A Flare of Light

by NightSky

Aftermath

Thorn and Flare spent the next few hours wandering through the halls of the castle. Every now and again a guard or two would pass, usually carrying a tool or piece of wood. They either nod politely at Flare and Thorn or look surprised; obviously rumors spread fast about the tensions between them.

Flare himself was surprised at how friendly Thorn could be. His first impression of him was that he was a hard headed idiot who was prone to violence. It turned out to be quite the opposite, though. Thorn was generally good natured and they got along quite well. Now that Flare had his baptism of fire and had killed, Thorn actually seemed to have some respect for Flare.

Finally the dinner bell rang, echoing through the otherwise empty halls.

"Well, at least that still works, I bet the civvies would go nuts if they missed their meals." Thorn said as they began to head towards the dinning hall.

Flare was surprised to see that most of the formerly damaged walls and windows had been repaired or replaced. Wow, they must have worked hard to get this done.

Soon they reached the dinning hall. As they parted to go the their separate tables, Thorn hit Flare playfully on the shoulder. "See ya later, Dragon Boy."

Flare smiled and returned the gesture, then made his way across the hall to the table where Celestia sat. She had saved him a spot beside of her, usually where Luna sat. He smiled in greeting as he sat down. Across the table from him were two empty seats, presumably for Armor and Cadence. Beside of him was the yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, who visibly flinched when Flare sat next to her. Her five companions were also sitting at the table talking, although it appeared Armor's sister was leading the conversation.

"Rarity, how is the dress coming?"

"She will be able to try it on and properly fit it tomorrow." The white unicorn said proudly.

"Good." Twilight said, and Spike scribbled something down on a paper. "Food, Applejack?"

"Just gotta finish bakin' the rest a it."

"Great" Scribble. "How's the practice coming, Rainbow Dash?"

"It'll be bucking amazing, don't you worry."

"I hope so." Scribble. "Entertainment, Pinkie?" She asked, bracing herself.

"It's gonna be GREAT, just wait and see!"

"Hopefully" Scribble. "Ah finally, music, Fluttershy?"

"We, uh, just need a tad more practice." She squeaked, avoiding looking in Flare's direction. Nopony seemed to notice her discomfort except for Flare, though.

"Perfect." Scribble.

Flare turned his attention back to Celestia. "How is the city coming along?"

"It's better than it looks." She said happily. "Most f the damage is simply a broken window or burnt paint. Another day of work and everything should be back to normal."

"So what are we going to do about the moon if Luna is still unconscious?"

"I think I can manage it myself, although this really will be the first time I've had to do it. Luna was still able to do it when she was on her little...trip."

"Ah, ok." Flare said, chewing over a piece of bread. "Are Armor and Cadence going to redo their wedding?"

Celestia looked past Flare and smiled. "Why don't you ask them yourself?"

Flare turned to the doors where Armor and Cadence had just entered. They made an immediate impact. Applause slowly started at the guard table and spread like wildfire across the room. They both smiled happily and moved over to sit at the seats Celestia had saved for them.

"Good evening Princess." He said courtly. "Flare, I would like you to meet my true fiance, Princess Cadence."

Cadence smiled politely and extended her hoof for shaking, and Flare responded in kind.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Flare said.

He could see why Armor loved her so much, she was beautiful. She was tall and lithe, with a pink coat that turned magenta at her wingtips. Her smile was happy and lighthearted, unlike the changeling that had copied her. But the look in her violet eyes suggested she had recently experienced a truamatic event.

"Thank you, Armor had told me much about you."

"Oh really?" Flare said, glancing at Armor. He simply shrugged. Flare smiled, but soon stopped when he saw Cadence's smile fade at the sight of his fangs.

Of course, Flare thought, I must look like a changeling. His coat was jet black like one, and his blue eyes and fangs didn't help his appearance much either.

"I'm sorry, I should have been more considerate." Flare said, his mane losing some of its glow.

"It's okay." Cadence said, still staring at Flare's mouth. Armor rested a concerned hoof on her shoulder, then wrapped it around her shoulder to hug her. An awkward silence as thick as a wall crashed down on the table.

"Well I must be going." Flare said, desperate to escape the situation. He hastily piled some food onto a plate. "Might as well leave Luna some food for when she awakens."

He quickly finished collecting food and hurried out of the dining hall. He noticed that most of the guard table was empty. Strange. They don't usually finish so quickly. He thought as he exited the hall...and almost ran into Roarad.

"Whoa, hey there! Where you goin in such a rush?"

"Sorry Roarad, didn't see you there. Where did the guards go?"

"You didn't hear?" Roarad looked surprised. "The drinks are flowing down at the local pub for all the guard. Come on, I was just about to head down."

"Well, I gotta drop this plate off at Luna's room." Flare said, indicating the plate. "And I've uh...never really had alcohol before."

"Well then, you're definatly coming with me." Roarad said, following Flare to Luna's temporary quarters and waiting impatiently outside. Flare sighed, pulling over a table and setting the plate on it. He looked over at Luna, who was still unconscious. She seemed so happy, though. She didn't look like she had just been kidnapped and held hostage. Flare watched her for a few more moments, but Roarad coughed impatiently outside.

Flare sighed in frustration, kissed Luna on the forehead, and braced himself for a busy night. I hope this doesn't go too wrong.

____________________

Just as Roarad had said, the pub was alive with ponies. From what Flare could tell, most of the crowd were guards, though there were a few civilians as well.

Roarad grinned wildly at the sight, taking up a cocky swagger as he entered. Flare eyed him, unsure of how he would look, then gave up and tried his best to copy Roarad. He was happy to most of the pub's patrons were intoxicated already, meaning he wouldn't humiliate him self too badly.

There were several game tables and gabbling areas, all of which were full of half drunk colts. Thorn and Dawn were sitting at the far edge of the bar, and called them over when they saw them. They already appeared to have had some drinks; several empty bottles lay on the bar. They had saved two seats for them, although Flare's strange appearance managed to clear several more.

A rather attractive unicorn glided up to them on the other side of the bar. She was tall, though not quite Cadence's or Luna's height. Her coat was a pretty blue-grey. Her mane was a turquoise color, and her cutie mark was a small glass of some kind.

"What can I get for you two gentlecolts?" She asked in a smooth, almost liquid voice.

"Hey Shotglass." Roarad said. "I'll have my usual."

"And for him?" She asked, obviously seeing that Flare was new.

"Ah, he had his first taste of fighting and killing today, hit him up with a Flaming Rainboom." Roarad said, winking at Flare. Thorn and Dawn started laughing at this. Shotglass smiled as she glided away. Flare swallowed the fear in his throat. They wouldn't purposefully hurt me, would they?

He snapped back to the present as Shotglass returned, floating a bottle and some sort of metal cylinder, which she was shaking. She gave the bottle to Roarad, then levitated a glass over and skillfully poured the cylinder into it.

Flare's eyes went wind as he saw the contents of the cylinder. A deep red, bubbling fluid poured from it, and Flare almost swore he saw a mushroom could emerge from the glass.

"Good luck, kid." Shotglass whispered, winking at Flare. She then moved to help another patron.

Flare sat for a few moments, staring at the fuming concoction in front of him.

"Come on, Flare, it ain't gonna drink itself." Thorn said, laughing as he took a swig from his bottle.

Flare sighed and lifted the glass to his nose, sniffing it. It smelled spicy, burning his nose. Otherwise, though, it smelled pretty good. The alcohol inside of it was evident by its smell. He took a deep breath, composed himself...and downed the entire glass.

It burned like lava in his mouth, and it had a strangely bitter taste. But Flare was part dragon, so he had little problem with the fiery taste. His vision blurred as he swallowed it. When the world finally came back into focus, Flare realized that his three friends had stopped laughing and were staring at him, jaws dropped.

"What?"

"Nopony, nopony's ever..." Dawn stuttered.

"Nopony's ever what?"

"Nopony's even had an entire Flaming Rainboom in one swipe." Shotglass said, gliding back to their section of the bar.

"Oh." Flare said, looking down at the empty glass, before sliding it across the bar to Shotglass. "Can I have another?"

"I wouldn't suggest that. There's a reason nopony's ever finished one before."

"Oh? And what would that be?" Flare asked as his vision went black.

BAM.

____________________

"Come on buddy, wake up."

"He ain't movin, you think we should get him some help?"

"Nah, here comes his help right now."

SPLASH.

Flare snapped his eyes open, sputtering and gasping. He was lying on the floor, soaking wet and cold. His friends were standing around him, laughing. Shotglass stood to the side, levitating an empty bucket beside of her and grinning sheepishly. The entire pub was watching Flare and laughing. He felt his face heat up.

"It's ok kid." Shotglass said, moving back behind the bar. "Happens to everypony the first time."

Thorn reached down and hauled Flare to his hooves, slapping him on the back. "Good job Flare, you didn't puke. I did when I had my first alcoholic blackout."

They went back to the bar, and Shotglass had a glass of an emerald juice for Flare instead of alcohol. They spent the next hour drinking, and Flare slowly saw that his three friends were completely drunk. Finally, he had had enough of it.

He reached out and stopped Shotglass from giving Dawn another bottle. "I think my friends have had enough to drink for tonight."

Shotglass shrugged. "Suit yourself, have fun getting all three of them out of here, though."

Dawn hit Flare, reaching for the bottle. "Nooooo." He slurred. "Mah drenk."

"Yeah." Flare said, looking to the door. It was barely big enough for his dragon form to fit through. "If I were to say, do something freaky, how badly would the ponies at this pub react?"

Shotglass looked confused, and a tad frustrated. "Well, depends how freaky you are talking about. But if you're going to do something, do it quick. Drunk colts are very...jumpy."

"Alright then." Flare said, and he brought out his dragon form. The entire pub, including Shotglass and Flare's friends, froze.

"Come on guys." Flare said, picking up all three of his friends. "Time to head home."

Flare's friends said nothing, simply gaped at him. My, they really were drunk. Everypony in the pub made room for him as he walked out into the warm night. Roarad and Thorn were both out cold in a drunk sleep, and Dawn was dozing as well.

The guard at the gate perked up at the sight of Flare ambling towards him, but he quickly calmed down when he recognized him. "Ah, back from the pub I see. Designated driver?"

"No, just the last one sober. Where can I drop these dead weights off?"

"Uh, I would say just take them straight to the barracks." The guard said, indicating one of the buildings. he then brought the microphone on a nearby radio close to his mouth and spoke into it. "Sarge, we got three unconscious drunkards being carried in by the new grunt."

An unhappy voice came back over the radio. "I told them not to get that drunk. Oh well, they'll regret it in the morning."

"Yes Sarge." The guard said, setting the microphone down again. "He's pissed, don't linger around much if you know what's good for you."

As if today hasn't been hectic enough. "Ok, I'll keep that in mind."

The barracks was a long building that lacked any sort of decoration or emotion. Flare was happy to see that the door was big enough for him to fit through. As he entered, a cluster of colts who were playing a card game leaped to their feet at the sight of him. They quickly calmed down, though. One of them ambled over to Flare. "Ah, the three musketeers return again, drunk as a skunk. Alright, just lay them on those three cots over there." He said, pointing to the row of cots along the wall.

After Flare had set them down, he turned back into his pony form, turning to face the guard again. "That's quite the talent, ain't it?"

"Yeah, but I get used to it."

"Well you should probably get outta here before Sarge gets out here, he's in quite the mood tod-"

"ATTENTION ON DECK!" The entire room snapped upright, although Flare simply looked nonchalantly down the corridor at the stallion which was bearing down on him like a stampeding buffalo.

"YOU!" He barked, coming to a halt an inch from Flare's face. Flare just stared at him. "DON"T YOU KNOW HOW TO STAND AT ATTENTION?!"

"Um sir." The guard behind Sarge said. "He's not a guard sir."

"But he's classified as a bodyguard, so that puts him under my jurisdiction." He said, turning to face the guard and rant about speaking out of turn. Flare took this opportunity to turn back into a dragon and put on his best don't-screw-with-me face. Sarge turned back to Flare. "Now, back to...you..." He said, looking up into Flare's scaled face.

"Listen, sir, I killed about fifty creatures less then twelve hours ago, I'm not in the mood to deal with your crap." He said, promptly turning and walking by Sarge to the door. He did not pursue Flare, simply watched him go, his mouth open as if he would protest.

Out in the warm night air, Flare suddenly realized how tired he was. He stumbled his way back to the room where Luna was sleeping. She was still sleeping, though in a different position. The plate he had left for her was empty. Flare smiled as he curled up on the floor beside the bed and let sleep take him.

Comments

[shirotora]

Sweet an update. T'was an excellent chapter. have a stache

[Jorofrarie]

Why can't there be more of these hybrid stories?! I mean, come on! You can just feel the awesome flowing off of it!

Another good chapter my fine sir, I will meet Shiro's bid and raise him another three...

-Jorofrarie

[-Brutus]

Yes sir!

[Mythical_Elemental]

778781 An awesome feeling can easily break by other writers, why have others while the best is here.

[NightSky]

797111 Thank you. This is a useful clarification.

[Deathpony]

good chapter cant wait for the next

[NightSky]

Sorry everybody about posting another chapter and then immediatly withdrawing it. I am drawing out certain parts of it and it suddenly looked like gibberish after I saved it halfway through my edits. I pinkie promise I'll have it up again by noon tomorrow.