Evoker

I woke up early in the morning, just before dawn.  Normally I would say that I was woken up, but I don’t think any of Fluttershy’s attempts to wake me would have been even the least bit successful.

As I looked around our makeshift campsite, I noticed that Twilight wasn’t around.  “Fluttershy, where did Twilight go?”

“She said something about going to look for a way to enter the forest.”

I realized that I hadn’t even thought of scouting ahead.  I was so worried about bringing them along that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that a burning forest might not have very many places to enter that weren’t completely blocked by fire.

“Well, then we shouldn’t waste any time,” I said, as I got up and dusted myself off.  “Hopefully she’s found a good place to start.”

We set off in the direction of the forest and it wasn’t long before we came across Twilight.  She was rolling up a piece of parchment.  Before my eyes, her horn glowed and the parchment disappeared with a small pop.

As we approached, I asked, “What was with the parchment?  And have you found a good place to enter the forest?”

She seemed a little startled by our approach, but she quickly regained her composure.

“I was just sending a letter to the princess telling her what you told me, what we were doing, and that the problem should hopefully be solved within the next few hours.  That way, if we fail she has some information to work with.”

I kept my expression neutral, despite the fact that I was worried about what their ruler might think about a creature from another world being on Equestria.

“And entering the forest?”

“There doesn’t seem to be anywhere to enter that isn’t blocked by flames.  I might just have to use my magic to push our way in.”

I nodded and turned to look at the forest.  There didn’t seem to be any paths, but as I scanned the edge of the blaze, something strange seemed to happen.  A break in the fire slowly formed at a spot a short distance away from us.  When I pointed it out to Twilight, she was understandably surprised.

“How could that have happened?  There were no breaks in the fire before.  Why would one just appear?”

Fluttershy shuddered and said, “What if it wants us to enter the forest there?  It could be a trap.”

The thought unnerved me.  Singed wasn’t this intelligent.  It had always been the type to burn whatever was in its path.  If it was starting to think and plan, there could be far more danger than I had anticipated.  Regardless, we were committed at this point, and I doubted that I could get Twilight and Fluttershy to turn back at this point anyway.

“I don’t think this is a trap.  Singed isn’t that smart.  It may think that it would be easier for it if I was in the forest.  Still, we should be prepared.  We wouldn’t want to be caught unaware.  Let’s move.”

And with that we set out for the blazing forest.

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We had been in the forest for only a short while, and it already seemed to be getting to me.  As I scanned the forest around us through the purple hue of Twilight’s shield, I could have sworn I saw a humanoid figure following us.  The first few times I thought it had been singed beginning to attack, but it always disappeared as soon as I turned to face it.  I never saw it for more than a few seconds, but as far as I could tell, it was around my size and dressed in a black cloak that seemed to be unaffected by the fire.

I asked Twilight and Fluttershy if they had seen anything, but neither of them had.  I decided to push it to the back of my mind until after we finished what we were here for.  Especially since there was a far more disturbing fact to consider.  We were being led through the forest.  A trail through the flames kept opening in front of us.  This wasn’t right.  Singed was supposed to find us, but instead we were being led to it.

Eventually we reached a slightly more open area.  Normally, this sudden change in scenery would have had me on guard, but I was more surprised by what I saw in the forest past the clearing.  The figure that had been following us was standing there in the flames.  I felt like it was staring at me, but I couldn’t be sure since he seemed to have no face.  I reached out my senses to see if I could tell who or what he was from his aura, but he disappeared before I could get any sort of feel for his magic.  I was so concerned with the figure that I failed to notice the loud sound of cracking wood.

We all immediately looked around and noticed several of the large trees around us were falling towards us.  Two fell onto Twilight’s shield, but she could only hold them for so long.  I began gathering magic, hoping that what little I had learned would be enough to push the two large trees away from us.

“Twilight, when I tell you, drop the shield.”

“Are you crazy?  If I drop the shield we’ll be crushed!”

“Trust me Twilight.  We’ll be fine.”

I could feel the magic reaching the threshold, and I hoped I would be able to pull this off.  As soon I as I felt the magic hit my limit, I told Twilight to drop the shield.  I immediately launched a large blast of force directly above me.  It caught the edges of the trees and pushed them to the sides of us, just enough to miss us.  Disturbingly, they lined up directly with the path through the fire in front of us.  The three of us were about to breathe a sigh of relief when we heard more loud cracking.  One last tree was falling directly towards us.  Neither I nor Twilight had enough time to use our magic to deal with it.

Luckily, Fluttershy recovered quicker than either of us and flew straight at us, pushing us away from the falling tree and through the flames at the end of the path in front of us.  I was about to thank Fluttershy when I looked at where we were and my breath caught in my throat.

We had reached a large clearing that seemed almost untouched by the fire raging in the surrounding forest.  It was clear of any debris and had a carpet of green grass.  It had no right existing in the middle of the fire, and yet here it was.  However, the most disturbing part was the small campfire in the middle of the clearing.  It was burning steadily and it had three earth ponies sitting with their backs to us and staring into the flames.

Twilight was the first to recover.  “What are you three doing here?” She called to the ponies by the fire.  “Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”

The fire grew in reaction to her words.  A humanoid figure slowly grew out of the fire, and I knew exactly what it was.  What I wasn’t expecting was for the three ponies by the fire to stand up and turn around.  Their eyes were closed, but they seemed to look at us regardless.  In the center of each of their foreheads, a small flame burned.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I tensed to get ready for a fight.

The fire had fully formed into a humanoid shape, but instead of the battle I was expecting something else happened.  The figure stared directly at us, and the three ponies in front of it began to speak at the same time in deep voices.

“So my old master finally showed up to once again leash me.  However, you’ll see this time that I’m more than the fire spirit that burned down your home.  I will not be going back to you.”

Singed speaking had unnerved me, but I didn’t let it show.  Instead, I said, “What has changed you, Singed?  I know you could not have pulled this off on your own.”

“Right you are, but I could not tell you who it was that gave me this intelligence and power, even if I was inclined to.  Besides, it won’t matter once I have burned you to ashes.  And this world will follow.”

Twilight was angered by that last remark.  “We won’t let you harm Equestria.  We will stop you.”

The burning figure remained unchanged, but there seemed to be an amused tone to the voices as they said, “We will see about that, little pony.  But if you wish to die here alongside my old master, then I will grant your wish.”

And with that, the three ponies rushed at us.