Bubba: The scene seemed to skip forward a few minutes.
Sheila: Isabelle's mother clung tightly to her daughter, facing off against a group of rhynocs that blocked the only portal that hadn't been destroyed in the chaos.
Sgt. Byrd: There were no dragons to come to her aid—those who hadn't escaped were laying at her feet.
Bubba: She fought valiantly, sending waves of fire at her attackers in an attempt to drive them back, but soon they had her backed against the wall with nowhere to run.
Hunter: The rhynocs raised their spears and swords, expressions unreadable behind their helmets. The scene faded before her inevitable death could be shown, but a baby's plaintive wail pierced the darkness. As the screen faded back, Isabelle was now unconscious in a grey, bleak room.
Damon: She lay on her stomach on a cold metal table, her little legs chained to it so she couldn't get away.
Bartholomew: The brown hatchling awoke within a few moments, drowsily laying there before fully coming to.
Sparx: She thrashed around, trying to break free, then resorted to chewing on the iron chains and blowing pathetic puffs of fire and smoke at them. When none of her tactics worked she slumped against the table and began to cry.
Sheila: At the moment, the Sorceress walked in.
Billy: She shut the door behind her and said aloud, "If only my rhynocs weren't such incompetent fools. Such menial work is beneath me. Oh well, I suppose I must be sure this is done correctly," and sighed haughtily.
Spyro: She strode over, grabbed a short knife, and examined Isabelle.
Billy: "What an ugly creature. I'm glad I won't have to deal with your kind for much longer."
Damon: Isabelle thrashed as the Sorceress approached her and grabbed her wing, holding it out.
Sgt. Byrd: Sighing, the blue dinosaur shoved Isabelle's neck onto the table, holding it down with a massive paw.
Lateef: "Now, now," she said sweetly, "we wouldn't want these pretty little wings of yours to get torn."
Tomas: I stared in horror at the screen as the Sorceress held the knife up to Isabelle's wing and, with no hesitation at all, began to cut into it.
Bartholomew: The little dragon's screams ripped through the air, while she fought and struggled with all the strength in her tiny body.
Agent 9: But the Sorceress held her down, and in just a minute, the wing severed from her body.
Cleetus: Cartoonish blood leaked from the stub left on her shoulder, staining her scales and the knife red.
Sparx: There was only a little, as I guessed the wings would be made of cartilage, but it was enough to make me sick.
Bentley: I knew the Sorceress was evil, but how could she be so sadistic to torture a baby dragon?
Bartholomew: As the Sorceress began to remove the next wing, Isabelle just gave up.
Agent 9: She cried, her sobs wracking her whole body until the job was finished and the disgusting dinosaur dropped the bloody scalpel on the table.
Hunter: At this point the little dragon was unresponsive, her screams and wails having ceased, and seemed to be going into shock.
Sheila: The cutscene switched into Isabelle's point of view now.
Damon: She watched the Sorceress as she picked something else up off the table and walked over.
Billy: I couldn't tell what it was, but it was big and she held it in both hands.
Bartholomew: "Let's make this clean, shall we? I'd rather not have to make any more mess than I have to."
Billy: Her words were cold, but she sounded bored, as if she hadn't just ripped off a baby dragon's wings.
Damon: She leaned over, her hideous face getting closer and closer, until the object she was holding covered up Isabelle's view, pressing against her face, and the screen went black.
Cleetus: I gaped as the cutscene ended, taking me back to the graveyard with that poor dragon.
Damon: Almost everything made sense now.
Hunter: It was the baby dragons that had been haunting Spyro, begging for his help.
Bartholomew: This is what they had meant by "she found them all"—despite the dragons' best efforts, the Sorceress had located all of the hatchlings and murdered every last one! I remembered a cutscene in the game where the Sorceress had explained her reason for wanting the dragons: she needed their wings to make an immortality potion.
Cleetus: And Isabelle... poor Isabelle was the first to be killed.
Sheila: Once I came out of my thoughts, I looked at the screen and saw a text box again, with Isabelle standing before Spyro.
Bartholomew: "Four years ago, you disappeared, leaving the Sorceress undefeated and all of us at her mercy. Do you understand?"
Sgt. Byrd: Four years ago? Suddenly it all made sense.
Sparx: Four years ago, the game had broken just before I had beaten it!
Spyro: It was my fault, my fault that all of this had happened.
Sparx: It wasn't Spyro who had abandoned and forgotten the hatchlings—it was me.
Billy: "Please don't leave us again," the next text box said.
Damon: Not even thinking of how crazy it was, I said aloud, "I promise I won't."
Sparx: "If you defeat the Sorceress, then her reign of terror will end. We can finally sleep peacefully knowing that the world is safe. Kill her, Spyro. Do it for me, for all of us." Yes or No?
Bentley: The choice was obvious... killing the Sorceress was the least I could do now, to avenge the poor hatchlings' gruesome death at her hands.
Hunter: Determined, I pushed the X button, and the game immediately began to load.
Damon: I waited, anticipation growing with every moment, until the game faded in. In the background the Sorceress' boss theme was playing, and before me the monster herself was sitting regally in a shiny golden throne, gripping her egg-tipped scepter in one hand.
Hunter: Instead of the lava-filled arena where you originally fight her, we faced off in what I assumed to be her throne room.
Spyro: It was much like a chapel, with large windows set high into the wall.
Bentley: The sunlight that streamed in only illuminated the small room a bit, and it was the only source of light.
Sparx: From across the room, the Sorceress began to speak, her tone sarcastic and dismissive.
Agent 9: "Look who's finally returned after four years. I have to admit, I was getting a little bored, but this fight will just be laughable! You dare challenge my in my own castle? You're not serious! ...You're really serious, aren't you?"
Hunter: The Sorceress jumped off the pedestal her throne had sat on, the ground shaking as she landed.
Elora: "Foolish little dragon—do you really think you can defeat me?!"
Astor: The battle began then, and in many ways it was much like the original final boss fight.
Cleetus: The Sorceress' AI was the same; she would chase Spyro around or shoot balls of magic from her staff, but instead of one of your companions shooting cannons or UFOs down from balloons, the Sorceress summoned and used them herself. I soon found myself dodging cannon shells, unsure how to proceed, since Spyro's normal attacks did no damage. Finally, I figured it out: all I had to do was run up to the Sorceress and flame her; this did no damage but knocked her off the cannon.
Sparx: Things went well for a few minutes, but I noticed the fight was much more difficult than normal.
Hunter: She had what seemed like double the health, and the magic she used that created shockwaves on the ground had a bigger radius.
Bartholomew: Besides this, there was no fodder in sight and I'd already been hit twice.
Spyro: Finally the Sorceress began summoning the UFOs, but this was a nightmare for me, as I now had blasts of magic flying at me from all sides.
Elora: I struggled on a few minutes, dodging blasts and being whittled down to only one hit point left.
Sgt. Byrd: I didn't know what would happen if I lost this fight: Would I respawn as normal, or would it be over for good?
Damon: I didn't want to find out, and I had a feeling it would be the latter.
Tomas: I knew this was just a bunch of pixels on a screen, but somehow... somehow it felt real to me.
Lateef: As if if I failed, Spyro would really be dead, and the baby dragons would never get their revenge on the monster who had murdered them.
Hunter: While dodging the magic, I accidentally double-tapped the X button as I was jumping away.
Spyro: Instead of breaking into a glide, Spyro instead began flying and breathing fireballs, as if I had jumped through a super portal.
Bartholomew: I breathed a sigh of relief, finally understanding how I could win this battle, but I didn't relax for long.
Billy: I needed to concentrate; avoiding the Sorceress' attacks would be much harder on four planes. Minutes passed.
Sparx: I had no health left, so if I got hit once, I was done I played the defensive, keeping out of her range and getting in hits whenever I could.
Bartholomew: My heart leapt with every close call, and the Sorceress seemed to get more and more frantic, until I felt as if I was in a bullet hell game.
Cleetus: Waves of magic kept coming and coming, but finally, I managed to get one last shot on the Sorceress.
Billy: "Noooooooo!" she screamed as the UFO crashed to the ground at full speed, shattering and sending bits of metal into the wall and glass skittering across the floor.
Elora: Sparks danced from the wreckage.
Lateef: It was amazing how such a small thing could cause so much carnage...
Damon: As Spyro landed on the ground, the whole room seemed to fade to a vast black void, leaving only the purple dragon himself and the remains of the UFO.
Cleetus: Still in control, I padded over to investigate, and saw a blue arm sticking out of the chunks of metal.
Lindar: A cutscene began, and another arm appeared, pulling the Sorceress out of the wreckage.
Damon: Her Elizabethan collar, the only thing she wore, was in tatters and her necklace had been snapped off.
Sparx: As well, there were low-res gashes on her body where the glass and flying debris had cut her.
Spyro: She didn't have her scepter, but despite this, she lunged at Spyro with wild abandon, tripping over the wreckage.
Sparx: Somehow I could see insanity in her eyes, mixed with pure seething rage.
Hunter: I jiggled the analog stick but was unable to move, so I was forced to stare in horror as the crazed dinosaur sprinted at Spyro.
Cleetus: Was this where it would end—here, after all I had been through?
Sheila: But just as the Sorceress reached Spyro, she suddenly halted in her place, and struggled as if she was stuck.
Cleetus: "What is this?!" she screeched.
Hunter: Several moments passed, the quiet only permeated by the blue dinosaur's frenzied screaming, until I saw something in the void.
Cleetus: Eyes.
Lateef: Pairs and pairs of them—there must have been hundreds of dragons in the shadows.
Sgt. Byrd: I could tell that most were the hatchlings, but I could see the silhouettes of adult dragons standing there too, some clutching their long dead children to their chest.
Billy: Perhaps they had been killed in the raids along with the babies, and wanted revenge just as much as they did.
Cleetus: Isabelle stepped out of the crowd that surrounded Spyro. A text box popped up.
Tomas: "Do it for me, Spyro," she repeated.
Cleetus: "For all of us." I finally regained control again, but I didn't move at first—I just stood staring for a while, turning around to see them.
Tomas: All these dragons, young and old, who had been brutally murdered just because of the greed of one person.
Bubba: I wasn't sure what to believe...
Damon: Could this really just be an Easter Egg?
Lindar: At the same time, I knew this wasn't possible...
Billy: Video games weren't real, of course.
Tomas: But at the moment, I couldn't help but believe that all of this was true.
Sparx: These people had suffered four long years, all because of me.
Billy: I hadn't known of course, but it made no difference.
Damon: I wasn't able to give them their lives back, but the least I could do was end their pain in the only way I could.
Sheila: I turned towards the Sorceress and approached her, her struggles becoming more wild as I did so.
Hunter: She screamed and screeched madly, but it was to no avail.
Agent 9: With only one last glance at the group of wounded people before Spyro, I pressed the attack button.
Cleetus: The screen immediately cut to black and the cries died away.
Spyro: I slowly put down the controller and breathed a shaky sigh, staring at my hands.
Sparx: It was over.
Billy: But not quite.
Tomas: After a few moments I looked up again, and was greeted with something new.
Hunter: An oil pastel picture of a few baby dragons in a row, with Isabelle at the head.
Billy: A dialogue box appeared at the bottom of the screen, "Isabelle" in the name tab and only a simple question, "Don't forget me, Spyro?"
Bubba: A weight lifted off my chest then and I was finally able to relax, for the first time in hours.
Sparx: Reaching over, I picked up the camera, held it up, and snapped one final picture.
Cleetus: I couldn't help but smile to myself as the camera died moments later.
Damon: It's been a few months now.
Sgt. Byrd: School has started up again, leaving me little free time or space in my head for anything but my classes, but even so, the same question plagues my mind every night: What really was that?
Cleetus: A few days after the incident I started up the game again.
Sgt. Byrd: My new file was no longer corrupted.
Bartholomew: Upon loading the old one, it just took me to Midnight Mountain on a full 115% save file with the doors to the Sorceress' Lair closed.
Agent 9: When I entered the Super Bonus Round and made my way to the final battle with her, Bianca just told me I had already defeated the Sorceress and gave me the last egg, before sending me back to the homeworld.
Bartholomew: Normally you can fight both boss battles as many times as you like, but that was the only oddity; everything else was back to normal.
Sparx: So what could it be?
Hunter: A strange secret left by a developer? Had my dad hacked the game as a prank?
Tomas: Or... could it be possible that those little dragons were all real?
Bubba: Can just the power of someone's imagination breathe true life into something like a string of code?
Cleetus: Honestly, I really can't say.
Hunter: I suppose what to believe is up to each of us individually.
Bartholomew: But me, I'm never going to leave a game unfinished ever again.
Hunter: f I have to I'll just delete my save.
Sparx: You never know who could be in there, living, breathing, and suffering.
Damon: You really are the hero of the games you play, but if one day the hero disappears... who knows what could happen to the people who are forgotten?
Lindar: I won't forget, Isabelle.
Lateef: I promise I won't forget.
Damon: Yes! bonus creepypasta, Losty Castle.
Billy: Yes! Losty Castle!
Lindar: All right, this see.
Spyro the Dragon: Losty Castle
Lateef: My day started out good that day until I got that cursed game...
Billy: I should have learned better...
Cleetus: I always wanted Spyro The Dragon for PS1, my old one had broken and got scratched so I couldn't find and find any good copies.
Damon: I had looked all over yard sales and stores around my place until I was tried and wanted to go home.
Hunter: We rode past a yard sale with an old man with games and I noticed some ps1 games.
Agent 9: We ended up stopping and walking over as I browsed around looking.
Damon: "Excuse me do you have Spyro The Dragon for ps1?"
Tomas: He looked at me with the craziet look and mumbled.
Bubba: I blinked not understanding him until handed the game to me in just a case.
Cleetus: I smiled getting the money out and handed it to him.
Hunter: "How much sir?"
Lateef: He shook his head quickly crying.
Sgt. Byrd: "N-No pay just get that cursed game away from me!" I looked at him worried and he bent over in a fetal position shaking and crying.
Tomas: His wife rushed up to him looking to me.
Damon: "Free honey, take it and have fun... for your sakes I hope Don't go to Lofty Castle..." I had a funny look and nodded slowly as we drove home.
Sparx: I ran inside and started up my ps1 and put the game in.
Pogo: Seeing the PS1 logo made me smile and ready to go on adventures again, it started out normal title and seeing Spyro made me smile again, I tried to load my old files but they was gone.
Lindar: Groan my memory card must have gotten to full and when I reached to get it the game made an sound and text said.
Cleetus: FILES DELETED START NEW...
Tomas: I shrugged and when I pushed new file Spyro flew by as the words came.
Pogo: "The adventure ended when the dragons died."
Bubba: I was confused and shook my head, dragons don't die in this game.
To be continued