Metal Fire

Rainbow Dash watched over Saber with tears in her eyes. The Doctor had inspected him and said that his heartbeat was very faint. He barely moved and barely spoke. His wings had been disintegrated. Nothing anypony did could help. One night, she was sleeping on the perch opposite the one he slept on when a young voice woke her up.

"R-rainbow? Are you awake?" MoonStar said,

"Yeah sweetie, I'm awake." Dash replied, "What do you need?"

"I'm scared. Anything that can beat my big brother scares me." the filly replied.

"She caught him by surprise. Plus, she wouldn't have stood a chance if the rest of us were with him." The Pegasus said, reassuring her coltfriend's sister. "C'mon. Let's go down and see him." She helped Moon down and went to the bed where Saber was sleeping. His unconscious state broke her heart.

"Is there anything that can help him?" the filly asked, looking hopeless.

"Not that I know of. That was a blast made from pure hatred. I don't know what it will do to his mind. We can only hope for the best." Dash replied. She thought for a moment and then thought she had an idea. "Maybe............" she pondered,

"Maybe what?"

"When the Doctor is about to die, he reforms. Energy that heals is usually around him. If we can find some of this energy without hurting anypony, we may be able to heal him!" the rainbow maned pony exclaimed, "We should get some sleep. The others have to know about this."

The next morning, she told the others of her discovery.

"It might work, although I don't know where we would get some of this energy." The Doctor said, rubbing his chin with his hoof. "I know I emit it when I regenerate, but how can we get some?" the group all thought for a moment. Their thoughts were interrupted by a commotion outside the kitchen. Everypony looked towards the entrance. What they saw shocked them. It was Saber, but he wasn't right. His eyes were completely black  darker than night. A discharge the same color was leaking from his eyes and mouth. He had wings, but they looked like bat wings and as if the skin had been peeled away. Just muscle and bone and blood. Fluttershy screamed. Saber took a step towards her. LunarSun jumped down from his seat, picked up a spear and stood in front of Fluttershy.

"Don't touch her." Lunar said. Saber turned his demonic eyes to Lunar.

"Who are you to stop me?" He replied in a hollow, growling voice that sounded like it came from the depths hell itself.

"One who can toss you out into a black hole." The Doctor snarled. Saber laughed. It was a sound like metal screeching and ponies screaming.

"You puny little ponies. You make me laugh. Me and my master will drag you all down. You will all burn in hell." the demonic stallion replied. His mane turned to fire. Not like the angry fire he usually had. It was evil and dark.

"Go ahead. Drag us into hell. Inside of a glass jar. Just know that we will fight you every step of the way and whatever army you have planned for us and we will drag you or your dead body out from the Doors of Death themselves. Remember that ,Saber." Adamant growled. The demon faced the scientist. Walking towards Adamant, sharp extending lengths of bone protruded from his wings. Dash couldn't stand this.

"Saber! This isn't you! Snap out of it." She yelled. Saber turned to her. With a flick of his wing, he had slashed her twice and she collapsed, shivering on the ground. A spark of flame red ignited in Saber's eyes and he looked down at the cyan Pegasus. Memories flooded the beast's eyes. He knew this mare. He loved this mare. His head pounded. Lunar, who was watching Saber's every move, noticed that the wings were evaporating into mist the color of blood and being replaced by normal wings, but a bit bigger. The eyes were returning to normal and his mane extinguished.

"Wha-what happened?" he said, holding his head. Saber felt odd. He felt wings on his back and his head was pounding. Looking down he saw Dash, unconscious, cuts bleeding. Adamant looked at Saber, fear evident. Saber crouched down to help Dash up when the Doctor stopped him.

"Not now. I need to scan you."

"What the hell for? She's injured!"

"Because you are the one who did it Saber. You." Saber's eyes turned to a shade of gray nopony had ever seen. He wasn't moving as the Doctor scanned him. "Nothing. No entities, no nothing." Vinyl came over to comfort Saber. She was going to put an arm around him when he stormed off, folding his wings against his side. Hiding in the shadows, he lay down and cried silently. Saber didn't remember what had happened. He looked at his wings, not believing what had happened. He heard hoofsteps nearby and withdrew deeper into the darkness. Too late. Vinyl had spotted him. She walked over to him, straining her eyes to see Saber in the darkness. A hint of movement caught her eye. Saber was laying down, head on his hooves, crying.

"Go away," He said, his voice raspy and filled with pain, "I want to be alone. Just alone." his wings were folded and his eyes were purple, blue, gray, and black. Vinyl bent down, kissed him quickly and went back to the kitchen blushing furiously. Saber eventually fell asleep and for once, had no nightmares. He woke up on his perch, curled up. The others were below, talking in hushed voices. pieces of the conversation were caught.

"-Can we trust Saber?-"

"-Will she be okay?-"

"-What should we do?-"

Saber covered himself with a blanket and cried quietly so he didn't alert the others. Images flooded Saber's vision. Images he never wanted to see again. He blinked them out of his eyes, but didn't see the pony behind him. The blanket came off of his face and light blinded him temporarily. It was the mare he loved most, but had hurt in such a way where he could never forgive himself. Dash walked up next to him and lay down next to the distressed black warrior pony. She leaned into his shoulder and kissed him. Saber wasn't crying anymore. He couldn't cry. He was a soldier. Soldiers didn't cry. A wing passed over the weather pony and pulled her closer. The Centurion kissed her on the cheek. The couple lay there, silent, enjoying each other's company.

"I love you, Dash." The soldier said in a soft voice. Dash looked up at him and kissed him.

"I love you too, Saber." She replied.