Heart of Magic

by TheCrimsonDM

Chapter Sixteen: Rain and Fire

Amber stood outside in the pouring rain. This rain, the embodiment of her mother’s pain, outrage, and sorrow. Nopony had told Amber what was going on yet, but she didn’t need to have them tell her. She heard what Twilight said. That Maud and Valiant were…

Her memories came flooding back to her of all the time she’d spent with Maud over the years. When Amber was still young and learned her first spell, the smile on Maud’s face was a sort of magic in itself, she was so proud of her little unicorn baby. When Blackout beat Amber up and Amber had to walk home covered in scrapes and bruises, Trixie was busy at school but Maud was there, and with the most gentle hooves cleaned up the wounds making sure she was okay, Maud was even too afraid to give a hug to Amber, afraid she’d hurt her. The first time Amber snuck out late at night and Maud caught her. Oddly Maud wasn’t angry, she actually insisted on joining Amber and they took a nice long walk in silence, but that silence spoke volumes about how much Maud trusted Amber.

When Amber looked at it, her petty anger towards Maud was pointless. Sure, Amber had to watch Trixie cry herself to sleep on so many nights alone because Maud was gone at work. Yet they always had a home, always had food, always had the bills paid. It must have taken both Trixie and Maud’s combined wages to keep them living so well.

So if it wasn’t just seeing her mom crying so often that made Amber mad at Maud, why was she still so angry with her?

Amber knew the answer. She didn’t like the answer. She didn’t want the answer. But, she did know the answer.

“I just wanted to spend time with you…”

A crack of thunder up above seemed to respond to that one desperate plea. Never again would Amber have the chance to spend time with her other mom. With Maud. The Alicorn Empire took her from them. Trixie would never be the same, Pinkie would never be the same, Amber would never be the same.

Furthermore they took Valiant Heart, Amber’s big sister. Sure she was a weird and quiet nerd, but she loved her sister. Helping her sneak out at night to go explore the world. Just being present when Amber was hurt or alone, even if she didn’t say a word, Amber knew she was there to listen. How often had Amber told her deepest secrets to Valiant Heart? How often did Val keep her secrets safe and sound?

Amber felt her legs shaking beneath her. She took a step forward and felt one of her legs buckle beneath her. The rain had soaked through her mane, and her fur. It was making the entire backyard muddy. Amber forced herself to stand, her legs burned with ache and pain, but she embraced the pain and used it to motivate her to stand tall and strong. With Maud and Val gone, somepony had to be the strong one in the family, and since Trixie was going to be weak for a long time it was going to have to be her.

But that wasn’t what Amber wanted. She just wanted her big sister, but more importantly she…

Amber threw her head back and screamed at the weeping sky, “I JUST WANT MY MOMMY!”

All the pain inside her mixed with the sorrow and she felt her scream vibrate through the air. Her horn flickered with light. Her body began to warm up. Steam rose off of her body where the rain hit her. She continued to scream. To focus all the pain, all the hate, all the sorrow and loss into that scream. The ground around her shifted, globs of mud began to lift up separating themselves from the wet earth. The steam hitting her became a thin mist. Her horn flared into a bright light and she felt her mouth fill with bright, hot energy. Her screams became a torrent of flame focused at the heavens.

It lasted all about five seconds and then it stopped. Her mouth was dry, her fur singed, and the mud fell around her splattering her coat. Amber hit the ground, all the energy in her bones was sapped away from the magic she unleashed. She stared up into the sky, at least it had stopped raining. Looking around her she could still see the rain though, landing in a near perfect circle around her. In the sky there was a perfect circle cut through the clouds.

Her scream literally pierced the heavens.

“HOW MANY?” Luna demanded over the sound of roaring explosions.

One of her alicorn guard, absent one leg and an eye stood there unbalanced staring at her. They were hiding behind a giant boulder, and could still hear the explosions from behind them. He looked at her but he didn’t seem to be quite there. It took him a moment but he finally managed to say, “Five dead, not sure how many wounded.”

Luna cursed. The side of her face was caked with dry blood, and her left leg was burning from a large gash she’d healed only enough to continue on. Wherever the hell Maud and Valiant were she didn’t know. She sent them away with one of the sky carriages. Luna and her squad were supposed to be holding this thing back. Whatever the tartarus it was, it was not an alicorn and she was damned sure of that.

Another explosion nearby sent rocks flying at them forcing Luna to put herself between the debris and the injured guard. She looked at him. “You’re out of the fight, lay down soldier.”

He didn’t argue, though it took him a moment to figure out how to lay down with one leg missing. Lucky for him it was cauterized, he’d survive, might even grow the limb back in a decade or two. For now Luna had to go out and face this demon.

Luna walked, each step aching worse than the last and moved around the corner. She had at least ten guards when she started. If five were dead, who knows how many injured, and two of them were busy flying Maud and Valiant Heart back home, then she might be facing this thing alone.

Around the corner she saw it. The alicorn stood on a higher plateau overlooking the one she was on. Craters were scattered all around her. Several dead were lying in more pieces than a jigsaw puzzle. She ignored them and focused on the stallion up on the cliff.

It looked down at her. Its expression was muted, as if it didn’t feel anything during this fight. Not excitement, anger, nor terror. It just stood like a machine ready to kill. Luna ground her teeth and spread her wings far and wide. This was going to be it. She had to put it down now, but between her and Celestia she was not the fighter of the two. She really only had one plan. A very stupid and dangerous one. A very Twilight Sparkle styled plan.

The monster’s horn charged with the dark smokey energy. She charged toward it, letting magic pump into her horn. It unleashed a volley of dark smokey energy missiles. She ducked and weaved between them. Each one that grew too close burned at her flesh like acid but she pressed forward. She continued pouring as much energy into her horn as she possibly could. There was only one place for a monster such as this.

She collided into the beast and wrapped her legs around it. The thing’s body burned with frigid cold energy. She unleashed all of her magic and felt the world cry out as it was ripped in two. Every muscle of her body screamed as she and the monster were torn from that location and dragged, dozens if not hundreds of miles across the world. The air grew hot yet the beast stayed cold.

She saw a sea of red before her. She flew towards it allowing the heat to burn and blister at her body. Her lungs were empty of breathe but she pushed forward. The monster wiggled and writhed in her grip. Too late she thought as she let go of the beast and spread her wings trying to force the heat coming at her from the red sea to push her up. Her body jerked and angled sharply upward until she saw a rocky ledge and she flew toward it. The last she saw of the alicorn monster was the splash it made as it slammed into the molten red. Her body crashed into the hard earth and she rolled several times before finally stopping.

Every single muscle in her body ached. Her head was spinning. Copper flavor filled her mouth. Still she was able to push forward. She crawled, inch by inch toward the edge of the ledge she crashed on. The sea of molten magma bubbled twenty feet beneath her. The heat rising from it was enough to burn her skin. Her eyes were seeking rapidly for any trace of movement.

Sure even Queen Chrysalis couldn’t have lived through this, but that didn’t mean anything to her now. Until she saw a corpse she wouldn’t stop.

Ahead of her the magma stirred and she growled as an alicorn form rose from the magma. The thing aimed itself toward her. Took one flap of its wings splashing the magma off to reveal bone. It leaned forward and fell back into the magma below. This time sinking for good.

The thing actually almost survived magma… not even a feat an alicorn could do, well most alicorns. Whatever she had just killed… it was far from anything she’d ever seen in this world.

Luna pulled away from the edge and laid down. Her entire body was in pain. Her magic spent. It would take some time to heal from this. Still she would heal and then she would tell her sister what she fought. They were not facing the Alicorn Empire, she was sure of it now. They were facing something far older, far more dangerous. Maybe… maybe this was the threat that Starswirl had warned them of before.

The worst part was that according to Valiant Heart, there were still two more of these things.