//------------------------------//
// The Firestone: part IV 
// Story: The Strikers 
// by Civviq Writer 
//------------------------------//

Meanwhile, in the forest, Snipit, Enerjack and Warpath were trotting carefully through the woods, constantly on the lookout for bad signs. As they approached the center of the blaze, the air became thicker with smoke. Warpath cast a shield that would keep the smoke out and the air at least breathable.

Warpath wheezed a bit. Snipit couldn’t help but frown when he heard that.

“Warpath, are you okay?”

Warpath looked at him sideways. “Yes,” he said, with a small quiver in his voice, “I’m fine.”

Snipit still wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t question it further. Through the smoke, he saw a figure in a black cloak. Enerjack saw it too.

“Hey, is that…”

Snipit narrowed his eyes to try to see through the smoke.

“Yep,” he confirmed, “Definitely Nightshade.”

Warpath grumbled.

“What is that next to him?”

Enerjack squinted again and stepped through the barrier. Because he’s a dragon, he didn’t need protection from the smoke. Still, he didn’t like to breath it in, so he hold his breath as much as possible.

He leaned forward to see what was next to Nightshade. Before he could make out what it was however, Nightshades’ ears perked up and he turned towards the three.

“Ah, hello! It’s nice to see you again, Snipit,” Nightshade said in a mock-cheery tone, 

“And as you can see, with my new-found magic, I have done my homework as well.”

He grinned as he stepped aside, giving the trio a clearer look to the lumps next to him. There were two lumps, to be exact. One was grey and one appeared to be purple.

Enerjack’s eyes widened in sudden realization.
“Swift is going to be really pissed when he finds out you’ve kidnapped them.”

Nightshade only smirked. “I want to see that changeling rage on me. I’ll let my fire rage on him.”

Enerjack whistled and leaned over to Snipit. “I’ll grab some popcorn.”
Snipit just rolled his eyes and sighed. He took a step forward.
“Nightshade, release them,” he said, sternly. Nightshade grinned.

“Make me.”

At that moment, two projectiles came to a stop right in front of their noses. A changeling and a darker pegasus landed, panting, in front of the cloaked figure.

Aile coughed. “Where…Where’s Wing and Civviq…” He wheezed, trying to regain his breath.

Swift recovered faster, thanks to his training.
“Do you know where…” Quickly, he trailed off, looking at the two figures next to Nightshade.

“Ah!” Nightshade said, a bit too gleefully. “You must be this Swift the dragon talked about earlier.” He laughed. “Well now, looks like my research has paid off.”

Swift stared at him, his eye twitching. His eyes were starting to go red.

“And if my research was right, they hold an importance to Equestria. So,” he levitated the stone up from his neck to show, “If I will remove them of their warmth, I will have nothing standing in my way.”

By now, Swift was fuming with anger. Aile wasn’t far behind.

“One,” Aile started, “That was a misunderstanding.”

He took a step forward, spreading his wings threateningly.
“Two,” he continued, “They are merely foals. Your real enemy stands right in front of you.”

“Nah,” Nightshade lifted Civviq and Wing up, wrapping them in a purple glow. “You won’t touch me as long as I have them in my power.”

Then, the stone started to glow yellow, close to orange. Civviq’s eyes shot open. Her eyes widened in pain and fear. Wing followed shortly after. Their mouths opened in a silent scream as the warmth drained from their bodies.

Swift snapped.
“Leave them alone!” he roared. Blindly, he charged. He drew his sword in a flash, surprising Nightshade. He dropped the foals to the ground with a thump. Nightshade could just pull out his dagger before Swift could slit his throat out of anger. Despite of this attack, he smirked.

“It seems that you’ve finally unleashed your… fire.” he said. This only made Swift even angrier.

“You may think you can control fire,” he said, his changeling voice filled with hatred, “But I, Alias Ego, will make you pay for what you did to my friends!”
Swift raised Shinigami again, ready for another blow, but it was stopped by Nightshade’s dagger. The two blades clashed upon each other, sending sparks everywhere. Swift angrily gritted his teeth, but Nightshade threw him off his blade as if it was nothing. Swift landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him, but his anger not burnt out. He wanted to get up, but a whip of fire coming from Nightshade lashed out to him. Swift could barely dodge.

Enerjack flinched, almost invisibly.
Warpath saw this. “Swift needs help.” he said, nodding. Enerjack nodded back and drew his tanto’s. He caught the whip of fire with his claw and pulled, catching Nightshade off-balance.

“Thanks…”  Swift said, still with the changeling hiss in his voice. The hatred hasn’t seeped out of it, but it was never intended for Enerjack anyway.

“No prob,” Enerjack replied curtly. He raised Hellraiser and lashed out, hitting a shield of fire Nightshade had quickly conjured up moments ago. Even though the fire had no effect on him, he could still feel the heat burning through his scales. And it hurt.

Before Nightshade could take advantage of this, however, Swift had gotten up and picked up Shinigami, lifting it and swinging it down on Nightshade in righteous fury. It only clashed on the fiery shield and slid off.

Nightshade smirked and put the barrier down.

Swift stumbled back, but regained his stance quickly and send Shinigami flying through the air, hitting Nightshade’s dagger with a loud clash. Sparks flew off the blades as it hit. A heated fight followed; loud clashes and clangs echoed through the burning forest.

Seeing the opportunity, Aile jumped up into the air and flew over the pair engaged in battle. He glided down next to his son and his friend. He felt Wings forehead, it was ice cold. Aile gasped a bit and flinched in fear of his son. He clenched his teeth in anger, watching as Nightshade tried to hold off the infuriated changeling and the angered dragon.

Looking to his side in a free moment in the battle, Nightshade noticed Aile sitting next to the two foals. He grinned maliciously.
“Oh, they’re not dead,” he said, dealing another blow at Swift while ducking from Enerjack’s swords, “yet.”

A large clang sounded, and Shinigami shot out of Swift’s hooves, leaving him bare-hoofed. He growled and yelled as he charged at him, intended to take him down even though he had no sword, but the stone lit up a bright tone of orange as a wall of fire emerged from the ground. Swift skidded to a stop, almost burning his side in the progress. He yelped in pain.

Enerjack growled. “My turn.”
The runes on his back lit up a fiery orange, and he opened his maul to launch a bolt of fire straight at Nightshade. A gigantic hot bolt of fire burst out, roaring towards Nightshade. Nightshade didn’t move. He grinned as the stone lit up orange with a hint of red now, and as Enerjacks fire hit him, it didn’t even seem to hurt him. It had only made him stronger.

Enerjack fell to his knees, panting. Nightshades’ vile laughter filled the air.

“So you think you could stop me?” he said, triumphantly. “Well, tough luck.”

With that, he sent a burst of flame towards Enerjack and Swift. Enerjack had just enough time to scramble towards Swift to make sure he won’t turn into a pile of ash. Enerjack gritted his teeth; as heat-resistant as he may be, that doesn’t mean he can’t be burnt. But it’s enough to save Swift. Warpath tried to strengthen his own barrier, but he couldn’t. He almost fell down under the pressure of the flames.

Snipit saw this from the corner of his eye. He had to do something, anything. Without thinking, he dashed towards Warpath, trying to conjure up a barrier of sorts on his own. It didn’t work, so he did the next best thing: trying to get the Unidragon out of the firebender’s range. Reaching Warpath, he pushed him away from the roaring fire, safely on the sidelines. The spot where he was standing was now devoured by flames.

Panting, Warpath looked up. His eyes stood grateful, with a tinge of shame.. “You… You saved my life…” he wheezed. “Thank you.”
Snipit smiled back. “It.. it was the least I could do.”
Nightshade ended the bolt of fire and fell down to his knees. He looked back at the filly and the colt, and to Aile that was still standing between him and the foals.

“Those foals... have more fire in their hearts then I thought..” He coughed and looked back.

“I feel… I feel the power surge in my veins… and the wildfire…”

He spun towards the blaze.

“The fire… will be the last Equestria will know…”

~-~

Carbon stopped running when he lost sight of Swift and Aile. After all, what use is there to follow them into the woods when he had no idea where they would be going? He didn’t want to waste energy turning into a pegasus. He was never good at flying anyway. But how was he going to stop the fire from burning down the village?

He spun around as he heard the sound of hooves coming towards him. A grey earth pony stallion trotted towards him, armored in royal armory he’s never seen before. His blue eyes were confident and serious. He had strange hair with holes, like Swift, but his coat was normal. Two other guards wearing the same armor stood behind him.

Carbon frowned. “Who are you?”

The stallion nodded. “My name is Double. I’m the Captain of the Changeling Royal Army. And you must be Carbon.”

“The…” Carbon was at loss for words. “...What? How did you…?”

Double raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t Alias Ego ever tell you?”

“Who?” Carbon said, confused.

“He’s a changeling among your ranks,” Double answered. “Green hair, black chitin… Also known as Swift Spry.”

“Swift? You’ve been sent to protect him? Why?”


“Well… that doesn’t matter at the moment,” Double answered. “His emotions have alerted us that there is something the matter. Since it is now worse than before, I have decided to help Swift personally together with my guards.”

“Okay,” Carbon said, unsure, “I guess that you can help us… If you really are friends with Swi-uh, Alias.”
Double nodded. “Good. Can you tell me where he is?”

“Uhm… no, I don’t know where he is exactly, other than that he went that way,” Carbon pointed with his hoof in the direction Swift and Aile went. “Into the forest, near... the blaze…” He trailed off, looking at the huge column of smoke that has only seemed to get bigger with the minute.

Double, however, seemed unfazed by the blaze and nodded.

“Then we’ll follow him and see what we should do.”

“Into the wildfire!?” Carbon said, shocked. “But that’s suicide!”

“Us changelings are coldblooded creatures,” Double said, as a matter-of-factly,  “In addition with our chitin hides, we aren’t really affected by heat.” He started to walk towards the smoke. “We can get burnt, though, so we should watch out for immediate flames.”

“But what about me?” Carbon asked, looking at Double’s back, , “I’m not as flame-repellent as you are!”

Double looked back.
“I trust you can find a way,” he said, with a slight grin.

Carbon sighed and trotted after Double.
“Ugh… but when I get burnt, it’s your fault…”
When they reached the edge of the forest, they stopped to watch the stream of ponies that hurried to kill the fire. Double watched them thoughtfully.

“Carbon, was it?” he asked, without looking at him.
Carbon lifted his eyebrow. “Yes, what is it?”

“Can you… fill me in on this villain we will fight? I am intercepting a lot of emotions that aren’t from Swift…” Double said, frowning.

“What kind of emotions?” Carbon asked, curious.

“Anger, pride and madness, and… a certain drive to prove oneself,” Double answered, thoughtfully. “Quite a dangerous combination.” With that, he continued his way towards where Swift’s emotions lead him. His pace had sped up a bit now.

“Madness…?” Carbon sighed. “Oh, great, we’re hunting after a lunatic with endless fire-power… Just great.”

The smoke thickened the closer they got to the fire. Carbon coughed. Double glanced at him and nodded at one of the stallions that accompanied him. He was a unicorn, but his horn had strange holes in them. Despite the holes, it lit up and a barrier came between the four ponies and the smoke, clearing the air significantly. There was still smoke, but it wasn’t as bad as before.

“Thanks…” Carbon nodded towards the stallion. He didn’t nod back.

An enormous beam of fire lit up the forest temporarily. Double yelled and fell to his knees.

“Alias!” he yelled in an ear-shattering volume. He scrambled up and started to run towards the beam. His guards sped after him, Carbon could hardly keep up.

“Not again…” the unicorn rumbled below his breath. It wasn’t that he didn’t worry for his friend, he just had enough of running after ponies that were faster than him. He sighed and started to run as well. He didn’t need to go far to see Nightshade standing over his friends, laughing.

And that it was only Nightshade that was standing.