Another beautiful day rose upon the kingdom of Equestria, the sun using the sky as a canvas to paint a multitude of beautiful colors as it rose above the horizon, and nowhere else could one observe this beauty better than in the city of Canterlot.
The old town’s geographical position atop one of Equestria’s tallest mountains made it perfect for overseeing all the land that fell within the country’s borders, this was no coincidence I assure you, which created a sort of natural beauty as the sunlight slowly crawled its way across the land; engulfing every city and town that it fell upon.
Eventually the glorious morning gave way to a beautiful day, one without a single cloud in the sky, it was the perfect kind of day for an outing with friends.
Or in a certain young dragon’s case, playing in the royal gardens.
Yes Spike was having a wonderful time running through the Canterlot gardens, playfully chasing the animals around, climbing up the trees only to jump out of them into the bushes; laughing the whole time.
Sky Thrasher couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the picture of childhood innocence occuring before his very eyes, though he had to admit it was a tad strange watching a mere three year old run around in the body comparable to that of a colt three times his age.
To say that Princess Celestia was shocked when he presented her with the little hatchling was the understatement of the year; she was naturally cautious at first given that he had brought a dragon into her court, but the moment the little guy looked up at her with those shining eyes she literally squealed in delight which was a sound sky would treasure for years to come.
From then on, Celestia essentially adopted Spike as her own son and doted on him as much as she could; unfortunately because she still had a kingdom to run she couldn’t nearly devote enough time to properly care for him, much less as much time as she would have liked to spend with him.
So Sky Thrasher ended up being promoted to ‘chief guardian of the royal son’; which was basically a fancy way of saying that he was a dragon babysitter. But hey, it kept him in the castle and out of the trenches, not to mention it gave him a bit more authority than the average guard so he really couldn’t complain.
On the other hoof, the dragon was quite the hooffull: constantly getting into places he shouldn’t be, eating like a full grown stallion, and the growing oh don’t get Sky Thrasher started on the growing.
Spike grew up so fast and not in a metaphorical way, within just a few months he was already the size of a young foal and by the end of the first year with him Spike looked like he belonged in the middle of elementary school. Some of the egghead unicorns said that he’s maturing very quickly but aging really slowly, like reverse dog years.
Despite all of it though, the good and the bad alike, Spike had kind of grown on the guard; like the foal brother he never had or the son he’d always wanted.
The frightened squeak of a squirrel darting up a tree as Spike’s claws whooshed by it finally brought the guard out of his deep thoughts and back to the matter at hand.
“Spike! It’s time for breakfast!” the royal guard shouted.
The dragon immediately perked up and ran over to the royal babysitter, hopping up and down in front of him.
“Oh boy breakfast! I want rubies!”
Sky Thrasher gently took hold of the dragon’s crystal arm and led him deeper into the castle towards the dining room. “You can’t have gems for every meal Spike, a growing colt- er… dragon needs a balanced diet.”
“So what are we having” asked the dragon as he sat down at the head of the dinner table.
Sky trotted off into the kitchen, returning moments later with a steaming hot plate of chocolate chip waffles.
“Waffles, with maple syrup and a pat of butter.”
Spike started down at the food offering place in front of him with an intense look before recoiling back and shoving the plate away from him, an expression of disgust coming across his face.
“Oooh no! No way! I don’t like wapples!”
Sky Thrasher frowned. “How could you not like waffles? You’ve never even had them before, they’re yummy.”
“No they’re yucky!” the dragon stubbornly replied “I want a bowl of gems!”
Sky Thrasher sighed, of course Spike had to be difficult about this like every other foal trying new things, luckily he knew how to get him to come around.
“Okay tell you what, you try one little bite of these waffles and if you still don’t like em I’ll get you a bowl of rubies.”
“The kind mom keeps on the top shelf?”
“The very same.”
The dragon seemed to contemplate the deal for a moment before looking back up at Sky.
“One bite?”
“Just one” the guard replied.
“Hmm….okay!”
“That’s the spirit!” said sky as he cut off a small piece of the waffle and held it out on a fork. “Open up”
Spike aaaahed, leaning foward until his lips wrapped around the piece of crisp and fluffy goodness; chewing it momentarily before swallowing it down.
“Well? Good?”
Spike blinked and then smiled broadly “hey...I LOVE IT!”
The dragon quickly stanched the fork out of Sky Thrasher’s hooves and started scarfing down the waffles in a messy fashion.
“See, I told you that you’d like em”
Sky Thrasher walked off with an equally large grin on his face to get his own breakfast, All in all in had been a great morning for everypony and dragon.
***************************************
Meanwhile in the dragonlands, the local populace was not having a good morning, not even close.
Now given their living conditions the dragons rarely had good mornings since they had so many things to worry about just to survive the approaching day, but this morning was particularly bad for every dragon.
Nobody seemed to know what it was but it was as if a massive disturbance had washed over every last one of them all at once near instantly, they were all screaming out in pain and anguish towards the heavens.
So much so that even the dragon Lord Torch was awoken from his slumber and went out to be met with the sight of screaming dragons.
Not exactly the best way to wake up in the morning.
Torch quickly turned towards one of his generals “what in the name of the gods is going on out here?!”
“M-my lord it’s the hatchling he…..he has eaten the waffle.”
Torch’s eye twitched. “What?!”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?! He has eaten the waffle! Disrupting the prophecy and sending a disturbance through the very souls of all dragonkind!”
“Which means that Smaug will never return to us now.” Torch paused for a moment as he surveyed the surroundings, anguish possessing his people. “Truly this is our darkest hour.”
“Unless….” said the general.
“Unless?”
“We were to lure him in before the ponies could go any further with him.”
Torch raised an eyebrow in interest. “Just what are you proposing?”
“Oh I’ve got a rather devilish idea in mind that could bring smaug back to his true destiny, but I shall need Duke Garble and Lady Ember to make it work.”
“Very well, what is your plan?”
The general leaned in and began to whisper into his superior’s ear, an evil grin sprouting upon the latter’s face as he listened into the plot.
Little did either of them know that their so called ‘chosen one’, would become one of their greatest adversaries of all time.
Author's Note
sorry for not updating this or any of my other stories for a while. I've just been going through a lot of life stuff and really haven't been in the mood to write lately not to mention I'm running several other stories both here and on fanfiction.net, but I'm getting back at it and you should expect updates soon.
As for this chapter, it's only as short as it is because the hellboy story it's based off of is only two pages long but it's one of my all time favorites and I just had to write it in.
950 PNM (post nightmare moon)
It was a cold clear night in Equestria, the air was still and peaceful, the sky sparkled with millions of diamond like stars, and the land was quiet as all of the inhabitants had long since departed for the dream realm.
Well, almost all of them….
Sky Thrasher was standing guard in the bitter cold of the Smokey Mountains, his teeth chattering as goosebumps formed under the fine fur of his light blue coat, his wings had begun to grow numb from the freezing temperatures along with the tips of his hooves.
Why oh why did he have to get assigned to this detail?
It had all started a few weeks ago when the ECP guard had received an anonymous tip regarding an evil plot to overthrow the princess, a fairly standard job for the ECP as this sort of thing tended to happen on a weekly basis and usually it was just some sexist nutjob who hated mares (sometimes venturing into the ridiculous category, like that one stallion with that jar of grape jam.) so he had assumed it would have been over quickly and things would go back to normal.
But as time went on and more evidence surfaced regarding the individuals that were at the epicenter of this plot, it became more apparent that this wasn’t just another false alarm and was actually a legitimate threat: there was a strange cult spreading in equestria obsessed with a creature they deemed ‘the fire starter’, a mythical beast that when awoken would be fated to burn Equestria to the ground and bring forth armageddon for the whole world.
There were several break ins at museums and vaults around Equestria, many of them resulting in powerful artifacts being stolen from right under their noses repeatedly; strange sacrificial pires began to pop up, each more horrific than the last, all centered around a strange green fire symbol that was discovered to belong to the cult itself; and, most recently, a map of Equestria with several locations marked upon it, locations that matched up with where the robberies took place or where the pyres were constructed.
Eventually the situation got concerning enough that they had to call in a few…..experts, to help the ECP guard with the investigation.
Amongst them were Moon Rose and Silver Spectre; a pair of ‘psychics’ who could apparently detect negative magical energies in the air as well as pick up on spirits of the dead, it wouldn’t have been so far fetched if it weren’t for the fact that neither of them were even unicorns. Sky Thrasher couldn’t even comprehend how they could possibly have any sort of grasp on magic without having a horn.
Then there was professor Copper Eye, a strange old unicorn stallion with a knack for anything involving the paranormal: ghosts, skeletons, bat-ponies, lords of chaos, you name it and he could give you a three hour lecture on it. He had this big bushy beard that Copper called ‘his crumb trapper’, a long frazzled mane that could be mistaken for a bird’s nest, and this weird glass eye surrounded by a leather strap that seemed to be keeping it in place, Copper Eye even went so far as to claim that it could see through the back of his own head and with how many times it rolled into the back of his eye socket, Sky Thrasher was inclined to believe him. Despite all those strange behaviors, the stallion seemed to know what he was talking about and was still fairly lucid most of the time; he seemed like an okay guy to sky, if a bit eccentric at times, reminded him a lot of his grandfather back home.
And of course this ragtag group wouldn’t be complete without somepony out of left field: the Mare-Do-Well. Sky loved the Mare-Do-Well when he was just a little colt, every sunday he’d take his allowance down to the corner store to get the latest issue of her exploits but as he grew older Sky Thrasher assumed that she was just a fictional character.
Boy was he wrong.
It was kind of surreal meeting his childhood idol in the flesh like this, normally he’d be gazing over an illustration of her punching some gruff looking thugs in the face against a gritty city background but here she was, sitting with his fellow squad members, sharing a cup of coffee with them all, really showed that past the mysterious superhero persona, the Mare-Do-Well was just another pony like the rest of them were; She was even nice enough to sign his mint condition copy of Mare-Do-Well #1 (you can never be too old to like super heros you know..). But she was also the one to make them all realize the gravity of the situation, whenever she spoke of the mission it was with the utmost seriousness in her tone, even for her, as if the world itself hung in the balance of this mission. Without her, they might have all completely ignored old Copper Eye and the psychics completely but instead they were hanging on every word they said about this mission.
But that still didn’t make up for the fact that Sky Thrasher was freezing his flank off out here instead of staying home, curled up alongside his marefriend with a nice bottle of red wine.
It was never even his choice to be here at all, Celestia needed a ECP squad assigned to monitor activity in the Smokey Mountains as it was the only remaining location on the map they had obtained that the cult hadn’t been active in yet and when it came down to picking and choosing who would go and who would stay, Sky Thrasher and his bunkmate Rapid Shadow ended up being the last ones on the list. Neither of them wanted to go out for their own reasons (namely the cold and boredom) and they both put forward very good cases to stay, in the end the decision was made by a coin toss.
Sky Thrasher is mentally bucking himself that he didn’t call heads.
While Rapid Shadow was probably living it up back in canterlot, as much as an on duty ECP guard could anyways; eating hot meals in the canteen, sleeping in a warm and cozy bed, patrolling the clean and well lit halls of canterlot castle, and playing cards and sharing jokes with all the other guards who were lucky enough to avoid being placed here.
Meanwhile Sky Thrasher had to have his meals straight out of a can, using a lumpy cot on a stone surface to sleep on, getting slapped across the face by high winds and bitter cold, and playing cards and sharing jokes with his squad mates and the Mare-Do-Well…..
It wasn’t all bad he supposed.
“Long night, my friend?”
Sky Thrasher looked over his shoulder to see Copper Eye standing there with a grin, one eye on the guard while the other was darting every which way; the first time he saw Copper Eye’s eye do that it was extremely unnerving, but he had gotten used to it fairly quickly.
“You don’t know the half of it doc.” Sky Thrasher replied.
“Try me boy. Is it the cold? The ghastly winds? The sub-par living conditions? Or perhaps is it the shock of meeting your childhood idol in person?” said Copper Eye.
“Look, while I’ve never been a fan of the cold the royal guard trains us to power through this sort of thing, doesn’t mean I have to like it thought. No what’s really getting to me is the sheer boredom of this whole affair.” the guard replied.
“Really now?”
“Well yeah, we’ve been sitting around in the middle of nowhere doing pretty much nothing. Sure there was that vampire jackalope but that’s the only action we’ve seen for days, one can only play go fish so many times doc. I just wish something would happen”
Copper Eye smiled at the guard “do not worry, your wish may come true after all.”
This caused Sky Thrasher to raise an eyebrow “what do you mean?”
“Well I have just finished speaking with Silver Spectre and he informed me that whatever the cult has in store is happening tonight, he can sense them a mere few miles from here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Sky Thrasher, standing at attention “why aren’t we booking it there now?!”
“Patience my friend, while we know they are attempting to fulfill some sort of unholy prophecy, we have no knowledge of their numbers nor their exact intent. The scouts have already been sent ahead to investigate so all we can do is remain here and wait.” Copper Eye explained “come, sit with the others and have some canned bread, you need to be at peak strength for the coming events.”
Sky Thrasher huffed, the old fart did have a point: if they rushed in, cannons blazing they might get themselves killed, they needed to know exactly what they were going up against first. Plus some canned bread did sound good.
But for some reason or another, Sky Thrasher couldn’t shake the sinking feeling in the pit of his gut that something really bad was going to happen….
*************************************
The guard was partially right in his instincts, as for just a few miles north of their camp the cult was busy at work creating their crowning achievement; something bad wasn’t going to happen, it was already happening.
The cultists were decked out in ceremonial robes, decorated with flame designs that danced across the fabric like a willow in the wind. They were all sitting in a massive circle around a set of ancient ruins that sprouted up from the ground like weeds in an otherwise spotless garden, unknown symbols carved into the stone obelisks.
Standing within the center of the ruins was a pony wearing garb that would suggest that they are the cult leader, flanked by their two most trusted disciples one of whom was a griffin and the other held the appearance of a minotaur, and an odd looking alicorn with a twisted horn, bug like wings, and holes through the bottom halves of her legs stood further back observing the event with desperate anticipation. But the focus of the crowd wasn’t placed upon any of them, no it was the object placed directly before these individuals:
A small green and purple dragon egg, stolen straight out of the dragon lands from the nest of a sleeping dragoness; the alicorn had sacrificed some of her best soldiers to obtain it (dragons hated being stolen from more than anything else after all) but she believed it would all be worth it if it meant preserving the lives of her subjects in the long run.
The cult leader, a stallion with a long scraggly beard and a magical staff that sparked with every word, was chanting ancient passages in a long forgotten tongue that only a select few had the privilege to know:
“из ватре тартаруса и позовем те, са крицима проклетих које те пробудим.” said the stallion
“фалкујте ватрогасца, разбијача континената, разарач цивилизације, позивам вас да нам помогнете у нашем трагању за пропаст; окончати доминацију понија и увести нову еру, спалити свијет и саградити га новим. Да не покажете милост онима који желе да нам се супротставе.”
“да нам служи у овом животу и следећем, позивам те!”
With the last syllable, the egg began to glow with a green aura, cracks began to form along the surface as pressure began to build within the egg, the vessel violently shaking with magic; causing everypony to take a step back in anticipation for the inevitable explosion that would occur.
All at once, the egg erupted into a massive fireball that blew the shell apart, sending fragments in every direction and yet the crowd seemed unphased by the light show. The cult leader then stepped forward and wielded his staff towards the fire, an arc of magic spewing forth and impacting the flame, causing it to twist and turn, coursing with the pure magical energy being fed into. It paused for a brief moment midair, all movement ceasing for an instant, then suddenly as if it had been stuck the fireball flew into the air like a bottle rocket into the night sky; disappearing into the clouds.
“It is done” said the bearded stallion.
“What? That’s it?!” the strange alicorn said back.
“Spare me your woes Chrysalis.”
“Woes?! My woes are the least of your problems! You promised me a beast of destruction that would pave the way for my changeling horde to take over equestria.” shouted Chrysalis
“And?”
Chrysalis blinked in disbelief at the gall of this stallion “WHERE. IS. IT?! I did not sacrifice dozens of my children so you could put on a measly light show for your cowardly followers! I don’t appreciate failure!”
“I have not failed queen. I have set in motion a series of events that cannot be reversed or undone, you wanted the fall of Equestria? It shall come to pass in due time, you must simply have patience.” the stallion calmly explained
“I don’t have patience you moron!” Chrysalis barked “my changelings are starving to death in the badlands! I need solutions now! Not in due time! Oh I don’t know why I ever believed you could help us, you’re just another senile old fool obsessed with myths and folktales.”
The changeling queen promptly took off in disgust, assuming that the plan had failed, the few troops she had brought along with her soon followed and disappeared into the darkness just as the fire had earlier.
The griffin then took a step forward “Master, please tell me she was a fool, that you truly did succeed in your endeavor and our efforts weren’t for naught.”
“She was always a fool, to think that the great Falkor would ever serve an insignificant insect such as herself, no she has failed to obtain what she has wanted but we have succeeded, soon this world shall burn and in it’s place a new order shall be created. For now though, we must retreat back into the shadows and wait for the opportune moment to strike, Falkor is still trapped in his youthful body and will require time to grow into the great destroyer.” the stallion said with an assuring tone.
“And what of the ponies my lord?” said the minotaur “what if they get to him first and attempt to steer him away from his fate?”
The stallion snorted “oh please, as if those weaklings could ever change fate; no Falkour was brought into this world as a destroyer and he shall become one regardless of the events that occur from this point forward….”
Unfortunately for the stallion, he never realized just how wrong he was until it was far too late.
****************************
The royal guard encampment had been on high alert for a few moments as moon rose began to sense the ritual occuring not too far from them.
“Oh I can sense it now. An intense destructive force of pure chaos, growing in strength, feeding off another being’s magic.” Moon Rose paused “wait, there’s something else, something emerging from the force….a beast, reborn from fire from one world into ours…..it’s coming closer.”
It was completely silent in the mountaintop, the entire group waiting in suspenseful anticipation for what was to come, but after several moments had passed the ponies had appeared to lower their guard.
Then the fireball came crashing down, right in the center of the entire camp.
“WHAT THE?! ARE WE UNDER ATTACK?!”
“WHAT’S GOING ON?!”
“IS IT PARASPRITES AGAIN?!”
“WAIT! Look!” shouted Silver Spectre
The fire had dissipated fairly quickly, giving way to smoke and ash. As that cleared up a miniscule figure was revealed to be sitting in the exact spot where the fireball had landed down.
A few of the bolder guards, Sky Thrasher amongst them, took a few steps closer to try and get a better look and were treated to the sight of a small infant dragon sitting in the crater, green and purple scales covering his body, looking just as scared and bewildered as the rest of them were.
“THE BEAST! KILL IT! KILL IT BEFORE IT DESTROYS US ALL” shouted Silver Spectre.
“It…..it doesn’t look like a monster to me professor.” said the Mare-Do-Well, who had been taking off guard for the first time in her life.
“It appears to be nothing more than a baby dragon. Though it’s entrance does strike me as odd.” Copper Eye added.
The dragon sniffled, clearly not pleased about being in the cold mountain air, and began to wail out in anguish.
If there’s one thing that’s consistent between all the various species of equestria be them sapient or otherwise, it’s that the distressed cries of an infant regardless of the species are always one of the most heart wrenching sounds in the world.
Sky Thrasher didn’t know what had possessed him to start getting closer to the dragon, he didn’t know why he had scooped up the dragon into his arms to try and soothe it, and he didn’t know why the dragon seemed to calm down and curl up in his embrace.
“Shhh shh, hey it’s alright little guy, I’ve got you” cooed the stallion.
Maybe it was his protective brotherly instincts he had developed from looking after his baby sister for all those years which gave him a comforting aura or maybe it was merely his body heat that was so attractive but in either case the dragon snuggled up closer to him and fell asleep. That was when Sky Thrasher noticed something strange about the infant, it seemed as though it’s entire left arm was comprised entirely of a crystal like substance, far bulkier than it’s flesh counterpart.
Mare-Do-Well turned to Silver Shroud with a raised eyebrow “really? That adorable bundle of scales is going to kill all of us?”
Silver Spectre remained silent, cautiously watching Sky Thrasher in case he may need assistance.
“Well perhaps not now.” said Copper Eye whilst stroking his beard “but dragons do tend to get more aggressive as they get older, then again that may be due to the environment they grow up in….this could be a prime research opportunity.”
“What are you proposing?”
“A nature vs nurture experiment. We can take the dragon home and raise it within the palace walls in secret, train it to be a member of the royal guard if need be, and see if it still becomes the aggressive monster most dragons are; not to mention all the psychological and physiological data we can acquire from him in the process.” continued Copper Eye.
Sky Thrasher approached the rest of the group, the dragon still clutched to his chest“Well if we are keeping him the little guy’s gonna need a name.”
“How about Spike?” said the Mare-Do-Well, pointing to the dragon’s head fins.
The dragon suddenly stirred and looked up at all the ponies with gleaming eyes, filled with curiosity.
The Mare-Do-Well gently lowered herself to eye level with the dragon. “What do you say boy? You like the name spike?”
The dragon gently cooed and laid his palm against the pony’s snout, a slight smile on his face.
“I guess that’s a yes.”
“Well we may as well head back now, whatever the cult had come to do here has already been done, I can no longer sense the same destructive forces that were occuring before.” explained Moon Rose.
“Alright, but I’m gonna have a Tartarus of a time explaining this to Princess Celestia” replied the guard as he held the now giggling dragon at arm’s length.
What had occurred that night was no minor incident, it was the beginning of a chaotic hurricane of events that would shake the very foundations of the world to it’s core, new threats would emerge, kingdoms stomped out.
When the sun rose on Equestria the next morning, it was the dawn of a new age for Equestria, one that would have the dragon formerly known as Spike at it’s epicenter.
Author's Note
first ever crossover story I've done!
I really hope I can do this one justice, I've always been a pretty big fan of hellboy and the B.P.R.D
