The Drakon

by Azrael the alicorn

04: The Pure Heart Of Darkness

Noir stared as Princess Luna shoot other rays at him, only to see how ineffectual they were. She was as stubborn as her sister. That could have be either good or bad, so he had to take it easy with the princess of the night. He made to say something but Celestia did it first.

“Don’t think about us Luna!” she yelled, “He’s far too much powerful! You have to get to safety!”.

“No!” replied Luna, “I won’t let you alone in the time of need!”.

“You got some guts” acknowledged the dark dragon with a sincere smile, “I like that”.

“Your words doesn’t fool me, dragon” replied Luna, glaring the Avatar of Darkness with mistrust, “Not after having attacked my friends and sister!”. Noir made to reply when suddenly…
“OBJECTION!”.

In a twinkle of light Discord appeared floating between the two, dressing up with a blue suit and a light red tie.

“My costumer is innocent!” proclaimed the spirit of chaos.

“What are you talking about, Discord?” asked Luna, with a mix of anger and confusion at why the Draconequus would defend that creature.

“I’m saying that it’s Celestia who has started the fire. Not the dragon”.

Princess Luna eyes widened and then narrowed when she heard those words. Was Discord lying to her?

“Is that true sister? Did you attacked him first?”. Asked the younger sister to the eldest one. Celestia didn’t find the strength to stare in her eyes, feeling ashamed. That was enough to answer to that question.

“But why? Why you and the Elements have attacked this dragon?”.

“Because I’m the Avatar of Darkness” responded Noir, clearly irritated “and for your sister and those ponies there that makes me evil”.

“Indeed” added Discord, who had now got rid of the lawyer clothes, “He just wanted to talk to you”.

“About what?” asked Luna, turning to Discord and Noir. What could possibly want the Avatar of Darkness from her?

“About you learning to control the dark powers that resides inside of you” answered Noir.

Those words let the second ruler of Equestria speechless as she let them sink. The dark powers inside of her? Does that means that she had still something of Nightmare Moon? And was that a bad thing or a good thing?

“And that’s why I didn’t wanted this to happen” replied Celestia, as she gather enough strength to get up, although not ready to fight again, “Nor Twilight nor her friends wanted this to happen”. She made to say more but she got surprise as Luna suddenly landed in front of her.

“This is not your to decide, sister. I appreciate you and the other concern for me but this is something that regards me and you don’t have any rights to take away my free will” responded the ruler of the night with a calm and yet stern voice.

“I am your sister Luna!” argued Celestia, both her face and tone a mix of fears and anger, “I didn’t wanted you to turn once again in Nightmare Moon! I didn’t wanted to lose you again” she added as a few tears showed up. At that Luna expression soften up a bit more, but before she could say anything the dragon spoke.

“Quite the moving scene” observed, “Although is quite of ruined by the fact that, if I hadn’t been as tough as I am, Celestia would have killed me without dropping a tear”. His voice was filled with sarcasm.

“That is true” lamented the older sister, “And I’m sorry for that”.

“Keep you sorry excuse of forgiveness for yourself, princess” was the rough response of Noir, “It’s typical of you creatures of light to think that is enough to say sorry to fix everything. You just wanted me dead because of my nature linked to the darkness”.

“It’s not true!” claimed Celestia, “I know that darkness is part of the balance of the universe”.

“Oh really? Cause then why there isn’t a bit of darkness in your land except from what hides inside your sister? Why did you attacked me when I’ve reveled my true nature? And why I can’t help but think that if you noticed that your sister had those dark powers yet you would have done something to try to, how you do you like to call it? Ah yeah, heal her from that?” those long series of questions were followed by the dragon face getting closer and closer to the ruler of Equestria, his eyes filled by resentment, “You claim you were attacking me for protecting your sister and I do believe that is true. But its undeniable that in you there is the typical hatred that you creatures of light feel for those who comes from the shadow. And even when some of you claim that darkness is as necessary as light there’s still the fact that darkness is always left in the shade, putting the light in the first place!”

“Enough” said Luna with calmness, placing between the dragon and her sister, “You have claimed your points, dragon, but now is time to change argument. I want to talk about the reason why you came here” and when she noticed Celestia made to say something she added, “As I’ve stated before this is something that regards me and so it must be I to choose”. With that said she turned her attention to the dark drake, “So, Avatar of Darkness”.
“You can call me Noir, princess” said the dragon, which anger had vanished.

“Alright, Noir, exactly what you mean with dark powers?”.

“Exactly what it sounds, princess Luna, in you there is some great power that has been suppressed for quite some time. I want to help you get a hold on it so you can reach your full potential”.

“I thought that my dark side had been healed by the Elements of Harmony”.

Noir laughed a bit, “The Elements may be powerful, but they can’t change the nature of the soul”.

“Which would be?”.

“To be part light and part of darkness. Although some time a soul can be more aligned by one of those two. The latter turned into a more physical manifestation turning into Nightmare Moon”.

“So in a way my sister was right” pointed out Luna, slightly worried.

“Like I’ve said to those six ponies down there I don’t want to do that” said with a bit of exasperation pointing at the Mane 6, who were now staring at the two with curiosity and a fear, “In fact, if you accept my offer you shall no longer worry about her anymore. What do you think?”.

Luna stared at the Avatar of Darkness in front of her with doubt clear in front of her. What he had just said sounded perfect. But was it enough to be true? And if it was true, would have she capable enough to go through this experience?

Noir could feel her doubts, “I see your doubts are giving you troubles”.

“Of course I do. I wish I could believe what you said but”.

“But you’ve spent so long seeing darkness as the enemy that you doubt it’s benign nature, am I right?” he said, giving to the princess an comforting nod, “Yeah, that’s something I expected. So allow me to help you. Let me show you what darkness truly is so that you may see things that will blast your very soul” added while he moved closer an opened hand, welcoming the princess of the night to get on it.

“Things that will blast your very soul!?” commented Discord, slightly staggered by those words.

“What? I thought it sounded as an epic thing to say!” replied Noir, a bit annoyed by how the Draconequus ruined his grand moment.
Luna couldn’t help but smile a little at the manners of the dragon. She stared at the claw, pondering what to do. Despite the overly dramatic words she could sense that the Avatar was serious about showing the darkness true nature. She looked at her sister who, like the Mane 6 was watching the whole scene holding their breaths.

“Okay then, Noir, but before you show me anything I need to ask you two questions”.

“Ask away”.

“If I reject your offer, what are you going to do then? Would you force me to follow you?”.

“I’m going to be disappointed, no doubts about it, but I will respect your choice”.

“Second question: Why exactly are you doing all of this?”.

“Because it’s my mission given by Obscuritas itself to find and help those who have dark powers and are way too much frighten to put them at use because they fear it’s nature”.

“Obscuritas?”.
“Ah-ah-ah, only two questions, remember?” made notice the dragon with a sly smile.

Luna sighed, but then jumped inside the open claw, hoping that the dragon would not crush her. Few seconds later she found herself surrounded by a dark purple aura and before she could say or do anything her mind flew away.

***
Princess Luna was expecting to find herself surrounded by the dark, making her as blind as a bat. Instead the place was lightened enough to make her see how incredible this world looked like. It was like the moon, a forest and the crystal barrier fused together, creating a fauna and life unique on their own. She found herself staring at the world from the top of a mountain which was covered by a mix of coral and moss of various colors, while here and there stood crystals which sent sparkles of several colors, all them in dark and yet warm shades. The land was bathed by the soft and blue light of not one but two moons, one blue and the other one white. The other thing she noticed was that there were islands floating far away.
There was such peace and beauty in this world that she find herself incapable to say nothing but admire the view.

“Pretty neat, isn’t it?” asked a voice beside her. She almost jumped out in surprise when she saw Noir laying down at just fifteen feet from her. “I remember the first time I saw this place… I was speechless too” he turned his attention to her, “It wasn’t what you expected, is it?”.

“What place is this exactly?”.

“It has no real name. But it is one thing: the heart of darkness”.

“The heart of darkness?” she looked around, confused, “I’ve always thought that darkness was… well… dark”.

“Darkness is much more than a bunch of shades. The problems with most of the sentient life is that they have a view of the world so simple and so they make everything, even the most complex of things simple. Time? A clock or an hourglass. The evil? Some guy with horns, tail and a pitchfork. The good? All winged creatures with wings and a city above the heavens bathed in eternal light” he said that part shaking in revulsion.

“And what do they say of the darkness?”

Noir laughed, although sounded very harsh, “What they don’t say would be a much easier question! Darkness is either a force of evil, of demise, chaos or oblivion itself”.

“It’s horrible” commented Luna with grief, “Why is so feared?”.

“The fault of that are sadly the so many foolish overlords of darkness and of the many entities who claim to be darkness itself, spreading disorder, death and destruction, as I’m sure that you and those six ponies have already faced. Then there are those beings of light who help this belief to grow thanks to their speech of how light is filled with good and darkness with evil. Those idiots wouldn’t understand the true function of the Balance not even if they got bitten in the flank by it. And even if they saw how the darkness truly is they would still disliked how it works”.

“Why? How does the creed of you… us creature of the shades, different from the ones of the light?” asked Princess Luna, curious.

She consider herself part of darkness, that’s a good sign, thought Noir.

“The difference is that, unlike the forces of light, we don’t reject the negative emotions just because of their nature. Hatred, fear, anger, they may not be the best feelings, but they are still part of every sentient being. It would be an insult towards them to treat them as something that doesn’t belong to our being”.

Luna was taken aback from what she had just heard. Indeed her sister would go on and on about happiness, love and stuff like that. It was quite boring to say the least. But then she remember a particular.
“You haven’t show much of those emotion (Well, anger aside). And this world sure doesn’t seem filled with them either. Why is that?”.

“Because as darkness itself command, we acknowledge and accept those emotion, but that doesn’t mean we let them rule over us. It takes a strong heart to push aside the strongest emotions, but it takes an even stronger heart to hold them in their right place and get strength by them. And that’s one of the reason why the so called master of darkness always tend to fail” explained with a smile while staring at the moon, but when he turned his attention to the princess of the night he noticed that she looked sad. “What is it?”.

“I… I don’t think I’m worthy of this power” she replied, “The main cause that I’ve turned into Nightmare Moon was because I left my envy and jealousy take over me. How can I learn to control my emotions if I’m so weak?”.

At that Noir looked as if he didn’t know what to say. But he still had to try, “It will not happen again” he promised, “With my help we will overcome any problems you had. And even without me I doubt you would fall in the same error twice”.

Luna uncertainty seemed to vanish a bit, she smiled at the dragon “Thanks, Noir, I appreciate your kind words”.
“Well, is the best I could say” scoffed the Avatar of Darkness, thanking the dragon maker to have given him scales to hide his embarrassment.

The two returned their attention the magnificent view, enjoying the peace of that dreamy land.

“So… have you made your choice?” asked Noir, hoping to not sound inpatient. The blue alicorn remained quiet for few seconds and the dragon could sense that she was thinking.

“Your offer is really tempting. But I think I’m going to need more time to take my choice on this subject” she answered with doubts echoing in her voice.

“I guess is right. After all this is going a big step for your life” admitted Noir. He wished that Luna could take her choice right after seeing the Heart of Darkness in its purity, but he couldn’t nor didn’t wanted to force her to take this path so soon.

“How long can you stay on Equestria?”

“Two weeks is the best I can give you. There are other Tenebrakinetics who may need my help out there in the… existence” responded Noir. He didn’t wanted to reveal to the Princess that there was a whole Omni verse out there. That kind of information can be hard to swallow.

***
When Luna jumped on the dragon claw and she found herself surrounded by that dark aura she made to intervene, but Discord stopped right onto her tracks, “I think that for today you have done enough, Celestia” said the spirit of chaos, “And stop worrying for your sister. She’s fine”.

“Why are you helping Noir, Discord?” asked Twilight.

“Well, aren’t you the one who always brag about helping a friend?”.

“Noir is your friend?” asked Pinkie Pie, surprised.

“That is such a great news!” beamed Fluttershy.

“Yup. I’ve given some advice to get to Canterlot without unleashing panic or start a fight… too bad somepony ruined it” commented the Draconequus while shooting a glare to the princess of the sun, who turned her eyes away in shame.

“Are you sure he consider you a friend?” asked Applejack.

“Yeah” added Rainbow Dash, “May I remind you what happened to your friendship with Tirek and how turned up to be?”.

“Oh, this is quite different, Rainbow Dash” replied Discord without sounding a bit troubled hearing to what happened a month ago.

“And how is this different?” asked Rarity.

“Simple: Tirek used his smooth talking to make me change sides because he knew that I was too much powerful for him to beat. Noir here didn’t needed such trick because, as I’m sure you have noticed, he’s way much more powerful than my chaos and your harmony. If he just wanted he could have annihilated me, wrecked Canterlot and then forced Luna to do his biddings. Luckily for us he’s not as evil as he may seem at first sight”.

“But how is possible for him to be more powerful than Harmony? He’s the Avatar Of Darkness!” said Twilight, almost screaming.

“Yeah, how can that be? I thought that Harmony was the most powerful thing on world!” added Rainbow Dash, a bit hurt in her pride as much as Twilight.

Discord sighed and then give the Mane 6 a bit of an harsh glare “You know, this is the reason why I didn’t wanted to warn you about his arrival. So that you may clash with Noir in the classic “incomprehension” brawl and get a little bit humbled by it. Since Tirek defeat you have believed to be a force to be reckon with, to be capable to challenge and defy the very foundation of the universe as if they were nothing compared to the magic of friendship. I think that has come the time to realize that there are thing more powerful and ancient that your rainbow power” ranted the Draconequus. Each member of the group made to reply, but they remained silent as the words of the spirit of chaos sink in, making them realize that, indeed, they had grow arrogant in their own. Celestia made to reply, but Discord hadn’t finished yet, “That said, it may patch a little your broken pride to know that Noir is not from this world. But from outside”.

At those words the Mane 6 and Celestia gasped in surprise as they looked at the dark dragon, which stood still as a statue. The bad mood of Twilight got replaced by her curiosity as she thought about the differences that only now she had noticed on Noir. He was actually much less bulkier than most of dragons she had meet, his built slick yet strong looking made him look both fast and powerful. Before she or the others could ask more about the outsider Noir and Luna snapped out from their vision. The dragon let Luna fly to the ground, finding herself surrounded by her friends.

“What happened?” asked Celestia.

“Noir showed me the true nature of darkness. And after everything I witnessed I’ve decided that…”.

“Yes?” asked simultaneously the Mane 6, Celestia and Discord.

“To take in consideration his offer”. At that answer everyone looked disappointed, some hoping for her to accept, some her deny, other just to know what she would do.

“Well, that was anti-climatic” commented Discord.

“You said it” agreed Rainbow Dash, surprising herself.

“From today” continued the blue alicorn, “I will have 13 day to make the choice. I need time to think”.

“And what will you do in the meantime?” asked Discord to Noir.

“I will explore a bit this world. That is going to make my time fly faster” said the Avatar, then turned his attention to the his soon-to-be apprentice, “I’m sure that you’re going to take the right choice, whatever is going to be” smiled the dragon, smile that turned into a glare when he switched to the elder sister, “And I really hope that no one will try to make you change your mind, for their own sake”.

With that said Noir opened his wings and flew into the skies, surprisingly enough without raising that much of a wind. He looked around searching for something and then he saw Ezio flew next to him. The dragon raised a scaly eyebrow, wondering where this stupid bird may have went when he was busy. But he got derailed from that issue when the youngest alicorn calling him.

“Wait!” shouted Twilight Sparkle, “I have some questions to ask you!”.

“Don’t fret, my little horse, we’re going to meet up sooner that you may think!”.

And with that said he flew away, so fast that it almost vanished like a ghost.

Author's Note:

This chapter is, without a doubt, the longest made until now. And it's also the one sporting the most the tag slice of life.
You have no idea of how much it irks me when movies, books, comics and cartoons doesn't do nothing more than say that darkness is evil. We live in a world where people thinks that is necessary to point out what is good and what is right. And way too much often, Darkness is saw as a bad thing. Noir is pretty much the middle finger to both the ones who brags about the purity of light and those pricks who dares to call themself as overlords of darkness.