Chapter 2: The Chaotic Confrontation
“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.
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“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.
“Well…”
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Notes:
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.