Author's Note

AAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYO! Guess who's back, back again. Sketchy's back, back again.

Okay but seriously, I am so glad that this is released finally. I'm sorry that you all had to wait for this for so long (as with all of my stories), but now the hiatus is over. My stories right now are my main focus and today is a very special day. Today is the birthday of one of my best mate's in the world, so myself and Julian would like to give a shout out to Chance aka Voltrasin. Happy birthday mate, I hope you have an awesome one. But knowing your luck, you'll have one we can only dream of. Stay tuned for more from me everybody.

• Ciaossu, Sketch

2. Monsters Arrive

Guardian Dragons 2: Monsters Arrive

"But...that's impossible." Stammered Twilight, her jaw just hanging above the ground. "It's extremely unlikely to have the same dream five nights in a row as is, but for all of us, even Cadence who's in the frozen north, to experience it at the same time is logically impossible."

Luna shook her head. "Well we are sure now that it definitely is not impossible. Somepony is trying to contact us through the dreamscape, and it requires great magic to achieve that. Magic only rivaled by alicorns such as our sister and ourself. Whomever it is, they are as strong as us."

Celestia looked to her former student and asked her, "Twilight, what do you remember from this dream?"

The young alicorn closed her eyes, recollecting the events of her dream. "All I remember are flashes but there was a battle, on a...mountain I believe. There was something there, three beings, unlike anything I have ever seen in Equestrian history. Two of them were about the same height and the other about three hoofs taller. They were fighting, but not fighting like foals would on a playground, the two smaller beings went with the intent to kill the other one. Then there was the screaming, screams of pain, like they were being tortured, it was horrible. I can hear their names being called out but it's muffled and warped, I can't hear exactly what the names are." She recalled, sweat dripping from her brow as she remembered the horrible nightmare.

"That's enough Twilight, you don't have to tell any more." Celestia said, wishing for her student to recall no more terrible moments from her dream.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked to her former mentor. "Princess Celestia, what do you make of the situation? How should we handle this?" Asked Twilight, concerned of how today's events have played out.

"In all honesty Twilight, I don't know. This sort of thing has never happened to neither Luna, nor I. I can't make manes or tails in this at all, we've been presented a situation we have no way of knowing what will happen."

It was a first for anypony who heard; Princess Celestia, the immortal ruler who raises the sun itself, could not figure out what to do. If anything, she was more stumped than anypony. Though none would say it, they were really up shit creek without a paddle, how can they prepare for something they didn't know anything about?

A light went off in Twilight's head, she had an idea, albeit a small one. "I'll let Mayor Mare know later today about what happened. I'll ask her to let a bulletin out saying if anypony sees anything suspicious or threatening to warn us immediately and stay in their homes." She explained, her predecessors nodding at her proposal.

"Excellent thinking Twilight Sparkle. Thine mind shows no boundaries when presented an irksome situation." Complemented the lunar princess to the young alicorn who blushed from the praise.

~~~~~~~~

"I'm..alive?" Question a blue haired human as his eyes blinked in and out of existence. Sitting up with great pain in his head, Jura rubbed his crown and looked around the barren wasteland he found himself in. "Terra!" He shouted, remembering his brother in arms. "Terra, where are you?!"

"Shut up, idiot." Said a nonchalant voice from behind the blue dragon slayer.

Jura turned around and saw his friend but he looked really roughed up. His trenchcoat's bottom was ripped to shreds and one sleeve was completely missing, his t-shirt had large cuts in them, the trousers were torn at the knees and ankles, and the boots were the only thing that seemed to be untouched. Sure, they weren't exactly untouched, having small scratches and one tiny hole, but they were still whole. Not to mention all the scratches, bruises, burn marks and dried blood that dotted his skin.

"Bloody hell Terra, you look like crap."

"As if you can talk, you're pretty much the same as me." The elder brother was right. Looking upon his apparel, Jura saw almost the same thing as he saw on Terra's clothing, except he was missing a whole boot, leaving a bare foot, and half a sleeve.

"Where do you think we are? Because the way I see it, we're a hundred fucking kilometres in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere and fucking whoop whoop land."

"I don't know old friend, but the magic I'm sensing is everywhere. It's like the very earth itself is in abundance with magic properties." Said Terra as he crouched down and picked up a handful of sand, letting the grains stream out between his fingers.

"Well that's good for you, but what about me? You can eat anytime you want, I have to find water in a fucking desert, and if you haven't noticed, our magic levels are very low!" Complained the younger dragonkin, throwing his arms around to emphasise the situation they were both stuck in.

"Calm down Jura, we'll find water. I promise you." They both shared a brief smile before Terra looked behind his companion and saw troubling news. "We need to move, quickly. While you were napping, a sandstorm made an approach from our South-West. It'll be hitting us pretty soon." Ripping off the only good sleeve he had left, Terra began wrapping around his head. "Use that sleeve of yours and make yourself a face guard, you'll need it." He said gruffly, his voice muffled by the cloth.

The paperwork that needs to be approved of, as a ruler of a nation, is as immeasurable as it is annoying. None hated it more so than Princess Celestia. It was at times like these that she regretted being a princess. It was at times like these that she would want to simply cast a transformation spell on herself, change her looks completely, and just do what the kids nowadays do. She had heard from one of her guards that going to nightclubs can be quite a stress relieving, as well as an exciting, event.

But alas, duty came before personal pleasure, so she was to remain stuck at her desk with mountains of paperwork in front of her. Each one of them a different form of complaint; ranging from burglaries (even though they're a rarity in this last millennia) to accidental damages, to the vast amount of complaints filed from and to her annoying nephew. Another thing she regretted.

"Princess Celestia, urgent news!" Shouted a guardspony as he came running through her personal study.

"Speak my little pony." Said the monarch in calm and relaxing tone.

"One of our scouts that was sent to our borders to be on the lookout for changelings has given a report back to us." He said, wiping away the sweat from his brow after removing his helmet, revealing his light blue mane. The sudden news intrigued the princess, especially after the events of the wedding in Canterlot last year.

"Has he spotted a changeling?" She asked the guardspony.

"No ma'am. Two entirely new creatures have arrived on Equestrian soil at an oasis near the badlands, right next to the Everfree's borders. He said that he saw one drink an entire lake and another ate the earth around it."

Celestial cocked an eyebrow at the report. "That is indeed very strange, but I do not see any concern in it." She said as she removed her reading her glasses with her magic and placed them onto her desk.

"Pardon me Princess, but I wasn't finished. Our scout was a unicorn, and unicorns and alicorns such as yourself are able to sense and measure magical pressures from anypony who has the ability to produce magic." Said the guard and Celestia nodded, gesturing for him to continue the report. "The magical pressure exuded from those two after they...'ate', was immeasurable, and the guard fainted on sight. He says that even if you and your sister were together to fight them... Pardon my rudeness your majesty but, you would never stand a chance against them. They are too strong even for you, they're monsters." He finished with absolute dread and fear in his voice.

~~~~~~~~

This recent news troubled the immortal princess as she walked through the corridors of her castle. Something has arrived in her lands that was, what was said to be, much stronger than anything that Equestria has ever faced before. Are these creatures allies? Or are they enemies? First the consecutive dreams of battles for nearly a week, now two unidentified creatures with immense power could threaten her home. The only other piece of information she had received of the newcomers was that they were bipedal and sported similar clothing.

The solar princess let out a hefty sigh. "Can this day get any worse?" She mumbled to herself.

"Princess!" Yelled a hearty voice from behind her. Turning around, she saw a pegasus guard with sweat dripping from his mane and forehead. "We have confirmed that two anomalies are currently making their way towards Ponyville! They entered through the Everfree forest and seemed to have gotten out only slightly injured!" He said, snapping a salute while his superior facehoofed herself.

'Faust dammit, I just had to open my mouth, didn't I? And why is it always Ponyville?! Why can't it ever be Germaney?! Nothing bad ever happens there!' She barked within her mind, groaning externally.

"Princess Celestia." Said a familiar voice that came from the princess' left side.

"Shining Armour? Shouldn't you be in the Crystal Empire with your wife?" She asked the blue haired stallion.

"Cadence told me that after telling you of her dreams, I should come to your aid. She thinks you'll need it, and I think so as well after reading the report of how strong these 'creatures' are." Explained the former captain of the guard, his tone and face stoic. A habit he kept since his time in the ranks of the guard.

"I guess since you're here, you might as well. Captain, gather up your old squadron and mobilise to Ponyville immediately. Luna and I will follow shortly with our best guards."

"Yes your majesty." Nodded the former captain as he went to his old barracks, but not before bowing to his aunt-in-law and ruler.

~~~~~Ponyville~~~~~

The sound of clanging metal and stomps resounded in their heightened ears. Something was coming; an army. They knew it and were prepared for it. The sounds came closer, closer, and closer. The two dragon slayers made no movements, no attempt at escape, not even a snarky comment from Jura was made. Instead, he laughed. He laughed when he saw what the sounds were coming from. A small army of horses wearing armour and carrying spears. Seeing it made him think they were in some kind of little girl's fantasy as he noticed about half of the squadron had horns while the rest either adorned wings or neither. Were it not for the older man smacking his friend on the head, he would have died from laughing too hard.

Stopping his laughter, Jura calmly walked up to one of the enquine soldiers and wanted to poke and prod it to see if it was the real deal. But before he could even touch it, the pony recoiled in fear and thrusted its spear at his face. It was a close call, but the spear head only managed to cut his cheek, a small trail of blood flowing out of the wound. His smile faded into a blank expression, as if confused.

"That wasn't very kind, why would you do that? Do you want to fight me?" He asked, but all the ponies could hear was garbled gibberish, however the gaze that the assaulting guard received made him think it was some kind of question that he wouldn't want to answer anyway. Unexpected to the stallion, he found himself suddenly off the ground with a sharp pain in his head. The pain was from Jura gripping his head and lifting him up off the dirt path underneath him. "If you want to fight, then let's throw down!"

The blue haired man threw the armoured pony guard. Sixty kilograms of weight, seventy if you include the armour, was tossed away like a baseball without any trouble to the pitcher at all. The stallion flew and flew, higher and higher, all the way up until an unfortunate collision with the bell tower in the centre of town. The premature ringing echoed in the town loudly, and even louder in the poor guard's ears. All the ponies present looked in shock at how one of their own could be thrown away like nothing. How could they stand up to a monster like that?

But one pony was not afraid. The captain turned around with great swiftness, and attempted to strike the offender. Jura saw this coming however, and leaped back to his partner with a smug look directed at the one who tried to attack him again. Standing up, Jura wiped away the trickle of blood from his cheek with his wrist.

"So Terra," the elder teen acknowledged his friend and turned his head to him. "how do you think we should handle this?" Asked Jura.

"I don't care, but knowing you, you'd want to at least grace them with a welcoming scare." Said Terra without any expression.

"You know me too well old friend." He said with his signature smirk.

The ponies had no idea what they were talking about though, as they couldn't understand their language, but seeing the blue maned creature's smirk scared a majority of them. Then their bodies began to glow in strange blue and brown auras, and the atmosphere began to gain weight, the very air feeling thick with magical pressure. First it was the air, but it very quickly transferred to the earth itself. The ground beneath the beings cracked deeply and the surrounding area rumbled, as if a great earthquake would soon break out upon the town.

The pure amount of magical pressure was enough to render a quarter of the unicorn guards unconscious from fear. It wasn't only the unicorns that were afraid though, some of the pegasi and earth ponies fainted from the exude. Out of the fifty guardsponies in Shining Armour's squadron, twenty had already been put out of battle without even doing anything. The ponies looked to their comrades in confusion and fear for their health, but then they heard a growl.

The source of the sound was the two beings once again, and as they looked upon the men, they could've sworn they'd grown bigger. Their growling grew louder, and louder, until they unleashed the most catastrophic roar ever heard in the history of Equestria. The roars echoed throughout the town, shattering the windows of the houses around them, and beyond the forest they had originally come out of. If the magic pressure made the guards scared, then the roar alone had the power to make even the most stoic of them lose control of his bladder.

The captain looked to his soldiers and ordered them to hold their ground and prepare for battle. Though reluctant and terrified, each of them did as they were ordered because it was their duty to protect Equestria from any threat, no matter how big it was. Jura noticed this, and looked at the little horses in with wonder.

They're not running away? These horses are either very stupid or they have giant balls to stand up to us. He thought as he watched them all ready for the inevitable fight that was to come. The excitement was too much for him to handle, he wanted to fight them, he wanted to see if these horses actually had some strength. "Oi, Terra. Count down from fifteen would ya?" Jura asked cracking his neck and knuckles.
Terra didn't enjoy fighting and only did so when he was either very angry or it was required on a mission. Jura, however, revelled the battleground. He would always go down to the local boxing ring in Hargeon to challenge the boxers there and improve on his hand-to-hand combat skills. Understanding his partner's almost insatiable thirst for battle, he sat down at the fountain's edge next to him and closed his eyes.

"Fifteen." He said, and like that, Jura was off and running.

He came so fast, that none of the ponies even saw him until the first of them was punched directly in the muzzle and sent crashing into five other guards. To Jura, they were moving sluggishly and slow, but then again, they probably haven't been fighting in continuous missions for the past twelve years.

"Eleven." Said Terra, and five more guards were put down by his partner.

It was a one-sided massacre. One after another, each soldier was being put down by the dragon slayer's superior fighting skills. They weren't seriously injured luckily, each soldier was only rendered unconscious by a punch or a kick. The only serious injuries that could be seen was a fair amount of blood and a couple of teeth strewn around the place.

"Nine." Thirty-five out of the fifty guards have been disposed of, including those that had fainted previously.

"Six." Fourty-two.

"Three." Fifty guards, down and out. Standing in the middle of the battleground was the overwhelmingly victorious human. His knuckles covered in blood, dripping to the ground as his coat flapped in the wind. "Hmpf, twelve seconds to beat a battalion of miniature horses with armour and spears. You know we could've avoided this whole confrontation if you hadn't have thrown that other horse into the tower, right?" Said Terra with expectancy and disappointment in his voice as he walked over to his friend. Jura just looked back at him and laughed nervously, admittedly, he never thought of it that way until Terra had pointed it out.

After opening his eyes however, he saw a light behind his brother. Looking past him, Jura saw a larger, dark blue pony charge up of what looked to be a massive attack aimed at Terra. Acting quickly, he did the only he could do.

"Look out!" He screamed as he pushed Terra out of the attack's line of fire and put himself in it.

The blast hit Jura like a truck at full speed. The young dragon slayer was sent flying from the attack as his body blew past wall after wall of the town's buildings. Bricks fell upon and covered the young man's body as he hit his final wall. The impact and rush instantly putting him to sleep.

"Jura!" Yelled Terra out in fear for his partner's life. Looking to the source of the blast, he saw the blue pony who'd just attacked his friend, and looked at it with fury. "You bastard!" Terra screamed before bumping both of his hands together, and after the bump appeared a large brown sigil with a draconic face in its centre.

Bringing one fist behind his back and holding his other hand below his shoulder, he formed a stance as his magic began to take effect. The earth rumbled stronger and stronger until it cracked, forming a large enough circle to cover the bell tower in the town. The humongous chunk of earth rose above the human's head as he roared, "Earth Dragon's Crushing Hammer!!"

Terra swung his arm forward and the earth followed his movements, heading towards the blue pony. However, what he didn't expect to see, was his attack being caught by a dark blue shield. Shocked by this event, he did not see the white pony a few metres away from his side, charging up an attack. The blast smashed into his side, and Terra was knocked back away.

"What a...cheap shot." He said before falling unconscious, dizzy from the blast.

"Sister, did thou see that? That...thing, just lifted no more than three tonnes of earth above its head." Said Luna as she walked to her sister, her voice distraught with fear and awe of had happened.

"With only a few gestures from its strange paws no less." Said Celestia as she continued to look upon the man she had shot down. "Luna, I'm afraid we've gotten ourselves into some trouble. Big trouble."

-----Meanwhile, thousands of miles away-----

"How long will you have us wait demon?!" Screamed the female, growing more and more impatient by the passing minute.

"Patience, mare. Patience." Said the male in a more peaceful tone, not phased by the outburst of his counterpart.

"Patience? I have been patiently waiting for this moment for a whole year. I want my revenge now!" Yelled the female once more, stamping her hoof into ground in anger.

"Do not forget who's in charge here you puny creature! It was I who brought you back to life, it was I who helped you and your kind. You will do as I say when I say it, do you understand me?!" Responded the male, his voice raising to counter the female's. Only his was far more demanding and authoritative. His counterpart shrank back under his rage, fearful for his anger.

"Yes. Forgive me, master." She said, bowing to him.

"Good. Prepare to mobilise your forces, you shall attack Ponyville in two days."