A fedora wearing Spike walked down the street, early in the morning, licking his teeth to get at the last of the flavor of the sapphire cupcake Pinkie had given him that morning.

"Good morning, Miss Mayor," Spike called out to the pony on her way to the town hall. "It's my birthday today!"

"Is that so?" the mare raised her eyebrow at Spike, "Well in that case, come with me. I had been saving a present for you for Hearth's Warming, but this will work even better."

The mayor turned and trotted back the way she came to a nearby house.

"Now you stay here, Mister, I'll be right back out with your gift."

Spike pouted, but stayed where he was. After all, a gift is a gift.

The mayor trotted into her house, closing the door behind her before stepping into her closet. Barely a second later, her eyes lit with an eerie green glow.

‘This is Whispering Terror, requesting rapid judgement call.’

’This is cogitator Echoing Truth, state your request.

‘The dragon belonging to Twilight Sparkle is displaying heightened amounts of greed. Request permission to feed him an Envy Crystal to accelerate his growth under the guise of a birthday gift. I project the dragon will cause adequate damage to distract from my gathering operations.’

’Relaying information to arbiters.’

There were several tense seconds of waiting as the disguised changeling shuffled in place while the Arbiters, changelings specialized in debating and making decisions at the speed of thought made their choice.

’Permission granted. You may...’

’OVERRULED!’

The mind-voice thundered across the link, causing all involved to flinch at the perceived volume.

’Harvester Whispering Terror, your dedication is commended. The dragon’s greed will grow on its own if encouraged; instead you will maximize its destructive power. Feed it Rage Stones, up to three of them if you have them on hand..’

The changeling’s eyes widened as it realized the potential danger in that order, but dared not disobey. ‘By your will, my Queen.’

’Always, ’ the mind-voice of the Queen agreed, ’cogitator, you will find the nearest changelings capable of crystallization and send them to Ponyville at all speed. They will assist in harvesting emotions as quickly and discreetly as they can. Harvester, once the dragon has either moved on or been subdued, you will encourage cooperation among the survivors, try to aim for grief, love or happiness as you deem appropriate.’

A short while later, Mayor Mare returned with a small black case in her mouth.

"There you are, young dragon. I got these from a merchant who came through town just after Winter Wrap Up, she said these crystals are considered to be a delicacy to dragons. I hope you enjoy them, but don't eat them all at once."

Spike opened the case to find a trio of deep red crystals. Each of them seemed to glow slightly as if lit by an inner light.

"The merchant called them 'power stones'," the mayor informed Spike, "she said dragons eat them to make their fires burn hotter."

"Wow! These could be useful! Thanks Mayor Mare!"

The mayor smiled kindly at the young dragon as he walked away, before turning and hurrying towards her office. There was work to do…

"You need to relax more, boy." Jeong was enjoying this, not that he would let the young prince know. "How do you expect to meditate if I could use your scrawny back as a washboard?"

"I'm trying." Zuko ground out through his clenched teeth.

WHACK!

"Meditation, does not require talking back." Jeong’s voice was as sharp as his cane was painful.

"How in the name of Sozin's Smouldering Eyebrows am I supposed to concentrate on meditating when you keep hitting me with that stick?!"

Jeong Jeong was unimpressed by Zuko's tirade and gave a dismissive sniff. "If it was good enough for the Air Nomads, it will be good enough for you. Now meditate!"

WHACK!

"ARG!" Zuko cried out, "Would it kill you to use a little carrot as well as the stick? At least uncle Iroh knew how to do that."

"Hmmm..." Jeong's face took on a contemplative look as he put a hand to his chin and turned away, walking back into his cabin.

Zuko heaved a sigh of relief at the insufferable master finally leaving. He turned back to his position and shuffled in place a little to loosen his tired leg muscles. Glancing to the sides to ensure he was still centered in the circle of candles that had been assigned to him as his place to meditate - or to be clubbed insensate by Jeong Jeong's stick, whichever came first.

Zuko exhaled slowly as he relaxed his body and tried once again to meditate. His head drooped forward slightly as he started to find his center, an itching feeling tickled on the edge of his awareness, and he could almost swear he could hear a faint high pitched cackle in the distance...

WHUMP!

Zuko opened his eyes with a groan from his prone position halfway out of the meditative circle to find Jeong Jeong standing over him, a smirk on his face and a bunch of carrots, many of them now cracked or broken, dangling casually in his hand.

"Thanks for the tip," he said, "carrots work great too. I will have to remember that for the next smart mouthed student I take."

Jeong turned and walked away, but Zuko had finally had enough. With a roar of anger and frustration, he launched a trio of fireballs directly at the insane teacher’s back.

Unfortunately for him, the old man seemed to expect him to do exactly that and turned to swing his arms, sending the three fireballs skywards.

As Zuko began to wind up a much more powerful attack, Jeong snapped his hand back down, pointing a pair of fingers at the sand at Zuko’s feet only a fraction of a second before Zuko’s own fireballs impacted at that point with a resounding detonation.

Zuko was flung off his feet and hurled more than a dozen yards into the river behind him.

“Sparring practice isn’t for a few hours yet, boy!” Jeong taunted. “You need to learn some patience if you want to meditate, you know.”

As he left the young prince to simmer in his anger, Jeong grumbled to himself just below the hearing range of his student as he stalked back into the cabin.

“Damn that boy. How am I supposed to teach him patience when he learns everything too fast? Where are you, you old fool? How am I supposed to teach your nephew when your job isn't done yet?”

Iroh chuckled as quietly as he could while he viewed Bonbon and Zecora’s work. He had to admit, when using her powers for funny, Zecora could be as devious as the infamous King Bumi, the legendary prankster-king of Omashu.

Normally he wouldn’t be party to something as borderline cruel as this, but after Lyra had fallen asleep last night, thanks to a potion from Zecora, he had heard all about some of Lyra’s more dangerous or thoughtless exploits of the last several years.

It was over those few hours after the sun had set that their plan had taken shape, their parts rehearsed. If all went well, Lyra would be forced to show some respect for one of the locals, and they would all get a laugh.

If all went badly, well, at least Bonbon could get some sweet, sweet revenge by racing home and grabbing her camera while Zecora got to play with some of her more fun potions.

“Remember, “ Zecora said to Iroh, “After she drinks the brew, she will be unable to speak the answer to the first question she hears until the day is through.”

“Are you sure about this, Bonbon?” Iroh asked, “This is quite possibly one of the meanest, but most inventive pranks I have ever heard of.”

“Trust me, after the number of vats of caramel and chocolate that mare has ruined, this is nothing.”

“Shh. She is beginning to stir, get ready for your prank to occur.”

Iroh knelt down next to Lyra and shook her awake by her shoulder. “Something’s wrong,” he said grimly, “your color changed overnight. I don’t think that’s normal.”

Lyra bolted awake and turned her head to look at herself. Where before she had been a light, minty green, she was now a pale purple color.

“It is as I had feared, a terrible curse has appeared. It is very lucky for you I thought ahead to make this brew. The only chance now you’ve got, is to drink this whole pot.” With that, Zecora brought forward a small cup filled with a potion.

Lyra wasted no time in pouncing on the cup and draining it dry.

At this signal, Iroh theatrically shook his head. “Excuse me miss,” he asked of Lyra, “what is your name?”

The formerly green unicorn’s eyes glazed over for a moment.

“Don’t be silly, Iroh, I told you my name yesterday is… is… the pony who plays a lyre!” She sat there looking confused.

“Wait, that’s not right, my name is… themintyxenobiologist!” She tried to force her name out, but got something different again.

“The cure came too late, I must mourn,” lamented Zecora, “she now bears the syndrome of the lavender unicorn.”

“Wawawa-WHAAAT!” The newly lavender unicorn shrieked, “Tell me there’s a way to fix this, PLEASE!”

“There is a way,” Zecora hedged, “but I cannot help to my regret. You must find a true lavender unicorn and kiss them at precisely sunset.”

The unknowingly dyed unicorn sat up on her haunches for a moment thinking before coming to a realization.

“THAT’S IT!” she cried before bolting out the door.

At this, both Zecora and Bonbon started giggling, moments later they were in full blown gales of laughter.

Iroh was slightly confused. “What am I missing?”

Zecora calmed herself to explain. “There is only a single purple unicorn in town. She will try to kiss Twilight as the sun goes down.”

Bonbon carried on, “Twilight Sparkle is the princess’ personal student and just about the most bookish shut-in you have ever met. Granted, she’s gotten better about it, but she and Lyra often drive each other crazy.”

Iroh looked at the still swinging door and turned back to the mares still in Zecora’s home. “Well, is it a good idea to let her go alone? From what I understand, these woods are quite dangerous.”

“The forest is quite safe for one such as me, but Lyra has only a little experience with the Everfree,” said Zecora.

“Well that’s that then. I’m going to see if I can follow her before something dangerous happens.”

Iroh stood and jogged out the door, making for the path he had first been led down to Zecora’s home.

It took more than half an hour for Iroh to catch up to the panting Lyra, her lavender coat now stood out vividly against the forest backdrop.

“You cut a serious pace when you want to,” Iroh remarked, breathing heavily as he approached her.

Lyra turned her head back towards his voice, “Yeah, but galloping like that down a twisting path is seriously bad for your hooves.”

“Besides," Lyra continued, "I gotta find somepony before sunset. I don’t want to…”

RRAAAAAAAAAA!!!

The roar was so loud it almost literally shook the ground under their feet.

“What the? That came from Ponyville!” Lyra shouted in terror.

She and Iroh headed for the end of the path out of the forest as quickly as they could, the sounds of roars and faint screams echoing on the breeze.

They broke through the trees at almost the same instant to look on the scene before them in horror.

A titanic purple dragon was screaming his rage to the sky in the middle of Ponyville. Pegasi were flitting around him, trying to kick him into submission, but to little avail. There was little left for them to fight for, most of the ponies in the area had fled, while most of the town was utterly destroyed.

Iroh looked at the dragon in outright shock. This, this was no noble spirit, no divine being who guides his followers to a greater path. This was a beast, a spiteful, destructive, feral beast!

It wasn't until he was halfway across the first field that Iroh realized he was headed straight for the dragon, and half a second more before he redoubled his efforts. These were peaceful beings as far as he could tell, and they did not deserve this.

He only hoped he knew what he was doing because heroics like these was for young men half his age...

Author's Notes:

A shorter chapter this time, but very necessary setup for the action that is in the very near future.

And yes, I'm well aware that if that lampshade was hung any harder, it would need a mustache and 70's porn groove.