Blaze's Background story

Chapter 1

   Many many years ago. There was a small town in Equestria, and in that town lived a newborn unicorn named Blaze. But his parents were dead. Blaze's mother died giving birth to him, his father in the griffin war, leaving Blaze to grow up alone, without parents to help and guide him. Blaze grew up as a hard-headed, trouble-making colt that was always getting into trouble, whether by acting up in school or just being bad, period.

    Blaze would finally earn his cutie mark after meeting a stallion that taught him magic. That stallion's name was Flaze. While under Flaze's tutelage, Blaze would learn fire, ice, and many other types of magic, though Blaze specialized in fire magic, as would become evident on that fateful day when he earned his cutie mark, a fireball.

    The fact that his special talent revolved around lighting things on fire surprised Blaze greatly, and even angered him slightly at first, as he had originally hoped for another cutie mark; maybe something that represented something like a pencil for his artistic skills or a magic cutie mark because he was good with it. However, Blaze would quickly accept this and move on, learning many kinds of spells over the next few years.

    One day, Blaze would take his training to a new level after Flaze told him that he would have to test his skills.

    “What do you mean, 'test my skills?'” Blaze asked.

    “Just wait until tomorrow,” Flaze answered.

    Blaze had a very hard time falling asleep that night. Tossing and turning, he wondered exactly what his future would hold in store for him.

    The next day, Blaze trained some more. The current exercise he was on was a simple targeting exercise meant to refine his accuracy with one of his many fire techniques. Today, however, the session would be cut short, as Flaze had something else in mind: a round of practice magic duel. Blaze accepted Flaze's challenge, though knowing Flaze's power, Blaze would be a bit apprehensive.

    Still, Blaze got into position with his horn at the ready. Hoping that he could possibly anticipate an attack, he would be disappointed to find that Flaze was doing absolutely nothing. The stallion was just standing there, trying Blaze's patience. Eventually, Blaze could take it no longer. He rushed at Flaze and let loose a fireball mid-stride.

    However, such a simple attack was no match for the mighty Flaze. With a simple flick of his horn, Flaze was able to redirect the fireball's path before snuffing it out.

    Blaze would not be deterred, though. Halting his gallop, he thought of a possible course of action. “I need a plan to beat Flaze,” he said to himself. An idea came to him, blazing fast. He shot a trio of fireballs into the ground, kicking up a screen of dust, then ran around to Flaze's backside and fired a shot from behind.

    Blaze thought that had been a direct hit. It wasn't. Flaze had quickly leapt into the air, easily scaling the projectile.

    “Trying to blind me, eh?” Flaze taunted as he used his horn to cast a levitation spell. “Good job. I taught you well.”

    The technique caught Blaze by surprise.

    “But,” Flaze continued, “you're still just a colt. You'll never be able to hit me with that stupid attack!”

    Enraged at those words, Blaze also leapt into the air and focused his horn, determined to cast his own levitation spell to put him on his opponent's level so that he could put this adversary in his place and–

    “Oof!”

    Blaze crashed to the ground. The spell had failed.

    “Heh. Nice try, but you need much more experience before you'll be able to do something like that.”

    Regarding Flaze's words, Blaze made his way home.

    That night, Blaze would get no sleep; he committed himself to learning that levitation technique. It was an arduous effort; he did not succeed the first time, nor the second time, or the tenth. Hours upon hours of trying and trying and failing and failing, until he finally got it work properly. Pure satisfaction lined Blaze's face in response. “Now, I can sneak attack Flaze!” he said to himself contently.

    Clad in all-black clothing, Blaze made his way over to Flaze's house. As Blaze approached the front door, it would occur to him that oddly, the door was open. Without thinking, Blaze quickly moved to Flaze's bedroom and cast his newly learned levitation spell to float to the ceiling. Looking at the bed, he could find absolutely nothing. Blaze shook his head in confusion. He could have sworn that he could make out a silhouette that resembled the shape of a pony in that bed...

    “Nice try.”

    Startled by the voice behind him, Blaze hastily turned around to identify its source. It was Flaze.

    “To be honest, I'm surprised you learned such an advanced trick in such a short time.”

    “But... how did you know?” Blaze asked, the initial shock having worn off.

    Flaze gave a slight chuckle, then answered. “I know you. I know that when you walk off like that, you're going to try to copy me, or something like that. Remember that fireball?”

    Speechless, Blaze could only glare.

    Over the next few months, Blaze would further refine his fire magic skills to allow for some new techniques to be added to his repertoire: Fire Drop, in which the caster can drop a fireball onto the target's head with pinpoint accuracy; Fire Shield, a shield of fire that has such high energy costs that it can only be used once per day barely ; and finally Blaze's signature move, Fire Tornado, a technique not to be taken lightly by either its targets or its users, as odds are significant that a low-level unicorn who casts this spell, such as Blaze, will be extinguished completely.