NOIRE POV

Five days had passed since we all resumed our daily lives, albeit with some bonuses. My relationship with Cadance seemed to be back on track, stronger than ever even, and Tidal and I have been open with relationship while still maintaining a level of professionalism. We still kept everyone in the dark about Tidal's 'condition' but it was bound to get out eventually. However, the change that had grown more apparent day by day was in Burning. During our sparring sessions, I noticed a hint of anger in his eyes. If not that then desperation, which was weird for Burning's often calm demeanour. His punches were less precise, attacks missed more often, and our matches were almost always in my victory. I had grown tired of winning against a warrior who wasn't fully in it and confronted him about on the fifth day.

"Burning? Is something wrong?" I asked him that day in the training grounds. It was noon and the guard were out on patrol, allowing us to talk without fear of being noticed.

"What do you mean, Noire?" he replied, taking a seat on a nearby bench and grabbing a bottle of water.

"You're getting sloppier by the day and you look like a wild animal while we spar. This isn't like you."

Burning feigned a smile "Maybe you're just surpassing me. That recent power-up of yours has done you some favours," he said. He was deflecting, and poorly at that.

"That would be the case if you at least managed to hit me during our spar, but that hasn't been the case for many rounds now. Burning, we can't afford to be slacking behind right now, especially after Grim's shown to be improving his forces. What's wrong?" I persisted, leaving the stallion with no choice but to relent. He sighed as I sat down next to him, looking at the ground beneath him.

"Noire, I'm scared." I looked at him like he told me pigs could fly "Ever since Grim attacked us in Canterlot, I've felt myself feeling... insufficient. While all of you, Windy, Tidal, the princess, the elements, and you, all did your part to defend Equestria from Tirek, I was stuck lying on the ground, feeling helpless! It was just like..." He cut himself off there, feeling his anger getting the better of him. I placed a hand on his shoulder and immediately I understood in a short flash of memories.

"Master! Let me help you! I can help!"

"This is not your end, Iron Soul!"

Burning remained silent but noticed my saddened expression and the hand on his shoulder quickly being removed. He instantly connected the dots and realised what I saw "You now really understand what I am. The last member of the Burning Fist School, crushed by Sombra's power and have no right to pass on the torch or even bear its name..." He got up and walked out of the grounds, leaving me to contemplate my friend's struggle.

After his outburst, I left him be for a while and continued with my duties. However, that look of anger and self-loathing never left my mind. Even during the night that followed, I couldn't shake my concern. That's what drove me to research the Burning Fist School from whatever history books I could find from the library and find a way to help Burning become a master without having to pass a dumb test. "So, Burning is feeling unworthy of being the last user because of his failures and not being a master?" Cadance asked in our study. Yeah, our study. While I wasn't pretending to be princess and captain anymore, there should have been no need for a study, but I still wanted to help Cadance however I could, so I moved a desk into her study and helped her out from time to time. It really helped lighten up the mood during the daily grind. "It does seem unfortunate that the rules dictate that only a master can pass on the teachings of the Burning Fist, but no matter what either of us say, he'll never disobey that rule. To him, it would be like betraying his masters and peers." She was right, Burning would have never gone back on that rule, even if it killed him.

"There's got to be another way to become a master then besides completing a test," I wondered "If only this stupid book would give me a clue as to how their teachings worked at least. Whoever these guys were, they were not the most inclusive." I was about to give up on this book, 'The Fist of Dragons: The History', presuming I had taken the wrong book, until I found myself on an eye-catching page. It's contents included a wheel of several animals and an earth pony doing step-by-step movements, each representing one of the animals. I looked at the movements with curiosity.

"Well you have sparred with him a lot. More than, most. Did you pick up on any trends?" I thought about it for a while, the common threads started to untangle as the moves displayed began to become more coherent. The attacks he used in every fight; attacks mimicking animals like monkeys, tigers, even a dragon when he gets serious. The same moves I was staring at in the book. The page across from it had my final piece of the puzzle to helping Burning with his only wish.

'Ashen Flame, the first student of the Burning Fist School to become a master, not by mastering all techniques and passing the required test, but by inventing a new technique. The Burning Fist: Dragon.'

"That's it!" I exclaimed, standing up abruptly, almost startling Cadance with my sudden outburst, but before she could question me further, I gave a quick peck on the cheeks "Thank you, Cady! You're the best! Got to go, bye!" I said, rushing out of the room, leaving Cadance to her paperwork. She cutely pouted her lips and puffed her cheeks as I left.

"Just the cheek?" she said, dissatisfied, but her attention was quickly turned to her cheek, rubbing it affectionately "He called me 'Cady'..."

As I expected, Burning was still in the training grounds, practising. However, from someone who knew how Burning fought, it was obvious his wild attacks looked more like an attempt at catharsis. The flames from his fists felt weaker as he struck the empty air, and his frustrated expression grew tighter as he noticed the emptiness of his opponent. That was when I decided to approach him. "You're not going to get much of a workout from the air," I said as I summoned my sword and got into my stance "Why not fight against something that can fight back?" Burning was silent as he stared at me "Or are you going to run away from me too?" That got his gears turning. His right fist became cloaked in a roaring flame and he got into position "Good." Without any words left to exchange, we began.

"Burning Fist: Monkey!" He leapt forward with great speed, closing the distance in an instant "Tiger!" he almost struck me with a flaming claw but a simple step to the side left his attack useless "Horse!" he got on both hands and kicked me in the stomach with both feet. His strike sent me backward a few feet, but I held strong. I could tell he was trying to finish this fight as quickly as possible as he prepared another attack, not giving me room to breathe "Snake!" he extended his arms outward and the flames were sent out like whips, wrapping around my arms. He bought the whips back to him, sending me flying towards him. He was about to hit me with a flaming claw but I teleported out of the way, moving to the air. I retaliated with a few magic blasts to keep Burning at bay for a while, but he was relentless, punching through my attacks while trying to catch me with his flames.

"I've never seen him this aggressive. Has he been keeping all this rage inside for over a thousand years?" I thought to myself, but I had no time for idle thoughts as Burning charged his feet with flames and leapt to the sky to meet me. Before he could deliver a powerful kick to my face, I blocked with the Gardnablade, and flung him back down to the ground.

"I'm assuming that was your Burning Fist: Rabbit, right?" Burning looked up to me in surprise "I'll tell you how I know if you can beat me." I came back to the ground, transforming the Gardnablade into the Duoblades and began my counterattack. I threw my left blade at him, which he also barely dodged, and began pressuring him with a flurry of attacks. Burning got into a defensive stance and blocked them all, albeit with a lot of effort.

"Burning Fist: Ox!" his whole body became wrapped in flames, forcing me to back off. He charged at me with both fists reeled back but a sharp sensation rang through his back. He stopped and looked back to see my second blade, glowing a royal blue, wedged in his back. He grabbed the blade and removed it but was surprised to see no wound left.

"I figured it was time to change my style a bit. My Phantom Excalibur has evolved even further now." I levitated both blades into the air and summoned four more of them, having them form a ring around my back "Final Decode: Phantom Crown," I charged at him with all six blades in tow and assaulted with attack after attack. With Phantom Crown, I was able to use my magic draining ability much more effectively. With each strike, his flames shrunk until I sent all of them towards his chest in a horizontal buzz-saw shape, pushing him back a few feet and off his feet. However, instead of using this moment to teleport to him, and forcing him to yield with a blade at his throat, I waited. Burning was laying on the cold hard ground, staring at nothing.

BURNING POV

Laying on the ground, I found myself in the same position as when I was in the Crystal Empire. The darkness that had consumed my vision for what seemed like eternity and the helplessness that followed. When the black faded away, I was left with an illusion of my own master, looking down on me like filth. That illusion was replaced with Noire's expression of what felt like disappointment. "If you can't even beat your junior, maybe I should tell the princess one of her generals has resigned," I stared wide-eyed at him, wondering if that was yet another illusion made by my mind "We haven't gotten any closer to even putting a dent in Grim's plans. These months have probably been nothing but a game for him. However, the games are over. I know that, He knows I know that, and he will come at us seriously next time. We can't afford to take another step back any longer or it will be the death of all of us. So, I'm giving you two options: stand up and fight me or stay there and rot away in your own self-loathing. No-one can pick you back up except for yourself." The illusion of my master appeared in front of me once again, reaching his hand towards me with a gentler look. That calloused hand that taught me everything I knew to this day. I wanted to feel its rough texture once more. I reached my hand to grasp his own, only for it to slip through his ghastly limb. My hand hit the ground in a clenched fist. I was not mad that I had lost my master, I was mad that I was the only one left. I was alone. Noire was right. No-pony was going to save me. No amount of sentimentality was going to magically lift me off my feet like angels. I had to get up and rejoin my new friends, my new family, in the fight against the very thing my school stood against.

"RAH!" With one mighty battle cry, I rose to my feet, flames roaring from my arms. I howled to the sky, as if I was speaking to all the lost souls I had let down for so many years. I charged forward at Noire with the last embers of my strength, fuelled by my own determination. We both knew this was the final attack. I was at my limit, and if I missed this chance, I would most definitely lose. Noire readied his swords, charging them with magic, and charged forth to meet me.

"Burning Fist: Phoenix!"

"Blade Emperor!"

CADANCE POV

I was preparing for a night's rest until a heard a loud explosion ringing throughout the castle. I immediately tracked Noire and Burning's magic to the training grounds, and teleported there to assess the situation. It was as I feared. They had both gone over-board again. A gigantic hole was left in the wall, scorching with flames. Burning was on the ground, unconscious, while Noire was looking wide-eyed, shocked out of his senses by the attack that only managed to scorch a bit of his hair.

"That missed me by hair..." he murmured, barely noticing me. However, he managed to regain his senses as he turned to face me, glaring at him intensely. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "So... the lounge?"

"The lounge," I said through gritted teeth.

BURNING POV

When I came to, I was laying in my bed. The results of last night's battle had still left me exhausted and sore all over. "By Faust, Noire could have gone a bit easier on me," I said as I surveyed the damage. Luckily, I didn't have any new scars or broken bones to worry about.

"Don't worry. I stopped my attack before it hit." I looked to the doorway to find Noire, standing outside "May I?" he asked, to which I nodded. He walked in and sat beside me while I twisted myself out of the sheets so I could sit in front of him "So, how much of last night do you remember?" His question rose some alarm. I could only remember the fight up until I got hit with his swords. "After I knocked you off your feet for a bit, you got up and charged at me with a flashy, new fist. I didn't know they taught you an attack like Burning Fist: Phoenix. Or maybe they didn't?" my eyes opened in disbelief. A new fist?

"I was never taught that, but how would you know that?" I asked.

"I did some digging and found that the techniques were based of the Chinese Zodiac from my world. Also, if that fist really is a new fist no-one's thought of before, you should be able to become a master." My incredulity only grew with each passing word. I was never told this alternative method, and it angered me to the extent that I thought for a moment that Noire was lying.

"Don't give me false hope by spouting lies, Noire!" I yelled, catching him, and even myself, off guard. However, Noire quickly steeled himself.

"'The Fist of Dragons: History'. Does that ring any bells?" It did, but my memory of its contents had become blurred in the many years I had gone without reading its contents. The thought of remembering my fallen comrades and the times we spent in training haunted me to the point I avoided it all together and hid it deep in the library "If you invent a new technique, you can become a master. There is still a chance for the school to return." At once, I felt memories I had hidden deep inside rush back to the surface like a flood. I heard my master's words, really heard him, grace my ears once again.

"I developed my own fist to gain my master flames." He once said during a training lesson, as he unravelled his bandages and revealed his flames, one of the many differences that separated the beginners from the elite. His flame markings grew to the ends of his fingers, almost cloaking them in black while ours were small and only covered our right hands "However, do not think that only the power of the body and mind are needed to truly expand this style of martial arts. You must also bear a strong and noble heart. One that leaves all hatred and confidence behind and embraces the true meaning of the Burning Fist"

"To burn away all hatred and evil. That is the way of the Burning Fist." I whispered to myself. It had become so much clearer. My self-loathing blinded me for so long, I had almost forgotten the way of my school, the school I swore to preserve until my final breath, and destroyed the last of it with my own hatred for myself. "I must thank you, Noire. You have saved the Burning Fist School from my own hatred. However, as for my master flames," I removed the bandages around my arms to see that my master flames still had not appeared, only my current, senior ones "I have still a long way to go to truly master this new technique. I hope that you will help me with this." Noire simply smiled and nodded. Before he left though, I still had one question for him.

"By the way, would you have seriously had me resign if I didn't get up?" Noire had a flash of concern on his face before looking a bit embarrassed.

"Most likely, but that was mostly Grim talking, heh," he chuckled before leaving the room.

Author's Note

Another chapter done, and with good news to boot! I made it into my dream uni!
Even though these hard times have set back some plans like accommodation on the backburner, I'm still going to work hard (and party equally hard, maybe a bit harder!)

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.
P.S.
NmB, you were right. Cs do get degrees.