ADVENTURES OF THE EQUESTRIAN NINJA
Chapter 31: Dimensional Tales: A Draconic Legend Pt. 1
It's another day in the life for Naruto as he's to be found in the kitchen in the Uzumaki mansion currently packing some food into a cooler for a little 'trip' to the Winsome Falls alone in order to proceed with the next step of his training with his wind affinity.
"Okay then, just a little bit more then I'm all set for Winsome Falls. Better send a shadow clone to let the others know where I'm going to," said Naruto, he took out a flask from the cupboard then took the kettle of green tea off the stove with a chakra arm and was about to pour it in when his medallion started glowing on its own before a an orb floated out of it and turned into a white scroll before placing itself on the kitchen table.
"Looks my travel plans have changed, guess I better gear up and get ready to leave," Naruto left the kitchen and made his way to the workshop downstairs, there he packed up on different varieties of crystals, ninja tools and not to forget a certain trump card which might help him along the way given his current situation "Guess that's everything…except for the food, I almost forgot about that,"
He returned to the kitchen and sealed the cooler away before leaving the mansion towards his next destination which is Dr. Whooves' home. He knocked on the door and didn't have to wait long as the said pony opened up and smiled upon seeing him.
"Ah hello again Naruto," said Dr. Whooves.
"Hi there doc, I just got another mission from Kami-sama," said Naruto showing him the scroll.
"I see, well then off we go to another world then. I'll go and make preparations for the trip," Dr. Whooves went inside with Naruto following him as they went to where the TARDIS is kept. Pressing a few buttons, the TARDIS hovered in the air as a rift opened up before them and they flew inside in direction of their next destination.
Naruto was looking through the window as they passed through the void when his stomach rumbled loudly as if to remind him to fill it up much to his embarrassment and Dr. Whooves' amusement.
"Sorry about that Doc, I forgot to eat breakfast this morning," said Naruto sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
"It's quite alright, I myself had forgotten to restock the pantry yesterday and so didn't have breakfast either," said Dr. Whooves.
"In that case, I can share some of mine with you,"
"There's no need to bother yourself, I can manage,"
"No it's okay, I packed a lot so it's no trouble at all,"
"…very well then, I'll be happy to oblige," Dr. Whooves finally gave in.
"Great, now then release food pack!" Naruto's medallion glowed brightly and a white orb floated out of it towards the ground before transforming into the cooler which he had packed the food inside. Naruto reached in with a levitation spell and began to pull out the containers "Let's see, we got apples, muffins, quiche, green tea, Spike, sandwiches, apple pies...wait a minute," He trailed off before quickly looking inside and his eyes widened in shock along with Dr. Whooves "Spike?!"
Indeed it was Twilight's baby dragon Spike whom they found in the cooler.
"How did he get in here, what's he even doing here in the first place?!" said Naruto panicky.
"He appears to be unconscious," said Dr. Whooves, like he said Spike is currently lying in the cooler with swirls in his eyes.
"Even so we need to take him back to Ponyville before he finds out about this,"
"I don't think that would be the case as he's waking up," Dr. Whooves pointed at Spike who's currently waking up.
"Oww, what hit me…huh? Where am I?" he looked around and saw Naruto and Dr. Whooves whom he recognized upon seeing him at Pinkie Pie's birthday party "Naruto and Dr. Whooves? What's going on here?"
"Spike, how did you get into the cooler?" asked Naruto.
"Well I came by to visit you and couldn't find you anywhere so I went to the kitchen, I saw the open cooler and my curiosity got the better of me so I took a look inside. Then the next thing I knew was that something hit me in the head hard enough to knock me and I woke up to see all this," said Spike, Naruto then recalled seeing a frying pan on the ground next to a closed cooler that he put away without a second thought.
"What do we do now doc?" Naruto asked Dr. Whooves worriedly, he doesn't want Spike to get involved due to the potential danger his friends may find themselves in, his venture in the Pokémon world and former world is just one of the many dangers that he would encounter in the future.
"I believe we might have to tell him," said Dr. Whooves much to Naruto's shock.
"Are you sure that it's a good idea?" asked Naruto feeling unsure of the suggestion.
"I can tell that he's a trustworthy fellow and you know him best out of the both of us," said Dr. Whooves.
Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment before letting out a sign in resignation "Alright we'll tell him," then they turned to face Spike who was still looking around confusedly "Uh Spike, there's something we need to tell you so please listen,"
Then Naruto told him everything, from when he met Kami within his dreamscape up to when he went to his old world.
"So let me get this straight, you were requested by Kami to travel to other worlds and help the heroes there right?" asked Spike.
"That's the gist of it and the princesses also know of it, but all this is to be kept and nopony should know of this," said Naruto.
"Why's that?" asked Spike curiously.
"Should the knowledge of multiple dimensions or the TARDIS fall into the wrong hooves, it could lead to the complete disruption of everything that we know which is in other words the end of all worlds," said Dr. Whooves making Spike shiver fearfully at the thought of someone like Discord finding out about this.
"But what about Twilight and the others? I'm sure you can trust them with this secret too,"
"Princess Luna suggested the same thing, but I just the right timing to tell them about it," said Naruto.
"Okay Naruto, and I promise to never tell anypony about this," said Spike.
"Thanks Spike, I remember that we were in the middle of having breakfast. Wanna join in?"
"Sure,"
With that the trio helped themselves to a hearty breakfast and were soon drinking cups of green tea to while away the time.
"So what's to know about the world that we're headed to?" asked Naruto.
Dr. Whooves opened up the scroll and was reading through its contents before looking up to answer Naruto's question.
"The place we're heading to, is called the dragon realms where there are many magical creatures and animals with high intelligence and dragons were proud and just, revered among the inhabitants of the realms,"
"You mean there are nice dragons in that world?" asked Spike with a look of surprise.
"Quite right, there are even a group called the guardian dragons who take on the role of raising and training young dragons as well guarding the dragon eggs, most of which are in a place called the dragon temple," said Dr. Whooves.
"Sounds like a cool place to be, I've never met any other dragon before in Equestria," said Spike with looks of excitement.
"However an evil being known as the dark master led his army of dark forces with the intention to rule over the realms, dragons immediately rose against him and fought valiantly but it was a losing battle especially when there were numerous raids on the dragon raids which resulted in the dragon eggs being destroyed, endangering their very existence with the worst being the one at the dragon temple,"
Spike gasped in shock and hid behind one of Naruto's in fear, the thought of the dragon eggs being destroyed frightened him a lot, Naruto wrapped his tail around the young dragon to comfort him.
"So all of the dragons are gone?" asked Naruto, inwardly was very angry at what the dark master and his army had done.
"Not quite, there are a few surviving guardian dragons who are in captivity and a young purple dragon by the name Spyro whose egg survived the raids is on his way to rescue all of them," said Dr. Whooves.
"What else is there to know about this dark master?" asked Naruto.
"According to the scroll, the dark master was sealed away in a dimensional prison by the ancients so it's his generals that are currently commanding the army for him," said Dr. Whooves.
"So what's my mission?" asked Naruto.
"You're to help Spyro rescue the three remaining guardian dragons from the dark master's army and push them back. We're currently over Dante's Freezer where one of them are imprisoned,"
Dr. Whooves opened the door to reveal them hovering over a large island covered in ice and snow surrounded by an enormous fortress which appears to be slowly crumbling apart.
"Okay then I'm heading out," Naruto jumped out of the TARDIS as he descended towards the ground, he didn't feel any of his magic, chakra or the sword "I guess that this world is allowing me to use all of my gear," Naruto activated his chakra wings and was slowly gliding towards the ground when he felt something land on his back and turned around to see that it was Spike much to his surprise.
"Spike what are you doing here?" Naruto asked rather sternly.
"I wanted to come with you and help a fellow dragon out," Spike responded.
"It's going to be very dangerous out here, you should have stayed in the TARDIS with doc where it's much safer until we get back home,"
"No need to worry about me, I can defend myself with my dragon breath and I have the barrier crystal that you gave to me and the others," Spike held out a claw to show the bracelet which he had given out to them.
Naruto was deep in thought, he has to meet up with his partner but he can't start searching Dr. Whooves and the TARDIS in order to send Spike back which leaves him with only one option.
"…Fine, you can come along but you are to remain on my back at all times unless I say otherwise, okay Spike?" said Naruto.
"Crystal clear," said Spike.
The duo had landed on one of the inner courtyards of the fortress, looking ahead they saw a giant wooden gate. Naruto and Spike cautiously approached the gate when it suddenly opened up and several creatures walked out before the gate closed behind them. They appear to be a group of apes with white fur and standing before them is a much taller ape wearing armor and wielding a one-hand weapon with a shield.
"It's bad enough that a purple dragon is tearing through our forces and now we have a pony and another purple dragon showing up here. The dark master will not stand for this!" said the much larger ape angrily.
"Then would you mind telling us where he is? We happen to be looking for him," said Naruto, Spike snickered at his taunt.
"Do you really think us to be that stupid to just tell you where the dragon is and let you go scot-free? Soldiers capture them!" said the ape commander, the soldiers rushed forward to attack Naruto and Spike.
"If you have the illusion that you could beat us then yes," Naruto spoke with a snarky tone.
One of the apes leapt in the air in an attempt to pounce, Naruto darted to the side and launched a double kick to the sending it flying away then he pointed a fore hoof at it "Chakra bullet!" a white magic circle appeared before a white orb shot out of it and slammed into its target as it crashed into a wall. Another ape soldier came from behind with claws bared to catch him off guard, however Spike saw it coming and quickly turned and launched his green fire breath to char the enemy as it yelped trying to put out the flames.
"Take that you monkeys!" said Spike smugly.
"Stay focused Spike and hang on!" Naruto ducked under a swipe and spin around while using his tail to perform an uppercut which sent the ape into the air, he quickly leapt after it with a chakra arm at the ready before delivering a powerful straight punch to take it out. In his descent, Naruto channeled magic into his horn to cast a spell.
"Fire lance!" Several spears of flames appeared around Naruto before shooting towards the ape soldiers and inflicted critical damage. The ape leader raised his shield to block the flaming projectiles before roaring out in rage and charging forward with his sword raised to strike down the pony and baby dragon.
"Naruto watch out!" shouted Spike.
"I got this, Kosei no Ha battle stance!" the azure broadsword appeared in flash of light and immediately moved forward to clash with the ape leader's sword. Spike breathed his green flames to attack but the ape leader raised his shield to block it.
"Your flames are too weak to burn me!" the ape leader sneered at them.
Naruto formed a chakra arm to grab the shield and wretched it out of his grip before throwing it away, then Spike launched his green flames again this time inflicting damage.
"Not so cool without your shield now huh?" said Spike with a smirk which is mirrored by Naruto who held out a fore hoof as a blue spinning orb took form then he quickly stepped forward and rammed it into his gut with the force sending him crashing through the wooden gate.
"That's them taken care of, now let's go find Spyro," said Naruto.
They jumped through the open gap of the gate and walked along a long corridor which ended with a spiraling staircase for them to ascend to the top, once there they saw a long stone bridge which is built over a deep chasm to the other side. Naruto and Spike proceeded to cross the bridge and were halfway when they heard a loud shriek which seemed to come from above and looked up to see what it was.
It was an enormous bat-like beast that is blue with purplish blue wings with a white brown fur, they also saw an ape riding immediately making it an enemy. The beast had already seen as the ape spurred it to perform a nose dive straight at Naruto and Spike. The duo got ready to retaliate however the beast opened its mouth to unleash a scream far more loudly than before making them cringe in pain.
"Aaaaah! My ears hurt!" shouted Spike painfully while covering his ears with his claws.
"Hang in there Spike!" Naruto looked up to see the beast almost upon them with its jaws wide open so as to chomp on them, he reached into his pouch with his tail before taking out a white crystal "Spike close your eyes!" then he threw it at the flying beast. When the crystal got close, it let out a bright flash of light which forced the ape and beast to close their eyes in pain and crash on the bridge.
"An eye for an ear! Windflaw Dash!" Naruto rushed forward with his body covered with wind and slammed into them with enough force to knock them off the bridge and into the chasm below.
"What a relief, that almost burst my eardrums," said Spike.
"Me too, let's get a move one before any more of those screaming bats show up," said Naruto before continuing to cross the bridge until reaching the other side where they descended down a spiral of stairs and through a corridor once more.
"Hey Naruto, look up," said Spike, Naruto complied with his friend's suggest and was surprised to see numerous icicles sticking out from the ceiling throughout the corridor.
"Yikes, we better be careful to not do anything to make them break off and fall on us," Naruto whispered with Spike nodding in agreement. They treaded lightly while keeping an eye on the icicles in case they would fall, suddenly the ground shook rather violently much to their shock but that was the least of their as they quickly looked up to see the icicles shaking before breaking off to fall towards them.
Spike used his fire breath to melt the ice "Naruto run!"
"One step ahead of you!" Naruto channeled chakra into his feet and took off at high-speed with the icicles falling behind them as if in pursuit, some of the icicles would ahead of them but Naruto would use the blade to slice them apart while Spike uses his fire breath any remaining before finally reaching the exit and leapt through before skidding to a stop in the center of a courtyard. Both looked back at where they just came from and left out a sigh of relief.
"That was too close, we almost got skewered," said Naruto, with Spike nodding in agreement. Looking around, the duo took note of numerous apes, more of those flying beasts sprawled out on the ground and strangely enough pieces of red and black armor clearly not belonging to any of the enemies around
"Looking at all this, it's safe to say that Spyro was here,"
"I bet that he went inside that cave after fighting them," Spike pointed at a dark cave entrance close by then the ground shook again and this time they heard a loud roar "And are fighting whatever that roar belonged to,"
"Then might as well join him in the party," Naruto ran into the cave and through the icy tunnel with the rumbles becoming louder as they drew close. Soon they reached the end of the tunnel which led to a large circular and came upon an interesting sight.
A small quadrupedal purple dragon with yellow medium-sized wings, large curved horns, a spiral-shaped spike on the tip of his tail, and spikes that resemble a Mohawk running along his spine. With him is what appears to be a yellow dragonfly that is currently hovering close to him.
Attacking them is what appears to be a humanoid covered in red metal armor, above its big armored helmet lie two horns made of ice, and wields a sword and shield also made of ice.
They watched as Spyro flapped his wings to quickly move backwards to evade a horizontal slash from the enemy's sword before opening his mouth to launch a fireball, the armored being raised its shield to block it but was shattered when the fiery projectile exploded upon impact.
"Spike, I need you to stay here where it's safe while I go and help out our soon to be friend," said Naruto before using his tail to place Spike on the floor.
"Okay Naruto, be sure to show em what you're made of!" said Spike.
"Sure thing bud!" Naruto dashed forward and leapt into the battlefield with orange aura emitting from his horn "Fire Lance!" he summoned more of the spear shaped flames around him before launching them at the armored enemy with all hitting their target and causing him to stumble backwards as he landed next to Spyro who looked at him in surprise of his sudden appearance.
"Hope you don't mind if I join in to help you," said Naruto as he stood at the ready with Kosei no Ha positioned on his back.
"Who are you?" asked Spyro.
"Oh sure, we just ask the guy who he is without worrying that he could be trying to kill us like ice king over?" said the dragonfly sarcastically.
"The name's Naruto Uzumaki and I'm here to help you guys out, can't say much more since that guy over there wouldn't give us the time," Naruto pointed a hoof at the ice king who made another shield out of ice and was charging towards them.
"Got a point there, don't wanna die in the middle of a conversation. For now you can call me Sparx and the big purple lizard is Spyro," said the now named Sparx.
The ice king let out a roar as he stomp the ground for shards of ice to fall from the ceiling above to fall on his enemies.
"Look out!" Spyro and Naruto quickly scattered to evade the incoming ice projectiles as the purple dragon opened his mouth to unleash a fire breath at the ice king who raised his shield to block the flames. Naruto dashed forwards with a chakra powered haymaker punch to shatter the ice shield into many pieces, the ice king attacked with a vertical slash at the orange pony.
"Shadow Clone jutsu!"
A pair of clones appeared alongside Naruto, the first clone darted to the front while transforming the blade into a shield to block the sword strike, the second channeled chakra to form a claw as he moved in between and sliced the sword into two. Naruto leapt over both clones and proceeded to perform a 5-hit combo on the defenseless ice king damaging him enough to knock off some parts of the armor.
The ice king roared out in rage as he opened his mouth to let out a blast of ice to hit Naruto and his clones who were too close to dodge, freezing them solid instantly. Then the enemy made a spiked mace out of ice and approached Naruto with the weapon raised above his head ready to smash.
"Naruto hang on!" Spyro rushed forward and shot a fireball with the explosion successfully knocking back the ice king, then he turned around to breathe fire onto the ice, instantly melting it for Naruto to break free although the clones disappeared in puffs of smoke.
"Phew, thanks for getting out of there. Now I know my food feels like when they're frozen in the fridge," said Naruto while shivering a bit.
"Other than seeing a pony use magic and swing a sword around, can we please focus our attention on the problem at hand?" said Sparx pointing at the approaching ice king.
"Yeah yeah, sure sure,"
Naruto raised a hoof for a white magic rune to appear before him "Chakra Bullet: Rapid Fire!" and small white orbs shot out if it straight towards the ice king, Spyro followed suit as he opened his mouth to fire a stream of electricity however the ice king raised a hand out and a transparent dome appeared around him with the attacks bouncing off much to their surprise, then he once more summoned ice shards to attack them but this time the duo were ready.
"Pyro Breath!" Naruto opened his mouth to unleash a stream of flames while Spyro did the same with his fire breath to combine to form a powerful flamethrower to melt the ice projectiles before they got any closer to them.
"And here I thought only dragons can breathe fire, guess it's a trend now," said Sparx.
"I'm going to end this with a fury attack!" said Spyro.
"Fury attack?" Naruto asked confusedly.
"Let's just say that it's one of his super moves taught to him by a big red dragon, so you might want to be somewhere else right about now," Sparx flew away right as Spyro slowly hovered in the air with fire gathering around him.
Getting an idea of what's going to happen, Naruto slammed a hoof on the ground and called out "Terra bunker!" the ground rumbled before forming a dome around Naruto, at that moment Spyro unleashed his attack as the fire rose up and exploded outwards. The ice king attempted to summon another forcefield to block the attack but he was too late as the flames quickly struck him before he could react, resulting in his defeat.
"Whoa, that was pretty cool," said Naruto once the earth dome crumbled away for him to see the ice king on the ground unmoving.
"Naruto!" the group turned to see Spike running towards and were surprised to see the color of his scales.
"Another purple dragon?! And here I thought Spyro was the only one!" said Sparx in disbelief.
"Well the thing is that Spike and I are not from around here, right now shouldn't we focus on helping the guardian dragon?" said Naruto.
"You're right," said Spyro.
The group went ahead to revive the yellow guardian whom they found out to be quite the motormouth much to their growing annoyance and a fast one at that.
"…miraculous, incredible, stupendous…a dragon and pony your size defeating that…that thing. Thank you, ah, ah…" the dragon named Volteer trailed off.
"Spyro," said Spyro.
"Naruto," said Naruto "Man this guy could possibly give Pinkie Pie a run for her bits,"
Volteer resumed talking "A purple dragon named Spyro along with the orange pony named Naruto, amazing. Of course there were substantial rumors of a purple dragon countless generations ago, then there were no records of a pony capable of performing such unique magic and I'm most curious of the baby purple dragon here with us…"
"No wonder they gagged this guy," Sparx muttered.
"Ditto," said Spike riding on Naruto's back.
"…and so much time has passed, so many things have been, but seeing all this tells me that I still have so much more to learn…" Volteer was still going on.
"Uh Mr. Volt sir? Shouldn't we get going?" asked Sparx.
"…Oh of course, but where to?" asked Volteer confusedly.
"Well…back to the dragon temple," said Spyro.
"A friend of yours is waiting," said Sparx.
"Ignitus?" asked Volteer.
"That's the one,"
"Of course! I've so much to tell him, many hypothesis to pose. I believe that…"
"Are all dragons of this world weird?" Spike whispered in Naruto's ear.
"Can't say for sure except for this one," Naruto responded.
With all things said, the group made for the dragon temple with Spyro leading the way, there they met a red dragon by the name Ignitus who was quite surprised to see the new additions especially when he saw Spike on Naruto's back. Naruto briefly explained to them that they weren't from around here and that they came to help them.
At the moment, Ignitus was having a conversation with Volteer…on the receiving end.
"Yes, yes, Volteer, it's good to see you as well but we don't have time to waste on sentiment. Back to Cynder…she was doing WHAT to you?" said Ignitus.
"Cynder's a chick?" asked Sparx.
"That's what caught your attention?" asked Spike.
Naruto and Spike were told that Cynder is a black dragon who was the reason why the war turned in the dark master's favor as she captured each of the guardian dragons off the battlefield until Ignitus was the only one left before he went into hiding.
"It's hard to be absolutely sure, Ignitus, but it seems she was using me as some suspended, organic power source," said Volteer.
"Huh?" Sparx looked confused at what he said.
"She was using him as a battery," said Spyro
"Why didn't he just so?"
"He did, but you didn't get it," said Spike.
"How did you understand?" asked Sparx.
"Living in a library with a pony who reads a lot can increase your vocabulary,"
"Not only that, she left with a glowing yellow orb and I believe that I somehow powered it. Does it mean anything to you Ignitus?" said Volteer.
Ignitus looked deep in thought "Perhaps…perhaps, what I do know is that we need to rescue the other guardians before Cynder can power anymore of those orbs,"
"I agree Ignitus, but first I'd like to impart some useful knowledge to Spyro vis-à-vis his recently-acquired electricity based device,"
"What?" once again Spike was confused.
"Must be talking about electric breath that Spyro used when we fought the ice king," said Naruto.
Sparx sighed in annoyance "Why didn't he just say so?"
"That's the second time you said that," said Spike.
Then Volteer and Spyro went to the training room with Naruto, Spike and Sparx coming along to watch but from a safe distance. There Spyro learnt to use his electric stream attack to shock enemies and throw them around like ragdolls, then he learnt how to suspend them in a makeshift electric cage in midair called the electric arc. And then he was taught the elemental fury attack based on electricity to summon dark clouds from the sky that will rain down thunderbolts everywhere.
"Whoa, so that's the power of a dragon…" said Spike in wonder.
"Kinda makes the dragons from our place look tame," said Naruto.
Afterwards, everyone made their back to the meeting to speak with Ignitus.
"Spyro and Naruto…Cyril the ice guardian was taken to Tall Plains," said Ignitus.
"Tall Plains?" asked Naruto.
"The Tall Plains was once home to a proud ancient tribe called the Atlawa,"
"Bless you," said Sparx.
"Sparx…" said Spyro with Naruto and Spike frowning at the dragonfly.
Ignitus continued with his explanation "The Atlawa were a people in tune with the rhythms of the seasons. Focused on their relationship to crops, their surroundings, their gods. They've all been driven underground by Cynder and her forces who've taken over the tribe's shrine,"
"Sounds like we could help the Atlawa by taking back their shrine as well as finding Cyril," said Naruto.
"Indeed, that's where I sense Cynder is keeping Cyril, trying to power another crystal. You must find him before she succeeds.
"Right, it's never easy, is it?" said Sparx.
"Nothing worthwhile ever is," said Spyro.
"Besides sometimes easy is kinda boring," said Naruto.
"You both being wise guys now?" asked Sparx.
"Let's just get going Sparx," said Spike before jumping onto Naruto's back.
With that, the group set out for Tall Plains on their mission to rescue the next dragon guardian and liberate an ancient tribe from the dark master's army.