When one of Twilight's spells goes wrong, Ponyville ends up with three very unusual visitors
(Spyro seriesXmlp) Spike's always been curious about his race, but then again what dragon wouldn't be when all they've ever known is ponies? So when a spell book arrives that may offer some answers to his questions, with a little help from Twilight of course, the young dragon is overjoyed to say the absolute least.
Though when things somehow end up going astronomically sideways, Ponyville finds itself playing host to three unexpected visitors; three scaly visitors by the names of Spyro, Cynder, and Ember to be exact, each bringing their own personal touch of chaos to the small town.
Soon awkward and unusual situations arise, tempers flare with destructive consequences, personal demons and ancient evils threaten to rear their long suppressed heads, and Spike learns that sometimes, if you wait long enough, love will find you.
Inspired by this piece of fan-art I found (not mine) featuring Spike and Ember, and the short comic 'Spyro's back'
Naturally, he growled to himself as he first shook his head, and then began the morning routine of stretching out, gritting his fangs at the cracks and groans of protest from his body. The exercise did bring with it a somewhat pleasant sensation, but still, he couldn't help but feel annoyed at being torn away from his dreams, especially since the last one had involved ice cream and a certain white unicorn.
Noting that the sun was barely up, and while still struggling to keep his eyes open, Spike silently began wondering why Twilight had not only been up herself, but what matter of a catastrophe had driven her to wake him so early as well.
Seriously, she was next to never the first out of bed.
For a moment he collapsed back into his blankets and stared at the ceiling, contemplating just how bad the day that awaited him could possibly be. On one side, there was the obvious possibility that he’d just be putting up with Twilight's never ending barrage of orders and requests, while the other possible outcome was that Twilight would go out somewhere with her friends, and he’d be left bored out of his scales or with the task of cleaning the library. Either way, he seemed to lose.
“SPIIIIKE!” Twilight called again.
“Ugh! Twilight, what is it?” he groaned as he rubbed his eyes, struggling from the embrace of his soft bed.
The library was slowly being illuminated by the sunlight, but Spike was still forced to grudgingly search for the light switch in order to find his way through the darkness. With a flick of said switch the wooden building he and Twilight called home was filled with light; unfortunately, Spike’s mood didn’t subsequently lighten in the slightest.
Upon emerging from the stairwell, and after blinking a few times as his eyes readjusted, the dragon found his older sister excitedly rummaging through a cardboard box... and showering the library’s main room floor with shreds of packing paper, paper he knew he would end up having to clean.
Folding his claws Spike slumped on the bottom stair, watching on in silence as Twilight continued. His eyebrow arched a little upon realizing the box had a white ‘Urgent’ stickered plastered over the side, but otherwise he remained mostly disinterested.
“Twilight... what is this?” he asked at last, glancing between her and the box. “Please don’t tell me you actually ordered another shipment of romance novels already?”
“Oh please Spike, you know I wouldn’t wake you up if this wasn’t something worthwhile.”
He rolled his eyes. Yeah, sure.
With nothing more than another disdaining glance at the box, Spike stood and headed for the kitchen, deciding if he couldn’t be asleep then he'd concentrate on filling his painfully empty stomach. Upon searching the kitchen though, the dragon found himself in yet another common morning predicament; as usual, there was little food to be found in the various cupboards, let alone any gemstones.
“Spike! Come in here!” Twilight called, now sounding urgent. “I want you to see this.”
“If it’s not a box full of rubies, I’m not interested Twilight,” the young dragon replied with a snort, a tongue of green flame escaping him. “So tell me then, is it a box full of rubies? Or should I just go back to bed now?”
“No, but I'm sure you'll find this even better!” Twilight exclaimed as she at last emerged, a red book clasped in her front hooves.
Returning to his stair while Twilight bounced around him, Spike took a mental note of the book to try and find a scapegoat for his disappointment; it was, to put it quite bluntly, a fairly normal looking red cover bound pile of paper, the only item the large cardboard box contained as it seemed, since Twilight had now abandoned it.
As the unicorn finally at last stood still, however, Spike got a slightly better look at the book. For the first time that morning he felt his bad mood lifting, and a small edge of excitement creep in.
The book had something that looked very much like a dragon etched into the cover.
“Twilight… is that a book on dragons?”
“It is!” the unicorn laughed, returning to all four hooves and levitating the book in front of her. “This is ‘The Ponies Guide to Dragons and their Realm’. It was actually written by Star Swirl the Bearded just over a thousand years ago, but only very recently has Princes Celestia allowed printed copies of the original to be sold; you usually have to make a personal request to the royal archivists to get a copy printed, since the original was never actually published."
A grin crossed Twilight's muzzle as she held it up in front of him. "After your little adventure turned up virtually... well, nothing, I decided to do some research myself, and I found out about this book. Apparently the princess is wary of who buys copies because it was never published, but since I'm her student and all she basically sent it to me right away.”
“Hence the ‘Urgent’ sticker,” Spike sniggered with a grin, Twilight's cheeks taking on a red tinge.
He stared at the still floating book for a moment, silently wondering as he tapped his claws on the stair.
“So this book… what exactly does it say about dragons? Does it say anything about how long we live or anything like that?”
Twilight flicked through the pages while Spike watched her silently, using her trained ability to quickly skim-read to pick out important information that would otherwise take hours to read through.
About midway through the third chapter something interesting caught her eye, something which brought a cheeky smile to her face, and made her horn spark with excitement as she read over it. Yes, this was right up her alley.
The mare flipped the floating book over so the pages were open to Spike’s eyes, although he seemed a little confused as to what she was trying to say. All he saw on the page was a drawing of a bowl of water, a strange rune layout, and a unicorn.
“Umm… I’m not getting you, Twilight.”
She rolled her eyes before speaking. “Ok Spike, if I'm reading this correctly, then this is a spell which allows a unicorn to communicate with a dragon in... somewhere called the Dragon Realms," she lowered the book to look at him. "Does that sound familiar at all?"
"Uh, no, or not that I can remember anyway. Should it?"
Twilight hmm'd for a moment, before shrugging and going back to the book. "Well, according to Star Swirl, dragons are said to have originated there at the beginning of time. If I cast this spell then maybe we can ask questions, learn about dragons, and maybe find out why they exist in both our worlds from an actual dragon…and yes, before you go asking, we can ask how old they are.”
The last part came out with a sigh of mild annoyance, although Spike didn’t even hear what Twilight had said after the ‘communicate with a dragon’ part.
“You just read the book Twilight,” Spike said excitedly as he bolted back into the kitchen. “I’ll get everything ready.”
“So how exactly does this work then?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking curiously between the unicorn and the set of chalk runes that were drawn into the floor.
“Basically it creates a mirror connection between Equestria and the Dragon Realms, through the energy medium of something called Convexity,” Twilight explained, lifting her head from the pages of the book. “The idea being the reflection of a dragon should appear in the water. From there we can talk, ask them questions, and they can ask us questions, so nothing really complicated.”
“You mean other than the fact we’re talking to a dragon in another world?” Dash grinned, ignoring Twilight’s annoyed sigh and returning her eyes to the latest edition of Daring Do.
Exactly why of all days Dash had decided to catch up on her Daring Do reading, neither Spike nor Twilight were certain. Still, as long as the pegasus quietly stayed on stairs lost in her own thoughts, they didn’t really mind. She was paying little attention to the two of them, other than throwing in the occasional remark... although being Rainbow Dash meant even when she was quiet, she seemed to fill the room with her presence.
The two were at that point going through the fine print of the communication spell down to the tiniest detail; Twilight making sure every rune was perfectly drawn, while Spike stood back and bit at his claws in anticipation. How exactly an otherwise boring morning had turned out like this was beyond him, but he was still trying to control his excitement, and hence such in depth reasoning was out of the question.
“Alright Spike,” Twilight said at last as she lowered the book to the floor, her eyes falling on the jumpy dragon. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Duh!” was the loud reply, the young dragon’s teeth chattering with excitement.
Wordlessly, Twilight smiled, closed her eyes, and allowed her horn to begin to spark, the magic filling the room with an eerie glow and causing the former white runes to glow pink-purple. The unicorn’s muscles began to tense with the effort as she poured her magic into the spell, silently following the incantation as a young dragon and a pegasus watched on.
At last she began to lower her horn to the bowl, the final part of the spell as Spike knew, which was to enchant the water with pure magical energy.
“Come on Twilight!” Spike whispered to himself, claws clenched as the anticipation. “You can do this.”
What happened next, however, wasn’t what anypony had expected, and it was definitely not what Spike had wanted to happen.
Just as Twilight’s horn touched the glistening surface of the water, there was a loud knock at the door, a knock not only loud enough to spook a former highly concentrating, spell-wielding Twilight, but to also cause a surprised hoof to scrape over one of the chalk ruins.
Two words rebounded in Spike’s head a moment before all madness broke loose in the library.
“Oh great!”
In a single heartbeat the spell went out the window, but the immense energies which Twilight had summoned didn’t follow suit. As the magical energies freed themselves from the confines of the spell, they discharged as a massive pulse, giving off a brilliant purple light in their wake, so bright and intense that it temporarily blinding Spike, Rainbow Dash, and whoever was unfortunate enough to be the one opening the door at the time.
Whoever they were, they gave out a surprised cry in alarm as an almighty bang shook the library shortly after, the blast subsequently throwing Spike backwards into the wooden stairwell.
Spike snarled, feeling pain despite his steel-like scales.
Within a few moments though the light vanished, and, once his pain died down enough, Spike jumped to his feet and darted forward into the mass of books that now awaited him.
“Twilight!”
“Sp... Spike!” came her shaky voice, the dragon realizing at last that the unicorn had, during the explosion, been equally thrown back against one of the library bookcases. Her purple coated body was now half covered in a pile of books.
Hastily he began throwing them off of her, and Dash quickly flew over and joined in the effort, the two at last freeing Twilight from the paper prison of classical literature and helping the mare to her shaky hooves. Twilight, for her part, seemed a little shaken and dazed, but was otherwise unscathed from the event.
The library though was in a little worse condition; countless books now lay strewn around the place, and the loose pages of which floated through the air here and there, somewhat as they did when Rainbow Dash made a surprise crash entrance on the odd occasion.
“Ugh…” came a slightly slurred voice, making the three to turn and see a mildly stunned Applejack standing in the open doorway, an upside down basket and a bunch of scattered apples beside her.
“Some welcome in ah' get then… everypony in here ok?” she finally asked, straightening her skewed hat.
“I think so, Appleja…”
Twilight cut herself off as she realized exactly what, or rather who, was now in the room along with them, although it still took her a few moments for the sight to sink in, despite the fact she was looking straight at it.
At last Spike, and everypony else, realized what had happened as well, but even Dash couldn’t find words to describe what they were all seeing.
The main room floor of the library was in a state similar to a tornado’s path to say the least. What had made the unicorn stop talking and caused her eyes to widen, however, wasn’t the state of the floor, but rather the fact there were now three young dragons lying unconscious amongst it.
Everypony in the room was completely silent for a few moments, all trying to mentally process that what their eyes were seeing was actually a reality... which was the library now looked like a war-zone, and Spike was no longer the only dragon in the room.
In Spike’s personal and unvoiced opinion, the three seemed strangely different and less barbaric than the dragons he had met before. Although he could only really go from appearance at this point, considering they were all unconscious.
The largest of the three was a bit bigger than he was, had deep purple scales, and possessed a golden underbelly, wings, horns and frill. Judging by the dragon’s body proportions, muscular build, and Spike’s formerly regrettable meetings with his own kind, he guessed it was male, a guess which made him feel a little uneasy.
With a quick glance he concluded the other two dragons, a deep violet and a bright pink, were both young females; the darker dragoness had a pointed face, red wings, underbelly, and short silver-grey pointed horns, which matched a few stray pieces of mean-looking silver jewellery she was wearing.
The pink dragoness, on the other claw, had a soft set face, golden underbelly and horns, possessed pink-purple wings that matched her frill, and wore a golden heart-pendant that hung around her neck; Spike couldn’t help but smirk when he examined her, he had never guessed he’d ever lay eyes on such a ‘girly’ looking dragon in all his life.
Upon completing his examination of the three he found himself caught somewhere between being overjoyed, and scared out of his scales.
One the one claw, he couldn't help but feel happy that a chance to meet some dragons he could possibly befriend, and maybe learn from, and literally been dropped in front of him. Plus the three dragons before him looked 'roughly' his age as well, which was an added bonus, though again that was just an assumption for the time being.
The obvious downside that was biting into his tail, however, was the fact that one way or another he would have to explain why they were now in Equestria. Considering that he was partly at fault for said occurrence, there was no doubt in his mind that it wouldn’t exactly go down easy.
“Uh… Twi,” Applejack asked, breaking the grand reign of silence as she gingerly took a step inside, her gaze darting around the library before resting on her friend. “What exactly… just happened?”
Given what had just happened, Spike guessed his morning couldn’t get any weirder.
But, regrettably, as he found out a moment later, he was far wrong; it seemed that he had momentarily forgotten how bad Twilight’s mood swings could be when something went bad for her, and right now, things were far worse then bad.
“I was casting a spell when somepony decided to knock on my door,” the frazzled unicorn said angrily as she came to, glaring daggers at a still confused, and now insulted Applejack. “And thanks to said somepony, I now have three dragons and a wrecked library to deal with!”
Spike and Rainbow took a single worried look between each other before wordlessly intervening, and not a moment too soon. Rainbow darted forward and filled the space between the fuming unicorn and now frightened farmpony, while Spike took a firm grip of Twilight’s tail and pulled her backwards, images of a certain doll and be-crazed Twilight springing to mind.
The mare yelped in pain and shot him a glare as a reward for his brave action; Spike just thanked Celestia she didn’t buck him in the face then and there.
“Spike, let go of me. Now!”
“Twilight, you need to calm down! Like right now!” Dash snapped firmly, stamping her front hooves into the floor. “This wasn’t anyponys’ fault, and blaming AJ won’t fix the issue either!”
“And Twilight all you’re… doing... is making yourself more angry… and stressed out,” Spike put in between pants of effort, not loosening his death grip on Twilight's tail. “And you know how you act when get stressed… right now is basically… a perfect example.”
Twilight snorted in reply to their comments, and continued to struggle like an angry manticore with a thorn in its backside, the look of anger in her eyes resulting in Spike wishing even more that he had never gotten up from be this morning, or asked about the stupid book.
“Please Twi… ah… ah didn’t mean for nothin' bad to happen,” Applejack said weakly from behind Rainbow, her head slowly peeking out from the protection of Dash’s wings. “I’m so sorry, Twilight.”
It took a few moments, but at last the temperature in the room dropped a few hundred degrees as Twilight came around, still looking downright annoyed, but at least no longer content to vent her rage at a shaken Applejack.
For a few moments she just took deeps breaths and eventually returned to normal, shaking her head in frustration, but seemingly somewhat calm again, while Dash let out a sigh of relief.
“Sorry everypony… but… this… this is serious,” she said finally, body literally going into nervous shakes. “Oh Celestia, what have I done… I’ve brought dragons to Equestria… no, I’ve brought dragons to Ponyville! This is even worse!”
Spike sighed and face clawed himself; if there was one pony in Equestria who made a professional habit of blowing things out of proportion, it was Twilight Sparkle.
Besides, she was making it sound like Ponyville wasn't already a magnet for all matter of Tartarus.
“And you going into a nervous breakdown won’t change that, Twilight,” Spike said as he put a gentle claw on her shoulder, the mare's shakes slowly subsiding. “Look… how about we find somewhere to put them for now while we clean up this place… then, if it helps... I’ll do the initial introducing and explaining, and you go find us some gems, maybe some fresh air will help you calm down a little bit.”
“Yeah, you need it Twilight,” Dash chuckled, smirking and nuzzling her friend affectionately. “No offense, but you were really going off back there.”
“And Twi… I guess it was kinda my fault,” Applejack put in, slowly approaching the formally eccentric unicorn until they were side by side. “So it’s only fair I help ya out, after all it’s what good friends do, right?”
The only reply she gave was a single nod. Still, considering everything, Spike guessed that it was a good sign by anyponys’ account.
A small spot of light flooded Ember’s black vision as she awoke from her sleep. Filtering through her closed eye lids, it quickly began pulling the young dragoness from the pleasantries of her dreams, and back into the world of the awake.
Grudgingly, she followed it back through the darkness and allowed her body to rise from its otherwise peaceful deep slumber. Her muscles gently tightened and relaxed as she happily shifted in her bed, her blood beginning to flow around her body... or rather, gently up until her eyes slowly flicked open, and she realized it wasn’t her bed that she was in.
“Where… am I?”
The dragoness’s question was greeted by, and answered with, an unlikeable wave of silence, a silence that made her pink scales itch with unease.
Pushing her now building fear down to her gut she rolled onto her back, and then sat up from the soft bed, being careful not to tear the blankets with her claws. Her sapphire blue eyes quickly began running around the strange and unfamiliar room she now suddenly found herself in, for some unknown and as of yet unexplained reason.
The room was a rough circle in shape, with the door and bed she was currently lying in at opposite ends, the wooden floor between the two covered by a round mat that was various shades of purple, plus a large woven basket. Upon one side of the room was a mirror-bearing dresser that had been painted purple, and bore a wide variety of items, a wall rack bearing what looked to be some pieces of strange clothing, and lastly a small book case that was physically stacked to the point of being more book then case.
On the opposite side of the room was a glass doorway which led out to an open balcony, beyond which seemed to a tree top and the cloudless blue sky.
“Ok… this is just a little weird,” she muttered softly to herself, slipping out of the bed’s embrace before cautiously making her way around the room to examine it further, stopping for only a moment to make sure she still had her necklace
Ember guessed whatever creature lived here was roughly her size, as the dresser just came to her chest, and the ceiling was barely double her height, a fact which somewhat put her mind at ease. She also doubted it was a dragon that lived here, as literally everything was made of wood; unless a dragon wanted to risk waking up one morning in a pile of ash, they didn’t build from wood, under any circumstance.
Still, she admitted the place was nice enough and extremely well kept above all else, like the occupant was for some reason on a constant cleaning crusade. Other than that... the only thing she thought of the unknown occupant was the urge to burn them.
“Strange…” she murmured aloud with shake of her head, her tail flicking as she walked in circles around the room. “I wonder what lives here…”
Her half wondered and half voiced question was answered by the creaking open of the door, the sudden sound causing the pink dragoness to spin around, and lower her horns in ready to charge at whomever or whatever ended up coming in. When she saw who her presumed captor was, however, she stopped and quickly became much more curious then angry.
The creature that stepped through the door was a dragon after all, and what was more they looked about her age as well, although she didn’t recognize them as one of her friends, or any other dragon she’d ever met.
She couldn’t judge their gender from the back, but the dragon had purple scales that were a little lighter than Spyro’s, deep green spikes that traced its back, walked on its hind legs, and strangely had no wings to speak of.
She at last noticed the other dragon had a small bowl grasped in their claws, although the contents she couldn’t make out, which made her a little suspicious.
A thousand new questions sprang to Ember’s mind, but she didn’t, however, get the chance to ask any of them before the new dragon turned around. Ember's muscles tensed as she met the other dragon's green eyes with her own.
There were a few moments of awkward and tense silence as they traded odd looks with each other, Ember’s tail twitching rapidly and her claws drawn, just in case they were needed. At last though the newcomer dragon slowly lowered the bowl to the floor, and pushed it forward like it was a peace offering, revealing to Ember that it was filled to the brim with what resembled sliced fruit.
“I thought you might be hungry when you woke up,” the dragon offered as he stepped back, his voice revealing him to be a male. “B-but we didn’t have any gems left… I’m Spike, by the way.”
Ember simply eyed Spike curiously for a few moments while her tail continued to flick, not entirely sure of what she thought of him and the current situation she was in; he didn’t seem bad by any means, if anything, in her own opinion, he came across from first impressions as quite nice compared to most male dragons, but there were still a lot of questions that were yet to be answered, and hence final thoughts of him were far from decided.
“I’m Ember,” was her short but gentle reply, the pink dragoness trying to sound friendly, and making sure her sapphire blue eyes never left his own emerald ones. “Now can you please tell me where I am exactly? And why I’m here?”
She saw Spike bite his lip and scratch his purple neck scales, the usual reaction a dragon gave to show they were nervous about something.
“Well… you’re currently in Ponyville library, as to why you’re here is a bit… complicated… other than that I can’t really tell you much to be honest. Twilight tried to explain the arcane cross-dimensional transition theory to me once, but I really didn’t understand any of it… to put it simply you’re here because a spell went wrong.”
For a moment she just gave him a blank stare that basically said ‘the arcane cross-what now?’, he guessed she didn’t really get magic that much either.
“It’s a long story; if you want answers, you’re better off asking Twilight,”
“…who’s Twilight?” she eventually asked, mulling mentally over the name that was kind of cute, but probably not dragon.
“She’s a pony… or well, technically, she’s a unicorn…"
Ember blinked and tilted her head. "What's a pony?"
"Oh, well, umm, they're really furry, they walk on four legs, and... ugh, tell you what; it's be better if wait a little while and see for yourself."
"Well, alright, if you're sure."
"Don't worry, Twilight will tell you everything you want to know, she's really smart like that... and just so you know, she's kind of like my big sister I guess.” Spike replied with an embarrassed shrug, the rapidly growing redness in his cheeks causing Ember to let out a giggle.
Slowly, the tension in the air died away, and both dragons at last relaxed a little, both accepting that neither one wanted to harm the other, although the concept of ‘friends’ was still a little stretched as of yet even by Ember’s terms. Spike was actually silently surprised for his part; Ember had neither insulted nor judged him when it came to his unusual relationship with Twilight, or if she had at least she wasn’t making it obvious to him.
It was then the pink dragoness decided, as always when it came to meeting new dragons, to take the initiative, and in silence she slowly stalked forward and approached her purple counterpart, tail flicking with interest as she crossed the room to where he was standing.
Spike instinctively tensed up, and backed up against the wall for a moment when she came closer and lowered her head to him, believing she perhaps wanted to brawl with him, as the other dragons he met before had. His adrenaline levels relaxed, however, and he even became a little embarrassed, when she began running warm pink snout over his scales to examine him, forcing him to bit his lip to avoid letting out a wave of ticklish laughter.
“You smell funny,” she giggled at last as she stepped back a little, causing his purple face scales to glow deep red. “But not in a bad way… kind of like some really old books.”
“I live in a library, so I guess it’s to be expected,” Spike shrugged, pausing for a moment as he saw just how bright and captivating her blue eyes were. “…But anyway… you know, you’re actually taking this all pretty well, a lot better than that other dragon did.”
Ember stopped smiling and raised a curious eyebrow, a wordless demonstration of her confusion at the male dragon’s statement.
“Uh… that violet dragoness,” Spike shuddered, rubbing the back of his head, which was still rather sore as he recalled the slightly traumatic experience of a few minutes prior. “Yeah… the first thing she did was start snarling and growling at me when I told her everything.”
For the first time since they had met, Ember grew angry; her anger however was not directed at Spike, but rather the dark scaled dragoness, who was to say the closest thing Ember had to a proper enemy.
Still, Spike felt like he was somehow stuck in the firing line none the less.
“Cynder,” she hissed, the name leaving her tongue like it tasted bad as she stared down at Spike. “Where is she?”
“Tch, I swear these creatures are even more weird then those armadillos,” Cynder hissed to herself, bladed tail slashing at the air as she looked through random book after random book. “All this… love and affection? Seriously?”
The black-purple dragoness was far from being in a good mood, and that was considering most creatures she came across mistook her ‘being in a good mood’ for ‘don’t come anywhere near me’. She didn’t really mind or care what others thought of her though, she had been both blessed and cursed with dark magic, and hence anyone who dared to insult her usually did so only once.
At that moment she was both seething as well as just about bored out of her scales, staring blankly at another example of illegible pony literature while her mind pondered over the last few hours, and how exactly she had come to be in this most unlikable situation.
“And It’s all because of that unicorn and that annoying hatchling!” she snapped to herself, slamming the book she had been looking through closed before hurling it across the room.
For a few moments after she did nothing other than sit and stare out a nearby window with her fangs bared, so tempted and yet not daring to go examine the strange world outside; she could deal with just about anyone and anything aggressive that got in her path, but a world full of bubbling happy equines, who would either want to meet and befriend her or run away screaming? That was not on her list.
“Grrr, could this situation actually get any worse?” She snarled, dragging her talons over the wooden floor.
“Cynder, Stop that!”
A moment after she heard that voice, she groaned and her head painfully hit the floor; things had just gotten a lot worse.
“You've got to be kidding me?”
That voice, Cynder knew, belonged to perhaps the dragoness she despised of the most. The dragoness who in her opinion belonged here in this disturbingly lovey-dovey world rather than in any one of the Dragon Realms.
Hoping against hope, she turned her head and stared up at the wooden flight of stairs, and sure enough Spike and the bright pink, usually-happy nightmare known as Ember were coming down them together, bright blue eyes glaring daggers at her.
“Oh joy,” Cynder hissed dryly, raising her head before banging it down on the floor again. “Now I’m stuck with both a pain in the tail hatchling, and you of all dragons, Ember.”
“Cynder... can you ever even try to be nice?” Ember snapped as she reached the bottom of the stairs, or rather snapped as best she could considering there wasn’t a mean bone in her. “Besides, if you actually took a closer look you’d see Spike’s our age.”
“I really don't care about how old he is Ember, or anything else you have to say for that matter,” Cynder replied, rising to her claws and casting them both dirty looks. “All I know is that I am not supposed to be here right now, and even if I was, I really don’t want to be here with you.”
Without another word she turned and began stalking away, away being to the opposite side of the library’s main room, where she laid down on the floor again and curled up, laying a wing over her face to show she was no longer interested in talking with either of them.
“Is she always like this?” Spike asked, looking to the pink dragoness.
Ember just sighed softly and face palmed herself, Spike taking the action to mean something along the lines of ‘pretty much’.
“Cynder has some… social and behavioural issues…”
“I HEARD THAT!” the violet dragoness snarled from beneath her wing, Spike and Ember cracking grins at each other at the grumpy female's annoyance. If there was one thing Spike enjoyed now and then, it was getting under somepony’s skin.
“Ah well, unless you want to join us, Cynder, I’ll let you keep yourself occupied,” Spike said as he looked between the two female dragons he was now minding. “I’m going to show Ember around the library from a little while, just so she knows where everything is… so if you don’t want to come... just promise me you won’t go burning anything.”
“I will be making NO such promise,” the dragoness hissed loudly, still hiding her face and now doubt annoyed expression under her wing.
Ember just giggled and shook her head in amusement. Cynder was perhaps the strangest dragoness she knew, but was kind of funny sometimes in such regards... when she wasn’t trying to tear your tail off, mind you.
Leaving Cynder to her own company, Ember briskly followed Spike into the kitchen, her sapphire eyes marvelling at just how ingenious these ponies were despite their apparent lack of dexterous claws. Everything they had fitted the library with, including cupboards, table, draws, and even cooking appliances, had a distinct elegance and amazingly was of pony make, and most of which had a love-heart etched into it somewhere, which personally made it even more appealing to Ember.
“Wow Spike, I can see why you’d want to live with these ponies,” the pink dragoness said happily as she leapt onto a wooden stool at the table, her flicking tail hanging over the side.
“Hehe, If you think it’s cool here, you should see the houses in Canterlot,” Spike chuckled, raiding the pantry for the second time that morning. “It’s the capital city of Equestria, and is basically the ‘place to be’ according to just about everypony you meet.”
“Have you been there?”
“I actually lived there up until about a year and a half ago,” Spike replied, his head momentarily emerging from the pantry’s darkness before returning for another attempt. “Twilight, who you’ll meet once she gets back, is Princess Celestia’s student, and so considering Twilight raised me, I basically grew up between her parent's place and the palace while she was being schooled.”
For a small moment, Ember’s jaw dropped and she nearly fell of her stool in shock, her young mind trying to come to terms with what Spike was saying to her.
“Wait, so you actually personally know the ruler of Equestria?”
“Pfft, know her? I was basically the royal messenger… and actually there’s two rulers, but I don’t really know Luna that well,” Spike chuckled, at last returning from his adventure into pantry-land with a clawful of Sugercube Corner pastries. “Now and then I still get called away on royal business, but otherwise really I just send and deliver messages between Twilight and Princess Celestia… hungry?”
Ember gladly accepted the treats with outstretched claws, and after her first bite she was pretty sure that if this was what the ponies ate, then she’d be more than happy to be stuck in Equestria for a while.
“What is in this stuff?” she asked, using her tongue to wipe a few stray bits from her lips much to Spike’s humour. “It tastes amazing.”
“I don’t know myself, a friend of mine and Twilight’s who works at Sugercube Corner makes them,” he smiled, jumping up on a stool opposite her and tearing into his own. “Her name's Pinkie Pie, and just be aware she’ll be throwing you a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party once she meets you three.”
“Reall- wait, what do you mean by you three?” Ember asked with a raised eyebrow. “There’s only two of us.”
“Actually, there’s only two of you awake… there’s another dragon who was still asleep the last time I checked, purple guy, about your size who’s a little darker than me. You know him?”
Ember cringed on her stool and looked at her claws for a moment. She knew exactly who Spike was referring to, and if she was right he would make the already awkward, and somewhat vicious relationship she had with Cynder even worse.
“Yeah, I know him, his name's Spyro… we’re kind of friends but not friends.”
Spike just looked at her strangely from across the table; the concept of being friends without being friends made absolutely no sense to him, in fact he even doubted it would make any sense to Pinkie Pie, and somehow EVERYTHING seemed to make sense to Pinkie Pie.
“Well, we’re friends…” Ember went on at Spike’s obvious confusion, leaning forward and resting her front claws and her head on the table. “But he and Cynder are kind of going out...”
“And considering you two don’t get along it impedes on your friendship with him?” Spike put in for her, gaining a few short silent nods from Ember in reply. “Look, I kind of know how that feels… I’m not saying Twilight has ever dated a lot, but there has been the odd rare colt now and then, and I’ll admit some of them I didn’t get along with.”
“But did you have a massive crush on Twilight like I did Spyro?” Ember thought bitterly, allowing a small whiff of white smoke to float from her nostrils.
"What's with Cynder anyway?" Spike's voice came, interrupting her thoughts. "I can see why she'd be angry with all of this... but... that angry?"
Ember's blue eyes drifted to the doorway. "I know this sounds strange, but she's not naturally mean, Spike. You see, it's just that, well, she did things in the past that she regrets and wants to move on from, but a lot of others aren't willing to see beyond them and give her a chance to regain herself, so she kind of... just curls herself up in an angry ball sometimes."
If there was ever a better time for the library door to suddenly creak open, and shatter the awkward silence, then Spike had yet to come across it; the sound, mixed with the voices of Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they came in, was literally like a symphony of relief.
What wasn’t sweet music, however, was the loud scream that followed.
“Ok Twilight, just relax,” Dash said gingerly, seeing that despite the fact she was yet to open the door, the unicorn was already hyperventilating. “Spike said he’d talk to them and get them settled in, so all you have to do is explain the finer details.”
“As in how their stuck here in Equestria, with no way of getting home, all because of me?” the unicorn spat at her hovering friend, the pegasus backing off a little at the venom in her friend’s words. “Those finer details?”
Dash nervously scratched the back of her neck with her hoof, feeling tension build under the combined gazes of her two glaring friends.
“Uh… well, yeah.”
“NOT helping Rainbow Dash,” Twilight and Applejack said in unison, Dash muttering a few choice words under her breath.
Gingerly, Twilight turned back to the door of her library, the boring wooden door that just about everypony in town had passed through on multiple occasions. The difference between them, and Twilight’s upcoming entrance, was the fact there were three presumably angry dragons waiting for her on the other side, and her only hopes of salvation from a fiery doom were Spike’s words, and the gems she had stuffed in her saddlebags.
“Ok, calm down Twilight, you can do this,” she told herself mentally, steeling her nerves and taking a deep breath in as she raised a hoof to the door, and pushed it inwards.
The door creaked open and the three trotted in, Rainbow Dash and Applejack still bickering about Dash’s ‘lack of sensitivity’ behind their somewhat brave lavender leader.
The first thing Twilight noticed, and subsequently screamed with horror at, was that a few of her prized books were not only scattered around the floor, but partly torn to shreds, stray pages of priceless information all but destroyed and strewn around a rather scratched up wooden floor. Dash and Applejack both nearly jumped out of their fur coats at the sound and were hurriedly at her side, and a moment later, despite thinking of Twilight as a drama queen, saw the source of her unusual behaviour.
“My books! They’re totally ruined!” she shrieked once more at the tattered cover of one of her spell books.
“Twilight, pull yourself together,” Dash snorted as she rolled her eyes and tapped her front hooves on the floor. “They’re just books for Celestia’s sake.”
Before Applejack could once again congratulate Dash on her far-from-useful-or-reassuring input, something dark stirred in the corner of her vision.
The amber pony immediately recognized it, or, more to the point, immediately recognized her as Spike had informed them earlier. Sitting curled up against the far wall was the formerly unconscious black-purple dragoness, unnervingly shadowy eyes glaring strait at them from under her wing... eyes which were unnervingly similar to Nightmare Moon's.
Or, actually, glaring like a hungry beast predominantly at Twilight.
“You… you're Twilight Sparkle,” she hissed at the unicorn with her sharp fangs bared, red and deep violet wings flaring open as she rose to her claws. “You're the reason I’m here aren’t you? aren’t you?… ANSWER ME TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
Twilight only managed to blink once, and yelp, before the snarling incarnation of anger jumped at her, razor sharp talons apparently looking forward to above all else tearing her deep purple hide apart.
Thankfully, it seemed both Celestia and Luna were watching over her that very moment... or, actually, it was Applejack above all else who saved Twilight’s star-marked flank; before Twilight could even ready her magic, the farm pony spun on the spot, and sent her sledgehammer back legs into the incoming dragoness, hurling the unlucky and already angry dragon into the opposite bookcase.
“YOU WANNA TRY THAT ONE AGAIN MISSY?!” Applejack shouted as she landed, her prior guilt all but forgotten. “'CAUSE NEXT TIME AH’M AIMING AT YA SCALY FACE!”
The dragoness, however, was already back on her claws, shaking the books that had fallen on her from her back and looking roughly twice as angry as before. What was different, however, was that Twilight noticed a kind of dark, pulsating aura forming around her.
“Black magic!”
The words only managed to echo once before the room shook like there was an indoor thunderstorm, and the three ponies ducked to the floor in cover, Applejack’s prior courage seeming to disappear as a blast of shrieking red energy shot right over their heads, and subsequently, as it made contact with the bookshelf and windows directly behind the three mares, caused them to basically explode in a shower of splinters, glass, smoke, and a pile of books that once again buried the three friends.
“CYNDER! STOP!”
The sudden interjection of another voice amazingly, and thankfully, stopped the dragoness dead in her tracks. Cynder’s jaws grudgingly shut themselves a moment before a pair of bright pink and purple blurs charged into her, and drove her back against the wall, the dark aura and magic that had formerly surrounded the angry female disappearing, and being replaced with a prison of pink and purple scales.
“Get off me, Ember!”
Twilight, with Rainbow Dash’s help, rapidly freed herself from her second imprisoning at the wrath of literature that morning, and got to her hooves. First, she looked in a somewhat dazed state around the once again library-turned-battleground, before settling her gaze on the dragoness who had nearly ended her existence, and on the one that had saved her.
To her utter amazement, she was struggling, but firmly pinned against the library wall by Spike and the formerly unconscious pink dragoness, fighting to free herself but to no apparent avail.
“You don't go attacking anyone like that Cynder, whether you're angry with them or not!” the other dragoness snarled, her thicker forelegs, along with Spike’s own strength, at last bringing the thrashing dragon under control. “Just look at what you’ve done to this place! You don’t want to scare everyone here like you did in the Avalar, do you?”
Despite the chaos and fear that had taken over just about every fibre in Twilight’s body, she managed to realize that the pink dragoness literally sounded tone and all like she had a few years ago when she was a teenager, and she meant pretty much perfectly.
The smoke had quickly cleared due to the shattered windows, but the library was still a literal wreck for Cynder to see, and as the sight brought back painful memories of who she used to be... memories of what he had warped and twisted her into. The violet dragoness’s anger finally faded away, and within a heartbeat was replaced by guilt.
She had once again let her past and her dark powers get the better of her.
Ember continued to glare at Cynder, and hold her firmly until the violet dragoness at last calmed down, only then did she let her go and slowly back away, with Spike, somewhat nervously, doing the same; they were far from friends, but Ember knew Cynder hated what she had been and done, and also knew that a small, and somewhat ugly reminder was usually enough to bring some sense back to her.
“Ugh, why does this always seem to happen?” Cynder hissed sourly, looking at the destruction she had caused with obvious disgust.
“It’s ok, you just need to learn how to control your temper is all,” Ember offered as she nuzzled the other dragoness softly on the cheek. Cynder growled, not exactly liking the action from someone she mostly disdained, but still glad for the support. “Now say you’re sorry.”
Cynder once again growled in annoyance, but turned her attention to the three ponies who were now standing near the door, each looking between Spike, and the totally different personalized dragonesses in utter confusion.
Eventually, Twilight shook some sense into her head, swallowed her fear as best she could, and took a brave step forward, trading unsure looks with a statue-like Cynder. The dragoness didn’t move in the slightest, but eyed the unicorn curiously, while Dash and Applejack watched on from a safe distance, both mares unsure of just what to do.
“I'm not happy you've brought me here, Twilight Sparkle, but... I'm sorry for the destruction and fear I've caused you and your friends,” Cynder said, stern eyes not leaving Twilight’s own. “My name's Cynder.”
“Uh… hi Cynder,” Twilight managed to say, her tail just about as far between her legs as possible; she had heard of black magic, but to see it was something totally different and frightening. “And… it’s ok I guess, I can understand why you're angry at me… oh, and this is Rainbow Dash and Applejack.”
Cynder nodded at the two in acknowledgement, but said nothing in reply, rather stepping backwards against the bookcase, so the space between her and Twilight was occupied by the solid, and now happy pink form of Ember.
The two dragonesses nodded at each other, and the tension finally headed elsewhere. The room had at last returned to somewhat normal stillness, and everypony sighed to themselves in relief at that.
Once her heart rate had come down to manageable level, Twilight turned to the pink dragoness who was standing beside Spike, the creature to her amazement looking like an exact draconic version of Pinkie Pie.
“I guess I should thank you for saving our flanks,” Twilight smiled sheepishly, the pink dragoness giggling in reply while Cynder hissed and rolled her eyes in the background. “I’m Twilight.”
“That’s ok, I just know Cynder can lose it sometimes when she gets angry; I’m Ember,” Ember smiled, leaning forward and sniffing Twilight’s coat as she had done with Spike. “You smell like… parchment, feathers, and ink.”
“I study a lot,” Twilight blushed, the last ounces of adrenaline leaving her system as she internally gave a sigh of relief, she liked Ember a lot more than Cynder. “So I guess it’s understandable… I take it Spike has explained everything?”
Ember smiled and looked down at a slightly embarrassed Spike, who was playing nervously with his claws. Her right wing extended without warning and abruptly pulled the young purple dragon affectionately again her side, causing him to blush ever more than he already was, and for Dash to whisper something that made Applejack chuckle.
“He’s been nothing less than a great help,” Ember said gladly, nuzzling him on his cheek as she had Cynder, before turning back, her eyes finding their way to the slender horn that protruded from beneath the mare's mane. "So you're... a unicorn, right?"
"Yes, I am." Twilight smiled, albeit a little bashfully at the realization. "Oh, and if you were wondering, Applejack is an Earth pony, and Rainbow Dash is an example of a pegasus pony."
"Pfft, an? I'm the best example of a pegasus pony."
"And the best example of ego." Twilight thought as she rolled her eyes. "Listen, I'm really sorry about all, well, this... are you two alright?"
“I’ll admit I was a little scared when I woke up, but Spike helped me through it, and he said you’d be able to explain why we’re here a little better than he could.”
As could be expected Cynder’s dark eyes fixed on Twilight like a set of arrows trained on a target, once again causing the lavender mare’s gut to fill with fear, and for her to take a few steps back toward her friends, she only hoped that what she was about to say wouldn’t make Ember turn on her as well.
I’m not going to give you all a total rundown on Cynder’s past (if you really want to know Google it) but I have been getting questions as to why she’s here, so I guess I’ll explain.
Cynder is here for matters of romance (between Ember and Spike that is), for matters of Comedy (her sarcastic and grumpy nature makes her fun to play with in such terms) and because if there’s a game character who needs to learn a thing or two about friendship it’s Cynder (as you can tell). Also as you may have noticed she is a lot like Luna both emotionally and socially, so you can expect the two to meet in a coming chapter.
“…So, basically... you’re saying that the three of us are stuck here for the time being?” Cynder said flatly as she stared at the unicorn.
Twilight looked down and proceeded to play with her hooves; she had explained everything to Cynder and Ember, every last detail of the spell she had cast, which had, after a serious of unfortunate and unforeseeable events, landed the three young dragons in Equestria with no quick way of getting home.
Hence with the explaining out of the way, Twilight just sat there beside Applejack and Rainbow Dash while the two female dragons processed what had been said to them, neither moving a muscle as they eyed the three ponies. In her mind’s eye, Twilight looked over just what the two dragonesses would do, and to say the least most of said possibilities weren’t exactly pretty.
What they did end up doing, however, was not what anypony had expected, and what Cynder did was even more random, even by Pinkie Pie’s standards... and when it came to random, Pinkie was the living embodiment of the word.
Cynder actually burst out laughing, and after a moment or two Ember joined in with her own giggling.
“Oh Twilight Sparkle! You should see your face!” the violet dragoness grinned wildly, her bladed tail thrashing while Twilight looked at her with total and utter shock. “Look, I'm not going to eat you for what's happened. I understand how it feels to be responsible for something you didn’t intend to happen… you never wanted to bring us here as you have, so I forgive you.”
Twilight’s mouth just moved up and down a few times, while any words she tried to say failed to materialize beyond the point simple thoughts. Only a few minutes ago Cynder had just about destroyed her library in a fit of uncontrollable, black-magic powered rage, and now that very same dragoness was just sitting there and laughing like an amused school filly.
“I forgive you too, Twilight,” Ember put in, the bright pink dragoness sounding just as happy and joyful as always. “You didn’t mean for anything bad to happen, so there’s no reason for us to be mad at you; besides, I’m pretty sure we’ll find a way home eventually.”
Twilight just shook her head as she tried to make sense of the current situation, looking between Rainbow Dash and Applejack for guidance, but gaining only equally confused looks and shrugs.
It was official to all ponies present, these dragons were crazy.
“Anywayyyy…” Twilight went on sheepishly, a little perplexed as to why Ember still had her wing over Spike. “Since that’s sorted out, I think we’d better discus a few things relating to your time here in Ponyville…”
“You mean where we’d like to stay?” Ember jumped in, catching Twilight a little of guard. “If it’s ok, I’d like to stay here Twilight. I think I’d feel more comfortable with another dragon around.”
She looked down at Spike as she said the last few words, causing his cheeks to glow red and for Twilight’s eyebrow to march upwards towards the crowd of her mane; Ember was either being really friendly to her assistant, or Spike was like some Celestia-sent Casanova to her.
What?
“Note to self,” Twilight thought as she eyed the two of them. “I need keep an eye on this one… for Spike’s sake anyway.”
“And although Ember and I don’t exactly get along…” Cynder started, tearing Twilight’s attention away from her little-brother figure to the deep violet dragoness, who was looking down at her talons as she tapped the floor loudly with them. “I would much prefer to be around my own kind as well if it is possible, and if I'm to guess right I believe Spyro would as well,”
Twilight looked over at Ember, half expecting the pink dragoness to look distressed, grumpy or possibly angry, but all she did however was smile at Cynder; the other dragoness gave a half-hearted return of the gesture to show she still didn’t like her, but at least it seemed they were willing to tolerate each other despite their prior argument.
Again, as Twilight had previously concluded, these dragons were both crazy.
“Well I guess that settles it then Twi,” Applejack chuckled, walking up and giving her friend a firm nudge in the shoulder. “Looks like you’re gonna have yourself a couple ’a houseguests for a while.”
“So it seems,” Twilight sighed, a moment later the bottom of her hoof meeting her face. “And to think I never believed in karma.”
Before she could mutter anything else under her breath, a stair creaked rather loudly, causing everypony and every dragon in the room to turn around in the direction of the stairs.
Gingerly coming down the stairs, and looking in general shocked, was yet another dragon, the third and only male dragon of the three as she remembered from Spike’s prior informing. According to Cynder, his name was Spyro.
Having raised Spike, Twilight could read dragon facial expressions fairly quickly and well, and the look on his face basically said something along the lines of ‘please explain what exactly it is I am seeing here, just so I know I’m not crazy’.
“Uh… hey Spyro!” Ember said as cheerfully as possible given the situation, causing the dragon’s head to rear back in surprise and Cynder to cast her rather unimpressed glare. “What?”
“Ember… may I remind you that he is my mate, and not yours,” Cynder hissed, showing her rather sharp white fangs to the pink dragoness before rising to her claws. “If you had somehow forgotten.”
Spike and everypony else in the room silently winced at the revelation, it seemed the monster known universally as ‘awkward’ wasn’t ready to leave the library just yet.
“And thing’s just got a whole lot more complicated,” Twilight thought bitterly as she face-hoofed again.
While Twilight was occupied with her thoughts, Spike watched the strange scene unfold. He raised an eyebrow as the dragoness, who had a rather unlikable attitude problem, approached her purple male counterpart, gently raising her snout and nuzzling him along the neck as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
At the touch of their scales, Spike felt a quiver pass through Ember’s body, all the way from the tip of her heart-bladed tail to the end of her wing which was draped over him; she really didn’t like the sight for some reason, and he guessed it was jealousy.
Ignoring his embarrassment and nerves, Spike gently raised a claw, and lowered it over Ember’s bright pink shoulders, causing her to look at him oddly for a moment before a broad and beaming smile spread across her face; it seemed a little caring affection meant a lot to the sapphire eyed dragoness.
“If only a move like this would work on Rarity,” Spike chuckled to himself, feeling her muscle and warm scales shift gently underneath his own.
Everypony watched on cautiously as Spyro made his way into the room flanked by Cynder, a curious expression plastered on his face as he silently looked between the Spike, Ember, and the three present colourful ponies. Twilight curiously noted that in terms of body form he was far more like Ember then Cynder, suggesting that they were somehow perhaps of different breeds, as unicorns and pegasi were.
“Well… this is certainly new,” he said as he sat back on his tail, his voice perhaps little bit deeper in tone than Spike’s own. “Now... would someone mind telling me what’s going on... because right now I'm really confused.”
Twilight looked between Ember, Spike, and Cynder, but gained nothing from the three. Groaning to herself as yet again she was stuck with being the bad news bear... although technically it was her spell that had landed them all in the current situation, so she knew she kind of deserved it.
“Well, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and my assistant Spike…and you are currently in my library…”
“Spyro,” he put in as he faced her directly, Twilight watching oddly and slightly uneasily as Cynder’s tail wrapped itself around his own like a snake.
“Right…” Twilight murmured with a slightly disturbed expression. “Anyway…you're currently in the land of ponies known as Equestria, which is ruled over by Princesses Celestia and Luna; as I've already explained to your friends, I'm a unicorn, Applejack is an Earth pony, and Rainbow Dash is a Pegasus. Why you’re here is a…slightly more complicated matter.”
Spyro’s face didn’t change or alter in the slightest and stayed perfectly blank, if he was perhaps surprised, shocked, angry or sad then he was really good at hiding it. “Go on.”
That was when Twilight’s cheeks once again began to sting, and drops of sweat began sliding down her nose, partly due to her embarrassment, and partly because she was scared her purple hide would soon become a rather tasty looking dragon treat.
“Well you see…I cast a spell this morning which was supposed to create a mirror connection between your world and this one, so we could communicate, but... well... there was a disturbance, and the spell went rather wrong. I don’t know the in-depth details, but basically instead of making an equal connection between our two worlds it pulled something from one into the other to compensate for the diversion of energies, in this case... that something being you three,”
“And from what I overheard earlier, you’ve established we’re stuck here for the time being?” he filled in at the end, casting a questioning look first at Cynder and then Ember, both nodding in agreement at his assumption. “Well, personally, this isn’t exactly a likeable situation, no offense Twilight… but I guess realistically it could be a lot worse.”
"Um, worse how?" Cynder asked, glancing at him with an arched eyebrow.
"Cynder, we got pulled into another world; would you prefer somewhere like here or somewhere like Convexity," he answered flatly, prompting Cynder to shudder.
Twilight’s fear at last began to slip away as she, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all gave loud sighs of relief, each silently thanking Celestia that they had once again managed to avoid the potentially unlikable situation of being an angry dragon’s breakfast.
If not for Cynder’s actions, she would have sworn these dragons were even gentler then some ponies.
“These ponies are really nice, Spyro,” Ember jumped in to fill the small span of brooding silence, her sapphire blue eyes looking between the three mares and then Spike. “Besides we’re not the only dragons here either, which is good too.”
Spyro’s face at last became etched with a cheesy smile as Spike’s cheeks once again went as red as roses, although Twilight wasn’t sure if it was due to the fact he was now somewhat relaxed and relieved, or that like her he found the sight rather adorable.
It looked like Rarity might soon have some serious competition on her hooves if she wasn't careful.
“Well, now we’ve established that we’re all… friends… and housemates of sorts,” the lavender pony grinned while her own friends chuckled, levitating Applejack’s, Dash’s and her own saddle bags into the centre of the room before dumping their contents, resulting in the entire floor becoming covered in countless sparkling gems. “Who’s hungry?”
Every dragon in the room started drooling rather profusely at the sight, and unfortunately that was when fate decided to play the cruellest of tricks on everypony and every dragon present, just to shatter the prior peace.
“Oh, I hope Twilight’s home,” Fluttershy thought to herself as she headed through town, the trot of her hoofsteps on the road making the equivalent amount of noise as she did at times; virtually none.
Given normal circumstances, Fluttershy rarely asked her friends for help when it came to her animals, but right now she had a dire crisis on her hooves... or what she personally believed was a dire crisis anyway; earlier that day, she had come across a manticore who’s tail barb had been severed in a fight with another of his kind, and although it was perhaps a ludicrous idea, she wanted to know it were possible by magic to grow him another one.
And the only unicorn who would possibly know the answer to said question was Twilight.
“I just hope she can help,” the pegasus thought to herself, looking out at the approaching distance and seeing the Ponyville library growing larger.
On arrival at the unicorn’s doorstep, however, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks and put her ear to the door; she wasn’t a peep, and didn’t like delving into other ponies' matters, but she could hear voices that she didn’t recognize coming from inside, voices that made her both curious and strangely a little unnerved.
Two were apparently female and one was male by her thoughts, one sounding a little like a younger version of Twilight, while the others were unlike anypony she knew, both fairly deep toned and more harsh set. They didn’t sound unpleasant, but were merely in the middle of a conversation, one which exact words were beyond the yellow mare’s ability to hear.
“Maybe I shouldn’t…” she started nervously as she took step back from the door. A moment later, however, she dug her hooves in and shook her head free of all doubt. “No, be confident with yourself Fluttershy, I came here for a good reason… besides… whoever these ponies are, if they’re friends with Twilight then they should be nice, right?”
With that she pushed all fear from her mind, raised her hoof, knocked on the door three times, and then headed inside.
“Twilight, I…”
Fluttershy literally froze on the spot as her mind processed what she was seeing, and as soon as she did every single muscle in her body fear-locked into a state of being solid rock, her vision turning tunnel in a heartbeat.
There, standing before her on the opposite side of the room, with drooling jaws and hungry expressions were three dragons... three very hungry looking dragons, with ivory white fangs, razor-sharp claws, thrashing tails, and blood thirsty eyes staring down Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash like they were about to make snacks out of them.
In her state of pure terror, Fluttershy did the only possible thing she could bring herself to do...
... She screamed, and bolted out the door as fast as her wings could carry her like Rarity fleeing a dirty shirt, raising the warning alarm to everypony she came across in her fear-blinded flight through Ponyville.
“DRAGONS IN THE LIBRARY! THEY’RE ABOUT TO EAT MY FRIENDS! HELP!”
Sorry about the lateness of this chapter guys, I had to write a double chapter for Final Fantasy so I needed a day off to put my brain back together afterwards.
“What was that all about?” Cynder asked with confusion, looking between the now wide open door, and the three obviously horrified ponies in the room with her; judging by her expression, Twilight far more so than the others. “So is this… bad?”
The pony’s eyebrow twitched menacingly before she basically launched herself at Cynder, digging her hooves in so their faces were a hair's-width from each other, while everypony else rapidly jumped out of the way.
“Is this bad? IS THIS BAD?! THIS IS CATASTROFIC!” Twilight basically screamed in the dragoness’s face. “That pony was Fluttershy, the one pony in Equestria who is absolutely terrified of dragons above all else… AND SHE JUST SAW YOU THREE LOOKING AT US AND DROOLING LIKE A PACK OF HUNGRY TIMBERWOLVES!”
“So… it’s bad then?” Cynder replied rather sarcastically, pulling her head away with a flare of her nostrils as if Twilight had bad breath.
The purple mare snorted in reply a moment before her face turned deep red and her eyes began to flame. Everypony knew that if there was one mare who you DIDN’T want to get on the bad side of, and especially when she was stressing out, it was Twilight Sparkle; the purple unicorn actually looked about ready to tear Cynder limb from limb with her bare hooves as she quickly removed the gems from the floor, and swore repeatedly under her breath.
“It’s a little worse than bad, sugercube,” Applejack put in with an uneasy grin as she closed the door, trying her best to act composed and hence bring the temperature down. “Ya see… since Fluttershy saw ya drooling like a bunch ‘a wolves, she probably thought you were trying ’a make a meal out of us.”
Spike swore he could actually see the colour drain from his three counterpart’s face scales, as they each finally connected the dots on what had just transpired, realizing that due to their actions the situation of them accidently being in Equestria had suddenly gone extremely pear-shaped; not only had they accidently frightened the daylights out of a pony, but said pony would no doubt inform the entire town three potential threats to pony-kind's safety were in the library, and there was a high chance she would also mention her accidental assumption that they were trying to eat somepony.
“This is really bad, isn’t it?” Ember said with a sigh and a pink face-claw, two of the three ponies in the room giving uncomfortable nods of affirmation to her statement.
“Oh boy,” Rainbow somewhat snickered in amusement from a few meters above the floor, whipping her front hoof over her forehead as she spoke to emphasize her point. “You have no idea.”
Her idea of trying to put a little bit of a humorous spin on the situation rewarded her with hateful glares from Applejack, Spike, and Twilight, and annoyed ones from Cynder and Spyro. Rainbow’s cheeks immediately blossomed crimson as she played with her hooves; as this day had proved so far, thinking before speaking wasn't one of her strong points.
“Look, let’s just get a plan before anything else,” Spike interjected as he tried to pull everyone together, all the while still trying to comfort a very uneasy looking pink dragoness, neither of which were going particularly well for him. “How about you three hide up…”
To say the door flew off its hinges was an understatement. Rather, the door was ripped clean off the wall, and sent flying like a meteor across the room, before slamming into the bookshelves, forcing Spyro jump out of the way to avoid being flattened.
Spike immediately jumped protectively in front of Ember, while Spyro and Cynder readied to face whoever and whatever pony had come to confront them.
Unfortunately, said pony was a little more than they had initially hoped or bargained for.
Standing in the doorway, much to Applejack’s horror, was the massive crimson shape of her older brother, either side of him flanked by two other members of the Ponyville stallion community, said stallions being her cousin Caramel, and the pegasus Thunderlane. The massive red stallion’s head was lowered, with his nostrils flaring wildly, and his dinner-plate sized hooves pawing at the ground like field ploughs.
All the while he stared down the rather unlucky dragon directly in his line of fire, which just so happened to be a snarling and equally angry looking Cynder.
“Now Mac, just stop and lis…” Applejack started.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get the chance to finish before he started his charging, making short work of the space between himself and the violet dragoness who he was aiming for, and bowling over Rainbow Dash as she tried, and subsequently failed, to stop him. Likewise, Caramel bolted straight at Ember, while a dark grey streak shot directly for Spyro.
Cynder just stood there grinning, while Ember and Spyro bared their fangs.
Everything slowed before the farm pony’s eyes as the stallion's front hooves hit the brakes, and his momentum carried his back hooves around in a wide arc. The two shot out like crimson sledgehammers, making an almighty loud crash as they met and subsequently destroyed… the bookcase?
A loud chorus of “HUH?” rocked the library as Twilight, Dash, Applejack, and her brother cried in alarm, dumbstruck as they looked around and realized that the dragoness, who had been there only a moment ago, had disappeared into thin air... which didn’t make any sense whatsoever, considering all possible exits were basically blocked off by ponies.
And yet her shadow was still somehow present exactly where she had been standing.
Twilight used the moment of confusion to bring him under control, using her magic to capture the stallion who had made her already upside down morning even worse.
“Alright! Everypony calm the hay down!” she snapped loudly, holding the large struggling pony in her purple aura a meter or so above the ground. “This is my library, and so help me Celestia I am NOT cleaning up another mess today!”
When he finally stopped kicking and calmed down a little, the mare took a good look around the room, and her jaw actually fell open in shock as she realized what had transpired with the other two dragons.
Ember was still standing beside the kitchen doorway with Spike, but the rather happy looking purple dragon and bright pink dragoness now had Caramel pinned firmly to the wooden floor as he struggled at their mercy. The case beside the stairs was fairly similar in all, with Spyro having the grey pegasus stallion, Thunderlane, pressed firmly against the floor under his weight as he sat perched comfortably on the pony’s back, looking rather smug with himself.
“Where the hay did you learn to do that?” Rainbow grinned, looking between the rather relaxed purple dragon and the struggling pegasus underneath him.
“We’ve had our fair share of adventures of the years,” Spyro grinned as he looked over at Ember and her quarry. “Plus it’s kind of a dragon thing to play-fight when you’re young… wasn’t exactly a great idea to try that one, huh?”
“Shut up!” Thunderlane snapped, before blushing as both Rainbow Dash and Twilight laughed at him, and then yelped as Spyro pushed his talons into the base of his neck a little.
“Now just what in tarnation is going on here exactly?”
The two mares removed their attention from the struggling pegasus, and refocused it on Applejack’s older brother. He was still encased in Twilight’s magic, suspended halfway between the ceiling and the floor, and looking downright annoyed with his front hooves crossed.
Rainbow snickered behind a cyan hoof while Applejack gave him a cheesy grin from underneath the brim of her hat; if only one of them had a camera.
“You decided to act first and ask questions later, you giant oaf,” came a rather amused female voice, a living, breathing Cynder leaping out of her shadow with a toothy grin. “You’re just lucky I said I wouldn’t hurt anyone, otherwise I would've kicked you oversized furry butt.”
The crimson Apple looked as if he was about ready to buck the dragoness halfway to Canterlot if given the chance.
“Yes, that is basically the case, Big Mac, you acted without asking questions, which as I should point out has never done anypony any good,” Twilight said, looking over the number of flabbergasted local ponies, including Fluttershy, who was hiding as best she could behind Cherilee. “Ugh… now how do I get myself out of this mess?”
Luckily, Twilight’s brain had never failed her before.
“Um, hehe… look everypony, this is all just a big misunderstanding. These dragons are just some of Spike’s friends from the migration come to visit for a while…”
If Applejack had been a member of the crowd then, she’d have picked Twilight’s lie apart just as well as Rarity could pick good quality fabric from cheap cotton. At that point though, Applejack was, like Twilight, pretty much praying to Celestia that the ponies fell for it.
By the grace of the princesses, after a hesitant moment or so, they did, and soon enough the crowd disbanded, the various members muttering profusely under their breaths about their wasted time.
“…But Fluttershy, I want you to stay for a few moments,” Twilight ended before the mare in question could escape, prompting a nervous ‘Eep’ from the still concealed shy pegasus. “And Cherilee, you can too if you want, Big Macintosh needs to hear a few things while he’s here.”
The school teacher simply nodded and gave a scold to her still magically suspended coltfriend.
A few minutes passed before any pony or dragon said a single thing, all of them waiting until they knew it was safe to talk and continue, before breathing long sighs of relief and wiping the copious amounts of sweat from their brows.
“That was too close,” Ember said with a shake of her pink head as the last of the outside voices disappeared, jumping off of Caramel’s back with Spike and allowing her quarry to shakily get to his hooves. “Sorry about tha…”
To everyone's surprise, the stallion immediately bolted out the door at the first opportunity, his cheeks looking as red as ripe apples.
“…Did I really scare him that bad?” Ember asked.
Applejack just burst out laughing. “Na, it ain’t you sugercube,” she chuckled. “He’s probably just afraid I’ll give him a verbal kicking for making a fool of himself and being outdone by a girl, plus... I think he has a thing for Twi here, so that really don’t help either.”
The mare in question’s cheeks turned bright scarlet as Rainbow wolf-whistled, and everypony else looked in her direction; if this morning could possibly get any more awkward, embarrassing, or weird, then Twilight guessed this was some kind of giant prank put on by Pinkie Pie.
“Anyway…” Twilight said somewhat sheepishly as she turned around and faced the three dragons before her, Ember and Spike once again chatting, whilst Cynder licked her talons, and Spyro continued to hold Thunderlane. “Everypony, this is Ember, Cynder, and Spyro… and Spyro, you can probably let Thunderlane up now as well.”
A wide smirk spread across the dragon's face as he slowly stepped off of the annoyed pegasus pony. The stallion instantly jumped to his hooves, and immediately began checking his dark coloured coat for any marks, apparently barely taking any notice of the two purple and violet dragons, who were still standing right beside him with a look of ‘what by the fire of Ignitus are you doing?’ covering his faces.
“Well, you certainly didn’t do my looks any favours,” he snorted angrily as he turned back to Spyro, the five mares in the room all face-hoofing at the stallion’s stupidity saturated statement; he had three dragons standing in front of him and all he could notice was the condition of his hide. “Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I was on a date with Blossom before I got dragged into this nightmare.”
Without another word, he jumped into the air and sailed out the doorway just about as fast as his wings could carry him, leaving five mares, four dragons and a magic-imprisoned floating red stallion in his wake.
“Well that was kind of rude,” Ember said dryly as she sat back on her hind legs and looked over at Applejack, who was standing beside her and watching as Twilight gently lowered her brother to the floor and released him. “Applejack, are all the males of your kind so… weird?”
“Apparently only the pegasi stallions and the ones I’m related too,” Applejack chuckled in reply as she pulled off her hat, the mare seating herself beside Spike and the giggling pink dragoness. “Now big brother, do you have anything to say?”
Every muscle in the stallion's body bulged as he tensed up, his eyes looking frantically between his glaring little sister, equally glaring marefriend, and the mean looking violet dragoness seated in front of him. At last though he let out a sigh of defeat and faced her.
“I’m… sorry for charging at ya like I did, I was under the impression you were trying ‘a hurt my little sister was all.”
Cynder looked at the stallion distastefully for a moment, before Spyro prodded her in the shoulder with his tail; the violet dragoness in turn gave her mate an annoyed growl, before accepting that, like the stallion, she wouldn’t be able to get out of this one, not with him around anyway.
“Just… forget about it,” she muttered with a dismissive wave of her claw. "You were just doing what you thought was right."
The stallion nodded a few times, before turning and returning to his marefriend’s side, his ears and head dropping nervously as she glared at like one of her students who had been misbehaving in class.
“He’s a little protective of his family, as you can tell, and sometimes that protective urge means he doesn’t exactly think straight,” Cherilee stated dryly, causing the already embarrassed farm stallion to lower his head even further. “I’m his marefriend Cherilee by the way, I’m the school teacher here in Ponyville.”
As he retreated from being the centre of attention, the three dragons watched curiously as Rainbow forcefully pushed and shoved another pony before them, despite her furious attempts to escape. This one, as they saw, being the very pegasus who had got them cornered by the local population in the first place.
“Grrr… Flutters, they aren’t going to try and eat you!” Rainbow snorted, her shoulder pushing firmly into Fluttershy’s back in an effort to move her forward, the butter coloured pony in return trying to frantically dig her hooves into the wooden floor.
“I wouldn't go tempting fate,” Cynder muttered under her breath, her dark eyes affixed on the pony who’s fear she found to be annoying above all else
Some things never seemed to change, and Fluttershy’s fear of dragons was one of them, for it took Rainbow at least ten seconds to move her some two meters; eventually, however, she was at last standing before the three seated dragons, though shaking in her metaphorical horse shoes.
Spike backed up to Twilight’s side and watched as Fluttershy put her front hooves over her eyes, like she thought it would somehow mean they couldn’t see her... which worked for all of about five seconds before Ember gingerly took a step toward her, and lowered her snout to the pony’s ear.
“You don’t need to be afraid now,” Ember said softly as she sat down and nuzzled the frightened mare’s cheeks, her touch causing Fluttershy to let out another ‘Eep’. “I promise we won’t hurt you.”
Very slowly, Fluttershy lowered her hooves and came face to face with the smiling pink dragoness, her eyes wandering somewhat nervously over the scaly female’s body until they came to rest on the heart necklace that lay hanging around her neck.
“I’m… Fluttershy,” she whispered, suddenly whimpering behind her mane. The dragoness however just giggled and nuzzled the mare again.
Cynder hissed from the background, just to show she found the show of cute affection mildly repulsive.
“That’s a sweet name Fluttershy, I’m Ember, and these are my friends Spyro and Cynder,” the bright pink dragoness went on with a glance over her shoulder at the other two dragons, Spyro giving the timid pegasus an approving smile while Cynder remained blank faced. “We didn’t mean to frighten you earlier, we were all drooling because we were just really hungry, and Twilight had offered us some gems.”
“It’s ok. I forgive you, and… um… I’m sorry about what happened with the… other ponies.”
Everypony looked judgingly over at Big Macintosh, who once again cringed.
“I think we can overlook that… for a small favour anyway,” Spyro jumped in with a chuckle as he left Cynder’s side, the violet dragoness watching her mate intensely as he took a seat on the floor beside a happily smiling Ember, and looked out at the open doorway. “Tell you what Fluttershy… we’re actually going to be here for a while as it were, and personally if it’s alright I’d like to see Ponyville and stretch my legs… and maybe show everyone we're not here to cause trouble... reckon you and your friends could give us a tour?”
Notes: (For those of you who didn’t read the comment and are still confused)
Ok time to clear a few things up before I confuse everyone majorly
The story is set after the events of dawn of the dragon (Spyro and Cynder are together, Cynder has been forgiven for what she did etc.) and the existence of the Skylands is known but the two aren't really skylanders as of yet. Now although I'm not basing it on the Skylands series I have taken bits and pieces (Cynder’s colour and backstory for instance) for use here and there
Now here is where I need to clarify two major diversions that a lot of you are getting confused with.
Cynder's behaviour: Although Cynder does become likeable and playful in Dawn of the Dragon (When she's not depressed) I'm sticking predominantly to her not-so-nice side for a while (sarcastic, moody, doesn't like being told what to do etc.) simply because having three 'nice' dragons just doesn't make sense to me.
Ember: I know Ember doesn't appear in later games with Cynder, so I'm basing their relationship on their polar attitudes (Ember is rather gentle and a bit of a 'follower', while Cynder is a 'don't get in my way' type) with Spyro caught in the middle as a bit of moderator for the two. Also, in game, Ember's (or rather Tara Strong's) voice gave her impression of being fragile; I'm going with the idea Ember's grown up some just as Spyro has, so she is a bit more confident in herself and her voice is closer to Twilight's own.
To sum it all up this is realistically a mixture but is based after dawn of the dragon, I hope that clears up a few things but if you’re confused and want an answer just ask.
Prior Note: If you haven’t noticed from previous chapters, or played any of the games which feature Ember (I think there’s two), before you read this chapter... I should let you know she is VERY open about her feelings. ................................................................................................................................................................................
Chapter 5: Dragons about Town
The citizens of Ponyville had seen and endured strange events before, so odd occurrences were nothing new to them. In the last year alone their sleepy little town had been submerged in the smoke of a sleeping adult dragon, eaten out of house, home, and everything else by parasprites, literally turned upside down and inside out by Discord. More recently, upon undergoing a sudden bout of greed-growth, it'd even been rampaged by the local librarian’s scaly assistant.
However, despite their prior experiences with all things strange, the local populous still couldn’t, in Spike’s opinion anyway, help staring at him and his new friends as they wandered behind Twilight’s lead; he understood that ponies in general saw very few dragons up close in their lifetimes, let alone those ponies who lived in a small town like Ponyville, but it still made him feel a little uncomfortable, and perhaps even slightly annoyed, at having everypony constantly staring at them.
The tour so far had led them from the library to the town hall, through the bustling market district, and now to the slightly quieter eastern side of town. Rainbow had earlier left the group for cloud clearing duty, whilst Big Macintosh had returned to his family’s apple stand, leaving Cherilee, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Twilight to continue the dragon tourists’ tour of all things Ponyville.
Twilight gladly explained everything, and anything, that they came across, even down to the tiniest detail; Spike also quietly explained to the three newcomer dragons, under his breath of course, that it was no secret that Twilight loved dumping her extensive knowledge on anypony willing to listen.
If they could stay awake through it, that was.
The three dragons responses to Ponyville widely varied; Ember practically soaked in everything around her with the uttermost glee as she walked beside Spike, Spyro would ask the occasional question, but was otherwise locked in conversation with Cherilee about how Equestria was like Avalar, and Cynder mostly just grumbled or bared her fangs at anypony who made eye contact with her, while also trying not to groan at the sights that filled her view.
The colour she hated about all was bright pink, for rather obvious reasons, and for some reason just about everything they came across had some amount of bright pink in it, usually, to her utter annoyance, in the form of love hearts like the one Ember wore around her neck.
The reactions to their appearances in the end varied greatly from pony to pony as well; some simply shrugged and returned to whatever they had been doing prior, while others either gaped, moved a little further across the road, or in the case of a few actually hurried away in apparent terror.
“Are they… always like this?” Ember asked with a shake of her head, turning to Spike for answers after she witnessed a mare hastily pull her curious filly inside their home, and then slam the door shut, the pink dragoness feeling a little hurt at their apparent fear. “I mean... they haven’t even met us, but their already acting like they’re terrified.”
“They’re kind of like that,” Spike sighed with an unknowing shrug of his shoulders. “Zecora got the same reaction when she first moved here, since she’s a zebra and all, but they got over it, and now everypony really likes her… so just give them time to get to know you.”
"Zebra?"
"Zebra's are... eh, ponies who've got black and white stripes." Spike explained simply. "I guess you could generally say Ponyville doesn't always take anything 'new' or 'different' very well."
“Was it the same for you?” Ember asked quietly as she nodded her head to a couple of pink and brown houses, her blue eyes focusing on their shut doors and curtain drawn windows that they walked past. “Since you’re a dragon too.”
“I moved here with Twilight, and on the personal decree of Princess Celestia, so no, it wasn’t the same for me… but if it’s any consolation, I trust you, and I know eventually everypony else will too, I mean I like you and apparently I’m a great judge of character.”
The young dragoness quickly perked up at his words, and couldn't help but giggled a little as a toothy smile spread across her maw; she had met very few dragons in her life that shared a caring and compassionate personality like Spike’s own, and silently wondered to herself if it was actually him, or that fact that he was raised by ponies.
“Hehe, thanks Spike,” she sighed happily, the pink dragoness leaning forward and giving him an affectionate nuzzle on the cheek, prompting his purple scales to glow bright red as he shied away.
Neither dragon realized though that both Fluttershy and Applejack were walking relatively close behind them, and had easily seen the gesture. Both mares shared sly grins beneath their pink manes and hat brims respectively; neither could deny that if couple cuteness had any gauge in a successful relationship, then the two dragons were practically meant for each other.
After another quarter of an hour walking, and an extensive lecturing by Twilight, the all too familiar building that was the group's destination came into view. The sight of it made Spike a little uneasy since he knew exactly who would be unexpectedly waiting inside, and to a greater extent, her presumable and well known reaction to the towns three new scaly residents.
“Just whatever you do… don’t freak out,” Spike cautioned with a slight grimace as he glanced back, drawing a slightly confused look from Ember as Twilight pushed the door open and beckoned the group inwards, the pink dragoness warily following her purple counterpart inside.
The moment Ember stepped inside, and her talons touched the wooden floor, she literally found her nostrils flooded with sweet scents that made her tastebuds tingle and mouth water. The delicious smells were so strong and potent that she had to keep her mouth shut to stop herself from drooling like a hatchling.
The building Twilight had led them into resembled some kind of giant frosted and decorated confectionary, both inside and out, and was according to Twilight somewhat ironically known as Sugercube Corner, the building that Spike had mentioned to her earlier in the library kitchen. In every directed Ember’s view was greeted by glass fronted presentations of the most amazingly decorated sweets, cakes, chocolates, pastries and other delights, the smell of each and every one drifting into the dragoness’s awaiting snout.
The only thing that gladdened Ember more than the displayed treats was the fact they had the entire place to themselves, for the countless tables and chairs seemed to be for some strange reason void of ponies as was the counter.
“I… just… wow.”
“I take it ya’ll like what you’re seeing ha sugercube? Heh, trust me when I say Pinkie’s cooking tastes as darn good as it looks,” Applejack chuckled as she trotted up and gave Ember a soft nudge in the shoulder, everypony and dragon else disbanding around the room. “It’s the main reason this here’s where we have our get togethers now and then.”
“It’s really nice,” Ember replied happily, walking over to examine a presentation of multi-coloured cupcakes, when she recalled Spike had also mentioned something about the sugar-based eatery and its head chef. “By the way, who’s Pinkie?”
A fraction of a second after Ember said the name ‘Pinkie’, the kitchen doors crashed open, and a bright pink blur shot across the room. Said blur quickly materialized into a pony beside Ember, before either the dragoness or anypony else knew what had happened.
“I AM!” came the sing song bubbly voice. “Well actually I’m Pinkie Pi…”
The moment Pinkie realized who and what she was staring at, she gasped, her jaw slackened and her eyes bludged to the rough size of the cakes she made. The sudden change in expression caused the equally bright pink dragoness to take a nervous step backward towards the door.
“Um…hi?”
It was then Ember, Spyro, and Cynder witnessed a lung capacity that would put an adult male dragon to shame.
“OH MY GOSH YOU’RE NEW AND YOU’RE A DRAGON AND YOU’RE PINK AND I DON’T MEAN A LITTLE PINK BUT REALLY REALLY PINK AND THAT’S REALLY COOL BECAUSE I’M REALLY PINK TOO AND I THINK THAT’S WHY THEY CALL ME PINKIE PIE BUT YOU ALREADY KNEW MY NAME SO WHAT YOURS?”
More than a few equine eyebrows twitched, and ears flattened slightly at the unstoppable volley of words that shot from the party pony’s mouth; very few ponies could go through one of Pinkie’s whirlwind introductions, and come out with their minds not overheating.
Ember on the other hoof, to their utter amazement, simply sat back on her tail and went into a burst of giggling, with her pink pony doppelganger quickly doing the same thing... whilst somehow floating in mid-air.
Twilight guessed that if anypony watching hadn’t met the two before, and had judged by appearance and personality, they would have sworn the two were somehow twins. It was more than obvious the two of them would be getting along just fine.
“I’m Ember,” the dragoness replied with a mischievous grin once her fits of giggling departed, a grin that matched Pinkie’s own. “And these are my friends Spyro and Cynder…”
Spyro gave a smile and inclined his head, while Cynder seemed to just stand there with an utterly horrified expression on her face when Pinkie looked and beamed in their directions; here she was thinking Ember was the only annoying bright pink creature in existence, and now not only had she been proven wrong, but the additional pink pain in the tail was even worse than the first one.
“…and sorry about startling you,” Ember said with a touch of embarrassment, her words only drawing more giggles from Pinkie Pie.
“Oh you didn’t startle me silly filly…or silly dragon in your case,” Pinkie said happily as she bounced circles around Ember. “I was just really surprised and happy to see a new face because that means I can throw one of my super-duper awesome ‘welcome to Ponyville’ parties! Anyway, would you like a cupcake?”
As everypony knew, Pinkie's ability to shoot off on random tangents was only matched by her ability to utterly decimate the established laws of physics, this particular case being the sudden pulling of a cupcake out of thin air and holding it on her hoof before Ember’s nose.
For a moment Ember eyed the treat suspiciously, before flicking her tongue out, quickly pulling it into her maw, and devouring it, the dragoness using her tongue to clean any icing that remained on her lips.
If Rarity had been present, she would have fainted at the show of such a total ‘un-ladylike’ behaviour.
“That was amazing!” Ember began, only to look around the room along with everypony else, and find the pink mare had somehow disappeared. “Huh?”
“Where the-GHAAA!”
Cynder just about jumped out of her scales when she felt something put its weight against her shoulder, and upon looking beside her, realized Pinkie Pie was using her as leaning post while pushing her face up so they were millimetres apart, the mare's breath layered with the scent of sugar and chocolate.
Everypony, including Spyro and Ember, tried their hide their amusement at the dragoness’s fright; to actually see Cynder startled was a very rare and amusing occurrence indeed.
“How… what… you… there… how did you get over here?!” the violet dragoness gaped, rapidly looking between where Ember was sitting at the far end of the room, and the pink mare beside her.
“I have no idea,” Pinkie giggled with a shake of her head, producing yet another cupcake seemingly out of thin air. “Cupcake?”
The dragoness just stood perfectly still and stared for a few moments as her brained tried, and eventually failed, to make sense of what had just happened.
“Umm, no thanks,” Cynder replied dryly as she pulled her head back, looking uneasily between the logic defying pink creature before her, and the cupcake that sat perched on her hoof.
“Okie-doki-loki!” Pinkie replied before once again disappearing and reappearing beside Spyro, and offering him the same cupcake, much to the purple dragon’s mirth.
The violet dragoness continued to just stand there as her mind slowly pulled itself back together, exactly what had just happened she wasn’t entirely sure.
“If I can give you some advice, Cynder,” Twilight said as she came up beside the still confused dragoness, the studious mare knowing full well how she was feeling. “Don’t try and make any sense of anything Pinkie does, she’s a good pony, but there are just things neither you or anypony else will ever understand about her… trust me, I’ve tried.”
“I’ll... take your word for it,” Cynder replied quietly as she watched her mate dig into the cupcake the puff of pure pink energy had given him, Pinkie, Ember, and Spike all grinning as he admitted it was delicious. “By the way, was she serious when she said she’d be throwing us a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party?”
“Cynder, the only time Pinkie IS serious is when she’s making a Pinkie promise, or says she’ll be throwing a party for somepony.”
“Pinkie’s really energetic isn’t she?” Ember smiled as she walked, casting a curious glance down at Spike, who was walking beside her, and carrying a box assorted confectionaries Pinkie had decided to give them.
“In all honesty, she’s never NOT energetic as far I know; personally, I swear it’s all the sugar in her diet that does it.”
“Yeah, but her cupcakes are really good; does she always offer them to her customers?”
“Only to new ones,” Spike chuckled, putting a claw over his chest. “One does not simply walk into Sugercube corner without being offered a cupcake.”
Ember giggled as she remembered the high-speed introduction and welcome she had received from the mare, and found it a little strange that some ponies were afraid of her while others, like Pinkie, were all too happy to make friends.
Unlike Cynder, she liked the later of the two groups a lot more.
It was currently mid-afternoon, and Celestia’s sun was beginning to sink into the far horizon while igniting the sky with reddish hues, and as such the small group had disbanded in order to show the three dragons as much of Ponyville as possible while there was still daylight; Twilight and Applejack had taken charge of Cynder, Cherilee and Fluttershy had taken Spyro in order to show him the local school and Fluttershy’s cottage, and Spike had decided to lead Ember around, while he told her about the interesting situations he had encountered during his life in Ponyville.
His current mental plan being to head over to Carousel Boutique, and introduce the dragoness to Rarity.
“Rarity,” he thought dreamily, rolling the name over in his mind as images of the elegant white unicorn filled his thoughts.
And yet strangely, those alabaster white images quickly warped, swirled, and eventually turned a familiar shade of pink for some reason, forcing Spike to shake his head free of them before he found himself confused; it was as if his mind had decided that it would fun to make the moment between him and Ember awkward.
By now the local ponies were a little more relaxed, and would usually just cast a curious glance at the pair of brightly coloured dragons. Some ponies who Spike knew personally were even smiling and wolf whistling in their direction as they walked past, much to the two’s embarrassment.
Although quietly Ember was more than glad at the attention. Her day spent with Spike had only served to cement her thoughts of him; his stories revealed he was fine example of a male, willing to go out of his way to help and protect his friends, and always ready to make the tough decisions to do what was right, such as in the case of his pet phoenix Peewee. Just like Spyro in some ways.
“Uh, just ignore them,” Spike said as he stuck his tongue out and pretended to gag in response to a wolf whistle from a nearby stallion, causing Ember to laugh behind a concealing wing.
Ember just smiled and shook her head. “Its ok, I’m just glad they’re not running away from me anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry that you had to put up with that this morning… but like I said, everypony’s warming up to you now…heh, next thing you know they’ll be wanting to take photos with you.”
“I really don’t mind if they do Spike, in truth I think that’s kind of cute… kind of like you.”
“Ye…wait, what?”
Ember immediately stopped walking as soon as her brain realized what her maw had just let slip, and despite the fact that the scales were already bright pink, an obvious blush spread across her face a moment later, a blush which only deepened when she found Spike looking at her slack jawed like she had just slapped him.
“I just said that out loud... didn’t I?” Ember cringed as she hid her face even further behind her wing, a few passing ponies now looking at them oddly.
“Well… yeah… you did,” Spike replied with a slightly confused expression, his thoughts currently shooting of in random directions like confetti from Pinkie’s party canon.
The redness in Ember’s cheeks apparently somehow managed to double.
“I’m sorry Spike, I… I didn’t mean it… well I meant it when I said you were cute… but I… I didn’t mean to say it aloud,” the pink dragoness stuttered as she stepped back and stared at her claws, looking above all downright embarrassed at her lack of tongue control, which had now dug her into an even deeper hole. “I guess I’ve ruined everything haven’t I?”
“Why by Celestia would you say that?” Spike almost laughed, putting a claw down gently on Ember’s shoulder, before his mind suddenly put together the puzzle of what she had said, and the various behaviours she had exhibited over the day. “Wait… when you say you think I’m cute, are you saying that you… have a crush on me?”
A few moments of awkward silence reigned before the dragoness sighed, shook her head in frustration, and returned her eyes to him, gently lowering her wings so her face was once again in full view. He could see that despite her firm expression, Ember’s sparkling blue eyes were just about in tears.
“I… I am Spike… I know it sound’s crazy since we’ve only known each other for a day, but you’re one of the most caring dragon I’ve ever met, and you’ve gone out of your way to make me feel safe and comfortable here. And I… I was afraid that I’d ruined everything and made a fool of myself, because you’d only wanted to be friends like the last dragon I really liked... and I don’t expect you to understand my feelings but…”
Before she could say another word Spike gingerly reached up, and put a claw over her mouth, silencing her as he leant in and met her sapphire eyes with his own green ones; he knew exactly what she was saying, because he had been there before with Rarity.
Still, however, Spike’s mind was spinning in circles like carnival prize wheel; for so long he had pinned his hopes and dreams on one day gaining the heart of the alabaster unicorn who filled his day at every spare moment, and yet now here he was, standing in the middle of the street, before a dragoness his own age, who was openly offering her heart to him. Rarity had always been his goal, his shining trophy gem he had desired since the moment he had laid eyes on her, but the revelations of Ember’s feelings had shaken him and his desires to the very core.
And then there was the fact he couldn’t get that bright shade of pink out of his mind, the same shade of pink as it were that glistened across Ember’s scales.
“Listen Ember, if there is ANYONE who knows how you feel it’s me, I’ve fallen for somepony at first sight before just like you have.”
The dragoness’s expression shrank into one of further unease at his words.
“Did they… like you back?” Ember sighed in a defeated tone, one that matched with her sad expression made Spike’s inside’s curl up. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
Spike sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought, Ember’s words and his own instincts had now not only scattered any idea of what he truly wanted, but also put in question the relationship he had with Rarity; he knew she liked his company, and adored his efforts to help her, but the unicorn had never truly shown him the emotion he had for so long desired in return from her, love.
Would she ever?
And now here Ember was, openly confessing she really liked him, and giving him a chance to have a special somedragon of his own, and no matter how he tried he couldn’t deny he found her attractive one way or another; the only question now was whether or not he felt the same way for her as she did for him.
Was the certainty of an amethyst now worth forsaking the chance of a future diamond?
Was giving up on Rarity for a chance with another dragon worth it? Even though they knew very little about each other.
So far, Ember was the nicest dragoness he could ever imagine meeting, rather attractive if he said so himself, and had a bubbly personality that he couldn’t help but admire. She openly said she had feelings for him, a crush perhaps but feelings nonetheless, feelings which Rarity had never offered him in the slightest.
Yes, the trade-off was more then worth it.
And after all this time he’d be damned if he’d wait any longer for Rarity to come around, especially when he had a chance like this literally staring him in the face.
“Well… not really, as far as I know she only ever wanted to be friends… but that doesn’t matter anymore, she had her chance…"
The words stung and stabbed at his heart as they left his maw. Still, they were the truth, as painful as the truth might've been, and there was now no longer any going back.
"And the truth, Ember... is that I kind of like you as well.”
For moment his young dragon mind collapsed into a smouldering heap of illogical thoughts and feelings, but they quickly pulled themselves together when the overjoyed dragoness leapt forward, and wrapped her forelegs around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug, causing him to blush when everypony in the immediate area grinned at the pair, and he almost dropped the box of confectionaries he was still holding.
Still, he savoured the warm feeling that blossomed in his chest as the prior pain resided.
“You have no idea how happy I am, Spike!” Ember giggled as her tail thrashed with excitement, leaning back a little and running her tongue across his cheek scales.
“Aww, it’s ok,” he blushed, ignoring the amused chuckles of a pair of passing unicorns who had seen the affectionate action. “Say… uh, how about we go check out the park and enjoy these treats while we still have some daylight?”
“Ok,” Ember giggled, draping her wing across Spike as he led her back through Ponyville, the two of them laughing and enjoying the knowledge they both finally had someone special in their lives.
Chances of Rarity taking this well given her prior experience with dragons…zero to none.
Anyway next chapter will be focused on Spyro and Cynder’s day one adventures, including Spyro receiving an odd offer from Cherilee and Cynder meeting the CMC.
“So this is where you teach your young… foals?” Spyro asked with a raised eyebrow, shifting his curious gaze from the quaint schoolhouse they were approaching to Cherilee. “Or is that the wrong word?”
“You’re partly right,” Cherilee offered. “Yes, foal is a word used for young ponies, but only those under two years of age... the two words you’re looking for are colt and filly, colt for young school-aged male, and filly for young school-aged female.”
The normally deep purple dragon’s cheeks flustered pale red, prompting small giggles to escape the lips of the two mares who were walking beside him in his examination of the building.
“Uh, sorry about that…”
Cherilee just laughed and put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “No harm in making a mistake, every student does and that’s how we learn after all… besides, given you’ve only been here a day, I’m surprised how much you’ve picked up.”
Fluttershy nodded in approval of Cherilee’s statement, and a smile returned to Spyro’s face; he admitted he had learned a lot today thanks to the knowledge of the local school teacher, everything from general pony customs and etiquette, to the history of Ponyville since its beginning, although the immense amount of memorizing and recalling had left his brain saturated with random thoughts and him with a dull headache.
Plus his tail still hurt from the rather interesting visit to Fluttershy’s cottage. He'd faced more enemies and evils then most dragons would care to imagine, and defeated them all, but today he had met his match in the most unlikely of places; a small but VERY protective white bunny known as Angel.
Still, it was worth it, if the first impressions he had gained from the two mares meant anything, Equestria was sounding to be a very interesting place.
“Yeah, learning fast is something I’ve had to do a lot of over the years… anyway, are we allowed inside? I’m actually quite curious to see what your kinds’ learning environment is like.”
“Of course you are,” Cherilee said in an amused tone, trotting up to the door and pushing it open. “Although I swear you’re the first pony- well dragon in your case, who’s actually been interested about what I do here.”
The purple dragon stopped in the doorway, and then let out a breath.
“I… had a mentor named Ignitus when I was learning and growing up, amongst others… and to me he was both my teacher, and a sort of father figure I guess...”
Fluttershy was no Applejack when it came to being able to tell the difference between a truthful pony, and a lying one, although she didn’t have to in order to see there was more to his story of tutor and student then Spyro was letting on; however, she was the element of kindness, and could see in Spyro’s expression a heavy mixture of pain and still raw sadness, hence she didn’t think it right to pursue the matter further.
As the young dragon soon discovered the ‘learning environment’ the ponies were taught in was far different than his own, and by far different, he meant the only thing similar to the way Ignitus, and the other dragons had taught him over the years, was that the ponies had a teacher in front of them.
The room Spyro found himself walking into was roughly rectangular, filled with small wooden desks and chairs arranged in neat rows that faced a black board, and bore the overpowering combined scents of paper, chalk and fur; wandering around the schoolhouse he noticed that most of the walls were lined with bookcases and shelves, while here and there a colourful drawing or poster would hang about for all to see.
“So what do you think of it?” Fluttershy asked as she walked around the room with the curious dragon, who to her seemed content to stick his snout into anything that caught his attention. “If… you don’t mind me asking that is.”
“It’s different from the way I was taught… usually a dragon would only take a single pupil at a time. If you could manage this many students at once then you’d be a legend in the eyes of the mentors I’ve had.”
The mulberry mare blushed and giggled behind a concealing hoof, still watching the strange scene from the comfort of the doorway. “I try my best, but really my students are generally well behaved, bar a few… exceptions, and I don’t have many pegasi students either. They’re the really energetic ones.”
The purple dragon tore his attention from a book case. “Why is that?”
“Most pegasi are sent to flight school in Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy offered, spreading her own wings, and hovering just above one of the wooden desks. “When we’re born, we’re not used to conditions at the high altitudes we usually fly at, so pegasi are schooled and taught to fly in Cloudsdale, just so our bodies become used to those conditions… oh, and Cloudsdale is a floating city made of cloud... I mean, if you were wondering that is.”
The dragon’s eyes arched in surprise for a moment, and the next a board grin spread across his face as he shook his head.
“Well that certainly sounds… different,” Spyro chuckled, prompting both mares to glance at each other and laugh along with him. “But I think I’d prefer to stay here on the ground… heh, I swear I could stand here and listen to you all day Cherilee and not get bored. Equestria sounds like a pretty amazing place.”
The red-purple mare’s jaw dropped, and her eyes widened like something either amazing or horrifying had happened right in front of her. “Spyro… how would you like to come to my class?”
“So you want me… to basically be one of your students?” he asked, looking to Fluttershy for reassurance, but only finding her to be equally surprised by the offer. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“Well, just think about,” the school teacher chimed, nodding her head to the various book cases and the black board. “You want to learn about Equestria, and probably make some friends while you’re here, right? So what better way could there be? you’d be able to do both of those things at once, plus if you wanted to you could teach the students about dragons and your homeland. That’s a subject I know everypony will be interested in.”
“But wouldn’t your students… um, no offense Spyro...” Fluttershy said gingerly as she played with her font hooves. “Be afraid of having a dragon in their class room?”
The mare shook her head. “All of my students know Spike quite well, Fluttershy, so I highly doubt they'd fear a dragon like Spyro,” Cherilee countered. “Plus, given Spike and Spyro are friends, I’d bet they’d like him all the more. What do you think?”
Spyro didn’t do or say anything as his mind made sense of what Cherilee was proposing; she was offering him a chance to learn about Equestria in the same way the ponies did, which was both an enticing offer, and as he guessed a good use of his otherwise wasted time, the only issue was how his potential class mates would take him.
Still, it was either try his luck, or spend the rest of his time in Equestria bored out of his scales.
“Well… if you think your students won’t mind me… then why not, but on two conditions.”
Cherilee tapped her hooves as she tried to contain herself. “Which are?”
“Firstly, I’d rather not come every day just because… well, hopefully… Twilight and I will need some time to figure out a way to get us home… so maybe every second day,” Spyro replied politely. “And secondly, if possible and if she agrees, I’d like to bring Cynder along from time to time. As much as I love her, she’s... a little introverted when it comes to dealing with others, because of some things she did a long time ago which others usually hold against her. I think something like this would be good for her.”
If not for the fact she was a grown mare, Spyro swore Cherilee would have started bounding around her class room in excited celebration at his answer, as it was she simply reared back on her hind legs, jumped up and down on the spot, and clapped her front hooves joyfully.
“Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I promise this will be worthwhile Spyro!”
The young dragon grinned wildly before answering.
“Of course it will be, because I’ll either learn about your country and make friends…” he chuckled with a sinister smile, showing to her his rows of marble white fangs. “Or Cynder and I will have a free meal if somepony tries to get under our scales.”
The two mares immediately spun around and looked at him with expressions of utter horror, the dragon looking between them as his good mood was replaced by confusion.
“What? Oh come on, can’t you ponies take a joke once in a while?”
“Ugh, why do good days always seem to be short, and bad days to last a lifetime,” Cynder hissed to herself in annoyance, glancing at the various quaint examples of pony architecture while she half paid attention to Twilight’s ramblings.
The violet dragoness’s afternoon had been, in her opinion anyway, barely tolerable. Never in her life had she been forced to listen to such a torrential downpour of boring knowledge, and was currently considering banging her head against the nearest building wall in an effort to try and maintain her sanity.
Twilight and Applejack were currently guiding her through the residential part of Ponyville, and being the well acquainted and informed local pony she was, Twilight was spilling to Cynder who to turn to when a potential situation of any and every sort arose. Naturally, however, the dragoness wasn’t paying much attention. Instead of listening, she allowed her eyes and mind to wander around the street aimlessly in search of anything interesting, unfortunately, walking along a quiet strip of pony houses, when there was nopony around at that, meant there was very little she found worthy of gaining her attention.
“…and if you ever need some flowers you should go see Rose or…” Twilight started before looking back at the dragoness, and finally realizing her mind was not there. “Cynder, are you listening?”
“Partly,” the dragoness replied with a lazy yawn, the spreading of her jaws revealing large razor sharp teeth. “No offense, Twilight, but half of these ponies I doubt I’ll ever need to interact with, so I see no reason to even know of them to be honest.”
The two ponies blinked in utter amazement as the young dragon’s rather cold and un-Equestrian logic.
“Ain’t you dragons ever heard of being neighbourly?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow, stopping her trot and looking back at the dragoness. “Ah’ mean… sure, I don’t have a lot to do with most of em’ either, but that don’t mean I shouldn’t at least try and get to know them for the sake of being friends.”
“So even if you never had a reason to know them… you would still try and make friends with them?”
“Of course,” Applejack chuckled, using her front hoof to lift the brim of her hat from her face. “That’s what makes Ponyville so special. Everypony knows everypony, so when something goes wrong you’ll always have friends willing to offer a helping hoof.”
“Aren’t dragons like that?” Twilight put in curiously, silently wishing she had her notepad.
Cynder sighed and shook her head in annoyance, if these two weren’t careful they’d find themselves treading into territory she’d rather not talk about.
“Look… I’ll admit that most dragons do like to ‘be neighbourly’ with each other,” the dragoness said. “But if you haven’t already realized, I’m not like most dragons; I like either my own company or that of Spyro, so getting to know and befriend each and every pony in your little town isn't high on my agenda.”
The two ponies looked at each other in utter confusion before shaking their heads, both guessing that if they ever managed to figure Cynder and her attitude out, it would be a Celestia sent miracle.
“Well be that as it may, Cynder, it’s important you know who to turn to when the need arises,” Twilight stated firmly as she approached the dragoness, who in return backed up a step or two. “Because although Applejack and I are your friends, we won’t always be around to guide you…”
“Ignitus forbid that day,” the dragoness thought sarcastically to herself, rolling her eyes.
Before she could hear, and fail to absorb any more of Twilight’s ramblings, however, something else caught her attention, and her head snapped around to her right. A scaly claw immediately rose up and laid itself across the surprised mare’s mouth to silence her. All the while, the dragoness’s eyes hunted for the source of the new sound.
She doubted either pony could hear it, especially given that even with her sensitive hearing, the dragoness could only just make it out herself; the ringing in her ears was certainly the barely sensed sound of young laughter, and if she was right, it wasn't the frolicking excited fun kind.
“Stay here,” Cynder hissed, letting go of Twilight’s mouth, before jumping into the looming shadow of a nearby house, leaving the two mares in the middle of the street and staring at where the dragoness had been standing in disbelief.
“How does she do that?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular.
Applejack snorted and shook her head in return. “You’re the darn unicorn here, you tell me.”
The dragoness drifted around the pony dwellings as one with the shadows, seeing everything they saw whilst remaining totally out of sight other than her own shadow, which simply blended in with all the others around her anyway. Like a ghost she drifted in and out of houses and between buildings as she hunted for the source of the noise, which happened to have both caught her attention and annoyed her.
If there was one thing that truly got under her scales, it was the thought of someone being pushed around, because she had endured a twisted lifetime of it under her former master, Malefor.
“Where are you?” she growled to herself as she moved between the shadows of a house and a tree, sharp eyes tracing the length of the desolate street she had quickly found herself in from the safety of the darkness.
“…Oh what that’s little blank flank? I couldn’t hear you… oh well, at least we all know now you’re special talent ISN’T public speaking.”
The moment the words met her ears, Cynder felt like grabbing the owner up in her jaws, and tearing them to pieces; the vocal poison that stung her ears was laced with so much contempt, arrogance, and downright meanness it actually made her want to burn something.
She found the source under a tree across the street; a single bright white filly was backed up against the thick truck, while two others, one silver-grey and the other light pink, appeared to be pestering her, and by the looks of things the situation was far from enjoyable for the small pony who was cornered.
“You’re going to regret that statement you little rat,” Cynder growled as she jumped out of her shadow, quickly and quietly making her way towards the situation without the three realizing it.
As she came closer she could hear some of what was being said, the most obvious being the words ‘cutie mark’ and ‘blank flank’; Twilight had explained that a cutie mark was something that identified a ponies special talent, and if the situation was anything like she thought, Cynder guessed young ponies who hadn’t got their own yet were treated with contempt by those who did.
And given she had endured similar treatment, that made her angry.
“That’s the dumbest comeback I’ve ever heard,” giggled the pinkish one after an unheard reply, who, as the dragoness noted, was also wearing a tiara. “Your special talent mustn’t be debating then either.”
“Or speech making,” the grey one put in, the counterparts laughing between themselves as the marble white filly hung her head. “Oh cheer up, Sweetie Bell, you’re good at something… that something’s just probably not very good is all.”
More laughter followed, but it was overshadowed by something that concerned Sweetie Bell a lot more that then the current teasing she was undergoing; just as the Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon burst into another round of amused giggles at her lack of a cutie mark, a deathly growl rippled between them.
Upon raising her head and opening her eyes, Sweetie's gaze was met by a sight that both amazed and terrified her.
Standing right behind the two bullies, crimson wings flared, claws readied, and fangs bore, was a violet dragon, its shadow encompassing the three of them as its emerald eyes burned like hot embers. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon soon turned around to confront the disturbance of their fun, only to have their tails drop a little between their legs as they saw exactly what stood over them.
“You both have some nerve,” Cynder hissed, voice dripping with venom as her fangs drifted in front of the two fillies. “Two against one is hardly a fair fight.”
“Wh-who are you?” the silver pony gibbered quietly, cringing as Cynder’s stone cold green eyes fell on her. “Please don’t eat me!”
Before Cynder could get a word off the pink earth pony jumped in.
“Oh mare up Silver Spoon, she’s not going to eat you,” the other filly snipped, giving her comrade a disappointed glare before looking up at Cynder. “Look dragon, I don’t know who you are, other than an apparent friend of Spike’s according to every idiot in town… but let’s get something straight, you lay an ugly claw on either me or Silver Spoon, and my dad with have you thrown in a Canterlot dungeon…”
Cynder’s eyebrow twitched menacingly as she resisted the urge to burn the filly to ashes; she could deal with being feared, she could tolerate being avoided, but she WOULD NOT put up with some self-important, smart mouthed little ball of pink fur being rude to her.
“So you’d better…”
“You stop right there!” the dragoness snarled, snapping her jaws closed a hair’s width from the pony’s face, her green eyes blazed with angry fire. “Now you listen to me you annoying little brat. If I hear one more distasteful word come from your mouth, I’m going to take that pretty little well groomed tail of yours and set it on fire! Now do me a favour and get out of my sight before I lose my temper with you and do something I’ll regret.”
“You wouldn’t dare…” Diamond Tiara started as she locked eyes with Cynder.
“Try me,” Cynder snapped in return. “I DARE you!”
“Diamond, let’s just go,” Silver Spoon jumped on, looking nervously between her friend and the fuming dragoness. “W-we don’t want any trouble.”
“Then scram before my mood gets any worse!”
Obviously annoyed at being told what to do, but realizing it was best, Diamond Tiara sighed and followed her friend, casting a hateful glare back at Cynder and Sweetie Bell as the two of them disappeared down the street.
“You haven’t heard the last of this!” the pink filly called over once she was out of sight.
“A downright pair of pains in the tail if I ever met one,” the dragoness snarled once they were out of ear shot, slowly turning to the unicorn filly, and suddenly feeling a little out of place. “Are you…ok?”
Being what could be described as 'sisterly' to someone she didn’t know wasn’t something Cynder made a habit of doing, but given the no doubt traumatic experience she had gone through, she decided to at least try to comfort the small filly who was currently in her protective charge... which she guessed probably wouldn’t be easy, given they were of completely different races.
“I’m fine,” the filly replied as she got to her hooves, running her eyes curiously over the taller dragoness. “Thanks for getting rid of them…?”
“Cynder,” the dragoness replied, not entirely sure herself why she was being so open, or why she felt good about it. “Are they always like that, you know… painful?”
“I’m Sweetie Belle… and yeah, they only do it because my friends and I don’t have our cutie marks. They like to remind us about it every chance they get.”
Cynder was now finding herself angrier and angrier at the two juvenile bullies. She admitted that when it came to getting along she wasn’t brilliant, but she didn’t under any circumstance go out of her way to hurt others like her own master had done to her.
“Don’t worry about them, if they ever give you any more trouble, I’ll make sure they regret it,” Cynder chuckled darkly as she stared down the empty street, wondering how the two would react to her jumping out of a random shadow at them. “Anyway, what are you doing out here alone? You seem a little young to be…”
“YOU LEAVE SWEETIE BELLE ALONE!!”
“COME HERE YA SCALY BRUTE!!”
Before the dragoness could even react to the two new voices, a pair of colourful cannon balls slammed into her side and sent her rolling, and just as she prepared to right herself and face the new threat, they jumped on her back in an effort to pin her to the ground.
In a fit of rapid struggles her tail arched around in an effort to swat them off, but to no avail, and hence she did the next best thing, dropping straight into her shadow, and leaving the newcomers to sprawl on the dirt as she reappeared a meter or so away.
The normally blunt faced dragoness couldn’t help but smirk when she saw her attackers; one was a bright orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail, while the other was a crimson maned earth pony with a creamy coloured coat. Both were about Sweetie Belle’s size, and were at that moment lying on the ground as they spat bits of sand and dirt from their mouths.
“Well that’ll teach you now won’t it?” Cynder chuckled. “I take it these are your friends, Sweetie Belle?”
“Yep,” the filly giggled as she watched her two friends remove the last of the dirt from their tongues. “Cynder, this is Applebloom and Scootaloo… girls this is Cynder, she’s a friend of Spike’s.”
The dragoness mentally groaned; she admitted Spike wasn’t too bad a dragon, but because he and Ember were so alike, describing him as a ‘friend’ was a bit of a far stretch as of yet.
“So you’re the one who had the darn town and my big brother all up and about this morning,” Applebloom said as she got to her hooves and shook her coat. “Big Macintosh said you were something of a might rude.”
“Your brother decided he’d try and test his strength on me, ended up kicking a bookcase instead, and made a complete fool of himself in front of his mate,” Cynder replied dryly and with a light growl. “And that was before I could even say a word to him, so he has no one to blame but himself for that.”
Although it wasn’t nice, Applebloom and her two friends snickered at the thought of a girl making her brother look like a fool.
“That’s sounds to be my brother alright; he’s always been an act first and ask later type,”
“Go figure,” Cynder smirked, a little surprised that the filly wasn’t insulted by her prior remark. “Anyway, what are you three doing out here on your own? Every pony I’ve come across has pulled their young in doors at the very sight of me?”
“We’re out crusading!” Scootaloo chimed, earning her a confused look from the dragoness.
“She means were looking for our special talent and trying to earn our cutie marks,” Sweetie Belle explained. “We call it crusading because we’re…
“…THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!!”
Cynder had experienced a lot of loud noises in her time, but by Ignitus the pure volume of the three fillies abrupt chant just about caused her eardrums to rupture; she clenched her jaws in trying to avoid the sudden heavy throbbing between her ears, even that however did little good to ease the immense pain.
“We work together to try and earn our cutie marks,” Applebloom said as she looked fondly between her two friends. “Since we’re all kind of… well… late earners.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo sighed bitterly as she shook her head. “Most of the other ponies in our class have theirs already.”
“And I’m guessing that’s why those other two pick on you three?” the dragon hissed as she looked over at Sweetie, Applebloom and Scootaloo looking between themselves and their friend for answers.
“Oh right! Girls, Cynder scared Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon away!” Sweetie Belle announced happily. “You should have seen them, Diamond got all flustered and Silver Spoon was as freighted as a foal.”
Now THAT got the two new filly’s immediate attentions, their eyes rapidly flicking between the violet dragoness and their white unicorn friend as grins spread across their faces. A moment later the dragoness found herself in a position that would mentally disturb her for a very long time... said position being pinned in place by the combined weight of the three overjoyed fillies who were suddenly hugging her.
Hugging was something the dragoness DIDN’T do.
“I guess we owe you an apology for tackling you, Cynder,” Scootaloo smiled excitedly, the width of the grin on her face a little bit unnerving to the dragoness. “Anypony who can teach those two a lesson is awesome in my opinion… but not as awesome as Rainbow Dash, no offense… so…”
“…we’re sorry,” she and Applebloom said in unison, Sweetie Belle just giggling along with her friends.
“Don’t… mention it,” the dragoness hissed through her teeth as she looked down at the colourful equines, resisting the urge to simply try and throw the fillies off.
She really hated being touched.
Unfortunately, before she could get herself free from her furry prison, two distinct choruses of laughter cut through the moment. Upon turning around and glancing down the street, Cynder spotted Twilight and Applejack approaching her with wide grins stretching across their muzzles.
Frantically, the dragoness looked for a way out, but found none, and hence ended up feeling the fire of embarrassment creep into her cheeks as the two mares chuckled at her.
“So that’s were ya got to ya scaly varmint,” Applejack laughed as she pulled off her hat, looking between the dragoness and her young captors. “And I see ya met my sister and her friends, heh, I gotta say if that ain’t an adorable sight, then I don’t know what is.”
“And here I was thinking I’d figured you out,” Twilight put in with equal amusement. “Since when do you make friends Cynder?”
“Since I virtually had no choice in the matter,” the dragoness thought as she rolled her eyes, still fastened to the road by the three pony weights attached to her forelegs. “I have my moments… anyway, when can we go back to library exactly? I think I’ve done enough exploring of your town and meeting its inhabitants for one day, as you can see.”
“Can we come?” Applebloom asked, Cynder looking down the find the three fillies staring up at her.
She really wanted to say no, and get away from them as fast as possible... but then they did the most terrible thing they could possibly do to a stern dragoness; they gave her looks with big, gleaming, puppy dog eyes.
“Grrr! Alright fine,” she snorted, prompting a ‘YAY!” from the three fillies. “I swear I’m going to regret this.”
“Twilight! You here!” Spike called as he and Ember came in through the now door-less doorway. “Mustn’t be back yet I guess.” he shrugged.
By now Celestia’s sun was just dipping beneath the rolling hills that surrounded Ponyville, and hence after finishing Pinkie’s gifted confectionary in the comfort of each other, and the local park, the two dragons had returned home, or home-away-from-home as it was for Ember.
In Spike’s opinion, this had been one of the best days of his relatively short life thus far, for not only had he made knew friends who were dragons, but somehow managed to woo a rather cute dragoness, and now all he had to do was explain it to Twilight and his other friends that they were together.
That, he knew, was going to be an Interesting experience they would both have to deal with.
“I just hope Cynder didn’t give her and Applejack too much trouble,” Ember grinned as she followed him inside. “She has a habit of being a bit of clawful when she’s grumpy.”
“Trust me Ember, if Twilight can deal with an Ursa Minor, she can deal with Cynder,” Spike chuckled as she scratched the dragonesses cheek, prompting her to giggle. “So, is there anything you want to do while we wait for everypony else?”
“Well… are there any interesting books here?”
“Eh, kind of depends on what you deem to be interesting,” Spike shrugged again. “We’ve got a decent variety here, but it really depends on what takes your fancy.”
“Well… are there any on the princesses?” Ember asked, switching her gaze from the walls of literature to her ‘coltfriend’, a word, as Spike had explained, that among ponies carried less awkward indications than the word 'mate'. “Or maybe you can tell me about them. I mean, you’ve met them both haven’t you?”
“I’ve only met Luna a few times… but Celestia I know really well, if your interested.”
The bright pink dragoness simply smiled in reply and seated herself in the middle of the floor, tapping her tail a few times in an indication for Spike to join her. Once he did, however, she did something he didn’t expect, which was to gently embrace his tail with her own and entwine them as Cynder and Spyro had done earlier in the day; it was an odd feeling, but one he strangely enjoyed, friendly in a way, but intimate at the same time.
“Can I just ask, why do we do that?” he asked as he pointed to his now entangled purple tail. “Dragons I mean.”
“It’s a sign of love and affection between mates,” Ember replied with a slight touch of embarrassment, blushing a little and shying away. “What do ponies do to show affection? I-if you don’t mind me asking that is.”
Spike's cheeks flamed as he quickly realized what the pony equivalent was, and, although it was somewhat awkward, he guessed he wouldn’t mind demonstrating... just since Ember was his fillyfriend, after all, and she had wanted to curl their tails.
“Well… it’s probably easier if I show you then tell you,” he blushed as he faced the dragoness. “But just be aware it’s going to be a bit weird for you, and I’ve never done it before.”
Slowly and somewhat awkwardly, he put a claw on either side of Ember’s face and pulled her close. Slow enough so it was gentle, but fast enough to prevent her from losing her nerve, and hence before she had the chance to fully realize what was going on her lips met his.
Spike admitted first and foremost it was a bit sloppy since neither of them new what they were doing, but the affection was there and that was all that mattered.
Within a heartbeat all of Ember’s unease and fight melted away, and she returned the action, closing her eyes and following Spike’s lead by putting a fore-claw one either side of his face, her pendant pushing against his chest. To her, the crush she'd had on Spyro now seemed like a distant memory of a young hatchling’s foolishness, and Spike’s own infatuation with Rarity was now in his mind definitely over, by anypony’s reckoning.
Unfortunately, as they both had leaned over the years, all good things ended, the ending to this particular good thing being the sudden announced return of Twilight, Applejack, and the various others to the Ponyville library.
“Hello, Spike! Ember! We’r-WHAT IN THE NAME OF SWEET CELESTIA!!!”
“What’s wrong Tw-WOAHNELLY! APPLEBLOOM, TURN 'ROUND RIGHT NOW!!!”
In a frantic act of self-preservation, Spike tore himself from Ember’s embrace, resulting in them both tumbling backwards away from each other. Quickly righting themselves and turning to face the new presence, they the collective group of four shocked mares, three equally flabbergasted fillies, and two very confused looking dragons staring at them.
“Um… I guess we have some explaining to do,” Spike winced, aware that if there was a scale to measure the amount of ‘awkward’ in the room, it would have exploded.
Prior Note: Could someone (in the know with grammar) tell me if speech descriptions (e.g. “I know,” she chuckled happily, shaking her head from side to side.) need to be finished with a full stop? I’ve done it with this chapter because I believe it’s correct, but I’m not sure, and because I think MS word is pretty much useless in terms of helping my grammar. ..............................................................................................................................................................................
Chapter 7: Admissions and Revalations
“Yes Spike!” Twilight snorted, the tone in her voice making it known to the dragon she was far from happy. “You have a LOT of explaining to do, actually!”
Spike had seen Twilight angry before, for various unusual reasons. Such reasons included an argument with her friends over the possible existence of curses, and him accidently destroying a book with a fiery sneeze, amongst other situations... but why she would possibly be angry with him for simply kissing Ember wasn't clear to him.
And judging by her expression, it was beyond Ember’s as well.
“So… that isn’t how ponies show affection to their mates?” she asked as she stood beside Spike, sounding a little frightened of the fuming mare, as well as confused.
If not for the fact they were attached to their skulls, the four adult equine’s jaws would've hit the floor then and there. As it was, they instead simply hung agape as they looked between the two dragons in utter bewilderment, each wondering if what Ember had just said was implying what they were all thinking.
“So are you two… going out or something?” Twilight asked eventually, finding it had to believe she was actually asking Spike such a question.
Then again, she was finding it hard to believe she had actually walked in on Spike, during a make-out session, with a dragoness he'd only just met.
The two dragons looked between each other, and their cheeks instantly went deep red, which basically answered the question for them before Ember did.
“Well… yeah, we are.”
If not for the fact she had tried and failed to understand Pinkie Pie, Twilight would have literally screamed how illogical and implausible the situation sounded, but instead she just stood there beside her friends in utter shock, mind reeling as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.
Here was Spike, her number one assistant, and basically her little brother, whom she had grown up with near all his life, and Ember, a dragoness with a disposition that could match Fluttershy for kindness... telling her that they were dating, after she had walked in on a kissing session of theirs.
It was either her, or all logic had gone on vacation for the day.
“Well a’ gotta give it you two kids,” Applejack chuckled abruptly as she pulled off her hat. “You two make a mighty cute couple if my words are worth anything.”
“WHAT!” Twilight just about screamed in the amber pony’s face, much to both her and everypony else’s surprise. “Applejack! You can’t possibly think this is a good thing! Not only have they barely known each other for a day, but Spike is also just a baby for Celestia’s sake!”
If not for the fact there was nowhere to go, Spike probably would have run out of the room in embarrassment; he loved Twilight dearly, and everypony in town knew that, but he found it a little hard to love her as much as usual when she was calling him a baby, in front of both Ember as his fillyfriend, and Spyro and Cynder as his new friends.
Surprisingly, however, it wasn’t Ember who spoke next in his defence, and nor was it Applejack.
“Heh, ahh Twilight… you might want to check that,” Spyro said in a somewhat amused tone, looking between his rather embarrassed purple comrade, and the lavender mare. “How old is Spike exactly?”
“Fifteen,” she countered instantly.
For a moment Spyro, Ember, and Cynder looked as if they were about to burst out into hysterical laughter, but given they weren’t staring his way, Spike guessed he wasn’t the source of their amusement.
“Yeah, Twilight, I’ve got news for you… Spike isn't a baby anymore,” Spyro grinned as he tried to control himself. “By dragon standards he’s what you ponies would probably call a young adolescent.”
Twilight blinked. “I’ll admit he’s in his teens… but dragons don’t age the same as ponies do,” she countered somewhat weakly, knowing that she was clutching at straws, given she was arguing with a living example of the current issue.
“That’s an understandable assumption, Twilight, since you ponies apparently don’t know much about our kind… and I guess it’s partly true in a way. A dragon would no longer be considered a baby once they start to breathe fire, which I’m guessing for Spike was around the age of five years or so?”
“Five years, three weeks and two days,” the unicorn replied with a blush and a face-hoof, an action which also earned her a snicker from AJ, and a giggle from the other two mares in the room.
“So… basically he's a young teenager then?” Cherilee asked with a tilt of her head.
“Teenager’s probably not the right word,” Spyro shrugged as he shifted his gaze to Spike. “Only because a dragon’s adolescence lasts longer than the years of thirteen to nineteen… but I guess for easy figuring, you could call him that.”
Any other pony would have reacted by mentally trying to shut down what they were hearing, refusing to acknowledge that the sweet baby dragon they had cared for, was actually now no longer a baby, but this was Twilight Sparkle; In an instant, a pad and quill appeared levitating in front of her face, and she happily scrawled down her newly gained knowledge of dragons, Spike watching on in confusion, and wondering as to how her mood had changed so suddenly.
“So… uh, Twilight,” Spike said sheepishly as he scratched his scales, feeling the sense of unease return as she looked up from her pad and over at him. “Are you still angry and Ember and I?”
“I’ll admit I’m surprised Spike… but I’m not really angry anymore,” she replied, sounding to his amazement almost... happy for him. “I... I was basing my reasons to be mad at you on the assumption that you didn’t understand what you were actually doing, but... I realize now that you’re at an age where certain levels of courtship I guess are… natural.”
Scientific reasoning behind romance, that'd be Twilight.
In truth though, a great many things were now making sense to the mare, the greatest, and most obvious, being Spike’s urge to help Rarity at every turn. Ever since his infatuation had started, she had believed it to simply be a childish crush, but the fact that had now dawned on her was that perhaps, not even knowing it himself, Spike had been properly trying to impress her, just as a male dragon would a potential mate.
“And you two look really cute together,” Fluttershy put in with a nod of approval that broke Twilight’s concentration, although the pegasus remained fairly well hidden behind her mane as she spoke.
“I think we can all agree on that,” Cherilee giggled behind a polite hoof, a loud yawn escaping her muzzle moment later. “Uh, sorry everypony, but I should get going. I’ve got a class tomorrow... as do a certain three fillies.”
Her last words were directed towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who together let out a simultaneous ‘awwww!’ in disappointment, which prompted another round of snickers and giggles from the various mares and dragons in the room.
What they did next however, was something neither Spyro, nor most of the others gathered could have predicted, which was to turn around and once again hug Cynder.
The dragoness, to both Spyro’s and Ember’s utter amazement, flinched but did nothing more, not even giving an annoyed growl or an attempt to remove them; instead she just sat there and allowed them to hug her forelegs for a few moments before they let her go, Scootaloo quickly following her teacher out, while Applejack took charge of Sweetie Belle and her sister.
“We’ll see you around Cynder!” Scootaloo called happily as she followed Cherilee out of the library.
“Yeah! You should come crusading with us sometime!” Applebloom threw in as she and Sweetie Bell left together.
“And thanks for helping me!” Sweetie Bell called at last.
Silence quickly returned to library once the fillies were gone from sight, although this slack-jawed silence was not so much caused by an awkward comment, but rather a disbelief at what had just transpired. Literally no pony or dragon in the room, bar the violet dragoness and Twilight, understood what had just happened and why.
“Cynder, did you just let them…hug you?” Ember asked eventually, all eyes quickly falling directly on the usually grumpy dragoness.
Cynder rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Ugh, look, I helped them out with a few bullies, and they like me for it,” she hissed, her bladed tail slashing at the air around her. “So what?”
“You mean other than the fact that you come across as a massively rude pain in the flank?” Spike asked bluntly, his statement causing Twilight to gape, Ember to burst into a fit of laughter, Spyro to crack a cheesy grin, and Cynder to snarl at him angrily.
“Why you little… Grrr! Alright fine, so maybe I have a soft spot for them... since I know what it feels like to be pushed around,” she snapped, tails of smoke drifting from her nostrils in anger. “Just drop it before I decide to practise my attacks on you're face.”
Spyro cast a grin towards Fluttershy as they remembered their conversation earlier in the day, the one relating to the possibility of Cynder and himself attending the local school; it seemed like now was probably the best time to tell her, considering they were on a similar topic.
“Well, it’s a good thing you do like them Cynder,” the dragon smiled, the dragoness knowing in an instant that this particular smile meant he was planning something. “Because you’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the coming weeks.”
The dragoness stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“Well, Cherilee asked if you and I wanted to be members of her class,” the dragon smirked, aware that he was twisting the truth slightly to save his own hide from the oncoming rage of his mate. “And I said yes.”
“Oh, who could it be at this hour,” Rarity grumbled to herself as she heard the ring of her store’s door bell, hastily removing herself from her sewing machine, and heading down the stairs to confront her visitor. “Welcome to…oh, it’s you, Applejack.”
A wave of relief passed over Rarity as she saw her amber friend standing in her doorway, the mare silently thanking Celestia it wasn’t another pony looking to make an order.
“Hehe, don’t mind me Rares, just bringing your sister home,” Applejack replied with a polite nod, holding the door open as two giggling fillies entered the white unicorn’s boutique. “So what’ve you been up to, anyway?”
“Ugh, darling, I have been working my hooves to the bone today on these orders,” Rarity grumbled as she descended the stairs, and trotted down to the main room, her eyes following Sweetie Belle and Applebloom curiously as the two giggling fillies headed into the kitchen without a glance at her. “May I ask, AJ... why are those two are in such a lively mood? Did one of them earn their cutie mark or something?”
The moment after she had asked the question, the earth pony’s cheeks flared bright crimson.
“Ah, not quite Rares, I’m guessing it’s just something we kinda stumbled upon… it’s a bit of a long story…”
Within a heartbeat, Rarity had summoned her plush red recliner, and two cups of tea into the room from an unknown location. Despite her confusion as to how exactly such a thing had happened, Applejack didn’t question it, instead choosing to stand completely still as the white unicorn seated herself on the chair, and offered her one of the china cups.
Rarity had the occasional Pinkie moment, as it seemed.
“Forgive me for this, Applejack, but I dare say to hear whatever gossip has come about in our little town... may well be the high point of my day,” Rarity giggled as she sipped her own tea. “So please, do go on.”
“Well, alright,” Applejack huffed as she placed the tea between her front hooves. “Just... don't go flipping out on me, alight? You remember how a while back Spike went on that dragon migration, and ya’ll came back spouting about how they were a bunch of brutes.”
“A most uncivilised race besides those diamond dogs, if I’ve ever come across one,” Rarity said dryly between sips of her tea. “Go on.”
“Well… ya see, Twilight felt a might bad about not knowing anything about dragons, so she got him a book about em’… but that book also had a few spells in there, and Twi being Twi she decided to try one out… but it kinda went wrong,”
Rarity momentarily choked on her tea. “My dear! Are they alright?!” she gasped, images of a badly frazzled Twilight and Spike amongst a destroyed library filling her mind.
Applejack smiled and waved a dismissive hoof. “They’re both fine Rarity… the hay, Spike’s actually more than fine really. Ya see, the spell actually ended up dropping three dragons here in Ponyville by mistake… and before you go jumping to assumptions they’re actually quite nice, heh, one of them even scared off that goof Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon when they were bothering Sweetie.”
“There are d-dragons in Ponyville?” Rarity whispered through the chattering of her teacup, trying not so sound shocked at the very thought of the scaly menaces invading their town, much less one talking to Sweetie.
Applejack could understand Rarity’s obvious concern, given her past experiences with the race, but she was still a little annoyed at how the white unicorn could judge them without even meeting them face-to-face. In her opinion, even Cynder was a decent dragon, despite her rudeness.
“Yes, Rares, there are dragons here in Ponyville,” Applejack sighed, face-hoofing before returning her attention to the unicorn. “And like I said, to be honest they ain’t that bad. Anyway, I guess you’re still wondering why the girls were giggling then huh?”
“Well yes… if you’re insinuating there’s more to this story that is.”
Applejack blushed again, remembering the very moment she had walked through the library doorway to find Spike and Ember making out on the floor.
“Well, ya see Rares, of these dragons one’s a boy, his name’s Spyro, and two are girls, their called Cynder and Ember. Today we took em’ for a bit of tour of the town; me and Twi took Cynder, Cherilee and Fluttershy took Spyro, and Spike took Ember around.”
Rarity couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh Spike,” she grinned with a slight blush. “Always the gentledrake, If I do say so myself… ehem, you were saying?”
“Well, here’s the thing,” Applejack chuckled with a cheesy smile. “We led em’ around town, and did a few introductions and all, which was fine and dandy… but when we got back... we found Spike and Ember making out like a pair a' school ponies on the library floor.”
Rarity thanked Celestia there and then she hadn’t taken a big drink of her tea, for the moment she registered what Applejack had just said, her maw ejected the small amount that was in there out of utter shock, most of which ended up splashing across Applejack’s unprepared face.
“WHAT!”
“Gha! Rares!” Applejack snorted, rapidly shaking the residue from her face. “Did you not just hear what I said? Spike and Ember were making out.”
Rarity heard it alright, she heard it loud and clear, but her mind simply didn’t want to believe it; Spike, her Spikey-Wikey, the honourable young dragon, who day after day had come and helped her in her endeavours for nothing in return, had been found shamelessly kissing a dragoness he had apparently only just met.
“But Applejack… Spike… how?” she gibbered frantically, just about launching herself at the amber pony in her hunt for answers.
“Well, apparently, she let slip that she found him attractive,” Applejack said in a tone of annoyance as she faced the unicorn again. “And he admitted he liked her too... and ma' guess is that they went from there. The kissin' kinda started when she wanted to know how we show affection to our special some-ponies.”
Rarity’s urge to know more suddenly felt like it had been hit by a sledgehammer, and she dearly wished she had simply fallen asleep at her sewing machine, and would soon wake up, but she knew good and well that this nightmare was very real.
To her it simply didn’t make any logical sense; ever since they had met, she had known about Spike’s immense crush on her, and now she was being faced with the knowledge that all those affections had turned to dust in just a few short hours. Quietly, she wondered how this Ember dragoness had been able to seduce him, what trickery had she used to woo his heart away from its true place.
She was quickly finding herself becoming angry with Ember, VERY angry.
“Can I ask how Twilight took this?” she asked through gritted teeth, setting the teacup down beside her to resist hurling it at the nearest wall in rage.
“Twi was at first downright appalled,” Applejack snickered. “But ya see this is where things get even weirder… you know how for the longest time we all thought Spike was a baby?”
“The very reason I couldn’t return his feelings,” Rarity thought silently as she nodded in reply, her blood already boiling as she prepared for what her friend would say next.
“Well, the thing is, he ain’t actually a baby after all, well not by dragon terms anyway. According to Spyro, a dragon his age is basically the same as a pony his age, both of em’ basically being teenagers… so Twi agreed that him wanting to date Ember was pretty natural after all.”
Rarity had doubted her mood could get any worse, until Applejack’s statement had proved her downright wrong; the predominate and near only reason she had ignored Spike’s advances was, to put it bluntly, that she had assumed he was under-aged, and hence unaware of what he was doing. Now, however, she was faced with a very confronting reality that twisted in her gut like a knife, that being he had known the entire time what his feelings for her were.
He had loved her true and proper, she had completely ignored him, and now his heart and affections were being directed elsewhere...
...It was that realisation that finally made her snap.
“I WILL DESTROY HER!” Rarity screamed as loud as her lungs would allow, Applejack ducking in fright as a teacup sailed over her head, and smashed into the opposite wall. “HOW DARE SHE TAKE SPIKE FROM ME! I WILL RIP THAT LITTLE DEMON INTO A THOUSAND PIECES SO HELP ME CELESTIA!”
Before her demonic rant could continue however, Applejack took the initiative, and slammed her back legs into the unicorn, knocking her off her recliner and pinning her to the carpet before she could react, emerald eyes burning with a fire that said something along the lines of ‘You buck with me missy and you’re gonna regret it!’.
“Now you listen very closely, Rarity,” The farm pony snorted through a barely controlled fury. “It ain’t none of my business, but I know just as well as everypony else Spike really liked you for a while, but just because he ain’t interested anymore doesn’t give you the right to tamper with his love life.”
“So you expect me to just forget about him then?” Rarity snorted as she fought against the earth pony’s immense strength. “After being alone for so long and everything he’s done for me? I can’t do that Applejack.”
“You never showed any interest in him before, Rares, so now really ain’t the time to start… and just so you know, Ember is the kindest creature besides Fluttershy I’ve ever come across, so if you lay a single hoof on her you’ll prefer being sent to the moon over the punishment I’ll be giving you,”
A creak of the floor caused both mares to look up before Rarity could answer, the two finding both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looking on in confusion at the scene of destruction; hastily the two mares clambered off each other and tidy their manes, neither able to face the other.
“AB, we’re leaving,” Applejack said quickly as she righted herself, casting a final hateful glare towards Rarity before heading towards the door with her young sister in toe. “Remember what I said Rares, a single hoof.”
The white unicorn snorted and wordlessly watched her friend go.
“You forget one thing, Applejack,” Rarity growled under her breath as she pawed at her carpet, watching as the two ponies disappeared through her doorway and into the night. “I am a lady, I would never lay a hoof on anypony… directly anyway.”
Prior Note: Sorry this update took so long, but I’ve had two essays and a folio due in the last two weeks, so my dearest apologies. On a different note you all deserve a hug, because you guys got me featured! Twice! So yes free hugs to all of you. Finally I've decided to try a different text format, so please tell me if you approve or not.
Chapter 8: Trying to make Amends
“Ugh, I am so over this!” Cynder hissed angrily in distaste, her eyes now only seeing a wash of black across the page before her, rather than the individual equine letters she was supposed to be learning. “Why is this so important to begin with anyway?”
“Because if you want to maximise your learning potential while you’re in Equestria, you need to at least know how to read first, otherwise you’ll lack one of the most basic ability to gain knowledge and interact with others.”
The dragoness simply growled at the unicorn lying on the floor next to her. “Forget that I even asked,” she groaned aloud, the action drawing a giggle from the mare and Ember, and a snigger from Spyro and Spike.
Cynder’s day had so far, in her own opinion anyway, started off just as bad as the one before had; she admitted she had enjoyed a decent night sleep, thanks to the library’s warm and rather comfy spare bed, and a decent breakfast as well, thanks to Spike’s expertize in all things morning cuisine. But all said enjoyment had ended abruptly when Twilight had informed her, Spyro, and Ember of her plans for the morning; She and Spike had, for general purposes, as well as in preparation for the attending of Cherilee’s classes, decided that it would be a great idea to teach the three dragons how to read.
In Cynder’s opinion, that WASN’T such a great idea, but she didn’t exactly have much say in the matter.
Hence she now found herself lying on the library floor, bored out of her scales, and staring aimlessly at ‘Reading Foundations for Young Foals’, the dragoness physically trying to resist the urge to either rip the book apart with her talons, or burn it to ashes. She had been sitting there for well over two hours now, listening to Twilight go on about correct equine sentence structure and alike, but Cynder’s mental fuse was now very much nearing its end; she could only look at strange characters, and try to understand them for so long, and that so long had ended half an hour ago.
“Is there any chance of doing something else now?” she grumbled at last, dropping her head to the floor in a show of mental exhaustion. “Something… that doesn’t involve large amounts of thinking maybe?”
“Come on Cynder, learning’s really not that bad,” Ember put in happily, her pink head resting on her outstretched claws as she watched the darker dragoness. “All you need to do is to think positively… I mean… imagine what you could learn from all these books if you could read them.”
Twilight smiled and hastily nodded in agreement, but Cynder simply snorted and shook her head in reply. “With all due respect, Ember, I highly doubt there’d be anything in those dusty old books I'd enjoy, besides, all I’m seeing now is splodges of black ink rather than actual letters anyway.”
“Yeah, on that part, she has a point Twilight,” Spyro put in with a yawn.
Twilight tapped the floor with her hoof for a moment as she thought. “Well… I could ask you questions about dragons and document it; I mean we ponies don’t know a lot about…”
“Something that doesn’t involve thinking, learning, or questions for anyone involved, Twilight,” Cynder groaned, her head still resting lazily on the hard wooden floor. “Something… physical maybe?”
The mare sighed in disappointment, closed the book, and put a hoof to her chin, her mind running over a couple of possible activities that would hopefully keep four dragons entertained for a few hours, of which tragically there were only a couple available in the library itself. The other main option was to go outside, explore Ponyville some more, and try and get the three scaly newcomers to socialize with some of the local ponies, but that didn’t exactly seem a great idea either.
It was then, however, Twilight’s eyes fell across the now empty doorframe; she shuddered slightly as she recalled the rather recent moment, when Big Macintosh had literally kicked the door in with his back hooves, but on a tangent the memory also offered a possible solution to her problem.
“Well… would you three like to go see Sweet Apple Acres?”
Her suggestion earned her three blank stares, the three dragons momentarily looking between each other for answers.
“Huh, Sweet Apple what now?” Cynder asked at last, watching as the purple unicorn got to her hooves, and returned the small book to its original shelf.
“It’s Applejack’s farm,” Spike offered. “Basically, it’s a massive orchard that grows every kind of apple you can imagine, even magical zap apples.”
The name ‘zap apple’ caused the three winged dragons to once again glance amongst themselves in a combination of surprise and confusion; they had all known magical objects before for various reasons, but the idea of magic apples was something even they couldn’t fully comprehend.
“Spike’s pretty much correct there, but they also grow things like beans and celery as well,” Twilight stated as she returned to the small group, removing her mane from her face with a quick shake of her head. “Oh, and Big Macintosh runs the farm as well by the way, so maybe you and he can start over Cynder?”
The dragoness instinctively tensed up as everyone’s eyes fell on her, and quietly she looked away, and muttered something under her breath, which by Twilight’s hearing sounded something along the lines of ‘I’d rather lose my tail’.
“It’ll also give you three a chance to get some fresh air… and be away from Ponyville for a little while,” the mare went on a little sheepishly.
Within a heartbeat, the three dragons were up on their claws, and looking about ready to charge out the doorway.
“So this is Sweet Apple Acres?” Ember asked as she walked through the signature white picket entrance, momentarily looking over her shoulder at the purple dragon perched on her back. “It’s… bigger than I thought it would be.”
“Heh, the Apple family do just about feed everypony in Ponyville with their apples Ember,” Spike grinned, his emerald green eyes joining her blue ones in staring over the sight before them. “And the apples they don’t sell they mostly make into either cider or apple pie for special occasions through the year, both of which I hope you three get to taste while you’re all here.”
“That good huh?” Spyro asked from beside the two.
Spike couldn’t help but lick his lips at the thought of apple family treats. “You better believe it. If there’s any cooking in Equestria that could rival Pinkie Pie’s, it's Applejacks.”
Ember momentarily thought she was dreaming, as she swore she faintly heard the words "lies and slander!" being carried past on the wind. She just shook her head.
Two things greeted the dragoness as Twilight led them around a bend, and the road finally ended; the first was a vast expanse of apple trees, their green foliage seeming to stretch to the horizon, and then beyond, each individual tree bearing colourful fruit that glistened in the sunlight; some were dark red like rubies, whilst others shone like polished gold.
Secondly, sticking out from the sea of green like a rather profoundly miscoloured scale upon a dragon’s hide, was a red and white painted barn. The massive front doors were open as a pair of earth ponies each pulled a cartful of apples inside, emptied the fruit into wooden barrels, and then returned to the trees for more. One was Applejack, and the other was the hulking form of Big Macintosh, both of whom seemed totally oblivious to the new draconic presence on their farm, and if she was right, also looked rather exhausted as well.
“That doesn’t exactly look like fun,” Spyro chuckled aloud just as the siblings headed back towards the trees, causing the two formerly conversing ponies to turn around in surprise.
Applejack’s expression immediately softened into a tired smile, but Big Macintosh’s, however, seemed to harden slightly at the sight of the dragons, the red stallion’s nostrils immediately flaring when his eyes fell on Cynder, and vice-versa.
“Hehe, well ain’t this a pleasant surprise, what brings ya’ll to the acres?”
“We needed to get away from Twilight’s books for a while,” Spyro grinned, casting a glance back at Twilight, and finding her blushing slightly and playing with her front hooves. “Learning to read pony is tiring.”
The amber mare gave a short laugh, wiping a few drops of sweat from her brow. “Heh, we got two different opinions on tiring then partner,” she said lazily as she readjusted her hat. “You should try getting two days’ work done in one; it ain’t easy I’ll tell ya.”
“Why would you be working so hard Applejack?” Ember asked oddly, the amount of genuine concern in her voice surprising everypony present.
The Earth pony couldn’t help but blink a few times in bewilderment when she first noticed Ember standing nearby, and then Spike sitting perched on her back like he often did with Twilight. For a moment she thought the combination of heat and work had caused her to start seeing things; to see a dragon riding, well, another dragon, wasn’t exactly an experience she’d expected to have in her lifetime.
“Well ya see…”
“Cause AJ was supposed to be bucking apples yesterday afternoon while I ran the stall in town,” Big Mac snorted in before Applejack could reply, his deep voice coming out with a tad of venom as he pawed at the dirt. “And since she had to lead ya around Ponyville, we gotta do the extra work today to stay on season schedule.”
A moment later the stallion found himself the recipient of a death glare by his sister. “Don’t you dare try and make this personal Mac, just because you made a fool of yourself; it ain’t even their fault they’re here in the first place!” Applejack snapped a hair’s width from her brothers face, clearly displeased at her older sibling’s harshness, and more than willing to make it known to everyone present.
Behind all the action, Twilight chewed her lip.
“That ain’t ma’ problem, AJ. All I know is that you and I have extra apples to buck cause of them,” he replied with snort and a shake of his head, his eyes suddenly falling on the three dragons gathered in front of him. “So how bout ya get off our farm, and let us get back to work?”
The red pony then returned his sister’s glare, before silently turning on his hooves and walking back towards the thicket of apple trees, leaving the four dragons and two mares without another word. Judging by the expression on her face, Applejack was utterly fuming, but she kept any choice words she had to herself.
Despite her efforts in defence, however, the comments of the stallion still managed to sprout guilt in the three dragons. Even Cynder couldn’t help but feel a little bad, despite her now nearly-stone-set dislike of him. The ponies, as they each realized, had so far done everything in their power to make the three of them feel welcome in their strange land, and in return they had thus far been nothing but a burden.
“Ah, don’t go listening to him…”
“No, Applejack,” Spyro sighed, grating the soft earth of Sweet Apple Acres between his talons. “He’s right… one way or another we’re intruding on your lives, and you’re suffering because of it.”
The purple dragon’s head gingerly rose as he scanned the countless apple trees in front of him with his eyes, stopping only for a moment to curiously watch Big Macintosh slam his back legs into a particularly fruit heavy tree, and hence knock every single apple from its branches, and send them plummeting into the awaiting tubs below. He silently watched the action repeat itself a few times over for a minute or so, an idea growing brighter inside his brain with every kick the red stallion delivered.
“Applejack, can I just try something on one of your apple trees?”
The earth pony gave him a curious expression, before glancing over at the still fruit heavy trees nearby. “Well… as long as you don’t hurt em’ I guess ya can, but what are ya…”
WHAM!
THUD!
The sudden pair of noises tore every set of eyes to where the purple dragon was now standing, which just so happened to be at the base of a now empty golden delicious apple tree, a smug grin plastered across the young dragon’s face as he looked between the apple filled tubs at his feet, and the spot on the tree’s trunk where he had rammed it. Applejack slowly, and somewhat uneasily, came over and inspected the bare tree, the other dragons and Twilight behind her; she was amazed to find that Spyro, despite his presumably hard horns and scales, hadn’t left a single mark on the tree’s surface.
Big Macintosh soon trotted over to investigate what had happened in his short absence, and much like his younger sister quickly found himself standing in utter surprise as he looked between the perfectly filled tubs, the grinning purple dragon, and the bare-branched apple tree before him.
“Big Mac,” Applejack stuttered eventually as she removed her hat. “I’m either darn dreaming, or our apple bucking skills just got matched by dragon on his first go.”
“Eeyup.”
“Never thought my ramming skills would be useful in Equestria,” Spyro chuckled with an amused shake of his head, his remark drawing a knowing giggle from Ember. “Heh, since we’ve had enough learning for the day, how about we make you two a deal. We’ll help you gather your apples for the rest of today, if we can try some of your famous apple pie AJ…”
The amber pony grinned to herself and glanced up at Spike, who instinctively blushed under her gaze and looked away in embarrassment; only a dragon, who would eat anything put in front him, would think to tell his friends about her families cooking AND call it famous.
“…And if Big Mac is willing to make amends with Cynder.”
The red stallion, and violet dragoness, both seemed to choke on their own breaths of air as he said the last few words, and hastily began looking between each other and Spyro, as they took a few uneasy steps backward.
“No way!”
“Nope!”
“Those are my conditions,” the purple dragon stated firmly with a flick of his tail, giving them both a glare to emphasize his point. “Big Mac, you need our help to get your extra work done, and Cynder, as much as I love you… you need to start to learn how to get over things… so you two can either try to get along, or we go our separate ways, and no one benefits.”
“I’d still prefer ya to get off my farm personally,” the stallion snorted, his eyes focused directly on the violet dragoness who was the source of his frustration.
“And I’d rather not still be working at midnight, Mac,” Applejack put in angrily with her nostrils flaring, giving her brother a none too gentle buck in the side. “Look… I’m as stubborn as ya’ll are when it comes to the farm, big brother, and you know that, but just like I did, ya gotta learn to overlook a few things when somepony’s offering ya a helping hoof.”
While looking between the two offending dragons, Big Macintosh wanted to say no at the very least, and at most he wanted to turn around and buck them both into next week, but the logical part of his mind kept reminding him that he and AJ were both half a day behind schedule, and exhausted as it was; plus as it was his younger sister was once again glaring at him from beneath the brim of her hat.
Grudgingly, he finally looked over his shoulder at the countless rows of apple trees that were still covered in ripe fruit, the sheer number of them making him cringe, and his back legs suddenly start to ache once again at the mere thought of the work ahead; it seemed even if he didn’t like it he had no say in the matter.
Ever been made to look like an idiot, by a girl, in front of both your partner AND sister? Yeah, probably not I’d say, but if you have then you’ll probably understand Big Mac’s behaviour.
Ok, so again I want to clear something up. So far this story has been mainly shenanigans with a few side plots (Ember and Spike, Cynder’s need to change her attitude etc.). Just so you all know there is an intended main plot, but as those who have read my other fics will know I don’t like to introduce main plots right away, rather I like to build into them.
Prior Note: First part of this chapter starts at the same time (midday) when the last one finished, second and onward parts occur later in the day. Also, as stated before, Rarity’s predicament is only a side plot, just be aware of that when reading next two chapters.
Chapter 9: What’s a friendship report?
The Ponyville post office sat on the southern edge of the small town. It was a building that matched the surroundings exactly, bearing the same style of thatched roofing, and the same shade of wall plaster as its neighbours, rendering it virtually indistinguishable from those buildings around it. This particular architectural detail came with its own set of pros and cons; the pro was that the structure wasn’t an out of place eyesore in the street, the con, on the other hoof, was that since the surrounding buildings were predominately homes, the post office was particularly hard to find, unless somepony knew exactly which one it was.
The post office was currently, as it usually happened to be at lunchtime on most weekdays, virtually devoid of anypony.
The exception to said rule was the local grey and blonde mail-mare, Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo, who was presently going through the stack of letters and parcels received from Manehatten at her desk while happily devouring a muffin.
As everypony in Ponyville knew, she REALLY liked muffins.
“…that’s for Rose, this one’s for the Cakes, you’re for Pinkie Pie, that’s for…” she thought aloud, her trained hooves swiftly dividing the pile of letters across her desk as she spoke the names to herself.
She spoke the names aloud for a number of reasons. The main one was that by doing so it kept her concentrated as she had an unfortunate habit of getting, as her nickname somewhat suggested, confused at times when she lost her focus.
And when she did, things had a slight habit of somehow going wrong... even if half the time she just didn’t know what it was that went wrong.
At the present moment she wanted to keep her focus and avoid confusion above all else, hence enabling her to get her mail sorting duty done as fast as possible. Earlier that day the bright pink puff of energy, known as Pinkie Pie, had come bounding in to the post office with an invitation grasped firmly in her teeth.
It was an invitation to one of her signature ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties, parties which often featured the DJ expertise of Vinyl Scratch, copious amounts of Apple family cider, and loads of her much loved Sugercube Corner made muffins.
And, according to the invitation Pinkie had given her, this particular party was for some very ‘special’ guests to the small town, hence it was a party she refused to miss. She had heard whispers of Ponyville finding itself being visited by dragons, and the opportunity to both have a chance to see them, and enjoy a great party and lots of muffins at the same time was one she simply couldn’t let pass.
“Mm-muffins,” she drooled, imaging a table covered in muffins of all flavours splayed out before her.
Her sudden confectionary daydream, though, was quickly shattered. The sharp ring of the doorbell as somepony entered pulled her back together, followed by another ring as it closed, and the clack of hooves as said somepony approached her desk.
Quickly wiping her mouth with the back of her hoof, to make sure there wasn’t any drool, Ditzy smiled and looked up at her customer.
The mare then found herself slightly surprised to see Rarity standing there, and for some unbeknown reason looking a little tense to say the least, the alabaster mare regarding her curiously as she looked over the piles of letters that covered Ditzy’s desk.
Rarity was a regular visitor to the post office, often coming in to send off material orders, finished clothing items, and alike, but Ditzy had never once recalled seeing her as jittery as she appeared to be before.
“Hi Rarity! Can I help you? You need another order sent off to Trottingham?”
Rarity shook her head. “No, not this time I’m afraid… I hope you’re not too busy Ditzy,” she said quietly, her horn beginning to glow a faint blue as she pulled a sealed envelope from her saddlebag. “But I was looking to send a… a rather important letter to somepony in Canterlot, preferable as soon as possible.”
Ditzy, being the easily humoured and somewhat cheeky mare she was, hastily put a hoof across her muzzle in an effort not to giggle at the unicorn, prompting Rarity to give her an unusual look.
“Soooo… does Rarity have a special somepo…”
“NO!” Rarity yelled without thinking. The amount of volume in her voice not only blew a few letters from Ditzy’s desk, but also caused the grey pegasus to yelp, and nearly fall off of her chair.
Within a second Rarity regained her composure, but it took a few more for Ditzy’s heart-rate to return to normal.
“Ehem, my dearest apologizes for that most unladylike behaviour, Ditzy, but this is simply a letter to a friend of mine,” the unicorn smiled, a faint amount of red glowing in her cheeks.
Ditzy nodded a few times, and despite still being a little shaken from Rarity’s blasting, took the floating letter in her hooves. The cross-eyed mare’s jaw just about hit her wooden desk when she peered down at it, then read the name written on the envelope aloud, and finally looked back up at Rarity again.
“Shining Armor? As in… captain of the royal guard, and husband of princess Cadence, that Shining Armor?”
“Of course… what?” Rarity started almost defensively, not exactly impressed with the odd look and raised eyebrow the pegasus was giving her. “Ditzy, just because I’m a mare, and he’s married to Princess Cadence, doesn’t mean I can’t send him a letter as a friend. He is the brother of one of my best friends after all… besides, like I said before Ditzy, this is important.”
Ditzy’s eyebrow only raised further up her forehead. “Then why don’t you get Spike to send it for you? It would take him a bare minute to send, and I’m sure he’d do it for free, since he and Shining Armor are basically family I mean.”
Rarity suddenly felt her face flush, and once again nervously bit her lip. “I’m afraid Spike is… busy… at the moment, Ditzy,” she sighed, thanking Celestia that Ditzy was no Applejack when it came to calling lies.
Ditzy pondered for a moment before shrugging to herself; she couldn’t really argue with the unicorn’s logic, after all, she often sent letters to her friends in Cloudsdale, and most of the them were married as well. Plus, she and the post office’s main purposes were sending and receiving letters anyway.
“Fair enough,” she smiled at last, blinking a few times to readjust her wayward eyes. “So, you want this delivered ASAP then huh? Hmmm, well… it’ll cost a few extra bits… but I could write this up now, put an express delivery stamp on it, and get it on the one o’clock train, which would mean he’d get it privately delivered around six o’clock, I think.”
“That would be perfect,” the unicorn sighed gladly, using her horn to extract the necessary bits from her saddlebag, while the pegasus pulled a black book and a pen from one of her desks many draws. “Oh, and Ditzy, I know you never would anyway… but please, don’t go telling anypony about this, ok?”
“Sur fing Rarty,” Ditzy replied with a pen in her mouth, taking the gold coins before hastily taking down the date, time, sender, and receiver in the outgoing mail book. “See ya latr.”
“Goodbye Ditzy.”
Once she had left, and found herself outside in the street again, Rarity sighed loudly, wiped her brow and allowed a smile to spread across her face; So far everything had gone as intended.
“Well, I know I always said dragons were stubborn and hard headed, like you Spike,” Twilight teased as she happily looked back over the results of their work, causing the purple dragon’s cheeks to flare crimson, along with those of his three counterparts. “But I never meant it literally, or thought I was right about it for that matter.”
Spike couldn’t help but cast his eyes back as the small group exited through the white picket fence, the sight that greeted him still being the same massive swell of apple trees, most of which though now lacking their prized glistening fruit. All that fruit, he knew proudly, was now either safely sealed away in barrels, loaded into the cart Big Macintosh would take to Ponyville, or, in the case of a select few, cooked into the steaming pie he was holding in his claws as he sat on Ember’s back.
All in all, It had been surprisingly strenuous work, but the effort they all felt had been worth it; not only did the three newcomer dragons, Ember and Spyro especially, feel as if they had repaid some of their debt to the local ponies by helping out Applejack and her brother, but Cynder was also back on level terms with Big Macintosh.
Apparently anyway, the violet dragoness didn’t really seem to care about it, or the older Apple siblings themselves much either way; all through the day she had predominantly kept herself to herself, and gone about her work silently... or strangely rather, silently up until Applebloom had returned home from her day at school. The cream filly, upon sighting the dragoness ramming apple trees in the middle of the orchard, had hastily gone to help her out in any way she could.
And to everypony’s utter amazement, and especially Spyro’s given he knew how stubborn she could be when it came to asking for help, Cynder had accepted without protest. Just how three fillies had been able to crack the dragoness’s rough exterior, where she and just about everypony else had tried and failed, was beyond even Twilight’s ability to understand.
“Heh, it might be a bit far-fetched, but it’s a darn useful trait in my opinion Twi!” Applejack chucked from beside her lavender friend, her own coat shining the same shade as the late afternoon sky. “If these three are willing to help out like that again, the hay, we’d get the entire harvest done in no time.”
“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh said in agreement, his well-known phrase prompting a few giggles and laughs. “I’ll say myself you three make some good workers.”
“Yeah! You three… should… come up… to the farm… more often!” Applebloom chimed in between pants a little way back along the road, the filly’s short legs making it a difficult for her to keep up. “AJ… can ya… slow down… please?”
Applejack and Big Macintosh grinned at each other, broke into laughter, and rolled their eyes at their younger sister as they walked; the two remembering a few certain times in Applejack’s own life when she’d been in a similar situation, where Mac had been forced to slow down his own none-stop, long stride pace to allow her to catch up.
What happened before both sibling’s eyes though, and those of everypony else, was completely and utterly left field.
“Ugh, come here you,” Cynder sighed aloud with a small smirk, momentarily stopping to reach down and grab Applebloom’s mane in her teeth, and then, as everypony stood there in surprise, lifted the excited filly onto her back. “Just don’t go pulling any of my scales out, ok?”
“Ok!” Applebloom giggled in delight as the pair of them quickly caught up, her red bow bouncing with each step the dragoness took.
As they came closer, the cluster of three adult ponies looked momentarily at the violet dragoness, then at the filly perched on her back, then at each other, and finally burst into a fit of laughter, their behaviour drawing odd looks from the four dragons and one filly; if they were any other group of ponies, they would have thought the situation absolutely random, especially given it was somehow Cynder of all dragons in the middle of it... but being good friends with Pinkie Pie meant that the concept of random became an everyday part of life.
Cynder, in reply, just snorted and shook her head, the dragoness a little annoyed at finding her small act of generosity, and hence herself, the centre of the three ponies humour.
“Ugh, these ponies,” she muttered under her breath. “They’re so weird.”
Once the laughter died down, the small group continued swiftly back towards Ponyville, aware that now Princess Celestia’s sun was once again taking its light and going elsewhere over the horizon, and hence leaving the land of ponies to another night, and the silent watch of Princess Luna’s moon.
The small town was, as always, its usual desolate and silent self after the sun set, but strangely Spike got the feeling something not so normal was up; even by Ponyville standards it was much too quiet, plus, why the three Apple siblings had decided to come with them back to the library, especially after such a long day of hard work, was also an as of yet unsolved mystery.
Along the way, Twilight gave the three dragons a talk about Princess Luna, and how each night she raised the moon and arranged the stars to her liking, so everypony could enjoy the beauty of the night. Cynder seemed to ignore most of it, and instead decided to have her own conversation with Applebloom, although Ember and Spyro both seemed enthralled, with Ember throwing a surprising amount of questions Twilight’s way.
Applejack couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Spike and the extremely curious pink dragoness, If the old saying ‘a colt will always marry somepony like his mother’ had any merit whatsoever, then it must've applied to dragons as well as ponies.
“So, how come if Princess Luna places the stars in the sky at night… why doesn’t Princess Celestia do the same with the clouds in the day?” Ember asked curiously as she looked up at the darkening sky, Spike still perched on her back with their hard earned apple pie.
“Because although they’re part of the day clouds are more specifically part of the weather, and hence they fall under the control of pegasi weather ponies,” Twilight answered, the unicorn smiling at having yet another chance to express her knowledge. “Also, clouds can also be found in the sky at night, so Princess Celestia couldn’t really claim the clouds as being part of the day either, even if she wanted to.”
“Plus it would just be another pain-in-the-flank duty for her, along with reading Twilight’s five page friendship reports,” Spike chuckled, his addition causing Ember to giggle, and Twilight to glare at him, clearly unimpressed at his remark about both her and her mentor. “Heh… sorry.”
That was when, however, Twilight suddenly stopped in her tracks. “Spike! I just had a great idea! We haven’t written a friendship report to the princess this week, and we haven’t told to her about Ember, Cynder, and Spyro yet either… so, what if we wrote a report to her with them included!”
“Ya’ll could put in about how Cynder and Mac got over their differences,” Applejack put in with agreement, using a hoof to shift the position of her hat, the reasons as to why she still wore it when the sun was setting escaping Ember. “To get our apple harvesting done I mean.”
The unicorn nodded enthusiastically as she thought over the proposition; before the conversation could continue though, Spyro loudly cleared his throat, and caused both Applejack and Twilight to look back, the dragon’s actions reminding the two mares he was still there, and informing them he had absolutely no clue what they were going on about.
“So… what exactly is a friendship report?” he asked, his head slightly tilted in a show of confusion, while Cynder just rolled her eyes and gagged at the name.
Twilight smiled sheepishly before answering, a little surprised, and embarrassed, she had overlooked explaining such a major part of her day-to-day life. “Well… usually once every week, either Spike and I, or one of the girls, sends Princess Celestia a letter about our adventures and what we’ve learned about the magic of friendship. Originally she asked me to as part of my studies when I moved to Ponyville, but after a rather… interesting… situation, she decided that we should all send her letters on what we learned.”
“And, after ya’ll get settled in, maybe we can convince one of you three to send the princess a letter,” Applejack chuckled, giving the purple dragon a playful shove. “I reckon she’d love that.”
Ember had to admit she liked the idea, and a lot at that; the thought of actually meeting Princess Celestia was one she had pondered over on a regular basis, though the dragoness hadn’t yet come across a means to establish such a meeting... but now, with the help of Twilight’s friendship reports, she had a chance to make her wish known not only to Twilight, but also to Princess Celestia herself.
It was a win-win situation no matter how she looked at it, or at least that was the case if Princess Celestia approved of a dragon, other than Spike, staying with her student anyway.
“I’d really like that Twilight, maybe we can start writing it when we get back,” the pink dragoness smiled at last, looking up and seeing the library standing tall at the end of the street.
Spike, however, was one step ahead of her, his eyes already locked suspiciously on the twisting tree structure he and Twilight called home, and his suspicion only growing ever more as they got closer and closer, and certain details became clear to his eyes; he specifically remembered not pulling the curtains across, not turning off the kitchen light that morning, and there not being a door in the front doorway, courtesy of the rather strong red stallion walking beside him.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath, Ember,” Spike said dryly as they arrived at the newly fitted door, slowly sliding off of her and readying himself. Twilight momentarily looked at the door, before shrugging to herself, and then pushing it open. “We’re not going to have much free time tonight.”
Ember regarded him curiously as she stepped inside. “Why is that…” the dragoness started, her voice suddenly being cut off as light erupted at her from every direction.
Prior Note: I had half of this chapter written before I uploaded the prior one, and decided to get them both out today. As usual, if you see any mistakes, tell me.
Chapter 10: Caught between a mare and a dragoness
Pinkie Pie’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties were, as everypony knew, always planned so the guest or guests of honour were caught off guard and surprised by them... in the case of Ponyville’s new resident dragons, being called caught off guard and surprised would have been an understatement so dire it could’ve freed Discord.
Ember took it the easiest. She simply jumped in fright at the word ‘SURPRISE’, reared up on her hind legs, and after a teetering moment fell over backwards on top of Spike, the two going into a burst of laughter when they realized what had happened, and the energetic pink host happily joining in for no apparent reason. Twilight thankfully caught the apple pie with her magic before it joined them on the floor, smirked, and rolled her eyes at the behaviour.
Spyro, on the other hoof yelped, flared his wings, and jumped a meter or so in the air. Upon landing again, he looked like he been scared out of his purple scales, and had just come very close to having a major heart attack, much to the apparent mirth of the various ponies in the room.
Cynder, being the last in and last to realize what was going on, and as one would imagine, took it in the worst possible and imaginable way; her fighting instincts immediately took over as her eyes were filled with a swarm colourful ponies, and a heartbeat later her maw snapped open, sending a blast of red energy arching across the room. Everypony rapidly yelped and ducked in cover as it sailed over them, before striking yet another shelf of one of Twilight’s literature filled bookcases, and caused half a dozen books to explode in a shower of pages and coveres.
Cynder, when her heart rate finally slowed down a little so she saw what actually was happening, and upon seeing both Spyro and Ember glaring at her, let out an embarrassed “oops” as she played with her claws.
“That was fun, Cynder!” Applebloom giggled as she slid down from shocked dragoness’s back, oblivious to her former dark scaled mount's current distressed state; the filly was instead grinning from ear to ear as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle trotting over the join her in the doorway. “Ya gotta let me do that again sometime!”
“Yeah! Can we do that some time too Cynder?” Scootaloo asked, giving the dragoness a beaming smile. “Maybe we can earn dragon tamer cutie marks!”
“I don’t think that would work,” Sweetie Belle giggled. “I’m pretty sure we tried that with Spike… and Cynder’s already pretty tame; we’d be better off trying to get dragon rider cutie marks!”
Scootaloo and Applebloom’s eyes, in Cynder’s opinion, widened to an almost unnatural size. “That would be an awesome cutie mark!” The orange filly giggled with excitement. “Can we Cynder? Pllllleeeeaaaasssse?”
“Umm…” the violet dragoness started, taking a nervous step back from the three.
“Hiya! Did I surprise you three? Did I? Did I?” Pinkie Pie asked, her face and rather large blue eyes uncomfortably close to the three somewhat stunned dragons’ own. “I’ll take that silence as a yes; I mean, this WAS supposed to a surprise party after all, so it MUST have surprised you! Otherwise it’d just be a normal party…or a not-so-surprise-surprise-party… anyway, surprise or no surprise, welcome to your party! Now come with me, there are ponies I want you to meet.”
With that, and without the three dragons being able to say a word in either response or protest, Pinkie Pie forcefully began the traditional party meet and greet with everypony present, dragging the three around the room, and introducing Ember, Cynder, and Spyro to the local ponies individually; it wasn’t exactly easy, given only a day ago, these ponies had been avoiding them like they carried the pony plague, and given Cynder’s actions, they still seemed uneasy.
Spike shrugged towards Twilight and Applejack, before happily deciding to tag along for the Pinkie driven ride, being Ember’s 'coltfriend' and all, and hence leaving the two mares to their other friends, food, drinks, and their own devices.
Within an hour most of the various ponies' unease had melted away, and Ember and Spyro quickly finding themselves enjoying the celebratory atmosphere as well as the immense amount of food on hoof. Despite her general hatred of all things crowds, introductions, and sweets, even Cynder’s snarky mood lightened a little as well.
If it was real change, or just a well-practised façade, however, Spike wasn’t completely sure, even after an hour or so of observing the violet dragoness.
All of his prior joviality dimmed substantially, however, when Pinkie moved them on from meeting Rose, Daisy, and Lilly, and decided, somewhat without thinking of future consequences, to introduce the three to a pair of white unicorns who were chatting the corner. One happened to be the local rave lover and party DJ Vinyl Scratch, and the other was none other than his former crush, Rarity.
“Celestia help me,” Spike thought warily as Pinkie Pie the led four, unintentionally of course, towards his most certain impending doom. “This is gonna be interesting.”
Spike knew he hadn’t yet told Rarity about him and Ember yet, but given what had happened with the other dragons on the migration, the chances of her being readily accepting were... virtually zero to none.
Staying as close to Ember as possible, should something go wrong, Spike followed the bouncing pink earth pony up to the two unicorn mares, who immediately stopped their prior conversation when they registered the five new presences in their vicinity.
Vinyl, for her part, just grinned enthusiastically and lifted her signature shades from her bright red eyes, Rarity, however, remained fairly much blank faced other then, Spike swore, an unusual but somewhat understandable small scowl.
“So you’re the three who’ve been causing the ruckus round town huh? Hehe, probably better that it’s you guys instead of me and my equipment for once,” Vinyl chuckled, taking a step forward and gazing over the three newly acquainted dragons before her. “Name's Vinyl Scratch, I’m the local DJ, bass expert, and window shattering professional around these parts… well, really the last parts mainly my stuff.”
“And I am Rarity, seamstress, fashion extraordinaire, and owner of Carousel Boutique,” said Rarity with an elegant flick of her purple mane, putting on the most regal voice she possibly could. “So, darlings, what are your names?”
Spyro, after taking a moment of silence, and quick look at his three companions, stepped forward and took the initiative. “Nice to meet you both, I’m Spyro,” he said politely with a small incline of his golden horns. “And this is my mate Cynder, and my friend Ember.”
Rarity’s eye twitched when she heard Ember’s name, and then again as she grudgingly glanced down at the smiling pink dragon, although she was thankful that her mane kept the unladylike action well hidden.
She was, admittedly, more than a little surprised to learn which one Ember was, and even more surprised about her appearance; the dragons she had encountered before had all been ruffians, and nothing more, little better than the brutish diamond dogs who had kidnapped her in both demeanour, presentation, and especially hygiene... but the dragoness before her was the greatest possible opposite of said descriptions.
Her eyes were like two large baby blue sapphires, her scales were a shade of pink that matched a certain pink party host exactly, and her horn’s almost looked to be made from bronze or gold. She wasn’t slim and streamlined like Cynder was, but nor could she be said to look excessively bulky either, it was almost like Ember, apparently without even trying, had captured the figure mares like Rarity had always been searching for. Plus, if the simple, but elegant heart necklace she wore around her neck meant anything, this particular dragoness had a good taste for fashion as well.
As much as she loathed both the dragoness, and the very thought, Rarity silently had to give it to Spike that despite his lack of dating experience, he certainly knew how to pick his partners.
“Heh, wow, you three are like three totally different tunes,” Vinyl chuckled. “Ember, you’re really cute, Spyro, you seem pretty cool, and Cynder… you’re just all kinds of badflank.”
“Vinyl!” Rarity snorted in disgust. “language please!”
“And what’s wrong with my flank?” the violet dragoness hissed with an arched eyebrow, taking a look back at her hips, her action though only causing the DJ’s grin to widen, and Spyro to blush and chuckle behind a concealing claw.
“Nah, not literally like that, it’s pony for being a ‘don’t buck with me’ type individual,” she snickered with a shake of her lightning blue mane. “By the way, love the colour scheme and the bling you got going on… makes you look like one of those head-bangers I met in Fillydelphia.”
Cynder turned back and regarded the DJ oddly. “Uh… thanks… I think.”
Unbeknown to conversing group, they and their every action, and Rarity’s in particular, were being watched through the pony crowd from across the small room, mainly so that in the event of things going downhill an intervention could and would be quick.
Next to the now resealed doorway stood the combination of Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, and Fluttershy, three of the four mares watching the conversation intently, while Dash was content to simply tune in and out between stuffing her face with party food.
Said three observers were all silently praying to Celestia nothing went wrong, and their alabaster friend didn’t suddenly snap, which luckily, so far was an event which hadn’t occurred.
So far nothing obvious had gone wrong, and that fact, given what had transpired when Rarity had been told, was currently making Applejack extremely nervous; Rarity was her usual well behaved and ladylike self, and didn’t seem in the slightest bothered by Ember being near her, a far contrast to the jealous, raging, tea cup throwing, violent oath swearing unicorn she had been the night prior.
“So she really took it that bad?” Twilight asked sheepishly as she turned to Applejack. “You don’t think she maybe just… got over it, do you?”
The farm pony simply sighed and shook her head, her eyes returning to Rarity before she answered. “I can't honestly say; she seems to me to be back to her usual fine and dandy self… but something just don’t feel right.”
“Y-you don’t think she’d… h-hurt Ember do you?” Fluttershy asked, her question drawing a snort and another head shake from Applejack, this one however showing far more agitation, and causing the pegasus to let out a small ‘eep’.
“I don’t think so, ‘cause I told her plain and simple last night that if she did… boy howdy she’d be regretting it pretty quickly.”
What exactly that meant, Twilight wasn’t sure, and judging by her rather uncomfortable expression, it was clear she didn’t want to know either.
Rainbow Dash, however, wasn’t Twilight, and had for the last half an hour been wondering what the hay it was three mares were going on about; she hadn’t been able to gain a clear understanding as of yet, all she had gathered so far was that it concerned Rarity, Spike, and Ember, and her urge to be in the loop suddenly and catastrophically overcame her.
“Wat ar yu al talkin abrout?” Dash asked with a mouth full of chocolate cake, hovering directly above Twilight’s head and showering the unlucky unicorn with crumbs, much to her annoyance. “Com on, spil it alredy.”
The three mares looked uneasily between each other, and then at the small conversing group across the room, where thankfully Rarity was still apparently herself; all the while Dash hovered there, and glared at them with bulging cheeks, her front hooves crossed in expectance of an answer for one of her friends. Eventually, it was Applejack who broke first, the farm pony chewing her lip nervously for a moment before answering her cyan pegasus friend in a volume close to a whisper, Rainbow’s magenta eyes staring daggers of suspicion straight at her.
“Well… Ya see sugercube… we’re all talking ‘bout a bit of situation we have on our hooves. Now whatever ya do, don’t go yelling nothing out… but, as it is now, Spike and Ember are dating.”
“SPI-MMF!” Dash started, her rather loud voice suddenly being cut off, as Twilight drew a magic zipper across her mouth, momentarily silencing the pegasus pony while the three mares collectively glared her into submission.
“As I was saying,” Applejack continued as Dash unzipped her maw, clearly unimpressed. “Spike and Ember are going out, and right now we’re discussing how Rarity’s taking it.”
Gingerly, Dash landed, cast an eye over her shoulder, and flicked her ears back. “She seems to be taking it alright to me… why would she be so against them anyway? No offense to the little guy, but It’s not like Rarity ever took any real interest in Spike.”
“That’s just it Rainbow, she took it about as bad as a pony could when I told her last night, so with her acting all calm and composed… I just got the feeling something’s up,” AJ snorted in distaste, her front hoof pawing at the floor in annoyance without her being aware. “Uh, anyhow, listen here good and proper Dash, this stays between them and us, you don’t go telling anypony ‘bout any of this okay… especially Pinkie Pie.”
“What can’t Rainbow Dash tell me about?”
Nopony knew how she did it, and both Applejack and Twilight doubted anypony ever would at that, but upon the mentioning of her name, Pinkie Pie seemed to pop into existence next to Fluttershy purely out of thin air.
As could be expected, Fluttershy let out another fearful ‘eep’, and jumped behind Applejack with frightening speed, who groaned and face-hoofed whilst the bubbly pink mare went into a fit of giggles, prompting everypony in the immediate area to cease their conversations and look at the group of mares; there was only one exception in existence to the laws of reality, and that as everypony knew was Pinkie.
“Pinkie Pie… a second ago ya’ll were on the other side of the darn room, how did you… you know what, just forget it, ah’m done thinking about how you do things.”
“Agreed.” Twilight sighed, adding her own face-hoof to the mix.
“Ok!” the candy-floss maned mare smiled as she regained herself. “Anyway… what’s the super secretive super-secret Dashie’s supposed to keep secret from me?” she asked, her muzzle pressed uncomfortably close to Applejack’s own, as a set of abnormally wide blue eyes drilled into the amber mare’s own green ones.
Applejack though maintained her nerve and shook her head. “Nu-uh, sorry Pinkie, but there are things it’s best that you don’t know.”
There were very, VERY few things that could make Applejack even come close to going back on her word; as the Element of Honesty, her word was an oath in its own right, a swearing that she would uphold to the best of her ability. However, if there was one thing that could make anypony, including Applejack, teeter on the very edge of breaking such a vow, it was the sight of Pinkie’s puffy mane dropping and her bright blue eyes filling with tears, which as soon as the amber pony finished speaking happened.
“But… but… but…” the pink mare whimpered softly as her lip quivered and she cried, the sight causing the farm pony’s insides to curl up, and for her to bite down on her lip in an effort to control her tongue.
Somehow, by the grace of Celestia, and the strength of her mental resistance, Applejack managed to maintain control of herself for the few agonizing moments, despite the waterworks put on by Pinkie Pie. Finally, the amber mare quietly sighed in relief, and wiped a drop of sweat from her brow as the party pony at last broke eye contact with her, and then turned to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow, regrettably, didn’t last longer than ten seconds.
“GRRR! Pinkie!” Dash snorted, the watery blue eyes of her best friend tearing down the wall her mind had put in front of her tongue. “Alright, fine, Spike and Ember are going out! You happy?!”
“RAINBOW!” Twilight and Applejack snorted in unison.
The deed, however, was already far done and beyond changing.
Within a bare second, Pinkie’s mane was back up to its usual cotton candy fluffy self, and her eyes were no longer watering... but rather had widened to an incredible and usually unbelievable size, and her jaw had dropped to the point of almost meeting the wooden floor.
“…So, basically, we’re stuck here for the time being,” Spyro ended with a shrug and a blank expression, the two mares in front of him looking between each other, and then dragons before them, as their minds processed and made sense of Spyro’s tale of how they had ended up in Equestria.
“Sheesh, that really blows horn for you three huh?” Vinyl sighed at last with a sad shake of her head, the DJ’s usual hype all but deflated by the dragon’s rather depressing story. “Well, no matter what happens, you got friends like us here in Ponyville who’ll watch out for ya, so I’m pretty sure you three will be fine once you’re all settled in… ain’t that right, Rarity?”
Rarity didn’t answer, nor did she berate Vinyl on her language as she had done earlier; she couldn’t, not in the twisting and turning state her mind was in. Right now, her emotions were fighting each other for dominance like Timberwolves for the rank of alpha, and her thoughts were scattered around her brain like confetti fired from Pinkie’s party cannon.
Up until now, she had hated Ember with just about every fibre of her being, and would have enjoyed nothing more than frankly shoving the dragoness in a box like she did her finished dresses, and shipping her as far from Ponyville as possible.
Now though, she felt, despite her utter hatred of the concept, some level of sympathy for the bright pink dragoness; she was stuck in a totally different world then her own, one where her kind were commonly feared, with as of yet no possible way to get home... and here was Spike, being the young knight in shining armor he likened himself to, honourably standing at her side as she braved this new world.
A faint, but obvious smile spread across Rarity’s muzzle. “Yes, of cour…”
“OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH! OHMYGOSH!”
The sudden, and rather loud in Spike’s opinion, voice of Pinkie Pie rudely silenced the white mare there and then.
The conversing group, along with a slightly annoyed crowd of everypony else in the room, quickly turned to see what the fuss was all about, and their eyes were greeted by a most unusual sight.
Pinkie Pie was known to be somewhat ‘out there’ when it came to what she did at parties, as pretty much everypony in Ponyville had witnessed firsthoof, and the present moment was a perfect example of such behaviour; the pink mare was standing on a somewhat conveniently placed table, leaning directly over Ember and himself with hoof on their of their heads, and smiling down at them like somepony had given her a whole thermos of coffee, everypony in the room staring straight at her.
“Soooo, is it true? Are you two really special somedragons? Cause if it’s true and you really are, this isn’t just a surprise party! It’s a We-surprised-you-with-a-party-and-you-surprised-us-by-falling-in-love party! Wait… isn’t that just a different type of combined surprise party?”
Both dragons’ cheek scales immediately flared crimson, as not only Rarity and Vinyl’s eyes fell questioningly on them, but also those of all the other guests in the room who had formerly been looking at Pinkie. The situation before Spike was one of total and utter doom in all directions; here he was, standing before both his former crush, and current fillyfriend, with an entire crowd of ponies watching on from the sidelines, and being asked to answer a question on a fact he would’ve much preferred to have kept secret.
Best option when under pressure, tell the truth.
“Well…” he said somewhat nervously, scratching his green spines with one of his talons. “…Yeah.”
What followed his answer was a reactive blush from Ember, a rather loud squeal of delight from Pinkie Pie, a chorus of wolf whistles, cheers, and alike from everypony else, and slight snort from Rarity... though she made it barely audible so it went unheard.
All prior level of tolerance for the dragoness was gone in a bare instant. The white unicorn had made up her mind, there was only room for one lady in Spike’s life, and come Tartarus she would make sure it wouldn’t be Ember.
Then, however, there was another abrupt sound that filled the library, one which virtually shattered the calm atmosphere like a blast from Pinkie’s party cannon did silence.
Said sound being an extremely loud wooden crash, followed by the clang of metal armour, and a collective yelp from the pony crowd as they ducked in cover.
“Hmmm… that’s weird,” Pinkie said oddly to herself, her head swivelling around on an angle that would’ve been impossible for anypony else. “I don’t remember inviting any royal guards.”
Cynder, Spyro and Ember vs royal guard… take cover! shit storm incoming! Anyway, the questions you’re most likely wondering will be answered in next chapter.
I’ve split this chapter into two parts to try and keep characters… well, in character basically, because I couldn’t really see Shining Armor barging in there and unleashing all matter of hell, without asking some questions first.
Chapter 11: Uninvited Guests
Pre-read by: Edragon
Pinkie Pie’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties, as everypony in Ponyville had come to individually know all too well over the years, were often prone to being rather interesting experiences, both for said welcomed pony, and everypony else who happened to attend. They, and the events that took place at them, were often described as being somewhat like the pink party mare herself; completely and utterly random in every describable manner.
But this particular party, in Twilight’s own opinion anyway, was without a doubt soon destined to take the cake for the most memorable of all Pinkie Pie parties, and not just because the three welcomed ponies were actually dragons.
For a moment nopony in the room did anything more than stop, stand, and stare at the library doorway, some still with their mouths hanging open mid-conversation, or full of half chewed cake, sweets, or other Sugercube Corner confectionaries. For Twilight, the sight brought about a combination of serious confusion, a minor amount of fear, a growing sense of frustration, and above all else, an overwhelming anger; with all of said feelings being directed predominantly towards one armored stallion in particular.
Said stallion was presently standing and filling up the majority of her doorway, which now once again lacked an actual door, and acting as the vanguard of roughly nine other royal guards.
“Shining Armor! What the hay are you doing here!” she groaned angrily through clenched teeth, promptly marching over to her older brother. “And why did you have to kick down my door instead of knocking like everypony else! That only got replaced a few hours ago I’ll have you know!” she shouted in his face, feeling like she would have enjoyed nothing more than kicking his large white flank.
It wasn’t exactly the loving, caring, B.B.B.F.F greeting Spike and her friends would have normally expected her to give him, but given the present situation, and his actions thus far, her reaction was kind of both understandable and warranted.
The royal guard captain in turn, much to Spike’s, her friends’, and everypony else’s surprise, virtually disregarded his little sister’s outburst with a snort of his nostrils and a shake of his head, which for some odd reason lay protected beneath a helmet of glistening metal, much like the rest of him did.
“Are you going to answer me, Shining?”
“I’m here on royal guard duty Twilight,” the stallion snorted. “And I’m guessing you probably already know why as well, so don’t try and play games with me.”
“But it’s a party!” Pinkie protested loudly, somehow appearing beside the two glare-trading unicorns. “Why wouldn’t you play games at a party!”
“We’re not here for the party, we’re here for them.”
His last words, accompanied with a cold-as-steel glare, were directed straight across the room to where Spyro, Cynder, and Ember were standing. All three scaly guests of honour looked first at the captain of the royal guard, then at Twilight and her friends, and finally each other, apparently not entirely sure what to think of the situation.
In return, Twilight momentarily flicked her gaze over her shoulder, traded a confused shrug with Spike, and then returned to her brother. “First of all, Shining, just how’d you find out about them, and secondly, what do you want with us?”
“I’ve received an anonymous letter of complaint that says one of them, apparently named Cynder, was seen harassing and attacking two local school fillies,” he replied sharply, taking a step inside with his fellow guards at his flanks. “And that you’re the one housing the three of them as well… what the hay were you thinking, Twily?”
Twilight, along with Applejack, couldn’t help but roll her eyes and face-hoof. “That’s why you’re here? Ugh, you’ve got this all wrong. Those two fillies were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, THEY were harassing Rarity’s little sister, Sweetie Belle, because she doesn’t have her cutie mark, and Cynder stepped in and scared them off, that’s all she did,” the mare snorted angrily. “And for your information, Shining, I’m housing them because they’re friends with Spike and because they needed somewhere to stay.”
“They’re dragons Twilight! They’re dangerous!”
“Wow, talk about being overly judgemental,” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath to Fluttershy.
“Shining, those three are just about the nicest bunch a’ critters I’ve ever met,” Applejack said sternly, the amber pony taking her place beside her friend, and standing almost as wide as the stallion before her. “And you got no right to go ‘round saying otherwise, ya hear me? For your knowing, they came over and willingly busted their rumps helping ma’ brother and I on the farm today, so you better watch those words coming outa’ your mouth.”
“And for Celestia’s sake Shining, Spike’s a dragon! In case you never noticed in all the years he lived with us!” Twilight added angrily. “Besides, you haven’t even met them yet; Ember and Spyro have done nothing but try and make friends ever since they arrived here.”
AJ nodded in agreement. “And Cynder’s done nothing but been kind to Scoots, ma’ sister, and Rarity’s since she met em’, she even carried Applebloom here all the way from the farm for land sakes.”
"So the dragon gives rides? why should that matter?" Shining responded dryly.
"Because it shows she's not a threat to anypony!" Rainbow Dash added in, frustration already setting in her voice.
Over in the corner, Ember stood beside Spike, and along with everypony else around her watched the cluster of ponies argue back and forth, both sides, as well as the other armored guards just behind them, flicking the occasional glance her way before refocusing their attention on each other. She wasn’t sure what she thought of the situation, but the white stallion’s angry expression, and the fact he was covered head to hoof in metal armor, was giving her a really bad feeling.
“Who exactly… is he?” Ember asked quietly, turning her attention to Spike along with Cynder and Spyro, who for his part looked as equally uneasy as half the ponies in the room.
“That would be Shining Armor… captain of the royal guard, husband of Princess Cadence, and Twilight’s older brother.”
“So in general, someone who thinks his horns are longer than they really are,” Cynder quipped in distaste as puffs of smoke wisped from her flaring nostrils, her remark earning her confused looks from Spike, Vinyl, and Rarity. “Ugh, someone who’s an arrogant, self-proclaiming, pain in the tail.”
Spike shook his head. “No, no, no, he’s not that bad, honest, he’s kind of my older brother too, so I know him pretty well and I can say he’s definitely not self-obsessed… but when it comes to threats and issues, especially when Twilight’s involved, he kinda gets majorly over-protective.”
“Older brother thing?” Spyro asked.
“Eh, kind of,” Spike shrugged, returning to the pair of squabbling siblings. “He was Twilight’s best and only true friend when she was a filly, other than me… and, well, there was also a bit of an incident at his wedding that I’d rather not talk about. Let’s just say it hit him hard, and kinda made him wary of possible threats towards his family.”
Spyro nodded in reply, while Cynder gave off an unamused snort in return, simply to show she wasn’t exactly seeing Spike’s praising description in the white unicorn stallion before her eyes. Just behind her and Spike, both Vinyl and Rarity shuddered at the recently added memory, the events of the royal wedding still rather fresh in their minds.
Before their conversation could progress any further though, the two centrepieces of their discussion hastily came trotting across the room to join them, both siblings wearing annoyed expressions and neither looking very pleased with the other. Applejack and the other elements of harmony followed close behind the two, Dash and AJ looking roughly as annoyed as Twilight was, while Fluttershy and Pinkie simply looked unsure.
Either way, the crowd of party attendees hastily scooted back to give the lead pair as much girth as possible, several of which attempted to leave, only to be blocked by the other guards.
“Well, here comes trouble, and a lot of it.”
Ember growled lightly and looked at him. “Really that bad, huh?”
“Nope, worse. Royal guards and dragons have… never exactly gotten along, and when it comes to the royal guard Shining Armor is the living embodiment of it. He didn't make captain for nothing.”
Shining Armor was still stone-faced, and nearly expressionless when he came to an abrupt stop. It seemed like at any moment he would snap and blast something, or somepony, through the nearest wall, window, or bookshelf.
For a few moments after the two ponies came to a stop, and they met, the two sides stood still and traded silent looks, neither group speaking or moving save for the occasional twitch of a tail or shifting of a gaze. Spike, unfortunately being stuck somewhat in the middle ground, could feel the attention of everypony else in the room falling on them, as well as the copious amounts of hostility radiating from both parties, the two main sources being Cynder and Shining Armor.
He was quickly finding himself sweating profusely, a surprising happening given he was a dragon and already full of fire.
“Can we help you?” Cynder asked at last, her effort to break the silence earning her a snort and a glare from the royal guard captain.
“I’ll take it you must be Cynder then, huh?” he stated dryly, running his eyes over the dragoness like he was sizing her up for a fight.
“Yeah, I am, now what's it that you want exactly?”
Ember shot the darker dragoness a glare. “Can you ever be polite?”
Spyro shook his head. “Cynder, please be polite for once; he’s the royal guard captain for Ignitus’s sake,” the purple dragon hissed, his words only prompting Ember and Spike to nod in approval, and Cynder to clench her jaw tightly. “Sorry about that, I’m Spyro by the way, and that’s Ember,” the purple dragon sighed with a glance at his pink friend, and then back at the stallion.
Shining Armor though took virtually no notice. “I’ll be blunt with you. Cynder, were you involved in an altercation with two local fillies yesterday afternoon?”
Ember and Spyro turned their heads to their violet friend, while Cynder just growled and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, this again? Look, those two were pestering another filly and I really don’t like bullies, so I stepped in and scared them off, plain and simple.”
“Did you harm them in any way?”
“Shining! Ugh!” Twilight groaned, unable to resist face-hoofing at her brother’s ludicrous question.
“Ya’ll are actually kidding me right?” AJ snorted with a stomp. “Did ya not listen to what I said all of ten seconds ago, Shining?”
“I didn’t lay a talon on them,” the dragoness replied flatly, raising a claw to her eyes and inspecting its razor sharp talons, appearing completely bored with the conversation. “All I did was threaten to set their tails on fire if they didn’t lay off… as you can guess they turned around and ran pretty quickly. End of story, ok?”
“Can anypony verify that?”
Cynder, despite her best attempt, couldn’t help but growl in her throat at the question, and by the looks of things nor could Twilight or Applejack control their frustration much longer. At that point she was figuring the best way to maintain her sanity, and in turn keep herself from doing something rash that she’d later regret, was to beat her head repeatedly against the nearest wall.
She had formerly found no reason to like him, given he had kicked down the door, disrupted the party, and annoyed Twilight and her friends to no end; but now with his degrading attitude towards her added on, the dragoness was quickly finding herself disliking this stallion ever more by the very second.
She was seriously close to setting HIS tail on fire.
“I can!” a filly’s voice chimed in.
Cynder’s head, along with those of her fellow dragons and Shining Armor, turned to see the crowd of adults parting slightly to let three very familiar fillies through. The dragoness couldn’t help but sigh in relief.
She couldn’t help but grin at the sight, while the royal guard captain’s eyebrow seemed to rise a little as the filly, along with her two friends, took their places beside the dragoness, apparently showing no fear of Cynder whatsoever like any other filly or colt would’ve.
“Yes, you can ask Sweetie Belle here, because she was the one those two were pestering… what were those brats' names again?” the dragoness smirked, hoping to annoy the stallion as much as possible.
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon,” Sweetie Bell sighed bitterly. “They were teasing me because my friends and I don’t have our cutie marks. Trust me Shining Armor, I promise Cynder didn’t do anything bad, cutie mark crusaders' honour. ”
“Just like I told you,” Twilight muttered under her breath in frustration.
“One of the brats said that her dad would have me thrown in the Canterlot dungeons,” Cynder hissed, grating the floor with her talons. “Grrr! that fur ball’s got some nerve for actually trying.”
“I’m guessing that’d be Diamond Tiara,” Applebloom said. “She’s always getting her dad involved when she doesn’t get her way.”
Rarity, making sure the action was small so nopony could see, breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a drop of sweat from her brow.
For a few seconds the guard captain just stood there in silence, like the gears in his head were comparing what Twilight, the anonymous letter, and now both the filly and the dragoness herself had been saying. He didn’t trust this snarky dragon in the slightest, he didn’t trust dragons in general for that matter, but with her account matching both Sweetie Belle’s and his own sister’s exactly, the likelihood of her actually having done something physically wrong was negligible.
Eventually, after a few more moments of traded glares and tense silence, he sighed and spoke.
“Fine, to me this just looks like either somepony overreacting, or one of these fillies taking their parents for a spin, so I’ll let her off with a warning this time,” he grunted in acknowledgement, turning on his hooves and departing the conversation. “But even though you had good intentions, I highly suggest you don’t go doing anything else like that again, dragon.”
There were very few things that could render an entire crowd of ponies dead silent, let alone those attending a Pinkie Pie party, even fewer in under a second for that matter. But with the speaking of those two small words, Cynder managed to achieve all those things and more, such as causing a glass somewhere in the room to hit the floor and shatter loudly, and getting Rarity to shudder and just about faint where she was standing. The real achievement, however, was causing Shining Armor, the captain of the royal guard, to stop dead in his tracks, a feat which caused everypony else in the room to drop their jaws.
“Excuse me?” he replied sharply as silence engulfed the room, armoured head and neck slowly turning around to face the violet dragoness.
If it were anypony else, the words would have been a momentary slip of their tongue, and they would have found themselves furiously apologizing then and there. Shining Armor was captain of the royal guard, and a member of royalty by marriage, a proud stallion who everypony, both in Canterlot and throughout Equestria, respected with the highest grace and admiration.
Cynder, however, wasn’t a pony.
“Cynder, don’t…” Ember started hurriedly, looking between the tensed up stallion and her half-the-time friend.
“Trust me, you’re making a big mistake,” Spike added with equal concern.
“I said ‘bite me’,” the violet dragoness hissed venomously, ignoring her fellow dragons’ comments, rising onto all fours, and flaring her wings in a threatening display. “What I’m basically saying is that you should take your words, and go tell them to someone who actually cares. If a pony I like is getting bullied, like Sweetie Belle or one of her friends, I’ll step in if I think I should and you can’t go telling me otherwise.”
Everypony present, including the CMC, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, as well as Spike, Ember and Spyro, all just stared flabbergasted.
To talk back to a royal guard like this wasn’t a good idea but you’d get away with it. To talk back to a Canterlot royal guard in a similar fashion was considered dangerous but still survivable, but to talk back to the captain of the Canterlot royal guard, one who was also a member of royalty of all ponies, was seen to be an imprisonment wish or very close to it.
What had made her snap even she wasn’t entirely sure, but it was predominantly made up of her hatred of being told what to do, especially in the matters of the three fillies who she’d come to like, and the disdain she held for the stallion.
“Cynder…” Spyro snapped in warning.
Shining Armor slowly turned until he and Cynder were facing each other directly, his narrowed, anger filled eyes transfixed like a pair of lowered spears on her own. “I hope you’re aware that as a member of the royal guard, I can still detain you for the threatening two of Princess Celestia’s subjects yesterday, or for how you’re acting right now if I suspect you to be a threat to everyponys’ safety.”
“Good to know, doesn’t mean I actually care,” the dragoness growled, her former small flame of anger now growing. “Look, Shining Armor, you might want to get two things into your head sooner rather than later; firstly, I’m a dragoness who doesn’t like being told what to do, and since I’m not a pony like you, you have no control over me whatsoever, understand?”
She took a step forward towards the stallion in a direct challenge before speaking again; in return he stepped back, and now looked downright stunned to say the least, along with just about every pony, dragon, and royal guard else in the room.
It was official; this dragoness was either brave, crazy, reckless, or an insane combination of the three.
“And secondly, if either of those two brats EVER pick on Sweetie Belle, or any of her friends again, I WILL live up to my threats and set both their tails on fire!”
“CYNDER! ENOUGH!” Spyro growled.
“You’re treading a VERY thin line here, dragon,” Shining Armor snorted, stomping one of his large hooves into the wooden floor, and systematically causing every other pony in the room to cringe. “Do NOT challenge my authority on grounds of race. You’re in Equestria right now, and while you’re here you’ll abide by the laws like everypony else.”
“SHINING! CALM DOWN!” Twilight grunted in equal frustration.
“Like I said before,” the dragoness snorted as she returned his relentless glare, her maw now a scale’s width from his muzzle. “Bite me.”
From a few meters back, Rarity once again just about fainted from shock, while Vinyl sniggered in amusement behind a concealing hoof, the DJ mentally readjusting her prior statement about the dragoness; she wasn’t just all kinds of badflank, she was the living definition of the word.
As Spike and Twilight had both guessed though, knowing the stallion and how he treated his rank and duty personally, Shining Armor obviously didn’t take her outburst so well. A mere moment after Cynder had finished speaking, his face went as blank as a bare canvas and his horn lowered in ready, the crowd of observing party goers nervously backing up as it did.
“Cynder, I’m going to have to ask you to come with us.”
At his request, two things happened in very quick succession.
Firstly, the nine royal guards who had be standing patiently in the doorway, and had silently been watching the scene unfold from a distance like a flock of hawks, briskly crossed the floor, pushed the startled group of Twilight and her friends apart, and took their ground behind Shining Armor to support him if necessary.
Secondly, and in a rather unexpected action that caused yet another wave of shock for Twilight, both Spyro and Ember’s prior calm demeanours and expressions went out the window. As if they were being possessed by Discord himself, both dragons’ opened their maws and growled menacingly like somepony had suddenly stomped on their tails, both curling back their lips to reveal rows of sharp, nearly unbreakable white fangs.
Fangs, as Twilight knew all too well, that could bite through diamonds with mere ease, and hence plate armor as if it were parchment.
The sight prompted more than a few other ponies to murmur in worry, and either back away nervously from the situation, or with the sound of pounding hooves promptly run out the now unguarded door and off into the night as fast as possible, probably fearing the presumable results of dragon fire being unleashed inside an entirely wooden building.
Twilight and her friends, along with Vinyl and Rarity, worriedly looked between each other before retreating backwards a bit from the unicorn librarian’s older brother, unsure of what would happen next and whether or not getting involved was still such a good idea. At the first chance she got, the lavender mare herself hastily used her magic to forcefully remove the CMC, despite their squeals and annoyed protests, from the soon-to-be-battleground between the royal guards and four adolescent dragons.
“Ugh! Remind me how this happened exactly?” Twilight groaned as she set the annoyed and pouting fillies down, the lavender mare eyeing her older sibling and adopted younger brother nervously.
“Cause when it comes to duty, Twi, dealing with your brother’s like trying to hammer a wood file,” Applejack muttered coarsely, draping a protective hoof over her still struggling younger sister. “He’ll break before he bends… And no offense to him, but if I know Cynder right, she’s gonna be doing a whole lot a’ breaking real soon,”
Unlike the ponies he gladly called his family and friends, Spike didn’t move from Ember’s side in the slightest, but instead like his draconic companions bared his own short white fangs in a vicious challenge. Yes, Shining Armor was his family in a way, but Cynder and Spyro were the first dragons he had ever truly been able to call his friends, and Ember was the first fillyfriend he’d ever had, and there was no way by the fires of Tartarus he was letting them be dragged off to the Canterlot dungeons.
He was admittedly puzzled by Ember’s sudden change in behaviour, but he wasn’t certain if he found her new found ferocity unnerving, admirable, or even strangely attractive for some reason.
“Must be a dragon thing,” he pondered mentally. “That’d explain why Spyro puts up with Cynder’s attitude.”
What he was certain of, however, was that if Shining Armor dared lay a hoof on Ember, he’d take his older brother figure’s horn, snap it off at the base, and shove it so far up the stallion’s backside it’d never see a single ray of light from Celestia’s sun ever again.
“Not happening,” Spyro snarled venomously at last. “All Cynder did was protect her friends, so if you want her, you’ll need to go through all of us.”
“If you try and stop us doing our duty, we’ll have no choice but to detain you as well.”
“We’ve had to deal with a lot worse than a few guards over the years, Shining Armor, so if you really think you can take us on with just the ten of you,” the purple dragon snapped at the stallion, his golden horns lowering like a pair of lances, while his maw began to spark with small bolts of electricity. “You’ve got another thing coming.” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Prior Note: Note sure how this’ll go down (since there seems to be a decent division between team dragon and team royal guard), but I hope you all enjoy.
Also, the melee combat styles and elemental/breath attacks used (Spyro and Cynder) are those from LOS: Dawn of the dragon.
Pre-read by: Edragon
Chapter 12: Horns and Hooves, Fangs and Fire
The old saying ‘the tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife’, was definitely applicable to the scene before Twilight. Growing up with Shining Armor as her older brother, and hence seeing him in a wide range of moods and scenarios, meant she could tell straight away how he was feeling at any given moment... And as of right now he was looking to be anything but happy.
For a moment after Spyro finished speaking, no pony or dragon did anything but stand and stare venomously at those gathered opposite them; the four dragons had their fangs and claws drawn like sets of daggers, while the ten royal guards were locked together tightly like a living pony wall, their armoured bodies creating a makeshift barrier between their scaly opponents and the adjacent doorway.
To an observer, it seemed as if neither side wished to be seen as the aggressor, but instead dearly wanted their opponents to give them a reason to attack, each waiting for the other to flinch, slip up, or do something completely stupid.
The library itself felt like it was the chamber of Pinkie Pie’s party cannon, the lit fuse that was everyone’s frustration now burning up as a timer, and which upon reaching its end would no doubt send the room into a state of utter chaos.
“Are they actually serious about this?” Rainbow Dash asked in a bare whispered, her magenta eyes flashing between the dragons she called her friends, and her ruler’s royal guard captain.
“Knowing Cynder,” Applejack sighed in an equal whisper, nervously readjusting her hat. “I’d say so without a doubt Rainbow,”
Dash snorted and face-hoofed. “Twilight, did you not explain to those three who exactly it is they’re dealing with here? You know… the whole Shining-Armor-is-captain-of-the-royal-guard thing?”
“Hey…” Twilight started angrily, defensively, and surprisingly loudly.
The very moment she opened her mouth though, she regretted it dearly, and just as quickly clamped her it shut again; her response was, however, far too late.
With the speaking of that single word, which quickly reached the ears of the stoic royal guards and to the slightest degree caused them to flinch, the mare unintentionally unleashed all matter of Tartarus inside her library.
Spyro was on the very edge. Every fibre, muscle, and nerve in his body was balancing on a claw’s tip with anticipation, and his battle instincts were all the while screaming at him from inside his head. Together with both Ember and Cynder, he had been in more fights than any other dragon would care to know. Through time, he had come to practically live and literally breathe combat, no matter what form his opponent came in.
This fight however was slightly different, for two reasons.
The first was that he had never faced a properly trained pony in combat before, hence he figured this fight would be both a new experience, and maybe even an interesting challenge. The snarky pegasus named Thunderlane was one thing, but this was a totally different scenario; the force of blue and alabaster ponies before him weren’t just the one type anymore, three were earth ponies, Shining Armor and another three were unicorns, and the final three were pegasus ponies, each no doubt having their own individual strengths and weaknesses.
Regardless of their type though, the ten ponies gathered before him, if the golden armor they were wearing meant anything at all, were also at very least trained fighters; after all, what kind of uniformed guard would incapable of doing anything but stand motionless and stare menacingly? Then there was that fact that judging by Spike’s words, which Spyro guessed were partly true at very least, these royal guards had possibly fought dragons before.
The second reason was that this wasn’t a catacomb crawling with enemies, a dragon city currently under siege, or even an open grass plain for that matter. This was a library, an entirely wooden and hence very flammable library at that; one that he and his four friends now called home for the time being.
Thus using his fire element didn’t exactly seem like the best plan of attack, so to speak.
With things as they were he watched his opponents, and waited, his ivory claws planted firmly in the floor, his wings spread wide, and a bolt of electricity readied in his throat for when it was needed. Admittedly, half of him wanted the situation to somehow calmly diffuse, and for everypony present to perhaps go their separate ways...
...But the other half of yearned for a fight, for a chance to unleash a bit of built up tension that had been simmering since his arrival, and perhaps to teach Shining Armor just who it was he was dealing with.
“Hey!” Twilight suddenly snapped, shattering the silence that had formerly held the room captive.
And that was when the royal guards suddenly flinched.
What followed was an impulse reaction that was both virtually instant, and totally unexpected by just about everyone still present in the room.
Before anypony could even blink again, his purple jaws snapped open, and with a small crack and flash of light, sent a glowing chain bolt of electricity towards the royal guards. Like a golden arrow it arched across the room, aimed straight at a stone faced Shining Armor.
The attack probably wasn’t powerful enough to do any real or lasting damage, given the last thing he needed was to turn Twilight against him for electrocuting her older brother.
Just as the lighting arched out and left his maw, the battle instincts of the two dragonesses at his side seemed to also kick in, the two in sync opening their own jaws, and sending their own long ranged attacks sailing towards the royal guards; Cynder’s came in the form of a wave of dark shadow fire, while Ember’s jaws opened and unleashed a thick tongue of blistering red dragon fire.
“Holy horse-apples!”
“Woah nelly!” Applejack shouted in alarm, grabbing her sister at the very sight of the flames, and hastily pulling the annoyed filly further away from the fight. “Everypony get back ya’ hear!”
“Twilight! Do something!” Rarity added in frantically, her voice coming out in much more high pitched scream.
“Woah...” Vinyl gapped, her shades just about sliding off her head. “...sweeeet.”
Spyro swore he heard Spike, each of his pony friends, and nearly everypony else in the room as well individually yell or scream in fright, all of them jumping back from the two flames.
He also made a small mental note to berate Ember about her actions later; unlike he and Cynder she could only ever breath normal dragon fire, but that didn’t mean she absolutely had to use it in the first place.
What happened next though neither the battle hardened dragon, or his friends for that matter, expected in the slightest.
A mere heartbeat before the three attacks found their mark, the stallion’s lowered horn erupted with light; said light expanded out into the form of a glass-like wall, which within an instant had surrounded himself, his troops, and the now nervous looking ponies standing closest to him, including Twilight and her friends.
Upon colliding with the shield, Spyro watched in surprise as his lighting crackled violently, before disappearing in a sudden flash of light, and apparently doing so without any effect on the magical wall whatsoever. Likewise the two dragonesses’ fires roared and danced across the barrier’s amethyst surface, Ember’s flames momentarily filling the library with a combination of immense heat and golden light, before fading into thin air.
“Well… looks like I might’ve under estimated him a bit.”
“Yeah, just a bit,” Cynder growled as she rolled her eyes, her head still lowered and jaws partly open.
Now Shining Armor and the royal guards were quickly making their own move. Slowly, and moving as a team, they began to spread out and encircle the small group. The two unicorn guards at the line formations end were now curving around and forming what a semi-circle formation, pushing the four dragons back towards the wall, presumably to stop any escape attempts.
“Surrender now and we won’t harm any of you,” Shining Armor ordered. “This is your last warning; continue to resist and we’ll be forced to use magic.”
The white stallion was still wearing his commanding blank expression, but, in his blue eyes, Spyro could see all he needed to know; there was an unmistakable drive burning in their core, an unquestionable need to protect his land and fulfil his duty, in all, a rather familiar feeling for the purple dragon.
Whatever ended up happening, he would confidently bet his horns that the stallion wasn’t going to back down, much like a certain earth guardian dragon Spyro knew would’ve done; it was just too bad that dragons in general had a habit of being about as stubborn as they come.
“Spike, you wouldn’t have any idea how powerful that barrier is, would you?” Spyro asked, cracking his neck and readying to charge at the shield head on, eyes glancing between Spike and the advancing guards.
“That shield spell is basically Shining’s special talent… from what I’ve seen personally, it takes a lot to break it, even a small one like that… and when I say a lot, I mean a lot.”
Those words, somewhat unfortunately for everyone, got the attention of Cynder. “Well then, we’ll just have to hit it with a lot,” She smirked wildly, the tone in her voice making both male dragons very nervous, and very quickly at that. “If that doesn’t work, we’ll try something different… but just a heads up you two, no matter what happens, Shining Armor’s mine.”
“Oh no,” Ember sighed as she rolled her blue eyes and face-clawed. “This really isn’t going to end well.”
Cynder’s smile seemed to widen at Ember’s dismay, and that in turn served to make Spike even more worried, the young dragon quickly backing away a step or two; given Spyro had just breathed lightning of all things, Spike wasn’t sure what to expect anymore, and if it was Cynder of all dragons smiling like she was, he wasn’t sure if wanted to find out either.
Before he could get a word out though, or even gain the faintest clue from Ember, the violet dragoness did something both amazing, and terrifying.
She turned herself into a living twister. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Spike had, on more occasions then he could care to remember, woken up in the morning to find Twilight had overworked herself with her studies, fallen asleep where she’d been reading the night before, and left the library floor piled high with open books on every possible topic.
The other similar event, where the library ended up looking like a tornado had come through, was when Rainbow Dash came crashing through a window after failing at a stunt, and slamming into one of the bookcases at high speed. Both events, regrettably for the young dragon, often resulted in the library ending up in the same disaster-zone like state, and him having to clean it up.
Neither of those, however, had ever created half the mess that Cynder was currently making.
Within a bare second of starting her attack, the dark dragoness was spinning encased in a spiralling tunnel of howling air, sucking up just about anything and everything around her not bolted down, and rapidly throwing it in a constant volley at the now surprised royal guards. Before Spike’s green eyes, the books that had previously lined the library’s shelves, and just about everything else in the room as well, including hoof-made wooden chairs and tables, entire cakes of every size, colourful party decorations, and barrels of Apple family cider, rained down on Shining Armor’s barrier like a hail storm.
“Ok, black fire I can kinda take, but where’d she learn how to do that?”
“She didn’t learn it Spike, it was forced on her... and my advice, don’t ask,” Spyro growled in reply. “Cynder… doesn’t really like to talk about it.”
Now most ponies were yelling, and frantically running for the door as fast as their hooves could carry them, apparently deciding it was the best option available if they wanted to save their hides. All the while assorted objects were bouncing off the royal guard captain’s shield, and crashing into the walls and floor around them with resounding thuds and bangs.
Spike winced as he saw Twilight gasp at the destruction of her books, and then abruptly faint from shock, Rarity and Fluttershy quickly trying to bring her around.
As the chaotic cyclone raged on, Spike watched the resulting debris give the library’s interior a lovely new paint job… If ones definition of ‘lovely’ was the delectable colours of Sugercube Corner produced cake, and the yellow of Sweet Apple Acres’ apple cider that was. The young dragon’s eyebrow also rose a little as he saw Pinkie Pie, for some unexplainable reason, licking off cake from a nearby wall, and doing so without an apparent care in Equestria.
“Pinkie Pie, what the hay are you doing?” Rainbow Dash shouted in frustration, the cyan pegasus trying to avoid the steady stream of books that were flying at her. “Get down!”
“No! No cake can ever go to waste Dashie!” Pinkie declared in response, muzzle covered in coloured frosting and cider alike. “Never-ever-ever! Besides, I’ve never tried cake and cider at the same time before!”
Dash just rolled her eyes, and hastily left the pink mare to her own devices. “I swear I’m ‘never-ever-ever’ going to understand her.”
Just as he felt himself being lifted skywards by Cynder’s twister, Spike dropped down to all fours, and dug his short but sharp talons in the wooden floor beside Ember in an effort to anchor himself; the pair of young mates, along with Spyro, were now trying their best not to become more ammunition for Cynder, a hard task given they were standing right next to the violet dragoness.
“Now you know why I said this wouldn’t end well,” Ember said in Spike’s ear, the pink dragoness’s wings flaring as they were pulled upwards by Cynder’s twister.
“Yeah… Twilight’s probably gonna have my scales for this.”
Luckily for everypony, the twister ended up only lasting for a few seconds, for just as quickly and abruptly as it had begun, the pillar of air slowed, dissipated away, and dropped everything it had previously sucked up to the floor.
Leaving a destroyed room, a silent crowd, and an amused dark dragoness in its wake.
Cynder’s tornado impression ended as she landed again on all fours with a light thud, the dragoness proudly wearing a wild grin on her face as she flexed her claws, and looked at the lightly cracked purple shield before her.
“Well, that’s my warm up out of the way,” She smirked, bladed tail thrashing with anticipation.
Now, to Spike at least, it seemed she was happily done toying with the guards, and had decided it was time to take the fight right to them claw-to-hoof, his older brother figure in particular. Given their current position, he wasn’t exactly surprised; if anything, he figured it was the best option available, since Just as her talons met the floor, he noticed the ten guards tense up in ready to charge forward, in theory to try and subdue them all at once.
Before the royal guards could even take a step towards them though, Cynder was gone again, the dragoness swiftly jumping forward into her shadow, and completely vanishing from sight.
From behind his shield, a wide eyed Shining Armor looked somewhere between confused and annoyed. “Where’d she g-GAH!”
Despite his thick armor, and his no doubt copious amount of prior combat training and experience, Cynder could just about hear the white stallion’s body yell out in pain, and his armor crumple a little, as her hard, shadow-empowered talons drove into his chest plate; at that particular moment, Cynder figured Shining Armor probably felt like he’d just been bucked by the strongest, heaviest earth pony stallion in the entire royal guard, not some slender violet dragoness that probably weighed half as much as he did.
“That’s only because he’s wearing all that metal,” she thought with a smirk.
Admittedly, she was both light and slender for a dragon, but in a fight that had never hindered her in the slightest; she knew how to hit just as hard as any other dragon, if not harder given her unusual abilities, plus her speed alone was lethal.
Up until now, her plan had worked perfectly; she had jumped into her shadow, quickly moved underneath Shining Armor’s rather annoying barrier spell, and then managed to drive into him dead on as she emerged again, the result being a loud clang, followed by the stallion stumbling backwards a few steps, and everypony else gasping in shock.
The white coated guard captain though, to the dragoness’s slight confusion, looked surprised more than anything at being hit. “How the hay did you…”
CRASH!
And that, as luck would have it, was when one of Spyro’s boulder-like earth missiles ploughed through Shining Armor’s already weakened shield, and shattered the pink crystal barrier into a thousand pieces. The resounding crash caused the guards to duck as chunks of crystal flew at them, and then ready themselves as three more sets of dragon fangs came charging towards them, courtesy of Spyro, Ember, and to a slightly lesser extent, Spike.
“…That,” Shining Armor finished, rapidly looking between Cynder, and the quickly forming crowd of clashing hooves and claws.
“Heh, not all dragons just breathe fire,” Cynder grinned, leaving her friends to deal with the other royal guards, and diving straight at their stallion captain.
With a slash of her crimson wings, she added further insult to the royal guard captain’s prior injury. With deadly trained grace she had perfected over many battles, the dragoness back-flipping in mid-air, slashed her bladed tail in an arc across the guard captain’s plate, and then slammed her back legs into him with all the force she could muster; the slash of her tail drew golden sparks as it scrapped the metal, and her kicks landed right where she’d aimed with another metallic clang.
That, however, was when her new-found fortune evaporated, and quickly at that.
Despite all her leg strength being driven behind her second, well-aimed strike, the armored stallion barely even flinched as her talons ploughed into his torso plating, let alone moved backwards any more.
That, as she knew all too well, was the unfortunate nature of a surprise attack; it only ever worked when your target was surprised by it, generally unprepared, or as in this case, when they weren’t a decent amount heavier than you.
Shining Armor though wasn’t going to give her a respite in light of her surprise, and instead rewarded her aggression and mistake by snorting, and forcing the dragoness to quickly roll sideways to avoid a burst of pinkish-purple magic that shot from his horn; the glowing projectile missed her by a scale’s width, before striking, and decently scorching the wall she’d been backed up against moments earlier.
“You just made a really big mistake,” he snorted through clenched teeth, the stallion lowering himself into a combat stance.
“Well, this is... going to be enjoyable.” Cynder groaned as she righted herself, the dragoness ducking under another glowing magic bolt.
Spike, as much as he hated to admit it at the present moment, was in way over his head, and for once he really knew it. He’d never been in a real fight before in his entire life; sure, he’d bravely charged in to save Rarity from a pack of diamond dogs, amongst a few other precarious scenarios he’d gone through, but none of those situations had actually led to a fight of sorts.
Truth be told, he would’ve very much liked things to have stayed that way.
And yet, due to Cynder’s inability to accept being told what to do, he’d now somehow found himself latched onto the back of a thrashing earth pony royal guard, with his claws holding chunks of blue mane while his legs sat wrapped around the pony’s neck. In return, said earth pony was snorting, blowing, bucking, and in general doing everything possible to throw the dragon off, all the while Spike was trying in vain to subdue him.
Still, despite the guard’s best efforts, Spike refused to release his stubborn grasp around the pony’s neck; years of riding on Twilight’s back, and at varying speeds across countless different terrains at that, had rendered him skilled at hanging on whenever he needed to.
Now he could feel the guard quickly tiring underneath him with his continuous effort, not exactly surprising to Spike, given he was virtually attempting a bronco buck while covered head to hoof in plate armor, with the added weight of a dragon on his back to boot.
Twilight herself, after regaining consciousness, had moved her friends to the top of the stairs for safety, and was now nervously biting her hoof as she watched the scene unfold, mainly Cynder’s rather destructive one-on-one with her older brother.
“Somepony… get this… dragon… off me!” the earth pony panted to his fellow guards, who were currently having their own problems dealing with the combat skilled pair of Spyro and Ember.
And that was when things went downhill for Spike.
One of the unicorn guard’s, upon hearing his struggling comrade’s plea, quickly departed his prior fight with Spyro, turned around to the grappling dragon-pony pair, and lowered his now glowing horn; a mere moment later, the unicorn’s horn flashed a bright blue, and Spike found himself forced to duck as a pulse of sky coloured magic flew past his shoulder, all the while trying to maintain his iron grip on the still bucking earth pony’s thick mane.
“Come! On! Flare! I can’t *gasp* keep this up *gasp* much *gasp* longer!” the earth pony panted in exhaustion, rearing up with his front legs as he tried to throw the dragon off once again.
“Bracer! It would help if would you held still for Celestia’s damn sake!” the unicorn guard snapped angrily in return, his horn glowing in preparation for another shot. “I can’t hit him if you keep jumping around like something’s got your tail in its teeth!”
“Gummy!” Pinkie Pie shouted from the stairwell, hastily searching for her pet alligator. “Oh, wait, it can’t be Gummy! He’s got no teeth!”
A large amount of face-hoofs followed the pink mare’s bizarre statement, courtesy of her friends.
Just as he came down from his rear-up, and much to Spike’s misfortune, the stocky royal guard did just that; heavily, Golden Bracer drove his armored front hooves into the wooden floor as he landed, and then froze dead on the spot, the sudden impact sending a bone-rattling jar through Spike’s entire body and nearly dislodging him from his seat.
Just as he did so, Flare sent off a second burst of magic, the glowing blue projectile aimed straight at the somewhat stunned dragon.
“Pony-feathers!”
It was in that very instant that Spike thanked both his ability to think quickly under pressure, and his short but rather sharp claws; just as the second blast came a little too close for comfort, he drew his talons, and without another thought jabbed them firmly into the soft base of Bracer’s neck, just beneath the rim of the pony’s golden armour where his neck met his shoulders.
The desired reaction was instant.
“YAA! GET OFF ME!!”
In that instant of pain, Bracer followed his natural instincts just as Spike had predicted he would, said instincts being to once again rear up to try and dislodge the source of pain that was currently perched on his back. As he reared up though, Spike released his grip on the pony’s blue mane and hastily rolled off, landing flat on his back in time to see the bolt of blue magic, which had previously been meant for him, forcefully connect with the side of Bracer’s surprised, helmeted face.
There was a resounding metallic ‘clang’ as the unconscious marble and blue guard hit the floor.
For a moment after, Flash Flare just shifted his eyes rapidly between the purple dragon, and his now downed comrade, his jaw freely hanging open, and his mind trying to comprehend how exactly he’d managed to knock Bracer out instead of Spike.
Then he turned, glared at the young dragon, and willed his horn to glow. “Why you little…” he started angrily.
He didn’t, however, get the chance to finish that insult. Before the final words could leave his muzzle, or his binding spell leave his horn for that matter, a set of curved golden horns slammed into his armoured side like a pair of back hooves; the force sent him hurtling straight into the hard timber of an adjacent bookcase, the resulting collision causing the few books that had miraculously remained on the shelves to quickly dislodge themselves, entrapping the dazed guard under a small pile of literature and wooden shelving.
All thanks to a snarling pink dragoness.
“Are you ok?” she asked as she turned to Spike, her angry expression quickly fading into a look of concern.
“Yeah, I’ve... had worse… but remind me to never get on your bad side,” he said sheepishly with a sigh of relief, gladly grabbing Ember’s pink tail as she pulled him up from the floor. “That looked like it must’ve hurt.”
Ember just smiled and shook her head. “To be honest, I don’t think you could ever get on my bad side Spike,” the pink dragoness smirked, taking a moment to nuzzle his cheek.
“Well that’s a relief, I’d hate to end up like that guy,” Spike grinned, pointing a thumb to the pile of various coloured books, pony, and wood. “Though right now, I’m not complaining about him being there.”
“Hehe, yeah… we’ll dig him out later Spike, for now you just follow me and stay close; we’ve still got more of these guards to deal with, and I think Spyro could probably use some help right about now.”
“I swear I’d prefer to be fighting another earth golem to this,” Spyro hissed in frustration as he rolled sideways, the purple dragon narrowly avoiding the armored front hooves of a swooping pegasus guard, only to come face-to-face with an earth pony’s back legs. “Well... maybe not quite an earth golem.”
As rare as the word was to him, this fight was proving to be a challenge, even with his excess of prior experience and numerous abilities. He’d fought packs of enemies before for sure, some numbering fifteen or more at a time in a few unfortunate instances, but none of those had ever been as uniform as these guard ponies; where one made a mistake, another would immediately cover for them, whenever he tried to single out one pony in particular, another two would come between him and his target, or one of the two unicorns would send bursts of magic at him.
Plus the stray remains of books, piles of splattered cake, and puddles of cider that dotted the floor weren’t making manoeuvring any easier.
He was quickly coming to understand why these were the guards of pony royalty, and silently wishing either Hunter or Sparx was around to have his back, or perhaps Terrador to give him some advice on strategy, or just pound a few of the guards into the dirt with his massive mace-ended tail.
“Alright, now this is just getting annoying,” he growled angrily, dodging the earth pony’s powerful back leg buck, and then charging forward while the pony was vulnerable, intent on driving either his claws or golden horns into the guard’s heavily armoured side.
And that was when something strange happened; a wave of bright green fire suddenly engulfed the unsuspecting white coated pony’s body.
In front of Spyro’s widening eyes, the royal guard’s golden plate armor literally burned off like it was just parchment, disappeared into thin air, and floated out a nearby window as a trail of black smoke. Before the armour-less guard knew what was happening, Spyro’s charging horns drove into the pony’s now exposed side, the result being a resounding crack and a yell of pain from said pony’s maw, followed by him toppling over and clutching his battered ribs.
Spyro, along with the remaining stunned royal guards, could only blink for a moment, the dragon’s mind trying to absorb what he was seeing.
Standing right over the top of the downed equine, with bright green flames still flicking in his jaws, was Spike.
“You… can burn off… armor?” Spyro sputtered in amazement, the dark purple dragon ducking under a glowing green bolt of magic, while frantically looking between the downed guard and his wingless friend. “Which element would that be? Earth? Or Poison maybe?”
Spike blushed slightly, and shook his head as he jumped over the floored pony, a spell striking the spot where’d he been standing a moment earlier. “Not exactly... I can send messages using my fire, so I kinda figured why not something else... all I had to do was think of somepony or somewhere I wanted it to go to.”
Spyro’s eyebrow twitched. “Wait... so did you just... send his armor to Princess Celestia or something?” he asked. “Because that would kind of be a bad idea, Spike.”
“Nah, I just sent it to Sweet Apple Acres.” Spike smirked. “AJ’s probably gonna find it on her barn floor when she gets home.”
Spyro couldn’t help but grin mischievously; it seemed Spike had a few tricks of his own hidden under his scales, plus, Spyro guessed, he had a lot more initiative then he’d originally given his friend credit for.
The purple dragon went to reply, but before he could, the pegasus guard who’d previously been swooping him seemed to have snapped out of his stupor, and ended up returning with a vengeance. The pony suddenly dived down between the two friends, resulting in the two dragons stumbling backwards to avoid the marble pony’s armoured front hooves, and doing so with barely a scale’s width to spare.
“Woah! Where the hay did he come from?” Spike started, rapidly covering his head with his claws.
“Uh, we’ll talk later, Spike,” Spyro growled through clenched teeth, tensing his back legs, and readying himself as the pegasus tried to swoop in once again.
With well-trained and honed precision, Spike watched in awe as Spyro flared his red wings, and jumped into the air just as the pony flew over his head, twisting as he did so to dodge a couple of magic bursts from the remaining pair of unicorns.
With seemingly relative ease, his razor sharp claws grabbed hold of the guard’s metal plate; then Spyro twisted in mid-air, and with all his might, hurled the startled pony at the wooden floor below.
The unfortunate armored pegasus hit the timber floor with a loud metallic bang, another quickly following as Spyro dove straight downwards, and slammed himself into pony’s torso plate like a falling purple sledgehammer; Spike couldn’t help but wince in sympathy as he heard the guard cry out in response to Spyro’s horns smashing into him, in some ways it was just like the Pinkie sense incident, where all number of heavy objects had, one fine day, somehow managed to land directly on Twilight’s head.
Before the guard could try and rise again, Spyro rolled off, righted himself on all fours, and bit down on the guard’s leg plate; like the combination of the pegasus and his golden armor weighed nothing, the older dragon then swiftly arched his neck, hoisted his still thrashing and snorting quarry skywards, and at last brutally slammed the pony back into the floor a bare meter from where Spike was standing…
The guard didn’t get back up again.
“That’ll teach you,” Spyro snorted as he spat the unconscious pony’s leg out, the unlikeable taste of metal still lingering on his tongue.
“Spyro! Move!”
No sooner had he released the guard though, Spyro’s head snapped around as a tongue of bright green flame suddenly erupted from Spike’s maw, and as it happened came rushing straight towards him; without another thought, the wide-eyed purple dragon’s battle instincts caused him to leap out of the way, his tail feeling the slightest amount of heat on its tip as he moved.
“What was that about?”
Spike’s reason though quickly became clear; looking back over his shoulder just as he landed, Spyro saw the wave of emerald fire engulf and dissipate two more of the unicorn guards’ spells, both projectiles presumably meant for him while his back was turned.
“Thanks Spike…but next time, how about a little more advance warning when you’re about to do that,” he said with an amused snort, turning and facing the two ponies who’d just tried to blast him. “Listen, I can handle these two and their magic on my own, so how about you go see how Ember’s coping.”
“You sure you got this?”
Spyro just grinned as he turned toward the two unicorns, smiling as he shook his head. “Trust me Spike, given what I’ve been through before, I’ll be fine no matter what they throw at me... you just go help Ember for now ok, heh, she’s your mate after all.”
Spyro gave a small smirk as he watched his new, and slightly blushing friend give a salute and depart; he had to give it to Spike, for a dragon lacking in wings, size, and any real fighting experience, he really had heart.
“And now to deal with you two,” He growled, burning eyes locked with those of the two golden armoured unicorns, who stood their ground and glared straight back at him.
With a parting snarl at the pegasus guard who’d annoyed him, the purple dragon left the pony lying right where he’d fallen, and moved on to the two remaining unicorns, his jaws parting and sending a barrage of ice spikes towards them.
Deciding that Spyro could probably take care of himself, Spike quickly turned and glanced around the demolition site that was the library’s disaster-zone of a main room, his main intention being to locate where Ember had ended up. Everywhere around him there was fighting; a snarling Cynder and equally angry Shining Armor were still locked in a vicious one-on-one, trading glowing pink bursts of magic, eerie red blasts, and even green blobs of he-didn’t-want-to-know-what with each other by the looks of things.
Spyro was likewise sending what looked to be lightning and ice attacks at the two remaining unicorns, while they were firing stun spells right back at him in return, and Twilight and her friends were still crowded at the stop of the stairs.
“How they hay did it come to this?” Spike thought bitterly as he headed Ember’s way.
She was, as he saw, presently locked in a literally heated fray with the last earth pony and an aerial pegasus, small bursts of red fire keeping them both at relative bay when they came to close. For a few moments he could only stand and stare in awe as his pink dragoness fillyfriend fought, her normal bubbly happiness somehow having been replaced by an almost scary ferocity, one that he couldn’t quite believe she had in her.
He wasn’t sure if his presence would help or hamper the pink dragoness, but either way, he liked the idea of fighting beside her more than standing and twiddling his claws; hence, mustering all the confidence he could conjure, the young dragon prepared to enter the fray alongside his dragoness partner.
Fate, however, had vastly different ideas for him.
From his circling position above the various scuffles that dotted the library, Sword Feather, the last free standing of the original three pegasi royal guards, saw the short purple and green dragon trying to sneak up on one of his fellow royal guards, and that didn’t sit well with the stallion one bit; the little dragon had already caused Flash Flare to knock out Golden Bracer, burned off Steel Hoof’s armor like it was paper, and was now apparently trying to attack Iron Sides and Storm Chaser with the pink one.
That wasn’t going to happen on his watch.
And thus, it was then a white and gold blur shot down from the ceiling, suddenly swooped in from Spike’s right, and before he could react let alone get out of the way, forcefully tackled him to the floor. Each one of Feather’s armoured hooves found its ways to one of the dragon’s shoulders, and pinned him firmly against the stained timber, his strength easily outmatching that of his scaly opponent.
“Gotcha!” he snorted venomously.
“SPIKE!” various voices all cried out in unison, each seeming to come from a different direction, but predominantly from the stairwell.
“Huh?”
The dragon’s green eyes snapped open, and his prior daze retreated at the loud call of his name; rather than seeing his friends standing over him, however, his view was greeted by the helmeted face of a scolding pegasus guard contrasted against the wooden ceiling.
That was perhaps the last thing he wanted to find himself looking at.
In response to the sudden realization of being pinned down, he quickly and desperately began struggling against the guard’s weight in an attempt to free himself, twisting, turning, and pulling his arms in an effort to remove his purple scales from the pony’s grasp.
Despite his best efforts though, the securing hooves remained, and if anything the pegasus only pushed down on him harder.
“Let go of me!” Spike said angrily, trying his best to bite at the pony’s forelegs as he thrashed and struggled, to little avail.
The winged guard just kept his hooves where they were, and if anything pressed down harder.
“Dawn, Blitz, would one of you kindly bring your horn over here and bind this guy up!” he shouted, his words directed at the two nearby unicorn guards who were duelling with Spyro.
“We’re both a bit busy here Feather!” one of them shouted back, a barrage of ice spikes just missing his left flank, courtesy of a snarling Spyro. “If you somehow failed to notice already! Just... try and hold him there for a second, alright.”
“I gotta… get this guy off me,” Spike thought angrily, the purple hatchling glaring daggers at the pegasus as he struggled.
Fate evidently felt bad for what it had done prior it seemed, for as his eyes ran over the pony’s blue plumed golden helmet, the flame of an idea sparked in the depths of his mind; it was farfetched, crazy, and even rather dangerous in a few regards, but it was just about his only available option, plus he didn’t owe his pegasus adversary any favours other than a painful one.
“This is either going to go really well,” the dragon groaned, shutting his jaws firmly, and allowing a mother of a fireball to build up inside. “Or really, really badly.”
He allowed it to build to its absolute maximum inside his closed jaws, knowing full well that he would need every ounce of flame available to make his plan work, if it even did work that was. Once his cheeks were building to their absolute fullest, and rather painfully so at that, he opened his fanged maw, and allowed a massive wave of brilliant emerald fire to spew forth like the waters of a burst dam, engulf the unsuspecting guard, and convert him into nothing but a floating tail of black smoke.
Within a second, everyone and everything around Spike stopped.
“All right,” Cynder snarled as her bladed tail slashed a green covered book in half, said book being one of the three Shining Armor had just levitated, and then hurled at her with his magic. “Now you’re really starting to get under my scales!”
“May I remind you that you started this Cynder, not me… I gave you a chance earlier to go quietly, and you didn’t take it,” the blue maned stallion snorted in return, his armored hoof pawing at the floor as his horn began to glow again.
“Oh sure,” Cynder snorted as she rolled her eyes, her deadly talons digging notches into the timber beneath them as she scraped it. “Because coming with you and ending up in a dungeon somewhere is such an inviting prospect… thanks, but no thanks.”
“Look, how about you lose the attitude, do yourself a favour, and just surrender now while I still have some level of patience?”
The dragoness’s lips curled back in response to his words, showing her rows of fangs. “How about no?” she growled, suddenly unleashing a tongue of dark shadow fire at him.
Cynder wasn’t sure how long the two of them had been brawling, but it was really starting to feel like long enough, if not too long already in her opinion; her wings were tired, her muscles were aching, on top of that she’d been ramming and kicking trees most of the day, and now it was getting late into the night.
This was looking to be a very long day indeed.
“You just don’t know when to give up do you?” Shining Armor sighed in a tone of annoyance, the royal guard captain’s horn erupting with light, and an amethyst shield forming between the two of them.
Cynder watched on in frustration and anger as her shadow fire hit the stallion’s barrier, and danced across its surface before disappearing. Of all his strengths in combat, that shield was proving to be the most annoying to her; being as heavy as he was compared to her light and agile build, she could out manoeuvre him with one wing tied down, and dodge most of the spells he fired at her with relative ease, but actually hitting him was proving to be problematic.
His shield spell was stopping every long ranged breath attack she threw at him, and apparently doing so while barely taking any damage itself other than a few small cracks, a fact that was now really getting on the dragoness’s nerves; even her siren scream, scorpion strike, and shadow fire attacks all did barely any damage to the thing, and unless she wanted Twilight to be seething and probably trying to blast her like her brother was, doing her twister attack again probably wasn’t such a good plan.
Then there was the issue of close quarters combat; she could strike him fast for sure with her claws, tail, and maybe her fangs, but he could also hit her twice as hard if she slipped up and gave him the chance, plus his full suit of plate armor meant there were very few places available on his frame for her to actually land a decent hit.
Without them being lethal that was.
“Why do you want to keep fighting so badly anyway Cynder?” Shining Armor asked as the black flames died away, the tone in the white stallion’s voice, for the first time not sounding so aggressive, slightly confusing the dragoness. “What do you actually hope to achieve by beating me? You’ve already dug yourself deep enough to be taken to Canterlot, if not brought before Princess Celestia herself... do you really think that’s all going to change if you somehow manage to kick my flank? If anything that’ll only make it worse.”
The violet dragoness, to the slightest extent, lowered her wings and softened her snarl. “You really think I’m just trying to stop you taking me away? You can’t seriously be the royal guard captain if you’re that thick can you?”
“Then what the hay is all this fighting about? Why didn’t you just come qu...”
Cynder growled and cut him off. “I said ‘just trying to stop you’, meaning that’s it part of the reason... do you actually believe I’d allow you to drag me away without fighting back? Nu-uh, sorry, but that’s not happening.”
She took a breath and sighed before continuing, her crimson wings dropping a slight amount more.
“But you want to know the real reason I’m trying to kick your flank? It’s because you, just like everyone else, need to realize that you can’t just tell me what to do and expect me to obey, just because of who you are... very few have that right. For part of my life all I did was follow another dragon’s orders, and you know what happened? It ended up getting me hated, distrusted, and feared everywhere I went!”
The stallion remained in a combat ready stance throughout her outburst, and never once took his eyes or horn off of his violet opponent, but deep inside him something flared and his anger softened; whether her story was true or not he couldn’t tell, he wasn’t the element of honesty after all, but a feeling of pity for the dragon was none the less slowly awakening inside him.
“So what then?” he asked as they circled each other, keeping his voice firm like a royal guard captain should, but putting no extra anger or aggression into his words. “Do you just... not listen to any good advice anypony gives you? Just because of what one dragon did?”
“Good advice I take,” Cynder snorted, sounding far from amused at his assumption. “Order’s I don’t... when I’m faced with decisions, I trust myself and my own judgement; like I said, I used to listen to what another dragon told me, and he was a lot older and more powerful than I was... but all the things he told me to do were for his gain... at the cost of everyone else, including me," she hissed and shook her head. "Since then I’ve decided the only ones who I’ll ever listen to are Spyro, and the dragon guardians, them at least I know I can trust.”
Trust.
His jaw slackened in a second, and everything came crashing together in Shining Armor’s mind as all his anger evaporated, the jagged puzzle that was the dragoness coming together as her words resounded in his ears.
Perhaps his anger had clouded his ability to see it earlier, perhaps it was too well masked by her bravado and aggression, but, either way, he felt slightly like a foal for not realizing.
Some time in her life, he realized, she had more then likely been manipulated, used, and abused by someone, and afterward it had left her in a state of being a hollow shell of who she should've been; broken, scarred, and almost paranoid when it came to trusting others.
Just as Chrysalis had left him.
With that realization resounding in his brain, a heavy feeling of guilt suddenly settled in his gut; he’d allowed his personal experiences and paranoia cloud his judgement, of both the three young dragons and the entire situation as a whole, and in doing so had only managed to make things far worse than they needed to be.
To say he felt foalish would’ve been the understatement of the century.
“It… hurt… didn’t it?” he sighed at last.
Cynder recoiled slightly at the words, her eye brow rising up her forehead a little in interest. “What do you mean?” she asked as she stopped circling, growling like she was mildly curious.
The royal guard captain took a deep breath, hoped against hope that he was right, and continued. “It hurt didn’t it? Realizing that you’d hurt others that you shouldn’t have, that you’d done or helped do terrible things without knowing, and that the entire time you were being used for someone else’s gain without seeing it?”
“W-what are you talking about?” she snapped as she bared her fangs.
Despite her aggression, he could hear the obvious crack in the violet dragoness’s voice.
“You were manipulated weren’t you?” he went on, taking a slow and cautious step forward, despite the continuous sounds of fighting that surrounded them both. “By that other dragon... the one who you thought you could trust? That’s why your unwilling do what others tell you, because he made you do things that were wrong… didn’t he?”
“B-be quiet!”
“That’s why you don’t trust anyone else, isn’t it?”
“I...”
“I’m right aren’t I?” he pushed on vigorously.
Her face, to his surprise, faded from an angry and defensive snarl into a look of shock as she backed up a little, her bladed tail now right up against an empty bookcase.
“I... I had no choice,” she stuttered as he wings and tail dropped completely in defeat, the violet dragoness now feeling her eyes burn, and the walls that held her together inside beginning to tumble. “He had my egg stolen, he corrupted me with his dark power... and he turned me into a monster so I could serve him...”
“What did he make you do?” he asked, his voice coming out softly, as Cadence’s did when they spoke. “This other dragon?”
The dragoness growled in her throat and stared at her claws. “Things… that I’ll never be able to fully forgive myself for... ugh, what do you care anyway?”
“I’m not judging you Cynder,” Shining Armor sighed gently, the stallion taking another slow step forward, while keeping his blue eyes locked with Cynder’s shimmering green ones. “I... had something similar happen to me not that long ago, so I know how you feel. I’ll admit nopony feared me afterwards, but a lot of them sure as hay thought I shouldn’t have been allowed to keep my rank, especially after I said and did a lot of things I’m not proud of.”
“Well then, it seems at least you’re life went back to somewhat normal!” she snapped angrily as she looked away, her eyes now burning as her emotions threatened to get the better of her. “Ever since I was freed from… his… influence, I’ve tried to make amends for what I did... but all anyone ever sees in me is who I used to be... that... that thing I was when I was corrupted!”
“And it makes you angry, doesn’t it? Knowing that everyone doubts you for something that you had no control over?” the guard captain said, his steps now a slow, fluid march towards the crumbling dragoness. “I went through it all Cynder... everypony questioning my ability to lead as guard captain, everypony doubting my ability to protect Canterlot and the princesses...”
Cynder just snorted. “Did they think you were still a monster?”
Shining Armor didn’t need to hear any more, all he needed to know was being reflected in the dragon’s green eyes, eyes that no longer burned with a want to rip him apart, but sadness; in them he saw her pain, suffering, regret, hatred, and rage, emotions that she’d walled up inside herself, and had eventually allowed them to grow, fester, and consume her.
“I don’t see a monster Cynder... I see a dragon who was willing to go against a royal guard captain’s orders, say it to his face, and even fight him one on one, all because he tried to stop her doing what she thought was right. Now if that doesn’t show you’re trying to make amends for what you did wrong, then I don’t know what does.”
To her slight shock and amazement, his hulking frame was by now pretty much standing right over the top of her, the space between them barely measuring half a meter in length, and the base of his blue mane lining up with her snout; right before her eyes was his unarmoured neck, and in front of her sharp talons were his front legs, areas she knew she could probably hit and do serious damage to before he had a chance to even react.
But she couldn’t bring herself to; it felt like a block of stone, which had for so long been painfully resting on her tail, had somehow finally been removed by the very stallion she’d been fighting with for the last half an hour.
She couldn’t help but smirk at the pure ridiculousness of the situation.
“Why is it so quiet?” he asked suddenly, the violet dragoness at first shaking her head in confusion, and then casting her head around the room at his words.
Every pony and dragon still present, as the two of them quickly discovered, was for some reason staring slack-jawed at the purple and green form of Spike, each and every one of them looking like they’d had their tails pulled; Spike, on the other claw, was for some reason unbeknownst to the violet dragoness lying on the wooden floor in the middle of the room, with flicks of green flame coming from his maw and nostrils, and panting rather heavily.
In her increasing confusion, Cynder glanced around at the other’s in the room, all of them as she saw were wearing the same shocked facial expressions; it took her a moment, but eventually she noticed that something was very much off. It seemed that of the original nine alabaster guards who’d come invading the party with Shining Armor, she could only readily account for eight of them still being present, four of them lying about unconscious around the room, and the other four standing rather close to either Spyro or Ember.
“Why is everyone so quiet?” she pondered curiously, only to find out a second later.
“SPIKE!” Twilight suddenly screamed from the top of the stairs, the lavender mare loudly shattering the reign of the awkward silence, and causing everypony else to cringe. “YOU JUST FIRE MAILED A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!!”
“Annnd That’s why,” she groaned mentally, a claw coming up and meeting her forehead.
Cynder swore she could just about hear Shining Armor’s heart skip a beat, but as it was the stallion only managed to openly let out a small ‘hu’ in response; otherwise, he remained perfectly still in a state of silent shock, bar a slight twitch of his free-hanging lower jaw.
Spike groaned, and gamely attempted to get to his feet before replying. “Well… you see Twilight…” the small dragon started through panted breaths.
That was when the room suddenly erupted with brilliant golden light, the abrupt appearance of said light causing everyone to yelp, and the pure intensity forcing dragon and pony alike to rapidly close their eyes and look away, Cynder quickly tucking her head under her wing membrane for good measure.
The wave of light died a few moments later, and the dragoness quickly heard a collective chorus of gasps from beneath her cover, followed by the sound of hooves crossing the floor towards her, and a flowing voice she didn’t recognize; it was one though that she could instantly tell, going on how it carried both grace and authority, belonged to someone powerful.
“Good evening captain Shining Armor,” it said, definitely female, and sounding to be rather amused. “You know, I must say that this is rather interesting surprise, if I do believe so myself.”
“P-princess Celestia, I can explain, this isn’t…”
“PRINCESS CELESTIA!” Cynder gasped mentally, the violet dragoness suddenly feeling extremely nervous, and like she didn’t want to remove her head from the cover of her wing.
“That’s quite alright Shining Armor,” the regal voice of the princess went on, sounding almost like she was on the verge of giggling. “Cynder, you can come out now, I assure you that I won’t bite.”
Cynder, swallowing the hard lump of fear in her throat, and gathering up what courage she could muster, slowly but surely removed her head from the cover of her wing, and turned to face the co-ruler of Equestria.
She would never admit it, but she was silently glad she had Shining Armor next to her.
The solar princess wasn’t quite as tall as the dragoness had initially expected, but then again, the few leaders she had come to know were towering dragons who were built like mountains, almost literal mountains in the cases of Ignitus and Terrador. She was though still every bit of a true ruler; she carried an aura of majesty and wisdom about her with the way she held herself, her pristine marble coat and flowing rainbow mane reflected an elegance and grace only royalty could possess, and then of course there was her golden regalia that sat atop her horn.
“Horn? That thing’s practically a spear it’s so long,” the dragoness sniggered inwardly.
“So then,” she smiled warmly, her eyes slowly running between Cynder, a now unsure looking Spyro, and an utterly amazed Ember. “Would one of you mind explaining to me how three dragons such as yourselves, from a completely different realm, managed to end up in the library of my personal student of all places? And maybe why a quite frazzled royal guard just appeared in my personal chamber as well?”
The last few words she directed at Spike with a sort of amused grin, prompting the young purple and green dragon to blush and bite his lower lip.
“A completely different realm?” Shining Armor asked oddly, his head swivelling sideways to glance down at Cynder as his eyebrow rose in scepticism.
“Well, you see we…” Cynder started, only for her mind to fully register what had just been said. “Wait… how would you know that princess? Or even my name for that matter?” she asked, staring up at the princess curiously along with everypony else.
Princess Celestia, in a rather improper and unroyal fashion, held a hoof across her mouth and looked the other way, much to the confusion of everyone else in the room; apparently she was trying to hide that fact she was grinning like an amused hatchling, and doing so rather poorly in Cynder’s opinion, since the dragoness swore she could still hear faint laughter.
“Let’s just say... a dragonfly told me,” she smiled at last.
Her words were accompanied by, to Spyro’s great joy, Ember’s glee, and Cynder’s mild shock and slight annoyance, said mentioned and all too familiar dragonfly emerging from her floating rainbow mane, his arms folded and a cheesy grin across his golden face.
“Well ain’t it a nice surprise to see you three again,” he grinned, casually circling Celestia’s head.
Despite being of a relatively young age in both dragon and pony terms, as well as only having lived in two places throughout the entire land of Equestria, Spike had always, though never overly, prided himself on the vast variety of his personal experiences and encounters. He’d physically witnessed things that most ponies could never even hope to dream of, some being extremely good, such as seeing his very own older sister figure stop a rampaging Ursa minor, and some… not so good, to put it mildly; such as being subjected to the full extent of Discord’s powers and twisted sense of humour.
Despite nearly half a year having passed since then, he still often shuddered, and his stomach still cramped, when that particular day came up in conversation.
None of those particular situations, however, were quite as weird as the one he was presently witnessing; the situation itself consisted of a talking dragonfly having appeared from the depths of Princess Celestia’s multi-coloured mane, and then his recently acquired friend, and the only somewhat normal male dragon he’d ever met, Spyro, as well as his dragonessfriend, Ember, both breaking into ear-to-ear grins at the mere presence of said dragonfly.
Ok, just who’d released Discord this time round?
“Sparx!” Spyro, Ember, Cynder all cried at once, Spyro and Ember sounding as if they were about to literally jump out of their scales in joy, while Cynder seemed far more shocked, and possibly dare Spike say, even a little agitated at his sudden appearance.
The dragonfly in return, apparently named Sparx, just grinned and chuckled at their outbursts.
“Ah sheesh, can’t a guy make his own introduction round here?” he joked, swiftly leaving Celestia’s side at the call of his name. “Na, seriously though, man it’s great to see you three, you have absolutely no idea just how weird the last two days have been for me.”
“It’s great to see you too Sparx.” Spyro smiled gleefully, the purple dragon craning his neck forward to… nuzzle the dragonfly? “I know how you feel though, we’ve had a few interesting encounters of our own.”
His statement drew a quiet “What do you mean ‘just a few’?” from a groaning Cynder, the dark dragoness’s display causing Spike to roll his eyes, and quickly garnered her a snort and a glare from both of Ember and Shining Armor.
“Spyro’s right, but the ponies here are really nice once you get to know them,” Ember went on after a moment.
“Heh, we all gotta give each other a rundown later… I’ll tell ya though, sounds like you guys had it pretty easy; first pony other than Celestia I end up meeting, goes and magically hurls a suit of armor at me! Do you have any idea how heavy those things are?”
“Evidently not heavy enough.” Cynder grumbled as small flicks of shadow fire escaped her nostrils.
Sparx’s attention suddenly left the conversation and, much to his own surprise, drifted across and over onto a formerly, quietly, observing Spike.
The dragonfly proceeded to fly a few quick circles around the purple and green dragon as he apparently inspected and examined him, while Spike, in turn, just stood perfectly still, and looked between Ember and Sparx in a state of mild unease as he twiddled his claws.
Ember, having apparently noticed his unease, offered him a reassuring smile to quell his nerves, which Spike found was both nice of her and gladly received, but it didn’t exactly help the fact that having everypony looking his way was beginning to bug him, no pun intended.
“Heh, so you’re the ‘Spike’ Celestia mentioned then huh?” Sparx stated curiously as he eventually flew up to Spike’s face. “Well, you’re a funny looking dragon for sure… but hey, if you and Spyro get along, then you’re alright in my book.”
“Uh… thanks?” he replied. “I’m being told I’m a funny looking dragon… by a talking insect… go figure.”
A loud, an obviously forced cough reminded the four long-time friends they weren’t exactly alone. Upon turning around to everyone else present in the library-turned-demolition-site, they found themselves with the unfaltering gazes of everypony in the room resting squarely on them, some accompanied by sets of raised eyebrows, and others by loosely or freely hanging bottom jaws.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you three… know him exactly?” Shining Armor asked curiously at last, his blue eyes and a raised hoof switching between the three dragons and one talking dragonfly.
His question, judging by their relatively confused facial expressions and simultaneous silent nods, was presently being shared by just about everypony else in the room, or, to put it more accurately, everypony still in a state of full consciousness.
A moment later, Shining Armor found his own vision filled with gold as Sparx crossed his arms, and then promptly flew right up to the guard captain’s face. The still grinning dragonfly proceeded to laugh as he perched himself on the end of the surprised stallion’s white muzzle, subsequently causing the usually staunch and stoic royal guard captain to step back in mild surprise, eliciting a rather large grin from Spike at his brother’s reaction, and making Spyro, Ember, and even Cynder smirk… even Princess Celestia found the moment worthy of a quiet giggle, well concealed of course, lest she unnecessarily wound her captain’s pride.
“Are you kidding? How do these three know me? You’re looking at Spyro’s brother here.”
For all of about two moments after Sparx had spoken, everything and everypony in the room just stopped dead, before over a dozen pony voices all loudly stuttered ‘B-brother!’ at once. The barrage of confused gasps served to cause the three young dragons, and one dragonfly, to burst into yet another round of laughter.
Spike felt his own jaw work itself up and down a few times, though any words he’d come up with failed to subsequently emerge. As much as he could relate to the pair of apparently adopted siblings, given he’d come to consider both Shining Armor and Twilight to be his own brother and sister over the years, his brain, quite frankly, refused to even try and make sense of Sparx’s somewhat awkward statement. Instead, he quietly guessed it was better to just go and apply logic similar to that of ‘Pinkie Pie just being Pinkie Pie’; In other words, ‘for the sake of keeping your sanity, don’t ask questions, just go with it’.
After all, the other option was to try and look at the statement logically, and that would presumably bring up mental images that could be described best by Big Macintosh. ENOPE!
After a few more moments, Spike watched as Princess Celestia finally removed an alabaster hoof from her giggling muzzle. “I take it you both share a very strong bond with each other? Or do I need to commission new biology texts?” She asked gently.
Spyro, after his own laughter finally died down, smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. “Yeah… it’s a bit of a complicated story to be honest, but trust me when I say we’ve been through a lot together,” the purple dragon sighed happily, his smile only widening as Sparx returned to flying around his head. “Anyway, as Sparx has probably already said Princess, I’m Spyro, and this is my mate Cynder, and my friend Ember.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” the alabaster alicorn replied with a quick inclining of her head, seemingly low enough to show it was a friendly gesture, but high enough so as to apparently not tempt her regalia to fall off of her forehead. “Now, if you would kindly give me a moment, there are a few things I need to clear up before we go any further; sergeant Iron Sides, if you will please.”
The clang of metal armor, as well as the clack of hooves meeting the wooden floor, rebounded through the library as one of the remaining conscious royal guards, a rather heavily built earth pony, stepped forward and raised a hoof to his ruler in salute.
Upon realizing it was the same earth pony that Ember had been fraying with only minutes earlier, Spike quietly and swiftly put himself in front of the pink dragoness, ready to literally return-to-sender the stallion if the need arose.
“Sergeant, while Shining Armor and I try to sort this situation out, I would like you to take your fellow guards to Ponyville Hospital for medical attention; I highly doubt their injuries are anywhere near severe or life-threatening, but I’d rather be on the safe side. Once that is done, you and the remaining members of your detachment may return to Canterlot.”
“Forgive me, Princess, but given what these three can do… I’m not sure that’s such a good id…”
The guard fell silent the moment he noticed the marble alicorn’s displeased expression.
“I am well aware of what they are capable of, sergeant, and I thank you for your concern, but I assure you I will be perfectly fine; am I understood?”
With a “Yes, Princess!” and a slightly shaky final parting salute, the collection of royal guards, bar a now unsure looking Shining Armor, gathered up their comrades, and trotted off out the door and into the darkness of the night, their still unconscious brethren slung firmly over their backs as they disappeared from the library and faded from sight.
Only once their hoof beats died away did Spike finally lower his guard.
“Forgive me for that, Captain Armor, but I believe their presences would have only complicated things,” Celestia stated gently, her eyes leaving the doorway and falling on the three non-Equestrian dragons. “Now then, as I have already asked Cynder, may I inquire as to just how you three came to be in the home of my student?”
“Umm…” Spyro started only to be cut off by the voice of a particularly nervous mare.
Twilight unintentionally flinched as every set of eyes in the room turned and focused on her, said eyes including those of her cherished mentor, the four dragons she was presently housing, her now obviously unsure-of-what-to-think older brother, plus those of just about everypony around and behind her, all of them staring like she had something unfortunate splattered profusely across her face.
The mare suddenly felt like Discord had, just to make the situation even more harrowing for her, gone and placed a five kilo lead weight in her stomach.
“Would you mind coming here and explaining, my faithful student?”
Gingerly, Twilight nodded, and began leading everypony who’d recently followed her up to the second floor, in order to escape the recent dragon-royal guard clash, back down the flight of wooden stairs. All the while, she switched her gaze between the face of her mentor, and the destruction and devastation that the prior fighting had brought down upon the main room of her home, devastation which she herself had played some part in bringing about.
The unicorn herself now felt both particularly nervous and ashamed of her actions, and that made facing her tutor all the more difficult. If she wanted to give a rough description about how she felt at that point, the best example would be the day she’d had a tardy panic attack, gone and cast the ‘want it, need it’ spell, subsequently hypnotized just about everypony in Ponyville, and ended up needing Princess Celestia’s intervention to return things to normal.
Much like those of today, that certain series of unfortunate events, as Twilight knew, neither she nor Ponyville would ever manage to fully forget; she made a mental note that once this was all over, she’d be burning Star Swirl’s Tartarus damned book herself.
“Ya’ll alright there sugercube?” a country accent asked, abruptly ending Twilight’s period of silent reminiscence. “Ya look a little bit off colour.”
“Just… feeling that the probability of me ending up on the moon is… well, you know… kind of high at the moment Applejack.”
“Look, whatever happens here Twi, just remember, ya’ll aren’t the only one responsible for this,” Applejack said calmly, the mare trying to reassure her jittery friend as they descended the stairs. “Ah’ had a hoof in this here mess as well, and I wouldn’t be worthy a’ being the element of honesty if I didn’t own up to it.”
“Heh, t-thanks.”
The moment when Twilight found herself standing directly before the tall form of Princess Celestia came far quicker than she realized; one second she was on the stairs with her friends, the next she was standing at the golden shoed hooves of Celestia, her mentor, Equestria’s ruler, and the pony who could, and probably would, send her to the moon in a heartbeat if she felt like it.
That thought was made worse by the concerned look said Princess’s face was wearing; mentally, Twilight wondered if it was better to give her explanations, or just jump ship now, and run out the door with her purple streaked tail tucked between her legs like all Tartarus was after her.
“W-well… you see P-princess…” she started, only to find her voice die after the first few words.
“I’m not angry with you, Twilight, if that’s what you’re thinking,” the alicorn said gently, leaning forward and nuzzling the obviously quivering unicorn in an effort to calm her down. “I assure you that you have nothing to fear, if I’m right none of this was intentional, correct?”
Twilight nodded a few times as she tried to bring her breathing back to a near normal rhythm, silently a little embarrassed at her present state of composure. “Sorry… this is just a little overwhelming for me. So, umm, where do you want me to start Princess?”
“How about… you just tell her what you told us Twilight,” Spyro suggested, glancing between the pair of ponies as he spoke.
“That would make for a good starting place I think; all I want to know is how this rather unusual situation has come about, nothing more Twilight.”
Twilight gulped and nodded in understanding, trying to swallow the lump in her throat at the prospect of revealing everything to her teacher. “Well… it all started two days ago…”
For the next few minutes, Spike stood protectively beside Ember and, along with everypony else still present at the fragmented remains of Pinkie’s party, watched and listened as Twilight briefly ran through the events that had transpired over the last two or so days. Occasionally, when he wasn’t groaning and face-clawing at somepony gasping in shock, or complaining about how they’d managed to set a hoof down in a pile of cake, he’d give his own input where he felt appropriate, with Applejack, Cherilee, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and even the three crusaders respectively doing the same.
He didn’t exactly find it an enjoyable experience overall, especially given he was basically forced to watch Twilight descend into a trembling wreck and Applejack just about chew her bottom lip off.
And then there was Celestia’s own facial expression. Spike might not have been a great player of card games, but even he could see the princess was a true master of the ‘poker face’, and that put the young dragon downright on edge. He always preferred to know how somepony was feeling, even if it meant knowing they were angry or totally enraged, at least then you knew what to expect, and thus had a chance to prepare for the moment when they blew up in your face. But, with Celestia’s lack of expression, he had no clue what to expect; was she amused by Twilight’s words? Was she suspicious of the dragon’s intentions in Ponyville? Was she so angry she planned to send Cynder to the moon for threatening Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?
Spike snorted and vigorously shook his head free of such thoughts, the idea of trying to fall asleep with an overthinking induced headache was not exactly an appealing one; plus it was nearing midnight and his brain had promptly clocked off at around nine.
If anypony had previously been able to hold their jaws together, they couldn’t by the time Twilight had finished speaking, and the ‘friends from the migration’ mask had been thrown out the metaphorical window, even Vinyl’s shades looked ready to fall of her forehead; the exception, as Spike guessed he should have predicted, was Pinkie Pie, who for some inexplicable reason, didn’t find the situation surprising in the slightest.
The chances of ever understanding that mare were now officially zero.
“This is… a most unfortunate series of events,” the Princess sighed once Twilight ended her retelling, the regal alicorn quickly casting her eyes over to the room’s three seated scaly anomalies. “You have my sincerest apologies for all this; the fact of the matter is that I personally requested that Twilight be sent that book to begin with, so I believe I must bear some of the burden for bringing you four to Equestria as well.”
“That’s another thing Princess. If you’re saying the same spell brought us all here… together… then why exactly did Sparx get separated from us anyway? Not that I’m really complaining about it, mind you.”
Cynder’s words ended with a distasteful glare at the gold dragonfly, who simply folded his arms and returned the gesture with a huff, their obvious distrust and dislike of each other rearing its ugly head.
“W-well, the spell I cast was only intended for dragons… ” Twilight started weakly.
“Actually, that… would probably be my own doing,” Princess Celestia cut in, the alicorn looking at her hooves for a moment and sounding, dare Spike say, almost a little embarrassed. “I trust Twilight and her magic abilities to the fullest extent, but… I also know that, at times, she gets caught up in the moment, sometimes without being fully prepared for what ‘might’ happen should something go wrong… I’m guessing you remember the smarty pants incident, Twilight?” She asked, glancing over and finding her student’s lavender cheeks flaring a bright shade of crimson, her five close friends shying away, and the usually expressionless Big Macintosh staring at the floor. “In light of such a thing possibly occurring again… I never expected it to happen, Twilight, so please don’t think I’d lost my faith in you… I took the precaution of enchanting the book I sent her and Spike.”
The dark dragoness’s eyebrow arched a little at the words. “What do you mean by enchanting?” Cynder queried, her eyes then flicking over to Twilight. "And who's this... smarty pants?"
"Please... don't ask."
“Basically, the point of the spell was that should something go wrong, and this sort of situation potentially arise, then whatever found its way into Equestria would appear before myself in Canterlot, rather than here in Ponyville… that way the royal guard and I could deal with it should the situation become hostile.”
“So… why was it Sparx that got separated? And only Sparx for that matter?” Spyro asked with a slight tilt of his head. “He’s the least dangerous out of all of us.”
“Hey! Just because I don’t go throwing out flames, doesn’t mean I ain’t dangerous!”
Sparx’s remark only drew a quiet snigger from both Cynder and Spyro; some things truly would never change, and Sparx’s macho attitude was most definitely one of those things.
"I never said you weren't Sparx." Spyro chuckled as he shook his head.
“I’m afraid I can’t give you an exact answer to that phenomenon… but to be honest, Twilight’s own spell, I think…” Celestia began, trying to suppress a giggle of her own. “Well, when her spell failed, from what I can gather... I believe the pure amount of magical energy released by her may have overwhelmed my own enchantment… something which I probably should have foreseen the possibility of, given the strength of my student’s magical potential. Thus it seems my weakened spell only managed to retrieve one of you, logically that one being the smallest and lightest of you four, Sparx.”
“Hehe, my little sister overpowered one of Princess Celestia’s own spells,” Shining Armor chuckled as he sat back on his haunches. “Hey Twily, maybe they should make you the princess of magic.”
The stallion’s suggestion was met by the rebuttal of a blue covered book being lifted from the floor in a purple aura, being promptly hurled in his directed, and meeting his face with a dull thud, the action only drawing another playful laugh from the royal guard captain, and an amused eye-roll from Celestia.
“Jokes aside… I am very sorry for separating you two,” The Princess went on, her voice taking on a slightly sorrowed tone as she looked between Sparx and Spyro. “I know all too well what it feels like to miss a sibling, so again, my sincerest apologies.”
Spyro, after a rather long moment of looking at his talons, just shook his head and waved his claw dismissively, almost looking as if he was shooing a particularly annoying fly. “It’s alright Princess, we’ve all agreed none of this was anyone’s intention; what we really need to focus on now is finding a way to get home.”
“Besides, I finally got to have some time away from venom breath,” Sparx said flatly, his gaze once more shifting to Cynder, who simply gave him a ‘do-you-actually-want-me-to-squash-you?’ sort of stare in return.
Celestia blinked a few times in mild surprise, before smiling and nodding. “Thank you, I understand that this has no doubt been a stressful few days for you three… speaking of which, captain, how exactly did all of this destruction come about?”
She spoke while motioning to the wreckage that was the library's main room.
Shining Armor nervously rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof. "I... let my experiences cloud my judgement, Princess. We received what now appears to be a bogus letter of complaint relating to Cynder, and... when it mentioned Twilight being involved... ugh, I acted unprofessionally in response."
"You only wanted to protect those you care about; can't exactly fault you for something like that."
Every set of eyes were on Cynder in a heartbeat, prompting the dragoness to roll her eyes. "Well let's all not get amazed at the same time."
Celestia smiled and shook her head. "I'm surprised to hear such words from you, Cynder, especially after what you've all no doubt been put through."
“It’s actually been really enjoyable so far Princess.” Ember abruptly jumped in. “I mean, it was a bit frightening at first… and not a lot of ponies trusted us… but everything’s calmed down now, and we’ve made some really good friends in the last two days.”
As she ended her input, Ember capped it off by giving Spike a quick nuzzle on the cheek and gently laying one of her pink wings over him, prompting the purple dragon’s cheeks to flare a bright shade of red as Spyro chuckled from beside him, Cynder mock-groaned to herself, and both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy quietly squeed from somewhere in the background of the conversation.
Although unnoticed by everypony else, Rarity snorted to herself and looked away in annoyance.
It was then that a curious Princess Celestia, as well as a now wide-eyed and downright surprised Shining Armor, both noticed just how close the young dragon and dragoness were standing to each other; given they were either a few millennia old or happily married respectively, within a moment the gears in their heads stopped turning as the dots were connected, and, despite how utterly ludicrous it seemed, everything became a little clearer in regards to the two dragons’ unusual behaviours, especially Spike’s continuous protectiveness of Ember.
“Twily, don’t tell me my little brother’s gone and got himself a fillyfriend?” the white stallion asked as a grin spread across his face.
If Spike’s embarrassed flinch didn’t answer the stallion’s question, then a chuckle from Applejack did a moment later.
“Considering some ah’ us might’ve walked in on a little kissin’ session of theirs Shining, I’d say so.”
If there was anypony who’d had their attention focused elsewhere up until then, it was most definitely no longer wandering; the young dragon couple were now, somewhat against their will and with absolutely nowhere and no way to escape their position, finding themselves the centre of everypony’s combination of intrigued and cheesy attention.
Shining Armor’s own smirk only widened as both dragons in question glanced at each other, and then blushed as they looked down at their claws, the additions of a wolf whistle from Vinyl, excited giggles from the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, and a squealed gasp from Rainbow Dash, only serving to deepen the red hues of their cheeks.
“Wait, you two were making out? And you actually walked in on them, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash sniggered as she tried, and then dramatically failed, to contain herself as she rolled around the ceiling. “Pfffffft! Bahahahaha!”
Twilight couldn’t help but turn as crimson as Spike as the memory came back. “Yeah… I’m not going to lie; it was a bit awkward.”
“OOH! OOH! How was it? How was it?”
“Pinkie Pie!” nearly every equine voice cried once.
The mare in question took no notice of the collective outburst, and just continued to happily bounce circles around the young couple.
“Um…” Ember smiled sheepishly, trying to hide her now burning face behind a pink wing. “Really nice,” she answered quietly.
“Spike… come here… you little stud.” Shining Armor managed to get out between his hysteric pants, using his own magic to pull the purple dragon over, before delivering an affectionate noogie to his crimson faced sibling’s head.
The action apparently managed to draw another wave of amusement from everyone still present, even Cynder’s maw managed to break into a sly grin, much to Spike’s surprise and further embarrassment.
All the while, Twilight just sat back and smiled as the scene unfolded, with a giggling Ember quickly finding herself pulled into Shining Armor’s embrace as well. If Twilight’s trained memory served her right, it had been far too long since she’d seen Spike as happy as he was now, save perhaps the day Rarity kissed him on the cheek. It was still perhaps the strangest and most illogical turn off events she’d ever known or come across, a situation that would, in theory, only ever make sense if it were contained within the crummy pages of a second-rate romance story.
But quietly, and although still being a little sceptical of the thought herself, she was somewhat thankful for her spell’s unintended outcome.
That thought, however, shattered like a glass meeting the floor when a golden-shoed hoof fell upon her shoulder, and, upon looking up, she found her mentor wearing a very unsure expression… one that strangely reminded her all too well of the day Discord had managed to escape from being an oversized lawn ornament.
“Twilight, I need to speak with you in private, now.”
“This is soooo not my day,” Twilight quietly grumbled to herself, the mare shaking her violet-maned head as she first flicked on the light switch, subsequently flooding her bedroom with golden light, and set the lock of her door into place.
There were a number of words that Twilight figured could describe her present mood, but none of them, she personally felt, seemed to be able to do her emotions justice. The unforeseeable events of the last two days, as anypony could imagine upon hearing her almost unbelievable tale, had turned her otherwise fairly normal and structured life of work, socializing, and study, totally and utterly upside down.
Of all the possibilities fate could have thrown at her, she’d been landed with three dragons, three roughly teenaged dragons, from a completely different world.
And now, after only having housed said dragons for two days, Twilight had to admit they were beginning to take their tolls on her scientific-reasoned sanity; one of them was now, despite how ludicrous it seemed, in a relationship with her assistant/little brother after barely getting to know him, and another’s mere presence, as she’d quickly discovered and was further witnessing, had a constant tendency to lead to chaos or the destruction of something.
The mare figured that if she had to describe the last two days in one word, it would be illogical. Why? Because if such a story, as that of the last two days, was told to somepony she’d only just met, Twilight figured they’d frankly call her crazy.
“Are you alright, my student?”
“I’m fine Princess,” the mare answered with a slight sigh, turning away from the now locked door, and giving her alabaster mentor a reassuring smile, as she noted the alicorn’s concerned expression. “These last two days have just been… well, something else, to put it mildly.”
Princess Celestia nodded in return, a small yet evident smile growing across her own ancient muzzle. “I’m sure they have been Twilight, though in all I would think it would be for the better; we all need a little bit of ‘something else’ in our lives now and then, even the likes of Luna and myself, and trust me when I say Sparx and his antics have quickly become quite the ‘something else’ around the palace.”
“I can imagine,” Twilight giggled quietly behind a politely concealing hoof. “By the way, what’s the story with the ‘suit of armor’ thing?” She asked.
“Well… let me just say that Sparx and I discovered that Blueblood has a severe phobia of talking insects.”
Both mares tried to keep a relatively straight face, they really and truly did, and even managed to do so for a few short seconds after Celestia finished; but, a few unstoppable sniggers, stinging red cheeks, and amusing mental images of a certain prince in hysterics over the presence of talking dragonfly later, the student and mentor pair broke down into fits of filly-like laughter.
“Oh, forgive me Twilight,” Princess Celestia managed as she regained control of herself, a golden-shoed hoof still on her lips. “I really, really shouldn’t be laughing at such things… but seeing Blueblood’s face… it truly made my day, I must admit.”
“Hehehehe, I can imagine why princess… anyway, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?”
The regal alicorn’s warm smile, and likely her joviality all together, dropped and disappeared in a single heartbeat, and was replaced by the same uneasy look that Twilight had encountered downstairs only minutes earlier.
It was a look that Twilight had seen cross her mentor’s face a number times, a fair few over the last year or so alone in fact, and as such the unicorn knew that it could only mean one of two possible things; either Equestria was in state of some kind of dire peril, presumably at the chaotic clutches of Discord, Chrysalis’s insect-like hooves, or some similar unsavoury adversary. Or the more likely case, Celestia had simply discovered something she found concerning.
“Yes, my apologies for getting side-tracked. Now, Twilight… there is no easy way for me to ask you this, and I’m truly sorry that I have to in the first place, but for what I’m about to ask… I need you, as my faithful student, to give me a true and honest answer none the less; do you understand?”
Although she felt a nervous shiver run down her spine, and a tight lump abruptly form in her throat, Twilight nodded. “I understand princess.”
“Thank you.” Celestia replied, giving what was clearly a forced smile, as one of her front hooves repeatedly tapped the floor in apparent unease. “Twilight… do you believe that Spyro, Cynder, and Ember are a threat to Ponyville and its residents’ safety?”
For a moment, there was nothing in the room but complete and utter silence.
During this short period of silence, Twilight found herself abruptly slumping back on her haunches in shock, with her bottom jaw proceeding to work its way up and down a few times, before finally managing to articulate a coherent response.
“P-princess? W-what?”
The alicorn just sighed, closed her rosy eyes, and lowered her head so they were level. “Twilight, trust me when I say I hate putting you on the spot like this, but I need your opinion now more then ever.”
It was common knowledge amongst those close to royal sisters, and one of Twilight’s personal priding attributes, that Princess Celestia would often consider her opinion on certain matters. Whether she chose to act on those opinions or not was Celestia’s choice, but simply being looked upon by her mentor, one of the princesses none the less, as somepony intelligent and trustworthy had always brought Twilight great happiness and pride.
But given the nature of the words she’d just heard from her Celestia’s mouth, Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted her opinion heard this particular time round.
But, after yet another long moment of silent thought, Twilight sighed, stared at the wooden-slat floor, and ran a hoof through her now roughed-up purple mane as she vocalized her thoughts on the subject, aware that Princess Celestia was watching every movement of her muzzle.
“Do I believe they’re a threat to Ponyville? Frankly… no, no I don’t. Ember I can safely say isn’t a threat to anypony, not because she couldn’t hurt somepony if she really wanted to, but because her disposition is just too kind for her to do something like that; she’s the equivalent of a dragon version of Fluttershy in that regard. Spyro… again, he could very easily hurt somepony if he really wanted to, but given how respectful he is, and how he goes out of his way to get along with everypony… I can’t see him being anything of a threat. Cynder… uh, well, if you asked me five minutes after I met her, I’d say definitely… but now I can see she’s trying to fit in, and the fact that she’s become friends, good friends at that, with the Cutie Mark Crusaders… well, that speaks for itself.”
It apparently took a minute or so for her mentor to absorb and accept what she was hearing, but at last though, Princess Celestia, after what felt like an entire eternity to Twilight, smiled warmly and nodded in acknowledgement, apparently pleased with her student’s response.
Twilight in turn smiled back sheepishly, while mentally breathing an exasperated sigh of relief, perhaps the biggest of her life.
“Thank you, Twilight,” she said softly, reaching forward and nuzzling her lavender student affectionately along the cheek, the alicorn’s action gaining her a faint blush in response. “I will admit your words have put my troubled mind somewhat at ease.”
Twilight, nervously, chewed her bottom lip as curiosity got the better of her. “If it’s… not too much trouble, princess… why did you ask? Was it because of what happened downstairs?”
“Not… exactly.” Celestia admitted with a shake of her head. “Twilight, this will probably be a lot to take in, but please try to stay calm.”
Although now unsure of whether or not she wanted to have her question answered, given the tone of concern that had once again crept into Celestia’s voice, Twilight breathed deeply and once again nodded in acknowledgment, feeling mentally prepared for whatever potentially jaw-dropping revelation the princess threw at her.
“Twilight, from what Sparx has told me… Spyro and Cynder are unlike any other pair of dragons in existence, either of our world or their own. If I were to put this fact simply, it would be something like this; downstairs, at this very moment, there are two of the most powerful dragons their world possesses. Basically, Spyro is their world’s equivalent of an alicorn in terms of power, and Cynder, if what Sparx has said about her is true… was not that long ago something of a draconic version of Nightmare Moon.”
Correction: Twilight thought she’d been mentally prepared.
Generally, when subjects such as the magical potential of an alicorn came up in research, conversation, or even literature, fictional or not, it was a subject that was treated with both utter respect and awe. Such treatment was kind of an unsaid given, seeing as the three alicorns known to the world were all princesses of ponykind, and two of them had magic capable of the heavenly bodies themselves.
Similarly, Nightmare Moon’s mere mention, and the tale of how she’d tried to bring forth eternal night upon the land, brought chills to the even the bravest of pony’s spines, Twilight’s included. As such, the name ‘Nightmare Moon’ was scarcely ever used in instances of jokes or passing humour, lest said joke-teller wanted to be awkwardly gaped at.
Thus, upon finding out she virtually had draconic versions of such beings presently downstairs in her home, and temporarily living with her at that, an already confused Twilight’s thought patterns virtually imploded on themselves as her jaw nearly met the rug she was standing on… and then did meet it as Twilight’s legs gave out beneath her.
“They… but… dragon…. alicorn… Nightmare… bwah?!”
Princess Celestia quickly, though gently, reached out and put a hoof across the frazzled unicorn’s muzzle. “Be still Twilight. Listen, I know that you may feel uneasy about knowing this, but think about what you just told me? You and I both know that if either Spyro or Cynder actually wanted to truly hurt somepony, if not kill them, they could do so with virtually no effort whatsoever… but even when my guards tried to detain them, and rather forcefully at that, all they did was knock them around some, does that not say anything in their defence?”
“Well… yes, but why wouldn’t they have told me something this… this serious?!”
“Think about it Twilight, if their appearance in Ponyville has already led to issues, which I know it has, wouldn’t knowledge like that just make things worse? Look, I know you are wary of even the thought of such power, I am as well, but I ask that you judge them on their present actions, and not what they are or used to be… just as you did with my own sister.”
“So that’s why you weren’t… you know, really angry with them?” Twilight asked between dwindling nervous shakes, the mare gingerly removing her mentor’s hoof with her own as she calmed down.
“Yes my student.” Celestia replied, once again running her muzzle along Twilight’s cheek as she spoke. “And that is why I asked for your opinion on them; if you believed they were a threat to anypony, confirming my own fears, I would have removed them from Ponyville myself in an instant. But, if you have faith in them, then so do I.”
After a long moment, Twilight sighed and nodded in understanding.
“So… what about Ember then?”
Princess Celestia, in an action that rather surprised Twilight, just shrugged her shoulders unknowingly. “Ember is… just an ordinary dragoness according to Sparx. Apparently, he and Spyro met her on one of their past adventures, and they became friends of sorts… though he claims she had a crush on Spyro at the time.”
“Best not to tell Spike that.” Twilight giggled, Celestia joining in a moment later as the uneasy mood in room was slowly lifted.
“Indeed; hmhm, their relationship will no doubt be interesting to follow as it unfolds, young love always is.” Celestia said with a happy sigh, her eyes watching the ceiling, and her mind reminiscing over similar events that had long since passed. “Twilight, thank you for this, I truly mean it… after hearing what Sparx had said… I didn’t know what to think, but I knew I could trust your judgement.”
“You always can Princess,” the lavender mare beamed proudly, inwardly bubbling like a school filly. “So, um, should we go see what state my library’s in?”
The Princess of the sun, herself unsure of what she was about to ask, chewed her bottom lip.
“Actually… there is one more thing I would ask of you, Twilight.” She said tensely. “I want you to keep an eye on Cynder for me. Sparx has mentioned that she was cleansed of her darkness some time ago, and I don’t doubt that, given both your words and her behaviour towards me earlier… and yet… to this day, Sparx says she still somehow retains most of the abilities that the darkness bestowed on her. Such an occurrence, to me, raises questions about whether that influence is actually gone… or simply in a state of slumber.”
Twilight, despite the slight knot of fear that had suddenly formed in her stomach, nodded in understanding.
“What do you think they’re talking about up there?” Ember asked, her pink-scaled snout motioning towards the second floor, whilst her claws pushed the book she’d been holding back into its shelf. “You don’t think the princess would want to take us away, do you?”
Spike, despite the awkwardness of doing so whilst carrying an already teetering pile of books, just shrugged his shoulders.
The action, as Spike quickly came to realize, ended up causing the tower of literature to come precariously close to collapsing on top of him, and only didn’t do so thanks to prior experience, and some quick manoeuvring of his feet… straight into a pile of what had once been a mud cake, much to a certain purple dragon and gold dragonfly’s apparent mirth.
“I doubt it, Ember,” he answered simply in the end, silently cringing as he shook his left foot free of the brown residue. “Don’t take it personally or anything, but if word got out that she was keeping dragons in the palace, half the nobility would have a fit.”
“Really?” Spyro and Ember asked in unison, both sounding surprised.
“But weren’t you raised in the palace?” Ember continued, walking forward, and running her snout affectionately along his cheek.
“That’s true, but back then I was just a hatchling,” Spike sighed with a shake of his head, the words leaving something of bitter aftertaste in his mouth. “I hate to say it, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if most of them thought I was the princess’s pet or something.”
“Spike’s kinda right there,” Shining Armor threw in with a mild snort, a dozen or so books magically shelving themselves at the direction of white stallion’s glowing horn. “I’m not saying it’s everypony in Canterlot, but a lot of them have a real backwards way of seeing common ponies, let alone non-ponies; example, If I had a bit for every request the royal guard’s received to remove a non-pony from the market district, for no reason whatsoever, I’d be able to buy the palace. Another, we had a visit from the griffin ambassador a few weeks back to discuss the changeling situation, and the way some of the ‘nobility’ reacted… ugh, it was downright embarrass-OW! Spike! I’m your brother, not a step ladder!”
“Shining, you’re partly to blame for the state of this place, so deal with it.” Spike grunted back as he clambered up. “Plus the ladder got destroyed earlier.”
Shining Armor snorted as he face-hoofed. “I’m not even going to go there Spike, I’m too tired, and my head hurts enough as it is.” He replied with a small groan, quickly shooting Cynder a mildly agitated glare. “Thanks to someone continually firing those shrieking red… whatever those things were, at me.”
“Tried to kill you too then huh?” Sparx quipped. “Yeah, she does that.”
Cynder just rolled her eyes and flicked her bladed tail. “For the record, they’re called siren screams, and may I remind you, Shining Armor, that you’re the one who started this whole disaster, not me,” she said flatly, plucking a lone red book from the floor and pushing it back into the adjacent bookshelf. “Uh, anyway, looks to me like that’s last of them that are salvageable; I know they’re not in order or anything Spike, but at least this place doesn’t look like a battle-ground anymore.”
The ‘battle-ground’, as much as Spike had utterly hated to admit while standing precariously atop his brothers back in an effort to reach the higher shelves, was in perhaps the worst state it’d ever been in since he’d come to call the library home.
Up until only a few minutes ago, colourful patterns, made of the remnants of countless Sugar Cube Corner confectionaries, had covered nearly every square inch of wall, floor, rug, staircase, and ceiling his gaze came across. This rendered the library’s interior to look more like the studio of an abstract art-pony with a fetish for sugary food, rather than a place of book-loaning. On top of that, most of the furniture, or what had once been furniture, laid in smashed, wooden chunks and pieces about the floor thanks to Cynder’s tornado impression, with the majority of the library’s vast collection of books having suffered the same disastrous fate.
Still, it was nothing particularly new for the library, when you had friends who enjoyed ‘dropping by’ like Rainbow Dash, these kinds of things had a habit of happening every now and then; thankfully though, having friends like Rainbow Dash, amongst others, also meant having friends who’d be willing to help tidy up the subsequent aftermath.
Spike, along with Shining Armor, Spyro, Cynder, Ember, and the three crusaders had together handled the sorting, at times binning, and re-shelving of the library’s mountainous hoard of books; In turn, Rarity, Vinyl, Cheerilee, and Big Macintosh had seen to it that the destroyed furniture was rounded up and removed outside, while Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, each armed with a mop and bucket, had taken it upon themselves to clean away the copious amounts of cake and alike that lay splattered in every direction.
The place didn’t exactly look brand sparkling new, but it sure looked a hay of lot better than a short time prior.
“Ah’ reckon she’s about done Spike.” Applejack yawned lazily as she came over, the farm-pony flanked by a tired looking Cheerilee, Pinkie Pie, and the three obviously exhausted filly crusaders, who were looking about ready to fall asleep at a moment’s notice. “And not a moment too soon either, pretty sure I’m gonna drop any second now.”
“You and me both.” Cheerilee mumbled, rubbing one of her tired green eyes with a hoof.
Pinkie Pie, in stark contrast to rest of the group, happily bounced along with her mop and wooden bucket held in her muzzle, and still looked as up and ready as ever. Did that mare ever run out of energy?
“Well that’s a relief,” Spike replied as he hopped down. “Thanks for sticking around by the way everypony, probably would’ve taken us a week to put this place back together.”
Applejack just chuckled and inclined her head. “No problem Spike.” She grinned, casting a cheesy smile towards Cynder. “That’s what friends are for, after all.”
Cynder just rolled her eyes again; that pony was as stubborn as anything.
“Anyway, I’d better be gettin’ this one back home,” the farm-pony went on with a nod to her heavy eyed younger sister. “Party or no party, she’s got another school day tomorrow, as do a certain pair ah’ dragons last I heard.”
“Make that annoying and stubborn.” Cynder groaned to herself, though she couldn’t help but smirk at the celebratory ‘Yay!’ the three fillies let out. “I guess so; meh, it’ll give me a chance to have some words with that Diamond brat anyway.”
“Cynder!” Ember hissed.
“I’ll be having a talk with Diamond Tiara about that letter,” Cheerilee jumped in quickly. “But please, let me handle it; I know you’re probably angry with her, and you have every right to be, but I think it’d be better if I dealt with this.”
“Ugh, alright, just as long as she doesn’t try and get on my nerves tomorrow.”
“I’ll make sure nothing happens.” Spyro reaffirmed, apparently noticing Cheerilee’s not-quite-convinced look of concern.
“Wait, wait, wait? You actually convinced venom breath here to do something social?”
The two dragons involved just looked between each other, and then face-clawed. “I swear Sparx…” Cynder muttered in defeat.
Either thankfully or not, it was at that particular moment, before the conversation could take anymore awkward turns for the worse, a loud wooden creak resonated from one of the doors on the second floor, the sound promptly plunging the room into silence, and causing everypony to stop what they were doing and look up.
Spike wasn’t sure how he felt at that moment, his green eyes watching intently as Twilight and Princess Celestia descended the stairs side by side, with neither teacher nor student saying so much as a word to each other, and Twilight looking perhaps mildly uneasy about something as of yet undetermined; whether her expression meant that something was actually wrong was anypony’s guess, but for the sake of being cautious, and not exactly trusting his own earlier words anymore, he quickly moved to Ember’s side.
Much to the young dragon’s surprise, and relief, Twilight’s face immediately brightened some when she looked around the now clean-ish room.
“Wow, you all got this done while we were talking?” She asked, gaining amused grins and nods from everypony and dragon in the room in reply. “Hehe, thanks everypony; looks like you’re off the hook this time Spike.”
“No need to tell me twice, cleaning up after just you is work enough.” Spike sniggered.
The room quickly resonated with laughter as Twilight blushed about as red as Big Mac, and sheepishly played with her hooves. Princess Celestia added her own quiet snicker as she recalled that particular, all too familiar, occurrence; the pure number of times she’d come across Spike trying to excavate Twilight, who was usually fast sleep of exhaustion, from a pile of books in the archives escaped even her memory.
“I see there are some things that will never change,” she sighed happily, taking a moments glance between the pair affectionately, before moving her eyes to the other dragons in the room. “Spyro, Cynder, Ember, I just want to say that I hope you will enjoy your time here in Equestria…”
“I’ll be making sure of it!” Pinkie Pie beamed as she bounced.
Ember and Spyro broke out in amused grins at the bubbly mare’s words, while Cynder quietly shuddered at the thoughts they gave rise to.
“I’m sure you will, and I also promise to have some of the best unicorns in Canterlot look into a way to get you home.”
“One would hope sooner rather than later,” Rarity spoke up. “I would guess they’re starting to miss their friends and family by now.”
“Actually, while we’re here, is there any chance we could visit Canterlot princess?” Ember asked. “It’s just that Spike’s made it sound like a pretty interesting place.”
Maybe he was dreaming, but Spike swore he noticed Rarity look away, and give off a quiet snort at Ember’s words, which ended up earning her something of a glare from Applejack.
“Were we having the same conversation?” Spike asked with an arched eyebrow, apparently voicing what everypony else was wondering. “That’s not really what Shining Armor and I said earlier. My friends or not, trust me when I say you won’t get a warm welcome from the public up there.”
“Relax Spike,” Spyro chuckled. “We’ve faced down a lot worse than a few unfriendly ponies over the years; if we want to see Canterlot, we will, end of story.”
Celestia, though mildly surprised herself by the dragoness’s request, and a little disturbed by Spyro’s words, smiled and nodded. “You’re most welcome too, just have Spike send me a message in advance if you wish to stay the night, and I’ll have some of the palace’s guest quarters prepared for you.”
“And I’ll be sure to tell Cadence, so if you do come up, make sure you drop by and see us.” Shining Armor threw in, wearing something that could be described by an observer as a cheese-eating grin. “She’s going to want in on this, and she’s definitely going to want to meet my little brother’s girl.”
“Shining…” Spike groaned; why were older brothers always such a pain in the tail?
“Aww come on Spike, you two totally look adorable.” Rainbow Dash teased, promptly dropping to the floor behind the two dragons, and, before either could react in the slightest, smooshing their faces together. “And that’s coming from me of all ponies.”
Celestia giggled quietly. “I must agree with Rainbow Dash on that regard Spike.”
Despite being covered in a layer of scales, Ember’s face went from pink to deep crimson in a heartbeat, while Spike felt his own cheeks begin to sting underneath his purple scales.
“Plus, this is just me thinking out loud here by the way princess,” Shining Armor continued without missing a beat. “But I’d bet Cynder and Princess Luna would bounce sparks of each other.”
“What?!”
“Say what about me now?”
The dragoness’s and dragonfly’s combined confused annoyance, despite the obvious seriousness in their words, simply caused nearly everypony in the room to descend into another round of giggling and laughter, much to the further frustration of said dragonfly at being left out of the loop.
Nearly everypony, however, didn’t include Twilight so much; she wore a smile all the same, but her mind though brought up very different emotions as her eyes ran over Cynder. The recently acquired knowledge that the violet-black dragoness in front of her had once been corrupted by darkness, much in the same way as Princess Luna had been, was frankly scary enough as it was, but the added thought of part of that darkness, possibly, still silently residing somewhere deep inside her…
It wasn’t exactly something she could bring herself to laugh at.
“Nopony needs to know, I… I just have to keep an eye on her, that’s all.”
“True words if I ever heard them.” Celestia said with an incline of her head, snapping the purple unicorn out of her stupor. “Alas though, my subjects, Shining Armor and I must leave you all and return to Canterlot, I once learnt the hard way that you can’t manage an entire country while heavily sleep deprived, and I have no wish of having to go through a day like that ever again; besides, I’m guessing you are all rather tired as well?”
As if attempting to answer for everypony present, Sweetie Bell abruptly yawned, immediately causing everypony and dragon laugh again; Twilight, despite her still raw unease at the knowledge of Cynder’s past, sighed as she shook her head free of her prior hauntings, and quickly became included among them.
Tomorrow would no doubt be another interesting day.
Prior Note: Having had this chapter finished for a while, and having not heard back from Edragon as of late, I decided to put this up unedited. If you see any mistakes please let me know.
Chapter 15: Some days start bad… (Unedited)
Morning.
It was a word that meant many different things to many different ponies, and as such their enthusiasm for it varied accordingly. For Applejack and Big Macintosh, for example, morning served as a starting point for yet another day of labour-intensive farm work around Sweet Apple Acres, which would bring about the plentiful harvests that fed most of Ponyville, as well as bring in the bits that kept them fed during the winter months; as such, it was understandable that the siblings ‘hit the deck early and running’ nearly each and every morning.
For individuals like Rainbow Dash, on the other hoof, morning wasn’t a too big a deal; given the speed and ease at which she could manage the entirety of the weather over Ponyville, her renowned cloud-clearing time of ‘ten seconds flat!’ serving as a case in point, the cyan and rainbow mare was able to sleep in at her leisure… or just sleep whenever, as the case often was.
It was somewhere between these two polar opposites that Twilight Sparkle stood, with said standing dependant on a number of underlying factors, such as the amount of reading and studying she’d done the night before, what time she’d finally crashed, and how many hours of sleep she’d actually managed; all of these factors added up to whether the next morning was a good morning for her, or a bad morning.
This particular morning… was a bad morning.
“Uh! Princess, it’s too early,” Twilight whined as the pin-pricks of light began piercing her eyelids, causing her to groggily shift and turn in a still half-asleep state.
The mare grumbled again as the pin-pricks gave way to full golden beams, and she felt the first full waves of morning light wash down through the library windows and over her bed. Their golden rays gently warmed the skin underneath her lavender coat, though, in doing so, subsequently dragged the young mare kicking and screaming back into the world of the awake, rather against her wishes.
Muttering under her breath, Twilight quickly pulled her lavender maned head back under her blanket in an effort to escape the sunlight’s forceful intrusion, a content sigh escaping her muzzle as she was greeted by the comfort of semi-darkness.
THWACK!
“Huh?”
…
THWACK!
Twilight’s ears perked at the second disturbance, though whether it was due to her curiosity of the source, or just the annoying fact that it was getting in the way of her falling asleep again, even she wasn’t really sure.
It was a strange sound, one that was foreign to even her; in a way, it was like the sound a book made when it fell from height and landed on a wooden floor, but she’d heard that sound more than enough times to know it wasn’t that.
THWACK!
“Ugh! What the hay!”
With a final snort of aggravating defeat, at the sad realization she wasn’t getting any more sleep more than anything, Twilight freed herself from the bed’s embrace.
Gingerly, she stretched out like a cat to get the blood flowing through her muscles, before heading out the door to discover the source of the morning’s disturbance, and thus the source of her annoyance.
Though once she reached the stairs, and her eyes fell upon the source of the noise, Twilight found herself unsure of whether or not she was actually still asleep.
The main room of her library stood in a fairly clean and respectable state, which was, to put it simply, a far-cry from the natural disaster zone it had been rendered as the night before, though the shelves did seen a little baron and light on colour due to the loss of quite few books; that would take some getting over.
The doorway also happened to once again have an actual door, thanks to a departing ‘sorry for ruining your party and trashing your home’ offer by Shining Armor.
Ember and Cynder lay on the floor directly beneath the room’s largest window, with both dragonesses conversing while their flared wings drunk up the warm morning light that flooded through it. If her hearing was right, and Cynder’s expression was indeed that of mild agitation, Twilight deduced that Ember was giving her pointers on how to control her temper around, presumably, the school colts and fillies she’d soon be having to deal with.
Then there were Spyro, Sparx, and Spike, and it was as she glanced over them that Twilight found the source of the otherwise peaceful morning’s disturbance, and upon doing so felt one of her eyebrow’s arch; Spyro was apparently instructing Spike how to properly move on all fours and… ram his head against a wall?
Umm …what?
THWACK!
“Better,” Spyro commented as Spike shook his head. “But you’re still hitting it with the top of you skull more than the front. You want to make contact right about… here,” he instructed, his front claw tapping the area around the base of Spike’s green spines. “If you had horns that’s roughly where they’d be; sure you don’t have horns, but that’s still the thickest and hardest part of your skull, and the best part to ram with.”
“Ok, just what exactly are you two doing?” Came the voice of a now rather obviously annoyed unicorn, the sudden blast causing the two males to cringe, before turning and coming face-to-face a fuming Twilight.
“And, once again, let’s just pretend Sparx doesn’t exist.” Sparx muttered quietly, quickly leaving the conversation to join Ember and Cynder.
Twilight did just that, and instead focused her sour attention solely on her little brother. “Spike, please, for the sake of Celestia, explain to me why the hay were you beating your head against a wall?”
“Um, Twilight, can we…”
“Answer the question.” The lavender mare hissed with a stomp, her heavy lack of sleep suddenly delivering a buck in the side to her already bad mood.
“Well… uh, I… I asked Spyro to… teach me how to fight.” Spike murmured, looking at the floor.
Twilight, for a moment, just blinked and shook her head, her mind taking a moment to process what her ears were telling her she’d just heard.
“Ok… what?”
The dragon winced and played with his claws. “Well… after what happened last night with the guards… it kinda got me thinking is all. You remember when I went on the migration and met those other teenage dragons? And how they were all kind of… you know, physical, I guess you could call them?”
Twilight sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Spike, please don’t tell you want to be like them?” She grumbled.
Spike quickly shook his head. “Eesh, definitely not,” He shuddered, remembering that particular unfortunate day with nothing but disgust. “All I’m saying is that since I’m a dragon and all, I should at least know how to hold my own against another dragon.”
“Fighting is something a dragon learns naturally while they’re growing up,” Spyro offered simply. “Usually you’ll have mentors or elders who’ll teach you, or you learn fighting with other dragons your age, but since Spike’s never had either of those… eh, I’ll admit that he’s got some catching up to do, but it’s nothing major; plus he did save my tail once or twice last night, so this is the least I can do to repay him.”
“And you’re actually going to teach him?” Twilight asked, shooting him an accusing glare.
“I’ve had a lot of fighting experience Twilight, both in training and in real fights. Ugh, Look, I’m not going to go teaching him my breaths if that’s what you’re worried about, I can’t, all I’m going to show him is a bit of claw-to-claw.”
“Spyro, he lives in Ponyville, the most frightful adversary this town has is Fluttershy’s pet rabbit.”
Spyro winced as a slight jolt of pain ran through his scaly tail, and the face a practically enraged white rabbit simultaneously popped into his head. “Yeah, I’ve encountered him already,” He muttered. “Look… how about we just agree that it’s a good use of my time, and leave it at that, there’s no point in arguing about it; Spike’s made up his mind, and I’ve agreed.”
If this was any other day, Twilight would’ve thrown so many arguments back at the two of them, her rant would’ve made Equestria’s best lawyer look like an embarrassment to his legal practice; but a sour mood, coupled with extreme tiredness, and now the emerging cry of stomach for a source of breakfast, forced her to just sigh and give in.
“Uh, fine, but I still don’t see why it’s necessary; if it came down to it, Spike might be a dragon, but he’s still a citizen of Equestria, and as such sits under the protection of the princesses and Equestrian law just as much as a pony.”
Spyro just snorted and flicked his tail. “You tell yourself that, but believe when I say that no law will be able to protect his and Ember’s eggs better than he can… trust me, I know.”
Although he tried not to think about, Spyro’s mouth still gained a bitter taste at the memories of what Malefor had done to his own unhatched brethren.
What he didn’t notice, however, was the sudden bright and rather obvious blush that had spread across Spike’s face, as well as Twilight’s now virtually unhinged jaw; it moved up and down like she was trying to say something, but any words she had planned subsequently failed to come out.
“I’m… going to go find some breakfast.” Twilight mumbled at last, now rather temped to beat her own head against the nearest wooden wall. “Spike and Ember? Eggs? Whe-NO! brain, don’t you even THINK about going there!”
Arguing was something Diamond Tiara did quite a lot of on a daily basis, and rather well at that, one might add, as unfortunate as the fact might’ve been.
According to most of the few ponies who knew her family well, there was no doubt it came from having a father like Filthy Rich, a money-capable stallion who could acquire assets and close investment deals so fast that the Wonderbolts would have problems keeping up with the transaction speed.
Either way, Sweetie Belle knew she couldn’t take much more of it.
“So you’re just going to believe what the blank flanks say?! Without any proof?!” Diamond Tiara screeched, pointing an accusing hoof in the vague direction of the Sweetie and her two closest friends.
“Diamond Tiara! What have I told you about saying that!”
“But I didn’t do anything! They’re just saying things because I have my cutie mark and they don’t!”
An example of Diamond Tiara logic at its finest.
Surprisingly, the day had actually started off on a good note for the white unicorn filly; a hot morning shower, a pile of pancakes for breakfast, and the knowledge that a certain dragoness, whom she liked to count amongst her friends, would be visiting her class had gotten Sweetie Belle off to a good start.
Unfortunately, that good start had hit a substantial snag when she’d arrived at school, and found Diamond Tiara being questioned by Cheerilee about the events at the Ponyville Library the night before.
Hence she now sat slumped in her seat, with her head resting flatly on the desk in defeat, as Cheerilee, Silver Spoon, and Diamond Tiara argued and traded accusations at the front of the classroom; everypony else had eventually either tuned out, gone about their own conversations with each other, or, in the case of a few colts, decided to start throwing scrunched balls of paper around the class room.
But due to Diamond’s constant throwing of accusations her way, just ‘tuning out’ was something Sweetie Bell found herself physically unable to do.
“Sometimes I really wish Diamond Tiara was more like my scooter.” Scootaloo huffed, rubbing her forehead like a migraine was building. “She could really do with an off switch.”
“You’re telling me.” Sweetie Bell mumbled in agreement.
“Yeah, ah’ could really do with some earplugs bout’ now,” Applebloom groaned, staring blankly at a nearby wall. “She’s worse than them darn Timberwolves when the zap apples ripen.”
All three crusaders groaned in unison; today was not going as planned.
And yet, as fate would have it, that was when a chorus of knocks sounded from the door.
For a moment there was a flurry of movement throughout the classroom, with everypony hastily jumping backing back to their seats, grabbing the stray objects that lay littered about the floor, and trying their best to look like any other well behaved class as best they could; all the while, their curiosity and attention lay affixed on the schoolhouse doorway.
Sweetie couldn’t help but smile in excitement, and by the looks of things, neither could Cheerilee.
“Diamond Tiara, would you please get that?”
Diamond Tiara appeared to mutter something under her breath, but otherwise complied with the request, the pink filly slowly trotting over, raising a well-shined hoof to the handle, and pulling the door inward; never once did she notice the three crusader’s sniggers of anticipation.
“Now remember Cynder, no going and losing your temper, no backchat or snarky comments, and definitely no snarling at anypony, even if they do annoy you,” Spyro chided in Cynder’s ear, the red and white building, which served as Ponyville’s one and only school house, now coming into view at the dirt roads end.
“Spyro, we’ve gone over this three times already, I get it.”
Her agitated words only earned her bonus chuckles from her companions.
“Cynder, calm down,” Spyro sighed happily, leaning across and giving her a gentle nuzzle. “This is practise; in a few minutes we’re going to be in a room full of curious colts and fillies, and like it or not, you can’t just snarl and snap to make them go away.”
“Like you happen to do with me,” Sparx grumbled from his place on Spyro’s horn.
“Not helping, Sparx,” Spyro growled.
“Not trying to.”
Cynder snorted and looked away, muttering something along of the lines of “watch me” under her breath as puffs of black fire escaped her nostrils.
Spyro just shook his head at her antics as they continued walking; quietly, he guessed that for Cynder the walk down the otherwise ordinary, tree-lined dirt road was quickly feeling more and more like the flight through the Belt of Fire had during the war’s last days. The main and surprising difference between the two journeys, however, was that a much more painful enemy for Cynder, then even Malefor perhaps, awaited himself and the dark dragoness at the path’s end.
A school house full of young ponies.
He did understand her unease at the prospect, and unfortunately rather too well at that; ever since she’d been freed of Malefor’s taint, and despite his full and constant support, Ignitus and the other’s backing, and even Cynder’s own best efforts to make amends for her many unintentional wrongs, just about everyone they’d come across had given the dragoness the cold shoulder before even getting to know her.
As such, over time, she’d come to build an emotional wall around herself and her heart, preferring solitude or the company of a bare few to the chance of being further shunned. In turn, that had led to a hiding of the gentleness and affection Spyro knew she had in her, and the gentleness and affection he’d come to love her for.
It was for that very reason, and, in turn, the hope that Cynder would finally be able to emerge from her shell of self-doubt and make some friends, that he’d come to accept Cheerilee’s offer in the first place.
“That’s why she needs to do this,” He quietly mussed to himself, his eyes wistfully tracing the rolling fields and meadows that surrounded them.
The Ponyville school house, as Cynder noted when the three made their way onto the actual school grounds, and she made eye-contact with the building for the first time, wasn’t exactly the most iconic structure the pony town had to offer; It was a simple, wooden, red and white building above all else, with pink hearts painted around the windows on the long sides no less, that sat in the middle of an otherwise unexciting small grass field, with its only real regaining feature being the small belltower that rose above the doorway arch.
Around said unexciting field lay a scattered number of swings and other assorted similar things, no doubt for the student’s physical exercise when they got restless, as well as a bordering white picket fence that roughly came up to her neck in height.
It wasn’t exactly an overindulgence of the eyes, but even then Cynder had to admit the setting was somewhat… quaint.
“Ugh, these ponies are rubbing off on me,” the dragoness smirked to herself, glad to have grass under her claws again; dragons didn’t have sensitive feet, but long walks on gravel and dirt took their tolls on even the hardest of talons.
Though within the matter of a few more seconds, everything came to a head, and Cynder’s talons became the least of her possible worries.
The two dragons’ morning journey through the quiet pony town, rather abruptly, came to its end as they climbed up a small cluster of steps, and found their front claws standing directly before the school house’s rustic red-painted wooden door… the last barrier that stood between them and whatever entities of evil that the day had in store.
Both Cynder and Spyro’s sharp hearing also happened to pick up some the words that resonated from the other side of the doorway, most of which, if they weren’t mistaken, gave the impression that Cheerilee was presently delivering an utter scolding to somepony.
Three guesses as to who that could possibly be.
“You really still want to do this?” Cynder asked, regarding him with a raised eyebrow.
“We’re already here; no real choice,” he replied flatly with a shrug, raising a claw and knocking a moment later.
As he finished knocking, two things, in a rather unfortunate sequence for everyone involved, happened in quick succession.
Firstly, the sound of Cheerilee’s voice abruptly stopped for a moment, before some kind of an instruction was given; neither dragon caught the exact details, but it was probably something along of the lines of ‘get the door’. This was followed by what was unquestionably an angry snort from the instructed pony, and then the clop of small hooves approaching the doorway from the other side.
Secondly, the door sharply swung open inward with a wooden creak, revealing the two dragons presence to the now jaw-dropped young ponies inside… and to the two dragons, or Cynder mostly to be precise, a sight that brought up every single ounce of bitterness, anger, frustration, annoyance, and seething rage that the events of the night prior had spawned.
An arrogant pink filly face, sporting a white-streaked purple mane, and topped with a tiara.
“YOU!”
“EEEEEP!”
Now, when one comes face-to-face with a creature sporting razor-sharp claws, lethal fangs, scales as tough as steel, and the ability to spew all matter of Tartarus from their maw, and also happens to hate your guts, the most logical thing that one should do… is run as fast as possible, as soon as possible, in the opposite direction; this sort of reaction is generally considered to be brought on by, and is a natural reaction to, extreme fear.
Diamond Tiara, however, had never really experienced such fear; she lived a protected life, with the likes of servants and maids at her hoof and call, and nopony ever daring to lay a hoof on her, lest they wished to be sued for everything they had by her family’s personal team of lawyers. As such, when the extreme bought of fear brought on by the roar of the utterly enraged dragon in front of her actually hit, her reaction was a little different than what one would assume…
THUMP!
… She fainted.
“Well… that was unexpected.” Cynder remarked with a small amount of surprise, eyeing the unconscious filly with a raised eyebrow, and apparently unaware that everypony else was watching her with their jaws almost meeting the floor.
Before any of the three could blink again, however, Cheerilee was over in a heartbeat, concern in her eyes as she hurriedly began checking the pompous pink filly’s breathing and heart rate... and began muttering something along the lines of "I knew that was a bad idea" under her breath.
The rest of her class, all the while, went about muttering and whispering amongst themselves about what they’d just witnessed; given her relationships with the rest of her classmates, very few of them were sympathetic towards to Diamond Tiara’s plight.
And, of course, the fact that there were two dragons standing in the doorway also came up.
“Who the hay are they?”
“W-what are d-dragon’s doing here in Ponyville?”
“That darker one’s… kinda pretty.”
“This is all your fault! I told you putting gum under Archer’s desk was a bad idea!”
Cynder just rolled her eyes.
“It looks like she’s just passed out from shock.” Cheerilee sighed eventually, ears flat as she rubbed her brow with a hoof. “She’ll be fine and awake fairly shortly… but still, it’s my duty as her teacher to take her to the hospital, just to be on the safe side more than anything.”
“You want me to do it?” Spyro asked tentatively. “I can probably fly her over there faster than you can carry her.”
Cheerilee just shook her head. “Thank you for offering, but my student, my responsibility,” She shrugged, using her neck to sling the filly over her back. “What you can probably do though is take care of the class while I’m out.”
Spyro and Sparx gave her curious looks, while Cynder immediately and visibly stiffened, kind as if someone or somepony had suddenly poured ice water down her back.
“Just for a little while.” Cheerilee continued, noticing their reactions. “Just… keep an eye on them, introduce yourselves maybe, and explain why you’re here today, that’s all I’m asking; I should be back in half an hour or so at the max.”
“Are…”
“Eh, we can do that.” Spyro jumped in.
If looks could kill, then the one Cynder gave her mate would’ve strangled, beaten, hung, drawn, quartered him, and then sent what was left of the purple dragon to the deepest bowels of Tartarus.
Still, she remained silent out of politeness, mentally deciding it better to tear his tail off when they weren’t around any colts or fillies… who apparently fainted from as little as being snarled at, one might add.
With nothing more than a final nod of thanks, Cheerilee was gone and out the door at a canter, the still unmoving mass of Diamond Tiara bobbing and jumping with each of the mare’s steps.
“I just want you to know that I utterly hate you right now.” Cynder hissed in Spyro’s ear, watching as the school teacher disappeared down the road…
… Leaving the three of them alone…
… With a class of still staring colts and fillies. Colts and fillies who, apart from the three crusaders, happened to look about ready to bail out the nearest window in terror.
Cynder growled and stared at the ceiling. “Why do I get the feeling this’ll be the longest day of my entire life.”
“Travelling in Zebrica: The do and do not, one thousand cultural rules?”
“Check!”
“The roaming Zoologists guide to Equestria?”
“Check!”
With a happy sigh of relief, and the scratch of an inked quill on parchment, Twilight ticked the last box of her booklist as Spike returned the tome to its rightful place… and then proceeded to slump against Ember’s pink side in mock panting.
The dragoness didn’t seem to mind in the slightest, and instead happily directed her efforts to re-straightening his green spines to her liking.
For the unicorn mare, and her two young dragon compatriots, cataloguing the library’s remaining books had been a rather long, agonizing, and at times tearful process… for Twilight anyway… to push through. Her pain though, the mare felt, was both warranted and understandable, given that the many books that lined the shelves, through the near countless hours spent reading, cleaning, and re-shelving them, had basically become part of both her and Spike’s lives, and thus losing said books was like losing memories in a strange kind of way.
Still, a task completed was a task completed, and that made Twilight smile all the same.
“Annnnd done,” She declared, giggling as the two dragons simultaneously collapsed into a heap of purple and pink scales on her floor. “Hehe, looks like you two could do with a nap; I’d imagine last night took a lot out of you both huh?”
“Not really tired for my part,” Spike shrugged. “Just kinda tender in a few places.”
He couldn’t help but rub his gut as he spoke; the monster of a fireball he’d coughed up the night before, much to his annoyance upon waking up and realizing, had left him with cramps about half as bad as when Discord had gotten free from being a royal lawn ornament, and he’d been used to relay every single friendship report Twilight had sent Princess Celestia.
He still hadn’t completely forgiven her for that.
“Yeah, I’m just hungry more than anything.” Ember put in, licking her lips and staring dreamily towards the kitchen. “Do we have any more of Pinkie’s pastries?”
Spike grinned and straightened up. “Nope, but that’s nothing a trip to Sugercube Corner can’t fix.”
As if to emphasize his point, a small cluster of bits seemed to suddenly materialize in his claws, courtesy of some apparent pouch or similar he kept between his scales.
Twilight couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow at her assistant’s action, the same which had produced the needed gem when they’d been trying to rescue Rarity from the diamond dogs, but she said nothing; some questions, as she’d learned from far too many experiences with Pinkie Pie to remember, weren’t worth answering.
“You want anything Twi?” Spike asked, abruptly snapping the mare out of her trance.
“Um… no thanks Spike… I probably ate enough junk food last night to last me a month or two.” Twilight smiled sheepishly, unable to stop herself glancing back at her flank. “Just take care while you’re out, and don’t be gone for too long.”
“Sheesh, you make it sound like something bad might happen in Ponyville.”
Twilight grinned and put a hoof to her chin. “Hmm, well, there’s been Nightmare Moon, parasprites, an Ursa Minor, Discord…”
“Ok! Ok! Point taken,” Spike winced, Ember giggling at his fluster as they made their way out the door.
Eventually, their voices, laughter, and footsteps faded away, and silence once more greeted Twilight like an old friend.
With a content sigh, she quickly took a comfortable seat on the rug, and summoned Starswirl’s book from its home on the shelves with her horn, her present mind-goal to uphold the promise she’d made to her four guests in finding them a way home.
Well… that was the plan anyway.
As strange as it was though, her home actually being a library and all, the sudden lack of noise felt… strangely cold and unnerving to Twilight; It was almost alien experience not to hear Ember’s laughter, or for the library to be devoid of Cynder’s snarky comments. It just didn’t feel… whole anymore.
Twilight sighed and shook her head; she figured it was to be somewhat expected, seeing as she’d recently been living closely with the three extra, rather talkative dragons of late.
However, that fact didn’t exactly make the silence any more bearable or better, if anything, it just made one unfortunate fact clear above all else.
“It’s going to be hard on everypony when they leave, Spike especially.”
Prior Note: As per the advice of one of my editors (Moon Leaves for Green Fire and Golden Flames) I’ve ‘tried’ to cut down on the flowery of my descriptions, just so the core isn’t lost amongst a bunch of unnecessary words.
Thanks goes to TheSecretBrony for editing, and everyone else who offered. Cheers!
Chapter 16: Confronting old Wounds
“You know, I seem to recall you saying that they’d be curious.” Cynder deadpanned, shifting her gaze between her mate and the class of statue-like, seemingly terrified colts and fillies before them.
All Spyro could do was groan and roll his eyes in reply to the statement, the purple dragon silently trying his best not to face-claw at her sarcasm. If Cynder had been born a pony of Equestria, then he knew exactly what her special talent would’ve been.
“And whose fault is that exactly?” He pondered rhetorically. “Ugh! Good or bad, you always did know how to make an impression, Cynder.”
The phrases ‘In over his head’ and ‘bitten off more than he could chew’ were presently coming to mind for Spyro, along with a hefty side-helping of rapidly growing uncertainty, just to make matters worse.
Sure, he’d done things no other dragon alive could even hope to do in the past; he’d been taught and mastered four different elements, defeated Cynder when she’d been corrupted, met and befriended the Chronicler, survived both being trapped in crystal for three years as well as a war, defeated the only other purple dragon in existence, and then virtually put his world back together after it had broken apart… to name a select few.
But convincing a room full of young ponies that he and Cynder weren’t going to eat them, what with Cynder having already lost her temper in the worst possible way, and after they’d all no doubt grown up with the idea that most dragons were nothing but beasts who made a habit of ‘gobbling you up’… yes, this was going to be a challenge, to say the absolute least.
“At least it’s a not an entirely hostile crowd,” He mentally chuckled, looking over at a certain set of still smiling filly faces. Three fillies wasn’t much to have on side, but it was something at least, and it did give him a little confidence that he wasn’t fighting for a totally lost cause. “Well, this’ll certainly be interesting.”
In silence, the dragon took the remaining moment he had to look over each member of the class individually, silently trying to gauge the rough chances of them attempting to bolt for the nearest window when he opened his mouth, presumably yelling and screaming their lungs out.
Spyro took a few small steps backwards in response, widening the gap between him and doorway, and thus from the path of any potential stampede.
He sighed once again before starting. “Alright, before we go any further, I’d like to make it perfectly clear to every… pony here, that this isn’t some kind of punishment from Cheerilee.” He began gently, noticing that there were a few, albeit nervous, sighs of relief from a few spots around the room. “Good. Now, for those of you who haven’t met or heard of us before, which I’m guessing is most of you, I’m Spyro, and this is Cynder and Sparx. As is pretty obvious, yes, we’re dragons and dragonfly respectively, and we’ve been invited by your teacher to come and talk to you all… so, uh, any questions so far?”
Well… that hadn’t been so hard.
Somewhat to his surprise, a sandy coloured hoof quickly went up from the back row. “Yes Applebloom?”
“How come Ember ain’t here with the three of ya?” She asked, head tilted with her oversized red bow following suite. Spyro couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight, and Cynder seemed to find it amusing as well.
“She’s spending the day helping Twilight and Spike clean up after last night,” he answered, a slight grin still across his scaled maw. “And between you and me, I don’t think she’d be willing to go anywhere without him anyway.”
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle proceeded to burst into their own little round of sniggers and giggles. Scootaloo, on the other claw, voiced her thoughts by sticking her tongue forward and making a gagging sound. The rest of the pony class just looked between the two dragons and each other, obviously confusion at exactly who this ‘Ember’ was.
“Ember’s another dragon who’s in Ponyville with us,” Cynder explained to the rest of class, flexing her tail before sitting back on her hind legs. “You’ll all probably see her around town eventually, heh, she’s kind of hard to miss. Just a forewarning though, she can be annoying as anything at times; I’d avoid her where possible.”
Spyro gave her an unimpressed look, to which Cynder just smirked in reply.
He just groaned and shook his head; at least she was being social. “Moving on; who was next?”
Once again, and before anyone else even had a chance she was that fast, another one of the three crusader’s hoofs went up.
“Can you show us you’re fighting attacks?” Scootaloo asked, what was very near a maniacal grin on her face. “I really want to see those again! Especially that shadow-claw move you did last night, Cynder; that was awesome!”
Once again, Spyro couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement; was this filly somehow related to Rainbow Dash?
The dark dragoness smiled but shook her head. “Hehe, sorry Scoots, but I’d rather not have your teacher remove my tail and nail it over her desk. Some other time, when we’re somewhere outside maybe.”
“You? Being responsible? Who are you, and what have you done with Cynder?” Spyro teased as Scootaloo huffed in apparent disappointment; Cynder just stuck her tongue out at him this time.
“I’m not completely reckless.” She said indignantly, her tail flicking and snout in the air as a show of mock insult.
Spyro sniggered and looked away. “Of course you’re not. Anyway, who was next?”
There were a few moments of silence after she’d finished, accompanied by a slightly uncomforting lack of movement from the class, the words hanging in the air as both he and Cynder just stood and waited. The dragon half expected Sweetie Belle to ask a question, but her hoof seemed content to remain firmly on her desk.
Eventually, a lone hoof, belonging to a charcoal maned, grey pegasus colt, shakily rose from the middle of the room.
“Yes… um?”
“R-Rumble,” the small pegasus squeaked out, shrinking in his seat when his classmate’s attention, as well as that of both dragons, settled on him. “C-can I just ask what you’re doing here?”
“Two words, kid; your teacher.” Sparx yawned from atop Spyro’s horn, a few ponies jolting upright as his input.
Spyro just rolled his eyes at the dragonfly’s snark. “Sure. Well, it was Cheerilee’s idea to be honest. See, since you ponies don’t know a lot about dragons, and we don’t know a lot about you ponies, your teacher thought that it would be a good idea for you to learn about dragons through us, and vice-versa.”
“That’s his side of the story, anyway,” Cynder added with a chuckle of her own. “I came partly to have a little talk with Diamond Tiara… well, I had intended to, and partly because I promised my three ever persistent shadows that I’d be here.”
The last few words also came out with a sort of amused snort, prompting the three fillies in question to giggle quietly behind their respective hooves; the rest of the class, bar a now somewhat nervous looking Silver Spoon, just exchanged confused looks yet again.
Rumble, however, just shook his head at the responses. “T-that’s good… but what are you doing here in Ponyville?” the quivering pony asked. “My brother said you got into a fight with the royal guard.”
As unfortunate as it was, that particular question, and the statement made thereafter, managed to get everypony’s sole and undivided attention in an instant… and if their suddenly paling expressions and murmurings were anything to go by, not in a good way either.
The fragile calm in the room held firm for a moment, and seemed to have a slim chance of lasting, before being shattered like an emerald caught in an adult dragon’s jaws.
In short, Rumble quickly set off what could be best described as a verbal landslide.
As if triggered by the nature of Rumble’s innocent enough question, and united all at once by both their primeval and socially ingrained fears of dragons, nearly every colt and filly in the room descended into a state of panic, their voices only gaining volume with each passing second. Each proceeded to frantically start throwing various theories and accusations to their neighbours, most centred on how the two dragons would somehow bring about Ponyville’s demise and ruin.
What was more, and as young minds had a habit of doing, each fearful idea they came up with seemed to be even less logical than the last one; everything ranging from ‘forefront for a dragon invasion’ to ‘spies hired by the FlimFlam brothers’… whoever they were, and even things like ‘evil minions working for Discord’ were being thrown around the room.
He mightn’t have known her particularly well, but Spyro would’ve confidently bet his horns that even Pinkie Pie would’ve been face-hoofing at some of them. These ponies were worse than Volteer.
“Just when you think things are under control, huh?” Spyro groaned with a shake of his head… only to receive no reply. “Cynder?”
Turning his head, the purple dragon half expected to see his mate rubbing her head in frustration, or perhaps baring her fangs in a state of annoyance; what he saw was far worse.
Cynder was basically trembling on the spot, her crimson wings twitching, nostrils flaring, tail stiff as a tree root, and jaw locked tight in a agitated snarl, resulting in her upper ivory fangs jutting down from all to see.
Her green eyes, however, were misty with unformed tears.
If he was asked, Spyro would’ve honestly said that Cynder was perhaps the stubbornest, most hard-headed dragon he’d ever met and ever would meet, but these were also the traits he loved her so dearly for. It was because of her never-give-up attitude, and her ability to disregard what she was told, or what trouble might await them, that they’d managed to defeat Malefor and save their world in the first place.
If she had a weakness, if she was afraid, or if she knew that the odds were stacked against them, she made every effort to never let it show. Instead, Cynder had always chosen to wear a stern, prideful, and brave expression wherever they journeyed, no matter what challenges came before the two of them.
But that didn’t mean that Cynder didn’t have a vulnerable side. A side that displayed the fear, sadness, hurt, and regret that she always carried with her for all the world to see when it showed itself. It was a side he’d seen only a few, rare times in their many travels and journeys together, but all those times’ shared one common theme in particular.
It was when mistrust was being directed at her, just as it was now.
It mightn’t have been her past actions under Malefor being called into question, as was the usual spark to the fire… but mistrust was still mistrust all the same, and the same pain that came with it was still there in her shimmering green eyes, as clear and obvious as daylight. One way or another, with each word the colts and fillies said, another thorn was being unintentionally driven between Cynder’s scales.
Before he could do or say anything to reassure her, however, a voice rose above the others, and it was at that point that Cynder appeared to finally snap.
“Y-you’re not going to take our things… are you?” a cyan coated filly with a gold mane spoke up, speaking as she pulled the various pencils and odds on her desk a little closer.
“Ugh! Glimmer!” Sweetie Belle started.
“What?! Why would we want to do something like that?!”
Spyro couldn’t help but cringe, and silently grind his teeth, at the pure amount of anger and venom that Cynder’s snarled words carried with them, the accompanying scratching sound revealing that the fuming dragoness had just gone and clawed notches into the classroom floor.
The young ponies in the room reacted about as well as anyone could’ve been expected to, in the event of finding themselves being snarled at by an angry dragon. Whether it was out of fear of Cynder, fear of dragons, or just fear of loud noises in general was up for debate, but they were definitely afraid either way.
Within the span of a moment the entire class had fallen into absolute silence. Each pony now looked just as terrified as the pony next to them, with their ears back, heads lowered, and front hooves pulled protectively against their chests as Cynder’s eyes burned into them.
In other words, thanks to Cynder’s spat, most of them once again looked ready to try and flee the room at a moment’s notice.
“But… this might be the chance I need to get through to her.”
“Nice going venom breath, as usual,” Sparx muttered.
“Sparx, now really isn’t the time,” Spyro growled, turning around to face a now fang-baring Cynder.
With the combination of flaring nostrils and twitching wings, he couldn’t honestly tell if she was more angered or distressed at the abrupt and unsavoury turn of events. And things seemed to have had been going so well.
If there was one emotion that was definite and obvious, it was how disheartened Cynder looked. He didn’t need to ask her about that particular feeling, he’d seen her in such a state more times than he’d like to remember; it was the first look that crossed her face when her past became the centre of a standoff, with what she’d done under Malefor being brutally used against her.
“I just hope this works,” He thought, allowing a scowl to cross his face. “Now, that didn’t go down so well, did it?”
The glare she gave him could’ve made Terrador tremble. “Don’t you even think about going there.” She hissed indignantly, but a wavering crack still carried through in her voice.
Just like all the other times.
“Oh, I am,” Was his equally growled reply. “Cynder, I’m not going to be nice and ask if you’re alright this time. You’ve just gone and made an entire class of colts and fillies even more terrified of you then they were to begin with. Now everyone here sees you just like they do back in Avalar.”
He was sure a colt or two murmured the word ‘Avalar’ in a questioning tone, but given the nature of the situation, they kept their curiosity as quiet as possible.
The words themselves made his stomach churn as they came out, but it was the look of pure, emotional agony that crossed Cynder’s face that truly brought the taste of bile to Spyro’s tongue. It was only then made worse when the dragoness turned away from him in shame, her already bared fangs now clenched and grinding in ever growing frustration at the hole she’d dug herself into.
Despite how painful the fact was, they both knew what he’d said was true.
But, as Spyro had learned through his own experiences, namely the loss of the dragon he’d once called his father-figure, the nature of some wounds meant they had to be reopened in order to heal properly.
Something he’d been ignoring with Cynder for far, far too long.
“But this is why I agreed to all of this in the first place,” He continued after a moment, giving her a gentle nuzzle along the cheek. “Now I want you to listen to me. Remember how Chief Prowlus acted when we first met him?”
Cynder growled at the cheetah’s name, the sound causing the otherwise perfectly silent class of ponies to flinch. “How could I forget? He did chain us both to a pole.” she seethed.
“Well then, if you do, you’ll also remember how he didn’t trust you because of what you’d done in the past when we first met, and also how that all changed when we rescued Meadow for him.”
Cynder just snorted at first. Though, after a long moment spent in silence, and as the words seemed to at last sink in for the dragoness, she eventually turned back and faced him.
She was obviously still stuck somewhere between being frustrated and annoyed, her pained expression made that more than clear, but it did seem that some small part of her anger had died away.
“What are you trying to get at?” She asked, the dragoness keeping her voice tight and controlled.
Spyro sighed and went on. “I want you to take a look at how you’re acting right now, and how you’ve acted in every situation like this we’ve ever faced. Notice something similar? Like how you keep letting yourself get wound up like this because of what someone says?”
“Can you really blame me?” Cynder snapped a claw’s width from his face, puffs of black smoke drifting from her flaring nostrils; the class flinched again. “How do you think it makes me feel, huh? Being seen as… as something I’m not anymore.”
“You do realize that there isn’t a pony in this room who knows about that, right?”
Once again, Spyro ignored his brother. “You can’t expect time to do all the healing for you, Cynder, or expect that everyone’s thoughts on you will just change over time. You have to do something about these things as well. Chief Prowlus’s opinion of you only changed because you showed him who you really were, remember?”
“What? That I was capable of dealing with a few pests?”
“No. You showed him that you weren’t the dragon he thought you were, who everyone thought you were… and right now that’s exactly what you need to show these ponies.”
A violet eyebrow arched in mild confusion.
“That you’re not something out of their nightmares!” Spyro grumbled, the dragon now very close to face-clawing. “Cynder, these ponies are just like Chief Prowlus was; the only reason they don’t trust you is because you haven’t given them a reason too yet.”
Cynder let another growl escape her throat at her mate’s mild insult, but her eyes couldn’t help but direct themselves to the class at his words, all of whom were looking about as unsure as she felt… but not particularly frightened per say anymore. Just as Spyro had said they were.
All except for a certain three fillies. All of whom, despite how she’d reacted to their classmates thus far, were still giving her their best smiles of support.
She couldn’t help but find their unwavering faith in her both unusual and surprising, to say the least; after all, all she’d gone and done was put Diamond Tiara in her place when the chance arose, and then offered the three of them a little kindness afterwards.
Was that really all it had taken?
“Cynder, this is the entire reason I agreed to Cheerilee’s offer; I wanted you to learn how to open up to others,” Spyro went on, his voice calm once more. “I know this isn’t easy, especially not after all we’ve been put through, what you’ve been put through… but you need to learn to let your guard down and reach out to them.”
Gazing over those smiling faces, and with Spyro’s words still ringing in her ears, some long solid wall seemed to buckle, crack, and begin to collapse in Cynder’s mind, the emotions and feelings they’d held freeing themselves in a rush.
She hated what Spyro was saying, almost loathed it even… but his words did carry an unquestionable truth.
Ever since the day she’d at last been freed from Malefor’s dark taint, she’d allowed what he had forced her to do whilst under his control, and what others thought and said about those actions, to hurt her without even trying to fight back. The mistrust, the cold remarks about her past, all of it… and she’d stood there and took it as it was flung in her face, time and time again.
It was undeniable that over time she’d gone and allowed those wounds to fester, corrupting and controlling her in just the same was as Malefor had, and denying her the chance to know feelings like compassion and friendship. The likes of which the three smiling fillies had gifted her with without any hesitation.
Cynder’s lips parted into a snarl as something like rage began to rise inside her, the pieces at last falling to place. For what felt like forever she’d been letting every word said about what she’d done drive her further and further into a state of solitude and insecurity, forcing her into curling up into a tighter and tighter ball.
And frankly, she was over it.
Somewhere deep in her mind, a long dormant, barely hot ember flickered to life as a small tongue of flame, then rapidly grew a roaring fire, and finally erupted into an absolute inferno.
“Spyro’s right. Shining Armor was right. I’ve been living with this all way, way too long,” She hissed, the words filling every fibre of her being. “I’m not going to let that… that monster rule my life anymore!”
She allowed the words to sink in as she thought them, burning up all the doubt that had swelled to the surface, and leaving in its wake only feelings of confidence and certainty. If she could survive being corrupted by Malefor twice, she could do this.
“All I need to do is show them who I really am.”
With those words now firmly in mind, and her will set like hardened mortar, Cynder turned back to the cyan and gold filly.
The pony, apparently named Glimmer, shrunk a little under her gaze… but her ears and eyes still betrayed a slight sense of curiosity through her fear; she’d no doubt heard most, if not all, of what was said between the two dragons, although how she would react was anyone’s guess.
“I’m… I’m sorry I acted how I did,” the violet dragoness offered gently, lowering her head they were eye to eye, and only a claw’s width apart. “You were only being cautious, and I let myself get wound up when I shouldn’t have, so it was wrong of me to snap at you like that.”
A long moment past as both the dragoness and the class held their breaths, before, to Cynder’s silent joy and relief, the filly nodded, and offered something of a small smile in return. To anyone else it would’ve seemed like only a small action, a simple sign of acknowledgment perhaps; but to Cynder, it felt like she’d just been given something that she’d been longing for her entire life.
Acceptance.
At the back of her mind, she could almost imagine Malefor thrashing and roaring in absolute rage at her small victory, and it was like music to her ears.
“I’m sorry too, I… I shouldn’t have been said a mean thing like that,” She smiled. “But… um, what did Spyro mean when he was talking about all the other times? Were you being bullied for something you did?”
A momentary, low growl rippled from Cynder’s throat as her eyes found the wooden floor. “That’s… a long story that I’d much rather keep to myself. I’ll be honest with you and say yes, for a very long time I’ve been… bullied… for something I did, something that I had no control over,” her green eyes closed as she let out a shaky breath. “But I’m done with all that now. I’m not going to let what others think or say about it hurt me anymore. I’m… I’m better than that now, and I’ll keeping doing all that I can to make amends for what I did, so everyone knows that.”
It wasn’t a very significant action, but like Glimmer’s smile, what happened next would stay with Cynder for a very, very long time.
At first she felt something soft and furry wrap itself around her right foreleg, and upon opening her eyes found that the gold and cyan filly had not only abandoned her seat, but happily embraced the dragoness as best she could. The size difference did make it a little unconventional, but with Glimmer’s cyan face smiling up at her, the message of affection and caring was by no means lost on Cynder.
Sweetie Belle was the next to join in, followed shortly after by Scootaloo and Applebloom, the three fillies walking up and embracing their scaly friend around her sides and middle, actions in silent demonstration of their own reassurance and care. She’d been there for Sweetie Belle, and for them all through Diamond Tiara’s extension, and thus they appeared more than willing to return the favour.
Before she knew it, more and more colts and fillies were joining the group hug until none remained left out, even Silver Spoon and Rumble hesitantly joined in after a few moments. All of them seeming to have heard the dragoness’s plight, and in turn, after seeing perhaps that their fears were unfounded, and learning what Cynder was truly like underneath her exterior, had decided to offer their own support in the best way they could.
Soon, Cynder stood with a mass of young ponies surrounding her, sharing their affectionate embrace, and silently wondering why she’d not learnt her lesson sooner.
Spyro just smiled as he watched the scene unfold. “Heh, now that went a whole lot better than I expected it would.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
“You know, I absolutely love Sugarcube Corner food and all, but I’ll never get used to how this place looks,” Spike said with an amused snigger, the doors to the giant, mock-gingerbread confectionary now coming into view.
Ember just giggled and rolled her blue eyes. “Says the dragon who lives in a tree,” She replied happily, offering him a quick but affectionate nuzzle. “But I know what you mean. I’m pretty sure you couldn’t build something like this in Dragon Village, it’d barely be there five minutes before someone would try and eat it.”
The two dragons shared a laugh, much to the curiosity of a few of passing ponies.
The town of Ponyville was presently described best as being its usual, quiet Thursday midday self, with many of the town’s residents able to be found at their respective places of work, and thus only a select few could be seen out and about.
Business was likewise subdued under the late morning sun. The flower triplets went about delicately arranging their bouquets as the occasional buyer walked past, Applejack and Carrot Top casually battled it out for fresh produce sales with the few browsing customers, and Bon Bon and Lyra were to be found chatting away on a shaded bench, with Bon Bon’s sweet stand located a few meters away should a customer need her.
Spike sighed happily all the same; after a night spent primarily partying, fighting, and then cleaning up, a quiet walk through Ponyville, with Ember at his side no less, was so far proving to be a dream come true…
“Oh! Why hello there Spikey-Wikey!”
… Which had just become a nightmare.
Sharply turning his head at the call of his name, Spike’s eyes were met by the sight of a smiling Rarity gracefully trotting towards them from the down the street, and a second later he inhaled sharply.
Her elegant indigo mane was bouncing up and down with each refined step she took, while her equally beautiful white coat glistened like polished marble in the sunlight, both betraying the mare’s constant lust for perfection in her looks that he knew she had. To say she was gorgeous would’ve been an understatement worthy of a dozen face-hoofs, perhaps more.
Any stallion, no matter if they previously met Rarity or not, and single or not, probably would’ve been trying to pick up their jaws as she walked by.
For Spike though, the sudden appearance of the alabaster unicorn brought only one string of words to mind
“Ugh! Really? You’re out and about now of all times?”
As his brain finally broke from its prior Ember-bliss though, Spike couldn’t help but blink and furrow his brows at the thought. Hearing that very same voice or seeing that very same mare, a mere few days earlier, would’ve seen his pupils become love hearts… and yet now instead it was just causing an uneasy feeling to blossom in his stomach, and prompting his brain to spout sour words for no reason.
Besides, she was still his friend, and a very good one at that; thinking something like that had been both blatantly uncalled for and unkind.
Shaking his head, he smiled and waved as she came over. “Good morning Rarity, are you going out to lunch?”
The white mare giggled and shook her head. “Morning to you too Spike, and no, just a bit of shopping today,” she replied, nodding to the empty saddlebags hanging at her sides. “I fear our last dress line used up more of my materials than I’d first thought.”
Spike recoiled a little. “Our line?”
“But of course! Why, with the amount of time you sacrificed helping me, it’d be utterly wrong of me to claim all the credit for their success…”
The drake nodded in some matter of understanding, although a slight sense of confusion still remained; he’d helped Rarity out on a number of dress lines in his quest to woo her, and had done everything from act as a living pincushion to lead a crusade against a pack of diamond dogs… and yet it was only now that she chose to acknowledge his efforts?
“…but I digress. Ehem, so tell me then, what brings you and Ember out at this time of day?”
“The library was a bit short on food, so Spike decided to buy lunch for us,” Ember answered happily, the pink dragoness gifting Spike with another fond nuzzle on the neck.
Perhaps it was all in his head, but Spike could’ve sworn Rarity’s joyous expression gave way to a tiny, split second scowl as Ember’s snout touched his scales, before her smile seemed to widen… no, that was a silly thing to think.
“Oh Spike! That sounds delightful!” Rarity smiled, reaching forward and pinching one of his purple scaled cheeks. “My Spikey-Wikey; ever the lady’s gentledrake, as always.”
Well… that was still the same.
As if the sudden invasion of his personal space wasn’t enough, Ember snorted in an apparent effort to control herself, before bursting into a full blown round of laughter at his expense, prompting Spike’s already stretched and sore cheeks to flame crimson.
Thankfully though, Rarity did let go after only a moment. “Hmhm, you truly are adorable when you’re embarrassed Spike,” She smirked, a hoof politely over her own muzzle as she giggled. “I’ll tell you what, how about you go and grab you and Ember a bite, and we girls can finish our chat from last night… my sincerest apologies for ‘fleeing the stage’, as it were, Ember, but I try to avoid being anywhere near fights where possible.”
“Sure!” the pink dragoness smiled, before noticing Spike’s sudden change to a slightly apprehensive expression. “I’ll be fine Spike, promise. I’m a big girl.”
She couldn’t help but snigger as he exhaled and rolled his eyes, the purple and green drake giving her a somewhat amused look, before turning and departing for Sugarcube Corner’s doorway, Ember’s eyes following him until he disappeared inside the establishment.
Leaving her and Rarity alone in his wake.
“He truly is something else, isn’t he?” Rarity asked with what was best described as a refined chuckle, her voice snapping Ember out of her prior stupor.
The dragoness simply nodded, her sapphire eyes still lingering on the bakery’s doorway. “Yeah; he’s a lot nicer than most of the males our age are… and I guess I have ponies like you and Twilight to thank for that.”
“We all try darling, but its Twilight far more than the rest of us that you should be thanking,” the mare replied. “Tell me though, if I may pry a little, what exactly are your intentions with him?”
Ember blinked and broke her stare. “Intentions?”
“In other words, where do you see yourself going with him? Do you intend to try and convince him to go back to your world with you? Do want to leave your family and stay here with him? That sort of thing.”
The question caught Ember off guard. Not because it was a rude question, but just because she would’ve expected a question like that to come from someone akin to her mother.
“Then again, these ponies are who Spike calls family.”
She put a pink claw to her chin. “I know we’re only young right now… but I like to think that I can see a future of some kind with Spike, so I’ll do everything I can to stay with him,” the dragoness replied, her mind trying to correlate her thoughts into words. “It’s kind of funny really, for a long time I had a huge crush on another dragon, and I’d go on and on about how we’d get married when we were older… but thinking about it now, I think back then I was just in love with the idea of having a mate, not who my mate was.”
“And you’re sure you love Spike?”
“I’ll be honest and say that I’m still not entirely sure. I know for sure that he’s virtually one of a kind, a gentle, caring male who’d always want me to be happy, and who’d do anything for his family… he’s the kind of male dragonesses like me dream about, but that doesn’t necessarily make him ‘the one’ for me. I really, really like and care about him, of that I’m certain… but I think I’ll need to know him a bit longer before I can say I truly love him.
It was perhaps the strangest thing to have ever come from her fire-breathing maw, even Ember would honestly admit that, and she’d said more than her fair share of odd words over her relatively short life time… but these ones felt right, and they were meant with her whole heart behind them, each and every one.
After a long moment of silence, Rarity finally nodded. “Fair enough, I guess,” the unicorn said flatly, lifting and inspecting one of her front hooves. “Although I’m guessing that you’d be wary of trying to build a hoard together then?”
That got Ember’s attention. “What do you mean by that?”
The pearly hoof remained mid-air, but Rarity’s attention suddenly left it, and drifted onto her, both of her elegant eyebrows rising towards her horn as if in a show if disbelief.
“You mean he hasn’t told you about… well, it?”
Ember tilted her head, the pink dragoness unsure of what to think of the question, or what ‘it’ could possibly be referring to. “Told me what exactly?” she asked tentatively.
The dragoness wasn’t sure what to expect, and both her curiosity and unease only grew when Rarity took a quick look in either direction, before leaning inwards. “I’d much rather you not tell Spike it was I who told you this, but… well, as his potential partner, I guess you should know that… Spike almost destroyed Ponyville not that long ago.”
Ember stiffened like a statue, and her jaw tightened a second later; was this some kind of joke to play with her emotions? If it was, then it wasn’t funny. At all.
“Not intentionally, mind you.” Rarity went on quickly. “But… well, the best way I can put it is that his hoarding instincts suddenly kicked in on his birthday… and he lost control of them. If that wasn’t bad enough, he just started growing bigger and bigger with everything he hoarded, and the next thing we all knew he was the size of small moun…”
“Stop.”
Judging by her sudden change in facial expression, Ember figured Rarity hadn’t been expecting her to speak, or to put one of her claws over her muzzle for that matter.
“If this is true, then I understand why you think it’s something that I should know,” Ember said simply, allowing her claw to return to the ground. “But it’s Spike’s story to tell me, and only when he’s ready to. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of; I know a lot of the things that Cynder’s done in the past that she’s not proud of, but those are Cynder’s stories to tell to those who she chooses, not mine, and I think Spike deserves that same respect.”
Rarity only nodded, seeming a little shaken.
In truth though, it was another thing entirely, that Rarity honestly hadn’t expected in the slightest, that had caused her to go into a state of fluster; Ember’s own expression.
She hadn’t known the dragoness more than a day, if even that, but it was a simple task to tell that she was a joyful and bubbly soul inside and out, one that could be pedestalled with Pinkie Pie when it came to happiness and Fluttershy in kindness.
If it was anyone other than Spike caught between them, she would’ve been appalled at herself for what she herself was trying to do.
But the stern face of the dragoness before her spoke volumes of something else besides happiness and kindness entirely. Something solid, powerful, and unwavering… and something you truly did not want to be on the wrong end of when it came to the surface, the present state of a known few royal guards attesting to such. It was if Ember’s expression provided a tiny glimpse through the drawn curtain of her bubbliness, a tiny glimpse of just what Ember, and Rarity daresay what all dragons were truly capable of.
It was almost like the titanic incarnation of greed that slumbered inside of Spike; it was a side of her that spent most its time sleeping perhaps, but it was still very much there, and it was not something you wanted woken up.
“I… I understand,” was all Rarity could murmur out, her normally confident voice wavering ever so slightly. She was a full grown and capable mare, and yet she found herself scared witless of a dragoness half her age! And she was bright pink for Celestia’s sake!
Thankfully, it was about then that the door of Sugarcube corner loudly swung open as Spike emerged from its depths, a coloured box of mystery treats balancing on one of his claws. Rarity let out a silent sigh of relief.
“Well, I think that’s my cue to be off,” she smiled, flicking her gaze between the two dragons. “Do enjoy your day, darling.”
The pink dragoness barely had time to nod in acknowledgement before the Rarity was gone, the white mare heading off down the street at a brisk pace, and not giving so much as a glance back before disappearing from sight.
Ember just watched her go in a state of mild confusion, her head tilted and her tail flicking from side to side at the unicorn’s behaviour.
“I hope I didn’t scare her.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………
“So, I was wondering… do dragons actually have hoards of things?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Because wouldn’t that mean dragons would be trying to take stuff from other dragon’s hoards all the time?”
Cynder’s raised an eyebrow at the swirl maned filly, who was currently sitting on her tail, and occasionally giving the end a playful bat with her hoof as it moved as it snaked about the floor. “Well, sure we do, but why would you think that we’d want to take others things?”
“Well, uh, because dragons… collect things for their hoards, right?”
Cynder gave her a polite flat look, to which Sweetie Belle replied by blushing and continuing with her dragon-tail slaying; did these ponies actually know next to nothing about dragons?
“Hmhm, that all kind of depends on your definition of a hoard,” Spyro offered with a chuckle.
Cynder glanced over her shoulder to find him grinning as, much to his chagrin, a few of the more curious pegasus colts and fillies went about inspecting his wings, the orange ball of fur known as Scootaloo included among them; ugh, males.
There was no doubt in her mind that Cheerilee wouldn’t have approved of their present choice of seating, but following Cynder’s ‘group hug’ experience, both dragon’s had decided that the floor at the front of the class was a much more comfortable, and less formal place to converse on the subject of dragons. After all, dragons never used desks for mentoring to begin with.
Hence as to why Cynder, as well as the annoying purple dragon she liked to call her mate, were currently finding themselves being used partly as an attraction, and due to the warm and smooth scales that came with being a dragon, partly as a group seat.
“Yes, all dragons have hoarding tendencies, but they don’t really start kicking in until you’re older… and the term ‘hoard’ doesn’t always translate to a big collection of gold, either, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Wait… so dragons don’t always hoard treasure?” another, dark blue filly, Archer she believed, asked, this one presently admiring one of her silver bracelets.
Cynder sighed and shook her head. “Some dragons do, but really it’s to each their own. And we definitely don’t make a habit of taking other’s things for our hoards… just out of curiosity, where’d you ponies get that crazy idea from anyway?”
No proper answer came, but a few ponies did shudder at the question, and Cynder was sure she heard Spike’s name muttered once or twice. She made a mental note to query him later on the subject.
“Cynder’s right. A hoard can be a collection of gold or gems, but not all dragons want that sort of hoard,” Spyro offered. “A hoard is simply something that a dragon cherishes and protects, but that something isn’t always… material. Our friend Ember’s mother’s ‘hoard’ was made up of the unhatched eggs of other dragons, which she cared for and protected until they eventually hatched.”
Much to both of their surprise, a few of the fillies let out quiet giggles or adoring sighs… while somewhat less to their surprise, most of the colts just stuck their tongues out and made gagging noises.
“Heh, speaking of which, kinda feel sorry for Spike; if he and Ember stay together, poor guy’s gonna have Shoutfire as a mother-in-law.”
“I’d very much like to see you say something like that to Ember’s face,” Cynder smirked at the dragonfly as he flew around overhead. “Or who knows; if you decide to keep talking, I might just tell her myself.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Cynder’s grin only widened further. “Try me.”
Sparx wisely shut his mouth then and there, the dragonfly’s fluster prompting a few shy giggles and laughs from the class, and even a small snigger from Silver Spoon of all ponies, who’d since managed to involve herself in the fun… well, a little at least. Small steps, but steps none the less. Cynder had a quiet suspicion that Diamond Tiara was more like Malefor in regard to her ‘friend’.
He muttered a few quiet words, most of which best not heard by under aged ears, and shot the class his best annoyed glare. The laughter continued regardless.
The initial tension of the day, and the aftermath of Cynder’s snap, were now seemingly all but forgotten.
“So, moving on from all that, any other questions?” Spyro asked between his own chuckles.
“What’re your hoards like then?” the brown speckled white colt, who they’d come to know as Pipsqueak, spoke up. “Lots of gold and treasure? A mountain of jewels?”
The two dragon’s exchanged an amused glance. “We’re still too young to have hoards of our own.” Spyro shrugged and answered. “In all honesty, I’d think that we’re not that much older than most of you are. We’re definitely not hatchlings, but we’re not adults either.”
“So then… what are you doing in Ponyville on your own?” Rumble looked up and asked; he was initially one of the more apprehensive ones about of getting up close and personal, but had since taken a slight liking to Spyro’s warm scales.
“Trust me, that’s a long and complicated story that even I can’t wrap my head around.” Cynder grinned with a roll of her green eyes. “Long story short; we’re just here until we can figure out a way to get home. No evil intentions whatsoever. Next?”
“How did you and Spyro end up as special somedragons?”
As her brain finally registered what her ears were telling her she’d just heard, Cynder, unintentionally of course, suddenly found herself vocalising both her own and Spyro’s thoughts on the question in a single word.
“Bwah?!”
Sweetie Belle blushed and rubbed the back of her neck with hoof, while the other continued to bat at Cynder’s silver-barbed tail. The rest of the class just went about trying their hardest not to laugh at the dark dragoness’s chicken impression.
“What? I’m curious.”
“Uh, well… That story’s a little complicated.” Cynder blundered out, suddenly feeling the need to hide her burning face; annoyance was an emotion she was far more than a little accustomed to, but embarrassment was something kind of new to her. “How are you so evil but able to look so innocent?”
“Complicated?” Sparx huffed flatly, abandoning his prior post and circling Spyro’s head. “Well sure it is, if your definition of ‘complicated’ happens to involve a prophecy, an army of apes, a ridiculously long journey, dragon guardians, a tribe of cheetahs, a dragon known as the Dark Master, three years spent in a crystal prison, a war, the very near destruction of a world, and running commentary by yours truly.”
Needless to say, Sparx’s words set every set of pony eyes in the room ablaze with a mixture of curiosity and excitement… yeah; he’d gone and done it on purpose.
“Sparx, I just want you to know that I will be telling Ember about your little joke earlier.”
“Eh, still worth it,” The dragonfly shrugged, casually returning to Spyro’s horn with a grin on his face. Now it was Cynder’s turn to mutter a few choice words under her breath.
She’d been putting up with him for well over three years now, and that dragonfly was still the world’s biggest pain in the tail, claws down.
She turned to her mate. “What do you think? Should we tell them about… well, us?”
Spyro shrugged at the question. “Honestly, I think so. Twilight and her friends already know, as do your three,” he smirked as she gave him a flat look. Her three? “And they’re all going to find out eventually anyway. Better we tell them now and get it across clearly.”
“Alright… just… leave what I did out of it, ok? I’m still not ready for that to come out yet.”
Spyro simply nodded in understanding, before allowing a long sigh to escape his snout as he faced the mass of fidgeting colts and fillies; right back at the beginning, it seemed.
“I take it you’re all interest now, huh?” the entire room erupted with simultaneous nods and cries of ‘Yes!’ “Well, alright, if you really want to know… but be aware that this’ll take a while.”
“Ugh! This makes no sense!” Twilight huffed in frustration, stamping a hoof into the wooden floor. The towers of books and parchment around her quivered and shook for a moment, but remained standing.
Twilight glared at the book that lay before her. It just didn’t make any sense. Star Swirl the Bearded was heralded as one of the brightest minds of unicorn history, and was one of her own personal idols, but at that point she was trying her best not to curse his name. This journal, supposedly written by the stallion himself, was an absolute mess.
Star Swirl’s book went on and on about dragons, that was undisputed; it showed, in rather vivid verbal and pictorial description, everything from how to judge a dragon’s mood by their frill, to what part a hoard played in demonstrating a dragon’s social standing, and even why some females felt compelled to guard other female’s eggs... but when it came to spells, and spells related to the various Dragon Realms especially, there was little more available then the spell that had caused this interdimensional mess in the first place.
That, however, formed only the first annoyance that Twilight had since found herself facing since opening The Ponies Guide to Dragons and their Realm.
A chapter consisting of only two pages, if it could actually be called a chapter at all, lay spread out before her. The title was splashed across the top of the page in bold, almost mocking letters.
Convexity.
Given how unhelpful the rest of the book had proven to be, the sheer lack of content had just about made Twilight’s blood boil.
From my various studies and experiments into the relationship between our dimensions, I, Star Swirl of house Arcana, have concluded that our two worlds, Equestria and the Dragon Realms (see ‘initial contact’ pg. 13 for clarification), may be separated by a thin, energy dense layer region, which acts as a barrier to maintain dimensional separation of our two worlds.
The dragons that I have communicated with agree with me on the subject, but refer to this place as ‘Convexity’. They also agree with me on the belief that it is this that separates our two dimensions.
Exactly how this region came to be, however, is a mystery to them, perhaps just as much as it is to myself; I personally believe that it came to be when our dimensions collided with each other, probably at some point in the distant past (see ‘dragons of two worlds’ pg. 151, and ‘The theory of dimensional collision and planar slips’ pg. 188 for clarification ), and was the result of the dimensional ‘fabric’ patching itself back together, much like a scar forms over wounded flesh. It was during this point in time, I believe, that the first dragons made the migration into our world.
However, despite my persistence, the dragons seem unwilling to go much further into detail about their own understanding of it, or how it came to be. From what I have learned, this ‘Convexity’ is almost as much an anomaly to them as it is to myself in its behaviour and characteristics, but they do mention that there are ways to utilize its bizarre energies.
It is my belief that by harnessing and directing enough of the energy currents of this ‘Convexity’ correctly, a stable dimensional bridge, through either a spell or other means, might be formed between our two worlds. As I have learned through conversations about technology and magic, the dragons themselves have already made breakthroughs in such regards, crafting a number of different magical gateway systems to allow travel between the various settlements and villages found in each ‘realm’. I myself have also already made small breakthroughs in the field, such an example being the use of the energies of Convexity as a medium for my communication spell.
That was where Star Swirl had finished.
Letting a groan escape her, Twilight skimmed the passage once again, eyes running over each paragraph line by line. The information was simple enough to understand, but without a starting point of reference for a spell, or even knowledge of what the proper rune layout was for this ‘Convexity’… it brought her no closer to a solution.
“Why, Star Swirl, just why?”
Still glaring at the words with nothing but disdain, Twilight sat back heavily on her rump, massaging her temples as her face scrunched up in concentration. “Come on Twilight, think, think!” She groaned. “Star Swirl wouldn’t just stop! He obviously put a lot of time and effort into this, so why would he have just… left it. Ugh! How can this be all there is?”
Once again, Twilight’s question was answered with naught but mocking silence, which simply prompted yet another frustrated snort from the unicorn.
A few reasons did come to mind though. Perhaps it was all just an experimental theory which had ended up leading nowhere, or notes that Star Swirl had made during one of his trials which he had decided to throw in with the rest of his work. They were rather extensive after all, and simply discarding them would’ve been a waste of both time and effort.
Or perhaps it was for security. Her own research into that age had revealed that theft and plagiarism of work had not been an uncommon practise during the pre-classical era, what with countless scholars and academics fighting for the few and far between places amongst the royal council; perhaps Star Swirl had disguised or written his work to complete at a later date, but had then decided not to, to this day there was still, sadly, a very limited amount of knowledge of dragons available to ponykind, such knowledge, therefore, would have been extremely valuable, and would’ve definitely caught the eye of the higher powers.
There was also the possibility that if there was a spell, it had simply never been finished. This particular journal had never actually published, as the head librarian of Canterlot had explained rather sternly in her initial letter.
“But then… why not expand on this ‘Convexity’ theory in particular? It’d probably be one of the most valuable and useful,” a hoof found its way to her chin as she stared over the page; now she was curious.
Closing her eyes, and willing her own magic to come forth from her horn, the mare ran a quick scanning spell over one of the pages in search of any lingering wards, disguising charms, or similar magic that would hide what was truly there. When it failed to reveal anything at all, Twilight shifted her focus, and tried again, this time applying a translation spell to see if any instilled spells, or the words themselves, would respond with anything.
Once again though, her attempts led to naught.
Tired, annoyed, and now feeling more than a little defeated at having gotten absolutely nowhere in hours, Twilight collapsed to the wooden floor with a loud thud, her exhaustion seeming to have had finally caught up with her. Resigning to her defeat, she stared blankly at a nearby wall, idly blowing away a few errant strands of purple mane from her face. Now this was just getting frustrating.
“I can forcibly drag three dragons and a dragonfly from another dimension into Equestria by accident, but I somehow can’t figure you out,” She scolded the book, casually wondering whether or not to make it spontaneously combust.
A second later, Twilight’s ears perked up as the library’s door creaked open, followed by the sound of a very welcome voice.
“Twilight! We’re back!”
“And about time too,” she said, huffing mildly; she smirked to herself as Spike came trudging in, followed close behind by a happy looking Ember. Both appeared to have their mouths utterly full of Pinkie’s cooking with Spike carrying the box as the pair fished from it.
Without hesitation, she magically pulled a cupcake from the box’s depth and brought it to her muzzle, giving it a single sniff before biting into the frosted confectionary.
“And what was that about avoiding junk food huh?”
Twilight just ignored her younger brother. “Sweet Celestia I needed this,” she moaned in delight, relishing the taste of the surgery treat. “I was beginning to think you two had gone and abandoned me.”
Spike rolled his eyes while Ember apparently tried, and failed, not to laugh at her bizarre behaviour.
“You’d be living on hay fries and daisy sandwiches after two days on your own,” the purple drake teased, swiftly shutting the door behind the two of them. “So, have you actually been getting anywhere?”
Twilight levitated the book forward in reply as the two came over, presenting Star Swirl’s journal to them while she scoffed down the rest of her cupcake. Spike’s eyes absently inspected the scrawled pages for a moment, before he shrugged and headed for the library’s kitchen, the box of Sugarcube Corner delicacies still grasped in his claws.
Ember’s face, however, abruptly took on a look of mild surprise, and the dragoness herself took a startled step backwards.
“I take it that my reading lesson didn’t go to waste then?” Twilight asked as the pink dragoness went about recomposing herself. “Spyro mentioned this ‘Convexity’ the first day you were here. Do you know anything about it?”
Ember grimaced and nodded. “I know a little bit about it, and trust me when I say that a little bit is more than I’d like,” she replied with a frown, glancing over the page warily. She shuffled back and forth on her front legs awkwardly, her pink tail curling up under her. “Honestly, everyone in the Dragon Realms knows about Convexity nowadays, but for all the wrong reasons.”
Acting more or less on impulse, Twilight quickly summoned her quill, inkwell, and a spare sheet of parchment to her side, the mare promptly laying them out in front of her before nodding for Ember to continue.
“Plllllease?”
Twilight smiled when Ember remained silent. Ember only gave her a slightly timid look in return at first, before sighing and settling down on all fours as she got comfortable, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to be able to escape this particular conversation. Whether she liked it or not.
“I’ve only ever been told about it, but Convexity is supposed to be a sort of… a sort of place between two worlds. I think it’s referred to being like a barrier or airlock… whatever that is.”
“That much I got from what Star Swirl wrote. Can you be a bit more specific than that?” her quill scribbled furiously whilst her eyes remaining firmly on Ember. “I don’t mean to push you here, but this could really help me-us out.”
The pink dragoness, much to Twilight’s surprise, just shuddered and hissed like she’d seen something unsavoury.
Thankfully though, she seemed to relax a little when Spike came waddling back in from the kitchen, and then promptly took his rightful place on the rug by her side. Seeing Ember’s distress, Spike reached out and placed one of his claws over her own.
She smiled and gave him an appreciative nuzzle. “Thanks,” she said quietly, before turning back to Twilight. “Alright, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Well, from what I understand, Convexity is actually a real place… well, not so much as a place,” she explained. “From what Spyro’s told me in the past, Convexity forms something like a gap between the Dragon Realms and places like your world. He said that it’s a really strange void where there are whole moons, floating rock formations, and some weird creatures that look like giant mushrooms. There’s apparently no plant life there, and the air’s kind of thick, but you can still breathe alright.”
Twilight’s ears perked mid-sentence. “Are you saying that Spyro’s actually been there? As in… he’s physically seen Convexity with his own eyes?”
“Both he and Cynder have.”
Without skipping a beat, Twilight hurriedly scribbled down the last few lines of what Ember had said.
She’d never admit it, but what with the pure amount of scientific-knowledge fuelled excitement running through her brain, the unicorn had to physically repress the urge to jump around the room squealing ‘Yes!’ like a filly.
There had always been speculation about the existence of pocket and space-within-space dimensions amongst the physicist community. As a physicist herself, the mysterious nature of such things had made it a field that Twilight had long found herself fascinated by, a fascination that had only been growing since her befriending of Pinkie Pie, and now her idol Star Swirl’s theory.
Unfortunately, in her excitement at having an example of physical proof, Twilight didn’t exactly think over her next set of words before she said them.
“So, why do all dragons know it for ‘all the wrong reasons’, exactly?”
What followed Twilight’s question was an unusual reaction from Ember.
Ember jaw’s parted to reveal her diamond-hard fangs as a chilling growl echoed from her throat. Yelping, Twilight hastily back peddled, raising her parchment up in front of her in a pointless effort to shield herself.
In an instant Ember had sprung to all fours, her pink wings having flared outwards in a threatening display, while her gleaming white claws tore in the wooden flooring, the dragoness’s back arching like she was preparing to pounce on something that had annoyed her.
And yet despite her threatening display, for the briefest of moments, Spike and Twilight caught a glimpse of something very different; fear. She was terrified.
“Twi, you might want to try and tone it down a little,” Spike said. His arms wrapped tightly around Ember’s neck in an effort to comfort her.
Twilight nodded dumbly, setting her quill and parchment aside. She waited quietly, watching on with a mixture of caution and concern, until Ember finally calmed down. She couldn’t help but wonder what could’ve possibly caused a dragoness, especially one with a disposition like Ember’s, to react in such a way.
If she was being honest, a small part of her really didn’t want to know.
“Sorry, I’m… I’m sorry about that,” Ember whispered, her shoulders eventually relaxing and her wings refolding against her side. “But that’s something that no dragon wants to remember.”
Twilight exhaled and shook her head. “No, I should be the one apologizing; that was clearly a subject that you wanted to avoid, but I pursued it anyway.”
Ember nodded, and then managed a weak smile. “You didn’t know, and you’re only trying to help us find a way home, so don’t be too hard on yourself about it,” she replied, before frowning and looking down at her claws, suddenly unsettled again. “Do you really want to know? Because I’ll tell you…”
“Only if you’re comfortable in doing so,” Twilight reaffirmed, trying to ignore the rapid beating of her heart. “But I will stress that anything, anything that you know might help. Star Swirl the Bearded believed that this ‘Convexity’ could somehow be used as a bridge between Equestria and the Dragon Realms, and seeing as he’s still considered one of the greatest unicorn minds in our history, I have every faith in that theory.”
She remained silent for a long while, fidgeting awkwardly, before she sighed and nodded.
“Alright, I’ll tell you. But if I do, you have to promise me, and I mean promise me, that you won’t go asking Cynder anything about what I tell you.”
Twilight blinked in mild surprise. “Why?” Ember though just shook her head in response.
“That’s for her to tell you when she’s ready.” The pink dragoness said firmly, flexing her front claws. It was clear that the subject wasn’t up for debate. “Just promise me that you won’t and I’ll tell you what I know. That goes for you too, Spike.”
The adopted siblings momentarily shared a look, before two sets of ‘cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!’ resounded throughout the library.
“Pinkie promise,” Spike explained, seeing his dragoness’s confused look. “Trust me, nopony breaks a Pinkie promise. Ever.”
Ember couldn't help but smirk at the bizarre display.
Ember sat back down, pulling Spike in close as Twilight gathered up her quill once more. Almost instinctively, the two dragon’s tails became entwined, and although the air was still ripe with tension, Ember relaxed considerably.
Twilight was unsure of how she felt about the gesture. Whilst it appeared to be quite cute, adorable even, from what she had learned from Spyro it was an act for dragons who considered themselves mates. Seemingly platonic to those not in the know, but incredibly intimate, and it made Twilight just the slightest bit unsettled thinking about it.
It was kind of like two ponies having their tongues down each other’s throats in public; there was no set law against it, but it still wasn’t something you really wanted to observe, especially if it was your little brother.
Still, if it helped make Ember more comfortable, then she had no argument.
“Ok… this’ll probably sound kind of strange, but it’s important you understand what I’m getting at, so I’ll start from the beginning,” she explained. “If it’s not already been made clear, let me be honest and tell you that Spyro’s a little different than most other dragons in the Dragon Realms. As you both probably saw when we were fighting Shining Armor and his guards, Spyro can breathe a variety of different elements, but I can only breathe fire. That’s not to say he’s any more of a dragon then I am… but he’s a very special kind of dragon. A purple dragon.”
Twilight quizzically looked up from her parchment at the statement. “But… Spike’s a purple dragon too.” She said matter-of-factly, glancing between the two seated dragons opposite her.
Ember just shook her head. “Spike’s got purple scales, but he’s a not a purple dragon,” she offered the drake in question a quick nuzzle. “I’m getting there, I promise.”
Spike just smiled, and planted a quick kiss on her cheek; Twilight rolled her eyes, and returned to writing.
“Anyway,” Ember went on, her cheeks even pinker than before. “Purple dragons like Spyro are both extremely powerful, and extremely rare. Only one purple dragon is supposed to be born every ten generations… or every era from memory, and their birth is meant to bring forth a new age to the Dragon Realms, or so some old prophecy goes.”
“Princess Celestia wasn’t lying about Spyro being a dragon-alicorn… thing,” Twilight mentally grimaced, partly noting Spike’s look of utter astonishment. “Just great.”
“I guess… Spyro’s a pretty big deal then huh?”
“He is,” Ember giggled, smiling at her mate. “But don’t let that make you see him differently; he cares about his friends and wants to protect them above all else, and that’s what he wants to be known for.”
Then, as if she’d just remember something rather unsavoury, the dragoness’s face suddenly fell while her jaw appeared to tighten like a vice, her ivory fangs once again angrily protruding from her maw like rows of readied daggers.
“But the purple dragon who came before Spyro, the Dark Master as he called himself… he… he was nothing short of evil.”
Twilight traded a wary look with her assistant. If the amount of emphasis that Ember had put on the word ‘evil’ was anything to go by, the unicorn wasn’t sure she’d be enjoying this particular part of the conversation.
“Was he really that bad?” Spike asked with a nervous fidget, the purple and green dragon seeming to share Twilight’s own now growing unease. “Like, did he want to rule over the Dragon Realms or something?”
“No, worse; he wanted to destroy them,” Ember fumed in anger, a tail of white smoke trailing from the dragoness’s nostrils. “He was so vile and twisted that I don’t even want to think about what he did, to us or those he served him, it honestly makes me that angry. Grr!” she took a deep breath. “Ok, I’m good... In the end, the old dragons who fought against him basically realized that he was just too powerful to defeat in combat, but also that he couldn’t be held by any prison built in the dragon realms either… so they did the only thing that they thought could to stop him, which that was to take his soul and send it to a place that no living creature, in theory, could ever hope to escape from.” Another, deep breath later, Ember was almost herself again; almost.
“Convexity,” Twilight murmured, her voice drawing a single, uneasy nod from Ember. “But… how?”
The pink dragoness growled and shook her head. “That’s beyond what I know,” she answered flatly, her flicking tail revealing her still present agitation. “Well, ugh, anyway, that held him at bay right up until just over three years ago, when he ended up breaking out of Convexity, and then tried to destroy our home again… but I’d much rather not go into that particular time; it’s all just history now. In the end though, Spyro and Cynder managed to defeat him, and that’s all that matters.”
Spike swallowed. “So... he’s actually gone? Like... never coming back?”
“I hope so, Spike,” Ember grimaced, allowing her head to fall into the comfort of his lap without warning. She sounded almost pained. “After all the misery he put the Dragon Realms through, and after what he put everyone he hurt through, I really hope so.”
No one said a thing for a minute or so after Ember fell silent. Spike ran his claw across the top of her head, unsure of what else to do, while Twilight thought on what he been said, and how she could relate it to the problem at hoof.
It was now a certainty that the dragons had figured out a way to physically enter the realm of Convexity, though the exact nature and means of that entrance was still up in the air. It was also now a perceptible certainty, what with the escape of the Dark Master, that Convexity could be exited just as it could be entered.
The big question was how such a thing was achieved.
“And just how does Cynder and her… Nightmare Moon-ism fit in with all of this?”
“Thank you, Ember,” Twilight offered, albeit hesitantly, once she’d scrawled down the last of her notes. “I know that wasn’t easy for you, and I know it probably doesn’t feel so, but you’ve been a great help.”
The dragoness immediately looked up. “So… you think that you could send us home?” Ember asked nervously.
The unicorn just huffed once. “No, not yet I’m afraid,” she replied, groaning slightly. “I now have something of a base to go on… but there are just too many things that we can’t do or don’t know yet; sure, we now know that travel between Convexity and the Dragon Realms is possible, but we don’t have a way of opening that conduit, or even entering it on the Equestrian side… and since Star Swirl decided to leave us with virtually nothing…”
She trailed off, the faces of her companions revealing that she didn’t really need to finish what she was saying; that their efforts hadn’t been completely fruitless, only very close to it.
Muttering under her breath, Twilight closed her eyes as her head sank. There was just so many questions left blank and unanswered, major ones that could determine whether or not things went as hoped. The biggest and most agitating was why Star Swirl would seemingly abandon such a possibly ground-breaking theory, and without offering a reason as to why he had. He’d figured out how to perform time travel, and so something like inter-space movement should’ve been a breeze by comparison.
Then there was Convexity itself. Apparently accessing it was possible and had been done before, but could a stable bridge be formed using its energies? And how would its energies affect the magic of the unicorn who tried to craft said bridge? For all Twilight knew, simply trying to enter it could be a dangerous undertaking, if not a fatal one. With so many variables and their results unaccounted for, Twilight couldn’t help but feel an edge of anxiety seep into her gut at the thought of casting such a spell.
“What about Star Swirl’s experiments?” Spike spoke up, breaking the purple mare’s chain of thought.
Twilight cracked an eye open and cast her little brother a confused look, the unicorn seeing that he now had The Ponies Guide to Dragons and their Realm open in his claws.
“Well, this book mentions some ‘experiments’ he did, right?” the dragon went on. “Maybe one of those could help us out?”
“Spike, we don’t know anything about the nature of those; all Star Swirl left us with is a bunch of theory. We don’t even have the initial diagrams of his experiments.”
Spike just grinned. “Twi, you’re not listening to me. Sure, we don’t know anything about them, but maybe Canterlot Library might have some of his journals, you know, since it does have an entire wing named after him. If Star Swirl back then was anything like you are today, then he probably would’ve been making notes during hi...”
“During his experiments,” Twilight said as her muzzle rose from the floor, her jaw loosening a little as her mind finally caught up. “And if he was making notes, then we might be able to use them to reconstruct his original experiments, and if we can do that, then we might be able to use those results...”
“To figure it out ourselves,” Spike ended with crossed forearms and a smirk, apparently noting the look of utter confusion Ember was now wearing. “I’ve been living with Twilight nearly my whole life, so I get how she thinks.”
The dragoness giggled and rolled her eyes.
With the edge of a smile still on her face, Twilight allowed her horn to glow, the unicorn summoning forth a second sheet of parchment from her pile along with her quill.
All the while, she was once again trying her best not to squeal like an excited filly. Progress, at long last.
“And these ponies have to go through that every day? I’m sure I’d be crazy in a week.” Spyro huffed in silence, the purple dragon lazily stretching out his cramped muscles.
Behind him, the schoolhouse doors creaked as they swung shut.
It wasn’t like he’d found topics such as science or Equestrian history boring or uninteresting ones, quite the opposite actually. But, after having been forced to sit on his tail for the two hours that separated lunch break from the end of class, while Cheerilee talked on and on about some unicorn named Clover the Clever, the purple dragon couldn’t help but relish the feeling of warm sunlight hitting his scales and the ability to fan his wings again.
He’d had enough of being indoors at midday. Once it’d gotten to around mid-afternoon, he’d found himself severely tempted to begin clawing the floor.
In his own opinion, more of the day should’ve been dedicated to doing things outside of the classroom, rather than just sitting and listening as your brain became more and more disinterested in what was being said. A roof was something that you curled up under at night to sleep, not something that you spent the hours of daylight sitting under, having more and more information poured into your ears; those hours should’ve been spent enjoying the sun and the open air.
Perhaps that was just the dragon in him speaking, but if the joyful shrieks they made as they ran back down the road towards Ponyville meant anything, most of the fillies and colts shared his enthusiasm at finally being free. He smiled at the sight.
“Not that I’m not happy you guys came today or anything… but I still don’t know why you wanted to come to school with us.”
Spyro just laughed and regarded Scootaloo with a smirk. The orange and purple filly, who was presently standing at his side and looking about ready for a nap, just offered him a flat look in return.
The purple dragon just snickered again, before draping a wing over her and fondly pulling the small filly close to his side, the action drawing a small squeak of surprise from the pegasus.
“The experience more than anything… but I also wanted Cynder to try and make some friends,” He directed his last words at the dark dragoness in question. “And I have you three to thank for that.”
Cynder, in between shuffling one way or another, giving instructions, or face-clawing, was lying on the gravel road as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both attempted to mount her; neither filly was having any great amount of success. Judging by what he was seeing, both had on their last attempt lost their balances, and somehow ended up in a four colour pile of sprawled fur, mane, and limbs in the dirt, thus explaining why Cynder’s groaning face was presently buried firmly in her scaly palm. Spyro’s maw broke into a chuckle.
After living in a self-made cage for so long, it was good to see Cynder happy.
“Well, sure,” Scootaloo admitted. “She’s our friend, and friends should be there for each other.”
“Maybe to you, but to her, you three are a lot more than just her friends,” Spyro said quietly. “Come on, I think you’re friends need some help.”
Once the two fillies had finally managed to clamber onto her back and get comfortable, and Cynder had explained that it was best to avoid pulling at her scales, Spyro swiftly hoisted an excited Scootaloo onto his own without too much trouble. After that, the small group finally headed off to ‘hang out’ as Scootaloo had called it, leaving the schoolhouse and the surrounding fields behind as they set forth towards Ponyville.
Sparx, of course, drifted between heads and bad jokes as they did so.
As they walked, the three fillies made sure to bombard the two dragons with yet another question about their life story every minute or so, the subjects ranging from the nature and role of Guardians to what Hunter was like. Some drew laughter from the two dragons, which in turn drew the occasional questioning or wary glance from a random passing somepony, but they were otherwise ignored.
Exactly why they could be as curious as they were, Spyro honestly couldn’t bring himself to guess when he thought about it… but intuition told him that they were probably the only dragons that they, and Ponyville in general had ever seen, bar Spike.
“I wonder why Equestria’s dragons wouldn’t want to live beside ponies? It’s not like they’re that intolerant or anything,” a toothy smile came to his maw. “Heh, too many questions maybe.”
Between questions and his own ponderings, Spyro made sure to note where different things were for his own later ventures, especially the market district, the passing of which had just about left him drooling from the countless smells.
Their group did end up receiving more odd looks and skittish responses from ponies as they wandered deeper into the heart of Ponyville, although they were now few and far between.
“So each of these Guardian guys is tied to only one element?” Scootaloo asked as they passed a bizarre looking building that read something like ‘Quills & Sofas’, outside of which a brown stallion was stuck in an argument with two mares, a pale green unicorn and a purple-pink maned earth pony. “That sounds… kinda boring actually. It’s like unicorns and how they only have magic related to their special talent.”
Spyro eyed the peculiar building for a moment, before swiftly shaking his head, trying to ignore the fact that the roof reminded him of Terrador’s green scales.
“Not completely true,” he answered. “Through enough training, a dragon can use their element in more than one way, and the Guardians are the masters of their individual element. Terrador taught me how to use my earth element, but he could do a lot with it that I couldn’t… like turn himself into a living cannon ball.”
That drew a chuckle from Cynder. “I don’t know about you, Spyro, but I’m never going to forget that day for as long as I live,” she grinned, momentarily glancing up at the sky as she walked, her face taking on a forlorn look. “You know, I’m still amazed that we won that battle.”
“Heh, you and me both,”
Cynder shot Sparx a disgruntled look. “You weren’t the one that golem was trying to crush,” the dragoness snapped. Sparx just grunted and waved a hand in return.
“So… are the Guardians suppose’ to be more like Ms Cheerilee or the princesses?” Applebloom asked, her bow bobbing up and down with each step Cynder took.
Spyro shrugged. “Half-half. The Guardians watch over the Dragon Realms as its protectors, but they don’t rule them, so to speak. As for being like Cheerilee… well, they taught me everything I know.”
“Correction, Volteer taught you when he wasn’t distracted by something pointless,”
“Or when Cyril somehow managed to pull that spark-brain’s head in,” Cynder put in, sniggering to herself.
Spyro gave his brother and mate an annoyed look; he might’ve had a quick and wagging tongue, but Volteer had still been a true and reliable friend when the need had arisen.
In fact, seeing as he’d never known his truth dragon parents, those four dragons had been very close to family, Ignitus the most by far.
That particular thought brought something like an empty feeling to Spyro’s chest, a feeling which only grew as he found himself looking away from the pair out of annoyance, and was drawn to staring over both the bustling pony town that surrounded them, its colourful inhabits as they went about their daily lives. Not a single dragon among them bar Cynder and himself.
The empty feeling quickly gave way to a sobering realization. This wasn’t where he belonged; he belonged with Cyril, Terrador, and Volteer back in the Dragon Realms. Just like them, it was his responsibility to watch over the realms and all those who lived within them, lives that were his responsibility to guide and protect once he had completed his training and reached maturity. He didn’t belong here in a land of ponies, where dragons were out rightly feared.
Perhaps this was why dragons didn’t live beside ponies.
“I wonder if they’ve even realized I’m gone yet?” he pondered, only for that thought to quickly wander down another path. “Is this how Spike feels as the only dragon here? Huh… no wonder he was so excited about meeting us. Maybe… Maybe I could convince Twilight to let us show him our world when the time comes, if just for a little while.”
“Actually, while we’re all on the subject of rulers and stuff… what exactly protects Equestria?” Sparx asked. “Because you can’t tell me that you’re princesses do all the work, I met them, and the royal guard… eh, not feeling it.”
The purple dragon heard Scootaloo snigger as his trance was broken. Looking over, he saw Sparx perched atop Sweetie Belle’s horn, the filly going cross-eyed in an effort to follow him.
“Like we told you earlier, the Dragon Realms have a standing army of dragons, along with the Guardians, and ties with creatures like the moles and cheetahs… well, kind of in some cases,” Cynder offered with a shaky claw, seeming to catch on to Sparx’s thought. “So I think what Sparx is asking is what keeps Equestria safe from outside dangers?”
The three fillies each gave a small ‘oh’ in understanding, before each had a hoof find its way to their respective chins. Despite his prior dreary thoughts, Spyro could help but smirk and flick his tail at the sight; he wasn’t sure if he found the scene more adorable or more amusing to look at.
“Well, apart from the royal guard an’ the princesses, that’d be the Elements of Harmony,”
Judging by the look she gave them both, Applebloom seemed a little confused at the blank stares that the two dragons gave her. If the looks that her two friends gave off meant anything, they were likewise surprised.
“You mean Twilight hasn’t mentioned them to ya?” she asked.
Spyro was silent for a moment, before shaking his head. “I don’t remember her mentioning them,” he answered, turning to Cynder. “Did Twilight mention anything when she and Applejack were showing you around?”
Cynder shrugged her shoulders in reply. “If she did, I wasn’t paying any attention to her at the time.”
The male dragon just stopped, groaned, and face-clawed then and there, much to the apparent amusement of his three filly companions and dragonfly brother, and much to confusion of a few nearby ponies; he loved Cynder dearly, but there were times when she got under his scales like nothing else could.
“Heehee,” Applebloom giggled, the hoof which had previously been on her chin now over her muzzle, though it did little to hide her grin or her laughter. “Well… ah’m no expert, but the Elements of Harmony are supposed to be the most powerful form ah’ magic known to ponies. They’re like… more powerful than the princesses, and can defeat any evil or darkness as long as the bearers are together in friendship.”
“The bearers?” Cynder asked, casting an inquiring glance over her shoulder without stopping.
“There are six Elements of Harmony,” Sweetie Belle explained, the filly taking on more factual tone. “Each of these represents one of the six aspects that make up the magic of friendship. The bearers are the six ponies who are chosen to wield the elements, because they embody their respective element; honesty, laughter, kindness, generosity, loyalty, or magic.”
“…What’s embody mean?”
Now it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to groan and face-hoof. “It means to be a perfect or shining example of something.”
Scootaloo folded her hooves and stuck her tongue out at her friend in reply, and Spyro swore he heard the orange filly mutter the word ‘dictionary’ under her breath.
“Anyhow, ma’ big sister’s the element ah’ honesty, Pinkie Pie’s laughter…” Cynder’s face suddenly took on a very wary look.
“Are you saying that Pinkie Pie, who casually defies just about every set law of nature on a daily basis… happens to wield one of the most powerful sources of magic that your kind has?”
Applebloom just nodded as if it was common knowledge, prompting the violet dragoness to exhale, look at the ground, and shake her head. “Not even going to go there,” she muttered as she kept walking.
“My sister Rarity’s generosity,” Sweetie Belle continued. “Fluttershy is kindness, Rainbow Dash is loyalty, and Twilight Sparkle is the element of magic.”
Spyro tilted his head, putting the pieces of information together in his mind’s eye. “So we’ve pretty much befriended your world’s versions of the Guardians,” the dragon conceded after a moment. “Well, I’m not going to be complaining about that any time soon… what do these Elements of Harmony do anyway? Are they just sources of raw magical power? Or are they weapons of some kind?”
“I’m sure that if such a thing were possible, Spyro, Twilight would’ve told us,” Cynder said gently, her green eyes momentarily meeting Spyro’s own. She’d no doubt been wondering the same thing. “Whatever these Elements of Harmony are meant for, I don’t think crossing dimensions is one of them.”
Spyro huffed and shrugged. “I might ask Twilight anyway. For all we know, it might’ve skipped her mind with everything that’s been happening,”
He turned back to the filly trio, all of whom were looking at him like he’d said something confusing. “Have you three ever seen the bearers use them before?” the three fillies exchanged glances with each other.
“Well… we saw them used once,” Sweetie Belle answered, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. “Discord, who’s the spirit of chaos and disharmony, tried to ruin the bearers’ friendship and turn Ponyville into the chaos capital of Equestria.”
Although Spyro couldn’t see it since she was on his back, a strange, almost scary smile had spread across Scootaloo’s face. “They blasted Discord and turned him into stone!”
Both dragons immediately stopped walking, and Sparx just about fell off his makeshift perch.
“I… think we should leave this conversation for now,” Cynder said tightly, before resuming at her prior pace. “If the Elements of Harmony could do that, Ancients know what they’d do to me.”
“Sister, with all due respect, you look about ready to fall over.”
Celestia could only grunt in a half-hearted reply as she unceremoniously slammed the door behind her, virtually tore off her crown like it was red hot, and then slumped down in the chair opposite her sister, her horn glowing as she sank into the plush red cushion.
Without so much as a pause, the alicorn of the sun swiftly levitated her cup of hot tea, and downed its entire contents in a gulp. She set it down again with a relieved sigh as her sister burst into giggles; Makers bless whoever had discovered the stuff.
Despite having stood on the side Canterlot Mountain for close to a millennia, and having been walked by ponies almost every day for that time, the Palace of Canterlot still had a few well-kept secrets hidden within its countless banner-covered walls and winding marble corridors.
One example of such was a small balcony on the valley side of the massive construct, called by the very few who knew of it as ‘the lookout’. It was nothing particularly special nor grand in design; a simple, marble balcony just big enough for a small circular table, two cushioned chairs, and a few potted plants to give it a more relaxing and homely touch, all enchanted to flower the year round. A creeping vine grew as a natural wall on either side, its thick foliage hiding the lookout’s existence from view, and providing some welcome privacy to the user or users.
The view however, as the name suggested, was something to be celebrated. The breathtaking sight of everything from soft rolling greens of Canterlot Valley, to the great expanse that was the Everfree forest, and all in between, including the small town of Ponyville and its patchwork of surrounding green fields and lush orchards, the town barely the size of foal’s hoof against the vast landscape.
As such, it was no wonder that this was where Princess Celestia retired to after holding court. The ability to set her crown down on the table, and just enjoy the view with her sibling, was one she truly savoured… as well as a hefty serving of tea and various confectionaries.
“I feel as if I may take you up on that, Luna,” Celestia replied after a long moment, pouring herself another cup as she leant back and rubbed her brow with both hooves. “I swear to you though, if one could find a legal loophole big enough to put a tax on breathing, the nobles would try and get me to sign off on it.”
“A normal day at the office then, I take it?” Luna smirked, taking a small sip from her own levitating cup, though to call it a cup was a stretch. It was virtually a small barrel, the words ‘Touch my coffee, and I’ll moon you!’ in bold letters along the side.
Judging by the scent, that was probably what Luna was drinking.
Celestia rolled her eyes, before groaning and putting her head in her hooves. “Don’t even get me started, I have a big enough headache as is from listening to all their whining. And it’s the same thing day in and day out; we want this, we don’t want that, we want to put a tax and that.” she sighed and looked up at her sister. “You know, Luna… I miss having Sparx around. That dragonfly knew how to put somepony in their place when push came to shove… and he made me laugh.”
The princess of the night smiled and nodded, looking out over the surrounding valley. “When one has lived their life around dragons, they’d have to be able to hold their own... and I will admit, I too miss his antics.”
“Yet another reason for us to miss him.” Luna said between giggles, the older alicorn finding herself quickly joining in.
The next few minutes were spent in simple, idle chatter, chatter which any other pair of sisters would’ve divulged in, royalty or otherwise. How the day had been, what the weather was supposed to be the coming week, which guard had been seen eyeing off which maid as they passed in the hall. All of these Celestia found simple and enjoyable topics, which thankfully avoided anything to do with politics or the ruling of Equestria, topics which she made stubbornly sure to avoid during her time off the throne; she’d had her dose of those things for the day.
She let out a quiet sigh as Luna went on about how she’d caught two of her guards flirting while on duty, the white alicorn’s eyes and mind drifting out to the view as her steaming cup lay grasped in her hooves. Her gaze wandered across the valley, down the hills, before eventually settling on the small patchwork of colour that was Ponyville and its surrounding fields and meadows.
“…But of course we’d… sister?”
Celestia shook her head. “My apologies, Luna,” she said, turning back to her younger sibling. “My mind was just wandering for a moment.”
The edge of a smirk crossed the darker alicorn’s face. “About young Twilight Sparkle and her conundrum?” she asked, before her face took on a look of mild surprise, almost as if somepony had just gone and pulled her tail.
Much to Celestia’s confusion, Luna’s face then suddenly took on a pained expression, and a moment later she groaned and face-hoofed rather forcefully.
“By Tartarus, I knew I had forgotten about something; a letter came from thou student whilst court was being held,” Luna’s cheeks blushed. “… Ehem, I’ll be back in a moment.”
A growing sense of curiosity quickly overcame Celestia’s bad mood as Luna vanished in a flash of blue light. Said curiosity was replaced by attention as a few seconds later, with the princess of the night reappearing in her seat with yet another magical crack. She still looked a little sheepish and embarrassed, but that detail was barely noticed by Celestia, due to a sealed scroll now being suspended in a dark blue glow beside her.
Luna let out a small yelp of surprise as the scroll was torn from her magical grasp.
“My apologies, Luna,” Celestia said as she brought the furled parchment before her eyes. “But this may be of dire importance.” The night princess just gave her sister a disgruntled look.
Some small part of Celestia’s mind said that she was being irrational, but she couldn’t shake the small feeling of dread that came with the possibility of bad news... bad news to the tune of Cynder’s dark side, as Sparx had called it, resurfacing.
A sigh of relief passed from her muzzle as she read the top line.
However, as she read further and further down the lines of scrawled text, the princess of the sun found her herself becoming more surprised by each word she read, her thoughts turning from initial interest, to pride at her student’s efforts, to being amazed by what she’d learned, and finally to being out rightly astonished at what Twilight hoped to achieve as her endgame. So much so that by the end of reading the letter, Celestia could feel her jaw hanging slack.
“Now that would truly be someth…” She was cut off by an interrupting snort.
“Sister? What exactly is it that holds you so captivated?” Luna asked in a blunt tone, the sudden input of her sister’s voice reminding the formally engrossed alicorn that she wasn’t alone.
Celestia winced as she put the parchment aside; Luna had never liked been left out of the loop, and what with her improving-but-still-present temper thanks to her time as Nightmare Moon, she had since made a habit of shamelessly making such dislike known to everypony and anypony involved.
“Well, Luna, Twilight believes that she has found a potential way to send our guests back to the Dragon Realms.” Luna’s ears immediately perked up in interest.
The older alicorn chewed her lip, unsure of how her sister would react to what was said next. “It relates to an old theory of Star Swirl’s…”
It was at this that a very different emotion flickered across Luna’s face as her ears flattened against her skull, and the mare herself suddenly seemed to find the view of Canterlot Valley very interesting, her face losing its prior vibrancy and darkening a few shades. Celestia’s ears folded in sympathy of her younger sister.
“Luna…”
“I’m fine,” Luna said swiftly, the younger alicorn keeping her voice tight and controlled. “I accepted his mortality long before my banishment.”
“But that is not what hurts, sister, and you and I both know that.”
Celestia hated saying those words, and she hated them even more so when she saw her sibling flinch in pain. Despite having been back in Equestria for over a year, and having known the truth of her most trusted friend for the majority of that time, it was evident that this particular wound was still deep for the night princess.
“What he did after my banishment was his own choosing, and I will not loathe him for it,” a sigh escaped the younger mare’s muzzle before she spoke again. “Star Swirl was a friend, Tia, a true and honest friend. That is how I wish to remember him,” slowly, she turned back. “Anyway, enough of this talk… so, what does young Twilight say about this theory?”
Celestia let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, relaxing a little. She peered down at the roll of parchment between her hooves, her now somewhat refreshed mind trying her best to summarize the content without going into unnecessary detail.
“From what we know, it was one that Star Swirl recorded but never expanded upon while he was… with us… it was apparently based around the idea of using the energies of a place called Convexity, and I think that’s how it’s pronounced, to create a bridge between Equestria and the Dragon Realms. Twilight says that his notes mention a number of experiments that he undertook as part of this theory, but the outcomes of these are not provided.”
“And she believes we may have some material relating to these in his library wing, no doubt,” Luna finished, once again bringing her coffee to her lips. She set it down and a put a hoof to her chin, seemingly calm once again. “You know, sister… something about that name, Convexity… it almost sounds familiar to me. It’s like I’ve heard it once before, but as nothing more than as a passing whisper.”
Celestia glanced up at that. “Did Star Swirl ever mention it to you before you became Nightmare Moon, perhaps?”
Luna sighed and shrugged as she spoke, obviously disappointed at her own reply, and even a little saddened perhaps. “He may well have, but I fear that if he did tell me of it, the memory is lost amongst the foul cloud that Nightmare has left lingering in my mind… I remember very little of the months that led up to my banishment, Tia.”
“Have you using tried a memory spell?” Celestia asked, tentatively. Once more this drew an unhappy exhale from her sibling as she raised her cup again.
“I have tried many things, sister, as have many of the best doctors here in Canterlot… but I fear the result is always the same. A few have even suggested that it is my own subconscious that is suppressing the memories, due to the pain that is attached to them,” she huffed and shook her head. “It does not matter, I have an eternity to make more.”
Luna took emptied her cup before speaking again. “So, tell us, what are we to do about Twilight’s request then?” she asked, wiping her muzzle with the back of a hoof.
If Luna still had any raw or troubling feelings, then she was hiding them well. Despite her urge to try and comfort her sister, Celestia decided it best not to press those particular matters any further, for the time being at least, and instead returned her attention to the problem at hoof.
“Truthfully… I am unsure,” Celestia admitted after a moment, staring at her reflection as it formed on her own tea’s surface. She couldn’t help it, but an edge of annoyance had crept into her voice. “I myself know very little about the nature of Star Swirl’s work into the dragons and the Dragon Realms, he was always more confident in you about his research… and honestly, I don’t believe the Star Swirl the Bearded wing has anything more on the topic either; after she wrote to me about Spike’s issues, the original of the book that I sent Twilight was all that I could find within the entire Royal Archives, or the Canterlot Library.”
“So we arrive at a dead end, then?” Celestia nodded. Once again, Luna put a hoof to her chin, he facial features scrunching ever so slightly.
An unlikeable silence stretched on from the moment that Luna had stopped talking, during which Celestia found herself doing nothing more than watching her younger sister, trying to discern what thoughts were occupying her head. Every so often, Luna’s muzzle would twitch, or she would ‘hmmf’, but otherwise the ruler of the night seemed lost in her pondering.
Then, just as the elder alicorn felt compelled to ask what she was pondering, Luna said something that caught Celestia completely off guard.
“Tell me, Tia, just how much of Star Swirl’s work was transferred from our old home when it was abandoned?”
Celestia’s ears instinctively flattened back. Fighting to maintain a straight face at the left-field surprise, she gently set her cup down on the table again, her rose colored eyes affixed questioningly on her sister.
“Everything that he had put before me... that he didn’t end up taking with him when he left of course, all of which now sits within his wing in the library. He was a brilliant mind as you know well, and I figured it would be a crime to abandon such knowledge to the wrath of time,” an alabaster eyebrow arched. “Why do you ask?”
An almost pained smile crossing Luna’s face, followed by a dry laugh, much to Celestia’s confusion.
“As you yourself said before, sister, Star Swirl was always more confident in me with regards to his research, a fact which may be useful to your student,” she said simply, re-filling her empty cup. “Inform young Twilight Sparkle that I will be visiting our former home later tonight, and that I very much think she and her friends should join me.”
