The Fire Within

by Black Hailstorm

Chapter 4

Meeting the Town

The train shook as Zuko stared out to the horizon. Currently the former prince was heading to Fillydelphia to help Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity with the help of Spike solve the schism between the town’s inhabitants.

Upon reading up on recent information, Fillydelphia had been divided between the dragons and the equines for quite some time now. Dragons stayed on their side, the ponies never ventured on the dragons. And if either side did cross the line there would always be a fight of some sort.

Things would get serious enough to the point where the mayor had to intervene at times and settle the disputes only for more to rise in the following month or two weeks.

In all honesty Zuko didn’t fully understand why the dragons weren’t more respected. Back home, dragons were revered. Greatly respected creatures till his grandfather made a horrible sport of hunting and slaying them for the simple portrayal of one’s power.

And since dragons were the original firebenders, Zuko could not fathom why such powerful creatures that had it all would be willing to cope with...these ponies.

Do not misunderstand. Zuko appreciated their help. He appreciated the fact that Rarity and Spike had saved him. But as for the others, well Zuko could say for a fact he didn’t care that much about them.

His mission was the only reason he was in this world to begin with. That was the only thing that really mattered. Zuko was only joining right now because he felt traveling with the group could help him find some peace or meaning that would guide him down the path he desired.

“So Zuko!” Pinkie’s voice said. “How do you do that whole fire shooting thingy?”

Zuko looked at the pink mare, then noticed that Twilight, Rarity and Spike were all looking at him with curious eyes.

“Actually I’m interested in knowing how you do that also. You’re not a unicorn,” Twilight said leaning forward and getting slightly too close to Zuko’s face for comfort. Her eyes quickly scanning Zuko’s face, before she leaned back and looked over the rest of his body. “And I don’t believe you know how to use magic since I can’t really sense any from you.”

“Do you have gadgets around that you use to shoot fire or something?” Pinkie asked, suddenly grabbing Zuko’s hands and looking at them.

“Uh, no I- I don’t where I’m from we- Can you tell her to stop?” Zuko said now trying to fight off Pinkie’s attempt to lift his shirt up.

“Uh, Pinkie. Down girl” Spike said gently patting the mare’s hand.

Pinkie Pie pouted before slowly releasing her grip on Zuko’s shirt. But when she noticed the annoyed look on Zuko’s face the mare smiled apologetically before patting his lap and slithering back to her own seat.

“Well then, now that Pinkie’s done examining our friend, Zuko dear would you being kind enough to tell us the real reason you’re able to use fire without magic?” Rarity asked with a smile.

Zuko nodded, before extending on open palm. “Watch carefully.” The other four huddled around Zuko, scooting in closer and leaning in further to get a good view at his open palm. For a few seconds nothing happened. Twilight glanced up to Zuko and saw his eyes were focused solely on his palm. Then suddenly the area around his hand began to grow warm, then rise in temperature until finally.

A flame hovered above his hand. All three mares gasped, Spike stared at the flame with childish interest.

“Whoa” he said clearly breath taken by the former prince’s ability. “How did you say you were able to do that again?”

Zuko couldn’t help but smile faintly at Spike’s interest. The other mares seemed to be just as interested as the young drake as well.

“What I’m doing is called Firebending. Firebending is one of the four bending arts, and as my uncle once told me, it is the element of power.” As Zuko said this he allowed the flame to grow bigger, the train making it wobble just a bit.

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous if the train catches on fire though?” Twilight asked now noticing how bad this could get.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve got it under control, besides if that does happen I can bend all the fire out the window” Zuko said dimming the size of his flame.

“So does this mean you can absorb fire as well?” Pinkie asked, a few neat tricks popping into her head with what she could do with Zuko’s pyrokinesis ability.

“Absorb, no. Firebenders can control fire, that’s it. We can’t absorb it. Bending is tied in with a bender’s emotions. Much like fire, the flame can grow brighter, stronger, and much more powerful depending on one’s emotions. The most powerful one for us firebenders is...anger.”

“Why anger?” Rarity asked. “There could always be other emotions that work for fire” she said thoughtfully.

“Like?” Zuko asked a little perplexed. Anger was a powerful emotion. It was what fueled him each and every day to regain what he had lost. It was what made his father so powerful, made it so that his father, the Fire Lord, would and could remain in power as long as he had now.

It was what had fueled his people for years. Anger, pride, and a strong desire to never lose or in some cases fear. Azula had the second one down pretty good. It was probably what made her such a lethal firebender. She held her skill above others and knew she could face against all.

“A-hem!” came Rarity’s voice. Zuko looked up at her, and noticed she had a look that said “are you done?”, he’d been lost in his own thoughts briefly and must have missed what she said.

“Sorry...I got distracted” he said sitting up straight and looking at her.

“Obviously. May I continue?” she asked with a raised brow and extended lower lip, only adding to the sassy expression on her face.

Zuko nodded. “Delightful” she said. “Now as I was saying, you say that your type of bending, I’m assuming there are others, yes?”

Zuko nodded once more. “Aside from my own there is Earth, Water, and Air bending.”

Twilight had begun taking notes. “Can they all generate their own elements like you can?”

“Firebending is the only element that can be made spontaneously, all the other elements require theirs to be there for use. Airbending is exempted since air is all around us though.”

“Hm, I see” Twilight said nodding her head as she wrote down what Zuko was saying.

“As I was saying” Rarity said, sounding extremely tired of being ignored. “You say that your type of bending is strongest when used in rage correct? Well I think that’s not necessarily true. Fire” she said taking the hand Zuko was using to show the flame, “is uncontrollable. It burns everything in it’s path, and can only be stopped or quelled by water. Sure, it is dangerous, sure it is unpredictable, but it can also be described as determined. A fire that pushes on, carving a way as it burns through all obstacles can in my opinion” she smiled a bit at Zuko before her eyes glanced back into the flame “can only be seen as determined, courageous, and bold.”

Silence filled the train car, a few eyes had turned in the small group of five’s direction as they had been drawn to the light that was emitting around Zuko. A few even got pulled into what Rarity was saying before clapping a bit at her philosophy.

The unicorn blushed a bit, releasing Zuko’s hand in the process and leaning her back against her own seat. “Yes well, that’s just my opinion of course” she said with a slight clear of her throat. Pinkie Pie hugged her now bashful friend with a grin on her face.

“Who’d have thought Rarity had such high insights in anything but fashion” the pink mare said with a giggle.

“Well I do have my moments” she said playfully nudging Pinkie with her arm.

“And it was a good one to” Twilight said with a grin as she finished writing down what Rarity had said.

Zuko remained silent, staring at the flame he still had in his hand. Spike looked up at him and noticed the slightly lost look in Zuko’s eyes. A gentle poke from the drake drew Zuko’s attention towards him, as the girls began to talk.

“What’s wrong?” Spike asked his smile that had been erected from Rarity’s words fading into the comforts of worry.

“It’s...” Zuko looked back at the flame still in his hand before he let the fire die. “It’s...nothing...nothing at all.”

Pinkie Pie noticed the confused look on Zuko’s face and instantly broke away from the conversation she was having with Twilight and Rarity about using Zuko’s abilities for a party later on at some point.

The two were currently trying to talk her out of it. They weren’t having such luck.

“Hey Zuko” the party planner said gaining his attention. Zuko looked up at the mare to see a wide grin on her face. In all honesty it felt bizarre, why she was smiling at him when he felt so confused right now was beyond him. Maybe she can’t read the mood.

On the other hand that speculation was quite the opposite. Pinkie was smiling at Zuko because she could tell he was feeling a little confused by Rarity’s statement on how firebending could be used for determination, and not just wrath, anger or out of pride or fear.

“Hey Zuko, could you tell us a bit more about the Fire Nation?” Pinkie asked, her smile still live.

Zuko hesitated. Talking about home was something he rarely did. Then again he didn’t need to tell them anything relating to himself, he could just explain the past. Besides, he looked out the window, this ride looks like it’ll take a while.

“Alright” Zuko said his eyes still looking out at the horizon. “I’ll tell you about the Fire Nation. About my home.”

---

“Along time ago...fire was given to us by the guardians of the elements; lion turtles. From what old scrolls said, before we ever had the ability to bend, people were just normal. In our world, where I am from there is no magic, there is no balance between magic and life. There is just people and spirits. My uncle Iroh who was a general, he told me that after he left the army he went on a journey and learned a lot about Spirits. How it was because of spirits in the first place that any of us benders have the abilities we now posses.”

“So benders didn’t exist from the beginning?” Spike asked. “They were made?”

Zuko nodded. “Yes. But the arts that came with bending were created in later years to come. Just like firebending was learned from the element that represented it best so were the other elements. Firebending was learned from the dragon” Zuko said looking at Spike. “It was one of the reasons I was surprised to see you.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked. “Aren’t dragons still present where you’re from?”

Zuko said nothing. His expression had grown dark, tired almost, before he spoke again. “No...where I am from there are no more dragons. They were all killed.”

Spike’s ears wilted, his eyes widening in shock. “By what? By who?” his voice shaking with shock and what lay underneath that most likely represented fury.

Zuko’s eyes were closed, he could not look at Spike. This was a dragon, and the very fact that his grandfather’s own desire for power, to show one’s strength had caused the very extinction of Spike’s race on his world made the young prince want to shudder. But he did not. Steeling his nerves Zuko said nothing for awhile as the train wobbled a bit when they made their turn. A conductor’s voice soon came bellowing in through the intercoms: “Fillydelphia will be arriving soon in the next half an hour. Passengers prepare if you are leaving the train at this next stop, and we hope you had a safe ride.” The comm silenced instantly, with an electrical beep and whir in the air before silence once again ruled the train cart.

“Continue if you will Zuko” Rarity said silently, rubbing Spike’s back in an attempt to quell the perturbed dragon.

“Firebending is the element of power, the Fire Nation derives pride in offense. I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. It’s something that is drilled into every Fire Nation civilian. Whether they are part of the military, an official, a student or other, everyone under the Fire Nation is taught offense is key to winning a battle. In order to teach them how great our nation is. How powerful it is and how it rules above all others. Each element aside from my own has it’s own philosophy. It’s own meaning, it’s own way. Different methods of using jing, different styles to display the power of the arts, and different methods to use their bending against others that either are an advantage or disadvantage to that particular bending style.

“The Fire Nation takes pride in using power, force to muscle through whatever challenge is held against us. Strategies are always there, but without the right power, strength, or will strategies are worthless. It’s why we always use the sun to our advantage.”

“The sun?” Pinkie asked, looking at the ball of fire that shined down above, rays of light passing through the clouds.

“The sun is a firebenders strongest source of power” Zuko said, once again allowing a fire to ignite this time above his index finger. “It’s one of the many reasons why we won the wars we waged against the other nations” he said staring at the flame, memories of his time learning of the past coming back to him in waves like a dam that had been too weak to hold back the flow of a river or lake.

“Wars you waged?” Twilight said with a frown creasing her lips.

Zuko merely nodded silently, his eyes still on the flame. “How else does one expand their hold, their power and assimilate more under their will? The Royal Family waged many wars...Fire Lord Sozin, said to be the greatest general and ruler of the Fire Nation, was one who waged many. Some reports in history say that it was his way of trying to make the world a better place. By offering the power of such a great nation he hoped to give other nations the chance to understand the power that was protecting them, in the end however it only brought about many wars and divisions. Countless lives were lost, innocents slaughtered and their blood forever sullying our nation’s ground, all in the pursuit of power. Further dividing the four nations.” A chuckle escaped Zuko’s lips as he felt the train slowly come to a stop at Fillydelphia’s station. “My uncle Iroh used to say a lot when I was a kid, after he lost his son in a war, after I lost my cousin, he would often comment how with these words: “The Fire Nation has lost it’s true meaning of bending. It replaces the real meaning of the arts with selfish thoughts and greed. Using anger, rage, fury, hostility, and anything related to the word ‘hatred’ to breed power. And this can only bring about problems.” I suppose in a way Uncle Iroh was right...anyway...that’s enough of a history lesson for now, we’ve reached our destination” the train lurched forward a bit, steam screaming from its engines and the smoke box as it came to a stop.

“Destination: Fillydelphia! Passengers for this stop please exit the cart, said the unicorn as he trotted through the train car. The doors opened and passengers began leaving the room one by one. Eventually Zuko and the others were the ones left waiting to leave the car as ponies filed out.

Once there was a clear opening Zuko wordlessly rose from his seat, not bothering to look at the slightly disturbed, surprised, or conflicted expressions of the mares and dragon as he exited. It wasn’t until he was standing outside, in the station did he turn his attention back to the others.

“Are you coming or not?” he turned around not waiting for a reply, and made his way into the station. Retelling the past of his home country had left a bad taste in his mouth if that was even possible.

Right now he just wanted to meet the town and get this over with.

---

Spike was...unsure of how to feel. Currently the ponies of this city were giving him and Zuko looks, ever since they’d left the train station and walked into the city. It was both unsettling and confusing.

That wasn’t the only thing that had him disturbed, Zuko’s story of his home country’s past had also shaken the baby dragon a little bit. He personally had nothing to fear from Zuko. The guy seemed alright, when you didn’t rub him the wrong way or ask about his scar. But the fact that people like Zuko, people that had his ability to bend and control fire, were able to kill dragons. It...scared him.

Dragons were immune to fire, most if not all dragons were and are. Granted he didn’t know about Zuko’s dragons, but it was the only thing that made sense. Besides, they didn’t have magic. For ponies it was understandable. There were three tribes; earth ponies, they had super strength. Could crush bones, move mountains even if they set their mind to it- then again that might just be his own exaggeration.

Then there was, pegasi; they could control the weather, could fly. Their emotions were tied in well with the world around them. The clouds could bend to their will depending on how they felt, causing it to rain when they were sad. Or grow dark and pour like savage nimbus clouds when upset.

Finally there were unicorns, Spike thought as he followed the others towards the Fillydelphia police station. Unicorns could use the very essence of magic itself to do their bidding. They could do thousands of things that a earth pony or pegasi couldn’t do as easily or as quickly. So in conclusion Spike could understand a pony taking on a dragon and possibly doing some damage. Maybe even serious if the moment counted for it.

But Zuko, Spike thought looking up at his friend as they moved by some of the ponies that gave him nervous looks by his mere presence, the guy looks tough but I just don’t think he could take on a fully grown dragon like he says his people did. And if they did... he shivered, placing an arm around himself for protection... “That’s just horrible” he said with a slightly irked frown.

“Spike!” Pinkie Pie called to the drake, her muzzle inches from his maw.

Jumping slightly at the call of his name Spike looked around frantically to see they had entered a room. His eyes moved around to see they were in an office of sorts. Pinkie Pie was staring at him as were the others.

“Spike, we’ve been trying to get your attention for the past couple of seconds what’s been bothering you?” Twilight asked her voice slightly hinting at concern.

“Spike” Zuko’s voice said calling the dragon’s attention to look up a bit. Zuko was staring at Spike silently, observing him. Studying his slightly nervous facial expression and the slight twitch at the corner at the young drake’s mouth.

“Are you alright?”

Spike said nothing at first. His thoughts had been so absorbed in the whole dragon extinction thing that he hadn’t noticed they were now in the chief police officer’s office. “I’m uh, I’m fine sorry. Just got lost in thought.”

Twilight’s eyes along with Pinkie and the others remained on Spike for a few seconds before the chief cleared his throat. “I believe you had a reason for bringing this dragon and whatever he is to my office Princess?” the unicorn asked.

Twilight’s expression hardened then turned to the stallion in his seat. “That dragon is Spike, my friend and brother, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t insult him. Ever. And this is Zuko another friend of mine, the reason we’re here is because we were informed that there was a problem here so we’ve come to fix it.”

The stallion stared at the princess silently, he moved a hand up to scratch his rather noticeable orange sideburns before he looked at the rest of the group. “Alright your majesty. Since you and your friends here have saved the Equestria more than a few times I’ll be willing to let ya in on our problem.”

“By The Book!” the stallion called in the room adjacent to them. “We gotta show the princess here and her little friends around town. Let’s get moving partner.”

The gold stallion got up, moved to the door that said deputy and knocked on it, a second later, a light green unicorn with a white mane and large stache came out of the room. “Right then, Princess, Rarity, Spike, and Pinkie. We’ll show you around town. Maybe your dragon friend over there can talk some sense into the blasted dragons that harbor half our town so we can finally get some sleep. Hard Case let’s go.”

With that both officers were given space to exit the office. Rarity patted Spike on the back gently reassuring him that their issue with dragons was something he shouldn’t dwell on and they’d solve this problem soon enough. Once the two officers had left the room everyone else save for Zuko and Spike followed after them so they could get to the bottom of this.

Just as Spike was about to make his way and leave the room he noticed Zuko wasn’t moving yet. “Hey Zuko, you coming?”

Zuko’s eyes remained locked on Spike. “When I told you that dragons were wiped out on my world, you were thinking about it weren’t you?”

Spike didn’t say anything, feeling a loss of words at the current moment.

“You don’t believe me do you?” Zuko asked, now moving past Spike as they both made their way towards the corridor where the girls and two officers were heading down.

Spike bit his lip, he didn’t respond immediately but that alone was enough to answer Zuko’s question. “Well in all honesty, no...I can’t say I believe you.”

“Good” Zuko replied. “Don’t. Pretend everything I said was just a story” he said his pace quickening a bit. “It’s better that way...no need to dwell on the past. I just need to do what I came here to do, and that’s it.”

Spike stopped following and watched Zuko increase the distance between him as the young prince made it closer to the group now heading outside the police department. Picking up the pace once more after a second of silence Spike couldn’t help but wonder, just what about Zuko made him sound like he wanted no one near him.

“Just what happened to you to make you act so cold?”