In the Canterlot Portal Chamber, the CMC were looking over the crystal tank of a new type of Imaginator, one that is much different from the others. They wanted to make Imaginators unique in some way, like Storm Falcon and Tidal Wave are. It's been quite enjoyable ever since they became imagineers, coming up with new Imaginators, mixing and matching them left and right as well as giving them their names. The best part about it is that they get to hang out with the Imaginators and play games with them when they’re not training with the Senseis.
Their thoughts were interrupted when a voice said, "You three seem really hyped for your imagination."
The fillies turned to see Spyro entering the chamber as Scootaloo chuckled, "We just like the way our imagination comes to life, Spyro."
Applebloom spoke, "Ah've even sent one of them to live at Sweet Apple Acres."
Spyro asked, "So that robot with the apple for a head?" Sweetie Belle answered cheerfully, "That was us!"
The purple dragon chuckled as he went over to the Arch-Portal, he didn't enter it though, he was looking over the portal design as he said,
"Reminds me of the portals back in the Dragon Kingdom."
Scootaloo decided to ask, "I have to ask. What happened to you and Cynder after the war ended?"
Applebloom spoke, "Master Eon said that you two disappeared after it ended."
Sweetie Belle said, "What is your story anyway?"
The dragon knew that this question would come up, he looked at the trio and said, "Well, I had to freeze both me and Cynder again after the remnants from the first war lured us to a trap. But, we were released afterwards and not by Grublins."
The girls were curious as Applebloom asked, "What happened?" The dragon smirked, "Let me tell you a story about an angry creature with magic, called 'Gnasty Gnorc."
In the Realm of Dragons, there was an interview going on with one of the dragon elders. The elder in question was dozing off until the camera crew woke him up,
“Okay, we’re rolling!”
The elder gathered himself and said, “I-It’s been peaceful here in the five realms...or is it six? Well, for a dragon’s age, we now have over 12,000 treasure or is it 14,000?”
The interviewer asked, “What about this Ga-nasty Ga-norc character? Now I imagine that he’s found a magic spell that turns gems into warriors for his cause?”
Another dragon walked beside the elder and stated, “I’ll take that question.”
But little do they know that Gnasty Gnorc himself, a villain that was banished to the Dragon Junkyard was watching the interview from his lair as he was relaxing. He was just about to eat a drumstick until he heard the dragon state,
“Gnasty Gnorc is a simple creature.” The gnorc stopped eating and questioned in shock, “Simple?!”
The dragon continued, “He has been contained in a remote realm and is no threat to the Dragon Kingdom.”
Gnasty was even more shocked and angry as he tossed his drumstick away, “No Threat!?”
The dragon stated, “And besides, he is ugly.”
The gnorc was hurt, the dragons saw him as harmless, his realm was no threat to the Dragon Kingdom and they say that he’s... “UGLY?!”
He was now angry at this, “OH THAT DOES IT!”
He grabbed his helmet and his mace used a spell that turned all the dragons into statues, fortunately only the Dragon City remained unharmed by Gnasty’s wrath. As he sent his warriors all over the Dragon Realm, a stray bolt from the gnorc’s spell struck a crystal shard in a cave in the Artisan home.
But this particular crystal held two dragons and a dragonfly and that bolt from Gnasty’s spell shattered the crystal, releasing the dragons in the process. But unlike the first time they woke up from being frozen, they were a bit tired at first, until Cynder regained her bearings and looked over at Spyro,
“Spyro? Spyro, wake up. Wake up!” Her shouting woke the purple dragon up as he shook off the effects of being frozen.
“Cynder? Wh-where are we?”
Sparx buzzed near him and spoke for the dragoness, “Well, we were frozen again when those things trapped us.” He sees a ray of sunlight at the end of the cave, “But since something destroyed the cave in, it's safe to go out and explore the world. Right buddy?”
Spyro and Cynder looked towards the exit and saw the sunlight that Sparx mentioned. They knew that it was safe to leave the cave as they made their way to the exit. At least it wasn't in ruins like the catacombs of the Well of Souls and wouldn't have to worry about the grublins. As soon as the dragons and dragonfly left the cave, they were greeted with an intriguing and horrible sight.
The Dragon Kingdom was a mess, evil warriors roam about the place, the treasure was stolen and there were dragon statues everywhere. Cynder looked around the place and wondered, “Where are we?”
Sparx recognized this place as much as Spyro did as the dragonfly spoke,“Oh...right, that cave that led us to that trap…” Spyro finished, “Also brought us to the Artisan Dragon Home.”
Cynder had an annoyed look in her eyes, “And you guys didn't tell me about it until now?!”
Sparx buzzed to her, “Hey, don’t blame us ‘Terror of the Skies’ we didn't…” Spyro cut in, knowing his brother would always bring up her past, “Sparx, don’t.” He looked at Cynder, “We knew that those cave systems led to several different dragon homelands, but we never expected the one we were trapped in, lead to the Artisan Home.”
Cynder, understanding Spyro’s words, not as much as Sparx with the dragonfly constantly reminding her of her past, “Okay, I understand. But, where are the dragons?”
Sparx buzzed around as he called out for any ‘scalies’ around. When no one heard the dragonfly’s call, he stopped near the closest dragon statue as Spyro and Cynder approached.
“Nope, no dragons hearing my call. But those bozos over there were laughing at me!” He pointed to the enemies that were on the hill as they froze in fear when they saw Spyro and Cynder. Spyro couldn't help but wonder,
“What happened here?” As the dragon stood close to the statue, a bright flash occurred which snapped Spyro out of his trance. The statue began to shake as Spyro backed up towards Cynder and Sparx as the statue began to chip away as the crystal skin revealed scales, horns, claws and wings. As soon as the statue collapsed, the Artisan dragon stood tall, wearing the gear of a carpenter as he recognized them,
“Spyro, Cynder? This is an honor to be in your presence.”
Spyro asked, “You know us?” The Artisan stated, “You two ended the war and saved the planet.”
Cynder asked, “But who are you?” The Artisan apologized, “I suppose that introductions were in order. My name is Nestor and I would like to welcome you to the Artisan home, but we have a problem as of late.”
Spyro asked, “What happened?” Nestor sighed, “Gnasty Gnorc happened.”
Cynder asked, “Gnasty Gnorc?” The older dragon stated, “A former resident of our realm. Gnasty was a troublemaker, he is greedy and ugly. But after we banished him, he wanted revenge on the dragons for his banishment. Apparently he found a magic spell that turns gems into warriors for his cause. During an interview earlier today, Gnasty must have tuned in to the interview and heard himself being called ugly among other things, he used a spell to turn all of the dragons into statues.”
Spyro knew what to do, “He has to be stopped - I have to stop him.”
Cynder spoke, “You can't just walk up his door and torch him, Spyro.”
Sparx buzzed, “I agree with the lady, Spyro. Come on, we just woke up after being frozen for who knows how long. Got stuff to do.”
Nestor, understanding the situation that they are facing decided, “Being frozen would no doubt put a number on your strength. So, you need to regain your strength first.”
Spyro asked, “How?” The older dragon explained, “I was freed when you and Cynder approached me. I need you to free ten dragons in the Artisans Home and then find the balloonist. He’ll transport you to the next home. As for regaining your strength, Gnasty’s forces are all over the realm, getting rid of his warriors would increase your strength and combat experience.”
Spyro asked, “But what about Gnasty Gnorc himself?”
Nestor stated, “Find Dragons first. You will get your chance to fight Gnasty in the future. But until then, that's all I can tell you.”
The dragon soon took to the skies, no doubt heading for a safe area, leaving the trio alone. Spyro looked around and knew what they had to do,
“We need to free the dragons in each dragon home, reclaim the stolen treasure and confront Gnasty Gnorc.”
Cynder looked at Spyro, “Nestor said that being frozen weakened our strength.” The purple dragon knew what she meant, “I only have my fire abilities and my combat skills.”
The dragoness used a shadow fire breath, “My Shadow Breath is the only thing I have left on the elemental side.”
Sparx sighed, “Oh great, back to square one of shooting magic outta your faces.”
Cynder glared at the dragonfly as he slightly chuckled, “I was only kidding, Cynder!”
The dragoness stated, “Good, because you should remember how scary I can be.”
Spyro, after listening to this banter between his brother and girlfriend spoke, “Let's get going.”
The others agreed and started their way down by gliding off the balcony near the waterfall where another dragon statue stood before them. When Spyro approached the statue, a bright flash occurred as the statue shook for a little bit before it began to chip away until the dragon was freed. Sparx shook his head at this as he asked Spyro,
“Why couldn't you just torch the Gnorc already?”
The freed dragon, Delbin stated, “Keep your antennas on, Sparx! You can also protect Spyro and Cynder as well.”
Sparx buzzed up to the dragon and asked, “How?”
The big dragon stated, “Although the butterflies give you strength, certain butterflies will give you great power.”
Delbin pulled out a canvas that had seven different butterflies painted on it. “You eat one of these butterflies, you can use their special abilities.”
The dragonfly sarcastically asked, “Besides a stomachache?” That only led Sparx to getting slapped by Cynder’s tail. The dragoness spoke,
“Your stomach is the least of our concerns. You just learned that seven breeds of butterflies exist which can give you a special ability.”
Delbin spoke, “You heard the lady, Sparx.”
Spyro stepped in, “It seems like all of us have much to learn.” The Artisan replied, “No matter how old you get, the urge to learn never leaves.” Delbin left as the trio made their way across the field where two cowardly gnorcs ran away from them. But Spyro was in full pursuit when he used his flame breath to torch each of the gnorcs while Cynder used her Shadow breath to defeat a gnorc gem thief. Upon defeating these enemies, they went poof and all that remained of the gnorcs was a gem for each gnorc. Spyro knew what this meant,
“Nestor was right about Gnasty turning gems into minions.” He looked at the nearby portal, “And I’m certain that his goons are in other areas of the Artisan home.”
Cynder saw a hedge-maze housing another portal, “With these portals, Gnasty’s forces are spread out over this dragon home.”
Spyro had an idea, “Cynder, let's split up. We’ll have to go through different portals to find the dragons and reclaim the treasure.”
Cynder knew that Spyro would think about this as she agreed, “If we split up, we can cover a lot more ground in the Artisan home.”
The two dragons soon split up and went into different portals.
Back in the present, the CMC were amazed by Spyro’s story through the Artisan home with Spyro telling them about how the Artisans depend on a much more calmer approach to their problems. They provided other dragons with artifacts of culture and beauty with songs, sculptures and poetry. This made Sweetie Belle raise her hoof,
“Rarity once brought home a small dragon statue after her date with Spike.”
Spyro knew what it was, “That statue was sculpted by the Artisans.” Spyro knew for a fact that Artisan art is valuable in Equestria. Art collectors would love to get their hooves on any artwork created by the Artisans, mainly due to their draconic origin. Scootaloo stated,
“Who knows what else your dragons can do!”
“What was that?” Spoke a new voice as a newcomer entered the chamber. It was a female dragon, although young like the fillies she possessed a competitive attitude, something that Spyro had sensed. She had orange scales, orchid spines and cyan eyes that looked irritated at first until she noticed the chamber she was in.
“When that mosquito said that there were portals here, he actually meant it.”
Spyro knew exactly who she meant, “You’re talking about Sparx, the dragonfly you mentioned.”
The dragoness looked at Spyro and asked, “So you’re the leader of the Skylanders? You don’t look that tough to me?”
The purple dragon chuckled, “Never judge a book by its cover for there’s more to a dragon than meets the eye.”
The dragoness was curious about it since he said those words. Spyro decided to ask, “So who are you? And what brings you to the Portal Chamber?”
She grumbled, “I’m Smolder and I didn’t want to be here in the first place.” Spyro was curious, “And why is that?”
Smolder sighed, “At the request of the Dragon Lord-To-Be. She said that dragons need to learn about teamwork and friendship. The dragons are better than this, especially in a time of war.”
Scootaloo smirked, “You would eat those words when you hear Spyro’s story about how he rescued the dragons in his world.”
Smolder asked, “Are dragons in his world weak to allow him to rescue them?”
Spyro flared his wings, “That’s enough, Smolder. You may think that a dragon’s aspect is brute strength and size. But in my world, Dragons are more peaceful, full of wisdom and willing to help others, no matter what.”
Smolder couldn’t help but feel afraid as Spyro spoke to her. While she resented the idea of friendship, having been brought here against her will. She felt initially afraid by the purple dragon's statement and how he flared his wings until she felt something resting on her head as a voice spoke,
“Yeah, I should’ve warned ya that a lot of crazy things happen when he gets mad. Trust me, I’ve been there.”
Spyro closed his wings as he noticed, “Sparx, what are you doing here?” The dragonfly took off from the dragoness’ head, “Showing little Miss Bitter-Scales around when she noticed the Portal Chamber.”
Smolder attempted to swat at the dragonfly, but missed as he taunted, “Missed me!” The purple dragon sighed as he said,
“I’m sorry about Sparx, he’s just like this.”
Smolder sighed as she said, “As long as he doesn’t call me that anymore.” Sparx buzzed up to her, “I make no promises.”
Spyro glared at his longtime friend as the dragonfly sighed, “Okay, I won’t call you that name again.”
Now that everything was back in order, Sweetie Belle asked, “What happened next?”
Spyro replied, “Well, after we went to Town Square, rescued the Dragons, reclaimed the treasure - “
Sparx interrupted, “That was when that chef dragon had a panic attack over the theft of the dragon egg!”
The three fillies were aware of the importance of the eggs, both history wise and listening to Whirlwind's story about it. But Smolder was curious, "Who and why would anyone try to steal a dragon egg?"
Spyro remembered that very much as he explained, “When Gnasty Gnorc used his spell to trap the dragons, he not only sent his warriors all over the dragon realm, he also sent thieves to steal the dragon eggs. Those thieves are fast runners and are more annoying than those key thieving imps from our first war with Kaos.”
Smolder, interested in Spyro’s tale decided to listen.
At Town Square, Spyro and Cynder had defeated Gnasty’s minions, took back the treasure and made sure that they won’t come back. Although, all of the bulls in Town Square were now stuck in the ground, so they decided to leave them. It wasn’t until they came across the last dragon of Town Square, right next to the whirlwind that would return them to the Artisan Home. They approached the statue and freed the dragon. He was a chef dragon as he noticed them,
“Hmpf, Spyro, Cynder, did any of you see a man dressed in blue running around here?” The dragons looked around and saw the man in blue on the high ground at the edge of town as Spyro pointed out, “I see him.”
The dragon, Alvar yelled, “HE'S A THIEF! And he's stolen a dragon egg! You've got to track him down and - and get that egg! RUN! RUN!” He starts to have a panic attack over it as he said, “... I'm getting a little winded.”
Cynder spoke, “We’ll handle him, you need to get yourself someplace safe.”
As Alvar left, the dragons took off for the edge of town where the thief was. As soon as they reached the edge of town, they spotted the egg thief and he was as Alvar described him - a man wearing blue with his face concealed by the blue cloak, showing nothing but his eyes and mouth. The thief spotted them and then taunted them, “Na Na Na Na Na!” He laughed.
As the two approached him, he suddenly took off, taking the dragon egg with him. But Spyro and Cynder were not far behind the thief as he ran and laughed. As the dragons chased him around Town Square, the thief hopped off of the wall towards one of the areas that they were at before with Spyro following behind. When Spyro turned to the blue colored man, that sneaky thief hopped back onto the wall as he taunted the purple dragon - only to be knocked off the wall by the black dragoness who held back in the chase. As the thief flew over the ledge, the dragon egg remained where he left it on the wall as Spyro smiled,
“Nice surprise, Cynder! He did not see you coming.”
Cynder smiled, “I have my moments.” Sparx buzzed in, “Now can we deal with this egg and head back to that dragon head back at the Artisan Home?”
The dragoness looked at Sparx, “Dragon head?” The purple dragon asked, “Artisan Home?”
The dragonfly realized, “Right, while you two were dealing with those gnorcs back there, I went off on my own and found this dragon head near a trapped dragon. Just looking at it made me think that it was meant to open up somehow. But it didn’t have a keyhole, so I couldn’t open it. Heck, I even tried to shove it open!”
Cynder chuckled at the fact that the dragonfly tried to open a dragon head. After they were finished in Town Square, they went back to the Artisan Home to find that Dragon Head that Sparx mentioned. They went back through the tunnel out to the field where the first portal was as the dragonfly pointed to the opening behind the portal. Spyro and Cynder followed Sparx to a small courtyard where the dragon head stood and the trapped dragon that he also mentioned. Spyro went up to the statue and freed the dragon.
The dragon they freed had a pair of glasses, dark purple scales unlike Spyro, a purple scarf with a round body. He was also holding a half-eaten watermelon when he was freed. Sparx noticed that flash when he was freed as he said,
“Whoa, cool flash! Do that again!”
Spyro sighed, “Sparx.”
The dragon recognized them, “Ah, Spyro and Cynder. I would say that it’s nice to meet you, but there’s a problem.” He pointed to the dragon head, “One of Gnasty’s lieutenants is through the portal in the dragon mouth.”
Cynder spoke, “Right, Sparx only told us about the head. But about this boss.”
The dragon chuckled, “Well, his attempts to open it were enough to make me laugh, despite being in crystal.” That made the dragonfly feel embarrassed by this until Spyro asked,
“But...umm…” The dragon spoke his name, “Argus…” The young dragon continued, “Argus, how do we get there?”
Argus smiled, “Well, you would have to complete one area to open the portal, but since you and your mate had completed all of the areas here. You can now face the boss when you are ready.”
Although Spyro and Cynder’s faces turned red when he mentioned them as mates, Sparx nudged his brother with a smile on his face. Argus chuckled at this because he knows that this was young love, he soon snapped his claws as the dragon mouth opened, revealing the portal. He stated, “Good luck, you three.”
Argus took off to a safe place, leaving the two dragons and dragonfly to enter the portal.
“Gnasty had lieutenants?” Asked Scootaloo as she broke the silence between each verse of the story.
Spyro nodded, “Each dragon realm was watched over by one of Gnasty Gnorc’s lieutenants, these five minions joined Gnasty as a means for revenge against the dragons. Each boss had a certain connection with that particular realm which why the gnorc placed them there.”
Smolder asked, “About this ‘Boss Realm’ who was the boss of Artist Dragon Realm?”
Spyro chuckled, “Well, you four are not going to believe this one.”
The fillies and dragoness were eager to hear what this Boss Realm was like.
When Spyro and Cynder arrived at the boss realm, they landed at the cliff that was shadowed by a large castle. They noticed that the castle was guarded by those sheep herders from the plains, but they have dogs accompanying them now. Spyro noticed the herders and the dogs as he said,
“No doubt that Gnasty's Lieutenant sent them to stop any intruders.”
Cynder smiled, “I’ll take those guys.” She vanished as her shadow sped toward the nearest group of herders and dogs. She caught them by surprise and took them down with her shadow breath. The dragoness looked over her handy work when the fallen enemies went poof, leaving a few gems behind. She collected the gems as Spyro joined her and said,
“I’ll take the next group.” The purple dragon used his comet dash and plowed through the second group before the dogs and herders knew what was going on as they too were reduced to gems as Spyro collected them. The two were now inside the building as they saw more dog and herder groups, one was on the left and the other was on the right. Spyro and Cynder saw those groups as they glanced at each other,
“You take right while I take left?”
She smiled, “Didn't even have to ask.”
Spyro and Cynder split up as the dragons took their sides and with a mix of Fire and Shadow, they defeated the enemies and collected the gems that made up those enemies. The dragons soon made their way further into the castle as they noticed the picture frames on the walls. Sparx took note of the portraits, mostly were of some areas of the Artisan home,
“Whoever owns this place is quite the artist.”
Spyro looked at the dragonfly, “They're called Artisans for a reason, Sparx.”
The dragonfly buzzed, “And now I know the downside of being raised in a swamp.”
As they made their way through the castle, they defeated the enemies guarding the place and grabbed every piece of treasure that was between them and the boss. When they reached the end of the hall, they spotted a dragon statue as Cynder approached,
“Let's hope he knows what we're up against.” When she touched the base of the statue, it shook and cracked until the trapped dragon was freed. The dragon was no doubt, a painter as he was wearing the clothes of a painter as well. The dragon noticed them,
“Spyro, Cynder, Gnasty Gnorc has sent one of his most devious lieutenants in charge of the Artisan Realm. He also took over my house while I was working on another portrait for the hall you were just in.”
Spyro spoke with determination, “We’ll kick him out for you.”
Cynder added, “He won't get away with this.” Sparx decided to be humorous, “Does anyone smell a barbecue somewhere?”
The dragon, Nevin warned, “Be careful, young dragons. Toasty has many tricks up his sleeve.”
After Nevin left, the trio moved passed his pedestal and entered what looked like a courtyard and found Toasty, which looked like one of the sheep herders, but he had a big red coat with a hat and a pumpkin on his head. Spyro decided to get his attention,
“Stop right there, Toasty!”
The pumpkin headed herder sneered as he put his skeletal fingers at his jack o lantern mouth and whistled which singled the sleeping dogs near him to wake up. The dogs looked at Toasty as he pointed his scythe at the two dragons. The dogs knew very well that the dragons were threatening their master, so they growled at them and attacked. Cynder took on the dogs while Spyro went after Toasty as the pumpkin head herder tried to get away from the purple dragon. He just kept running until his dogs were defeated and lashed out at Spyro with his scythe.
Spyro dodged the scythe and opened up with his fire breath, the fire singed the herder’s cape as his boney hands beat the flames away. The door to the next area opened as Toasty ran for that area with Spyro and Cynder in pursuit. Toasty signaled more dogs to wake up and attack the dragons, but Cynder's Shadow Fire did away with them as Spyro dodged Toasty’s scythe and let loose another flame attack. It torched the herder's cloak as the pumpkin fell off his head and splattered onto the ground.
The identity of Toasty brought a shock to Spyro, Cynder and Sparx as they saw before them…
“Toasty was a Sheep!?” Shouted Smolder in a shocked tone.
Sparx added, “A sheep on stilts with an army of literal dogs.”
Spyro stated, “Believe me, I was surprised as much as Cynder when his identity was revealed.”
Scootaloo was curious, “Why would a sheep be that evil in joining Gnasty Gnorc?”
Sweetie Belle remembered, “Sheep are mainly punching bags for dragons among others.”
Applebloom whistled at this, “He seems like he had enough being a punching bag.”
Spyro agreed, “But he chose the wrong side to see it his way. He makes Sheep Creep look harmless...although he's patrolling the Artisan Realm as part of Tuff Luck’s Trap Team Patrol.”
Smolder asked, “I thought they were called back to their base in Ponyville?”
Sparx stated, “Most were called back and only a few stayed in certain areas.”
The young dragoness asked the purple dragon, “Back to Toasty, he was one of the five lieutenants?”
Spyro nodded, “He was and the Artisan Realm was safe again now that Toasty was gone. It's also best that you don't tell Hugo about it since he is afraid of sheep...mainly because they made off with his spare clothes while he slept.”
The fillies laughed at that incident when they moved the sleeping scholar into a field of sheep as the dragoness found it funny as well. Spyro continued, “Now that the Artisan home was safe, we found the balloonist and no, it's not Flynn, to transport us to the next realm - The Peacekeepers.”
Upon arriving at the Peacekeeper’s Home, the balloonist spoke,
“Be careful in this realm, Gnasty's forces have turned this desert home into a military camp for target practice. Those gnorcs will be firing cannons on and off, so it’s best to take care of them and if you can, knock them in the tar pits. There's another balloonist at the far end of the desert, just keep frying up those baddies, rescue dragons and collect the eggs and treasure!”
Spyro replied, “We will, thanks for the ride!”
The balloon flew off as the dragons began their trek into the home of the Peacekeepers. As they made their way through the hall, they freed their first Peacekeeper dragon, Titan, the leader of the Peacekeepers who welcomed their arrival and explained that they need to recover the treasure that has been turned into gnorcs. Upon entering the desert area which was basically a testing ground for the gnorc armies.
After seeing the gnorcs in the desert, the dragons charged in and began taking down the gnorcs left and right. Once the grunt gnorcs saw them, they immediately ran for the tents with the dragons in pursuit. Spyro used his fire breath to take down three of them while the fourth jumped into the tent. Cynder used her scythe-like tail tip the cut the tent open with a gnorc’s bare butt to greet her. When she saw this, she was disgusted by the gnorc, so she used her shadow breath shot it at the gnorc as it flew into the nearby tar pit. She stated,
“You show your butt to a girl, she'll beat you up for that!”
“Yikes, that might've been overkill, but showing your flank to a dragoness was just ridiculous!”,spoke Sweetie Belle.
“I was shocked that the gnorc did that, but then again, Cynder was more scarier than him.” ,replied Spyro.
Spyro and Cynder soon made their way to the portals that lead to many areas of the Peacekeepers Realm. It went from Spyro frying the gnorcs and their pet vultures and conquering challenging glides at Dry Canyon to Cynder pulling Pueblos and Fat Ladies into her shadows and burning them with her shadow breath at Cliff Town. It soon had both Spyro and Cynder taking down the gnorcs occupying the Ice Caverns, the only frozen area of the Peacekeepers Realm.
Sparx also had a bit of help since he ate a sparkling butterfly in Dry Canyon and started spewing out energy projectiles. This helped in catching the gnorcs off guard in the Ice Cavern since his projectiles pushed the patrolling gnorcs off the cliffs. It all boils down to the Boss of the Peacekeepers Realm, a gloating witch doctor who thinks he is so cool. The dragon that they freed near the boss stated,
“Doctor Shemp thinks he's so cool! You have no idea what it's like to have to hear him go on and ON!”
Spyro knew one thing, “A boaster nonetheless.”
Cynder sighed, “Boasters always gloat over how much cooler they are to others. Most do it to impress girls.”
The freed dragon, Trondo gave them a hint, “But let me tell you one thing: he should watch his back since you two are here.”
The dragon took off as the trio confronted Doctor Shemp, the sunglasses wearing witch doctor just looked at the dragons and dragonfly and laughed,
“These are the creatures responsible for causing trouble in the Great Doctor Shemp’s Realm?! What a big joke!”
Spyro stated, “Your reign over the Peacekeepers is over!”
The Witch Doctor gloated, “Many have faced the Great Doctor Shemp and none have won! You will fall like the rest!” He made the first move by slamming his staff down on the two dragons. They dodged his attack and made their way behind him as Cynder noticed the witch doctor’s exposed backside, she had a sly grin,
“He should watch his back all right.” Seeing this opportunity, she used her shadow breath on Doctor Shemp’s exposed backside causing the witch doctor to jump up in shock. His backside was now on fire as he ran to the next platform with the dragons in pursuit. Shemp managed to put out the fire on his backside as he glared at the two, “You were lucky, but you won't catch the Great Doctor Shemp off guard again!”
Spyro looked at Cynder, who sported a confident look and then back to the Witch Doctor, “We’ll make you eat those words!”
Doctor Shemp angrily attempted to slam his staff down on the dragons again, only for the two to dodge and evade his attack. The witch doctor attempted to swing his staff at Cynder, only for the black dragoness to dodge it once again, leaving his rear open to Spyro as the purple dragon used his fire breath on the boss as the frantic witch doctor jumped in pain and ran to the third platform as the duo pursued him once again.
When they caught up with him, the witch doctor said nothing and proceeded to bring the staff down on the dragons a third time, but he executed a spin attack. While he was spinning, his backside was exposed which the dragons noticed whilst dodging his attack. Spyro and Cynder took the initiative and attacked Doctor Shemp with both Fire and Shadow. This combined attack was enough to finish that boaster off once and for all.
Smolder was intrigued by Spyro's story, in fact the only thing that dragons mostly do is fight for their own turf, hoard lots of treasure and destroy trespassers. But these dragons are more civilized and had different classifications. Artisans were masters of art and architecture while the Peacekeepers were more militaristic and keep the peace in the Dragon Realm.
Scootaloo asked, “So Doctor Shemp is like Trixie?” Spyro sighed, “He’s like her, but more annoying and didn't rely on his staff attacks.”
The young dragon spoke, “I have to admit, the dragons are very interesting. Each are very unique in their own way.”
Sparx, who was lounging on her head spoke, “We still had three more dragon worlds to save before moving on to Gnasty Gnorc. Although the Peacekeepers were grateful of our success...well, I was kind of a big deal back on Tall Plains.”
Spyro sighed, “Sparx, we still had a job to do and a realm to save.” The dragonfly understood this as he said, “Okay, now about our next destination, brother?”
The purple dragon continued, “Our next realm is the home of the most magically-inclined dragon species, The Magic Crafters.”
Smolder recognized the name, “Wait a minute, I remember hearing something about them.”
Spyro asked, “What do you know about them?” The dragoness thought about it for a second before saying, “I remember seeing a group of ponies looking over a dragon statue that was teeming with magic. The ponies studying it mentioned them.”
Spyro recognized it, “That was an artifact created by the Magic Crafters. The ponies have been studying the artifacts and learning more on dragon magic.”
Sweetie Belle asked, “What was the Magic Crafters Home like?”
Spyro described, “It was high on the mountain peaks, the dragons are mostly shy and prefer to keep to themselves. But when we arrived at the Magic Crafters Home, an old friend of ours was trapped in crystal as well.”
Upon arriving at the mountainous region, the balloonist spoke, “Things have gotten worse since Gnasty froze the dragons. Those pesky thieves stole most of the eggs from this realm and right now you have to get them back.”
Sparx spoke for the two, “Right, just look for the guys in blue? Got it!”
As they disembarked, Spyro noticed an egg thief taunting them from the corridor. Thanks to careful planning, they outsmarted the blue thief and got the egg back. They soon went to the end of the corridor and rescued a frozen dragon. But this dragon was an ice dragon and very familiar to the three,
“Ugh, that dastardly gnorc had to stir up trouble for us all.” He noticed, “Ah, Spyro, Cynder, I wondered when you two would return.”
Spyro was surprised, “Cyril, what are you doing here?”
The ice dragon stated, “Cosmos, the leader of the Magic Crafters sent a message to Dragon City, requesting our presence here. I assume that he was going to use one of the artifacts to locate you. But I guess that’s no longer an issue.”
Cynder realized, “Us?” Cyril sighed, “Volteer and Terrador came along as well. But we separated after our arrival.”
Spyro recalled, “We didn’t find them in the Artisan or Peacekeeper realm.”
Cyril, curious on the whereabouts of his colleagues suggested, “They must have been in the next two worlds around the time that gnorc decided to make trouble. In fact, as you all know with the dragon frozen, the unhatched dragon eggs are now fair game to those despicable blue thieves. Especially in the Magic Crafter Realm.”
Spyro knew all too well what they had to do, “Find the thieves and rescue the eggs. We’ll also rescue any other dragons that were frozen by Gnasty Gnorc.”
As the young dragons left, the ice dragon warned, “Careful, you two. Gnasty Gnorc has another one of his henchmen watching over this realm.”
Cynder assured him, “We’ve dealt with two already, but thanks for the heads up.”
Spyro soon told his listeners about his journey through the Magic Crafter Realm. The journey consisted of him fighting the Tornado Wizards and Metal-Back Spiders at High Caves with Fairies helping him up in case he falls while chasing two thieves. Cynder fought the Druids and their Beasts at the Alpine Ridge while chasing an egg thief. The two went to Wizard Peak and fought off the Ice Gnorcs and Armored Druids while utilizing the supercharge panels scattered around the peak. It was there that they learned of a secret in the Artisan Home by the waterfall from one of the dragons they rescued. So, they took a detour back to the Artisan Home and found the waterfall that the dragon mentioned.
“That waterfall hid a portal to a speedway.” said Spyro.
Scootaloo remembered, “Whirlwind told us about those places. I bet Rainbow Dash can clear those places in 10 seconds flat!”
Sparx sighed, “Right, because that speedster would love to try out the race courses.”
After conquering the speedways in the other realms as well as the speedway in Magic Crafters, the dragons soon moved on to the boss of this realm. A creature created by Gnasty himself resides in a mountain fortress guarded by Weather Wizards and Green Druids. Although the wizards and druids were meant to stop the dragons from reaching the boss, they were no match for the dragons as they blew through the defenses, reclaimed the stolen treasure and rescued the dragon, Altair before confronting the boss who was a Magic Crafter with a crystal ball, feathery wings and was curious about the two dragons despite thanking them by name after he was freed.
After that, they went to confront Gnasty’s creation, Blowhard who appeared as a green torso, complete with arms and head. He wore a witch's hat and had a long orange beard. His lower body consisted of a whirlwind. The wind sorcerer attack the dragons with lightning and generated thunderclouds to defend himself. The dragons dodged his attack while waiting for the opportunity to strike. Their moment came when the sorcerer dropped to ground level as Spyro attacked with his fire breath. After the initial attack, Blowhard decided to make a run for it, but Spyro and Cynder weren’t going to let him get away. They chased him across his realm as Cynder landed her attack on him as he fled a second time until they had him cornered. Blowhard tried to fight back, but he was no match for two highly-trained dragons. After Spyro and Cynder struck him with a charge, the supporting whirlwind flattened out and was knocked out.
Spyro had told them about his journey through the Magic Crafters Realm as Sweetie Belle spoke,
“Wow, that place must’ve been amazing to see. I wish I could go there and see it without those druids and wizards crawling around.”
Smolder was curious, “That’s something you don’t normally associate with dragons since we’re not usually associated with magic.”
Spyro stated, “And yet, you have four dragon oracles that are known for magic even when they are statues.” He soon spoke in a different language, “Zu'u etaak tal nol iidah nau dovah himdah”
Smolder was surprised by the purple dragon speaking in a language that was spoken by the Oracles. Although she remembered that the Skylanders played a part in the defense when Malefor attacked the Dragon Lands. She sighed in that language, “Zu'u mindoraan tol hin fahdon sav dii hofkiin. Zu'u dreh ni really mindok druv Zu'u lost drun het, nuz nii vust kos fah nuft.”
The CMC were confused by the sudden shift in language between the two dragons as Applebloom asked, “What was that?”
Spyro told them, “That’s for another time.” He turned back to the young dragon, “Smolder, Magic and Dragons have always been linked together. From the Oracles of the Dragon Lands to the Ancestral Dragons of Ancient Times. I'm sure you’ve heard of Spotlight and Blackout’s ‘unique ability’ during the Dream War?”
Smolder couldn't forget what she saw when she first met the two. Before she and Sparx walked into the portal chamber, the dragonfly gave her the tour of the training ground only to see Spotlight and Blackout as the Blue Eyes White Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon working in tandem against the training dummies, both Grublin and Troll War Machines. Even though she was a dragon herself, the very sight of dragons that could put a hoarder to shame was scary. It was after she saw them shift back to normal that secretly amazed her. The young dragoness nodded as Spyro continued,
“Those are the Ancestral Dragons, the precursor of the Purple Dragons, before Spike, me and even Malefor himself.”
Sweetie Belle spoke up, “What happened to them?” Spyro shook his head, “No one knows what happened. Some legends say that the Ancestral Dragons died out after Malefor turned evil and raised their temples to the ground while some say that the dragons went into hiding after Malefor began the war, waiting for the day that they will rise again once peace has been restored and Malefor is defeated for good. They didn't return when Cynder and I beat him the first time, assuming that they were extinct, but the rumors of their presence lives on. Some of the artifacts from the Magic Crafters Home date back to the Ancestral dragons.”
Applebloom was curious about these precursor dragons, but she wanted to know more about the next realm, “Where did you go next?”
Spyro sighed, “A swamp.” Scootaloo asked, “Why were you in a swamp?”
Sparx pointed out, “Besides the fact that we were raised in a swamp?”
The dragon stated, “This swamp is the home of the next group of dragons known as the Beast Makers.”
The Beast Maker dragons are responsible for bringing forth all new species of creatures living in the world. They choose to live in swamps, in tumble-down wood platforms, on stilts in the mud flats and in hollowed-out trees in the thick forests. Here they can find natural claw, roots and other materials to do their work. But around the time that Spyro and Cynder arrived at the swamp, Sparx took a deep breath and felt a deep sense of nostalgia,
“Ah, the swamp. It feels like home eh, Spyro?”
Spyro felt it too, remembering the swamp he and Sparx were raised in when he thought he was dragonfly. But to see the swamp inhabited by Gnasty Gnorc’s minions is not only sad, but hideous. The two dragons and dragonfly made their way across the electrified floors while taking out the gnorcs responsible for it and reached the first dragon in the Beast Maker’s realm. Upon stepping on the pedestal, the dragon statue broke apart as expected, but what they didn’t expect was the dragon itself, he was big, had green scales and the tail tip was a spiked ball. He had the build of a warrior - a warrior that both Spyro and Cynder recognized by name.
“Terrador!”
The Earth Guardian shook off the effects of the spell and noticed, “Spyro, Cynder! It’s good to see you again. Although there’s no doubt that you know about Gnasty Gnorc’s little scheme.”
Sparx buzzed up, “Yeah, we’ve already rescued Cyril back at the Magic Crafters realm.”
Terrador understood, “Then I guess you know why we were here since you never came back to Warfang.”
Spyro decided to ask, “How long have we been gone?”
“It’s been five years since you three went off to wipe out the remnants.”
Cynder was shocked, “Five years?! We’ve been gone that long?”
The older dragon nodded before saying, “Many things have changed since you’ve been gone. But now Spyro, Cynder, it's your duty to restore peace to the Dragon Kingdom by rescuing the dragons and defeating Gnasty Gnorc and his lieutenants.”
Spyro asked, “But this swamp...what happened here?” Terrador pointed a wing out to the swamp, “This swamp was once the home of the Beast Makers, but its current state is what Gnasty Gnorc did when he took over. He turned the Beast Maker’s Swamp into an electrified wasteland and the local dragons claimed that their swamp was beautiful before Gnasty moved in.”
“I’m sure it was.”
After Terrador left, Spyro and Cynder separated to tackle different areas of the Beast Maker Realm. Spyro was in Terrace Village, sanitizing the village of all gnorcs and stopping the gnorcs using the electrified floors while rescuing the dragons in that area.
Cynder was in the Misty Bog, which looked like a nice place to be, if it wasn’t infested with boars, gnorcs and attack frogs which one of the freed dragons, Rosco claimed to be ‘Cold-Blooded Killers’ which the dragoness took to planning a strategy for those frogs. Cynder used her shadow breath before the frogs attacked her which proved to be an effective method to deal with them.
The most challenging area that both Spyro and Cynder had to do was Tree Tops, since as its name implies, is up in the large trees of the Beast Makers. But the challenging part is using the supercharge ramps to get to higher and further places where they couldn’t get to by gliding. It took Spyro and Cynder several tries to find all of the treasure, chase down the thieves and get to a remote island where the dragon, Jed was frozen. After freeing him, they’ve shown a bit of irritation for the remote area that he got stuck in.
After that, Spyro went to do the speedway before he and Cynder went to confront the fourth lieutenant, Metalhead.
Metalhead’s Realm was a wasteland filled with those monkey-like enemies from Treetops and toxic waste pits. Spyro and Cynder fought their way through these enemies while retrieving the gems along the way until they came across another trapped dragon. After they freed the dragon, Sadiki, he gave the dragons a hint about their foe,
“Metalhead is all charged up to meet you. Attacking the power poles should disrupt his power supply.”
Spyro realized, “No power to him means he can’t attack.”
Cynder added, “And if he can’t attack, we can beat him.”
The duo went to battle their foe, Metalhead, who is a robot with a shiny bulk, a saw blade in the shape of a mohawk on top of his head and an arm cannon on his left arm. The robot spots them and starts firing the cannon at the two dragons before tossing one of those monkeys towards them. They dodged his attacks as the large monkey hit one of the power pylons, shattering it. The robot sparked a bit before throwing an armored banana boy towards the dragons only for Spyro to take any banana boys and strong arms as Cynder destroyed the other pylons.
When Metalhead realized that the pylons were down, he ran to the next area with the dragons in pursuit. The robot stopped at the second chamber which was a wider, outdoors area with nine pylons surrounding it. Spyro kept the robot busy while Cynder went to destroy the power pylons when they open. It was a difficult battle, it was definitely not like Toasty, Dr. Shemp or Blowhard since the robot seems to hold his ground. Metalhead was more formidable than most bosses, but this also proves that Gnasty was capable of building a robot. But the downside was that Metalhead had to be powered by those pylons, so he can’t leave his realm. As soon as the pylons were destroyed, the robot toppled over and blew up. Spyro and Cynder obtained the gems from Metalhead’s realm and returned to the Beast Makers Realm.
They were surprised by the battle against Metalhead as well as the Beast Makers Swamp. Smolder was intrigued,
“I guess not all dragons live in volcanic areas. From what you say, these dragons have a lot more places to live in.”
Applebloom spoke, “Not to mention that the Beast Makers create new creatures.”
Scootaloo realized, “Just like we’re doing with Imaginators!”
Sweetie Belle was excited, “I never really thought of that.”
The fillies and dragoness were excited to hear more on Spyro’s story of the struggle against the evil Gnasty Gnorc. Scootaloo was anxious,
“This is amazing, you’ve traveled all over the Dragon Kingdom in your world, kicked flank, took names and rescued those dragons that were frozen by Gnasty. When do you get to the part where you finally torch him?”
Spyro assured her, “One thing at a time, Cynder and I still had one last Dragon Realm to save.”
Sweetie Belle was curious, “What was it?”
“The Realm where Blackout first entered the Waking World and where he and Spotlight first met.”
The CMC thought about it, meaning that Spotlight and Blackout were involved in this realm. They began to think back to the story that the head librarian of the Eternal Archives, Wiggleworth told them of the origins of Spotlight and Blackout and how they saved the Waking World in the First Dream War until one word came into mind, the realm where the First Dream War reached a turning point in favor of the dreamers as the three called out,
“THE DREAM WEAVERS!”
Smolder was confused about what they said as she asked, “The Dream What?”
Spyro stated, “The Dream Weavers are the dragons that are the peacekeepers of the night and experts on dream magic. From their island in the clouds, they wander through the dreams of other creatures of the world, making sure no nightmares bother dragons while they're asleep. Anyone who has bad dreams at night can call on these Dragons for help.”
Smolder couldn't believe what she was hearing from him; Artistic Dragons, Desert dwelling Enforcer Dragons, Magic Dragons, Swamp-dwelling Dragons that create various creatures and now there are dragons that can traverse the dreams of others? If anyone else told her about this back home, she would've laughed, but she's hearing it from Spyro, a dragon that’s not from Equis and has been there before. The dragoness spoke,
“Dragons that can go into the dreams of others...now I’ve seen everything.”
Sparx spoke, “Trust me on this; the Dream Weavers are known for what they do. Even Princess Luna would travel to their realm all the time and was given the name ‘Dream Walker’ by many of those dragons.”
“I never knew how powerful these Avalar Dragons are. But dream weaving dragons is something that's out of the ordinary for hoarding dragons.”
Spyro understood that some of the dragons on Equis are not all reliant on the Dragon Oracles and are more loyal to the next batch of gems they steal. But the teachings of the Oracles have shown a bit of enlightenment as some of the dragons agreed to leave their volcanic region in hopes of peace. It wasn't until Scootaloo asked,
“What happened in the Dream Weavers World?”
Spyro knew that it was time to continue the story as he told them about his adventures in the Realm of the Dream Weavers.
As the two dragons disembarked from their balloon, they were in awe to see the Dream Weavers Home for the first time as Spyro pointed out,
“Until today, I’ve never seen the Dream Weavers or their home.”
Cynder was amazed by the sight of this realm, “It’s beautiful up here.”
The balloonist spoke, “These elaborate castles and temples on the grassy knolls, as well as crystallized structures were built by the Dream Weavers during Ancient Times. These dragons mainly use them for resting, playing, and practicing their arts. There are many pools of water around here and they confusingly fall up instead of down, swirling in a circle where they collect. The sky itself is a plethora of colors, constantly changing with the clouds as they pass by. There are sparkling funnels of air that can carry passengers to each island safely, use these to your advantage to get across this realm. But watch out for the Fools, they’ve been wandering around a lot more since Gnasty began making his move around here.”
“Thanks for ruining the moment.” This marked the second time that her moment with Spyro was ruined due to being brought back to reality of all the dangers that darted around the realm.
Spyro looked at the balloonist, “We will!”
As the balloon left, the two dragons made their way towards the first island that had a portal near on it. There was also an enemy on a nearby island firing a cannon at the fools that wander the islands. Spyro and Cynder witnessed the first fool that was close to the portal get hit by a blast from the cannon, but instead of destroying it - it changed to a much larger size as it made it immune to their charge attacks. Spyro got close to the large fool as it attempted to attack the dragon by slapping him, but to no avail since Spyro dodged and opened up with a flame attack - knocking the large foe into the pool of water near the portal. Cynder looked up at that fool on the cannon and sighed,
“We're not going to get anywhere in this world unless we take out that fool on the cannon.”
Spyro nodded as he and Cynder jumped to the next island and spotted several armored fools, three of them are in a line while two larger ones were blocking a flight of stairs as they waved their arms and blabbered about. They knew that they definitely have to take out that fool on the cannon in order to bring those two down a notch. But that wasn’t necessary to take down those two when something happened.
Something behind the armored enemies blew up in sparks as the large enemies were electrocuted, which increased due to their armored breastplates and poofed into gems. When that was said and done, the two dragons looked went to the now-opened passageway and saw, sitting at the top of the stairs was the cause of the electric explosion as Spyro yelled,
“Volteer!”
The older dragon noticed them, “Spyro, Cynder? I had almost given up hope! Although, seeing the state of the Dream Weaver’s Realm in a state of chaos is evidence of Gnasty Gnorc’s doing. As well as your presence at this very moment…”
Sparx buzzed up to him, “Okay, okay, we get it! Gnasty’s caused all sorts of problems in the five worlds and it also released us from being frozen for five years.”
The electric dragon knew this, “Well, I suppose that explains why you are here.”
Cynder asked, “When we were in the Magic Crafter and Beast Maker home, Cyril and Terrador were frozen, so we had to rescue them. How are you not frozen?”
“Well, for some unexpected and unexplained reason, I was the only one to escape Gnasty’s spell as the fools went berserk.”
“How is that possible?”
Spyro spoke, “It’s strange as well. Maybe his Electricity power shielded him from Gnasty’s spell.”
Volteer was curious, “Although, I would like to understand why I wasn't frozen, you need to find the rest of the Dream Weavers. I’ve already freed Lateef, the leader of the Dream Weavers and he knew of your eventual return and told me to pass on this piece of information of this world.” The Guardian cleared his throat before stating,
“While chasing Gnasty’s minions in this world, you must expect the unexpected and prepare for what is not there.”
Sparx groaned, “My head was already hurting from these cryptic riddles!” Spyro understood this, “It means we’ll be fighting against enemies that we would only see in our dreams.”
Cynder knew of this, “It makes sense since we are in the Dream Weavers Realm.”
After introductions between the guardian and the two dragons, Spyro and Cynder split off to the various other realms within the Dream Weavers World. Spyro went off to battle the enemies of Dark Passage while knocking the fools back and turning them into lamps in order for the light to be bright so the monsters like the devil dog and armored turtles won’t be in a spot to harm him. He also noticed that there were more dragons in this realm than anywhere else.
Cynder went to Lofty Castle to battle the Gnorc Balloonists, Devilish Cupids and Puffer Birds that get in the black dragon’s way. She used her shadow breath to pop the balloons holding the gnorcs up, causing them to fall while dodging the arrows from those demonic cupids. Not only was she rescuing the three dragons, she was also freeing the trapped fairies in order to progress further into the castle.
Both Spyro and Cynder soon traveled to the Haunted Towers as they battled the Wizards in order to prevent them from bringing the discarded pieces of armor to life and block their path. The dragons met a few fairies which used their magic to augment their fire breath, temporarily giving them the ability to flame metal. They used this ability to break down the metal doors and destroy the living armored suits that the Wizards brought to life. They even had to quickly reach and destroy a wizard that was at the top of the tower before his magic reanimates all the armored suits so they wouldn't reach him. After they done him in, they rescued a purple fairy which gave them an infinite enhanced flame breath until they leave Haunted Towers. They hit the speedway course of the Dream Weaver’s World before going to confront the fifth and final lieutenant of Gnasty Gnorc - Jacques.
Spyro and Cynder arrived at a nightmarish volcanic landscape riddled with monsters and those clock fools from before. Spyro looked around the place and felt a bit cautious about it as Cynder asked,
“Spyro, what’s wrong?”
Spyro sighed, “It’s just seeing this place reminds me too much of the Burned Lands.”
Cynder knew what he meant, “You almost lost yourself after Ignitus sacrificed himself to get us passed the Belt of Fire.”
“But you were right, Ignitus would still want us to press on and follow our heart. It never failed us before and it won’t fail us now.”
Sparx was curious until he remembered that Ignitus never returned after getting Spyro and Cynder through the Belt of Fire. He remembered the Guardians mourning the loss of their old friend after Spyro and Cynder defeated Malefor. Sparx decided to add,
“If Ignitus were here, he would say that you two have achieved so much since you’ve been together. When you two are together, you fight as one.”
Spyro was amazed by the dragonfly’s words, “That was good advice, Sparx.”
“Well I did listen to some of the words that Ignitus said to you.” He points towards the area with the monsters, “Come on, let’s hunt down this last boss and then torch Gnasty’s butt!”
The dragons and dragonfly pressed on into the volcanic region, battling armored horrors, giant pansies and racing against the clock fools’ times to jump from platform to platform, collecting the treasure in this world before rescuing not one, but two dragons that were frozen, Unika and Revilo. Revilo was a local knitter who was actually knitting around his whole body. Spyro asked,
“Any advice before this battle?”
The knitter stated, “Advice before fighting Jacques? Hm… a wise dragon once told me ‘Aim high in life, but watch out for flying boxes.’” After that, Revilo took off.
Sparx asked, “What kind of advice is that?”
Cynder spoke, “He may be onto something, Sparx.” Spyro thought, “Aim high in life, but watch out for flying boxes…”
“The flying boxes may refer to Jacques’ method of attack.”
“And ‘Aim high in life’ refers to a jump and flame strike, meaning that we need to be on his level to strike.”
The dragons soon moved towards a battle arena where the most disturbing and craziest thing they have ever seen stood before them.
It was a fool that was more of a jack in the box with spring included. It had a demonic green face, sharp teeth, freaky grin and was all in all disturbing. The thing looked at them and spoke,
“So...you are the ones ruining all the fun in this world? I have worked so hard to ensure that the dragons are contained and everyone could have fun in their dreams.”
Spyro stated, “You’re actually causing nightmares to several innocent people in the Dragon Realm. The Dream Weavers are there to stop nightmares from making the dreamer too afraid to sleep.”
The jack in the box asked, “Oh? But I suppose the female has had terrible nightmares of her dark past? Gnasty knows about this and you can tell your dear ‘Uncle Jacques’ about it.”
Cynder stated, “I’m not proud of who I was. But I’m not going to let a twisted fool like you use my past to make me fear myself! As long as Spyro and Sparx are with me…”
They all spoke, “We fight as One!”
Jacques laughed, “Oh, this is going to be so much fun. Almost as fun when I deliver you both to Gnasty Gnorc for a bounty that he has on your heads!”
Jacques sprung out to a pink box as he began to throw boxes at them. The dragons dodged the flying boxes as they took Revilo’s advice as Spyro kept the demented Jack in the box busy while Cynder snuck up from behind and opened up with her shadow breath. The shadow fire had struck Jacques as the enemy realized that he was hit and fled to another box, forcing the dragons to come after him.
They chased the twisted jack in the box to the next box as he stated, “Now that smarts.”
Cynder declared, “Enjoy it, green face! That's the only smarts that your going to have!”
Jacques prepared another box, “You lizards are about to get boxed!” But as the demented fool threw the box, Spyro appeared behind him and performed a new move - the Flame Spin as it hit Jacques as the fool screamed in frustration as he fled to a floating platform with the dragons in pursuit once again.
When they caught up with him, he was standing on a third pink box, holding a small box in both hands as he yelled,
“You think you can come into MY realm, destroy MY minions, take MY treasure, ruin MY fun and get away with it?!”
The dragons were going to speak until the jack in the box continued, “Wrong Answer! Gnasty will rid this realm of the dragons! Banish them like they did to him, to Shemp and to Me!” He twirled the boxes in his hands, “Oh I'm going to enjoy bringing a world of hurt upon you two before delivering your broken bodies to Gnasty! He wi-”
He was soon cut off when a small yellow arm delivered a powerful punch to Jacques’ green face as the jack in the box spun around for a bit before slumping over on his spring and went poof. When Spyro and Cynder saw Jacques’ unexpected demise, they looked at the culprit behind it all. The culprit behind the defeat of the demented jack in the box turned out to be none other than Sparx as the dragonfly rubbed his fist. He looked at them and said,
“What? He was talking too much and that green face was just asking for a punch in the mouth.”
Spyro sighed, “At least that shut him up.”
Cynder collected the remaining treasure that Jacques dropped, “At least we get his treasure and the Dream Weavers are now free.”
“You punched his lights out?!” Smolder asked, looking at Sparx.
Sparx boasted, “Yeah I did and that jack in the box never saw me coming!”
Spyro smirked, “That’s the second time Sparx punched someone’s lights out. The first was that yapping bird that was with those pirates during Malefor’s conflict.”
“I did learn those dragonfly powers, but nothing compares to a good punch.”
Scootaloo pointed out, “I’m surprised that you were able to punch him in the face to finish him off.”
Sparx smiled, “Don't judge a book by its cover, Scoots. Spyro and I have a fair share of enemies that underestimated us.”
The listeners were intrigued by the story and of some of the stuff that they did in the story. But they remembered that Spyro and Cynder's quest was to reach Gnasty Gnorc, beat him and restore peace to the Dragon Realm. Sweetie Belle asked,
“What about Gnasty Gnorc? I thought you were going after him?”
Spyro stated, “Cynder and I knew that since we took care of his lieutenants, we knew for certain that Gnasty would be next.” He took a deep breath and continued, “We found the balloonist that transported us to Gnasty's World - The Gnorc Gnexus and believe it or not - that's where we first met Flynn.”
As the balloon reached their destination, the balloonist stated, “And here we are, the Gnorc Gnexus, home to the big bad and mostly ugly and not-as-handsome, Gnasty Gnorc. I have to admit, this is not the friendliest of places, but you needed to get here to face him and I wouldn’t stop ya.”
Spyro stated, “Thank you…” The balloonist replied, “Flynn the Balloonist, Best Pilot in all of Skylands.”
Cynder shrugged, “Well the title for ‘Best Pilot’ could be debatable.”
Flynn sighed, “That’s what my cousin Amos said.”
Sparx noted, “So I’m guessing that you’re full of yourself?”
“Hey, one of these days, I am going to be the best pilot and a great hero in Skylands! BOOM!”
“Well, you’re standing next to great heroes, the former god of Tall Plains and Slayers of Malefor.”
“Heroes known throughout Skylands, but I’m going to be the best pilot that Skylands has ever known.”
“Well look where that got him today.” said Scootaloo.
“I can’t believe he was like that, way back then!” spoke Sweetie Belle.
“Ah could only imagine what shenanigans that he did while on his quest for being the best pilot.” laughed Applebloom.
“Flynn was that cat guy who was with that pancaked unicorn at the Library in Ponyville?” asked Smolder.
Spyro realized, “Yes and the reason behind Twilight being a pancake is that she has this ‘Secret Lab’ underneath her library which is accessible through her closet. Depending on the situation, she would use it with either Flynn or her boyfriend Pop Fizz, but when she has Flynn as her lab assistant and she would have him pull the lever to her lab. But everytime he pulls the wrong lever and she would end up falling down trapdoors, hit by a crusher, giant corn, snowman, giant piranha, etc. and she would say ‘Wrong Lever’ or ‘Other Lever’ and he would pull the correct lever.”
Sparx winced, “Ouch, she took that much from his antics.”
“It was something out of a comedy movie with a villain and a bumbling assistant.”
Smolder winced, “Ouch.”
Spyro sighed, “Anyway, back to the story. After Flynn dropped us off, we went to the trapped dragon in the center of the platform that had dragon heads around the platform.”
Cynder had stepped on the pedestal as the trapped dragon they freed, revealed to be Delbin from the Artisan Home as the dragoness asked,
“Wait, didn’t we free you already?”
“You did, but me and a few other dragons attempted to face Gnasty Gnorc and we ended up getting trapped again.” Delbin admitted.
Sparx sighed, “Right, just leave him to us, okay?” Spyro asked, “How do we get to Gnasty himself?”
The painter pointed to the dragon head behind him, “The portal to Gnasty’s lair has been sealed and only him and his followers are allowed in.” He pointed to the open portal, “But there’s a way to bypass it. You and Cynder need to reach the end of Gnorc Cove and Twilight Harbor in order to make the center head think that you are one of his followers. Then you can challenge the Gnorc himself!”
Spyro looked at the portal to Gnorc Cove, “Just one more push to go before the final battle.”
Delbin warned, “Be warned, young ones. Gnasty’s World is more advanced than the other realms, the enemies use guns, TNT and all kinds of tools. Keep your distance and strike when there’s a break in their fire.”
Cynder finished for the group, “We will.” She then looked at Spyro, who then looked at Sparx who had both fists up with magic as all three looked at the portal as Spyro stated,
“We’re coming for you, Gnasty Gnorc!” The group ran into the portal as Spyro and Cynder traversed around the dangerous harbors, oil platforms and bases of Gnasty’s World. The Gnorc Soldiers and Commandos tried their best to stop the dragons, but they were blasted into the water by Sparx’s fire and ice based attacks, thanks to most of the butterflies that were fed to him. They rescued a few more dragons and collected all of the treasure at Gnorc Cove, reached the exit vortex and made their way to Twilight Harbor.
When they reached the harbor, Spyro and Cynder went to work on carving their way through the Gnorc soldiers, Commandos and Dock Workers throwing TNT barrels and metal barrels intending to crush them. The dragons weaved through the Gnorcs, beat them, rescued the dragons that were trapped and collected every last piece of treasure in the harbor as they made their way to the exit vortex. When they returned to the Gnorc Gnexus, the second dragon head opened up, revealing the portal to Gnasty’s lair. As they stood at the portal to Gnasty’s Lair, Spyro looked at Cynder and asked,
“Are you ready for this?”
The dragoness stated, “After Malefor, I’m ready for anything.”
Sparx added, “Hey, if you guys can handle a dragon with the same powers, an ambitious gnorc should be a cakewalk.”
The dragons soon entered the portal, making their way to Gnasty's Lair to face the Gnorc himself.
Once they arrived at Gnasty's Lair, which was a large arena with an open path, a locked door, a chuckling thief with the key and a balcony, occupied by the Gnorc himself as the foe stated,
“Well well well, what have we here? The dragons, Spyro and Cynder, I must admit that I never thought I would meet you two face-to-face. I could've planned out everything all the down to pre-selling the movie rights.”
Spyro yelled, “Gnasty Gnorc, you're scheme ends here and it ends now!”
Cynder joined, “It's all over, Gnasty. The Dragon Kingdom is free of your lieutenants and it's between you and us.”
The gnorc sneered, “Those overgrown lizards made the mistake of banishing me to this junkyard of a wasteland. But this land is my home and I plan to expand it by showing your kind that they need to know their true place and I will have my revenge!”
Sparx buzzed around him, “Well, we're the only ones standing between you and your revenge! Put em up, Gnasty Gnorc!”
Gnasty swung his mace around trying to hit the dragonfly, only to miss as Sparx taunted him and called him ‘ugly.’ Gnasty was angry at the dragonfly’s remarks as Sparx buzzed back to the dragons while the gnorc powered up his mace.
“PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MAKER, YOU LIZARDS AND MOSQUITO!”
He shot a green blast at them which they easily avoided as the dragons spread out as they noticed the gnorc’s elevated position as Spyro spoke,
“He's too high for us to attack! We need to find a way to bring us up to his level!”
Cynder was dodging Gnasty's blasts when she noticed the thief with the key near the doorway,
“Spyro, I remember seeing two locks on his platform and a locked door nearby. If we can get the keys from that thief and the one behind the door we should be able to unlock his platform!”
“Good thinking, Cynder. We’ll take the thieves together! Sparx, distract Gnasty Gnorc, get in his face and make him angry.”
Sparx, although a little annoyed that he was the bait, saluted, “Right behind you, buddy!”
The dragons went after the thief while the dragonfly went to Gnasty himself as he buzzed around, annoying the gnorc as he attempted to swat at him with his mace as he taunted,
“Oh, so close!” The gnorc swung his mace again and Sparx just buzzed away while holding a small drinking cup with Spyro’s head on the side, “Haven't worked up a sweat, but still famished.”
Gnasty growled, “Hold still, you little Mosquito!” He swung at him again as Sparx utilized a dragonfly fire ability which he used on Gnasty's rear end as the gnorc jumped in shock, “That was just a spark compared to what my friends have in store for you!”
Meanwhile the dragons were chasing the first thief across the halls of Gnasty’s Lair as they used their method which helped them deal with the previous thieves before. Spyro chases the thief while Cynder ambushes the thief in a surprise attack. The ambush surprised the thief as the green clad man was thrown off track which put him in range of Spyro’s Flame Breath, defeating the thief and getting the first key to Gnasty’s Platform. The dragons appeared back to the arena where they saw Gnasty getting frustrated over the constant torture that Sparx was putting him through.
“I guess Sparx is doing a good job with distracting him.” ,laughed Cynder.
Spyro smiled, “He's just as annoying as he was during the war and that's why we love him.” Spyro flew over to the door and opened it to reveal the second green thief with the key. The thief spotted the dragons and took off as the purple dragon yelled,
“Let's get that key, Cynder!”
“Right behind you, Spyro!”
It didn't take long for the dragons to catch up and torch the thief. Now that they have the two keys, they flew to Gnasty's platform and used the keys to lower it to their level. Gnasty freaked out and yelled,
“YOU TRICKED ME!” Spyro declared, “You can still step down, Gnasty. It's over!”
The gnorc pointed his mace at them, “Nothing's over when I’m still on my feet!”
“Kind of hoped you'd say that.”
Gnasty soon turned tail and ran with Spyro and Cynder in pursuit. While the gnorc was big, he was surprisingly fast and he would stop at a pedestal to try to attack the dragons, but he would run off soon after. Spyro and Cynder knew that Gnasty would try a tactical retreat, so they were pursuing him and they were not going to stop until Gnasty was brought to justice. They chased him all over his lair as the gnorc took five laps until Cynder used her Shadow Breath on Gnasty when he tried to attack them again. Shaken from the attack, Gnasty Gnorc fled down a tunnel that opened up. The dragons pursued him through the tunnel as it opened up to a lava room with platforms as the gnorc hopped across the platforms while the dragons glided to each platform.
The bad part was that they were on a time limit since the platforms began retracting towards the wall. They made it a priority to not stay on a platform for more than 5 seconds. By the time they reached Gnasty, all of the platforms have retracted into the wall. The gnorc glared at the dragons as he roared while firing a spell towards them which made them scatter. Gnasty wanted to turn Spyro and Cynder into ashes as he blocked the dragoness’ melee attacks and attempted to flatten her with his mace. Only for Spyro to use his flame breath on the gnorc’s butt as he jumped in shock - throwing his mace up into the air. Spyro had joined Cynder and Sparx as they saw Gnasty put out the fire on his butt - only to get knocked out by his own mace as the dragons stated,
“YOU’RE TOAST, GNORC!”
Spyro, Cynder and Sparx returned to the Artisan home where the interviewers greeted them as Spyro spoke,
“Sorry we took so long. We almost forgot about you guys.”
The interviewer asked, “What about Ga-Nasty Gna-Norc?”
Cynder took that question, “Gnasty Gnorc is toast and won't be causing trouble for some time.”
The interviewer asked his next question regarding the outcome, “So now there’s order again in the Dragon Kingdom?”
“Not necessarily…” Spyro stated, “We still have some treasure that we need to find.”
The last question spoke, “Then what will you do next?”
They were going to say something until an annoying sheep was interrupting the interview by getting into the camera. Sparx decided enough was enough and used his dragonfly fire power to send the animal flying as he said,
“I say the Sky’s the Limit!” The dragons soon left to continue their search.
“So after all that fighting and rescuing the dragons, you were not ready to call it an adventure?” asked Scootaloo.
“Gnasty stole a lot of treasure from the dragons to make his minions, so we still needed to find the treasure. But luckily we didn’t need to look far.” ,replied Spyro.
Smolder asked, “What happened?”
Sparx sighed, “Well we went back to Gnasty’s World and re-rescued Magnus while stating that Gnasty is ancient history.”
Spyro continued, “When we asked Magnus about the last closed dragon head, he stated that it led to Gnasty’s Treasure Hoard, but it would only open unless we collected everything in the Realm.”
“And lucky for us, we were way ahead of that tip.” ,spoke a new voice as the black dragon, Cynder appeared from the Portal of Power.
Spyro looked at her, “Cynder, you’re just in time for the part when we went into Gnasty’s Loot.”
“Telling stories without me, Spyro?”
“Yeah, sorry for not letting you know.”
“That’s okay, I was kind of busy helping out Rubble Rouser and his team at Summer Forest.”
Smolder asked, “So you went into Gnasty’s Loot and took all of the treasure from it?”
Cynder looked at the young dragon, “It was more complicated than that since Gnasty had several Key Thieves steal the keys to the doors. We had to catch the thieves, grab the keys to get to the treasure.”
Spyro pointed out, “We did have to chase down a bunch of thieves that were in planes. Apparently the magic of that realm temporarily gave us the power to fly again.”
Sparx snickered, “When we came up to the highest point of the area, we entered Gnasty’s room that was filled with many things, like a portrait of himself and a bunch of motivational posters.”
Sweetie Belle laughed, “It must be funny that all of his plans were foiled because he overlooked you two.”
Cynder spoke, “Well, let’s face it, his plans were flawed from the start. After we collected all of the treasure, we returned to the Artisan Realm.”
Spyro and Cynder were back with the interviewers, it was night time as a gnorc was being chased by a ram while two dragons were playing Sheep Basketball. Spyro and Cynder were wearing their Golden Armor from the war to be presentable as the interviewer stated,
“Spyro and Cynder, you have defeated Ga-Nasty Ga-Norc, collected the dragon eggs, saved all the dragons and recovered every bit of treasure in the dragon kingdom. How you you feel?”
Spyro stated, “We feel fired up, Bob! And we’re happy for the dragon world, of course.”
Cynder stated, “I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of our dragon days butting heads with Gnasty Gnorc and his weird minions.”
Bob asked, “What’s a minion?” The gnorc waved at the crew from the background until the ram knocked him off as Cynder shook her head, “Nevermind.”
Spyro decided to make a statement, “You know what they say, for every good battle, you need a good adversary and we found Gnasty - in spite of his misguided nature, to be a worthy opponent.”
All of a sudden the two dragons in the background were turned to crystal once more as Spyro and Cynder saw this and said,
“Uh oh…”
“Here we go again.” As they took off to face Gnasty again.
“We managed to stop him once more which left him under house arrest by the Warfang Soldiers. After all of that, we decided to take a vacation and continue to protect the Dragon Realm afterwards.” Spyro concluded his story as Smolder spoke,
“That was amazing...if the Dragon Lord-To-Be heard your story, she would be interested.”
Cynder pointed out, “Princess Ember was a member of Spike’s Fellowship when he traveled across Equis. I’m betting that she learned a thing or two about our dragons…” She smirked, “Even in the company of Trail Blazer.”
Sweetie Belle asked, “Wait, are you saying that Ember has a crush on Trail Blazer?”
“Call it a ‘Female Intuition,’ Sweetie Belle.”
“This would be useful gossip…”
Spyro stated, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Remember what happened when you spread a lot of gossip all over Ponyville?”
The filly sighed, “Right, Rarity wasn’t too happy with the story about her.”
Scootaloo spoke, “All this time, I’ve idolized Rainbow Dash and Whirlwind since they were revealed to be cousins.” Mentioning Whirlwind made her realize, “Whirlwind told us that she knew you from before.”
Applebloom asked, “She also mentioned another friend of yours. That faun, Elora?”
Spyro and Cynder looked at each other and then back to the group as Spyro said,
“That story begins on a stormy day in the Dragon Realm where we planned to go on another vacation - only to get dragged into a part of Avalar where an evil riptoc attempted to take over.”
Cynder stated, “And that’s where we met old friends and new friends - even the Dragon Skylanders…(To Be Continued)