endgame part 2
Hours earlier….
“Are you sure he went this way Saphi?” Said Crystal
“Positive, his tracks are still in the snow” Saphria replied
The Paragons had spent the better part of the day digging through the snow of the frozen north in a vain attempt to find Artair, Dylan using his light powers to melt the snow faster and Mia using her super speed to cover more ground, but none of them could find any trace of their friend at all. That’s about the point when Saphria noticed that a certain green geek was absent from the group, he was with them awhile back with his tracking device that looked oddly shoddy compared to what he usually creates and she dismissed his silence for merely wanting to focus on the urgent matter at hand, but he sure wasn’t here now.
It wasn’t until she spotted a set of tracks separating from the path they had stomped in the snow, leading down the mountain, that Saphria realized what had happened. Griffith had felt extreme guilt for what he had done to his older brother which soon gave way to depression, she knew from personal experience that when a dragon loses that much in such a short period of time they tend to make very rash and stupid decisions that often have permanent consequences.
She just hoped that she could get to him in time.
Of course the rest of her friends noticed her concern and soon followed after her, the ninja explaining the situation once they managed to catch up to her.
“Shouldn’t we split up?” Said Dylan “half of us in the chasm and half of us down the mountain?”
“Not here, there’s too many hazards and too much unknown territory. We’ve already lost two of our own, we can’t afford to lose any more” Replied saphria.
The group started trudging through the snow in a concerned silence; here they were, stranded in a frozen wasteland, with one of their own potentially dead and the other missing (but also potentially dead).
Crystal jogged up to Saphria and leaned over to whisper to the ninja “look I know we’re hoping for the best and all, but if it really comes down to what we’re all thinking of: let me talk to him, I’ve been where he is now, I know what it feels like to lose family, I can convince him to back out.”
“Let’s just find him first then we’ll deal with whatever situation has been presented.” Replied Saphria, trying to hide the tremble in her tone.
“Hey guys check this out…” Said Connor, standing on the edge of another cliff overlooking a large valley.
The rest of the group soon joined him and marveled at what they beheld in the valley below: it was a wondrous city made entirely out of crystal that sparkled in the midday light, completely untainted by the frost surrounding it, the city seemed like it had come straight out of a fairy tale book.
“Has that always been there?” said Dylan.
“It’s so….shiny.” said Mia in amazement.
Crystal pulled a pair of binoculars out of one of her hoodie pockets to get a closer look at the city, “oh my Bahumut, even the ponies are made out of crystal.”
“Wait what? How is that possible?” said Yam.
“What do you mean?”
“Well assuming that the process is possible through a simple transfusion spell, how could a pony still be able to perform basic bodily functions when they are entirely made of crystals?”
Crystal shrugged “maybe they just look like they’re made of crystal and-WHAT THE WHAT?!!”
“What? What is it?” asked Saphria, only for crystal’s binoculars to be shoved into her hands.
“Look at the castle’s front doors, quick!”
Peering through the lenses, Saphria adopted a similar shocked expression; she could just barely make out the shape of a familiar green dragon being led into the palace by two pony guards.
“Darn it, Griffith’s been captured. He must have been easy prey in his grief ridden state.” said Saphria, returning the binoculars to its rightful owner.
“Well at least the egghead’s alive.” said Connor “so there’s still a chance we could finish the job.”
“And how will we do that?” asked Dylan “With Griffith there, those ponies are probably expecting us to show up at any moment to rescue him which means they’re on high alert; plus without any of his gadgets the chances of us all sneaking in are pretty low.”
“Why not just have Saphi do it?” said Mia
“You want me to go down there, straight into enemy territory that I have no familiarity with, BY MYSELF?” replied Saphria
Mia sheepishly blushed “heh….I guess that does sound like a dumb idea.”
“We can’t just storm the castle either, they’ve probably got us completely outnumbered and out gunned down there. We might last a few blocks but they’d eventually overwhelm us.” Dylan continued.
“Well does anybody have an idea?” said Crystal “ever second we waste here is another second Griffith is being tortured.”
The Paragons racked their brains for any plan of attack that would allow them to get into the castle without getting captured themselves but for once, everybody drew a blank.
“It….it just doesn’t seem feasible.” Said Yam “we lack the force and equipment necessary to get inside.”
“Well then what do we do?” Asked Connor while sitting down on a nearby snow pile.
Saphria sighed “as much as I hate to say it….we’ll have to make a retreat to the Vlemm Enclave.”
“We’re running away?!” Dylan replied incredulously.
“No, we’re falling back to regroup. We’ll explain the situation to Lord Frinad and Lady Layla and take it from there.”
“We can’t tell them about this! Do you know what they’ll do to us if they find out we’ve lost both of their sons?!” Crystal shouted.
“We don’t have a choice Crystal! It’s either come clean about recent events or go into a suicide mission, face it everyone, we need to cut our losses.” Said Saphria
“Cut our losses?” Said Connor, standing up “Since when do we cut our losses?”
“It’s a desperate situation Connor, we-“
“Desperate? It was desperate when Crystal tried throwing herself over a cliff and we still never gave up on her. It was desperate when your mom got hooked on spice and we didn’t give up then either.” Argued Connor
“That’s not the same and you know it.” Saphria shot back.
“Is it? We were saving our bros then and we’re saving them now. Only difference is that now the entire fate of the Enclave is at stake Saphi!” Connor took in a breath “we may run to fight another day, but we NEVER give up on our friends. I’m not gonna be the guy that left one of his best friends to rot in a dungeon somewhere.”
“What’s your idea then, how do we get to Griffith?” Said Mia.
“We go in there and take the egghead back by force.”
“Okay let’s pretend what your saying isn’t crazy for a second, we’d need an army to do that” Said Dylan.
“We’ve got one.”
“Connor there’s only six of us.” Dylan replied
“Right now there is, but I think Yam could change that.” Connor said, grinning. “I mean look around, we’re surrounded by miles of ice and snow, there’s plenty of material to work with.”
“I dunno Connor, causing general mayhem is one thing but a full on invasion? Isn’t that taking it too far?” Said Crystal.
“We might not have to fight at all. Based on what I’ve read about Equestrian history, what little is available, ponies send to shy away from full scale warfare and instead prefer peaceful resolution; very respectable but also exploitable in our case, if we do amass a force up against them then they might be willing to hand Griffith over with little fuss.” Yam explained. “That would minimize the chances of collateral damage and may discourage them from following us.”
“And if they don’t? What then?” Said Crystal.
“Plan B. We charge in and try to punch a hole in their defenses big enough to get Griffith out, then bail into the mountains and hope we can lose them there.”
“But they need to know about our threats for it to be effective, so one of us has to deliver the message, who’s it gonna be?” Said Saphria.
All the other dragons looked towards her expectantly.
“Oh….of course.” Saphria muttered.
***************
“It’s times like these that I hate the fact that I have a stealth aura.” Said Saphria, scaling a crystal wall.
While Yam was busy building their Frost army, Saphria was sent down into the crystal city for some reconnaissance and to deliver the message.
Contrary to what many believed, Saphria’s aura wasn’t hand to hand combat expertise, that came from years of training and experience; it was stealth and inconspicuity. She could easily disappear out of sight and stay that way, blend into the background, or even hide in large crowds. The shadows were her friend and once she vanished, it was unlikely for her to be spotted unless she wished it so.
It didn’t come in handy too often during this whole affair since most of their problems had to be solved through a loud and straightforward approach, plus while keeping herself hidden was easy doing the same for the rest of her friends wasn’t so easy.
But on a solo mission where she had to sneak around a city full of hostiles? That put her smack dab in the middle of her element.
Of course that also meant she was always put on the riskiest jobs that had the biggest consequences if she screwed up, such as sneaking into a Roc’s nest to take some of its eggs for a feast, or slipping a rare artifact out of a bandit camp. It was always her and she was always alone. But given the nature of her aura it was probably for the best, didn’t mean she had to like it though.
“Hmm a lot of open streets with branching pathways, would be difficult to set up any sort of choke point but leaves plenty of escape routes…..” Said Saphria as she leapt from roof to roof, staying just out of the crystal guards’ line of sight.
Currently she was making her way towards the castle in the center of the city, it was Griffith’s last known location and his captors would likely be there too. She just had to figure out where exactly he was being held, there were plenty of windows on the castle so it would be easy to take a peek inside to catch a glimpse of him or eavesdrop on the conversations of passing guards about him. She couldn’t go inside directly, it was too risky, she had to stay on the outside.
Pushing off one more roof in a massive leap, saphria impacted with the side of the castle and dug her claws in, scaling the massive structure.
Her plan was to go from window to window until she got the information she needed, but by a pure stroke of luck the first one she searched opened up into a room where Griffith was sitting with a pony talking to…..
“Artair?!” Saphria blurted out, nearly giving herself away.
Sitting in the bed across from the tinkerer and the unfamiliar pony was the young prince they had spent the better part of the morning searching for, apart from the bandage around his head he seemed almost completely unharmed.
She couldn’t believe her luck, she had not only managed to find Griffith but Artair as well. It was like some sort of benevolent force was shining down upon her. Now they’d be able to rescue both of them at the same time.
She nearly fell off the building in surprise when her communicator suddenly crackled to life “Come in shadowgirl, have you found where Griffith is yet?” said Dylan.
“Affirmative lightbringer; but not just him, somehow artair has wound up here too!” replied Saphria.
“What?! Is he okay?”
“Apart from a possible head injury, he appears to be okay. Right now they’re on one of the upper floors of the castle, no guards in the room but they may be stationed outside.” Said Saphria. “How’s that army coming?”
“Yam’s nearly finished up. Feel free to start looking for the ponies in charge, we’ll be in position in a few moments.”
“Right then, over and out” Saphria said
“Wait Saphria before you go…..be careful out there alright? Carrying your bleeding body back to safety was bad enough the first time, I don’t want to have to do that again.” said Dylan.
“I will Dylan, I will.”
Climbing her way across the outer edge of the castle, Saphria came to an abrupt stop after the third window she passed, she backed up to it to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Standing right there in the hallway were the same group of ponies that had been following them for the past few weeks, completely unaware of her presence.
‘Of course they’re here. Wherever Artair goes, they seem to follow; Saphria knew they should have backed out right then and there, after all they had done those ponies weren’t just going to hand Artair over to them. But they were already in too deep and there was no going back now.
Doing an impressive backflip off the castle, Saphria landed safely atop one of the crystal buildings surrounding the massive structure. Then the ninja dragon broke off a piece of the building’s spire and hurled it as hard as she could at the window where those ponies were.
It nailed the glass dead center, shattering it into pieces. After a moment of commotion, the ponies grouped up around the window and looked down to see her perched on the building below.
“Hello princess.” Saphria hissed.
“You! What are you doing here?!” The princess shouted.
“Oh just getting back something that belongs to us: namely Griffith and Artair. Hand them over.” Said Saphria.
“Or what?!” The pink one shouted.
‘Here we go.’ Saphria said in her head as she pointed to the army of snow behind her.
She had to admit that she was impressed by how many snow golems Yam managed to raise up in such a short period of time. There had to be at least a couple hundred of them out there with her friends.
“Or you will learn first hand just how dangerous an ice warrior is in their element!” Saphria boomed.
The ponies seemed to falter in the face of her threats, staying silent as they took in the massive force they were up against.
‘Yes, they’re already shaken. They’ll give up any second now and turn over Artair and Griffith and nobody else has to get hurt.’ Saphria thought to herself.
But to Saphria’s suprise, they did the exact opposite: “Do your worst you dragon scum!”
‘Or not. Darn it, I was hoping we wouldn’t have to resort to this, Artair is gonna kill us when he finds out. Whatever, I’ve got no choice now.’ Saphria thought to herself before saying “your funerals” and then she blew on the war horn to signal the others.
with that the snow golems let out a collective roar and charged towards the city.
“THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE IS UNDER ATTACK!” Exclaimed the princess of friendship “EVERYPONY ARM YOURSELVES AND PREPARE FOR BATTLE!”
‘Here we go, this is for the fate of the clan’ thought Saphria as she pulled out her sai.
******************
Now
“Alright thanks dad, we’ll be there in a day or two. Bye.” Griffith flipped his emergency communicator closed “we’re all set, we just have to tell your pony friends and then find the Paragons and tell them too.”
“I still can’t believe you managed to convince them to go through with it.” Said Spike
“It wasn’t that hard, they’d do anything to be able to see you again. Now let’s- WHAT THE TARTARUS?!” Griffith’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull when he looked out the window at the scene below.
Starlight and Spike rushed over and gasped. The Crystal Empire had been transformed into a war zone, crystal ponies were clashing up against snow monsters that seemed to be advancing on the crystal castle. But both seemed to be caught up in an endless stalemate.
“They must be after the crystal heart!” Starlight shouted.
“I don’t think so” Replied Spike with dread “look who’s leading the charge.”
Looking at the battle occurring below, the trio spotter some very familiar dragons fighting with the crystal ponies.
“The noble dragons?! Griffith!.” Starlight growled.
“Woah, woah, woah! I had nothing to do with this! I swear!” Griffith Said defensively “I don’t even know how they found us!”
Spike quickly forced his way in between the two “Look we can point fingers at each other all day but that won’t help our situation! We have to stop all the fighting before things get really bad!”
“How are we gonna do that? If we teleport down there we’ll only end up caught in the crossfire!” Said Starlight.
“Well Artair has managed to gain the respect of everybody over the past few weeks and from what you’ve told me, he wields a lot of power here too. If he orders everyone to stop fighting they might listen to him!” Said Griffith
“Okay. But how do we get their attention? I don’t exactly have the Royal canterlot voice down.” Spike replied
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet, if only there was a way to amplify your….” Griffith trailed off as inspiration hit him like a freight train. “That’s it!”
“What is?”
“An ultra megaphone! I made something like it about a decade ago, made the voice of whoever spoke into it boom across the landscape, couldn’t think of any practical uses until now though.” Said Griffith almost jumping up and down in excitement “I just need a few parts and I can make one in seconds! We can probably get them on the way outside!”
“Sounds like a plan! What do you need?” Asked Starlight.
“Well a speaker, a portable radio, a large battery, and some kind of cone. Don’t worry about sticking it all together, that’s what the tape is for” Said Griffith, pulling out a silver roll of tape from one of his pockets and twirling it around like a gunslinger. “Now let’s get going!”
***************
Back down at the bottom of the castle it was complete anarchy, the civilians had completely evacuated to the south side of the city, away from the fighting. Now it was just the crystal guards, the snow golems, and the Noble Dragons duking it out in the name of their savior.
“These things are like cockroaches!” Said Rainbow Dash, smashing her way through several snow golems.
“Forget about them!” Said Twilight “focus on the dragons they’re the ones-“ the alicorn was cut off by a beam of golden light slamming into her and sending her sprawling several feet.
“Keep pushing! We have to break their defensive line!” Said Dylan, firing off several more beams.
“What does it look like I’m doing? These ponies aren’t exactly CHILLED out!” Said Crystal, firing a putty arrow at the hooves of a crystal guard squad that trapped them in place.
Further away from the archer, Saphria was sending out a flurry of punches and kicks towards the crystal guards that were rushing towards her; despite batting them away like flies, she was constantly forced back by the seemingly never ending forces rushing her down.
“Bah! This is getting us nowhere fast! Connor, give me a boost!” shouted Saphria.
The plant mancer nodded in reply and threw some glowing seeds towards his ninja ally; once they hit the ground at Saphria’s feet, a massive puffy flower sprouted up almost instantly like an airbag, launching the purple dragoness several feet forward, over the heads of her pony adversaries.
She landed with a short roll, only to come face to face with a set of orange hooves that were reared up and ready to strike.
With only seconds to react, Saphria jumped to one side and felt the wind from the powerful blow brush her stomach.
‘Thank Bahumut for quick reflexes.’ Saphria thought to herself.
“Ya got an awful lotta nerve comin here.” said the pony in the brown stenson.
“And you’ve got an awful lot of nerve kidnapping my friends.” Saphria replied as the two began to circle each other.
“Hey! That Griffith fella turned himself in”
“Likely story, I know Griffith, and I know that he isn’t the kind of dragon that just surrenders, none of us are. That being said…” Saphria paused as she unsheathed her sai. “We’re freeing him and Artair both, whether you like it or not.”
Applejack charged at the dragon, aiming to headbutt her straight on, but Saphria managed to jump out of the way again.
Before she could land a hit, Applejack reared up and slammed both of her back hooves into Saphria’s chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending the dragoness skidding into a nearby wall.
“Impressive.” Said Saphria, coughing up some spit “not many creatures can catch me off guard like that and you’ve got some good strength behind your blowsl.”
“That’s years of workin in the fields for ya.” Applejack replied
“I see, but how quick are you?” Said Saphria.
Before Applejack could so much as blink, she was slammed in the mouth with an open palm strike.
Stumbling back, Applejack shook away the stars from the blow and huffed in frustration.
“Got a good chin on you too.” Said Saphria.
Applejack readied herself to charge down Saphria like a raging bull. “Ya wanna fight? Ya got one!”
With that the two of them lept at each other, both letting out a battle cry.
While Twilight and Dylan were trading magic blasts and Connor was using enchanted seeds to keep Fluttershy at bay, Rainbow Dash was still fighting her way through the mass of snow monsters, smashing apart golem after golem alongside the crystal guard.
At least until a red blur suddenly whizzed by her and knocked several crystal guards off their hooves.
“What the hay?” Said Rainbow Dash before dodging past a snow fist.
The red blur made several more passes by Dash, each time knocking down more guards. Eventually the athlete decided to put a stop to whatever it was by chasing it down.
But the pegasus failed to account for the red blur running behind her and kicking her right in the back of the head, HARD.
It took a few moments for her head to stop spinning around but once it did, she looked up to see a red dragon standing above her, one Rainbow Dash quickly recognized.
“You!” Dash shouted
“That’s right! Itsa mia!” The dragon Replied.
“I don’t care what your name is! You’re going down!” Rainbow Dash threw a punch towards Mia, only for the speedster to sidestep away from the attack.
“You first.” Said Mia.
Rainbow Dash growled and started swinging at Mia, lobbing out punches and kicks, but every single attack was easily avoided by the dragon simply stepping out of the way.
Rainbow Dash was fast, there’s no denying that; but Mia was much, MUCH, faster.
“Come on!” Said Mia, continuing to weave around Rainbow Dash’s blows. “I thought you were fast.”
The Wonderbolt soon found herself getting winded after so many whiffed attacks and rapidly running out of breath, something Mia took notice of.
“Well this has been fun and all but I really have to go get my friends, see ya!”
The red dragon sped off in a blur of a matching color, making Rainbow Dash’s eyes widen in response.
“Oh no you don’t!” Dash shouted. The pegasus spread her wings and flew after Mia, failing to realize that she had essentially left the remaining crystal guards to fight off the snow golems all by themselves.
‘Good. We’ve already started to thin out their forces.’ Thought Yam to herself.
Unlike the rest of her friends, the ice dragon was standing above the conflict on the ground and placed herself into a support role, making more snow golems to replace the fallen ones as well as maintaining the remaining forces. Everyone had been so busy focusing on the frontline fight that they hadn’t even noticed her working behind the scenes, and it was gradually tipping the scales in their favor.
‘Just a bit longer and-‘
“YAM LOOK OUT!” Shouted Crystal.
The ice dragon spun around and spotted a massive fireball coming right for her, she jumped back in an impressive display of athleticism and landed on an adjacent rooftop as the fireball exploded in the area where she once stood.
Her support role forgotten, Yam’s eyes began to scan the sky in an effort to figure out just where that fireball had even come from; two growing specks, one blue and one green, gave her the answer she had dreaded.
It was the dragon lord and the changeling king, coming in hot.
Ember aimed the bloodstone scepter at yam like a spear, an enraged roar escaping the dragon lord’s mouth.
Yam fired out several icicles at the two in retaliation, but both Thorax and Ember managed to outmaneuver the projectiles.
The dragon lord reached Yam first, attempting to spear her with the bloodstone scepter but ended up aiming too far to the right and slammed into the spot right next to Yam, who jumped to the side out of pure startlement, the force of the blow sending Ember straight through the roof.
Smashing into a building did little to slow Ember down though, as she flew right back up through the dragon shaped hole and readied another fireball.
Unfortunately for her, Yam was far quicker on the draw.
Summoning up her draconic aura, the bookworm sprayed out a beam of frost from her maw that hit Ember right in the back of the throat with pinpoint accuracy; the dragon lord dropped to her knees and started hacking up steam, as that beam of cold had somehow extinguished her fire breath temporarily.
“Ember!” Thorax shouted “oh you’re gonna pay for that!”
The changeling was engulfed in a green flame that rapidly grew and expanded in size until it seemed to tower over Yam; when the fire dissipated, a massive green cyclops stood before Yam with an angry expression across it’s face.
“THIS IS FOR CANTERLOT!” Thorax yelled, swatting at Yam.
While the ice dragon did make an ice shield to protect herself from the blow, it shattered to pieces from the sheer amount of force and Yam was sent flying off the roof to ground level where she bounced off the pavement several times before skidding to a painful stop in front of a shop.
“YAM! NO!” Connor screamed.
The plantmancer summoned up a series of roots from the ground that wrapped around Fluttershy’s legs and pulled her into the ground, leaving only her head exposed.
Connor spun on his heel with a vine whip clutched in each claw and charged at Thorax “LEAVE HER ALONE YOU FREAK!”
Connor’s shouts made Dylan turn around to see what the source of the commotion was; his eyes traveled between Yam’s collapsed form, the cyclops that had materialized out of seemingly nowhere, and Connor lashing at the beast with a righteous fury. When he managed to put all the pieces together, Dylan was anything but happy.
“Sorry princess, but we’re gonna have to cut this short.” Said Dylan, emitting a bright flash of light that stunted the poor alicorn, leaving her vulnerable enough for several snow golems to dogpile on her.
Dylan soon joined in attacking the now massive changeling, flying up and blasting him with light beams with hit and run tactics while Connor was striking at him from the ground. But even with their combined efforts, the Paragons were fighting a losing battle; Ember had recovered her fire breath and was now melting down the Noble Dragon’s army while Thorax was easily tanking the assault from Dylan and Connor.
During all of this, Yam was just lying on the ground and was completely helpless; being forced to watch the events unfold as they did, forced to watch her friends fall.
‘No...no it can’t end like this.’ Yam thought as blood began to trickle down her forehead. ‘My friends are counting on me, I can’t let them down now. I...I have to do something’
It didn’t take long for Yam to formulate a plan on how to turn the tide; regaining her remaining strength, Yam lifted herself off of the ground and started to channel every ounce of frost magic she had, snow and ice began to surround her in a growing flurry.
“We’re not doing so good here!” Shouted Crystal to Saphria, the duo now back to back as they tried to fend off the enemies coming from all sides.
“Where the Tartarus is Yam? She was supposed to be keeping the snow golems standing!” Saphria shouted in response, kicking another guard that tried to rush her down in the face.
“I don’t know! But she’d better show up soon that dragon lord is…..” Crystal paused at the sight of a looming figure appearing on the battlefield.
“What? What is she- holy mother of….” Said Saphria, her jaw was locked into an expression of shock.
Yam had created a massive battle suit entirely out of snow and ice, one that mirrored Thorax’s cyclops form almost perfectly, with the dragoness controlling it from the heart of it all.
Tapping on the changeling’s shoulder to get his attention, Thorax turned around at stopped at the sight off a massive snow warrior staring him down, one that slugged him in the face and sent him sprawling down the street, taking out several storefronts in the process.
“ALL RIGHT YAM!!! KICK HIS BUTT!” Connor shouted.
Thorax hopped back to his feet and roared, running straight at the ice warrior who started to trade blows with the changeling.
The second wind of their creator had seemingly re-energized the snow golems army and they started to regenerate all by themselves, just as fast as ember was melting them down.
And the chaos only grew from there.
********************
“I found the last part!” Exclaimed Spike, holding a pylon above his head “Shining Armor had this in his closet for some reason, right between a weird nightmare night costume with a bunch of zippers and a box of candles.”
“Just in time too.” Said Griffith as he peeked out the window “things are getting really bad out there, now hand them over.”
Placing the battery, the speaker, the radio, and the traffic cone into Griffith’s arms, the mechanic dragon knelt down and started fiddling with the items, his arms moving around so fast that they created a total blur accompanied by a cacophony of ripping tape and drilling; after a minute he held up his creation in triumph.
“All done!”
The speaker had been strapped to the radio with four cones attached to the front of the radio in the style of a megaphone, the battery plugged into the underside of it.
“Wait where did you get the other three cones? We only gave you one.” Said Starlight
“Starlight now is not the time for stupid questions, we need to get spike outside with this!” Griffith Shouted
“To the balcony! It’s the quickest way out!” Spike said, taking off running.
“Perfect!”
“But Griffith-“ Starlight began, only to be quickly silenced by the mechanic.
“Look I’ll explain everything when our respective friends aren’t trying to kill each other! alright?!”
The trio made it out to the balcony in record time and were horrified at how fast things had spun out of control, there was no more offensive or defensive line, every pony, dragon, and golem were just swinging around wildly trying to take each other out. Saphria was wrestling with Applejack, Fluttershy had freed herself from the ground and was dive bombing Connor, Twilight was trying to blast Dylan out of the sky who was in turn firing back at the princess with the intent to stun, Pinkie Pie was firing her party cannon like a machine gun at the snow golems circling her, Crystal was launching a wide variety of trick arrows at the crystal guards who tried to attack her, all the while Yam and Thorax were locked in a one-on-one brawl in the background, and every few seconds a red blur would speed through the battle ground followed by a rainbow blur shortly after.
The worst part was that Spike knew it was all his fault too, all the more reason to stop this as soon as possible.
Taking to the air, Spike sucked in a deep breath and yelled a single word into the megaphone device:
“STOP!”
The sound produced by Spike’s voice made the Royal canterlot voice seem like a gentle whisper; a massive sound wave carrying his command travelled across the battle, shattering windows and knocking anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast onto the ground. It was as if the gods themselves were talking and the effect was instant.
Every warrior stopped in their tracks to look up at the baby dragon making his descent, Yam caused her armor to fall away while Thorax reverted to his normal state, even Rainbow Dash and Mia came to a halt.
“Please stop, all of you just stop….” Spike continued as he reached the ground. The baby dragon began to cry “I’m tired of everyone getting hurt because of me.”
“But Artair…” Saphria began.
“Stand down Saphria!” Barked Spike, turning from sadness to anger as if a switch had been flipped “They’re my friends, that goes the same for you Twi!”
“Spike, they were-“
“I’m not trying to defend what they did Twilight! They really messed up with this, I just want the fighting to end! It’s gone on long enough!” The baby dragon said.
With a flash of magic, Griffith and Starlight Glimmer appeared next to spike, the former walking over to Saphria.
“Griffith! Thank bahamut you’re still-“ the ninja dragon was interrupted by Griffith sucker punching her in the face, knocking her down.
“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MINDS?!” Griffith yelled. “LAUNCHING A FULL SCALE INVASION OF A FOREIGN TERRITORY?! THAT IS NOT WHAT WE DO SAPHI!!!”
“They captured both of you! What were we supposed to do?!” Saphria defended
“Contact me on the com line! Try to peacefully negotiate our freedom! But not this, this causes problems for us all!” Griffith said. “And besides, I turned myself in WILLINGLY!”
“But-“
“NO MORE EXCUSES! YOU AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE PARAGONS ARE GOING TO MARCH YOURSELVES IN THE CASTLE SO WE CAN TALK THIS OUT WITH TWILIGHT AND HER FRIENDS PEACEFULLY!” Spike shouted, butting in. “OR SO HELP ME I WILL USE WHATEVER AUTHORITY I HAVE TO GET YOU THROWN IN A DUNGEON.”
Saphria looked at the ground like a kicked puppy. “Yes prince Artair…”
Dylan on the other hand wasn’t about to back down as easily. “Woah there, You expect me to talk it out with them?”
“Yes we do.” Said Griffith
“Have you forgotten how much trouble they’ve given us?”
“We haven’t exactly been saints ourselves Dylan.” Griffith shot back.
“But the Vlemm Enclave! We can’t tell them about-“
“Actually I talked with mom and dad a little while ago and they gave me permission to tell the ponies everything.”
Dylan looked bewildered “e-everything?”
“Yes, everything. That means no more secrets, no more ambiguity, no more hiding, just everything that’s been going on shall be laid to bear.” Griffith said.
“You can’t be serious! The noble dragons-”
“Dylan” said Spike “look at it this way, we’ve kept this whole thing on the down low ever since it started and what has it gotten us? Nothing but pain and misery, look at Griffith.” Spike motioned to his younger brother’s stump “he’s down an arm because we didn’t tell anybody about this. Saphria and Yam almost died, and now you tried to start a war. We have to tell them, it’s the only way.”
As much as he wanted to argue why it was so necessary for the Noble Dragons to remain in hiding he couldn’t deny that Artair had a point, keeping secrets had only drawn more attention to themselves than it was worth, and seeing that there was no way he was talking them out of it Dylan could only wordlessly join the line with Saphria.
“Anybody else?” asked Griffith
Crystal shrugged “eh, it’s worth a shot I guess.”
The rest of the noble dragons gave similar responses, all falling into line.
“Good, now then.” Said Griffith as he turned towards the mane six “I am SO sorry this happened! What they did was completely out of line and I promise you that I had no idea they would go this far, I just wanted to defuse the situation!”
“Wait, you didn’t know about this?” Said Twilight
“Oh bahumut no! I would never let them do something like this, noble dragons are a lot of things but we aren’t warmongers” the tinkerer replied.
“But what about what you did in canterlot?”
“Invading a kingdom is very different from instigating a prison break princess. I’d offer an apology but uh…” Griffith shook his stump at them “I think I’ve already given a penance for that.”
“Well….alright fair enough.” Said Applejack as her rage declined “but are ya’ll serious? Yer really willin to tell us jus’ what’s goin on here?”
“I swear on my grandparent’s graves, we’ll tell you everything you need to know and answer any questions you might have, anything to prevent any further conflict.” Said Griffith.
“And you just want us to talk this out? After everything you’ve done?” Said Rainbow Dash
“Hey you could at least hear us out. Besides if we were going to try anything shifty, we would have done it already.” Said Griffith.
“Fine. But I’ve got my eye on you punk.” Said Rainbow Dash as they followed the rest of the group inside.
After the door to the castle had shut, the crystal guards looked around at the large piles of snow and rubble that resulted from their battle with the Noble Dragons.
“Hang on, who’s cleaning all this up?” Said one guard.
With a flash of magic, a broom materialized in his hand.
“You just had to ask, didn’t you?” Said the guard next to him.
***********************
“Alright so who wants to start?” Said Spike.
The Elements of Harmony and the Paragons has been allowed to use the dining room in the crystal castle as a meeting room to settle their differences, each group sat on opposite sides of the table with Spike sitting at the front between the two factions, Griffith and starlight stood on bedside him to act as mediators in case their own side got too out of hand and Ember and Thorax hung back, as much as they wanted it to be this wasn’t their fight. The tension in the air was so think you would need a chainsaw to cut through it.
“I will.” Said Twilight “can any of you please explain what this was all about?”
“Yeah, what is that whole ‘prophecy’ nonsense about?” Added Applejack.
“Do you want the full version or would you prefer the abridged version?” Said Yam.
“ABRIDGED!” Said Rainbow Dash quickly, she did not want to have to sit through a mind numbing history lesson.
“It all started roughly one thousand years ago after the Noble Dragons had been banished to the seas, what little had remained of our clan had arrived at our new home of the Vlemm Enclave. On a routine mining trip, some of the workers stumbled across an ancient temple that had been around far longer than any of us had and that was where the prophecy was discovered. It took us quite some time to decipher the ancient tongue but when we did we were surprised to discover that it directly related to the royal family of the Noble Dragons; the carvings stated that the first born son of the Royal Noble Dragon Family would rise up to become a powerful warrior destined to defeat a great evil that would threaten all life and restore the glory of the Noble Dragon clan. At first the prophecy was ignored due to Lord Frinad and Lady Layla losing their egg but when Griffith was born many believed him to be the chosen one, of course it quickly became obvious that he wasn’t and the prophecy was dismissed again. But then, many years later, I came across a baby dragon that greatly resembled Frinad and Layla; there was no doubt that he was their long lost son, we observed him in secret at first to be absolutely sure but that only served to reaffirm our beliefs, and as such the Noble Dragons came to the conclusion that Artair was the one from the prophecy. You see, we needAartair to come home for without him the noble dragons will have no future and shall perish.” Yam rambled.
“If Spike is so important to you then why didn’t you come retrieve him earlier?” Asked Rarity
“Do you know how many times we had to cancel a retrieval mission because some powerful, evil entity showed up?” Said Crystal “I mean geeze, it’s like you guys are a magnet for megalomaniac villains. Sure we could have handled a few of them but the last thing we wanted was for us to gain the attention of the wrong type of creature.”
“That’s another thing. Why do you guys want to keep secrets so badly?” Asked Fluttershy.
Connor interjected “Honestly dudette, we’re scared of the outside world. I know that sounds a little lame but it’s true; we’ve got a lot of cool stuff on the Vlemm Enclave and if anybody found out about it we’d be getting invaders on our doorstep non-stop, not to mention other kingdoms hounding us for resources. We went into hiding so we could get some peace and quiet for a change.”
“That…..actually makes a lot of sense.” Said Twilight “but that doesn’t change the matter at hand; is the prophecy the only reason you want Spike back? Is he just a vessel for you all?”
“No! Not anymore at least.” Said saphria “look, at first this was just another mission for me to get back the lost prince and secure the future for our people, but as time went on I found that there was a lot more to the little guy than I thought. Artair has more than proven himself to be worth of the title of ‘prince of the Vlemm Enclave’, he’s a loyal friend who cares greatly about others, he’s a quick thinker and overall has earned my respect as both an ally and as a friend. Despite whatever ideas you may have about us princess, all of us have grown to care deeply about Artair.”
The rest of the noble dragons sounded off in agreement.
“We aren’t only fighting to keep our future intact, we’re fighting to keep our friend safe.”
“As kind as that is, that doesn’t mean you can attack Canterlot like you did!”
“Does it?” Asked Dylan “think about it from our perspective: one of your lifelong friends, one you care about like family, has been captured by a hostile power in a relatively unknown territory and could possibly be withstanding torture. If you were in our shoes wouldn’t you do anything to get them back?”
The girls all wanted to argue back but found themselves at a loss for words, the more they thought about it the more they realized that he was right; if one of them had gotten captured the rest of their friends would have stopped at nothing to mount a rescue.
“Noble Dragons always look after their own, we protect each other at any and all costs and artair is a noble dragon if I’ve ever met one.”
“Yeah, sure we’re sorry for what we’ve done to you all but we sure as tartarus aren’t sorry for the reasons we did it.” mia interjected “besides, Artair is our friend and we just want him to grow up happy and strong.”
“How do you know that? How do you know he wouldn’t be better off where he is now?” Twilight argued
Griffith let out a nervous chuckle “Funny you should mention that princess, see I was hoping we could make a bit of a wager.”
“We’re listening” Said Twilight with narrowed eyes.
“Since you seem convinced that everything we’ve said about the Vlemm Enclave is a lie, I decided that the best way to prove to you that it really is as good as we say is to show you in person.”
All of a sudden, every single set of eyes in the room fell on Griffith.
“Come again bro?” Said Connor.
“I talked with mom and dad and they said they’d be willing to let you all” Said Griffith motioning to the ponies “visit the Vlemm Enclave to experience it’s wonders firsthand, if nothing more than to be able to see their son again.”
Saphria jumped up from her seat in anger “THERE IS NO WAY I’M LETTING SOME OUTSIDERS-“
A magic missile impacting with the wall beside her head made Saphria shut up quicker than Rainbow Dash on a Wonderbolt course.
Griffith nodded at Twilight’s student. “Thank you Starlight, as I was saying; you’d get a full tour of the enclave, stay in the palace with the royal family and Artair, and be free to do whatever you want there….within reason of course.”
“Sounds fun but how is that a wager?” Asked Pinkie Pie
“I’m getting to that. You guys and Artair will spend an entire week there, it’ll take you about that long to see everything, and at the end of the week you’ll get to decide whether or not Artair should stay. If you can honestly say that he wouldn’t be happier with us and his family then we’ll send him back with you all and the world can forget we even exist, but if not he stays with us to train and reach his full potential and possibly comes to visit all of you in a few years. But no matter your decision, the clan will be more than willing to cover any damages we caused to your kingdom and if he stays with you, so do I.”
That was about the point where all of Griffith’s friends jumped up.
“I know, I know, sounds crazy. But be it here or back home, I just want to stay with my brother.” Said Griffith as he put a hand on Spike’s shoulder. “I’ll even be willing to accept any punishment you choose for me as long as I get to be with him.”
The Mares looked between each other in uncertainty until Twilight spoke up.
“Can… can we have a few minutes in private to discuss this?” Said Twilight.
“Sure.” Said Griffith, motioning for the rest of the Paragons to follow him out into the hall.
Once they had all piled out of the room, Spike turned to his brother and said “I’d say that went pretty well.”
“I still think this is a bad idea.” Said Dylan “how can we trust them to keep their mouths shut about the enclave?”
“We can’t, but that’s a risk we’ll have to take. It’s the only chance we have at getting Artair home.” Said Crystal.
“Plus I get to show them all my favorite party spots!” Exclaimed Mia.
“And I can share some of my herb mixes.” said connor.
“Not to mention the wonderful world of draconian literature.” added Yam
“See? Everyone else is on board. Besides, I’ve got a plan….” Said griffith only to make Dylan narrow his eyes.
“The last time you said that I woke up on top of a mountain with a pink dress and a trained-“
“No this plan is better. We’re going to show them every single thing that makes the Vlemm Enclave so great as well as how cool mom and dad are and they’ll all be so amazed that they’ll have no choice to let big bro stay.” Griffith explained while ruffling the baby dragon’s head fin.
“But I-“
“Trust me Dylan.”
The door to the dining room opened to reveal Twilight standing there.
“Griffith? We talked it over and decided we’ll take you up on your wager, I have to admit I’m curious to see how noble dragons are different from regular dragons and so are the rest of the girls.” Said the princess of friendship.
“Excellent. I suggest you all pack what you need now, we’re leaving tomorrow.” Griffith replied
“Tomorrow?”
“Well yeah, the ship that’s picking us up is already on the way and we don’t want to keep em waiting.”
“Okay but we’ll have to go back to ponyville, all of our things are still there. You’re coming with us, I don’t trust any of you to be out of our sight.
“Fair enough” Griffith Replied with a shrug. “I wouldn’t trust me to be left alone either.”
As the group of mares and dragons walked out of the crystal castle, the sole baby dragon had his stomach doing somersaults and why wouldn’t he? In about one day’s time, he was going to come face to face with his long lost parents.
He just hoped they could make a good first impression.
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I love this story
...At this point, this huge threat has to be at the level of Dr. Manhattan to be believable. He needs to put Discord to shame with how ridiculously OP These dragons keep on being, even at the point where they're supposed to be at their lowest. Cause otherwise, this Threat should just get curb stomped by even one of these Godly dragons.
Also, that wager is just stupid. No matter how great this place is and what happens, Twilight and crew actually letting Spike stay after all this is just too much. A visit I can see them letting Spike do from time to time, but living there for years, no way. No freaken way. They have been through too much and everyone has put in a insane amount of effort to get Spike back. No way would they let him go when they are willing to go to such lengths to get him back and with once again how important he is to Equestria and the neighboring kingdoms.
Also, give me a break with that being their reasoning on why they kept hidden. With the power they wield, they have no reason to fear an invasion. If they can cause everyone to fall into nightmares and beat Luna and the Elements of Harmony and who knows who they cant beat at this point, no one would be able to invade them.
It sucks that you wrote yourself into a Corner with this story. Kinda like Madara From Naruto, the author wrote himself into a corner with that unbelievably powerful character and had to come of with a dumb excuse from out of left field to get rid of him.
9333319
while it is true that they could fend off an invasion several times over, they don't really want to.
The noble dragons believe that they could put all of their resources to better use towards cultural and technological development as opposed to fighting off every megalomaniac that turned up on their doorstep, they find it would be easier just to stay hidden. Like wakanda from the black panther series.
Plus you must remember that the paragons are the cream of the crop on the vlemm enclave and are trusted with the most important missions, the only noble dragons stronger than them are Frinad and Layla, Cobalt is only as powerful as he is because he's been around nearly as long as spike's parents have.
also for that great evil she'll show up in the sequel and will be at least darkseid level strength, who is also charismatic enough to trick most of the series' villains into being her patsies.
And yes I know I've written myself into a corner but you can't say I didn't at least TRY to write myself out of it.
9333329
Ahahaha, that is not a believable excuse. Like I said, if one dragon can put everyone into a nightmare, what need would they have to use their resources against an invasion. When they can have that one guy take care of the whole problem with a snap of his fingers, they won't be using any resources or wasting any time on an invasion. Wakanda may have been powerful, but even they didn't have the power to take on the whole world. These guys when one can create an entire army out of thin air, they definitely have the power. So yeah, not even close to a fitting comparison.
And with that level of power, no one should be able to stand against them. Like in Watchmen, no one could truly stand against the US because they had Dr. Manhattan and he alone with the things he could do made all the difference in the world. Thus who cares if its only a few guys, no one could realistically stand up against those few individuals. They are Gods amongst mice.
Darksied isn't a good comparison. As powerful as he is, he would loose to these guys, to Discord alone. You need someone way more powerful, you need Dr. Manhattan level.
yeah, you tried...ahh boy.
9333375
One thing I think you’re missing about cobalt is that his powers are completely limited to the dream realm, in the real world he is fairly powerless and he needs to be in a sort of meditive state to even use his powers; which means that while using his aura he is completely vulnerable to any forces in reality, nothing could stop an awake pony from simply walking up to him and stabbing him while he’s in the dream realm.
The noble dragons aren’t omnipotent, they’ve just been born with superpowers like the x-men and are more comparible to them in terms of feats. You seem to have mistaken them for Superman level beings.
As for the instant army, Yam was only able to do that because she was in an environment filled with the very element her aura could control and therefore is a purely situational ability, in an extremely hot climate her ice powers would be useless because anything she created would melt away.
Just because I haven’t mentioned their weaknesses yet doesn’t mean they are invulnerable.
9333410
Pfft, He can cause everyone to have such horrifying nightmares that they can't get an good rest, thus causing them to all become horribly fatigued in the real world, leading to all sorts of disasters ranging from small to catastrophic for his enemies. Also, who cares that he is vulnerable. Him being under the guardianship of say the king who is supposedly more powerful them him. Well, then he will be well protected to do his thing.
With all the things they can do, they could beat Superman.
What, handyman Griffith who has an invention for every situation can't create a weather changing device to create snow so Yam can do her thing. With the stuff he can create and how quickly and easily that we have seen already, him being able to create a device that changes the weather is not even remotely outside of the realm of possibility.
Oh I know their not, but that would be near impossible to beat. It isn't easy beating Superman, you need serious power to do it or have an easy to take advantage weakness like kryptonite.
9333444
counterpoint: griffith is mechanically gifted but he can't create high tech gadgets on the fly; he's like nick ramos from dead rising 3, he can create cool tools and gadgets out of simple items but they are still relatively simple compared to what he can make with better equipment and are never built to last very long. Most of the gadgets we have seen so far are just items he's built beforehand with better equipment and he simply carries them around in case of emergencies, he doesn't have unlimited pocket space and he can't be prepared for everything; he's not captain hindsight.
As for cobalt, his strength is manipulating events from the background as opposed to fighting on the front lines; to be honest his fighting skills in the real world are rather sub-par, all it would take is one strong, awake pony to take him out
9333459
Not captain hindsight!!!!!!!! He had a device for every single situation he and the rest of the noble dragons were thrown into. He might as well be when he kept pulling out device after device in every single situation. Him having built a weather device in the past, why not? He already had everything else built that they needed in every given situation. If he can build that flying machine, he can build a machine that creates snow.
So, he has the rest of the noble dragons behind him if he pulled off that move against an invading force. So what if he sucks at fighting, the king and queen can easily protect him since they are so powerful as well as the rest of the paragons. With bodyguards like those, he has nothing to worry about.
9333491
While that may be true, it is still completely hypothetical like saying that Superman could beat anyone by flying them into space or Batman always winning because he’s Batman. As the author I decide what the limits of the noble dragons are and what they are capable of, which means I have the final say in the extent of their powers
Also I need to stop debating the comments section, I feel like it makes me look like a childish pr*ck.
9333504
Superman couldn't pull that trick with everyone and Batman has lost plenty of times in the past. Yeah you do have the final say, but based upon what we have already read, there seems so be no limit and if there is. Well then, it is a very hard to reach one at this point.
...come on. No there isn't. Debate is good when its productive and you are having to critically think about your story. Surely you have noticed things you otherwise wouldn't have noticed had you not engaged with your audience.
9333526
well that is true, I've made a lot of plot changes in response to feedback from the comments section, especially from debates and I feel like my story has become better because of it. I was just worried I might have been arguing too much so it's good to hear that it's actually having a positive effect, I just tend to be passionate about my writing.
by this point in the story however I don't think I can really introduce any sort of weakness, this was supposed to be the last battle and the rest of the story will simply be a tour of the vlemm enclave. Although I probably can explore than avenue more in the eventual sequel among other things.
9333551
I understand. I once wrote fanfiction as well, so I know the feeling. A story is like your child, you created it and feel passionate about it. And engaging with your audience as I did back in the day can be a good thing. They can help you see things you otherwise wouldn't have.
Hmm, I see. Very well.
how about a side story after this whole thing is over talking about
1) each and every single member of the paragon that went to bring spike back
2) all of them telling their embarrassment stories.
3) the training they went through
oh yeah, one thing that can cause this entire visit go downhill slightly is this
i) one of the elements of harmony didn't go and instead it is thorax disguising as one of them who went instead
it will also be interesting to have princess celestia go there as well...........lol.
p.s i can bet that the noble dragons will most likely hide the brutal training and the mental training they went through that can break a person physically and mentally completely as much as possible.
p.s i say in the sequel, spike has quite a number of flashbacks on his training which left him having some sort of trauma which also becomes his main weakness.
p.s can't have spike be totally invulnerable in the sequel and no weakness at all.
9335706
are you being sarcastic? or would you rather me make some mary sue OC's?
That was a well-done battle sequence. Those are hard to pull off without getting lost in the confusion.
And then you showed up. Someone more capable of introspection would realise the implications of that statement. I mean, really, you invaded a vassal state of Equestria with an army of snow golems, that's pretty super villain-ish. No idea what the bill to the Enclave will be, but it probably ain't pennies.
9336724
thanks. I watch a lot of death battle and movie fight scenes, tend to get my inspiration from them
When Spike grow up, will know..huehuehue
9335719
A little of both I think though I don't want them to be supremely powerful they should be MUCH stronger than that, being at the top of the line in their society's military.
9348268
They’re more like the avengers or the justice league in that regard. And when pitted against equally mighty foes like dragon lord ember and princess twilight sparkle, they do tend to appear weaker.
More please
can’t wait for the reunion.
can i come?
Oh my god, shining; you devious, kinky, motherfucker. Hahahahaha!
And there is what i was hoping against the entire time. I loved the secrecy of the Noble Dragons. Its what drew me to this story in the first place. Now that secrecy is dead.
Wow, this went as how I hopefully expected it: Spike having some calming alone time with his pony friends to properly explain everything, the "war" ending peacefully, and the Mane 6 somewhat acting understanding of Spike's decision and not being greedy jerks about it (sorry for the language), although Starlight was already obvious of being the voice of reason and initially supportive one.
Plus, you've finally written yourself out of that corner, keeping the Nobles from being too OP to stopping everyone besides Starlight from acting like jerks with each other. Good job
👍
It also scares me that's I'm getting closer to where it's been last updated, meaning I'll have to wait almost eternally for what might happen next.
9334405
I don't think that'd be necessary. The Mane 8 seem to be enough for the trip.
However, Ember joining would be a wild card, since she'd feel hesitant around the Nobles, though probably get a new perspective on their side of the story.
I give up. I can't reason with fictional characters. No one in any story is going to stop asking these kinds of questions.
Yes, that's all it is, nightmare night costume, that's it, now run along my young, innocent friend