A/N: Trigger warning for the same thing as last chapter, as this chapter contains the consequences of that thing happening last chapter.

104. Reflection

THE SEAS OF THE LAND OF DRAGONS

"Captain."

Shan-Yu did not even turn around to address Itsuki. "What is it?" he asked coldly.

"You lied," Itsuki spat. "You told Qiang, Masaru, and Trai that they would have time to escape the explosion. The rest of us knew that if we couldn't make it back in time after the signal flare, we had only ourselves to blame for failing. But you lied to the three of them."

"If I had told them the truth…" Shan-Yu turned to face Itsuki then. The first mate expected to be met with a horrifying glare of anger or disapproval. However, Shan-Yu was smiling. And that was even more fearsome. "Then they would not have gone. And we would have lost our strategic advantage. Until now, our enemies have only expected pirates…or perhaps they have mistaken us for soldiers. They knew there was magic in the works, but not how much. That bomb was meant as an example of how we are not easily predicted. It would have been difficult enough for them to best us in the first place, and it will be even more difficult now that they know that."

"But how many of US are you planning to kill in order to get your point across?" Itsuki raged. "Soon, you'll have no crew left, and you can't DO this alone!"

"I realize that," Shan-Yu told him. "Qiang, Masaru, and Trai were necessary sacrifices in order to place the bomb. I intend to keep the rest of you alive for the reason you just said. I'm not about to throw away good warriors."

"How can we trust you? How do I know you're not lying about THAT?"

Shan-Yu's unnerving smile only grew. "I suppose you don't."

"What if we leave you?" Itsuki threatened.

"Then I might as well kill you," Shan-Yu countered. "After all, at that point, you wouldn't be useful to me either way."

"You couldn't take on all of us! We'd throw you overboard!"

"Do you want to try that, Itsuki?"

Itsuki's blood ran cold as he realized Shan-Yu was serious.

"If you want to betray me…" The captain put a hand over his heart and gave Itsuki a look of mock innocence. "Then get it over with now. Or do you need time to rally the others first? I can wait." The Darkness flickered into view around his body, projecting its destructive aura.

Itsuki knew full well that Shan-Yu was confident in his ability to overcome the entire crew of the Riptide. He was baiting him, and it wasn't a bluff. After all, Itsuki recalled, he'd seen Shan-Yu engaged in battle with four warriors as he'd sped past on the beach. Though it surprised him that at least one of them – the one he'd struck at – had been a woman. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of another woman with long, curly hair among the other three as well.

Realizing the futility of the conversation, Itsuki bowed. "My…apologies, Captain. I…won't question you again." His voice cracked slightly, betraying the fear that was seeping in to cover his anger.

"Good," Shan-Yu said sternly. "Tell Zhong to turn the Riptide north."

"North…?" Itsuki was surprised at the order. "But we have been going steadily southward – "

"And that is why the Imperial army will expect us to keep going that way," Shan-Yu pointed out. "If they found us by following our pattern, they will go to Panyu next. But we have already bypassed the most important port of all."

"Shanghai," Itsuki realized. "But the walls they put up – "

"Will be nothing. After all, we didn't use all our gunpowder in Tong'an. I'm expecting it to be guarded…by the reserves. They will fall even easier than the soldiers we faced, especially if they put their faith in those walls." He paused to make a sound that Itsuki barely recognized as a laugh. "It always seems to begin with a wall. One day, they will figure out that a wall is only an invitation."

Itsuki nodded. "I will inform Zhong of your decision immediately." He scurried toward the helm, eager to get away from Shan-Yu. The man had him trapped. From the moment he'd slain Hideki, he'd made the Riptide into a floating prison.

...

TONG'AN, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS

Shang had lost count of the dead.

Anyone within a certain radius of the explosion site had been incinerated immediately. That meant a fair quantity of civilians, some Imperial soldiers, and even, reportedly, a few of the men from the ship he was now sure belonged to no navy. The civilians who survived still kept coming forth to him to offer him, in tears, the names of who to report as killed in the blast. That was nothing to say of the people whose families had in entirety lived in that zone and had no one to report their absence.

Most of the army had survived. To Shang's immense relief, that meant everyone who'd been on the coast with him; that meant Mulan. It also meant Yao, Ling, Chien-Po, and the five newcomers – Dusk Shine, Bubble Berry, Rainbow Blitz, Applejack, and Butterscotch. By a stroke of luck, even Khan was found, shaken but well, having been spooked in the initial ambush; he'd galloped toward the coast.

A ways outward, the shockwave had not killed, but instead caused injury. Burns, cuts from shrapnel, even dismemberment. The army medics who were alive and undamaged had taken immediately to opening up makeshift facilities to treat them as best they could. The line outside any of these facilities stretched long, filled with the sounds of sobbing and moaning from the pain of the injuries. The people were blotched with red, whether it was the raw patches of burns on the skin or bleeding, open wounds. Some had cuts and bruises they couldn't even explain away via shrapnel, and Shang supposed this was the effect of the Darkness.

The one calling herself "Butterscotch" had joined right in with the medics in dressing wounds. Shang had figured she'd be squeamish about such things given the anxiety she'd displayed on her way into battle, but she kept a stiff upper lip as she quickly tied off bandages and ran water to clean burned skin.

Those at the outer limits of town had merely been knocked over, like those on the coast. After they'd all gotten their wits about them, they'd dispersed to survey the damage; outside of "Butterscotch," Shang hadn't seen any of them in a while, not even Mulan. He was fairly certain the danger had passed, even though he had lurking fears that yet another weapon was hidden, waiting to strike. However, insofar as he had reason to believe the worst was over, he knew he had business to conduct.

He'd already done his best to set up the medical facilities. After the duel with Shan-Yu on the coast, he had a laundry list of questions that needed answering. First and foremost was how someone he had seen be killed beyond a shadow of a doubt could not only stand before him at full health, but claim to have truly returned from the dead. The spirits normally did not return anyone from beyond, least of all anyone as destructive as Shan-Yu. Second was in reference to "Rainbow Blitz." When Shan-Yu had shown off his extranormal power, "Blitz" had responded with something of her own, and Shang was curious about what the disguised woman truly had to offer.

However, it seemed his third question was the one most easily answered. Why would a civilian endanger herself so? The civilian in question had gone back out to the beach after taking in the scope of what had happened, seeing the rubble and the ash. Shang made his way in that direction, finding her sitting on the sands, looking out over the ocean.

A young purple dragon, which he presumed to be her guardian, dutifully stood by her, a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay," Spike said softly. "You did your best."

The woman merely nodded somberly.

Shang approached the pair, cutting to the chase: "Miss. We need to talk."

Spike backed off, knowing he wasn't meant to be a part of this conversation. He took his place some paces away, where he could observe.

Rarity sighed lightly, then stood, turning to look Shang in the eye. "Well?" she asked. "What is it we need to talk about?"

...

Twilight had been one of the first to recover from unconsciousness after the bomb's blast had thrown her to the ground. Her instincts had told her to go right to the source of the disturbance, and it was there that she beheld the horror.

She had gone through so much in order to protect this place and these people. And already she'd failed.

After seeing the multitudes of injured survivors, the only way Twilight could think of to cope was to throw herself into an attempt to be productive. She had felt a wave of pride rush over her when she remembered the recipe for the Wiggenweld Healing Potion. Surely, that could cure the ailing masses. And the first store she'd stopped at had stocked plenty of mint and a few onions.

However, her initial joy had turned into a wave of embarrassment as she moved from shop to shop, asking for things like Flobberworm mucus and sloth blood. More than one vendor had turned her down on account of "this tragedy being no time to play jokes."

Time wasted was irretrievable. Twilight found a new way to assist, but was overcome with guilt for not doing it earlier instead of going on a snipe hunt, perhaps more accurately labeled a Flobberworm hunt. Storing away her stashes of mint and onion into her personal inventory, Twilight crept into one of the medical facilities.

The smell made her sick, and actually looking at some of the nastier wounds only intensified the feeling. She took her place among the medics, watching some of them work, memorizing what they did with bandages. Then she called someone forth for treatment: a man who was trying to bite his lip and be calm, but was in obvious agony from the third degree burn taking up most of his left arm.

Twilight examined the wound as best she could without gagging, then asked the man to sit down. She drew her wand; she was asked what the "stick" was supposed to be for.

"It's…a professional doctor thing," she supplied.

Muttering the Cure incantation under her breath, she pointed the "professional doctor thing" at the near-festering patch of skin. The damage began to repair itself, blooming into healthy skin. Twilight dipped a hand into a nearby salve and began to rub it over the freshly healed patch.

"It feels so much better already," the man commented.

"That's the salve," Twilight said quickly. She then wrapped the man's healed arm up in a bandage and sent him on his way. Soon he would discover that his arm had become well at miraculous speed and discard the bandage.

Twilight's undercover Curing went on for quite a while: for as many people as she could see. However, she was just one mage, and there were far more people in the room, in the building, in the whole town than she could cure. The spell, she realized, was also weak. There were some wounds over which it only had partial effect.

The best she could do wasn't good enough, but it was better than nothing at all.

...

"Why did you put yourself in danger like that?" Shang asked Rarity sternly, bordering on yelling. "You could've been killed!"

"I only wanted to help!" Rarity replied plaintively.

"It's not civilians' job to help," Shang chided. "We were here to protect you." Though they hadn't done a very good job of it, he mentally berated himself.

"I'm no ordinary civilian," Rarity huffed. "General Li, was it? I presume you've met Dusk Shine, Rainbow Blitz, Butterscotch, Applejack, and Bubble Berry?"

"I have," Shang replied.

"They're all my friends," Rarity explained. "We trained together, you see. I wanted to be able to help them, but as there are certain rules in place about women in the army, save for one Fa Mulan, I wasn't able to enlist. I wasn't about to just sit back while they charged headfirst into danger!"

Shang found it hard to believe that the five women would have even deceived Rarity, who claimed to be a longtime friend of theirs, into believing they were men. Rarity simply wasn't going along with their charade for some reason. "You are…quite skilled," Shang admitted. "Just like them." He didn't just yet want to bring up the powers he'd seen her demonstrate; the ones he still couldn't explain. "But you still can't get involved in military business."

"And why not?" Rarity balked.

Shang sighed. "Because it's protocol. Because the Emperor – "

"Is that REALLY how you think about it?" Rarity huffed. "Or are you just parroting what they told you up at headquarters, wherever that is?"

Spike, feeling the tension grow to an uncomfortable level, decided to leave Rarity and Shang for the moment. He had some thinking to do anyway, and he wanted to be alone.

"If you really have to know…" Shang said in almost a whisper, "What I really think is that you still shouldn't have interfered. But for me, it's because I don't want civilians getting hurt on my conscience."

"I'm only barely a civilian," Rarity reminded him. "The only reason I couldn't handle that man was because he had more power than I did, and that meant all of us were helpless. Please…let me travel with you."

"If I did," Shang replied, "and anyone found out…"

"…Your job would be on the line," Rarity realized. "I understand. You can't give me your blessing."

They stood in silence for a moment before Shang blurted, "He was dead. I saw him die."

"There's magic out there that can undo it," Rarity told him. "I've heard of it, you know. It's all about chaos and bringing back the people who can spread it."

"Where did you hear about that?"

"I'm…not certain I can disclose," Rarity admitted guiltily.

"Just…stay safe," Shang warned. "I have other things I have to check on in the city."

"Understood."

As Shang turned to walk back into the wreckage, Rarity faced the ocean once more. "It seems all I've done is make things worse," she sighed.

...

"All I did was make things worse," Spike muttered as he took a seat on a fallen and charred plank, staring at the stones of the street.

It was in this state that Mushu found him. The younger dragon was bent over with the weight of grief, head in his hands and elbows propped upon his knees. Mushu considered just passing him by; he'd never been one to entertain the thought of babysitting, even when the child was a fellow dragon. However, he soon found that his conscience wouldn't just let him walk on by.

"Hi," the thin red dragon said as he slid onto the plank next to Spike.

"Hey," Spike greeted. "Shouldn't you be helping Mulan?"

"I was just on my way to try and find us somethin' to eat," Mushu explained. "Fresh water. Thought it might cheer her up a bit. It ain't urgent, though. Now…why ain't you helpin' your friend?"

"I don't know how much help I actually am anymore," Spike admitted. "I knew adventures like this were gonna be dangerous, but I guess it never really sank in. I was supposed to be a guardian. Well, some guardian I am. I'm just lucky that Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are all alive."

"Might wanna stick to usin' the other names for a bit," Mushu advised. "Most people don't stop to look twice at two guardians on their own in the middle of the street, but trust me, I've run my mouth when I shouldn't before."

"That's the last thing I need," Spike moaned. "First, I can't help Rarity in a fight. Then I can't stop…any of THIS from happening. I'm probably gonna get my friends in trouble anyway at this rate."

"Well…I hate to tell ya this, kid," Mushu sighed, "but them's the breaks of bein' a guardian. Protectin' people from danger means we have to get involved with the danger. Take some risks. They don't always pan out. I was actually thrown out of the Fa family guardians for a few generations after I messed up."

"Really?" Spike was suddenly morbidly curious. "What'd you do?"

"Ain't important. It was really more like what I didn't do. I thought I had everything under control, that I was the big dragon on the block and there wasn't nobody gonna mess with the Fa family on my watch. I guess I got a bit cocky, and I wasn't payin' attention when I was needed. Next thing I knew…Fa Deng didn't have a good head on his shoulders anymore. Or…any head. Got chopped right off in the time it took me to blink."

"But apparently you're a guardian now," Spike pointed out.

"Yeah," Mushu confirmed. "Y'know why that is? 'Cause I never gave up tryin' to get that spot back. So I ended up sneakin' out after Mulan to watch over her so I could prove myself when she came back a war hero. Theeeeeen…somethin' else kinda happened." He grinned.

"What?" Spike asked.

"I made a good friend worth protectin'," Mushu concluded. "And you got six of those. Don't go takin' 'em for granted. But you know what the big difference is between you and me, kid? Much as I hate to say it…you didn't take your eyes off Shan-Yu for a second. You didn't let your ego get the best of you." He lightly poked Spike in the shoulder. "Kinda embarrassin', really. A kid dragon bein' more mature than I was."

"Heh." Spike allowed himself a small smile. "I know I tried my best. But…it didn't work out."

"There are some things even the spirits can't change," Mushu told him. "If it was up to us, there wouldn't even be a war. You just gotta let those things go." He remembered the last time he'd said that, fully aware that he was becoming the sort who gave good advice but didn't take it for himself. "At the end of the day…you've still got all six of your friends. Best thing a guardian can do right now is be there for 'em."

"You're right," Spike said confidently, straightening up. "I should go find one of them now. Maybe I can help Twi – Dusk Shine. Thanks, Mushu!"

"No problem, kid." Mushu hopped off the plank.

"You really are smart," Spike told him.

"You think I don't know that?" Mushu winked. "Nobody around here gives me any credit for it! Now what do you say we go find somethin' edible?"

"Count me in!" Spike fell right in step behind Mushu as the two dragons sought out whatever eating establishments were still open and serving.

...

Rarity swam around in Shang's head as he made his way down the street. Was he really so concerned with his job? He was proud of his mantle as General, but still, he'd knowingly accepted five more women into the army, and his thoughts had been on them, not his own risk. Their needs had seemed greater. Did Rarity truly need protecting? He didn't know. Her arrows had seemed useless against Shan-Yu…but so had everything else. The man had taken several blasts of pure electricity to his body. Perhaps Rarity had earned the right to fight. She would have signed up for the army, after all, if she could have. Or would she? If she had truly been ready to fight, wouldn't she have donned a disguise alongside her friends and introduced herself under a male name?

Closer to the bomb site, Shang came upon Mulan and Rainbow Dash, both of whom were moving debris. They dismantled enormous piles of wood and shrapnel, checking to see if any wounded had been stranded beneath. They got to the bottom of one particular stack to find no one and let out twin sighs of relief.

"Mulan," Shang greeted. "Blitz. I'm glad you're here. I wanted to talk about…what happened. On the beach."

"You mean Shan-Yu being back," Mulan clarified.

"Listen, I know this is gonna sound crazy," Rainbow Dash said hurriedly, "but there's magic out there that can bring people back from the dead."

"Your friend Rarity said the same thing," Shang informed her.

"I've…heard of it before," Mulan said sheepishly.

That tipped Shang off. "You…know something, don't you?" He looked back to Rainbow Dash. "It has something to do with that sword you had. And the way you were able to strike Shan-Yu with lightning!"

"I…don't know if I can say." Mulan cast her eyes downward.

"I don't want to compromise you," Shang told her. "But there's no one else around, and nothing you say about this will go on the record. If there's something I should know about all of this…"

Mulan and Rainbow Dash looked to each other.

"Shine wouldn't be happy," Rainbow Dash said. "But…I'm okay with it."

Mulan nodded. "The five soldiers I brought and Rarity. There's a reason you'd never heard their family names before. More than you think. They're travelers."

"You're not from China," Shang reiterated.

"We're from…far away," Rainbow Dash told him. "REALLY far away."

"How far away?" Shang was beginning to realize what she was getting at.

"You might almost say we're…from another world."

Shang's suspicion was confirmed. "Another world…" He was taken aback.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier," Mulan quickly broke in.

"No…it's not the kind of thing that's easy to explain," Shang reassured her. "I don't know what I would have done if it were me keeping the secret, after all. Blitz, are you a spirit?" He'd been overcome by pure flabbergasted curiosity.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Nope. Just…not from here."

"What brought you here?"

"Kind of a long story, but my friends and I knew this place would need us."

Shang nodded. "Then that sword you had. It was some kind of magic."

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash confirmed. "Something I got on another world from something that was kind of like a guardian, but more powerful and WAY less nice. Aaaand…that's the other thing. Shan-Yu coming back? That's not something I've read about. That's something I've SEEN."

"Rarity said that his return was connected to spreading chaos," Shang pointed out.

Rainbow Dash nodded. "There's something out there. He's kinda like a spirit too. Actually, he might BE a spirit. He's a lot of things. But he just wants to mess everything up for fun. He can bring people back from the dead if he wants, and it's never anyone good." As soon as she said that, the memory of Ingway emerging from the base of Yggdrassil with the shining Riblam in his hands blazed across her mind. "Well, almost never."

"This is starting to become a lot to take in," Shang sighed. "This spirit. Do you think he's here now?"

"I dunno." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Sometimes he just sets things up and leaves them alone to see what happens."

It didn't occur to her to consider other entities that had access to the realms of the dead.

"We can only focus on the enemies we know about," Mulan emphasized. "So far, all we know is that Shan-Yu is back, and he has one ship's worth of men."

"They weren't dressed like a navy," Shang told her. "I already got reports from Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po that on the flight back to their ship, a lot of them grabbed whatever they could take. The way they were dressed…I think they really were pirates."

"Pirates who answer to Shan-Yu," Mulan affirmed. "On the bright side, at least we don't have to worry about starting a war with another nation now?"

"Shan-Yu might've even wanted that!" Rainbow Dash realized. "If we started an international incident because we didn't know it was all him!"

"That much, at least, will have to be reported," Shang stated. "Before Chi Fu convinces the Emperor to start assigning blame to another military power."

"Maybe don't put that the pirate captain came back from the dead in the first draft," Mulan suggested.

"Good idea," Shang replied. "This whole thing is unbelievable."

"But it's happening," Mulan insisted.

Shang nodded. "I know. We just have to deal with it as best we can."

"And how is that?" Mulan asked.

"I think…we should keep up our efforts to clean up as much as we can and heal as many people as we can see here," Shang decided. "I'll have to send a report that we're dealing with a single pirate ship and a captain with…unique weaponry. We'll make camp and rest for the night. Then, tomorrow, I think we should go to Panyu."

"What's in Panyu?" Mulan asked.

"It's the next place Shan-Yu would go if he keeps up this pattern," Shang told her.

"Then that's exactly where we shouldn't go," Mulan insisted. "Now that he's seen us here, he knows we know his pattern. The bomb he set off proves that he doesn't want to be predictable. He wants to take us by surprise. His next move is going to be something we wouldn't have predicted."

"You're right," Shang realized. "Then where should we go?"

"It could be anywhere," Mulan speculated. "But not further south. Not where he thinks we're going. Maybe…maybe you and I should look over the maps after we've set up camp and see if we can figure out where he might strike next. We just have to think like him."

"Think like a ruthless killer," Shang reiterated. "That's not going to be easy. But I think you're on the right track. For now, we should do what we can here. I don't even know if the Emperor would be happy with our troops staying here this long…but…"

"It doesn't feel right to just leave them," Mulan filled in.

"Most everyone just started helping out right away," Rainbow Dash pointed out. "Butterscotch went right for the medical tents, and I know Dusk Shine went to try and work on some other stuff. Stuff we learned on our travels about healing. We passed Yao and Ling doing the same thing we are and looking through the wreckage."

"We could use another hand in our group," Mulan pointed out. "If you don't have anything else to do."

"I'd be glad to help," Shang told the duo. "Where are we looking next?"

"That way," Rainbow Dash said, pointing.

They moved toward the next pile of fallen beams and charred planks.

...

After a full day of work, the Imperial soldiers set up camp just outside the town borders. Tong'an was by no means fixed, but it was in relatively better shape than it was just after the bomb had gone off.

As per request, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack had set up tents some distance away from the main camp. Shang had granted the request without asking too many questions. He and Mulan had then taken to his tent to look over maps of where the Riptide could potentially strike next as well as discuss further the issue of otherworldly magic coming into play.

Spike had found and rejoined the five, but somewhere along the line, Rarity had vanished. "She'll probably turn up when she wants to," Spike had said worriedly. "But if she's still gone after a few hours…then we'll go out and find her."

In their secluded camp, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie decided to start a fire. Twilight called the flames up from the heart of the Land of Dragons, which was strong and brimming with hot energy. Pinkie Pie had more marshmallows to pass around. In the meantime, Twilight set about weaving ropes together. Even when the six friends had such good treats to roast over the fire, the mood was somber, and they fell into silence.

The sound of someone approaching, a silhouette against the fading last light of the sun, caught all of their attention. Rather shyly, with ginger steps, Rarity was approaching the fire.

"Er…hello," she greeted with a rather awkward wave.

"RARITY!" Spike, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack cried in unison.

"I hope I'm not intruding," Rarity said shyly.

"Not at all, sugar cube," Applejack replied warmly. "Why don't'cha sit down by the fire for a bit?"

"I've got marshmallows!" Pinkie Pie added in a singsong tone.

"Thank you." Rarity knelt down in the space Twilight and Rainbow Dash made for her by shuffling to the side. No sooner had she joined the group than Pinkie Pie had shoved a stick with three marshmallows on it into her hand. Rarity held the stick out over the fire. "You know, it's rather amusing," she remarked. "Back home, Sweetie Belle would sometimes tease me and say I looked like I was made out of marshmallows. Can you imagine! So I told her right back that if I looked like a marshmallow, then so did she." She laughed at the memory. "We both thought that was funny. So…how is everypony holding up?"

"We did the best we could," Twilight sighed.

"There ain't much more we can do," Applejack added. "Just gotta…move on, I guess."

"But next time, WE'RE NOT LETTIN' HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Pinkie Pie screeched.

"Next time?" Rarity blinked. "Have you figured out where we're going?"

"Shang and Mulan are workin' on it," Rainbow Dash said. "We don't really know where to go from here. That guy was apparently the same guy who started the LAST war. And now he's back to bother everypony here AGAIN!"

"Oh…dear," Rarity said softly.

"But we're gonna stop him next time," Rainbow Dash vowed. "I know it!"

"That's why I'm making this." Twilight held up the ropes. "I was able to get away long enough to put together more magic-resistant rope. It gets easier the more you do it. I'm making a net, and hopefully, if we can get in at close range, we can stop Shan-Yu from using any of his Dark powers before they cause any damage."

"Couldn't we just use the Elements on him?" Rarity wondered out loud.

"I thought of that," Twilight told her. "And I actually think it might be better if we use the Elements to put up a barrier over town if we can beat Shan-Yu there AND confirm it's the place he's going. If we let him and his crew get in again, they might plant another bomb. But if they're blocked out, we could curtain him off at the beach, or even take a boat right out to meet him in the water!"

"I guess you'll wanna hear where we're going so you can follow along," Rainbow Dash told Rarity rather grumpily.

Rarity, sensing the hostility in Rainbow Dash's voice, turned her gaze to the flames. "That would be nice," she muttered softly.

Twilight shook her head. "I think we're ignoring the manticore in the room here. Rarity…I know we've been over this, but I just can't help but get the feeling that the reason you didn't go along with our plan is because of something bigger you haven't told us yet. I guess in the end, you don't have to tell us – "

"Yes you do!" Rainbow Dash argued.

Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash disparagingly before returning to Rarity and her original statement. "But whatever it is, I think I speak for all of us when I say you're among friends, Rarity. We can handle whatever's on your mind. Maybe we can even help if there's some kind of problem."

Rarity reacted in a way that was somewhat surprising to the others. Her shoulders hunched up, and she bent over a bit, as though she were trying to make herself as small as possible. Her voice was small as well when it came out: "There is…something. But I'm not sure it's best to say. I don't want it to change the way you look at me."

"What could change the way we look at ya?" Applejack asked, rather stunned.

"You have no idea," Rarity continued, almost at a whisper.

"Look," Rainbow Dash sighed, "I know I've been on your case about this. And if you REALLY don't wanna say, then you don't have to. But I promise that nothing is gonna change the way I look at you forever, Rarity. I don't know what could. You're Rarity! We all know you! Fashionable, dependable, slightly dramatic, generous Rarity!"

"I'm with Rainbow on this one," Applejack agreed.

"You're our friend," Twilight emphasized, "and I don't think that will change."

"Even if it's something hard to handle, we'll find a way to work it out," Fluttershy offered.

"And maybe telling us will actually change things for the better!" Pinkie suggested.

"It's up to you!" Spike concluded.

After a silence of indeterminate length, Rarity asked, "Are you sure we're alone? That we can't be heard?"

"I'll check." Twilight got up and looked past the borders of the small branch of camp. The main camp was so far away that no activity could be discerned over there, so Twilight figured it must be the same in reverse. Tong'an was even further away. A short sweep proved that no eavesdroppers were hiding in the bushes. Twilight returned to the fire, announcing, "There's nopony around. Whatever happens here stays here."

"Then you must promise not to tell anypony," Rarity begged, her voice gaining in volume. "Only a few ponies know this. My own family, and anypony who…NEEDED to know, or got involved. But I simply can't…I don't know how everypony else will react, and I don't want them to…" Her voice broke into a squeak. "Hate…me…"

"We won't tell," Twilight vowed, and five nods accompanied her. "And I promise not to hate you no matter what you say."

"All right," Rarity relented. "I don't quite know where to start – "

"Well, you seem awfully nervous," Fluttershy pointed out. "Maybe you should start by breathing a bit and focusing on it. Then you can get your thoughts together."

"Right…" Rarity closed her eyes, drawing in a very slow breath. Rainbow Dash could have about exploded from the suspense, she figured, but she also knew it was important for Rarity to be in the right frame of mind. Rarity then expelled the breath slowly, and when she had finished, she was ready to speak. "I've told you all the tale of how I got my Cutie Mark. After working on the costumes for the elementary school play and finding them lackluster, my horn suddenly magnetized to a geode at the edge of town. It looked like nothing but an ordinary rock on the outside, but on the inside, it was simply filled with gorgeous crystals, which I used to redo the entire wardrobe for the play."

The others nodded; they knew this story well.

"Seeing those crystals made me realize where my talent lay," Rarity went on. "But that wasn't the only thing I figured out. It also made me realize that what I looked like on the outside didn't have to match what was on the inside. And maybe, if it just…didn't, I could change the outside and bring out the crystals instead of trying to make myself more like a rock. Do you understand so far?"

"I…think?" Rainbow Dash replied.

"You had to be yourself," Twilight supplied.

"Yes!" Rarity cried. "Yes, that exactly. And that was the day I realized I wanted to…become Rarity."

"But you were Rarity," Fluttershy pointed out.

"…Not always," Rarity muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash asked in confusion.

"Well," Rarity went on, "Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy wouldn't have noticed anything amiss. After all, they moved to Ponyville when they were older from Canterlot, Cloudsdale, and the rock farms. But Applejack…when did you first meet me? Or know I existed at all?"

"Well, uh…" Applejack thought it over. "I guess I only really noticed ya a year after I got my Cutie Mark. But I was little then. None of us remember everythin' we saw when we were fillies."

"You didn't know me until then because Rarity didn't exist until then." Rarity paused a moment, taking another deep breath and letting it down. "Before that…there was a colt named Elusive. That was…well, that was who I used to be."

"Wait…WHAT?" Rainbow Dash cried.

"You're not sayin'…" Applejack was having difficulty reconciling what she'd heard and what it was supposed to mean.

"I am," Rarity confirmed. "When I was born, my parents named me Elusive. And I was a colt." After that, the words came spilling out; she wanted them all on the table as fast as possible. "But as soon as a pony can know such things, I knew something was wrong. That something didn't MATCH. I simply WASN'T a colt on the inside, in my heart, even though that was the body I had. I didn't know what to do about it until I saw that rock. I'd been trying for so long to just feel right, and then that rock…was different on the inside, just like me. That was when I realized what my destiny truly was. It took a bit to convince my parents of it. It was quite hard to make them understand. But eventually, they did. They asked me again and again if I was sure about what I wanted, especially since I was so young, but being that way was beginning to tear me apart. There were nights I simply couldn't bear the feeling. So we went to Canterlot, and certain spells were cast on me. Permanent spells. Spells to turn me from a stallion into a mare."

"Wait a second," Twilight interrupted. "Those kind of spells don't exist. I've looked this up. There are theories about stallion-mare swap spells, but there hasn't been a recorded unicorn in history who could pull it off."

"You're right," Rarity told her. "There hasn't been a recorded UNICORN in history. But for an ALICORN who had spent thousands of years studying magic…"

"Celestia," Twilight realized.

"My parents sent her a letter," Rarity went on. "She said it would be all right, and we traveled to meet her. Before everything, Celestia asked me if I was absolutely sure this was what I wanted. I told her I was never more sure of anything in my entire life, and I wasn't sure I would be of anything ever again. She knew I meant it. Somehow, she knew even better than I did that it wasn't just a silly phase I was going through out of immaturity. I remember…well, to be quite honest, I remember breaking down and crying in front of her. She took me under her wing – literally, I should specify – and comforted me, saying she would easily be able to grant my wish. My parents watched her cast the spells, and when it was all done, we had to pick a new name for me. I hadn't even thought of it before that moment. It's a big decision, after all. To choose what you're going to be called forever. Then I remembered something my mother had told me the night I decorated the play's costumes with the crystals I had found in that geode. She said, 'It would have looked ordinary, but you made those clothes really unique. You don't find many stones like that just lying around, you know. That rock was a real rarity!' That was the first time I'd heard that word at all, really. I'd liked the sound of it. I asked her what it meant, and Mother said that it was a word for something that there wasn't very much of in the world, or only one of a kind. That was what I wanted to be. Somepony who stood out. Somepony unique! That was how I eventually settled on it. 'Rarity.' I worried for some time after that I'd made a mistake, but…here I am, and it wasn't a mistake at all. I would never go back to being Elusive. Being a mare is what's RIGHT for me. It's in my heart.

"That being said, the spell wasn't perfect. It was difficult, even for Celestia. There was just one tiny thing it wasn't able to change. Something I thought would blow my cover that day on the Ponyville Express when Pinkie Pie was trying to figure out who had ruined her 'MMMM' cake." Rarity reached up to her eyelids, pressing her fingers to them. She then completely peeled away both sets of her long lashes, revealing much shorter, bristlier lashes beneath. "The lashes don't change. Of all the things a stallion-mare swap spell could fail to encompass, it's silly, isn't it? When I lost one on that train and Twilight found it, I was certain it would give away a little more than the fact that I'd taken a bite of the MMMM."

"Actually…" Twilight couldn't help but smile. "I just thought you loved accessorizing so much, you plucked out your natural lashes to put new ones on."

"I didn't even think about it at all!" Pinkie Pie announced.

Rarity continued, "Since then, I've settled into life as a mare. Though, of course, I'd always had a fascination with the spell that was performed to make everything right for me. After all, as Twilight said, it wasn't something your average unicorn could do. I went through a phase where I became fascinated with the workings of it and transfiguration spells in general – "

"And you aced that class at Hogwarts!" Rainbow Dash realized.

Rarity nodded. "The formula was familiar to me. And that brings us to here. I'm just so proud of my identity and who I am…it's not that I'm completely averse to dressing as a stallion if need be. But to hear that nopony here will take me, as I am, as the RARITY I went through so much to become…it's not only an insult, but it's hurtful to hear! I wasn't going to go pretend to be Elusive to cater to somepony who was just being utterly sexist and ignorant! I am Rarity. I chose my own name. I was able to choose it again every time we've needed to go undercover, or when I needed a surname to enroll at Hogwarts. But I am not going to stand by while any Emperor decrees that it is in any way WRONG FOR ME TO BE A MARE!"

By that point, her breathing had become ragged. "So now you know," she concluded. "It was a matter of my identity. The identity I'm proud of. Perhaps…perhaps I should have just done what the rest of you did. But I wanted them to accept me for ME." She sighed, drooping a bit. "Though I suppose that's somewhat hypocritical. After all, I didn't even tell my own best friends who I really am until now."

"That's not true!" Twilight interjected. "You said it yourself. You're Rarity. You told us all EXACTLY who you are. That wasn't a lie. It was just who you WERE that you didn't tell us about."

"And…?" Rarity replied. "I'm…almost afraid to ask. But…now that you know…" She found herself unable to finish the sentence.

"Course it doesn't change the way we see you!" Applejack told her happily. "Like Twilight said. You're Rarity. You ain't Elusive. Even if ya were, though, you'd still be the friend we love."

"I'm really glad you could finally tell us all that," Fluttershy added warmly. "It must have been hard to keep a secret like that. We won't tell anypony."

"I think this moment calls for a HUG!" Pinkie Pie latched her arms tightly around Rarity. Fluttershy, Applejack, Twilight, and Spike moved in, joining the embrace.

"Thank you…" Rarity squeaked as her friends surrounded her. "Thank you all so much…I could just cry…" She felt the water gathering in her eyes as she spoke. Then she realized there was one missing. When the others backed off, she looked across the bonfire at Rainbow Dash, concern building. "Rainbow Dash…?"

"I…" Rainbow Dash was overcome with solemnity. "I didn't wanna just join in the hug until I apologized. Rarity…I am so, SO sorry I got mad at you for all this. I didn't know how important it was."

"It should be me apologizing, really," Rarity replied. "I didn't tell you what I should have. I should've trusted you all more. Instead I went and let you think I believed your plan was stupid. It's brilliant, really. You all look the spitting image of strapping stallion soldiers."

"I always approve of awesome alliteration!" Pinkie commented.

"And I was so petty," Rarity went on. "My identity is important to me…but probably not as important as protecting our new friends on this world from danger."

"It is TOO important!" Rainbow Dash insisted as she got up, rushing to Rarity to give her the long-delayed hug. Rarity and Rainbow Dash held each other for quite a while, making sure their connection was affirmed. When they let go, Rainbow Dash asked, "So…are we cool?"

Rarity nodded. "We are."

"Uh…Rarity?" Spike broke in. "I, uh…I kinda wanna say something."

"What is it, Spike?" Rarity asked.

"Well…" Spike blushed. "You know how I always had that crush on you. Because you're so pretty and talented and nice…I can't even think of anything wrong with you."

"I think some of us can think of a few things," Applejack teased. "Like bein' afraid of gettin' mud on her hooves…"

"Or breaking out the fainting couch when she can't find her fifth best set of shoes," Rainbow Dash added.

"I value cleanliness!" Rarity protested. Though she instinctively smiled. She had been so afraid that if she told her story, she would be mocked for much more sensitive things. That her friends would find it unnatural that she'd wanted to change from the body she'd been born into, or that she wasn't fit to call herself a mare. She'd underestimated them; she could see that now. "Now, go on, Spike."

"I know that you don't feel the same about me," Spike admitted. "And I think…I think in the end, I've just gotta find somepony else. But since you said all this, I wanted you to know that you're still just as beautiful. Everything I like about you is still there. I just…thought you might want to hear that."

"Oh, Spike!" Now Rarity truly was crying, the water converging into great beads of water that rushed down and over her cheeks. "Thank you ever so much! Thank all of you, really. I was afraid of what would happen if you knew. And now I know I don't have any reason to be afraid." She paused. "Though I suppose that's how my wish will go wrong, won't it? When I have to tell…somepony else about all this. After he's already fallen for me."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Twilight said with a nod. "I hate that THIS is what I have to say as a COMFORT, but there are about five hundred things that could go wrong when you meet the pony you love. He might be just fine with what's in your past."

"And if he's not," Rainbow Dash laughed, "we'll kick his flank for ya!"

"Metaphorically and nonviolently," Fluttershy added hastily. "Unless he's actually evil and we have to fight him to protect you."

"Though you never know," Pinkie Pie mused. "I mean, Twilight likes somepony pretty evil and we don't have to protect her from – "

"OOOOOOOOOOkay," Twilight broke in, "I think it's late at night. We should get some sleep so we're ready to move out tomorrow."

Spike yawned. "I am pretty tired."

"Me too," Applejack agreed.

"We've got extra blankets and pillows, and any of our tents is big enough for two," Twilight pointed out. "Rarity, we have more than enough room for you to stay with us."

"Thank you," Rarity replied. "I regret to say it, but I hadn't really thought about sleeping arrangements. Though I suppose the general won't be too happy if he finds out."

"He won't know," Twilight asserted. "Why don't you stay in my tent for the night?"

"And Spike can stay with me," Fluttershy volunteered.

All agreed this was a valid arrangement, and they set about extinguishing the fire, consuming the last of the marshmallows (or at least the last of them that they knew existed; Twilight figured Pinkie's supply of candy was bottomless), and moving to their arranged sleeping quarters.

...

After an hour, however, Twilight was still awake, lying next to Rarity in the tent. She'd tried and tried in vain to get some sleep. However, a small bother of a thought had gotten into the back of her mind, and there it stayed, pestering and pestering.

After spending so much time lying in the tent without hope of sleep, Twilight became physically restless. Rather than toss and turn about, which would have disturbed Rarity, Twilight instead slowly slid out of the tent, walking toward the empty site where the bonfire had been built. She sat down there, cross-legged, looking up at the stars.

"Twilight?" a voice whispered from behind her.

Twilight was startled, nearly falling over. She twisted about quickly to see who had spoken; Rarity was peering out of the tent.

"I'm sorry," Twilight whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's all right," Rarity replied softly, crawling out of the tent and walking over to where Twilight sat, taking her own seat on the ground next to her. "But are YOU all right?"
"I'm fine," Twilight sighed. "I've just…got a lot on my mind."

"Is it…related to something I said earlier tonight?" Rarity asked worriedly.

Twilight shook her head. "No. It's nothing about that. But…I'm not sure you want to hear it. It involves me being mad at somepony you owe a lot to."

"Tell me anyway," Rarity ordered. "I'll form my own opinion on the pony in question. And now that you've brought it up, I simply have to know."

Twilight sighed, looking back up at the stars. "When I hear you say all those things about how Celestia comforted and helped you, and how she made you the pony you were meant to be, it makes me feel a little bad that…I'm upset with her."

"But whyever are you upset with her?" Rarity was perplexed.

"Because of her plan for me," Twilight admitted. "To make me the Element of Magic all along. Ever since I passed her first test. She knew I was going to have to end up with THIS life. Or at least she could have considered it. And it's not that I don't have fun on our adventures, but if you'd have asked me when I was young if I wanted to be ageless and one-sixth responsible for protecting the multiverse, I probably would've said no!"

"But you said you weren't angry with her," Rarity reminded Twilight. "The night you found out."

"I know what I said," Twilight sighed. "I thought I wasn't mad at her. I tried to talk myself into being okay with it. But I wasn't."

"Is it something you need to talk about with her?" Rarity suggested. "Perhaps you should write her a letter. Or after this, when we drop Spike back off, we could go to Canterlot and schedule an appointment for you to talk to her face-to-face."

Twilight shook her head. "I can't do that yet. I don't know what I would really say. I know why she kept all that from me for so long. She was thinking of Luna, and she knew I could handle all the responsibility. If I asked her to apologize, she just…would. I feel like I need something more than that…but I can't just go marching up to her until I know what I want, and what I need to say. It might take me a while to figure out what that even is."

"Not even just that it's unfair how she chose you?"

"Was it really, though?" Twilight looked Rarity in the eye. "This was my destiny from the start, after all. This probably would have happened with or without Celestia. I had Spirit Realm powers, remember? I really hate feeling so upset with her. She's my teacher. My mentor. My FRIEND. But…I can't help how I feel." Her gaze returned upward. "What about you? You're not upset?"

"I think it's different for me," Rarity admitted. "I can understand how this would make you feel. You were mentioned in that journal. Me…I fell into the Elements by accident when I went with you into the Everfree Forest and gave my tail over to Steven Magnet. I have no one to blame for this but myself. Or perhaps destiny." She smiled at that. "Like you said, it would have happened no matter what. We all saw Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom together. And it told us who we were."

"More than I thought, I guess," Twilight realized.

"You can't help feeling upset if that's simply what you feel," Rarity told Twilight. "I suppose what's left for you to do is figure out what you do need to say to Celestia. Or what answer it is you wish to hear from her."

"I feel like every question I can think of to ask, I know the answer to already," Twilight clarified. "Why not tell me when I was young? Because I wouldn't have believed it. Why pick me? Because I was the right pony for it, and the Element of Magic had to go to somepony. I don't have the right question yet." She gave another sigh, this one brief. "I need to just put it aside and sleep. I have a lot of other things to think about."

"I'll leave you to think," Rarity told Twilight as she moved back toward the tent. "Your side of the tent will be waiting for you whenever you're ready to sleep."

"Thanks."

Rarity disappeared back into the tent, cuddling up beneath the warmth of the blankets. Twilight tossed the thoughts inside her head around a little more beneath the starry night sky before she retired to the tent to do the same.

...

THE REALM OF SLEEP

At first, there was only blankness, the color of a page not yet written on. In all directions, up, down, left, right, forward and back and every diagonal in between. Spike couldn't even be sure his feet were supported by anything; there didn't appear to be a floor beneath him. Yet he was standing nonetheless.

"Hello?" he called out. "Where am I?"

He was immediately answered by a deep voice: "In a dream."

Spike took notice of several things then. First, the voice itself. He couldn't see who was speaking, and he supposed that should have been frightening, but the tone had a quality to it that made him feel strangely safe and comforted. It was loud, but a voice he wouldn't mind listening to for quite a while. It was distinctly male, he realized, but he hadn't even thought about that first. Second, what it had said. It only made sense that this was a dream. The last thing Spike remembered was going to sleep, and this landscape, or lack thereof, was incredibly strange. However, in a dream, one usually is not aware one is dreaming. Even rarer is for someone in the dream to state that fact outright. Once he thought about it, Spike realized that if he was in a dream, his thoughts were incredibly clear. It always seemed that way when you were dreaming and didn't know you were dreaming, but when you awoke, you could always look back and see how fuzzy your mind had been in the state of sleep. Here, even while knowing he was asleep, Spike felt quite awake.

"How can I be dreaming?" he asked. "Usually, you aren't supposed to know that you are."

"Usually," the voice repeated. "However, this is a special dream that I have helped to create in order to deliver to you a special message. You are in the Realm of Sleep, where all dreams reside. The heart of every world has a dream, and in sleep, a world can look quite different from its waking counterpart. Or it can be eerily similar. Each sleeping world houses the dreams of its inhabitants. There are also countries that only exist within the Realm of Sleep and its dreams; places you cannot reach in the waking worlds. The Realm of Sleep was the only way I could reach you. You see, I was a spirit, and I once inhabited the Spirit Realm, awaking when needed to assist those I protected in the Land of Dragons. However, after my last battle, I became no more. I speak to you now from a land beyond the Spirit Realm."

Spike began to shiver. "Are you saying you're a…" He gulped nervously, sweat running down his scales. He didn't even know you could shake and sweat with fear in a dream. "A ghost?"

"Perhaps that is the term that will make the most sense," the voice continued thoughtfully.

Spike steeled his courage, trying not to be offput that he was speaking with the dead. After all, so far, the dead seemed quite nice and informative. "What did you wanna talk to me about?" he asked.

"You are no ordinary guardian," the voice began. "You are not a spirit. However, you have filled the role of a guardian to perfection. I know of your deeds. You saved an entire empire from destruction. You have bridged two cultures, counting yourself a pony as well as a dragon. You have been loyal and faithful to your friends, who bear a great task of almost indescribable importance. You may not be a spirit, but you are a guardian. That is why I was able to reach your dream. The dreams of your six friends, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, are still impenetrable to me.

"I have come to warn you. What is happening now has happened before. I observed it long ago."

"Yeah," Spike recalled. "Mulan said there was some sorta…reset."

"Fa Mulan speaks the truth," the voice clarified. "However, I speak of a cycle that happened even before this, generations ago. This world has always been a target for Dark forces because of its connection to the Spirit Realm. You faced Dark forces in Tong'an that are similar to the Dark forces I myself faced."

"I don't understand," Spike said worriedly.

"Then I shall show you," the voice decided.

...

CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS, THE REALM OF SLEEP

When the dream changed, a definitive landscape filling it, Spike recognized the rolling green fields and blue skies. He couldn't have said where exactly it was in the Land of Dragons, but he was certain it was there.

Spike hovered high in the air, resting on a soft cloud. Peering over the edge, he saw war raging below. Though the armor was different, older, he could tell that one side was Imperial. The other side he did not recognize.

"This land has seen many wars throughout its history," the voice said as it gently faded in, carried by the breeze. "Most were spurred by human greed and arrogance. The homeland of my family is no innocent, nor are any of the nations that border it. Where there are mortals, there is rage, prejudice, and avarice."

"But mortals aren't all bad," Spike protested. "I know a lot of mortals who would never start a war!"

The voice gave a friendly chuckle. "There is balance in everything, young guardian. For where there are mortals, there is also compassion and creativity. You see this in the Elements your friends carry. Kindness, generosity, honesty, loyalty, laughter…these are the things that offset the evils that humans and ponies alike spawn. You understand why it is so important that your friends bear the powers of these qualities and use them to protect others."

"I do," Spike confirmed.

"As many wars as have been fueled by greed," the voice went on, "there are some in our history that, unbeknownst to those fighting in them, have been started or fueled not by the civilian and political inhabitants of this world, but by something greater. Something darker, that wishes only for destruction."

The skies suddenly clouded over. While the cumulus that Spike rested upon remained white and nonthreatening, and a space was cleared around it for him to keep watching the battle below, looking in the cardinal directions or upward revealed a dark storm gathering, with lightning flashing in between the greenish-gray clouds.

"This was the war in which I saw those dark powers at play," the voice confessed.

Spike was suddenly aware of someone else on the battlefield. The soldiers seemed to give her a wide berth, fighting around her without taking notice of her presence. Though she was quite far down, Spike could tell it was a woman clad in a long black robe, complete with a headdress that resembled two horns. In her hand, she gripped a staff that glimmered green with magic.

"Wait a second!" Spike cried. She matched exactly a description given to him in one of his friends' letters. "That's Maleficent!"

"A Dark faery whose lust for conquest and destruction is rivaled by few," the voice explained. "She has been alive since the days of Legend, and always she has sought to bring suffering and sorrow to this world and countless others so that she may claim dominion over them. Long ago, she began a conflict here that left many, both of this land and the land it called enemy, destroyed. Soon her thirst for blood became insatiable, and her war became not only on the physical world, but that of the spirits."

Spike watched in awe as Maleficent transformed. A burst of green flame rocketed upward from the faery's figure into the sky. When it cleared, the smoke and ashes themselves seemed to solidify into her new body: a gigantic black dragon, many times her original size, with glowing eyes and smoke pouring from her mouth. Great black batlike wings protruded from her back, fanning the air and pushing the storm clouds about. Her head, jaws studded with knife-sharp teeth, sat upon a long and twisting neck.

"Many spirits pitted themselves against her," the voice explained, "but to no avail."

Spike could see them then: the guardians of the soldiers. Animals of all shapes and sizes ran forward to attack Maleficent with tooth and claw. She cut them down by searing them with jets of emerald fire from her own maw. At last, the largest yet attacked, and Spike watched with awe. This combatant was a dragon, only slightly taller than a human but so agile, he seemed to be teleporting from one place to the next. His face was reminiscent of a lion's, and his scales shone a bright ruby red. He spat rapid bullets of bright orange fire at Maleficent, zipping about and tearing at her with his claws.

"That was me," the voice said upon noticing Spike's attention to the dragon. For the first time, the voice's neutral tone dipped into something else: wistfulness.

"That was YOU?" Spike gasped in awe. "You were AWESOME!"

"I guarded a family in this land," the voice – the dragon – reminded Spike. "I vowed that I would protect them even if it meant dying. That is exactly what happened that day. I fought hard, and the soldier from the family I protected survived this war, going home to his wife and many children, who welcomed him gratefully, with tears of joy and open arms. But I…"

The spirits' attacks finally beat Maleficent back. She was struggling, her breathing ragged. Her entire outline seemed to shudder; Spike realized she couldn't hold the form of the dragon for much longer. However, she had one last attack in her. Just as her outline became blurriest, she reached out one claw and struck the red dragon across the chest, her dark claws digging deep in. Then she collapsed, inhabiting the humanoid female body once more, and staggered across the battlefield into a dark portal. Once she was gone, the clouds dispersed, letting the sun shine through again.

As for the red dragon, he had been sent plummeting to the ground. Spike watched in horror as he lay there, raggedly breathing in and out, his chest heaving, shining blood spilling from his wound. Then, with what seemed to be great effort, he twisted into a position where he could crawl, dragging the rest of his body by his two front legs, which pawed ever forward, one foot at a time.

"I went home," the dragon said, and the scene changed again.

...

LESHOU, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS, THE REALM OF SLEEP

"Hey, I know that place!" Spike cried from atop his new cloudy vantage point. "That's the Fa family farm!"

"That was the family I guarded," the dragon clarified. "The Fa family."

Looking down below, Spike saw the great spirit use his remaining strength to clamber upon a stone pedestal in the garden. As though spiting Maleficent with his will, the dragon broke into a wide, toothy smile, giving an expression of happiness as well as stoicism. Then his entire body turned to gray stone, making him no more than a still statue in the garden.

"We guardians moved into this world by stone statues that acted as conduits for our bodies," the dragon explained. "Whenever I was summoned, that statue would turn into my body and allow me to walk in this world. However, that would never happen any more. I left my body behind. It was no more than an empty shell."

"So you sacrificed yourself to stop Maleficent and save Mulan's family!" Spike realized.

Another chuckle. "Yes, though this was long before Mulan was ever born."

Spike realized a lot had changed in those generations. He hadn't even seen a giant dragon statue on that farm. "So…why are you telling ME this?"

"Because you must be warned."

And the scene changed again.

...

MOLING, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS, THE REALM OF SLEEP

Spike was no longer resting on a cloud. Some miles away from a port city, he was standing on the ground, looking at a beach. Upon this beach were two figures in deep conversation. One was the man that he and Rarity had faced at Tong'an. Shan-Yu, they'd called him. The other was Maleficent. Spike was awash with fear that they would see him and rush to destroy him.

"Fear not," the dragon's voice said calmly. "They cannot see or hear you in this dream. These events took place only shortly before your ship arrived on this world. The Dark forces that drove the conflict I showed you are at play again. You must realize the severity of the situation. Your friends are quick to blame Discord, but he has had no hand here, at least not in these events. It was Maleficent who brought Shan-Yu from the dead, and she who is facilitating his power."

"But Maleficent is powerful enough to curse a whole kingdom to death," Spike protested, remembering the tale of Corona.

"That she is," the dragon confirmed. "You will no doubt be faced with great danger when next you meet the champion she has chosen. You must act decisively in order to protect those you love. What will you do, young guardian?"

"I don't know," Spike answered worriedly. "I've never faced anything like this before! Yeah, there was Sombra, but this is different! Cadance helped me back then, and all I did was carry a crystal around! I don't know how to fight! I don't know if I'm ready to…" He couldn't even form the words for the concept of sacrificing himself. He knew it was the right thing to do, but the thought terrified him all the same. "I don't know how to HANDLE this!"

"When the time comes, you must."

"I know!" Spike cried in a panic. "But I don't know what to DO!"

There was silence for a long time. Spike realized he couldn't even hear what Maleficent and Shan-Yu were saying. All he had was the visual of them, seeing their lips move and watching their gestures. Then, at last, the dragon's voice asked, "Are you willing to do whatever it takes to protect the bearers of the Elements?"

"I…don't know," Spike reiterated. "I don't know what it will TAKE. But I do wanna protect them. I really do! I don't want ANY of them to get hurt! Or Mulan or Shang or Mushu or those soldiers that Twilight made friends with at camp!"

"Will you run away?"

"Run away? NO!" Spike was offended that he was even asked that.

"Would you save yourself if it meant leaving the others to perish?"

"I don't wanna die," Spike admitted. "I really don't. I'm scared! But if I ran away to save myself and let THEM die…then I don't know how I could live with myself!"

The good-natured chuckle returned. "You are still young, guardian. This is a heavy burden. I did not expect you to have answers or lack fear. All I needed to know was that you were ready to stand up for the ones you loved, even in the face of danger. You have earned the right to know where you must go, for I now know I can trust you to use this information correctly. I had to be sure you would not use it to steer yourself or your friends away from the battle deceptively so that you could be safe. Right now, no one in the Imperial army knows where Shan-Yu is planning to strike next, but I do. He is making his way toward Shanghai, believing that General Li Shang will not suspect that port because of its high walls. Inform the bearers of the Elements. Let them do as they wish with the information. And be ready to do what must be done to protect them."

"I will!" Spike promised. "You can count on me!"

"Then you shall wake," the dragon announced.

"WAIT!" Spike cried. "What about you?"

"Worry not about me," the dragon commanded. "Worry about what lies ahead for you and your friends."

"But – "

The scene was already fading, cutting to blinding white, then a sudden drop into black –

...

TONG'AN, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS

Spike woke up with a gasp. He lay still a moment, stunned, hardly able to believe what had just happened. He wondered if it had all just been an ordinary dream, but it had seemed so real. In fact, he could remember every detail of it as though it were a memory. That normally didn't happen to the ghostly remembrances of dreams.

Spike hastily scrambled to his feet and began shaking Fluttershy by the shoulder. "Fluttershy. Fluttershy! Wake up! We have to wake up EVERYPONY!"

...

Mulan and Shang had fallen asleep on opposite ends of the tent floor where they had been looking over maps. Mulan supposed some of the others had their lewd suspicions about the two spending the night there, and Mushu had even disappeared to elsewhere in order to leave the two alone, but truly, they had talked themselves into lethargy, discussing strategy and the implications of other worlds' involvement until they could stay awake no longer.

If she had to be honest with herself, Mulan was rather glad their relationship wasn't all that physical yet. Though her feelings for Shang were true, she was slightly intimidated by the thought. A day would have to come, she supposed, when she and Shang would have to talk about it.

If only she could have known that he was content with less than she expected he would be. But that was a matter for another day.

The map table lay between them. Atop it were marks crossing out locales and indicating the possibility of others. In the end, Shang and Mulan had ruled it down to five most likely locations Shan-Yu would want to strike next, and then they had been too sleepy to carry on. Five. That was four too many. They both knew Shang couldn't command the army to five places at once, and he wasn't about to divide the forces. There seemed to only be one solution: pick one at random, march, and hope.

All that changed when the clamor of voices sounded from outside the tent: "SHANG! MULAN!"

The seven voices woke the pair from their slumber. "Dusk…Shine?" Shang muttered.

"Blitz," Mulan added.

They scrambled to stand and then open up the tent flap to see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike gathered there.

"What's going on?" Mulan asked.

"We know where Shan-Yu's going next," Twilight announced. "Shanghai. He's headed for Shanghai."

"Shanghai?" Shang looked back to the map. Shanghai had been the first place they'd ruled out. "But that's impossible. Shanghai is fortified against pirate attacks. He would know that."

"That's what he's counting on!" Twilight insisted. "He knows you won't think it's in danger. But he'll have some way around that wall. More bombs, or something!"

"How do you know all this?" Mulan asked in disbelief.

"This might sound weird," Twilight answered, "but we got a message from one of your former family guardians. He came to Spike in a dream. Spike's dream was the only one he could enter."

"Former guardian?" Mulan was confused. "I didn't know that we lost any."

"Eheheheh…weeeeeell…that's the thing…"

All turned to see Mushu getting up from where he'd been asleep in the opposite corner of the tent. "Hi," he greeted. "Came back while y'all were sleepin'. So, uh, about that…Mulan, when you first went out on your little drag adventure, the ancestors wanted to send the Great Stone Dragon after ya. Y'know, the big guy who always chilled out in the front yard? So I went out to wake him up as usual, I rang the gong, and I sorta…" He muttered the next part in as low of a voice as he could muster: "Brokehimintoathousandpieces."

"You did WHAT?" Mulan was astonished.

"It was an accident!" Mushu protested. "I did everything like usual! I don't know why the guy didn't wake up!"

"Because he wasn't there," Spike offered, drawing all attention back to him. "The Great Stone Dragon was struck down in a battle a few generations before Mulan was even born. He just had enough strength to get back to the Fa family farm and leave his body behind as a statue in the garden. But it was just a statue! It was empty!"

"Empty?" Mushu repeated, rather stunned. "Well then! That…takes a load off ME."

"It's a long story," Twilight said, "but the same forces that killed the Great Stone Dragon are responsible for Shan-Yu coming back and having his powers. We were wrong about who and what it was. The Great Stone Dragon knew all of this. I think he can see EVERYTHING going on in this world. And the one we come from, too. I'm still not really sure what happens to a spirit when it dies, but I think we can trust that he knew what he was talking about. And he said Shanghai was the place."

"Well?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Shang looked back to the map. On one hand, telling the others that they were moving out to Shanghai, the safest port, based on a dream someone had was madness. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure he believed it himself.

Then it became clear. He felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Shan-Yu wanted to prove himself a formidable and unpredictable force of destruction on his quest to cut off the ports. Shanghai was the last place anyone would think he would strike, but one of the most valuable ports to China. It would of course be the place he would choose to strike. It had everything he wanted: power to destroy, formidable defenses to crush to make his point, and a blind spot in the eyes of the strategists working against him.

"It's the only place he WOULD go," Shang realized. "We have to beat him there." He turned to face the group once more. "But there will already be a division of recruits there. Other military officers who serve the Emperor will be there." He faced Rarity directly when he spoke next: "You know what will happen if you're seen."

Rarity nodded. "Quite so. It's bad enough that I'm a civilian meddling in military affairs. I'm also a woman. Rest assured, I know what to do."

Mulan knew Rarity wasn't about to back off. She'd find a way onto that battlefield whether they wanted her there or not.

"If we want to beat Shan-Yu to Shanghai," she reminded the others, "we're going to have to move out as soon as possible. I don't even know if we can get there first on foot…but we have to try. And we have to get moving tonight."

...

Chapter 104:

· First, to address the new elephant in the room: Rarity being MTF trans was a part of the story from the very beginning. It all started with "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express," when Ophira and I went overanalytical on the detachable eyelash. After all, Rainbow Dash HATES beautification routines and her real lashes are the same length as Rarity's fake ones. So we started theorizing. Maybe it's more plausible that Rarity just plucks her natural ones to put in fake lashes, but this theory was far more fun and carried depth. That was when I went back to Rarity's Cutie Mark origin story and realized that it was all about seeing that the rock was something different on the inside than it was on the outside, which I realized could hold far greater symbolism than just being a cue to work the crystals into fashion. And that's how the Elusive backstory was born. Even before I started writing this fic. Now, I am going to put the disclaimer that I'm cis/het/female; I've heard of others' experiences, but I don't know about being trans firsthand from my own view. I felt this was important to include, but I do want to apologize in advance for anything I got wrong now or will get wrong in the future about it, and welcome advice/criticism for writing on the issue. My plan from here actually is not to make Elusive all that big of a deal on current bearings. It's who Rarity was THEN. She's Rarity NOW. And that's what I want to focus on. But it will have its backstory relevance again in the future.

· The chapter title actually was originally going to be "Elusive," but I couldn't resist the callback to the OTHER Mulan song I hadn't used yet.

· More ports than Shanghai probably had walls. But in the preliminary research I did, it was the only port where the anti-piracy walls were talked about at length. Given Shan-Yu's love of taking a wall as a challenge, it offered itself as the perfect final battle locale.

· Originally I was going to keep the otherworldly stuff secret from Shang longer, but it was time. (Besides, he met Sora too.)

· I still don't know how the Twilight and Celestia conflict is going to get resolved. They'll let me know. There is a particular storylet I know they'll need to get resolved by, but it's rather far off, and I'd like them to patch things sooner if they can help it.

· Kingdom Hearts DDD was kind of a savior when it came to worldbuilding. I actually planned the scene with Spike and the GSD conversing in a dream before being too familiar with DDD, but then it gave me the Realm of Sleep and everything fell into place. I have many, MANY plans for this, as the KH Realm of Sleep slides in quite nicely next to the Lovecraftian countries of Dream that also make up a good portion of this multiverse. Now, I realize GAvillain is also going to be doing a lot with the Realm of Sleep over in "Chasing a Dream." In fact, he was the one who gave me the idea that a world doesn't have to be lost to Darkness in order to have a dream. So I'm going to try and do my best not to rip him off, and he has permission to hit me in the face with a dead fish if I do by accident.

· "Why didn't the Great Stone Dragon wake up?" was a cornerstone of when I started putting this outline together. To me, it's one of the great unanswered questions of Disney. And the only plausible explanation I have…is that he wasn't there to be woken up at all.

· I swear that aside about Mulan and Shang being hesitant to get physical is relevant to a thing I wanna do. I have a headcanon card to play. I just am not sure if it's going to be relevant on this visit to this world or the next one.