Seven years has passed since the dragon princess, Ember, had found the human, Virin, in the river near the Dragon Lands' borders. She and the current Dragon Lord, Torch, had been taking care for the human for seven long years. The human was grateful for their kindness and carefulness when raising him.
For Virin, he had managed to make a friend in the black drake, Nightwing, and were the best of friends that had an inseparable bond between the two. For the first race in the Lands, was the first time that Virin had lost to Garble. After that, he had decided to train more seriously than before. He had used many methods of how to his training. He had been doing push-ups, wing-ups, also his fire training to act like a normal dragon.
That had been going on for a year now.
After a year of training, both Nightwing and Virin met up with a brown drake in Zach, a lightning drake that seemed to be a descendant of Azzezz, but not. The trio were also inseparable, been able to counter Garble's gang's many surprise attacks within the first year of being friends. The trio had been friends for two years before an evil darkness had been unleashed within the red drake, Virin.
When the darkness incident had been finished, the trio began training for the trial that the Lands holds every six years as an announcement to get the greatest dragon to be a "Predator Hunter". Virin had been excited for the trial his whole life.
After three more years of intense training, Virin met up with two females, Minuette and Amber, both of whom were psychic and water drakes. Virin was surprised by theier elements, but decided not to question them with his curiosity.
In the six, long years of training for Virin, his ego of carelessness had all but disappeared. He was now more loyal, respectful, kind, caring, less cocky, less carelessly, and more serious in his training and battles with Garble now. The Dragon Lord was happy that his ego had gone for now, noticing the more serious expression on Virin's look now and then, showing that he wasn't kidding when he was shown fighting Garble before the trial.
When the trial had come, the dragons should do three tasks: Go on a journey to two World Protectors' statues, hunt for manticores, and then battle to their heart's content. Virin and Garble had cleared the first two without sweat, showing that they were the more serious ones when they had twelve manticores each, stunning the other competitors. The duo's long waiting battle for the best had arrived, with each giving blow by blow to the other, not giving up. After a long, hard-fought battle, Virin emerged victorious. Virin was gifted with a golden trophy as a sign of his victory in the trial, and had been appointed as the newest "Predator Hunter" since the first had died in old age. Virin wasn't the one to die pretty easily; he had a regeneration ability that made him look invincible in his battles.
Just one year after the trial, a dark being, known only as the "Dark One", attacked a kingdom near the Dragon Lands. Virin and friends sought out to investigate. The former found a new rivalry in the one-headed hydra, Hydra, and had fought against him between victory and defeat. The red drake emerged victorious, having unleashed a huge amount of strong power called "*Ultimate Boost*" that was seen afar from the kingdom, all the way to Ponyland, where a purple equine had heard his big shout when activating the attack. She sought out to investigate through her books about the dragon.
When the attack was finished, Virin laid there, unconscious, showing that it was a powerful attack than anything the world had ever seen. For Zach and friends, it was the most powerful attack they had ever seen since the attacks that Virin and Garble had used in the trial. Gilda was the one who was more surprised than shocked, considering she had seen other powerful attacks in her younger years.
Now, Hearth's Warming Eve was near, meaning that everything had calmed before anymore evilness attacking the world. There should be peace for now in the Dragon Lands and griffin kingdom.
With Virin...
Throwing punches in the air, Virin could've sworn he had seen gust of wind with each throw. He was glad for that, that his punches were getting faster and more quicker than before. He continued to throw punches in the air, before staring kicking in the air. With each kick, like before, gust of wind could be seen through each one.
More than seven years had passed since Ember had found him and took him in. Virin was happy that he found a sister in her, since what he had been told by his mother and father, Susan and Jonathan, his younger sister, Cerys, was killed by the humans in the forest nearby the White City by the humans with guns. He had wondered what "guns" was, but decided not to question them. He was getting more and more angry at the other humans because of their killing of his birth sister, gritting his teeth when he threw an angered kick in the air. A larger gust of wind was shown when the kick was thrown.
After getting a few more punches ready, Virin began to hear a very familiar voice in his ears. Mentally sighing, he turned to see Garble standing a few feet away from him.
"Virin." Garble then stated, "I would like to have a fight with you. If you dare, because I know that you dare." Virin simply looked at him, unmoving from sight.
"Let's get this over with, then." The red drake responded. Garble smiled cruelly, thanking himself for that little talk. The tall drake flew straight at Virin, bumped into the smaller drake's stomach, causing Virin to take a step back while holding his stomach.
"Okay. That's it." Virin growled angrily, blasting a fireball at Garble, who blasted his own fireball, resulting in a collision and smoke. Looking at the smoke, Virin couldn't see the taller drake anywhere. Maybe he disappeared through the smoke? That was a possibility. But, in answer, Garble shot himself into his belly, causing him to stumble back in surprise.
Growling, Virin shot an fireball at Garble, hoping to get a direct hit. However, Garble shot his own fireball at the other one, resulting in another collision. Sneering, the tall drake got ready to scratch the smaller drake in the eye. However, Virin saw this and moved to the side...only to be kicked in the guts by Garble, who made a kick when the small drake dodged the first attack.
Garble snarled as Virin had dodged his attack yet again. "C'mon. Stop evading my hits!" He roared, blasting another fireball at Virin, who dodged the attack. Growling in frustration, the tall drake charged up with a power boost, getting ready to finish this. Virin noticed his boost, and charged up as well. Red auras were surrounding them both, and were ready to attack now.
Both charged at each other, with each one believing to be victorious. The attacks collided and made a smoky collision as they made contact. A yellow beam of light appeared as the attack stopped, with neither victorious. Both laid down on the ground, panting for breath.
"Well, that was a short battle." Garble mused mockingly. Virin nodded, mimicking his own mocking. Both stood up, glaring at each other. "However," the tall drake continued, "this isn't over. Our rivalry is not. Because it is almost Hearth Warming Eve, I wanted to have a short fight, not a big one like at the trial. You understand, don't you?" Virin nodded. "Good. Until then, twerp." Garble spread his wings and flew off.
Twerp? Virin thought, getting angrier by the second at the word. Then, remembering what Garble said about Hearth Warming Eve coming closer, Virin remembered that he still hasn't bought a gift to his sister for her care for him. Oh crap!
The next few days...
It was here. Hearth's Warming Eve has finally arrived. All of the dragons presented their gifts and presents to their family, each young one was happy to receive the gifts they had wished for.
For the Dragon Lord and his daughter, Ember, they were waiting for the former's son to arrive with his present to the latter. Ember was getting impatient for the waiting, wishing that her brother would speed it up.
"C'mon, brother." She grumbled. "Hurry up." Her father looked down to her, smiling comfortably.
"Don't worry, Ember." He reassured her. "He'll show up."
"He'd better." The Princess grumpily replied, getting a bit more impatient. Then, she noticed a much familiar red dragon flying towards them. Her smile widened as she finally saw her brother.
"Sorry I'm late." Virin apologized, landing softly on the ground. Torch shook his head.
"It is alright, son." The large dragon assured him. "We were just getting worried for what happened, to have gotten you so late." His son smiled sheepishly, waving a dismissed arm.
"It's probably nothing." Virin lied, giving a fake smile. The snow were all but on the ground, giving it a white form. He looked at his sister. "Ready to have your gift, sis?" Ember smiled warmly at him, nodding. Virin presented his gift to her, who took it with great care. She wrapped it up, getting the fabric off the gift inside. What was inside was a special necklace, made entirely out of steel. It looked like it was burning hot, but it was cooled down by water, which was how it was made to steel. There were a middle ring inside the present she had received. It was a golden ring, in order to match the colour to the necklace.
Ember's smile grew wider as she gently laid her right hand on the necklace and ring. Tears started to string in her ember eyes. Unable to control it, she quickly gave her brother a big hug, who squeezed in surprise. Torch gave a small hearty laugh at the sight before him, happy that his daughter liked her present.
"Thank you." She whispered in her brother's ear. "It means a lot to me."
"You're welcome." Virin whispered as well. "Happy Hearth's Warming Eve, sis, dad." The two dragons smiled gratefully. This year's Hearth's Warming Eve was going to be the greatest yet.
Author's Note
This one-shot happened after season five, but before season six of my original story of "The Equestrian Dragon: Moon Light". I recommend reading it first, if you need some more background on Moon's character.
Also, the romance between Moon and Radiant will be slow, so that it isn't gonna be a rip-off of Alejin's "An Unexpected Life" story.
A Radiance Moon
It was a nice, cool sunny day in the city of Canterlot. Every citizen was enjoying the warmth of the sun that was giving to them. Everypony was either chatting with one another, shopping, or even eat together in the restaurants.
All but the royals of the city.
Inside the palace of the mighty city, a single human with a slender skin, brown hair, blue and yellow eyes with a scar on the left, red jacket and blue jeans. He had an objective around his neck. It was an amulet. It was glowing with darkness and lightness. This object was none other than the Amulet of Balance.
Sighing with calmness, the human, named Moon, looked behind him to a mattress of royal blue colour. The mattress had a pony with azure blue coat on it. The pony was none other than Princess Radiant Hope, lover of Moon and daughter-in-law to Princess Celestia, and niece of Princess Luna.
Moon sighed as he looked at his marefriend as she let out a cute groan as she began to stir. She looked so elegant while she slept on their bed.
"Moon?" She groaned as she began to look after him.
"I'm right here, sunshine." He chuckled as he called her by her nickname. Radiant looked to her right, and sure enough, saw her coltfriend standing a few feet from the bed. She smiled as she got up and off the mattress as they began to hug each other tightly, as they had missed this moment when the human had been fighting off monsters all over the two planets.
Time sure has moved fast while that had happened. Whenever they had the time and moment, they would hug one another when the human wasn't preoccupied.
Moon was one of those that were looking for some action. He was an adventure seeker, too. He was the most adventure seeker beside Daring Do, the pony from a popular book series. However, unlike her, Moon was looking for a bit more trouble than that adventure pony.
After the hug, they both stared deeply into each other's eyes. Moon's blue and yellow eyes was staring with a sense of adventure, while Radiant's eyes was looking for peace. They were both different beings, that's for sure.
"Should we see what's for breakfast?" Radiant broke the ice, as she heard him sigh in displeasure.
"Sure, why not." Moon nodded in slight agreement, smiling pleasant at his marefriend. He had hoped that this had been going on for all morning. He never got tired for staring into his lover's beautiful eyes.
Walking towards the door, Radiant opened it with a blue magic as Moon held her hoof as they began to walk through the halls of the palace, towards the dinner hall. As they began to move closer to the dinner hall's doors, they were grabbed by a pink aura from behind them. They both looked at each other and chuckled, knowing which pony that was.
Looking behind them, they saw Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, both smiling happily at the two lovers. The latter, though, still looked at Moon's scar on the left eye, he had an interesting story to tell them once this was over.
"Cousin Cadance, brother Shining!" Moon hugged them both with love, as they hugged him back.
"Hello, my sunshine." Cadance smiled with pleasure as the hug was growing. "You look well."
"Well enough for my marefriend-" Radiant's cheeks glowed a bright red at that, but smiled all the while. Shining chuckled, as did Moon.
"We can see that." The Princess chuckled as well. "So, how are you two doing?"
"We're doing fine, cousin." Radiant responded as her coltfriend loosened his grip on the two ponies. "How about you two?"
"More than just fine." Shining replied with much happiness.
"Oh?" Moon raised an eyebrow, smiling at the white pony. "How come?"
"It's a secret, silly." Cadance laughed at his enthusiasm. "We'll wait to tell you about it."
More secrets.Moon thought with a small groan, inaudible.
Whenever Moon asked Cadance what had happened to her nowadays, she would always reply that it's a secret. He need to get to the bottom of this, somehow. Shining was nearly about to tell him one day, but was shushed by his lover.
Moon was about to ask more, but was stopped when the door to the dinner hall opened. Inside it, was two tall alicorns, both of which was his mother and aunt. The former gave her son a hug from behind, to his chuckle as he hugged her back. The latter joined in as she began to speak.
"You have not missed your breakfast, have you, nephew?" Luna asked him. Moon's eyes had a sense of knowing in them.
"Not at all, Aunt Luna." He replied, smiling at her. "We were just about to go in and grab some, right?" The trio of ponies nodded in agreement. Celestia chuckled, as she loosened her grip around her son.
"Then what are you waiting for? Go on." The white alicorn nodded as she and her sister stepped out of the way for both duos to enter.
After that, both Princesses decided to go to the throne room and deal with some nobles for the time being. Inside the dinner hall, Moon, Cadance, Shining and Radiant seated themselves on the chairs at the table in the middle of the room.
Moon, on one hand, decided to eat some crystals than meat, as he was part dragon. Radiant once told him to not eat crystals and gems like Spike, but he didn't care as he was a dragon himself, and dragons do need crystals to survive. After he had said that, again, Radiant gave up on convincing him to eat some butter and salad. Cadance and Shining both chuckled at their argument at having some vegetables to the human, who resisted by only eating his crystals.
"Ugh." Radiant groaned. "Why do you have to be so persistence?"
"I am not being persistence." Moon replied, smiling fondly at her. "I'm just being careful with my diet. That's all."
" "Careful", yeah right." Radiant rolled her beautiful eyes. "If you say you're being careful, why don't you eat something more like salad?"
"Not my tastes." Moon ate the rest of his crystal. He took a second crystal and began munching on it. He heard some snicker from his cousin and brother at the other end of the table. "What's so funny?"
"You two." Shining snickered. "You sure are something entertaining about being so argumentative. Isn't that right, honey?" Cadance nodded in agreement.
"We're not being argumentatively." Moon snorted, unimpressively. "Just having a bit of fun."
" Fun", is not a word I would choose to this." Radiant grunted.
"C'mon." Moon smirked humouredly. "You're having fun, right?" The azure blue pony shook her head. Moon rolled his eyes and continued to munch on his crystal. After eating the rest of the crystal, Moon stretched his arms as he stood up, sighing with happiness.
"Where are you going?" Radiant asked in a demand tone. "We're not done yet."
"Sorry, but I have to find something. Privacy, of course." Moon said apologetically. "I'll be back in a few hours." He turned around and walked towards the door as Shining's voice was heard from behind him.
"Where are you going?" He repeated Radiant's question.
"Just down the city." The human responded. He opened the door and walked down the hall.
Looking at one another, the trio shrugged as they went back to their meal.
Walking down the hall, Moon had two guards with him as they insisted on going with their Prince, to his shrug. The trio walked over to the front door as the human opened it with both arms. He walked out, as the guards followed as the unicorn guard closed the palace door with his magic, before following the human down the streets.
Since Hearts and Hooves Day was closing in, Moon gotta find a perfect gift for his marefriend. How about something decent, like a ring? That could work, but he was unsure where to find one. He'd better do it fast, and not being spotted by his marefriend if she should decide to wander through the streets also.
Moon looked behind him, no sign of her just yet. So, that means she probably hangs out with his cousin like the good old times when he was just a small child. He wondered if she would love his gift, if so, then he'd better bring her something more interesting next year, like maybe a trip on a ferry. He'd wondered if the guards has someone special to them, probably not. So, that's not his problem to deal with, for now, anyway.
He'd wandered for a couple of minutes before pumping into someone he expected.
"Oof." He grunted as the body he collided with fell on his back. "Sorry 'bout that."
"It's fine, lad."The voice seemed familiar. Moon offered a hand to the pony, who accepted it gladly as he helped him stand on his hooves. "Prince Moon?"
"Fancy?" Moon's eyes glittered with hope. "Funny to see you here."
"Same here." Fancy Pants smiled pleasantry. "What brings you down here? Looking for something for your marefriend?" He'd guessed he was talking about Radiant, since he was once a fan of her.
Moon gave a small laugh. "As a matter of fact, yes." He nodded in confirmation. "You might also be looking for something, like me."
"Why yes. A gift for Fleur." Fancy confirmed. "I was looking for some ring to give her. You wouldn't mind taking a stroll to the ring shop with me, do you?"
"Of course not." Moon smiled. "A friend of mine is always happy for me to walk with."
"I'm glad." Fancy smiled as well, galloping alongside the Prince to the ring shop. Fancy Pants was a friend of Moon, one of the only nobles that were kind to him and not bickering about making the human to leave the city, nor argue to the Princesses about it. In fact, he were more of a nice guy for Moon, as they got along just fine, as well as him and Fleur.
After having met him when he returned to the city, Moon got along with Fancy was a fine guy, but he needed to make friends with the nobles as well, besides him and Fleaur. However, that was going to be harder than he expected.
Walking towards the ring shop, Moon and Fancy were continuing to chat amongst themselves about the reason monster attacks by various creatures. Moon reasoned how he were able to deal with them, alone, without help from another creature or being. Fancy was, of course, shocked to hear such things from his Prince. How were he able to do that? Even without the help of the Princesses?
Moon told him that he had some kind of breath that allowed him to defeat the monsters. An neat, and unique, breath attack. Fancy gave an "Ah" when he heard that. Stopping just outside the door to the ring shop, the duo opened the door as a bell was heard from above.
"Hello, sirs." The shop owner greeted them warmly. "What can I do for you?"
"We're just going to look around in the shop, if you don't mind, that is." The human replied.
"Of course not. Have a look around." The owner gestured to his many rings, both big and small for pony tastes.
Moon searched amongst the smaller rings whilst Fancy looked as well. There was one ring that caught the former's attention. It had an emerald glittering sense from it, it was golden and was just enough to fit on a pony's hoof.
Smiling, Moon gently held the ring in his hand and showed it to the shop owner.
"Would you like to buy it?" The owner asked, looking at the human and the ring.
"Yes." Moon nodded.
"Then, that'll be seventy bits, sir." Moon gave him the necessary bits, which made him smile warmly. "Thank you, sir. The ring is yours. Would you like me to patch it in a present?" The human nodded gracefully. The shop owner took some box as he put the ring inside it, before giving it to the human, who gratefully took it.
Fancy had found an golden ring with a ruby on it, something he thought would suit Fleur. The shop owner asked for sixty bits, and Fancy gave him the necessary bits as he asked for a box as well. The hop owner got to work as he gently put the ruby ring inside the box, wrapping it inside some red paper, like with Moon's.
"Thank you, lad." Fancy thanked.
"No need to thank me." The shop owner responded. "I was more than happy to help you."
The duo left the building, waving goodbye for now to the shop owner, who waved back. They walked outside of the ring building, until they looked at each other, as the sun was beginning to set.
"Well, it was nice seeing you again, Fancy." Moon said, holding an hand for the gentle pony to shake it. Fancy took the offered hand and shook it.
"And it was for me, my Prince." Fancy smiled warmly. "I hope your marefriend will love your gift. I, too, am sure Fleur would love hers."
"I'm sure she will." Moon nodded. "Well, be seeing you." He and the guards left for the palace, not before Moon gave one last wave to Fancy Pants, who waved back in thanks for accompany him.
Walking towards the palace, the guards opened for their Prince as he let himself in with his two bodyguards. He walked through the halls, into his and his marefriend's room, where he found her standing on the balcony overlooking the city.
"I'm back, sunshine." Moon called to her, chuckling once again.
Radiant looked behind her, her eyes glittering beautifully. "What took you?"
"I had a run-in with Fancy Pants, and a long talk, and looked for something." Moon replied honestly, hiding the box in his backpack. "Would you like to have a picnic with me, my Princess?" Radiant's cheeks glowed a deep red as she nodded. She packed the blanket that they used to have picnics before the Tirek incident, as well as the monster incidents.
After getting ready, they walked through the halls to the throne room. They were going to inform their mother that they were going on apicnic close by, as to not worry her. As they reached the throne room, Moon started to narrow his eyes as the horn of Celestia was beginning to glow a golden colour. She had a nervous expression as she looked at her son's face. He wasn't going to be fooled this time around.
"Sorry, mother, but not this time." Moon said through clenched teeth. Celestia sighed as her horn stopped glowing. Luna chuckled at her embarrassment, but was curious as to why they would be here.
"To answer your question, Aunt Luna, we're going on a picnic." Moon responded to Luna's inner thoughts, shocking her. "Remember, psychic abilities."
"Oh, right." Luna chuckled, embarrassed.
"Why would you go on a picnic?" Celestia wondered. "You usually didn't want to when you first returned."
"This time is different, mother." Moon responded, smirking at her. "Besides you haven't forgotten what day it is today, haven't you?" At that, both Princesses' eyes widened in remembering.
"Hearts and Hooves Day!" They recalled.
Chuckling, Moon nodded. "Yes, and I thought of sharing an evening with my special somepony."
"And you thought right." Luna nodded in approval. "Alright, then, do what you may for the rest of the evening. Right, Tia?" The Sun Princess nodded in agreement, approving of her son's intentions.
"Go and spend your day together, my children." She told them, causing them to smile in pure happiness. Turning around, the duo left the throne room and ventured down the halls to the White Tail Forest, the peaceful forest behind the castle.
"So," Radiant started, getting closer to her special somepony.
"So, what?" Moon asked, filling her cup with water.
"How did you thought of doing this?" She asked him. "This evening, I mean."
"Well," Moon began thoughtfully. "Ever since I lived in Dragon Lands, I hadn't really had someone special to me. I trained everyday, remember?" Radiant nodded in remembering. "So, after much thought, I had decided to bring something for my sister, Ember, to her approval for giving her a special gem, an multi-coloured one like she gave me since Hearth's Warming Eve day."
Radiant looked at him. "I thought that dragons didn't spend holidays together."
"We were different then," Moon gave a small smile. "When that time had come, my father Torch gave me a special set of armour, which I promised to use when the time was right. But, since I am part dragon, I didn't really need it."
"But, it was a special armour." Radiant insisted. "You could had at least had used it when you had turned evil." She cringed at that.
"Turned evil? I remember." Moon recalled his time with being the puppet of Chaos. "That was an unlikely time, wasn't it?" His special pony nodded.
"Tell me." Radiant began cautiously. "Do you still have that evil in you?"
"Small amount." Moon replied honestly. "But, nothing big, only when I get angry will Chaos be set free."
"Like that will ever happen." Radiant smiled at him, taking a sip of her cup. She began to wonder why they were here in the first place. "Tell me, why did you bring me here?"
Moon smiled with happiness. Finally. She asked that.
Taking his box out of his backpack, Radiant looked at it with curiosity.
"What's that?" She asked him.
"This, my dear, is my proposal." Moon responded kindly. "Would you like to marry me?" He opened the box, revealing an golden ring with an emerald on it. Radiant gasped at seeing it.
"I've waited forever for you to say that." Radiant slowly took the ring onto her hoof. "But, the answer is, YES!" She hugged him with great force that made him fall on his backwards on his back, laughing all the while. He hugged her back, happy for her to accept the proposal.
