“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“SOMEPONY GRAB THE FOALS BEFORE SHE EATS THEM!”

“I SWEAR TO CELESTIA, YOU’D BETTER HAVE GIVEN HER STATUE YOUR SHARE OF CANDY, TIME TURNER!”

Pause. Zoom in. Spike is currently standing in the middle of panicking ponies as Nightmare Moon, the Mare, the Myth, the Legend, was somehow alive and now trying again to plunge all of Equestria into eternal darkness.

Yup. This is Spike. You’re probably wondering how he got there.

After the mare from Canterlot had checked up on all the preparations for the festival, she proceeded to go back to her lodging at the local library with Fenella when they were greeted by a surprise party that Pinkie decided to surprise them with.

Needless to say, they did not like the surprise.

So after Twilight and Fenella apologized (repeatedly on Twilight’s part) for the breezie having blasted Pinkie up to a wall, the pink mare, with an unfaltering smile, gladly welcoming them “officially” to Ponyville. With the way their day went, along with how the ponies were acting at the party, both of them had wanted nothing more than to sleep and/or figure out a plan to stop the other surprise waiting tonight. Unfortunately, due to a certain duo of assistants, they had barely any time for both choices.

Soon, the town shifted out from the library to begin the Summer Sun Celebration in Town Hall, where Spike was just cleaning out the last bits of uncut ribbon. He missed the party partly because of work, and partly because it was a Pinkie Pie party.

Rainbow told him it wasn’t really one of her better ones anyway.

Before they could start the festivities, however, an alicorn as black as night and as edgy as a star suddenly appeared. She claimed that she was Nightmare Moon, and was planning to bring eternal night to Equestria. The guards reacted as best as they could, but the ensuing fight caused pandemonium and panic to the civilians.

Speaking of the guard, one is currently hurling towards Spike, head first.

Spike probably should have braced for him.

“Oof!” the dragon groaned. Both he and the guard were knocked back a couple meters, almost hitting a wall opposite the deranged alicorn. While both Spike and the guard have had years of training of getting hit hard (the guard from his duty, Spike from his sister’s random suplexes to get him to wake up), Spike’s sturdy and strong scales were probably worse than a wall. The guard slumped unconscious as Spike rubbed the sore spot where he was hit.

Dragon scales are tough, but any solid blow will still hurt.

“Fools! You are only delaying the inevitable! Soon, Celestia’s power will wane over the sun, and soon I shall have complete control over Equestria!” Nightmare Moon cackled. “If any more of you foolish foals dare to fight me, show yourself, so that I may smite thee and show your place!”

“We’ll stop you!” a lone mare called out. Spike turned his head up to see Twilight Sparkle and Fenella walking up to Nightmare Moon, the unicorn’s horn charging with power. “We know who you are, and we know how you were defeated once before! We’ll find the elements, and we will win!”

“What? A simple little unicorn and her pet think she can stop me?!” Nightmare rhetorically asked, laughing afterwards. “Don’t be so rich, young filly. Why, I can tell that you are a powerful unicorn on your own right now, so why don’t you think about joining me, and together we shall… wait. Is that… Is that a Breezie next to you?”

“You’re damn right it’s a Breezie, but I’m not a regular Breezie you black bitch of a witch!” Fenella called out, two orbs circling around her small form as she charged up her own magic.

“A breezie companion that can use magic? My, you must have some very interesting friends…” Nightmare wondered in public amusement.

“Nah, she’s pretty much a shut-in, likes to be with her books instead of other ponies!” Pinkie chimed in, popping up behind Twilight (and almost scaring Fenella enough to launch Pinkie back to the wall another time) with a smile on her face despite the chaos.

“What the, why are you telling her that?! That isn’t helping anypony at all!” Twilight exclaimed, glaring at Pinkie for the sudden intrusion.

“Oh, sorry Twilight! I just wanted to say that I also want to stop that evil meanie Nightmare Moony with you too.”

“And ah’m with you too!” Applejack replied.

“Me too!” Rainbow flew over to the expanding group of mares that dared to stand against the Nightmare.

“And you have us as well!” Rarity called out, with Fluttershy standing next to her. While Rarity seemed that she was okay with being courageous, Fluttershy looked like she all but wanted to just run and hide, until she was dragged into the company of now 6 mares.

“Hmph. A bunch of mares without any sort of training or expertise think they can stop a Nightmare?”

“Cloudsdale Flight School, one year of military exercises. Let’s go you over bloated piece of…!” Before Rainbow could charge at the dark alicorn, she felt something tug her tail back towards the group. She turned around to see it was Spike that grabbed her tail, with a scared look on his face.

“Dash, wait, you need to think! Just because we had that one year of training doesn’t mean you can take down anything, especially a magical being with powers beyond us!” Spike exclaimed.

“A dragon? In this backwards town? Well, I must admit I am surprised by what this world has become since my absence, but it will not stop me. Farewell, you foolish mares. I do hope you have a better plan than ‘repeatedly charge at me’, as your friend has so carelessly exposed.”

With that declaration, the Nightmare shifted into a blue spectral form, where it flew through a window and dispersed into the late night. The few remaining conscious guards took to damage control, trying to calm down civilians while helping those that were hurt in the chaos. Nopony was seriously harmed, thankfully, but there would be a couple bruises here and there.

“Great. Now she’s gone. I could have taken her Spike. You know I can go hoof to claw with you easily. What’s a dragon to a pony?” Rainbow harshly muttered.

“Not a pony, Rainbow Dash. An alicorn, and a very powerful one at that. Just because you can fight Spike here doesn’t mean you can defeat Nightmare Moon as easily as you would think,” Twilight retorted. As the guards filed some of the town ponies outside of the hall in order to get some fresh air, the six mares that had declared they would be stopping Nightmare Moon gathered around Twilight, with Spike following a sulking Rainbow.

“Speaking of stopping her, you said ya know what happened last time ponies defeated her? Thought ah heard you say something about, what, ‘elements’?” Applejack piped up.

“The Elements of Harmony, yes. Celestia used them last time to stop Nightmare Moon and banish her to the moon, a thousand years ago. We need to find those elements in order to beat her again. There are six of them, but only five are known. Fenella and I know where they are, but… Fen, I need you to stay here.”

“What?!” Fenella screeched, flying erratically in anger near Twilight’s muzzle. “C’mon, Sparks, why you leaving me to hang here? Both of us knew about Nightmare, both of us have to stop her!”

“Fen, I need you to stay here and help with the hurt ponies. You have the best healing magic anywhere around, and you’re good at organizing. They need someone to at least keep them feeling safe and secure, after what’s happened.”

“Well if you want safe, why don’t you let the fooking dragon stay here? He’s the one with fooking fire breath!”

“Um, actually…” Spike raised a claw up hesitantly, “I uh, I don’t actually have much control over my fire like most dragons do…”

Twilight, Applejack, and Fenella all looked at Spike like he was a strange creature.

“Wait, pardon?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow. “Are y’all telling me you’re a dragon that can’t breathe fire?”

“He can breathe it, just doesn’t come naturally to him. Found out during Flight school, don’t know why,” Rainbow replied. “The pixie thing did say something right though; Spike, you need to stay here and make sure nothing else bad happens. The guards don’t look too good anyway.”

Spike sighed, pinching his snout as he looked down from the group, a little disappointed that he also wasn’t going to help stop the Nightmare. “Spike, if it isn’t too much trouble, could you find Sweetie Belle and let her know I’ll be off helping miss Twilight here find these so called ‘Elements of Harmony’? I’m afraid I lost her during the commotion,” Rarity asked.

It was something to do, at least. “Yeah sure, I’m on it,” the dragon replied.

“Fenella, go find the mayor,” Twilight commanded the breezie. “Tell her you can help with the hurt ponies. Also, can you find out where those two idiots Brakken and Moody went?”

“On it, boss!” Fenella saluted, before flying away outside to find the mayor. A couple of the mares creaked and cracked their bones as they prepared for their harrowing journey ahead. Rainbow tried swinging a few punches around in the air, before Spike called for her again. “Rainbow, please don’t do anything stupid while you’re gone. Just, find the elements, let Twilight use them, and then come back before mom and dad hear you went somewhere dangerous.”

“Aw, like I’m going to do anything dumb. You know who I am?” Rainbow asked.

“You’re the mare that panicked when her science experiment blew up in flames and almost burned down half of the school,” Spike snarked.

“Hey, the lab sheet said nothing was supposed to really happen other than a color change, someone messed up my chemicals!” Rainbow retorted.

“Enough you two. Rainbow, we can’t waste any more time, we have to go,” Twilight commanded, trotting out of the ruined Town Hall with the rest of the girls. Spike and Rainbow shared a glance before the cerulean mare saluted her brother with a smirk, joining up with the gang outside.

Spike again pinched his snout as he breathed heavily, sighing in discontentment with the whole situation. “Just be safe Rainbow… alright, time to find Sweetie. She must have ran when she first saw Nightmare Moon, but she hasn’t come back inside to find Rarity. Maybe she tried to hide under the tables?” the dragon mused, heading towards the remains of the refreshment tables that didn’t survive a couple guards falling on top of them.

Man, and he worked so hard on setting them up too! Those tables were a pain to even stand up straight, the legs barely swinging out unless you practically threw out your back to pull them into position.

“Is… is she gone? I don’t hear the laughing anymore…” a voice asked underneath one of the tables, with its speaker covered by the cloth on top. Spike knew it was a young pony’s voice, but he honestly couldn’t tell if it was a colt or a filly.

“Yeah, I think she is. I think I heard my sister talking before, and she wasn’t screaming like usual, so maybe everything is fine…” another voice spoke, this one definitely familiar to the purple dragon.

“Sweetie Belle?” Spike asked, lifting up the tablecloth to find the sources of the voices. He expected two foals, but instead found practically a whole classroom hiding underneath the mishmash of destroyed tables.

“Spike!” Sweetie Belle called out happily. She clung to his neck with a bone-crushing hug, happy that her friend was okay.

“Sweetie… choking…”

Mostly okay.

“Oh, sorry!” Sweetie apologized. “What happened? Where’s Rarity?”

“Rarity went with that new mare from Canterlot to go find the things that will stop Nightmare Moon, something called the Elements of Harmony, I guess. What are you all doing underneath the tables?” Spike asked the kids.

“We were hiding from that scary pony! Why does she want ‘eternal’ night? What’s that?” a foal near Sweetie asked. He was a little chubby colt, with a coat that switched between brown and white.

“It means she wants the night to last forever, and the sun to never come back up,” the dragon replied.

“Night forever? Will we get to sleep through it all though?” the same colt asked.

“Er, no, you would wake up and it would still be dark. You would have to go to school in the dark.”

“I don’t like the dark!” another foal cried somewhere else.

“Hey hey hey!” Spike yelled, raising his arms to try and stop the incoming crying storm. He did NOT want a room full of yelling foals. “Don’t worry. My sister, my boss, and their friends are going to stop the scary mare, I promise on that.”

“Your sister?” the ambiguous voice from before piped up again. Spike looked to see it belonged to a definite filly, with a slightly scraggly orange coat and a messy purple mane. A tomboy if he ever saw one, other than his sister’s antics sometimes. He realized he hadn’t seen the filly anywhere in Ponyville, unlike the other fillies and colts who he knew some by name because of how they liked to pester him sometimes, being a dragon and all.

“Yes, my sister, Rainbow Dash. Are you new around here?” the dragon asked.

“Um…” the filly scraped the floor with a hoof, looking down in some apparent shame. “I’m not new to Ponyville, but I came here yesterday after a year of being, uh, somewhere else…”

Spike guessed correctly about the filly. She had barely known him or Rainbow Dash, probably. “Well, some welcome back party this is, huh?” he joked. A couple foals giggled, and even the new filly chuckled once or twice. The dragon went up to the little filly and held his arm out to shake her hoof. “My name is Spike. Actually it’s Rainbow Spike, but everypony just calls me Spike. My sister is Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m Scootaloo. What’s your sister like? Is she a dragon too?” the filly questioned. She raised out her hoof and shook Spike’s hand, thinking his scales felt really cool.

“No, she’s not a dragon, she’s a Pegasus. Actually, the fastest Pegasus alive, if she could be believed.”

“The fastest? No way!”

“I believe her. If you ever see her in action, it’s like she’s in some place one moment, and on the other side of town the next. In fact, she once even did a sonic rainboom…” Spike sat down in the Hall, and the kids sat down with him, eager to hear another story about Rainbow Dash. “When we were young, right before we went to Flight School, Rainbow was one of the last ponies in her class to get her cutie mark. She was trying to help me learn to fly, since I wasn’t really a great flyer at the time. One day, I had a problem stopping and crashed into a cloud, and of course some bullies tried to tease me about it. But then, she flew in, and challenged those bullies to a race since they thought they were so good at flying…”

As Spike continued telling stories about Rainbow Dash to pass the time with the foals (with the parents occasionally coming in trying to find their foal only to see the resident dragon talking to them, and they trusted him enough to keep them still as they waited for the 6 mares to come back), Scootaloo’s active mind went into overdrive, imagining a mare like Rainbow Dash facing down bullies and winning races and beating the odds against her again and again.

The orange and purple filly desperately wished she could see Rainbow Dash when she got back, and ask her more questions.

Author's Notes:

So the google drive formatting thingy is definitely shot up something awful. Maybe they changed their code or something and it messes up FIMfiction when it tries to get the document from the link?

In any case, now we have Scootaloo coming into the picture, while Fen gets taken out of the picture of being a hero, even though she's a magically (over)powered breezie. Kinda like Spike in the show, cuz I mean, how many problems could have been solved if they just asked Spike to light that mofo on fire?

On second thought, that would have been a bad idea. The fire might just transport the problem back to Celestia, in that case...

Next up, we're gonna be at the awards ceremony after the defeat of Nightmare Moon (that is also considered similar to the ending ceremony for Star Wars, A New Hope, hilariously enough), with a nice family reunion of the Rainbows. And perhaps a family reunion for Fluttershy too...

Including a lazy brother.