Disclaimer: All the rights to the Legend of Spyro series does not belong to me. The characters belong to their rightful owners.

Dreamy night

It was a glorious day in the city of Warfang, the dragon city.

The sun had provided brilliant golden rays of light and the skies.

The town was still healing after the war for freedom against the dark lord, Malefor, and some of the buildings and houses were still being constructed and rebuilt and modified after the gigantic destruction. Not only that but even the Earth needed time to heal -especially after Malefor's reign as he fought against two dragons whom saved the whole world from destruction. It had been around two years since then and everyone whom lived in the Dragon capital (and everyone else) were simply readjusting.

However there were a few things that took a little bit longer for others to accept.

Cynder was a black dragoness whom used to be Malefor's underling, his monster and puppet but she was also one of the two who took down the all powerful and mighty Dark master alongside her lover and companion -Spyro the legendary purple dragon.

She was a whelp back then but now she had grown into a slender and beautiful fully-grown dragoness. Her muzzle had grown a little longer since her youth and she almost looked like she did when she had become that monster being controlled by Malefor's poisonous influence, except a lot more beautiful and with much kinder teal eyes.

The ebony-scaled dragon was currently doing a little bit of shopping in the market inside the city, neatly weaving through the crowd with little trouble, her scythe-tipped tail dragging along the cobblestone that made up the streets and pathways. She was carrying a basket by the handle in her mouth and said basket was almost filled to the brim with vegetables, potions, magical healing gems, and little trinkets that she saw and decided within seconds that she had to buy within a split second after she lay her eyes on them.

Cynder was just exiting the market street with a slightly merry canter in her step, on her way to the Guardian's temple to meet up with Terrador and Cyril and Volteer so she could just pop in and bid her greetings to them. It had become a weekly ritual of hers ever since Spyro and herself saved the world back when they were younglings, she would do a little bit of shopping and then she would say hi to the Guardian's and have a friendly afternoon chat with them until sunset.

It was a weekly routine that brought a lot of cheer to the dark dragoness.

She couldn't help but let her tunnel vision falter just a bit due to the fact that something caught her eye, she had noticed a small group of five slightly older dragons (two regally elegant females and three burly and brutish males) stood not too far away from where she was strolling casually and Cynder could see their muzzles wrinkling with disgust and looks of distain tighten on each of their faces.

Cynder simply continued on her way and ignored them.

It was rather disheartening but she would get her fair share of hecklers whom refused to believe that she changed her ways. They would always speak in hushed whispers on how they thought that she was simply biding her time until she would simply take advantage of her master's permanent absence and try to take over or destroy Warfang herself. Alas she knew that she had to be the more mature person and simply not let their insults and taunts get to her.

As Cynder stalked passed, one of the dragons smiled with wicked intent and decided to speak loudly as she turned to face the other members of the group and say to them in an obnoxiously loud voice. Her eyes were slits and her muzzle was scrunched up. "Well, I do say, some dragons have no shame in the least!"

Cynder just held her head up high and kept on walking with her mouth full of the basket she was carrying, even though this task was getting harder and harder since their hurtful words were cutting like knives.

Another dragon spoke up, joining in "The ancestors forbid that menace be integrated into our society after the atrocities she has committed!"

The ebony and crimson dragoness put her basket down on the ground in front of her and then she twisted her head and used her rather long neck to glance over her shoulder to look at them darkly, her tolerance for them quickly diminishing. Her teal irises were narrowed at the group.

"You do know that I can hear everything you're saying, right?"

"We don't know what you're talking about! I mean, it's not our fault that the Guardian's made a mistake in trusting you!"

"C-Can you stop it? I'm...I'm not proud of what I've done and I'm truly sorry for it, just please leave me alone." Cynder glanced at the group with the most sincerest and genuine expression she could muster, although she tried to push down the building frustration within her that threatened to burst up and out.

Then there was only silence, except for the murmurs and chattering of the other passing dragons that strolled through the market.

Two of the five dragons appeared rather confused as to why she'd make such a plea like that, without threats of any shape or form. The trio glanced at one another in dumbfounded confusion with their eyes wide. However the silence was short lived as their cruel smirks reappeared and the dragons continued to openly mock poor Cynder.

Their pompous ignorance was on full display now as one of the dragons let out a snide comment.

"Well, let's face it, she will always be nothing but a monster."

"Yeah! Terror of the skies!"

Cynder halted in her steps completely, teals eyes widening and tearing up as her body trembled, she could feel her heart sink into her stomach whilst she lowered her head with shame. She hated bullies and tormentors, she knew that they were just trying to get a reaction from her...and they succeeded, even though she tried so hard to push her anger into the back of her head.

The tears gleamed inside her eyes as the ebony-scaled dragoness snarled crossly, snapping her head to look at the dragons that tormented her and were now openly laughing at her. Her teal eyes narrowed and her fangs bared as she let out a venomous snake-like hiss -her tail flicked with irritation and her muscles tightened.

The one trigger word was that infamous nickname.

"Terror of the skies" was the name that others had given her back when she corrupted back when she would hunt for ways to release the Dark master from his prison in the portal of convexity in the most brutal and more hostile, destructive of ways imaginable. She always looked back on those days of her childhood in shame and upset when guilt would hit her in the heart like a bullet. She was ashamed of all of it.

Why did they have to keep tormenting her because of her dreadful past?

Her festering rage took control and, without warning, she swiftly lunged at the ignorant group and lay into them.

She basically tackled the lot of them.

Cynder used her claws to swipe at them and pin them so they wouldn't be able to move, her tail to jab them, her knife-like fangs to sink into them.

Her whole body turned into a shadowy mass with glowing white eyes.

But she had become so absorbed into her furious blood-wrath rage that she hardly even noticed the crowd starting to swarm around the scene. As she bit, scratched, clawed and jabbed them she could hear cries for mercy but she kept up her rage-fuelled attack with her dark abilities. Cynder had been well practiced in combat so it shouldn't have been shocking that she would cause a lot of damage whilst she was outright merciless in her attack.

She was hardly even aware as some of the bullies managed to slip away.

No one knew how long the fight dragged on for, but they watched in scared silence. Each dragon whom was observing the frightening scene with eyes wide with trepidation and they were frozen with fear.

They almost jumped out of their scales when a familiar voice was heard.

Spyro had just been on his way to the temple and join Cynder to meet the Guardians and maybe have some herbal tea with them. It wasn't quite what he would call "fun" but if it put a smile on Cynder's face then he'd be willing to go to every single weekly meeting. Plus he had wanted to ask her about something. However he saw the group of civilians gathering and became rather curious as to what could be going on and had made his approach in order to investigate this disturbance.

The fully-grown purple dragon's eyes narrowed sternly as he emerged from the crowd as he shoved and pushed to the front in order to investigate whatever was causing such a stir.

"What in Ignitus' name is go-"

The words that were meant to complete that sentence had become caught in his throat when he saw the fight unfolding and saw that his lover was attacking them -his jaw dropped to the ground, his eyes widened in horror and his heart froze in his chest. His claws felt as though they had been plunged into the frigid ice waters of Munitions Forge and he felt a huge knot twist in his throat as he looked on.

He could feel the sharp sting of shock impale him.

"C-CYNDER!?"

Spyro didn't hesitate and darted forwards to try and stop the fight.

The mythical purple dragon ran up to the attacking ebony-scaled dragoness and quickly and took her shoulder into his teeth, pulling backwards to try and get her off of the dragon. His mind was racing as he frantically tried to get Cynder off of him whilst she behaved like some sort of feral beast. They must have taunted her, there was no other explanation for Cynder to behave in such a ferocious manner -whatever they said had clearly struck a nerve with her.

"GET THIS INSANE FEMALE OFF!" One of the tormenter dragons cried out in pain.

Cynder still refused to let go. She had her jaws tightly clamped down on the male's shoulder, she was so fuelled with rage that she hardly even noticed Spyro trying to pry her off of him. He noticed her shadowy state and realised that she must have been in such emotional pain and that almost made Spyro weep internally.

He grabbed her by the tail, praying that he wasn't hurting her by doing this.

After a few strong tugs he reluctantly released Cynder's tail and stood there dumbfounded when he realised that what he was doing just wasn't working, but what could he do? He had a bad feeling that if he let this continue hen someone could be seriously hurt...or more seriously hurt then they would be already.

That was when the purple dragon had a thought pop into his head. It was very drastic and probably very stupid but what other choice did he have? Especially since he was quickly running out of options!

He leapt high into the air and proceeded to tackle Cynder off of the one dragon she had gotten a hold of, then he pinned her down to the ground below and looked her sternly in the eye. Both dragons stared each other down, amethyst locking on teal, and Cynder wouldn't stop struggling beneath Spyro's claws that kept her laying on her back. She snapped her jaws viciously at Spyro in an attempt to bite his face off and as she did this, Spyro dug his paws even further downwards.

"Cynder, this isn't you! You have to snap out of it!"

Cynder's only response was her snapping violently, her head thrashing about as she tried to loosen herself from the purple male's stubborn grasp. Her words were coated with venom and had been laced with a dark low-tone shriek.

"LET ME GO!"

Spyro shook his head in stubborn refusal.

"Please, Cynder! You need to calm down! Do it for me..."

His heart was racing as fast as his train of thought. He knew that he could do nothing more but beg and plead with her, Cynder was obviously hurting and she needed to have someone heal that hurt; but first she needed to seriously calm down. The question was how? A crazy idea hit him and he prayed with all his heart that it would work.

He squeezed his eyes shut, seriously afraid to look, and he swiftly leaned his head down and then pressed his muzzle up against Cynder's and locked his lips with hers.

Cynder tried to resist and fight it at first, but soon she felt herself calming down. Her muscles relaxed and her breathing became slower and deeper. The shadowy mist that surrounded her dissipated and her glowing eyes returned to their normal colour and she looked tiredly up at Spyro with her eyes lidded with slight dizziness.

"Uuuuugh...Sp-Spyro?"

"It's okay. I'm right here." Spyro smiled with relief as he nuzzled Cynder gently, comforting her, and then stepping off of her so she could have some space to come to her senses.

Cynder was confused at first but then she realised what exactly happened and her maw fell open in a mix of surprise and terror whilst she jolted up into a sitting position, using her tail to prop herself up as she sat on her haunches. Cynder's eyes widened and she stared at the other dragons whom either glared at her or tried to back away from her.

She felt guilty.

She hadn't meant to lose it so badly like she had done just now, she should've walked away with her dignity intact but instead she attacked and now felt venerable as a consequence, but she knew that she couldn't hide away like some coward. Should she have done anything bad subconsciously then she wanted to face the consequences and accept what she had done head-on and take her misgivings by it's horns.

Cynder couldn't begin to describe the gut-wrenching sense of shame she felt when it all dawned on her.

"O-Oh, no...what? What have I done?"

Then the bully that had been attacked pointed an accusatory claw at the mortified dragon and he actually seemed pleased that he'd been attacked. He faced the crowd and amplified his voice to address the scared onlookers.

"See! I knew it! She's a freak who doesn't deserve to live among us!"

Cynder couldn't believe it. She'd attacked someone! She hadn't meant to, she was just hurt by the words they had said...

She watched as the crowd turned to each other and murmured various opinions, each individual voice lost to her, but most of them in the bully's favour. Tears fell down Cynder's cheeks as she covered her face with one of her wings and then whirled on her claws and started to flap her wings to quickly glide into the air, she made her ascent and almost literally blew everyone beneath her away from the whips of wind she created from her frantic flapping.

"I...I'm sorry! I didn't m-mean to!"

Once she was in the air, she quickly flew away as fast as she possibly could with tears streaming down her muzzle. She was so quick that she appeared as nothing more than a blackish streak as she zipped across the sky and was gone in a short timespan of five seconds.

Spyro felt his heart break for the ebony-scaled dragoness.

"Heh. Serves her right, the beast..." One of the female dragons harrumphed, she turned her head and held her snout up high in a rather snooty manner.

The male purple dragon just stood there. The atmosphere around him intensifying as his muscles tightened and his muzzle clamped tightly as he could feel a blazing fire burn inside his throat, threatening to escape and burnt all of Warfang into a pile of ash and rubble. He exhaled through his nostrils and cooled his anger and the fire inside him died down and slivered back down into his golden/yellow chest.

But what he did was swerve on his claws and flared his wings wide open and growled from the bottom of his throat. He wasn't going to allow this slander of Cynder to carry on. He whirled on them with such fury in his eyes and gnashed his fangs at the ignorant pack of dragons.

"You have absolutely NO idea what kind of life she's had! She has been through so much and, if you ask me, Cynder is the bravest and strongest dragon that I've ever met! She beautiful, kind, loyal and not afraid to admit it when she's made a mistake. So don't you dare hurt her! IF I SEE YOU WITHIN A MILE RADIUS OF HER THEN TRUST ME, I WON'T BE SO CALM NEXT TIME!"

Spyro shot the smug group of tormentors a dark look before he took to the skies and flew off, trying to catch up to Cynder.

What he didn't know was that he left behind a very stupefied pack of five dragons behind him. They were very dumbfounded and very shocked that the legendary Spyro, the purple dragon, had turned on them and their mouthes had dropped open and their eyes were glued to the open space that they were so stunned.

Spyro let out a long exhale as he felt the cool evening air hit his face.

The purple dragon flown gracefully through the air, gliding with such elegance. Even though he had spent the first half of his life stuck on the ground without the knowledge of knowing how to take flight he had mastered it by this point, thanks to the fact that he'd been raised by Dragonflies alongside his dragonfly brother, Sparx.

He beat his wings against the air and scanned the ground below for the love of his life and made sure to glide at a low altitude so he wouldn't miss her through the trees, even though she could blend easily into the night he could try and locate her by scent.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long before he finally found the familiar black dragoness.

She was spotted by a large pond that was located in a big forest clearing.

The purple dragon felt relief wash over him. He had hoped that she was alright, he didn't want her to get hurt out here. Then he quickly began his descent downwards as he quickly extended out his wings outwards and started to make a downward glide and then he dived to quicken his dip in altitude.

He steadied himself as he landed perfectly on all four feet.

Spyro only took a moment to catch his breath after flying for the whole ten minutes it took him to get here. He had been flying as fast as he could in his search for the female dragon and this meant that he had spent quite a bit of his energy. He was almost sweating he was so tired.

Yet he knew that he had no time to lose.

He broke into his hasty canter with a slight haste of urgency being sprung into his every step. His eyes were focused on what was in front of him and his bright purple scales glimmered in the pale moonlight whilst he quickly slipped down a lonesome hill slope that would lead to a wide open lake where he found Cynder sat in front of with her head lowered and her back turned to him.

"Cynder! I'm so glad that I found you, are..."

The relief he felt was quickly replaced by concern when he heard sobs coming from her, but he couldn't actually say that he was surprised by this. She had been through an emotional roller coaster of a day and she must have been so confused by the events of earlier.

His eyes softened and he asked her slowly, "...Are you...o-okay?"

Cynder cried, tears streaming down her muzzle. She hung her head and wept as the tears flowed down her snout and dripped into the water of the pond below -creating small ripples in the otherwise undisturbed water.

"Sp-Spyro! They were right, I-I am a monster! I d-don't belong-"

Spyro hardly missed a beat and hurried to Cynder's side and wrapped his wing around her comfortingly. He could feel her slightly-recumbent body stiffen under his touch and that posture made his resolve to help even stronger.

"There, there...it's going to be alright."

The dragoness didn't seem very consoled, though.

She just continued to weep.

She eased her head on Spyro's shoulder blade and melted into his embrace as she whimpered and sniffled. The poor thing had relentless waterfalls of more salty tears cascade down her cheeks and she nuzzled him with as much love as she could put into an affectionate touch.

Spyro held Cynder for a long time before she started to speak.

"No! I attacked them, I'm n-n-no better than the Dark master! How could anybody expect me to turn over a new leaf when I have obvious evil running through my veins! A m-monster like me c-c-can never change!"

"That's just ridiculous." Spyro said, stern authority leaking into his voice.

"Spyro, look at how I acted back there! All those cruel taunts and I'm not even strong enough to just show some dignity and ignore them! I just flip out!"

"Cynder, stop it!"

"HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO LOVE YOU PROPERLY WHEN I'D PROBABLY TURN ON YOU IN A SECOND!?"

"THATS ENOUGH!"

Cynder instantly stopped her rambling and stared at Spyro in stunned silence, never had he shouted at her that. Not even on the surprisingly rare instances that they quarrelled. She could only look at him with eyes filled with hurt as half of the sternness that had moulded his expression melted away like butter in the microwave.

Spyro took a deep calming breath and raised one of his claws and placed it against her cheek, cradling it in his hold, and their eyes met; both dragons —purple and ebony—shared a long (and admittedly awkward) silence as they shared a few moments that felt like an eternity and neither dared to glance away from one another -not even for an instant. Keeping his claw holding Cynder's head so he could guide her eyes to his own, he started to talk again.

"Listen to me: You are not a bad dragon, you just made a mistake. Everyone makes them everyday of the week and then they learn from them. What happened today should not have happened and I think you could've handled it better," Even when Cynder's eyes started to water yet again in shame, Spyro continued. "We just need to find a way to help you cope with situations like this in the future..."

The black dragon sighed, calming down a bit. Spyro was correct. What happened today was a terrible mistake but that shouldn't make her doubt herself and it really shouldn't define her future.

Spyro's frown turned into a smile as he lowered his claw from her cheek and repositioned himself whilst he sat on his haunches.

"I've been waiting for a better time to do this but I think you need to hear it now."

The purple dragon shut his eyes.

"I never wanted to give up on you or use you like so many others have in your life because you don't deserve it. When I first looked into your eyes, I saw more than just a monster and I've always known that you were meant for far more than darkness, despair and evil."

Then his eyes opened to reveal a gleam of total love within them. "I love you Cynder, I love you so much that I'd do everything for you and nobody can say anything to change that. Ever since we saved the world together I have been wanting to do this."

Then he revealed a bag that he'd been carrying on his back, nudged the flap acting as a cover open with his snout and reached down to pull out a single anklet that bore a beautiful glowing fiery red ruby. Then he crouched down on one foreleg and smiled adoringly up at the ebony-scaled dragoness with his amethyst eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

Cynder gasped.

Spyro asked in the calmest voice he could muster, "Will you become my mate?"

Cynder raised a claw to her chest, where her heart was, and more tears swelled up in her eyes; this time instead of tears of disgust and shame they were tears of joy. She hadn't expected him to ask this question and she could honestly say that she never felt her heart flutter in such a fashion before, it was if her body was demanding it to say yes and she was not going to deny it for this.

She could only nod her head in a singular swift movement before she affectionately licked his cheek and then proceeded to lovingly nuzzle it with her snout. She was leaning so heavily against him that it was miraculous that she hadn't knocked him over.

Spyro managed a wry smirk.

"Is that a yes...?"

A/N: My first Spyro fic in ages and I am so pleased with how it turned out, I also thought that maybe our fave dragoness would have a few problems fitting in with all the other dragons and dragonesses in Warfang.

I thought of doing a SpyroXCynder fic and so this was born!

I hope you guys like this little one-shot.

Please review and fave!

-Chloemcg