The day started well enough. Draigo was enjoying his breakfast with the Princesses, but couldn’t keep from glancing at them both nervously. He had told them about the ‘war’ that he was recruited into a few days ago and had avoided them for a couple days afterward. They didn’t take it well.

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Immediately after he told them they had donned their armor and weapons and then proceeded to try to cripple him so that he couldn’t go. Their battle raged throughout the castle and above Canterlot. It would have gotten all the way to Ponyville had Draigo’s wing membranes not gotten shredded into confetti. Draigo was trying to talk to them and defend himself the entire time. His words fell on deaf ears as the Princesses started to target his legs. Going through such pain to try to make them understand was worth it if it actually worked. Throughout the entire debacle, Draigo had noticed differences between the two sisters. Luna kept calling out changes to their tactics and Celestia would listen. Celestia would be the one dealing most of the damage while Luna tried distracting him so Celestia could get a blow in. Sure, Draigo was better in almost all categories than both of them, but through their teamwork they were able to overcome him, in this instance. After hours of fighting, all of them were tired and the battle finally ended. Draigo came out of it with his wings shredded and one leg completely useless while the other three were heavily damaged but usable. The two sisters were exhausted but unscathed.

Getting back to the castle took awhile for Draigo since he had to hobble back on three injured legs while Celestia and Luna flew off after regaining some energy. The ponies that saw him were shocked at the amount of damage he had taken and started murmuring about the possible reasons why their rulers had fought him and allowed him to come back into the city. The ponies of Canterlot knew of him but still thought he was the stereotypical dragon which meant they didn’t want anything to do with him and just wanted him to stay away from them, their city, and especially their beloved rulers. Draigo ignored them as he walked back to the castle and made a mental note of those ponies who were the most hostile towards him.

Once back at the castle Draigo proceeded to the room that Celestia and Luna had prepared for him. While he liked the royal treasury and was very comfortable in it, it didn’t offer as much privacy as he initially thought it would. He had been told how to get to his room by the guards at the front gate but couldn’t picture where in the castle it actually was. Turns out that he could see both Celestia’s and Luna’s rooms, marked by their cutie marks, from his doorway, along with another door that had a crystal heart drawn on it. This fact made him more comfortable as well as nervous. He wondered about the third door and vowed to check it out once he had healed from his wounds. He didn’t want to scare anypony unintentionally. Once in his room, Draigo flopped down on the provided bed and promptly fell asleep.

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Even though he was fully healed from his wounds--it had only taken a day or two--he hadn’t been able to talk to either princess even though they regularly had him for breakfast and dinner. He suspected that they were having him dine with them so that they knew he was still around even though neither would say a word beyond each invitation.

This cold shoulder treatment had distracted Draigo enough that he had forgotten about finding out who lived in the crystal heart room, if anyone. It wasn’t until today that he had remembered about that little tidbit. So, after breakfast was over Draigo went to find out. He walked over to the door and knocked.

“One moment,” came a female voice from behind the door.

Draigo took a step back from the door as he heard hoof steps coming from the room. The door opened and he was met by a pink Alicorn with a pink, purple, and yellow mane and tail and a cutie mark that matched the crystal heart on the door. She seemed a little surprised to see him at her door.

“Oh, hello. I had thought you were Shining Armor or one of the servants. You’re Draigo, right? I’ve heard about you from my aunts and coltfriend. I’m Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Princess Cadenza said as she smiled at Draigo.

“Yes, I’m Draigo. It’s nice to meet you, Princess Cadenza. I have been wondering who or what was behind this door for a little while now. I would have come to find out earlier, but I didn’t want to frighten anyone with the appearance I had when I first noticed your room. I’ll be living down the way a bit, apparently. Celestia and Luna prepared the room for me, but I didn’t think they’d have me live so close to them,” Draigo said with a bit of a blush, that somehow showed through his dark scales, at the last part.

“Oh, I see. To think you’d be interested in both of them. It’s not uncommon for ponies to have an interest in one of my aunts, but to like them both? That is next to unheard of. You, sir, are in quite the pickle when it comes to the affairs of the heart,” the Princess said with a smirk.

“What? How? Who?... Ugh, yes, I admit it. I like both Celestia and Luna. Don’t you dare tell them. If you do, I’ll deny everything,” Draigo said hoping that Princess Cadenza would keep quiet about his feelings.

“My dear drake, I would never. It would ruin my fun,” she muttered the last bit under her breath, "Now, would you like some help and/or advice? I am the Princess of Love, you know.”

“Um, sure. May I come in? I’d rather talk about this in private, if that’s okay with you, Princess Cadenza,” Draigo said as he fidgeted his wings and tail.

“Of course, come in. Also, call me Cadence. I’ve never gotten used to ponies calling me princess and you already call my aunts by their first names so it’s a bit weird having you call me princess,” Cadence said as she stepped aside so Draigo could enter her room.

“Thank you, Cadence. I’ve known Celestia and Luna for quite awhile so even though they are now princesses it feels weird calling them as such. Anyway, where do you want to start?” Draigo asked as he surveyed the room. It had a lot of pink in it, a lot. He stood out more in here than he did basically anywhere else he’d been so far and it made him a little uncomfortable.

“First, take a seat. Being comfortable is very important when talking about sensitive things. Next, relax and think about each of them. There will be things you like about each, but the one you should choose will be the one that makes you feel right. She will make you want to be better and bring out the best in you," Cadence told him as she sat on a couch.

"Ah, of course. It's so simple most people forget about it. Thank you, Cadence. I'll do just as you suggested," Draigo said as he sat in an easy chair, "Oh, who is your coltfriend? I'm sure he's very important if a princess such as yourself is dating him."

"Shining Armor."

"He's your coltfriend?" Draigo asked then laughed himself out of his chair after Cadence nodded.

"What? Why are you laughing so much? Shining is a great stallion."

"Oh, it's just that he seems really arrogant, foolhardy, and incompetent. When he first met me he tried to fight me then said something that was basically a challenge after he’d been told I was a friend of the princesses. If not for Celestia being there I would have taken that challenge," Draigo said with a smirk on his face as he one more took his seat.

"And that's a bad thing? Aunt Celestia and Luna told me of you, but not all that much. Care to enlighten me on how fighting or challenging you makes him arrogant, foolhardy, and incompetent?" Cadence asked with a raised eyebrow and indignation in her voice.

"Follow me to the guard training ground and I'll show you," Draigo said as he walked to her balcony and took off.

They were at the training grounds in short order and headed over to the target range. Guardsmen saluted Cadence as she walked by and then followed them out of curiosity. By the time they reached the range the guards had separated Cadence and Draigo, thinking she needed to be guarded against the dragon before them. Upon noticing that Cadence could barely see him due to the guards, Draigo grew to his full size.

"This will be a three-part demonstration. First, I'll take out some targets then all of you gathered here will fire spells at me. Finally, I'll ask the unicorn that's strongest with shields to create their best shield," Draigo told them as he watched some of them cower at his size.

Cadence took a hesitant step back. She had heard the story about the day Draigo first got to the castle, but she hadn't realized how big he truly was since most ponies that told the story couldn't agree on how big he grew. She shook off her fear and trotted over to him.

"The one that's best at shields is Shining Armor, it's his special talent. Should we send a guard to get him or would somepony else do?" Cadence asked as she looked at Draigo in a bit of awe.

"The next best would be fine, but I'm sure that he'll end up here after the first or second demonstration," Draigo told her with a smirk.

Draigo then took a couple steps forward and created a ball of plasma that he threw at the first two targets. Cadence went slack-jawed and couldn't speak, she'd seen plasma before but not in this quantity. He proceeded to pull a giant piece of the earth up and then destroyed it with a thousand bolts of lightning that made the earth and lightning rain down on the remaining targets. Cadence didn't even notice as some guards erected a shield around her, she was so shocked. To finish things off, he created a tornado that had pikes made of ice and blades of water in it. Cadence and the guards would have been blown back by the tornado's wind speed, but another shield was erected around them all.

Shining Armor had arrived just in time to see Draigo's tornado be created. He had been coming to inspect the guard's training when he noticed the beginning of the demonstration. Shining had erected his shield after noticing the wind's force was going to blow the gathered ponies away.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Shining yelled at Draigo,"You could have hurt or even killed somepony!"

"Oh, just showing Cadence why you're arrogant, foolhardy, and incompetent for trying to fight or challenge me without knowing the whole situation or even a hint of how powerful your opponent is. So far, I think she'll agree with me. Now, on to the next part," Draigo said as he walked to the now clear end of the range. The drain is still present here. I had hoped it would stop. Okay, after I’ve made up with Celestia and Luna I’m figuring out how my magic reserves are being drained.

"WHAT!? You endangered my marefriend? Why is she even here?" Shining shouted at the dragon.

"I'm here because I didn't believe him, Shiny. When he said those things about you I just had to find out why he thought so. He brought me here and is demonstrating why he thinks of you like that," Cadence explained as she trotted over to her coltfriend.

"Now that you are here Mr. Captain of the Guard," Draigo said mockingly,"Perhaps you could have your men fire their strongest magical attack at me. It could be individual or a group casting. Either way is fine with me, so long as it's the strongest they've got," Draigo called from across the range.

Shining growled at Draigo's mocking tone as he rounded up all of the unicorns in the group of guards and had them start building up a group attack. Shining took it a step further and had the pegasi and earth ponies grab ranged weaponry. He then arranged them so that every single one could attack Draigo at the same time. He wouldn't let Draigo's endangering of his marefriend and mocking him go unpunished. The dragon in question noticed this and just let it happen.

Once the group spell was charged and ready, Shining Armor gave the signal for everypony to attack. Arrows, javelins, spears, and a few others flew along with the massive magical attack. Every projectile flew straight at the waiting dragon.

All of the attacks hit Draigo at the same time and were enveloped in blinding light due to the massive spell going off. Smoke and debris festooned the area. Silence reigned after all the debris had fallen. Nopony could make out if Draigo was still there or not and no one dared approach where he was. None of them wanted to possibly see his mutilated and punctured corpse, strewn throughout the area.

A light breeze stirred the smoke just enough that they could see a leg or two. Suddenly, the area was cleared by a gale. The ponies closed their eyes and turned their heads to shield them from any smoke or light debris hurting their eyes. When they opened them and looked at the newly cleared range. There stood Draigo like nothing happened. There weren't any weapons sticking into him and there was no sign of the magical attack even touching him. The assembled ponies’ jaws hit the ground. The spell was cast by a group of twenty unicorns, each one was now catching their breath from the effort, and the weapons were fired or thrown by a group of forty pegasi and earth ponies. While this group represents a small portion of the guard this amount should be able to take on two to three adult dragons, at least, and have a fairly good chance of beating all of them. Especially if they could concentrate on one of them at a time, like they just did.

A low rumble was heard as everypony picked their jaws off the ground. They looked in the direction of the noise and saw Draigo doing his best to keep his laughter in and under control. The dragon was having a hard time standing due to his efforts and quickly laid down so he could concentrate on holding his laughter. This didn’t work as moments later his laughter escaped and he then held his gut as he rolled back and forth with mirth.

After his laughter subsided, Draigo walked over to the assembled ponies and noticed that he had two new audience members.

“Hello, Luna, Celestia. How much did you see?” Draigo asked as the rest of the ponies finally noticed the arrival of their diarchs, who were promptly saluted.

“We didst see everything that hast happened since thou entered the training grounds,” Luna replied.

“Would you care to explain what you are doing and why?” Celestia intoned.

“Well, I was talking with Cadence and the topic of who her coltfriend was came up and I told her what I thought of him after his first impression. She asked me why I thought that way and so I decided to show her. Now, are you going to stop me here or can I finish with the last part?” Draigo asked the two sisters.

“So long as nopony gets hurt and the mess that’s created gets cleaned up, I have no problem with you continuing,” Celestia said as she summoned a cushion for herself and her sister.

“Thank you, sister. We wish not to miss the climax of this ‘demonstration’ of thine, Draigo. We have not seen thou show this much power before and we art curious as to what could culminate an already great show,” Luna told him as she and Celestia took their seats.

“Oh, it’s fairly simple actually. I’m going to ‘pop’ Shining Armor’s ‘bubble’. Shining Armor, cast your best shield spell. You may borrow the power of as many unicorns as you'd like if they have any power left. Heck, you can even borrow the power of the three Alicorns that are present as well, if they are willing to help. I don’t want to hurt you so cast it and don’t maintain it,” Draigo said as he turned his attention from the princesses to the guard captain.

“All unicorn guardsmen present, lend me your power. Princesses, would you mind lending me your power? I’d like to put this dragon in his place for looking down on our combined power,” Shining said as he started to empower his shield spell.

The princesses responded by adding their magical might to the already impressive pool of magic. Shining Armor was having trouble controlling the spell due to the sheer amount of magic being poured into it. Eventually after much groaning, moaning and neck cramps, Shining Armor cast the shield. With the amount of power at his disposal, he was able to make the shield super dense.

“Wow, Shiny. I never knew you could be this dense,” Cadence quipped. She couldn’t help but giggle a little so she covered her mouth with a hoof to try to hide it.

“Very funny, honey. Now what, dragon?” Shining asked irritably as he looked through his very opaque shield.

“Now, I break your shield,” Draigo said as he swing both of his paws at the shield surrounding Shining.

The shield held tight after Draigo’s initial attack and Shining’s attention was fully on the massive dragon attacking his shield. Draigo then clamped down on the shield with his jaws, still the shield held. Draigo then battered it with his wings and whipped it with his tail. After all of that the shield had only developed small cracks on it. So, Draigo continued the pattern of claw, claw, bite, wing, wing, tail. It took one full minute of non-stop attacks for Draigo to finally break Shining Armor’s shield spell.

“Heh, in that amount of time we would have figured out something to trap you. You’re not as all powerful as you thought you were, Draigo,” Shining said triumphantly.

“Oh, really? Well, you should look behind you,” Draigo returned as he pointed behind the stallion before him.

Shining looked behind him and noticed a pitfall with spikes at the bottom of it. He took a few steps away and then looked between Draigo and the pit.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to hurt anypony? I could have died if I fell into that,” Shining said indignantly.

“Oh, please. I only uncovered that pit right before you looked behind you. If you had taken a step or two back then nothing would have happened at all. Also, that was neither my full strength nor my full speed when attacking. If this were a deathmatch then you’d never stand a chance,” Draigo said as he lowered his head to Shining’s level.

“That is more than enough from the both of you. Shining Armor, you have been arrogant and foolhardy to even think of fighting or challenging him, with or without your guardsmen supporting you. It took twenty-one unicorns and three Alicorns to create a shield that he destroyed handily while he created a pitfall without anypony noticing. Draigo, you too have been arrogant. You thought that you could handle everything on your own and be able to overpower everypony here, my sister and I included. Please reflect on the events of today,” Celestia lectured the two.

“Of course, Celestia.” “Of course, Your Majesty,” the two intoned at the same time then glared at one another as they noticed their similar wording.

“Oh, one last point. Every unicorn that helped you is now completely exhausted. That wouldn’t be something you’d want to happen in a fight. I’ll be in Ponyville if you need me,” Draigo commented as he took to the skies, blowing Shining Armor and a few other guards off their hooves.

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I'm almost to where that pillar came from. Hopefully, it won't take too long for me to find Draigo. The creature thought to himself. He was looking at the small town of Ponyville in the distance. He looked over and saw Canterlot gleaming on its mountain. After a few seconds of looking he noticed a dragon flying from Canterlot and heading toward Ponyville. There he is. That dragon is going to be very surprised to see me show up and then destroy him. The creature continued walking toward Ponyville so that his arrival would go unnoticed. He'd arrive in Ponyville with enough time to fight Draigo that very day.