To rekindle the flame

by Sky Trotter


Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Deep underground a massive black dragon looked away from his scrying disk. It had been many years since somedragon, or even somepony had spent time looking for him. He didn’t really know what was going to happen at the meeting, but knowing that somedragon still cared enough to search him out left him hopeful. It had been nearly one thousand years since his last trip out of his home.

Looking around his cave and gazing upon his hoard, he smiled to himself. While most dragons collected precious stones and metals--and to be honest he had his fair share of wealth--his most prized possession was his collection of rare magical tomes. He kept over a millennium's worth of magical knowledge. Tomes that had been written by Starswirl the Bearded, Clover the Clever, and Sombra, to name a few. He knew the contents of each by heart. To say that he was an archmage-level caster was to be humble. Nowhere on the planet had there been such a collection of tomes.

As Obsidian turned his head and gazed upon his collection, his eyes fell upon the tomes and letters that he considered his most valued treasures. They were simple things. They did not even contain the highest level of magic. They did not contain any kind of magic at all, at least not the contemporary kind. No, the books and letters were from and about one mare. The one true friend that Obsidian felt had ever truly cared about him. The one mare that had wanted what was best for him. She had not wanted anything from him other than companionship; she had been his dearest friend. But that had been a thousand years ago. She was lost to him, banished to a place where he could never follow.

Alone in his thoughts, he began to have a strange feeling deep within his breast. Something that he had not felt in a very long time: Hope. Hope that somedragon or somepony would be able to pull him out of his thousand-year funk. He wanted to feel like he had all those years ago. The joy of friendship, just something to distract him from his stupor.

Turning back to his scrying disk, he noticed that the current Dragon Lord was waking from her slumber. “I guess I lost track of time again,” he grumbled to himself in his deep bass voice. As he stretched his neck out, the sound of cracking echoed around the cave, like a rockslide tumbling down a mountain. “Well, if I go to sleep now, I should have time for a nap before I have to leave to meet her.”

He stretched his back, and the rock slide continued. After looping around and curling up with his tail (a wyrmling habit of his), Obsidian lay his head down, casually casting an alarm spell that would wake him the day before the meeting giving him enough time to fly to the meeting place. Murmuring to himself before sleep took him “Perhaps I will meet a kindred spirit willing to explore friendship in a way that will allow me to experience its wonders once again.

***

Ember could hardly contain herself. The meeting was only a few hours away. She had already arrived at the meeting place early in hopes that she would get a glimpse of her informant before he arrived.

“I must say, it is quite unusual of a Dragon Lord to be so nervous about a simple meeting,” said a deep bass voice, followed by a good-natured chuckle.

Ember whirled around to face the source of the voice “I’m not nervous, I just want to be punctual for my meeting,” she blurted out at the sudden appearance of the voice. What she saw unnerved her: before her, stood a pony. More importantly, the pony that stood before her stood a head taller than her and had leathery bat wings and a long horn protruding from his forehead. As she got a better look, she noticed that his eyes were slitted like her own, and he had fangs in his mouth. “A-and who are you, anyway?”

The pitch-black pony smiled and replied, “Phoenix.”

Ember stood dumbfounded and stared back. Putting her hands on hips while drumming her claws, she retorted, “So you expect me to believe that some pony knows where an ex-Dragon Lord is when no other dragon that I have spoken to in the last year, as well as a princess of Equestria, was able to tell me. I find that hard to believe.”

The black stallion looked back at her and smirked. “Then tell me, Dragon Lord Ember: why did you come to meet me, then? If you thought that I didn’t have the information, why fly out here all alone to meet some stranger that you have never met before? The only connection that you have with me is that I sent you a scroll that said that I know where he is. You seem to be very trusting for one in such a position as yourself.”

Ember looked at the strange black stallion, and her jaw dropped as she realized the terrible situation that she had let herself get drawn into. Her guard went up, and she took a defensive stance. “Alright, buster, don’t think I am going to go quietly. I may not be as strong as my father the Dragon Lord before me, but I know my way around a fight.”

The black stallion chuckled to himself, recognizing her stance as the martial fighting stance studied in Griffonholm. “I don’t mean you any harm. I was simply making an observation. Although you would be wise to screen your guests in the future. Remember, you will have to endure being the target of aggression for the next 250 years.” He smiled and corrected himself. “Pardon me, 249 years. In any event, all I wish to do this night is talk and perhaps gaze at the moon. Now please, join me.” He walked across the room toward two outcroppings of crystal. He lit his horn and proceeded to transmute the crystal growths into the shape of two chairs complete with pillows.

Taking a seat, Phoenix gestured with a wave of his hand to the other chair that faced him and offered “Please sit. I imagine that you must have a number of questions, and I would like to be comfortable as I answer them.” His genuine smile as he said so helped Ember relax her stance as she approached to take the offered chair.

“Thank you.” She still felt the chills that had traveled down her spine when she had seen him light his horn… although she wasn’t sure if she could call it lighting his horn. It almost appeared as though his horn took an even darker shade as the light in the room dimmed to almost complete darkness. “Who are you, Really? I know that there are currently five alicorns known to exist, and every one of them is a mare.”

Phoenix jerked his head back in surprise. “Well I guess we have more to discuss than I had originally thought. Last I knew, there were only two alicorns, and one of them had been banished to the moon. But we are getting off track. Don’t worry, I will touch on your question in a bit. But for now, I believe that you have some questions about the ex-Dragon Lord ‘Obsidian the Black’. Is that not true?”

Ember nodded and spoke again. “Just who was this ‘Obsidian the Black,’ and why is it so hard to find out anything about him? I mean he brokered the peace between the dragons and the ponies of Equestria. You would think that somedragon that important would have at least a little recorded about him. I mean, seriously, how can no one have heard of him, or even have some book that records something that he had done? I had to go to Princess Twilight Sparkle to find anything about him, and all she could find was his name. How does somedragon so important just disappear?”

Phoenix sighed and looked at her with sad eyes. “To give you a proper answer, we will have to start at the beginning.

Long ago, before your grandfather’s grandfather was born, the dragon lands were ruled over by a royal house--a single family of dragons that ruled over all others. After millennia of ruling, the last Queen of the Dragons made an announcement: ‘My rule will be the last as Queen of the Dragons. After a great deal of thought that has spanned over a century, I have decided that all dragons should have an opportunity to rule themselves. My family has sat upon the throne too long without challenge. This coming summer, we will hold a contest to see whom among you has what it takes to be the new ruler of the Dragon Lands: the Dragon Lord.”

Phoenix looked at Ember to see if she was paying attention. Her eyes glittered with interest, and she nodded as to urge him to continue. “As you can guess, this was the beginning of the Dragon Lords. Dragon Lords would hold dominion for two hundred and fifty years at a time, and once you had claimed the position of Dragon Lord, you are not able to claim it a second time. We now fast forward four hundred and fifty years later, when Obsidian was hatched to the the current Dragon Lord, much as you were hatched to your father before you. However, his hatching was a bit strange. Up until this point, only females had been hatched into his family. For whatever reason, the dragonesses of this family would only hatch more dragonesses; in over a millennium of time, not a single male dragon had been hatched.

Obsidian was the first. The matriarch of the family tried to tell his mother that he should be destroyed. Surely his gender and his black scales were proof that this hatchling was going to be the end of their way of life. But instead she ignored her elder’s pleas and kept the hatchling.

In time, Obsidian grew. Contrary to the nature of most black dragons, Obsidian took no interest in the dark arts. He did not spend his time learning the black magics that seemed to draw others of his coloring. He instead devoted his life to proving himself worthy of his mother’s clan. He strove to be all that was expected of a dragon of his birth. Giving little time to anything other than learning. During his youth, Obsidian came across the writings of Starswirl the Bearded. In his writings, he spoke at great length of the magic of friendship and all that it could (albeit theoretically) accomplish.

He grew obsessed with learning about this branch of magic. However, most dragons were opposed to the concept. They thought that only weaklings ever made friends. The years passed, and finally his mother’s rule came to an end. Obsidian was a driven individual and decided to compete in the gauntlet to claim the Blood Stone Scepter.

As you know, he was successful in his goal. One of the first things that he did was to contact the royalty of Equestria in order to broker peace and friendship between the two nations. For five years, he worked to bring about his plan. And in time he was successful.

But I feel this discussion has reached its conclusion for the evening, and I grow tired. It has been a long time since I have spent this long conversing with another being. I would, however, like to continue to speak to you. As I said, I would like to take a measure of you to determine if you are worthy to stand before Obsidian.

Ember looked at the stallion and blinked, enraptured by what she had been told. “Wait that’s it? You just cut your story off right at the best part! I want to know what happened.”

Phoenix chuckled and replied, “I realize that; now I have your attention, and I know that you will want to hear more.” Smiling, he lit his horn again and, with a small gesture with his hand, summoned another scroll tube into his hand. “I would like to continue conversing with you. Any time that you wish to talk, simply write me a letter and place it in one of the two scroll tubes that I have provided. I give you a second one just in case you need to contact me, and I have yet to reply to your first letter.”

Ember looked back at him and groused, “I thought that getting a measure of me was why you called this first meeting to start with.”

“You are correct, but you could hardly expect me to gain a full measure of your character with only one meeting. Obsidian made a lot of enemies in his life, and I mean to protect him. But look at it this way. If I were not pleased with what I have seen so far, I would never have extended the scroll tube to you. I have much that I want to ask about you, but I do not have time to spend speaking to you face to face. Nor do you.”

Ember looked back at the stallion and realized he was right. “Fine, but you had better be quick about getting back to me. Princess Twilight Sparkle normally doesn’t keep me waiting for a replay for more than three days.”

Phoenix replied with his normal smile. “Of course, Your Majesty,” he replied with just a hint of sarcasm. “Now I am afraid that I must be off. We shall continue this discussion at a later time. Good evening, Dragon Lord Ember.” With that, the stallion winked out of existence, almost as if he had been swallowed by the void of darkness.

Ember shook her head to try to make sense of all she had learned. She could hardly believe that the conversation had even occurred. The only proof that the stallion had even been there were the chairs of crystal and the black scroll tubes. She resolved that she would send him a letter first thing in the morning. Ember took off and returned home. Lying her head down in her bed, her final thoughts of the night were puzzlement about who the stallion was and why a pony of all beings in the world seemed to know where Obsidian was. In time, she would know; all she had to do was be patient.