2.1

Midnight Sky awoke to Luna hovering over him, trying desperately to wake him back up. He had been out cold for a while now and Luna was getting worried. Starswirl awoke only a few minutes after Luna brought daylight back to Equestria. Currently Luna had been resting her head on his chest when he awoke.

“Princess…?”he said groggily waking up, noticing Luna’s close proximity.

“Oh thank the stars, he is alright Starswirl,” Luna sighed with relief.

“Is all well? Am I dead? Or am I perhaps dreaming?” Midnight asked Luna with a strange smile on his face.

Luna laughed lightly.

“He is delirious Starswirl. I suggest a jolting shock, to restore his senses,” Luna commanded.

Amused, Starswirl called down a thin jolt of lightning onto Midnight, shocking him fully awake. He flailed on the ground a little bit and came to a rest, panting slightly. Luna nodded at Starswirl and yet another playful lightning bolt shot down at Midnight.

“AYE! TIS WELL! I awakest and am well!” he cried, “Pray, abstain from conjuring lightning.”

“I am glad that thou are Midnight. You saved thee back there and art a hero,” Luna complimented, “Now let us make haste, we still have stars to find.”

Luna began to walk off with Starswirl lagging behind her slightly. Midnight shook his head and blushed before he galloped to catch up with the both of them.

“So Starswirl, where is the next star?” Luna asked.

“That would be the Rising Star, your majesty,” he began, “That falls within the mountains where dragons lurk.”

“Wonderful…” Luna mumbled.

The three began a long trek towards the mountains of which Starswirl mentioned. Famed for being the primary nesting place for the majority of dragons in Equestria, not much was known about them. No pony was foolish enough to explore them, yet that’s where they were headed. In a few days they were able to see the distant peaks and the tiny forms of the dragons surrounding them.

“So am I really a hero now Princess?” Midnight asked for the now, numerous times.

“Yes, yes thou art Midnight Sky. Thou saved us from the shadow monsters,” Luna said playfully, boosting his ego, “Fortunately for me; I will be able call upon thine heroism again when we fight the dragon swarm.”

“Ah yes, those scaly demons, I am quite prepared to defend my princess from them,” Midnight declared, “Should it cost me, life or limb, I will follow her to the end.”

Luna considered this pledge for a second. Something occurred to her.

“That is very noble of thee Midnight,” Luna began, “However, this adventure is my folly. I will not sacrifice the lives of others to accomplish this errand.”

“Princess…?” Midnight asked.

“I am quite serious, should I tell thou to abandon me and instead save thyself I expect thou will do so without hesitation,” Luna explained. She looked down and spoke in a more heartfelt tone, “During the last encounter, both of thou nearly perished at my foolishness. I already have a life debt to both of thou and I will not allow that to double.”

Starswirl looked unaffected by the princess’s new demand, but Midnight was quick to protest.

“Your highness, as a knight of your guard I swore and oath to protect you, even if I should fall in the line,” Midnight stated, proudly, “I cannot follow this order.”

“Midnight, I will not allow it. Please, for me. I don not want somepony I care about getting hurt,” Luna pleaded.

Midnight looked into Luna’s desperate eyes and finally gave in. She was pleased by this.

“Can we please continue?” Starswirl nagged.

“You heard me, corr—“ Luna began.

“Yes, yes. Save myself if you tell me to. I understand your orders in the greatest detail. Do not worry, I will follow your orders to the letter,” Starswirl interrupted, annoyed.

They continued with haste through the fields and forests in the direction of the great mountain range. Luna and Midnight spent most of the time talking and laughing. They made jokes at things and were generally merry to the annoyance of Starswirl who preferred peace to the constant banter.

“So my hoof was stuck in there, the dog had already went home and thy still had half a pie left…” Midnight explained, continuing her story before hearing a booming roar nearby.

They hear the screaming of ponies and the roars of dragons. Luna automatically began dashing towards the noise, through the woodland. Midnight followed closely behind her with a reluctant Starswirl, slowly working up to a gallop. More screaming and roars gave way to slow, lingering smoke stacks. After a few minutes, they reached the edge of the forest and saw a small village being attacked by two dragons in the meadow a mile away from them.

The massive lizards circled the town and set it ablaze. Fire raged through the town and screams of twisted suffering filled their heads. Several guard ponies had flown up to combat them, but they were sorely outmatched. The dragons batted them from the air and they dropped like flies. The townsponies had fled their town and begun making a break for the surrounding countryside, running into tall grass and towards the forest, with the dragons in hot pursuit. Luna saw that a small, desperate filly had made a break for the fields and seemingly got away, only to have a dragon land down on her and crush her. Luna looked up at the dragon, enraged. Fury filled her soul.

“Vile monstrosities! Take the wealth and go! Do not kill my subjects!” she screamed in a futile protest.

“How uncommon, dragons are not usually violent to this nature,” Starswirl mused with a disturbed look on his face.

“Midnight, you art with I on the red dragon. Starswirl, contain the black dragon until we finish him,” Luna commanded.

She took to the skies and enchanted a storm into existence. The darkness in Luna’s heart raged at the dragons. Stormy clouds appeared out of this air, almost willing themselves into existence. Slowly, rain began to drizzle, but quickly escalated into a torrential downpour, smothering the flames. Gale force winds disrupted the dragons and grounded them. Luna’s fury had only just begun.

She cleared a hole in the sky and raised the moon to shine its lunar rays onto the beast. Confused, the dragons crawled towards the new threat and began to beat their powerful wings, throwing small cyclones at Luna. Midnight Sky leaped into the air and was empowered by Luna, giving him extra power. Mid-leap he caught each cyclone that hit him, sling-shoting them around him. In total caught five cyclone and they began circling around him, shredding the area around him in a titanic power storm.

As Midnight was coming down from his jump, the cyclones disintegrated, leaving a moment of eerie silence. Suddenly a massive horizontal whirlwind of sonic speed burst from him to one of the dragons, instantly knocking him hundreds of meters in the air and dazing him.

Starswirl had teleported to underneath the other dragon and cast a spell, stopping him in time. Suspended, the dragon hung there. Empowered by the moonlight, Starswirl slowly lifted him across the sky. Luna had already been in position to catch the two dragons. Flying between them, a massive beam of light erupted from her horn at the moon straight above her.

Time seemed to stop as her beam hit the moon in the night sky. The wind was still and the raindrops were diamonds, hanging in the moonlight.

“The Princess of Night hath arrived!” she declared to the sky, her voice ringing and echoing across the plane.

The moon flashed in the sky and an instant later, a massive lunar flare shone through the perfect, circular cloud break, catching the dragons. They were disintegrated in the raw power, but every other pony was spared.

As the flare subsided, a small orb descended upon Luna from the sky. Gracefully it came before her as she hung in mid-air. She heard Celestia’s voice in her mind.

“Dearest sister, I miss you and anxiously await your return; however you still have a few lessons to learn. With this star, you are one step closer and half-way to completing your journey, but first you must awaken it. This Rising Star will rise as you and your kingdom does,” Celestia said in her mind.

Stowing the Rising Star away, Luna looked down to the ruined village below her. Some of the townsponies had returned from their escape and had cheered for Luna and praised her. She dropped to the ground to meet them.

“Fair villagers, fear no longer, the dragons are slain and thou art safe,” Luna declared.

“Huzzah!” they cheered in unison.

Luna saw their happy, but worried faces; they had still lost a lot in the attack and it would take much hard work to repair the damage. Luna thought for a second.

“Starswirl, Midnight, we will resign from our adventure temporarily. It would appear that we are needed here more,” Luna commanded, smiling to her subjects.

Next Chapter: 2.2 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 9 Minutes