Chapter nine
Freedom

Author notes: hey ho! I'm back with the new chapter. I feel that this chapter is not one of my best ones, I'll explain better in the next author notes. enjoy

'damn it' lightning thought ' damn it! How did I get here' he tried moving his head but found his muscles useless as bolts of electricity still flowed through them. He looked over at where celestia was laying, her one wing flapping as the electricity caused the muscles inside to contrast. He looked back up at the armored figure seeing him holding the sword above his head,' is this it? I don't want to die like this'

He saw the figure move his arms bringing the sword down, lightning closed his eyes surrendering to his death. He felt a rush of wind in front of his face and small rocks hit him. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that the sword was directly in front of his snout steaming with red mist. He also felt and saw a blue aura around him.

Lightning tried again to move his neck and found that the muscles were now beginning to loosen up. He looked up and saw rarity behind him her horn glowing with the same blue aura that was around him," rarity" lightning asked his voice sounding like a hiccup as those last few volts of electricity bounced around inside him.

" quiet darling and let me handle this" rarity said glaring at the armored figure.

" ra...rarity don't" celestia groaned.

" oh yes little rarity do it! Die for your love!" nightmare moon laughed from her frozen position.

Rarity paid no attention to nightmare but said to celestia," I have to celestia"

" well, well. If it isn't lightning's little lover, rarity. I have no business with you" the figure said raising his sword from the ground and leaned it over his shoulder.

" you tried to kill the pony I love. You have more than just business with me" rarity yelled and her horn glowed blue. The figure laughed," you can't hurt me! You're nothing" he stopped laughing as his right arm exploded turning the armor into a rain of shrapnel. Nightmare moon yelled out as a piece of shrapnel hit her in the face knocking her out. The figure grabbed at where his arm use to be, red mist was leaking out like blood.

" you mere, insolent bitch unicorn! What the hell did you do" the figure yelled out in pain.

" oh it was nothing" rarity said walking around the figure," just a long lost spell that my mother taught me. It allows me to turn pure oxygen into a explosive and you, and guess what! There is oxygen all around us, and even inside you"

" how! Not a single unicorn or even an alicorn has casted that spell in more than a hundred years" the figure said

" well then" rarity said as she stopped walking," I guess I'm the first"

Rarity's usually soft generous face turned into a grim frown," I'm going to make your limbs explode one by one until you're nothing but a torso" she looked at lightning as he was struggling to get to his hooves," then I'll let lightning have his way"

The figure flinched as he heard of what was about to become of him," you can't do this to me! No one defeats me!" he charged rarity thrusting his sword forward with his only arm. The sword went to the side of rarity's head cutting a few strands of her hair as she sidestepped the attack. The damaged armor then rolled into his attack forming himself into a rolling ball of armor. The figure then stood up and charged rarity again. This time he faked a swing of his sword. Rarity fell for the fake swing and was knocked off her hooves as the figure swipe his armored boot at rarity's hooves.

Rarity fell to the ground, but the figure didn't let up his attack. He did a three sixty spin and brought himself to a stop as his boot was now raised. He kicked rarity in her stomach and sent her flying off, landing against the wall of a building.

" no one, I mean no one damages me and walks away alive" the figure said walking over to the laying rarity. She saw him walk over to her and she tried to get to her hooves.

"rarity duck!"

Rarity didn't ask any questions but instantly flattened against the ground. A beam shot through the chest plate of the figure and went into the wall of the building that rarity had slammed into.

The figure let out a yell of pain. The attack from behind gave rarity enough time to crawl away from the armor and rise to her hooves. She looked at where the attack was coming from. She saw lightning runner standing on his hooves and concentrating on the spell. She saw that his stance was uneven and off balance as his muscles still fought small jolts of electricity that remained in his body.

Lightning had to cut the spell off as he fell down, his leg collapsing beneath him. The figure turned around to him, a smoking hole in his chest.

" you bastard. Now I'm going to kill you slowly" he said.

" yoo hoo" rarity called at him a small stream of blood fell from her forehead and her stomach turning red from where it was hit. The figure spun around as he forgot about rarity. Rarity's horn lit up and the figure could feel his left leg swell. His leg exploded just like his arm sending pieces of armor everywhere. The figure waved his arm trying to keep balance but fell over and landed on the ground.

Rarity walked over to the figure and looked down at him," shall we" she asked as her horn lit up again. The figure's other arm swelled up and exploded making him yell out.

" rarity don't" lightning said getting up," this isn't you, don't kill him"

" don't kill him" rarity asked," he almost killed celestia and almost killed you! So why don't I kill him"

" because this act will never leave you, it will scar you for life" lightning said hobbling over to rarity," trust me, I have to many scars on me. Yes, I was planning on killing him but I can't do that now. There is just no more room for scars and you rarity, you don't need to bear any scars"

" then what do we do lightning" rarity asked, " what do we do with a monster like him" she looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears," I just can't watch anypony get hurt, especially you"

" nor can I rarity, at least not any longer" lightning stepped closer to rarity," there is really only one thing to do with monsters like him.

" lock me up eh" the figure asked from his laying position," sorry but I don't plan on being locked up like discord" the figure slammed his helmet against the ground opening up a small hidden panel on the side. He slammed the open panel against a rock and a loud beep began.

" life insurance, if I'm going to die, you're coming with me" the figure said," both of you!"

Lightning didn't know what was going to happened, but whatever it is, it can't be good.

" goodbye lightning runner, goodbye accursed celestia, and goodbye you damn rarity" the figure said before his armor started to swell and crack.

" quickly you two behind me" celestia said as she raised her body from the ground. Lightning and rarity ran over to celestia. The princess of the sun lowered her head and her horn began to glow. A warm golden light formed around herself, lightning, rarity, and the knocked out nightmare moon.

The swelling armor exploded into a massive fireball engulfing the nearby stores and the four ponies. Celestia grinded her teeth together as she tried to keep the shield that she had summoned. Celestia was on the verge of collapsing when the explosion ceased leaving the stores around them blackened and severely damaged, the street where the armored figure had been was now nothing but a black crater.

" princess" twilight said coming out from an alley.

Celestia stopped casting the shield and fell to the ground," twilight, are you okay" celestia managed to ask.

"I'm fine princess, I saw the entire thing. So when he was swelling up I ran into an alley and hid behind some storage crates" twilight explained," I'm completely fine for such a big explosion"

Celestia sighed," good, good"

" are you all right" twilight asked the obvious question.

" I'm okay, just shaken up"

Twilight looked over at lightning who was sifting through the crater that was in the middle of the street. Rarity was standing on the edge of the crater looking down at lightning. Lightning leaned down as he seemed to have found something that caught his attention, he used his magic to lift up half of the helmet that the figure had worn.

Lightning stared at the helmet, his head filling with memories.

"am I finely free from him" lightning asked as he heard rarity walk down to him.

" it sure looks that way darling". Rarity said softly.

Lightning turned around, his eyes had tears in them," you have no idea how good this feels to be free again"

" I'm over delighted for you lightning, I really am"

" thank you for helping rarity, I wouldn't have made it without you" lightning said," I love you too rarity"

Rarity was surprised as he said the last sentence," w...where is this coming from, not that I'm complaining"

" you kissed me before we came here and when you saved me from him you said that you love me"

" I ...I did" rarity blushed.

" you sure did" lightning said nuzzling rarity.

" I guess I did" rarity said nuzzling back," I really love you lightning runner"

" I'm glad you do" lightning said," come on let's get back to celestia"

As they walked out of the crater celestia and twilight were melting the ice around Luna who was now back to normal.

" is she okay" rarity asked.

" she seems to be" twilight said," let's get her back to the castle"

" congratulations lightning" celestia commented," you won"

Is been about two weeks since lightning and the other had defeated the armored figure. During those two weeks Luna had slept without nightmares which she hadn't done since nightmare moon had taken over. Celestia was back to her full health and was now frequently visiting lightning. Twilight had returned to her library to continued her studies. Rarity had moved her living quarters from her boutique over into lightning's home as she considered themselves a couple now.

Today lightning was working on the roof of his house fixing the dozens of leaks. Rarity was inside rearranging the new furniture she had bought for the millionth time that day. Lightning was pounding in a nail when he heard some pony walk up to the house. He peered over the edge of the roof seeing celestia standing there.

" hello lightning" celestia said looking up at lightning," I have good news"

" sweet! I'll be down in a second. Rarity is inside if you would like to sit down" lightning said.

" thank you" celestia said entering the house.

Celestia saw rarity talking to herself and was levitating small furniture all over the room.

" busy again" celestia asked.

Rarity flinched and the furniture she was levitating dropped to the floor," princess! What a delight to see you again" rarity moved a couch over and put the other couch in the room across from the other one.

" what brings you to our little home" rarity said sitting in the couch.

" I have some news for lightning runner" celestia said," he said he would be down soon"

" son of bitch" lightning yelled from outside," argh! Twice! Are you kidding me!" they heard something hit the roof. Lightning threw opened the door and fluttered inside.

" something the matter" rarity asked.

" hit my hoof with the hammer" lightning grumbled. Rarity giggled as well as celestia," oh fine that's way it's going to be? Well then no pony cares about my poor hoof" lightning fluttered off into the kitchen.

" lightning darling" rarity called after him.

" I'm just kidding rarity" he said as he walked back into the living room. He plopped himself next to rarity," so what's this news you have for me" he asked celestia.

" nothing that special" celestia said," I just wanted you to know that I have spoken to the town about you lightning. Most of them understood your actions quite well actually, though some still do have questions about you"

" eh, we all have questions about each other, do we not" lightning said shrugging.

Celestia chuckled," that may be very true" she looked at the two ponies sitting across from her," I have to say, that you two make a cute couple"

" ha" lightning blurted out.

" what do you mean lightning" celestia asked confused now.

" sure we are a couple now. But cute, no, you should've seen us last night. Fighting over furniture and stuff"

" well couples will have their fights" celestia said.

Lightning nodded," I know"

Celestia got up from the couch," well I really must be going now, just wanted to give you the news" she opened the door and walked out," goodbye you two"

" well" lightning getting up from beside rarity," I have to get back to the roof. Don't want your new furniture to get all wet, do you"

" heavens no" rarity gasped and pushed him outside," hurry up and fix it"

" I will, I will" lightning flying up to the roof.

He went back to ripping off damaged shingles, putting new ones on, and hammering nails into them," cute couple huh" lightning said," I can go with that"

Later that day lightning had told rarity that he had to go get more work materials. He had walked through town and found that store he was looking for, except it wasn't the hardware store. But instead it was the jewelry store. Lightning walked into the store and went up to the unicorn store clerk.

The clerk looked up from a diamond he was studying," ah lightning runner. Good news! I finished it just a few hours ago"

" awesome" lightning said as the clerk pulled a piece of cloth from the glass case. The clerk set it on the counter and opened the cloth up. Lightning looked at the ring that was inside the cloth.

" that's perfect" he said as he looked over the details. The ring had a swirl design and on top of it had three diamonds arranged to look like rarity's cutie mark," you did an excellent job"

" ah it's nothing" the clerk said," I'm just glad you like it"

" I just hope rarity likes it" lightning said giving the clerk money for the ring," thanks" lightning grabbed the ring and wrapped it in the cloth again. He trotted outside with a smile on his face. Lightning walked up to his house a quietly snuck inside trying to avoid rarity detecting him. He snuck up to his room and looked around for a safe place to hide the ring.

Lightning's new room had a chest against the wall, a new bed with a nightstand next to it, and he had his old armor sitting on a mannequin that rarity had given him. Lightning went over to his armor and lifted the helmet up. He slid the cloth with the ring in it underneath and set the helmet back down.

He began to pace his room thinking of how to ask rarity.

' take her out to eat? Nah to common. What about a picnic? Ehhhh. How about I surprise her out of nowhere? That's a little risky isn't it? It can't be that risky it's just asking the mare you love to spend the rest of her life with you...holy crap this is hard' lightning kept thinking of ways asking rarity.

After ten minutes of thinking he decide he was just going to play by year. He walked out of his room and tried to sneak back outside but was caught by rarity.

" oh lightning! When did you get back" she asked.

" oh..um.. About ten minutes ago, give or take" lightning said," oh and the roof is almost done"

"wonderful" rarity said," I'm nearly done here, I just can't figure out where to put the couch and last few chairs"

" well why don't you out the couch over there" he said pointing to the far wall," and put the chairs around the table" he said pointing at the table in the middle of the room.

" dear me! Heavens no, do you know what that would do to the look of the room" rarity asked.

Lightning backed up," fine, fine. I'll leave the arranging to you"

Lightning went back outside to finish the roof. He spent the rest of the day and part of the night working on the roof. He was able to finish just before around ten a clock.

Lightning flew upwards to look down on his work," not bad" he commented.

He flew down to the front door and entered the house. Rarity had finished arranging the furniture and was setting the table for dinner.

" what's for dinner" lightning asked.

" Nothing special tonight" rarity said," just some salad"

" that's fine" lightning said sitting at the table.

They ate their dinner in silence and when lightning had finished he announced he was off to bed.

As lightning climbed into his bed he thought of the millions of ways to present the ring to rarity," it feels good to be in love" he said as he drifted off into sleep.

Author notes: okay the transition from end of battle to another "romantic" part felt weird for me and no matter how many times I reread it I couldn't find any other way to write it, I just hope that the next chapter ill feel better about it. Heh heh heh lyonsaki keeps telling me to stop shouting out to him…heh heh ha ha HAHAHA well guess what lyonsaki! I'm shouting out to you! And you know how to stop it. *ahem* anyways I'm out and please leave a review. Ill also answer any questions you have, though if the question be hating on mah story I'm going to ignore them. PEACE!