The Blazing Death

by Amaranthine Thought

Chapter 6

Dark was calm; calmer than he’d ever been in any mission before, and most of his life, for that matter.

It hadn’t been until he’d met Zehara that he’d really noticed just how beautiful the night was. The sky above was clear, sparkling with many stars, the moon a small sliver, reflected in the gently shifting waters of the Deharan.

In that silence then, it was as if it would forever remain peaceful, the only sounds the soft breathing of the pair and she and he waited for the time to come. A stillness of mind and body as the two looked out into the night together.

Then came the sudden cry, “Fire!” and both startled.

“To your goddess!” Zehara said, instantly on her hooves and moving, Dark more startled, and slower. He took to the air, and swiftly spotted princess Luna, as well as the conflagration that had sprung up not too far from camp.

He flew next to her, and noticed her glaring; noticed that the fire looked oddly small.

He frowned at it, before startling as Luna bellowed, “Tis a distraction, do not let it!”

“Lion!” came a panicked cry from below, followed near instantly by a pained scream. He swiftly spotted the beast, and gaped, realizing.

It had come through one of the tents.

Where nopony had thought it would have.

Zebra ran to help, before screaming anew as a burst of flame came out of the tent, the cloth lighting afire.

Dark darted down, intent to help before another panicked cry came from elsewhere.

And as his and everypony else looked, another from the opposite direction.

“Maintain order!” Luna bellowed.

“Keep together, move away from the edges!” he heard Zehara snap.

Dark grit his teeth and then flew high again, to see better with princess Luna, frowning heavily. “This isn’t good.” He muttered. “Princess?”

“This is not lion.” Princess Luna told him, glaring down below; her voice and Zehara’s own had calmed the panic, and lions were stalking tight groups of zebra. “This is,”

A roar of flame had a group break apart. The lunar guard darted in to help as lions pounced, but something pounced on them.

And as Dark and Luna stared, a dark lioness leapt from batpony to batpony, climbing towards them with great speed, using their own instinct to not be thrown to the earth to have them act as platforms for her.

“Princess!” he yelled, moving into the way, only for him to become the final platform, her claws catching onto his armor with ease, and leaping at Luna.

Luna glared, and struck out, kicking the lioness. She tried to grab the leg, but her claws slid along the alicorn’s fur without any effect. She dropped, and lit aflame as she went.

To then appear to explode in flame when she hit the ground. An instant later, and a burning bolt fled the eruption. Luna had barely focused before it appeared to split into two, making her hesitate.

One went at a group of zebra, who panicked enough to allow the lions near a chance. The other went towards Zehara, and Dark shot down to slam down in front of her.

Only to realize that what he faced was a gout of dying flame.

The batponies who had gone to help the zebra were, once again, being used as platforms. Dark gaped, the guard scattering to try and not let it happen twice, only for the lioness to swing one, hard, tossing him to the earth and throwing herself shockingly high.

She somehow managed to twist around Luna’s beam in midair, snagging another guard before leaping back at the alicorn. Luna glared, and struck out again, but the lioness made the hit glancing.

And managed to snag the alicorn’s shoe.

Dark shot upwards as the lioness heaved herself up, but before he could make it far, Luna erupted in a silver glow.

The Lioness fell once more, and Luna fired another beam at her.

Only for her own shoe to be used to deflect it.

The lioness landed hard, but again, was back on her feet instantly. The guard moved higher, to avoid her the next time, but most of them, along with Dark, realized that the lions or she would kill the zebra in their absence.

Blood had already been spilled on both sides.

Luna swept down to land, and near instantly faced a burning rush. A directed beam had it move aside just barely, before it broke against a shield around the alicorn.

Luna struck, hitting the dazed lioness, but she again recovered. A new burning rush broke more zebra, and Luna tensed as she prepared for it to return.

Only for a burnt and terrified zebra to be thrown at her.

An instant of shock found enough time for the lioness to return.

Even then, Luna attacked, but she wasn’t going straight; instead, the lioness went to her side, flipping up onto her back. Teeth wreathed in flames bit at her neck, but to no effect.

Luna flapped, and shot herself upwards, ascending incredibly swiftly, the lioness grabbing onto her, as she knew she would.

Then, high in the sky, she erupted in silver light once more. The lioness held on for that, but Luna then whipped herself around, and threw her off.

A moment later, and a focused beam hit the falling lioness, and drove her back to the earth.

The impact drove a cloud of dust upwards, and the surviving lions retreated as they saw it as well. The flames around the camp flicked, weakening, and things were suddenly silent.

“…Is, is it over?” Zehara whispered, uncertain.

“I,” Dark began, before spotting a light in the dust. He tensed, before gaping.

The dusty cloud was enveloped in flame, zebra screaming, and Luna’s eyes grew.

The flames swiftly resembled a lioness, one made of flames so hot that parts of them were white. One that crouched, staring up at Luna with dark red eyes that no flame should be as, to then leap upwards her with a roar like no other; one that didn’t stop as it came, white claws of flame reaching out.

The pillar lit the night as if it was day, ponies and zebra blinded, and falling back from the intensity of the heat.

Zehara and Dark stared before flinching at the intensity, and then Dark shot upwards himself. “No!” Zehara screamed, trying in vain to see him in the brilliant glare, knowing what he intended.

And as Luna glared, ready to face it despite not knowing what it even was, Dark flung himself in front of her. Her eyes grew in shock, and her mouth opened.

She watched the lioness grab him, instead of her. The fire curled around him, and they all saw him incinerate, his silver armor shining bright and melting despite the enchantments against flame, his form a dark spot in a tiny sun. Luna, flying nearby, felt her own fur sizzling from the heat, her eyes widening a tiny bit more.

It burned bright and hot and long, before, almost suddenly, it burned no longer. For a brief moment, Dark hung in the dark sky, and then he fell, molten silver making him a sparkling, falling star, before he hit the earth with a small, quiet thump.

For a few moments, all those gathered stared. Then Luna landed, and a swift spell cooled the burning body, and solidified the molten silver. Then she sighed, looking down at what was left of him. The night was silent.

Shaking, Zehara crept over, staring at him with wide, teary eyes. “He… he is…” she whispered, her voice shaking. She looked at Luna, having to ask, but seeing the alicorn’s saddened face answered her unspoken question.

A moment passed, and then Zehara, tears falling, began to softly sing the last song, her voice shaking in grief. Slowly, other zebra began to join her, and soon, the song filled the oasis.

---

Sion stared. He’d seen it, in part. And he’d never seen anything like it.

Casca’s flames breaking zebra groups, allowing the lions following her opportunity. The way she’d seized onto the flying things, used them to leap up towards the shining wrath.

He’d been excited, watching; it looked impossible, but Casca was fighting. And, to his eye, she had been winning. Avoiding the strange and clearly potent power the cycle’s wrath had, and even when her flame had broken against it, she had somehow gotten onto its back.

He thought it would be done. She was atop it, had its neck in her jaws.

But then it had returned to the skies, impossibly fast. Rising higher, and higher, and higher.

To appear as if turned into the moon itself. In that light, he’d seen Casca, struggling to hold on, and as it dimmed, had seen her thrown.

Watched as the wrath drove her to the earth so far below with power he had no way to really describe. Saw the dust erupt upwards in a way he’d never seen before.

But then, a light.

Then, the inferno.

She had lit the whole of the land. Her roar impossibly loud and long and she’d risen up, huge, ready to seize the wrath in her claws as if seizing a foal.

Only for her to grab something else. Her flames curled and burned and shone with light near blinding, but they’d faded. And then they’d gone.

Her final prey had dropped, one of the strange, flying ones, but Casca was gone.

“…Casca…” he whispered, shutting his eyes. She had been right.

Sion…

He startled, feeling the burned scratch she’d given him warm. He saw faint embers floating in the dark before him.

They made the vaguest suggestion of a form before him.

It is done… The cycle, once more, complete.

“…C, Casca?” he whispered, staring, hardly able to comprehend what he was seeing, unable to understand how he heard her voice.

Do what I have asked of you, my chosen… go, and tell the others… tell them of the cycle… warn them of its wrath… be my voice…

“C, Casca!” he yelled, her voice fading, the embers he saw slowly fading.

…I hear their song… it is… beautiful…

He heard a faint, satisfied, sigh, and then the embers were gone, as if they’d never been. His burn cooled, and he stared, a soft rain beginning.

“…Casca.” He breathed a final time, giving a long and heavy sigh. He looked at the distant camp a final time, seeing the prey gathering around their cycle, and then turned, and began to walk away. She had asked him something, and he would listen.

Casca might have died that night, but he swore her memory would not. He would bring her story to the others, show them the life behind the flame they all knew. Each and every last lion would hear of Casca, the burning lioness.

Her flame would not perish this night.

And some day, he swore, someday… perhaps not any day he would see, perhaps not a day his sons would see, or even their own, but someday…

They would pay.

Pay for killing his, and soon to be every lion’s, goddess.

The water that touched his burn hissed and vanished.