Soul Fire

Amber glided over the cold winter air toward her destination. Flying under the glow of moonlight as she focused on the ground below, searching for where her senses were calling her. She was close to the source when all of a sudden she felt a searing pain break through the atmosphere. She urgently needed to find that spirit. Landing on the crisp snow that lay before the opening to the forest ahead, Amber closed her eyes and opened her senses. There was so much blind panic in the air that it was hard to find the spirit’s name. Amber breathed deep, calming her own energy and sent it out in a rush before her to purify the air and calm the spirit that she knew was there. It only worked for a millisecond, but that’s all that it took. Something was wrong; no spirit is this panicked unless something in this moment and time is occurring in the spiritual rift on this earth.

“Little Tree. Little Tree, where are you?” Amber spoke swiftly yet calmly, not wanting to startle the spirit further.

“Help me! Mommy! NOOOOO!” a young colt’s voice screamed. Amber opened her eyes immediately, and began running.

“ I’m here to help you Little Tree,” Amber called out. “Follow my voice, Little Tree. Run to me. Run.” Something was very wrong. Then Amber could see it, through the trees, a young colt’s spirit was running from a Oni, a lesser daemon spirit. The daemon was big and bulky, two or three times bigger than she was, with pointed ears, gray skin, and large crooked teeth seen only by the large overbite and two protruding lower canines.

Amber ran and as the Oni reached to grab the young colt’s soul, her instincts spiked. Just when she breached the clearing to where the spirit’s were, the fire within her burst free, illuminating her eyes in a black light. Shifting balls of blue flame formed around her, and attacked the Oni as Amber opened her wings and, with a burst of speed, the flames flew onto the Oni. Singeing it as it screamed and writhed in pain. Amber felt bad for the creature and her heart stung as her eyes stopped glowing. The creatures burnt soul dissipated into air, becoming energy once again.

Amber looked to find the colt crying behind the great oak tree in the middle of the clearing. She stood strong, but melted on the inside. With a clear and soft voice, she began to sing as she slowly stepped toward the young soul, stopping to close her eyes a few feet from the scared colt.

By night, the dark lit sky,

If I had, one wish, I’d see you smile,

Without such tears, or fears in your eyes,

Though it’s hard, to say goodbye,

The moons, light, will guide you home,

Can you see, her caring sweet glow,

Follow her light, and find your way home,

By Luna’s night, you’ll find you’re not alone,

So please come back home.

Amber opened her eye to see Little Tree sniffle and as he ran out of his hiding place and to her. Amber smiled softly as she gently lowered her head to hug the young colt and said, “It’s ok Little Tree. It’s all over now. I’m going to help take you home.”

“Really?” The colt sniffled while wiping his nose, “Will I get to see my mommy?”

“No matter a situation, Little Tree, there are always possibilities,” Amber spoke what she felt was the truth, as she didn’t know the answer for what lay on the other side, but she did know that impossible things, like being saved by somepony can happen.

“Argh! I don’t know why it’s not working,” Amber said in frustration.

She sighed, “I already know how to return them to the other side. And I was able to find and help a spirit even before the rite. Why would I even use fire to help spirits anyway?”

“Be patient. I had trouble when I was younger too,” said Princess Luna’s aid. Nightwish, was a beautiful unicorn, her cream colored coat and navy purple hair made her look like one of the stars that Luna brought to the sky every night. Amber sighed. Everypony was frustrated and it was getting to her. After recovering for a few days, Luna had suggested for Amber to train so as to be able to realize her full potential and to be able to defend herself. Defend herself from what? She felt so rushed to learn that she was completely frazzled, and that didn’t help anypony in concentrating to learn something.

Breathing deeply, Amber decided to speak honestly and just get it off of her chest, “To be honest I feel pressured. What’s the big rush? Why must I train? If this gift is meant for me, and is part of who I am, then why can’t I just start helping, and let it come as it may?” Nightwish grew quiet, becoming nervous and secretive. Amber hated it when a pony kept things from her.

“Augh! You know what, I need a break. I’ll come back to lessons when I feel like it,” Amber spoke sharply and then opened her wings and flew out of the practice courtyard. Flying as fast as she could, Amber tried to calm her emotions.

“She was pushing herself too hard, it wasn’t just everypony else who was the problem,” she thought, feeling petty and selfish. The feeling made her heart sting and head hurt as her ears sank down. The biggest thing was that she was disappointed in herself, and more mad at the situation than others. They can’t help their emotions, and not everypony can relay their emotions without feeling vulnerable or rude. She knew that, but it didn’t mean that it didn’t tick her off every now and then.

As Amber started to relax against the warm night air, she looked down to the forest and found something that stirred around her, within her. Opening herself up to her senses, she found that she had the same feeling when she found Flora, only somehow different. Landing in the meadow before the forest entrance, Amber stood with closed eyes and opened herself up in search of a name, when suddenly she felt as if huge shards of glass had shot threw her chest, and as if something was holding and squeezing her heart with teeth. Amber opened her eyes as she nearly fell to her knees, seeing a black shroud of smoke.

The smoke seethed and swirled, creating the form of a snake that circled her, moving into the form of a wolf. A shape shifting spirit? Non-spirit? What was it? Amber was so displaced and shocked that she didn’t even think to run, until the smoke made wolf lunged at her. Amber ran and tried to fly, but was grabbed by her hind hoof with teeth. The smoke animal seemed to be without form, but the teeth felt real.

“I started to pick a... And was enveloped by a... I ran, but all I could feel was biting,” Flora had said in Amber’s memory. Fighting in a panic, Amber tried to kick the cloud of now deformed smoke away, but to no avail.

Scanning the ground below for trouble, Luna’s Captain flew through the night sky with a somber dead look on his face. Damn this world, Princess Luna’s leadership was the only light in this darkness. He can’t fail her. He won’t. For Equestria he’d lay his life. He won’t fail. Not again. Never.

Looking ahead, he could see movement in the distance, in the meadow before the forest. Somepony was in trouble. With one mighty thrust of his tri-wings, he burst forward with incredible speed. Focusing on the lavender Pegasus, he could see that she was in trouble. An obake, a daemon, had torn her heel with his teeth. He had to hurry; the obake was lunging towards the filly to tear her throat apart. Not fast enough, he was going to be late.

“NO!” he screamed as he moved to engage the obake.

Amber gasped as the creature had bitten through her flesh. Hearing a faint voice, she stopped feeling. She froze. Not from fear it seemed. It was like this sudden burst of peace making the world move slower. Her vision blurred. Looking to the distance, she saw a white pony land as the world ebbed away into nothingness.

Amber opened her eyes seeing nothing, just black. Where was she?

“Hello? Is anypony there?” she asked the nothingness. She decided to begin walking, looking at nothing. As she walked Amber soon realized that she could see a faint glow.

“Hello?” she asked the new found glow as it started to move away. “Wait. No. Please stay. Who are you?” Running toward the glow, she could see that she was catching up, until it seemed to disappear around a corner. Running faster, Amber whipped around the corner, only to come to a sudden stop. Before her was a display stand, upon its marble figure was a small tree. Glowing purple from its core, the tree seemed to move with every shifting breath of its apparent visible energy.

As she stepped forward, the tree suddenly burst in blue flames. Glowing brighter as it spoke, “Amber, you are lost. What an adventure you have ahead, but only if you can do what is required.”

“Holy Luna! Where am I? What adventure?” Amber said in a blind rush.

“The future can not be foretold, but found. Face your fears and meet this challenge head on. For neither pony is strong alone, but only as one can you begin to save yourself and him.”

“Him? Who is he?” Amber demanded.

The tree continued through the question, “I am your tree of life, Amber. You die. I die. Your soul has been awakened although you’re still alive. This only happens to souls who protect and heal others after death. In that moment, they become an elemental. Your element of fire is a part of your soul. It has and always will be apart of you. You can feel spirits. Now feel through the depths of your own and find that fire. Let it burn wild as you hold it in your hand. Grab hold of the flame, Amber.”

“Wait-What!?” Amber pleaded, just before the room went black.

‘Feel through the depths of your own and find that fire’, she thought. Closing her eyes, Amber slowed down, looking through her own energy for once rather than another’s. Holy Luna, she had no idea that her own energy was so chaotic and conflicted. Feeling her own energy truly for the first time, she was saddened by the realization that her wires were so screwed up.

No, she needed to keep moving forward, and not just fight back. Slowly one by one, Amber picked at each tangled strand of emotion, each with their own memory as to why and where this memory came from. She had to do the hardest thing she's ever done. Learn to accept and give in, for she wouldn't be able to find her strength without giving in to her weakness. The process was slow, painfully so. Bit by bit, Amber weaved through the web and further inside, realizing that sometimes weakness is strength, until in the darkest corner she found it.

Teeth of the smoke wolf bit down onto the blade slicing through the air, when suddenly the eyes of the young filly’s unmoving and bleeding body split open, revealing a black bright glow. The glow got brighter as she stood. The Captain had looked upon the injured Pegasus in shock that she was standing up, but wouldn’t let himself become distracted and looked onto the smoke wolf, who was cowering in full form as he moved to turn and run away from the filly. The Captain looked back at her, the filly’s body began to glow as a blue condensed flame began to form before her. Just as the smoke wolf had begun his hasty depart, the flame had found full form and suddenly condensed further on itself and widened in haste as if it exploded. The blue flame burst in a black light enveloping everything in it’s path.

When the light dissipated, the obake was gone, incinerated. Looking to the filly responsible, the Captain watched silently as the energy died down and the black light ebbed from her yellow-green eyes. She groaned as she began her descent to ground. Moving swiftly, the captain caught her as she collapsed, completely unnerved and in awe of her.

Amber had no memory of the blast when the energy had taken her over. She only remembered the fire enveloping her and waking up to pain and exhaustion, feeling only the warm body of him grab her before passing out again. She remembered waking back at the Princess Luna’s palace, feeling ashamed and foolish for her rash action. Thinking to how she had apologized to everypony, especially to Princess Luna and Nightwish. Thereafter, Amber had decided to train with patience, and meditate on her own time so as to get a hold on and maintain her own chaotic energy. She knew how to understand and accept others, now she must learn to do that for herself. Something she had made great strides in, but was still learning to this day, she thought as she looked at Little Tree, but then again everything was always changing. The moment you conquer one challenge is the moment you start a new one.

“Really?” the colt said as he looked up to Amber.

“Always,” Amber said with a gentle smile, thinking of how Princess Luna had told her about who had saved her when she awoke. She was honored to know the Captain now, and beaming to how close they were today.

“I’m going to take you home now, Little Tree,” she said.

“Ok,” Little Tree said with a sad but happy face.

“Ingerdere cecidimus. Fly with me, Little Tree.” Amber spoke the words to open the gate and show her the way as she lifted her head and closed her eyes. Opening her wings, Amber took off into the sky as a single blue flame formed in front of her and stopped in front of a shocked Little Tree. “Step inside, Little Tree, it won’t hurt you. With this, you can fly home with me.”