The Days After
Ember was the first to awake; she got up and checked herself to make sure no wounds opened up in the night. Afterwards she got up and sat on a rock across from Fiery and just waited for him to wake up. Shortly after he began to stir and come around, he didn’t stand up but he did shake his head, he first looked at the fire until he turned and saw Ember sitting there. “I guess it wasn’t a nightmare then?” he said.
“No,” she said flatly as he stood up with a look of disappointment.
He stood up put his hoof on his scar and felt it, he shuddered but then turned back to her, “So are we moving on soon?”
“No, not until we have a long discussion about recent events,” she spoke with her eye brows furrowed. Seeing this pony sat back down ready for her to go at him.
“Let’s begin with the biggest thing, what gave you those powers?”
It took no time for him to respond, “I don’t know! I tried to turn and see it but I couldn’t. I froze up. It did something to me…”
“How can I be sure you didn’t have these powers already and all of this has been some elaborate illusion to make me believe you’re on my side?”
Fiery eyes widened, “Sides? What sides are those? All I am is a simple pony who was given these powers. I have nothing to hide- and I ma’am am no liar!”
He didn’t seem like he was lying and she wanted to believe him but she just felt there was something wrong about this. But what could she do? Possibly interrogate a civilian who is as confused as herself and possibly lose the one aid she has in this world? She let out a heavy sigh.
“Alright. I believe you, but this discussion isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Fiery, to put it bluntly, you’re not right in the head right now.”
Fiery cocked his head, “Are you insulting me?”
She shook her head, “No. You just did something that I can assume most of your race doesn’t do. You just ended the lives of people, enemy or not those you killed will never wake up are you okay with that?”
“O-Of course! I-I am just fine, they attacked me and they deserved it,” he said trying to act tough but she could see through it.
“You’re lying. I thought you said you weren’t a liar?” she said as saw him look away. “Come on you can talk to me. This sort of thing isn’t easy. I know when I first made a kill my stomach felt horrible for weeks. I got used to it- but in my mind, I knew it was something that would never heal.”
“I… Just was so scared! You were going to die! Like the rest of the ponies in the town! I was so afraid that I would never see anyone again… And then that thing did something to me and filled me up with so much anger- and gave me the power to fight… I don’t know what… But something dark entered me… I still feel it… I don’t know what to feel about those I killed. One half of me feel happy and the other terrified!”
He’s conflicted and whatever gave him powers was also making him feel things that aren’t normal… What is this dark, he mentioned?
“Just let it out…” she told him softly and she could see the tears flowing down his face. His cry was the only thing that could be heard for a bit. She wasn’t the best at this but she decided to comfort him the best she could do by hugging him and just telling him to let it out.
“I’m scared! What happening to me!?” he said in-between the crying.
“I don’t know- but we will find out. We will get through this,” she said and he began to calm down. After a bit she let go and went back to her rock and gave him some breathing room. She let the silence in and they just sat there not saying anything to each other.
“You okay now?” she asked him once last time.
Fiery nodded his head, “Yeah…”
“Alright, well there is still more. Thing is you got a power that you need to learn to control. If you harm others by accident… Then only more anger will follow. So I devised that as we head to Canterlot, I will train you to the best of my abilities to harness this energy.”
“Is this going to be difficult?”
She smiled, “Oh. You don’t even know the half of it. In fact we begin today with drills. I am going to treat you like a new recruit, the same things they had me go through. Or at least the most I can do in our present situation.”
“Should I be afraid?” he said wearily.
“Oh,” she grinned. “You should be very afraid. But before we can begin, show me what you got with your powers.”
Fiery looked around and then back at her, “Right here?”
“No, let’s head outside. Rather not be roasted.”
They exited the cave and she stood a bit of away from him, “Let it go.”
Fiery replicated what he did back in the mole’s home and stretched out his arms... But nothing happened. Ember raised an eyebrow as the pony continued to try and do the magic but nothing was coming out. “Try to relax,” she said trying to give encouragement.
The pony breathed in and out and then tried again and to his surprise and joy, a fire came out. A significantly smaller one that had come out in the caves but none-the-less a fire came out. He hopped in joy but Ember just shook her head, “I think what ever gave you that power must have given you like a boost or something. I doubt you will be able to replicate what you did down there anytime soon. And with that- let’s get to training.”
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Fiery continued to run around a large rock as Ember watched him as he trained, and she kept sighing as he continued to slow down and then pick back up.
No wonder he was tired down in the mole’s home. He’s not physically fit at all. This is going to be tough.
“Five more laps!” she yelled out to him and he just let out a groan. Same response many recruits gave. While angels are naturally stronger than Humans and some other races, they still need to work out and train or else the difference is meaningless. A strong human could beat out a under fit angel, which happened to Elisa when she first arrived, some of the other recruits that were fit before joining took her out with ease. Although once she really got into it, she beat out most people, even Ember sometimes.
After the fifth lap he stopped and walked over to her and gave him water from a nearby spring she had found. She decided that they would spend the next couple of days near the spring and let him train. “Good job, in five minutes you’re going to do some exercises.”
He gave her the stink eye, “You’re going to kill me. Aren’t you?”
“The only thing that will kill you is your fitness. Now don’t whine. You won’t regret it in the end. Hell maybe you can even impress some Mare back in Canterlot with your fit.”
His eyes widened at that, “You really think so?”
“Yeah…” she had to admit she wasn’t the best to be asking about dating advice but if was something she learned living with other females, is that a lot of them like their guy to be fit.
After five minutes passed she gave him a bunch of exercises to do that would keep him busy. She then decided to go back to working on her armor.
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The next day, Fiery was rudely awoken early in the morning by Ember and shortly after he was back outside running around. She was making good progress on her armor and was getting a lot of systems back online that were offline from after the Changeling attack. Every soldier went through armor repair classes, they needed to be able to carry the tools at all time and know the ins and outs. You never did know what could happen on a mission so they needed to be extra careful.
Later on she went back to watching his progress, once more he was doing laps around the rock but she decided to speak to him while doing it, “I once had the opportunity to speak to a Mage commander once.”
He didn’t stop running knowing she would yell at him but he responded anyway, “A mage?”
“A person who can use magic. Anyway, I asked him, what difference was there between our training and theirs? He told me this: “There is very little. When one is physical fit and mentally stable, they’re able to control their magic easier and stronger. Your body allows for the manipulation of the energy to flow freely and only to the limits of what you set for yourself.””
Fiery wasn’t dumb, he understood what that quote meant without her needing to explain it and he couldn’t disagree. Unicorns need training to excel at magic, maybe not so much physical work but he doubted it wouldn’t help in some ways. He also understood that his ability right now was significantly weaker than before and he needed to train even if he didn’t want to.
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They ended up staying near the spring longer then she had originally planned but she and Fiery could already tell the difference as he was able to go longer without stopping or slowing down. He still needed more but she was impressed at the progress he had made thus far. Although mentally Ember wasn’t doing too well, as once her armor was done, her mind began to wonder back to her squad, only more reinforced with the training, and more memories began to surface.
“We kicked ass!” Elisa yelled as they got back to their base from the training exercise. They had fought against another squad in the academy and won with ease. A bit unfair Ember thought considering they were much lower in the ranks then their own squad. By this point after O’Brian joined they got Tina Osla to join their squad as the medic.
“The Shadow strikes again!” Richard, their explosives expert said as he hit O’Brian on the back who just shook his head.
“You know I hate that title.”
Richard stepped back, “Oh sorry Shadow I won’t call you it again.” He laughed and O’Brian just sighed.
“Ember, how many more do we need to win to surpass Lexton Squad?” Tina asked as she began to remove her armor pieces. Lexton is the best squad in the academy, and their own squad, Phoenix, was just below them.
“A lot,” Ember simply replied, “They have a shit ton of victories and we really need to enter in more fights if we want any chance of surpassing them.”
Drew, the tech expert sat down on a bench and took off his armors boots, “What about the tournament next month? Can’t we beat them there and come ahead?”
Ember nodded, “That is true and I do already have us signed up for it.”
That got cheers from the squad but they stayed silent as they removed their armor and then were own in the skin suit that was underneath. After that they put on their standard uniforms and exited until only Ember and O’Brian were left.
“I just wonder how much longer till we’re out of here and into the field,” he commented as he zipped up his uniform.
“Well I am still tier two and you just turned it yourself. I don’t think that much longer. Tier three is the shortest. But then we’re on to advanced but even that is short with only one tier.”
Again he sighed, “Damn, I forgot about advanced. Don’t they have entirely different squads in that?”
“Yeah. A whole different leader board to compete on. Your squad needs to be in the top out of sixty to graduate. It’s not easy, only the best get through, it’s the reason we do so well in war as we have the best out there. No scrubs.”
There was silence again but then she added one more in, “Well then I guess it’s not that short if you keep failing to get into the top ten. Which then again, fifty don’t every five months.”
“Think we will get into the top ten the first time around?” He asked as he turned to her.
She smiled, “Without a doubt. I bet you now, when they write our history, we will be all over it.”
“Hooah!” he yelled out and then they both left the base.
She didn’t even realize she was staring out into the distance until she heard Fiery trying to talk to her. Ember apologized and then instructed him on what to do next; he was a lot more eager than days before. A bit of her just wondered why she was the one to survive, why not any of the rest? O’Brian was more capable then herself on many things, in fact looking back Ember was more or less the average. Good at a lot but not the best in anything where as everyone else excelled at what they did.
But then again maybe that was the reason she survived because she could count on using all of her abilities. Ember shook her head trying to get the thoughts out of her mind; she found it almost sickening that she was trying to rationalize why she was the one to survive when really all it was luck. She was in the right spot at the right time to get out alive. Nothing more and nothing less than that.
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The next day they left the spring and began to head north through the desert and to Appleloosa. As they walked she gave Fiery things to do to keep up the exercise, but not too much as they still had a ways to travel. At least a week time to get to the Macintosh Hills and then two days to Appleloosa, although she had to admit all of it was just a rough guess and anything could happen that would make it longer.
She did wonder how they would react to her arrival. The only species she heard of that was similar was a Minotaur and that was still more animal then she was. Would they be kind or would they run her out of town like she was some monster? If Fiery was to go by, they would be accepting but she didn’t know if he was the rule or the exception.
They came across a snag when they reached a large cliff that they would need to climb to keep going. Its shadow casts down at the two of them as they walked at its feet. “How are we going to get up this?” Fiery asked. “Hoofs aren’t like your hands, they aren’t easy to climb.”
Ember actually was happy about this, it was really about time to give her wings a good stretch as they could finally be summoned again, but Fiery didn’t know that. In fact she hadn’t told him about them so it would be a pleasant surprise. “Oh don’t worry Fiery. I got it all handle. Come here,” she replied to his question and he walked over to her.
“Wrap your arms around my waist,” she asked of him, he gave her a strange look but complied with the request anyway. He put his arms around her, based on his weight from before he wasn’t too heavy and his weight was just enough that she could still fly.
“You know I hope you don’t plan on climbing with me-,” he said but then stopped as he saw it. Suddenly from her back, not completely connected, very large white wings appeared. She bent her knees and then jumped up. He wanted to scream but he was just too surprised by this revelation. They quickly began to fly up the side of the cliff until they passed it but she kept going for a bit and he turned his head and could see the horizon and the Macintosh hills in the distance. The sky was blue and barely any clouds in the sky. He could only marvel at it for a moment until she began to fly lower.
Ember landed standing up and Fiery let go and her wings vanished. His eyes widened, “What… You have wings!? Where did they come from!? Why didn’t you use them before!? What-,” he was cut off when she put her hand over his mouth.
“We Angels have the ability to summon wings on our backs, the reason I didn’t use them before because when I used them to escape the Changelings land they got shot up and needed to heal. They just became usable yesterday,” he explained to him.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because I wanted it to be a surprise and who doesn’t like surprises?”
Fiery brought up his arm, “This stallion doesn’t.”
“Well let’s keep going, still got a bit until night comes around,” she said as she walked past him, he didn’t say anything but he turned and followed her by her side. It was a bit before they spoke again and she had to admit, the flying was a bit tiring. Useful but using wings and carrying someone can really knock out your stamina.
“You know- you never did explain to me that weapon you used against the moles, in fact I don’t know much about you,” he said as they walked.
“Maybe, I will tell you everything. Just maybe.”