The Natural Elements

Night was drawing to a close as the moon began its decent onto the horizon. A black dragon emerged from his lair entrance and walked out into the cool predawn air. He made his way to his basking rock and set himself on the cold smooth stone; his scales gleaming in the moon light. The crimson slits he sees the world with gazed up at the moon, a faint smile moved his lips.

Soon Luna, you'll be free of your prisons and then I'll be able to see your beautiful nights once more. He thought to himself. With your return, Tia will no longer be alone in this world. He let out a small chuckle. We can also finally meet face to face. His smile faded as he noticed the the red wisp of smoke approaching. With a glance and a slight flick of his wrist, he caught the scroll that materialized before him. He unrolled the scroll and was surprised by the contents.

My lord, I've done my best to stop my brother Dalkeed, but he has overpowered me and is on his way to Equestria. He has lost all sentient control and in his new primal mindset his strength has grown. My actions have slowed him down long enough for my message to arrive at the closest town in time. I fear that if the ponies stay and fight him they will be hard pressed to repel him let alone kill him. I apologize for this brief report but my mate is insisting that I get my rest.

your loyal subject, Malachite.

With a sigh the dragon looked to the north west, to Equestrian shores. Well this was unexpected, he thought, I hope Malachite is alright? His gaze darkened as he got to his feet. Dalkeed needs to be dealt with. I just hope I can stop him in time. He took to the air with a pair of powerful wing beats. Finding a thermal, he banked right and made his way twards Equestria.

A stallion of the royal guard made his way to Gallopston's town hall with hast through the snow as a hustle of action took place around him. Ponies all around were vigorously packing up their belongings and gathering their family members. The stallion entered the town hall and saluted to the pegasus stallion behind a desk. "Commander, the final preparations are finished and the train is ready to depart at your command." he stated flatly. The pony behind the desk acknowledged the report with a nod. "Thank you, you may return to your post."

He turned his attention to a unicorn and another pegasus that entered the room from a side door. "Captain Arconis," the unicorn rasped, "Captain Crimson Lance," the other pegasus mono toned "Reporting as ordered, Commander." they finished together. "I'm glad to see the princess remembered," the Commander smerked, "That we worked best as a team. It's good to see you, brother, Arconis." "Well, this is a surprise." Arconis stated in calmer tone. "Hey there, Storm." Lance said, a bit moor perky, as he walked over to Storm and gave him a brotherly hug. "Now that we have that out of the way, what is the situation here, Storm?" Arconis asked after the brothers parted.

Storm looked to his oldest friend and sighed, "Still no nonsense as usual?" he paused for a moment giving his old friend a jesting smerk before he continued. "By my intel, the dragon is coming from the West. The last recon patrol put it an hour away from her and that report was ten minutes ago. Most of the civilians have been evacuated but there are a few wanting to stay. In total, there are fifteen civies still in their homes." He then pointed to a map with a wing feather. "The defensive line has been drawn in the snow here. The three unicorn squads will provide magical support for the ten ballista teams while the four pegasi squads flank him from the sides. Our main goal is to turn it away, but if necessary we will have to kill it. We are all set and ready for its arrival." He walked over to the window and gave a signal. Both Lance and Arconis herd the train whistle as it left the station. "That's the last train out of the town until the dragon has left or is dead." Storm finished darkly.

"Wow, bro, looks like a good plan except for one thing. What is our escape plan in case the dragon breaks all the ballista and overwhelms us?" Lance asked while still looking at the map. "There is no escape plan, brother. We 'will' stop it, no exceptions." Was Storms terse response. Before another word was said, another pegasus guard entered the room. "Commander, the dragon is almost here." The soldier panted. Surprised, Storm began barking out orders to the captains in the room to get their squads into place.

Snow fell lightly on the ponies and their equipment. Behind them was the town they were defending. Before them was the massive red dragon with a predatory look in its eyes. With an ear splitting roar, the dragon charged the ponies. Trampling trees as he bounded forward, caring little for the 'saplings' under his feet. With a signal from Storm, the pegasi took to the sky with their crossbows in hoof. On the ground, the earth ponies took aim with their ballistas. An earth pony captain gave the order and a volley of bolts streaked tward the dragons chest.

To every ponies chagrin, the enchanted bolts simply bounced off his thick scales. Feeling the 'twigs' hit his chest, the dragon stopped his charge and looked at the ponies on the ground. He sharply took in air, only to let it out again in a gout of orange flame. At this the unicorns jumped into action by casting a joint shield spell to protect themselves and the earth ponies that were reloading their ballistas. As the flames washed over the ground teams, the pegasi above made their attack runs.

With precise aim the pegasi strafed the dragons head with bolts. Storm didn't expect the crossbow bolts to do any better than the ballista bolts other than get the attention of the dragon off the other squads. To his surprise, it had worked better than he had hoped. The dragon had ceased his fire breathing and turned his attention on the flock of pegasi above him. In frustration the dragon unfurled his great wings and sat on his haunches. He gave a powerful wing beat witch hit the pony defenders like a hurricane. In the gale force winds the ponies were thrown back and out of the air.

With a grunt, Storm got to his stomach only to see a house collapse before him in the distance. He turned his to see the rest of his ponies around him in different states of dizziness. Behind them, the dragon was back on all four feet and slowly approached them. The dragon closed the distance between it and the ponies in a few steps. Getting to his hooves, Storm galloped twards the dragon with a spear at the ready. Suddenly, his world flashed red.

When he opened his eyes, Storm found himself and the rest of his garrison in the middle of town. A quick head count showed that they were all there and alive. Another ear splitting roar brought his attention to the west once moor. The red dragon was still there, but there was another dragon in front of it. A much smaller black dragon stood its ground before its larger kin. To his surprise, the black one held the red one's attention for the time being.

The red dragon tried to bypass the black one only to have it stand between it and the town once moor. Thoroughly irritated the red attempted to bring its claws down on the smaller black one, only to have his clawed hand strike the ground with a dull thud. With ease, the black dragon moved aside his larger kin's strike and took to the air. Enraged, the red began to lash out at the 'pest' hovering between it and its quarry. Again, with disturbing ease, the black one dodged every claw swipe.

The black one then put some altitude between it and the red as it charged up its magic in its right arm. "Good by, Dalkeed." Storm faintly heard the black dragon say as he pointed his right arm at the larger red. A red arc of magic streaked to the head of the red dragon. There was no time to dodge the spell, it hit the red one on one of its horns and encased it in red electricity. After a second or two, the spell concluded and the red dragon fell to the ground with a great rumble. Landing before the body of the red dragon, the black one lowered his head in respect.

Seeing his ponies had recovered, Storm ordered them into new positions to ready themselves if the black dragon decided to attack. Storm couldn't put his hoof on it but there was something different about this dragon than the other one. The red one was primal and predatory while the the black one was calm, cool, and sentient. In a flash of red magic, the body of the red dragon was gone. "Lance, with me." Storm called, "Arconis, cover us."

The black dragon let out a sigh but then he herd moan followed by the sent of blood. His head snapped around to the collapsed building on the outskirts of town. Some pony's hurt. He thought. Without hesitation, he ran to the collapsed house. The moment he got to the structure he began to remove wreckage from the source of the blood sent.

"Stop right there, dragon" Storm called out. The dragon paused to look at the pony then continued to move objects as he spoke. "Put those down and help me," He said calmly to the ponies holding crossbows aimed at his head. "Some pony is under here and they're hurt." Storm gave Arconis a look as before motioning to Lance to assist the dragon. Between the dragon and the two pegasi, the rubble was cleared from the injured pony. The unicorn mare was laying on her left side holding something in her arms. The dragon looked at her injury, a large peace of wood was jutting out of her chest. When her eyes opened, Storm called out, "Arconis, get over here. See what you can do for her."

Before the unicorn could do anything, the black dragon waved that order off with a hand. Gently reaching in, he removed her and the bundle of cloth in her arm from the remnants of their house. She was breathing raggedly as she looked at the three before her. Her eyes locked on the dragon as he tried to back away. She motioned him over with her horn. "Take him," she said as she handed the bundle of fabric to the dragon. "Watch over him for me." With one arm the dragon took the foal as the other supported her head. "Take care of m....." Her voice trailed off as her breathing slowed and all together stopped a moment later.

The ponies present lowered their heads in respect for the dead. The dragon gave her a look and tone of sorrow as he spoke. "I failed you, but I 'will' watch over him. May you rest in peace young mare." He then reached out and used the remains of a curtain to cover up her body. After another minute of silence, the dragon looked to the ponies near him. "Sorry for not arriving sooner. If you'll excuse me, I have a lot of things to do."

The dragon turned to leave when he paused. "I'll send two of my talons to help clean up the fallen trees. Please show them no hostilities for they will show you none." He then looked down at the amulet around his neck. "Give this to the princess when you make your report." he said as he pulled it off his neck. "She'll know who it's from and who has the foal." He levitated the object to Storm before he began to walk away.

Lance made a move to stop the dragon when Storm stopped him. In a flash of red magic the dragon disappeared along with the colt. "What are you thinking, Storm?" Arconis questioned as he stood next to his old friend. "I don't know," Storm responded with a determined look on his face. "I need to make my report and present it in person to the princess."

Not much time passed before the 'talons' arrived. The two dragons were an odd sight for the ponies as they worked. As far as Arconis was concerned, the smaller of the two seemed a little jumpy. Other than some slight bickering the two got their job done in an hour or two. With the last of the wood stacked, the larger of the two dragons approached Arconis. "We have finished. Excuse my urgency but we have to attend to other matters of the kingdom." The dragon turned to leave but paused to clarify something. "Don't worry, my brother and I are stronger willed than the one who attacked your town. You will have no problems with either of us." After a nod from Arconis the two dragons took to the sky with the sun leading the way.

Emerging from his teleportation spell, the black dragon looked down to his passenger. The small colt was still asleep. Pleased with seeing this, he then waved a glowing hand as the image of two other dragons came into view. "Setteth, Roken, go to Galopston and help with the clean up efforts there. Leave when you're done." "Yes your majesty!" They bowed their heads before the image dissipated.

Alone with the colt, the black dragon made his way into his lair. Inside, he began to pile hay into a nest then covered it in animal hides. With the 'bed' made and placed next to his gravel pit, he looked at the cloth that covered the colt. It was covered in blood spatter from the colt's dead mother. Gently, he began to unwrap the small foal. He paused when a pulse of energy burst from the the child. What the? He thought, That's odd.

When he finally finished unwrapping the colt he was surprised by what he saw. With a smile on his face, he set the foal in the 'bed' he made for him and looked to the west once more. "One decade," he said to himself, "One decade with me and he'll be ready." He turned to face the the colt sleeping peacefully in the nest. With a yawn, he curled up around the small bed and went to sleep himself.

After a sleepless night and a dizzying teleportation, Storm was glad to finally be in Canterlot. He needed to make his report to the princess. With the written version already in her hooves, Storm felt a little unsure of his earlier decisions as he made his way to the grand hall with his brother and Arconis. For the second time in his life, Storm felt nervous standing before the double doors of the throne room. In hindsight he should have given the whole report in person as he found himself looking at Princess Celestia.

"Captains Arconis, Lance and Commander Storm," Celestia began as the three stallions bowed before her. "I'm glad that Galopston was saved from the dragon. I'm curious on the other dragons written in your reports. Storm, can you elaborate more on the black dragon that slayed the red one?" "Yes princess," Storm began. "The black dragon, from what I seen, is a head taller than yourself and has no head 'ornaments' to speak of...." Remembering something, Storm pulled out the amulet that the dragon gave him. "Here Princess, the dragon said for me give you this. He said and I quote 'she'll know who it's from and who has the foal.'"

Celestia took the amulet in her magic and brought it up close to get a better look at it. Recognizing the shape of the amulet, a loving smile graced her lips and tinged her words as she spoke. "He's right, I do know who it's from and I trust him with the colt." There was a moment of silence before Celestia noticed every pony was looking at her with a surprised look on their faces. "He is a very old friend," She continued. "He just likes to stay anonymous to non dragons. Now what of the other two dragons mentioned?"

"Allow me." Arconis stated wile looking to Storm. With a nod from Storm he continued. "The 'talons' your friend stent were a big help with the clean up of the forest. By what I over heard, they sound like brothers by the way the bickered with each other. The smaller one seemed interested in us but his brother wouldn't let him near us or the town. As written in my report, the elder brother approached me and assured me that him and his brother wouldn't be a future problem for Equestria." "Thank you, Arconis." Celestia nodded after he finished. "Thank you all once again for the defense of Galopston. You are dismissed." With a bow the three stallions left the throne room.

When they left, Celestia walked to her bed chambers. Moving over to a window facing the south east. Looking to the horizon, she gave a small wistful sigh. Bringing the amulet closer one more time she gave it a fond look. Hearing a knock at her door she turned her attention to the pony on the other side. "Enter." She called. "Princess, I have the documents you requested." The stallion stated as he bowed. "Thank you." Celestia said as she took the folder in her magic.

Opening the folder she was surprised to see the lack of information on the colt. "Who was the pony who recorded these records?" Celestia asked as looked at the stallion.  "The colts mother, Princess. Dr. Graceful Melody. She insisted on filling out his birth certificate and her colleagues had no objections. When she and her son were released from the hospital she quit her job and moved to Galopston. This took place within the last three months."

Nodding after hearing this strange information, Celestia dismissed the stallion. looking at the folder again, she sent the folder away with a small flash of her magic. You'll get better use out of this than I will. She thought. Looking out the window to the south east. She smiled and blushed as she thought to herself. Nightshade couldn't be in safer claws. Raise him well and take good care of him, Zethos.