Heart of Fire VI
She was nearly right behind her. Green Field still hadn’t noticed her approach but soon she’d be able to hear Applejack’s hooves as she bounded across the ground to her. It was now or never, Applejack didn’t hesitate, she sped up to full speed and ran at Green Field’s back. She had pulled out the talisman from under her hat and held it in her mouth, once she was close enough she’d grab it and stick it to Green Field. If she was fortunate this would all be decided in an instant, it was risky of her to not slow down and try to sneak up on Green Field but she figured she had just as much of a chance finishing things like this. A single droplet of sweat dripped down her face.
Right now, she grabbed the talisman with her hoof and held it open. She’d practically crash into Green Field going like this if she wasn’t careful. She was almost there.
But Green Field reacted too fast. She turned around and saw Applejack before she should’ve, she didn’t seem like the kind of pony with senses that sharp and reflexes that fast. Applejack was still running, still hoping to be able to stick her with the talisman before she could react. Green Field’s eyes widened and fire burst from her body, creating a sphere around herself that expanded outwards, Applejack was the one who had to react fast now. Using Hoof of the Earth she caused the ground below her to rupture, jumping up at the same time, the extra force of the exploding ground combined with her own strength allowed her to clear the protective sphere that Green Field produced.
She landed on the other side of the fire pony while the sphere dissipated, leaving Green Field standing there with the ground around her burning. Green Field wheeled around to glare angrily at Applejack.
“You again?! I warned you not to try and stop me! And what was that weird magic I sensed, you-” Green Field stopped, eyes looking up and down Applejack’s body and taking in her strangely uninjured appearance. Her eyes narrowed at Applejack as her body relaxed into a much calmer state, the flames around her simmering down. “You’ve been to the Spirit Shrine haven’t you?”
Applejack didn’t answer. She was thinking about how Green Field could sense the talisman, it must’ve been a side-effect of the Heart of Fire, maybe it recognized the shrine ponies magic or felt that the talisman was dangerous. Applejack was thinking if she should just attack again and hope for a win in a straight on fight. But now that she was here talking to Green Field there was something else she wanted to try first.
“Alright look, I know I might be a bit of a hypocrite for saying this considering I just tried to attack you from behind and all, but I really think you should just stop all this and give up the Heart of Fire, okay?”
“Really. Really?” Green Field asked incredulously, fire starting to swirl around her hooves.
“I just think it would be for the best. The ponies at the shrine told me all about you and-”
Green Field screamed at Applejack and blasted a huge fireball at her. The massive thing could’ve consumed a carriage and it made Applejack sweat like crazy just from being near.
“So that was definitely the wrong thing to say.” Applejack said as she jumped out of the way of the fireball. “Guess convincing her to give up just aint an option.” Time to talk with her hooves, Applejack thought.
Seeing the huge fireball miss her Green Field now shot out a dozen smaller fireballs at Applejack. Applejack used a tremor to shoot out a bunch of rocks and dirt from under the ground, impacting the fireballs and stopping Green Field’s attack as the rocks and dirt fell back to the ground covered in flames.
Green Field snarled and raised an eyebrow at her. “Seems like you’re not a normal earth pony either.”
From her sides came two blasts of fire, each one shooting out in a curve that would eventually have them meet right where Applejack was standing. She hopped back just in time as the two blasts collided, creating an explosion that knocked Applejack back. She quickly got to her hooves to defend against Green Field’s next attack. Which came quickly enough when through the ball of fire that the previous attack had left a pegasus made of fire flew out at Applejack.
“Oh come on now!” Applejack ran from the pegasus but just like the fire snake that Green Field had made last time they fought it chased after her. Luckily it wasn’t near so fast as a real pegasus would be but even when she shot dirt and rocks up at it it wasn’t enough to get it to dissipate, everything that came in contact with it just burned up and fell through its body. The thing was keeping her from getting in close to Green Field too. She constantly had to backpedal away from the pegasus, with each step she saw Green Field getting further away. Applejack had to deal with this thing and get in close to use the talisman.
Spotting a large tree she got an idea, she couldn’t replicate how she defeated the fire snake exactly but this would still work, Applejack ran past the tree while shooting a tremor out to it. When the pegasus was flying at her the tree’s trunk exploded, toppling the whole tree over so that its bushy branches and leaves fell onto the pegasus, smothering it into the ground.
“Easy as apple pie.” Applejack smirked while looking back at Green Field, still just standing a fair distance away from her.
That was when the wall of fire sprang up behind her.
Applejack jumped in surprise at the huge wall of fire that was cutting her off from the rest of the forest, now she couldn’t retreat from Green Field anymore even if she wanted to.
“Oh I’m sorry, were you paying too much attention to my little pegasus to notice me doing that?” Green Field mockingly said to her. “I’m not letting you live this time.” Green Field glowed brighter as the flames that made up her body started burning with greater intensity, two huge fire snakes came out of her this time and slithered towards Applejack, leaving devastating trails of fire wherever they touched.
She was already almost backed up against the fire wall and she didn’t have anything that could block or smother those snakes. The talisman was still in her hoof, its power wasn’t infinite and she didn’t want to waste some of the magic in it if she didn’t have to. But if she didn’t do anything she’d probably be burned up by these snakes before she even got close enough to use the talisman on Green Field.
Applejack grunted and furrowed her brow at the snakes coming at her. “Alright, you asked for it.”
She pulled up the talisman and pointed it towards the fire snakes, a blue-white light came from the parchment as the magically-etched symbols glowed. The fire snakes opened their jaws wide, striking down at Applejack as if she was some frog for them to eat. But when the glow reached them the fires vanished, snuffed out instantly like a match that had been blown on.
Applejack broke out into a run immediately after seeing that, she’d go straight for Green Field and tag her with the talisman, knowing now that it could protect her from any attack Green Field threw at her or any defense she could conjure up. Green Field’s face was one of total shock when she saw her fire snakes die out, now she created a plain wave of fire and had it flow out at Applejack. She would’ve never been able to dodge it at this range if she had to, it was too wide and deep, the wave was only a few feet high but it still consumed everything in its way, any trees it touched were completely lit up and burned to the ground in seconds.
It was pretty good for Applejack that she didn’t need to dodge.
The talisman parted the wave of fire like it wasn’t even there. Applejack ran across the scorched earth, Green Field now almost within reach. She looked at Applejack with a scared expression, she was backpedaling away from her but she wasn’t near as fast as Applejack. Perhaps realizing this she stopped and fiercely glared at Applejack like a cornered animal. Pillars of fire erupted across her body and dozens of fireballs shot into the air before quickly coming back down at Applejack like flaming meteors.
Most came down around Applejack, harmlessly exploding far enough away from her, but some were dead on so she had to use the talisman to obliterate them. Applejack couldn’t be certain but she thought the glow from the talisman might’ve been getting weaker.
Green Field wasn’t discouraged by her meteors failing, she opened up her mouth and breathed out a steady stream of spiraling fire straight at Applejack. Applejack put her hoof out in front of her and the talisman got rid of the fire before it could even make Applejack feel hot. The glow reached back to Green Field and she had to squint her eyes shut and stop breathing fire, it seemed it was disrupting her powers.
Applejack was almost on top of her now, she knew the talisman could get through anything, Green Field clearly wasn’t as physically capable as her so Applejack would have no problem getting her with it. Just a few more steps were between them as Applejack ran full speed at her enemy.
Come on!
Green Field wasn’t going to take this lying down though, she still could use the flames enough to ignite a fire under herself, her hooves practically turning to rockets as she jumped in the air to avoid Applejack.
The talisman got rid of the fires left behind so they wouldn’t hurt Applejack but now Green Field had vaulted behind her, giving herself a little more distance from the pony trying to stop her. Applejack turned to again reach her as quickly as possible while Green Field threw out the biggest blast of fire yet. She must’ve figured she couldn’t run anymore and was trying to just completely overwhelm Applejack. Applejack meanwhile was barreling straight ahead, she’d use the talisman on this fire blast and then stick it on Green Field’s chest right behind it and end things.
Applejack and the fire met, the huge flames produced by the Heart of Fire could swallow her barn whole now, but she ran through them with the talisman in hoof. Its glow created a safe path for her, eradicating the fires around her, making it look like Applejack was running through a tunnel of flames. This time though the heat was getting to her, it was making her sluggish and sweaty as she ran through the fire to Green Field, but there shouldn’t be much more. Applejack knew she was close.
The glow finally broke through the last bit of flames from Green Field, Applejack came out of the tunnel right in front of her. Green Field’s eyes were wide with worry while Applejack grit her teeth and reached out with the talisman.
Unfortunately the glow from the talisman promptly died off and the parchment caught fire, shriveling up and burning to ash in Applejack’s hoof.
As she skidded to a halt with her face about an inch away from Green Field’s a stray thought went through Applejack’s mind about how it was probably a bad idea to come fight again without any sort of real contingency or backup plan.
With their faces so close together they could see nothing else, Green Field smirked at Applejack. “I think you just lost something important.”
“Eyup.” Applejack sweated rivers down her face.
“Want a head start in running away? I’m feeling generous.”
“Thank ya kindly.”
Applejack ran very fast.
A fireball sailed over her head from behind and exploded in front of her, creating a crater that she had to jump over. More of those kept coming as Applejack did all she could to dodge them and their fallout. The wall of fire Green Field created earlier was still going strong so Applejack only had one way she could go, she hoped she would find a river or lake soon and maybe see if that dunking her in water idea would actually work.
Instead, as the fireballs kept her running away, the forest thinned out and Applejack came to the edge of a cliff. Or canyon would be more accurate. Applejack looked to the bottom of the canyon to see a river, this must’ve been the canyon Temperance mentioned that Green Field was going towards in the first place. Applejack looked across it but the distance was way too far for her to jump.
“Looks like somepony has run out of options.”
Applejack gulped and turned around. Green Field was there, flames rolling off her body and looking like she was struggling to not laugh at Applejack’s situation.
“Yeah, well… uh. I can’t think of a comeback.” Applejack grimaced, Rainbow Dash can never learn of this.
“Right, well let me just reiterate. You should have left me alone.” Green Field created another fire snake, its mouth opened wide and the magical creation bared its fangs at Applejack. “Goodbye.”
The snake lunged at Applejack, and there was really only one thing she could do about it.
She jumped.
The fire snake crashed into the ground right where she was standing just an instant before. The snake and the edge of the cliff exploded in a ball of fire, the flames fanning out and washing over Applejack’s body as the pressure from the blast knocked her further into the canyon. Partially on fire and dazed from the force of the blast, Applejack fell.
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How do you manage to update every day?
9360500
According to one writer, "You put a chair in front of a typewriter, then you apply the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair." (ICR who said it)
9360500
9360612
Well I did manage a good pace back when I was still writing the story but I'm able to get out a chapter everyday because I've already written it all. I started writing back in September and got through more than half of it before I even started publishing it.
Very exciting.
Green Field is clearly mentally unstable. I'm looking forward to the rest.