//------------------------------// // Episode 70: The Father of Monsters - Part One // Story: The Drake Six // by JNKing //------------------------------// When Star Wing’s eyes fluttered open, Spike and Luna shared a sigh of relief.  “Ugh…” Star groaned, struggling to focus on Spike. “Spike?”  “Welcome back to Equestria, Star,” he said.  Luna nuzzled her daughter’s hoof. “You were out for a long time,” she said. “I couldn’t even reach you in the dream realm.”  Star peered at her mother, trying to focus on her face, before looking around in confusion. “Where am I?”  “Canterlot Hospital,” Spike replied, as Nurse Redheart joined them.  “You went through a horrendous trial,” Luna agreed.  “That’s an understatement,” Redheart noted, feeling at Star’s forehead and checking her pulse. “What Sombra and Shade did to her…” “Sombra…?” Star’s eyes shot open. “SHADE!” She tried to leap from the bed, but Luna, Spike and Redheart were fast, catching her and holding her back down. “Whoa-ho, easy there, Princess,” Redheart said. “You’re in no condition to go flying after villains.” “Besides, one of them’s accounted for,” Spike agreed. “Sombra’s no longer a threat… thanks to you.”  Luna grimaced at Spike’s attempt at a cheerful tone. Though it didn’t seem to have much effect on Star, as her eyes continued to shine with panic.  “No-no-no,” she stammered. “I-I have to go after him. I have to stop him!”  “Stop him from doing what?” Luna said. “Star, you tapped into something dark to defeat Sombra. Something…” she hesitated, and even Star paused at the traumatized light in her mother’s eyes. “Something I prayed would never hound our family again.”  Star looked down at her hooves, fear shining on her face, but Luna quickly grabbed one of her hooves.  “It’s alright though,” she said. “I checked. The dark magic that was within me when I was…” she grimaced and shook her head. “Well… it wasn’t in you. At least for now. So I want to make sure it stays that way.”  Spike pat Star’s shoulder. “The rest of the Drake Six are hunting for him. It won’t be long before they find him, I promise.”  Star gazed at her mother in sorrow. “But Mother… I have to stop Shade.” She looked to Spike. “It’s my fault!”  “What is?” Spike asked.  Star’s eyes were round with despair and terror; Spike had never seen her this scared before. “While they were torturing me… I tried to scare them back.” She looked down in remorse. “I told them about my encounter with Grogar.”  The mere name sent a chill through the room. Luna turned pale and backed away from the bed.  Spike looked between them, trying to remember anything Twilight might’ve told him. “Grogar… isn’t that…?” “The Father of All Monsters,” Luna whispered. “The First Emperor of Equestria. But…” she shook her head. “No, he… he was defeated!”  Star nodded. “Imprisoned,” she corrected. “And while I was in exile, I found his cell.” She clutched her head. “And now Shade knows where it is too.”  Spike’s heart skipped a beat. Even Luna began to show fear.  Star drank in the terror on their faces. “If he manages to find it… if he releases that… that…” Spike clutched her hoof. “Star,” he said, determination in his eyes. “Tell me where it is, and I’ll stop him.”  Star shook her head. “No, it has to be me! I…” “We can’t let you risk yourself,” Spike insisted. “Not now.” He looked to Luna, who reluctantly nodded. He returned his gaze to Star. “How much have we been through together, Star? How often have you been able to trust in me?”  Star held his eyes, electric green staring into fiery green.  Spike did not break their gaze. “Where is Shade heading to? Where’s Grogar’s Prison?”  ## Dark Spike - now known as ‘Thorn’ - stared into the cavern before them. Though he was born from dark magic and anger, the place still chilled him to his very bones.  “Lord Shade,” Thorn whispered, turning to his master. “A-Are you certain…?” “Yes,” Shade said. “This is the place. We’ve come too far to back down now.”  Swallowing back his fear, Thorn delved into the cavern, wincing as darkness swallowed himself and his master whole.  For a tense few minutes, the duo walked, Thorn using his fire to create a torch. The only sound was the steady dripping of water from stalactites, and the crackle of Thorn’s torch.  Shade glared around in disappointment. “Is this really the cavern that leads to Tambelon? I admit, I was expecting something more like ruins than this.”  Faintly, however, they became aware of the sound of pounding footsteps. Right behind them. Thorn turned, readying his shield. “Sounds like they caught up. We need to move.”  Before Shade could respond, he noticed another sound: a smaller, tinkling sound like the stabbing of several tiny claws on hard rock. But this was coming from the way they were originally going.  Turning back around, Shade was rewarded with the sight of several spiders scuttling their way towards him, each one imprinted with an image of a moon on their back.  “Moon spiders,” Shade growled, summoning his scythe. “I’ve seen them eat a full grown dragon in under a minute.” Determined not to be the next meal, he began mowing down the arachnids. Thorn jumped as Shade’s fight drew his attention. But as he tried to add his fire to the defense, Spike, Astral, Jackknife, Phoenix, Diamondback and Swift rounded the corner.  “Stop them!” Spike roared, drawing his own sword and charging to meet his counterpart.  Astral drew his sword as well. “Shade! I’ve come to make sure you go away for a long time.”  Thorn took another look at the Moon Spiders, before turning to confront the others, battling Astral and Spike two on one.  As they fought, however, Shade began to overpower the Moon Spiders, forcing his way forward. “Aw crap,” Astral muttered. “Those spiders must have been guarding where Grogar is sealed away.” He tried to pursue, but Thorn kicked him to the ground.  “Go!” Jackknife barked, lunging over Astral and swatting Thorn with his tail. Thorn only stumbled back briefly before snarling and re-engaging the two, though panic traced his features as Astral raced past him and went straight for Shade, followed by Phoenix.  “Hey, no you don’t!” Thorn roared, bashing Spike with his shield and chasing after Astral and Phoenix, Jackknife and Spike in hot pursuit.  Diamondback made to go after them, before noticing Swift taking a knee, wheezing and panting for breath. She went back to Swift’s side. “Swift, dear?”  Swift waved her off. “I’ll be okay,” he said, trying to grin despite his chest heaving. “Just… not very often I have to fly that fast.” Diamondback gave him a look of pity. “Especially when you had to drag so many behind,” she agreed.  Swift nodded at the cave. “Go on ahead; I’ll catch up.”  Diamondback nodded and moved to follow the others… only to find the Moon Spiders had regrouped and were bearing down on both of them.  Diamondback’s eyes widened, and she hesitantly drew her rapier. “I… think that might be a problem,” she noted.  ## Further inside the cave Astral and Shade clashed, their weapons glowing with magic. Yet they kept getting closer and closer to where Grogar was. Phoenix danced around the two, launching fireballs at Shade.  Phoenix dodged a swipe from Shade and blasted him with fire, knocking him through an opening… and into an area that made her gasp in shock.  The three dragons had ended up in a massive cavern. Stone staircases that looked meant for giants even beyond Greed-powered dragons led down to some sort of cubic structure glowing with what looked like battling colors of white and dark orange. Chains that looked meant to hold down mountains were embedded into the stone around them, leading down into the cubic building.  Shade looked to the cubic building with excitement. Astral, on the other hand, felt dread filling his gut. Whatever was down there, it wasn’t good.  Shade made a run for the entrance. Phoenix moved to blast him with fire… only for Thorn to leap from the opening and run her through with his sword. Caught off guard by the attack, Phoenix stumbled forward and fell off the staircase, plummeting into the open air. “Stupid dragoness,” Shade mocked. “Should’ve kept an eye on your surroundings.” He was denied the chance to laugh as Astral chased after him. “PHI!” Spike roared, knocking Thorn off his friend and wildly striking at him with his sword.  Jackknife, meanwhile, dove after Phoenix, his tail hooking onto the edge and allowing him to stretch like a bungee chord, just barely catching Phoenix by the leg. “Hang on, Phi,” Jackknife said, pulling her up so he could tend to her wound. “I got you!”  As Jackknife tended to Phoenix, the battle continued down the staircase; Spike against Thorn and Astral against Shade.  The four combatants spun, slashed, parried and breathed fire. Thorn had lost his sword stabbing Phoenix, but managed to fight on with his shield, bashing aside Spike’s strikes and keeping him back with his fire breath. But Spike was not deterred, blocking the blasts and forcing Thorn back with his own shield.  At the same time, Astral and Shade kept slashing at each other, their blades striking hard enough to create sparks. Shadow as becoming overwhelmed though, as the Moon Spiders had taken a lot of his energy.  Despite the pressure, Shade refused to go down. He tapped into his magic reserves to keep himself going, as the battle moved into the cubic structure.  So intent on their battle were the fighters, that they briefly failed to hear the ominous whispering emanating from within.  “Release me… release me…” Astral managed to hook his blades into the grip of Shade’s weapon, and ripped it from his foe’s claws. He held him down with his blade raised. “I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Astral said, “But you’ve left me with no other options. You’re too dangerous to be kept alive.”  Spotting his lord in trouble, Thorn dodged under another one of Spike’s swipes and lunged in front of his Lord, reflecting the attack with his shield and bouncing it back at Astral.  Astral could only stare as the attack got closer. He couldn’t dodge out of the way in time. “Watch it!” Spike yelled, blasting Astral with his teleportation fire. Shade and Thorn only got a brief moment to hope that Astral had been disintegrated, before Spike used his fire again, and Astral appeared alive and well beside him.  Shade glared at his enemy. Rage filled him at the idea that his opponent got the drop on him.  Astral similarly seethed that Shade could dare to want to free a being too dangerous to stay alive even in a coma.  As the two glared each other down, Thorn and Spike finally heard it.  “Release me… release me…”  “Uh, guys?” Thorn asked, turning as his eyes widened. “Is that… Grogar?”  Everyone looked; the cubic building held a giant cell, with massive bars engraved with runes. The chains from outside leaked inward, wrapping around the bars and concealing what was inside.  But through the cracks, they could make out glowing red eyes. Watching them with malice before looking to one of the bars. It was cracked, the chain pressing ominously against it and causing it to wobble. Spike detected a faint trace of Star’s magic holding the bar together, but the magic was old. Spike had no idea if it would be able to hold up under the pressure. “Release me…” the voice growled from within, returning its malicious gaze to them. “Release me…” As Astral stared at the eyes, he felt fear as if someone had covered him with a heavily weighted net.  Shade, however, retrieved his weapon, and cut one of the chains. “Thorn!” he roared to his apprentice. “Help me free him.”  “NO!” Spike barked, leaping to stop Shade, only for Thorn to jump in his path, blasting fire at Astral when he tried to follow.  Luckily, Spike was able to deflect the blast, and pressed Thorn back as Astral was able to continue his battle with Shade. “Thorn!” Shade yelled again, watching cracks start to form where the cage sat. “Either help me or free Grogar! Take your pick!”  “RELEASE ME…” Grogar continued to chant, rattling the cell. “RELEASE ME…!”  Thorn looked up at the monster, pure fear in his eyes. Spike felt his body trembling.  “You know this is wrong,” Spike realized, getting Thorn to look at him. “You know nothing good can come from releasing it!”  “Thorn!” Shade shouted. “Do as I say when I tell you to release…” he was cut off as Astral punched him in the face.  “RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME!”  “Don’t listen to them!” Spike insisted, locking his shield against Thorn’s. “Dark Diamondback was betrayed and left for dead. What’s going to stop Shade from doing the same thing to you?”  “I…” Thorn mumbled, looking back at Shade.  “THORN!” Shade boomed. “RELEASE GROGAR NOW!”  “RELEASE ME!” Grogar bellowed.  “You don’t have to do what Shade says,” Spike insisted. “You’re more than his puppet; just like how I’m more than just Twilight’s assistant. You and I are the same.”  Thorn held Spike’s eyes, not even looking back as Astral disarmed Shade again before kicking him into a stalagmite. And for a brief, shining moment, Thorn lowered his head in thought, and Spike dared to believe he had gotten through to his dark counterpart.  “Twilight would be proud,” Spike thought happily. “I got through to him.” That was when Thorn snatched Spike’s own sword and ran him through with it.  “Spike! NO!” Astral shouted in shock. Spike stared, uncomprehendingly, at the sword in his gut. His own sword. Run through by a guy he thought he had convinced.  But when he looked up, Thorn’s eyes were hard.  “We’re not the same,” Thorn growled, briefly glaring at Astral as he rushed to Spike’s side. “I’m better than you. Stronger, faster, and more importantly… more loyal to my Lord.”  With that, Thorn threw Spike into Astral before hurling his shield like a discus. It struck Star’s shoddy repair job, while at the same time, Grogar rammed the cage as hard as he could.  Under the combined pressure from Grogar and the lucky hit from Thorn… the bar shattered.  Astral looked on in horror while Shade watched his apprentice with sadistic pride.  Spike couldn’t even scream, his vision was going fuzzy. His brief struggle to stay on his feet was cut short as the cell exploded, a shockwave flinging him off his feet and leaving him writhing on the ground.  Astral? Shade? Thorn? All of them were flung from Spike’s vision. All he was able to focus on was the massive visage of Grogar, who rose from the ruins of his prison, and let loose with a guttural laugh of villainous triumph.