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// Two Blue Flames 
// Story: The Veins Run Deeper 
// by Thunderblast 
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With the blue light of the cold blaze down below flickering around the whole of the cavern room, the near-middle aged unicorn stomped the orb in his hoof into the smooth rock floor he sat on with a terrifying rumble that followed. Glowing cracks erupted from beneath, lit in the very color of the orb and flame, as well as his very own magic. The cracks spread out farther by the second, slowing in speed as they began to run up the walls on all sides surrounding Topaz, gradually approaching where Night Shadow sat. 

Unaware of what the magic-fed cracks could do to another pony, Night began to ponder quickly in his head what his next move should be. For what he knew, this could be the mage's final blow that would cause a cave in and destroy the city above, or worse. If he ran to find Redflare, he would also risk losing time of stalling until he could arrive.

Either way it went, it appeared to be there was only one real outcome: a grim one at that. For what it was worth, grabbing Topaz's attention came to be his final decision. Murmuring a small, inaudible prayer to Luna, Night stood up straight and climbed atop a large crystal, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Topaz!"

The guard pony's voice echoed throughout, disrupting the unicorn mage's concentration and even startling him slightly. All around, the cracks ground to a halt, but continued to let off a faint blue glow as Topaz's magical aura dissipated.

Gradually, the brass-coated unicorn's head swiveled in his direction, eyes shifting to meet the figure standing above the wide opening he stood in. He slowly blinked.

"Who are you, and how did you find me?" Asked Topaz in the same soft, yet dark voice. With a simple glance at Night's armor, he raised his hoof and nodded once, stopping Night as he opened his maw to speak. "You are a Lunar guard. Captain even. Princess Luna's personal guard, the Zodiacs. Have you come for me?"

"I have." Night nodded once, his expression a fatal mixture of fear, but over all, his best to appear the exact opposite. "Why have you traveled down here?"

"Why, to stay hidden, of course. The Guard wouldn't think to search for me down here," Topaz replied, a very faint, sinister grin crossing his muzzle.

"Considering your escape left a dramatically large-sized hole and scorch marks in the cell around it, I'm afraid I cannot concur with that statement," Night responded immediately after.

"Hmm, I suppose you are right, Captain." His grin remained, even slightly widening.

"Now that I have answered your question, how about you return the favor, hm?" Topaz then smirked. "Have you come to arrest me? To put me back in that putrid cell to rot for eternity, only to find another mean of escaping?"

"I have come..." Night stopped, eyes shifting ahead of him briefly with his maw open, then back down, closing his mouth.

"I've come to talk."

"Is that so? What is there to talk about?" Topaz only kept smirking at Night's attempts.

"I've come to talk about..." Night once more paused. This was far trickier than he'd imagined. "I have come to discuss your parents."

This hit the spot Night intended, as Topaz's smirk had immediately vanished and transformed into a very slight frown.

"What about those death-deserving ponies?"

"You miss them. Don't you?"

Topaz raised his nose, snorting. "Not in a million years would I miss them. Not even if they burned in the fires of Tartarus would I have the slightest desire of meeting either one of them ever again."

"After you looked at them through that vision, Topaz, I'm... not quite sure if I can believe what you say."

"So you have been watching." Topaz chuckled quietly. "I only wished to see their... happiness... one more time. Happiness... that will be no more in the coming days."

"And just what do you have planned for said days?"

Topaz sighed rather contently. "Since you will not be leaving, I believe it will be alright to tell." Shortly after his final word, Topaz's horn ignited with magic. 

Above and beside Night, a loud, audible crackling and rumbling caught his attention. Snapping his head up, Night could visibly see sizable chunks of the ceiling snap free and begin to freefall toward the ground. He gasped, leaping out of the way and tumbling almost off the edge as the rock collapsed, smashing down onto the hard crystal below and blocking the very way Night entered.

Sitting upright, Night stared to where the exit was formerly, pupils slightly shrunken. He jumped to his hooves, glaring down at Topaz and shifting into a defensive stance. Down below, the unicorn once more took a seat beside the tiny flickering blue flame.

"Now... with that out of the way, please, have a seat." He motioned his hoof, pointing for Night to sit across from him.

The dark blue-and-purple armored pegasus eyed Topaz cautiously, then with a single flap of his wings, jumped up, gliding down and landing with a gentle clop of hooves. Night sat back on his hinds, more tense than ever as he now sat face to face with the Silver Mage, who smirked slightly across the flame from him.

"Tell me about yourself."

"Excuse me?"

"I want to learn about you in this... unfortunate circumstance of yours. What is your name?"

Suspicion crawled further up Night's spine, not quite enough to send a chill rushing across his nerves however.

"Night Shadow," he replied flatly.

"Night Shadow. Ah, yes. Captain Night Shadow," Topaz chuckled again. "You see, I have been in the dungeons for almost two decades. Even an old pony like myself hears a word or two around the cells. You aren't from Equestria, are you?"

"I am. Rumors have said otherwise, but I can assure you, I am from no other origin."

"Your fangs say otherwise."

Night perked further at this. His fangs did not tell anything else other than his genetics of a bat pony derived from his parents. 

"Oh yeah? What about them?"

"A little birdie tells me that you aren't who you think you are. I am no fool, Captain. You are a hybrid. The first in over a century. I've studied your kind and many like it."

Night's eyes opened wide. Now he was really listening. "There... were more of me?"

"Oh, yes. Hidden among the crowds, when thestrals were believed to be an extinct species. The only way somepony could ever see who they really were is if they stood face-to-face and examined their mouth, assuming they even had fangs. Some did not. Many just had the specialties of a thestral," Topaz smirked sinisterly.

The pegasus' heart began thumping heavily and quickly in his chest, as if it were about to pop like a balloon. This pony knew everything. He knew about Night and where he came from—or so, that was how it seemed. He simply could not comprehend this sudden turn the confrontation took.

"Tell me more."

"More, hmm? So you're now interested in what I have to say?" Topaz grinned.

"Yes..."

"Good," he nodded once. "There are most likely more of you, Night Shadow. No matter what ponies may tell you, you aren't one of a kind."

Topaz watched carefully, grin widening the moment Night's ears pinned back to his head, his maw wide open with shock.

"You... no! You can't be serious... this is some sort of trick, isn't it?!" Night jumped up into a defensive stance.

"Is it?" The brass unicorn sat perfectly still, grin not fading one single bit, his deep green eyes making direct eye contact with Night's bright gold ones.

"Is it...?"

Topaz's horn flared with light blue, a small flame flickering off of the tip. "Sit down, Captain. Relax. We will talk some more."

Unnoticeable to Night, the larger unicorn had encased his forehooves and hind legs with magic-energy chains, binding them together with shackles, followed by his wings, despite there being no visible escape around. Gradually, Night found himself sitting back down, eying Topaz directly, the black of his iris now turned the color of the mage's aura.

"Now... what is it you would like to know, Night Shadow?"

Night panted softly, ears remaining back and chest slightly heaving. "Everything..."

Topaz's grin became clearly visible as it transformed over to an evil smirk. "The rest of you, Night. The rest of your kind is dead."

"...W-what?"

"They are gone. Every last one of them. You are not a bat pony. You never were."

The voice echoed throughout Night's head, causing his breathing to pick up and heart to beat faster. Fear began to take over as the stallion's magic intensified around them, the cracks in the floor beginning to glow once more and spread light further and brighter than before.

"I'm... not a bat pony?"

"No, Night. You never were. You do not have a real family."

All around the two, smaller pebbles and loose rocks began to slowly levitate upwards. Sparks of blue energy fluttered upward, then fading away moments after into pure nothingness. At any moment, the crystals around them would shatter. For Night, however, he was too far entranced in the mage's spell, forcing him to completely disregard his mission and even forget what was about to happen.

"Then... then, w-what am I?" Night sputtered out.

Topaz rose to all fours, his eyes closed. Upon opening them, his eyes glowed a pure white.

"You are dead."

An earth-shattering smash exploded into the room. Dust and debris flew everywhere, clouding the space all the way up to the ceiling before gradually clearing out. The two ponies held their hooves out to shield themselves, Night coughing once or twice and reopening his eyes.

The dust settled, and just seconds after, a heavenly golden glow encircled the cavern, outshining Topaz's magical light. Its source stood high above them both: a massive pony figure, wings flared to full span. Gold-clad shoulderpads rested upon him, along with a massive hammer that was slung over the pads.

A blue flame lit up the pony's mane—in fact, the flame was the pony's mane—as well as up to the knees on his hooves, bursting with blue-hot flame. The figure bent down, then leaped up, falling back down to the floor with another shattering crash that forced a small crater of crystal shards beneath his hooves, the shards then beginning to burn and even melt to the touch.

"Topaz Myth, the Silver Mage..." Spoke a deep, rumbling voice. A threatening one at that.

"Paladin Redflare," Topaz's grin slowly returned. "What a surprise. I take it you accompanied my prisoner, or he accompanied you and abandoned you?"

The large red pegasus took the massive hammer from his shoulder in a mighty swing, pointing it outward to Topaz's chest. "Remove thy chains, and return him to me."

"And just what will I receive in return, hmm? No, wait, allow me to guess: a horn ring and hoofcuffs, and a one-way trip to the dungeons again?" Topaz cackled out. "What a joke. You are not even a unicorn! What type of magic, if any, could you possibly possess to get in my way?"

"I would not call it magic, nor supernatural, if you may. The Order trains until its inner will comes out, and that is what powers me: the will to fight, and defend." Redflare began to gently smack the end of his hammer into his own hoof, the hammer's steel clinking at each touch.

"As if I would conclude that pegasi have anything remotely special about them. You may be strong on the outside, but any true power you have is irrelevant and quite literally not real."

"Is that so?" Redflare smacked the hammer into his hoof, holding it there as the blue flames rose up, engulfing the head completely and giving it an even more golden shine than before. "Then I suppose the only way to find out is to fight."

"Indeed, it is," Topaz smirked darkly. With a quick burst of magic from his horn, Night Shadow was teleported to the upper ledge, still in a trance.

Redflare narrowed his eyes onto the target, shifting his body into a more defensive stance than previously, swinging his hammer out facing toward Topaz and holding it outright, the hot flames on the head continuing to burn as if somepony had tossed fresh wood or coal onto it.

Opposite of him, the brass unicorn sparked his horn to life with a powerful blast of magic that sent a shocking breeze out in all directions and kicking up a cloud of dust that shrouded him entirely.

The large red pegasus opened his wings, swinging them about to fan the dusty fog away. When it was out of his line of sight, the first thing Redflare realized was Topaz had disappeared, likely using teleportation. Thankfully, however, he knew very well the stallion could not have gone far, knowing the caverns' crystals hampered the effects of many unicorn spells.

In a blast of blue light from behind, Redflare was knocked forward, sliding across the cavern floor on his side before crashing into the wall, cracking it more severely than what Topaz's deadly magic had been doing. He leaped up to his hooves, hammer not once leaving his grip, and clenched his teeth as he once again caught sight of the Silver Mage.

Chuckling rather loudly and still darkly, Topaz began to levitate up a couple of feet into the air, his eyes purely white and horn sparking brighter than ever. Angrily, Redflare charged right at him, swinging his hammer to strike Topaz directly in the side. Rather than that, however, the hammer bounced right off and flew directly out of Redflare's hoof, impaling part of its head in the wall to his right.

Now slightly growling, his chest rumbling with rage, Redflare eyed the evil-bound pony, whom was now surrounded by an invisible barrier performed by a spell. It briefly surged after the strike, just before it could fade away again.

Topaz smirked again. "Oh, no! Having trouble reaching me, Paladin?"

"Graaah, come out of there, you puny coward!" Redflare screamed out, in turn raising a hoof and pumping it forward to strike the barrier once more.

This slightly pushed the unicorn backwards, though not much more than a few inches. Topaz continued to chuckle. "What a joke you are, you can't even reach me!"

"Maybe not now. At some point your magic will give out!" Redflare roared, recoiling his hoof again and forcing it into the magical bubble.

The force of the blow was immediately absorbed into the bubble, then repositioned back to Red and practically being shoved back against his own strength. His hooves scraped against the stone floor below, slightly digging in as he came to a complete halt at least ten feet behind where he previously stood.

"Then I shall sit here and wait until that happens," said Topaz, a smug grin resting on his face as he quite literally sat down within the magical barrier.

Slamming his hooves down into the stone once more, Redflare let out large, deep huffs in anger. A golden-white glow began to flare up around his forehoof, gradually increasing in intensity until it was as if a flame was flickering beneath it.

Red lifted his hoof, recoiling it back a third time, then springing forward with great might, pulling even himself forward as he charged at the overconfident unicorn. When the base of his hoof struck the center of the forcefield, the glow erupted into a flash as bright as Celestia's sun itself.  With an eardrum-bursting clap, much like thunder, the bubble shattered into tiny shards that dispersed into thin air within seconds. 

Topaz let out a yelp of pain, lifting his hoof and turning his head to shield his eyes from the sudden burst of light that temporarily blinded him. He fell backwards the moment his shield was gone, grunting when he hit the ground. Smirking with accomplishment, Redflare stomped forward, slamming his hoof down just beside the downed unicorn and standing above him. He let out a bellowing chuckle, using his other hoof to pin Topaz. 

Beneath him, Topaz growled with anger, firing up his horn again to fight back. He squinted heavily, vision still extremely disarranged from the blast. Due to this, he was now seeing doubles—and triples, neither of which he could decide which Redflare was the real one. Taking a chance, he shot a beam up magic up toward one of them, only to have a small rain of rocks patter down around them.

"Stay... rrgh, still!" Topaz demanded, now beginning to squirm beneath the large red pegasus.

"I think you should consider the same," Redflare replied, now glaring down at the wiggling pony. He raised a hoof, an emanation of gold forming out of it.

Lowering the hoof gently, Redflare pressed it to Topaz's chest. The brass unicorn's movements began to calm and eventually stop, breathing softening and body relaxing backwards.

"Now... you will come with us, back to the dungeons," Redflare said, glow fading from his hoof. Sighing out, he shifted his attention to Night Shadow, still bound in Topaz's chains. "Captain!"

Approaching the motionless pegasus, Redflare leaned down slightly, examining the chained-up stallion for injury and immediately noticing the bluish tint to his irises. Letting out another sigh, Redflare lifted his hoof and rested it on Night's shoulder, pumping a similar amount of light energy into his body.

Gradually, the tint faded, giving Night's irises back their yellow shade. The chains began to fade away into nothing, freeing his wings and hooves. Redflare's hoof pulled back and rested back on the floor, and he eyed the pegasus cautiously.

Less than a moment after, a chill ran up Night's spine and he sprung back to life, pupils shrinking down and gasping. He lifted a hoof to his cheek and looked around with surprise, then up at the massive red pony before him.

"What just... happened?" Night asked with pure shock. "Where's Topaz?!"

Redflare smiled warmly, then let out a small chuckle. "The situation has been taken care of."

Night eased himself, then peeked around the red pegasus and at the disabled mage. His head slightly tilted at the sight. "How?"

"How about... I explain after we have him back behind bars, yes?"

Night glanced back up at Redflare, then returned the smile. "That sounds good to me."