Salvation

by voroshilov

A Shining piece of Armour

The Retaliator broke the atmosphere with a satisfying bang, the entry shockwave rippling throughout the entire sky. Whereas Penumbra had relied upon the Luminary for her piloting, Ablazed Glory had broken in the ship within seconds. With a vicious tug on a lever, whose function Penumbra could only guess at, Ablazed Glory spun the ship and sent it almost vertically downwards. Penumbra felt the need to verbally remind her of what happened to the last ship she had piloted, but was unable due to the sudden presence of the ground, which changed her snarky remark into a scream of pure panic.

Ablazed Glory, in contrast, was having the time of her life. Laughter didn’t quite express the gusto Ablazed Glory was giving, the sounds from her more akin to the rhythmic bellow of a hurricane. Though, it was quite obvious in her physical mannerisms - mostly the literally beaming smile across her burning face - that she was having a lot of fun.

“And now,” she shouted, with a flourish, flicking a pair of levers and pressing a button, “the coup de grace.”

The ship angled up, its momentum causing it to trim the edge of the grass before its thrusters took hold again and they gained some extra altitude. The ship spun on an axis, before slowly descending and settling onto the ground.

Ablazed Glory laughed heartily. “Damn,” she exhaled, “that was a hell of a ride.” She turned to Penumbra, who was buried into her captain’s chair, curled into a spiky, dark purple ball. “Five stars?”

Penumbra didn’t seem to have realised they’d landed, she also hadn’t breathed for about half a minute. Before Ablazed Glory could start to get worried, a tiny crack appeared in Penumbra’s talon shield, revealing one of her eyes, that was wide as could be and staring forwards blankly.

“We’ve landed,” Ablazed Glory said, “you’re not falling anymore than gravity would have you be otherwise.”

Slowly, Penumbra returned to her usual shape, though she had a shell-shocked look about her. Rather than comfort, Ablazed Glory laughed happily and stood up, giving Penumbra a hearty pat on the shoulder as she did.

“I know,” she jested, “my flying is so good that it’s almost painful to leave.”

“Your flying,” Penumbra mumbled, eyes still wide like a deer caught in headlights, “is painful to experience.”

Ablazed Glory chuckled, patting her comrade on the shoulder again “That’s the spirit. Now, let’s get a move on, I want to visit my blacksmith mate.”

She hauled Penumbra to her feet, the alicorn’s legs shaking every time she tried to move them. Taking a few steps towards the door, she waited for Penumbra to follow, with the slow come down of her shock causing the alicorn to wobble after her. She didn’t so much walk forwards as she did sway back and forth and fall forwards, though never getting far forwards enough for her to fall.

It took Penumbra the whole walk to the ramp, then down it and onto ground, before she had shaken her shock. She kneeled before the earth, kissed it once, eyes screwed shut, before rising and taking a deep breath.

“Where are we going?” She asked, voice muffled but audible enough. Given her previous state, Ablazed Glory was just thankful she wasn’t catatonic.

“Well, unless there’s been a foreclosure, should be just down this street here.” She led Penumbra forwards, through an alleyway between two quaint little cottages and out into a fairly scattered half of the town, an area Penumbra hadn’t seen on their descent or her previous visit.

The odd pony who saw them could only stare in awe and steadily back up when the two approached. They had both - apparently - achieved a sort of legendary status amongst the townspeople. That, coupled with the fact Ablazed Glory was dreadfully hot, was certainly a factor in the civilians backing away.

Ablazed Glory paid them no heed, making a straight path towards a backstreet attached to the end of the road they walked on. Evidently, she was used to the attention. Or, she just didn’t care. From Penumbra’s - albeit limited - experience, it could have been either.

“This mate of mine,” Ablazed Glory said, as the two of them walked on, “she’s relaxed.” Ablazed Glory paused for a moment. “Just don’t touch anything.”

Penumbra gave her a questioning look, then realised her companion was looking the wrong way to get the message. “Are you speaking from some sort of experience?”

Ablazed Glory barked out a laugh. “Perhaps. She can be fiery.”

Penumbra smirked devilishly at the opportunity, which was just too perfect to pass up. “So can you.” She chuckled to herself, adding a little swagger to her walk.

“What do you mean?” Ablazed Glory asked, though Penumbra could both see and hear her smile.

“Heh heh,” she said, upping her pace slightly to pass her burning companion, fully emphasising the swagger of her walk. She turned back to view Ablazed Glory, who was avoiding her gaze as best she could, a smirk having forced its way onto her face and stubbornly refusing to move.

The by-street Ablazed Glory led them down contained only one building. It was a structure made of only stone, about nine metres tall, looking more like a box than a house. The door was made of metal, apparently stolen from somewhere else, given that its shape didn’t quite fit the door space and the fact it seemed to have been bolted onto the wall at a slight angle.

Ablazed Glory knocked, rapping her right talon three times on the door, then stepped back. Rather than entering immediately, as Penumbra had expected she would do, she waited patiently, shifting awkwardly on the spot as she did so.

About half a minute later, the door opened a little, before making a screeching sound. Someone on the other side swore, then kicked the door open. It flew open, clattering against the stone of the wall when it did. A dragon appeared.

“Fucking door,” she besmirched the door, before kicking it again, “piece of garbage.”

She was about Ablazed Glory’s height, give or take an inch. Her scales were a dark blue, like looking into the ocean, segmented like armour all over her. She stood on two legs, which each bore three toes ending in long, bone-white claws. Her eyes were a sort of sea-green, the colour of her iris uniform throughout. Dark blue leathery wings folded neatly onto her back, Penumbra guessing they had a similar wing-span to those of Ablazed Glory.

“Hello Glory,” she said, turning to the two alicorns with a giant smile, “how’ve you been? Who’s your friend? You need anything? Want to come in? Sorry for all of the questions but I think if I stop I might start crying because oh my stars you’re back!”

The dragon leapt at the burning alicorn, sweeping her up into such a crushing hug that Penumbra winced just witnessing it. Ablazed Glory, recovering from the initial shock of being turned two dimensional, returned the embrace in kind. Penumbra couldn’t help but crack a smile, though only once the embrace had come down to a level that would not pulverise her companion’s organs. It was nice to see others happy.

Though, she did wish they’d hurry up. It was a good five minutes before they broke, staring deeply into each other’s eyes, until Penumbra cleared her throat with a little more force than she had meant to.

They both turned to face her, though the dragon did so in a way much less comparable to fury. She held out a clawed hand, which Penumbra took, being shook vigorously. “I’m Kindle,” she said, with a beaming smile, “what’s your name?”

“Penumbra,” she replied, though she assumed Kindle already knew and was just being polite. She tried not to acknowledge Ablazed Glory’s death stare.

“Oh, Glory,” Kindle said, turning to the burning alicorn, whose boring look instantly halted, “where have you been? When you said you’d be gone awhile I didn’t think you meant that long. It’s been two years! Two years, seven months and ten days. And three hours and fourteen minutes. I counted.”

Ablazed Glory blubbered a moment, before shaking her head and moving the steadily pulsing piece of metal from its telekinetically held spot on her chest. “I went to find this,” she said, “I didn’t think I’d be gone for so long,” she whispered the final part.

Kindle put a hand to the burning alicorn’s cheek. “It’s alright,” she said, comfortingly, “I forgive you. Though, you still owe me two and a half thousand brandy shots.”

The burning alicorn nodded. “I’ll be out of pocket in no time,” she laughed. Penumbra could tell she wasn’t joking. “But,” she held the piece out to the dragon, “it was worth it. Because I found him.”

The dragon cocked a brow. “Him?”

Ablazed Glory nodded quickly. “It’s a soul jar,” she said, turning the material, “it’s my father’s soul jar.”

Everything went silent.

Kindle’s jaw trembled a moment, searching for the right words. “Oh,” she mumbled, “wow. Erm. Yes. That’s...That’s incredible.”

Penumbra didn’t speak. There wasn’t much she could do anymore. What she had passed off as a fancy trinket, perhaps a keepsake or memento from the Throne World, had been a soul jar. Once, back on Equestria, back in Canterlot’s library, she had read a book on soul jars. The book had been fiction, such was the manner in which ponykind regarded the concept alone. The idea of a soul jar had not only been impossible, but cruel, wicked even. To imprison someone like that would be a crime so horrific no punishment could truly match it.

Yet, her brother was in one.

Emperor Nicholas, who had killed her world, who had sent her friends to their deaths, who had killed his brother and sister-in-law, who would have killed their child had his weapon not had other ideas, had imprisoned her brother into a soul jar that he had left in his Throne World. Had he even known he had done so? It was entirely possible that it had happened without his knowledge, that Shining Armour had been forced into a soul jar and discarded in a dark corner for millennia. Hatred was not strong enough a word to quantify how she felt towards him.

“You alright?” Kindle asked her, waving a hand in front of her eyes.

Penumbra relaxed herself as much as she could. “Yes. Yes I am.” Her voice still sounded seconds from murder.

Kindle nodded. “Looked like you were having a seizure there. That, or you wanted to kill somebody.”

How could she have known?

“What do you mean?” It was Ablazed Glory, not Penumbra, who asked the question.

Kindle turned to her, then back to Penumbra. “You’ve got that aura to you. I can taste the hate on the air. I’ve got good eyes too, so I can see under your coat you’ve gone sick and white with the desire to kill someone. Am I right?”

Penumbra nodded, sadly. “Yeah.” Was all she could bring herself to say.

Kindle but a hand to her cheek. “It’s alright,” she muttered, “it’s alright.”

“Shining Armour,” she mumbled.

“Hmm?” Both Kindle and Ablazed Glory turned to her.

“His name,” she said, nodding towards the floating soul jar, “was Shining Armour.”

All three were silent for a moment.

“Oh,” Ablazed Glory said, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof and smiling awkwardly. “Now,” she said, trying to rectify the situation she had just placed herself neatly into, “I didn’t know that before coming here...”

The new piece of armour fit perfectly. Kindle hadn’t taken any measurements, she hadn’t needed to - for whatever reason - but had still managed to perfectly mold the piece. She had used a clever forging method, carefully concentrating her dragon’s breath to heat the metal evenly, then concentrate it further to change the elevations of the different points. What metal she had used, Penumbra did not know, all she did know was that it was incredibly strong - unless Kindle was trying to swindle them - perhaps more so than her own ancient suit.

The soul jar had been set exactly into the breastplate’s centre, with its own little protective pocket. The armour had been buffed and polished so that it was shining brightly, even in the relative darkness of the forge. The Shining gem pulsed, like a heart beating but with a green glow.

“I can feel it,” Ablazed Glory said, “it’s closer than it was before. Like a heart beating, like my heart beating.”

She fell silent, as if listening to something.

“I can hear it,” she said, quieter this time, “Shining, he’s talking to me.”

“What’s he saying?” Kindle asked, Penumbra too busy holding her head in her talons.

Ablazed Glory looked to the dragon, her eyes wide and her flames burning a little brighter. “Erm, nothing much. It’s all gibberish I think.”

She was obviously lying.