My mind jittered as I scrambled to comprehend how these two found me. I swear I didn't see them, and I left while they were sleeping. How did they track me?

I gritted my teeth angrily. The how wasn't important. They couldn't come along. Mostly I was angry that my moment of sentimentality revealed a secret I hadn't intended on sharing with them.

“So,” Twilight began with a glare that could shear a steel beam in half. “You can talk.” I could practically see the acidic sarcasm dripping from her muzzle.

“Never mind,” I said. “You should just go back. This doesn’t concern you.”

Spike, initially as furious-looking as Twilight, took a deep breath. He gave me a sincere look of concern. That look wouldn’t be less effective than if they aimed a rifle to my head.

I turned away, unwilling to look at his earnest face. “Don’t,” I forced through clenched teeth. “It’s dangerous.”

There was silence for a claw-full of heartbeats.

“I don’t know if you know this,” Spike said as he rounded around me and faced me. Twilight, still looking more intensely frustrated than livid, looked like she wanted to jump between us. A motherly gesture?

“Dragons have an honour code. You’ve saved my life, I want to help you.”

“Spike…” Twilight warned.

“Twilight, we can’t just leave her, she saved my life.”

“Spike, we talked about this,” Twilight retorted with clear frustration underscoring her words. “A dragon’s honour doesn’t have to extend—”

“I know Twilight,” he shot back. “But all the same, I want to help.” He turned to me. “You have to let us help you.”

“You can’t.” They had to stay here. It was where they belonged.

“Why not?” Spike pressed. “What kind of danger are you in?”

“Nothing that concerns you,” I snapped, then I lowered my voice, regretting my tone. “Trust me, it’s not something you ever want to get involved with. You guys have your own world, and I have mine. You should stay here.”

Spike crept a little closer. “I can’t leave you alone.”

The trickle of annoyance I felt was starting to mount in frustration as I tried to dissuade him from following. “You have no obligation to help me. I helped you in the forest, then you helped me with my wounds in your castle. We’re even.”

This time Twilight interjected. “That’s not how it works.”

I swung around to meet her. “And how would you know how it works?”

Twilight pursed her lips. “I can safely say that I have quite the experience in the area.” She studied me critically. “Even though I don’t think Spike should be doing it on his honour, he should do it because we’re friends.”

“Friends?” I spluttered. “You don’t even know me.”

“Then you’ll have to tell us more about yourself.”

“You don’t understand.” I gave a savage shake of my head. “You have to stay.”

“Why do you keep telling us to stay here?” Spike asked.

Twilight circled around me and stood next to Spike. Her eyes were locked on mine as she addressed me seriously. “What’s the big secret?”

How could I tell them and make them understand? How could I distill centuries, no, millennia’s worth of conflict. Byzantine wouldn’t even begin to describe the depth of politics involved. A sudden thought occurred to me. I could just… not tell them.

I pretended to break eye-contact, as if I was suddenly feeling guilty. “You know, you’re right…” I edged towards the inscribed pattern and laid my paw on the ground casually, tapping the points of Power and feeding it my own.

Instantly, the pattern flared and a geometrically precise rectangle formed a slotted hole in the air between us. Without hesitation, I leapt through the portal, twisting around hastily. I could see their startled faces looking back at me.

“I do have a secret!” I yelled back through the portal. “And as long as you don’t know it, you’re safe!”

With that, I cut off the connection to my Power and the portal collapsed instantly, leaving nothing but the slightly humid air of the Haitian tropics. With a relieved sigh, I sagged to the sand, listening sullenly to the waves crashing down on the beach. Though our parting words had been less than ideal, at least it wasn’t a complete disaster.

I could feel the part of me that was Shen-Lung, my Storm-Dragon aspect, telling me that there would be rough weather in a few days. I felt the slight pull that my Ancestors had felt, to ride the storm and call it my own. I grimaced and shook my head. This alcove was devoid of life, basically inaccessible to life, human or otherwise. I would be safe enough on the sand.

Suddenly feeling like I’d been in combat, I slowly unwound my self, letting my muscles slowly unknot themselves from the tense exchange. I didn’t want it to end like that, but they were better off where they were. This was not a war they wanted to be caught in.

——————

“I can’t believe she just disappeared like that!” Twilight fumed.

Spike stared back at the space where the portal had been. “Did she just go to another world?” he muttered, but Twilight wasn’t listening.

“I mean she just ups and leaves without saying goodbye and then has the nerve to tell us to forget about all that?”

Spike wrung his hands, feeling conflicted about it. “She needs help,” he mumbled, “but I don’t know how we can now.”

Twilight stamped her hoof. “That arrogant little…” She trailed off when she noted Spike staring morosely at the strange symbols on the ground. She repressed the surge of curiosity irritably. No, she was still mad, but Spike needed her right now. Were all dragons jerks?

“Oh Spike,” she murmured with a gentle sweep of her wing around him. “I know you really wanted to be friends with her, but you can’t help it if she’s…”

“In trouble,” Spike said.

Twilight hesitated. Perhaps it was best if they dropped it? They’d tried to convince her, but she was as stubborn as a mule. No offence to mules, of course.

Spike must have seen the hesitation in her eyes because he narrowed his own in reaction. “Twilight, you of all ponies know that you shouldn’t give up on a friend.”

“She had a point, Spike,” Twilight said gently. “We don’t know much about her.”

“And you said we should just get to know each other,” Spike muttered. He crossed his arms in a familiar gesture of stubbornness. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. She’s just scared.”

“Scared?” Twilight snorted. “She’s the most confident thing since I’ve met Rainbow Dash.”

Spike shook his head, his expression as hard as stone. “You might not have noticed, but when she first spotted us when we found her, she looked really surprised… then terrified. She really didn’t want to be found. She never expected us to come.”

“She’s just guilty she was caught—”

“Twilight,” Spike said in a rare show of defiance. “Really think about what you’re saying.”

Twilight’s first reaction was indignation, but that slowly faded when she reflected on what she was going to say. Now that the sting of deception had faded a little, she could see what Spike was saying. Was she mistaken? Was there a reason?

Suddenly Spike’s stubby arms were around her neck. “I know this might be me being silly,” he mumbled into her mane. “It might be a little selfish, but I want to help her because I’ve never met a dragon like her. I want to see what her deal is.”

“Is there another reason?” Twilight asked softly.

“I feel like she’s different.” He chuckled. “Maybe because she’s from another world. I want to see what other dragons like her are like.”

Twilight pulled away slightly and met his hopeful gaze with worried eyes.

“Are you sure, Spike? You might be disappointed again,” she whispered.

Spike hesitated, then nodded firmly. “I have to do this,” he affirmed. “Are you coming with me?”

Twilight smiled. “Of course,” she replied. “We’ve always been together since the beginning. We’ll be together wherever life leads us.”

Spike grinned. “Oh Twilight, that was kind of cheesy.”

She patted him on the head. “You bring it out of me, Spike.” Then she turned her attention to the complex pattern.

“You think you can do something about that?” Spike asked tentatively.

“Oh how little faith you have in me. I’m the Princess of Magic.”

“I thought you were the Princess of Friendship.”

“Same thing, Spike.”

——————

A thump so close to me out of nowhere placed me on alert. My brain rapidly went through a breakdown of its significance. A thump meant they were most likely airborne and hadn’t been approaching on foot. That it was so close meant that they had deliberately landed at my position. That they hadn’t tripped any of my inscribed wards meant that they had either disabled my wards, or worse were immune to Power. The only creatures I knew that were immune to Power were humans.

I didn’t move from my position, cracking only one eyelid to scope the situation and keep the element of surprise on my side. No need to let them know that they had woken me up. I remembered just in time to keep breathing deeply and evenly.

When I saw purple, pink and green I almost choked on my own spit. Getting to my paws I practically charged at them. I opened my mouth and let loose a torrent of clicks and snaps in my native dragon tongue. Twilight flared her wings and took a step back until she recognised me while Spike stared at me with wide eyes. I shook my head angrily and touched a pattern at my throat.

“What the hell are you doing here?!” I demanded roughly. “Just— how the hell did you even follow me back to Earth?!”

Twilight blinked at me and ignored my rising ire. She blinked and looked around as a tourist would. “So that’s what this place is called, Earth? It looks similar to Equestria, but a little bit warm and damp.”

I spluttered trying to think of a logical explanation for how they could follow me. Then I remembered, I left the pattern back on their world. I should have thought to destroy it as I left. My tail lashed in frustration. How could I have been so stupid?

“Now we’re here,” Twilight said resolutely. “And we’re going to help you whether you like it or not.”

“Not if I have anything to do about it,” I growled inscribing a complex pattern on the sand again. Twilight ran a hoof right through the middle of it. I felt the small sting of magical backlash and flinched.

“Are you crazy? You could have killed me!” I snapped. “Don’t disrupt a magus during inscription!”

Twilight stared at me with an unimpressed look, not the slightest bit fazed at my tone. Spike glanced between us, but he his jaw was set in flagrantly displayed determination.

I threw up my claws in frustration. “Fine!” I shouted. “You want to be a part of this? You want to know what’s my big secret?”

Twilight nodded obstinately. Spike shared the same sentiment although he merely waited for me.

“Everyone except me in my family’s dead,” I revealed. “Or missing, which is pretty much the same thing in my world.”

Even their shocked silence left me feeling bitter instead of gratified. I plunged on, pushing my feelings roughly to the side.

“My species is locked in war with each other and creatures on this planet. There are two or three factions depending on what view you hold.” I plonked myself down on the sand, resting my suddenly weary head on my paws. “The ‘traditionalists’ believe that the dragons rightfully inherit this planet. They believe that dragons are superior beings and they wish to make war with the humans. My clan and most of the other dragons, are the ‘progressives’, they hold the view that dragons can coexist with the humans. Most of them followed due to the strength of my father holding the individual strands of our clans together in a unified direction.”

I picked out a handful of sand and sent it trickling between my paws. “When there’s a power vacuum, like when my father is struck down or ill, the clans always move in like vultures around a fresh carcass. They’ll challenge my father for the right to the throne. Sometimes my father would rip out their throats to discourage direct challenges. It’s a deterrent that keeps away all but the most foolhardy.” I sighed. “But some just don’t give up…”

Both Twilight and Spike looked equally perturbed at my graphical description. I sighed once again and decided to tone it back down a bit. I wanted to convince them to go back, but I shouldn’t have do it using cheap shock tactics. I decided to try a different tactic.

“This whole world is at war. To the humans, not much was known about us until recently. We’ve mostly kept to ourselves, until we decided to slowly reintroduce ourselves and make it known that we exist.”

I took a moment to let that sink in. “Yes,” I said. “You cannot imagine what it’s like to suddenly find out about a whole new species that’s been living in secret among you for God knows how long.”

Surprisingly, Twilight gave me a weak smile. “Oh I think we can sympathise.”

I gaped at them for a few seconds before shaking my head savagely and moving on. “Something went wrong. I don’t know how it happened but someone hired a bunch of mercs to hit us. My father was able to fend off most of them but he was severely injured. He used the last of his strength to take us to a safe house…”

“But they were waiting for us there too,” I whispered. I snapped my gaze back to them. “My father left a great tool of power at the site of his battle. It is almost on the other-side of the world from here.”

Twilight and Spike looked like she was having trouble keeping up with all the history I was dumping on them. I groaned and got up.

“See? This is way beyond you both. You need to get back to your world as soon as possible. The majority of humans on this planet would be downright afraid, envious, or outright hostile to you two. You have to head back for your own good.”

“N-No,” Twilight said. “We told you we’d help you, and we will.”

Spike nodded. “It’s really complicated, but nopony should go through something like that.” He regarded me with sympathetic eyes. “I know what it’s like to suddenly realise when you’ve got no family.” He gave me a wobbly smile. “I learned that family is who you love more than where you come from.” He audibly swallowed. “Even though you’re not family yet, you’re a friend, and what I learned is friends help each other. Let us help you.”

“Don’t you get it?” I told them. “This is not your fight! I don’t want to drag you into this. It’s too dangerous, you could be killed!”

“That’s why we want to help you,” Twilight cut in. “Deep inside I know you’re a good pony—” she shook her head “—dragon. Besides who says we aren’t helpful? We can take care of ourselves.”

“I don’t need your help,” I said stubbornly. I winced, wishing I could take that flimsy retort back.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Really? So you have it all in your hoof then? Who else is helping you.”

“Anyone I can find,” I growled.

Twilight continued to look at me skeptically. “What if you find nopony else? By your own admission you’re alone, and you can’t approach these… what did you call them? Humans?”

I wanted to punch a tree, but I settled for lashing my tail instead. “I’ll find a way to manage.”

“By yourself?” Twilight shot back. “Admit it, you need any help you can get.”

“I don’t want you involved,” I pressed stubbornly.

Spike spoke up in the silence as Twilight and I glared at each other. “Is the sphere important to you? As in more important than it being powerful?”

I hesitated, then nodded. “It was my father’s. A keepsake of our Ancestors passed down the line. It’s incredibly powerful and dangerous unless you are Sheng Lung.”

Spike padded closer. “Twilight’s right. Don’t you want as much help as you can get to get it back? Besides, how were you planning to go halfway across the world?”

“By flying,” I mumbled.

“I don’t know much about flying, but that’s a little too far than I think you can fly.”

“I can—” I stopped myself. I couldn’t take the plane, I would be exposed in a matter of seconds. They probably think I’m still dead after getting to that molten world. “Just…” I trailed off, my eyebrows creased in concentration as I tried to come up with something to… to… Hang on, why was I the one on trial?

“Anyway, you should both head back,” I said, somewhat lamely.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I happen to be an expert in magic. I can probably figure out a way to get to where you’re going without having to fly there.”

“I doubt it,” I said with derisive snort.

Spike waved his claws. “Hey, hey!”

We both looked at him.

“What if we use this?” he said, gesturing to my shattered world-traversing pattern.

What the hell, this dragon actually thought that we could—

Hold on. That might actually work.

Author's Notes:

Whew, finally an update. Things are finally starting to move.

Plot~

Next Chapters: Crossing the North Atlantic without a plane.

As always, my referential readers, thanks for reading!