//------------------------------//
// Victory 
// Story: End of an Era... 
// by ChangelingProductions 
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The ground lay covered in the blood of dragonkin, sparkling by the light of the sun. Guts slashed over the once lively Dragon Land of both pony and dragon. At the entrance of a damp horrific cave was the lone survivor. One would not be mistaken to think her to be a crimson pony at first glance, but on closer inspection, you would see the red to be splotches covering a once-white coat. Only her hair, a pastel rainbow, was freed from blood. Her horn however was drenched in crimson. Her wings had splotches visible but were just as read as the rest of her underneath.

In front of her lay the body of a giant dragon. A sword almost as large as the mare had sliced its head clean in half. It was enchanted with runes and encrusted with gems. The seal of the royal sisters was printed at the hilt of the sword. 

Victory.





For the last 980 years, ponies and dragons have been at war. Dragons' love for the taste of pony mixed with their greed lead to such horrific years. Celestia remembered the day the dragons truly began war; the day she banished her sister. Luna had become corrupted by darkness and attempted to rule the sky with her eternal night. It was only with the Elements of Harmony that Celestia was able to defeat her. After Luna's banishment, the dragons took advantage of the power of ponies halving by ravaging the lands.

Ponies became hateful of dragons. Even those that did not want to fight were treated as enemies by the average pony. A dragon who worked for the crown itself had been slain by an angry village. It came to a boiling point when the Lord of Dragons attacked Canterlot. Celestia could still remember the screams and the smell.

To dragons, pony flesh was the ultimate delicacy. The taste was unmatched. The way blood filled their mouths was savory. And they screaming. The screaming added to the flavor. They were not shy to eat soldiers in the middle of battles. It was so common it had its own name;  Getting Snatched in Combat. Ponies would fear this being told to them when seeing high-ranking guards come to other homes.

She remembered the fall of the Crystal Empire as well. King Sombra had only ruled for a day before the dragons attacked. Somehow, he became the only survivor. An entire species of pony had gone extinct in the course of a night. The taste of crystal and pony together was too tempting for the dragons, and they feasted like there was no tomorrow. Sombra now lived in the castle as one of Celestia's war generals. He had ironically become one of her most trusted ponies. Sompony that she could tell anything to.

Today was the final stage. She and a platoon of over 1,000 ponies invaded the Dragon Lands. Half of them were snatched, the rest fought until they could think no more. Every single one of them took down at least one dragon. 20 of them took down collectively 100 dragons before they got snatched.

In the end, Celestia gave the final blow with an impossibly heavy sword forged by Sombra himself. Slicing the Dragon Lord's head clean in half. Even once she had done this, the battle continued. Nopony or dragon noticed the death of the Lord.





She could sense it; There were no more dragons. She tried to use her magic to find one. At least one to negotiate, or talk to, but no. Even using the power of the sun, she could not find a living dragon. They were all gone. She knew that both sides had casualties, but only now did she realize how many dragons died. The ground lay covered in the blood of dragonkin, sparkling by the light of the sun.

Celestia began to feel tears leak down her face. Then she began to feel herself crying. After crying, she began to awhile with emotion, screaming into the sky. The streams of tears washed some red from her face. She was alone. Yes, the ponies waiting at home would be there to congratulate her, and ye Sombra would be among them, but every soldier who came by her side was dead. There corpsed rotting in the sun. Some, with half their bodies, chewed up, and others gutted to have their insides consumed. Dragons laid, now extinct. There would be no more dragons born, as none were left alive.





It was long past the time the sun should have set when Celestia finally began to recover. As she looked up to the sky, she could tell every pony back home was worried sick. The sun had not set, and it would have been a safe assumption that Celestia had perished. She stared at her star, at the sun, and wondered if she should have perished. Perhaps the world would forgive pony kind if she did.

Staring at the sun was too hard for her, and Celestia had to hang her head low. She took a breath, wiped some blood off her face, and began to lower her star. It was slower to move than usual, but that was to be expected from such a tired mare.

As day turned to twilight, the sun stopped short.  Every single pony in Canterlot almost had a heart attack thinking Celestia had suddenly died. Some ponies in Ponyville DID have a heart attack. Celestia's advisors began arguing over what to do in the event of Celestia's death. Some ponies even began to riot in the streets, claiming the dragons were on their way to finish killing up Pony Kind.

But no. Celestia was far from dead. She was staring at something glistening in the cave. It had stolen her full attention and forced her to rest the sun. She stared at this thing for almost half an hour, her eyes attached dot it like a fly in a web. It was impossible what she saw... In fact, if what she saw was true, then she had found a flaw in her detection spell. Her heart skipped with joy for the first time in centuries at the possibility of this thing.

Celestia rose from where she stood and trotted over to the object in mind.





The Lord could feel how this battle would say; the last of his kin fought as if they would win but he knew it was foolish. They should be as scared as him right now. After generations of consuming lower lifeforms, they now show themselves to be ample fighters. Slaying his underlings left and right without care or reason. Unlike him, they were fools.

He knew it was only a matter of time before he would die in this battle. That's why he had it. It was his only hope. It would be hidden poorly on purpose, as it needed to be discovered. However, it also needed to avoid the eys of ponies. He knew that if a pony found it, they would crush it before it could grow out of hatred. Out of truly understandable hatred.

He had been alive for over 1,000 years and yet he was still younger than the Princesses. He had stricken first as soon as he heard the news of Luna's banishment and a gang of rough dragons followed. He had been crowned the Lord apon killing the old Lord and immediately began his attacks on Equestria. He remembered as soon as he learned of the Crystal Ponies, leading his closest dragons to their kingdom and slaughtering them all.

He knew he was to blame. As he looked up and saw the very embodiment of the sun fly towards him, sword held with magic, he simply closed his eyes. He did not fight back. He did not run. He knew this was his karma. He knew this was his end. He just hoped it would be quick. He just hoped she would not find it.





Celestia stared at it with a mixture of joy, relief, fear, and sorrow. She could see the flaw in her detection spell; it could not find anything yet to be born.

A purple and pink egg was poorly hidden under the hide of a long-dead and skinned pony. Its shine sparkling in the twilight like magic. Celestia stared at it like it was some sort of alien lifeform. She wanted to hate it. She wanted to smash it with anger, but that would betray her emotions. She was happy to see it. To see that dragons had yet to be extinct, and yet she felt those emotions were wrong. She was meant to hate these beasts, not care for their lives... and yet it was not yet born.

Celestia raised the egg with her magic and examined it. It was the size of a foal. Too small to be that of the Lord's and yet it was in his cave. It was in his care.

Celestia pondered smashing it right there and then. She thought about slamming it hard into the ground repeatedly until it was but a stain and a memory. That's what any normal pony would do. As she thought about it, she thought more and more about how she would never forgive herself. How it would haunt her dreams forever. She knew she could not destroy it.

How about leaving it. Dragon eggs only hatch in magma or lava, so it would never come to be a dragon. Yet she knew would happen. It would spend the first 500 years collecting dust, and the next beginning to rot. Nopony would help it, some may even smash it. She could even think of one spiky-brown-haired stallion that would experiment on it.

That's when Celestia decided to take it. As she thought of all the horrific fates it could face.

Carrying the egg out into the sun, Celestia watched it shine. She thought of using it as a trophy, but even then guilt would take her heart and mind. No. She needed to hatch it. She would never be able to look at it without pain or fear if she left it to rot as a trophy. She would treat it as if it were her own filly. She would teach them to be better. They would be better.

Looking to the sky, and to the egg, she could think of a name. Yes, she would name it after the beauty around her, rather than the tragedy. She would name it after the sky, and after its glow. She would give it a name so that she could never forget the circumstances of its discovery while symbolizing the bright future ahead.

"Hello, Twilight Sparkle..." Celestia whispered to the egg.