Well, I've been promising this (and putting it off) for a while now, but here is my first Spyro fic. It's set after Eternal Night, and actually starts with the game's ending scene (spoiler alert!). However, 1) I have not played Dawn of the Dragon yet and 2) I got the idea for this before I even knew it was coming out, so I'm pretty much throwing continuity out the window, starting with some changes to the aforementioned scene.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spyro, or anything related to him. I do retain intellectual property of the story and my OC's, which I will introduce later.

The Legend of Spyro: New Frontier

Chapter 1: Escape from Malefor

As the beam of dark energy subsided, Gaul struggled back to his feet.

"What are you waiting for? Finish me, coward!"

As the dark being that Spyro had become looked at the ape king, he hesitated. Do it; destroy him! An evil, malignant voice sounded in his mind. He wants to kill you. And Cynder, and everyone and everything that you have ever loved will perish if he has his way.

No! Spyro yelled mentally.

The voice persisted. But he is evil. He kills and destroys without thought or remorse. He deserves to die. He deserves to be annihilated. You have the power. Just let it go, and this thing will trouble you no more.

Spyro now knew who the voice belonged to. There was only one being capable of such malice… No, Malefor. He may deserve to die, but he's beaten. I've won, and I don't have to kill him.

But you want to. I can feel it; the hatred in your heart, the will to crush and destroy. The desire to obliterate him for what he has done. Release that hate upon your enemy! Use your power the way it is meant to be used!

No! I won't kill a helpless foe! I'm not a murderer!

Fool! Look at him, he's far from helpless. If you don't kill him, he will kill you and all that you stand for.

Looking back at Gaul, Spyro saw that the ape was indeed far from done. While the dragon had been grappling with Malefor, Gaul had seen his hesitation as a sign of weakness and was advancing on him, intent on finishing the fight with his bare hands if necessary. Spyro called up his energy to form an Earth Flail, but he couldn't finish the spell; the power was there, but try as he might he could not form the weapon. He tried all his elements, with the same result: the darkness in this room, and in his body, was interfering with his elemental powers. If he wasn't going to use the darkness, Spyro was helpless. And all the while Gaul was coming closer…

Do you see now, Spyro? You are the one who is helpless; helpless because you deny your true nature. This is quite a dilemma, isn't it? If you wish to survive, you must accept the darkness into yourself, but then, there's no telling what might happen if you do that.

Then the solution is simple: I fight with my own power, weakened as it is, and if I die, I'll try to take him down with me.

Gaul was now only 10 feet away and steadily approaching. His eyes were blank and lifeless, but there was still a crazed light in their depths; he might have even been dying, but his will to crush every dragon, especially the purple whelp that had ruined everything he had been planning, pushed him on.

Alright, have it your way. You can try to fight him man-to-man, and then you'll die, still the champion of hope and good. But just a reminder: your friends are still up there, and it doesn't look like Gaul is in the mood to take prisoners.

At those words, at the thought of what Gaul would do to Sparx and Cynder, what had already happened to the black dragoness and the countless others that had fallen to the ape's cruelty, something within Spyro snapped. He felt every ounce of rage and hatred in his being come surging forth, then compressed until it was like a molten ball in the center of his chest. Then the young dragon released his Dark Fury, and over the rush of wave after wave of dark energy flowing forth, there seemed to be triumphant, evil laughter. Gaul tried to brace himself against the black tide, but was powerless to resist its force. The first wave brought him to his knees, the second turned his body to ash, and the third scattered the ape king's remains like leaves in a hurricane. As the attack subsided, Dark Spyro launched himself up towards the chamber above.

OO

Sparx and Cynder waited at the edge of hole made when Gaul had destroyed the floor, trying to see or hear something, anything, through the greenish glow of the energy pillar or the rushing of the wind.

"Spyro, are you OK?" the dragonfly called down, a look of fear etched into his features.

Suddenly, a dark shape rose upwards inside the beam, causing the pair to jump back. The thing was soon recognizable as a small black dragon, with golden horns and glowing white pools of light for eyes. Its head turned towards them and the creature let out a feral snarl.

"Oh no…" Cynder whispered, taking a step back. She then steeled herself and stepped up, calling to her friend. "Spyro, STOP!"

"Calm down, buddy," Sparx pleaded, "it's me."

"I…I can't…" the Spyro said, obviously fighting to hold himself back. In his mind, he could feel Malefor's presence growing. Soon, the Dark Master would overpower him and take control, or simply drive him insane and watch as the purple dragon destroyed his closest friends.

Suddenly, Cynder leapt forward and kicked Spyro, knocking him out of the energy flow and pushing herself clear at the same time. As soon as Spyro hit the floor of the cave, the darkness left his body, rising like a mist and disappearing. He struggled to his feet and looked at his friends, and Sparx flew over to him.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop."

"You're alright, Spyro," Cynder said, "you're with friends."

At that moment, a rumbling filled the room, as if the entire mountain was trying to shake itself apart, and the mouth of the cave that Spyro and Sparx had entered through began to close, being blocked of by debris.

"Oh no!" Sparx yelled panicked, "that's our only way out!"

The rubble shifted again, revealing a small opening to the outside.

"Come on," Cynder shouted, "now's our chance!"

Sparx began trying vainly to lift his best friend off the floor. "Usually, I would say 'ignore her,' but she's making sense this time."

Spyro struggled to raise his head. "Just go."

Instantly, the black dragoness turned on him, "Get up Spyro! We're not leaving without you!" She walked over, grabbed Spyro around the shoulders, and began to half-carry, half-drag him to the cave mouth. Geez, of all the times to find out he weighs a friggin' ton!

Just as they were nearing the exit, several boulders came crashing down, blocking the way completely.

"We're trapped," Spyro muttered, hanging his head in despair.

"Not yet we aren't," there was a bright gleam in Cynder's eyes; she wasn't giving up yet. "Sparx stay close!" Setting Spyro down, the dragoness closed her eyes and focused her energy. Please let me have enough strength for this…With a defiant roar, she released her power, breathing a greenish mist over the stones, which began to crack and boil, eaten away by the acidic cloud.

Suddenly a large stone, shaken loose from the ceiling, came plummeting towards the trio. Sparx darted clear, but Cynder remained frozen in place, both out of surprise and torn between fear for herself and for the purple dragon lying at her feet. At the last possible second, as Cynder closed her eyes and braced for the end, there was a deafening boom, then the black dragoness was being struck, not by the huge harbinger of death, but by several small pebbles. Opening her eyes, she saw that the boulder had been pulverized, and Spyro was standing next to her, breathing heavily from the exertion of firing his Earth Shot point blank. Looking at the now open cave mouth, as the mountain continued to crumble around them, he turned to look Cynder in the eyes. "Now take Sparx and go before it's too…" The purple dragon fell back to the floor, not even having the strength to finish the sentence.

Once again, Cynder lifted him onto her shoulders, and with Sparx doing what little he could o help support his friend's weight, staggered to the exit. "I told you once already," she muttered, "we're not leaving without you." While the mountain shook in its death throes, the trio slowly made their way outside to freedom. Unfortunately, just outside the cave mouth was a sheer cliff that dropped out of sight. Sidestepping yet another falling rock, Cynder looked at the cliff, then at Spyro, then back to the mist-filled void below, and hung her head. "Nothing for it, I'll have to try." The dragoness spread her wings, but stopped before they were halfway open, yelping at the sudden pain.

"Cynder," Sparx asked nervously, "what's up?"

"My wing," she explained, "I must have hurt it when Gaul threw me." For the first time, Cynder's eyes dulled, and it seemed that she had lost hope. "It's over; there's no way to get down without flying, Spyro's in no condition to even walk, and with my wing like this it'll be nearly impossible to fly on my own, let alone carrying any weight."

As the shaking became more violent, Cynder lay down next to Spyro and wrapped her wings around him, tears forming in her eyes.

"Hey Doomgirl," Sparx put his hand on her shoulder, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but why don't get big and scary again? You'd be able to carry Spyro out then."

"I can't. That only happened because of Malefor's power. I don't even know if it would happen again, and I'd risk losing to him if I tried."

Cynder looked back to Spyro, still unconscious after his battle.

"You risked your life for me…"

Cynder turned back to the cave and looked at the diminishing energy stream. "I have to try! Sparx, if this doesn't work, get out of here and warn the Elders."

"Don't have to tell me twice. The first sign of trouble and I'm gone!"

Cynder smiled and walked back into the cave, dodging the falling debris as she made her way to the stream of dark energy. Closing her eyes, she steeled herself and stepped into the beam, feeling the burn of Malefor's power surging through her once again. As the last of the energy column faded away, she felt her body begin to grow larger, reacting to Malefor's dark magic. Slowly the change ceased, and she looked down to see that her size had doubled more or less. I guess there wasn't enough left to fully change me. Just as well; this should be enough to do the job, and I don't feel his presence. Just then, amid the din of falling stone, a sound caught her attention. Turning to the sound, she saw Spyro standing outside, staring at her with a puzzled look. As she ran over to him, his look became something between accusing and betrayed.

"I came here to stop this from happening," he said weakly, "why?"

"Spyro, I know what this looks like, but we don't have time to take the high road here! It's a miracle that the mountain is even still standing, and this is the only way to get us both out of here."

"You could have escaped on your own…"

"Barely, if at all, with my wing like this. And you're in no condition to fly on your own."

"Cynder, just go! If you die because of me…"

"Then quit arguing!" With lightning speed the dragoness reached out and struck the back of Spyro's neck. In his weakened state, that was all it took to render him unconscious. "I'm sorry," she whispered picking him up. "Sparx, try to keep up!"

The pain as Cynder spread her wings to take off was hellatius, but she pushed through it and leapt from the cliff top. Even with her extra size and strength, there was no way she could fly while holding the purple dragon, but maybe, just maybe, she could glide far enough that they would be safe from the worst of the mountain's fury.

She'd gone about half a mile when she felt the power fading, and she began to shrink back down to her normal size. Thinking quickly, she looked below, seeing a small stand of trees with bushes in and around them. This is going to hurt, she thought as the pair began to fall more quickly, but we really don't have another choice. Aiming at what seemed to be the softest patch of bushes, Cynder flipped over at the last second to absorb as much of the impact as possible as the two dragons crashed landed. She heard a loud snap and felt fire in her shoulder as her hurt wing broke. The pain was so intense that she blacked out, barely noting that she had lost her hold of Spyro and the purple drake was lying a few feet away from her, still not moving…

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Well, that does it for Chapter One. Nice cliffhanger, huh? This was a lot longer than I originally planned, and while I cannot say for certain, may very well be the longest in the story. Please read and review.