Author's Note

Okay, so right off the bat: I wasn't happy with how I ended it the first go 'round. Dropping myself down to a dream ending left a foul taste in my mouth. Therefore, this bonus chapter is going to be a rewrite of the last four chapters.

By the way, Soren will still die. Not going to put this in a spoiler since this chapter will come after the "ending".

Alternate Ending: Part 1

“How ya feeling?” I asked casually. The silence was deafening and neither Discord nor I could really do anything to relieve the pressures.

“Oh, simply exhausted.” Discord replied dramatically draping himself over a leaf. Kind of reminded me of human Rarity in a way. “I feel like I could sleep for a couple ages and still not be at top shape.”

“Sorry…” I muttered into my knees. The sun had long since set and the air was cooling so I had resigned to bringing my body into as tight a ball as I could manage in order to keep warm. “Am I still purifying you?”

“About as fast as I can restore my magic, yes. This small space is severely limiting my ability to get far enough away in order to recover.” Discord sighed and curled up into a ball of his own, shutting his eyes to try and get some sleep.

“Sorry…” I mumbled again, also closing my eyes to try and get some rest of my own. A knocking on the large steel door alerted the two of us occupants and since it wasn't so heavy as the usual pounding by my Griffon captors, Discord and I shared a look of curiosity.

"Who is it?" I called out in confusion as Discord and I navigated ourselves around the pit so I could stand at the door without draining Discord of his magic anymore.

"Someone who's going to get you out of there." The unmistakable sound of Eben peaked my eyebrows in surprise as I took a few steps back from the door. As soon as I did, the door unlatched and swung open just enough that the small dragon was able to pop through with a potato sack on his back. "You look like shit."

"That's what happens when you've been hostage to the Griffons for as long as I have. Tell me, how goes everything? How's Luna and Weiss? How's the New Luna Armed Forces doing without me? How's Sunset?" I peppered the boy with incessant questioning before he climbed up my body to silence me by pressing his claws over my lips.

"Tell you later, right now we need to get you prepared." Eben ordered as he hopped back down to lead me to the center of the pit, making Discord look more and more pained as I drew closer. "Lay down."

"Why?" I asked, though I obeyed regardless and sat myself down before laying myself out flat with my hands clasped over my stomach. "What're you doing?"

"A magic trick." Eben rolled his eyes as he began to pull red stones from his bag and placed them out in a five point star, each stone at the end of my limb once he'd stretched me out. "This is going to be the most powerful Dragon Breath modification I'll ever do, and probably the last I ever do."

"Why, what is this going to do to you?" I demanded, sitting up with worry before being pushed back down by Eben's claw. "You don't have to do this if it'll destroy your ability to use dragon breath magic."

"My dear Soren," Discord looked up at me from a coiled pile in the imaginary corner, looking weary but smiled nonetheless. "This isn't going to just remove his ability to use dragon breath magic."

"You know what I'm doing?" Eben raised an eyebrow as he set the sixth and final stone on my chest once he climbed up and stood over me. "Then don't interfere."

"Not to worry, tiny dragonling. I have neither the care, nor strength to do anything to stop you. If you want to put yourself through this to free him, I say go for it." Discord waved Eben off before collapsing in on himself once again. Their words was having the effect on me of increasing my concern for whatever was going to happen next, and I was going to make this concern known.

"Okay hang on just a minute! What is going on? You make it sound like this is going to kill you or something!" Since both parties remained silent as Eben lit the stones on fire, sparking them in an intense blue flame, my eyes went wide. "No! If this is going to kill you, then I'm not doing it!"

"Equestria is falling. The Griffons are pounding at Canterlot's doors and are going to break through any time now. If giving my life to save you secures the future of my sister and my mother, then I say fuck it." Eben glared at me as he climbed back up onto my chest and stood before me with the last stone between us. "These stones are Red Diamonds, the most valuable stone on the planet. With these stones, I am capable of giving you one last modification," Eben began to explain. Discord poked his head into the conversation.

"Dragon's Heart, the complete combination of the Dragon's body to the recipients. By using the Red Diamonds as a focus, the Dragon is fused together with the second entity -you- and you gain the abilities of the dragon itself, but at the loss of the dragon's life." Discord continued for the Dragonling as he lit the sixth and final stone on fire before getting down on his hands and feet, his chest over the burning stone as he stared at me with utmost determination.

"But, why are you doing it? I would've expected it to have been Weiss or some other dragon. I thought you didn't like me." I mumbled nearly incoherently as Eben and I felt the combined racing pulses of our heartbeats.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't like you. You're a freak of nature, even for Equestrian standards, and you seem to have destruction follow you everywhere you go. I'm only doing this to save my sister and my mother." Eben stated as he stared me down. "Weiss couldn't do it because she's too busy with her own duties in the Army and my mother has to help lead the Dragon Fleets." Before I could even open my mouth to say anything, Eben detected my intent to speak and held me silent. "Before you say anything else, let me just leave you with a message for my mother and sister."

I silently nodded complacency as Eben sucked in a deep breath. "Tell them that I regret nothing and I love them both." Eben demanded before sucking in a second huge breath and this time, let it all out in a roar of black flames to roll over our chests. With Eben actually genuinely smiling for one in his life, a beam of white shot outwards into our bodies.

The both of us screamed out in pain as the light filled the room, filled our very bodies inside and out. Soon though, the scream turned into a mighty roar as our voices merged into one.

~*~*~

Eben was missing. Captain was probably long gone. Two of the most important males in her life had disappeared from her life much too quickly.

There was one thing that gave Colonel Sunset Shimmer a ray of hope, however. Exactly 3 days ago, the aerial legions reported a streak of pure white light, like a star, rising up into the morning sky from Griffon territory; perhaps an indication the Soren was still alive.

“Colonel, what’re the reports?” the familiar voice belonging to a blue General demanded from across the table.

“General Luna, the forty-eighth Pegasi division was met by Griffon troops in south Appaloosa. We only have the west remaining of our territory before Equestria falls to the Griffons. The siege outside Canterlot remains, ma’am.” Sunset replied, manipulating a magical hologram depicting the troop movements on a map of the country.

Save for a thin strip leading from Canterlot to the North Luna Ocean, the rest of the map was marked in red indicating enemy forces and their approximate strength in real time.

“Chief Engineer Sparkle, what of armament development? Anything to help us?” Luna looked at the ex-princess firmly, ignoring the eye patch and lack of horn.

The two alicorns had suffered imprisonment in a Griffon camp for a few weeks and had both lost their horns, however Luna’s was saved when an Equestrian spec-ops team retrieved them and brought them home for treatment. Twilight had undergone extensive therapies to get used to the fact that she was now powerless.

“Not yet. All our research facilities keep getting hit whenever we reach beta testing for a weapon.” Twilight sighed as she looked over the map before her. “All we have left are the labs here in the Castle Dungeons now.” she added, pointing to one of the two markers before it blipped away.

“Vice-Admiral Schatten, what of the dragons? How do they fair?” Luna turned to the white dragonling who’d been cast into her position rather suddenly when her mother returned with a full legion of Dragons. They were now down to four since the death of Queen Schatten and her king as the Griffons had developed some kind of crude anti-air capabilities on their own.

“This sucks.” Weiss replied, her arms crossed over her chest much like her brother used to do. “Without a reigning King or Queen, the last four want to go back home to wait out their destruction.”

“So we’re boned.” Captain Dash muttered, still examining the map herself. She hadn’t gone unscathed in these last six weeks as she was now sporting an artificial wing to draw attention away from her scarred face.

“Hey, what’s that?” Sunset demanded, picking up on a single symbol quickly moving in past the Griffonian mountains. It wasn’t registered with the others so it merely remained a black dot, though streak would have been more accurate going off the speed that it was moving.

“I have no idea. Don’t tell me the griffons have found a way to move that quickly!” Dash complained, burying her face under her hooves. “Just what we need, supersonic griffons!”

The answer was swift as the ceiling above everypony exploded into debris and shrapnel from the outside forcing Luna to throw up a shield and redirect the brunt of it as a single black figure with huge black leathery wings descended in.

“Open fire!” A guard announced and drew his magic rifle, loading in a magazine of laser rounds while the other guards all took aim and fired.

The humanoid creature with shining black scales opened it’s glowing red eyes and surveyed the attackers before sweeping its wings around, creating a gust of wind that knocked most of the guards down.

Touching down, the humanoid creature folded wings and approached the table as it’s eyes turned blue upon seeing the dragonling with bright white and gold scales.

“E- Eben?” Weiss demanded through a tiny voice, holding a claw up towards the creature. “Eben!” she exclaimed as she leapt up onto and latched onto the creature, weeping profusely.

“Eben, is that really you?” General Luna examined the creature. It surely had the scales and eyes of the dragonling but aside from the fact that this creature was much too large to be the baby dragon prince, it felt much too powerful. Too… Pure.

“Dude, you look great for a few weeks older! What’s your secret?” Dash grinned and knocked her hoof against the creature’s leg. Dash hadn’t had to crane her neck upwards like this since she’d last looked up at… “Holy shit.” Dash’s eyes went narrow as she backed away into the table. “You’re not Eben.”

The creature shook his head, the twin horns protruding from it’s scalp almost managing to create a ringing sound as they swished through the air as the blue eyes turned silver.

“No… fucking… way…” Twilight gasped as she realized who it was before everypony else.

“Cap… Captain? Is that you?” Sunset asked through broken sobs and tearing eyes.

“My name…” the creature announced with a combination of the human and the black dragonling. “Is Dragon King Soren Mercer.”