A Change in Heart

By: Kuroyami Fukaikuro

Black Daze rose from the ground, covered in soot, snow, and bruises. Daravoc lay, his bones scattered. The area around them was completely wrecked, with crumbled rocks and boulders everywhere. Daravoc spoke to Daze, his voice tired and weak.

"It seems that you have finally bested me. Truly, you have mastered the Dragon arts, and fully deserve the title of "Voice of Power"."

Black Daze bowed his head slightly to Daravoc. "It was an honor to learn from you."

"It was an honor to teach you. Now go, and spread the glory of Dragon-kind throughout the world!"

"I will, Master!" Black Daze turned to leave, but Daravoc spoke once more.

"One more thing."

"Yes, Master?"

"WAKE UP, YOU FOOLISH, INSOLENT CHILD!"

***

Black Daze opened his eyes and raised himself slowly from the ground. The area around them was completely fine, with no signs of wreckage or destruction. He looked to his right and saw Daravoc looking at him, completely unharmed and healthy- if you can call dead being healthy. He had an aura of irritation, and began to speak once Black Daze had gotten up.

"It is about time you awoke, child. I was about to throw you against the wall. Some pony is outside, and they insist on entering to speak with you."

"Who is it?"

"I am not knowledgeable in who you are acquainted with. Go and find out for yourself. If you die, that is your own failure."

Black Daze sighed and walked towards the entrance, placing his open claw on it and channeling his magic to activate it. With a rumble, the stone door slowly opened, revealing Twilight to be at the entrance. She wore an expression of concern.

"Twilight? What is it?"

"Have you completed your training with Daravoc?"

"Not completely, no. Why?"

She sighed. "Because Dawn Guardian is calling you out. He's sent a messenger to Celestia, telling her to tell you that he'll execute Trixie if you don't show up."

Black Daze didn't move, considering his options. He could go as he was, and victory, while possible, would be extremely difficult to obtain. Or he could wait a while and strike when his strength was far greater, and victory would be absolute. But then Trixie would die.

"Alright. I'm going." Black Daze said.

Twilight nodded. "Go get Trixie back."

Suddenly, the ground rumbled as a voice escaped the tomb. "Dazer... Come down here."

Black Daze said to Twilight, "Give me a second." He turned and walked back down into the tomb. Approaching Daravoc's bones, he asked, "What is it?"

"I heard what was said. Do you intend to go?"

"Of course."

"If what you told me about your opponent is true, then the way you are now, you will most certainly lose."

"It doesn't matter. I'm going."

"Well... I can't allow my student to go and die on me. Before you go, allow me to teach you one last, simple spell."

Moments later, Black Daze walked out of the tomb, deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.

Black Daze looked up at her. "Nothing. Just thinking about how I'm gonna go about this."

Twilight blinked. "You mean you're not going to just charge in and go on some sort of berserker rage in an attempt to kill everypony you find?"

"What, and let the education you gave me go to waste?"

Twilight smiled. "Well, it's good you're not doing what I said. It works in stories, but realistically, it's a really stupid idea."

"Yeah. Anyways, I've gotta go. Take care on your way back to Ponyville."

"You be careful too."

Black Daze took off and flew above the trees as fast as he could. A moment later he returned to Twilight. "Uh, where is Dawn Guardian's base anyway?"

Twilight pointed with her hoof. "Just fly East. Trust me, you'll see it."

"Thanks!" he took off once more, flying in the direction of his enemy.

After about an hour of flying, Black Daze saw not just a base, but a fortress enter his vision. He slowed to a stop, then he flew even higher, intending to observe the place first. The fortress was built like a castle, square in shape. There were ramparts outside the area, made of wood and guarded by a total of 24 ponies, twelve unicorns, six pegasi, and six earth ponies. On the top of the walls of the fortress, more ponies guarded the area. Due to a small room at each corner of the walls where the ponies would often pass through on their routes, it took some time before Black Daze finally counted the number of ponies on the walls. The total was 75, with an equal amount of each pony race.

Well, Black Daze thought, I haven't even finished observing, but I can tell that this is going to be much more difficult than I hoped.

In the center of the walls, a small building stood, cubic in shape, about 10 stories tall. Each floor had 3 windows on each side, along with a guarded terrace for magicians. On the roof, Dawn Guardian stood, along with 6 guards and Trixie, who was bound by enchanted ropes.

One of the guards turned to Dawn Guardian. "Sir, I don't think he's coming. What do we do?"

Dawn Guardian rolled his eyes. "What do you think? I said we'd kill her if he didn't show, and I'm not about to look weak." He dragged Trixie to the edge of the building and placed her so she faced the ground. Trixie's eyes widened with fear as she looked at the ground.

Black Daze immediately angled himself downwards and sped towards the building.

Smirking, Dawn Guardian said, "Goodbye," and pushed Trixie off the ledge. She uttered a soundless scream as she plummeted.

Dammit, I'm not fast enough like this. Dawn Guardian concentrated, activating his energy, making it move faster and faster. "Accelerari!" he shouted. A sound cone formed around him as he sped up, barely catching Trixie before she hit the ground. A cloud of dust was kicked up as they made impact.

"Ah! So you did make it!"

Black Daze looked up to see the condescending expression on Dawn Guardian's face. Already, he and Trixie were surrounded by guards. All that observation, and I waste it by showing myself. Oh well. His anger rose, and he decided to show everypony in the vicinity how he had improved.

"Ignis!" Immediately, all the ponies who were around him burst into flame, and they began screaming, rolling on the ground in an attempt to put out the fire. Dawn Guardian's eyes widened in shock, and Trixie looked up at him with a mixture of fear and apprehension. He calmly cut the bonds on Trixie with his claws, then set her down on the ground. "Can you walk?" he asked her.

"Y-yes." She glanced at the soldiers on the ground, who were grasping for their last breaths. "How did you-"

"I swear I'll explain everything later. Just go, get to Twilight and stay there. I'm going to finish things here."

She nodded, but then noticed the shut gate. "Daze, I don't have enough energy to teleport out and then run all the way to Ponyville."

Black Daze glanced over to the wall and gathered his energy, concentrating on making it fracture, while still intact enough to cast the spell. "Frango," he said, and the wall cracked, lines emanating from a single point. Then he said "Expello," and the wall burst outward, creating a hole so Trixie could escape. He turned to her and said, "Now run, and don't stop." She immediately ran out, and three pegasi lifted off to go after her. Before they could, however, Black Daze appeared in front of them and stabbed with his claws, piercing each of their throats in a fraction of a second. They fell, a fountain of blood expelling from the wounds.

Dawn Guardian narrowed his eyes. He began to order his men, and they complied as he spoke. "Stallions! Form ranks! We'll remove this blemish from Equestria by ourselves!" Once he was finished speaking, Black Daze found himself surrounded by 96 ponies of all races. Dawn Guardian stayed at the top of the building, as did his personal guard. No one moved.

An earth pony charged, wielding a knife in his mouth. He jumped, malice in his eyes. Before he landed, Black Daze opened his mouth and fire erupted from it, burning the attacker and a few others as he swiveled his head back and forth. They fell as others charged, and managed to put out the fire since it was not born of magic. Meanwhile, Black Daze was fighting off multiple opponents, stabbing all who came close in the eyes or neck, even piercing armor. Occasionally, he let loose a jet of flame, or cast magic to crush armor with the pony still inside.

After killing about 32 soldiers, Black Daze noticed something clouding his thoughts. It was something he had noticed during his training. It had become more and more apparent the more he had used Dragon magic. Until now, it had never been prevalent, so he had never brought it up to Daravoc.

As the cloud began to mar his vision, allowing him to get hit, Black Daze began to wish he had brought it up to Daravoc. Black Daze backed up against a wall, attempting to clear his mind as the soldiers surrounded him. He shook his head, but to no avail.

At the top of the building, Dawn Guardian smirked. "What, one hit and suddenly you're reeling? You're not so powerful after all! Finish him!"

As the soldiers closed in, Black Daze took a chance and confronted the cloud in his head. In a fraction of a second, Black Daze became aware of thousands of years of Dragon life and culture. He did not learn much, but got the impression that the cloud represented basic Dragon instincts- instincts that would make him much more powerful, if he surrendered his mind and consciousness to them. Feeling that he had no better alternative, he released his hold on his mind, allowing the instincts to take over.

He blacked out.

All of a sudden, Black Daze's body straightened to it's full height. The soldiers ceased their advance, cautious of the change. Black Daze's eyes opened, revealing colorless eyeballs, and he let out a roar powered by the blood of the ancients, a roar that scared the soldiers, even Dawn Guardian, on a deep, genetic level.

All of the soldiers backed away from the beast, one they remembered to fear. Before they could even blink, Black Daze's body launched from it's position and assaulted the soldiers, claws darting out towards necks and veins and eyes (oh my!). His mouth opened and more jets of fire burst out, except this time, they were much larger, and much hotter, as the steel armor the guards wore became red-hot. A unicorn created a force-field and protected his allies from harm, but he left himself wide open. Black Daze's body charged and bit the stallion on the neck, releasing a flow of blood as he tore his throat out. His body began to chew the flesh before swallowing as the soldiers looked on in horror. They began to scream and fled towards the keep.

Dawn Guardian's teeth ground together in anger, and frustration that he was scared. "What are you doing?" he bellowed. "You cowards! Kill him!"

"S-Sir!" they yelled. "There's something about him!"

"It doesn't matter! Send out all of the reinforcements!"

"Yes sir!"

The soldiers surrounded Black Daze, but did not attack. Slowly, every other soldier in the Keep spilled out into the courtyard, filling about one half of the area. Overall, a total of 289 soldiers were there.

"So?" Dawn Guardian asked. "Not so cocky anymore, are you?"

All of a sudden, another wall burst, and a squadron of soldiers filed in, led by a white-coated unicorn with a blue mane that had a light-blue streak. On his flank was a cutie mark of a dark purple shield with a slightly pinkish star in the center, and three light-blue stars. He straightened and said, "Dawn Guardian! By the order of Princess Celestia of Equestria, you are under arrest!"

Dawn Guardian began to laugh. "So the great Captain Shining Armor has come to arrest me? How can you possibly win, when you couldn't even protect yourself from a Changeling?" He jumped off the roof of the keep, his personal guards included. Two stories from the ground, they activated their magic and slowed their descent. He spoke to his men. "Kill them a-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Black Daze roared once more. All eyes turned to him. He reopened his eyes, and they were no longer colorless.

He had regained consciousness.

Black Daze looked through the crowd at Dawn Guardian. His hatred and anger reached a point where he could no longer control it, but he tried, in an effort to save the emotion for later. He noticed guards to his right who were facing off against Dawn Guardian's troops, engaging in a glaring contest. Their leader locked eyes with him, and they came to an understanding- Black Daze would be the one to handle Dawn Guardian.

Daze turned back to Dawn Guardian. About fifty troops were in his way.

"Move," he said. None of them budged. "Fine. You can all die." He and the new soldiers charged at Dawn Guardian's troops, and the battle reignited.

End of Chapter.

Author's Note

To everyone who was mad/confused about seeing A Change in Heart on the "recently updated" section of FimFiction (I'm looking at you, Dragon Blaze-X) and then clicking on it to find no new chapter, I apologize. What happened was, while writing the chapter, I accidentally clicked "Publish" instead of "Edit". If anything similar happens in the future, assume that the same thing happened.

Also, NOTICE! "A Change in Heart" will update (even) slower because I have decided to reboot "The Lunar Revolution", and work on a new fic (inspired by Sabaton's "Carolus Rex") at the same time.