Spike's Teacher

by Richer19

Chapter 34: Seeking Shards of Knowledge

Spike moved over to where his dragon masters were at once he regained the use of his legs. Upon closer inspection he saw a sight that made his gasp in shock. Resting right on Spyro’s chest was one of those dark pulsating crystals that the stallion intruder had summoned only this one was sparking with dark purple electricity. Spyro’s face told Spike all that he needed to know about how that crystal felt given that the older purple dragon was grinding his teeth together.

“What is that?” He finally asked which brought Cynder out of her own trance like state of grief and anger.

“Some kind of tumor that is eating away at his energy and life force but I can’t seem to remove it or destroy it without causing Spyro any permanent harm.” She replied glancing back quickly at Spike before focusing back on Spyro.

“So is there nothing we can do?”

“Apart from finding and torturing that stallion for the cure before cutting his horn off and tossing him into the deepest darkest pit no.” She replied in a very cold dark tone that honestly sent a shiver down Spike’s spine.

Deciding to give the dragoness some space, he moves back to where Cadence and Shining were at; the former’s horn still glowing in blue pink light and the latter gently comforting her. Reaching the two of them, his pose relaxes a bit and asks “So...what now?”

Shining glances at Spike as Cadence replies “We need to find this ‘Crystal Heart’ that the stallion mentioned. I don’t know why but I feel like it is very important to make sure he doesn’t get it.”

Spike nods “I agree but what is to stop him from coming back and attacking us again?”

“I think the magic that Cadence is using” Shining answered “is somehow keeping his spirit and form out of the area.”

“Its not the only thing it did.” Sparx suddenly proclaimed looking out of the window.”

The ponies and dragon walked over and let out a gasp at the sight. What was once a barren abandoned town was now alive with color and beauty. Crystal houses sparkled in the daylight and the ground was washed with a sea of greens, blues, and purples. Spike couldn’t resist letting out a whistle “Oh wow I didn’t realize magic could do all that. Its like you brought back the entire city to life again.”

“That isn’t the only thing.” Cadence said keeping her voice firm despite the strain the spell was placing on her “Can’t you feel how warm it is?”

When she mentioned it a realization struck the group. So use were they to the constant biting of the blizzard that they didn’t even realize the wind and snow were gone without a trace. In fact the air had a bit of warmth to it like one would feel when on the beach during a perfect day.

Spyro at this point had managed to recover somewhat to the point that he was able to stand up much to the protest of Cynder. He took a deep breath “Right at this point we need to get some information. Our lack of knowledge about what is going on has been keeping us at a disadvantage.” He looks over at the group “To that end Spike and Sparx will go and search the town for any sort of clues while Cynder and I search the rest of this building. Shining and Cadence should stay right here. It is very important that the princess maintains the shield keeping this place alive until we can figure out a more permanent solution.”

“Are you sure it is wise for me to go out there alone?” Spike asks a bit of fear laced in his tone.

“Of course. Out of all of us who are still in full health you are the most friendly and approachable. Plus if you get into trouble Sparx can quickly fly back and summon Cynder and I to back you up.” Cynder gave a nod agreeing to the plan as Spyro reached into his bag and pulled out a small white crystal that he tossed to Spike “Here this will allow us to stay in contact. Just channel a bit of your energy into it and it should work.”

Spike caught the crystal examining it for a bit before putting it in his bag “Got it. Any specific information I should be looking for?”

“History mostly. Whatever happened here happened a long time ago so we need to know that story as it might provide us with clues on that stallion and the Crystal Heart.” Spyro stated.

“Also any information about the location we are in would be beneficial.” Cynder added keeping herself close to the wounded drake.

Spike tilted his head and moved back down the steps they took coming in with Sparx following close behind after one last look at Spyro. Down on the ground floor, the first time Spike noticed was the interesting pattern on the floor in the shape of a snowflake all pointing towards the center of the crystal spire. Normally a detail that would have been overlooked by most; to the foreign drake it stood out like a sore scale.

“Hmm given the way this design looks seemed similar to ritual runes?” Spike mused out loud a finger rubbing his chin.

“Ritual Runes?” Sparx asked the term unfamiliar to him.

Blinking a bit not quite used to having to explain something as normally he was surrounded by those who did the explanations for him, stated “Well back a long time ago before Starswirl the Bearded modernized magical spells a lot of unicorns would draw glyphs and runes on the floor as a prerequisite to doing complex spellcraft. Twilight always said you could find these types of symbols on the floors of old unicorn homes and certain objects.”

“Do you know what this one does then?”

“Not a clue. I’m no unicorn so I can’t magic the runes to analyze their spell matrix. Best I can do would be to channel my dragon magic into it but without knowledge of what this does I could risk trigger a magical feedback.”

“Which would be bad right?”

“Oh big time.” Spike concluded “Wish Twilight was here. She would be able to decipher this with ease.”

Moving on from the base of the spire the two walked towards the town market seeing it now in color but noticed that there were no signs of activity. Letting out a soft sigh and placing his hands on his hips, Spike took a look around “Nothing of new compared to when we first entered. I can’t tell what kinds of items these markets would sell.

“Considering the harsh climate you would think they would be more focused on agriculture.” Sparx noted resting on top of Spike’s head.

“Perhaps they get a lot of their food from trade but this is all just conjecture at this point.”

Suddenly there was a flash of movement from the corner of the dragon’s eyes. Dropping into a defensive stance, he focused on the area around where he saw the movement and managed to catch sight of a tail slipping down one of the streets. “Hay wait!” Spike called out giving chase jumping over and through stalls until moving around the same corner.

“Oh please Sire have mercy on me.” A voice cried out in front of the drake as he slowed down. His eyes widen in shock as in front of him Shaking on the ground with a bag of apples that would make Applejack question whether or not they were safe for consumption was a mare with matted gray coat and a dull mix of pink and gray matted straight down and also looking like it hadn’t known a shower or a spa. What did surprise Spike the most were that here eyes wide in fear did not contain the usual oval pupils of Equestria ponies but hexagon shaped. A flower pot cutie mark adorned her flank which Spike only took the quickest of glances before focusing back on her face.

Fearing the worst and sensing a chance to get some much needed info; he quickly backed up and adopted a less threatening posture “Hay hay hay it's okay. I’m not going to hurt you.” Seeing the apples scattered around the ground he lowered himself down and slowly placed them back in the basket before placing the basket in front of her “I’m sorry for scaring you its just that you are the first pony I’ve seen since coming here.”

The mare still fearful of him slowly got onto her hooves and carefully took the basket back “Thank...thank you Sire but why pray tell did you not report me to the guards for stealing?”

Spike noticed that the mare seemed to be malnourished given her stomach was thinner then what as considered healthy and the color of her body was overall dull “I haven’t seen any guards around.”

She shifted, fear still in her eyes “They will be here soon though. King Sombra does not like us to be outside during the day.”

“King Sombra?” Sparx asked coming around after being thrown off by Spike.

The mare then let out a cry and clutched her head before shooting off down the street in a full gallop with Spike letting out an unheard plea to stop leaving the dragon and dragonfly with some more questions but perhaps the answer to at least one question. “I think we now know the name of that stallion in smog” Spike stated before moving back to the marketplace. It was time to make a call.

Comments

[hydra30]

After so long of silence, you are back and on a roll, I'm so happy.

Thanks for the return of this story, The Legend of Spyro trilogy is my favorite game series (Skylanders suck) and Mlp is my favorite show.

Hey I could never tell, but is there anything going on between Spyro and Cynder in your story, there like my favorite fiction character pairing.

May the Ancestors look after you, may they look after us all.

First

[Richer19]

9787354
I'll just say that Spyro X Cynder are one of my OTPs

[hydra30]

9787361
Then I won't lose hope, thanks for being a reminder that I am not alone in remembering LOS from so long ago.