Twilight stood before both the solar and lunar diarchs as they explained her mission. They explained everything from the smallest detail of the crystal empire to the vast power of Sombra’s magic. The history of the crystal empire, and the rise and fall of the evil king Sombra. They armed her with every bit of knowledge they had at their disposal, but still they feared it wouldn't be enough.
"Twilight," Celestia said, "I am also sending Hydreigon to watch over you and your friends to make sure nothing bad happens."
Hydreigon let out a slight nod of confirmation. "I can not let anything bad happen," Hydreigon said, "I personally think that it'll be best if you introduce your friends to me, I do believe I already met a few on my way here."
"Hydreigon will catch up with you at the train station, but now there is no time to waste now." Celestia said, closing the door on twilight. "There are still a few things we need to talk about." Twilight then left the castle."I should warn you about King Sombra's mind control."
"Don't worry," Hydreigon said, "I am the Voice of Life, I should have a high resistance, or immunity to it."
"Even so," Luna said, "I want you to be safe."
"I understand, but don't worry to much...Sunbutt" Hydreigon said adding his old friends nickname. Celestia face flushed red with embarrassment.
"I thought you said you would stop calling me that." Celestia said with her face still a bright pink, "Fluffy" Now it was Hydreigon's turn to go read in the face. Well it was closer to a bright purple because of his color scheme.
"I thought you forgot that." Hydreigon said embarrassed, remembering the time when Luna misfire a main growing spell and it hit him.
"Is this really the time to be joking?" Luna asked being far more serious than either of those two.
"Yeah, yeah, your right." Hydreigon said, ”Well, I might as well get going, I got a train to catch” Soon after, he vanished. Only to reappear when he remember he forgot his bag with his equipment.
On the way to the train station, Twilight and her friends had things packed for a long trip. Spike was stuck with luggage duty and had to carry more than his own weight in clothes and other supplies. Twilight began explaining the situation to her friends, about King Sombra, some of the history of the Cyrstal Empire, and about Hydreigon. Even though she mentioned him by name, only a few of her friends who she was talking about.
"So thats the name of that dragon bucker." Rainbow dash said, "I'm gonna have my revenge for what he did."
"I'm sorry for what I did."
"What..?" Rainbowdash turned around only to be greeted with three menacing heads.
"I am apologizing for what I did the other day."
Rainbow dash's mouth swung open in confusion from a combination of surprise and fear. The main head had a sheepish smile which Rainbow dash seemed to be terrified of, or at least that is what Hydreigon thought. It amazed him how ponies could say that they'll do a thing only not to do it when the moment arrived.
"Ya know, knocking you out and almost letting you plummet to your death."
"Saying your sorry isn't enough!" Rainbow dash tried to land another gut punch on Hydreigon, but this time he was prepared for her attack.
"Protect" Hydreigon commanded as rainbow dash's punch bounce off a translucent barrier, "are we seriously doing this again, I won the first time, maybe this time I'll decide to eat you as a victory snack." He positioned his heads in just the right way so that his red eyes seemed to almost glow from shadows. Seeing how Rainbow dash in now in quite a state of fear, he decide to reveal his secret. "Kidding! I really had you going didn't I?"
"Hahahaha," Pinkie rolled over laughing, "That was a good one you fluffy dragon."
"All aboard!" The train conductor yelled
"That's our queue," Hydreigon said, as he began shoving the main six onto the train in front of him, "Let's go, we don't want to be to late now do we?"
A few hours passed as the group of 6 ponies and 2 dragons rode on the train. Hydreigon managed to engage in some friendly conversations, but most of the ponies were to scared of his intimidating form, aside from the pink one, she loved making jokes with him. Exiting the train, they all were greeted with a massive snow storm surrounding them.
"Twilight?" A voice yelled through the storm
"Shining Armor," Twilight yelled as she ran to give her brother a hug, "I've missed you my big brother."
"And I've missed you to Twily," Shining armor said, "But I hat to cut our reunion short, we have to leave before he gets here."
"Who?"
"Sombra," Shining armor said before he turned to face the three headed dragon, "and you must be Hydreigon, the princesses told me about you. It is a pleasure to meet you." Shining armor extended a hoof as a gesture of good intent.
"No, the pleasures all mine," he replied using his smaller heads to give him a hoofshake, "They've also told me much about you and your wife."
"I see," Shining armor said, "No that we finished our meet in greet, we have to start heading to the empire, we don't have much time to waste."
"Right" they all said to varying degrees of volume
As they headed to the Crystal empire, the snow storm only seemed to grow thicker with each step. Poor little spike was stuck carrying his own weight in warm clothing that never got worn. Hydreigon offered to help take off a few of the bags of luggage, but spike politely declined. He said something about his dragon's code, but Hydreigon had no clue what he was talking about. So he just shrugged it off, knowing that the dragon's here are much different
As the group of 7 ponies and 2 dragons reached about the half way point, a large black cloud could be seen forming in the distance away from the empire. When Hydreigon pointed it out to the captain, his eyes widened in terror. Shining armor knew who was creating that storm, but what he didn't know was what would happen if you were caught in it and he did not want to find out.
"Everyone to the Empire, Now!" Shining armor barked making sure everyone knew the urgency of their situation
Everyone suddenly picked up their pace and when from a cautious walking to a intense running. After running what felt like a long distance, Hydreigon noticed that someone was missing, he looked back and saw Spike tangled up in scarves and the weight of the briefcase still on his back as he tried to fix his situation himself. Hydreigon couldn’t let his fellow dragon get hurt, so he rushed over there and threw Spike back over with the rest of the group. The small dragon landed on Shining armor’s head causing him to tumble, luckily he managed to regain his composure, as he picked up spike and placed him on his back so he could run easier.
When Hydreigon turned around the storm was quickly approaching, if he tried to fly back to the rest of the group he'd still end up caught in it. But something was odd about this storm, he felt life force from within it. The life force was not the same kind as a helpless victim that caught in it, but rather a menacing force of darkness, much like the two evil entities he has encountered before, Bittercold and Dark Matter. Whatever was in there was something he could not let go without finding a way to at least subdue it.
"Hydreigon! What are you doing?" Shining armor yelled, "If you stay there you'll be caught in King Sombra's magic."
"Keep running!" He replied, "I'll try and hold him off for as long as I can."
Hydreigon equipped the Prism Looplet
"You can't fight him alone!" Shining armor said as he ran towards the three headed dragon.
""Darkpulse" Hydreigon launched his attack at the snow behind him, causing a massive wall of snow to fall from the sky, "Don't worry about me. Just Go! Get your sister and her friends to safety!"
Shining armor despised not being able to help his ally, but he knew that he shouldn't. Whatever Hydreigon was planning was meant to buy time so the others could get to safety. If he was going to sacrifice himself, Shining Armor would not let it be in vain. The only thing Shining armor could do would be to do as he commanded and get his sister to the empire, then she will be able to find a way to defeat Sombra and bring peace to the empire.
“How foolish of you, sacrificing yourself just so you could delay me.” A voice from within the storm said, “Don’t worry foolish beast, I’ll make sure to make quick work of you.”
“I’m not scared of you in the slightest,” Hydreigon replied, “I made a promise to protect these ponies. Let’s Go! Outrage!”
Launching himself forwards, Hydreigon began wildly attacking inside the pitch black storm hoping to find the source of what was causing this entire storm. Though the prism looplet prevented Outrage's recoil from happening, his vision was completely blacked out by the smoky cloud and the best he could do is flail around when he tried to attack. He retreated out of the storm to prepare for his next strike, if he couldn’t damage it with physical moves, then maybe he should change up his tactics.
“Take this! Tri-Attack!”
Three blasts of energy shot out from within the mouths of each of his heads. The shadowy storm storm contorted itself to dodge the powerful oncoming attack. Slowly the great storm cloud slowly reshaped itself into the head of a giant unicorn, as it began staring down the three headed dragon with menacing eyes.
"Tell me beast, who are you." The storm said, "I can tell you are not a normal dragon."
“I am the voice of life Hydreigon. I am the friend and ally of the royal sister Celestia and Luna.”
“Hydreigon, a fitting name, a beast that has the body of a hydra and the heads of a dragon.” He replied, “I am the unicorn king Sombra. Severe these ties with your ‘so-called’ friends, and I will show you a power far beyond your imagination.”
Hydreigon sat there stunned at the revelation of that the storm he was fighting was the same pony, if not his foreign vessel, that Celestia warned him against. From Sombra perspective, he knew that any dragon, no matter how foreign, would always fall for the allure of more power. Hydreigon put on his best thinking face, his decision was already made before Sombra had asked the question, all had to do was stall for time. He moved the eyes on one of his side heads to see small specs far in the distance, now he knew that they were all safe now.
“How about I decline your offer?”
“Then you shall- OW!”
Sombra was taken by surprise by Hydreigon‘s dark pulse attack. Hydreigon knew that the physical state Sombra was in, he’d have no chance at defeating him unless he had an attack like swift. So instead of fighting head on, he booked it right out of there.
“Get Back Here!”
“Uh... No.”
Hydreigon flew as fast as he could towards the sparkling dome in the distance. The heavy snow only impaired his vision slightly, but he had lived long enough to know how to fly in such horrible condition. Sombra slowly started gaining on him, but Hydreigon refused to be taken down. Nearing the dome, he pushed his limits and flew just a little bit faster as he past through the dome with ease causing him to take a hard tumble. Though he couldn’t see Sombra’s face, Hydreigon knew he was scowling at him.
“Hydreigon!” Shining armor yelled, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I am fine.” He said as he stood up, “But you don’t need to worry about me, we must go to your wife and help her with restoring the empire.”