//------------------------------// // The Dragon Council // Story: Equestria Ninja Girls Magic in Manhattan // by Wildcard25 //------------------------------// At Gramps shop, Jake and everyone entered to see Gramps and Fu Dog were waiting, “Yo, gramps. Got your message. What's up?” Jake asked. “I've just received word from the Dragon Council. They're requesting our presence.” Lao explained. Upon hearing that Jake groaned, “Oh boy.” “The Dragon Council?” Willow asked. “The Council that Chang was a part of.” Twilight inquired. Jake nodded, “Yep, the very same. And if they're calling me, it's probably to berate me for not catching her.” “I wouldn't go that far, young dragon.” Gramps assured him. “Anyway, hope you guys can handle things while I'm gone.” Jake told Rose and the others. “Actually, the Council has requested that we all be there,” Fu explained, before turning to Spud, Trix and Rose, “You guys, as well.” “Hold on, y'all,” Trix said, “The big man council is asking us to come to a super important meeting?” “This will be so cool.” Spud said excitedly. “Well, you guys did help in stopping the Dark Dragon,” Jake reminded the two, “So it means they at least trust you.” “And they really want us present too?” Leo asked the old man. “Precisely, Leonardo.” he confirmed. “I guess our reps once again precede us.” Rainbow boasted. “Hopefully only the good part.” Sunset hoped. “This is going to be fun, meeting more dragons!” Luz said excitedly. “So, Lao, when do we leave?” Eda asked the old dragon. “Right away, everyone.” Lao instructed, as he and Fu clsoed up shop and headed off with the turtles reactivating their human disguises. They arrived at the train station with Lao walking Fu like a regular dog, “Woof! Bark-bark!” Fu said, before muttering as someone passed by, “Sucker.” Spike peeked out of Twilight's bag, “Bark! Awoo!” he then muttered, “They're too easy.” As King rode in Luz's hoody, he passed by a little girl who looked up at him. King did his best to make a scary face with a growl, but the girl just giggled much to his irritation. “Humans just don't scare easily.” he grumbled. They arrived at the subway tunnel, as Trixie spoke, “Pardon, me, Lao-Shi, but are we really taking a train all the way to some magical island?” “Don't be silly!” Lao replied, “We're taking the elevator.” “Wait, what?” Applejack asked. “Trust me, I felt the same way.” Jake assured her. Lao pushed the elevator buttons in a pattern before turning the dial to the side. Suddenly elevator door opened to reveal a troll goblin bellman. “Let's go.” Jake said, as they all piled inside. The bellman spoke, “Welcome to Enchanted Elevators; where service always comes with a smile,” he grinned, “Please prepare for departure.” “Yo, you guys better hold on tight.” Jake warned everyone. “Why?” Sunset asked. “You'll see...” Fu answered, “Also, fair warning, Ralph Upchuck is geared to make an appearance!” “Who's Ralph Upchuck?” Mikey wondered. “He a friend of yours?” Gus asked. “You could say that.” “Going down.” The bellhop said. As soon as the doors closed, the elevator shot straight down at super speed, making everyone scream in surprise. “Weeeeeee!” Pinkie cheered. “Dudes, I'm gonna hurl!” Casey cried. “Me first!” Mikey cried. “Point your mouths away from me!” Rarity shouted. “Someone get me off this thing!” Amity pleaded. Suddenly the elevator opened up and the heroes fell out from the ceiling that was once the floor while Lao and Fu landed gracefully, “I never want to experience that again.” Fluttershy said horrified. “I think my heart jumped up into my throat.” Keno said. So they all got up and looked around seeing they were on the Isle of Draco, “Whoa!” April gasped. “Incredible!” Leo gasped. “Welcome, my friends to the Isle of Draco.” Lao explained. “Sweet digs!” Mikey said happily. “So this is where dragons gather?” Eda asked. “Yes, to keep in touch, and share their wisdom.” Lao answered. “Not a bad place.” Karai admitted. “Let's go, the council awaits us.” Lao instructed as they followed the old man. As they walked to the main building, they saw all around many other dragons in their human forms or dragon forms roaming about the isle doing other things. “Dragon Spike would sure love this place.” Donnie said. “Yeah. Even Ember would.” Shini added. “So what can you tell us about this dragon council?” Fugitoid inquired. “They foresee all that goes on in our order.” Lao explained. “Are they a bunch of stiffs like other councils can be?” Raph asked. “Well, they care about the order, but sometimes I feel like I disappoint them plenty,” Jake confessed, "When I first met the Council, I wanted to show off how cool I was. And it didn't really go so well..." "What happened?" Sunset asked. "See for yourself," Jake held out his hand. Sunset touched and looked into Jake's memories. She saw rows of tents and flags that read 'Welcome to the Dragon Summit' as loads of dragons walked and flew around. At the center of it all was the same massive temple and standing at the base of a grand staircase were five adults, who Sunset guessed were the Dragon Council. All of them were dressed in formal robes and bore serious expressions. Among them was Chang, obviously before she revealed her true loyalty to the Dark Dragon. The Council were watching the crowd as if looking for someone. Then one of them, a dark skinned man in African robes spoke, "It seems the only student left to arrive is the American Dragon." Chang spoke next sounding displeased, "He has much to answer for..." When suddenly she was interrupted by Jake's voice. "Yo, what up-what up, y'all!" Jake came racing out from behind a tent on his skateboard. Riding up some carts and flipped off them like they were skatepark ramps, "The American Dragon is in the house!" A group of kids stood nearby watching Jake, then one of them, a boy with orangish hair, spoke to his friends in an Australian accent, "Hey, mates, what's say we razz the new kid?" Then he morphed out a yellow and orange striped tail. As Jake was skating over some rocks, he stuck his tail right in Jake's path calling, "Watch the tail, now!" Jake tripped over the tail and both he and his skateboard went flying directly at the council. A council member shouted to the African man, "Councilor Andam, look out!" The man, Andam, saw the skateboard flying towards him and quickly shifted into his dragon form, slashing the skateboard in two with his claws. The council member who shouted, a man with short grey hair and a beard, saw Jake heading towards him and also shifted into his dragon form and took a breath, ready to fire a blast. Unfortunately right as he did so, Jake slammed right into him, knocking him down and making him spit ice breath onto Chang, freezing her in a block of ice. The boy and his friends laughed meanly at Jake, "Nice move, mate, good on ya!" The boy mocked. The council member held his stomach in slight pain, while Andam and the other council members gathered around the frozen Chang. Lao Shi and Fu ran up to Jake, "Jake!" Lao scolded grimly. Jake could only give a nervous chuckle. "So much for good first impressions," Fu said as the memory ended. Sunset gasped. "Sunset, what did you see?" Leo asked. "Jake was skateboarding in front of the council when some jerk tripped him and made him crash into one the them!" Sunset revealed. "Oooo!" Willow, Gus, and Pinkie winced. "Not exactly a good first impression." Karai stated. "Yah got that right," Fu nodded, "And the whole fiasco made Jake look even worse to the Council!" Fluttershy gasped, "Oh no!" "Bummer, yo." Mikey said. Jake looked down until Eda patted his shoulder, "I've been there, kid." "So have we." Edric added while Emira nodded. "Me too." Mikey put in. "And me." Luz finished. “First impressions are always important.” Twilight admitted. “Yeah, and boy I made some impression that day.” Jake sighed remembering. "So who was the punk that tripped you?!" Casey asked. "Fred Nerk, the Australian Dragon," Jake answered, "He was the new kid until I came along and took that title. That's the whole reason why he tripped me up." "He tripped you because of the title new kid?" Keno questioned. "Fred Nerk was the first Australian Dragon," Fu explained. "In the Dragon world, when you're the first dragon of your country, that means you're special. So the title of new kid is a title of supreme coolness. And Fred Nerk didn't like that Jake made him the flavor of last week." "Yep, that makes total sense." Rainbow figured. “Even so, that was completely uncalled for!” Rarity huffed. “How petty can someone be?” Willow asked. “Well, good news is we gained a mutual respect for each other.” Jake admitted. “Stand tall, everyone, the council approaches!” Lao instructed, as they stood tall. Approaching were the four main heads of the dragon council. Andam spoke to Lao, “Lao Shi.” “Councilor,” Lao greeted in respect, “Young ones, I present to you, the Dragon Council. Councilor Andam; the African Dragon, Councilor Kukulkhan, the Central American dragon, Councilor Kulde, the Norwegian Dragon, and Councilor Omina, the Atlantis Dragon.” “The council acknowledges the Turtles, the Rainbooms, and the witches of the Boiling Isles.” Kulde acknowledged. “We're honored to be here, sir.” Leo bowed his head. “Come, we have much to discuss.” Andam said, as they showed them back to the temple. Inside the temple the council sat before the heroes as Jake approached, “Look, Council, I know you assigned me to bring Chang in, but there's been some setbacks.” “You don't need to explain, American Dragon,” Kulde answered, “We're well aware of the complications that have arisen thanks to Chang's new alliances.” “Then you must also be aware of what we've been dealing with?” Sunset asked. “Correct, Sunset Shimmer.” Omina confirmed. “Though your handling of magical problems were unorthodox we were almost tempted to claim you all not worthy to wield such magic.” Kukulkhan explained. This got the Rainbooms and even the Turtles shocked and also insulted. "What do you mean, we're not worthy!!" said Rainbow in protest. "Because your kind are an irrational species and cannot always be trusted, especially since the Midnight Sparkle, incident." Kulde said, which caused Twilight to wince at that. "Huh," muttered Mikey before whispering to his brothers and Fugitoid, "You know, that's kind of what the Utrom Council once said, too." "No kidding." said Raph as he and the others remembered. "And because of those events, other disasters have happened as well." said Andam as he showed them magical images, "Especially by those who would abuse that for their own selfish desires." "And when that happened, we were going to assign a group to have that magic contained and stripped you seven of it, so that disasters like this never happened again." he finished. "Well you can't, do that!!" said Mikey, gaining their attention. "Mikey!!" protested the others, but Mikey signaled them, showing he's got this. But then he signaled Sunset and Fugitoid to come over, to which both of them did. "You guys handle magical problems, that much is true," said Mikey, "But last time any of us checked, you're in charge of this world's magic, not Equestrian magic!! Besides, we've got a few experts on magic, like Sunset!!" "And why is she an expert on the subject?" Kulde inquired. "Because I'm originally from Equestria," said Sunset, much to their surprise, "I used a mirror to travel here, and it turns anyone from Equestria into this world's dominant species. The magic came from Equestria, and not this world." "Indeed," said Fugitoid, "And last time we checked, you do not have any authorization or jurisdiction over Equestrian Magic." "Besides," said Mikey, "In Equestria, Princess Twilight and her friends weren't exactly perfect and didn't seem worthy either when they're flawed too, yet they made it work despite others in their world trying to stop them, thinking that they're better than them." Leo stepped forward and gave his two cents. "And the Midnight Sparkle incident," said Leo, "What happened wasn't her fault. Her former principal and former classmates at Crystal Prep made her life a nightmare over there and she was pressured into releasing that magic when all her former principal cared about was winning and thought the Rainbooms were using magic for cheating when all they did was save a few students in danger." "And it's not like you guys did anything either," said Raph, "Especially since one of your own betrayed you and tried to take over the world by nearly exposing you lot to the humans!!" "What?!" said Kukulkhan, but Kulde raised his hand to silence him, as he wanted to hear this further. "Plus, y'all didn't do anythin' to stop the Triceratons from nearly destroyin' our world when they were this close!!" said Applejack. "Or helped us stop Ho Chan when he was released and nearly every undead ghost nearly destroyed the world!!" said Mikey. "Or helped us stop Kavaxas the Demodragon." said Pinkie Pie. "A Demodragon?!" exclaimed Andam as this was news to them. "Which we kicked its butt on both occasions, thank you very much." said Rainbow Dash, which shocked the council as they looked at one another. "Or helped us when other Monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and a few others were this close into taking over our world!!" said Mikey. "More importantly, per your claims," said Karai as she said, "It's not like we're the Huntsclan or any of your enemies, and you have got to stop pretending that we are in this room!!" “We understand you have an order about protecting the magical community and you don't get involved with problems outside your fields.” April reasoned. “But sometimes a problem that doesn't look like it'll be yours could end up becoming yours down the line, and when it does it'll be too late for you to do anything to stop it.” Twilight added. Eda spoke up, “Look, I may not be a dragon or know how your council works, but I do know these kids have heart and dedication. They want what you obviously want, peace between the communities. But it's creeps like your former council member Chang, and even Belos back home that seek to make things worse for all of us. But if you look at only the negatives on what the kids do then how do you expect them to change and grow if you see only the worse in them? Remember Jake and his whole family helped rescue you all from the Dark Dragon, especially when he tried to make Jake slip you a mind control potion, but he didn't.” The council looked to each other concerned having no way to deny the truth. Fugitoid spoke up, “And yes they make mistakes, but then again who among here has never made a mistake in their life? I should know about making mistakes. But I made things right, as do they.” “We're not trying to step on anybody's claws, but this isn't like your days where things were different,” Mikey continued, “Times have changed. And change happens whether we like it or not.” “Spoken like a wise ninja, Michelangelo.” came a familiar voice, as they saw Bishop and the Utrom council step out of a portal. “Bishop!” The Rainbooms greeted. “And the council too.” Shini added. “Whoa!” Luz gasped. Gus took notice of the Utrom Pawn sticking out of his androids chest cavity, “I thought human brains were located in their heads.” The Blight sibs rolled their heads at his clueless mind. “Whoa, are they?” Jake asked Fugitoid. “Indeed, Jake. Meet the Utrom Council, Pawn, Rook, Queen, and Bishop.” the cyborg introduced them. “Dang that's wild!” Trix gasped. “Wild indeed.” Spud agreed. “Greetings Turtles and Rainbooms,” Queen greeted their allies before turning to the dragon council, “Councilors.” “Queen.” Kulde greeted back. “Uh, do they know each other?” Rainbow asked her friends. “We've been in touch over other matters to try and keep our own individual problems separate from each other.” Bishop explained. “A lot of good that did.” Raph reminded them of the current issue. “Yes. Which is why we've come here.” Rook noted. “I just realized, you're all named after chess pieces!” Luz gasped. “How observant of you.” Bishop replied. “So why isn't there a King or a Knight?” Luz asked. “King is handling other matters.” Queen explained. “As for Knight, we don't talk about him.” Rook added. “Amazing.” came a new voice as someone stepped out from behind the Utrom council and looked around astonished. It was a man dressed in an EPF uniform who looked around in surprise. The sight of him got the Turtles, their friends, and the Rainbooms surprised. The EPF soldier that arrived with the Utrom Council approached Leo. The Hexsquad and Team American Dragon were waiting in anticipation for what would happen. The man the held out his hand. “Leonardo.” the soldier greeted. “Commander Walker.” Leo greeted back as they shook hands. “I told you can call me Walks,” The commander insisted, before turning to the other ninjas and Rainbooms, “I trust you kids are doing well.” he gave Raph a fist bump. “Doing fine, Walks.” Sunset replied. “Whoa, hold on, rewind!” Jake interrupted them. “Yeah, who’s baldy over here.' Eda noted with Luz giving her the stink eye for being rude. Walks explained, “You know it’s not nice to call people bald. Anyway, I’m Commander Robert Walker, Commanding Officer of the Earth Protection Force, but my friends call me Walks.” “Commander Walker and his team has helped us whenever the EPF got involved.” Leo explained. “Like how he secretly helped me and Casey when we were trapped and about to be dissected.” Mikey said. “Or when Armaggon came to earth.” Sunset put in. “And when Dregg attacked.” Raph added. “And when VILE tried to steal the mutagen.” Pinkie said. “Or in Middlington when we dealt with mutant bugs and plants.” Twilight finished. “Hey you kids did fine work handling the real work.” Walks assured them. “Whoa, you actually helped.” Gus asked. “That’s right, kid.” Gus stared at him with admiration “…will you adopt me?” “What?” Walks blinked. “Uh...” Gus realizing what he said, hid behind the group embarrassed. “Sorry about Gus, he gets excited.” Luz explained. “I get it,” Walks admitted, “He actually sounds like my kid.” “Enough!” Kulde spoke up,and spoke to Bishop, “You dare bring a human here without our permission!” “Commander Walker insisted on coming when he heard of Chang’s escape.” Bishop explained, “And we trust him, just as you trusted Jake Long with bringing his two friends and a former member of the Huntsclan here.” he countered . Walks explained, “This Chang woman, along with Abigail Finn and an unknown third party from the Boiling Isles have bad intentions for my city, and everywhere else in particular. I’m here to learn as much about this woman so my unit can help stop her when we're needed.” “This is a magic problem, it shouldn’t involve you.” Andam replied. “Believe me, magic still freaks me out. But if there’s a threat to New York, and Earth, than the Earth Protection Force will be involved in stopping them, and we are not looking for your permission.” “Neither are we.” Leo added, as his team, friends, and the Rainbooms stood beside him to back him up. The council were shocked by how this man just spoke to them, but before they could say anything, Jake spoke up. “Council, if I may. Maybe we should consider their help. And maybe we should be more involved in stopping non-magical threats as well.” “What are you saying, American Dragon?” Omina asked, as the rest of the council were shocked as Jake's suggestion. “I get it we have a thousand year order and tradition, but Mikey was right. Times change, and not everything can last forever. Especially tradition.” Jake continued. Raph spoke up, “And it's because of that Chang took advantage of all of you bending things to the way she wanted which would allow the Dark Dragon to gain the upper hand on you all.” Jake continued on, “And remember all the turtles had dealt with? The Kraang took over the city for three months while we were held up in Hong Kong. I wanted to see what it was about, but you insisted to let it be handled by someone else. Well, what if there wasn't a someone else? Me, my family, and my friends, wouldn't have a home to go back to. Then there's the whole Triceraton invasion. If what my friends said was true we shouldn't really be here because the Triceratons really did destroy the planet. Maybe if we got involved earlier when it happened then the Turtles and Rainbooms wouldn't have had to time travel to stop it from happening again.” Lao-Shi and the others listened to Jake continue to step up and voice his opinion, “I've learned from my friends that just because a fight that looks like it doesn't concern me could eventually become my problem down the line if left unchecked. So now I'll ask you, will you all just sit by and watch when the next non-magical world destroying event occurs, or will you do the right thing and help save it regardless of the matter?” The council squinted at Jake upon finishing which got the others nervous, “Oh, boy.” Fu Dog groaned. "I don't like this." Fluttershy feared the worse. "Neither do I, hoot." Hooty trembled. “American Dragon,” Kulde began, before softening his firm look, “Once again, you've shown wisdom beyond your years.” “Just as you did using unconventional tactics to save us from the Huntsclan.” Andam recalled during the Halloween Party. “So perhaps it truly is time we started opening up to helping out in more non-magical problems.” Omina started reconsidering her thoughts. “And it is very true,” Kukulkhan continued, “There's never been one who never made a mistake in their life. Even we've had our hiccups in our younger days.” “I'll bet.” Eda nodded. “They should hear about your hiccups from back then.” King noted. “Not today.” she replied. “Your final answer, council?” Lao-Shi inquired. The councilors looked to each other before nodding, and Kulde spoke, “We will continue to support Jake Long and all his friends in pursuing not only Chang, but the threats of Abigail Finn, and Kikimora as well.” “And we shall also consider playing a more active role in more world threatening issues should anything like the Kraang, Triceratons, or anything else ever arises.” Andam put in. “That would be greatly appreciated.” Bishop replied. “Merci, Dragon Council.” Pawn thanked them. “So what now?” Emira asked. “Do we have to go now?” Amity asked inquired. “It feels like we just got here.” Pinkie added. “I know.” Spud agreed. “We would like you to stay a bit longer so we may get to understand more about all of you aside from what we only knew through gossip.” Omina said. “Well, we'd be happy to tell you all we can.” Twilight smiled, as the rest of the group felt glad they gained new real allies in the Dragon Council.