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// Element of Explosions! 
// Story: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Ponies 
// by Burlacious Soldier 
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"MEEDLYMEEDLYMEEDLYMOOOOOOOOOOOW! My luck is UNBELIEVABLE!" Torgue slid on his knees as he played his air guitar.
"No kidding. That's your third twenty in a row. If we weren't using my dice, I'd think you were cheating," Shining laughed.
"No way! Cheating is for cowards! Plus, I would never cheat in a game I play with friends! FRIENDS ARE IMPORTANT!"
"You already consider me a friend? I suppose I was right about getting to know somepony over Oubliettes and Ogres."
"Of course! And playing for five hours only brings us closer!"
"Wait, five hours?! We-"
"Shining Armor, sir! I'm glad I found you." A guard entered with a salute and a nervous look at Mister Torgue. "Princess Cadance is looking for you."
"Ugh... I'm going to get such an earful..." Shining sighed, "Alright, let her know I'll be along shortly. Tell her I was showing Mister Torgue around the castle."
"But sir, weren't you playing that board ga-"
"Isn't that right, Mister Torgue? Showing you around the castle." Shining directed his question at Torgue while smiling at the guard menacingly.
"Huh, what? Oh, yeah! Around the castle!" Torgue grunted as he fiddled with his character card.
"Yes, sir! Right away, sir!" The guard quickly saluted and bolted from the room.
Shining stopped smiling and sighed. He wiped a hoof across his face and turned towards Torgue.
"Guess we'll just save this for later. Don't worry, I wrote down your progress in the story so we'll continue right from here when we get back."
"Allllllright!" Torgue set down his character sheet and stood up.
The unlikely duo set about putting the board and papers away in the game's case. Torgue almost broke a piece while doing so, which nearly caused Shining to have a heart attack. 
After they put it away, the two left the barracks and headed for the main castle. 
While they walked, Torgue tried once again to fix his echo device. So far he'd managed to get it to spark and spit out static, but not much else. Occasionally it would snap on for a few moments and he would hear blurbs of hold music and a cackling that sounded like Handsome Jack.
"What is that anyway? It looks like one of those 'headsets' they have in the big cities." Shining asked, opening the door to the castle.
"Well, it is a headset, but it's also my Echo device. IT'S MULTI-FUNCTIONAL!" Torgue grinned and flashed a thumbs up.
"You mentioned an 'Echo device' earlier. What does it do?"
"Basically it's like a long-range telephone with slight visual capabilities! If you don't know what a telephone is, it takes your voice across long distance to your pals! ...THAT SENTENCE HAD TOO MANY SYLLABLES! I APOLOGIZE!"
"Ah... no problem. Alright, we're here. Play along." Shining opened a door and put on a smile, "And now we're back to the room we talked with Cadance in. Oh, speaking of Cadance..."
Cadance held an amused expression as she watched the two enter the room. "Yes, hello Shining. Hello Mister Torgue. Enjoy your game of Oubliettes and Ogres?"
Shining rolled his eyes playfully and waved a hoof dismissively. "We weren't playing a game, Cadance. I was just showing Mister Torgue around the castle."
Cadance raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't in the northern barracks playing Oubliettes and Ogres?”
"How did you-! ...No... No we weren't."
Torgue glanced between the couple and leaned down towards Shining and whispered (loudly), "I think she found us out. She even knew where we were."
Shining slapped a hoof to his forehead. "I know..."
"I've known about your hiding place for months now, Shining. You weren't as sneaky as you thought when you sneaked out of bed to go play with the guards every couple weeks." Cadance giggled, "Anyway, I sent the guard to bring you back because Twilight and Princess Celestia have responded. Both of them will arrive tomorrow morning to figure matters out for Mister Torgue. He can sleep in one of the guest rooms tonight."
"Alright, sounds good." Shining grinned, "Is Princess Luna coming as well?"
"She... Wait a minute. Earlier today you were entirely against Mister Torgue even coming to the castle and now you don't even comment when I say he can stay in one of the guest rooms?" Cadance's eyes widened a bit.
Shining shrugged. "No point in denying it now. I just played Oubliettes and Ogres with him for five hours, Cadance. You get to know a pony -or in this case human- pretty well when you play a roleplaying game with them for that long." 
"Yeah! As my Grandma used to say, 'Kicking ass the the best way to make friends!' In hindsight, this may not be the best way to make friends all the time, but it was effective in making me and Shining Armor friends! GRANDMA IS ALWAYS RIGHT!" Torgue grinned and flashed a thumbs-up at the couple. Shining nodded in agreement. 
Cadance just looked at the two curiously before shaking her head and smiling. It was a little strange to her that her usually cautious husband became friendly with their odd guest in only a few hours. He was usually much more suspicious of trusting other creatures after an incident while he was on patrol, but she was glad he made friends with Mister Torgue so easily. In any case, she wasn't going to ruin it by questioning it any further.
"Well, I'm glad you two became friends. I guess you can go back to playing your game then. I just wanted to let you know about the responses from Twilight and Celestia."
"Actually, I really should show him around first, and make sure all the guards know he's a guest. There might be problems if a guard isn't informed and they see a massive, muscular creature wandering around the castle if Mister Torgue has to use the restroom in the middle of the night," Shining laughed.
"I suppose you're right. Oh, and Mister Torgue?" Cadance turned towards the muscly badass.
"Huh?" Torgue snapped his head towards Cadance, having been distracted by his very attractive reflection that he saw on a nearby, crystal wall.
Cadance beckoned him to come closer and Torgue complied. Shining watched in confusion as his wife whispered something in the human's ear, causing the creature to grin and nod eagerly.
"Just don't tell Shining, okay?" Cadance flashed her husband a look and grinned mischievously.
"Yes ma'am!" Torgue flashed a thumbs up once more.
"What did you tell him?" Shining sighed immediately after asking, realizing his question would likely not be answered.
"You'll find out later,” Cadance cooed, flicking Shining's nose with her tail as she walked past him and left the room.
Shining watched her leave before turning to Torgue with a questioning look. Torgue merely mimed zipping his mouth and remained silent, which was very out of character for the loud and proud badass. 
Shining shook his head and motioned for Torgue to follow before leaving the room and leading Torgue through the castle toward the guest rooms. Along the way, Shining asked Torgue several times to tell him what Cadance told him. Each time Torgue replied the same way, stating that “Nothing is more badass than treating a woman with respect! She asked me not to tell, so you'll have to wait!” 
The trip was short, only being interrupted once by a short stop at the restroom, and soon Mister Torgue was admiring the room that was labeled 'For Minotaur guests'. The room was simple, only adorned with a large bed, a statue of a minotaur and a personal restroom.
"This room is nice!" Torgue grunted as he sized himself up against the statue of the minotaur.
"I'm glad you like it. Considering it's the only room with a bed you would fit in..." Shining chuckled to himself.
"Huh?" Torgue flexed and compared his muscles to the statue.
"Just muttering to myself about the secret you won't tell me," Shining coughed.
"Well, it's been about ten minutes, right? Cadance told me that's all I had to stall you for."
Shining scoffed before he actually realized what Torgue said. "Wait, what?!"
"Yeah, she told me to stall you for at least ten minutes with the game or something before telling you to go to the courtyard. Also, MY CHEST IS HUGE!" Torgue flexed once more and laughed at the statue's much tinier muscles.
"What the buck is in the courtyard?!" Shining cursed.
"Nothing is more bad-"
"I know, you've said that like ten times already. Let's head to the courtyard." Shining barely finished his sentence before opening the door with magic and briskly walking out the door. 
Torgue stood for a second, laughing to himself and saying, “This is going to be awesome!” before jogging out of the room to catch up to the unicorn. 
Torgue caught up to Shining quickly and followed the pony through a few hallways and up to a large set of double doors. Shining's horn shone and the doors creaked as they slowly inched open. Upon seeing the courtyard on the other side, both Mister Torgue and Shining Armor's jaws dropped. 
Obscenely large barrels labeled 'fireworks' were lined up, stretching all the way across the courtyard. Several crystal ponies in jumpsuits ran around talking about fusing wires and such while Princess Cadance sat in the center, smiling at the pair who had just entered.
"I'll... I'll admit this is shocking, but did you really have to-"
"THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!" Torgue cut Shining off and ran forward to get a better look at the barrels of explosives.
Cadance giggled and walked forward to nuzzle her husband. "You didn't tell me about your board game, so I didn't tell you about my welcome gift to Mister Torgue. He seemed to like explosions so much and we asked him not to make any in the castle, so I asked the local pyrotechnician, Flash Powder, to set this up. For such short notice, I was quite surprised by the sheer quantity of fireworks he had created. But it's nice to see somepony who seems to enjoy their craft so much. According to Mr. Powder, the finale will be quite spectacular."
"...Y'know it's a little crazy to do something this elaborate for a creature we met earlier today... but I suppose that's why I love you so much. You're way too kind of a pony," Shining mumbled.
"Love you too, Shining. And you know half the reason you love me is because of my sexy flank." Cadance wiggled her backside tauntingly, causing Shining to blush.
"Princess, should I begin the performance?" a small, stocky crystal pony asked from over by the barrels of fireworks.
"Yes, that would be lovely, Mr. Powder. Mister Torgue! If you come over here, we can begin," Cadance called to Torgue, who had climbed on top of one of the barrels and was peering inside.
"Allllllright!" Torgue hopped off of the barrel and quickly strode over to the now growing crowd that was forming around Cadance and Shining Armor, "And whoever put these together is brilliant! Just from the look, I could tell the saltpeter was a very fine grade and the potassium nitrate was carefully mixed and measured to the precise amount. A true demolitions expert!"
"Why thank you," Flash Powder replied as he joined the crowd shortly after Torgue. "You are experienced with explosives?"
"F*BLEEP* YES! You are talking the most electrifying man in combat and explosive entertainment! IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU!" Torgue extended a fist toward the firework maker who in turn, after a few moments of confusion, bumped a hoof against it.
"Haha... anyway, without further ado..." Flash Powder produced a match from behind his ear, lit the match and touched the match to a very long fuse he had dragged behind him when he walked to the group. The fuse flared to life and a bright spark flew across the fuse. 
A moment later the fuse split into multiple directions and so did the spark, sending a spark toward each individual barrel of fireworks. Mere seconds passed and the sparks disappeared into the mouths of the barrels just before several balls of fire were launched into the air with a loud whistle. The whistles quickly faded but were just as quickly replaced by loud explosions of multiple colors, painting the sky a multitude of reds and yellows. The whistles started up again, and the process repeated, only with larger explosions. The explosions continued for a few minutes, varying in hue, size and frequency.
"Here comes the finale," Flash Powder breathed as a smile crawled onto his face.
Suddenly the barrage of whistling and explosions stopped. An awkward silence settled over the crowd, though Torgue noticed the smile didn't disappear from Flash Powder's face, so he expected something spectacular and he was not disappointed. 
Just when some of the audience decided the show was finished, all of the barrels shot massive flares into the air simultaneously. The flares hovered high in the air for several seconds before flaring a bright white, causing everyone pony and human alike to cover their eyes. 
When the light faded a bit, the audience uncovered their eyes just in time to see the brief but beautiful spectacle in the sky. Where the flares had been now floated several giant, burning letters that spelled out the word “EXPLOSIONS”. The word burned in the sky for a few more seconds before fading into the wind, leaving the audience in awe of the pyrotechnician’s handiwork. 
Flash Powder chuckled and glanced at Torgue. "Whaddya think?"
Torgue looked down at the stout pony and smiled, "THAT WAS F*BLEEP*ING AWESOME!"