Pyromancer in Equestria
It had been three years since the first attacks. Three years since what most simply called the cultists attacked the rest of humanity.
There were fringe religious sect that broke off of Christianity that had basically the same ideals, morals, customs, but one major difference.
No one could really figure out why, but it appeared that their religion ordered that everyone not of the religion had to die.
They attacked without warning and with massive forces as it appeared that nearly a third of the human population was part of this sect.
The killed without remorse or pity or mercy. However, they were met with fierce resistance from most everyone.
Soldiers and civilians alike took up arms to defend themselves from the cultists. Unfortunately, the cultists were creative.
They made new weapons and devices of war in order to make the extermination of the rest of the human race easier.
Some were larger things like advanced tanks, missiles, aircraft, while others were smaller things like new weapons that be used by foot soldiers. Everything from pistols to rocket launchers were either totally remade, upgraded, or modified. There were some things, however, that the cultists could not beat.
Zach was 15. He had been 12 when the invasion started. He was tall and scrawny, but surprisingly strong and fast. The day the war started, was the day that his family was killed. It was also the day the world realized that guns were not the most dangerous thing to be brought to war. Zach had bright orange hair and tanned skin, his eyes were blood red and very large. He was a grade a student in school, when there was school, and was very athletic. These are all the things that everybody knew about, as he had one very large secret. Zach was a natural born pyromancer. He was born with the ability to completely and utterly control fire, as well as heat and temperature. The only ones that know this were his parents, but the day they died was the day everybody else learned about it.
Zach was sleeping soundly in bed, the blankets thrown across the room, as he did not need the warmth. It was sometime in spring and the weather was rather mild. This particular night Zach woke up for no reason he could discern.
He lifted his clock and mumbled to no one in particular," Why am I awake at two in the morning?" He froze. However, when he heard breathing outside his door. He listened hard trying to figure out who's out there when he heard his pet dog barks once. The dog had been sleeping outside of his parents room as it did every night. It never barked unless there was something really bad happening or rather exciting. The one bark, however, had Zach worrying. The dog never barked just once. Curious, but wary. Zach crept out of bed and over to his door. He peeked out only to stare in horror at the sight of his dog with a long cut in its side. Zach knew instantly that the dog was dead, but it still came as a shock. He scooted by the dog, and looked into his parents room.
He arrived just in time to see figures in black robes and masks stab both of his parents in their hearts. His world seemed to turn upside down as anger consumed him, and he roared in fury and grief. The figures turned around, but did not have time to react, as Zach's eyes flashed brightly and that entire side of his house simply disintegrated into ash.
He looked out the newly made hole and he stared in shock as hundreds of thousands of these masked and robed figures prowled the town. Fury from before became righteous anger and Zach's eyes flashed once more. Those that were distance away, described what appeared to be a nuclear bomb going off in the center of the town. A few hours later, friendly soldiers and militia found Zach in the crater that was a one point, his hometown.
A year past and Zach was one of the best soldiers they could find. He was only 13 when he found his favorite weapons. He'd gotten them off the bodies of cultists that he had roasted the heads off of. The first gun he found was basically a belt fed auto shotgun. It fired like a heavy machine gun, but had nearly no kick. The other weapon was something that was known to be extremely deadly and destructive. It was similar to a mini gun in that it had multiple barrels, but they spun rather slow. The bullets that this gun fired where normally for sniper rifles. Zach liked both of them and kept them. A year after that. Zach had become one of the best front-line soldiers. He went on the most dangerous missions and took out the strongest targets. He lived like this for a year before his luck finally ran out.
" Ow...", Groaned Zach as he came to. He looked around the destroyed building he was in for a minute before realizing," Right. We were hit by artillery." He looked around for his radio but started to panic slightly when he couldn't find it. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the static of his radio from his pocket ." Duh!" He thought to himself as he dug through his pocket.
He pressed the button on the side and started to talk," Hello? Is anybody there?" Not three seconds passed before Roger, a longtime friend of his, answered.
" Zach! We thought you were dead. Where are you? Are you still in that little warehouse?" Roger sounded frightened and a little worried, which was not normal for the usually cheerful man.
" Yes, I am", said Zach. Roger nearly screamed into the radio," You need to get out now! There are cultists all over that area and the higher-ups have ordered a nuclear bombardment of that area!"
" How long do I have before the bombardment?", Asked Zach, stunned.
The radio silent for a few seconds before Roger said reluctantly,"...About an hour."
Zach was silent long enough for Roger to become worried and he asked," Zach, are you still there? Zach!"
" I have to go now, Roger." , Zach answered slowly, slightly stunned.
Roger tried to respond, but Zach turned his radio off. He gently put down the radio and thought to himself for a moment.
" I'll never be able to get out of here within the hour. I wonder if I could guard against a nuclear bomb? Roger did say there were cultists around here, maybe I can have some fun before the nukes fall." Zach smiled gleefully at that idea, and stood up slowly, thinking of how he was going to go about this. He scanned the room and saw his pack leaning against the wall. He went over to it and searched through it. He gave an insane giggle as he found his two 'toys', as he called them, resting inside. He strapped the machine gun over his shoulder and hefted the shotgun relishing the familiar weight. The rest of the pack was basically ammo, so he strapped it to his back, just in case he needed it. He concentrated for a moment and his eyes flashed. He smiled like a kid that just got free reigns over a candy store and walked towards one of the walls. A round section the wall disintegrated as he approached, and he walked through the hole as he looked around at the ruined city. It did not take long for the cultists to see him and they immediately opened fire. There were small puffs of smoke as each bullet got about 5 feet away from Zach before burning to nothing. His smile grew as he hefted the shotgun in one hand and the machine gun and the other.
" Time to play!", He yelled as he opened fire.
One full hour. That's how long Zach wadded through the army of cultists. He shot and burned nearly a thousand of them before the first bomb fell. It was off in the distance, but it still had an effect where he was. A huge gust of wind and heat flew towards him as he stared in amazement at the bright mushroom cloud. The heat had no effect on him, nor did the wind, but then another bomb fell, and another and another, each one getting closer to him. He counted six bombs before one went off right in front of him. Dust and debris seem to roll around him, as if hitting a shield or a bubble. The heat and radiation came in one big wave.
Zach strengthened the shield he'd set up around himself and did not notice as it began to glow slightly. The stronger he made the shield, the more he laughed for a reason he did not know. As the shield strengthened. It glowed brighter and brighter until eventually Zach's little bubble was brighter than any of the nuclear bombs. Suddenly, another bomb went off on the opposite side of him and he doubled the strength of the shield. Almost instantaneously, the shield flashed brighter than any Sun, then disappear completely, along with Zach.
Zach had been blinded by the flash and could tell that he was no longer on the ground. In fact, he could tell that he was moving at very high speeds, sideways. His eyes cleared, and he saw far below a lush green and fertile landscape. The ground was several thousand feet below him, and he was flying through the air at incredible speeds.
Zach was trying to figure out if he was dead or if he was in fact flying through the air above this place that could not possibly exist in what had become a barren earth. After a moment, Zach realized that he was now starting to slowly descend. He glanced the direction he was moving and guessed that he was most likely going to land in the very large forest ahead of him. He maneuvered in the air so that his feet were pointed in the direction of the forest, and attempted something that only worked on TV. Flames shot out of the bottom of his boots and he started to slow down. Unfortunately, he started to wiggle in the air, and the flames made him go into a rapid spin.
Zach slowed considerably, but now he had no idea where he was going to land. He decided that he might as well enjoy the experience and yelled," WEEEEEEE!", Just before slamming into a deep pool of murky green water.
Zach sputtered for air once he got back to the surface and swam ashore. He leaned up against a tree and let his heartbeat calm back down before looking around at where he was. He grimaced slightly as he beheld what appeared to be a very large marsh or swamp.
" Pretty as a picture.", He muttered to himself sarcastically. Suddenly, as if the events of that day were just catching up to him. Zach felt extremely tired and leaned against a tree before drifting to sleep.
Meanwhile, in Ponyville:
The Ponyville Library was a mess today. Spike sighed in resignation as he realized he was the one that was going to have to clean it. He watched the slight annoyance as his surrogate mother and best friend, Twilight, tore through the library in a frantic search.
" Why is she so excited?", Thought Spike," it was just a shooting star."
Twilight, however, knew that it was not a shooting star. For one, she had felt a huge burst of magic from above the Everfree forest before she saw it. Two, when she looked at it to her telescope, it's tail was going the opposite direction it should have been going. And three, right after she saw it. it started to twist and spin as it descended into the Everfree forest. Twilight was currently tearing through all the books in the library trying to find an explanation for this event, but couldn't find anything.
Suddenly, she stopped and thought to herself," What if I am the first pony to ever see this?" She immediately cheered up and was about to tell Spike about her new idea when he suddenly made a gurgling noise and burped up a green flame followed by scroll. She snatched it up with her magic and read it to herself.
" Dear Twilight, as you are no doubt aware, an odd event has occurred in the Everfree forest and Luna and I believe that something dangerous may have came to our land. I want you and the other elements to meet me and my sister at the edge of the Everfree forest, and together we will find out what this new event is. Please be there in one hour. Yours truly, Princess Celesta."
" Spike!", yelled Twilight," Get the girls, the princesses need us all at the Everfree forest!"
Zach awoke feeling well rested, if a little sore from leaning against the tree. He glanced around and took a minute to realize why he was in a swamp.
" Ah, that's right, the whole nuke thing.", He said to himself. This area seemed rather peaceful and Zach began to relax again when the ground begin to rumble and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
" What the…", Said Zach just before the water in front of him exploded in green scales and sharp teeth. He looked up, stunned as the multi headed creature stood up on its two stumpy legs and stared at him with four hungry sets of eyes.
" Crap." Zach deadpanned as he stared back at the creature. Suddenly, the heads roared and shot towards him. Zach rolled out of the way and didn't look back as he ran away. The creature chased after him roaring all the way but luckily it was rather slow, so Zach was able to keep ahead of it.
Zach was at a total loss of what to do and the only thoughts running through his head were," Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!" He ran as fast as hard as he could, but kept on running into obstacles that slowed him down. Luckily, he had a high stamina and was able to keep running for a good half-hour before he finally saw the light that was the edge of the forest. He put on a burst of speed until, finally, he burst into the sunlight and skidded to a stop at the odd sight in front of him.
He stared in shock for a moment before saying to no one in particular,"Huh, that's not what I expected."
Twilight arrived at the edge of the forest to see that the rest of her friends were already there.
As she neared them, her friend Applejack asked," Hey there, twilight. What's all this ruckus about? Spikes letter just said to arrive here in an hour." Twilight was about to answer when there was a bright flash and before them stood Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
They all bowed and then Twilight ran up to her mentor before saying cheerfully," Celestia! It's good to see you again. And you too Princess Luna!"
Celestia nuzzled twilight affectionately before saying," It's good to see you to. I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances. But I fear that this may be dangerous."
At that, Rarity asked," What is all this about, anyway? I'm running behind on my orders and need to finish by tomorrow!"
Celestia ignored the last part and answered," We're here because about an hour ago, a being of incredible magic power teleported into our world from another. Both Luna and I got a glimpse of that world, and it was nothing but fire and destruction. We believe this creature might have caused this destruction and is now in our world. We also believe that this being is now moving towards Ponyville and should be here soon."
Almost as if on cue, there was an angry roar from the forest. All of the ponies jumped in surprise and fright and stared at forest as they could see the trees starting to thrash. Then, finally, a creature unlike anything any of them had ever seen sprinted out of the forests but skidded to a halt as soon as it saw them.
It stared at them and they stared back for a moment before to all their surprise, it said,"Huh, that's not what I expected,"
Luna and Celesta jumped into action immediately by standing in front of the rest of the ponies and pointing their horns at the creature. It backed up a little at the sign of aggression. But then another roar sounded from the forest and the creature turned around quickly. It glanced back at the ponies warily, but then a tree crashed down in front of it and it jumped back in surprise before looking up at the Hydra that had been chasing it. The Hydra then spotted the ponies and stared at a few of them with an expression of recognition before licking its lips and charging at them. Celestia and Luna were so surprised by the hydras appearance that they did not have time to react as it lumbered towards them. Then to all the ponies surprise, a ball of fire slammed into the back of one of the hydras heads. It turned back around to see what had attacked it and growled at the site of the creature it had been chasing, who happened to be holding a ball of fire in each hand.
" Hey, were not done yet!", Yelled the creature as it hurled the two fireballs at the Hydra.
The Hydra ducked under the fireballs and instantly charged at the creature again. It dodged out of the way and continued to throw fireballs with little to no effect other than apparently making the Hydra angry. The Hydra swung its tail and the creature jumped over it, laughing maniacally now, before taunting the Hydra," Seriously, that's all you got?! Surely, you can come up with something better when you have four heads!"
The Hydra roared angrily and launched two of its head at the creature. The creature was able to dodge one head, but the other slammed into it and threw it into the forest. The Hydra stared in it's direction for second before snorting and turning back towards the ponies. Luna and Celestia braced themselves for the attack, but it never came as a sound like thunder erupted from the forest. In the same instant one of the hydras heads started spewing blood and roaring in pain. The ponies watched in shock as the creature walked calmly out of the forest holding two odd devices, one in each arm.
It pointed the devices at the Hydra and said in a deadly calm voice," I told you were not done yet. Now back off and I'll let you live." Then, almost as if it was a threat, one of this creature's devices started to spin, emitting a low whine. The Hydra had apparently had enough as it cringed at the noise and lumbered back towards the forest.
The creature watched the Hydra go with a surprised look on its face before saying apparently to itself," I didn't think that would really work." The creature then turned back towards the ponies, but jumped slightly when it saw them, apparently having forgotten they were there." Right, these things", it muttered quietly to itself.
Princess Celestia then took the opportunity to make contact with creature." Greetings, creature. My name is Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. Thank you for that timely rescue, the Hydra surprised us, otherwise we would have defended ourselves. Please, tell us your name so that we may thank you properly.", Said the Princess in a regal tone.
The creature seemed stunned for a moment before responding hesitantly," Um, my name is Zach"
Luna picked up where Celestia had left off," Greetings one named Zach, my name is Princess Luna. As my sister said, thank you for your intervention"
Zach stared at them for a moment before blinking and shaking his head. “ Ok, Im confused, where am I? And what are all of you?”, He asked.
Celestia answered him,” You are in Equestria, where my sister and I rule. As for what we are, we are ponies.” She then glanced at Spike, who had arrived with Twilight, and added,” And a baby dragon."
Zach gave them a befuddled look. “ I guess that really does mean I teleported." He muttered to himself.
Feigning ignorance, Princess Celestia, asked," You teleported? From where?"
Zach glanced back at where the Hydra had gone before answering,"Uh, Earth. I was fighting when some very large explosives went off and when I attempted to guard myself. Apparently, I used too much power and ended up teleporting myself."
With a feeling of dread Luna asked," Why were you fighting?"
Zach's simple answer made a chill crawl down all their spines." I was in a war.", He said with a hint of disgust. He jumped back again when both of the pony princesses in their horns at him again and they began to glow.
Celestia then growled," Was that burned waste because of you?"
Zach answered as calmly as he possibly could when there were two angry pony princesses in front of him," No, that was from the explosives. We were fighting a faction of murderous lunatics and those bombs were dropped to fight them."
Applejack, who had been staying quite up till then sensed on an instinctual level that this odd creature was telling the truth." Beggin your pardon, Princess, but this fella ain't lying."
The ponies all seem to ease up at this and Zach looked at them funny, since he thought it was odd that one pony saying he was telling the truth meant that he was. Celestia then started walking towards him and Zach backed up quickly, expecting an attack.
" Do not be afraid I will not harm you.", She assured him. As she got closer, Zach could feel a sort of aura surrounding her. Zach didn't know why, but he felt calm as she got closer and did not resist as her horn began to glow softly and she touched it to his forehead. He looked at her questioningly and she said calmly," I am just checking something to confirm what Applejack said." Celestia closed her eyes and cast her spell.
The next thing she knew she was in a small room with a pedestal in the middle. This place of the mind caused her thoughts to be spoken aloud, so she said to her self,” Ah that must be his essence. It's more orderly than I'd have expected.” she approached the pedestal and saw that resting atop it was a small candle, a small flame flickering on the top. Celestia leaned closer to the candle, but jumped back in shock when the pedestal began to shake. To her surprise and a little bit of fear, the flame on the candle began to grow and shape itself until sitting before her was a large cross legged humanoid fire creature. Celestia was extremely shocked as most every creatures essence is a simple inanimate object when represented in their mind. So she was mildly surprised, okay, greatly surprised to find that Zach's essence was in effect a living fire creature.
Pushing her shock the side for a moment she addressed the fire creature,” Greetings, creature, my name is Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. May I ask who you are?”
The creature chuckled lightly before responding,” I have no name, instead I will tell you what I am. I am the spirit of fire, one of natures many beings of the elements. I assume you came here looking to see if my host is trustworthy? You should know that anyone with an element inside them can only be pure of heart and mind.” The creature chuckled again before saying,” Well, maybe not the mind.”
Celestia was shocked by this information, but she had once come across one of these elementals, and she had said the same thing, so Celestia was inclined to believe it. She only had one more question to ask,” Are you the one giving this creature it's magic?”
The creature nodded his head, not deeming the question worthy enough to speak. With that the creature rapidly shrank back down until it was simply a candle on the table, with a small flickering flame. Celestia took that as her cue to leave and ended the spell.
She once again found herself at the edge of the Everfree forest facing Zach, who had a slightly stunned look on his face.
“ Well, that was certainly interesting”, he said, after shaking the cobwebs out of his head.
Twilight trotted up to the Princess and asked,” What did you see Princess?”
The Princess smiled before saying,” I saw, my student, the absolute truth. We can trust this creature.”
Luna came up beside Celestia and asked,” Well, he may be trustworthy, but where are we going to put him?”
Celestia smiled once again and said,” Why, in the castle of course. We have plenty of rooms and it wouldn't hurt to learn a little bit about a different cultures customs and history. That is of course if you're willing Zach.”
Zach thought about it for a moment before asking,” Are there any large monsters near the castle?” The royal sisters simultaneously shook their heads no, so Zach said,” In that case, I'm fine with it. When do we leave?”
Author's Note
Cant work on my other stories so I thought i would put this one up until my others get here, Please comment, it truly helps
