Darkness Remains

The room was quiet, the only sounds that could be heard was the everyday sounds that was the result of a sunny weekend day. Frigidos stood there, eyes wide open, staring right at Twilight, seemingly in a state of shock.

Frigidos rubbed his ears and did his best to scoop out excessive earwax. "Forgive me, Twilight, it seems that my hearing may have been impaired. What was it that you said, cause I am almost certain that I heard you say that you challenged me to a duel."

Twilight's grin grew even wider. "As a matter of fact, I did. And just to clarify it to you, it is a magic duel that I challenge you to."

Frigidos looked like he was near panicking. "Um, Twilight? Are you sure about this? I mean, I don't think that you would be capable of facing me off in a duel like that. You would be humiliated or worse still."

She waved a dismissive hoof. "I do not know how things worked in your time, but now there is no shame in losing. Why are you so afraid of facing me? Are you perhaps not as capable as you say that you are?" Twilight taunted.

Frigidos grew a stern look on his features, obviously not pleased with the questioning of his competence. "You did not just say what I think you said."

"Oh, I did. What are you going to do about it?" She said with a cocky grin.

The temperature in the room sank as the runes on Frigidos's body glowed more intensely. He spread out his vast wings and stretched himself and puffed out his chest in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more intimidating. And in many regards, he succeeded, Twilight felt the shivers going down her spine. But she was not going to give in, so she just stood there, stoically in-front of him without even moving a quarter of an inch. "I have existed even before the founding of Equestria as you know it. I practiced magic before your ancestors were nothing more than seed. I have lived through Sombra's reign of terror unscathed. And you dare to question my power?"

"Uhu"

For a moment he shook uncontrollably and Twilight feared that she may have overstepped HER bounds. She was just about to ask him if he was well until his shaking stopped. He looked up at her with glowing eyes and a devilish grin, revealing his row of sharp teeth to her. "Very well, princess, If you think that you can take me on, then by all means, lets begin." he took a bow and gestured for the door. "Lead the way to our playing field."

Feeling quite pleased with herself she stepped forward to the door and opened it up.

After equipping a simple cloak and hood on himself, they both stepped outside to find a suitable place for their duel. Twilight thought it over and considered what would be an appropriate dueling ground for them. Perhaps somewhere with a bit fewer ponies walking around since the area they were in right now was a bit hectic with all the children running around and magic required a certain extent of calm and concentration, which could prove to be something of a challenge with a bunch of fillies and colts running around. "How about we take this to the town square? There will most likely be less ponies there and we will have lots of space to work with."

"Whichever place you deem to be fitting." He said in a disinterested tone.

Without another words she led him down through town, heading towards the aforementioned location. On the short way there, Frigidos took a bit of time to admire his surroundings. The dirt roads felt far more natural and comfortable walking in than the hard cobble and marble stone floors and roads of Canterlot. The town had a very rustic and homey feeling to it. Like you could be anyone coming from any part of the world and still be welcomed in with open arms. It stood far away from any other point of civilization, so secluded and yet so open. So a thought struck Frigidos. How did they supply themselves? Other villages and cities are so far away that it seemed unlikely that they could sustain themselves on one single train. Unless of course there was something he was missing. He has yet to explore the entirety of Ponyville so it could quite possibly be a mostly self-relying and independent town. At least for the most part. There should most likely be a farm around here somewhere. It wouldn't surprise him if the country mare he had met earlier was a worker there. Seemed too fitting and perfect to not be true.

The weather was bright and clear, the weather team had clearly put a lot of effort into making this as beautiful a day as they could make it. And it was much appreciated by the townsfolk. The streets was filled with ponies of varying ages and sizes, all going about their everyday life. The adults wandered the streets, conversing with one another, perhaps enjoying a little bite at one of the local restaurants and cafes.

Meanwhile, the children enjoyed all else that life had to offer them. Running around and playing their various games, the most popular as it would seem appeared to be a game about kicking a rubbery ball around without rhyme or reason other than to have the ball.

But what stuck out the most to him was how many of them seemed to be so fascinated by him. Everypony stared at him and he had no idea as to why that was. There was nothing really about that would make him stand out of a crowd since he had deactivated his markings and thus removing the glowing eyes and fangs. So what was it that brought all of their attention to him? Was it because he was new to the town? Did they really take notice of such things? Either way it was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. After a lifetime of shadows and avoiding public appearances, all the sudden attention was completely foreign to him.

"Here we are" said Twilight suddenly, breaking Frigidos out of his line of thought.

Frigidos looked around at his surroundings again, and with a clearer mind, free from the frustration he had earlier felt, he took notice of that this was a largely populated area. Lots of ponies were walking around and some had even formed a little group that had followed them. Suddenly this idea seemed ill advised.

"Um, you know Twilight, Come to think of it this seems like a pretty bad idea. Perhaps we should pull away from this and just return back to the library." said Frigidos.

"Why? You seemed so confident just a mere moment ago."

"True, but now it seems like we have an entourage. But if you really want this to happen then perhaps you could kindly ask them to back off for a bit?"

"Ok, shouldn't be a problem. Um, could everypony please take a few steps back before we begin our duel?" Twilight told them.

"Duel? What duel?" asked some mare in the crowd.

"You will see soon enough. Now please, step back." Twilight said a bit harsher this time around.

Everypony did as she said and backed off to give them their required space. Twilight turned her gaze back to Frigidos and gave him a look that spoke: Are you ready?

Frigidos took another look around and let out a sigh. I guess I can't get out of this one without appearing like a liar or a coward. He thought. "Guess I will be as ready as I will ever be." Frigidos proceeded to remove his cloak and toss it aside. His markings flared up with a menacing glow, his eyes changed color and the air lost its summer heat. The witnesses around them stood confused and uncertain what to make of this. Frigidos twisted his neck until loud pops from his bones could be heard.

"So how will we do this? Traditional rules?"

"Absolutely. I am ready whenever you are, Frigidos."

"Then lets begin. Since you challenged me, I should be the one to open with the first spell. But I would much rather see what you are capable of yourself first, Twilight."

Murmurs could be heard from the gathering of ponies. Who was this pony, talking about casting spells? He is a pegasus for crying out loud!

"Very well then. Let's see if you can keep up with something simple." she said and prepared her first spell. Frigidos stood fast and pulled his wings up in front of him as if they were a shield. What is he doing? Thought Twilight. But ultimately she cared little for what he did and just focused on her own spell. She unleashed the magic she built up in her horn and directed it towards the sole surface of his body which was in clear view to her. His wings. An aura covered his wings in magical energy and so he closed his eyes and steeled himself for the worst possible thing.

.

.

.

.

Nothing? He thought to himself. He opened his eyes again and to his surprise he found his wings changed from their natural violet color to a green hue. "What in the world has..." he separated his wings and looked back at Twilight, a cocky and proud smirk on her face. "What did you do to my wings?" he demanded.

"I simple alteration spell. I changed the pigments in your feathers to another color. I told you I would start off simple. Now the question is can you counter it?"

Frigidos looked as if someone had just insulted him. "Are you kidding me?" he said and started to shake his wings. Very quickly, his wings returned to their natural color, as if he was shaking paint off of his wings. "Very good. Your move." Said Twilight, though hiding it, feeling rather impressed by Frigidos' usage of actual magic. Never could she have imagined that a pegasus could use actual, non-weather, magic.

"Is this a jest? Are you coming at me with such weak, pathetic spells? Do something else."

Twilight reeled back. "Um, ok." she said cautiously. It sounded like she had offended him somehow. Hoping to fix it by doing something more impressive while still keeping it simple. Anyone rookie spell-caster could change pigment color, it takes a more experienced one to alter another creatures appearance. So once again she prepared her next spell and cast it at Frigidos. A beam of light shot out from her horn and hit Frigidos square in the face. Frigidos expected pain but instead experienced a sort of tickling feeling. Frigidos prodded his face with his hoof and felt something. His face was covered in facial hair. A long and twirly mustache on his upper lip and a short goatee on his chin. The gathered ponies started to laugh at Twilights silly trick while Frigidos growled under his breath.

Frigidos brought up his wings towards his face and in a flash, they changed color again, taking on a more steel gray color. He brought them along his muzzle and cut off the mustache he had been given as if his wing was a razor. How in the... thought Twilight.

Frigidos brought his wing to his chin but then stopped. He stroked his petit goatee. "You know what? I actually like this. Thanks, Twilight." he said. "But that still does not dismiss the fact that you still keep on pulling your punches. Why won't you give me the good stuff?" he said accusingly.

"I thought I should just keep it simple. But if you want to set a different pace then by all means, cast a spell of your own." Twilight barked back.

An evil grin spread on Frigidos' features. Suddenly Twilight got the urge to run away as fast as she could. "As you wish."

Twilight barely had the chance to react. Eyes and marks flared up in a mere instant and just as quickly as that had happened, Frigidos brought the feather tips of his wings together and in the space between them appeared a ball of golden magical energy that launched towards her. It took all of her might (and with some magical acceleration) to take flight and avoid the orb. She looked down to see what happened, and by the looks of it, the moment it came into contact with the ground it resulted in it just disappearing into golden mist, and with the sound of a thud, caused loose dirt to be tossed around. The ponies that had gathered gasped and took several more steps backwards. Frigidos looked up at Twilight, taking notice that she wobbled a whole lot, unable to keep her balance in the air. "Hm, curious."

Twilight glared daggers at Frigidos, unable to make it look dignified with the way she was wobbling in the air. "What in tartarus are you doing?!" She cried out at him.

"Stepping things up." he answered and again she saw his wings again take on a steely color. He gave a powerful flap of his wings in her direction and from his wings flew feathers straight towards her. Not daring to take any risks with this scenario she conjured up a bubble-shield to defend herself. She realized how fortunate she was to have made that decision as the feathers collided with the shield and penetrated it, sticking to it. But with her focus on the shield, she forgot to keep balance and give enough strength to her wings which resulted in her falling to the ground. She used the same spell to protect her from the impact of the fall. She stood back up on her hooves and tried to get a look at Frigidos. But all she could see was another barrage of feather and a golden orb flying straight at her. The bubbles thin wall got penetrated by the feathers like before and the orbs collision caused a great explosion this time around, causing the shield to crack. As the dust came clear another barrage came. And another and another. What exactly was he trying to accomplish? Was he trying to kill her? She poured every ounce of magic she had in her into the shield in an attempt to not have it break. The ponies around started to panic and run away.

"What's the matter, Twilight!? Did a gryphon steal your spell book!?" She heard Frigidos laughing over the explosions. "Come on! The element of magic must know more spells than this!"

Twilight forced even more magic into the shield, so much in fact that it proved to be overwhelming for the poor little bubble to receive so much sudden raw energy. The shield shrank and expanded at such velocity that it created a minor shock wave which forced Frigidos to stumble and halt his onslaught. Twilight took this opportunity to counterattack. She unleashed beam after beam of magic at Frigidos in an attempt to keep him down. But to her surprise it seemed to have the opposite result. Frigidos stood up tall and strong as his markings glowed even brighter. It was if she was charging him up.

"Tsk tsk tsk, is that the best you can do, princess? Surely you must have better tricks up your sleeve or you wouldn't have challenged me to begin with." he said and shot a golden beam of his own. The golden beam struck her straight in the chest and she was flung into the town hall. The impact to the floor knocked the air out of her lungs and she struggled to fill the up again. She forced herself up on her hooves again and looked over to the entrance. In through the shattered door trotted a calm and grinning Frigidos. "Call me impressed, Twilight. You took that beam like an ogre and walked out of it without a scratch. Now then, do you have anything to counter that with?"

Twilight had an idea, but she did not know how well that would work. But it didn't matter, she needed a way out of here and the only way out was right behind Frigidos. She brought her wings together just like how she had seen Frigidos do earlier. She did her best to imitate what he had done and started to pour magic into that specific spot. The magic was clumsy and it went a bit into all places so she started to use her wings to try and form an orb out of the magic and eventually she succeeded. She had no idea how the spell worked so she tried to balance the spell with as much magic as she could but no matter how much she tried it refused to grow any bigger than the minimal size it was in. No doubt it would barely cause any damage whatsoever to him. Maybe it was a spell that took a lot of magic to perform? But then that raised the question as to how much magic Frigidos actually had. But one thing caught her attention. Her orb was the same color as all of her spells, the color of her eyes, just like any other unicorn instead of the golden one of Frigidos. But his eyes are naturally ice-blue. So why isn't his magic the same color?

But Twilight caught her mind wander away from what was actually relevant. And what was relevant was that Frigidos was approaching her in slow strides, clearly enjoying the moment. Panicking, Twilight forced even more magic into her orb to the point where she started to feel exhausted and "threw" it at Frigidos in the hopes that it would at least do something despite its small size. Its velocity was quite minimal as Frigidos had more than enough time to actually dodge it. But instead he just stood there waiting for it. He probably didn't expect much out of it and was just waiting to absorb it like how he had absorbed her earlier beams. Seconds passed by without anything happening other than her orb slowly approaching him. Then it finally collided with him and the result was unexpected. Scratch unexpected, more like shocking. The moment the orb came into contact with him, the explosion that followed was so massive that it caused a blinding light and made the earth quake.

Twilight closed her eyes to avoid the bright light. When the light faded she opened her eyes and immediately regretted her decision of using the spell. Where there once was a doorway there was now only a massive hole in the wall and the floor had completely shattered. And Frigidos was nowhere to be seen. She carefully treaded past the broken floor and out of the town hall. She turned around to take a good look at her work and was horrified. The damage she had caused was near causing the building to collapse on itself. She turned around in hopes of finding Frigidos. And she did. But not in the state she was hoping for.

Further ahead of her she found him buried into a house wall. She ran forward to him, and the sight was even more grisly than she had first expected. Three big iron rods had penetrated his side and was jutting out of the other. He was coughing up his own blood as he tried to move his head to look at Twilight. He just smiled. "First to draw blood wins." he said. He looked at the rods sticking out of his side and then back at her. "I think you succeeded in that regard."

Before Twilight had a chance to respond she heard something from behind.

"TWILIGHT!"

She turned around and saw her friends approaching her quickly. "Twilight, what happened." Asked Applejack.

"Frigidos and I just had a duel and then-"

"AHHH!" Rarity screeched.

Everypony turned their eyes away from Twilight and found their eyes locked at Frigidos.

"T-T-Twilight? W-What happened?" asked Fluttershy.

"I can explain. We were just having a duel and then-"

"Get me down."

Twilight too turned around to look at Frigidos. "What?"

"Get me down from here"

Rarity was the first to oblige. She used her levitation spell to slowly and carefully pull him out. She was very cautious so that she did not worsen the damage done to him. After a couple of grunts and moans she was able to pull him out as blood squirted out on the ground. "Now help me up."

"F-Frigidos, you should lie down until help comes." Fluttershy suggested. She knew exactly how serious this was. The rods had pierced his lungs and possibly damaged his heart. How he was even able to be so calm and speak properly was beyond her.

"No need. I can help myself. Now just get me up."

Rainbow Dash and Applejack stepped forward and held him under each wing and slowly pulled him up on his hooves, getting blood smeared on their fur. The markings on his body glowed more intense again and Applejack and Rainbow Dash immediately regretted standing so close when this happened as Frigidos' markings chilled them to the bones. Minutes like this passed until they felt that he now stood on his own. Carefully, they moved away from him and found that he was able to stand without their help. They also noticed that the holes that was earlier present on his body had all simply vanished. The ponies were astonished. How was this possible? How could those wounds have just healed like that? Twilight was about to ask how but he raised a hoof to halt her. His breaths were uneasy and ragged. They saw how he dry-heaved and understood what he was doing. Seconds later he regurgitated. But instead of something like vomit he heaved out blood.

Pinkie caught a fainting Fluttershy and the others seemed like they were on the verge of vomiting themselves.

After that whole incident he soon stood right back up and cleared his throat. He looked at the mane six and found them staring at him with confused and horrified expressions.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"Something the matter!?" Twilight exclaimed. "You were just pierced by 30 inch rods straight through your ribcage! How in tartarus are you still walking?! Why are the holes fixed!?"

"The holes? Oh you mean that! My apologies, such insignificant damage is so common in my line of work, so patching it up is pretty much no big matter to me. Such wounds are easily healed."

"But not even the most advanced healing spells can perform such feats."

"Well then, lets consider myself lucky that it was not a healing spell I used."

"Then what did you use?"

He waved a hoof dismissively. "Irrelevant. Something that is relevant though is why you used such a powerful spell on me. Did you actually try to kill me?" he said jokingly.

The ponies and little dragon all turned to Twilight, shocked to hear this. "Twilight?

Did you do this?" asked Spike and pointed towards the broken town hall and house wall.

"I-I..." she could not find the words. The way they looked at her made her feel like she was being accused by them. She turned away from them, not daring to meet their gazes. She looked towards Frigidos and, weirdly enough, it made her feel better, safer, as if he was the only one that was not judging her right now. "I didn't mean it. I thought that the small size of the orb meant that it would be weak so I just poured more and more magic into it. I had no idea that it would be as powerful as it was."

Frigidos nodded. "I believe you. And as ridiculous and perhaps cliché as it may just sound..." he said approaching the other and put his hooves over Spike's finned ears.

"Size does not matter. Least of all with magic." he uncovered Spike's ears. "As for the rest of you, do not worry yourselves and do not be too harsh with Twilight. It was a rookie mistake, nothing more."

"WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY HALL!?"

Everypony turned around and found the mayor standing in the middle of the town square, taking in the sight of the broken hall in-front of her.

"Now if you excuse me..." Frigidos said as he made his way forward. "We will explain everything to you back at the library later. But now, there is a certain mayor that I must speak to... That is the mayor, I assume?"

Everypony nodded.

"Well then, why don't you all go back to the library and talk this through, while I go and pay for the damages?"

"Wait, what?" Twilight said. "You can't do that. I am responsible for these damages."

"Do you have the money to pay for the repairs?"

"Well... no, but-"

"But nothing. Just go back to the library and let me take care of this, okay?" he looked towards the other ponies. "Escort her back there, would you?"

They nodded and started to direct her back home. Once back in the library they all sat down in a circle around the floor. "Now then, Twilight. I think you owe us an explanation." Said Rarity.