Evoker

I had already been expecting the attack, but their speed still surprised me.  I quickly dodged to the side just as the controlled pony delivered a swift buck to where I had been standing.  Still, I hadn’t been quick enough and the strike clipped me on the side.  I was pushed back a little by the hit, but there would only be a little bruising.

‘Still, I don’t want to let him get a direct hit,’ I thought to myself.  ‘I probably wouldn’t get up from it.’

Quicker than I had anticipated the pony recovered from his missed strike and was charging after me again.  I moved quickly, trying to get some distance between us, but he was closing the distance.  I resolved to do some running if I survived this, just to be prepared for situations like this in the future.

I continued on in this fashion of running away and dodging any kicks aimed at me, but I was tiring.  The enclosed area of the clearing wasn’t helping either.  It restricted the amount of distance I could put between me and my assailant, and I needed all the distance I could get.  Even worse, it seemed I was the only one tiring, and the searing heat of the forest fire wasn’t helping matters.  The only good thing was that Singed seemed to be content watching the show, but I wasn’t sure how long it would last.  I needed to think of something quickly.

Weren’t you preparing for something like this my host?

‘I was preparing for a fight against Singed, not ponies.  I don’t want to hurt them.  They aren’t in control of themselves.’

You can either hurt them now, or they can be hurt later after you are dead and this world is burnt to a crisp.

I conceded that she had a point, but I wasn’t happy about it.  I began to gather energy for a blast of force, which isn’t an easy task when you are running and dodging for your life.  It felt painfully slow, but I managed to gather just enough energy to fire a blast that should incapacitate my opponent.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think I would be able to doge long enough to get a second shot off.  This would have to be perfect.  Luckily the pony’s only attack strategy seemed to be running at me and bucking.

With my back to a tree, I aimed my blast at the approaching pony and let it loose.  It struck dead on and sent the pony flying back with the sickening sound of breaking bones.  The force should have only been enough to break a few ribs and potentially a leg, but that was basing it on human anatomy.  I silently prayed that the pony wasn’t too hurt.

Taking a moment, I looked around the clearing to see how Twilight and Fluttershy were doing.  Looking at Twilight I immediately realized why my opponent wasn’t very intelligent.  Singed seemed to be directing most of his attention towards controlling Twilight’s opponent and for good reason.  Twilight was alternating between shields and energy blasts while occasionally teleporting.  Almost every buck was met with a shield or empty air, and Twilight didn’t look as if she was going to be giving up any time soon.  It was all Singed could do just to keep her occupied, which is probably why it hadn’t yet noticed that I had beaten my opponent.  It seems it underestimated her and was doing his best to ensure she wouldn’t be able to help me and Fluttershy.

On the side of the clearing, Fluttershy’s opponent couldn’t do anything.  The pegasus was hovering in the air above it while it just looked on helplessly.  It didn’t seem to have much direct control being exerted on it anyway.  But that didn’t mean Fluttershy was off the hook.  Singed would occasionally lob a ball of fire towards the timid pegasus, forcing her to dodge it or be burned.  I noticed a few singed feathers, so I quickly moved over to her opponent and hit it with a weaker blast of force so Fluttershy would be able to land without having to worry about a physical assault.  The pony went down and I once again hoped that my opponent wasn’t hurt too badly.

As Fluttershy landed beside me, I began to try and come up with a plan to stop Singed.  With Twilight occupied we couldn’t go with my original plan, and I didn’t have enough speed to get to Singed without getting burned.  The only thing I could think of would be to have Fluttershy distract it while, but I didn’t want to put her in danger.  Then again, we were already in danger.

“Fluttershy, is there any way you could distract Singed so I can get close?”

She looked over to me, and I saw the determination in her eyes as she answered, “If you can stop it from hurting anyone else, I’ll do my best.  What do you need me to do?”

I hadn’t been expecting such a personality shift in the shy pegasus, but I wasn’t complaining.  “I need you to draw its fire so it won’t pay as much attention to me.  That way I can get close and bind him to put a stop to all of this.”

Fluttershy nodded and took off towards Singed, immediately drawing fire from the spirit.  Once she got it to turn away from our position, I began moving towards it as fast as I could.  I could only hope that the spirit wouldn’t turn and see me approaching.  It didn’t, but unfortunately Twilight’s opponent did.  As soon as Singed realized what I was doing it turned towards me with a massive ball of fire ready to be launched at me.  I looked straight at it and started moving back, even though I was too close to escape a fireball that size before it hit me.

But the fireball never came.  Amazingly, Fluttershy had flown right up to Singed’s face and looked directly into the white hot points of flame that could be considered the spirit’s eyes.  She seemed to have the spirit in some sort of trance, although it seemed to be taking a toll on both of them.

I quickly decided not to waste this opportunity and ran straight to Singed.  As soon as I was close enough, I began the binding spell.  The magic came naturally to me as it did to all the magic users of my world, despite the fact that I hadn’t needed it in years.  Slowly, I felt the spell weave itself around the spirit and myself, the binding getting stronger with each second.  Fluttershy’s face slowly got more relaxed, as if a burden was being taken off her, while the fires that made up Singed raged in a panic.  Not a moment too soon, the magic fully took effect and Fluttershy collapsed to the ground.  Singed was bound to me, body and mind, his magic and form brought within me, the same as Azrael, but with less restrictions.  I knew I could control him.

The fire in front of us died out, as did the flames burning on the foreheads of the ponies Singed had controlled.  As they died, I thought to myself, ‘And with that, Singed will never hurt anyone again.  Hopefully this time it will be true.’

However, I could still feel magic within the flames engulfing the forest around us.  As Twilight ran over to check on Fluttershy, I reached into the familiar well of power that I had only so recently regained.  The magic in the fire was similar to mine, but different enough that I couldn’t just draw the energy into myself.  I would have to draw the magic out and disperse it and hope that the ponies outside the forest could put out the flames once they are no longer magical.  I took a deep breath and pulled on the magic within the flames.  This process would eat up a lot of my magic, but I knew I would have enough.  Slowly but surely, I felt the magic in the forest fire disperse.

When it was finally done, I turned to go see how Fluttershy was doing.  I only had enough time to see them both looking at me with concern written plainly on their faces before I collapsed to the ground out of exhaustion and the world went black.