Chapter 5: Dragalon, the Ancient Capital
Inside the sun, Midnight Darkscales was snarling in frustration.
“Something the matter, Darkscales?” Lumin asked simply, easily hiding his smile from what he saw on the viewing screen before his tainted brother decided to return.
“”You may think you’ve won, Lumin, but it’s not over until it’s over!” Darkscales spat angrily, pacing back and forth in front of the chained Lumin. “The descendants of the old Night Guard may have failed, but I’ll stop your precious heroes yet! And I know just how to do it! They’re about to enter the ancient capital, and we both know what’s inside there.”
Darkscales warped away again, and Lumin bowed his head, closed his eyes and began to pray, “Gwynnia, Mother of all dragons, and thy husband, the Father of all dragons, whose name has been lost to history, please, watch over them and allow them to prevail.”
After travelling for a few more minutes without anything happening, the group of six Dragoons and one Unicorn filly stopped, gazing in slight awe.
They stood at the edge of an impossibly high wall, ancient but sturdy, that ringed what they assumed was a city. They couldn’t see much above the wall beyond the crumbling turrets of some distant towers. Before them was an imposing gate built into the wall, a bipedal machine made out of some kind of ancient metal standing to the right of the gates. Its blue eyes dimly glowed, slumped over with a hole in its chest that looked as if it was supposed to hold something.
“That’s weird,” Timidwings muttered. “When I was here before, the gates were open.”
“Let’s push ‘em back open, then!” Apple Slice suggested.
All seven nodded, and they all slammed their full body weights against the gate, but it didn’t budge, no matter how hard they pushed. After trying for a few minutes, the Dragoons and filly slumped to the ground, panting for breath and nursing bruises.
“Wait,” Prism Slash said, holding up a claw from his position on the ground. “This may be a city with a wall, but no wall is tall enough to keep me out! I’ll fly over it and open the gate from the inside!”
“Wait, I don’t think that’s going to—” Nightfall began before Prism flew into the air and tried to swoop into the ancient city, only to slam into an invisible barrier and slide down the bubble of magic all the way to the ground. “—work.”
“So, how do we get inside, then?” Wishful asked, confused, while Prism lay groaning at the base of the wall.
Everygon else shrugged except for Extraordinaire, who held up a talon and exclaimed, “Inspiration! I‘ve got an idea! Why don’t we just ask him?”
The white Dragoon pointed at the slumped over machine, and the other six all responded with, “What?”
“I’d love to make a friend out of him,” Goody said, “But he looks… broken.”
“Oh, come on!” the metalworker and tailor said, stomping a foot in impatience. “We won’t know until we try! Maybe he just needs to be charged up!”
Streams of blue magic energy flowed from Extraordinaire’s horns into the machine. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, before their eyes, the machine began to come to life, slowly beginning to stand up. It wobbled slightly, before drawing itself up to a slightly hunched position, about ten feet high as it stood, about two feet taller than an average fully-grown Dragoon standing upright on his hind legs.
“W-WELCOME TO-TO DRA-DRAGALON,” the machine said, its eyes still dim. “I AM THE-THE GATEKEEPER-ER, ADA-ADA-ADAMANT.”
“Could you please open the gate for us, Adamant?” Extraordinaire requested calmly, his companions standing behind him, looking rather dumbstruck. Except Prism, but he was too busy wincing in pain to be surprised.
“NEG-NEG-NEGATIVE,” Adamant said with a shake of its head that rather resembled a twitch. “INTER-INTER-INTERNAL MAGIC SUP-SUPPLY LACKS REQUI-REQUIRED CHANNELING GEM. I AM UNA-UNABLE TO COMPLY.”
“Hmm…” the clothes designer murmured, deep in thought, tapping a talon to his chin. “Is it because there’s nothing in the compartment in your chest?”
“AFFIRM-AFFIRMATIVE,” Adamant replied with a jerky nod. “FUN-FUNCT-FUNCTIONALITY IS LI-LIMITED WITHOUT A DIA-DIA-DIAMOND CORE. PRE-PREVIOUS CORE WAS STO-STOLEN BY A BLA-BLACK ULTI-ULTIMA DRA-DRAGON.”
Extraordinaire thought for a bit longer, then without hesitation reached into his own bag, pulling out a sparkling diamond cut into a shape with so many facets, it was very close to a sphere.
“But, you were going to use that in your next design!” Timidwings squeaked in surprise. “You’ve been hyping up that diamond for months!”
Ignoring his companions, the white Dragoon took a breath, held the diamond in his claw and stepped close enough to Adamant so the mechanical gatekeeper’s dim eyes could get a better look at what he was holding.
“Will this do?” he asked, a small hint of reluctance in his voice.
“AFFIRM-AFFIRMATIVE,” the machine replied with a nod. “PLEASE PLACE THE N-NEW CORE IN THE CHAM-CHAMBER IN MY CHE-CHEST.”
Nodding in response, Extraordinaire placed the diamond in the open compartment in Adamant’s chest. The compartment closed after he withdrew his claw, and a whirring sound could be heard coming from inside the gatekeeper. Suddenly, the blue eyes lit up brightly, darkened grooves all over the machine glowed blue, and it drew itself up to its full height of fourteen feet, towering over the entire group.
“MY FUNCTIONALITY HAS BEEN RESTORED,” Adamant announced, its voice stronger and no longer stuttering, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR SELFLESS ACT, SIR. I SHALL NOW OPEN THE GATES TO DRAGALON. WELCOME.”
Adamant’s eyes turned green for a couple seconds, and a whirring and clanking of gears could be heard from inside the wall. The gates slowly swung open with a rusty creak, followed by the lifting of a portcullis, and the group of seven all nodded in gratitude to Adamant before approaching the gates.
“But you were hyping that diamond for so long!” Timidwings whispered as they walked through the gateway. “You only had that one, and it could take a long time to get another one!”
“I’m well aware of that, my good friend,” the tailor said, shrugging his shoulders. “But I can always get another one, even if it takes years.”
“Yes!” Slash cheered, pumping a fist into the air as he walked through the gates. “We’re in!”
With that, the seven of them entered the city, the broken cobblestone streets brightly lit by moonlight once they were out of the shadow of the trees. The city was massive, from what they could tell. It was a massive ruin, though.
Crumbling buildings stood everywhere, a shadow of their former selves. Once-proud, towering houses were but a shell of their ancient grandeur, riddled with cracks and holes in the limestone walls, and choked by creeping ivy and morning glory vines. From the other side of the wall, they could tell the parapets, though imposing from the other side, were still crumbling and weathered. Even the streets, the most lasting part of any dragon city, were clearly marred and damaged by the passing of time, their cobbles worn smooth—and not by trodding feet.
The city was built sloping upwards, as the seven of them could tell by their breath getting more labored as they explored. Accordingly, buildings became taller as they got closer towards the heart of the city, giving them the impression of being trapped inside an enormous, decrepit maze. But finally, they emerged into the midst of a great plaza, the center of it a tall hill, looming over the surrounding city.
“That’s the Ancient Palace, isn’t it?” Nightfall asked Timidwings, pointing to the tall and wide structure on the central hill. It stood on the very top, the parapets and towers outlined against the night sky. A wide chasm ringed the base of the hill, fenced off on the opposite side by a high wall, and spanned by a drawbridge directly across from the center of the plaza, where the seven of them stood.
“I’m positive,” Timidwings replied with a nod. “That has to be it.”
“See any other giant, imposing buildings on hills that look like palaces?” Prism snarked.
“I can sense another force field over the castle,” Nightfall replied, closing his eyes for a moment, “But the drawbridge is down and should allow us entrance.”
As soon as he finished saying that, a clinking sound came from the castle, and all seven gasped when the drawbridge started to rise.
“We’ve come so far, but we’re too late!” Extraordinaire wailed. “So close!”
“Don’t count us out yet,” Slash said, rolling his eyes at the white Dragoon’s histrionics. “I’m the fastest flier there is, and I’ll prove it! Watch!”
With that, he took to the air and zoomed towards the closing entrance, making it inside right before the drawbridge finished rising.
Prism found himself in what looked like a guardroom above the gate, small arrow slits the only view out into the city. While looking around for the crank to operate the drawbridge, Slash could hear his friends calling out to him from the other side of the chasm, though they were barely visible through the arrow slits.
“Slash?” Nightfall’s voice called out. “Did you make it inside?”
“Of course I did!” The multi-colored Dragoon replied. “Did you really expect anything less?” Spying the crank to operate the drawbridge, he added, “I found what lowers the drawbridge! Give me a minute, and I’ll get it down for you guys!”
Cheering could be heard from outside, but right as Slash started to turn the crank, a voice called out to him from inside the guardroom.
“Prism Slash,” the voice called out, low but recognizably female.
“Wait! Who’s there?” Prism exclaimed, turning around and quickly moving into a defensive posture. “Show yourself!”
“Gladly,” the voice replied, and three Fairy Dragons in midnight blue aerodynamic flight outfits emerged from the shadows: two Dragoons and one Dragoness, who happened to be the one who spoke before. “We’ve been watching you for a long time, Prism Slash,” the Dragoness said, her tone both impressed and just a tad creepy.
“Um, Slash?” Wishful’s voice called from outside, sounding impatient. “Could you hurry up and get the drawbridge down?”
“I’m on it!” Slash replied, slowly turning back to work the crank as he conversed with the Dragoness. “So, you’ve been watching me. Lots of dragons do that. I’m hard to ignore. What about it?”
“We’ve noticed how your many attempts to join the Shatterbursts have ended in rejection,” one of the Dragoons said, sounding almost unnaturally disappointed. “They seem to have no appreciation for your incredible speed and skill.”
“But we appreciate it,” the other Dragoon added with a hint of pride. “We’re a stunt team who will be even greater than the Shatterbursts. We are… the Shadowbursts.”
“Huh. Funny; I know every stunt team, and I’ve never heard of you guys,” Prism said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “Why have I never heard of you before, if you’re supposed to rival the Shatterbursts?”
“Because we’ve only been practicing for a short while, though we’ve been around for a long time,” the Dragoness said, cutting off any response from the other two. “We’ve been missing one vital element for our success: you. Without you, we won’t impress anygon. But with you as our captain, we’ll become the greatest stunt team in history.”
“Hey, sign me up then!” Slash grinned. “Just let me finish lowering this drawbridge first, and you’ve got a deal!”
Nightfall flew up to an arrow slit to see what was taking so long, and gasped when he saw who Slash was talking to.
“Prism Slash! Don’t listen to them!” he shouted, hovering eye-level with the arrow slit.
“We’ve no time for that,” the Dragoness said with a shake of her head, moving towards the arrow slit to block Nightfall from view. “We have our debut performance in two days. We need you to become our captain right now so we can begin rehearsing immediately.”
Prism Slash looked between the Dragoness and the crank, looking thoughtful for a moment before glancing over at the Dragoness again, his eyes determined. “In that case…” He shrugged and shook his head before returning to the crank, turning it much faster than before, “I’ll have to turn you down. Sorry, but my friends are counting on me to do this, and I can’t just abandon them. No dice.”
Cheers came from outside again, but they were cut short as Prism felt the Dragoness and the two Dragoons grab him in their claws and started trying to pull him away from the crank.
“We need you,” the Dragoness said sternly, tugging harshly at his tail. “And if you won’t join us willingly… well, we have other ways to get you to see things our way.”
“Hey, I said no!” Slash growled, holding tightly to the crank by his front legs while still managing to turn it to keep lowering the drawbridge. “Can’t you guys take a hint?”
“You no longer have any say in the matter,” the Dragoness said harshly as Slash started to lose his grip on the crank due to the two Dragoons pulling so hard on his hind legs. “You’re coming with us.”
“No. Means. NO!” Slash roared before charging his breath weapon, turning his head back towards them, and firing the seven sonic projectiles again. The projectiles impacted each of his would-be kidnappers with at least two sonic booms right against their scales, knocking them back a few feet and releasing him in the process. Charging up again, Slash fired seven more projectiles, exploding in a burst of prismatic light and driving the Shadowbursts back.
Slash started to get into a rhythm of alternating between turning the crank and repelling his assailants with his sonic breath weapon, until the drawbridge was all the way down and the Shadowbursts fled, nursing injuries from his onslaught of attacks.
“Told ya I’d get it done,” Prism called out, flying down from the guardroom to the middle of the drawbridge as his friends crowded around him. “Now, let’s find the Components!”
After flying far enough away, the three Shadowbursts merged together and reformed into Midnight Darkscales, who was absolutely seething with rage. No, he was not happy about getting beaten by one Fairy Dragoon with too much attitude and an inability to just follow the commands of strange, suspicious dragons.
“Fine, you’ve made it this far, puny dragons,” he snarled, “but this is where I draw the line. I’m done playing with you. This ends now!”
With that, he teleported away. He found himself in a chamber with five orbs on pedestals. He stared at them for a moment, before he broke into a wicked, toothy grin. “The Components. Intact as they were so long ago... but not for long.” But when he tried to touch one, he felt a shock run through his body, and was forced back by a protective barrier that he immediately realized would repel his magic, too.
Trying a different approach, Darkscales growled and punched the pedestal beneath the orb with enough force to shatter steel, but he was only rewarded with a solid thunk and a throbbing claw, snarling in pain as he realized he could do nothing to destroy the Components yet.
Once he had managed to curb his growing frustration, Darkscales turned into his blue and red nebulous form again and hid in a dark corner, waiting.
After searching the remains of the castle for long enough, the group of seven stumbled into a massive chamber, strewn with bits of rubble. The walls were crumbling, the floor was cracked but still holding, and the roof in that area was completely gone, exposing the room to the night sky. By the moonlight, they could see five stone orbs on pedestals in the center of the room, looking as if they’d been untouched for centuries.
“This must be where they fought, isn’t it?” Prism Slash breathed in amazement, looking up at the destroyed ceiling and noting the scorch marks on the walls. Noticing the pedestals, he yelled, “Hey! Five orbs! I bet that’s them!”
Spurred on by excitement, the seven of them formed a circle around the center of the room, gazing at the pedestals and the orbs they held with wonder. Wishful, Nightfall and Extraordinaire tried to levitate them down, but the magic was absorbed.
“I guess we have to actually carry them down, then?” Timidwings suggested.
In response, everygon but Nightfall took to the air and grabbed one of the orbs, setting them down in front of Nightfall.
“Let’s see,” the bookish Dragoon muttered, studying the orbs in front of him as if they were a puzzle to decipher. “The book said that when the five are assembled and a spark is applied, the sixth will appear. I can sense the energy in them, so I’ll try magic! That’s gotta be what the term ‘spark’ refers to.”
The others waited as Nightfall charged up his magic breath, his horns glowing a deep purple as a magic amplification spell was applied to the energy in his mouth. Instead of firing just a ball of the energy, though, he breathed a continuous stream of violet energy on the orbs, which started to shimmer and hover a few inches above the ground.
“Something’s happening to them!” Prism Slash whispered reverently.
“But why isn’t the sixth showing up?” Wishful asked in confusion, her brow furrowed.
“I’ll tell you why,” a voice chuckled from the shadows, deep and reverberating, as Midnight Darkscales emerged from a shadowy corner, staring down at the seven with a haughty smirk. “He lacks true power! Without it, he’ll never awaken the sixth! And, just to make sure you can’t try getting enough power to accomplish that…
“I’ll take those!” Darkscales shouted as the Components were warped into the grip of his claws. “I was going to destroy them before, but apparently my brother left a protective field on them that repelled all magic, and even my own touch as long as they remained on those pedestals. So you have my eternal gratitude, Lumin’s little warriors. You’ve come so far, only to be beaten in the end. Now, I bid you farewell.”
Darkscales changed into a blue and red nebula and sped through the castle until the dragons lost track of him. The six dragons stood by the pedestals still, in various degrees of shock. Timidwings was practically frozen, hidden under his wings. Prism was just gaping up at the night sky, silent and incredulous. Goody had taken the corner as his own, hunched over and muttering to himself, “This has to be a bad dream… when I open my eyes, they’ll be right here.” He blinked, then his face broke into a frown. “Darn it. They’re still not here…”
Apple Slice was just shaking his head, his mind already having registered what just happened but not wanting to accept it, while Extraordinaire paced back and forth across the chamber, ignoring the rest of them and looking to be somewhere between an over-the-top breakdown and quiet despair. Nightfall himself was just practically catatonic, unblinking and unmoving. His brain had apparently decided to shut down halfway through processing “Assignment Failed”, “Midnight Darkscales has the Components,” and “I’m never going to see Lord Lumin again.”
However, Wishful Legend stared at a certain tower, her gaze steely, and announced, “I can go after him.” The others started to snap out of their state of shock, with all of them, especially Nightfall, looking at her as if she’d just suggested she go cliff diving onto sharp rocks. “No, before you say anything, listen, please, I can teleport anything to anywhere or anygon, so long as I know what that being or place feels like. This includes teleporting myself. Nightfall, use the tracing spell you’ve used to find me when we’ve been separated in the past to follow me. I’ll teleport to him, and you follow my signal.”
“No,” Nightfall said immediately, shaking his head firmly. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Wishful Legend blinked tears from her eyes and said in an undertone to herself, “I guess you really still are my daddy after all. But this is the only way.” Fighting down a lump in her throat, she walked over to Nightfall and pulled him into a tight hug, clinging to him as if it was the last time she could, “Ni—I mean, Daddy… if I don’t survive this, remember that I still love you as if you were my real father,” she whispered.
Nightfall attempted to choke out a response, but nothing came out. He remained silent for a minute or so, returning the hug as hard as he could without hurting her, blinking back tears of his own. His little girl was going to probably sacrifice herself, just to get the Components back. He… he didn’t want to believe it. He didn’t want to imagine the little filly he had raised getting herself hurt or worse because he couldn’t figure out the Components in time. But… it seemed she was their only hope. He felt so helpless admitting it, but Wishful… well, she didn’t know what she was getting into, he thought. But she was still so devoted, so brave, if foolish, that he couldn’t help but feel proud of her. “Very well,” Nightfall whispered back with a firm nod as she released him, “I can’t keep you a little filly forever. I love you as if you were my real daughter.” He looked at her with a proud, if slightly sad smile. “Go get him, Daddy’s little girl.”
Wishful nodded, and with a brilliant flash of green light, she vanished. Nightfall took a breath, then activated his tracing spell and found that she was above them, in the highest tower. “Let’s follow her, guys!” Nightfall ordered, his resolve renewed once more. “I’ll lead!”
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Hey there. Thanks again for getting the next chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Excellent job, of course, on the exchanges, emotional content, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. As I said before, I love how well you combine faithfulness to the source material with your own touches (particularly Nightfall's Papa Wolf moments) to make it an even better story.
I'll definitely be looking forward to more of this as soon as time and inspiration will allow.
6949881 Thanks so much for the comment! A lot of hard work has gone into every chapter, and I'm glad you're still loving this fic. We're almost at the end (for this fic, anyway), so get ready for some awesome content when chapter 6 comes along!
6950056 You are quite welcome. :-D
Great chapter. I loved the Daddy part in there.
6950619 Thanks. I really wanted to establish that they have a father-daughter style relationship, and I hope I got that point across with that scene. That, and it was meant to spread lots of feels.
6950652 well. I feel the feels
6950670 Mission accomplished, then.
Oh my Luna the feels are so great. this is so worth my time.
6951694 Mission accomplished! Welcome to the feels club!