endgame part 1
Spike’s head throbbed in pain through the darkness. It felt like somepony had taken a sledgehammer to his head, this was almost as bad as the aftermath of that apple cider bender he went on last year.
Spike was in a bed, he could gather that much from the limited amount of information that his brain could process at the moment...how long had he been out?
Prying his eyes open, the baby dragon surveyed his overall surroundings; he was in a rather elegant looking room made out of crystal with him sitting in the equally elegant bed.
It wasn’t his room in the friendship castle so by process of elimination that meant he must have ended up in the Crystal Empire but…
How did he get here?
The last thing he remembered was….odd, there was some kind of haze covering the last few weeks that was covering everything.
Spike pressed his hands to his temples to try and sooth his major headache, only to grow confused when he felt cloth instead of scales. The baby dragon stumbled over to the vanity and saw that he had a medical bandage wrapped around his head, the bandage slightly reddened around his forehead from blood.
Spike touched a claw to it and then everything rushed back like a river bursting from a broken dam: leaving Ponyville, The Castle of Two Sisters, the Baltimare incident, the fight in Appleloosa, breaking his friends out of Canterlot, getting shot out of the sky, falling off a cliff in the Frozen North, and then everything going black..
“I must have landed somewhere near the Crystal Empire after the fall, the crystal guard must have taken me in. But if I’m here then that means-” a worried gasp caught Spike’s attention and he looked over to see a female unicorn crystal pony in a nurse’s uniform with an expression of great concern.
“Oh dear! You shouldn’t be out of bed in your condition! You need as much rest as possible!” said mare, picking him up in her magic and gently lowering him back into the bed.
“I’m fine.” said Spike as he thrashed in the unicorn’s grip, but his protests fell on deaf ears.
“Spike the brave and glorious, you may be a hero to all of us but you still need rest.” said the unicorn “now I will be back in a few minutes with some nice hot soup for you. Don’t go anywhere.”
Spike huffed in frustration as he fell back down on the bed “great. I’m being babied again. Like always. The Noble Dragon’s probably think I’m dead too...which means I’ll probably never get to see the Vlemm Enclave or my parents.” tears began to well up in Spike’s eyes
“It’s not fair…I finally had somewhere I could belong, truly belong. And Twilight took it away from me! Why couldn’t she have just left me alone? I would have come back eventually, it’s not like they wouldn’t have seen me ever again. Why can’t I just have what I want for a change?”
“Because what you want isn’t always what you need.” said a familiar voice.
Spike sat back up and was shocked to see Starlight standing there with a piping hot bowl of gem soup in her hoof.
“Starlight? What are you...how long have you been standing there?” asked Spike
“Long enough.” said the unicorn, handing Spike the bowl. “Here, you must be starved.”
Spike looked down at the stew, a mix of rubies and emeralds floating in the orange mix, it did smell pretty good. He took a small sip, before quickly becoming addicted to the flavor and greedily scarfing down the entire bowl.
“Thanks Starlight” Spike said, wiping away the soup dribbling of his chin “I haven’t eat since yesterday and- wait….they’re here aren’t they?”
“Who?”
“Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. You came with them didn’t you?” Spike deadpanned.
“Well...yeah, they did. They hopped the first train here when they found out you were still alive.” Starlight said
Spike put a hand to his forehead and groaned “they are the last ponies I want to see right now!”
“But Spike, they just care about you!” Starlight protested.
“I know that! Don’t think for a second that I don’t! Did any of you actually read what my letter said or did you all just immediately panic when I was gone?”
Starlight fiddled with her hooves “well now that you mention it, they really didn’t seem to care about what it said, they just wanted to get you back. I did read it though, that’s why I never came after you.”
“Then why are you doing it now? I know you didn’t come here just to make sure I was okay after I hit my head.” said Spike
“How did that happen anyway?” asked Starlight.
“Don’t change the subject Starlight.”
“Well spike, I started to feel guilty. If I had been with them in Baltimare or Appleloosa or Canterlot then maybe things wouldn’t have played out the way they did, I felt like by taking your letter seriously that I had actually ended up causing more harm than good. I know you’re not a baby, well not on the inside, and I should respect your decisions but when those decisions don’t seem to be the right ones, that’s when I should get involved.” explained Twilight’s protege.
“Well you should know that I didn’t want any of this either.” said Spike “I left because I wanted to become stronger so I could protect all of you, so I could have a family for once, that’s why I looked the other way for so long, ‘the ends would justify the means’. But as things spun out of control I realized that I was actually hurting all the creatures I cared about because I refused to do anything; but by then it was too late, we had gone too far and there was no turning back. I hate all that we’ve had to do up until this point but we didn’t have plenty of options, by being so relentless the noble dragons had to resort to drastic measures to keep me safe.”
“That doesn’t excuse what they’ve done.”
“I know it doesn’t, but all of it has only been because they’ve got so much riding on me right now, because they care about me a lot.” replied Spike
“Wait what do you mean they’ve got a lot riding on you?” asked Starlight.
Spike quickly hopped out of bed and cracked open the door ever so slightly to make sure nopony was listening in; seeing an empty hallway, spike shut the door and locked it.
Turning back towards Starlight, the baby dragon said “you might want to sit down for this, it’s actually pretty big.”
*************************
Griffith stomped through the snow at the base of the mountain, having lost sight of the rest of his allies hours ago.
At first sign of daylight the next morning all the Paragons, Saphria and Yam included as they had recovered from their injuries and were brought up to speed on current events, had organized themselves into search parties to scour the mountain for any trace of Artair and give him medical attention if necessary. He had convinced the others to let himself strike out on his own since he’d be able to cover twice as much ground with a tracking device he had built overnight.
But that was a lie, the device in question was nothing more than a broken father box duct taped to a door handle. The truth was he never intended to look for Artair in the first place, if he took into account the force of Artair’s fall and combined in with the bitter cold snow and his likely head injury then his older brother was likely already dead; Griffith couldn’t handle digging up his brother’s frozen corpse after all he’s done so far.
The guilt on his conscious was crushing him body and soul, he had cut ties with the only thing he had left in the world right now and then sent him to his death by pushing him away in anger. To make things worse he has indirectly doomed millions of innocent creatures, including that of his own clan, to a slow and painful death when the prophecy came to fruition with no hero to stop armageddon. But worse of all he had lashed out at his family, the group of people who would love and care about him unconditionally until the day they died, and he had gone back on that unspoken promise over things that, in hindsight, would have been easily replaceable.
Suicide wasn’t an option, killing himself would only bring his parents further grief by losing both of their children in such a tragic way, so there was only one honorable path he could take to pay for his mistakes: self-exile. Griffith would disappear into obscurity, living in the shadows for the remainder of his days, drifting from place to place like the lost soul he now was.
He couldn’t tell his friends, they wouldn’t understand, try to make him stay with them but he couldn’t allow them too; they deserved a friend much better than him and so did the Vlemm Enclave. Not that it mattered much anyway, in a few years everybody would be dead anyways and it would all be his fault.
Right now his currently plan was to get to the bottom of the mountain and then figure things out from there; he couldn’t go to Everfree, too close to civilization and he’d never be able to hack it in the forbidden jungle, maybe the Badlands would be his best bet, plenty of places to hide and enough abandoned scrap to build all the supplies he would need, then again he could always just live at sea….
His train of thought came to a screeching halt when he passed by a large city that had seemed to spring up out of nowhere, an oasis of warmth in the otherwise frozen landscape. It was glorious, the entire place was made of crystal that glistened in the morning sunlight and spanned for what seemed like eternity, in the center was a magnificent castle of pure diamond that rivaled even Fafnir’s keep back on the Vlemm Enclave.
Griffith knew that despite the overall awe-inspiring appearance of the city, he should have kept moving and focus on his self-inflicted punishment but found himself oddly drawn to the location, as if something was willing him there. His feet turned and began to move almost on their own, bringing him in the direction of the crystalized city.
‘What is it about this place? I feel like I want to be here, like I need to. But why?’ Griffith thought to himself.
He only had made it about two blocks in before being spotted by one of the guards, impressive considering how much he stood out amongst the crystal ponies.
“Halt, state your business.” said one of them, flying down in front of the dragon to block his path.
“I-I don’t know, something about this city fills me with a sense of deep longing.” Griffith explained almost breathlessly.
The second guard squinted at Griffith, studying his features, before his eyes widened in realization.
“Wait a second, this is one of the dragons Princess Twilight told us to keep a look out for!”
Grififth sighed, of course Princess Twilight would have put out a notice for him and the other paragons, they had done a lot of awful stuff after all. Griffith could have fought them, could have run away from this place, but what would have been the point? He had nothing left, no friends, no family, no gadgets, nothing but his freedom and honestly he didn’t even deserve that.
So he did the only thing he could do, to the absolute surprise of both of the crystal guards, Griffith got down onto his knees in front of them and held up his only remaining arm in a show of submission.
“Screw it, just do whatever you want to me I don’t care anymore.” said the mechanic with utter defeat in his tone “I won’t resist.”
“Wait is this some sort of trick?” asked the crystal guard.
“This is no trick, you ponies have taken everything I have left so there’s no more reasons for me to fight, I give up.” replied Griffith.
The guards looked at each other, trying to figure out if this dragon was lying or not but he seemed pretty sincere, sad almost.
The first guard stepped forward and forced Griffith’s arm behind his back, lifting him to his feet and placing handcuffs on him with one loop being clasped around his belt.
“Let’s take him to Princess Twilight, she’ll know what to do with him.” said the guard as they started leading Griffith through the streets of the Crystal Empire.
‘I deserve this’ Griffith thought to himself ‘this is my penance.’
*******************************
“And that’s why they’ve been trying so hard to get me to the Vlemm Enclave, I’m their destined savior Starlight, whether we like it or not.” Spike finished.
Starlight just sat there in silence, her mind was doing complete backflips as it was nearly torn in half by her conflicting feelings.
Sure the Noble Dragons were by no means perfect angels, they had done a lot of awful things over the past few weeks and caused a lot of damage; but after hearing what they had to lose, what Spike was really worth to them, it all made sense why the acted so rashley, but there was still something that didn’t make sense to her.
“So why couldn’t they just have told us? If we knew that you meant so much to them we would have let you go.” Said Starlight
“Starlight, I would expect you of all ponies to understand how stubborn Twilight can be. She would have fought tooth and nail to keep me from leaving, using every underhanded tactic she could to undermine the Noble Dragons; the rest of her friends would have done the same. They did it during the dragon migration, they did it during the gauntlet of fire, they would have done it now.” Said Spike “all because they think I’m a baby, no matter what I do I’ll always just be the sidekick, the little brother of the group, the tagalong to their adventures. I had a chance to become something more than a weak baby dragon, to become a hero all my own, to step out of your shadows and to stand by your side in the light. Now it’s ruined, I hope you’re all happy, at least nopony else is going to get hurt anymore.”
Spike looked down dejectedly.
Starlight paused for a moment, here she was to try and convince Spike that what he and his friends had been doing was wrong only to find that he had been filled to the brim with regret.
“You really wanted to go with them didn’t you?” said Starlight
“More than anything.”
“Even if it meant leaving us?”
Spike hesitated “well...yeah, don’t get me wrong. You guys are almost like family to me, we’ve been together through thick and thin but….the chance to have a REAL family, one that would love and cherish me in a way you guys just can’t, that’s something I wouldn’t pass up for anything in the world.”
Starlight gave a tired smile in response “well if it really means that much to you….then I’ll try my best to convince the girls to let you go.”
Spike looked back up at the unicorn “but what if the Noble Dragons think I’m dead?”
“If they care as much about you as you say they do then they’re probably still looking for you as we speak.”
Spike chuckled “well then I guess it’s only fair that I convince them to not fight you guys, if and when they show up.”
“Sounds like a deal” replied Starlight, shaking Spike’s claw with her hoof.
“You know you would have made a great school counselor.” said Spike
“What?”
“I’m serious, you always know what to say. How to break down ponies’ problems into manageable sizes, talk ponies down from crisis. You probably could have gotten your cutie mark in it.”
“Pfft, yeah right.” said Starlight “the day I become a school counselor is the day I eat one of my kites”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Spike said in a joking tone “by the way I was wondering, why were you the only one to come in here? I thought the rest of the girls would have stormed in right away.”
“Oh that. Well when we got here Cadence said you were still out cold and shouldn’t be disturbed, so while everypony else was sitting around waiting for one of the servants to tell us you were awake I started wandering around to keep myself occupied, I haven’t gotten a chance to really take a tour of the place since I was too busy trying to save the Crystal Empire last time I was here. By pure luck I ran into a nurse pony who was bringing you hot soup and I insisted on delivering it to you so I could be the first one to talk to you, I figured that it would be better for a pony like me to talk to you one on one instead of being completely swarmed by the other girls.” explained Starlight. “Speaking of which, I wonder if that nurse pony has told them yet?”
Right at that very moment, a thundering sound of multiple hooves thumping against the crystal floors started to resonate from down the hall and was quickly growing louder.
“You had to say it didn’t you?” Spike said.
The door was literally knocked off it’s hinges as the Mane Six stampeded into the room, shoving Starlight away from the bed rather rudely as they huddled around Spike.
“Spikey Wikey! You’re okay!”
“Don’t ever scare us like that again squirt!”
“Oh it’s so wonderful to have you back!”
The Elements of Harmony quickly drowned each other out in a cacophony of joyous tears and comments of relief at having Spike back safe and sound.
However the baby dragon wasn’t nearly as pleased as the rest of them were about recent developments.
“Alright, alright I know you’re all happy to see me again but-”
Twilight never gave the baby dragon a chance to finish, she lunged towards Spike and wrapped him in a tight hug.
“Oh Spike, I promise I’ll never let anything like this happen ever again!” Twilight said through sobs “I’ll see if I can convince Celetia to give you your own royal guard battalion, to protect you if something like this happens again!”
“Twilight I-”
“Don’t worry spike, I know what you’re about to say….and I will personally make sure that all of those ‘Noble Dragons’ are hunted down, they need to pay for what they did to us, to you!” said Twilight.
“But twilight-”
“And when we get home you can have the whole week off, the whole month if you want! Starlight can take care of all your duties!”
“Wait what?! Don’t I get a say in this?!” said Starlight
“TWILIGHT LISTEN!” Spike shouted, but even that wasn’t enough to get their attention as they continued to ignore his attempts at protest as they all babbled about the various things they would do for him once they arrived back in Ponyville.
Throwing himself against the pillow when Twilight released him from the hug, Spike let out a frustrated sigh; this is exactly why he left in the first place, he kept getting babied by everypony, acting like he was a child beneath them, never seeing him as a creature that was equal to them, and if it wasn’t that it was almost like he was the designated punching bag. He had a chance, finally an opportunity to change that but of course it had to be taken away from him, like a lot of things.
‘Well it was nice while it lasted’ thought Spike, mulling over the last few weeks ‘at least nopony else is going to get hurt because of me.’
The whole reunion was broken apart when a crystal guard pony came galloping into the room through the door frame “Princess Twilight, the crystal guard has requested your presence in the main lobby, along with all of your friends, immediately”
“What? Why?” asked Twilight
“Princess, we’ve captured one of the Noble Dragons.”
That certainly got the girls attention.
“Y-ya found one of them?!” sputtered applejack
“More like he found us, based on the reports he walked right into the Crystal Empire and surrendered almost immediately.” the guard explained. “No fight left in him at all.”
“He’s probably trying to trick us again like last time, whatever you do don’t let your guard down.” said Twilight before addressing the rest of her friends “Starlight you stay here and keep watch over Spike while the rest of us question the prisoner. We can’t risk them getting the drop on us again”
With that, The Elements of Harmony cleared out of the room; leaving behind a baby dragon and a former villain.
“No.” Spike said in disbelief “that isn’t possible, the Noble Dragons would never….it’s not over is it?”
Spike turned to Starlight.
“They’re going to do something stupid aren’t they? More creatures are going to end up hurt because of me!” Spike shouted.
“I don’t know Spike” replied Starlight “all we can do now is hope that everything works out.”
*********************************
When the Mane Six walked into the main lobby of the crystal castle, they had expected to see a Noble Dragon in a straightjacket, chained up from head to toe, being held down by at least seven guards.
What they ended up getting was a Noble Dragon sitting on his knees, missing an arm, and the only restraints on him were a set of handcuffs around his remaining limb. The guard was right, there wasn’t any fight left in him at all; in fact the only acknowledgement he gave to their entrance was a brief glance before his gaze turned back to the floor.
“You!” shouted Rainbow Dash, making Griffith flinch, “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here after what you’ve done!”
The tinkerer remained silent, avoiding eye contact with his captors, maintaining his defeated pose.
“What? No comeback, no cocky reply?” said Rainbow Dash, jamming her muzzle into Griffith’s face. “Come on, I thought you were some tough ‘Noble Dragon’.”
Griffith still didn’t give a response, not a single peep.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes “are you trying to pull something? Huh? Dragon mind trick or-”
“Please, shut up.” said Griffith, his tone blank and depressed. “Just do whatever you’re gonna do and get it over with.”
The mares were taken aback by his comment, there was no rebellion, no cocky demeanor, no trace of his previous attitude in his voice, it was just a cold emptiness.
Twilight was the next one to approach him “you actually came to surrender?”
“No, I came to atone for the sins I’ve committed.” Griffith replied “and no I’m not referring to what I’ve done to any of you. Sure I’ve felt a little guilty for causing so much trouble but it was always for good reason; no, what I’m paying for is much worse than any of that.”
“Dare I ask?”
Griffith looked up at the princess with a glare “you really wanna know? Fine, I’ve got nothing left to lose anyway. After you caused me to lose my arm and my ship, two inventions that were extremely precious to me, I was very upset and turned into a powder keg ready to blow; unfortunately Artair ended up being the one to light the fuse, I said some things to him I regretted, caused him to walk off from the group with Dylan, when Dylan returned he informed everybody that Artair had fallen off a cliff face and was lost in the snow, we couldn’t search for him because of the storm and by now I am almost certain he’s perished. So not only did I indirectly snuff out the Noble Dragon clan’s last hope for survival but I cast my older brother out when he needed me the most.”
The gagetter dragon started to cry “my parents would disown me, the clan would rip me apart, I’ve got nowhere to go and nothing and nobody left. So the only honorable thing to do is a self-imposed exile, as for you ponies you can sentence me to whatever punishment you see fit, I deserve it.”
“But Spike isn’t dead” said Pinkie Pie “he’s right up-” the party pony was silenced by Rarity clamping a hoof over her mouth, but if Griffith’s wide-eyed expression was anything to go by she wasn’t fast enough.
“What? What did you just say?” asked Griffith.
“Nothin!” said Applejack, eyes looking everywhere but at the dragon “Pinkie Pie is just sayin the random ol’ stuff she always says.”
“No, no I know random sayings and that was not a random saying…” the gears in Griffith’s head slowly began to turn as the Mane Six started exchanging nervous glances.
“He’s….he’s not dead?” asked Griffith hopefully.
Twilight struggled to think up a reply, a lie, any sort of fabrication that would keep Griffith from finding out the truth.
“He’s here isn’t he?” said Griffith.
“N-no…” Twilight said shakily.
“DON’T LIE TO ME!” shouted Griffith, quickly lifting himself to his feet to tower over the ponies “IS HE HERE OR NOT?!”
Twilight could only look up in slight fear at the dragon which was more than enough to confirm his suspicions.
“So he is….let me see him”
“What?” asked Twilight.
“I said let me see him.” said Griffith.
“Why? Why should we let you anywhere near him after what you’ve done?!” said Fluttershy, flying up to meet griffith on eye level with her infamous ‘stare’.
“He’s my brother, one who I’ve waited almost my whole life to meet, and if there’s one thing that I hold more dear than my gadgets it’s my family. I need to see him to know he’s okay, so I can apologize to him for being a horrible brother recently.” said Griffith.
“And how do we know this isn’t just some kind of trick to sneak him out to the rest of your friends?” said Rainbow Dash
“They don’t even know I’m here. Please I’m begging you here, just let me see my brother so I can get a piece of mind and clear my conscious, you can be in the room the whole time if you want, have the royal guard watching my every move, even throw me in a dungeon when we’re done; all I ask is to have a talk with my brother one last time.” Griffith pleaded.
Twilight searched his face for deception, any sign that he was lying to them but she couldn’t find a single hit on malicious intent; Griffith really was just a dragon worried about the health and safety of his only brother and she could see that clear as day.
“You really do care about him don’t you?” said Twilight.
“I would do anything for my brother, I’d gladly die if it meant keeping him safe.” said Griffith “wouldn’t you do the same for your family?”
That was what finally convinced Twilight, not just what he said but the utmost seriousness and force that his words held within his voice; she had held the same air about her whenever Shining Armor was in trouble after all.
Twilight mulled it over in her head for a few more moments, she had to be absolutely sure after all, but she finally came to a decision.
“Alright you can….you can see Spike.” Said the princess of friendship
“WHAT?!” Shouted the rest of Twilight’s friends.
“Really?!” Said a starry-eyed Griffith
“Under one condition: we get to be in the room the whole time just to be sure you don’t try anything crazy.”
“Deal, now where’s big bro?” Griffith said.
Before Twilight could show him the way, Applejack pulled her to the side.
“Twilight, are we really gonna let this fella get close to Spike?” whispered the farmer pony
“Look I know it’s risky but he seemed to be really worried about Spike, besides we’ve got him completely outnumbered and surrounded. He won’t be able to sneak away this time.”
“Alright, if ya say so.” said Applejack “but ah’m keepin an eye on him.”
****************************
Back upstairs, Spike was gnawing the tips of the claws in worry to the point where they started to go red. One of his dragon friends was probably being tortured by his pony friends right now and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it; if he tried he’d just be dismissed by everypony.
“Oh man, oh geez, oh Celestia. I don’t even want to think about what they’re doing to them right now.” said Spike as he paced back and forth across the room.
“Spike don’t you think you might be overreacting just a bit, Twilight doesn’t really seem like the torture type, even in this case.” said Starlight
“Then you’ve never seen her in full ‘big sis’ mode, she’s probably ripping out their claws as we speak, tying their tail into knots, and making them listen to Pinkie Pie play the bagpipes.” Spike ranted “I wonder who got caught; if it was Saphria or Dylan then they could probably take it but if it was Yam….” spike shuddered.
A knock at the empty doorframe did little to capture Spike’s attention, despite Starlight’s eyes widening to the size of a full moon when she saw who was standing there.
“If this is about how you’re punishing one of my friends I don’t want to hear a word of it” Spike said dismissively.
“Try again bro”
Spike whipped his head back around so quickly it might as well have snapped right off of his neck; standing in the doorway was his younger brother Griffith, looking no far worse for wear than when he last saw him.
“Hey.” said Griffith.
Spike took a few steps back towards the bed, the scars left behind by the memories of his brother’s hurtful comments were still fresh.
“Wha-what are you doing here?” said Spike “h-how did you get here?”
“Not important Artair, right now I need to say something to you that is important” Griffith sucked in a deep breath “I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
“I’m sorry for everything I said to you yesterday, I acted like a horrible monster of a little brother and left you out in the cold when you needed me more than ever, I was just mad over my recent losses and lashed out and I’ve regretted it ever since, dad would have kicked my butt for saying stuff like that to family. So if you don’t want to forgive me that’s fine, I wouldn’t forgive me either, I just wanted to let you know that if I could take back every word I said I would in a heartbeat.” said Griffith, trying to hold back his own tears.
Spike just stood there, staring at his brother in slight disbelief.
“Well that’s that then. I’d better get going, these guys have got a nice warm cell waiting for me in the dungeons and I don’t want to keep em’ waiting.” Said Griffith, but as he turned to leave he felt a pair of claws grab ahold of his remaining hand and he looked down to see his older brother standing there.
“No, please don’t go” Said Spike “Griffith I forgive you for saying those things to me but if you leave me here and now I won’t forgive you for that.”
Griffith smiled “okay big bro, I’ll stay.”
Spike jumped up and wrapped his younger brother into a hug, a hug Griffith gladly returned with gusto, a hug that cleared up any suspicions the rest of the Mane Six might have had about Griffith’s intentions.
Seeing the two embrace in a way that only two close family members could, a love that simply couldn’t be faked by even the best actors in the world, The Elements of Harmony knew that Griffith wasn’t hiding anything from them at all, he just wanted to be with his brother.
It was at that moment that Griffith noticed the unfamiliar mare sitting in the corner with her mouth wide open like a fish.
Griffith broke the hug to address her “hey who are you? I don’t remember seeing you with the rest of the ponies that have been following us.”
Regaining her composure, Starlight hopped out of her chair and approached the green dragon “Starlight Glimmer, I’m the only one here who didn’t want to go after Spike.”
“Why?”
“Because I actually respect my friend’s decisions.” said Starlight shooting a glare past Griffith towards Twilight. “And you are?”
“Griffith, Artair’s younger brother, a member of the Vlemm Enclave royal family, and it’s greatest inventor” said Griffith holding out his hand for a shake “nice to meet ya.”
Starlight smiled as she placed her hoof in his claw.
“Hey Griffith, can we talk?” said Spike, before turning to address the rest of his friends “alone?”
The Mane Six wanted to protest but realized that they really didn’t have much of an argument to make and relented.
“We’ll be right out in the hall Spike, if you need anything” said Twilight before walking away with the others.
Starlight moved to join them but Spike grabbed her shoulder to stop her “no, you can stay for this. I trust you Starlight.”
In a few moments, the trio had settled themselves with Spike sitting next to his brother on the bed and Starlight having pulled up a chair in front of them.
“So how did you find me anyways?” asked Spike
“Funny thing, I didn’t really find you so much as I stumbled upon you. Honestly I thought you were dead.” said Griffith
“Really?”
“Well yeah, a free fall from that height coupled with what was likely a concussion at the very least” said Griffith, gently running his claws across the bandages around Spike’s head “and the fact that you were left in sub-zero temperatures during a snowstorm overnight would have killed even the toughest of dragons. But that’s beside the point, having lost my only brother on top of everything else meant I didn’t have a lot left to live for so I was planning on exiling myself until the day I died, but then I was drawn to this place for some unexplained reason and handed myself over to the pony guards so they could dish out the punishment I deserved for hurting you the way I did and when I was approached by your pony friends, they let it slip that you were not only alive but were here too so I begged to see you and here we are.” said Griffith
“Wow” said Spike
“Yeah wow, by the way” said Griffith, looking at Starlight “I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s something a bit off about you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Starlight
“I’m not exactly sure, but for some reason you just strike me as the type of pony who would brainwash an entire village into a flawed way of thinking and deprive them of the one thing that makes them special because you were too stubborn to see things from a different perspective. But that probably sounds crazy right?” said Griffith
Starlight’s jaw nearly hit the floor alongside Spike’s “that is...actually scarily accurate.”
“Forget it.” said Griffith waving his hand dismissively “I don’t even want to know.”
“So where do we go from here?” said Spike
Griffith let out an unsure huff “I have no clue, the ship is gone, the rest of the Paragons don’t know where we are, and I seriously doubt there is anything that we can say that would convince your pony friends to just let us go. At this point we might just have to throw in the towel.”
“What about the truth?” suggested Starlight
“What?”
“The truth, you can tell them the truth about what’s going on and why you need spike so badly; they’d understand, I know I do.” said Twilight’s student.
Griffith turned towards his brother “you told her?!”
“Give me a break; I thought it was all over! But starlight does have a point, maybe if we’re upfront and honest about this whole thing, the girls might be willing to let me go.” said Spike. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Well...no, no I don’t...but even if I wanted to tell the truth I couldn’t, mom and dad are very strict about the whole ‘remaining in hiding’ deal that the Noble Dragons have.”
“Even if it meant that they couldn’t see their son?” questioned Starlight.
Griffith pursed his lips “good point, now if only I had a way to….” Griffith paused as his arm hit a lump on his pants, he patted the area a few times to make sure his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him before pulling out a small black box.
“MY EMERGENCY COM LINE!” shouted Griffith “I FORGOT I EVEN HAD THIS ON ME!”
“Can you use it to call our parents?” asked Spike excitedly
“Of course I can, that’s the whole point of it being ‘for emergencies’ big bro!” Griffith said, flipping open the phone and punching in some numbers.
Griffith held it up to the side of his head for a few moments before a voice came onto the other end.
“Hey mom…..yes we’re all still alive…...yes I know what happened to the Violet Dawn you can stop worrying…...yeah he’s here but that’s not why I called you, see we’ve kind of backed ourselves into a corner here and I need your permission to do something…..” said Griffith
********************************
“What do you think they’re talking about in there?” asked Fluttershy.
The Mane Six had all piled out into the hallway and walked a bit of a distance so they were slightly out of ear shot from what Spike, his brother, and Starlight were all saying to each other.
“Who knows darling?” said Rarity, sitting down on a crystal bench “but I have to admit that I was touched by how much those two care about each other, especially since they’ve only known each other for a few short weeks.”
“Ah wonder what they’ve been doing when we weren’t goin after em’.” said Applejack.
“Beats me, I don’t know what Noble Dragons d-” Rainbow Dash was abruptly cut off by a large rock smashing in through a nearby window, causing everypony to jump up in surprise.
“What in celestia’s name?!” Said Twilight rushing over to the shattered glass.
A few stories down the Elements of Harmony were met with a very unwelcome sight: Saphria was perched atop the spire of one of the crystal buildings surrounding the crystal castle.
“Hello princess.” Hissed Saphria
“You! What are you doing here?” Said the princess of friendship.
“Oh just getting back something that belongs to us: namely Griffith and Artair, hand then over.” Said the ninja dragon.
‘I knew it!’ Twilight thought to herself ‘I knew that dragon was up to something! That whole act about wanting to see his brother was probably just a distraction so the Noble Dragons could get into the city.’
“Or what?!” Pinkie pie shouted back.
Saphria could only chuckle and point a thumb over her shoulder.
Looking out towards the horizon the Mane Six uttered a collective gasp.
Snow golems, hundreds of them were scattered across the snowy landscape just outside of the crystal empire. Some smaller than fillies while others were the size of a two story house, but they all looked very angry; at the very front of the army was Yam looking similarly displeased, clearly having risen the army with her own chromatic abilities, being flanked by Dylan, Mia, Crystal, and Connor.
“Or you will learn first hand just how dangerous an ice warrior is in their element!” Boomed Saphria.
Twilight weighed her options: on the one hoof they were clearly outnumbered by the snow army that Yam had created and it was safe to assume that she could create an endless supply of troops, plus she was backed up by all the other Noble Dragons who had beaten them before. But on the other hoof they had two alicorns on their side as well as all of the Crystal Empire who would likely give in their all to defend their savoring, not to mention she could call in Ember, Thorax, or the princesses for back up (assuming they would listen long enough for her to inform them that Spike was still alive) and there was no way she was just going to standby while Spike was taken away from her right when she got him back.
“Do your worst you dragon scum!” Twilight yelled.
Saphria shrugged “your funerals.” The dragoness pulled out a war horn and blew into it, it’s tune riding on the winds across the landscape.
All at once, the frost golems let out a collective roar and charged towards the city with the Noble Dragons leading them from the front.
“THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE IS UNDER ATTACK! EVERYPONY ARM YOURSELVES AND PREPARE FOR BATTLE!” Shouted Twilight as she flew off into the castle with her friends following close behind.
In just a few short moments, the Crystal Empire was about to bear witness to a battle of epic proportions that has not been seen since the attack of the Umbrum, all for the fate of their savior.
This is it, it all ends here my friends.....
I meant to get this uploaded much sooner but between my college obligations, my laptop breaking down, and my new story ‘the dragon of sweet apple acres’ I haven’t had much time to work on this.
But still, thanks for all the support you’ve been giving my story so far.
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I woke up and this was updated. I have never been as hyped to wake up early as I have now!
Such a good story
This was interesting to say the least. I find Spike to be... something yet again. He once again is saying how everyone else has made him feel bad and he did what he had to do. Which seems to be the overall theme of this series. Oh the Noble Dragon KEEP doing fuck up things, but they HAVE to do it so it is okay and we shouldn't look at them funny.
Spike blames everyone else for his actions and the blow out of his actions. But the girls tried like a baby so it is largely partly their fault. Even tho he KEEP ACTING like a child by his actions, leaving without properly saying a word, running around like a baby and not dealing with the issue at hand. And I don't get his case about the gauntlet and the migration. They wanted to keep a eye on him sure understandable, but they still LET HIM go to those places. And if nothing would have happen I could see his argument but ALL of those cases they saved his scale covered ass.
I wonder what their parents are going to say, I mean yea honestly clueing in Spike caretakers and those closest to him just makes too much sense. Hell it just seem that the nobles didn't hold much weight to the ponies in Spike's life, of course Spike still feel like HE doesn't care as much about them as he does the nobles, or they didn't care.
Now once again the damn Noble Dragons are about to cause ANOTHER CONFLICT WITH ANOTHER NATION. This could put countless lives in danger, not to mention this is from a nation that JUST got from under the control of a dictator only to be attacked again. I just roll my eyes, quiet, clean, SHE is literally going to start a war in the capital city of the second largest pony kingdom AFTER just attacking the main capital. And what Spike is going to justify THIS as well. Tell that to all the crystal ponies, who never belittled him and saw him as a hero, that will lose their home and lives. Or to his niece that has been put in danger from what his 'true family' has done. But we ALL know that on the grand stage of the world the Nobles wont face any fall out from these continuous attacks on all these places.Just really I would respect the leaders of the Nobles if they see the Shitstorm these children are causing and KNOW they have to send someone higher up to help fix this or they could very well be whipped out or be seen as true monsters by all of the world. Which after ALL of his over and over....... why shouldn't they. How much does ' they had no choice or they are doing it for a good reason' by them till they are just bad guys.
Let's deal with it in a peaceful way!
....5 sec later...
We are under attack!
(O ****)
9302510
griffith and spike had nothing to do with the attack, they wanted to talk things out.
the invasion was all saphria's idea,
i can clearly see where this will go.
the battle lasted for 5 mint to 15 mins.
spike and griffin comes out in time to prevent the crystal empire from being in ruins.
cease fire occurs.
the truth of why the noble dragons wants spike comes out.
9302022
okay now I'm starting to feel like you're purposely nitpicking the story. Every chapter I post you always come with complaints about how poorly I've characterized spike and the noble dragons, but it's my story and my interpretation of the characters. Plus if you hate my story so much then why do you keep coming back? why do you read through every chapter just to complain? you clearly are reading the chapters despite not liking them and nobody's forcing you to read my story so what gives? I'm all for constructive criticism but it seems like you're just repeating the same complaints over and over again.
9302603
Okay first I don't hate your story. Like I said if I did hate it I wouldn't be reading it. And I am sorry if you feel like it is 'nit-picking' when I comment on the things I personally see. And how can you say that when it JUST happen and others have commented on it. The Noble Dragons once again are attacking a major city. And I know you are going to say, it isn't 'them' but just the actions of one of their kind. Yea well to the world at the moment THESE kids are the representatives of their kind and their ways. And as we have seen they are doing actions to PUT them in a bad light. Even when things look like they will change one of them causes a full scale invasion of the C.Empire. How is that not a super bad look for them? How is me bringing that up using only examples from THIS chapter picking at the story? You have seem to have some idea that everyone is suppose to like your OCs and think they are great when there have been countless times that people have seen them and their actions and real shit moves. But I bring them up because they KEEP DOING THEM. And that is because the story as stayed in this arc for too long. It has stayed in this point with them being seen as public enemy number one and they keep doing things to enforce that. We have seen things address and change for the better, we saw them lose, we saw them struggle. BUT that doesn't mean they don't keep doing shitty things. And Spike now has gone to belittling the relationship with the girls and glorifying the nobles. I don't like this Spike as he is now, that is just how it is. And I address why without slander or bad mouthing him. I don't think he will change, hell I don't think the Nobles to change as well from my views on their actions. But seeing how my reviews have been rubbing you the wrong way I will be sure to ease that burden by making this the last one from now on.
9302632
Really I just think that the noble dragons would be a bit more boring if they were morally pure, I prefer to write morally ambigious anti-heros who sometimes act selfishly like Deadpool, Walter white, and the bride from kill bill; in this case the noble dragons are trying to secure the future of their people and reunite spike with his parents but often resort to extreme behaviors to accomplish this, they aren’t evil but they aren’t exactly good either which is what makes them good characters, I don’t think that an OC should automatically be liked because they’re the main characters but they should have complexity. As for the last review it doesn’t really matter, this story is going to have only 2 or 3 chapters left before it’s concluded. Regardless, thanks for reading anyways even if it was flawed in some aspects.
Hmm, so once again the noble dragons show themselves to be villainous and to be honest it almost is looking to be a racial trait given how spike is acting, I am seriously thinking that perhaps the noble dragons deserved the rest of dragonkind sending them into exile and hiding.
9302692
You really have a hard time taking constructive criticism man. And I get that you see your characters as being complex, but they're not and everyone sees this. Them doing the same stupid shit over and over again and expecting different results is just the definition of insanity. They have time and time again attacked the ponies to get Spike and look how that works out. Yet they do it because what, they can't simply tell the truth about why they need Spike so they have to do all this other insane crap instead. That's not complex, that's stupid and very one dimensional.
After a point, they should have just dropped this ridiculous no telling rule and just be honest about why they are doing this instead of constanlty trying to resolve things with violence and essentially kidnapping.
Because as much as you want us to see them as being complex and their actions as not bad, it isn't working. They are at the end of the day invaders in foreign land who are taking with them without permission a very important figure who is a freaken Prince of the realm and loved individual to the rulers of multiple kingdoms. And don't give me that poor excuse of he left a letter. It was vague as hell and gave no real explanation of why he is leaving.
Its like if some people came in and took the Presidents daughter one day, but we are all expected to not get her back because she left a vague not basically saying don't follow. Do you see how ridiculous this looks.
And then there's Spike. My god, his ridiculous love and shit regarding the noble dragona is just unbelievable. Theres more to family then just blood. Its about the people who raised you, were there for you when times got tough, played with you, fed you, etc. The noble dragons never did this, it was the ponies who did all this. Yet we are supposed to believe all that means nothing because they arent his blood and because of that the noble are his true family. Come on.
This is no different then a kid with parents who pawned them off onto the nanny. Who do you think the kid will identify more with as he grows. The parents who did nothing yet have his blood or the nanny who actually put all the time and effort in to actually raising the boy and being there for him.
Then there's Spike attitude and reasoning. I get it, its rough living in the shadow of those greater then you. Its a horrible feeling and we all want to be greater. But my god, Spike just comes off as a spoiled brat who isnt getting his way and thus throws a tantrum. He hurts those who care about him and yet dismisses all of it because he will get to be a big boy afterwards. Screw all the pain and suffering it has caused, I get to be nice and strong. Fuck all the history between us and the good memories, I'm just a selfish little brat who wants more attention. Even though I have an entire kingdom of ponies who worship me, I want it in Ponyville too and Canterlot and who knows where else. I want people to treat me like a hero all the time rather then the baby I look like and act like because I don't get my way.
We say these harsh things to you because we care and see potential in what You have created, yet you keep dismissing it as nitpicking...seriously!!!!??
That's a bad writer dude when you disregard your critics like that. Its thankfully not as bad as say Star Wars where all the critics of the Last Jedi are called a bunch of -isms and other shit, but its still bad.
So all I'm trying to say is this, you have a story with potential, but unfortunately you are steering this ship in the wrong direction. And we the crew are seeing this and trying to warn you the captain to change course.
9304535
Honestly at this point I’m just done, the story is almost over and I don’t have a lot of room left for a lot of significant character development. I tried to make them anti-heros but clearly didn’t do well on the ‘hero’ part, as for the ‘keeping secrets’ thing it’s only because the noble dragons fear that if they exposed themselves again it would only cause more trouble for them than it would be worth, but that doesn’t really matter at this point. I want to be done with this story and I’m going to do what I’m gonna do and hope I do a better job on the sequel.
Besides I know it’s not one of my greatest works but I’m still happy with how it came out regardless and I know I’ll at least learn something from this about story telling.
9305322
Yeah, you definitely didn't do well on the hero part unfortunately. And that secrets thing, at this point the damage has been done and boy is it bad. After all is said and done, there is just one big mess left now.
Hopefully the sequel turns things around.
9302603
If I may say something about this...
I, personally, find this story engaging. I wouldn't be coming back if I didn't.
I also think what Saphria's doing is, or at least should, end up hurting the Noble Dragons' efforts, because Griffith and Spike had just been ready to de-escalate and she's ruined it. That's on her, of course, not them, but it doesn't look good on them either.
More importantly perhaps, I've concluded that this Spike is a very selfish person. DragonPony is correct when they say the girls were protecting Spike during the Migration and the Gauntlet. In fact, look at what Twilight said to him during Gauntlet of Fire:
And it's true, they didn't interfere in the competition, they just cheered him on. Now Spike twists it into them never allowing him any freedom to be more than he's now. He blames them for his problems, even when he says he feels bad for what happened he keeps slamming them for ruining his "destiny". So yeah, maybe he's frustrated right now, and the ponies have been very aggressive so far, but he's still acting like an entitled brat.
That doesn't mean I automatically think he's a bad character tho!
The question is more, what do you make of this feedback? I don't think Spike is very likeable. He would need a lot of growing up to be. But perhaps that's exactly what you intended. Maybe you didn't and you believe my interpretation of him is baseless. Maybe you planned to have Spike be different but things just worked out as they're now. Whatever the case may be, it's going to be fascinating to see how Spike goes on from here.
In short, disliking a character isn't the same as disliking the whole story, or even disliking the character as part of the narrative. I hate Cobalt, but I found the Dragon King putting him in his place great. I dislike this Spike as a person, but that doesn't mean I can't like his role in the story, depending on what role he's playing. As a flip-flopping brat with entitlement issues who eventually needs to get his head out of his ass, he's going to be a really fun character, as long as the story recognises his flaws and reacts accordingly.
Just my two cents, though.
Woah ok epic battle time thus is going to be awesome
I just discovered this story today and couldn't tear myself away for barely 5 minutes. I love the premise and all the unique characters you made. Very well done, I wish I had your creative juices right now.
Well you need eat one then.
By the way, should you ever decide to do a rewrite of this (because I get a sense you won't continue this one, and let me be clear, I never wanted nor intended to push you into quitting it) then it might be a fun idea to have Spike or the SNDs get some of Starlight Glimmer's sarcasm too. After she did it to the ponies again and again.
Because, let's look at what actually happened: Spike's tired of people treating him like an irresponsible kid who makes bad decisions, so his plan is to... run away from home with a bunch of teenage delinquents on account of a verbal promise only, leaving behind a note that amounts to "don't follow", fully expecting the ponies who think of themselves as his family even if he doesn't and who have to deal with monster attacks and kidnappings and all that on a frighteningly regular basis, to stay calm and let him vanish from their lives with no idea if he's even alive anymore.
Does that deserve a verbal smack? I think it does.
11001388
funny you should mention that, I actually plan on abandoning this fic and revamping it entirely.
In all honesty, I'm really not happy with how this turned out and the more I think about it the more I realized I seriously mishandled this whole setup.
So once I've tackled a few other projects I'm working on. I'm gonna do this whole story over again with a completely different plot: namely, instead of spike going with the noble dragons willingly, they are going to incorrectly assume that he's been enslaved by the ponies and essentially kidnap him under the pretense of 'rescuing' him and assume that his protests are the result of conditioning/brainwashing, which they aim to undo by showing them his true legacy. So the main two plotlines will focus on spike learning more about his heritage and actually coming around to his family while his friends desperately try to find him, having several run ins with the noble dragons mentioned here along the way.
this was one of the first stories I had ever written and I'm rather ashamed of it. But I've grown as a writer since then, matured, and I wanna take a stab at doing this whole thing over again, better this time around.
11001395
I'm sincerely glad to hear that. The premise you mention, also sounds very interesting indeed.
Even if I will put one warning forward. Heh, 'warning'... I'm very sorry to have to say this, and please, this is me just attempting to lessen the blow once it comes. Namely, it probably won't get as many upvotes the second time around. The site's slowed down since then. And there's been a rather large fanbase for OP dragons and OP Spike in particular on FimFiction since forever. They won't appreciate a nuanced approach.
Saying that makes me feel like a right *sshole.
But it's true.
Tl;DR: Prepare to get less upvotes for the rewrite, even if it's objectively better work, and please don't let that discourage you as I've seen happen with other writers.