Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Long before the small dragonet was ever aware of her wings, tail, arms even her own breathing, there was this strange and mysterious feeling deep inside her, which only grew as the day of her hatching approached

With a strong push against the fragile walls of her egg, the small dragonet was met with loud and incomprehensive roars, the sound was too much and the little dragonet tried to retreat back into her egg, but the broken shell could not give any more comfort nor protection, she attempted to cover her ears with her tiny paws but nothing worked

All she wanted for the noise to stop

And it did, suddenly the roars diminished before loud footsteps stormed away from her hiding spot. Slowly, she walked out of her egg and was able to take in the scenery around her

Tall rocky walls seemed to go on endlessly with the only lighting being from four torches around the small room, her egg had been placed in a soft nest made out of leaves and moss and she was not alone, four other eggs leaned away from each other, all filled with cracks and holes, one by one, the dragonets that had slept inside the other eggs began chirping and walking around, seemingly glad that the noise was gone as well

One of the dragonets approached her with curiosity, he was just a bit taller than her with brown colored scales and a small tusk peeking out of the corner of his mouth. Despite the appearance, she felt safe being close to him

“Purr?” the little brown dragon tilted his head

“Grrrr” a little blue dragon appeared, walking closer to the duo with a black and green dragons behind her

“Grah?” she greeted them, taking her first step out of her egg, she had no idea who these little dragons were, but she already felt safe being near them

And so, it only took a few months before she could understand words and what was happening, according to the big pale-yellow, dragon; her name was Sunny and she had a very special duty, one day, when she was big and strong, she and her friends would stop a terrible war that was hurting dragons all over the continent

Yet, she felt… Less than legendary

Everyday, Kestrel would remind the dragonets how utterly useless they were; Sunny learned early on that Glory was never meant to be there or that herself was supposed to look like much similarly to Dune with pale scales and a terrifying barb, yet, she was hatched with neither

Despite the flaws, Sunny convinced herself that she and her friends were indeed destined to save the outside world, Tsunami was a great fighter and Starflight was meant to have powers like mind reading! He- didn’t have them, but maybe one day! Once they were out in the real world everything would become so much clearer

But, they would need to survive the caves first…

“Dinner time!” Webs called from the main cavern setting down six pieces of cow meat

Tsunami quickly emerged from the river and Starflight pranced out of the study room wit Sunny following behind him, she glanced over at the sleeping cave where both Clay and Glory stood, both of them had been grounded earlier for doing badly in training, she didn’t think it was fair because of how high Kestrel’s expectations were towards Clay and Glory was sick so her stamina was terrible. The little Sandwing’s complaints towards their Guardians unfair punishments always fell on deaf ears, however

The three Guardians and dragonets sat in a circle as they wordlessly ate away at their pieces, barely acknowledging the presence of the others. Sunny stared at her piece and barely touched it, it felt wrong eating while her starving friends were right there

“Sunny, eat” Dune ordered “it’s a perfectly good cow shoulder that we are not throwing away”

“It’s just…” Sunny wing’s shuffled “can’t I give this to Clay and Glory? They are more hungry than me”

“Maybe once you grow a tail barb” Kestrel hissed, gnawing on a bone. Sunny shifted and hid the harmless tail tip

“Sunny, you know the rules; dragonets who get punished do not deserve dinner” Webs reminded, licking his paws clean off a bit of blood

She went back to staring at the piece, it was all so unfair . So what if Glory had a hard time keeping up with flight practice, it wasn’t her fault. Nor that one time Tsunami stood up for the Rainwing and was left without food for two whole days, even Starflight who stuck with the rules more than anyone else helped sneak in a few leftovers to her

“I just wanted to give this to them to make them feel better” Sunny mumbled at the piece

However, just as she reached to take a bite, the piece suddenly cut itself in a perfect half before flying over to the grounded dragonets and dropping down with a plop sound, both dragonets flinched away in surprise before hunger took over them and they began wolfing down on the slip piece. Meanwhile, the Guardians stared at Sunny, she stared at her own paws in confusion

‘Did… did I do that?’

Before she could process any further, Webs suddenly dragged her out of the main cave and into the Guardian’s room, Tsunami tried to pull him back, but was completely ignored and Dune had to hold her back

“Sunny” Webs began with a small hiss “you can never, under any circumstance, do that again”

“W-what? Why?” she took a fearful step back “w-what was that? What did I do wrong?”

“That was Animus Magic” he explained “it is extremely dangerous; every time you cast a spell, it rots a piece of your soul, it may look fun now, but you will end up turning into a horrible dragon before you know it”

“W-what..?”

“It- should be physically impossible for you to be an Animus, the last Animus Sandwing disappeared and presumably died 2000 years ago. So you must promise me you will never cast another spell”

“I-I p-promise” Sunny said with a shaky voice

“You have to mean it” Webs hissed and took a step forwards “I swear to the mons, if you break this promise- you will never leave this cave, I will find another Sandwing to replace you and you will spend the rest of your life inside this damn cave if you even THINK of casting another spell”

Sunny had never felt so afraid, her wings and tail were glued against her tiny body as she began shaking and moving away from the bigger Seawing

“Now, promise me, PROPERLY” Webs ordered

“I-I p-promise” Sunny sobbed as tears began rolling down her face “I promise! I p-promise! P-lease! Don't replace me! DON’T REPLACE ME!” she begged

Chapter Text

As the Seawing in front of her quietly counted the number of lines, Sunny could finally rest her aching wrist, she had been requested to write an incredibly long essay about the dangers of Animus Magic, 40 lines was a lot

“Not bad…” Webs said, breaking the silence “the introduction needs some work and you used the wrong ‘your’ seven times”

Webs’s signature critical look was one Sunny was completely used to, the small flashes of anger hidden in his dark-blue eyes no longer scared her, she had gotten good enough a pretending that the Seawing was easily fooled by her lowered head and overall harmless body language

His aqua-green scales shimmered with the light of the torches as he put the scroll away “I have to go somewhere, but we will resume our class when I return, you may go now” he said and dismissed her with a flick of his tail

Sunny had learned it was better to say nothing, she simply nodded left the Guardian’s cave. It was only after she was a good distance from the Seawing that she let out a tired sigh, sitting at the edge of the underground river

‘I just want to help…’ she thought sadly and took a small sip from the cold river. ‘I can help…’

Somehow, a two-year-old Tsunami was able to convince Sunny to cast a small spell, even though she knew the Sandwing had already promised countless times she would never use her magic. Whether it was a moment of rebellion or determination to prove Webs wrong, her first spell was to make Glory’s blanket to always give her good dreams whenever she was feeling sad or weak

While the strange feeling that came after the spell made Sunny panic and think her soul was already rotting, in the end, seeing the Rainwing smiling and happily telling about the dream she had made it more than worth it

Her ears twitched as the boulder that blocked the only exit to the cave scrapped against the floor, she looked over her shoulder just in time to see Webs whispering something to Dune before walking out, the boulder rolled back to its normal place before the bigger Sandwing looked at her with a tired gaze

“You know the drill; don’t make a ruckus, don’t do any spells or whatever. I’m gonna take a nap” he said with an almost nonchalant tone before walking back to his cave

“Good night” Sunny said from her spot, already expecting for the next time she sees the pale Sandwing to be at dinner time

As soon as Dune’s tail slithered away, Sunny quickly got up and ran to the other side towards the training cave, planning on doing the exact opposite of what Webs taught her

Two blurs of blues and browns dashed around the make-shift arena, dodging swipes and blocking bites with impressive skill and paw work, recent scorch marks decorated the walls and ceiling as well as hide and camouflage scratches and broken pieces of rock

Tsunami jumped off the wall with a surprisingly gracious mid air spin to escape from Clay’s fire column, landing on the other side of the room. Both dragons glared at each other as they moved carefully, circling with slow movements trying to bait the other into moving first

With no warning, Clay rushed towards the Seawing now that she was far from the wall, yet his attack still failed thanks to Tsunami’s usual strategy; using her back paws, she stood up and managed to grab Clay’s horns and hold him away from her. He tried one last attempt to try and hit the Seawing, but she used all of her strength to tumble him to his side, holding his head down, she got back on the ground and approached his ear with a small smile and said:

“I win”

“You always do this!” the Mudwing rolled his eyes but smiled as well “how do I keep forgetting?”

“It’s not my fault you never understood the genius of my strategy” Tsunami mocked

The two dragonet’s ears perked up once Sunny began clapping at their little performance

“Sun!” Clay beamned and got up ”how long have you been watching?”

“I managed to catch that midair spin” she said and got closer to them “are you two injured?”

“I just have a few scrapes” Tsunami looked over her body

“And I just stubbed a few of my claws” Clay sat down and showed his slightly bloodied back paw “I’m guessing Webs left?”

“Yup” she chirped and carefully cupped the injured paw, inspecting it “where’s Kestrel, by the way? I thought you would train with her”

“She left earlier today” Tsunami revealed “I think she went out to hunt…” the Seawing tapped her chin before a sly smile appeared in her snout “Does that mean we are fully alone?”

“Don’t start” Clay warned

“Whaaat? I didn’t even say anything!”

“Dune doesn’t sleep forever, one wrong sound and we get poisoned” he remembered her

“You are no fun” the Seawing mumbled

“I’m simply trying to keep everyone alive, specially this one” he pointed to Sunny

Clay and Tsunami were identical and opposite of each other at the same time; while one tried to keep everyone out of trouble and very rarely managed to talk the Guardians out of giving out punishments, the other was always ready for blood. Tsunami had the most amount of scars out of everyone, including a broken left horn and several of her frills being torn, one of the segments on her tail was straight up missing

She was weirdly proud of them and kept claiming her body was like a museum: each scar had a story attached to them and she remembered all of them. Clay could remember how some of his happened as well, but not to the degree of Tsunami’s

“Done” the little Sandwing chirped, letting go of the now fully healed paw

“Oh wow!” Clay complimented “when did you get so good a healing?”

“I… May or may not have been experimenting late at night…” the Animus admitted with a small smile

“Oh so you took my advice” Tsunami suddenly commented, causing her to receive a glare from Clay “advice? What Advice? Who said anything about advice? Someone’s calling me, gotta go!” She escaped before Clay could scold her properly

“Were you actually experimenting at night?” the Mudwing questioned her

“Yeah…” She admitted again, looking at her paws

“That was quite dangerous, you know” he said, firmly but not harshly “what if one of the Guardians woke up and saw you?”

“...”

“Is this about Glory?”

She nodded slowly. Glory’s health was terrible, her scales had turned from a nice emerald green to dull grey in a couple of months after they hatched, not to mention how her stamina and energy had gone down hill ever since, now days the poor Rainwing can barely go by a day without having to take at least 5 naps. No one knows what’s causing such sickness since none of the Guardians have bothered to bring a scroll on Rainwings that wasn't filled with biassed opinions

It physically pained her to not be able to do anything about it

Clay put a gentle wing around her and brought her close “it’s ok, we will figure something out, just- don’t put yourself into danger like that, ok?” he asked, keeping his tone gentle and quiet

“Ok…” Sunny mumbled, being able to glance at Clay’s face, leaning into his touch

“ Ahem ” a quite exaggerated throat clear caught the duo’s attention, but they weren’t spooked by it

A lanky Nightwing stood in the entrance, his dark scales blended with the shadows and almost made him invisible making his green eyes and white spots under his wings almost shine

“What is it, Starflight?”

“It’s study night, remember?” the Nightwing reported ”The sun will be going down in a few hours, Kestrel will be returning soon and -I don’t know about you two- but I would like to guarantee my dinner”

While Starflight cold and egotistical on the surface, he was actually quite selfless and always meant well, any sarcastic jabs he would make to the others would never taken personally since that was the most effective way he found of not being the target of torment between the Guardians, hence why he had no scars compared to everyone else

“Ok, teacher Starflight, we are coming” Clay said with a playful tone, getting a small smile from the Nightwing before he left

“What do you think he picked out for us this time?” Sunny asked as they walked together

“Something tells me geography is going to be involved” he joked

Usually, the light which came from the sky hole was bright enough to illuminate the entire study cave without the need for torches but as the sun went down, the light would shift and wen up on the walls, creating a single orange circle that while could still illuminate the room, it wasn’t the best to read in

Not that any of the dragonets would complain, the single sky hole was their one connection to the outside world without it being tainted by the Guardians, if it wasn't there, none of them would know what a storm was or be able to bask in the morning sun light

The Nightwing had organized a ring of scrolls, three scrolls repeated five times, neatly placed on the floor. Tsunami had already chosen her spot as Starflight gently poked the sleeping Rainwing to wake her up

“Wakey-wakey, it’s time to study”

“Huh? Wha? Already?” Glory lifted her head, still with her eyes partially closed, looking around in confusion “it’s night already?”

“No, but almost. Get up”

With a still sleepy gaze, the Rainwing nodded slowly and managed to untangle her wings out of her blanket that was sadly too small for her now

“Good afternoon, Glory” Sunny greeted her with a smile “how was your nap?”

“Sun!” the Rainwing replied with a smile “it was nice, Starflight was reading for me”

“No I wasn’t!” the Nightwing chirped, fluttering his wings

“You know you don’t have to hide your soft side, right?” Clay poked him

“WHATEVER!” he hissed, swatting Clay away with his paw “can we please get to the important part? I have to look busy at the very least”

The other Dragonets understood his plea and chose their spots, with everyone seated, Starflight cleared his throat and put on his ‘teacher Starflight’ voice

“Today marks our 745th study session, and as is with every session, I have selected three scrolls for our minds to absorb.” he announced proudly ”From left to right; the first is the ‘Grand Map of Pyrrhia and Its Locations’ by Falsestrike the Nightwing, second we have ‘How the War Began’ by Hyena the Sandwing, and lastly but not least we have ‘The Tales of the Moons’ by Omen. Select whichever scrolls you want to read first, please- just study”

The study cave fell silent pretty quickly and hours went by without any of the dragonets noticing. Studying was alright in Sunny’s scroll, she got to stay with everyone and the Guardians usually wouldn’t bother them, however she did already ready read all of the available scrolls dozens of times by that point, and any new ones were barely considered new after two or three days

90% of them were written by Nightwings, a few were written by Ice- or Sandwings but she never saw one which was written by Mud- or even a Rainwing. The only scrolls about them were written by Night dragons who probably never spent much time with them. Burning ‘A Few Sluglike Qualities of Mudwings’ felt therapeutic after a lecture from Webs

“What do you think the rainforest is like?” Glory suddenly whispered, as she ran her paw over where the rainforest was depicted on the map

“Maybe it’s really pretty?” Sunny shrugged, pushing ‘The Tales of the Moons’ to the side “like, maybe the trees have a bunch of flowers”

“I could be misremembering things” Clay suddenly jumped in “but I have a faded memory of one of the Guardians mentioning how tall the trees were”

“You sure that’s not from one of those scrolls we hid?” Tsunami asked in a whisper “I think that’s from a silly story from when we were three”

“We still have that scroll?” Glory asked

“Yeah! We managed to find a few nooks that the Guardians can’t reach in and we’ve just been stuffing some of the ones that would be thrown away once we ‘grew out’ of them”

“Can I please have it?” the Rainwing begged

“Of course, meet me at midnight” Tsunami promised

“Oh so that’s why things were disappearing before they were supposed to” Starflight commented

“Hey, it’s thanks to me you can still read ‘Wishing to the Moons’!”

The duo began going back and forth, poking fun at each others poor literature taste, before Sunny’s ears twitched and she recognized the boulder scraping against the floor and the footsteps that followed

“Kestrel!” she warned them

In an instant, they stopped talking and snapped back to reading. The sound of steps grew louder before stopping right outside the study room

“See? I told you letting Starflight in charge of evening study was a good idea” Webs said calmly, almost with a smug tone

“As if that overweight salamander needed any more ego” Kestrel said harshly, seemingly ignoring the fact that said ‘overweight salamander’ was standing 10 meters away from her “as long as these slugs are occupied and don’t interrupt I don’t care who’s in charge” she hissed and began walking away from the study cave, but not before Sunny managed to catch her saying “so… About that message we got-”

“A message..?” she whispered

“Message? What message?” Glory asked as her ears perked up

“I don’t know, Kestrel just mentioned a message they got”

“Wait- what? From who?” Starflight put his scroll aside, asking in a careful whisper

“I can’t hear them anymore” Sunny reported, leaning towards the opening “they must be in their room”

Carefully and quietly, all dragonets left their spots and peeked out of the study room, the cave was quite dark, with the only other light source coming from the Guardian’s room

“Should we try and move closer?” Glory asked

“And risk getting caught?? Absolutely not!” Starflight whisper-screamed

“All of us would be too risky” Tsunami began in her ‘I already have a plan’ tone “how about just two of us?” she glanced at Clay and nodded towards the river

They had gone to spy on the Guardian's private talks before, but only when they were much smaller, they stopped after the paranoia of getting caught was too much

Clay glanced from the river to Tsunami and from her to the Guardian’s room before letting out a long, deep sigh

“Fine, but we are not staying for long” he said and watched with an already regretful look as Tsunami pranced towards the river

Chapter Text

“Morrow-who?” Glory asked, struggling to keep her eyes open

The trip to the cave was quick, but the duo of spies managed to gather some useful information; according to Webs, a mysterious Nightwing named Morrowseer was headed to see the dragonets despite having little to no warning and from what Clay reported, the Guardians were not happy about the uninvited guest

“Morrow seer ” Starflight corrected the Rainwing “you know? The dragon who wrote the prophecy?”

“Oh yeah” Glory said with a yawn “I don’t remember seeing his name much tho…”

“That I won’t deny” Starflight mumbled before turning to the still wet spies “what else did you two hear?”

“I think he was supposed to visit earlier” Tsunami said with a shrug, holding her damp wings over a lone torch “like, a lot earlier- as in ‘probably before we hatched’ earlier”

“Kestrel said some mean things about him, too” Clay pointed out, shaking the droplets of water out of his tail “a bunch of things about him being a ‘scaleless mindless bat’ and cursing him out for suddenly being interested after so long”

“Do they know why he’s coming?” Sunny asked with a worried tone

“By how pissed off Kestrel is, the answer is probably no” Tsunami crossed her front paws

“So there is a creepy dragon arriving tomorrow and no one knows why he’s coming?” Glory pointed out “did he finally find out about Sunny’s power or that I’m here instead of a Skywing?”

The thought of a powerful Nightwing realizing something went wrong with his prophecy and was now on his way to correct it was a terrifying one

“Alright everyone, I’m sure there’s no reason to panic…” Starflight suddenly interrupted “I’m sure Morowseer is a reasonable dragon, he will understand our circumstances and the stupidity of our Guardians”

“Are you saying that because he is a Nightwing or are you trying not to panic?” Tsunami pointed out, causing Starflight to freeze

“Anyway- time to sleep! I’m sure we will find out more tomorrow!” the young Nightwing suddenly dashed towards the sleeping cave

“Sunny..?” Glory suddenly nudged the smaller dragon “the Guardians already hate me for not being a Skywing, is Morrowseer going to be the same?”

“W-why would he? I-it’s not your fault that your here” Sunny said, trying to be as reassuring as possible

“Sun’s right” Clay spoke up “besides, even if he does try something, we will be here to protect you” he put a wing over Glory

“Exactly, I’ll make sure he’ll never see these claws coming” Tsunami flexed her talons

Glory smiled before she let out a yawn “I guess I better make sure I don’t fall asleep while he’s visiting”

. . .

Sleeping never felt harder, Sunny had laid awake in her spot for hours, the anxiety of Morrowseer’s visit was far too much, her mind raced with questions; did he already know about Glory? Did he know about Sunny’s powers? And Starflight’s leak of powers?? The small Sandwing tossed and turned restlessly, only being able to close for a few minutes before she was poked by one of the others, signalizing it was morning

How they were able to sleep comfortably through the night was beyond her

The tension in the caves hung around and clung onto the walls and ground, everyone was in a bad or sour mood; Kestrel was grumpier than usual, Webs was visibly stressed and Dune was somehow the only one keeping a calm expression

On the dragonet’s side, they tried their best to stay neutral throughout the day, keeping straight faces and staying out of the Guardians way, it wasn’t exactly easy seeing as the older Skywing was willing to snap and hiss at the smallest inconveniences like Tsunami breathing too loudly at breakfast

Not too long after breakfast, both Kestrel and Webs were going to leave. However, unlike the previous day, Kestrel had each dragonet be assigned to a different room of the cave for them to clean to ‘keep them occupied’. Which was probably the one of the weaker excuse Sunny had heard

“Do you think they are fetching Morrowseer?” Sunny asked with a whisper, rearranging the scroll shelf

Starflight stopped sweeping and glanced at her. Kestrel and Webs had been gone for nearly an hour and Dune had stationed himself by the exit boulder, fidgeting with a rock for several minutes. Having the dragonets clean the place was probably a way of them look better and less like wild animals

“It… Is possible” Starflight said softly, tapping his claws on his chin “exited?”

“What? N-no, not at all” she admitted “I’m worried of what he’s gonna do to Glory- what if he gets mad his prophecy was ruined?”

“Oh, calm your scales” he tapped Sunny’s snout with the broom’s handle “if there is anyone who should be worried: it’s the Guardians, it is because of their incompetence that they lost the Skywing egg”

“Still…” Sunny’s voice failed, picking at the edge of the scroll on her paws

“Hey guys” Tsunami suddenly peeked inside the study cave “mentally prepared for the visit?”

“Yup” Starflight answered confidently

“No…” Sunny admitted weakly

“Good, cuz he’s here”

“WHAT??”

Somehow, Morrowseer was able to look bigger and scarier than Kestrel. The old Nightwing’s scales looked darker than the night sky itself, making it look like he was the shadow of something ever bigger, his horns could easily scrape against the roof of the cave if he were to stretch his neck and the little white scales under his wings almost seemed to glow like dozens of tiny eyes

His black eyes stared at the dragonets with a judgemental gaze, silently examining them all. Sunny’s heart could jump out of her chest if it tired to beat any faster, her shoulders felt heavy and her legs shook as if they could give out at any moment, she tried to communicate with the old Nightwing, having her mind ask him dozens of questions: whether or not everything was going to be ok, what they should do and where to go once the war reached its 20 year anniversary and if they were going to succeed

She received no answers

“I see you lack a Skywing…” Morrowseer’s deep voice broke the silence like thunder as he glanced at the Guardians

“At… Least there’s five?” Webs said with a shaking voice, avoiding looking the old Nightwing in the eyes

“There was an accident with the Skywing egg and we had to replace it” Dune revealed

“And you got a Rainwing instead?” Morrowseer asked again, this time with a bit of anger in his voice

Sunny glanced at the Rainwing in question, Gory managed to keep a neutral face, but her frills were practically glued to her body and she could swear the Rainwing’s scales looked paler than before

“IT WAS HIS IDEA!” Kestrel suddenly shouted and pointed an accusatory talon at Webs before he could defend himself

Morrowseer was unamused, simply blowing a thick cloud of smoke before turning his attention to Sunny, locking eyes with her. If Sunny’s magic wasn’t the thing that would destroy her soul, the disappointing stare the Nightwing shot at her certainly would

“What’s wrong with this one? I asked for a Sandwing, not… This thing” he said with disgust

“HEY! Don’t talk about Sunny like that!” Tsunami snapped

“Tsunami, QUIET!” Kestrel ordered

“You know what? I don’t think I will” she hissed and turned to Morrowseer “who in the world do you think you are to be calling my sister a thing?!”

“You have quite the loose tongue for a mere hatchling” Morrowseer hissed, not even bothering to lower his head to her level “have those scars taught you nothing?”

“Oh don't worry, they taught me lots” Tsunami rolled her eyes and got up on her back paws “like how those three slugheads just LOVED to be awful to us! They would turn us into their personal punching bags if something minor happened!”

“Tsunami!” Kestrel ordered once more, but she was ignored

“Oh and also- I have to ask which smoke filled brain thought it was a great idea to shove 5 kids inside a cave and not even let them go outside??” the Seawing continued to rant, taking a step closer to Morrowseer

“Tsunami, be careful” Clay said, having to positioning is paw to grab her if necessary

“Chill, chill. I’m just asking a few very important questions” she reassured “speaking of important questions… WHEN ARE WE MEANT TO LEAVE??”  she roared “DO YOU THINK IT'S FUN HAVING TO DEAL WITH THOSE THREE FOR 6 YEARS?? WE DON’T KNOW WHAT IN THE MOONS IS HAPPENING OUTSIDE AND ALL THE INFORMATION WE HAVE WAS DELIVERED BY THOSE SLUGS! IF YOUR SUPER NIGHTWING POWERS ARE SOOO GREAT THEN- GIVE. US. AN ANSWER!”

A large black swipe crashed down on the ground, exactly where Tsunami was standing a second ago. Clay had been successful in pulling the Seawing back, but she still darted forward

She rushed towards the large Nightwing’s paw, clamping her jaws shut around his arm, refusing to let go. In return, Morrowseer went to bite her out of his arm, but was interrupted by Clay flying upwards and began attacking, scratching and biting, attempting to find a weak spot, and too keep the Nightwing’s attention on him

While things hadn’t gotten fully violent, Morrowseer could and would crush both dragonets easily, Sunny’s gaze quickly shifted to the Guardians but they simply stood there, silently watching as the fight went on; Dune kept his expression neutral, Kestrel was entertained and Webs was the only one who looked even slightly concerned but he simply stood there, uselessly

‘Oh, who am I kidding… They never do anything to help’

Without a second thought, Sunny shouted an order

“STOP FIGHTING!”

All three dragons froze for a second, both dragonets let go of Morrowseer’s limbs and neck and returned back to their spots on the line. The Nightwing groaned in slight pain and annoyance, checking his injuries before glancing at Sunny with a strange expression

“I’ll… Talk to you three later…” he said to the Guardians “I must talk to the Nightwing first”

“ME?!” Starflight said with a horrible voice crack before clearing his throat “I mean- ahem - uh- of course you would! I-I knew you would do that- I foresaw it, j-just like I saw when I knew you weren’t going to… Intentionally hurt my friends, w-which is why I didn’t stop you” he struggled to control his voice “in fact- I even managed to predict your arrival long before those smoke-brains ever got the message” the small Nightwing managed to say, shooting a dirty glance at the Guardians, pretending to be superior

“Impressive, it takes years of proper training for a Nightwing to be able to see weeks ahead, and you can already do so even after spending your entire life with such inferior Tribes” Morrowseer praised him, motioning for Starflight to follow him

The smaller Nightwing pranced after him with a dumb smile on his face, not even glancing over his shoulder

As soon as both Nightwings were gone, the first thing that happened, was a strong shove from Webs, nearly making Sunny fall

“That was a spell, wasn’t it? What did we talk about multiple times??” Webs questioned as he crept forwards towards the small Animus, his previous fear having seemingly evaporated

“She was just trying to help” Glory managed to say, putting a wing over Sunny

“Yeah, it wasn’t like you would have done anything” Tsunami hissed at him

“Oh please, if you had just kept your damn mouth shut, we wouldn’t be in this situation” Kestrel commented, rolling her eyes

“You aren’t any better!” Tsunami stood up, pointing an accusatory talon at the Skywing “I saw you smiling! You didn’t even try to go ‘oh Morrowseer, could you not kill that one? We kind of need her’”

“HA!” Kestrel cackled “need you? Of all dragons? Please, don’t make me laugh. The only reason why you aren’t the most useless and stubborn dragonet in this cave is because the Rainwing is here

“The prophecy was ruined anyway” she went on “I bet Pyrrhia would do better without any of you headless chickens running around the continent, acting like pathetic hatchlings”

“Listen here, you little-”

“Ok, that’s enough” Clay stepped between them, pushing Tsunami back slightly before glancing at Kestrel “look, we are trying our best, but it’s a little hard meeting expectations we don’t even know what they mean”

“Well, I’m afraid ‘your best’ is so terrible that you’ll never meet any expectations” the Skywing hissed softly “you certainly didn’t reach mine…”

“Only because you wanted the same ‘monster’ I was when we hatched” Clay remembered “which may I add has not happened since that day”

“ENOUGH!” Webs suddenly snapped, causing everyone to flinch. He turned back to Sunny with a serious expression “the second Morrowseer is out of this cave, we will be discussing what punishment you’ll be receiving”

Sunny cowered and took a step back, Glory’s wing pressed against her scales in a comforting attempt as the Seawing stepped away from her. Morrowseer soon appeared but didn’t say anything more to the dragonets and simply guided the Guardians to their cave for a private talk

“I’m so dead…” Sunny mumbled, sliding to the floor as her bones seemingly turned to water “Webs is going to kill me…”

“Don’t sweat it, Sun” Tsunami said in a reassuring tone “we both know Webs is too much of a coward and an idiot to do anything drastic. You’ll probably just have extra cleaning duties for a month”

“But he has never sounded this angry” Glory reminded, laing on the floor next to a flat Sunny “I mean, yeah, he might not do anything too harsh, but I don’t trust that tone…”

Sunny let out a sad whine

“I don’t think you two are helping…” Clay pointed out

“Whaat?” Tsunami shrugged before she took notice of the smaller Nightwing walking towards the sleeping cave with a scroll under his wing “hey! Mister ‘I’m a part of the most important Tribe’ where in the Three Moons do you think you’re going??”

“... Study” he said dryly “I… Still have a lot to learn”

“You can do that later! We need emotional support here!” the Seawing reminded him, pointing at the weakened Sandwing

“Ah, right…” Starflight mumbled as if it hadn’t crossed his mind “um… Could… One of you check on the Guardians..? I have… A bad feeling”

Both Clay and Tsunami exchanged confused glances before the Seawing turned to dive into the river without another word

“What did he tell you?” Sunny asked, raising her head slightly “please, tell me it’s good news”

Starflight hesitated “I’m… Not supposed to tell much…”

“Then what can you tell?” Glory questioned

“Nothing too important- just that the Tribe is counting on me and that I mus- should be the team leader, so that I can use my abilities to guide us to do the right thing”

“And the ‘right thing’ would be..?” Clay asked, tilting his head slightly

But before Starflight had the chance to answer, Tsunami shot out of the river and stood between the group and the opening to the Guardian’s cave

“Protect Sunny, protect SUNNY!” she ordered

Without question, the other three dragons stood in a line forming a metaphorical wall in front of the Sandwing. Just as they did, Morrowseer and two of the Guardians stormed out of their cave

“How long have you been in there?!” Kestrel growled

“I TOLD you to block that damn gap!” Dune yelled over his shoulder

“Clever…” Morrowseer mumbled as he stared down at the wet Seawing

“None of your business. Thank you for being stupid. Shut up” Tsunami growled as she glared at each respective dragon

“W-what happened? What did you hear?” Sunny whispered to the Seawing, trying her best to avoid the gaze of the adults

“Those smoke brains want to drive you insane; and by that I mean, Morrowseer wants you to use your magic for the war” she revealed

Sunny could hear her heart bumping on her ears. While it was true that she was planning to use a few little spells to help out on their quest for peace, having someone else dictate what she should and shouldn’t do felt too… Claustrophobic. Especially when said someone attacked two of her siblings without any hesitation and she still had no idea what his intention were

With a fearful step back, Sunny tried to look as small as possible, her mind was a complete mess and she could barely think straight, all she wanted was for Morrowseer to leave so that things could go back to somewhat normal

Her ears twitched as she heard the sound of splashing behind her and she had no time to react as a long but thin chain was suddenly wrapped around her snout and she was pulled back

Chapter Text

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Clay roared as he scraped his claws along the floor

“LET HER GO YOU SMOKE BRAIN!” Tsunami demanded from afar, looking for an opening

The only things keeping the rest of dragonets unable to help Sunny were Morrowseer’s strong grip on holding Clay down and Dune’s raised venomous tail trapping Tsunami and Glory in a corner, Starflight was the only one who wasn’t tapped, but he kept on looking at Morrowseer and back at the scene as if he was waiting for permission to stop them or say something

Sunny tried to fight back, her claws tried to grip on the stone floor to prevent the adults from dragging her away, but with no fire due to her muzzle being tied shut it was practically useless, her limbs were far too small for her to be able to scratch or kick either of the adults. To them; dragging her was like dragging a chicken

With an effortless tug Sunny was pulled and pinned to a stalagmite, the long chain looped around it and back to trap more of her limbs; her legs, her arms, her wings, her tail, before being pulled tightly by Kestrel and causing Sunny to let out a small cry, making it impossible for the Sandwing to move a single inch

“There” Kestrel began once she was done melting the chains together “that should prevent more rouge spells”

Everything felt uncomfortable, the cold chain dug onto her scales and forced her into an upright position, she could barely move her limbs and her chest was constricted with how tight the chain was, making incredibly difficult and painful to take a simple breath in

It was only then that Dune relaxed his tail and Morrowseer let go of Clay allowing them to rush over to Sunny’s side. Glory gave the chains a small test tug only to be met with Sunny’s whimpers

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!” Tsunami roared at Webs and Kestrel

“It’s for her own good!” the older Seawing tried to justify himself

“Her own go- it was ONE spell!” she reminded him, being careful not to reveal too much “and now Mr. I'm The Greatest over here wants to turn her into his personal magical toy!”

“Are you questioning my decision?” Morrowseer bared his teeth

“YES!” Tsunami snapped back ”Give me one, REALLY, good reason to trust you”

“Is the fact that I can see eons ahead of us not a good enough reason for you? Seawing” the old Nightwing said before rolling his eyes and huffing “oh, what is the point of trying to reason with a dragonet? They never know what’s best for them”

Tsunami’s expression switched from angry to unamused “tHeY NeVer KnOW whAt’s BeSt fOr tHEm” she mocked quietly

“With all due respect, what about this is ‘the best’ for Sunny?” Clay interrupted pointed at the trapped Sandwing with his wing “We’ve known her for long enough to know she would never hurt anyone” 

“So did Albatross’s sister, and Darkstalker’s parents” Webs reminded him “and yet the Seawing Massacre happened and Arctic was killed by his own son”

“Wasn’t there a bunch more Animi throughout history? How come you still use those two examples?” Glory suddenly challenged “is it because they are the only ones that went crazy?”

Webs kept his mouth shut, he knew Glory was right but he refused to give her the credit. So, Kestrel spoke for him

“ENOUGH! You five have been causing nothing but trouble all day! Straight to bed! All of you!” Kestrel ordered while forcing them to back away from the stalagmite ”and don’t expect food for the next few days!”

Tsunami was more than willing to snap back and fight the Skywing, but was forced to back away as well. Kestrel smiled sadistically at the retreat and continued to force them back, keeping her wings open to prevent any of them from slipping past her

“W-wait” Starflight suddenly took a step forwards despite the obvious danger “you’re not gonna keep her- locked up like that, right?” he asked the Guardians, but his gaze kept shifting to the older Nightwing

“This is only temporary, to prevent any… Violent acts that might happen during the night” Morrowseer explained “no need to worry about her soul”

“But-”

“No more questions” Morrowseer snarled, barely disguising the tone of anger on his voice

With a few last glances, the other dragonets entered their sleeping cave and without wasting a beat, Kestrel turned to Dune “hey, sand brain, come be useful for once and guard the entrance. I don’t want these slugs tip-toeing around in the night”

“Fine” he huffed tiredly and limped over to the entrance “this whole thing better be worth it”

“Oh, it will be,” Morrowseer said “I’ll be back tomorrow to deal with the… Other problem, after that, I’m taking the Animus to fix the stupidity you made, Seawing ” he said, looking at Webs with disgust, who simply grumbled under his breath

“Mmm?! MMMMHMHMH!” Sunny trashed uselessly against her bindings at the mention of being taken

“Hush you” Morrowseer hissed softly “can’t you see how beneficial your powers are going to be? You are contributing to a great cause. If used correctly, that is”

‘I know it’s a good cause- what worries me is what you are gonna make me do!’ she thought loudly, still trying to get an answer out of the Nightwing, but was once again left without an answer ‘AT LEAST TELL ME MY SIBLINGS ARE GOING TO BE OK AFTER ALL OF THIS!’

The last sound that echoed through the chamber was the boulder rolling back into place and the claws of the Guardians walking away. Which left Sunny alone with nothing but the sound of the river, the occasional yawns from Dune and her own thoughts

The first few minutes she spent sobbing quietly to herself and wondering; why was everything already going so horribly wrong? Her friends were attacked by the first outside dragon they’ve seen since their hatching, the Guardians were perfectly fine with separating her from the others, Starflight was acting funny… The only thing she could do was hope Morrowseer or even the Talons of Peace allowed her to use her powers by her own will

Minutes turned to into hours and the hours felt like an eternity, her legs grew tired from supporting her weight and her back began pulsating in protest, but slacking was far from an option, especially with how tight the chains felt around her neck

‘Why did the Guardians even agree to do this??’ Sunny thought as she blew a puff of smoke through her nostrils ‘what are they planning now? Getting rid of Glory to put a stupid Skywing in her place??’ she huffed, after the grand display of total lack of hesitation to chain the little Sandwing up - as if they had been waiting for an excuse - that idea could become real…

Sunny tried to glance at the sleeping cave one more time, it was just outside of her peripheral vision and the only thing she could see was the very tip of Dune’s torn wing. None of the others seemed to have made any attempts to sneak around the possibly already asleep Guardian, but who could blame them? At that point, it was probably safer for them to not help Sunny in anyway

Yet, there was still a tiny voice at the back of her head saying: get out of there, now.

‘What am I even supposed to do…?’ she asked the little voice ‘I can’t enchant things with my mind… I tried that before!’ A quick flash of the moment came to her, a newly 5-year old Sunny trying to do something incredibly risky; enchanting Kestrel to find a tasty meal for the dragonets for their hatching day with her mind, peeking just out of her hiding spot. It didn’t work. She brought the same 5 charted birds, didn’t even say ‘happy hatching day’

‘Unless… I never did it right…’

A new wave of hope washed over the Animus, with a straight posture, she took a few deep breaths and tried her best to concentrate. Closing her eyes. It was just her and the chains; the tight feeling of them around her limbs, the cold clashing against her warm scales. Nothing more nothing less

With another breath, she ordered ‘I enchant these chains to be incredibly frail and snap at the slightest of pressure’

Clank! Snap! Clink!

Sunny dropped to the floor and took as deep of a breath as her lungs could muster now that they were free, with shaky limbs, the Sandwing managed to get back up on her feet before a sharp barb invaded her vision, specs of dust away from stabbing her eye

“How. Did. You. Get. Free?” Dune asked, his tone was low and angry

“Uh-”

“Don’t try any funny business” Dune threatened, his tail getting dangerously close “I can strike faster than you can say ‘enchant’”

“You… You don’t have to do this…” Sunny said, trying her best to keep her tone low and inoffensive “Dune… P-please- I- I don’t wanna go!”

A very small glint of regret appeared in his eyes before it quickly vanished “... Sorry, Sunny. But I’m afraid we have orders” he didn’t lower his tail “so how about you be a good little dragonet and behave?”

“I will- I- I will…” she took a step back, and thankfully that was enough to make him lower his barb. But before he could do or say anything else, her throat began to burn up, as if the words were trying to claw their way out of her mouth. With a quick breath, the bubbling sensation on her chest grew as she muttered “but first… Go to sleep!”

Dune’s eyes widened as she jumped away, his barb was inches away from scratching her scales, he attempted to try again, but his muscles began to relax; his front leg didn’t move forwards in time which causing him to fall, his next attempt to get up was also in vain

“You little- what have you done to me..?” Dune asked, trying to suppress a yawn

“I-I’m sorry! I-I just-” Sunny stuttered, taking small steps away from the bigger Sandwing “I’m sorry… I had to”

“You are in… Huge… Trouble…” Dune’s words stopped as he let out a huge yawn, his eyelids began to close as his head rested on the ground

“Sorry…” she apologized again, watching silently as his eyes finally closed. Before she walked away, she got closer to him and began extending her enchantment “um… You will have very good dreams, dreams about your friends, the time before the war, and when you wake up after… 8 hours, you will feel very happy and energized”

Dune’s expression softened, and his muscles relaxed. Sunny had never seen the older Sandwing this relaxed before, his naps were always so short and he was always on high alert… Maybe that was why he was tired all the time…

With a small head pat, Sunny quickly ran over to the sleeping cave, where her friends had been stuck in

“I say we get kill Kestrel first” Tsunami’s hushed voice echoed from inside, just as Sunny approached the opening “I jump on her back, break her neck and toss her body onto the river”

“She is far too quick, you will never be able to jump onto her back, let alone grab her neck” Clay argued “ I at least have a small chance with her, I know her tricks so I can at least incapacitate her”

“What about Dune?” Starflight questioned “someone is gonna have to take the barb”

“We can put him to sleep” Sunny suggested, as she sat in the little circle

“Dune? Nah, it will be more likely to convince Webs to stop bothering you about your magic then it will be to put Dune to sleep” Starflight pointed out

And then, the cave fell silent. Four pairs of eyes slowly turn to Sunny before she was tackled to the ground with hugs and purrs

“How did you get rid of the chains?” Glory was the first to ask “we were trying to come up with a plan to rescue you!”

“And what did you do to Dune??” Tsunami quickly followed up

“I had to put him to sleep with my magic, the chains were also with magic…” She confessed, still feeling a little guilty

“Great, that means he won’t feel anything when we toss him into the river” Tsunami said out of the blue

“Hey, we agreed that if there was one dragon inside the mountain that deserved to be drowned was Kestrel” Clay warned her

“Wait- you’re going with that plan??” Glory tilted her head

“If push comes to shove…”

“Ok- everyone- shut up for three seconds” Starflight suddenly snapped, causing the others to instantly look at him “look, plotting our revenge was fun and all, but Sunny is free now, and once the second the other two realize what happened, these caves are going to be complete chaos. So, how about instead of discussing which Guardian should be drowned first, we instead focus on finding a way to get out of here?”

After a few seconds of silence, Glory spoke up “Starflight has a point, we are just wasting time, wouldn’t it be better if we just… Leave?”

The silence hung around for much longer this time as the dragonets glanced at each other. While the thought of escaping the caves was not a new one, actually escaping was something none of them had ever planned for

So the question was ’How’?

“I could finally try a talon with the river” Tsunami spoke up “I’ve seen the small opening on the training cave but I was never brave enough to enter it”

“But what if it takes you nowhere?” Clay instantly questioned “or the passage is too narrow? We would have no way of getting to you”

“Even if it does lead you somewhere, how will we even know if it's leading you outside?” Starflight remembered

“Wouldn’t it take too long? Morrowseer could arrive while she is in the tunnel” Glory pointed out

“Not to mention how you would be able to find us afterwards” Clay went on “a smoke signal is far too risky and I still feel like its a bit too early to be playing around with Sunny’s magic”

“Maybe… The main boulder?” Sunny offered shyly “I could try and enchant it to not make a sound while we open it”

“Oh yeah, now that Dune is out, we can get the key and not worry about being attacked!” Glory perked up

“Wait- he has the key??” Tsunami tilted her head

“It’s that weird shard on his necklace” Glory explained “I saw him using it to unlock the bolder a bunch of times before”

Both Tsunami and Clay let out soft ‘oh’s at the revelation as their attempts of trying to secretly push the boulder had been for nothing

“How did we never notice that?” the Mudwing questioned

“To be fair, would you go near the boulder while he was opening it?” Starflight pointed out, prompting Clay to quickly shake his head

“REGARDLESS!” Tsunami suddenly shouted “I vote on us getting out of here right now, let’s just get the key and bolt off”

“But-” Sunny mumbled, the words getting caught on her throat. A small nudge from Glory was able to get her to speak “we… We don’t know what’s out there… W-what if the Guardians are right and we get caught by Scarlet’s army? O-or worse??”

“I understand what you mean, Sun. But these caves aren’t exactly the safest place either” Tsunami pointed out, nudging the little Sandwing with her tail “we don’t know what Morrowseer wants and the three grown morons were more than happy to tie you up despite knowing you are basically harmless- no offence”

“None taken”

“At this point, I’m willing to take the gamble.” Clay spoke up ”The Guardians always said half the continent would love our heads on a stick, but no one really knows what we look like. So as long as we are careful, dragons might think we are just a bunch of orphans traveling around” he pointed out

Even with the possibility of going unnoticed, Sunny couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong… What if the Guardians found them and forced them to go back? Or what if one of the Princesses got their claws onto them? Would she have to be forced to use her powers like Morrowseer was trying to do? What would they even make her do??

Sunny must have been shaking or hyperventilating, as Tsunami suddenly put her wing over her before looking back at the group

“As Starflight would say: if no one has any objections, let’s get to work!”

Glory raised a paw “can I take my blanket?”

“Absolutly” Tsunami nodded, still keeping Sunny close “we are not letting them keep any thing with Sun’s magic”

“Maps!” Starflight suddenly perked up “we are gonna need maps to navigate” he repeated and quickly left the room

“Oh, for Moons’ sake, Starflight! We practically memorized those maps!” Tsunami hissed and went after him

The other three peeked out of the room and everything was still eerily quiet; Dune was still practically motionless on the floor, the torch lights in the Guardians’ room were still undisturbed and Sunny couldn’t hear any other voices that weren't her siblings

“Should we act now?” Glory whispered

“We have to. Are you ready, Sunny?” Clay asked sweetly, putting his wing over the little Sandwing

“Yeah… Kind of… Let’s go”

Carefully, Clay and Glory held Dune’s head up to retrieve the stone around his neck, their movements were slow and their bodies were as physically far from the big Sandwing as they could go as if one wrong movement would somehow manage to wake him from his magic induced sleep. Once the necklace was taken off, both dragonets quickly jumped back and braced for something. Dune didn’t move

“How long is he going to sleep?” Clay asked, clutching the key

“8 hours” Sunny said “a-at least I hope… I added the time limit after I put him to sleep…”

“I’m sure he is gonna be fine” Glory patted her wing “now, come on, let’s get out of here before the others wake up”

Sunny nodded, the others rushed towards the door while she lagged behind, giving Dune one last glance apologetic glance before following them

Clay positioned himself in front of the boulder and placed the key in, it clicked in place and waited patiently to be turned

“Should I… Twist it already?” Clay asked the others, his claws twitching in anticipation to move the boulder

“Wouldn’t it be better with the enchantment to make it quiet?” Glory asked, glancing at Sunny and back at Clay

Before any of them could answer, Tsunami joined them and tossed Glory her blanket and dragged Starflight behind her while he clenched a small bag with several large scrolls inside it which barely fit

“There, we got everything, let’s just get out of here- they are going to get up soon” Tsunami pointed at the study cave, a small shine of light could be seen from where they stood

“Um- l-let’s just ditch the spell-” Sunny said anxiously “Clay- get us out of here already!”

He nodded and twisted the key, a muffled somewhat mechanical sound could be heard behind the boulder. Clay stood on his hind legs and placed his front paws on the boulder, he took a deep breath and - for the first time in 6 years - effortlessly pushed it out of the way. Clearing the way to a dark hall and a breeze

The breeze was soothing and welcoming, as if it was congratulating them for achieving something great. They had experienced wind before as it would rarely get in through the sky hole, alongside other elements. Yet, that simple breeze felt a lot more triumphant

“I’m not the only one who feels inexplicably anxious, right?” Starflight asked, his voice was able to snap the other four dragonets back to reality

“No, I think…” Tsunami muttered

“Feels… A little intimidating” Glory admitted as she hung the blanket over her wing

Sunny was the first to step towards the exit, she was able to pick up the scent of grass and mud but couldn’t see or hear much, the darkness of the tunnel stared back at her as she planned her next move. With a shaky paw, she decided to take her first step towards the outside

“GET DOWN!”

She was suddenly tackled to the floor, just in time for a column of nearly white fire to shoot just above them

“You little GNATS!” Kestrel shouted as a thick cloud of smoke poured out of her mouth and nostrils “if I knew you pests were going to be this much of a headache, I would have broken your eggs myself!”

“Really? At least it would have been better then to have known you” Tsunami rolled her eyes before being hushed by Clay

Another column of fire forced the dragonets to back away from the opened door way, Kestrel couldn’t decide what she was more furious about: the freed Animus, the opened door or the unconscious Guardian

“Sweet Moons above, give me patience- WEBS!” Kestrel yelled over her shoulder “GET YOUR USELESS TAIL OVER HERE! THE LITTLE FREAK GOT OUT”

Just as the Skywing turned back to the dragonets, Clay had successfully made his move; he ran straight towards her with no fear and headbut her chest with his entire weight, forcing her to fall onto her back. The Skywing tried to counter attack, her high pitched hiss was interrupted as Clay forced her snout shut and held her neck down, but she wasn’t going to let him hold her down that easily

Sharp claws were quick to dig into Clay’s scales and tear his skin, her hind legs tried to push him off but he refused to be thrown off

“GO NOW!” Clay yelled to the others, ignoring the pain “IT’S OUR ONLY CHANCE!”

The other dragonets wasted no time in moving, Tsunami pushed them towards the exit yet Sunny’s body refused to cross over, her eyes were locked into Clay’s fighting stance, her throat began burning way the same way it did with Dune, but this time she had nothing

A sudden pressure on the tip of her tail made her snap out of her tranced like state before she could even process what had grabbed her Webs suddenly began to pull her back nearly effortlessly

“L-let me go!” Sunny protested, desperately clawing her way out of his grip

“And let you bring the entire continent to ruin? Absolutely not!” he snapped “all you had to do was wait for Morrowseer! Why can’t you follow simple instructions??”

“How about you follow my claws!” Tsunami tackled him and bit his gills, hard enough for him to let go

Just in time for Clay to have finally lost his grip and be kicked off Kestrel, once again she began hissing but was interrupted once more, this time by Starflight responding with his own fire, nearly hitting her eyes

“WATCH IT, NIGHTWING!” Kestrel roared, rubbing her burnt neck “just you WAIT until we tell Morrowseer how USELESS YOU ARE”

“Good thing we will be far from here before he arrives” Starflight said in an almost mocking tone

“Oh really? And where exactly will you five slugs go?” Kestrel questioned

“Far from you!” Clay yelled and once again threw himself on top of Kestrel, this time, he began pulling her away from the exit “Tsunami- little help!”

“Just a second” Tsunami said, still not taking her eyes off Webs, who was still trying to lunge towards Sunny

“Why can’t any of you understand this is for your good?!” Webs asked trying to sound heartbroken

“Our own GOOD??” Tsunami echoed impatiently “since WHEN was tying one of up for our OWN GOOD??” she roared and spun around, being able to hit the bigger Seawing with her tail, the impact was great enough to make him take several steps back and slip inside the river

Once he was taken care of, Tsunami rushed to Clay side and helped him keep Kestrel’s snout shut. The Skywing struggled to fight off both of the better fighters between the dragonets and they managed to drag her towards the river, the other three cheered them on as their tormentor was forcefully shoved into the water, landing on top of Webs

This time, they wasted no time in running, as Kestrel struggled to leave the river, Tsunami and Clay both managed to roll the boulder back in place - but not before grabbing the key - effectively locking their Guardians inside the cave. A loud and furious roar was heard from behind the boulder as they began to run along the narrow hallway, Tsunami’s glowing scales guided them through the darkness their claws and labored breaths bounced off the rocky walls as they struggled to properly run through the snaking path before they finally reached the end

The tunnels suddenly opened up to the outside, a bright shining light burnt their eyes. Sunny managed to open one of her eyes after a few seconds and was met with the most beautiful sight she had seen in 6 years; a vast, near endless morning sky stretched above the ravine with tiny white clouds dotted around, the moss covered rocks around them gave off a comforting scent and the sun hitting against her scales had never felt better

“Guys… Look” she said in a near whisper, nudging the nearest dragonet beside her

A wave of ‘woah’s echoed between all five, they walked slowly and carefully through the soft grass, flinching at the new feelings and sights, twitching their wings as they looked up at the sky, sniffing the air for the fresh scents and basking in the bright sunlight

“Glory- your scales!” Starflight suddenly pointed at the Rainwing

She quickly looked at her paw and saw the usually dusty grey shifting to a more green-ish tint, her frills gained more colors and even her eyes looked brighter

“Woah…”

“How- how do you feel?” Sunny asked

“I… feel… Amazing” Glory said with a small smile “I don’t feel tired anymore”

“So the caves WERE the reason you were always sick” Tsunami said

“Speaking of them… Could we move away from them?” Clay asked, pointing at the tunnel “I know we have the key, but I can’t help but feel Kestrel’s rage will be enough to melt that boulder”

The others nodded in agreement and began to move, walking along the bottom of the ravines. Once again, Sunny froze and glanced at the tunnel once again, she couldn’t help but feel guilty trapping the Guardians like that, despite them finally getting a taste of their own medicine

Did they really deserve it? Despite it all?

She shoved that thought to the back of her head and began following the group

Chapter Text

no one followed the Dragonets as they walked through the very bottom of the ravines, which was a good sign. as the day went on, the five of them began to relax and get distracted at small things like birds chirping and the drifting clouds

none of them dared to fly out of the canyons, tho, Starflight wasn't entirely sure how far away they were from Queen Scarlet's castle, as not even he knew where exactly their cave was located

The bottom of the ravines still had a lot to offer with fruits, clean rivers and mud, lots of mud, Sunny wasn't sure if she had ever seen a dragon as happy as clay when he bathed in it, at least some of his scars looked less visible when he got out of it

Tsunami was the one to find a small place for them to settle and wait for night time, it was a little hole at the side of a mountain with some vegetation around it, if no one messed with the leaves around the entrance, it looked perfectly camouflaged, like it was enchanted to look like that

“It has some good space for us" Tsunami said as she examined the little cave "there is a river right outside, I spotted a few bird nests on the way here, this is basically paradise we can totally live here!"

"only if someone doesn't find us" Starflight said as he picked a spot to claim as his own "if only i'm able to figure out which river this is…" he unravel the Skywing Kingdom map and looked at the smaller details

Sunny stretched her wings and settled down on her spot as well, close to Glory

"Did the berries that you found taste good?" Sunny asked

"they were so good, i should have grabbed more" Glory admitted sadly

"and i should have asked one" the little Sandwing giggled "... i know i just asked but… how do you feel?"

"wonderful" she practically sang, the scales on her wings changed from orange to a mixture of dusty pink and yellow

“your scales are changing a lot more as well” Sunny commented

"really? i didn't notice"

"you know what else would make your scales look better?" Clay said as he entered the cave, completely dirty "a mud bath"

"Clay!" Tsunami grabbed a nearby stick and began playfully waking his head "no mud in the new cave!"

"ow! ow! hey!" Clay backed away "I'm not even that dirty!"

Glory suddenly chimed in "actually, yeah- no- go clean yourself and bring a rock from the river, i have an idea"

the Rainwing's sudden burst of energy caught everyone's attention, curious, Clay obeyed her wishes, soon returning with a very pretty rock and dripping water from his wings, he handed the rock to Glory and she stood up, standing in the middle of the other Dragonets

"today is a very special day, as it marks our freedom from the claws of the Guardians -and hopefully the Talons Of Peace-" she started "however, i would like to turn this day even more special" she turned to the smallest dragonet "Sunny of the Sandwings, enchant this rock with whichever spell you want"

to say Sunny was shocked would be an understatement, she accepted the rock and held it with both of her paws, she could see where Glory was coming from, without the Guardians, Sunny could actually use her Magic for more things than just healing. she looked at the others but Glory opened her wings

“Ah ah ah ah ah, no outside influences, its gotta be your own idea” she said and shot a deadly glance at Starflight who looked like he was trying to transfer his thoughts into the Sandwing

Sunny managed to not laugh and concentrated on the rock 'Maybe I could have it heal whoever touches it? it would help whenever i'm not there, but it could if it fell into the wrong talons…' she tapped her claws onto the floor 'what do i want it to do?'

Sunny repositioned herself to a more comfortable pose, having her tail right by her side. the sight of her harmless tail gave her an idea, she straightened herself and thought of good phrasing

She whispered the enchantment and soon a thin silver lining shimmered into view, holding the rock and turning it into an necklace, her friends were about to cheer when Sunny held her talon and put the newly made necklace on, when the rock hit her scales, her tail became heavier, she looked down, and there it was, a Magical Sandwing Barb with the same look and color as the rock

Sunny raised her tail and held the new barb high, proud of her own work, she was then tackled to the ground by the others, complimenting her and non-stop comments of how great of an idea that was

"Now it's my turn to ask: how do you feel?" Glory asked

“My claws felt a little weird for a few seconds, but it faded away” Sunny reported

"What about your tail?" Clay asked

"It's a little heavy, but I can get used to it. hopefully i won't have to actually use it, i… left the poison part out, safety reasons" Sunny explained

“It looks… real…” Starflight got closer “like you were… born with it”

Tsunami suddenly grabbed Sunny and lifted her up “so what if it has no poison? Let's test it out!” and began walking towards the entrance of the cave

“Tsunami! Wait! It's not night time yet!” Clay tried to pull the Seawing back

“We will definitely not leave the ravines, dont worry” she said and used her wing and tail to move the leaves out of the way

“At least wait for the rest of us!” The Mudwing followed after her, soon enough, both Glory and Starflight went after them

the second the sun disappeared into the horizon, they took off. flying never felt so good, the sky was so big they didn't have to worry about crashing into stalagmites or walls, they could actually spread their wings and do tricks in the air

finding prey got much easier, Sunny could spot big animals from the sky and either Tsunami or Clay would dive straight into their target and turn it into their dinner. they left the smaller prey like bunnies and goats for Sunny to practice hunting with her new tail, it was tricky but not impossible

everyone -aside from Glory, who decided to gather fruit and berries instead- managed to get a good amount of prey for themselves and eat it all up, there were no words spoken until everyone finished their meal

"i think this is the most full ive ever been" Tsunami commented, licking the meat out of a rib cage

"i think i managed to eat too much" Clay reported, laying in the grass, completely spread out

Sunny licked her lips and sighed with satisfaction, picking her teeth with a small bone. She felt a little slow and sleepy, probably a combination of the time and all of the food. the Sandwing looked at the others, happy that no one was left off dinnertime

"Is it weird that all of us are eating together?" Glory asked, licking the juice off her talons

"a little" Starflight confessed "but it's a good kind of weird" he quickly added

"it shouldn't be, tho…" Clay began, getting up "eating together should feel normal"

the other Dragonets agreed, it was almost impossible for all five of them to eat together in the caves, that wouldn't even happen on their hatching day. but now, they were out of the caves, and they could make every meal into a feast if they ever wanted to, there are no Kestrels to stop them

"we should eat together as often as possible," Sunny offered "that way, it will feel natural without us even noticing"

"i like that idea" Glory nodded

"it's gonna take a while" Starflight managed to say, his voice was slow and mumbly, he let out a big yawn "ok, i think thats enough fun for today, my new bed is calling me"

the Dragonets returned to their spots and curled up to sleep, the rustling of the foliage outside gave out a serene and soothing melody, Glory insisted on sharing her blanket with the others, but it was a little to small, so she settled in sharing with Sunny

"... should someone keep an eye outside?" Starflight asked, causing everyone to be alert

"that… is… a great question" Tsunami confessed, her bioluminescent scales glowed softly as she spoke "who wants to be the one to bite the clam?"

Sunny saw that Tsunami was about to answer her own question, but Clay got up first "i'll do it"

"you sure?" Glory asked the Mudwing

"if im not wrong, the Mudwings and Skywings are on the same side" he remembered "if a Skywing spots me, they will probably think i'm on patrol"

Starflight clapped, clearly proud of Clay "someone remembered something"

the Mudwing walked towards the entrance "ill roar if something happens, if its a low roar, ill need backup. if its a high roar, you guys gotta leave"

"What about you?" Sunny questioned

"ill buy time" he said with a smile before exiting the cave, ready to protect the others in case someone stumbled into their hiding spot

. . .

Sunny was ready to sleep through the entire day. it was probably some kind of placebo effect, but sleeping besides Glory and her blanket gave the Sandwing sweet dreams of them flying through endless skies

but that was cut short when Clay suddenly returned, singing and nudging everyone

"goooood morning, good morning, wake up" he tapped his paws rhythmically to his little melody "come ooon, i found something, i gotta show you all, get uuuuuup!"

"i will find a way to melt your scales shut" Tsunami snapped, already in a bad mood

"shut uuuuup" Starflight kept his wings over his head

"i won't actually, it's kind of important" Clay dragged the grumbling Nightwing away from his spot

"Did you stay awake for the entire night?" Glory asked, grabbing her blanket and trying around her neck, like a bandana

"yup" he said, now that Sunny gave him a good look, there was some dark circles under his eyes

"Clay! you could have switched with someone else!" the Sandwing reprimanded and tapped her Enchanted Barb on the floor

"uh-oh, you angered the doctor" Glory joked

"sorry" he lifted his paws "look, i found someone yesterday- well a group of someones," he explained "and… they look a lot like me"

"explain" Starflight hissed, still mad he was awoken

"i'll do one better, i can show you guys were they are"

"Is that a good idea?" the Seawing asked "cant believe im gonna say this but- Kestrel did say there was a talonful of dragons that would love to get their claws on us"

"well, i made them promise to meet us at a neutral location without any armor or weapons" Clay said

"and what's stopping them from sending us straight to one of the Queens?" Starflight asked

"eeeeh i don't think they would do that to their own… long lost brother ?"

and with that, everyone shut up and followed Clay to whatever that meeting place was

the Mudwing guided them through the ravines, commenting on how he met the group on the previous night. he heard several footsteps coming towards the caverns and managed to drive their attention to another path, the group then started a conversation with him and commented on how familiar Clay felt

"think of smaller copies of me" he tried his best to describe the group "they even have the same tusk i have" he pointed to his single tusk at the side of his mouth, Sunny would sometimes forget that Clay was born with one tusk and would sometimes assume it was yanked out by Kestrel… or Dune

"they sound like great dragons" Sunny said, flying beside him

"let's hope they are great dragons" Tsunami said still a little skeptical

The Dragonets soared close to the ground before landing, Clay led them through the small bit of forest and into a clearing. 6 Mudwings were chatting among themselves, the oldest looked around the same age as Clay and the youngest looked to be 4 years old, but that was probably just because of their size

"hey! you guys came" Clay stepped into the clearing, motioning for the other Dragonets to stay put for a bit

"Claaaaay!" the smallest Mudwing rushed towards him and gave him a big hug "you actually came back!"

"i'm a dragon of my word" he playfully nudged the smallest Mudwing, Sunny gave him a good look and he did actually look a lot like Clay, so did the others

"Where's the surprise? Is it here as well?"

"calm down Umber, let the poor guy breath" the oldest looking Mudwing called to the smallest one

"i just reeeally wanna know!" Umber replied, hopping from one paw to the other

"the surprise is here, but remember, its all between us, ok?" Clay said, once all of the other Mudwings nodded, he motioned for the Dragonets to also step into the clearing

there was a shine of curiosity in their eyes as the others stepped forward, Umber looked ready to ask millions of question

he turned to the Mudwings "these are my friends, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight and Sunny" he then turned to the Dragonets "these are my siblings, Reed, Pheasant, Sora, Marsh, Crane and Umber"

Chapter Text

Clay's siblings were possibly the best dragons to have stumbled upon, they were curious and excited about their long lost brother and his little group of chosen dragonets. watching Glory's shifting scales in awe, trying to make Starflight guess what they were thinking, and, of course, Sunny… as a whole… and the necklace, but thankfully a simple 'i found it' was enough to make them not question any further

they were also very patient when it came to the Dragonet's turn of asking questions, like what was going on in the outside world, what a 'Bigwing' was after they mentioned it, and what was so special about a red-blood dragon egg. Sunny had to physically stop Starflight from 'testing if Clay's fireproof scales were actually working'

"the 'Dragonets of Destiny?'" Tsunami repeated "that's what dragons call us?"

"it's become more and more popular recently" Reed explained "since the war is going to have its 20th anniversary soon there's been a bunch of chatter about you guys"

"like how you are just going to fly down from the moons and declare the new Queen" Umber gave an exemple

"speaking of Queens…" Pheasant mumbled "what's the game plan?"

"... is it concerning or expected to say we don't even know what to do?" Starflight confessed

Clay's siblings were, justifiably, confused

"I mean, by what you guys said about your 'guardians' i guess… expected?" Pheasant shrugged 

"growing up inside that cave must have been awful" Crane said, there was a sad look in her eyes, Marsh didn't say anything but nodded, agreeing with her

"these scars don't tell half the story" Tsunami pointed to her scales

"Were you ever allowed to just- see the sun? i know i just asked but-" Umber moved his talons around, not being able to find the right words

"I mean… we're out here now" Sunny tried to shift the conversation to somewhere else "so… we will just try our best to act like normal dragons…"

"... and doing what the prophecy says?" Sora asked, hoping for a yes

"i mean, we were taken out of our homes as eggs, deprived of any interaction with other dragons and have to choose someone for a throne in which is going to affect 1 dragon of our group" Starflight said before adding "might as well"

"good!" Umber got back to his feet "I'm done fighting Icewings! their Freeze Breath is nasty!"

" Frost Breath" Reed and Pheasant said in unison, correcting their younger brother

"we will try our best" Clay promised "... after we sort a few things out" he added

"oh! I just had an idea!" Pheasant spoke up "why don't you guys come back to the Mud Kingdom with us? We are supposed to go back tomorrow anyways, that way you guys can find more about stuff you don't know and have some insight on what Mudwings think of Burn. compliments are not guaranteed"

Sunny perked up, it was a pretty good idea, they would be able to stay with friendly faces, get a feel of what the war actually is like and -hopefully not- meet Burn, plus it gives Clay a chance to get to know his own Tribe and family better

"oh that's perfect!" Clay got up to his feet, his tail slowly wagged before looking at his own group "what do you guys think?"

"it means getting to stay far away from Queen Scarlet and her palace, just tell me at what time we are going" Starflight said

"aaand far away from the Guardians as well" Tsunami pointed out

since everyone agreed, Reed guided everyone back to where their little camp was, a set 3 small tents with just enough space to sleep were mounted and hidden form the sky, inside one of them, small pouches and bags were placed in one corner while several pieces of armor sat quietly closer to the entrance but there was no sign of weapons

"oooh pretty" Glory commented and stepped inside

Sunny picked up one of the helmets, it had small indentations, scratches and scorch marks "you've seen a lot of battles, haven't you?" she said

"careful, it might answer you" the Rainwing whispered, causing Sunny to slowly put the helmet down and leave the tent

"it's not much but… it's something" Crane said, picking a leaf that was stuck on the roof of the tent "we usually don't share tents with the Skywings, especially if we are far away enough from the main cities"

"Speaking of Skywings… how far away are we from the palace" Sunny asked, looking up at the ravines "we didn't exactly hear good things about Queen Scarlet, but im not fully sure it's true…"

Crane was about to answer but Umber invited himself into the conversation "think of the most insane dragon you can, and times by 1000"

"... not in defense of Queen Scarlet, but i wouldn't say she is… that insane" Crane then tried her best to construct her next sentence "she uh… she would definitely benefit of a few visits to the doctor, tho"

"still, insane" Umber insisted "and if those rumors are true, then i'm more than right"

"What rumors?" the Sandwing asked, not even realizing Tsunami had walked towards them

"we aren't supposed to spread such things about our ally but-"

"Mudwings that get paired with Skywings to go on scouts usually don't come back" Umber interrupted her

"as in…?" Tsunami's sudden voice made Sunny jump "its just me, calm down"

"as in they disappear" the youngest Mudwing's wings fluttered "they go, they do their reports, but they don't come back. so a rumor about the Skywings betraying us and forcing our Tribe to fight to the death in her arena started to go around"

"... an arena?" Tsunami asked, Sunny knew that tone well enough to know the Seawing's attention went to something it shouldn't

"Umber," Reed called his youngest brother out. "What did I tell you about spreading rumors?"

"'don't do it unless there is actual proof'" the Mudwing answered, mimicking his older brother "but what if it's true?!" he insisted once again, but a single sharp look from his Bigwing made him quiet

time appeared to have went on much faster, as by the time the Dragonets moved their things to the camp, the sun was already going down, the conversation before dinner was served by the two oldest Mudwings was more casual and led by the siblings, there weren't as many questions as earlier, but a few tended to pop up once in a while still

"'the slug-like qualities of Mudwings'? I think I've heard that one before…" Marsh said and scratched his chin

"its that scroll i told you" Crane answered "the one where that group of Sibs destroyed"

"good" Pheasant suddenly said "how did it even manage to sneak into the library?"

"you guys have a library?" Starflight looked away from his scrolls with a shine in his eyes

"oh! a place for us to dump Starflight in" Glory joked and hid her smile at the Nightwing's expression

"after everything i've done for you" he mumbled and went back to studying the maps, this time accompanied by Sora

Not too long later, the food was done, due to the lack of bowls Reed couldn't cook his famous broth, but the eagle meat he did alongside some touches of sweetness due to a few berries Clay put in was still amazing. Sunny couldn't help but eat slowly and appreciate the flavors

Clay had to pretty much drag Starflight from his spot so he could actually eat, but he still kept on chatting with Sora. The three eldest Mudwings talked amongst themselves, but sometimes Tsunami and Pheasant would break off into their own chit-chat. Umber kept on asking how Glory's scales worked and if she could copy the color of certain items. Marsh nor Crane were the talkative kind, but Crane would on the very occasion keep on asking what their life under the mountain, always apologizing if it was a invasive question, Sunny did her best to answer

everyone was at peace, everyone was having a pleasant time, the Dragonets could finally go out and actually save the world instead of just hearing second-paw information, Sunny glanced over at her friends, who she spent 6 full years of her life, and smiled

'The Dragonets of Destiny are coming' she thought sweetly. 'We have allies, we have a safe place to retreat… we have my magic…'

'What could go wrong?'

Chapter Text

the wind rushed through Sunny's wings as their new group flew towards the Mud Kingdom, the ground down bellow slowly shifted from rocky mountains to muddy plains, the ravines from the Sky Kingdom looked to suddenly stop as the rivers splitted and widened like wild snakes

at one point, when a strange large tree slowly got closer as they flew, Reed gave a roar of order and everyone hovered in place as he continued towards the tree

"... what is that?" Glory asked, readjusting her blanket-bandana

"it's a watchtower, we had to build them some time after the war began" Pheasant explained "i think this one in particular is one of the oldest"

"it looks so… natural" Sunny said, looking at the structure

from afar, it looked like a tree growing out of a fairly tall mud mountain, but now that they were closer, there was a slot between the peak of the mountain and the long leaves of the tree, Sunny could see where Reed had landed, but only because her gaze followed him. if she didn't, it would have looked like the Mudwing disappeared into the foliage

"woah!" both Tsunami and Starflight said in awe

soon after, Reed returned alongside 2 other Mudwigs that looked pretty much identical aside from a few scars

"so… these are the so called 'Dragonets of Destiny?'" the Mudwing with a scar close to his eye asked, tilting his head in disbelief

"i know it's hard to believe, specially after that one group" Reed said "but their ages and eggs match the prophecy"

"i don't see a Skywing anywhere" the other Mudwing with a missing talon pointed out, looking at Glory

"... look, i didn't want to be here, i just so happen to hatch on the wrong time" she hissed, Glory had to endure 'you are not a Skywing' for 6 years

Starflight cleared his throat "not to brag, but my future vision has told me that we will encounter some… difficulties and that a Rainwing would actually be better to deal with them then a Skywing" he said with a hint of superiority in his tone

the Mudwings looked at eachother, who was going to argue with a oh-so powerful Nightwing? the one with the missing talon huffed

"eh whatever, as long as this war stops…" he rolled his eyes tiredly

The Mudwing with the scar close to his eye ordered them to follow him while the other one stayed behind. their guide didn't say anything nor ask any questions

It didn't take long for little villages to start appearing, some were small and simple with few stalls and big buildings, but it still looked welcoming. after that, bigger and bigger villages passed by them before they arrived at the main town

"this is the main town, it's where the Queen stays!" Umber whispered to Sunny "look, that's her palace" he then pointed at one of the bigger buildings with dragons flying out of

there wasn't exactly a clear spot for their group to land, they just went for the clearest and less crowded one, the scared Mudwing glared at Reed before finally speaking up

"you and your sib group are going to report to her majesty" he then turned to look at Clay "and you are going to make sure those 4 don't wander off the town until further instructions, am i clear?"

"clear then the sky" Clay nodded

Reed and his siblings disappeared into the palace, but not before waving at the group. the Mudwing that brought them here glared at them for several seconds before making them promise not to cause any problems and saying he would 'always be watching' before flying off

"... so… who else wants to go somewhere? cuz there is crowd starting to form" Glory asked, motioning at the passersbies with her head

a few civilians gave them suspicious looks as they walked by, someone straight up growled at Tsunami

"i'm starting to regret coming here" the Seawing hissed, trying to not growl back

"to be fair, to them, we came out of nowhere" Clay said, keeping a close paw on Tsunami "i would also be suspicious if 4 dragons from different Tribes just wandered around my home"

"especially if one of them just so happens to be their enemy…" Starflight pointed at Seawing

she simply pouted and didn't say anything

"should we… say something?" Sunny asked "i think we would benefit from a good first impression"

"Do you wanna try?" Clay asked her

"uh… yes… i guess" the Sandwing said and looked at the small crowd

Most Mudwings quickly moved on or looked away, some didn't seem like they wanted to chat. If they wanted to walk around without getting dirty looks, maybe a kind action would do the trick. but what?

they couldn't help with directions, a speech would probably feel too awkward and it was possible no one would pay to much attention

"i… got nothing…" she confessed

"we can come up with something later, let's start moving, i'm not liking the looks we are getting" Tsunami said and glared back at the group of Mudwings looking at them and muttering

"good, library it is then!" Starflight chirped and hopped away

it wasn't a bad idea, so the rest followed along, it was a bit tricky finding the right place, and no one would really talk to them, not even with Clay, eventually, they hit the jackpot and found someone willing to guide them to the correct place

The library had a simple exterior and it didn't look to be very big. inside, however, Sunny wondered if she had stepped inside somewhere completely different, as the size of the interior did not felt like it would line up with the outside

"its… it's beautiful!" Starflight tried his best not to squeal "look at all of these scrolls-" he had a legitimate tear roll down the side of his face

The Nightwing was the first one to disappear between the shelves of scrolls, Clay stuck with Tsunami to make sure nothing would happen to the other dragons as she looked for any other Seawing scrolls who’s author wasn't ‘Coral’. ‘the writing isn't bad’ Tsunami once said ‘it's just… not my thing’

“Do you think we can find a scroll on Rainwings?” Glory asked, walking towards the info desk

“Maybe? the rainforest isn't that far away” Sunny said “unless the Rainwings aren't the type to export things”

The two Dragonets approached the desk, causing one of the Mudwings to look up

“...and who might you two be?” they asked

“Uh… legendary dragons?” Glory answered

“... Sure, what do you two need?”

“Do you guys have anything written by Rainwings?”

“Uh…. I don't think we have a scroll about Rainwings”

“Do you count the ‘Nightwing guide to the Dragons of Pyrrhia’?” A younger Mudwing began looking between a few boxes

“Nope, but thanks” Glory hid her disappointment and went of to the shelves

“What about you, Sandwing?”

“Oh me? Uh…” she scratched her chin before answering quietly “do you… have anything on… Animus Magic?”

The younger Mudwing disappeared behind the desk before putting a box on top of it filled with scrolls “We only have one copy” they said after finding the right one and handing it to Sunny “don't rip it”

“I won't, i promise” the Sandwing carefully grabbed it with both of her paws and walked off to find a spot to read it

Sunny managed to find a less crowded spot that just so happened to be Starflight's spot, the Nightwing had his snout so close to the paper he could probably smell the individual ingredients of the ink, she quietly put her own scroll onto the table, careful not to cause an avalanche due to the two other stacks of scrolls right beside him

"it must be really interesting…" Sunny whispered

"it iiiiis" Starflight whispered back, not even breaking contact from the page

Sunny managed to not chuckle and began reading her own scroll. 'The Animus Histories' was highlighted as the title, she took her time reading each paragraph, fiddling with her necklace as she learned more about the capabilities of Animus Magic. the Dreamvisitors were new to her, the Seawing Summer Palace and the Royal Seawing Massacre one she knew thanks to Webs, but names like Clearsight and Fathom were never mentioned to her, apparently Fathom was also a Animus, but he swore to never use his powers due to the Massacre aside from one single time, and Clearsight was the lover of Darkstalker

'So now you're telling me these dragons that went insane had loved ones ?' she thought at the scroll, a small 'yes' suddenly appeared under her talon, thankfully a single swipe was enough to make it disappear

the Sandwing tapped her shin before looking at a small corner with nothing written before thinking at the scroll 'what caused them to go insane?'

Prince Albatross was manipulated by his sister, Queen Lagoon, as a form of "punishment" the word appeared swiftly and carefully as when Prince Albatross was a dragonet, he accidentally enchanted a clamshell to bite of Princess Saphire's claws off after being bullied by her

'that' s awful! from both them!' Sunny thought angrily 'okay, maybe not Albatross… he didn't know about his powers before that, did he?'

no, after that event, Albatross was tasked by building the Summer Palace and creating a test for young Seawing Royalty to make sure no others would go unchecked, it is possible the amount of Magic used on the Palace and the abuse form his sister was what caused him to go insane

'What about Darkstalker?' she asked 'what happened to him?'

Darkstalker was a Nightwing-Icewing hybrid it wrote, causing Sunny to do a double take fathered by Prince Arctic, the Icewing's last Animus. at one point Darkstalker moved all of his magic to a single scroll, so that he could safely cast spells without taking any damage to his soul

'... did that work?' Sunny asked, interested in the premise

unknown, despite the scroll and his friends, Darkstalker still went on to kill his own father in front of a crowd, as he had made himself immortal, there was no definitive way to stop him, the only reason why he is not currently active is due to the single and last spell Fathom cast to put the hybrid in a deep sleep. he is still sleeping until this very day

Sunny blinked a few times 'what about his mother?'

Foeslayer, it wrote, had been captured by the Icewings before this event, as they believed she had stolen their last Animus for the Nightwing's own gain. her disappearance, Arctic's failed attempt of dragging their other child, Whiteout, away to the Ice Kingdom and being threatened by Indigo's presence, Fathom's childhood friend, was what dippied him further and further into the edge and cause his father's death

"interesting-" Starflight's sudden voice caused Sunny to yelp and stab him on the foot with her tail

the Mudwings around them all stopped and looked at the duo, Sunny apologized and sat back down

"please don't do that again" Sunny whispered, visibly embarrassed

"sorry!" Starflight whispered back, rubbing his foot "it's a good think you left the poison part out"

"sorry…" she said and looked back at the scroll

don't apologize, Animus Sandwing, i wasn't aware of his presence either

"woah… it reacts" Starflight poked at the magical writing before looking away with a confused expression

"How long have you been reading?"

"I now know Darkstalker is a hybrid" he said "can this think answer me as well? Hey, scroll, who is Whiteout?"

no answer from the scroll

"Who is Whiteout?" Sunny repeated

Whiteout is a Nightwing-Icewing hybrid it quickly answered she was the younger sister of Darkstalker, however, she was not an Animus, she was the one chosen by Arctic to be forcefully brought back to the Ice Kingdom, she was saved and fled the old Nightwing Kingdom after her brother was enchanted. she is the reason why Nightwings have a Animus

"The Nightwings have an Animus? who?" Starflight asked

Sunny repeated the question and words began appearing slowly Stonemover

"Stonemover?" Sunny repeated "did Morrowseer ever say anything about this Stonemover?"

"no! I didn't even know the Nightwings had an animus!" he said frantically

a set of footsteps getting closer to the due made Sunny panic, and she erased the adicional words before even looking back, thankfully it was just Clay, Tsunami and Glory

"What are you two doing?" Glory asked

"contemplating my existence" Starflight's wings fluttered "a scroll told me something Morrowseer didn't even bother mentioning!"

"huh?" the three of them tilted their heads, rightfully confused

"...i'll explain once we go somewhere with less dragons" she waved to the wandering Mudwings, none of them were paying much attention, but Sunny would rather play safe

After returning the scroll -and making sure it wasn't enchanted anymore- the group left the library, it was much later than they expected, the shadows were huge and very little Mudwings were around. now they sat close to what they believed to be the plaza with closed stalls

"the Nightwings have a WHAT?!" Tsunami's scales flashed

"his name is Stonemover, but i forgot to ask where we could find him" Sunny scratched her neck

"hang on, if the Nightwings have a dragon with the ability to raise a literal palace off the ground, why the prophecy?" Clay asked, a little angry "even if he has morals and refuses to kill dragons, he could have come up with a spell that would change the Queen's minds and stop the war!"

"or send something to kill the scavenger that set of this whole burning parade off" Glory offered

Starflight stopped his back and forth pacing to talk "there has to be a reason why Morrowseer didn't tell me! maybe this Stonemover is really good at hiding his powers, or he did something so terrible before the war began they kicked him away"

"Guys! there you are!" Reed suddenly appeared and landed near them

"Reed! Where have you been all day?" Clay asked and walked closer to him

"reports can take a while when there is 4 other troops in front of you" he said "but, i do have good news"

all of them tilted their heads

"me and my sibs dropped a few good words about you, and now, you get to meet Queen Moorhen in person!"

Sunny wasn't sure whether to feel excited, scared or honored. She had never met a Queen and had no idea how to act. She knows bowing is a sign of respect, but Skywings let out hiss as a way of respect, was that similar to a bow?

"She's not gonna throw us into a dungeon, will she? i kinda like the sun" Glory asked

"not at all, she has been waiting to meet the Dragonets of Destiny ever since the last Brightest Night" Reed explained "moons, you guys might even be treated like royalty the second you step into the palace"

that was already a little bit more reassuring

"I mean… if the Queen wants to see us, it wouldn't be proper to keep her waiting, right?" Sunny said

the others all nodded, it was best to cause a good first impression, Reed led the way to the palace and through the halls, the palace from inside was quite beautiful, the paw design going up and down pillars and across archways was really pretty, some paintings hanging on the walls depicted the Kingdom across years, going from a simple swamp to a thriving town, others would show off generations of Royal families

once they got to the one of the fancier doors, decorated with vines and flowers, the two Mudwings guarding the door nodded at Reed and opened, leading to a big and spacious room

inside were five dragons, all whispering among each other, once the Dragonets stepped in the whispering stopped and the Mudwing on the throne fixed her posture

Reed bowed and the others mimicked his stance "your majesty, i present to you, the Dragonets of Destiny" and stepped of to the side

The Queen's smile was warm and welcoming. "hello to you all, it is a grand pleasure to meet you, may we know your names?"

"i-im Clay" he began "and these are Tsunami, Glory, Starflight and Sunny"

"i see, im Queen Moorhen, but you may just call me Moorhen, these are my siblings, Mire, Chestnut, Mahogany and Sparrow" each of her siblings waved, all of their front paws had odd discolorations with several very light orange scales

"you guys better not be choosing Burn" Mahogany quickly said, causing Mire to give him a death glance "what? I don't want her threatening Moorhen anymore!"

Chapter Text

"we… are hoping to gather more information about the Sandwing Queens before choosing someone" Clay spoke up

"Burn is the worse, trust us" Mahogany said, ignoring the glare from his brother

"now, now, lets not get ahead of yourselves" Queen Moorhen tried her best to keep the peace "such an important decision takes time"

"plus, let's try not to give them biased opinions" Mire pushed Mahogany with his wing

"i'm literally not lying" Mahogany tried to not argue

"Enough with Burn and destiny, i wanna know about these guys" Sparrow spoke up and pointed at the Dragonets "how can a Mudwing live without their siblings?"

"... i consider them my siblings" Clay explained, the Royal Mudwings all tilted their heads, it was probably a wild concept for them

"wow, you must have felt empty without your actual siblings"

"SPARROW!" her siblings all roared

"geez! ok, sorry" she said to Clay before being dragged back to her spot by Chestnut

"forgive my sister's behavior" Queen Moorhen said before continuing "but it would be lovely to get to know you 5, we already know a few… less than desirable things that happen to you thanks to Reed and his troop, but we would like to hear it from you"

"its was awful, Kestrel was the worse, everything you heard was true" Tsunami quickly began "also- if you ever see or hear about a Sandwing named Dune, a Seawing named Webs and a Skywing named Kestrel, can you throw them in a dungeon for us?"

"I can't promise that," Moorhen confessed "but we have been keeping an eye out for anyone that might have connections with the Talons of Peace, so…"

"that's all i needed to hear" Tsunami's tone was of a dangerous one, not of malice, but a 'i'm currently daydreaming of all the terrible things that can happen to our Guardians' type

Starflight then spoke up "is there anything else you need?"

there was a bit of silence in the Royal Sibling's part before Mire offered to talk for all of them

"you 5 aren't what we were expecting, exactly" he said, taking a step forward "we weren't sure how this prophecy would work, but, to put it lightly, we were hoping for dragons with…" he chose his next words carefully "less scars… and more knowledge," he gave Glory a quick glance before finishing with a "no offense"

"none taken" Clay said

"Now my question is what are you guys going to do?" Mahogany asked, the extra 3 seconds of delay were enough to make him continue "they are less prepared than Chestnut doing any of his test"

"hey!" Chestnut finally spoke up "math is hard!"

Moorhen cleared her throat and managed to get her siblings attention "the journey here must have been long, and you must be tired. while you are in our kingdom i will personally make sure your health and safety are looked after, you may stay here for as long as you need"

"in the palace?" Glory quickly asked

the Queen nodded with a smile "even if you end up choose one of Burn's sisters, my opinion about you as dragons won't be affected"

"if you do choose one of Burn's sisters, my opinion is gonna improve" Mahogany whispered, but still got a glare from Mire

Moorhen ignored him "I will need someone to spread the news…"

"I'll do it!" Chestnut quickly volunteered and was already half way through the room before anyone could stop him

'is… he not happy about us being here?' Sunny though in confusion as she watched the Mudwing leave

After that exchange, the Queen gave the Dragonets a tour around the palace, showing the kitchen, the courtyard and even where the Queen slept, but she did tell them only to reach her when absolutely necessary. eventually showing them a empty guest room

there wasn't many decorations aside form the expected but there was enough room for the Dragonets to pick their corners

"i'll let you 5 be, if you ever need anything, don't be afraid to notify me or my siblings" the Queen said

"this alone will do" Glory said after taking a spot close to the window, her scales began to match the brown and maroon colors around her

"Is there any way we can thank you?" Sunny asked

"taking care of the war should be enough" Sparrow spoke up, her siblings couldn't help but agree

After a bit, Moorhen had to go back to her queenly duties alongside Mire. the Dragonets had that afternoon to themselves and so they chose to relax and get some extra sleep, it was getting late anyway

The next day, right after a very well made breakfast, Clay managed to befriend some of the guards and they offered to give him some propper Mudwing training. it was around that time his siblings visited once more and got to watch or participate

Sunny watched Clay fighting against Reed from a small shaded spot, not paying much attention to anything else, letting her mind just go where ever it wanted

"are you ok?" Crane's voice caused her to snap back to reality

"hm? oh- uh yeah, i am" Sunny managed to say and scooted over, offering a spot for Crane as she remembered to curl her tail

"you haven't said anything since we arrived, are you sure there's nothing bothering you? Did the meeting with the Queen go well?" Crane asked

"Yeah, the meeting went fine, Queen Moorhen was happy to see us," Sunny responded. "It's just… I think it's the first time I feel… relaxed?"

Crane let out a 'oooh' "must be relieving, but also somewhat concerning"

"i guess i just have a lot on my mind…" the Sandwing fiddled with her necklace "the prophecy, the war, my-" she managed to cut herself of before she said 'magic' "- friends"

a loud thud followed by an 'OW' caused the both of them to look over at the yard, Clay managed to overthrow Reed and toss him over his body, causing Reed to fall hard on his back

"good throw-" Reed wheezed, like the wind was knocked out of him

"careful!" both Crane and Sunny scolded

"Congratulations, you angered the doctors!" Glory clapped slowly, her scales quickly shifted from mimicking the thing Umber was holding to her usual colors

there was a 'sorry' from both Mudwings before they went for a break

"...hey, can I ask you a weird question?" Sunny began

"Sure, what is it?" Crane said

"if you had the ability to… enchant one item to do whatever you wanted, what would you want it to do?"

"have my siblings act like normal dragons" on cue, Pheasant failed to chuck a small drink, causing the water to go out of her nose "see what i mean!"

Sunny couldn't help but giggle alongside Crane

"but in all seriousness" the Mudwing managed to regain her posture "i would probably have it help me understand emotions better, the war is affecting dragons in a lot of weird ways and once it's all done, i want to help those dragons heal from the mental scars"

"like trauma?"

"and PTSD" Crane completed "it's kind of always been my dream to help the ones i know and love in anyway i could, if i was able to understand someone through their emotions i would learn so much in so little time"

"That's very noble of you" Sunny said with a smile "i… i've been thinking on going down a similar route, but take care of the physical scars"

"We should open a business, then!" Crane chimed "Doctors Crane and Sunny 'we heal both types of scar'"

Sunny's smile widened at the sheer idea, if she and Crane teamed up to own a clinic, they could attend to all kinds of dragons and hopefully make their day better. Crane already looks set on helping dragons, Sunny had to use her skills on something

"HOLY MOONS SHE CAN TURN INVISIBLE!" Umber announced loudly and pointed at Glory

part of her arm had disappeared, but due to the light, the shadow of her arm was still visible. her scales slowly shifted back

"i- don't know how i did that" the Rainwing confused as she watched her paw go from browns and beiges to dusty green

"where in Pyrrhia is Starflight for him to go 'uh actually, it's due to the weather conditions and the position of the moons' and stuff" Tsunami's bioluminescent scales glowed softly in the shadows

"i knew Rainwings could shift colors, but i didn't knew they could blend into the environment like that" Marsh mumbled, but was loud enough for the others to hear

"Can you do that again?" Sunny got up and walked closer to Glory

"i can try?"

Glory placed her paw back on the ground and stared, within a few several seconds of silence, it looked like the air had eaten her paw, slowly going up her arm and body, it took a bit, but then Glory was -almost- completely invisible, the others that were present gasped

"weird! i can barely see her silhouette" Clay's wing brushed against Glory's

"if it wasn't for the shadow and the bandana, i would have thought she just disappeared" Pheasant tilted her head

"this- takes… a little bit more effort then i expected" Glory confessed before shaking her whole body, her colors went back to normal in less than a few seconds

Sunny rushed to make sure Glory was ok, taking a close look at her scales, asking if she felt dizzy and rushed back inside the palace to grab some food and water for her. It was in the halls she caught a glimpse of one of the Royal Siblings, Chestnut. he said nothing and left, like he didn't even see Sunny

'... what are you planning?' she wondered before going back to what she was going to do

Starflight and Sora managed to return in time for dinner, the two had snuck away to the library once more and were able to return with a scroll on Nightwings thanks to Sora's library card. Sparrow was the only one that had anytime to attend dinner, Mire and Mahogany had to check on the watchtowers, Moorhen was busy with a few messages she got from Burn

"and Chestnut disappeared… again" she concluded and took another bit of her food

"Does he… do that a lot?" Sunny asked

"almost everyday, i've been trying to follow him and see what he does but im still able to miss him" the Princess's wings fluttered in frustration "its like he has eyes on the back of his head or something"

Sunny caught Crane's look and was able to identify it as a 'we gotta find out more' so the Sandwing gave her a small nod before going back to her food Once dinner was over, Clay's siblings had to fly back to their village before it got too dark. There was a last wave of goodbyes before they flew off

time seemed to slow down after that, the Dragonets managed to have a small chat with Moorhen one last time before they all had to go to bed

"oh! uh- if i may ask, is Chestnut not happy about us being here?" Sunny remembered to ask

"hm? no, why do you ask?" Queen Moorhen tilted her head

"i haven't seen him much around the palace" Sunny continued "and when i saw him earlier today, he just left"

"did he?" Moorhen sounded surprised and concerned "I expected for him to have warmed up by now…"

"warmed up?"

"Chestnut can be very shy around new dragons and tends to watch them from afar before asking them odd questions" Moorhen explained "it usually takes a few hours, but if he's ignored you completely…" she trailed off, not having an answer

before Sunny could go back to the guest room, Starfligh managed to grab her and drag her away

"This is giving me flashbacks!" Sunny let out a small hiss

"sorry, but i need you to do something for me" Starflight responded

"are you sure? you heard what Moorhen said right? about Chestnut"

"i saw him sneaking out of the palace, we should be fine"

the two ended up on a small balcony, looking over part of the kingdom, Starflight took the scroll out of his wing folds and spreaded over the floor, it was 'Moons of the Nightwings'

"they found this at the very back of the library" Starflight said "it had to be rewritten from how old the original was. this talks about Nightwing powers but somethings were lost in time because some bits make zero sense"

"and you want me to… make it make sense?" Sunny asked

"no, i already have my answers from this, it's… too late for me to gain my powers" he announced sadly " naturally "

he pointed at a small section there was a drawing of an egg under the moons, the text beside it read 'only an unborn dragonet, one that has not seen or heard the world may possess such powers. the shine of one moon may give just one. The shine of two moons can give both. the shine of three moons' and it stops there

"a Nightwing can only get its powers when it hatches under moonlight?" she guessed

"yup" Starflight said, a smoke cloud escaped from his nostrils "and guess who screwed that up by putting us in a underground cave"

Sunny felt like she knew where that was going

"this is where you come in" he said and revealed a small, broken, earring "i need you to enchant this to give the powers i deserve"

"... are you sure?" Sunny asked

"you enchanted a necklace and got a tail barb" he pointed out "you just gotta do the same thing, i've been thinking of the enchantment all day, so all you gotta do is repeat after me"

hesitantly, Sunny opened her palm and accepted the earring, having a dragon that could read minds and see into the future would obviously be an advantage, but Sunny was still a little anxious about the spell

"ok… i'm ready"

"i enchant…"

"i enchant-"

"this earring…"

"this earring-"

"to give Starflight of the Nightwings…"

"to give Starflight of the Nightwings-"

"...the same powers an Nightwing of the old times would have if they were born under three moons"

"-the same powers an Nightwing of the old times would have if they were born under three moons"

the earring received a strange and cold glow once the spell was done, Sunny still had a bit of a bad feeling but reassured herself Starflight would be fine, these were going to be his powers after all, even if they were magically given, surely his body and mind would accustomed to it, right?

Starflight offered his right ear and barely flinched once the earring was on, the small broken gem now looked clear and… its shape slowly shifted

"... huh… i don't feel different" Starflight looked at his paws "maybe the pauses rendered the spell-"

but before he could finish, his eyes turned white, his pupils had completely disappeared as he stared at nothing, he stumbled and lost his balance, causing Sunny to toss the scroll aside and hold him straight, she called his name but there was no reaction, milky white tears rolled down the side of his face and a row of white scales dotted down his neck, back and tail. once Starflight snapped back to reality, the earring had turned into a small crescent moon shape

the Nightwing gasped as he gripped onto Sunny to keep his balance

"Starflight! are you ok? What happened? Can you hear me?" she quickly asked, cupping his face with her paws

"i- i saw- a Skywing made out of fire-" he spat out "i saw- i saw a Seawing begging for water- i saw two Rainwings fighting each other, i saw a volcano going off i saw a sandstorm i saw- i saw you holding a pendant, surrounded by every single tribe"

"what?" Sunny asked but pushed that aside "let's get you something to eat first"

. . .

"my head hurts…" Starflight whispered

now that he had calmed down, he seemed to have forgotten about what he said before, but now reported somewhat proudly that he could hear Sunny thoughts

'So the spell worked?'

"yeah… i guess" he said, his scales had been stained with the milky white tears, they were going to have to come up with a really convincing excuse for that "i think i can hear a guard dreaming about going to the beach"

"What about the future? Can you see it clearly?"

"... if I concentrate hard enough I can see something…"

"what can you see?"

Starflight didn't say anything, instead he counted down with his talons from five, as soon as he hit one, he pointed at the door to the kitchen. in came Chestnut

"just getting midnight snacks" Sunny told him

"i don't need to know the reason why you are here" Chestnut said somewhat dryly "what i need to know is if you and the other Dragonets can go to the Skywing palace and rescue the Mudwings trapped there"

Chapter Text

"alright, hang on, let me get this straight" Clay shook his head "you gave Starflight powers in the middle of the night, he predicted Chestnut arriving and now he wants us to do a jailbreak??"

"yes, yes and yes" Sunny confirmed it all

despite it being day, Starflight was out cold, he slept peacefully after getting some medicine for his headaches and did not show any signs of getting up anytime soon

at least he didn't have to suffer through several seconds of judgemental silence from the others

"why?" Glory asked

"the jailbreak or the powers?"

"both, but i'm more interested in the jailbreak"

"he… didn't clarify much, he said to meet him at the gate of the village after breakfast" Sunny reported

"So we gotta go to the one place we've been wanting to avoid for the rest of our lives and we can't bring the now future seer?" Tsunami questioned

Sunny nodded slowly, Clay let out a deep sigh that was accompanied by smoke clouds, it was very rare of Clay to breath out smoke clouds, he would barely do it when he was threatened

"well… if we gotta go then we gotta go" there was a subtle hint of anger in Clay's voice

Sunny stepped aside as Clay left the room, accompanied by Tsunami and Glory, the Sandwng gave Starflight one last look before closing the door

Queen Moorhen and her siblings, except Chestnut, were able to be present at breakfast, so without a second to spare, Clay decided to share the information of Chestnut's plan with the others

it went as well as Sunny could predict

"I TOLD you to not talk about the rumors with him!" Mire slapped Mahogany's head

"I DIDN'T TELL HIM! I'M NOT CRAZY!" Mahogany protested "maybe he overheard me or something- i don't know where he is half of the time!"

"well, whether or not you did tell him, now he's gonna drag these 5 straight to Scarlet's door" Sparrow chimed in

"I'm guessing this is a bad thing…" Glory mumbled

"uuuh… yeah, Chestnut has a tendency to takes things literally" Moorhen explained "so… to him, rumors arent rumors, they are facts until proven wrong"

"to be fair to Chestnut, the amount of times troops have reported Mudwings disappearing in or close to Skywing territory is a little scary" Sparrow said slowly "i guess he just connected the dots"

"what do we do now?" Clay asked

"like I said. to Chestnut, rumors are not rumors" Moorhen repeated "so i believe the best… and only course of action is to see what he wants"

"At least we can finally get over the rumors. If it's not true, Chestnut shuts up. if it is true, hes basically planning a jailbreak anyway" Mahogany shrugged

there wasn't much to do except for meeting Chestnut, so that's what the Dragonets did. at least they got happy looks and double takes as they walked through

"i've got a baaaaaad feeling 'bout this" Glory sang as they walked

"So do i…" Clay admitted "hopefully it's nothing too serious…"

"Okay, before we go back into enemy territory, what do we know about Scarlet?" Tsunami chimed in "she is insane, she has an arena. its not looking good"

Sunny had the feeling of a pit in her stomach, but she wasn't sure if it was because of the meeting with Chestnut, Starflight's current state or a secret third thing. maybe it's the third thing if that third thing was potentially meeting Queen Scarlet, or Burn

they passed by a few stands selling pretty artwork and paw-made vases, Sunny was tempted to stay and look at stuff, but atlas, duty calls

Chestnut was already there when the Dragonets arrived, chatting with someone else, Clay approached first and was about to say something before the Prince went straight to business

"This is Landslide, he volunteered to take you to the Sky Kingdom when I told you were here, I would take you myself, but the Skywings know my face and the cheers from the audience are too much. Where's the Nightwing?"

"slow down" Clay muttered before clearing his throat "uh, Starflight has some pretty bad headaches, so he can't come"

Chestnut looked to be upset, but his expression was hard to read "then only two can go, you can't" he pointed at Tsunami and Glory

"hey!" the Seawing stood on her hind legs but Glory pulled her

"Seawings are on someone else's team" she said "be glad Starflight isn't here"

Tsunami sat back down with a soft 'oh'

"uh… Prince Chestnut? I don't want to sound rude but… what's the plan exactly?" Sunny asked

"You have to find where the Mudwings are being kept, too many have been missing for Scarlet to be able to kill all of them in time. you might need to watch a few rounds on the arena for a Mudwing to appear, when they do, keep an eye of where they come from, the others should be there"

'And then you attack?' Sunny guessed

"don't worry, your majesty," Landslide finally spoke up "even if the missing Mudwings are a freak coincidence, we will find a way to get to the bottom of this" he bowed

"i'm counting on you" he said to Landslide, Clay and Sunny, giving Glory and Tsunami a small determinate glance before walking away, as if he had plans for them as well

"uh- nice to meet you" Clay extended a paw

"it's quite the honor to meet you too" Landslide said with a slight smile

"so… how did you get roped into this mess?" Tsunami asked, prompting Sunny to give her an angry glare

"oh no no, i didn't get 'roped' in, one of my younger sisters went missing after going on patrol, and it just so happens to be around the same area the Skywing Palace is located…"

"ah, ok…" Tsunami's glance at the floor, slightly embarrassed

"we will… try our best to help you get your sister back" Sunny said, despite that pit feeling still lingering

"i know you will" he said "but, before we go… how much do you two know about Skywings?"

Clay and Sunny looked at eachother "on a scale of 1 to 10…" Clay began "...0"

Sunny must have accidentally enchanted the group with extra luck as Landslide was the third understanding and patient dragon they've found until now.

after Glory and Tsunami went back to the palace, Landslide guided the duo trough a few shops to get some 'disguises' since he has been to the Arena a few times and doesn't want to take any risks

the Mudwings at the saloon were very talented and did a great job, they used a few powders and paint to darken Sunny's scales along side adding some white under Clay's and Landslide's eyes

"hopefully this will trick some guards into thinking we are related" Landslide carefully poked at the protective patch the workers put while Sunny's disguise was being completed

Once the Sandwing's tail barb was covered to make it look like an injury, Landslide paid them for their incredible work and they were off. Sunny may or may not have enchanted their tip jar to slowly double its contents for the day when no one was looking

"let's establish some rules before we go, at least until these dry" Landslide pointed at the patches and Sunny's disguise "1. always stay close to me"

"solid start" Clay commented

"2. If someone asks for you to buy something, say the only money you have is for the Arena, there is a betting system that is anonymous, so no one will know if you actually have money or not. 3. try to keep your voices down, and… try not to act suspicious, the guards will be more than happy to kick you out if they feel like something is going to happen" he explained

"what if someone asks for our names?" Sunny asked

"they probably won't, like i said the betting is anonymous, so there will be no need for anyone to learn our names" Landslide reassured her

once the paints were sufficiently dried, the trio made their way back to the Sky Kingdom, Sunny was hoping to not encounter any of their three guardians, Kestrel must be fuming, Webs would be less than happy to know how many times Sunny has been using her magic and Dune… is probably the best to encounter out of the three

it was almost sundown when the Palace came to view, Clay and Sunny soared closer to Landslide as cheers and screams got louder as they flew

"here it is, we might be able to see at least one or two last fights before it ends" Landslide reported

"... do we…" Sunny slowed down, looking at the scene, several pillars reached up to the sky with several dragons chained to the tops, there were several Seawings and Icewings, with few Sandwings and even three Skywings. down at the actual arena was also not the prettiest of views, two Sandwings were fighting each other, their scales were filled with injuries and claw marks, the sand around them was stained with blood and charted with fire "... have to watch?"

Chapter Text

the fight had been decided once the trio managed to find a ok spot, the winner was the Sandwing named Mirage, he looked tired, sad even, but there was a strange glint of determination on his eye

"What a thrilling battle!" the Queen of the Skywing, Scarlet spoke up, her voice was filled with authority "this now marks Mirage's fourth win, how impressive and unexpected"

"ooooh… I didn't realize how close we were to her…" Clay whispered, but due to the crowd's chatter, he basically just spoke normally

"you also never heard the best thing about her?" Landslide asked

"we just know her as 'the least dragon we would want to be near'" Sunny answered

"oh don't leave just yet!" Scarlet called out to the few Skywings flying over the arena "we still have two grand battles left, and one of them is a Champion Battle" with that, the Skywings quickly went back to their seats

"should we be concerned about that?" Clay asked

"only if you are the unlucky dragon to be chosen" Landslide said "i've watched a 'Champion Battle' before, they are unnaturally quick because of the… Firescales"

"'Firescales?'" Sunny repeated

"its a type of dragon that has too much fire inside them, which allows them to literally melt steel by touch" Landslide explained "i'm not sure if even Blood-egg Mudwings can survive an attack from one of them"

'well that's an issue…'

after a few minutes, a young Skywing descended from where the Queen was, flying over the arena and caught everyone's attention with a quick roar

"Not so long ago, a group of Icewings had dared to try and attack our Kingdom. They were stupidly confident that their victory was certain, but they quickly learned that underestimation was their worst enemy and we were victorious! " the announcer threw their paws in air, several Skywings roared and hissed with the same enthusiasm

"Today, we will see what they choose, their companions, or their lives. On one side of the field, with no wins, we have Blizzard!"

a silvery colored Icewing was dropped on one side of the field, boos were shouted at him

"and on the other, also with no wins, we have Seal"

a similar colored Icewing was dropped on the opposite side, they looked over at their opponent and… roared

"claws up, ice ready… FIGHT!" the Skywing flew upwards and returned to the ledge he was previously on

Seal wasted no time and rushed forwards, baring their fangs. Blizzard tripped over their own tail and avoided the other Icewing at any cost, they desperately tried to claw their way out of the arena, but the Skywings pushed their talons of the ledge and laughed as a shot of Frost Breath hit their tail

'fly away- fly away! why can't you do it?' Sunny thought desperately, it wasn't that Icewing's fault that they attacked the palace, they were just following orders

Sunny must have accidentally let out a enchantment, as immediately Blizzard tried to spread their wings to escape another shot of Frost Breath, but their wings wouldn't open, there was a small bind around each wing that Blizzard desperately bit down to try and get rid of it

Seal saw that as a distraction and launched their whole body and pounced Blizzard into the ground, pinning their head

the two Icewings were close enough to where the trio was seated that Sunny was able to hear their last words

"w-we don't have to do this- you know we don't have to do this!" Blizzard said desperately, trying to wiggle themselves out

"shut it! You are the reason why our family dropped to the 5th circle!" Seal roared "i have to do this- in fact i'm more than happy to do this"

Blizzard tried to plead for their life, but a shot of Frost Breath down their throat made them freeze helplessly in place, Seal stepped off them, watching as their face turned blue, unable to breath

seconds later, Blizzards thrashing suddenly stopped, they laid on the sand, dead

a guard glided towards the arena and held two talons alongside Blizzard's neck, he looked at the announcer and nodded "Blizzard is DEAD! Seal is THE WINNER!"

"i think im gonna pass out" Sunny leaned against Clay, she felt dizzy and a little sick

"I don't blame you" Clay whispered and patted Sunny's head "do the Skywings offer an eye and memory cleaning service after each fight?"

"no" Landslide admitted "but i could take you two somewhere nice after this is over"

"If you're so squeamish, why did you even come, Mud-Slug?" a Skywing behind them hissed and laughed alongside his friends

Sunny may not be an actual Mudwing, but she still felt deeply offended

'focus Sunny, i know its hard, but you have to do this' she managed to get her attention back to the arena after several minutes of staring at the sky 'for the missing Mudwings'

the announcer hopped back into the arena, they called a few guards and pointed at one of the towers, they began talking once the guards flew over to the poor soul that was chosen

"after a grand total of 10 impressive wins, this Sandwing has been chosen to fight against our Queen's Champion, if he manages to win, in which, let's all be honest, he won't, he might just be allowed to go back to the poor choice of a Sister to follow, that being Blaze. ladies and gentle dragons i present to you, Horizon of the Sandwings!"

a pale orange Sandwing was dropped into the arena, he looked over at the gate that was directly under where the Queen sat, his expression was one of panic and hopelessness

"bring out my Champion!" the Queen ordered

A set of four guards walked over to the gate, one of them lit up the end of a long stick and waved in front of the bars, a low rumble came out of it, and the gate swung open. a Skywing with bright orange and red scales jumped out, a bind of sorts was clamped to their neck and smoke continuously rose from where it sat, alongside the 4 other chains connected to their arms and legs

the Skywing lets out a terrifying roar, a thick cloud of smoke and sparks shot out into the sky, their glittering blue eyes locked into the Sandwing, who pressed their back against the wall

"claws up, fire ready… FIGHT!"

the Champion wasted no time and rushed towards Horizon, he used the wall to his advantage and managed to jump over the Skywing and run the opposite direction, he rose their tail and hissed, scorch marks appeared whenever the Champion walked, the Skywing hissed back and approached fearlessly

Sunny took note on how Horizon used his tail, piercing the ground close to the Skywing's feet with impressive speed, even waving the venomous tip trying to get an attack in, or as a way of saying 'stay back'

and then Horizon actually attacked, he aimed for the heart, ready to pierce his tail onto the Skywing's scales, but… the tip immediately caught on fire and sparks flew out of the Skywing's scales, showing no signs of actual damage. the crowd cheered and laughed as Horizon ran around the arena in a panic, lashing his tail onto the ground to put the fire out. he was successful but his barb was reduced to a charged, melted, useless mess

the Champion kept on approaching, like they were hunting, Horizon tried to claw their face, but the Champion was faster, holding their paw and burning it in the process, their grip was strong, as Horizon was having a incredibly hard time making his opponent let go

suddenly, the Champion pulled him closer and used their wings to throw Horizon over their shoulder, exposing his stomach and pinning him down, Horizon tried, and failed to escape, the Skywing's claws kept on tearing and burning the soft scales of his stomach, causing Horizon to cry out in pain and asking for mercy, promising he would switch to Burn's side, but the Champion didn't listen at all, they looked over at where the Queen was, she responded with a grin and shook her head, a loud hiss came out of their mouth and a bright nearly-white flame came out of their mouth, burning and melting Horizon's scales off, he cried in extreme pain and was left to burn

Sunny closed her eyes shut and when she opened them again, she was far away from the arena, she wasn't even sure where she was, but she felt extremely sick, the fact she was looking down at a ravine probably meant she actually threw up

"... i don't think i can do this…" she whispered softly to herself and managed to sit up

she never knew a fight like that could be so brutal, yeah sure, battles were, according to Kestrel, a dragon's main skill, if they cant fight, they are useless, yada yada yada. she felt a tear running down her cheeks and wiped it off, causing some of the paint to also wipe off, she could fix it later

The sound of steps getting closer and the smell of something burning made her look up… and almost have a heart attack. it was the Champion

"...sup" they muttered

"uh- he-hey! hi! d-dont mind me i-im just on my way to-" Sunny scrambled through her words and began walking backwards, but now that the Champion was closer, Sunny began to notice a few things

despite how quick and strong they looked, their ribs were visible and there were dark circles under their eyes, there was a strange line of white scales on her arms legs and tail can the chains around their neck looked to be made out of stone and very, very, very tight

"on your way to what?" the Champion asked, poking at the black rocks they brought

 "I was gonna say 'leave' but… why do you have that?" Sunny pointed at the chain on their neck

"hm? this? oh it's just for show" they explained "im supposed to be the 'dangerous heartless beast that was saved and tamed by the goodness of our Queen'"

"... can you breathe with that alright? what about eating?" Sunny kept on asking

"well i am still here, talking to you" they said and tossed one of the black rocks in their mouth, eating it

"you… eat… rocks?" Sunny was increasingly getting more concerned for them

"yup, i'm a Firescales, i gotta eat these if i wanna live" they simply said and and crunched trough another pebble

Sunny tilted her head, watching as the Champion ate the rocks they brought, to her, they looked like normal black rocks, the kinds that would occasionally drift by the river of the underground cave, maybe even some kind of coal, even still, could a dragon really survive off rocks? because by the visible ribs, Sunny doubt it the Skywing was eating a balanced meal

"your weird" the Champion suddenly said "most dragons would have screamed and ran away by now"

"i'm just curious"

the Skywing stopped eating "about what?"

"you"

they did a double take and dropped one of the rocks

"why?"

"..." Sunny didnt have answer for that

"If you're here that means you saw what I can do to a dragon, why would you be curious about me? all you gotta know is i'm a dangerous monster"

"well… you were following instructions and you still haven't attacked me, so i guess your not that bad of a dangerous monster"

"..." the Skywing was shocked and their ears twitched, their gaze fell for a few seconds before finally speaking up "... Peril"

"hm?"

"Peril, my name's Peril"

"that's a pretty name, im-"

"SUNNY!" Clay's voice startled the two of them, he landed not too far away from Sunny "there you are! I was looking everywhere for you! c'mon we gotta-" he froze at the sight of Peril "good evening"

"ey"

"uh- sorry for suddenly disappearing- not even i know how i got here" Sunny confessed

"its ok, your fine, im fine everyone's fine, but we do need to go otherwise it's gonna be too dark" Clay said and began guiding Sunny away

Sunny gave Peril a last glance and smiled before flying away with Clay

—

"i'm sorry, what?" Tsunami asked again "she can just do that?"

"yup" Sunny confirmed, most of her disguised had been whipped off, revealing her golden scales

"How are you supposed to rescue the Mudiwngs now? with a literal wall of fire between you guys? if there's even Mudwings in there!" Tsunami asked again, throwing her paws in the air

" shhhhhh! " Starflight hissed "i'm trying to concentrate"

according to the Seawing, both Starflight and Glory had been working together to hone their new skills, reading minds was easy, invasive at times, but Starfllight found a way to tune out most thoughts but seeing the future was a little harder

"... everything is still blurry, i mainly see just symbols and shapes… but if the Skywing of fire i saw before is Peril then she should be on our side" the Nightwing reported and wrote a quick note on a small piece of scroll

"What about the Mudwings?" Clay asked

"they are there" Starflight confirmed "but i'm not sure how to get to them, i saw them together with another Skywing im not fully sure who it is and a… mentally unstable -to put it lightly- Seawing

"i've already reported that to Chestnut and he has been in his room changing and modifying plans ever since" he concluded

“Sweet moons…” Clay mumbled “i just hope we can help everybody”

“Me too” Sunny whispered, fiddling with her necklace

‘Could I enchant something to free them? I've stopped feeling those weird tingling sensations, which i guess is a good thing’

“And risk revealing your secret to the worst dragon?” Starflight suddenly spoke up “absolutely not”

‘honestly, i forgot you can read my mind….’

“I don't blame you, i managed to forget twice this day” the Nightwing confessed

“What spell would even help?” Tsunami wondered “if the cages and chains suddenly disappear, the guards are gonna notice and i dont think its very healthy for you to put an entire Kingdom’s worth of dragons to sleep”

That was a good point, the most complicated spells Sunny had made where her necklace and Starflight’s earring, maybe the sleep spell on Dune also went up there

“We should start to keep track on how much magic each spell costs” Clay pointed out “in terms of soul”

“I feel fine” Sunny confessed “i haven't done that many spells lately, but it feels easier to do smaller ones, i'm not sure what would happen if i tried to do a big one tho”

“What would count as a ‘big’ spell?” Tsunami asked

“A Seawing managed to build an entire palace with his magic, so i guess that”

Tsunami’s eyes went wide and Starflight’s tail poked her side while he said ‘stop yelling’

“How am I supposed not to?!” she argued “i just found out that Sunny has the potential power to make a palace out of nothing and you want me to be chill about it?!”

“Now you're actually yelling, but seriously, sh, i hear someone coming”

The four stayed quiet for several seconds before the door to their room opened, it was Glory accompanied by Mire talking

“-we can try to bring more fruits from the rainforest if that helps” the Mudwing prince concluded

“Nah, don't waste your best soldiers on fruit picking, we might go there someday anyway” Glory concluded, adjusting her blanket around her neck “thanks for the help tho”

Mire nodded and wished the Dragonets good night, the Rainwing didn’t elaborate on what they were talking about and went to her corner to sleep, Starflight admitted to not try to read her mind as she managed to figure out a good way to keep him out by making what he described to be ‘a decoy train of thought’

Chapter Text

Sunny’s disguise had been redone the next day, this time for free, the trio was flying a bit earlier that day, as to be able to watch as many fights as possible and keep an eye as to where the Mudwings could be kept

“should we try to find Peril again?” Clay asked once they were on their way “i mean, i don't want to use her for information, but she might be our only key”

“I don't want to trick her either…” Sunny admitted “she looks so… lonely”

“Not being able to touch other dragons can do that to someone” Landslide pointed out “i don't know if you noticed but, not that many Skywings were actually cheering for her”

“Wait, really?” the two asked at the same time

“I was scanning the crowd after the fight started, most weren't paying attention. the ones that were, weren't too enthusiastic” He explained “it was like they were forced to cheer, or at least expected to”

Sunny -sadly- remembered how the Skywings laughed at Blizzard’s death, it was funny to them, but how come they didn't act the same when Peril was fighting? Landslide did mention he had seen Peril fight before, maybe the Champion Battles were so frequent it wasn't fun anymore

A roar caused the them to stop and turn around, not to far away from them was Mire and Glory

“What are they doing?” Clay asked, confused

“I don't know… maybe they have a message?” Landslide guessed

They met at the ground, the trio landed and watched as the others glided closer

“We caught up to you!” Glory looked out of breath “i thought we got out too late”

“What's the matter?” Sunny quickly asked “is it Chestnut?”

“Kind of,” Mire began “yesterday, Glory and i spent the day honing her skills and now she, Chestnut and i think she is good enough at color-shifting to go with you”

“Wait what?” both Clay and Sunny asked

“I've been wanting to find a way to help you guys, and this-” She suddenly disappeared, her eyes were barely visible “came at the best time”

Sunny was impressive, it had only been two days after -possibly- Umber managed to help her unlock, or at least discover this ability, and now she could disappear with a few seconds

“the only drawback is a slight delay whenever she moves” Mire pointed out and gently nudged Glory, making her camouflage to undo and not be as perfect, matching the background only a few seconds later

“It's good enough” the Rainwing became visible “if i'm only partially invisible i can move without delay, and it's still hard to spot me from afar”

and then, Sunny had an idea "the pillars! there is pillars around the arena, if you're able to find an empty one and stay as still as possible, no one would suspect a thing and you would be able to see everything from up there"

"Oh great idea!" Landslide praised "i didnt even think about the pillars"

before they left, Mire was kind enough to take Glory's blanket back to the palace for safe keeping

"just as a heads up, the fights can be pretty… gruesome" Clay warned before they took flight again

"I've watched you and Tsunami get beaten up instead of me for 6 years. i think i can take it" she remembered and followed them with a good pace

Landslide explained how the arena worked to Glory as they flew, Sunny couldn't help but chime in from time to time to remind her that she didn't have to do it if she didn't want to

"I do want to help!" Glory confirmed stubbornly "i gotta be useful to this stupid prophecy in some way"

"I would rather if you didn't risk yourself like this!" Sunny argued back "and you are useful regardless, prophecy or not"

"Sorry, Sun. i already made my decision" Glory didn't say anything more after that

before they split up once they arrived in the Sky Kingdom, Glory went invisible and searched for an empty pillar before laying low, there was a slight disturbance in the chains above, but no one seemed to notice it

there were more free seats now, but it was still pretty crowded, Sunny made sure the bandage on her tail was still there before trying to get as comfortable as possible

not too long after the fights begun, the announcer, who the Queen called Vermilion, revealed there were going to be only 5 fights that day, 2 of them being 'Special Fights' the trio as less than thrilled to learn what that meant

The first one came by quickly, a Sandwing versus a Icewing, Sunny had to make sure to close her eyes before the last blow to the Icewing was dealt. the second one was also quick, a 'traitor' Skywing versus a Seawing, the poor Seawing had no chance

the third one was… disturbing

a Seawing with light green scales named Barnacle was dropped into the arena after being announced, Sunny was ready to look for where the other opponent would be coming from, but instead, four guards disappeared into the tunnel Peril had jumped from previously

"and now, it's the moment you've been waiting for" Vermillion hissed with a wicked grin on his face "let me ask you all a question: what is the best way to punish a Seawing?"

"block their gills!" one suggested

"chop off their tail!" another one

"drown 'em!" a Skywing behind the trio shouted, Sunny, Clay, Landslide and a paw-full of Skywings all stared at the culprit "... like- in something other than water!" by how fast they defended themselves, they probably didn't realize how dumb that sounded

"all good suggestions- except for that last one. but no. None of them are as horrible and dreadful as to deprive them of their most precious element: water."

sounds of struggle and metal clanging echoed from the tunnel, the crowd went silent for a few seconds before Vermillion continued

"Being rejected water, for months , will drive anyone insane, and that's exactly what happened to this 'we don't have to fight' trouble maker. dehydrated, mentally unstable, and thirsty for blood ! its-"

a roar interrupted Vermillion, a dark green Seawing still with a chain attached to their neck rushed into the arena, their scales looked dusty and crumbled, their horns were cracked and their arms had several bite marks that never seemed to heal, they were constantly panting and their eyes were bloodshot

"It's GILL OF THE SEAWING!" Vermillion concluded and flew back to where the Queen was

Barnacle was terrified, who could blame him? his opponent was disoriented, barely being able to stand up, Gill gasped for air before charging blindly, Barnacle was able to stay far away from him, but the other Seawing was persistent, despite hitting the walls several times and tumbling into the sand

Sunny saw Barnacle's mouth moving, but they were too far away and the crowd was too loud for her to be able to understand anything, she looked up at the pillar Glory was, still worried about her

in one quick swipe, Gill managed to use the sand to his advantage, using his tail to launch it upwards and into the wind, the sand managed to find Barnacle's eyes making him yell in discomfort, Gill wasted no time and pounced, biting down on Barnacle's neck and hard

the Sandwing closed her eyes and covered her face with her wings, the cold silver chains of her necklace were the only thing keeping her company as she tried desperately to drown out the sounds of the screams without casting a spell

'how can dragons do things so horrible to each other?!' she thought and held the enchanted stone tightly

Sunny was brought back to reality when Clay gently nudged her after the fight was over. Gill was victorious

but, before the next fight could start, a set of guards went over to the trio, picked them up and began flying away from the arena

"h-hey! what's this?!" Clay quickly asked "where are you taking us?"

"we were just watching, we promise you that!" Landslide tried to talk with the guards, but they didn't listen

they were dropped a bit quite far away from the palace, into the plaza of a small Skywing town

"the next two fights are for Skywing eyes only," one of the guards said "no outsiders are allowed to watch"

"that's… new…" Landslide said slowly "can we know why?"

the guards didn't even answer, they just flew off

"... something tells this is about the missing Mudwings…" Landslide said in a whisper

the plaza they were dropped off was almost eerie quiet, expect from some metal clinging, still, they felt a little too exposed, so they decided to get out of there by walking, in fear of the guards spotting them and thinking that they were trying to get back to the arena

Sunny hoped Glory saw them being taken away, she could enchant something, but Landslide was still with them, her using magic would definitely raise several questions like why not just break all of the Mudwings out of jail before the last fight. she wasn't ready for those questions yet

the Skywing town was quite pretty in its own terms, the roads were made out of polished stones and the houses all had some kind of pole for the skywings to land on or a thin column of smoke creeping out of the chimneys

there was barely anyone roaming the streets, most shops had 'closed due to: Arena' signs on their doors or windows. any Skywings that didn't go were too busy taking care of their homes or their children

they passed by one of the few open stores, a dark orange Skywing was distracted shaping a large piece of metal, hammering it down to the right shape and thickness and constantly heating it back up with their own fire, it was quite mesmerizing

"what? never seen fire in your life?" the Skywing suddenly asked

"ah! uh- sorry, i did, i just… i dont think ive ever seen anyone do that" Sunny answered

"blacksmithing?" they questioned, and Sunny nodded "huh… i always thought anyone knew"

"Can I ask what are you making?"

"armor" they said and showed what Sunny believed to be a helmet "the Queen has been signing more and more guards to fight in the war or to take care of the arena, i've been stuck here for weeks" they rolled their eyes "my only salvation to go home for once is Princess Ruby"

"is she kind?"

"very" there was a small smile on their snout "if Queen Scarlet finally dies we will have a decent Queen and won't have to take part on this whole ordeal anymore"

"she sounds pleasant" Sunny said before deciding on a risky move "do you think that she would allow the war prisoners to go home?"

"absolutely" they said as they added some last touches on the helmet before dropping it in a bucket of water "moons, if the Dragonets of Destiny appeared and said 'hey, if you help us get rid of Burn we can help you get the throne' she wouldn't hesitate"

that was music to Sunny's ears, she thanked the Skywing for the conversion and met back up with the waiting Mudwings, sharing the information with them as they walked

they followed the trails and tried to not get too close to the arena, but due to all of the Skywings leaving that must have meant the fights were over, Sunny began wondering where Glory was, but the moving bushes gave her the answer, the Rainwing's eyes almost glowed between the cool shadows

"i was waiting for you guys to reappear" she said, becoming visible again

"Sorry, we got a little distracted," Clay confessed, "did you manage to discover anything?"

"yes, a lot…" the frills on her ears turned a grayed-out shade of green "first of all and most important, there are indeed Mudwings in the arena, at least one, someone named Earthquake was brought out to fight five scavengers"

"THAT'S MY SISTER!" Landslide suddenly shouted "IS SHE OKAY? DID SHE WIN?! IS SHE HURT?!"

"She 's fine! she 's fine! she won without too many scratches" Glory revealed, trying to calm the Mudwing down "they left the gate open after the fight was over and i managed to sneak inside, there were a lot of paths and i didn't want to risk getting lost or spotted with so many guards around, so i had to leave, but i know it's somewhere in those tunnels"

"perfect!" Landslide's tail broke a stick "let's go back to the Mud Kingdom and report it to Chestnut! we can raid the Palace later"

"hey!" Clay managed to hold the bigger Mudwing back "look, i know you want your sister back, but no we have to be more than careful, we don't know how many guards are in there, we don't know their schedules and we could lose more Mudwings if we try to storm in" he explained, his voice was smooth and calm "how about this, let's wait until it's night time, then Glory can try to enter through the gate again, it's gonna be darker, but there could be a chance of there not being as many guards as right after the fights"

"I see the vision…" Glory scratched her chin "but what do we do until then"

Clay turned to Sunny "see if you can try to find Peril again, maybe she can tell you a few things about the palace"

"... ok… i'll try…" Sunny said reluctantly before taking flight

at least it wasn't too hard to find Peril, the Firescales was in the same spot as the other day, munching on the black rocks again

"Hi Peril!" Sunny landed on a nice spot that was respectfully far away form Peril's scales

"Sunny!" she said with a mouthful, she looked surprised and delighted "your back"

"i am… despite the bloodshed…." that last part she mumbled

"im impressed, most that can't stomach the fights never come back" Peril tilted her head "say… Why are you here? as in the Sky Arena"

that question was one Sunny wasn't ready, she didn't have a lie in mind

"... can… can I be honest with you?" she asked carefully

"Sure," Peril confirmed. "Let me guess, you wanna try your talon at the arena?"

"moons no!" Sunny almost stood up "it's just… i… have a few reason to believe the Queen took my sister as a prisoner and is trying to make her fight"

Peril's expression shifted, her eyes went wide and she looked away for a few seconds, but managed to fake a smile

"psh- what? Why would she do that? we are allies in the war"

"her name is Earthquake"

Peril choked on a piece of rock but managed to cough it out, she looked at Sunny with a hint of guilt in her eyes and looked away

"... okay, okay, i'll confess" she said, a small cloud of smoke came out of her nostrils "the Queen has been taking a few Mudwings prisoner- but! but!" she quickly added "only the ones that were trying to betray us"

"how?"

"... i don't know… she just told me they were traitors and to never show them mercy" she confessed

"where are they being kept?" Sunny pressed on, but that was the wrong choice

"why do you wanna know?" Peril stepped forward "they are traitors whether you like it or not! there could be someone giving information to the Seawings or Icewings!"

"I would rather take my own conclusions rather than have someone else tell me that someone else potentially lied to them!" she pressed on

"HOW DO YOU KNOW SHE'S LYING?" Peril roared, Sunny could feel the heat on her own scales

"HOW DO YOU KNOW SHE ISN'T?" Sunny roared back, standing her ground

the two stared at each other without blinking, Peril was the one to break eye contact, she turned her back and took a few steps back, not saying anything else, causing Sunny to feel guilty

"...sorry…" she whispered before turning to fly away

then, the Skywing mumbled something under her breath, it was quiet enough Sunny couldn't understand most of it, but she did hear the word 'mother' before Peril gathered the rocks and walked back to the palace through a small path with barely any vegetation

Chapter Text

the night had fallen pretty quickly after the argument with Peril, the trio had settled for a forest far from the arena, hunting small animals and gathering berries to pass the time, both Mudwings kept on revising the plan and Clay made sure that Landslide would stay calm and grounded through the process, Glory kept on practicing her color change but it didn't seem like i would get any better than that. as for Sunny, she kept on staring at a pretty feather from a bird she caught before

there was an idea on her mind but she wasn't sure how to manifest it, most probably it was a spell, but she didn't know what it was exactly

'Maybe a message to Peril saying how sorry i am' she thought and looked away to not enchant the feather 'i definitely hurt her feelings… didn't it?' the grass moved to reveal the ground beneath it, spelling yes, you did . Sunny blew on the grass and it went back to normal

"Are you ok?" Glory asked and laid down close to her

"... kind of?" Sunny said honestly "I didn't mean to yell at her…"

Glory put a wing over Sunny "to be fair, she was making accusation based on what a insane Queen who -i don't doubt- laughs at crying dragonets told her"

that didn't make Sunny feel better

"What's your plan for that feather?" the Rainwing whispered

"i don't know, i'm not even sure why i'm still holding it" Sunny whispered back

"whatever it is, im sure its gonna be helpful" Glory pat Sunny's head, trying to make her feel better

"okay… i think we've managed to iron out most of the dangerous flaws" Clay reported "Glory, are you ready?"

"i hope so" she said and got up

Sunny's gut feeling was practically screaming at her to not let Glory go until she figures out what this idea that's stuck in her mind wants

‘Just tell me what you want’ Sunny thought at the feather, the colors shifted slightly, the black parts of it went to the middle and turned into an eye ‘... an eye? Like what to see something hidden? Or to keep an-’

A flurry of spells rushed to her mind, the idea made sense now “That's it!” Sunny jumped to her feet, causing the others to look at her

“...’that's it’ what?” Landslide asked slowly

“... I should have kept my mouth closed” Sunny whispered to herself

“Wait, let me guess, you thought of something and you need… ‘the thing’ right?” Glory glanced at the feather, the eye pattern was still there

Sunny nodded slowly

“and ‘the thing’ is extra important, right?” Clay asked, causing her to nod again

“What ‘thing’??” Landslide asked again, confused

Clay pointed at him and Sunny nodded a little more hesitantly “ok, we can tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, you can't question it and you can't force Sunny, got it?” he waited a few seconds for Landslide’s answer before continuing “Sun, is an Animus”

“... What ?” Landslide’s gaze had hints of confusion, anger and betrayal

“Again- don't tell anyone” Clay repeated “we are trying to keep the amount of dragons that know of Sunny’s magic to a very low minimum, 7 is already too much, so let's keep it at 8”

Landslide didn't say anything, but Sunny knew he was ready to roar at her. Clay stood between the two of them and gave her a nod, the Sandwing shifter her gaze to the feather and whispered the spell

"i enchant this feather to allow the user to communicate, see and hear whichever dragon they choose once a circle is drawn"

there was a strange itch behind Sunny's eyes but it faded away pretty quickly, she walked over to a tree with a wide trunk and drew the outline of a circle, the outline glittered in a green-ish light before shifting to a more soothing white

Sunny thought for a second before whispering "Starflight the Nightwing"

within seconds the image of the bark warped and was replaced by Starflight's point of view

(_-_-_-_-_)

the palace was a bit of a mess, Clay's sibling had visited, probably not realizing they would take that long, Tsunami and Pheasant were arm wrestling with Mahogany keeping bets, Chestnut was in one side of the room while Starflight had retreated back to another along side Sora, they weren't talking, just appreciating each other's company

another wave of headaches washed over him, he touched the moon-shaped earring and tried to drown out the thoughts before he realized there was another reason

"Starflight?"

"hm?" he looked up at Sora "did you call me?"

Sora simply shook her head "no, it might have been someone else"

"Starflight can you hear me?"

'sounds like Sunny…' he though

"If you can hear me, can you please write a 'yes' on the floor?"

Starflight obeyed, moving his talon slowly in case someone was glancing his way, he got up, saying he would get something to drink as an excuse to leave all of the noise

once he was in the mostly empty halls, he whispered under his breath

"can you hear me?"

"I can!" there was some muffled cheering behind her "the palace looks quite lively, what are you all doing?"

"keeping our spirits up, now for my question, where are all of you? we've been waiting all day, Mire and Moorhen won't stop asking me to look into the future to know if you guys were captured" Starflight scolded her

"we are fine, sorry" she mumbled "you can tell them that we haven't been captured yet, but we've discovered a few- well Glory discovered a few things"

Sunny went on to explain that there is at least one Mudwing and that they are probably somewhere in the tunnels, she then said she enchanted another item to help keep an eye on Glory and guide her

"So she's going in?" Starflight asked skeptically "can you please tell her that's a death wish and a horrible idea?"

"... she told me to tell you 'hey' and that she can hear you"

"good" he rolled his eyes "why don't you guys come back and then we can come up with a new plan?"

"we want to make sure where they are being kept at the very least"

Starflight sighed, was he the only one in that group that had some sense of self preservation?

"fine, but don't die"

(_-_-_-_-_)

Starflight's point of view vanished went the circle was wiped off, Sunny felt proud of her creation and that feeling of anxiety had disappeared, she set up another one with Glory's view once before she flew away

"o, trippy" the Rainwhing commented, looking down at the repeating circle "ok, wish me luck"

with that she turned invisible and flew away, Sunny and Clay stayed on watching duty but Landslide kept his distance, occasionally glancing at Sunny

'he is mad at me' she thought 'he is 100% mad at me… sorry Landslide, i wish i knew a good spell to get everyone to safety too'

(_-_-_-_-_)

The Skywing Arena was dead quiet, there were very few guards cleaning the seats and the actual arena, who knew bloodstains took so long to get rid of?

the dark gave Glory an extra advantage, she slowly walked down through the seats and managed to not quick up to much sand once she jumped down, sticking to the walls and walking slowly, she managed to enter through the gate and into the tunnels once more

"this was the furthest i went" Glory whispered as she stopped at a fork in the paths "the guards took Earthquake trough that tunnel" she pointe at the one on the left "but there was so much chatter and chaos i didn't go in"

"i don't hear anything" Sunny's voice sounded so close it made Glory jump "it should be safe to go in"

"right, hopefully the guards are asleep"

The tunnels were quiet and cold, the lack of proper lighting and really spaced out torches made it hard to navigate, Glory would sometimes bump her claws or walk straight into a wall. eventually, she reached a tall wooden door, there did seem to be a lock or anything blocking it, and none of them could hear anything coming from the other side

The door was pretty heavy and loved to creak, it took several seconds, probably even a minute, to get a small enough gap for Glory to squeeze through and close it back up. the Rainwing let out a quiet sigh and looked over her shoulder to see where she had gotten

"oh… my… moons" Glory whispered extra quietly

several cells were lined up and stacked up to two levels, and in almost each of them was a prisoner, Mudwing prisoners. There were torches lit up inside occupied cells, with a total of around 14 not being lit, probably more with the second row, each prisoner was chained up till the tooth, with muzzles, collars and shackles, not to mention the wing binds. they seemed to be asleep, but very few were awake, pacing around their cells or counting the days of being imprisoned, there were no windows, no clean water, food, talking nor hope of being saved

Glory walked even slower, her silhouette barely showed on the ground, but it still gave out her location, the deeper she went, the longer the tunnel felt, like it was enchanted to be endless

'it's hard to breathe…' Glory thought 'it's too stuffy here…'

The sound of metal dragging along the ground made Glory freeze, she looked over at one of the cells and managed to find Earthquake, she looked asleep, her wings twitched wildly and her expression was one of terror. Glory heard Sunny calling Landslide over, she couldn't hear what he said, he was probably calling his sister and telling her they were gonna save her, but the question was how

'There are way too many occupied cells here…' Glory looked over her shoulder 'how are we supposed to sneak out this many dragons? it's practically impossible'

there was a small set of stairs to get to the second row of cells, there were less occupied ones, but all of them were Mudwings… except for one

hidden in the very back biting his own arm was a Seawing, Gill, he licked his own injuries and switch arms to make more

"Please tell me he isnt drinking his own blood…"

"he's not drinking his own blood…" Glory whispered, covering her head with her wing "he is trying to drink his own blood"

when Glory went back to watch the cell, Gill was looking straight at her, she looked down at her owns scales questioning if they had shifted

' salt, did he hear me?' Glory stood still for several seconds

for a few seconds, Gill's bloodshot eyes stared at her, he turned away from her and Glory let her guard down, but then Gill lunged towards the bars and began growling and roaring at her, startled, Glory backed away with a yelp, revealing herself, she missed a step and almost fell from the second row, as there was a large hole that overlooked the first row, Glory managed to correct herself and hop over the hole, staying as far away from the Seawing as possible

the confused chatter and mutters was proof her stealth mission had failed, hopefully the guards couldn't hear them, Glory tried to calm her heart rate and didn't notice a Mudwing prisoner peeking their head out of the bars

"Where did you come from? what are you?" the Mudwing asked

"outside" Glory took a deep breath "and i'm a Rainwing"

"Did you get captured too? how do you get out of your cell??" they asked again, they sounded and looked quite young

"uh- no… i managed to sneak inside, i'm trying to find a way to get all of you out of here" she said and walked up to the cell

there were two Mudwings inside, the little one she was talking too, and a bigger one who had a pretty bad injury on his neck and was out cold

"Is that your Bigwing?" she asked, noticing how both of their stomachs faded into the same green-ish color

"yeah" their tone was sad "his name is Fossil, im Terra"

"Those are very pretty names, how did you two get here?"

"specially you" Sunny added

"i was out hunting while our troop was in the Sky Kingdom, and then these guards appeared and started asking me a bunch of questions on the behalf of the Queen, asking what i thought of Blister and if Blaze was worthy enough to get the throne" Terra explained "i didn't know how to answer them but they kept on asking, suddenly my Big Brother appeared and tried to take me back to our troop, but then the guards attacked him and took us here"

that was not the answer Glory was expecting

"ask what happen to his brother" Sunny offered

"what happened to you and your brother after you two arrived?"

"the Skywing were pretty mean, they tried to put us on different cells but let us stay because 'the Queen was in a good mood', didn't give us good food and they put Fossil on the arena some days ago, and ever since he came back he's been sleeping, i tried shaking him, but he wont talk to me"

'oohhhhh, Fossil's dead…. isn't he?' Glory realized "he must be… really tired, i've seen how the arena works and not even big, grown dragons can take it"

"If you manage to get us out, can you help Fossil?" he asked, there was a spark of hope in his eyes that Glory didn't have the courage to crush

"i will try" she nodded

another roar from the Seawing made them flinch, he was trying to fit his mangled body through the bars, he obviously wasn't going to escape, but if he kept on making all of this noise, he would probably alert the guards

"oh the Skywings were extra mean to him" Terra continued "they never gave him water and would sometimes hold a good bucket right in front of him and then would throw the water onto the ground"

and then Glory had an idea "the buckets are small enough to fit through the bars, right?"

"yes"

"Does your bucket still have water?"

Terra immediately knew what Glory was talking about, he quickly picked up their bucket and told his unconscious brother what he was doing before slipping the bucket through the bars

the water was far from clean, but it was something, slowly Glory approached Gill holding the bucket out

"hey mr.Gill, look what i have for you, its water" she said slowly, making sure the Seawing's attention was on the object and not her neck "i'll give it to you as long as you don't rip out my arm"

without waiting, as soon as the bucket was within reach, Gill snatched out of Glory's tallons and began drinking it all, the bucket was licked clean after mere seconds

Gill gasped a few times before looking at Glory, this time with a less murderous glance

"t-thank you!" his voice was raspy "thank you so so much! w-whats y-your name? wh-where did you c-come from? y-you'll let me out right? me and my wife will be s-sure to r-reward you!"

"your welcome…" Glory said slowly "uh… out of curiosity, who's your wife?"

"C-c-Coral!"

few seconds of silence

"I heard that right???"

"... Coral? as in Queen Coral of the Seawing?" Glory asked again

"yes! yes! That's exactly her! she will be so th-tht-rhtiled! your name will g-go down in the h-history scrolls! oh p-please tell me your name! i-i must know t-the name of my s-s-savior!"

"i'm Glory" she said "... but i didn't work alone"

"n-no pr-problem!" he insisted "w-we can reward a-all of them, h-how many o-other dragons are with y-you? i-is there anything i can do to h-help?"

"um… I think there's one… but it's related to the current situation" Glory said "if we get you out of here, is there a way you can guarantee… the Dragonets of Destiny with a meeting with Princess Blister?"

Chapter Text

Glory managed to sneak out of where the prisoners were being kept when several guards arrived out of nowhere

she counted around 32 individual cells holding Mudwings, 33 if you counted Gill, which was clearly a lot, they would need an escape route, the arena was probably their best bet, but they would need to get rid of the wing binds

"maybe Peril can help with the binds" Sunny commented "i would need to tell her our plan, tho… and i don't think she would take it lightly"

"or… we could find a key?" Glory whispered as she walked through the tunnels

"how?"

"didn't you mention Queen Scarlet has a daughter named Ruby? i don't know about you, but she might be willing to help us"

"still… it's a little risky…" Sunny's voice trailed off

by the time Glory went back to the gate, it was locked with a chain, the Rainwing looked at the lock for several seconds and turned back to the tunnels

"welp, i guess i have no other choice but to enter the palace"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

"Can you enchant the chains then?"

"i can try"

Glory turned back to the chains and held them in her paw, waiting for Sunny's spell, after a quick tug, the chains were still there

"did it not work?" Glory tuck on them again

"t-thats the same spell i did to the chains back in the cave, they were supposed to break as soon as you pulled them"

"maybe it's because you're not actually here?" Glory guessed, letting the chains slip off her paws "I gotta figure out another exit anyway…"

"... Clay said he is going to ground if you go into the palace" Sunny reported

still, Glory didn't listen, but she did promise she would leave the seconds she found a open passageway, but for now it was time to explore

she took the path on the right that time, walking slower as she heard more voices, it sounded like two guards discussing personal problems, turning a corner Glory spotted where they were and managed to sneak pass

She didn't know what that room was but it was where the walls and ceiling began to get wider, there were still no windows and there was basically no decoration aside from a few torches. another big door stood in her way, and she couldn't risk opening it with the guards around, Sunny gave her the idea of grabbing a something and tossing it back to the tunnel, and so she did, picking up a reasonable sized rock and hiding it with one of her wings before getting closer to the exit of the tunnel and tossing it, the echoes of clacks caused both of the guards to jump, who immediately raised their spears and followed the sound, giving Glory enough time to slip past the door

now she was greeted with a tall tower with tiny windows and a opening all the way up, she flew up and carefully opened the scratched door to what she believed to be the actual palace

that was were the actual decorations begun, the hallway was lined with long veins of gold that ran up and down the walls, chandelier that illuminated the place hanged from the ceiling, the flicker of the candles made the shadows dance from time to time, it wasn't long until the artworks started to show up, being similar to those of the Mudwing Palace, depicting the Queens -tho a good percentage of them were from Queen Scarlet-  and the Palace across years

Glory kept on walking slowly, dodging guards and checking windows to see if she could fit, it took her to get to the next floor of the place for the windows to actually have a chance for her to fit trough

"over there! By your left!" Sunny quickly alerted "i think that's a balcony"

the Rainwing quickly looked over and sure enough, at the end of one of the many halls was a large opening that overlooked somewhere else, a nicely timed Skywing flying trough and landing inside the Palace gave her enough confirmation

"bingo" Glory whispered under her breath and went towards it, walking by a semi opened door

"-what about today's fights? weren't they thrilling?"

Glory froze and looked over her shoulder, the Queen's voice almost felt like it had come from nowhere but a quick peek inside the semi opened door gave her the answer

The room she was looking into was some kind of dining room, with a large round table and several chairs surrounding it. In the middle was Queen Scarlet, by her sides were four dragons. one she knew the name of:Vermilion, the announcer, there was another dragon by his side, boredly poking at his food with some bones. on the other side was another dragon and their child, who was probably not even 1 year old

"yeah, wonderful…" the dragon beside Vermilion said in a very sarcastic tone

"they were great mother" Vermillion praised, Glory did a double take "that Mudwing had no trouble defeating that many scavengers and there was so little hesitation too"

"Indeed, ah remind me not to put her in the arena too many times" the Queen said with pure glee before turning to the other  adult dragon on the table "what about you, Ruby? didn't you think they were fun?"

"i didn't watch them" she confessed "i was too busy taking care of Cliff" she motion to the child beside her, the little dragonet was struggling to tear of a wing piece of a chicken, Ruby managed to cut it with one claw and reminded her child of a better way to tear meat off

Scarlet rolled her eyes at the wholesome interaction, quickly shifting the subject, she turned to Vermilion

"so, has Burn responded to the scroll I sent 5 moons ago?"

"not yet" he reported "our messenger still hasn't returned"

"Hawk?" she called, and the other dragon looked up "how's my Champion?"

"unfortunately, healthy" he sighed "at least as healthy as a walking mistake can be"

Glory flinched hard, even tho that wasn't directed at her she still felt like she had been stabbed

" ahem " Scarlet grabbed Ruby's attention "did you manage to do something useful or have you been mingling the whole day?"

"the northern post has spotted Icewings, they claim to be crossing for diplomatic reasons but are being held back, their scales are being constantly warmed and all of their bags have been confiscated" she answers without missing a beat

"interesting…" Scarlet scratched her chin "i guess that means i'll soon have even more Icewings at my arena"

Ruby huffed and nudged Cliff towards the doorway, Glory moved out of the way and finally went over to the balcony, the coast was clear so she jumped into the night sky

(_-_-_-_-_)

Sunny whipped off the circle and waited for Glory to come back, once she did, the group flew back to the Mud Kingdom, she glanced at Landslide who kept his distance from her, his expression was still of an angry one and was clearly not in the mood for talking

'Now that makes 2 dragons that i have to apologize…' the Sandwing thought and allowed her mind to drift into ideas with spells and possibilities as she carried the feather back

thankfully, Landslide kept his promise and didn't tell anyone else about Sunny's magic, he did stay in the Palace for quite sometime and stayed close to Chestnut as Glory reported what she discovered to the siblings, Sunny was scared that he would tell but Starflight reassured her that he wasn't thinking about it

"he does feel betrayed" Starflight added when the two were alone

"... I figured…" Sunny said, staring at the feather in her paw "I don't know how to apologize to him…"

"apologize for what?" Tsunami suddenly approached the duo "keeping a secret a secret ? So what he's mad? it's not like you can just start every conversation like: 'hi im Sunny, i'm a Dragonet of Destiny and i can literally make stuff do whatever i want'"

"that… is not good phrasing but i do have to agree with you" Starflight admitted

"if that's supposed to make me feel better, it's not working" Sunny pointed out as she placed the feather behind her ear, it's seemed to stay on its own and didn't move once she moved her head

"i'm just saying he has no right to be mad at you just because you kept something important to yourself" Tsunami said again before shifting her gaze to the feather "now cmon, i wanna see how that works"

the Dragonets went back to their room and made sure no one would disturb them before Sunny drew a circle on the floor for all of them to see through

"should we spy on Queen Scarlet?" Clay wondered

"a bit too risky, maybe one of the prisoners?" Starflight commented

"i've already talked to them before the guards arrived, their hopes are higher than the clouds" Glory said "also basically nothing happens in that prison"

"Well I already have my answer, why not someone that already knows about Sunny's magic?" Tsunami spoke up "Sun, find Webs for me, please, you don't have to talk to him, i just want to know where he is"

the Sandwing nodded and whispered the guardian's name, the scenery of small fish and a narrow passageway replaced the wooden floor, Webs was constantly putting his head outside of the water to look around, the scenery was familiar, the ravines of the Sky kingdom near where the cave used to stay, he put his head back inside the water and continued on with his journey

Sunny whipped off the circle and looked back at the group "anyone else?"

"oh! do Dune" Clay said and the Sandwing nodded

the image of valleys with few trees appeared, Dune was on the lookout for Skywings before shifting his gaze towards the horizon, a thin yellow line peeked out through the trees and mountains, he put of the bonfire and began walking towards the horizon, struggling to walk as the rocky paths began to shift into sand

"he's going back to the desert" Glory noticed as Sunny whipped the circle "why would he go to the desert? isn't Burn there?"

"maybe he is going to find someone from the Talons of Peace" Starflight deduced, closing his eyes for a few seconds but huffing and opening them back up "at least i think"

"... do we wanna do Kestrel?" Sunny slowly asked "she didn't seem to be with the others but she must also be out"

the others nodded slowly as Tsunami spoke up "fine, but if this thing shows she is 3 minutes away from the Mud Kingdom, i'm leaving"

the feather scratched against the floor as it drew the third circle, the image took a bit longer to appear when Sunny whispered her name, but when it did, the Dragonets had to collectively shut each others snouts before they could scream

Kestrel was chained down to the floor, the scratch and scorch marks showed clear attempts to escape but they were for nothing, in front of her, was Queen Scarlet with a wicked smile across her face

"the more you delay your answers, the worse is going to be your fate" Queen Scarlet teased

"as if you weren't looking for an excuse to mount my head over your throne" Kestrel hissed "i already said i don't know where those brats escaped to"

'she is talking about us' Sunny realized

Scarlet didn't seem satisfied "my guards found the cave recently, it's well hidden and has quite the mechanism to move, oddly quiet too, but surely you weren't incompetent enough to just let them run away…"

"Why would you want them anyway? they are all useless, and there is no Skywing with them, you killed the other eggs due on the Brightest Night"

"me? oh no no no, i didn't do anything" Scarlet raised her paws innocently "... your daughter on the other talon…"

"..." Kestrel froze "s-shes… alive?"

"yes and she is doing wonderfully, fulfilling her duties as a monster that someone didn't have the courage to kill, despite what the law says"

a loud roar from Kestrel startled them and Sunny accidentally broke the circle with her tail, causing the image to disappear

a loud silence took over the room as each Dragonet straightened themselves out, no one was able to muster any words, at all. Clay was the first to move and pointed at the blankets, offering to rest, the others nodded, they all needed time to process what they just saw and heard

Chapter Text

Sunny was sure of one thing: she didn't sleep at all. only being able to get a few naps in before giving up and getting up, the empty room meant she was the last one to be awake

slowly, she got up and walked out the door, her appearance must have been not very presentable as some guards would give her a 'are you ok?' look, she made her way towards the dining room, finding her friends and the Royal Siblings all still eating

"aaand there she is!" Glory spoke up

"we saved you a plate" Clay said and motioned to the plate and free seat beside him

"thanks" Sunny said and yawned and sat besides Clay

"i don't mean to be mean, but… you pretty bad" Sparrow mentioned

"i didn't sleep well…" she explained

"you can go back and rest, i need to revise my plans" Chestnut said "...again…" he added with an extra angry tone

That was understandable, there were way more prisoners than any of the siblings suspected. now Sunny could stay back, relax, find a way on how to apologize to both Landslide and Peril and try to erase the images of Blizzard and Horizon's deaths

the others kept on chatting as Sunny struggled to stay awake and eat, half listening to what the others were saying

"...a meeting out of nowhere would raise suspicion… " Moorhen muttered" I could send a few guards there while Scarlet is distracted but I doubt that entry is not heavily guarded whenever there is an event…"

"... the Seawing can come with us, right?" Glory asked

"... we could potentially use this as a point to retrieve from the war without Burn threatening anyone" Mire realized

and the Sunny indeed up dozing off. she wasn't sure how long she was asleep, but when she startled back awake, only Starfligh was there

"good proper morning" he said

"shoot… i didn't mean to doze off like that" Sunny rubbed her eyes

"don't blame yourself, i heard your mind when i woke up, you were barely dreaming" Starflight said and pushed a bowl of wild berries towards her

"really?" she tilted her head and began eating the berries

he nodded and went on "dreams are quite weird, it's like… looking into you Feather of Vision, but you can't talk to whoever is on the other side"

"woah" she let out with a soft breath before adding "wait- 'Feather of Vision'?"

"it's the name we've been calling that" he pointed to the feather on Sunny's ear "Tsunami's idea"

the Sandwing grabbed the feather and looked at it for a few seconds before slowly nodding "that… does have a nice ring to it, i like it"

"good, now Tsunami won't shut up for the next week" he said playfully and went back to writing

Sunny got up from her seat and moved closer to the Nightwing, taking the bowl with her, she looked from his shoulder and tilted her head at the several notes and scribbles that basically made little sense

"what are you writing?"

"what i'm seeing in my visions" he said "most of what i can see are symbols or symbolic things, when i first saw Peril in my visions, i saw her as a Skywing made out of literal fire" he pointed at the corner with less notes, they seemed to be descriptors for other dragons "now i'm trying to make sense of it all, there wasn't much on that old scroll i found, but my guess is that all future seers start out like this before having prophecies"

it made sense, Sunny couldnt imagine being a young Nightwing and having incredibly detailed visions of tragedies and prophecies, maybe if Starflight had his powers ever since the beginning -like hatching under proper moonlight like that scroll said- maybe he would have much clearer visions by now

"have you identified which symbols are us?" Sunny asked

Starflight pointed at possibly the less scribble filled corner, there were five points with the Dragonets names on, each being described by one feature, the 'Mudwing and Seawing with thousands of scars' were clearly Clay and Tsunami, the 'crying Nightwing' was Starflight due to how his scales had been stained the night he got his powers, the 'gray Rainwing' was Glory and the 'Sandwing with gold scales' was with no doubt Sunny

"sometimes i see the same dragons but with other symbols, but those happen very rarely" he continued "one time i had a vision where it was clearly you, but with a greenish mist around you"

"Greenish mist?" Sunny asked

"i'm not sure what it is either, i saw that version of you once, i'm not sure what i did to trigger that vision"

the room fell silent as Starflight's attention shifted to the scroll on his paws, Sunny ate the rest of the berries and bid him goodbye so he could be alone and concentrate, but before she left, Starflight pointed out that he could hear Clay's siblings thoughts and that Crane and Sora were looking for her, she thanked him and walked out of the room

walking through the halls, Sunny was met with several cheerful looks and approving nods from the guards and staff as she walked, word of Glory's discovery probably had gotten out, she just hoped she was able to help the trapped Mudwings in any way

"Sunny!" Crane suddenly called and pulled Sora with her "Clay told us that you guys could stay in the Kingdom for a day or two, do you wanna hang out with us?"

"that would be quite nice, actually" Sunny nodded without much hesitation "i do"

Crane then lead the way, with Sunny and Sora following close behind, Sunny had never taken the time to actually explore the town, simply walking around was more relaxing than she had expected, Crane took the lead explaining how things worked and offering to visit popular shops with Sora sometimes piping up to explain historical things

"the poetry is her favorite" Crane revealed, but Sora glanced at the ground, a little flustered

"... it's… interesting…" Sora mumbled, Sunny thought that was all she was going to say, but then she picked up the pace "you'd think it's something simple that can be used with the mud you find on the ground but the clay needed to mold the vases has many options but specific temperatures that a dragon would need to constantly watch over to make sure to not got over or under, otherwise the pot could come out cracked, deformed or even explode-" she then remembered both Sunny and Crane where watching her and stopped talking

"noo! keep going!" Crane tried to encourage her, but Sora had already made up her mind and tried to move on "aw…"

"I'm guessing that's rare?" Sunny tilted her head

"kind of, one time, her and Marsh hooked up on a topic of ruins and they talked for a whole day" Crane said like she was explaining the story of an important scroll "which was so impressive -and it still is- especially for Marsh since he never talks for that long"

the trio had gotten to the market on its working hours, several small tents were opened as chatter went free, the owners of the tents explained each item without skipping any beats and tried their best to get the attention of as many Mudwings as possible

one of the small pieces of jewelry caught Sunny's attention, it was a necklace made with some kind of animal bones and teeth, its was strangely pretty

"this piece," the owner of the tent said suddenly, making Sunny flinch "i made it myself, made out of authentic fangs and rib bones of crocodiles and snakes" they announced proudly "only for 15 gold coins"

"oh im- im just looking around" Sunny said "i- im not going to buy anything"

"ok" the owner nodded "feel free to look around as much as you want. and maybe drop a few nice things about my items if you meet the other Dragonets of Destiny?" they quickly added

Sunny failed to hide a chuckle and turned her attention to the other items, all seemed like some kind of jewelry made with different objects, clay rings, cattail earrings, the list went on

"Did you make all of these?" Sunny asked

"yup" the owner said proudly "each piece was carved and crafted by these talons and these talons alone"

"wow! these must take a lot of time"

"they do, some of the rings tend to take half a day" they admitted

"How many of these did you make while on patrol?" Sunny asked and gently poked a ear piece decorated with small fish bones

"hm? oh no, i didn't start doing this until after"

"... after what?"

"this" the owner was kind enough to extend their wing

the membrane that connected each finger was nearly completely gone, being even worse than Dune's, Sunny winced and took a small step back

"... c-can i ask?" she said slowly before waiting for permission, but once she did, all she was able to do was whisper 'how'

"Icewing Frost Breath can be nasty " they said and put their wing down "everyone in my Troop lost something because of them"

"oh… im sorry…" Sunny said, almost in a whisper

"that's just how wars are, but now that you and the other Dragonets of Destiny are around, maybe we won't even have to wait for the war's 20th anniversary"

Sunny smiled and nodded, but she couldn't promise anything, she bid the Mudwing goodbye and managed to find Clay's sisters looking at pelts and leather. after the trip down the market, in which all three managed to successfully not buy anything, Sora was the next one to choose the destination, inviting Sunny to fly to one of the many warm mud pools, she hadn't left the town aside from flying towards the Skywing Kingdom so she accepted

being able to simply soar through the sky was very refreshing, Sunny's wings thanked her as the wind could do most of the job, there weren't that many Mudwings by the time they arrived at the pools, at least that Sunny spotted, a Mudwing she didn't even notice was that close suddenly jumped out, causing her to stumble

"sorry, didn't mean to scare ya" they apologized before turning to their siblings and reminding them it was time to go

she hid her smile as she watched one of the Mudwings protesting and refusing to leave, only to be effortlessly dragged out. Crane managed to grab the Sandwing's attention and motioned to a few carved rocks with empty space in the middle

"that's where we put our belongings before entering the pools" she explained "if something like a ring were to fall out, you would be more likely to find an alligator with white scales then finding that ring, so it's best if you store the necklace"

"oh- uh, ok" Sunny nodded slowly, she had never taken the necklace off after the enchantment and wasn't fully sure what would happen

thankfully Crane and Sora had dove into the mud pools, allowing the Sandwing to hide the tip of her tail once the necklace was off, it felt weird not having the added weight of the barb, it was like Sunny's tail was too light and moved too fast

'i cant believe how quickly i got used to the weight of the barb' Sunny thought, still curling her tail 'i lived 6 years without it and yet i feel strange 6 seconds in'

Sunny tipped the tip of her tail onto the mud, checking the temperature, without lifting it up, she slowly got in, it was deeper than she thought and quickly held on to the edge of the earth

aside from the initial shock of how hot it was, it was very pleasant

"oooh… nice…" Sunny whispered and found a comfortable position to stay

for the first few minutes, it felt like the world didn't exist, the warmth of the mud on her scales and the sun on her face made it very easy to doze off, everything felt so relaxing and managed to make her forget there was a war going on some part of the continent and that there were Mudwings wondering if their siblings were ok

Sora was the one to accidentally wake her up by putting some of the mud on her face, between her eyes, mostly in one spot specifically

"sorry" she apologized "i was trying to cover that scar near your eye"

"it's ok" Sunny reassured her and repositioned herself

Crane then approached them "I know this is probably something you dont wanna talk about but… what's the Arena like? i've never been there"

"good, don't go" Sunny quickly said

"Is it really that bad?" Crane asked "i mean, we heard some of it by Clay, but in a scale of 'fun for the whole troop' to 'no amount of treasure in the world would convince me to force my worst enemy to see it' how bad are we talking about"

"hm… probably somewhere between 'your brain will need a bath to forget what you saw' and 'get me half of the world's treasure and i'll think about going again'" the Sandwing answered, getting a long and understanding nod from Crane

"Did you see the Mudwing fight?" Sora asked

"we didn't, not because we didn't want to, but we were kicked out" that response prompted a 'really' from the two of them "a few guards came by, picked us up with no explanation and dropped us off at the plaza of a small Skywing village saying that the next fight was 'for Skywings only'"

the moment between the trio felt slightly awkward, they stayed quiet for a few seconds before Sunny spoke up again

"Are you two good with advices?"

Sora immediately pointed at Crane "depends" Crane quickly said "what kind of advice do you need? if it's anything romantical, you came to the wrong dragon"

"I promise you it's not that" Sunny said with a smile before it disappeared "What's the best way to say 'sorry' to someone?"

"uh… i would actions" Crane said, scratching her chin "but it still depends on what happen, helping a dragon rebuild their home after you've accidentally destroyed is going to be better than any apology letter"

"how about with… um… emotional stuff?" Sunny said, not knowing the right word "like, making someone mad"

"... did something happen between you and one of the other Dragonets?" Crane asked giving her a concerned look

"no- no, it's not with them, its someone else, well two someone else's to be specific"

"Now that's a little more tricky…" Crane stared off into the distance, gathering her thoughts "if you unknowingly made them upset, try going with a straight up 'im sorry' first, if that doesn't work… maybe don't talk to them for sometime, they might need some space before you try and start doing favors for them" she said, but went on "if you knowingly made them upset, try seeing what you said from their perspective and then try an apology followed by favors"

Sunny slowly nodded "I see… thank you"

the trio had to leave due to the sun going down, making a small stop at a river to wash the excess mud out, Sunny's tail felt more natural now that the necklace was back where it should

most of the way back, Sunny formulated a small plan in her mind to apologize to both Landslide and Peril, for Landslide, the best and only thing she could do was help his sister escape, but for Peril… it was a little tricky

'Could I enchant something to get rid of her Firescales?' Sunny wondered 'would that hurt her? she must be used to the heat by now, if i take her Firescales away… would she get sick? would she… die?'

Sunny managed to push those thoughts away and focused on flying, Clay's siblings had to leave for the night, but Crane reassured Sunny and reminded her that she would be there in case they needed to talk and gave pretty good instructions on how to get to the village they lived

"...and if i'm not home, feel free to leave a note" she concluded

"got it" Sunny said before watching the group fly away

"Did something happen?" Glory asked "did you tell her about 'the thing'"

"hm? oh- n-no no, it's not about 'the thing'" the Sandwing quickly clarified "i asked her on what was the best way to apologize to someone and she thought i had a fight with one of you"

Glory failed to hide a laugh, it was surprisingly rare for any one in the group to have a fight so bad to the point of having to say sorry, even back when Starflight was a bag of ego

once she was back in their room, Sunny grab the Feather of Vision and began twirling it around her talons, Landslide knows about it, so she could talk to him, but she was far from sure if he was even in the mood to talk

the thought of talking to Peril through the Feather was risky, but she still wanted to at least go for a verbal apology

'But then she could also get mad… again, would she tell Queen Scarlet? probably not but…' she groaned 'why is saying sorry so hard?'

"i think you should do it" Starflight's voice startled her

"Starflight! i didn't notice you were here"

"i've been working" he briefly showed the scroll that had even more scribbles now "also, sorry for reading your mind, but, i do think you should talk to Peril"

"but… won't she connect the dots and tell Scarlet?" Sunny asked, holding the feather away from any surface

"you don't have to tell her that you're an animus" he got up from his spot and approached Sunny "my visions are slowly starting to get more clear, and i saw that, in the end, Peril does help us, but you need to be the one to talk to her"

Sunny glanced back at the feather "is there anything in specific i need to tell her?"

"i'm afraid my visions don't come with convenient little scrips" Starflight said, with a sarcastic tone Sunny honestly missed "but if anything, you could set up a meeting with her to talk to her face to face"

slowly, Sunny nodded and cleared a small space onto the floor, after Starflight confirmed there was no one close, Sunny drew a small circle and whispered

"Peril the Skywing"

Chapter Text

"Peril the Skywing"

(_-_-_-_-_)

The sound the black rocks made when they hit the bottom of the ravine was quite satisfying, it was like the bones of a small animal being crushed as its eaten, Peril rolled another one towards the very edge before a small breeze pushed it

'Who knew those things were hollow inside?' Peril thought, her ear twitched when the pebble hit the bottom 'no wonder i never felt full'

Her tail brushed over the charged rocky floor she was sitting on, the one spot that had the least amount of flammable things also happen to be the most uncomfortable one, but she couldn't complain

"Peril?"

She quickly turned around to where she thought the voice came from, but there was no one there

"... Hello?"

"Peril, can you hear me?"

"Who's there?" she quickly rose up to her feet "if you are planning something, you're gonna make a pretty bad discovery!"

"Peril, it's ok. it's me, Sunny!"

"Sunny?" Peril asked with a happy tone "wait where are you?"

"How do I explain this…" Sunny's voice sounded really close "i can see what you're seeing, but i'm not there"

The Skywing took several seconds to process what Sunny just told her "... How?"

"Uh-" Sunny paused for a few seconds before continuing "i- its an Animus Touched object! i found it in an abandoned Scavenger's Den"

"Really? wow, those Scavengers really steal anything…" Peril commented and sat back down "so now you can talk to me whenever you want?"

"Basically, yeah"

"Blazing!" Peril hasn't used that expression in a long while and ended up using the wrong tone, causing some guards to look at her

"Uh- is there a quieter place we can talk? Somewhere other dragons can't hear"

Peril nodded and began walking towards the palace after sweeping the rest of the black rocks into the ravine. A small path behind a waterfall lead to inside the palace, it was one of the more hidden parts, Peril had no idea what that path was for, it was probably more used years before Scarlet became Queen, there was a small fork on the paths, one went back to the main parts of the Palace, but she wasnt allowed to go in, so she took the other

There was no decoration aside from a few torches and one painting of the Queen on another entrance of another forked path, at the end of the path with nothing was a small cave with a little ledge

"You said you can see what I see, right?" Peril asked, now being able to use her normal tone "welcome to my room"

There was no response from Sunny for a few seconds before she spoke up

"It's… Uh… Nice?"

"Yeah… Firescales can't really have anything that's not rocks''

"I think a window would have been nice"

"Probably…" Peril simply shrugged before hopping on the ledge she called bed "you wanted to talk, right?"

"Yeah, first of all, I would like to say sorry… When I shouted at you the last time we saw each other" Sunny said, almost in a whisper "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings''

Peril was stunned, that was… The first time someone said sorry to her, in a non sarcastic way that was, she had her name to be called again to snap back to reality

"Uh- i-its okay" the Skywing stumbled on her words, not sure how to act "well, I- I was a little mad after that, but that made me think about some things…"

"Like what?"

"Like… the black rocks" Peril began to whisper "I stopped eating them"

"You did? Do you feel ok? Are you not sick?"

"No, surprisingly! I thought I was going to get sick again, but this time I feel fine!" she reported "i feel like i've been eating more now"

"That's great to hear!"

Peril couldn't help but smile, she had no idea when it was the last time someone was genuinely concerned about her, not even Queen Scarlet would have a casual conversation with her, it always 'Peril, do this' 'Peril, do that' 'Peril, go eat your rocks, otherwise your gonna die'

"Uh- anything else?" she asked, not wanting for the conversation to stop

"I… I was wondering if you could do something for me and my friends…"

"Like what?"

"It's better if i explain to you in person… So… What's the furthest away you can go from the Palace?"

(..._-_-_-_-_…)

"And she said yes?" Glory asked surprised

It was the next day after Sunny managed to talk to Peril, she managed to explain part of the plan to the Skywing and the trio of Glory, Clay and Sunny were on their way towards the outskirts of the Skywing territory to meet with the Firescales

"She just wants to help" Sunny said, not wearing her disguise this time

"But what if she tricks us?" The Rainwing tried to argue

"Glory," Clay warned "lets not get ahead of ourselves, she said she was going to help and we have no other choice but to trust her" but then he quickly added "plus, if she tries to do anything, we have my fireproof scales"

"I don't think she will" Sunny insisted 'at least I hope…' a tiny voice at the back of her head concluded for her

The trio flew closer to the ground as they approached the Skywing territory, it was still dawn, but they didn't want to risk being seen, soon enough Clay was the first one to spot a column of smoke that was interrupted at random intervals, that was Peril's signal, so they followed it

Once the Skywing spotted them, she tried her best to stop the fire, but both Clay and Sunny had to help

"Hey, uh- Dragonets of Destiny" Peril did a quick bow "if I can call you guys that"

"I don't mind" Clay said, making sure the fire was completely gone

"Thank you for coming" Sunny said and stepped closer to Peril "you didn't get in trouble, did you?"

"No one really pays attention to where I go, I can nearly do whatever i want" the Skywing said before going "aren't Sandwing's scales supposed to be more… Sandy?"

"It's just one of the many quirks of being me"

"Cool!" Peril complimented, making Sunny smile

"Not to ruin the bonding moment," Glory began, looking at the sky "but i think it's better if we get down to business"

"Glory's right" Clay said and stepped closer "how much of the plan did Sunny already tell you?"

"You guys already know where the Mudwings are and now are trying to find a way to help them escape" Peril said

"Well, mostly we need the keys to open the cells" Clay corrected her "... or you could… help melt the bars?"

"If they are not made out of stone, then… Sure"

"But we'll still need a distraction" Sunny reminded them "we can't risk any of the guards hearing us, no matter how much backup we bring"

"Do you know anything that could help?" Glory asked Peril "maybe the guard's schedule?"

"Uh… Honestly… I wish" the Skywing lowered her head in embarrassment "no one's really… bothered to teach me how to read"

The trio stared at her in shock

"Ok, there was one dragon that somewhat taught me a few things but…" Her voice trailed off, but then she quickly cleared her throat "uh… A-anyway, I- there is someone that should know more than me, but i'm not sure if shes gonna talk to you guys… or me"

"We're gonna have to try…" Clay said in a low voice "which is the safest place we can meet her?"

"I'm gonna try to call her, but if she doesn't come, we are gonna have to fly a little close to the Palace"

The others agreed and hid under the trees as Peril flew away, sadly, it wasn't long until she came back alone

"Just as I suspected…" Peril said, landing on top of a rock "but- on the bright side, she is willing to talk to you"

"Good enough…" Sunny mumbled

"She promised she wouldn't send us straight to Scarlet, right?" Glory asked

Peril nodded "we do need to hurry a little, there are more guards taking their places but i'm not sure if i can hide you three with my with my wings"

Almost instantly, Glory went invisible causing Peril to do a double take "I can hide Sunny. Clay, you can go behind her"

The group flew back to the skies, Peril guided them as they soared in a big arch along the Palace, hopefully if any guards spotted her would either think it was someone else or that she was flying alone

“So… who are we meeting, exactly?” Clay asked

“Princess Ruby” Peril answered “she’s not like Scarlet, don't worry”

“i'm worrying” Glory said

“I don't talk to her a lot, but she’s never gone to the arena, and i've seen her deliver food to some of the prisoners a few times”

Once they approached the correct tower, Peril motioned for the trio to land on the rooftop while she shooed away the guards

“This better be worth it” Glory whispered

The two Skywings quickly flew away, allowing the trio to approach

“This is her room” Peril showed the door before grabbing a sizable rock and using that to knock

The Skywing princess opened the door just slightly “are you the ones i need to talk to?” She asked, once they gave her confirmation, she allowed the group to slip in

Ruby’s room was… Surprisingly simple but Sunny wasn't sure what she was expecting. A combination of furniture carved out of wood and rocks would hold scrolls, necklaces and stacks of drawings, there were vines hanging from the ceiling with little flowers blooming from it, a large curtain was blocking a balcony, allowing a small collum of sunlight that barely reached a large bed with nicely folded fur blankets and the owner of the drawings slowly waking up

“... What time is it?” the little dragonet asked, looking at the guests confused

“It's still early, Cliff, go back to sleep” Ruby said with sweetness

“... I'll stay outside… and guard” Peril announced and tried her best to open the door without burning it. Glory had to help her

Ruby cleared her throat “it is quite the surprise to be able to meet you, Dragonets of Destiny” she said in a more formal tone “I believe… Peril has already mentioned me?”

“She did” Clay nodded and did a small bow “Im Clay, this is Sunny, and that's Glory”

“We couldn't risk having the others come” Sunny revealed

“Couldn't your Skywing guide you here?” Ruby asked innocently

The Rainwing clicked her tongue“Y'know what? I think i'm gonna guard with Peril” Glory said and left as a few red and blue dots appeared on her wings

The slam of the door made Cliff jolt awake

“Is she ok?” Ruby asked

“Yeah… she just… doesn't like when someone asks about our Skywing” Sunny said "it's complicated"

Thankfully, the princess didn't press her further

Sunny was the one to do most of the explanation, with Clay hoping in a few times to help her, they tried to keep it as vague as possible just in case, and Sunny made sure not to go into too much detail, as Cliff was very obviously not sleeping

"... I see…" Ruby mumbled "I somewhat remember seeing mother bringing the first Mudwing to the dungeon, I wasn't expecting for it to spiral down like that…"

"Which is why we were hoping you could help us" Clay said "all we need is an exit point"

"There is a number of smaller entrances around the Palace, but those can lead to severely guarded areas…" Ruby scratched her chin, thinking "hm… i do believe a massive distraction would be your best bet to get the Mudwings out"

Suddenly, a tiny gasp made Sunny look, Cliff raised one of his paws and bounced on the bed with a determinate look on his face

"Do you have an idea?" Sunny asked to the dragonet

"Grandma's hatching day is tomorrow!" he announced proudly "and she likes to put these big parties that all of the guards get really dizzy, so you can come in before the party starts, rescue the Mudwings and and just fly out because everyone is gonna be too busy showering grandma with gifts!"

"Sweet moons, how could I forget? Cliff, you're a genius!" Ruby said and hugged her child, causing him to giggle

Seeing that scene made Sunny feel… sad, none of her Guardians had called any of them 'genius' when they had ideas, nor have they ever hugged them, was Sunny's mom going to be like that? was that the life she was supposed to have if fate hadn't pick her for the prophecy

She mentally slapped herself 'focus, Sunny! one thing at a time, rescue the Mudwings first, you can fantasize about the life you never had later'

Cliff's reminder was taken into consideration while the group planned the escape route, if Glory hadn't reminded them they were still in the Skywing Palace, the conversation would have probably went way longer

The group had to fly away quickly to not be spotted, Peril tried her best to hide Clay and still keep up a good pace to get away from the Palace. it was only once they had gotten a reasonable distance away from the place that they slowed down and began to soar side by side and Sunny began to share what the princess told them

"Scarlet's hatching day is tomorrow?!" Peril asked and nearly skipped a wing beat "sweet moons- i gotta go back to get ready, she will absolutely want me to fight at least one dragon, see ya Sun, see ya Clay, see ya 'Glow'"

"See ya, 'Ril'" Glory said and waved before the Skywing went back

"... Glow?" Sunny asked

"... Ril?" Clay asked

"What? Can't dragons have nicknames?"

"You two were alone for 30 minutes" Clay pointed out

"She's interesting" the Rainwing said and refused to elaborate further

'And that's coming from someone that was skeptical of her the entire way here…'

The trip back to the Mud Kingdom was mostly quiet and, thankfully, uneventful. They managed to get back by the middle of the afternoon, and once they entered the Palace, questions were immediate

"Where in Pyrrhia were you three?" Tsunami asked as soon as she saw the trio

"we had a meeting" Glory said

Queen Moorhen and her siblings quickly approached with worried expressions "the Nightwing told me he had a vision of you three meeting someone a 'Royal Skywing' it wasn't Scarlet, was it?"

"It wasn't" Sunny reassured her "we met her daughter, Princess Ruby"

"Oh i know her, kind of" Sparrow said "we talked that one time we visited the Skywing Palace, cool dragon"

"What did she tell you?" Mire asked

Clay cleared his throat and stepped forward "your majesties, i would advise you to pick the best pieces of jewelry you have, you'll need it for a hatching day tomorrow"

Chapter Text

From the previous day to that morning, there has been non-stop chatter at the Mudwing Palace. Guards getting ready to follow their Queen, maids and butlers finding the best combination of earrings and rings for the Royal Siblings to wear, and a pair of tailoress that were unable to stop crying because they had the honor to be chosen and be the ones to make a small gift that would help distract Scarlet

"Nervous?" Sunny asked Clay as he put on a set of armor

"Kind of" he admitted and made sure the helmet was on correctly, he was going alongside the Queen to the Palace to help with the injured Mudwings "On one paw, im happy to be helping and doing something rather than just sitting in a cave. On the other… I'm just really hoping something bad doesn't happen…"

"It won't, I'm sure" she got closer "You'll be surrounded by others of your kind that will do everything in their power to make sure everyone comes back home safely, plus, I'll be keeping an eye on you" she showed him the Feather

Clay smiled "thanks, Sun"

Sunny got on her hind legs to give him a hug, wings and all, Clay couldn't help but hug her back. a Mudwing knocking on the floor made the two look

"Queen Moorhen is ready to go, she is waiting for you at the main entrance"

"Yes, sir" Clay nodded

The Mudwing quickly vanished. Clay finished placing all of the armor pieces in the correct place with a small bit of help from Sunny before picking up an Bull horn spear, he took a deep breath before the two walked out

A lot of Mudwings were ready to go, Sunny could feel the tension, but also the determination on her own scales, they smiled at the Dragonets and walked alongside them for a bit before picking up speed to meet with the Queen

"There he is!" Tsunami threw her arms in the air, causing her scales to glow. she quickly came over to Clay and gave him a hug "my little big brother's grown so much, look at him, ready to fight for Pyrrhia" she said half joking but also affectionately

"Hey…"

Glory suddenly reparead from thin air"oh wow, you do look quite imposing with that armor on"

"Some parts feel a little loose…" Clay poked at one of the arm pieces "... And a little heavy, but i don't mind"

"I think you look great" Tsunami put a paw on his shoulder "and i bet a whole shark if Kestrel saw you right now she would have to admit you are not weak"

"Doubt it" the other Dragonets all said in unison

"Ok, maybe not Kestrel- one of the three!"

"Ahem" Queen Moorhen cleared her throat, startling the Dragonets "apologies for interrupting the moment, but… a few spies just came back, they said they spotted Princess Burn on her way to the Palace on the previous day and heard some pretty loud music and cheering by the time night rolled around" she said "I'm afraid we might be running low on time, so it's better if we go now"

"Of course," Clay did a small bow "let's go"

The guards following Moorhen got into their positions, after making sure the chest with Scarlet's gifts was properly filled, the Queen bid one last goodbye to her siblings and promise she would be back

Sunny watched as a small initial group went first: the Queen, Clay, and three other guards, plus Glory as a last second addition; the Sandwing was still not sure why she wanted to go so badly. About 30 minutes after the first group took flight; a second, larger, group that carried medical kits and makeshift stretchers

She waited a few more minutes before retreating back to their room, Starflight was going to keep the siblings occupied and Tsunami was going to act as a guard to make sure no one got in. The Feather of Vision was taken off her ear and put to use

"Clay the Mudwing"

(_-_-_-_-_)

There was no chatter among between anyone in the group, Clay made sure his grip on the chest was correct and looked over to the other Mudwing, his companions must have sensed his tension and nodded with a determinate look and Clay nodded back

'Sweet moons, let this mission go smoothly'

"Hey, how's things over there? good? Glory's with you right?"

Clay quickly nodded after making sure no one was looking straight at him, his ear twitched as the sound of wingbeats got closer to him, a very thin outline of a dragon gave him the answer that he needed

"Glory" he whispered

"Clay" she whispered back "is Sunny there?"

"Tell her i said hi"

"She says 'hi'"

"We are approaching the Palace and its watch towers" a larger Mudwing announced "Rainwing, get into position and wait for the others, if we find the Firescales we will tell her where to find you"

"Got it" she said and turned partially invisible before nearly stopping and turning back

"Good luck, Clay" Sunny said "i'll try not to talk too much so i don't distract you"

'to be very fair, i think i would like that less' Clay admitted to himself

The Queen flew in the front, signalizing what Clay guessed to be some kind of peace symbol with her paws, as the Skywings only watched them fly by and not try to attack them

There was a good number of Skywings at the arena as they flew by, and the prisoners at the pillars didn't even bother to look at them. the courtyard of the Palace had a bowl shape with its walls being parts of the mountains, there was a good amount of cheering and talking so the Queen motioned for them to land

'It's now or never…'

"Queen Scarlet!" Queen Moorhen said in a gleeful voice as she walked towards the Skywing Queen "how have you been?"

"... oh… Queen Moorhen" she said in return, clearly not happy that the Mudwings were there "I've been doing quite nicely, the Arena has been… full of surprises. Now tell me, what brings you here?"

"A little bird told me today was your hatching day, and so i thought: what kind of ally would i be if didn't at least came here in person to wish you a happy hatching day"

"Oh how thoughtful of you!" Scarlet said and stepped a bit closer "you didn't have to"

"Oh no, of course I did. i even got you a few things" Moorhen motioned for Clay and the second Mudwing carrying the chest to walk closer, as they did, Scarlet tilted her head, clearly interested "you might not think they fit your taste, but i'm sure you'll like them"

Clay was the one to open the chest, revealing several pieces of jewelry, a very nice clay statue and a claw-crafted scarf. Scarlet's pupils turned into large balls as she looked into the treasure, she had to restrain herself not to try everything on

"I… Always forget how crafty Mudwings can be" she managed to say "um- Hawk? Can you take this to my room?"

"sure…" Hawk rolled his eyes and grabbed the chest, dragging it through the courtyard

"I'm not too late to the party, am i?" Moorhen asked

"well… Burn got here a day early and we got to watch my Champion at work, and we had a trial yesterday, it was actually quite thrilling, you should have seen it"

"I see… What kind of trial, if I may ask?"

"A boring one" Burn's voice startled the Mudwings, compared to Scarlet, the Sandwing Princess was huge and filled with battle scars; the danger in her pure black eyes reminded Clay of Dune's gaze whenever he did something wrong "something about a Skywing having two freaks and then one of the freak appeared out of nowhere and came to protect her, blegh"

" Correction ," Scarlet said in a very sassily manner "that Skywing was a traitor that disobeyed my orders and then left to serve the Talons of Peace. the only good thing to come out of that ordeal was my Champion"

Clay's ear twitched, his Guardians never really talked about who was with the Talons, but there was only one dragon he knew that is in the group and is a Skywing

'It… can't be Kestrel… right? she's not exactly the best mother a dragonet could ask…' he scratched one of his old scars by instinct 'I don't think Sunny's magic can erase the things she told me'

Moorhen managed to switch the subject of the conversation and dismissed Clay and the others, allowing them to move around the courtyard and talk among themselves. Clay stuck with the Mudwing that helped him carry the chest, preferring to stay near someone he at least knew

"Nervous?" he asked "don't worry, you're not alone… I'm nervous too"

"Eh… just a little…" Clay said and poked at one of the appetizers left for the guests "hey, i never got your name"

"I'm Constrictor" he extended his paw

"Pleased to work with you" Clay said and took his paw

Constrictor let out a small chuckled "I feel like i'm the one who should be saying that to you, basically everyone in the Mud Kingdom knows who you are"

Clay couldn't help but blush "I think this is the first time i admit this in a while but…" he leaned closer to Constrictor and whispered "I actually never thought i would be out here doing things like this"

"Really?" Constrictor was surprised "I mean- I don't know how you lived but- destiny chose you"

"That's what me and the rest thought as well" he looked away for a few seconds "life before leaving the caves wasn't great

"Glory was in constant danger, Sunny was… always being pulled away, Tsunami and I were always fighting for our lives… All of these scars that I got were because of our Guardians; they constantly went on and on about how we were simply cursed and that there was no reason to keep us around and that we were too weak to be able to do anything great. we were never told anything that happened outside, our main source of information were a bunch of bias scrolls and whatever the Guardians wanted us to know-"

A audible sniffle from Constrictor made Clay stop and look at him, the other Mudwing looked to be on the verge of tears

"That must have been terrible-" Constrictor managed to not burst into tears

"I- didn't even realize i was ranting- s-sorry, you weren't supposed to know most of them"

"It's ok" he put a paw on Clay's shoulder and managed to regain his composure "ok- uh, I saw Burn walking off over… there" he pointed to one of the many corridors that connected to the courtyard "i don't know what she's doing, but if she's alone you should be able to see her true nature"

"Thank you" Clay nodded before walking over to where Burn went

Clay had only seen the Palace trough what Glory saw, actually walking in the halls felt a little eerie and unsettling, it was probably because of all of the paintings of Queen Scarlet staring at him

"Sunny?"

"yeah?"

"Do you think you can make another circle to check on Glory?"

"i'll try"

there was a few seconds of silence between the two before Sunny reported back

"I got it to open but everything was blurry and I couldn't hear what Glory was hearing. But from what i saw i think she managed to meet with Peril and should be on their way to the prison"

"good"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ICEWINGS ESCAPED?!" The yell alone made Clay jump and freeze, he stood still for several seconds, before managing to move again "THERE WERE 19 OF THEM, AND YOU MANAGED TO LET THEM ESCAPE?!"

Queen Scarlet was yelling at a poor guard who tried to hide behind his wings, Burn was also there, looking in amusement

"i-i don't know what happened e-either!" The Skywing said "w-we went to check on them t-this morning a-and they were gone!"

"Well, don't just stand there and go FIND HOW THEY ESCAPED!" she roared. The guard left without missing a second

"so. you're telling me, you captured several of my sister's soldiers… and didn't kill them right away?" Burn asked the Skywings

"I was planning on having them on my arena and have them all fight each other" Scarlet explained "no ice, just claws"

"you're stupider than a headless camel" Burn hissed

"Hey!"

"It's true" Burn insisted "what are you gonna do next? find the Dragonets of Destiny, put them in pretty dresses and make them parade around your kingdom? I know you have a very important Seawing somewhere and if i ever hear that it's alive, i'm gonna find him myself and break his neck"

"Ah! Don't you dare! That one is a special toy, I'm simply… waiting for Queen Coral to leave her little hiding spot so we can negotiate, maybe I can convince her to switch sides once more?"

"Doubt it"

"That she would?"

"No, that you planned all of this"

Scarlet let out a few random noises before hissing "It's my hatching day, It's hatching day, I don't get stressed, or disrespected in my hatching day"

It seemed like the two dragonesses were walking towards Clay so he quickly stepped back and pretended to admire the artwork, he heard their footsteps behind him before Vermillion suddenly appeared

"Your majesty? the preparations have been reorganized, we are ready to start with the arena"

"Oh how thrilling !" Scarlet clapped "go grab something for Moorhen so she can sit with us"

"You're inviting her to watch?" Burn asked with a strange tone

Scarlet let out a disappointed sigh "She's already here, might as well"

"Why didn't you tell your guards to not allow any Mudwings in if you knew you're gonna have that firepro-"

Burn was interrupted by Scarlet closing her snout with a paw and hissing softly, she motioned at Clay with her head and he pretended to not have heard it

"...Hm? Did you call me?" he asked innocently

"Uhh yes, could you… be useful and tell your Queen to meet us in the arena?" Scarlet asked

"Of course, your majesty" Clay bowed and quickly left, as soon as he left their line of sight and earshot, he breathed out and leaned against a wall "Sun? you're still there?"

"Mhm" her voice sounded far away "i had to put a pillow in my mouth to not scream"

"On the bright side, we know who not to pick"

Sunny let out a small chuckle "I thought we had agreed on not picking Burn from the beginning"

Clay smiled and went back to look for Moorhen. Thankfully at least one guard stayed by her side, plus she was talking to Ruby which made it even easier "Your majesty? Queen Scarlet has asked you to meet her in the Arena"

"Ah, i see" Queen Moorhen put down her drink "well if that is the case, then i shouldn't keep her waiting, it was good talking to you Princess Ruby"

"Have fun watching the fights, I have to… Take care of a few things" Ruby winked at them before disappearing into one of the corridors, but not before whispering something to a guard and acquiring the keys he was holding

Soon after that, the Mudwings made their way towards the Arena through the halls of the Palace, Clay could already hear the cheers and hissing of the crowd before he could see it

"I think it's best if you step out of this part, Sun" he whispered quietly

"I can… actually, no, i think you're right" she said and took a step back

"Did you talk to me?" Constrictor asked, Clay didn't even notice how close he was

"Well- just remembered how some fights can be quite… brutal" he managed to say

"Ah… how brutal?"

"an Icewing suffocated with another one's Frost Breath"

Constrictor froze for a few seconds before walking again, his movements were a little bit more tense

The halls led to the ledge above the Arena, where the Queen sat, two sitting spots were placed besides the Skywing Queen, the grandstands had no visible spots left and there were several guards going around collecting bets for the day; it seemed like they were going to be quite busy. Good

Queen Moorhen sat on Scarlet's left side, as Princess Burn sat on the right side, she didn't seem very interested in the whole ordeal

"Huh, didn't think this scarf would actually go well with my scales" Scarlet said, fiddling with her gift

"I'm glad you liked it" Moorhen said

"That thing is gonna make harder for you to fly" Burn simply said, rolling her eyes

The Skywing Queen managed to ignore the comment and straightened her figure before letting out a powerful yet somewhat melodic roar, causing some of the cheering to stop

"Welcome my dear subjects" she said with a smile "I'm truly glad that so many of you managed to make it to my hatching day celebration; the same feeling goes for my dear allies. And what better way to start with a little bit of bloodshed?" The Skywings and a few Sandwings began to cheer "that's the enthusiasm I adore. Vermillion, who are my first competitors?"

"Great question, your majesty" Vermillion said and hopped off his spot and soared above the arena "on one side, with one win, we have Seal of the Icewings. and on the other, with four impressive wins, we have Tornado"

both competitors were placed in opposite sides of the field, staring at each other

"Claws up, teeth ready-" Vermillion didn't have the chance to finish as a ball of fire nearly hit him in the face

Tornado roared and launched himself toward Seal, the Icewing seemed calmer now and was able to dodge most of Tornados bites and slashes, but he was nowhere near fast enough to be able to dodge any fire attacks; Seal roared in pain as a blast of fire hit him straight in the chest, he stumbled back and tried to breath out his signature Frost Breath, but nothing came out, only a small amount of mist and water

The heat gave Seal a huge disadvantage, and soon enough Tornado was able to catch up and snap the Icewing's neck. the crowd cheered as Seal's lifeless body fell onto the sand

"That… was faster than I expected…" Constrictor said as he watched the guards return Tornado back to his pillar

"Poor guy didn't have a chance…" Clay muttered

"Neither of you have been in an actual fight" one of the other Mudwings said, rolling his eyes

Constrictor looked like he was about to say something, but Moorhen motioned for the trio to keep quiet

After that, two Seawings, a Sandwing and an Icewing and a free for all between five Skywings happened before Scarlet told one of the guards to 'bring the cage', not too long after, a large cage was rolled into the Arena as three Sandwings were dropped in

"Dingo, with 3 wins. Drought, with 2 wins and Mirage with 3 wins. How will these three Sandwings fare against Pyhrria's most intelligent animals, a group of Scavengers!"

a loud gasp swept through the audience and Mirage's confidence disappeared completely

"You have Scavengers?" Moorhen asked with a bit of a concerned tone

"I do," she said proudly "a few guards managed to find a few more about a week before this"

After what happen to Queen Oasis, Clay thought all Queens would be more careful around Scavengers

"and you have a group of them?" Burn asked "waste of food"

"Don't underestimate them, it only took one to get your mother"

The stare that Scarlet got form Burn was so intense Clay was surprised the Sandwing didn't kill her, her tail was raised in a striking position but Burn managed to keep her cool and not kill her ally, yet

" un called" Constrictor whispered and Clay nodded

The cage was opened and four Scavengers dashed out, squeaking and waving their tiny claws. The Sandwings tried to strike them with their tails, but they missed due to the Scavenger's small size, the tiny animals ran around in circles, confusing the Sandwings, one of them managed to climb up Mirage's leg, causing her to panic and run around

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

Fire was shot upwards out of panic, scorching the sand and nearly hitting audience members. Dingo was having a hard time getting two Scavengers off his back, the shaking ended up making his tail scratch against Drought's leg, he roared in pain and feel down, he didn't have enough time to react before the Scavenger got on his head and dug the claw it was waving straight into his eye. sharp inhales echoed through the entire audience, plus the Mudwings

Clay took a step back and scratched his eye, a pebble hit him at the back of his head, he looked back in confusion and saw a portion of the hallway shifting slowly, Glory's eyes appeared in the shadows, she motioned towards the Palace, poked a straight line on the ground before stopping in front of her other paw, if he wasn't wrong, they decided that was the sign that the Mudwings have been rescued and are waiting for a distraction to leave. Clay nodded before nudging closer towards Moorhen

"the others are waiting" he whispered

Moorhen nodded and was ready to tell Scarlet something, probably an excuse to leave for a few seconds, but a loud bang caused their attention to go back towards the Arena, Dingo and Mirage managed to toss the Scavenger's back into their cage and keep it shut

"uh… should we count that as a win?" Vermillion asked Scarlet

"eh… it would be a technicality… but one of the Sandwings are dead so i guess it's worth it" Scarlet said slowly, probably not having encountered that scenario before

As Vermilion announced the winners, Moorhen managed to get Scarlet's attention

"Excuse me for a moment, I need to talk to my guards"

"no no no! don't go yet, this next one it going to be the best one so far" Scarlet said with a wicked smile before turning to a guard "bring her in"

After what felt like an eternity, six guards slowly descended towards the Arena with a 7th one, completely chained, as they dropped the next competitor in, Clay's heart skipped a beat

"c-Clay?" Sunny whispered "t-that's… not who i think it is… right?"

"As some of you remember from yesterday's trial" Scarlet began "this Skywing was once a very loyal subject of mine, but after her defiance, betrayal against her own tribe and hiding, I had no other choice but to choose the worse punishment. Kestrel of the Skywings, your execution shall be delivered by your own daughter. bring out my Champion"

Time felt like it had slowed down. It was her, it was Kestrel , for years, Clay had wished that he was strong enough to defeat her, at least once; just so she could stop threatening his friends and see how good he was, he wanted to see her have fear. but now that she was there, staring at the gate where Peril walked out of, he… felt… bad… he didn't know why, but there was this part of his heart that was weighing down as he looked at Kestrel, finally in the same position he had been stuck on for six years. the other Mudwings must have noticed his expression, as Constrictor stayed beside him and Queen Moorhen put a wing over him

Smoke followed Peril's figure as she walked towards Kestrel, her head was low and she said nothing, she stopped in the middle of the Arena, a few steps away from… her mother…

"Claws up," Scarlet began "Fire ready… FIGHT "

Kestrel closed her eyes and braced for pain. Clay did as well, looking away from the Arena…

But nothing had happened, Peril was simply standing there

A long but heavy silence plagued the Arena, the audience held their collective breath, Burn stared at the Firescales and Kestrel looked at Peril

"... Ahem… didn't hear me? i said FIGHT"

"... I don't want to" Peril said

"e-excuse you??" Scarlet got up from her seat and walked closer towards the ledge

"I said: I don't want to" Peril repeated "was my insignificant voice too low, or are you wearing so many earrings that you can't hear me?"

Scarlet hissed "what is the meaning of this?"

"oh, now you're asking me a question?" Peril turned slightly "you know what, i think I'll gladly answer that, i don't want to be your Champion anymore"

A low growl coming from the Skywing Queen began getting louder and louder "who do you think you are to sssssay that to me?"

"a dragon who's not your puppet" the Firescales slammed her paw on the ground "a dragon that figured out your lies, a dragon who can now understand the things you've been telling me, a dragon that is tired of you"

A thick cloud of smoke blew out of Scarlet's nostrils as her tail thumped against the ground "what are you TALKING about?!"

"I stopped eating the black rocks, it's been days and i'm still standing, cuz guess what? turns out Firescales don't need to"

Before Scarlet could say anything else, Peril went on "I don't need to be a monster, you only made me into one, you made me believe I was one and that my one purpose was to serve you. you lied about my mother and sibling all so that you could have these scales as your shield, but now. this shield is gone"

Scarlet roared out of pure rage, barely being able to speak cohesively "and just who- exactly, told you all of this NONSENSE?"

With that Peril smirked "someone who can see my glory"

The sound of rushing talons caused Clay to look, Glory had become visible again and leaped into the air, she opened her jaws and a thick black liquid shot out of her fangs, it wasn't too much, only a few drops, but the second those drops hit Scarlet's back, she let out a blood curdling scream, she tumbled over the edge and struggled to stay still, but that was when Peril rushed over and scratched Scarlet's left eye, completely melting the scales, just like how the black liquid did to Scarlet's back

The Arena erupted in screams, and dragons began flying desperately, getting tangled on the wires above the Arena, crashing against each other or the pillars, Burn had jumped down and used her wings to stir up the sand, causing all of the dragons inside to disappear, it was hard to tell who was who, but Burn quickly shot up, carrying something, before disappearing in the panicked crowd. It took several minutes, but eventually, everything was quiet, the Skywings were gone, Burn and her soldiers were gone. the only ones left where the Mudwings, Peril, Kestrel and Glory

"... WHAT. WAS. THAT?!" Clay quickly turned towards Glory, who had stolen Scarlet's spot

"I also don't know, i found out by accident" the Rainwing simply shrugged and jumped down the ledge, with Clay following her

The sand had settled down, but Kestrel was pretty much covered, Peril walked towards her and melted away the muzzle, but before she could say anything Peril hissed

"Don't say anything" she said "i don't want to hear your voice, i don't want to know you, just let me melt the chains so you can disappear, again"

"Wait! Ril! Ril! before you do" Glory quickly approached Kestrel and looked at her for a few seconds, before slapping her across the face "ah, i always wanted to do this"

"You little piece OF-"

"HEY!" Peril snapped, "I said 'dont talk'!"

"Besides, you really wanna mess with someone who can melt your scales off?" Glory said and pointed towards herself and Peril

Kestrel let out a growl before noticing Clay approaching "Ah… I see your here too"

"Ditto" he simply said "I… knew you were here but i never thought i would see your face again…"

"I think none of us have…" Sunny finally said "I mean, we knew she was in the Palace but…" her voice trailed off

The sound of sizzle took over the empty Arena as Peril concentrated in melting Kestrel's chains

"Im impressed to see that you are alive, the two of you at least"

"Everyone else is too" Glory said "and i'm sure Tsunami would be thrilled to see you in this position"

Kestrel grunted and rolled her eyes. a thump caused Cay to look, it was the Queen and the other Mudwings, she approached with a serious expression on her face

"So… you must be the Dragonets Guardian, correct?"

"Unfortunately" Kestrel said and managed to shake her back leg free

"I've heard some… things about you, and i am impressed at how terrible a single dragon can be to a group of children that did not ask to be hatched at the Brightest Night"

"All they asked me to do was to keep those useless brats alive, and they are still breathing"

"You almost drowned Sunny one time because she accidentally messed with your food" Glory remembered

"I just nudged her towards the river," Kestrel said and huffed "it was her fault she didn't know how to float"

"Someone had to teach her, don't you think?" Moorhen pointed out

"That was Webs job, but he is just as useless as the Rainwing he brought- GRAH!" Peril's tail had brushed against Kestrel's leg, the Firescales didn't seem to notice, or care

"Enough," Moorhen took a step closer "clearly, you are to blind to see how incredible these children are. These two, and the Sandwing, have gotten out of their way to save the lives of other Mudwings, i have loyal generals that would have doubted or given up before we've gotten to the Palace, yet here we are. Even if there was no prophecy, they would achieve way better things that you could only dream of. So i advise you to open your eyes for once and stop saying such terrible things simply because 'keeping the alive' doesn't mean: not showing them love and appreciation"

Kestrel was clearly speechless, Constrictor and the Mudwings were stunned, Peril froze and Clay and Glory looked at the Queen with loving eyes

"Sun," Glory whispered to Clay as her scales became pink and yellow "when we go back, can you please enchant something to make sure we never forget what she said?"

"I don't think a spell is gonna be necessary" the Sandwing tried desperately to not cry

Once the last chain was melted, Peril refused to look at Kestrel, she simply went back towards the gate, Moorhen follow suit, but not before scaring Kestrel off, Clay and Glory watched the ex-Guardian fly away, without even looking back

"I say good riddance" Glory said and accompanied the rest of the Mudwings

Constrictor then put a paw on Clay's back as they walked "are you ok?"

"Yeah, don't worry, im fine" he said "I just… never thought i would see her again"

"I hope that the next time you find her will be in her funeral" Constrictor suddenly said, causing Clay to laugh

"Ok enough joking, we still have a job to do"

Constrictor nodded and the two quickned their pace. The door to the prison was fully opened, and inside was quite crowded, Princess Ruby made sure that all of the cells were empty and Queen Moorhen updated everyone in the situation. Injured dragons had been safely secured to the makeshift stretchers and a few Skywings that were on Ruby's side had brought water for them and the Seawing

 "Terra? Terra!" Glory called, looking over the Mudwings, a tiny paw suddenly shot up and she went straight for them

"I've counted everyone," Ruby quickly approached Moorhen "there is no one missing, you should be able to leave"

"Oh thank moons, and thank you for helping us" Moorhen smiled and hugged Ruby "you better expect a few gifts once things calm down"

"I will have to politely decline, I should be the one sending you gifts after what your Tribe has gone through." her ears fell slightly "when mother brought in the first Mudwing, i really thought he was a traitor… i should have noticed something was wrong and tried to stop it"

"Don't blame yourself for something Scarlet did" Moorhen said sweetly

"Your majesty, all Mudwings have been secured and confirmed to be alive, we are ready to go" one of the Mudwings announced and bowed

"Perfect, let's get going then, we do not have time to waste"

With the help of Constrictor, he and Clay helped drag one of the stretchers into the Arena before taking flight, it was a little tricky but they managed to do it. It was right in time as well as in the distance, some Skywing guards seemed to be returning, they looked ready to attack the group, but Peril and the Skywings with Ruby made them stop, they still tried to follow them but Ruby herself flew out of the Palace and roared several commands

Clay smiled as he watched the guards fly away from them "Sun, tell the others we're going back" he whispered, feeling as the afternoon breeze swept under his wings

(_-_-_-_-_)

Sunny jumped in excitement several times, trying not to scream of joy too loudly, she managed to calm herself down and put the Feather away in a secure location before bursting through the door to the hallway

"Tsunami! you won't believe it! they-" she said with glee but her smile fell when the Seawing was nowhere to be seen "Tsunami?"

She walked out the room and wandered through the hallways, calling for the Seawing, before she suddenly bumped into her, Tsunami was panting and looked extremely nervous

"Tsunami, what happened?"

"It 's Starflight!" she said and began dragging the Sandwing with her "He started acting weird and his eyes started glowing, you have to come and see it"

Chapter Text

Tsunami quickly guided her through the halls before reaching a part of the Palace that had several Mudwings trying to peek inside, the Seawing's roars caused them to make way and scatter, leaving the door available

Inside the room, Moorhen's siblings were standing on one side as Chestnut tried to get Starflight's attention, the Nightwing was speaking nonsense walking around non-stop

"W-what's happening here?" Sunny asked

"Shhhh, Chestnut's doing his thing and i think its working" Sparrow whispered

"20- no 70- n-no less, less" Starflight blattered out, walking in circles in a unorganized manner

"Less what?" Chestnut said, his tone was firm but loud

"White, like- like clouds, no no, not clouds, no sharp enough"

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Cold, White, too many too many"

"Can you tell me your name?" Chestnut asked again

"uh- uh, Stars, yes, lots of them, uh-" the Nightwing's eyes flickered for a moment before turning white again "S-Starflight! Starflight! y-yes Starflight"

"Can you tell me something that's in the room right now?" Chestnut asked and got closer

"Sharp, c-cold…"

"Can you tell me something that's in the room?"

"uh- b-brown, brown and uh" Starflight began to look around "pillows! yes and scrolls, lots of them, i like scrolls" his eyes slowly turned back to normal but the walking continued

Chestnut managed to get close enough to grab Starflight's paw "how many talons am i holding?"

"Uh… thre- no! no, t-two…" he answered correctly, his eyes finally went back to normal and he shook his head "ugh…"

"Can you say your name again?"

"Starflight" he said, even his voice sounded normal

"Good" Chestnut smiled and pat his head

"Starflight, do you feel fine?" Sunny asked and got closer "Tsunami said you were acting weird, and your eyes were glowing"

"Really?" he asked and rubbed his temples "I thought I just blinked… or blacked out"

"Now that you are back to normal, what the salt were you talking about 'white' and 'sharp'" Tsunami said but was pushed back by Chestnut

"Let him think" the Mudwing said

Starflight seemed confused as to what they were saying until it finally hit him

"I think it was a vision, but it's definitely different from the ones i've had before" Starflight said "they didn't feel as… strong"

"You did suddenly start to talk nonsense for a good minute before Chestnut calmed you down" Mahogany pointed out

Starflight pressed his lips. his eyes glowed white again and he groaned, rubbing his head "t-this is definitely not a normal vision"

"What do you see?" Sunny quickly asked 'I can enchant him to switch the pain he feels with me, right?'

A disapproving glare from the Nightwing reminded Sunny of his abilities, he didn't want her to go through the same thing as him. He started talking

"A snowstorm," he began "with shards of ice instead of snowflakes, flying through the continent, it stopped at the top of a mountain and continued on"

"A snowstorm with ice shards…" Mire crossed his arms, thinking "taking in consideration as to how your visions work, there could be a possibility that the snowstorm isn't an actual snowstorm"

Starflight fidget with his moon shaped earring as he thought, there was a collective silence between every dragon present before the Nightwing glanced at Tsunami with a concerned expression

"Icewings?" she guessed "i don't know much about actual snowstorms, but i don't think they just fly through the continent"

"If that's the case-" Starflight's earring began to glow softly, so did his silver scales "they are coming to the Mud Kingdom, and the outcome is not good"

Without missing a second, Mire burst out the room, causing the door to hit another Mudwing in the face "go and fetch our soldiers!" he ordered to the nearest guards "there is a possibility of an attack and we cannot let them get close to a single village"

"Yes, sir!" the guards bowed and rushed off

Mire continued to shout out orders as the others stayed with Starflight, Chestnut was the one to have the most amount of success when it came to keeping the Nightwing grounded to reality as they tried to make sense of his cryptic visions, using keywords and eliminating possibilities to narrow down where the Icewings could be coming from

"Northwest! Following a large river! 19! No weapons" Starflight spat out

"There is just one river that comes from the northwest; Diamond Spray Delta…" Mahogany said "do we have watch towers over there?"

"I think there is just one" Sparrow said slowly "... we should probably go there to give support, i'll go get Mire" she said and left quickly

"Ugh…. I think I have a headache…" Starflight mumbled, his eyes had finally stopped glowing

"Don't worry, your headache won't be in vain" Tsunami said and pat his back before getting up on her hind legs "now let's go and kick some frozen tails" she pranced off accompanying Mahogany

"How do you feel?" Sunny asked, getting closer to the tired out Nightwing 'are you sure you don't want me to come up with some kind of enchantment?'

"A little dizzy, but" he quickly added "I'm sure this happens to all Nightwings, the only difference is that i never got proper training, just give it time and it will pass" he then left the room, giving Sunny no time to argue

"Did that happen before?" Chestnut asked

"The weird vision? no" she said "his visions were… very infrequent. Say, how did you manage to calm him down? i feel like that is going to come in handy"

The two walked side by side by the halls as Chestnut began his explanation

"Emotions were very hard when i was little, so whenever i got too frustrated, Mire and Moorhen would talk to me and try to direct my attention to something else" he said "they would try to get me to think about something else, like things in the room and asking me simple questions; It was very effective. So when I saw the Nightwing panicking like that, I… saw myself… am I making sense?"

"you are, don't worry" Sunny reassured him and brushed her wing against his "thank you for telling me"

Chestnut smiled sweetly before Mire caught their attention

"The Nightwing managed to see more things; Sandwing you have to come with us, your barb is going to be useful. Chestnut, you don't have to come if you don't want to"

"Of course I want to!" he quickly said with determination "I can handle some chaos if it means I get to help!"

Mire simply nodded and motioned for them to follow, the guards that were going rushed to put whatever armor they could, making sure to protect their chests at the very minimum, Mahogany helped distribute weapons as Sparrow stayed close to Starflight. They didn't want to waste too much time, so Mire handed both Chestnut and Sunny spears before rounding everyone up to leave

They stepped out of the Palace before taking to the skies in bursts, with the Royal Siblings going in the front, the Dragonets made sure to make way to the soldiers before flying off themselves

"Sunny?" Crane called, she quickly rushed over before the Sandwing could take off, with Sora close behind her "What's happening? Where is everyone going?"

"Starflight had a vision, there is Icewings coming from the Diamond Spray Delta"

"What?!" Crane's wings fluttered "how?? why??"

"We don't know" Sunny said and looked at the sky "sorry, gotta go" she leaped into the air

"We're coming with you!" Crane yelled and managed to keep up with the Sandwing

"A-are you sure?"

"Our village is near the river" Sora explained "i can get our weapons and tell the others if they are home"

"Good idea!" Crane praised and focused on flying

They managed to catch up to the rest of the group despite being a little late, Mudwings repeated Mire's instructions for the ones at the back due to him being the furthest away. Only after a few minutes, Sora separated to visit their village and not to ong after that they arrived at the watchtower, the same one that the Dragonets had passed through when they first arrived at the Mud Kingdom

Sunny landed on the nearest and lowest branch and struggled to catch her breath, her wings were screaming at her for flying so fast, she blew on her shoulders and immediately felt better

'My healing spells are still sharp as ever' she thought with a smile

The Mudwings all perched on different branches, clutching their weapons. Mire, Mahogany and one of the watch tower guards peeked out of the foliage

"They really are coming…" the Mudwing with a missing talon said "they look like clouds from this distance, i would never think it was a group of Icewings…" his voice trailed off

"Give your thanks to Starflight, we wouldn't have know either if it weren't for him" Mire motioned at Starflight before raising his voice "we will wait until the Icewing get close, the element of surprise is on our side, once they start flying above us, knock them out of the sky"

" Yes, sir! " the Mudwings and Dragonets all said in unison

Sunny hopped onto the platform and stayed near the Siblings and Starflight, the air felt thick and tense, there was very little chatter, as the Mudwings focused on their attack. Sora managed to return with her and Crane's weapons, but she was alone, according to her, no one else was home

"... If the biggest Mudwing is Moorhen…" Starflight mumbled, his earring glowing softly "then they should be able to arrive just in time to give the upper talon"

"Perfect" Mire said with a determinate smile "keep up the good work, Nightwing"

Starflight's tail wagged as he appreciated the compliment

"How do you feel?" Sunny asked, getting closer

"Better," he said and lowered his voice "these visions are still a little tricky, sometimes i can see into the future whenever i want, but other times they feel like dreams… or whatever happen back in the Palace to make me freak out

"There is also these smaller ones that happen a few seconds before the thing they are telling me happens, and they are the most clear"

"Really?" Sunny tilted her head

Starflight showed three of his talons before counting down, as soon as he hit one, Tsunami's spear flew from her hands and slowly rolled out of the platform

"... No one's gonna miss that one, right?" the Seawing slowly sat back down

"Attention!" Mire roared, everyone hopped back to the branches

Tsunami was given a spare spear and sent to the branches as well

"Good luck" Starflight whispered "also- stay near Crane" his voice sounded strange at his second statement

"Thank you, and I will" Sunny said and got into position

The Icewings were nearly invisible against the clouds, hues of light blues and purples soared through the sky in a somewhat of a messy formation, from what Sunny could see, they didn't seem to be carrying weapons nor wearing armor, if she hadn't seen what an Icewing could do, she would probably be a little too confident

She clutched her spear and uncurled her tail, her heart was beating fast and she could hear it in her ears, time seemed to slow down as the dragons flew above. Before suddenly…

"ATTACK!" a Mudwing yelled, and everyone leaped out of the branches towards the sky

Within seconds, pillars of fire and ice cut through the sky. The surprise attack managed to scatter the Icewings, some managed to fly higher but others were knocked down a few meters before having to fight two or three soldiers at once, Sunny saw Tsunami going for a wing before she managed to score a hit for the first time, using the wooden part of the spear, she knocked a large Icewing off the sky, sending them closer to the ground

Her fire and barb were very helpful in terms of keeping Icewings away from her and directing them towards other soldiers, it didn't take long before the first loud thud occurred, she looked towards and an Icewing laid motionless, but then another thud occurred, and this time it was a Mudwing, their wing was frozen and they couldn't fly

Someone bumping into her brought her back to the fight, two Icewings flew backwards as they shoot out their Frost Breaths, the one with light purple scales turned around and was about to attack her, but, she remembered how Tornado aimed for Seal's chest back in the Arena, so she did the same, Sunny managed to dodge and respond with her own attack, a small fireball that was closer to the neck then she expected, but it knocked both of the Icewings off the sky, as the one she attacked desperately tried to hold on to the other one

The amount of close calls was terrifying, an Icewing managed to scratch her with their claws, and the pain was worse then what Kestrel did, a quick blow was good enough, but it left a small scar. Sunny began to question if there was more than 19, since the fighting never seemed to end, despite the amount of dragons that hit the floor

"Heads up!" Crane alerted and managed to pull her out of a Frost Breath attack

"Thanks!" Sunny said and stayed close to her "did you see how many we've defeated yet?" her breath was starting to become a little shaky

"Icewings don't know the word 'give up' the ones that fall to the ground keep on coming back, despite being so injured" she nodded towards one, that was barely being able to stay in the air

"Why?"

"No idea"

They stayed close together, while Crane went for offense, Sunny stayed on defense, she didn't really want to kill anyone despite what the Icewings were doing, maybe she could enchant the spear to make whichever Icewing she hit not want to fight anymore

Tsunami managed to break her spear on top of an Icewing's head, she wooed and dove towards the ground, where more fighting was happening

'How are you having fun?!' Sunny questioned and looked around her, there didn't seem to be as many dragons on the sky 'six… still flying, against 8 Mudwings plus me, we should be able to-'

Sunny looked over at Crane, she was keeping a big Icewing away from her, but there was another, smaller one behind her, charging an attack. Sunny let go of her spear and she bolted towards Crane

"LOOK OUT!"

A sharp pain traveled through Sunny's wing, she felt the heat on her scales disappear and was unable to extend her wing. she managed to open her eye and look, she was able to catch Crane, but she wasn't fast enough, there was a big chunk of ice on the side of her head and her arm was completely frozen

Due to her wing being frozen, the two had a very rough landing, Sunny managed to spin and keep her body under Crane's, causing her to absorb most of the impact, her neck and back hurt like fire and she was pretty sure one of her wings was dislocated, her breath came out as wheezy and shallow but she still forced herself to get up

Crane's frozen arm had bent in a weird way and the ice on her face covered her eye and an ear, Sunny reached towards her neck and pressed her talon down, looking for an artery

'please… be alive' she begged 'don't… die'

She wasn't sure if that was a spell or not, but when she managed to reach the right spot, she felt her pulse, it was weak, but it was there

"SUNNY!" Tsunami yelled, she pushed her attacker away and tried to reach Sunny, but three other Icewings stopped her, pinning her to the ground "let me go you SNOW BREATHERS!" her bioluminescent scales glowed brightly, brightly enough to force the Icewings to look away so she could attack

Sunny forced herself to get up, she nudged Crane gently and was about to reach for something to enchant, but the Icewing that nearly killed her was not satisfied; slowly gliding towards the ground and landing not to far away from them and slowly approached, the Sandwing stayed between her and Crane, her lungs felt smaller than normal so she was not going to be able to breath fire for to long

'My barb!' she remembered and mimicked Horizon's stance to the best of her injured ability, stabbing the ground and waving it around

But the Icewing effortlessly grabbed it when it got to close, a sinister grin appeared on her face as Sunny began to panic

"My my… what is a little Sandwing doing here? helping some slugs?"

"T-they… are not slugs" Sunny said weakly "t-they are… a-amazing dragons, j-just like all of t-the others"

The Icewing laughed "how naive… You aren't even from the same Tribe as them, why waste your time?"

"I-i don't… care, t-they are… m-my friends!"

"How stupid" the Icewing rolled her eyes and examined Sunny's barb "quite the color, did your little Mud-brain friends do this for you?"

"y-yess" she hissed

"phahahaw, how cute" the Icewing said and stepped on her tail, causing Sunny to hiss "why are you even fighting with them? unless you are with Burn, why should you care about-" she stopped for a moment before going "oh, wait wait a second… Are you the fabled 'Dragonet of Destiny'?"

"y-yes" Sunny hissed again, struggling to keep consciousness due to the pain "'Hidden… alone f-from the rival q-queens, the Sandwing… egg awaits unseen' t-thats me"

"Oh how delightful " her voice dripped with venom "that explain everything"

"W-why.. are you f-fighting… f-for a throne y-you have no business w-with"

"I simply do what my Queen says, it is my duty as a dragonet of the First Circle," she explained "if Blaze wins, we get a good part of the Sandwing territory, i bet she would be delighted to meet you, but first" she grabbed Sunny's tail and pulled her away from Crane "I need to finish what I've started"

"n-no- NO!"

Sunny felt a sudden surge of energy, she was about to yell at the cattails to wrap her or for the ground to trap her, but then, a large Mudwing rammed her on the side, causing her to fly several meters

"That's what you get if you try to hurt my sisters " Clay hissed, putting a wing over Crane and offering a paw for Sunny, she gladly took it

"C-Clay! y-your here!" she said weakly

"And so are the others"

Queen Moorhen tackled an Icewing out of the way and let out a powerful, terrifying roar. Noticing the sudden increase in Mudwings, one of the Icewings still in the sky yelled

"RETREAT!"

There was some hesitation, but eventually all Icewings that could still fly fled the area, the ones that were too injured but not dead were pinned down and had their scales warmed

Sunny looked over at the field, Mudwings cheered at the victory, rushed to check on the group that had arrived, Glory helped Tsunami up as Starflight rushed down, the Seawing that accompanied them stayed near the Queen, looking around awkwardly before his gaze settled on Tsunami and a flicker of hope came to his eyes

Everyone's spirits were high, Crane was -hopefully- going to be fine, and the Mudwings were rescued, Sunny smiled at the sight…

and passed out

Chapter Text

When Sunny regained her consciousness, the pain on her wing was not as bad, but she still felt too cold. her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, an old Mudwing gently placed warm rocks onto her frozen wing, slowly melting the ice and breaking off pieces, being extremely careful as to not tear her wing

"..." she tried to say something but her voice failed, so she moved her paws instead to get his attention

"oh, hello" the Mudwing looked at her and smiled "good to see you awake, you've been sleeping for a while"

"... How- long was I out?" Sunny's voice was barely a whisper

"hm… A day" he said

"W-what?!" she asked "I-I gotta see Crane!" she tried to get up

"Ah ah ah, don't move" he ordered and gently pushed her back down "your back was damaged and you have a few broken ribs, its best if you don't move until you are fully healed"

"b-but… my friend"

"i know you want to check on her" the Mudwing said sweetly "but you have to stay put, once you are good enough to walk on your own, i'll let you walk all over the hospital"

"... o-ok…" she whispered and rested her head

It was only then she noticed her necklace was missing, she moved her tail slightly and it felt lighter than usual, a huge wave of anxiety hit her at the fear her powers were discovered, the doctor must have noticed her quickened breath and handed her one of the heated rocks so she could hold it. it helped calm her down

"... Will dragons be able to visit me?"

"Once im done freeing your wing" he said honestly "thankfully- well, not thankfully- I've dealt with a pretty big number of frozen wings and tails, I’m nearly done"

The Mudwing was right, it didn't take long before Sunny felt the heat of the rocks on her wing, he refrained her from moving until the last chuck was taken off. He helped moving her wing, slowly stretching, closing and moving it around, Sunny whimpered when it was fully extended, so the doctor closed it neatly and placed it down on the bed

“You still seem to have control over your wing, but we won’t mess with anything related to flight until your back is healed”

“Ok…” she nodded, moving the rock around her paws "What's your name?"

"Cacao"

“Thank you, Cacao”

The Mudwing smiled warmly, he put the bucket of partially melted ice aside, taking off the paw-ware that covered his talons and paws

“I'll move you from here to one of our community rooms, if the movement is too much, don't be afraid to let me know”

Sunny nodded. Cacao undid the straps connecting the stretcher to the walls and skillfully maneuvered around the room and into the halls, several doors with plaques with the word 'operating' were lined in between the two walls, a Mudwing burst through one of them and dashed away, holding a bucket full of something with their teeth

The noise of chatter began once Sunny was guided out of the hall, dragons carrying talonfulls of herbs and bandages managed to move around with no trouble, patients were set to sit in chairs or stay on stretchers close to walls while they waited for treatment, Sunny recognized most of the patients as prisoners in Scarlet's Arena, it was good to see some of them were able to walk and talk to their siblings. She couldn't imagine the happiness they felt once they discovered their sibling was alive

"Sunny!" Glory beamed and approached her, accompanying the stretcher alongside Starflight "how are you feeling?"

"better, a little sleepy, but better" she said "where are the others?"

"Clay left not too long ago to look for his siblings and deliver the news" Starflight said "Tsunami is talking to that Seawing that came back from the Arena… And apparently Tsunami is royalty"

"What?!" Sunny was about to get up, but Cacao gently pushed her back down

The room Cacao had placed Sunny in was a bit crowded, ex-prisoners told their tales of the Arena to their siblings, who all listened carefully, one of the spots was recently cleared and Sunny's bed was strapped to that spot

Cacao turned to Glory and Starflight "try not to move her too much, don't pick her up or pull her arms, I'll come back with some medicine for pain and help with her wing movement myself. Due to the amount of dragons, we will only allow two visitors per turn, if someone else wants to see her, one of you will have to switch" both Dragonets nodded in understanding and watched him leave

"The doctors here are amazing" Starflight said and sat close to Sunny "why couldn't we have a single scroll to tell us that?! the hospital is connected to a greenhouse that is full of plants"

"Do you think that if I ask nicely, the Mudwings will let me see it?" Sunny asked, feeling a small wave of exhaustion washing over her

"Probably" Glory shrugged, she noticed a curtain made of leaves and pulled it, to give them the most amount of privacy they could get before grabbing something from under her wing "here, you probably miss this"

Glory helped her put the necklace back on, the small weight at the tip of her tail returned as soon as Sunny touched the small rock

"What happened after I passed out?" Sunny asked

"We mostly just hurried you and the others here. After things calmed down, Gill approached Tsunami and asked to see that pattern under her wings" Starflight explained

"The little swirls?"

The Nightwing nodded "after he saw the pattern he began crying and hugged her, explaining that the pattern was one only the royal family had and that she was his daughter"

"She left for a solid 30 minutes after that" Glory remembered "I think I heard her go ‘salt yeah’ and ‘take that, Webs’"

"If my dad suddenly appeared and told i was a princess i would freak out too" Sunny joked and chuckled

The trio kept on talking, making small jokes, wondering what to do next and each other's abilities, Starflight was dumbfounded at the discovery of Glory's scale melting spit. Soon, Cacao returned with the medicine and a very bouncy Tsunami behind him, the Rainwing agreed to switch with her since there was someone she wanted to visit

The medicine was quite sour and was a little hard to get down but she managed to, Cacao was very careful moving Sunny's wing and allowed her to rest when he was done, telling the others to look for him or other staff in case something happened

Sunny heard the others telling her things, but she was unable to pay attention and fell asleep

(...)

Thunder and lightning ruled the sky as rain poured down the black clouds, down bellow was an endless sea of ice and mud, Sunny clutched her enchanted spear as she flew through the perilous sky, the wind rushing by tried to knock the Sandwing out of the sky, but was unsuccessful

Dragons made out of the mixed ingredients of the sea would jump out of their clusters at random intervals, ice dragons would be shattered into thousands of pieces with a mere touch of the spear as the mud dragons would be boosted upwards, safely flying through the lightning and through the clouds

Sunny crushed thousands, maybe millions of ice dragons and boosted even more mud dragons, the ice caps vanished and tiny pieces disappeared within the dark, brown mud

Between the sea of mud was a small island of ice and snow, Sunny clutched her spear, ready to attack, a partially frozen and much larger dragon appeared, being able to look down at the flying Sandwing, looming over her

She offered the other side of the spear to help the dragon up and they took it, however she was unable to boost them, Sunny tried harder and harder, flapping her wings even harder, the spear broke from the pressure and the dragon began talking

“You have the power to raise mountains out of the ground, why couldn't you save me?”

And then, the dragon turned into a large wave before crashing down on top of Sunny

(...)

Sunny gasped and flinched, quickly lifting her head before a crack sound made her put her head down once more

“Ow, ow, ow, ow”

“Sun?” Tsunami got up from her spot in a hurry “what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

“Yeah-” Sunny 'ow'ed one more time "I just… had a nightmare…"

"Oh wow… it's been years since you had a nightmare, what was it about?" Tsunami's scales glowed softly, casting a cool, but not to bright light

Sunny sighed and did her best to describe the dream, talking about the strange sea what the enormous mud dragon said as the Seawing refused to interrupt her

Tsunami hummed before saying "i'm not a specialist in dreams, but, if i had to guess i would say it was because of the surprise attack against the Icewings" she said "that was basically our first time in a real battle, i was dreaming about grabbing one of the Icewings and using them as an 'automatic Frost Breath shooter'"

Sunny had to put a paw on her mouth to not laugh, she didn't want to wake the other patients

"Now, I want you to remember:" Tsunami continued "you did a great job" she put a paw on her shoulder

The Sandwing smiled warmly "awww, Tsunami… did your dad teach you how to be this sweet?"

"Hey!" the Seawing whispered-yelled "you little-" she playfully, and carefully, bapped Sunny in the face, causing them both to giggle gleefully “after everything I’ve done for you”

“Sorry” Sunny said “... Say, I forgot to ask, What's Gill like?”

“He is salting awesome” Tsunami said “also, i was right about my scales not being just to get a boyfriend, we use them to communicate ”

“Really? Why would Webs lie about that?”

“No idea, the second I find him I will unleash every single insult I know upon him. Which its just sadly one for now”

“Can I see how it works?”

“Sure, watch:” the scales under her eyes lit up “These are used for simple question, like ‘how’ ‘who’ and ‘where’” she pointed at each scale “but if i flash the ‘who’ one twice and i mix with this one behind my eye it turns into ‘who are you’”

The Seawing happily went on, pointing to each area and explaining what it meant and what it would mean if flashed or held for a specific amount of seconds, alongside a few talon gestures. After the lesson, Sunny began trying to guess what Tsunami was saying in Aquatic, the patterns were a bit hard to memorize but it was fun, the two had completely forgotten about the time, and were only brought back to reality when a doctor came into the room with someone else’s medicine

Funnily enough, neither of them felt tired, the little activity was enough to make Sunny feel better and made her forget about her nightmare

Cacao returned again, a bit sooner than before, repositioning the Sandwing so that her spine is straight and instructing specific movements to help with circulation

“You seem to be healing at a good rate” He noticed and wrote something down on a stone tablet “that's a good sign”

“How long do you think it will take for her to be fully healed?” Tsunami asked “we kind of have a war to stop”

“Hm… it's hard to say, perhaps three weeks, maybe more”

‘... I'm not sure if we can wait that long…’ Sunny thought 'if Burn thinks the Mudwings had something to do with… possibly killing Scarlet, she would definitely try to attack them and capture us as well…'

Once Cacao was gone, and Tsunami was distracted by a Sib Troop's guessing game, Sunny muttered an enchantment under her breath, commanding her injuries to heal faster

"But not too fast to the point of suspicion" she quickly added, a sudden chill through her spine meant the spell worked

"Good morning" Clay whispered as he entered the room

"Clay!" Sunny remembered to not move rapidly

"Morning" Tsunami said

"Sorry it took me so long to visit you, i had to make sure the others knew" he explained

"It's ok" Sunny said and her expression darkened "and I'm sorry for not being faster…"

"Sunny," Clay said with an uncharacteristic sad and tired tone "don't blame yourself like that, you did what you could. If you didn't catch her- at all… Who knows what could have happened"

"Clay, I'm a- i have 'the Thing' i could have done way more… i should have done way more"

"Don't blame yourself like that!" Tsunami hissed "you aren't Starflight to know that was going to happen"

"..." Sunny stayed quiet, trying to relax her muscles 'I still had to do something else…' her mind completed "... How is she?"

"She's in a coma-like state, alive, but if her arm doesn't heal, they might need to amputate it" Clay whispered

Sunny let out a small hum, still feeling a little guilty. she touched the chains of her necklace and twirled it around her talons

'... Maybe… I should be using my powers more…'

. . .

The next few days were mostly uneventful, her friends kept switching around with Clay being the one to switch the least, which was understandable. One of the ex-prisoners in her room was allowed to leave, they waved at her and at Starflight, who was with her at that moment, on the way out and began singing a little tune with his siblings

"Oooh, the Dragonets are coming, they are coming to save the day, they're coming to fight for they know what's right, the Dragonets! Hooray!"

"How cute" Sunny as she watched them leave

"Why do I feel the two of us are going to have that song stuck in our heads for a month?" Starflight said

"Is that your visions telling you or…"

"Just a hunch" he said. In the end he was right, Sunny found herself humming the lyrics at random times of the day

. . .

Sometimes, Cacao would come back to deliver Sunny's medicine and do general check ups on her. Around a week after the Sandwing's spell for Cacao to invite her for a short walk through the hospital; as her pains had decreased significantly and her injuries showed great signs of healing properly. If she wanted. Obviously, she did

Her legs felt wobbly and it took her muscles a few seconds to remember how to walk, Cacao helped her stand steady as they walked down the not-so-crowded halls

She tried to go and look where Crane's room could be, but Cacao noticed her escape attempt and kept her in the halls. As they were about to return to Sunny's room, Queen Moorhen herself approached the two

"Ah, Sunny! There you are" the Queen said with a smile on her face

"Your majesty" the two said, Cacao bowed, but Sunny did a simple gesture with her head, still not fully confident that her neck wouldn't explode in pain

"I believe you are doing better?"

"A lot, actually"

"I must say, I don't recall having a patient that was capable of healing this fast," Cacao told the Queen, causing a slight panic inside Sunny "It's really impressive"

"Oh, that's great news, and speaking of them" Moorhen turned to Sunny "I felt like you should be one of the first dragons to know

"A day after leaving the Skywing Palace, I sent Burn a letter explaining the situation and how our troops were captured and how disgusted I was to learn that she knew about the fights but never did anything, asking for any other Mudwings that were with her army back. And so, this morning i received a reply" the Queen said and unravel a small scroll before handing it to Sunny

"'Dear Queen Moorhen, trying to pretend I was never aware of the imprisonments would be cowardice, so I will take as much responsibility as I can. all of your soldiers will be accompanied with the messenger and this letter. I understand that our trust was broken, and therefore I won't force you to see me as an ally from this day onwards' wait- what?!"

Sunny was utterly confused, all her life she was told that Burn was vicious and cruel, and now she was letting the Mudwings go? Sure; the rest of the letter went on to say that if Moorhen aligned with her sisters, she wouldn't be afraid to retaliate, but the fact that Burn even considered allowing the Mudwings to retrieve from the war was what baffled her

"I said the same thing too!" Moorhen said and took the scroll back

"Those are delightful news! but I have a slight feeling she is planning something…" Cacao said scratching his chin

"We know how she battles and strategies, if she were to ever try anything, we would know exactly how to retaliate" Moorhen said with a confident tone

The Queen left shortly after that as there were still things she had to do. Glory came to visit once Sunny was brought back to her room and was as confused when the Sandwing told her about the scroll

"Maybe… that's how we are gonna complete the prophecy?" Glory questioned as the oranges faded out "convince each tribe to not participate in the war and have the Sisters remember that's something they have to figure it out by themselves?"

"That doesn't sound like a bad strategy" Sunny said "but i doubt we could convince someone like Glacier"

"We could try" the Rainwing shrugged

. . .

The days went on with the usual routine, with the decreasing number of patients, the staff allowed for more visits per patient. Sometimes a few ex-prisoners would come to visit and leave a small gift for her and her friends. Even Landslide and his sister came to visit, but Earthquake was the one doing most of the talking, she was sweet and spoke of her fights on the Arena as if they were great achievements

"You knocked three Skywings?? At the same time?!" Tsunami questioned again

"Yup" Earthquake said non-shalunty

"Teach me" the Seawing's eyes shined and her voice squeaked

Earthquake chuckled and turned to her brother "Land, why don't you like these guys? They are fun!"

"I already told you, one of them kept something quite crucial that would have helped everyone to themselves" he explained

'He's talking about my magic…' Sunny realized in a panic, clutching her necklace 'at least it seems he kept his promise of not telling'

"Oh, you mean the secret? Brother, a secret is a secret. If they thought it was best to keep it to themselves then good for them, you're not entitled to know everyone's secrets just because you know mine"

Landslide huffed, muttering something under his breath. They left shortly after that

"How are they related?" Tsunami asked and leaned against the wall

. . .

"Sunny, i have good news" Cacao said as he entered the room and approached her

The Sandwing lost count, but according to Clay, they had been in the hospital for about two weeks and a day, her pains had stopped completely, even after a small flying session to make sure no one missed anything. Her ear twitched as the older Mudwing approached with a warm smile and a stone tabled on his paw

"Your injuries have healed fantastically, which is impressive considering how long you've been here, and the results of you flying test came back all positive, you'll be discharged by tomorrow"

Chapter Text

As Sunny prepared to leave, the other patients that shared the room started to get more chatty, all wishing her a good luck

"If you see an Icewing, kick their butt for me and my big brother!"

Sunny let out an embarrassed chuckled "I'll… see what i can do"

She wished them a nice recovery before leaving, being accompanied out by all of her friends but Clay. Tsunami had spent the previous night with her dad, crafting a plan and discussing their trip to the Sea Kingdom. He was able to be their guide since he was discharged from the hospital much sooner

"If we go from here, it should only take 4 or 5 days to arrive at the correct island" Tsunami said "and then he is going to take us to the Summer Palace and have my mom-" her scales lit up gleefully "... The Queen… meet us there"

"Not a bad plan" Starflight said

"Can you see anything going wrong while we go?" Glory asked him

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, but opened them in a jolt once his silver scales began to glow "I saw a small fight between Tsunami and another Seawing, but it didn't seem to end terribly"

"No Skywings, no Webs, no Burn trying to hunt us down?" The Rainwing went on

"Nope"

"Ok, good"

"Hey, guys" Clay's voice made everyone look "sorry it took me so long, I was waiting for Pheasant to arrive"

"Don't worry, you didn't even take that long" Tsunami said reassuringly

"W-wait! Before we go, I still have to see Crane, I never got a chance…" Sunny said in a hurry

A soft smile appeared on Clay's face, he nodded and offered his paw to guide her, the others agreed to meet in the main entrance before they walked away

"So… How is she?" Sunny asked

"She's fine… still in a coma… but she is quite the warrior" he said in a soft tone

"... You mentioned once that they would have to amputate her arm if it didn't heal…"

"It didn't, sadly. Reed and Umber tried to keep the doctors from doing it, but her body basically abandoned the arm and stopped giving it blood completely, it had to be done"

"Ah… I- I see…" Sunny said in a whisper ' if only I was faster… '

They reached the quieter parts of the hospital, where rooms were much smaller and simple, most of the doors were closed, with brief intervals of opening because of visitors and doctors going in and out

Clay brought her to one of the doors and allowed her to open it, carefully she pushed the door open, trying her best not to make it creak. Inside was Pheasant, looking tired as she watched over Crane's unconscious body

"Crane, guess who's here?" Pheasant whispered "It's Sunny"

"She… She can hear?" Sunny asked, whispering as well

"Sometimes her ears twitch when I talk, but not every time" she said with a small shrug, her usual personality was not present

"... Can I talk to her for a second?" Sunny asked "we… are leaving for the Sea Kingdom soon and… I'm not sure when will be able to come back"

Pheasant nodded and allowed her to come closer, it looked as if Crane was simply asleep, part of her face was covered in bandages with what looked to be a few missing scales being barely visible, a few tube-like objects were attached to her and into a strange machine, the rest were obscured by the blanket and went under the bed. Sunny grabbed her remaining paw, her other arm had been replaced with a strange emptiness, one that should not be there

' ... I did this… ' she thought before whispering softly "h-hi Crane, I'm… Sorry for not visiting you before, I… was- forget that, uh… we are going to the Sea Kingdom; later today, i think, uh… I'll bring you something from there, like a little gift, I-I can bring a piece of coral so we can have little matc hing pieces " her voice began to fail, Sunny tried to hide her sobs as tears already began running down her face "I- I'm… I'm sorry… I- should been faster"

' Stupid Animus Sandwing, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING?!' her mind yelled at itself 'YOU HAD THE POWER TO STOP THAT FIGHT, YOU HAD THE POWER TO PREVENT THE ICEWINGS, YOU HAD THE POWER TO STOP THIS WHOLE WAR BUT INSTEAD YOU LISTENED TO A COWARD, YOU WERE A COWARD! S O DO SOMETHING USEFUL AND HEAL HER NOW '

She tried but failed, everytime she went to say 'enchant' she would sob or her voice would fail, it was like her own body was working against her mind and herself, she could heal her, she can make her wake up, she HAS to do something to make up for the stupidity of watching until the last second and not enchanting herself to b e fast enough

"It wasn't your fault"

Clay's voice snapped her back to reality, her mind stopped screaming and she gently placed Crane's paw back down, she dried her tears before turning to Clay

"I… I think it's best if we leave…" Sunny whispered

He nodded and guided her out of the room, biding his sisters goodbye as he left. Sunny stared at the floor and followed Clay, her mind was mostly quiet but there was still a little voice at back of her head saying that she should have done more

"Did you enchant her?" he whispered

"... No…" she whispered back "I… I don't know why, but I just froze… I should have done it, shouldn't I?"

"I don't know, do you feel like you should?"

Sunny looked down at her paws, she never told anyone, but after she discover her powers, sometimes she would dream of dragons making huge lines and coming to her for answers to their problems; Dream Sunny had all of the answers and knew everything, Real Sunny was the complete and disappointingly opposite

"Let's leave her to heal alone" Clay said sweetly "Crane's resilient, i'm sure she will wake up, and by the time she does, there won't be a war anymore"

That made Sunny feel a bit better, a very small smiled formed on her face but it quickly disappeared

They met back with the rest at the reception, where Gill was talking to one of the nurses while having a pretty big bowl of water, he noticed the two approaching and finished his drink, thanking the nurse for their services

"Hello there" the Seawing said and extended a paw "you're Sunny, right? it's good to finally meet you, Tsunami talked about you a lot"

"Really?" she said and shook his paw

Gill nodded “she kept saying it was thanks to you that you are all free”

“And it is not an understatement” Tsunami said and pulled Sunny into a hug before whispering to her “I didn't told him about your magic yet, but I can if you want to”

Sunny shook her head

Once the group walked out of the hospital, the two was quite lively with several colorful decorations, with little banners in front of shop windows and posters on walls

Glory went over and read what was on one of the posters "'90th annual Mudwing Musical Festival. Theme: March of Freedom' oooh, a holiday"

"Sounds delightful" Gill looked over the Rainwing shoulder

"It also says it starts at moons-rise at Mud Spring Plaza" Glory pointed out

"I don't think we will be able to stay and watch" Sunny said

"Well… We aren't exactly in a hurry" Gill said, scratching his chin "We can stay and watch and leave by tomorrow morning. Besides, it's a long flight with not too many breaks, it would be a terrible strain on you, little Sandwing"

"Ah, right…"

"Let's take this a nice vacation day," Tsunami put a wing over her "no prophecy, no war. Just fun"

"I have to agree with her" Clay said

"No offense to the Royal Siblings, but being a 'Unofficial Royal Seer' is really tiring" Starfight said, waving his paw

"See? for today, we are just a bunch of normal dragons" Tsunami said and stayed quiet for a few seconds before nearly tackling her father down "can you tell more about the sea? please please please!" Gill chucked and nodded

'If that's the case, maybe I'll be able to think of something useful till then…' Sunny thought, trying to keep things as vague as possible in case Starflight was listening in

The group stayed together for the rest, there wasn't anywhere specific that they wanted to visit, only stopping at a small restaurant to get something to eat, where they got even more good luck wishes, one of the customers even asked for Clay’s autograph

The streets started to become more crowded as time went on, alongside several different melodies of drums, flutes and even singing

“I don't know how the Musical Festival works, but if all of these Mudwings plan on going on stage, we will be here for weeks” Starflight mentioned as they walked towards the correct plaza

“Now that I think about it more, I vaguely remember watching one of these festivals” Gill said “I believe it went on for a few days, but I could be wrong”

“I would have loved to learn about that…” Clay mumbled with a small hint of sadness and anger

The old Seawing’s ear twitched “say… none of you ever mentioned your Guardians-”

“We all hate them, they were terrible to us, especially to Glory, and if I ever come across Kestrel again I will drown her after making her pay for every single one of these scars” Tsunami quickly interrupted him “any more questions?”

“... Oh wow..!” Gill was stunned "n-no"

"good, moving on" Tsunami said and began to walk away

The Mud Spring Plaza was possibly the most decorated part of the town, with a small stage with curtains and several seats, in which were all taken except for six at the very front, seven Mudwing troops were queued up behind the stage, testing their instruments to see if they were in tune and hyping the more shy ones up. Mahogany checked in with the troops and began counting them

"I don't see Marsh…" Clay pointed out as he stretched his neck to look at the audience and troops "he told me he would be playing"

"This is a pretty big crowd, I wouldn't blame him if he got too scared and gave up" Glory mentioned as the group walked towards the empty seats

Each seat had been engraved with 'The Dragonets of Destiny' with a obviously added recently note saying 'and Gill' with berry juice

They each took a seat. It wasn't long after that for Mahogany to walk out of the curtains and grab everyone's attention with a loud and melodic growl

"Good evening my dear subjects" he began "Tonight's Festival is going to be extra special, i know i've said this for the other Festivals i had the pleasure of participating; but this year's is going to be a proper one, no more of one day events, no more zero decoration, and no more Burn coming out of nowhere to crash our Festival because she woke up that day and chose blood"

A wave of laughter swept through the audience, some Mudwings managed to laugh harder and louder than the entire audience. Mahogany managed to grab their attention again

"All jokes aside, it is with true pride that I, Prince Mahogany of the Mudwings, announce the return of the true Mudwing Musical Festival!" he stood on his hind legs as the audience applauded "without a further ado, let's hear some music!"

Each troop was incredibly talented and each melody they played was mystical and incredible, it was like song birds lend their voices to the flutes and the ground seemed to dance at the sheer force of the drums, Sunny couldn't stop smiling and her eyes were glued to the stage, her palms began to burn slightly form how much she was applauding each performance. Those few hours felt like it was just her and the music, and nothing else; she knew she would have to go back to saving the continent after the Festival was done. But for now, it was only her and the music

As another round of applause faded, Mahogany announced the last names: Marsh and Sora

Sora walked onto the stage, guiding her brother and holding his paw. The audience was quiet as Marsh stumbled on his words

"T-this s-song was o-original-ly pl- uh- ma-de by m-my other s-sister, C-Crane… s-she can't b-be he-re this y-year ssso i-i will p-play in-stead of her… here, i-in font o-of you a-all"

Sora and Marsh's tail intertwined, he took a deep breath and positioned the flute and waited for his sister's cue

She began with a short solo melody before Marsh joined in, he kept on messing up notes and missing beats, but he still kept on going, constantly looking at his sister and kept shuffling on his place, Sora kept on brushing her wing against his reassuringly. The song ended in a quick solo from Marsh, he closed his eyes shut and simply played, hitting quick notes with a surprising amount of accuracy, there were still a few sipped and missed notes, finishing with a long note before letting a deep breath and avoiding the look of the crowd

Clay practically jumped from his seat and was the first one to start clapping before the rest followed suit, he shouted praises at them and kept going "THOSE ARE MY SIBLINGS!"

Marsh's shaking figure bowed and had to lean against Sora to leave the stage, it looked like his legs were about to collapse. Clay couldn't stop smiling even after the two were gone and kept announcing proudly that they were his siblings

Sunny's gaze fell to her talons, she looked at her own palms before taking a deep breath

'We can stop this war… For them… For Clay… For Crane'

Chapter Text

Peril dodged another rock being flinged at her, she hissed at the Skywing and continued her flight

Ever since the disappearance of Burn and Scarlet, the Skywing Kingdom was torn. Some guards and civilians kept breaking laws and some even tried to attack Queen Ruby after she crowned herself, there was a manifestation of Skywings claiming that Scarlet was not dead and some of them abandoned the Kingdom to look for Burn and join her because 'that was what Scarlet would have wanted'

Despite previously being so feared, Peril was not safe either, she woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain on her tail and caught one of Ruby's brothers, holding a large stone above his head, clearly trying to kill her, a simple hiss was enough to make him flee

That morning, Peril had gotten the message that Queen Ruby wanted to meet her and to look for her in her room. The Firescales found it strange but went anyway

She first spotted Cliff peeking out of the window before pointing in the direction of the balcony, opening the curtains as she landed and quickly motioned for her to enter

"Peril! There you are!" Ruby said, there were some dark circles under her eyes and she was visibly tired

"Someone said you wanted to meet me, and since we basically never talked i had to see what was going on" Peril said and sat down, pressing her wings and tail close to her body

Ruby's room was a mess, there were scrolls everywhere on the floor and a unfinished meal sitting on the bed on top of a small plate, a few toys were also scattered around, but had been shoved to one corner

"I know, but what I'm about to say is really important, i felt it would be best if no one listened to us," she said "were you followed?"

"No" Peril simply said "the only one that had enough courage to come close to me was your brother, Hawk, I think? The rest just throws rocks at me and say some… words"

Ruby sighed "then I hope you understand the decision I had to make…" she glanced at her messy desk "... Peril, I have no choice but to exile you"

"WHAT?!" Peril yelled and took a step back, her tail brushed against the base  of the curtain, but Cliff was brave enough to make the fire stop

"It's for your safety!" Ruby clarified "you may have been Scarlet's shield, but she was your shield too, with her gone, there is nothing stopping other Skywings from attacking you, it would only be a matter of time before someone realized all they have to use is rocks"

Peril fell silent, everything Ruby said was true; she had seen dragons talk behind her back and other dragonets would fly above her and call her names then flee back to their parents when she tried to chase them and play the victim. The fear of messing with Queen Scarlet's toy was the only thing stopping those parents from finding a way to tie her wings and drowning her

"Peril, look at me" Ruby said sweetly "I know this is your home, but I can't let you stay here. You never asked to be this way, you never asked to be found by Scarlet, you never asked to be a monster. but those… traitors -for the lack of a better word- don't see that, nor do they want to see that'' she grabbed a stone tablet with carved out letters to her "this is a letter to Queen Moorhen, it will explain your situation and my decision, deliver it to her or a guard, even if you can't stay on their towns, they should at least give you protection"

Peril grabbed the tablet with a bit of hesitation, she was afraid she would break it or somehow find a way to burn it, she held it close to her and ignored the letters, as they made no sense to her

"... Thank you…" Peril whispered

"Mommy! Someone approaches!" Cliff announced and closed the curtain

Ruby motioned for Peril to hide in the balcony's blind spot as she went to attend the guard

Peril's scales gave out a soft glow, hopefully the guard was no interested in entering

"Your majesty! I'm so sorry for bothering you but another talonfull of our equipment has disappeared along side another general"

"Again?!" Ruby's wings fluttered and she let out a long sigh "this is the fifth time this week alone"

"Why?!" Cliff questioned "my mommy is the best Queen there is! Why are they going to work for the mean Sister that likes to hurt dragons? Is this because the Mudwings were saved?"

“I… don't know Cliff” she said, defeated “is there any place you think you might be able to hide… whatever we have left?”

The guard thought for a second “my brother owns a butcher with a big storage room, he might not keep the weapons there forever, but he might be willing to stay with them for the time being”

“Perfect,” Ruby said with a small hint of happiness “I was going to request you to tell the others but i'm not sure who is still trustworthy, just get as many weapons and armor pieces as you can”

The guard bowed and flew off again, Ruby closed the curtain and looked at Peril

"See what I mean?"

Peril looked at the stone tablet on her paws and then back at the Queen, she took a deep breath and said

"I'll go, but I'll be back" she said with confidence

Ruby looked as if she was about to argue back, but she simply nodded, opening the curtains and giving her enough space

"Go… But… Be carefull"

"I will" Peril said, she clutched the tablet close to her chest before leaping off the railing and taking to the skies

'Good thing i payed attention to Osprey's geography lessons'

. . .

Kestrel thrashed against her captors, she thought going back to the Talons of Peace would be beneficial for her to hide, at least until there was confirmation of Scarlet's death. But then, Nautilus told her she wasn't welcome into the Talons anymore and sent a message to Morrowseer. Now she was being carried by 3 Nightwings into sweet moons knew where

"LET ME GO YOU USELESS BATS!" She roared in anger, but the Nightwings ignored her completely

She was quite literally dropped on top of a cliffside with view to the sea, just as the storm caught up to them, the Nightwings disappeared into the dark clouds before she could call them 'fat snakes with wings'

"There ssshe iss…"

Kestrel got up to her feet and quickly looked over at where the voice came from, Morrowseer and… Blister sat together near the edge, looking at the clouds

"About time" Morrowseer growled

"Why in the MOONS am I here?!" Kestrel demanded with a hiss

"Well… The reason should be clear, shouldn't it, Kestrel?" Morrowseer said calmly before turning to her "your performance as a Guardian was… underwhelming at best"

"I kept those brats alive!" she argued "that else did you want me to do? tell them bedtime stories and give the Rainwing forehead kisses?"

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the Sandwing"

"Ssssuch great power… that you jusst allowed to ssslip right through your burnt talons…" Blister hissed softly, not even bothering to look at Kestrel "what a ssshame…"

"There is no Skywing between them anyway" Kestrel spat "no matter how much power that stunned brat had, i doubt your little prophecy could become true anyway"

"And who'ssss fault iss that?" the Sandwing Princess walked over to her

"An idiot who thinks they could take half of the Skywings on his own" Kestrel rolled her eyes, remembering how Hvitur stubbornly flew all the way to the Sky Palace to retrieve the egg, despite being told so many times he would fail "and another idiot who thought it was a good idea to get a Rainwing"

"And you allowed it all to happen?" Blister got uncomfortably close "how utterly sssoft…"

"Oh please, they are on their way to who knows where and the Sandwing has probably given them some kind of protection, what do you expect me to do? round them back up?"

"Oh no no, not after what you managed to allow to happen… Besssidesss… We don't have ussse for you anymore"

A sharp pain pierced through Kestrel's chest, she looked down, only to see the Princess's barbed tail had stabbed her heart, the Skywing tried to say something, but nothing came out, only blood

Her eyes went blank and she fell. Blister watched as her body twitched away before finally stopping

"One gone, two to go…" Morrowseer took note and pushed Kestrel's body into the ocean

Blister held her tail up to the rain "sssso… about the Animusss..?"

"... She will be taken care of, don't worry" he said "like I said, you will be the one to win this, and when you do, you will have an obedient Animus right by your side. Just like Scorpion did"

Chapter Text

Sunny looked over her shoulder once more, the Mud Kingdom was not visible anymore, being replaced by several kilometers of trees and a few patches of sand

Despite the plan being to leave the Mud Palace early, the Dragonets were held back by several good luck wishes and supplies for their travels, none of them complained, the bags they received to not have to use Glory's bandana to carry things were of a really good quality. But Sunny was still a bit upset she forgot to come up with something to help Crane

Now, hues of orange and red colored the sky, it would be dark soon

"Hey" Starflight caught her attention as he slowed down to match her pace "I'm trying to block off your thoughts, but they are so loud I can't"

"Sorry… I'll… try to think quietly" Sunny said and tried to think about the islands in the distance

There was little chatter between the group as a whole, the silence of the trip was strange, like everyone had something to say but didn't have the courage to, the wind rushing by Sunny's ears almost sounded like the flutes in the Music Festival

"If you hadnt catch her, Crane would be in a worse situation then she is now"

"W- huh?" Sunny's wings missed a beat

"When I told you to stay close to her… I actually saw two visions instead of one. The one where you managed to save her, and the other when you didn't even notice"

"... Is there any chance that I-"

"Sun, I'm not a monster" he didn't let her finish "If I saw a version of the future where Crane was not going to be in a coma, i would have told you"

Sunny slowed down and hovered in place, her mind was racing with questions, her breath quickened and she clutched her necklace. There was a loud voice on her head, telling her to rip the necklace off and that she didn't deserve it. Another voice was questioning whether or not she deserved those powers. Was there no future where she was useful?

Starflight grabbed her face and made her look at him "stop. That. There will be plenty of crucial times your magic is going to save us, I'm sorry you couldn't get to Crane in time. But for now we have a mission, a mission that if we are successful, it's going to prevent a lot more deaths than you could ever imagine"

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Starflight let go of her face, letting out a long sigh "not my best phrasing" he admitted "but I can't have you thinking those kinds of things. Not because its gonna lead us to a bad future, but because you are my sister and I want to see you happy"

Sunny let go of her breath, a fuzzy and warm feeling took over her; one similar to when she heard Moorhen say how amazing the Dragonets were to Kestrel's face, overwriting the loud voices on her mind. She smiled warmly

"Thank you…"

"No need to thank me"

"Hey! What are you two doing?" Tsunami's voice caused the two to look, the Seawing was a few meters away from them "we are landing on the beach for the night! Cmon, dad's catching fish for us"

They both nodded, Sunny hadn't realized how far behind they were. There wasn't much light from the day now, as the moons peeked from the horizon as small stars began to glow

Standing on sand felt weird, it shifted under Sunny's paws, causing her to take several steps more than she expected so that she wouldn't fall. Clay had set up a tiny cooking station, setting a small pan on top of a stand, as he waited for Gill to return

"Oooh, we are having a feast tonight" Starflight said

"Yup" he said proudly "Reed gave it to me, I think it's about time I start to develop some actual skills" he said, rearranging a few sticks under the stand

Sunny walked over to where Tsunami was, close to the water with her wings open. She stopped a bit before where the water was and sat down, the sound of the waves was incredibly relaxing

"You smell that, Sun?"

"The sea?"

"That too, but there's something else, do you know what that is?" she asked, Sunny shook her head "it's the smell of freedom, true freedom"

"I thought you said something like that when we left the cave"

"... uh…" Tsunami closed her wings "t-this is different, it's like a… new type of freedom, y'know?"

Sunny couldn't help but chuckle. They kept on watching the orange colored waves until Gill flew out of the water and landed back on the shore, carrying a mouthful and a pawful of small fish

"Ta-daaa" his voice was slightly muffled

"That's Clay's portion, right?" Tsunami joked, prompting a 'hey!' from the Mudwing

A quick disapproving glance from Gill caused Tsunami to glare at him, but she quickly corrected herself once she saw the look of concern on his face and turned to go help Clay, leaving no room for questions

"She can be very… protective" Sunny explained to the best of her ability "its… mainly thanks to her and Clay we don't have more… scars"

The concern on Gill's face grew, but he didn't press Sunny further

The smell of cooked fish quickly rose to the air, Clay was able to make a simple stew with a few berries Glory managed to find and river water, they didn't have proper plates, but the large leaves of palm trees served just fine. It was very much nighttime once everyone had their meal, the small fire under Clay's pan had been reduced to small embers and ashes

Gill used his tail to draw on the sand, making small circles to indicate islands and which way they would be traveling "and once we arrive on this island" he pointed to the northernmost circle "is where we will be the close to the nearest Seawing outpost"

"It takes that long to get to the first outpost?" Tsunami questioned, picking her teeth

"That's because it's the closest to the Deep Palace and surrounding villages" he explained "there is two parts of the Sea Kingdom, one is closer to the surface with less populated villages while the other is actually a much larger area, plus, we have to make sure there aren't shark nests to close to the villages, otherwise eggs would be getting eaten almost everyday"

There was a soft 'oh' from each Dragonet

"Where is the Summer Palace?" Glory asked

Gill pointed at a spot between two larger islands "the Palace is hidden, but the entrance is roughly here, we will need to go underwater to enter it"

Sunny's ear twitched and she began looking around for a sea shell almost immediately, her mind began working on a spell

"Won't we… drown?" Clay asked

"No no, there are pockets of air in the tunnel leading to the Palace, I believe they were carved out after Coral made a deal with Blister"

"That's pretty smart" Glory commented

Suddenly, Starflight got up, his eyes glowed as he stared at the sky, the other Dragonets tensed up

"Starflight?" Tsunami got up as well "What do you see?"

"Hide" he said "hide!"

He bolted towards the trees, Sunny rushed after him as the others scattered; Glory went invisible, Clay buried himself in the muddy shore and both Seawings dove into the water

"What's the matter? Who's coming?"

"A traitor with Burn" he muttered

It was only then Sunny heard the sound of wingbeats, she had just barely reached the trees before a lonesome Skywing with no armor soared closer to the ground then normal, they held what looked to be a worn down spear with a broken tip, they glared at the map Gill had drawn and landed on the sand, trying to read it

"Who's that?" Sunny whispered

"Skywings are not happy with Ruby, Scarlet's alive and they want her" Starflight mumbled, Sunny wasn't sure if that was his speech starting to get jumbled because of a vision

A strange outline moved closer to the Skywing as its back was turned, Gloy became visible for only very few seconds before spatting the same black liquid into the Skywing's back, they roared in pain and shot a large column of fire, one so large it scorched a few bushes near Sunny and Starflight's hiding spot

The Skywing looked around, looking for the culprit as the black sludge sizzled on their back, they seemed to endure it for several seconds before rushing towards the sea, diving in and not leaving for several seconds

Tsunami jumped out of the water, nearly avoiding a bite from the Skywing. Gill grabbed the Skywing, closing their wings and biting their neck to not allow their head to turn to him, he tossed the traitor into the sand and before the Skywing could get up, Clay jumped onto them and held their head down

"WHO IN THE MOONS DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Tsunami demanded as she stood on her hind legs

The Skywing blew a cloud of smoke out of their nose, Sunny and Starflight slowly approached as the Nightwing's eyes stopped glowing

"I am TALKING to you" Tsunami yelled into the Skywing's ear

"I don't owe you an explanation" the Skywing hissed

"Do you know who I- we are?"

"A bunch of brats on a field trip"

"Clay, finish him" Tsunami ordered

"... no?"

"Now now, there is no need for such… extreme measures" Gill said, getting everyone's attention

"He attacked us out of nowhere!" Tsunami pointed out

"And now we will want answers" Gill went on, calming his daughter down before moving to the Skywing "as you can see, you are very much outnumbered, so it would be extremely beneficial to all of us if you answered a few questions-"

"I'm not saying anything" the Skywing hissed "the other's will be arriving pretty soon"

Everyone looked at Starflight for confirmation, a second later, he shook his head

"You're alone, aren't you?" Clay asked

"Dang it…" the Skywing mumbled

"Who sent you?" Glory asked

"None of your business"

"Want me to melt your face too? Your back is already destroyed" she said and showed her fangs off

The Skywing flinched, the combined glares from everyone caused him to sigh and speak up

"Burn asked me to find the Dragonets of Destiny and bring them to her"

"Why?" Sunny asked

"A nice hefty reward to whoever is able to find the brats" he said, almost in a dreamy manner

"Interesting…" Starflight mumbled "Do you know what the… Dragonets look like?"

The Skywing was quiet, not because he wasn't going to answer, but because he didn't know the answer

'The princess doesn't know us!' Sunny realized 'we never met her in person, so we are safe from her! Her sisters might not tell her and she may realize it because we don't have a Skywing'

Tsunami let out a laugh "say goodbye to your reward, I doubt you'll find them, now if you excuse us, we will be leaving"

"And leave him here?" Clay wondered "he'll follow us, won't he?"

"Definitely not" the Skywing mumbled

Starflight nudged Sunny's wing and motioned to the traitor, she gave him a puzzled look before switching to a concerned look, he nodded reassuringly

"... Um… Mr.Gill? Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, why?" He looked at her in confusion

Sunny turned to the Skywing, taking a small step forward and whispering "go to sleep"

Soon, his scowl disappeared and the smoke stopped as he relaxed and closed his eyes, Clay let go of his head and slowly got off him as Sunny continued

"You will sleep for a full day and when you wake up you will feel much better than before," she said, before adding something a little bit more risky "after that, you will go back to the Sky Kingdom and tell the queen what you did and whatever else Burn is planning"

The Skywing's chest rose and fell peacefully. A strange tingle washed over Sunny's paws as she stepped back, she looked at Gill who had a shocked expression, but he didn't seem angry or scared, from Webs's stories, she thought all Seawings were afraid of Animus magic

"My lips are sealed" he told her

The group moved over to the nearest island to camp for the night, in case the Skywing woke up earlier than anticipated, the entire night Sunny was preparing herself for a bunch of questions from the older Seawing, but he didn't bother her at all, in fact, he gave her a small fish before they both went to sleep and said it was "to help replace energy"

Such simple gesture made her overjoyed, and her dreams were filled with reassuring feelings, her dreamself danced with waves as enchanted water dragons danced with her as well

Chapter Text

The sun seemed brighter and hotter then the previous day, there was a consistent breeze that brought the smell of wet sand and salt along with it, Sunny sat on the sand as she fidget with her necklace, she felt a little more confident then before, but she was still unsure of all of the tingling sensations everytime she casted a new type of spell

Gill had gone back to the water and get more fish for breakfast, Tsunami went with him as well so she could learn how to swim in the ocean while the others stayed close to the shade

Her mind wandered off as she watched the waves crashing into the sand or one another

'Was Webs lying to me?' she wondered 'Gill is a part of the Royal Family, he probably knows about the Massacre… So why wasn't he scared? Do Royal Seawings know something commoners don't? Something is not adding up…'

Tsunami walked out of the water, tangled with seaweed and having an octopus stuck to her side, very much not happy. She huffed and went to stand on the shade

"... I'm guessing hunting didn't go so well?" Starflight said

"What do you think?" Tsunami hissed, fighting the octopus that refused to leave her

Gill walked out of the water as well, setting the two large fish he managed to catch on the sand, far from the water "Tsunami, it's ok, not every Seawing can nail swimming against currents on their first try"

"Hm…" she hummed, giving up on making the octopus let go "sure, good to know"

The older Seawing calmly untangled his daughter's wings and talons from the seaweed while comforting her to the best of his ability

"How was it?" Clay asked, poking at the octopus "swimming in the ocean?"

"Imagine the river, but bigger and several currents tossing you around like a sad bag of bones" Tsunami described "and makes all of your muscles wish they weren't yours" she added

Starflight looked over at Glory and Sunny and whispered "how does Gill expect us to survive if Tsunami of all dragons couldn't handle?"

"It just takes practice" Gill explained, tossing the seaweed aside "give it sometime and swimming in the ocean will feel as natural as flying"

Tsunami huffed, annoyed. Food was soon prepared with the fish Gill brought, the octopus was spared due to Clay having no idea on how to properly prepared it, coconut water was their only compliment to the meal, as Glory forgot to gather more apples before they left

Midway through the meal, Sunny awkwardly cleared her throat, grabbing the other's attention

"So… Uh… Mr.Gill, it may not be the best of times but… Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?" he tilted his head

"..." Sunny struggled to choose the proper words for a few seconds before managing to come up with something "how come you weren't… afraid when i used my magic?"

The other Dragonets quickly looked over at Gill, waiting for his answer

"What do you mean?"

"One of the stories Webs used to tell me was the Royal Seawing Massacre" she explained "and that made me think all Seawings were afraid of Animus Magic"

"Oh! Well… i'm not one to generalize traits to everyone in a group" he explained "even if the 'soul rotting' theory is true, just because Prince Albatros turned out like that doesn't mean you will as well"

"That's literally what we've been saying!" the Dragonets all said at once

"It was the one thing that dense squid brain refused to understand" Tsunami hissed

"Thank you for being decent" Glory whispered

Gill let out a awkward laugh "oh please, it's nothing" He smiled at Sunny, and she smiled back

. . .

The group had moved to another island by the time the sun was starting to set, the mainland was no longer visible anywhere in the horizon and the islands were starting to get smaller and further apart. Rock formations poked out of the water in several shapes, most looked like claws and teeth while others looked like eggs covered in moss

Several minutes after they arrived, Gill announced that they were soon going to arrive in the Bay of a Thousand Scales. as the water was starting to get deeper and colder, and so he tried his best to get the Dragonets used to the water by teaching them how to swim

At first, the idea wasn't well received, but since the entrance to the Summer Palace was underwater, they eventually agreed

"It could also be a fun exercise" Gill beamed, trying to help with their distaste of water "who wants to be the first?" Tsunami was about to take a step forward before Gill added "who never swam before"

"I… will go" Clay volunteered, taking his bag off and putting down on the sand

Gill held his paw as they swam further and further from shore before Clay took a deep breath dove, with the guidance of the Seawing

"So, future seer" Tsunami said, nudging the Nightwing "anything we should be worrying about?"

"Surprisingly no," he said, pushing Tsunami's arm away "I did see some confrontation between you and a strange Seawing, but none comes out hurt"

"Are they a spy?" Tsunami pressed on

"I don't think so…"

"How?"

"You try to have mysterious visions that make less sense than a Scavenger's squeaks and then we'll talk!" the Nightwing hissed

"Guys! Look what I found!" Clay's voice echoed from the middle of the water, he waved around a piece of bone proudly

"Oh, that's what the bone meant" Starflight chuckled

Glory went after Clay, staying less time then he did, but she did come back with a pawful of shells. No one went to the water once nighttime rolled around, but in the next day, Starflight went first despite his best efforts and Sunny tried to switch positions with Tsunami, but the Seawing had moved to the 'big dragon lessons' and was allowed to swim alone with Gill's advice

"Do you want to leave your necklace and feather here?" the old Seawing asked her as she approached the shore line

"... That would be a good idea, wouldn't it?" she mumbled before taking her items off, handing it to Starflight "hopefully swimming with or without a tail barb doesn't throw my balance off"

Gill extended his paw to her and she took it, he guided her through the harder hitting waves and kept her calm when her paws couldn't reach the ground anymore

"You're doing really good" he praised

"... Thank you…"

“How often have you heard that?”

“... Rarely”

A small frown appeared on Gill’s snout before quickly disappearing. Once they had swam a good amount of distance, Gill held Sunny's head above water as she tried to keep her wings opened to float

"Ready to dive?"

"I think so?" She mumbled, paddling her paws quickly to stay on the surface

"I'm going to keep holding your paw; if you feel like you are running out of air, you can squeeze mine twice and I will help you swim back to the surface" he explained "now, deep breaths"

Sunny nodded, breathing slowly multiple times before diving down. She kept her eyes closed for the first few seconds, but opened them due to a small tap on her snout

Everything was so colorful; the coral reefs at the bottom ranged from reds to yellows to pinks, the small fish that swam together looked like shadows of something bigger scattered away when they got too close, curious creatures stared back at the dragons while they swam, possibly confused as to why they weren't chasing them

She couldn't see far, barely being able to tell the yellow blur in front of her was her own arm, but she still swam confidently thanks to Gill's help, copying his pose and using her wings to catch currents. Sometimes he would let go of her paw to let her swim alone, but only for very short periods of time

The two resurfaced for a short break as Gill praised her "you did incredibly good!"

"Thank you…" Sunny breathed sheepishly

"You managed to stay steady, your paddling was impressive; did you have some practice before?"

"There was a river running through the caves we grew up in, it was large enough for us to enter and just let the current take us"

"Oh!" he sounded quite surprised at that "it is good to know you had some kind of enrichment. With how Tsunami described it, I imagined it was… a lot worse, to put it lightly"

"The cave was fine, it was just…" her voice trailed off, a quick image of Webs dragging her away from her friends when she accidentally found out about her magic flashed through her mind "... Can we… go back now?"

"Of course"

Chapter Text

A large mountain was barely visible at the horizon. It was their third day of travel through the archipelago and the islands had changed drastically, going from small patches of sand to large sharp stone pillars that went as high as a Mudwing Watchtower. They were barely a day's of flight away from their destination

The group settled at a small beach at the foot of a tall stone cliff, it provided great shading, but lacked palm trees. Going up towards the cliff, there was nothing much aside from a few seagull nests and a few bits of moss, despite Gill claiming there was a little section with fruit trees and a waterfall somewhere

"There is nothing up there" Clay reported as he landed back at the beach "only thing I found was an abandoned nest with seashells inside"

"Really?" Gill asked, confused. "I could have sworn this was it… Starflight, may I take a look at your maps?"

"Of course" Starflight said and handed both a continent map and a close up of the archipelago

The older Seawing spread both maps on the sand, holding them down with his tail, mumbling silently as the Dragonets watched over his shoulder

He let out an annoyed groan before saying "this is the wrong island, we are further west then I realized"

There was a few seconds of awkward silence, Clay and Glory looked at the map confused, Tsunami stretched her neck to look at the horizon, but Starflight looked weirdly calm

'Starflight?' Sunny called to him in her mind 'did you… see something about this?'

His ear twitched and he sighed "alright, alright, I'll be honest, I did foresee this"

"And you didn't say anything becaaaaause?" Tsunami demanded

"We would have died"

Everyone stared at him blankly, Starflight blinked and went on with his explanation

"Before we took flight, I had a vision of us coming here. I was going to tell Gill, but before I had the chance, I had another vision of us getting caught in a pretty nasty storm

"Changing courses would have made us be a day late and thus a storm would have caught up to us, that one over there-" he pointed at a set of dark clouds that were pretty far away, but they still looked enormous "ended up catching us. I don't think I need to elaborate on the fact the outcome would be far pretty" Starflight concluded

Tsunami fixed her stance and tone "Thank you for not telling"

"Are your visions always like this?" Gill asked, rolling up the maps

"Sometimes" he shrugged "most of them are in riddle form"

"Aside from that one time you freaked out" Clay pointed out

"Thankfully that was just once… but I have a slight feeling that will happen again" he added the last part with a mumble

Putting their bags down, there was a recount of their remaining rations to make sure there would be enough water until they reached the Summer Palace. Before they could do a recount, Sunny came up with a new spell

"uh… which of the cantines had the least amount of water?" she asked

"Mine" Glory said, picking it up and giving it a gentle shake "let me guess, new spell?"

"Maybe" Sunny said with a small smile

The Sandwing grabbed the cantine and began whispering "I enchant this object to turn salt water into clean water whenever it is filled with such"

She walked closer to the shore and filled the canteen up, there didn't seem to be much change on the water, at first it smelled the same, but a quick sip proved her wrong

The enchanted canteen was quickly passed around and almost immediately had to be refilled, Glory had the idea of adding a small scratch on the cap to signalize which canteen was the odd one out before putting on her bag

"And now I have two paw-enchanted items from the best Animus alive" Glory said with a smile, adjusting her bandana

"Oh please" Sunny waved her paw, using a wing to hide her blush "its nothing, I should have thought about it sooner if anything"

Clay brushed his wing against her's "don't beat yourself over it, Sun" he said with a smile

She smiled back but shifted her gaze to the floor once Clay was distracted

. . .

Small rays of sunshine peeked through the jagged rocks of the cliff and into the sand bellow, the Dragonets had retracted to their own little corners to relax

Sunny and Tsunami played a guessing game while drawing on the sand, neither of them were keeping track of the points and simply laughed at each other’s weird guesses

It wasn't long until Clay suddenly approached them, still having muddy sand cling onto his arms and wings

“Hey Clay, wanna join?” Tsunami asked, motioning at a free spot beside her

“Maybe later” He said, “say, is it just me, or does Gill seem… sad?”

Gill stood near the shore watching the clouds carefully, his ears twitched as the breeze became colder and continuous, his expression was a little hard to read, but he looked neutral

“Kind of…” she mumbled “... I mean, he does look a little serious, hang on, I’ll go talk to him”

The young Seawing shook the sand of her body and walked closer to her father, Clay and Sunny stayed behind to leave the two alone

"If I had to guess" Glory suddenly appeared behind the duo, causing them both to jump "I would say he is homesick

“He’s been trapped in an underground prison with no water for what i'm guessing is months at the very least”

“That does make sense,” Clay said, scratching his chin “... Have we ever told him what the Feather of Vision did?”

“I dont think so” Sunny took the Feather off her ear and held it gently. “I should let him use it, shouldn't I?”

Both Clay and Glory nodded, but before they had the chance to introduce the item, Gill cleared his throat

“This may sound out of nowhere, but how about we go fishing together?” He said with a small smile

“All of us?” Glory asked

Gill nodded “think of it as a fun exercise, it will hone your hunting and swimming skills as well as different way of gathering food” He glanced at the sky “plus, it will be a little faster then if i was to hunt alone, I don't like the fact the wind keeps blowing the clouds our way”

As he talked, Tsunami gave him a side eye, the same side eye she would give the Guardians when she was sure they were hiding something. This time, Sunny had the same feeling

The bags were hidden in the sand, the Feather was hidden away as well, but Sunny kept her necklace. It didn't take long for the group to soar above the azure-sea, while Gill reminded them to stay away from sea urchins and telling them it was ok to call if they needed him, Sunny managed to brush her wing against Tsunami’s, indicating she wanted to talk

“What did he say?”

“Not much” Tsunami began “he said there was a few things he was worried about, but he didn't elaborate because ‘he was a grown Seawing who is fully capable of dealing with their problems’ and went on to say he was afraid to tell us cuz he didn't want us to feel pressured to help him fix his problems”

Sunny nodded, thinking that was all until Tsunami added: “but by saying that he basically bit himself in the foot, now I want to know what is happening to help him fix it!”

“There is probably a good reason for him not to tell us” the Sandwing tried to argue

“Dont care, I'm gonna find a way to get to the bottom of this, my dad doesn't deserve to have problems” she said fiercely

Sunny couldn't help but giggle

There was a sizable boulder in the middle of the sea that had its top shaped like a strange bowl, the group landed on top of it to regain their breath, the polished rock was a little slippery when wet, but they managed to perch on the sides with little problem

Gill put his head in the water for a few seconds before turning to the Dragonets

“This is a good spot, the floor near the boulder is a bit shallow, so be careful when diving” he announced

“Who wants to be first?” Clay asked, stretching his arms

“Me!” Tsunami dove into the water before anyone else could have the chance, her tail caused the splash to be bigger than it should have, showering everyone

“Hey! You didn't even give me time to concentrate!” Starflight yelled at the waves, shaking his wings

Fish and lobsters all scattered in fear once the others dove in at almost the same time

Clay managed to corner a sizable sea bass and catch it with his own talons before it could swim away, Starflight was headed for a pair of octopi, but immediately gave up after his scales glowed softly

Glory bestowed the duty of scaring prey towards her friends on herself, being able to turn invisible gave her an obvious advantage, being easily able to literally grab a sea turtle for herself

While Tsunami was busy intimidating a shark by baring her teeth and flashing ‘squid-brain’ at it, Sunny had a bit of a hard time hunting with her tail, the constant rocking of the water kept throwing her aim off, and when that didn't happen, the force was not enough to stab anything, the best she caught was a lobster that decided sparing with her tail barb was a good idea

She resurfaced and put the lobster in the bowl-shaped boulder, a long side whatever the others caught

Gill hopped out of the water with a squid on his mouth, he let out a soft ‘woah’ at the selection of prey before putting his contribution in

“Maybe I should have clarified to grab a few medium prey…” He said and scratched his chin

“We can give the rest to the Seawings once we reach the Summer Palace” Sunny offered

“And have a feast!” Clay completed as he floated not to far from the duo

“And have a feast” Sunny repeated with a nod

Gill chuckled, motioning for the Mudwing to join them “what did you manage to catch?”

“Two sea basses” Clay reported shaking the water of his tail “and half of a red fish”

“One lobster” Sunny nudged her catch with her tail “it's a little harder than I thought, the currents kept knocking me off balance”

“Try to stay close to the floor” Gill offered “the currents are weaker at the very bottom, oh and only attack once your prey gets close enough”

Sunny took note of what he said and nodded “can I try again?”

“Of course, go ahead” Gill encouraged her

She took several deep breaths before diving again, this time she kept her stomach scales close to the ground

‘Gill was right, there is less currents here’ She realized

Attempting to blend with the sand, Sunny crept through the bottom of the ocean, it was a little hard to see due to it being a little more darker, but she could see a few silhouettes of clueless school of fish swimming by

Sunny prepared her tail, watching everything carefully, she just hoped it wouldn't take so long to the point of her running out of air

Only a few seconds after, she spotted a large shadow above her, Sunny wasn't fully sure as to what it was, but she prepared anyway. Her wings propelled her body forward, she didn't notice the shadow’s wings until both of them spun around in a flurry of bubbles

Sunny looked at her paws with pride, only to see she was holding onto blue scales, a few bubbles escaped her nose trying not to giggle, she let go of the figure, thinking it was Tsunami

While it was a Seawing, it wasn't Tsunami, nor Gill, the dragon in front of her looked to be a year older than her, maybe two. They managed to straighten himself out and look at her confused, tilting their head

Sunny smiled sweetly and waved at them, they waved back, slowly

Taking advantage of their confusion, Sunny bolted upwards and into the air, a loud splashing around behind her told everything she needed to, she didn't dare look behind her and focused on flying

“SEAWING SEAWING SEAWING SEAWING!!” She alerted the others as she bolted past them

She managed to look behind her, just in time to see both Clay and Tsunami tackling the Seawing that was chasing her out of the sky, they held their wings shut, but before they could do anything, Gill flew towards them and managed to calm them down

“W-wha?!” The Seawing blurted out “k-King Gill?!? But- uh, we thought you died!”

“It's nice seeing you too, Riptide” Gill said, with a small sigh

Chapter Text

“Apologies for my language but.. I still can't believe you are alive!” Riptide said, his eyes were still wide

It took several minutes to calm Riptide down after he was caught by Clay and Tsunami, and then several more minutes to explain to him that the Gill he was seeing was not a ghost. At least he was nice enough to help carry the prey back to their original island

According to him, the Queen sent several spies to look for the king, even going so far as trying to make a few generals to raid the Sky Palace, but after months of them coming back empty-pawed and him not being among the ex-prisoners Queen Ruby sent, she declared him as dead

Gill sighed "she is not the type to give up easily… I know she must have been heart broken by Tsunami disappearing and our lack of heirs, but…" his voice trailed off

"Lack of heirs?" Tsunami tilted her head

Sunny managed to catch a slight panicked expression on Gill's face before he shifted back

"Well… how do I put this…" he mumbled "ever since your late sister, Orca, challenged your mother to the throne and lost, our female eggs have been… eh… broken "