Pyre

Twilight and her friends have been wondering around the city for a few hours now, asking the various crystal pony’s questions, questions they hoped would help them figure out how to help stop Sombra. But none of the ponies could help. Every pony the group talked to was in like a depressed, or a really drained state, their coats were pale and dull, and they all looked very depressed. What also alarmed the group was the fact that every one of the crystal ponies seemed to have collected amnesia, as none of them seem to remember mostly anything during Sombra’s reign. As for Pyre, he was mostly just wondering around the city, taking in everything he sees, while occasionally asking a crystal pony for any information. But they all either didn’t respond, had anything to say, or fled at the sight of him.

“Did any pony find anything?” Twilight asked her friends as they gathered in the square, in front of the castle. Although from their disappointed looks they didn’t seem to learn anything.

“I got squat.” Rainbow grumbled as she scuffed a hoof on the ground.

“I got nothing as well.” Rarity said as she looked at her hoof for a moment, before looking back at her friends

“I’m sorry Twilight none of the ponies could tell me anything.” Fluttershy said as gingerly scuffed the floor. When they all looked to Pyre when he eventually showed up, he just shrugged and shook his head.

When Pyre joined up with the four mare’s the group was startled when Pinkie Pie drop down out of nowhere, while wearing a black sweater and a pair spec goggles on her head, while looking around as if she was being spied on. Removing her ‘gear’ the pink pony quickly rushed up to Twilight, still looking around as if on the look-out for something, and whispered.

“My cover has been blown; I repeat: my cover has been blown!” The group just looked at each other as Pinkie scurried off to…somewhere, feeling very confused onto what Pinkie meant. As for Pyre, he looked the most confused out of them all, but in the end decided not comment on what just happened.

“Ah’m sorry Twilight but it seems all these crystal ponies have some sort of collected amnesia, or someth’n. None of them can remember a dag-gong thing during Sombra’s rule.” Applejack said as she joined her friends.

“So we all came up with squat then.” Pyre said as he rubbed his head.

“I’m afraid so Pyre, none of these ponies seem to remember anything.” Rarity said as she gestured to a few crystal ponies, who walked past them.

“The only thing I got out of some was something about a, library.” The moment the word ‘library’ left the farm ponies mouth, Twilight was right in Applejacks face. a big grin on her face.

“A library! Why didn’t you say anything!?”

“Ugh, I thought I just did.” Applejack said with a sheepish smile.

Not a second later & Twilight was already running towards where the library was, once Applejack told her where the crystal ponies said it was, the others shrugged their shoulders with small smiles, and started to follow their friend. As the group caught up with Twilight they really started to look around the empire, really seeing that not only that the ponies looked dulled or bland, but even the buildings looked like they lost some of their luster. After following Twilight for about five minutes the group eventually found the library, which Pyre found funny as the unicorn seemed to have a radar for anything meant to store books. Upon entering the building the group saw scores of books on large shelves, and Pyre could swore that he heard Twilight’s smile gasped in childish glee as she gazed upon the books, and the smile he was seeing on the mare’s muzzle…pretty much made him chuckle.

“This is…I just…There are. No. Words.” Twilight gushed as she looked on, nearly on the brink of crying out tears of joy.

“Settle down there Twilight, we’re here to find anything that can help us.” Pyre said as he patted the mares back, who was just gazing longingly at the rows upon rows of books.

“May I help you?” the group turned to see an elderly mare wearing a pair of glasses, and an old dress. She doesn’t seem to be as drained as the others, but her complexion is still as dull.

“We’re looking for a book.” Twilight said ad turned to face the mare.

“We have plenty of those.”

“You do. You really do!” Twilight gushed as she twirled in place as she looked at all the books.

Since Twilight was obviously to distract by the books, the group asked the mare if there was any history books, or something that described any events during Sombra’s rule, or if there was something that helped defend the empire. However the mare was unable to remember anything, she wasn’t even sure if she was the librarian or not, it would appear that Applejack was right about these ponies having some kind of amnesia. So taking their chances the group decided to look around the library themselves. An hour has gone by since the group ventured into the library, and they made their way through one section of the library to the other, and going through scores of books looking for anything that could be useful.

Fluttershy was checking books on the ground, while Rainbow was knocking books off the top shelves by skating by on one of the rolling ladders. As for Applejack she was going through the books her friends knocked down, mostly flipping through them, looking for anything referring to Sombra. Pinkie was using her springy tail to bounce to various shelves grabbing random books, so that the others could check them. Pyre was working with Rarity & Spike, going through several stacks of books the others knocked down, searching for anything useful. Meanwhile Twilight was gathering a large amounts of books, and piling them into a large pile as she scanned through them.

“Anyone else feeling this is a lost cause?” Applejack asked as she tossed away her twenty-sixth book to the side, flopping down against the others. “I’m starting to feel like we’re wasting our—"

“Yes!”’

Twilight shouted victoriously, prompting the rest of the group to move to her location, and see what she has found. The Book the unicorn was holding was a large reddish-brown book, with gold lettering and several different colored gems on the cover was laying before the group.

“History of the Crystal Empire. I just hope it has the answers we need?” Twilight said as she started to flip through the pages of the book, her friends standing by her side hoping she would find the answer.

~~~~~

After discerning that the book she found was the one they were all looking for, Twilight headed to the castle to report her findings. As Twilight was standing in the throne room with Cadence & Shining Armor, going over the old history book she found, and was telling the pair of some kind of festival that the crystal ponies did, in order to generate the love & light that was needed to keep the empire safe, the royal pair then decided on what the group should do. With this festival the only viable option currently on the table, the married pair told Twilight to go ahead and get things set up, while they try to keep the barrier up until then. Once Twilight has told the others what the plan was, everyone was floored about the idea.

When they were all getting things set up, Pyre was mostly keeping a look out for King Sombra, but as he was doing that for some reason the girls just broke out into a musical number, with background music popping in out of nowhere. It sort of reminded Pyre of the musical numbers that happened in the Phineas & Ferb show, and just like those musical numbers the activities the girls were doing, seemed to go by in mere seconds. There was even some points of the song where Pyre felt the need to chime in, despite not knowing the lyrics, or even what the song was about. And when the whole preparations for setting up the festival was done; Pyre was just bewildered by the whole experience.

“Seriously how can you guys just break into song like that, and turn hours of work…into a small chore down in fifteen minutes?” Pyre asked as he tried to wrap his head around the musical number.

“Tis the power of musical numbers!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced around in place. Pyre just shook his head, as he sighed in exhaustion.

“…I’ll just take your word for it Pinkie.”

“Well now that everything is set up, let’s spread the word.” Rainbow Dash said but it didn’t seem that her idea was needed, as the crystal ponies were already flooding in.

While the ponies were starting to flood into the fair, Twilight and the royal couple made an announcement that the fair was now in full swing. And at Twilight’s announcement the ponies started to mingle, and surprisingly, the ponies were actually starting to look more lively! Even their coats were gaining back their crystal luster, before fading back into more brightly colored coats. Pyre was actually surprised to see the ponies get their color back, and was even happy that none of the ponies were gawking at him, or making rude comments. In fact many ponies were walking up to him when they see him, and started to ask questions, like who or what he was.

“Well so far things seem to be going fairly well.” Pyre said as he stood next to Applejack, taking small bites out of a corn on a cob.

“Let’s just hope things stay this way.” Applejack said to the human. Even now she was still a little weary of the human, and yet she doesn’t know why.

“Something wrong Applejack, you seemed to have blanked out for a bit.” Pyre asked as he looked at the mare.

“It’s nothing.” Applejack lied, her muzzle scrunching up a bit. Pyre didn’t push the issue and decided to leave the farmer.

Things were going pretty smoothly with the fair so far, the girls have been running around and ensuring that the ponies were kept happy, and everything ran smoothly. As for Pyre he just wandered around, even passing by Twilight a while ago and she seemed to be finishing up some kind of, makeshift idol or something. It looked like she was making a paper mâché flag post. While wondering around the fair, checking up the rest of the girls, everyone seemed to be having fun. Pinkie was even dressed up like one of those old timey jesters, while Rarity was at a craft’s booth making pretty much anything, and Fluttershy was working some the crystal sheep and other animal petting zoos. Pyre haven’t seen much of Rainbow Dash, or for that matter Spike, it’s like those two up and vanished. But their probably wondering around like he was, making sure everything was going alright.

“Mommy, what kind of pony is that?” Pyre turned to see a little filly and her brother, standing beside their mother, as she pointed at me.

“Sweetie it’s not polite to stare.” The mare said to her foal before looking up at Pyre. “I’m so sorry sir, we’ve never seen any pony like you before, and my foals were just curious.”

“Its fine ma’am, curiosity is great for kids.” Pyre said as he smiled and waved at the trio, making the foals giggle. “Unfortunately I’m a little busy at the moment, but please continue to enjoy the fair.”

The family waved Pyre goodbye as they went off to enjoy the fair. As for the human he continued his rounds and making sure these ponies remained happy, while also interacting with more ponies that were just as curious as to what I was. But most importantly he was always keeping an eye out at the barrier, if it started to waver, that probably means that Sombra is attacking & trying to get in.

As the festival continues on, and Twilight & her friends continue to make rounds around the festival, ensuring the crystal ponies are kept happy. Pyre was making his way towards where he left Scorch at the border, but as he was halfway to his destination, something was caught on the edge of his right eye. The sight of Erosa, signaling him to keep moving. When the human reached his titan, Erosa revealed herself, and leaned up against Scorch’s right leg.

“So, did the plan work?” the scout leader asked.

“E’yup.” Pyre said as he stood side-by-side with Erosa, looking out into the tundra. “I’m now employed by the princess of Love. And I gotta say, she looks like a candy barbie toy.”

“A what?” Erosa asked as she looked at the human.

“Human thing. Just forget about it.” Pyre said with small chuckle, and waving a hand, causing the scout leader to quirk a brow and shrugging his shoulder.

“Anyway, has the Queen given me any specific details of my infiltration?” Erosa nodded.

“She wants you to infiltrate the ponies inner circle, and wither try to lower their defenses from the inside, or try to learn anything that can help the changelings to weaken them.” Erosa said as she looked out into the Tundra as well.

“The others and I will head back to the Hive, so you’ll be on your own.”

“Will I stay in contact with the Hive, or will I be cut off?” Pyre asked as he looked at the curvy changeling mare, who reached into a small satchel on her waist, and pulling out what looks like a small stone beetle.

“This will allow you to get in touch with me.” Erosa said as she hands the beetle to the human, and leaning in to give him a small kiss. But she was stopped by Pyre, who placed a finger on her lips, while giving a small smirk.

“No kissing unless we have a first date.” He said jokeningly, which Erosa only smiled back.

“Very well then.” Ersoa chortled as she walked off, tail sliding across Pyre’s right thigh. “See you later.”

As Erosa leaves the empire, Pyre tucked the beetle into his jean pocket, and looked up to Scorch. Patting his titan on the leg, Pyre headed back to the Empire, but just as he took five steps…the shield around the empire began to sputter. And the deep rumbling groans of Sombra echoed through the tundra. Quickly running over to Scorch, the titan stirred to life, and grabbed his piolet and placing him into the cockpit. Once Pyre was inside, Scorch readied himself for a fight by cracking his metal knuckles, before pulling out his Thermite Launcher.

“Alright Sombra…I’m ready for you this time.”