Legends Never Die

The moon shone down brightly on the little town of Ponyville. This was a quaint little town where the grass was green and the ponies were happy - but, in particular, there were 6 happy ponies, and at the moment, all 6 of them were asleep. Together, all six of them dreamed.

Their walk was peaceful. The midnight air was brisk, and they all smiled as they walked and chatted about their days. Sleep brought the peace and coolness of night, and in the dream, the could walk forever. They smiled as brightly as the moonlight. That is, they smiled until they saw a stallion walking towards them. Pinkie Pie, the name of one, stopped bouncing for an instant. She opened her mouth to greet him, but froze as the stallion stumbled.

The moonlight hit him in just the right way. The blood seeping through his cloak stained the fabric red, dripping down into footprints on the path. He looked at them with glassy eyes before falling. The other 5 ponies noticed him and cried out as he fell. He never heard their cries.

“O-Oh my-” Fluttershy’s wings flared out in surprise as the others ran over. She followed them, watching the pony with fear in her eyes. “I-Is he breathing!?”

Twilight reached him first and fell to his side, quickly checking his vitals. She lowered her ear to his mouth as she felt his neck; his breath was soft, and his chest seemed to shudder as he exhaled. Alive, but unconscious. "Rainbow, you and Fluttershy fly to the hospital and get a stretcher and some bandages,” she ordered without looking away from him. “He's not going to make it if we don't stop the bleeding!”

"Got it! Let’s go Fluttershy!!" Rainbow Dash said, grabbing the shaking mare and lifting her into the air. In a flash of rainbow color and a soft scream, both pegasi were gone.

Twilight licked her lips, feeling sick as she swallowed. "Pinkie, I need you to run down to Sugarcube Corner and grab some rags so we can slow the bleeding before they get back."

"Okie Doki Loki," Pinkie said seriously, saluting before speeding off, leaving a dust cloud in her wake.

"Rarity, Applejack, help me remove this cloak so we know what we are dealing with here."

Rarity groaned lightly as she saw the pool of blood, but steeled herself before stepping forward and kneeling down next to him with Applejack. Together, the three ponies peeled away the blood soaked cloak slowly. They get a full view of his shredded body. His face was scratched and gorey: most likely, he would be marred by scars. His whole upper body was cut, bruised, and without a doubt, he would have a few broken ribs. “What could have happened to him,” Rarity whispered. “It looks like he went through a p… paper shredder...” Rarity gulped as she looked at the bloody mess before her. She covered her mouth and walked away as the metallic scent permeating the body became overwhelming.

“M-maybe he was attacked by timberwolves. They’re more active this time a’year,” Applejack said, looking around cautiously, as though whatever had caused this might suddenly come back to finish the job. Twilight shook her head and began to apply pressure to the points that were bleeding the most, causing him to groan and twitch in pain. Applejack shuddered as she saw the blood staining her hooves. “Y’seem really calm ‘bout this, sugarcube.”

Twilight looked up and gave Applejack a shaky smile. “Actually, I’m scared witless right now. I am amazed I’m not shaking like crazy.” She glanced at the body, taking a faltering breath. “But he doesn’t have time for me to panic. I-I don’t know if this is part of the dream or not, but he needs our help.” Applejack didn’t have a response to that and simply nodded.

After about five minutes - though they felt like an eternity to Twilight - Pinkie made it back with the clean rags to soak up of some of the blood on him. Another ten minutes passed before Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy showed up from the hospital with the stretcher, as well as bandages. They moved him slowly and carefully onto the stretcher, making sure they didn’t injure him further, and together brought him back to Twilight's castle.

“Move him to one of the guest room beds,” Twilight said, opening the doors. They quickly moved him down the hallway on the stretcher and together brought him to a guest bed. They took the bandages that the hospital staff had given them and started to wrap up his wounds. After about an hour, part of his head was covered along with most of his upper body.

At last, Twilight held up her hand and sighed. "This is all we can do without doctors right now. We should let him rest awhile..." She glanced at her friends. “We need to go get help from the hospital. Rainbow Dash, you’re the fastest. Can you go-” She stopped as she opened her eyes, staring at her ceiling.

Twilight sat up, holding her head. “What… I ju-”

“DID YOU ALL HAVE THE SAME DREAM!?” Pinkie Pie gasped as she sat up in the bed from the sleepover, glancing at everyone else around her. “Oh my gosh, that poor poor pony! What on earth happened to him, do you think he’s ok-”

“Pinkie Pie, slow down!” Twilight groaned, rubbing her head. “Now, we all just had a shared dream… That means the stallion in our dream might not even exist…”

“Well, there’s one way to find out for sure.” Rarity stood, glancing at them. “Let’s go see if he’s still here.”

Together, all of them walked down the hallway, each one both hoping and dreading seeing a sleeping stallion in the guest bed. Twilight gulped, swallowing her worry as they reached the guest bedroom. With a flare of her horn, the doors opened. The stallion was breathing better, it seemed. In the realm of waking, Twilight and her friends finally took notice of his ragged appearance. His fur was a cool grey with almost a hint of blue. His mane was a dark red, peppered with grey as well, like salt in a wound; it looked almost see through at times. “So it really happened…” Applejack shook her head, glancing around. “How could somethin’ we dreamed up be real?”

“I’m not sure, Applejack… I think we should send a letter to Princess Luna and let her know about this.” Twilight walked up to the stallion, checking his pulse. It was stronger than before, as well as his breathing. She sighed. “I think he’ll be fine… He’s just going to need to recover.”

Twilight gasped as the pony opened his eyes, clutching her hand with his. She tried to pull her own hand away instinctively, but his grip was too strong. All of her friends lept forward as he tugged her down. He held her ear close to his mouth as he spoke. “S-Sombra,” he managed to croak out, his voice cracked from exhaustion. “A-A battle…”

“S-Sombra? King Sombra was defeated… We stopped him at the crystal empire…” She shook her head, looking at the stallion. “What’s your name, please? We need to know.”

His eyes darted between them all until they rested on Twilight’s wings. He gulped and glanced at her. “Z-Zyron. My name’s Zyron.”

She gave him her best smile. “We’ll keep you safe, Zyron. Don’t worry. Just rest, now.”

He nodded softly, appreciating her kindness. Shutting his eyes, he rested his head on the pillow and was asleep in seconds. Twilight backed away on trembling hooves. “T-Twilight,” Fluttershy mumbled, “a-are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Fluttershy.” She glanced at them. “We should talk to Luna. Now.” She walked out of the room, shaking her head. “We were all in a dream, but he still showed up here - how? Is he from a dream plane? And what was that about Sombra and a battle? Is he from the Empire? What if Shining Armor and Cadence are in danger?”

“Woah there, sugarcube. Hold your horses!” Applejack walked up to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. “We don’t know nothin’ yet. He could just be outta his mind from the pain right now. Ah say you just send a letter t’the princess saying we found a pony who we’re a might bit suspicious of, and that’ll be that.”

“I quite agree. There’s no sense worrying about it, darling.” Rarity smiled. “Besides… despite the ghastly state he’s in, he appeared to be healing rather quickly. I’m sure he’ll be up and about in no time.”

Fluttershy frowned. “He was very hurt in our dream, though… I’ve helped heal up my little animal friends a lot, and none of them have healed that fast…”

“It is a little unusual…” Twilight took another deep breath, practicing the techniques that Cadence had taught her. “Just another thing to tell-”

There came a brisk knock at the door. Twilight jumped slightly, her ears perked up. “Oh, what is it now!?” Huffing lightly, she walked to the door and opened it. “Hell- Princess?!”

“We would greet thee properly, Twilight Sparkle, but we have important matters to discuss.” Luna strode in, a frazzled look on her face.

“How does she keep getting here so fast?” Rainbow muttered.

“Princess, I was just about to send you a letter about a-”

“A collective dream you all had last night. Yes, we are well aware of this ordeal.” She glanced at all of them, worry etched into her frown. “Tell me - was there anypony in this dream? A mare or stallion or beast?”

“Well, yes, Princess Luna, that’s why I was about to send you a le-”

“There was? Oh, stars above…” Luna shook her head, eyes wide. “Tell us, please, was it a stallion? Was he real?”

Twilight hanged her head. She wasn’t going to be able to say anything until Luna’s questions had been answered. “He’s… in the guest bed right now. He says his name is Zyron.”

Luna gasped at the name. “W-What room,” she stuttered out, tears rising to her eyes. Twilight was startled by the reaction. Hesitantly, she pointed to the door. Luna sped off, running down the hall. All of them followed, confused and worried about the lunar princess.

Luna sat by Zyron’s bedside, looking at his bandaged body with tears rolling down her face. She smiled brightly. “W-We can’t… I can’t believe I’ve found you. It’s been so long… Zyron…”

The exhausted stallion opened his eyes again, a smile slowly rising to his face. She put her hand on his cheek, giggling softly. “I-It’s you,” he whispered. “It’s really you… It’s been…”

“Years. Too many to count.”

“Did Ah miss somethin’?” Applejack glanced around, seeing that everyone was just as confused as she was.

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie pouted, crossing her hooves. “It’s not fair! I know EVERYPONY, but the ONE pony I DON’T know, Luna does!”

Luna laughed, standing and looking towards those gathered. “We are sorry to have kept you out of the loop… We are just overjoyed and eternally grateful… for you have reunited us with our son.”

There was a brief pause as the information was processed. Then, all at once: “SON!?”

“Wait, WHAT!?”

“Y-Your-”

“-son!?”

Zyron chuckled weakly, glancing at his mother. “M-mom… Don’t scare them like tha…” Weakly, he shut his eyes again.

Luna let her hand fall away from him, frowning softly as she saw his tiredness. She looked to the ponies once more. “Thank you, my little ponies. You have saved my sons life. I will be forever in thy debt.” The girls just stared, their jaws almost reaching the floor.