Equestria Needs Saviors

by DashyJ

Greater Fears

There was a great light and then all went dark. To Celestia this was more than just a battle; this was revenge. But at the moment she couldn’t bring herself off the ground, still mentally and physically exhausted. Her white coat was now stained red and brown from where she had fallen. Her once flowing and multi colored mane was now its original pink and no longer flowing. Celestia always had built up magic in her, but after the end of the war with Nightmare Moon, she needed some way to disperse of it. But now she had no extra magic in her, and her strength was failing her. Her once shining Platinum armor had been cracked, scratched, torched, and enchanted. Luckily Celestia knew some enchantments of her own, and reversed them before the armor could manipulate her body. None the less she had torn her metal off. She hated enchantments, and she could fight better without her bulky armor hindering her anyways.

The surrounding area of the battle field was dark and grim. The bodies of Celestia's fallen comrades and enemies were strewn on the ground alike. Some killed by magic, others by bow and sword. The once beautiful plain was now war stained and burning. With the newly burned ground, the ashes were still flying about, occasionally flying into Celestia’s eyes. But she didn't care. The only thing that mattered to her was her opponent across the field from her. She got up eyeing her opponent, seeing that she had gathered herself quicker than she would have thought. Celestia knew that she no longer had the upper hand, and so did her enemy.

Celestia went to look to her comrades for moral support, but her heart sank when she realized what she saw. Only one soldier was left. One soldier, her captain: Shining Armor.

He had fared no better; no he was worse. His once military mane was torched, and torn off in multiple places. He was missing patches of fur, and his white coat had turned black, and red. His battle armor was also shredded by the onslaught their enemies had

delivered. The purple helmet that he usually wore was dented by magic and spear, and on one side it was torn outward. He ripped his helmet off to get a better look at his surroundings. He was hurt, but he certainly wasn’t dead. No not yet.

But something happened that Celestia did not anticipate. 'No.' she thought to herself. This didn't sound like her opponent at all. Maybe she had heard wrong? No, it couldn’t be right. But it was.

"Celestia!" The voice bellowed. WE GIVE THEE A PROPOSITION, SINCE THOU HATH ONE SOLDIER AND AS DO WE, LET THEM BATTLE WHILE WE REGAIN OUR STRENGTHS.

"Shining Armor?"

"Princess?"

"Do you wish to fight him?"

Shining looked over at his opponent to be, he knew what he was up against. Ironically it’s was his sister Twilight who taught him about his gargantuan opponent. This was this Infamous Lunar Drake. He knew every hostile creature that existed in Equestria, but they never taught about this kind of beast in the guard. For once Captain Armor was glad Twilight had lectured him.

This Lunar Drake looked young, but bigger than Twilight described, he must have been 30 feet tall, not including his tail. Though his height was massive this wasn’t the scariest of his features. He still had to observe his diamond claws, eyes of black flames, and the fact that he was probably 12 feet wide, with a 40 foot wing span. His scales were made of obsidian, making him probably impossible to kill without either magic or a special

weapon of sorts. From what he remembered from Twilight’s lectures, a Lunar Drake was the joined souls of 3 Dragons and the power of the moon itself. Though they are the essence and power of three dragons and the moon, it still only has one head. Twilight had told him all about them: How they fought, what their weak points were, and what to use when fighting them. Shining took a quick look at where the great Dragon’s weak spot were to be, to see it heavily fortified by glowing armor at the top of his neck, slightly giving it away. He looked to be a Close quarter’s fighter, but he knew better than that. All dragons possess magic, and from what Twilight told him an entire battalion of unicorn guards have been taken down by a single Lunar Drake.

He grinned, though he was terrified, he was also honored. He knew Lunar Drakes had respect, and that they fought with honor. So he had to put on the best façade of confidence. Drakes can literally smell fear, they feed off it. This was a battle that was likely to claim his life.

"I accept" Captain Armor shouted across the field. "But first I request an exchange of agreements." He knew the Drake was going to accept, but he couldn't shake that nervous feeling of denial.

A deep voice returned the call. "To the center mortal"

When Shining heard that he felt as relieved as when he applied for the guard, and asking Cadence to marry him combined. He teleported to the center of the battle field, 'another thing Twilly taught me.' He said to himself. He was dragged out of that thought from the drakes heavy footsteps as he walked to the center of the battle field. Not 10 strides later he had reached the center.

The Drake began the introductions. I am Silver Fang, or Abraxas, Falkor, and Saphira; being the ones to have made me. I wish for a clean fight, no curses of any kind and no illusion spells. Everything else is permitted, that includes enchantments. Shining looked back at the dragons heavy diamond plates on the back of his neck. I can smell the fear on you mortal. But it isn’t for yourself... It is for your wife and family. I like that, you will be a worthy opponent.

As flattered as Shining was he needed to keep his composure, so he calmly replied "Yes I love my family, and I value them more than myself. My name is Captain Shining Armor, and I agree to your terms, and wish you luck. You too shall be a worthy opponent.”

Silver Fang bowed respectively. Shining Armor returned the courtesy, knowing this was going to be the last from this Drake.

"This is a DEATH MATCH mortal, I expect nothing more." said the Dragon as they went to their sides of the battle field.

---

Meanwhile....

After rehabilitating Pinkie, the main six left Sugarcube Corner, discussing what they would write to the princess. Applejack and Rainbow Dash argued that they should be straight forward with the princess, while Twilight and Rarity thought they should take more of a subtle approach, they knew not to include Pinkie in an argument like this, because she would find a way to fit a party in there. It was just the way Pinkie worked. So when they came to ask Fluttershy she just squeaked and hid behind her mane. She never like arguing and she certainly didn’t want to contribute to the discussion. So she just listened and nodded every so often.

A about 10 minutes later they had reached the library and were already entering. They all took the precaution to be quiet as they entered the library, but Twilight had told them not to worry, he had literally slept through Twilight breaking all the windows in the library after a spell misfired.

They knew that they needed Spike to send the letter off to Celestia so they entertained themselves for the time being. When conversation wasn’t killing the anxiousness, they decided to see if there was anything new going on in Ponyville. There was always something to do in Ponyville. Surely enough the six young mares found something to do, finding out that a new pony had come to town. His name was Bucksaw, a stocky brown Pegasus pony. He seemed nice enough, but really didn’t say much. He would fit right into Ponyville Twilight assessed as they helped him move into his new house. His unicorn friend also seemed nice, but he was a little different from Bucksaw. His name was Booming Flare but he asked to be called Boomer because it was just easier to say. He had a smiling Fire Cracker for a cutie mark and his coat was a light shade of red. While Bucksaw was quiet Boomer was exactly the opposite, hence his name. Boomer and Pinkie really seemed to hit it off, while Bucksaw and Fluttershy had also made good friends for seeing each other for the first time.

It was 6:30 by the time they had finished unpacking, and had gotten settled, by that time Boomer had already found his way to the bar, and Bucksaw was looking like he needed to relax. He thanked the mane six, and they went on their way.

Not long after laughing at Pinkie’s random impersonations of Boomer doing his classic "KA-BOOM!" They had reached the library for the second time that day. To their surprise Spike was still snoozing away, but Twilight took care of that.

Twilight used her magic to plug Spike’s nose and he was pulled out of his dream.

"Pgggrrhkkhkhk" Managed the now awake baby dragon. "What was that for?" asked the slightly irritated dragon. 'She can’t have figure it out yet. I haven't received a letter yet.' Spike claimed to himself.

"Spike take a letter" Said the unaffected unicorn.

"Wait are you actually telling the princess about this?" asked Spike

"Yes why? Is it a problem?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

"N-No" Shuddered the baby dragon.

"Good"

Twilight had taken Applejack and Rainbow’s advice in being direct with the letter, and got Spike to send it off.

But as Twilight wasn’t looking Spike quickly scribbled a note to the Princess in the hopes that she wouldn’t tell Twilight Spike had already sent a message to her regarding the fact of her nightmares.

But just as Spike was about to send off the letter he burped out a reply from the Princess. This wasn’t going to end well.