“YOU’RE GOING TO BRAINWASH ME?!!” shouted Spike.
“No, I said we’re going to re-shape you in….wait that does sound like brainwashing.” said Saphria “let me rephrase: we’re going to train you in body and mind to become a paragon, teach you the ways of our kind, make you a powerful fighter, that sort of thing. Tampering with a noble dragon’s true self is a very severe crime on the Vlemm enclave.”
While Spike did seem to relax at this, he still seemed a bit uneasy and Saphria quickly picked up on it.
“Listen I know that It may seem a bit off putting knowing how much you’re going to change when you’re reunited with your family but you have to understand that your parents only have your best interests at heart, they want to see you succeed, to fulfill the legacy you deserve. Also for what it’s worth, the rest of the paragons will be behind you the whole time, every step of the way Artair, that’s what friends are for right?” said Saphria in an attempt to comfort him
“We’re friends?”
“Well after what happened back in that pony city, I’d say you seem like a fairly trustworthy dragon; way off from what I was expecting. So yeah, we are friends, not great friends but still friends nonetheless.” replied Saphria
Spike’s expression suddenly grew inquisitive “wait, what exactly were you expecting?”
“Well to be honest I expected you to be pretty much brainwashed by those ponies, turned into a slave who had no idea who he was, who he should have been; one who essentially worshiped the princesses as gods. But I was wrong, you’re not a slave, you’re got more grit and moxie than any other baby dragon I’ve met in my life which shows that your size doesn’t define you Artair and I respect that.”
Spike blushed at Saphria’s comment “well thanks Saphria that means-”
Spike was cut off by a sudden loud grinding noise, followed up by the ship tilting to one side rather violently throwing both dragons to the nearest wall, Spike landing on top of Saphria.
Thankfully most of the exercise equipment was bolted down, except for the dumbells which went flying straight towards them. Thinking fast, Saphria wrapped her arms around Spike and used her body to shield him; several large dumbbells smacked into her back causing intense pain but she grit her teeth and held tight, she had a duty to protect prince Artair at all costs and she was going to fulfill it.
After a few minutes the ship straightened itself back out and the dumbells, along with a battered and bruised Saphria, slid back to the floor. The ninja dragon then released Spike from her grip, to her relief he was completely unharmed if a bit shaken up.
“WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA WAS THAT?” shouted Spike, still scared.
“I have no idea” said Saphria through the pain “we’re still in the air and I don’t hear any explosions which is a good sign. We’d better get to the bridge to check it out.”
As Saphria tried to get to her feet, pain shot straight into her back like a spear causing her to stumble back down on her butt.
“Saphria? Are you alright?” asked Spike
“I’m fine I just need to- GAH!” she said trying to get to her feet again only to be forced back down by the pain.
“Saphria turn around.” said Spike
“Artair-”
“TURN. AROUND.” repeated Spike, this time with more force
Saphria compiled and showed her back to the baby dragon, who let out a worrying gasp. Saphira's back was completely bruised, there was more dark blue than purple covering it and a few splotches seemed to be cut open and bleeding.
“You are not okay, not even close” said Spike, completely shocked by what he was looking at.
“Is it that bad?”
“Saphria you’re bleeding! There’s more bruises than scales here! You need help and you need it now!” shouted Spike
Saphria gulped, if Spike wasn’t exaggerating she might have broken something along with some internal bleeding; no matter how tough she seemed Saphria wasn’t invulnerable, she could still be killed like all the other dragons.
Saphria swallowed her pride and spoke “Get… get Yam, she’s good with medicine, she’ll know what to do. I’ll stay here and rest, make sure everyone else is okay too.”
Spike nodded and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him down in the direction of the bridge, avoiding all the pieces of trash that had been scattered about by the ship’s sudden tumble. When he arrived, Spike saw that all the other paragons were already there running around trying to figure out what went wrong. Connor being the first one to notice the baby dragon standing in the doorway.
“Artair bro! You okay?” Connor said rushing over.
“I’m fine, it’s Saphria that needs help!” Spike replied.
That got everybody’s attention pretty quickly.
“What?! What the bloody tatarus happened?! Where is she?!” ranted Dylan
Spike explained what happened, how she had heroically used herself as a shield to protect him from flying exercise equipment and how she completely destroyed her back in the process.
Scooping a first aid kit out of seemingly nowhere, Yam rushed down the hall without so much as another word. Spike’s concerned gaze followed her, only for a hand to fall on his shoulder; looking up spike saw it’s owner was Crystal.
“Hey, don’t lose your head over Saphi. Yam’ll take care of her, noble dragons always take care of their own after all” said Crystal.
Gone was the usual humorous tone from her voice, the serious yet calming way she set it seemed to make Spike feel better almost immediately.
“Well now that everybody’s here and accounted for, let’s figure out why the ship jerked to a stop like that.” said Griffith.
“I think I found it!” shouted Mia from one of the control panels
The group crowded around where Mia was standing to see the issue. Which made all of them collectively facepalm.
It was the fuel meter, currently pointed at the E.
“Oh darn it.” said Dylan “I knew we were forgetting something when we left the enclave.”
“Whose job was it to refuel anyway?” said Mia.
Dylan and Crystal immediately turned their gaze towards the dragon in question, who soon blushed in realization.
“Oh right….my bad.”
“Wait if we’re out of fuel how are we still in the air?” asked Spike
“It’s an airship big bro, fuel is only used for propulsion and electricity. We use helium gas to stay afloat, this isn’t a plane.” said Griffith. “Luckily we still have a backup generator to maintain the latter, but if we don’t find some fuel soon we’re gonna be sitting ducks.”
“Do you know where we can find some?” said Spike
“No, but I’ve got a gadget that can help with that”
“Of course you do.” Spike deadpanned.
Pulling out an item that looked like some sort of Y shaped scanner, Griffith began to flip several switches on the device.
“The ship runs on various gems by extracting the magical conductivity of the minerals, diamonds are the best with emeralds being the worst but still useable; all I have to do is find a sizeable deposit and…..bingo.”
“Well?” said Connor “where is it?”
“Not to far from here, there’s a mountain chock full of them only fifteen miles from here. Some of us will have to go down and get them” Griffith said before looking up from the device “so who's it gonna be?”
The dragon’s looked at each other, as if daring the rest to step forwards and volunteer themselves.
“Well Yam and Saphria are obviously out” said Dylan “Saphi’s too injured and Yam needs to tend to her.”
“If they’re staying then I’m staying. In case Saphria’s injuries are more serious I have to make sure all the medical equipment stays online while you’re gone.” said Griffith.
Connor looked at the landscape out of one of the windows “I think I should stay behind too, my powers don’t work too well in deserts.”
“I’ll go” said Spike.
“Oh no no no.” said Griffith “you almost got captured last time, we can’t risk that again.”
“And there is no way I am getting stuck with baby sitting duty.” Dylan glanced at Crystal and Mia “moreso than I already am.”
“Hey I can take care of myself! Besides I’ve been training with Saphria all day!” argued Spike
“C’mon Dylan, let the little guy come. I’ve been wanting to spend some quality bonding time with the Vlemm enclave’s most eligible bachelor” said Crystal
Dylan huffed “fine, but you better be able to keep up”
The yellow dragon kicked down the ladder, where it landed with a clatter on top of a nearby cliff face. Dylan took the lead climbing down while the others quickly followed suit, leaving Connor and Griffith standing by themselves in the hold of the ship.
“Connor? Do you get the feeling we’ve made a grave mistake or is it just me?” said Grffith
“I dunno, kinda. But little dude has like three of us protecting him, he’ll be fine.” said Connor.
“Yeah you’re right, I guess I’m still a bit shook up after what happened in the city. One of those psycho ponies was ‘this’ close to me and-” before Griffith could finish his tale another one of the control panels started going off, running over Griffith grew slightly confused.
“A transmission coming in from….the Vlemm enclave?” said Griffith “who could possibly be calling us from…..oh balls.”
“What? Who is it?” asked Connor.
Griffith didn’t say anything, instead opting to hit a button on the panel he was standing in front of that pulled up a holographic screen; one that contained two very displeased looking dragons.
“Hi mom, dad. What’s up?” said Griffith with a tone fitting that of a scared hatchling.
“Well how about we start with that little stunt you all pulled back in that pony city, hmmm?” said the female one in the most authoritative ‘mom’ voice of all time.
**************************************
Hours.
They had been walking in the sweltering heat for hours now and the sun was already setting in the distance
But it might as well have been days to Dylan, not from the sweltering heat no; he could handle that.
But Mia….Mia was a different story.
“Wow, so you really defeated a horde of cockatrice all by yourself?” said Mia in amazement.
Despite Dylan preemptively telling the others to march forward without speaking, Mia broke the silence in less than a minute, demanding to hear stories from Spike’s adventures amongst ponies, ALL OF THEM.
Naturally Spike couldn’t pass up a bragging opportunity and began telling her all the stories he knew, while Mia added in her own commentary like a hatchling at storytime.
‘Not surprising’ thought Dylan to himself ‘Mia is pretty much an overgrown hatchling. Why Frinad let her join the paragons, I’ll never know’
Crystal quickened her pace so that she was walking beside Dylan and opened her mouth to speak…
“If the next thing that comes out of your mouth is a pun, you’re going to be swallowing your teeth.” said Dylan
“But Dylan we’ve been hiking for hours, give me my just DESERTS. At least we won’t starve because of all the SAND WHICH is here” said Crystal “but seriously though what do you think of Artair? Is he HOT stuff, or does he come up SHORT?”
“CRYSTAL! STOP IT!” shouted Dylan.
“Okay geeze, I’ll cool it. Still need to answer my question though.” replied the archer, twirling one of her arrows in her fingers
“To be perfectly frank I’d say he’s a disappointment.” replied Dylan
“Dylan!”
“Well look at him! He’s only a bit bigger than a hatchling, doesn’t eat meat, and doesn’t even know who Bahumut is, I swear he’s more of a pony than one of us.”
“Well if you could pull your head off your butt you could see that the little guy has a lot of potential, he’s the son of Frinad and Layla after all.” argued Crystal
“And so was Griffith and you know how he turned out.” replied Dylan
“What because he blew up part of your house that one time? Dylan that was two years ago, let it slide.”
“I have a right to hold a grudge over that, I had to stay with Vera that week; you know, that dragon with a creepy obsession with me?” said Dylan shuddering at the thought “I still have nightmares about that time.”
“Well maybe Artair will be the responsible one right? The prophecy did choose him for a reason.” said Crystal
Dylan uttered a sarcastic laugh “ah yes, the prophecy. The one where fate of the entire world rests on that twerp’s shoulders, yes sir we’re completely and utterly screwed.”
“Really? What about the stories about how he saved the northern empire from destruction?”
“I say his part in that event was greatly exaggerated or he just got lucky. Either way if you want me to give him some respect, he’s gotta prove to me that he deserves it; same as the rest of you did.” said Dylan “oh thank Bahumut we’re here.”
The group came to a sudden stop in front of a cave that led into a rather sizeable mountain jutting out of the desert landscape, the darkness was deep and foreboding.
“Hey isn’t that appleloosa down there?” said Spike
The other three dragons turned their heads in the direction that the prince was pointing to find that indeed, at the base of the mountain lied a very small and modest pony town that was bustling with life
“Well that’s just great. Now we might have to deal with miners in the caves.” said Dylan
“You’re not going to hurt them are you?” asked Spike.
Truth be told, ever since they left Baltimare Spike has had a little nagging voice in the back of his head telling him that what they did back there to get away was seriously wrong but he ignored it because he didn’t see any other way out of that situation.
“Not seriously no. see twerp-”
“It’s Artair.”
“Fine. see ARTAIR, noble dragons make sure to maintain the utmost discretion when making trips to equestria like this: no creatures are allowed to find out we’re even here in the first place, so we stay hidden. On the off chance that we are discovered we quickly silence them to make sure they don’t tell any one of the noble dragon’s existence.”
“Saphria told me that too. But is killing them really necessary?” said Spike
“Yeah right, very funny.” said Dylan with another sarcastic expression, until he noticed the look on Spike’s face “wait...you’re serious? Oh that is priceless!” soon enough Dylan began to laugh.
“What? What did I say?”
Dylan was too busy laughing his head off to give an answer so Crystal did “don’t you know that noble dragons only kill in dire circumstances? It’s like our number one rule.”
“Yeah” Mia chimed in “when we say silence we mean that we wipe their memories of them seeing us and send them on their way, it’s how we did it when we went into hiding and it’s how we do it now silly!”
Dylan finally stopped laughing to throw in his two bits “Artair, when we kill something we’re ‘removing’ them, not ‘silencing’ them. You’re more clueless than I thought!”
“OKAY, enough! I didn’t know alright? Can we just get back to what we were doing” said Spike
“Of course, we don’t want to keep the rest of the group waiting” said Dylan, resuming the serious look on his face “now we need to extract as many gems as we can carry so we don’t have to refuel later, do it silently and stick to the shadows. We don’t want to get any attention.”
“Anything else sarge?” said Crystal.
“Can it with the jokes Crystal.” replied Dylan.
summoning up a ball of pure light that floated above his open palm, Dylan led the rest of the group deeper into the mountains.
Unfortunately for them, none of them saw the two specks that had been flying above them when they entered the caverns, one green and one blue, that were now making their descent straight to the same entrance.
************************************
“Now Ms.Stonebreaker” said Connor “I assure you we have a totally rational explanation for what happened back there.”
“Really? So you didn’t fire toxic gas into a crowd of innocent bystanders?” said Layla
“Well Crystal was aiming for those six crazy ponies, the others just kinda got in the way.”
“Oh good lord…” replied Frinad. “We gave you a simple job. Retrieve our son unharmed and don’t get spotted, now you’ve completely jeopardize our way of life not to mention brought harm to dozens of innocent ponies”
“Well we didn’t have a lot of options” said Griffith “they had us all pinned down, Crystal did what she had to. Remember the promise she made?”
“Yes. of course I do, I’ll never be able to forget that tragic day that another noble dragon family was split apart so violently, but regardless; harming others in such a way directly goes against the teachings of Bahumut, so expect punishments when you all return.” said Frinad
“Come on! You said get him home at all costs!” argued Connor
“We said that because we trusted your judgements and clearly we were in error to do such a thing.” replied Layla. “At least you all aren’t as extreme as Cobalt.”
“Why what did Cobalt do?” asked Saphria, hobbling into the room with bandages around her midsection
“Oh my!” said Layla “my dear what happened to you, did the ponies do this?”
“No no, we just hit some turbulence with the ship and I had to shield your son from harm during it my ladyship. Yam has already checked me out and says that I’ll be fine as long as I don’t exert myself for the next few days.”
“Well as long as you’re both in good health. Anyway, Cobalt came into direct conflict with the princess of the night, Luna, after she tried to locate our son in the dreamscape. He confronted her directly in combat and when he began to lose he….” Layla trailed off.
Frinad stepped in to finish his wife’s thought “He used his aura to invoke nightmares in every single creature living in the borders of equestria and threatened to do so every night unless Luna left artair alone.”
“Woah...dude….that’s messed up.” said Connor
“Agreed, I know this is a desperate situation but there is no excuse for such behavior” said Yam
“Has he been punished yet?” asked Saphria.
“Not at the moment, we’ve decided that it would be best for Artair to decide the fate of Cobalt due to the former’s closeness with the equestrian princesses; currently he is rotting in a holding cell for his crime.” said Layla.
“Speaking of Artair, where is he? I’ve been waiting to lay eyes on my first born son for ages now.” said Frinad.
Griffith spoke up first “oh we just ran out of fuel so Mia, Crystal, Dylan, and him all left to find some more.”
Layla blinked at her younger son “you mean to tell me that there is an entire country out looking for him, you finally get him to safety and the first thing you do is send him back out into the fray?!”
Griffith bit down on the top of his knuckles “oh...that wasn’t a very good idea was it?”
********************************
“Darn it. Looks like this place has already been picked clean.” Said Dylan
After a few minutes of hoofing it through the dark caverns, the only light coming from Dylan’s draconic magic, the group came across a massive open underground pocket that seemed to span almost a mile high. Unfortunately instead of walls of sparkling gems there was nothing but abandoned mine carts and pick axes.
“Why don’t we just go deeper?” Asked Mia
“Because deeper is just more abandoned mines.” Said Dylan, pointing towards another carved out tunnel. “Obviously Griffith’s scans were wrong. Come on, let’s find another cave system”
Spike walked forward, nostrils flaring; snout twitching at the air.
“Uh Artair, what are you doing?” asked Crystal
“Just give me a second. I want to try something” replied the baby dragon.
Spike got on his knees and put his head against the ground, moving it around slightly before abruptly stopping. He wrapped his knuckles against the cave floor and tapped it three times; Spike then shook his head and moved it, repeating the same action once more after coming to a stop only to shake his head again and starting the process all over. After the third run through, spike smiled and lifted his head up.
“Here.”
“What?”
“There’s a deposit right here I’m sure of it!” replied Spike
“Look Artair I don’t know what kind of crazy stuff those ponies told you about finding gems but I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Spike ignored Dylan’s comment and began to rake his claws through the stone.
“Seriously twerp? you aren’t gonna find any-” Dylan was shut up by Spike shoving two clawfuls of gems directly into his face, causing the light dragon’s jaw to drop open.
Mia wandered over to the whole and found that the whole thing was filled to the brim with gems.
“Sweet find! Can you teach me how to do that sometime?” said Mia as she scooped up gems into her arms.
“Probably not; even I don’t know how I do it, I just do it.” replied Spike with a shrug
“Well in either case, you saved us a trip Artair. Good work.” said Dylan
“Wait did you just use my-”
“Don’t push your luck twerp.” Dylan shot back.
The group was so focused on their new mineral find that they were completely unware of two voyures staring at them from a ledge higher up in the cave.
Ember and Thorax had spotted the group while they were flying over the cave entrance and followed them in, accidentally taking a detour that led them to the ledge they were currently sitting on rather than at the bottom.
“We were right! Look at those dragons, forcing spike to dig up gems for them. They probably made up that whole story about his parents so they could make him their slave.” said Thorax.
“Looks like it, at least there’s only three of them. We might be able to get spike back without a lot of trouble.” said Ember
“So how do you want to do this? We’ve got the element of surprise on our side, you think if we rush them we can take them down before they can do anything.”
“Probably, I doubt that even the three of them are stronger than….one of them is looking over here” replied Ember.
Thorax followed her gaze to see that the blue dragon was indeed staring in the general direction of their position.
“You think she sees us?” whispered Thorax
“Not sure. Just play it cool for now and maybe- no wait, SHE SEES US!” shouted Ember
Crystal had taken the window of opportunity to draw her bow and lock it onto the pair.
Thorax and Ember barely had enough time to leap away from the edge before it was taken out by an explosive arrow, they quickly threw out their wings to slow their descent, landing safely on the ground in front of the other dragons.
“AMBUSH! IT’S A FRIGGING AMBUSH!” shouted Crystal, loading another arrow.
“WHAT?! THORAX?! EMBER?! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!!” shouted Spike
“We’re here to take you home Spike, everyone is worried sick about you” said Thorax.
“If anyone is taking him home” said Dylan, defensively getting between the changeling king and Spike “it’s us, he belongs with his own kind. So I suggest you all leave before we have to do something we regret.”
“How dare you! I am the dragon lord” protested Ember “you can’t speak to me that way!”
“I’ll speak to you any way I please ‘princess’. The only dragon lords I answer to are Frinad and Layla, not you whatever your name is.” Dylan hissed.
“While normally I might be willing to talk this out, make a few jokes along the way, I’m guessing neither of you are really in the mood to negotiate right?” asked Crystal, receiving two nods in response.
“Well then I guess we’ll just have to stick straight to the butt kicking then” said Crystal, drawing another arrow and firing it at the pair, creating a sticky trap that engulfed their legs.
“RUN FOR IT!” shouted Crystal, booking it into a tunnel at the opposite end of the cave; the rest of the group soon following.
Ember made quick work of the trap with her fire breath, freeing both her and her friend allowing them to give chase.
What followed was a Scooby-Doo like chase through several tunnels and passages with in the cave, involving several different costumes that appeared out of seemingly nowhere as both groups went deeper into the caves.
“SPIKE PLEASE, BE REASONABLE!” shouted Thorax, wearing a sailor outfit “WE JUST WANT THE BEST FOR YOU!”
“THEN LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE, I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU GUYS!” Spike shouted back, having donned a pirate costume.
“Okay they’ve clearly brainwashed him, no holding back Thorax.” said Ember, flying forward to gain on the two only to be struck in the chest by a light beam courtesy of Dylan.
“Oh I see, YOU WANNA MAKE IT LIKE THAT?!” shouted Thorax, rage quickly building at the sight of his injured comrade “BRING IT ON!” Thorax took the form of a giant spider and rushed after them.
“He’s gaining on us Dylan!”
“I can see that Mia! Quick, this way!”
The misfits slid into another passage way too small for Thorax’s spider form to follow.
“Shoot! Ember, they’re getting away!”
“Follow me! Through here!”
The noble dragons squeezed out into another cave, slightly smaller than the previous one but still lined with various mining equipment, stopping to take a breath apart from Mia who was still revved up and ready to go.
“You think we lost them?” said Crystal
A loud boom from overhead swiftly gave her an answer as they looked up to see Ember and Thorax bursting from one of the cave walls, bringing dust and falling rock out with them.
“ARTAIR, LOOK OUT!” shouted Dylan, narrowly managing to tackle the baby dragon out of the way of some of the falling debris. Unfortunately that action also made him drop the ball of light he was carrying and the entire cave was plunged into darkness.
“I CAN’T SEE!”
“DYLAN LIGHT ANOTHER ONE!”
“I CAN’T FOCUS!”
“WHERE ARE YOU, SHOW YOURSELF!”
“HANG ON I THINK I FOUND A LIGHT” said Spike
Using his fire breath Spike lit the fuse of what he thought was a candle, it took him all of about two seconds to realize he had mistakenly lit a stick of dynamite.
“AHHH!” Spike screamed and tossed the explosive stick away, only to land in a mine cart full of it
“SERIOUSLY?!” shouted Dylan “WHO LEAVES THAT MUCH DYNAMITE IN AN ABANDONED CAVE LIKE THIS?!”
“WHO CARES?!” said Mia “WE GOTTA SPLIT RIGHT-”
BOOM!!!!!
********************************
The explosion was heard all the way in ponyville, snapping the mane six out of their argument over whose fault it was that Ember and Thorax didn’t take them along to find Spike. They all turned to look at the massive smoke plume that was coming off in the distance.
Pinkie Pie was the first to shatter the silence “five bits says that’s where they are right now, any takers?”
******************************
Spike was currently sitting in a never ending darkness as his thoughts returned to him.
‘I...I died? NO FAIR!’ thought Spike, only for the feeling of singed scales to hit him like a tank
‘Pain? Good, so I’m not dead. Wait, what about the others?!’
Sight was the next sense that returned to him, opening his eyes to a blurred vision. He could see several blurs of colors that soon focused into his dragon friends.
‘Okay they made it but….Thorax and Ember….oh dear Celestia what did I do….’
Crystal was soon at his side, standing above him and moving her mouth but no sound came out.
‘What is she-’ then Spike’s hearing kicked in
“-eak to me Artair! Please tell me you’re alive! I can’t lose another friend like this!” she pleaded, tears coming out of her eyes.
Spike’s body finally managed to reboot himself and he sat up looking around him.
They were out of the caverns into the desert air now, if the star studded sky was anything to go by; the most striking feature was that now Appleloosa had one heck of a new pothole next to it, thankfully the explosion hadn’t brought any collateral damage to the town.
“Oh thank Bahumut you’re alive!” squealed Crystal, pulling Spike into a hug only to be immediately pushed away.
“Ember...Thorax….w-where are they?”
“They were your friends weren’t they?” said Crystal forlornly “I-I can’t say Artair. The explosion happened so fast I have no idea if they got out or not…..I’m so sorry.”
Spike began to tear up, because of his own incompetence he had killed two of his best friends in the whole world. He latched onto Crystal like a scared hatchling and the blue dragon quickly hugged Spike tight to comfort him.
“I’m sorry...I’m just so sorry Artair. I know what it’s like to lose a frie-”
Another smaller explosion came out of the crater and Thorax and Ember leapt out of it completely unharmed.
“THEY’RE OKAY!!!” Spike screamed in elation.
“That’s great! Although I think they still want to kill us.”
Ember shot out a ball of fire towards Dylan who dodged and shot back a light ball in retaliation.
“Yep, still want us dead. Probably even more so than before, we’d better make ourselves scarce little buddy”
Thorax took the form of a bug bear and began to engage Mia who used her super speed to carelessly dance around the beast like it was nothing.
“STAND STILL!”
“Nah, I don’t really feel like it!”
Ember and Dylan were much closer in terms of combat prowess, Ember was stronger than Eylan and he knew it perfectly well so he was using his aura to keep the dragon lord at a distance and avoid her fire attacks but she kept trying to get in close to deliver a beatdown.
“I have to admit, I respect a dragon who can last this long against me!” said Ember
“Sorry Ms dragon lord. I don’t respect ferals!” said Dylan, firing a beam at Ember which forced her back further.
While the two were distracted, Crystal and Spike had begun to sneak away from the fight scene.
“Crystal, they aren’t going to hurt my friends are they?” asked Spike
“That’s entirely up to the feral dragon and the changeling Artair. But I can say that they won’t have any serious injuries, Dylan and Mia are tough but I don’t think either of them are going to beat a dragon lord and a changeling king. They’re just stalling so that we can get away, once we’re gone they’ll both retreat and lose them”
Back at the fight Thorax had finally gotten fed up with Mia’s antics and decided to make a risky play to end the fight, he reverted back to his normal form and shot out a spell he hadn’t used for a long long time.
Mia smiled and tried to dodge away from the cloud of green but quickly found it was a lot faster than she realized as it engulfed her entire body. Then she felt a burning sensation, followed by intense pain as if her very soul was being ripped from her body.
“Wait what? What’s going on?! Spike what is he doing?!” whispered Crystal from their hiding spot.
The cloud quickly dissipated and Mia dropped to her knees, barely able to support herself.
Taking in a deep breath, the energetic dragon looked up at Thorax and simply spouted: “what...did you just do?”
“Oldest changeling trick in the book, from when we used to feed on love. I basically weakened you by taking away some of your life energy, let’s see if you can run away now.” the changeling king replied
Mia tried to, keyword ‘tried’, but she ended up tripping over her own feet; by absorbing some of her life energy, Thorax had temporarily disabled the powers given to her by her aura and since speed was her only means of protection she was basically defenseless.
Dylan had looked over to see why Mia was screaming and Ember used the distraction to rush up and grapple Dylan from behind who struggled against Ember’s strength.
“Thorax! Now!” shouted Ember
A similar green cloud erupted from Thorax’s antlers and surrounded Dylan who struggled even harder to get away, but it was utterly meaningless as he yelled in pain before collapsing onto the ground just like Mia.
“Now where is that archer?”
Crystal was hiding behind some conveniently placed barrels with Spike and was shaking like a leaf. For the first time in a long time,Crystal was scared; scared that she wouldn’t be able to keep a promise she made to her family.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Crystal leaned down to Spike and began to whisper “okay Artair, the situation looks bleak so here’s the plan: I’m going to throw down a smoke bomb arrow on the count of three, when that happens I want you to fly into the air as fast as you can and get to the ship with these.” Crystal took of her hoodie and wrapped it around Spike as a makeshift bag that held all the gems they found “tell them what happened and get to the Vlemm enclave, Frinad and Layla will be able to send reinforcements to get us once you guys are there.”
“What about you?” replied Spike
Crystal weakly smiled as she pulled out the arrow she mentioned earlier “buying you some time.”
“What?! No! Crystal, I can’t leave you guys behind like this! We’re friends, we’ve got each other’s backs!” pleaded spike
“That’s what I’m doing artair, remember: noble dragons look after their own Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Now on three, you need to fly away, okay?”
Spike nodded.
“Alright, one.”
Spike readied his wings
“Two.”
He bent his knees for take off
“THREE!” Crystal shouted as she slammed the arrow into the ground creating a massive cloud of mist.
Spike took off like a rocket into the air, the ground rapidly shrinking above him. Pausing for a moment to remember where the airship was, the baby dragon took of towards it while tears began to stream out of his eyes.
“Over there!” shouted Thorax.
Crystal leapt atop the barrel with three arrows loaded into her bow.
“‘Ello gov’na!” said Crystal in a mock cockney accent.
“Where’s Spike?” demanded Ember
“Him? Oh little guy had to split. Shame too, I hate being a third wheel.” said Crystal “now are we going to stand around? Or are we gonna fight?”
Ember and Thorax let out a war cry and charged as Crystal let out an onslaught of arrows.
‘I sacrifice myself for my clan, for my friends, and for my family’ though Crystal to herself as the two leaders bared down on her.
**************************
“They aren’t responding to their communicators. They must have been at the explosion!” shouted Griffith.
The once calm atmosphere was quickly destroyed by a loud explosion in the distance, right where the recon team was supposed to be which caused nearly every dragon aboard to start freaking out which wasn’t helped by the apparent radio silence.
“Something must have happened, but what?!” said Saphria. “What could possibly have made an explosion like that.”
“We’d better investigate.” said Yam “our friends could be hurt or worse de-”
With almost comedic timing, Spike flew straight through the open door and collided with the opposite wall.
“Big bro! You’re okay!” said Griffith, pulling Spike into a hug.
“Where are the others?” asked Saphria. “And, why do you have Crystal’s hoodie?”
Connor’s expression quickly shifted to one of dread. “Crystal never lets that hoodie out of her sight. Artair what happened?!”
Spike began to blubber, his adrenalin filled body failing to even string together a single sentence until it finally managed to spit out three little words that brought the entire world of the paragons to a screeching halt.
“They’ve been captured” said Spike through breaths.
Everyone went dead quiet as Spike’s words sunk in.
Their mission had now become MUCH more complicated.