The next morning I gave a groan, stretching my back and wincing upon hearing a loud crack and pop. “Agh, there it was.” I said as the miniscule moment of pain was traded for muscular relief. “That kink has been bothering me for the last two hundred years.” I smiled, standing up and heading to the bathroom to shower up and get ready for breakfast.

After last night's events, Celestia, Luna, and myself had managed to convince Twilight to hold off on the Q&A session until after everyone got a good night's sleep. She reluctantly agreed, after some extra convincing from her own tired yawns.

I got out of the shower and gave my spare clothes a look. Even after all this time, the princesses had held onto a few spare outfits of mine for the day I might come back. “Surprised the moths didn't go to town on these.” I said, patting down shirt and pants.

“Preservation spells are fairly easy when it comes to clothing.” A voice said, causing me to jump a good foot in the air. I looked over and saw Twilight standing in the doorway. “For someone who fought a bunch of invaders and a giant beast, you sure are jumpy.” She said with a laugh.

I rolled my eyes. “hah hah, very funny. Now let's get to breakfast so I can get some coffee or else you'll see how grumpy this dragon slayer can really be.” I said with a slight groan.

At this however Twilight's eyes widened in shock and a bit of fear
“A what?! I knew you had to be hiding something! You aren't going to kill Spike. If you want to you'll have to do it over my dead body!” She said, taking a defensive stance, her horn charging.

I gave a groan. “Relax Sparkle, it's just what my magic is called. I have no intention of taking Spike out.” I then thought to myself. ”Though I may give him a scare for trying to nibble me when I was a statue. I shook my head a bit. “Like I said, I'll explain a lot at breakfast. But first things first. Coffee.” I said, walking past her. I could feel the unicorns glare on me as we walked to the dining hall.

When we got there, we could see that everyone was there except for Celestia and Luna. I sat down and slouched forward, giving a tired groan. After a few moments I heard hoof steps behind me. I looked as a steaming mug was placed in front of me, held in a dark blue aura. “Thanks Luna.” I said, taking the cup and sipping at it, the hot nectar of the gods flowing down my gullet. I gave a shiver and smiled. “Ahhh, sweet life blood.” I said with a chuckle. I looked around at all the mares and the young drake, seeing the princesses and Chrysalis were now around the long table.

“Tis good to have you and Scratch back Connor.” The lunar princess stated, said feline flying off her shoulder to sit on the table next to me. “Now then, let us break our nightly fast.”

I blinked and chuckled as I sipped my coffee. “Breakfast Luna.”

She blinked and waved her hand dismissively. “Semantics.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head as breakfast was brought out by several servants. The mares had plates with vegetables and eggs, while chrysalis had an empty spot. I gave her a curious look. “Changelings feed off of love, and there's enough ambient love in the air to keep me satiated.”

I nodded and smiled as a plate of eggs, vegetables, and….oh yess. “Oh sweet Kur above. Is that….bacon?” I said, staring at the crispy brown ambrosia on my plate.

Celestia gave a laugh. “Indeed, we have a small store of meats for visiting gryphon dignitaries.” I smiled, staring at it before recognizing a plate with several shards of metal and gemstones placed next to it.

“Wait, so your species eats meat? And metals and gems?” Twilight said, a notepad and quill floating next to her.

“Well my kind are omnivores, so we require a balanced diet of meats and produce. Though rest assured, I've never eaten pony, and since coming here I've only eaten animals that haven't shown any sentience.” I took a bite of bacon, shivering in joy. “Ohhh man...fifteen hundred years away makes it all the sweeter.” I noticed a few stares and cleared my throat. “Anyways, as for the gems and metals, humans don't eat them normally, but my digestive system changed thanks to my magic.”

Twilight then tensed. “And your magic is..?”

Celestia noticed the tense and smiled softly. “Connor’s magic is what is known as Dragon Slaying magic. But worry not my faithful student. He has no intention of ever hurting Spike.”

“I tried to tell her that, but she kept giving me a death glare all the way down the hall.” I said, munching on a piece of metal. “Mmm oh man, forging techniques have gotten a lot better. This has a lot more taste than the old days.”

Rainbow then leaned over. “That's another thing. How did you know Twilight and all our names even though we had never seen you before the wedding. Were you spying on us?” She said accusingly.

Scratch then gave a laugh. “Connor was never one for spying. Though we did watch everything that came in through the main castle hall.” He then flew onto my shoulder as I stood up tall, positioning my arms in front of me. “Ring any bells?” He said, glancing over at a pink hand waving excitedly. “Pinkie you're not able to guess.” He said, the bubbly mare lowering her hand.

The mares all thought a bit as to what the two of us meant. Fluttershy was the first to speak. “Umm...they look like the statue that was in the main hall.”

The others looked at her. “Why darling I think you're right. They are the spitting image of the Iron warrior statue that’s in the entrance hall.”

Scratch and I both smirked at the girls. “Wait you're telling us that you don't just look like the statue…” Rainbow began, her magenta eyes widening in realization

“....You WERE the statue?!” Twilight exclaimed, the quill snapping in half.

“Bingo.” The two of us said, sitting back down.

“But if y’all were a statue, doesn't that mean you two were criminals who got locked away by the elements of harmony?” Applejack said after taking a bite from a green apple.

I blinked. “Elements of who what now?”

Twilight gasped. “How could you have not hear of the elements of harmony?”

“Technically Twilight you hadn't heard about them until the whole Nightmare Moon episode.” Pinkie said, shoving a whole cupcake in her mouth….no seriously. She practically unhinged her jaw and shoved hand and cupcake into her mouth.

Scratch and I stared at her for a moment. “Pinkie’s physics defying body aside, who or what was Nightmare Moon?”

Luna gave a cough. “Tis a most unfortunate event that occurred in our past. We will explain to thee later.” She said, finding her plate suddenly very interesting.

“Uh huh...anyways, never heard of the elements of harmony, but me being sealed away was technically my own doing.” He then blinked and looked at the princesses before continuing. “See, back then, Scratch and I were Knights of the crown. We basically took care of any jobs that needed either immediate response, or of a….darker nature. The final mission I was on was to originally track down and put an end to a slave ring operating out of Acidava.”

Twilight then blinked. “Out of where?”

Me and Scratch looked at each other before turning back to her. “Acidava. You know. Large port city on the South Eastern peninsula of Thaczil Darastrixi?” At this Spike seemed to straighten up, his eyes widening at the language of dragons. “I figured since the treaty dragon cities would be well known after fifteen hundred years.”

Twilight then looked over at Spike before turning back to us. “Dragons had cities back then? Fascinating. Dragons nowadays are nomadic and migratory creatures.” She said, causing Scratch and I to blink before turning to the princesses.

“Celestia, what is she talking about? I know time is a fickle thing, but I figured Harroc and the kingdom would still be going strong. I mean, fifteen hundred years is like a cup in the bucket for dragons.”

The two princesses looked at each other before giving a soft sigh. “We will explain after breakfast. For now, let us enjoy our meals.” Celestia spoke with a somewhat sad tone.

We both looked at her before nodding. I then noticed something odd at the table. “Hey, Spike, why don't you have any meat on your plate?”

The young drake blinked and looked at his plate of gems and metal. “Huh? Dragons eat gems and metals dude.” He said with a tilt of his head.

My eye twitched slightly as I looked over at Celestia. “You never told him dragons are omnivorous as well?”

Twilight then gave a cough. “Spike was raised in a pony society, and eggs are a perfect protein, so I didn't see the need to have him eat...meat.” She gave a slight shudder. “Besides. He eats plenty of fruit and vegetables as well.”

I blinked and looked at Spike, standing up and walking over. “Hey Spike, mind standing up for a minute?” He blinked and did as asked, standing up. I took his left arm, giving it as squeeze, turning my hand to iron and tapping it across his scales. The hard materials easily held and didn't leave a mark. “Hmm, muscles are a little under, most likely from lack of full protein source. Scales are nice and durable though, considering the excess of gems and metals.” I then looked at him. “How old are you again Spike?”

He blinked and looked at me. “Seventeen why?”

I nearly fell over when he said this. “Woah Woah woah, seventeen?!” I said with shock, Scratch’s eyes mirroring my own surprise

Spike then looked up. “Yeah, why? Is there some sort of problem?”

I then crossed my arms, looking at the drake who was easily a head and a half shorter than me. “I'll say. A seventeen year old dragon’s biped form should be just a few inches shorter than me, if not as tall as me.”

The group blinked at that before Spike shook his head. “Wait, what do you mean biped form?” He said with a confused tone.

At this my jaw dropped as I looked over at Celestia and Luna. “You never even told him?” I said with a disappointed look.

Celestia looked down. “We never felt the need for it to come up as his smaller form allowed him to live with Twilight and her friends that much easier.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I walked back to my seat, finishing up my breakfast. “Once everyone is done with breakfast, find me. Then we’ll finish this discussion.” I said before standing up and walking out of the room.

Scratch flew after me, landing on top of my head. “That could have been handled a bit better.”

I gave a groan. “I know, but still, you can't say you aren't a little miffed they didn't tell him about half the things he needs or can do.” I said, soon finding myself in the guard barracks. “Oh goody. Things to hit.” I say, heading over to the training field.

The group watched Connor leave the room, Celestia giving a sigh as Twilight looked over to her mentor. “Princess Celestia, what exactly DID Connor mean by biped form?”

Spike looked to the princesses with attention. “I'm sure all of you remember the incident with Spike’s growth spurt during his seventeenth birthday?” She said with a gentle smile.

Spike blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his head. “Y-Yeah, not my proudest moment.” he said, looking down at the table.

“Well, all dragons have two forms. One known as the bipedal form, and the other which is known as their true form.” Celestia looked at the young drake. “From what Connor told us of dragons when he would train in their country, young hatchlings are born into their bipedal form until they reach of age to take their true form.” She began before Twilight raised a hand.

“Wait, train there, as in Connor was part of dragon society in ancient times?” The lavender librarian questioned.

Luna gave a nod. “Twas in fact Connor and Scratch who originally aided us in forging a treaty with the dragon kingdom. They were given honorary knight status in both kingdoms.” She said, giving a smile at the memory.

“Woah Woah woah, a royal knight? That's a rank on par with the wonderbolts.” Rainbow said in surprise.

Celestia nodded. “Now then, since we are all done with breakfast, shall we go find Connor and Scratch?”

As they nodded and stood up, a loud boom rocked the castle foundation. All but two of the mares looked around panicky, but Celestia simply gave a sigh. “Looks like Connor found the training grounds.”

I gave a sharp toothed grin at the large crater in front of me where a training dummy had just been. “Ahh feels good to let loose a bit of frustration through destruction.” I gave a chuckle, watching some of the guards scramble to get back to their training.

Scratch flew over to my shoulder and shook his head. “You could have gone with something less destructive than that. I think they felt that on the other side of the castle.” I gave him a deadpan look and pointed to a pile of shredded training dummies. He gave a sheepish smile and laughed.

I smiled and chuckled before hearing hoofsteps behind me. “Seems you plan to make the royal groundskeepers your enemy in this time as well Connor.” Celestia said.

I gave a soft chuckle. “Ol’ Thorny Vine never did forgive me for accidentally wrecking his posies.” I laughed softly. “Ah well, the past is the past. Though I'll miss the old stallion.” I smiled and looked at the group. “Right, I've blown off some steam now, so let's get to that Q&A I promised.”

At this a multitude of quills and parchment appeared around Twilight. “You started to tell us about how you ended up in Iron before we got off on tangents. What exactly happened?”

I looked to Scratch for a bit. “Well I figure it's easily cold case so I guess it's okay to tell you. At the time Scratch and I were part of the King’s secret unit. Like I said, we took care of some of the more unsavory actions that would have resulted in a lot of trouble for Terra. One such mission was to take down a slave ring. Though it turned out to be something far worse than that.” a few of the mares gulped at the idea of something worse than slavery. “The slavers were part of a cult that planned to summon an ancient dragon capable of laying waste to the world. Me and my team found out and went in to try and stop them, but we were almost too late. They had gathered the magical energy to summon him and transferred it into a dragon's egg. Though the ritual was partially interrupted right at the end, basically turning the egg into a magical warhead.” At this a few mares tilted their head.

“A what now?” Rainbow said.

“Big boom capable of destroying an entire peninsula.” a couple ohhs sounded off. “Anyways, the egg bomb would have taken out the peninsula city had I not used a final technique to contain it to a small area. The technique basically can contain pretty much gods, but the backlash turns the caster to iron as well. That's how I ended up a statue.”

Twilight looked over at me after writing it all down. “So you gave your life essentially to save all those people and your team?” She said, wide eyed.

I nodded. “Granted they didn't know I was about to do that, and I had them get out to get civilians to safety. I still feel bad for making one of them leave by tricking them….” My eyes then widened before turning to the princesses. “Wait, Celestia, Luna. You two were coming by the kingdom later to visit….did you happen to meet Ken?”

The princesses looked to each other, thinking for a bit before their eyes widened simultaneously. In a flash Luna had vanished and then reappeared, holding out an obsidian scale towards me. “Your friend told us to give this to you on the day of your release. We had all but forgotten about it.” The night princess said with a smile.

I took the scale and smiled, feeling the familiar energy. Pinkie then leaned over. “A scale? What's so special about it?” She said, poking it.

I gave a chuckle. “Something else I should answer first. Originally I'm not from Equestria, the dragon kingdom, or even Terra. I was dimensionally displaced from my world to here.”

At this Rainbow's eyes widened. “So you're an alien? That's so cool!”

I laughed at that. “Ironically the first thing the guard did when they found me was take me to their leaders.” At this a few mares laughed at the cliche. Seems some tropes are universal...err...multiversal. “But to answer Pinkie’s question, there are others like me. Humans taken from their homeworlds, and sent throughout the multiverse to different Equestrias. They contact each other via use of items they call Tokens. This scale is the token belonging to a friend of mine. The one I tricked out of the cavern so he wouldn't get caught up in the spell.” I then thought a bit. “Huh, speaking of which, I never made mine.”

Scratch then landed on Pinkie’s mane. “Any plans on what it could be?”

I thought a bit before my arm became covered in iron. “Let's see if I can get this right.” I focused on my palm. I gave a grunt as the metal slowly began coalescing into a ball in my hand. Several more minutes of focusing and the shape soon solidified into the shape of a dragon’s claw. I then gave a panting sigh before an idea hit. “Hey Pinkie, do you have a cat's eye marble?”

“I think so, but I may have lost them a while back.” The party mare said, digging around in her mane. Pinkie losing her marbles...heh...too late. A moment later she pulled out a black, grey and cloudy white cats eye. I thanked her and took it, setting it into the dragon's claw.

Scratch looked at it. “Why the marble?”

I smiled. “You're my partner Scratch. Figured we'd be in this together.” He chuckled and smiled. “ready?” He nodded and placed a paw on the marble. We both focused and spoke aloud.

”I am Connor Fortino.”

“And I am Scratch the Exceed.”

“Should you ever find yourselves in need of an ally on the field of battle,”

“Or a friend to aid you in times of necessity.”

“Simply wear this pendant and tap the eye twice. We shall be there to give you the strength of iron.” We both said aloud, finishing the message.

As we finished, an iron chain looped around the top of the pendant. Me and Scratch then focused on the Etherion energy inside us, a small pillar of light appearing in front of us. I then tossed the pendant into the light, it splitting into several thousand copies as it got sent into the multiverse. I made sure to grab one before the light vanished.

Rarity looked at the pendant. “Pray tell darling, why did you save one?”

I smiled. “So I can give it to Ken when I eventually call him up.”

I then turned to the group. “Light show over. Now I have a question for you Celestia. What happened to Thaczil Darastrixi?”

The solar princess gave a soft sigh. “It happened approximately two hundred and fifty years after you sealed yourself away. A civil war erupted within Thaczil Darastrixi between those who preferred our peace, and those that felt dragons should rule over those they believed inferior species. The revolutionaries cut off trade routes between our kingdoms so we were unable to send supplies.” The alabaster alicorn hung her head, Luna continuing.

“Fifteen long years the war was waged between the two sides. It was then that we finally managed to bypass the blockade and aid our friends in battle. But alas, by then it was too late.” She closed her eyes, fighting back tears that threatened to overflow at the memory. “Both sides lay utterly decimated, the leaders of the Revolution scorched to the bone. Thousands of dragons lost to the world. King Harroc was unfortunately among them.” The tears overtook her, the lunar princess opening her eyes to look at Scratch and me. “He fought to the bitter end alongside his men. When we arrived he was on his last breaths. We tried to heal him but he told us to save our magic for those with less grievous injuries. As he lay dying he entrusted my sister and I with a task. His mate was one of the first unfortunate casualties of the war, but before she had passed, she laid a single egg. He asked us to find the egg and watch over the drake that hatched from it.”

I fought back tears, both Scratch and I failing, the mares all hanging their heads and crying at the sad history of the dragon kingdom. I then gasped and stared at the sisters as a realization dawned on me. “Celestia...Luna….what color was the queen.”

The solar princess gave a somber smile. “The queen had the most beautiful violet scales one would see for quite a long time.”

Scratch and I stared at each other wide eyed for a few moments before both of us turned and looked at the lone drake among the group. The other mares followed my gaze, their eyes widening in realization as they caught my thought.

Spike looked at all of us with a confused look, tilting his head. “What? Why is everyone looking at me? Do I still have some Sapphire in my teeth?”

I stared at him, my voice shaking a bit. “Spike, a dragon's scale and spine colors are based on their parents. King Harroc had emerald green spines. And the Queen had violet scales. Spike...you are the prince and heir apparent to the ancient kingdom of Thaczil Darastrixi.”

Author's Notes:

Happy holidays everyone. So yeah, big reveal. Ive always wanted Spike to have a bigger role in the series than comic relief/magic mail box.

Originally in my recent blog post I said this might not be up til new year, but work has been slow so there was a lot of down time between rushes. So thanks to that you all get another chapter before the year ends.

Well that's all for now. See ya next time folks.