Origin of a Hero

Chapter 1

The five ponies sat looking out of the library window at the strange new pony that had arrived into town. She was a alicorn, like the princesses. She was dark, almost black in color, the mane and tail were dark purple with neon green highlights. The unicorn horn appeared to be broken, and part of her left ear was missing.

If it were only these features then this new pony wouldn't be all that frightening, however there were two very obvious physical traits that told everypony to beware. The first was two sets of horns, that sat on either side of the broken unicorn horn, which protruded from her mane making it look like she wore a crown. The other was her eyes; they were dragon style eyes colored blood red. It was those eyes that immediately caught everyponies attention and sent the whole town into hiding.

"A devil pony, I can't believe that there's a devil pony here in Ponyville." said Pinky Pie

"I can't believe that you know what a devil pony is, Pinky." said Twilight Sparkle

"Come on Twilight, you know that Pinky Pie loves all of that scary stuff." said Rainbow Dash

"I'm with Pinky Pie, what's a devil pony doing here in Ponyville anyway?" asked Apple Jack

They again turned their attention to the new comer and noticed that she seemed to be looking around and talking to herself. Then they all heard a set of voices coming from down the street coming to the library. They looked in the direction of the voices and gasped to see their friends.

"Oh no, Spike and Flutter Shy are still out there." Rarity exclaimed

At that moment the devil pony also took notice of the two talking and started to walk towards the pair, at the same time as they themselves took notice of her. As she got closer to them out of nowhere a brilliant purple flash shone between the pair and the new comer. And once the light was gone the five stood before the devil pony ready to protect their friends.

"What the?" asked devil pony as she tried to get the sparkles out of her eyes

"Stop where you are, monster. You ain't getting near our friends." declared Rainbow Dash

"You are certainly right Rainbow Dash, nopony is going to lay a hoof on them." said Rarity

"Um, excuse me." Flutter Shy said softly

"We are fully aware of what you are and what you do." Twilight spoke

"Pardon me, but if you..." Flutter Shy said a little louder

"Right you are, Twilight. We won’t back down no matter what." said Apple Jack

"Now get ready for a best friend beat down." declared Pinky Pie

"Everypony please listen!" shouted Flutter Shy

All five ponies, and the one dragon, looked over at the yellow pegasus in surprise and dumb founded expressions, while the new comer looked at her with a small approving smile.

Flutter Shy blushed a little at how all of her friends were looking at her and softly spoke, "I'm sorry, but you all were talking so much that you couldn't hear me. So I had to get your attention somehow and tell you that she's not evil."

"Flutter Shy's right, everypony, she's not a bad guy." agreed spike

"Not evil, but she's a devil pony. They're the offspring of changelings and pony's, born with incredible powers. They can't be trusted." explained Twilight Sparkle

Then they heard laughing, the kind of laughing when what you hear is so ridiculous that you just can't help but to laugh. The group turned and looked at the devil pony, who was the one laughing, and wondered what was so funny.

"What's so funny, did I miss a joke? Who told the joke that I missed, I want to hear it too." said Pinky Pie

"It wasn't necessarily a joke, but I still found it amusing." said the visitor, "But don't worry you cotton candy head too much about it, Pinky Pie."

"Cotton candy? Oh because of my mane, now that makes sense because it looks like a bunch of cotton candy and..." Then Pinky Pie stopped and looked at the devil pony in confusion, "What did you say"

"How do you know her name anyhow? Have you two met somewhere?"

"No we've never met. But I know her name the same way that I know yours, Apple Jack. Flutter Shy told me." she says in a matter of fact manner

"What!?" all five of the ponies exclaimed as they turned towards their friend.

"Alright just who are you, we demand to know?" said Rarity

"Well young dragon you seem to know who I am, would you like to introduce me?"

"No ma'am, it would spoil the fun of seeing their expressions when you tell them." replied Spike

Chuckling, "I believe you're right."

The devil pony turned her gaze on the five and said is a strong voice, "I do not know if you will be familiar with my name, however I do know that Twilight Sparkle will recognize my cutie mark." Up to this point her wings have been folded, covering her flank. She lifted one of her wings and reviled a medieval style shield that was divided in half, with a sun on one side and a moon on the other. She continued, "I am called Moon Shadow, and I am a hero of Equestria."

xxXxx

After scrapping their jaws from off the ground, Moon Shadow was escorted into the library by the whole group. She heard a chorus of apologies from the group for jumping to conclusions.

"Girls please, for the hundredth time you don't need to apologize, I forgive you."

"But we feel like total jerks for what we said and did to you outside." Rainbow Dash said

"It's true, Moon Shadow, if we had known who you were we wouldn't have over reacted like that." agreed Apple Jack

"Well you didn't know, in fact not too many ponies know me by sight. So your reaction isn't really all that uncommon."

"You're right, however after the Zecora thing we should know better than to jump to conclusions about another pony just because they look different from us." responded Rarity

The mane six nodded their heads in agreement with Rarities words.

"You know you still haven't told us how you know Flutter Shy and Spike." spoke Twilight Sparkle

"I was writing her asking her for some advice." answered Flutter Shy

"Advice, advice on what?" asked Pinky Pie

"On how I can be bolder and how to speak up in a group." Flutter Shy responded with a blush

"Didn't you learn your lesson when you took advice from that minotaur guy." said Apple Jack

"In her defense, she was writing me long before she met Iron Will." Moon Shadow said

"That's right. I started writing her a couple of years ago when I was reading about her in some of her adventures in the library. I was in awe of her courage that I had to talk to her and ask for her help." responded Flutter Shy

"Not that there was much that I could say other than the usual 'believe in yourself' type of stuff. But I did like getting her letters, and we ended up being pen pals."

"Well that answers our question on how you know Flutter Shy, but what about our dear Spike? How do you know him" inquired Rarity

Everypony turned to look at the dragon, who was serving them drinks. And Moon shadow said, "I don't know, I don't remember meeting with any young dragon for a very long time."

"I learned about you the same way that Flutter Shy did, through your books."

"But none of them talk about me being a devil pony, at least I don't think they do? The only reason that Flutter Shy knows is because I told her about it in one of our letters." said Moon Shadow

"Well thanks to Twilight's need to learn everything about a subject, I did a little research on you and eventually discovered that you were a devil pony" He said proudly

"I am impressed with your efforts, Mr. Spike. There's not many like you who would work so hard to learn about another."

"Well it's great it's wonderful to meet you, Moon Shadow. So it was Flutter Shy that brought you to our little town." Twilight Sparkle said

"In truth I was doing a routine tour of the kingdom, and noticed that I would be traveling near Ponyville and decided to come by and introduce myself to her in the flesh."

"It must be exciting to be a hero, seeing the world and rescuing ponies in danger. It sounds so exciting." said Pinky Pie as she bounced in place

"I wouldn't say that it's exciting, most of my duties are rather mundane and dull. Equestria is a very peaceful place and a hero can get bored rather easily." Moon Shadow said

"But it's not like that all of the time, you've had so many great adventures over the last thousand years." said Spike

"Whoa wait a second, you’re a thousand years old?" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, "No way I don't believe it."

"You don't look much older than Princess Cadance." said Rarity

"It's true, the legend of the hero Moon Shadow goes back about a thousand years. Even before Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon." Twilight explained

"How do you know that Twilight?" asked Apple Jack, "A few minutes ago you didn't even know who she was."

"True, but her cutie mark is the official seal of approval for the captain of the royal guard." answered Twilight Sparkle

"Oh I would love to know how you are able to look so young when you're the same age as our princesses." said Rarity

"Rarity you'll always look lovely, no matter what." said Spike

"Aw that's so sweet of you to say." Rarity said as she rubbed his head.

"Well I'm afraid that the secret to looking this way, at least for me, is the fact that I'm part changeling. Their magic gives me incredibly long lives. And I'm not the only one, all devil ponies have this trait." Moon Shadow said

"What I would like to know is how you became a hero. I mean if you don't mind telling us?" asked Flutter Shy

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard how you became a hero. All of the stories just make it sound like that you just popped up out of nowhere and started to save the day." Spike said

"I think that it's because of the whole 'I'm a devil pony' thing. You can't tell my origin story without giving away that little bit of information. And by your reactions earlier, some out there still are afraid of my kind"

"Well if you're willing we would still like to hear it and learn more about one of the greatest hero’s in Equestria." said Twilight Sparkle

"And I can write it down for you and save it for the day when everypony will be able to appreciate your efforts." piped up Spike

"I don't know?"

"Oh please, it would give us piece of mind knowing how you got started." said Rarity

Moon Shadow looked at the eager looking faces that surrounded her and let out a heavy sigh, "Very well, I'll regale you with my story. Do you think you can keep up with me?"

Spike rushed to a nearby desk and grabbed a pen and a stack of paper.

"Definitely." He said with a smile

"Spike here is the best writer I know. He can scribble down what you’re saying before you even say it." said Apple Jack

"Then gather around. It happened when I was just a filly a long long time ago..."

End Chapter 1