The Shadow of Equestria

Chapter 23

Black vs. Blue

What came next felt like everything was in slow motion. Phoenix's wings began to beat slowly, his black highlighted hair whipping with the wind he was creating. Poison Spectre and Red were slowly retreating but into the forest to avoid the fight that was about to take place. I couldn't blame them, I was a scared as they were. I had finally met a being in Equestria that irked Umbra to the point of me being able to feel his uncomfortableness. The way the blue flames encased his wings put a certain feeling of doom in my heart. Like that, the words of Umbra went through my mind.

"Be creative, imaginative, or die at Celestia's hooves."

Now more than ever was the time to be creative. I had only created several new spells over the time I have learned to control the power. The spikes that I constantly used had become my go to spell for dealing with pretty much anything. I considered using a shockwave or a Shadow bolt to try and kill Phoenix but realized that those were still basic level spells. I had to think bigger, think of something to counter that magifire of his. The ability to deflect it, to block it, to equal it.

"Why not Hellfire?" I heard Umbra say to me.

'What's that?' I asked back.

"Hellfire is a devastating black flame that will raze anything to the ground. It might help you in this situation or it may not. We won't find out till you're willing to try it."

'Any drawbacks?' I asked.

"Do the drawbacks really matter at this point?" Umbra asked in retaliation. "I think all that matters right now is winning this fight."

I paused for a minute and sighed.

'Alright, I'll try it.'

There was a long pause.

"Are we just gonna stand here and stare at each other or are we actually going to fight?" asked Phoenix who's wings were still blazing with the blue fire.

"If you insist on starting, we might as well start." I said as I used a majority of magic I had conjured up to build the new spells Umbra had suggested.

'I hope this works.' I said to myself as I launched the mass of magic towards Phoenix.

The Pegasus rolled his eyes and easily dodged to large mass, letting it sail past him and into the forest.

"You're going to have to better than that if you want to kill me." mocked Phoenix.

I clenched my teeth as I forced the large ball of magic downwards, causing it to erupt into a large pillar of black flames. Phoenix looked back at the now burning forest and then back to me.

"Hmmm." he said. "Looks like this fight is gonna get pretty heated."

I frowned and with the new spell that I wielded, I began my approach towards the white Pegasus.

"Is there something wrong Agliss?" asked Celestia as she could see the man pacing back and forth in the throne room.

"He using something powerful right now." said Agliss. "I can feel it from here."

"What exactly is Zhane using?" asked Celestia.

"I don't know, it just feels incredibly powerful. Who would he be fighting that would require the use of this much power?"

"I did send bounty hunters after him earlier today. Maybe he's fight them." said Celestia.

"I doubt he would have to use this much power against a few bounty hunters. I have to go stop him before he does any real damage."

"Agliss." said Celestia. "There is now need to go. Like I said, he is probably still fight the bounty hunters. We'll go check it out later. As for now, just sit back and relax."

Agliss frowned and nodded.

"You should know better than to rush an enemy head on." taunted Phoenix as I continued to move forward. "I guess you'll have to learn a lesson." he said as he pulled his wings back and flapped them forward as hard as he could. The flames around his wings vanished and reappeared in the gust of wind caused by Phoenix's wings. This created a large firestorm that quickly grew in size.

"Don't let it hit you!" yelled Umbra as the large fire tornado closed in.

In my best efforts to block to large firestorm, I put up the strongest shield I could. It felt like a truck had hit me head on once the firestorm reached me but luckily enough my shield held. The storm dissipated and so did my shield only for me to see Phoenix dive bombing towards me with blue fire engulfing his front legs. I jumped to the right in order to dodge the flames and counterattack. So as soon as Phoenix hit the ground, I slammed my hand into the ground in an effort to create more spikes. Again, they were easily dodged.

"Princess!" called Agliss. "I need to go right now."

"Why Agliss?" replied Celestia. "There is no need to. All I ask is for you to wait a little longer. To top it off, they're an hour away from any town. So there's no need to worry."

We both ended up where we started, staring at each other. I lifted my arm back up and pointed it at Phoenix.

"Drop dead." I said with a smile on my face as I watch the magic build in my hand.

"No, you." retorted the Pegasus as the blue flames returned to his wings.

There was a solid minute of waiting before I made the first move. I launched two large balls of magic aiming right at Phoenix. To counter, Phoenix flapped his wings, creating another firestorm. The two types of fire collided and caused a larger explosion between us.

I took the opportunity to launch a few more at the Pegasus pony but again, these balls were blocked and canceled out by the firestorm Phoenix kept creating.

"You'll wear out eventually and when you do, I'm going to tear your throat out!" I yelled.

"I'll kill you before that happens!" exclaimed Phoenix through loud pants.

It was obvious that he was tried, I just had to finish him off. I began to build up more magic to increase the power of the finally blast. Again, we found ourselves at a standstill, giving me enough time to look around. The surrounding forest was devastated with blue and black flames. Trees were burnt to a crisp, animals that had not been caught be the blaze were still retreating. After feeling that I had stored a large enough amount I needed, I pulled my focus back to Phoenix and pointed my hand at him. Without saying anything, I launched a humongous orb of black energy at the Pegasus. There was no escape from this one.

"Yamato, we're leaving!" yelled Agliss as he drew his sword to the ready.

"What are you doing Captain Agliss? I thought I told you to standby?!" yelled Celestia.

"I'm not going to stand here while Zhane's using high-powered spells. I'm going to stop him and put a stop to all the destruction he's causing."

With that, Agliss turned to Yamato and nodded as the two vanished in a flash of light.

I smiled as the large ball of magic closed in on Phoenix. I never knew why he caused so much unrest with Umbra, I never knew why he was considered more dangerous to him than Agliss, Yamato, or even Celestia. I guess I never will but it didn't matter, he would be dead soon and that's the only thing that mattered.

Just when I had thought that the magic had made contact with Phoenix, a loud explosion sounded off and the orb was dissipated by a large blast of blue flames that went with the orb. Frowning, I pulled my hand back up. Phoenix, through his panting, readied himself. That last blast took a lot out of him.

"Good luck trying to dodge this one." I said as I began to build up magic into my hand. I couldn't hide the fact that I was tiring as much as Phoenix had but I had to end it there.

As I finished building it up, I started to release the magic until a loud rumbling caught me off guard. I turned to my left to see a large fissure traveling towards me at incredible speeds. I backpedaled and watched as a series of spikes formed out of earth emerged from the ground right where I had once stood. I turned my arm at pointed it at the source of the spell. Much to my surprise, I could see Agliss approaching. If he was there, that had to mean that Yamato was here as well. I began to look around and stopped only when I felt the cold steel of a sword accent my arm. I looked over to my left and there stood Yamato hold his sword against my arm.

I frowned and jumped back, away from Yamato's sword. The two Captains stood side by side distracting me from Phoenix.

"I thought you too were busy being slaves to the Princesses." I said mockingly.

"We came as soon as we sensed the magic you were using, we came right away."

I began to back away.

"As much as I would love to finish the job, I've got other places I have to be. Follow me and I will end you." I said as I backed away farther and farther until I had slipped back into the forest and out of sight of the two Captains.

"Let him go." said Agliss as he looked at his partner. "We'll deal with him at a later time."

Another flash appeared behind the two Captains.

"I heard that you two had left to find Zhane." said Luna as she approached the two. "How'd it go?"

"He got away." said Agliss.

"Did he do all of this?" she asked as she looked at the destroyed forest around them.

"He must have learned how to use Hellfire." said Agliss. "The last thing that casted this was Avalan."

"What exactly is Hellfire?" asked Luna.

"Hellfire is a magical fire conjured by using the person soul or humanity as the cost. It can never be extinguished once it set something a flame and the only way of stopping is it to use an equally powerful spell to cancel it out. I know for a fact that he didn't learn that by himself. There must be someone or somepony that's teaching him all of these things."

"What of the bounty hunters?" asked Luna.

Agliss looked over to the black hair, blue eyed, white coat Pegasus pony and pointed towards him.

"I believe that he's the only one left. I don't know how he managed to hold his own against Zhane and I don't care. We'll take him back with us."

"But what about the fire?"

"We'll have to let it burn until there's nothing more it can burn." said Agliss.

Luna frowned and turned towards the only remaining bounty hunter who had spent the time regaining his strength.

"What is your name bounty hunter?" asked Luna.

"Azure Phoenix." he said as he stood tall. "It is an honor to be in such a presence. I am awestruck buy your beauty and magnificence."

Luna frowned and looked at the Pegasus with a cold expression.

"You will return to the castle to answer a few questions and you will be free to leave."

"Cold." said Phoenix. "But I can work with that." he said with a wink.

Luna rolled her eyes and turned back to Yamato.

"Take us back to the castle."

I only stopped running once I hit the edge of the Everfree closing to Ponyville. I stopped at one of the nearby trees and slumped down. If they could track my magic like that, there's no telling what else they could track. I had decided it was time to keep moving.

I did my best to stealthy approach Red's house and entered. Inside, Red and Poison Spectre were sitting at the table. When they heard the door close, they looked at me.

"How'd it go?" asked Spectre. "Did you kill that weird Pegasus?"

"No." I replied. "Agliss and Yamato arrived before I could finish him off."

I pulled a chair back and sat down.

"I need to move. If they can track my magic, I'll need to move again to throw them off. Have you found out anything about the Crystal Heart?" I asked.

Red shook his head.

"The only thing I could find myself was rumors of it being up north."

"I guess that's where I am headed next." I said. "I'll leave tomorrow but for now, I need you two to go buy supplies in town."

Red and Spectre looked at each other before nodding and walking towards the door. Once they were gone, I looked down at my hands to find that several spot were severely burned from the Hellfire.

"I guess that's the cost." I said to myself as I got up from the table to continue with my day.

Here's Chapter 23 for everypony. Enjoy!

Azure Phoenix is an OC own by Neo Masamune. I thank him for letting me use him in my story.

There will either be one more filer chapter or i'll jump right into the next arc.

See everypony Monday!