Author's Notes:

Here it is. The first chapter without a battle. It was a bit tough, but I hope you like it as much as I did writing it.

It was a nice day. All was doing so well. The green grass was gently blowing in the wind, with the trees giving a gentle breeze. The yellow sun was glowing gracefully in the blue sky. Al was nice.

On the ground, sitting on a blanket, was two creatures, one a human and the other a pony. They were giving each other some water in two cup of glasses, both smiling in a way that indicated that they were in some sort of love.

However, that soon ended for the human, as a darkness slowly crept its way to them, grabbing the azure blue mare in an evil way, prompting the human to take action.

"Hey!" He shouted to the darkness. "Give her back!"

"Not a chance, human."The darkness replied evilly."We have other plans for her."Soon, it was going under the ground, taking the blue mare with it.

"Moon, help!" She called helplessly.

However, Moon stood there, frozen as he took in hard breaths of air. When he finally began to take a single step, the darkness had already taken his beautiful mare underground.

"My, my. Such fire."Dark Virin's voice chuckled darkly, appearing in front of the frozen human."You sure has an tense expression there, my other self."

"Don't pretend this is funny." Moon growled angrily. "Because, it is not."

"On the contrary, my "friend"."Dark Virin snarled."This is quite fun to watch. You, standing there helplessly without a move to give, while your "wonderful" mare had been taken in by the darkness. My darkness. You have a fire that is unlike anyone I have ever seen before. Maybe you and I could work together, to save this world from the coming threats. What do you say? I can give you my powers if you give me yours. That's not a bad idea, is it?"

"It is quite bad, in my opinion." Moon sneered snidely at his counterpart. "However, I will defeat them by my own powers, not by anyone else's. I can do whatever as I please. You can't stop me from doing my own ways."

"You are so right."Dark Virin gave a smug expression."However, I can stop you from doing just that."He prepared to attack the human, however, a voice became to bellow from above, stopping the darker counterpart in its tracks.

"Stop right there!" The voice bellowed, coming into view as it was revealed to be Moon's aunt, Princess Luna, in all her glory and majestic way, as her wings had spread out wide open, showing their magnificence. She hovered to the ground, glaring angrily at Dark Virin that she could pierce right through the counterpart of her nephew. "You have no right to be here," she said to the darker self.

Chuckling darkly, Dark Virin answered her."On the contrary, I have every right to be here."

"Obviously not." Luna strictly said. "You, darkness, are no longer in control in this dream, or should I say nightmare, of my dear nephew's mind. Be gone!" She goot Dark Virin away with a azure coloured beam of magic, stabbing him in the stomach as he roared in pain as he vanished into thin air, gone from the dream realm for now.

Luna galloped up to her nephew, hugging him tightly. "Oh, nephew, are you alright?"

"I-I think so." Moon responded shakily. "But, how did you get here, Aunt Luna? Weren't I supposed to have privacy?"

Chuckling at his question, Luna spread her majestic wings out wide. "That's easy to answer, dear nephew. I am the Princess of the Night. It is my duty to control the nightmares of my family and subjects, to reassure them that they're alright and are fine in their realm of dreams. Whenever I sense somepony in trouble, I come to help them in any way I can. That goes for you too, nephew."

Blinking at the response, Moon understood her more clearly now. However, just as he opened his mouth to speak, he suddenly glowed red as he grunted in slight pain. Just then, the dream ended.

Hitting the floor of his room, Moon didn't wake his children up, which was a good sign. Groaning lowly, his body suddenly began to glow a red colour as he lowly grunted in slight pain just like in his dream. Looks like this was real and not a fake sign.

Sighing, Moon's body stopped glowing for now as he got back in his bed, sleep overcoming him as he entered his realm of dreams.

The sun slowly settled up on the land, glowing a bright yellow colour while blazing gracefully in the blue sky. The birds chirped as some of them nested themselves in their nests with their young.

The trees and forests were as calm as they could be. The flowers on the grass was blowing gently, showing it was another good day in the land of ponies.

In his room, Moon was sleeping soundly in his bed as he felt two nudges on his shoulder. Groaning, he awoke as he blinked a few times, seeing that his two children were wide awake with smiles on their faces.

"Good morning, dad!" They chirped happily.

"Good morning to you two." Moon groaned, resting his legs on the floor as he got to the side of the bed, stretching his arms out as Varin rested herself on his lap, to his kind chuckle.

As his daughter got off of him, Moon stood up, stretching again as he let out a sigh when his arms relieved themselves.

"You okay, dad?" Jaxar asked in concern, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Huh? Oh, yes." Moon lied. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Right." The small red dragon gave a roll of his eyes.

When Moon was about to get himself dressed, the door to his room opened suddenly, and in came Princess Luna, his aunt, looking slightly concerned.

"Is everything alright, aunt?" Moon asked her.

"Oh, yes." Luna replied. "Just concerned of your well-being is all." She was lying, they just know it. There was a reason for why she came in the room.

However, Jaxar and Varin ran up to her, hugging her legs as she chuckled and hugged the children back.

"I'll get myself dressed so we can eat breakfast." Moon called, walking over to his bathroom and got inside in while he got dressed. When they saw him go in the bathroom in that position, the trio couldn't help but be worried for his being.

"Princess Luna?" Jaxar's voice got her attention.

"Yes?"

"Do you think dad will be alright? I'm worried about him. He hasn't been like this since he got here."

"You're right, Jaxar." Luna nodded in agreement. "My nephew doesn't usually beeb like this. From what my sister told me, there's an evolution process when I told her that her son had glowed a red colour in his dream."

"Evolution process?" Both Jaxar and Varin titled their heads in confusion. "What's that?"

"I do not know, children." Luna shook her head. "But, I believe that it is only accessable through dragon blood and their kind, but only with a special race of them."

"World Protectors have all kind of surprises, don't they?" Moon's voice joined in the conversation, resting his arm on the doorway as he leaned on it with folded arms.

"World Protector?" Jaxar frowned. "What are they like?"

"Oh, where do I start?" Moon smiled at his son. "A World Protector, like me, has an duty to defend the innocence from evil and darkness, like how a parent defends their young. In a way, you could say I'm a parent to all of you in this world, because of my status as an World Protector."

"I see." Luna hummed in interest. "So, with you being a "parent", we are well protected by you in your ways of fighting?"

"In a way, yes." Moon clarified. "However, I don't just do "fighting", I also talk some sense to a few of the evil creatures to leave our subjects alone. So, I guess I'm not just a fighter, but also a sense speaker."

As they began talking some more, Moon's stomach began to rumble in hunger, to his embarrassment, to Luna's chuckle. When they got to the door to leave the room, Moon gave a low grunting as his heat was beginning to take effect.

When they got to the dinner hall, Luna opened the door with her magic and Moon narrowed his eyes at his then sheepish mother, whose horn had lit up with a golden aura, as though it was to surprise him when he got in the hall.

Luna chuckled at the display, walking up to sit beside her sister while Moon and his children sat beside Radiant Hope, who looked all too happy to see him, along with Crystal Rose.

"I had ordered some salad to you today, son." Celestia got his attention. "Is that alright?"

"It's fine by me." Moon shrugged his shoulders, hit heat calming down a bit from inside him.

"So, tell me," The Princess of the Sun narrowed her eyes a bit. "What is wrong with you today? I sensed there was something from what Luna told me."

"A process is about to happen." Moon replied honestly. "But, I won't let that happen to change my personality. You see, mother, a World Protector like me has an evolution process that is specifically to them. I am one of them, remember? So, it's no surprise to me that I'll evolve soon."

"Evolve?" Celestia squeaked a bit. "Are you sure you have the information when that happens?"

"Yes." Moon lied. "My draconian mother told me." Another lie; Celestia felt it. She narrowed her pink eyes at him, to his lean back attitude as he hadn't been like this since he had gotten back.

Just then, to Moon's relief, the service was served as chefs came to their round table, setting the food down near them, with Moon silently gives a sigh of relief as he got ready to eat his food as he began to dig in the salad.

Chuckling at his excitement, the four others of the table dug in their food as well, with their stomachs being relieved for now. As the seven was eating, a glow caught the others' attention as well as a groan of slight pain from the human. He seems to be holding the process down, but it exhausted him as he managed to stop glowing a red colour.

"Something wrong?" Celestia asked her son worriedly.

"Exhausted." Moon answered, panting a bit from holding the evolution process. As he continued to eat, he suddenly just gazed down on his food, as he stopped to eat for a moment before continuing.

Celestia knew that her son was exhausted, so she nodded. "You can take a break for today, son. I'll have court soon, so I won't interrupt you any way."

Finishing eating, Moon nodded himself, getting up and headed for the door until his aunt called to him.

"Nephew?" Moon turned to Luna. "Don't act different when you evolve. Promise?"

"I promise." Moon replied, opening the door as he headed down the hall. As he walked down the hall to his room, Moon was in deep though.

If he were going to evolve, would he change his attitude from that? He hopes not, because his family worries about him whenever he glows red. So, he won't be changing his personality when he evolves. He just hopes that he will stay the same way as he does now; stern, protective, warm, and serious. The only thing he hopes to change, is his old ego that were still in him when he battles a foe.

As he was thinking, he couldn't see that the guards was worrying about him as he just walked straight down to his room. When he reached it, he opened the door and walked inside, while closing the door behind with a sigh of relief. A day without fighting. This ought to be good for one time.

Moon walked over to his balcony, resting his arms on the rails as he sighed again. He just hopes that he needn't to change like that when the evolution happens. From what he was told by his true mother, an evolution process happens when a dragon almost reaches the peak of its powers. However, there are some risks. When evolution continues, the being that continued to evolve gets far more power than before, to the point of no controlling it when the dragon was too careless about its abilities to evolve. Some may brag about it, others don't care about being evolved. For Moon, he can control his powers because of his training. So, the evolution wouldn't bother him that much. However, it does to his family. They're pretty worried for him when he glows red like that.

Sighing again, Moon reached back to his room and went for bed to rest for the morning. However, as he slept, he dreamed about another horrific thing, about his darker counterpart.

Darkness. That was all he could see. In the corner of the room, a chained four-legged dragon was lying on the floor in despair. It was groaning as it tried to shackle the chains off of it, to no avail.

"Don't bother trying."Dark Virin's voice echoed darkly around the room."The chains are so tight you can't even break free."

"Why are you doing this?" The dragon asked. "They haven't done anything to you."

"You're right."Dark Virin sneered coldly."They hadn't done anything to me, butyouhave done something to me, Virin. Trying to keep me in your darkest part of the soul? I'd say that's pretty pathetic, and you were weakened from doing so. I am free, and can do just about anything to you if I do so self wish."

The dragon, Virin, widened his eyes in realization, as it clicked in his veins like a ring just dinged him. As Virin glowered at his dark counterpart, it laughed evilly as it continued with its torture to the red dragon, who screamed in pain as it were being torn from the inside and out. The scream was delightful to the dark counterpart as it continued to laugh evilly as it tortured the dragon even more, with the screams going as painfully as the first.

Gasping for breath, with sweat on his face, Moon sprang up in his bed as he panted slowly. That was some nightmare. The dragon side of Moon was tortured? That was one of the cruelest things to be done by the darkness from his soul. This dream came again.

Wait, again? Had he that dream before? Now that he think of it, he had seen a similar scenario of being tortured by the darkness of his soul, but it felt more like a vision than a dream. Whenever he was trashing in his dream, he was having this cruel vision in his sleep at night when he was thirteen or twelve.

Sighing in relief that the vision was over, Moon decided to have a stroll in the city for the time being. He needn't to walk to the palace doors to exit it. Summoning his wings, Moon walked up to his balcony and hovered in the air and began descending to the ground. It was still morning, so not so many nobles were out to insult him for being half lizard. That was a good sign.

Landing on the ground safely, Moon's wings disappeared from his as he sighed again as he began walking on the streets of the city.

Ponyville...

In the little town of Ponyville, inside the library of the town, a certain purple unicorn was slowly waking up after smelling the delicious food from Spike's cooking. Whenever it was morning, Spike would make some breakfast just for the two of them.

Getting off of her bed, Twilight galloped to the door of her room, opening it with her magic as she walked out, closing the door behind her while her horn stopped glowing a lavender colour.

As she trotted in the kitchen, Twilight's nose caught the scent of the breakfast meal as she looked over to the table to see the food already being served by a small, green and purple baby dragon with small spikes on his back. This was none other than Spike, Number One Assistant to Twilight. He was setting the food down on the table as he looked at the unicorn who had raised him with care.

"Good morning, Twilight." He greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, Spike." Twilight replied. "I slept wonderfully." She took her seat at the table, giving a soft sigh of relief as her stomach rumbled in hunger. Spike chuckled at the sound of her tummy's rumble.

"Good thing I woke up early then." The baby dragon noted, taking a seat himself. There were peanut butter, salad, and oatmeal on the table, even a few hay sandwiches was on the menu.

Levitating a hay sandwich to her, Twilight took a single bite of it and hummed delightfully as she started to eat it with small bites to give enough space for the peanut butter and salad.

Spike took an hay sandwich in his hands as well, taking a few small bites as well. As they continued to eat, Twilight began to speak up.

"I hope Moon's alright being in Canterlot alone." She said, taking another bite from her sandwich.

"Ah, he's fine." Spike waved a dismissively claw. "He got his powers, remember? And he did take out three gangs consecutively a day after the other."

"I know." Twilight sighed, taking the final bite of her sandwich as she took some salad to her plate. "I just wished there was something we could do to help him being less violent and aggressive to others."

"Aggressive?" Spike titled his head to the side.

"Yes." Twilight clarified. "Whenever he goes into his dragon form, he tad to get a bit aggressive when he fights. It's lucky you weren't looking at his three fights in Canterlot, Spike. Because, from what I've heard, he had beaten them up pretty badly." She smiled a bit as she finished.

Blinking, Spike made an "Oh" sound from his mouth. "That's what you mean by aggressive. Well, I'm lucky as well, Twilight, as I'm not used to seeing dragons like me beaten up somepony that badly."

Twilight giggled at that. "I suppose." They returned to their breakfast as they managed to finish it all by eating it. Spike took the dishes and began washing them clean, while Twilight was in her usually thought-like attitude.

When she thought of Moon's aggressive personality, she could only think of Garble, the tall red dragon from Dragon Lands. She had seen him ready to beat up Spike, but she, Rarity and Rainbow managed to stop them from doing so. As she was thinking, the door to the library was suddenly knocked on, to her returning to reality.

"Who could that be?" She muttered, trotting out of the kitchen and trotted to the doorway of the library. As she opened the door with her magic, she found her friends greeting her with happy looks. Seeing that could only make herself happy.

"Hey, guys!" She called from her place, trotting up to them. "Why so early?"

"Well," Rainbow began, hovering in the air. "I thought we'd check up on you after we finished our breakfast. So, here we are. And, look, you finished breakfast too. It only gets better." She puffed her chest out proudly, to Twilight's giggle. "What's so funny?"

"You and your "proud" attitude, actually." Twilight replied. "Whenever you see something to amaze you, you only gets prouder for some reason."

"Hey!" Rainbow called down to her, hovering higher. "You can't tell me what to do! I can do just about anything."

"In your dreams." Twilight smiled playfully at her.

"Oh, I'll get you for that." Rainbow's eye twitched afterwards. "Just wait and see."

"I'll be looking forward to it." The purple unicorn challenged.

The rest of the Mane Six shook their heads in exaggeration and exasperation at seeing those two like that.

Canterlot...

Walking down the streets of the city, Moon decided to walk to the park for some strange reason. Whenever he gets troubled, he would go there to cool down.

After a few minutes of walking, he reached the park as he saw children of youth in it as he smiled when he walked towards a bench, sitting on it as he was in thought about his evolution to come.

When he reaches a certain peak of level, he would be engulfed in lava as he was a fire dragon. He wondered, will his abilities disengage from his body when he does evolve? He hopes not. He want to be stronger than Garble, and that's final. The final battle was going to happen in Ponyland, in Canterlot's upcoming Gladiator Tournament in less than two years.

He just hopes to defeat him so their rivalry gets to be done.

As Moon was thinking, a child trotted up to him in amazement.

"Excuse me?" Moon's eyes darted to the colt in surprise. "Are you really our new Prince?"

"Y-Yes I am." Moon honestly, but nervously, answered the colt's question.

"That's so cool!" The colt chirped. "We have a new male that aren't so judgmental like the Princess' nephew."

"Remember, young one," Moon reminded him. "Never say that in front of an royal's face, especially not to the Princesses. Okay?"

"Sure!" The colt ran back to his friends.

Sighing, Moon rolled his eyes. Kids. Never the same wherever you are. As he sat on the bench in thoughts, he was thinking on his evolution process that's about to happen, again. If, and if he were going to evolve, then would it mean that he would still be the same as he was before? He hopes so, as he don't want to change between character and personality. The only thing he hopes to not be changed about was his personality. Will he become more aggressive with the changes if he were to evolve? He hopes not. Then again, it is only a matter of time before he would be evolving.

When he was thinking, he hadn't realized that the children of youth was near him a few meters away. Blinking in realization, Moon looked to the many children gathered awa from him. Those kids. Man. They sure are questionable to be considered a hero with.

"Is it true?" The front colt asked.

"What?" Moon questioned.

"Did you really take on an entire army of strange creatures by yourself?" The same colt asked him, eyes sparkling in interest.

"Yes." Moon confirmed. "That was me." The children began to spout out their amazement,

"Wow."

"Amazing."

"Truly."

"It's the best thing that ever happened."

"You really are a hero."

Raising an hand, Moon silenced the children as they quieted themselves down. "Alright. One question at a time. What do you have to ask me about?"

"What kind of creature are you?" A filly questioned.

Giving a fond roll of his eyes, Moon answered, "A human. And dragon. I'm a cross-bred between the two races."

"Wow. That's so cool."

"How did you manage to defeat the three gangs of Canterlot? I've never seen a fighting style like that before." Another filly said.

"I used a style that are called "martial arts"." Moon replied honestly. "It's a style of kicking and punching. Though, I won't say what kind of other styles I used."

"Aw, man." The filly whined.

Giving her a small laugh, Moon fondly rolled his eyes as he asked, "Any more questions?" When there were no one that raised any hoof, the human nodded. "Then, I'll dismiss you all. For now, don't bother me next time when I'm in my thoughts."

The children ran back to their parents, who welcomed them back as they were relieved they weren't hurt by the "human".

Ponyville...

Walking through the streets of Ponyville, the Mane Six was preparing to have a new adventure as they began planning on what it should be.

"I'd say we pay the Princesses a visit." Rarity spoke up. "Don't you think so, darlings?"

"Yeah." Rainbow nodded. "I'll have to get used to have a "rookie" martial art user in this world. He'd better teach me some of his moves when we get there."

"Rainbow," Twilight reminded her. "Remember what he said. He can't teach a black belt martial arts user if they already have enough training in the style. You know what I'm saying, right?"

"Yeah." The blue pegasus rolled her pink eyes. "I just thought of that. No more."

"Sure you did." The purple unicorn rolled her own violet eyes.

Thinking clearly, Twilight began to be in her usually "deep thought" mode. If, and only if, Moon, her best friend, had decided to teach Rainbow his styles of fighting, he'll be no match for her when they have a duel of sorts. Well, the Gladiator Tournament is just two years away, so maybe they can train together or separate for the tournament when it arrives.

When her friend was aggressive, he would use his martial arts in his fights. He did use it against two of the first gangs of Canterlot, while managing to defeat them by himself. The first gang was just so he would "go away" from Ponyland and be with his true species. However, Moon was acting a bit like a pony as well. Since he was raised by the Princess of Sun herself, he was having some of her personality as well as grace of style. But, they were completely different beings.

As she was thinking of that, Twilight couldn't help but wonder what it must had been for him when the Princess raised him as her son. Was he having a bit of a rough time being in the palace all of his years of being raised? He must had been. If it weren't for the Princess, he would had been long dead by now. Ever since learning that the Dragon Lord was his father, his family was complete again after learning of his real parents' unpredicted deaths. With his true parents gone, he had found replacements for them. But, they were in his mind all this time while he was here. So, he wasn't completely alone in this world of many creatures that were possibly strange to him.

"Twilight?" Rarity's sweet voice called. "You okay? You look deep in thought just now."

"Sorry." The purple unicorn apologized. "But, I was just thinking about my friend is all."

"And, what did you think about?" Fluttershy kindly asked.

"Of some of his privacy, while also being raised in this new world to his eyes." Twilight replied honestly. "It must had been tough for him to live here. But..."

"But, what, Twilight?" Rainbow asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I couldn't say." Twilight hung her head down sadly. "It'll just break a promise."

"What promise?"

"Again, not saying."

Rainbow sighed stressfully. More secrets. She's about to go nuts about this "secret" stuff.

After his small trek to the park, Moon returned to his balcony by flying with his wings. After every question asked by the adults to him, he was exhausted. He needs a good night rest, as the sun was slowly setting on the horizon.

As he reached his balcony, Moon was greeted with a tight hug by his mother and cousin, Cadance.

"Where have you been?" The former asked sternly.

"Just at the park is all." Moon answered honestly. "No fighting has occurred today at least."

"That's a relief, then." Cadance sighed in relief. "We wouldn't want you to be possibly injured or worse...killed."

Moon understood her hesitation of that word. Nopony was liking the sound of the word "killing" or "killed" as much as he had to when he was training with his father and sister, Torch and Ember, along with his friends back in the Lands.

Suddenly, he began glowing red again. He groaned as he managed to hold it off, not wanting to evolve just yet.

"You alright?" Celestia asked him worriedly.

"Yeah." her son reassured her. "Man. This evolution thing is hard to keep down."

"You tell me." Cadance said. "Never once have I heard about "evolution" before. But, as aunt Celestia told me, it only occurred to you World Protectors. Is that true?"

Moon nodded in confirmation. "It's true. Only World Protectors has this process that undergoes when they reach a certain peak of their power. However, while this a good sign for them to develop, it can kill one if they evolve too much. Like this, if one has unlimited power, it can destroy that being in the process while reaching a final evolution. However, with me being a prodigy, I have an unlimitless amount of power that I control within me. I have psychic, water, lightning, shadow and fire in me. So, I can continue to evolve to an even stronger being than ever before. I can become an "Ultimate Being" if I do self so choose.

"An "Ultimate Being"?" Celestia questioned. "What's that?"

"It's the highest level of evolution that occur for an World Protector dragon." Moon replied. "If a being reaches that level, they literally becomes a God to the world. However, only two has ever reached this high level in their lives. Those are the black and golden dragons, Gods of Harmony and Destruction. I don't know their names, though. I still has a fuzzy mind, after all."

"I see." Celestia said. "That's just...wow. I've never realized this much before. How should I not have not about that in my thousand-year of living?"

"Because," her son answered. "The two Gods are in a different dimension right now. But, while the Godly black dragon is still alive, the other God is not. Don't get me wrong; Gods can't get killed by mortals, only by another God like them. The way I see this, is that the black dragon God has possibly escaped during a huge battle in the far past. There, I do not know anymore."

"Is this information given to you by your real mother?" Celestia was sad that she said that.

"No. By my ancestor." Moon replied. "I do not know his name, but I do believe he was a golden dragon since I saw his colour before everything went black around me."

"That's amazing, actually." Cadance breathed. "In all my life, I thought that only my aunt, your mother, and Princess Luna were the only Gods of the world. How many Gods are there?"

"I don't know." Moon shook his head. "Probably over a hundred of Gods. No more than that amount. There are other myths that even more Gods had appeared on my birth planet. But, I do not know how many."

"Any more information?" His mother asked. Moon shook his head in regret. Sighing in a dismayed way, Celestia motioned her head to his bed.

"Get some sleep; there's something I will tell you tomorrow." She ordered him. Moon nodded; going inside his room as his wings disappeared from his back while Celestia and Cadance walked out of the room to let him sleep for the night.

Moon got on the bed, removing his clothes to the ground and went straight for sleep. He closed his eyes as his breath became low as he began sleeping through the night.