Chapter one: The reptilian guerrilla

Shining Armor, for the first time in four days, had an excuse to call his wife back in the Crystal Empire. Being on a mission, his hooves were full until well after Princess Luna raised the moon to begin the night. Below his hooves sat a crated artifact his scouts had picked up and it needed to be transported immediately.

"Flash, if you could take charge for a couple minutes, I'd really appreciate it." Shining requested of an orange pegasus soldier.

"Of course, Sir. What for?" Flash Sentry asked, his eyes blooming with curiosity.

"I need to send the artifact back to Canterlot. And I also wish to talk to Cadence. It's been too long since I saw her last."

"Only five days." Flash reminded him. "You're not becoming addicted to her love, now are you?"

Shining rolled his eyes, trying to filter out the light innuendo in Flash's teasing. "No, soldier. I just find myself missing my gorgeous wife. She has love emanating from her very presence and image. To be without it is like forcing yourself to be happy."

Shining placed the crate containing the artifact on his back and trotted towards his tent. He and forty troops were currently situated in a rocky desert some eight miles away from a large chain of orange mountains. Because of volcanic activity, the sky was an unusual shade of orange and it sort of difficult to breathe outside the camp, where a refreshing spell had been placed.

Shining entered his tent and set up the magic mirror he had gotten from Cadence. It was shaped like a heart and had a crystalline frame, courtesy of the crystal ponies.

Shining cast a spell to activate the mirror and within minutes, he found himself staring into the beautiful eyes of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

"My knight in shining armor!" she cooed affectionately. "How goes the expedition?"

"It's going stupendously, my love." Shining reported. "We've got a small base set up, and so far, we've already retrieved one strange, magical artifact. It was rather easy for the scouts to secure, and they report that there may be more."

"Oh that's wonderful! What's the artifact?" Cadence asked.

"Some sort of orb. It has these orange and red lights flicking around inside. I can't tell if they're flames or auras. I was hoping to send it back to Canterlot to have it examined." Cadence's eyes drifted away from Shining's Gaze for two seconds.

"I have a better idea." she said.

"Huh?" Shining responded, puzzled. His confusion ended when the familiar face of Twilight Sparkle appeared beside Cadence. "Hey-Hey!" Shining chuckled, his face lighting up. "I know that face!"

Twilight giggled. "Big brother! What's going on? Where are you?" She asked keeping that delighted smile on her face. "I come all the way to the Crystal Empire to see you, only to have Cadence tell me you're on a military adventure!"

"I'm at the border of Serpentron. It's a volcanic mountain nation inhabited by dragons."

"Oh yeah! Me, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash followed Spike there once. What'cha doing out there?"

"We're out here searching for draconic artifacts and other means of historical significance."

"Then what's with the militia?" Twilight asked in a slightly skeptic tone.

"We're trying to learn more about dragons, Twilight. Giant, flying, fire-breathing lizards. They're kinda dangerous."

"Don't you mean serpents? Aren't dragons snakes?"

"Well, that's what we're trying to find out, now isn't it?" Twilight shrugged. "Anyway, Twily, If you could help me teleport this orb we found over to you, I'd much appreciate it."

"Over to me?" Twilight asked, confused. Then her confusion turned to excitement. "Do I get study it?" she asked eagerly.

"Who else? I'm sure the Princess wouldn't mind."

While the two siblings performed the transportation spell, an issue came to Flash Sentry's attention outside.

"You! Stop right where you are! That is an order!" Flash heard one of the soldiers barking some ten yards away, at the entrance to the camp. Immediately he flew over to see what the problem was.

"What's the problem, Rocket Jump?" Flash demanded.

"We have a trespasser, Sir!" the soldier responded, pointing. Flash looked in the direction of his hoof.

Said trespasser was a bulky alicorn stallion with a black coat, a spiky purple mane, and a scorpion for his cutie mark. His face bore a dark and aggressive snarl.

It was very odd to see a male alicorn, let alone on that wasn't Celestia, Luna, or Cadence. But that wasn't going to stop Flash from doing his job. "Sir!" Flash shouted. "I'm going to have to ask you to identify yourself! Failure to comply will result in your arrest!" Several troops, including Rocket Jump, surrounded the trespasser.

The alicorn sneered at Flash. His wings flared up and the troops got into attacking positions. "I am Blackout!" he growled. "Hear me roar!" At these words, Blackout's horn erupted with purple electricity as it enveloped his entire body.

Blackout began growing. And changing. His horn split into two and moved to the back of his skull. His wings expanded and lost all their feathers revealing leathery, scaly bat wings. His legs became covered with scales, and five claws shot out of each hoof. His tail became fleshy with spikes on the end.

Before long, Blackout had transformed into a broad-shouldered dragon the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"Base Runner! Go get Shining Armor!" Flash commanded one of the scouts.

"Yeah, I'm on it!" A young, skinny, white pegasus responded before retreating rather swiftly.

Blackout swung his new tail around, hitting Rocket Jump. The green Earth Pony was slapped back thirty feet before landing with a crack.

"Open fire!" Flash commanded. Arrows, bombs, fire, spears, and magical beams were thrown at the savage dragon. But Blackout only started to advance. His might matched the militia, but unlike the ponies, he could take his enemies out one by one. He slashed and chomped at the troops. He blew jets of purple fire on the tents, sometimes taking to the air.

"Yo, Cap!" Base Runner burst into Shining Armor's tent very abruptly. "We're under attack!"

"What?!" Shining jumped, tuning away from the mirror. "From who?"

"From a freaking dragon, that's who!" Shining's eyes went wide. He sadly, but quickly turned back to the mirror.

"Sorry ladies, I have to go!" Shining told his wife and sister. "I'll see you in a few days, I promise!" And with that, Shining ran out of the tent to assist in the battle.

"Tell Flash I said 'Hi!'" Twilight called, hurriedly.

The ponies fought back, but they were losing this battle rather quickly. Eight had lost their lives already. Blackout had a certain pattern. Attack the troops closest to him, burn down the next tent, look for something, brush off the arrows and spears, and repeat.

With the help of a medic, Rocket Jump had finally managed to stand up and retrieve his harpoon launcher. "You call that breaking my spine?!" he taunted. "You reptilian ladies wouldn't know how to break a spine if it came off a sea urchin!"

"Do not push your luck, Herr Rocket Jump." The medic scolded with a German accent.

Rocket Jump ignored him and savored the feeling of relief as all the pain in his back went away thanks to the medic's healing spell. "You deserve a medal, Doc!" he complimented. Then he ran towards the dragon and fired his harpoon launcher. "Take your voodoo dragon ass back to Serpentron!" he yelled.

Blackout was bombarded with bombs. Since he was an intelligent being, he picked up the bombs and threw them back at the demoknights that launched in the first place. Only one out of the six was lucky enough to survive the blasts.

Shining arrived right then and fired a powerful beam of magic at Blackout. The dragon was stunned, but only for a moment. He opened his jaw widely and fire gathered into a ball within his mouth. He then shot the fireball at Shining, who dodged it by inches, getting blown to the side.

When he recovered, Shining saw Blackout tearing down the mess hall. "Snipers! Aim for the eye!" he commanded.

Several troops with bows and arrows took aim at Blackout's red, slitted eyes. But before any of them could get a decent shot in, Blackout released a firey explosion from his mouth. It wasn't huge, but it was enough to hide Blackout's body from the snipers' line of sight.

With blazing cover, Blackout somersaulted through the blast, his body catching some of the blaze as he rolled toward the ponies. Many troops scrambled out of the giant, flaming, spiked bowling ball's path. Few were lucky enough to avoid crushed, scorched, or impaled.

Shining cursed, his heart pounding, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how to defeat this monster. Perhaps if they had been better prepared…

"Sir, we're being overwhelmed!" Flash reported. "We have to retreat! We've lost half of the crew already!" Shining didn't want to leave. He wanted to destroy the dragon. That is, he did until Blackout set his tent on fire and smashed the magic mirror like a potato chip.

It didn't take long for Shining to realize that Cadence and Twilight would have seen the tent burst in flames before the mirror was destroyed. No doubt they would be in over their heads, fraught with worry. Even if they hadn't seen Blackout, it wouldn't take genius to realize they had been attacked by a dragon. It was then that Shining decided that he didn't want to lose his life for the sake his family.

"Fall back!" Shining commanded, loudly. "Fall back! Retreat! Abandon the base!" The stallions had little trouble following that order. They ran, if they could, to the emergency table and grab a survival saddle-bag and began scurrying out the southwest exit to the base.

Unfortunately, Blackout was not finished. He took to the air this time and went after the escapees. He released a large jet of flames. It took down many brave stallions.

Blackout raised his head to the sky opened his mouth and bellowed "ALL HAIL MEGATON! ALL HAIL THE ARBOKEKANS!" He then turned and flew back to the wreckage to scavenge it. He didn't bothering to check if there were any survivors, arrogantly thinking that he eliminated them all.

But he hadn't. Shining Armor, Flash Sentry and nine other ponies had survived.

What a nightmare, Shining thought as he ran. 29 good, honest, innocent stallions had perished. And now, as far he knew, Equestria had a new enemy. These Arr-bock-eh-cons… and this Megaton, who Shining could only guess was their leader. A faction of evil dragons who knows how big? He had to get word back to Princess Celestia.

He realized that he was in for a pretty tough ordeal. It had taken them three days to get there by train. They were out in the middle of nowhere, where the air was hardly breathable and the sun bullied them with intense heat.

"Where to now, Captain?" Flash inquired.

Shining paused for a moment to think up his answer. "Our best bet is Canterlot. We'll hike west for the time being. There should be a few villages in that direction where we can rest and recover."

So they started hiking.