1. Goodbye and new beginnings
The weather was good today in the port town of Hargeon. The sea winds being soft, gentle and cool enough to give a little tickle to the people who felt them with a lovely contrast of a warm, glowing midday sun upon their skins. This was no exception for two young men who, looking no older than eighteen, were walking through the bright and chipper town. These two young men looked relatively normal to the naked eye but they wore pretty strange clothing considering the warm temperature.
Both wore long trenchcoats over trousers and a t-shirt with black heavy-duty boots. The only difference in their clothing was the colouring. One wore navy blue clothing with lines of silver running through the edges and the other wearing chocolate brown with black linings. On the back of their coats were two replica symbols, both pure white and in the shape of a tribal bird with its wings spread, as if in flight.
The youngest looking of the two, not surprisingly, had short and spiky, light blue hair to match his clothes and emerald green eyes. On his left temple was a small scar, barely noticeable due to the bangs of his hair covering the majority of it. In terms of physical build, the boy was really good looking: wherever you saw, finely toned muscles followed. The exact same could be said for his companion: his shoulder-length dark brown hair and red eyes matching nicely, somehow, with his slightly brighter shaded clothes, slightly stretched from his own muscles.
As they walked through the crowded streets, everybody who met their gaze was filled with happiness, respect and awe, as if they had met rockstars. Even a few children looked up at them in wonder. One little girl on the other hand, was to busy running around with her 3-scoop ice cream cone to notice the young adults. The consequences were to be expected, the girl ran into the blue haired man and spilled her three scoops all onto his leg.
The petite girl looked back and forth from to her empty cone and the man's legs. "M-my ice cream." She whimpered, tears quickly building in her eyes. A middle aged man who appeared to be her father came running up to her little body and became scared when he realised what had occurred and who the accident had affected. Thinking that the young man was angry at his daughter for ruining his trousers, he began to apologise profusely to his child's actions.
The boy was anything but angry in reality. Looking down at the child, he saw the tears she was struggling to hold back. If there was anything this guy hated, it was seeing children cry.
Feeling sorry for the child, the man knelt down on his clean leg and patted the girl on her head. "I'm sorry little girl, my silly pants have eaten your ice cream. Let me treat you to something special, just for you." He said cheerily. Looking out to the beach nearby, he stretched out his arm, an intricate patterned circle appeared and small streams of sea water began to flow towards him. When he thought that he had enough water, from simply flexing his fingers, the water began to encompass and cover his creamy leg. After a bit of careful swirling around, the ice cream was completely lifted off of his leg and floated back to the girl's empty cone and as one last miracle, the water turned to ice and beautifully dissipated into thin air, leaving sparkling splinters of ice in the air and the ice cream looking even better than before. "Et voilà. Good as new. I made sure it was purified of any salt, so don't worry about it tasting weird."
His words fell on deaf ears, the little girl was too extatic to see both a display of grand magic and her ice cream back to normal once more, but he didn't care. Carefully giving the stranger a hug around his legs, the girl thanked him very happily with a big smile on her face before walking off with her father. One last wave goodbye was shared between them as they both disappeared from each other's view.
The brown haired man looked to his partner with a slightly expectant expression. "That's awfully kind of you Jura. You know you can only turn your water into ice once every three hours because of how taxing it is on your magic supply." He said flatly, crossing his arms and showing his black gloved hands.
"She's just a little girl Terra, and you know how much I hate to see kids cry." Said the one known as Jura in a calm tone, laced with sad rememberance. Making a ninety degree turn to their right, the two men walked into a humble restruant named ‘8 Island’, a soft chime from the bell signalled the entrance of new customers. "Yo, Taladon ojisan! What's up man?" Called out Jura to an elderly aged man behind the bar.
The aged man, upon seeing the two youths happily smiled at them. "Ahh, if it isn't Twin Dragons of the Phoenix Wing guild. How're you two boys today?" He asked.
"Pretty good thank you, figured we grab a quick bite and drink before we head off to our next mission. Mind if we have the regulars?" Said Terra, grabbing a spot at a nearby table that was free from other patrons.
"Sure thing, but didn't you two just came back from a mission two days ago. Don't you guys need more rest since you're so young?"
"Pfft! You know us Tala, we can't sit still for too long otherwise we'd destroy the town out of boredom." Said Jura arrogantly, but his words held truth in them.
"I know, I know. We don't want a mess like the last time that happened. I'm just saying you two should rest for a bit, find some nice young lasses to call yours."
"Taladon-san, you know how bad we are with girls too. Everytime we get a girl in our sights they're either from a rival guild or just want attention. Not that I care."
"That's really unfortunate boys. Are you any closer to finding your parents?" Both boys just shook their heads in annoyance and sadness. "Shame. Oh well, you'll find them one day. So what's this new mission you're taking on?" Asked the elder, passing them their 'regulars': a bowl of beef noodles, filled to the top with broth for Jura and a large platter of high-quality stones with a side of bacon and eggs for Terra.
"It's an S-Class mission: we're going to take down Black Heart." Said the older boy, his tone calm and flat. Without even looking at each other, both of the dragon-kin thought the exact same thing.
Commence freak out in 3..2..1.
"Are you two crazy?! You're going to fight one of Zeref's Demons?!" Yelled the elder, his face fuming in red.
A gloved hand came on the old man' shoulder and from it came the boy Terra's calm face. "Taladon, don't worry." He said. "Never underestimate us, we are stronger than before and each day we continue to get stronger. We are not children anymore."
The elderly man looked up and saw two little boys. Two young boys who kept yelling 'Grandpa! Grandpa!', running around telling him about all the kinds of jobs they were going to do when they joined a wizard guild, but those boys grew up, and have become what they wanted to be. "You're right. I keep seeing the little boys who just joined a wizard guild, but you two aren't little anymore. Forgive this old man for wanting to keep you boys safe." The old man couldn't help but sigh in defeat.
"It's alright Taladon. There's a reason I call you 'ojisan' you know? It's because I really think of you as my grandad, you really helped us a lot when my dad and Terry's mom went missing. We owe you a lot." Jura and Terra both stood from their seats, finished with their meals and ready for their mission. "Believe in us gramps, we'll come back alive. A bit roughed up, but alive. We promise."
"Okay, and when you do come back, I'll treat you two to all the food you can have as a celebration gift."
"Thank you Grandpa Taladon. We'll be back." Said Terra as he proceeded to fist bump his guildmate as they walked out the door.
We promised everyone we'd be fine, that we'd come back to them, that we'd beat Black Heart. We had no idea just how wrong we were...
"Jura!!" Screamed Terra as he watched his brother be hanged from his throat by the hands of a large creature, blood streaming off of his body and dripping from the ends of his boots. "We can't win...this is a demon of Zeref." He stammered with fear for the first time in his life as his best friend was thrown away like a dirty rag.
Terra looked upon their foe and saw it with fear. It stood like a giant at 8ft. tall and while it appeared very slim in build, that only meant it was leightweight and fast. The onyx black armour covered it's entire body from head to toe, covered in menacing spikes, the fingers themselves looking like daggers. It's face however was the eeriest, nay, the scariest feature of all and was the only thing they could see in the setting sun's light. It's face was stark white in contrast to it's armour and was nothing more than a skull with pitch black sockets.
The two youths had spent the whole afternoon tracking down their target and were prepared to fight before they even found it. They did, and it only took five minutes. Five minutes was all it took for two of the strongest type of wizards ever to be beaten black and blue. They truly underestimated the strength of a demon.
"Prepare to die foolish humans." It spoke with a twisted, dark and grim voice, almost sounding like gravel. It crossed it's arms high into the air and almost instantaneously a swirling concentrate of black magic appeared above its clawed fingers. The amount of magical pressure it exuded was incredible, impossible even. The earth itself, shaking under the pressure.
"Wait." Said a weak voice, barely heard by the black demon. But he still heard it, and cancelled its magic, but still held its hands high, to see Jura looking at him with a fire in his eyes. "Please Black Heart, before you kill us, at least give us a moment to send our goodbyes to our guildmates." He pleaded. Terra and even Jura knew it was inevitable to reason with a demon, especially on such sentimental values.
But it worked.
"You have two minutes." Said the black hearted demon as he lowered his arms and left to sit on a nearby rock. Even with his soulless eye sockets, he could see the shocked expressions on both of the human's faces. "Don't be mistaken, I'm only allowing this because after many years of searching for strong opponents, you two managed to prove a challenge for me. Only that." He reasoned. It made sense really, not many could last as long as they did against the dark wizard's creations.
Without wanting to waste any precious time, Jura quickly grabbed a quill, ink and a blank piece of paper and began to write frantically but efficiently. No matter where he went, Jura always had those three things prepared in case of an emergency. When the two minutes had expired, the note had already been finished and with the last bit of strength he had, Jura used teleportation magic to send it away to his family with a serene sea blue glow.
"There, it's done." Said Jura, exhausted from all the hell they've been through.
"Are you prepared?" Asked the black demon ahead of the two dragon slayers.
"Yes. Do it."
"Very well." Raising his arms back in the air, the magic void reappeared and was hurtled towards them with a mighty throw.
At their very last moments of life, Jura Aquis and Terra Raegoh died with smiles on their faces and gave each other one, last, fist bump before the black vortex clouded their beings.
-----At the same time, back at Hargeon-----
"Do you really think those two are okay? Taking up a mission like that on their own?" Asked a worried blond-haired woman who would be confused for being in her twenties. On the side of her neck is the mark of the Phoenix Wing guild.
A young adult with scruffy blond-brown hair, by the name if Chance, looked to the woman. "Don't worry about it Master Linda, I think they can pull it off. Don't get me wrong, it's a very fine line but I think they can win. I believe they can." He said as he shuffled a deck of cards intricately in his hands.
A young brown haired woman named Melody would have slapped her boyfriend if it weren't for a sudden blue light enveloping the hall, getting the attention of the hundred members of the guild. When the light vanished, a light thud hit the ground and she saw a small parchment.
"A scroll?" She asked to no one specifically as she picked it up from the floor. Melody unravelled it and read the contents, from the first word, she could tell who's handwriting it was. "It's from Jura."
"What does it say?" Asked Master Linda, worried about what had brought this sudden message to them. But the flowing tears on her daughter's face made the reason clear.
"Everyone in the guild, we're sorry. We were fools to think we could beat a demon of Zeref on our own, even though we are both S Class wizards. We were overconfident in our abilities and it proved fruitless against our enemy. After this message gets to you, Black Heart will kill us and there's no escaping it. We're sorry, but do not come looking for revenge against Black Heart, he'll annihilate you all and we never want to see that happen. Never forget how much we loved the guild, the town and how much we loved all of you. Goodbye.
Oh yeah. Taladon-san, if you're reading this, sorry but we'll have to take a rain check that free dinner you promised us. If heaven does exist like you say, we'll see you there sometime soon. Just don't kick the bucket because of us old man.
Sincerely and with all our love, Jura and Terra.
Goodbye."
The night, all of Hargeon wept in their sorrows of losing two great people, two great friends and two extraordinary wizards.
But death is only the beginning of something new.
~~~~
It was the middle of the night in the sleepy town of Ponyville, well, 1 AM to be exact. It is far past the time for little colts and fillies and their parents to be awake and the perfect time to sleep, and to dream. However, wherever there are dreams, there are also nightmares. For Twilight Sparkle, recently crowned princess of Equestria, this was such a case. In the comforts of her bed, the young alicorn's mind was in what may have been a war. Every few seconds, Twilight would toss and turn under her quilts, sweating in heaps, grunting as if in pain.
Help us! Pleaded a muffled and distorted voice, sounds of explosions and tearing hitting the forefront of her mind. Twilight rolled over again and sweated more hot beads of sweat. Please. Whoever you are, wherever you are, please help us! With a large jolt, Twilight awoke in shuddering fear.
Taking deep breaths, Twilight struggled to remain calm but did her best to try. "This is getting out of hoof." She said, running a hoof through her black mane. Quietly, as to not disturb a sleeping someone, Twilight made her way our of bedroom and towards the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of water. After almost chugging it straight down, she looked outside the kitchen window and looked up to the shining moon. "This is the fifth night I've had that same dream. But what does it mean?" She asked herself, confused by her nightmare.
"Ngh, Twilight?" Called a small, young voice from behind the alicorn. Turning around, she saw her friend that's been with her since their childhood; her faithful assistant Spike. "What're you doing up? It's the middle of the night for pony's sake." He said, rubbing the sleep out of his eye.
"I'm sorry to wake you Spike, I just couldn't sleep." She said, hoping to have avoided awaking her dragon friend.
"Are you having that nightmare again, wanna talk about it?" Asked Spike, softly placing his claws on her shoulder, offering help.
"No thank you, but it was really sweet of you to offer. Now go back to bed, I'll be there in a minute." She said, kissing him on his scaly forehead. The drake did as he was told and went back upstairs to his soft bed to get more sleep, but Twilight strayed from the stairway, and went towards her study desk and flipped her lamp on. Grabbing a quill and parchment of paper, she began writing.
"Dear Princess Celestia, I am truly sorry to send you this message at this time but there is something I'm having trouble with.
Five nights ago, I had this strange dream. It was unlike anything I had dreamt of before. I shrugged it off at first, thinking it was nothing of my concern, but ever since then, I keep having the same dream over and over again. At first the dream was vivid and unclear, but over these last few nights, I hear words, screaming, yelling and the sounds of combat like they were right next to me. I keep hearing cries for help repeatedly, like somepony's in trouble. Realistically, it's more of a nightmare than a dream.
I am aware this is belonging to your sister's domain but I thought you'd be the first to know about it. Please princess, if you or Princess Luna have any information, it would be helpful.
Your ever-faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."
Opening a desk drawer, with her magic, Twilight levitated a jar with a magical, never ending emerald flame. It belonged to Spike, but Twilight decided to keep an emergency transport flame in case something urgent had come up and she needed to notify her mentor quickly. Fortunately, this was just a bit urgent.
Placing the scroll above the jar, she flipped the lid and the green flame flew upwards and burned the scroll to ashes before flying off to Canterlot Castle. Deciding the worst was over, the lavender alicorn went back to her bed where she would hopefully sleep peacefully.
"Art thou surest that we should be doing this? 'Tis four o'clock in the morning sister. Wouldn't Twilight Sparkle become angered by this little prank?" Whispered a young female voice to her companion.
The taller female just giggled. "Of course, that's the whole point." She said as they reached the door of their wanted household. She brought her regalia covered hoof up to the wooden door and began knocking repeatedly, over and over and over and over and over and over again. Just to annoy who was inside.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?! Go away!" Yelled a sleep deprived alicorn as quietly as she could so she would not wake the neighbourhood.
"Hello my student." Said the mare at the door.
"P-P-P-Princess Celestia and Princess Luna?!" Stammered an extremely sleepy and now embarrassed Twilight.
"I hope you can forgive our early intrusion." Said the white princess as she and her sister walked into the tree house, laughing slightly at Twilight's clustering to clean the place up.
"Nonononononono it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. It's just I really wasn't prepared for this, if I had known I would've tidied the place up a bit and prepared tea and show you what I've learned and tell you what's been happening." She said with a crazed look in her eye, her mane starting to frizzle out of place.
"Tis true, under normal circumstance, we and our sister would have told you about our arrival to your household beforehoof. However, these are no normal circumstances." Explained the lunar princess, this caught the lavender princess' attention.
"What do you mean?" She asked them.
"It's about your letter to me Twilight."
"Di-did I say something wrong Princess?"
"None of the sort." Princess Celestia was happy when saying those words, but in an instant, her muzzle grew deathly serious. "For the last five nights, all of us, have experienced the same dream on repetition." Twilight could only stare with an open jaw as the knowledge went in one ear and into her brain.
"That's not all, we have received word from Cadence in the Crystal Empire, a little before you Twilight Sparkle, that she has had the same dreams too for the same amount of nights." Said Princess Luna
There they sat, three of the four princesses of Equestria, dumbfounded at the riduculousness of their dreams, completely unaware of the danger that Equestria will face in the future. The gears of fate have started to move, and soon, they will too.
Meanwhile, inside the oldest cave one could ever imagine, a figure draped in a dark cloak sat on a stone chair, made out of the cave itself. Underneath it's dark hood, a smile could have been seen, and then it spoke, it spoke with a voice that could chill hearts to their very core.
"Things are about to get interesting. Prepare yourself, Celestia."
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.
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."
