Abi sat in the living room of the cabin, guilt being the only emotion she felt as she put the finishing touches on Ashley's dress for the wedding. She didn't want to keep anything from her friend, but with everything Roden had told her she knew she had no choice. Only she knew about Rodens true intentions, even Symbol didn't know. What was to come, a great conflict, a great battle... and so, so many losses.

She shook the thoughts away and finished the dress. Looking over the design and measurements she nodded in satisfaction. Just then she heard a knock at the door. Not expecting anyone she raised a brow and walked towards the door, upon opening it she found it was Twilight. "Oh, hello Twilight, what can I do for you?"

Twilight sighed and looked Abi in the eye. "I need you to come with me to the library, Ashley is there, she found this foal devoid of colour and had weird eyes, it's sleeping right now and Celestia is on her way."

Any thoughts against going when she heard Ashley's name faded at the brief description. "Describe the foal again."

Twilight raised a brow. "Devoid of colour and had strange eyes. The eyes were all black with red dots as pupils."

Abi's eyes widened in shock and horror. "I'll be right there, I just need to make a call. Do NOT let that foal wake up."

"Why?"

"I'll explain when I get there, and use a powerful sleep spell." With that Abi closed the door and called for Roden. A portal appeared and the man in green looked though it. "Roden! We have a Nightmare here! It's possessed a foal and we don't have Symbol here! Get him back now!"

Roden shook his head. "Calm down Abi, Symbol will be returning shortly, he has important matters to attend to right now. As for the Nightmare, I've sent an agent there to handle it."

Abi tilted her head. "Who did you send? Marcus? Alucard?"

Roden chuckled. "No, I sent someone that you haven't seen in a few months."

Abi's eyes widened in shock and joy, a smile forming in the place of her frown. "You mean my little nefew is here?"

Symph ran through the forest, leaping from tree to tree at amazing speeds. Once he came to a large cliff he grabbed a vine and flung himself into the air, entering free fall down the tall cliff. As he fell closer to the ground he placed his feet on the side of the mountain and slid down, a small cloud of dust trailing behind him as his shoes grinded against the stone.

As he was about to reach the bottom he jumped and grabbed hold of a branch. As he swung himself into the next section of the forest he spotted a group of Timberwolves ahead of him. Smirking he jumped over each one, performing impressive flips as he went, dodging their attacks.

Soon he reached the end of the forest and slammed on the breaks, sliding a little before coming to a stop. "Ah, that was a nice little excersize." He dusted himself off, his butlers outfit clean as a whistle. Looking out to the town of Ponyville his body turned black, firming into the shape of a foal. He still kept his slick black hair, his coat was white and his mark was a reptilian eye with a bowtie below it.

Smiling he made his way towards the town.

Ashley's POV

I sat with Spike as we both watched the filly sleep, having nothing better to do. As we sat in silence I figured it would be a good opportunity to find out something I had always wandered about the young drake. "Hey Spike, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what do you wanna know?" He looked relieved, having something else to do than creepily watch a possibly possessed filly obviously bringing a bit of joy.

"In the TV show I talked about where you guys are the characters and all I've always noticed something, you just let the ponies use you as a punching bag for forced slapstick comedy. Why do you just keep going with it?"

His smile turned to a frown and he looked ashamed. "It's personal."

"I mean you could just sit Twilight and all down and explain it to them granted they'd probably forget about it the next day since the continuity in this world sucks."

He closed his eyes. "I said it's personal."

"How about I tell you something personal and then you tell me?"

He looked at me unsure, he thought about it for a minute before nodding. "Alright then." He took a moment to think of a question. "Why do you always twitch when the subject of family comes up?"

I froze. "W-What?"

"Whenever somepony even mentions the word 'mom' or 'brother' your left eye twitches. It did it right now!"

I did feel my eye twitch a little. "Well... My parents... There was this accident, I was at home with my big brother Frank. We were playing some games when he got a message from the local hospital. Next thing I know he turns off the game and tells me to get in his car. We got to the hospital and were led to a room where our parents lay on beds, injured and hooked up to all kinds of machines. They were caught in a huge traffic accident and came out of it with fatal injuries. They weren't going to make it, the last thing my mom said to me was 'Don't be sad for us, our time in this world has ran out, all of those years I spent raising you and your brother were the greatest years of my life, continue to grow and don't let us leaving slow you down on the road to greatness. I love you, my beautiful Ashley.' After that she passed away. I've never been able to get over it, it still haunts me."

I turned and saw Spike with tears in his eyes. He got up and brought me into a meaningful hug. I started to tear up myself as I hugged him, the memory of the event replaying in my mind. He pulled away and calmed down. "Alright, you told me your story, so I need to tell you mine." He sat down and wiped one last tear from his cheek. "When I was younger, and I became Twilights assistant, I started feeling like a pushover. Over time I started to get angrier and angrier, started calling myself a slave to Twilight. Whe n I tried to talk to her about it my anger got out of control, I grew, I... I hurt Twilight. Ever since then I've never questioned myself or anything else, that's why I go along with their crazy schemes and adventures. I've learned to control my anger, I'm fine with being a punching bag as long as I'm helping my friends."

I looked at the young drake in shock. I expected it to be something like a dragon code or something silly, but that was in its own way slightly tragic. Imagine that, you and your sister are having a few problems that could be sorted out by just talking, but then you let anger control you and you end up seriously hurting them, imagine how you would feel after that, how your sibling would feel.

If there is one thing that came out of today, it was that I now have a lot more respect for Spike the Dragon.

Author's Notes:

Getting into some serious plot territory now, more to come.

Also, check out Symbols other displaced story Soldier Like No Other that follows the adventures of Master Chief (Marcus).

And one last thing. I am currently working on a lore for the Nightmare-verse, the universe of stories that this one is set in, so that will explain a few things like why Symbol has so many forms, how the Nightmares were created and a hint at what Rodens plan is, so stay tuned for that.