Daring Do pushed her hood back to give Canterlot one last lingering stare as it shone in the moonlight, at this distance looking none the worse for the terrible events of a fortnight prior, where not just the city, but Equestria fell to the conquest of the alicorn Faust. Daring still felt like she was missing something in the reasons behind Faust's conquest of Equestria, but her ignorance did nothing to change the fact that Faust had won.

Daring sighed and turned away from the sight, stilling her wings to let her gently glide down to the interior of the Castle of the Two Sisters, within which she quickly sought out a portal to a location far in the frozen north, beyond Faust's sight.
The secret retreat of Starswirl the Bearded, although no longer a secret to some, was currently acting as the supposed salvation of the world, as not only did it shelter three of Equestria's four crowned princesses, and several others, but the knowledge it contained in its vast library might hold the key to stopping Faust. That is to say a lot of ponies were doing a lot of reading in the hopes of making a plan.

"What news Daring Do?" Princess Luna asked as she spotted Daring Do trot up to them in the large observation area to the outside world, a cold blue light shining in through the large window casting her dark coat in a contrast with the warm lamplight from within the retreat. Daring could just about hear the roar of a permanent winter's storm outside, even through the thick, enchanted glass.

"Nothing good." Daring shrugged off her rough woollen cloak, and replaced it with her pith helmet. "Griffonstone has fallen without much of a fight, along with the Griffish Isles."

"Blast." Luna stamped her hoof in an indignant outrage, "I had hoped the griffons would at least try to resist a little, but I suspect the rule of one pony is as good as the rule of another to them, and Commander Theron now has what he wanted."

"My contacts also suspect that Faust is going to make her move on Mustangia."

Luna winced guiltily, as the small country of Mustangia had been a faithful ally in the failed war to keep Mareitania from conquering Equestria, and had paid for that failure by having its already small military near wiped out. "Ah. I suspect King Garland shall put up less of a fight than the griffons."

"With good reason," Cadence snapped at Luna from nearby, as she bounced her foal Flurry Heart in her legs. "What purpose would fighting back serve him now? Other than to get more of his ponies killed that is."

Luna didn't rise to the bait, as she knew Cadence was referring to her own flawed tactics in the war. "I wasn't saying he should, but was simply observing that he wouldn't. Mustangia wouldn't last a day if they tried to fight back."

"Anypony would be a fool to try and fight Faust right now," Cadence grumbled.

"Then how are you proposing that we stop Faust if not by fighting her at least in some capacity?" Luna asked the pale pink alicorn, who failed to reply, instead choosing to stare through the window, out at the frozen north. Luna shook her head at Cadence, then returned her attention to Daring Do. "Any news of my sister?"

"None I'm afraid. It's like she's vanished off the face of Equestria."

"We'll find her. Perhaps not soon, but we'll find her. Her help will likely be needed if we are to resolve this."

"Maybe. Apart from that though, I have nothing."

Luna nodded in appreciation, "You have my thanks Daring Do." Luna chuckled lightly, "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say. Nonetheless, your assistance has been of great use to us."

"I don't suppose there's been any progress in the couple of days I've been gone?"

"Alas, no." Luna looked up at the higher level of the library where Twilight Sparkle had sequestered herself along with Trixie, Rainbow Dash and the two Wonderbolts, Lightning Dust and Vapor Trail, the changeling Mayfly, and Sunset Shimmer. "Although I suspect some aren't trying as hard as they should be."

Daring glanced around at the ponies left downstairs, consisting of herself, princesses Luna and Cadence, the foal Flurry Heart, and Moondancer, who was happily reading through a large tome. There was also Starsy, the magical curator of the retreat, although she couldn't see where he was exactly. "Any idea what they're doing?"

"Not a one."

Rainbow slammed down her book in frustration, "Agh, this is so annoying! I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for!"

Twilight sighed and lowered her own book, "Ways to cut through rune warded materials, that don't involve using two types of magic to overload it."

"You're saying words, but all I'm hearing is noise." Rainbow pushed the book away, "Why aren't we just doing the two magic thing?"

"Because we're planning to break into a fortress like High Rock keep, so we need something a little more subtle than that. It also produces an awful lot of heat, and I'd rather not cook our friends if they're bound in the stuff."

"I still think we should be putting our efforts into stopping Faust first," Mayfly said, not reading anything because she largely didn't want to intrude on the ponies doing it. "She feels like the higher priority."

"A quick rescue mission isn't going to hurt anything," Twilight told the changeling. "Besides, Luna, Starsy, and Moondancer have that covered for now, although you can go help them if you want."

Mayfly shook her head, "Atmosphere down there feels toxic."

"I know Luna and Cadence aren't getting along very well but-"

"Not the problem, although it is exacerbating the issue. Princess of Love is the main problem. Separation from the one she loves, on top of losing Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and her ponies, is causing heartbreak within her. Very bad for one like her. Her child is the only thing keeping her from doing something foolish, I feel."

"Oh." Twilight craned her neck to try and locate Cadence down below, although she came nowhere close. "That's not good. I'll have a talk with her once we have our friends back."

"I get the feeling that talk would be more useful now," Sunset Shimmer said flatly, keeping her eyes on her own tome. "I think we've all seen enough to know what happens when alicorns lose it."

"Cadence can handle it for a little longer, and hopefully Daring can find some news on my brother, which might help."

"Twilight..."

"I can't do everything at once, Sunset!"

"A five minute talk isn't going to hurt."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Sunset, "I also get the feeling that it isn't going to help either. A piece of good news, like rescuing our friends, might help more."

Sunset sighed, but relented with a nod. "Alright, but this is taking too long. Perhaps we should stop trying to be sneaky with this, and ask for help?"

"Don't you dare!" Twilight said urgently, but it was far too late to stop Sunset as she cleared her throat.

"Starsy?"

A small mote of blue light floated into the alcove they occupied, emitting a short, bitter sigh as he changed into a translucent image of Starswirl the Bearded, upon who he was based, and created by.

"While I realise I'm created to be at your beck and call, I am not at your beck and call. What is it you want?"

"What do you know about runic warding?"

"It absorbs and nullifies magic," Starsy said bluntly. "Was there anything else, or can I get back to work now?"

"How do you get through it?"

"Through it? As in cut through it?"

"Yeah."

Starsy ran a hoof through his illusionary beard as he thought, "The idea rather is that you don't do that, but the best way to get through it is to mar the runes enough to stop them working."

Twilight sat up, suddenly a lot more pleased with Sunset asking Starsy. "How would you do that?"

"Depends on the material that the runes were placed upon of course, but any source of intense, non-magical heat would do the trick. Ideally though, you would want to use dragon fire."

"As in the chemical stuff, or the actual fire from a dragon?" Rainbow enquired, her own interest piqued.

"Both would suffice, but the alchemical solution is probably harder to come by at this moment, and tends to be a lot less manageable once unleashed. Actual dragon fire also has other properties that allow it to burn through almost anything, given time. Now was there any other inane questions you might have, or can I depart?"

"That's all, thank you Starsy," Sunset said with a smile, prompting Starsy to leave. "And to think we could've done that days ago," she said sarcastically to Twilight. "Oh well."

"Except it means we're no better off than if we were using two kinds of magic to destroy the runes," Twilight pointed out. "Dragon fire is still rather hot. Perhaps we'll be better off thinking of something else."

"Or we could ask an actual dragon," said Rainbow. "That Dragon Lord Ember that rules the dragons was pretty cool, so I think she'd be alright with us just asking about it. Maybe she might even want to help us since Spike was her friend and all."

"But we still need a plan for when we get to High Rock!" Twilight whined, stopping as Rainbow stood and pulled her wing out.

"You're part pegasus now Twilight, that means you have to learn the fine art of winging it. There's a portal here to the dragon lands right? It'll take hardly any time to go ask."

Twilight yanked her wing out of Rainbow's grip, "Have you even seen High Rock keep?"

"Nooo... but I know it's like a fortress of some kind."

"And knowing that, you want to wing it when we get there?"

Rainbow flapped a hoof at Twilight, "Fine, we'll think of a plan for High Rock, but we don't need a plan for going to find a dragon. Y'know, beyond the plan of actually finding a dragon."

Twilight sighed heavily, "Okay, I guess not. Who's coming with us?"

"Anything for a chance to spread my wings," said Lightning Dust, getting a nod of agreement from Vapor.

"Awesome. Mayfly?"

"I'm coming."

"Sunset?"

"And miss a chance to see the dragon lands? No way! I'm definitely coming."

"Great! Let's go then." Twilight led the way for a dozen meters, before it struck her that somepony was missing. She turned back, grumbling under her breath, and found Trixie face down in an open book, snoring. Twilight fixed that by smacking her on the rump.

"Fnuh... wha'?"

"We're going to the Dragon Lands."

Trixie blinked the sleep out of her eyes, and stretched slowly like a cat. "Neat."

"That's it? No questions?"

"Not really. I think blowing High Rock up with a dragon is a great idea."

"But that's- Y'know what? Close enough. Let's go."

Twilight took the lead again as they headed to the portal chamber, meaning she also got to be the pony receiving the full weight of Luna's disapproving glare as they reached the entrance.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"The Dragon Lands."

Luna frowned delicately, "The dragon lands? Why in the world are you going there?"

"To talk to Dragon Lord Ember."

"Again, why?"

"Because I might need a dragon to break my friends out of High Rock keep."

Luna nodded thoughtfully, "Ah, I see. Absolutely not. We have far too much to get done here for you to go gallivanting off. Finding a way to stop Faust is our highest priority, Twilight, you know that."

"Okay, I put off getting my friends back because you were busy failing to defend Equestria, so I had to find this place instead. Good news, we found it! Bad news, we were too late to save Equestria. So, since we now have the time, I am going to get my friends back," Twilight narrowed her eyes at Luna, "and you aren't stopping me."

"But we don't have the time! We need you here Twilight! We need all of you here! Your friends aren't going anywhere."

"Luna, get the fuck out of my way."

An amber body with a fiery mane interspersed itself between Twilight and Luna, "Will you stop? You've been at each others throats for a week now! I've had enough of it." Sunset turned to Luna, "Is me agreeing to stay here and help you a good enough compromise?"

"I'd rather have both of you," Luna blanched as Twilight bared her teeth, "but yes, I agree. Apologies Twilight, I don't mean for you to not save your friends, but-"

"But you're all caught up with stopping Faust, I know. The thing is Luna, I want my friends back, and I'm tired of putting it off for something else. You have Sunset now, so go research to your heart's content while we save our friends."

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but turned it into a nod and slinked away, leaving Twilight to try and fight her anger back. "Thanks Sunset."

"Eh, I can see the Dragon Lands some other time." Sunset pulled Twilight into a hug, "You go save your friends."

"Will do. See you soon."

Sunset departed with a wave, leaving the rest of them to make the journey to the portal chamber. A small set of shelves had been set up there, mostly to hold the Wonderbolts' combat uniforms and weapons, which the three Wonderbolts quickly availed themselves of.

"Is that really necessary?" Twilight asked as they donned their gear. "I didn't say we were going to High Rock straight away, did I?"

"And if we do?" Rainbow countered. "Nothing wrong with being ready."

Twilight shrugged at the argument, and moved to the portals instead, searching through their markers to work out which one was needed. She found it, and directed her magic into the gem above it to activate it, lighting it up with a purple glow. A second later the portal came to life, showing the bare, red rock of a cavern as a pile of golden coins, gems, and other treasures tumbled in through the portal.

"Dibs!" Trixie shouted, pouncing on the riches.

"Oooookay... that's not what I expected," Twilight said as Trixie scooped the riches up and tucked them into the corner for later perusal. "At least that means the portal's working."

Twilight walked forwards, through the portal, and immediately fell over as her hoof slipped on a pile of gold, sending her sliding down over the mound of treasures until she reached the floor. She grunted as Trixie slid down after her and bumped into her, but the others had the sense to use their wings to get down.

"What is all this?" Lightning asked, staring at the mountain of gold with awe. "There's so much of it!"

"Since we're in the Dragon Lands, I'm guessing it's a dragon hoard." Twilight stood and dusted herself off, then froze as she remembered something about dragon hoards. They belonged to dragons. The soft "uh-oh" from Trixie confirmed her suspicion that there was a dragon nearby.

"And what do we 'ave 'ere?"

Twilight turned and looked up, and up, and then up some more at the massive dark green dragon sprawled over the hoard, his face framed by orange horns larger than a tree, and his body adorned by black armour you could fit a town in. "Oh boy."

"Looks like we have some thieving ponies in my 'oard!"

Rainbow was the first to speak, clearing her throat hard enough to get stuck half way through the motion. "Actually Dragon Lor- I mean, former Dragon Lord Torch, we're here to speak with Ember. I mean, Dragon Lord Ember, yeah!" Rainbow coughed nervously, "Could you tell Ember her friends are here to see her? Please?"

Torch raised his head and bellowed, "Ember, your friends are here to see you!" There was a lengthy pause before a much quieter and feminine voice replied to him.

"I have friends? What do they look like?"

"Ponies mostly." The former Dragon Lord squinted suspiciously at Rainbow, then moved his piercing gaze over the others, lingering on Mayfly for a moment, before stopping on Twilight. He snaked a claw out, and before Twilight had a chance to not be too terrified to run away, he grabbed her left wing between two claws and picked her up by it.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow! Nyagh!" Twilight squeaked as she was dropped again and landed on the ground with a solid thud. "Urrgh..."

"There's one of those princess ponies here with 'em," Torch shouted again to what could only presumably be Ember.

"Is it the big white one?"

"Nah, it's a little purple one."

"Little purple one? Hold on."

It was some time until Ember flew into view, the small, at least compared to her father, blue dragon aiming straight for the ponies and changeling. She hovered in the air, looking down at the crumpled form of Twilight, then landed to pick up Twilight's head in her claws, studying the dazed and cross-eyed expression with interest.

"Oh yeah, that's definitely a princess. Nice going dad, I think you almost killed her."

"Nah, she'll only come back if I do. The others always did."

"Hey Ember!"

Ember turned to the pony that had spoken to her, her eyes lighting up with recognition of the rainbow mane and tail. "Hey... uh..." Ember clicked her claws as she tried to remember the pony's name. "Nope, it's gone. Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Rainbow Dash."

"Right! Rainbow Dash! You were here with Spike when he helped me become Dragon Lord." Ember looked about with interest, "Where is he?"

There was a groan from Twilight as she finally managed to sort herself out and find where upright was again. "Actually, that's part of the reason why we're here. Spike's been captured along with some of our other friends, and we were hoping for some help to get him back."

There was uproarious laughter from atop the hoard, and a crash of coins as Torch rolled onto his back to hold his stomach. "Hah! Helping the ponies! That's a good one. Good luck finding a dragon willing to do that!"

"Why? Don't you like ponies?"

"Pfft, you don't even make a decent snack, but no, it's nothing to do with you being ponies, or a changeling. Dragons don't help, and haven't for a long time."

"You mean you did once?"

"We did once upon a time, and thought about it plenty since then, but our help was never needed, so we turned our attention to building our hoards and getting fat and greedy, and over time we lost interest. Barely any dragons alive know of a time before that now."

Ember nodded to her father's words, "It's quite an interesting story actually. Oh, hey, can we show them the cave?"

"What? Of course not! Only dragons are allowed in there."

"Excuse me? I am the Dragon Lord, aren't I?"

Torch snorted at his daughter hard enough to knock her over, "Then why are you even bothering to ask me?"

"Because old habits die hard." Ember stood and folded her arms to glare up at her father, "We're going to show them the cave."

"And so we are." Torched sighed at his daughter, "I'm supposed to be a retired Dragon Lord, enjoying a life of leisure, not showing our secret history to the first people to come wandering in through a magic mirror all willy-nilly. Where's my respect, eh? Nowhere, that's where."

Stars lit up in Twilight's eyes, "Secret history of the dragons?"

"Now, dad."

"Alright, alright, we're going, and don't forget the sceptre. You'll need that to get in." Torch rolled off his hoard and sauntered off towards the exit of the cavern, leaving the rest of them to follow at the kind of pace creatures without quarter mile long legs usually travel at.

"You're being quiet," Twilight said to Trixie as they followed, taking a quick detour for Ember to grab the magical Bloodstone Sceptre, symbol of the Dragon Lord.

"I was trying to work out how to kill it. Y'know, just in case."

"It? You mean Torch? Pretty sure that's a him." Twilight frowned thoughtfully at Trixie, "Is that really your first response when you meet new people? Trying to figure out how to kill them?"

"Only the giant scary ones! Seriously, he was huge!"

"Aww, my dad's a big softy really," Ember said conversationally, like she hadn't just heard Trixie say she was working out how to kill her father.

"He is?"

"Oh yeah. He could've eaten me along with my siblings, but I was always his favourite." Ember scowled at the ponies as they looked at each other unsurely. "That was a joke."

"It was?" Trixie said timorously.

"So laugh!"

"Ahahahahaha!"

Ember laughed at the ponies as they dutifully tittered at Ember's command. "You ponies are too easy. I'm lord of the dragons, not the ponies. You don't have to laugh because I tell you to. Of course, if I hear you saying how you're going to kill my dad, I will rip off your head and use it for a foot rest."

"Ahahahahaha!"

"That wasn't a joke."

"I know," said Trixie, "and that laugh wasn't fake, but you, I'm pretty sure I could-ack!" Trixie cried as Twilight smacked her around the head with the boniest part of her wing. "Ow."

"For the love of Celestia, shut your mouth Trixie."

Ember nodded with approval at Twilight, "I like your style of ruling your subjects."

"Oh, Trixie gives me plenty of reasons to want to hit her. She's about to give me another if she doesn't keep her mouth shut." Twilight grinned as Trixie shut her mouth with a click. "Could we not say such things about the ruler of the dragons, hmm?"

"Fiiiiine."

"Good girl."

Daylight filled the entrance to the cavern where Torch was waiting patiently for them. They all blinked in the light, and those that hadn't seen it before stared in amazement at the rocky, volcanic landscape, inhabited by dragons of all sizes that lazed around, or flew through the skies.

"Come along little ponies," Torch said jovially. "I've pretty sure you're not fire proof, so try your best to not fall into any lava or anything."

Most of them took wing as Torch clambered over the rocky landscape with ease. Twilight dragged Trixie along with her, the unicorn for once not complaining since it was better than burning to death, and found herself being paced by Ember as they flew.

"So what's the story with Spike being missing?"

"Have you heard much of Equestria being attacked?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well it is, or was anyway, since we've now lost. Spike and some of my friends were taken as captives by Faust, who's the one attacking us-"

"Yeah, I've heard of her."

"You have? How?"

"You'll see, although I was under the impression she'd vanished ages ago."

"Imprisoned actually, by Princess Platinum."

"Who?"

"Princess Platinum? One of the founders of Equestria? You really don't know who that is?"

Ember shrugged at Twilight, "It's not like there's a way for me to learn Equestrian history out here."

"Oh, okay, that's fair. Well, Faust was imprisoned by Platinum, because Platinum wanted Faust's unborn child Celestia to use as the ruler of Equestria, then left Faust locked up in Mareitania until they let her out just recently, and then she brainwashed the Mareitanians to attack Equestria, because she hates everything about us because of Platinum, and now she rules both countries."

"And that led to Spike being kidnapped, how?"

"You know what the Elements of Harmony are?"

"Sort of."

"We'll my friends and I are the bearers of those Elements, and Faust wanted to kidnap us to stop us being a threat to her plan. Spike was captured at the same time."

"So she didn't get all of you then?"

"No, just three of us, and Spike."

"Huh." Ember tapped her sceptre against her chin, "So now she's harmed one of my dragons. I suppose that does kind of mean I should have an issue with her. Count me in on getting Spike back."

"It does? Yes!" Twilight pumped her hoof in the air, "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."

"Does that mean we can skip the history lesson?" Trixie said quietly.

"Nope."

"Ugh, stupid... princesses and their ceaseless need to be know-it-alls."

"Of course," Ember continued, "I can't guarantee the help of any other dragons. I can get their attention long enough to boss them around a bit, but getting them to do something they have no interest in doing is a bit beyond me."

"We only need a dragon's fire to get us through some magic-proof defences. I'm not asking for a full grown dragon to batter down the walls of a fortress."

"Even though that'd be awesome!" said Rainbow. "Are you sure we can't keep that as a back-up plan?"

"I could probably convince my dad to do it," Ember mused.

"We'll keep that as a plan b," Twilight said firmly. "Your help should be more than enough."

"Will you lot stop lollygagging?" Torch grumbled from his spot outside the massive stone doors that led into what was likely an even bigger cave. A flame motif decorated the dark brown doors, with symmetrical pairs of dragons creating the flames. In the exact centre of the doors was a large red gem, much like the stone held in the claw-like end of Ember's Bloodstone Sceptre.

"You're going to like this," Ember grinned. She raised her sceptre and waved it in a arc. The stone in the end flashed brightly, and was mirrored by the larger stone in the door. A moment later the ground shook as the massive doors split apart and retreated into the mountain.

"I was under the impression that dragons had no magic," Trixie said of the spectacle. "There's no way that wasn't magic."

"We don't have magic in the way you would think it, but we do have it." Ember waved for them to follow her, "You're lucky to be seeing this you know. Only dragons have ever seen this."

"Then why are you showing us this?" Trixie asked.

"Because most dragons haven't seen it either. Mostly because they don't care. Someone might as well see it." Ember drew a breath and exhaled pale purple fire into her unoccupied claw. Her claw aflame, she walked up to a bare circle of rock on the ground just inside the entrance of the cave, and traced some runes around the edge of it that burned with her purple fire. That done, she slammed her open claw down in the middle, sending the runes scurrying away in multiple directions, towards several large braziers that lit up in purple before turning to a more normal orange.

Ember grinned as they stared incredulously at her. "As I said, we don't have magic as you would describe it. A lot faster than lighting them all manually."

"I am learning so much today," Twilight said breathlessly. "Can all dragons do that?"

"Sure, as long as they learn how. Unsurprisingly, most don't bother. There's only a few bloodlines left that bother passing the knowledge on to their fledglings, and my dad happens to be one of those that does."

"My little Ember was a natural, naturally."

"But how?" Twilight gasped. "We had no idea dragons could do that!"

"Eh, we had plenty of time to work it out." Ember pointed to a mural carved into the stone of the cave, depicting several dragons hatching from eggs. "We were the first species to walk this world, long before any of the others came about."

"You mean like you are now? Or as a less evolved form?"

"Like we are now."

Twilight groaned loudly, "And what I learnt from Starsy barely two weeks ago has already been contradicted. According to him, there were no intelligent species until Discord created them. How were you made before that?"

"I don't know, I wasn't exactly around at the time, but it's said we were born from the earth itself, rather than as the creation of the gods. We were separate to the rest of the world, and chose to keep it that way, for a while at least. We lived off the land, built our hoards, and kept to ourselves until something changed in the world."

"What changed?" Rainbow asked.

"The birth of the gods." Ember led them to another mural, showing two images. One was a majestic alicorn, and the other a misshapen creature of various different animals. It wasn't hard to work out that they were supposed to be Faust and Discord.

"Discord's effect on the world was obvious, but ever more destructive was Faust's. She wanted nothing more than to stop Discord from changing the world, but couldn't. Their battles destroyed more than she could ever hope to protect from him, which caught the interest of our ancestors."

"Discord and Faust fought?"

"Like dragons," Torch chuckled.

"They did," Ember confirmed, "and Faust's fanatical desire to destroy Discord wiped entire species out, and reshaped the world in incredibly destructive ways. Our ancestors, fearful of what damage the two of them could do, decided to stop them."

The next image showed a sky crowded with dragons, bearing down on Faust and Discord, interrupting a battle between them, and separating them. The next image showed the dragons forcing the alicorn and draconequus to agree to a enforced peace.

"Although we're not immune to magic, we were resistant enough to it to overwhelm them. We forced them to make peace, and although it was tentative, it held enough for them to never openly fight again, although that didn't mean all was peaceful between them. Our ancestors swore a vigil to intervene should they ever fight again, or threaten the world."

"I'm guessing that didn't happen then," said Lightning.

"Actually, it did. A thousand years ago, Discord flooded the world with his chaos, and Faust wasn't there to balance him out, as she'd vanished shortly before that, although she was actually imprisoned according to the purple princess here. We should've been there to stop Discord, but by that point millennia had passed, and the dragons had lost interest. Being largely unaffected by Discord's magic, they made no attempt to stop him, so Princess Celestia and Luna had to instead."

"So you got lazy."

"We did," Ember sighed. "We were mighty once, enough to stand up to gods and demons, but now we hoard treasure and squabble amongst ourselves. We'll never be what we were, but I at least want to honour our ancestors, which is why I want to help you stop Faust."

"Okay, I have a question," Trixie said, waving a hoof to get Ember's attention. "You're talking like both Discord and Faust were villains. Sure they fought, but surely they weren't both villains."

Torch chuckled at Trixie, "Typical pony ignorance. Neither of them were villains for being what they were, but they were making a mess of the world."

"So you don't hate Discord for changing things?"

"Why would we? Entropy, change, evolution, whatever you want to call it is good, usually. If Faust had her way, this world would've stagnated without Discord to keep changing things up a bit. Adversity forces us to thrive, where stagnation would be the death of us all. A balance needed to be struck, and funny enough, Faust going missing, and Discord getting turned to stone, struck it for a while. Now they've both returned, and things are going to crap again, although I get the feeling Faust is to blame for all of it this time."

"But what about the Tree of Harmony?" Twilight said to Torch.

"A false improvement. Sure it maintains harmony, but only for the ponies, and only in Faust's favour. If she truly made it to be a balance between order and chaos, it would affect her just as much as it does Discord."

"But why do that?"

Torch shrugged, "She knew Harmony was the key to this world's survival, so she tried to create the Tree, but without Discord she couldn't make it true harmony, and I don't think she really wanted him to help. To introduce true chaos to the Tree would encourage it to change, and would turn it into something she mightn't be able to control. Obviously, that wasn't something she actually wanted, so tried to synthesize her own chaos, and succeeded enough for the tree to function, although its magic is still pretty biased in her favour."

"So the Tree's a lie?"

Torch shrugged at Twilight, "It does the job it's supposed to, and does it well enough. You can't really expect more from a bloody tree than that. I'm not saying it's a lie, or that it doesn't work, but it is biased."

"So that's why it won't work against Faust," Twilight said. "It's all her own magic, and you can't turn magic against itself."

"Not directly," said Torch, "but indirectly you could get that tree to do any number of things against Faust. And remember, it's the magic of the tree that's biased, not the tree itself. It probably wants to help you plenty, but can't."

"How do you know all this?" Rainbow asked the two dragons.

"Little pony, I'm near four thousand years old. You pick up a few things over that kind of time."

"Oh wow, Celestia and Luna must look like kids to you."

"Eh, maybe teenagers, but that's not really the way to look at it. I don't see you as children, but as very young adults."

"I don't get this," Trixie said out loud, to nobody in particular. "Was there really a point to showing us all this? I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but all we've learnt is that Faust has been a control freak for a really long time."

"Do you want my help, or not?" Ember growled.

"Of course I do! But there's only three points to your history. You were born as a species, you didn't like what Discord and Faust were doing, so stopped them, then spent thousands of years doing fuck all. Not exactly a deep and involving story there."

"Ah, she's not wrong Ember," Torch laughed. "We even got lazy at writing our own history. Still, you're doing your old drake, and your ancestors proud by helping these ponies stop Faust."

"Thanks dad." Ember tossed the sceptre up to her father, who snatched it out of the air. "Keep an eye on things while I'm gone, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, about time those buggers out there had a good yelling at. You go do what you got to do, and I'll make sure this place is still here for you to come back to. Only you better make sure you come back to it."

"Hey, no worries dad, I'll be back." Ember flew up and pecked Torch on the end of his massive snout, "And if you try to keep the sceptre when I get back, I'm going to be pissed."

"Wouldn't dream of it, because I'd just do it if I wanted to, now have fun!"

Ember flew back down and landed next to Twilight as they started to make their way back out of the cave, "So what is it you actually need me to do?"

"We're going to go to Mareitania to break into a large, magic proof keep, to rescue my friends, including Spike. We need you to burn through the runes preventing us from using magic on the building."

"So the- "Ember quickly counted on her claws, "-seven of us are going to invade a hostile castle to rescue your friends, only this time its the dragon that's doing the rescuing?"

"That's right."

Ember grinned a grin that would've sent sharks running in fear, "This is going to be awesome. Who knew you ponies could be so metal?"