Once a Hero

By NocturneD

Note: It has been awhile since I have written a fanfic story about anything so you'll have to excuse me because I'm a bit rusty when it comes to writing up something good. Then again, I jump from fandom to fandom between Yugioh, Arthur, Naruto, the works. Plus my earlier follows from the Naruto fandom are going to kill me for coming back to write a story or too and not one for Naruto. Yeah, it's a Friendship with Magic story.

My name is Redwood though that really isn't my birth name but let's go with that, I'm an eighteen year old unicorn sitting here in this cell in Princess Celestia's castle for attempted murder and rightfully so. I pray this news doesn't reach my old friends but with such a big attempt as trying to kill a beloved, yet feared princess of all Equestria the news is bound to spread fast. Many ponies shout for my death as those are the strong supporters, some ponies actually cheered for me, yes hard to believe because with each ruler there comes haters. Guess she couldn't please everypony... But my actions were not acceptable.

I used to roll with a gang, well... not a gang, more of a group of people I slowly grew to accept as my friends. Why I was with these people is because we were chosen to protect a holy treasure by the request of a huge ancient wise dragon named "Draco" who stayed in this weird cave surrounded by glowing rocks attached to the walls and flowing fireflies near the ceiling and had a connecting creek that many believed could cure any sickness. Draco then had us go out to find these treasures to find out they were gold coins that held power to protect all of Equestria. Along the way we were ambushed by orcs, goblins, and trolls. That's when... the treasure showed its true potential transforming me and my friends into something... let's say more powerful, cladded in different colored armor among each of us, we felt the power surging through our bodies and began to fight and sent those ugly things packing back to their master "Skrull" a dark mage alicorn.

Apparently Draco and Skrull were rivals, trying to out do each other for many years. So far back maybe it was like when princess Celestia and Luna were still fillies. We served Draco for a couple of years, at first we wanted to quit fearing that we would get killed but our leader Leon, the brave blue pegasus, convinced us that we really didn't want to go back to wandering, stealing food, doing bandit work. I never really liked Leon to begin with, could say that we were rivals most of the times. We both trained furiously trying to out due the other but in the end, I accepted Leon and figured he was the right pony for the job of the leader position. As time went on we never looked back into doing anything bad and fought for good. Besides, it felt like being a super pony, having a place to crash. Draco started to feel like a father figure we never had since we were orphans, I would say grandfather but father seems to fit the bill. We had on going battles with Skrull's forces of darkness, the last battle we had was with him as he tried to summon some sort of ancient being named "Chaos", the name alone just sends a tingle down my spine. The summon was a failure, or so we thought, Chaos the being couldn't get through but Skrull took a sample of his power and wiped the floor with us, destroying our weapons even our coins. All seemed lost, and in the end... Draco sacrificed himself to close the portal with his own life force leaving us... abandoned... like we were before. As a good bye present he gave enough of his life force to restore our coins bit not in perfect condition... Mine had multiple cracks and no longer sported a gold finish.

With Skrull defeated and Chaos once again sealed away, there was nothing left for us to do. Our home was wrecked, no more riches lying around our dragon father, the water flow was cut off, and the fireflies went away, the magic was gone. You had to of been there to find this as depressing as I had. My friends and I had one last night together to surely remember and decided to go our separate ways. Once I woke up, already found everyone else but Leon gone. The camp fire we lit last night, now down to a simple line of smoke.

He said I slept like a baby and everyone else left earlier than he thought. I asked him why didn't he wake me up, the only thing he said was, "Sometimes saying goodbye is painful the more times you do it..." What shocked me was that he had a tear rolling down his pony cheek, being a Draco Ranger really meant a lot to him as it did with me. We had one last chat discussing what plans we had, problem was I didn't put a lot of thought into my plan. Only thing I had with me was my old lute that I stole in my earlier years. Leon pushed a small pouch with his hoof and I looked inside, gold coins and gems Draco used to sleep near, "This is all that I can manage for everyone... Just spend it wisely okay."

With an astonished look, I gazed back and him, "Thank you... brother." He smiled back, and gave each other a hoof five like old times sake, "Wherever you go and whatever you do, do it for good." I shook my head in agreement.

We went out separate ways finally... I wandered the southern border of Equestria hoping to find a place to stay. I jumped from village to village looking for a place to call my own, I played a few songs for extra bits. I've received a lot of compliments on my song writing and singing skills, maybe this was my calling? Only problem was, I was stuck in small villages out in the desert or forest all the time, if I wanted to get noticed I'm going to have to go to the bigger cities like Fillydelphia and Manehatten, I would of liked to try Canterlot but that was aiming too high I felt and was way too far for me. Only hope for me was to continue to keep going from town to town. Along the way, my lute broke after walking into a snobby couple, ofcourse they blamed me even though they were high and mighty, or too lazy to move to the side of the side walk. I worked a lot of odd jobs to get another lute until I feasted my eyes on... "Ruby Star", the guitar I saved up for months to get. How she handled was like having an angel in your arms playing music from the gods themselves.

My journey continued along with my expanding music career, I played for carnivals, restaurants, contests, parties you named it but the more I played the more my songs started to sooth my aching to be a Draco Ranger again but I still missed it, more of my songs seemed to follow a theme of being once a rising hero then falling into being a nobody. That fits right?

One night, I was venturing out through the Everfree forest from what I heard it was called, I was trotting along being an idiot for not having a light source with me. I just finished up playing in front of musical instrument store to help drum up some business. The owner thanked me and gave me a few bits for my troubles and was amazed at the crowd that gathered around his store. I thanked him for his kindness of letting me play, stupid mistake of me is losing track of time and walking into the woods while it was getting dark.

A once fearless Draco Ranger was getting creeped out from the noises, I then turned around figuring it wasn't too late to go back into town and find a place to stay for the night. How foolish it was that it never crossed my mind to go into the spooky woods at least, but one problem, it seemed like the ground was twisting underneath my feet every time I tried to go back down a path I was sure I took was the right one. I noticed the big horn shaped rock I must of passed four times already, that was it I was walking in circles, cold, scared of what could be lurking in the woods.

It was now or never, just take a path and stick with it I thought, it was sure to lead me somewhere. I raced and I raced, heart pumping quickly and tried to ignore all the scary things like monster faced trees, squawking crows, what would I thought of might been hungry wolves. Go figure for me I didn't watch where I was running and rolled down a hill and smacked my head right into a pond area. Or what I thought was a pond, turned out when I lifted my head it was too beautiful to be just a simple pond. The water was blue, reflecting the moon's rays along with bright fireflies orbiting around the trees, with doo drops slipping and plopping into the pond. I didn't know what made me stay but... suddenly I thought I was going crazy, thought the reflection of the moon had talked to me... Maybe I hit my head on the way down or something?

"Hello wanderer..." The voice rippled the moons' reflection. Yeah I totally hit my head for sure, "Draco Ranger I presume?" I gasped and shouted in question who this voice belonged to. There was only laugh, a haunting laugh, an evil one... "Oh Draco the old dragon still making young ponies do his dirty work to fight his bitter old friend Skrull." My teeth were clenched, my hooves scraped the ground I ordered the voice to shut up, it only laughed back, "hoh hoh... Draco Ranger misses the fun of just having life, fight for an old fart and he'll reward you with a home." I told the voice to shut up again, "Don't take that tone with me." I ordered the voice to show itself.

With an annoyed sigh, a dark alicorn appeared with its hooves touching the top of the water perfectly balanced as if were standing on water. Heavy dark blue eyes fell onto me, she was elegant looking I could give her that, nice and slender maybe my type, if she weren't evil looking. I asked who she was while I was in a defensive position, "I'm Nightmare Moon, returning after a thousand year banishment from the moon." Funny, thought they didn't make prisons on the moon, she continued, "I'm here to bring eternal night and you might be what I'm looking for in getting rid of my... goody sister Celestia herself."

"Fat chance," I shot back readying my power coin.

"Oh..." Nightmare moon tilted her head, still with that sick evil smile, she sighed, "I guess I'm going to have to make you then..."

"Don't say I didn't warn you then," I shouted back while I reached for my coin. And with a flash of light, I became whole again, my red coat was replaced with shiny black armor, gold shield around my neck and chest area and a black helmet around my head instead of a horse as it seemed to be in the shape of a dragons head instead, "You'll be sorry that you met the Black Draco Ranger!" I challenged Nightmare Moon, my voice was deeper for more dramatic effect, the helmet does that.

She only chuckled, "So be it."

We started it off with simple trotting to size each other up along the woods, trading off each other shots. Kicks were thrown along with jumping but since she had wings it really didn't help me because she could just fall back and fly to another position and would continue to shoot those blue beams out of her horn. She would laugh just to intimidate me, in a way it sort of worked because she would try and hide in the darkness between the trees. My options were slim, I used my horn to shoot out a flare and soon enough, "FOUND YOU", I delivered a double backwards kick into her side as she tried to sneak up from behind thing, she only let out a grunt and didn't fall over as I thought she would have, she's slim and fast I knew that but was she heavier than she seemed? She shot back at me with another beam and another sending me back flying against a tree. She hits hard for a lady I'll give her that.

What seemed to go on for minutes, felt like hours and I knew I couldn't keep up at this rate as I felt my power coin started to spark, feeling that it was cracking further under the pressure of fighting Nightmare Moon. At first I didn't know who exactly I was fighting, I should of ran but my ranger duties kept pulling me back to fight her, I had no idea I was fighting a goddess. For whatever stupid reason, I never learned that fighting her at close ranger was nearly impossible without hurting myself. Seeing how she was starting to run again the opposite way, I chased after her knowing she had something planned for me, I called out, "How you like me doing ninety? HYPER MODE!" I shouted letting my armor glow a bright fiery red color and speeding after her. I rammed my side into hers, she returned the favor, but I didn't quit as we continued to trade shots as you could just hear metal and hooves colliding. I somehow got the edge and pulled in front of her but what did was unthinkable, her horn pierced my shield and stabbed me in the chest. There I was frozen, shocked thinking my armor was unstoppable. Blood came pouring out onto her horn as she quickly pulled her head away, letting me fall onto the ground. I tried to clutch my chest.

"I just love your skills," she lowered her head to look down at me, "Too bad you serve on the side of light..." She chuckled, then rammed her hoof onto my visor breaking the glass, my eyes exposed to see her large hypnotizing blue eyes. She delivered another hoof down on my helmet cracking it, again and again laughing. I couldn't let her win but she was just too strong and my power coin was growing weaker and weaker the more I was near her. Her horn lit up as my gold shield started to flash the light of her horn, I felt the power leaving me sooner than expected until... "I could offer you something else..."

"BITE ME!" I shouted back at her, but the pain in my chest was too much.

"Well..." She gasped in annoyance with her eyes rolling, "How about this then..." I didn't want to listen until suddenly, "Whoops..." my power coin started to crack further, "I'll repair your little coin, you'll get to live like you did back in your glory days but only if you fight for me on this one little thing."

"KISS MY FLANK!" I screamed back under the pain, suddenly I reverted back to my pony form, I couldn't believe it, good losing to evil this way.

"Last chance..." She playfully cooed like a maniac, "Or maybe..." She did the unthinkable, she placed her hoof above my head and...

WHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAMMM...

I screamed like I was being murdered, she just broke off my horn. I even cried, but I couldn't let her see that as I tried to feel the spot where park of my horn used to be. But where I positioned myself was a stupid mistake, she again put her hoof and bashed it into my face repeatedly until I submitted. Each punt was harder than the last, my head now swollen and could feel the blood gushing...

"Now will you work for me? I'll remind you again, you can go be a Draco Ranger as always with your coin repaired but you have to eliminate Princess Celestia for me." Her head lowered to mine.

Eliminate the princess of Equestria, that's all I have to do? It was either that or die... just being a Draco Ranger now just seems pointless as we stood for justice and for all things good. I did something stupid, but I didn't want to die, "I'll... I'll... do... it..." I coughed up a bit of blood onto myself.

For the mare that nearly destroyed my power coin, stole my energy, stabbed me, pummeled me I was at her mercy. "Goooooooddd..." She cooed, then... she licked me, she started cleaning my bloody wounds with her tongue like a twisted person who likes to lick blades, wasn't sure if she was trying to clean me for now being her servent or she had a blood licking fetish and was trying to pleasure me.

"I'm sorry..." was the only thing that was going through my mind that night, my friends and Draco would of been disappointed in me, Nightmare Moon continued to lick my wounds thinking I probably would get some sort of pleasure out of this.

She lifted her head and turned in the opposite direction, "Sorry but I think I'm going to have to deal with some little ponies for now before they find the Elements." She turned her head back to me, "Remember... you can still do what you want but you have to get rid of Celestia." And with that... she vanished into thing air but not before... I caught a glimpse of my power coin, with a blue light ceiling the cracks and made it good as new.

"I'm sorry..." Was the only thing I could say before passed out from the pain, knowing that I made a deal with the devil.

to be continued...

note: you have to excuse me because I have not written a single piece of fanfiction in a while while I'm working on separate projects all together. Yes I had Power Rangers on the mind while doing this and tried to go all out with the fighting, problem was how do horses fight? I would like to thank my girlfriend for mentioning this show as she puts up with and enjoyed all of my stuff so I figured, why not give them something back. A story, yes lame but they seemed to enjoy it. Plus, excuse my sucky grammar. MLP is owned by Hasbro, etc. Thank you for reading, not sure how often I will update. Plus I'll probably edit this chapter at a later date.