NOIRE

"Um, sir? We're here," a voice calls out. I weakly opened my eyes and surveyed my surroundings. Cadence was still fast asleep and Ayra was to my side, back in her unicorn form. I shook Cadence lightly, getting her to stir. A light flick on her forehead got her to wake up fully and grasp the spot where I flicked her in pain. When I looked outside, I could see that we were inside the barrier of the Crystal Empire.

"There's no need for formalities around me, Ayra. Just call me Noire," Ayra nodded and stretched a bit before exiting the train with Cadence and Ayra. It felt nice to be back home but a little weird since I had already started considering the empire my home. We were greeted by Burning and Windy with a couple of guards who took care of our belongings.

"It is a pleasure to see you back at the castle, princess. We have been anxiously awaiting your return," Burning said. Windy cut in front of him, which didn't surprise him in the slightest, and began quickly relaying the events which occurred. However, I was distracted by other thoughts. If Grim was coming in three weeks, I need to be prepared. Burning noticed me lost in thought but decided to not say anything and let Windy carry on his rant.

"You should have seen Burning on the first day. The court was so tedious, he ended up stopping it altogether. Isn't that right?" Windy said, jabbing Burning with his wing. Burning ignored this and went over to me.

"I read your letter of the events. Is it true? Is Grim invading in three weeks?" he asked. I nodded, more than enough for him "Then I want to be sure. Sure you can carry the weight of Canterlot's future on your future and the lives of our soldiers under your protection," from the little I had seen of Burning, it was clear he wasn't much of a talker so this was a surprise "I request a duel with you; at full power, no holding back," that added to my confusion.

"Well, this was going to happen sooner or later so why not. I accept your challenge," I said.

Burning pointed to the castle "Meet me at the sparring field once you are fully prepared," he turned and left with his guards following behind him. Everyone except Windy was confused by Burning's behaviour, even Cadence. However, I was more excited than anything. I could feel a grin grow on my face.

"He is an odd one," Windy said from behind me "He's always been like that. Even before he became general,"

"How did he become one anyway? I can't feel a lot of magic from him but I can tell he's strong," I asked. Windy laughed.

"An excellent question, my good friend. It happened during the beginning of Sombra's reign of tyranny..."

BURNING POV, 1000 YEARS AGO

The alleyways of the Crystal Empire were a great place to hide. They led to many places; some the golems couldn't reach you and some they could and as a warrior constantly fleeing through these alleyways, I was well versed in which were which due to my history as a street rat. The downpour of rain soaked my clothes and the blood from my injuries was not stopping but I could not stop now. I was almost home free. A few more turns left. If not for a cruel twist of fate, everything would've gone exactly to plan. If I hadn't taken that one wrong turn that led me right into a golem. It was the end of the line. With my magic depleted and too injured to even stand all I could do was embraced death. Once it dissipated. I found myself cured of my wounds and his magic restored. In fact, I was stronger than ever. I couldn't think about it much more as the golem swung at me which I was luckily able to dodge "Can't think about that now. I need to get this one off me and reconvene with Master," I said as I got into my battle stance ready to engage.

"I couldn't get anything else from him after that point. He just gave a lame excuse and sauntered off. If you want the whole story, you're gonna have to fight him with everything you have," Windy said before flying back to the castle. I held my chin, pondering on Burning's words. Behind his stoic nature lies great conviction and strength. That only got me more determined to prove myself to him. Cadence put a hand on my shoulder to bring me out of my tangent and from her wide expression, I could see she too is left in the dark concerning him.

"You are a mystery. You've managed to get more out of General Fist in a minute than I have in the year I have worked with him. Anyway, we should teleport back but..." she let out a completely fake yawn "I am just exhausted from the trip back. Maybe you could do it this time~" As to how she knew I was now capable of teleporting larger distances were unknown to me but still, I couldn't compete with her right then and there so I complied and teleported all three of us to the castle.

Just like that, we were home. It almost felt like an eternity since I had been home. We all entered the castle and we were instantly met with an excited Doctor Curdle which made me wonder if she knew about my new abilities. Hopefully not, as I was too tired for any blood tests. "Wecome home, Noire! I heard about everything from Cadence's letter and now we have so many new experiments to try. Magic output, psychiatric and physical evaluations and best of all, BLOOD SAMPLES!"
She continued to rant about all she wanted to learn about my powers while we all just tuned out, thinking of anything else. By the time she finished, we were already at our room "Anyway, enough about that. It's good to have you all home and with a new friend, a changeling one at that!" Ayra gently held my arm in fear "Oh don't worry! I'm not one of those racists ponies, I just want to know all about you. We can start with a simple blood test. If I could just borrow your arm for a second or two..." Curdle stared at her wantingly, hungry for knowledge. Before this got any crazier, I gently held Curdle back.

"Curdle, while we all would love to give some blood samples, we are just pooped from the trip home so maybe tomorrow if we have the time?" Curdle eyed me suspiciously before smiling and waving goodbye but on the promise that she would get blood samples out of both of us. Me and Ayra shivered at the thought.

"You'll get used to it, Ayra. When I first met her, she took so many blood samples for the sake of understanding alicorns better and only Faust knows how much she got off Noire while he was unconscious," she laughed at the thought while took a double take. She is not called Doctor Curdle for nothing. "Anyway, Noire, don't you have a match to prepare for?" she asked "You can't leave Burning out there to long or else he may start to get impatient~" I didn't know Burning was even capable of getting impatient and the thought had my spine shaking. I quickly teleported all three of us to the sparring field with haste.

BURNING POV

Anticipation cosumed me as I heard the sound of a teleportation spell and my opponent appeared with his princess and friend. I was still wary of her being a changeling but I sensed no ill intent from her so I had no choice but to respect my new ally's judgement. That aside, the two teleported to the spectator's stand, leaving the two of us alone. "You came. Excellent, a stallion who doesn't flee his foe," Noire chuckled at that and got into his position, battle ready. I proceeded to do the same. This reminded me of a time before I was hailed as 'The Burning Fist'. A time where all looked at me as a simple man wating a great change... "I can still fight, sir! I have to, for the empire!" a younger me yelled in my head, past memories passing me by like ponies in the street.

"I admire your perseverence, fighting spirit and good heart. However, this fight is too much for you in your position to handle. You may not fight and die for the empire now but for many years to come, you will be a guiding hand in the darkness that will lead this empire to even greater heights. I will always be with you, my student, my ally, my friend" His final words to me were words that I will embody and I hoped Noire would as well as he became the empire's sword and shield. However, the time was not for rememberance, It was to test his mettle as our hope. It was drawing closer to noon and by then, the clock hand on the wall was 10 seconds away. 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2...

CLICK

"BURNING FIST: OX!" my fist was set ablaze with an orange flame and I rushed forward at Noire who quickly summoned his sword to block me. However, the full force of my fist sent him back a couple meters away. He quickly recovered and attacked me with three magic slices. I dodged two but the third I barely blocked, sending me back as well. His strength had improved greatly. I counter-attacked by getting in close with an uppercut sending him flying but before he could recover, I quickly followed him and started delivering crosses to his face. On our decent, Noire's sword began glowing blue and transformed into a nodachi.

"DECODE SWORD: LONGBLADE!" he attacked me with a downward slash, denting my armour slightly. When he landed, his sword went back to its broadsword form and he begun hacking and slashing away at me with sword strokes that almost cut the air itself. I had to defend myself so before I was hit with another attack, I managed to grab his sword and throw it and him behind me. Noire landed on his feet, already in position to defend against my next attack.

"BURNING FIST: TIGER" my fist was engufed with flames again but this time, it had taken the form of a claw. I leapt into the air and plummeted towards Noire who turned around. This surprise me but I did not relent. I increased the size of the claw and fell even faster, as if the flames had weight. However, Noire's sword turned blue, indicating it was going to transform again.

"DECODE SWORD: GARDNABLADE" his sword turned into a large greatsword that not only blocked my attack but also absorbed the flames. "Now this one I learned from my dream training with Luna. DECODE SWORD: DUOBLADE" The greatsword grew smaller and split in two, transforming again but into a pair of sabres. He lunged towards me and made an X slash with his sabres, leaving a trace on my armour. I could not continue to me pushed back any longer. I set both my arms and legs ablaze and we both got into linto a cash that began to make shockwaves. This continued until we had each locked in a struggle.

"My Burning Fist: Monkey isn't so easy to counter, let alone block. However, those transformations must take a lot of magic to sustain. I wonder how long you can last for," I said, grinning like an idiot. Noire responded with a goofy smirk of his own.

"Your flames are growing weaker as well so you must be running low as well. I say we stop pulling our punches and finish this before lunch or else Cadence may get cranky" We both aggreed with each in that we would last for much longer with the amount of power we threw at each other. We leaped away from each other until we were a fair distance away.

"FINAL DECODE:" Noire's blades joined back into one and went throught the roof with no trace of damage.

"ULTIMATE BURNING FIST:" my fist was engulfed with crimson flames that extended behind me and began making circles around the sparring field. With a forceful punch, the flames flew past me and straight towards Noire "DRAGON!"

Noire remained unflinching and kept his sword in the air and only once it got half way across the stage did he bring his blade down "PHANTOM EXCALIBUR!" the blade sliced the flames clean in half and passed straight through me. However, the flames exploded, catching Noire in the explosion. Once the chaos of the battle subsided, we both remained standing but wavered every now and again. Both Noire of us made slow attempts at fighting but my flames just died out and Noire couldn't lift his sword for long. It was only until the clock fell onto the floor did both of them fell to the floor, exhausted.

CADENCE POV

"Uhhh madam?" I couldn't turn to meet Ayra's shocked expression as I was locked in awe of what had transpired. Noire had fought my general, one of my best guards to a tie. I knew he gained quite the power boost and the skill with a sword to match but I never expected him to be this powerful. There was also Burning, who displayed powerful magic even though he wasn't even a unicorn. I knew there were items that could grant the wearer or user greater magical abilities but I saw no such items on his person. "Madam? Guards have arrived," I broke out of my trance to look around the feld and saw many guards; some from the earth corps and some from the general corps but all of them sporting dropped jaws and dinner plate eyes. I couldn't blame them. It's not everyday a general goes all out in a fight.

"THAT WAS AWESOME" a guard shouted from the crowd and a plethera of compliments and cheers followed for the two fighters.

BURNING POV

"They seemed *cough* to like it," Noire barely managed to get out "You got to teach me... some of those moves *cough* Can't rely on a sword forever, even if it never leaves your side," I smiled in satisfaction "However, next time, I want to fight you when you're really going all out" It was true that I held back a little bit out of fear of turning him to ash. However, I wasn't the only one.

"What... about you? I know you were hiding *cough* an ace up your sleeve; that transformation you went through at Canterlot," I asked him. We both chuckled slightly before breaking into a fit of coughs.

"I feared that I would have cut you in half plus... I kinda forgot it was a thing I could do. You said it yourself; theses weapon transformations require my code to work and take a lot out of me. Guess we both 'pulled our punches'" I cringed at Noire's terrible pun, wanting the strength to hit him but I was pooped.

"Out of my way! Noire's personal doctor coming through!" the crazy blood doctor came through and rushed to Noire's aid "What were you two thinking?! Throwing such high level magic at each other? You could have both died!" Two of my guards helped me up and Curdle ordered two guards to carry Noire to the medical ward. We all visibly cringed at what she may do when she gets really angry.

We were carried to the medical ward, leaving us with Curdle to rant about how foolish to throw high level magic attacks. I wanted to remind Curdle that we don't have magic in the traditional sense but a fearful look from Noire told me It was better to not anger her more than we already have. Noire had to be bandaged all over for the burns that managed to get through his armour while I only needed rest as Phantom Excalibur only depleted my magic. Once we were tended to Curdle went to off to her lab to let us get some rest, allowing us to talk. "'Burning Fist', huh? Don't you think it is a little conceited to name your fighting style after yourself?" I chuckled, understanding his reaction as it was how most people saw it.

"I didn't name the fighting style after myself; I named myself after the fighting style," Noire looked visibly confused "My master called it 'The art of the Burning Fist'. This style requires control over your heart rate and body temperature, something you learn in your first year. If done unproperly, the flames will burn your arms off,"

"Brutal," he replied "But that brings me to my next question; How do you produce those flames?" I responded by leaning up from my bed and taking off my gauntlets and my bandages underneath, revealing the proof that one has mastered the Burning Fist. Long, black flame tattoos that ran up to my biceps. I demonstrated by taking a deep breath and clenching a fist, causing the tattoos to turn gold and creating a flame surrounding my fist.

"Once you have proven yourself worthy to become a Burning Fist Master, you can take the final exam and awards you with the flames of Efrit for passing. However, mine was given to me by my master before he died in combat with Sombra. During Sombra's rule, the Burning Fist Masters were the main resistance against his forces and I was just a disciple who witnessed it along with the entire school. I wasn't able to take the test to become a master so I do not have the right to pass it onto someone else, the tattoos or the teachings. I am the last user," Noire was silent the entire time. I could only imagine how he pitied me "Sorry, I was rambling. Forgive me, " Noire dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand and got up from his bed and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. It's okay to vent your feelings to someone you trust. If you hang around me and Cadance, you can see us venting to each other all the time and you may want to vent to someone else. Maybe your fellow generals?," He was right. We three, even though we were so different, we thought of each other as siblings. We always had each other's backs. I was about to thank him when Curdle bursted out of her lab, grabbed the both of us and nearly hurled us into our beds. Our faces were altered to match those of scared children as our minds tried to process how this mare could carry two men on her shoulders like we were pillows. However, we chose not to think or ask out of pure fear as a glare told us all we needed and wanted to know. She silently went back to her lab and we chose to get some needed sleep to recover the strength we lost. Don't worry, master. I will make you proud.

Author's Note

I hope you like the backstory I came up with for Burning. I orignially planned for him to be a former boxing champion but a diligent martial artist just fit better with his personality. Gotta start on the next general and boy will I have a nightmare putting this in story form.

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out