//------------------------------// // Mystic Quest: New World, Old Enemies // Story: Filly amongst dragons // by RobtheMorpherPony //------------------------------// "You defaintly seem like a tough gal Cynder. Once everything is explained, we totally gotta hang out later." Rainbow Dash said. "Father, do you think?" Cynder asked. "Ask me later, Cynder. Now is simply not the time. After all, there is a story to tell." Malafor said. Fluttershy could feel something there, but couldn't quite place it yet. "So, how did things start in the Mystic Lands exactly?" Rainbow Dash said. "Allow me to take this one." Cynder said. "One day, while Father was teaching me about his portal creating powers, he created one of the quick travel portals dragons from our world use to go everywhere. He was creating a new portal at Windy Vally, but when he created the portal, all of sudden these three jerks came out of the newly created portal. There was this big guy with a club, this green guy with metal armor, and this very small wizard guy." She added. "Ripto and his cronies. Spyro mentioned when he was going over his first tangle with Ripto, Crush, and Gulp." Twilight added. "Yeah. Using his magic, Ripto forced my father's abilities into overdrive, which started doing all kind of crazy things to the Mystic Lands. One such portal created a gateway to Spyro's world." Cynder said. "...I'll admit, when I first came into contact with Spyro, I was a bit hard-headed as I wanted to do things myself, prove to my father I could become the next Guardian of the Mystic Lands as my father repeatedly denied wanting to train me to become the next Guardian of Mystic Lands." She added. "So of course I was a bit mean towards him. I wanted to do things on my own. There was another reason too however: I knew that when my father was rescued from Ripto, the portals created from when my father's abilities went into overdrive would be closed up. So, I wanted Spyro to go back to his world because...because I didn't want to get too attached to him." The black dragoness said. "I convinced myself it was for his own good, because I didn't want to get attached to him, and him get attached to me, only for us to never see one another ever again after my father was saved." She concluded. "You felt it was better for you two to stay as pure strangers at the time. I can hardly blame you. A lesson I learnt about once, is that sometimes the kindest act you can do, is push something away." Fluttershy said. "In otherwords, your being reminded of the Breezies with this. I suppose in a way, that makes sense." Rainbow Dash said. "While it was understandable now in hindsight what Cynder was doing, I didn't want her tackling Ripto on her own like that. And Cozy Glow didn't want to do it either. So we ended up sticking around anyways. Starting with Windy Vally, me and Cozy Glow started going around collecting the land's various Dragon Gems; mystical gems that power the very magic of the Mystic Lands; as well as their super special gems: The Power Crystals. These crystals were imbued with mystical properties, and had the power to undo powerful spells. Ripto had locked doors behind him as he was turning the residents of the various lands against one another but on a much more 'hands-on' scale. Cynder did warn us personally to stay away twice before attempting to battle us to get us to go home." Spyro noted. "Needless to say though...I got my tail whipped. I underestimated Spyro's abilities and as such, I lost to him easily." Cynder said. "In the next area known as Poison Swamp, as we were mostly doing the same there, Cynder got ambushed by a few of the residents Ripto bribed to take out Cynder. While she was a bit reluctant for our help, once we did help her out, she did help me learn how to fly. Though I had to ask her before she left if there were any Speedways in the Mystic Lands for me to try out my flying skills." Cozy Glow said. "I didn't even know what a speedway was at the time as the Mystic Lands is completely devoid of speedways." Cynder said. "Looks like you had to wait to start hating Speedways, huh Cozy Glow?" Scootaloo asked. "Yep. Anyways, soon we caught up with Crush who stayed back to halt our progress. Once we got past him, we arrived in Fear Factory; a place in the Mystic Lands that was meant to help residents get over their fears." Spyro said. "The place however, was clearly offline and not in use." He added. "That's because there was no need for it anymore once my daddy became the guardian of Mystic Lands." Cynder said. "Seems he became the guardian a few years before I was born." Cynder said. "Given how old you are now, I'd say then that the factory had been abandoned for quite some time when Ripto invaded you." Smolder said. "Wait no, you don't look that old." She added. "I'm 13 years old." Cynder said. "...Never mind." Smolder said. "I thought females didn't disclose their ages on purpose?" Spike asked. "It's only rude to ask a lady for her age Spike. It is not rude for a female to say her age outright." Smolder said. "Oh you two get a room would you?" Cynder asked. "Says the dragoness that started falling for me after I patched you up when you recklessly tried to defeat Gulp without back-up." Spyro said. "Yeah trying to defeat Gulp on my own...I thought I could do it after seeing how much of a pushover Crush was." Cynder said. "Wait, Crush was still more or less a pushover?" Rainbow Dash asked. "He was. But I knew Gulp wasn't going to be a pushover, even for Cynder. Still, I wasn't going to leave her to suffer so I patched her up." Spyro said. "In the Mystic Lands, my father made me become very independent. So I thought I didn't need anyone's help which was another reason I tried to send Spyro away. But in hindsight, maybe I should've asked for his help sooner, and told him not to get any ideas. And yet...maybe if I did that, I wouldn't have...started to feel things for him." Cynder said. "It was the first time anyone had stuck their necks out to care enough for me. Even my father would not treat my injuries. And yet, my injuries this time were serious. Spyro could have left me for dead, but he chose not to. I'll never forget that. Ever. While he patched me up, he told me about his adventures. Once he did so, I...started to see just how naive I really was. And it turns out, Spyro and me weren't so different at our core. He had just been forced to discard his naiveté at a much younger age then I had to. So...I decided that...I would get his help against Ripto after all. I decided to say 'buck the consequences, if we grow close together because of this, I no longer care. My father is more important right now.' And I don't regret it either." Cynder explained. "Cynder would catch up with us after we defeated Gulp at Shadow Castle, which is where Malafor had originally made his home. When we finally caught up with Ripto, he confessed to effectively making Cynder go with her nature to attack Spyro. It was something Ripto counted on happening which it did. We managed to defeat him, but he fled after a while. Once we had every last Dragon Gem and Power Crystals, I knew exactly where Ripto had hidden Malafor: In the very first arena back at Windy Vally. Becuase it'd be the last place we'd think to look again." Spyro said. "But that's when the full truth came out. Yet, we all agreed to talk more about it later. Once Ripto was defeated once more, which was a lot tougher then the last time even though Spyro could flame him this time, Ripto used Magic to make himself bigger which made his attacks harder to avoid. After three rounds of it, we finally defeated him and he returned to normal." Cozy Glow said. "Malafor did do us a solid though: As thanks for my help with Ripto, the portal connecting my world with The Mystic Lands would remain open indefinatly. It was a nice gesture from him." Spyro said. "Safe to say, that allowed me to grow really close to Spyro for some time. Which is why I'm glad that perhaps not asking for his help lead to things turning out the way they did." Cynder said. "But this would not be the only time I'd be assiting Spyro." She added.