Everypony stood awkwardly after Ralik’s little exposition. They all thought the same thing, that it was only a matter of time before dragon’s attacked. Silver finally stepped forward to give his own input.

“So what’s the plan? We could always get a preemptive attack in, surprise them since we ponies have always been on the defensive.” The dragon brothers turned slightly pale at the thought of an all out war.

“I’m telling you, the current sage is no threat to Equestria.” Spike began. “He’s really nice and even offered to help me find my true power. If anything, it’s his son Xancus you have to worry about. He holds some sort of grudge against you Silver.”

“What? Why me?”

“I have no idea, he has some sort of vendetta against you.”

“Well maybe we could try to reach some sort of agreement.”

“What?! Let’s just trot over there and give them a lesson they won’t forget!”

“Beg your pardon? That might make things worse Rainbow…” The room erupted as everypony tried to push in their own arguments except for Bloom, who only sat quietly, thinking to herself.

“Ummm.” She tried to speak up but no own could hear her gentle voice. “Excuse me…” Vince, who had wondered away from his big brother’s side looked at the poor pony as tried to speak up. The talking died down when the room glowed bright blue, Vince having shot a blue flame fire ball into the air to get everyone’s attention. Bloom was just as surprised as the others but as Vince gazed up at her with a large grin, she gently petted him on his head before standing and speaking.

“Why don’t we just talk. If what Spike says is true and the current Sage is kind, we can try to talk things out and make a treaty of some sort.” She stood there awkwardly as she waited for a response. With a sigh, Silver was the first to speak.

“Spike, do you think we could get an audience with this Sage.”  The dragons now being the center of attention.

“Uhhh.”

“Oh, no can do. No one speaks to the Sage unless the Sage speaks to them.” Ralik interjected.

“Then what do you suggest?” Twilight asked, stepping closer.

“Well, Spike was already spoken to, so he could ask him if he wants to speak to equines, he might actually be interested in that.”

“What? Me?”

“So it’s decided, we send Spike to get us an audience.” The purple dragon didn’t seem very comfortable and it was noticed by his purple unicorn friend.

“This might be us asking a lot, but please Spike, we had no idea that dragons had not just one, but two reasons to attack Equestria.” Hesitantly, he too agreed to the idea and soon the 3 dragons left the ponies at the altar. The dragon brothers were rather quiet on the way back which made the whole situation a little awkward for Spike.

“So…uh, yeah…those are my friends from Ponyville.” He began. Ralik gave a strange expression, but Vince said with a smile.

“I like the pink haired one, she’s kinda cute.”

“Vince! She’s a pony, she could kill ya in yur sleep!”

“Miss Bloom? I’d be more worried about Silver, he’d really kill you if you got too close to her.” Spike said, trying to poke fun at the situation. The kid dragon did find it funny, his older brother however, not so much.

Just like last time, Spike found himself at the mountain from before his instincts tried to kick in. He followed them back into Dracopia where he and the dragon brothers followed the lava river to where he had first entered. Making a quick landing, the purple dragon noticed cloaked figures in the shape of ponies walking from the direction of the Sage's home.

"Who are they?" The now teenage dragon asked as he stood up straight.

"Those are the Sage's private informants, they come and go as he see fit. They give me the weelies."

"That so?..." Spike said as they began to walk. It just happened that they were heading in the direction the figures were walking away from. Spike was sure he was hearing the sound of hooves hitting the ground as they passed, they must be ponies of some kind, but there's no way they'd allow ponies to just roam the dragon city like that. Minutes passed and soon Spike and company stood at the entrance of the home he had been invited to just the previous day. He raised his claw to knock at the large door, but before he could actually make contact with it, it suddenly opened on it's own. Anolette

"Spike!" The dragoness said as she hugged him. It was then that Spike noticed that he had grown again, not by much, but while before he was at about the same height. Now he stood a few inches taller than Anolette, the growth must have happened when he was resting when he first teleported to Twilight.

"We are losing this war!" Screamed out Armor Plate at the top of the the podium Silver would use to make his morning speech. "Blooming Star was seen being friendly with a dragon!" The recently demoted drill instructor screamed out, soon more and more of the citizens and soldiers come close to listen. "This a grave time indeed. We all know that 'Miss' Bloom is too weak to make her own decisions. Silver Charger must also be a traitor, we all saw it, right before he was caught in the spell with the red dragon that attacked he was grabbed by a smaller one!"

"I thought it was a pegasis scout trying to rescue him." A soldier asked from the crowd.

"We made a body count, of both those alive and deceased, everyone was accounted for. It was definitely not one of ours!"

As arguments insured, the little filly that Twilight and the others had met when they first entered the castle was massing by. Still wearing her cloak, she shook her head, unhooding herself to reveal a horn on her forehead.

"Scholar?" She asked out, no pony around to audibly hear her. In her head, however, she could hear the echo of the zebra that lived under the castle.

Yes my cute little filly?

"You won't believe what is going on up here!" She shouted out in excitement like any child would when things got interesting. "The big soldiers are saying that Miss Bloom is a gator!"

A what? Scholar asked, chuckling slightly.

"I know right? Grown up are so silly some times." Down below, Scholar continued to meditate while balancing upside down on a pole. He reached out to a nearby shelf from here he some premade powder of some sort. With a quick flinch of his wrist, the powder spread in front of the zebra and an image appeared before him.

"Blooming Star and Silver Charger are traitors!" Said Armor Plate, his image in full view from the dust that was still giving off an image in mid air. The image he was looking at was from the little filly's point of view, though still a little young to understand what the argument was about, Scholar was able to see everything she could see, and hear everything she could hear.

"Yes yes my little filly, adults are rather silly sometimes." Without wasting much time, he motioned his fore leg and made the image disappear. Scholar acrobatically jumped from his position on the pole and landed next to it, the lone staff still standing up straight without even a slight change in its balance. He walked over to a nearby counter where he opened a jar with some strange colored hair. It was violet with a hint of pink. The zebra quickly began to make a brew which he mixed with the same powder he used only ,moments ago before tossing it in front of him.

"Twilight Sparkle." He began. "We might have a problem."

Back at the altar Silver and Spike had discovered, every pony did their own thing, but all remained in silence. Bloom was still looking at the temple along with Twilight while the other three sat, a little bored. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Silver all sat in a circle, they each took a turn at playing tick-tac-toe with each other. As the score went, Applejack and Silver held 72 ties which each other while the each also held 72 wins against Rainbow.

"Gah! How do you guys keep winning?!"

"You're being too direct, you try to make the line of three as fast as you can, but the trick is making it so that your opponent has no way out." Silver said as he placed an 'X' on a lower right square against Applejack, making it another tie, and erasing the game by rubbing his hoof against the dirt.

"Yeah, yur way too easy to read sugarcube." To this the blue Pegasus gave a pout before turning the other way, which only made the farm pony chuckle and smile at how easily she was defeated.

On the other side of the temple, Bloom had a spackle in her eyes with every little thing she came across. Something that Twilight could fully understand, but wasn't able to take part in the same enthusiasm. She smiled nervously as Bloom would almost dance form one side to the other in glee.

Twilight Sparkle, we might have a problem The purple unicorn heard some pony say, but as she looked around, saw no one.

"Uh...Bloom? Did you hear anything?" Suddenly coming back to reality, the yellow unicorn came to a halt and shook her head.

"No, why?"

"It's just, I was sure I hear some pony say something..."

You sis hear some pony say something. Scholar's voice echoed in her head, a small chuckle quickly followed as Twilight's confusion grew.

"S-scholar?!" This quickly caught Bloom's attention and she came close to see what was going on with her friend. "Where are you? How are you talking to me?"

Do not be alarmed, I am simply using a spell to talk to you telepathically

"You're what? How?" Twilight asked out. Bloom, now visibly worried, come close and began to talk.

"Are you feeling alright? What's this about Scholar?"

"He's doing some weird spell that allows him to talk to me in my head." Twilight quickly responded. "I have no idea how that's even possible!"

It's nothing too strange, I simple cooked up a spell using some of your hair to allow me to see and hear what you do.

"What's he saying?"

"Something about using my hair to make the spell....How did you even get my hair?!"

Well...remember when I leaned on you earlier?

"Yeah...."

I might or might not have clipped some of your mane during that time.

"Why you!"

But enough of that, there is something I must share with you. None of you are welcomed back in Dragon's Bane, Armor Plate seems to have mistakenly understood that Bloom 'switched' sides, and is now working with the dragons to attack the city.

"What?!" Twilight's expression sunk as she looked over at Bloom who also had a worried look on her face. She relayed the information to her unicorn friend who only grew more worried.

"Oh no, this is horrible!"

Yes, I will try to do something to fix things here... Scholar said as he threw more powder into the air, showing the young filly's point of view again. She was still listening in to the 'speech' It seems not everyone is willing to believe this about Miss Bloom and Silver. Mean while, I would like all of you to stay away from Dragon's Bane. You all seem to be doing alright here in this...temple?

"Huh? I thought you knew everything about anything." Twilight said to herself. Bloom was too busy freaking out to hear the purple unicorn. Scholar noticed this and decided to answer her.

Well... He began I know everything about anything that I've looked into. This ordeal happened so fast I wasn't given the opportunity to use the potion to gather some intelligence about your situation.

"You were planning to spy on us?!"

That is such a mean spirited way of putting it, why not think of it as me being your guardian angel?

To this, Twilight only grunted before turning to face Bloom, but to her surprise, her friend was no longer in the room with her. "Bloom?

The yellow unicorn ran back to the 'entrance' Silver had made when he broke in. When she arrive, the trio were still sitting down playing games in the dirt, but the dark coated stallion quickly stood up when he saw Bloom in such an agitated state.

"What happened?" Silver asked as he made his way to her. "Are you alright? Where's Twilight?"

"Armor Plate...He's starting something really bad in Dragon's Bane." She started.

"So good to see you're alive." Casalisk said with a smile. The old dragon sage said as he hugged the Spike who was rather small in comparison. "Pray tell, what happened?"

"Well...." Spike began once he caught his breath. "The combustion technique teleported me."

"Yes...my son was rather foolish in making you perform such an advanced flame technique." Casalisk said with a hint of anger in his voice. "But now that you're here we can continue to with the green flame research."

"Actually, I have something I would like to ask of you." The purple dragon said rather hesitantly. The sage raised an eyebrow, his look was rather leering on Spike so he quickly added, "Before we begin I mean."

Pleased with what he heard, the large dragon gestured Spike to continue. The purple dragon cleared his throat before starting his request.

"It has come to my attention that the Unicorn king Sombra was responsible for the death of the previous sage." Casalisk did not like where this was going, but kept his composure and allowed him to finish. "I was the one responsible for bringing an end to his return no so long ago, and thus would like to ask you if perhaps you could not blame the umm, equine race for his actions." Spike said as he stretched the truth slightly. He knew far well that he didn't do it alone, and that Twilight did most of the work, but since the stain glass window DID make him look like the hero and it would help his argument, he rolled with it.

"Sombra came back?" Casalisk asked rather surprised. This, of crouse caught Spike of guard.

"You didn't know? Yeah he came back like a month ago. My friends and I stopped him from wrecking havoc again....O-of course had we known about what he had done we could have told you guys first and allowed you to take back what was yours!"

The sage was very intrigued by this new piece of information. He slowly turned around and thought to himself.

"I will think about your request, for now I shall ponder on this. If you would kindly wait for Xancus to return so you may continue the research I would very much appreciate it." Spike nodded and vowed, quickly leaving the room. As the sage heard the door close behind him, he snapped his fingers to call forth a servant. "Call back the worshippers, there is something I need them to do."

Outside the castle both Ralik and Vince waited for Spike's return. When he did finally come out, the younger of the brothers jumped up in excitement.

"How did it go?" He asked as Spike stepped down the stairs.

"Better than I expected. I got him to at least consider it." This was met by a scuff from Ralik.

"If you ask me ya should just turn them in. Once you prove no use fer them they can very well just turn on ya."

"Don't think of them like that, you might have gotten off on the wrong claw, but I'm sure you'll warm up to them soon." Spike said as he played with Vince. Now that he was so much larger he could easily toss the child up and catch the wingless dragon. The older brother sighed, deciding not to start an argument for Vince's sake. The dragons save their goodbye and Spike returned inside where he would wait for Xancus to return from where ever he was. It was then that it occurred to him that maybe he should let Twilight know about what the sage said.

The purple dragon began to make his way around the castle, navigating to the best of his ability as he looked around the strange structure. The only other time he was here he didn't have the leisure to admire the architecture, but then again, there really wasn't much to admire. Like the rest of the city, the building was made of cooled lava, so the whole building was a dull brown and black shade. Sure it was molded into a very structurally sound castle, but it was rather dull compared to Celestia's castle. Still, it was rather large and decorated with some sculptures here and there. Spike stood still as he looked at once of these sculptures when a sweet voice brought him back to reality.

"Do you like it? I made that one some time ago." Anolette said form behind him.

"Uh, yeah. It's very nice." Spike responded with a light blush. "Did you make all of these?"

"Mhm, dragons aren't exactly the most art loving race, so what's here is just from me." the dragoness said with a gentle smile. Spike looked he way before a thought crossed his mind.

"Hey, do you have a parchment, quill, and ink I can use?" Surprised by the question, Anolette stared blankly before nodding. She reached into her messager bag and pulled out the items he asked for. He quickly took them and began to write a letter to Twilight. Curious by what he was writing, the dragoness walked over and watched him do what he did best.

"Wow, you have excellent penmanship."

"Years of practice." He said with a wink. Once he was finished Spike rolled up the parchment and blew his flame onto it, making it burn and disappear, a trail of glittering smoke making it's way out of the castle.

"Woah..."