I noticed that, not long after the whole weird-ass cutie mark thing, I started having some freaky dreams. Some were good, some were... not. The worst of the bunch was one in particular. You remember the old Ghost Rider comics, right? Especially the Penance Stare? Well... This was like that. I would say that it helped form me into the lovely individual that I am today, but we can both see how well that turned out.
The only thing that everyone else remembers is that even Luna couldn't break into these nightmares. That's right, queen of the night and dreams, Miss Sexy Tidal Thighs herself couldn't get into a dream. Why? Because these weren't dreams.
They were memories.
I went to bed the night after Sunny and Rarity's little "lesson," still fuming about their shortsightedness and still massaging my sore face. To be perfectly honest, Rarity hit harder than Sun Buns by a long shot. All of that said, I figured I could apologize to them later, after I'd put some ice on my sore jaw... and maybe some alcohol through my liver. As I settled down to fall asleep, I figured something was a bit off, but I was in no state of mind to properly register the eerie blackish blue glow emanating from one of the drawers in my room.
Oh, how I should have stayed up that night...
Fire. Lots of fire. There were flames, embers, and heat all around me. I called out to my mother, who I knew was still trapped in the burning wreckage in the next room. I just couldn't summon the strength to move the massive piece of burning timber and metal out of my way to get to her. I screamed for help, and in turn listened to my mother's screams of pain and terror as she was silenced by a final, massive section of frame that seemed as though it crushed her instantly.
At that moment, I lost my mind, disregarding my pain, the heat, and anything in my way. I ripped everything out of my way, smashing anything that wouldn't give way. As I reached the metal piece that blocked my view of my mother, I felt something... I don't know what it was, but it surged inside of me, so much that I regarded the thick steel girder as little more than a toothpick whilst I completely threw it out of the way. I could no longer feel the flames as stinging heat, but more as a comforting presence, not dissimilar to an old friend.
With each step, I advanced towards my mother, whom I now saw was very much alive, but still screaming. I shifted the timber blocking her escape out of the way, grabbed her hand, and sprinted for the door nearby. What happened next defied explanation, even moreso than my earlier surge. All of the flames seemed to part before me, and the door itself, which had been closed somehow, crumbled to little more than ash and dust.
We both reached the exit, and when I let my mother walk of her own accord, she sprinted several feet away from me, still screaming incoherently, pointing at me and backing away with each sentence. As I looked at myself, I saw that I was not only still on fire, but my whole body seemed saturated with the force of destruction which had been attempting to take my life not seconds prior. Even as I watched, the flames in my own body dimmed and disappeared, allowing me to see the steam rising from my body in massive waves. Then, I began to make out words from the crowd: Demon, freak, monster, abomination. Those hardly bothered me. It was when I heard the deifying titles of "god," "savior," and "paragon" that I turned tail and ran.
I refused to stop for anyone or anything, no matter the cost to myself of those around me. I just needed to get away... Perhaps somewhere out West...
I woke, screaming at the top of my lungs.
The door to my room in the suite exploded as Rarity and Luna barged in, their hands glowing with apparent battle magic. I could only sit and try to catch my breath, feeling cold sweat drip from my forehead. My heart pounded in my chest like a thunderhead rumbling in the sky. As I surveyed my surroundings, I noticed that my blankets had scorch marks all over them, areas of soot dotted the walls.
"Is everything alright? We..." Rarity's inquiry died on her lips as she saw the damage to my room, her eyes going wide. "Max... What's going on?"
Luna relaxed and regarded me with an almost knowing look. "It would appear our young budding magus has some demons of his own that have not been resolved." She turned to leave, speaking over her shoulder. "Speak with me in the morning, Maximus. We shall see if you might learn to accept whatever fear possesses you."
I collapsed back onto the bed, sighing in relief at the cold against my burning skin. I noticed Rarity was still in the doorway, regarding me cautiously. "You know," I began. "There are more ways to write off what just happened than I care to count. But I don't think I will..." I sat up and swung my feet over, preparing to stand, when I felt a massive pain explode behind my eyes, leaving me hunched over.
"I must say, you are quite the piece of work, Mister Cross." Rarity sat down next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, only to pull it away rapidly. "Sweet Celestia! You're burning up!" I gave her an unamused look. "Well, I've never encountered anything like this, so you must forgive me if I have a clumsy approach to the situation."
I sighed and stood, walking to the bathroom to fill the tub with the coldest water I could. "It's not exactly easy to explain, maestra. After all," I peered over my shoulder to ensure she was paying attention. "It's not like your magic. Earth operates on its own set of rules. And sometimes, people like me break a few of them." As soon as the tub was halfway full, I stepped in, sighing contentedly as the near-freezing water cooled me down, extinguishing the blazing inferno under my skin. The water itself began to steam upon contact with my skin, so I left the tap running cold until I could be completely submerged.
She frowned, crossing her arms. "I was under the distinct impression that this world had no magic of its own." She moved to sit on the chair outside of the bathroom, crossing her legs and taking on a pensive pose. "If I am to believe you, then that would mean that there is magic in your world."
I laughed sharply, startling her. "Lady, you have no idea..." I focused the fire that was still present to my hand and performed a sort of waving motion, twirling flames from my fingers. "This didn't start becoming a problem until last year. And I'm one of four people who has this problem." I stifled the flames, dunking the hand in the water. "Terran magic is so unbelievably rare that it's regarded as mere fantasy... Yet, since the surge of Equestrian magic, Terrans with latent genes have been gaining the ability to use our world's magic more freely." I dunked my head beneath the water, feeling the last of the fire inside of me dimming to a manageable level once more.
At that point, the Bearer of Generosity chose to move closer, pulling my hands from the water and taking them into her own. I regarded her curiously, watching as her own magic lit up. "If it's such a bother to use your own magic, then perhaps we might focus upon that as your next lesson." She closed her eyes and her hands glowed brighter before she released me. "And with that, I know just what we can do!" As I stared at her in confusion, she elaborated, "We shall teach you how to control your Terran magic as a Pegasus controls their magic. All we need is some fire..."
I grinned as I dunked my hand back into the water. "I think I know just the thing..."
"Remind me why you thought this was a good idea?" Jake asked, raising his eyebrow while Pinkie clung to his arm, bouncing up and down excitedly.
Allow me to lend some context. We were in Washington D.C. and I had just experienced an outburst of fire magic that could have burned our hotel to the ground... So what does one do in this case? Why, they find the tallest structure in the city with a platform at its roof and let loose! Though, the sirens at the base of the Hughes Memorial Tower might have been an indication that my experimentation at Rarity's direction went maybe, kinda, sorta overboard.
You see, when Rarity told me to practice "letting loose," as she called it, she failed to account for the sheer amount of emotional baggage I was carrying, as well as how much that could influence Terran magic. Needless to say, the first time, she asked me to conjure a "small flame," I ended up paying for her new perm. Since that moment, she told me to practice as high and far away from heavily populated areas as possible whilst still remaining in the D.C. area. This was rather difficult, since a lot of buildings were almost explicitly forbidden from being taller than the historic monuments that were the Big Five of D.C., like the Washington Monument. However, we found a radio tower outside the acknowledged metro area and chose to use it instead.
And herein lies our predicament. We were not explicitly instructed by official figures that we were to not leave the metro area of D.C., nor were we told that massive displays of magic needed to be confined to military installations at the time (a rule which I became quite fond of, to be perfectly honest, since the military has more durable toys to play with.) As such, within the first ten minutes of my practice, I found myself whistling "Slaughter the World" in the back of a D.C. Metro cop car, en route to the nearest military base that I was technically subject to reprimand from, Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. I personally wanted to just go to the Army admins, since they wouldn't drown me in paperwork and bureaucracy, but I was consigned to dealing with the AFDW. Frankly, dealing with the part of the Air Force that primarily governs non-combat units wore on my nerves a bit. I would have much preferred to go to Andrews, but circumstances demanded otherwise.
Considering I hardly remember a thing from that 5 hour expedition into the hell that was paperwork and redirection, I'll simply say that the Air Force decided to not press charges under the UCMJ, since I had technically been not only outside of their jurisdiction for a number of years, but I was no longer subject to any U.S. military laws whatsoever. I did take the opportunity to have one of the command unit's secretaries send a message to my old unit in Phoenix, detailing exactly what I had gotten in trouble for. I figured they'd get a kick out of that as I walked off-post to the taxi waiting to take me back to the Capital.
"Max, you know that your mom is going to see this on the news, right?" Jay was watching me with a look of concern painted across his face. We were both sitting in the Oval Office with Aunt Lori gaping at the images of me quite literally playing with fire shown in HD on the screen. I didn't realize that my fire had actually been tinged with violet flecks until seeing this footage.
I leaned back in my seat, cracking my knuckles before draping my arms across the couch. "And? She'll never come forward as my mother. She ran away those years ago after the incident." I looked over at Aunt Lori, raising an eyebrow. "You heard about the fire in Scottsdale, right? The one that took out half of one of the malls?"
Lori's eyes widened as the screen showed images from the same fire I had just mentioned. I turned to face the screen and felt the blood drain out of my face. "Do you mean the one that killed over three hundred people? They're saying you caused it!" I could see the shock working its way through my aunt's system. "What happened in Scottsdale, Max?"
I looked down at the floor, grimacing as I recalled the day in question. "Honestly, I was just out there for a visit. Things in Louisville were taking off, but I needed a break from the company. You heard about it, I think, when we did that work with the USO." I smiled, recalling how excited my mom was to see me after a scarce two years, finally making a name for myself. "As far as I know, that fire shouldn't have happened, no matter how hot and dry the Phoenix area was. I'm still convinced someone set off a bomb in that store we were near. The mall was packed, so foot traffic was moving slowly and I wasn't having a good time. Mom and I heard yelling from nearby and obviously, trained as we are, you know we had to see what was going on. Allen was coming out of the bathroom we had stopped by before all hell broke loose."
"Wait, you, Jean, and Allen all saw this? Why didn't they report it?" Lori was leaning forward in her seat, engrossed in my retelling of the Scottsdale incident. "Surely, between you three, you saw at least one..." She stopped as I held up a hand. I could tell she was piecing together the flaws in what the news station was trying to push. I could see her irritation when they started shooting out theories that pointed to everything but the incident being an organized attack.
"I'm getting there, Auntie. Cool your jets." I took a deep breath as I glanced at another image of the burning wreckage that had ejected from the mall. "The explosion had started near the gas mains for the building, but I was more focused on getting Mom and Allen out of there. One of the guys who had run out before the explosion slammed straight into Allen, which was probably the biggest mistake he'd made. Before Allen could start asking any questions, though, the flames from the explosion in the store hit the gas main in our part of the mall. You know how those are supposed to be well sealed and can't leak unless someone fucks with something? Guess what..." I stopped as I saw footage from when I walked out of the mall with my mom in tow. It cut to a shot of Allen trying to help my mom, who was still screaming hysterically. I could see him mouthing "I'm sorry" from this angle, but I never heard him that day. I just ran. Ran as far and fast as my legs could carry me to my car.
"So you're saying that the accident in Scottsdale was... a terrorist attack?" I could see the skepticism barely working through before Aunt Lori visibly stamped it out. "And these people are saying it was really your fault? I won't let this stand!" I could see her reaching for her desk's phone before mine rang out with what was easily my most obnoxious custom ringtone ever, and it was set for only one person. I pulled out my phone, seeing that it was Allen calling. Jay busted out laughing as my phone continued screaming "Fucktard!" at a significant volume. "Who did you give such a rude ringtone?"
I answered the call, rolling my eyes at Lori's half-hearted display of being offended. "What's up? Long time no speak."
"Not much, dude." Allen's voice sounded a bit more ragged than when I'd heard from him last. "Remember that guy that ran into me after the accident at the Pavillions?" I raised my eyebrow as he continued. "He got away when that store blew up, but your mom spotted him in a crowd last week. She scared the shit out of him when she started asking questions." I shuddered in fear, remembering the few times I've seen Mom pissed off. Nicest lady in the world until you mess with her family.
I finally responded, having to swallow a few times so my voice would work again. "So how bad did he piss himself and what did she find out?"
"The explosion was supposed to take out the whole mall, but he wouldn't say who was in charge." I could understand how frustrated Mom and Allen must have been at that point. "So, once your mom finished with him, we tried taking him to the police, and they tried to arrest us!" I groaned at this, shaking my head. "Yeah, they were trying to arrest us for turning in someone who blew up a mall. Something about assault or some shit." I heard a familiar voice in the background, and the color drained out of my face again, since I had just put the call on speakerphone and couldn't get it to switch back.
I heard rustling as the phone changed hands and my mom's voice rang out in the middle of the Oval Office, "Bucky Boo, how are you? Are you trying to make your poor, sweet, mommy dearest worry to death?"
At that moment, in front of the President of the United States, two members of the Secret Service, my little cousin, and, at that very moment, about a dozen Equestrians that were coming in for a meeting, I screamed into my phone at the top of my lungs. "Gods fucking dammit, Mom! I'm in front of the President and a foreign defense council for fuck's sake!" I was breathing heavily, my face red from embarrassment,
Before I could continue my tirade, my mom called out "Hi, Aunt Lori! Can you beat my kid for making me worry?"
And that is why you saw President Loretta Reiser chasing me with a bat on the White House front lawn.