Chapter 10
Release of the Souls

After Shattered Souls had returned to the castle, Twilight had luckily not found out what he had done due to her being so deep into her research. He had stayed in his room for the rest of the day just resting and letting his magic pool replenish itself. Hiding the soul chips, he had placed his satchel deep in the closet that was connected to his room. While he liked Twilight, he didn't exactly trust her as far as her researching tendencies went. She had already point blank told him that she wanted to research him and his magic. She also wanted to study his Archiver and the chips themselves, which made him really nervous. So he hid the chips deep in the closet hoping she wouldn't find them there no matter how slim the chance.

The rest of the day had passed uneventfully so he had been able to get plenty of rest during the night. It was now the following day and he'd had a nice breakfast with Twilight. It had of course been cooked by Spike and he thanked Spike for making it. Twilight had inquired as to how he was feeling and he replied that he was feeling better. She looked really nervous like she really wanted to ask about his magic again. Luckily, she had remembered what she had promised and didn't ask him. Instead, Twilight asked if he'd like to go get lunch at a pizza place she heard had been pretty good in its hay day. Souls had accepted her invitation with a bit of apprehension.

It was about 10:00 in the morning at the moment and he was sitting on a hill outside of Ponyville. He let out a long breath before saying out loud,"Why does living with Twilight have to be so stressful? She's a good mare and all but she really needs to lay off the research. I get she wants to know everything about the world around her but she just needs to experience every now and then."

He shook his head as he continued to voice his thoughts out loud,"I'd just like to get to know the rest of the mane six at this time. And then there is that lunch appointment I made with Octavia next week on Thursday. And then there is the problem that I just don't know much about this whole Archiver or Soul Warrior thing. BlackWarGreymon still won't answer my questions about it. Can't anyone answer my questions?"

There was a glowing light that came from the satchel he kept close to his side. The flap of the satchel opened up on its own and a soul chip zoomed right out of it to float a few feet in front of him,"Well yeah. There's plenty of us here that could answer your questions. You just haven't bothered to direct your questions to us. So I thought I'd help you out." It was a light, young chipper voice that was speaking to him from the chip.

He looked up to see who's soul chip it was and sighed when he saw that it was Keldeo's soul chip. The chip glowed brighter until it disappeared in a flash of light to be replaced by a shimmering image of Keldeo himself. He was grinning happily down at the sitting Souls and waved at him.

Giving Keldeo a weak smile, Souls let out a long sigh. "Hey Keldeo. Its nice to see you've recovered from your battle with Kyurem. I wish I could say the same." He winced in imaginary pain as his left leg clenched up.

Keldeo's smile dropped instantly as a pained expression lit up across his face,"Uh yeah sorry about that. Not one of my greatest moments. I was really rusty and out of practice. I'm sorry I couldn't take all the damage away but it just wasn't possible."

Souls closed his eyes for a moment to keep his calm before looking at Keldeo again. "Its okay. I forgive you Keldeo. But please next time don't take control of my body unless its a really dire emergency or I've given you permission. I really don't take well with people who do that without permission. Its an invasion of privacy and my rights as a sentient being."

Keldeo looked up at the sky for a moment before replying,"I understand that. I wasn't thinking of anything at that particular moment other than protecting the village and its inhabitants. To me it was a dire emergency since Kyurem was involved."

Souls nodded his head,"I understand that. And in the end it was the right choice to make but please keep in mind in the future that i'd like to be asked."

Keldeo smiled faintly again,"I can do that. Now I believe you had some questions that you wanted to ask and have answered?"

Souls returned the smile,"Yeah. First off could you reiterate what a Soul Warrior is exactly and why I'm one?"

Nodding his head, Keldeo replied in a happy tone,"Yeah. A Soul Warrior is a being who has a soul archiver and fights interdimensional threats using the souls of warriors or beings who have passed on. You also fight against threats that are native to the world you are in. The Soul Warrior synchronizes with the warrior's soul and gains armor or a form based upon that soul. They then use that form to fight against the threat that has appeared. You yourself are the first Soul Warrior there ever has been. And the reason for that is because this is the first time large scale interdimensional threats have happened. And your dimension just so happened to brush up against this one at just the right moment. BlackWarGreymon was able to get a portal to open through your computer to bring you here cause he felt you were the best fit."

Frowning in thought, Souls asked his next question,"Ok. If you could please tell me what type of magic it is I have."

Keldeo grinned,"Ah. So you finally decided to ask. Well your magic is very special since it deals with souls returning from the afterlife. Unlike a normal necromancer who traps souls in deceased bodies on purpose for nefarious purposes, the souls come of their own accord to you. They come back from the afterlife and willingly put themselves in the soul chips so that they can be utilized in the Soul Archiver. The Soul Archiver feeds off your internal magic and turns it into a special kind of necromantic magic. This branch of necromantic magic is a new type of magic we like to call Soul Magic. Its neither good or evil. It all depends on the user on how the power is used and which souls come to him. Both evil and good souls and come to the user. However if the souls are evil or the user turns from good to evil then that user is no longer a Soul Warrior. And they will eventually either lose their magic or it will turn into full on necromantic magic and corrupt them completely."

Keldeo continued,"Now as for how the magic actually works. When the Archiver turns your magic into Soul Magic it uses that to perform the operations that are needed. It does such things as archiving new Soul chips into its data base and performing the Soul Unison program. Now the Soul Unison program was actually based off of the Soul Unison program used in MegaMan Battle Network's world. But instead of using raw data from net navis it runs off of magic and interacts with souls from the afterlife."

Souls nodded his head as he motioned with a hoof for Keldeo to continue,"Now as for the transformations when using a Soul Chip. The Archiver converts a large burst of magic from your magic pool into a large burst of soul magic energy used to spark the transformation. Then it steadily converts your magic pool into Soul Magic energy to keep the transformation going and let you use the attacks from the form. This is the reason why each form has a certain amount of time the form can be held."

Souls thoughtfully looked up at Keldeo,"I see. That makes sense. But what is this thing with the synchronization rates? What exactly are they for? And what are the initiation phrases for?"

Keldeo's grin grew wider,"Well the synchronization rates tell how you how well your current thoughts, feelings, and actions sync up with the Soul that is going to be used. It tell you how well you syn up with that soul's thoughts, feelings, and actions. The more they match up the better a synchronization rate you get. The best part about this is that the more you are synced up the less the transformation costs magically and you can hold the transformation longer. The worse of a synchronization rate the less amount of time you have to hold the transformation."

"As for just what the initiation phrases are. They are a fun little feature that was made part of the Soul Unison just for the pleasure of the user. It gives them a cool phrase of their choice to say in order to start the initation of the Soul Unison with any particular Soul Chip. So the intiation phrases aren't necessary but they sure are fun. I know you've already recorded a few of them but I'd like to ask that the next time you use my chip that you record one for me."

Smiling happily, Souls nodded his head,"Ok. I can do that without a problem. Thank you for answer my questions so far. Now I do have one more. How exactly am I supposed to find other Soul Warriors or make others into Soul Warriors?"

Keldeo looked surprised at this and frowned,"Um. That's not something I can tell you right now. Your still so new at this that I think it would be a bad idea to give you the information. Wait until you are more experienced before you ask that again."

His form started to fade in and out a bit and he looked at himself,"Huh. Well it looks like my soul is nearly out of energy for the moment. So I'm going to have to rest. Oh one last thing. Its a good thing that you have been fighting enemies for the past several days in a row. The more you do that the larger your magic pool will expand due to exercise. And the longer you will be able to hold the transformations in the future."

With that his form cut out completely as with a flash of light his soul chip reappeared. The soul chip flew back over to the satchel and landed back inside of it. The flap of the satchel closed again leaving Souls to his thoughts,"Well that was a big help except for right at the end there. I was really hoping he would answer my questions on other Soul Warriors."

Souls quietly got up from his seat on the hill and checked the time by looking at the Archiver. The Archiver's clock told him it was now 11:30 am so he needed to be getting back into town. He had been told to meet Twilight in the town market near where the Apple family's stall was supposed to be set up. So he walked along into town at his own pace to meet her at noon.

Arriving in the town market 15 minutes later, he quickly made his way to where the Apple family's stall was supposed to be. Looking around, he saw that once again it wasn't there but Twilight was. Twilight waved to him with a hoof to motion him over. He quickly hobbled over to where she was on his crutch with a smile on his face.

"Hey Twilight. I got here 15 minutes early. Thanks for being patient with me. I didn't mean to make you wait here for me." He happily said.

Twilight giggled,"Oh its no trouble Souls. I haven't been waiting here long so there's no need to worry. Now come on. The pizza place is this way." She turned and took the lead towards the outskirts of town. She went into a section of the town he had never been in or seen before. She started to explain,"This area used to be the old marketplace of Ponyville but as it grew the market was moved. So this place was pretty much shut down and abandoned. But surprisingly there is still a restaurant place in business here. Its clientele is small but devoted."

Souls nodded his head with a smile,"That's very interesting Twilight. I can't wait to see it."

Twilight nodded and stopped outside an old pizza parlor joint that had a cracked front window but still clean windows. The sign above was wooden with what looked like a happy bear, chicken, and bunny rabbit all waving hi. His eyes narrowed even further at the name of the restaurant, which was called Teddy and Friends.

He turned his head to an expectant twilight after widening his eyes. He nervously spoke up,"I don't know about this Twilight. I just have a feeling that this place isn't the safest area to be in."

Twilight shook her head with a smile,"Oh don't be silly Souls. I researched this place before coming here and they have an excellent track record. They've been open for over 40 years and haven't had incidents of any kind. Besides their pizza has a good rating. So just come in and try it."

Souls frowned for a few seconds before nodding his head,"Ok. But we're gone if I get even the slightest hint that something is wrong."

Twilight rolled her eyes but nodded,"Yeah ok. Now come on already." She walked into the resturant after opening the door with her magic. Souls walked in behind her.

Twilight quickly went up to the counter and ordered a pizza from a gangly looking teenage pegasus colt. Then she went and sat down at a booth which Souls joined her at. Souls looked around the inside of the restaurant which was decorated with pictures drawn by foals. They depicted the animals on the sign along with other animals that weren't on the sign. Some of the animals not depicted were a fox and a freaky looking puppet.

He continued to look around the room until his eyes alighted upon a stage at the back wall of the resturant that looked like it was meant for kids to sit in front of. And indeed there were a couple of happy colts and fillies sitting in front of the stage. The stage's curtains were drawn back to reveal three animatronics. Souls eyes narrowed even further once he realized they were more ponified looking versions of the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics. He moved his eyes along more and saw an out of order sign for what looked like a Pirates Cove. He was starting to get real bad vibes all over now.

He turned to Twilight,"Twilight I'm really getting bad vibes now. I really don't feel comfortable being here."

Twilight waved a dismissive hoof,"Oh Souls you just need to calm down. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just try to enjoy the place." She went back to reading a book she had pulled out while waiting for their pizza.

Souls cast his eyes back to the stage making his eyes narrow to slits as he saw the animatronics' eyes were all locked onto his while the children were busy with other things. They had the black edges to their eyes as they gazed at him. Finally the curtains were closed as Souls turned back to Twilight,"I'll be right back Twilight. I have to use the bathroom."

Twilight shook her head,"Ok. Just be quick."

Souls nodded,"Of course. I'll be right back." He got up from his seat and made it look as if he was going to the bathroom before turning for the stage. He went towards a door that said Employee's only and tested the handle to find it unlocked. He opened it and made his way to the backstage room area of the main stage and turned on the light only to find the Animatronics out of their places and arranged in a semicircle around the door entrance.

He growled,"Looks like I was right. I don't know how you all got here into this world but I don't care. I'll make sure your souls are released and sent to the afterlife where they belong before you can hurt anyone here."

He quickly reached into his satchel with a hoof and pulled out a random soul chip. He quickly slotted it into the Archiver and pressed the green button on it. He looked at the screen to see which one he had chosen and held his foreleg in front of him,"Ok let's get started. Dragon of Flame, Burn all my enemies to ashes! Soul Unison, Cinder Blaze Soul!" The orb of light appeared around him to initiate the change.

He broke the orb of light a moment later with a hoof claw as he stood before the animatronics. "I know you all were burned before but now you'll face the purifying fire of Mega Charizard. Let's go you big lugs of metal."

Bonnie lunged forwards with a screech of anger as it lunged with its mechanical hands. Souls sidestepped easily and lashed out with his tail to trip Bonnie as he lunged. Bonnie tripped on his tail and fell face forwards onto the ground. Souls quickly launched himself a few feet into the air before surrounding himself in the fire of the Flare Blitz attack. He came down fast and hard on top of Bonnie's back with his hoof claws pointed downwards. They ripped into the mechanical bunny's back and tore the insides to shreds. Bonnie's angered shrieks quickly died away before a small blue colored orb of light came out of the destroyed animatronic.

Souls quickly grabbed it in one of his hooves and whispered to it,"Your pain is over. I give you a peaceful journey to the afterlife. May your afterlife be peaceful in and of itself young mare who never got her chance to act." He said this last part instinctively without realize why he was doing it. He carefully held his hoof out and tossed the blue orb up into a white portal which closed after he did that.

He glared at the other two animatronics who started screeching loudly themselves. They both came at him at the same time causing him to dart past them quickly into the main backstage area. He turned around to face them as they came at him rather quickly. He tried to duck out of the way of Chica's lunge only to have Freddy hit him hard in the side with a mechanical fist. He went flying before hitting the back wall with a heavy thumb and crying out in pain. He winced in pain as he felt several ribs within him crack. His vision went blurry because his head had smacked hard into the wall.

Freddy ran at him again with the intent to kill. He had his hands out to grab Souls by his neck in order to snap it and kill him for good. Souls looked up at the approaching Freddy blearily only to see Chica not far behind. He felt the prescence in the back of his mind signaling a now active Cinder Blaze. He wearily released control of his body to the more awake and alert Cinder Blaze who came to the forefront.

Cinder Blaze opened up the body's eyes more fully with clear sight as he glared upon the approaching animatronics,"I have no clue who you two metal lugs are but I'll be a magikarp before I let you hurt innocent people. I won't fail the people here like I did the one I protected before. Let my fires purify you and send you on your way. Flare Blitz!" He wreathed his body in flames again right as Freddy reached him. Freddy's hands whacked his body shoving it into the wall again.

However, Freddy backed up screeching in pain at its scorched and blackened hands, which it held in front of itself. Chica stopped where she was and looked at Freddy in confusion. Then it saw Freddy's hands and grew angrier then it already was and charged at Cinder Blaze.

Cinder Blaze was groaning in pain from his spot on the wall where he was stuck in it. He suddenly squawked in pain and surprise as he was grabbed by his neck. He was pulled out of the wall by a very angry chica who increased the pressure on his neck from her wing hands.

Cinder Blaze started to cough for air but managed to get out,"Time to get.......roasted.....you blasted...chicken. Flamethrower." A huge steady stream of fire burst from his muzzle out into the chicken's face. The fire reached around the chicken's head and caught the stage's curtains on fire. This made alarms all around the place start blaring causing the patrons to panic and grab the foals and leave. Meanwhile Cinder Blaze was keeping his Flamethrower attack going. Finally he had melted Chica's head into slag causing the robot to let go and fall backwards.

Freddy had finally finished screeching in pain and was glaring at a coughing and heaving Cinder Blaze. A small orb of yellow light flew out of Chica's body only to be snagged by Cinder Blaze,"May you find peace in your afterlife after the journey I send you on. I wish you peace to your very soul he who wrote a book that would have been award winning had it been published." Cinder Blaze confused himself by saying and doing that before tossing the orb up into another white portal.

Freddy growled before running at the injured Cinder Blaze who had gone back to coughing and heaving. He raised a blackened mechanical fist and brought it down on Cinder Blaze's back right between his two sets of wings elicting a large thump and cry of pain from Cinder Blaze. There was also a cracking sound and both pairs of wings fell limp to his sides utterly useless.

Hissing in pain, Cinder Blaze finally caught his breath again as he struggled back to his hooves. Turning to Freddy, he reared his head back as he inhaled only to have screeching come from behind him in the form of an irate Foxy. Cinder Blaze thought to himself,"Its time to end this."

He channeled the energy he would have used for another Flame thrower further into his body. He called upon even more energy and fire spread up around him in huge pillars as he shouted out,"Ultimate Technique. Blast Burn!" And with a great flash of orange light and heat a huge explosion happened. Half of the building went up in a huge pillar of intense burning heat that was as hot as the outer surface of the sun itself before winking out entirely. All that was left was a rather large crater filled with glass and atomized residue. A brown orb and a red orb appeared in front of a heavily exhausted Cinder Blaze who grabbed hold of them before whispering to them. He then tossed them quickly into several white portals before letting out a long sigh of relief. He then painfully dragged himself out of the crater into a nearby alleyway as sirens were heard around the town and fire ponies started to appear.

Twilight herself was frantic as Souls was nowhere to be found. She knew he was probably all right but that didn't stop her from wanting to look and find him.

Cinder Blaze was lying on his side and looking up at the sky with a calm look."I finally did it Aurora. I finally kept the promise I made to you. I hope you are resting in peace in your section of the afterlife. I'll see you again eventually." He was speaking about a shiny Azuril he had been protecting when a group of Team Rocket members had come after her. He had died protecting her only to have her die a few moments later due to a stupid pokemon that was on Team Rocket's side.

Cinder closed his eyes before his body glowed. His mind fell into a deep sleep as he took the damage from the battle upon himself. He didn't want his host to be more hurt then he already was. The transformation abruptly ended leaving Souls in the same state he had been before the start of the battle. The slot holding Cinder's soul chip closed cutting of the chip from access. But on the inside the image was broken into hundreds of tiny pieces as Cinder's soul shattered completely. It would take a long time for his soul to be put back together. So until then his mind would sleep as he recovered.

Souls quietly got back to his hooves and managed to find Twilight before convincing her to let them get back to the castle before he explained. Thus the souls of some unfortunate adult ponies were released from the suits they had been trapped in due to a foul necromancer.

Author's Note

Hey Everyone. Here we are with my next chapter. Now yes I did use Five Nights at Freddy's characters. However I do not like the fact that its the souls of children trapped in the suits in the actual games themselves. I find it overly morbid and stupid in my opinion. So I changed it here to pony's souls that had tried to pass on but had ended up trapped in the suits when a dimension portal opened briefly depositing the suits. Again I hope you liked this chapter and the new information in it. Please feel free to leave a comment if you like.