[The perpetual smog of ash and dust from the lava pits of the Southern Wasteland, for a few minutes, were cleared completely away by the typhoon winds generated by the beats of a pair of mighty draconic wings. Not that there was much clear, blue sky to see - moments after they clear the view was blocked by the massive shape of Dragon Celestia, her white alabaster scaled body with gold, red and blue membranes and fins blocking half the sky as she descended.]

[All the minuscule ponies standing upon rock mesa in the middle of the crater couldn't help but stare with shock and awe, much as they attempted to act professional]

Crystal Guard: "She's - she's even larger than our Crystal Princess..."

Shining Armor: "Make that four to six times larger... she's pretty much roughly the same size as Dragon Queen Tiamat."

Crystal Guard: "You, your excellency, seems to be taking this fine - well, much better than most of us at least"

Shining Armor: "Trust me, I've seen weirder. And the fact that I have actually met Queen Tiamat a few times during Princess Celestia's diplomatic visits might had help. She has teacups the size of buildings. It's the only reason why I haven't passed out yet."

Crystal Guard: "After this, sir, I think all of us will need to pass out a bit." [There was a murmur of agreement among the platoon]

Shining Armor: “Steady, colts, just keep calm. This should be over soon enough...”

[Dragon Celestia's landing nearly shook them off their hooves, and blanketed them all in a wave of dust and ashes. Before they could recover the booming voice of the Dragonized Sun Princess was already speaking to her niece]

Dragon!Celestia: "Cadence! I hope I haven't keep you all here waiting."

Dragon!Cadence: "Not at all, auntie! I've little something to pre-occupied myself. I'll tell you later if you want, right after the... 'Official negotiations'.

Dragon!Celestia: [Leaning down to the small mesa where Shining Armor and his Crystal Guards are. If she had not retained her vast Alicorn magic and sight, she wouldn’t be able to even barely see the tick-sized ponies, who all gave her ] “And how are you, Shining Armor? I hope our new forms are not ... too intimidating?”

Shining Armor: [Deep down, he is VERY intimidated and weird out, as is everypony else] “We’re fine, your majesty, though, well, I think we would still need a little more time to get used to my wife being able to change into a massive dragoness.”

Dragon!Celestia: [Both she and Dragon Cadence chuckles amusingly] “All in good time, my dear nephew-in-law. Now then, let’s move on to official business, shall we?” [She brought her tail forward, and delicately plucked up the still wailing and struggling Queen Chrysalis between her claw tips, still active Alicorn instincts and millennia of practice allowing her massive, skyscraper sized claws dexsterity that would not normally be possible] “Crystal Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Crystal Prince-Regent Shining Armor, may I present to you: Her carapace-majesty of the Swarm, Chrysalis Acrididae Vespa the Third, Queen of the Changelings.”

Queen Chrysalis: “Release me you monster! Release me or I will – “

[Unceremoniously, she was released mid-air, and she landed with an embarrassing samersault on the charred ground. When she picked herself up, disorientated and aching, mane and tail unkempt, and otherwise in a complete mess, she found herself locking eyes with Shining Armor]

Shining Armor: [Visibly angry, eyes cold and screaming murder] “Queen Chrysalis. You’ll forgive me if you find me dispensing with the courtesies.”

Queen Chrysalis: [Still dizzy and slightly confused] "W-wh-hat are you doing here? Where am I?!” [Swirls around to Dragon Celestia] “So is this your plan, you dragon-Alicorn thing?! Bring me to that niece and nephew-in-law of yours to gloat and taunt me before devour me alive?!” [She snarls hatefully at the unicorn and his retinue, who took alarm when she charges her horn] “Well I’m not going to sticking to the ending of your script!” [She shape-shifts, into a black, normal sized winged dragon] “If I’m going down, I’M TAKING YOU ALL WITH – “

[A massive but lithe pink claw descended from the heavens and slammed down, trapping her between its talons and held her, not crushed, underneath its weight. Those claws then closed in around her]

Dragon!Cadence “You will do no such thing, Chryssie,” [Her claws closes in around the Queen, and picked up the disguised Changeling Queen to her face] “And I was wondering how you didn't notice me when Auntie brought you here.”

[And sure enough, the Changeling Queen’s disorientation cleared, and shefinally noticed the OTHER mountainous elder Dragon-Alicorn in the area, and squeaked]





Queen Chrysalis: “Y-you?”





[Her disguise dropped, leaving her sitting dumbstruck in the palms of Dragon Cadence’s claw]





Dragon!Cadence [Smirks almost evilly] “Now then, auntie, you were saying?"





[Queen Chrysalis’ screams of terror could be heard for miles from the crater]

= = =

[Strategic War Room, Capital Hive Jormungand, Changeling Empire]

Swarm-Warlord Dynastinae: "This is bad."

General Pincer: "Very, VERY bad."

Swarm-Airlord Hawkmoth: "I thought we already reached that point when that pony Princess Celestia turned up at noon a city-dwarfing dragoness and took our Queen hostage for ‘negotiations’."

Chancellor Centipede: [Muttering to himself] "Well ain't you all masters of the obvious." [Louder] "Alright, we all KNOW this is bad, but all I want to know is, just HOW bad it is, and what can we do about this?"

Swarm-Warlord Dynastinae: "Well, from the reconnaissance footage" [he gestures at the live scry-magic-holographic displays of Dragon Celestia and Dragon Cadence with Queen Chrysalis] "We could readily assume that Celestia is not the only Pony princess who could transform into a female elder dragon, and since there are four of Princesses - Celestia, Luna, Cadence and the most recent Twilight, this obviously means we could potentially be facing up to FOUR transformed elder dragons, with power and strength in proportion to their forms as such."

General Pincer: "And new info suggests this new dragon-transformation power of Equestria's is not only limited to Alicorns," [Pincer touches a few hovering glowing runes, and the magic-holographic display shifted to a specific screen, showing Princess Twilight, in elder-dragoness form, talking to two almost miniscule-in-comparison dragons in a clearing. He pointed to the smallest, blue-scaled winged dragoness of the two] "That dragon Princess Twilight is conversing with at this moment was originally a unicorn. Our balloon crew captured the footage where she transformed into a dragon. Suffice to say, Equestria's version of our shape-shifting spell could potentially be used by any pony."

Chancellor Centipede: [Worried] "Are you suggesting that any pony in Equestria could transform into a dragon at will?"

General Pincer: “Emphasis on POTENTIAL; the analysts suggest that the process required enormous amounts of magic. Thaumatic-scans has shown that the unicorn held unnaturally high innate energy levels, mostly suppressed, inside her body, meaning she’s the exception rather than the rule, like those wielders of the Elements of Harmony. SO, this means so far only the Alicorn Princesses can do it. However, again emphasis is on POTENTIAL, since intel suggests they had only recently developed it, meaning it is relatively low quality, crudely made spell weave-work compare to its true capabilities. If they could refine it they could lower the arcane energy costs and allow it to become accessible, first to gifted unicorns, then perhaps common unicorns, or the other two tribes of ponies, or, Tartarus be damned, anyone with a bit of magic.”

Swarm-Warlord Dynastinae: “And one more problem: this dragon-transformation spell, crude as they are, are superior to ours in capability to transform – our innate shapeshifting needs a constant stream of magic to maintain form, which we convert from love we consume, and the larger it is, the more power needed. THAT is the reason why we never try to imitate dragons – not even our Queen would maintain an adult dragon form for more than a few days. However, these Dragon-Transformation spells only need magic for the transformation phase – the users could stay in dragon form indefinitely until the user decides to change back.”

[Everybody in the room shuddered at the thought. The ponies were bad enough with four Alicorn princesses to defend them. But if any one of them could turn into a dragon now, and the Alicorns could turn into titanic dragon gods, who knows what kind of havoc they could wreck if an army of ponies-turned-dragons decide to invade the Changeling Empire? The carnage would be unthinkable]

Chancellor Centipede: “... Do our nation have enough defences to repel a full-scale invasion by a dragon army?”

Swarm-Airlord Hawkmoth: “Theoretically possible: ever since the failed Canterlot invasion the Queen had ordered a massive armament program for the military in case Equestria retaliates. We are stocked aplenty with heavy anti-air weaponry and our airfleet had the latest rocket torpedoes. There’s going to be enormous casualties, but if we achieve a 100-1 kill ratio, we might, MIGHT, be able to survive it. But if even ONE of the Princesses go dragon on us... we’ll fall like a house of cards.”

Chancellor Centipede: “But there’s ought to be someone who’s experienced with fighting dragons out there? Is there anyone we could turn to for help.

General Pincer: “There’s the Roedinans, or rather the Hooviets before their empire collapsed. The Hooviet-Dragon War of Year 987 was the only recent time the dragons attack a country as a single force: Hooviets tried to take some dragon territory, requisition their hoard, force dragon mothers to give up their children for state-education. Dragon Queen Tiamat got pissed, declared war, and then took to the field when dragon casualties mount. By the time the dust settled, half the Hooviet Empire was reduced to waste, millions were dead, and the Hooviets were only spared total annihilation by Dragon Queen Tiamat willingly stopping before their capital and demanding they surrender, after burning down the cities, crushing their airfleet and eating half their army. The Hooviets were then THE military superpower on the planet. And they still lost.”

Swarm-Warlord Dynastinae: “... We’re bucked. Every single one of us is BUCKED! Unless we find a way to get that Trans-Drac spell for ourselves... we’ll all be their food and toys if – WHEN – they ever decide to turn on us.”

General Pincer: “Well, sir, she did promised she won’t eat us...”

Swarm-Warlord Dynastinae: “And you’re going to believe the words from a race of cattle? Are you MAD? They can’t accept a race of predators like us at their doorstep; now that our prey is becoming predators, and we’re becoming prey, they’ll destroy us the first chance they get!”

Chancellor Centipede: “Simmer down! Let’s focus on one thing at a time; how goes our plan to rescue the Queen if those Alicorn-Dragons decide to eat her?”

Swarm-Airlord Hawkmoth: “The air flotilla is already in position outside their detection zone. First sign of trouble from our stealth teams, our mages will Epic-teleport the flotilla right on top of them. They’ll bombard the area with smoke and flashback missiles to distract the dragon-alicorns, while a strike team of Praetorian Changelings ‘port in, grab the Queen, and then ‘port back to the air cruisers. They’ll then jump out with their own teleport-engines to a secure location only known to us. In-and-out in twenty seconds top. If we distance ourselves from it by blaming it on a rogue group of Changeling soldiers, acting without orders, those Alicorn-Dragons would have no real excuse to go after us. I can only pray it works...”

= = =

Dragon!Trixie: “Trixie suppose then all your friends know the spell?”

Dragon!Twilight: “Not ALL of them – besides Rarity I taught it to Applejack and Rainbow Dash as well, but Fluttershy... doesn’t like dragons, and I’m not insane enough to give Pinkie Pie a go. Their connection to the Elements makes it easy for them to do it, with a magic gem or something to focus their magic like unicorns, but normal ponies don’t have enough innate power to do it... not with this version of the spell YET at least.”

Big!Spike: “Rarity was stunning as a dragon; she kept her grace and her beauty, even in another form... you know, I think this spell is a far bigger blessing in disguise for me.”

Dragon!Twilight: “Why’s that?”

Big!Spike: “Well... I know as a dragon I could live for thousands of years, while normal ponies like Rarity would only have a few decades tops... though I already accepted the fact that even if I have you with me, Twilight, I will outlive everypony else I know, especially AJ, Pinkie, RD, Flutters... especially Rarity. At best, I’ll go no further than having a childish crush on her, because she’ll be gone before I mature enough to truly love her... but now I know she can turn into a dragon, and could live long enough for me to catch up, as could our other friends... and if she wants to stay a pony, you could modify the spell so it can turn me from a dragon to pony, so I can get to stay with her... and, well, you get the idea...”

[Both Dragon Twilight and Trixie looked at each other, and couldn’t help but smile at the thought]

= = =

General Pincer: “Wait... there’s suppose to be four Alicorn, and therefore with the spell, there should be four Alicorn-Dragons... how come we haven’t located their Princess Luna in dragon form yet?”

[Everylings’ eyes widen in dreadful realization]

Swarm-Airlord Hawkmoth: “Oh bollocks.”