Darkness approaches from outside.
I feel no light inside me strong enough to resist it.
- Christopher Pike, The Last Vampire.
The light of the moon shone upon us as we descended down to the valley we had seen the Unicorns disappear into, making the cold stone glow in a bluish light ever so slightly. Even my ruby red scales seemed to gain a purplish tone with the moonlight upon me. The freezing night air was making me shiver, it was so cold I could see my own breath every time I exhaled. I could feel little frost in my wings, as if the atmosphere was trying to render them useless, but every time I flapped my powerful wings the ice scrapped off and plummeted down into the darkness.
"Hey, Burning." One of my fellow dragons, a sapphire blue male named Skyfall, called out to me. "Do you know why we are supposed to look for these Unicorns? I mean, what could they possibly have that could be useful to us?"
I shook my head. "I do not know, but the Leader must know what he is doing. If he thinks those Unicorns have something useful, then we obey. We have no other choice."
"You two!" the oldest of our group, a green-scaled drake who called himself Dreadstalker flying at the head of the flight, snapped back at us. "Quit your blabbering! We're almost there!"
"What do you think the leader wants us to find?" a purple drake spoke out loud.
"Who knows. I doubt the ponies have any stock of meat in their supplies." replied a cream-colored drady.
"It's not hard to know why!" a pale white drake added. "I mean, look at their teeth! All flat, they wouldn't chunk a piece of rabbit meat even if they wanted to! Not to mention they don't seem to be the type to hunt."
"Yeah, no claws at all, but those hooves of theirs. How can they even manipulate items with no fingers?"
"Unicorns use their magic."
"Quiet!" Dreadstalker hissed at the whole group. Everydragon went silent.
But they were right in one thing. Why would the leader send us to raid a Unicorn camp when there was nothing in their possession that could be of interest to us? The ate no meat, so we wouldn't be finding any in their supplies, and anything else they could have was of no use to us. But winter was coming, and in this part of Equestria it was very harsh, making it impossible for my people to put a claw outside our nest until spring came. I guess the leader was just being wary.
We descended into the darkness when the lights of the Unicorn camp came into view. They did not know we were there. We landed behind nearby trees, big and abundant enough to hide the forty of us. The camp consisted of various tents, large enough to host four or five ponies each, along with a very spacious tent, possibly belonging to the head of the Unicorn tribe. But that was not what caught our peering eyes.On one side, there were the carts and tumbrils from which the ponies moved. On the other side of the camp, we found a great amount of tasty animals.About twenty fat cows, ten oxen, a cart full of hens, and a few pigs. Luckily, they were all asleep like their owners.
"Haha! The leader sure knows what he is doing!" I grinned. The ponies had not dead meat, but they sure had a lot of fresh meat.
Dreadstalker turned to us, our looks of cheery accomplishment still present upon our faces, eyeing the tasty animals in front of us. Dreadstalker took a direct stance of authority right in front of us and unfolded his wings to gain our attention. Dreadstalker pointed a claw at the first and second row of ten drakes, then pointed right to the sleeping cows and oxen, indicating for them to take what they could carry. Next, Dreadstalker pointed to just the third row of five and then pointed over to the sows that was were tied to wooden poles; they were to take care of that. Then, Dreadstalker pointed to the last row of drakes, then at the chicken cart, then he held up four fingers, indicating for them to take only four chickens. However, as Skyfall and I were about to head towards the chicken cart, Dreadstalker stopped us with his wings.
"Not you two." He hissed silently. "You go make sure the Unicorns don't wake up, and check if they don't have any gems if you can. If you hear something, come and tell me but do not do anything we can all regret."
Skyfall nodded and pushed me towards the rows of tents. I was rather disappointed, I was looking forward to helping with the chickens, but Dreadstalker was in charge, so I had no choice but to obey. Skyfall and I sat down a few meters away from the tent, looking for any movement or sound from the tents, but everything was quiet, save for my fellow drakes who were doing their respective tasks. What was inside of that large tent? IT looked more like a circus tent, but colored a mahogany brown, with no banners. As I stood up and silently started walking towards the tent, Skyfall grabbed my tail and stopped me. "What are you doing?!" he hissed in a low voice. "Dreadstalker said we are only to make sure the Unicorns don't hear us!"
"He also said that we should check if they have no gems," I replied, annoyingly swishing my tail to get it out of his grasp.
"Burning Moonlight! Get back here!"
Ignoring him, I poked my ridiculously large head into the circus-like tent, but to my disappointment, it was not so grand as I had imagined it. It was occupied by seven or eight Unicorns, all deep in sleep, some of them snoring like Dreadstalker. However, just as I was about to return to Skyfall, something caught my eye. The scent of an item I could not identify reached my nostrils, and spiked my curiosity (again); I looked around the room, getting more of my neck into the tent so I could look more for this object. After silently searching through chests and bookshelves, I found it.
A black book
Much to my surprise when I found the book the scent became weaker and it eventually disappear, as if it's purpose was to simply call my attention. The cover of the book was pitch black, not exactly flattering in the least, and only a few symbols littered the front with no full indication of the contents within. A sun, a moon, a six pointed star, and the one thing that caught my interest most... a dragon. I took the book with my teeth and slipped my head out of the tent, as silently as I poked it in.
"Burning!" I heard Skyfall's voice call out for me. "Get away from there! You will wake them up!"
Tucking the book safety into my mouth, under my tongue, I returned to my friend just as the rest of the drakes were done freeing the animals from their ties. Dreadstalker nodded satisfactorily, then unfolded his bat-like wings, motioning us to get ready to take off.
This time, we did not bother to remain quiet.
I stepped into my cave, my paws aching like I was stepping on nails, and allowed my body to fall into my stray bed, letting out a sigh of exhaustion, the black book dropping out of my mouth, all wet and drooled in saliva. Our return was met with praise and cheers upon the eyes of the whole clan when they saw all the delicious meals we had brought for them. The leader, an almost elderly deep mint drake, Swiftwing The Third, congratulated Dreadstalker for bringing plentiful feed for the clan, before the feast commenced. I ate a good few portions of ox and a liver of sow before retiring to my cavern. I had not much appetite, anyway. Making sure none of the other drakes was around, I flipped the cover of the book and took a peek
The black book was an interesting thing. In my eagerness, I forgot that I did now know how to read the Equestrian alphabet, but the drawings were clear enough for me to understand the contents of the book. I had come across a spell book. But this one was very different from other spell books I was lucky enough to caught a glimpse of. The drawings depicted unicorns utilizing spells like light beams, levitation, even offensive spells. But the aura depicted in this drawings was black. I had seen Unicorns using their magic, I have seen the color of the aura surrounding their horns. I had seen green, blue, raspberry, yellow, even white aura, but never black.
That's when I saw it.
Half-way through the book I found an interesting picture. It depicted a group of Unicorns bowing before a great... black dragon. I had never seen one of those around here, perhaps it was a one-of-a-kind type of drake we had not yet met, but who knows. The thing that caught my attention was the black aura in the dragon's horns, pointing downwards towards the Unicorns. What did this mean? I do not know.
But when I looked over at the page with the letters, probably the explanation of the picture, I was astonished to realize I could understand the words! That was not Equestrian writing! It was a dragon that wrote this part of the book, but how? I started to read the page written in Draconian.
It described some kind of energy flowing in the hearts of all beings, and the hypothesis that every creature is capable of using magic, not only the Unicorns, and the Alicorns. Even dragons themselves could master the art of magic if they wanted to, but it took time, and endurance.
I liked the idea. Me, Burning Moonlight, the first dragon to ever use magic. It would bring a new era to the dragon race! We would no longer be instinct-driven and violent beats everypony thought us to be, but we could be even considered to be the Unicorns' equals in power. But before I could read any further, I heard a sound coming from the entrance of the cave, and I quickly tucked the book under my straw bed.
"I'm glad your mission was a success." Her soft voice overcome with sweetness reached my ears.
I smiled as I turned around to see her. She was a lovely drady, only a little younger than me, with raspberry pink scales, and creamy yellow belly. Instead of sharp horns, she had short fins that moved in a pretty way when she was in a good mood. Her eyes as blue as the sky, or as the ocean, filled with a high and independent spirit. She was the love of my life, my fireheart, my angel.
My Jielith.
"Too bad all I did was peek my head into one of the tents." I chuckled, blushing.
Jielith walked closer and rubbed her nose against my neck. "I wouldn't care if you were only there to watch, you're still the greatest Hunter for me, my love."
"At least someone thinks like that." I nuzzled the back of her neck lovingly.
As we gave each other our tasting of love, I dug the book deeper into my straw bed. I couldn't share what I had discovered, at least not yet until I knew how to use that power. Not even with my Jielith, I wanted to be a surprise.
I flew out of our cave, and out of the clan's dwelling, into the dark forest below, with the black book in my mouth. I made sure no one had followed me, like Skyfall did once when he saw me coming out at night to bring back a rabbit for Jielith. After placing the book on a stone and searching for the page I had found the picture and the Draconian writing, I started to read.
Astounding. This book seemed to date of the Reign of chaos, before the Regal Sisters ruled Equestria. How a dragon got to write in a Unicorn spell book, I had not a clue, but however he did it, he was very smart. I did not live through the Reign of Chaos, but I heard the stories from my father, who heard it from his father, who heard it from his father, and so on. Everything was literally upside-down that time. Day and night lasted minutes, it rained chocolate milk instead of plain water, the clouds were made of cotton candy, and things were constantly in change.
At the end of the page, were the instructions of how to activate the magic, but it seemed risky. If I wasn't able to handle it, there was the risk of turning into obsidian glass from the inside out. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I reread the instructions carefully once more, just in case. I'm going to try and activate this spell...
I closed my eyes and concentrated, tried to twist the flowing of my body energies in order to let out the hidden magic within me. My horns started to bubble with a black ooze or sludge which covered it up, bursting in angry green pustules on the surface. My eyes turned a sickly green, during the first few moments my head started to hurt terribly, and I felt as if my body was being being convulsed from the inside out, but soon the pain turned into pleasure. I let my body and mind relax, and the ooze seemed to grow. Oh this power, the sweetness of it. Even for me, even for a mere dragon who had never known about magic or even cared about it, this was something else entirely. It called to me, beckoned to me, promising lavish gifts that would be showered down on my head. It offered to make all my dreams come true if I would let it loose. My mind was overwhelmed with the voices coming from somewhere, and I released my hold on the magic, the ooze dissipating and my eyes turning back to normal.
I only used it for a moment, but I felt like all my energy was sapped out. Whatever power is in this new magic, it must be strong and I want to know more. Wait... I... I used... Magic...
I started to laugh with joy and excitement. I had actually done it. I had been the first dragon to ever use magic. Too bad I couldn't yet tell the rest of the clan, but first I had to make sure this magic was safe to use. But yet, the promise of earning the admiration of my kindred and to leave my mark in history sounded appealing to me. To bring my beloved Jielith hope for a better future than simply stealing from passing by pony caravans.
I took the book in my mouth and flew back to my cave with much effort. Using this type of energy had drained all of my energy completely.
Ever since the first time I used the magic, things changed.
Everytime I was by myself, I tested my newfound power with whatever I could. I had seen Unicorns use magic, the variety of things they could do. It was an exhausting endeavor at first, but the more I used it, the more vivacious I felt. The first spell I attempted to use was a basic levitation spell on a wooden stick. Eventually, I tested the levitation spell on heavier things; rocks, wooden logs, animals, and eventually I learned to manipulate even water. I experimented with every kind of spell I could find in the black book; offensive, defensive, illusionary, healing, detection, manipulation, and many more.
But soon, I realized that this magic worked better with offensive and illusionary spells. Harmful spells. To test my theory I captured two rabbits in the forest and took them to the cave in which I had made my 'lab'; on one rabbit, I made a small cut into its side and used a healing spell on it; according to the book, it usually took a few seconds to the wound to heal, but with this magic it took five minutes. I used an illusionary spell on the other rabbit, and to my astonishment its eyes turned red and green, and it started acting in a rather disturbing way, like its worst nightmare was just a few steps ahead.
Strangely enough, I started hearing voices. But wherever I looked around, there was no one to be seen, as if the voices were inside my head. I try to ignore them, but it's hard. They constantly speak about letting them 'on the loose', to 'unleash them', but I do not understand what they mean.
I hid the book underneath my straw bed again and walked out of my cave in search of Jielith, but Skyfall was waiting for me outside, along with Kevalth, a light purple dragon, another good friend of mine. The both of them had looks of worry in their faces, staring at me like I needed emotional support or something.
"What's up?" I inquired, my voice unusually cold
"Burning, are you feeling alright?" Skyfall answered my question with another question, which for some reason I found irritating. "I mean, you look healthy and all, but your behavior has been... How can I put it lightly?"
"Just spit it out, would you?" I hissed, baring my teeth.
"That!" Kevalth snapped, growing angry at my tone. "You haven't been yourself! Since the raid two weeks ago you have been acting differently! We barely see you anymore, even Jielith has mentioned you're starting to go out at night!" I froze. So she knew? "What have you been doing? Dreadstalker has called you for three raids but we had to leave without you because you never showed up!"
"What I do is nothing or your concern!" I snarled, my temper started to spike.
"It is our concern, Burning!" Skyfall started to lose his patience. "You are our friend, and we're worried about you! What happened to the friendly, noble Burning Moonlight we met at flight school?"
"GONE!!!" I finally roared, startling both Skyfall and Kevalth, making them step back in shock and fear. But i'm not sure if it was my voice which made them step back, but the sudden thunder-like sound that echoed through the corridor and made the earth itself tremble fright. Realization hit me and I felt a great wave of horror wash through my being like a sickness. "I... I... I'm sorry, I...-"
"No, no, no, it's all clear to me!" Kevalth snarled, recovering from the shock, the persian blue spines on his head bristling like cat's fur. "You've said what you had to say!"
I started to panic. "No, I didn't mean it, it's just-!"
"You don't need to say anything else! I've heard enough! You're not the same Burning Moonlight we met! Talk to me when he returns, because I like him much better than I like this Burning Moonlight." Saying this, Kevalth turned around and walked away, his back turned on me. I was stunned by his reaction, but I knew I deserved it for the way I just had an outburst. I gazed at Skyfall for support, but all he gave me was a sorrowful look before shaking his head and walking away from me, going after Kevalth. I was alone.
Sincerely, I couldn't believe myself either! What had happened to me? Why did I react like that, why did I act that way with my two friends? They had done nothing to me, they were simply worried and had tried to help me, to know what was going on with me. But for a moment, I had felt I was not... myself. It had felt like someone... or something else had spoken through me.
It's okay. You don't need them.
Not again.
"What do you want now? I'm getting tired of your jokes, whoever you are!" I snapped, turning around to see the prankster, but found none.
I'm no prankster, you should have realized that by now. I don't even have a solid body...The voice chuckled in a tone that sent me shivers. Yet.
I rushed into my cave, just in case other dragons would pass by. The least thing I needed was the whole clan believing I was growing insane. "If you're not a prankster, then who the heck are you?! Why can't I see you?"
The voice, resounding like a grave, snickered once more. I'm you.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
I'm you, you are me. Is that too hard to understand? I'm inside your mind, you're inside my mind. We are one, and we are two at the same time.
"I don't care! Just leave me!"
I cannot. Even if I wanted to. You let me inside, and here I'll stay. After all, you can only rely on me.
I narrowed my eyes and flared my wings open, whipping my thick, scaly tail against the wall. "You are wrong! I have Jielith! I have my friends and my brethren!"
You mean the ones who just walked out on you? I didn't know friends and family did that, do they?
"It was my fault! I was very rude to them!"
Why do you think that is? Maybe you've realized that you don't really need them, they were just holding you back. They made you weak. Love makes you weak. Even your own mate makes you weak.
"DON'T YOU DARE SPEAKING OF HER LIKE THAT!" I screamed, again making the air tremble. "She's the most important thing I have! I'd never do anything to her!"
Soon. Very soon we'll see who is right.
"You... You..." I felt like I would rip my own head just to make him shut up.
"Burning?"
"WHAT!?"
When I met Jielith's fearful eyes, I realized I had screamed at her. For no reason at all, just like I had just screamed at Skyfall and Kevalth. Her usually living gaze was replaced by the gaze of a stranger looking into the eyes of another stranger. My heart ached at seeing her in this state, but as I tried to step closer to her, Jielith backed away fearfully.
"Jiel, I didn't mean to..." I stuttered, my voice shaking, my eyes swelling up with tears.
"Burning, what's happening to you?!" She finally asked in a very loud, and desperate, voice. "What has happened to you?! You're not the same! You are not loving with me anymore! You barely talk to me these days! And don't you think I don't know about your nocturnal escapades!
"But I-"
"Are you seeing another?"
That question nearly broke my heart. The gaze of hurt on Jielith's eyes was not helping either.
Jielith spoke once more, her voice growing sad and grief-stricken. "Are you seeing another drady behind my back?"
"How can you possibly say that?!" I replied in despair, now it was I who felt like crying. "How can you doubt of my love for you?! I've been faithful to you for the past thirty years, haven't I? I have been a loving husband all this time, haven't I? I know I'm not being myself lately, but I... I..." I looked down somberly. "I cannot... I would never set my eyes on another, you are the only drady I've ever loved..."
I dare not look up to see her. How could I? After the way I've been treating her, so cold and so unloving, for a reason I could not explain. But perhaps it had something to do with the book, the dreaded book I had been reading endlessly. I heard pawsteps, and I assumed Jielith had turned away to leave, but instead I was surprised when I felt the warmth of her scales against me, and her wings wrap around my body. The wamth of her body was always a console to me, especially these days that the stupid voice in my head won't leave me alone. I wrapped my wings around her and let my head rest on her scaly back, my eyes starting to swell with tears of sorrow and pain. We remained like this for a while, minutes passing by endlessly, but I did not care. All I wanted was to forget everything, to pretend like I had never found that forsaking book that stared all of this mess.
The voice inside my head snickered. "Soon. Very soon.
I was alone.
I wandered around the nest, trying to find any of my brethren, but I came to realize I was completely alone. My voice echoed in the caverns, my pawsteps resounded in the darkness, while I looked for any signs of life besides my own. The air was unaturally cold, like the first frost of winter, and I could not open my wings, for they frozen and useless. It was so cold I could see my very breath coming out from my nostrils and mouth.
Where was everydragon?
On cold winter nights all the flight usually gathered in the Great Chamber, where we ignited a giant bonfire to warm each other up and tell stories and ancient legends of the dragons. But this night, there was no one here. It was like they had disappeared completely. Was Jielith okay? I needed to know something! Anything!
Just as this thought crossed my mind, I heard the sound of rocks crumbling from the ceiling into the ground; I rushed towards the source of the sound, hoping to find one of my brethren, and it lead me to the Great Chamber. There was no bonfire, no young hatchlings gathering around it to play, no elders telling stories to the youngest generations. Nothing more than darkness and stone.
"Stay away!"
I twirled my head around towards the direction I had heard the voice, and I was astonished to find my beloved Jielith, but she was all beaten and weak. There were claw marks on her once beautiful scales. Her eyes, once filled with spirit, had become eyes filled with terror and suffering. She was leaning against the stone wall of the Great Chamber, as if trying to get farther from me, something which confused me.
"Jielith? What happened here? Where's everydragon?" I asked, but she set her curved frame against the stone wall.
"Don't come closer to me!" she cried.
"What? Why...?"
"Don't hurt me! Please!" she begged.
"Hurt you? Why would I-?"
I could not finish my sentence, because out of sudden, black crystals started emerging from the ground, growing around the cave like an infection spreading through the blood flow of a living being. Jielith wrapped herself in her wings when she set her eyes on tyhe crystals, then on me. I did not know what was going on, but it appeared she was assuming I had something to do with this.
"Jielith!" I tried to walk closer to her, but in a fit of panic, she fired a stream of blue fire at me.
But the shocking thing was that before the flames could get an inch near me, the same black crystals growing on the ground emerged at my feet and grew tall in a fraction of seconds, forming a protective shield that made the flames useless, preventing them from hurting me. I stared at said crystals in astonishment, not understanding what had just happened? Did I do that? And how did I? When the crystals broke a hole through the heavy stone in the ceiling of the Great chamber, creating an opening that let the moonlight in, I was able to take a look at my reflection in the crystals.
I nearly had a heart attack. Instead of seeing the red dragon, I saw a dragon with scales as black, or even blacker, than the night sky. A mohawk of purple, spiky hair was protunding from my head and falling over my face. My horns had become curved like a minotaur's horns, and two long fangs like those of a vampire bat were sticking out from my mouth. But what terrified the most was my eyes, they were different now. I no longer had a black slit pupil in the middle of a ocean of green, but normal, pony-like eyes, with the pupil still being a thin line, but I now possessed an iris and a sclera. And even these were not the right color.
My pupils were red, my scleri was a phosphorecent green, and from the corners of my eyes flowed a mysterious purple mist.
A scream followed the emerging of the crystal shield I had apparently conjured, but I did not hear it until I was brought back from my thoughts. Jielith's screaming. I smashed the protective crystals in front of me with my tail, but after what I saw, I wished I hadn't done so. In front of me, run through by sharp edges of blade-like crystals dripped in blood, was the corpse of Jielith. My eyes widened in horror and grief at my terrible deed. I had not meant to do this! I didn't even know I could do this, for erlking's sake! Just as I was about to rush to her side, darkness surrounded me, and I lost conciousness for a few minutes, or hours, I could not tell.
After a while, my eyes slid open, the cold and te crystals gone. and orange glow flickered a few steps away from me, as I looked around. I felt my gaze sip to my claws. The brilliant red of my scales was marred by the ugly dull grey of the chains that tied them. I tried to speak, but my voice was muffled by a muzzle tied around my snout. My vision went wild, searching for some kind of help as strand of my grown purple hair fell into my eyes. Through my bangs I could see shadowed figures standing across the cavern. They were all looking at me.
"Once the most handsome of the drakes around here, now reduced to this."
"Since when did this happen? When did he turn into such a beast?"
"Murdering poor Jielith like that..."
I saw them all shiver at this notion. One of them walked closer to me. Panic struck me as I wiggled my paws again, trying desperately to free my binds. I tried to flare my wings open, but I realized they were being held down by chains as well.
"It seems we have no other options, gentedrakes. We have to stop him before he causes anymore damage.
"And how are we supposed to do that, Leader? It's dark magic, we can't simply extract it from him like it's just an infection.
"We shall have to put an end to his misery, I'm afraid."
I watched as he started uncheathing his claws.
"Leader, you don't honestly intend to-"
"-Can you think of another way? Because I can't... and we have no other choice!!"
I watched as the other dragons regarded their options, all nodding in unison after some time.
"Just do it quick."
A flash of ivory caught my eyes as I watched the Leader walk closer. I tried to plead with them, but I could only manage muffled screams. Tears streamed down my face as his claws drew close. My heart race, panic gripping me at what was coming. I closed my eyes, praying with all my soul.
It was quick, but the pain that accompanied it was unimaginable. My vision was fading as I felt sticky liquid pouring out of me. I managed a gurgled scream, but it served no purpose, it was too late. I could fell my lungs pull out a last breath, trying in vain to hang on.
"...May Erlking have mercy on your soul..."
My eyes snapped open, my heart drumming in my chest. I looked around frantically, and I was partly relieved to see Jielith was resting next to me, cuddled under my wing, having much better dreams than I was. I was horrified at that nightmare. I had seen my reflection in those crystals, but it did not belong to me at all; my scales were red, not black, not to mention I didn't have a single trand of hair, just like every dragon.
It was just a dream.
However, as I rested my head on my paws to go back to sleep, when my eyes caught a glance of my paws, I lifted it up and stared at it in complete terror.
My paw had turned black.