he spun and-

Saw a rat skittering on the ground nearby.

“Whew… thought it was Pike playing a prank on me again,” The guard said turning to resume packing away his keys.

Before the rat morphed into an orange and red dragoness who swiftly shut the door.

“Huh? Hey who are-”

“Devnak,” The dragoness fired a spell from her palm and it hit the guard and he passed out.

“A dragon you may be, but once being a pony still makes you distasteful to look at,” The dragoness said walking past him and collected the keys, she then shoved him into a cell to hide him and she turned into the guard before making her way into the hallways, as she made her way out to an opening and she dropped down into the streets and turned into a grey and blue dragoness to make her way into the city.

“Now to Tartarus, in a few days our dream is near Magmus,” Ignia said with a cackle.

A few days later

Discord has done some good work remaking Equestria into a dragon friendly place.

Already normalcy, or at least its equivalent, had been restored.

Discord was in the midst of discussing the changes with Celestia.

“Las Pegasus has been changed to accommodate dragons more, Appaloosa has been developed with firmer soil to account for dragon stampedes, and crystal production has gone way up so as to prevent resource loss,” Discord said, he looked tired, reconstructing a continent is tough work.

“And complaints from the dragons of Equestria have lessened as a result, this is good,” Celestia said.

“I would like a vacation when this is over,” Discord said.

“You’d have earned it,” Celestia replied.

“Now about the elephant in the room,” Discord made an elephant he conjured earlier for this joke disappear, “And to address a recent problem, has the one who assaulted that guard been found?” Discord asked.

“No, but we’re certain it was Ignia,” Celestia said.

“I can almost guarantee it, if it weren’t for the fact that she’s using draconic runic magic I would have found her by now, she’s a slippery one,” Discord said.

“We’ll find her, for now we finally got notice that the dragons in the dragonlands have been assembled and are being sent into Equestria to aid in the adjustment process, I have sent Luna to Ponyville to assess the process starting there,” Celestia said.

“And I have a clone looking into it as well,” Discord said as he flipped pages that he was reading onto the next one, “In regards to Trottingham,” Discord continued on as Celestia listened.

Elsewhere in Ponyville

Luna, Twilight, and Mayor Mare addressed the crowd on a big stage and they observed the many dragons watching, Rainbow and Applejack and Rarity were among them but the other elements were oddly absent.

“Thank you for coming over today, before I hand you off to Luna I wish to address the concerns you have all voiced lately have been noted and will be the main focus of today,” Mayor Mare said before stepping aside and Luna approached.

“My fair citizens, It is prudent to warn you that dragons are on their way and before you all panic, they are coming to teach us the dragon way,” Luna said.

“We breathe fire and smoke, eat gems and sleep long periods, what’s there to know?” a black drake in the back asked.

“There is much more to being a dragon than that, keep a broad perspective when talking to these dragons,” Luna said and the dragons nodded.

As the dragons flew over Equestria, each grumbling about having to do work like this they split into groups as per Ember’s instruction and they made their way to their individual cities to perform their duties, as the dragons who were going to Ponyville were going the dragons were making idle conversation.

“Heh, odd they're calling it Ponyville when they should start calling it Dragonville,” Garble said with a snort.

“Agreed, it’s stupid,” A green dragon said.

“None of that, come on!” Ember called and the drakes winced remembering Ember was coming with them to Ponyville.

“Psst, I gotta go,” The red drake said.

“Oh come on dude, just because you have some history here doesn’t mean you should-” The green dragon winced as the red dragon slapped his shoulder.

“I’m going to literally make it rain if I don’t find my own bush, cover me!” The dragon said.

“Alright, fine Razer, hey Ember!” The green dragon called.

“What?” Ember asked.

“Um… what are we teaching them again?” He asked.

“Seriously? I told you like a dozen times!” Ember said, meanwhile the red dragon Razer skimmed his way from the group and made his way to a nearby lava pool.

“Odd, didn’t think Equestria had lava pools,” Razer said as he landed behind some trees and took a pee.

After finishing he made his way out to the lava pool.

“Well… nothing saying I can’t take a short dip,” Razer said before seeing bubbles in the lava nearby, sensing possible danger he hid again and watched.

And saw a slender beautiful yellow and pink dragoness emerge from the lava with a sweep of her head.

“Whoa… who is that?...” Razer asked.

Ten minutes ago

“Alright Shy, let’s get on with our training,” the Discord clone said.

“Discord? What are we doing here again?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re training you on dragon habits, since you are uncomfortable around other dragons I thought of training you myself,” Discord said.

“I greatly appreciate it,” Fluttershy said with a smile “So what are we here for?”

“Lava training,” Discord said tapping the water with his finger and the water turned into lava.

“Discord! What if there were fish?” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“Oh don’t worry, I made sure there were no organisms in the lake, now climb in,” Discord said sitting on a rock.

“Um… I won’t get burned right?” Fluttershy asked.

“Of course not, you're a dragon now,” Discord said.

“O-ok,” Fluttershy said stepping forward and dipping her toe into the lava cautiously, ready to pull back the moment it hurt, instead, it felt incredibly warm, but in a good way, like a hot tub.

After a few instinctual flinches at touching the lava Fluttershy submerged her foot and then she leaned in and sank her leg into the pool as Discord patiently watched.

When she stuck her other leg into the lava she hummed happily as it truly felt like a relaxing hot tub instead of a pool of liquid death like back when she was a pony. She allowed herself to fully sink into the lava until her head was poking out and she sighed happily.

“Don’t stay in there too long or you’ll get dizzy,” Discord warned as he walked away.

“Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked.

“I am expected to make a brief showing at the meeting in Ponyville, but I’ll be back lickity split, so remember don’t hang out too long in the pool, like one or two hours tops,” Discord said as he left.

“Ok,” Fluttershy said laying back in the pool and eventually she sank beneath the surface.

Now

She climbed back onto the shore and shook herself off, flapping her big wings to dry them off.

“I liked that, I may visit the dragonlands one day to enjoy a real lava pool,” Fluttershy commented

Suddenly she heard shuffling in a nearby set of trees and turned to see a pair of eyes staring at her.

“Eeep!” Fluttershy jumped a little and backed up “Wh-who's there?” Fluttershy asked.

“Umm…” Razer seemed uncertain.

“Discord?” Fluttershy asked.

“Who is Discord?... Does she already have a mate?” Razer asked himself before he stood up out of the brush and he made his way into the open.

“Huh?! You?” Fluttershy said seeing a familiar red dragon.

“Uh… ahem… hello, I’m Razer and your… oh come on Razer you got this,” Razer said slapping himself before turning to see the yellow dragoness cowering behind a rock.

“Uh… you ok?” Razer asked.

“H-he’s back! Is he seeking vengeance for driving him away from his cave?” Fluttershy shivered out wondering what his motives are, when she felt a poke on her side she jumped with a yelp and jumped into the lava pool.

“...She must have been rejected by a previous mate for her to be this jumpy,” Razer assumed.

Ember and the other dragons arrived on the outskirts of Ponyville and Luna came out to greet them.

“Whoaahoa, Check out the babe,” Garble snickered to his friend before Ember slapped him.

“That’s Luna you dolt!” Ember said.

“Huh? Eww nevermind, she used to be a pony,” Garble said.

“Hello Ember, we are glad you came,” Luna said.

“Yeah, let’s get this moving, we got a lot of dragons impatient to get back to their hoards,” Ember said.

“We’ve gathered the town's dragons, so let us get started,” Luna said and she led the dragons back towards town.

Getting a mischievous idea Garble snuck up behind Luna and raised a hand-

“Do it and you die!” Ember snarled.

“Dang it…” Garble put his hand down.

Author's Note

Sorry for the hiatus

And yes Razer is the dragon from the episode Dragonshy.

I think you can see where this is going. :rainbowkiss:

How to train your dragon(s)

Luna led the dragons back to Ponyville, as they arrived they saw the town's dragons gathered at the town stage.

“Sheesh, they weren’t kidding,” Garble said seeing the dragons and they ascended the staircase and Luna approached the mic.

“Greetings my little ponies,” Luna said

“You mean dragons,” A green dragon behind Luna said before Ember thumped him.

“These here are the true dragons who will aid us in adjusting to our new forms,” Luna said.

“Reluctant-ow!” Garble thumped as well by Ember.

“Does this mean we’ll all be dragons longer than anticipated?” A drake asked.

“Unfortunately, but at least Discord has managed to make living accommodations while keeping the rest of Equus safe.

The Ponyville dragons didn’t seem happy to know that they were stuck this way longer than they hoped.

“I understand it is a lot to swallow, but for now we must make the most of it,” Luna said before turning and seeing Discord approaching the stage.

“Hello, so who’s who? I have trouble telling these days,” Discord chuckled.

“Hello Discord, have you set up the course?” Luna asked.

“Yep, let us go!” Discord said before teleporting everydragon to an open field, with multiple course obstacles, lava pools and crystals.

Discord was wearing a coach outfit and he blew into a whistle.

“Alright you all, let's get exercising!” Discord cheered.

“This isn’t quite what I had in mind…” Luna sighed.

“Don’t worry there’s a few things for dragon intermingled,” Discord said.

“I’ll take over here,” Ember said walking in front of them as Discord left to go back to Fluttershy and Ember called out an order.

“Alright, line up! Let’s begin with the basics of feeding habits!” Ember said and the Ponyville dragons did as instructed and lined up.

“Um… miss? You should come out by now,” Razer asked as Fluttershy began to look dizzy.

“I don’t need to…..” Fluttershy said.

“You're about to pass out from the heat…” Razer said.

“I’m just scared…” Fluttershy said.

“Scared of what? Were you rejected by a mate? I don’t see any scratches on you so I doubt you were abused,” Razer said as he lay beside the lava pool.

“U-um… you know what happened in Equestria recently… right?” Fluttershy asked.

“Course I do… Ember forced me to leave my hoard for it,” Razer said.

“Well…. I was a pony beforehand,” Fluttershy said.

“....That actually explains some things…” Razer said.

“And…. I think I know you…” Fluttershy said.

“What do you mean?” Razer asked.

“...I’m the one who made you leave,” Fluttershy meeped.

“....Oh….” Razer said before sighing a cloud of smoke “I see, uh….” He suddenly found it rather awkward he was hitting on the same mare who scared him away…

“To be fair you were threatening to cover Equestria in smoke clouds,” Fluttershy said finally leaving the lava pool to avoid passing out.

“Yeah… I was… but also to be fair I have nasal problems and your friend assaulted me first,” Razer said.

“I just hope there are no hard feelings between us,” Fluttershy said.

“....some….” Razer said.

“Well…. I won't apologize for protecting Equestria from your snore clouds,” Fluttershy said.

“But I had to find a new cave… it was hard, I even had to wrestle some diamond dogs to get it,” Razer said meekly.

“Still, I did the right thing by making you relocate,” Fluttershy noticing his suddenly meek demeanor.

And then he started crying.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said.

“I'm a loser… a bad dragon… I’m begging you to not tell any dragon about what happened back at that cave, or I'll be a laughingstock,” Razer pleaded.

“Um… no need to worry, I won't tell,” Fluttershy cooed to calm him, honestly not expecting him to cry again.

“Oh dear,” Rarity said trying to climb a giant wall that Discord had set up.

“Come on! Pick up the pace!” Ember called.

“I fail to see how climbing a wall has anything to do with being a dragon,” Rarity grunted out.

“Dragons are good climbers, slowpoke,” Garble taunted as he climbed past the bigger dragoness.

“Come on Rares, you got this!” Rainbow said from the top of the wall.

“I’m not as athletic as you both!” Rarity said before she lost her grip and fell and Ember stepped out of the way of her landing on her.

“Again!” Ember said.

“Oh come now dear, can’t I just fly up there?” Rarity begged.

“Not happening, Razer, show her how to-.... Where’s Razer?” Ember asked looking around.

“He… went to take a restroom break?” A green dragon said.

“This is why I told you all to go before coming here!” Ember sighed.

“Sorry,” The green dragon said.

“Alright, Garble, you come here and help her,” Ember said.

“Ugh…” Garble climbed down and stood by Rarity “dig your claws in and pull yourself up.” Garble said.

“I know how to climb, climbing as a dragon is different,” Rarity said as she began pulling herself up the wall, Garble flying beside her.

“Come on pony! You got this!” Garble said with a hint of mocking.

“Shut it!” Rarity said as she made her way up to the top, a half an hour later.

“Whew!....” Rarity collapsed at Rainbow and Applejack's feet.

“This is why ya need to exercise more,” AJ said smugly.

“Ugh… I get it,” Rarity said.

‘Now climb down!” Ember called.

“Oh dear…” Rarity sighed knowing she had to do more climbing and she got up and saw AJ and RD doing it easily "I do hope I don't break anything if I fall..." Rarity said before getting to it... and falling.

She gave a loud 'Oooof!' as she landed on the ground.

"You must be one of the least athletic adult dragons I've seen..." Ember said.

"I know..." Rarity sighed.

After the climb down they approached a lava pool.

“Alright! We’re going for a swim!” Ember said.

“But we’ll die!” A dragoness cried.

“You're a dragon now…” Ember sighed.

“But what if I turn back into a pony before I get out, I could die!” Another dragoness exclaimed.

“It’s already confirmed that isn’t happening until we find a certain dragoness is found, now go!” Ember ordered.

The pony dragons seemed too hesitant until Applejack and Rainbow stepped forward.

“Race you all in!” Rainbow said jumping into the lava with Applejack, the lava splashed the other dragons and at first they panicked but they calmed when they noticed the lava wasn’t burning their flesh.

Rainbow and AJ poked their heads out of the lava and Rainbow spat some out.

“Whew, this feels great!” Rainbow said.

“Ah agree,” AJ said.

The other dragons hesitated but a few decided to enter, and after some more minutes of hesitance the others climbed into the lava.

“Wow… this feels even warmer than a hot tub, and it feels nice,” Lyra sighed.

“Whew, this is relaxing,” Mayor Mare said.

“YEAH!” Bulk cheered.

“It’s like pulling teeth with them…” Ember said with a sigh.

“Yeah,” The green dragon said.

“Can somedragon find Razer? We need all claws on deck,” Ember ordered.

“I’ll go,” Garble said as he walked away, hoping to get away from having to help train ponies how to be dragons.

“Soak for an hour, no more, don’t linger too long or the heat will make you dizzy and you risk passing out,” Ember said as most of the dragons listened.

Garble flew after Razer's scent, thankfully dragons can detect each other from a mile away.

“Ugh, can’t wait to go home and… huh?” Garble flew lower and perched on a branch, watching Razer and an unknown dragoness talk.

“Heheh, Razer you sly lizard,” Garble said seeing as he was clearly trying to court her.

“And I was thinking we could go take a dip in a volcano sometime, and maybe… hang out by the local gem cave?” Razer asked.

“I’m flattered but I have animals to tend to,” Fluttershy said.

Razer knew she was really a pony and the one who shook his confidence but she was such a pretty dragoness he couldn’t let this opportunity miss, maybe she’ll be like this forever?

“Wait did you say you had animals? As… food stock or as pets?” Razer asked.

Fluttershy looked appalled “I would never eat my own animal friends!” Fluttershy said.

“Right right, you are a pony…” Razer nervously thought of a way to change the subject.

Meanwhile on the branch Garble was struggling to not laugh “As much as I want to watch this all day, I gotta get moving,” Garble said before flapping to the ground and coughing into his hand.

“Huh?!” Both spun to see Garble.

“Yeah, hello, who’s the pretty one?” Garble asked.

“Mine!” Razer growled at him.

“Pardon?” Fluttershy asked.

“Uhm… not yet but I’m courting her,” Razer sheepishly said.

“Yeah, cool, look pal Ember is getting impatient, c’mon,” Garble turned and flew away.

“Uhm… ok… Hey uh, want to come with me?” Razer asked.

“I’m fine here, I… am still getting used to this and a friend is helping me,” Fluttershy said.

“Oh… ok,” Razer said and he flew off disappointedly.

“Now I wonder when-” Fluttershy knowingly said when Discord popped around a corner.

“Hello!” Discord said walking up to her.

“Hello Discord,” Fluttershy chuckled.

“I see you knew I was peeping on the two lovers-to-be,” Discord said.

Fluttershy blushed “Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Oh, nothing…” Discord chuckled “Shall we get started on flavors of crystals?” Discord said.

“...Sure…” Fluttershy said wanting to change the subject as well.

“Whew… spent a little too long in there,” AJ said looking a little woozy as she exited the lava pool.

“Ditto…” Rainbow said as she exited too.

“Ok, next up is crystals,” Ember said.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never had one,” Bon Bon said.

“I bet they taste nice,” Octavia said from the back.

“Ok! Listen up, crystals do have varying flavors depending on their age and type, but listen well, there are three types of stones you shouldn’t eat in big portions, opal, jade, and black diamonds,” Ember instructed.

“Why?” Rarity asked.

“Opal causes indigestion, jade is for laxative uses only, and black diamonds are straight-up poisonous,” Ember said making the dragons cringe at the thought.

“So… I cannot use them for dresses anymore?” Rarity asked.

“Dresses? Do you want to put dragons into dresses? Typical pony,” Garble said.

“Clothes are impractical for dragons,” Ember said.

“B-but how else will you look fashionable?” Rarity attempted.

“I don’t care,” Ember said before noticing Razer and Garble returning “Good excuse Razer, now,” Ember demanded.

“I… had to pee?” Razer said nervously.

“Ugh… whatever just get ready to help with the flying portion later,” Ember said getting ready to resume instructions.

Tirek sat in his cage, it was a boring life but it was all he could do… oh and he had noticed there were dragons instead of ponies checking up on him lately.

As Tirek watched yet another dragon guard pass by he suddenly saw a spell hit them and they collapsed snoring.

“Huh?” Tirek asked before seeing another dragon guard walk up to his cage.

“It wasn’t me,” Tirek promised.

“I know,” Suddenly the dragon guard turned into a red and orange dragoness.

“...Ignia?...” Tirek said.

“Hello again… pathetic parasite,” Ignia said.

“Hmmph, I see you haven’t changed from your spiteful self, reptile,” Tirek snorted.

“I do not care, I need something from you,” She said.

“And why pray tell would I help you?” Tirek said.

“You know the ancient secret to completing Ponykinds ascendance into a superior race, and I plan to extract it from you,” Ignia said as her claws glowed and she slashed the cage apart with it.

“Oh no, I’m not coming, I’d rather stay here than be associated with you,” Tirek said.

“You're mistaken half pony… I wasn’t asking…” Then Ignia used Devnak to shoot Tirek and put him to sleep, she then scooped him up and escaped back past a sleeping Cerberus and out of Tartarus.

“Soon Ponykind will be completely dragon, and I will have fulfilled our dream, my dear Magmus,” Ignia said with a smile before looking into the distance.

“Next stop… The Crystal Empire…” Ignia said.

Author's Note

Bit of a short chapter for such a wait, sorry. :twilightsheepish:

College plans, shifts at my job, and general procrastination are the reasons.

But this chapter does show some things, also what does Ignia plan to do? Why does she not consider her job done?

a new goal

Several dragons had shaky first flights, Rainbow Dash however showed off her well-earned training skills.

“Eat this!” Rainbow said as she did several loops around the other dragons.

“No fair!” Filthy Rich said.

“Plenty fair,” Rainbow said as she dove down and circled upward.

“She’s pretty fast for a dragon,” The green dragon said.

“She was Equestria’s fastest pony,” Ember said, partially wondering if drafting her into the dragon defense forces was possible.

“How’s training the younglings going?” Ember asked turning towards Razer who was sitting by a bunch of young dragonlings trying to fly.

“I wonder what our hatchlings will be like…” Razer said daydreaming.

“Razer!” Ember snapped.

“Huh?! Uh, yeah good!” Razer said hurriedly.

“Ugh… lousy help,” Ember said turning her attention back to Applejack struggling to keep up with Rainbow.

“Falling behind AJ?” Rainbow asked.

“Ah wasn’t born with wings unlike you!” AJ panted.

“Ah well, see you later!” Rainbow darted off.

“Dagnabit,” AJ said as she continued her shaky flight.

Rarity was doing surprisingly well, fluttering along gradually.

“It isn’t so hard when you get used to it,” Rarity said.

“Ah guess,” AJ said.

After the exercise was done the dragons lined up by Ember and she walked around.

“Now, I gotta say, apart from a few of you… you all suck at this,” Ember said.

“Well, that’s rude,” A dragon said.

“It’s not your fault I suppose, you weren’t dragons until recently,” Ember said. “I suppose I’ll have to be stricter next time, for now-” Suddenly Ember heard flapping and turned to see a familiar grey drake flying towards her.

“Dumas? What are you doing here?” Ember asked.

“I came as quick as I could when Celestia had the letter sent,” Dumas had to catch his breath really quickly before he relayed the message “Ignia was spotted at Tartarus,” Dumas said.

“She’s what?! Forget the training, me and the others are heading over to Tartarus,” Ember said to the other dragons.

“Alright, finally! Action!” Garble said eagerly.

“Your going on scouting duty, if she’s not there you gotta be able to catch her,” Ember said.

“Dang it…” Garble said.

“We can help!” Rainbow approached.

“No, this is official dragon lord business, relay it to everydragon,” Ember said before taking to the air and the other dragons followed her.

Spike sat in his room, he hadn’t shifted in a while, maybe he’s cured?.... Doubt it, but his mind couldn’t help but shift back to his first meeting with Rarity in his adult form.

He felt a desire for her that he never knew before, and she seemed to feel it too, if given the chance, he would do anything to be with her, especially now that she’s a dragon as well.

“Just wish I could stay in adult form,” Spike said.

“SPIKE! COME DOWN HERE!” Twilight called most likely from the basement.

“COMING!” Spike called back and he hopped off his be and landed on the ground with a loud thud as he was suddenly big again “Huh? Great, again…” Spike said as he moved on downstairs and found Twilight and Starlight with several brews and they were in the midst of mixing them.

“What’s going on?” Spike asked.

“We’ve hit a roadblock, without our magic we’re having trouble allocating the proper amounts of the brew to put together,” Twilight said.

“The brew too… make me stay big?” Spike said hopefully.

“What? Do you actually want that? I thought you were kidding back there,” Starlight asked having expected him to have been joking back then.

“Yeah,” Spike said.

“Spike, you do know how much of your lifespan that will take up right?” Twilight pointed out.

“I’m well aware, but if it means me and Rarity can be together, then so be it,” Spike said.

“...” Twilight and Starlight looked at eachother “You really like her don’t you?” Starlight said.

“Yes, I have to snatch this opportunity while it’s there,” Spike said.

“Well, I guess if you're serious about it we can make adjustments to our current brew, The problem is that we need to special ingredients, and the only place we can find them is in the Crystal Empire,” Twilight said.

“Great, let’s go,” Spike said stepping toward the door but Twilight stopped him.

“We’ve gotta get ready first,” Twilight said as she and Starlight went upstairs.

“Darn it,” Spike said before he shrank again “Double darn it!” Spike said.

Ember and the dragons flew over to Tartarus, thankfully Celestia had shown her the way during one of her visits to Equestria.

As she got there she saw Tartarus was open and she flew into there.

As the dragons landed Ember paused.

“Wait a minute… huh?” Ember said seeing Dumas already at the gate.

“Oh hello Ember, I was just about to come looking for you, Ignia has broken into Tartarus,” Dumas said seriously.

“What are you talking about, we already…. Oh no,” Ember whirled and saw the Dumas that followed her here was gone “That snake! We gotta get back! Dumas remain here and continue your investigation!” Ember said.

“Right,” Dumas said with a nod as the dragons flew with her out of Tartarus.

‘Dumas’ flew into Ponyville sneakily and turned back into Ignia.

“Heh, while the dragon lord is away, I will play,” Ignia then turned into a blue dragoness and snuck into town, when nodragon was listening and she muttered a spell.

“Livio,” She said and suddenly every voice around her became clearer.

“I wonder how we pay for taxes like this?” A drake complained.

“No,” Ignia said.

“Man that training was grueling,” A dragoness complained.

“No,” Ignia said.

“Now now Pumpkin, no teething on the crystals,” Mr Cake said.

“Hmm…” Ignia expanded her search and found something.

“When we see Shining Armor and Cadance we need to ask to check on Flurry Heart, I’m afraid she could be afraid in her current form,” Twilight said.

“Well we’ll find out when we get to the Crystal Empire,” Spike said.

“Perfect,” Ignia then hid in an alleyway and shapeshifted into a different dragon and she hurriedly made her way to the castle.

“With Tirek now working on developing what I need I just need one more thing before ponies truly cease to exist,” Ignia said with a smile.

Twilight, Spike and Starlight made their way out of the castle and into the streets.

“Alright, are we ready?” Spike asked.

“Yes, let’s get-” Twilight was saying before a voice called to her and she turned to see a familiar white dragoness walking up to them.

“Twilight dear, can I talk to you for a bit?” Rarity asked.

“Oh, uh, right now?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” Rarity said.

“Ok, Starlight, Spike, I’ll meet you at the train,” Twilight told them and they nodded and left.

Rarity’s gaze remained on Spike as he walked away.

“So? What did you need?” Twilight asked.

“While I am a tad sore from the training, I must ask where you all are headed, I was hoping to get some things off of my chest, but it seems you all are heading elsewhere,” Rarity asked.

“I need to visit the Crystal Empire, for several reasons,” Twilight said.

“The Crystal Empire?... could I perhaps join you on this excursion?” Rarity said getting an idea.

“Sure, I don’t see why not, why though?” Twilight asked.

“I need… a chat with Cadence, perhaps she can help me,” Rarity asked.

“Ok, well let’s get going then,” Twilight turned to walk away.

“Wait, shouldn’t I get a chance to prepare, I have make-up to apply, and scarfs to-” Rarity said.

“No Rarity, we need to get moving,” Twilight said.

“Oh… ok,” Rarity followed her, as the two caught up to the train which had seen more improvements since the last time, able to fit everydragon onboard.

And they also noticed Rainbow Dash was there, chatting with Spike and Starlight as well.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

“Hey Twi, just happened to be nearby and thought I’d tag along,” Rainbow said.

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked.

“Just… thought I wouldn’t mind some traveling, maybe get out of town for once in a while,” Rainbow said.

“I don’t see why not, let’s get moving,” Twilight said as the group climbed onto the train and a few guards who were stationed at the train made their way on as well.

As the train departed and vanished into the distance, Ember and the other dragons arrived back in Ponyville.

“Spread out and search! She has to be here somewhere!” Ember said.

“Got it!” The dragons present said before running off to search.

Fluttershy and Discord made their way back to Ponyville and Discord made some idle chit-chat.

“Admit it, you love rubies, with the way you were eating them,” Discord said.

“They are pretty tasty, now I see why Spike loves gemstones,” Fluttershy said.

“Speaking of things you love, what’s your opinion of the drake who was courting you?” Discord snarked.

“Not this again…” Fluttershy sighed.

“Oh no, not getting out of it this time, were you not also interested in him?” Discord asked.

“He… seemed nice, and more sensitive than most other dragons… but…” Fluttershy seemed hesitant.

“But?” Discord enquired.

“....I just… don’t see it working out,” Fluttershy said.

“...Is it because he’s a big scary dragon and you're a pony? It’s Spike and Rarity all over again,” Discord sighed.

“I actually don’t find him as scary since we’re a similar size and species now… but still, I’m nervous around him… like what if those horror stories about dragons are real?” Fluttershy asked.

“You shouldn’t judge a guy before getting to know him, who knows, maybe he can be the big irony of your life,” Discord said.

“Irony?” Fluttershy asked.

“Fluttershy who used to be petrified of dragons, being mates with the same big scary drake who scared her so much back in the day,” Discord said.

“Discord…” Fluttershy said.

“What? It’s true,” Discord said with a laugh and Fluttershy sighed but blushed a little.

As the group rode along in the train towards the Crystal Empire Twilight and Starlight chatted and Rainbow slept.

Spike looked over at Rarity, no doubt the most beautiful dragoness to ever exist, and he was still too young for her at the moment, the sooner he got his potion the better, deciding to pass some time however Spike scooted closer to Rarity who seemed distracted.

“Ahem,” Spike said.

“Huh?” Rarity looked down at the young dragon “Oh, yes Spike, do you need something?” Rarity asked.

“Just… wondering how you're doing,” Spike asked.

“I am doing quite fine…” Rarity looked away.

“Come on Rarity, I know that look, you're worried about something,” Spike said.

“It’s nothing,” Rarity said.

“You can talk to me,” Spike said.

“Well…. Ok, I suppose one of my concerns is how my business is going to prosper, Dragons our size requires more fabrics and I can’t always rely on Discord to provide it, I imagine he has his claws full as of late,” Rarity said.

“Agreed,” Spike said.

“And even then, I’ll have to double… no triple the gem supply I bring in, imagine how much that will take,” Rarity said.

“Hey, you're one of the best seamstresses I know, you got this,” Spike said laying his head against her thigh.

“Thank you dear,” Rarity smiled… before going into thought as to when she was to tell him that’s not what she was thinking about at all.

But rather… him.

Author's Note

The story is speeding up a little, and I think I'm finally almost out of my funk, hope you enjoy it. :pinkiesmile:

The Crystal Empire

As the train made its way to the Crystal Empire Twilight couldn’t help but hope that things at the Empire were okay, after all they had the Crystal Heart.

When the train arrived at the station however Twilight saw dragons occupying the empire.

“It was a feint hope,” Twilight said before turning to Rainbow who for some reason was silent the whole time.

“Rainbow, are you alright? You haven’t said a word the whole way,” Twilight asked.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, I’m fine, I just need some opinions answered and to get something while I’m here,” Rainbow said.

“Ok, as long as you're ok,” Twilight said as the guards exited first and then the dragons onboard exited as well.

As Twilight exited with Spike at her side they looked and saw that the Crystal Empire has also seen better days…

Multiple houses had bites taken out of them… as expected and the ponies looked generally uncomfortable in their new forms.

Before Twilight could question it she was grabbed from behind and scooped up.

“AH!” Twilight yelped and turned to see Shining Armor.

“Hi there Twiley,” Shining laughed.

“Shiny!” Twilight turned and hugged him as well.

“Hey!” Spike said.

“Spike! How’s it going?” Shining said kneeling down to see him.

“Good, glad to see you again, where’s Cadance?” Spike asked.

“She’s with Sunburst and the other scholars, she’s hoping to help find a cure,” Shining said.

“Well, I’d like to see her current work… Rainbow? Where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“Just to meet somedragon,” Rainbow said as she walked away.

“Is she alright?” Shining asked.

“She’s been acting weird lately, oh well,” Twilight said.

“Princess, if I may,” A guard dragon approached.

“Yes?” Twilight asked.

“We need to get moving to stay ahead of the evening train traffic,” The guard said.

“Good point, don’t want to get held up around here, come on,” Shining said leading Twilight in with the guards in tow.

Fluttershy made her way back into town with Discord and they saw several regular dragons searching the area.

“What’s happening?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ll ask, hey!” Discord caught the attention of Razer.

“Oh no,” Fluttershy said nervously.

“Hm? What do you need? I’m a little busy,” Razer asked.

“What’s up? Where’s the dragon tryouts?” Discord asked.

“Ignia is here, and we’ve been ordered to search the area for her draconic scent… speaking of which, h-hi,” Razer waved at Fluttershy who looked away shyly.

“Hi…” Fluttershy said.

“Oh come now, you two can-” Discord tried to say before a stern voice made them jump.

“Get back to searching!” Ember ordered.

“Yes mam,” Razer nervously said as he went back to searching the area.

“For a drake he’s pretty shy, wouldn’t you say?” Discord said.

“Discord, stop,” Fluttershy sighed.

“You’ll thank me later,” Discord said.

After an hour or two of looking Ember rounded up her dragons, looking frustrated.

“That witch must have fled to a different town by now, curse it all,” Ember said angrily.

“If only we thought to check Dumas’s scent before going to Tartarus…” The green dragon said.

“We need to spread out, I’ve ordered all the dragons from the dragonlands to resume their patrols, we’ll need somedragon to stay put in order to watch for her-”

“I’ll do it,” Razer offered.

“Razer… you're not doing this just to get closer to that dragoness who's really a pony are you?” Garble asked.

“If that’s your reason then no,” Ember said.

“Nonono, I am here for the mission, that’s it,” Razer said.

“...Promise to your dragon lord that you will focus, lest you forfeit half of your horde,” Ember threatened.

Razer gulped under her glare but he nodded.

“Very well, then let’s move,” Ember said to her fellow dragons and they flew off.

“...Oook… not how I pictured that turning out…” Razer shivered at the thought of letting go of half of his horde, so he turned and resumed his patrols.

“Please stop Discord,” Fluttershy said.

“Come on, you know you want to be with him, just trying to fan the flames,” Discord said.

“I don’t want you to,” Fluttershy said.

“Why?” Discord said.

“Because I don’t want you to!” Fluttershy said firmly.

“... You're worried you’d become incompatible if you became a pony again, especially given the gap in your lifespans,” Discord said.

Fluttershy looked away.

“There’s always another option to a dilemma,” Discord said.

“...Just leave it be,” Fluttershy said as she walked into her cottage.

“...” Discord stayed silent as he followed Fluttershy to her homestead.

Applejack found that shaking trees helped more than bucking them.

And thanks to Discord making the apples bigger there’s less worry of the Ponyville dragons eating them all.

Looking back on it this does have some benefits, Granny will live much longer now, work is less tough, and Apple Bloom seems to be enjoying it.

Speaking of which AJ wonders what is being taught in Mrs Cheerilee’s class today…

“Ok students, today we’ll learn the basics on gem types, now Opal does what?” Mrs Cheerilee asked, the purple and pink dragoness pointing at a chalkboard, simultaneously she was reading off of a book Ember lent her on crystals at Twilight’s request.

“Ugh, this is even more difficult than her usual tests,” Scootaloo sighed.

“Can’t wait ta get back to scourin the gem caves,” AB said.

“Me three!” Sweetie said.

“Are you three listening?” Cheerilee asked making the three whelps jump a little.

“Uh, yeah,” Scoots said.

“What did I just say?” Cheerilee asked.

“....Well…” Scootaloo, Sweetie and AB tried to guess it.

“See me after class,” Cheerilee said and the three sighed.

“Ah’ll bet they're havin fun learnin a new species traits,” AJ guessed, as she spoke to herself with a chuckle as she shook another tree and got more giant apples.

“That’s so weird,” Shining said now looking at an adult Spike standing in the middle of the lobby.

“I know, why can’t I just stay big?” Spike asked with a sigh as he shifted back into his smaller form.

“What? Do you intend to stay big? Why’s that? Won’t you miss your childhood?” Shining asked.

“Sure, but…. I have a good reason,” Spike said with a slight blush.

“Rarity?” Cadence asked as she came in and Spike looked embarrassed when she correctly guessed, good thing Rarity is using the 'powder room' at the moment.

“Ah hey Cady, there you are,” Shining Armor said seeing the big pink dragoness approaching.

“Cadance!” Twilight said happily and she and Cadance did their Laybug dance, which admittedly was weirder seeing a pair of big dragons performing the sacred sib dance.

After that, they all sat down and resumed chatting amongst themselves.

“I do admit things have been alot more interesting around here since we’ve turned into dragons,” Cadence said with a wink at Shining.

“You mean… ooook,” Twilight nodded.

“What can we say, we’re hoping to give Flurry a dragon sibling,” Cadence said.

“You're seriously trying to make a clutch of eggs? There’s no guarantee this is permanent,” Spike said.

“Well, on the offchance it is I’ll bet Flurry would love to be an older sister one day,” Cadence chuckled.

“Speaking of which, how is Flurry adapting to this?” Twilight asked.

“She’s still to young to really notice the difference between her current self and herself as an alicorn,” Cadence said.

“She’s been enjoying her fire breath, frankly we’ve been trying to curb it before she burns something,” Shining said.

“Well, while I have a chance, I need to ask about-” Spike began before suddenly Rarity came back into the room.

“I’m back,” Rarity said.

“Hello,” Cadence said.

“Ah…” Spike didn’t want to tell Rarity what his plans are yet.

Cadence nodded understandingly before turning to Rarity.

“Mrs Cadance… may we speak, in private?” Rarity asked.

“Certainly,” Cadence said getting a sense of what the conundrum was, she followed Rarity into a different room.

“Darn it, I had a question,” Spike said.

“You can ask me, I know some magic too,” Shining said.

“Alright, we came here mainly for an ingredient for the potion I’ll use to stop age shifting,” Spike said.

“So you and Rarity can be together if I’m understanding right? Don’t you think you may be getting ahead of yourself right now?” Shining asked.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked.

“Do you even know how to be an adult? The complications that come with it, being with Rarity may be a plus but you have to consider everything else you’ll be passing up on,” Shining said.

“Shining Armor is right, you’ll have to be ready for everything else and ready to give up on a large portion of your life, maybe you shouldn’t,” Twilight said trying to reason with Spike.

“I get what you guys are saying but… I have a shot to be with Rarity as equals in age, not to mention she’s a dragoness now, we have a chance at having a family together, I wouldn’t trade this chance for a few hundred years of regrets,” Spike said before looking accusing “You seem to want me to give up on Rarity pretty quickly, wouldn’t you do the same for Cadance Shining?” Spike asked.

“Well…” Shining had to admit he had a point, but still, how can he look past his brother giving up his childhood?

“Alright Rarity, you have me alone, what do you wish to ask?” Cadence said.

“I….I find this hard to admit….” Rarity said.

“Worry not, this zone is judgment-free,” Cadence said.

“Cadance, since you're the princess of love I hoped you’d be able to assuage my doubts, I have always dreamed… of a princely stallion, a high-ranking noble taking me on as his wife and whisking me away to high-life splendor…. But…” Rarity said with a worried look.

“Yes?” Cadence asked.

“Recently my feelings have shifted…” Rarity said.

“I see, so you don’t see a big handsome princely stallion as your husband anymore… but rather a certain young drake, more specifically his older form?” Cadence guessed.

“I… suppose you are the princess of love for a reason,” Rarity said with a sniffly laugh.

“Indeed, what about him charms you?” Cadence asked.

“....I don’t know…” Rarity admitted.

“Come again?” Cadence asked.

“I… read somewhere recently that adult dragonesses who are mateless will begin to yearn for one eventually, and that baffles me, is what I feel towards Spike’s older alter ego simply an effect of this reptillian form I’ve taken, or do I genuinely want to be with him? It’s driving me crazy!” Rarity said sounding like a dragoness at the end of her rope.

“Hey hey,” Cadence embraced the crying Rarity “I understand that these new instincts are messing with you, and you are confused if your feelings are real or not, answer me this, do you care about Spike?” Cadence asked.

“Yes, he is one of my closest friends,” Rarity said.

“What do you like about him?” Cadence said.

“Well… he’s a bit immature but he’s earnest, he cares about me, he’s kind, sweet, helpful, loyal, and… his adult form is quite handsome,” Rarity listed some of these things.

“Rarity, feelings are as deep as your care for somepony, if you are feeling this way about Spike simply because he turns into a handsome adult drake and you happen to be a dragon now, it means that maybe deep down, you truly do care about him in that way,” Cadence said.

“You… really think so?” Rarity asked.

“I know so, after all, I have my own dragon hubby, I always cared about him more than his looks, even back when he was a pony,” Cadence said.

“It does make sense, but as long as he’s shifting back and forth like this, I fear nothing can be pursued yet,” Rarity said.

“Then wait until he makes his decision on where he wants to go before asking him,” Cadence said.

“...You know what? I will do that, thank you Cadence,” Rarity said happily.

“It is no problem Rarity, now let’s get back to work,” Cadence said.

‘Ok,” Rarity said.

Ignia snuck through the castle, having successfully infiltrated The Crystal Empire.

“They never suspected a thing,” Ignia said as she shifted into a guard dragoness and took to the halls, scouring around for her planned theft.

“Just one chunk of that crystal heart and I will almost have the power necessary to truly erase ponykind,” Ignia said as she moved near some guards and gave a forced polite nod to them and they returned it.

“Now, where would the power source to the empire be?...” Ignia asked herself as she wandered up some stairs.

As she got up some floors she spotted several more guards heading her way and she flashed and turned into Cadence.

“Spying spell, shapeshifting spell, where would I be without you?” Ignia chuckled before strutting out in front of the guards.

“Hm? Princess Cadance,” The guards saluted.

“Hello my… beloved guards, I require a routine checkup on the crystal heart,” ‘Cadence’ said.

“Is there something wrong with it?” The second guard asked.

“There’s… a possible situation going on, and of course I know where it is but I would like for you two to take me there,” The fake Cadance said.

“Yes princess,” The two guards said as they turned and led the pink dragoness.

“Alright, in the case of mutant spells we need to find out the combination of spells and separate them by magic force, like breaking a bone at two points and reconnecting them,” Twilight said as she read some books.

“That’s not going to hurt, is it? It sounds painful,” Spike asked.

“Not a literal bone Spike, just an analogy,” Twilight said as she sifted through several more books.

“Ok,” Spike sighed.

“And furthermore, we’ll need some sort of catalyst for the potion to work, since this is ancient runic dragon magic,” Twilight said.

“I imagine that’ll be hard to find out,” Shining Armor said.

“It will without some means to find the information, we’ll have to ask Ember next time we see her,” Twilight said.

“Ugh, when is this waiting going to end?” Spike said.

“Calm down Spike,” Twilight said wonder where Rainbow was right now, she could use an extra claw in this.

“Well we should really get back to the affairs of the kingdom,” Shining said getting up “Your welcome to our supply of books as long as you're here,”

“Thanks, I appreciate-” Suddenly the building shook and the group looked around.

“Thaaat’s never a good sign,” Spike said.

“Somethings wrong,” Shining said as he got up and went to the doorway where Cadance came in.

“Did you guys feel that?” Cadence said.

“Yes,” The others present said.

“What was it?” Rarity asked.

“There’s something wrong with the Crystal Heart,” Cadence said.

“How do you know?” Twilight asked.

“I still have a connection to the heart, we need to check if it’s alright,” Cadence said before they made their way to the room.

“Wait for me!” Spike called as he ran after them.

“Sorry Spike!” Twilight ran back and picked him up before running back with the group.

“This way!” Cadence said as she led them up some stairs and they crossed into a hallway.

As they went up some more stairs they came to the room the Crystal Heart was stored in.

And they saw two incapacitated guards and an orange dragoness.

“Who is that?” Twilight demanded.

“HEY! Who are you? And what are you doing to the Crystal Heart?” Cadence demanded.

The dragoness ignored her and seemed to be reading something to the heart.

“I asked you a question!” Cadence said and Shining stepped forward.

“By order of the Crystal Princess and Prince, we demand that you-”

“Silence ponies,” Ignia said before turning and staring out at them.

“Who are you?” Rarity demanded.

“I would think you’d know,” Ignia said.

“No… Your Ignia aren’t you!” Twilight said getting ready to fight.

“Took you all long enough,” Ignia said before looking directly at Spike and frowning.

“What?” Spike asked.

“Oh, nothing… in any case, I do wonder if you’ll believe I am just passing through?” Ignia said.

“If you're the criminal who turned ponykind into dragons then we’re going to have to take you in,” Cadence said getting ready.

“I’m not going to Tartarus, not when my dream is so close,” Ignia said readying herself.

“You're outnumbered Ignia, you're coming with us,” Twilight said as the group got ready for a fight.

“I may be outnumbered, but I’m far from defenseless,” Ignia said before she made a hand sign.

“Look out!” Twilight said sensing she was about to do something.

“Reva!” Ignia said and an orb of light formed in her hand and she batted it at the group with her hand.

When it hit the ground it burst into a flash of light that stunned everydragon.

‘Ah! My eyes!” Rarity cried out as she fell down.

“Agh!” Shining grunted and he stumbled back as the flash blinded him.

“Stop her!” Cadence shouted as she tried to rub her eyes.

“Farewell!” Ignia said as she turned and ran for the windows.

“No!” Spike shouted, having shielded his eyes in time along with Twilight and they ran after her.

“Ignia broke through the windows and flew out towards town.

“Throw me Twilight!” Spike said.

“Are you crazy?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Trust me!” Spike said.

“...Spike you could-”

“I have a plan!” Spike said.

“...Ok!” Twilight said as she grabbed Spike, raised him up and she threw him with all her draconic might and he flew towards Ignia.

“Please let me be right about this…” Spike thought.

“Now that I have some of the Crystal Hearts magic I can- OW!” Ignia grunted and she turned her head and saw Spike clinging to her tail with his teeth.

“You…” Ignia said before shaking her tail violently “Release me ponylover!” Ignia shouted.

“Noch a chansh!” Spike grunted as he held on and he grabbed her tail and he hoped that it was going to happen now of all times… and it did.

Spike suddenly grew into a full-sized drake.

“Huh?!” Ignia exclaimed and Spike's sudden weight gain pulled her out of the air “Aaaah!” Ignia tried to flap her wings but Spike was too heavy and she was unable to fly.

“This is going to hurt!” Spike said as they crashed through a building’s roof and several floors before they tumbled out onto the side of a patio and they fell onto the ground.

Both laid there, groaning, as they got up Spike saw he shrunk again.

“Oh man, of all times I had to shrink,” Spike said before seeing Ignia getting up and glowering at him.

“That is going to cost you child…” Ignia said before grabbing Spike up by his neck.

“Agh! Let go!” Spike choked.

“Past be condemned, I will stand for Nodragon getting in my way!” Ignia snarled.

“What?” Spike said confusedly before she threw him onto the ground and raised a foot.

“No!” Spike staggered back.

“DIE-” Suddenly Ignia was tackled from behind by a blue blur and the two tumbled.

“Huh?” Spike looked up and saw Rainbow Dash struggling with ignia “Rainbow!” Spike exclaimed.

“Leave my friends alone!” Rainbow said punching Ignia in the face.

“You get off of me!” Ignia said before grabbing Rainbow by her neck and slamming her head on the ground to her side and she used Devnak while she was pinned and Rainbow was knocked out.

Ignia got up and opened her jaws to bite down on Rainbow’s neck when Spike ran towards her.

“No!” Spike said.

Suddenly Ignia was blasted in her side with a fireball and sent tumbling, as she struggled to get up she saw the other members of the group flying towards them.

“SPIKE! RAINBOW!” Twilight called.

“Guards! Surround her!” Shining ordered and the guards did so.

“Tch… This isn’t over,” Ignia said before she made the hand sign again and formed the sphere of light.

‘NO!” Shining breathed a gout of fire at her but she suddenly used her other hand and made another sign.

“Balko!” Ignia said and a barrier formed in front of her, blocking the fire before she threw the orb at the ground and it exploded making every guard present stumble back clutching their eyes, she then ran away from the group and shifted into a different dragoness and ducked into the crowd that was forming on the side of the conflict.

“NO!” Shining tried to follow her but she managed to escape amidst the crowd “Curses!” Shining growled before running back to the recovering guards.

“Spread out amidst the city walls and train station, she doesn’t leave!”Shining ordered.

“Yes sir!” The guards nodded before flying off.

“Is everydragon ok?” Cadence asked.

“Spike?!” Rarity exclaimed seeing him looking a little injured.

“I’m fine, Rainbow saved me,” Spike said.

Rainbow was snoring on the ground but Twilight picked her up and shook her waking her.

“HUH!?” Rainbow exclaimed seeing the commotion.

“Rainbow, are you alright?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah! Yeah…” Rainbow sighed getting up and turning towards the others.

“We almost had her,” Shining cursed.

“We’ll find her again, somehow,” Twilight said… before spotting something, she walked over and picked it up.

“What is it?” Spike asked.

“One of her scales…. I wonder… I may take this, see if it can help,” Twilight said.

“Well, I have to coordinate a full search before she escapes, good luck,” Shining said before flying off.

“Come on, we should get back, I have a lead we can follow now,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” The others said and they walked back to the castle, as they walked back Spike couldn’t help but think back to what Ignia said.

“Past be condemned, I will stand for nodragon getting in my way!”

Author's Note

Twilight may have found a solution with Ignia's scale, and Ignia's plan is slowly reaching fruition as she escapes.

Who will come out on top?

Getting work done

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! :rainbowdetermined2:

Battle at The Cave of Harmony

Twilight and the others made their way out of the hospital with Tirek hidden in a sack.

‘Why do I have to be in here?!” Tirek demanded.

“We can’t risk anypony seeing you, can you imagine what’ll happen?” Twilight said.

“Ok ok! Just hurry,” Tirek said.

“Alright,” Twilight and the others made their way to a guard stationed outside.

Fluttershy paused and looked back.

“Shy come on!” Rainbow said.

“B-but Razer,” Shy said.

“Later, come on, we need all claws on deck,” Rainbow said.

“O-ok,” Fluttershy said as she followed and they caught up to the others.

“We need that train moving ASAP, time is of the essence,” Shining said.

“Yes sir!” The guard said before running off.

“We have to move,” Shining said before the others followed him to the train, and when they made it to the train, they saw, much to their horror, that the train was destroyed.

“What the?!” AJ exclaimed.

“What happened?!” Shining demanded.

“I-I don’t know, the train was arriving on schedule and then suddenly it crashed, I think some dragon took out the tracks.” The conductor said.

“Ignia…” Shining said

“No… how will we get to Canterlot now?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know…” Twilight said before they heard laughing, and it was coming from the sack on Twilight’s back.

“You fools, have you forgotten a certain Draconeqqus?” Tirek asked.

“He’s right, but how do we call him?” Twilight asked.

“I have an idea!” Pinkie said “This will involve putting some dragon in danger though,” Pinkie said looking upset at the thought.

“What are you thinking Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy flew up high in the air.

“Pinkie! I don’t like this!” Fluttershy said worriedly.

“Don’t worry! I am eighty-nine percent sure that this’ll work!” Pinkie said as she flew beside her.

“That doesn’t make me feel much better!” Fluttershy said as she arrived at the clouds.

“Now, drop!” Pinkie said folding her wings and falling “Wheeee!” Pinkie cheered.

“Oh… please work!” Fluttershy folded her wings and she fell as well and they both plummeted to ground level.

“I don’t like this plan!” Fluttershy cried.

‘Trust me!” Pinkie exclaimed.

They approached Terra Firma, Applejack, and Rainbow ready to save them last second if he didn’t show.

“Come on Discord… where are you?” Rainbow asked.

When they got too close to the ground Rainbow was ready to jump in but suddenly a giant Discord-shaped balloon appeared beneath them and they bounced off of it and landed on the ground.

“Ooof!” The two dragons grunted.

“Now now now, if you wanted to get my attention you should have tried simply calling,” Discord said appearing out of a door in midair and he walked up to them.

“Discord? Why did you wait until the last second?” Fluttershy asked.

“I didn’t notice until you were near the ground, seriously though Pinkie, not a good way to get my attention,” Discord said disapprovingly.

“Sorry,” Pinkie said.

“Are you both alright?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, just a little shaken up,” Fluttershy said.

“So, what was so important you needed to endanger my friend's life?” Discord asked.

“We need your help getting to Canterlot, Ignia is planning to wipe out Ponykind completely, mind and all,” Twilight said.

“Oh my that is serious, what do you think Luna?” Discord asked her and Luna looked startled by their sudden appearance.

“Huh?” Twilight noticed they were already in Canterlot.

“When did we-” AJ asked before Discord chuckled.

“I teleported us while you were talking,” Discord said.

“Why am I not surprised,” Rarity sighed.

“Twilight?” Celestia approached.

“Celestia, did you get the letter?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, and if what you said is true, then we must hurry,” Celestia said.

“Where could she have gone?” Twilight asked.

“If what you mentioned is true she must be thinking to get at the Crystal Heart once more, we should unify our forces and-” they heard chuckling and then the nearly forgotten sack Twilight was carrying dropped to the ground and a familiar centaur stepped out.

“Fools, you really think Ignia would be that predictable?” Tirek asked.

“TIREK!” Celestia said getting into a defensive stance and Luna growled.

“Hold it hold it! I’m calling a truce!” Tirek said defensively.

“Like we’ll believe you-” Celestia said before Twilight got between them.

“Wait! He’s here to help!” Twilight said.

“Tirek? You're kidding right?” Luna asked.

“I know, it makes me want to puke to work with ponies or dragons, but the situation is dire, no ponies, no magic for me, so I’ll share my knowledge on dragon runes, in exchange for a reduced sentence,” Tirek said.

“Tell us everything and we’ll take half off,” Celestia said, though it pained her to make a deal with Tirek.

“Now we’re talking, I need a paper and pencil,” Tirek said.

“Ok,” The Twilight said.

Ignia was riding on a different train and she clutched the papers protectively.

“Soon Magmus… very soon, and I know where to go after this… then the world we dreamed of will be born,” Ignia said before stepping off of the train as it arrived in Ponyville.

“Just need to collect some… followers first,” Ignia said.

Tirek wrote down all the spells Ignia was using and even some he suspected her to use.

“Alright, I have the spells I know of, she may know more but this is what I believe she knows,” Tirek said handing Celestia the notes, she listed them off.

Rouk: Illusion spell.

Var: Invisibility spell

Devnak: sleep spell.

Reva: flash spell

Zuke: Attack spell

Balko: Blocking spell

Livio: spying spell

Spall: mind control spell

Torque: Age spell

Vellp: shapeshifting spell

Drauvaga: Dragon spell

“That Spall one has me nervous,” Rainbow said.

“Don’t be, that one requires the sacrifice of energy to use, Ignia would be crazy to use it on more than a few dragons,” Tirek said.

“Drauvaga must have been the spell that was used to affect everypony,” Twilight said.

“It makes sense, is there anymore?” Luna asked.

“If there was I would have put them there!” Tirek said.

“Calm down, we need to think then, is there a way we can use her runes against her?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, Balko, it can block any offensive attack,” Tirek said.

“How do we use it?” Spike asked.

“Say Balko and hold your hands like this, try it,” Tirek said making a hand sign.

“Alright, stand back,” Twilight said before making the hand sign and saying, Balko.

….Nothing happened.

“Idiot, the sign is like this, not that,” Tirek said making the hand sign again.

“Sorry,” Twilight said doing so.

“Now it’ll only truly activate when you're in danger, keep that in mind,” Tirek said before turning to address the princesses.

“Alright, I held up my end of the bargain, where’s my pardon?” Tirek asked.

“Reduced sentence, remember?” Celestia said.

“Ugh…” Tirek said.

“Wait, we still need to find Ignia,” Twilight said.

“Where’s the place in Equestria with the most magic?” Tirek said simply.

“That would be………oh no…” Celestia said with wide eyes…

“Where?” Spike asked.

“The Tree of Harmony…. We have to stop her!” Celestia said.

“Then time is of the essence,” Luna said before turning to Shining “Shining Armor, collect the troops, we need everydragons help,” Luna said.

“Ok!” Shining said and he hurried off.

“We move as soon as possible,” Celestia said and the group nodded and went with her.

Tirek looked around and tried to sneak off but a guard apprehended him.

“And take him back to Tartarus, we’ll work out his reduced sentence later,” Celestia said.

“Ugh…” Tirek sighed.

It took an hour or so but every guard was at the ready, Shining was giving rollcall and making sure everything was ready.

Meanwhile Celestia led the mane six and the others to the carriage.

“Prepare yourselves, this confrontation may be what decides Ponykind's fate,” Celestia said.

“Ok,” Twilight said.

“I’m ready,” Rainbow said.

“Let’s do this,” AJ said the others nodded.

“Let us be off then,” Luna said and they got into the carriage and took off for the tree.

Shining finished rollcall and ordered the troops to fly after them.

Soon an army of dragons were on their way.

As the group sat in the chariot, nervously awaiting the final battle, Pinkie had stuck her head out the broken window that Rarity broke.

“Back in chapter three,” Pinkie added.

“Alright everydragon, we head to the tree and if Ignia isn’t there, we guard it with our lives, if we fail here, then Ponykind as we know it, is doomed,” Celestia said.

“No prob, we got this,” Rainbow said.

“Temper your eagerness with caution, Ignia is a dangerous one from what we’ve heard,” Luna said.

“C’mon, I don’t care how strong she is, we’ve got an army of dragons behind us, what’s she gonna do?” Rainbow asked.

“You’d be surprised,” Discord said.

The chariot was approaching Ponyville and Pinkie looking down saw a familiar orange and red dragoness simply standing in the middle of an empty Ponyville, waving at them.

“There she is!” Pinkie said.

“Wait, you already found her?” Celestia said and Pinkie pulled her head back and Celestia looked through the window, after seeing Ignia she turned to the dragons pulling the chariot.

“We need to head down there!” Celestia called.

“Ok,” The guards then made for Ponyville and landed rather roughly against the dirt.

Suddenly the chariot was opened and the group came out of it.

“IGNIA!” Twilight yelled and Ignia looked at her smugly.

“You cannot go any further sorceress! We have you surrounded,” Luna said

“Hmm?” Ignia looked up at the skies and saw the many guard dragons descending towards Ponyville.

“Face it, we figured out where you were going, and now we have you cornered, so give up and come quietly Ignia, it doesn’t have to end like this,” Twilight said.

“Oh… so you think you have me dead to rights, do you? That I’m outnumbered?” Ignia asked.

“Uh, yes, you are,” Rainbow said.

“Just please give up, this doesn’t need to go any further,” Twilight pleaded.

“.....Hah, you expect me to give up when I’m this close to achieving a perfect world? A world without ponies, you're mistaken, I’m not the one in danger here, you are.” Ignia said before she started to flicker.

“Huh?!” Everydragon exclaimed.

“I’m not even here anymore, but I’d be remiss to not leave you without company, followers! Show them the true dragon way!” Ignia said before she vanished.

And suddenly houses left and right broke apart and dragons hopped out.

“HUH?!” Twilight stumbled back as Octavia burst out of Sugarcube Corner and swiped at her.

“What’s going on?!” Rarity cried.

“Something bad,” Spike said as everydragon in Ponyville was now surrounding them.

And their eyes had this dazed look in them.

“Wait….” Twilight remembered one of the spells Tirek told them of.

Spall: mind control spell

“They’ve been mind-controlled, Ignia has brainwashed Ponyville!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh great! She baited us again,” Rainbow said.

“Wake yourselves my little ponies, you’ve been brainwashed!” Celestia said.

“It’s no use, they are under her control now,” Luna said.

“Immediately the dragons surrounding them breathed fire at them and Celestia and Luna used their greater size to cover the six and Spike.

“AAAGH!” Celestia and Luna cried.

“Guards! Get down there!” Shining ordered seeing his friends and family in trouble and they dove down there.

The guard dragons began ramming the Ponyville dragons away from the group to protect them.

One dragon lunged at Twilight but Shining shoulder rammed him away.

“I got you Twiley!” Shining said.

“Guards! Subdue only! Their under control!” Celestia said.

“Alright! Guards! Attack!” Shining said and the guards began fighting with the Ponyville dragons.

“We must get to Ignia! This is merely a distraction,” Celestia told Twilight.

“Ok!” Twilight and the others nodded and they took off running through the flames and chaos erupting around them.

Several dragons chased after them but Discord blocked them.

‘I’ll contain the fighting! Get moving!” Discord said.

“Ok!” The group said as they moved along.

Twilight and the others ran through the Everfree forest while RD was in the sky, looking around for the draconic sorceress.

“We must get to the Cave of Harmony first! There’s no telling what’ll happen if we’re too late!” Celestia said.

“Guys! Up ahead!” Rainbow called as she flew above.

“Huh?” The group paused as they saw a figure up ahead.

“Ignia!” Twilight said.

“I got her!” Rainbow dove at her but she went through her, revealing it was an illusion.

“Hahahaha! Will you ponies ever not fall for that?” Ignia asked now standing to their left.

And to their right, and above them, and soon there were Ignia’s everywhere.

“Show yourself, vile creature!” Celestia said.

“Oh I’m vile? At least I wasn’t a pony at one point, but it seems my plan worked regardless,” Ignia said.

“How were you able to brainwash everypony in Ponyville?!” Twilight demanded.

“Simple, I used the energy I got from the Crystal Empire, worked easily enough, so much for your army, now while you search for me, I’ll be on my way,” The Ignia said before laughing.

“Spread out and search! She must be here!” Celestia said and the group took to the air and began searching.

Applejack punched another clone and it vanished.

“Better keep trying!” The Ignias laughed.

“Ah’ll find ya eventually, and ah’ll buck ya to Tartarus!” AJ said striking some more,”

Rainbow flew around the forest breathing fire on as many Ignia clones as possible.

“Come out!” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity used their fire to take out as many copies as possible.

“It’s no use, we can’t find her!” Fluttershy said concernedly.

“Keep searching!” Pinkie said popping in and out of sight taking out many Ignia copies left and right.

Spike ran among the copies.

“Show yourself, coward!” Spike said.

“Such gusto from such a small dragon,” Ignia said.

“Just wait till I’m big again!” Spike said.

“But it’s such a shame you turned out to be a pony lover,” Ignia said.

“I’m not you Ignia! I’ll never be you!” Spike said.

“Heheh, you clearly don’t understand your own origins if you're willing to take me on,” Ignia said.

“What do you mean?! Why did you choose me in the first place to act out your plan? What did you mean back at the empire?” Spike asked.

“....It’s so very simple….” Ignia said.

“What?” Spike said looking at the talking clone.

Twilight ran with Celestia and they saw several copies in front of them, using their fire breath they took out the copies.

“Tch, we’ll never find her like this!” Twilight said.

“Then we must proceed to the Cave of Harmony, she cannot reach the tree!” Celestia said before the two ran off.

“No… NO!” Spike said backing away in horror.

“That’s right, and she killed him, do you understand now?” Ignia said.

“....What you said is a lie, it has to be!” Spike said.

“Believe it or not, stand by me or don’t I leave it up to you, but either way, progress is progress, will you be a part of it?” Ignia said.

“.......No…. No I won’t, I have ponies I love and will fight for!” Spike growled as he grew bigger “I don’t care who you are, you're nothing to me if you hurt them!” Spike roared.

“....Disappointing, then me and Magmus wasted our efforts with you, goodbye then,” Then the Ignia clones vanished around him.

“....I have to find Twilight,” Spike said before running off.

Luna flew around the forest, unlike the others she’d been practicing non-stop on honing her dragon senses and it would help her find this witch!

Luna swooped low and saw more clones scattered through the forest.

But she could smell one unlike the others…

“YOU!” Luna dove down on one running across a stony path and she looked up at the descending princess as she clashed with her.

The group continued their search until they noticed the copies of Ignia glitching and disappearing.

“What happened?” Rainbow asked landing next to Twilight as the others gathered.

“Somepony must have found her and disrupted her magic,” Twilight reasoned.

“Luna or Spike isn’t here, it must have been one of them,” Celestia said.

“We have to find and help them,” Twilight said.

“We need to find the Cave of Harmony, they may be over there,” Celestia said.

“Ok,” Twilight said and the group took to the air and flew in the direction of the cave.

As they finally saw the Cave of Harmony they saw a startling sight.

“Luna!” Celestia saw Luna being dragged by Ignia, Ignia turned and cursed under her breath as the other dragons landed opposite side to her.

“Such a persistent lot you all are,” Ignia said with smug.

“Face it Ignia, you can’t beat all of us,” Rainbow growled.

“Give me my sister back!” Celestia demanded.

“Very well, after all the soon to be dragon nation needs both rulers,” Ignia chucked Luna at their feet and Celestia picked her up.

“Luna, are you okay?” Celestia asked as Luna looked up at her weakly.

“....Celestia…. We were wrong…. about what Ignia is…” Luna gasped.

“What?” Celestia asked.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“She… isn’t a dragon…. She’s…. A monster… through and through….” Luna said.

Ten minutes ago

“Zuke!” Ignia fired several spell shots at Luna who dodged around them and swung her claws at them, Ignia dodged them and used Var to vanish.

Smelling the air Luna spun and used her tail to trip Ignia and then she pounced on her.

“Ngh! Not bad, you’d make a fine dragon!” Ignia said before using another hand sign “Reva!” A bright flash occurred but Luna shut her eyes in time, but Ignia kicked her off and got up before tackling her off of a ledge, as the two fell to ground level in the Tree of Harmony area Luna grabbed onto Ignia.

“WHAT IS IT!? What is the reason you loathe ponies so much?! Did they kill somedragon you care about?! Did they hurt you in any way?! Is there an ancient grudge?! What is your reason for doing all this Ignia!? Why?!” Luna demanded.

“Quiet your whining pony!” Ignia said before using Zuke to blast Luna off of her and Luna hit the ground hard while Ignia managed to land on her feet, Ignia then spun and fired a dozen Zuke’s to blast Luna over and over again.

When it was over Ignia stood over her.

“You wish to know the reason why I hate ponies so much, pony?” Ignia laughed a little before grabbing Luna by the neck and holding her up.

“The answer is simple…..I don’t have one,” Ignia said.

“W-what?” Luna said in shock.

“They never did anything to me, nothing that fully mattered anyway,” Ignia said.

“Th-then why?....” Luna said trying to grasp what she was getting at.

“I hate ponies because they're inherently inferior…. They have such incredible shows of magic and yet, their weak, they cower under the smallest circumstances, mewling to their leaders to save them, dragons face whatever threat with all their determination, but ponies, such potential, wasted, and it boils my blood that we must share a world with them, dragons have always been superior, Magmus and I believed that, but all other dragons seem content with the ‘leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone’ circumstances, pathetic, this world would be better, if such weakness vanished,” Ignia said.

“You….racist scum,” Luna said.

“Call me what you want, I simply have a vision of a better world, and that world can’t exist with ponies in it, Magmus died forging step one, and I will happily trade mine for step two, soon, very soon, the world will belong to warriors, not mewling magical equines,” Ignia said “But at the very least, I’ll let you witness the end of Ponykind,” Ignia said before dragging Luna away.

Now

“Unbelievable…. You hate ponies and want to erase them simply because you feel that they're inferior? You're… not even a monster, you're a straight-up devil!” Twilight shouted.

“Like I care what you think,” Ignia said with a chuckle at Twilight's accusation.

“We won’t let you get past!” Celestia said “I will not allow this genocide to go on!” Celestia growled.

“You’ll have to get past us first!” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah!” AJ said.

“Heheheh, you think you can win against me? When my dream is this close to fruition?” Ignia said before a fireball impacted her in the back and she turned to see Spike standing there.

“Ah, he arrives,” Ignia said.

“Twilight!” Spike flew over her and landed next to her.

“Heh, well Spike, are you going to tell them?” Ignia said.

“...” Spike looked down.

“Tell us what?” Rainbow asked.

“...later, for now, we need stop her.” Spike looked conflicted.

Twilight smiled and nodded before they all turned to Ignia.

“Give up Ignia, you cannot win in this situation,” Celestia said putting Luna down beside her.

“Oh? I can’t?... Your mistaken pony, I have all the capability to take all of your lives,” Ignia said before making a hand sign “SPALL!” Ignia shouted.

“Balko!” Twilight said getting in front of the group and a barrier of magic protected them.

“Hah! We have the means to resist your runic magic Ignia,” Rainbow taunted.

“Hmmph… I suppose you had Tirek help you learn some runic magics, I knew I should have killed that centaur, luckily I have another trick up my sleeve,” Ignia said before producing a rune stone.

“Be careful, she’s up to something,” Celestia said.

“You will find that Runic magic can do many things, but this is the one Magmus invented, it will be the end of you all, and the swan song of the pony realm!” Ignia said with a laugh before she began chanting and the stone glowed brightly.

“Great! Now what is she doing?!” Rainbow demanded.

“Vranda zel asma denak darka,” Ignia chanted before swallowing the stone and looking up with glowing blue eyes “Valek ran dival,” she said before a massive glow overtook the area.

Shining threw a dragoness into a house knocking her out.

“Hah…hah….hah… how many are there!?” Shining said as a drake came at him and he dodged.

“Let’s hope Fluttershy and the others are okay!” Discord said making it rain anvils on the attacking dragons before they all saw a glow in the distance.

“What is that?” Shining asked as he struggled with another drake.

“Trouble…” Discord said.

“What’s happening?!” Twilight asked before she noticed Ignia growing bigger and developing armor-like spikes out of various parts of her body, her horns grew and her scales became black and like stone, she towered above the group of dragons and grew until she rivaled an Ursa Major in size.

She then opened her maw and unleashed a roar that echoed for miles.

“What in tarnation is that!?” AJ exclaimed.

“She’s huge!” Spike said.

“She’s…. Become a primal dragon….” Celestia said fearfully.

“A what?” Pinkie said

“A primitive breed of dragon that was feared even by other dragons,” Celestia backed up.

“So, mountain-sized destroyer dragon… good to know,” Rainbow muttered as the massive dragon glowered down at them.

“Move aside, or die,” Ignia said her voice having deepened into a low guttural tone.

“Girls, Spike… we’re in for the fight of our lives,” Luna said managing to struggle to her feet.

“Then let’s go,” Spike said.

The final battle begins…

Author's Note

The final battle is on the horizon, be ready for the next chapter.

Also, Happy Easter! 🐰

Clash of dragons

“I said move!” Ignia threw a punch and the dragons scattered.

“How the hay are we gonna bring something that big down!?” Rainbow demanded.

“By working together, remember my little ponies, united we can defeat any evil,” Celestia said as she ran around Ignia’s stepping feet “We just need to-” Celestia was scooped off the ground by Ignia and was held up to her face.

“You talk too much princess, be thankful I won’t kill you, can’t say the same for your student!” Ignia said with a laugh before she threw Celestia at a wall and she cried out as she impacted it and slid to the ground.

“Celestia!” Twilight cried before she took to the air and flew at Ignia, breathing fire, Ignia held a massive hand forward and blocked it, she pressed through it and swatted Twilight out of the air.

“Aah!” Twilight cried.

“I got you!” Fluttershy said as she jumped up and caught her.

Applejack and Pinkie ran up behind Ignia and spun and bucked her in the leg, making her leg slide a little but not knocking her foot out from under her.

“Annoying little pests! Accept your erasure!” Ignia said as she swung her massive tail at the two and Applejack tackled Pinkie out of the way as the tail destroyed multiple trees.

Spike and Rarity flew overhead and breathed fire on the side of her head, Ignia grunted and turned to them.

“Decent flames, now see mine,” Ignia grinned before she opened her maw and a glow came from her mouth.

“I got a bad feeling about this!” Spike said before tackling Rarity out of the air.

“Ah!” Rarity yelped as they narrowly avoided a massive column of flames that blasted into the cloudy skies.

“Whoa!” Rainbow said as she saw this before she flew at Ignia’s head and when Ignia turned to her Rainbow punched her in the face, Ignia responded by swatting her out of the air.

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried before she and the others ran at Ignia.

“RRRRAGH!” Ignia swung her fist down at the ground and it created a powerful shockwave that sent everydragon flying.

“AAHH!” Twilight and the others yelled as they were sent flying.

“Learn your place insects, dragons rule this world now,” Ignia said as she approached Twilight.

“Ngh…” Twilight sat up and widened her eyes as she saw Ignia raise a foot.

“You die first,” Ignia said before her eyes widened and she growled and turned to see Luna biting her tail.

With a flick of her tail she sent Luna flying.

“Luna!...” Celestia got up and ran forward to catch Luna but Ignia swung her hand down in front of Celestia, stopping her.

“You need a rest princess, Devnak!” Ignia said firing a bolt at Celestia from her hand and Celestia had dodged the first one but a second one hit her and she cried out before hitting the ground “Your magic can’t save you now, but honestly, even if you were all alicorns, this situation would still be hopeless!” Ignia laughed before picking up Celestia and chucking her into the forest beside Luna.

“Leave my friends alone!” Spike said getting up and flying at her but with surprising speed she turned and grabbed him.

“You should have joined me, but oh well, I’ll have alot of like-minded drakes and dragonesses soon to aid me soon,” Ignia said before slamming her hand down and pinning Spike down.

“AAAGH!” Spike grunted and he shrunk down.

“Small, weak, the lot of you,” Ignia said before she picked up Spike and held him over her maw.

“LET HIM GO!” Twilight lunged from her position and grabbed onto Ignia’s mouth, holding it closed.

“Mmmh!” Ignia growled and she tossed her head from side to side with Twilight holding on.

“I….WON’T… LET…. YOU… HURT HIM!” Twilight growled and she swung her claw and struck Ignia in the eye.

“AGH!” Ignia snarled and she tossed her head to the side and flung Twilight back to ground level and dropped Spike while clutching her eye.

“Spike!” Twilight cried, but Pinkie came out of nowhere and caught him.

“I got him!” Pinkie said before Ignia’s foot swung and Pinkie narrowly dodged out of the way and ran back to Twilight and the others gathered.

“We’re barely makin a dent in her, an the princesses are down!” AJ said looking tired.

“She really knows how to take it out of you,” Rainbow panted.

“What do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know… we’re up against a threat unlike anything before,” Twilight said looking up at Ignia dismayed.

“We can’t give up here girls, ponykind is at stake,” Rarity said.

“I-”

“Sunk in yet?” Ignia asked and they turned to see the massive dragon approaching them, baring a scratch on one of her eyes, which wasn't bleeding for some reason.

“Ignia…” Twilight muttered.

“You're only prolonging the inevitable,” Ignia said.

“You monster,” Rainbow growled getting up and growling at her.

“For such an interesting little diversion, I’ll grant you all a quick death,” Ignia said before opening her mouth and the glow came forth.

“Girls…” Twilight said looking at them and they nodded sympathetically before they braced for it.

“DIE!” Ignia lunged her head forward to breath fire… before a series of fireballs struck her and threw her aim off.

“NGH!” Ignia grunted and looked to the side before several dragons rammed her, knocking her over.

“Huh?” Twilight said before someone landed in front of them.

“You guys alright?” Ember asked.

“Ember?! When did-” Twilight asked.

“Thank Discord, he sent a distress signal, alerting us of the situation,” Ember said.

“Discord?” Fluttershy said.

“You came at the right time,” Pinkie said.

“Let’s hurry, she can’t reach the cave!” Ember said.

“We’ve tried but nothing works!” Rainbow said.

“Because you're still fighting like ponies!” Ember said.

“What?” Twilight said.

“Stop fighting like ponies and fight like dragons! You don’t have magic anymore so get with it!” Ember said before flying off.

“Fight like dragons…. Girls?” Twilight looked to her friends and they nodded.

“Alright, no more playing around then,” Twilight said, putting Spike out of harms way and they rushed in to join the fray.

“GET OFF!” Ignia sprung out of the trees and tossed several dragons off before grabbing one off of her, and biting his wing off, and chucking him at Ember who dodged.

“You witch!” Ember yelled before shooting several more fireballs at Ignia who tanked them and she took a swing at Ember who flew around it.

“Your father was always too weak to do what was necessary to ensure draconic rule! Magmus was more of a leader than he will ever be!” Ignia said as she swung at Ember several more times and Ember flew back away from them.

“My father is capable of accepting there were other races in the world smaller than him! He’s more of a dragon than you’ll ever be!” Ember bit back before one of Ignia’s swings grazed her knocking her off balance.

“INSOLENCE!” Ignia said before she swung her claw again and struck Ember sending her flying.

Twilight jumped forward and she sank her teeth into Ignia’s leg and Rainbow jumped onto her side and slashed her flesh with her claws.

“Ngh! You little-” Ignia said before Pinkie jumped onto her neck and bit down and Fluttershy flew into her head.

“GET OFF!” Ignia shouted before swatting Pinkie off.

She growled as Fluttershy breathed a gout of fire into her face, Applejack aided by instead of bucking she full on rammed Ignia’s leg knocking it out from under and she fell forward.

“NO!” Ignia screeched as she hit the ground and she hit the ground with an earth shaking thud.

“Did that do it?” Twilight flew above her.

Suddenly Ignia opened her red eyes and she immediately rolled on the ground forcing the dragons clinging onto her to get off, less they be crushed.

“How can she still have strength left?” Twilight said before Ignia’s tail struck her out of the air and she tumbled towards the cave.

As Twilight landed she slowly got up, as she was about to run back out there she saw something odd.

Footprints… into the cave…

“What?” Twilight looked up and saw the tree itself starting to flash and glow.

“Wait… what’s…” Twilight narrowed her eyes and saw a rock fall from the ceiling as the fight outside rumbled… and bounce off of thin air…

“No… it was another diversion!” Twilight shouted and she ran into the cave towards the tree.

“Zuke,” A bolt of magic zapped the ground in front of Twilight and she looked up and growled at the reappearing dragoness.

Ignia was standing right there.

“Your clever pony, I figured I played the role well enough,” Ignia said.

“How?... you turned into that giant dragon out there,” Twilight said.

“Maybe I was giving you too much credit, the spell was to create a massive construct, not turn into a Primal Dragon, I guessed if you all thought I was out there fighting you, you wouldn’t pay attention to what’s in here,” Ignia chuckled.

“So you could finish your spell, we’ve been played again,” Twilight cursed.

“You all really need to wizen up,” Ignia said with a chuckle “You caught me in the middle of my spell, but no deal, I’ll simply kill you right now and resume,” Ignia said.

“I’ll stop you!” Twilight said before breathing fire at her.

“Balko,” Ignia used the protection spell to block the flames.

Twilight rushed at her and lunged.

“Zuke,” Ignia blasted Twilight with a bolt sending her flying, Twilight tumbled and landed.

“You…” Twilight struggled to her feet.

Ignia chuckled “The world moves on Twilight, why can’t you just accept it?” Ignia asked.

“I refuse to let you destroy the memory of ponykind, you think dragons should rule the world, but what about the ponies who don’t deserve this?! What about the ponies who work towards a better tomorrow?! What about the history of ponykind, the future harmony we’ll all reach together? The school that teaches all the races how to coexist! You don’t have to destroy it! Ponies and dragons can coexist,” Twilight pleaded.

“...” Ignia stared at her.

“Please Ignia, stop this, nocreature is superior to another, we’re all equals when we-'' Twilight tried to reason but Ignia suddenly burst out laughing.

“Oh dear… I was struggling to keep a straight face, but I couldn’t, not when you're spewing that garbage at me,” Ignia chuckled.

“Huh?” Twilight said.

“You talk about equality? About ponies and dragons existing on a similar standing? About friendship?.... What a pile of garbage, I’ll be sure to purge such nonsense from the mind of everypony else,” Ignia said before turning and resuming.

“NO!” Twilight rushed at Ignia but she spun and blasted Twilight with Zuke again and Twilight tumbled back.

“Rushing to your death?” Ignia said approaching “Have it your way, one less dragon won’t damage anything,” Ignia said before muttering ‘Ralts’ and her claws ignited, lengthened, and glowed.

Twilight looked on nervously as she approached.

“This spell can burn through even adult dragon scales, so long princess, I’ll leave a footnote about your…. Untimely passing,” Ignia said before raising her claws.

“NO!” Spike in adult form rammed her off her feet and pinned her.

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

“Release me!” Ignia said before slashing Spike across the arm spilling blood.

“AGH!” Spike grunted before she kicked him off.

“Spike!” Twilight ran over and Ignia dodged her pounce and whipped her with her tail.

Spike caught her tail and tossed her.

Ignia rolled on the ground and she breathed a gout of flame on Spike as he ran at her and he stumbled back.

“I have to hurry!” Ignia ran at the tree but Twilight got in front of her and tackled her down and they rolled on the ground clawing and biting at eachother.

“Look who finally became a dragon!” Ignia said with mock congratulations.

“I have to stop you!” Twilight punched Ignia but Ignia grabbed her arm and swiftly rolled on top of her and wrapped her tail around Twilight’s neck.

“Drop dead!” Ignia said before Spike took to the air and flew at her.

“Zuke!” Ignia said and she fired several shots at Spike.

“Focus…” Spike told himself, hoping that his recent discovery works… and he shrank down avoiding the shots.

“What?!” Ignia exclaimed before Spike suddenly grew big again and he rammed her off of Twilight and against the wall.

“AGH!” Ignia said as she struggled with Spike, thinking fast she used Vellp and turned into Twilight as Spike raised a fist.

“Huh?” Spike said.

“Weak pony hearted dragon,” Ignia grinned before turning back and breathing fire into his face making Spike yell and stagger back.

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

“I’m ok!” Spike said before he saw Ignia running for the tree.

“No!” Twilight cried and she took to the air and flew at Ignia, Ignia turned and used Rouk.

Multiple Ignia’s appeared and Twilight tackled the wrong one.

“Huh?!” Twilight looked around.

“You're in my way!” the real Ignia picked up a large rock and threw it at Twilight.

“NO!” Spike cried as he jumped in front of Twilight and took the hit, knocking him to the ground.

“Tch!” Ignia ran for the tree again and Twilight saw what happened to Spike and she growled before charging after Ignia and tackled her down just as she was about to reach the tree, Ignia reached for the tree.

“I’M…SO….CLOSE!” Ignia yelled.

“I WON’T LET YOU!” Twilight shouted.

“RELEASE ME PONY!” Ignia said as she dragged herself towards the tree.

“She can’t reach the tree!” Twilight panicked.

Both got into a struggle, one trying to reach the tree and the other trying to hold onto her.

“STOP!” Twilight cried as the tree’s glow got brighter.

“NOT AS LONG AS I LIVE!” Ignia screeched.

Thoughts raced through Twilight’s head, of her family forgetting who they were, pony society falling apart, harmony forgotten, the other races suffering from dragon overpopulation.

If she doesn’t do what needs to be done…

“...Forgive me, Celestia…” Twilight grabbed a large rock off of the ground and she lunged onto Ignia further and smashed it down on her head.

“AGH! WHAT ARE YOU-” Twilight slammed the rock on her head over and over, trying to either kill her or render her unconscious.

A rage-fueled desperation had gripped Twilight and she smashed the rock onto Ignia’s face over and over again, as she raised the rock again-

A fireball blasted the area in front of them, propelling them away from the tree.

As they both tumbled back Twilight looked up in surprise and saw it was Spike.

“Twilight….” Spike groaned as he limped over to her.

“S-Spike I-” Spike slapped her and she looked up at him in surprise.

“Never… go that far, you're not her,” Spike said, Twilight looked at Ignia as saw her breathing raggedly, her face was bloody and her nose was broken.

“I… got so scared and…” Twilight said.

“It’s alright, I stopped you before you could…” Spike said.

“Spike, thank you I-”

“ZUKE!” Suddenly Twilight was blasted from behind and she landed in Spike’s arms.

“Twilight!” Spike looked up and saw Ignia struggling to her feet.

“I… thought she was going… to kill me back there, looks like there’s a true dragon in her yet,” Ignia chuckled.

“You monster,” Spike said as Ignia hobbled over to them.

“I’ve come too far to be stopped by a petulant child and a princess pony… you both will NOT get in my way!” Ignia said before forming the hand sign again.

Spike set the unconscious Twilight down and got in front of her.

“I’ll kill you… don’t think I won’t…” Ignia said.

“Then do it… but I won’t submit to you,” Spike said

“Then die…” Ignia said before she made the hand sign, she readied the spell.

“ZUK-” and she was struck from behind in the back of the head with a large rock and she hit the ground unconscious.

“Huh?” Spike said before seeing that the one who did it was none other than Luna.

“You forgot to render me unconscious too,” Luna said.

“Luna!” Spike ran over to her.

“It’s over,” Luna said.

“How did you-”

“I was about to return to the fight, but then I noticed Twilight running into the cave of Harmony, I decided to hobble over and see why,” Luna said.

“I guess it’s a good thing we both listened to our instincts,” Spike said.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy tumbled to the ground and looked up to see the primal dragon still attacking.

“How is she not even worn out yet?!” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said before they saw the giant dragon turn its attention to them and it raised a fist.

“Shy! We need to move!” Rainbow said.

“I can’t…” Fluttershy tried but she was exhausted.

“No!” Rainbow jumped over her to shield her as the giant dragons fist came down on them… and scattered to ashes.

“Huh?” Rainbow looked up and saw the dragon construct fading away and vanishing.

“...What?” Rainbow and the other dragons looked on in surprise as all that was left was a rune stone that the light faded from.

Shining and the other dragon guards were battle-worn and backed up as the mind-controlled Ponyville dragons were ready to continue attacking.

When suddenly they began shaking their heads and snapping out of it.

“Huh?” Mr Cake said.

“Wha… what happened?” Mayor Mare asked.

“Their snapping out of it?” Shining asked.

“Then they must have done it,” Discord sighed in relief.

“Whew…. That was close…” A guard sighed.

Gradually all the dragons stopped fighting and they took account of their injuries.

“What just happened?” AJ demanded.

“It just vanished,” Ember said.

“Where did she go? Is she invisible again?” Rarity asked.

“No,” They all heard a voice and saw Spike, Luna, and Twilight dragging the real Ignia out into the open and they threw her unconscious body at their feet.

“What?” Ember said.

“She was fooling us all along, she made a construct made of rune magic, but we stopped the real Ignia,” Twilight smiled at Spike and Luna.

“Wow, she had us again,” Rainbow sighed.

“We need to alert the guard, this crisis is over,” Luna said.

“Let’s get moving then,” Ember said before turning to her dragons and ordering them to apprehend her.

The dragons moved forward and dragged the sorceress off.

“Is… it finally over Twilight?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, it is,” Twilight said with a smile as the sun peaked through the clouds, signaling the end of Ignia’s terror.

But there were still things that needed to be done.

Author's Note

I give credit to Bronyfan96 for proofreading this chapter.

But just because Ignia is defeated, this adventure isn't quite over yet. :pinkiehappy:

Returning to normalcy

One month later

Alot’s happened since the situation with Ignia.

For one Ponyville was being repaired, it took awhile but there were plenty of claws on deck.

“Look out below!” Pinkie said as she helped fix the sign on Sugarcube Corner.

“We’re being careful Pinkie,” Mr Cake said as he was fixing a wall that got smashed in.

There were a few irreparable things.

“Applejack, help me move this dead tree here,” Granny said as she tried to move a downed tree that was burned during the attack.

“Alrighty,” AJ said as she moved the tree to a pile of dead trees.

But what was important was that everypony was okay, and the town was repairable.

As for Ignia… it seems that when she came too, she was belligerent and uncooperative in aiding in the situation, unsurprisingly…

She’s being held in Tartarus in a special cage that could hold her and for good measure, Discord is to check up on her every now and then to make sure she doesn’t escape until the solution is found.

As for the solution…

There seems to be no way to glean the info from Ignia, even having Tirek use a truth spell seems to be ineffective, as Ignia knows how to use the rune spell Balko without a handsign.

In the end it seemed ponykind was on its own in finding the cure.

“We need to search further! She has to have a secret reversal spell!” Twilight said looking stressed out as she ran through several tomes from the dragonlands.

“If she did she did a good job of hiding it…” Tirek said as he dug through another shelf.

“I wouldn’t think even in this place of draconic knowledge there would be dragon rune books, otherwise we would have had a defense sooner,” Starlight said as she flew around looking.

“Then what do we do?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t look at me pony, I’m strictly looking out for number one here, if we can’t find a solution then I’ll just head back to-”

“No. we. aren’t, listen, we need to get moving, if a solution isn’t found soon we’ll never reverse Ignia’s spell,” Twilight said.

“You're not thinking-”

“We need to see her again,” Twilight said.

Tartarus

“She won’t talk to us,” Starlight said as they walked past the guards stationed at the entrance, due to a change in protocols, more guards were needed than usual.

The group entered Tartarus and made their way down some stairs to a darker area of Tartarus.

And they approached a cage with a familiar dragoness in it, she was wearing a specially made fireproof, magic proof, straightjacket.

“Hello Ignia,” Twilight said.

“Hmmph…” Ignia grunted in acknowledgment.

“Look, we can play this silent game for years, or we can end it now, what is the spell to undo this,” Twilight demanded.

“...” Ignia just looked annoyed.

“Ignia, please, so many ponies are wanting to return to normalcy, you lost, you might as well tell us,” Twilight pleaded.

“....” Ignia stayed silent.

“TELL US!” Tirek said losing his cool and firing a weak truth spell at Ignia, who just muttered ‘Balko’ and it was blocked.

“Calm yourself Tirek,” Twilight said.

“You're asking me? I just want this all to be over with!” Tirek said.

“You're never going to get it out of me Twilight,” Ignia said suddenly.

“Finally decided to talk?” Starlight asked.

“Yes, if just to tell you lot to go jump off a cliff,” Ignia growled a little.

“Ignia, why perpetuate this? You lost, there’s no victory in the end for you now, no benefit to this,” Twilight pressed.

“On the contrary, I benefit from seeing you ponies running around like a bunch of scared chickens trying to find a secret I’ll never tell, and besides, I may not have mentally wiped ponies out, but at least Equestria is now ruled by dragons, my intent is fulfilled either way,” Ignia said “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a life sentence to enjoy,” Ignia said before laying back down.

“She won’t talk Twilight, let’s just go,” Starlight said.

“...Ok, we’ll find the cure, one way or another Ignia, you can bet on that,” Twilight said as she and the others left.

“Good luck,” Ignia chuckled as they disappeared through the door.

Another month has passed…

The search was looking bleaker by the day…

No solution has been found and the dragons are growing restless.

But something good did happen in the middle of this month at least.

The royal dragon carriage parked outside of the Crystal Empire,

Celestia, Luna and the six stepped out and with them, Spike.

“I hope it works,” Spike said as he suddenly became and adult dragon again and he stumbled a little from it.

“I hope so too dear,” Rarity said nuzzling up against Spike making him blush.

“Last chance Spike, do ya really want to give up yer childhood?” AJ asked as they entered the castle.

“I’m sure, I never liked being a kid anyways,” Spike said.

“Well… ok, just don’t regret it later,” Twilight said as they approached the science lab.

“Yay! Soon I’ll be throwing a get together party!” Pinkie cheered.

They entered and saw Starlight and Sunburst chatting rather close to eachother, when they noticed the others they turned to them.

“What’s up?” Spike said with a raised brow.

“We interrupt something?” Rainbow asked with a smirk.

“Uh, no, nothing happened… so hey, want to get this done?” Sunburst said as he walked over to a fridge in a corner and pulled out a black liquid.

“Eugh, that looks gross,” Spike said as he shrunk down again.

“It will be, but this is what you wanted, the month long chilling period is over, so I suppose all that’s left to do is chug it and hope for the best,” Sunburst said.

“...Hope for the best? As in you don’t know whether this’ll kill me or not?” Spike asked.

“Well, I a hundred percent doubt it will kill you… but there’s always a chance it could have an unforeseen side-effect,” Sunburst said.

“Spike, if that’s the case, maybe you shouldn’t,” Rarity said worriedly looking down at him.

“...I’ll do it,” Spike said.

“Spike-”

“I didn’t spend over a month hoping and waiting to just turn away last second, you and me are finally dating, when i’m big at least, but I want to go further, and we can’t if I’m small,” Spike said.

“Ok, just be careful,” Fluttershy said.

“Ok, best to wait until you're big again,” Sunburst said.

“Gotcha,” Spike said, the group stood there waiting anxiously Spike turned to his left and saw his reflection, and decided to dedicate it to memory because this was the last time he was going to see this version of himself if he had anything to say about it.

He suddenly sprouted into adult form and he turned to Sunburst.

“I’ll hold back any transformations, hand it over,” Spike said.

“Good luck,” Sunburst said handing him the potion.

“Well… down the hatch,” Spike said before pouring the black potion down his throat in one gulp.

He gagged and nearly threw it back up, but he held it down.

“Ugh! It tastes like year old jade,” Spike gagged.

“Well? Do you feel any different?” Twilight asked.

“Hmm…” Spike let go of his restraints and even tried to force himself back into his child form, nothing happened.

“I-I think it-” Suddenly an intense pain hit his stomach and he fell to the ground clutching his stomach.

“SPIKE!” Rarity cried rushing to his side as the others did the same.

“AGH!” Spike grunted as he felt intense pain bubbling up from his stomach, all the way up his neck and he shoved the others away before he clambered to a window, opened it and heaved as it came out his mouth.

A massive gout of black flames, afterwards Spike fell on his back and coughed.

“Spike! Are you okay darling?” Rarity ran over to him.

“Ugh… that was not fun… did it work?” Spike asked.

“Yes, I think it did,” Rarity said.

“We’ll have to wait and see if-... guys?” Twilight paused when she saw the two making out.

“Wow, they move fast,” Rainbow said.

“Come on now, let’s get moving, Spike needs to rest,” Twilight said walking up to them and helping Spike up as Rarity got off of him.

“So… guess I’m now a big dragon for good?” Spike asked.

“Like I said, we’ll need to wait and see,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” Spike said before smiling at Rarity and she smiled back, feeling the heat that she feels when she’s around his adult form, and she’s no longer fighting it.

“Let’s get going,” Twilight said and they both walked out together, ready to pursue greater things.

The next week

Fluttershy waited outside the Winterbrooke hospital, she had Twilight accompany her, to visit a downed drake.

The doors to the hospital opened and exiting was a familiar red drake.

“Thanks, for the help,” Razer said as he exited and he paused when he saw Fluttershy and Twilight.

“Oh… hey,” Razer blushed.

“Hey…” Fluttershy blushed

“So… the intense head trauma is fixed, my head still aches everynow and then but, seeing your face again makes the wait worth it, so how about that volcano visit? I know a cozy volcano over by-” Razer nervously said.

“Razer… stop,” Fluttershy said.

“Wh-what do you mean?” Razer said.

“I intend to be a pony again,” Fluttershy said.

“You can’t!” Razer said suddenly before pausing “I-I mean…” Razer said before Fluttershy looked down.

“You're a very sweet drake, you don’t need to act tough to me, I am willing to still be friends, but… I don’t want to be a dragoness, I like being a pegasus, I can have fun with my animals again, and-”

“So I’m being rejected…?” Razer asked.

“Not rejected it’s just…” Fluttershy attempted.

“You’d rather a stallion? You'd prefer a short life? You’d choose a happy pony life over a scary dragon… I get it, I’ll leave then,” Razer said turning to leave but Fluttershy grabbed his shoulder.

“Please let me explain,” Fluttershy pleaded.

“You’ve explained enough… I’m rejected, why wouldn’t you? I’m the least tough drake of my size, I’m going to go tell the others and hibernate for… I don’t know… the rest of my life…” Razer said before shrugging her hand off and flying away.

“Razer!” Fluttershy tried to follow him but he disappeared into the distance, she fell over and watched him go, she began to cry.

“It’s alright Fluttershy,” Twilight said patting her shoulder.

“Is it?... I’m so confused Twilight…” Fluttershy said.

“What about?” Twilight asked.

“I… do care about him… but I want to return to my pony life… which do I choose?...” Fluttershy asked.

“I can’t say, only you can,” Twilight said honestly.

Another month passes

The Equestrian dragons began to lose hope they were ever going to be fixed, but Twilight never gave up.

She continued her work throughout the weeks, she had ultimately started to wonder if there was a cure, but her assistant, who had shown no signs of turning back into his child form allowing him and Rarity to begin dating, made a discovery.

Spike and Twilight were in Canterlot, late at night, searching through several of the notes Tirek had listed out.

“Ugh… I need more coffee,” Twilight said looking tired.

“It helps if you sleep more often,” Spike said.

“I can’t rest until this cure is found…” Twilight said.

“You're no help to the situation if you're a tired basketcase,” Spike said.

“But Spike…” Twilight mumbled before she fell forward onto the desk and began snoring.

“There we go,” Spike said before picking Twilight up and carrying her to the couch and setting her down and she slept there.

“Oook, better make my own way to bed…” Spike said as he began closing up shop.

As he moved to put away Tirek’s gatherings on dragon runes, he noticed a slip of paper fall out of an unread portion of the book.

“Huh?” Spike picked it up and unfolded it, and it was a page on rune difference.

“Darn, I was hoping that- huh?” Spike looked to see a small footnote in the corner of the page that mentions a theory, that reversing a rune reverses the spell… but it's only a theory Tirek came up with… could Spike trust it?...

“I may be onto something here…” Spike said as he moved to place the stuff back on the table and he picked up the paper with rune names on them.

“What spell would work in my favor if spoken backwards?” Spike wondered outloud.

The next morning

Tirek trotted through the door with a couple of escort dragons.

“Alright I’m here, can you let go of my arms?!” Tirek demanded.

“It’s alright guys, let him in,” Spike said and the guards did so and left.

“Sheesh, how am I going to get any rest when I’m being pulled out of Tartarus everyday?” Tirek demanded.

“Listen, I may have found a solution, but I needed a knowledgeable person in here with me,” Spike said.

“Why didn’t you ask her?” Tirek said pointing at Twilight who was still asleep.

“Because you know dragon rune magic, now listen, do you remember that theory you had about whether or not reversing a rune will fix things?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, what about it?” Tirek asked.

“I need you to tell me the effects of these runes if spoken backwards,” Spike said as he handed the paper to Tirek.

“If it’s theoretical how would I know the effects, I’m sure even Ignia doesn’t know,” Tirek said.

“Just make a guess,” Spike urged.

“Ok ok, based on assumption I assume that Rouk dispells illusions, Ralts would give you… ice claws?... I’m ninety percent sure most of these don’t even have a reverse function,” Tirek said.

“What about the ones that do?” Spike asked.

“I’d assume Var makes invisible users visible, Devnak makes others wake up, and Livio would… I don’t know, make you see into your own mind,” Tirek said.

“Wait! See into my own mind… as in reading memories?” Spike asked.

“Once more, this is hypothetical dragon, how do you know this will work?” Tirek asked frustratedly.

“...Anything is worth a shot at this point,” Spike said before he turned to Tirek again “How does this Livio thing work?” Spike asked.

“It helps you spy on others or to read minds, using this hand sign,” Tirek said making the sign with his hand.

“Alright, now we’re getting somewhere, okay, let’s get moving,” Spike said turning around and setting up a mirror before stepping back.

“This is going to end in disaster, what does looking into your own mind even have to do with solving this problem anyways?” Tirek asked.

“I was the tool Ignia used to do this to the world in the first place, maybe I can be the tool to fixing this,” Spike said before forming the handsign and saying.

“OIVIL!” Spike said and suddenly his view shot forward and then rebounded off the mirror and back at him.

He opened his eyes and saw he was now inside a green void with tons of images floating around.

“Ok, it worked. I’m literally reading my own mind,” Spike said before thinking carefully and trying to remember what happened on the day Equestria was turned into a second dragonlands by Ignia.

As he remembered various things from his past he saw various memories floating by.

“Ok Spike, be careful,” Spike said to himself as he thought about the events at the dragon lands… and he saw himself being controlled by Ignia and used to attack his friends, and reciting something, he couldn’t understand all of the words but he got something out of it.

The final announcement by Ignia that triggered the change in the first place.

“Draconum potestatem frange?.... And the reverse would be… I get it now, LIVIO!” Spike called and he was suddenly outside his head and he shook his head to clear the dizziness.

“About time, we’ve been standing here watching you stare off into space for an hour now,” Tirek said.

“Spike, are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“Just testing a theory, and it looks like it was right! Twilight I got it!” Spike said excitedly and he ran over to the table and worte down the words from his memory trip.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Twilight, do you remember the words spoken to activate the super rune that caused the initial situation?” Spike asked.

“Yeah…. I think…” Twilight furrowed her brow trying to think of it.

“Draconum potestatem frange, that was the spell that was used to do this all in the first place! And now we have the means, Tirek, what is the translation?” Spike asked.

“Dragon cast rune, why?” Tirek asked.

“We say it backwards we can fix this!” Spike said.

“Backwards…. I never thought of that! Spike your a genius!” Twilight hugged him.

“It worked for Livio, it could work here, can I go yet?” Tirek asked with an eyeroll.

“Not quite yet, we need to gather the others, test this out,” Twilight said.

“Ugh, this is why I hate ponies,” Tirek sighed.

“Egnarf mesatsedop mumocard?” Ember asked, confusedly trying to recant it.

“No, Egnarf metatsetop munocard, according to Spike it can fix any transformative rune,” Tirek said.

“Including the one that was used to turn ponykind into dragons?” Celestia asked.

“One way to find out, stand over there,” Tirek said.

“Alright,” Celestia said as they set up the test area.

“Should we test on a volunteer first?” Twilight asked.

“I am fine with going first my student,” Celestia said as she stood in the center of the room “This won’t hurt will it?” Celestia asked.

“I hope so, after all the trouble this situation has given me, now hold still,” Tirek said before he formed several hand signs “Egnarf metatsetop munocard!” Tirek said and a bright beam shot from his hands and struck Celestia who yelped in surprise before a glow overcame her.

When the glow faded everydragon looked and was surprised to see that a familiar alicorn stood before them they all gasped in surprise.

“D-did it work?” Celestia asked.

“It did, you are a pony again!” Luna cheered before running up to her sister and hugging her.

“Ow! I’m not a dragon anymore, stop squeezing!” Celestia gasped.

“Sorry sister,” Luna said with amusement before turning to Tirek who looked a little tired.

“Hurrah, I expect my sentence to be further reduced because of this,” Tirek snorted.

“We’ll discuss that,” Luna said “Are you able to do it again?” Luna asked.

“Without magic, no,” Tirek said.

“Then we must teach others how to use it immediately, gather the dragons who can be trusted with this task,” Celestia ordered.

“Yes princess,” The guards said, sounding eager to return to normal.

It took awhile but several dragons including Starlight, Sunburst and even some dragons from Celestia’s personal friend group and the school of friendship, were taught the cure to the dragon spell.

Not wanting any panic of any sort, they decided to do this one town at a time, and in weeks time the pony population was slowly but surely recovering.

Now came Ponyville.

The dragons of Ponyville cheered as they heard a cure to the dragon change was found.

And so dragons everywhere were eagerly awaiting Celestia’s arrival.

Meanwhile the mane six and Spike were hanging out beside the crowd

“Ah can’t wait ta be a pony again,” AJ said.

“I don’t know, maybe I can afford to continue being like this,” Pinkie said.

“Say what? You want ta stay a dragon?” AJ asked.

“Yeah, being a dragon is cool!” Pinkie said.

“I want to be a pony again, being a dragon was cool but I miss being able to fly fast, do rainbooms, and control the weather,” Rainbow said.

“And I miss being able to do magic,” Twilight said.

“...” Fluttershy looked conflicted.

“You okay Shy? You’ve been looking like you want to say something for awhile,” Rainbow said.

“I… don’t,” Fluttershy said.

“Well, when you want to I’m here,” Rainbow said.

“What surprises me is Rarity choosing to stay a dragoness,” Twilight said.

“I have simply chosen to remain as I am, because Spike convinced me to,” Rarity said.

“Yeah,” Spike wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in closer and she hummed.

“Daww,” The other girls cooed.

“But real talk here, are we sure we want to all be ponies again?” Spike asked.

“Sure, I don’t want to lose my ability to do rainbooms forever,” Rainbow said.

“And ah gotta be able ta work at the farm again,” AJ said.

“And how can I be the princess of magic if I’m a dragon?” Twilight asked.

“You could just study it,” Spike said.

“I don’t know,” Twilight said unsurely.

“What about you shy?” Rainbow asked.

“....” Fluttershy didn’t answer.

“Shy?” Rainbow asked again, but before she could respond they heard loud cheers from the other dragons and they turned to see a carriage arriving.

“Looks like it's time,” AJ said as they all got up.

“Alright, attendance is mandatory, so let’s get moving,” Twilight said and they went over to the crowd.

And the cheers got louder when they saw a pony Celestia exiting the chariot along with Starlight and Sunburst who were still dragons and they approached.

“Calm down my little ponies!” Celestia called with the Canterlot voice and they did.

“As you can very well see, I have been returned to my equine form, I now with the help of some volunteers restored at least a quarter of Equestria’s ponies, and I am certain that the rumor mill is active on this, I am here to help restore you all to your original forms,” Celestia said and the dragons cheered, hearing that.

Starlight stepped up “If you’ll all form a line with the guards help, we can get this started,” Starlight said.

Lyra was first, she stepped up into the middle of town and Starlight stood there before she rapidly made the hand signs and spoke the rune backwards.

“Egnarf metatsetop munocard,” Starlight said and she fired a beam at Lyra, upon hitting her she glowed and when the glow subsided, she was a pony again.

“YES! I’ve never been so happy to have hooves again,” Lyra said pronking all over the place.

“Me next!” A drake called.

“Mares first!” Another dragoness said.

“No me first!” A whelp demanded.

“SILENCE!” Celestia called from above and she flew up to the dragons “You will patiently wait your turn, understand?” Celestia said, not wanting a riot.

“Ok,” The pony dragons said.

It has been an hour and already half of Ponyville were ponies again, to avoid any issues the ponies were made to stand on one side and dragons on the other to avoid anypony from being stepped on.

“Next!” Starlight panted.

“You should rest,” Sunburst said.

“Good idea,” Starlight walked away and Sunburst took over, as they took care of several more dragons they saw the pony side getting bigger.

“Honey!” Mrs Cake ran to her pony husband and hugged him.

“It’s good to be back,” Mr Cake said.

“Whew, next up Rarity Belle,” Sunburst said and Rarity walked up to him before she cleared her throat.

“This may come as a surprise to you all, but I wish to remain as I am,” Rarity said earning a gasp from multiple ponies.

Discord who was watching the whole thing from atop a building, eating popcorn chuckled.

“Had a feeling, and better yet the author finally remembered to put me in this chapter,” Discord said.

“You’re… certain Rarity?” Sweetie Belle asked approaching her, now a pony.

“Yes, you all see… I found love at long last, and that is with my mate to be, Spike,” Rarity smiled at Spike who walked up to her and hugged her and she hugged back.

The other ponies went ‘aww’ as they saw the two hugging.

“And look what I gave her awhile ago,” Spike said before Rarity reached into her dragon-sized saddlebags and pulled out an enormous diamond.

Everypony gasped, remembering Ember’s teachings, blue diamonds are given between dragons who wish to get married!

Immediately the ponies stamped her hooves in approval and the remaining dragons clapped.

“OMG! WEDDING PLANS! WHERE DID I PUT MY WEDDING PLANNER!” Pinkie cheered before running off.

“Ah had a feeling,” AJ said with a smile.

“I am happy to hear this, well if you wish to tie the theoretical knot, then you have my blessings,” Celestia said happily.

“Alright, next is Pinkie… where is Pinkie?” Sunburst looked around but Pinkie popped up next to him.

“FOUND IT!” Pinkie said and she hopped over to the two dragons and began reading out what they’ll need for the wedding.

“Um… Pinkie! It’s your turn to be reponiefied!” Sunburst called to her.

“Oh, no thanks, I like being a dragon!” Pinkie said before resuming.

“...Not even going to question her on that,”

“Alright, next up is Twilight Sparkle,” Sunburst said.

“Ok,” Twilight said as she walked towards the spot, before she could however Spike stopped her.

“Wait, Twilight…” Spike said.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Are you sure? I mean, Rarity and Pinkie are choosing to stay as is, maybe we can all be dragons,” Spike said.

“Spike, I’m the princess of magic and friendship, I can’t govern the power of magic as a dragoness,” Twilight said.

“Sure but I mean, we could all be together longer and in similar ways if we’re dragons…” Spike said.

“...Sorry Spike, but I have to return to normal,” Twilight said before she continued on.

“...Ok,” Spike said.

“Hey, no biggie, we could always find a way to hang out like we used to as ponies, and dragons, congrats by the way,” Rainbow said patting Spike on the back.

“Thanks,” Spike said as a flash occurred and he looked to see Twilight as an alicorn again.

“I am glad to be back to normal,” Twilight sighed with relief.

“Ok then, next up is Applejack,” Sunburst said.

“Bout time,” AJ went up to the spot where the detransformations had been occurring.

“I assume you want to be a pony again?” Sunburst said.

“Eeyup,” AJ said readying herself.

“Ok!” Sunburst performed the spell and AJ was back to normal.

“Yeehaw! Back in business!” AJ said happily.

“Ok, next up is Rainbow Dash,” Sunburst said.

“Alright, so long scales, hello feathers,” Rainbow said as she walked over to the spot and the spell was performed on her and afterwards Rainbow without warning shot back into the sky and performed a rainboom.

“Uh… is she coming back?” Sunburst asked.

“AAAWWW YEAH! Rainbow Dash is back!” RD said as she did several corkscrews and swoops over their heads.

“Watch it,” Sunburst said ducking a swoop.

“Sorry, now if you’ll excuse me I gotta check my home for birds,” RD said as she flew off.

“Next up then is… Fluttershy!” Sunburst called.

“O-ok,” Fluttershy moved to enter the firing range… and paused as a memory of Razer entered her mind, she looked away.

“Fluttershy?” Sunburst said.

“I-i’m fine,” Fluttershy entered the shooting range.

“Ok, let’s get this over with then…” Sunburst prepared the spell, he rehearsed it in his head a few times, and he prepared to say it.

Fluttershy had a few more thoughts pass through her head… and she remembered how she and Razer met, he courted her even though she was really a pony… he saved her…

“Egnarf metatsetop!” Sunburst fired the spell.

“I don’t… I DON’T WANT THIS!” Fluttershy hit the ground before it hit her and it struck another dragon instead, she got up and ran off.

“Fluttershy?! Come back!” Rarity said but Discord stopped her.

“She just realized something, let her be,” Discord said.

“Oooh…” Rarity said worriedly.

Fluttershy ran through the forest with tears in her eyes and she ultimately tripped and landed in front of a lakeside, as she got up she saw the water was lava.

“This… is where me and Razer met again…” Fluttershy said as she noticed Discord never returned the lava back to water.

As she decided her actions from before meant she’s made her choice she climbed into the lava and sighed as she laid back to think about what she was going to do now.

“Even I never suspected I would do that… I… think I do care about him… but… no… I do care… I need to find him,” Fluttershy said coming to a decision she got out and took to the air again.

“Whew…” Sunburst sighed as he sat back and Starlight finished up with the remaining dragons.

“So… uh, Sunburst?” Spike asked as he approached the tired drake.

“Hmm?” Sunburst said.

“What about you and Starlight? Are you two going to return to normal?” Spike asked.

“No, we decided to remain as is,” Sunburst said.

“Really?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, we… kinda wanted to explore some things together, and dragon forms offer new opportunities and-”

“Yeah, yeah, just invite me to the wedding,” Spike chuckled as Sunburst blushed.

“Alright, Bulk Biceps is staying a dragon too, that means we’re done here…” Starlight wiped her brow and walked over to Sunburst and helped him up.

“Thanks for everything Starlight,” Twilight said flying up to her.

“No problem, we have to get moving, there are more towns to fix,” Starlight said.

“Ok,” Twilight said and the two dragons moved on.

“So… um Twilight, I was hoping you’d be the spokespony for me and Rarity’s wedding?” Spike asked.

“Of course, I’m so happy for you two,” Twilight said hugging Spike’s snout.

“Thanks,” Spike said.

“I just hope Fluttershy is okay,” Twilight said.

“I’m sure she’s just looking for a place to cool down,” Rarity said.

Fires blazed in the dragonlands as Fluttershy stood at the edge of it.

“Ok… time to do what you thought you’d never do… go into the dragon lands of your own accord… here we go,” Fluttershy said before she wandered in.

Author's Note

Surprise, sorry for the wait, but I have been in a bit of a creative funk as of late, but I won't let this story die.

I am nearing the end and some more surprises await, sorry for the wait. :pinkiesmile:

A shy dragonesses adventures in the dragonlands

Fluttershy wandered through the harsh wasteland and looked for Razer.

“I need to set things straight once and for all, and I can’t do that as a pony,” Fluttershy said trying to reassure herself.

As she made her way to some lava pools she saw some drakes laying in the lava.

“U-um, hey,” Fluttershy asked and they noticed her.

“Oooh, hey there beautiful,” A drake smiled.

“H-hey, I was hoping you would point me to a red dragon named Razer, his den I mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“She doesn’t have a marking scent, she’s not taken,” A red drake said to another.

“Yeah, and she’s a hot one, let’s get her,” A blue drake said and they got out of the lava and approached her.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well you aren’t taken, and you approached a group of drakes, don’t you know the rules? Now we’re gonna have some fun,” One of the drakes said.

“Oh dear…” Fluttershy cursed herself.

Fluttershy was hidden behind a large rock panting.

“Whew, managed to get away, who knew the dragons had such a surreal way of choosing a mate…” Fluttershy said before continuing onto a more careful search.

As she made her way over a hill she saw more lava pools and some dragonesses lounging in them.

“Alright, this should work,” Fluttershy said going up to them.

Fluttershy was hidden behind another rock and panting heavily.

“That was insane, who knew dragonesses were so hostile,” Fluttershy said before shaking her head “I need to learn the ways of this place, before I end up dead,” Fluttershy said before taking to the air.

As she flew she suddenly felt a weight on her wing and she turned to see Discord laying on it.

“How’s it going Flutters?” Discord asked.

“Discord? How long have you been here?” Fluttershy asked.

“Since you ran from Ponyville,” Discord said.

“....And you didn’t think to help me when I was nearly dogpiled by drakes and attacked by dragonesses?” Fluttershy gave him a flat look.

“I erased your scent so they couldn’t find you,” Discord said.

“Still, what am I going to do? This land is so different from Equestria,” Flutters said.

“I get that, You're trying to communicate as a pony, be more dragon-like,” Discord said.

“How do I do that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Be more aggressive, so they know you're not a weak dragon, you're a strong one,” Discord said.

“.....Or I could ask Ember,” Fluttershy said.

“Or that, but my way sounds more filling for the story,” Discord said.

“Alright, I’ll try,” Fluttershy said as she flew around, looking for somedragon she knows, when she did she went towards the ground and came upon Garble and one of his friends.

“I gotta say some of those pony dragons were my type, shame none of them were real dragonesses,” Fume said.

“Yeah, but hey, plenty of diamonds in the dirt, as they always say,” Garble said before Fluttershy landed in front of them.

“Huh?” They looked to see her approaching them.

“Whooooaaa, babe alert,” Fume said.

“Idiot, that’s a pony dragon,” Garble said.

“Oh…” Fume sighed disappointedly.

“Listen, I am… requesting… no demanding that you show me where Razer is! And I… won’t say please!” Fluttershy said and Garble and Fume just laughed.

“Yeah, total pony,” Fume said.

“That’s the most polite demand I ever heard out of a dragon's mouth,” Garble laughed.

“I-I’m being serious, you wouldn’t want to mess with… me!” Fluttershy said.

“And what will happen if we don’t talk?” Garble asked.

“I’ll… ask again?” Fluttershy said.

“.....HA!” Both Fume and Garble laughed.

“Darn,” Discord sighed from behind a rock.

“Get lost pony!” Fume called.

“...” Fluttershy began to slink off before she overheard something.

“Man Razer made a mistake reeling her in, however, considering what a wuss he is, they belong together,” Garble high fived Fume.

“....No….” Fluttershy turned and marched back up to them and stood over them.

“Huh?” Garble and Fume paused.

“I SAID NO!” Fluttershy boomed using her greater height to her advantage “He is NOT a wuss, he has a heart bigger than either of you! He cared about me even though I was a pony! He made me feel happy when I was conflicted! He saved me! You both are… are….” She busted out the stare “SELFISH JERKS!” Fluttershy shouted intimidating the two drakes.

“Uh… wow, look at the time,” Fume said before running off.

“Don’t mess with me pony! I-I can fight big dragons too!” Garble snarled.

“....I’d like to see you try me,” Fluttershy said pressing her head against his.

And Garble backed off.

“OK OK! You passed,” Garble said.

“I did?” Fluttershy said.

“If you're serious about this being a dragoness thing then get lost and find him already,” Garble said.

“Where?” Fluttershy asked.

“He lives on Spineback Mountain, the one with a spiral of caves, he lives at the bottom,” Garble said.

“Ok, Thank you,” Fluttershy said turning and walking away.

“Wow, you did well Shy,” Discord said floating beside her head.

“Thanks… I don’t know why I got so defensive back there…” Fluttershy said.

“I think it’s obvious,” Discord said.

“...” Fluttershy looked away.

Fluttershy made it to the mountain that matched Garble's description and she made her way up to the cave at the bottom.

Looking behind her she saw Discord giving her a thumbs up before he disappeared.

Fluttershy gave a sigh and she approached the cave entrance and entered.

As she made her way in she eventually saw the telltale signs of a dragon's hoard, gems and gold lined the floors.

And when she got to the end of the cave she came upon a big pile of gold and gems that had Razer’s tail sticking out.

“Here goes nothing,” Fluttershy said before poking his tail.

“Hnngh…” Razer snorted smoke and resumed snoring.

“Razer… it’s uh… me,” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Mmmh…” Razer snorted smoke from his snout sticking out of the gem pile.

“Alright, I suppose I should wake him, and I’ll do it the same way I wake Angel,” Fluttershy said before reaching forward and pinching his nose that was sticking out.

“Hnngh! Grah!” Razer woke startled and he opened his eyes and spotted another dragon.

“What did I say about picking at my hoard while I’m asleep!” Razer rose out of the hoard ready to attack the intruder, but he froze when he saw Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy? Wha-....What do you want?....” Razer slumped back into the pile.

“Razer…. I want to clear the air,” Fluttershy said.

“Then clear out, I’ve had enough of being rejected,” Razer said bitterly.

“...I understand, but I… want to talk, preferably outside,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m good, I was recently considering imbibing on black diamonds and taking a permanent nap,” Razer rolled over.

“Razer! Surely you wouldn’t go so far over me,” Fluttershy said remembering what Ember said about black diamonds being poisonous.

“Not just you, every dragoness who turned me away, I’m not going to be a pity case either, let me have some dragon pride before I go,” Razer sighed.

“I’m not pitying you, I’m trying to help you, please, get up!” Fluttershy said.

“Leave me alone!” Razer barked.

“No!” Fluttershy said.

Razer growled and stood up before pushing her away.

“I am SICK of being treated like a lesser dragon simply because I don’t break rocks for fun, or get the ladies, or because i’m a freaking crybaby! I can’t help being sensitive!” Razer backed her up as he ranted “And just when I had hope again, this time with a pony, even she turned me away! Do you know how much that stings!? NOW GET OUT!” Razer said.

Fluttershy wanted to run crying but something in her held her to the ground she was standing on and she stared back defiantly.

“Look, you can either waste away in your cave, feeling sorry for yourself until you work up the nerve to eat poisonous crystals, or you can try again with a pony who might like you!” Fluttershy barked back before realizing what she said.

“....You… you like me?” Razer asked.

“...” Fluttershy looked red in the face and didn’t know what to say and she sat down.

“I…So what? You still turned me away… how do I know you're not just pitying me?” Razer asked.

“.... Razer, do you ever think that I came all this way, despite my fears, because deep down I… felt something, you can turn me away, just say the word and I’ll leave and become a pony again, and we’ll never see each other again. Or we can talk and try to work past this,” Fluttershy said.

“.....I……..ok,” Razer conceded and he helped her up “I suppose I can trust one more time,” Razer said before he walked around her and Fluttershy followed.

Fluttershy and Razer sat down on a cliffside and conversed.

“You… used to be scared of dragons, what changed?” Razer asked.

“I did, more specifically my form, I guess being what you fear is therapeutic in itself,” Fluttershy chuckled.

“I guess so,” Razer chuckled.

“I will admit I was worried about you before, with how I made you move to another cave, but to be fair, we didn’t want Equestria to be polluted,” Fluttershy said.

“I get it, I was upset for a while, but I would say the same too I suppose,” Razer said.

“Razer… I don’t know if it’s the difference in species talking but, I feel content being around you, you're just like Spike in a way,” Fluttershy said.

“A handsome drake?” Razer said.

“A friendly one… and that,” Fluttershy said leaning on him.

“Heh,” Razer blushed.

“I was eager to be a pony again before, but when it was about to happen… I panicked… for some reason, I remembered you, and suddenly I didn’t want to be a pony anymore… I think… I really do have feelings for you,” Fluttershy said.

“You mean it? You really do?” Razer asked.

“Yes, where other dragons see a coward, I see a drake whose willing to be himself, if just a little worried about others opinions, I am the same, I was always scared, always looking to accommodate everypony, but my friends taught me to be myself, maybe you just needed friends… and a special somedragon,” Fluttershy said shyly.

“I… your right, thank you!” Razer hugged her and started crying and she patted his head “I’m always trying to act tough, always trying to be like the other dragons, but… I secretly like pony society,” Razer admitted.

“You do?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why do you think I chose a nest so close to Equestria, I’m tired of living among my judgmental brethren, I wanted to see if after a long nap… there would be room in pony society for a shy drake,” Razer admitted.

“That’s sweet,” Fluttershy said.

“My dad never approved, he even kicked me out when I suggested we all move to Equestria,” Razer said.

“That must have been rough,” Fluttershy said.

“Ah, I hated living there anyways, but point is… I was hoping a pony dragon would see it my way, can… you be that dragon?” Razer said.

“...Yes, I can,” Fluttershy said before hugging him and he hugged back.

Both walked towards the lava pools.

“A-are you sure? They chased me away last time,” Fluttershy said.

“Just follow my lead,” Razer said as he walked up to the pools where several dragons were chatting, upon seeing them they got defensive and a big orange one got in their way.

“What’s the yellow one doing back here, we said no ponies allowed!” The orange drake snarled.

“I say she is allowed, got a problem?” Razer growled.

“Yes, I do, take her elsewhere,” The orange dragon growled.

“No,” Razer growled and the two looked eachother in the eyes… before laughing.

“Huh?” Fluttershy ceased her cowering.

“You're still a little flinchy with the approach Raz, but I like your gusto, could it be the yellow one?” He asked.

“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t it, her name is Fluttershy, Fluttershy, this is Boulder,” Razer said.

“Uh… hi?” Fluttershy said.

“Yellow is definitely her color, she needs to toughen up, otherwise, a less kind drake might take advantage of her,” Boulder said climbing back into the lava.

“Well, we passed, come now,” Razer said as he took Fluttershy’s claw and led her into the pool.

If the artificial pool of lava Discord made for her back in Equestria felt nice, this was a new experience, it felt like her whole body was heating up in a pleasant way.

“Aaaah,” Fluttershy leaned back as Razer sat beside her.

“Yeah, the first time in a volcanic lava pool is the best,” Razer said.

“This is better than a hot tub,” Fluttershy moaned.

“Yep, now get cozy, we’ll tell stories of conquerings we’ve made,” Boulder said.

“Huh?” Fluttershy asked.

“And he never walked my direction again,” A red dragoness said.

“Hah! Showed him,” A pink one said.

“That… was graphic,” Fluttershy shivered.

“What about you Shy? Did you ever have a mighty foe you single handedly faced?” Boulder asked.

“Well… I once had this mosquito that refused to leave my house, no matter how gently I nudged him towards the window, and-” The other dragons laughed at this.

“Forgot she was a pony,” The pink dragoness laughed.

“Well, I also defeated and then befriended Discord, with help though,” Fluttershy said.

“Huh… That’s more like it,” Boulder admitted.

“By the way, Pink Diamond,” Fluttershy having learned the names of the two dragonesses during the conversation.

“Yeah?” Pink asked.

“I… know dragons don’t usually do friendships, but do you have any friends?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nodragon but me an Quartz here’s mate,” She said pointing to Boulder.

“Your… both his mates?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, unlike ponies we dragons are cool with multiple mates,” Boulder said.

“Speaking of which, have you two lovelizards sealed the deal?” Quartz asked.

“....” Both Shy and Raz blushed upon hearing that and they looked away.

“Ahahaha! I can see it now,” Quartz said.

“Stop,” Fluttershy said.

“Well get moving, now that your all warmed up, why not take a tumble in the gemstones” Pink said.

Fluttershy knew the pony version of that innuendo.

“Eeep!” Fluttershy meeped.

“Alright, alright, enough, I’m taking her to try some gems,” Razer led her out of the pool and they wandered off.

“Have fun!” Pink called.

“Shut up!” Razer called back.

Fluttershy and Razer sat on the cliff next to his cave eating gems.

“I never knew gems tasted so great,” Fluttershy said.

“You never tried any?” Razer asked.

“Not really,” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, when you consider the age and type, the flavor changes, so… yeah,” Razer coughed into his claw and they awkwardly sat there.

“...So, I should think of leaving soon, it’s getting late,” Fluttershy said.

“Do you really have to?... I just, I’ll miss you,” Razer said.

“I have to get home and feed my animals,” Fluttershy said.

“Indeed, but… I am sure they can last a night without you…” Razer said scooting closer.

“What are you implying?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing perverted, I promise!” Razer said.

“I understand, I… guess I can stay tonight,” Fluttershy said.

“Great! Um, wanna… come back to my cave? Or would you rather have a separate cave?” Razer asked.

“I… wouldn’t mind sharing,” Fluttershy said with a blush.

“Alright, come on then,” Razer said leading her to his cave and he laid down amidst his hoard and he patted the ground in front of him.

“Y-your sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing will happen,” Razer assured.

“O-ok,” Fluttershy came up to him and curled up next to him, her slightly smaller body pressed up against him and he folded a wing over her and hugged her closely to his chest.

Fluttershy hummed, even though she was lying on a cave floor covered in gemstones and gold this was like a comfy bed.

Sleep came soon and they slept together in a cozy embrace.

Not noticing Discord taking a selfie with a camera outside the cave.

“Awww, how sweet,” Discord said before leaving to go assure Twilight where she was.

Author's Note

I'm back and out of my funk.

For now at least.

Sorry for keeping you all waiting. :heart:

Serpentina's future

Five weeks later

Twilight exited her castle and looked out into Ponyville to see how things have changed and the changes to come.

Ever since the cure was found ponykind has gradually returned and Equestria has been rebuilt, Discord has been hard at work restoring everything.

Some surprising ponies chose to stay dragons though.

Like Granny Smith, though it makes sense in some ways, she’ll live longer as a dragon.

Or the CMC, after learning her sister was staying a dragon to be with Spike, Sweetie opted to request to turn back into a dragon as well, with Starlight's help, Scootaloo wanted to as well because she likes the idea her wings may grow out more as a dragoness than as a mare.

And Apple Bloom simply because she didn’t want to be the odd one out.

Starlight and Sunburst chose to stay dragons as well and some ponies can clearly see they like eachother.

Shining Armor and Cadance wanted to stay dragons as well, surprisingly enough, they found ways to make new experiences as dragons.

And more, Twilight could go on and on about it, if Ignia did one good thing, she brought ponies and dragons closer to understanding each other. Celestia and Luna have made sure to integrate dragons and has performed peace conferences with Ember with Spike at her side to ease any tensions between dragons and ponies that existed before.

Each day just seems more exciting than the last.

And yet as she walked out of the castle and to a familiar building she had a good idea of what was going on today.

A wedding, and not just any wedding, a double wedding for two of her friends.

Twilight flew over the wedding set-up, and she smiled as she saw dragons amidst the ponies, it took effort on Discord’s part to set up Ponyville as the first of many towns to have both dragons and ponies living in it.

As Twilight landed she saw the two brides getting ready.

Rarity and Fluttershy.

They were wearing outfits designed by Rarity and aided by Discord.

And while Rarity was humming and getting her make-up done on a large make-up counter, Fluttershy was flustered and looking scared.

“It’s too soon… it’s too soon…” Fluttershy was hyperventilating.

“Hey heeey, Fluttershy, calm down, I get your worried, but Razer is a nice guy, I’m certain you both will be happy,” Twilight said, remembering when Fluttershy came back a week after she ran off to the dragonlands, she remembered the awkward talk when she announced they… sealed the deal, and he proposed to her.

She’s been worried ever since if she’s ready for this.

“Fluttershy dearie, if anything should happen I am here,” Rarity assured her shaking friend.

“I just never imagined I’d be married so soon, I’m scared,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s alright, just follow my lead,” Rarity said, ushering Twilight out.

“Alright, have fun,” Twilight said as she went out into the crowd and saw Celestia and Luna, both ponies again.

“Hello princesses,” Twilight said.

“Hello Twilight, I admit this is the first dragon wedding I’ve ever attended,” Luna said.

“It will be exciting,” Celestia said.

“I agree, Fluttershy is nervous but I reassured her,” Twilight said.

“Then we wait and see how it works out,” Celestia said.

Spike and Razer were getting ready to stand at the altair.

“To think my day finally came… hey, why are you crying?” Spike asked, turning to Razer who was crying.

“I’m just so happy, so very happy!” Razer cried.

“Dude, dry the tears before you go up there, you don’t want Fluttershy thinking you're sad about this whole thing,” Spike said.

“Yeah, ok,” Razer wiped his eyes and peeked out from behind the curtain.

“Alright, it’s almost time,” Spike said.

“Do my spines look ok? Did I get my scales shined enough?” Razer asked

“You look great, now come on,” Spike said as they exited onto the altar.

The wedding began and the CMC ran down the aisle, their claws clacking on the floor of the church and they giggled as they threw petals into the air.

Meanwhile The citizens of Ponyville watched on and Discord was playing wedding music.

As they ran past the others saw the bride dragons in their dresses and veils making their way.

In front of them were Fluttershy’s and Rarity’s fathers, making sure to stay ahead of them so they don’t get stepped on and when they got to the altar they stood off to the side as their dragon daughters stood there with their husbands to be.

Their wedding vows were read aloud, what was different was that Ember came personally to be the officiant.

And she seemed to be a tad uncomfortable doing it the pony way but Celestia insisted.

As the two dragonesses made their way to the altar and joined hands with their husbands to be, all was perfect.

“For the first time, a dragon ceremony in Equestria, let us give thanks to Celestia and Luna, for helping in this,” Ember read out the lines but pretended she came up with them.

“Hey…” Razer said.

“Hi…” Fluttershy said.

“You look beautiful,” Razer said.

“And you're a handsome drake,” Fluttershy said.

“Ahem!” Ember not so subtly cleared her throat and the two jumped.

“Sorry,” They said.

“Anyways, since dragons mostly just get right to living with eachother, let’s speed past the other parts and get right to it," Ember said flipping through some pages.

"That wasn't in the script..." Luna sighed, knowing she was going to do this.

"It is fine, as long as the wedding proceeds as planned," Celestia chuckled.

Ember cleared her throat a little before resuming "do you take these drakes to love and to bear whelps with?” Ember asked.

“Yes,” Rarity and Fluttershy said.

“And do you drakes take these dragonesses, to build for them a mighty hoard with and guard it from now until the day you die?” Ember asked.

“I do,” Spike and Razer said.

“Then by the power of the dragonlord, and the flames of the dragonlands I bind you all as mates, you may kiss the brides,” Ember said.

And they proceeded to bring their brides in for a deep kiss.

Shining Armor wiped a tear as Twilight sat on his shoulder.

“I love happy endings, right Twiley,” Shining said.

“Always,” Twilight said.

Two in a half years later

Twilight hurried through the air alongside Rainbow.

“I told you not to oversleep!” Twilight scolded.

“Sorry! I got a little tipsy from last night's party!” Rainbow defended.

“We have to get there,” Twilight said as they flew up the mountainside next to Ponyville.

Finally, they made it to the caveside and approached the entrance where most of Ponyville and all of Fluttershy’s animals had gathered to witness.

As they made their way to the entrance they relaxed when then saw they didn’t miss it, even though they had to duck several blasts of fire from within the cave...

Fluttershy was laying on her and her husband's hoard of gems, breathing gouts of flames as she was giving birth to a clutch of eggs.

“IT HURTS!” Fluttershy cried.

“It’s alright dear, just push through it,” Rarity said, sporting her own pregnant belly but she is focused on Fluttershy’s birthing.

“It’s crazy to think she got pregnant the day after the wedding, and she’s already giving birth,” Rainbow said.

“Celestia theorizes it could be because she used to be a pony that the draconic gestation period was shortened, remember?” Twilight said.

“Guess so,” Rainbow said.

“Come on, almost there,” A black drake said as he aided her.

“You got this Shy,” Spike said and Razer was by her side, holding her claw.

Fluttershy gave another push and then relaxed panting heavily.

“Good, that’s egg number three, you're done,” The drake said as he held up a few eggs.

“Let me see them,” Fluttershy begged and the drake carefully handed the freshly laid eggs, one was red with blue stripes, one was pink with yellow dots, and the last was oddly green with brown spots.

“Our kids are in there,” Razer said happily.

“Our beautiful babies,” Fluttershy said tearfully.

“We’d like some private time with our eggs,” Razer requested and the others nodded and left.

“Whew, that was stressful, and I wasn’t even the one giving birth,” Spike chuckled.

“Don’t get too comfortable darling, I’m not far off myself,” Rarity said lovingly.

“And I look forward to it dear,” Spike said as the two made their way back to the others.

“I’m so happy for them,” Twilight said.

“I am too,” Pinkie said.

“Let’s get going,” Rarity ushered the crowd on as she glanced back at Fluttershy rocking the eggs in her arms and cooing to them.

As the ponies and dragons made it back home Twilight trotted on home, looking around she smiled.

Dragons helping ponies with their daily tasks, and ponies are not afraid of dragons anymore.

Ironically Ignia made a utopia alright, one where everypony and dragon is a little closer, much different then what she intended and that made it all the more ironic.

Looking at Carosel Boutique, she saw Spike helping a pregnant Rarity inside with Sweetie Belle following them.

She saw a draconic Pinkie Pie working at Sugarcube Corner.

She saw Granny Smith taking a walk without any need for support.

There have been talks between royals and the idea of dragons integrating into Equestria has been discussed.

All in all there has been talks of a new name for the nation that would result from The Dragon lands and Equestria uniting, Serpentina.

Not an ideal name for a nations of both ponies and dragons but it may work one day.

And so Twilight moved on, into her castle to begin another great day.

In Serpentina.

Epilogue

One year ago

A figure entered Tartarus, showing credentials the two guards, one a dragon and the other a pony stepped aside and the figure went in.

The figure walked past Cerberus, and made his way down into the darkest depths of Tartarus.

And approached Ignia, who looked almost emaciated in comparison to how she originally looked.

“Hello,” The figure said.

“Hello… I suppose you're here to gloat about finding the cure, it seems my plans had the opposite effect from what I intended, instead of dragonkind ruling the world, now dragons and ponies have never been closer…. I am disgusted with the world I accidentally made…” Ignia spat.

“I’m not here to listen to you lament your failures, you and I need to talk,” The figure said.

“Ah… I figured this was coming, what is it?” Ignia asked.

“What you told me… in the forest, was it true?” the figure revealed to be Spike demanded.

“Of course, of anything I’ve ever said, that was true,” Ignia said looking him in the eye.

“I always wondered…. And now that I know, i’m disgusted,” Spike said.

“I heard your marrying a pony… to think… my bloodline would become so tainted,” Ignia said with a disappointed look in her eyes.

“You don’t have to worry, I have no intention of ever letting you see them, in fact, after this talk, your dead to me, I just need to know one thing,” Spike said walking up to her and looking her dead in the eye “What happened to my dad? Because I know he wasn’t Magmus,” Spike demanded.

“How do you know?” Ignia asked.

“Torch knew Magmus, and he was steril, which means I still have a father I can turn to, where. Is. he?” Spike demanded.

“Heheheh… he’s long dead, I needed an heir and he was useful for that much, and that much alone…” Ignia chuckled.

“I don’t believe you,” Spike said.

“Why?” Ignia asked with a sick sweetness.

“Because, I know you, and with your help or not, I’ll find him one day,” Spike said before turning to leave.

“See you again one day… son,” Ignia said before laughing.

“Goodbye,” Spike said before heading back up the path out of there.

Author's Note

And Serpentina has finally been finished, bet that twist caught you off-guard. :moustache:

I hope I finished it right, if not feel free to inform me.

And finally thank you all for sticking with me for so long, I hope I don't fall into any more funks along the way and will continue to make stories you all will love.

I have some ideas, till then, let me know down in the comments. :twilightsmile:

Birth of Serpentina

Another day in Equestria, the sun is shining the birds are chirping.

But eventually, on days like this.

Problems arise.

“Spiiiike,” Spike grunted as he heard something in his midday sleep, going inside his mind he was walking through a cave.

“Hello?” Spike called hesitantly.

“Spiiiiike,” The echoing voice continued to beckon him deeper in, as he reached the end of the cave he saw a room and he saw strange impossible-to-understand words on the wall.

“Weird, what does it say?” Spike said.

“Read it, and fulfill your destiny,” The voice told him.

“Huh?” Spike turned and saw something hiding in the dark and when he thought of approaching it, it leaped out at him and pinned him down, panicking Spike looked up and saw what looked like a shadow dragon.

“Embrace your destiny!” It roared.

“Aaah! Twilight!” Spike cried before he woke up “Huh? A dream?.... What… what happened?” Spike said before Twilight trotted into the room.

“Are you okay Spike? I heard that from down the hall,” Twilight asked.

“I just… had a nightmare,” Spike said.

“Well, you're awake now, let’s focus on getting ready for the class field trip,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” Spike said getting up and following her.

While Twilight gathered various books, Spike was running around and getting everything ready.

“Let’s not forget this only was approved by Ember on the grounds we watch the students, and they aren't allowed to take anything from the caves,” Twilight said.

“I know, I was there,” Spike said.

“I know, just musing out loud, we’ll need to bring the fire retardant spell for the books and notebooks we’ll be bringing,” Twilight said.

“Got it,” Spike managed to grab the book that had that spell in there.

“Hello,” Starlight said trotting into the room with her own stack of books.

“Hey Starlight, have the student’s been gathered?” Twilight asked.

“Yep, and Discord is coming too, at his own persistence,” Discord said.

“Well he doesn’t want anything happening to Fluttershy, understandable seeing as her being in the dragonlands is a little intimidating for her.” Twilight said.

“Ok, let’s get moving,” Spike said having set up the wagon full of books they’ll need.

“Great work Spike,” Twilight said before flaring her horn and teleporting it outside.

“We should get moving too,” Starlight said and the other two nodded before heading outside.

As they made their way outside they spotted the wagon and Twilight grabbed it with her magic and pulled it along.

“Alright, we’ll need to meet with the dragon lord before we begin our tour,” Starlight said.

“And Smolder is taking the lead spot on the various dangers there,” Twilight added.

The three eventually found the class waiting for them, with the other members of the elements helping keep them in line.

“Easy now, no wandering,” Rarity said.

“Let’s get in line fer the trip,” AJ said.

“Woohoo! Isn’t this exciting!?” Pinkie cheered.

“Calm down Pinkie,” Fluttershy said.

“Hey girls, egghead’s here,” RD said.

“Alright, students!” Twilight called out catching their attention “Welcome to the Dragonlands field trip, I trust you all got your permission slips?” Twilight called to the various ponies, yaks, griffons, hippogriffs and dragons.

Everycreature held out a permission slip.

“Fantastic!” Pinkie cheered before appearing before them with an adventurer's helmet “Come along everybody!” Pinkie said before Twilight stopped her.

“Hold it Pinkie, we have to take a headcount,” Twilight said before going off to do that.

“Heya Spike,” Spike turned to see Discord.

“Hi Discord, what are you coming for again?” Spike asked.

“Mainly to keep watch over Fluttershy, and in case anydragon gets any ideas,” Discord said.

“We gotta trust that the dragons will be welcoming, otherwise, what kind of teachers would we be?” Spike pointed out.

“I do admit you have a point, but still, you never know,” Discord said before Twilight approached him.

“Hello Discord, the students are ready,” Twilight said.

“Alright, gather round everycreature,” Discord said and they did, Discord then snapped his fingers to send them all to the Dragon Lands.

Upon arrival, everycreature noticed an increase in temperature.

“Whew, I am glad I chose not to wear mascara today,” Rarity said as she trotted past the Student Six.

“Whew, it always this hot?” Yona asked.

“Meh, it’s actually cold today,” Smolder said.

“Smolder,” Twilight approached her “You know where Ember said she would be, right?” Twilight said.

“Yep, follow me guys,” Smolder said and she walked into the Dragonlands.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Gallus said.

“Oh come on, I bet this will be fun,” Sandbar said trotting ahead.

“Be sure to take notes as you go students,” Twilight said and they pulled out their notebooks.

Smolder led them on a bit of a hike and they walked over a hill.

“Alright, to start, over there are the sulfur fields, harmless to dragons, but not others, so be careful,” Smolder casually said.

Silverstream jumped a little as a crater erupted.

“Keep your distance,” Twilight said as they walked further in.

“It’s time to act Spike,” A voice whispered in Spike’s ear.

“Huh?” Spike looked behind him but didn’t see anything.

“Spike, be sure not to fall behind,” Twilight said.

“Sorry, I thought I heard something,” Spike said, but as he tried to ignore this weird persistent voice in his head he eventually turned to Twilight “Twi… something is going on,” Spike said.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“Am I the only one hearing a voice that’s telling me ‘it’s time to act’?” Spike asked.

“That’s weird, I’m not hearing that,” Twilight said, but before they could talk more about it suddenly they heard a familiar voice.

“Hello? I said hi,” Ember said and Twilight gasped.

“Sorry about that Ember, I was distracted, hello to you too,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, so this isn’t something we dragons are usually comfortable with, but since we’re forming connections with the pony tribes we’ll overlook it,” Ember said.

“I appreciate it,” Twilight nodded.

Spike was barely listening before a sharp pain struck his head

“Agh!” Spike grunted and their attention turned to him.

“Spike, are you alright?” Twilight asked

“Yeah, yeah… just a headache,” Spike said “Mind if I take off real quick?” Spike asked.

“I’m not comfortable with you wandering off,” Twilight said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go with him,” RD said.

“Ok, but be careful, and stay out of any caves,” Ember said and the two walked off.

“Anyways let’s get this over with,” Ember said.

“Alright,” Discord said as they walked on… before he paused and sniffed the air.

“Strange… I smell dark magic in the air…” Discord said.

“Any reason you wanted to wander off Spike?” Rainbow asked.

“I had to go,” Spike said before going behind a rock.

“Oh… ok,” Rainbow said turning around.

After Spike finished he walked up to Rainbow “Ready to head back,” Spike said.

“Ok,” Rainbow shrugged and gestured for Spike to climb on, he was about to when suddenly another jolt of pain struck him and he cried out and fell to the ground.

“Spike? You ok?” Rainbow approached the groaning dragon.

“Ugh!... My head…. It hurts!” Spike grunted as he writhed on the ground.

“Whoa, uh, let’s get you to Twilight,” Rainbow moved to scoop him up before he started glowing.

“Huh?!” Rainbow gasped before the glow faded “Spike? What just-”

“It worked… finally!” Spike said in a warped voice, he then stood and began walking off.

“Hey Spike! Where are you-” Rainbow tried to catch up with him but he turned to her and she paused seeing his glowing blue eyes.

“Spike?” Rainbow said.

“Spike is not here at the moment, buzz off pony scum,” Spike said before walking off.

“Hey! That was uncalled for, and what did you do with Spi-” Suddenly the being spun and grabbed Rainbow before chucking her at a rock rendering her unconscious.

“Fragile pony…. Luckily you will soon be part of the superior race,” Spike said before walking off.

“And over here is my domain, where I run things. Do you have any questions?” Ember asked.

“Uh yeah, is the air always so hard to breathe here?” A griffon asked.

“You’ll get used to it,” Ember sighed and she continued flying ahead.

“Keep up students,” Starlight said.

“Hey Fluttershy,” Twilight asked her friend who seemed a little on edge.

“Yes?” Fluttershy asked.

“Are you doing alright? You seem tense,” Twilight said.

“I am… I just need to be brave,” Fluttershy said.

“Twilight,” Discord said trying to get her attention.

“I understand, but Discord’s here, you don’t have to worry,” Twilight assured.

“Twilight,” Discord said louder.

“I know, but I’m still a little nervous-”

“Twilight!” Discord called.

“What is it Discord?” Twilight asked him with a sigh.

“Have you not noticed Spike and Rainbow haven’t returned?” Discord said.

“Huh?” Twilight looked around and saw they weren’t with the group “Odd, I thought they’d be back by now,” Twilight said.

“Not to mention I’m smelling something foul,” Discord said.

“You mean the sulfur?” Twilight said.

“No fouler, almost, evil,” Discord said before looking back “I’ll be back,” Discord said.

“But Discord-” Fluttershy said.

“I’ll only be a minute,” Discord said before vanishing.

“I’m sure everything will be alright,” Twilight said.

The possessed Spike approached a hidden cave and uttered strange words.

“Aperite nunc draconi mandante domino,” Spike said and the cave opened and he headed down the steps.

As he approached another door he spoke another line of words and the door opened.

“Soon my dear, we will have control,” ‘Spike’ said with a grin.

Discord appeared next to Rainbow Dash.

“I had a feeling…” Discord said before grabbing Rainbow and teleporting back to the group.

“And right here we have- Huh?” Ember paused as Discord appeared before her.

“We have a problem, Dragon Lord,” Discord said.

“What happened? Rainbow!?” Fluttershy ran up to her.

“She’s unconscious,” Discord said.

“What happened? Where’s Spike?” Twilight asked.

“I knew I sensed something bad earlier, field trips over,” Discord said.

“Wait an applebucking minute, what do ya mean-” Applejack said as she approached but Discord looked her in the eye.

“Danger is afoot, and I know who,” Discord said before turning to the other students and teleporting them away.

“Discord! Where did they go?” Twilight asked.

“Outside the dragonlands,” Discord said before turning to Ember.

“What is the meaning of this?” Ember asked.

“Ignia is back,” Discord said and Ember’s eyes widened.

“Who?” Rarity asked.

“Alert the other dragons, we have to find Spike!” Ember said urgently.

“On it Dragon Lord!” a dragon guard saluted before flying off.

“I have to get moving and protect the rune,” Ember said.

“What’s going on?!” Twilight demanded.

“It’s Dragonlands business,” Ember said before flying off.

“We gotta help, Spike could be in danger,” Twilight said.

“Ok,” Discord said and the group ran after Ember, AJ carrying Rainbow.

Spike got through the last set of doors and stared up at a tapestry.

“Nice try Torch,” Spike said before breathing fire on the tapestry burning it away and revealing a series of runes on the walls.

“Now for the ritual,” Spike said before going to the center of the circle, cutting his palm with his claw and spilling some blood onto the circle, and it began to glow.

“Excita, excita antiquas et draconicas potestates invocans, has terras magia transformativa infunde et mundum reforma, salve draconem.” Spike muttered as he spilled his own blood onto the circle and it lit up even more.

Ember made it to the cave and saw that the sealing magic had been tampered with.

“Curse it, If I had known she would strike now, I wouldn’t have let Spike come here!” Ember said before saying.

“Aperite nunc draconi mandante domino,” Ember said before the doors opened and she flew down the path.

“Ember!” Twilight called as she and the others arrived.

“Down there, quickly,” Discord said.

“Discord, you, me, and Starlight should go down there, everypony else stay here,” Twilight said.

“Why do we-” AJ said before Discord shook his head.

“Leave it to us, right now Rainbow needs you,” Discord said.

“Ugh…” Rainbow groaned.

“Ok, be careful,” Fluttershy said and the group headed down into the cave after Ember.

“Excita, excita antiquas et draconicas potestates invocans, has terras magia transformativa infunde et mundum reforma, salve draconem.” Spike repeated as he meditated in the center of the circle, and the runes began to glow brightly he repeated it again and again before suddenly he heard a door opening, he turned to see Ember there.

“Spike!” Ember called.

“Ah, if it isn’t the youngster who thinks herself a queen,” Spike mocked.

“And if it isn’t the banished witch,” Ember said.

“Oh come now, it was unjust and you know it,” Spike said.

“You tried to use Magmus’s runes! Do you know what they could do?!” Ember said.

“Help dragonkind take their rightful place as the dominant species on this planet,” Spike said with a smug look.

“You're insane, I’m stopping this,” Ember said flaring her wings.

“You wouldn’t kill your friend Spike would you?” Spike asked.

“No, but he’s going to be sore tomorrow, no hard feelings Spike,” Ember said before lunging.

Spike threw a punch but Ember dodged it and struck him against the wall.

Spike opened his mouth and blasted her with blue fire sending her flying.

Spike lunged at her but she rolled out of the way and whipped him with her tail.

“Your choice of vessel was poor, Spike’s too young,” Ember said.

Spike floated up in the air and lunged at Ember but she easily caught him and flung him at the center of the room.

As he got up Twilight Discord and Starlight arrived.

“Spike! What’s going on?” Twilight demanded.

“What are you doing here?! This is Dragon Lord business!” Ember snapped.

“I don’t care! Spike is my brother!” Twilight said.

“Heh…” 'Spike' suddenly started laughing.

“What? Why are you laughing Spike?” Starlight said.

“You called him your brother? I’d be insulted if it wasn’t so funny!” Spike laughed.

“Spike?” Twilight asked warily.

“That isn’t him, it’s a banished dragon sorceress named Ignia,” Ember said.

“What did you do with my brother!” Twilight demanded.

“He’s here, but seriously, stop calling him your brother, filthy pony,” Ignia said.

“You witch!” Starlight lit her horn and fired a blast at him but he swatted it aside.

“Huh?” Starlight said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make the world right again,” Ignia said.

“Give up Ignia, there are four strong beings here and only one of you,” Discord said.

“Hmm… it seems I’m at a disadvantage with such a puny body… but luckily, that can be fixed…” She closed Spike’s eyes and suddenly a glow overcame him.

“Huh?!” Twilight gasped as he glowed brightly and wind was being whipped up in the room.

“Is she crazy?!” Discord said.

“What? What is she doing to him?!” Twilight said before she saw Spike… getting bigger?

Spike began getting larger, his limbs growing longer and gaining muscles, his pudgy stomach flattening and extending with his body, his tail lengthening, his snout becoming longer and his wings getting larger and he developed horns on the back of his head.

When the glow subsided he reared up and bellowed.

“Spike?” Twilight nervously asked.

“That works better, this body is more fit for combat now,” Ignia said.

“You monster! You shaved off countless years of his life to make him battle-ready?” Ember shouted.

“It’s of no consequence to me,” Ignia said before lunging forward, but Discord fired a magic blast that sent him flying against a wall.

“Careful, that’s still Spike!” Twilight said.

“It’s either hurt him or he kills you!” Discord said before he fired more blasts at the bigger Spike who jumped out of the way and Ember tackled him but now he can wrestle her off of him.

Starlight fired some more magic blasts at him and he tanked them before throwing Ember at her and Starlight caught her with her magic.

“Snap out of it Spike!” Twilight flew up and fired more magic at Ignia who plowed through it and grabbed her before hoisting her up.

“You're not needed!” Ignia said before Discord rammed him off of her.

Discord got out his boxing gloves and struck Ignia several times before Ember tackled him down.

“Snap out of it!” Ember said before breathing fire on him and Ignia reached forward and grabbed her by the throat and threw her.

As Ignia stood he formed fireballs in his hands and threw them and Twilight put up a barrier blocking them.

Discord took this opportunity to sneak up on him and grab him and throw him at a wall, chains appeared and bound him to a wall.

“It’s over,” Discord said.

“Tsk…. so, you think that’s it? Heh, I’m not done,” Ignia said before he looked at the runes on the wall and they were glowing brighter than before.

“What? How is the ritual almost done?!” Ember demanded.

“It continued as we fought, too bad, you failed,” He laughed before bellowing out the final words.

“NO!” Ember yelled as Twilight, Starlight, and Discord readied themselves for anything.

“Draconum potestatem frange!” Ignia shouted and the rune flared brightly before a vast explosion of magic was unleashed.

“AAAHH!” Twilight cried out as it blasted her and Starlight against the wall.

“Oh no,” Discord said.

Outside the cave, Rainbow had woken up and they were prepared to do something besides sit around when suddenly the whole place shook and they looked around.

“Uhh…. was that a good rumble or a bad one…” Rainbow asked.

“I-I don’t-” Fluttershy was about to respond before the doors to the hidden cave swung open and a powerful blue magic blasted them.

“AAAHHH!” They all cried out as the magic flowed upward and formed into a giant wall extending beyond the sky, rapidly the wall formed a circle around the dragon lands and began moving outwards at incredible speeds.

“Huh?! GUY’S WHAT IS THAT?!” Silverstream cried as the group outside of the dragonlands saw the approaching wall and they couldn’t react in time before it blew past them.

Celestia galloped outside to see what the commotion was about and she saw a rapidly approaching wall of magic.

“What in the sun?!” Celestia cried and Luna ran beside her.

“What is that?” Luna demanded.

“I do not know, raise the shields!” Celestia said.

“There’s no time!” Luna said as the light was already upon them and they cried out as it hit them.

Outside of Equus… a giant wall of magic moved across the planet and after it finished going over the planet… it vanished.

Author's Note

Tell me what you think below, I understand I moved a little quickly there at the start but things needed to get moving.

Anywho, I look forward to this.

The den of the dragon sorceress

Twilight and the group trudged through snowy trails.

“Any way we can pick up her scent?” Rainbow asked.

“Not in this storm,” Shining replied.

“We have to keep looking, I can sense her going in this direction,” Twilight said and the group made their way to continue their search.

As they walked through the trails Rainbow decided to breathe fire to warm her hands.

“Be easier if Discord was here,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, in hindsight that would be true,” Twilight said as they trudged on.

Rarity and Spike after their make-out session walked on through the town together, walking a little closer to eachother.

“To think that the occurrences that led to what we are now, it took me too long to see it,” Rarity said.

“Yeah, you're a dragoness now and I’m a grown-up, fates on my side,” Spike said.

“Now now dear, we should take things slowly, learn the processes of dragon relationships from Ember before anything,” Rarity said as she nuzzled Spike’s neck.

“Agreed, and… we’ll have to work on how you’re going to continue your clothing production line afterward, I mean, once this is all fixed you’ll imagine ponies will complain about the dresses being too big,” Spike chuckled.

“Speaking of which… how will I remain a dragon when we fix this?” Rarity said.

Spike looked away in thought “Good question, maybe when Twilight gets back we’ll-”

“Hey!” Spike and Rarity heard familiar voices and saw a group of familiar dragons running towards them.

“Guys?” Spike said.

“Who is that?” Rarity pointed at the drake who blushed.

“Um… my name is Razer… keep it memorized,” He said trying to sound tough at the end.

“Later, where is Twilight and the others?” Pinkie asked.

“They left to pursue a lead on Ignia,” Spike said.

“Not good…” Pinkie said grimly.

“What’s wrong Pinkie dear?” Rarity asked.

“I had a Pinkie Sense that warned me of danger,” Pinkie said.

“But Pinkie… you were in Ponyville, how did your sense detect them being in trouble?” Rarity asked.

“My Pinkie senses’s been acting strangely ever since I became a dragon, it’s like my dragon senses have somehow enhanced them, new Pinkie senses have been popping up left and right,” Pinkie said.

“Still, it seems a tad farfetched to go this far on a sense,” Rarity said.

“Has my Pinkie sense ever stirred us wrong?” Pinkie said.

“Hmm…” AJ was thinking.

“Well….” Rarity was also thinking but Pinkie interrupted them before they could speak.

“We have to move! My dragon Pinkie senses are picking up danger in a distant city,” Pinkie said.

“You mean Winterbrooke?” Spike asked.

“Yes!” Pinkie said.

“We should at least alert Sunburst we’re leaving then,” Spike said.

“I already have a note that you can send him,” Pinkie said producing it.

“...Of course you do,” Spike said before sending it to Sunburst.

“Alright, come on!” Pinkie said.

“This better be accurate Pinkie, or my hoard is done for!” Razer said.

“Ahem,” Fluttershy coughed.

“A-and her friends,” Razer added blushing a little.

“Ah agree with Razer though, we better be headed in the right direction,” AJ said.

“We’ll see,” Pinkie said.

An hour later

Tirek grumbled some more as he finally finished the runic pages and he stacked them before sighing.

“Finally done,” Tirek said with a back crack he turned towards Ignia who was sleeping.

“If only I could drain a runic dragon's magic, I’d show her…” Tirek said before staring out at the snowstorm to kill time… until he saw something.

“Huh?” Tirek squinted and he saw fire… odd, looking closer he saw some other dragons… with oddly familiar colors.

“Great… them…wait a minute…” Tirek glanced at Ignia and grinned “I just found a way out,” Tirek said before he lit his horns and fired a weak bolt out of the cave, he glanced at Ignia, she was still asleep… good, he fired some more out of the cave.

“Rainbow stop breathing fire on your hands, you might hurt yourself,” Twilight said.

“Yeah right, i’m a dragon remember? I’m fireproof,” Rainbow said.

“Maybe not a hundred percent, you never- huh?” Shining Armor looked up and saw a bolt of magic flying through the air “Take cover!” Shining said, mistaking this for an attack.

The other two dragons took cover as well but when they looked out they saw none of the shots were headed for them.

“Wait a minute, where are they aiming?” Rainbow asked.

“And whose firing?” Twilight asked.

“Hmm…. there!” Shining pointed at a barely visible cave.

“Hmm… yeah, I see it!” Twilight said.

“Would have missed it… you don’t think those shots were a call for help, do you?” Rainbow asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Shining Armor said before he went out through the snow, Twilight and Rainbow following.

As they snuck up to the cave, they peeked in and saw Tirek in there.

“Tirek-” Rainbow exclaimed only for Twilight to cover her mouth and point towards a sleeping Ignia.

“Oh, sorry,” Rainbow whispered as they snuck in and approached Tirek.

“About time you came! Get me out of here,” Tirek whispered harshly.

“Alright, we just need to detain Ignia first,” Shining said before he got low “Rainbow, you snag her legs and tail, I’ll go for her mouth and arms,” Shining whispered.

“On it,” Rainbow said before they snuck up to the sleeping dragon, as they made it to her the two surrounded her and Shining mouthed a countdown to Rainbow who nodded.

Twilight watched, expecting to have to intervene at some point… neither she nor Tirek noticed the papers Tirek wrote out floating off of the ground and moving towards the exit…

“Three… two...” Shining said, and at the same time Twilight noticed something out of the corner of her eye, she turned and saw the floating paper and the footprints going outside.

Eyes widening she spun to them.

“IT’S A TRAP!” Twilight exclaimed but she was too late.

“ONE!” Shining and Rainbow dove onto the sleeping dragoness… and crashed onto the floor in a heap, the illusion dispersing.

“You're a sharp one pony,” Ignia said from the exit as the invisibility rune deactivated.

“You!” Twilight ran at her but Ignia used a hand sign.

“Zuke,” Ignia said and a magic bolt materialized and fired striking Twilight and sending her flying backwards.

“Twiley!” Shining cried before seeing Ignia turning her attention to the ceiling.

“Zuke, Zuke, Zuke,” Ignia fired several bolts that hit the ceiling and caused a cave in.

“WAIT! What about our deal?!” Tirek demanded.

“I lied,” Ignia said before firing another shot and finishing the cave in, blocking the group in there.

“NO!” Twilight cried.

“We gotta go after her!” Shining said as he tried to dig his way out but it just caused more rocks to fall.

“Stop! The cave is unstable!” Twilight said.

“Then we’re stuck… not good,” Rainbow said with dread.

“We gotta get out somehow, she’s getting away!” Shining said.

“There is no out for us now… best to just wait until the erasure happens…” Tirek muttered.

“What? Erasure?” Rainbow asked.

“You sound like you know what’s going on,” Twilight said.

“Course I do, I made the spell,” Tirek said.

“Talk, what is she planning,” Shining demanded.

“Ask nicely and I’ll-” Tirek said before Rainbow came up to him and snarled.

“How’s this for nice?” Rainbow growled.

“Ok ok! She’s planning to mindwipe the pony dragons into forgetting they were ever ponies!” Tirek said defensively.

“What?” Twilight said with wide eyes.

“Yes, she’s planning on erasing the very concept of ponies, to truly make a world only ruled by dragons, she’s going to brainwash every pony into thinking they were always dragons, and you know why that sucks for me? I can’t absorb dragon magic as well as pony magic, I’ll be powerless for life!” Tirek complained.

“Not important, we have to stop her before she uses it!” Shining said panicking a little.

“This is bad, very very bad,” Rainbow said starting to panic.

“No panicking, we can fix this,” Twilight said.

“Oh princess Twilight, ever the optimist…” Tirek grumbled.

“We’ll think of a way, now help,” Twilight said before breaking his chains.

“What do you want me to do? I’m so weak right now a foal could beat me,” Tirek said.

“I don’t know, but we have to think of something,” Twilight said.

The train arrived at Winterbrooke and the group made their way out.

“Whew, sure is cold here,” AJ said.

“Then we better hurry,” Pinkie said before her tail twitched and she sneezed “Oh no,” Pinkie said looking towards the mountains.

“What is she doing now?” Razer asked.

“Give her a moment,” Fluttershy said.

“The mountain… their that way, and in trouble! We gotta hurry!” Pinkie said.

“Lead the way,” Spike said, having shrunken down and he was on Rarity’s back.

The group headed that way into the mountains.

An hour later

“How… long have we been in here?” Rainbow said, panting from the declining oxygen.

“An hour…” Twilight panted.

“I’m feeling dizzy…” Rainbow said.

“An enclosed space like this is losing oxygen quick, we’re lucky that there’s enough air for the four of us, but it won’t save us in the long run…” Twilight said.

“To think… this is how I die?... trapped in a cave with my hated enemies,” Tirek said bitterly.

“No picnic for us either…” Rainbow said.

Pinkie led the others across a trail and they paused when Pinkie did and she sniffed the air.

“What do you smell?” Fluttershy asked.

“My sense is affecting my smell too… there! That way!” Pinkie said pointing at a pile of rocks on the mountainside.

“Where?” AJ asked.

“Follow me!” Pinkie said and she led them through the snow to the side of the mountain, upon reaching it they paused at the side.

‘Looks like a pile of rocks to me… yer not saying they're buried under there are ya?” AJ asked concernedly.

“No… I sense them… behind it! GUY’S IT’S PINKIE!” Pinkie called into the rock pile.

“Guuuuuys!” Pinkie’s voice came through the rock pile startling the barely conscious dragons.

“Huh?...” Twilight looked at the rock pile.

“Have I reached the hallucination stage of low oxygen? Cause I could have sworn I just heard Pinkie’s voice,” Rainbow dizzily asked.

“I did too,” Shining said and he responded.

“Is there anydragon out there!?” Shining called back.

“Is… dragon…. There…” A faint voice sounded from behind the rocks.

“You were right! Hopefully we still have some time!” Rarity said.

“Listen! We’re going to dig you out!” Pinkie said.

“No! It’ll make the cave collapse!” Twilight called back as loud as she could.

“Then what will we do?!” Pinkie asked.

“We need to find a different way in,” Spike said.

Looking around Spike saw the side of the mountain wall and he hopped off of Rarity’s back and he ran over to it.

“Guys! Dig here!” Spike called.

“What? Why?” AJ asked.

“This is mostly dirt over here, look!” Spike said pointing to the wall.

“He’s right, I similarly dug my cave,” Razer said.

“Of course, we dig the side of the cave out and form a connecting cave! Spike, you're a genius,” Rarity said.

“No prob,” Spike said before he started digging and the others started digging as well.

Tirek looked ready to pass out and the others looked near the same way.

“Ugh… It’s getting harder to breathe” Rainbow wheezed.

“Just hold on…” Twilight said.

It had taken a few minutes but they had dug a small cave in the wall.

“Now dig to the left!” Spike said and they started doing so, wishing he could help “I need to be big so this can go faster,” Spike said.

“We have this,” Rarity said to reassure him.

“Come on!” Razer said as he tore through the dirt.

“Everydragon! Can you hear us!” Fluttershy called.

No response.

“We’re running out of time!” Spike said, determination fueling him as he lifted a big rock out of the way…. And he grew to his adult size “Yes!” Spike said.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Razer said.

“Come on!” AJ said and the two male dragons nodded before helping to dig.

Shining wheezed and collapsed forward, he reached out and grabbed the unconscious Twilight’s hand.

“At least… we die… together… Twiley…” Shining said before his head hit the ground, and his vision started to fade…. Before he heard a crack.

“Huh?” Shining looked up and he saw the wall cracking… and it broke down and Pinkie and the group dug through.

Immediately he felt wind entering the chamber, and sweet sweet oxygen.

He gasped and rolled onto his back taking in big gulps of air.

“Guys!” Spike called running over to them.

“Get them outside, they need air!” AJ said and they picked up the disoriented dragons.

AJ spotted Tirek and decided to bring him too.

As they made their way outside, the others started breathing and coughing fire, Pinkie saw Twilight wasn’t waking up, however.

“She needs mouth-to-mouth!” Pinkie said before doing so, after breathing some air into her lungs and doing chest compressions Twilight woke up with a coughing fit.

“Ugh… guys? Are we-” Twilight asked groggily before Shining rubbed her head.

“It’s alright, your alright,” Shining said.

Twilight smiled that they made it, as she was getting up she noticed a large chunk of ceiling cracking and chipping.

“Huh? Look out Fluttershy!” Twilight cried and Fluttershy looked up to see a large chunk of ceiling fall, having been destabilized by the digging.

“LOOK OUT!” Razer said shoving Shy aside and the rock struck him on the head and split “Grah!” Razer fell to the ground and a trickle of blood came down his face.

“He saved me… Razer!” Fluttershy cried as she ran over to him and she shook him “We gotta help him!” Fluttershy cried.

“Town is nearby, we gotta hurry!” AJ said.

“When we get there we need to send a message to Celestia, it’s a matter of life or death!” Twilight said.

“What do you mean?” Spike said helping AJ lift Razer up.

“Ignia is going to destroy Pony kind, completely!” Twilight said as she hurried out of the cave.

“Well, things just got more complicated…” Spike said as they ran after her, dragging their unconscious companion with them.

Razer was wheeled into a hospital room as Twilight frantically wrote out a message and had Spike send it.

“She’s insane… how can any creature hate ponies so much that they’d try to erase them completely?” Rarity asked Tirek who’s been cuffed to two dragons.

“How should I know? I chose to stop associating with her when I figured out her plans to eventually eradicate ponykind, I need pony kind so I can harvest their magic!” Tirek said.

“What do we do? She’s bound to be far away by now,” Spike said.

“I don’t know, but now that Celestia is aware we need to find out

“For now, we need to take Tirek back to Tartarus and-”

“Wait wait wait, I can help,” Tirek said.

“Why would you help us?” Twilight asked.

“Like I just said, I can’t let her erase pony kind or I will have no pony magic to harvest!” Tirek said.

“...You helped her make the runes to brainwash Ponykind right?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah?” Tirek said.

“How many more runes do you know?” Twilight asked.

Author's Note

I'm slowly but surely getting the mojo back. :pinkiesmile: