Iron Heart was hanging upside down at his newly built school. His classmates built a little fort with a metal bar hanging out of the side. That's where the prisoners go. Which was always earth ponies. And Iron Heart was the only earth pony at the school. There wasn't that many ponies at the school since only a week ago Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane, and Princess Platinum decided that all ponies should live in the new land, Equestria. Ponies were still coming from their old home.
Iron Heart's classmates were throwing apples at him and calling him stupid made up stuff like 'Blank- Flank'. He had no idea who made it up, but the brown foal knew what it meant. He was the only one in his class that didn't have a cutie mark. Iron Heart was just about to see if it was possible to buck a pony in the face with his front hooves when-
"LUNCH IS OVER!"
There was groans from the bullies as the cut the rope sending Iron Heart tumbling five feet down in the dirt. The white maned foal sat up, dazed, and said, "Ow," and then passed out on the spot.
___
"HEY KID! COME 'ERE!"
"Coming," Iron Heart groaned. He was getting the slightest bit annoyed with that old pegasus. You see, when he was a newborn foal, some ponies found him abandoned on unicorn territory. Nopony knew who his parents were, so a fat old stallion took him. He said that he would care for Iron Heart and treat him like a son. But he just needed somepony to do all the work at the old shack. The old stallion started calling him Iron Heart as an insult at first to tell him how stubborn he was. But over time Iron Heart considered the insult a name.
"Gemeh that old pipe righ' there," the grey stallion grunted.
Iron Heart obeyed.
"Did ya wash the dishes?"
"No."
"Then wash em'!"
"Fine."
But instead of doing that, he just went to the kitchen and exited out the back door.
____
There was a hill that had a perfect view of the tiny town that was the first in the new land of Equestria. Iron Heart liked to sneak out at night and just sit there and think to himself. He would think questions that will never be anwsered. But this night seemed more tense. The crickets weren't out. The bats weren't sqeaking. The air was still. Even the stars and the moon seemed dim. Iron Heart couldn't help but feel like somthing was anout to happen. Somthing deadly.
Iron Heart curled up and rested. He watched the town as the candles were blown out and all the ponies went to their beds. He didn't remember falling asleep, but he remembered the dream.
It was in the mountains. Iron Heart didn't know how he knew that, he just did. There was a huge black bat like creature with sharp fangs and glowing red eyes. He was perched on a huge boulder staring into a fire that was bigger than Iron Heart's little school house. There was many more of those, exept slightly smaller. Then there was feathered creatures with beaks that could stab right through a pegasus's armer. They had lion paws and eagle talons. They were somthing that looked like a cross between an eagle and a lion. Then there was a pony that made the bat like creature and the eagle-lion look like a little filly's dolly. He was huge. He was twice the size as Iron Heart's school house and half the size as the bat thing. He had bat wings that were spread to their full length. His eyes were glowing red and each of his bared teeth had been sharpened the look like fangs. The stallion was pure black and the end of his mane was singed and smoking. And from the looks of him, he was in a pretty bad mood. The bat thing spoke first.
"Any news Blood Stealer?" It's voice was so deep, it sounded like the earth itself was speaking.
One of the bigger eagle-lions said in a deep voice,"No, Bone Crush. I have not seen any sign of the king, nor of the alicorns."
The giant bat growled. "We really must find those annoying little alicorns. Every moment we wait, they multiply. We must not delay any longer." he turned to the frightning stallion. "My lord, we must send the armies out through the forest. It is the only chance we have if-" he was silenced by the demon-pony's raised hoof.
"You talk to much, Bone Crush," his voice sent shivers down Iron Heart's spine. It was worse than hoof-nails down a chalk board. "Tell me, what have you found so far?"
"Nothing, my lord. But-"
"And has there been any sign of the chosen one? Any sign... at all?"
"N-No my lord," Bone Crush was obviosly nervous now. "But I do have news that's not concerning the chosen one!" he quickly added.
The demon thing raised an eyebrow. "Go on."
The bat creature smiled wickedly. "Some of my dragons found Star Flash sneaking around our territory. Apparently spying. Some of my dragons caught her. And killed her.
That put a grin on the demon's face. "Well, well Bone Crush, I have underestimated you. Apparently you and your soldiers might be useful after all! Now that the cheif's love is dead, we could move on to different matters." He then turned and looked right at Iron Heart and sent a bolt of lightning right at him.
And Iron Heart's dream shattered.
___
That's when he awoke. But he didn't wake up because his dream wanted him to wake up, he woke up to a shriek. It was louder than a cannon blast and more terrifiying than tember wolves in your face. A cold gust of wind came and Iron Heart shivered. We could be in for a storm, Iron Heart thought. Another shriek. As Iron Heart trotted down the hill back to the old pegasus's shack, somthing nipped him painfully on the side. He let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground. A dark shape flew over him and screeched that could have lost Iron Heart his hearing if he hadn't been covering his ears.
Iron Heart struggled to his hooves and made a gallop for it. But the monster was to fast for him. It grabbed him on the leg with it's sharp fangs and threw him against a large bolder. Iron Heart groaned and saw stars. The evil creature made a big booming sound that could have been laughter. The young earth pony tried to shake himself out of the daze and get up. But his legs felt like jelly and his head spinned when he tried to move, so he just fell against the bolder again. Another cold gust of wind came warning Iron Heart that the monster was flying towards him, to kill him. So Iron Heart did the one thing that he could think of. He bucked the monster right in the face. Hard. So hard that in made Iron Heart hit the bolder again. The monster cried out in pain and nipped at Iron Heart's tail. Iron Heart bucked him again. The creature snarled and backed up. Iron Heart looked to see if the monster was leaving. Then he slowly looked up and got his first good look at the thing.
It was just like the one he saw in his dream, exept much smaller. But still huge. It's claws were as big as ten chimneys put together. They were sharper than a sword and as grey as rain clouds. It's scales were pure black and there were many scars that looked new. It's eyes were glowing red and there were murder inside them. It's wings were bat-like and spread open. That's all he saw because the the monster did the unthinkable. It blew out a gust of black fire. Iron Heart yelled and galloped out of the way. No way he could buck it if the thing's always blowing fire. So he did somthing really crazy. He snuck behind the bolder while the monster was attacking a rock. Then he climbed onto the giant rock and looked down at the dragon. Then, with a sly smile, he threw a little pebble dow nearbye, and once the monster was investigating it, Iron Heart leaped down on the demon lizard's back. Then he jumped up on it's head and poked it in one of it's blood red eyes. The monster roared and started shaking his head to rid itself of Iron Heart. But Iron Heart held on to one of it's horns and poked it's eyes when he had the chance. Finally, the monster threw itself on the ground out of exhaustion. Iron Heart jumped off of the giant lizard's head and onto it's back. When he landed on it's spine, he heard it snap. And the red glowing light in it's eyes dimmed.
Iron Heart sighed and headed back to the old pegasus's shack.
When the exhausted foal finally got there, he saw that the fat old pony had fallen to sleep in his chair with the pipe still smoking in his mouth. The young earth pony shook his head and blew out all the candles. Then he went to his trott in closet sized room and leaned over his bowl, sure he was going to be sick.
"I'm going to take a bath," he said to himself.
Iron Heart limped over to the half cider barrel he used for a tub. He sighed when he saw that the water was cold, so he decided to just wash off with a washcloth. He looked in the mirror to see how beat up he was. So many questions ran through his mind. His dream, the monster, once again his parents. He remembered what the monster had said in his dream: "Star Flash was trotting around our territory. Apparently spying. Some of my dragons caught her. And killed her."
Star Flash... why did she sound so familiar? Iron Heart almost laughed at himself. It was just a dream! But-
Iron Heart gasped. He was worse than he thought! He always hated thinking about his appearance. His white mane and tail never stayed flat and now they were caked with dirt from sleeeping on the ground. Unlike all the colorful fillies and colts at his school, his coat was dark brown, now slightly bloody, which didn't go with his white mane and tail. His eyes were dark green, but you couldn't tell because of his mane was always in his eyes. And his flank was as bare as-
As nothing.
Usually when Iron Heart looked in the mirror, he saw nothing on his flank. But now, it was coated in black. It was like somepony painted his flank with darkness. But it wasn't just black. Right in the middle, was a sword. Now mostly, it takes alot of skill to use a weapon with your hooves. But some very skilled pegasi and a few earth ponies had learned to use swords, arrows, spears, and alot of other stuff. But nopony has a weapon as a cutie mark.
But here Iron Heart was, staring at his new cutie mark, which was black with a sword in the middle.
"Now what kind of cutie mark is that?"
Auther's note:
This might be the tiniest bit more epic if you knew what I had in mind. Sadly I can't put all of that in words. Sorry it's so short and terrible but this is just a prequel. And also sorry this is so dumb. I promise I'll try to make the next chapter long and if possible epic.
