//------------------------------// // Equus: Dragon Lands // Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// The group found that the tale about what Spike and Ember did in Spyro's world, and all the villains that they faced along the way, went well into the evening and possibly into the night as well, which was mostly due to Discord heading outside and using his magic for a moment, where they watched as the sun was lowered at long last and the moon was raised to fill its spot in the sky, something that surprised the rest of Spike and Ember's group for a few minutes and caused the pair to tell them that this was the way their world worked, that instead of a planet orbiting both the sun and moon, like how Spyro's world orbited the sun and the Celestial Moons orbited his home, Equus was the opposite. The Professor was amazed that such a thing even existed, that a world would be so different from what he, Spyro, and the rest of their group were used to seeing, especially since there were beings in their world that had the power to raise and lower the celestial spheres, and it caused both Spike and Ember to reveal that Celestia and Luna were known by other titles, the former being called the 'Day Princess' and the 'Alicorn of the Sun', to symbolize her connection to the sun, while the latter went by similar titles, as in being called the 'Night Princess' and the 'Alicorn of the Moon'. Spike also revealed that Discord was a Draconequus, which was a chimera creature based on what he knew and he suspected he would have to read up on that in the near future to see what Twilight had on the matter, before informing the others that he was known as the Spirit of Disharmony and that, once upon a time, he had been one of the villains that Twilight and her friends had beaten, before reforming him into a friend who had learned the values of friendship, all thanks to Fluttershy and her efforts to reach out to him, while his power was that of Chaos, an unpredictable magic that allowed him to do a number of odd things, like summon glasses of liquid and drink the glass or rain chocolate milk. Such a thing surprised the group, though at this point they were used to feeling that way when they faced the strangeness of the world that Spike and Ember used to call home, as both of them were sort of used to things like this, both from living in Equestria and from everything that they had seen in Spyro's world, though with Discord turning the day into night, so the ponies and other creatures would know it was now time to head for bed, both Cadance and Shining excused themselves, as they intended on catching a train that would take them back to the Crystal Empire, though even as that happened they said that it was nice to see the pair again and that it was nice to meet their new family and friends, before heading out for the train station. Once the pair were gone, and they were left alone, the group had Spike teleport them over to where the portal to their world rested, as it was still open and the Professor believed that it was due to the Ion Crystal that had been inserted into the new Super Portal, given that this portal had no structure to support it, and they used the portal to head back home, leaving Discord behind to do whatever he did when it was nighttime, allowing everyone to return to Spyro's world a few moments later and reunite with the rest of their group, who seemed surprised that it took them that long to return from the other side of the portal, though the other scientists had called Alvar in and a meal was readied a few moments later, with the Professor revealing that everyone could remain here for the night, even though the Leaders and other elders had to return to their own duties, save for Malefor anyway. While they did that Hunter made a comment on the couple of markings he had noticed on the flanks of the ponies they had walked by earlier, mostly because he felt that it was so odd to have so many individuals have tattoos on their bodies in such a way, before Spike informed him of the truth of the matter, that they weren't tattoos, even if he understood his thoughts on the matter, rather they were called Cutie Marks and every pony, at some point in their lives, had their mark appear after discovering a unique characteristic that set them apart from the other ponies, sort of like how Celestia's was a sun, to symbolize her connection to the sun, or how Luna's was of the moon. Every mark was different, from what Spike recalled Twilight telling him at one point in time, and the image shouldn't be taken literally, like how one of the teachers in the school was called Cheerilee and her Cutie Mark was three smiling flowers, which would naturally make one assume that she would be connected to gardening or something, but the truth of the matter was that it represented her wish to help her students 'bloom' and be happy, while Shining's mark was a shield with three stars above it and a star with six points on the center of the shield, which represented his proficiency with shield spells. That, in turn, brought them to one of the reasons that Cadance was so worried about Chrysalis, as the latter had attacked Canterlot during her wedding, by stealing her place so she could drain Shining of his love and force him to drop the barrier so the rest of the Changelings could flood the city and feast on the love that ponies had inside them, and the Changeling Queen even beat Celestia with her power boost from Shining, even if Spike suspected that Celestia had held back her true power since she was the one who wielded the power of the sun and didn't want to hurt those that were near her, even though Chrysalis was beaten in due time thanks to Cadance and Shining combining their love and released it as a wall of love energy that knocked all of the Changelings out of Canterlot. Of course, as Spike suspected, he had to answer a few more questions due to the tale he had just shared with the group, like how Cadance was the Princess of Love, given the crystalline heart shaped Cutie Mark she had, while explaining what an Alicorn was, since Bianca had been interested in the fact that Cadance had both a pair of wings and a horn, and what he knew, due to his limited knowledge thanks to not really listening to Twilight all that much in the past, was that there were five of them in total and that each of them supposedly held the strengths of the three pony clans inside them, where the clans were the Earth Ponies who tended to the earth, the Pegasi who took to the skies and tended to the clouds and weather, and the Unicorns who had a horn and wielded all sorts of magic, with most being restricted to the weaker levels of magic and a few were born with incredible magical power. From what Spike knew Alicorns were either born with a pair of wings and a horn, sort of like how Flurry Heart was some time ago, not to mention that many in Equestria assumed Celestia and Luna were natural born Alicorns, as such a thing was hard to prove since neither liked to talk about their past, or a pony from one of the clans could ascend to the level of an Alicorn, like how Twilight was a Unicorn when she finished one of Star Swirl the Bearded's spells and it allowed her to ascend to the level of an Alicorn, something that took her some time to get used to since she wasn't used to having wings or being able to wield the power of a Pegasus, though Spike knew Cadance had been a normal pony before becoming an Alicorn as well, though he couldn't remember most of the tale since he hadn't been paying that much attention the last time it had been told, but he would correct that later. Spyro and the others were, of course, shocked by the information that Spike shared with them, as it was mostly Spike who was talking for the most part, given that Ember was unusually quiet and she even admitted that she didn't have the vast amount of knowledge that Spike had on the subjects they were talking about, though she also revealed that she was a tad bit impressed that he could recall all of that, despite how he had been acting in the past, though that only prompted one of the others, Aurora to be exact, to ask her why she didn't know as much as Spike did, as most of their group assumed that she and Spike would have the same level of information and she was only remaining silent so she didn't interrupt her brother while he was talking. Ember then revealed that it was due to the fact that she was from the Dragon Lands, which was a volcanic island to the southeast of where Ponyville was located, and it was on that island that she spent most of her time, so her information on ponies and their culture was next to nothing, hence why she was allowing Spike to take the lead on this discussion, and that, in turn, brought them to the reason that they had been displaced to Spyro's world, as the event that caused such a thing was Twilight asking her and Spike for their help in some sort of experiment or something, though they had done it inside the cave that the Tree of Harmony was resting in. From what she recalled nothing special had happened when Twilight cast her spell, something that caused the Alicorn in question to huff off to the side, mostly so she could take a look at her notes and whatnot, but, as everyone could tell, that was around the point that the spirit of their world had grabbed onto them and sent them flying through time and space, possibly leading to Twilight assuming that her spell had done something and might have been the reason that she and Starlight, and whoever their friend was, being displaced to the world the image had shown them in. One thing this conversation confirmed, at least to both Spike and Ember, was that a trip back to the Dragon Lands was necessary, something that excited Spyro and the others and caused them to agree with the pair, though due to the fact that it was an island they would need to either fly or teleport over to its location, since the level of technology in Equus, regardless if one was talking about Equestria or the couple of other continents that were nearby, was vastly lower than what the Professor and the other scientists were working on at the moment, even though the Professor did admit that they had been working on cloaking technology, to hide something or someone by replicating the Invisibility spell, allowing it to be used without magic. Spyro and the others chuckled at that, because it was like the Professor to have a bunch of gadgets and be in the middle of working on some new technology, something that would change how Equus operated if they were able to catch up to what the scientists of Spyro's world were able to do, but he also figured that now was the best time to see if he could open a much wider and taller portal, one that the Jupiter 2 could fit through, because if he could do that it would provide them with a way to get to the Dragon Lands without being exhausted, to which the group spent a few more minutes talking about things before heading to bed, as the following day was going to be full of action. When morning arrived, and the group knew it was the normal sunrise that wasn't Discord raising the sun and lowering the moon, everyone got up from where they had been resting during the night and found that, despite how early they had gotten up, Alvar was already for them and a meal was resting nearby for them to enjoy, causing many of them to smile as they dug into the food he had prepared, though, as many of them expected, it wasn't long before the Professor and the rest of the scientists excused themselves to get to work on their new preparations, something they were interest in seeing since everything he had created or shown off never disappointed them and those that the items had been made for, like how Elora loved her suits of armor and Hunter enjoyed all the gadgets that had been made for him. As it turned out it was a tad bit easy for the Professor to modify the size of the Super Portal, all that needed to be done was switch it off for a few moments, cutting off the connection to Equus for a time, and flip a few switches, where the group watched as the station the portal was on formed a rectangle, instead of the square it had been the last time they had seen it, and it actually took a moment to enlarge the actual frame of the portal itself, something that Spyro and the others hadn't been expecting, even though the Professor had told them about it, but when the frame was both tall enough and wide enough Spike took a few seconds to make sure there was nothing wrong with the magic of the portal before nodding his head. Once that was done another smaller portal was opened so Hunter could quickly head over to where the Jupiter 2 rested, since it wasn't at this lab, and he disappeared a few seconds later, allowing the rest of the group to ready themselves for what was coming next, though despite all of that the Professor also came equipped with a device that was designed to close the portal when they were on the other side, mostly because he didn't want someone to accidentally walk through the large magical gateway that was rest on Equus' side of the gateway, plus it was designed to allow him to open the one he closed, or at least it was supposed to do that, as this would be the first time he tested such a thing. Spyro, his siblings, and the rest of the group were interested in what the Professor was saying, since everything he had been talking about seemed to be helpful, but for the most part they remained silent as they waited for Hunter to return with the spaceship, because there was no way they would be able to fit the AS Harmony into the portal, not without breaking all of the frame apart anyway, so using the Jupiter 2 or their wings seemed to be the best course of action for them. It didn't take Hunter all that long to return to where the lab was located and land near the enlarged portal, where the rest of the group waited for a few minutes as the Professor gathered all of the components that he needed and the scientists followed him onto the ship after Hunter landed, where they worked on adding the new component to the ship and tested it a few times, where everyone watched as the ship seemed to fade in and out of reality as they observed it, which seemed to be the cloaking technology that they had been told about earlier, and as far as the Professor could tell everything was working as intended, to which everyone that was going to be heading through the portal boarded the ship and Hunter, as soon as everyone was ready, activated the ship and flew into the portal. Once they were on the other side of the portal Hunter made sure to turn around and land near the other side of the portal so the Professor could close it, where he raised the device he was carrying and clicked it, allowing everyone to watch as the larger portal closed before their eyes, which was around the time that Hunter activated the cloaking device and the ship disappeared from view, something that Spike confirmed by walking down the ramp and noticed that it was gone, though instead of returning to the ship immediately he paused for a moment to make sure no one was coming over to see what in the world had happened, before teleporting back to the castle to grab something from one of the rooms, something that, when he returned to the ship, happened to be a map. The reason he grabbed a map of Equus, one that had everything all of the cartographers had found and mapped out so far, as it was entirely reasonable that they might have missed a bit of land or something, was because it would allow Hunter to figure out where the Dragon Lands were located and head there without delay, something that he and the others were pleased to have and Hunter nodded his head in agreement for a few seconds as he looked at it and raised the ramp, though as soon as he had a general idea as to where they needed to go he let Spike pull the map back and engaged all of the controls once more. Not a few moments later the ship raised into the air, giving Hunter and the others a better look at Canterlot, even if it wasn't that much better than what they had seen when they walked out of the portal the previous day, before he headed to the southeast and the Jupiter 2 responded, to which everyone split up and took their seats, with those Hunter wanted at the front remaining there in case he needed a bit of magic for anything, and Spike could be the navigator for this venture, and those who remained in the central seating area did so, watching an image of the rest of the landscape and Equestria go by. Doing that allowed them to pass over the Everfree Forest, where Spyro and the others spotted a ruined castle in the middle of the forest, which just so happened to be in the area that the cave the Tree of Harmony was in, where Spike revealed that it was actually Celestia and Luna's old castle, or at least it had been a little over a thousand years ago, because it was around that time that Nightmare Moon was a thing and was when a bunch of other villains were active, though those were tales for another time, especially since the tale of Nightmare Moon was linked to Luna and it was better heard from either Luna or her sister. There were a number of other things that they got a chance to see while they were flying through the air, where Hunter was actually going somewhat slower than when he had flown through space, mostly due to wanting to make sure that the Pegasi didn't notice anything different about the air they flew around in, though Spike was fine with it since it gave them some time to gaze out at the locations that he was flying over, even though it wasn't long before Discord appeared aboard the ship, to which Spike and Ember made sure the others were fine with his sudden arrival, since he was interested in this venture, before they went back to what they were doing. One thing that Spike pointed out was the fact that there was a decent network of trail rails that connected Ponyville to Canterlot, Appleloosa, Los Pegasus, Manehatten, Dodge City, the Crystal Empire, and a small station in the land that the Griffons called home, not to mention a few other towns and cities that were scattered across the continent, which allowed all sorts of things to be transported between the various locations of the continent, such as supplies, merchandise, and the various residents of the land, locations that everyone was eager to see at some point in the next couple of days, if they weren't busy with what Spike and Ember wanted to do. Far off to their right, probably a few days away from Ponyville by walking, were the Badlands, which had been the supposed resting place of the Changeling Hive, or Changeling Kingdom as it was called, but in reality the true resting place of that species was in the southwestern part of Equestria, though for right now they were more focused on the Dragon Lands, which was across the Celestial Sea, something that seemed to be named after Princess Celestia, and before someone asked Spike did note that there were two oceans named in Luna's honor, the North and South Luna Oceans to be exact. Another place that Hunter eventually passed by was an interesting bay that was in the shape of a horseshoe, which was called Horseshoe Bay and Baltimare was resting near it, since it sent ships out to a number of cities along the coast, though it wasn't long before they reached the edge of Equestria and started to fly over the Celestial Sea, something that caused them to remain silent as the Jupiter 2 started to make its way towards the Dragon Lands, because they were nearing the island that was their destination and it was only a matter of time until they found what they were looking for, or what Spike and Ember seemed to be looking for, as they were the reason this was even happening right now. Thanks to the spaceship they were able to reach the island that was their destination in no time, where they found that it was just like what Spike and Ember had said when both of them had described it earlier, it was a volcanic island which had a fair number of seemingly active areas, ones that weren't tearing apart all of the trees that were around it, something that reminded them of the island that Sol and the other Phoenixes lived on, before Hunter discovered a path that lead right up to one of the highest points of the island, something that he landed near and was lucky to find an area to place the ship, even though the cloaking technology hid it and the Professor had a little radar so he could find it when they returned to it later, basically allowing them to leave the ship and start following the path that was in front of them. What they discovered not a few moments later was that the Dragon Lands reminded Spyro and the others of the more volcanic realms that they had visited in the past, with the molten areas, blackened rocks, charred trees when they reached the upper part of the dirt path that they had been following, and column shaped pillars that were made out of rock, though there didn't appear to be any dragons in the area they were in, which Spike and Ember seemed perfectly fine with since they weren't expecting to see someone this soon into their visit to this island. Of course there should be dragons watching for intruders, though at the same time Ember figured that they would run into someone at some point, given that her memories informed her that a few dragons should still be somewhere on the island and that they would notice such a large group moving through this place, meaning it was only a matter of time until they were approached and questioned by someone, though based on all of the memories that both Spike and Ember had, and one of them had more memories of this place than the other did, it would be interesting to see if they were right in what they were thinking would happen next or not, something that neither of them were sharing with the rest of the group just yet. The reason behind that was because it would ruin the surprise, as they both knew that there were a few things that would interest the rest of the group and speaking about any of those would ruin them entirely, so that was why the pair was so silent as they followed the path that was in front of them and headed for the area that was at the end of it, though they were keeping their eyes open at the same time, just in case they spotted any of the dragons who called this place home. As they suspected there was a dragon heading their way, a dragon who had brilliant gamboge scales, or brilliant orange to be exact, a golden yellow underbelly, and purple spines resting between the pair of curved horns that were on either side of its head, but as the group looked at the incoming dragon there was only one of them that knew who it was, since Spike didn't spent that much time in the Dragon Lands before he and Ember were displaced to Spyro's world, to which Ember raised her hand a little and beckoned for the group to come to a stop, something that they did not a few moments later and they waited for the dragon to land in front of them. "Stop, intruders, you shall go no..." the dragon stated, where she landed in front of them, and they knew it was female due to the voice that came from her mouth, though as that happened, and she took a moment to stare at the group and they discovered the fact that she was somewhat smaller than Ember, as both Spike and Ember were taller than the newcomer was, the dragon paused as she stared at the group and focused on one of them, as if she was surprised by something and happened to have a hard time believing what she was seeing, "Dragon Lord Ember? Is that you? You've been missing for a little over a week, and some of the dragons have been getting restless, though none of them have made a move to try and take the throne, mostly because your father has been holding them back with his experience and the fact that he's one of the largest and most imposing dragons in the Dragon Lands." "Yes Smolder, its me... though I'm not surprised to hear that someone's thinking of trying to take the position of Dragon Lord during my, um, absence," Ember remarked, as thanks to her memories she had a good idea as to what was going on right now and she had an idea as to who could be the one that wanted to claim her former position for their own, and the look on the new dragon's face informed her that she was familiar with the dragon in question, and she could tell, with just a quick glance towards Spike, that even he had an idea as to who might be causing trouble for them, before she sighed for a moment and started to walk forward once more, "I suppose its time that I announced my return and see if Garble is still eager to try and take the position now that I'm back, and see how everyone else reacts... I'd like to settle back into my new position without a fight, but something tells me that I won't be that lucky." Smolder raised an eyebrow for a moment, as she could tell that there was something different about Ember and glanced at Spike for a few seconds, like she was trying to figure out what was going on right now, without asking questions to the group, before nodding her head and started to head back to the area that all of the dragons gathered in, though during that time she took some time to stare at the rest of the group, mostly focusing on the likes of Hunter and Bianca, since all of the non dragons were interesting to her, though she said nothing when she looked at the rest of the dragons that were with Ember and Spike, even if the pair knew that Smolder only knew Ember, as she hadn't met Spike before today, which was totally fine. Hunter, of course, was curious about the position that Smolder had mentioned and Ember filled them all in while they walked, as being the Dragon Lord meant that the dragon in question was a leader that was fit to lead pretty much all of the dragons of the island they were visiting, not to mention the rest of the world since Spike had been called to this island when the last Gauntlet of Fire had been held by her father, since he had been living in Equestria before being called back to the Dragon Lands, which was where she was from, and before anyone asked that was when both her and Spike answered a second question that happened to be coming, that being 'if they were siblings, why was one of them in Equestria and not with their sibling in the Dragon Lands'. That was when Ember revealed that she and Spike hadn't been siblings before being displaced to Spyro's world, in fact she barely knew he existed before her father called the Gauntlet of Fire, which was a competition set up by her father to determine who the next Dragon Lord would be and the interesting part about that event was that Ember had originally expressed a desire to take part in the treacherous race, as she had a burning desire to take her father's place as the Dragon Lord, but her father forbid it while allowing Spike, who at the time didn't even care in the slightest, to take part, though in the end, after hearing that many of the dragons wanted to burn all of Equestria to the ground and take everything of value for themselves, Spike decided to take part to save his friends and those he considered his family. In the end, after several events and encounters that both Spike and Ember went through, it was Spike who claimed the Bloodstone Scepter, the symbol of the Dragon Lord and brought the competition to a close by doing that, but all he did was force the mean dragon at the time, Garble, to hug every dragon he passed on his way to his home, before handing both the Scepter and the title to Ember, who succeeded her father at long last and found that he might have been happy for her, even if he underestimated her skills in the beginning. While they walked Smolder remained silent, as while it was interesting to hear about the Gauntlet of Fire she was caught off guard by the whole displacement part of the tale, not that the group was surprised by that since everyone else they mentioned it to seemed to share the same opinion on the matter, before they came to a stop and the group found a large gathering of dragons, of all shapes, sizes, and colors, standing or sitting around a massive crater that had a bunch of the column shaped stones scattered everywhere, and there was even one of the columns resting in the middle of the area, a massive one based on what they were seeing right now, and resting on top of it... where they found a massive dragon, one that was the size of the coulmn it was resting on, who had grayish arctic blue scales for the majority of his body, grayish gold to moderate vermilion horns on either side of his head, and had a moderate vermilion coloration to his wings, but he was also wearing a massive black chestpiece and had a large crystal crown on his head. "Lord Torch! Everyone!" Smolder stated, where she flew into the air and drew attention to herself, even though it quickly passed to the group that happened to be in the middle of walking down the path that lead to part of the ring of column rocks that circled the massive center one, which not even Ember knew the significance of and suspected that Spike might find a way to discover why it was crafted in this image, though everyone remained silent as they walked down to an empty spot so they could come to a stop and focus on whatever meeting Ember's father had called, though Spike did note that neither he or Ember felt the call of the Dragon Lord, meaning it was either incredibly weak since Torch wasn't the leader of the dragons anymore or it was nonexistent and the dragons only came because it was Torch calling them, "Dragon Lord Ember has returned at long last!" "You sure about that, sis?" a voice asked, where Ember and Spike weren't at all surprised to see a dragon with moderate red chest scales and a light grayish gold underbelly, with vivid gamboge spikes and spines and light amber wings, that was walking over to where they and the rest of their group were standing, a dragon that they knew was Garble and found out that he seemed annoyed about something, either due to the fact that he recognized both of them and was still ticked off about what happened in the past, or he had been planning on taking the vacant position for himself so he could raise an army of dragons to burn Equestria to the ground, before he came to a stop near them, "This could be any old blue dragon, wearing a less shiny steel version of the armor that Ember wore during the Gauntlet of Fire... though, to be honest, just staring at her is making me want to punch her in the face, just to blow off some steam." "It seems that you haven't changed at all, Garble," Ember replied, though she and Spike weren't expecting him to have had a change of heart since the last time they had seen him, which was now about eight or so days ago, at least for her since she knew Spike was back with Twilight in Ponyville, but even as she said that statement she walked away from the rest of the group and approached Garble, as she had an idea what he might do once they were close to each other and noticed that all of the watchers seemed to be silent, waiting for them to do whatever it was that they were going to do, and even her father seemed interested in what they might do to each other, "but, if you want to fight me to blow off some steam or anger, then feel free to do so... just be warned that if you do so, and try to beat me into the ground, I'm going to fight back and show you a few of the new skills I've learned in my time away from this island." Garble stood there for a moment, like he was debating whether or not Ember was being arrogant or something, meaning he had to believe that she had returned from whatever he and the others believed she had been doing and that she had come with a bunch of dragons that none of the Equestrian dragons recognized, before his body shifted for a moment and he threw his right first right at Ember's face, intending on punching her in the face and knocking her backwards, but what happened was that she moved to her left and let the fist go by where she was standing, something that surprised most of the dragons who were watching the fight, while Torch raised an eyebrow for a moment as he wondered what was going to happen next, especially since his daughter hadn't fought back yet. Garble, on the other hand, seemed surprised by what just happened and growled for a few seconds, where a look of annoyance appeared on his face, as if he was pissed that Ember had dodged his attack and that she hadn't swung at him yet, before he launched himself into a flurry of attacks, as in punches and kicks, that were all aimed at Ember, meaning he wasn't holding back and just wanted to beat her into the ground that was around them, though even as that happened he found some resistance this time around, as Ember was ready for what he happened to be sending her way. This time around Ember didn't dodge the incoming attacks, rather she raised her arms as Garble came at her and parried the incoming punch with her own punch, which kicked the wind up due to the base power of her own swings, something that seemed to surprise her foe in the process, before she used the sides of her arms and legs to parry the other attacks, mostly so she could observe what sort of technique Garble had, which she found was no style and that he was like she had been once upon a time, unrefined to be exact, even though she had the vast training of the Peace Keepers to back her up and Garble, to the best of her knowledge, was self-taught and likely had no real skills when facing someone who had superior fighting skills. Every punch that was thrown at her was countered as they came at her and were deflected before they could hit her, while his kicks were turned away instantly and she made sure none of them hit their mark, showing the dragons that were around them who was the better fighter in a matter of seconds, even though some of them were surprised by just how skilled Ember was now, informing Spyro and the others that her skills had been known and that the sudden boost had caught the Equestrian dragons off guard, though he had to smile as he watched the fight, as he knew what was coming next. In the end Garble managed to punch Ember right in the chest, where back in Spyro's world such an attack would have an effect or something, based on the various enemies everyone had fought over the years, but right now Garble's fist did no damage to the enchanted steel that went into making the suit of armor that Ember was wearing, where she felt that her foe would have been better served to punch her in the face and not go for the chest, but not a few seconds later, as Garble rubbed his hand for a moment since it likely stung from hitting something that was harder than what he was expecting it to be, Ember went on the offensive and swung her first attack of the fight, where she punched Garble in the chest and he crumbled to his knees not even a few seconds later. "Your form is decent, though you need a lot of training before you can be called a warrior," Ember remarked, referring to the fact that Garble had some promise and could be a good warrior, but his current skill level would place him at the end of all of the Peace Keepers' rankings, a novice to be exact, though one thing she knew was that he needed to curb some of his emotions and his arrogance, otherwise he would only bring ruin upon himself in the process, and as she glanced at the rest of the Equestrian dragons she knew that a lot of them would need a bunch of training before they were at the level of a Peace Keeper, before she thought of something else to say, "in fact, at your current level Spike would be able to beat you in no time, and he's not even a warrior... that's if you get passed his magic, anyway." "Me, weaker than that pitiful loser?! ME?!" Garble declared, though he coughed for a few seconds as he pushed himself up into a standing position, showing everyone that Ember had done a bit of damage to him, even though she had made sure to pull most of her power back and use the lowest amount of her base power against her foe, before he glanced over to Spike for a moment and growled once more, as if he couldn't believe that Spike was stronger than him and that made him wonder what sort of power the rest of the dragons that were with her had, even though it was obvious that he assumed that he was stronger than all of them, "Backdraft, Fume, get over here and help me take these losers down!" Backdraft was a sort of chubby dragon that had grayish indigo scales, with light sapphire bluish gray horns on the sides of his head, not to mention violet spines and spikes that went with the coloration of his wings, while Fume, however, was a thinner dragon that was practically skinny, who had dark orchid colored scales with an apple green underbelly, a bunch of light grayish gold colored hair that seemed to be covering the majority of his head, so it was impossible to see his eyes for that matter, and it didn't look like he had any spikes or spines, though they weren't the only dragons that moved out to see what sort of skills the rest of the group had, as some seemed to be moving based on a few glances they sent Torch's way, to which the rest of the group sighed and stepped forward as the Professor stepped backwards. Ember noticed who else was coming into this area, as there was Charcoal, a dark gray scaled dragon with an apple green underbelly, Clump, one of the chubby dragons who had dark brown scales and light blue horns, and Fizzle, a dragon whose scales were almost white colored and he had light amaranth, nearly pink, colored spines and spikes, though there were a few others that she didn't recall the names of immediately and she suspected that she would learn them in due time as she and the others engaged their temporary enemies. Garble continued to charge after her, apparently not understanding that such a thing was bad for him, though Fume chased after Spike, apparently thinking that he was an easy target, while Backdraft charged over to where Spyro and Cynder were standing at the moment, even though Charcoal seemed to be going after Hunter and his sister, Fizzle seemed perfectly fine with Flame and Amelia, leaving Clump to deal with Elora and Bianca, which had to be a terrible match up in Ember's opinion, based on what she had seen in the past, before she focused on her right as Malefor and those that weren't involved in this stood near the Professor. Spike, on the other hand, found a punch coming his way and dodged it by jumping backwards a little, where Fume continued to lash out at him and he did the same thing he just did a few moments ago, before he shifted his stance for a second and spun his staff for a moment, using the wood of its shaft to push the incoming fist to the side and redirected the attack off to the side, something that surprised Fume when he saw what was going on, before calling his magic to the surface for a few seconds and loosed the weakest Lightning spell that he had access to, Static Surge, that basically shocked Fume a little and knocked him out for a time, a short period of time based on what Spike knew from the page that contained the spell's information. As that happened Spyro and Cynder showed off their own skills as they both dodged the incoming swipes that were sent their way, even though it was easy to see that Backdraft's weight might be slowing him down a tad bit, something both of them knew would be worked on in no time if Ember had her way with the Dragon Lands, before Cynder nodded and did something that some of the Equestrian dragons laughed at, she allowed Backdraft to leap into the air and crush the area she was standing in, though that was followed by her revealing that she had raised a hand and stopped him without even using too much effort in the process, where she then kicked him up into the air and Spyro lightly punched the side of his head, knocking him into the ground and submit in seconds. Charcoal decided to change things up and loose bursts of fire at Hunter and Amelia, as if expecting the pair to panic from what he was doing at the moment, though what he and the rest of the dragons discovered was that both of them separated from each other and moved off to the sides, one coming from the right and one coming from the left, though instead of attacking immediately, and showing off their skills, the pair dodged a few more attacks that came their way for a few moments, giving the dragons a sense of what they could do in the defense department, before closing in and knocked their foe to the ground with a combined pair of attacks, Amelia kicking Charcoal's lower body with the side of her leg while Hunter punched him right in the chest. Clump, despite his size, did seem to be somewhat fast as he engaged both Elora and Bianca, something that many of the Equestrian dragon felt would have resulted in the pair running away or something, but in the end it was the opposite, Bianca spun her trident around for a few seconds, not even bothering with the elemental powers that it contained, and redirected one of Clumps' punches to the side, before she used the bottom end and part of the shaft to tug her foe into the air, by positioning the area in question along the backside of Clump's arm and then pulled back instantly, though before he could regain himself Elora appeared in the air and punched him right in the chest, knocking him into the ground and caused some of the stones to shake for a moment, even though their foe seemed to surrender after that happened. Fizzle, despite seeing that he was the last of the dragons that were joining Garble, swung his fists and tail at Flame and Aurora, mostly to push them back for a moment as he considered what he was going to do to bring them down, before his situation changed as Flame parried an incoming attack and grabbed onto the arm that was near him, allowing him to pull Fizzle into the air and slammed him into the ground, even though Aurora performed a significantly weakened version of the Horn Dive on his chest to knock the fighting spirit of their foe, which was when they and the other groups turned towards Ember and Garble, who had put some distance between them and the rest of the fights. This time around, as Garble prepared another punch as he thought of a way to knock Ember into the ground, Ember tried something else as she raised her left hand and channeled some of her inner magic for a moment, which caused all of the dragons to witness the Bloodstone Scepter bursting into the air and rushed over to where she was standing, which meant it had to be responding to the call of the Dragon Lord, and as soon as it was in her left hand Ember spun it around and just stopped Garble's attack before knocking him to the ground, though as she pointed the bottom edge at him, and got ready to tell him to submit, the dragon actually swallowed his own pride and admitted defeat, causing the rest of the dragons that had joined him to do the same thing, bringing an end to the fights. "Well done, my daughter. I am proud of you, and of your friends." Torch said, which was rather odd when Ember thought about it, though she did know that her father had started to change his tune about friendship after she was crowned as the next Dragon Lord, given that Spike never assumed the role in question, and it seemed like he understood that she was similar to how she had been the last time they saw each other, only now she was a formidable warrior that actually caused him to be incredibly proud of, meaning that while Torch had been proud of her before the displacement he was even prouder after what he had just seen. Ember nodded and started to walk over to where her father was positioned, though as she did so she and the others did made sure that Garble and the others were fine, even though her mind was on the fact that she intended on pushing all of the dragons to do better in battle, to be more like Peace Keepers, so they could protect both their lands and the rest of the lands that they called home, because she knew of the threat that was coming to their world and felt that she might as well do what the mysterious stranger had said, work on the beginnings of the army that would protect Equus from the threat, but it only made her wonder what else they would do after their visit to the Dragon Lands.