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// 1 
// Story: Cynder's battle for peace 
// by AstralFlame 
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There are just some things that life can’t prepare you for. Waking up in a cage? Maybe. Turning into the opposite sex? I don’t think so, changing into a different species that was thought to be nothing more than a myth? Definitely not. And yet this is where I found myself.

I guess I should explain, you see, my name, my real name, is Brandon Barnett. I am….I was a 21 year old. I had a slight weight problem, a lack of energy a bad temper and I loved weed even though I had only recently started to smoke. It started at a Party, which was an odd place for shit to hit the fan but it was a party nonetheless.

I have never been the popular type, I did what I needed to, kept my head down and read a lot or played Video games. Most would think I was antisocial, and they would be right, to a degree. You see I was a very no nonsense person, when it came to matters of importance. Paying bills, going to school and getting good grades, Making sure I had enough money so that when I finally moved out of my dad's house I wouldn't have to struggle to eat.

Because of the way I was socially, I could recognize and avoid drama and the BS of the common man. Whereas the average high school guy was worried about going to prom and finding the hottest chick to go with, I was more concerned with whether or not I had to study my ass off to pass an american government class. When said high school guy was starting to wonder if his Girlfriend, the cheerleader, was cheating on him with Brad, the football captain, I would wonder what book I should read next.

Now that’s not to say I was perfect or that I was infallible, I had made many mistakes in my teen years. Breaking into the high school I would later attend just to steal some poptarts had not been the smartest move, nor had it been a good idea to break a CD and set off a fire extinguisher which would later result in me being caught.

I was not perfect, and I had made many dumb and stupid mistakes, but when it came to me and the world as a whole, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on things, and I tended to avoid all the things that seemed irrelevant. Which is why I was so confused to be at a party. While in High school I had never even heard a whisper of someone throwing a party, and if I had I would have paid it little mind, the thought of attending a party with people I barely knew, who I hated just a little bit, and who I wouldn’t talk to in the halls let alone the street, it all repulsed me.

To me, Parties were bad choices were made and pregnancies started, so to find myself in the middle of a party was confusing beyond measure. I attended a local community college. I had no cash for a vehicle and I had to take the bus to get to and from school, tickets for said bus were paid with student aid money. It was the beginning of a new semester, and my job life and my school life had gotten tangled up in my schedule.

This day, there was to be a lunar eclipse, an event that didn’t happen often, and I was determined to view it, but I didn’t want to attend classes this day, so instead I began looking around the campus. In my searches through the warm morning sun, I came across a line of houses setting just on the edge of a nearby lake. Students could use rent these houses so that they could be near the college. I don’t know how I’d gotten swept up in the party.

One Minute I was standing outside looking in thinking that this was wasted time, effort and money, I could see the red solo cups and hear the loud music, the various people walking in and out with smiles and laughing told me of how they were all having fun, then the next thing I knew I was standing beside some girl, with a cup of vodka in my hands, laughing at some stupid joke some guy had made.

I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having! I would normally hate these kinds of things, the close proximity to a bunch of people I didn’t know, the loud speakers that blared some song by some rapper I didn’t care to know about, even the scent of body sweat and vomit didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.

I was nodding my head to the music chiming in at odd times as I repeated the lyrics, most I butchered I’m sure, and I was drinking. A lot. I remember my cup running empty and before I could go and grab another, someone had pushed a new, full, cup into my hands. I hastily gave out a thanks before I downed half the cup.

Before I could finish though, someone had turned off the music. “Alright ya’ll! Eclipse is starting soon so every grab your glasses and head outside!” Someone yelled causing me to look in that direction, however I didn’t seem him. I was surprised and went to check my phone.

I didn’t realize that I had been at that party for nearly 4 hours. The intoxication and the music had scattered my thoughts and made things hazy. Although to be honest, the room didn’t start spinning until recently. Shaking my head I turned towards the door with the rest of the others as I grabbed my own pair of lunar eclipse glasses. I struggled to get them on before I realized I had to take my own glasses off.

Like the others I was staring up at the sky, however where others seemed to be fine and able to keep their balance, I seemed to be stumbling. People began to chant down from ten, as if this was new year's eve and they were counting the seconds until the new year, I on the other hand couldn’t think, I could barely keep my eyes open. All that liquor had made me drowsy and I struggled not to pass out. When they reached 1 the world was cast in darkness and so to was I.

Waking up an unspecified amount of time later, I could feel my head pounding and crying in pain. I felt like shit, my head throbbed, my body ached the light hurt and the smell of iron and rust filled my nose. Groaning I opened my eyes just a bit only to see bars. Cursing under my breath I realized I had been thrown in jail. The cops had probably shown up soon after I fell asleep to break the party up. Seeing me passed out they probably decided to throw me in a cell until I had sobered up. Without even looking for a bed or a bench to lay on, I rolled over and promptly fell asleep again, hoping beyond hope, that when I woke up next, I wouldn’t feel like shit.

That wasn’t the case. Someone must have noticed that I had woken up, because I could hear whispers, hushed and nearby. Through my pounding head and tired mind I caught a few words that didn’t at first make sense to me.

“Dragon, female, and Dangerous” were the three that stuck out the most to me. Hearing them, I had to lightly laugh, someone was a nerd. I had always been a fan of dragons, my favorite had been a purple dragon from a video game, he and the game shared a name and they were both called Spyro, but to hear someone whispering about dragons not far from me? Could it have been an officer? Or someone else who they threw in the drunk tank? Maybe they had seen my tattoo and knew what it was from?


It had been from another dragon from the spyro game, or rather, it was from the reboot series, that went under the name of “the legend of Spyro.” The dragon that I had gotten the tattoo idea from was called Cynder. She was a female dragon, who had been stolen as an egg and corrupted by dark magic, and was forced to do the bidding of an evil dragon named Malefor.

Cynder was a slender female, she had black scales, whoever in the third game they took on a slight purple sheen to them, her wings and chest plates were a deep maroon color. She had emerald green eyes, six ivory white horns and a bladed tail that looked like a scythe. The tattoo that I had gotten, was a symbol or a birthmark that she had on her upper leg shoulders. It was hard to describe, but it was one large diamond with a smaller one above it, a small triangle under the large diamond and turned upside down, and four curved horn looking shapes, two on each side, I had “improved upon it a little by having the tattoo artist, tattoo it to look as if it was ontop of scales.

“Hey.” I heard someone meekly whisper to me, causing me to grunt and curl into a ball, my hand moving to rest over my head to try and block out their voice.

“Oh dear umm...please wake up?” The voice said again, this time I noticed the voice was female. She had a soft voice, but hidden under it was fear, and reluctance. I groaned again.

“Leave me alone, my head is killing me!” I pleaded with the voice, not even bothering to turn to look at her. I noticed my voice sounded odd, more squeaky and kind of….young, but there was something else off about it, I just couldn’t tell what.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you did hit your head pretty hard, I….I can take a look at it, if you don’t mind I mean?” The voice said, causing me to groan, partially in frustration because I just wanted to sleep, but because she sounded so cute when she was being shy.

Making up my mind I decided to let, her, I figured it was better to let her take a look in case I split my head open, plus if I had a concussion it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to fall asleep. Lifting myself up into a kneeled over position I couched and licked the inside of my mouth. It was dry.

Try as I might though I couldn’t bring myself to stand upright. Part of me knew it would be a bad idea, because the room would spin and then I’d fall on my ass or worse crack my head open, and partly because trying to stand upright felt…..unnatural. I tried to open my eyes again but the pain that lanced through my head at the sight of light forced them closed. Eventually I collapsed on my stomach and just laid my head down

“Fine you can look at my head, but I want water” I mumbled out as I slowly faded in and out of sleep. What followed next was odd but I blamed it on my alcohol abused brain, but I heard something clicking against stone followed by something soft and warm trace over my head. Pushing gently at the skin as whoever this woman was looked for wounds. It would have been nice, if not for the fact that every time she touched me, my skin seemed to crawl and my stomach lurched.

Her examination ended soon enough, and I heard her thank someone nearby before a bowl of water was placed in front of me. I know it was water, because I had asked for it, and I could hear little drops hitting the ground, likely from a crack in the bowl.

The bowl was placed in front of me and without thinking I reached out to grab it with my hands, only to be rewarded by the sound of water spilling over the floor and a surprised epp from the woman. Groaning even more I opened my eyes, pushing through the pounding of my skull so that I could find the water and drink it, however as I opened my eyes I stopped.

Standing before me, was a pony, but not just any pony. I knew this pony. Back in 2010, a show came out called my little pony Friendship is magic. I got interested and watched the show, and I fell in love with it, however five years down the line I began to grow bored of the show. I watched new episodes when they came out sure, but I didn’t have the hype for it that I once had, however none of that was going through my mind at that moment.

“God damn it.” I groaned aloud getting a startled look from the butter yellow pegasus named Fluttershy. “Someone must have drugged me.”