Sparking a Fyre

The flame grows, sheltered from the wind.Sparking a Fyre
[Chapter Three: A Day in the Court]

"Ugh, Celestia didn't lie, today is going to suck!" Golden Fyre though to himself as he got ready that morning.  He had spent most of the night working on his special Royal Guard armor, and only managed to sneak in a couple hours of sleep.  "Why does the Princess have to be up so early?  The sun hasn't even risen yet, and she's already scheduled for court duty, I mean really, who has matters so important that they can't wait until after dawn to bug the Princesses about them?!" He shook his head as he put on his Captain's helmet and headed to meet up with Quick Sylver and Princess Cadence. Skipping breakfast, Fyre went straight to the massive room where the court was held.  Upon arriaval he took his place next to Cadence.

"Goodmorning Captain, you look exhausted!" The Princess whispered in his ear.  "You didn't stay up all night, did you?" She inquired, a little bit of concern and scolding creeping into her voice.

Fyre shook his head.  "Not all night, Princess Cadence, I got a few hours of sleep." He told her, which was the absolute truth.  He wasn't going to lie to a Princess anytime soon.

Cadence shook her head.  "I expect you to get more sleep, I understand if you were working, but a sleepy guard cannot perform to the best of his ability, you could at least get some coffee." She told him, the scolding replaced by an almost Celestia-like motherly tone.

"Yes ma'am, won't happen again!" Fyre said swiftly, ignoring the chuckles from other various guards posted in the room.  He stood at attention while the Princess went through the various people and their needs.  More and more ponies showed up as the morning wore on, and Captain Fyre zoned out for the majority of the session, while Princess Cadence and Quick Sylver had to suffer through some of the least reasonable requests and pleas in Equestrian History.  Golden Fyre focused long enough at the end of a tall, wiry ponies presentation.

"...And that, your highness, is why the aglet needs to be banned from Equestria, less somebody get severely injured!" The pony finished, pushing his wire-frame glasses up his nose and letting out a sniffle, smiling proudly of the presentation he came up with.

Princess Cadence was quiet for a moment as she came up with a response.  "Well, um, I'll have to talk to Princess Celestia and Luna before we can come to a conclusion, we'll contact you when we come up with an idea, thank you for your presentation." She told the elated stallion, smiling.  The stallion bowed and walked out of the room, triumphant.

Sylver spoke up.  "Well that was...interesting, either way, we only have one more pony to listen too before we can go, your highness."

Cadence brightened up at the prospect.  "That's great, who is it?" She asked her loyal assistant.

"Somepony named 'Prince Blueblood', your highness, do you know him?" Sylver answered.

Cadence gulped.  "Oh please not him..." She thought to herself before she explained to Fyre and Sylver.  "Yes, he's another royal, somehow related to Celestia, anyhow, he's one of the most stuck up selfish ponies I have ever met, Fyre, if he starts to get really obnoxious I'll want you to escort him out, with force if necessary, and Sylver, I want you to write down every thing he says, so we can talk to Princess Celestia about it, if he gets too out of hand." She instructed the two before nodding to the guard at the door.  "Let him in!"

"Aunt Celly I cannot believe you made me wait with all those filthy peasants in that room!" Blueblood shouted as he walked into the room in a typical Canterlot Snob manner, head high an eyes closed as he walked towards the base of the throne.  Opening his eyes, he realized his mistake.  "Oh, Princess Cadence, what a nice surprise, I guess you will be more helpful than my witch of an aunt, you see, I have a problem, not a single mare is willing to be with me after the incident at the Gala earlier this year, and I believe the foal who thought she could get away with disgracing the royal name be brought to justice, and might I add, if you help, I'll make it worth your while..." Blueblood winked, after finishing his self-centered rant.  Cadence was furious on the inside, but she kept a smile going, and simply nodded to Captain Fyre, who walked over to Blueblood to escort him out of the room.  "Eww, keep your filthy hoofs off me, you ruffian!"  Blueblood cried "This is assault, I will not put up with this kind of treatment!"  Blueblood stood defiantly and used his magic to pick up and throw a vase at Captain Fyre, who simply ducked, spun around, and gave Blueblood a good buck to the chin, who promptly fell unconscious on the cold marble floor.

"A few days in the Royal Dungeons might do you good, Prince Stuckup." Fyre spat at the unconscious figure, motioning for two of the guards to take him away.  He turned to face Princess Cadence, who smiled her approval, and a very beautiful looking Quick Sylver.  As close as they were, they never admitted their feelings to each other.  On occasion something would show,  such as a pet name slipping the tongue, or an accidental trip into the others arms, but neither had the courage to admit it to the other.

"Come, Captain Fyre, Princess Celestia wishes to see the progress on the armor you have been working on." Princess Cadence stated with a genuine smile.  "And frankly, so do I, if my personal guard is going to be wearing it all the time, I want him to look his best, and I'm sure what you have come up with is perfect for the job, and I'm sure Princess Celestia would love to hear what Prince Blueblood tried to do."  After getting a smile in return, Cadence started out of the court room, followed by Quick Sylver and Captain Fyre.

"He did what?!" Celestia and Shining Armor exclaimed in unison, as Quick Sylver told the story of what Blueblood had tried to pull.

"Why that little..." Shining Armor started, the string of words that followed shocked even Celestia.  "I'm going to have to give him a piece of my mind when we're done in here..." Shining grumbled, glancing at the small changing room they had set up in the workshop.

Golden Fyre stepped out of an improvised changing room, wearing the mostly complete Captain's armor for Cadence's personal guard, of which he was the only member.  It was nearly a perfect blend of form and function, taking the best elements of the Solar Guards and Lunar Guards armor and putting them in one.  The armor, on other guard ponies, would be enchanted to turn their manes and tails a royal purple, and match their coats to Fyre's, the Captain himself being the only exception, his helmet gets a frill that matches his mane color, and was slightly more ornate.  The armor itself was a polished silver, compared to gold, The hoof guards were taller, and covered the majority of the lower leg, and the front ones have a knee cover.  The silver body piece has an ornate heart on the front that matches Princess Cadence's cutie mark, to symbolize their affiliation to her, as her guard.  The rest of the body piece is similar to normal royal guard sets, but has small flared edges on the back, to provide extra stability for when the guard was in the air.  And for Unicorn guards, something extra was attached to the back, a pair of mechanical wings, which deploy by the unicorn's magic, which makes the razor sharp front edge of the 'wing' glow.  Now, obviously, they couldn't just open them and take off, they aren't made to actively pull a pony through the air, but they can allow the user to glide down to safety from a reasonable high, say if they fell off a giant cliff or something, and they doubled as one lethal weapon.  They came at a cost, though, and added several extra pounds or weight to the armor, and hadn't actually been tested yet, they were just a prototype, but hey, at least they looked cool.

Captain Fyre had just finished presenting the armor to an amazed Celestia, Cadence, and Shining Armor when they all heard an odd, and very faint beeping.  It was the Castle's alarm system.  Blueblood could wait, they were under attack.