Chapters From this world to the next
*Area 51. June 1st 2013*
The world around remained dark. All that was present was the echoing noise of the what sounded like animals roaring, clanging sounds of claws hitting the metal of bars of what seemed to be a prison. In the darkness, two glowing yellow eyes pierced through and then a loud yelling, "Would you all shut the hell up!" The voice roared out through the dark hallway which soon after the hall fell silent.
The dark world inside was suddenly lit up by bright yellow light. The eyes from before were shown to be a human, further examination would show that he was the only human in that hallway and the others were horrid monstrous beasts that looked either deformed or decayed to the point they looked like they were the creations of some sort of horror movie or story. The light blinded the human in a cell showing a military uniform that was tattered and ripped, three patches existed on his jacket. One patch reading U.S Marine, the other reading Westwood and the last one showing his rank as a staff sergeant.
The official story behind his imprisonment was that he had murdered a harmless village in cold blood after his fire team was called in to investigate the possible appearance of a terrorist VIP. The mission went south and his fire team was killed in the process. What happened after that lead to him becoming a prisoner of war for three days, he suffered stabs, cuts and burns trying to get information out of him. After the third day, he blacked out and by the time he came to he was covered in blood and bodies scattered throughout the village. After that day he was haunted by images of what happened while he was out. The severed limbs, disembodied organs and spineless bodies scattered throughout.
Two men with restraining devices had walked through the long hallway, both wore grey uniforms with no defining features and gas masks, "Happy birthday Westwood. Our boys in the labs have got something special for you." One of the men spoke through the now silent hall which echoed through the long hall to reach Westwood in the mid point of the hallway, "Who knows, this long torture you've gone through might even end this time." The same male's voice echoed as his steel toed boots clacked the cold hard concrete of the ground.
Westwood looked up recovering from the temporary blindness that the sudden lights had given him, his gaze looked at the guards concealed from head to toe in suits, "What makes you think that this one will do me in? The surgeries they did on me all these years couldn't kill me, and I swear those bastards actually wanted to kill me." He spoke with a grin before standing up and holding his hands together for the restraints to be applied to his wrists and his neck like the other times he was removed from his cold dark cell.
The guard laughed lightly through his mask, "We'll see that when it's over. These trips are getting exhausting." He spoke opening the cell doors and attaching the neck brace to Westwood's neck and then attaching the same brace to his wrists, "I'll see about getting you a little extra chow if you survive." He spoke before pulling the restraints to guide the human down the halls of the prison.
Westwood didn't care, death was a gift at this point and if his death finally gave him his freedom he would welcome the reaper to take his soul.
The hallway came to its end and a large door opened to sterilize the three subjects. After the clouds of gas had sterilized the subjects, the second set of doors opened up showing the new device that many men and women in lab coats were performing the finishing touches on the machine. Soon the prisoner was pulled along to get to a chamber in the center. His restraints were removed again which lead to pushing the soldier into the glass looking chamber where the male stood quiet inside.
One of the men in lab coats had moved to the glass chamber, "Welcome back my favorite test subject. I'm sure that you're wondering what this place is." The man spoke to Westwood.
"All honesty. I don't give two shits about it. I'm just waiting for another chance to have the grim reaper try to take me again." Westwood spoke keeping himself still inside the chamber.
The scientist groaned at Westwood's attitude, "Well. Just so you know. Teleportation is still a science fiction subject, this is to bring us this much closer to the goal of potentially sending soldiers to new places. Imagine a battalion of soldiers instantly taken from the states to a war zone like what you had to go through." The male spoke, "You are going to be our little lab rat for the evening to make sure we can make the science fiction reality."
Westwood smirked to the scientist, "Then throw that switch and send me already. I want to go back in the dark so I don't have to see your ugly mugs." He spoke with disdain for the scientist.
With a huff, the scientist turned his back and shouted which was now absent of tone while Westwood shut his eyes waiting for the test to end. Switches were flipped, wheels were turned and sparks began flying around the glass chamber. Westwood stood still as the sparks flew around him. One of these sparks struck Westwood's arm, his arm now was charred from the lightning bolt like spark.
Westwood's arm began regenerating at a quick pace leaving not skin, but into black scales that began spreading over his arm even to the places not struck by the lightning. More lightning bolts began striking his body leaving more of his body in the black scales. As the scales spread over his body, his body began mutating to appear more reptile like down to his head forming a triangular shape with horns sprouting from his head into a crown of horns. Westwood's hands began forming into claws as well as his feet forming elongated claws as well. The final touches were a long tail sprouting from the base of his spine and leather like wings shooting out from his back.
Lightning began sparking from Westwood's body and moments later his body began disintegrating, now screams of pain began filling the room while Westwood was slowly vanishing. It took nearly a minute of total anguish for Westwood before the screams became absent and his body was gone. Nothing remained of the reptile Westwood had became, the chamber empty and the scientists disappointed that they did not complete their finished product.
*Ponyville outskirts near Everfree forest. Nightfall*
Like the world he had just left, the land was dark with only the moonlight present to illuminate the world. Sparks began flying from the ground and shortly after a loud scream of agony began ringing through the night. In the center of the sparks, what looked like particles of carbon began floating from the air which first began forming the skeletal frame of a dragon that stood at six feet from his feet to the top of his horns. A moment later organs began forming in between the bones which looked as though they were still active despite the fact that his body did not seem like it was formed enough to actually function. The skeleton was then formed around with muscle and scales until the full, threatening image of the tall dragon formed.
The scream of agony ceased after his body was formed. Blood was leaking from the dragon's mouth leading to the dragon falling forward and vomiting out blood and bile that formed in his stomach as he was being reformed in this world. His yellow eyes looked up seeing a shadowy form of a horse approaching from the sky, "The reaper does not want me, so the horseman takes the immortal." He spoke before shutting his eyes and collapsing in the puddle of bile and vomit that now lay present on the ground.
*Two days later*
The two days Westwood lost his consciousness were filled with anguish, his body shaking in pain and fear the entire time he had his eyes closed. The images of his massacre continued flashing in his mind in between the actions that his body had taken when he was a human. His new body would not allow him to sweat, but he twisted and turned in his sleep. Growls began echoing in his throat as his mind repeated the images of his past. A voice could be heard from that dream which Westwood's eyes snapped open, his eyes now a bright red color as he sprung up from the place he rested with his new claws reached out to the source of the voice. His eyes looked at the figure in front of him as well as the room around him. It seemed that he was in a hospital room and the subject that he saw was a white pony with what looked like a nurse's uniform. Slowly his eyes shifted back to the yellow color, his mind was back to normal and he saw that he was about ready to tear open the pony's throat.
It was then that Westwood looked at his newly formed hand, the black scales and claws frightened him and he jumped up trying to leave the bed that he was in, "Get me out of here. I don't care who the fuck you are. You aren't cutting me again!" He shouted out while the nurse pony tried to restrain him.
"Stop moving. You have to rest. You might still be injured!" The nurse pony called out to Westwood. The plea was falling on deaf ears which lead to the nurse being hit and flying to the other side of the room and hitting the wall behind her.
Westwood shredded the sheets that held him down before jumping out of the window with a loud crash. His body impacted the ground hard. His body had finished recovering in those two days, but his mind had to adjust to the new reality he was in. This was made difficult when he pushed himself off the ground and saw the crowd of ponies. His eyes watched the crowd in confusion, the yellow eyes showed the fear and confusion which stunned the crowd more than just the dragon jumping out of the hospital window. The drake clenched the dirt under him, the sharpness of his claws left marks in the ground, "What the hell is going on?!" He roared, the wings on his back fluttering involuntarily in his confusion.
The drake began getting to his feet though before he could go too far he felt something strange grab onto his wrists and ankles. The force then pulled him upward forcing his arms and legs to separate from each limb as though something was keeping him from doing anything stupid, "That is enough!" A strong feminine voice called as though this action was predicted. A small pony was walking forward, her violet coat being the most prominent feature as well as the horn that protruded from her forehead.
Westwood struggled against what he could see were bonds of sparkling light that and held the strength of steel. Westwood struggled against the bonds, flashes of his time in the labs motivated him to struggle against the magic further, "I'll kill you before you cut into me." He spoke clenching his claws while attempting to pull his limbs close.
The unicorn then spoke seeing the dragon as being afraid, "No one is going to cut you. I'm using a spell to keep you from hurting us or yourself." She spoke showing some struggle to keep the dragon from breaking free.
Westwood stared at the unicorn seeing the struggle in her face, the glow on her horn then doubling his vision back to his bonds, "Spell? This is magic?" He asked calming somewhat and relaxing his arms and legs which lead to Twilight struggling less to keep the six foot tall drake from breaking free, "What is your name horse? Seeing that you things can talk in this world." He spoke hanging loosely from his bonds.
The unicorn felt less struggle and the drop in stress made it easier to hold the dragon still, "I'm a pony. And my name is Twilight Sparkle." She spoke keeping her concentration on Westwood to hold him still.
Westwood laughed hearing Twilight speak and looked up seeing the sun shining in the sky, "Sorry about the rage. Sensory overload. That happens when you're stuck in a dark cell for years then you wake up in a hospital bed somewhere where the impossible happens." He spoke with a grin showing the large fangs that protruded from his mouth. The sarcastic nature present in his voice just like it was when he was still human.
Twilight Sparkle watched the dragon carefully still, "So if I let you down you won't hurt anypony?" She asked eager to release the spell since Westwood was heavy compared to what she was used to.
Westwood moved his right hand in a way that was showing the motions for a 'cross my heart and hope to die' promise, "I cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye." He spoke before feeling himself slowly descending to the ground once again. The feeling of the ground beneath his feet did feel good after his ordeal dealing with the magical unicorn, "Since you gave me your name I guess I should give you mine." He started as he rubbed his wrists that still felt pressure despite the fact they had already been freed, "Name's Westwood. Don't know what I am now, but whatever." He finished looking at the ponies around that still had fear in their faces from his display after he jumped out the window.
Twilight still remained defensive despite the fact that Westwood had promised with his life that he would control himself, "You don't know that you're a dragon? And what do you mean by NOW?" She asked trying to understand what Westwood was talking about.
Westwood just gave a sigh, "Forget it. It's a long story and I don't feel like discussing my life history with a big -uh- herd of" He paused trying to remember what Twilight had specified, "Ponies." He finished not trying to sound like he had disdain for the fact he was addressing them by their appropriate term, but it seemed obvious that his time locked away in the dark had done things to him.
Twilight looked at the crowd around them and nodded, "Alright, so if I set you up somewhere private." She started and looked at the window that Westwood smashed through, "And away from hospitals, you would be alright with talking to me?" She added in figuring that the medical aspect might be unnecessary seeing as Westwood seemed to moving around fine and didn't seem in pain.
Westwood shrugged his shoulders, "If you want to hear my story that badly, then why the hell not give you my life's story. I'll just keep the gross parts out so that you don't pass out on me or some crap like that." He said to Twilight crossing his muscular arms over his chest, "So are you going to show me to this place or am I going have to try and find it for myself?" He asked Twilight tapping his toe claw into the ground where his claws had dug into the ground.
Twilight groaned at the Dragon's attitude, "Alright. Come on." The annoyed unicorn spoke, "But if I see you do one thing and you're back in that spell." She spoke to Westwood turning enough to make her way to the library from the center of town. The crowd slowly dissipated from where Westwood had crashed through the window and the mess was already in the works of being cleaned up. It was a matter of a couple of hours to clean and repair the mess that had been made from the dragon's panic.
Once the dragon and the pony were inside of the library, Westwood looked for a place to sit which lead to him just taking a seat on the ground sitting much like how he was used to when he was a human, "So do you really want to know what happened to me?" He asked keeping a defensive pose while seated on the wooden floor.
Twilight Sparkle stared at him, "Yes. If I am going to find out where you just came from then we are going to have to know everything." She spoke standing in front of the larger drake and trying to keep face to face while he was seated.
Westwood shrugged his shoulders, "Suit yourself." He started before clearing his throat in a mocking way like one would do to start telling a story, "I am not this thing you see in front of you. Whatever the hell I am right now. I was a human. I was thrown in a cell in a top-secret place where they did all kinds of bloody experiments on me. Trying to get a human to regrow body parts like lizards or some other bullshit I don't remember. The last one was to try and teleport people to other places to cut down on soldier deployment times. I went in there, got hit by electricity and started growing scales. Next thing I know I'm in the middle of a grassy field and I'm puking blood. After that I wake up to a horse dressed like a nurse watching me wake up and I'm about to tear it's throat out." He spoke keeping his terms blunt to the unicorn.
Twilight was more confused than she was before, "What are you talking about? Any unicorn can teleport so why are other ponies trying to find out how to do when they can just ask one of us for help."
Westwood's hand his face when Twilight questioned him, "Well I don't know what the hell you're thinking, but where I'm from there are no such things as unicorns, horses don't talk and they certainly don't have their own city. How the hell do you even do anything with hooves?" He asked feeling annoyed by the fact that he was being corrected by something that he felt shouldn't even exist.
Twilight Sparkle was more confused than ever, "A place where ponies don't talk? Really? And no such things as unicorns? What kind of backwards place do you live?"
It was easy to see the annoyance in Westwood's face, "Then how about I make it simple so you get it. Whatever makes you exist, PONIES talk or what ever the hell is going on here does not exist in my world. The only things that talk as sentient beings are called humans. I guess the best way to describe them are bald monkeys that stand on two legs and have a nasty habit of fighting like it's going out of style." Westwood finished stamping one of his feet on the ground, "Something that I currently am not because of all the shit that's happened to me over the years."
Twilight tried as she could to imagine a human, but everything she thought looked like some deformed demon from the bowls of Tartarus, "I'll just take your word for it right now. I'll try and see if I can get any help for you." She spoke.
Westwood, out of instinct, threw his tail forward and the tip sunk into the wood of the library floor in front of Twilight, "I am not crazy. I am telling you everything that happened exactly as I know it."
Twilight took a step back from the tail that seemed more dangerous now than it seemed to be earlier, "Alright. I won't call anypony like that. I will need to write to my teacher to get why everything has happened. Is there anything that I can use to make it a little easier for her to understand?" Twilight asked.
Westwood rubbed his forehead feeling some of his frustration giving him a headache, "Alright. Last thing is that I suffer from nightmares. I twist and turn to the point I get no rest when I sleep." He added in for Twilight.
"Spike!" The unicorn shouted to what seemed to be the attic of the library, "I need to write a letter to Princess Celestia!" She added in which a few seconds later a pitter patter sound overhead could be heard in the attic leaving Westwood confused on what could be up there causing such a noise. His question was answered a minute later as a small drake with purple scales rushed down the staircase with a piece of thick looking paper, a quill and a jar of ink that he slammed down on the nearest surface that his small stature could reach.
Spike, as Westwood could guess from the name Twilight had shouted, turned to address Twilight Sparkle to see the much larger dragon on the floor. Panic struck his face remembering the great dragon migration and the teenage dragons that had caused him to suffer through tests and question his morals, "Twilight! Get out of here! I'll protect you!" He shouted jumping in front of Twilight as though trying to act tough.
Westwood snickered somewhat which evolved into a torrent of laughter as the black scaled dragon flung himself back and began rolling on the floor unable to control his laughter.
Spike was silent for a few seconds before Twilight took Spike's attention, "Spike." The feminine voice spoke, "This is Westwood. He woke up from the hospital a short time ago and I'm trying to get a story together. He says he's not a dragon" Twilight spoke trying to talk over the large dragon's hysterical laughter.
Westwood began slowing his laughter and took a deep breath, "My god. That was the funniest goddamned thing I've seen in years!" He called out wiping a tear out of his eye and sitting back up, "You're a tough one for being the size of a poodle, but you have to get the context of what's going on before you jump to a conclusion like that." He spoke flicking Spike's nose.
Spike grabbed his snout while Twilight had gone to the location Spike dropped off the writing materials to start writing, "Just shut up." He spoke with his mouth covered by the claws put over his snout.
Twilight had used her magic to roll up the scroll and levitated it towards the small dragon, "Stop complaining and send this to Princess Celestia. I need her help with trying to find out what is going on with Westwood so we can get what's wrong." She spoke to the small dragon.
Spike took the letter and blew an emerald flame which evaporated the parchment. The remaining dust flew out the nearest open window.
Westwood watched what just happened and his voice fell quiet to the point that one could not even hear his previously gasping breaths, "Mind explaining what just happened there?" He asked confused about why a letter had vaporized, but at the same time the dust seemed to follow a single file to an actual destination as opposed to scattering in flat ashes.
Spike grinned at the clueless dragon in front of him, "That was me sending a letter to the princess. I guess that somepony doesn't know anything about magic." Spike spoke with a condescending tone to his voice while staring at Westwood nearly forgetting the size difference between the two.
Westwood scowled at Spike, "You better be glad that I don't feel like squishing you under my foot right now." Westwood spoke to Spike lifting up the foot that was bigger than the purple scaled dragon was. The result made Spike gulp, only to be follow by a belch of emerald flame. A scroll appeared from the flames and floated to Twilight, "You know what. I'm not even going to ask this time." Westwood finished looking at Twilight now.
Twilight Sparkle looked at the parchment and unrolled it to read, "Alright. The good news is that we can get you some help, the bad news is that we have to wait a while. Princess Celestia is busy with other matters and Princess Luna will only be able to help us out after she's risen the moon tonight."
The news that his answers would have to come later than he wanted was annoying, but it gave him time to adjust, "So you have multiple princesses. I can see this is a matriarchy, but what about a queen? Is this just one of these places that the rulers don't want to take more responsibility?" He asked.
Twilight quickly took offense to Westwood's remark, "Princess Celestia has the overwhelming responsibility to make the sun rise every day and set every night. You have no idea what she has to go through every single day to keep everything in Equestria flowing the way that it needs to. You have no right to judge her." Twilight spoke in a stern manner as she just about butted heads with the black scaled dragon.
Westwood saw the rage in Twilight's eyes as they were nearly forced into his own, "Okay. I get it. I won't say anything about your princess." He spoke to Twilight leaning back while Twilight pressed her head into his.
Twilight sighed to Westwood the pulled back, "Good. Because I wouldn't want to use a restraining spell to have you hang from the ceiling and your horns stuck in the ceiling so all you can do is look at the floor." Twilight threatened Westwood and started to walk away from Westwood, "Don't do anything stupid while you wait. It's another ten hours before the sun goes down. I'll let you go out for now, but you better be back here by sundown." the unicorn added in pointing her front hoof at the black dragon.
Westwood nodded, "Yeah I get it. I won't do anything stupid." He spoke getting up from the ground and looking at the door. While he was comfortable in the dark, sunlight was something that he wanted to experience more than comfort, even if it meant aimlessly wandering around.
A Journey Through the Dark
Now that the dramatic events of this morning were over and done with, Westwood took his stroll trying to avoid contact with the crowd of ponies that had seen him previously in his stunned overload. Now it was quieter and he wasn't in a position that somepony was using magic to restrain him like some kind of wild animal. The warm sunlight felt good against his scales which absorbed more heat just from the uniform set of black scales over his entire body. He was content just killing time walking in a straight line through the sunlight.
After an hour or so, Westwood had lost his bearing and had found himself walking towards what looked like a forest that lacked the light that was readily present in the outside world. He stared at this forest border for some time as though analyzing the way this forest could possibly function. With a shrug of his shoulders he stepped into the boundary of the forest finding that the warmth he felt was near nonexistent as though something sucked the warmth out of the world, "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder." He spoke looking at the boundary and then back ahead to walk further into the darkness until it became as dark as the cell that he had been trapped in for years. It away the darkness around him was comforting, possibly more than the sunlight he was swimming in before if only because he was accustomed to the pitch black void that he was in.
Sounds around him became more clear, his footsteps seemed as loud as cymbals in the absence of light. One noise different, the sound of a snapping twig which sent Westwood into the fight or flight reflex. His reflex sent him into a boxing style fighting stance as he turned. The sensitivity made him see into the darkness around him, "You better come out if you don't want to get flayed alive." He drake spoke which lead to a shuddering that he could hear shaking a bush.
"Please don't hurt me." A soft voice appeared from the dark, "I don't mean harm. I'm just looking for Angel." The soft and frightened voice continued as the shape of a winged pony could be seen exiting the bush.
Westwood looked at the shape for a minute. He had to be seeing things this time, if the figure of a winged pony was real he was going to hit himself to see if he wasn't having some sort of bizarre dream that made him hear talking ponies, unicorns and now pegasi, "Don't sneak around like that. It's hard enough to see and things sound louder here than outside." The dragon spoke to the soft voiced pegasus.
The voice, still cloaked in the shadows that hid her body, continued, "I'm sorry. I just needed to find Angel Bunny and-"
Westwood interrupted the pegasus before she could say more, "You don't need to apologize." He said to her. Something about this voice felt nostalgic to him, he couldn't quite place it right this second, but it gave him that feeling, "I'll help you find your rabbit if you want some help. I can see a little better in the dark than most pe- i mean- ponies." He said to her. It wasn't a lie, he did see better than others could in the dark if only because he was experimented on so often and had genes swapped with other creatures, "The name's Westwood by the way." He spoke to the pegasus.
The pegasus seemed to look away from Westwood, "My name's Fluttershy." She spoke in her soft tone that slowly degraded to a near inaudible tone.
Westwood caught the name regardless which he turned back around, "Then let's try and find that rabbit of yours." He said to Fluttershy. He didn't know what went over him, he was offering to help find a rabbit in the middle of a massive forest that had little to no light though most of the density. He didn't know if he was just being soft or if something about this pegasus was making him easy to manipulate.
Fluttershy started following behind the larger dragon and looking around where they stood, "Thank you Westwood." She spoke with a voice that was more audible and had slightly more strength to it if that strength was infantile at best.
Westwood sighed hearing her voice, "Don't mention it." His reply came looking ahead and trying to spot some sort of rabbit. What was strange was that there was no rabbit of any kind around, it was a little unnerving that with the size of the forest that he had not found any sort of life outside of Fluttershy whom he found a short time ago, "So what happened to make your rabbit run away?" He asked while keeping his eyes scanning the forest floor and watching for roots that could trip the two of them.
Fluttershy sunk her head down, "I was trying to feed him, but I didn't have exactly what he wanted." She answered the dragon as though the fact that the rabbit's particular taste was her fault that she couldn't give him what he wanted to the dot.
Westwood snickered with his grin pulled to the side of his face, "Is that it? Sounds like that rabbit of yours is more of a spoiled brat than a pet." He said to Fluttershy.
He heard a rustling in the bushes to his side, an instant later something small and fluffy jumped out and clung to the dragon's face which he attempted pulling it off without hurting it with his claws, "Get off my face you hairball!" He shouted. The shout echoed through the forest while Westwood struggled with pulling the furry object from his face. He finally pulled the creature off his face and put it on the ground, "This belong to you by chance?" Westwood asked keeping the blunter parts of his claws on the scruff of the rabbits neck.
Fluttershy looked at the furry creature and then she gasped, "Angel. I was so worried about you." She spoke now nuzzling with the rabbit.
Westwood groaned rubbing his face with one hand. An odd feeling crept up his spine, he opened his eyes between his fingers to see sets of glowing eyes staring at the two of them, "Fluttershy. What lives in these woods?" He asked the pegasus taking a step back. He looked back at Fluttershy and saw that she was near paralyzed with fear.
"Monsters. Manticores, Timberwolves." She started though her voice fell to something that was inaudible.
Westwood took a stance in front of Fluttershy being her guardian, "Fluttershy, I want you to run. Don't look back, just run as fast as you can." He spoke to the pegasus before the glowing yellow eyes started to appear more. They were completely surrounded by these creatures around them. It was too late for escape, he had to fight, "I guess that it's time I tried fighting in my new body." He spoke.
Fluttershy shook like a leaf keeping near Westwood. She couldn't speak, she could hardly breath and she couldn't move.
Westwood's face turned at first to see the hostile creatures behind him, the other thing he saw was the look of mortal fear in Fluttershy's face even if it was obscured more by the darkness around them. The drake slowly turned his head once again, his eyes changed from the bright yellow to a deep red. His tone was now that of a low rumble as he growled to the crowd of creatures.
A roar came from his throat as he rushed forward. The next sounds that could be heard were loud yelping like a dog being hurt. Soon a loud crash could be heard and light began flooding into the battle ground. Westwood seemed to have curved blades of an ethereal mass on his forearms. Behind him was a large splatter of blood and organs even if his own body was clean. He turned his head seeing the source of the eyes from before, an assortment of different creatures were scattered about. Wolves made from branches and wood, humanoid dogs with jeweled collars, and other various beasts scattered about, a large mass of eyes were now absent.
Another loud growl penetrated the world as Westwood charged at the creature nearest Fluttershy, the timberwolf closest to her was the first to receive the drake's rage. The blades on his arms severed through every point of the wooden creature turning it into kindling wood. The enraged drake had his fangs bared at the creatures like a rabid animal .
Fluttershy was now more terrified by Westwood than she was of the monsters, she saw a mindless savage that had just murdered Celestia knows what that mess of blood and organs had been at some point, "Westwood! Stop!" She shouted attempting to reach the dragon and bring him back to his senses.
The screams had fallen on deaf ears. More organs, limbs and extremities flew through the air as the ethereal blades cleaved through meat and bones as though they were made out of butter and paper. It was no longer a dark battleground, it was a slaughter.
The segment of the forest was now bare of trees. Blood, organs and limbs scattered throughout what was the slaughter Westwood's enraged form took. His breathing was deep, rapid and animalistic.
Fluttershy was terrified, the drake she met that was helping her search for her lost rabbit had brutally murdered a crowd of monsters, even the ones that attempted to flee were not spared, "Westwood!" She shouted one last time.
The drake spun his body around, one of the ethereal blades stopped just short of rending Fluttershy's head from her shoulders. The enraged red eyes that Westwood had slowly faded to the normal yellow color, his mind had returned to normal and the blades vanished like they were air. He looked at the battleground and saw what he had done in his rage. Flashbacks of his nightmares began echoing through his mind. The looks on the villager's faces resembled that of Fluttershy's look of total terror.
Fluttershy saw that his eyes had turned again, slowly she started to move again, "Westwood?" She asked with the look of terror on her face as well as concern in her eyes.
Westwood's eye formed a small tear in the corner of his eyes realizing that he was close to killing the cream colored pegasus that he had tried to help, "Just get away from me." He spoke gritting his fangs.
Fluttershy's voice shuddered seeing that Westwood was back in control, "No." She started and she moved closer to the dragon. Yes she was afraid, but she could see that he had intended on protecting her, "I'm not going to leave." She spoke looking around at the gore around her, "This wouldn't have happened if I would have just told Angel to eat what he had." She spoke using her flaws to try and comfort Westwood the best she could, "It's my fault you had to."
Westwood looked at Fluttershy thinking that something was wrong with her, "You're scared of monsters right? Why do you accept me yet I am probably the biggest monster of them all." He spoke seeing the world around them and that there was a circle where blood was not present, a circle around Fluttershy.
"Because you only became like that to protect me. If you were a monster then I would be dead too." Fluttershy spoke keeping close.
The tear that had formed in his eyes slowly trailed down the frame of his face, "You are a strange one Fluttershy." He spoke before picking up the pegasus, "Let me at least keep you from stepping in all this crap." He spoke keeping the white rabbit and the cream colored pegasus from being near the blood and gore that was left in his rage. The fact that Fluttershy had seemed to forgive him so easily for being a monster was confusing to him when the last time he went into the rage he was imprisoned for years and became a test subject.
With the look of the outside world present, he saw that he had spent more time wandering in those woods than he had originally thought, "Tell me where you want me to drop you off at. I have a place to go." He spoke jumping and making it to the top of one of the trees, the act confused him on how his leg strength could have gotten him up to this height, but being able to see where he was going instead of wandering in the dark was something he wasn't going to complain about.
Fluttershy was taken by surprise when Westwood had picked her up and now the three were high up in the trees and could see the clock tower and the tree library in the distance showing where Ponyville was, "I have a home near the edge of Everfree Forest. If you can take me there I'll be fine." She spoke to the black scaled drake.
Westwood nodded to Fluttershy and used the same strength as before to leap from one tree to the next. The new speed and balance the drake found made his long walk through the forest so much short even to the point it was merely a few minutes from the center of the Everfree to the border where he found what appeared to be a cottage that literally was in the border of the forest. He wasn't going to argue with the placement, if it was safe enough then it was safe enough. Besides, he had to meet with the princess Twilight had called to meet him.
"Alright you're back home. Now try and keep yourself out of trouble." He said to Fluttershy as he turned and started running back to the library so he could be back in time for his royal appointment.
By the time Westwood got back to the library, the sun had already gone down and the moon began to rise as well. He slammed the library door open with his shoulder. Instead of meeting with a princess, all that was there was Twilight waiting by reading a book.
"You're almost late. What took you so long?" Twilight spoke in irritation at the dragon in front of her.
"Sorry. I got lost when I was walking around." Westwood lied in a smooth enough manner to pass it off as an excuse.
Twilight groaned, "Fine." The violet unicorn spoke before looking out the window and to the rising moon and the shining stars that Luna had began setting in the sky.
Westwood set himself on the ground and sighed as he watched the moon rising in the sky. The dark sky gave him some comfort. He felt like he could hide from what he had just done, much like how he wanted to stay in the dark when he was being experimented on. His time in the dark meant that he wasn't being cut up like a Christmas turkey.
Minutes turned to hours and Westwood eventually fell asleep while still in a seated position. After some time asleep he began to shake as the nightmares had started. As if this was what was intended by Princess Luna, the alicorn had appeared in the library looking at the dragon in front of her. She started to him for a moment and soon after entered the dragon's dream.
All Luna could see in the dream at first was a vast void of dark. Light was nowhere as though Westwood's mind was blank. In reality Luna had stepped halfway into the dream and had missed the events leading to what was about to happen. The dark gave way to a few sounds to give the space she resided in some depth. The sound of water dripped from the ceiling to the hard floor under her hooves, a sound of a chain swinging was present as well. The last sound was the opening and slamming of a steel door which now made the world silent again.
"Good to see you are still alive Marine." The Hispanic tone came from the direction the sound of the door, "I was afraid that we wouldn't have our fun tonight." He continued.
Seconds later a single light flashed on
in a flickering yellow light from a swinging lamp. Under the light was a human in an urban camo uniform with his arms chained behind him and attached to a meta beam. Blood, old and new, stained his uniform with what looked like old gashes and bruises showing from the exposed parts of his uniform.
"Go to hell Martinez" The familiar voice of Westwood called out to the dark as the Hispanic male appeared under the yellow light.
"You wound me Marine. I would have thought you would be nicer to an old buddy." The male spoke with a snicker.
Westwood looked at the man in front of him then spit at him, "Shut the hell up. We were never buds or whatever you say we are you slimeball." The human Westwood spoke. Some blood was mixed with his spit from wounds to his mouth.
The Hispanic man wiped his face of Westwood's saliva before wiping it into Westwood's short hair, "We are giving you one more chance to cooperate. My boss is getting very impatient. Says if you don't talk now that you should just die." Martinez spoke before drawing a long knife from a sheath on his belt, "So we are going to ask you one last time. Where are your dogs at and when are they going to attack?" Martinez added before running the tip to Westwood's uniform.
Westwood grinned and let his voice slip out, "I don't know about where they are, but I can tell you something that will help you a lot. Taking a small blue pill that will let you fuck yourself." He spoke before feeling the knife pierce into his shoulder and more blood was drawn, "Stabbing me in the shoulder won't do me in, you should know that." He spoke keeping himself from acting in the pain of the stab.
Martinez groaned hearing Westwood's jokes then pulled the knife out from Westwood's shoulder, "You are really pissing me off marine. Three days I've been cutting you up and carving you like a pig, but you still don't talk." He spoke moving the knife to a forehand position, "I've had enough. You are too much trouble." He spoke before moving to thrust the knife into Westwood's stomach.
Luna watched the human and time seemed to slow as Martinez then attempted to stab the human in a vital region.
Westwood jolted his head up, his eyes bleeding tears before finally turning red. The heavy chains that kept him restrained now shattered like glass, his hands now looked like claws as he swung his hands forward and grabbed Martinez's head. His claws started to pierce into Martinez's head and a small trickle of blood began seeping from each of the ten punctures, "What's the matter?" Westwood spoke with a grin on his face and a second deeper voice present, "I thought you were going to kill me." He spoke with that echo still present in his voice.
Martinez shook in fear as his head was bleeding from the human Westwood's inhuman features present in his eyes and his new claws on his face. He then attempted to stab Westwood in the stomach again. Instead of feeling the blade sinking into the flesh of Westwood's stomach, it snapped off of the handle and flew off in another direction. Metal shards were plinking on the ground under them. Martinez looked down to see now only that Westwood's many wounds were piecing themselves together by threads of meat pulling the many wounds closed, but the healing flesh was growing black and looked much like patches of scales on his many wounds.
Slowly Westwood moved his thumbs from the pierce marks in Martinez's forehead and rubbed under his eyes, "Now don't you worry. This will only hurt a lot." He spoke before shoving his clawed thumbs into Martinez's eyes. A loud scream echoed from Martinez before the lamp died leaving the world dark once again.
When Luna could see once again she found herself outside, a group was reacting to the scream of death and crowding around the bunker door that lead into the chamber that held Westwood, "Boss. What's going on in there?" One of the men asked in a panic before the doors were thrown open.
Seconds later a limbless stump was thrown from the dark opening, the face frozen in pain even after death and blood poured from the limbs until all that was left was a puddle of what remained of his fluids. Westwood walked out of the chamber with a grin on his face and hands covered in blood, "So. Who's next?" The male asked gazing his red eyes as the small group in front of him.
As a result of fear, the group began opening fire using the rifles in their hands to attempt to kill Westwood. Westwood rushed forward, his body movements avoiding the bullets being fired at him as though he could see them as clear as the light around them. In a matter of seconds, the human Westwood had made his way in the center of the group who had gone empty trying to shoot at the inhuman movements of their target.
Luna had blinked, or did she force herself to close her eyes, and the next thing she saw was the human in the air with ribbons of crimson fluid decorated the world of Westwood's nightmares. The leaves, trees and building had red slapped onto their frames and trunks. The humans on the ground stood still as though in shock of what had just happened. The human Westwood landed on the ground and his grin widened before kicking each of the humans leading to the still frames falling to pieces one by one.
The place was empty of life aside from Westwood and Luna. The human remaining looked to Luna, his red eyes fading to yellow, "I can guess that you are the princess I was supposed to meet." Westwood spoke slowly morphing to the form of the dragon, his dream now was broken from the blood covered tropic location to a dark location as though Westwood was finally in control of this place and knowing that he was in a dream.
Luna was shocked that Westwood had this much control of his dreams, "Yes. I am Princess Luna." The dark furred alicorn spoke taking a step back in the darkness and realized now that the two were now in an enclosed space, "What happened? Why did you kill those things?" She asked seeing nothing in the darkness other than the glow of Westwood's eyes piercing through the dark.
Westwood smirked, "I wasn't in control them. Something took over my body. I've been having this dream over and over again, nothing I do can change that. This time I could finally gain a little control only after I finished the events of my past." He spoke staring at the eyes that stared back at his own, "So are you afraid. That a bloodthirsty monster stands in front of you, or that something that is not something you can recognize is in your world."
Luna was frozen solid. There was a hint of fear in her mind, but at the same time Twilight had not mentioned that Westwood was a monster. That the dragon was in control of himself, she had not seen what was possible until just now, "Yes. There is some fear, but I can see you aren't going to hurt me." Luna spoke as the room began to slowly brighten showing the dragon in his fully developed dragon form aside from the morphing Westwood had been going through before the world went completely dark.
Westwood smirked, "I have no reason to hurt you. You are here to help me, why hurt someone that tries to help?" He asked as the room was now fully exposed. It was the cell he was held in when he was human and being used as a lab rat, "Or are you just here to watch me dream?" He added in as he crossed his arms over his strong chest.
Luna shook her head trying to break the near hypnotic stare that the two had shared when their eyes were the only things that were present, "I want to help, just." She paused thinking of the right words, "I don't know how to help you." Luna finished as she stood her ground in front of the dragon seeing she was barely shorter than he was.
Now that Westwood had seen Luna close enough, he could see that the shape of her body was the same as the form that he had seen earlier, "So. You were the one that I saw that first day." He spoke, the world around them faded away, it was now a void. It was bright enough to have the two still be able to see each other.
Luna nodded, "Yes. I was performing my duty by raising the moon, that was when I saw you. I saw that strange phenomena that brought you to this place. I had thought someone had cast magic to cause you pain, but after seeing what your dream showed me it seems that you are not even from this world." Luna replied which she took a step toward the black scaled dragon so the two were now face to face, "While I can see you have a past that you wish to forget, I can also see that you do not act on the same impulses. You are not a monster, then again you are not a dragon." She finished.
Westwood chuckled at her words, not an evil or haunting laugh like what could be heard when he had when he had killed the other humans, "Your world is an odd place. First it was that quiet winged pony before, and now a full grown-" He paused thinking of a word that would define the princess in front of him, "What are you anyway?" He asked.
Luna took a seat in front of Westwood whom out of a common action took a seat as well, both bodies kept up by an invisible platform that supported the two in the void around them, "I am an alicorn. I possess the strength of an earth pony, the wings and flight of a pegasus and the magic strength of a unicorn. Me and my sister are the only ones to be such ponies."
The two continued speaking of each other's worlds, sharing pieces of information with one another in the featureless void. It may have been an unusual place to hold a conversation, but at the same time it was a place that made the dragon feel comfortable in his own mind. At the end of the night, Luna had to break away from Westwood's dream in order to allow the moon to fall and her sister to let the sun rise in the sky.
When Luna had left the drake's dream, Westwood had opened his eyes seeing that the place he had been sleeping was now brightening. Despite having a long discussion with Princess Luna in the realm of his dreams, Westwood felt more rested than he had been in years. Whether it was because he could break away from the repeating nightmare in his talk with Luna or if it was some random act he had no idea.
A strange feeling was on his new body's mouth. He didn't know where it had come from, but it felt rather nice. Westwood looked out the window and to the rising sun, he felt the warm rays on his scales which seemed to give him enough energy to stand and stretch his body from the odd position he had fallen asleep in.
The flight back to the castle was uneventful at best, the only thing in Luna's mind being the dragon she had spoken to over the course of the hours Westwood had been asleep. That conversation revealed so much to her and showed her that there was more than Equestria. The dream before that had seemed to fall into the back of her mind trying to ignore the images of the monster that was shown even if the monster was out of Westwood's seemingly well meaning character.
Princess Luna touched down on the balcony to her room, in her room was her counterpart, "Sister. How long have you been here?" She asked quizzical to the pure white princess in front of her.
Celestia shook her head, "Not long. I finished raising the sun and came here to talk about the dragon Twilight said needed assistance." Princess Celestia replied to her sister, "So how did your meeting go? Did anything happen?" She added in as she folded her legs to be more comfortable in talking.
Princess nodded, "Yes. He is an interesting dragon to say the least." Luna spoke leaving out the part about how the image she saw made Westwood to look like a beast, "He claims to be from another world and I honestly believe him. After all, you cannot feign that sort of ignorance." Luna spoke setting herself down in front of her sister to talk.
The look on Celestia's face looked grim, "He claims to be from another world. How so?" Celestia added to her questioning.
Luna looked to her sister confused, "He spoke about a world where monkeys without hair seemed to be the dominate species, there was no such thing as magic or magic creatures, and funniest of all he said that ponies and other creatures couldn't talk like we could. The world he described sounded so backwards that I almost thought he was just joking with me." Luna explained to her sister.
Celestia looked down to the floor, "Luna. There's something I should show you. You did not witness it because you were banished to the moon when it happened." Celestia spoke to Luna as she got up from the floor, "It is an event I am not proud of, but it was necessary in order to keep the peace."
With that Luna's interest was peaked, "And this has something to do with Westwood?" Luna questioned her sister following after Celestia when she had started moving.
"Yes." Celestia spoke looking to Luna behind her, "I hope that this is not the case, but it is best that you know. You were banished to the moon when this had all happened so you would have no idea what may be happening now." She spoke leading Luna through to the hall of stained glass mirrors.
Luna looked around trying to see if there was a new window painted in the hall, "Is there something here that shows what you are trying to tell me?" She asked seeing nothing new and nothing referencing a dragon outside of the one showing spike being a hero to the Crystal Empire, "I don't quite understand."
Celestia closed her eyes and after a second she opened them again with dark streams flowing from her eyes. The world around them went dark as though the moon was risen though inspecting the light source it looked like the sun had eclipsed only inside that room, "This room has two sides. One that shows the heroic actions of the ponies of Equestria." She started and the dark magic from her eyes had faded away when the room was completely shifted, "This side shows the events that I regret. The pieces of history that I wish I could take back." She continued now walking down the hall until she was halfway inside the hall.
Luna followed after and looked around the place Celestia had stopped, "Is this the one sister?" Luna asked looking at the stained glass window showing what looked like a battle between one race of dragons and a side that was composed of both ponies and a variety of dragons following behind.
Celestia nodded, "Yes. It was one hundred and fifty years ago this day. There was a race of dragons that were powerful warriors. What happened was that they had developed a high degree of arrogance that lead to them to wage war against the other dragon races. These powerful warriors had no elemental attribute, but they could use their own shadows to form weapons on their bodies limited by what they could form in their mind." Celestia spoke looking at the stained glass window remembering the conflict that happened as though it were yesterday.
Luna looked to Celestia with a question following behind, "So what happened? Why are ponies involved in a war with two dragon parties?" She asked with Celestia showing sorrow in her face and her tone.
"The other dragons had lost their numbers and the warriors had been thriving as though they had not lost a single unit. The other dragon races came to us for aid. They had thought that our magics could help bring the warriors to their knees. That assumption was correct. The warriors could not handle our magic and soon fell to nothing saving millions of lives that the warriors would have killed." Celestia then moved to the next window, in the painted glass was a small version of one of the race that had fought the ponies and dragons, "By the time the fighting stopped. There was only one of the warriors left. A baby that had not known anything of its life and what power it possessed. To save it from itself I had banished the child. Sent it to a world with no magic, no beings like ourselves and even changed the poor child to fit with the new world it would reside in a world that it would fit in." Celestia added with the stained glass window showing something that looked like a hairless ape under the picture of the small dragon.
Luna seemed confused by the images and the words that her sister spoke, "So an entire race was erased from the face of Equestria. I don't know what to say. If you let the dragons fight amongst themselves then it was possible that the warriors would have attempted to do more than just the dragons, but at the same time a race of dragons had to be killed in order to keep the world safe." Luna spoke then it occurred to her what Celestia was talking about, "Are you saying that Westwood was the child that you banished?" She asked in shock.
Celestia looked to the side, "I have a feeling that is the case. I have already heard of a mass of body parts found littered in fallen trees in the Everfree Forest. I looked to it after I raised the sun and saw it was true. I have a feeling that Westwood has unwittingly let something loose in his mind to let his power take over if only for a minute." She spoke and she took a breath letting the room once again become the bright and vibrant room that it was before she cast her dark magic to show the hidden world, "If that is the case, then a smaller scale of that war may happen again. Which means that we have to tell him." She spoke to Luna turning to face her sister.
Luna tapped her hoof on the tile floor and spoke a moment later, "I will tell him. He seems comfortable around me, and I am sure that he will listen to me. I know I will have to word myself careful so that I do not cause him to be distraught by the reality of his life." She spoke closing her eyes and slowly lowering her head down. It wasn't in a way that she was depressed, but in a way that was showing some respect for her sister.
Celestia sighed softly, "Be careful. I do not know what he would do if you revealed everything quickly. He may go berserk like his predecessors did those many years ago." Celestia added in as she watched Luna begin to leave the hall the way that they had come from. She began to worry to a degree about what could happen and what she or Luna may have to do if Westwood went berserk. Though the benefit of the dragon being on their side could outweigh many of the potential hazards that were present with Westwood's very existence.
Luna began thinking of Westwood and the life he had as a human. She wondered if that life was any better than what could have been if the drake had stayed in this world and had his life set in a different path. From the dream she saw that he had become a warrior even without the help of his own kind. Even if she wasn't there to help or pass judgement, she felt some responsibility for what happened to Westwood. It would take a lot of planning to say what Westwood actually was to him, she knew how dangerous Westwood could be now.
Once Luna had left the hall, Celestia looked up at the window that replaced with stained glass of the alternate room, the picture of Spike saving the Crystal empire being the one that replaced the scene of the battle between the single dragon race and the combined forces. Things had changed since that century and a half, she saw now that she had judged what the child would have become regardless of the consequences that may have come from it and now that the child had returned, "Who do I ask for help when the world asks me for help?" She asked herself staring at the glass pane over her seeing the picture of a dragon saving a civilization, in a way she wondered if something similar could happen with their newest resident to the world.
Luna had left the hall to go to her room, she had the lights off wondering what it must have been like for the drake that she met. She didn't know why she was thinking so much about their newest visitor. In a way it scared her since she had never thought about any being this much and in this way, "Why do I still think about that dragon?" She asked herself with a small laugh as though she were trying to get over her own head to get the point of her thoughts. She began looking forward to her next visit with Westwood whether in his dream again or in the physical realm after her duty with raising the moon or setting the moon past the horizon. Part of her wanted to just go out now and go a day without rest to see him, but her mind had felt somewhat weary from being in the realm of another's single dream for as long as she had. Only seconds had passed after setting her head down before the princess had drifted off to sleep.
Back in Ponyville, it was business as usual. The crowds had been walking about either with purpose or aimlessly. The flow of ponies seemed to move like fish swimming against a current of other ponies present. Westwood was the one thing that stuck out in the crowd, whether that was because he was nearly twice the height of the rest of the group or the fact he was the only shiny scaled object in the entire town was up to debate. With Westwood, all the excitement had started to die down and his stomach began growling, he hadn't eaten in over an entire day not including his time stuck in that cell as a human. His other problem was that he didn't have any money or any way to earn a cent, or bit in the case of his new world as he soon found out.
After nearly an hour of wandering around the town trying to find a way to scrounge up some scraps from a trash bin or something of the like, he finally just sat himself down in front of a building and let a long sigh come up from his mouth. His hand drifted to his stomach while he felt a burning sensation in his stomach, he supposed that with the new body came a different metabolism so he would get hungry faster than when he was a human, "What the hell can I eat in this place?" Westwood said to himself as he felt his stomach churn from the lack of sustenance.
Something he didn't expect came when he saw a cream colored hoof in front of him as if trying to help him back on his feet. The black scaled drake looked up and saw the innocent look on the familiar pegasus, "I didn't know I would see you so soon Westwood." The soothing voice of Fluttershy spoke.
Westwood just let a laugh come up and gently pushed Fluttershy's hoof aside, "I'm alright. A little hungry, but I've gone longer than a day or two without food before." Westwood spoke getting back on his feet not wanting some pony that knew him to see him in a vulnerable state like he was in.
Fluttershy gave Westwood a shocked expression, "You haven't eaten in a day?" The pegasus asked not sure if the drake was strong or just plain stubborn, "Don't worry. I'll get you something if you are hungry." Fluttershy added in with a smile that seemed so cute that it gave a squeal just from how she made her face.
Westwood looked at Fluttershy's smile and heard the squeal, he couldn't seem to resist that look and gave a sigh. He was in no position to refuse a meal no matter where it came from, "Alright. I can't promise that I'll like it, but I'll take anything I can get at this point" He spoke in annoyance.
Fluttershy nodded in response, "Follow me." The pegasus said to Westwood though it felt more like an order than a request to the dragon.
Westwood groaned, "And here I thought I'd stopped that when I got thrown out of the marines." He spoke under his breath catching the tone in Fluttershy's voice. He looked away despite the fact that he was following the one pony that should have matched her name.
Fluttershy stopped in front of a set of tables in front of a small building which could be described as the pony equivalent of a restaurant, "Sit down." Fluttershy spoke and like a hypnotic suggestion the dragon took a seat near the first table that he could find. He looked around trying to understand what had happened to get him into this position, but his stomach growled loudly to break him from his thoughts and all he wanted was to eat.
"So. What's good here?" He asked not looking at any of the menu since more than likely it would be food that he would not be accustomed to. His human diet was pretty much gone since he was thrown in a cell, but even at that he was going to be eating what ponies would be eating. Thinking back to Spike he saw that the small dragon did have a bit of a gut on him so the food might not be as bad as he suspected.
Fluttershy picked up the menu looking through the text to find something that would be suitable for the large dragon sitting across from her, "Well, there is always a hayburger. Or perhaps you can try alfalfa fries." She looked through the text and the pictures of the variety of meals and dishes that looked appealing.
While Westwood was trying to imagine what these items would look like though at the same time it was to be assumed that it would have to be pony friendly food since the population seemed to consist almost entirely by pastel colored ponies with hardly anything else being a sentient creature, "I guess that I'll at least try a hayburger. Can't say that I hate it is I never tried it right?" He asked with a small laugh that was interrupted by another loud growl from his stomach with a burning pain singing the lining of his stomach, "I'm too hungry to laugh right now." Westwood finished setting his head on the table in front of him and holding his stomach.
Fluttershy watched the dragon which she set the menu down, "Why didn't you get something to eat yesterday?" Fluttershy asked with some concern in her voice, "I'm sure that you had a chance to at least use a bit or two for a small something." Fluttershy added in.
Westwood moved his eyes to look at the pegasus, "So that's what money is here? A bit? I don't have anything. I didn't even know what this place uses as food." Westwood replied not moving his head outside of just his eye movements, "Now I find out that it's a bunch of things that I swear to god are just jokes on what I used to eat." The disgruntled words flowed out letting out a small huff as he watched Fluttershy like he was expecting something to happen after he made his comment.
Fluttershy seemed a bit befuddled when Westwood mentioned jokes of his old food, "I don't understand. How are they jokes?" She asked setting her head on her hooves as though getting ready to hear a story.
Westwood narrowed his eyes at the pegasus, "In my world a hayburger, as you call it, is called a hamburger. And your alfalfa fried are called french fries and they are made out of potatoes." The drake spoke which didn't help the confused look the pegasus gave, "You know what? Forget I said anything." He spoke before a unicorn approached with a note pad hanging in mid air with a yellow aura surrounding it with a pencil hovering right beside it.
"Now what can I help you with today?" The unicorn spoke giving a friendly smile that made it difficult to tell if it was genuine or a very convincing act to make herself more pleasant to be around for the few minutes that she spoke with a customer.
Fluttershy flashed a smile back to the unicorn, "Yes. My friend will have a hayburger and I'll have a dandelion sandwich please." The soft voice spoke audible over the chatting that was outside of the cafe like spot.
The pencil levitated to the note pad and wrote down what Fluttershy had ordered for the two of them, "Alright then. I'll get that right out for your two." The unicorn replied tucking the note pad and pencil into a pouch that was on what looked like a shirt meant for the pony's horizontally set bodies.
Westwood sighed looking forward again. He was silent just as much as Fluttershy was. It was an odd moment, Westwood didn't feel like talking at the moment though Fluttershy looked flustered like she had wanted to talk. The next ten or so minutes felt awkward for the both of them, the silent moment broken finally when the Unicorn finally came back with two plates. The hayburger stacked tall with vegetables and a mound of hay shaped much like a patty and the dandelion sandwich on Fluttershy's side looking exactly the opposite with a few flowers exposed past the sandwhich bread that it was set on.
"Thanks." Westwood spoke lifting his head from the table and moving to his meal as Fluttershy had as well and then biting into the large sandwhich losing any manners that were possible as he sated the hunger with the heavily vegetarian meal. All things considering it tasted like a hamburger. This confused Westwood seeing that the hay pressed into a patty had to be flavored with something to give it such a familiar flavor. The thought vanished from his mind as he began chowing down more.
Fluttershy was about to eat when Westwood let caution fly out the window, "Westwood. You really should slow down. You don't want to choke." The quite voice of the pegasus spoke.
Like clockwork, Westwood felt something get caught in his elongated throat where he began pounding his balled up fist into his stomach to try and jar the foreign object loose from his wind pipe. After a good four or five strikes he finally coughed up a small chunk of bread and greens that landed on the plate, "Sorry. It's been a while since I've actually eaten anything." He spoke catching his breath after his windpipe was blocked by his meal.
Fluttershy felt some relief when Westwood had fixed his own condition, "Just be careful. You don't want to choke again." Fluttershy repeated herself now that Westwood was actually paying attention to her.
Westwood groaned, "Yeah. I got it." He said to Fluttershy as he looked back to his plate. The first thing that he grabbed was the ball of crushed and chewed plant material which he popped back into his mouth to chew and swallow properly instead of the rush he was in to fill his stomach.
Both parties finished eating, Fluttershy removed a small coin purse from under her wings and set a few golden coins on the table to pay for the meal, "You're welcome Westwood." The pegasus spoke being more firm in her tone as Westwood stood to his feet.
Westwood grabbed the back of his head and sighed, "I thought that I said thanks already." He started then saw the look on Fluttershy's face, "Thank you. It was better than I thought it would be."
Westwood looked down seeing a black form streak on the ground. He had remembered these as the shadows or hostile aircraft overhead when he was a marine and also of specimens that had escaped and attempted to attack him, "Get down!" He shouted jumping to the ground and holding his arms to guard his face.
The crowd at the cafe looked at Westwood like he was insane, but seconds later a heavy ball of flames dropped onto the cafe building and lit the building up like a candle. Panic then started scattering the ponies about leaving Westwood and Fluttershy alone on the ground near the cafe.
Like an instinct, Westwood attempted to grab something from behind his back about at his waist line. He looked back seeing that what he tried to grab for did not exist. He looked overhead seeing the frame of a dragon much like himself, but this own was a bright red color and it was attempting to dive bomb the black scaled dragon.
At the last second, Westwood rolled to the side letting the dragon bombing at him collide with the ground. The dust settled and the red dragon showed itself to be a few feet taller than Westwood was, "So your race hasn't been extinguished like we thought a century and a half ago. That princess knows what the agreement was." He spoke before a loud cracking could be heard as the red dragon cracked his knuckles.
Fluttershy was once again in fear, the image of the fierce fire dragon ahead of her paralyzing her with fear like when they were in the forest.
Westwood took a defensive position looking like he was ready to start boxing the much larger dragon on front of him, "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about." Westwood spoke moving to cover Fluttershy as she stared in horror.
The fire dragon laughed at the smaller drake, "You don't know what you are?" He spoke with a grin, "That just makes my job that much easier." He spoke swinging a massive claw at Westwood.
Westwood stood his ground not wanting Fluttershy to get hurt if he were to have moved to evade. His eyes started to fade red, but something began pushing the rage back into the depths it was contained in, "No. Not this time." He spoke to himself before pushing his arms forward and catching the massive dragon's claw with his two.
The fire dragon struggled a bit against the strength at first, then he pulled away to throw Westwood off balance which was followed by a second swing that sent Westwood flying into the blazing cafe. The dragon chuckled watching the building crumble atop of the black scaled drake.
Fluttershy watched the events in horror and when what looked like Westwood's demise happen she screamed at the top of her lungs. Even with her normally low tone the voice echoed throughout the town, "Westwood!" She screamed in terror before the fire dragon turned to face the pegasus. She was met with the dragon licking his lips seeing her as a snack.
While Westwood was under the rubble, his shadow had covered his body providing a barrier for the drake. He however was unaware of the event. His mind was not present at this time, his mind had shifted into the void that he and Luna had spent hours in his dream. As Westwood slipped into the void, time outside slowed to a crawl. For every second that passed in the real world, the void counted as nearly an hour.
Westwood picked himself off of the transparent floor and noticed something was different near immediately, he had skin again and could feel how soft the flesh was. He touched his fingers together tapping the flesh in amazement that he actually had skin again. His concentration was broken again as a voice sprung up from the void around him, "Who's there?" Westwood asked looking around to find the source of the intelligible voice that floated around him.
The voice then made a sigh, "So you don't even understand your own native language. My god is that sad." The voice spoke. Now that it was speaking a language he could understand he found that the voice was much like his own, "But seeing as you were away from this world for over a century I can guess why you can't." The voice spoke. Soon after a swirl of black smoke began flowing up from the void. The smoke appeared in front of Westwood's now human body taking the vague shape of his dragon form.
Westwood didn't know what to make of the black smoke that stood in front of him. He was confused on what it could be even after it took the vague shape in front of him, "What exactly are you?" The human asked not seeing the smoke as a possible threat since it didn't attack him and all the smoke did was stand there.
The smoke laughed a bit as it began performing a movement that looked like it was walking closer to Westwood's human form, "Long story short, I am that beast that you turn into when you lose your mind. I wouldn't be doing that, but you keep putting yourself into spots that can get you killed. Oh, and not using your species' special talent makes me want to splurge a bit if you get my point." The smoke spoke showing human like movement as it shrugged what Westwood would guess were shoulders.
Westwood could get it a little more, but the subject was still strange none the less, "What do you mean by my species' talent?" He asked feeling gravity seem to pull on him as the smoke grew closer.
The smoke groaned in annoyance before it was mere inches from the human, both the smoke and Westwood were approximately the same size, "Simply put. You were never a human. You were born here." The smoke spoke pointing down, "Well, maybe not HERE here, but that place where the big red dragon was attacking. This world was your birthplace and you were cast out for a reason I have no clue." The smoke spoke to Westwood before using what looked like a hand to poke a finger into Westwood's chest, "That form you've got now is just what you are thinking you are. This is the void of your own mind after all."
Westwood attempted to grab the smoke to pull it away and passed through it just as smoke should behave, but started reforming once again, "Screw you. Why the hell should I believe you?" The human spoke now taking a step back and taking a boxing style stance in front of the smoke.
The smoke just laughed at Westwood, "Simple. You may never have seen your body when you slip into that dream, but you started turning into the drake that you are. Of course the limitations of that world kept me from transforming entirely so I healed you up and gave you some weapons." He spoke referring to the claws that formed on Westwood's hands during the dream, "The reason why you keep having that dream is that I'm trying to beat you over the head with the fact of what you really are. So stop being so hardheaded and let something penetrate it for once." The smoke added as he poked a finger into his head.
Westwood cringed at what the smoke had told him, "Will it get me back to the real world if I do? I have other things I have to do if you don't mind. Dealing with that big red lizard is one of them." Westwood spoke which made the smoke laugh, "So what the hell do I call you?" He asked the smoke figuring this wouldn't be the last time he would see it.
The smoke moved a hand to what would be its chin and looked like it was scratching the tip of his chin, "Well. I suppose that one thing you could call me is brother, but if you want a name you can call me Nox It's a simple name." He spoke to Westwood before touching the human.
Westwood could feel something heavy once again and saw the smoke begin flowing around him. Nox chuckle seeing the look on the human's face, "Now just relax. I'm just going to give you a sample of our species' power. It's so you can keep that cute looking pony from becoming dragon chow. After that you just need to follow my lead and I'll let you get it by yourself. You like learning like that anyway right?" Nox spoke before it began showing itself down Westwood's throat.
Back in the real world, crumbling could be heard from the rubble that Westwood had been thrown into. The fire dragon averted its eyes from Fluttershy then looked to see the cafe rubble seem to expand and separate. Underneath was what looked like a black half sphere that was somewhat see through pushing the rubble aside. When the debris was clear, the half sphere began to dissipate and in its place stood Westwood unharmed by the mass of stone.
The red dragon chuckled seeing the smaller, black scaled dragon was back and ready for more, "I should have figured there would be more fight in a creature like you." The red drake spoke turning to face Westwood.
Westwood's eyes seemed blank, but at the same time they didn't form the complete red that his previous times using his talent. The shadow at his feet and the black shades from the rubble around him started traveling to his hands forming two knives that reached to half way up his forearms. Westwood remained silent as the shadows covering his new weapons vanished and in their place were two black metallic blades. He rushed at the dragon in front of him. This time his speed was increased, the shadows at his feet boosting him further with each step that he took.
The fire dragon took a step forward attempting to swipe at the black scaled dragon. His swipe was met with Westwood's body deflecting the strike instead of holding it back then using one of the knives to stab the larger dragon's hand to the ground. The knife then seemed to melt and formed a black band that kept the dragon from moving that hand and arm no matter how much it struggled, "Why you little worm!" The enraged dragon shouted both in pain and anger. The red dragon's next action was to attempt the same action with his other claw which was met with the same reaction that kept the dragon frozen in place by the two knives that became bonds that kept the dragon down.
The fire dragon struggled to move again, but the bands had melded with the dragon's shadow keeping him from moving his arms, "What the hell? Why can't I move?" The dragon spoke pulling his arms away at both points no matter the pain that resulted from the action.
Westwood looked at the dragon in front of him and spoke, "I used my shadow to blend with yours. You can't move because you are sealed by an immaterial seal." He spoke showing he was in his right mind. Westwood spread his wings and jumped up to grab the red dragon's horns atop its head before sending a heavy knee directly in between the dragon's eyes. The impact was heard through the chaos of the red dragon's attack. The dragon's eyes rolling into the back of his head and dropped like a rock unconscious and still sealed onto the ground.
Westwood's eyes shifted back to their yellow color and let out a sigh seeing that instead of carving the drake like a Thanksgiving turkey it was just unconscious with the worst injury being a concussion from his knee plowing into the dragon's head.
Now that the fight was over and she was out of danger, Fluttershy rushed to Westwood and wrapped her forelegs around Westwood's solid frame. A sobbing could be heard from Fluttershy and a warm and moist feeling could be felt on Westwood's stomach, "I thought" She started between sobs, "I thought that you- and I" She continued not wanting to think of what would have happened between her and Westwood if he had not survived being crushed by the mass of mortar and stone that had fallen atop of the black dragon.
Westwood let a small smile come up and placed a soft hand on top of Fluttershy's mane and softly ran it through the soft hair atop of her head, "Don't worry. I'm here and he's down. No one's going to hurt you." He spoke to her as he comforted the pegasus that was still sobbing into his chest.
The princesses had flown into the scene and found the aftermath. The fire dragon was unconscious on the ground and Fluttershy was pushed into Westwood's chest. The scene had caused a pang in Luna's heart like she had been betrayed. Celestia however had stayed seeing the unconscious dragon with black bonds attached to his hands and ground, "What happened here?" The white alicorn asked looking at Westwood specifically.
Westwood separated from Fluttershy then stood straight when looking at the two princesses, "We were attacked. It seemed that I was the specific target and he had no issues with collateral damage." Westwood spoke in his military manner keeping eye contact with Celestia.
Celestia looked away then she shook her head, "It appears that they know about you and what you are." Celestia started looking at the destruction, "You and the ponies around you are not safe when you are here." Celestia spoke to Westwood looking directly into Westwood's eyes, "You will come with me and Luna to the castle. There we will discuss your terms and explain everything you need to know." Celestia spoke before turning her eyes to look at her darker counterpart
Luna knew what that look and nodded to Celestia, "And I will explain what you are and how you can help us." Luna spoke closing her eyes trying to get the image of Fluttershy in an embrace with Westwood showing the pegasus comfort in the events that had happened out of her head.
Westwood closed his eyes, the princesses had a point. He got the fact that he would be a target again if he was the intended target, "Understood your highnesses." He spoke giving a bow quickly picking himself up once again and seeing the look in Luna's face. He could tell that there was some jealousy in her eyes though he would explain the situation later, "I am ready to depart now if that is what you require. The dragon on the ground over there may need to be picked up as well" He spoke once he was upright. He walked to the dragon on the ground and the shadows binding it to the ground flowed back into the ground and shifted back to Westwood's shadow.
Westwood reached under the much larger fire dragon and began lifting the weight, his knees straining from the weight, "This is just getting pathetic Westwood." A familiar voice spoke as his shadow then moved to the dragon and formed a massive barrier around the red dragon to lift it off the ground. The voice was only audible to Westwood since Nox was in essence his other half. Nox's smokey face appeared in the barrier, but only for Westwood to see, "You know that I'm not gone. I know you like learning things for yourself, but if you break your back trying to lift something three times your weight then I suffer all the same." The smokey face spoke only for Westwood's ears before vanishing and lifting the barrier up from the ground
Princess Celestia watched the use of Westwood's shadow and could see the way Westwood was reacting. She could see Westwood had something on his mind when the barrier had appeared around the hostile dragon and now the dragon had lifted up, the shadow barrier still connected to Westwood if done indirectly, "Then we must leave now before more dragons appear to cause havoc." The regal tone of Celestia rang out.
Westwood looked away from the barrier then he spread his wings he had found to gain his control over, "Understood. If I am a target, then I don't want to anyone to get hurt because of me." He spoke waiting until the sisters had picked themselves from the ground. Once the alicorn princesses had flown, Westwood followed after, a quick push from his wings sending the black scaled dragon skyward with the barrier following close behind him. The ground under the three skyward beings quickly growing more distant, the ponies that had witnessed the fight between the much larger dragon and Westwood slowly fading to obscurity.
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.
It had been several hours since Celestia had called for the dragon ruler to not only collect the prisoner, but also to explain their situation and why they attacked a town not involved in combat. Celestia was growing impatient, her request had been sent in a manner that would be impossible to ignore yet the dragon's ruler had not even given a reply back to let them know that they knew what happened. The first thought that came to mind was that they had intended on feigning ignorance about the crimes the fire dragon had committed and this refusal to send a written confirmation was just another level of such ignorance.
Westwood had been standing by, his moment with Luna being short lived. The fire dragon was still in pain from the lingering effects of the force Celestia used in her anger. This may be the first time he experienced an instance like this in Equestria, but as a human he knew this experience far too well. The living shadow clung to Westwood's back with a snicker, "Come on Woody. Just save us all a minute and cut flame guy's head off. The pig headed drakes are just going to say they don't know anything. You know what happens after that. You've got a lot of blood on your hands because of moments like this. You know everything that's going to happen. Just save us all the misery of waiting." Nox spoke in a more sadistic tone than he had before.
Westwood kept himself from getting worked up from the shadow's words even if it was difficult to do so with the creature, his attention to the sentient shadow was broken when the fire dragon spoke, "He won't be here. He'll deny everything. He wants a war even if it means that some heads have to roll to do so." The drake spoke with a wide grin on his face.
This had given Westwood a good enough reason to scare that bound dragon with a longsword that formed from a shadow that stretched out from his feet to his hand, "It would serve you well to shut your mouth and stay quiet." He spoke to the red dragon going an inch from slicing the red dragon's head off his shoulders, "Go on and give me a reason." He spoke letting the sword change back into a cloud of smoke that drifted back to the ground and melded back with his shadow.
The dragon's eyes widened to twice the size of dinner plates when he saw the edge of the black, reflective blade nearly an inch from his throat. Of course he shut up as soon as that happened and watched the smaller dragon close to see if his fate was going to be death by a dragon species that should be extinct, "Alright. I'll keep quiet." The fire dragon spoke in response which was met by Westwood's blade vanishing.
In the distance, what looked like a small group of larger dragons and a few smaller reptiles could be seen in the horizon flying right at them. Westwood kept his eyes on the group counting their numbers. His count, minus the smaller dragons that he could not see, made up to ten drakes. This was more than likely an entourage or escort to ensure that the ruler or the envoy would not be hurt or killed should things go south.
Celestia and Luna both watched the dragons in the distance, Celestia's eyes still carried some anger for what the dragon behind her had done. Their explanation and plan of action would have to be impressive for the white alicorn to calm down enough to return to her normal and friendly demeanor. It was something that Luna was worried about, since this could evolve into the dragons they had a treaty of peace with declaring war against the ponies after over a century of peace. Of course she was still imprisoned in the moon as Nightmare Moon so she had no idea what the treaty between the two species was like.
Westwood's glance kept with the red dragon and the crowd that was quickly approaching. He was ready for a fight if that was what they had planned for the three standing with their prisoner.
After what seemed like an hour, but in reality was only a few minutes, the ten dragons were in front of the princesses and the small ones were much smaller in number at only three. The thing that made them different from the rest of the escort was that they were all pearl white scaled with golden colored horns and underbellies. Westwood was ready to form a weapon at the right moment if they would attempt to attack.
"You do not have to be aggressive shade." One of the pearl scaled dragons spoke as it walked forward, "This is supposed to be a diplomatic matter. And not to worry, the fire dragon will be dealt with for his actions." The dragon spoke in an older voice stopping in front of Celestia with the other two smaller dragons following close behind.
"It has been a long time Alabaster." Celestia spoke giving a bow which the gesture of respect was returned by the biped in front of her, "I wished that this could have been done in better circumstances than this however."
The older dragon shook his head, "I wish it could have as well. I personally have no qualms with your kind. Even if the shade is still alive." He spoke keeping his hands behind his back, "But seeing that he is actually in control of himself I will say whatever treatment you gave him has been working." The older dragon spoke giving a friendly chuckle.
Celestia returned the laugh seeming like she was talking with a friend, "I would take credit, but that is from his own actions. I had sent him into another world, it was so that I would not have to be responsible for extinguishing his species. It was his own experiences that gave him this level of control."
Westwood felt annoyed that they were talking about him like he was not there, but for the purpose of trying to avoid a war he would resist any urges of violence that he had or any potential outbursts that could lead to complications. He continued watching the proceeding while watching the fire dragon making sure this would go off without a hitch.
Alabaster could see the annoyance in Westwood's face and decided to switch the conversation back to the intended purpose, "I am truly sorry that things have lead to where they have. If it was up to me then I would give the fire dragon his punishment where he stands and beg your forgiveness. The reason why I cannot is because our king is hell bent on war because of your shade's existence. I wish that I could oppose him, but you know him. He is the war monger, he wants this war because he wants to see death. If it wasn't for the treaty that his father had set the previous generation then he would have attacked sooner." The elder dragon spoke giving a bow one last time, "I am truly sorry your majesty. He specifically ordered that I cannot avoid this no matter how much I wish I could." He spoke before rising.
Celestia felt rage once again, "I upheld my end of the treaty! I exterminated the entire race and sent the last child remaining into another world and even changed him into something that couldn't use true magic! His return was not of my choosing!" She shouted to Alabaster who she could see he had remorse.
Alabaster closed his eyes regretting the words that he had to speak according to his war monger king, "I cannot change the outcome. All I can do is give a warning. Prepare your soldiers. His first wave will come in a week. The destination is your small town of Ponyville. Our king wants to have bodies pile up, even if those bodies are civilians that have no place in this war." The elder dragon spoke, "I hope that your shade can fight as well as he controls his actions." He spoke, he took a nod to one of the other white scaled dragons that were behind him. Their scales covered by pearl colored armor that shined in the sunlight above.
The first of the military looking white dragons grabbed at the massive two handed sword that was sheathed to its back and drew the weapon. The action lead Westwood to react and his shadows formed two long knives that he held ready to attack. The white dragon slowly walked, passing the princesses with the weapon dragging on the ground before it was in front of the fire dragon, "Pyria. Your action to attack a civilian town before war has been declared has been noted, judged and your punishment is sentence." He spoke in a strong voice before easily picking up the blade that was easily his size and thrusting it through the fire dragon's stomach.
A sizzling sound could be heard as the wound cauterized and his insides began boiling beyond the fire dragon's tolerance. The fire dragon let out a loud howl that could be heard for nearly a mile as he began cooking. It seemed clear that the white scaled dragons carried weapons that flash boiled their victims as evident by the way the heat had been cooking the dragon's insides from the one stab. The howling pain ceased, Pyria's eyes were glazed over and his head hung limp. The heat from the blade had boiled the fire dragon's organs to the point they had turned to a cinder inside its body.
Celestia and Luna had turned to see what the armored dragon was doing. Luna was horrified by the punishment that was set in motion for the fire dragon. It seemed too cruel for her to bare even if he was classified as a war criminal. That howl of pain would never leave her mind, ever present and echoing in her ears. Even after the punishment had finished, she could still hear the anguish of the fire dragon. It horrified her that this race could be so cruel and unusual to their own kind.
The blade was pulled out and the fire dragon dropped, the white scaled dragon's blade was perfectly clean despite having been deeply buried in the war criminal's gut which should have bled out like a stuck pig. The massive weapon was sheathed behind the warrior's back once again. Two of the entourage had moved from their position and picked up the cooked corpse of their former ally, their gazes turned to the black scaled drake who was less than a quarter their size and it looked like they could have stepped on him to kill the drake.
Westwood's eyes met with the entourage, his stance remained until it was clear all they had intended was to remove the now dead prisoner from the visage of the two princesses.
The dragons went back into place, their positions returning aside from the decease fire drake that was being carried by the two much larger dragons. Alabaster gave a sigh, "Sentencing a fellow drake to death is never easy. Trust me when I say this." The older dragon spoke keeping his eyes shut like remorse had flowed over him. He looked to Westwood seeing that he was being defensive even after the punishment was over as though the black scaled dragon was expecting the same treatment, "I have no qualms with you shade. It was your people I could not stand. You are more of a dragon than they were, even if you have strengths that we do not." Alabaster spoke.
The elder dragon then looked to the princesses, "I wish you luck in the conflict ahead. May you train your warriors with the ferocity of a dragon, the agility of timberwolf and the cunning of a fox." He spoke giving the princesses a final bow. With that he turned, the other white scaled drakes following suite to depart from this place. The entourage of dragons had then flown away, their existence marked only by the massive foot prints that they had left behind.
Westwood had let his weapons fade back into his shadow. Shortly after he rushed to Luna who had promptly thrown herself into the young dragon. Her mind still haunted by the screams of agony that Pyria had sent out when he was being cooked alive by the white dragon soldier's sword. Westwood wrapped his arms comforting the alicorn and keeping her close as she cried from the sight and sound that would now haunt her like Westwood's dreams had haunted him for the past years.
Celestia felt regret for having Luna see what had happened. This was not the first time that she had seen such an act of punishment, but she wished that it would be her last. Celestia was desensitize to such actions, it was an experience that had much of the same reaction Luna was now having. Celestia closed her eyes and then spoke after Luna had cried most of her tears, "Westwood. Take Luna inside the castle, I will take care of things from here. I should not have let Luna stay to that meeting knowing what they were going to do with the criminal." She spoke.
Westwood nodded, "Yes your highness." He spoke letting Luna cry what she had left. When Luna had finished for the most part, Westwood let Luna down and walked back to her room so she could find some comfort after what she had witnessed from the dragon's ambassador. Even if the walk was only a few minutes, the experience was one of the longest things in his life. The shock in the princess's face and what must be running through her mind must have been lingering in her head. Westwood knew it would never get better, only it was worse for him since he was the one that conducted the executions when he was a human.
The two had made it back into Luna's room, the shades of black and dark colors made the room calming element easier for the dragon to ease the princess in her pain, "I know what it's like. I do. I was the same way you were when I had experienced that pain." Westwood spoke to Luna.
Luna looked away from Westwood, "Does it ever get easier? Seeing ponies and dragons die?" She asked keeping her eyes to the ground now wanting Westwood to see her like this even after what happened after the meeting.
Westwood shook his head and moved to wrap his strong, yet comforting arms around Luna's frame, "No. It never gets easier. No matter how much you see, it never gets easier." He spoke in a softer tone, "All you can do is get used to it. That is what I had to do." He said to her keeping the tone before.
Luna separated himself from the dragon, "How can you get used to taking a life? Or even watching somepony lose their life?" Luna asked with tears streaming down her cheeks, some anger present in her voice
Westwood could understand what Luna was feeling, he knew it after all, "All I can say is that you get used to it. The more it happens, the less you feel. The pain is still there, you just don't feel it because you know what that pain is. I have gotten used to it so much because I've killed so much. It's not easier, you just lose a part of yourself every time it happens." He said to Luna then moving to take a seat next to her mattress on the ground
Luna stayed where she was, "I know you've killed. I saw your dream, you used those claws to jam into that thing's eyes then sliced more into pieces. If it wasn't for you sitting here and talking with me I would assume you were a monster." Luna broke her concentration remembering her time as Nightmare Moon and how she possibly would have went through a similar route if Celestia had not beaten her a millennia before, "But, it might be better than I never known what that feeling is like. Otherwise I might have become a monster myself." She spoke. Slowly she approached Westwood and set herself completely down onto the floor next to Westwood.
Westwood glanced to Luna before letting out a soft sigh, "Yeah. Whatever you do, stay away from the fighting. I'm sure that the world would be better if we have one ruler that still had much of her innocence." He said to her looking to see the look in her eyes and the puffed look she had from her tears. That look nearly broke his heart, he inched his way completely beside the princess of the moon, "I'll try and have this done before you have to be involved Luna. Like a knight fighting for his princess." He spoke in a way to attempt to calm the princess.
Those words seemed to be the breaking point, Luna's face grew closer to Westwood's until finally she brought her lips to Westwoods. The tender feel seemed to make the moment melt away even if it was just for a moment. Luna's lips pulled from Westwood's first, a blush streaking across her face much like how the drake was, "I apologize." She paused trying to get what she had just done and why she did it, "I shouldn't have done that." Luna started and attempted to get up from the floor.
Westwood however kept her from leaving, "No. I liked it." He said to her which the two shared the same look before the two looked into each other's eyes, "That was the first kiss I've had. I-" Westwood let a pause come up while a smile started spreading, "I really liked it." He spoke gently moving forward and sharing one more tender moment with Luna.
It had been several hours after the dragons had declared war on the land of Equestria. Westwood felt much of the blame seeing that the treaty set over a century ago was broken because he was suddenly thrown into this world. Luna had fallen asleep shortly after Westwood had, her mind slightly more at ease when she and Westwood had shared their first kisses with one another. Celestia had called the members of the Equestrian service to rally and train to fight their former allies. This was going to prove more difficult than many of their other battles, especially compared to enemies like the changelings where they were about the same size. This war was going to be fought against giant beasts that could breath fire, crush a pony by stepping on them and even use a pony as a source of food. There was going to be a large loss of life in this fight.
Westwood had long since moved from Luna to let her rest, his gaze looking out the window through the shaded glass. He watched the green world flow and clenched his fists. His existence in this world caused a war to break loose from a dragon tyrant, he felt that he was responsible to fight for this world and he would until he died. Westwood heard a knocking on the door and jumped up from his trance to look to the door. He then sighed softly and moved to the door, opening the heavy frame to see Celestia in front of him, "Sorry. I should have come out a while back." He said to the sun princess then looking back to Luna.
Celestia saw the scene and shook her head, "I won't ask what happened." She said to Westwood before moving her head in a way to say for the dragon to follow after her. She moved to the side letting Westwood leave the room.
Westwood sighed and rubbed his temple feeling something give him a headache, "Nothing happened. I can promise you that." He said to Celestia putting his claws behind his back as he walked, "I'm not that kind of dragon." He finished as he walked now following the princess.
Celestia felt some ease that the dragon had some morals outside of not attacking anything that moves, that alone was better than the others of his species had been, "I get it, but now we are in a troubling situation. Our warriors are not ready to fight a group of dragons. Even the smaller ones." He said to Westwood with a solemn tone to her voice, "If the first attack comes here, we may not live to see the next day of the conflict." Celestia spoke to Westwood.
Westwood closed his eyes and stopped where he was in the middle of the hall, "And this is all my fault right? The fact I exist in this world is going to cause an extinction." He spoke gripping his wrists tightly to the point that they would have broken if he was still human.
Celestia stopped not long after Westwood had, her attention moving to the dragon and his attitude, "No. This is not your fault. You heard Alabaster. This would have happened a long time ago if that treaty was not in place. Their new king is a tyrant, and I knew this. I just was unable to do anything to control that." The sun princess spoke facing the black scaled dragon, "That is why I am asking you to do something for me and for my sister."
Westwood's eyes shot up and took the image in front of him in, "What do you mean?" He asked Celestia staring her down wanting to know her plan the instant it was running through her mind.
Celestia sighed softly, "It is dangerous, but if what Luna told me what happened in your dream is a true event." She stopped herself wanting to keep her emotions under control as she spoke, "Then I would like you to go to the dragon's kingdom and stop this before it can advance into a full scale war." Celestia spoke to Westwood.
Westwood froze, he knew exactly what she was thinking, "You want me to assassinate the dragon tyrant." He spoke in a flat and monotone voice. This would not be his first time having to conduct such a mission. He had done assassinations before. Maybe not to the degree of killing a ruler or a tyrant, but he had committed smaller scale assassinations in order to eliminate small segments of a government. This however was an all new level of his previous actions.
Celestia gave a small nod to Westwood's statement, "That would be correct. As I said, our ponies are not ready or able to fight off such a foe." She spoke then bowing her head in front of Westwood, "If you accept, it could save thousands upon thousands of lives." Celestia added keeping her head down.
Westwood rubbed his temple seeing that this was going to be dangerous, but at the same time he would be the only one in danger if he accepted, "I understand. Maybe this was the reason why that dragon before gave us the warning for a week of preparation, he is probably wanting us to take action." The dragon spoke then nodded, "I will go on this mission. I just need to know the location." He said to Celestia in a respectful manner, "All I would request is some time to settle my affairs. Let the ponies I know that I will be gone and might not be coming back." He spoke to Celestia.
Celestia lifted her head in reply, "I understand. And I would not expect you to leave suddenly without saying your goodbyes." Celestia spoke to Westwood. Some remorse in her tone, like she had just sent the last of a species to die even if it was to fight, "If there was another option, I would present it to you. I just do not see another way to save our citizens." Celestia spoke.
Westwood stood to attention then he presented a salute to the princess in front of him and held that salute for a few seconds, "I understand your highness." He spoke slowly dropping the salute. With that motion he turned on his heel and began walking. His mind was clear, he was focused on the mission that would soon be conducted. He would clear his mind and guilt of leaving so soon after he arrived.
The black scaled dragon approached what appeared to be a balcony and stared into the distance to see the small town he had woken up in. His black wings spread wide ready to fly back to that town. He looked back to see if there was anyone attempting to stop him then he jumped off the ledge of the balcony to free fall downward. His wings caught the wind and picked himself from his fall. His speed quickly rising while he flew.
Nox once again came to annoy Westwood, "So. You're going back to becoming the warrior, Woody?" Nox spoke appearing in the corner of Westwood's vision, "I would have thought that you would stay away from being the warrior again." He spoke seeming to grin even if he was just the smokey image of his shadow.
Westwood sighed, "I am not just becoming the warrior. I am doing this to save lives, no other reason. If I have to be an assassin to save lives then I will have to." He spoke to Nox keeping his attention on flying and less on his conversation with his shadow.
Nox laughed at Westwood for a few seconds in a hysterical manner as the image flew beside Westwood, "You and I both know that is a complete and total lie. You want to kill again. We both know it. This is just an excuse to destroy those dragons. The lives saved by this are just a bonus to make you look like a hero. You want to become the killer again, there was no other feeling that gave you so much pleasure as letting blood flow on the ground." Nox spoke narrowing his glowing slits for eyes at the dragon,
Westwood growled at Nox, "I am not becoming the killer again. I am doing this for the well being of a populous. And I will keep my control over my own body you smokey mess." He spoke to Nox with the image of Ponyville coming quickly into view, "Now for the next few hours, all I want to hear from you is silence. I am here to say my goodbyes to Twilight and Fluttershy. I might not return after this so they should know what if going on." He spoke shooting his wings to the side to dramatically decrease his speed before he approached the town.
He stayed outside of Ponyville a short time longer, he walked inside of the town's boundaries trying not to make a scene. He was sure that a pony outside of Fluttershy would have seen what he did and he did not have the time to deal with any pony running up and treating him like a hero. In his experience, he did not want to be recognized for his actions. Especially since the attack could have gone in an entirely different way if the beast came out instead of what had happened.
The bright colors of the town made hiding difficult, but regardless of the difficulty he had made his way around the town to arrive at the library. It was a wonder that he was able to make it inside without making a scene, but he still made it inside. The library was now brightly lit by the sunlight flooding into the large and open room, what made this different from his previous visit to await Princess Luna was that there was a large stack of books piled up. With curiosity, the dragon grabbed the top book that was nearest him and read the title 'History of Dragons', "War was barely called. Who had the time to bring all this out?" He asked before looking away from the cover and seeing a purple object under where he had just picked up the book.
In shock, Westwood grabbed the object and found it to be the baby dragon he had met the previous day, "What were you doing inside that massive pile?" He asked Spike after setting the much smaller dragon back on the ground where he could stand on his own.
Spike felt somewhat annoyed that the one to find him was the only other dragon in the entire kingdom that was more or less stationary, "Twilight was trying to find out what you were. After Celestia announced that the dragons had declared war against us only after YOU arrived, she went on a rampage trying to find a book that said what the buck you were." Spike spoke crossing his arms over his chest, "So, do you know what you are?" Spike asked staring daggers at the much larger drake.
Westwood felt a similar annoyance as Spike since the baby dragon was giving him such an attitude, "The only thing that I've got to go on is what the other dragons called me during the meeting between the princesses and the dragon ambassador. They called me a shade." He spoke to Spike now planting himself on the ground.
Not long after Westwood sat himself down, the door flung open. In the frame stood the lavender colored mare, "Westwood. Just the dragon I wanted to see!." Twilight Sparkle exclaimed in a combination of anger and excitement, "What did you do to make the dragon ambassador so mad? Neither Celestia or Luna could possibly have caused this to happen, so what did you do?!" Twilight added stamping a hoof to the ground under her.
Westwood's annoyance was nearly reaching its peak and was turning into pure frustration, "I didn't do jack shit!" He yelled to Twilight, "They told me that my existence caused this." He spoke calming himself down while he was face to face, "Which is why I am here. You gave me a place to stay a night before Luna had-" His words were broken by the lavender colored mare.
Twilight had interrupted Westwood, "That's Princess Luna to you." She spoke in a manner to give the princesses their respect and at least put their title before their name.
Westwood growled deeply at the unicorn, "Fine. Before Princess Luna had visited my nightmares. I just thought that I'd tell you that I'm not going to be here much longer. And I may never come back." He spoke keeping himself from making the situation worse.
Twilight was just about butting heads with the dragon, "So you're just going to leave us to deal with an army of dragons?" She spoke staring right into Westwood's glowing yellow hues.
Westwood kept himself from at least tapping the unicorn enough for her to back away, he needed little confrontation at this point in time, "No. To try and reduce how many lives will be lost I am going to the dragon kingdom and am going to attempt to assassinate the dragon king. He is the one that wanted this war, without him the war will not begin and someone with some sense will stop this from happening." He spoke grinding his claws into the wood under him and leaving long and deep gash marks in the wood under him.
Twilight stopped moving all together, "And by never come back. You mean." There was a pause as her eyes widened seeing that his departure was more of a selfless act than what she had first thought.
Westwood nodded in response, "Yes. I may not return, because I might die defending your country like I would my own when I was in the other world. Do not call me a coward before you hear me out. I could have decided to leave you out of this all together." He spoke in further annoyance that was present in his voice before he jumped back to his feet and stamped his way to the door, "Also, your pet dragon knows what the others called me. You can look up the term 'shade' in the dragon books you're looking at." He spoke before throwing the door open in anger and marching outside. Instead of walking, Westwood took to the skies once again.
Once at a high altitude to help him calm down, Nox once more appeared before the black scaled dragon, "Well look at that. Once declaration of war and they hate you. That little filly even accused you of running away from your issues and leave. What's to say the shy one won't do the same exact thing. Call you a monster for no reason. A traitor, or how about killer?" The sentient shadow spoke with what could be shown as a smug look on his smokey face.
Westwood growled at Nox and then he slashed at the cloudy figure with his claws only to pass through it completely and have the image reform from the sudden object slung through it, "You have no idea what will happen! I will be a hero. I won't be that thing any more. You no longer have a foothold in my body." He spoke clenching his fangs and fists tightly.
Nox chuckled at the statement, "Is that so? We will see all about that won't we?" Nox spoke with his laugh more present. The smoke around the figure's face separated enough to form a mouth in the jaw line of the creature's head, "One thing has to be said though. You are by far the most amusing host that I have ever taken. Such a strong will to do what you think is right." Nox continued then once more faded to obscurity.
Westwood huffed at the now vacant space in front of him. His gaze went back to searching for the cottage that he had dropped Fluttershy at the day before. His mind calmed down after his confrontation with Nox and his exchange with Twilight so he would not scare the already easily frightened pegasus he met before. His search was short lived as he then dived to the edge of the Everfree Forest. Once more he broke out of his dive and landed on his feet rather easily and gracefully. His wings opened and flapped to keep himself from falling over.
As though he had rang a gong sounding off to the pegasus, he felt something hit his stomach before he could think, "Westwood. I'm so glad you're alright." The emotion filled mare spoke keeping her cheek planted into Westwood's underbelly, "I was so afraid that those dragons had hurt you and when Princess Celestia announced we would be going to war-" Her words were interrupted by Westwood slowly pushing Fluttershy away.
"I'm sorry about all this. It really is my fault this is all happening. Which is why I am here? I wanted to let you know that I will be going soon, and I may not be coming back. This is a mission only I can do." Westwood spoke closing his eyes and speaking to the soft spoken pegasus as though he was telling her he was going to die from a terminal illness, "I might not come back from this fight. And if the worst happens, I want you to know that I am sorry. For scaring you like I had and letting you fall into danger. You are a good friend Fluttershy, and if I don't come back." He paused looking at Fluttershy seeing her eyes begin to water.
Fluttershy wouldn't let Westwood continue, "No!" Her now abnormally loud voice boomed to the dragon, "I won't let you go. You can't die, you just can't!" She continued again shoving her head into Westwood's underbelly.
Westwood could see all the sadness that was present in the pegasus, "I have to Fluttershy. If I don't then thousands, maybe even millions might perish. I can't just stand here and let that happen. I am doing this for everyone. For you, for Twilight, for Spike and even for the princesses. I am going so I can save you all." Westwood spoke wrapping his arms around the now crying mare that kept him from moving.
Fluttershy had advanced from sobbing to letting her eyes run like a faucet down her face and Westwood's hard scales, "You just can't!" She voice rang out. Westwood was sure that if Fluttershy had hands that she would be grabbing him and keeping him from going away as tightly as fingers could hold him, "I finally find a male that I care about and he has to leave. I don't want to see you leave!" She screamed in distress.
Westwood couldn't bare to see Fluttershy in such a state, but he could not doom an entire race for one selfish act, "I'm sorry." He said to her now kneeling down and hugging the pegasus, "I am going to do everything I can to stay alive even if it is just to see everyone's smiling faces one last time. I won't surrender. No matter what."
Slowly Fluttershy separated from Westwood and sniffed as tears continued dripping down her face, "You better come back. I'll never forgive you if you don't." Fluttershy spoke now looking to the ground, "Come back to us Westwood." She spoke with her voice quieting down from the yelling she had done as she cried.
Westwood stayed eye level with the pegasus and held out his hand with his pinkie claw exposed, he felt silly after doing it so instead he made a crossing motion over his heart with another finger, "Cross my heart and hope to die." He said to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy took this new promise as a sign that she could trust his words, "Alright. But I'll be waiting. I'll wait forever if I have to." She added in as she stood still looking to the black scaled dragon in front of her.
Westwood gave a soft smile, no fangs showing in his maw, "You won't have to wait forever. I promise I'll do everything I can."
With that, the dragon began to fly once again. This time Westwood was not visited by Nox, as though the shadow knew that he could not ruin his counterpart's mood after the event that had just happened. Westwood's business was done in the small town, he had no regrets now even if one of his visits became less than desirable.
Westwood flew forward towards the castle once more, what he saw was smoke piling from the castle windows. The shock of what he saw drove Westwood to fly to the highest of his capabilities, wind whipping at his face and body like thousands of lashes attacking him all at once in an attempt to reach the castle quickly and attempt to save what was possible.
Westwood touched down inside of the castle through the window that was crashed through a short time before his arrival close to the castle. Broken glass and singe marks were present inside, he could heard Celestia speak to a male voice. He then rushed out to see Celestia standing in front of the now ashen body of the white dragon that had detonated a short time before, "This happened after I left." He spoke clenching his hands into a tight fist, "What happened?" He asked looking around to see if Luna was present, "And where's Luna?"
The question about Luna made Celestia twitch, a pang of anger still remaining in her heart, "That dragon from before, the one that I called Alabaster, he sent three of his dragons to kill you or abduct Luna. Since you were not here, they took her." She spoke.
Westwood froze hearing that the dragons had kidnapped Luna. In his eyes, he could see Nox once more, "So. What are you going to do now Woody? Going to go on a rampage? Kill everything with scales? Rip the king's head off like you're opening a can?" Nox spoke. The dragon kept his eyes shut and his fangs clenched. He was in no mood to hear his sentient shadow speaking to him again.
Celestia looked back at Westwood and then came close, "You don't have anything to say?" She asked, the pang of anger still in her mind, "My sister adores you, I are even say she loves you after such a short time after meeting you and you have nothing to say after I tell you she has been abducted?" She asked the dragon.
The two voices speaking in Westwood's speak at the same time made him shout, "BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" He shouted gripping his head and dropping to his knees.
Celestia now had confusion in her face as well as the anger in her eyes, "What do you mean both? I'm the only one speaking." Celestia spoke watching the dragon seem to collapse under mental stress.
Westwood opened his eyes, one yellow with the other soulless black, "He keeps coming into my head. My shadow keeps talking to me, telling me to do things. I want him out of my head, but he won't go away." He spoke clenching his head tighter to the point that his claws began digging under his scales and causing small trickles of blood to run down the sides of his head.
Celestia had lost much of the anger now that she saw the dragon in such a fragile state, "Why didn't you tell me about this?" Celestia spoke, her anger no longer as prevalent in her voice.
Westwood's soulless black eye shifted back to yellow, Nox had left him alone after his outburst so his head was quieter, "Yes, because telling someone that I have a living shadow that only I can see telling me to do things is considered normal." He spoke now standing back onto his feet. He looked at his hands and sighed softly seeing that he had his blood on his claw tips.
Celestia shook her head, "No. It is not normal. But I do not know how a shade works, perhaps this is the reason why they had a war declared on their kind." She spoke seeing that the wounds in Westwood's head from his own claws not only stopped bleeding, but the holes made in his head had closed and healed over with a fresh set of scaling.
The idea that his species was extinct because of this thing that was stuck in his head made Westwood laugh. It started as a small chuckle then eventually grew and grew until his laughing reached a point of echoing through the halls, "So a big black cloud that's been stuck in my head is the cause for a war against a species? That's just priceless." He spoke turning his eyes to the much smaller looking sentient shadow that was in the corner of his eye even if Celestia couldn't see it, "It was a psychotic disorder that lead to all out war. It's just hilarious." He spoke continuing to laugh about the misfortune of his ancestors. Despite the lack of emotion Nox could display outside of his tone, Westwood could see that Nox had confusion in his face as if Westwood's mind being difficult for Nox to control was a matter that befuddled the sentient shadow.
Celestia looked like she had a similar look on her face when Westwood laughed, it didn't sound maniacal, it was a genuine sense of laughter over an unfortunate situation, "You are laughing about a condition that threatens your sanity. How can you be laughing about this?" Celestia asked standing firm in front of the dragon.
Westwood calmed his laughing when he heard the question, "It means that I have more self control than any of my ancestors. Even if I don't know any of them, I surpassed them. I am my own self." He spoke with a wide grin on his face, "I'm sure you would be laughing in my situation." He spoke before turning his back to the princess, "But if you remember, I have a mission to accomplish. Now that Luna has been abducted I have even more reason to get there." He spoke spreading his wings.
Celestia sprinted in front of Westwood before he could leave, "You are not going into a situation like that with no protection. You might be a dragon and have armor like scales, but the blades the white dragons wield are made from sun steel. If that makes contact with bare flesh then you would end up like that fire dragon from before. You are receiving armor and a weapon whether you want it or not." Celestia spoke standing in front of Westwood once again and keeping him from flying out of the same window that he had come in through.
Westwood just gave a much smaller chuckle than what he displayed before, "I don't need armor. Even when I was human and so much more unprotected, I never needed or used it. All armor does is slow me down." He spoke to the princess, "Besides, how can I be stealthy if there are clanking sounds coming off my body." He spoke with a grin showing a few of his fangs, "And weapons are never an issue." He spoke extending his arms and letting his shadow flow over his body and for a pair of knives in his hands, "I can make solid objects with my shadow. And Nox has no control over me." He spoke keeping his grin on his face.
Celestia watched the events unfold, it was amazing that he had so much control to go as far as making weapons from another world into a solid, metal state out of an intangible material, "I understand. Just." She paused trying to think of the proper words, "I'm sure if your mother and father could see you. They would be proud of the warrior that you became."
Westwood looked back to Celestia when he heard her mention his father and mother, "So you knew them?" He asked wondering why it was that she had brought them up.
Celestia was surprised that Westwood was questioning her instead of acting proud like ponies she had complimented, "Not personally. When I had met them, they were protecting you with their life. That eventually did happen. I was there personally, I had extinguished their life. But then I saw what they were protecting, it was you." She said to Westwood.
The dragon had not expressed the emotional reaction that Celestia had expected, if anything his emotional state was dead, "And that's when you sent me to another world right? Leave me out of the world and never worry about me again? I do not know what your reasoning was, but at this point it doesn't matter. That was over a century for you and three decades for me. That is the past and I held no attachments to this world. My family being proud of me is about at relevant as my last meal before turning into this." He spoke, his emotions no longer present. His eyes showed some anger and sorrow, but it was not something he was going to let himself express any way else.
Celestia moved closer to the dragon, "You do not have to hide that you are angry Westwood. I wished that things would have gone such a different way."
Westwood shook his head, "If things went a different way, then I would not be having this conversation with you. I would more than likely be in the bottom of an unmarked grave like I'm sure the rest of my kind are set. This mission is not about my kind, this mission is about restoring order and preventing war. If I succeed in my mission then I have no regrets." He spoke now moving around the princess.
As he walked through the now brightly lit room he had comforted Luna in a short time before, he clenched his fists tightly again, "I will be back. And they will be gone." He spoke before jumping out the window and flying out to the dragon kingdom.
The world was dark and dank, the only light being from a single torch on a wall. Luna had just barely woken up from the impact the female dragon had delivered to her the few hours before this had all happened. She was confused on where she was. She knew what it was like to be in the dark, but this was different. Instead of the dark nature of her time on the moon, this was frightening.
"So you're finally awake." A voice spoke from the darkness. Soon a white dragon with what seemed to be a high and mighty posture came into view. Upon his head was a macabre crown composed of bone and what seemed to be a single red stone that sat in the center of what seemed to be a smaller dragon's skull, "I was wondering when my little prize would finally wake." The dragon spoke setting himself against what appeared to be a set of bars, the flames behind him showing small stripes of golden scales that appeared from the spines on his back in a pattern looking like a set of ribs stretching from his back to the center of his chest.
Luna backed up seeing the dragon, the lighting made him seem like a monster even at the closer look to the white colored dragon, "What do you mean prize? Where am I, why am I here?" Luna asked trying to get a grasp on the situation that she was in. It seemed pointless to try and fight the creature in front of her with her being behind a set of bars, and more than likely there were others that would protect this creature.
The white dragon laughed lightly, "I must apologize dear princess. I was so excited that I forgot that you are not familiar with this place." He spoke to Luna taking a set back from the bars, "I am King Luz. Under a recommendation from my adviser, I had taken you to this place." He spoke giving a bow to the alicorn princess, "I did not intend on calling you a prize. It's just a reaction I have when something new comes into my borders." The look on Luna's face showed that she did not like the rewording that Luz had supplied her, "For the mean time you are in a cell under my dwelling. It is not a proper castle like I am sure you are used to, but my subjects made the best with what they had." Luz continued with a chuckle.
Luna was not impressed no matter what the case was, she was in a cell abducted from her home by invading dragons using brute force, "It matters not what this place is. You have no right to hold me here reptile." She spoke planting her front hooves firmly on the ground to show that she was not please with the predicament that she had been forced into.
Luz looked at Luna like she was speaking another language, "I don't have a right? I was the one that sent three units to infiltrate your castle. Only three units and they all managed to do their jobs perfectly." He spoke with a chuckle that seemed to send a chill down Luna's spine, "In this culture, one's strength and command gives them all the right that is possible." He spoke to Luna, his eyes glowing with an ominous green aura, "That is the dragon's way. You keep what you kill." The white and gold dragon spoke before pushing himself away from the bars, "That is why I have my right to hold you like this." He spoke turning his back to the princess, "Oh, and don't even try to escape with magic. The bars are forged with dragon scales. They will reflect any magic you cast at it right back at you. And I do not want to see such a pretty trophy get scuffed up." He spoke to Luna as he walked away.
Luna looked to the dragon as he walked away then to the bars. It might have been a bluff that they would bounce back any magic that she cast at it, but the idea that she might injure herself in the process. All she could do was just to wait in the darkness of the cell and pray that someone would come to save her.
It had taken Westwood a matter of hours to arrive at the borders of the dragon's kingdom. The land was drastically more grim than the place that he had just left. Instead of massive field of green and forests littering the lengths of the lands, it was covered much like a wasteland. Bones of fallen creatures littered the land he saw, the wasteland proving that only the strong survived and the weak were left to rot. The one thing that made the wasteland seem different was a single, enormous structure that looked like a fortress. Westwood could guess that this was the castle of the dragons.
Instead of flying straight to the castle itself Westwood landed on the hard, rocky earth to attempt to move in without causing an alarm in the structure He was on an assassination mission after all, there would be an enhanced security team protecting their leader if he triggered any sort of alarm or have anything spot him. Westwood was only looking to kill one of the beings today, only his intended target.
Nox appeared in front of Westwood giving him a stare down, "What is wrong with you? Why aren't you going on a full assault? You're a shade, a being that can take on an army on his own. Why are you sneaking around like a rat?" The shadow asked while Westwood stayed in cover being a large rock to keep himself from being.
"Because I am not here to show I am a strong warrior. I am here to be an assassin and to rescue Luna. If I make noise then it will make my life that much harder." Westwood spoke to the shadow in a hushed tone in case anything way looking of listening for anything out in the wasteland.
Nox growled at Westwood, "You are a shade. You are not supposed to be sneaky, you're supposed to be the immortal shadow that cannot be killed."
Westwood just let a grin come up to his face, "Technically, I am being the immortal shadow. By sticking to the shadows so no one can see me." He continued his conversation with the sentient shadow.
Nox pushed his smokey face up to the dragon's, "Listen here you little cretin. I was not locked away in the head of a human for thirty years for you to tell me that no one except for the one responsible is going to die. I want a slaughter. Blood everywhere. That is what I crave, bloodshed. You wouldn't do that on your own so I had to control your body to keep my urges sated. You are not going to tell me no!" The shadow shouted at Westwood.
Westwood looked the shadow directly in the eye then let a smirk come over his face, "No. Only one dragon dies. That was the context of the mission, that's all that happens." He spoke to Nox before moving a hand to Nox and pushing his hand through Nox's smokey head, "Now come on, I have to concentrate or we will both end up part of an extinct species. And I know you don't want that.
Nox narrowed the slits for eyes, "You win this round Woody. Next round is mine." He spoke once more vanishing from Westwood's sight.
Westwood sighed seeing that the disruptive shadow was gone once again, "God, that thing never knows when I don't want it around." He spoke before glancing over the rock he was using as cover. The slight image of a few larger dragons on a tall wall was the first thing he spotted. It wasn't going to be as easy to get inside as he thought it was, but then again his other missions had more cover and concealment compared to the wasteland he had to sneak through. After a single deep breath he began to sprint for the wall rather than fly. He had a low profile so flying was a bad idea compared to running on the ground where he wouldn't be easy to spot.
Westwood quickly turned and his back hit the wall to deaden the impact of the full sprint. With that he looked at his claws for a few seconds then looked up the wall, "Just like basic training." He spoke flexing his fingers then digging his claws with relative easy into the hard rock of the fortress, "Alright. One step at a time. Can't be more than five hundred feet up." He spoke pulling himself up and digging his digits into the stone.
Inside the fortress Luna remained in her cell. She remained quiet in her cell wondering what the purpose of bringing her to this place was. Footsteps could be heard in the darkness that the torches could not reach. Not loud and heavy steps that she had been accustomed to from the much larger dragons that had marched by watching the prisoners, but they were lighter and did not echo as much as the others. That was when he came into view, "Alabaster. What is going on? Why did your units attack my home and abduct me?" The princess asked moving to the bars to stare to the older white dragon.
Alabaster sighed softly, "It was unfortunate. I had to give the order, but you must understand that we had never intended for things to turn out this way." The white reptile spoke in a solemn tone as he lowered his head, "The intention was to eliminate the shade and stop this war, but it appeared that he was not there and we were forced to do what our king wished. He wanted to keep you as a trophy your highness."
Luna scowled at the white dragon, "I am well aware of that. That monster had stopped by when I had woken up and told me himself." Luna spoke showing the anger in her tone to the reptile.
"I see. And I apologize again, if that was not what our king told my units to do then it would not have happened." He spoke to Luna keeping his head down, "I wanted to avoid a pointless war, but it seems like we are not going to be out of it like I had wanted." He spoke to Luna before lifting his head, "The only thing we can hope for is that the shade does the honorable thing and kills himself to save lives." He spoke.
Luna pressed herself to the bars while eyes that reflected her rage as Nightmare Moon, "You take back those words right this instant you savage creature. No pony or dragon should have to kill themselves for this." Her face was filled with emotion in this statement not just rage, but others that she was not sure about.
Alabaster looked at the princess's face and saw what was there, "Do you care for the shade?" He asked keeping his hands behind his back.
Luna was taken aback by Alabaster's question, "What do you mean by care for?" Luna asked the white dragon.
Alabaster let out a small chuckle then he shook his head, "Nevermind. Forget I said anything." He spoke seeing that things might turn out different if the shade decided to be Luna's brave knight, "If what I hope happens. We may still avoid a war yet. Please be patient my princess." He spoke then giving a bow of respect to Luna.
Another voice echoed through the dark world around them, "Alabaster!" The voice of Luz shouted and echoed through the darkness around them, "I have to have you up in the training grounds to ready the troops for our grand conquering of Equestria!" The king shouted once more turning back away from the darkness to meet his subjects and warriors for this next battle.
Alabaster shook his head, "I will return. Hopefully the shade you desire will come to save his princess." He spoke to Luna then departed from the darkness once more leaving Luna alone in the world.
More footsteps however replaced the softer steps of the older dragon, heavier steps that were much more frequent as though there were more present. In front of her stood two massive fire type dragons with a set of chains and loops for what looked like would be Luna's neck and front legs, "Don't think that I am done with you just being here. What good is a trophy that no one can see?" The familiar voice of Luz spoke as the lock was undone and the door was swung open.
Luna had attempted to run out and try to evade the larger dragons, but Luz was close behind and slammed the princess into the stony ground like the units before had done a few hours ago, "Let me go you monster!" Luna shouted attempting to use her magic, but Luz pressed his clawed hand to the Princess's head to keep her from being able to aim her magic to any of the dragons in the dark recesses of this place.
"Not so fast princess." Luz spoke with a comical tone on his face, "Just because I opened a giant metal door doesn't mean that you can go where you like." He spoke as loud clamping sounds could be heard.
The cold feel of the metal on her legs and neck made her feel dizzy, like something was sapping the strength from her body, "What did you do to me?" Luna asked seeming to be unable to move on her own at the moment.
Luz laughed under his breath, his fangs exposed in the dim lighting, "Those binds are to you from being smart and trying to cast magic against us. I can't have my trophy trying to attack our citizens now can I?" He asked Luna as he then picked the princess up and placed her on her feet. The shackles on her rattled when her body was moved.
Luna felt weak from the bizarre shackles that sapped away her magical strength, "When Princess Celestia-" Luna started with a look on her face that one would say looked much like how she was when she was Nightmare Moon, but her words were broken by one of the larger dragon tugged on the chain that was attached to her neck.
"Now now princess. We do not have the chance to have a lover's quarrel here? We had to address everything to my subjects, then we can begin what I truly wish to do." He spoke to Luna placing a claw under her chin to force her to look into his eyes, "So be a good girl for me." He spoke with a sarcastic tone as Luna was pulled along with the king.
Westwood had finally reached the top of the wall, his body pressed close to the stone as he listened for footsteps. The steps were heavy with the nature of the dragons that had taken to the guard position, but they always seemed to leave a gap. As soon as it seemed that they left that gap, Westwood pulled himself over the wall to see they were not present.
Westwood looked back and forth from a low profile so he would not be spotted easily, it was clear. That part was what confused him more, not only were the footsteps absent, but there was no sign of life anywhere. The castle's wall was just as desolate and lifeless as the rest of the world around them. While it made this mission easier at the start, it made him wonder why this high security was unguarded.
His thoughts broke away from the situation and he progressed along the wall looking for a way inside the complex without having to take any major risks. His search granted him a doorway of stone. Slowly the dragon peeked around the corner, again it was clear. This was beyond strange to Westwood, that security would just suddenly vanish from every position around just after they had kidnapped a royal and an act of war the day before.
Westwood kept his body pressed into the stone of the wall, his footsteps silent as he progressed through the long hallway. There were no sounds, no talking, no signs of life. It unnerved Westwood the more he progressed through the long, dark hall. No light aside from torches were present, but that just gave him the upper hand since he could see much better in the dark than other being could if only because he was altered in his past body.
There was no sounds for nearly ten minutes as he slowly progressed through the hall. All of a sudden, the sound of thousands of voices rang out like a discordant symphony. Westwood sprinted towards the source of the sound, that was when he saw he was several hundred feet up in the air on what appeared to be a balcony overlooking a massive chamber of stone with an opening in the ceiling that made the world visible for the thousands of dragons on the ground. Different shapes and sizes were present, the voices soon falling silent as a confidant voice rang out from another balcony that was below him. His eyes had spotted one other that he saw next to the source of the voice. That was when he saw Luna there in chains.
The king and his fire dragon guards finally made it into the day light, their prisoner pulled along behind them. The king had a snarky grin on his face once more exposing his many fangs, "Look to your subjects my princess." He spoke looking to the thousands of reptiles in front of them, "Well, at least they technically are your subjects after I eradicate everything that you once held dear. Your old home, your old kingdom will be ashes by the time this war is over." He spoke to the princess.
Needless to say Luna wanted to fight back against her captors, the only thing keeping her from attempting to attack the king and his guards being the chains and shackles that were keeping her from moving too quickly. Her legs had felt heavier both from the weight of her shackles then the magic draining feature that her bonds possessed, "You deserve to burn in Tartarus for this you monster." She spoke trying as she could to be defiant against the king.
Luz just let a chuckle come up from his throat, "You'd be surprised on what happens my dear princess. You might end up liking this new life in time." He spoke before walking to the edge of the balcony and raising up a single fist in the air. The cheering from the crowd was near deafening, but that was just a boost to the king's ego.
"My wonderful subjects." The royal called out once the crowd had quieted down, "Today I announce the turning point of our grand species. For too long we have been suffering from the humiliation of having to rely on a species that is no more than the size of our foot to destroy a threat." He continued which was met by the crowd shouting in rage, "But now we are to redeem ourselves. From this day on, history will know that our race was not bested by a race of creatures that do not deserve our history. Today, we begin our battle against the ponies and redeem ourselves from our humiliation!" He shouted to the crowd in a triumphant manner that had the crowd cheering.
Luz looked back at Luna and then snickered as he waved for the fire dragons to pull Luna forward, "And our first step in our redemption is the capture of one of their rulers. I present to you our first and only prisoner, one of the princesses. I bring you Princess Luna!" He called out which was greeted with more cheers of the crowd, "She will be the only being left to remind the world of how weak these creatures are. That their species can be erased as easily as a single war." He called to the crowd with a wide grin on his face seeing the enthusiasm in the crowd.
Westwood listened to Luz's speech as he attempted to get closer to the ruler without revealing his position to the crowd that was under him. With him being the only black scaled dragon that was in the crowd he would certainly stand out even of no one paid attention to him. His motions lead to him climbing up the wall, using his claws once again to keep him secured to the stone that surrounded the room. He continued climbing along the rock face, his body alternating between upwards motions and moving sideways to attempt to get the better point of attack. With Luna here and in chains, she was a major priority for rescue as well. This had turned from an assassination to a search and rescue in the matter of a few minutes.
It had taken to the end of Luz's speech before the black scaled dragon was a good ways overhead of Luz, but he was too far out from the wall to be able to pounce. He looked down seeing that the best route he could possibly take was to attack the fire dragons first then get Luna out of the shackles. Westwood took in a deep breath, part of him cursing the fact that he was having this idea. That was when he jumped off the wall, his body dropping quickly. Gasps could be heard as the shade then came into view. The action however was too late for Luz and one of the fire dragons that had been keeping a hold of Luna's shackles.
A long knife appeared after his shadow stretched from the wall, Westwood's foot impacting the first fire dragon in the head and forcing the larger dragon head first into the ground instantly knocking the beast out. As the dust flew from the impact, Westwood used the knife and sliced clean through the bonds that kept Luna secured and powerless.
The second dragon had a dumbstruck look on his face before seeing Luna now unshackled, her magic and strength quickly returning, "You shall now see the mistake you made reptile." Luna spoke as a beam of magic shot from Luna's horn and launched the much larger dragon into the crowd leaving Luz, Luna and Westwood the only beings in the balcony.
Westwood clenched the dark edged weapon tightly seeing the white and gold reptile in front of him. Judging by the macabre fixture atop of Luz's head, Westwood could guess that this was the king.
Luz looked back after hearing the sounds of the dragon hitting the ground and the magic that was cast to blow the second fire dragon away. His lips fixed in a grin, "Well now. It seems that the ponies have been given aid by an extinct species." Luz spoke looking at Westwood.
Westwood remained silent as he watched the king's movement. His knife ready for retaliation for what had been done.
Luz chuckled as he looked to Westwood, "What's the matter shade? Your extinction hit your throat too?" Luz spoke stepping forward.
Westwood kept his ground as he watched the white and gold dragon move forward, "No. I just don't like to talk to my targets." The black scale dragon spoke staring down his intended target.
Luna stood her ground as well though it seemed that she was being ignored by Luz strangely enough.
"Princess Luna." Westwood started keeping his eyes on Luz, "You're free to go. Get back to the castle, I can take care of myself here." Westwood continued.
Luz laughed at Westwood's remark, "Yes. Go ahead princess. I have a new trophy that I can mount on my wall." He spoke with a grin on his face, "I will be the one to kill the last shade. I will be the most famous king in all of history." He spoke cracking his knuckles and moving to what the shade
Westwood kept his eyes on the king in front of him, "Luna. Just go. Your kingdom needs you more than it needs me." He spoke to Luna while watching his target.
Luna stomped her hoof down, "I will not abandon you Westwood!" She shouted to the dragon.
Westwood growled before shouting, "YOUR KINGDOM NEEDS YOU LUNA! JUST GO!" He shouted at the princess. His eyes were now focused on the alicorn, the look of determination in his eyes showed how he was feeling.
Luz chuckled seeing the instant that Westwood let himself become vulnerable. The next few seconds flowed as Luz had sprinted forward and grabbed the massive blade from the downed fire dragon and swung at Westwood.
Westwood barely heard the sound of the king picking up the sword before he was able to even see that Luz had swung the massive weapon. The weapon cut through Westwood's chest scales and up through his shoulder, deep crimson shot from the wound as the shade fell back.
Luna watched the event in horror. Her body unable to move, her voice unable to be heard. Luna knew what had happened, she knew that she was at fault for this, "wes-" the alicorn's voice started, "no." She continued as tears welled up in her eyes seeing the shade drop to his back with the wound spread through the black scaled dragon's chest.
Luz grinned at the crimson splashed onto his face, his eyes focused on the dragon as he dropped to the ground, "Kind of sad actually." He spoke as Luz stepped to the still shade, "I was hoping that this fight would be entertaining, but I suppose a win is a win whether it's fair or it's not." He spoke before thrusting the weapon down into the frozen drake's stomach.
Now that the weapon was planted deep into Westwood, Luz's attention shifted to Luna who he saw still paralyzed in fear and shock, "But since that's over." He spoke turning his gaze to Luna, "I'm sure that fool of an ambassador has told you our people's way. You keep what you kill. And judging by your look, I'd say that I've won a very interesting prize." He spoke.
Westwood was barely alive, the experiments that were performed on him as a human gave him that at least. His eyes however were blank and the world fell into darkness only to become the void he had grown to know.
"Woody. I can't believe you let a female get you exposed like that. You had no much promise." The familiar voice of Nox spoke as the smokey figure appeared in front of Westwood as the drake lay in the void, "But here you are, wounded and ready to die." The shadow then started laughing, "I just find it so funny that you let your time as a human soften you up with emotions like that. Your compassion for that female, even if she is quite the looker, made you expose yourself and now you have a sword in your gut."
Westwood tried to speak, instead all that came was a gargling sound with not a crimson fluid. The fluid that came out from his mouth was black and cold.
"Don't bother talking. In the real world you've got a gash going through your lungs and a sword in your gut. Trying to talk in that world would be useless just like here. Only here you're pretty much being kept alive by me." Nox spoke to Westwood running a smoke covered hand over the wound on Westwood's had on his chest then grabbing the sword by the handle, "But here's where I cut to the chase. Unless you let me take control for a few minutes, you are going to die and your mare over there is going to be repeatedly violated by that creature that calls himself a dragon." He spoke the wound on Westwood's chest closed to minimize air loss.
Westwood was gasping for air while he was stuck in the void, his lungs healed for the most part and the wound closed to keep his lungs covered. His mind focused on the ultimatum, that he would lose control of his body in order to survive.
"Oh don't think like that Woody. It will only be until that white bastard is dead. Believe me when I saw that I hate that bastard myself, if for a different reason from yours. He is the son of the bastard that ordered our kind to extinction." Nox spoke with his eyes shifting from the yellow tone to a deep and dark red, "Because our being different he thought that we were a blight. Because we had power that he did not, he wanted our species erased." Nox spoke, his anger even more evident in his voice as he shared the memories of his species, "And when they started losing more numbers than expected they begged for help telling them that we were monsters."
More passion began to flood from his voice, "He told those ponies that we were mindless beasts in order to have them assist the other dragon in a genocide!" The angry tone of Nox spreading throughout the void, "We are the only of our race because of a leader that wanted a strong species destroyed." Nox grabbed the blade that was trapped in Westwood's stomach, "I know all about how easy it is for you to heal from life threatening injuries like this. I only need your body for a minute so that I can personally erase that white stain from existence. I don't care about anything else right now. I want to murder that bastard in cold blood exactly how he murdered our entire race over a difference in power!" He shouted.
Westwood was stunned by the sentient shadow's true motives. He had taken Nox to be the snarky, sarcastic and unlikable being that had been plaguing his mind, but to find it was all Luz's fault he was in this position made him think, "One minute Nox, but on the condition that I can still see everything you do to that monster." Westwood spoke as he felt something flooding through the hole in his stomach. He looked down to see that Nox was sending his shadow covered body into Westwood again.
"I can promise that." Nox spoke as he flooded his entire form into Westwood's body in the void.
It was back in the real world. Luz had been advancing on Luna though his attention was pulled away when he felt something seemed to flood through his body. The ominous feeling made Luz look back to see that the body he left behind was now getting up. The sword he drove through the opposing drake was being pulled out of the ground as well which when Westwood was finally on his feet, the blade protruding from the black dragon's back.
The shade grabbed the blade and began yanking the massive weapon out from his stomach to toss it aside. The gaping hole in Westwood's stomach was quickly closing up and the dragon's shadow began swirling about the drake.
Luz watched the previously deceased shade rise once more, his body rigid, "What the hell are you?" Luz spoke watching the wounds close quickly.
Westwood turned to look to Luz, his eyes were black and lifeless, "You should know. Your father pretty much executed my entire race because we were different." Westwood spoke with an echo in his voice, "And to you. You can call me Nox is only for the minute you are alive." Westwood's body smoke as the shadows at his feet vanished. Seconds later the shadows that had wrapped around the body of the shade.
Luna watched the supposed resurrection of Westwood to see that what seemed to be an entirely different entity was in his place. It was then she regained her senses, "I'll be back for you." Luna spoke before flying away like how Westwood had told her to do before and he had been attacked due to her actions.
The shadows around Westwood's body then formed the shape of a set of highly aggressive looking armor. The flat black color of the artificial metal covered his chest, stomach, legs and upper arms all while leaving his forearms exposed for the curved, ethereal blades to be ready for use on top of the rest of the dragon's armor, "Now Luz. We will settle the last hundred years." Westwood spoke using his wings to boost himself forward quickly to grab the king's face and threw him into the wall leaving a crater in the wall.
Luz grunted when he impacted the wall behind him, his lungs took a major hit as the air was pushed from his lungs leaving the white dragon out of breath and gasping for air. He fell from the crater in the stone and landed on all fours while he caught his breath. The next thing he saw was the shade in front of him, his hand then being slammed by the black dragon's armored foot. Even out of breath, a scream of pain echoed through the chamber as the white dragon's bones cracked and fractured under the force and weight of the shade.
Westwood took his foot from Luz's hand and kicked the king in the face, the king's crown flying away from Luz's head and clattering on the stone ground, "You were the king? How could such a being like you be considered a threat?" The echoed voice of Westwood and Nox's voices spoke to the white dragon who was clenching his hand. Westwood then reached down and grabbed the king's head and dragged him to the edge of the balcony and to the subjects who had been waiting for the result, "This is your ruler. The son of a dragon that was afraid of a race. MY race." He spoke with Luz hanging over the edge to the crowd, "Do you want a ruler that may attempt to erase your existence if you look like a threat?" Westwood called before dropping the king into the crowd below.
Luz was disoriented by both the impact of Westwood's armored leg as well as the impact of being thrown into the stone wall that was previously behind him. His body fell from the balcony only to impact the ground several stories below. The white dragon brought himself to his feet after a few seconds. He looked up seeing the armored shade, on inspection he could see that the black color in Westwood's eyes was slowly fading away into the glowing yellow color he had seen before. The king could also see that the armor that Westwood had on his body was fading as well, "Can only have that state for so long?" He asked Westwood with a laugh as his tongue explored spaced in his mouth to feel that a few of his fangs were now missing.
Westwood spread his wings and dropped to the ground, the crowd spreading out to give the two drakes their space as though the two were going to start a fight. Now that the armor was gone, deep scars in his stomach, back and chest were present, "Just long enough to recover, but that was my agreement with Nox. He has control of my body for a minute and it seemed he wanted to see you in pain and humiliated before your peers instead of killing you outright. Probably would have killed you if I gave him more than a minute." Westwood spoke cracking his knuckles, but now that there is nothing distracting me I can finish that."
Luz listened to Westwood and started to laugh as he recovered from what he thought was the first concussion he ever experienced, "You know. That was the first time I had ever been hit like that." Luz spoke spitting out blood from his mouth and what looked like some pieces of his fangs as well, "Then again I don't have any other subjects that would dare to attack me." He spoke chuckling and watching his subjects spread to give the two dragons room to battle.
Westwood kept his eyes on the white dragon in front of him, "Then they obviously don't see that you are not as strong as they think you are." Westwood spoke to the king.
That single note infuriated Luz to the point that Luz had charged at Westwood with only his claws bared to attack. Westwood had easily grabbed the enraged dragon and threw Luz over the black dragon's shoulder to toss him several meters from where they had met. The enraged king scrambled to his feet and charged fruitlessly once again as the tyrant was then slammed hard into the stone at their feet. Westwood having kept his grip on the king's arm and twisting it to keep the white dragon's face pressed into the ground.
Small cracking sounds could be heard as the arm Westwood had grabbed began to fracture under the combined stress of Westwood's grip and the way Luz's arm was tweaked. Soon after a loud snap could be heard and Luz screamed in pain as the same arm that had its hand broken by Westwood and Nox's stomp was broken straight at the upper arm's bone. The crowd was stunned that their king was being beaten and in a brutal way to add.
Westwood took himself off of Luz then he stood up attempting to let Luz back onto his feet, even if the pain was too much for the white dragon to concentrate with his arm flexing in his upper arm in a was that was could be sickening.
Luz jumped to his feet, hesitant, but still got to his feet, "This is not over you creature. You should have perished with the rest of your race." Luz spoke in anger and grabbing at the complete break in his upper arm's bone, "You are all monsters. Beasts. Your kind showed it years ago when my father was still the king." He spoke trying to get the crowd on his side.
Westwood smirked hearing what Luz said, "You are trying to get your subjects involved in a manner that is a one on one fight? What sort of king are you if you will quickly put your subjects in the line of fire just to keep yourself alive." Westwood spoke taking a fighting stance towards the fallen king.
Luz growled at his opponent, "I will not be humiliated by a retched shade." Luz spoke taking his hand off his arm and charging at Westwood one last time.
Westwood planted his foot back and thrusted his hand forward with all his digits extended, his shadow stretched to his hand to form an ethereal blade to surround his hand, literally forming a knife hand. The digits then pierced through the charging king's chest. Blood sprayed from the back of Luz, the white dragon's eyes rolling into the back of his head.The white dragon fell limp on Westwood's arm. Westwood then threw the king to the side. The white dragon now had a large hole in his chest where the dragon's heart had once been. Blood poured from the now deceased king.
The world was quiet as the dragon watched their monarch die at the hands of a being that had formerly been an extinct species. After a few minutes of silence, the crowd separated into two halves. In the center was the older white dragon that had spoken so casually with Celestia when war had been declared, "You impressed me sha-I mean, Westwood. I had hoped that you would come and save your princess when I had spoken with her majesty. And now you have even taken the life of our warmongering king." Alabaster had then gone face to face with the black dragon. Shortly after he knelt down on one knee and held his right fist to his chest as he bowed.
Westwood was confused on the ambassador's actions only to see that many of the others that had been in the crowd had also began to bow before the shade, "What is going on? Why are you bowing to me? I killed your king!" He called out confused on what the situation was.
Alabaster chuckled hearing Westwood's questions, "My liege. There is a law of our kingdom. The term that was spoke before by our king, 'you keep what you kill'. You are a part of our laws being a dragon. You have killed our king so you now keep the position that he had." Alabaster then stood to his feet to face the warrior, "As ambassador of the dragon kingdom, I vest the right of royalty onto your shoulders." The white dragon spoke then turned to face the crowd, "All hail King Westwood the Shade!" He shouted. The shout was met with cheers as though the others had been waiting for this day to come.
Westwood looked around at the dragons around him, cheering for their new king. The feeling was overwhelming, the rush of pride and emotions flowed through his body like a raging river. Once he got himself under control he chuckled under his breath and shut his eyes, "If that is so Alabaster. Then I would like to have a message relayed to Princess Celestia and Luna. I want to see them here to see what has happened with their eyes." He spoke to Alabaster over the cheering of the crowd.
His gaze then went to the many subjects that he now had authority over, he however would not become the tyrant that Luz had been, "My subjects!" He called out with the cheering quieting down, "As your new king I decree that this war is over. No dragon will attack any of Equestria in an act of violence." The cheering as news pointed to the end of a war before it began drowned out the entire room.
Westwood then turned and looked up to the balcony, "Alabaster. When you see that crowd that your previous king had worn, I want it destroyed. There will be no trace of the actions taken by his bloodline. His violent acts will be remembered, but there will be no crown to show that oppressive power." Westwood spoke as he then began walking. Under the balcony there was what looked like a stone throne with dragon skulls on the arms of the throne as though a sign of intimidation. Westwood took his place on that throne, his back setting back on the hard stone.
He looked to the subjects and the new home he claimed in his act that nullified the war, "You keep what you kill." The dragon spoke under his breath. The tired dragon then closed his eyes and set himself to rest in the throne.
A day passed since the battle between Luz and Westwood. The result of the battle required the newly anointed king to rest despite the fact that the shade would rather be out and about. Regardless of that fact, Westwood was looking forward to the visit that Celestia and Luna was bound to give him to renegotiate their treaty. His current status, having nearly been fatally wounded by Luz's sword, made him have to sit still more or less so the rest of his wounds could heal up inside his body as well as the deep scars present on his chest, stomach and back.
"Your highness." A voice spoke to Westwood while the shade's eyes were shut, "As much as I would say it is a good idea to rest, you need to stay awake for when the princesses arrive." The familiar voice of the ambassador spoke to Westwood staying near the dragon as both the alarm clock for the tired king as well as the ambassador to their soon to happen meeting between the royals of both parties.
Westwood sighed hearing the voice of his ambassador, "I get it, trust me I'm trying to stay awake. Need I remind you that I had a gigantic sword stuck through my stomach. The only reason why I'm still alive right now is in part of what happened when I was in the other world." He spoke to Alabaster placing a hand on the deep scar that the blade had run him through in his battle with Luz, "Let's leave that at that for now." He spoke wanting to end that part of his history since it was no longer a part of his current life.
Alabaster looked to Westwood and made a small chuckle, "No one needs to be reminded, they saw what happened in that impressive fight you had with our king." He spoke to Westwood keeping his hands behind his back.
Westwood glanced to the side with a groan. He was not in the mood to reply to his ambassador's statement and all he wanted to do right this moment was to catch up on his sleep.
That was when he heard the announcement, "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of Equestria present themselves before the might of our king!" The deep voice of a larger dragon called out which boomed through the large enclosure with sunlight shining through the top of the large room.
The two princesses came into view not long after the announcement, their colors standing out more than their features much like how the two had seen the being in the throne.
Westwood, ignoring any pain he felt, stood to his feet and began to walk towards his new peers, "It's good to see you again." The shade spoke as he began moving forward.
The familiar voice of Westwood brought relief to the Celestia, but Luna felt excitement for seeing the dragon alive and well. The lunar princess began to run to the dragon, ignoring the protocol she normally would put emphasis on. The two met before Celestia could interrupt her sister, Luna's forelegs flung around Westwood in embrace.
A small grunt came from Westwood as some strain hit the freshly healed wounds, "It's good to see you too Princess Luna." The shade spoke with some strain in his voice when normally he would have held her up just fine.
Realizing what she was doing, Luna dropped herself from Westwood's shoulders with a red tinge on her cheeks, "I apologize." The lunar princess spoke attempting to recover her composure after her act, "That was out of line." She spoke bowing before the dragon.
Westwood laughed in a low tone, "It's perfectly fine princess." Westwood spoke, some relief was present now that the weight of Luna was not on him.
Celestia had made it to Westwood and gave a bow of respect to the newly anointed king, "I am glad to see that you completed your task my liege." Celestia spoke rising back once more, "It was not expected that I would see you in such a high stature, though dragon laws and traditions are very different compared to Equestria's laws and rules."
Alabaster had been making his way to meet the Equestrian royalty, his presence made more known when a bow was presented to the sun princess, "I am glad that all of this is over your highness. Your shade proved that he could best the warmonger in battle, and now he is our king." Alabaster spoke then looked to Westwood, "I apologize if I speak out of line your highness."
Westwood just shook his head, "Forget titles and ranks for now Alabaster. I know we are here to negotiate our treaty, but for now let's just stay more casual. It's just going to be the four of us for the mean time." Westwood spoke before a sigh came from his mouth.
Celestia could see that there was discomfort in Westwood's movements, "If you wish to remain casual, I have no objections." Celestia mentioned then looked to the throne. It seemed that there was some damage at the edges of the throne's arm rests, now the skulls were gone replaced by the stone being scratched and damaged, "I can tell you are in pain Westwood. I'm sure that your wounds are still in the process of healing." She spoke gesturing her head to the throne that was behind Westwood.
Westwood sighed hearing Celestia, "It's that obvious?" The shade spoke before catching her movements, "As much as I would like to take a seat, I'm afraid if I do I may end up falling asleep." He spoke in a joking manner to Celestia.
Celestia gave a small laugh in reply to Westwood's comment, "If I may suggest, dear king. It may be a better place to recover in Equestria's borders. I do not know the medicine present in this kingdom and I would be more than willing to provide proper treatment for the new monarch."
Westwood would have been more than willing to just leave, but at the same time this was now his responsibility,
"Your highness." The voice of Alabaster spoke, "I am able to assist in caring for your kingdom now that we no longer have war to settle. I will not take control, just mediate until your return. Unfortunately our medical capabilities are rather limited, spending time in Equestria would be beneficial for your well being." The ambassador spoke keeping his hand to his chest while ducking his head.
Westwood sighed, "I see. Then for the mean time I will allow you to moderate what happens. If I come back and I see you doing the same as Luz then you can expect the same thing to happen." He spoke with a small hint in his voice that he was just joking with the older dragon, but at the same time there was a sense of unease in Alabaster with the wording that Westwood had provided.
While hiding the pain of his still healing wounds, Westwood joined with Celestia and Luna. Luna seemed the most excited about Westwood joining their little party, a fact that Celestia could clearly see in her sister. Celestia remained quiet so that Luna and Westwood could have their time together before the renegotiations to the old treaty had to begin. This time as well as the ride to Equestria would be the best opportunity for the two to have their closure.
The walk to where Celestia and Luna had landed was short, the gold inlaid carriage manned by the entourage of white coated stallion pegasi. The thought of ponies carrying around two princesses perfectly capable of flight on carriage was amusing to say the least, but Westwood was not going to add that to a conversation since this seemed normal to their kind in this world. Westwood followed the princesses onto the carriage. He wanted to fly on his own, but in his current state it would be painful, especially with the long flight to the fortress the previous day.
The next few hours were quiet as the shade had attempted to rest his body against the walls of the carri. The lone dragon was soon asleep, the smooth ride provided made the act easier than expected. Celestia and Luna however spoke in whispers to avoid waking the drake, "You are certain Luna?" Celestia spoke in whisper first.
Luna nodded her head in reply, "Yes. I am more certain than I have ever been before sister." Luna added to the nod.
This though made Celestia uneasy about her sister's decision, but this was Luna's choice and she was not going to argue her judgement, "As long as you are certain." The solar princess spoke to Luna regarding her choices. Celestia's eyes focused onward to take the visual of their castle.
The castle came into view not long after the sisters' conversation, Luna gently shook Westwood to wake the sleeping dragon, "It's time to wake up my king." Luna spoke to Westwood.
The dragon let out a small groan as he opened up one eye to see Luna in front of him, "Alright. I'm up." The dragon spoke then stood for the last few minutes of their flight. The castle was a welcomed sight, the bright white contrasted his current domain that it was tempting to stay in this place possibly longer than just for his wounds. He remained silent while watching the castle growing closer and closer.
In a matter of minutes the three royals had arrived in a space that their carriage could land safely, the landing was so smooth that no one felt any deviation when the carriage had finally landed on the grass nearest the castle.
Celestia was the first to exit the carriage, Westwood followed after with Luna very close behind the shade. Despite the pain in Westwood's stomach and chest, he was able to move fairly easily.
Celestia was the first to speak, "I apologize for this, but I will need to part ways from here in order to write a revised treaty for our two races. I will leave you in Luna's more than capable hooves. I hope that you are do not have a problem with my choice."
Westwood just gave a short laugh that was cut shorter due to the pain in his stomach, "That's fine." Westwood spoke gripping the scar on his stomach, "After what happened yesterday, I'd rather not get straight to business." Westwood spoke to Celestia remaining more casual with the princesses with the current circumstances.
Luna had then stepped beside Westwood, "Then if you would follow me your highness." The younger looking alicorn started in an attempt to grab Westwood's attention, "We should take you so see one of our doctors. They would certainly know how to mend such a deep wound" Luna spoke.
Westwood, while appreciating the sentiment, shook his head, "The scars will heal on their own. All it really is is pain right now. For the mean time I'd rather just be comfortable with you." The drake spoke with a smile formed to his face.
The words that the shade spoke made Luna blush, "If you have no qualms with holding back a medical visit then I can accept your choice." The dark coat Luna possessed could not hide the red that seemed to stain her cheeks.
Celestia could not help but to utter a small giggle from how her sister reacted to Westwood, "I see that things are settled for now. I will send a guard to you when the revised treaty has been established." The solar princess spoke before taking her leave to attend to her matters and dismiss the guards that were set to the carriage.
With her sister no longer present and the white coats of the guard no longer visible Luna instantly pressed herself into the shade, "I was so worried you wouldn't make it back." Luna spoke with intensity that she could not express in public view.
Westwood felt the sudden pressure of the lunar princess and pressed back enough so that he would not fall over, "It's alright. It's all over. The fighting, the war, and the hostilities. It's all over now." The shade spoke wrapping his strong arms around Luna to comfort her.
Luna had a realization of what she was doing and pulled away, red still overpowering the dark coat that was on her face, "Yes. It's all over now. Peace between our kind." She spoke attempting once more to regain her composure.
Westwood, while wanting to laugh somewhat, kept his amusement to himself both for his sake and for hers. He then started moving forward to stand before the princess, "Please lead the way your highness." He spoke to Luna keeping his posture straight not like a royal, but as a warrior, "It is your home after all." He spoke to Luna.
Luna cleared her throat to remove any more traces of what she had done before, "If you insist my liege." Luna spoke feeling her more formal nature taking control to alleviate the nervous feelings that she possessed talking with the shade.
Westwood wanted to correct Luna by telling her not to be so formal, but at the same time it seemed to be the one thing that was keeping her more or less sane. Westwood then started to move forward, "Well then. Maybe we should start moving." Westwood spoke with a smile on his face while the pain in his gut was fading away with his amusement.
Luna soon after took the lead, her head kept upright in pride, "Very well." She started as her the air about her became less unnerved and more in control, "Have you eaten since your fight with the former king?" Luna asked keeping her composure.
Westwood would have answered, but the loud growling his stomach produced answered her question before he had an opportunity to do so, "I think that answers your question." Westwood joked with the princess.
Despite the act Luna composed herself with, the fact that the drake's stomach voiced itself so loudly nearly brought a small laugh to the lunar entity, "Very well. The first thing we do is to make sure our dragon royal is well fed." Luna spoke leading the way to the dining room for their meal.
While Luna and Westwood sere spending their new found time with one another, the solar princess knelt beside her desk. A parchment, quill and ink jar as her only company. She had been staring at the blank parchment since entering her dwelling, the request that Luna made for the treaty echoed in her mind as she looked back at the events that had unfolded with the princesses when Luna had escaped from the fortress. As much as she wanted to fulfill her sister's wishes, it seemed more than unusual for Luna to jump so soon into what could possibly be the rest of her immortal life.
After a moment longer Celestia used her magic to dip the quill into the ink to write on the parchment and set the treaty sealing the peace between the races.
'On this day, The fourth day of the six month of the year 1013, an alliance of the kingdom Dracous and the nation of Equestria shall be forged. Under the conditions listed, these two nations will be allies until this treaty has been broken. The first condition, both the kingdom of Dracous and Equestria shall not come into conflict with one another over rights to land, resources or food. The second condition, A representative of the dragon race shall remain in the borders of Equestria as well as a representative of Equestria shall remain in the borders of Dracous.'
Celestia was hesitant on writing the third and final condition to the treaty, this one regarded her sister's fate and future. She was arguing with herself on the final subject. The quill lifted from the parchment while Celestia argued with herself over this one condition. The other two were easy enough, but this was now on a personal level. The image of her sister speaking with her came to mind from the previous day, she had do place this down.
'And for the third and final condition. My sister, Princess Luna, shall be offered to the anointed King Westwood as an incentive to keep this treaty. With this treaty, our kingdoms shall remain in peace, no act of war may be tolerated between the nations listed. Defense will be offered to either nation to defend either race should assistance be necessary."
The princess's quill was finally taken off of the parchment. There was regret in her eyes when she had just about signed away her sister to another nation. Even if this was because of Luna's own choice, the action of signing away her kin to promote peace left a bad taste in her mouth, "I hope you know what you are doing Luna." The solar diarch spoke to herself as she looked out through the window that she possessed in the solitary stillness of her room.
And Thus, the World Had Peace
"YOU DID WHAT?!" The voice of Westwood shouted more in surprise than in anger or total shock. The shouting made a small pain in his stomach where Luz had run him through the previous day.
"Somehow I knew you would react like that." Luna spoke. The two royals having taken the short walk to Luna's room in order to keep things in a more private environment, "As I said, I suggested to my sister that I be set as a way to ensure that our races will not come to another war." Luna spoke with a deadpan tone.
Westwood let out a growl, "Can't things just work on a han-" He looked and saw the hooves on Luna, "I mean hoof shake. That's how I made all my agreements back where I'm from." He spoke correcting himself. Even after spending a few days in this new world the idea of using pony related terms for every day talk was rather confusing, even more so when it was used in political delegations such as what he and Luna were having informally at this moment.
Luna let a small groan come from her throat, "That is not how things work here. I don't know what system you used in that other place, but we are not there any longer. This is Equestria and we are delegating a treaty and alliance between our races. A simple informal gesture would not solve any of our conditions." Luna spoke in a matter of fact sort of tone to emphasize that he was a royal now that he had taken Luz's place at the monarch.
Westwood twitched hearing that his old life was gone to the point that even his old way of thinking hat to be thrown out in order for his life to continue like this, "So that's it then. You're signing yourself away like some object. Just for the sake of an alliance?" He asked clenching his fist tightly, "You are not just some pawn that can be handed over. You are your own being, your own sentience." He spoke to Luna keeping firm in his mindset.
Luna was shocked that Westwood was so adamant to keep his mindset. She thought about what it must have been like for the drake in that other world and living a life without knowing what it was like to be the powerful being that he became, "The condition has more than likely already been written in the final treaty dear Westwood. It is unavoidable." She spoke to Westwood.
The drake glared at the princess, "You remember that dream you saw the other day? The one that had me become that creature?" Westwood started keeping his eyes locked into Luna's, "What you did not see, was what happened after that. Years I had spent locked away in the darkness, a prisoner of an act that I did not consciously commit. I could not live with myself if someone were to be set in the same position I had been in for all those years." He spoke, his yellow eyes seeming to pierce through Luna, "That is why I can't accept you being a condition for peace. I don't care what you say. There will be no war, there will be no violence. And there will be no exchange of life to do that." He spoke with passion seeming to explode from his voice.
Luna kept her eyes focused the shade's glowing yellow eyes. She took several steps towards the shade, the sound of her hooves tapping the floor seemed to echo through the room. Instead of trying to argue the point further, the princess instead pressed a kiss to Westwood's cheek, "You are different from other stallions or males." Luna started, "I selected myself to do this not just because I wanted to have a peaceful relation with your nation, but-" She broke herself off while red began to cover her face, "I wanted this so that I would not have to be away from my hero. The drake that had nearly given his life to protect me. The only real male that has made me feel the way that I do." Luna spoke keeping silent a moment to let what she had explained sink into Westwood's mind.
If Westwood's scales weren't as dark as they were, the deep blush would have been visible on his face after the princess had kissed his cheek. His throat cleared in an attempt to compose himself after what Luna had just explained, "Then. If we put it that way." He spoke scratching the back of his head, "Maybe it should be worded differently." He spoke keeping his wording shorter in his moment of embarrassment due to the alicorn's actions. How close Luna had gotten to him made Westwood feel somewhat uncomfortable even if it was not the kind that made him want to push the alicorn away.
Luna gave his statement a small bit of thought, "Then how about we make it so that I will be your queen."
That statement alone seemed to make Westwood's heart stop. The idea that he had gone from being the prisoner from another world to a king of a species then had a princess just about tell him that she wanted to marry him was beyond what he could comprehend, "I'll" He paused for a minute trying to get his head together, "I'll need to think about that. It's a big step to take." He spoke to her.
A minute of silence between the two of them eventually led to Luna speaking, "Then what would you suggest? You are a king and deserve to have some delegation for the sake of your species and subjects." Luna added in putting emphasis on the word species as though trying to remind him that he was the last of his kind.
Westwood scratched the back of his head, the feeling of his frills rubbing against his hand not doing much for how he was being talked to by the lunar diarch, "Just some time maybe. Sure there is something there, but let's just be sure that we're absolutely certain that we want to be that way." He spoke to Luna keeping his gaze away from her to avoid feeling like a heat was swelling up in his head from how Luna mentioned species.
Luna made a soft sigh hearing the way that Westwood was not rejecting her, "I must admit. Your willpower is astounding for a dragon." She spoke to Westwood. remembering that instance with spike and his rapid growth when he began acquiring as much as he had gotten, "But if you feel that time is necessary, then I will talk with my sister and see what I can do." Luna spoke.
Westwood let out a somewhat relieved sigh hearing that Luna was actually not going to throw herself into a treaty like a prize, "Alright. As long as we have that settled." The drake spoke to Luna.
Nox hovered over Westwood's shoulder, the voice of the shadow echoed in his ears, "You do realize that you gave up the chance to nail a princess right?" The shadow spoke looming over the dragon's shoulder invisible to Luna, "She's pretty much begging for it and you turn her away?" Nox paused letting this all sink in, "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Nox spoke passing a smokey hand through the back of Westwood's head.
Westwood sighed hearing Nox in his head one more time then he looked to Luna, "Excuse me for a second. I have to yell at my shadow." He spoke to Luna before fully turning around to face his other half, "Nox. Will you shut the hell up? If you remember right then you'll know that I am not supposed to be here. I may have been born here, but I grew up and matured in an entirely different place. This is normal for me." He spoke to the shadow. The princess was confused on why Westwood was having an argument with no one.
Nox groaned at Westwood, the voice inaudible to Luna's ears, "You do realize we're the last of our kind right? And an alicorn is offering herself. Can you look at the big picture here?" He asked holding his smokey hands to have his fingers in a square shape to look at Luna through that shape.
Westwood just scowled at the shadow, "Simple. I don't give a crap about me being the last of my kind. And I am not going to use anyone for anything like that." He spoke.
Luna, fed up with what was happening, interrupted Westwood's conversation with Nox, "Who are you talking to? And what the buck is happening to you?" Luna asked concerned for the drake.
Westwood looked back and sighed, "I thought that Celestia would have told you. I have another presence in my head. He goes by Nox and is pretty much the manifestation of my shadow. He's been talking off and on in my head, usually trying to convince me to be a killer, even if all that seemed to be just him being some kind of sadist. He shut up a bit after Luz's execution." He spoke to her.
Luna was dumbfounded by the fact that there was a second being inside of Westwood's head, and with how real it seemed to be for the drake despite no pony else being able to see such a being, "Do you think that this being you talk to is truly there?" Luna spoke. The affection that she displayed from before seemed to vanish at the notice that the dragon's king may have been unstable.
Westwood sighed hearing Luna then he rubbed the space between his eyes with a single finger, "He was the one that helped me to defeat the king that was about to force you into a place you did not want to be. He unleashed my ability to the point you saw. He rescued me after I repeatedly told you to leave. Nox saved me then, that makes him just as real as you my princess." He spoke with a hint of frustration that. To Westwood it seemed like Luna was starting to question his sanity, "I'm sure that your sister is finished with the treaty by now. I want this over with." He said to Luna, any serious emotion he had felt for the princess was now gone. Westwood's eyes showed that he was no longer letting emotions come to his mind.
As Westwood walked away from the princess and out the door, Nox seemed to hover in front of the drake, "What the hell was that Woody? Did you just turn her away for questioning about my existence?" The shadow spoke to the dragon in confusion.
Westwood glared at the smokey figure, "Yes. She questions me being sane, so until she understands that I am perfectly sane I will stay away. Hopefully it shouldn't take too long, I seriously do not want to have this be the end between us." He spoke to the shadow keeping his hands to his sides as the shade marched forward. After a minute he stopped in the hallway.
Nox looked at Westwood with a strange look to his eyes, "So what's on your mind now Woody? You want to go back to her?" He asked.
Westwood sighed, "No, I just realized I have no idea where I'm going." He said to Nox.
The shadow started to snicker at the fact that his other half was lost then it went to a full laugh as the shadow set itself on Westwood's shoulder as though keeping himself up using the solid form, "So you storm out of Luna's room to go take care of a treaty then you realize you're flying blind. Dear celestia you are priceless Woody."
An annoyed growl came from the shade, his irritation however was interrupted by a soft feeling brushing past his wing. He looked back to see that it was Luna, "Sorry about that display." Westwood spoke as he lowered his head, "Too many bad memories." He spoke to the princess, "But still, let's get this done. We can talk more after everything is set." He spoke to Luna letting her lead the way to the chambers they would be setting their meeting.
Everything seemed to be flying so quickly for Celestia, Luna and the newly anointed Westwood. In the time span of just a few days an extinct species of dragon had appeared in Equestria, war had been declared and ended, and the drake had even captured the heart of the lunar princess. It was quick enough that one's head would spin trying to keep up with all the events at once. Now the world seemed slow, the three royals seated in the chambers to sign and commit to a treaty for peace between the species.
"So that is a decision that you two have come to now?" Celestia asked as she reacted to the news that Westwood would not accept the term that Princess Luna would not be sent to live with Westwood in the wasteland kingdom the shade inherited by spilling Luz's blood.
"Yes. We had talked about the condition that was set and we both decided against it." Westwood spoke looking to Luna, "I come from a world where such an act is considered barbaric. I cannot allow myself to accept such a thing." Westwood spoke to Celestia keeping his hands folded in front of him.
Celestia then nodded and began striking the ink from her paper to remove the condition of her sister's fate of being 'forced' to remain beside the shade, "But aside from that, you are content with becoming an ally should Equestria be attacked or plunged into war?"
Westwood nodded his head, "Even if there was no treaty, we are allies. I fought for you when you requested it, I defended your land when your borders were attacked. There should be no question that I would remain a loyal ally until my reign ceases." He spoke to her in a deadpan tone, "From here my borders and yours shall remain allied ground." He spoke to Celestia though his eyes would gravitate to Luna periodically.
Celestia then gave a nod as Luna had given her sister an approving nod to the new treaty as well as what Westwood had stated, "Then I declare the nation of Dracous and Equestria are now allies." She spoke as the quill that had stricken the final condition of the treaty from the parchment now was dipped in ink and the solar royal began writing her signature of the page. The act was then followed by Luna's magic taking control of the quill to sign the revised parchment. Westwood was the last to pick up the quill. He had some difficulty writing with the quill and it took many dips into the ink pot before the words 'SSG Westwood' was written out in an elaborate design. With that final signature their alliance was sealed.
Westwood raised himself from his seat then lifted a hand to form a salute to the two princesses. Even if he was a king, he was a marine before anything else, "Should you decide to visit, I will have my borders open. In the mean time, I have a kingdom to fix." He spoke dropping his salute and walking away from the two princesses and to the door leading to the hall.
Part of the shade wanted to stay, wanted to renounce his position so he could stay as a warrior instead of a king. The other part of him knew that he had a responsibility to his position. Especially after Luz had seemed to turn his world into the disarray it became.
Nox's image stayed alongside Westwood, however he remained silent. The shadow picking up on the conflicting feelings the dragon felt even if his decision was the most mature of the options that he had.
Luna stayed beside Celestia even after Westwood had left the room to go outside. Her eyes focused on the parchment that was in front of her. Celestia caught her sister staring at the parchment then her majestic voice had focused on her sister, "Luna. All that was struck from the treaty was the requirement for you to go to Dracous. There isn't a rule saying that you cannot voluntarily go to see him." Celestia spoke reminding her sister of the fact, "No pony is stopping you." Celestia added in.
The reminder of what was removed made Luna seem to spring up. Luna's face went to her sister who gave the dark coated princess a nod as though giving her permission to chase after the shade. Luna quickly jumped from her seat and rushed after Westwood. Her hooves quickly tapping the floor to signal out that she was running.
In a matter of a minute, the form of the shade came into view. Westwood turned to see the source of the sound. The image of the princess rushing to him made him turn his entire body to face Luna. The pain he had felt when Luna had flung herself into the dragon was numbed by the feel of her lips once more pressed into his. Even if they were in public view, Westwood and Luna just didn't seem to care any more. The two shared their moment together with a devil may care disposition.
It had nearly been a minute since the start of the kiss before they finally parted. Luna slowly set herself down to all fours when they were separated, "I guess there's no telling you no at this point." Westwood spoke looking to Luna.
Luna shook her head, "Not in the slightest." She spoke to her king still feeling the warmth of the kiss on her lips, "I'm not going because a piece of paper said I have to. I'm going because I want to." Luna added in while she was close to Westwood.
The dragon chuckle to the insistent nature that he saw in her, "Then I guess that we should go home." He spoke to Luna. His gaze then looking outside into the afternoon sun, "After you my princess." Westwood spoke to Luna, "With me still in a bit of pain we will need to take that carriage." He mentioned to Luna before the two walked out into shining sun. Their forms being enveloped by the blinding light leading to their future.
The Calm Before the Storm
While Westwood had left the castle for Ponyville, Celestia had let out a small sigh. There was some relief that this could be settle before a full battle could be conducted between the two race, but at the same time she wished that this could be done without having to force any pony or dragon to kill another. As far as she could tell, this was the only way to save as many lives as she could. One life being risked was better than a nation on innocents, "Take care Westwood." She spoke watching the dragon flying off in a rush. The princess of the sun stood in front of the window that Westwood had left and stared at the dragon that had slowly glided out of view.
Shortly after the dragon had flown out of range of sight, another group of only small dragons had entered the perimeter of the castle grounds. Their small size and the white scales made it easier for them to blend with the clouds that were overhead. The small group numbered only a squad of three dragons, no armor to glisten in the light. The group landed on the side of the castle silently, one of the white scaled dragons made a motion with his hand before the other two followed his motions as well as the dragon himself. The supposed leader that was issuing hand signals for the other two took point as the group crawled up the wall of the castle, "Quickly and quietly. We don't need unwanted attention from the guards." He whispered to the other two white dragons.
The dragons had made it to the top of one of the towers, the leader looking through a set of holes in the railing to check if there was a guard present at the top. His hand lowered to show the other two to stop in their tracks and to not move, their claws made that service easier since they could dig into the stone and keep themselves planted, "Move." He spoke pulling himself up then rushing to the nearest door to the tower that they had taken. The leader's back was planted onto the door's frame, his breathing silent as he looked inside to see an empty hall, "I'm surprised that the ponies would leave this place unguarded." He spoke in a near whisper once his other two squad mates had made it to the top.
One of the other dragons, this one with a female voice, spoke keeping her voice low, "If the ponies were able to defeat the shades a century and a half ago they should be better than this. What's causing them to slip." The female spoke not seeing this as normal and staying cautious.
The leader put a finger to his lips, "Hush." The leader spoke to the female as he attempted to peer in through the doorway. His gaze found no guards in the hallway where he waved the two others into the hall. The two remained silent as they entered the brightly lit hallway of the castle.
The other dragon kept himself near the wall, his footsteps were quiet from the action of keeping his claws off the hard stone floor under him, "I just don't like this. It's just way too quiet to be a fortress." The second male spoke going as far as the keep his breathing silent on top of his words.
The leader groaned lightly at the male's observation, "They are ponies. The only thing they expected to find were more of those winged ponies. And they don't try to get in stealthily." He said to the other male, "So shut your mouths. We maintain silence from here. Hand signals only." The leader spoke to the second male. All three dragons kept silent after those words, as they progressed through the hallway.
Celestia, unbeknownst of the dragons a few floors above, had now gone to see how Luna was doing after what she witnessed the short time before. She felt guilty that she had let her sister see such a sight with her only recently returning back from her imprisonment in the moon, "Luna?" The princess of the sun spoke gently pushing the door open to see that her sister was now awake, "I'm sorry about what happened. It was a mistake to let you see what happened." Celestia spoke keeping her head low despite her normally regal stature.
Luna lifted her head hearing her sister's voice, "Do not be sorry sister. I had to see that the world is not as pleasant as our kingdom shows it to be." The darker of the princesses spoke looking out the window, "Do you know where Westwood has gone sister? I woke up and saw that he was not here like he was earlier." Luna spoke keeping her eyes focused out into the world outside of her room.
Celestia closer her eyes then took herself to be by her sister's side, "He went to Ponyville to say his goodbyes to the ponies that he befriended in his brief time there." Celestia spoke. Those words did not ease Luna's mind which was made apparent from the way the dark colored wings had drooped slightly, "He will be back. He wanted to let you rest before he told you what he was about to do for the whole of Equestria." Celestia spoke to her sister, her tone had deep emotion as she watched Luna's actions regarding Westwood.
Luna's head snapped to the side when she heard Celestia speak about what Westwood was about to do, "What did you tell him sister?" Luna started then placed her hooves on Celestia's shoulders, "TELL ME!" Luna finished using her Canterlot voice to show how much she was concerned.
Celestia felt her sister's voice push her mane aside, her eyes forcing themselves to stay open in the loud sounds, "He volunteered himself to go alone and attempt to end the war by assassinating the dragon king." Celestia spoke to her sister not wanting to make eye contact with the other alicorn that was watching her every move.
Luna was still and stiff when she heard that Westwood was playing assassin and was going to try to stop the war, "He." A brief pause could be felt, "He is risking his life to save us all?" She asked. She could tell Westwood was a brave drake, but this was beyond just brave. She felt that Westwood was being reckless and suicidal, "How could you let him do such a thing? How can you let him sacrifice himself?" She spoke with tears welling up in his eyes.
Celestia gently pushed Luna down from the sun princess's shoulders so that the two could talk more calmly, "He is doing this so that no lives will be unnecessarily lost. He is going to do everything he can to come back from this. The look in his eyes was not that of one that is accepting his fate. He is a warrior, I'm sure a better warrior than any of our guardsmen." She spoke to Luna.
Luna's eyes still leaked tears after hearing why Westwood was going on this mission, "This is still reckless. He is risking his life on something that might not happen even if he is not successful." She spoke trying to get herself under control. Her hoof stamped on the floor, the loud sound of her hoof echoing in her room.
The three white scaled dragons continued their infiltration of the castle, they had noticed the density of guards had increased steadily over the time they had entered. It made it seem like they were getting closer to the royalty. Now the three were near one room, the symbol of a crescent moon giving the obvious position that Princess Luna was in that room.
The dragon leader had given the signal for them to stop where he looked around the corner to see two guards standing watch over the one door. He then pointed upwards at the ceiling. The other two then silently climbed the wall with their claws keeping them secure as they then crawled along the ceiling. The leader followed suit, his movements moving with the other two dragons down to using their claw marks to make himself quieter.
The first two used the claws from their back feet to lower themselves down when they were above the two guard, their arms quickly wrapped around the guards' necks and pulled them up. Instead of attempting to snap their necks, they held them to stop their breathing. The result lead to two unconscious guards without a fatality. They were held up a few seconds longer by their necks until they completely stopped moving, the guards were then moved in the two dragon's arms so they could lift themselves up, hold the guards with one hand each all while keeping themselves suspended to the ceiling of the hall. The leader then looked around to check for another guard patrol before dropping down. His movements silent the more he attempted to release his grip on the ceiling. He looked to the two dragons over head and he gave then the sign to hold their position.
It was then that he opened the door in a manner to not cause a sound. He took a peek inside and huffed seeing Celestia and Luna, it seemed like this was not what he was planning on from the way he acted. He then looked back at the two over head and pointed down to the ground, "Seems like silent and undetected isn't an option." He spoke before the two dropped their unconscious victims to the hard ground to have their clawed feet stamp firmly on the guards' necks to permanently silence the two.
The leader broke down the door and charged at Celestia, his shoulder impacting the princess and sending back into the wall that was near her. As soon as the impact could be heard from Celestia impacting the nearest wall, the female white scale rushed in and grabbed Luna's head before slamming it into the floor. The impact of the dragon's strength with the floor knocked out the night princess, the other male dragon sprinted in to grab onto Celestia to hold her down no matter how much the sun princess had tried to struggle.
When the leader and the female tried picking up Luna with the male attempting to hold Celestia down, Celestia fought back and used her strength to throw the dragon off of her and fired a beam of magic from her horn at the leader and shot him into the wall behind him. Before she could aim at the female, the female dragon used Luna as a shield and held the unconscious princess in front of her and her claws at Luna's throat, "Don't you move or your sister dies." The female spoke in a cold manner while keeping herself shielded with Luna's limp body.
Celestia was hesitant to move now that her sister's life was on the life from a threat that had just declared war on them. This was not a battle, this was what she was planning on doing with Westwood doing to the dragon kingdom, "Do not hurt her. If you do there will be Tartarus to pay." She spoke keeping her ground though not moving an inch one way or the other.
The female gripped Luna tighter seeing the look in the solar princess's eyes like the dragons had just kicked a hornet's nest even more than when the other dragon had gone on with a full on assault on a civilian town, "Either way I'm finished. I come back a failure and I'm executed, I keep this up and you finish me off. I know when I'm finished and that's why I'm taking this as long as I can." She spoke inching her claws closer to Luna's throat.
Celestia found it difficult to understand, what was the dragon's goal here. If it was to kill the princesses then why were they giving them a chance to move, "Why are you here? If you wanted us dead then you would have already killed my sister." Celestia spoke keeping herself ready should the female try anything.
The female growled at Celestia, "I will not say as a definite your highness" She spoke slowly backing up towards the window, "But our objective was not about either ruler" She spoke feeling the back of her heel touch the wall under the window, "It involves a certain individual that you know about." She spoke giving an obvious hint to what her objective was without directly speaking what it was.
Celestia was shaken by what was happening, three assassins were sent to her kingdom over Westwood. This second of shock was enough to give the female dragon her chance. The female dragon jumped back through the window, shards of glass floating past the dragon's back before her wings quickly spread open and her flight back to the dragon kingdom. Her royal prisoner still clenched in her grasp as she flew.
Celestia had attempted to follow after, but her flight was disrupted by the leader and the other dragon jumping on the princess and pinning her down, "Sorry your highness. I cannot allow you to disrupt." The leader spoke using his legs to keep the princess from moving her head as he pinned her down.
Celestia struggled under the leader's strength before finally getting to the position where she could aim. She then fired magic into the leader and sent him flying through the wall and into the hallway. The other dragon soon followed suit though voluntarily as he rushed to the leader to make sure that he was still alive, the dragon then picked his leader up to his shoulder. Before the white dragon could move again, he was interrupted by another magic beam that impacted the wall beside the dragon's head.
Fear had the dragon tight, he couldn't move which was made even harder now that the princess had him and the leader dialed in and ready to attack at a second's notice.
"Now tell me. Where is my sister?" Celestia spoke with a voice that echoed the anger that was prevalent in her eyes after the abduction of her sister.
The male looked like he was staring into the eyes of death as he watched the princess, "T-the dr-dragon kin-kingdom." The male spoke with his chest heaving as his breathing spiked. Fear overtook him more than he thought it would be possible for a pony to do so, "We are under orders. We are not doing this because we want to!" He shouted to the princess remaining.
Celestia's eyes could almost be seen as monstrous to the dragons that had attempted to invade the castle, "The fact you are under orders does not make what you are doing right or permitted." She was entirely out of the room and spotted the two guards dead with their necks crushed, "You have also killed two of my guard. No amount of orders can save you at this point." Celestia added as dark magic once again flared from her eyes.
The sight caused the leader to shout, "Alabaster sent us here to kill the shade. If he dies then the war is over. Those guards are only dead because we had to take plan B. We had to show an act of aggression, killing your guards and a kidnapping was the best way to show it." The leader spoke.
The one name that the leader spoke made the look in Celestia's eyes change from anger to shock, "You were sent by Alabaster? He would betray my trust like this?" She spoke before slamming her hoof and nearly cracking the flooring with the strength that she expressed, "That is impossible. Alabaster sent you to attack us?!" The princess asked before a beam shot from her horn. The beam this time was a deep black color that left the wall behind the dragons singed in a dark black color, "Tell me the truth or this will be the last face you ever see." Celestia spoke. The blasts and beams having attracted the attention of the guards within the vicinity, within the minute the two dragons were surrounded by an assortment of ponies in royal armor.
The leader shouted, "That is the truth. Alabaster sent us here to either kill the shade or to kidnap Princess Luna. We had to go with Princess Luna because the shade is not here." The leader spoke again.
Celestia's eyes were now seeming to swell from the power her dark magic had received when her anger fed the power, "That is impossible. Alabaster is a peaceful being that would never force his troops to do such an abominable act."
The leader knew that they were as good as dead as this point, "This is not a lie your highness. He has his reasons for doing this, it is not a simple act of terrorism." He spoke. The leader could see one position he could take to get around Celestia and took it. He rushed forward a few steps and evaded another dark magic beam that was shot at him by sliding underneath the beam on his back then jumping over the crowd of guards. His final act used one of the guards as a springboard to reach the nearest window and took to flight once again.
The last male however was not as fortunate as his leader. While the beam had been evaded by its intended target, the beam continued and impacted with the other male. The magic had not done anything at first, but a writhing pain could be felt in the dragon's body. His scales turned black after a few minutes longer.
Celestia looked at the dragon she had used her magic on then shouted to her guards, "Everypony leave now!" She shouted as she attempted to erect a shield to allow the guards to leave the area. The dragon, his body spasming in pain, then threw himself on the ground and screamed his pain until finally his body erupted into flames. Not a minute after his body ignited, the dragon detonated like a bomb. The wall it was closest to was now destroyed, bits and pieces of rocks and stone hanging loose. The smoke from the dragon's corpse left little to be seen, his body now was only a set of hard ashes in the shape of a dragon's skeleton.
Celestia looked at the destruction her action had caused and watched the world seem to collapse onto itself. Her eyes had now reverted back to their normal shapes. In her anger she had caused a fatality, the act scared her on how she could have allowed herself to do such an act. One of the guard lieutenants had approached Celestia, "Your highness. We need our orders. What do you wish for us to do?" His question was met with silence, "Your highness?" The lieutenant continued once more met by silence.
Celestia was so shocked by her own actions that the world had no sensations, no feel and no sound. The only thing she felt was the aftermath of her actions. Her mind suddenly came back which her attention was brought to the lieutenant, "Find the dragon that abducted my sister. I will send Westwood to complete his mission when he arrives." She spoke trying to recompose herself after she had extinguished a life after so much time between the war.
The lieutenant then rushed out giving the orders to the pegasi guard to try and find where the female dragon was and try to bring Luna back. The problem was that with the time that passed, the female was already a good distance away from the castle and was far out of sight.