Return to Charlock
Appearing in a flash, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rarity, and Amethyst materialized just outside Tantegel Castle. Across the strait, they could see the Dragon King’s mountain castle. Unlike before, there were no dragons patrolling the skies, they having fled when Spike defeated their master. The only ones that remained were Dragon Lord Ember and the dragons from Fillydelphia. However, their peace loving friends were no longer located at the ruins of the ancient pony settlement in the Dragon Lands.
“Hello? Ember? Mina? Anyone here?” Spike called out into the empty castle but received no response. “Huh, where is everyone?”
“Maybe they went home,” Twilight hopefully suggested.
“I don’t think so. They were rather against the idea of returning to Equestria,” Rarity reminded her.
“I hope they’re alright,” Amethyst said, concerned for her new friend, Mina.
After scanning the ruins for a bit, Spike turned back towards Charlock Island. While he too was concerned for his friends, they had a job to do. Rarity and Amethyst climbed onto his back while Twilight flew alongside him across the water to the island. Being an ancient volcano, it had multiple tunnels that were once lava vents that led into the heart of the mountain. Knowing how territorial how other dragons were, Spike concluded that only a few of the tunnels actually led to the Dragon King’s lair. The others might be blocked off or even booby-trapped to prevent thieves from sneaking in. He knew for certain that they could get in through the dragon graveyard beneath the island, but that’ll take time which they didn’t have too much to spare. Twilight could teleport them inside, but their sudden appearance could alarm the Dragon King and cause him to attack. Maybe they could fly in from the top.
As Spike flew around the mountain, he caught sight of a blue dragon standing on a ledge and recognized her as Ember. Swooping down, he and Twilight landed on the ledge.
“Spike?” Ember asked, shocked to see that he had returned.
“Ember!” a voice called from his back moment before Amethyst jumped down and ran up to her. Ember gave a happy shout of surprise as the Kirin ran to hug her.
“Oh, my goodness! Amethyst, is that you? Look how much you’ve grown!” Ember laughed as she patted the top of Amethyst’s head. The last time she saw Spike’s daughter, she was only a youngster. Looking up, she also noticed that Rarity and Twilight had joined them back. “What are you all doing back here?”
“We found out who’s behind all of this, and we need help finding him,” Spike answered.
“Who?” Ember asked, growing serious again.
“A sorcerer named Hargon. He’s using dragon graveyards to summon demons,” Twilight explained. Hearing this enraged the Dragon Lord. She had come to learn that a sorcerer had spurred the Dragon King against Equestria, and it now her friends confirmed that he was only doing it to exploit him. On top of that, this sorcerer was also defiling her people’s sacred resting places!
“We already found one he was using on Crescent Island,” Amethyst told Ember. “They were going to sacrifice my friend.”
“And they have my husband. They’re going to do the same to him if we don’t stop him,” Twilight added, making clear the urgency of the situation.
“Ember, can you help us?” Rarity asked, everyone getting their hopes up. Maybe they didn’t need to see the Dragon King after all.
“Maybe,” she responded unsurely. “Do you have any idea which graveyard he’s using?”
“We believe it’s in the Yaket Range in the Frozen North,” Twilight told her.
Ember shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, but that’s beyond my jurisdiction. I’m only the Lord of the Dragons of Equestria. Dragon Lord Sergio rules over the Fire Drakes of the North. He would know the location of the graveyard.”
So much for the easy way, Twilight thought, sighing in disappointment. “We don’t have time for that. We need to speak to Dragon King Ryuo.”
“Are you sure about that?” Ember asked, looking doubtfully.
“Please, Ember. We don’t have much time,” Spike pleaded.
“Alright. This way,” Ember said as she turned to lead them into Charlock Castle. Upon entering the central chamber, they discovered that Mina’s crew of dragons had relocated from the ruins across the strait to inside the royal volcano. As they saw Spike and his family return to Charlock, they began whispering amongst themselves. But what held Spike’s attention was the sight of his enormous father lying upon his treasure hoard, the cavern filled with the sound of his breathing as the Dragon King slept. Seeing his father, Spike swallowed hard.
They came to a stop on the elevated platform where the throne once stood while Ember flew to the resting Ryuo. The blue dragon spoke into a large ear frill, eliciting a snort from the Dragon King as he awoken. Peering an eye up at Ember, he growled, “What is it?”
Ember again spoke to Ryuo and pointed a claw back towards the platform. Ryuo’s eyes fell upon Spike and widened upon seeing that his son had returned. The massive dragon shakily rose up and craned his head towards his visitors. As he loomed closer, Spike, Twilight, Rarity, and Amethyst instinctively took a step back his shadow fell over them.
“You return….” There was astonishment in Ryuo’s voice. He had believed that his son had walked out of his life forever, but yet here he was again. He felt a strange sensation, something akin to joy. It was then that Ryuo noticed who was accompanying Spike, and that brief feeling of elation was overshadowed once more by the familiar storm clouds of hatred. He glared down at Twilight, snarling at the Alicorn while fanning his wings in a threatening display. Everyone took a few more steps back and the observing dragons watched on anxiously. “Why have you returned? And why have you brought her?”
Just as Twilight Sparkle began to regret coming, Spike stood in front of his mother and spread his wings defensively. Seeing his son shield the Alicorn reminded him of the bitter fact that Spike had chosen the ponies over him. Ryuo snorted smoke in disdain and laid back down.
Everyone collectively sighed and Spike said, “We didn’t come to fight.”
“I would hope not. You no longer have the sword in your possession.” Ryuo briefly rolled to his side to expose his chest. The Sword of Erdrick was still embedded in his thick underbelly scales, surrounded by black scorch marks created by the lightning. “And I do not see the rest of your allies with their talismans.”
“We’ve come to ask for your help,” Spike explained. An unpleasant bark of laughter echoed throughout the cavern, causing everyone to flinch.
“My help?” Ryuo asked incredulously, looking at all of them with contempt. “After all that has happened, you expect me to help you?! I have already agreed to your terms… for now… I owe you nothing more!”
“Please, Your Majesty. My husband has been taken. They’re going to kill him if we don’t stop them,” Twilight pleaded.
“I care not. All it means to me is one less pony. It is of no concern to me,” he dismissed.
“But it does concern you! The one responsible is Hargon, and he’s planning on destroying us all!”
Ryuo snorted upon hearing the name of the sorcerer, recalling how the Unicorn used him for his own purposes. The fool dared to think that he could manipulate the King of Dragons as if he were a mere plebeian. “Confound you ponies. Your entire race had been nothing but a blight upon my life. I would have already seen to his destruction if not for you and your friends. If this charlatan is such a threat, why not face him yourself? If you could vanquish me, then surely you can defeat him on your own. Now begone!”
“How can you be so selfish?! All we need is some information. Lives are at stake, your own included, and you won’t lift a claw to help! If he succeeds then the whole world is doomed!” Twilight yelled, her emotions boiling over. When Ryuo ignored her, she shouted, “Haven’t you considered that you’re the one to blame for your misery?”
“You dare mock me?” Ryuo growled at Twilight upon hearing this accusation. Spike, Rarity, and Amethyst all feared for her immediate safety.
“No, I don’t mock you,” she said boldly while she continued to berate him. “You keep blaming everypony else for your troubles, but have you ever considered that it was your own doing? Princesses Celestia and Luna weren’t trying to humiliate you. They were fighting for their lives and for the safety of their kingdom while you were trying to take something that wasn’t yours! Even your own wife knew how foolish you were being so she came here to try to build a better world for both ponies and dragons! Princess Celestia wasn’t trying to spite you by taking Spike’s egg. She was carrying out Xia’s dream!"
Spike added to Twilight’s claim by saying, “Father, we saw Mother. She’s down there in the dragon graveyard. Her spirit guided us. She knew you had to be stopped. You were out of control.”
Ryuo was shocked by this revelation, not knowing whether or not to believe it. He then turned to look to the opening of the tunnel that led to his wife’s final resting place. Had the spirit of his beloved truly aided in his defeat? Or was this yet another lie concocted by the ponies?
“And you were dooming yourself and your own subjects by helping a psychopath!” Twilight continued. “You let him exploit your hatred of ponies and manipulate you into doing his dirty work. You didn’t bother to ask why he gave you that report in the first place, you only wanted an excuse to void the pact and attack! By stealing and destroying the Tree of Harmony, you’ve threatened the balance of the world! If the world ends then so do you! If want to blame someone, take a long look at yourself!”
Twilight’s speech left her panting, but the boldness of her words and pointedness of her reproach rendered the Dragon King speechless. His eyes bulged with indignant rage and was seething steam. Spike thought he could breathe fire at any moment. Then the Dragon King finally spoke two words: “Get. Out.”
Ryuo then turned away from his guests and laid his head back down on his hoard. This display disheartened Twilight. She had let her anger get the better of her and very well might have ruined their only chance of finding Hargon’s hideout and Flash Sentry. Time was short, and without the information they needed, they would be unable to save him. The thought of losing her husband brought more tears to her eyes.
Seeing her grandmother so distraught, Amethyst stepped out from behind her parents to stand by her, nuzzling her in an attempt to comfort her. She then looked to her grandfather resting on the piles of treasure below the platform. She realized that he too was in pain. Leaping off the platform, she landed in front of Dragon King Ryuo.
“Amethyst!” Rarity called after her, trying to dissuade her from doing anything foolish. Hearing Rarity and the clatter of jewels and coins, Ryuo turned to see his Kirin granddaughter approaching him.
“I am surprised that you are here,” Ryuo told her.
“Pleasantly, I hope,” she joked. However, he didn’t laugh but continued to watch her. “Grandfather, I know you’ve lost much. I know that you have your differences with the Princesses.” Ryuo humphed at the under exaggeration. “But that’s all in the past. Auntie Celestia always tries to bring people, and not just ponies, together. She doesn’t want any more bad blood between the two of you. Her taking Father’s egg and having Grandmother Twilight raise him was all part of a plan to bring ponies and dragons together.”
“It’s true,” Spike confirmed. By this point, he and Rarity had joined their daughter on the treasure hoard. Twilight Sparkle lingered behind them, not wanting to risk rekindling the Dragon King’s rage. “I’ll admit, I was a hurt when I found out the truth about my birth mother, but Celestia was just trying to protect me. With me being crowned a Prince of Equestria and becoming friends with Ember and the dragons in Fillydelphia, both Celestia’s and Xia’s dreams almost came true.”
“When we spoke earlier, I wasn’t lying,” Rarity added, reminding him of their previous conversation. “The fate of the world was in the balance and Celestia did what she had to. And what Twilight said was also true; The pain you feel is only the result of your own pride. You just have to let it go.”
Ryuo looked away. She asked for the impossible. Beyond greed or rage, what was at the very core of each dragon’s soul was vanity. And he was the King of all Dragons. All of his subjects looked to him as the paragon of their kind. If he kept letting these inferior creatures get the better of him, what would the other dragons think of him?
“Let it go or not, it’s up to you,” Amethyst continued. “But what matters now is that we stop Hargon. If you want to blame someone for your current grief, blame him. He used your anger to get what he wanted, and now he’s sent his goons to attack me, my friends, and my home.”
“He would dare to harm my own progeny?” Ryuo asked, incensed by this news. This gave them hope. If they couldn’t get him to give up his hatred, maybe they could redirect it.
“He plans on destroying us all,” Spike told him. “If he succeeds, he’ll unleash Tartarus. We have to stop him.”
“What is it that you want from me?” he asked. “Again I ask, why do you not stop him yourselves?”
“Because we don’t know where he is,” Spike admitted, a little embarrassed.
“And we need you to help us find him,” Rarity added.
“He wanted to sacrifice us to summon demons,” Amethyst elaborated. “He’s using the ectoplasm in dragon graveyards as part of the ritual.”
Hearing this, Ryuo startled everyone, including the onlooking dragons, by roaring. And then he yelled, “Sacrilege! Sacrilege!”
“My King, please calm down!” Ember tried to urge him, but he rose to his feet.
“I shall kill him for this blasphemy!” Ryuo proclaimed, ready to fly off and wreak vengeance upon the infidel. But then, he was besought by a pain in his chest. Clutching his wound, his legs wobbled before he fell back down, shaking the cavern. Once the ground had settled, Amethyst approached him, studying the orichalcum blade lodged in the scale.
Looking up to him, she asked, “Does this hurt?” He didn’t answer but watched to see what she intended to do. Using her purple flame-like magic, she carefully pulled the indestructible blade from his chest and placed it on the treasure pile. Her aura then covered the scorch marks and the indentation left by sword, causing the blackened scales to clear and the hole to close. Meanwhile under the ancient Palace of the Royal Alicorn Sisters, a flash of violet ran through the sapling of the Tree of Harmony. “There. Is that better?”
“Yes,” he answered, running the tip of a claw over where the mark had been. The sword, the burns, and the hole had all been superficial, but he had been still recovering from the internal damage done by the lightning. Not only had Amethyst removed the unsightly blemish, but she also soothed the pain in his chest. Looking back at his grandchild, he said, “But I cannot allow this offense to go unpunished.”
“Don’t forget your promise. You swore to Dad that you’ll never come to Equestria to cause harm again,” she reminded. “We’ll stop him, but we need to find him first.”
“We know his base of operations is in the Yaket Range in the Frozen North,” Twilight told Ryuo, finding the courage to speak to him again. “However, nopony knows where to find the dragon graveyards. Until yesterday, we had no idea they were real.”
“And yet you were able to discover the graveyard located beneath this castle,” Ryuo said while staring at Twilight with suspicion. He remembered that Spike claimed they used a map, but now he was starting to suspect that wasn’t entirely true. No pony could have a map of Charlock Island. “All of the dragon graveyards are hidden by magic.”
As he mused upon this, Ember silently slipped away. Though his anger had been quelled for now, she didn’t want it turned against her.
“That’s not important anymore. What is important is that we stop this mutual enemy.” Twilight’s words broke his train of thought, and he put it out of mind for now.
“All we need is a location,” Amethyst coerced. Ryuo looked down at the Kirin’s face and found that he couldn’t deny her.
“The sacred resting place of the wyrms of the north is located between the Roof of the World, the City of Crystals, and the home of the yaks,” Ryuo cryptically answered.
“Thank you,” Amethyst thanked him. To his surprise, she ran up and nuzzled against his snout. This display of affection brought back that strange elation and felt as though his heart skipped a beat.
Caught off guard and unsure how to respond to such an act, he said to all of them, “Go now. You have what you want.”
Heeding his command, they gratefully nodded and turned to head for the exit. As Ryuo watched them leave, a new pain came to his chest. The words they had spoken to him buzzed about in his mind, conflicting with the hatred that had festered in his heart for millennia. Once again, the King of Dragons had been given much to consider. Curling up in his hoard, Ryuo began to meditate.
*****
“Wake up!” Flash Sentry opened his eyes and saw blurry figures. As his vision cleared, he discovered that he was chained to wall inside a cell. His body was sore from the thrashing he received from the demon that attacked Ponyville, and hanging from the wall wasn’t helping either. He soon realized he was in a dungeon. In the other cells, he saw more ponies locked up. Standing outside his cell were two stallions he recognized.
“Chain Mail? Iron Shield?” Flash Sentry asked, identifying the two traitors. No longer were they wearing the armor of the Royal Guard but white robes marked with the symbol of a grinning bat. Seeing that their prisoner was awake, the two stepped aside to reveal another stallion. He was a blue Unicorn wearing the same robe but with an elaborate headdress that resembled bat wings. By his apparel, Flash knew who he was. “Hargon.”
“That’s Lord Hargon,” Chain Mail corrected.
“That’ll be all, brothers. Leave us,” Hargon told the former guards. The two of them saluted and left at his command, leaving Flash Sentry alone with the madpony that was behind all the chaos that had befallen Equestria. “I must say, your daughter and her friends has proven to be quite the nuisance. Fortunate enough for us, we have you. Thank you for volunteering.”
“You’re behind Narcissus’s escape,” Flash correctly deduced. “Where is he?”
“He already served his purpose. You’ve already met Prince Bazuzu.” By this implication, Flash understood that the disgraced prince had been used to summon the purple demon that attacked him.
“You killed him.” Looking at the depressed faces of the ponies in the cells, Flash realized that they were the missing refugees. “You lure ponies here just to kill them.”
“Them?” Hargon asked, casting a casual glance to his prisoners. “I offered them a chance to be a part of the new world, but they lacked the faith. They’ll serve their purpose soon enough, just as you will. As soon as the cistern has been refilled, you too will be offered to glory of the Great Malroth. As the husband of a Princess of Equestria and the Element of Magic, you’re an ideal offering to summon General Zarlox. And as soon as we collect one more pure offering, Malroth shall come.”
“You’ll never get the chance. My Midnight will stop you,” Flash Sentry defiantly declared.
“Nothing can prevent this. It is destiny.” Hargon then grinned maliciously. “Besides, I’ve already sent some friends to deal with her and her little friends.”
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Glad to see Ryuo once again, and we can see that he's not quite the same dragon that we were originally introduced to.
And have to admit, I'm loving that Rarity made a dent in Ryuo's hardened heart, but it seems that it takes Amethyst as well as a return of Spike and Rarity (basically the entire family) seems to really take some progress on him. After all, no man or creature worth his salt could resist the cry of a grandchild, especially when this seems like this is the first time there is extended time between Amethyst and Ryuo (the time in Fillydelphia was a glorified pit stop compared to this scene).
It's a little bit premature to say that Ryuo is gonna help his son and his family to help save the world, but then again, I'm pleased that he will meditate on the new information that he's learned. Hopefully he will make the right decision--though ultimately the point where there could be a time that Ryuo could confront Celestia and Luna again after all this is gonna be one hell of a scene to read if that actually comes to pass.
Twilight, I applaud you for going directly to the point with how she's thinking about this, but damn, be a little careful next time; your lack of tact (while completely needed based on the situation) could turned things very, very badly for them. And also bonus points for letting them know that they have been assisted by his late wife. Surely having that revelation would show Ryuo that Spike and friends/family were not lying..
Time is of the essence, Dragon King. Maybe it's time to put your pride aside--even temporarily--and show that you're a KING, not just a Dragon Lord, for a reason...and it not for anything else, do it for your family (and the possibility that your progeny can have a legacy that really does come from you and Xia, since the two of you are Spike's rightful and biological parents).
EDIT: Ryou mention the dragon graveyard mentioned was between, in his words: " the Roof of the World, the City of Crystals, and the home of the yaks". So this means somewhere near the North Pole, between the Crystal Empire and YakYakistan. Could this be the pony equivalent of what we could call Alaska, or maybe Siberia? I'm definitely getting that as the case. Because if that's the case, I definitely see Cadence, Shining Armor, Prince Rutherford, and Princess Flurry Heart coming into play.
7884000
How's the next chapter coming along?
8039078
Sorry for the delay. I've been busy with the Breath of the Wild.
8039587 Yeah... me too...
When's the next part?
8039587 Is progress on the story going alright?
8129267
I haven't given up on the story. I'm just working on something else for the time being.
8129324 I take it you've been taking the season 7 episodes into account?
8179304
Yes, I'm waiting to see Triple Threat. I want to see what they do with Ember and Thorax. It's like when Gauntlet of Fire came out and I had to change Ryuo from Dragonlord to Dragon King.
8179539 And another one that features Thorax's brother.
8179539 Do you watch the airings in Canada? Because it kinda did a canon ship between Big Mac and Sugar Belle. You basically made Fluttermac completely canon for your universe. I don't think that's something you can easily overwrite.
8192666
Well, it's just a crush. A lot can happen in the five years between the present and the Legend of Spike series. Anyway, it's too late to change it now. To be honest, I really don't ship any of the main characters except for Sparity. All of the relationships I have in my stories are just a means to an end.