(Chapter beta-read by Riverstyxx.)
(A/N: Hey everyone. I don't normally put my A/N at the start of a chapter as I feel like it takes away from the chapter itself, but I felt this needed some explaining. I've gotten several people asking me when the snip based shenanigans would start again, and recently we've had to rewrite the chapter we intended to post next for this current arc because our beta-reader pointed out that it felt a tad bit rushed. As such, rather than putting this on hiatus while we're rewriting it, I decided to try out a 'filler' chapter that falls back into the usual snip based shenanigans of old.
A rule shared by authors in the Infinite Loops community is that snips don't necessarily have to take place in sequential order. A few of this snips do take place after the current arc, but don't spoil too much of it, so I feel they're okay to post now without needing any further context for them. Also trying something new with the formatting with the snips. However, I feel like I've already rambled far too much for an A/N at the start, so further comments at the end like always.)
Classic Loop 2.8
The smell of burning rubber and mushrooms was thick in the air as karts whizzed by at blistering speeds. Spyro smirked. Out of all the fused loops he'd had so far, it wasn't the most relaxing one, but it was definitely the most fun. Driving a kart was nothing new to him. There were a few times he'd joined in Crash's world for kart tournaments. Driving anti-gravity karts on some sort of techno rave course, however...
Sparx held on for dear life, clutching one of the frills atop Spyro's head. Spyro smirked as he came up to an anti-gravity portion of the track, his purple kart hopping slightly as the anti-grav function of his kart kicked in. Punching the gas, Spyro came up upon one of those odd small pillar things. Brushing the side of it, his kart spun around delicately as he got a mini-boost. Spyro grinned, the little hub in the middle of his steering wheel showing that he was in first place.
"We should totally think about setting one of these things up in our world, Sparx! This is awesome!" Spyro said, adrenalin pumping as he kept an eye on the road.
Sparx, who was currently holding a hand in front of his mouth and turning paler by the second, could barely glance down at his friend. "Uh, yeah. Lets not. At the risk of sounding like that wimpy Sparx, I'm getting seriously sick here!"
Spyro glanced back slightly at Sparx. "Well, you didn't have to come with me, ya know."
"What? And let you get turned into road kill?" Sparx said, managing to force a smirk.
Spyro grinned. "Aw c'mon, Sparx. Don't you trust me enough? It's just kart racing. It's not like—GAH!"
Spyro swerved his kart, barely avoiding being smacked by a green shell. "That proves nothing!"
Sparx rolled his eyes as Spyro got his kart back on track. Before he realized what was going on, an Italian mustachioed man clad in red and riding a bike came racing past. Spyro narrowed his eyes, punching the gas as he began to catch up. He smirked.
"You know, for a plumber, you certainly have a wide range of other skills under your belt!" Spyro said, pulling up to the plumber.
Mario looked back, a grin on his face.
"Isn't going to stop me from winning, though!" Spyro taunted, noticing a few item boxes in the distance.
Mario gave a determined smirk, giving a fist pump.
"...You know, I didn't realize it until now, but you don't talk much, do you?"
Mario shook his head in response.
Spyro tried his best to suppress an urge to continue his taunting as he came upon the item boxes. Holding back for a bit, he waited until the item wheel on his HUD stopped spinning before a red shell appeared in his claws. Spyro grinned.
"Well, Mario, as much as I'm enjoying this semi-one-sided conversation, I have a race to win!"
Mario looked back, his eyes wide as he was smacked with the red shell, his kart spinning out as Spyro blazed past. Spyro smirked as he saw the finish line not far off. "Aw yeah! Sorry, all you loop natives! But it looks like this purple dragon has just—!"
...
'What's that whooshing sound?'
Spyro looked up, eyes wide in horror as a blue shell smacked into him from above.
"Reversed Roles" pt 1: Legend Loop 2.9 (feat: AbZHz101)
Spyro awoke to find himself back in the familiar swamp. Looking himself over and finding that he was still a purple dragon, Spyro prepared to follow his normal routine of getting ready for the day before sneaking out of the swamp to help Cynder. Those plans were brought to a screeching halt when he noticed that his armor was placed carefully, almost reverently, on a nearby tree to keep the pieces from becoming damaged.
Spyro knew that all three sets of his normal armor were in his subspace, which meant that these had to have been collected in-loop. However, before he could truly focus on that, he heard a familiar voice call out. "Spyro!"
Spyro turned to see Cynder loping toward him.
"What are you spacing out for?" she asked as she stopped beside him. "Dad told me that there are soldiers in the area. We've got to move soon."
When Cynder said the word 'Dad', Spyro's loop memories supplied him with an image of the last dragon he wanted to be in a five-mile radius of at any given time, much less have a familial bond with.
"Could you give me about ten minutes, Cynder, please?" he asked her. "I just need to get my head together."
"You're not sick, are you?" Cynder gasped. "Oh man, I knew we shouldn't have come here. Why is it you two like this place? You always end up sick or hurt when we come here and yet you insist that we come back!"
"Cynder!" Spyro snapped, his voice coming out tighter and louder than he had intended. Taking a calming breath, he continued more calmly. "I'm fine, Cynder. I just need to straighten some things up is all."
"Alright," Cynder conceded. "But don't take too long, we'll be cutting it close as it is. Got it, little brother?"
Spyro stared for a moment as Cynder sauntered away. Then, collecting himself enough to pull something out of his subspace, he retrieved his personal copy of All about Looping and flipped to Chapter Eight: High-Variance Loops. Thankfully there was a bulleted section summarizing everything at the very beginning to act as refresher for loopers in need of advice and stretched for time. Instantly his eyes flicked to the fifth bullet, which someone had replaced with a star at some point.
"If you suspect that you are in a High-Variance Loop, please review all of your in-loop memories. If the world is acceptable to your expectations, treat as a normal. If the loop seems to not be acceptable, please subvert the loop in a way which does not bring about a loop crash! We are serious. We will stick you in the Safe-Mode server that you hate the most if you intentionally crash a loop."
So, with that in mind, Spyro ran through his loop memories, as far back as they could go. He couldn't believe it. From the beginning there was Malefor, acting, dare he say it, like a parent. Spyro could even admit that he acted somewhat decently; he wasn't perfect, not by a long shot, but he tried. Spyro doubted that the Malefor he knew would have the patience or desire to set up himself so highly to two young dragons as he attempted to destroy the world. He knew that the Dark Master would never allow himself to suffer the indignity of children painting doodles on his hide, especially if some of those children had not even been dragons. No, the Dark Master would never have stooped so low as to consort with lesser species.
But still, something was wrong. His younger self didn't notice, for one, that Malefor was trying to keep them out of it... Whatever it was. Understandable, as parents were supposed to try and keep their children safe. But there were thousands of little clues that his in-loop self hadn't noticed because, for him, they were normal. For Spyro, who, if his timeline had been laid out in one loop, was old enough to be considered a master of Fire, Ice, Earth, and Electricity, they were plain as day.
Here his in-loop family had always been dodging 'soldiers', and originally it had been a game of 'Hide and Seek' as they slid from one location to the next. Spyro noticed from his memories that he was starting to get to the age where he was questioning certain things, especially some of the older scars on 'Dad's' scales. It was hard to scar dragonhide, as many of Spyro's adventures both in and out of loop could attest.
He would go along with the Loop for now, but he needed more information.
Classic Loop 3.0
It was still rather early on in the loop for Spyro, and for now he had decided to mostly keep things baseline. He had a rather funny plan later on for a prank that involved Ripto, a bucket of shaving cream, and complex system of ropes and pullies, but until then he had nothing better to do than rescue the dragons. He checked his atlas, making sure he had gotten everything he usually had by that point. Smirking, he went over to the nearby pool and started jumping on the stones.
All he had left to do now was the speedway. Typically in the loops, he'd handle the speedways last. Not that he didn't like them or anything, quite the contrary. Although it was easy for him to get quick times on them now, he still liked the glorified obstacle courses and how he could blaze through them. It was just that he had gotten into that habit when it came to handling things baseline.
The secret 'passage' opened to reveal the hidden portal, and Spyro was quick to jump in. A quick trek through the portal mini-dimension and Spyro found himself once again at the start of the first of many speedways on his journey. Spyro was quick to check the score board...and promptly did a double-take.
Sunny Flight Speedway record - 0:10.00 - RD
Spyro narrowed his eyes. Somehow, he felt like he and Sparx weren't the only loopers in this loop.
Night Flight Speedway record - 0:10.00 - RD
Twitch
Crystal Flight Speedway record - 0:10.00 - RD
Twitch
Wild Flight Speedway record - 0:10.00 - RD
Twitch twitch
Icy Flight Speedway record - 0:10.00 - RD
Twitch twitch twitch
Sparx looked at the record and promptly scratched his head.
"I can understand her wanting to get the records for the speedways after we met her in that fused loop, but what's up with the whole 'ten seconds flat' thing?"
Sparx glanced over to Spyro, rolling his eyes. Spyro was sitting on the hill with a blank expression on his face, his eye occasionally twitching and his gaze glued to the scoreboard. Sparx sighed. He'd had the feeling that, with all the crazy stuff other loopers from different loops could pull off, this would happen eventually. Compared to that other Spyro they had met a few loops back, his Spyro prided himself on his abilities and had a rather big ego to go along with it.
So if there was one thing he could not stand, it was someone being better at something than him.
"You going to be alright?"
Spyro stood frozen for a few seconds before he finally scowled. "Sparx, I think I know what we're going to be doing for the next few loops."
As Spyro turned around and started to walk off, Sparx face-palmed and let out a long sigh.
On top of a nearby hill, Rainbow Dash chuckled to herself. True, she could have gotten a much lower time than ten seconds for all of these speedways, but she didn't want to completely discourage Spyro. Considering, from the time he spent in his first fused loop in Equestria, she could gather the dragon thought of himself rather highly. As such, it was going to be rather fun knocking him down a few pegs.
Now she only wondered how long she could keep this up before he rage-quit and tried to end the loop like that time he tried to fight the non-awake Discord.
Reversed Roles pt 2. (Legend Loop 2.9 continued) (Feat: AbZHz101)
This time they hadn't evaded the soldiers. Malefor had insisted on using an earth technique to make their footsteps all but non-existent until they could get out of the swamp. However, they just seemed to always stop just short of running into a soldier, forcing them to turn around to find another way through. There hadn't been, and soon enough Malefor, Spyro and Cynder found themselves boxed in by six dragons in one of the swamp's clearings. From the smug look that one of the earth dragons had, it seemed obvious who was responsible for that.
"Well, well, well," said a fire dragon with a pompous attitude and slightly better armor than usual. "The legendary runaway slave, Malefor, and his two disappeared eggs."
Malefor grimaced at his own mocking title and snarled when the fire dragon mentioned Spyro and Cynder.
"Now, now, play nice and General Ignitus might just be willing to be lenient. Broken bones and shackles instead of putting your head on the pike it deserves, perhaps. And, of course, your whelps will know the joys of serving one who is above them. I'm sure that daughter of yours would enjoy learning all the right moves—"
Things came to a head at that moment. Spyro's mind had been flying, trying to process the nuggets of information that was hidden in the dung the fire dragon was spewing from his mouth. Quite a few things clicked into place, and while it made Malefor look better, it made the world itself look intolerably worse. He didn't miss the feeling that someone was channelling earth mana into the ground surrounding his and Cynder's paws. It didn't take a genius to figure out what would happen next. Unfortunately for the trapper, Spyro had trained under Terrador, who was much better with utilizing the earth as a tool.
Just as Malefor roared at the fire dragon, Spyro knocked Cynder towards him before using his Snake Skill to evade the trap in the opposite direction. A moment later, too late, the earth rose up to encase empty air.
"Idiot!" the fire dragon roared at his earth subordinate. "You four, catch that whelp! Keep him alive, he's worthless as a hide." Then he turned to the fear dragon in the group. "With me, focus your attacks on the girl. Her father won't let harm come to her and we'll wear him out that way."
The fear dragon nodded silently and the two began circling Malefor and Cynder, while a larger circle of four began to surround Spyro. It was an unfair fight. One dragon should have been enough for a single whelp, let alone four. It was their commander's way of taking all the credit for the capture they were sure was soon to follow. But what they didn't know was that they weren't facing a whelp who had never more than play-fought in his entire life. They were dealing with a veteran of multiple wars, who had faced far worse odds than four to one and had come out victorious, who had been trained by the best masters of his generation and was probably a master himself. He had also grown up in a swamp nearly identical to this one.
They would need more dragons.
The earth dragon pounced at Spyro from behind, but, with only a minor look at the other three to keep track of their location, Spyro used his backwards Snake Skill and back-flipped under the attack. As his feet hit the ground, he grabbed the tail of the earth dragon before the bigger dragon could steady himself, and began to spin. Spyro twirled the dragon around once and then threw him at the dragon to his left, spitting out an ice shard to give chase. Then he unleashed his electric breath, which hit the dragon to his right and arced from his target to hit the other three dragons as well.
Figuring that would keep them legs over wings for at least a few minutes, Spyro ran over to help Malefor and Cynder. He saw the fear dragon gathering energy to use in a manner similar to his own earth breath. Spyro wasn't going to let that happen. One moment he was near the four dragons that he had taken down, the next there was a streak of flame across the clearing and Spyro's horns had sent the fear dragon sailing into the local fauna, some of which attacked back.
"What are you?" the fire dragon snarled at the purple whelp that had destroyed his vision of glory.
Deciding to pull a leaf out of Classic's playbook, Spyro put on a confident if somewhat confused smile and replied, "I'm just a purple dragon," in the same manner that one would explain one plus one equals two, or that the sky was blue.
The fire dragon snarled and threw himself at Spyro in an attack of intermediate skill, rather impressive for someone his age, but so far beneath Spyro's level to be laughable. In an instant, Spyro slipped his enemy's guard and broke the fire dragon's roots, causing the arrogant soldier to half front-flip and land back-first. Now with an opening to the sky, the family of three took to their wings, but the fire dragon wasn't done. Still in the process of getting up, he bellowed a gout of flames at Cynder.
But Spyro was still in battle mode and was in between the attack and Cynder before anyone could blink. Then, in a feat of fire manipulation, he sucked in a breath and with it ate the entirety of the attack, magically dissipating the flames in his lungs. Then he retaliated with his own flames, a carefully controlled inferno compared to the fire dragon's wild campfire. The attack knocked the Fire Dragon out cold and the three airborne dragons fled, none of the soldiers willing to pursue.
Classic Loop 3.1
"Good news, everyone!" the Professor said, walking out of his lab and into the main room. "I think I've finally figured out what's behind this strange time anomaly!"
Spyro smirked. "Uh, yeah. Already figured that out. Besides, might be better if you hold off on the explaining until you get back to your home loop."
"Eh—wah?" Professor 'Hubert' Farnsworth said, looking blankly at the purple dragon.
Classic Loop 3.2
"Girls, the mayor just called about some sort of 'gnorc' thing turning everyone into stone!" the Professor said, darting out of his lab.
Spyro looked at him flatly. "Yeah, already took care of that. Welcome to the Multiverse, by the way."
"Huh?" Professor Utonium said, giving the purple dragon a strange look.
Classic Loop 3.3 (feat: UkeleleNarwhal)
"Pokemon, Pokemon everywhere! But where are all the people!?" the Professor said, walking out of his lab.
"Professors, professors everywhere! But where is my Professor!?" Spyro mimicked, a snarky grin on his face.
"Wha—?" Professor Oak said, scratching his head in confusion.
Classic Loop 3.4
"Yowzer! It's complete! The Poltergust 3000 is complete!" the Professor said, running out of his lab with what appeared to be a vacuum on his back.
Spyro smirked. "Who ya gonna call?"
"Oh... uh... The Mario Bros?" Professor 'Elvin' Gadd replied, scratching his cheek.
Classic Loop 3.5
"Oh my. It would seem I have looped in to a rather peculiar world this time," the Professor said, walking out of his lab.
By this point, Spyro had taken to setting up a beach chair so he could relax while he waited for the many Professors to exit the lab. "Your first clue?"
"Well, actually, it was the glowing tubes that apparently did nothing," Professor 'Hershel' Layton said, crossing his arms as he gave a warm smile.
Classic Loop 3.6
"It...lives! They said I was crazy! But I showed them!" the Professor said, rushing out of his lab. "After months of slaving and headaches, I have created super toast!"
Spyro blinked before he turned to Sparx. "I swear, they're getting weirder by the second."
"It's not weirdness! It's science!" Professor Membrane said, rushing back to the lab.
Not a second later, an explosion was heard from within. Spyro face-palmed.
Classic Loop 3.7
"Spyro! So good to see you!" the Professor said, walking out of his lab. "I don't know why, but lately I've been getting the darndest sense of déjà vu..."
Spyro paused, raising his head from the beach chair as he looked at the Professor with wide eyes. "Wait... You actually remember me?"
"Of course I do," said the Professor, straightening his glasses. "Why wouldn't I?"
Spyro shook his head before looking at Sparx. Not a second later, he looked back at the Professor and pulled one of his extra copies of All About Looping out of his subspace.
"Here," he said, handing it to the Professor. "You might want to read this."
The Professor grabbed the book, eyeing it curiously before he began to read through it. As he did so, Spyro looked over to Sparx.
"You know, Sparx," Spyro said, sitting down. "After all the Professors we've encountered in the loops, I'd rather have our Professor looping any day."
Fused Loop 1.2 (Feat: Masterweaver)
"...We never speak of this loop," Legend growled.
"Agreed," muttered Cynder.
"Fine by me," Classic grumbled.
Ember sighed. "Well, alright, if you all insist. But you two are still our kids and school is still in session." She pulled a pair of paper bags out of the fridge and handed them to Cynder and Legend. "I made you luuuuunchiiiies!"
Cynder gave her a flat look. "Ember? Don't do that thing with your voice."
Legend Loop 3.8
There were many things in these loops did that Spyro liked and disliked. It was always a flurry of emotions for him. He hated the idea of having to relive the war, but even the trickiest of battles during his many adventures had become trivial to him thanks to his many loops of experience. The only real enemy he faced when he went through these 'vanilla' loops that could still give him a run for his money was Malefor himself, but that was a completely different story.
Though he was originally angry about how Cynder was dragged into this mess, it eventually gave way to joy when she managed to find a way to escape her fate. It still wasn't perfect, not yet. He was still working on a way to get to the unawake Cynder before she ever got cursed into that form, but at least even then he had managed to find a way to shorten her time in that form greatly. It was very much a rollercoaster of emotions for him, but there was always one thing he was thankful for.
Spyro smiled as he walked along the path through the swamp towards the Dragon Temple. He could still remember his first loop despite the countless number of times he'd looped since. The pain and confusion it had caused, the feeling of helplessness...and the small spark of joy, despite all that, at getting to see his mentor again. If there was one dragon on Spyros 'people to save' priority list that was right next to Cynder...it was Ignitus.
Ignitus had always been there for him. He was always there to ease the burden as much as he could. Even though he wasn't awake, he always had something new and wise to say to the purple dragon. Spyro looked up to him, dare he say, even more so than his adopted father. Maybe it was because he was also a dragon, but regardless, he held his mentor in high regards.
This, however, always made the end of the loop sting even more. In the baseline, Ignitus sacrificed himself so he and Cynder could make it through the Belt of Fire. That was so long ago thanks to these loops, and yet it was something he would never forget for the rest of his life. Hearing his mentor howl in pain as he was burnt alive... Spyro shuddered just thinking about it.
These loops had given him a second chance, though, much like they had for Cynder. Though saving his mate was top priority, making sure his mentor didn't burn to a crisp was a very close second. With years of elemental experience under his belt, Spyro could easily help Ignitus get past the Belt of Fire. But even when he managed to accomplish such a feat, whatever forces were at work seemed determined to make sure Ignitus would not make it to the loop's end.
Whether it be him trying to protect them from an elite enemy, trying to hold off hordes and hordes of smaller ones, or, rarely, even trying to assist in battling Malefor... Ignitus would never see the world being repaired. Even when, through some stroke of luck, Ignitus had survived all that, once Spyro pulled the world back together again, Ignitus was nowhere to be seen. Spyro sighed, closing his eyes as he walked.
Was he doing something wrong? He couldn't be sure. All he knew was that, even though it was a long ways off, if he couldn't figure out how to save his mentor before these loops ended, he would never get another chance like this again...
He felt a gentle wing placed over him. He looked over to see Cynder staring at him with a concerned look. Spyro smiled, nuzzling his mate. If nothing else, he was with a loved one for the time being.
Continuing on their way through the swamp, having done this enough times to know exactly where he was, he was about to round the corner where he would encounter his mentor for the first time. He smiled slightly. At the very least, he could enjoy the time he had with Ignitus before the loop ended. But as he rounded the corner, he paused.
Where there should have been an adult dragon standing there, there wasn't. Spyro blinked, glancing over to Cynder before looking back at the vacant spot.
"Wha... Where's Igni—?"
He was interrupted by a roar that pierced the surrounding area. Spyro and Cynder hunkered down. Spyro knew that roar.
"It's coming from the Dragon Temple! Hurry!" Spyro exclaimed, darting off down the path as fast as his paws would carry him.
Spyro paused as he came across the temple. Oddly enough, the doors were wide open this time. Cautiously, he nodded to Cynder and they slowly made their way through. Spirit gems littered the ground as they walked, no signs of life anywhere. Finally, as they made their way to the training room, they paused at the sight before them.
Ignitus stood his ground as he tossed the final ape against a wall and it burst into spirit gems from the impact. Ignitus panted as he tried to steady himself. Turning around, his eyes went wide when he saw them.
"Spyro! Cynder! Something terrible has happened!" Ignitus said, rushing over to them. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but Malefor's back! I can't find the other guardians anywhere, either! I'm not sure what kind of trickery he's pulled, but—"
Spyro tuned out his mentor as he stood expressionless. He tried to say something, but no matter how he tried, nothing would come out. He began to shake, though it wasn't from fear or rage. He blinked, pinching himself slightly to make sure this wasn't a dream. When he felt the stinging sensation on one of his legs, he was confronted by a fact he couldn't believe.
Ignitus was awake.
"I'm sorry about all this. After everything you two have been through, I wish there was another way. You two are the only ones who managed to stand up to Mal—!"
Ignitus' ramblings where interrupted when he felt something grab onto his leg. Glancing down, he saw Spyro hugging one of his forelegs, a smile on his face as tears started to form in his eyes. Spyro couldn't believe it. It was like the first loop he'd gone through all over again, only this time, it wasn't loop Ignitus. It was his Ignitus.
Reversed Roles pt. 3 (Legend Loop 2.9 continued) (Feat: AbZHz101)
The family of three continued until the swamp where they had encountered the soldiers was hidden by the horizon. Only once they were sure that no one had picked up their trail did they look for a place to land. As they flew, Spyro thought about how he would explain what was going on. Explaining the loops to non-loopers... Well, it had worked well in the past. Then again, he had also heard horror stories about a 'Dumbledore' and memory wipes. While he was pretty sure neither Malefor nor the current Cynder had that particular capability, he couldn't completely guess as to how they would react.
Spyro stopped for a moment to examine his current line of thought. Here he was in a high-variant loop, about to explain things to the local versions of his worst enemy and his mate, both of whom were currently his family, and at no time did it cross his mind to lie. Loop memories flashed before his eyes, sometimes the images having ghostly images of his 'actual' family superimposed over the top, reinforcing—or perhaps it would be better to say reasserting—the fact that they were family. They didn't deserve to be lied to, they deserved the truth, though that still left the question of how he should explain this.
Approaching the mountains, they continued, soon enough finding a cave that would suit their current purposes. After the three descended into the cave, an awkward silence gripped them and no one was quite sure how to begin. It was Cynder who finally broke the silence. "Spyro... What's going on? What was all that back there?"
Spyro nervously glanced at the two waiting dragons before trying to begin. "I've been trying to figure out how to explain this all day, but I haven't figured out a particularly good way yet," Spyro admitted. "This is really strange but I swear that what I'm going to tell you is, to the best of my knowledge, true."
Spyro took a deep breath before continuing. "The reason why I was able to do those amazing things was because I'm currently living in a repeating history. Just one day I wake up and everything is completely different from when I went to sleep. It either resets or changes so completely that I cannot even fathom how it came to be. I have the memories of my 'past lives', I guess you could say, as well as before I became aware of the timeline shift. I remember my entire life with you, but also since this morning I have centuries, no, millennia of memories and experiences, many of them being trained by four older dragons in the ways of Fire, Earth, Ice, and Electricity. And, with them, the training and battle experience that such bestows."
Then, to prove it, he pulled All about Looping back out of his subspace pocket. "...I've met others in the same situation that I'm in. We were given this to help explain our situation."
Then he realized that, because of their background, it was unlikely that they could read. Well, there was the flush of embarrassment.
"...Have you met other versions of us?" Cynder asked.
Spyro blinked, shocked by the statement, then shook himself. "Yes," he replied evenly. "You and I are always rather close."
Cynder smiled, her curiosity abated. Malefor, however, remained thoughtful, still looking at the book Sypro had procured from seemingly thin air. "And myself?"
When Spyro hesitated to respond, Malefor looked at the smaller dragon with a frown. "You haven't met other versions of myself?"
"No, it's not that..." Spyro said, trailing off.
"Then I don't see why you can't tell me what they were like. I'd much like to know how I compare."
"Trust me, you don't."
"Spyro, I am a grown dragon. I can make my own decisions. I realize that my past hasn't been the best but I would like to know." He paused before continuing. "I need to know if this world...if this is the best that we can strive for."
"It isn't," Spyro replied. "I know very little about the politics of this world, and already I know I have seen far better. Our first encounter with soldiers proved that."
"You're dodging my question," Malefor stated with a frown.
"Please," Spyro replied with tired eyes. "Let it go. I don't want..."
Malefor's frown deepened, but his eyes softened. "Alright, if you truly believe that I will be happier." Seeking to change topics, he thought back to what his son had said. "Fire, Earth, Ice, and Electricity," he mumbled, "...but not Convexity?"
"I know of it," Spyro replied, "but I have lacked someone to instruct me, so what I know is mostly from self-experimentation. And I often cannot truly practice it, because..." He turned his head away. "The last dragon who delved too deep became insane and tried to destroy the world. My teachers often fear my study of it."
Malefor began nodding at Spyro's explanation, as if comparing the new data to his own and finding them consistent. "Yes, I can see that. Convexity is not something to experiment with lightly. Its very nature is what allows its great power but also the way that so easily turns a dragon's motivations."
Spyro stared at him in shock.
"There are quite a few tales of the folly of those purples or blacks that used and fell to Convexity. I studied them rather extensively. I dare say, had I not had a theory as to why it so often happened, I most likely would have followed them. Convexity is...different. More than any other element, it requires the correct mindset, and the one it requires is very difficult to achieve even in controlled settings, much less in a fight."
"Could...could you teach me?" Spyro asked hesitantly. Then, looking at Cynder, he amended his question. "Could you teach us?"
"I admit, I had planned on waiting until you were older, but it seems that we might not have the time to wait," Malefor admitted. "Convexity, how interesting a name. It is often used in conjunction with lenses and mirrors, with bending light. Convex lenses draw all light behind it to one single point. Similarly, Convexity draws all our power to one place, but it also does so to our minds."
"The reason that this is a problem is because we often have parts of ourselves that we dislike; dark spots, if you will. And these too are magnified, along with everything else. This brings a greater contrast to these thoughts than what we are used to, meaning that it is more difficult to ignore the impulses. The shock often means that we fall to them, and the dark spots rapidly consume our normal mind. Often, when we see this, we try to 'increase the brightness', as it were, to drown out the dark with light. But when we do, we only end up increasing the contrast, making ourselves more vulnerable."
"Then what should we do?" Spyro asked, enraptured by the discussion and the potential to finally leash his Dark Form.
"Well, if increasing the contrast makes it worse, then what should make it better?" Malefor replied with a smile. At the look of dawning horror on Spyro's face, he began laughing. "I think you've half got it. We have to lessen the contrast. But not by falling to base instincts. Instead, we should seek to understand the where and why of those impulses and integrate them into our normal self. I've found that, often, by taking the same impulses that are so destructive if left alone and pointing them at a different target, they become much more beneficial."
"To best wield Convexity, you must be at inner peace with yourself, a state that I admit I have not currently reached. However, I am getting closer and, with it, I am less inclined to lose myself."
Classic Loop 3.9: (A Heart of Crystal pt. 1)
Ember awoke with a blink. Immediately, she knew something was off. She was still in her dragon body, that much she could assure herself on, at least. However, for once she hadn't awoken in her room. Scanning her surroundings, wherever she was, she concluded that it definitely wasn't the Dragon Realms.
Though the town she was in still had the bright and cheery charm of the realms, the houses around her were made of wood instead of Artisan-grade marble. Off in the distance, she could see rolling green fields not unlike the Artisans, but something about the nearby forest unnerved her greatly. The striking detail, however, was the population of miniature horses of all different colors of the rainbow.
Despite the rather saccharine look of this place, Ember gulped as she shuddered slightly. She'd known this would eventually happen, and was grateful that it was some place that didn't look too dangerous, but this was the first loop that she wasn't with her family.
'Okay, Ember. Calm down. Remember what the other Spyro taught you,' she thought, trying her best to come off as unassuming to the beings around her. 'Check your 'in-loop memories' before anything else.'
Proceeding to do so, she frowned slightly and wished she hadn't. From what they told her, she was a dragon that had come to live with the ponies in Ponyville because she just didn't fit in with her society. The dragons of this realm were a rather rowdy bunch. Her early life wasn't one of pleasure, having been teased and poked by the others because of her gentle nature. Her scales being bright pink hadn't helped matters much, either.
If nothing else, she could at least take solace in that her in loop parents had more or less been the same as her usual ones in that they had tried to protect and comfort her as much as they could. But, regardless, the damage had made its mark and Ember had become known as 'the wimpy pony lover' to her own kind the day she finally couldn't take it anymore and moved to a much nicer crowd.
She shook her head, pushing those memories as far back as she could before they could leave permanent trauma. Focusing on more recent events, she let out a sigh of relief. Though the crowd she was in was a bit wary of having a dragon among them—she could still feel a few of them giving her uneasy looks—they were much more accepting of her than her own kind. The fact that her early loop trauma had left her rather timid had helped. She sighed. At least that meant this loop wouldn't be nothing but torture.
However, the thing that unnerved her the most was that she had no in-loop memories of Spyro, nor of Sparx, Hunter, the other Spyro and his Sparx, or Cynder. From this, she could assume that none of them were here in this loop. Which meant, for the first time in her looping life, she was completely on her own.
Once again, despite her saccharine surroundings, she hunkered down and shivered, her blue eyes darting from left to right.
'Alright, Ember. Just stay calm. At least you're in a peaceful place. Best thing you can do is just go along with what your pre-awake self did and ride the loop out.'
With that thought in mind, she continued what her pre-awake self had been doing and continued her grocery shopping.
Ember walked along the path in an almost trance-like state, her mind focusing on more recent in-loop memories. Apparently, when it came to carrying over from her normal loops, she still liked to volunteer in childcare. Since there was no apparent daycare, though, this meant she spent most of her time helping out at the local schoolhouse. Understandably, considering the dragons of this world, most of the parents were rather apprehensive about a dragon being around their young. But the school teacher, Cheerilee, didn't seem to mind too much.
Her in-loop memories told her that Cheerilee was responsible for most of the town warming up to the pink dragoness, having seen the gentle nature in her that most wouldn't catch at a glance. Of course, her helping her out in teaching draconian history, a rare history not many ponies knew much about, probably helped, but that was a minor detail.
Currently, her in-loop memories told her that tonight was the Summer Sun Celebration, and as a result, school was closed for the holiday. Her in-loop self had planned to spend the day just keeping to herself. She wasn't even planning to attend the celebration. Ember frowned. She couldn't believe how reclusive her in-loop self was, but at the same time she couldn't exactly blame her, either. At the very least, she could try to be a bit sociable now that she was awake. How to go about it, though, considering her species didn't exactly have the cleanest track record, was going to be a thing.
"All I'm saying, Twi, is that having accessories is one thing. Walking around looking like you lost a fight with a jewellery store clerk is something completely different!"
Ember blinked before turning around. She was instantly met with quite possibly the oddest sight she had seen from this loop so far. Walking along the path was a lavender unicorn. Given what she had seen so far, that wouldn't be any different from the norm, but the fact that said unicorn was dressed up from head to heels with golden chains, a pair of over-sized shades, golden braces on her teeth, and an oversized cloak hanging around her neck was more than enough to raise some heads. Ember had no idea how the huge cloak didn't snap the unicorn's neck.
The unicorn looked down at the young purple dragon next to her with a grin, possibly blinding a few beings with those impossibly shiny braces.
"Ah am tellin' ya, Shpike! Theesh whill be tha new styl of tha futura."
The young dragon blinked before shaking his head. "You realize I can't even understand you with those ridiculous things in your mouth, right?" he said, crossing his arms. "Seriously, what's up with you lately? You've been acting weird ever since you read that book this..." Spike trailed off when he noticed the eavesdropper on the conversation.
The unicorn raised an eyebrow as the drake's mouth hung open. Following his train of sight, her eyes fell upon the pink dragoness. She blinked, though it was quickly followed by a friendly smile. "O', hhello. Fhe'llow loopa?"
Ember blinked. The unicorn glanced down at herself and then promptly blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck.
"O', shorri'," she said, before her horn began to glow. In a flash of light, all the outlandish things she was wearing disappeared. She gave a smile. "Again, sorry about that. I didn't realize we had an outside looper this loop."
She bowed before looking back at Ember. "You must be new to the loops. I've never seen you before, so that's a pretty good clue. I'm Twilight Sparkle, the local loop anchor, by the way. You can call me Twilight, though."
Ember paused for a few seconds. Quickly remembering her manners, she was quick to bow too. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ember. Just Ember, though."
"Well, nice to meet you, Ember," Twilight said before she raised a hoof towards the surrounding town. "Let me be the first one to welcome you to Equestria. We're a sanctuary loop, which means you can unwind and relax here. Just don't do anything too disruptive, though, as we can and will send you to the moon if you cause too much trouble."
Ember jumped slightly, quickly raising her paws in front of her as her eyes went wide. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that! I rarely ever do pranks in my home loop, and I don't generally like causing trouble, so..."
"Don't worry, we don't mean stuff like pranks and that," Twilight said, scratching the back of her head as she gave an embarrassed smile. "We mean stuff like destroying towns, seriously harming other loopers, assisting bad guys, that sort of stuff."
At this, Ember gave a slight sigh before she smiled. "Well, that you definitely don't have to worry about with me."
"Well, that's good to hear," Twilight said, giving a more genuine smile. "In that case, enjoy your stay here in Equestria! As said, you're free to do whatever you like so long as it's nothing extreme." She sat down. "Anything in particular you want to do?"
Ember paused before she too sat down. "Well, I've never really been to this universe before, and this is my first time being in a loop without someone from my universe being there with me, so I was wondering if..." Ember said, glancing downward as she scratched the back of her neck. "If you could introduce me to some of the other awake loopers here?"
"Sure!" Twilight said, giving a smile. "Surprisingly, though, despite how many loopers there are in this world, there aren't that many who are awake at the moment." With that, Twilight got up and turned around. "Come on. I was just about to meet the others as per usual in my baseline, anyway."
Ember gave a smile as she got up and began to follow Twilight. She paused, however, as she glanced down. The small purple dragon who was with Twilight was looking up at her with eyes wide and jaw dropped. Ember glanced away awkwardly, scratching the back of her neck.
"Um..."
"Huh? Oh!" the baby dragon exclaimed, a luminescent blush on his face as he glanced downward. "I-I'm Spike! Nice to meet you!" he blurted out without thinking before looking over to Twilight. "Uh, Twilight! Wait up!"
Twilight glanced back to see her currently unawake assistant rushing over to her with a blush on his face. She giggled. 'Looks like Rarity has some competition this loop.'
Ember let out a slight chuckle before she was quick to catch up to them. With that, the group of three led by Twilight began their tour of the town. As she walked, Twilight raised an eyebrow and turned to Ember.
"Hey, Ember? Now that I think about it, have we ever met before?"
"I don't think so. Why?"
"I'm not sure... I don't know why, but your voice sounds oddly familiar to me..."
Legend Loop 4.0:
There were many things that Spyro had to learn to just get used to about the loops. The sheer repetition, Sparx's shenanigans, having to explain to his parents every other loop where the black dragoness came from and that, no, they weren't getting up to any 'shenanigans' while they weren't looking. But quite possibly the oddest thing he had to get used to was this variant that kept popping up every few loops or so.
"Wow! This is amazing!" said a yellow dragon with zig-zagging horns that blatantly screamed 'hey, dummy, this is a lightning dragon!' He darted about the Dragon Temple. "It's exactly like in the video games! This is amazing! Oh my god, it's my dream come true!"
Spyro let out a frustrated sigh, placing a paw over his face. "I still don't get this... I mean, they're not even loopers! Why do they keep popping up so much!?"
"Beats me," Cynder said, shaking her head as she closed her eyes. "At least he has a fairly normal element this time, and not something ridiculous like blood or acid." Cynder glanced over to Spyro out of the corner of her eye. "All I know is that I babysat the last 'human-turned-dragon' last time one showed up. This loop, it's your turn."
"Wouldn't be so bad if they just kept to themselves, but no. They just have to try to play hero," Spyro muttered, placing his paw on his forehead. He already felt a headache coming on.
"Yeah, because when you know next to zero about combat in your normal form and are in a completely new body that makes even walking hard on you, clearly you're the number one choice to take on an army," Sparx said, crossing his arms as he watched the human-turned-dragon trip over himself. "We should at least be grateful that only one shows up a loop and they can't loop themselves. Otherwise our world would probably be populated by more humans-turned-dragons than actual dragons."
Spyro took a deep breath, rubbing his temples. At least he could easily deal with any problems their attempts to 'help' caused, but it still made their constant whining about him stealing their thunder not any easier in the slightest. The constant attempts to hit on either Cynder or him depending on their gender—or preferences—didn't help much, either.
He sighed. At least it was no worse then the loops where, defying all logic and reason, there was another purple dragon in the loop despite the whole 'once every ten generations' rule. Somehow they always ended up somehow being his brother or his sister, whose shenanigans made Classic seem tame by comparison. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. At least they seemed more contained then the humans-turned-dragons...
Suddenly, one of the walls to the Dragon Temple burst open and an impossibly slender female figure stood through the dust cloud. All it took was one look at the figure's purple scales to make Spyro's left eye begin to twitch uncontrollably.
"Oh my god, it's, like, totally my brother, like, O.M.G, I thought I'd never find you, we're going to take on this war together and with my powers that are so rare even by purple dragon sta—!"
'Ancestors damnit!'
Resisting the urge to start smashing his head against the wall, Spyro let out a long, exasperated groan as he held his forehead in both paws. Cynder could only look at the newcomer with wide eyes before she shook her head.
"She looks exactly like me!" Cynder said, closing her eyes as she too face-pawed. "Why do all the female variant dragonesses always end up looking exactly like me except with different scale colors!?"
Legend shook his head, watching as his 'sister' ran over to the human-turned-dragon and the two began to banter on about who the latest superstar was and how they'd end up kicking Malefor's butt in the next few days. Giving a deep sigh, he turned to Cynder.
"Cynder?"
Cynder turned her head. "Yes, Spyro?"
"I'm normally not one to suggest this, but how about, the next loop we're both awake for, we just say balls to the war up until Malefor attempts to blow up the planet?" Spyro asked, a paw on his forehead in a failed attempt to quell his growing headache. "I'm going to be in desperate need of a vacation after this loop..."
(And there we have it. The first 'filler' of the Infinite Loops. Depending on how it's received, we might do a few more of these in while the mega-arc is going in the future. Also, take note how some chapters have '(!)' next to their title. That indicates that it's part of a 'mega-arc', and not just snip based shenanigans like this. Felt it was a good way for those who want to read mega-arcs and those who want snip based shenanigans to distinguish from one another.
Also, trying out a new format for this. Nothing too different, only this time it makes it so I'm not struggling to have one Classic loop for one Legend loops and visa-versa. Also allows for 'running gag' loops like the Professors you saw above.
Also, sorry if this chapter was a bit 'cross-over gag' heavy. The way we write for these loops is through a Forum thread, so as such it makes it a tad bit hard gage just how many cross-over gags there are in a chapter. (Though, I was the prime offender here...) I promise future snip shenanigans won't end up like this.
Anyways, tell me what you think of this filler chapter? Nice change from the mega-arc? Or does it break the flow a bit? As said, depending on how this goes, we might do this again in the future.
Snips:
2.8: Where's a Mega Horn when you need it?
2.9 Reversed Roles: Quite possibly the only time Legend would take advice from Malefor.
3.0: And you thought the flight-based trials in the original trilogy were already gruelling.
Loops 3.1 through 3.7: Professors. Professors everywhere.
Fused 1.2: On the bright side, at least it's a break from the war.
3.8: Even when you're technically older than them, having a looping parental figure is always welcomed.
3.9: To be fair, I'm sure a lot of other voices sound oddly familiar to these two.
4.0: ... /coughs/