Chapter 40: Wrath
Back and forth the fight raged on the eerily quiet street as steel battled sorcery. Rios, Iron Heart, and his son Iron Hoof were all physically much more powerful than their opponents, but Nytefyre and her daughter were likely the two most powerful magic users on the planet. Time and time again plunging blades were stopped cold by walls of force, or deflected by the mystic blades that rode at the mares’ sides.
On the defensive, all three stallions were forced to step quickly as Nytefyre launched bolts of power at them, or used her mystic abilities to animate various objects to act as weapons. Once, a power cable torn down from a nearby electrical pole had wrapped itself around Rios’ hooves, attempting to hogtie him in its coils. Only the quick intervention of Princess Luna, riding along with Rios in spirit, had managed to save the American.
That, and the fact that it was Shield Maiden who attacked while Rios was briefly vulnerable. The soldier could see the hesitation and fear on the young mare’s face, how she would rather be doing anything else than what she was doing, and it was that reluctance to attack that saved the day.
This is not right, whispered Luna, inside of Rios’ mind, as Shield Maiden retreated back to Nytefyre’s side.
“No shit lady, “ Rios shot back, aloud.
You do not understand, my soldier, replied Luna, and Rios could hear the frown in her voice. Nytefyre is almost as strong as I am, she should have already defeated us. The only reason we are not all bowing down to her right now is that I am with you and the Seeds are with the others, protecting their minds.
“If you’re stronger than her, then why aren’t you stopping her?” Rios asked, stepping back a moment to catch his breath. Nothing beat combat as an aerobic activity. Nothing.
There is only so much I can do without being there in the flesh, my soldier, explained Luna, as the two of them watched Shield Maiden stop an attack by Iron Hoof on Nytefyre by simply putting one of her shields against his upraised hoof, denying it any downward momentum. And that was before I was able to take her measure. We should already be lying prostrate under her power, or swamped by her ensorcelled minions. Why is she holding back?
“You know, every time you say, ‘My soldier’, I’m adding a day to your time in the dressage ring and trail riding,” Rios testily fired back, waiting a moment to add, “hey, I’ve got an idea. Can you crank up my hearing?”
Of course, my soldier, Luna stated, with a playful edge to her voice that belied the seriousness of their situation. And for the record, I prefer English tack. Black, with silver accents.
Rios started to wonder why Luna would have a preference in tack in the first place, and his mind deciding that he most definitely did not want to know allowed him to ignore the sudden popping sensation that came from his eardrums as the Princess of the Night enhanced his hearing as requested.
“The next time Iron Hoof attacks, use your magic to hit his knee from the side,” Rios heard Nytefyre advising the small unicorn at her side.
“But that’ll hurt him!” Shield Maiden protested, and Rios could see the anguish on the young pony’s face. Clearly Shield Maiden didn’t want to be fighting anyone, least of all members of her adopted family, but she loved her mother and the power of that love had forced her into the position she was in now.
“Yes, it will,” acknowledged Nytefyre, her silver torc and coronet gleaming in the summer sun. “But it will also take him out of the fight in a way that will not kill him.”
“But… but,” stuttered the young pony.
“Would you rather he fight on until I am forced to kill him?” The Queen of Brightly and the Lands Beyond asked, even as she parried Iron Heart’s Seed of Justice with her own blade while simultaneously knocking Iron Hoof back.
“No… “ Shield Maiden admitted, lip trembling.
“Then do as I ask, my child,” Nytefyre commanded, her voice almost sounding like Foxfire’s for a moment. “Give your brother the mercy that I cannot.”
Why does that sound incredibly sinister to me? Luna asked Rios in the vault of his mind.
“Because it’s damn evil,” Rios replied, growling in a very unpony-like fashion. “She’s trying to make Shield Maiden hurt other people. She’s trying to—”
Corrupt her innocence, Luna interjected. Have her commit a small sin, for a supposedly good reason. And then the Umbral will have Shield Maiden do something slightly worse, and then worse again, until the Shield Maiden becomes War Maiden, a pony just as dark and destructive as I once was.
“And all it’s gonna take is that first step, and then anytime the kid tries to step back into the light, Nytefyre will remind her what she did and the guilt will weld the kid back to her mother and then straight down the garden path to hell,” Rios confirmed.
Evil always seeks to corrupt what it cannot destroy, Luna growled, in an unconscious echo of Rios moments before. What is thy plan, my soldier?
“Intervention,” Rios stated, adding, “that’s three, by the way.”
Fire swept up to block descending Justice, and the two blades locked in place for a moment over Nytefyre’s head. Iron Hoof sprang forward, planting his forehooves to begin a spinning buck with his powerful rear hooves. As his body pivoted, he failed to see one of Shield Maiden’s constructs sweeping in toward his knees from the side to buckle or even snap the joints that were currently supporting all of Iron Hoof’s weight.
The club of orange light swept in, only to be stopped cold as it impacted against Rios’ leg. A leg that was also buttressed by Luna’s cobalt blue magic. Youthful eyes widened in surprise as they found themselves looking into much older and wearier ones.
“Trust me kid, you don’t want to do that,” said Rios. “Hit me if that’s what you need to do, but take it from me, you’ll never forgive yourself if you—”
“BE STILL!” Nytefyre yelled, blasting aside Rios with a lance of indigo flame. “Now Shield Maiden, protect your mother!”
“I… I… “ stuttered Shield Maiden, torn between conflicting loyalties and paralyzed by the indecision that came with it.
“Protect your mother,” Nytefyre ordered, straining slightly as Iron Heart pressed his sword closer to the dark queen.
“I’m sorry, I’m sor—” Shield Maiden began.
“Stop!” yelled an approaching voice. Rios, Shield Maiden and Iron Hoof all turned to see Seeker running toward them at a full clip, the Seed of Giving riding along at her side.
Nytefyre’s eyes flicked up the road, seeing the rapidly approaching earth pony with the fifth of the five Seeds. Calculation flashed, and using a short burst of her magic Nytefyre pushed Iron Heart’s sword upwards, gasping, “Quick! Help m—”
Either Seeker hadn’t heard Nytefyre or thought that the only way to get everypony to stop fighting was to make them stop, and so she did what she believed would get everyone’s attention, throwing her sword into the gap between her mother and her adoptive father in order to get them to move apart.
End over end flew the length of burnished bronze, powered by earth pony strength and a child’s desperation. The gladius flew straight and true, until it collided edge on with the longsword that was the Seed of Justice. The blade’s path deflected downwards briefly, where it struck the falchion form of the Seed of Justice. The two collisions changed the flight of Seeker’s sword from a straight predictable line into an unpredictable quivering spiral path.
Up and over the gladius pivoted, jerking and shuddering as it twisted along all three axes of motion. It slid past the Seed of Fire, and eluded a quick attempt by Nytefyre to grasp it in her magic, sliding its preternaturally sharp edge toward the unicorn in its curving flight. Nytefyre tried to flinch away from the blade as it came at her, but it was far too late, and the Seed of Giving drew blood from a long, shallow cut along the Queen of Brightly’s left leg and shoulder.
For a moment everypony stood frozen while blood oozed from the wound, and the hilt of Seeker’s sword waved back and forth, a full ten centimeters of the blade buried in the asphalt at Nytefyre’s hooves.
“You cut me,” stated Nytefyre, her eyes turning into pools of flame. “YOU CUT ME!”
“I’m thorry!” Seeker lisped, shock and sorrow on her face as she skidded to a stop near where the fight had been happening. “I’m tho—”
“HOW DARE YOU HARM YOUR QUEEN!” roared Nytefyre, her indigo magic blasting out in a wave, smashing everypony in sight down to the ground and pinning them there.
“You’re going to pay for that,” hissed the unicorn, moving to stand over the filly, the Seed of Fire hovering above like an executioner’s blade.
“Stop!” Iron Heart and Iron Hoof gasped out together, father and son both trying to use their enchanted swords to break free, to stop Nytefyre, to do anything; but the umbral ridden unicorn had thought of that already, pinning the four other swords to the ground alongside of their bearers.
“I’ll deal with the rest of you later,” commented Nytefyre, and turning back toward Seeker asked, “Any last words?”
“Please Mom,” begged the filly, tears coming from her eyes. “PLease!”
“Good enough,” said the unicorn, as the blade swept down.
There is something that you never do.
If you are smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any hope of seeing tomorrow there is one thing that you never, ever, do.
Attempt to harm a mother’s child in front of her.
As the Seed of Fire descended toward Seeker’s neck, the sight of her child in mortal danger roused Foxfire from her defeated passivity. Roused her and filled her with the same terrible rage and fury that had once driven her to murder a man she had once called husband.
Everyone present became wide-eyed with astonishment as the body of Nytefyre suddenly staggered to one side, the Seed of Fire burying itself into the ground next to Seeker’s head. Back and forth Nytefyre’s body jerked as if rocked by impacts that no one could see, reflecting the inner battle going on inside the unicorn’s mind.
“You can’t win, Foxfire,” came from Nytefyre’s mouth. “I control this body.”
MY CHILD! screamed Foxfire, raging as she flung mental blow after blow at the Umbral.
“I have your magic. I have your body’s physical resources,” replied the Umbral, its outward voice taking on a strained tone as Foxfire’s unrelenting assault forced the dark entity to devote more and more of its strength to containing the host personality of its body.
“MY CHILD!” screamed Foxfire again, breaking through in part to the outside world. “NO ONE TOUCHES MY CHILDREN!”
“That… may have been… a mistake,” admitted the Umbral, and being forced to draw fully on the physical and magical resources of its host body it began to slow Foxfire’s advance.
“DIE!” roared Foxfire, assaulting the Umbral’s mental bastions for all she was worth.
The Umbral’s psychic ramparts chipped and cracked under the blows powered by near insane levels of rage, but they held firm under Foxfire’s ultimate assault, giving the Umbral time to begin weaving a counter-assault in order to bind Foxfire back into her corner of their shared mindscape.
“Let’s talk about this,” said the Umbral, reasserting its control over their body’s voice, and strengthening its defenses further.
Jean Pedersen, the Foxfire, could feel herself being pushed back, she could feel her enemy preparing to bind and cage her again. Twice in her past, she had been placed in a hopeless trap from which there had seemed no escape, and twice she had fought her way clear. There would be no third time.
Foxfire called out, and Fire answered her call, the Seed of Fire hearing the summons of its true mistress and obeying. Pure, unadulterated power poured out of the mystic blade and into Foxfire, setting her mind alight and roaring her mental strength back up to levels that made the Umbral suddenly realize that it might have severely underestimated the unicorn it had possessed.
Foxfire’s vision was wreathed in flames. Her mind became a blazing inferno. Her legs were flames, Her body was flames. Her hooves were flames that began to rip and tear at the Umbral’s mental fortress like a blowtorch attacking a sheet of paper, and to the shock of those watching, her physical body became wreathed in flames as well.
Fire needs fuel, after all.
“Stop!” the Umbral cried desperately, utterly shocked at the power Foxfire was now bringing to bear. “Burning away your very life force in a vain attempt to destroy me won’t do anything except kill us both. You are searing away your soul!”
“SO WHAT!” raged the mother, nearly through her enemy’s defenses, even as her physical body changed to become a pony of living fire. “What are you going to do if I stop? Enslave me again? Kill me? MY Town? KILL MY CHILDREN?”
“Stop! Please! You don’t have to do this!” pleaded the Umbral, as Foxfire towered over it in the mindscape. Terrible and powerful. A fiery phoenix burning herself to ashes.
“BURN YOU MOTHERFUCKER, BURN!” roared the voice of flame from within and without as the phoenix pony fell on the Umbral with every bit of the staggering power at its disposal.
The dark spirit made one last attempt to defend itself, drawing all of the power and strength it could, but the burning spirit of Foxfire blew through those last desperate barriers as if they didn’t exist at all. Terrified of what it had unleashed and afraid for its very existence, the creature tried to find somewhere to hide within Foxfire as it had before, only to find that wherever it ran, that place was on fire as well.
“I surrender!” cried the Umbral, in a last attempt to save itself. “I’ll be your slave, your servant! Just don’t—”
Whatever else the Umbral was going to say was lost to the mists as Foxfire cornered it at last and utterly incinerated it, burning it out of existence like the cancer it was.
“J-Jean?” Iron Heart asked, standing up. Though he hadn’t been able to witness the final battle, he felt Nytefyre’s pinning magic fade away, as he carefully approached the creature of living flame that was his wife.
“I’m here,” said the pony, two incandescent eyes looking out from a face of fire. “Everyone safe?”
Iron Heart nodded, struck dumb as a terrible foreboding seized his heart.
“Mom?” Seeker asked, getting up from where she had been pinned to the ground.
“I love you, honey,” Foxfire replied, looking around. “I love all of you, but I think I’m going to have to go away now.”
“NO!” screamed Shield Maiden, only for Iron Heart to hold her back. “You can’t go!”
“Arn, you take care of our kids, okay?” Foxfire asked, feeling her flames begin to die out. “I love you, with all my heart.”
“Jean… I… “ Arnold Kye’s iron heart moved into his throat as he realized he was about to lose another woman he loved. Tears poured from his eyes, as all he could manage to do was nod his answer.
“I am,” Foxfire stated, looking around at the group of family and friends around her, some just shaking off the mental shackles Nytefyre had bound their minds with, “and always shall be, your friend.”
The pony of fire collapsed to the ground, its fuel nearly exhausted. Ash began to replace flame as the last of Foxfire’s life burned away.
“Good—” was the last word the blazing mare spoke as she collapsed into ashes, the flame of the Seed of Fire guttering low and flickering in its own dying moments.
“QUICKLY!” Luna commanded, taking swift control of Rios’ body, and causing him to step forward and place his hoof on fallen Foxfire’s sword. “There is yet hope. Touch your blades to Rios here, and think of Foxfire. Think of your wife and mother.”
With desperate hope, the four remaining wielders of Brightly’s magic swords did as they were asked.
“Seed of Joy, help me make them smile again,” Luna begged, as Rios wisely held his peace. The partnership between himself and Luna had been one filled with give and take all along, and it was his turn to give control just now. “Seed of Justice, help me right this terrible wrong. Seed of Love, help me restore the one who lives in their hearts. Seed of Giving, give me the power to do what is needed.”
The four swords glowed, answering the call to action, and urged on by their wielders lent their strength to the Princess of the Night, the Princess of Dreams. Rios’ body shone like the sun for a moment, its brilliance causing everyone present to look away for an instance. When everyone looked back they could see the translucent form of Luna standing beside Rios.
“Thank you,” the dreamwalker said, before turning to the Seed of Fire.
“You once said that with your power, nothing is impossible. Prove it. Take me to her,” Luna commanded, and every eye went wide as the princess’ spirit dove into the bronze depths of the dying blade.
Silence reigned for several heartbeats before Medevac finally asked, “Now what?”
“Now we pray,” Father Addison replied. “Pray, and hope for a miracle.”
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Well, that hit me unexpectedly.
Foxfire showed that evil witch what true strength was.
Now Dats wot I'z call a GUD EFFIN FOIGHT!!!
Echoes of the death of Mr. Spock near the end of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”.
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One of the best Trek movies ever.
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As an old fart who watched it opening weekend... I was not prepared for these feels
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I know, right? I don't remember that scene being affecting that strongly in the movie. But used here, and *oof* suddenly I was sideswiped by the feels truck.
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And Truck-kun didn't even have the decency to isekai me into a fantasy RPG world with some cheat skill and a harem! Sheesh...
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A harem? <rubs chin> I guess it would be time-efficient for me to upset multiple women simultaneously, rather than consecutively...
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