Twilight continues to talk to her friends while Spike looks up at me.

"Did Twilight really nearly die?" he asks me.

I glance down at him and nodded, he only reaches my waist in height and seems a bit chubby looking.

"Thank you for saving her, even if she looks different now... she's like a sister to me," he tells me.

"And what do you think of her change?" I ask him with curiosity.

He just shrugs and looks back at Twilight. "She's still herself, although a bit more confident in herself now..." he replies and then looks at me. "Are you really her stallion now?" he asks me.

I grunt in thought and look at Twilight who's trying to use her magic on the three mares still in the carriage, did she really tell him I'm her stallion? "That depends if she want's to stay with us or go back to Ponyville, now that Celestia should be more... calm, I don't think the Element Bearers are in danger anymore," I reply and glance back at Spike.

Spike then looks at Rarity with a sad expression. "I feel so useless, I was helping Rarity make a new dress when the guards just burst in and tried to restrain her, I tried to get them off her but they just threw me into the wall, pulled out the scales on my neck and put that collar on me, I could do nothing as I watched them put those rings on her horn... her screams as they fused them into it... I just felt so..." he says and slumps slightly in depression.

"You felt powerless?" I ask him as I remember that I could do nothing to save Adderine when Stonescale was attacked.

"Yeah, that," he replies and sighs and then winces in pain while rubbing his neck.

"What do you plan to do now?" I ask him, still curious on his thoughts and the fact he's talking to me instead of hating or fearing me is intriguing.

"I... I don't know, I've always been with Twilight, I guess if she decides to keep following you I'll go with her," he replies and winces again.

"Does it hurt that badly?" I ask.

"Yeah, but I'll get over it, they'll grow back... I hope," he says and coughs.

"I might be able to heal it, but you'll end up like Twilight and Fluttershy, you'll become a demon," I tell him and watch as Luna levitates Celestia into the king's ship, followed by Twilight and Selene who are levitating Applejack inside while Rarity and Pinkie Pie walk behind them along with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and a young nervous looking blue coloured colt. I notice Desire yelling at the demons around us to get back to work or do something productive.

Spike gulps and looks worried as he watches Rarity enter the ship. "Me? Become a demon?" he asks fearfully.

"You've seen Twilight, she's perfectly fine, and her magic has grown stronger as well. She could fight off ten or twenty of Celestia's guards by herself at the same time if she really tried," I reply and then smirk. "Imagine how strong you'll become?" I entice him, I'm curious as to what a demonic dragon would look like. Would he be larger? A wyvern? Or something completely new?

"I'll get stronger?" he asks with wide eyes.

"Maybe, probably bigger too. Why? You interested?" I reply and ask with a grin.

He looks nervous but once Rarity is out of sight he frowns with a determined expression. "I'm always left behind when something happens, if it will help me protect my friends, then yes," he tells me.

I chuckle and kneel down. "Then hold out your forearm," I tell him and he hesitantly complies.

I look at the scales and I doubt I'd be able to bite through them, so I create a needle out of shadow energy at the tip of my right index finger and carefully press it under a scale and pierce the skin underneath. He hisses in slight pain and then gasps as I start pushing demonic energy into him.

He grunts and clenches his eyes shut as his body begins to grow taller, his scales darken to an almost blackish purple and dark green. The fins along his head and back now look like sharp blades, four horns then grow on his head, one on each side of the centre fin and one on each side of his head all pointing behind him.

Spike stops growing once he's three inches taller than me and cries out in pain as two wings burst out from his back and the membranes form. I grin as his muzzle extends with small bone like spikes coming out of his chin and razor sharp teeth that look like they could rip steel apart replace his smaller ones.

His claws lengthen and his muscles grow and bulge showing his new strength. He breaths heavily as the green flames turn into the black and purple of darkfire.

His eye's, though already slitted, turn red and finally the spade like tip of his tail now looks kinda like a battle axe and two one foot long bone like blades come out the back of his elbows. He also has my mark on his arm now and the scales on his neck have regrown.

I pull the shadow needle out of his arm and step back, I feel he is just as powerful as a deamon for now. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Luna then rush out of the ship with worried expressions before spotting Spike.

"Spike!?" Twilight says and runs over to him.

"Ouch, did anypony get the number of that carriage?" Spike mutters while holding his head with his left hand. His voice is much deeper and he looks older as well.

Twilight then storms over and glares at me. "What did you do to him!?" she demands and I raise an eyebrow at her. She's certainly not afraid to question or yell at me anymore.

"He asked for strength, so I gave it to him," I reply as Spike begins to look himself over, I notice the others staring at him with wide eyes but Rarity has a slightly flushed face.

"You should have told us first!" she then tells me.

"So he's not allowed to make his own decisions?" I ask her.

Her frown lessens and she glances at Spike. "He can make his own choices, but something like this needs to be discussed..." she replies and sighs.

Rarity walks over and coughs politely into her hand. "Mr Jackson? You said you could heal my horn correct?" she asks me.

"Yes, but you'll be a demon like Twilight in the process," I reply with a raised brow.

"I know, Twilight has told me about her new... needs, but being cut off from my magic is a horrid feeling, and without it I can no longer do my work to the fullest of my abilities," she replies and then glances at Spike who's still checking himself over. "Besides, I believe I'll be able to... meet my new needs just fine," she says with a smile. Twilight looks between Rarity and Spike with a confused expression.

"Are you sure? We'll have to cut off your horn so your new ones can grow in without the rings on them," I warn her.

She gulps and looks up to her horn with a sad frown. "I... I suppose it will be necessary," she replies and cringes as she leans her head forward. "Just make it quick please..." she asks a little afraid.

"Oh, Rarity..." Twilight says sadly.

"Desire! Can you come over here for a minute?" I ask my wife who's talking to that lycan I turned on the ship, Kira I think her name is.

She turns around at the sound of her name and smiles at me. "Yes, my love?" she asks and hugs me from behind.

"I need you to make one of your energy blades and cut off Miss Rarity's horn just under the third ring," I tell her making her wince in discomfort.

"Ow, you really want me to do that?" she asks gently rubbing her own horn.

"Yes, if she wants to have her magic back it needs to be done," I reply and stand aside for her.

"Very well. Okay dear, I'm not going to lie, this will hurt a lot," Desire warns Rarity and conjures an energy blade in her right hand.

Rarity is trembling so Twilight and Fluttershy both hug her to help calm her.

"Okay, on three. One. Two..." Desire says gripping the end of her horn while holding the blade just under the third ring. "Three!" And with that she slices off the white unicorn’s horn.

Rarity screams in agony while Twilight and Fluttershy hug her tightly to prevent her thrashing about.

I quickly place my hand on the centre of her chest and begin pouring my energy into her. She grunts and shivers as the stump on her head lengthens into a horn again and then splits down the middle before forming into two new horns which slide up her head and stop beside her ears after curling back.

Her teeth grow two fangs and her shirt bulges as her wings grow under it. Next her chest and hips widen an inch while her tail hair falls off and the stump lengthens with a heart shaped tip on the end.

I stop and pull back so she's just a lesser demon. She pants as Twilight and Fluttershy hold her up, I notice Spike staring at her with a flushed face.

"Oh heavens that felt dreadful," Rarity says and groans in discomfort. "It feels like my clothing has shrunk on me," she then comments and looks down in time to see her shirt rip open leaving her bra covered chest exposed. Spike goes wide eyed as a thin trail of blood leaks from his left nostril.

"Oh, dear..." Rarity says as she covers herself with her arms.

"Desire, take her inside and get her some of your clothes to wear for now," I ask my wife.

"Sure, come on, sweetheart," Desire says leading Rarity and Fluttershy inside the ship. Twilight then turns to me with a frown.

"Why do I get the feeling you'll end up turning all my friends into demons?" she asks me with a frown.

"She asked for it, so far only Pinkie Pie and Applejack have refused, but unless your magic is good at fixing broken bones, I doubt their limbs will ever heal right," I reply and look to Spike. I chuckle as he's drooling while looking towards the ship.

"SPIKE!" Twilight yells at him, making him yelp and look at her.

"What?" he asks her.

"Don't you get any funny ideas mister," she warns him.

"Sir Damien! Our sister is waking up!" I hear Selene or Luna tell me from the ship’s door, hard to tell when they sound practically the same.

"We'll talk about this later, for now let's see if your Princess is sane or still a bitch," I tell her making her huff in anger.

"Don't talk about Celestia like that!" she tells me.

I roll my eyes and head into the ship and follow Luna up to a room where Celestia is slowly sitting up on the bed, I'm surprised her mane and tail hasn't set the room on fire yet.

"Oh I just had the worst nightmare, Luna," she says groggily. She then looks around and sees Luna and Selene as well as me, Desire, and Twilight. "Oh..." she says as tears start forming in her eyes. "it wasn't just a nightmare..." she says and looks at Twilight sadly.

"It wasn't," I tell her harshly.

She looks at me with a frown. "It would seem you have won, Overlord. Equestria is yours now since I suppose I'm now your slave am I not? All Overlords are the same, wanting to rule everything despite the feelings and lives of others," she says to me coldly.

"Oh? I’ve just wanted to get back to my family since I was pulled here, and what of the Elements lives when you had them broken and taken from their homes for 'purification'? What does that make you?" I ask her sternly.

Her eyes widen as if she remembers something. "What have I done?" she asks herself and starts sobbing into her hands.

"Celestia," Twilight says getting her attention. "Damien isn't like the demons you know, yes he killed the guards that attacked him but that was in self defence and to rescue my friends. He's told me what Tartarus is now like and how he's trying to make it a better place... demons aren't all cruel or bloodthirsty, I'm a demon now and I don't have the urge to kill everything in sight... And what about you? Do you feel evil or cruel?" she asks Celestia with a sad frown.

The white mare glares at me again before looking at her sisters and then to Twilight. "No..." she replies and sighs.

"Tirek was manipulating you. I suspect that when Twilight received her element it awoke the dormant demonic energy in the element of magic which you held for so long after his defeat, you've been exposed to it for years and he's been influencing you all that time, it must have started again when you were being so close to it in the Castle," I tell her making her eyes widen. "We purged his energy from it but the damage was done, you were convinced I was evil and well... you know what happened."

Celestia slowly looks at Luna with an expression of regret. "So it's my fault you were forced to endure a millennia of solitude on the moon..." she says and breaks down again.

Luna quickly hugs her and after a few seconds Selene joins in as well.

"We dost nary blame thee, sister. Twas Tirek's foul doing, we art home, and now thou hast been released from his grasp," Luna tells her sadly.

As cute as this reunion is, I still need answers. "Celestia, I just want to get home to my family. There is a gate to Tartarus under Canterlot correct?" I ask her and she frowns at me.

"There... was," she replies and looks away.

"Care to explain?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"I destroyed it so the demons couldn't find a way through..." she tells me and I sigh, just great.

"Wonderful, so it seems we'll still need to pass through Gryphonia and the Plaguelands to find the gate there," I say and turn to exit the room.

"Where are you going?" I hear Celestia ask me.

I look back at her with a raised brow. "To prepare for our trip, I still need to escort Gilda back to her home," I reply and leave the ship.

Of course she destroyed the gate, it couldn't have been that easy. I sigh as Desire walks out and hugs me from behind.

"We'll get home, I'm just as worried about Slitherana and our children as you are," she tells me softly making me smile.

"Yeah, well. Let's get everything together so we can get going, we've wasted enough time due to Celestia and these pirates and I know the gryphons are going to impede us," I reply and hold her right hand in my own.

Next Chapter: Chapter 32: To Eaglesburg Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 28 Minutes