//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Revelation // Story: Rain of Fire // by LessThanHuman //------------------------------// Firestorm’s eyes blinked open as they were assaulted by the sunlight breaching the tree canopy. He tried shielding his eyes with a hoof but froze when he felt the stiffening pain covering his entire body. Slowly he rolled onto his belly before standing up and looked around at his environment which had changed drastically since his arrival the other night. The surrounding forest was burned to such an extent that anything touched by flames was burned out of existence; a perfect sphere was formed within the surrounding tree line. The ground was no longer fertile soil, it was solid glass. Firestorm approached the pond and looked at his reflection, he looked as normal as the day he met the Elements of Harmony. Judging from the position of the sun it was around 10am. Firestorm felt weak, hungry, and disoriented. Memories of the previous day began returning, before long he remembered he needed to be at Fluttershy’s cottage with the others. Firestorm leaned down and took a drink from the pond, the cool refreshing water running down his throat helped wake him some more. Once he was finished drinking he was reminded of his tense and sore muscles. This wasn’t the first time he had a power flux like the one he experienced last night, they had come before. He never truly learned what they were but he had learned to get as far away from anypony when he felt one approaching. He knew from previous instances the fluctuations caused not only changes to his magic abilities and his pyrokinesis, but his physical appearance as well. Firestorm took a deep breath and tried to relax as he pushed the thoughts aside. As if on cue, a wave of blue fire washed over his entire body. While his appearance had not changed at all, his tense muscles and aching body became calm and relaxed. He took a final look around him, noting all the destruction he had unintentionally caused, before he was ready to get back to the cottage. He only managed to turn around when he felt something tugging at his mind and his body. In the midst of his most recent power fluctuation, something had been changed. It didn’t take him long to realize a new spell was charging and waiting to be used. He soon realized it was teleportation spell. He considered it odd that he now had control over such a powerful spell but decided to worry about that later; right now he was ready to try it out. From what he understood about teleportation spells, the user could only teleport to a destination they could remember while also taking into consideration the distance to said destination and their own stamina. Too far, and the magic would simply get dispersed and wasted, not enough stamina, and you would likely pass out. All things considered, Firestorm was willing to risk it. He decided upon teleporting to just outside of the Everfree Forest near where Angel had been buried. His wings curled around his midsection and as he closed his eyes he imagined his target as clearly as he could. A flash of red light startled him into opening his eyes where he noticed he was standing in the exact place he had been envisioning, a stones throw away from Angels grave. Firestorm was relieved to see there was nopony around to have witness his new found magic trick. Firestorm reached the front door of the cottage and knocked. Much to his surprise the door simply fell down. Inside the cottage everything was floating and five very annoyed ponies turned to look at him. A very strange looking creature was holding Fluttershy. Firestorm walked through the doorway, “Um, what’s up everypony?” Everypony looked at Firestorm, “Hey Firestorm, this here is Discord, Fluttershy’s friend, and the most crookedist creature in all of Equestria,” Applejack stated dryly. “You do know “crookedist” is not a real word?” Twilight asked. “Seein’ as how I’m describin’ Discord, it don’t matter,” Applejack replied. Discord smiled at Firestorm, “Yes, as Applejack said, I am Discord spirit of chaos.” The moment Discord said chaos all the objects in the room began spinning randomly and shooting off fireworks. Everypony in the cottage accept for Fluttershy had to dodge the flying objects. Firestorm stopped dodging and weaving to stare hatefully at Discord. Seconds passed before a flower vase poured out onto Firestorm, who quickly shook the water from his mane. While Discord was lost in maniacal laughter, lost track of several objects, one object being another vase that collided with Firestorm’s head, knocking him out cold. Discord laughed harder while Twilight teleported over to Firestorm upon seeing him collapse. Objects continued to fly around the room which angered everypony further, “Discord, put everything down, you might hurt somepony else!” Twilight shouted. “Twilight Sparkle, these objects simply wanted to explore the room and I granted them the ability to, I don’t have any control over…” Discord stopped speaking out of genuine surprise when everything in the room stopped moving, against his will. “Thank you, now why you make yourself useful and get me an ice pack?” Twilight demanded more so than asked. “Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I didn’t make everything stop,” Discord said, confusion evident in his voice. Twilight looked around at everypony who seemed to be staring at her, “I didn’t do anything,” she said quickly. “Uh, darling,” Rarity began, “We know,” she finished pointing her hoof to something behind her. Twilight looked behind her and almost jumped when she saw what everypony else was staring at. Firestorm stood with his wings flared and glowing red, his draconic eyes glowing yellow, and his sharp teeth and fangs bore at Discord, “My name is Firestorm, harbinger of eternal night, and final descendant of the bat ponies.” As Discord opened his mouth to make a smart comment he suddenly found himself on his back pinned to the floor with Firestorm standing over him with his right dragon claw around Discord’s throat. “Do not speak,” Firestorm said in a deep raspy voice, “Spirit of chaos or not, how can you call yourself a friend when you bring a tornado into a grieving pony’s house?” Discord’s lion paw tripled in length as it reached up behind Firestorm’s back where it came to rest on his head. Firestorm’s eyes went blank before he passed out, falling heavily on top of Discord who slithered out from underneath his unconscious attacker. Discord curled into a soccer ball and rolled across the room before taking his normal appearance, “Would somepony care to explaining to me what that was?” “Firestorm is a bat pony unicorn hybrid we met a few days ago, we were going to take him to meet Princess Celestia when she gets back to Canterlot,” Twilight explained. “And you kept THAT nearby?” Discord asked. “Well up to this moment, he never displayed such violent behavior.” “And the whole “Harbinger of eternal night” thing is no never mind?” “Of course not, even he’s not entirely sure of what he is. That is one of the things we were going to ask Princess Celestia about.” “Oh yes, because she would love to tell you everything about her ultimate weapon to bring about eternal night,” Discord said sarcastically. “Princess Celestia would never create a pony like this to bring about eternal…” Twilight slowly stopped speaking as the realization dawned on her. “Twi, what’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Firestorm said he was the harbinger of eternal night. That means he was going to bring about eternal night in accordance to the will of a specific pony.” “And how many ponies do we know would not only want to bring about eternal night but also have the power to do so?” Discord asked. “Ooh, ooh, ooh, I know, I know I know,” Pinkie Pie said bouncing, “it’s Princess Luna!” “No Pinkie, it was Nightmare Moon, a split personality of Princess Luna,” Twilight said. “But, aren’t they the same pony?” Before Twilight could explain further, Firestorm groaned as he regained consciousness and tried to get up. Twilight cautiously moved towards him, “Firestorm?” Firestorm looked over his shoulder at Twilight, “What happened?” “What’s the last thing you remember?” “Something smashing into my head!” Twilight looked around at her friends while Firestorm rubbed his head. During the silence everypony noticed quiet sobbing. They quickly located the source which was Fluttershy huddled in a corner. Firestorm glared briefly at Discord before approaching Fluttershy. “Are you okay?” Firestorm asked softly. A small “eep” was Fluttershy’s only response. Firestorm turned to glare at Discord again but realized everypony, for whatever reason, was afraid of him. Firestorm looked around at the fear etched faces of his friends and realized the possibility that he must have done something to cause them such fear. He closed his eyes, “I’m sorry.” When Firestorm opened his eyes he was outside of the bed and breakfast he had rented a room at. He approached the front door and went inside. A note rested on the table beside the front door with his name on it. Dear Firestorm, My husband and I went out to run some errands and are unsure of when we will return. Our daughter, Vinyl, sleeps most of the day as she performs late at night. Please be aware of this while staying here, I know you are a nice stallion and would not want to disturb her, thank you for being considerate and quiet. Firestorm finished reading the note and noticed a second hidden beneath the first. I don’t know what my wife is talking about being quiet, Vinyl sleeps like a tranquilized rock, the last thing that’s gonna wake her is a little noise, you heard her music… Firestorm smiled at the conflicting notes, but quietly made his way upstairs just the same. As he reached the top he noticed Vinyl making her way back towards her room with a glass of water held in her magic. “Hey!” Firestorm called out to her causing Vinyl to jump slightly. “Dude, not so loud, it’s too early for you to be yelling at me,” Vinyl said half awake. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to apologize again for the other night when your dad played that joke on you,” Firestorm said in a hushed tone. “It’s not a big deal; he does that all the time.” “All the same, I’m sorry.” “It’s alright,” Vinyl said eager to get back to bed. Firestorm turned to go to his room but was stopped by a hoof on his shoulder. He turned around to see Vinyl looking at him. “I’m not a fillyfooler.” “What?” “The other night, Tavi, she’s not my marefriend, she’s just my roommate. Well technically I’m her roommate but that’s it. She even has a coltfriend.” “I didn’t ask and I don’t judge,” Firestorm said plainly. “Yeah, well, just settin’ the record,” Vinyl said before returning to her room and quickly shutting the door. Firestorm shook his head and smiled before entering his own room. ********** “I’m sorry” was the last thing Twilight had heard Firestorm say before he disappeared. Fluttershys crying was calmed thanks to Rarity and, surprisingly, Discord who were southing her. Pinkie was distracted in the opposite corner thanks to a small chocolate milk storm Discord had formed for her. Twilight discussed the development concerning Firestorm with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “What do you think we should do about Firestorm?” Twilight asked. “What is there to do? Discord technically attacked him!” Rainbow Dash said answered. “Be that as it may, Firestorm revealed a part of him capable of violence and an instinct to serve Nightmare Moon!” “So?” “So, Firestorm is potentially a lot more dangerous than I originally thought.” Rainbow looked away from her friend, defeat and hurt expressed on her face. Applejack took notice and spoke up, “Dash, is everything alright?” “I’m fine it’s just…” “Rainbow, what is it?” Twilight asked. Rainbow finally caved, “It’s just that, Firestorm is so cool! He’s a lot like me, he’s… I just don’t want him to be some bad guy we have to use the elements on…” Applejack put her hoof on Rainbows’ shoulder, “I know ya like him Sugar Cube, and we’ll try to avoid it commin to that but ya gotta realize how little we know about him and we have no idea what he’s capable of.” “Applejacks right, I’m going to go back to the library and start doing some research on some of the spells I know and suspect help create Firestorm and see if that can tell us more about him. Maybe you could meet up with him and just be a friend.” Rainbows’ ear twitched and her mood instantly brightened, “Hey, yeah, that’s a great idea Twi! Maybe I’ll invite him to go camping with us.” “Now hold on just one gosh dang minute there Rainbow, you’re not the only one going camping, the crusaders and I are going too and I’m not sure how I feel about a stallion like him, or any strange stallion for that matter, being that close by in the forest,” Applejack said firmly. As Applejack finished making her argument Rarity trotted over, “I’m sorry but I have to agree, somewhat, with Applejack, I don’t want to have to hear Sweetie Belle tell me about something he did to her that can’t be undone.” “You guys seriously think he would do something to foals!? You didn’t see him at the lake with me, he was so careful with them, he looked at me for approval before even picking them up, and he flew with Scootaloo on his back like he was her father! I know after today you might not trust him as much but trust me, but he would never even lay a hoof on any one of them!” Rainbow shot back. “Be that as it may darling I still don’t-” “What if I went camping with you?” Twilight asked interrupting Rarity. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all looked immediately at Twilight in surprise. “What, I never went camping. I think it would be a good experience for me and I could keep a close watch on Firestorm,” Twilight explained. Applejack and Rarity looked at each other, nodded, and then turned to Twilight and gave her a nod of approval. “Aww yeah!” Rainbow let out, “I’m gonna go tell him the good news right now!” With that Rainbow Dash disappeared in a prismatic streak out the front door. “Twilight, are ya sure you can handle Firestorm should things get outta hoof?” Applejack asked. “Yes, considering my shield spell is second only to my brothers’, it should be strong enough to contain him if I reversed it.” Twilight said confidently. ********** Firestorm shut off the water and shook himself dry after his shower. He finished drying himself with a towel before leaving his room and making his way downstairs. When Firestorm saw there was still nopony home aside from Vinyl, he decided to loiter around town for a while. As he opened the front door two pristine white unicorn royal guards stood on the other side with an over confident Filthy Rich standing behind them. “Firestorm?” asked one of the guards. Firestorm nodded. “You are under arrest for the assault of Filthy Rich and the endangerment of his daughter, Diamond Tiara,” announced the other guard. Firestorm locked eyes with Filthy Rich who grinned proudly in return. His prideful smirk quickly contorted to fear as he was levitated off the ground before he was tossed into a nearby shop with enough force to knock the air from his lungs. At the sight of this, the guards tackled Firestorm and quickly secured a metal band around his wings which was typically used to prevent convicted pegasi from flying off. However, Firestorm was far from a simple pegasus, despite his wings being firmly secured at his sides, Firestorm still had enough control to force the guards a fair distance away from him. As the guards scrambled to regain their footing, Firestorm inverted his damage control spell on the wing band, shattering it into tiny shards. Noticing they had underestimated their foe, the guards lit their horns, one drawing his sword, the other drawing his spear. Firestorm ignored them as he noticed a cowardly Filthy Rich trying to slip away from the scene. Firestorm stomped his hoof and Filthy Rich collapsed as he seemed to be held down by the full weight of a stallion. “Surrender or we will have no choice but to use deadly force!” shouted the guard with a sword. Firestorm grit his teeth applying more weight to the hoof he was using it to hold Filthy Rich down directly. When Filthy let out a pained groan the guard with the sword nodded to the guard with the spear. The guard with the spear rushed towards Firestorm thrusting his spear towards his targets side. Much too both guards surprise, the spear began to generate red ripples as the guard wielding it attempted to force it to so much as break Firestorms’ skin. Firestorm glared at his attacker, “Stand down,” he ordered. The guard focused harder on his magic and pushed spear harder against Firestorm. Like two magnets repelling each other, the spear was pushed from the guards grasp, away from Firestorm, right towards Rainbow Dash. She only had time to clench her eyes shut before the spear would make contact with her. After a second, Rainbow noticed the lack of a spear penetrating her skull and dared to peek out of one eye. The spear, which had been inadvertently cast towards her face, was suspended less than an inch from her muzzle. It shattered into in-numeral fragments. Beyond that she could see the two royal guards staring fearfully at her and a hate driven Firestorm between them. Suddenly the remnants of the spear fell to the ground and the guard who had been wielding it turned to see Firestorm reared up on his hind legs before he brought his front hooves down with full force onto the guards’ helmet. The guard immediately blacked out as Firestorm delivered the blow. The first guard seized the opportunity to attack. However, as he swung his sword against the back of Firestorms’ neck, it shattered like ice against a metal pole. Firestorm summersaulted in front of the guard and kicked his left hind leg while he was on his back so his hoof hit the guard in his exposed jaw. As Firestorm completed the summersault the guard fell down beside his comrade as he also lost consciousness. Filthy Rich had made a clean get away, for the time being, in the midst of the fight, and Rainbow Dash flew as fast as she could to retrieve Twilight. Firestorm stepped between the two guards and spread his wings over them, he focused as hard as he could and soon rays of blue light were descending upon the unconscious guards from his wings. As his power reached its peak Firestorm noticed the arrival of Twilight and Applejack via Twilights’ teleportation spell. Twilight quickly took in the scene before her, raised her hoof to Firestorm and yelled, “Firestorm, no!” It was too late, in the suddenly blinding flash of blue light the guards were gone. Firestorm glanced from one mare to the next, his face never changing to the horror spread across theirs.