Chapter 8: Violet and Jade Storm
It was time. Good or bad, Twilight had to face her choice. Face Celestia, no less! This was so reckless and selfish, not to mention just plain foolish! She was throwing herself into war, for Luna’s sake! Any sane pony would wonder what the hay she was thinking. However, when it came to her friends, nothing was too crazy, and Spike -no- all of Equestria needed her. She would have no right to call herself a Princess or the Element of Magic. No, she had to follow her heart, wherever it lead, and not listen to the indignation screaming in the back of her brain for the last week and a half. She paced back and forth in front of her library, once again at war with herself.
We could die! We could fail and lose everything we care about because of it! her mind berated her. Why are we doing this? Why not trust in Celestia, we’ve always had faith in her decisions!
It’s never been like this before, her heart countered, falling on the same reasoning she had been using to hold herself up this whole time. We are a Princess now, and this is something we have to do! Do you want some stranger to kill Spike and take him away from us? Do you want to just stand aside and watch as the rest of Equestria fights to survive? And for what? Just so we don’t fail?
Well... no, but-
I thought not. We aren’t cowardly, we are strong. We have to believe that. Starswirl believes it.
Pffft, yeah, if it was even really him that left the message.
Okay, you officially lose all thinking rights for doubting that it really is Starswirl. That penmanship and dialect in the letter and book were one hundred percent genuine Starswirl the Bearded! Now go back in your little corner and be quiet.
But-
-NOW!
Successfully subduing her doubts and cynicism, shoving them in the dark little part of her mind where they belonged, Twilight let out a long sigh.
Heh, arguing with yourself still? Gotta say, you always make a compelling argument as always, Spike’s amused thoughts floated out of the library, where he was busy eating.
Oh hush you, she groaned, and stay out of my head you lousy eavesdropper.
I will the next time you stay out of my head when I’m thinking about Rarity, he countered snarkily. We know it’s not gonna happen. We barely have separate minds now. We’ll just have to get over any embarrassment we feel. Besides, I think it’s cute how you fight with yourself like that.
The furious blush on her muzzle was so intense that she knew Spike could feel it, and she stammered, Y-yeah, well you need to try h-harder to keep those thoughts of yours private. I think they’ve been slipping into my dreams some nights, and I really don’t want to repeat some of them. How do you even have those kinds of thoughts?! You’re not even ten years old! Even now the young alicorn did her best to shove the dreams down into a vault where she’d never have to remember them again.
It’s not my fault, with this adult body came some adult urges, and I can’t help it if I want to-
You even finish that thought, and I swear, I will end you.
Oh come on, I know I’m not the only one of us that thinks Rarity has a nice-
I swear on Celestia’s name, if you don’t stop, I’ll march right in there and fucking stab you in the eye and just get this over with right now! she glowered, so flustered in the moment that she hardly cared about her lapse of tongue. Could she help it if Rarity was gorgeous no matter what one’s particular orientation was?
Spike however, wasn’t about to let it slide, tut-tutting her as he slinked out of the doorway to join her outside the library. “Oh, such language, Twi’. I’d expect better from you. Then again, you’ll need to be able to release your inhibitions if you want to activate the Dragoon Spirit, so it’s not really a bad thing.” That smarmy grin of his only grew wider. Damn it he had become cheeky lately, and she found herself being flustered by him far more often than she was accustomed to. He knew every last button to press to get on her nerves, but never pushed his luck too far to make her really mad.
Grumbling to herself, the mare attempted to change the subject, “I just hope Celestia doesn’t try to stop us from doing this. I’ve already been training so hard with my Casts and all those new light spells just to get ready for this.”
Flicking his tail in idle thought, Spike looked to the sky and mused aloud, “If she does, we’ll just have to force it, and prove that you can do this. Just remember, when that moment comes, my instincts will almost completely take over, and I won’t be able to hold anything back. If you don’t fight as hard as you can, then I might be the one that kills you.”
The possibility was all too real, she couldn’t refute that, and it was terrifying. The only thing that pushed that fear down was the calm that flowed from Spike. She took refuge in his faith in her, and it helped her have confidence in herself as well. She hadn’t had quite the network of support she was used to in the past several days. Keeping their friends in the dark about their choice was something they had decided on together, and while that would likely keep them safe, that also deprived her of their moral support. Spike was all she had right now. She could do this. She had to. No alternative was acceptable.
“It’ll be hard doing it alone,” Twilight sighed out, scanning the sky in the direction of Canterlot for any sign of the Princess’ approach.
“Well then I guess it’s a good thing you won’t be alone,” a cocky chuckle rang from above.
Nearly jumping a foot in the air, the alicorn and dragon looked straight up to see Rainbow Dash looking down on them from a cloud low overhead. Danglin her forehooves over the edge of the cloud, Twilight noted a strange cyan fabric wrapped around her torso, which faintly shimmered in the morning sun.
“Rainbow? What do you mean, how long have you been eavesdropping on us?” Twilight blurted out.
Rainbow grinned down at the two of them rolling off of the cloud and landing with ease right in front of them, posing flashily. The cloth on her, underneath a pair of saddlebags, was now revealed to be a fairly form-fitting jacket and pants, which covered all but her head, the bottom half of her hooves, and her wings, which tucked in smoothly against her back. The fabric itself was a near identical hue to her own fur coat. The flared collar and silver lining on the edges of the fabric were the only ways to tell that she was wearing anything at all. Posing herself and turning about in place to show off her awesome duds, Rainbow Dash casually explained, “Yeah, we’ve been having Pinkie spy on you for the last few days. We all know what you’re gonna do, and I’m gonna help you!”
Spying? How could she be so nonchalant about breaching a friend’s privacy? Then again, she had been leaving her friends in the dark about this, and they had every right to know. She just didn’t want to get them involved in something this dangerous. Applejack had already been badly hurt before, and she didn’t want that to happen to the rest of them either. She was just making a lot of selfish decisions lately, wasn’t she? She wanted to defy Celestia’s wishes and become a Dragoon, and she was keeping her friends shut out. It was only natural that they try to figure out what was going on.
A small sigh escaping her lips, Twilight hung her head in a mixture of shame and reluctant acceptance. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, I guess I haven’t been acting like a very good friend these last few days, have I? I should have told you all what I was doing myself. You shouldn’t have had to spy to find out.”
Rainbow Dash only scoffed at the apology, waving a hoof dismissively, “Don’t think like that Twi’. You just don’t want anypony to get hurt, and you’re trying to keep Spike safe in your own way. You’ve got a lot of things to worry about, so we’re not mad in the slightest.”
The assurance genuinely relieved Twilight. Maybe there wasn’t a right choice in how to handle this situation, but Rainbow helped her feel like she wasn’t just being a bad friend to the girls. She was really lucky to have them as her friends. Still, an important question rose in her mind, “How are you going to help me, Rainbow Dash? I know you’re an amazing athlete, and you can certainly put up a fight, but that isn’t quite enough.” She hoped the pegasus wouldn’t think she doubted her abilities. They really were second to none, but she couldn’t help but worry.
Spike spoke up a bit, raising a claw, “Yeah, you can’t just smack a hoof at this and fix it.”
A smile spread across Rainbow’s face, “Funny, AJ said the same thing.”
In a flash Rainbow took two steps forward, light strobing around her hoof as she approached. A gleaming silver gauntlet forming around her hoof, and swinging it up, the surface of the gauntlet started writhing and shifting as a wide triangular blade sprouted forward from it. Twilight’s whole body froze as she felt cool, razor sharp metal press against her throat. They held like that for several seconds before Rainbow pulled her hoof back and proudly displayed what was unmistakably a Cast. A second wink of light on her other hoof revealed another Cast, this one inactive, with no weapon deployed.
Rainbow laughed at Twilight’s wide-eyed expression, brandishing the blade on her hoof before letting both Casts disperse. It was a signature function of the polymorphic weapons. The enchanted metal would be scattered into millions of tiny particles, held in a microscopic layer around the wielder’s entire body, completely imperceptible to discovery. Since Casts tied themselves to the inner magical flow of any pony, not just unicorns, all it took was enough concentration and focus of one’s inner magic flow to control the manifestation of the weapons. What couldn’t be controlled, was what weapons one could make from it. The magic entwined with the soul makes the Casts take only forms that perfectly accentuate the wielder. From the looks of it, Rainbow Dash’s weapon was a katar, a light and easy to use weapon for both stabbing and slashing, something she could easily see Dash being able to use well. Really though, that was sort of the point of Casts anyway, wasn’t it?
“Surprised? They’re old family heirlooms,” Rainbow said, rummaging in her saddlebags for something else. Deep purple cloth slid out of the bag, which she promptly tossed into Twilight’s face, “And this here is from Rarity to you, Twilight.”
Spike chuckled at the sight of the fabrics hanging off of Twilight’s face, but had his amusement stifled by a scathing mental image projected into his brain from the irritated princess. As she took the cloth from her face, holding it in her hooves, she noticed that it was a lot like what Rainbow Dash was wearing.
“Why did Rarity make this?” Spike inquired.
“It’s made of-” Rainbow began, only to be interrupted by an enthusiastic Twilight
“Crystal Thread! Thousands of years ago this was the most valuable cloth not only for its softness and beauty, but also for its incredible strength and magic resistance!” She was in full history mode now, lifting the cloth in her hands and quickly trying to find out how to get it on. “This thread hasn’t been seen ever since the Crystal Empire was banished! How did Rarity get it?”
Grumbling at having her important explanation trumped, Rainbow snorted lightly. “A diamond dog named Bowser came to have Rarity work it into uniforms for ponies. He’s really smart for a dog, and says he saw it as a business opportunity and a chance to help keep ponies safe since the Lords have come back. Apparently the diamond dogs have history with the Golden Dragon, so they know a bit about what’s going on.”
A noticeable feeling of bubbling rage came off of Spike at the mention of diamond dogs, claws digging slightly into the dirt. A few fuzzy memories flashing into Twilight’s mind from his own. The anger quickly settled though, putting judgements of the dogs aside as he realized that if Rarity was working together with them, they must be behaving differently than their previous barbaric behavior. What was interesting to both Twilight and Spike, however, was Dash’s claim that one particular dog was actually quite intelligent. Diamond dogs weren’t exactly known for being the smartest race in Equestria, though that was questionable seeing as how more often than not, only a few of them were seen at a time, and nopony had ever come across a settlement.
As Twilight fumbled with her new outfit and pushed her head through the proper opening, Rainbow Dash sat herself down in the grass, scoring into the dirt with her hoof while looking up at the sky pensively. “So Celestia’s coming today, huh?” she asked.
Nodding softly, pushing her hooves through the long sleeves. Finally fitting the last piece of clothing on, Twilight stood and trotted in a small circle to get a feel for it. The soft, purple fabric hugged her torso, a flared and tucked collar accentuating her face and mane while the sleeves hugged her arms to the first join, widening out like a funnel until stopping with only a third of her forelimb’s length left exposed. From her torso, the cloth became much looser as it passed along her waist, draping across her flank in silken waves, the fabric splitting in a V-shape right where it met the base of her tail. Taking the whole look in, it seemed like a stylistic mix of a trenchcoat and a robe, and as expected from Rarity’s work, it felt absolutely perfect on her.
Returning her attention to Rainbow Dash, who also seemed to like the look, if her growing smile was any indication, she answered, “Yeah. We got a letter from her this morning saying she’d found two candidates to become Dragoons, and was going to bring them here. She said that she expects me to choose which of them I want to do it.” Irritation was evident in her voice. Just the thought of somepony else being the Dragoon made her mad. Now that she’d set her heart on it so adamantly, she couldn’t accept it being anyone but her. It will be me, or I’ll die trying.
You won’t die, Spike assured her, both of them sharing a look of mutual understanding.
Rainbow, looking between the two of them, scoffed and waggled a hoof to get their attention. “Hey, awesome friend here too! Don’t leave me out of the loop with your fancy new telepathy you have going on!”
So she knew about that too? Likely from more Pinkie-spy information gathering. Probably a safe assumption.
“Sorry Dash,” Spike apologized. “We’ve just gotten in the habit of it now. It wasn’t anything important really, I…” He trailed off at mid sentence, his body held perfectly still for a moment, then going completely rigid and frozen in an arched stance, his spines flaring up and his wings stretching wide. His emerald eyes snapped wide open and his pupils contracted into tiny slivers of black. Head flicking up, he loosed a feral snarl into the sky, his fangs gleaming from beneath his curled lips. Pure unbridled hostility flowed from him like Twilight had never felt, and both mares instinctively leaped into the air in surprise, hovering away from his savage display.
“Spike? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked worriedly. This was an unprecedented feeling she felt from him. Unbridled hostility of a pure and instinctive form. Could the source of it be...?
As she wondered to herself, she felt Spike’s conscious mind returning to him from beneath the surge, and at the same time, a deep shadow cast itself across them, traveling out and casting everything in sight under shade. The blanket of darkness was immediately followed by the flash of lightning, tailed immediately by the rumble of powerful thunder. Turning to look up, Twilight and Rainbow Dash saw an enormous front of storm clouds surging across the sky, so thick and dark that they blotted out much of the sun’s light, and crackling with violet bolts of lightning. All of Ponyville and the surrounding was in darkness, but with enough light to see by still remaining. The clouds continued to roll across the sky, obscuring every speck of blue as they were pushed along by an incredibly powerful wind. The two winged ponies struggled to stay aflight in the gale, but were forced to land, lest they they be knocked out of the sky.
A nervous look was shared between Rainbow and Twilight. “Uh, there wasn’t any storms scheduled for today, were there, Dash?” Twilight asked. It was a ridiculous question, really. This stormfront was way too big. She had never seen clouds so violent and wild.
“No.” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as she looked up to the clouds, sharp eyes darting back and forth, alert for danger.
Regaining his sense of self, Spike growled out two simple words. “They’re here.” The meaning needed no explanation.
A streak of violet-tinted electricity arced down from the clouds, striking the earth only a few yards away from the group, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and smoke. The resulting sound wave from the air-rending bolt even pushed the three of them back a short distance, their ears ringing from the deafening roar of such a close strike. The smell of ozone filled the air, the charred, heavy scent filling their nostrils as several small arcs of electricity flashed from within the cloud of dust.
The sound of steps, earth crunching under small feet reached their ears as the ringing faded, and as the small flashes of lighting emerged from the cloud, their source was revealed. A sultry feminine voice called from the veil as the figure emerged, “Lord White-Silver, a pleasure to meet you.”
The figure spoke to Spike, stepping into full view to reveal a diminutive dragoness, no larger than a child, the same size Spike had once been. The dark violet scales of the dragon constantly arced with an intimidating display of lightning magic, the bolts darting across several spines which glinted from its hide. Across the forearms and wrists; out of the shoulders; from the thighs and calves; along the tail, which even ended in a wickedly sharp looking barb; even along the joints of the small wings which sprouted from its back, where the exchange of voltage was at its strongest. This small dragon was anything but a child though, not round and nearly baby-faced like Spike had been. She was instead lean and distinctively powerful in build despite her small stature. And with all of those razor sharp spines sprouting from her body, she looked like a living tesla-coil combined with an oversized blender.
Twilight and Spike needed no hints as to the nature of this dragoness. The Violet Dragon. Lord of Lightning.
Standing just outside the thinning dust, she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked, “The name’s Surge, and we’ve come for you, White-Silver.”
Eyes fixed on the small dragoness, Spike knew that if the same kind of power flowed through her as did him, she was not an enemy to take lightly because of her size. With Twilight and Rainbow Dash taking a stand on either side of him facing the enemy, he bared his fangs and hissed, “The name is Spike. And where are the other ones? I feel four of you.”
The wicked grin on Surge’s face grew ever larger, answering with apparent excitement, “My master is watching over me from our flagship. As for the others, well, why don’t you see for yourself?” she answered, sweeping a claw back in a dramatic gesture towards the dust behind her.
As if on cue, a sudden gale whipped up in the center of the veil, whirling around in a miniature tornado before bursting outward and scattering the obscuring cloud, revealing another… dragon? Easily four times larger than Spike, the menacing green creature’s maw opened from bisected lower mandibles that revealed frightening pincers and maxilla writhing beneath them. Baring the grotesqueries within its mouth, the creature let out a high pitched noise between a hiss and a roar. The insectoid creature gazed at them from bulging, multi-paneled eyes that took up huge space on either side of its head. Though it could see in any direction, the heat of its predatory gaze was unmistakably on them. From its back sprouted four enormous, glassy wings of paneled, cellular chitin, which thrummed at a blurring rate and created a constant thrash of wind beneath it. It’s main body was rather stunted, attached directly to its head with no neck to speak of; but the bulk of its size was in its tail, which was easily three times the length of its head and body combined. The tail did not taper to a point, but remained the same significant girth all along its prehensile length, and ended flatly, where an opening was clearly shown, closed tight by several menacing looking ‘teeth’. Sprouting from either end of this tail were two enormous pincers, which opened and snapped shut in a display of crushing force that generated yet another blast of wind in their faces. The only indications that this was in fact a dragon that only looked like an enormous dragonfly was the fact that rather than a chitinous hide, it bore striking emerald green scales all over its body, and instead of six spindly, multi-jointed legs, four lanky, very normal looking dragon legs and claws hung from its body.
“This here is my pal, Varius. He’s not very talkative, ever since he got the power of the Jade Dragon,” Surge explained with a sadistic chuckle, “But his master has plenty of mouth to make up for it.”
A shadow rose up behind the insectoid dragon, wings spread wide and gliding forward effortlessly despite the winds howling around the dragon. Coming into full view, the watching eyes snapped wide in shock as they recognized the adversary before them.
Rainbow was the one to voice the identity of their enemy, screaming, “Gilda!”
A familiar sneer met the reaction as the griffon looked down on them from above. “S’up dweebs? Did ya miss me?”
“Ah, I see you’ve already met Seventh Princess Gilda Thestria of Imperial Griffonaria,” Surge grinned.
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So Gilda is the Green Dragoon interesting
2926428
Yuppers! And a princess too! Though obviously by imperial structure, being the seventh one normally equates to just being a high noble. Though I'll elaborate more on that as time goes on.
I'm more curious who the Gold and red belong to them being my faves in the original game
2926501
What a coincidence, because those two will be featured in one arc of the story together, just as Jade and Violet are featured in this arc.
This Story just got 20% more real
2926584
Indeed, and the tension has been doubled! I'm particularly fond of Surge, who is slightly inspired to be like a miniature, living Tesla-Coil version of a Hork Bajir.
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070221025353/animorphs/images/d/da/Hork-Bajir.png
Minus the really long neck and plus a pair of wings, of course.
Also, Varius' dragonfly motif was decided to continue the insectoid design begun by Feyrbrand, who resembled a praying mantis.
Pretty awesome. I'm quite enjoying this. Once again, thanks for writing this. It's so great to have a quality crossover with The Legend of Dragoon. I am very much looking forward to the next chapter.
2926718
Always happy to hear praises for my hard work, but please, none of you forget that I am quite happy to receive criticisms so that I can see which parts of my storytelling may be lacking! I do feel like I'm improving though, a friend of mine's writing style helping to inspire some of the banter at the start of the chapter.
Ah, so the first two have been defeated already. Not looking good for Twilight, but if she plays her cards right these knuckleheads might just do a lot of the work for her. Strategic thinking aside, I'm a little surprised at Gilda, not that she showed up but that she showed up as a princess of all things. Then again I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, seeing as most people (myself included) know next to nothing about her origins.
All in all, good job. Can't wait for the next chapter.
2927505
As I mentioned in a previous comment, in an imperial structure where the emperor has many children with many different "mates" then the later in the line one is born, the more equated to simple nobility they become. First and Second Princes and Princesses in an imperial structure are the closest to actual royalty, as they are the ones directly in line to succeed the Emperor unless other conditions are met that supersede that order. This will be elaborated on as the story proceeds.
2926762 Well, for criticisms. First, there were a few spelling mistakes, though the only ones I remember off the top of my head was: 'spec' instead of 'speck', and 'danglin' instead of 'dangling'. There were also a few times where there were some superfluous uses of words, such as Spike using the word 'always' at the beginning and ending of a sentence (sort of jarring reading that).
As for non-spelling/grammar stuff. I feel the story is a little rushed at times, though I have a feeling that is a problem that will be fixed (as this chapter is better paced). I think it was only happening because you were dealing with so many different characters in some of the other chapters. Though I am curious as to how well you'll write action scenes. And I am certain we'll see that in the next chapter.
I'm personally against using explicit language if one can avoid it. The use of 'fuck' as such caused me to wince a bit, as it feels almost counter to the atmosphere of the story. As I recall, tLoD only ever used 'bastard' as their cursing, and usually only targeted toward someone who had killed innocents, or killed a friend. Of course in this case, you used the swear as a small gag, so I suppose that's permissible (keep in mind that this viewpoint on swearing is indeed only my personal view. I know there are a ton of others that don't mind the word and find it far more multipurpose.than I).
Overall though, I wasn't really turning a critical eye on the story as I read. I'm generally just reading for the joy of it and avoiding critiquing it (as that takes more time). However, I'll be sure to mention my thoughts in further chapters.
2928542
Thank you! That is very much appreciated! I have someone that's going to be my editor when she finally gets around to looking at my story, and she's fantastic even from the little bit of help she already gave me in editing tiny parts of the prologue that needed it, but I'm always happy to hear what should be improved.
As for the pacing, it was a little jumped, but that's mostly because while I was also juggling multiple characters, I also wanted to leave out expositing a whole brick of information at the beginning of the story any more than I already was, and wanted to spread details hidden in the time between the chapters out across later ones. I wanted to do this to develop curiosity in what's going on too, rather than elaborating every last detail like I certainly could have. For instance, I didn't want to just exposit all the different things Twilight learned from the book, but rather bring them out as they become relevant, (Like I did when establishing Twilight's decision to become a Dragoon by elaborating on the way the Spirits are made) or explain in detail how she trained herself, which I would much rather elaborate in parallel with her first battle experiences for a more dynamic fight scene. So the pacing of the beginning was a conscious choice to spread details and revelations across more chapters.
As for the explicit language, I indeed was making a slight gag of it. It was a bit out of character from the usual Twilight, but she's also being affected by her link to Spike. While it is rather unusual for any ponies to swear, it is relevant to her development. Even if only this one instance of the word "fuck" will likely ever be used, I may use other milder ones very sparingly so among ponies in general. I will, however, use other bits of explicit language with a marginally greater frequency for more non-pony characters, who's cultures and personalities are more maleable to suit said explicits. Of course, I'm not just gonna be throwing swears all around the place, I'll make them suit the emotions of the situation, not just deaden the effect of them with over-use.
Lastly, thank you very much for the grammatical and spelling advice. I caught a few of them myself early on, but I definitely missed those ones.
2928253 Thanks for the reminder, though my comment was more a surprise at Gilda actually bein part of a royal line. All that aside, you still did an awesome job.
2926690 That beast looks awesome.
2931526
It's from the children's book series, Animporphs. A peaceful tree-bark eating alien race.
When Spike detected the presence of the dragons (And Dragoon) This reeled in my mind
I loved the variant of Feyrbrand as the Jade Dragon, and who better to tame it than Gilda, who seems to me to be so similar to Greham
Ok gidas a dragon they so need rose or there boned!
I'm guessing Gilda is the Greham to Rainbow's Lavitz. Wait. Does this mean Rainbow might get killed off?