Cadence stood on the balcony of the Crystal Palace, pouring magical energy into the shrunken dome. She had ordered her guards to leave, for their own safety. They had refused. She had begged Fluttershy and Rarity to do the same, again for their own safety. They had refused. Even now they stood on either side of her, supporting her, literally holding her up as she pushed herself further than she ever had. Even with them there, in her deepest core she felt so terribly, terribly alone.

She'd never been so afraid.

She could see the battle raging from here; lances of magic and lightning and fire and explosions. She could see for herself how it drew closer. She feared for her ponies, for her kingdom, for her life, but most of all for her husband. She could see his shields from here blocking the monsters' path. She saw them crumble, again and again,as he and his soldiers were driven backwards.

If he should be hurt-- or killed--

A choked sob escaped her; too faint for the guards to hear. Rarity and Fluttershy didn't miss it though. "It's all right, dear," Rarity said. "Just... just lean on us. Conserve your strength." Fluttershy, frightened as she was, only pressed against her side, doing her best to comfort.

Such noble friends, Cadence thought. Little Twiley chose well... "Rarity... Fluttershy... I'm so glad you're here."

"I'm glad we can help," Rarity said, her voice quavering only faintly. "But...it's a funny thing to think at such a time but-- at the moment, don't take this wrong--"

"I do wish little Spikey was here." She gave Cadence a weak smile.

"Well, Spike, this was certainly one of your dumber ideas," Spike muttered to himself.

It was a fair assessment. At the moment Spike was clinging by his toe-claws to a narrow ledge a few hundred feet off the ground, on the outside of the Crystal Palace. He'd been forced to evade the guards trying to 'escort him to safety' by climbing out a window and ledge walking. Now he was clinging to one of the enormous legs upon which the Crystal Palace stood, looking down--- way, way, WAY down--- to the roof of the nearest building below. At the forefront of his mind was the question of how to traverse the distance between his current windy perch, to the rooftop below.

This was complicated by the fact that his hindbrain was busy trying to determine if he could clutch at the wall of a building with nothing but his butt muscles.

"Okay, you got this, Spike," he breathed. "it's a nice gradual.. um... sort of gradual slope down from here. There's that little ledge down below, about halfway. You slide down, launch off that little slopey-outey part, and it's just a fifteen foot jump(1) from there to that rooftop. Hey, that colt Parkour does this sort of stuff all the time, right? No problem."

Spike looked down again. "Yeah, this is gonna hurt. Here... we.. go..." He stepped off the ledge and slid down the wall.

Reality, thankfully, did not ensue. In spite of all rational odds he did not fall away from the steep angled slope and splat himself on the ground far below. Instead, with a screech of scaly spikes sliding against quartz walls, he skidded down the slope of the leg, caromed off the tiny ridge he'd spotted, and sailed in a screaming, arm-waving ballistic arc right to the roof he'd picked out. There was a loud "WHAMP" as he belly-flopped onto his landing site.

".....ow," he grunted faintly.

Shining knew the precise moment it was over. The wall of the dome was less than a block behind him when he saw the two fliers swing around and swoop down side-by-side for a strafing run. They gushed flame over the rooftops, down the street, sending even the most stalwart ponies fleeing. Shining's own shield sputtered out and he and Rock Steady had to dive down a side alley to get beneath another unicorn's bubble. The badly scorched unicorn barely held it up for them long enough before passing out from the strain.

This was it. The retreat had been pressed right up to the wall, and was now little more than a rout. Shining hunkered down in the makeshift foxhole, frantically trying to think of something. He could see Cadence, still standing on the balcony, horn blazing, wings flared, flanked on either side by the bearers who looked ready to faint from fear.

The flying dragons began circling over the dome. Garble and his other stooges lumbered up to the force field. Garble smirked and cracked his knuckles. "BRING IT DOWN," he said. Fists and tails slammed into the dome, once, twice, thrice--

Twilight yelped as the Second Heart suddenly blazed and spat out sparks. The ponies gathered around leaped backwards. "What happened?" Keen Bean said.

"I don't know," Twilight confessed. "The hearts are connected as Dubious surmised, I reinforced it and opened it up to try and communicate with Cadence, but-- there was a massive surge just as I did. Something big briefly overloaded the Crystal Heart's defenses..."

Up on the balcony, Cadence tried to reinforce the dome one last time--- then it shattered. Her head snapped back, eyes wide, and she slumped to the floor unconscious. "Princess Cadence!" Fluttershy shrieked.

"Quickly, get her out of here!" Rarity said. Fluttershy complied, dragging the unconscious alicorn of love away from the balcony and further into the palace. The guards rushed to aid her. Rarity wheeled around, heart pounding, and saw the chortling dragon reaching in through the balcony archway.

Then for some reason he stopped. Behind him, she saw an emerald green flame jetting up from a rooftop...

"Hey! Over here!" Spike shouted, waving his stubby arms. He spit another gout of flame into the air, trying to draw Garble's attention. The enormous red dragon turned, looking down on him in surprise.

Worst. Plan. Ever, Spike told himself. He kept waving anyway. "Yeah, down here!"

"YOU," Garble boomed. "So there you are..."

"Yeah, here I am! I give up! I surrender! Garble, look-- I'll do whatever you want! Just... just don't hurt anypony!" Spike shouted.

"ARE YOU KIDDING?"

"NO!" Spike dropped to his knees. "You want me to beg? I'm begging! You want me to kiss your feet? I'll climb down there and kiss 'em right now! I'll do anything you say, if you'll just leave my pony friends alone."

Garble stared at him for a long second. Spike held his breath. Then the overgrown bully grinned. "NO DEAL, RUNT," he said-- and lashed out with his tail.

His enormous tail sheared through the lower floors of the building Spike was standing on, all the way through. With a muted rumble it collapsed, crumbling in on itself in a cloud of glittering dust. The tiny dragon disappeared.

"Noo! Spike!"

Garble turned back to the castle and saw a familiar little white unicorn standing on the balcony. "WELL LOOK WHO'S HERE," he laughed. "ANOTHER OF THEM UPPITY LITTLE RUNT'S PONY FRIENDS." He reached for her, his enormous mitt stretching out.

"Take THAT you ruffian!" Rarity shouted. Her horn flared and her saddlebags opened, and a cloud of needles, pins, seamcutters, knitting needles, scissors, and pinking shears shot out, peppering his hand, burrowing under scales, digging their way into the quick of his claws.

Garble yowled, more surprised than hurt, shaking his hand to dislodge the stinging cloud of sharp shiny nettles. "OH, YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW," he snarled.

Rarity dashed back into the palace, but Garble was quicker. He stuck his arm into the balcony arch up to his elbow, digging and grabbing. When he withdrew his arm he had a screaming, terrified Rarity clutched in his fist.

Spike wasn't buried. Not entirely. He'd been at the top of the building, so he wasn't entombed; but it was bad enough. He was battered and bruised, bleeding in several spots, and he felt like he'd been beaten with a steel rebar in the ribs.

But he WAS alive, at least.

He was pinned down by tons of rubble, but there were enough gaps that he could see out to the sky. He could see smoke rising from the city, could hear the soldiers yelling, the ponies fleeing in the street. He could also see Garble, towering overhead. He could see Rarity clutched in Garble's fist, so tiny and helpless.

He could hear her screaming.

Rarity.

Everypony called him a baby dragon. "Baby." That was an illusion, a mistake they made because of his retarded growth. He was nearly as old as Twilight was, shy by only five or six years... and he'd been in that egg a hell of a lot longer. There was a much older dragon down inside, one that he kept suppressed, a tiny flame banked and damped to keep him small... and safe.

That tiny flame inside him--- full of rage, full of want---  saw his ponies, his friends, his Rarity, in danger, and it BLAZED.

His eyes burned green. "BUCK THIS NOISE," he growled.

He let go.

The dragons took a minute from their rampage to gloat. They were gathered around the pile of shattered crystal and stone that had buried the runt, chortling. Flange and Scrag circled overhead, trying to get a better look. Garble smirked and spat a burning loogie on the heap, a sobbing Rarity clutched in his fist. "WELL THAT TAKES CARE OF HIM," he growled. He turned and walked away, the others following.

Flange swooped low over the wreckage, his sneering laugh echoing---

--Just as a pillar of green flame, easily twenty feet around at the base, erupted with volcanic fury from the center of the rubble heap. It engulfed the flying dragon in an eyeblink. The fireball swelled, roared, blackened, went out... and all that was left of the monster was a sparkling cloud of smoke that dissipated in the wind. A moment later a brief rain of fire opals pattered on the stones below.

The dragons stood, gaping in bug-eyed shock. "He got Flange! He got Flange!" Skrag shrieked.

"WHAT got Flange??" Blizz wanted to know.

A moment later they got their answer. The ground under their claws shook as something huge rose up beneath the crumbled building. Quartz stone rolled aside and poured off of massive shoulders as an enormous wingless dragon stood up.

Rarity's eyes went round. "Great Googa Mooga," she said faintly.

Spike had metamorphosed once, and only once before. She had seen him then... but this was beyond that. Only his colors, purple and green, remained the same. The hulking brute he'd been back then was smaller.  Now, he outbulked even Grundle--- And not just with raw fat either. The saurian form was now thick with muscle: biceps like boulders, chest like a granite cliff face, massive bull neck, calves and thighs like train cars. His tail, thick as a cedar tree and long as the Friendship Express, whipped and coiled behind him.

He shook the last of the crumbled building out of his jagged back spikes, glared at the enroaching dragons with blazing green eyes, and ROARED.

Skrag shrieked and started to flap away. Big mistake; that only attracted its attention. Spike's head snapped around and he vomited out another torrent of green flame. For a second time one of the dragons was engulfed and incinerated, the patter of fire opals falling to the ground the only thing to mark his passing.

"Holy Fewmets!" Rockjaw said. "Nothing left! Where the heck did he go??"

Celestia sighed and stirred her tea, contemplating the slice of cake in front of her. The candle sticking out of it didn't improve her mood. "I know you mean well, Lulu, but... well, it's just at the moment I feel like all my glory days are behind me," she was saying.

Luna regarded her sister. "Thou art an immortal magical ruler of a millennia-old kingdom," she said in a deadpan voice. "These are thy 'glory days.' "

"Not quite what I mean, Lulu," Celestia said. "I mean... I suppose it's empty nest syndrome. My faithful student is about finished with her studies... little Spike is all grown up... my niece is off tending her own kingdom..."

"Hast thou heard from them of late?"

"No," Celestia sighed. "I sent Cadey a little card, but it bounced back. The crystal heart dome must be up for the monthly emergency alert test..." she set her spoon down. "What I meant by glory days--- Remember when it was us, gallivanting off to battle evil kings and dragons and such? Now all I do is sit on a throne, eat cake and look pretty for the cameras. Of course I plot and scheme and chessmaster-- it's all I can do!" she sighed and looked out over the royal gardens.  "There are days I wish a monster would just drop out of the sky on the royal gardens, just for old time's sake--"

At which point a sparkling cloud formed overhead, and a monster dropped out of the sky on the royal gardens.

There was a bright green flash everywhere. Flange and Skrag screamed like fillies and plummeted to the earth, crashing down in...a hedge? The two dragons sat up, groaning, and looked around. They quickly assessed the situation.

They had crash-landed in a hedge maze, flattening a good portion of it.

They were a LOT smaller than they had been just a minute ago.

There were two alicorn princesses sitting not too far away at a tea table, regarding them with very surprised expressions.

Celestia got to her feet. Her horn glowed as she summoned her favorite weapon: a giant spiked mace, with a handle as long as she was tall and a spiked ball at the head one would usually expect to see rolling along down a tunnel behind intrepid archaeologist explorers. She'd recognized the purple sparkly cloud immediately. "Oh, Twilight," Celestia said, her eyes shining, "You DID remember my birthday after all!"

"OH HOLY FREAKIN' HOOHA!" Roller shrieked. "DID YOU SEE THAT? BRING US AROUND, BRING US AROUND!"

With a roar of rage, Spike charged straight at Garble. Garble's friends scattered. They were dumb, but they weren't fools. They'd just seen an enormous purple dragon turn two of their friends to ash in two breaths, and they didn't want to test their luck.

Garble on the other hand had only one setting at the moment, and that was attack. The purple was muscular, but Garble was at least two heads taller. He rushed forward to meet the other dragon, roaring, fully planning to tackle the other dragon and bear him to the ground, clawing and biting.

He never got the chance. As soon as he closed the distance Spike brought his fist around in an uppercut that caught Garble right on his chin. It literally lifted him off the ground and sent him crashing backwards among the buildings. He lost his grip on his prisoner; Rarity went sailing high through the air in a terrifying arc.

She screamed as she plummeted--- and was caught out of the air by an enormous purple claw, as gently as a juggler catching an egg.(2) The massive hand cradled her gently, bringing her in close to Spike's titanic chest. She caught her breath and looked up at the titan that had been her tiny Spikey Wikey. Was he in there? Had the greed growth blanked out his mind again? "Spike--?" she quavered.

He cradled her gently. "RARITY," he said, his rumbling voice almost a croon. Carefully he stepped over to the palace and set her down on the balcony. He crouched down till he could look at her eye to eye. His craggy, fanged face broke into a faint smile. "GO. BE SAFE."

Rarity gave a shaky laugh. "My word, Darling," she said. "You certainly know how to impress a lady--" Spike let out a rumbling chuckle. "Spike, please, be careful, they--- LOOK OUT!!" she screamed.

Spike turned in surprise, but not fast enough. Rockjaw had sneaked up behind him when he was distracted. Spike caught a gout of dragon flame right between the shoulders. He roared in pain but didn't move, shielding the palace, shielding Rarity, from the fiery torrent. The flames faded; he whirled about, back smoking, and lunged for Rockjaw, hitting the lantern-jawed dragon in a tackle.

Rarity fled further into the palace, refusing to let herself look back and see her dear Spike thrashing and fighting with a monster...

The first pillar of green flame rocketing into the sky caught the Diamond dogs off guard. They yelped and turned as one to see the pillar of fire ascending over the rooftops. Nyx jumped at the opportunity. "Run!" she squealed at Bright Eyes. She lit her horn, eyes squeezing shut, and cast her first spell.

Grease.

The slabs of building stone everyone was clambering over were made of quartz and other cheap crystal; they weren't exactly high traction to begin with. When Nyx's spell coated them with a thin, slippery layer of energy, every diamond dog around them went arse over teakettle and smashed into the ground. "Run now!" She yelled, looking around-- where was he? Had he already bolted?

She wasted precious seconds looking for her friend; by the time she thought to run for it, most of the dogs were back on their feet and coming for her. She started firing spells in every direction, trying to keep them off. She set one's hair on fire; hit another one's funny bone, sending him yelping; zapped several others in the back of the knee, dropping them to the dirt again. Dogs found themselves sticky-glued to loose garbage, tied up in the laces of their own clothing, choking as their collars suddenly buckled themselves three notches tighter, taking blobs of levitated mud to the face, getting freezer burned and static shock burned and just plain burned on their paws. Rocks pummeled them, and plain good old fashioned magic bolts zapped them.

Finally they'd had enough; they turned and ran, yelping all the way. Nyx stood there, panting. "I did it," she said. "I did it?" She perked up. "I did it, I ran them off! Yay!"

Out of nowhere a net came down over her. "Got you, little pony!"

"Aw dog-gone it!!" Nyx yelled. The diamond dog who'd thrown the net tangled her up in it and picked it up like a gunny sack. He flicked her on the end of her horn, disrupting her magic and dizzying her. The dogs began creeping back. "Now you ours, pony--"

"Leave her alone!"

The dogs looked around. "Where you at, sparkle pony?" The one holding the net said.

A rock whipped out of nowhere and cracked one dog between the eyes. The dog howled and dropped, clutching his face. "Take a guess!" Bright Eyes' disembodied voice said.

More rocks came whipping out of nowhere, sharp glassy things that drew blood, cracking against paws and shins and sensitive noses. The diamond dogs yelped and danced, whirling about, snarling as they looked for their tormentor. Who was nowhere.

The dogs backed up, standing in a circle facing outward, a netted Nyx at the center. "Show yourself, puny pony," their leader snarled. "Or we fix your friend..."

There was a brief pause. "You touch a hair on her mane and I'll cut you to pieces." This was said so calmly that even Nyx was chilled.

"Like to see you try, little runty sparkle pony," the black dog mocked.

"I'd like to see you stop me," Bright Eye's voice said, right next to him. The black dog yipped and leapt away, swinging his claws in wide aimless sweeps.

Bright Eye's laughter rang out, from somewhere else entirely.

"Old fat doggy piddling on a tree!

Old fat doggy can't see me!

Muddypup! Muddypup!

Won't you stop,

Stop your sniffing and look for me!

Old dumb doggy, all lazy body,

Old dumb doggy can't spy me!

Muddypup! Muddypup!

Down you drop!"

--Another stone whizzed through the air, cracking another diamond dog skull--

You'll never catch me running round your tree!"

The diamond dogs were, understandably, getting freaked. "Show yourself coward!" the big black shrieked.

Bright Eye's voice came from another quarter entirely. Nyx saw a glowing blade-- a large knife, a dagger as long as her foreleg-- come floating through the air. It bobbled about, taunting.

"Bad doggy bad doggy,

Naughty nasty thing,

Bad doggy bad doggy,

Feel my STING!"

And then the blade was among them.

It zipped about like a maddened hornet, slicing and stabbing wherever it found an opening. And everything was an opening.  Parrying is all good and well, but how do you parry a blade that has no hoof or hand holding it? Diamond dogs yowled and shrieked, and more than a little blood flew. It was like getting in a fistfight with a cloud of razor blades.

The dogs finally broke and ran, for good this time. The dagger made quick work of the net holding Nyx, then clattered to the ground. Nyx squirmed free. "Bright Eyes?"

The air flickered in front of her in a sort of pony shape, and Bright Eyes reappeared. He panted, rubbing his head. "Oww. I never levitated anything that long before..."

"You can turn invisible??" Nyx boggled.

Bright Eyes looked at her. "I was gonna ask why you didn't, but never mind," he said.

"That is so NEAT! Nyx squeaked. "Can all crystal ponies do that? That is awesome! How does it work?"

"Yeah," Bright Eyes said, still rubbing his head. "It's the same thing that makes our coats sparkly and makes us look crystally. Our coats sorta bend light around us funny. We go invisible when we bend it just a little further."

"That is so cool!" Nyx squealed again.

"What's the big deal? It's not much use," Bright Eyes said, scowling. "You can't DO anything while you're invisible. You can't carry anything, you can't cast magic or your horn gives you away-- boy did I find THAT out the hard way-- and you can't even move real fast or you make a ripply outline. And it doesn't really work well on fooling Crystal Ponies, either; everypony knows what to look for." Bright Eyes rolled his eyes. "If I had a bit for every time I tried to hide from the colts at school by going invisible, and still got caught..."

Nyx snorted. "Looked like it was working pretty good to me..."

"The only reason those dumb dogs didn't catch me is 'cause they didn't think to use their noses, and they were too busy watching my sword to notice my horn glowing."

"Where'd you get this thing anyway?" Nyx said, picking up the blade carefully in her magic.

Bright Eyes shrugged. "found it in the wreckage." He found his saddlebags, donned them, and slid the blade into one of the bags. "It was a pretty stupid trick."

"Well I still say it was pretty cool," Nyx said stubbornly. "I bet a little bit of practice, you could be a super-sneaky ninja superspy!" She paused. "And thank you for saving me. That was brave of you."

Bright Eyes blushed and grinned. "It's from 'There and Back Again,' when Bilbo Burro battled the spiders," he said. "You really should read the book--"

"LALALALA, no spoilers!" Nyx sang out. The two giggled.

There was the sound of flapping overhead. Nyx and Bright Eyes looked up; two pegasi guardsmen were dropping down out of the sky. They had a canvas basket strung on ropes below them. Inside was a familiar colt with a movie camera. "Geez, what are you two doing out here?" Roller shouted as he touched down.

"Trying to save my stupid brother!"  Nyx shouted back.

"Your brother can handle himself, trust me," Roller said. "Come on you two, get in the basket, we can't leave you here! Hey fellas, can you handle a couple more passengers?"

"Those two? No problem," one of the guards said. "Get in, kids!" The two foals climbed aboard; in moments they were winging through the air, as the sounds of a giant monster battle raged like distant thunder.

1)Spike was really, REALLY bad at estimating distances.

2)One of Spike's hobbies on his slow days.