Soul Fire

Within Amber’s view, she could see the Captain’s currently blurry form, blurry from her brain being bashed around in her skull after that last smack. The Captain’s body slumped down, almost spent, almost drained dry, as the last obake took their fill. Amber shook her head and focused on the Captain, as she began to struggle in earnest.

“Captain! Captain! No, look at me. Captain?” she asked, pulling herself as far forward as she could.

“Now, it’s my turn,” Sombre smiled as he walked towards the Captain.

“Don’t touch him,” she screamed.

“No! Stop! Captain!” she continued though she knew that she couldn’t do anything to help him. She watched as Sombre chuckled with that same evil smile and bit firmly into the Captain’s neck.

“Captain, no!” she screamed as Sombre abruptly backed away just at the moment that the Captain had screamed a monstrous cry of rage. His body convulsed as his eyes flashed red. Ripping the chains from their hold, a red light flashed over his entire body, replacing him with a beast. A dark monster with red eyes, a black coated body with a horse’s hind hooves and legs, a wolf’s face, a lion’s mane and chest with sharp rods protruding from around his neck, leading into two front paws filled with metal claws that would kill you in one fatal swipe the moment you came near.

The monster screamed and turned to grab the nearest obake by the throat, shredding it into unidentifiable pieces. Amber’s tears fell silently as she watched the monster’s muzzle and chest begin to glisten in a river of black blood from the obake as if the Captain was demanding the return of his blood back, only it was too tainted to drink.

Sombre laughed, “He doesn't know friend from foe now. Wolves, bait him into the tunnels of Canterlot. With our newly found strength and our beast, we will bring Equestria down to her knees.”

“No. Captain. No. No,” Amber pleaded as she began to mutter, her voice lowering down into a whisper.

“Ah, my bride. I'll see you join me in battle too. I should enjoy a drink every now and then as I take over the last of Canterlot,” he said, as he magically released her bonds and grabbed her mane, dragging her towards the monster rampaging near the exit. Amber slumped as pain bit at her scalp and strength barely enabled herself to stand in spite of the small amount of remaining blood that she had left within her. She ignored that and watched as the monster that was the Captain fought against those surrounding him.

She softly began to mumble, “No. No. No. No. NOOOOOOOO!” She, without thinking sent an unrealized and small flame out at Sombre who let go to defend himself but wasn’t quick enough and was still hit on the flank by the singeing fire. Amber ran to the beast that was the Captain and tackled him square on the chest, ignoring the bite of the steel on her neck and shoulder.

“You don't need to know what to do! You don’t need to know who or what you are! You just need to know whom you care for! And just because you don't know what to do doesn't mean that you have given up. It just means you haven't found the answer. Don't be scared of the unknown, Captain. Because I'm just as scared as you. Be scared of giving up. Not of failing and trying again,” Amber said, as she clung to the growling monster, unafraid by what she was physically touching for who she knew she was emotionally holding dear. The beast struck fast and bit Amber on the withers, shaking her and then slamming her to the ground. Before the beast lunged to tear open her throat, Amber smiled.

He struck, making her gasp as she said, “I love you.” It was the first time she said it, though she knew it deep down for so long. Amber’s eyes began to flutter down. Most ponies saw their life flash before their eyes, but Amber instead took a selfish moment and thought about herself for once. She was so stubborn, and she knew so much and yet nothing at all, and she was terrified of failing at everything. After all, she was a good for nothing useless pony, and she was raised to believe it, but hiding and pushing herself with harsh words and controlling measures wasn't going to help her, and she knew that. It was like she was treating herself like her father did so long ago.

She didn't understand how to pull out all the nails that she herself had allowed to be hammered in. She had left those nail in there alone to rust and rot, along with all the nails that she had herself put in to bully and push herself to succeed. She internally sighed, old habits died hard and it was going to be a challenge requiring a shit ton of patience, but she was going to try. Even if she didn't know where to begin and even if this was goodbye, she would survive and live because her soul was eternal and filled with fire. Amber’s eyes closed as she passed on and died.

Freefall lifted himself up after dispatching the dark form of an obake that had the form of a raccoon dog. Shining with the sleek reflection of moonlight on black oil he lifted his blade. The enemy was stronger, and their form was more solid than ever as they bled black blood rather than nothing at all. Normally, one slice with a blade would go straight through them to the other side, as if they were nothing but air. Now his blade actually sliced flesh, leaving a thin line of oil to leak and drip away from the open wound. On any mortal the slice would have opened a gash all the way down to bone, but not on these obake. Only the thin cut ever showed, and not only that their thick skin and larger mass now meant that it took three strikes to the heart to open the flesh up before you could even reach the heart before you could even think of dealing the final blow.

Thrusting his body up many feet into the air, Freefall then dived down at the enemy, thrusting his blade forward as he began to spin. He graciously thanked the Captain for teaching him this maneuver. It exhausted him and required a lot of skill to use it, but it was the only thing that could kill these things in one blow. As his form passed over the large golden moon, his focus on his target as he buried his sword straight through the spider form of an obake, only for him to flip off from his blade to throw three daggers at the black form of a snake. The obake ended up pinned against a tree. Freefall walked back to grab his sword. Maneuvering in front of the wounded obake he lifted his oil slicked blade, and with a mighty swing, sliced the obake’s heart straight into two, along with the rest of its body. So long as the heart is destroyed, the daemon would die with it.

Gathering his blades, Freefall turned to see his comrades ahead dealing with the last obake on this street. He galloped over to see that Nightshade had a gash on his hind leg and neck, while their new comrade, Blight from the Solar Empire, had a limp and a cut along his face.

“Sir, that’s the last of the runners,” relayed Nightshade.

“Good job everypony. Hurry, we must get you back to the Palace, you are both spent and need first aid,” said Freefall as he began to trot

“With all do respect sir, I wish to keep fighting,” stated Blight as he trotted alongside Freefall with a limp and a grimace. Freefall stopped dead in his tracks as the two stallions stopped in front of him.

“Do you think that you can do it?” he asked as he walked up to Blight. “In your condition?”

He didn’t smile. Usually an easygoing and all around fun stallion to be around, Freefall was utterly serious and stone cold calm like he was on the battlefield, which was why his comrades trusted him as a warrior and not as a unreliable jokester. Moving with a blinding pace, despite his exhaustion, Freefall dashed in and spun to kick Blight’s hind leg that carried the limp. Blight screamed out loud as he fell down to the cold night dirt and began holding his leg. Freefall could hear the grind of the broken bone inside his leg. Freefall only touched it with a very light kick that wouldn’t even leave a bruise.

“Quiet. No amount of TLC is going to stop that leg from hurting. You are not in shape to fight. You’ll be killed on the spot, get that through your head. That limp is an obvious weakness that even a foal would know to go for,” said Freefall, as he grabbed one small piece of wood, two large branches from a tree, and ripped three long pieces of cloth from his uniform.

“I will not see a member of my unit, and definitely not my new friend die because I let him be foolish. I will not let you destroy yourself. Not again,” he continued, thinking of the Captain and how foolish he was to let his one of his closest friends and comrades drive himself to who the hell knew where he was and what condition he was in now. He wouldn’t stand back and watch as somepony’s pride destroyed themselves again.

Freefall aligned the wood along the leg and said, “Brace yourself. I will have to set it. Bite down on this. Nightshade, hold him still.” Freefall offered the small wooden stick to Blight and nodded at Nightshade. After a quick scan for enemies, he looked at where the bumps and bruises were on Blights leg and swiftly grabbed, pushed, and twisted the leg until the bone was set into proper place. Blight bit down hard as his muffled scream erupted from his throat, which jerked in a sharp pull as the pain spiked through his body.

After quickly tying the split tightly into place, Freefall swung Blight’s slightly smaller body over his shoulder and onto his back as he began to trot back to the palace. Freefall had Nightshade cover their back as they retreated back to base. Looking up to the light of the moon, amongst a sky that held no stars tonight, he decided to instead wish upon the moon that his Captain and Ms. Soulfire were safe and that if they were fighting, that they would give the enemy a run for their money. They had taken back Canterlot, now they were going to take back their friends.

A minute after Amber had died, the monster had dropped her lifeless body and backed off, shaking from head to toe as he shook his head. From Amber’s bleeding and beaten body, a blue flame rose from her breast. The beast’s shaking body had turned, only to grab and rip apart another obake into five solid pieces that disintegrated into air. Letting out an agonizing roar, the beast ran head on into a standing pillar, again, and again, and again, bashing his head in until it started to bleed. The blue flame rose up into the air until it reached the middle of the room and floated there while the obake backed away from the flame and the beast.

A wolf’s howl erupted into the night sky and to the ballroom, as the moon’s face broke through the dark clouds. Sombre cantered over to the window as an injured daemon with the shape of a large black spider entered the Ballroom. Climbing down to Sombre, the spider began to rapidly click and squeal at Sombre.

“What!? Well don’t just stand there! Everyone, get out there. Get moving or lest our enemies push into our territory now. Damn it. Damn it!” he screamed.

“Well played. Well played my bright little stone,” he said, looking to the moon as he began to growl.

“Kill him! He’s no use to us now that he’s like this,” commanded Sombre as he looked at the beast while he walked towards the ballroom exit. The moment he passed into the middle of the room and under the blue floating flame was the moment that the strange blue fire above him condensed in on itself, bursting forth in a blinding black light traveling out in a wide circle. All the obake and oni screamed as they were incinerated. Amber’s body was consumed by the light, only to end up bursting into flame and dissipating into the atmosphere as pure energy. Sombre was the first thing enveloped by the light as his form disappeared into nothingness, followed by the entire room.

The black light then condensed back into a form standing in the middle of the room. It was Amber’s soul shaped by a blue flame, bearing nothing upon her, nor wings or a horn. Her pure blue flame body rippled in the wind as suddenly stallions of both the Solar Empire and the New Lunar Republic charged into the ballroom only to see Amber without knowing who or what she was.