Spike let out a grunt as he reached up for a vibrant sapphire stuck in the cave wall, his vision slightly blocked by the yellow mining helmet he had secured to the top of his head. He was alone in the dark, with no one around and no light save for the one shining from his helmet's forehead lamp. He sighed as he kept reaching above his head.

Rarity needed sapphires for a new dress and had asked him to go into the caves in the Everfree forest - alone - to dig them out for her. At the time he had been happy to help out a friend, but now? Not so much. Especially considering these caves had already been practically stripped clean by Rarity over the years, leaving nothing but a few sparse gems hanging over the edge of a crevice full of bats.

Spike got a hand around the sapphire, gritting his teeth and letting out a sigh as he did. He risked a look down as he began pulling on the gem. He was haphazardly dangling over the crevice, only his feet secured on the ground, his claws dug in like nails. With a firm grunt, he managed to wrest the gem free, before using his leg strength to straighten himself out again, avoiding a rather nasty tumble into the dark below. He sighed. If there was one good thing that came from always doing such taxing chores for everyone, it had certainly slimmed him down and buffed him up, causing him to go from a short and fat drake into a towering and rather buff dragon in recent weeks.

He finally let out a sigh as he found himself safe and secure on the cliff edge, away from the danger of falling deeper into the cave. He had just turned around to start walking away before he heard the sound of cracking stone. Instantly Spike's eyes shot open as he spun around to see just what was happening. A break had appeared in the rock above his head, a section of the ceiling started to give way.

"Oh no no no!" Spike cried as he tried to reach out to catch the fist-sized stone that fell into the crevice below him, but it was already too late.

There was a pause, before he heard the sound of rock banging against rock from below. Then came the screeching of bats. Spike turned around to try and run but it was already too late to do that either. The bats swarmed around him nipping and screeching. Though they were harmless, especially to someone with scales as thick as his, they thew off his vision and sent him reeling, directly into the pit below.

Spike let out a scream as he went plummeting into the darkness. It seemed like he was falling for several minutes before he hit the ground, bouncing slightly. The dragon groaned as he struggled to pick himself up, rubbing the back of his head. Yet, he was somehow still alive. For the first several minutes he didn't move, still reeling from striking the rock so hard, but eventually, he allowed himself to sit up despite his sore muscles.

"That hurt..." he groaned as he struggled to look around. He was in an oddly bright room, shining with a deep blue light. A hallway in front of him snaked deeper into the cave in what looked like a serpentine pattern.

Initially, he believed the light in the room to be coming from his lamp, and that some knock against the wall had made the light change color until he realized that it had been knocked off his head and was sitting on the ground next to him.

He blinked twice before furrowing his brow. Something was up.

Hesitantly, he put his helmet back on before he stood up to follow after the blue light. The twisting cavern felt like it was going on for dozens of yards before finally, he arrived in a small spherical room, with a pedestal of some kind at the very bottom below him.

Spike frowned again, something was up. This artifact was obviously magical, maybe he should go down and investigate? Or maybe he should go back and get Twilight first?

He shook his head. No, it'd probably take too long to get here, and this thing could be dangerous! Slowly he walked down the slope of the ball-shaped room, before he ended up at the pedestal. Spike took a second to observe the item before him.

Initially, as he was approaching, a black diamond sat on the pedestal, but as he approached, it turned blue, causing him to raise an eyebrow. Was this some kind of weird shape-changing crystal, if that were the case...

"Rarity would like this for her dress I guess." Spike shrugged as he reached a hand forwards to grab it. Just before he could wrap his hands around it, the gem suddenly glowed, turning black once again before an aura of energy shot forwards directly towards his forehead. He tried to turn away or block it with his helmet.

There was a crack as the gem instantly pierced through his helmet, breaking the light and embedding itself directly into his forehead. Spike's eyes rolled into the back of his head, a black light shining from them before he fell to the ground unconscious.

Spike was alone in darkness when his eyes opened, surrounded on all sides by black. The only color he could grasp onto was the solid blue crystal he was laying on. But... there was something off about it. The spherical room was a rounded slope, yet now he was laying on flat ground.

Spike was quick to look around, until two massive blue eyes opened in the abyss, staring at him from above. He flinched back as the eyes cocked to the side.

"You... weren't who I was expecting..." The voice said, one of them opening while the other closed slightly.

"W-what are you?" Spike asked, backing away towards the edge of the crystal platform.

"Ah, yes, I have been here a while, I've likely been all but forgotten." The eyes said before they both disappeared. The crystal platform morphed and changed around as a statue grew out of it in Spike's shape.

There was a grinding sound as the crystalline Spike gave a bow. "I am the Crystal of Domination, created by the perytons of Nokastra for the purpose of conquest."

Spike blinked twice, those names flying directly over his head. "Who? And for conquest?"

The crystal Spike shrugged. "It was 2,000 years ago, so I can't fault you for not knowing them." He said simply. "But yes, conquest. I grant my wielder the ability to take the minds of anyone and anything and bend them to your will."

Spike's eyes widened. "And I'm..."

"My wielder correct," The crystal said.

Spike growled, standing up. "Well, then how do I get rid of you? I don't want to bend anyone to my will, period."

The crystal Spike looked confused for a second before shrugging and stepping back. "Fair enough. All you have to do is say an incantation and pull me out of your forehead."

It took a step forwards, "But before I do... well, I couldn't help but take a look into your memories..."

Suddenly the darkness was filled with magical panels which played them almost like television screens. Spike couldn't help but glance at them, and what he saw was... disconcerting. Him running around carrying books for others, slaving away carrying out every inane wish of Rarity, Twilight, and the others. His eye twitched as he stared for what felt like hours staring down every last memory until they had been repeated at least a dozen times.

"So what? I'm just helping people out. You've conveniently left out all the good memories." Spike lied, not to the crystal, but to himself.

"That may be, but be honest here. Have you ever been able to make a choice for yourself? Was it your desire to be kidnapped from your nest and brought to Canterlot? Was it your wish to be hatched by Twilight Sparkle and be her slave for the rest of your life?" The crystal said, grabbing him by his shoulders. "Don't you want a chance to be in control for once?"

Spike growled, clenching his fists. "Fine. How do you do it then? How do you... bend people to my will?" He said, seething slightly.

"Dang, you were easy to convince." The crystal chuckled. "Guess some people like to get to the meat and potatoes of things really quickly. Fine then."

The crystal platform raised out of the ground once again, forming four pedestals. On the first three were a trio of crystals, and on the last one was a scroll of some kind, covered in writing he couldn't even wrap his head around.

The other Spike walked up to the first crystal, one that was black as night in color. "This is me. The Crystal of Domination. So long as you have it in your head, you can create, manipulate and grow crystals out of anything. It also lets you form the other two kinds of crystal on the foreheads of those you want to control."

Then he went to the next one without letting Spike ask any questions. "This right here is a mind crystal," He said as he pointed to an all-white crystal. "This gem is mostly for the unwashed masses. It keeps their minds completely intact, but it fills them with unwavering love and loyalty to you. You could treat someone with a mind crystal like garbage and they will still worship the ground you walk on. However, white gems are pretty weak, and any significant spell striking them dead on will shatter the spell and free the mind of the captive."

Once again he pushed forwards. "And this is a Corruption Crystal." He said as he pointed to the last gem, a purple one. "These crystals give you complete control over the mind of someone, though it does come with a bit of a caveat. You actually have to consciously make those under their effect loyal to you through mental manipulation, though they are extremely strong and almost unbreakable. Once you have someone under their effect they are yours permanently. Plus you get to completely rewrite their mind to be whatever it is you desire."

This time Spike spoke before he could brush him aside. "So, the purple gem is just better than the white one in every way?"

The crystal drake blinked twice. "No, Purple Gems require a lot more effort and micromanagement, and as such you can only keep a limited amount of them around you at any given time. Usually only about a dozen. In truth, the purple gems were mostly used by my masters to make harem slaves and pets really."

Spike's eyes widened. He felt a stirring in his loins. "You mean..."

"Yes. In fact, I actually encourage it. Though I do recommend you save at least one purple crystal to get your hands on an intelligent general or something. To help run the war effort and all that. You don't want to keep that kind of person white gemmed, believe me." The crystal Spike nodded.

Spike licked his lips. He was already making an internal list of some dragonesses and bugs he wanted to serve him. And one of them was a general, so that would be useful.

He paused, however, furrowing his brows. Something didn't add up. "So wait. If your creators had so much power at their fingertips, you for instance, why aren't they around anymore?"

The Crystal of Domination grimaced. "It was a mix of things. The first is that they simply just made too many enemies. If you try to conquer the world, do it smartly, don't just try to fight everyone on the planet at once, otherwise, you end up like them. The second reason is this,"

Finally, the Crystal of Domination looked down at the scroll. "These are called Temporal Scrolls, though my masters called them 'Free Passes'. Basically, say you do something really dumb, like trying to challenge a full-grown massive dragon to a fist fight. Well, this gem will instantly transfer your mind, and mine, to the one in a billion timeline where you somehow manage to pull it off. Everything else will be the same, but the Scroll will be destroyed in the process. My masters used these Free Passes so much that they were simply deleted from the universe. I think they are out there in the multiverse somewhere ruling over their own plane of existence, but let's just say abandoning timelines as they did doesn't always work forever."

Spike nodded, scratching his chin. "And are these more of these things?"

"Yes, I do believe if you looked hard enough you can find some around. I believe that some kingdoms see them as historical artifacts and like to keep them in museums for instance." The crystal spoke simply, shrugging.

"Now then, do you understand everything?"

Spike nodded smirking. "Oh yes, I do."

"Goodie. One last thing of note. For the time being, you need to avoid alicorns." The crystal said. "At least until you build up your power base a little."

"What? Why?" Spike asked, frowning.

"The power from the Crystal of Domination scales with how many slaves you own. I believe you're going to need several thousand slaves before you can take an Alicorn on. Especially because they are long-lived enough that they probably know exactly what I am and will try to stop me. So I'd recommend you build up some power before you try storming Equestria." The crystal said.

Spike nodded. "I guess that makes sense then. Very well. Let's do this."

"Excellent, this will be the start of a wonderful partnership." The crystal said clapping his hands together. "Someone is already approaching the cave entrance, by the way, I believe that will be our first victim."

Spike's eyes widened slightly. Who could be poking around a cave in the middle of the Everfree?

Smolder let out a sigh as she stretched out her arms before she lowered them to scratch her back, he eyes squinting slightly. The inside of the cave was somehow darker than the night outside. She let out a sigh before breathing fire to a branch she grabbed earlier to light her way as she glanced around.

She was wearing her normal, a white T-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. Though she had to admit, she always got stares from ponies when she went around wearing it. She had only realized later that pony sizes were much smaller than dragon sizes, leaving her shirt rather... form fitting to say the least.

She gave a sigh as she looked around. She had been in this cave so many times the past few months that she'd lost track of the number. But still, it was where all the tastiest gems she had ever found were... even if most of them were long gone by the time she found the place.

"No harm in a midnight snack." She said to herself with a sigh as she marched deeper into the cave, using her branch for light. Yet, there was a distinct lack of gems. She really had picked this place clean last time she came here.

Just when she reached what she thought was the back of the cave and was about to turn around, she heard a grinding noise behind her. She was quick to whip around, coming face to face with a white crystalline pillar jutting from the ground, going all the way to the ceiling.

She was quick to take a step away from it, her back pressing into the wall. "W... what the heck?" She said, gritting her teeth. That wasn't there before.

Just then, she saw a shape moving behind it as the gem started to glow. Then it shined a deep white light, lighting the cave as if it was outside in mid-day. She flinched and turned away, before turning back to see Spike of all dragons approaching her with a disarmingly friendly smile on his face.

But that wasn't the main thing that caught her attention. No, it was three other very noticeable details. First, was the shining black crystal embedded into his forehead. Second, was the fact that he was much taller than the last time she had seen him. Before, they had stood on equal height, but now he looked almost a head taller than her!

Lastly, was the fact that he was completely naked, his rock-hard eight-inch rod on full display for her.

"Woah! Spike!" Smolder cried, averting her eyes. "Warn someone next time you sneak up on them naked!"

Spike didn't say anything, he just kept walking forwards. Smolder certainly didn't like where this was going. In a single movement, she growled and tried to make a run for it, but Spike stopped her when he quickly closed the distance and pressed a finger into her forehead.

She cried out as she felt... something hard press itself into her head. In a quick movement, she pushed Spike away and stumbled forwards, before seeing her reflection in the glowing pillar. A deep purple crystal had formed where Spike had touched her.

Before she could do anything else, she felt a force, not necessarily painful but exceptionally uncomfortable start to work in her head. She collapsed to her knees, pawing at the crystal with tears forming in her eyes as she felt her mind get buried under layer after layer of magic. It almost felt like it was being covered in crystal.

Spike smirked as he turned and stepped in front of her, admiring his handy work. He watched as her cries of fear and clawing gradually over several seconds turned into weak scratching and whimpering, then after one final attempt, her hands fell limply to her sides. Her eyes were now a uniform light purple in color and her mouth was wide open, drool falling from the corner of her mouth to the cave floor below.

Finally, after another couple of seconds, he crossed his arms over his chest and turned to look in no direction in particular.

"Ok, now what?" he asked the air.

"Now, simply tap the gem," A voice in his head responded.

After doing exactly that, a purple magic screen of sorts appeared in front of him, covered in sprawling almost random words and phrases that almost looked like code. He frowned as he looked over all of the screens.

"What the heck is this stuff?" He growled, getting a headache just from looking at it.

"This," the voice said. "Is the inner workings of Smolder's mind. Don't worry about it all too much, I'll have plenty of time to teach you all of this later. For now, let me go about doing the basic reworks to make her into what you want."

Suddenly the screen started to move on it's own. In seconds he watched as it split into many different screens, all of which scrolled and moved on their own, changing slight variables, changing phrases and adding in new ones. One in particular caught his gaze, when the screen moved to a section entitled; 'sexual desires' and deleted the word 'lesbian' to replace it with 'straight.'

Spike instantly held up a hand. "Stop." He said. The screens all stopped at once.

"Make her bisexual," He demanded with a dark smirk. "Once I have my harem, I think I'm going to want to make them play with one another."

The voice laughed. "I'm starting to think you're going to be my favorite wielder yet."

The change was made before the voice got back to work. Finally, the last of the changes were made after seconds of agonizing waiting, and the screens all closed at once.

Finally, Smolder's eyes changed from a uniform glowing purple to normal, though her irises were purple rather than their normal cerulean. She looked around for a second before her eyes locked on Spike.

Instantly she smiled a dumb smile as she sat up. Then she gave a bow.

"Master..." She said with a giggle. "How can I serve you?"

Spike's eyes widened as his rod got harder. Now that was something he didn't realize he would enjoy so much.

Spike paused. 'You don't mind if I...' he thought to himself.

"Go ahead." The voice said contently. "It's your body after all."

Spike straightened his back and smiled down at her. "Strip," he ordered. "And give me a show while you do."

"Of course master," Smolder said, shaking her hips and tail slightly.

Smolder slowly grabbed her T-shirt and lifted it above her head, revealing her flat belly and ample breasts, hidden only behind a bra. Throwing her shirt aside, Spike expected for her to go for them next, instead, she went for her shorts, causing him to grit his teeth slightly. It appeared the Crystal had left a bit of her teasing side in her. Interesting.

She slowly slid her jean shorts down her deliciously plump thighs revealing her already wet panties, the wet cloth only growing as she showed off more of her body to her master. When they were to her feet, she gave an obedient smile as she kicked them off, sending them to join her shirt.

Her hands danced up her smooth legs, then her sides before retreating to her back, allowing her to undo her bra, which she merely dropped at her feet. Yet, she kept them covered with one of her arms and turned around. Spike's eyes widened for a second, but she was quick to bend over and raise her tail, giving her master a perfect view of her posterior, which only got better as she removed her panties.

"I should specify, I did alter her knowledge of sex a little when I wiped her mind," The voice said with a smile. "Now she's as slutty as a stripper."

Spike was barely listening as her panties reached her thighs and he caught a glimpse of her tight pucker and oozing slit. His breath caught in his throat as one of her fingers brushed against her thigh before entering her snatch. She turned around and kneeled in front of him, still playing with herself as her other hands gripped one of her tits, twisting the nipple and kneading them like dough in front of him.

"Did you like your show master?" She asked herself. He barely listened as he watched her go. He couldn't contain himself. He initially wanted to start with some proper foreplay, but now he just wanted to jump right into the main course.

"On your back, now," Spike ordered, licking his lips.

Smolder knew what that meant. She immediately dropped back, straightening her legs and raising her arms above her head in a sultry pose, staring up at him with her forked tongue lulling out of her mouth. Spike wasted no time in kneeling down above her. He grabbed her by the legs before spreading them aside to reveal her winking pussy, ripe for the taking.

In a single move, he trusted deep into her, hilting before pressing his chest against hers and pinning her hands above her head. Smolder let out a cry of ecstasy as he started slowly pistoning back and forth, panting as he did. His tongue lulled out as he felt her velvety smooth insides clamp down around him, spasming and twitching around him.

He took his time at first, savoring every single movement of his slave's snatch before he found himself overwhelmed by his battling desires to both enjoy himself and breed the servile drake. Smolder herself wasn't still as this happened, moaning and screaming out for all to hear.

"Yes, master!" She cried as she wrapped her legs around his hips and her arms around his powerful neck. "Yes! Breed your slave! Treat me like the useless cocksleave I am!"

All her screaming served to do was rile him up further. His thrusts became almost like hammer strikes as he pounded what little remained of the real Smolder into the dirt, ensuring that now and for as long as she lived she was nothing but his brainwashed slave.

Smolder let out a scream of rapture as her slit clamped around his scepter. Femcum spurted around him as she spasmed and shook below him. Her orgasmic pleasure only pushed him to the edge as well. With one final thrust he buried his sword as deep into the stone as he could. His draconic jizz filled her to the brim as she screamed out her appreciation to her master.

He paused afterward, catching his breath as he remained hilted inside her, staring down at her face. After almost a minute of staring he smirked before pulling out and standing up, leaving her panting on the ground.

"So now what?" The Crystal of Domination asked... he almost sounded like he had a mouthful of popcorn.

Spike straightened his back as a suit of crystalline plate armor formed on him.

"I have an idea."

Spike and Smolder both found themselves staring down at the Changeling Hive as the sun rose behind it. All in all it was quite a nice view.

Nonetheless, in Spike's mind, the Changeling Hive would be the perfect place to begin his conquest. They were hopelessly naive in this day and age, leaving them more than open to corruption, their natural abilities made them the perfect infiltrators and spies he could use globally, and best of all, their leader was practically already in his pocket.

Spike turned to no direction in particular and spoke, prompting Smolder to raise an eyebrow.

"Here it is. The site of our first springboard into global conquest." Spike said scratching his chin.

"This is a very good place to start." The Crystal of Domination's voice replied. "Now then... how are you going to conquer it?"

"That is a good point," Spike said, rubbing his chin. After a couple of seconds, he spoke up. "Well, as far as I believe the only threat here is Pharynx, the kingdom's prince and military leader. Once I have him the rest will follow like dominos."

"And I assume he is going to be the general you use your purple gem on?" The crystal replied.

"Correct." He exclaimed. "Now how am I going to do this..."

The options for Spike's next conquest are down to you, the readers:

Option 1: Use Thorax as bait to lure out Pharynx so you can corrupt them both at once, then go for the hive proper.

Option 2: Separate Pharynx from the rest of the hive and corrupt him first, then go for Thorax and the rest of the hive.

Option 3: Just go hog wild and march in through the front door corrupting changelings as you pass them.

Option 4: Commenter ideas.

Spike Stats:
HP: [][][]
Political Power:

Assets:
Crystal of Domination
Smolder
1x Free Pass

Smolder Stats:
HP: [][][]
Corruption Status:
Basic Mind Rewrite; Smolder's mind has been rewritten to be loyal and servile to Spike, though almost all of her original personality is intact.