Shadows of Sins Past

The flight to the castle had gone by faster than expected. For what reason was unknown since Westwood was carrying the weight of the much larger dragon by a thread of his shadow attaching to the barrier that held it. Luna was watching the drake periodically as their flight took them to their destination. They all knew what the events transpired into, whoever commanded the fire dragon was not just trying to kill Westwood, he was looking for a body count in a time of peace. Westwood was all too familiar with this, after all, it was his primary purpose in being a his grade of marine,

The princesses had touched down on a space near the castle with Westwood following close behind. Westwood's wings acting as an air brake to soften the impact and keep himself from losing his concentration on the barrier behind him. Again the image of Nox's face seemed to show in the barrier composed of the black scaled dragon's shadow, "So what now? Are you going to do the same thing as when you were a human Woody?" The shadow asked seeming to lift an eyebrow as judged by the shadow's movement of its glowing spots for its eyes, "Or are you going to let others die so you can live away from the fight?" There was a pause in Nox's voice before a snicker, "Oh who am I kidding, your entire purpose is to fight and defend. You'll never be normal." Nox spoke seeming to grin with the shapeless face it possessed.

Westwood looked at the barrier and saw the face of Nox, he did not answer the living shadow. If he had then the two alicorns would more than likely confuse his situation for possible mental illness, or that was what Westwood was thinking would happen. Now he walked, following behind Luna and Celestia, "So where do we drop off our prisoner?" He asked pointing his thumb at the dragon behind him still unconscious from the impact that it took.

Celestia was the one to look back, "He will be placed in the dungeon. What he has done is a war crime and he will be punished for such action." She spoke. Her regal tone now held anger, "And his superiors will be advised on this atrocity. I thank you for taking care of him before he could severely hurt anypony." Celestia spoke bobbing her head down before walking to lead Westwood to the dungeon for the dragon to be held.

Luna had separated from the two, the dungeon was never a place she wanted to go to even if she was on the other side of the cell that held their prisoners. It reminded her of the thousand years she spent imprisoned on the moon for her mistaking the ponies of Equestria shunning her night, "I'll be in my room." She spoke walking away from Celestia and Westwood.

Westwood watched Luna walk away, he saw the pain in Luna's eyes before they were no longer visible to him. He took a breath following Celestia. The world around them changed the further they walked, it changed from the bright and decorative  look to a darker and less cared for brick and mortar type setting. The atmosphere was so dramatically different and Westwood felt more strength in his new, darker environment. Nox showed that he was enjoying the dark setting that Westwood and Celestia stood in, possibly because it was his position as a sentient shadow in Westwood's mind.

Celestia had stopped not far from what felt like a steady decline, "He will stay here. He will stay out of trouble until his superiors come to take him back and we settle on the plan of action." Celestia spoke. Her regal voice now flat as though she was attempting to hold something back. Celestia was feeling anger for what happened, the war with the dragons should have just ended with that and now a dragon had committed a war crime by attacking a town of civilian ponies for a single target, "I will deal with the prisoner for now Westwood." She spoke seeing the barrier composed of shadow drift the fire dragon into the cell, "For now, go up to Luna's room. She has something that she wishes to discuss with you." Celestia spoke, her attention quickly moving to the unconscious dragon now sealed in the cell and the barrier now gone.

Westwood gave a nod then a salute as though he had been given an order. The action had somewhat confused Luna since she had never seen it done by a dragon before. As Westwood left the darkness, Celestia scowled at the dragon and her horn glowed for a few seconds leading to the fire dragon waking from its artificial slumber.

The fire dragon looked around seeing himself in the cell and the only light bright enough to see was the Celestia's horn temporarily glowing, "So I failed." The dragon spoke pressing it's back to the wall. In the dim light from nearby torches a glimmer could be seen from the dragon's fang filled grin, "And it appears that you are hoarding that shadow drake like a pet." He continued letting a chuckle grow in the back of his throat.

Celestia stamped her hoof down on the stone under her and shouted in a volume that was normally absent from her voice, "Silence!" Her voice booming and echoing through the length of the dungeon, "What is the meaning of attacking Ponyville? Our races have been living under a truce for over a century, why have you attacked a defenseless town?" She asked with rage eminent in her voice.

The fire dragon watched the enraged princess and then he started laughing as he stuck a claw through the holes in his hands from Westwood's attack, "I do not have to answer to a pony. I don't care what your position is." The dragon imprisoned spoke looking through the hole that was healed enough to prevent bleeding out.

Celestia grew impatient near immediately with the dragon and her eyes flared with dark magic, "I will ask you one more time. Why did you attack a helpless town?" She asked with more anger in her tone which seemed to feed the dark magic she had shown the prisoner.

The fire dragon saw the ominous glow that Celestia had given off then he chuckled again, "Well, since you put it like that." The dragon sarcastically spoke waving his hand dismissively at the princess, "That dragon you've got as a pet. I'm going to guess you called him Westwood since that yellow snack shouted it when I batted him away like a fly. Such a pony like name." He spoke leaning back against the hard stone wall, "His existence in your town is a violation of our races' treaty. Your kind were to help us eradicate every last one of the shadows and in return we would stay in our lands and leave you alone. Since he's shown up that has given our ruler a bit of a problem. It means you did not kill him a century ago, and that also means that you have been in violation of that treaty for the entire duration." The dragon spoke scratching the stone underneath him and flicking a fragment that had clung to his claw.

Celestia scowled at the drake in front of him, her eyes glowed with the green and dark colors, "Our treaty was not extermination. Our treaty was removed, he was removed from this world and lived in another. His return was not expected. We upheld our end as far as we could. Your attack is not justified and is cause for war." Celestia spoke to the dragon as he was held in the chamber.

The dragon laughed at her, "Well then. Start a war, cause a body count, do everything that we had been planning on anyway." He spoke with a grin on his face before he felt something in his stomach like something was ripping his intestines apart. He dropped to the ground in agony and clenched his stomach. He looked to the princess seeing the green growing more prominent and a glow was seen at his underbelly.

Celestia clenched her teeth as her magic began ripping at all the pain receptors in the dragon's body causing it to double over in pain, "You will treat me with respect criminal. I will be summoning your king to pass judgement on your crimes against Equestria. Your fate will be decided there." Celestia spoke before releasing the dragon from his anguish. The dragon however was still hunched in pain while he recuperated from Celestia's magic. It was then that Celestia began walking away from the imprisoned dragon, leaving it in the darkness of the dungeon cell. The glow in her eyes had finally vanished while the still angered princess had stormed her way back to the light in the main hall of her castle.

Meanwhile, Westwood had been searching for the room of the Princess of the Moon. He had originally figured that he could just try and look for it himself and see the difference in the other rooms, but the place was so big that it was near impossible to find. Eventually it lead to him asking a maid pony for assistance. The help had shortened his search considerably and was lead straight to Princess Luna's room.

Westwood stood at the door for a minute thinking about many things. What could a princess have to say to a dragon that she had visited one time in a dream? Why did she have to talk to him? And how was he going to enter the room of royalty and not have some sort of rumor started about him.

Slowly he moved his clawed hand and took a breath before knocking on the door with some force. A few seconds later, the black scaled dragon was met by the blue orbs of the darker half, "I was hoping you would come here." The now softer voice spoke to the dragon opening the door further and giving access to Westwood to enter. While the room was more lit than the dungeon, it still had a dark tone to it. The paint of the room made the room seem darker even if light was still present in the room, "Celestia told me everything that happened. I'm sorry." She started ducking her head down.

Nox appeared behind Luna seemingly grinning at Westwood while Luna would remain unaware of his presence, "You are seriously going to love this Woody. It's one hell of a story." Nox spoke picking his smoky legs off the ground and seeming to balance on what could be considered a tail.

Westwood closed his eyes not wanting to see Nox at the moment, "It's alright. I don't hold a grudge." He said to Luna.

Luna's eyes widened a bit when Westwood had been so quick to say that he was fine with it, "But it's about your race. They were all exterminated because of my kind. How can you not be enraged by this?" Luna asked in shock.

Westwood smirked showing a small part of one of his longer fangs, "I never knew this race and lived like what you had seen in my dream. As far as I take it, I am still that human. This is just a new body I have to get used to is all."

Nox made an audible groan and threw his smoky arms up in the air, "Oh come on! You couldn't even pretend to get mad at her?" Nox asked frustrated at the fact that Westwood had next to no reaction for the near extinction of his race, "I was ready to get the popcorn and everything. Then you blew it." He spoke before the smoke vanished just as quickly as it showed up.

Luna felt some relief knowing that Westwood wasn't angry, but at the same time she was worried on exactly why any creature wouldn't be angry at her or Celestia for the extermination of a species, "You are that detached from your kind that you just forget they existed?" Luna asked in confusion.

Westwood laughed lightly before looking for a place to take a seat and talk to Luna, "It's more a case that I can't be mad. I was just fine living in that other world. If I wasn't in that world I wouldn't be around to be the last of my species. So I'm fine." He said to Luna finally just moving to take a seat on the mattress and leaning back on his hands making sure not to tear the sheets that covered the soft cushion under him.

Luna had no problem with Westwood taking a seat on her bed, in fact she made her way to the seat beside Westwood and placed herself up onto the softness possessed by the cushion under the two, "You are an unusual dragon Westwood. Most of the ones that I have seen are" She paused thinking of the proper wording, "More aggressive to say the least." She said to him.

Westwood just gave a small laugh at her words, "Well, I wasn't raised like a dragon, so I won't act like a dragon. Simple as that." He spoke relaxing more as he spoke with the princess.

Luna gave a laugh at Westwood's tone and how he put it, "I suppose that would be true." Luna added in before looking to the dragon that she realized she was moving closer to without having noticed that she had been moving at all, "Westwood." Luna started with a small tinge of red growing on her face, "Do you have a-" Luna started feeling strange for asking, "Do you have a special somepony?" Luna asked not making eye contact with the dragon.

Westwood looked to Luna, a quizzical look on his face, "I don't know about a special somePONY." He spoke to Luna which he remembered back when Fluttershy had grabbed onto him in her shock and fear, "But if you're talking about what happened before, I'm not with the pegasus you saw. We're just friends more or less, she thought I died when the building collapsed on me and was scared." Westwood elaborated to Luna wondering where Luna was getting at with her questioning.

Luna felt some more relief wash over her when Westwood told her that he wasn't involved with Fluttershy, "Oh. Well." Luna spoke slowly pressing her shoulder into the black scaled drake beside her, "I just just curious." She spoke. She didn't know why she felt so strange around Westwood, she felt it before when she was in Westwood's dream yet it seemed more powerful now that the two were in the flesh.

The two were motionless for a moment before finally Westwood felt something on his cheek. The feeling was warm and foreign, but he liked it. Westwood looked to see that Luna had pressed a kiss to his cheek. His black scales kept his from lighting up a bright red, "Well. Um." He started unable to find words in the flustered mess that he had turned into.

Luna had to admit that this side of the warrior was rather cute when he acted embarrassed, "You're welcome." She spoke keeping herself pressed into the black scaled dragon beside her. Luna seemed to be enjoying herself with the dragon she had met not long before.