Hey, a chapter! Finally.

-XXXXX-

I don't own MLP or Dungeons and Dragons, though I do own The Will of the Elements, the homebrew I made and inspired me to write this.

-XXXXX-

Spike and Luna looked around, watching closely the reactions of all of their equestrian friends that were either already in the house or arrived minutes after them when Starlight teleported all over town to spread the news of the duo's return.

It had proven to be slightly amusing, if their barely contained snickers were any proof.

Obviously, their biggest shock had been the now mature drake, compared with the little tyke he had been before their disappearance. Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie and Starlight didn't even try hiding their stares as they 'scanned' him, Rainbow and Pinkie with small grins in their muzzles, Celestia just raised an eyebrow and nodded in greeting before turning to her sister, more worried on why she looked like a thestral instead of an alicorn, and Rarity and Fluttershy were passed out on Rarity's Couch of Sudden Fainting ™. Twilight, however…

Luna pointed at the purple alicorn. "Is she okay? She's been pinching herself ever since she saw us, and that was over ten minutes ago." She had a point. The smaller mare was just staring at them, mouth agape, while the used one hand to pinch her arm, which was starting to become a darker shade of purple from the amount of punishment it was receiving from the past few minutes.

Spike opened his mouth, only to clamp it shut again as a laugh threatened to escape. "I-It's okay, I have an idea." He declared, and a pillar or fire erupted from beneath him, startling everyone except for Celestia, Luna and the still vegetative mare as he disappeared from sight for a second before he casually stepped out of the castle's library, a random book in his hand.

"You girls might want to step away from that." Luna chuckled, already catching on what Spike wanted to do. Celestia immediately followed her to the other side of the room, also knowing what was about to happen while the others did so a moment later.

Spike stood in front of Twilight and brought the book upwards, waving it teasingly in front of the mare's face until her eyes started to follow it. When they did, he slowly lifted his other hand, making sure both the book and his claws were in full view before snapping his fingers.

A small flame appeared on Spike's hand. The reaction was instantaneous.

The drake blinked in surprise as he was suddenly staring at the ceiling of the adjacent room, which was coincidently Twilight's library, before lowering his eyes to look at the hole on the wall of crystals were his legs were dangling from, noting that some of the crystals were blackened and smoking slightly. 'Huh, thought these crystals walls were a bit more resistant than that.' He mused silently as he pulled his legs from the wall and stood, casually picking the shards that were stuck on his clothes. He suddenly became aware of Luna's uproarious laughter from the other side of the hole, so he bent down to pick a hefty shard from the floor, inspecting it closely. "… eh, good enough." He shrugged and threw the crystal at the mare as he stepped over the new entrance, smiling as the shard connected and brought her laughter to a sudden stop. "Shut up, I didn't see you have a better idea."

"You suck." She groaned, bringing hand to where the shard hit her forehead where her horn would be.

The drake snorted and turned to the purple mare, who was now clutching the book tightly and growling at him with a demonic expression in her face, determined to keep her baby safe from the clutches of its attacker. "You alright now or do I need to get another?" He threatened good-naturedly, grinning as her eyes widened and she almost let the book fall.

"S-Spike? I-Is it really y-you?" She stammered, stepping closer to him slowly, almost afraid that if she were to touch him, he would disappear again.

He beat down the mischief he gained from Faerie, knowing that it wasn't the right time for that. "Yeah, it's me." He said softly, stepping closer to her and embracing he into a hug, ignoring her gasp as she realized that no, it wasn't a dream.

"O-Oh Spike, I'm s-so, so s-sorry for what I did to you! I-I didn't know it was going to explode a-and-" She broke down, her babbling turning into nothing more than sobs and strangled cries as she hugged him for dear life, while her let his head atop the now slightly smaller mare with a smile, finally letting his own tears fall.

It wasn't much longer until the other girls turned it into a group hug, while Celestia and Luna watched from a distance in their own embrace.


Around half an hour later – and after many, many tears and apologies – they were calm enough to actually talk, and both Spike and Luna already knew what was about to come, sighing in tortured expectation. Now sitting in Twilight's library, the barrage of questions came.

"What happened?"

"Where were you?"

"Why do you look so older?"

"Why are you carrying weapons?"

"Were you safe?"

"What happened to your clothes?"

The group paused and turned to stare disbelievingly at Rarity, who blushed at the sudden attention. "What? You already made the important questions and I was wondering…"

Spike shook his head with a grin. "Honestly, I saw it coming." He clapped his hands, regaining their attention. "I can answer most of these questions, though it would be better if we waited for the others. Then we can just show you."

At their confused looks, Luna sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "We're kinda famous over there."

Spike snorted, poking her arm teasingly. "Understatement of the year, Goddess of the Lunar Melody."

"I was trying not to shock them too much, God of the Emphatic Flames." Luna rolled her eyes before making eye contact with him, now serious. 'Do you really think that telling them that we have enough strength to possibly solo one of the equivalent of that dimension's GODS would be a good idea?'

Spike paused and grimaced. 'Fair enough.' "Alright, yeah. We have some accomplishments under our collective belts and are part of a group of important people. Every few years the people of that dimension make an anime (of all things) about the people that recently joined said group, and we weren't different."

Pinkie blinked. "They made a cartoon about you?" She asked incredulously. At their knowing smirks, she added. "In two months, I mean."

Spike and Luna looked at her for a moment. "… So that's how long we've been gone from here, huh?" The mare muttered.

"Luna?" Celestia asked worriedly.

"… We've been there for fourteen years, Celestia." Spike stated, to the shock of the group.

"F-Fourteen years?!" Fluttershy whispered.

"How's that even possible?!" Rainbow shouted, taking flight in her surprise.

"It's going to be explained to us in the 'cartoon', so it's better to just wait for our friends to arrive so we can watch." Spike insisted.

"For now, we have something a bit more urgent." Luna calmly said, reclining on her chair with her eyes closed.

The others looked at each other, trying to figure out what she meant. "'nd that would be?" Aplejack raised an eyebrow.

The thestral pointed behind her, to the massive hole in the wall to be exact. "Like fixing that, for example."

"GAH!" Twilight yelped, taking flight and rushing to search the shelves in a panic. "Where is it?! Where is it?! Where is it?!"

Spike sighed and lifted a hand, a green aura erupting from it and turning into small crystal chards that circled the limb. "Crystalline Desire: Gem Rejuvenation." He closed his claws in a fist, the green aura bursting into nothingness. Near the hole, all the shards scattered on the floor began to glow green and float, each dancing through the air before setting on the hole. All present watched in awe as the hole slowly began to close up, each shard floating to its exact spot before Spike smashed into it, and once the hole was fully closed the green energy erupted, revealing a pristine wall of crystals. "Tadaah." He said boringly.

"Did you have to restore it so slowly? I know for a fact that you can make it near instantaneous." Luna said with a twitch of her eyebrow.

"Felt like it." He smirked.

"Showboating little shit." Luna muttered under her breath.

"Like you weren't a second away from using Restorative Rewind." He shot back in a low voice.

"Wow." Rarity breathed as Applejack tapped the gemstone wall. "That's a nice spell."

Applejack suddenly spun on her hoof and delivered a back kick on the wall, but the construct didn't move an inch. "Tah say th' least." The farmer nodded approvingly.

"The universe we were sent to have magic of a higher level than here, so we can use the magic from there here, but the magic here is useless there." Luna explained. "It's centered on elements, and Crystal is one of Spike's, just like Moon is one of mine."

'Where in Tartarus is Crystal an element?' passed through the heads of all spellcasters present. Before someone could voice the question in a less rude way, Spike chuckled. "Yeah, we thought it was weird when we found out the elements too." He and Luna both shot discreet glances towards their pulses and Spike looked back at Twilight. "When will the others arrive anyways?"

"I have called Cadance and Ember some time ago, and with how both of them were anxious for your return I'm sure it won't be long for them to arrive, however Thorax fell sick days ago and probably won't be able to make it." Celestia informed him.

"I sent a message for Sweetie Belle as well, she and the Crusaders will arrive soon enough." Rarity added, raising her cellphone for emphasis.

"Good." Spike nodded. "I wanted to see Thorax, but honestly I think is for the best."

"Fae has one hell of an entomophobia, she'd set him on fire on reflex." Luna informed them. "Curiously enough she's completely fine with spiders, scorpions and other arachnids."

"She barely bats an eye when a tarantula crawls up her leg, but if a butterfly lands on her muzzle she flips a bitch." Spike snickered before turning a serious gaze towards Pinkie and Rainbow. "Please don't drop anything on her, she has enough power to level Ponyville as a whole."

"She's that-" "If the two of us fought, I'd advise you to bet on Faerie." Luna immediately interrupted Rainbow. "I'm not saying she's much more powerful than me, heck both of us technically have more power than she has, but she doesn't need brute power to deal with us and use her agility and tactics to fight. It's annoying to say the least. Freaking Space manipulator and her freaking Semi-Planar Step…" Spike laughed as Luna slowly sunk on her seat, her voice slowly descending into grumbles while she pouted.

She and the others perked up when the doorbell rung, bringing their attention to the entrance of the castle. "It's probably them." Twilight mused, standing up and walking out of the room. Spike and Luna leaned against their seats to wait, not even reacting when the front door flew open in the hastiness of the guests.

They did react, however, to the full-body tackle they received from the CMC, Cadance and Ember.


A few minutes of female consolation and slight explaining later…


"Ah can't believe you two actually went t' another universe." Apple Bloom commented, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's so cool!" Scootaloo gushed, hovering around the duo before pausing before Spike's sword, inching closer to it.

"Sounds like it was an adventure." Shining chuckled alongside Ember as Spike slowly pushed Scoots away from his weapon.

"It was." Luna groaned. "Seriously, fourteen years in that place, between the fighting tournaments, hunts, raids and guard duties it could be a pain the ass."

"And dealing with our friends didn't help matters." Spike quickly agreed with a tired sigh. "Anyways, now that everyone's here we can just start this thing, right?"

"Are we going to wait for the friends on our side to appear?" Luna raised an eyebrow. Spike shot her a look. "Oh right, there will be at least one tracker with them. Let's set everything up then."


"This is insane!" Twilight breathed, analyzing the digital clock Spike gave her to take apart after she spent ten minutes begging to have a look at the projector they were setting up. At first she was disappointed with only having something that simple to look, but it changed quickly the moment she actually opened the thing.

No circuitry. Whatsoever. Just small runes made out of a special ink and crystals to channel magic to make the device work.

"If you're impressed by the clock I made then you should see the behemoths Quill makes. She's the best Glyph manipulator in the country, and it damn shows. Like us her primary job is with her guild, but she works as a teacher when she's not out on a mission, and sometimes she does freelancer work when helping a company create a device as a rune expert." Spike mused as he selected what media he wanted to see on the menu of the projector. A few taps and- "Done!" He announced happily, a light emanating from the projector and projecting (duh) a black screen on the far wall.

The group was now inside a guest room on the third floor of the castle, all the furniture teleported away by the alicorns and put away somewhere while teleporting in a multitude of beanbags, mats and sofas for the group to sit, as well as a table with an assortment of foods whipped up by Pinkie Pie in seconds for the group to enjoy. Taking a disk with a rune carved into it from the device, he walked over and slumped on a beanbag by Luna's side. "Everyone ready?" He asked, receiving a chorus of "Yeah!" in response. He chuckled. "Good." Looking downwards at the disk, he put a bit of magic into it, a circular screen appearing in the air in front of him. In a second he flew through the menus and ended up on a screen written 'The Will of the Elements: Guardians of the Aura' and pressed for Season 1.

The group looked up just as the same title appeared on the screen.

-XXXXX-

Shitty chapter, I know, but I got hit in the head by Writer's Block, and when I finally came around to write it was going to be something WORSE than this. Seriously, it was bad.

'Til the next chapter, hopefully it'll be better but I'm pretty sure it will. Not that it'll be hard anyways.

This is Aguion12, signing off!