Ryu ends up in Equestria, just in time to save the life of a pony. Will he find his peace in this strange land? AND WHY THE HELL IS HE A PONY?!
Ryu wanted to be accepted, in his dispair he prayed to every being in the multiverse to get him out of the hate surrounding him. And his prayers are heard. After a freak accident he finds himself in Equestria, without remembering his name, turned into a pony and just one thought in mind: WTF? When he hears the noises of a fight he ends up saving the life of some ponies. Read and enjoy! Tagged Crossover because of some heavy references with 'Breath of Fire III'
"Myria! I will not allow that you continue to kill those that want to be free!"
A lone man with blue hair, clad in a white robe, was standing in front of a giant demon.
"And what are you planning to do? I am the goddess of desire and destruction, even your desire to kill me empowers me. Still, it is remarkable that you got this far, all of your friends, even your own brother betrayed you, and still you continue on. But I have to ask, what could a lone brood do? You are nothing! You have no power, you are just another worm that I will crush."
"I am Ryu! I am the last of the brood! And your reign of destruction is over!"
The man jumps towards the demon and attacks it, only to be swatted down like a fly,
"Pathetic! Even the other adventurers were stronger than you."
"I will not loose! RRRAAAHHH"
In a bright flash, the man is gone, a great golden dragon in his place,
'This is all my might, I am the Ten'nō ryū! I will not let the humans suffer under your rule anymore!" The dragon opens it's mouth, unleashing a white beam of energy, hitting the demon, leaving a great hole in it. 'This is for my sister and my brother!' With a furious roar, the dragon gathers a giant ball of light before his open fangs infusing it with all the dragon genes he gathered, unleashing the energy as a rainbow-colored beam, 'And this is to restore the harmony you worked so hard to destroy!'
Ten years later...
The lone man, stands before the grave of his sister, crying, "Sara, I did everything I could, I defeated destruction, but now, I am hated, because I killed their god" the man falls to his knees, "Why! I saved their lives! I brought back technology, I brought back magic, and yet they hate me, because of what I am. I can't take this anymore!" the man continues to sob, "Please, I just want to live in harmony! I just want peace!"
Far above a single being, watches the man in pity, and decides that he should be rewarded for all his suffering in the name of harmony, it sees him fit for a new live in another world, one of friendship and magic. It sends a ball of red energy, a gate between worlds, tarned as deadly projectile, knowing that the lone man would try to stop it, to ensure that harmony will be protected.
Hearing a loud, crumbling noise, the man looks up, irritated. 'Can't I even pity myself in peace now?' When ne sees the meteor, his irritation quickly changes into horror, then into determination in the face of the meteor. 'NO, I will not see this planet suffer anymore!' In a flash, the same golden dragon that defeated Myria returns, once again firing a golden beam, this time though, it is directed at the meteor, only to disappear the moment it hits the meteor, not doing any damage to it. The dragon shrinks, turning back into the lone man, 'No! That was all my mana, how could that meteor survive such a blast!'
In a last, desperate attempt to stop the meteor, the man held out his hands and somehow managed to stop the meteor from impacting the ground, before a sickening crunch was heard as his legs shattered into dozen of pieces, immiediatly followed by a bright flash, leaving nothing behind.
'Where am I? What happend? Ok, vision? Check. Inner flame? Check. Pain, yeah, thats still there... Hooves? Che... What the hell?'
He stared down onto where his hands used to be, only to see that hooves had taken their place, hooves with nearly white fur!
'Okay... this is crazy?' He let out a small sigh. 'Guess my wish got granted'
His ears perked up when he heard screams.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
"Luna! Please wake up!"
Looking into the direction the screams came from he saw a group of unicorns in armor lying on the ground and a large white one with a etheral mane, horn and wings standing over a slightly smaller dark blue one with a similar mane that looked unconcious, apparently tending it's wounds.
'Shit!'
Noticing the strange giant purple bear he tried to get up to help, only to feel a surge of pain, appearently his hindlegs were broken.
'Would have been to easy, huh?'
That was when he saw the bear lifting it's paw tossing a terrifed purple Unicorn against a tree.
"Twiley!"
He heard how someone calling out in panic and a white unicorn in purple armor came running towards the unconcious purple unicorn with tears running down it's face.
"No, sis, please stay with me."
Painfull memories flashed before his eyes and he let out a mighty roar, calling upon his inner flame to destroy this bear with all his might:
"RRRROOOOAAAAAARRRRR"
With a surge of power he felt his body shifting into the form of a giant, golden dragon, his hindlegs still hurting. Glaring at the bear with pure hatred in his eyes, he opend his mouth, firing a huge golden blast of light, utterly desintegrating the foul beast that now screamed in pain.
Shining Armor couldn't believe his eyes: When a strange red meteor fell into Everfree Forest, the Princesses, his little sister Twilight, a troup of Royal Guards and he as their captain went investigating. When they came to the crash site a Ursa Major attacked them and brought down his ten guards with a single swipe of its paw, rammed Princess Luna head on, severely injuring her and took another swipe at his beloved sister sending her crashing into a tree, he screamed her name and ran towards her, only to find her lying on the floor, close to death. He had cried. What was his life without his little sister? That was when he heard a mighty roar, a roar filled with pain, hate and sadness. He looked up to see a mighty dragon firing a golden beam at the Ursa Major, literarilly desintegreating it. Where did this thing come from?
He looked down to the purple unicorn, Twiley seemed to be her name, only to find the white unicorn staring at him. He used telepathy to speak with it, simply saying:
"Let me help her."
The unicorn hesistantly nodded and he reached out with one of his golden claws.
The dragon actually spoke to him! Shining Armor nodded after a short moment. His sister needed help now in order to survive. The dragon raised one of his massive claws and touched her chest, where a golden flame burst out of Twilight's body as she began to move slightly, only to sink back and snore. She was alive! He looked at the dragon with tears of happiness running down his face, she was Alive! The dragon looked at him and Shining again heard this dark voice in his head, it simply said:
"She needs to rest now, the flame will die when her body is fully healed." As to prove the dragons words the flame slowly died out.
Looking over the other unicorns, he saw that they were only knocked out, but when he looked at the dark blue with both horn and wings he noticed a small red thorn in her flank.
'That's `Dragons Breath´, those thorns are filled with strong poison!'
He reached out his claw and pointed at the thorn, at the same time he linked his mind with the one protecting it and told her:
"You have to get out that thorn, it's filled with poison!"
"What! No!", the white one looked down to see the thorn. "That's `Dragons Breath´, it will kill her!"
Her horn was quickly wrapped in a golden aura and the same aura surrounded the thorn, pulling it out.
Princess Celestia looked at the thorn with tears in her eyes. She would lose her sister! There was nothing that could be done against this poison. She was helpless. Once again she felt the tug on her mind as the dragon spoke to her:
"I know how to save her, but I'm to exhausted to do it. I will share a memory with you, it will tell you what to do."
Celestia closed her eyes, when she opend them she found herself running towards a strange being laying on the ground.
"Sister! No! Not that plant!"
She heard someone scream and it felt like it was her screaming those words, but they sounded childlike and more masculine? She decided not to think about it, she felt her body sit down beneath this being.
"I will help you sister!"
She screamed at it and held out her hooves, no those were claws of some sort, and channelled her magic energy into them. She then again spoke four words in that strange voice:
"Purify the body, Antidote!"
She felt somewhat exhausted, but the being before her glowed for a moment and then began to move.
"Brother? Thank you...."
Celestia felt how the memory vanished and looked at the dragon, only to see it collaps and disappear with:
"I am the Ten'nō ryū. I don't want to see anyone suffer."
She looked at her sister and channeled her magic energy in her horn, pointing it at Luna.
"Purify the body, antidote!"
She immediatly felt exhausted and her horn felt sore, but she noticed her sister slowly opening her eyes.
"Celly? What happend? I... I felt so much pain. I couldn't move, but the pain just disappeared, Celly? What's wrong Celly? Celly!"
When Luna saw her sister collapsing next to her, panting heavily she tried to get to her as fast as possible, only to find herself still unable to move.
"I'm fine Lulu, that healing spell just taxed me more than I thought."
Then, without a warning, Celestia lost conciousness.
"Celly!"
Luna crawled towards her sister, ignoring the pain that surged trough her body, only to see that she was just sleeping. Letting out a sigh of relief she turned her head around to see Captain Shining Armor supporting his, now awake, sister as they walked over to her and eleven ponies lying on the ground.
"How is everypony? What happened to the Ursa?"
"Everypony is fine. The Ursa knocked out all ten guards, you, your highness, and Twiley before a strange dragon appeared, killing the Ursa and saving her"- he nodded towards Twilight- "life with some strange spell. Afterwards it looked around and when it saw you it's eyes widened in shock and it seemed like it talked to your sister, then it vanished, shortly after that she charged a spell and mutterd some words, you glowed for a moment and shortly after she collapsed, sleeping. And here we are."
Luna felt happy that nopony was really hurt. Then a thought crossed her mind.
"Wait, there were only ten guards?"
She looked around the unconcious unicorn guards, only to find one without an armor, nearly white fur, a bright blue mane and a golden dragonic head as a Cutie Mark, just who was this pony?
Twilight looked what the Princess was staring at, wondering who this strange pony was. Then her look fell on his hindlegs, or rather at the red liquid below them, blood! He was bleeding! She tried running towards him, but she stumbled and her brother quickly catched her, what was she thinking? She was to exhausted.
Shining looked at the hindlegs of the fallen pony in shock when he saw the blood. Helping his sister towards the stallion he began charging a healing spell. When he concentrated on the hindlegs of the unicorn he felt the wounds inside of them, they were completely shattered! Then he noticed something else: they were healing faster then they normally should. Looking over to Luna he saw that Princess Celestia was now awake again and the Princesses were talking.
"So this dragon told you how to heal me?"
Luna looked a bit confused, there was no known cure to the poison of ´Dragon Breath´, it was deadly, yet this dragon teached her sister how to cure this poison.
"He also said something else before he vanished. He said: 'I am the Ten'nō ryū. I don't want to see anyone suffer.' Do you know the meaning of the first words?"
Luna shook her head. "No, but I think he told you his name. I think we should see what Captain Shining Armor and Twilight are doing."
Turning around she saw how Shining tried healing the legs of the strange pony, were they in a bad condition? With a start she noticed the blood on the ground below them.
'This pony is bleeding!'
"Sis, we need to help!" She started running.
"I'm coming Luna!" When the Princesses looked down on the pony it somehow regained conciousness.
Looking up he noticed the ponies standing around him, their faces filled with concern. Turning his face he noticed the dark blue pony.
"I'm glad you all are alright. You must heal really fast Naito no megami if you are already back on your hooves."
Then everything went black.
"What was he talking about? Who is this 'Naito no megami' he talked about?"
Twilight looked at the stallion with interested and slightly freaked out eyes, who was that stallion?
"I believe he meant me."
Luna looked at him, the name he used when he spoke to her sounded somehow like it was the same language as Ten'nō ryū.
"We shall take him to the Canterlot Hospital, what does thou mean, sister?"
She looked at Celestia.
"Yes, I have some questions to him. We should hurry."
Twilight, Shining Armor, Luna, Celestia, the guards and the mysterious pony vanished in a bright flash.
When he woke up he felt something soft on top of him and below him, why was he lying in a bed? Running through his mental check list he noticed three things. One: He still had hooves, so it was not just a dream. You can't sleep in a dream. Second: He felt like his inner flame rose up into a inferno, he felt stronger than ever before! And three: His legs have been healed! He felt the traces of magic on a really high level. So he was most likely in a hospital. He did the same thing that he did everytime he was in a hospital: search for food. When he looked to his right he found a table with flowers, hay, a glass of water and no apples, which made three fourths of his overall diet.
'Sigh'
Opening his mind, he reached out to find the one that cast this healingspell, to thank him, or her, and ask for some apples, only to feel nine different auren just outside his room, appearently they were waiting for him to wake up. He felt concern, curiosity and happiness coming from them? Why was one of them happy? Whoever it was, he or she seemed to be on a constant sugarrush.
'You may come in now. I'm awake. And could I get some apples?'
He heard some clearly female shrieks outside and mentally facepalmed. They didn't know about his telepathic abillities! That would need some explaining. Hearing the door open he looked up. There were the four ponies he saw before, the knight, the purple pony and the two megamis, but there were also five more ponies: A marshmellow colored unicorn mare with a styled purple mane, a cyan pegasus with a rainbowcolored mane, probably called 'Rainbow' something, another timid looking pegasus with a pink mane that hid her face and fur in the color of butter, a orange pony that looked like a farmer and a pink grinning pony with hair like cotton. He instinctively knew what she was about to ask, surprising himself, and spoke up when she bounced towards him.
"Ok, in order: Hi, I have no name, I would love a party, but no loud music, I don't like loud music, and I only eat apple-flavored Cupcakes."
All ponies looked at him with their jaws hitting the floor.
"You have no name? That's awful!"
He frowned at the pink ones response.
"Everyone has two names: one name is chosen by the person itself, while the other name is the name others give that person, or the title they bear. I have none of those, as I lost my name in the flow of time and my title lost its meaning."
He noticed the confused looks of the ponies, except the two megamis, which looked at him in surprise about the wisdom hidden in those words and smiled.
When Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash heard what happend from Spike, who got the information from a letter of the princess, they immeadiatly took the next train to Canterlot. Spike had to stay at the library, because somehow the ponies of Ponyville developed a deep interest in books, a brown stallion with a hourglass as a cutiemark being the main customer of the month. That strange stallion somehow managed to lend at least three books per day and he never answered the question what his name was, only replying that he was a doctor. After meeting Twilight and the princesses they went to the hospital where the stallion they found was lying. Waiting before his room for him to wake up, they discussed what they should do with him.
"I would like to know who he is."
Twilight seemed very interested in this stallion.
"I hope he likes parties!"
Pinkie bounced around and blabberd about what that stallion could like, what his name could be and something about what draconic forms he could have, earning confused looks from everypony, but it was quickly discarded as Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.
"Ah don't know, he could be dangerous."
"You say that everytime AJ, but you are right. He could be a spy!"
Rainbows response caught nopony by surprise, she said that often, it nearly became cliche. Just then they heard a masculine voice, but it didn't sound right, like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
'You may come in now. I'm awake. And could I have some apples?'
They all shrieked in fright and surprise, except Pinkie, who rather shrieked out of joy, Princess Celestia and Shining Armor, who looked at each other, wondering why this voice sounded like the one they heard when the dragon spoke to them, while Luna just looked puzzled, she knew that telepathic abilities were reserved to those with a strong mind and strong magic, meaning this stallion was at least a archmage in rank. After calming down they went into his room to talk with him. When Pinkie bounced towards him, he answered her questions without her even asking them, making everypony look at him with their jaws on the floor, how did he knew that? It took them a moment to realise what he just said, he had no name! That had to be an awful feeling! Luna and Celestia, on the other hoof, just looked at him, surprised of the wisdom of this pony, as he seemed to young to have such life-experience.
"So... could I have some apples now? And don't worry, I will get myself a name when I know the structure of names around here."
The orange one looked at him and started speaking.
"Good ta know that ya like apples."
"Course I like apples, I eat only apples, golden apples and some other stuff!"
"What in tarnation are golden apples? Are they like zap apples?"
"Oh, you have other kinds of apples around here? Thats interesting, I would like to try some!"
More apples to eat! Best Day Ever! He did a little mental dance, laughing at the pathetic things that were pears, while in a even deeper part of his head, a chibi-version of himself, in his original whelp form of course, was running around, giving happy cries as apples rained from the heavens.
Smiling he added:
"I still have some golden apple seeds with me" pulling some out of his personal subspace-pocket, he added, "I think you are a farmer, right? I will give you these, if I can get some of the golden apples when they are fully grown, deal?"
The farmer-pony nodded.
"Deal."
He 'hooved' over the seeds. (He inwardly wondered how he could hold them, as his hoof wasn't reaching around the five seeds, but then he remembered one of his favorite phrases: 'It's magic, I ain't gotta explain anything.'
"By the way, whats your name?"
"I'm Applejack, mah family owns Sweet Apple Acres."
The others looked at each other.
"How rude of us, I am Rarity, designer."
"I'm Pinkie Pie! Soooo what theme would you like for your welcoming party?"
He didn't even need to think about the theme of a party in his honor. "Dragons, please."
The timid looking pegasi gave a small 'eep' noise and then whispered:
"My name is Flutter..."
Noone seemed to catch the last part.
"Pleased to meet you, madame Fluttershy."
He tilted his head. Again everyone looked confused.
"I am Twilight Sparkle, librarian of Ponyville and how did you catch that? I didn't even understand one word."
He started to laugh. "I have very good ears." -he flinched- "Unfortunatly. And that pegasus has very poor flying skills, I wonder when the wall will...", they all heard a loud crash, "...break. *sigh* Looks like that question answered itself. So where were we?"
"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria!" The pegasus with the rainbow mane responded, getting a laugh from him, like he thaught! That's funny!
"What is so funny?" Rainbow Dash sounded angry.
"Nothing, really! It's just: when I first saw you I thought: She's probably named Rainbow something."
At that everone in the room started to giggle, that was true, you could tell her name just by her mane. The white unicorn gave a small nod,
"I am Shining Armor, captain of the royal guard." He could hear how proud this Shining Armor was about his job.
"I think I should at least give you my 'profession'. I am the last of the Brood."
The megamis looked at him and then asked: "Care to explain what a Brood is? In all our years as ruler of Equestria we never heared of a group of ponies that called themeselves 'Brood', you seem like a high rank mage, but other than that we don't know anything about you. What were you doing in Everfree Forest?"
"To be serious... I don't know. All I remember is this big meteor coming out of nowhere, how I tried to stop it and broke my legs while doing so, a bright white light and then I woke up in the center of a crater in a forest I didn't know and then I heard screams for help, you should know the rest."
Princess Luna looked puzzled, the meteor that crashed in Everfree was not ordered by her to do so, which was the reason they went investigating. But that stallion WAS the meteor? How was this possible? "Wait, thou did not notice the great dragon?" If he didn't, then when did he end up on the battlefield?
"I would rather talk about this with only you two. Ni~Tsu no megami, Naito no megami, I will explain as much as I can."
Luna looked at her sister, still puzzled, he used another title for her. Similiar, but different, could it be that he actually called them princesses? Or was it something similiar? She linked her mind with Celestia to discuss it,
'He is interessting right sister?'
'He certainly is, but he still could be dangerous.'
They both winced when they heard his real voice, "So you don't trust me?" they looked at him, feeling a bit insulted. "It's alright. Trust is something that should be earned, not granted."
He smiled at them, startling both even more, he actually smiled at them for distrusting him! What was wrong with him? That was when they noticed something glowing in his eyes: When the princesses looked into them they could 'see' a painful memory flashing through them, a memory of being betrayed by one he considered a friend, a memory of being stabbed in the back, a memory filled with sadness. Then he closed his eyes as if he noticed them looking into his very soul, shutting the memory of. He never had somepony he could trust, but he wanted to save them? He put their lives ahead of his own without even knowing them.
'We could trust him for now, right Tia?'
'We should give him a chance, but he seems uncomfortable about his past.'
"We shall grant thous wish, but thou shall not try to harm us."
Luna locked eyes with him, he smiled at her, "I would not attack a megami of your rank, I would only attack a akui no megami, but you both seem like yoi megamis, so an attack on you would go against my gensoku of only harming akui seibutsu, would you attack me I would defend myself, though."
Celestia was relived, he openly stated that he won't attack them until they attack him. With a grin on her face Luna answered him, "So thou won't attack us if we don't attack thou? Thou seem friendly, but careful, we shall talk now."
Everypony looked at her sister, waiting for her response, which came swiftly,
"I think we can take care of ourselves... Yes, we shall talk to you alone."
When she said the last words she looked at Twilight and the others,
"You should go now."
Twilight and her friends nodded, this seemed important to the princesses, so they should leave them alone, Shining on the other hoof was not happy about this, but had to obey.
"So why didn't you want the others to hear about this?"
Princess Celestia simply knew there had to be something behind his strange and nervous behavior.
"Mostly because I am still failing to process what excactly happend, but I will tell you what I was able to figure out: I am not from anywhere around this lands. I was, like I said hitten by a meteor and tried to stop it, but ended up here. At first I thought this place is the afterlife, but the pain told me otherwise, also my body shifted its form, I wasn't originally a unicorn. But back to the point: When I heard the screams I wanted to help, but when I saw this foul beast swatting Miss Twilight away and her brother screaming in fear, I kind of lost it, it brought some rather unpleasant memories back, I transformed and destoyed this akui seibutsu, and healed Miss Twilight, I shared one of my memories with you, Ni-Tsu no megami, so you could heal you sister. Those actions drained to much energy, so I could not keep my draconic form up and collapsed. To the other question: Brood is the name of my kind, the magic running through my veins allows me to create various forms, one of the dominant species, and many draconic forms. Now, are there any other questions you would like to ask me?"
Luna and Celestia looked at each other and then asked in sync, "What are those titles you used for us?"
He facehoofed, that was their question? He was thinking they would question him about his kind and not really believe him, but he liked this more.
"You don't want to know more about my kind?"
They shook their heads,"No, or at least not now, and we belive you, your Cutie-Mark is a dragons head after all, so that thought is not so far of."
He decided to show of a bit and transformed his tail into a long draconic one without spikes, then he grabbed the glass of water on his right with his tail and brought it to his mouth to drink, that startled the mares a bit, their reaction making him chuckle mentally. He finished the glass and returned it to the table.
"I just called you goddess of day and goddess of night, megami means goddess, and before you ask, akui means evil."
Princess Celestia nodded, he was foreign after all, so it was clear he would use different words from his tribe or land.
"We understand, so if our guesses are correct, you said you would only attack evil beings, so yoi means good, am I correct?"
He smiled, "You are correct, still... could I know your names?"
Luna looked surprised, he did not know their names? Well, he was foreign, so she could not hold it up to him, "We are Princess Luna, and we are indeed the ruler of the night."
Celestia started to giggle slightly before she responded.
"I am Princess Celestia, and I watch over the day. But we should come up with a name for you, shouldn't we?"
He looked at her and grinned, revealing that his teeth were those of an omnivore, again startling them, 'They should have figured that out, Dragons are omnivores after all' he thought and spoke with a much softer voice.
"I think the name Dragon Soul has a nice ring to it, what do you think, your majesties?"
Dragon Soul could barely contain his laughter when he saw Celestia's surprised face, appearantly the name was perfect.
"It is a nice name, but how did you come up so fast with it?"
"It was obvious he would think of a name as fast as possible, sis, no being likes being nameless."
At this, the stallion started grinning, 'I like her. But that aura... What has she been through?'
Soul's grin fell when he spoke the next words, "If I may be so bold, what happend to you, Princess Luna? I can feel sadness, pain, grief and last traces of darkness coming from you."
Luna winced and looked at him with wide eyes. "Y-you can feel it? How?"
"Darkness has it's own feel to it. It's the same with sadness and grief, when you know them good enough, you can sense them in others."
Twilight her friends and her BBBFF were waiting outside, talking with each other about the recent events, when they heard Princess Luna shouting in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
"SISTER! WHAT DO THOU THINK THOU ARE DOING?"
When they came rushing in they saw a bizarre scene: Luna was blushing and glared at her sister, which was also blushing. It would have been a bit less bizarre if there wasn't a certain stallion holding his sides in mad laughter.
'Should I share those memories with them, Princess?'
'NO!'
"Care to explain, Princess?"
Celestia looked down and muttered something like "I guess I overreacted a bit...", after that she went silent, her cheeks now colored deep red, 'must have been really embrassing.' Twilight figured. -CRASH-
"Ouch"
She looked over to Dragon, who was now lying on the ground and rubbed his head, appearently he fell out of his bed laughing.
"Now that that is over, I am so happy you have a name now!"
Pinkie jumped to hug him, which Soul tried to dodge, but failed, somehow. He was a bit stunned at this, she was to fast for him to dodge! He dodged swords, arrows, hell... he even managed to dodge a lightning once! But this mare was to fast for him to dodge?
"What just happend?"
He looked at the others as, for the first time today, he was confused. They just shrugged.
"Pinkie Pie"
'So they have no clue either, huh?'
"Nope, they don't."
He looked at Pinkie, stunned. Did she just read his thoughts? A unicorn guard with no sense for timing choose this moment to rush in.
"Captain! A group of griffins is rampaging in South-Canterlot. They are wearing anti-magic armor and took Captain Flashwing as a hostage! We need your help!"
The guard looked positively paniced. Shining sighed, "What could I do against anti-magic armor? I would be helple..."
A loud crash was heard and they all looked towards the window, the broken window above the cliff, and a single thought ran through Shinings head, 'Did Dragon Soul just jump down the cliff?' He looked around and indeed, Pinkie was hugging air and collapsed forwards.
"Ouchie"
Twilight ran towards the window when a pony formed shadow rushed upwards in front of the window, barely more than a white-red blur.
Dragon Soul darted out of the window when he heard about the griffions that are running amok having a hostage. No innocent will die in his watch! When he fell down he quickly called upon his inner flame to create him a pair of wings. In half a second his back burst into flames, they died out after another half second, in their place now red draconic wings. He opened them quickly and moved them slightly to use his fall downwards to gain speed and shot upwards in a fluid motion. He forced mana out of them, and speed up even more by flapping them with high force, leaving a white-red blur in his wake. The one thing he was proud of was his instinctive knowledge of flying, as flying saved his life many times and helped him to get around more quickly. Using his mental compass, which acctually was a part of his mind filled with tiny magnets, he headed for the south of the city he was in. Canterlot, he presummed.
When a burning building came in sight he descended, he didn't want to be spotted flying, as it could be a usefull surprise in the upcoming fight. His wings vanished when he touched the ground. He ran towards the burning building, the excitment of a fight coursing through his veins. 'I hope they are a challenge...' He violently shook his head, this was not the time to fall into the temptation of fighting, he would not try to get as much fun out of this as possible. He would just free the hostage and make a run for it.
The griffons were discussing their course of action:
"So what do we do with that white mare?", one of them asked, his voice sounding like two stones grinding on each other, "We can't kill her right?"
The eight male griffons looked down at the unconcious mare, her right wing was impaled by an arrow that went right through the muscles. It had been easy to bring her down, seven of them lured her in by setting a house ablaze and the other one shot at her from a hiding spot, taking her flight and sending her crashing into the ground. The unicorn that acompanied her shot multiple magic beams at them, which bounced of their armor without any effect, magic reflecting armor was quite usefull, it made unicorns useless. The unicorn ran of when he realized that, probably getting help. But that was fifteen minutes ago, so he probably just ran of in fear.
"How about using her?" This voice sounded like a bear roaring, only quiter.
"How about getting away from her before I decide to kill you?"
They slowly turned around, this voice was not a griffon, it sounded dark and hard, it was mercyless, but it lacked any fury, it was completely calm, no fear, no hate, no confidence, the voice showed no hint of feelings. A loone stallion came towards them, head low so they couldn't see his eyes behind his blue mane, the only visible feature except his white horn, everything else was shrouded in shadows
When they realized it was just a harmless unicorn they started to laugh, he couldn't do anything against them.
The moment Dragon Soul heard one of them suggesting to rape their hostage, his blood started to boil. What pathetic excuses for males. When he walked towards them, they laughed at him, 'So you think I'm harmless, huh?' The biggest member of the group jumped at him, trying to tear him appart with his talons. He couldn't help but smirk and with a quick movement he ducked below the attack, delivering a blow to the chest with his left hoof. And so it was on.
They circled him, and then, all at once, rushed in, delivering swipes at the stallion that dared to oppose them. Their attacks were fast, he couldn't dodge all of them, and he couldn't attack. He was in trouble, his new body was slower than his old one. Soul had to use more of his strength, and so he activated the Shadow Gene slumbering within him, vanishing into his shadow.
The griffons stood there, dumbfounded. Where did that pony go? They looked around, he was nowhere to be seen.
"His shadow is still there!"
They looked where the smallest one of them pointed, there was still the shadow of the stallion, with nothing that could cause it. One jumped forward, delivering a swipe above the shadow, beliving he just turned invisible, and stumbled forwards when he hit only air. They heard a sickening 'thud' when the pony reaappeared out of his shadow, ramming his horn through the thin breastplate.
"Rufus! No!"
"We have to get into the air!"
The griffons quickly took of, not wanting to suffer the fate of their companion.
"You choose the wrong place to fight, on the ground you were faster...", Soul looked at them, a smug grin on his face, his eyes slowly turning golden with elliptical pupils, "...but in the skies I'm superior to you."
Shadows began to wrap around Dragon Soul as he summoned the power of the Shadow Gene, the Gross Gene and the Thorn Gene, forming a black sphere around him.
The griffons were frozen in fear as the unicorn covered himself in shadows. Shadowmancy was forbidden, it is a dark art! Before they could think about it to much or break out of their stupor, two giant black wings burst from the shadowy sphere. In another burst of darkness, the sphere disappeared, leaving a black dragon behind.
When Dragon Soul looked up and saw the pure terror in the eyes of the griffons, he was more then satisfied. He didn't let them comprehend what just happend, and burst upwards using some of his mana, the generated gale putting out the fire and throwing the white mare around, he didn't care he just wanted to maim, to kill, to crush, to see the dispair on the face of his foes. This form was one of his most favoured, as he got much stronger, the shadows always stunned his enemies and the ability to turn into a mere shadow at a thought was extremely useful. He loved it! He loved this feeling of pure power and royality, he loved to see the terror on the face of his enemy, although that could just be the influence of the Shadow Gene, after all, it was born from hate and despair, and made him enjoy seeing his enemies despair, it made him feel, how did those kids say? Awsome? Yeah, AWSOME. He also liked his Thunder Dragon form, as it was extremly fast and his Warrior Form... It is amazing which thoughts can run through your mind while you are pounding some griffons one fifth of your size into oblivion.
When all the griffons were unconscious, meaning five to six seconds later, they were to shocked to even react to his attacks and went down like practice targets, he flew back down and transformed back. Looking at the dead griffon filled Dragon Soul with a bit of guilt, that was, until he felt that the soul of the griffon did not yet leave the body.
When Luna arrived at the scene, she was shocked, the griffons were lying on the ground, huge dents in their armor suggesting that they were simply pounded unconcious with great force. One of them had a hole in his armor, but the fur underneath was untouched, the fire on the building was put out and Dragon Soul was tending Captain Flashwings wounds. But that wasn't what shocked her, what shocked her was that the air was heavy with the remains of magic, she could sense nearly the same amount of it she felt rushing through her veins when she became Nightmare Moon, and it felt similiar, too. Shadow, Strength and Healing, those three elements were most prominent, but she could feel another element, one she didn't know, and she could feel the remains of a calming spell. Luna noticed that Dragon Soul looked at her, his eyes filled with concern for the mare he was treating and exhaustion.
"She lost to much blood. Her body is in no condition for my healing spells, or at least the ones I have enough mana left for."
When those words were spoken, realisation hit Luna, Flashwing could die if she didn't get healed now. She rushed forward and concentrated on a mighty healing spell, one made to replenish every aspect of the body one needed to survive. A soft blue glow covered Flashwing, and her body began to heal. Her blood was replenished, her veins closed and flesh began to grow back, skin began to cover the dark red flesh, and finally fur began to sprout. When the spell finished, it looked as if Flashwing never received any wounds.
Just a second after the spell finished its work, the others showed up. They were all a bit shocked, but Twilight, Shining and Princess Celestia were by far the most shocked, the amount of magic that was floating in the air let Shining flinch. It was his sister, who spoke the question they all had in mind:
