And so it begins. Cue theme song!

- - - -

Spike cradled the neck of his mother figure close to him.

"Princess! Are you... okay?"

Her long horn was charred as a result of her magical beam struggle with the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. Her magic had been bolstered by the intense love Shining Armor had for Cadence, the real Cadence.

Celestia hadn't listened to them. She had said that they had just witnessed a healing spell. No pony could impersonate an alicorn, that she would know if something was controlling her neice. She told them not to worry, and that nothing would break Shining's spell.

Celestia turned out to be wrong, though.

He watched her open her eyes, slowly. She saw the chosen wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Six mares, chosen to wield weaponized friendship at seeming random. The princess's voice was weakened and she was obviously in pain, but she spoke clearly and urgently.

"Go. Get the Elements of Harmony. Hurry!"

And so, Twilight ended up crashing the wedding rehearsal. The mares that she called her best friends didn't listen to her, her brother didn't listen to her, and her teacher, her second mother figure, didn't listen to her but she knew, just KNEW that Cadence was an imposter. And she called her out on it at the rehearsal and before she knew it, everypony save Spike was infuriated at her, Shining and Celestia going so far as telling her to just go on home. They all left, and when Spike tried to comfort her, the purple unicorn tearfully told him that she just needed to be alone. Spike reluctantly listened to her.

He wished he hadn't.

The ponies nodded and Spike was left alone in a room full of ponies that he didn't care about at the moment. Call it selfish, call it whatever you want. They didn't matter. He looked at the Queen with hate filled eyes and clutched Celestia.

She was gloating, Chrysalis was, almost singing about it. Spike tuned her out. He glanced down at the Princess.

"Can you stand?"

She did, though she wobbled before she collapsed back down. Spike caught her and lowered her back down.

"Just rest."

She nodded.

So, the wedding carried on like normal. Massive fanfare sounded throughout the city, all day. Spike had slept fitfully, a nagging feeling that he was missing something keeping him awake. And when it arrived, Spike, now the best stallion (dragon) could only stand in the spot where his sister should be standing. Shining Armor was nervously excited, and soon the doors opened to Cadence. Despite her crummy attitude, she looked nothing short of beautiful in her wedding dress, though the slightly evil smile on her face threw it off.

He ignored it, though, thinking that it was just an illusion.

Then Twilight had shown up with the real Cadence, and all Tartarus broke loose as a war began.

The Queen slowly approached him and the princess, while explosions and flashes of magic rocked the castle and illuminated the windows.

"You, dragon. Step away from Princess Celestia. Ooh, no, better idea! Bring her over so she can watch her kingdom fall!"

Spike growled and Celestia glared at her. The Changeling Queen laughed and turned back to the window.

"As we speak, my army is taking on your city guard and winning. I've planned this for years, Celestia, and finally, Canterlot is mine! Dragon! Does it not stir your blood, the sounds of battle? Your race isn't one known for peace like the ponies are, and yet here you are at a wedding. A purple dragon, no less. Your owner must be a powerful mage indeed, to tame one such as you!"

The statement struck him as odd. Was there something special about his scale color, or something? The other dragons hadn't mentioned anything about it, but then, they had not been the best role models.

So the dragon ignored it, shoved it aside. It could be researched later, when Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack turned Chrysalis and her army to stone, or sent them to the moon. He voted for both.

"You're not going to get away with this. Twilight won't let you."

She laughed at him, and it irritated him how smug she was about this. Objectively, he supposed she had reason to be, as it did seem as if she was winning.

"She escaped into a war zone, dragon, one that is filled with my soldiers. She and her friends are as good as captured. They'll make good changelings. It's not hard to convert a pony into a changeling, especially given how powerful I am right now. Ooh! I can turn Celestia into one! I've always wanted a sister. Step away, dragon!"

The jagged horn on the Queen's head began to glow a sickly green color before a beam shot at Spike and Celestia. Without thinking, he held the princess close to him and pushed his hind legs as hard as he could, and the two barely dodged the beam. After a mildly rough landing, he fixed the black mare with a glare.

"That does it, bug. You're going down."

The dragon stood, and reared up on his hind legs in his full bipedal stance. His tail swished slowly, back and forth. And Spike felt calm despite his fear and despite his rage. Because as much as he loathed to admit it, she was right, there was something in him that was stirring, and it wanted to take down the invaders.

- - - -

Luna flew hard to the left, before conjuring a blast of midnight blue energy at a cluster of changelings. The Night Mare laughed as the expected explosion and dust cloud cleared to reveal several now unmoving changelings. It had been nearly 1500 years since her last full scale battle, and she was thrilled at the challenge of battle. Storm clouds began gathering above her. The Elements of Harmony might not be connected to her and her sister any longer, but that didn't mean that the elements of nature weren't still in her grasp. She looked down upon her kingdom and saw another group of changelings flying at her. Thunder cracked and the princess's horn glowed blue before magic wrapped around her and forming silver armor around her body. Lightning flashed and the changelings flew closer.

With a grin, the Mare of the Moon looked down upon her opponents as they were hit with lightning bolts.

"Huzzah! The body count has been doubled!"

- - - -

"Gotta keep running. Gotta find Derpy. Gotta find Dinky. Gotta get to the Tardis and get them out of here."

Those were the thoughts of brown Earth Stallion with an hour glass cutie mark as he ran through the alleyways with a strange object in his mouth. His... companion, her child, were in danger and it was all his fault because he had left them. He wasn't supposed to interfere with these events, but it was his Ditzy Doo, his darling Ditzy Doo and that ever adorable child, Dinky, a filly that could worm her way into the coldest of hearts.

And he should know, he had two of them.

Two changelings stood in his way, snarling menacingly, and the Doctor did what he did best.

Run.

- - - -

Cadence could only sit. Her legs had given out on her as the horrors of war sounded out outside of the room where she was supposed to be experencing the most important day of her life. The Alicorn of Love was surrounded by hate and fear and sorrow and she felt it, felt it all. She looked at Shining Armor, her husband to be, and he just stood there, brainwashed and vacant. She loved him so much, and the fact that she might still have lost him despite escaping was what hurt the most. Her attention  was drawn to the evil mastermind of all this, her captor, as she attacked her sister and the dragon who had grown up so much since she had last seen him.To her surprise, Spike had managed to dodge the blast and even protected her Aunt.

And the dragon reared up, standing at his full height. He wasn't fully grown, even lacking wings, but there was something in Spike's usually innocent green eyes. Something deep, dark, and powerful. Something that scared her... but gave her hope.

She had watched him grow up, seen his first steps, heard his first words, read him bedtime stories and had kissed his boo-boos away, dealt with his childish infatuation... and it had never occured to her.

Spike was a dragon. The most dangerous predator on the planet.

And he was on their side.

- - - -

Spike growled as he lunged, his powerful legs pushing him towards the mare that had attacked his family and his home. He had a claw pulled back ready to punch the changeling queen in the face. He'd been taught to never hit a mare by Celestia, who'd really just flat out encouraged him to be peaceful as possible, but he had a feeling that the Sun Princess wouldn't mind this one if he did a little bit of damage to an enemy.

The other ponies in the room had long sensed escaped, though he had no idea why. There was a battle outside. Fear made ponies so irrational, though. He just hoped no one would get hurt.

Well, except the Queen. She could get hurt.

She flew back, flapping her insectoid wings as hard as she could and tilting her head back as the dragon's fist missed her.

"Ah, you're quick, dragon! But I'm more powerful than even Celestia! Even a purple dragon can't hope to defeat me right now!"

Spike growled and spun, hoping to hit her with the spikes on his tail. They weren't exactly sharp but they'd still hurt. It missed though, and he was blown back by a green magic blast. His body rolled ungracefully, and the two present princesses called his name. He got down on all fours and pushed himself back up, taking a deep breath and exhaling a powerful stream of green flames at the changeling.

- - - -

Luna finally spotted Twilight Sparkle and friends as they made their way to the Vault that contained the Elements of Harmony. Well, she didn't know that for a fact but it was a pretty good guess. The two sisters had never used the Elements to fight an army before, but if they could seal away the likes of Discord and even herself, they could do away with regular, mortal enemies. Putting on speed, the Night's Princess went to catch up to  her friends.

- - - -

A grey pegasus cowered in fear, her only positive thought being that she had left her darling daughter in Ponyville with her half sister. She didn't see a way out of this one. Her travels had made her into a resourceful mare despite her natural clumsiness, but facing down an invasion was terrifying whether it was alien robots or Equestrian natives. She didn't even have her sonic probe with her, thinking that if she was going to bne safe anywhere, it would be in the presence of all three Alicorns.

A few changelings had chased her into an alleyway and she decided to face whatever would come as bravely as she could, because that's what he would do.

Only he would get them both out of it, save them and the world and be back in his time machine "in time for tea" as he would say.

And as if wishes could come true, she heard his voice.

"Oi! Changelings! You lot are messing with somepony that I happen to like, and that is NOT a safe place to stand!"

At the other end, a brown stallion with a wild mane-cut stood holding a sonic screwdriver in his mouth. He winked at her.

"Darling, you should probably close your ears."

No sooner than the words came out, a whirring noise sounded as a blue light flashed from the sonic device and the changelings began to writhe before passing out.

"Nothing like a good ol' sonic-ing- OOF!"

Ditzy "Derpy" Whooves (née-Doo) tackled the stallion in a hug, and began sobbing.

"Doctor..."

- - - -

Spike fell down to one knee, clutching his side. He couldn't even get close to her. The few times he did, he just couldn't reach her. She'd just fly up in the air. Not for the first time he wished he had wings.

And in the back of his head, he heard a female voice singing.

The words rang in his very soul. He wanted to fuss at the voice, but Dreamy's words struck something in him. As if the words had power to them.

"Fly me to the moon..." the purple dragon echoed with a whisper.

Green flames began burning behind his back below his shoulder blades, and he felt a strange but kind of pleasant itch as they grew larger and took form. Leathery purple and green wings formed around him and they embraced him. He gave them an experimental flap.

"You're welcome, Spikey-wikey. I'll handle the flying for now, you worry about taking her down."

Spike grinned widely and then looked at the Changeling Queen, and despite what fatigue he might have, the dragon could only feel a renewed sense of determination.

"Sorry, bug lady, but you're gonna be in for a world of hurt."

- - - - - - - -

All right, ladies and gents. Feel free to love me. And if anyone happens to feel the mind screw of Eva coming back to them because of the song... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Do leave a comment! I love talking to my readers! You all are why I write this and I love to hear your input!