Part 1: Flashfire and Deep Freeze
The war had been going on for 6 years now.
It was as relentless and as consistent as the rain. Millions upon millions had died at the claws of the Changelings.
Those damned black insects. There was nothing that instilled more fury in me than those bugs.
They had torn apart our world, and deep down we all knew that even if the war was won we would never be able to return to how it was.
I was once a part of a legion of brothers. We had gone by many names over the years, first as an inside joke because we thought it sounded cool, but over time we became the face of the war. The 6 most powerful soldiers the kingdom of Equestria had at arms.
We fought for what we loved and so that someday we could return home to our families.
I had a girl waiting for me back then. Fluttershy. I missed her dearly. She, like all the others, had died in a raid years ago led by Chrysalis herself. I remember her remorseless cackle even to this moment. It makes me shudder.
There were just two of us left now. Deep Freeze and I.
Freeze wasn't the same anymore. He no longer had passion left to invest in this war. He was simply going through the motions so that one day he could die with peace of mind. Where once anger and fury emanated from his hoofs was simply ambivalence.
The worse part is that I'm not better. I've lost everything at this point. My lover, my brothers, and my home. No longer could I tap into the raw internal power I once used to mow down hordes of the beasts.
I was getting older, weaker. A bit of gray was beginning to show in my mane. I felt no shame from it, only relief from the assurance that some day I would be old enough to die.
That's what war does to ponies. It takes every bit of hope you have and turns it back against you as a weapon for the enemy. Most nights I don't sleep anymore.
Who am I? My name is Flashfire. "Flashfire the Mad" they used to call me. The right-hoof man of Satan himself.
Those days were past me. I was no longer a public figure. I was simply a myth whispered amongst the troops, brought out alongside Freeze during the most dire of situations.
Today, with the last siege of the castle preparing to take place, was one of those days.
I stood atop the cliffside beside Freeze and neither of us said anything. We didn't need to, there was nothing left to say between us. Over the last six years of war we had said everything we could possibly say. Now, we just knew what was to be done.
A part of me didn't truly believe the war was about the be over. At times it felt like it never would be. Like whoever was writing the script of our lives had simply forgotten, or possibly give up, on any outcome to this madness. We were pawns forgotten within the script of the universe.
Now, our first real chance of an ending was here and we would not hesitate to sieze it. If we toppled the castle, and took the life of the Queen, perhaps peace could finally return to Equestria. This book would be closed for good.
"Are you scared?" I asked Freeze. I had no idea why the words left my mouth. Scared of what? I knew the answer. Scared that there would be nothing left to our stories once this was finished.
"Yes." He responded simply, his voice as cold as the color of his fur. "Of course I am, Sam."
I looked at him with a look of, surprisingly, horror. What was that word he had called me? Why did I know it? It was as if I had been slapped awake from some blessed nightmare, faced with the truth of the vast cosmos all at once.
"What did you say?" I asked him quickly.
"I didn't say anything. We've been standing here in silence. Are you feeling alright?" He looked at me with concern.
The concern was warranted, as now even I was beginning to doubt my mental health. I couldn't shake that cold fear from my heart. What was that word he called me? Even now the memory of it was slipping from my consciousness.
Within seconds it was gone entirely, wiped from the whiteboard of the universe.
We looked out over the hundreds of battalions of troops gathering below us. Armed with machine gun saddles and various mouth-held weaponry, the pure bloodthirst could be felt coming off of them even from up here. It was the same bloodthirst we once felt.
All the troops who knew the horrors of this war had died long ago, leaving the ignorant generations born into it to take over.
I cursed the God that did this to us. That started this war, that birthed us, that put us here today. It was unfair, but it must be finished.
"Alright ponies, at attention!" My voice echoed throughout the valley. I was the last in the line of succession for the throne. Once nothing more than a Captain, now the only face of leadership these young foals had. "Today is the day this finally ends. I want to see your war faces, bitches!" I screamed at them.
They roared and stomped their hoofs in return. They were ready. The air was crackling with electricity. The castle was lingering on the horizon, almost inviting us.
"Move out, soldiers!" Freeze called out to them. His scars were shining bright in the sunlight this afternoon. Never had his missing eye been more inspiring.
The troops turned from us and charged toward the hellishly red horizon.
I turned to Freeze and, before he could know what was happening, kissed him on the lips. I held it for but a few seconds before letting him go, but showed no shame in my face.
He looked at me with surprised, wide blue eyes. "What was that?" He asked me breathlessly.
"Something I've been waiting to do for a long time. In case we never see each other again." For some reason tears began to well in my eyes. I had no idea why.
We outnumbered those insects a hundred to one, there was no way we could lose, and yet I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Like after this things would really be over. What would we be without this narrative we had been living?
Before I could think further he kissed me back, harder and longer. We held each other for as long as we thought we could. Then we turned back to the castle and joined the rumbling charge.
The distance between us and that tower seemed effortlessly short. Before I knew it the battle had started.
The insects began appearing from seemingly nowhere. In truth we were marching over an intricate series of underground tunnels that they were now piling out of.
Metal slashed, bullets flew through the air, and the smell of insectoid blood stung my nostrils like a whiff of acid vapor.
All around me gore and blood splashed through the air and poured out under our feet. The splashing sound of marching through guts I knew would never leave my mind.
I raised my sword and took a swing, slicing right through the neck of one of the things. After that first swing the rest came in a blur. They simply exploded into blood in front of me as I barely even thought about what I was doing.
For the first time in months I thought I started to feel a spark of flame come off of my body. Perhaps it was just the rare optimistic thought that is dredged up by victory.
Soon the path was cleared for the door to the castle. I located Freeze within the mass of bodies and nodded at him, both of us immediately making a break for the entrance. The others could handle what troops remained.
At the base of the stairs I, for the first time in months, released my wings.
Crust and dirt gathered from misuse fell to the ground around me. Freeze mounted me from behind and suddenly we were airborne, propelled directly upwards at an insane speed.
It felt freeing to be airborne, like I was a young foal again.
As we soared past the stairs I thought I saw someone else, making his way towards the top. A pony I had never seen before. He had piercingly yellow hair and strange markings all along his body, not unlike a Zebra. All the Zebras had died long ago, however. And how had he gotten ahead of us? Perhaps I was simply imagining things.
We reached the top of the tower and found ourselves in an expansive throne room.
The décor was disgusting and alien to us. The art, geometry, and textures could never be known to us. These had been created by some disgusting underground race thousands of years ago. Today it would fall.
Chrysalis was waiting for us. She sat there in her throne, unnaturally tall and scrawny. She looked more disgusting than ever as if it had been days since she had ate. The terror in her eyes probably meant this was true.
Immediately after locking eyes we both knew she was about to die.
But then, a blinding light filled the room. I opened my eyes to try and desperately see through the sheen but could only make out a silhouette. It was a pony standing there in the center. Was he the source of the light?
"Who are you?" I called out.
The light died out as if in response to my question. Standing there was the very same pony I thought I had seen on my way up the stairs. He had gray fur and indeed have Zebra markings across his body. A half-breed? He pulled a letter out of his blue vest and threw it across the room, landing before my hooves.
"My name is Lightning. You can't do this, Flashfire. If you kill her now your world, your story, will cease to exist. You will be done. Is that really what you want? You are simply players in someone else's game."
I reached down and picked up the manila envelope. I retrieved the contents and was horrified to see what was inside.
There was a photo of two pink, fleshy creatures. They had hair growing out in random patches across what seemed to be a head. Their faces were flat and their moves curved into some unnatural smile. The one on the left, what seemed to be the male, looked familiar to me.
The word Freeze had spoken to me before now returned to my mind: "Sam". What was this Sam? Was he the one in control of this "story" Lightning spoke of?
The rest of the contents were drawings, the subjects of which couldn't possibly be true. They were drawings of me, Freeze, Fluttershy, and everyone else. Drawings of the war. Drawings of me and Flutters at our most intimate moments. What God being could have produced this?
"Who are you?" I asked Lightning.
"I am like you. A construct, made to entertain. I am the one who ended Discord, who led the revolution against Atlantea. Now, I must go."
Before I could say another word he was simply gone. No flash of light, no portal, just gone. I looked back over at Freeze. He looked back at me without any change to the expression on his face.
"What are you waiting for?" He asked me.
"What about Lightning? What he said?" I asked, stunned that he could care so little for that warning.
"Who the fuck is Lightning?" He asked me coldy.
I had made it all up. I was just getting inside my own head. I was simply scared.
I looked at Freeze and he nodded me forward. He wanted me to be the one to end it.
I charged forward, flame gathering around me as my trot gained speed. I could feel my eyes, my throat, my fur, burn all around me. My power was growing. I gripped the steel blade in my mouth once more and lunged forward.
I landed right before her, plunging the blade right through her chest. Flame pumped through the steel, entering her body and exploding from all orifices like a volcano. Once the flame died out I withdrew the blade and looked down at the crispy husk before me.
Pitiful. The source of all the pain in our lives, the one who took everything from us, had fallen so easy.
I turned back to look at Freeze but no one was there.
"Freeze?" I called out and was scared by the echo that called back to me. Where had he gone? Why did I feel, deep down, that he was gone forever?
I turned back to Chrysalis and was presented an empty throne.
Something was horribly wrong. Lightning was right. I knew it.
I could feel an emptiness inside me now. I could feel the memories disappearing from my mind. Fluttershy, Equestria, the Changelings, all of it was gone in an instant.
For a few seconds I stood there with no idea of who I was or what was going on. I was an infant in an empty world. Then, like everything else, I was gone.
The last memory I have is a single word.
"Racecar."
I wake up in a cold sweat. I was still in my bed, in my home. Yet I felt like I had been gone for years.
I had a faint memory of my dreams from that night but nothing more than that. I saw a desert, a castle, and an old face I hadn't thought of in years…Flashfire. My old friend, the character I had created as a child to escape the world. Why did the memory of him come back to me now?
I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head and looked around my room.
I lived in a nice house in the Montana countryside. My wife was sound asleep next to me. In truth this was nothing more that a vacation home for the Winter, but it always felt more like home to me than the White House.
I slowly got out of bed, being quiet enough to not wake the wife. She had a big day tomorrow. Lots of meetings and signings, as usual.
It was a rare day that we got to actually see each other before the sun went down. And even then, it was just business for her. Once we were done discussing strategy she would retire to bed, usually without saying goodnight. I would instead retire to the garage and practice my guitar until I could barely keep my eyes open.
I looked out the window, at the beautiful country that we now ruled. No, that she ruled. I was simply a tool for her. I was The Secretary of Defense, at least in title. She simply told me what to do and I followed.
Together we had more power than any family in American history before us.
We met when I was still a commander and she was a state politician. Now look at us, how far we had come. I should be proud.
She is the first Jewish president, after all. She never let me forget that fact, not that I ever would be able to.
Deep down, though, all I felt was emptiness. A longing for older, simpler times. With my buddies back home. I often wonder what became of them.
The A.S. had disbanded more than a decade ago, when we were younger and more hopeful men. Some had left the country, some had moved back home, and some…some never could move on at all.
As I thought of this, for a moment, I thought I saw Flashfire in the reflection of the window instead of me.
I returned to bed and gently shook my wife's shoulder. I couldn't shake the hints of that dream from mere minutes ago and felt the need to speak of it out loud. Something about it shook me to my core. Something about Lightning, about what he said.
"Nat? Wake up, Nat. Please." I whisper to her softly.
She rolls over and looks at me with crusty, sleepy eyes. There was no passion in them, just an annoyed, shallow acknowledgement of my words. "Yes?" She responds quietly.
"I had a dream." I speak down to her softly.
"Okay?" She responds, clearly confused as to why this mattered.
In her defense it isn't often that a dream impacted me like this. In truth, I couldn't think of the last time I had dreamed at all. Not since the A.S. disbanded, actually.
"Do you remember why the A.S. broke up?" I asked her softly once more.
"What? No, I barely knew you back then. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. Just been thinking. I had a dream about Flashfire."
"What is a Flashfire?" She asked.
That's right, I never had told her much about my past. I wasn't sure if that was out of shame or, what was now becoming apparent to me, how much I seemed to have forgotten.
I could not remember why the A.S. broke up. I couldn't remember specifically where any of them had gone.
Now that I was thinking about it, I couldn't remember coming to bed last night either. I was nearly positive I had fallen asleep in the garage as usual.
"It was just a dream. But at the end he said something to me. Lightning. I can't get the word out of my head."
"Well, what is it?" Suddenly she seemed interested in my story. More interest than she had shown in anything I'd said in the last decade.
"He said…Racecar." It was a funny word. A word that was the same word if spelt either forwards or backwards.
However, her eyes filled with horror as I uttered the words.
In a flash she reached under her pillow and pulled out the pistol she keeps there. Without hesitation she lodged a bullet right in my right shoulder. Then another, grazing my ear. She was aiming for my head.
I throw myself backwards off the bed, kicking the gun out of her hand in the process. The weapon flies through the air and lands on the other side of the room.
I hurry to the dresser and grab my phone, desperately hoping I still knew the code. I opened the A.S. Secured Network and frantically typed in my message.
"Urgent: Location Updates Needed ASAP. Immediate Danger Incoming."
I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is what needed to be done. I had to find them and tell them everything. They were all in danger and we would only be able to survive together. Just then I heard the pistol cock behind me once more.
She had found the gun.
End of Part 1