//------------------------------//
// Year: Aftermath 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Spyro, Spike, and Ember followed Elora and Bianca outside the arena that they had fought the Sorceress inside, where they returned to Midnight Mountain and then used another portal so they could access the area that all of the residents of the Forgotten Realms had been fighting in, to take down the Rhynoc army that their foe had been in the middle of creating so she could use them on the rest of the lands. When they appeared in the area in question they found that there were no more Rhynocs in the area in question, rather there were a number of gemstones littering the area and a number of the people they had assisted were in the middle of picking up the treasure that had fallen during their incredible battle, as it was likely stolen from the rest of the realms and would be returned to their rightful owners. The Royal Guards from Avalar were making sure that there were no additional enemies in the area, of which the group figured that there were no more given that the Sorceress had retracted her spell to create the incredibly powerful spell that had forced them to tap into their inner power to take it out, which had left Spyro, Spike, and Ember a little winded, even if Spike was used to the more intense spells and how much they drained him. The rest of their friends were helping out whoever had been wounded over the course of the battle with the army of Rhynocs, even though it appeared that no one had suffered any devastating injuries and the Cats of Felinia were in the middle of using their magic to tend to everyone, aided by their Fairy friends, though it was nice to see that no one had been harmed over the course of the battle.

That brought a smile to their faces as they surveyed what was going on at the moment, the battle was over and the Forgotten Realms had been freed from the Sorceress, meaning that the leaders of the realms would need to meet with each other and either nominate a new leader for their lands or go with a council that would make sure everything was taken care of for their people.

"I've never seen the residents of the realms this happy," Bianca commented, where she looked around and found that all of the people she had been trying to help since she became the Sorceress' apprentice, a misguided one as she came to realize thanks to the siblings and Elora, were genuinely happy about the fact that they had banded together against the greatest threat their lands had faced and fought against the army that the Sorceress had been building, and they were happy to be freed from her tyrannical rule over them, "I always thought this would happen when the magic was brought back to these lands, because that was something that was seriously making everyone sad, but never in a thousand years did I think that our happiness would return as we liberated our lands from the Sorceress' evil tyrannical rule, nor did I think that we were going to topple her as well."

"Well, these three have a habit of stopping villains and liberating lands," Hunter remarked, where he walked over to where the group was standing, as they had stopped when Bianca paused to look out at the smiling residents of the lands she had been trying to help, though it was easy for the group to see that their friend was still wearing his armor and that he had emerged from the battle without taking any damage from the Rhynocs he and the others had fought, "I should tell you about how we called them to Avalar so we could deal with Ripto and his goons, even though part of that was my fault in the first place, and everything they went through to restore order to our realms... they even stopped a war between two of our realms and made peace between the rulers of those lands."

"Yeah, a war that was caused by Moneybags," Elora said, reminding Hunter of the reason why the war had occurred in the first place, even though she knew that he understood that fact and didn't need to be reminded, so really this served as more information for Bianca to understand the evil that had allied itself with the Sorceress, even if the magic user was the true evil when she considered everything she told the siblings earlier, before they unleashed their power and knocked her into the lava, which had to bring about her end.

"Once everything is said and done, we'll need to find him and punish him for his crimes," Ember stated, because out of all the villains they had encountered over the years, of which there were a few, Moneybags was the only one that hadn't been punished for his crimes, at least not totally since all his stuff in Avalar had been claimed and distributed to those he had wronged as compensation for his crimes, "I'm not letting that bear get away after all we've discovered about him since we came to these lands... attempting another cross realm war, between Charmed Ridge and Felinia, robbing the Tomb of the Stone Golem, which really pissed off our new tomb raiding friend, and everything else he's done."

"Well, he won't be able to leave the Forgotten Realms without us knowing," a voice said, where the siblings turned and found that Cosmos was the one that had spoken, even though he was joined by Titan as they found that the rest of the Peace Keepers and Magic Crafters were in the middle of heading back to the Dragon Realms, even though they would be back in due time to see what else they could do to help the residents of these lands out, "We're keeping an eye on all the portals that might take someone to one of the other lands, be it the Dragon Realms or Avalar, so he won't be able to get away by using one of those, and if anyone finds him we'll be able to capture him and make him pay for his crimes against Avalar, the Forgotten Realms, and everyone that he's sold something to in the past."

"Good, I'd hate for him to get away and cause trouble somewhere else," Spyro replied, as he knew the bear deserved his punishment a thousand times over at this time, before he glanced at the area that Sheila and the others were gathered in and found that they were talking to some of the other residents of the other realms they had assisted, "You know, this is when I would say something about how I 'hope that whatever form of leadership that follows the Sorceress' rule is better than what we took down', but I can tell, just by looking at our new friends, that we won't have to worry about the past being repeated in the future, not with how they're respected by the residents of the realms we helped."

"The five of you did well in helping them out, and yes, I'm counting Elora and Hunter in that statement," Titan said, as he knew, without being told anything, that Elora and Hunter had grown since the siblings arrived in Avalar and that they had used whatever skills they had gained over the last year to help them take down the Sorceress' forces, before he took a moment to look at the new friends they had made and put a smile on his face, "as for them, well, I'm sure you won't have to worry about what they'll do from this point forward, as they seem to have the best intentions for this land in their hearts, meaning the four of them will be fine leaders one day."

"Well, it will take some time to overcome the evil the Sorceress committed, but we'll manage," Bianca stated, though even as she said that she glanced back at the arena that the siblings had fought her former mentor in, as they could see it from this ancient battlefield, where she still couldn't believe everything that she learned within the last few moments of the fight, before the siblings defeated her, "Still, its hard to wrap my head around the fact that she had the eggs taken so she could lure dragons to these lands, somehow siphon their powers and magic to give herself immortality and the power to do whatever she wanted, all because she wanted revenge against Malefor, the purple dragon that beat her in a duel a thousand years ago, before you were all banished from these lands."

"She must have gone crazy, because no one has seen Malefor since the day we were banished," Cosmos replied, as he was about to go into the knowledge that Spike knew on the matter, given what he had said during the end part of their battle with Bianca's former mentor, before he tapped his staff on the ground a few times as he considered what he was going to say on the matter, "according to what we know he went off in search of the dragons after we had been banished, but, since we never heard from him again, we just assumed that time had caught up with him and finally claimed him, just like it does for all dragons at some point in their lives."

"The Sorceress said otherwise, declaring that she felt his power again and knew that he had returned," Spike said, as that was the part he was interested in, because he knew, just like all of the other scholars, that Malefor was supposedly dead and gone, but, at the same time, the look in the Sorceress' eyes told him that she truly believed that he was alive and that it was time for her to prepare for his eventual arrival in the Forgotten Realms, or at least that was his assumptions on what was going through her head.

"Well, none of us have felt or seen anything, so I'm going to have to rule that she went insane, to a degree," Cosmos stated, though at the same time he wasn't going to rule out anything, because for someone like the Sorceress to have said such a thing, and apparently meant it based on what Spike told him just now, there was a rather slim and chance that the first purple dragon was still alive, as impossible as that sounded, before Titan moved an arm and Elora handed him the egg she had been holding onto, the one the Sorceress had been using with her scepter, "Did anything else happen when you three battled the Sorceress?"

"Yeah, all three of us used some sort of beam of light purple energy for a few seconds, one that left us a little winded after the battle was over," Spyro replied, though that was the moment that a look of shock appeared on Cosmos' face as he dropped his staff, much like what happened when he and the other Leaders were told that Spike had used one of the most powerful spells they knew, twice, and that it had been on his own, "What, did we do something wrong?"

"No... you three just continue to surprise me, that's all," Cosmos replied, where he knew the other Magic Crafters were going to throw a fit when they heard what the siblings were able to do, especially since one of them was Spike, who was a master of all the types of magic that they taught him, one of them was Spyro, a purple dragon that just so happened to be in the process of tapping into his true powers, and the last one was Ember, a blue dragon that had gone far beyond what he and the other Leaders knew a blue dragon could do, before he turned towards Spike for a moment, "Am I correct in assuming you know what it is that you used?"

"The Aether," Spike said, where he knew why Cosmos was so shocked, even if he was still surprised that he, Spyro, and Ember had used such a power in the first place, but it had allowed them to bring down the Sorceress before she was able to gain the advantage in their battle, "known as the fifth element, one that is incredibly hard for someone to teach or for someone to master since not many magic users can tap into that power, unlike the other four elements that are far more common in our world... its said that Malefor was the first dragon to discover its existence and that the only dragons that have an innate ability to draw on its power, when they're ready anyway, are the purple dragons."

"So Ember's a rule breaking dragon, not that I'm surprised." Hunter remarked, because this was common for him to see these days, someone would tell him and Elora, and Bianca as well in this case, something about the dragons and it was usually the fierce blue dragon that was the one that broke all the rules, matching her brothers in strength and skill, and if she was able to tap into something called the Aether, which Cosmos was shocked to hear, he knew not to get on her bad side, even if he had learned that pretty early on in their adventure through Avalar.

Hunter's remark, oddly enough, shifted the flow of what they were doing, where Cosmos promised Spike that there would be a new training session at some point in the future, since this adventure was nearly done, even though he had no idea what he was going to offer a dragon that could tap into the Aether, which was why he was focused on getting them and their friends through the portal that would take them back to the Artisans homeworld for some rest... though it was when they crossed to the other side, and came to a stop on the hill that the other side of the portal was on, that all of them were shocked by what they saw. There were at least a hundred or so hatchlings scattered around the area in front of the portal, where Spike determined that some magic had been placed on the structure to prevent the hatchlings from going through it and entering a battlefield, where some of the seemed to be sleeping, some were in the middle of playing with each other, some were in the middle of eating, and some were by the older dragons, where it was easy to see that Lateef and the other Dream Weavers were in the middle of figuring out the names of all the hatchlings and determining which of the lands all of them belonged to. Spike's quick count informed them that there were a grand total of one hundred and forty-six hatchlings, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, scattered around the central area of the Artisans homeworld, which matched up with the number of eggs they had recovered, meaning the egg that Titan was holding was the one hundred and forty-seventh egg to be recovered, which made him wonder why it hadn't hatched yet, but that left three more eggs somewhere in the Forgotten Realms, and he had a good idea where one of them could be found.

"Well, its a good thing we got them out of the Forgotten Realms when we did," Elora stated, as this wasn't something she was expecting to see, all of the eggs they had found, save for the one the Sorceress had been using as a power source, had hatched and all the baby dragons were free to grow up, save for the couple of eggs they hadn't found yet, which was a bummer when she thought about it.

"I would have to agree with that," a voice said, where the siblings turned and found that Nora had walked over to the area that they were standing in, which allowed them to look out at all the hatchlings they had saved from the Sorceress' foul plans, though she had a smile on her face as she did what they were doing, even though she had total faith in their ability to find and recover the eggs that had been stolen from them, "and, thanks to the power you used to send the eggs back to this area, the eggs were able to hatch in a safe environment, far away from anything that could harm any of the poor hatchlings that were inside them."

"Wait, I don't get it. How could Spike's magic work on the eggs, especially when mine couldn't?" Bianca asked, as that was something that had been bothering her since she first witnessed Spike use his odd breath to teleport one of the eggs out of the Forgotten Realms and send it somewhere else, which appeared to be this area, and she had never gotten an answer for how he was able to do it, "I know for a fact that several magicians tried to cast some spells on these eggs, and I even tried once, to see if I could get it to hatch, but all of our magic just slipped off the eggs and left them alone, yet when Spike did it he was able to move them from one land to another... so why does his magic work?"

"Spike is, well, unique among the dragons that use magic, as he's the first one to use Teleportation Magic in a way that was brand new, as even I, as the Master of this type of magic, had a hard time pulling it off," Nora admitted, and that was the truth of the matter, that Spike's innate magic had allowed him to use his Teleportation Breath before learning how to properly channel magic in the first place, not that she and the other Magic Crafters could be surprised by this, since he had done some incredible things in the past, "Basically his Teleportation Breath was enough to get around the fact that our eggs are supposed to resist magic and other harmful elements, allowing him to move them to a safe location, though that did cause all of them to hatch, we're still looking into what happened, and due to that happening part of the magic flowed into the lands you live in, which is why magic returned to the Forgotten Realms... Spike caused the eggs to hatch and helped bring your magic back, oddly enough."

Spike rubbed the back of his head for a moment before he, Spyro, Ember, Elora, Hunter, and Bianca headed down to the area that was in front of them, where they joined the adult dragons and tended to the hatchlings that were scattered all over the central hub for this island, even though they were under the watchful eyes of pretty much every dragon that called the Dragon Realms home. Hunter and Elora were happy to see the hatchlings, who titled their heads in confusion as they encountered the pair, even Bianca was treated the same way, but that was followed by the baby dragons smiling and rushing to the newcomers for a moment, showing that they wanted to see them and figure out what in the world they were, which was why the trio ended up sitting down, even though Elora folded most of her armor up to resemble her usual attire, so the hatchlings didn't get hurt on the sharp points of the wings and whatnot. Spyro, Spike, and Ember did join them after a few moments, just to see how the hatchlings reacted to their friends, even though it was clear that Spyro did have to step to the side for a moment to explain to Nestor and the other Artisans, who had seen Bianca take the eggs earlier, that she had been tricked into a terrible plan when all she thought she needed to do was to bring back a few dragons to the Forgotten Realms, which would have restored their magic in due time, and that the Sorceress was the one they should be blaming, ending in Bianca getting up and apologizing for her actions. She knew they were mad at her, since she had stolen the eggs, but thanks to the siblings the Leaders understood who was to blame for the crime and that the one that had tricked her had paid for her actions, even if they had no idea what had happened during the final battle yet, before they returned to what they had been doing and officially welcomed Bianca into the group as well, showing her that they were willing to trust her since the siblings trusted her, hence her desire to prove them right.

About thirty minutes into tending to the hatchlings, however, Ember got up and headed for the hill that held the portal they had come out of, one that the Professor would be moving in the near future so it would be hard for the hatchlings to accidentally head through it, causing the group to follow after her, as they were curious as to what she was doing, even if her brothers had a good idea, based on what happened at the end of their last adventure.

"Ember, shouldn't you be relaxing?" Hunter asked, as he knew that Ember was one of the few dragons he didn't want to mess with or upset, because he had seen what she had done to Moneybags during their adventure in Avalar, but even then he knew that she and the others needed some rest and heading back through the portal was the last thing they ought to be doing at the moment.

"Hunter, there are three more eggs out there, and we need to find them." Ember stated, to which Spyro and Spike were the first ones to nod their heads in agreement, hence the reason that Spike went over to Cosmos so he could ask him a question before they headed back through the portal, and it didn't take Elora or Bianca long to do the same thing, which showed her that both of them were more than willing to help them recover the last of the eggs, "So we're going to go back to Midnight Mountain, see if we can't find the other eggs, and maybe figure out where that key goes to while we're at it, or just find the Sorceress' treasure stash and ransack it so it could be returned to the Forgotten Realms."

"And we're all ready to go," Spike said, where both Spyro and Ember noticed that there seemed to be something else inside his satchel, not a hatchling since it wasn't moving, but instead of questioning what he was doing they focused on the portal and started to make their way towards it, to which Hunter sighed and just followed after them, as he had been hoping for a little rest before they tried to find the remaining eggs.

It didn't take them all that long to return to the battlefield that the forces their new friends had commanded had been in earlier, though now they were in the process of heading back home so they could repair the damage the Sorceress had done to their homes, before eventually making their way back to Midnight Mountain, where they found the sign that Zoe had left for them and the siblings sat around it while Hunter headed off to look elsewhere, basically allowing Sparx, Talon, and Cinder to head off to a new area only they could explore. Bianca, not understanding what they were doing, asked the group what was going on and Elora explained that there had been three other areas like this, one for each of the other lands they had assisted during this adventure, places that only their dragonflies were able to enter, leaving them to rest in the area around the sign that Zoe placed for them, and that Sparx, Talon, and Cinder had learned much from watching the siblings fight their enemies, so there was no danger of losing one of them. While they rested Spike made sure to pull out his journal and wrote down everything that had happened since the last time he had opened it up, revealing to Bianca that he kept rather detailed notes on everything he, his siblings, Elora, Hunter, their dragonflies, and everyone else did, and it even included rather well detailed descriptions of her and the other residents of the Forgotten Realms, which included Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Bentley, Agent 9, the Sorceress, and everyone they had assisted, giving her the ability to actually visualize the areas she was in and the people she was meeting. Spike also told her that he had done the same thing for their last two adventures, he wrote down everything that happened over the course of their quests to save the Dragon Realms and to liberate Avalar from Ripto's clutches, and that he only published a new book whenever their adventures were over, which meant that the one that contained everything from this adventure was going to continue until he and the others found and recovered the last of the dragon eggs, as only then would their quest be complete.

Bianca was amazed by what she was hearing and determined that the first thing she was going to do, when she got back to the Dragon Realms, was find a copy of the two books in question and see what the siblings did on their first and second adventures, as now she was interested in what they had done before coming to the Forgotten Realms to find all the eggs she had taken from them. Elora then went on to tell her that the friendly Gnorcs that ran an amusement park on Dragon Shores, an island that was the favorite relaxation spot for all the dragons in the Dragon Realms, had taken the first adventure and made a play out of it, creating a near perfect replica of what the siblings had done during that adventure, which included the final battle with Gnasty Gnorc and how they ultimately turned the tables on him. Of course that lead her to ask if they had completed their work on the second play, the one that involved the events from Avalar, and Spyro said that the Gnorcs had finished it some time ago, but, due to the craziness of the Year of the Dragon Festival, none of them really had the time to go see if they had done well, something they were planning on correcting once they were able to wrap up this adventure, which would be when they found the last couple of eggs they were missing. He even mentioned that, thanks to Spike's greater details, that the second play would be even better than the first one, and that this one was going to be the best out of the three once he was able to publish the book, both for historical purposes and entertainment purposes, something that greatly interested Bianca and made her wonder what she would find when she got around to obtaining one of the books and cracked it open. Spike understood her desire to read the books he had published in the past, where he made sure to tell her that he'd ensure some copies were found and delivered to her once this adventure was done, before he returned to his work as he carefully wrote down everything that had transpired since he and the others returned to Midnight Mountain, after clearing out Evening Lake, before he eventually stopped when Sparx, Talon, and Cinder returned to them with the egg they had found.

The dragonflies revealed the same thing that they told the siblings whenever they returned from the areas that Zoe found for them, where they acquired two hundred gems, giving them a grand total of fifteen thousand gems, fought off a bunch of mechanical insects that the Sorceress intended on sending out so they could crush the three of them, which was a weird idea in the grand scheme of things, and recovered one of the remaining eggs, to which Spike sent it back home like all of the others, giving the rest of the dragons another hatchling to care for... but as the group started to move, so they could head out and see where the last two eggs might be hiding, they found something that made them stop: Moneybags was standing on the bridge in the middle of the homeworld.

"Seriously, is he stupid or something?" Ember asked, as none of them were planning on moving just yet, because it appeared that he had no idea they were even in Midnight Mountain, like he was under the impression that they had gone back home after beating the Sorceress and her army of Rhynocs, giving them a chance to see what the greedy bear might be planning this time around, since they knew that he couldn't flee the Forgotten Realms without someone finding him and capturing him for his crimes.

"Yes, that he is." Spike replied, though while he didn't like calling other dragons or people stupid, it just felt wrong to him for some reason, Moneybags was the only individual that he felt could be slapped with that term and it would stick with no problem, though at the same time he had to wonder what sort of plan the bear had in mind so he could escape from the lands that the Sorceress had used to rule over, but, even as he considered that, he felt that it was fortunate that he had asked Cosmos about something before they came back to Midnight Mountain, as it appeared that he might be able to use the item he had asked about earlier, before he sighed, "So, shall we head over to where he's standing and see what he might want to talk about, or should we ignore him as we look for the remaining two eggs that are missing?"

"As much as I would rather not deal with Moneybags right now, we should get it over with," Spyro remarked, because he knew that Ember didn't care much for the bear in question, just like he, Spike, and Elora didn't care much for him while Bianca was only just now learning about the crimes this one individual had committed in the past, to which he sighed for a moment as he started to walk over to the other side of the bridge that Moneybags was standing on.

The others followed after him, as they wanted to see what the bear was going to say this time around, mostly due to the fact that he always had some sort of scheme in mind to get the gems that they had collected from the various lands that were scattered throughout the Forgotten Realms, though when they finally approached the bear he paused in what he was doing and stared at them for a moment with a look of worry in his eyes, clearing realizing that none of them were all that happy to see him again and that he had best be careful this time around.

"Moneybags, we meet again," Elora commented, where she crossed her arms for a moment as she stared at the bear that she, Hunter, and the Professor used to trust, before the siblings revealed that he was a criminal that was responsible for so much of Avalar's woes, and some of the woes that the residents of the Forgotten Realms had been plagued by, as it was time for them to deal with him and put his madness behind them, "So, what sort of crazy scheme have you been thinking about since we last encountered each other?"

"Actually, now that the Sorceress has been dethroned, and my only job has been terminated, I'm actually no longer in need of your gems," Moneybags replied, where the group rolled their eyes for a moment, as the bear was the only person they had met that classify working for the rather mad Sorceress, in the sense of what he had attempted to do to the four of them over the course of this adventure, as an actual job, "so I'm packing up and leaving the Forgotten Realms, since it is clear that I'm not wanted in these lands anymore and that the residents want my head for what I've done."

"You've learned from your mistakes?!" Ember remarked, as that was a surprise, that the bear had figured out that his actions had been in the wrong and that he might be learning from what he had done, which was rather disappointing due to the fact that she wanted to beat him up some more for his crimes, but if he had actually learned from his mistakes, and was going to turn over a new leaf, she was willing to see what he did and beat him if he messed up.

"You could say that, though I do have a grand plan in mind so I can buy my freedom so I can leave these lands and go somewhere else," Moneybags said, something that caused the group to roll their eyes as Bianca tilted her head, as that statement had ruined what they had been thinking a few moments ago, just like what happened whenever they met up with this bear, before he patted his sack for a few seconds, "a dragon's ransom, to be exact, but that's not something the lot of you need to worry about, so just leave with the knowledge that I won't be bothering you again and that this will be the last time we see each other."

Spike, upon hearing the specific words that Moneybags had said when he was telling them about whatever plan he had in mind this time around, decided to see if he could figure out what the bear was talking about, hence the reason he activated his Sage's Vision for a moment and peered into the future for a few moments, before frowning as he returned to the present and focused on the bear once more.

"Moneybags, hand it over." Spike stated, because thanks to peering into the future he was able to see what the bear had meant by a 'dragon's ransom', though he wasn't happy by what he had seen and now understood what the bear had, while at the same time Spyro and Ember glared at Moneybags as Elora and Bianca readied themselves for whatever was going on, since they didn't have the power that he had access to.

"What are you talking about? I don't have anything, other than the clothes on my back," Moneybags replied, his tone revealing that he didn't like being bothered by the siblings and that he was going to be leaving in the near future, though while he said that Spike noticed that he was sweating a little, showing that he was definitely hiding something and that his words had caught him off guard.

"I'm referring to the dragon egg you found," Spike said, because now it made sense why one of the clues had been crossed off on the map that Elora had given them earlier, back in Evening Lake when she decided to give them some help in recovering the eggs she had stolen from the Dragon Realms, though his words caused his siblings to be at the ready as Elora and Bianca did the same thing, which was when he tapped the side of his head for a moment, "and before you ask, I have a power that allows me to peer into the future for a few moments, a minute or two thanks to my training, so its easy for me to see exactly what you were referring to."

"Cursed dragons, is there anything you three can't do?" Moneybags asked, though as he looked at Ember, who was in the middle of hardening her tail with a smile on her face, showing that she was happy that she was being given a reason to punish him once more, he sighed before he opened the sack and withdrew the dragon egg he had found in this land, the golden key to his escape from the Forgotten Realms, before handing it out for Elora to take, who claimed it and then took a few steps backwards, "There, you got me, now get the beating out of the way so I can leave."

"No, not this time." Spike replied, to which he reached into his satchel and withdrew the item that he had obtained before they came back to the Forgotten Realms, where Spyro and Ember's eyes widened for a moment as they recognized the hammer-like scepter that he was now holding in his claws, even though he did have to sit for a few seconds to go all of this, before he focused on Moneybags, "This is the Scepter of Crystallization, a magical artifact that we recovered from the first villain that we defeated two years ago, something that changes size to match the user, and we've been researching it since we recovered it... Gnasty Gnorc used it to trap all of the dragons in crystal statues, which we freed them from, and then the three of us turned it on him when he tried to use the power against us. Since you haven't learned from all of the mistakes you have made in our presence, from attempting to take our gems and going to the cross realm war you were responsible for, and even suggested using a dragon egg to buy your freedom, its time that you received your punishment for all the crimes you have committed over the years."

Before Moneybags had a chance to really run, or understand what Spike was talking about when it came to the power of the scepter, Spike gathered the magic that was within the scepter, allowing it to charge in the crystal that was resting at the top of the artifact, before he blasted Moneybags in the chest, where his siblings, Elora, and Bianca watched as the bear screamed for a moment as the light green crystal spread over his chest... and then, after a flash of light that caused them to look away for a few seconds, the group found a crystallized version of Moneybags, standing in a position that was him guarding his bag of gems, standing where the bear had been.

"There, a fitting punishment for your crimes." Spike said, where he slipped the scepter back into his satchel and then stared at the statue he had left in the bear's place for a few seconds, as it was still an interesting spell to use, even though he was reserving it for the villains that really deserved such a punishment, just like Moneybags did, before he turned his gaze towards Bianca, "We should be careful whenever we get around to moving him, because the only way to break this spell to have someone like the bear free him, as the three of us were able to break Gnasty Gnorc's spell on the other dragons because the same species... for Moneybags, well, I think if someone from Avalar were to touch it they would free him, so we'll need either some dragons or some of the residents of these lands to move him."

"Okay, I'll figure something out," Bianca said, though at the same time she glanced off in the distance, towards the lone tower that the siblings and Elora had ignored the last couple of times they were in Midnight Mountain, before seeing something odd that shouldn't be there at all, where she figured she might as well tell her friends about it, "though it looks like, now that we have one hundred and forty-nine eggs and fifteen thousand treasure, the door to the Sorceress' treasure vault has opened... maybe she hid to the last egg in there?"

The siblings and Elora glanced at each other and shrugged for a moment, as it seemed like a decent place to check out for a few minutes, since they had no idea where the last egg could be hidden, though as they walked over to an area that would allow them to glide to the patch of ground the tower was on they had the feeling that it was going to be an interesting end to this adventure.