Flightmare

"Legend has it that the Flightmare is so terrifying, it actually freezes its prey in their tracks."

- Fishlegs reading the Book of Dragons about the Flightmare.

The Flightmare is a Mystery Class (Strike Class according to Dragon Tracker) dragon that appears in Dragons: Defenders of Berk. It is among the most terrifying and frightening dragons. It appears in the episodes "Fright of Passage" and in "Maces and Talons, Part 1" and "Maces and Talons, Part 2".

Official Description
"Like something out of a campfire ghost story, the Flightmare doesn't even seem like a real dragon. Emitting a banshee wail and glowing like a phantasm, the Flightmare has haunted Berkians for generations. The Flightmare's glow comes from its primar food supply, a unique type of algae that flows through the woods around Berk. This algae glows with bioluminescence in the light of Aurvandil's Fire, a Northern Lights display that occurs every few years over Berk. When the Flightmare eats the algae, it also glows, giving it an unnatural appearance. The Flightmare's abilities are almost entirely defensive, so it can be overpowered when corner or outnumbered by tougher dragons. Because of this, it has become a very territorial and short-tempered dragon, and incredibly protective over its algae food supply. Flightmares emit a toxic mist that can temporarily paralyze a human. This has led to the legend of Flightmares 'scaring Vikings stiff'. While it wears off after a few minutes, the potent mist immobilizes the Flightmare's target long enough for it to strike."

"Instead of shooting fire, this Dragon from the Mystery Class emits a toxic mist thatparalyzes its foes. Talk about being scared stiff! The very sight of a Flightmare at a distance can make Vikings freeze in their tracks...which is the perfect time for the Dragon to strike!"

Egg
These eggs are normally in some shade of light blue. They are oval and is surrounded by what seems to be the paralyzing mist produced by the adults. The center of the eggs glow very brightly.

Hatchling to Adult
The Flightmare is a medium-sized dragon that has a very ghost-like appearance. Its body is covered in tiny spots that almost resemble the night sky. It slightly resembles a mix between a Skrill, a Night Fury, and a Fireworm, with blue, glowing scales. It appears to get a bright glowing, ghost-like appearance from the glowing blue algae that is a staple part of its diet. Its head seems to be based off that of a Viperfish.

Titan Wing
Titan wing Flightmares are purple with a faint, translucent blue outline. They have white and light purple dots all over their wings. They still look similar to younger Flightmares, but their tail, which has a few spines on top, grew spines below too.

In School of Dragons, the Titan Flightmare have larger wings, with spines on the tail, three horns on his head, neon spines on the legs and a tail like a "mermaid".

Glowing Body
The Flightmare's body produces a weak and dim glow, but bright enough for it to be spotted easily. But when the Flightmare consumes Glowing Algae, a type of unique algae that glows with their metabolism, its body's glow is greatly enhanced. Flightmares can also control how bright they can glow after consuming the algae. They can use this ability to nearly blind their prey or enemies.

Firepower
The Flightmare can strike with a toxic mist that paralyzes its prey to give itself enough time to return and finish it off. Its prey appears to have a glossy surface after being sprayed for a while.

In Maces and Talons, Part 2, it is revealed that the Flightmare's mist can also break the emergency release of the Original Dragon Eye.

The Flightmare has been seen to use a strategic attack style, which involves creating a mist tail. It does this by flying around while firing with its mouth open, which leaves a tail of mist wherever it goes. The Flightmare can use this strategy to corner its opponents. Unlike the average mist spray, in this style of attack, the mist does not diffuse easily, and takes quite a while. This makes it even more dangerous to the Flightmare's opponents, as they have a chance to fly into the mist.

Speed and Agility
Flightmares have shown to be fast and agile dragons, as the Hofferson's Bane in Fright of Passage was able to catch up with Toothless with ease. Even so, when Toothless was trying to get away from the Flightmare, it quickly boosted in front of him.

Stamina
They have great stamina as shown by Hofferson's Bane, as it was able to fly long distances as it flew across the ocean to follow the glowing algae.

Banshee-like Scream
They can produce a loud banshee-like scream that can slightly affect other dragons, rather like a weak version of the Screaming Death. Also, the scream sounds like the one of Snow Wraith, only that the Snow Wraith has a little deeper roar.

Hunting
With the ability of mist that can paralyzes its prey will be very effective predator of animals, dragons or humans that are around at night to hunt.

Behavior and Personality
From what has been seen, the Flightmare is a very aggressive and territorial dragon, being very protective of its territory and food sources. Seeing how Flightmares are build for speed and defense, they usually avoid fights with bigger and stronger dragons. Flightmares have been shown to be quite determined, as the Flightmare in Fright of Passage kept chasing his opponents, and was willing to search food over long distances. They seem to be quite reclusive and avoid contact with humans, unless they get in the way of their algae, or if they think that they do.

Dragons: Defenders of Berk
A Flightmare known as Hofferson's Bane first appeared in "Fright of Passage", terrorizing Berk every ten years during Aurvandil's Fire. Last time, Astrid's uncle, Fearless Finn Hofferson, faced the dragon and seemed to be frozen by fear, shaming her family's name. Astrid and Hiccup set out to find the Flightmare, where Astrid tried to fight it, but was frozen by the dragon's mist. They learned that victims of the dragon were not frozen by fear, but paralyzed by the mist. They soon discovered a stream of glowing algae that gives the Flightmare its glow, as well as other dragons (as discovered by Toothless). Realizing that the Flightmare only attacked Berk because it thought the Vikings were threatening its food supply, Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs created a new channel for the algae to flow into the sea, and the Flightmare left Berk. Hiccup explained to the village what they learned about the dragon and that Finn Hofferson truly was fearless, restoring honor to Astrid's family.

Season 2
A Flightmare Heather had previously tracked down was the main desire of Viggo Grimborn in the episode Maces and Talons, Part 1 and Maces and Talons, Part 2. The Dragon Hunters tracked it down to an island, possibly Algae Island which was found on Hiccup's map, and tried to capture it. With the help of the Dragon Riders the Flightmare managed to paralyze half of Viggo's men but was eventually captured. Later in the episode the Flightmare was muzzled and put in a dragon-proof cage. In the finale of the two part episode, it was revealed that Viggo wanted the Flightmare to access the emergency release for the Dragon Eye because they were at a lack of a Snow Wraith tooth for a key. When Viggo no longer needed the Flightmare he released it and it attacked Hiccup and Toothless. As soon as the Flightmare was released, it paralyzed Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Barf and Belch, Snotlout and Hookfang. Heather and Windshear came to the aid of the Dragon Riders and together they scared the Flightmare off but by then, Viggo was gone with the Dragon Eye.

Dragons: Rise of Berk
The Flightmare made its appearance in this game too, along with its battle and exotic variant, Hofferson's Bane, Trancemare and Skystreaker.

School of Dragons
This dragon also appears in the game, School of Dragons. Players can obtain Flightmare eggs to raise through various means, or free one from captivity at the beginning of an account. Flightmare eggs cost 750 gems in the in-game store. So far, the Flightmare is one of the few dragons that has a Titan Wing stage available in the Game.

In the Stable Quest activity, one quest called "Bloomin' Buffet" requires a Flightmare for success, indicating "This dragon used to give Vikings nightmares and it eats more than glowing algae." The quest is to clean up an algae bloom in the streams to prevent fish and other animal die-off. It implies that Flightmares can eat any algae, not just special Glowing Algae.

A flightmare nest appears on Scuttleclaw Island. In two different expansions, the player needs to harvest frozen Flightmare mist from the cave the nest is in.

Trivia

 * It could be possible that the Hofferson's Bane is the same Flightmare that appeared in Race to the Edge, since Hiccup, Fishlegs and Astrid redirected the river and the algae into the sea, and the Flightmare followed it. Also, Heather said that she tracked the Flightmare for months, so maybe she saw the same dragon that came from Berk.
 * Strangely, while the Flightmare is shown attacking (and presumably eating) people it feeds mostly on algae, making it one of the few dragons that predominantly eat plant matter.
 * The Flightmare has been associated with many different classes. According to CartoonNetwork.com, it was in the Fear Class. The Dragon Tracker Part 3 special feature said that the Flightmare was a Strike Class dragon. A promotional image for Defenders of Berk even said its class was unknown. However, Dragonpedia and the games has since stated that the Flightmare is a Mystery Class dragon.
 * Many fans thought that the Flightmare made an appearance in the Dragon Manual in the first film. But it was later found to be, most likely, a Boneknapper.
 * In order for the Flightmare to kill its prey with its mist, it needs to spray its prey for a few seconds longer than usual, such as it did with Fearless Finn Hofferson. Whereas people who are sprayed with mist for only a short period of time can still survive, like Astrid.
 * The Flightmare is the only known dragon species that appears once every 10 years, at least on Berk.
 * The Flightmare's design is similar to that of the Skrill, although it has more resemblances with pelican eels.
 * It is the only dragon that glows other than the Fireworm, and both glow via eating something.
 * The Flightmare is one of the five dragon species that doesn't have forked tongues. The others are the Woolly Howl, the Razorwhip, the Snow Wraith and the Snaptrapper.

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