Author's Notes:

A bonus chapter I wanted to write. More backstory n' such.

-Altoid

Celestia and Blackscales

The land was far harsher than any place she had visited before. Celestia would not have put this land on her list if it wasn’t for the rumors she heard in a minotaur city of the location of a treasure that was stolen from many civilisations including her own. Wandering around the world seeking glory and renown was just a phase of life. This was her chance to prove herself as an adult alicorn.

‘It builds an understanding of the outside world and the lesser creatures that populate it, you will return with the wisdom and knowledge to make a real royal,’ Her father had said proudly before she left 47 years ago. And perhaps some treasure too.

But in this blasted and ruined land of vapors and spired mountains Celestia wished to be done with this self proclaimed crusade of hers. Now she stood before the gaping opening in the mountainside. Smoke wafted out and dispersed into the desert air.

Celestia was about to leave, intent on regaining her nerves for tomorrow, when a deep voice rumbled from the darkness within.

“I haven't had one of your kind visit me in many years. Come in, come in! It would be uncouth of me to leave you on the doorstep.”

Celestia bit her lip and fear filled her eyes. Being only 300 years old, she was too young to die! But her legs started forward, as if on their own, and soon she found herself walking through a dark hall of carved stone.

“You smell young,” the voice continued. “An alicorn seeking secrets and glory among the petty beasts of the world. But I also smell your blood. Oh, I haven't smelled such a powerful lineage in so long. I have a few items of your father’s in here, including a crown meant for his wife.”

Celestia could see a golden light ahead and the voice kept talking. “Oh, here it is. Such a shiny thing. Always enjoyed alicorn works. As if the sun itself has been wrought among the gold.”

Celestia stepped into the light and heart went still. A giant black dragon lay curled upon a slab of white marble and his tail curled around its base. Well organised stacks of gold gems and jewelry towered to all sides.

“Ah, now that I can see you you are most definitely a daughter of the alicorn king.” The dragon twirled a shimmering crown upon the end of his claw. “So, what brings such a delicate flower to my home?”

Celestia opened her mouth and struggled to form words. “I-I the-I-well um.”

The dragon broke out into a thunderous laugh that shook the cave. “Am I being deceived? The daughter of the king is too dumbstruck by my presence to form words!”

He carefully set the crown upon a stack of gold then bent his head and long neck towards Celestia. Too terrified to move she waited until his red eyes were mere steps away. He blinked at her then pulled his head back, seeming pleased about something.

“What is your name then?” he asked quickly while sitting rising to his full height.

“I-I i'm Starwind,” Celestia lied.

“Do they teach you how to lie in your kingdom?” he chuckled. “Celestia, am I the first Great Dragon you have ever met?”

“How did-”

“Ha! I am the first you have met!” He broke out into another laugh. “Courage or foolishness drives you, hmm, maybe both. So you know, us Great Dragons can read weak and unguarded minds.” He cast a crooked glance at her with one of his eyes. “Do you even know who I am?”

“Not really,” Celestia said with half of the truth.

The dragon huffed and glared at her with a critical eye. “Come now, child. You have to have heared about me in your travels. Guess my name.”

Celestia took a deep breath, gathering herself. “I remember a story my father told me about the first Great Dragon, Wyrmron. He had three sons.”

The dragon smiled. “Do you remember their names?”

“The youngest, a blue dragon and the father of the civilised dragons, his name was Saphris the Kind.”

“Good, good,” the dragon nodded. “Who else?”

The middle son was a red dragon, father of the wandering dragons, Resmral the Lost.”

The dragon’s face broke into toothy grin. “And who, child, was the oldest and most powerful of the brothers? Who killed Wyrmron, feasted upon his flesh and claimed his rightful place as the greatest being in the world? What was his name?”

The black dragon loomed over Celestia now, causing her to shiver in fear. “There are many names he has because he cast aside his birth name after he killed his father. The Ever Shadow, Black Doom, World Biter is what the Gryphons call you-”

“Never understood that one.”

“-but the alicorns just call you Balckscales the Immortal.”

“Ah, so now you know who you are dealing with!” The dragon layed back down, and stared less menacingly at the alicorn. “What name would you call me now that you’ve beheld my glory?”

Celestia shook her head, “I would need time to think of a name for someone so grand as you.”

“I will take that as flattery.”

“Blackscales the Immortal, why do they call you that?” the Princess asked, gathering enough courage to take the lead in the conversation.

“Your grandfather led an army against me long ago.” The dragon let a burst of flame escape from his nostrils. “We both gained much from that battle. I got to feast on the sweet flesh of alicorns and he got to believe that he killed me and the glory that goes along with that accomplishment. If you ever return home you should ask your father the story. Galiant alicorns, summoning the powers of the world and sky to kill me. Then, after they cast my ruined and lifeless body into the deep ice of the north, they returned home as heroes. Oh well, a good trade for a good meal.”

“How did you live?”

“I wasn’t actually dead of course,” Blackscales chuckled. “Ice freezes the life of a lesser dragon but I am not such. Fire and ice nor the bite of time harms me. When the alicorns learned I was alive, they gave me that name.”

Celestia lowered her eyes, her mind racing. She knew he wasn’t going to let her leave. Blackscales seemed to forget about her for a moment and he started to count gold coins one by one and place them in a pile.

“Why do dragons love treasure?” she asked before thinking.

Blackscales stopped and looked over at her. “Just mentioning a dragon's treasures in front of him can get you killed. But I am in a good mood so I will indulge you.”

Celestia watched as he grabbed a claw full of gold and stared greedily at it. “To gain power dragons take and horde. When we take, we lose the light within us. Gold and gems are valuable possessions that look the most like this lost light in our souls. We take lives and possessions, grow in power, lose ourselves then take more to feel like we regained what we lost.” He let out a laugh, “it’s cruel cycle!”

An idea started to form in Celestia’s mind. She had to escape but she needed to bring at least some form of his treasure back to prove that she would be a fearless leader to her father and people. She took a few gold coins from a sack on her side and began to gather her magic into a sphere, melting the gold and setting pure light within it. Blackscales noticed this and moved his head closer to watch, struck speechless by the golden light.

“I am offering you a gift to add to your treasures,” she said as the sphere grew. “Pure gold and sunlight.”

“You are powerful in solar magic,” the dragon muttered and Celestia noticed, to her surprise, fear mixed in his voice with the prevaling awe and greed. “This gift will be a prize beyond anything I posses.”

Celestia finished the sphere and set it before Blackscales. A shimmering orb, like molten gold, with a twisting light emanating from the core sat between them casting rippling light on the walls.

“What do you think?” Celestia asked, her courage rapidly returning.

Blackscales didn’t respond, but instead remained motionless with his red eyes fixed to the orb. Celestia waited for him to respond for several minutes but when he didn’t move, she began to walk toward the treasure. When he still didn’t react she rushed to the alicorn crown and plucked it from the pile. Blackscales remained motionless, staring into the swirling golden light.

Celestia took one last look at the dragon then rushed out of the cave. She stepped into the sunlight and took only a moment to rest, for not long after a bright flash emanated from the cave followed by an earth shaking roar.

After Celestia left, Blackscales had continued to gaze deep into the light. When suddenly, within the gold, words could be seen forming. Blackscales leaned closer trying to make out what they said.

Blackscales the Fool

The dragon’s eyes went wide with shock and anger just as the orb flashed like the sun and exploded, burning his eyes and cracking the scales along his face. Blackscales realed up, roaring curses, hatred and promises of vengeance until the cavern started to cave in. Soon he was buried under the mountain until many years later, after his eyes had healed, the mountain crumbled from his rage within.

For Celestia had realised that fire and ice may not destroy a Great Dragon but light will bite into its blackened soul and burn from within. She took the crown home and presented it to her father who later gave it back to be her own. Blackscales escaped from the ruined mountain but dared not attack the alicorns for he learned to fear the sun and the magic it wrought and instead waited in the wastelands feeding his hatred.

Until one day an alicorn entered his rebuilt lair and stood before him.

“I am returning something stolen from you,” the alicorn said as he placed Celestia’s crown upon the ground. The dragon had grown in size and power since Celestia had come to him.

Blackscales lifted the crown and stared at it with hateful eyes. “Is she dead?”

“Yes, the sun has set,” the alicorn replied and his skill in the magic of words concealed the lie from the dragon that Celestia’s spirit was instead trapped in the body of a filly.

“What will you ask of me then?” Blackscales growled and shot a glance from his red eyes towards the alicorn. “Blandire, conqueror of Equestria, killer of his own kin!”

Blandire cast back his hood and looked up at the dragon. “Do my bidding and release your hatred on my foes, and when we find where the younger Princess is hiding them, when the time is right, bring me the Elements of Harmony.”