Kissed by fire

Praetorian command - many years ago

"Attention Praetorians" the gathered armoured alicorns snapped to attention, eyes glued to the front of the briefing hall as an elderly Alicorn officer strode in flanked by his adjutant. First Praetorian Valliant had commanded the Praetorian Guard since its creation, he was a hero of a hundred wars and each of them had left its mark. His grey fur was marred with scars and his white mane and tail were unnaturally short he turned his steal grey eyes onto the gathered assembly, all one hundred Alicorns present and correct save for one.

"Soldiers!" his voice boomed out "we are gathered here to perform our duty, the conclave is scared so they called us, we are to hunt down the most dangerous weapon ever forged by the will of fate, she knows we are coming, and she knows our weaknesses, be under no illusions she is more than a match for us..."

Valliant paused trying to suppress any hint of pride he might let leak into his voice; he turned as a picture dramatically unfolded behind him.

"...FireMane!"  A likeness of the black alicorn was revealed to the assembled Praetorians "She has spent over eight hundred years fighting the corruption in the equestrian plane, not only that but the locals named her their empress and ..."

Valliant paused as Nimbus Aegis appeared by the podium in a flash of white, unfazed Valliant went to continue but the nimbus silenced him with a hoof. The Praetorians mumbled unhappily at their commander being so rudely interrupted.

"The services of the Praetorian Guard will not be needed commander, you will stand down."

Valliant gave him a disbelieving look, the mutters grew in volume "SILENCE!" he shouted out, he would be dammed to Tartarus if he would let discipline slide, especially in front of the Nimbus.

"She is one of ours Nimbus, we take care of our own" he said plainly

Aegis gave a small smile "Exactly Commander she is one of yours, your order is compromised..."

He silenced his objections with a hoof "...this is not open for debate, the Signet have already been called" even the mention of their name brought an unnatural chill to the room.

"The Signet, you can't be serious?" Valliant spoke in a hushed whisper.

"Who better to send after her commander? Surely you can see my reasoning behind this?"

"But she has not been committed my lord, the queen has yet to even hear her case..."

"Her actions have dammed her Commander, and the Signet will bring what is left of her for punishment"

he turned to the other praetorians "Dismissed" he said threateningly, grudgingly one by one the alicorns began to teleport out.

"All hail the god empress FireMane flame giver and ash bringer! Sovereign and eternal queen of the charred kingdoms! All Hail the empress!"

"All hail the empress! All hail the empress!" the gathered crowd erupted cheering as FireMane emerged from her command tent, she could feel the waves of love from her army. Ponies cheered stamping there hooves, and wolfkin howled there approval, a few jets of flame were fired into the sky by both dragons and unicorn mages in salute.

Smiling she whispered to Sentinel who as always was at her side, face unreadable behind his great helm.

"I'm a god empress now am I?" the music had started up, it was a tune she had composed and performed once, at the opening of Embers new opera house, which had been taken and made into the empires national anthem.

"You can thank the crimson order for that one" FireMane turned to him with a questioning look,

"your own religion majesty..." he let out a chuckle at his empresses bemused expression. Not surprising she had been there since before ponies invented the wheel.

She cast her mind back to those early days, the world was a dark place the sun had no warmth and nocturnal monsters ran unchecked and unchallenged. She had taken pity on these ponies who bared such a startling resemblance to her own kind, it started with saving one family from a pack of frost wolves, those ponies then shadowed her for days for her protection, despite her efforts to drive them off. soon enough more and more ponies flocked to her like moths to a flame until they reached such large numbers they grew bold enough to approach her directly for help.

"Oh...great and powerful one...we come bearing gifts" the brown earth pony stuttered into the ground as she bowed as low as possible her hooves shaking in fear, the rest of her party kept their distance cowering behind any cover they could find in the snow. One of them, a blue unicorn stallion quickly darted out placing a small woollen wrapped bundle before the cave that FireMane was trying to sleep in, before scurrying back to his fellows.

FireMane stalked forwards in full armour save her helmet, the vicious wind blowing through her mane. As she approached towering over the now prone earth pony, Alexa recognized her, this was the second time this earth pony had worked up the nerve to approach her.

"Did I not make myself clear the last time? You are severely trying my patience!" FireMane noted with satisfaction the small wiper that escaped the mare as she displayed her teeth menacingly. Annoyingly she did not run off like the last time, but instead she gathered up her courage "I am sorry...y-y-your..."

"Cease your snivelling mare I have no time for it" FireMane cut in "Now spit it out"

"They say t-t-that you command the elements, and... can make fire dance...your most..."

"Call me FireMane if you must, and as for what 'they' say..." she gestured with a hoof towards the settlement at the bottom of her mountain just visible through the early morning fog

"my power is far beyond your comprehension" she turned to leave when without warning the mare dived forwards holding onto her forehoof with all of her strength. FireMane rounded on her, murder in her eyes; the other ponies let out a collective gasp.

"You dare...!" she began her voice like thunder. The mare's eyes were closed tight but she wore such a peaceful expression it gave Alexa pause, it was then that she realized quite how cold the other pony was to the touch. In an effort to drive these ponies from her company she had taken up residence in the coldest most hostile place she could find, near the summit of a blasted mountain

"Please your majesty...we are dying of cold we need your help" the fear was gone from her voice replaced only with sincerity

"...the foals barely have the strength to stand, and the air cuts our lungs" she looked up into Alexa's own eyes pleading with her,

shocking herself the alicorn placed a comforting wing around the earth pony for a brief moment, before she made her way over to the woollen bundle on the ground carefully unwrapping it with her magic. Inside was a small metal disk emblazoned on the front was the image of a mountain with a great fire blazing behind it, it was crude carving no doubt, like a coat of arms, but still she gave a small smile and fastened it to her breastplate. "Well you had better bring me to your camp them miss...."

"StoutHeart majesty" she supplemented

On that day she gave unto her followers the gift of her fire to warm there nights and protect them from predators. Over the coming years more and more flocked to this Immortal being of fire that stood against the nights darkest terrors, so many came that beneath her mountain, a city began to take form. When she left to pursue her enemy further south, more and more settlements sprung in her wake. Before she knew it, a kingdom had grown under her gaze not only that, but ponies and other creatures began to follow her example and charged with her into battle, and here we are now. A series of city-states united into a single empire under their reluctant empress, all in the shattered Isle flew the crimson standard of the flaming mountain, and an army 'The empress's legion' hers to command.

"That your queue majesty" Sentinel broke out of her memories chucking, she step forwards nodding her thanks before addressing the gathered masses.

"My people, long and loyally have you served me, and know that I love you for it..." another salvo of cheering washed over her

"I am proud to call you my subjects, knights of Ember..." a section of heavily clad ponies in full helms cheered above the rest at their mention banging there shields with their hooves

"... Lancers of white spear" another group brandished there long white lances in the air whooping, she spotted Verex among them cheering the loudest. She carried on like this until she reached the end of her mental checklist

"And the mages of AshField "at this the mages shot out magic from their horns like fireworks, entertaining the gathered assembly.

"But my time here has come to an end." the cheering died and silence fell the look of shock and confusion adorned all their faces.

"I have been called away and I may never return" a slow growl began from the legion as they started to mutter to one another. Verex dashed to the front of his lancers shouting

"The legion stands with the empress no matter the foe!"

This was greeted by a roar of approval, the Wolfkin howled loudest. The empress felt tears stinging her eyes but she could not allow her emotions to get in the way of what she had come here to do. there was no way she would drag her empire into this fight.

She silenced the army with but a look "You forget your place Verex..." she continued "I must leave you for your sakes, believe me when I say that loyal subjects" Sentinel moved to her side allowing her to draw strength from his presence.

"Though I love you all, I cannot, embrace you all" despite her best efforts she could feel the tears starting to fall, it felt like she was ripping out a piece of her own heart.

"Good bye my soldiers, goodbye my sons, good bye my child-ren" she choked on her words as she opened her wings ready for flight the tears falling freely now,

"United forever, in friendship and honour..." Sentinel started to sing his gravelly voice joined immediately by Verex's "...our mighty empire will ever endure..." every pony present quickly took up the song the band coming to life,

"...Long live our Imperial Motherland

built by the empress, mighty and grand.

Long live her people united and free

strong in friendship and tried by fire

long may she inspire

shining in glory for all ponies to see.

Through days dark and stormy

the great FireMane led us

our eyes saw the bright sun of Freedom above

and Firemane our leader

with faith in the people

inspired us to build this land that we love

We fought for the future

destroyed the invader

and brought to our empire

the laurels of fame.

Her glory will live in the memory of nations

and all generations will honour her name.

Long live FireMane, long may she rule us well, the goddess of kings and the queen of our hearts, Long live FireMane, long may rule us well, beneath her standard I gladly give my life."

FireMane stopped crying and gave a weak smile as the empires new national anthem faded; she had to admit that the words touched her deeply "Thank you" was all she could muster looking at a certain unicorn in the crowd who was also crying at this point 'Aurora' for she knew it was definitely her who had written it. She then rocketed up into the clear blue sky and race to meet her destiny.