Once a Hero

by NocturneD

Ponyville gets its own super hero, but more leads on to this super colt as time goes on. And for some reason, he keeps avoiding Princess Celestia and Twilight wants to know why.

2. Chapter 2

Once a Hero

By NocturneD

Note: I would like the thank the readers for the reviews, thank you very much. I will add this though, I'm not really proud of the first chapter of this story so far as I felt it really should of been the last chapter if we are wondering about the new character's past plus I rushed this out hoping it would stay on the front page. Apparently this section works differently than the other section I would write for, so here it goes.

Chapter 1: New Pony

Another day has dawned on Ponyville, the sun has risen to start a brand new spring day. The shop owners got up extra early to prepare and began to open up their stores. The suns rays shine through a particular window, unfortunately it decided to hit a little snoring dragon in the face, the little one winced and scrunched his nose before he turned over and moaned. He knew it was another day that Twilight Sparkle wanted to make sure the preparations for the summer festival were going to be their best.

Any minute now, Twilight Sparkle was going to nudge his little head for him to wake up. "Any minute now." The little dragon mumbled to himself, one eye slowly opened to find a hazy view of the room but no Twilight Sparkle in sight. "Good," he thought, maybe it was earlier than he thought and maybe could score a few more hours of sleep, "wait..." This was too good to be true, when was the last time he was allowed to sleep in? With a defeated sigh, he slowly rose up from his basket and walked over the rim for his little feet to touch the hardwood floor. Opened the bedroom door to the library while he let out a huge yawn, waddled down the wooden stairs straight into the kitchen. Again he found no Twilight Sparkle, "Probably got a head start on the festival already," he looked at the table, just a bowl and a cereal box. Immediately he frowned, "Wouldn't kill her to make some eggs and toast once and awhile."

Spike settled on the cereal and with no Twilight to tell him not to, he dug his little dragon arms into the box to find a prize. Normally she would lecture him that the prize was worth it once all the cereal was gone, but who was she kidding? When growing up she always tried to pour out all the cereal just to get the prize and most of it would be on the floor just to get an official decoder ring. Spike looked left, then right, then dug his little arm into the box then pulled out a sticker. "Ohhhh..." He cooed and sniffed it, "Scented... like strawber..." He sniffed it again, "Doesn't smell like strawberries. What a rip." With a disappointed look he threw the sticker to the side and poured his cereal into the bowl and added milk.

With two bowls consumed, he cleaned up because if he didn't Twilight was going to lecture him about that too. Spike climbed up to the top of the fridge to put the cereal box back in its original position, satisfied he slowly paced backwards and grabbed onto the handle but before making a huge leap down he found a note on the fridge, he grabbed it on his way down and read it...

Dear Spike
Went out early to help prepare for the summer festival, don't worry you don't

have to be by my side today so why not have the day off. I left some money on the

counter so get yourself some lunch. Oh and don't think I forgot about the new

monorail station that's going to open up in Ponyville, I know you're dying to ride it. So if your a good dragon we can take a round trip.

Love, Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. I know you're going to waste cereal to get the prize.

Spike narrowed his eyes and frowned. He slid the note onto the kitchen table and found the money where the note said it was, he counted it and found out it was more than enough to eat at the new fast food restaurant that opened up. With a smile he pocketed the money and made sure it was in a safe place, unlike last time where he forgot to bring any money after standing in line for hours just for concert tickets. That was the most embarrassing thing he could of ever went through.

Within the hour Spike the dragon decided to venture outside. He made sure he locked the front door this time, last time a hobo pony just walked in and made a bed out of books then slept on it. Then the bum ate everything in the fridge and clogged the toilet with towels with water leaking all over the floor. But this was going to be different, for once nothing bad was going to happen. He locked the windows and doors then slid the key under the doormat, turned around, walked away while whistling to start his day.

"What should I do today?" Spike thought to himself. It didn't matter what he did, he was going to have fun. During the day, the dragon had a nice time and got to dine in the new fast food joint, King McPony's. He was just about to finish his fourth burger until three small familiar ponies came trotting in, without warning they shouted his name.

"SPIKE!" The three little fillies trotted up to his table, this made the little dragon consume way too much of his burger causing him to choke.

"Spike! Wheres' big sis and da others?" The little red haired filly named Apple Bloom looked worried.

Spike continued to choke while holding his throat.

"This isn't a time to play charades!" The second little filly with curly purple hair whined.

"No time for this!" Scootaloo the third yellow pony but with wings hopped up onto a nearby chair and kicked Spike in the stomach letting the chunks of burger fall onto the table.

"Ew..." The three little fillies, stuck out their tongues in disgust.

Spike tried to regain his breath while holding his throat, "What... what is... so important?"

The three little fillies looked like they seen something so scary, "We've seen an ogre out in the forest." Scootaloo managed to speak up, "he was big and scary looking."

"You didn't try to fight him did you?" Spike asked throwing his hands onto the table in disbelief.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at each other, embarrassed as Apple Bloom started to brush her front hoof across the floor.

Spike frowned, "Ofcourse you three did." He shouted, "Why would you three do that! Ogres have a strong smell and are relentless until they find what they are looking for!"

"He was going to ruin the summer festival and rob Ponyville!" Sweetie Belle formed tears as she tried to explain.

"And how do you know this?" Spike asked raising an eyebrow.

"Because we heard him talking with a smaller ogre... no wait, maybe it was a troll?" Scootaloo scratched her chin with her hoof.

"And they're coming here!" Again Spiked asked.

"We tried fight'n back!" Apple Bloom brought up, "Okay... maybe bit one of them."

"You were lucky you three didn't get killed out there!" Spike shouted and caused a scene, "Let's just hope that these ogres don't come to Ponyville to eat you three. Maybe they'll just turn the other cheek and leave you alone."

"Oh uh... about that... I sort of... ticked them off to the extreme by nabbing one of their cool looking jewels." Scootaloo brought up and pulled out a shiny sapphire.

Spike slammed his head on the table, "This just keeps getting better and better." He picked his head back up, "Anything else?"

"They... might be holding big swords and axes." Scootaloo also brought up.

Spike took a deep breath and sighed, then jumped from his seat onto the tiled floor, "Okay, here's the plan. We'll go find Twilight and tell her everything. Right now, we can't go around screaming that there is ogres coming to Ponyville okay?"

"Okay." The three fillies nodded in unison.

"Except for the screaming part... we already did that and freaked everyone out." Sweetie Belle added. This didn't surprise Spike, he arched his neck to look out the restaurant window to find the ponies outside were running around screaming and panicking. Before they knew it, they heard a loud crash from outside. The ponies already inside the restaurant raced to the windows to see what was going on, sure enough the ogre and troll the Cutie Mark Crusaders were talking about, were real and not over exaggerated from what they said. The ogre alone was about twenty stories high with light green skin and very buff, arms were as long as trees, had a huge hump on his back and carried around long heavy chains over his shoulders as they rattled. His footsteps when slammed onto the ground sounded like loud crashes and made the ground shake. His face, looked mean with teeth jutting from his mouth upwards like a saber tooth tiger. "Of all the creatures in Equestria for you three to tick off, you had to do with this one!" Spike quivered at the sight of the ogre, "maybe... you should apologize?"

The cutie mark crusaders knew they weren't going to apologize to the ogre now after he ripped the top off of somepony's house and threw it into a crowd of ponies. Luckily no pony got hurt, but continued to run to safety. Spike told the three fillies they could sneak out the back way and go run back to his place until this passes, but it didn't look like it was going to pass easily from seeing a desperate ogre tear a roof off, they were just going to have to take their chances. Spike lead the three out the back door without wasting time and tried to hide behind the houses for cover. Just feeling the ground shake was horrifying enough sending the cutie mark crusaders into a state of either heavy breathing, nervous twitching, or breaking down into tears but it had to wait until another couple of blocks. The ogre let out a glass shatter roar to vent his frustration. This really put a dent into the three fillies ego, now scared and knew what would happen if the ogre caught them. Luckily Spike tried to keep their spirits up by putting his arm around Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo kept close and was brushed up against Apple Bloom while still hiding behind everything and moved from cover to cover each time the ogre turned his back.

"I hope big sis is arite..." Apple Bloom teared up.

When suddenly, a tall thin but fit blue skinned troll with wild spiky red hair and two razor sharp tusks jutting from his bottom jaw like an elephant, jumped from on top of the closets roof and landed infront of the dragon and fillies, "FOUND YA!" the troll let out loud annoying screech wailed causing Spike to fall backwards and covered his little ears from the loud pitch. The cutie mark crusaders placed their hooves over their heads to also shield their hearing. "You three crossed the wrong troll!"

Spike propped himself back up ready to protect his friends, he threw himself in front of the three with his arms held out wide and with an angry look, "Leave them alone!"

"Stupid dragon!" The troll slapped Spike to the side of the house hitting his head. The little dragon winced in pain and slowly turned his head to see the troll was going to put his ugly scaly hands on the cutie mark crusaders, Scootaloo was the only one trying to defend herself while Apple Bloom was trying to back away with Sweetie Belle. The troll only laughed at Scootaloo as he grabbed her with his huge troll hands, about to squeeze, Scootaloo had no other choice but to sink her filly teeth into the troll's finger. The troll winced for a few seconds then dropped Scootaloo on the ground as he howled in pain shaking his hand, "OW OW OW!" He soon recovered with in an instant and slapped Scootaloo's head into the ground.

"Scootaloo!" The other two crusaders screamed, their friend's head into the pavement no doubt she was hurt. The orange pegasus let out a small wimper, the troll however wasn't finished, he slowly raised his right leg ready to stomp until suddenly...

"Hey pal..." The troll felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned his head to find a standing red colored male pony wearing a baseball cap with black hair straining from underneath it and red eyes; the red pony held up a red shiny guitar ready to swing. "Picking on little ponies, for shame..." And SLAM, "STRIKE ONE!. The red pony swung his guitar across the trolls face, the troll only took a few steps back from the blow, wincing at the pain. "Strike two." The red pony swung again, this time hitting dead on the troll's forehead causing the wailing troll to take a few more steps back, "STRIKE THREE!" The red pony didn't hold back, he slammed the guitar as hard as he could but now because of the force of the swing sent the troll flying into the air, "YOU"RE OUT!" The troll flew into the back of the giant ogre's head forcefully making the giant tumble forward and fall onto its face.

"Scootaloo!" The two crusaders rushed to their friends side, gently pawing at her little purple haired head to make sure she was alright, calling her name again and again.

The red pony fell back onto his four hooves and noticed that Spike was still had his back to wall, sitting there and let out a small moan. "Hey, stay with me buddy," the red pony slid his hoof behind Spike's back to scoop him up, "Can you walk?" Spike only replied with a wince, the red pony adjusted Spike to sit on his back, Spike was wobbly but still stayed on. The cutie mark crusaders propped their friend Scootaloo to stand up on her hooves, "Girls, your friend doesn't seem like she can stand up by herself put her on my back and we'll go hide at my place."

"But we're trying to find our sisters too." Sweetie Belle raised her hoof to point out to the older pony.

The red pony only gave them a scolding stare, shook his head and assured, "Girls you've been nearly been beaten by a troll and whatever you did to those two, they aren't going to stop until they put you three in their stew and eat you!" The two crusaders timidly stepped back not sure to trust the red pony, "Look if you come with me to my place and stay there I'll look for your sisters okay?" The crusaders looked at each other, then slung Scootaloo over the red pony's back next to Spike. The three walked in between an opening two houses, the red pony peaked his head out to make sure the orge and troll were still down. He only grunted to see the ogre trying to regain his balance, the red pony looked down at the two crusaders and nodded, "Just follow me alright." And with that, the red pony bursted out of the alleyway with the two fillies behind him. The ogre let out another giant roar, this meant, run faster for the three. After hopping over one railing, ducking between more alleyways, splashing through a few puddles, the full adrenaline was heart pounding until they stopped and ducked into another alleyway.

The two cutie mark crusaders flopped to the ground, breathing heavily, "Ima... Ima... pooped," Apple Bloom tried to catch her breath.

"Here were are." The red pony took a few more steps toward what looked like a wooden trailer on wheels. He trotted up carefully to the little wooden steps, about to push the door in he looked back at the two fillies, "Hey... up here." The two fillies picked themselves up, the red pony pushed open the trailer door to find a single room only furnished with a pillow on the floor along with a green blanket, a few books in the corner, a wooden chest and a cooler. A small circular window without glass let some light in. The red pony gently laid spike on side of the pillow and then Scootaloo on the opposite. He hustled over to the locker, opening it quickly he pulled out a first aid box then opened it, "Damn I hardly have enough supplies," he muttered, bitting down on the handle he trotted back to Spike and Scootaloo and examined the wounds. Spike only suffered from some minor scraps, Scootaloo on the other hand had bruises on the side of her head along with some blood trickling down the side of her mouth. He looked at Apple Bloom, "Hey, get a rag from the locker and wet it in the cooler over there." Apple Bloom wandered over to the locker no question and did exactly what he said, bringing back a very damp rag, "Just use it to wipe the blood away from her mouth sweety," He looked back at Sweetie Belle, "You there, help me get this bandage around her head." Sweetie Belle nodded and helped her friends' head up letting the red pony wrap the long white bandage many times around, he cut the line with his teeth, "Okay you can let her head down now, but for right now that's all I can do. Your dragon friend should be fine, those scales really help in taking damage but make sure he gets plenty of fluids along with your friend here... Plus this place is in between a tight alley so that big ogre shouldn't see this place."

The red pony turned around to head out the door, Apple Bloom sat on her bottom looking over her friend as she noticed the red pony leaving, "Hey wait mister."

"Hmmm?" The red pony turned his head slightly.

"We don't know yer name?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Just call me Redwood... or Red for short." The red pony introduced himself in a friendly tone.

"I'm Apple Bloom, this here is Sweetie Belle," The crusaders said their names but their tone changed, "This... here is Scootaloo... and Spike".

"Hey..." Redwood sneered, "I don't like sad faces on little ponies."

"You promise to find our big sisters?" Sweetie Belle asked, trying to manage a smile, "last time we heard is that they could be at the mayors office." The two gave Redwood their sister's names and told him what they looked like.

"Cross my heart. I just have to get my friend and we'll be out of this mess." Red moved his hoof over his chest, he closed the door behind him with his guitar slung over his back and raced off from the trailer leaving the four alone. Not until he was far enough to disappear from sight, deep and creepy breathing could be heard, waiting for the coast to be clear; the troll that the five escaped from earlier leaped from the top of a neighboring roof and slammed his huge scaly feet into the pavement, cracking the cement from underneath him. The troll's nostrils flared, the scent of little ponies was nearby... and he's going to love every second of it.

Meanwhile in the center of Ponyville, the ogre is growing ever more restless. Not even bothering ripping the roofs off of homes, this time stomping them in or smashing them with his giant sword. Some ponies tried to fight back with unicorns shooting off magic and pegasuses trying for form as a distraction except for cyan colored pegasus herself; Rainbow Dash giving the big bad ogre a big upper cut, sending him stumbling backwards but ended up falling on top of another empty shop, crushing it with his massive weight.

"Man that's smarts..." Rainbow Dash shook her hoof trying to fling the pain away.

"Rainbow Dash we want to avoid smashing the buildings!" an orange blonde haired pony named Apple Jack shouted.

"Well excuse me for knocking a King Kong sized bad guy off his feet then!" Rainbow Dash shot back, "By the way, I got big boy here handled. UHFFF..." The rainbow pony was caught off guard by the ogre throwing an open palm as a counter attack, slapping Rainbow Dash hard sending her flying into another building.

"Rainbow Dash!" Her friends shouted.

The citizens of Ponyville continued their best against the hulking creature. Those who are not able to fight are making sure other ponies evacuated while others were still searching for anypony that could of gotten hurt along the way. Twilight Sparkle couldn't ask princess Celestia for help because she couldn't find Spike anywhere, hoping that he atleast got to some place safe. The mane ponies, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, AppleJack and Pinkie Pie rushed to Rainbow Dash's side to help peel her off the side of the building. The ogre slowly regain his balance while Rainbow rose to her own feet, shaking herself off from the dust and plaster.

"Girls, it looks like we're going to have to use the Elements of Harmony to purify him." Twilight lurched forward ready to unleash the power, "With the power of magic..." A glimmer of light appeared around her forehead to reveal a glowing silver tiara, the other ponies as well summoning their magic necklaces of harmony (i have no idea what they call these in the show). The ponies slowly started to levitate off the ground with their eyes glowing white, the ogre on the other hand didn't like where this was going and prepared his weapon for a defense while letting out another thunderous roar.

The mane six were about nearly complete charging their attack beam, Twilight Sparkle ready to unleash the magic beam until they heard, "Hey... I WOULDN'T TRY THAT IF I WERE YOU!" The mares looked in the direction of the voice as it came from on top of the mayor's building, the troll was back again this time with a wooden trailer coach raised above his spiky head, "Don't want to hurt the little ponies and dragon inside." Without a second thought, the troll sent his fist into the trailer and grabbed three fillies and dragon inside, "These three were a big pain in my side you know."

"Spike!" Twilight couldn't believe that her assistant was in so deep, from the distance she was looking at she couldn't tell if Spike was conscious or not.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity gasped.

"Apple Bloom!" Apple Jack hollered.

"If you hurt them I'll tear your tusks off and shove it up your rear end!" Rainbow Dash threatened the troll.

"You see here ponies of Ponyville, these three have stolen something of mine and I take great offense to that. So why not have compensation of taking your towns' valuables." He tightened his grip around the four, all of them of screaming from the tight pain. Scootaloo could only cough, "Tell you what... If you hand over your towns riches and valuables, the ponies and pathetic excuse of a dragon will be not harmed..."

"YOU PIECE OF HORSE SHI..." Rainbow Dash was about to jet after him but Twilight grabbed her tail.

"No Rainbow Dash... we can't risk this." Twilight sighed, Rainbow Dash landed back onto the ground with a defeated look.

"You got to be kidding me Twilight!" Rainbow Dash countered sticking her hoof in the purple pony's face, "We're giving up? WHAT ARE YOU ON?"

"We'll think of something." Twilight continued to look on, she nudged her head trying to give Rainbow Dash a sign.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? WE PRACTICALLY HAD THIS WON!" Rainbow wasn't getting the message.

"Like i SAID we'll think of something. WINK WINK!" Twilight growled, Rainbow Dash could kick herself right now but instead she put herself in the pounce position as she was ready to fly off at sonic speed, only problem was she has to warm up to go that fast.

"Got ten seconds!" The troll shouted extending his arm out over the edge of the roof, ready to drop the cutie mark crusaders from the four story building. "One!" Rainbow knew where this was going, the troll was going to continue to countdown, right when he hits nine she was going to burst forward while it looked like Twilight was going to give into the demands. "TWO!" The ponies who stayed in the town only could stand and watch in horror the difficult situation, many of them were already conceding by throwing their money forward, from the view the troll wasn't pleased figuring they already destroyed enough that the town really can't push a lot of money forward after this, practically leveled the who place except for a third, he figured it probably wasn't going to get a lot out this place, "TEN!", the troll dropped the three fillies and Spike from the tall structure.

Time entered that phase where the mere seconds turned into minutes with the heartbeat pounding in the background. Rainbow Dash's plan merely failed, she pounced into action ready to catch the falling four. If she had more time she were to be able to pull off her sonic rush only to have at the last second, the ogre stick his palm infront and swat her away. She couldn't believe it, she should of dodge that but she didn't and tried to barrel on forward, it was hard smack this time almost felt like it broke a rib or something, her head turned only to widen what she saw coming. Other ponies tried to race towards the falling young ones until suddenly, a long black and red surge of light raced from underneath cutting everypony off from saving the four. They citizens were stunned, the four didn't fall and was snatched up by the surge. Twilight's eyes followed the trail, slowly to find that the trail leads right in front of her and her friends. And in the place of the flowing black energy, was a rather tall looking colt fitted with shining black armor from head to hoof, a gold shield hung around the chest area and extended to the shoulder area, the head area was a black helmet custom shaped to look like a dragons' head and a black visor to see from. On his back were the cutie mark crusaders, spike, and even Rainbow Dash herself. The suns rays gleaming off of the armor, the aura reeks with the spirit of a fighter. "Please... remove your friends from my back." The armored pony's voice echoed through the helmet, with this Twilight could tell that the knight or whoever was inside was indeed young, Apple Jack wasted no time getting her frightened younger sister off, same with Rarity, Fluttershy picked Scootaloo up as well while Pinkie Pie pulled Spike from his tail causing him to fall on the pavement, the dragon moaned, the armored pony turned his head with a small sounding creek, "Watch your step there."

"Gee thanks..." Spike moaned as he let his face hit the ground again, Rainbow Dash slid off and could barely walk straight without wincing in pain.

"Rainbow Dash, are you alright?" Fluttershy tried to inspect her friend.

"It's nothing, ready to kick this trolls face in!" Rainbow Dash was ready for round two only to have the armored pony interrupt.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to handle these two." The armored pony asked in a stern tone.

"Oh come on! I've been pulled back all day!" Rainbow shot back.

"That broken bone inside of you is just going to get worse if you fight these two. Besides, I have a history with these two." The armored pony ordered, "This is all that I ask of you fine citizens."

"But these two have to be stopped now or else Ponyville is going to be a giant crater." Rarity raised her hoof.

"The elements of harmony can help too! We were just about to use it." Twilight added.

The armored pony didn't even reply, he only walked forward with the sounds of metal shifting over his body and kept his eye on the troll and ogre.

"Well... well...well." The troll chuckled, "The black draco ranger. Still playing super hero after what's happened."

The armored pony stopped, the feeling of anger was alluding him, "And you two still being the butt monkeys of much better villains out there..."

to be continued.

note: okay people, i'll be honest here. i'm trying to imagine the action in my head and match it on the story but it just doesn't work and come out like the other stories here on the site. but I want to thank everyone for reading this, I'll try to update as much as I can. And yes I know Scootaloo can fly but she wasn't in condition to do so.