The Element of Willpower

by Redwolf15


Chapter Five: From the Ashes

Chapter Five
From the Ashes


It's dark out, night's finally here and the wolves are coming. The chicken and I are sitting around the camp fire I made, the chicken really isn't looking to good. I checked his temperature earlier, (yeah the little guy didn't like being called an 'it', and I know a chicken is female, but truthfully, I honestly don't know what gender he is, so I just called it a he. He's not arguing with it so I guess I got it right first time around.) He's not looking too good. He keeps coughing, he's getting hotter, and loosing all his feathers. It would be a miracle for him to see the morning light. I guess fate was at hand here, I have to give him a little comfort in his last moments.

As the two of us are siting, enjoying the fire in silence, hearing a small pop from the fire every now and then, a larger snap goes outside of the entrance with a howl following. They're here. I set up a few traps to warn us of their approach. I quickly spring into action and run for the entrance, I set up torches along the narrow path and infront of the entrance to see.

I get through the entrance, and come face-to-face with dozens of yellow eyes and low growls in the dark. I slowly back up into the pasage unsheathing Silver Fang. My one advantage to facing them is that they have to come at me one at a time. Their advantage is that I can only slice in a vertical motion or stab, the width of this passage restricts my full ability.

The wolves slowly creep into the light. They look nervous around the fire. Having an entire body made of wood would probably do that to you.

One brash wolf decides to try his luck with me. He jumps forwards and is greeted with a sword through his brain. I pull my blade back dislodging it from the wolf's head. I notice now that their blood isn't red like regular wolves or any other creature, it's tree sap. Makes sense.

Another wolf steps forward, more cautious then the first. He steps over the other's body and tries bitting my foot, testing me. I shift back ready to strike but he's already out of reach. He advances slowly, I can't move this time. I reverse my hold on the sword so the blade faces down and stick my left foot in front, hoping he'll take the bait. The wolf snaps at my foot again and I bring the sword down on his head piercing his skull.

The third wolf comes straight at me without hesitation and pins me down. I didn't have enough time to counter the wolf but I was able to get the back of my sword between his jaws, stopping him from ripping my face off. I blindly reach over to grab anything to get him off me. My hand grabs one of the torches used to light the passage and I wack the wolf with it, forcing him off of me in pain. I got a few cuts on my arms but nothing too deep. The wolf on the other hand had a scorch mark over his right eye and looked very pissed.

This is gonna be a looong night.


After what seemed like hours of fighting wolf after wolf, I began to get tired. Looks like my stamina was no match for their numbers. I've been cut, pinned, bitten, my clothes are torn, and two wolves were actually able to gang up on me. I'm bleeding from head to two along my arms, torso legs, and a shallow scratch or two across my face.

Luckily I've been able to kill about seven or eight of them, unfortunately they have another ten-plus. I could take another five, seven if I'm smart. I've been forced to move farther back, closer into the passage, the bodies have been pilling up.

There was a loud commanding howl from the back. The remaining wolves cleared away from the passage leaving an open path. One large wolf casually stolled up to me, passing the rest. The other wolves lowered their heads in a sort of bowing motion. But it didn't look like they were doing it out of respect, but because they looked afraid. He walked past the torches not recoiling when he brushed past the flames.

Most of the wolves were a little taller than my waist. This guy came up to my chest. I get ready to deffend myself when he attacks. The wolf looked toward the moon high above us. I turned my attention to it too, it was like looking at a silver coin floating in a sea of darkness. The wolf looked back at me and grins. He reels his head back and lets out a bone chilling howl. The moonlight gets stonger, not brighter, just stonger. A single ray of moonlight comes down and touches the wolf.

He grits his teeth and growls in pain. I'm too shocked to do anything. And too curious to find out what is happening to let myslf stop this.

The wolf thrashes around in pain, the bark on his body starts shifting, moving, and extending. His legs and arms grow longer and more muscular, his paws become great big hands and fingers start to extend. I stared in disbalief as I watched his shape reform itself.

By the time he stopped howling in pain, his transformation had finished. He laid on the ground in a ball, huffing furiously. He stretches his right arm and places his new hand on the ground and does the same with his other arm. He pushes himself up and stands on his two hind legs and begins to advance towards me.

He stops infront of me as I looked into his eyes with mixed emotions: fear, joy, doubt, horror. I was no longer taller than him, he was now a giant compared to me.

He was no longer a giant timberwolf, he was now a beast of legends. A were-timberwolf.

I was too shocked to do anything, the best I could do was keep my hands from shaking. He looks down at me with that same grin across his face.

I find my tongue, "You can't be serious." All he does is let out a scoff of amusement and backhands me across my face. I fly out of the passage.

There's a wake up call for you.

I slowly stand up. "I would say 'Oh buck that hurt!' But I'm obviously not a pony. But what I will say is this:" I widen my stance, sword held over my head and ready to strike. "Come on!"

I'm not stupid for not running away. I'm actully terrified of him. But I can stand up to him because I'm afraid. I've learnt how to overcome fear. You don't fight it, you accept it, you craddle, you let it run through you. When facing someone that could easily kill you without fearing them is stupid. When not backing down from a tougher opponent that you are afraid of is bravery. But right now I'm neither brave nor stupid. I'm facing this guy not beacuse I have to, not beacuse I want to, and not because he wants to. But beacuse I have to someone to protect. Someone that has to have a bit of comfort in their life before they die.

The wolves swarm inside behind the were-timberwolf. He walks up to me while the others surround us, he's challenging me. "Well? come one then I haven't got all night."

"Why so eager to fight right away? Can't we have a friendly chat before that?" The were-timberwolf asks.

I look at him dumbfounded. "You can talk!"

"Suprised? You should be. As much as I am strange to you, you are strange to me. I'd like to know a little about you before one of us dies."

"Well in that case, how about we have a temporary truce until we're both satisfied in answering each other's questions?" I ask. Besides, I need time to recover, even if it's a little while.

"A truce? I am unfimiliar with that term. Would you care to explain."

"Alright. A truce is when two or more opposing parties stop all hotilities towards each other for a set time until they can reach an agreement. In short, I lay down my sword and you and your wolves stop trying to kill me and that chicken until the two of us wish to continue our fight. Deal?"

The were-timberwolf thinks for a few seconds. "Alright, a truce it is." He barks a commanding order to the other wolves, they don't look too happy about it but they obey. "So I suppose we will begin by introducing ourselves. My name is Balto. It was given to me by Mother. Tell me, what are you? You seem to resemble Mother, but you are also different from her."

I resemble his mother? That is both flattering and creepy at the same time... I think. But who is this Mother he speaks of?

"My name is Jesse Ruesgen, I am a human. An alien to this world merely trying to find my way home. Back were I come from there are stories of creatures like you. They were once man like me, but once a month when the moon was brightest they turned into something a lot like you. Except they have fur around their body, not wood. There are many things I'm not used to here, but I can see that you're different, even to this world. Tell me, are you the only one of your kind?"

"Yes and no. I had many brothers and sisters, but none of them were the same as me, we vary in size, shape, form, and species."

"What do you mean? And who was this Mother you speak of? Was she human too?" I need to figure this out. Did other humans come to Equestria before me?

"Her true name and species was never mentioned infront of us, but that was fine because we already knew who she was, our Mother. She was wonderful. When she did not work onher studies she would teach us all how to speak, write, and read, how to act around ponies, how to use our powers, and many other things. How I wish those days never ended." He looked at the moon with the look of affection in his eyes. "But one day a creature came for her." His features darkened. "He wanted to take here away from us. And succeeded. We fought the beast with everything we had, but it was useless, he took Mother, leaving nothing but dead members of my family behind. What was left of us buried our brothers and sisters and we each went our separate ways.

"We were kept secret from the world with only a few ponies knowing of our existence in the castle, so regular ponies did not know how to react to us or knew what we were. Many of us were hunted down and exicuted, the few of us that escaped live our lives' in solitude or have found new families and homes like myself. I do not know how many of my brothers and sisters are left, but we are few."

I stand there thinking how sad his story is. "I'm sorry to hear that." And it hits me. "Wait you said castle. What castle?"

"The royal castle in Canterlot, we lived there with Mother. Her friend Princess Celestia looked after us from time to time while Mother was out."

What? Celestia knew about this? I guess sometimes even the fairest of rulers have a few dark secrets.

"Now enough about me." He says, "How about you tell me why you interfered with our dinner?"

"Well truth to tell, I don't honestly know why. I just sort of had this feeling that something told me to do it. And without thinking I'm running through the forest with you lot on my tail."

He looks at me surprised. "You don't know what that is?"

"As far as I can tell, it is some ugly chicken that's about to die. I figured seeing as though you're already after us I might as well protect him from you so it can die peacefully."

He stares at me. "Hm. Well, I have all I want to know from you. What say we get on to fighting?"

I grip my sword, ready to fight. "Alright. But promise me one thing, you or your pack won't touch that chicken while I'm alive."

"You really are ready to protect a dying creature who you never met before, huh?"

I give him no answer. I just stare at him.

"Very well, Mother taught me to respect the wishes of ones like you."

I rush toward him, trying to spill his guts. Alright, we're out in the open. My advantage: I can swing my sword freely. Their advantage: Him.

He doesn't try blocking me, or dodging. In fact, he stays in his spot, not moving. My blade comes right across to his side. And abruptly stops as it comes in contact with him. My sword was able to cut through stone itself, yet now it stops?

Balto chuckles like my attempt was meant to tickle him. I bring my sword over my head and slice down across his chest. There was barely a scratch. What am I facing?

He just scratches his chest and yawns. Intimidation is it? I bring my sword back once more and stab him in his heart. Once again there is no effect. My sword stops on contact with his chest.

He brings his left hand up and gently moves the sword away from him. "My turn!" He has a wicked grin on his face as his right fist reels back.

I feel the full effect of his might strike me across my face. He nearly took my head off with that punch.

I can't win can I? I pull myself up only to be kicked in the stomach and sent flying again. It's hopeless. I can't beat him. Another punch. Am I gonna die here? Protecting what will soon die anyway you look at it? Struck down again. Is this how I get paid for helping the weak and defenceless? Another hit.

"I have to tell you, you seemed like a much worthier challenge earlier. Guess I was wrong." He brings his hand up, claws extended. "Been nice knowing you Jesse. Here's a last bit of advise, not like it will make a difference now though. The strong always devours the weak."

This is it, huh? I'm going out like this. It's sad really.

His claws come down. "It's too sad really." I say.

I catch his arm before it can come down. A fire burns inside me, a warm and powerful one, like when I fought Scar with Flora. His strength far exceeded my own, yet I was able to stop his arm with one hand. I slowly stand up not loosening my grip. He was taller and physically stronger than me, but when I stood up to him and looked into his eyes, it felt like I dwarfed him.

"I'm not dying here you bastard." With my free hand I flip my sword so the blade faces down and I slice across his tricep, cutting through his bark this time. I flip the blade again and cut his bicep, same wonderful result. He howls in pain trying to free himself, but I keep a strong grip on him and I bring my right arm back to my waist.

"If the strong devour the weak, then the mighty shall protect them." I uppercut him over the mouth. I don't know where this power came from, but if I can use it to protect others, than I not complain.

Balto hits the ground hard. He groans as he picks himself up. "Looks like I was right. You are a worth challenge." He stares at his arm that I cut up. "You actually cut me! Nopony has cut me before."

"Well there's a first time for everything." I give a smirk, tempting him.

He returns my smile with his own. "Yeah, like dying."

He jumps forward, claws extended. I dodge out of the way, those claws came close to ripping my face off. I slice him across the chest, leaving a shallow but good mark. He doesn't seem to be phazed by it and punches me. It was with the same stength as his first punch, but it had such a tiny impact on m.

We continue like this for a while, trading blow for blow. A cut here, a bruise there, and a lot a blood everywhere. After what seemed like hours of endless brawling, the two of us stood toe to toe, exhausted. He cut me real good on my right arm with four gashes going across it, I have my own blood over my face, there are bruises all over my body, and I think one of my kidneys has stopped working. Balto here has taken a lot a cuts and scaring, he's covered in them, I pried off a stick from his body, and nearly gouged out is right eye. The fire inside of me feels like it's dying out, but it struggles to stay alive.

I sneak a glance to see how the chicken is doing, if it weren't for those sickly coughs I would have expected it to already be dead.

"Listen," Balto says in between breathes. "You're clearly a formidable opponent, it truly would be a shame if you die here. What say we stop this, you leave, and we get our meal you stole from us? I would rather not see an opponent as tough as you die early in life."

"Heh, scared to contine? Afraid you're gonna be beaten?"

"Alright, but remember, you asked for it."

He gets on all fours and jumps towards me like a bullet. He hits me like a freight train. The two of us role on the ground struggling. He lands on top of my and grabs me by my neck and starts running, dragging my body across the ground. My back feels like it was being torn apart as it grinded againft the rocks. The pain was finally relieved as he picked me up... and then slammed me into a wall.

New pain shot threw me as I spat out wads of blood. I could barely stay conscious from the pain.

The wolves are howling in triumph. "Well, it was nice knowing you, it truly was. I'll make sure to remember you when you're dead."

I look into his eyes. "Remember this." I stab my sword through his guts and comes out the othr end. Balto howsl in pain while I begin laughing hysterically. He pulls the sword out of him and brings his arm back in rage, ready to turn me into a shish kabob with my own weapon.

Then there's a loud coughing. I stop laughing, the wolves stop howling, and Balto freezess. None of us were making that coughing. Balto and I look to the direction of the chicken. It was him who was coughing, coughing a lot. I realized now that his time was up. I fought to the bitter end to protect him until he dies, looks like I succeeded.

Balto drops me and faces the chicken. "No! I won't let this happen!" He steps fowards but stops from a small jerk. I've latched onto his ancle.

"I told you Balto, as long as I'm alive you're not touching him."

"You fool, you really don't know what you're getting into!"

"I. DON'T. CARE!" I pull my arm back tripping him.

"Alright," he pulled himself up. "I'm done with you. I've given you fair warning several time. But now I see that their's no talking to you." He climbs on top of me, sitting on my chest and forgetting about the chicken. He holds my sword high over his head, ready to impale me. The other wolves started howling in impatient glee.

And a great fire breaks out. It wasn't from the campfire I made earlier, or one of the wolves catching fire, and it wasn't the fire that burns inside me. It was the chicken. The chicken caught on fire. But he wasn't near a flame, he just spontaneouly combusted.

I stare in horror as I watch him burn alive. And I could feel a tear role down my face.

"We were to late." Balto says horrified. "We're too late."

The fire finally burns out and a pile of ash is left behind. The timberwolves start whimpering and begin to back away from the ash pile, like they were afraid of it.

Balto looks back down at me. "Damn you, we could have prevented this if you didn't interefe."

"Whatever." I think I'm suffering a little fromcrazy and hysteria.

He brings the sword up ready to strike. Then a cry breaks out. A beautiful and noble cry that fills the air. Balto stops, his arms begin shaking, he looks afraid. He turns his head back to the pile of ash in horror. He gets off of me backs away.

I wearily look to the ash pile barely staying conscious. The ashes began to move about and lift off the ground all on their own. They begin to circle around each other creating a dust devil. Finally there was a bight and warm flash of light. No longer was there an ash pile moving on its own. Now in its place was a giant bird with feathers so red and orange that they glittered with beauty. That's when my memory kicked in, this wasn't a chicken thing that was dying. This was a phoenix being reborn.

"Mirorr!" The phoenix cries. He looks down at each one of us, finally coming acros me. The pheonix flies down next to me. He gives a worried cry.

"Heh, you're a phoenix? I kept calling you a 'chicken' you know?" I laugh at the humor only to begin coughing blood. "Oh damn, I think I'm dying." I only half joked about that. I could already feel my heart rate slow down, every breath was a struggle, and I started to lose feeling in my body.

The phoenix could already see that. He gives a quiet cry and closes his eyes. A light starts to come from him, a blinding light, a warm light, a friendly light. I began feeling my blood pump through my vains, wounds begin closing themselves and bruises start disappearing. I was being healed.

When the light finally dimmed I opened my eyes and slowly sit up. I looked at the pheonix. "You... did you save me?"

The pheonix lets out a jowful cry and swoops into the air.

"NO! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Balto cries out in anger. He faces towards me. "You! This is all your fault! If you didn't step in the way then he we could have killed the phoenix hours ago."

He begins stepping towards me, he's very pissed.

The phoenix flies down and places himself in between us. Balto stopped walking and stepped back.

The phoenix was just as furious as Balto. The phoenix burst into flames once more, but he wasn't burning, he was just coated in a cloak of flame. No, that's not the right description.

It was more like fire took the form of him.

"Braugh!" He screeches. The flaming phoenix flies high into the sky, straight towards the sun. He comes down, shooting like a bullet, hot, firery, bullet. Straight towards Balto.

"No! Stay away from me!" He turns tail and runs to the exit trying to escape. But it was useless.

The phoenix strikes Balto square in his back. He is propelled forwards from the force of the phoenix's impact. They fly across the chasm, both on fire.

Balto screams in pain as he burns. He crawls to the small lake and dunks in. The water begins to boil and steam. Balto resurfaces still on fire. Magic fire, they'll keep burning until there's nothing left but ash. He crawled out of the lake. I saw through the fire how desperate he was. He reaches for me, not to harm me, but to plead to me. Plead for me to save him, plead that I help him, plead that I be merciful. His arm burns off and lays in a clump of burning charcoal.

I pick up my sword and walk over to him. He tried killing me multiple times, even after I refused his offer to walk away. He want's me to help him. He want's me to save him. He want's me to be merciful.

I look into his melting eyes and see what he wants. "Okay." I understand.

I slice his head off with one quick motion. I was merciful, a painless and quick death. I saved him, he doesn't have to feel pain. I helped him, I looked into his eyes and he wanted just that.

The phoenix flies beside me and look at the remaining timberwolves. They ran in fear, fear that their champion is dead, fear that the phoeix is healthy, fear of me. Each one turns tail and runs out the passage with their tails between their legs.

The phoenix begins to chase after them. "Stop." I call after it.

"Mirorr?"

"Leave them alone. They're just a pack of mangy mutts now."

The phoenix looks at me and back at the fleeing wolves. He gives in and does so.

The sun finally comes up. It feels like day and night are getting shorter.

"Well, guess I should start moving, I need to find my stuff. And the road." I think out loud. The phoenix looks at me like this is a surprise, and take off leavig me behind. "Um... You're welcome! And thanks for fixing me up!" I shout after him. Well, I saved his life and he saved mine, guess that means we're even.

After a few hours of walking I begin to feel lonely. I was only with the phoenix for a few hours, and he never said anything except for a cough every now and then.

Suddenly I got the urge to move to the left very quickly. As I listened to my instinct something drops right were I was standing. I bend down and pick it up.

"My knife? But how-" Then there was a second thing from the sky that landed beside me. "My bag?"

I heard a familiar cry high above my head. There he was, the phoenix. He flies down and lands on a branch so we some eye-to-eye.

"Did you find my stuff for me?" I ask.

"Mirorr." He nods.

"Thanks." I say. "But how did I know that my knife was going to drop on my-" I turn around quickly with my hand to my sword. "Who's there?" Expecting something. But there was nothing, no animal, no pony, no anything.

The phoenix cries out in humour and flaps his wings gleefuly. I face him. "Wait, did you do that?"

The phoenix nods his head.

"Oh I see. You have a little bit of psychic powers, don't you? Not enough to read minds or make someone lose bodily control, just enough to give them a little push. To persuade them am I right? That's why I saved you, you pushed me into doing it." I ask. "Wait how did I know that?"

The phoenix gives another cry for attention. He did it again, gave me a push to know the answer. "So what are you doing here? You know other returning my stuff."

The phoenix plucked a feather off his wing holding it in his beak. I pull out my sword without meaning to. Apparently he wants to give me something.

He places his feather on my sword. He closes his eyes and concentrates. He lets out a cry and another light comes from him. I shielded my eyes from the intense brightness. When the light dimmed down I looked back at my sword. There wasn't a lot of change, except now it had a small reddish tint. Something felt different about it, not like it was heavier or anything, but now it was like a there was power coming from it.

I try focusing on this new power until it starts swell up and it feels like my chest is about to explode. I release this new power like water being released from out of a dam. I can feel the power flowing through my body and down into my arms. My sword catches on fire.

"Whoa!" I let go of my sword from the shock of its spontaneous combustion. The moment it was released from my grasp the fire disappears. My sword looks fine, no scorch marks, the metal isn't hot, no indications of fire ever being there. Come to think of it, I couldn't feel any heat when I was holding it.

I pick up my sword and try again, bracing myself this time. The sword comes alive with fire again, but no heat. I swing it around, getting to know the feel again. I slice through a huge tree with one swing. The fire from my sword dies. I look back at where I severed the tree, there were scorches along the slice.

I think I just aquired magic.

"Well, that's something." I look at my sword idly and turn back to the phoenix, "How can I repay you. I already saved your life and you returned the favour by saving mine. Now I guess I should repay you for this."

The phoenix jumps off his branch and onto my shoulder. "Do you want to come with me?"

The phoenix nods again.

"Well okay. I'd love to have you along, but listen, there are many questions that I need answering and now even more after what I've learnt today. And some time in the near future I'm going to vanish from the world. So if you're determined to come with me that's fine, but you have to know now that I won't always be here, so try not to get too attached. Okay?"

The phoenix nods understanding what I said. I hope I can take my own advise.

"But before we go, how about we give you a name? I'd like to call you something rather than 'hey you' or 'phoenix'. How about Blaze?"

He shakes his head in disagreement.

"Chip?"

No.

"Pinn?"

Nuh-uh

"Tweety?"

"Brauh!" That was a big no.

"Hmm. How about Flex?"

He thinks about it carefully and gives a cry of glee.

"Heh-heh, alright, Flex it is."

So, off I go with a new friend. It's funny, back home I wasn't interested in making friends, never really got along with others. But here I'm happy meeting others. Maybe this place has some sort of affect on positive emotions.

So like I said, off we go. I want answers, and I know one pony who could provide me. I want her to tell me how I got here and how I get back. But now I have a bigger question for here. I want to know one more thing.

Who. Is. Mother?

Only one pony can tell m that.

Princess Celestia.