Soul Fire

Amber, despite being scared, walked towards him. She could feel that flame inside her ripple with life. She knew that if she felt she had the strength in that moment, she would confront him about everything she felt because she knew that it was the right thing, but instead she felt weak and powerless to do so in the manner she intended. She would like to do this with strength, but could instead feel herself close in on herself, just to keep herself in control and in check.

“Good evening, Soul,” he said. Amber looked up at his stone stare and felt herself break inside and so she looked down.

“Hello,” she said, almost whispering under her breath as his shoulders sank when he sighed in response. “Captain, I...”

“Yes, Soul?”

“I... I want you to stop it. I feel like you’re going to destroy yourself. It’s building each time you pull away and… and… I’ve had enough of standing back as you continue to keep beating yourself up,” she spoke as her voice and tone grew until she was nearly screaming the last half, as tears started to fall from her eyes. She knew he had become angry as she looked up into his face.

“And what about you, huh? You do the exact same thing. You’re so damn stubborn that it just won’t get through your thick skull,” he said with an angry tone. Amber gasped in a breath and bit down so as to control and keep herself from crying, even though the semi-silent tears kept falling.

“I’m leaving, Amber. And I’m not coming back. I’ve hurt someone I care about, and now they’re crying. I’ve failed.”

“Like hell you have! Good Luna, I don’t care about the mistakes you make! I care about what you do about them. You’re just one pony. You’re going to make mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable. Just keep trying to fix them. Don’t run away like a damn coward! Nothing could hurt me more then you leaving like this. Please don’t do this,” she spoke with great emotion as the tears flowed in each sentence, either in sadness or anger. She always had been a passionate pony, and she had in this rant let the main chains break apart as she finally let her true emotions flow. She grabbed hold of herself literally just to keep herself from physically falling down, as she couldn’t hold back her hiccups and gasps as she truly started to cry.

All of a sudden, an obake holding a giant spider’s shape jumped from the rooftop. Amber gasped before it landed, only noticing its energy just before the obake decided to attack. She looked up only to see the spider spray a stream of web onto the Captain, who was caught just as off guard as she, hadn’t even had the time to draw a sword. He grunted and then yelled in defiance as he began to fight the web that was on him just before the spider had landed squarely on him, forcing him to the ground.

“Noooooo!” screamed Amber as she lunged in, only for two large smoky wolf shaped obake to come out to bite and hold the Captain down more firmly.

“No! Amber get out of here,” he yelled as he attempted to kick the wolves away from biting his ankles. The spider shaped obake turned to her, just as she hesitated at the Captain’s order, only to spray her down with the sticky webbing. Unable to make any fire inside the webbing, even if she had her full powers back, she could only see through the white layer that covered her from head to hoof. She felt like she was going to stop breathing as she watched the black form of an obake slither toward the still struggling and fighting Captain, who was trapped under the webbing.

“No!” screamed Amber as she watched the form grow into that of a snake, only for the creature to bite into the Captain’s neck. His breath shot out of his body at the undesired strike and invasion. Amber struggled to stand as the web continued to strangle and hold her down until another wolf shaped obake ran in, biting her on the withers to hold her firmly down. A breath left her chest as the obake’s teeth bit down, just as the Captain’s eyes opened wide to look at her, only for them to slowly flutter and fall down. Amber began crying, thinking that he had been killed by venom that she knew had been pumped into him.

Sombre interrupted her sobbing, chuckling as he walked around the corner of the building. She could feel the malevolence in his now solid physical form as he placed a hoof under her chin. The air around him firm in the fact that he was here to stay as he tilted her chin up to see her tears. She breathed deep with her eyes closed, gathering her strength. Her eyes shot open as she dared to glare into the eyes of her enemy.

“Heh, heh, heh. You dare defy me?” stated Sombre as he smiled at her predicament. She growled in response as she began to struggle.

He chuckled, “I presume yes is the answer.” His face then swiftly changed in an angry flash as he lifted his hoof back and punched her in the face, knocking her out.

It seemed to be the darkest night as the Captain awoke from the hold of the venom. Groggy as he was, he couldn’t see a speck of moonlight through the windows. Everything was dark as the moon was not strong enough to cut through the thick clouds that hid her gaze. These clouds were not natural, he thought. Then he remembered... Sombre. Adrenaline shot through his body, clearing his mind. He could finally see where he was, in the old castle ruins just on the outskirts of the Everfree forest.

He tried to move and found that he was chained up by a wooden frame, front hooves pulled up and to either side as his rear hooves were chained down to the stone flooring. He began to struggle, and ended up finding no point to the chains. The sound of hooves clip clopped behind him as a deep laughter opened up into the room.

“Sombre,” growled the Captain. Sombre chuckled as he walked around from behind the Captain and into full sight.

“Simply wonderful. It’s a gracious thing that you have finally been able to visit my current home. Bring her out,” he commanded. Looking to his left, the Captain could see the doors of the old ballroom open to show a unconscious Amber, also strung up by chains to a rolling frame.

“No, Soul,” the Captain said as he lurched forward but was stopped by the tangle of the chains constraining him. The two spider formed obake rolled her over to where the Captain was and faced her towards him as they chained her, just twenty feet in front of him.

He began to growl, “If you lay a hoof on her...”

Sombre began to laugh, “And what are you going to do to stop me? The venom in you has weakened you to the point of not being able to break the bonds that originally you could have blasted out of, so long as you were able to change, which you aren’t capable of either.” The Captain felt so debilitated as he ground his teeth.

“Enter,” cried Sombre, looking toward the large open doors as soon, shadows of thousands of obakes entered the large ballroom. “My daemons. Tonight we feast on the blood of our enemies to gain strength for the next confrontation. Behold the healer… and the protector. Their blood is the key to superior strength and rejuvenation. Come and drink the blood of life.”

Sombre drew a dagger and had then slowly brought it to the side of the Captain’s neck. The bite of the cold metal blade stung only for a moment as the Captain gritted his teeth as his beast burned within him. This was one of the first times that he had agreed with the invasion as he growled at Sombre, who lifted his blade towards his face and while looking him in the eye, licked the blade clean of his blood and smiled while his cloud of warriors slowly descended upon him. Sombre began to laugh as the Captain grunted and growled as he felt the searing sting of teeth and fang pierce through his flesh. It started with his neck, moving to both sides. The captain didn’t care, but he couldn’t hold back every slice of pain as each obake took their drink. No, he kept his eyes on his enemy, and on what he was doing, swearing pain upon him should he harm Amber. Sombre smiled at the Captain as he turned to Amber’s still form and lifted his blade, moving to her neck.

“If you dare... No. No. Amber!” spoke the Captain as the group of feasting obake soon blocked his entire view as they full out attacked him, letting their gluttony for his blood consume them until they had bitten him in many places. Soon two were attached, each to one of his four legs and even his sides were torn horribly as a smaller obake bit deeply into his side, joined by another on his flank. He soon lost consciousness as he began to lose more blood than he could give, thinking, “Oh good Luna, don’t let them kill her. Don’t let her die.”

Holly’s light green coat and cream mane glowed in the light of the streetlamp as she started walking back from the theater in Canterlot. As she headed back home, a clicking noise from behind her startled her. She turned frantically to see nothing behind her, just the lit up street lamp and the buildings that she had passed only a moment ago. She laughed at herself, thinking, “Well she was just being silly now. There was nothing behind her, and why should she even be scared. This was a wonderful neighborhood, and everypony, say for the common snob, was a nice pony in Canterlot.”

She continued walking, only to hear hissing behind her. She looked back to see nothing again. Stopping in the intersection of the two roads before her, she looked around, when in the distance of the south road she could see something shift in the shadows. She squinted her eyes and stepped forward a bit. Wait a minute, it wasn’t something in the shadows, it was the shadows. What was going on? She began to run in the opposite direction when the front most part of the shadow separated and took the form of a smoky wolf. The wolf lifted its head, took in a breath, and belted out a mighty howl, calling in the charge as the shadows charged into Canterlot.

Screams erupted as the shadows attacked each open home and window as the army swept through Canterlot’s Southern district. Holly ran as fast as she could, telling herself not to stop until she reached Princess Celestia or a royal guard, and faster she ran above all or less she be devoured by the monsters upon her tail.

“Princess! Princess Luna, an urgent message from your sister Princess Celestia in Canterlot,” spoke one of the guards of the New Lunar Republic.

Princes Luna was sitting in the throne room of the hidden Palace in the mountains, dealing with other paperwork, she answered plainly, “Then speak it swiftly.”

“Canterlot is under attack by a large army of strong daemons. The southern district may be lost. Requesting immediate assistance or lest the city and your sister be destroyed.”

“Assemble every available stallion,” the Princess spoke as she stood rightly up and made her way to the royal armory to suit up herself. “Guard, follow. Any point of entry we may take into the city to aid my sister?”

“Just the northern tunnel, but we must tread it cautiously,” the guard who had delivered the message spoke.

“Good. We will take the west tunnel out of the palace and enter via the northern tunnel into Canterlot. We leave as soon as everypony is ready. Call for the Captain,” commanded the Princess.

Freefall flew to the Princess’ side from the window and told her, “The Captain is missing, and the same with Ms. Nightsong. They have disappeared.”

The Princess stood silent as she stared at Freefall and then walked away. Freefall followed her for further orders as the Princess thought, ‘That is not good. They must have been taken. Good fade, help them, if any of the obake had a drink of either of their blood, they would be almost five times harder to expel from Canterlot.’

As the Princess commanded Freefall to help her suit up, she then spoke up after some thought, “The Captain and Ms. Nightsong have been taken by our enemies who will be almost impossible to beat after feasting on their blood. Until the Captain has been returned to us, I need you to lead the stallions. Do you feel up to the task at hoof? I feel that there is no other pony who can do this for Equestria any better in our current situation.”

Freefall looked gravely up at the Princess then stood fast before her and said, “Yes, my Princess. I will try my best to do our Captain proud until he returns to us.”