The day passed rather slowly to her. Nothing to do, besides wait. Cynder had always considered herself patient, but even that had it’s limits. She was on edge, needed something to do, something that would stop the insistent itch across her scales. She had fought her way through hell multiple times over, killed beings the size of mountains, slaughtered entire armies by herself.
But boredom claimed her faster than any of them would.
Waiting around in this cell, without a clue as to where exactly she was. That...pony... or whatever she called herself had claimed they were in Equestria. Nothing like that had ever rung a bell with her. Despite her tactical awareness of most areas in the realms, a necessary skill she had acquired back when she served Malefor, it was useless as of this moment.
This Equestria had never been on any map she had ever seen. The creatures that Twilight was were even more foreign. Quadrupeds were a bit uncommon, dragons really being the only species in the realms that were not bipeds. So, what were they, and where did they come from? She racked her brain for an answer the remainder of the day, yet nothing came to mind.
This inability to find her answer quickly frustrated the inquisitive dragoness. Without anything to occupy herself and the answers to her questions remaining painfully out of reach, Cynder did the only thing she could think of. She planned.
Despite the seemingly peaceful intentions Twilight had portrayed, Cynder wasn’t so naive to believe that this was the case. Paranoia had saved her more times than she could count, and even though her examinations of the finer details of Twilight’s form leading her to believe that the pony belonged to a herbivorous, physically smaller species, the black dragoness refused to drop her suspicion.
Her own inability to trust had kept her out of danger, and she wouldn’t drop it in the face of these odds. For one, the cage she found herself in was almost perpetually demeaned of shadows. While this would’ve been unsurprising had Cynder been in the presence of someone who knew her past, it seemed unlikely this was intentional.
Why would they deprive her of her ability to shadow split if they didn’t even know she possessed it, then? Well, that was an answer that would be rather difficult to find cleanly. The dragoness made the decision to just wait until Twilight returned before jumping to any extreme conclusions.
Her reluctance to act on her limited information didn’t stop her from coming up with a plan however. The cell didn’t seem to be lit with natural light, and feeling out her control over wind didn’t yield any results. That only meant one thing: something outside of natural light was keeping this place from falling into darkness.
Cynder’s sense of time wasn’t her strongest area, so she wasn’t even sure if it was night yet. Guard shifts gave her no indication either. She hadn’t tried to talk to them, but given what stoicism she could see from her limited vantage point, they may have just refused to acknowledge her either way.
Speaking of Guards, they gave her another bit of data she used to formulate her plan. They were male, if their larger forms and square jaws were anything to go by. They were slightly unnerving, if she could be completely honest. She had observed them for a few minutes straight at one point, and they didn’t blink except for once during a large period of time. She wasn’t sure how they could remain completely motionless either.
The shift had only happened once in what she assumed had been several hours. If she hadn’t been keeping her hearing tuned on the limited breeze that flowed down in what she presumed was a network of tunnels, she would have missed it. If their commitment was anything to go by, their combat abilities wouldn’t be lacking.
Frustration quickly found her again. There wasn’t really much to work with here! Biting her tongue, Cynder halted what would’ve quickly turned into a string of curses that more than likely would have drawn a fair amount of attention that she didn’t want. Sitting down heavily, the stressed dragoness brought a paw to her head and rubbed her eyes, adjusting the steel choker around her neck for a moment.
Well, this was bound to be a long night. Again, without any way of judging time, Cynder quickly fell back into her pacing, opening up every little opening she had gathered from the place she found herself in.
Brute strength wouldn’t get her through those bars, she had pulled on them with the assistance of all her strength, but they refused to budge. Maybe if Spyro was at full strength he could break them, or melt them. Pushing her worry for him to the back of her mind before it could latch onto her, Cynder once again analyzed the entire area of her cell, looking for any weaknesses she could exploit.
A raw punch of convexity would smash through the bars without an issue. However, Convexity was rather volatile and one miscalculation of how much power she was feeding it could blow up the entire tunnel if not the whole damn castle. She would do it if it was her only way out, however she wanted to avoid killing until she needed to. Despite the imprisonment, she would rather avoid just outright slaughtering her captors. She knew she was running out of options at this point. None of her control over her power would allow her out of this cell without killing the guards outside of the door.
Though killing was outside of her to do list, she would resort to it if it meant her and Spyro’s safety.
As the hours passed, a pair of Guards appeared at the entrance to her cell. She eyed them from the corner of the room, noting their every moment. One was carrying a tray with something on it she couldn’t see, a glass of water blocking the view. The other she watched much more cautiously however.
This one was carrying some sort of metal pike. They clearly had access to metal in bulk and had ways of smelting it. She noted this without much surprise. The bolts and screws on her cell were of a firm, strong metal. Ponies clearly had access to a good amount of production and metal supplies. Long confrontation with them would end badly, she couldn’t make herself a long term threat to them.
Direct confrontation was very much unadvised, she surmised, not liking the odds one bit. Breaking from her thoughts, the one carrying the tray slid it through a narrow opening on the top off the bars, using that damned kinesis. That particular ability worked her up more than anything else.
Before she had been broken from Malefor’s control, she had heard that he had been working on plans to control objects with gems, giving the power to the apes so that dragon structures would almost always fail. That scared her, even when she was his slave did she feel that was putting too much trust in the loyalty of the apes that worked for her.
She prayed to the ancestors that this power was much less so in these ponies. Noting the connection that the aura surrounding an object was linked to the same color appearing around the horn of the pony wielding it, she presumed that it was the source of the power. “That is rather fragile, shouldn’t be too hard to break.” She thought grimly.
Clattering on the ground quietly, the tray dropped from the white aura surrounding it. She eyed it warily, somewhat nervous to touch it. Would the aura have some sort of lingering effect on her if she were to touch it? Hell she hoped not, she had enough unknowns to account for right now.
“Eat.” The guard said gruffly, before closing the slot at the top of her cell. Without another word the guards walked off, the clattering of the hooves fading into nothing.
Once they were gone, did Cynder move. Peering around the corner of the doorway outside the cell, she noted that guards from before were still there, unmoving. Snorting quietly, Cynder stepped up the tray, sitting back on her haunches.
Several large blue gems rested on the tray, along with a simple glass of water. Her eyes widened. Where the hell had they found blue spirit gems, and why would they give them to her? Blue spirit gems were something of a steroid for her kind, giving rather potent increases in total power levels. While dragons below the ages of those considered adult were never give them, she and Spyro had encountered them on their mission to defeat Malefor, she was intimately familiar with their extreme value.
She wondered briefly what she was supposed to be seeing on this tray that was edible. Slightly amused at the thought of them thinking that dragons absorbed spirit gems by eating them, she picked one up, before slamming it into the cobblestone floor. The gem shattered as expected, but the shards remained there, unmoving.
Glinting back at her tauntingly, Cynder frowned. “What…?” She pondered quietly, extremely confused as to why the shards weren’t absorbing into her body. Gently picking up one of the tiny bits that had broken off, she glared at it. She couldn’t feel the familiar internal energy that spirit gems contained. Instead the fragment stared back, unimpressed. It felt just like a normal rock.
Rather alarmed by this, Cynder set what remained of the blue crystal back on the tray, grabbing a different one. Repeating the process yielded the same results, leaving the black dragoness rather flustered. Scratching at the metal shackles that adorned her forearms, Cynder fell deep into thought.
Perhaps they had somehow drained the energy from them. Then why would they even give them to her in the first place? Was it supposed to be a taunt, meant to enrage her? Slightly indignant that they could be the case, Cynder set the crystal back on the tray, sweeping idly at the shards with a paw, collecting them into a tiny pile.
The guards simple exclamation from earlier rang back into her head. Perhaps these weren’t actually spirit gems. That still left the unanswered question of why they would expect her to eat rocks. Despite any explanation not coming to mind, the black dragoness just shrugged, shedding her previous frustration.
Realizing just how dry her throat was, the dragoness carefully took the glass in her claws. Tilting her head back, she poured the cool liquid down her throat. Gulping in as much as she could, she was careful to keep her claws wrapped tightly around the fragile glass. Breaking contact for a moment, she caught her breath.
As she went to return the glass to her lips, she accidentally pressed a little too hard. A small crack appeared on the side of the glass. Pausing for a moment, Cynder eyed the crack. Her mind whirled. They had given her...glass. Glass of all things to a prisoner.
The revelation tore through her like a tornado. Were they really this trusting or just very naive? Tilting her gaze up to make sure she was not being watched, Cynder quickly drank the rest of the cold water and set the glass down. She lifted a claw to the glassware, tracing the outline of the small crack.
Spinning the glass around, the dragoness made sure that she had enough area to enact her spur of the moment opportunity. With extreme care, she dug a claw into the glass, watching with unblinking eyes as her claw slowly sunk into it’s surface. The tip of her claw broke through cleanly. Blinking once, relieved that she hadn’t damaged the glass beyond her intended target, Cynder carefully, slowly brought the clean cut upwards to just before the tip of the glass, making a jagged, bladed outline around the top. Again, she creeped her claw down the opposite side of the incision, bringing it to a round curve at the bottom. Making the two incisions meet at the middle, the newly cut shard of glass fell lightly into her open paw.
Hiding what remained of the glass around the large blue gems, she eased the tray back closer to the bars, making sure that her handiwork wasn’t noticeable. It took a bit of doing and a few close calls, but the remains of the glass silently slid around and under a pile of the gems. Taking a step back, Cynder eyed the small shard resting in her open paw. Claws were plenty deadly, but they were not something she could use at range.
Slipping the shard carefully against the upper half of her paw, easing it into place under one of her metal bracers, rounded side out. Once she was sure of it’s stability and that it wouldn’t accidentally slice her, Cynder returned to the darkest corner of the room, biding her time and waiting for her opportunity.
If the lights didn’t dim soon, she would get her and Spyro out of this place, one way or another.
*
It didn’t take very long. Shortly following the next rotation of guards, which to her felt like several minutes, did the lights go. They seemed to fade into black out of nowhere. Ever present light that had flowed from the entirety of the ceiling was suddenly gone. She felt the entrance of her element flow through her, the slight weakness that the constant exposure to the combination of light, stress, and boredom conjuring seemed to dissipate.
Getting up, Cynder silently crept to the edge her cell. Thankfully the Guards hadn’t bothered to check the tray they had given her. Were her captors really that foolish, with a shake of her head at their ignorance, Cynder cast her gaze outwards. The two outside the narrow door to her cell were still facing outwards in the hall, completely oblivious.
Closing her eyes, Cynder tapped into her control over shadows. If one were to look, it was as if she had just vanished. To her eye, she sunk into the floor, the world seeming to flip along with her. In this state, the areas that happened to be lit by torchlight appeared as areas engulfed in darkness, while what was in actuality darkness, was easily visible to her.
Stepping through the bars, the dragoness pondered her next move quickly. Even in this form she couldn’t risk the movement right by the guards, they would feel the cold chill of her form touch them slightly, giving them the idea to maybe check on her. Instead, she spread her influence through the wall diagonally.
Her shadowy form seemed to split into fragments, jumping alongside the top corners of the wall and upon the ceiling. As the shards of shadow moved by unseen, they converged back into a vague inclination of her natural form back down a ways in the hallway, leaving no disturbances in it’s wake.
It seemed her previous theories were right. Her expanded vision told her that hallway was a large square section of hallways with a cell the same as her own on each outside edge of the square, 4 in total, including hers. Her vision into the actual interior of the cells was limited. She would have to look through them the old fashioned way.
Cutting off the semi-clairvoyance before it could drain her already weaker than normal stamina of anything else, she quickly moved down the hall. With care to avoid the occasional torch lighting the hallway, she slid her form down the hall. Not a sound was made, nor a single fluctuation of the natural shadows surrounding her.
Rounding the first corner, she spotted nothing but an empty hall. Presuming that Spyro’s door was guarded in a similar, if not exactly the same fashion as hers, it would seem he wasn’t in the cell on this particular section. Sliding down to the door presented her with an empty cell, devoid of anything other than same rudimentary arrangements as her own.
Interestingly, the far wall lacked the hook and ring that adorned the back wall of her own cell. It would seem that most prisoners down here weren't restrained.
Growling at the inconvenience and the power drain she felt the shadow step having, the sound being rather distorted, Cynder moved through the long hallway at an increased rate. Once again avoiding the torches, the shadowy dragoness crept around the next corner, this one seeming to be slightly more lit than that of the previous one. Wondering at the odd burst of light, she paused. Her initial inspection hadn’t picked up on any patrols, at least none that were lit. Perhaps just a torch closer to the wall this time.
Cautious, she peered around the corner, her billowing form of shadows drawing back in the presence of the light from a torch rapidly approaching her. Nearly at the corner, a guard approached, a lit torch floating in his telekinetic grip. Startled at the unexpected patrol that hadn’t appeared on her first stretch of clairvoyance, the dragoness drew on as much of her element as she could. Though the action nearly rendered her unconscious at the sudden use, Cynder once again broke her form off again, this time into much narrower shards of shadow. She cast herself into the corners of the ceiling, hiding from most of the light.
The pony walked the hallway rather leisurely, and Cynder felt her blood running in her ears. Weakening rather substantially as she struggled to hold the corporeal form, Cynder trembled in her own mind. The instant that she felt she could move, she reattached herself, the nearly invisible billowing shadows coming together once again.
Shakily, she raised a paw to her chest. She was ice cold, though that was to be expected in this state, but her heart was beating rather rapidly and she felt the drain it was starting to have on her was making her shroud contract and fluctuate at an alarming pace. She knew she would have to be careful. Not exiting this form properly could be disastrous, possibly with her ending up partially fused into a wall. Taking a quick breather, she once again rounded the corner.
As expected, there they were. The two cookie cutter cutouts that plagued her door. Groaning silently, Cynder rolled her eyes. Why did they all look the exact damn same? Creeping to within a few feet of them, Cynder made a quick decision. The dragoness’s stamina was already draining, the weakness in her bones becoming more substantial.
Throwing caution to the wind, she sped between the two guards, splitting herself around the bars. Hiding in the corner closest to the edge of the door frame, she held her breath. The guards seemed to feel the cold wind that was her shadowy form. She caught the eyes of one as it took a peek inside of the cell.
It’s gaze didn’t leave easily. Making sure to scan every inch of the room. Doing her best to remain absolutely still, Cynder hoped that she hadn’t been compromised. The guard’s eyes seemed to settle on her corner, a piercing gaze starting directly into her. A moment passed and she felt her nerves about to snap. Before she could lunge from the shadows and silence him however, he turned his eyes back forward with a snort.
Shakily letting out the breath, Cynder faded back in slightly, letting lose some of the tension she had been holding. Bringing a paw up, she checked her body. Seemed everything was in place. Peeking around the corner of the bars for a moment, making absolutely certain she was covered, the dragoness moved slowly.
Stepping from the shadows, she melted back into her standard form. A sharp pain struck her side. Neck turning, her eyes darted down to her right forearm. A thick scrape was torn across the bottom of the limb, bleeding slowly. Wincing, she cursed her incompetence. The process of forming the shadows that contained her form back together was messy, sometimes wounds came as a result of missing a particular spot.
Despite the aching pain, the dragoness was relieved to step from the shadows. The ability was often heavily draining, limiting it’s use. Not much she could do about it, the limits of reality were rather defined. Mother Earth didn’t like having her rules broken.
Sitting back on her haunches for a moment, Cynder brought the opposite paw up to the wound. With a grunt, she clasped the paw all the way around her leg. A moment later a dim green glow pulsed through her claws and back into the covered wound. It only lasted a second, but the weak neurotoxin did it’s work, clotting her blood and erasing most of the sharp stinging almost instantly. Unclasping the limb, she checked her results.
No bleeding, good. Still stung like a bitch to do that though.
Getting back up silently, her attention turned to the limp figure lying at the back of the room. Plodding over grimly, Cynder sat by the figure’s side. He was utterly limp, purple scales seemingly paler than normal. Hesitantly bringing a paw to his side, Cynder nearly collapsed in relief when she felt his natural body heat burning back, however it was noticeably diminished. It was just then that she noticed his condition.
Most of him was covered in thick swaths of white fabric, seemingly mummifying his body. Eyes watering a bit, she rolled him over. Facing her, she could truly see the extent of the injuries covering his body.
His throat was wrapped in bandages, with most of the attention on the sides of his neck. Along the lines of his horns, rows of similar fabric, stained in red, covered most of his head. His closed eyes remained uncovered and for that she was extremely thankful. At least he hadn’t been blinded. Despite the steady breathing, he seemed to be forcing the breaths out a bit, almost as if his throat was partially blocked.
The tough scale plates of his belly and chest were more or less unharmed. A bandage or two stuck to him, most of them on the narrow spots where plate met scale. Nodding once to herself, she was happy that the plates served their intended purpose.
She had to restrict the gasp that threatened to break her cover. His hind legs were mangled, torn to shreds by the looks of it. She couldn’t even make out what was supposed to be under them. The heavy blanket of white prevented a single hint of purple from even shining through. They extended from the tips of his claws about half way up, becoming much less dense around the area where the hindlegs themselves connected to his torso.
It was impossible for her to tell exactly the type of wounds those bandages hid, but the amount alarmed her. It must have been rather bad for this amount of coverage. Her mind wandered back to the conversation with Twilight earlier that day. She had mentioned offhandedly that he had been in surgery longer than she had.
Her injuries were nothing to scoff at either, they certainly would’ve been lifethreathing if she hadn’t been helped. But this was bad, it was a wonder he was even alive. “Another perk of being purple, it looks like.” Cynder thought grimly. The blood loss alone should’ve ended him. Thank the ancestors for the red gems that he had thought to bring along with them.
Bringing a paw up to the side of his face, she cradled it gently. The emeralds in her eyes shined with moisture. Closing her eyes tightly, she leaned down and kissed his snout gently. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that I even suggested leaving.” The distraught dragoness whispered, almost inaudibly. Her tail fell limp on the ground.
Cradling his head in her paws, she pressed her own against his. Whispering sweet nothings to him, hoping to ease his and her own pain, the black dragoness scooted closer. The feel of his heat brought some comfort to her.
The stress and anger mixed. Fear and worry had made her body feel weak to this point. As she stared at his half-dead body, held limply in her arms, the dragoness felt herself near her breaking point. If she hadn’t suggested they leave for the Mushroom Forest they wouldn’t be in this mess. They would be safe and happy in their room, or enjoying their day together. He would be smiling and laughing, not barely breathing, dying slowly in this unknown place. But instead, they both found themselves horrifically wounded, trapped in a cold, dark prison.
It was too much. Before she felt herself break completely, the dragoness had the foresight to conjure up a stream of concentrated wind. Spreading it quickly across the bars, she filtered any sound from the interior of the cell into the walls, the sound waves unable to get through the condensed stream of wind.
Trembling hard, the dragoness shattered. With heavy sobs, she pulled him closer. Nuzzling into him as pained cries shook her body. Reaching desperately for him, hoping for him to wake, to hold her and tell her it was all going to be fine. Nothing came, and so she, stuck in the cold loneliness, unleashed the full weight of her sorrow, stress, and anger upon her unconscious companion.
Moaning painfully into the air, she whined his name over and over. Careful not to aggravate his fragile form, Cynder drew her tattered wings around him, holding the limp body tightly against her shaking form. Most of the day she had been able to block out the fear, to focus on survival. Now, with him in her grip, mind no longer occupied, she couldn’t take it. Large drops of tears splashed against his head and muzzle as she held him tightly against her.
His weight was heavy, as it was dead weight. Despite the pain growing not only in her heart, but in her forearms and wings, she held on. Afraid to let go. Afraid to be alone. Afraid to lose the only lifeline she had. Every shuddering, heaving breath hurt her lungs. Every sniffle burned her throat.
As she lay there, cradling him, sobbing heavily, the minutes passed slowly. She didn’t care that she was spending too much time here. She didn’t care that she was compromising her entire plan. She just wanted to be secure. Even with him close to death, Spyro was her net, and it felt genuine. Even more so than before, she felt the determination swell. Despair crushed her soul, but she tried to endure. To brave the pain by herself, because for now, she must. She needed him, but now he needed her even more.
She would not leave him here. Even if she died, she would not let him rot in this prison alone.
About another twenty minutes had passed before her eyes began to dry. Feeling rather drained, Cynder sniffled, bringing a paw up to wipe her eyes. Her reddened eyes found his face again. He had not stirred even slightly by her pained shaking and sobbing. Sighing heavily and shakily, the dragoness began to mentally piece herself back together.
Once again idly stroking his face and horns with her claw tips, the dragoness lost herself deep in thought. She had planned on busting him out of here and escaping into the night under the cover of complete darkness. That didn’t seem too possible now. He was not nearly an any condition to move, let alone fight his way out of a castle that was most likely littered with guards.
She herself was feeling exceptionally drained and weak now as well. She couldn’t carry him and fight at the same time. Fear rose within her once more. This entire situation was still an unknown to her. They could be keeping them alive for any number of reasons and she wasn’t yet willing to believe they were doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.
What was their damn motive!
Anger crawled it’s way to the surface, easily finding hold in her frazzled emotions. There was no way out now. They had fallen down a deep pit. What really worried her was that she wasn’t sure if this was the bottom of if they still had a good ways to go. Whatever happened to them was largely out of her control. That feeling really pissed her off.
Suppressing the urge to snarl, Cynder grit her fangs tightly. Caged once again. The feeling of being unable to control her path was one that could easily set her inner demons back out again. Rage was a powerful emotion, and nothing was more enraging to her than being trapped, chained like an animal.
“Never again.” She thought. “Never again.”
Setting Spyro’s head back onto the ground gently, Cynder pushed herself upright. One way or another, she would control this situation. She would bide her time. Regardless of their reasoning, they were healing her and Spyro. They would live their purpose. For now, she would gather as much information about their surroundings.
Assuming that Twilight kept true to her word and revisited her, she would drag every answer out of her as she could. Manipulation of such a naive mind shouldn’t be too hard. If the pony’s intentions were really peaceful and harmless, she would get it out of her. Until then, she would wait. Lie in wait like a predator ambushes it’s prey.
Giving one last longing look at her eviscerated partner, Cynder dispelled the cover of wind soundproofing. Walking up to the bars, she closed her eyes. Channeling what strength she had left, Cynder once again melted into the shadows. The pull came almost immediately. She knew she couldn’t hold this form for very long, the danger was all too severe.
Slipping through the bars, Cynder wasted no time, shooting past the guards. Racing by them, she heard their collective grunts of confusion. She didn’t waste the time to even check if she had been detected. Shadowy paws colliding with hard stone at such a pace hurt, but she pressed forward.
It seemed as if the universe was completely against her tonight. As she neared the corner of the hallway she had first entered from, a very familiar flash of light approached. Unable to simply break her momentum, Cynder split herself off, mashing herself against both walls. Stopped completely, the exhausted dragoness barely managed to pull herself together before a torch bearing pony rounded the corner.
Once more taking off down the corridor away from the harsh light, the dragoness barrelled down the opposite way, just barely moving around torches. The pain of having bits of her shadow melted away momentarily was excruciating. Wanting to scream, Cynder pushed herself on ward. Just missing the ponies guarding the door, the shadows jerked around them, moving at a slowing pace down to the edge of the corridor.
Hearing the start of an agitated conversation, Cynder moved beyond the bend of the hall. She was close now. Tiredly plodding down the torchless hall, she began to feel her consciousness wane. Drawing upon every ounce of spare energy and willpower, Cynder swiftly moved through the corridor.
The complete darkness down this path made it much easier, not having to side step around splotches of torchlight.
The bend came soon enough. Around it, she was greeted by the ever present sight of the white pony guards standing motionlessly outside the entrance to the room which her cell sat.
It didn’t take much effort to get around them, but by this point the workload felt virtually impossible. Slipping between the torch light nearly killed her. Getting around the bars was even worse. However the second she was safely inside the cell, and this time properly put back together, Cynder stepped from the shadows.
Stumbling and falling on her side heavily, Cynder panted quietly. Her limbs felt like they were on fire, a very stark contrast from the ice cold temperature her shadow step caused her to experience. The sharp change in temperature brought along a substantial aching, trembling feeling throughout her body.
Moaning helplessly into the damp cell, Cynder rolled on her side. Scrambling backwards as best she could, the dragoness pressed herself against the farthest wall, the cool temperature easing her body slightly. Bringing a paw up to her chest, the limb shaking as she did, she caught the gaze of a confused guard. She only growled back for a moment. He appeared unimpressed then returned to his forward vigil.
Biting back a string of indignant curses, the female lay herself down, doing her best to calm her rapidly beating heart. The ache in her body seemed to pulse along with the quick strokes of her heart, the blood circulating through her body felt like lava. The feeling was soon replaced by a sense of utter exhaustion permeating every cell of her body.
Grunting uncomfortably, Cynder lolled her tongue out, breath hard, but holding in as much as she was able to. It took some time, but eventually her body began to calm down, attempting to piece itself after the near death of it’s host by overexertion.
Minutes passed and Cynder found herself once again in control of her breathing and shaking limbs. Slowly, her breathing evened and the shake started to level out. Dropping her forearm tiredly, the dragoness laid her body out.
“That was too close.” She whispered to herself. Feeling the exhaustion bearing down on her, Cynder closed her eyes. Despite the breakdown, she felt a bit better just knowing he was alive. For her that was enough. They would be fine, they would survive. She would do what she could from here. With that final thought, the dragoness let her mind go and the exhaustion claimed her.
*
“Spike? Spike!? Spiiiike?” A hollered out, calling for said Spike at around earth shattering decibels. Those around the voice would roll their eyes at the listlessness of the speaker. The calls stopped abruptly however.
Twilight stood motionless for a moment, as if stunned by her own forgetfulness, a rather unusual break of character for her. A moment or two later, the lavender Alicorn sighed and shook her head. “I forgot he’s not here.” She pouted for a moment, a childish frustration appearing momentarily.
Shaking her head, the mare trotted to her desk, retrieving a quill and pen in her magical grip. Scribbling down a list of daily chores, she paced in circles around the center of her rather spacey bedroom, though most would say her head had that room beat on space by a good margin.
“Hopefully he returns from Ember soon, I miss having him around.” She muttered wistfully. His venture back to dragon territory had taken a little convincing on his part. She was still a bit worried about him going back there without her, however Ember had assured her he would be in good hands.
Though, having both of them, particularly Ember would be very convenient right now. She still was little bit unsure of what to do about her two visitors downstairs. She planned on eventually letting them wander once their wounds had healed up, but she was a little worried for the safety of those in Ponyville.
She wasn’t xenophobic, not like nearly all of Ponyville, but she had gotten some rather harsh vibes from the female, Cynder. It may have just been she was stressed by her circumstances, but the dragoness gave off a rather unstable vibe.
Maybe after she conversed with her later would she judge whether or not she needed to contact Ember and have them escorted back. Ember would probably a little annoyed about having to come this far, but it was her subjects that had nearly caused a rather bad incident.
Giving it some thought, Twilight still wasn’t sure what to believe regarding what Cynder told her. The dragoness, aside from her attitude, was a bit of an enigma. Her body was unlike any dragon she had encountered.
Jet black scales, walked on four legs, and bearing more substantial scarring than even some of the nearly primordial dragons she had met. Truly a stranger indeed. But, they hadn’t actually harmed anypony, so she couldn’t keep them locked down there forever. Well at least Cynder anyway. The purple one most likely wouldn’t be moving much for a while.
Making up her mind, Twilight added “Discuss Freedom with Cynder” to the bottom of her schedule for the day. Checking the list and making sure it was up to par, Twilight rolled up the list and stuck it into her saddle bag. Floating the pen back to it’s spot on her desk, Twilight proceeded to her door.
Flipping the lock up, the mare galloped down the long set of crystal stairs, finding the castle empty aside from the two stallions on either side of the front gate. Trotting over to the massive archway that served as the front door, she greeted the guards with a friendly smile. Each of them nodded silently in unison, keeping their normal stoic posture.
Rolling her eyes at their serious behavior, Twilight pushed the gate open, to which each of the stallions replied with a bow and waved her forward.
A bright sunny day shined down on her as she exited the castle. Glad to see that the weather team had planned a beautiful afternoon on this weekend, Twilight happily strolled down the dirt path leading into Ponyville.
“Ok, so first I need some lunch.” Her stomach growled in response. “Yeaaah, definitely some lunch.” Heading still on her directed course into town, Twilight surveyed the skies. A momentary scan revealed what she had expected and she shook her head.
No sign of her captain of the guard. More than likely out doing faust knows what. Despite the infraction, this didn’t really bother Twilight all that much. The position was more or less formal, not too much of a guard presence was really needed in the town as due to her friends being it’s primary protectors.
However, it was rather unusual for Dash not to be flying around and about town on this kind of day. “She’s probably not even out of bed yet.” The alicorn mumbled to herself, a lopsided grin on her face as she thought of the chromatic pegasus still asleep on a Saturday afternoon. Lazy one she could be when she tried.
As the view of Ponyville came more into view, Twilight notice that the town was a little more deserted than to be expected on a Saturday afternoon. While not too much of a difference, there was a reasonably noticeable desertion about the town, with only a few ponies aside from shopkeepers really milling about.
Pondering this as she approached, Twilight couldn’t really come up with much of an answer. Lighting up her horn, she scanned the town as best she could from distance. Moments later she found her answer. For whatever reason, many of them were inside the bakery. Racking her brain gave no answer.
Deciding to dwell on that after lunch, the lavender mare, entered town. Those who she came across greeted her cordially. Noting a general air of unease around those who wandered about, twilight attributed it to them being a little nervous after the past few days.
“Not that I even blame them.” She murmured aloud. “Been some weird things going on as of late.” As she quickly trotted her way around, she came to a stop at an outdoor restaurant serving her usual lunch. Daisy sandwiches, couldn’t ever go wrong with the simplicity. The waiter didn’t even have to ask what she wanted.
Twilight chuckled. She had a reputation for being a rather punctual mare. Settling down as she ate, she rolled open her bag, producing her long list of daily activities. Quickly checking off Lunch as she munched on her sandwich, the lavender mare’s eyes scanned the next part of the list.
“Find Rainbow Dash (Good luck with that) and investigate outskirts of Everfree forest further.”
The investigation had previously been postponed after the chaos had almost driven the town into a panic. Twilight had been so caught up with making sure the town didn’t implode and getting those dragons to the nearest hospital that she had been unable to procure a thorough investigation of the mysterious area around the Everfree.
Rainbow was going to help with that, but she was the only one that could fly the dead weight to the hospital in time. The spell Twilight had cast on them hadn’t even slightly worked, that just seemed to absorb the energy. Dragons often had that effect. What an aggravating skill.
Finishing up her sandwich, Twilight rolled up the list and put it back in it’s place. Leaving a few bits in her table, the mare got on her hooves and thought for a moment. Now, where would Dash be. She supposed that if she wasn’t somewhere already in the sky she was most likely asleep.
Although, the commotion at the bakery wasn’t a bad first place to check. Nodding to herself once, twilight blinked to the front door of the bakery. A noticeable amount of noise was being made, even from the outside.
Slowly pushing the door open, the mare peeked inside to find an interesting sight. A large crowd of ponies was gathered around a pink mare standing on top of the counter, waving her hooves around in all directions as she animatedly told a story.
“...They were all firing lazers everywhere! Blasting everything with weird funky purple energy, and do you know where they got it from?!” The crowd all seemed to shake their heads, looking a little bit perturbed. The pink mare took a deep breath, making the crowd bate it’s own breath. Casting her eyes around the entire crowd several times, then she spoke “I don't know!” She said cheerfully, jumping off the counter and getting behind it once again.
The crowd gaped at her, groaning as they all realized they had been duped by the pink mare’s persistent randomness once more. Twilight rolled her eyes with a large grin on her face. Scanning the crowd she found the mare she had been looking for.
Dash leaned over the counter. “Got em good pinks!” She whispered, slapping hooves with the pink mare. Pinkie just nodded, holding in her laughter. She smiled brightly as she saw her purple friend walk up the counter.
“Hiya Twi!” The pink mare greeted, her normal bubbly tone echoing around the building. Most didn’t hear this though as they had mostly filed out of the building in muted disappointment.
“Hey.” Twilight greeted back calmly. “Sorry Pinkie, but I gotta steal Rainbow from you for a few. I’ll be back with her shortly." The pegasus in question gave her a confused glance. Before she could open her mouth, the mare behind the counter beat her to it.
She shook her head, the smile still on her face. “No problem Twilight, I’ll catch up with you two later.” With a weirdly voiced ‘ta-ta’ the bubbly mare trotted through a door at the back of the room.
Rainbow turned to her as their pink friend left. “Well that was strange. So, what’s up Twi?” The pegasus gave her the trademark smirk.
“We still have to handle the investigation of the place where the two dragons appeared.”
“Oh the one’s that nearly blew up Ponyville?” The pegasus replied with a sarcastic tone, her wings twitching reflexively.
“Yeah.” Twilight deadpanned. “Those are the one’s.”
“Hmm.” Rainbow hummed falling in step beside the Alicorn as they left the bakery. Rainbow popped off the ground hovering above the ground beside Twilight. “So, they give you anything?”
Twilight glanced at her. “Well only the girl woke up, you know, the one with the black scales?” Rainbow nodded so she continued. “Couldn’t remember much and had a bit of a stale attitude, but she said her name was Cynder.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Dragons, what is with em?” Dropping the slightly agitated stance, she perked up. “Cynder huh?” She said the word, tasting it on her tongue a few times.
“Yeah, and the purple one is Spyro.”
“Oh?” She seemed a bit more interested. “He was rather...beat up. How’d you get him to wake up?”
“He didn’t, but Cynder told me his name. Couldn’t get much else out of her though.” Twilight seemed a bit pouty that she was being denied information and Rainbow laughed.
“They’ll have to give something eventually. It’s not like they can leave.”
“They aren’t prisoners, Dash. Once they are in better condition they can got back to where they came from.”
“What!” She exclaimed, giving the Alicorn an incredulous look. “Not criminals? They nearly blew up Ponyville and almost killed two ponies that got near them!” The pegasus scoffed.
Twilight breathed a sigh tiredly. “I know. Listen, let's just find out what we can, we’ll decide what to do about them later. For now, they are just considered hospitalized.”
Rainbow gave her a strange look. “Not sure they are gonna buy that Twi. Patients don’t usually have armed guards.”
Twilight didn’t answer. Soon enough the imposing figure of the Everfree arrived on the horizon. The forest seemed darker as of late, much more foreboding than it had ever been before. The signs of the confrontation a few days previous were still rather visible.
Craters pockmarked the immediate area around where the two dragons had first been spotted. It wasn’t a very long walk to the site, Twilight could still sense the strange magical residue from nearly a mile away. Within minutes the small dips in the ground became more common.
Closer to the site, the ground and surrounding fauna had been twisted and gnarled in unusual ways. Anything from stray trees being bent all the way 90 degree to the side, to entire patches of grass and flowers being dead or withering. Something strange was happening here.
The actual area that dragons had been spotted wasn’t very difficult to locate. A large patch of grass with blood stained into it and the dirt marked where the mortally wounded dragons had been rescued...or captured. Shaking her mind free of the slight guilt that Rainbow’s argument had made, she examined the grass in further detail.
“Dash, go see if you can find anything of interest.” The pegasus saluted and without a word took to the skies. It seemed that she knew it was time to get down to business. Twilight didn’t watch her go, instead she examined the grass intently.
The Alicorn lit her horn, plucking a few clumps of the sticky material. The dark red substance had gone well beyond drying by this stage. Twilight attuned her horn to feel around the blood itself. Blood, even very old blood contains trace amounts of magical signatures. This blood, if it’s fresh enough can be linked to magical output’s given by the pony it belonged to. The magical essence was latent, so it didn’t matter if the blood belonged to a unicorn or not.
She was having trouble here though. This blood contained nothing she was familiar with. The latent energy was there, but it was strange. Foreign. Alien.
It was obvious it belonged to one of the two dragons, but she couldn’t grasp the magical signature the blood contained. It wasn’t something her magic could lock onto. Usually when this technique is used to identify either victims or criminals, the signature is picked up from the blood and logged within the aura of the investigator, something like computer storage. While the signature wasn’t like a tracking device that will lead to somepony directly, if their aura is on file somewhere, the two can be matched.
Suspects in crimes are brought in and blood is drawn to gather the latent signatures of who it could belong to. The process is virtually impossible to trick or fake, let alone mess up. But that begged the question of why this particular signature was slipping through her grasp like sand through fingers. It wasn’t because they were dragons, that much she knew.
Spike had his aura on file. Though hard to do and often requiring a bit of effort, Twilight had no issues encompassing and capturing the signature. But this was downright impossible. It shouldn’t be possible for this to be happening. It wasn’t like she could touch it but it kept moving, it was as if she fazed through it every time she tried to grasp it. It was almost like it was in a different dimension…
The revelation made her sick. That explained everything. Their strange appearance, Cynder’s ignorance to her kind, their unusually powerful magical signatures. It explained the odd happenings that the Everfree went through that night.
It explained why Cynder seemed so reluctant to talk, to give away anything. The dragoness knew all along what had happened to her that night, yet she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to give away that her, a very powerful being from the strength of her signature and the quick nature at which she healed from her wounds, was nearly slaughtered by something she couldn't fight.
It explained why their injuries weren’t of anything this world could make. Why they seemed so abnormally terrified when they were first found. They weren’t having delusions based on some creepy thing they had seen in the Everfree by chance. They didn’t come from the Everfree. They didn't come from Equestria or the Dragon Kingdom. They didn't originate from Equis at all.
They were from a different dimension. A different reality.
And something brought them here.
Something was hunting them after arriving in the Everfree.
As if the world was trying to make her realize something was horribly wrong, an unearthly rumble resonated from within the forest right in front of her. That sound was horrible. It didn’t sound like thunder…
It was almost like….bells….and sirens.
She cast her gaze up, terrified and caught the gaze of something staring at her. It was gone the second she looked. A chill went down her spine and she took several steps back, her heart pounding in her ears. Visions flooded her head, brief scenes of catastrophe flashing through her magically sensitive mind. Screaming at the top of her lungs with magically amplified vocals for Rainbow Dash to follow her, the mare turned tail and ran off, faster than ever before.
She had just gotten herself involved in something. She was desperately hoping it wasn’t too late to back out.