Dragons must heed every word of the dragon lord, but that doesn’t mean the dragon lord is never challenged. Ember, the winner of the last Gauntlet of Fire was occupying the spire known as the Dragon Lord’s Throne, which towers above a vast field of basalt and is visible in all of the Dragon Lands, granted there’s not a mountain in the way. Though she preached the virtues of friendship, taking inspiration from the ponies of Equestria, her rule was anything but friendly. Because telling a fire-breathing reptile what to do requires an iron fist. Equestria has seen many dragon lords before, as the tumultuous leadership switched around constantly. And Ember was about to meet her first challenger.
Somewhere, in a less quiet corner of the Dragon Lands, Garble and his buddies were lava bathing. After a long day of stealing phoenix eggs and digging up gems and bullying smaller dragons who were trying to live by Ember’s new rules, they allowed themselves a relaxing dip in a freshly dug and freshly filled pool of lava. Garble was about to doze off, while his pals blathered on.
“You know, not that it’s my favourite or anything,” said one of them, “but I’ve been seeing fewer and fewer sapphires at the Corundum Hills.”
“I hear the ponies like sapphires a lot.” Said another.
Garble tensed up at the mention of ponies.
“That’s funny,” a third one chimed in, “I’ve been seeing ponies around the Corundum Hills.”
“Then why didn’t you beat them up?”
“I can’t! Dragon Lord Ember ordered so.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t have found out.”
“She would!” Garble grumbled, now completely disturbed from his rest. “She’s like allied with the ponies now and they’d snitch to her.”
“Man, ponies just ruin everything! I don’t know why Ember keeps insisting on being friends with them.”
“Yeah, they used to be our preys. How did this even happen?”
“I don’t know man, but I’ve heard things. Things like ponies were helping her win the gauntlet.”
That last part has made Garble wince. “Can you shut up now? She’s the dragon lord now, so stop whining about it!”
“Garble would have been a much better dragon lord!”
Garble chuckled proudly. “Ey, thanks.” He then realized that he did not recognize the voice and looked up at his friends. "Wait, who said that?" They looked around as well, looking for the source of the unrecognized voice.
“I did!” Garble turned to his side and noticed a greyish purple dragon lava bathing alongside him, whom he’s never seen before.
“Who the heck are you?” Asked one of the dragons.
“Just your old pal Spectre spitting facts.” The new dragon replied.
“I’ve literally never seen you before.” Stated the other dragon.
“And what are you doing in my pond?” Garble got up and spread his wings to look larger. “I didn’t invite you, so take off!”
“And that there is why you’d make a better dragon lord.” Spectre continued, unfazed by the threatening display. “You know where things belong and you’re ready to put them there.”
“It takes a bit more than flattery to join my thunder.” Garble hissed.
“And it should take more than cheating to become dragon lord as well, right?” Spectre said with a smug smile across her face.
“You’re talking about Ember, right?” Asked one of the dragons.
“You bet I am!" Spectre gloated. "She totally cheated her way to victory."
"What do you mean?"
“Why don’t you ask him?” Spectre passed the question onto Garble. “He was there and saw the whole thing.”
Garble sat back down into the lava. He tried to act aloof and relaxed, but his muscles were tensing up, as if he was going to throw down with whatever memory came back to him. He then gave a short answer. “Ember had two ponies and Spike on her side, when she arrived in the Chamber of Fire.”
“Which you reached before her, might I add.” Spectre exclaimed.
The eyes of the other dragons shot wide agape, as they almost fell out of the pond, upon hearing that. “Wait, you mean to tell me, that Garble could have been the dragon lord?”
“Yes,” Spectre answered, “if the gauntlet was kept strictly to us dragons, then Garble would be our dragon lord now.”
“Are you kidding? That’d be awesome!”
“Can we redo the gauntlet, or something?”
“You must, Garble, what are you doing?”
Garble smacked his snout. “Alright guys, beat it! It’s been decided, there’s no point in doing another gauntlet.” He tried getting back into a more relaxing position.
“Wow,” Spectre rolled her eyes, “since when did we dragons become so spiritless? It’s like we’re already forgetting how to be dragons.”
"She's just strong in a different way, that's all." Garble dismissed Spectre’s woes with a platitude, his voice sounding just as bored as his ears were hearing it.
Spectre blew raspberries into the air loudly. “Even you’re talking like a pony now!”
Garble jumped up again, now much larger looking than previously. “You keep talking and I’ll stuff your tongue down your throat!”
“You should demand another gauntlet.” Spectre was once again totally unfazed. ”I’m sure lots of dragons would be on your side.”
“Yeah, Garble!” Said one of his friends. “Anything to get Ember off the throne!”
“And the ponies out!” Added another one.
“Guys, guys...” Garble sat back down, pinching the root of his snout. But he couldn’t finish the thought, because a harsh familiar voice interrupted them.
“Hey!” They turned and saw Ember herself hovering above them and then landing by the side of the pond, the surface of the lava vibrating as her feet smashed down onto the rock. “What did I tell you about stealing things?!”
The dragons slunk down in shame, but Garble just grumbled at the annoying authority. “I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“You didn’t dig this pool yourself, you took it from them.” Ember pointed at a group of very young looking dragons.
“They should have been strong enough to keep it.” Garble retorted.
“You know there are different rules now!” Ember kept shouting even louder. “We embrace friendship and grow stronger than you dim-witted-“
“Alright, alright,” Garble interrupted Ember’s rant, “we’re going! Come on guys, give the babies their toy back.”
“Well, we are babies.” Said one of the small dragons. “What are you doing playing with baby toys?” The other small dragons giggled at their peer’s sass, even Ember allowed herself a proud snicker.
Garble turned around and looked straight into the sassy hatchling’s eyes, flame streaming out through his teeth, his eyes searing with killing intent. The smaller dragons backed down immediately and hid behind Ember. She stared right back into Garble’s eyes and puffed smoke out of her nostrils as a response. Garble barely reacted; he just turned back around and left without saying a word. Ember kept her eye on them, until they were out of her sight.
“Why do you let her boss you around?” Spectre suddenly appeared in front of Garble, who did not expect her.
Garble jumped back a bit. “Stop doing that!” He shouted, masking his surprise with anger. He rushed forward trying real hard to restrain himself from smashing Spectre’s head into a nearby rock.
"You could totally beat them all up." She shouted at him. "Remind them what it means to be a dragon!"
“Beat it, Spectre!” Garble shouted back from the distance. “And mind your own business!”
Garble turned a corner and Spectre was right there, to lecture him even further.
This goes way beyond your business or mine
This is a matter of keeping our spine
Her protecting the weak ain’t whatever
They’ll just become babies forever
“What are you doing?” Garble grunted.
Just spitting facts, bro
Look, I’m not one to act slow
I say it’s prime time we get a better leader
Before the strong get weak and the weak gets weaker
“I’m not doing the gauntlet again, alright?” Garble pushed Spectre against a rock. “And stop rhyming, it’s getting weird.”
The other dragons turned to them and said:
“She’s totally right, tho.”
“Small ones need to grow.”
“What, did Spike step on your toe?”
Then garble griped: “Come on that was a low-blow!”
Spectre appeared behind Garble, almost as if she was never pushed against the wall and continued.
A low blow indeed to your self-esteem
An electoral fraud, meddling to the extreme
If they bring a team, we bring a thunder
We can’t let the prey become the hunter
Spectre jumped on top of a rock, as Garble’s friends started backing her.
Let’s start a Gauntlet of Fire
“And find a new dragon lord”
Let’s show Ember the dragons’ ire
“And find the true dragon lord”
The impromptu rap number caught the interest of many nearby dragons. A smaller crowd started gathering around them, intrigued by the ideas being discussed. But Garble had enough of this malarkey. He pushed Spectre off the rock and started up his own verse.
Guys, can you really not see through her tricks?
Ember’s right to call you all dumb as bricks
Now we know that the gauntlet is flawed
And Spectre just wants to pull her own fraud
Spectre dusted herself off and said: “Ah, please, I got wiped out in the first round.”
Garble retorted: “And Ember won, despite the fact she almost drowned.”
Spectre jumped back on her feet: “You can’t compare a cheater to one who plays fair.”
Garble shouted back: “Cuz there’s no fair in warfare.”
Spectre then turned to the crowd that was really starting to grow by that point.
Fellow dragons, listen here
Ember ain’t legit, that is clear
Garble did it all alone, now be my echo
Have you forgotten how to be dragons? “Heck no!”
Spectre turned back to Garble:
I’ve learned something from Ember, I admit
We might have overdone our egos a bit
But as one flight we’ll reach a higher tier
Now come on everyone, back me up here
She spread her wings and flew over all the dragons that have flocked around them and they all started chanting along with her.
Let’s start a Gauntlet of Fire
“And find a new dragon lord”
Let’s show the world the dragons’ ire
“And find the true dragon lord”
Garble looked upon the mob that was now cheering for him. Not only would these dragons much prefer him as their lord, they’d be downright ecstatic about it. Not often does he get such unanimous support from his peers, so he felt his confidence grow stronger than ever.
What is this? What is this?
You might be right, sis
They want it, they want it
And they’d go half-berserk for it
So let’s take it, let’s take it
Let’s do friendship with some grit
They might have the strength in numbers
But we’ve got strength with numbers
I was there before Ember
She wasn’t even the one to grab the sceptre
Because she can’t win without her cronies
A dragon shall never be raised by ponies
The whole crowd, now lead by Garble, started moving towards the Dragon Lord’s Throne, chanting their song on the way.
Let’s start a Gauntlet of Fire
“And find a new dragon lord”
Let’s show Ember the dragons’ ire
“And find the true dragon lord”
Let’s start a Gauntlet of Fire
“And find a new dragon lord”
Let’s show the world the dragons’ ire
“And find the true dragon lord”
With Ember reaching out to Equestria and opening up the Dragon Lands, a new sea lane has been established between the two nations. Ships would start from Baltimare and after arriving at the northern side of the Dragon Lands, they’d pass between the steep walls of the Whisperwind Pass, one of the many ways into the Dragon Lands.
The sea lane was very convenient, when Ember asked her old helpers, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Spike to travel to the Dragon Lands, in order to deal with certain issues, usually just matters of semantics and technicalities, or the odd friendship based confusion. This time however, it was none of that.
“I’m worried about Ember.” Twilight said. “She has asked for help before, but her letter was so rushed; there must be great trouble.”
“Whatever it is,” Rarity added, “I am so glad she asked me to bring my camouflage set. I am quite proud of it.”
“That just makes it more worrying,” Spike continued, “she wouldn’t ask us to bring disguises if it was just more paperwork.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” Rarity waved a hoof. “She’s a strong independent dragon, she can handle it.”
“Princess Twilight!” A sailor entered their room. “The captain wants to see you on the deck.”
When they arrived, they saw a group of harbour workers being lifted up from their boats. They were drenched in salty seawater, but their fur was stained with black burn-marks.
“Well, that’s not good.” Spike muttered.
“What happened?” Twilight asked.
“They say the harbour was attacked by dragons.” The captain replied. “I suggest we terminate this expedition.”
“Perhaps this is why Ember called us?” Rarity questioned.
“This must be it,” Twilight said, “that means we must get there quickly.” She then turned to the captain. “Captain, we must get to the Dragon Lands, as we believe this might be the reason the dragon lord called us in the first place.”
“I’m afraid I can’t take you there, princess.” The captain replied. “If there are hostile dragons at the harbour, we risk sinking the ship. You must find another way if you really want to go there.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem.” Twilight turned to Rarity. “You remember that spell I taught you Rarity?”
“But of course!” Rarity cheered. Soon, sparkles flew out of her horn and formed a glassy hexagonal platform. The three of them jumped onto it and speeded away to the Dragon Lands.
The seamen weren’t terribly worried about Princess Twilight; they know the kind of power that lies within her and were confident that she could take care of herself. It was actually Twilight, who worried more about the seamen. She put an invisibility spell onto the ship, to make sure that no dragon would attack them.
When they arrived at the harbour, they saw that the buildings have been ripped apart. The dust hasn’t even settled yet. Boats were thrown all over the place and several ships laid in the shallows with gaping holes in their hulls. It was quiet, only the draft blowing through the Whisperwind Pass could be heard. Usually, there would be dragons watching over this pass, every time the boat gets near, to make sure it arrives safely, but also doesn’t bring anything they wouldn’t be happy with. But that day, they were absent. Twilight and friends entered the pass and trudged along the rocky terrain towards the main basin of the Dragon Lands.
“Might it be time to put on our disguise?” Rarity asked.
“Perhaps it will-“ Twilight was cut short.
“Watch out!” Spike shouted.
A big cone of fire shot out towards the three of them. Twilight managed to conjure a shield around them just in time. After the flames dispersed, a small flight of dragons charged at them through the smoke. Twilight knocked back a few of them with a few laser blasts, at which point the dragons changed their minds immediately and scampered.
“Alright,” Spike exclaimed, “this is definitely more than just paperwork. We need to get to Ember quick!”
“I’m here!” They heard the echo of Ember’s voice, as she was flying in their direction. She landed hastily and rushed up to meet them. “I was on my way when I saw the lasers, is everypony okay?”
“We’re fine,” Rarity answered, “but what’s gotten into those dragons?”
Ember hummed as she struggled to find the right words. “Uhh... Remember Garble?”
“Of course we do.” Spike replied. “Is he behind all of this?”
“Somehow, he turned half the nation against me.”
“I knew that wasn’t the last time he caused trouble.” Rarity commented.
“Whatever happens,” Twilight stepped forth with a bold expression, ”we’re always there to defend an ally.”
“You better be quick then!” An unknown voice called out to them. They turned and saw a greyish purple dragon leisurely sitting on the side of the cliff. “Because they’re already at the spire.”
Those were very alarming news to Ember. “I can’t stay much longer, we’ll meet there.” She turned and took off, but then briefly turned back at them. “Actually, scratch that. Put on a disguise and don’t let anybody else see you.” She then flew away, quickly disappearing in the distance.
The purple dragon snuck out of the ponies’ sight by then. “Heh, it’s too late for that.” She chuckled to herself.
“Step back, traitors!” Ember roared, finally perched atop the Dragon Lord’s Throne. “As your dragon lord, I command you!”
“You’re not a real dragon lord!” Garble roared back. “That title belongs to the strongest dragon, not someone who gets help from outsiders!”
“You just want the title for yourself!”
“I’d much rather have him as my dragon lord, than a pony lover!” A dragon from the gathered crowd shouted. The throng tried to move in, but Ember’s spire was defended by several other dragons loyal to her.
“What are you gonna do about it?” Garble continued. “Let me guess, call your dad? Or one of those ponies you buddied up with!”
“You keep your mouth shut traitor!”
“You sold out our lands for ponies, so who’s the traitor?”
“I’m using the power of friendship to keep our lands alive!”
“Well, why don’t you prove its power then? Call on another gauntlet, you coward!”
“Never!”
The riot started getting wilder. Several dragons shot up into the air and those loyal to Ember tried to wrestle them back down. Meanwhile, Twilight, Rarity and Spike watched in horror from the top of a hill, all three of them wearing a disguise that made them look like ordinary rocks.
“This is not good.” Spike stated the obvious.
“This might be too much even for us.” Rarity added.
“And there’s no way to deal with this, without directly interfering.” Twilight contemplated.
“I mean, it’s not like we haven’t directly interfered before.” Spike argued.
“Yes, but that is what the dragons are upset about in the first place.” Twilight said. “It wouldn’t be a good idea to do it again.”
“But if we hadn’t done it then,” Rarity chimed in, “Garble would have set Equestria aflame.”
While they pondered their predicament, Spectre slithered through the crowd, straight towards Garble. She pulled on his tail to get his attention and when he turned, she pointed up at the ponies. Garble didn’t understand at first, as he only saw a couple rocks. Until he took a much better look and saw the rocks moving. He’s seen this before, so he knew what was up. He flew up at the three disguised ponies and before they could have a chance to even see him, he pulled off their costumes.
“Look who just arrived!” He shouted at the crowd and kicked all three of them down from the hill. “She really did call her pony friends!”
This just enraged the riot even more and their assault of the spire got more violent.
“Face it Ember,” Garble yelled across the clamour of the crowd, “you’re not fit for a dragon lord.”
The commotion got loud enough to shake the ground. Then a shriek could be heard, which somehow pierced through the noise. Upon hearing that, everybody got quiet and turned and saw an odd-looking, gem encrusted dragon.
“Crackle? What are you doing?” Garble questioned this silencer of the riot.
Crackle cleared her throat and began speaking with surprising eloquence. “It is clear that this issue won’t be resolved without violence. As such, I have a proposal to make.”
“I didn’t know you could talk.” Ember reacted without thinking.
Crackle raised a single eyebrow.
Ember coughed. “Uh, I mean, let’s hear it.”
“We do another gauntlet, BUT...” She paused for dramatic effect. “We let the contestants use teamwork.”
“Teamwork?!” Garble growled. “But that was the issue to begin with!”
“Yeah,” a nearby dragon yelled, “and how do we know that you’re not a pony in a dragon costume, huh?”
Crackle gave an answer with a big cone of flame in the dissenting dragon’s face.
“Fair enough.” The singed objector slunk back into the crowd.
“You misunderstand,” Crackle continued, “you’d be both using the power of friendship against each-other. Not only do we find the stronger leader, but also the stronger friendship.”
The crowd began murmuring. The way Crackle worded it, it definitely sounded like something dragon-like. Garble liked the idea as well.
“Huh, not a bad idea, Crackle.” He said. “What do you say, Ember? Can you win through friendship again?”
Ember felt the weight of the responsibility push on her. She looked at Twilight for guidance, but all she got was a worried expression from her.
Crackle stepped closer to her. “Or do you want this furore to continue and possibly end even worse?”
“Alright,” Ember said through clenched teeth, “there shall be another gauntlet. And then it’s final!”
The crowd cheered. Over them Garble shot a menacing smirk at Ember, who for the first time in her life actually felt threatened by him.
Ember paced around her throne room back and forth. She wasn’t thinking much about the gauntlet... Or rather, the gauntlet consumed every corner of her mind. She could lose everything in this second gauntlet, even her life. That is how Twilight and friends found her, when they finally got up the spire.
“Don’t worry Ember,” Spike reassured her, “we got your back!”
“Are you crazy?!” She shrieked. “They’re going to destroy all of you!”
“Honestly, we’re not as weak as you think.” Rarity replied.
“I mean,” Spike said, “Twilight here has fought things much tougher than these guys.”
“Besides,” Twilight chimed in, “we’ve got friendship on our side.”
“And we can easily outsmart a bunch of self-absorbed dragons.” Said Rarity.
Ember calmed down slightly. “You’re right. These meatheads don’t know a thing about teamwork. They’re gonna turn on each-other first chance they get.”
“Exactly!” The others said in unison.
“Okay,” Ember sighed in relief, “maybe this won’t be as bad after all.”
Soon, it was time for the second gauntlet. Everybody gathered at the starting cliff, in front of the Viperwyrm Lake, which they were going to have to fly over, as their first obstacle. Ember had her gold armour on and stood confident and proud with the Bloodstone sceptre in her hand. Spectre was nearby as well; she was lounging with Garble’s team, who were also fully armoured up. Garble wasn’t there yet, however.
Spectre watched as Twilight conjured magic armour for herself, Rarity and Spike. She saw Ember’s confident stance and thought about a way to put her down a notch.
“So Clump,” she said loud and clear, to make sure Ember and her friends hear it, “what makes you so loyal to Garble?”
“Are you kidding?” The brown dragon replied. “We’ve been pals since we were hatchlings. I would never let him down. He also promised me the entirety of Granite Mountain.”
“What about you Scalio?” Spectre turned to the large blue dragon next to her.
“He said he was going to steal the best dentists of Equestria, just for me.”
“And you Maar? Weren’t you there defending Ember’s spire an hour ago?” Spectre asked a slender light purple dragon.
“Sure, but Ember never listened to my request of making burps an official greeting. Garble promised me that he would. Besides, he needs a good flier like me. It’ll be fun!”
“Wow,” Spectre made an exaggerated reaction, “sounds like we dragons have this friendship thing pretty much figured out already.”
Ember and company heard all of that of course. She clutched her sceptre even harder, now that she felt like it was actually in danger.
“I guess they’re more loyal than I thought.” She said quietly.
“Oh, don’t worry about them Ember.” Spike reassured. “We’ve got friendship in our blood.”
“I’m sure this Garble is just pulling their legs.” Rarity added. “There’s no way he keeps a promise.”
Finally Garble arrived, wearing a very impressive looking armour.
“Wow, where did you get that?” Spectre said.
“An old friend of mine left it for me before he went to Equestria.” Garble replied. “He said that if he doesn’t come back by the next gauntlet, it’s mine. He wasn’t here last time, so I doubt he’ll come today... I do wonder what happened to him, though.”
“Sounds like you have plenty of support from your friends.” Spectre gushed. “We don’t need any stupid pony allies!”
“Alright, stop kissing my tail.” Garble pushed Spectre out the way. “It’s time to do this thing.”
If dragons could sweat, Ember would have been sweating profusely at this point. Her friends could see that her confidence was shaken. But it wasn’t over yet. Suddenly her father Torch appeared right behind them.
“Dad?” Ember blurted out. “You’re not competing, are you?”
“No, I came here to laugh at you.”
And that was the last drop of courage drained out of Ember’s heart.
“What are you waiting for?” Garble shouted from the other side of the cliff. “Toss the sceptre already!”
Ember gulped and threw the Bloodstone Sceptre as hard as she could... It landed straight in the Viperwyrm Lake. She was so unconfident at this point, that the muscles in her arms failed her. There was a very awkward silence, as Torch reached into the lake and grabbed a viperwyrm. He squeezed its throat, so it would cough up the sceptre. He then took the sceptre and effortlessly flicked it into the volcano. All while staring at his daughter in utter disappointment.
Ember almost fainted when Torch smashed the ground and roared fire to start the gauntlet. Garble’s team took off quickly, while Ember hesitated for a bit. But Rarity was there to conjure a big glassy gem-platform to fly them towards the mountain. With her keen eye for detail, she could easily spot attacking viperwyrms before they reached the surface and steer themselves away from the jets of water they spit at their prey. They watched the dragons of the other team get taken down quite quickly.
But they were quickly overtaken by Maar, who blew raspberries at them from the side. She flew way ahead to distract the viperwyrms, while the rest of her team tried to follow from a safe distance. She seemed to be having fun, as she did twists and twirls and barrel rolls, making the riskiest moves she could pull off, to grab as much attention as possible. Meanwhile, Clump and Scalio surrounded Rarity’s flying gem platform from two sides, as if they were planning a real dirty move.
But it was just a trick. Ember’s team couldn’t see a flying boulder in time that was headed straight towards them. Ember and Twilight flew off in time, but Rarity, in a panicked attempt to turn her magic platform into a makeshift shield, slipped off and began plummeting towards the deep water, straight into a Viperwyrm’s mouth, with Spike still clinging to her. But Twilight caught them with her magic, just in time.
“Go ahead, we’ll catch-up!” She shouted at Ember.
It was time for the slingtail cliff. Territorial creatures, who use their shovel-like tails to fling massive boulders at anyone they perceive as a threat to their nests. Ember had a rough time dodging their attacks, but Spike jumped to her rescue. Being such a tiny target, he is almost impossible to hit. Riding a small gem platform borrowed from Rarity, he flew around and purposefully agitated the creatures, by breathing fire onto them, to divert their attention away from his teammate. Ember could rush forward and only needed to avoid a couple attacks.
One slingtail flicked a boulder over her head, but it suddenly exploded and rained tiny pebbles into her face. Clump was right behind her, bulldozing through the slingtails’ assault, by breathing enormous balls of fire at the boulders, completely shattering them. He was clearing the path for Garble, who soon caught up. He and Ember were flying up the cliff head-to-head. Ember attempted to bump Garble out the air, but he was too massive for her. Garble returned the bump and Ember temporarily lost her balance.
The next challenge was the chamber of crunching rocks. Ember entered the chamber not too far behind Garble and watched him get crushed by the rocks. Ember knew she was a better flier than Garble, so she flew right in. She got way ahead of Garble, who struggled to catch up, but watching him get wrecked repeatedly, made her cocky and she did eventually smash into a rock, as her attention faltered.
Twilight flew in to meet Ember. “Follow me!” She shouted. With her superfast brain, Twilight could calculate the movement of each moving rock and manoeuvre accordingly. Side to side, up and down, even stopping for a moment to avoid a crystalline spike. Garble was way too behind to follow them adequately, but Scalio caught up with him. He wrapped Garble under one arm and with the other one, smashed straight through each rock.
Ember had some time advantage in the Cavernous Labyrinth to look for the final chamber with Twilight, but Garble and Scalio caught up pretty quickly as well. Scalio immediately charged Twilight, but she avoided his attack with a magic shield. Spike flew in just in time and disoriented Scalio, by bumping him on the face. At the same time, Clump arrived in the labyrinth and smashed Twilight’s shield with another stonebreaker fireball. But just as he would fire another one, a magical glassy gem appeared in his mouth, making the fireball explode back into his throat. That was Rarity’s doing, who got tackled by Maar shortly afterwards.
The brawling continued, as Ember and Garble were given space to find the right tunnel. Garble found it first and made a beeline towards it. Ember took some time to realize what was up and charged after him. Garble was very close to grabbing the sceptre, but Ember spit cones of superhot fire at him, making it impossible to get close to it.
“So, you wanna go face to face, huh?” He turned around to face Ember.
“Only if you leave me no other choice.” She answered.
“We both know which one of us would win in a duel.”
“The dragon of fewer words! Defend yourself!”
Ember engulfed herself in flames and charged Garble. Garble spit a straight stream of fire at her, but she split it in half and smashed into Garble, sending the both of them into a shallow pool of lava, so hard that the bottom of the pool cracked. After a few punches landed on Garble’s face, he got up from the ground and with massive flaps of his wings, he drove Ember into a nearby wall. He held Ember in a choke against the wall and tried to strike her down, but she successfully blocked his strikes with her hands, before breathing fire directly into Garble’s eyes. He stumbled back in pain, then had to brace for a flying charge from Ember. He stood his ground, extended his arms and stopped Ember’s charge. He slid backwards on his feet for a while, before Ember ran out of flight energy and had to land. They started wrestling arm-in-arm, but Ember was clearly losing that match-up, so she swept Garble’s legs with her tail. While he was on the ground, she tried flying away, but Garble grabbed her tail and smashed her face first into the pool of lava. He then put all his bodyweight onto Ember’s head, in an attempt to drown her in the lava. She did have the strength to push herself up, but it wasn’t enough and Garble was clearly gaining the upper hand, as Ember’s arms started giving up.
Suddenly, an amused cackle could be heard from above. “Good show, darn good show, I must say!”
Garble looked up and saw Spectre right next to the sceptre.
“You!”
“That’s right!” Spectre gloated. “You know, I gotta hand it to you, you did catch on to my intentions pretty quickly.”
Garble got off Ember’s head and took-off in the blink of an eye.
“Don’t even bother Garble ol’ boy!” Spectre jeered triumphantly. “I’m right next to-“
She was cut short, as a massive tail smashed her across the muzzle and she was thrown right into the pool of lava. There was a giant flash and an enormous fiery beam of light shot up into the sky, through the volcano’s crater. The rest of the teams saw the light spread out from the chamber, so they stopped fighting and rushed right in to see who won. Upon entering the chamber they couldn’t believe their eyes.
“No way!” Clump exclaimed in bewilderment.
The dragon standing atop the crystallized summit was none other than Crackle. With her usual goofy unassuming expression, she held the Bloodstone sceptre in her mouth and let out a victory screech, that was majestic even by her standards and echoed across the volcano’s caverns...
“So, that’s our new dragon lord, huh?” Spike stated, as they watched Crackle slouch down on top of the Dragon Lord’s Throne.
“Yep...” Ember confirmed.
“And what she gonna do, now that she’s dragon lord?” Spike carried the train of thought.
“Probably the same thing as other dragon lords.” Ember answered.
“And what is that?”
“Nothing...”
“Oh...” Spike said in a somewhat disappointed tone. “At least Equestria is safe, I guess.”
“It’s kinda funny actually.” Garble joined them. “We were so busy fighting amongst each-other, that we didn’t notice the weakest dragon taking our spot.”
“She might not be as weak as she seems.” Spike said. “Sometimes just being smarter counts more than strength.”
“Or exploiting your opponents’ weaknesses.” Ember added.
Garble groaned, then let out a humble sigh. “You know what? You’re right. She probably planned it all from the beginning. I guess we all underestimated her.” He then looked at Ember. “I underestimated you too, Ember; you put up a pretty good fight. I was certainly expecting much less from you.”
“Hey thanks.” Ember smiled. “I also didn’t expect you to use friendship against me either and showed genuine kindness towards your friends. You’re definitely a lot smarter than I thought.”
“Eh, it was all Spectre’s idea. I’m gonna rip her apart if I see her again. Anyway, wanna dig up some gemstones?”
“Sure, I’m hungry. One question though: Who’s this Spectre anyway?”
“No idea, never seen her before.” Garble gave a disappointing answer.
And with that they were off. Everybody was too tired to be actively hostile to anybody. All the rioting and death-defying stunts and violent competition took the wind out of all dragons, so they just went their merry ways and let Crackle have it.
“So, I guess Equestria is safe then.” Spike walked back to Twilight and Rarity.
“Well, that’s all that matters to me.” Twilight said. “This Crackle seems like a reasonable individual; maybe we can work on our pony-dragon relations in the future.”
“I for one am somewhat disappointed.” Rarity complained. “Some kind of pay-off to all the exciting action would have been nice.”
“You sure enjoyed it, huh?” Twilight chuckled.
“Oh, absolutely!” Rarity cheered. “Next time you’re in some epic battle, let me get involved.”
Twilight and Spike laughed.
They took one last look at dragon lord Crackle, then walked by the setting sun, back to where they arrived. Twilight shot a flare from her horn into the sky and their ship appeared on the horizon.
Once home, Twilight tried reaching out to dragon lord Crackle and try to redo the diplomatic relations she has built with Ember, but her efforts were met with apathy. She did get a letter back after about a year, telling her to leave dragon matters to the dragons, though Crackle did say that she would prefer peace between the two nations. For what it’s worth, she did make an attempt at building a stable nation for the dragons, but also closed the borders again, so it’s going to take a while to know whether her attempts were successful or not.
As for Spectre, she was never seen again.
