Will of Fire

Chapter 32 - Shamefur dispray!

By: TheXIIILightning

"Let me get this straight, you want me to fight against your guards?" I asked Shining Armor.

I was at the Mess Hall right now, eating lunch with a few soldiers that were on a break.

Since I overslept in that small cloud last night, I didn't arrive in time for breakfast, and even lunch, so they refused to let me use the private kitchen for a quick snack. Luckily, they still had a few daffodil sandwiches hidden in here.

Shining Armor and his squad had just finished their morning workout, and when they came to have a late lunch, they decided to keep me company. At least Shining did, everypony else was busy chatting and laughing amongst themselves.

The little talk I had with him was short, but still nice. We talked about last night of course...

He told me that Twilight had been really shaken over what happened, Princess Cadence had a hard time making her feel better. After a couple of hours, Rainbow Dash knocked on their door and apologized to Twilight. She still didn't tell them why she acted the way she did, but Twilight didn't want to pry. Afterwards, Cadence had prepared them a cup of hot cocoa and Rainbow spent the night with them.

Overall, everything is back to normal with those two, well... sort off.

I told Shining about that little scene at the bar, it's better if he heard it from me, than from some complaint at the citadel. Luckily he just shrugged it off and told me that it was okay, as long it was in self-defense.

But now he's asking me to fight against his guards!

Yeah, he managed to get me an audience with Luna tonight. He also let me off the hook for last night, but then again, I don't want to fight his squad! I might hurt them!

"You heard me Light. You and my boys are training together for the day, whether you like it or not." A bunch of "Hoora's" sounded from the guards around me. Are these unicorns that stupid?

"I know what this is all about!" I stomped a hoof on the table. "It's for making you embarrass yourself at dinner last night!" He shook his head.

"I don't say it is, but that's certainly a valid point. Thank's for bringing it up." He smirked, crossing his forelegs. "So here's the deal, either you fight my boys, or you clean the barracks. Your choice."

"W- What!? You can't make me do that!" I jumped on the table, knocking my empty mug over.

"Yes I can, you're part of the guard now, so you have to follow orders like anypony else." Damn, he kinda has a point...

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked Shining, and his squad at the same time. They all cheered.

"Fine." I sighed. "But I have a few rules and handicaps I want you to follow." I looked at Shining, he motioned a hoof for me to continue.

"Rule number one, no magic. I won't use my wings, and you won't use your horns. Okay?" They cheered with another "Hoorah!"

"Rule number two, no weapons. I won't use my sword, and you won't use anything aswell. I want a clean hoof to hoof fight, Okay?" Another round of cheering sounded across the mess hall.

"Rule number three, absolutely NO cheap shots!" I laughed while pointing at my groin, so did everypony else.

"As for handicaps..." I paused for suspense, they were wondering how I would handicap them. "I will only fight three of you at once, if I get bored we can try four or five. How does that work for you?"

Shining Armor's squad, that was mostly composed of recruits, was laughing really loudly at what I just said, like it was some sort of joke. They are part of Shining's squad because he's supposed to train them, not because they are strong or experienced. It's safe to say that they haven't received the same kind of training I did, and Shining knew that.

The look on his face suggested that, he's most likely trying to show some humility to those guys, and he's using me to do so. Lazy son o-

"Hey kid!" Some guy slapped me on the back. Kid? I'm likely a year older than you! "Are you sure you want to do this? You don't look so tough, I'm afraid that I'm going to break you." He started laughing loudly, and so did his friends, while Shining Armor just sighed and facehoofed. After glaring a bit, I gave him a small smirk while tapping my chest.

"Hey, you want to know how I got these scars?"

"What!? THAT'S IT!?" I yelled to nopony in particular.

I haven't even started sweating yet, I fought five of these punks at the same time, and I didn't have to give a single punch. They were stupid enough to charge at me at the same time, and haven't bothered to make a strategy. It was a really sad sight.

The first two ponies that went down took each other out. I heard the one behind me charging, and from the head movement from the one at my right, I knew that he was slightly to the left of me. The one charging at my front was going for a headbutt so I had to change my center of mass quickly, luckily the one behind me had already forced me to do so, so the second attack was pointless. Freakin' Rookies...

After moving slightly backwards, and a step to the right, the pony at my front headbutted his partners chest, taking the air out of his partners lungs, and rendering himself semi-unconscious.

The pony that I observed earlier at my right, took the chance to turn around and try to buck me. But since I was using him to check on his partners location, attacking me straight away was really stupid.

To counter his buck, I only had to lower my head slightly and trip his right foreleg with my left hindleg. After doing so I took a few more steps forward and turned around.

Now I only had two potentially scared ponies, and one angry one. A bad combination for their side.

As the angry one charged at me, eager to take his revenge for me tripping him, decided to break the rules and started sweeping his horn around, trying to cut me.

Shining Armor noticed it and was about to end the fight, but I ended it sooner.

When he was in mid-swing, a downwards swing might I had, I gently tapped him on the head so he got his horn stuck on the ground. He was coming at me with such speed that he did a front flip and ended on his back, panting loudly. That's three down, two to go.

I felt somepony grabbing me from behind, and I only noticed one pony ahead of me. It seems like those two forged a plan while I was distracted with the angry one. This is what Shining wants me to teach them, that teamwork is way better than skill.

I saw the pony ahead of me begin his charge, he only had to reach me and punch me one time to end the match. They were not allowed to use their horns to immobilize ponies, so that would mean the match is won and over. But sadly, it doesn't matter if your teamwork is great, when you lack the skill to use it.

The pony grabbing me was using a lot of force on his upper body, and his hind legs were slightly separated, and since he was tugging me at equal intervals, I had two ways to get out of this situation.

I could either wait for the guy to come closer for the punch, and lower my head at the last second, making him punch the pony that was holding me.

Or I could either use the guy's own force to flip over him, since I was a pegasus my lightweight body was more than able to do so.

I choose the fun option, the first one.

When the 4th guy hit the ground, the poor colt him front of me was really scared. So scared that he fainted.

"OH COME ON!!!"

"Lightning, would you care to explain to these terrible excuses of a guard, what they did wrong?" Shining Armor asked me, after verbally assaulting his troops. I gave him a "Do I have to?" look, but he just glared daggers at me.

"Fine..." I went forward to face the five guards that I fought earlier. "You!" I pointed at the largest of the five, the one that tried to kill me. He already apologized so I held no grudge. Heat of the battle and such.

"If you loose your cool in battle, you're dead. Plain and simple. That's what you did wrong, I won't even have the trouble of mentioning anything else." He nodded his head.

"You two!" I pointed at the two ponies that rammed each other. "If you see your teammate attacking, you don't do the same thing! Or else you're just getting in the way." They nodded.

"And now you two." I face the two last ponies. "You were the ones that worked together, but you only did so out of fright. If you had a strategy from the start, I would have lost. Your plan was great and all, but if you lack confidence in your skills then you're surely going to fail." They nodded and Shining took my place.

"Thank you Lightning, now hopefully they'll learn something out of this." He glanced at them and snorted. "You're free to go, dinner is almost served so everypony must be there already. I won't hold you any longer, but please tell Twilight I won't be coming so soon."

"Why?" He smirked.

"I'll be keeping and eye on these guys, they'll be running two laps around the city and do a hundred push-up's!" He yelled at them. Yikes...

They winced but replied "Sir, yes Sir!" before running off.

"Don't worry, I'll be there when you meet the Princess."

I nodded and took my leave. When I was sure that nopony was seeing me, I smelled my armpit. Ha! Not a sweat. Looks like I can shower later.

Food! Here I come!

"How was your day, Trixie?"

Trixie and I were eating our meal alone, making small talk and what-not.

Sunshine and Sparrow were together again, I don't know if they are planning on dating again, but I sure hope they do. There's nopony else that I would trust Sunshine to. He and I may be out of terms right now, but he's still my brother, and we both want what's best for Sunshine.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were together aswell, reading some Daring Do book while they ate. Funny, I never imagined Rainbow as the kind of pony that liked books. She was smiling and laughing occasionally, whatever troubled her earlier seemed to be sorted out, definitely I hope.

"Trixie's first day was splendid! Everypony loved her show, she even got to perform an encore. AN ENCORE! Nopony ever asked Trixie for an encore!" She was giddy with excitement, I'm glad everything is working out for her.

"She got plenty of tips and the place was full, mostly because of Trixie of course. The owner noticed it aswell and even offered Trixie to work an extra shift!" Oh no...

"But Trixie had to refuse, it was her first day, and to work in that place at night doesn't seem very safe, even for Trixie." Phew, I'm glad she remembered our talk.

"But enough talking about Trixie, how was your day, Light?"

"It was nothing much, really. Shining Armor asked me to train his squad and so I did." I nudged her shoulder and whispered loudly. "A shameful lot might I tell you, I didn't even break a sweat." She pushed my shoulder lightly and giggled.

"Oh, don't be like that. Trixie's sure they tried their best." I nodded.

"Yeah, and their best sucked." We both laughed a bit at that and I heard Trixie snort. What?

"Trixie did you just... snort while laughing?" Trixie's face was a deep shade of crimson and I had a toothy grin.

"N- No, it must have been a window or something. Trixie does not do that." Her blush deepened and she turned her head away from me. I heard her sniffing, most likely trying to clean her snout.

"D'aawww Trixie, don't be like that. I think it's cute." I poked her lightly on the ribs, causing her to let out a small 'eep'. I started laughing a bit more loudly, but not enough to disturb anypony else.

"Ugh! You're impossible sometimes!" She punched me lightly on the foreleg and huffed. Crossing her forelegs and turning her head away, her snout pointing straight up.

"Twixie, you aren't making it any better." I said in a sing song voice.

"D- Don't call Trixie that!" She turned towards me again.

"What, Twixie?" I said again, my smile getting bigger.

"Yes, please don't call Trixie that!" She glared at me, it was more cute than scary.

"Hmmm, I don't know..." I made it look like I was thinking. "I think that would be a great pet name for you."

"P- Pet name?" Her blush deepened even more. It was adorable.

"Yeah, and tell you what. I'll even let you pick one for me." I said, pointing a hoof to my chest.

"If you put it that way, Trixie might be interested..." She put a hoof to her chin thought. "How about... Lighty?"

"Haha, 'Lighty'? That's the best you could think of?" I laughed a bit more loud this time, earning the attention of Sunshine down the table. Trixie gave a smug grin.

"Don't blame Trixie, you're the one that's thinking about pet names." I blushed a bit, and so did her.

"Touche... Twixie." This time Trixie snorted, then started laughing.

"So, what's going on here?" Sunshine spoke shortly after we stopped laughing.

"Lightning though of a pet name for Trixie." She spoke, teasing me a bit.

"OH!" Sunshine squealed. "I didn't know you two were dating!" She practically yelled at the table, earning the attention of everypony else.

"S- Sunshine, we aren-" Trixie and I looked like tomatoes right now, but Sunshine kept squeeing and yelling.

"This is great, I also have to pick a name for Spa-" She squealed again. "SPARROW!" She looked at the end of the table, Sparrow was feeling a little embarrassed by how Sunshine was acting, thankfully we were only among friends. She looked at us again.

"Sparrow and I are going on a date tomorrow, we should make it a double date!" She eyed us closely, waiting for our answer.

"But Sunshine, Trixie and I aren't dating!" She just grinned.

"So?" She said.

"So?" I lifted my brow.

"Yeah, so what." She shrugged. "If you two aren't dating then you should, you're perfect together." Trixie was going to say something but Sunshine cut her off. "And tomorrow would be the perfect day to do so, you'll go out with me and Sparrow. Talk, have some fun together and that's it!" She jumped down of the table and put a foreleg around both our shoulders, making Trixie and I get even closer.

"And if you two happen to fall in loooove..." She shook us at every 'o' she said. "the better!"

"Trixie's not sure..." Trixie said, her face burning red.

"Yeah, I don't know Sunshine..." I was exactly like her by now. Sunshine rolled her eyes and went towards Twilight and Rainbow.

"Hey Twilight, don't they look cute together?" Twilight looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Sunshine, you shouldn't be asking me that. That is a very personal question that should only be dea-" Sunshine rolled her eyes.

"Twilight, yes or no. Are they cute together?" She stared down at the poor unicorn.

"Well, I'd have to say yes, but from a social poi-"

"Thank you!" Sunshine cut her off. "Rainbow Dash, do they look cute together?" Rainbow turned her head and looked closely at me, clearly enjoying the flushed state I was in. After a short laugh she raised her hoof and said.

"Totally, go get her tiger!" Jee, thanks a lot Rainbow...

"That's settled then, we'll all meet tomorrow at the "Drunken Mare", after Trixie's shift ends." She said, hopping towards Sparrow, who looked uncomfortable, and nuzzled his neck.

"Sunshine, you can't ju-" I noticed a door opening and Shining Armor enter the room, accompanied by Princess Luna.

After a quick bow, the Princess calmly spoke.

"Greetings everypony, I hope you have enjoyed your meal." Everypony mouthed a few words of appreciation.

"I am glad, now if you would kindly follow me towards my personal chambers, I believe..." She gave me a small glance, as if to remember my name. "Lightning, asked for a private audience with us, I mean... I." She made a slight slip of the tongue.

"Yes I did, you highness. And I appreciate you could grant such an honor in just a quick notice." She frowned slightly.

"Please my dear subject, address me simply as "Luna", and do spare the mannerisms. I do appreciate the pleasures of a well articulated conversation, but there are times where one just wishes to relax from such a eloquent manner of speaking."

Yeah, my head was starting to hurt, I managed to pick up a few expensive words from Trixie while we grew up, also from the streets, but it get's tiring after a while.

"Of course... Luna." She gave me a small smile, I could see a little of mischief in there.

"Thanks." Was all she said, giggling a bit after saying it...

IS EVERYPONY BUCKING CRAZY!?

End of Chapter 32

Shining Armor get's his revenge.
And Sunshine starts shipping...

Now for the Hype. *Ahem*

LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA LUNA!!!!
Did I mention, LUNA!?

Find out in the next chapter of...
Will of Fire!