The Lost Legend

Shining Armor woke up with a start. His whole body was filled with pain. ‘Wha- what happened?’ He then looked around. What remained of Sugar Cube Corner was black and smelled of smoke.  It appeared that it had not been spared during the battle.  Wait, the fight!  Shining Armour’s eyes widened as the memories of recent events ran through his head. “Princess!” Shining Armor yelled, as he tried to get up, only to be pressed back down to the ground with the gentle push of a hoof.  A damp cloth was placed on his head, its coolness doing what it could to relieve the pain of his head.

“Don’t move, little one. You are injured.” Celestia’s voice was tinged with something that Shining Armor had never thought he would hear coming from the Princess.  Fear.

“Did you get the upstart, Princess?” he asked, hopefully.

Celestia sighed. “No.” Her voice took on a more steely tone.  “But I will.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” Shining Armor looked around, and noticed the absence of one particular pony. “Where’s Twilight?”

Celestia winced.  “Ignis took her.”

“WHAT!” Shining Armor was horrified by this news.  His little sister, gone?  In a flash, his horror turned to anger, then rage. “This Ignis will pay! By your leave, Princess, let me go and search him out!  I will bring Twilee back, and show this, this monster exactly what happens when he messes with you, me, and Equestria!”

Celestia shook her head. “I forbid it.”

“Wha- why not?  Please, excuse the disrespect, Princess, but I need to rescue Twilight. Please, let me go.”

“No!”  An echoing sound resounded amongst the nearby ponies as Celestia slammed one hoof against the ground.  Shining Armor instinctively shied back a bit at the ferocious expression that graced Celestia’s usually calm features.  The Princess immediately softened, yet did not relent.  She sighed, shaking her head.  “I can not allow it.  Not in good conscience.  Your wife is pregnant, Captain, and I do not wish to be the one to tell her that her foal will never see its father.

Shining Armor stiffened at that.  His pride was affronted, his sister was in danger and he did not appreciate Celestia bringing his family into this matter.  “I never knew you thought so poorly of my ability, your Highness,” he said slowly.

Celestia frowned.  “I think highly of your ability Captain, in fact, I know it very well.  However, I have never known the true extent of Ignis’ ability.  What I do know, is that if you faced him, you would die.  I do not mean to say that there is a chance you would die.  It is a certainty.  Ignis would fight without remorse, without pity and without mercy.  Make no mistake, Captain.  If you faced him alone, he would strike you down before you even touched him.”

Silence greeted this statement.  “And you say this bozo has Twilight?”  Celestia turned to see the rest of the Mane Six had gathered together, no doubt drawn by the smoke.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy whispered, looking horrified.

“Sounds like this pony’s ah dang’rous sort, Princess,” Applejack said, standing at the front of the pack, side by side with Rainbow Dash.  “Y’ gonna need our help with this’n?”

Celestia nodded slowly.  “The Elements of Harmony would indeed be a welcome addition.  Captain Shining Armor, I have a new mission for you.”

Armor bowed his head.  “Your Highness?”

“You are injured, I understand, but this is a matter that cannot wait.  You are charged with the protection of Canterlot.  Protect the city and alert the Guard.  Send the Elements of Harmony as to me and as many combat capable ponies as possible without weakening the defences.”

“Yes your Highness,” immediately, he turned to leave.

“Captain!”  He faced her again.  Face serious, Celestia continued.  “I mean that Captain, I want Canterlot prepared for a full scale invasion.  Double the Guard, double the weapons, double everything!  If he attacks, you’ll be fighting a holding action, so send me the attack specialists, primarily unicorn mages and pegasi, if possible.”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened at the amount of precautions that this Ignis warranted.  All of a sudden he found himself glad that he had not gone after him alone.

“And Captain…” Celestia halted, looking grim.  “I know that this is a tall order, but, if possible, I want you to do everything you can to make sure that Luna is not made aware of this situation.”

Shining Armor was about to ask why, but something made him stop himself.  He simply nodded. “Yes Princess. Canterlot will be safe.  I shall not fail you.” So saying, he limped off, the battered remnants of his Princess’ escort following him.

“Does this brute really need necessitate such a clamor?” Rarity asked.

Celestia shuddered slightly.  That was answer enough.

“Now what, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked.  She was mad at Ignis, and wanted to know how she could help bring him down.

“First we get what information we can while we wait for the others to arrive.  Then, we hunt this demon down.

“Ugh.” Twilight’s eyes crept open. She had the beginnings of a headache, not helped by the near constant mutterings of Starfire, who seemed intrigued by her awakening.

“Hmm. I didn’t expect you to wake up so early.  It’s been what, an hour since the teleportation?  I expected at least double that.  I wonder why that would be so? This needs some thought. Maybe it could be because of a greater skill with magic?  Whose skill, one might ask? It goes without saying that my magic has definitely improved since the banishment, but I still don’t think that would have cut down the time of recovery that much. Maybe it has something to do with your own skill.”

Regaining her awareness, Twilight stared at her abductor. “You.”’

“Yes?” he answered, innocently.

“What did you do?” Twilight asked, not fooled for a moment by his façade.

“Um…I teleported?” he seemed unsure of his response, although that might have just been because of the rather ferocious glare that Twilight was leveling at him.

“Why did you take me with you?”

“I didn’t mean to! Teleportation is useful for a quick getaway, but has the unfortunate habit of taking anypony near you with you, even if you do not want to.”

“That’s not true,” Twilight objected.

Starfire looked at her oddly. “I assure you, it is.”

“No, it’s not!  I’ve teleported hundreds of times before and it never did something like that.”

“Oh?” Starfire inquired, curiously.  “Show me.”

Twilight briefly considered objecting to him, before a thought came to her.  With a smile, she concentrated and teleported.  The sound of air rushing in to fill a vacuum filled the room.  Milliseconds later Twilight appeared a few meters above the ground from her original position, before falling to the ground with a thump.  Slowly, Twilight regained her feet, clutching her head. The headache had worsened considerably since her teleportation.  It didn’t help that during the spell she had apparently hit some type of metaphysical wall that had prevented her from just teleporting back to Ponyville.

“Ooh, so it was.” Starfire clapped his forehooves together excitedly. “I could hardly believe it, but it seems that somepony has improved my teleportation spell. You must tell me- are you all right?”

Twilight kept her silence, fearful of the pony beside her. The pain in her head had swelled to enormous portions by now.

“Headache?”

“Yeah.” Try as she might, Twilight could not manage anything past one syllable.  Sitting down on her haunches and closing her eyes, Twilight rubbed her temples while trying to calm down the furious beating of her heart.

Hearing the sound of movement, she opened her eyes once more.  Her pulse skyrocketed when she beheld Starfire’s face close to her own, his horn lit with that fiery glow, ready to cast a spell.

Twilight jumped, immediately starting a spell of her own.  The feeling of Starfire’s magic wasn’t all that aggressive, but it gave her the feeling that there was a thunderstorm very close to her- just waiting to break free.  But the action proved to be too much for her and Twilight groaned as the sudden movement, combined with the spellwork caused her headache to blossom. The pain was unbearable, growing every second, the agony causing her to almost black out and then, it – disappeared. Twilight blinked. That was sudden.

“There you go. The pain should be gone by now.”  Starfire said, satisfied, as he moved his horn away from her own.

Twilight just stared at him, her expression dumbstruck as he walked away.  Despite that, an automatic response left her lips.

“Thank you.”

Starfire looked back over his shoulder at her and smiled.  “Your welcome. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ m not going to hurt you.”

How did he know what she was worrying about? It was like he could read her thoughts.  Blushing, at Starfire’s crooked grin, Twilight realized that she had spoken aloud.

“I don’t need to be able to read your mind to recognize that look in your eyes.  It’s the look of a frightened animal.” In a voice clearly meant only for him he added, “I have experienced that feeling far too many times myself.  I know what it looks like.”

Deciding to ignore the second statement, for now, Twilight focused on the more important things, like that magic he had just used.

“What did you just do to me?”

Starfire looked at her blankly.  “Huh?

“The spell you used to take away my headache!”

Starfire shrugged.  “Oh, that?  That was just an application of healing magic.”

“Healing magic?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Yes, healing magic,” Starfire said again, confused as to why this was so hard to believe.

“B-but, there have been many ponies over the years who have attempted to learn such magic, it was thought to be impossible!”

Starfire snorted.  “Impossible my flank!  Before my banishment it was actually quite commonplace.  Luna was a genius at it.”

“Then why has it fallen into disuse?” Twilight countered.

Starfire pondered the question for a while.  Truth be told, he wasn’t entirely sure why Celestia would allow healing magic to be forgotten.  Unless…

“That which can create can also destroy.  That which can heal can also hurt,” he said softly.

A shiver ran over Twilight’s coat.

“Explain.”

Starfire shrugged.  “The spell was a relatively simple one, as long as you keep your balance.  I simply moved your pain, through me, to the stone ground.  It can take a lot of pain, not as much as fire though.”

“So?”

“So, not only is it dangerous to the caster if they don’t know what they’re doing, what’s to stop me from taking your pain and putting it into another pony?”

Twilight opened her mouth, stopped and closed it, her eyes widening.

“Then we move onto the more complex healing magic, such as repairing muscles, fixing broken bones, sealing cuts.  What are you actually doing.”

“You would be manipulating a pony’s body on a cellular level,” Twilight said slowly.  Starfire nodded, impressed despite himself.  This pony was one smart cookie.

“Exactly, so then, what’s to stop me from simply, oh, I don’t know, stopping your heart?  Pinching a couple nerves in your brain?  Causing a hemorrhage?  And that’s just being a little bit creative.  If necessary, it is possible to remove a unicorn’s ability to do magic, or a pegasus’ ability to fly, all with the same magic that you would use to heal.  As always, it’s a whole lot easier to cause damage than to help.”

Twilight had turned a little green as she looked at this pony who spoke of injuring others so casually.  And after hearing him explain the magic he had used on her in such detail, she felt dirty, somehow.

Starfire shrugged.  “Don’t look at me, personally I see it as a waste.  Learning how to heal is a long, arduous process.  Using it to kill seems to be…disrespectful.”

Seeing the fear and anger in her eyes, his own hardened.  “Don’t knock it, little one.  It can be used for great good and has saved my own life more times than I can count.  It is a useful skill.  Although I usually only do it with permission, so you have my apologies.”

“Oh.” Twilight was not angry with Starfire anymore and could understand why such a brand of magic, useful as it was, would be banned.

“Are you angry at me?”

“Not really,” Twilight answered.

‘Scared? Yes. Angry? Not so much,’ she thought to herself.  Of course, simple fear wasn’t about to stop the barrage of questions she had to ask. “Why does Princess Celestia hate you so much?”

Starfire chuckled, grimly. “Probably for the same reason why she banished me.”

“How long did she banish you for?”

“Eternity.”

Twilight stopped, before swallowing, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer to her next question.

“Why were you banished?” she asked softly.

Sitting down on his haunches, the male alicorn put one hoof to his chin.  “You know, I’m not entirely sure.  Her reason was either the destruction of Equestria or that she personally just didn’t like me.  Possibly a combination of the two.”  His voice turned bitter.  “Or it could just have been the deaths of so many of her little ponies.”

Twilight was horrified. She went to fire a bolt of magic at Starfire, but found she couldn’t- something about her magic wasn’t working.  Due to the conversation that they had just had, she immediately assumed the worst.

Seeing her horrified expression, Starfire winced.  “Please don’t.”

“What’s happening to me?” Twilight cried, ignoring, distraught.  “I can’t use my magic!”  She was panicking now, she could feel her magic, it was right there, there just seemed to be something blocking it.

“Shh, don’t worry, you can still use magic, just…not here, not now.  To be frank with you I don’t right feel like being turned into a turkey, so I’m just…shielding you from using your magic.  The wards helped.  You may have noticed them when you tried to teleport out of sight.”

“Right.” Twilight was unsure of what to say next.  She was relieved that the worst had not happened; yet she was still scared of this pony, his abilities and what he might do with her.  She didn’t even notice when she tried to imperceptibly shuffle away from him.

Starfire, however, did and felt awkward in this situation. For some reason that he couldn’t figure out, he would rather face down a hydra than lose this unicorn’s trust. “Curse these social tendencies,” he muttered to himself. “I’m becoming attached to her. Why? I am Starfire, the terror of Celestia, the downfall of Equestria- not some soppy sentimental half-baked adolescent foal.”

“Anyway,” he continued to Twilight.  “Since you will be staying here for a while, I might as well show you around.”

So saying, he trotted off in the direction of the door, before turning and quirking an eye at Twilight, who had not yet moved from her spot.

“Coming?” he asked sardonically.

“Oh, alright.”

Starfire opened the door and motioned for her to go outside.  “Ladies first,” he said graciously.

Twilight scowled, slightly, getting the feeling that he was mocking her.  As Starfire closed the door, she asked him a more pointed question. “So, why did you destroy Equestria?”

The stallion swore under his breath before mentioning one name: “Discord.”

“What about him?” Twilight asked, who was by now very interested.

“He is the reason I was forced to destroy Equestria, the reason why almost everypony I used to know either hates me, or is dead.”

“But-“ Twilight stopped herself when Starfire frowned and sighed.

“Forgive me if I do not elaborate,” he said stiffly. “Painful memories.”

“Oh. Are you al-“

“Yes, of course I’m bloody well alright!” This sudden outburst surprised Twilight, who backed away once more. Whatever this alicorn was, he was definitely not stable.

“Ok… So…”

Starfire sighed, seeming to regret his outburst.  “Would you still like me to show you around?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes please.”

Starfire inclined his head to her and took a single step, before halting once more and turning his neck to face her.  “Oh, but before we continue, I feel it only fair to warn you.  Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Like?”

“Oh, I don’t know, like trying to run away, or escape in general.  After all, right now we just so happen to be deep in the Everfree forest, surrounded by a lot of dangerous creatures who would absolutely love to hunt you down and would devour you with relish.  And if you do happen to escape, then if those monsters find you, you better thank your lucky stars.  Because despite all those dangerous creatures out for your blood, - that’s not the worst of it, because then I would start hunting for you. Ok?” he finished with a cheery grin.

Starfire didn’t wait for Twilight to acknowledge, he simply put a wing over her back, wincing as he did so, and started steering her to see the main sights of his home.  Why did he put a wing over her back?  Well, judging by all her shivering she must have been cold.

“I’ve been here for a few months, about as long as you’ve known Zecora from what I’m told.  I don’t really keep track of time that well you see.  During that time I may have gotten a bit bored, so I built a few things, such as my guest house, well, one of them.  You’ve already seen that though, after all, that’s where you woke up.  I grow my own food, which is doing wonders thanks to Zecora’s special fertilizer mix.  It may have taken a while, but I have also built my own lab, house and a small library.”

Twilight looked around.  The clearing seemed more like a small village than the residence of one pony.

“Now that the general tour is over, is there anything you would like to see in particular?” Starfire asked.  When Twilight didn’t answer, he began waving a hoof in front of her face.  Apparently, the mare was too busy gawping at his clearing to notice him. “Hey, Twilight. Twilight! Equestria to Twilight, come in!”

“Yes?” Twilight answered, starting a little.

“Allow me to repeat myself, is there any place that you would like to see in particular?”

“I would like to see the library please,” Twilight said, enthusiastically.  Starfire got the feeling that she was an avid reader.

“Sure.  Follow me.” He led the way to a building slightly larger then the rest. Inside of it, Twilight could see that the library’s contents were a bit more varied than usual.  The objects besides the numerous works of literature included a hoof-sized emerald and a manikin, on which was a suit of armor.  The metal glinted in the light shed from the open door, prompting Twilight to examine it more closely.  The full body armor seemed to consist of at the very least one hundred separate pieces, made of many plates of differing sizes. The armor’s edges were gilt with gold.  Engravings covered it, and Twilight could feel the magic that thrummed through its entirety.  For a thing of war, it looked beautiful- so much so that it would make Rarity weep out of jealousy. Next to the armour were various blades, which could be attached to it in the place of some of the plates.  Twilight moved closer, wanting to catch a glimpse of the pictures that were on the armor’s surface, sure that they had some meaning to them, before Starfire threw a blanket over the whole thing, hiding it from view.

“I take it you like my armor?” Starfire stated unnecessarily, noticing her look of wonder.  Twilight nodded, speechless.  “The dragons made it for me.”

“What?”

Starfire smiled. “Dragons are extremely good smiths, the best I have ever seen. This armor is an example of their finest handiwork.”

“But how did you get the dragons to make you such armor?  Why would they agree to it?

“How did I get the dragons to make me such fine armor? That is long story. Let’s just say that the dragons like me. I know and respect their ways.”

“Their ways of what?”

“The three C’s.”

“Courage, confidence and most importantly, competence in the ways of violence.” Starfire said this without thinking, though he seemed amused by Twilights flustered reaction to both his words and his decidedly draconic grin.

“Wha-but-but-“

“Oh, please I don’t appreciate unnecessary violence, but you can have so much fun when dueling a dragon.” This only served to confuse Twilight more. Starfire sighed ‘there’s no understanding a mare’. He walked up to his ‘library’, consisting of a few shelves, pulled out a large book (explosives for foals) and waved it in front of Twilights face. “Hey Twilight! Look! A book!” She was still standing there with a puzzled look gracing her features, so Starfire threw the book using telekinesis across the room. “Fetch!”

‘What is with alicorn? Is he evil?’  Twilight asked herself. “What is wrong with him? Would asking that offend him? Why would the dragons like him so much to build him such good armor? Where is he going- wait, why is he waving a book in front of my face? Oh, and now he’s thrown it. That’s no way to treat a book.’ Twilight’s thoughts barraged her poor brain non-stop, before they came back to the basics.  She was a librarian.  She looked after books, ergo ‘I should probably get that book.’

To Starfire she added, “You really shouldn’t treat books like that,” as she trotted over and picked the book up.

Starfire chuckled “Wow, I can’t believe that actually worked. Talos would be proud.”

Twilight overheard him. “Who’s Talos?”’

“A friend.” Starfire replied.

“Will I meet him?” Twilight asked not really caring about the answer

Starfire gazed thoughtfully at Twilight, before abruptly shivering.  “Hopefully not.”

“Oh. Won’t he like me?” she asked, definitely curious now.

Starfire snorted. “Actually he would like you. A lot. Too much in fact.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, not understanding.

Starfire glanced around the room, his eyes suddenly shifty. “He’s single,” he blurted.

“So?” Twilight really wasn’t sure where Starfire was going here.

“Are you single?” he tried, striving to find a way to get the message across.

“That’s beside the point,” Twilight stuttered as she blushed

Starfire gave a short bark of laughter. “ Lady, that is the point.”

“Okay…” ‘What was wrong with this one? Was it apple cider? Why is he looking at me like that? Aaggh! I can’t think of any reasonable explanations! Why? Ok, get a book. Read it. Just- just- WHY CAN’T I THINK STRAIGHT?’ Twilight was puzzled with these thoughts. She usually could think straight. It was like her thoughts were trying to confuse her. ‘Great. Now he’s managed to turn my own brain against me. What manner of sorcery is this?’

Starfire sighed at Twilight’s relatively short attention span. He decided it best to leave her to gather her thoughts. “Right, I’ll be going to think up devious traps for your friends if they choose to come after me and then visiting Zecora. Feel free to look around, but don’t try to escape or destroy any of my property, because then I will have to punish you.”

“Ok- wait what?”

“Are you afraid of him? We will protect you.”

Zecora chuckled. “There is no protection from the Shade. If he wanted so, my death is as good as made.”

The questionings of Zecora had gone on for a few minutes now. Ignis had undoubtedly scared Zecora enough to make her fear him, for she would not tell them where they could find him. It must be fear, for who would be loyal to one so terrible as Ignis?

“Give me a map, so I can fight him for what he has done. He is not only content with destroying Olden Equestria, but now he has foalnapped Twilight, my student and your friend. So tell me where he is,” Celestia commanded.

“Do you wish to challenge the Shade? If so, I will give you a map to his glade.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know much about the hierarchy of the Zebronic tribes, but she was sure that Zecora meant a challenge of leadership, one-on-one combat to discern the leader of the tribe.  Interesting.

“Yes, I wish to challenge Ignis to a duel.”

“Fine. I will give you a map to the field. A warning though, when the Shade fights, he does not yield. While this map is true, you will only get there if he wants you to.”

“Thank you.”

“Welcome, and good luck. You’ll need it. I hope your lives he will admit.”

“Sure. Bye.”

With that Celestia went Zecora’s cottage.  ‘Now I have a map’ the Princess thought. ‘A way that will lead me right to Ignis’ front door.  He better watch out, because nothing in heaven or in Tartarus is going to stop me from giving him what he deserves.’