There was darkness everywhere. A lone infant dragon that had just barely hatched, tried to open his eyes, but could not. “Did it work?” he heard a voice speak.

“Yes, my master. It seems your spell has worked,” the infant dragon heard another voice.

“Good, now begin the experiments, I want to know if the prophecies are true about this dragon,” the first voice said.

Suddenly the infant dragon’s eyes finally shot opened and he looked around and saw a batpony stallion with a gray mane, and a yellow pegasus stallion with a white mane. They were both in lab coats. Beside the pegasus was a shadowy figure of some sort. It was a tall, strong stallion in royal armor and a black royal cape. It was unclear whether this pony was a pegasus, unicorn or earth pony.

The shadowy figure turned to see the dragon’s eyes open. “Oh, I see you're awake,” the figure said as he lowered himself and stared at the infant dragon directly in the eyes. The infant dragon did not know what absolute terror was until he saw the shadowy figure’s eyes. Soon the infant dragon began to cry erratically, however, that was stopped as the shadowy figure spoke one word, "Bow."

Instantly the baby felt everything pull him down into a bow. It was as if space was being bent around him.

Afterward, the shadowy figure turned back to the pegasus. “Well, what are you two waiting for? Begin the experimentation, we have seven years until the Rainboom event is prophecied, and we need him ready by then.”

“Yes, my master,” said the yellow pegasus.

******

<7 years later>

Deep in a hidden laboratory. The dragon woke up and found himself still chained up. He had lived so long with these chains, suffering several experiments, he feared that he would spend the rest of his life like this. The dragon sat there waiting for the yellow pegasus to come back and do more experiments. He had heard many time that the scientists were trying to get him to transform into what was being called a Ryu Form. That’s all the dragon knew. He felt that this was his life.

But today seemed different. As the ground began to shake, there was a loud boom above the lab. The dragon looked up to see a Shadow Rainboom shoot across the sky. Then everything went silent. In that one Rainboom the dragon saw something he felt he had a connection to. The dragon thought seeing it would bring hope.

However, instead, this was the moment that the being that would soon to be known as Father, used the power of the Rainboom combined with his own power to break the imprisonment spell over Nightmare Moon. This set her free. But things did not go the way Father had planned. He set Nightmare Moon free, but in truth, he actually wanted to just set Princess Luna free. That plan failed and instead he decided to work alongside Nightmare Moon to conquer Equestria. But his true reasons for serving her would always remain a mystery.

******

Shortly after the event which became to be called the ‘Shadow Rainboom Event’, the project that the dragon had been hatched for was deemed a failure because nopony could get the dragon to transform into his Ryu Form. After the laboratory was abandoned the dragon was abandoned as well. The dragon was never even given a name. All he knew to call himself was the barcode on his chains. The barcode was SpI146.

******

<Rarity’s memories>

Rarity was a powerful white unicorn that could sense crystals. For this she was brought in for Project Royal B. At the time, four royals had already been chosen. However, there was a fear that some of the four would not be up to the job of being the ruler's secret weapons. So in case one of them were to fall behind or fail, a new royal would be brought in as their replacement. This was Project Royal B, and Rarity along with a few others were chosen for it. Others included Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Blueblood, Moondancer, and Moonchaser. The Project was run by Duchess Cadenza a.k.a. Cadence, and Mistress Chrystal. It was being overseen by Duchess Cadenza’s betrothed, Captain Dark Armor a.k.a. Shining Armor, who would later became known as General Dark Armor.

Rarity was very powerful and was given many lessons. She eventually became so good with her powers that she became a personal student of Mistress Chrystal. In doing so, Mistress Chrystal taught Rarity how to use the Crystal Blade and was later taught how to use other forms of crystal magic.

Crystal magic like dark magic, shapeshifting and dragon magic was invisible to the Empire. And unlike dark magic, crystal magic would not slowly corrode the mind of the user, so it was a valuable asset to have. Any normal forms of magic; like unicorn magic, pegasus magic, and earth pony magic were removed from existence outside the Empire by unknown means. Any that wanted to use those types of magics outside the empire would have to use the Dark Amulets. But some magic still existed outside the Empire like chaos magic, changeling magic, fire magic, and light magic and could still be used. However, use of these other magics could easily be sensed by the Empire.

For these and many other reasons, Rarity set forth to master crystal magic and eventually she did became quite a master at it. This earned her the title Princess Crystal Star.

******

<The Day Rarity meets Spike>

It had been eight years since Project Ryu had been abandoned. Rarity had been sent by Mistress Chrystal on a secret mission to explore the old, broken down laboratory. She was told to look for a special crystal that was mentioned in one of the prophecies. Rarity knew nothing of the prophecies. All she knew was that the crystal was important.

She was joined on her mission by Blueblood, who despite being recently betrothed to Princess Dead Star, still tried flirting with other mares. Blueblood often proved to be more of an annoyance than a help, because Rarity would often get anger at his flirting.

Rarity had learned quickly at her young age under the tutelage of Mistress Chrystal that most stallions were buffoons that were easily swayed by the looks of a mare. So Rarity often got angry over flirty stallions. This is what led to her separating from Blueblood the second she got the chance to.

******

Deep in the old, broken down laboratory, Rarity found herself far from Blueblood's position. “Finally got away from that ruffian! Seriously, that stallion does not know how to properly treat a lady,”

Rarity had learned her attitude and accent from her mentor, Mistress Chrystal. Mistress Chrystal seemed to of heralded from the highest of the elite. However, her true heritage was unknown.

Rarity knew to serve Mistress Chrystal was a great honor. The Mistress took on very few protégées. As of now, there had only been three. Rarity, Duchess Cadenza and an unknown soldier who later died in battle.

******

“I may have lost Blueblood, but now I seem to have gotten myself lost as well,” said Rarity as she kicked a rock out of annoyance. She decided to keep walking and found a new path. “This is strange, I didn’t notice this path before.”

She walked down it and hoped she would find what she was looking for. She began scanning for the crystal she was told to get, sensing the crystal was close. “Hmm,” she said, as she found a door. A sign on the door said, “Project Ryu,” she read. “Subject Sp…,” she tried to read the last part but it was too eroded to read properly so she tried her best. “Sp…. Spike,” instead of it reading “SpI146”, it read “Spike”.

Rarity opened the door and walked in. Once inside, she felt uneasy as she heard a distinct growling that put a certain chill of terror down her spine. “Who's there?” she asked.

“Please…. don’t hurt me….” was said between the unknown growls.

“What are you talking about? I was not sent here to hurt something or whatever something you are,” Rarity said as she tried to find where the growling was coming from. “Please tell me, are you subject Spike.”

“No, my name is SpI146.”

“Well I had a feeling I was reading the sign wrong,” said Rarity. She continued to try and find the source of the unknown voice. “Could you come out? You should know that you can’t exactly leave a lady talking to nothing.”

“A lady?” questioned the voice, as he was perplexed by her words. She spoke kindly and soft. An attitude he had never heard before in a pony. She also didn’t look like experimenter. She a light purple cape and a blue top that matched her eyes, and a small white dress. He decided that she seemed trustworthy.

“Yes, a lady, now please let me see what you look like,” asked Rarity.

“Alright….,” he said, as he slowly stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself.

Rarity looked to see a purple and green dragon that was about her height. “Oh, you're a dragon.”

“Yes, I am,” he said back to her.

“I never met a dragon before. How did you get here, dearie?”

“That something I don’t like to talk about,” he said as he started to move back.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?” asked Rarity, as she felt like she had hurt his feelings. It was strange because she wouldn’t really care at all if she had hurt the feelings of a male like Blueblood, but this dragon getting his feelings hurt felt wrong to her, she just didn't know why.

“Yes.”

“Then accept my apology, I did not mean to hurt your feelings.”

“Okay.”

“It’s just that I noticed your chains and got curious. Anyway, I was sent here on a mission to look for a crystal.”

“A crystal? What are crystals?” the dragon asked out of curiosity.

“What?” Rarity was caught off guard by what he had said. “You don’t know what crystals are?”

“No,” he answered.

“But you’re a dragon, deary. Dragons eat crystals.”

“Well, I never have. The only things I've eaten before are the occasional rats and mice that crawl by.”

“What?” Rarity said, in complete shock. “A dragon who has never eaten crystals before, that has to be THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!!” she shouted the last part, as a soft crystal couch rose from the ground and caught her as she fell.

“Huh,” said the dragon, as he was again perplexed by her actions. But this time mostly by the strange-looking couch that she summoned.

Rarity looked to see him staring, “Oh sorry, dear, it’s a bit of a reflex.”

“Oh,” he kept staring.

“Ehm,” she huffed. “It’s impolite to stare at a lady.”

“But I’m not staring at you,” the dragon retorted back.

She soon realized he was staring at the couch. “Oh, the crystal couch.” Rarity got up. “That’s fine, you can have it,” she floated the crystal couch to him and broke it apart so he could eat it. He looked at her strangely. “Go on darling, try them. These are crystals.”

He looked and took a sniff, taking in its great smell. He started to scarf the pieces down. As he ate, she tried to talk to him in hopes that she would get info out of him on where the crystal she was after might be held. She told him her name was Rarity and a little bit of her life while he asked what the world outside the laboratory was like.

It was strange for Rarity to enjoy her talk with the dragon. Maybe it was the fact that even though he was a male, he simply just saw her as just an ordinary pony. She was used to most males looking at her in vulgar ways. Yet he spoke less like a ruffian and more like a goofball. She even found herself giggling once or twice. Eventually, the talk came to a close.

******

“Well I must be going, I'm sure that ruffian is still looking for me,” said Rarity.

“Okay……” he said, as he seemed a bit distant.

“What is it, deary?” Rarity got concerned.

“Nothing, it’s just everypony seems to abandon me,” the dragon’s eyes started to strain.

“Oh really, do you think a lady such as myself would give up a chance to come visit with such a gentle dragon?”

“No.”

“Good then I will see you in a few days,” Rarity said as she got up, and started to leave. But then she turned around and said, “SpI146, I really don’t think that is a good name for a dragon.”

“Really,” said the dragon.

“Yes, I think Spike would be a much more lovely name.”

“Okay,” he said. “Spike it is.”

“Good, I will see you in a few days, Spike.” said Rarity, as she took her leave.

******

<Heading Back To Base>

Rarity waited on the airship with Blueblood as it took them back to the Empire. As they sat, Blueblood tried to strike a conversation with Rarity, but he got no answer as her mind was on other things. ‘Spike is certainly different than most males. Is it because he is a dragon, hmm possibly.‘Oh come on, he was just being nice,’ she thought to herself.

“Hey, are you even listening?” said Blueblood, as he got annoyed. There was no answer. “Hey answer me!”

Finally, Rarity heard him and turned. “Oh, you were talking. I didn’t notice.”

“What?!” he shouted in anger as he got up.

“Oh, what's this? Did I make the ruffian mad?” asked Rarity with a sarcastic voice and an almost lazy-eyed look.

“How dare you!” Blueblood walked over and grabbed Rarity by the arm.

“Oh, so the ruffian doesn’t know how to properly treat a lady.”

“Oh, I’m gonna show you how I handle a lady,” Blueblood had the dirtiest grin on his face.

“Oh, really,” said Rarity with a sly grin.

Blueblood leaned closer and spoke. “Yes, really,” as he grabbed her other arm.

Rarity knew what he was after and she knew just the perfect way to oblige him. “Well, let me get things started...”

“No, I think I st--” but Blueblood couldn’t say anymore as Rarity had kicked him between the legs so hard he was almost sure that everything down below had receded.

As he quaked in pain, Rarity spoke. “Oh, don’t like hardcore? That's not what Trixie told me.” She pulled her legs close. “Hmm, well then I hope you enjoy the next thing.” She then pulled herself up using her still held down arms as leverage. “How about a bit of foot fetish?”

Blueblood looked up only to see enough as Rarity proceeded to unleash a barrage of kicks to his face. The final kick being to his face was with such great force that he could no longer hold onto her arms as he was sent flying to the other side of the airship while Rarity fell back down gracefully into her seat.

Blueblood didn’t know which part of his body was hurting more as he laid there in pain. But Rarity was not done getting her message across, as she got up and walked over to him. “Oh, looks like you didn’t get the chance to grab out your sword.” Then she pulled her crystal blade and continue to speak. “But if you had, I would be forced to cut it off with my crystal blade.” She aimed her crystal right at somewhere that would be very important to any stallion. With a gulp and an obvious ‘scared out his mind’ face, Blueblood conceded and slowly went back to his seat.

******

Finally, they arrived at the base. Rarity immediately headed to meet with Mistress Chrystal. She had a ways to walk, for the base was massive. It was a grand crystal building forged out of the side of a small mountain. Only part of the building was exposed outside, the rest lay within the mountain itself. It went thirty stories down into the ground and the entirety of the building was made of crystal.

After nearly half an hour of walking, Rarity finally met up with Mistress Chrystal. “Mistress Chrystal, I am glad I finally found you,” said Rarity as she approached. Mistress Chrystal was a tall, white unicorn with a teal mane and she wore a long slimming dress that was black as midnight. The dress gave the appearance that she was as thin as a needle at some angles.

“Oh Princess Crystal Star, I assume your search went well,” said Mistress Chrystal. Mistress Chrystal’s voice always seem to speak with the refinement of somepony who had been around for a very long time, yet she looked at most in her early thirties.

“Well, unfortunately, no, I was not able to find the crystal, I would want to try again in a few days, this time without Blueblood,” said Rarity,

“That is fine. Any reason why?” asked Mistress Chrystal.

“Most certainly! The ruffian tried to rape me!”

“Did you put him in his place?”

“But of course. It wasn't too hard giving him something he shan't soon forget.”

“Alright, you can go alone,” said Mistress Chrystal with a giggle. “Just remember your other duties. You need to be ready in case Twilight Sparkle fails to kill Princess Celestia. She should be returning any month now,” said Mistress Chrystal. “Anyway, now that your back, you need to get some training in before night falls.”

“All right,” said Rarity. “Wait, before we begin, can I ask…..” Rarity started to drift on the words. “What are dragons usually like?”

“Hmm, dragons?” said Mistress Chrystal with a raised eyebrow. “Dragons are monstrous creatures that only care about their hordes,” she took a step forward and spoke. “Are you asking advice on how to handle one?”

“Yes,” said Rarity with a worried look.

Mistress Chrystal pulled out her crystal saber and gave Rarity a stern look. “You kill it before it kills you.”

“Really?” said Rarity with even more worry in her voice.

“Yes, if you go near a dragon, you best be ready for a fight because the dragon will not hesitate to bite your head clean off,” said Mistress Chrystal, as she moved the point of her saber around and ever so close to Rarity’s neck. Rarity got the point of the message as she gulped. “Now let us get to your training for today, dear,” she said as she went walking to the training area.

“Yes, Mistress Chrystal,” said Rarity as she followed, hanging her head down the entirety of the way. Mistress Chrystal’s words spoke volumes to Rarity and Rarity always tried her best to believe her mentor’s words. Most of the time she did. Remembering the day that Mistress Chrystal had brought her info on how Rarity’s sister and her parents died at the hands of some rebels reinforced her belief in her. In a way, Mistress Chrystal was like a second mother to her. She always kept watch over Rarity and had always done her best to keep Rarity safe.

******

A few days passed and Rarity went back to see Spike. He was still on a chain as she approached the room. “Spike are you there?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m here,” answered Spike with a very happy voice. “Lady Rarity, you came back!”

Rarity stepped in. “Well of course. I did say a lady such as myself wouldn’t give up a chance to talk to such a gentle dragon,” said Rarity, with a slight giggle. Spike was still being quite the gentlecolt, though in his case it was a gentledragon.

“Thank you, lady Rarity,” said Spike. “I’m glad you came back. How was your way? Was I too much of a problem to get to?”

Rarity couldn’t help but finding herself giggling again. “No, not really, you are not a problem. Beside that ruffian didn’t come with me this time, so I came alone.”

Spike tried to hide the slight blush he had from her giggles. Luckily she turned away to grab something and didn’t see it. “Anyway, did you bring any crystals with y--?”

But Spike stopped as Rarity had already thought ahead of him. “But of course darling! After the way you scarfed down my couch, I had to.” Rarity presented him with an assortment of different crystals in different colors. “Here you go, Spike. Try some,” she offered as Spike began to scarf them down. “The blue ones are called sapphires, the green ones are called emeralds and the purple ones are called amethysts.”

“Mmm, their good,” Spike said between bites. Eventually, the assortment was gone. Spike lifted his head up and let out a belch, while letting out some flame in the process to which afterward he covered his mouth and politely apologized.

“Oh it's quite alright, and might I say, your flames are a lovely shade of green.”

“Thanks,” said Spike, blushing slightly.

“I was just curious whether you likes them or not. Which color did you like the best?”

“I don’t know...I guess the purple ones.”

Rarity looked away and thought at the moment, ‘Those are my favorite kind to wear, but I didn’t realize they might taste really good to a dragon!’ She looked back and thought again, ‘Hmmm, note to self: don’t wear them around Spike or he might just actually bite my head off!’

Spike just stood there as she was thinking, him being with his own thoughts. 'Hmm, maybe I was wrong to assume that all ponies are like that pegasus and batpony. I mean, she did come back and she brought me that delicious food.’

Rarity decided to ask something. “Spike since you now know what crystals taste like….do you like to eat meat more or eat crystals?”

“Oh, definitely the crystals! Meat always tasted horrid, so I would rather eat crystals. In fact, I haven’t touched a single rat or mouse since you brought me those first crystals.”

“Really? You starved yourself just on the off chance I might bring you more crystals?” Rarity got a worried look.

“Well, yes,” Spike said, as he wagged his tail like a dog.

“Well then, if you are going to starve yourself for some crystals, you need to be able to get some on your own, darling,” Rarity replied, taking a stance.

“Well, how am I going to do that while still on a chai--” Just then a crystal shard rose up and broke his chain. Spike looked in shock.

“That’s how dar--,” suddenly Rarity was pulled into a hug. She regretted letting him off his chain. She was starting to think that he had been hiding his vulgarness, as she grabbed the hilt of her crystal blade, ready to ‘discipline' him. He let go rather quickly and apologized again. “What?” she said afterward, out of sheer confusion. ‘From the position he had me in he could have easily had his vulgar way with me, yet he didn’t,’ she thought, as she stepped back slightly. ‘He said ‘sorry’, he apologized like he knew had done something wrong,’ she stopped her backtrack. ‘Hmm, maybe Spike is different from most males.’

“Lady Rarity, are you okay? You have been awfully silent,” Spike said. Suddenly Spike looked and stopped as his eyes started to strain and he started to back away. “I said sorry, please don’t hurt me.”

After hearing those last words she froze. ‘Why would I hurt him? He let me go,’ then she realized he saw where her hand was - on the hilt of her blade. It was this that soon made her see it. She looked to see tears in his eyes. It all became clear about why he didn’t want to talk about how he got to this place. Spike had suffered - years by the look of it.

Rarity found herself with tears now as well. She let go of the hilt of her blade upon that final realization. He was not going to do anything wrong, but she was. Rarity moved forward without even realizing it and returned the hug. “No Spike, I should be the one saying I’m sorry! Here I was thinking you are just a vulgar male when it's clear that you one of the most gentle creatures I have ever met.”

******

They stayed like that for a moment, not moving. Soon Rarity found herself enjoying his closeness. But eventually as prodded by thoughts of, ‘Come on Rarity, remember why you're here.’ She ended the hug. “So Spike,” She cleared her tears. “I actually have to get back to base soon.”

“Oh really,” said Spike with a still, sad look.

“Don’t worry Spike, I'll come back next week. Until then you can use your new freedom to finally go outside and hunt for more crystals on your own.”

“Well I don’t want to leave this place yet,” said Spike as he looked around. “Despite the bad memories I’ve had here, this is the only place I know as home.”

“Well you are a lot more stubborn than I am, but at least with your new freedom, you could help a lady out.”

“Well, how can I help out milady?” asked Spike with a slight bow.

Rarity let out a giggle. “Well, I was originally sent a few days ago to look for a certain crystal that is said to be hidden in this laboratory somewhere.”

“All right, then I could look for it for you. What does it look like?”

“Well, it’s about the size of my palm and glows like red fire. It’s called a Fire Ruby.”

“Okay, I will try to find it.”

“All right. I will see you in a week,” said Rarity, as she took her leave.

Neither one had noticed the connection between them that had been made that day. And only time would tell what that connection would become.

******

Author's Notes:

Well here is Chapter 7. It went through quite a few changes, more so that I move a few scenes from the next chapter to this one.