Of Flame and Shadow

by Garuda IV

Chapter 49- Pyre's Arrival

Dark was flying as fast as he could in an attempt to keep up with Rainbow as the two flew to intercept Pyre. At first the plan seemed simple, but after thinking about it after they took off, it dawned on them that Pyre's size would still alert the ponies of Ponyville to his presence.

"Okay, so what do we do now?!" Rainbow asked.

"I'm just slowing you down. You fly on ahead of me and try talking to him," Dark told her.

"And what if that doesn't work?"

"Then we'll just have to improvise."

With a quick salute, Rainbow sped up and created a Sonic Rainboom that sent Dark tumbling backwards until he could level out and follow after her. Not too long after Rainbow flew on ahead, Dark looked back ahead to see that Pyre had slowed down his flying before he let out an angered roar and continued flying towards him with greater speed half a minute later. Within a few seconds after hearing Pyre's roar, he could see Rainbow flying back to him.

"Bad news," she nervously began saying. "Turns out that he's pretty upset."

"What did you say to him?" Dark questioned.

"What makes you think that I had anything to do with it?"

"Was he angry before you got to him?"

"Not really."

"So then, did you say anything that might've set him off?"

"I told him that Ponyville isn't ready for him yet."

"And?"

"... and that he should sit his scaly butt down until we're all ready for him."

"That might've done it," Dark sighed.

"Plus, I might've talked smack to him after he made a comment about me that I found insulting."

"... okay, so he's pissed then."

"Very much. So, what do we do now?" Rainbow wondered. "You said that we would improvise, but how so exactly?"

"Simple," he shrugged. "I'm going to knock some sense into him."

"Dark, I admit that I can be brash and reckless at times, but what you're suggesting is just plain insane. He's a super, ginormous dragon. How in Equestria are you going to do that?"

"Have you seen my training sessions with Nocturne in Ghastly Gorge?"

"No."

"In that case, you're about to see what I've been up to. But first, let me try talking to him."

"You think he'll listen to you?"

"He'll most likely be stubborn like most dragons I met are, but hopefully he'll listen to me."

Nodding to him, Rainbow followed alongside Dark as they flew together to stop Pyre. As they flew closer, Dark got a better look at Pyre. Noticing his thin, ruby-red fur, golden underbelly, spines, and claws, and orange eyes that glowed as though they were on fire. What was unusual about him though besides his noticeably bulkier build, was that the flames leaking out from the corners of his maw were blue.

Putting his unique looks aside, Dark and Rainbow flew up to Pyre and landed on his muzzle to look him directly in the eyes.

"Pyre! Stop!" Dark shouted, trying to get his attention.

It didn't work, however, as Pyre grunted and picked up speed.

"I can see Ponyville! We have to stop him now!" Rainbow shouted.

"Fine," he grumbled to himself before turning to Rainbow. "Rainbow! Get off of him and get away! I'll need some room for this!"

Following him, Rainbow got off of Pyre's muzzle and put some distance between them. Once she was far enough away, Dark gave an annoyed snort and flew ahead of Pyre. Putting more distance between them, he continued to fly until he saw that he was several hundred meters away from him.

Figuring that that would be enough time and space, Dark channeled his magic into his right arm until it was consumed by a shadowy vortex. Looking up above to his right, he was pleased to see that a dark portal had opened up. Remembering back to his training, Dark channeled more power to his arm, causing a massive draconic claw to emerge from the portal, followed by an entire arm that ended at its shoulder. Flexing his shadow-covered claw, Dark was pleased to see that the claw from the portal mimicked his arm's actions exactly. Looking back to see Pyre closing in on him quickly, Dark pulled his arm back to throw a punch, cracking both his knuckles and the copy's as he balled his claw into a fist.

"I thought I told you to STOP!"

As Dark threw his fist in a downward punch, the one from the portal mimicked his movements, flying downward and striking Pyre on the bridge of his muzzle. Even though the fist that struck him was half the size of Pyre's, it was enough to cause him to roar in surprise and instinctively cover his sore muzzle while the force behind it sent him crashing into the ground, causing the earth to tremble as his body came to a skidding halt with a deep groove trail behind him.

Grunting from the strain that the spell put on him, Dark dispersed the shadows swirling around his arm, causing the massive black arm and claw to retract back into the portal before it faded. Recoiling his arm from the soreness in his muscles, Dark flew down and landed in front of Pyre, who was still laying there clenching the spot where he was hit. As Dark calmly walked up to Pyre, Rainbow was off hovering away from them with her mouth agape from what she saw.

"Woah, so that's what he meant," she breathed. "If this is what he's been up to, then I should really start coming to watch his training sessions." Closing her mouth shut, Rainbow turned her gaze back to Ponyville. "I wonder if anypony heard or felt that?"

---

A few minutes earlier back in Ponyville, Twilight and Mayor Mare were standing in front of Town Hall with most of the ponies who participated in the Winter Wrap Up standing before them. As soon as Twilight found Mayor Mare, she told her the news that Rainbow had relayed to her, causing the older mare to panic for them being unprepared. Thankfully, with most of the citizens of Ponyville already gathering for the speech held at the end, they didn't have to gather everypony together. Now all they had to do was to tell everypony about the dragon that would be coming over to visit. Walking up to the podium, Mayor Mare cleared her throat before beginning to address the crowd.

"Hello, everypony," Mayor Mare greeted them all. "Now, while I would normally take my time with this speech, we have a matter of which needs to be addressed. So, getting to the good part of my speech, I am pleased to say that winter has once again been wrapped up on time!" She paused while the ponies cheered for their success and waited for it to die down before she continued. "And now, I pass you over to the pony responsible for our success, Princess Twilight!"

With another round of cheers and applauses, Mayor Mare stepped off to the side to let Twilight take the podium.

"Hello, everypony," she began. "While it's great to have spring returned to us on time, like Mayor Mare told you, there's something that I need to let everypony know. During the winter, I was informed that Ponyville would be receiving a special visitor. We were told that he would be coming on the first day of spring. However, we weren't told specifically if it was on the day that spring would arrive, or if it would be on the first full day. As it turns out, today is that day, and Rainbow Dash and Dark Flame are on their way to escort him into Ponyville."

"Who's this pony that's coming to visit?" one of the ponies in the crowd asked.

"That's the thing. You see, it isn't a pony, it's a-"

"RAAAAAWWWWRRRRR"

"What in Equestria-"

"TWITCHY TAIL!!!"

Hearing Pinkie announce her Pinkie Sense going off, ponies began to scatter before a thunderous boom echoed throughout the sky and the ground beneath their hooves shook. The tremors lasted only a few seconds before they ended, leaving everypony shaking in fear at what just happened.

"Okay! We're good now!" Pinkie happily announced.

"Thank you, Pinkie," Twilight sighed with a small hint of irritation in her voice.

"You're welcome!"

"As I was saying before, our visitor is a dragon." Seeing the fear in their eyes, Twilight quickly added, "Now before anypony starts screaming and running around in a panic, let me just tell you that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both already know about his arrival, so you have nothing to worry about."

"That explains the roar, but what about the earthquake?" another pony questioned.

"I'm not sure why that happened, but I'm going to find out why." Twilight stepped away and walked over to Mayor Mare. "Would you be alright if you took over for now?"

"Of course, Princess," Mayor Mare replied with a bow, earning her a thankful smile from Twilight before she teleported away.

---

Pulling himself out of the dirt, Pyre shook his head to clear away the dizziness before noticing Dark and Rainbow standing before him. His muzzle still throbbing from the hit, Pyre leaned his head down to glare at them.

"Which one of you hit me?" he growled, his eyes narrowing on Rainbow. "Was it you, pegasus?"

"Nope," Rainbow answered with a smug look. "It was him."

"Thanks, Rainbow," Dark said with an eye-roll before looking back up to Pyre. "By the way, why didn't you stop when I told you to? Do you know how much of a panic you would've put Ponyville in if you had showed up like this?!"

"I don't do subtle, Dark," Pyre snorted.

"Then what about when you and the others went to that trial?"

"That was because I was outvoted."

"Well, you're about to be outvoted again. And you haven't answered my question as to why you didn't stop and listen to me?"

"I doubt that you know this, but my temper is short. And when I'm mad like that, I tend to ignore everything else around me other than what made me mad, which happened to be this pegasus."

"Wow," Rainbow snickered. "I didn't know that he had such a fiery attitude."

With a pained groan, Dark facepalmed. "Rainbow, please, leave jokes like that to Pinkie. That was just painful to hear."

"Dark!"

Speaking of painful, I hope I'm not about to be put into a world of it, Dark thought before turning to the source of the voice that called for him and waved. "Hey, Twilight. How's everything in Ponyville?"

"Oh, just great," Twilight sweetly answered before turning serious. "Except for the loud roar and the earthquake that followed it! What in the hay happened here?!"

"Sorry, Twilight, but Pyre wouldn't stop and listen to Rainbow and I, so I had to stop him."

"And how exactly did you do that?"

"It was awesome!" Rainbow said excitingly. "Dark created a massive version of his arm in the air, punched the dragon out of the sky, and sent him crashing into the ground!"

"He punched a dragon... I'm sorry, Rainbow, but could you be a little more specific?"

Tapping a hoof in thought, Rainbow soon thought of a comparable situation. "Okay, remember when we had that meeting with that dragon king and Nocturne possessed Dark and slammed that other dragon?"

"Yes, I remember that. Nocturne recreated a shadow version of his arm from the shade of the room and... wait, is that what Dark did?" Twilight asked, now looking over to him.

"Sorta," Dark answered. "Since it was out in broad daylight, I had to make a portal of sorts so that I could create one."

"Why would you have to do something like that?"

"Remember how I said that I couldn't completely transform into Nocturne's form? Well, since I can't do that, I have to resort to a variation of it until when I can do it completely."

"When did you learn this?"

"During my training over the course of the winter... amongst other things me taught me."

After letting out a small grumble, Twilight began to calm herself before looking up to Pyre. "Alright, Pyre, I want for you to shrink back down to how you were during Blueblood's trial."

"And why should I, Princess?" he questioned.

"Dude, just listen to her and do it," Dark sighed in exasperation.

Begrudgingly, Pyre listened, and in a burst of flame, his body was reduced to a more appropriate size. Standing a few feet away from them, Twilight, Dark, and Rainbow could see that Pyre stood just as high as what Celestia would, minus her horn.

"Thank you," Twilight gratefully thanked. "Ponies were already worried about you coming over to visit, but with this size, they shouldn't be as afraid of you."

"Fine. Were are we going?"

"We'll be meeting with the rest of my friends at the castle."

"Alright, but before we leave..."

Before anyone could blink, Pyre lunged forward and punched Dark in the face, knocking him down to the ground.

"Oww! What was that for?!" Dark snapped, holding a claw up to the sore spot on his cheek while Rainbow tried and failed to hold back her laughter.

"Payback. Also, welcome to the family."

---

Nearly an hour later, Twilight, Dark, Rainbow, and Pyre were sitting in the throne room with the rest of their friends. While they each sat in their respective thrones, Pyre sat at one of the open spots while Dark sat beside Twilight's throne with a frown on his face. During their entire flight back, Rainbow continued to laugh at Dark for him getting decked like he did. When they got to the castle though, her laughter died down and allowed her to properly ask him how he was doing. That was, until the others arrived and noticed the upset look on Dark's face, which led Rainbow to telling them about what happened from when Dark punched Pyre out of the air, to where they are now.

"My goodness, are you alright?" Rarity asked concerningly.

"Yeah," Dark grumbled. "Just a little sore is all."

"Can't ya regenerate or somethin'?" Applejack questioned.

"Yes, but it still hurt. Probably because he's a Scaleless Dragon too."

"It is, but enough of this. Who exactly are you ponies?" Pyre asked slightly impatiently.

"Sorry, allow me to introduce you to everypony," Twilight began as she stared to point to everyone individually. "You already know who Dark and I are, so next up we have Rainbow Dash."

"Hey," she begrudgingly said, still not completely over what he said to her.

"Next we have Fluttershy."

Turning to look at her, everyone saw that Fluttershy was cowering with just her eyes peeking over the table.

"Don't worry. She's usually like this around unfamiliar dragons."

"Noted," Pyre nodded.

"Next we have Rarity."

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Pyre," she said with a small bow.

"Next up is Applejack."

"Howdy."

"And lastly we have-"

"Hey Pyre! Remember me? I'm Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie said bouncing in her seat. "Been a while, huh?"

"Oh, no. Not you again," Pyre said with a hint of dread.

"Wait, you know Pinkie?" Twilight asked confusingly. "When did this happen?"

"Umm, Twilight?" Pinkie uncomfortably called.

"Yes?"

"Do you remember back during Nightmare Night when I mentioned about where I got my supply of holy water from?"

"I do," Rarity chimed. "If I recall, you never told us who it was, but what you did say was that whoever made it had died."

Pinkie solemnly nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"Alright, but what does that have to do with you knowing Pyre?" Twilight questioned.

"Because the one who made this 'holy water' was none other than my sister, Aurora," Pyre answered, eliciting a surprise gasp from every mare but Pinkie.

"Is this true, Pinkie?"

"Uh-huh," she sadly nodded. "I promised her that I wouldn't tell anypony about who she was, but since Pyre already told you all, that promise no longer matters." Quickly wiping a tear away, Pinkie began to explain. "One day when I went to go pick up my order from Aurora, Pyre came over for a surprise visit, and that's where I met him for the first time. He didn't like me very much, partially because that I knew Aurora personally."

"Is that why you sounded unpleased to see her again, Pyre?" Dark wondered.

"Because of what she did," he grunted.

"What ever happened?" Rarity asked.

"She kept on talking to me and wouldn't stop, so I snapped at her. After that, her poofy mane fell flat, and her colors turned a few shades darker. After that... she..."

Pyre didn't finish as memories of that afternoon caused him to shudder.

"She went Pinkamena on you?" Rainbow guessed.

Pyre nodded. "I've looked Nocturne's directly in the eyes, but what I saw behind them didn't even compare to the fear I felt from witnessing that pink terror."

"It wasn't that bad," Pinkie said while tapping her chin with a hoof. "Then again, I don't exactly remember much of what happened after you insulted me and my parties."

No one spoke for a while after that as everyone was trying to wrap their minds around what Pinkie had just said. A minute of silence later, Twilight cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention.

"Perhaps we should get back to why Pyre came here in the first place?" she suggested, trying to steer the topic away from Pinkamena.

"Fine with me," Pyre agreed before looking directly at Dark. "The reason that I'm here is to get some work done with Dark."

"What kind of work?" Dark questioned.

"From what Aero told me, you specialize in fire and shadow magic, correct?"

"Yes, I do."

"Good. In that case, I'm going to test you. After we're done, I'll have an idea of what I'm working with."

"Wait a second. I thought that Scaleless Dragons weren't allowed to take on any apprentices. Wouldn't this be exactly that?"

"Not quite. You see, sometimes we'll teach each other some form of magic that compliments both of our elements. One example would be how both Aero and Aques can create blizzards. Since a blizzard involves both wind and water magic, they decided to share it with each other."

"But Dark's magic-" Twilight tried to pointed out, but was interrupted by Pyre.

"He may be the Lord of Death and specialize in death magic, but if he's as good with his fire magic as what I'm hoping, then I see no reason as to why I can't teach him what I know about fire magic. Besides, he's technically family, so the whole apprentice thing doesn't count."

"... alright. Now the problem is if you were to train Dark, where would you do it? There's no place that can safely support a battle between the two of you."

"Hold on, Twilight," Dark interjected. "I think that Ghastly Gorge could work just fine for us. Besides, after all of my training there, most of the vegetation around the cliff and down in there has been cleared out. At least, in the area that I've been training at anyway."

"Good. In that case, let's get going," Pyre said, getting up from his spot and walking out.

"Alright. Be back in a bit, Twilight."

Waving behind him, Dark followed after Pyre, leaving the six mares alone. Once the echoes of their walking had died down, they each looked around with uneasy looks.

"Is... is this really a good idea?" Fluttershy questioned.

"I wouldn't think so, darling," Rarity answered. "We know what Dark is capable of, but if he's going to duel the Lord of Fire, then Celestia knows what would happen."

"I say we go and watch!" Rainbow excitingly stated. "After watching Dark punch him out of the sky like he did, I'm itching to watch a good fight."

"Ah'm not so sure about this idea," Applejack unsurely said. "Ta let two Elemental Lords duke it out like that's just askin' for trouble."

"You worry too much, Applejack," Pinkie dismissed with a smile. "All we need to do is have Discord there with us. That way any damage caused can be fixed and so that we can have some snacks to munch on while we watch."

"Ah guess, but Ah still don't like it," Applejack paused to look at Twilight. "What about you, Twi? You've been awfully quiet over there."

"Hmm? Oh, just thinking," she replied. "If we could get Discord to fix any damages they may cause, then it could be alright."

"But, Twilight," Rarity began, "is it really wise to let those two fight it out like this? It'll be bad enough having both of them fighting each other, but with Dark's ability to absorb fire, wouldn't that lead to a massive fire outbreak?"

"Pyre said that he's just going to test Dark, so it should be just a practice match instead of a full-on duel."

"Well..."

"Oh, come on, Rarity!" Rainbow impatiently said. "Everything'll be fine. Besides, what's the worst that can hap-"

Rainbow was interrupted as Pinkie shoved her hoof into her mouth.

"SHHHH!!! Don't say that!" Pinkie quietly shouted. "Don't tempt the universe like that! It'll hear you! Trust me!"

"What are you talking about, Pinkie?" Twilight questioned.

"The universe is watching us," she answered, her eyes darting around the room suspiciously and observantly.

"Oookaayyy. And how do you know this?"

"Oh, I know that those two are watching us. They always are."

"'Those two'? Who are you talking about, Pinkie?"

"Exactly," Pinkie vaguely replied, her mood changing from suspicious and serious to carefree and happy again. "Now, let's go get Discord and watch ourselves a fight!"

---

Dark and Pyre were flying over Ponyville, the former leading the latter to their soon-to-be battlefield. As they continued to fly, Pyre began questioning Dark about the condition of Nocturne, to which the result caused Pyre to laugh at.

"Hahahah! That's rich!" Pyre bellowed. "So, not only did he get bested by a half-dead pony, but he was turned into a weapon?!"

"Cutting out a bit of the details there, but yes," Dark shrugged, sending Pyre into another laughing fit.

"Alright, now I need to see this! So, where is he?"

"Right her-"

Don't you dare!

Wincing at the sound of Nocturne's voice booming in his head, Dark looked back to Pyre, who was looking half-curiously at his sudden action.

"Uhh... one moment," Dark said to Pyre before turning his attention to Nocturne. What is it?

I don't want you to show me to him like this.

Like what? As a Living Weapon?

Yes!

And why would that be?

Because I told you not to, that's why!

Why? Are you embarrassed that you've been turned into an awesome weapon?

Don't try to butter me up, boy.

With a sigh, Dark turned his attention back to Pyre. "He's not wanting to cooperate."

"Hah. I figured that he wouldn't be willing to come out," Pyre commented. "Unlike him, I am the most powerful of us and fear nothing!"

"BULL!"

Surprised by the familiar voice, Pyre looked to see that the entire right side of Dark had been turned pitch-black, and his right eye had turned red.

"You are not even close to as powerful as what I was!" Nocturne argued.

"What the hay, Nocturne!" Dark complained, trying to glare at him with his left eye. "You're suppose to warn me when you're going to do that!"

"Quit your complaining. While I do have temporary control over your right half, I gave you control over your right wing so we wouldn't crash. Now, back to you, Pyre. You may be powerful, but you aren't the most powerful out of us."

"I am the most powerful of us Elemental Lords!" Pyre boasted.

"No, you're not. If anything, I'd be willing to bet that Dark here is stronger than you are."

"No one is stronger then me! No one!" he snapped, his temper rising. "Not Celestia, not Sephmareroth, not Super Stallion, not even Nuck Chorris."

"No! Don't you even dare joke about that last one!" Nocturne warningly said.

"Why?" Dark wondered. "What's so bad about Nuck Chorris?"

"... I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"Are you serious?" Pyre questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Even now?"

"What? What is it?"

Even with them sharing the same body, Dark couldn't catch what Nocturne was mumbling about.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Let me tell you the story," Pyre said with a snicker. "It started one day long ago when Nuck Chorris got into a fight with previous Sultan of Saddle Arabia and kicked him in the chin so hard that the Sultan's neck stretched out an extra four feet. After that, the Sultan's children were born with the same neck as his, and that was where giraffes originated from."

"Is he serious?"

"Yes, it's true," Nocturne chuckled.

"Cool. So, what happened next?"

"Well," Pyre continued, "after their fight, the Sultan got so mad at Nuck Chorris that he had his assassins pour a basket of king cobras onto his bed when he was asleep before they started to bite him."

"What happened then? Did he die?"

"That's the thing," Nocturne spoke. "You see, after five days of agonizing pain, the cobras died."

Unsure of what to say to that, Dark silently stared at Pyre, looking for an explanation.

"I know. None of us believed it at first either, but sure enough, it was true," Pyre said. "And don't ask us how it's possible, because none of us know."

"... oookaayyyy. Moving on now," Dark slowly said.

"Right. Back to Nocturne and him. You see, after that, Nocturne decided to keep an eye on him and find out why he's like that. That was, until the day that Nuck Chorris wandered into the Dragon Kingdom and got into a fight with the current Dragon King at the time."

"Ooh, I'm liking this so far."

"Anyway, after the Dragon King dropped him into a volcano, Nuck Chorris jumped out of the lava and killed the Dragon King by roundhouse kicking the volcano he was dropped in into him."

"I don't get it."

"Dark," Nocturne began, his voice dead serious. "He literally roundhouse kicked the volcano into the Dragon King and crushed him."

"... you're kidding, right?"

"Hey, even now we have no idea how he did it," Pyre shrugged. "Honestly, while I don't understand ponies, that earth pony was and still is by far, the strangest pony I know. Although, your pink friend definitely comes as a close second."

"Okay, but again, what does this story have to do with him and Nocturne?"

"You see," Nocturne started, "when Nuck Chorris was dropped into the volcano, he was suppose to die in there, but..."

"But?"

"Nocturne's too afraid to tell him!" Pyre blurted out.

"Why?"

"According to Nocturne, Nuck Chorris apparently broke him just by staring at him with a neutral expression."

"... should I be worried about him?"

"You should be fine."

"Wait, so does that mean that he's an undead?"

"It's complicated," Nocturne said. "He is, but at the same time, he isn't. I can't exactly explain it."

"You wanna know the best part though?" Pyre asked.

"What is it?" Dark wondered.

"That was over a thousand years ago."

"Seriously?"

"Two thousand, seven hundred and eighty-nine years ago, actually," Nocturne grumbled.

Dark sighed, shaking his head in disbelief at the news he was given. Turning his attention back on the direction he was flying, Dark pointed a claw ahead of him as a familiar sight came into view.

"Well, there it is. Welcome to Ghastly Gorge."

Following the direction of his claw, Pyre saw the gorge quickly approaching them. Following Dark, he was led down into the gorge and towards an area filled with scorches and other markings, such as cracked boulders and massive claw marks along the walls. Best of all to Pyre though was the lack of vegetation around the area and up on the surrounding cliffs.

"This'll do nicely," Pyre approved, eyeing the gorge before returning his gaze to Dark. "So, how goods your fire magic?"

"Pretty good. It's been my main element of magic before Nocturne began teaching me his magic," Dark answered him.

"And how about your fire-breathing?"

"Good."

"And your secondary?"

"What secondary?"

Pyre's eyes darted from Dark's left eye to Nocturne's right. "You didn't teach him how to use his shadow breath?"

"What shadow breath?"

"That's my choice of whether or not he can use it," Nocturne argued.

"Umm, I believe that it should be my choice, Nocturne. After all, this is my body. Now then, what's this other breath that I have?"

"Each of us Scaleless Dragons have two sacs-"

"Giggity."

"Stop that! Now, like I was saying, each of us have two... breaths, that we can use. While we each can breathe fire, Aero can breathe lightning, Aques has ice, Aurora had light, and trust me when I say that even though it doesn't sound bad, it hurts. Anyway, Fissure can breathe magma, my flames are magnified and are immune to water, and you and Nocturne breath shadows."

"Seriously? Shadows?" Dark questioned, sounding a little bit disappointed with this news. "What good is breathing shadows besides obscuring everypony's vision when I can cast a spell to do that?"

"Remember when I came to your village and breathed shadows all over it?" Nocturne reminded him.

"Wait, so your shadow breath was what turned everypony into skeletons?"

"Yes, and now you have it."

"... that's a little unsettling."

"Why?" Pyre asked curiously.

"Because I have the same breath that was used to kill everypony in Stonewall."

"You'll get over it," Nocturne bluntly told him. "But we're not here to teach you how to use it now, are we?"

"He's right, so enough talking!" Pyre said with a growl. "I want to see what you can do."

"Alright then," Dark grinned. "So then, what are the rules to this if there are any?"

With a wide grin, Pyre let out a chuckle. "To test you and your fire, you're not to use any of Nocturne's death magic. You can use your unicorn magic for levitation and shields if you want, but you must use mainly fire-type spells."

With a grin of his own to match Pyre's, Dark darted his eye over to Nocturne's side.

"You heard him. It's time for you to go for now, Nocturne."

"Fine, but I'll be watching."

As Nocturne receded back into Dark's body, the darkness that consumed his right half and his red right eye dissipated with him, returning Dark back to normal. But, just as he regained vision into his right eye, Pyre slammed his tail against Dark's side, sending him flying into the rocky wall and down to the ground where a bunch of loose rocks fell on top of him and buried him.

"What? Did you think that I would let you take your time to get ready just because this is a duel?" Pyre mockingly asked.

Pushing himself out of the rocks, Dark groaned and brushed the dirt off.

"Even so, that was a cheap shot."

"Your enemies won't play fair, so neither will I. Consider this a sneak peak of what to expect should you pass."

Consuming himself in a fiery blaze, Pyre returned to his natural form, towering over Dark with the top of the walls reaching below his chin. Not wanting to waste any time, Pyre took a quick breath before breathing his blue fire breath directly at Dark. After a few seconds had passed, Pyre then created a massive wave of fire in front of him and pushed it towards the wall where Dark was standing. Once the wave of fire collided with the stone wall and caused chunks of it to collapse, Pyre looked at the area in the flames where Dark had stood and cocked his head to the side.

"Perhaps I overdid it a little bit," he said out loud to himself with a shrug.

"Not even close."

Raising a brow in confusion, Pyre watched as the roaring flames began converging on a single point. Once enough of the flames were gone, Pyre could see Dark had been absorbing the fire into his now flaming mane, which burnt red and orange instead of blue like the fire he'd absorbed. Giving him a smirk, Pyre slammed his claw down onto the ground, causing cracks to form towards where Dark was standing before fire began erupting from the cracks. They didn't help Pyre though as Dark absorbed those flames too, causing Pyre let out an annoyed snort.

"What's the meaning of this!" he demanded.

Giving a knowing smirk, Dark went to explain. "What I have is a unique ability that let's me absorb any element that I specialize in, and increases my power by however much I absorb."

"And you didn't tell me about this sooner why?"

"You never asked," he smugly answered, causing Pyre to snort blue flames in annoyance.

"Alright then. If that's how it's going to be, then I'll make this easy for us and end it quickly!"

Even though he was ready for an attack, what Pyre didn't expect was for Dark's fiery mane to erupt, reaching almost as high as the gorge's walls, and was even more so when those flames began forming into eight massive tendrils. Using his magic again, Pyre created a massive hammer of fire in his claw and brought it down upon Dark. But, before it struck him, three of Dark's fiery tendrils wrapped around Pyre's arm and held it still while Dark began absorbing the fiery hammer, allowing for him to sprout two more tendrils.

Using his tendrils, Dark launched himself up off the ground before sending three more to block Pyre's other claw as it came in to swipe at him. Holding himself in mid-air with his six tendrils, Dark lifted himself up to look Pyre in the eyes.

"What was that about you ending it quickly?" Dark mocked.

Now pissed, Pyre opened his maw to ready his fire breath on Dark at point-blank range, but quickly found his maw snapped shut by two of Dark's tendrils before he could unleash his flames.

Using his remaining two tendrils, Dark wrapped them around Pyre's head, dropped to the ground, and pulled at all ten of them simultaneously. With a bit of strain and grunting from the weight, Dark managed to flip Pyre over his head and onto his back, causing the dust to kick up while the gorge and surrounding forest trembled from the impact.

Taking this time to go on the offensive, Dark began gathering magic in his horn to power up a spell while keeping Pyre pinned to the ground with his tendrils. Once he'd gathered enough power a few moments later, Dark launched a fireball up into the sky that grew bigger the longer it traveled. Once it traveled a certain distance high above the gorge, it exploded into several dozen, house-sized fireballs that all began raining down upon them and the surrounding area. When the massive fireballs got almost towards the top of the gorge, Dark released Pyre from his tendrils, retracted them, and began flying up and around them.

Once he cleared the last of them, he turned around just in time to watch them impact Pyre and everything else in the surrounding area. Upon hearing Pyre's roar and the sight and sound of the fiery explosions, Dark started laughing as he sprouted his ten tendrils again and used them to supercharge the same spell again before launching it directly down below him. But before the spell hit Pyre, it exploded, sending the slightly smaller fireballs back up into the air for a moment before they began to fall back down again.

"I never thought that I'd miss fighting dragons so much," Dark chuckled to himself. "I almost forgot the feeling from fighting them. The thrill. The excitement. The danger."

"You'll pay for that!"

Looking back down in the sea of fire that covered the top and bottom of Ghastly Gorge, Dark saw Pyre standing back up on his claws while giving Dark an angry glare.

"So, did I pass your test?"

"We're not done yet!"

"Fine then. In that case, come get me!"

With a furious roar, Pyre spread his wings and launched himself up at him while Dark used his tendrils to individually and repeatedly cast the same spell.

---

Once Discord had finally answered Fluttershy's call, Twilight teleported them over towards the outskirts of Ghastly Gorge. When they got there though, they were all surprised to see that the area surrounding them and the gorge were all on fire while fireballs rained down from above them. After a while of looking in silence at the surrounding destruction, Discord was the first to speak.

"Oh, my. Now what happened here?" he asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that we missed one heck of a fight," Rainbow answered.

"See! Ah told ya that this wasn't a good idea!" Applejack barked. "Now look at what they've done! They've gone and torched the whole area!"

"Nothing that a simple snap of my claw can't fix," Discord said.

"Discord, that isn't the point," Fluttershy softly spoke.

"Fluttershy is right," Rarity agreed. "We can't simply let those two go on like this without somepony supervising them."

"They're just having some fun. I say that we let them be," Discord argued.

"Where are they anyway?" Pinkie asked from the branch of a nearby tree. "I can't see anything with all of this fire around us."

"Let me," Twilight sighed, taking a few steps ahead of them and using her magic and created a gust of wind that put the nearby fires out. "There. Now, let's go find them."

Before any of them moved forward, a wide and massive pillar of fire erupted a few hundred feet away in front of them.

"I think it's safe to say that they're that way," Rainbow deadpanned.

Gathering around, Twilight and Discord both created a barrier around them before making their way forward. The closer they walked, the more violent the quaking and roars were until they could see Ghastly Gorge. Once they got over near the edge, they all looked wide-eyed as they saw the sea of fire covering the gorge with Pyre looking like he was searching for something in it.

"Okay," Rainbow slowly began, "I think that they might've gone a bit overboard."

"Ya think?!" Applejack snapped. "They've turned all of Ghastly Gorge and the surroundin' area into a... a... ohhh, Ah don't even know how to say it!"

"Kinda reminds me of the Pits of Tartarus if you ask me," Discord spoke, stroking his chin in thought.

"Why would you know that, Discord?" Fluttershy wondered.

"I got bored one day and did some actual reading from one of Twilight's books. Turned out that one of them had a chapter on it with along with a picture."

"Oh."

"Can we talk about that later?" Twilight nervously asked. "Dark is somewhere down there."

"But he's fireproof, so shouldn't he be alright?" Applejack pointed out.

"Maybe against regular and magical fire, but we don't know if he can handle Pyre's fire."

"Don't worry about him, Twilight," Pinkie happily said. "He's just fine. I'm sure of it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because those are his tendrils, aren't they?"

Looking over to where Pinkie was pointing, they all watched as several tendrils shot out of the fire and swiped Pyre's legs out from under him before dragging him down into the fire. Seconds later, the ground began shaking as Pyre began thrashing about.

"Twilight," Rarity began, "didn't you say that this wouldn't turn out to be a duel like this?"

Giving an exasperated sigh, Twilight left the safety of the barrier and flew up above Ghastly Gorge. Looking down to scan the area, she soon found Pyre standing up from the fires as he began to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge boulders that were being thrown at him by Dark's tendrils. Rolling her eyes, Twilight cleared her throat before taking in a deep breath.

"EVERYPONY STOP!!!"

With Twilight not having to use the Royal Canterlot Voice very much, she was unaware of how much force she'd put behind it as the pressure her voice generated snuffed out the fires and left her friends laying on the ground with their hooves over their ears. It wasn't much different for Dark and Pyre down in the gorge as both of them had put their claws over their ringing ears. With the fires gone and the duel over, Twilight motioned for Dark and Pyre to follower her before flying over to her friends and Discord.

"So, Discord, are you still able to fix all of this?" Twilight asked, looking around at the burnt trees and ground.

With a smug grin, Discord snapped his claw, sending out a wave of chaotic magic that returned everything back to how it was before the fires had consumed it all.

"There, all taken care of," he proudly announced. "I also went on ahead and fixed everyone's ears so they can hear again."

"Thank you." Twilight paused as she heard two wing beats behind her and turned to glare at them. "As for you two, mind telling me how this happened?"

Gulping nervously, Dark took a step back. "Uh... okay, so things might've gotten a liiiiittle out of hoof."

"Just a little? You two set all of Ghastly Gorge and the surrounding forest on fire!"

"I know. It was beautiful," Pyre said contently.

"Not helping," Dark hissed.

"You two are lucky that Discord was here to put everything back to normal! If he hadn't, who knows how long it would've taken to put that fire out!" Twilight scolded.

"Sorry, Twilight," Dark regretfully apologized, causing Twilight to let out a sigh.

"Did he at least pass your test, Pyre?"

"He did," he nodded. "And I have to admit that that was one of the better fights that I've had. Also, with that ability of his, I'll have much more to work with in terms of his training."

"Good. Then I won't have any regrets with tonight."

"Uhh, what about tonight?" Dark worryingly wondered. "Does it have something to do with what we talked about yesterday morning?"

"No, it's nothing like that. As punishment for what you did, you'll be getting the doghouse tonight."

"Seriously? Everything turned out alright in the end."

"That may be true, but that still doesn't excuse you for getting carried away like that and setting the whole area on fire."

"How do you know it was me who did it and not Pyre?"

Twilight deadpanned. "Because those fires all had traces of your magic on them."

"... crud."

"And for that, that thing that I said about the doghouse is now going to be literal."

"What?"

"Tonight, you'll be sleeping outside in an actual doghouse."

"But we don't even have a dog for have a doghouse."

"With how much of a leash she has you on, Dark, I wouldn't say that," Pyre smirked.

"Shut up, PyAAAHHHH!"

With her magic, Twilight grabbed hold of Dark's ear and pulled him over to her side.

"We may not have a doghouse right now, but I can easily conjure one up for you," she told him before turning her attention to the others. "Now everyone gather around. I'm teleporting us back to the castle."

"Twilight, wait-"

---

Over in the castle, Twilight and the others appeared in a flash of light in the middle of the lounge. Annoyed of what happened, Twilight was thinking about relaxing with a warm bubble bath after creating Dark's doghouse for him to sleep in. But, before she went to get started on that, a pained groan from her side caught her attention. Looking down beside her, she saw Dark laying on his side, groaning and holding his head in pain.

"Oops, sorry, Dark. I forgot that you get teleportation sickness," she apologized, eliciting another groan from him before she took him in her magic and placed him over her back. "Make yourselves at home. I'm going to bring Dark up to the bathroom and get him some medicine for him."

With Twilight and Dark out of the room, everyone then turned to Rainbow, who was groaning for an entirely different reason.

"Somethin' wrong, Rainbow?" Applejack asked.

"I was hoping to watch an awesome fight," she groaned. "It sucks that we were too late to see it."

"Not quite, Rainbow Dash," Discord spoke. "If Pyre will allow it, I can use his memories to project an image of their fight."

"Really?" Rainbow asked hopefully before turning to Pyre.

Though she annoyed him a little, Pyre decided to go along with it. "Sure. Besides, it'll give me a chance to watch us beating each other up."

"Sweet! Looks like we'll be having ourselves a movie night."

"I'll go get the food and drinks!" Pinkie announced before rushing out of the room in a pink blur.

"Excuse me, Lord Pyre?" Rarity called. "How long will you be staying with us?"

"Just for a few months or when his training is over," he answered.

"That's cool and all, but can we talk about this later?" Rainbow asked plopping onto one of the seats. "We have a fight to watch!"

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Damn, talk about a heated fight!

[Snow]

Error || Correction

Ch 49: save to say || safe to say
Ch 49: got board || got bored

[Alicon Glactistar]

Nuck Chorris.

That is all.

[Rammy]

"Giggity."

Nuff said

[Neon Starch]

All while I was reading this, I could only think of one thing....

Anyone else?

[Garuda IV]

7230492 That was great. Glad that you enjoyed it.

[Neon Starch]

7230844
Just keep giving us great chapters, man. Also, if you ever have any of the characters meet Nuck Chorris, do that joke.

[Shadowsciver]

While i enjoy the story so far, the fact that you have an immortal dragon meekly obeying mildly upset ponies is pretty offputting. Not to mention the fact that this unique ability is now at the point of being boringly overpowered. He solves all of his fights by setting things on fire and making himself stronger. It's too predictable.

[Night Swift]

I'll never understand how females are always the dominant one....

Last and but not least, Nuck Corris

Nuff said

[Edguy0009]

"Payback. Also, welcome to the family."

Radar has picked up a helicopter going soi soi soi.

[Draige Dragonfire]

"Each of us Scaleless Dragons have two sacs-"

"Giggity."

I have no words as to how funny that is
also thanks to this story, i fear pinkie pie more than i want to😰

[Bronyshot]

"No one is stronger then me! No one!" he snapped, his temper rising. "Not Celestia, not Sephmareroth, not Super Stallion, not even Nuck Chorris."

is that sephiroth

[Garuda IV]

9589582 Yep.

[AstralFlare42]

"Oh, I know that those two are watching us. They always are."

Is this Equestria inside ofa celestialsapien?

[Aydensauce06]

"Each of us Scaleless Dragons have two sacs-"

lol