Fanfic / The Legend of Cynder Series

The Legend of Cynder is a The Legend of Spyro fanfic series started by GoldenGriffiness.

The premise is a simple one. On the night of the temple raid during the Year of the Dragon, Ignitus, in a panic, grabs a single dragon egg and sends it floating down the river to safety. However, instead of the purple egg of canon, instead the egg Ignitus saved was a certain someone's ebony color.

Instead of Spyro being the one to make it out safely on the night of the temple raid, Cynder is the one who Ignitus grabbed, raised by who was normally Spyro's adopted parents and adopted brother Sparx in canon. Without the events of canon that caused her to develop a self-loathing complex and without anyone to remind her of those deeds she hasn't done, Cynder becomes a brash, headstrong dragoness who will do whatever she feels is right, no matter what the odds may be. Living a simple life, Cynder grows up with her adopted family until the day Malefor's army invades the swamp, and in a fit of desperation to save her brother, Cynder discovers the tiny fact that she can breathe fire.

The Legend of Cynder series is based on the concept of "What if Cynder was in Spyro's metaphorical shoes during the events of The Legend of Spyro?". It starts out following The Stations of the Canon as Cynder makes her way through the events of A New Beginning, finding ways to cheese her way through the more tricky parts of it, all the while poking fun at the Headscratchers and Fridge Logic the Legend of Spyro presents. However, near the mid to end of the first fic, things start to divvy up a little as OCs that weren't in the original pop up, some new events that were in canon are added to further divvy things up, and overall the plot slowly becomes more serious as the story goes on.

While the idea of basically rewriting the Legend of Spyro with Cynder as the protagonist instead might turn some off, The Legend of Cynder helps it from ending up like most fics of a similar premise by adding in additional scenarios, expanding on the set canon of The Legend of Spyro, and adding additional plots and characters to help it from being a complete rewrite. Overall, it's an interesting take on this concept, and definitely worth the read even if you know the story of The Legend of Spyro by heart.

• The link to the first fic, which covers the general events of A New Beginning, can be found here.
• Additionally, an interquel between this and the next fic in the series can be found here.
• The fic after that, covering the events of The Eternal Night (and currently on-going) can be found here.
• Plans for a fic that will eventually cover the events of Dawn of the Dragon, as well as two more original stories after that, are currently in the works. As of right now though, they're only in the planning stages.

Additionally, this fic series also has two additional stories that take place in the same overall verse. One that's far before the events of the series, and one that's a complete spin-off, and a crossover with Kingdom Hearts.

• The prequel can be found here. ^note  It's highly recommended you at least read the first fic in this series before this, as it contains a hefty amount of spoilers.
• For the spin-off that's a Crossover with Kingdom Hearts, go here.

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This fic series contains the following tropes:

Tropes common to the series as a whole:

• Adoptive Peer Parent: Cynder, oddly enough, sees herself as a mother to Myst despite only being four years older and explicitly refers to herself as one to Myst, instead of a sister. (physically, Cynder is 12 and Myst is 8 physically) In a weird twist on this Myst is actually about 10 years or so older than Cynder in a way but her aging was halted after the General Trapped her spirit in the Lich King in Dante's freezer, after having massacred her village and killing Myst's parents. This situation is lampshaded in chapter 78 of Night Terrors by Malefor when he is tormenting Cyder by mocking her as a voice in her head after his resurrection, with him pointing out how silly it is that a 12-year-old can be another to a hatchling only four years younger than her.
• Aloof Ally: Zizagged by the Guardians. T Hey can be helpful but surprisingly aloof or disisnteted in the emotional needs or feelings of the younger charecters at times, sometimes not even ackoendlignd things that happen or they are going through. A good example of this is chapter 39 of Night Terrors where after Myst comes back to the temple with a bunch of rebel apes (after having been kidnapped from it) Volteer's only reaction to her is to tell her to get out of hte way so he can blast the apes with his element. He and the others are never really shown to have been aware of Myst's kidnapping nor do they mention it. They do not even ask her where she had been.
  • To be fair most of the story is told in the first person, so its likely Myst (the narrator of this chapter) did not see his reaction and he might have just inquired about her whereabouts offscreen. Addiotanly, he had been gone from the temple at the time of her kidnapping and its not exactly clear when he got back so maybe he did not know. The other Guardians still did not mention Myst's kidnapping though.
  • Another good example is chapter 19 of Night Terrors, aprpiatly called "Without a Fairwell." In this, the Guardians send Spyro and Cynder on their quest without letting them say by to Myst, reasoning she would understand adn they would be back within a day. [[Spoiler: No surprise that didn't exactly happen; given their capture and the rest of hte events of the story happening.]]
• Alternate Universe Fic: Based on the premise of 'What would it be like if Cynder was in Spyro's role?', in addition to generally expanding on the set canon of The Legend of Spyro as whole. Additionally, the fic also tackles the concept of what it'd be like if Spyro was in Cynder's role...
• Anti-Hero: Travix.
• The Atoner: Not being Malefor's pawn, Cynder actually averts this trope in a fic for a change. Spyro, on the other hand...
• Backup from Otherworld: Kaboa is capable of directly assisting Cynder if need be, a bit more justifiable in that spirits can canonically gain physical forms in the Legend of Spyro universe. Despite being Nigh-Invulnerable and incredibly powerful, she is usually forced into the role of All-Powerful Bystander in exchange for this situation, only being allowed to help Cynder when she's about to be killed and/or seriously injured. So far, she has only directly assisted Cynder twice in the series so far. Saving her from being killed by Travix, and saving her from jumping off a cliff after the Chronicler's test pushed her past the Despair Event Horizon.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: Starting with Night Terrors, the story tends to sway back and forth between funny moments and seriously dark stuff. One chapter can have Spyro and Sparx discussing the many uses of toilet paper after using some to escape his cell, while a chapter or so later can have Cynder attempting to commit suicide.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The story starts out mostly comedic, poking fun at certain concepts and Headscratchers (Cynder calling out the guardians for sending a kid dragon to dangerous places while the elders wait back at the base, her flying over the hordes of enemies and dangerous routes instead of fighting them, and in general finding ways to cheese bosses instead of fighting them the normal way. However, around the time Cynder makes it to Boyzitbig and fails to protect a pregnant mole from being killed, in a rather bloody fashion at that, things start to get a lot darker from there on. There's still plenty of comedic moments afterwards, and it doesn't avoid poking fun at a lot of the Headscratchers and Fridge Logic the original series presents, but in general, the fic takes the fact that the character's are in the middle of war which they're slowly losing ground in a lot more seriously after that.
• Child Soldiers: Like in canon, the main characters are only about 12 and younger, yet are made to fight in a war. This is deconstructed, as its shows repeatably how much having to fight in a war as screwed up kids like Cynder and even how being caught in it without being directly forced to fight made Myst jaded. Worst yet is that dragons are mentioned to have been using their children as soldiers out of desperation as their armies were depleted by the war, as chapter 64 of Night Terrors mentions.
  • The Guardians even lampshaded this in chapter 64; expressing that they regret having to have done this with children under 18 years old and don't really want to burden Myst by asking her for help. They lament how they were supposed to be teachers but were warped by the war and forced to take on new rolls like the children did as well, when discussing how they might need to consider heading ot Warfang (since word of Cynder's endeavors sn Spyro's freedom may get around and draw attention to them at the temple from Warfang)
  • Lampshaded again in chapter 65 of Night Terrors, where Cynder barks at Koboa and the Crhonrclier that she, Spyro, and such are only kids being made to fight this war and it is taxing on her. She even points out how the Guardians have more training and experience yet they sent her out to battle, even with only a day of elemental training after freeing Volteer.
• The Corruption: What Dark Gems are capable of. It can latch onto a dragon's specific element and "taint" it, giving the dragon in question an Unstoppable Rage Superpowered Evil Side that activates under extreme stress or anger. This is what allowed Malefor to control Spyro, and corrupt Cynder's shadow element so she'd be less effective at dealing with his army.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Myst's fury, after she takes a potion to help cure her blindness. The potion has a side effect of drastically increasing a dragon's powers the more they've drunken, of which Myst needed to drink a whole buckets worth in order to purge the poison that was blinding her out of her body. It's heavily implied that Myst's fury would be one of the single most powerful attacks in the entire fic series... However, it would have the unfortunate side effect of killing her if she were to release that much power at once. As such, she has never once used it so far.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sparx, as per usual. Though, everyone in this series has their moments.
• Deconstruction: Of "characters swap roles and go through each others events" plots. In addition to the deconstructions listen in the Night Terrors folder, The Stations of the Canon isn't always in effect, and Cynder doesn't always manage to accomplish the same things Spyro did in canon, often with disastrous consequences, and there are several beings throughout the story who flat-out tell Cynder she wasn't supposed to be in Spyro's role, and don't give a crap about her well being so long as they can railroad things back to canon... and, if the preview cover art for an upcoming adaption is to be believed, there's a high chance that Cynder will still end up becoming the Terror of the Skies in the end, and Spyro will have to deal with the fallout from everything that happened and try to fix it, just like in canon...
• Determinator: Cynder, full stop. The head author even describes her main motto as "Doing whatever the hell I think is right!".
• Dungeon Bypass: One of Cynder's favorite tactics. The only time she doesn't fly over hordes of enemies and dangerous places is when there isn't any other way, or it would be more dangerous to fly than fight.
• Fantastic Racism: Blood dragons are not looked upon favorably by "normal" dragons, in addition to the fact that they're rather monstrous looking to begin with. For the most part, it's mainly because they need to feast on the blood of living creatures to survive, which isn't doing them any favors, even if they do possess self-control over it with practice. Because of all this, blood dragons were hunted to near extinction, with only a few survivors remaining.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A lot of the more spiritually inclined characters will often make mention of how Cynder isn't supposed to be in the role she is in, and that it was meant for another. (which, obviously, was supposed to be Spyro) Sometime's it's Played for Laughs, other times... not so much.
• Mama Bear:
  • Mess with or harm Myst in front of Cynder, and you will regret it.
  • That's to say nothing of Kaboa, who was willing to relive the night she died in order to keep Cynder from killing herself.
• Power Nullifier:
  • Dark Gems, as per-canon, can drain a dragon's elemental energy for the time being. Angel's Folly also has this effect, in addition to making the dragons who inhaul it higher than a kite.
  • Gaul's staff is this, as per-canon too. It's what allowed him to kill Kaboa prior to the events of the fic series.
• Spirit Advisor: Kaboa, who help taught Cynder how to fly, as well as making sure she never once had a bad dream, though the latter of which is eventually broken beyond her control. She also looks remarkably like an adult Cynder, of which there's an implied reason for... because she is Cynder's birth mother trying to watch over her daughter as best she can; an opportunity she did not get in life.
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • Travix' Fury. While it only lasts for a few seconds, it gives him what can only be described as the dragon equivalent of blood bending. He needs to have a sample of their blood to do such, but once he has it, the battle is basically over, as he can strike the finishing blow while you're completely powerless to defend against it. It's what nearly allowed him to kill Cynder. The only reason he didn't was because Kaboa, who possess an even bigger Story-Breaker Power due to being a spirit, intervened. He was also quickly written out of the plot afterward when he started to assist Cynder in their escape, having not been seen since the sky pirate part of the story.
    • Travix' Story-Breaker Power is also mildly deconstructed. While it is incredibly powerful, it also result in his species being wildly hated In-Universe for it, with most of them being hunted to near extinction by dragons so they couldn't cause them any harm. He also spent his early life in captivated being used as a glorified science experiment by the dragons in order to figure out how to counter his Story-Breaker Power.
  • Kaboa is one in and of herself, thanks to the nature of being a spirit. She's Nigh-Invulnerable, and is quite a capable fighter in her own right. The only thing that keeps her from completely breaking the story is because, due to the nature of how she obtained these powers, she's, for the most part, locked into the role of All-Powerful Bystander, despite wishing otherwise.
• Wham Episode: At the start, the first fic was mostly comedic despite some implied darker elements going on, with much of it focusing on how Cynder would get through the events of Spyro's canon with a few original elements thrown in. Then there's the chapter on boyzitbig, where a pregnant mole is killed in front of Cynder in a bloody manner, and she couldn't save her. Though there's still some comedic elements after that, and the series still likes to poke fun at the Fridge Logic of the Legendverse, the series takes a notably darker turn since then.
  • Chapters 60-64 of Night Terrors get special mention, as detailed in under the *The Reveal tabs in the Night Terrors Folder.

Tropes specific to A New Beginning:

• Early-Installment Weirdness: For the most part, it's a comedy fic up until the aforementioned Wham Episode, in which it Genre Shifts to a more adventure / dramedy series.
• Forshadowing: In chapter 5 Ignitus nearly refers to Cynder as something that starts with D before cutting himself off and seems to act rather fond of Cynder even after just meeting her. [[Spoiler: its Implied to be daughter. It's confirmed that she is his daughter in Night Terrors.]]
• The Stations of the Canon: Follows the events of A New Beginning for the most part, to the point where Cynder even gets the four standard dragon elements, despite not being a purple dragon. Though, that was eventually explained why it happened in The Eternal Night adaption of the fic series.
• Temporary Blindness: Happens to Cynder after being affected by The General's poison. After taking the antidote, Cynder finds out about the downside of how using one's fury after drinking it can seriously drain you, despite also increasing your power drastically. Additionally, taking too much and using ones fury can kill you.

Tropes specific to Night Terrors:

• Blood Magic: Blood Dragons. Part of the reason dragons hunted them to near extinction is because they power is considered horrible, and they need to feed off the blood of living dragons in order to survive.
• Deconstruction:
  • This part of the series pretty much takes a mallet to the more comedic adaption of A New Beginning that came before it. Cynder's hotheadedness nearly gets her killed at several points, and, unlike Spyro in the original games, there are parts where Cynder flat out fails to accomplish what Spyro pulled off in the original game, with some rather nasty consciences. It also breaks apart how Cynder obtained the four elements, despite not being a purple dragon, with the elements only picking her because Spyro was captured as an egg and forced to become the Dark Masters general, and most of them could care less if Cynder lives or dies, and that's to say nothing of what The Chronicler became in his attempts to rail road things back to the plot of the original games...
  • It also takes a mallet to one of the most popular fanon concepts, specifically; Blood Dragons, and the idea that they'd be really cool in universe. Unlike most fanon, blood dragons are widely hated and feared in universe, and while they may possess a Story-Breaker Power, the fact that they need blood of the living to survive makes it incredibly hard for them to live. Most normal dragons instincts are to attack and kill them on sight, and, as a result, their race was hunted to near extinction. Even Travix, who claims he spends most of his time trying to get revenge on normal dragons for this, is utterly terrified of normal dragons because of this, and it's implied the only reason he stayed with the pirates in the arena despite being able to break out at any time is because he was afraid that he'd be hunted down and killed by ordinary dragons should he do so. The fact that most of his early life was spent being tortured by normal dragons in an attempt to figure out how to kill blood dragons probably also had something to do with that too.
• Despair Event Horizon: Cynder get's pushed past this when she takes the Chronicler's test and has to face what she fears most. Unlike Spyro in the original games, who fought an elemental dragon based on Cynder's adult form, Cynder has to face the concept that she might not be able to save everyone, everyone she knows or loves will die because she couldn't protect them, Spyro once again becoming Malefor's General, and eventually the world is destroyed all because she wasn't even supposed to be in this role in the first place, and that it was originally meant for another. The end result is Cynder losing hope, and attempting to commit a rather dramatic response to it all.
• Driven to Suicide: Cynder gets pushed over the edge to this during the Chroniclers test, where she was forced to live her greatest fear of everyone and everything dying because she couldn't protect them, and the magic of the Chroniclers test made her believe it was all really happening. She would have done it, to, had Kaboa not have intervened at the last second. Kaboa is also quick to give the Chronicler an ear full over this.
• Eye Scream: As seen in chapter 62 the Chronicler's testing chamber revealed when she had to go through it and relive her greatest fear, Kaboa is the reason Gaul has that laser crystal eye of his.
• I Think You Broke Him: One of the chapter titles is called 'Honey, I think I broke Myst'. The context of the chapter is Myst finds a group of rebel apes who oppose the Dark Master as much as the dragons do and learns about their customs. Shortly near the chapters end, Myst encounters a bunch of fluffy baby apes. The resulting Cuteness Proximity proceeds to render her speechless.
• Just a Kid: Discussed and played straight. Myst gets this from others, who want to protect her. She proves herself to be a capable combatant and Kuro gives her training so that she might defend herself. She and Kuro even discuss this at one point, and it's noted it's because the others don't wish her to have to fight in the war. However, Kuro notes it is still good she gets a chance to be a kid, which is part of why she brings the blood dragon, Miri, and her family to the temple so that Myst has someone closer to her age to be with. This is disused and lampshade in chapter 41 of Night Terross, apriaitly called: Behind the Veil of Childhood.
  • Brought up again in a chapter in chapter 61 of Night Terrors were Koboa tells the Chroncoelr that Cynder is only a child who had been put through hell by being forced to fight in the war and should be treated more like a child.
  • Chapter 20 of Night Terros makes a point of this as well, showing Spyro and Cynder playing a brief game of chase/tag and racing to their destination. Its even called "Still Just Kids."
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Kaboa finally reveals to Cynder that she was originally supposed to be captured by the Apes and become the Terror of the Skies, she makes mention of how she's unsure what changed the fate, mostly chalking it up to some 'unseen, outside force'. (AKA: the author)
• Mushroom Samba: Dragon's under the effect of Angel's Folly, in addition to locking their powers, experience this while under the effects of it, as Cynder states she sees three Sparxs when the sky pirates use it to keep her locked up and from escaping.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The rogue band of apes Myst eventually encounters. Unlike most of the ones following Malefor, they aren't too keen on the idea of following a possibly psychotic purple dragon, and just want the war to end as much as the dragons do.
• The Reveal: A few, especially in the early sixties.
  • Chapters 60-64 reveal plenty about the characters and the nature of the story.. Highlights include 63 stating that the fact Koboa is Cynder's birth mother, how Koboa died fighting Gaul but removed his eye. 63 also reveals the fact that Ignitus is Cynder's father. Chapter 61 has the Chronicor mention that Cynder was never supposed to be in the roll that she was and that she screwed with destiny( I.E. she was supposed to be Malefor's puppet like in canon.
  • Chapter 65 reveals that the Chronlicler's real name is Icarus and the guardians stated in the prior chapter he had a hand in leader previous Guardians to capture Malefor long ago.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The Chronicler. Throughout the entirety of Night Terrors, he attempts to Rail Road the events of it to how they would have been if Spyro was in his intended role, regardless of the effect it has Cynder, or how obviously distraught she is at the time. It isn't until his actions nearly drive Cynder to suicide, and Kaboa flat out spells it out for him that she isn't Spyro, and he shouldn't expect her to act like he would, does he realize how wrong he's been.

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