A purple dragon with green scales climbed a mountain on its way to the Great Dragon Migration. Nothing out of the ordinary here except for the fact he is not Spike, but a hate filled beast whose mercy is currently valued more than a blessing from the Princesses.

“Three years. Three years I was trapped in that dungeon. Three years she tortured me. And two years since I escaped,” he thought to himself as he climbed the mountain. He started to think to himself about how his quest for revenge had begun. How the hate he felt burning his heart had entered it. He didn’t have much else to do as he scaled his way towards the peak.

[REWIND TO FIVE YEARS AGO]

An explosion rocked the royal garden, alerting a nearby guard. After investigating, he found something that made him high tail it in the opposite direction, panicking towards the highest authority he knew. “Princess Celestia! Something just landed in the royal garden! You must come quickly!”

“Calm down Captain! Take me to it,” Celestia said.

“Yes Princess.”

He took her to the gardens. There, at the edge of the crater formed from the explosion, she knelt her head down towards the being lying at its center.

“What is it Princess?” The captain asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t know, Iron Spear, but it looks hurt,” she said. She touched its forehead and said, “It’s burning up! We need to take it to the medical ward, now!”

The guard captain was about to take the creature to the medical ward, but noticed something off about it. There were scales on its left hand and from what he could tell the thing was a mammal.

“Captain! Why are you not bringing creature to the medical bay like I asked?” asked the Princess.

“Princess, you should take a look at this,” he said, pointing to the scales on its hand.

“Oh dear! What can we do?” Celestia asked.

“Princess: I know this might sound cruel…but we need to take it to the dungeon to have it quarantined so whatever it has can’t infect anypony else. With all due respect: we don’t know what it has, we don’t know if it’s contagious, we don’t know if it’s deadly to us, and I would rather risk the life of one unknown creature than the lives of hundreds of ponies,” he said.

Celestia took a second to absorb the information. Could he be right? Should the lives of hundreds of her little ponies be sacrificed just to cure one unknown beast? She took a deep sigh before she said, “Captain…head to the barracks, gather more guards, and bring this to the… deeps of the castle dungeon.”  She said hoping she would not regret this, taking what she believe was an injured innocent and imprisoning it.

“How many guards do you need, madam?” he asked.

Celestia waited a second and said, “Only bring five unicorns and don’t tell them why.”

His eyes lingered on her for a moment before he said, “Right, Princess.” He galloped off to the barracks.

He barged right into it, startling all of the guards present and causing them to stumble into place. “ATTEN-TION! THE PRINCESS WANTS FIVE UNICORNS TO COME WITH ME ON A PRIVATE MATTER. ANY VOLUNTEERS?” he said at the top of his trained lungs.  

Five unicorns take a step forward volunteering.

“Private Shining Armor reporting for duty sir!” the first said, saluting.

“Lieutenant Shadow Blade reporting for duty sir!” the second said, saluting.

“Sargent Obsidian Sabre reporting for duty sir!” the third said, saluting.

“Private Dick Simmons reporting for duty!” the fourth said, saluting.

“Sargent Alpha Church reporting for duty sir!” the final said, saluting.

“NOW: THE FIVE OF YOU REPORT TO THE GARDEN ON THE DOUBLE! THE REST OF YOU: THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN! IS THAT CLEAR?” he said.

“SIR, YES SIR!”

“GOOD! DISMISSED!”

He left with the five volunteers.

[LATER IN THE GARDEN]

“Princess! I have the five guards you ordered. What shall I do with them?” the guard captain asked.

“First, I need to know who these guards are.”

“We have Lieutenant Blade, Sergeants Church and Sabre, and Privates Simmons and Armour,” he said, pointing to the ponies in question.

“Are any of you good with shielding spells?” she asked.

“I am, madam,” Shining said, stepping up.

“Good. Shield this creature so we can teleport it to the…dungeon,” she said with hints of regret in her voice. In truth she regretted forcing this creature in a dungeon. Shining complied and she said, “Ready yourselves.”

“YES PRINCESS!” the five guards said. They charged up their horns to start teleporting the creature to the secured area of the castle dungeon. It was then that the princess realized that she did not warn the guards posted there and it would cause a minor problem. Oh well. She would have to deal with it when it happened.

[LATER, IN THE MOST SECURED PART OF THE DUNGEON]

“Hey Mack, you ever wonder why we’re here?” a guard asks.

“Don’t get philosophical with me now, Donald. It ain’t the time or the place.”

“No! Not like that! I mean, why we always get this gig down here.”

“Oh. Actually…yeah. I have. I mean, why the hay are we guarding an empty cell! I mean, who’s gonna try to break into an empty cell? It makes no sense!” Mac said.

“Actually, I take that back. I did mean on a philosophical level,” Donald said.

Mack huffed and Donald chittered away like a monkey. “Keep up the sense of humor kid, and I might let my lips slip out how big of a nut you are for them funny books.”

“Hey! Captain Equestria kicks flank!”

“Give that spiel to someone over twelve.”

Before the two could come to blows on whether or not the comic book medium was one of high art or entertainment, the guard captain came in and said, “Hey! Remember! No arguing on the clock!”

They jumped to attention. “C-c-c-captain! How long have you been standing there?” the two guards asked, in stereo.

Celestia jumped into the conversation. “Hey, what am I?” She jokes cheering herself up despite the setting and at the cost of humiliating two of her guards.

They started sweating. “Princess! Sorry…we didn’t see you there. Please forgive us.”

[AFTER A BRIEF EXPLANATION]

“So, you all know that this cannot be divulged to the public and any mention of this to anypony but the ponies that know about this thing shall be banished from Equestria for treason?  Am I clear?” Celestia asked. She didn't like threatening anypony, but it was necessary for them to understand the importance and for the sake of secrecy.

“Yes madam,” eight of them said, except for Shining armor.

He asked, “Princess …who is the tenth pony?”

The Captain was about to scold him for attempted insubordination, but the Princess said, “The tenth pony will be my personal physician, who will figure out what is wrong with it.”

It was the Captain’s turn to ask a question. “So you’re not even going to tell your personal student about this?”

Celestia’s expression was still as stone. She craned her head towards Shining Armor, whose breath had become accelerated ever so slightly. She turned back to Captain Iron Spear and said, “I don’t want her to get involved with this at present. Do we all agree to not talk about this to anypony?”

This time, all of them saluted. “Yes Princess.”

“Good. Now, get back to work.”

They all snapped into place. “YES MAM!”

[MEANWHILE IN THE CELL]

“Ahhhh…what the hell? Where am I?”

Next Chapter: Escape From Canterlot Edited Estimated time remaining: 17 Minutes