It was a pain.

He means, riding on a pony's barrel while being constantly looking at? That was what his pain was. It was embarrassing.

Walking through the hall to the throne room, Princess Celestia ignored all the stares that was given to them. She just kept going with her son on her back. After a while, she managed to get to the throne room without much more attention with the glare she was giving the crystal ponies.

As they were inside the throne room, Moon was levitated out of his mother's barrel and was being hugged by his cousin, who was relieved to see him being okay.

"Oh, Moony." Cadance said to him, staring daggers at him. "What were you thinking?! Taking on King Sombra like that?! Haven't you realized how much worried you made us?!"

As he was about to open his mouth, Moon was engulfed in his mother's golden aura and was levitated back into her barrel.

"I'm sorry, my little ponies." The ruler apologized. "But, me and my son are going back to Canterlot. Before that, though, I will express my gratitude to you, especially you, Twilight Sparkle. I look forward to your report when you returns."

Then, without even a tiny snicker at seeing Moon on his mother's barrel, the duo left the throne room and was quickly out of the castle and, with her wings spread out, Celestia got into airborne as she flew towards their location: home.

After a few minutes of flying, the duo made a turn when they saw Canterlot on the horizon, to Moon's confusion. His mother landed on the side that were out of a mountain close by the city that they call home.

"Mother?" Moon called, receiving no response. "Why are we here? Weren't we supposed to go back home?" Again, no response. Sighing, he nodded. "Alright, in that case..." He was about to go off her, when she shot him a death glare when her head turned to him.

"Don't you dare do that, little colt." She threatened.

"I'm not a little-" Moon let out a tiny shriek when he looked back at her face. With that glare, she could give even his father a hard time. And, with that, Moon stayed on his mother's barrel when Celestia allowed him to sit on the ground beside her for a few more hours.

Sitting cross-legged, and with his arms on his lap, Moon sighed gratefully. Finally. They were alone for the time being. Seeing the sunset, Moon couldn't help but stare in awe at how beautiful it looked. He hadn't seen such a beautiful sunset since his time of training in the Dragon Lands.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" At that moment, Celestia finally asked as she spoke.

"Yeah." Moon agreed. "I've never seen such beauty in my teen life, not when I was training consecutively in the Lands with the dragons, and my family."

"I see." Celestia hummed. "How did you feel when training?"

"I'm sorry?" Moon blinked as he looked at his mother.

"I said," she repeated. "What did you feel when you were training?"

"It was...different, to say in the least." Moon answered honestly. "I was just training constantly, not even having the slightest break to watch even a sunset."

"And, how did you feel about that?" Celestia had to ask.

"I'm not sure." Her son replied. "I hadn't had the slightest feeling when I was training intensely. I was always being held on and was constantly being near at the brink of exhaustion. However, there were a few times where I could take a break, that's when I was near exhaustion in the middle of the training sections."

Nodding, Celestia said, "I can understand it was hard for you."

" "Hard"?" Moon echoed. "Hard isn't even compared to when I was being bullied by Garble and his gang over and over again. They made fun of me when I first came into the Lands. No. There were far worse things that I had endured in my time there. Like, being bullied was one example, being picked on by older dragons, nearly at the brink of being beaten up until my then-mentor Torch decided to step in. There were even a few times where I was outnumbered in my fights with Garble, like with his friends helping him in his own battles.

"So, as you see, mom, I had a tough and rough life." Moon finished, folding his arms.

Eyes widened in shock and a bit anxious, Celestia started speaking again when her son had finished his small speech. "I couldn't imagine what pain you must had felt when they picked on you for being smaller than them."

"Oh, believe me," Moon added after his speech. "I had more worse things in my time when I was a Predator Hunter. Others would almost get to attack me, but, with my status, the elders stopped them from doing so. The elders knew I was special to them, so they would make me one of them after my battle with Hydra."

Hearing that word, Celestia asked, "Isn't that "Hydra" from the Everfree Forest?"

"Nope." Moon shook his head. "It's from a different dimension."

Hearing the word, the Princess was in total shock. From a different dimension? That's legally impossible.

"I'm afraid that's possible." Moon, having heard her thoughts, replied.

Humming in deep thought, Celestia began to wonder for about an hour. If that Hydra wasn't from the Everfree Forest, then it was mostly created by that mystical white dragon that had made those shockwaves from two years ago. Even if that were true, then it would still be impossible for it to create something like that, right?

"I'm afraid that's still possible." Moon answered her inner thought through his psychic abilities.

"Let me guess," Celestia began. "Psychic?"

"Bingo." Moon winked idly at her.

"From who did you learn those abilities?" Celestia asked her son gently.

"From my good friend, Minuette." Moon replied, smiling a bit. "She's a Psychic dragon, a rare element for a dragon to have. Both of her parents are from fire and psychic races. So, I guess she took that element from her mother, whose also a Psychic dragon."

"But," Celestia was confused. "I thought there were only Fire dragons."

"And you're right." Moon confirmed her. "There's only Fire dragons in the Dragon Lands. However, there are other places of dragons that has different abilities. For example, if a dragon is born with a lightning element, they can control thunder and lightning at all. Just imagine, that they're sort of one of the pegasi that makes weather."

Blinking at his words, Celestia gave a small nod of understanding. "Can you tell me about your enemy other than this Hydra creature?" She asked politely.

Humming, Moon shrugged. "I guess, why not?" He then explained his enemy's name. "His name is irrelevant, but it's something with an "M" first. His age is over seven thousand years, which is longer than how you lives, mom."

"I agree with you on that." Celestia agreed with a blink of shock. She haven't realized that a dragon could live that long.

"As I told you," Moon answered her inner thought. "Dragons are kind of immortal. They can live into the present day if they so choose. However, from what my draconian mom told me, there's not that many dragons left. In ancient times, both human and dragon lived together in peace, although they live separately. My people trained youngsters like me, while the humans hunted down for food.

"One day, a human warrior mistook a dragon for an mere animal. The human killed that dragon, taking its dead corpse with him back into his village. The humans were, of course, shocked to see a real life dragon in the world.

"From that moment, and on, the humans build weapons that could kill a dragon. Whenever a dragon was killed, its soul emerged from its body so it can be ready to be killed. An human, like the first one, took the final blow to the dragon he has been facing, killing it instantly. The dragons, on one hand, were very furious so they killed that human before he could report back to his people.

"A young warrior, named Vortex, was very pleased with his friend's kill of the dragon. Vortex assembled a group of warriors to do his bidding, taking out many dragons in the process of hunting down their capital city. However, they found no trance of the capital where dragons lived in harmony. So, they humans decided to train themselves and become Dragon Slayers, which title is used when one slays a dragon.

"As Vortex and his group made their way into the wilderness, Vortex stumbled upon a wounded dragon. At first intending to kill the mere animal, Vortex heard its voice in his head, pleading with, "Don't kill me. Please". When he was about to do so, the young dragon entered his "evil" mind and made him stop in his tracks.

"When Vortex stopped, he decided to bring the dragon to safety, away from the possibly deadly humans and dragons alike. Choosing to spare the dragon's life, Vortex made amends with the young dragon, becoming what was first a new peace treaty to my two races. They are called "Dragon Riders", a group of both human and dragon alike, where a human was riding on the steed, taking his or her life than their partner's own life.

"With the new feat, the two friends stopped an ancient war that had been going on for thousand of years. It was called "The Great War" only, however. So, it's hard to be absolutely sure of how it ended. But, with my parents' knowledge of the dragon race, I learned more about it than any other species.-2

"And, you decided to tell me that?" Celestia asked after a moment's pause. Moon nodded.

"Yes. Back on the story," the human continued. "After having stopped the Great War, the two friends finally made their demise after a good hundred years with peace of the two warring species.

"When they died, the dragons and humans resumed their war against each other, to almost be at the brink of destroying each other. After the Rider's death, at the hands of another human, the two warring races decided to part ways, bringing peace to the world.

"However, the peace didn't last long. A young dragon, a rare white one, chose the path of evil when he was just a teenager and when he met up with an evil wizard of the human race. The two, student and teacher, made an dark army of evil creatures and decided to bring the then-warring races to an end.

"But, the two races chose to join and do what Vortex and his partner had once done: to bring an end to the war."

"And, if the war was just the beginning," Celestia finally began when her son took a deep breath. "How did it end?"

"Glad you asked that, mother." Moon smiled happily. "After having brought about great destruction, the dark dragon was brought to an end when one of my ancestors of six thousand years old, who was an Dragon Elder named Drago, chose to send him into the depth of Tartarus, an evil place where dark creatures with the worse sins has been sent. I believe you have one of them here, right?"

"Yes." His mother nodded. "We have Tartarus in this world. However, out of curiosity, how do you know so much about this?"

"Well," Moon started. "My draconian mother revealed a bit too much about our history. But, I did not regret hearing about it. When the two races managed to defeat the dark dragon, peace stroke the world once more. But, after a good thousand years into the Modern days, chaos spread the world again. This time, in the wake of two World Wars between super powers of many countries of this world.

"My people entered the war, though, and managed to kill a lot of evil humans that threatened to destroy the world. When the evil humans were defeated after twenty six years, peace reigns the world once more. But, at that moment, the War between Man and Dragon, which is currently ongoing, happened between my two species.

"The war is still going on. But, as my draconian said, with me, my children and another adult dragon still alive, the war is not going to end."

"And, who is this other dragon?" Celestia asked in wonder.

"I don't know who it is." Moon shrugged helplessly. "Nor do I know its name. It's a mysterious dragon."

"I'd say." Celestia agreed with him. "There's one thing I would like to know about you, son."

"And, that is?"

"Do you love me?" Celestia asked all of a sudden.

A blink. "I'm sorry?" Moon asked, unclear of what she said.

"I said," his mother repeated. "Do you love me? Like am I good at being your mother and all?

"Oh. That." Moon realized. "Of course you are. From what I had seen in my dreams with you ponies, you took great care of me. I liked how you had taken care of me, mother. For that, I am grateful to be your son, along with being the nephew of Princess Luna. But, curiously, how did she end up being a nightmare? I've seen you as a nightmare, mother. Sorry to bring that up."

"It's fine." Celestia reassured him. "I can tell you Luna's story, alright?" Moon nodded hurriedly, eager to hear about it.

"Well," the alicorn started. "It all started when a darkness inside my sister took over her from greed, jealously, and hatred towards me and my beloved subjects that adored the sun than the night."

"But, the night is beautiful." Moon rejected that thought. "How could they reject her night?"

"I'll tell her you said that, son." Celestia smiled in pleasure. "When Luna, my sister, had enough of the sun and our subjects adoring it instead of her beautiful night, the darkness inside her took over and transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon."

Blinking in realization, Moon said slowly, "I believe I had heard about it before, from my father, but I'm not entirely sure."

"That's because it was an old ponytale." Celestia told him. "From that moment, when she had turned into that nightmare, Luna decided to bring about an Eternal Night of darkness. However, I managed to defeat her in a short battle, sending her permanently in the moon and peace has passed onto the land for a thousand years.

"With her revenge still clear, Nightmare Moon sought out the Elements of Harmony, which are artifacts created by the Tree of Harmony, and bring out her Eternal Night. However, my student, Twilight Sparkle and her newfound friends, managed to defeat her a second time, reducing the darkness in Luna's body and transformed her into her body you saw when I brought you to her room to introduce the two of you. And that's the end to the tale of Nightmare Moon, your aunt's evil form. But, there's an even bigger tale to her in Nightmare Night, which are going to happen in a few months."

"I see." Moon hummed. "That's, well, an interesting. Definitely a better story than my own two people's history."

"I love you, son." Celestia suddenly whispered in his ear, to his widen eyes of shock.

With a purr, Moon added, "I love you too, mother."

Standing tall and mighty, and roaring out, the one-headed hydra shot out a powerful purple ball of energy at a group of minotaurs, sending them into Tartarus forever.

"Good job, Hydra."The Dark One praised his partner."Now, let's take out the trash."

"With pleasure."Hydra roared again, sending another group of minotaurs to Tartarus with another ball of purple energy. Darkness began to swirl around the one-headed hydra, making a vortex around him.

"What's going on?!" A griffon asked in fear.

An evil laughter. The Dark One responded with,"My beast's evolution is near."

"Evolution?" The same griffon gasped in fear.

Hydra began breathe the darkness in.

"That's it, Hydra."The Dark One was pleased."Breathe in the darkness."Just then, a new head began to go up as the first head split into two heads. As the wind settled, a two-headed hydra with a moving, metallic crest stood in place of the one-headed purple hydra.

Another evil laughter.

"My beast has finally evolved!"The Dark One laughed evilly again.

"He...evolved?" The leader of the group between the two species gaped in fear. His ears went deaf when Dual Hydra roared out his arrival, making the griffons and minotaurs to hold their poor ears.

"Let's take out the trash, Dual Hydra."The Dark One commanded darkly, raising an arm. Dual Hydra opened his mouth, with two purple energy began forming in the muzzles. Dual Hydra then fired the two purple balls of energy, sending all the remaining group of griffons and minotaurs to Tartarus.

"The job's done."Dual Hydra roared out loudly, which echoed through the valley of a mountain terrain.

"We're coming for you, Virin."The Dark One told himself, as Dual Hydra transformed into a dark swirl of energy, swirling around the Dark One's right arm as he laughed evilly.

Releasing their hug, which they regretted, the duo, getting up from their sitting positions, began leaving for Canterlot.

"We wouldn't want your aunt to get worried, would we?" Celestia asked her son.

"No. We wouldn't." Moon smiled to her happily, feeling their bond getting stronger by the minute. Spreading her wings out wide, Celestia flew towards their destination: home.