//-------------------------------------------------------// Spyro and Spike Book One: Gnorc Gnexus -by Joker the Hedgehog- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue: Into The Vortex //-------------------------------------------------------// Author's Note Greetings Gotham, Joker here! Welcome to my very first foray into Spyro/MLP crossovers! Not much else to say here, really, other than the idea for this one simply fell into my head yesterday. Well, let's get this party started! https://camo.fimfiction.net/qWIqUPi86Y-W2gWesx8Y7_1km5ndZd_WVB-pMhS8Txs?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FYPIrsRqqO7oB2%2Fgiphy.gif Prologue: Into The Vortex Prologue: Into The Vortex It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. Celestia’s sun was shining, the birds were singing, everything was just picture-perfect… oh, and Twilight Sparkle had discovered a brand-new spell. As the young alicorn sorceress looked through the battered old book that contained the spell, which she had gotten from the ruins of The Castle of The Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest, she noticed that what exactly the spell she discovered did had faded away. Well, nothing a little trial and error can’t fix, thought Twilight as she used her magic to grab an apple from the fridge to use as a test subject. Glancing at what she had of the spell, Twilight focused her energies. The familiar glow of magic generated by her horn filled the room. But, then, something began to go wrong. The purplish glow suddenly turned into a vibrant gold color. Twilight tried to cancel the spell, but her horn just wouldn't respond. “Wha-what’s happening?! Spike! HELP ME!” yelled Twilight as the pressure in her horn began to build to the point where it felt like somepony was taking a jackhammer to her head. Finally, with an explosion that shook all of Ponyville like a child’s rattle, a golden orb of magic flew out of Twilight’s horn and formed into a swirling vortex that shot bolts of lightning all over the place. A little purple and green dragon came running down the stairs. This was Spike, Twilight’s loyal assistant. “Twilight, what’s- HOLY GUACAMOLE, WHAT’S THAT?!” yelled Spike, pointing at the vortex. “I don’t know… but, it’s trashed the library AND given me a really bad headache,” said Twilight, rubbing her forehead with her hoof as she looked around the trashed library. At that precise moment, Twilight’s friends, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, ran, or in some cases, flew, through the doorway. “Twilight! Ya’ll okay?” asked Applejack, a look of concern on her face. “Girls! What are you doing here?” asked Twilight as Rarity helped her to her hooves. “Well, after we heard that explosion, we thought we’d come see if you were okay. So, what happened? One of your potions go wrong or something?” asked Rainbow. “No… it’s that,” said Twilight, pointing at the vortex. Rainbow and the others just stared at the swirling vortex but out of them, Spike seemed mesmerized by the colors of the vortex as it continued to swirl. “I-it’s… whoa.” Spike said in a trance as he slowly walked towards the vortex. “Spike, are you crazy?! Get away from there!” yelled Twilight. “So… pretty…” said Spike as he reached out to touch the vortex. Before Twilight could stop him, Spike touched the vortex, and was almost instantly pulled inside, leaving six very horror-stricken ponies behind as the mysterious gateway closed behind him. "I... don't believe it," Princess Twilight whispered quietly as tears formed in her eyes at having apparently lost her lifelong assistant and oldest friend. "Spike is just... WHOOSH! Gone!" said Pinkie, shocked at how her dragon pal had been whisked away, possibly forever. Applejack took off her hat in respect as tears ran silently down her face, and the faces of all her friends at the loss of a young, sweet, and innocent drake, who was also one of their closest friends... Meanwhile, in the Dragon Badlands, the newly-minted Dragon Lord, Princess Ember, who was a light blue winged dragoness with silver horns and a dark blue spine, was currently practicing the magical abilities afforded to her by the Bloodstone Scepter, given to her by a young dragon named Spike, who had won it for her in the Gauntlet of Fire. Just recently, however, as Spike had started coming to the Badlands more often to receive training for his very potent Fire Casting abilities, Ember had found that she had been thinking more and more about Spike, a part of her wondering if she had fallen in love with the drake. But, even if she had, she was far too busy making sure the rest of her kind didn’t try to kill each other. Then again, all dragons were assholes by nature, so she had had… limited success. That was why she was hoping that by improving her prowess with the Scepter, she could hopefully try to start changing things and bringing the Dragon Kingdom back to life. Now then, let’s see here… thought Ember as she looked through a particularly old tome, and found a spell that seemed to be either smudged or faded away, she couldn’t really tell which. Well, it certainly seems powerful… let’s give it a try, thought Ember before she moved into the space she had cleared out for practicing spells, and began focus her dragon magic to use it. Immediately, she could tell that something was wrong. The Bloodstone Scepter began to shake and vibrate violently, throwing off energy all over the place. Even thought Ember tried to cancel the spell, it seemed as though she had gone past the point of no return, just as her claw seemed to refuse to drop the Scepter, even as the magical energy stored into it was about to reach critical levels. Knowing what was about to happen, Ember closed her eyes, preparing to face her fate. “Spike… I love you-” With a resounding explosion that was heard from one end of the Dragon Badlands to the over, Ember and the Bloodstone Scepter were seemingly vaporized in a violent magical explosion. As Spike fell through a void that was so dark, he wasn't even able to see his own claw in front of his face, he wondered if this was what it felt like to be... dead. Oh, please, Faust, don't let me be dead! There's so much I wanted to do with my life! I didn't get to tell Ember how I felt about her! Please, Faust, no! Spike though desperately. As he fell, Spike heard various things... things that sometimes made Spike worried on a number of levels. "Ya hear that, Scootaloo?! You're all gonna die!" said Rainbow Dash’s disembodied voice, before it broke into psychotic laughter. "Never wound what you can't kill," a monstrous voice said. "CaN yOu FeEl ThE sUnShInE?" asked a demonic voice that made Spike think of a stuffed fox doll for some reason. "HeLlO. dO yOu WaNt To PlAy WiTh Me?" asked a second demonic voice that made Spike think of a monster that put the "demon" in "speed demon." “Ugh, I feel so strange… like I suddenly want to take up two parking spaces at once,” said a disembodied male voice. "I'm a crazy pizza man! Who juggles and sings!" declared a jubilant female voice that somehow reminded Spike of Pinkie Pie. Spike frowned in sadness... Pinkie would truly miss him.. as would Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and his ex-crush Rarity... and he would miss them. But, the one pony who Spike would miss the most was his beloved Princess Ember… there had been times back home in the Dragon Badlands during his Fire Caster training where it almost seemed as though Ember had felt the same way as him. No sooner had Spike thought of his one true love than a terrible pain shoot through what was unmistakably his body, which of course, meant that he was very much alive. If the pain he was in wasn't so excruciating, he would've shouted for joy. But, since it felt like the very bones in his body were being rearranged, all Spike could do was bite his lip to keep himself from screaming. Unfortunately, the only thing this accomplished was causing his lip to bleed. "HOLY FAUST IN ELYSIUM THIS HURTS! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" screamed Spike in obvious agony. But, the pain did not stop. It just kept coming and coming until Spike finally lost consciousness. “Aw, come on, Cyn, It’s just for today,” a purple anthropomorphic dragon with two large golden horns and a yellow spine that continued all the way down his back, said to the female black dragon with silver horns that was walking beside him. He wore a light purple jacket with a yellow shirt underneath, khaki pants, and purple and white sneakers Cynder rolled her eyes. She wore a black blouse, tight blue jeans that seemed to enhance her slender figure, and pink and black tennis shoes. “That’s what you said the last four times and each time, one or both of us gets in trouble. And I don’t want to get another scolding from Father again.” Spyro sighed as he tried again to get Cynder to go with him. “I promise, Cyn, that it will be the last time.” “Of this month or this week?” Cynder replied coolly. Spyro groaned as he and Cynder walked the path that lead to the school’s portal. “Please, Cynder. It’s Friday and you deserve a three-day weekend.” Cynder turned to face Spyro, placing her hands on her hips as she spoke back to him. “I’m not the one who needs constant tutoring just so he can pass the class, Spyro. We need to keep our grades up if we are to pass.” Spyro sighed before he decided to pull out the fireballs. He gave of a coy smile as he tilted his head slightly. “Alright. I’ll just go to Artisans on my own. Shame. It would be a great place for you to write your report while we have a picnic…” A red blush escaped Cynder’s face as her eyes widened with disbelief. “S-Spyro! You-you shameless flirt!” As Spyro let out a hearty chuckle, a large explosion tore the sky asunder, causing both dragons to look in the direction the blast had come from. A massive vortex of some kind had appeared, and it looked like something was falling from it. Two somethings in fact, both of them decidedly dragon-shaped. And it looked like they were going to land not too far from where they were, which it did with a resounding thud. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the vortex vanished without a trace, leaving Spyro, Cynder, and several other dragons nearby to stand there, speechless. Getting ahold of himself, Spyro nudged Cynder. “Come on, let’s go check it out! Someone could be hurt!” Spyro said to the dragoness standing beside him before taking off in the direction the two dragon-shaped figures had fallen. Hesitating for only a few moments, Cynder gave a nod and ran off after Spyro. Meanwhile, in pocket dimension 22475, the Bloodstone Scepter lay upon the barren ground as a figure in a protruding cape walked up to it. “Well, well, well, what have here? Love the design, but a bit too big for me…we’ll simply have to fix that now, won’t we? CRUSH! GET OVER HERE! I NEED YOU TO BREAK SOMETHING FOR ME!”