Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or any of its associated characters and lore. That right belongs to Hiro Mashima.

[UFD]

Unlikely Friendships and Duties

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The Palace of the Royal City of Edolas

Within the training hall of the Royal Palace, over a hundred soldiers from all five of the Kingdom's Magic War Divisions trained with their magical weapons under the oversight of the Army's Chief of Staff, Byro, as well as his Assistant Chief of Staff, Coco, while each of the Divisions' Captains engaged in a five way mock battle against each other. While it could be argued that it was a strategic risk of showcasing how strong one was in front of numerous observers, the competitive nature of the five Royal Army Captains was well known and King Faust was concerned about the morale of his soldiers which led to the Magic War Division Captains from Panther Lily of the First Division to Natsu Dragion of the Fifth Division to their well-seen combat that was inspiring their subordinates even as they themselves trained.

"Come on, Captain Hughes, hit harder and faster!" The Fallen Exceed, Panther Lily, snarled in frustration at the Third Division Captain's lack of progress in throwing successful punches at him while he himself pummeled Hughes to the floor.

Struggling to get up, Hughes retorted. "I'm not comfortable fighting without my Command Tact, Captain Lily! Give me a break!"

The Fourth Division's Captain, Sugarboy, couldn't help himself from restraining a laugh at Hughes' weak argument. "You rely on that small-ranged wand too much for your own good, Hughes!"

"And you need to focus on the battle more often, Sugarboy!" The Second Division's Captain, Erza Knightwalker, also known as the Fairy Hunter, shouted in annoyance with her own weapon, the Magic Spear: Ten Commandments in its Gravity Core form, raised to deploy a magical attack. Sugarboy attempted to react with his Rosa Espada, but Erza, with a vicious smirk, was much faster to act. "Gravity Blast!" She exclaimed as she unleashed an orb of strong gravity that brought Sugarboy to Hughes' level. Having a hunch that the next Captain would be ready to charge in, she turned to Natsu, who smirked at her in anticipation with the Air Shatter Cannon in his grips while she did the same with her weapon, then turned into its Mel Force form.

Seeing what was about to happen, Panther Lily showed his own small smile of expectation while the still downed Hughes and Sugarboy groaned in dismay. "Not again." They said in unison.

"Wind Blast!" Erza exclaimed as she sent a vacuum wave at Natsu's direction, expecting him to fight the attack back with his Cannon as he had done before until both her eyes and everyone else's in the training hall widened at him absorbing the attack with the Air Shatter Cannon instead.

Gauging the shocked reactions of his comrades and subordinates, Natsu smirked wider and said. "My turn, everybody." Taking a match from his pocket, he lit it from scraping it on his armor, began to release the wind magic from his Cannon, and with the match in place, attacked the four Captains with newly formed fireballs for each one that terrorized Sugarboy and Hughes and impressed the other two with Natsu's originality. With the fireballs colliding with the spots the Captains were at and putting them down for count, the mock battle came to an end and the soldiers applauded.

"Fireball! Fireball!" They chanted as Natsu took it all with pride, mentally thinking it was an apt title for himself as "Fairy Hunter" was to Erza before a worrying thought came to him.

"Erza!" He practically screamed in shock as he scanned the training hall to check how his fellows were recovering from the attack. Fortunately, Lily reappeared shortly after with a proud smile and the other male Captains in his arms unconscious, but not dead, followed by Erza who was no worse for wear either and winked at a grateful, yet embarrassed, Natsu. "Are you guys, okay?! I didn't hurt you too much, right?!"

Lily chuckled, having grown used to Natsu's odd changes in character from a shy worrier to an overconfident fighter even before Erza took him out of his vehicle comfort zone. "We're fine, Natsu the Fireball, but Hughes and Sugarboy could use a doctor all things considering."

Natsu's face turned red from the new callsign that was officially put in by Lily. "I was thinking of that title myself as well, Captain Lily, sir." He then panicked momentarily. "Not that I'd ever be concerned more about that than the wellbeing of my friends!"

Approaching Natsu seductively, Erza brought him into his bosom with a wide smile of eagerness. "Don't worry about it, darling. You did great." She then whispered. "And I'm looking forward to how you'll please me later in private."

Natsu stammered in embarrassment which elicited a laugh from Erza who then kissed him. Their merriment soon ended, however, with an annoyed shout from Byro. "Natsu! As much as I'm impressed with how you mopped the floor with your peers, you must realize that I'm not the one paying for any damages you've caused to the training hall!"

"Yikes!" Natsu yelped in worry once more much to Lily, Erza, and Coco's amusement.

Coco herself couldn't help but giggle at the Fifth Division Captain's antics. "That's our arguably strongest Mage, people." She commented to herself.

[UFD]

After a lot of consideration, I've decided to line up my future full-length Fairy Tail stories by eight. Four will be alternate versions of canon, three will have original stories with Natsu Dragion at the helm, and one will be a Dragneel story that takes place in the same "multiverse" as the previous three. Think of the Dragion stories as quantum realties as some Star Trek fans might call them. Trust me, it will be a lot easier to have just one Dragneel to match all three Dragions instead of one for each.

Anyway, I hope this was interesting and that you liked my depiction of a Royal Army Natsu Dragion. If I forget to write my inspirations for an "important Edolas" story later on, I'd like to say that the Edolas-centered story ideas and prompts of FFN's FanFictionHunter, Natsu is Awesome, and TheUnknownLegion helped me come this far and will hopefully get me farther. Please give their works a read at some point. However, I do hope I'll do well in coming up with Edolas versions of characters from Brain to Acnologia among others to fit in such stories, but that's for another time.