Night Fury

"Night Fury. Speed: Unknown. Size: Unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you."

- Hiccup as he reads through the Dragon Manual

The Night Fury is a medium-sized Strike Class dragon that first appeared in How to Train Your Dragon.

Official Description
"The Night Fury was once considered to be one of the most mysterious and fearsome species of dragons. In fact, until Hiccup befriended Toothless, no one even knew what a Night Fury looked like because they preferred to attack at night, when their black scales allowed them to blend into the night sky, making them mostly invisible. Night Furies are classified as members of the Strike Class. They have the ability to “dive bomb,” meaning that they can plummet from great heights, gaining speed as they continue downwards, then shoot a “plasma blast” at their target. For a long time, the only information that the Vikings had gathered on this rare dragon was the whistling sound of its speed cutting through the night sky, followed by a bright purple light, then finally a massive explosion. Physically, they are of medium build with jet black scales covering their body. Night Furies also possess retractable teeth (hence Toothless’ name). Rather than firing like most dragons, Night Furies are able to shoot “plasma blasts” from their mouth. They are also extremely swift and use their speed and coloration to blend into the night sky. While they may initially seem like vicious, dangerous creatures, Hiccup’s friendship with Toothless has increased our understanding of the true nature of the Night Fury. They are highly intelligent, loyal and fiercely protective of those they care about."

- School of Dragons Website

Development
"We had previously thought of him as wolf-like, but then we discovered a big cat worked better."

- Dean DeBlois, Director The Night Fury was originally inspired by a black panther screensaver on one of the story artist's monitors. The image was 'striking and electrifying, with those eyes staring out from the darkest black face', says Dean DeBlois.

The Night Fury's personality, appearance, and behavior is a mix of a horse, wombat, kangaroo, bat, snake, dog, cat, panther and a bird of prey. Night Furies were designed to be the most mammalian of mammals, and were made to be 'cleaner, sleeker and stealthier' than other dragons. The Night Fury's pure black skin proved as a major difficulty, as the artistic team had to portray it under a variety of lighting conditions.

"We tested specularity and reflectivity to show detail that would read well in everything from crisp moonlight to foggy or smoky scenes."

- Sabrina Riegel, Head of Surfacing

Sabrina adds that they had created a texture in which the Night Fury's skin resembled more of that of a shark or stingray's, instead of a reptile's. It was also said to be inspired by that of a bat.

This dragon was carefully crafted to make sure its intelligence and emotional personality came through without anthropomorphizing it. The Night Fury's behavior, similar to that of common pets--cats, dogs, and horses, were intended to evoke relatable emotions from viewers. To study its behavior in the making of Gift of the Night Fury, an animator stuck a ball of tape onto his cat's tail and filmed its reaction.

The growls and croons of Night Furies and Toothless are a combination of various sounds, says Supervising Sound Designer Randy Thom, including his own voice, elephants, horses, tigers, domestic cats, and a jet engine.

Considering that Toothless, the one and only Night Fury, as well as main dragon character, needed to be very expressive, the Night Fury has significantly much more control on its face than other dragons. As such, the team had much more rigging around its eyes, ears, and mouth. This allowed plenty of minute details, like the angle, shape, and size of the eye, to be altered. The Night Fury has a total of over 4,000 controls for its CG model. The Night Fury's first smile was inspired by Simon Otto's son's first smile.

Egg
Night Fury eggs are oblong, almost similar to that of a chicken egg, and are smooth. In order to blend in with the night sky, they are jet black albeit with lighter blemishes.

Hatchling to Adult
The Night Fury is the fastest, smartest, and rarest of the known species of dragons, as Toothless might be the last known member of his species. It is medium-sized with a sleek, dark body with black scales. It has faint lighter patterns similar to that of a manta ray.

The Night Fury somewhat resembles an axolotl or a gecko in general appearance and has two pairs of wings with a shape similar to a bat, two mobile, ear-like appendages on the back of its head that show its mood and help it hear, as well as other pairs around their jaw depending on their age. They also have a pair of large, yellowish-green, cat-like eyes and sharp retractable teeth. Unlike most dragon species, the Night Fury has a short neck and lacks any kind of horns. The tip of the snout is also prominent, resembling the rhinarium of a mammal. The dragon is about 26 feet in length.

In flight, the Night Fury's wingspan is unrivaled, bearing approximately 45 feet, making it resemble some sort of stealthy jet plane. This allows it to fly faster, longer and further than any of the other dragon species. It uses tail fins on its tail to help steer and maneuver, similar to an airplane rudder. However, a Night Fury will be incapable of flying if one of these fins is missing or destroyed, which shows that they are also used for ballast in flight. It is capable of taking flight from a standing start like a pigeon.

Titan Wing
It remains unknown what a Titan Wing Night Fury looks like or what color they were because of the fact that Grimmel the Grisly hunted them to near the point of extinction. The only remaining individual is Toothless who has not yet reached the Titan Wing stage.

Alpha Dominance Display
When the Night Fury's "Alpha" mode is unleashed, its spines, the ridge between its eyes, the inside of its mouth, and the nose glow translucent blue, reminiscent of the blueish plasma blasts it fires. Also, although this may just be natural video blurring, when Toothless fires shots, the now translucent blue parts of his body glow a little brighter. And as Toothless fires probably the most powerful shot he has ever fired, he glows extremely bright- and slowly, the glow fades away after that.

The activity book DreamWorks Dragons: To Berk and Beyond!, written by Richard Hamilton, has revealed that every dragon is capable of entering this state when challenging an Alpha, but so far only Toothless was shown to do so.

Firepower
The Night Fury has the ability to shoot bursts of purple-colored flames, which are composed of acetylene and oxygen. Night Furies can control the power of their fire, from a mild warning shot to a full-power explosive blast. The blast was called a plasma blast by Hiccup since Dragons: Riders of Berk. Plasma blasts explode directly upon impact, sometimes exploding in midair at higher altitudes because of the cut off oxygen supply. The Night Fury can fire at different levels of power, such as a blast weak enough to be deflected by a wooden shield and a blast powerful enough to destroy an entire catapult tower.

These blasts can be fired with pinpoint accuracy. The Night Fury also has the habit to light and warm up the place where it will sleep, as seen in the films and the DreamWorks Dragons: The Series. This fire isn't particularly strong, but is said to be incredibly hot, and can light up fireplaces, stoves, and lamps. The flames and blasts are known as plasma because the heat created by the fire is hot enough to ionize gases produced by the flames. The fire has also been seen in a blue color and also to carry an electrical current.

It can tone down its fire for different applications; for example, it can fire concussive blasts that can knock people off their feet (though not significantly harm them), while at the same time being able to destroy entire battlements with more powerful blasts. They can use fire to bend the bars of the training arena in Berk, and can also stun dragons with their fire.

The Night Fury's plasma blast can sometimes be reflected off surfaces such as rock walls. They can use this as a tactic to take out fast moving objects in tight, narrow spaces. It was shown when Toothless fires a reflective blast to take out Heather and Windshear.

A strange effect occurs when the plasma blast of a Night Fury hits the lightning of a Skrill, as displayed in "A View to a Skrill, Part 1". The two blasts combine in an electro-plasmatic reaction to form a sort of mid-air seismic charge. This blast is enough to knock both the Skrill and the Night Fury out of the sky.

Dive-bombing
The Night Furies’ main type of attack style is using a dive-bomb. Night Furies fold their wings to create a streamlined, aerodynamic shape while they dive from the sky, helping them to achieving greater speed when they accelerate downwards. It has been observed that at the last moment, Night Furies release a plasma blast at its target and open their wings to create drag, then lift off. The blast can then do destructive damage, as one has even been seen to knock a Red Death to the ground during the events of How to Train Your Dragon. If a Night Fury does this at night, it remains completely camouflaged and blends in with the dark sky so its targets can't see it coming. Furthermore, Toothless has been seen intentionally flying straight upwards, then diving down before changing directions such that he is parallel to the ground so as to gain speed for normal flight.

Strength and Combat
The Night Fury is also known to be very strong, even for a dragon of their size, being able to hold off Vikings like Stoick and other Vikings in the first film. He can also fly while carrying the combined weight of Stoick and Hiccup, over 400 pounds. Toothless has also shown to push a Whispering Death head on, though he was charging from a low altitude, it still takes a strong force to push a Whispering Death to the ground.

Toothless could also carry Hookfang (over 5,000 pounds) by his tail with the extra weight of Hiccup and Snotlout. He also shown to struggled lifting Barf and Belch with extra weight of Hiccup. In “The Eel Effect”, Toothless manages to lift up and push away Meatlug even while she was sitting on him. Toothless's tail has been shown to be very flexible and strong, as he has used it to knock out Outcast guards, push back a Razorwhip, strike a Triple Stryke onto the floor, and knock out Krogan until one of his teeth fell off.

Toothless is also a very strong and persistent fighter on the ground. He has easily taken out a Gronckle in a short amount of time, as well as holding his own with Monstrous Nightmares and Whispering Deaths. Even with the inability to fly, he is a capable fighter as shown in "What Flies Beneath". He has proven against a Triple Stryke is one of the few dragons on the ground to be formidable opponent.

Stealth


"Toothless, time to disappear!"

- Hiccup, to Toothless, before he blends into the night sky

The Night Fury's jet black color and dark scales make it nearly impossible to spot in the night sky. The only warnings that it gives is the sound of the dive-bombing with a loaded blast, right before it attacks with a powerful plasma blast, as well as the stars disappearing behind it. The only way to spot a Night Fury flying at night is when it passes its flame-engulfed blast. Hiccup was able to shoot one down as it flew past a burned catapult tower that it just shot.

Much like the Light Fury, Night Furies have a 'cloaking' ability. This allows them to blend into their surroundings. They do this by summoning lightning from the sky to turn their scales reflective, although it has been shown to use up a lot of their energy.

Speed and Agility


The Night Fury is the fastest known dragon. It is said to reach speeds that break the sound barrier, however, the one known instance of this happening is during the introduction sequence of Dragons: Riders of Berk and Dragons: Defenders of Berk. The Night Fury's streamlined sleek-shaped body and massive powerful wings help it obtain a speed limit rivaling a real-life P-51 Mustang. Night Furies don't have sharp spikes or spines, instead, they have short and thin fin-like spines. The reason for this is because the short fin-shaped spines prevent greater air resistance than tall sharp spines. This gives the Night Fury a huge advantage in high-speed flight.

Night Furies are incredibly agile dragons that are able to dodge many blasts from dragons, arrows and catapults. They also have a very quick reaction to an opposing threat. On land, they are able to outrun and outmaneuver most other dragons and even being able to jump to and leap from various objects like trees or walls. In the 1st and 2nd series of Race to the Edge, Toothless never got hit once by a dragon root arrow due to his expert dodging and weaving. Night Furies' tails are also one of the main sources of their flying ability, and altering the tail can change its abilities.

Very few species of dragons are able to rival the speed of Night Furies while in flight. Those that have been seen to be capable are the Skrill, the Screaming Death, the Flightmare, the Snow Wraith, the Small Shadow, the Dramillion, the Deathgripper, and the Light Fury.

Claws
The claws of Night Furies appear to simply be black extrusions of keratin, in truth they can actually flex on command and act as rudimentary fingers. In the first film, Toothless escapes the cove by being able to flex his claws and secure his grip past the edge of the cove wall, enabling him to pull himself up. In “Tone Death”, the claws are also able to easily slash through Death Song amber that has been weakened by flaming Monstrous Nightmare gel.

Acute Senses
Night Furies have an uncannily great sense of hearing and they are able to hear long distances, as proven by Toothless when he was able to hear Hiccup yelling from the cove. Night Furies have a good sense of smell from a certain distance until they lose track. They also have large eyes that give them excellent nocturnal vision as they are adapted to fly at night. However, their night vision is limited to a sufficient light source. They cannot see well in complete darkness, thus they will use echolocation, such as in a cave, or when their vision is restricted.

Stamina and Endurance
Night Furies, being excellent flyers in speed and agility, also have extremely high stamina, as Toothless has proven to fly many times without any break between in the TV Series. Night Furies are also shown to be quite tough, like all dragons. They can survive falls from the sky with fairly minor injuries as demonstrated in the films and DreamWorks Dragons: The Series. Also they can use their wings to repel weapons as also shown in the TV series and in "Dragon Eye of the Beholder, Part 1", where a bunch of arrows bounces off Toothless' wing when he shielded Hiccup from it. In The Hidden World, Toothless also shows to be able to recover quite quickly. When hit with an arrow filled with Deathgripper venom, Toothless wakes up quickly, while the Light Fury remains unconscious for a while longer.

Intelligence and Mimicry
Night Furies are extremely intelligent, surpassing all known dragon species. Toothless can almost completely understand everything said to him. He is able to understand verbal cues and non-verbal cues, as showcased in "Twinsanity". Toothless also displays an impeccable ability to learn, process and remember various tricks like the "Barrel Roll" in "Worst in Show". In daily, casual conversations, Toothless also appears to be able to grasp Hiccup's words and comprehend them.

Night Furies displays a high level of emotional and sentimental awareness of both humans and other dragons alike. Toothless' emotional intelligence, arguably, surpasses almost all other dragons in the series and is responsible for the close bond between him and Hiccup. Toothless is able to sense emotions by picking up on oral and behavioral signals and act accordingly in response to them. For example, during the events of How to Train Your Dragon, he sensed that Hiccup was not out to hurt him and reciprocated by letting down his guard. However, his emotional awareness is not be disregarded as mere obedience. Night Furies are wary creatures which are observant and evaluative and Toothless only trusted Hiccup after assessing him. Furthermore, in "Animal House", Toothless was the first to sense that the Riders were cold and suffering and took the initiative to shield them, showcasing a heightened awareness and empathy towards his surroundings. In "The Eel Effect", despite suffering from Eel Pox, Toothless stopped himself from shooting blasts when he accidentally hit Hiccup and ran away in order to protect his rider from himself. In "Free Scauldy" and "Living on the Edge", Toothless was shown to grieve for the dying Scauldy and Garffiljorg, despite not knowing them for much time.

Night Furies also seem to be able to command and manipulate others to an extent, such as when he told the other dragons to back off when he was facing his nemesis. This showcases the certain level of leadership that Night Furies possess. In "We Are Family, Part 2", Toothless was captured and imprisoned in Outcast Island and he was able to outsmart two Outcast soldiers by himself by pretending to be unconscious and tricking them into freeing his mouth muzzle. Toothless also knew what Grimora parasites were, and as soon as he felt the water he knew what they were in there and refused to go for a swim.

Night Furies also seem to be one of the few dragons who attempts to show creativity. In the first film, Toothless was attempted to draw Hiccup after seeing him draw. In the second film, Toothless attempted to draw again after Valka drew Hiccup's map on snow. This also shows that Night Furies have the ability to mimic others. This also includes human facial expressions, as displayed in the same film. Hiccup in DreamWorks Dragons: To Berk and Beyond! states that "Night Furies love to doodle!"

Echolocation
In Dragons: Riders of Berk, episode "We Are Family, Part 1", Toothless demonstrates the ability to use echolocation. When Night Furies are at locations where their visual sight is limited, making it dangerous to fly, they can use a special roar. This roar, visualized as a purple colored sound waves bounces off all objects and obstacles nearby and allows the dragon to avoid them, even in mid-flight. Unlike bats, this roar, or at least part of it, is still low enough to be within human hearing range; humans are able to hear the dragon using the roar. Night Furies can also use this method when they are trying to find an object in open areas where visibility is low, such as when Toothless was trying to locate the Snow Wraith in a snowstorm in episode "Dragon Eye of the Beholder, Part 2". This sound wave is in a sonic ringed shape, rather than a lined sound wave.

Jaws
Night Furies have incredible jaw strength. They can also retract their teeth, to avoid chipping and breaking when not in use. Another unconfirmed explanation is that the dragon would retract its teeth to protect them from the plasma blast if its jaws are restricted (the plasma being more dangerous than the lava, mist, smoke, or fire most dragons use). The retractable teeth is what earned Toothless his name.

Swimming
Night Furies are shown to be good swimmers as demonstrated by Toothless. He can swim at high speed and hold his breath for quite a while, but Night Furies do have a limited lung capacity and will drown unless they have access to air, as evidenced in the first film and several episodes.

Secondary Spines/Flaps
In the second film, Valka showed Hiccup hidden spines on Toothless' back, that even the dragon himself didn't know about, most likely because he lacked other Night Furies to show that feature to him. After that he is able to extend them at will. Those "flaps" are flat, leathery fins, placed in 'V' shape and extending from his back, to the end of tail. They gave him more maneuverability and control in flight. As Valka was able to do this with the first Night Fury she'd ever met, there is probably a similar or equivalent ability in another dragon species she has more experiences with.

Dominance Display


Night Furies are also shown to have a dominance display where they "charge" themselves which gives them stronger firepower. As they charge themselves, their plasma blasts increase to a higher temperature than normal. When this happens, various parts of their body, such as the spines, the converging points of the wing and body, mouth, nostrils, and center section of their forehead glow translucent blue. This glow gets brighter if one of two things happen - the Night Fury roars, or the Night Fury fires a very powerful plasma blast. Night Furies are only known to gain these abilities and uses this display when they challenge a current Alpha Dragon, or some very powerful force. When charged, Night Furies can also release the control the Alpha has on other dragons. when in his dominance display toothless is unable to be controlled by the current alpha.

Cloaking
In How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, it was revealed that Night Furies are capable of cloaking. They do this by charging their body with electrical energy to cause themselves to become temporarily invisible. As a Night Fury enters its 'cloaked form', it causes a massive wave of electrical energy that electrocutes all opponents within a close radius. This is shown in the third film where Toothless electrocutes Grimmel's Deathgrippers, causing them to fall to their deaths.

Weaknesses
Night Furies have almost no known unique weakness, making them one of the hardest dragons to combat. However, a Dragon Root arrow may cause more of a side effect as it can make them very weak and vulnerable for long period of time, while other dragons will recover faster, as seen in "Enemy of My Enemy".

The Night Furies' large wings make them vulnerable to powerful sheering winds if they were to attempt a prolonged hover in such conditions, as displayed in “Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Young Man”, but this could be said of most dragons of the average wingspan.

The Night Furies' dual tail fins on their tails allow them to remain stabilized in flight. If one is damaged or missing, they will be unable to fly properly (though Toothless has been shown making short glides without Hiccup, just not prolonged high-altitude flight).

It is revealed in the third film that Night Furies are unable to survive in cold environments. It is also stated that Night Furies are unable to fly for very long distances without resting. Otherwise they share all the weaknesses that other species have: they are allergic to eels, poisoned by Blue Oleander flowers, react to Dragon Root, infected by the parasitic Grimora, and weakened by dragonvine.

Behavior and Personality
"Night Fury, get down!"

- The recurring warning Vikings use upon spotting one According to the Dragon Manual, the Night Fury is considered to be so mysterious and so feared, that it is often called the “unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.” Night Furies are generally very aggressive to any form of threat they find, similar to how most dragons used to treat the Vikings of Berk.

The Night Fury, unsuprisingly for its rarity, is an enigmatic dragon. Toothless, for example, came across as aloof and distrusting when Hiccup first met him. He is secretive and unwilling to engage in any form of contact, trying to avoid the boy repeatedy. Furthermore, in the first film, Hiccup says that a Night Fury "never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses." The Night Fury is evidently a solidarity dragon, never one to steal directly for his Alpha and unwilling to reveal himself.

Though they keep themselves closely guarded but when they warm up to others, they are also curious creatures that attempt to understand new things they observe and are intelligent enough to attempt to recreate the actions that they see. They are also incredibly playful, intrigued by the littlest of things like flying sparks.

Night Furies, in comparison to most other dragons, are very capable of communicating, and seemingly understanding human speech: the best evidence of this is when Toothless makes a noise in agreement with Hiccup regarding the fact that the Red Death can fly or when Hiccup orders Toothless not to kill Astrid and Stoick. They are, however, fiercely loyal and protective.

Night Furies are generally expressive animals. Toothless also does not have a very hard time getting his emotions noticed: for example, Toothless growled when Hiccup stepped on his drawing, or snarled in disgust and fear when Hiccup mentioned he put an eel in Toothless' dish. Toothless' pupils dilate when he is in a good mood, and narrow to slits when startled or aggressive. Their ears are also very expressive, constantly perking and dropping to signal their emotions and their opinions.

Night Furies mainly resemble cats, dogs, and bats. Such behavior can be seen when Toothless licks himself, walks in a circle before laying down, and scratches himself just like cats do. Night Furies resemble bats because they hang themselves upside down, are nocturnal, and use some form of echolocation. They also resemble dogs because they are playful and very loyal when trained, and tries to understand what humans are saying.

They occasionally hang and sleep upside down like a bat. Sometimes when they are getting ready to sleep, they singe the ground with their fiery breath, while walking in a circle, much like dogs and cats do before laying down.

Training
Training a Night Fury is extremely difficult. However, Hiccup was able to train his Toothless without too much difficulty because Toothless couldn't fly and was trapped in a cove. A wild Night Fury will likely just fly away and ignore you unless you catch its interest (a good way to do that is with fish) or prevent its flight (like Hiccup did, yet this method can lead to the trainer's death). It is preferable to catch it without hurting it (which is even harder than catching it, since no-one before Hiccup has ever caught one). Another way is to find its egg and train it when it hatches.

Yet a third way is to nurse one back to health, then try and bond with it. The unfortunate truth is the entire species seems to be on the very brink of extinction, with Toothless being the only Night Fury anyone in the franchise has ever actually seen. The third film implies that Toothless very well could be the last of his kind (or at least one of the few remaining of his kind), as it's revealed that Grimmel the Grisly has apparently hunted the Night Furies to the point of near-extinction.

Night Furies are very reclusive and distrustful. If ever found, the first step to training it would be to gain its attention, as Hiccup did by presenting it with fish and drawing him in dirt. Next, one has to gain its trust and show that you are of no threat which Hiccup had done by throwing away his blade. Like training most other dragons, training this dragon requires mutual respect and trust. After that, the good old method of strengthening a bond via placing a hand on his snout works best.

According to the How to Train Your Dragon game, training a Night Fury can be as simple as feeding the dragon Beef. In this game, there are multiple Night Furies and their favorite food is beef.

How to Train Your Dragon
A Night Fury is seen attacking Berk during a dragon raid during Hiccup's opening narration, letting out a blast and sending a watch tower to bits. In an attempt to prove himself, Hiccup shoots down the Night Fury with his cannon, sending it shrieking down the sky. During the crash, the dragon loses its left tail fin and remains stranded, bound in bolas.

Hiccup tracks the Night Fury down the next day, determined to cut its heart out and bring it back to the village, but ultimately can't bring himself to do it when he sees how scared the dragon is. After much thought, Hiccup decides to free it instead of kill it. The Night Fury pounces on Hiccup, and roars before fleeing, much to Hiccup's surprise, as he had expected the dragon to kill him.

Hiccup attempts to find the Night Fury the next day, only to find it stranded in a cove. He realizes it is missing a tail fin, and the dragon notices Hiccup on the edge of the cove.

That night, he reads the Dragon Manual, only to find that no information on the Night Fury, whatsoever, can be found in it. All the encyclopedia mentions is "Size Unknown. Speed Unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you." He then compares the blank pages to his sketch of the dragon.

The next day, Hiccup brings some fish over. The dragon approaches him. They hesitate for a moment and Hiccup holds the fish out warily. The dragon growls as Hiccup reaches for his dagger unconsciously, but relaxes into a puppy-like sitting posture when Hiccup discards it. It approaches Hiccup warily as he holds out the fish. It accepts it, revealing his toothless mouth. But within a split second, he reveals the teeth. The dragon demands for more, but after Hiccup explains that he doesn't anymore fish on him, the Night Fury regurgitates the fish that he just ate and offers it to Hiccup. Hiccup reluctantly eats a mouthful and smiles, the dragon smiles back. But when he attempts to touch it, the dragon snarls and leaves.

The Night Fury makes himself comfortable at a spot, only to see Hiccup beside him. Grumpy, he leaves to sleep. When he wakes up, he sees the boy drawing in the sand. Curious, he walks over and watches his figure in the sand in satisfaction before uprooting a tree and drawing Hiccup. Hiccup, in amazement, stands up and walks to Toothless. Toothless growls whenever Hiccup steps onto his drawing. Soon, Hiccup makes his way to the dragon. Slowly, with his eyes closed, he reaches his hand out, and Toothless lays his head against it. When Hiccup opens his eyes, the dragon quickly leaves. Struck with confusion and awe, Hiccup leaves the cove.

The next day, he returns with a basket of fish and a prosthetic tail. While Toothless is occupied with the fish, he hooks the tail up. Toothless takes off immediately, with Hiccup on his tail and nearly crashes into the cove walls. Hiccup quickly spreads the tail fin and the duo flies upwards. Toothless flicks him off his tail and they both crash.

The following days, Hiccup returns with new prototypes--tails, saddles and more. He invented a saddle and tail fin that work in correlation. They spend a lot of time trying to fly and Hiccup ends up finding out more on the little quirks of dragons. One day, they head out the cove for a test drive. With his cheat sheet in hand, most goes smoothly for them, until they fly higher and higher... and Hiccup loses his cheat sheet. The duo plummet to the ground, both flailing wildly. Hiccup quickly grabs hold of Toothless and gets onto the saddle, clicking the stirrup. They fly safely and finally, triumphantly make their way to an island for a peaceful celebration.

Astrid, jealous of Hiccup's success in Dragon Training, confronts him. Only to notice his dragon. After a shaky introduction, Astrid runs away, only to be lifted up by Toothless and Hiccup. Toothless, upset with her attitude, brings her for a wild ride, only slowing down when she apologised. They then go for what was dubbed as 'Romantic Flight'. However, Toothless is drawn to a sound and leads the Vikings to the Dragon Mountain. Astrid is tempted to tell Stoick of the Nest, but Hiccup stops her for Toothless would be killed.

On Hiccup's unfortunate initiation test where he was supposed to kill a Montrous Nightmare in front o his entire village, Toothless breaks out of the cove and runs towards Hiccup's cries. He breaks into the Arena and faces off with the Nightmare to protect Hiccup. Eventually, the Vikings swarm in and attack him. They force him into captivity and use him to lead them to the Nest. Hiccup, with the rest of the teens, ride other dragons over to save Toothless.

Over there, the boat Toothless was on sunk, and Hiccup jumps in to save him, but fails. Stoick rescues his son and jumps back to save Toothless. Returning the favour, Toothless brings Stoick back up to the surface. The duo then take off, and face off with the Red Death. After blasting the Red Death to death, they attempt to escape the cloud of flames, but the tail fin catches fire and Hiccup is knocked off Toothless' back. Toothless plunges down into the flames to save Hiccup, wrapping him between his wings.

The fog clears, and Stoick stumbles around, desperately looking for his son. Seeing Toothless on the ground, but Hiccup nowhere to be seen, he falls to his knees, apologizing profusely to his son. Toothless then reveals Hiccup under his wings, safe, but with an injured foot. Stoick thanks Toothless with tears in his eyes. Both of them are then taken back to Berk to rest.

Toothless wakes first, and greets Hiccup, who is surprised that he was in their house. Toothless looks down at Hiccup's left foot, replaced with a prosthetic, much like his own. This formed a physical bond between the duo, and he helped Hiccup walk to the doorway, where they revealed that Berk has allowed dragons on its grounds. They finally take off together, with the rest of the team and a new tail fin. This Night Fury has since became one of the main characters and appeared in all other DreamWorks Dragons media.

Season 2
At the end of "Maces and Talons, Part 2", when Viggo Grimborn activated the Dragon Eye, a Night Fury is seen as a center of the projection. This raised the question whether a Night Fury is extremely important to the Dragon Eye in some way, or that it is just connected to finding Dragon Eye lenses. However, its meaning is still unknown, as the symbol was never brought up again.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
It is revealed in this film that Night Furies were hunted and killed to near-extinction by the infamous dragon hunter, Grimmel the Grisly, leaving Toothless the last of his kind.

However, following Grimmel's death as well as Hiccup and Astrid's wedding, Toothless and the Unnamed Light Fury became mates and bred a new hybrid species called Night Light.

Trivia

 * While the Night Fury is clearly adapted to hunting and flying in the night, Toothless is mostly active during the day. It is likely that he adapted to diurnalism so that he can match his activities to the Vikings' and spend more time with Hiccup.


 * It is revealed in the third film by Grimmel the Grisly that once a Night Fury finds a partner, they mate for life.


 * According to the School of Dragons website, Night Furies shoot lightning. This could explain why their shots are called plasma blasts as fire and lightning are both examples of plasma, a state of matter, which is the form of high-energy ionized gas.


 * How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World reveals that Toothless is able to channel lightning into his body and harness its powers to make himself invisible.


 * The Night Fury's dive-bombing capability, as well as the shrill whine associated with it, appears to be inspired by the real-life Ju 87 dive-bomber used by the Luftwaffe in World War II. The Ju 87 was outfitted with sirens that emitted a high-pitched noise similar to that of the Night Fury's as it pulled into a dive.
 * The Night Fury is the symbol for the Strike Class, and if you look closely the symbol only has one tail fin (suggesting that Toothless is the individual depicted).
 * The How to Train Your Dragon game says Night Furies don't like fish, despite them liking fish in other media.
 * In "A Time to Skrill", the Skrill was shown to travel up a lightning bolt towards the clouds at an insane speed, it appeared to travel faster than any dragon seen before, particularly the Night Fury. However, the official stats on Dragonpedia say otherwise.
 * It is possible the stats are incorrect due to several other inconsistencies.
 * The Night Fury is the crest of the Berk Dragon Training Academy.
 * The Night Fury's rounded conical face, large almond-shaped eyes and wide mouth containing peg-like teeth resemble that of the alien experiment Stitch from the Disney film Lilo & Stitch. This is no coincidence, as Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders were also involved in that film, and incorporated Stitch's features into Toothless, likely to make him seem both frightening at times and endearing at others.
 * There is a lot of uncertainty about the Night Fury's shot limit, even if some sources and even Hiccup himself in one episode states that his limit is six, that fact might not be entirely true as even in original film, in final fight, he was able to give more than ten shots, with seven full powered ones in quite quick succession, this may be because the Night Fury is able to reload its shots quickly.
 * Since Night Furies primarily feed on fish, it can be deduced that they prefer to live near large bodies of water.
 * The Night Fury is the first black dragon to be seen in the franchise.
 * The others are the Sword Stealer, the Devilish Dervish, and the Night Terror.
 * It remains unknown where the final resting place for Night Furies are since Vanaheim has no Night Fury bones.
 * It is unknown whether there are any Night Furies that managed to escape the hands of Grimmel and left the Archipelago.
 * The Night Fury bears the resemblance of the rare Red-Eyes Black Dragon from the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise owned by Joseph "Joey" Wheeler. The only difference is that the Night Furies have green eyes instead of red.