Violet Magica - The Arrow of Light

With an exaggerated shout, the darkness before Azure was cut apart, swords flying around her to deflect oncoming shadows; another witch battle.

The barrier of this witch denied the chromatic hue of reality, and instead allowed only black shadows on white background. In this limbo, Azure cut through the silhouettes without being able to grasp their true form.

Azure had somewhere else to be: going after Slate. She had put off the decision as she always had, until the call of the night thrust this witch-encounter onto her. To some degree Azure was even happy to be granted the opportunity to fight a witch instead of clouding her mind by having to think about Slate. And yet, her movements and temper exploded with anger about the foregone conclusion of her future.

Each strike against the black tendrils that shot at her like spears was accompanied by a brutal scream, each scream more powerful than the last.

With every attack she deflected, every shadow she cut in half, more silhouettes of spikes and tendrils formed on the white background that made up this world. They would not let her advance.

The only other silhouette was the figure of a sitting pony, hooves held close to its body as if to protect itself from the heavenly wrath it feared. Unmoving, every shadow originated from its surroundings or grew on its body before separating and hurtling towards Azure.

Despite Azure's inability to keep up with the deflection of attacks, she pushed ever forwards, to close in on the witch. She summoned more swords and screamed louder with every strike, while her will forced itself through a growing sea of blackness, which formed an ever-growing number of spikes to impale Azure with. They watched their prey ever still.

Finally reaching the witch's body, the shadows around her had already swallowed most of the whiteness that resided in this barrier, yet Azure didn't stop nor hesitate: she leaped into the air and thrust herself downwards onto the witch. It would only take a single precise cut to slice this frail silhouette.

Right as she was about to hit it, the sea of black erupted upwards and completely engulfed her within it. Thousands of small spikes dug into her body, while the volatile goo of black smothered her and threatened to crush every single bone of her body.

She wasn't blind to this outcome. She had foreseen it. Still, she had lacked the means—mentally and physically—to avoid it. And so, she had charged headfirst into it as it was the only thing she knew how to do.

The flow of the newly formed river of black swept her back towards the area she came from, gathering even more shadows on the way which piled onto her body.

As the first bones in her body had cracked, a singular sound of metal cutting through fleshy mass shook her awake again.

“There we go.”

Azure's body hit the invisible floor beneath her, engulfed in the whiteness that had been present before.

“You should be more careful when dealing with witches. At least I was here to save your flank.”

This voice. As Azure's body shimmered in the magical glow that healed her wounds and cleansed the black goo away, her eyeballs shifted to the side. A shimmer of red shone in front of the darkness.

“Thank me later. For now, just leave this one to me mkay?” Crimson turned to face the silhouette of the witch, which was now in the distance again. Grabbing her spear she got ready to cha–

“I don't need your help.” Before Crimson could even turn back, Azure was already headfirst back in the fight.

Her voice had lacked the temper it had before. Instead, an emotionless tone filled not only her voice, but her movements as well. Simply rushing forward, she made only haphazard moves to avoid spikes or slash back at them.

“Hey, what do you think you're doing?” Crimson's voice did not sound nearly as forceful as it should have.

A spike shot out of the goo and aimed for her belly. Direct hit. Without dropping a single beat in her gallop, her sheer tempo broke the spike off and pushed the goo out of the wound. Another one aimed for her hind leg. A complete impalement. Tugging on her leg hard enough she broke off the spike once again and kept rushing forwards as if nothing happened.

Azure had dropped almost any defensive movement at this point, only being drawn to the witch in front of her. The next spike aimed for her neck. Azure felt it come out the other end. This time, Azure had to physically grab the spike and pull it out, but even the gushing streams of red that now poured out of her didn't slow her down a single bit.

Even as a Sorceress, even with her healing powers, the rush of adrenaline, this should have been too much for her. She was skewered alive multiple times and still continued breaking free and pushing onward.

By the time she reached the witch again she was a limping sack of meat, the shadows around her drenched in enough blood to turn them more red than black. Still, she raised her sword. Still, she opened her mouth, but instead of shouting, she let out a maniacal cackle that froze the blood in Crimson's body.

Bringing her sword down, she easily chopped the witch in half and created a puddle of gooey blackness on the floor. Again, she laughed. Again, she held up the sword and brought it down. Repeatedly striking at the motionless goo, the crumbling barrier filled with the continuing cackle of Azure, her voice breaking multiple times.

There was barely anything left of her cape, her fur's color invisible behind the coat of blood.

As the barrier had almost completely crumbled, she turned her back towards Crimson, who was still standing back where she had saved Azure earlier.

Finally cutting out her laughter, Azure opened her mouth to utter words. “See? You don't have to feel any pain if you don't want to. You just have to know to suppress it.”

As her final chuckle died down, her head slowly dropped down again, only to be lifted up again as she heard the hoofsteps in front of her. The sight she beheld was Rose, horn on her head that marked her as a Sorceress. The last thing Azure saw before collapsing was the mortified look on Rose's face.

***

A Sorceress's injuries healed fast. Especially Azure's.

She didn't even have to neglect her usual daily routine the next day: get up, have breakfast, enter school, leave school, run away.

On this exact day, on this hour, the time she was given by Leafy would run out.

Wandering through the shadow of a big tree, Azure took cover behind it as she observed Leafy's meeting with Slate, near a river front. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, yet it was obvious by Leafy's blushing face and Slate's awkward reactions what was going on.

She bit her lip. Seeing the two of them together looked so right from an outsider's perspective. Leafy's calm and somewhat shy demeanor went rather well with Slate's more silent yet friendly ways. Above it all, Leafy managed to overcome her fears and confess to the one she loved, even against the rivalry of her friend.

Meanwhile, Azure was crawling around behind a tree, hiding her face as much as she could. She had lacked every bit of courage to go for him, since she couldn't convince herself that she was right for him, especially as a Sorceress.

In the end, she was probably not even angry at Leafy or Slate, but rather at her own inability to make up her mind and follow through on it.

Turning away, Azure was once again met with that familiar face: Rose.

“Are you all right, Azure? I was worried about you after yesterday, so I wanted to talk to you after school, but you were gone so fast...”

Azure let out a sigh before walking down along the river—away from Leafy and Slate—alongside Rose. “It's nothing, I just need a bit of time for myself.”

Rose jumped in front of Azure, her face growing more concerned. “But you have taken so much time for yourself in the past weeks already! Please, if there's anything that's bothering you, let us know.”

“What's bothering me? Probably something between my soul being stuck in some weird object which turns me immortal in the most horrid way, the fact that I am the absolute worst Sorceress who ever lived and I am only capable of fighting because of my regeneration, the fact that everyone I know is trying to dangle some sort of better way in front of my eyes while placing requirements on them I cannot meet or the fact that I am saving so many ponies by fighting all these wicked creatures but get not a single 'thank you' for it...”

Azure tossed her head around while trying to grab it with her hooves. “I wanted to become an ally of justice, helping everyone by fighting evil! It's such a simple goal! And it's possible with all of this, and yet... Yet I have to suffer like this while you all just watch...”

“That's not true at all! We were always there for you!”

“Don't make me laugh. I threw myself into the fray, fighting witches, my personal life, and even a rival Sorceress while you were still deciding on your wish. You never thought about how I was feeling all the time. Even that Violet left me alone. And after everything that happened, after finding out how screwed up my life has become... you contract anyway? When it's already this late! You should have just stayed near that Violet where I can't see you.”

With this, Azure turned around with a forceful gesture and galloped off into the distance, leaving only a teary-eyed Rose behind.

***

Wandering deeper into the city, Azure's hooves led her ever onward, no clear destination in mind. Just away from there. That would have been good.

Her steps grew shorter and slower, almost coming to a crawl as she took a random turn into a lonely alleyway. Her eyes grew hollow. Her breathing almost seized. She merely resembled a walking puppet at this point.

In the deepest part of the alley, new voices reached her ears.

“Hey, how'd it go today?”

“Nah, nothing special, just dealing with that mare again.”

Driven by curiosity as her singular impulse, she followed the voices to a corner in which two stallions where talking to each other.

“Told ya you should ditch her. She even still putting out?”

“Not really, just lying around all day being dumb. Even screwed up my lunch. Probably should go get a 'nother one. Dumb mare wouldn't even notice,” he said before letting out a shriek laughter.

Meanwhile, Azure had walked up right next to them, causing them both to twist their head towards her.

“This mare of yours. What kind of pony is she? Does she still love you?”

“Eh? Who are you?” Both of them quickly glanced at each other, their faces filled with surprise.

“You... are you among the ones I'm fighting for? Tell me. Is it you I am fighting for?”

The stallion she stared at jumped up and swung his head around to his companion. “Dude, who is this? Do you know her?”

The other one shook his head before turning to Azure again. “Erm, I don't think you should be in a place like this, just go home.”

“Well... I guess I should at least thank you... for telling me.”

Her Soul Gem resonated.

A moment later, she walked around the next corner wearing her Sorceress horn. Walking with three hoofs, her fourth hoof dragged her sword behind her, which was connected back to the corner with a streak of red.

***

She had already forgotten what kept driving her forward at this point. Steadily she placed one hoof in front of the others, dragging her body along.

Her eyes long stared ever inwards. Asking herself questions she wouldn't dare to answer. Yet there was one question she always knew the answer to, even at this point: if she could repeat it over again, would she have become a Sorceress again, with the same wish?

As the sun neared the horizon, her steps brought her up to the side of an old building: the train station.

Mindlessly driven onward, she kept walking towards the rails, where she sat down on a bench. She didn't even have to look around to understand that no normal pony was here.

Despite everything she had said earlier, she still hoped for her friends to look for her, run after her, find her. Maybe she could find the right words for once. Yet there was one pony she hoped to see most at this point.

And she found her.

“Hey, there you are! I've been looking for you.” Crimson walked up to the bench and leaned back next to Azure. “Wouldn't have thought to find you here, but I guess you never know. Want an apple?” Calmly grabbing an apple from her invisible pouch she casually struck it out towards Azure, who only continued staring at the ground in front of her, her face hidden behind stray strands of hair.

“Hey, Crimson to Azure! Is anyone home? You didn't fall asleep in there did you?”

As Crimson slowly retreated her hoof, Azure finally opened her mouth. “I'm sorry.”

“Eh? Where did that come from? Now I'm positive you fell asleep.”

“I think I knew you were right, back then. My ideals were so naive I deserved to fall so deep for believing in them all the way. I have given up the one I loved, fell to rage and ignored everyone trying to help me. Worst of all, I got angry at my best friend and made her cry.”

“Hey hey, don't you worry about it. At least you can now work on actually repairing those bridges you let crumble.”

After a short silence in which Azure blinked back a tear she continued. “That's the part I'm sorry about. In my idiocy I drove myself so far off the road I now can't come back, even if I wanted. Though something tells me this... is all right.”

Without any superfluous movement, she produced her Soul Gem and placed it on her hoof. Pitch-black.

Crimson flinched before yelling at her. “But yesterday! The witch!”

“...I left the Grief Seed for you. I guess you missed it.”

“Why would you even do something like that? Anyway, we need to get you a new one.”

“I can hear it calling to me. It's telling me it's time to go. You weren't there when Violet told us, but I believe her. What comes next.”

“Wait, what?”

“All hope will eventually perish and give way to despair. Every wish will one day turn into a curse of equal magnitude, creating an eternal balance. Wasn't it you who told me that?”

“Now hold on a second–”

“You were one of my greatest allies after all. Forgive me for everything I have done to spite you. I really wish we could have been friends from the start, that is my greatest regret.” She finally turned her face towards Crimson, revealing her tear-soaked eyes. “I was such an idiot.”

Within that moment, a bolt of black lightning emanated from her Soul Gem, tearing it asunder and knocking Crimson back.

Azure's body tumbled forwards and landed on the ground. Around her, fierce winds picked up and formed black clouds which swirled around the remains of Azure's Soul Gem, while pushing Crimson further back.

With a screech akin to demons crying, a ghastly form manifested from her Soul Gem, growing in size and twisting reality around it. The exterior of the train station shifted in form, the rules that made it up being copied and temporarily rewritten into the barrier.

When the ghastly being reached its full size, its image was finally visible: a sort of giant mermare-pony with no discernible face, a saber attached directly to one of its hooves.

Around the barrier, an assortment of instruments began to peek out from the newly formed curved walls, playing orchestral music with which the newly born witch could lament its feelings.

Crimson scrambled backwards. “No, don't tell me... Why would you idiot let this happen!” Flaring her nostrils, she got up in an instant before feeling the presence of other ponies around her.

Rose, Amber, and Violet stood next to her, their mouths agape.