Chapter 3 The Hivelands
Chapter 3- The Hivelands
We walked back through the dense brush for a few more minutes. Our mood had lightened a bit since our argument, and I still had a couple of questions to ask her.
"So, how did you know I was in trouble?"
"Honestly, it was pure luck. I was hunting for a midnight snack, when I heard those two... things talking. They looked pretty tasty, but once I realized they were actually holding a conversation, I turned back," she explained, "I try not to eat self-aware things if I can help it. As I was about to head back, I thought I heard your voice. Lucky for you, I didn't just shrug it off, or you'd be dragon stew by now."
She had a point there. Thank Celestia for small miracles!
"So, did you use your fear breath on those guys?"
"Yeah. I figured a good scare was all they needed," she replied, as we came to a small clearing where her bag lay and a smoldering campfire glowed in the early morning darkness. The blanket we'd bought was spread over a bed of leaves. It was no basket, but it would have to do. She settled on her bedding, and invited me over. There was easily enough room as she opened her tail, and wrapped it snugly around me.
"What are you—"
"I'm not taking any chances with you. Twilight and her friends are the only creatures I've met that don't instantly hate me, and I'm not gonna screw that up by letting something happen to you," she explained, "Now let me ask you a question. How did you follow me out here?"
I reached into my bag, and showed her my map. It was actually just a page I'd torn out of Twilight's atlas with a line drawn on it, but it was better than the map she had.
"This is much more detailed than mine, no wonder you found me so quickly."
"Yeah, well you definitely couldn't have picked a more dangerous route," I added, noting the next place we'd have to cross was the Changeling Kingdom, known on the old map as the Hivelands.
"Well, since I can't fly with you on my back, I'll have to use my claws the old fashioned way."
I also should have considered how much quicker her journey would have been without me tagging along. "Sorry. I didn't mean to slow you down..."
"It's okay, I'll need a dragon who's familiar with the lay of the land." I cheered up a bit. Though truthfully, I'd never been outside of Equestria, let alone the Hivelands, but there was no reason I had to tell her that. It was a bridge I would cross when I came to it. Right now, my feet hurt, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open.
Blackfang awoke early that morning, though his pony caretaker had been awake for a while now, it seemed. He noticed her fluttering about in her yard as he reached into his cloak for the proper healing elixir.
Taking a few gulps of the sour green liquid, he watched as his injury slowly began to heal. The swelling in his leg would take a few minutes to go down, but he was confident he had the time. After all, his prey was not of this world, and he had been sent to roughly the same region she had. Surely a black dragon wandering around would have caused some commotion.
Within a half hour, his ankle was back to normal. Blackfang rose from his couch and stepped toward the door. Upon opening it, he noticed a purple unicorn charging up the dirt road toward Fluttershy.
This world is full of mythical horses... he thought, standing in the doorway as he eavesdropped on the rather loud conversation the two ponies were having.
"...the matter Twilight?"
"...Spike! He ran off with that, Cynder character!"
His interest piqued at the mention of his target.
"Wah! What the hay is that?!" Twilight whinnied in surprise, taking a few generous steps backward as Blackfang strode towards them.
"Relax, Twilight," Fluttershy said calmly, "This is Blackfang," she introduced, before realizing he was walking under his own power. "Wait a second, you can walk already?"
He grinned, "My species heals quickly, thanks in no small part to your delicious soup last night," he added, adding a tint of red to Fluttershy's cheeks. "I couldn't help but overhear you mention a dragon named Cynder?"
"Uhm, yes. How'd you know she was a dragon?"
Blackfang's expression dropped to one of solemn urgency, "Cynder came into your town, told you she was on a quest to save someone from her realm, did she not?"
Twilight nodded, as he continued. "She told you she was once a slave to a dark dragon, one whose power corrupted all it touched, and choked the land beneath a cloud of darkness?"
"Y—yeah."
Blackfang shook his head, a look of remorse coming over his battle hardened features, "If only I'd have gotten here sooner..."
"Why?" Fluttershy piped up.
"Cynder is a small dragon with markings under her eyes, and on her head?" he asked, Twilight and Fluttershy nodding.
"In my world, she went by another name. The beast, the terror of the skies!" he warned, digging into his cloak and producing an etching he had been given so as to identify Cynder in either form she may take. "This is the Cynder you've met?" he asked, showing her the image. It was of her current form.
"Yes, that's her," Twilight answered.
He shook his head in sympathy as he produced another image. This one was of a massive, slender black dragoness, with razor sharp wings and hundreds of teeth, breathing a hellish purple fire onto a village as its citizens ran for cover. "This is the Cynder I know. Our most powerful shaman was able to drain the dark energy from her, and reduce her to the size you've seen. She plans to find the crystal of power in your realm and use it to restore herself to her former might! Once she absorbs the dark energy within, she will be unstoppable."
"So, you mean to tell me, that Spike has run off with an evil dragon?" Twilight asked somberly.
"I'm unsure of whom 'Spike' is, but if he is with Cynder, then it certainly appears that way," Blackfang replied.
"That doesn't sound like Cynder, she seemed nice enough when we met her," Fluttershy added quietly.
"Of course she was. It wouldn't benefit her to come into a strange land and start terrorizing the populace. If she has any hope of finding the crystal she seeks, it is with honey, not vinegar."
"I knew that Cynder was trouble! I can't believe I let her in my house!" Twilight put both hooves to her head in shame. She had allowed Spike to be hypnotized by another dragon and carelessly let him run off by himself! At least when he migrated, she knew where he was going!
"Oh Celestia, she's probably saving him for a snack! Did you know she asked me for meat yesterday morning?" she added, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
Blackfang assured her it wasn't her fault. "Cynder's trickery knows no bounds. On an impressionable young mind, her powers can be irresistible. If you like, you may follow me, as I was sent here to stop her from acquiring the crystal she seeks."
Twilight's tears began to dry up. "I've got to find him. Do you know where she was headed?"
"No, but if given a map of this land, I can tell you where the crystal she seeks is most likely to grow."
"Stand close, I'll take us to my library," Twilight commanded, determination to find Spike motivating her like nothing had before.
Blackfang turned to Fluttershy before departing with Twilight, "Thank you for healing me. I want you to have this," he said, retrieving a medallion from around his neck. It was on a simple chain, the pendant was a silver eye, with an emerald forming the pupil.
"I know it isn't much, but there is little kindness where I come from, and from what you've shown me, I can tell this place is one of the last few havens of unconditional acceptance. Never let that go," he whispered, rubbing behind Fluttershy's ears as she blushed and smiled.
In a flash, Twilight and Blackfang had disappeared, leaving the gentle pegasus to continue with her morning chores, though not without a new appreciation for the blessed life she'd been living.
Twilight and Blackfang reappeared in her treehouse. The shelves upon shelves of books inspired awe in her ape companion. Only in the most sheltered of ruins in his home world did caches of knowledge like this exist.
"I'll get the atlas, make yourself at home," Twilight called over her shoulder, heading towards the 'A's.
Blackfang spotted another couch, and had a seat. Compared to the other one, this one was much stiffer, as if it were designed to keep one awake. Though he had only experienced two in his lifetime, his preference was for Fluttershy's.
The small bell near the door of the library dinged, as Rarity and Pinkie Pie trotted inside, expecting to see Twilight, but were instead greeted by a mess of black fur, wrapped in a black tunic and cloak.
"Twilight, Pinkie and I have arrived to—Sweet Celestia, what is that thing?!" Rarity exclaimed, rearing back on her hind legs, keeping Pinkie from seeing Blackfang.
"Oh! Oh! Let me see Rarity!" she protested, trying to peek around over her alabaster shoulders.
"Rarity! Don't be rude!" Twilight called from across the library, setting the massive atlas of Equestria and the lands beyond on her ape guest's lap.
"This is Blackfang, he's going to help me track down Cynder, and rescue Spike."
"Well that's all well and good, but he smells simply dread—" Rarity's eyes widened a bit as she processed the last three words of Twilight's sentence.
"What do you mean, 'and rescue Spike'?" she asked as Pinkie managed to shove her way into the library.
"I found a note this morning on his bed, saying he ran away with her to find himself. Only, Blackfang is from Cynder's world, and tells me she's actually an evil dragon bent on returning to..." she turned him as he scanned her atlas. "Do you still have the image you showed me?"
He looked up, "Ah, of course."
Producing the same etching as before, he showed her a huge dragon with identical markings terrorizing a village of straw huts.
"She wants to turn back into this thing with some kind of special crystal, and Spike thinks she's doing it to help someone back in her realm!" Twilight hastily explained, a furious look coming over Rarity's normally calm and ladylike exterior.
"I knew she was trouble from the start!" she fumed, "How dare she take advantage of our Spike like that!"
Rarity stomped over to Blackfang and looked him in the eye, "Do you know where she's going?" she demanded.
"Not at the moment, but I was sent here to hun—I mean stop her from getting that crystal. This kind unicorn was going to be my guide."
"Oh! I know where she's—"
"Not now, Pinkie!" Rarity shushed, far more concerned about joining Twilight's posse. "I'll be coming with you. I'll not have that hussy endanger my Spikey!"
Twilight and Pinkie were both quite shocked.
"Uhm, you know there'll be danger, and mud, and sleeping on the ground, and maybe even fighting, right?" Twilight asked.
"A chipped hoof is nothing compared to a lost friend. I nearly lost him to his own greed once, I'll not lose him again." she insisted, in that classy yet arrogant tone she had mastered.
"Well if you two are done being drama queens, I know where Cynder is going!" Pinkie snapped, hating being ignored.
They stared at her quizzically, "You do?" Rarity asked.
"Yep! She was headed to the Varcuda mountain range," she added smugly, certainly a new emotion for the pink party pony.
Blackfang quickly flipped to the page on mountain ranges, only to find it had been torn out.
"It seems your friend Spike isn't one for hand drawn maps," he lamented, holding up the book to show Twilight the ripped page. Running away was one thing, but book abuse? He had crossed the line now. She'd hide his comics for a month for this little incident, on top of the month of grounding he'd be getting for running away with a war criminal.
"Flip to page 57. It's not as detailed, but it'll give us a general direction to start walking," Twilight instructed, turning to Pinkie.
"Are you coming with us Pinkie?"
She shook her head, "No, I can't miss another day of work this month, and neither can Rainbow. We've spent our vacation days playing pranks on ponies," she admitted guiltily.
"Okay then Rarity, it's just you, me, and Blackfang now."
Tracing a quick map with a quill and parchment, Blackfang stood from the couch. "There's no time to lose, the faster we find the beast, the better chance we have of getting Spike back alive."
"I'll gather my things and meet you in the town square in half an hour," Rarity said forcefully, in a tone quite alien to the normally prim and proper pony.
"Come, Pinkie, you can help me pack," Rarity insisted, Pinkie bouncing happily beside her and out the door.
I had never wanted sleep more in my life. Cynder woke up with the sun, after what had to have been only thirty seconds of sleep. Maybe I was part pony; whatever part of ponies that liked to sleep in. I rubbed my eyes, and tried to force the grogginess from my body. We had a lot of walking to do, since I was keeping her from flying.
She said she didn't mind, but I knew better. Still, I was just grateful she didn't send me straight back to Ponyville. She let me sleep for five or twenty extra minutes until I smelled something I'd never forget. It was savory, and tempting, familiar, yet alien. She had lit a campfire, and was cooking meat over it.
Meat, oh glorious meat! I can't tell you how long I've waited to try some. As soon as I smelled it, I knew I had to try some. Maybe it was the calling of my ferocious dragon ancestors driving me to take part in my more primitive urges? Or maybe I was just really really hungry.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked over to her, as she held the leg of whatever creature had been unfortunate enough to cross paths with her that morning above the fire with her tail.
"Morning, sleepy head," she smiled. Whatever anger she held toward me for following her was now long gone.
"That smells amazing."
"Yeah, I figured you probably didn't get a lot of chances to eat something like this, living with a vegetarian and all," she said, looking at her cut of meat. "I think it's about done. How bout you start me off?" she asked, holding it out towards me.
I couldn't wait. I took a greedy bite (even by my standards) and began chewing. It was like a rainbow, wrapped in a thousand diamonds, topped with sprinkles of pure joy. I was kind of sad I had to swallow it, as I'd have loved to chew it for the rest of my life.
"Oh... Celestia, all the wasted years!" I shouted, getting a chuckle out of her. Seriously though, this stuff was amazing.
After I was done chewing, I had to know: "What was that?"
"Uh... I'm not sure what you call them here, but it was like a chicken snake or something."
"Wow, you're lucky it didn't turn you into stone! A cockatrice can do that, you know."
She nodded thoughtfully, taking a bite of the meat next to where I'd taken mine. After an amazing breakfast, I was feeling like a real dragon. But I was still pretty tired. I asked her for one of those red crystals, which she split with me.
Just like that, I was good to go! After trekking a bit through the rest of the Everfree forest, we came upon the beginning of the Hivelands. How did I know? Because the plants and stuff just kind of stopped. The Hivelands have a greenish haze about them, and the ground... well, let's just say if I could fly over it, I would have. It didn't even seem natural.
It was like some kind of alien landscape. Weird looking tentacle like plants stuck out from the blackened earth, as well as what looked like craters; some the size of my footprint, some big enough to swallow both of us! I imagine this is what the moon is like. In the distance, I could see what I'd guessed were hives. Huge structures, like the odd plants, only much bigger, with holes in seemingly random spots along their faces.
Luckily, I didn't see any changelings around, so I carefully took a foot out of the bushes and pressed it on the ground. It had some give, which was absolutely creepy, but other than that, it was solid. The haze limited our visibility to only a little bit in front of us, save for the towers in the distance.
No wonder nopony liked the changelings. Who would live in a giant... whatever when you could be living in a house?
"So we've got to get across this... place?" Cynder asked cautiously. I put on my brave face.
"You bet, but don't worry, I know my way around," I lied. I know I'd always been taught that honesty was the best policy, but telling her I had no idea whatsoever what may lay ahead would only stress her out. Besides, females want dragons who laugh in the face of danger, who scoff at death before spitting in his eye! If my comic books are to be believed, anyway.
I motioned for her to follow, and she slowly set foot on the strange ground.
"This doesn't feel right at all," she murmured, settling on all four claws before looking to me.
"See? Not so bad is it?" I was just as weirded out by the sensation of walking on what felt like a spongy trampoline, but I had to maintain a stoic expression. I imagined how Big Macintosh would handle the situation. He was pretty much the closest thing I've ever had to a male role model, even though he didn't talk much, and I barely ever got to hang out with him.
We began walking north across the Hivelands. It was suspiciously quiet. I'd only read about changelings, but I had never seen what one looked like. This is kinda embarrassing for me to admit, but when the changelings attacked Twilight's brother's wedding, I hid, or had my eyes closed most of the time. The description in the book said they were pony-like. It wasn't the 'pony' part I was afraid of.
How the heck can something be pony-like? It either is, or it isn't!
Or so I thought.
We had walked pretty far into changeling territory, avoiding coming too close with what I guessed were small hives. Every now and then the plant things sticking out of the ground would point towards us. Slowly, like they were accusing us of something. As we moved passed, they followed us until we were out of whatever range they could detect. It just added to the overall creepiness. Our footsteps echoed endlessly, despite the fact that there wasn't anything for the sound to reverberate against.
A whisper seemed like a shout against the still silence. Soon, that green haze I told you about surrounded us. The forest we'd come from was gone, and the sun was just a pinpoint in the sky. It was as though it was heavily overcast, though it had been sunny until we crossed into this place. Had we lost the sun, we could have been lost there forever.
"How much farther?" Cynder whispered, though again, it seemed way louder than it should have been.
I pulled out the map. The scale was on the bottom, and I'd been lucky to keep it intact during its removal from the atlas. I wasn't even thinking about distance at the time.
"Looks like maybe another mile. I think we can—"
A loud buzzing cut through the eerie quiet as both of us jumped in surprise.
"What is that?" she whispered, though I could barely hear it over the deafening noise of whatever that was.
"I don't know!" I shot back, seeing a black mass begin to form on the horizon to our right. "We need to hide!" I snapped, finding what looked like... in all honesty, a huge zit coming out of the ground. Seriously, this thing was like a bubble, except the liquid inside was yellow, or amber looking.
Anyway, we dove behind that thing, and I was careful not to touch it. I sure as hay didn't want whatever was in it to pop on me!
Peeking out from behind the zit, we watched the black cloud go by, only it wasn't a cloud. The buzzing grew louder, as I realized what we were seeing. It was a swarm of changelings!
Pony-like wasn't too much of a stretch but sweet Celestia were these things ugly. No wonder they changed forms, I know I wouldn't want to look like that if I could help it.
We kept our heads down as they passed by, not taking notice of us, thankfully. Upon closer inspection of our cover, I realized there was something suspended in the goo filling the thing we hid behind. It was a baby changeling, which meant this thing was an egg! Gross!
After the swarm had left, I heard a faint voice cry out.
It kind of sounded like Fluttershy, in the sense that it was high pitched, soft, and helpless. I couldn't make out the words at first, so I asked Cynder if she could.
"I hear it alright," she admitted, closing her eyes and listening. "Think you can tell where it's coming from?"
I listened as intently as I could, before pointing a claw north east.
"Should we try and help it?"
"What kind of dragons would we be if we didn't?" she asked.
With that, we set off to follow the voice. I just hoped she wouldn't stop calling before we reached her, because without her voice, we'd lose her in this dense green haze. I saw a white outline come through the mist, it looked like a pony! But what would a pony be doing way out here in changeling territory? Maybe they'd hurt her! This would be my first heroic deed (besides 'rescuing' Rarity from those Diamond Dogs) as a new dragon, I could feel it!
As we got closer, it seemed to be a unicorn! White, just like Rarity, though she had a lime green mane. I knew Rarity's feelings toward that particular color, but I thought it looked pretty good on this pony.
"Oh, thank goodness you found me!" she said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Green magic gathered at the tip of her horn, and enveloped her, wiping away her pony form instantly.
"I was getting so hungry!"
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821917
I actually saw those spiders on a documentary - they roll down sand mounds to escape predatation by scorpions. That's why I saw it as "meal denied".
Spike, Y U forget that everything in Changeling Territory is a trap?
He He He He, Dumb Dumb Dumb. There called CHANGElings for a reason spike. And Gullible Little Pony's so trusting, Twilight probably wouldn't of believed him so quickly If Spike wasn't involved.
962272 Nope.avi as well I think... Just for more confusion.
I've never really paid attention to spike but after reading this my first thought it
's a PLAYA! 
I imagined that the spongy material they were walking on was like Zerg creep. Were you inspired by that?
821763 That gif is the best thing I've ever seen.
MLP and Cynder from Spyro, eh? Huh. Intriguing...may partake in this, may not. I'll stick it on my Read Later list.
Spike realized how amazing meat tastes.Good for him.
I thought this was going to be a Dragon Tales crossover. I'm disappointed.
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I love Rarity's jealousy in this story. I keep expecting her at the end to take Spike and make sure Cynder doesn't try anything with him. Oh and
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963077 Y U NO READ DESCRIPTION?
962679
I was thinking the same thing.
962679 I've unfortunately never played whatever game that's from (starcraft?), so I can't say I was.
963327
The description was all I read. I was misled by the title.
is Blackfang an oc
Huh, so are they really just going to believe whatever this Blackfang says based on nothing more than his word? Hopefully once Twilight calms down she will start thinking skeptically.
963607Yeah, if you saw the post on EQD, then the part about it being a spyro crossover isn't mentioned. Also the title is too I suppose. I chose that title for the play on nostalgia, not thinking most would assume it's a dragon tales crossover.
963676 yeah i just remembered the apes from the games had names like that, so I just came up with one at random.
964278 when someone is telling you what you want to hear, you'd be surprised what you'll believe.
awesome
Wonderful story so far, as expected
964278
Hey, even I almost believed it.
twi. i am dissapoint
spike and cynder this is for you, please follow the instruction
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when will the next chapter be coming out? I NEED MORE!!!!!!!
wooooooooooooooooow :DDDD groooove !! pleas upload da next chap soon !!!!!
More. I need more. Please make more. More. More. MOAR! I'm waiting patiently for thy next chapter. But I'm running out of Dragonica Missions to fill in the time. I have enough missions for like a week of playing 5 hours daily. That's not very much. And I need some good crossfics. Your idea about dragon-fire being stronger while on all legs is very logical. It's the best crossfic I've ever read(except for one fall-out fic on ED; In my ranking of cross-fics that fic and your spikefic are on 1st place). Proceed to make more.
More!
972172 Seconded.
Will Spike become a Spyro style dragon?