Sparking a Fyre

Exposed to the elements, a fire will quickly be snuffed out.Sparking a Fyre[Chapter Four: Sacrifice]

Under attack.  Those two words bounced around in Captain Golden Fyre's head as he followed Prince Shining Armor down the corridors, presumably to a well guarded area, with Princess Cadence and his crush, Quick Sylver, close behind, Princess Celestia herself having gone to find her sister, Luna.  Who would have the guts to attack Canterlot Castle?

"Remember that group of ponies I had said weren't very happy with Cadence and myself becoming co-rulers of Equestria with Celestia and Luna?" Prince Shining Armor asked him as they kept up a breakneck pace, sweat starting to pour down all of them.  After getting a nod in confirmation, Shining Armor continued.  "I believe it is they who are assaulting the castle,  they apparently decided to live up to their threats, let's head to the throne room, where court is held, we'll most likely find guards there." He commanded, making a sharp right turn down a large, windowed hallway that overlooked a dark city.

"Wait, dark?" Fyre thought. "It's the middle of the day, it can't be dark..." His thoughts trailed off as he got a better look.  "Clouds....hayseed, they have some disgruntled Pegasai screwing with the weather, this can't get any worse, can it?"  Immediately Fyre scolded himself, he was simply inviting reality to waltz slap him in the face for thinking that, and in a few seconds he got his answer as they burst into the throne room, instantly caught in the crossfire of Royal Guard Unicorns, who were firing blasts of magic from their horns, and the angry civilian ponies, who were lobbing apple pies.  Yes, weaponized apple pies, still steaming at the moment, but, unlike magic, as the battle wore on they would loose their effect as they cooled.  But for now, they were as lethal as anything else if they landed in the right spot, at the very least they would cause some severe sugar burns.  Ouch.

Shining Armor projected a field of magic to protect them from the flying pie as they dashed behind an overturned ornate wooden table.  Behind it they found Sergeant Payne and two rookie guards, Payne being an Earth Pony, with the two guards being Unicorns, horns ablaze as they fired random shots of magic.

"Status report!" Shining Armor barked, letting his shield dissipate after Cadence and Sylver made it into another hallway which had guards pouring out of it to join the fray.

Sergeant Payne gave a brief salute before speaking.  "It's the anti-Shining Armor and Cadence junkies, their numbers are far greater than we thought, they took control of the skies, and have a nasty storm brewing, on the ground they have a few Unicorns but mostly Earth Ponies, they have control of the courtyards and the ballrooms as well, they have made no visible effort yet to get into the Royal Quarters, but we saw a few squadrons of Pegasi break from the weather teams and flank around the castle, I sent a few guards back there, but they'll get overwhelmed quickly."

Shining Armor nodded and turned to Captain Fyre, who had been listening quietly.  "Fyre, I want you to take Cadence and Sylver to the Royal Quarters and meet up with Celestia and Luna, on your way awaken the Lunar Guards and brief them on the situation, send all but two to watch our flanks, don't want anypony sneaking up behind us."  He then turned to Payne.  "Sergeant, I want you and these two Privates to go with Captain Fyre and guard the princesses, do exactly as he commands, understood?" He barked.

"Yes sir!" He got in reply from the usually lazy sergeant.  Apparently the heat of battle rid him of his slacking attitude.

Without a word, Captain Fyre, Sergeant Payne, and the two rookies, who identified themselves as Privates Warthog and Dart, took off into the hallway where a distressed Princess Cadence and Quick Sylver stood.  After giving them a brief rundown of what they had to do, the six took off down one of the less  used side hallways to the Lunar Barracks, a rumble of thunder outside confirming the reports of a storm.  They ran past a large decorative window moments before it was smashed to pieces by two pegasai, who were armed with pie.  Yelling at the others to keep going, Captain Fyre faced off against the two ponies, who hefted their pies while closing in on him.  Fyre took up an intimidating stance, causing one of them to panic for a moment and toss the pie at him.  Fyre went wide eyed as the pie sailed towards his face.  Boom, headshot.  Fyre had been expecting sheer agony from the molten sugar and fruit, worse than anything he ever experienced from metalworking.  But oddly, it was already cooled enough to just be unpleasant and sticky as the pan it was in comically fell on the floor, a perfect face imprint left on it.

"Of course!" Fyre thought, a menacing grin forming on his face. "They were in the clouds flying around, which in turn cooled the pie quicker than it would have just being carried on foot, so as long as they're Pegasai, I shouldn't have a problem!" His revelation about the pies brought back any confidence he might have lost, and by the looks on the Pegasai's faces, they had the same thoughts that he did, only a tad too late.  He chuckled as they tried to flee, and grabbed a hold of them in his magic, bonking their heads together and plopping them on the floor, unconscious.  He looked out the smashed window and felt a strong gust of wind. "I guess I could test my wing invention now, can't hurt, can it?" He looked at the small drop out of the window and deployed the metal wings with his magic, only to have them promptly fall off.  "I probably should have screwed them on, first." He chuckled sheepishly to himself, before taking off running.

On his way to meet up with the others, Captain Fyre passed a patrol of guards and informed their officer of the current situation, and ordered them to proceed to meet up with Shining Armor in the Court Rooms, which had been set up as a holding point for the main force of the guards.  After a few more encounters with pie laden Pegasai, Captain Fyre caught up with the rest of the group, just as they made it to the Lunar Barracks.  Golden Fyre pounded on the door, which was promptly answered by none other than the Lunar Captain herself.  The large Pegasus mare glared at Fyre, who showed no sign of fear.

"What do you want?" She hissed, showing off her razor sharp teeth, getting quiet eep from Quick Sylver.

Golden Fyre didn't flinch under her piercing gaze as he relayed what he had been told.   "The castle is under attack, a large group of disgruntled ponies want Shining Armor and Princess Cadence gone,  they have air superiority right now, as well as control of multiple areas of the castle,  Shining Armor and the other guards have set up a staging point in the Court Rooms, but need more ponies to guard the castle's backside."  He took a deep breath as she eyed the pie bits that still clung to him.

"Are they armed?" She inquired, gesturing for other Lunar Guards to gear up.

"Yes, weaponized apple pies, most ground ponies that have them you need to watch out for, as they're most likely steaming hot, but, as you can see, some of them have cooled enough to not cause harm, mainly being the Pegasai who were up in the clouds, but be careful, a few of them know how to fight." He answered her, before adding.  "Shining Armor requested you send a couple of Lunar Guards with me, we're heading to the Princess's quarters, to make sure nopony gets to any of them."

The intimidating Lunar Guard Captain nodded and went into the barracks, sending two mean looking Lunar Guards out.  Soon, the eight of them were galloping into the hallway with the Princess's rooms.  Cadence and Quick Sylver rushed into Cadence's room, which was at the end of the hallway, and all the guard ponies except Sergeant Payne and Captain Fyre went to get Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

"I guess this is it, Captain." Payne started as they slammed a pair of massive wooden doors shut, separating the hallway from the rest of the castle.

"Don't get all sappy, sergeant, we'll come out of this, don't worry your lazy flank about it." Captain Fyre stated, trying to sound firm, but his voice betrayed his thoughts.  They weren't going to come out of this mess alive.  The Princesses, sure, but not them.  He was startled from his thoughts by a loud thud on the door, followed by a large crack run up the ancient woodwork.  Captain Fyre lowered his head, aiming his horn at the doorway as the doors strained under the pressure of what he assumed to be Pegasai.  He wasn't the best with magic, but he knew a few basic spells, as well as one he had been dying to try.  The doors shattered in front of him and he released a fury of magic bolts.  For lack of a better description, he was a magic Gatling pony, with a near constant stream of magic bolts flying out of his horn and into various assaulting ponies.  He felt his horn heating up, and anypony who bothered to look would have noticed how hot it actually was, turning a glowing white, emitting small clouds of smoke as Fyre slowly wore himself out.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw something.  It was a pie, flying towards him on an almost perfect trajectory.  He had forgotten about them in the heat of the moment, most of them sticking harmlessly to the walls or various parts of his body, but this one was on a beeline for his head, and more importantly, his glowing hot horn, which had started to blacken from the intense amount of power it was being forced to put out.  He decided to ignore the pie until it was milliseconds from impact, then he realized his fatal mistake, but it was too late.  He tried to duck out of the way, but the pie made contact with his horn, and the sweet, syrupy insides instantly superheated, spewing out of the crust, and into his right eye, burning it to oblivion.  He fell back onto the floor and writhed in agony, blackness starting to creep up on him.  He heard a fading scream from behind him, followed by a near blinding flash of light.

"I can't pass out now...not now...I have to save Sylver..." Were his last thoughts before he was claimed by the darkness