Blacktalon was in shock.
He watched as entire squads of his strongest dragons were wiped out by a purple scaled behemoth of a dragon. He couldn't believe that what once was such a puny runt could had become the creature that he saw before him now. As he watched the creature it suddenly stopped in it's tracks and glared directly at him. He visibly flinched from the look that he was given. It was the look of death.
Blacktalon was still trying (and failing) to fathom how this one creature could still be standing, let alone fighting. It should have been killed by the tens of thousands of dragons that had stood before it. Pierced by the hundreds of arrows that had been fired at it. Sliced by the many swords that were sliced at it. Stabbed by the countless spears that were jabbed at it. Instead it had not been touched by anyone, Not even breathing hard. Just slowly advancing with its sword in hand and with a spear strapped to its back. It wore armor made of the finest metals and decorated with the bones and scales of other dragons. Its muscles were like finely toned steel, like they were chiseled out of solid rock. Upon its head it wore the gaping maw of a larger dragon.
He watched as a squad of elite dragons were dispatched with lethal efficiency. I quick stab to the heart. A long smash to the throat. The largest of the dragons managed to slip behind it and slice at its exposed back. The creature suddenly turned around and parried the blade into another dragon, slicing its head clean off. It followed up by grabbing the dragon's arm and flipping him over its shoulder... right into a waiting spear. It then grabbed the spear, with the dragon still writhing in pain, and threw it into its owner's heart. Just for good measure it blew a heavy gout of emerald green flames onto the cluster of bodies of what had once been the squad. While normally dragons are immune to fire the flames were so hot that they managed to melt the scales of the dragons.
Blacktalon could not believe that this creature had the audacity to defy him like this. To even continue living. It was unheard of. He turned to the nearest soldier and said "lead the heavy infantry units around behind it and attack the Pony Outpost. That should lead it away long enough for us to regroup."
"Yes sir." Responded the dragon.
Blacktalon was terrified on the inside, but he couldn't let that show or else his troops would sense his weakness and desert. No, he had to exude confidence if he wanted to stay in command.
Suddenly he heard a shout behind him. He turned around and saw a big red earth pony stallion with a light orange mane slit a dragon's throat using a hoof-mounted blade. Behind him was a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane levitating a sword and shield in its magic, and a yellow pegasus mare with a fiery orange mane and a mounted bow and arrow on her back. Each of the ponies also wore armor made from the finest metals that was decorated with dragonscale and all of the weapons were dragonbone.
Blacktalon heard another sound behind him and as he spun around he saw the creature impale the soldier from before with its sword. As he cursed his own stupidity for allowing himself to be outflanked, He took flight only to have his wing pierced by the creature's spear. While he crashed to the ground Blacktalon attempted to right himself by removing the spear from his wing, but even after he attempted to return it to its owner (point first) he still failed to right himself.
After he crashed to the ground, Blacktalon quickly jumped to his feet and drew his sword. "The lamb finally arrives for it's slaughter." He mockingly said. The creature made no reply, it simply remained silent and retrieved it's spear from the ground then returned it to the sheath on its back. "Oh, I see how it is," said Blacktalon, "I get the silent treatment." He suddenly charged the mighty beast and attempted to run it through with his sword, but the creature, with a powerful swing, chopped his sword clean in two halves. As Blacktalon gaped in shock the creature sliced both of his wings off in an instant. It then preceeded to kick him a solid ten feet.
As he lie squirming on the ground Blacktalon let out a blood-curdling shriek. If he did not receive extensive training he probably would have gone into shock. When the creature reached his side he attempted to kick its leg out from under it, but all he succeeded in doing was hurting his foot. It was like kicking a brick wall. As he lay there in pain the creature knelt down and removed its helmet. It's face was covered in many tiny scars with one long scar going from it's eyebrow to it's jaw.
They studied each other's faces until the creature spoke in a low gravelly voice. "It is time that you pay for your crimes against the creatures of this world. Name your compatriots and face a quick death or remain silent and allow me to torture the names out of you." After a short pause he busted out laughing and continued "Ok that was kind of stupid and it sounded better in my head, but you get the point... Well if you don't I can still show you" he said, holding up his sword.
Once again Blacktalon was shocked. How did this creature know that he was not working alone? "H-How did you know?" he barely managed to stutter out. The creature found this funny "Hahaha, As if you were smart enough to plan this out on your own."
"Hey!" Replied Blacktalon "I'm a lot smarter than you think!"
"Oh yeah?" One of the ponies, the white unicorn stallion, said. "Prove it!"
Blacktalon did not reply. He simply lifted up his chest piece, revealing a multitude of dragon runes. The most important one was "Zephrath"
The creature, being the only one that understood dragon runes, immediately unfurled it's massive wings and used it's body to cover the group of ponies. Blacktalon's body suddenly started shaking violently until it exploded.
The explosion shattered the creature's spear and the pieces embedded themselves into it's back. The creature did not even notice the pain as its number one concern was the wellbeing of it's companions.
"That was close" Said the white unicorn stallion.
"You said it Shining Armor" Said the pegasus mare, known as Spitfire.
"Eyeep" Agreed the earth pony stallion, named Big Macintosh.
"Hey, are you ok Spike?" asked Shining Armor.
The dragon, identified as Spike, did not respond, Instead he started pulling the fragments of his shattered spear out of his back.
After an uncomfortable silence during which Spike was removing the remains of his spear, Shining Armor said "Ok... What just happened?" Spike, while still removing the spear fragments replied ""Zephrath" It means destroy," when he got a confused look he continued "it usually blows stuff up."
"Ohhh, wait... how do you know all of that?" asked Shining Armor
"Well firstly, since I am a dragon it's just sort of engrained into me... don't ask. Secondly Twilight made me study it and convert it into Ponish. Speaking of which, you should know some of it because that is part of training." When Spike said that Shining Armor 's cheeks very subtly turned a shade of red.
After another uncomfortable silence Spitfire said ""Prove it," seriously Shining Armor. You just had to say it?"
"Well I didn't know that well... That was about to happen." replied Shining Armor.
While they were doing this Spike knelt down and did a breathing exercise to control his growing anger. "We just lost our only lead and you two are just squabbling like children!" Bellowed Spike.
Everybody looked at him because they knew how personal it was for him and immediately felt guilty. "And besides, I guess you just forgot about the rest of the dragons" He finished after a short pause.