Wildfire Budding: True Fire and Lighting

True North 

 

Lucky enough not to be approached by the initial wave of raiders, True North is eager to get into the fray and help his fellow ponies. He spots an angry looking pegasus chasing after frightened guards, shooting lightning from her hooves. With entirely too much confidence, he flies out to meet the intimidating raider. “Paaaarleeey!” He cries out to her through the noise of the storm and ponies fighting below.  

The mare turns to sneer at him, distracted from her onslaught at the guards. The guards gallop off gratefully, to take on foes more their level and protect citizens… from raiders that can’t shoot lightning! One lingers briefly, to observe the the raider is actually stopping to talk, then hurries to catch up with his friends.

 

The offending pegasus scoffs in answer to True North’s plea. "Parley? Typical of you to assume we have that luxury!" She spits on the ground directly in front of him. "That's what I think of your 'parley.’" 

 

"The world beyond our borders is harsh, I know. We have much to be thankful for here in Ponyville. But look around you! Spelled storms won't save you from the wrath of multitudes protecting their families! Please, let us talk of assistance! You have nothing to lose in asking before looting. We've seen the strength of your magic and have no want for further casualties!" True North calls back, his passion and confidence carrying his words strongly. If his stab in the dark assumptions were correct, he can hardly blame the ponies. But this storm could not continue! He only hopes he can make a compelling argument for peace.

 

"Harsh? You don't know the meaning of the word," the pegasus mare says quietly. The crackling of electricity almost drowns out her words. Out of nowhere, she lunges forward and headbutts the stallion. 

 

True barely flits out of the way. Now closer, his voice is no longer raised. His answer comes out more pleading. "Then educate us, please! We are glad to share what we have with those who do not!"

 

"Far too late for that!" Snaps the Lightning Hooved Pegasus. She lunges forward in an attempt to tackle the stallion. True tries to doge, but simply doesn’t have time. Her shoulder connects hard with his, knocking him to the ground. She watches him fall, satisfied. That should be the end of his hollow friendship promises.  

 

True North struggles to lift himself off the ground again. "What do you mean too late? Why is this the only way?"

 

The spoiled Ponyville pegasus has more moxie than Lightning expected, for such a soft papered breed. "You all dug your grave.” She paused, startled as glowing vines grew into view and reached for her. “You can lay in it now," The mare snorts quickly. She turns her back on the mouthy pegasus. There were other ponies she had to keep more focus on. Words were useless.

Wild Fire

 

After a long back and forth argument with her parents about the ponies outside needing her help, they lock Primrose Petals up in her room and begin boarding up the shop from the inside to protect from raiders.

 

However, Petals is hardly discouraged. While her parents are busy barricading their own little safety bubble, Petals gears up to go on the offensive. She grabs her saddle bag and slings it over her neck. Then quickly braids her mane, pulling messy stands into submission and out of her face. Her favorite part of this mane-style is how it shows off her crown of horns. She hopes they look threatening, especially today. Finally, she pulls a spool of thorny vines from under her bed, looping it several times over her back carefully. This has to be done with strict attention, so she doesn’t prick herself. Once the vines are secured she says, “Ready!” to herself with enthusiastic determination. 

She trots over to her window and sighs, taking one last look at her locked bedroom door. "Sorry Mom, sorry Dad, I can't just sit around and wait when there are ponies that need help." She lifts her window and jumps out, carefully shutting it quietly behind her.

 

Petals is pleased with her disguise of Wylde Fyre. Her dream is to be a vigilante like the heroes in comic books, saving the day under a pseudonym. Though it would have been if she’d had time to put her tail wig on, she thinks as begins to trot. She catches that sound of fighting and gallops towards the ruckus, taking back alley ways and sticking to the shadows out of habit. When the noise grows close, she slows. As she peaks from an alley through the fading fog, she sees two pegasus fighting. It doesn’t take her long to identify which is a citizen and which is a raider, even though she’s never seen either before. The stallion is darting about and yelling something about friendship through the storm. Before she could even register what was happening, suddenly the mare smacked her shoulder hard into the stallion, knocking him to the ground with a heavy thud. Fyre flinches and backs slightly into the alley way, thinking about how much that must have hurt. 

 

But she quickly reminds herself there’s no time to spare. The raider looks powerful, and distracted. Fyre’s horn begins to glow, and the vines looped around her back quickly follow. She carefully raises the thorny cords around her in the shadows and fog, thinking briefly about how cool she must look right now. Then she whips the vines out with ferocity, wrapping around the raider and hogtying her before she has time to react. The motion is graceful and somewhat practiced, though she never wrapped a moving target before, especially not a flying one. She takes extra care to bind the pegasus’ wings to her side, to ensure she can’t fly off. 

 

Fyre steps out of the mist, tilting her head curiously. "So what's your issue with Ponyville? I'll hear you out before I take you to..." She pauses with a frown, unsure of the correct authority. "The first knight I see?" It comes out more of a question than the authoritative threat she hoped to issue. She looks around to see if any other pony, friend or foe, has taken notice. She spots the stallion from before, hovering over the ground and yelling something into empty air. It’s indistinguishable from where she stands, so he must be talking to some pony else. Hopefully a knight or a guard or whatever they were called. Not like her parents taught her much about them. 

 

The raider pegasus struggles against the vines, which she finds do not make good conductors of electricity. She pricks herself minorly on the thorns, which are nothing more than an annoyance. And annoyed she is. "Tsk! You sheltered, selfish Ponyville brats!" She grunts as her hooves let out huge discharges of electricity. At first it seems rather bright and pointless, because it certainly won't travel up the vines to Fire. One thing about plants, though...is they will eventually burn if hot enough. Small flames burst forth on the vines nearest her hooves!

 

"Drat!" Fire snorts out.

She quickly attempts to lift the whole pegasus with her telekinesis. But she can only lift the pegasus a measly foot off the ground. Frantically, she looks around for something else she can further bind the pegasus with, preferably fireproof... which probably would not be electricity proof…

With that thought she rethinks her technique. Instead, she rears and clops a hoof down on the pegasus' head, aiming to knock her out while causing as little damage as possible. Better to try now while she still has the advantage of the pegasus being bound, even though the action makes her stomach turn.

 

True

 

True North is not a strong pony, and he is a pacifist at heart... But that doesn't mean he is useless. He doesn't know what was going on in the storm, or with the other raiders. But he is the only one left in the sky with the pegasus, and that means he has a responsibility! At least that’s what he thought. He seems to just barely make out the shape of her in the clouds above. 

"A grave with no marker and no hole is no grave. If you cannot explain your grievances, I must believe they are imagined!" He pleads up to the mare. More recovered now, flaps his great wings. He hasn’t unlocked the secrets of wild magic yet, but he’s a damn good flier. And with the lightning shooting from her hooves, maybe once she became friends with him, she could teach him wild magic!

 

Until then he plans to keep her busy, flying in her way like a pest. If he steals her attention long enough, she’ll have less victims. It would be a worthy challenge to see who could stay aloft in the storm. Electricity shooting off her wouldn’t help with that! But as he rises higher to face off with her again, he finds that he had only imagined her in the dark clouds. It was just an imprint from the impact. It wavered in his mind, only finally dissipating when he thrust a frustrated hoof through the vague outline.  Where’d she go? 

 

Fire

 

As it turns out, Fyre is too nervous about seriously hurting the pegasus. Her timid blow does little more than annoy the other pony. She squeaks out a "Sorry!"

She quickly looks around, hoping for something to help, whether it be more vines, something else to bind the pony with, or the backup of a knight or others.

 

The pegasus shakes off the stomp from Fyre. She then breaks free of her burned restraints, but doesn't go on the offensive right away. Instead she rolls in the dirt to put out the flames and stop the burning. This does give Fyre time to look for something else to help.

 

Fyre does spot something else! But it's hardly fireproof. In the rush to help with the fighting she heard outside, she had forgotten her best friend. Just in the nick of time, Pistil the rat shows up to his owner. And he pulled a single vine with him! That's probably all he could manage, but to Fyre, this is a second chance. It'll have to count, and she'll have to come up with an idea to make it, quickly! From what she can tell, the sparks always tend to come from the pegasus' hooves. So Fyre attempts to tightly bind the pegasus' front hooves together so that they are immobile. Thought that does leave her wings and hind hooves free. The vine isn't long enough to do both.

 

But, she’s well prepared. She has not only read about, but also practiced knots. And this time she's putting careful effort into it to make sure they're fully secure. With several double column ties climbing the pegasus' front legs, she shouldn't be able to use them anytime soon. 

 

With her front hooves securely bound, Lightning rears back and starts to discharge electricity from her hooves again. This starts a very slow, painful process of trying to burn through the vines. As the flames start, they lick at her fur. 

 

True

 

Oh, there she was! True North shakes his head, still clearly reeling from his recent knock.
He dives down to where he spots his target, along with a new pony. The young unicorn didn't seem to be aiming to harm, so two against one lent the odds in their favor... For the moment, anyway.

 

"You are a fool, I am afraid!" True calls as he approaches fast. Her wings are still free, and he knows as well as any pegasus that any other binding was inconsequential if the wings remained unbound. So, he dives straight to clutch onto her back. If she had a lead backpack, there would be no flying!

 

With her front hooves bound and in the early stages of burning the bindings, she would have taken off...But the thud and weight on her back shatters that plan. With a frustrated show she instead throws herself down to the ground for a barrel roll. 

 

Let go, get hurt, let go, get hurt....

 

True North opts for a third option, and locks his forelegs around the poor mare's neck, holding on tight as his oversized wings beat frantically/ He tries to pull back enough to keep her from rolling. If nothing else, she should at least tire out faster... "My apologies, but you've really left me no choice," True grimaces at the awkward grappling, but one must do what one must do...

 

Ture Fire

During a brief pause to think, she sees the pegasus start to barrel roll. Suddenly, she has an aha moment. She begins to paw at the ground, until she has a small mound of dirt. She transports the dirt to the dangerous mare via magic, finally putting it out. 

 

True North, however, is not so reserved. "Quickly, please, I don't know how long I can hold on," True calls to his sudden compatriot, as he holds on for dear life.

 

With a little time bought by putting out the fires and her new friend grappling the pegasus, Fyre looks around frantically for anything else to bind the pegasus' back legs and wings. While she's looking, she paws at the ground, loosening more dirt.

 

She spots.... More vines! Though this is getting a little tiring. She hates watching the other pony burn through plants. She scoops them up anyways and begins to bind the rolling pegasus' wings, careful not to tie True North into it. It takes all of her focus to do; tying a moving target while avoiding tying a moving friend. She hopes she doesn’t get any of his feathers wrapped up.

 

"Waitwaitwait-" True rambles, not sure which crazy mare he was speaking to, the raider or the unnamed friend who was helping. Either way, his face sure hurt from the barrel roll.

"You're captured, and there's only more coming. Your attack has failed. If you cooperate, we can argue for you," True tries convincing the other pegasus again. He is  still holding on tight. There is still SOME reason for all of this, he is sure. No one would go so far as to raid a defended village for nothing.

 

Professor Golden Sage had been observing nearby while tending to some injured ponies. While some might have been a bit careless like young Konpeito, many a pony had shown bravery that day. None of the least of which was True North and Wylde Fyre who had done their very best to tie down a pony with a spirit to match the lighting in her hooves. When her work on the injured was done, she slowly approached the trio.

“The time to fight has passed, my dear,” she said softly, before bringing her horn tip just above the bound pegasus’s head. A soft glow and calming scent drifted from it and the pegasus stopped her thrashing. At first she was simply still, but slowly her eyelids began to close and she collapsed on the ground. “Yes,” Professor Golden Sage murmured gently, “Sleep.”

 

 

She looked to both Wylde Fyre and True North, “I saw what you both did. Such compassion in face of violence is difficult. I commend you both.” 

 

As the zebra unicorn turned, Sword Dancer and some of her knights approached.

“We’ll take it from here,” Sword Dancer told Wylde Fyre and True North. 

Fire looked between True North and Professor Golden Sage quickly as the guards carted off the raiders. She had a decision to make, and it had to be made quickly. “Thanks for the back up!” she said to the friendly pegasus. “See you around!” 

Then she rushed after the golden horned zebra, calling out to her, “Ma’am, please wait!”