"Queen Chrysalis!"

The tall changeling whose name was just called turned to stare at her comrade, a changeling just like one of her own past drones but with dark red eyes instead of the usual blue ones.

"I have some news on the ponies you hate! For the Tournament of Power, they are adding a fearsome member to their team!" He told.

"And who is this fearsome member?" Chrysalis asked, raising an eyebrow at this news.

"A dragon unlike I've ever heard of! They say he has magical powers that's on par with the two unicorns you despise so much." He answered.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "I see. We must not let him join their team! Go and send our greatest changeling soldiers and make sure he does not step hoof in the tournament!"

The changeling saluted and flew off.

The changeling queen turned back to stare at three cocoons, the bright green glow shining her front."If we succeed in this then my new home will survive... Universe 10 will prevail!" Chrysalis said in determination before cackling.

"Chrysalis! We are going to start strategizing soon!" A gruff voice yelled not too far away.

"Yes, Tirek, I'll be right there!" She said before turning away from three small ponies trapped in cocoons.

Twilight's hoofsteps echoed as she walked up the stone steps towards the highest pillar in Tartarus. Many evil beings and spirits that were chained down and sealed were around her, but she gave them no mind as she kept stalking forward.

Soon, she reached the top of the pillar and stopped at the sight of... him.

His holding place was just like the rest; a stone floor with a bright enchanted circle rock in the middle to light up the area. There was one difference, however. Unlike the other creatures, he wasn't locked up in a cage or pinned to the floor in any way shape or form.

She stood silently while he turned, his back previously facing her.

They stared at each other in the eyes. Twilight smiled at him, and he smirked at her.

"Ha... I thought you'd forget about me by now." He started.

"You know I never could, Spike," Twilight said gently.

Spike leaned against the wall behind him, crossing his arms, the chains connecting to the cuffs holding his two wrists barely stretching far enough to allow him to do so. "What are you here for? A friendly chat?" He asked.

Twilight frowned. "Something... came up. And I was wondering if you could help."

Spike laughed. "So she got him out and now you need me to bring him down." He stated.

Twilight blinked. "What are you talking about?" She asked simply.

Spike frowned and stared at her. "...Nothing." He said. "What do you need me for?"

Twilight took note of what Spike just blurted out, but decided to save it for later. "Would you like to get out of here for a little while? Stretch your muscles a bit?" She asked with a smirk.

The small dragon kept the frown on his face. "What are you getting at, Twi?"

Twilight was always conflicted about him calling her 'Twi' like they were still the best of friends, but for her own reasons, she still let him do it.

Besides she had to get on his good side at the moment.

"We need your power to help us in a fighting tournament." She said.

Spike leaned forward a bit, signaling Twilight he was all ears. "I'm listening."

"This isn't some regular everyday fighting tournament for foals, this is a tournament that's going to decide everyone's fate. Let me explain."

Spike stood silently as she spoke.

"There's this almighty god that is more powerful than Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Discord combined. And as I was told he has a boring life and decided to hold a universal tournament including ten of the strongest mortals from every of the eight weakest universes in a team battle royale."

"There are two reasons for this. He wanted entertainment, and he thinks that there are too many universes to watch over, so he's deciding to let the eight weaker universes fight to see which one is the strongest. And when a universe loses..." She gave him a serious look. "Everyone and everything in that universe will be erased from existence."

Spike still stood silently, arms crossed.

She sighed. "That's why we need you. I can't deny that your power could be helpful to us. You might just be as strong as Celestia."

The two stared at one another for a while. Twilight tried to think of what Spike's answer possibly could be.

He hated them. All of them. And she knew it.

And she hated what he tried to pull a month ago. They all did.

That's why they were forced to put him in Tartarus or banish him. But Twilight couldn't let him be banished, to be lost possibly forever.

Deep down, she wanted to get that friendship back. She knew that deep down he still cared too, but it was a tough lock to break.

Just then, slowly Spike raised his arms, showing his cuffs.

Twilight knew what he meant by that. She shook her head. "Not here. I'll take them off when we meet up with the others."

They weren't regular cuffs, they were magic dampeners.

"Do you want me on your team or not?" Spike asked, his smirk forming on his face once again. "I just have one request in return though."

Twilight raised her brows.

"If we win this fighting tournament, instead of bringing me back here..." He paused to show his teeth with a dirty smile.

Twilight fidgeted.

"Forget about all my 'evil', and let me go."

As Twilight was about to reply, he added,

"All of you."

Twilight stared at her past friend for a moment, gulping. "Spike... I don't have the power to do that."

"Then I guess I'll have to say no." He said before beginning to lean back on the wall.

"F-fine then!" Twilight said, trying to act like she didn't care. "Goodbye!" She turned and started to trot away.

Only to stop at Spike's laughing.

"Do you really think I'm an idiot like your friends? You didn't come here just to get me and my newfound powers on your team." He said, making Twilight turn her head to him, to see he still had his wrists up. "You came to try and get our relationship on the right side of things again." He explained. "This is a chance for us to bond again, fighting on the same side to save our lives." He smirked. "We both know you still care about our friendship."

Twilight turned her whole body, frowning at the dragon.

"I know you too well." He finished while closing his eyes and shaking his head. "You should really fix that weakness of yours, Twilight."

Twilight aimed her horn at Spike's restraints and fired two magic beams, destroying them at impact.

He still had his eyes closed and chuckled as he massaged his wrists. "Remember: I'm a free dragon when we win." He started walking towards Twilight, his tail moving with every step.

And when she was about to thank him, he shot a small fireball at her horn with his index finger, making her flinch back and wince when it touched. The fireball wasn't hot and didn't burn, but her horn was sensitive to anything other than herself touching it.

"Oops," Spike said simply, as Twilight frowned and rubbed her horn.

They walked quietly through Tartarus, the noise of Spike's footsteps now added to Twilight's.

As they passed many other evil creatures—and as she inspected their nasty appearences—Twilight still couldn't believe Spike's nature even compares to them. His small form and what most ponies would call cute was a complete disguise to who he was now.

And she couldn't blame him.

"Spike..." She started. "About what happened-"

"Shut it, Twi." Spike snapped. "I don't want to talk about that."

"Spike, please! Can we at least talk?" She pleaded. "I don't entirely blame like you think I do."

"I know you don't. It's one of the reasons why you are not on my kill list." He said as if it meant nothing.

Twilight sighed. "If you're worried it will happen again, you don't have to be."

Spike turned his head to glare at the purple unicorn, getting a bit frustrated. "I'm not, Twilight. It's just that I've found a new path that's better for me. Plain and simple." As they neared the Gates of Tartarus, they noticed the bright light of the sun peering in. "I'm done relying on friends. I'm solo now. so stop it already. I've made up my mind." He concluded.

Twilight looked at him sadly, her ears drooping at the thought of permanently losing a best friend.

As they were a couple of steps away from the Gates of Tartarus, they both noticed a faint buzzing sound right outside. They glanced at each other with raised eyebrows.

"How many friends did you bring, Twilight." It sounded like a question, it wasn't.

"I didn't." A simple answer.

The Gates of Tartarus was in a straightforward layout. The first thing you encounter is the gate which looks like a large red cellar door in the middle of a grassy plain under protection and property of the royals of Equestria. Behind it is a long hallway lit by torches enchanted to stay aflame forever. After the hallway, you find the first group of prisoners, and as you go down to each section it gets progressively dangerous for any visitors.

They stepped out of the Gates of Tartarus to be shined upon by the light of the sun, and immediately they found the source of the buzzing noise.

Dozens of Changelings surrounded the gate, all staring directly at the two who just exited.

"Changelings? Unreformed ones?" The purple unicorn said while turning her head every second to see the vast amount of bugs hovering in the air. "What do you want!?" She asked/called out.

"Sorry," A changeling a bit taller than the rest replied. "We can't say."

Twilight stared at him for a moment, grunting a bit. "Did Chrysalis send you?"

"Like I said, I can't tell you. What I can though is that you can just forget about the Tournament of Power and play with us for a bit." He said with a smirk.

"How do they know about the tournament?" Twilight muttered to herself.

"Their eyes are different," Spike said loud enough for Twilight to hear. "The ones we usually see have blue eyes."

Twilight looked up and stared into their eyes. "I guess, but..."

"They know about the tournament, which means they know about the other universes. Something we didn't even know until now."

"So that could mean they are..."

"From another universe." Spike smiled in excitement. "Time to have some fun..." He said, cracking his knuckles and neck.

Twilight concentrated some magic, frowning at the dragon. "Sorry Spike, but we don't have time for this." But before she could teleport the both of them, Spike interrupted.

"Teleport us, and I'm off the team." He said sternly, a smirk still towards the changelings.

Twilight looked at Spike with her mouth agape.

"How much time do we have left Twilight?" He asked.

"About five more minutes..." She answered, her horn still glowing with her magic.

"Then it's not going to be a problem if I don't take long, will it?" Spike stated, closing his eyes. "I'm sure you didn't forget about my powers already, Twi."

"I guess there's no stopping him..." Twilight thought. "Spike... are you sure? You should really save your strength for the tournament."

"Come on, Twilight..." Spike's body started to emit a dark glow. "I need to 'stretch my muscles' for a bit."

Suddenly, Spike's body flashed dark green and purple with a quick high pitch sound, and some kind of force released around him, shaking the entire area with Twilight and the changelings and producing loud winds.

Twilight watched as a dark green aura flowed intensely around Spike as he spoke, "Feel free to join in, Twilight." He said, his smirk growing bigger as he extended his arms out and finished with saying playfully, "It's only a warm-up!"

His green aura then abruptly grew, surrounding a larger area and making Twilight squint her eyes because of the blinding light.

Inside the massive aura, one could see Spike's body slowly change shape and color. His scales that were once a bright cheerful purple changed into a darker shade in a blink, his green scales on his ears and body also turned much darker in a swift motion. On his back, two wings looking a bit like his ears appeared in a green flame, and his tail grew a bit longer.

The light then started to lower its brightness, allowing Twilight to open her eyes fully again.

She saw Spike's changed form, not surprised as much as when he'd first shown it off months ago.

Spike opened his eyes slowly and with that same dirty smirk, looked up at the changelings. "Let's play."

The changelings stared back before some started laughing.

"You changed your color? So what? You still think the two of you can take all of us on?" The one slightly bigger than the rest of them—the leader—asked.

"Oh, I think you're mistaken." Spike started. "My friend here is too shy to take care of all of you, so I'm going to play with you all by myself."

The changelings instantly laughed again...

Before Spike leaned forward and flapped his wings once, making a gust of wind behind him in the process, and appeared in front of the leader in a second.

They all gawked at him, including Twilight, before Spike cupped his claws together and slammed down on the leader's head, sending him down to the ground, his body creating dust and a crater below.

Several changelings took time to process what just happened, before screaming and flying away in surprise. The ones who didn't flee either rushed down towards their leader to see if he was alright... or...

Engage on Spike the Dragon.

Spike extended his arms in front of him, aiming his index fingers at the group of changelings, and fired green magical fire beams at the changelings bolting towards him. They didn't have time to dodge as the beams struck them and exploded, smoke covering them.

Before the smoke dissipated, the changelings that got hit could be seen falling below the cloud to hit the ground, making Spike chuckle.

Twilight watched in both horror and amazement as Spike went around and knocked down changelings with his fire magic and strength all around her. She noticed the terrified looks on the changelings faces once he defeated enough of them. Right, left, front or behind, wherever she turned there was a beaten changeling dropping to the ground, either by being punched or kicked... by explosive magic or hard solid magic. It didn't matter.

She was horrified that the baby dragon that was once her closest friend was mercilessly hurting others without a hint of regret.

But she was amazed because she underestimated his power.

But this had to stop, she couldn't let this go on any longer.

"Spike, stop!" She yelled out, making Spike drop the changeling he was holding by the neck to turn and look at her.

"Is there a problem?" He asked high in the air with clear irritation in his voice.

"You're warmed up enough, alright? No more hurting them!"

Spike laughed. "I've just begun to even start, Twilight!"

A changeling suddenly appeared behind him and tried to pounce on him, only for him to disappear in a green flame and appear behind him; His unique teleportation spell.

He kicked the changeling in the back between its wings, making it soar to the ground, and looked back at Twilight, who was unaware of the two tall ponies behind her.

He put on a false smile for their arrival and said, "Hey, Princesses! I haven't seen you in a while!"

Twilight gasped and turned to witness Celestia and Luna standing there. She expected them to be changelings but after noticing they all started retreating with their wounded allies and scanning them secretively with her magic, they proved to be the real Princesses of Equestria.

Celestia looked up at Spike and smiled. "Nice to see you again, Spike." She said.

Spike frowned at Celestia's words like she didn't remember she locked him away for months in a dark prison. He knew behind that friendly smile, there was still some emotions she was hiding. He usually made the smart remarks, but when some were thrown at him, he disliked it. "...Yeah." He turned back to glance at the changelings' shrinking forms and took notice at their leader glaring back at him while he was being carried away.

"Princess Celestia and Luna! What are you two doing here?" Twilight asked with curiosity.

Celestia didn't answer as she produced a spell from her horn, creating a large yellow dome surrounding the area around the Gates of Tartarus.

"I've slowed time for everything in this shield," Celestia explained. "This will probably give us a few more minutes."

"Discord and the others decided to go visit some friends and family before the tournament started," Luna explained. "After waiting a bit in your castle, my sister and I decided to meet you here to make sure..." She paused and let her eyes drift up to see Spike descending down towards them with a frown on his face, most likely not happy that they interrupted his moment. "...to make sure everything was alright."

"It seems everything is going well," Celestia said. "But were those changelings I just saw?"

"Uh, yes!" Twilight told. "We think they are from a different universe that came to try and stop me from getting Spike into the tournament." She explained as the dragon she just mentioned landed next to the three of them with his arms crossed, still in that dark form.

"Hm, that's interesting. The gods from another universe must be desperate." Luna said.

"There's nothing we can do about that now," Celestia said. "We must focus our attention on the tournament." She turned to Spike. "I'm very glad you're cooperating with us, Spike. It's a pleasure to have you on our team."

Spike glared at her, which she didn't physically respond to. "I'm only joining because of the deal I made with Twilight. If I help win this thing, you let me go."

Luna frowned but Celestia didn't remove the smile on her face. "I'll see what can be done, Spike. We can discuss a deal after the tournament. As of right now, we shall go meet with the other team members and head for the arena in the World of Void, an isolated place outside the twelve universes."

Celestia deactivated the time barrier and lit up her horn with her magic, teleporting all four of them away.

"I'm pretty darn sad that we didn't find our sisters." Applejack said.

The eight team members and Discord all stood in Twilight's throne room after going around with the help of Discord's magic. They met with family and friends very quickly, having just enough time to say quick goodbyes and give affections.

"At least we found Fluttershy and Rarity." Starlight said, trying to bring some light into the situation.

"Yes but..." Applejack started with a sad frown. "What if we lose...? What if we ain't gonna see them again?"

Everyone went still at the thought, and everyone started to get nervous at the thought of never getting to see their own friends and family ever again.

"What does being erased even feel like?" Ember asked, feeling anxious.

"Probably really bad." Pinkie thought out loud.

"It's not going to come to that!" Rainbow said with resolve. "We're going to win, and we're going to use our wish to bring back the other universes so they can get back together with their families too, just like Princess Cadence told us." She said, pumping her hoof up.

"That's right!" Cadence said. "We can't be overridden with gloom at this time, we have to be in good shape in both mind and body if we want to win."

This seemed to get everyone in good spirits like she hoped. And for a second everyone thought everything was all fine and dandy.

Then the door to the room opened, revealing a small smirking dragon.

(Theme)

As he first stepped into the throne room, he took notice of everyone inside. "What a nice team we have here. Such a shame we're not on good terms." He said with obvious sarcastic sadness.

Everyone's emotions differed. Cadence and Shining grew uneasy, Thorax and Ember couldn't look at him in the eye, Applejack and Rainbow were glaring, and Pinkie and Starlight just frowned at the intense atmosphere.

"Hey, Spike! How was Tartarus?" Rainbow asked mockingly.

"It was great!" Spike answered with a smile. "Why don't you come visit sometime. Maybe I can give you a ticket to a permanent vacation!"

Discord walked up to Spike. "Don't mess this up for us." He started with a voice that showed he wasn't fooling around. "You're in as much danger as we are, so behave yourself and we'll all survive."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think I care? If you're all going down with me I couldn't care less if I got erased."

Discord growled and was about to argue, but Spike continued.

"I'm helping because I still have things I want to do afterward. You can say what you want to say but I can refuse to participate in a snap. Your choice."

Applejack was tempted to jump him right then and there but stopped when the last of his words left his mouth.

(Theme: End)

Twilight then trotted in happily, oblivious to what just happened and stood next to Spike, behind her Celestia and Luna followed in soon after. "Alright, everyone! The team's assembled! Let's get that plan Starlight told me about known to everyone here, shall we?" Once she knew everyone was going to be quiet and listening, she signaled Starlight to go ahead.

"Okay, everyone. The plan is simple," She started. "Group together and use a numbers advantage to take down enemies easier and use less stamina than needed. Let enemies approach instead of engaging them and use that to our advantage."

"Did everyone get that?" Twilight asked. "If we work together as a team we can easily win."

"Isn't that... I don't know, a little unfun?" Ember asked.

"Unfun?" Shining Armor said in shock. "Winning is everything! We must do whatever we can to win, or we get erased."

"Shining is right," Twilight said. "This isn't a game, it's survival!"

"But I agree with Ember, Twi," Rainbow said, causing heads to turn at her, some in disbelief. "I get what you're saying and all, but standing there and waiting for others to come isn't one of my strong suits." She said sheepishly.

"Oh, would you look at the Element of Loyalty? Being as loyal as ever!" Spike mocked sarcastically before chuckling.

Rainbow snarled. "What did you say?!"

"Everyone, can I have your attention please!" Celestia said as she walked to a spot behind Twilight's throne. "Everyone please get in a circle around the friendship table. Then we will be transported to the arena."

They all began to walk towards a spot around the table, some quickly trying to forget grudges, finding a good spot behind their own throne or a friend's throne.

Spike stood next to Twilight who stood next to Celestia right behind her throne, and he stared at the small chair thing that was supposed to be his. He slowly raised his finger and pointed to it, which got everyone's attention, before firing a magic beam and destroying it.

At this point, they weren't surprised. Even they were a bit sorry that he got the short stick when this castle was created.

Celestia took notice of the silence and cleared her throat. She looked up and said out loud. "Lauren Faust, our team is gathered and is ready to be transported to the World of Void."

A female voice was then heard. "I see. I shall welcome you all to the World of Void."

Then a sudden white light engulfed everyone in the room. And when the light vanished, they were all gone.

Author's Notes:

I know it's a lot like DBS's structure of episodes, but stay with me on this one. I promise it's going to get interesting soon.

If you're confused about anything ask me in the comments. I know I've screwed up on some things I just don't know it yet.

If you like the idea of music then let me know, I'll keep doing it. It's fun!

Teaser for next chapter: Watch as the Equestrians find out that they're facing past villains, mirror universes, fairies, and a talking Sponge...