Spike marched through the palace of Canterlot, flanked on either side by Ember, who was dressed in her suit of golden armor, and Governor Starlight. Behind the three of them was a General Garble at the head of a small squad of six dragon guards, each in purple armor.

The ponies and dragons in the hallways cleared for him as he walked forwards, pure hatred in his eyes. This was a detour he did not have the time to spare. His fists clenched tightly around the Scepter of Domination. He was lucky that the scepter was practically unbreakable, otherwise, he might have shattered it in half.

Spike eventually found his way to Governor Smolder's bedroom, the previous quarter of Princess Celestia. A white earth pony with pink hair stood outside with concern on her face. She wore a nurse's outfit, but Spike really had no idea why. She was apparently a doctor after all.

"Redheart," Spike grunted as he approached her. "Tell me, what is going on with the Governor."

'Nurse' Redheart turned to him in a mild panic. She quickly rushed to his side.

"We don't know sire. The wound shows no sign of closing. It was just a single bolt into her shoulder but it is killing her!" Red Heart explained as Spike walked towards Smolder's bedroom doors.

"It's dark magic. Science can't explain what it does to creatures." Spike hissed as he threw open the doors and strode in.

Smolder was sitting up in bed, cringing in pain. Her concubines, Gallus and Gabby, stood off to the side of the room staring at their master with pure fear and dread on their faces. They clearly expected the worse. Gabby had covered her beak with her hands when Spike came in, while Gallus shrunk under his stare and took a step back, shamefully looking to the ground.

They must have blamed themselves for what happened to Smolder. Spike had no doubts in his mind that if either of them saw the bolt of dark magic coming at them, they would have jumped in the way to shield Smolder. Spike gave them a slight reassuring smile and nod, letting them know everything would be alright. He noticed Gabby relax slightly, but Gallus remained tense to say the least.

Spike then turned back to Smolder. She hissed through clenched teeth as a nurse removed a cloth bandage from her shoulder, revealing her wound. Purple blood leaked from the hole burned clean through her body. Black veins slowly seemed to grow out of the wound, like cracks coming out of a break in a window.

"Unf gods above am I not doing that good right now," Smolder said as she turned to look at it. Spike grunted at what he saw.

"Yeah, that is definitely not good," He said as he stepped forwards to the side of her bed.

"Luckily, I have the cure," Spike smirked as he raised the Scepter of Domination into the air and hovered the tip over Smolder's wound. "Not going to lie though, this is probably going to hurt like hell."

"Hey, better to be hurt than be killed." Smolder joked as Gallus and Gabby came forwards and took Smolder's hand into their own. Smolder smiled at them. "Do it."

Spike nodded. With a rainbow of light, he pressed the crystal tip of the Scepter to Smolder's shoulder. Smolder hissed and bit her tongue to stop a cry of pain. Her hand curled into a fist, gripping Gabby and Gallus's hands tightly.

Spike pulled the Scepter back, revealing the wound again. Her blood had returned to a healthy red color and the black veins had completely disappeared. It had even shown signs of resealing. A nurse quickly rushed in and recovered the wound with bandages. Gabby and Gallus let out sighs of relief as Smolder pulled herself up again.

"Fuck that hurt," Smolder hissed as she let out an exhale. "Thanks boss. I really needed that."

"I take care of my followers," Spike exclaimed as he took a step back. "You are probably not going to be able to use your arm again for a month or two, but then everything will be fixed. Now then, may I asked who did this? Was it Twilight? Sombra?"

"N-no. It was the white one with blond hair... uh... what was his name?" Smolder responded, snapping her fingers as she searched for the name. "Blueblood! That's the one."

"Blueblood?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow. "I honestly didn't think he had the magical capacity to do that kind of thing."

"Well it was him. I'd recognize that entitled sense of importance anywhere." Smolder chuckled. That's when Garble and Starlight stepped into the room.

"You ok sis?" The General said walking in.

"Gar Gar!" Smolder said happily as the drake took his place by her bed. "Glad to see the Emperor hasn't killed you yet for incompetence."

Garble let out a rowdy laugh. "What can I say? Guess I am just too valuable!"

Spike rolled his eyes as he turned to leave. "Whatever you say general." He started walking out but stopped at the exit next to Ember when she cleared his throat.

"Oh yes, before I forget. Ember and I are going to hunt for the alternate Starlight and Thorax now. Until we return, I am putting Garble in command of all military operations and Starlight in command of all civil and government duties. When I return I will reassume direct command. The resistance can't have gotten far from Canterlot. Search the surrounding regions first." He ordered looking his followers directly in the eyes. "Any objections?"

"None here my lord," Garble said with a salute.

"I will try my best to emulate your style of rulership sire," Starlight agreed with a slight bow.

"Good." Spike turned to the door.

"Wait, before you go." Smolder cried out to him. "I heard about what happened to Thorax. I can only imagine how that feels. I don't know what I would be able to do with myself if Gallus or Gabby were taken."

Spike nodded to her. "I appreciate your condolences."

"I might have a lead for you. However minor it is."

"Oh?"

"There was a changeling with Twilight and Blueblood." She said as she stood up, despite the objections of Nurse Redheart and the other doctors. "He had purple eyes and a red headfin. Was kind of a badass. Took out two dragon guards singlehandedly"

Spike and Ember immediately locked eyes with each other. "Pharynx!" They both cried in unison.

Spike quickly rushed to Smolder his face an inch away from hers, desperation obvious on his features.

"Tell me everything!"

Twilight walked through the new makeshift base the resistance had set up. She smiled as she watched the resistance remove the collars of the newly liberated slaves.

She was particularly happy when she watched four yaks run-up to Yona. Two adults and two young children.

"Yona!" They cried as they practically tackled her to the ground. Sandbar had to literally dive out of the way to avoid being trampled.

"Mom! Dad! Brothers!" She roared happily.

Twilight giggled as Yona introduced her family to a rather frazzled Sandbar, who was quickly dragged into another group hug. She felt bad for the earth ponies spine.

She turned just in time to be hugged by Starlight.

"Twilight!" The unicorn shouted.

"Starlight!" Twilight replied happily as she hugged her friend back.

"Oh you have no idea how happy I am to see you," Starlight said as she stepped back. "Now we can go home!"

"What? No. Starlight we can't go home yet." Twilight said looking to the side. "I... I promised everypony here that we'd help them."

Starlight let her jaw drop. "B-but... what about everypony back home! They need us!"

"Well, I think they need us here a little more. Besides, I owe Pharynx my life. If it weren't for him both of us would be fountains by now..." Twilight guiltily claimed as she looked over to the changeling.

Pharynx was slowly walking into the center of the camp, still in his combat form. Blood dripped from his massive monstrous maw and his claws. The crowd fearfully parted for him as with a flash of fire he returned to his changeling form. He idly walked to the dragon who had his sword embedded in their chest and ripped it out before skulking off to clean it.

"He's very... violent isn't he?" Starlight said before shaking his head and turning back to Twilight.

That's when Twilight noticed the collar around her neck.

"Oh sweet Celestia!" Twilight said in shock, grabbing Starlight by the collar and pulling her towards her horn. With a spark the collar broke. "Did he-?"

"N-no. He didn't I was actually pretty shocked by that..." Starlight said rubbing her neck. Starlight gulped and turned to Blueblood as he approached them flanked by Spitfire and Zecora.

"Are you sure about staying?" Starlight asked with a sigh.

"Yes... I'm sorry." Twilight responded with a sigh.

Starlight suddenly smiled. "Don't be. I'm actually kind of glad we are staying."

Twilight giggled just as Blueblood stepped in front of them.

"We need to figure out our next move."

Thorax found himself in an extremely dark room. He could tell by the unsmoothed stone and the dull green light streaming in from small holes in the walls that he was back in the hive, locked in a prison cell.

He tried to control his breathing. To show that he wasn't scared, but it was a fool's errand. The little changeling found himself hyperventilating uncontrollably.

He had no idea how long he had been in the dark. Hours? Days? It was hard to say.

He screamed as he was knocked out of his thoughts when the wall opened, revealing...

"Spike!" He suddenly cried standing up. He couldn't help but shoot into the air on his wings and fly towards the dragon slamming into him and wrapping him into a hug.

Spike chuckled. "Now's not the time for that Thorax. We need to get you out of here."

Thorax looked up at him with a smile as Spike grabbed him by the hand and started to lead him through the dark halls of the hive.

He didn't notice the fact that there were no guards in the halls, dragon or otherwise. He didn't notice the fact that Spike had an odd knowledge of the chaotic maze-like layout of the hive. He didn't notice that Spike wasn't leading him towards an exit. All he could think of was the fact that Spike had come to save him.

Spike eventually found himself at the end of the line. What Thorax could only think of as the exist to the hive. The doors flew open and Thorax turned to leave the hive. Expecting himself to run into a dragon army.

Instead, he found himself in the Throneroom. Chrysalis was sitting on the throne, a smirk on her face. Thousands of sets of flowing cyan eyes were on from the darkness of the room.

Thorax felt all the color drain from his face. He turned to run but found himself held in place by the hand of Spike. Thorax tugged and tugged but Spike didn't budge. That's when everything snapped into place.

'Spike' slowly turned to him, a smirk on his face as a changeling flew down and handed the tall form of Spike a burning hot branding iron. The white-hot word 'Traitor' stared Thorax in the face.

"You let your guard down again Thorax." He said as his eyes flashed green. That's when he thrust the Iron against Thorax's chest.

His scream echoed throughout the entire hive.

Poor Thorax.