Infinity Era

by JDPrime22

Chapter 42 – Fire Beach

The beaches of the Dragon Lands were relatively calm. It was the only serene location in all the Dragon Lands, the lands deeper within coated in fire and warfare. The waves lapped against the rocky surface of the beach floor, stones of various sizes only growing larger and larger the further they were away from the waters. Red gemstones dotted the waters and beaches, jutting outwards to the ocean, pointed tips to the skies. To the clouds.

To the various naval ships of the Queen of the Hippogriffs.

The heavy morning fog broke apart once all remaining twelve naval ships soared in perfect harmony, perfectly lined up in formation. Their shadows from the early morning sunlight cascaded across the beachline, sending darkness across the rocks and red gemstones. And just as they flew past the ocean waters and hovered several hundred feet above the beaches, that’s when the Hippogriffs charged forward.

Several leapt directly out from the ocean, transforming out of their seapony forms and back into their natural Hippogriff bodies, taking flight and charging full-steam ahead towards the battle. Some even landed on their claws and hooves, rushing towards the fight in a massive stampede. From the naval ships steaming right on ahead, out came the remaining armies under the command of Queen Novo. General Seaspray stood at very edge of the leading naval ship, staring straight into the war directly ahead of them, watching as the Hippogriff armies descended below and took to the ground and skies. The sweltering heat from the fires in the distance plagued the wind and blew directly into his face. Seaspray didn’t even flinch, wearing his heavy, golden armor and unsheathing his blade, jutting it outwards and leading the naval ships from the skies.

Whereas Queen Novo took the battle from the ground. She landed with a dull thud, claws and hooves first on the nearest boulder, standing straight up and glaring towards the war that awaited them. Her golden armor shone brightly in the early morning sunlight, the brightness from the sun slowly being enveloped in the smoke and clouds. Jamming the butt of her spear into the stone beneath her, Queen Novo watched as droves of Hippogriffs took to the skies and ground, several transforming into numerous beasts of war. From rhinos to manticores, Ursa Minors and Majors, bugbears and chimeras, and even rocs and hydras, the Hippogriff army was diverse in their forces and explosive, charging straight into the battle knowing their queen would be with them. Fighting with them. Leading them through hell.

Joining her on the large boulder, Sky Beak and Stratus Skyranger landed and approached her sides, Sky Beak on her right and Skyranger on her left. They donned their golden armor and stared alongside their queen onto the burning sunrise, towards the sounds of chaos unfolding beyond the hills and mountains within the heart of the Dragon Lands. The hordes of the queen’s armies galloped and soared past them, all three looking upwards and watching as General Seaspray’s naval fleet flew overhead, following the army to what lied beyond.

The crackling thunder prompted Novo, Sky Beak, and Skyranger to turn their beaks skywards, directly over their heads to see the dark clouds slithering forward, the unmistakable airship belonging to Tempest Shadow falling behind the rest of the naval ships. Novo raised a curious brow at that. It was odd. Usually, Tempest would have been leading the attack, as she had been across the seas between the two empires. She wondered what the situation on deck for Tempest was.

Meanwhile, on deck of Tempest’s airship, both Captain Celaeno and Tempest Shadow were busy trying to decipher why the airship was slowing down. The determination in Tempest’s eyes faded away once she heard the engines below beginning to sputter, the wind greatly decreasing, their speed alongside it. It was a scramble on deck, both Celaeno and Tempest ordering pirates and Storm Guards around, the unicorn sending several below deck to tend to the engine.

Joining them was Grubber. Involuntarily, of course, as Tempest practically kicked him down the steps below deck, shutting the hatch.

Grumbling at that, Grubber dusted himself off and glared at the hatch several steps above him. He would have given Tempest a piece of mind had he already not reached the bottom of the stairs, the climb back up looking long and tiresome. That, and she kind of freaked him out. He convinced himself that he did it for the first reason. Rolling his shoulders and huffing at that, Grubber waddled over to the engine room near the back of the airship. It was almost pitch-black in the underbelly of the airship. Grubber hated going below deck. It always gave him the creeps, and that he could actually convince himself of. At least he wouldn’t be by himself, he thought as he pushed the metal door aside and entered the engine room.

Red lights flashed on and off, a few remaining on and being the only light other than the dwindling fires within the furnace. Storm Guards bustled about back and forth, growling at one another to keep the airship running no matter what. Something like that. Grubber couldn’t understand about sixty percent of what they were saying. Several guards were shoveling more coal into the furnace, keeping the fires heavy so the engines kept on running.

Grubber shook his head at that. “Numbskulls,” he muttered, waddling forward and placing his chubby palms around his mouth. “You guys are doin’ it all wrong!”

The Storm Creatures halted their actions, all slowly turning towards the pudgy hedgehog. He stepped forth, trying to push a Storm Guard aside and failing at just that. He almost knocked himself over when his weaker arms had failed to even move the Storm Creature a centimeter. In the end, he just huffed in exhaustion, walking completely around the Storm Creature and descending deeper into the engine room. The guards watched him carefully, their blue eyes following him into the supply closet at the end of the room.

His voice sounded off from within the closet, saying, “If you wanna get the ship runnin’ faster, ya don’t need to add more coal! All ya have to do is add some of that special juice the Storm King used to make us make for him!”

He grabbed the last container of Storm Gas resting on the empty shelf, waddling back towards the Storm Creatures with the large jug sloshing back and forth in his arms. He settled the gas jug directly in front of him, patting its exterior and trying to catch his breath in the meantime. The guards looked down to the jug resting beside Grubber, seeing only the Storm King’s face imprinted on it, a pair of lightning bolts by his crooked lips.

“Hm. Last one,” Grubber contemplated, staring at the gasoline jug thoughtfully. He just shrugged in the end, pulling the cap off and pouring its contents right into the engine’s gas tank. “Eh, might as well go all out.”

Tossing the empty gas container by the feet of the Storm Guards, each creature slowly looked to one another, then turned their glowing blue eyes back to the hedgehog. They watched as he approached the main control console, cracking his back and his knuckles as he did so. He barely managed to lift his hands to the dials and buttons, looking back to the Storm Guards as his pudgy, little hands gripped two dials.

“Ya see, all ya gotta do is—!”

He turned the dials right, instantly causing the engines to erupt in flames. The rest was complete chaos. The furnace shot out fire in practically every direction, Grubber and the Storm Guards actually being pushed back from the intense heat and searing flames. Red lights blared within the engine room, the siren wailing as steam shot outwards and blinded the inhabitants below deck. They were already running amok, patting their fur-covered arms of the fire that had managed to latch onto them. Grubber screamed and flailed his arms about, his mohawk already consumed by fire.

All of which Tempest Shadow and Captain Celaeno didn’t hear nor know of by the time the airship instantly shot forward, every pirate, guard, and unicorn launched backwards and falling flat on their backs. Celaeno pulled herself up to the ship’s steering wheel, gripping it with both talons. She looked about, spotting her crew trying to get back up, only to fail as the wind kept pushing them down.

Tempest stumbled over to the edge of her airship, holding onto it as the whipping wind blew in her face, mane, and eyes, nearly blinding her. Yet she could still make out their current direction and status, just reaching the rest of Novo’s ships and barely pushing past the Hippogriff armies beneath them. Barring her teeth at that, Tempest spun her head back to the steering wheel, where Celaeno met her wild gaze. She shouted, “Get us lower!”

Captain Celaeno complied with a firm nod, reaching over to her left and pushing down on the handle jutting upwards from the floor, thus beginning the ship’s descent. It was almost too fast. They were reaching the rocky surface of the Dragon Lands, almost too fast, a descent towards imminent destruction if Celaeno kept at the current pace. She tightened her beak, narrowing her gaze directly ahead, keeping the airship as straight as possible as the ground came faster and faster.

Until…

“Hit the brakes!” Tempest screamed.

“Hold onto something!” Celaeno roared and shot her claw over to the right of the steering wheel, grabbing the brake handle and yanking it back with a powerful grunt escaping her. Almost as instantly as she did so, the engines nearly grinded to a halt, several masts shooting outwards from the airship and instantly catching the wind. The airship’s speed greatly decreased from that, any Storm Guard or pirate not gripping onto the ship like Tempest was immediately falling forward from the sudden loss of speed.

Those that remained standing, those many Storm Creatures who held onto the ship like their commander and leader Tempest Shadow, followed her as she leapt right over the edge of the airship, down below to the ground where the ship just barely flew over. The fall wasn’t far, wasn’t too painful even as Tempest and the many guards who followed her rolled several times before finally finding their footing. Then they ran.

Tempest led the attack, galloping as fast as her steel-plated hooves could carry her across the rock-covered wasteland. The Storm Creatures on her tail ran on all fours, managing to keep up with the unicorn as they descended further into the Dragon Lands, towards the mountains, and into the Dragons’ Lair. Tempest looked up, watched as her airship picked itself up, storm-fueled exhaust leaving its engines as it led the charge alongside Novo’s ships.

And she did, as well. Leading Novo’s army right alongside the queen flying over her head.

Dragon Lord Ember had kept the fight going as long as she could. Even when her bones ached, her scales cracked, and her muscles cried out to her, she never stopped. For nearly an entire day, the war for the Dragon Lands raged on, from one end of the Dragons’ Lair to the next. Completely consuming their home in war, fire, and death.

And there, Ember stood, alongside several of her dragon allies, in the heart of the whirlwind, fighting back against their alien invaders with everything they had left in them. Ember didn’t know how or when she lost her golden helmet, but she still stood fighting with only her breastplate, her arm, leg, and shoulder guards, and the Bloodstone Scepter gripped tightly in her claws.

All around them, for as long and far as Ember could tell, there was nothing but carnage that surrounded them. They had nearly lost the skies, the Chitauri outnumbering them ten to one. Although the Chitauri only had two warships, the armies that came with each were a force that the dragons—no matter how much Ember wanted to deny it—couldn’t fight against. They may have had strength in size and brutality, but the aliens had strength in numbers, in firepower, and quite literally everything else.

The chariots the Chitauri flew in their air dominance performed poorly against the superior might of the dragon army, yet it was the Chitauri starships piloted by the Elite that truly aided in turning the tides of the war in the Chitauri’s favor. The starships were numerous. Bigger, faster, swifter, and deadlier than the chariots. They could dive-bomb a squadron of dragons on the ground and vanish back into the clouds before any of them could react. They, and the massive Chitauri Leviathans slithering above, kept the majority of the dragons grounded.

Most of the adult dragons had fallen earlier in the battle, leaving just the younger generation to tend to the center of the conflict. Ember led them, every young adult and teenage dragon she could muster and were willing and able to fight. For several yards, that’s all Ember managed to catch, just her and her allies fighting side by side, against the alien forces fighting them from all angles. In the distance, she witnessed the dwindling adult dragons breathing fire across the landscape, onto the Chitauri ground forces trying to swarm them. The mayhem seemed to spread for miles on end, no end in sight if more aliens kept dropping from their warships.

Ember growled at that, slamming the face of her scepter onto an approaching Chitauri. The alien flipped several times in mid-air from the strike, lying back-first onto the ground, dead on impact. Swinging the Bloodstone Scepter completely around, Ember unleashed a torrent of red-hot flames directly from the stone onto a bundle of Chitauri fodder trying to come up behind her. They screeched as the flames consumed their bodies, all five of them dropping to the ground, slowly becoming motionless.

“Come on!” Ember screamed, holding out her scepter and blocking the oncoming strike from a Chitauri. Hissing at that, Ember looked over to her fellow dragons, lost only in the cluster of Chitauri filling the battlefield. “Don’t give them anything! Keep up the fire! Keep up the fight!”

The dragons responded in kind to their Dragon Lord’s order. Garble in particular swooped downwards, breathing fire upon several Chitauri beneath him. He laughed jeeringly at their flailing, flame-covered bodies, unbeknownst to the chariot swooping downwards to him. A single Chitauri soldier dove from the chariot, tackling Garble in mid-air.

He wasn’t the only one.

Ember was tackled from the side, her Bloodstone Scepter rolling away from her. The Chitauri quickly straddled her, driving the bladed end of its rifle right for her throat. Ember grabbed the rifle, managing to keep the blade just inches from her throat. Gritting her sharpened teeth, Ember breathed fire on the alien, kicking it in the chest and ripping its rifle right out of its hands. As the beast screeched and swatted at the flames on its face and arms, Ember swiped low with the blade, slicing the alien’s head clean off its shoulders. She tossed the rifle aside, the weapon hitting the ground the same time its body did. Ember darted her gaze left, spotting her scepter lying in the midst of the madness. She got back to her feet and ran for it, only to get shot in the shoulder by a blue stream of energy, the plating blowing right off.

Gripping her bare shoulder, Ember shot her animalistic-like eyes back where the shot originated, to the Chitauri starship flying mere feet above the ground and jetting right for her. Firing right at her. The blasts tore apart the stone ground, rocks and gems flying outwards as the blue bolts stampeded her way. Ember shot out her wings, taking off and diving towards the nearest boulder she could find. She could feel the gust of wind as the starship flew past her, driving straight upwards and into the smoke and fog. Right back into the alien-filled skylines. Growling at that, Ember stood back up, only to fall right back down when a flurry of gunfire was sent her way, striking the boulder she hid behind.

Ember shot her head out from cover, glaring at the small squadron of Chitauri zeroing in on her, rifles jutted her way and firing at the rock. Ember ducked back into cover, her chest heaving as she tried desperately to think of a plan out of her situation.

While she remained behind the boulder, the young dragon Smolder flew into sight, gazing down to her Dragon Lord in danger.

It was normal for dragons of nearly all ages to be engaged in conflicts alongside the rest of their fellow dragons. Only the very young, only the smallest drakes remained hidden, somewhere safe as their elders dealt with the fight, so they could ensure their future. Smolder sided more so along the elder dragons, despite being so young. Lucky her. She didn’t mind, honestly. In fact, she was old enough to know that the dragons stood together against their enemies, that they fought as one when all were needed. She was a dragon. She had her wings. Her people needed her. That’s all she needed to get into the fight. She wore silver, steel-plated armor and a helmet alongside it, a small mace in her claws. She hadn’t really fought that much during the battle, only having to defend herself from time to time

Spotting Dragon Lord Ember in trouble, however, Smolder took immediate action.

“Ember!” Smolder screamed, suddenly turning towards another scream in the distance. Garble was currently getting the life choked out of him. She rolled her eyes, sighing, “Oh, great.”

Flying down to him, Smolder gripped her mace, shouting, “Hey, ugly!” The Chitauri turned its head back, meeting the spiked edge of the mace. The Chitauri screamed, dropping Garble and crumbling as Smolder stood over its chest, repeatedly smashing her mace into its head over and over again. Until nothing but a black mesh remained, spewing that same black and blue liquid with each strike, some of it even getting on Smolder.

“Aw, sick!” Smolder exclaimed, flying off and gagging at the blood on her armor. Garble remained silent, jaw unhinged and eyes wide with disbelief at what just happened. Neither one of them could understand why Smolder had saved him, or how she managed to do it, by the time several more of the alien creatures surrounded them.

They spoke in a garbled, alien tongue, rifles raised at both the teenage and the younger dragon. Almost appearing apprehensive at first, the two slowly started to look to one another, hoping either one had a way out. Just from their expressions, neither did.

They didn’t need to.

Several bolts of electricity shot out across the sky, causing the two dragons to flinch and face the disturbance ahead. They could only watch in astonishment as those bolts of electricity struck the earth, encompassing each alien that stood before them. The Chitauri withered about and screeched their final cry, eventually falling dead. Those bolts of lightning didn’t stop. Both Garble and Smolder watched as those bolts shot out across the landscape and struck several Chitauri. Only the Chitauri. Ember looked up, her jaw falling as she witnessed the lightning shoot over her head, blowing chariots out of the sky and killing countless more of the creatures on the ground. The Dragon Lord followed where the lightning bolts originated, Ember actually gasping to see a pony… a pony… race towards them.

And she wasn’t alone.

Joining her were several large creatures covered in snow-white and black fur, glowing blue eyes, and running on all fours. They trailed right behind the unicorn wearing dark armor, all of which wore armor that were equally as dark. They traveled in a stampede, charging right past Ember and towards the remainder of what had managed to survive from the pony’s lightning spell.

The Chitauri were few, but they instantly swatted aside, stabbed, and pummeled to the earth by the strange creatures, all of which carried spears, swords, and shields with them. Whatever they were, they weren’t there to kill the dragons, several running right on by the dragons that remained and focusing only on the aliens. Staring bewildered at that sight, Ember stood slack-jawed behind the boulder, finally returning her gaze to the dark orchid unicorn she had seen earlier.

That’s when she saw the rest of them.

Massive, flying ships soared over the Dragon Lands, breaking through the smoke, fog, and clouds and unleashing barrages of cannon fire onto the aliens in the air. Starships erupted into flame once they were struck, falling to the earth quickly, joining the death toll. The Chitauri focused their attention skywards, to the twelve ships entering the warzone. But that wasn’t all. That wasn’t nearly all. Across the landscape, plowing across the rocky surfaces, an army consisting of various creatures—mainly Hippogriff—joined in on the madness, following the ships in the sky, roaring and screeching and killing every last alien that stood in their way. Both on the ground and in the air.

Chitauri Leviathans roared out, all eight of them still slithering about in the skies shifting at once towards the approaching reinforcements. They were instantly met with a barrage of cannon fire from the twelve naval ships, a cluster of Hippogriffs and dragons swarming them from all sides. The Chitauri in the skies were decimated by the overwhelming forces, more and more dropping like flies and outnumbering the dragons that fell. And Ember watched them all fall down, watched as their enemies crumbled one by one. An airship soared over her head, spewing what appeared to be dark storm clouds from its exhaust. Ember stared at it only momentarily, bringing her attention back to the unicorn.

A count of six Chitauri soldiers surrounded her, six that abandoned their chariots and landed on the ground to deal with the unicorn that murdered their kin. They cocked their guns and laser rifles, all pointing at the prone pony. Ember studied that stance closer. She wasn’t lying down in defeat. No… she was readying herself for a pounce, her eyes wild with hellfire.

Then they fired.

Then she moved.

Not a single bolt struck her.

Tempest Shadow shot about faster than any of the aliens could even fathom, rolling across the rocky surface and driving the bottom of her back hoof into the sternum of the alien directly across from her. It sent the beast flying backwards, striking a gemstone jutted out of the ground and impaling the creature on it. But she wasn’t done. Far from it. Now on all fours, Tempest bent down and hopped in the air, dodging the blaster bolts intended for her. She spun fully around, striking two Chitauri, one for each of her back hooves. Their skulls impacted the ground so hard they split upon contact. Snarling at that, Tempest didn’t hold up and shot over to the next one, sliding on her back and kicking out the Chitauri’s legs. She delivered a powerful stomp into its cranium, killing it instantly, then finalizing her last attack on the only two that remained. They aimed their rifles right for her, never hesitating and firing away.

Tempest dodged to the left, ducked to the right, then growled and fired a lightning bolt from her horn. The cracked, broken horn sent an untamed spell right for the beasts, its power unknown, the after effects being all that Tempest could deduce from the spell. The lightning struck both in their place, their bodies exploding into nothing but a black and blue splatter.

Then… she took her moment of rest. Ember slowly stood back up, staring only at… her.

Tempest Shadow stared right back. Neither one of them could quite deduce it. Ember still remained momentarily frozen and baffled at what she just saw and was still currently witnessing, and Tempest just tried to maintain her breathing, soft crackles and sparks appearing over the shattered end of her horn. Ember’s brilliant red eyes met Tempest’s moderate opal. And just like that… both could feel it. That spark. That bond between two warriors, two leaders, each knowing what it meant to sacrifice, to give, to be brave, to do whatever it takes in order to ensure total victory. Either one could see that in the other’s eyes. Tempest narrowed her own, her horn beginning to brighten and sparks shooting out of it.

At first, Ember readied herself for the confrontation, but even she wasn’t completely ready for the Bloodstone Scepter levitated her way. Tempest barely managed to fling Ember her scepter, grinding her teeth as she struggled just to perform a simple levitation spell. But she managed in the end, tossing the scepter back to its rightful owner, Ember catching and staring at it momentarily.

The two leaders looked back to one another, a mutual respect already formed just by the looks they gave each other. Then Tempest turned away and galloped straight into the war, joining her soldiers. Ember watched her leave, her jaw having not closed the entire duration of their meeting.

“Dragon Lord Ember!”

Somehow, she had managed to hear her voice called out in the midst of the warfare unfolding around them. Turning back around, Ember watched only as three Hippogriffs gently fluttered down to her. The first one, and easily the largest, shot her wings out as she approached Ember steadily, the Dragon Lord growing wary at the sight of them. The Hippogriff noticed her expression, curling her long, pink wings back to rest by her sides. And striding on each of her sides, two more Hippogriffs joined her, all three of them wearing bright, golden armor. Similar to theirs, to the dragons’.

Still appearing somewhat unsure of their presence now mere feet before her, even Ember was stunned for a brief respite as all three bowed their heads to her, closing their eyes as they did so. An obvious sign of respect in the strangest of times for Dragon Lord Ember.

The largest one in the center raised her head, golden helmet still resting over it as she said, “I am Queen Novo of the Hippogriffs. With me are Stratus Skyranger of my royal guard, and Sky Beak, one of Hippogriffia’s finest soldiers.”

Both Hippogriffs raised their heads, nodding and smiling to the Dragon Lord. As for Ember, she remained somewhat neutral on their appearance, still holding a furrowed brow but not an appreciative smile for miles. She slowly nodded her head, her jaw still hanging open. “All right…”

Almost unsure of what to make of Ember’s expression, Novo just cleared her throat, trying to remain composed and respectful. “We received word from Princess Celestia that you were under attack from an extraterrestrial threat, as was most of our world,” she said, offering her wing in the direction of her forces. “We thought you could use some help.”

Ember followed the direction she pointed to. “Is that so?” she mumbled.

Before her, the battle over the Dragons’ Lair had increased tenfold, new foreign armies entering the conflict and inflicting tremendous damage to the enemy forces. Novo’s naval ships and Tempest’s airship took on the Leviathans, the chariots, and the starships. The Hippogriffs dealt with everything else, their many different forms making the battlefield appear even more cluttered and chaotic than ever before. More so than the Dragon Lands had ever seen.

And Ember simply remained indifferent about the entire ordeal. A tiny part of her was relieved to know they had reinforcements—with it being a fighting chance, but the rest of her roared viciously at that thought, knowing those reinforcements weren’t dragons. It was an old ideology, an old pride from her father and his father before him, and his father before him.

Novo seemed to read her thoughts, saying, “I know you dragons are a proud race, and you would rather deal with threats on your own, but right now we can’t have pride standing in the way of our survival as one united species.”

Ember almost laughed at that statement, choosing only to smile and shake her head. “One united species, huh?” she repeated, the tone of her voice especially heavy on the sarcasm.

Novo was already not in the mood, frowning. “We can discuss this later,” she concluded with a stamp of her spear in the ground, pointing the tip directly into the air. “Right now, we need to strike those.”

She pointed to the skies, to the two Chitauri Command Centers still hovering over the Dragons’ Lair, still unleashing hordes and hordes of alien reinforcements. Ember followed, once more, to the direction Novo had pointed, staring hatefully towards the two warships that still remained over her homelands. Ember flared out her nostrils, shooting out hot steam from each one.

“We had one of those attack our very empire, and the second we managed to bring it down, every last one of these invaders fell to the ocean.”

Ember looked back at her. To the Queen of the Hippogriffs. There was absolutely no humor in her voice, or in her eyes. She stared Ember dead in her own, stating flatly, plainly, truly, “Dead.”

A Chitauri Leviathan gave off its final cry as three of Novo’s naval ships blew it out of the air, its burning corpse dropping and impacting the ground, making the very earth shake around it. Ember held her ground, the Bloodstone Scepter’s butt pressed between the rocks. “So, we take out the biggest ships, we take out the armies?” Ember asked, twisting her neck back towards the Command Centers. She didn’t see Novo nod her head in confirmation, instead nodding her own. “Yeah, we had a hunch that’s how it worked. That’s what my Dad and several others tried to do…”

A brief moment of mournful silence befell the Dragon Lord, Ember dropping her gaze and closing it. The prolonged seconds ticked away, more screeches and roars filling the air, more explosions and more death. Ember opened her eyes. No tears. Just fight. “We’re losing more dragons than we’re killing these things, and we don’t have too many adults left that are needed in order to take on ships that size…”

She waited several moments later after she gave the grim news to Queen Novo, and still there was nothing on the other end of the conversation. Turning back once more, Ember raised a brow at the expressions of each Hippogriff, at their growing smirks, those smiles lifted up high to the alien warships up above.

“What?” Ember asked, turning from Sky Beak to Skyranger and then back to Novo.

Novo looked to Sky Beak and Skyranger, smirking their way. They nodded to her. They already knew what to do.

With that, Queen Novo held out her claw to Ember. “You might want to stand back.”

Curious at that, Ember stared at her and watched as the Hippogriff actually started to back away from her own two soldiers. Breaking out of her continued stupor over the situation as a whole, Ember joined the queen and stepped aside, giving plenty of room for the two Hippogriffs to…

Touch their necklaces. Ember frowned, that frown almost instantly vanishing when a bright flash of light encompassed the area where the two Hippogriffs once stood. And in the aftermath of that flash, all that remained of the Hippogriffs were towering, gargantuan, fearsome, fire-breathing dragons. Ember’s jaw fell for the umpteenth time that day. Novo kept on smiling.

Spreading their massive wings, the two dragons shot out into the air, instantly taking flight and soaring directly into the heart of the conflict, towards the very birth of the war for the Dragon Lands. Novo and Ember stumbled forward, watching everything unfold. As they flew over the Hippogriff armies engaging the Chitauri, several Hippogriffs turned their gazes skyward, to the two colossal dragons flying overhead and roaring for all the Dragons’ Lair to experience. Soon enough, a large majority of the Hippogriff army abandoned their weapons to the earth, clutching onto their necklaces and letting the light take and change them.

Dragon Lord Ember could only watch in total amazement as dozens and dozens of monstrous dragons rose from the ground, rearing their necks back and roaring out into the battle, sending the war cry for all to hear. Then they all spread their wings and took to the skies.

Straight for the Chitauri Command Centers. And the dragon army below cheered.