//------------------------------// // Chapter XXI: To Walk Through Fire // Story: For His Majesty // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// Meanwhile in Canterlot, nopony still didn’t have a clue where either Prince Blueblood or Fancy Pants had gone to. The three Princesses and contacted as many towns and cities as they could in order to get some sort of clue as to their whereabouts. Slowly, they gathered up clues from eyewitnesses that said they saw the airship, most of them pointed toward the direction of the South Luna Sea. “That just makes things even more complicated,” Celestia moaned as she rubbed her temples. Before her on a bulletin board was a map of Equestria that had red pins sticking out of it that formed a thick trail from Canterlot toward the coast of Applewood. She had spent the last few days trying to pinpoint where her nephew had gone to, but at this point, she seemed to run into a dead end with the limited piles of telegrams. The door to her study went open in which a pink alicorn walked in. “I’m guessing you still haven’t figured out where those two had gone to?” Celestia shook her head. “Unfortunately,” she sighed, pulling her hooves down and stared at the map. “It’s just not like Bluey to just up and vanish like that. Running away is one thing but to foalnap his consort? What in Equestria had compelled him to do something like that?” “It’s hard to say at this point when we don’t know all the answers,” Cadance levitated another telegram onto the desk. “I had tried to have some of the ambassador’s contact their countries within the South Luna Sea, and so far it’s still coming up as blank.” “So what’s this?” the Sun Princess picked up the yellow square envelope. She tore it open, pulled out the message and began reading. “'Your Royal Majesty, stop. I’m happy to report that His Lordship, Prince Blueblood has arrived safely on our happy islands… stop…'” Her eyes went wide as she continued reading. “'At the time I am sending this telegraph, his and his consort’s things are being moved into his property for the next two weeks, stop. It is indeed a surprise that they have chosen our islands for a surprise holiday, but just so you know, we are taking care of them, stop. We are honored for his Lordship to be with us, stop. Your humble subject, Mayor Nalu Nui.'” She looked from the telegram with a sigh of relief. “Oh good, at least we now know where they are.” “The Moneigh Islands…” the Princess of Love mused. “Okay, but why have they suddenly decided to go there without telling us?” “Perhaps I can answer that,” a yawning voice said. The two royals turned to find Princess Luna entering the room with a mug of bitterly black coffee. “I was going to tell you earlier but then you had me send out into finding our nephew. Anyways, I do have some very important news to finally share,” she took a sip from her cup. “The good news is that Bluey has told me that he’s in love with his consort.” Both the Sun and the Princess of Love froze. “Does Fancy know?” Cadance inquired. “No. Or at least, that’s what he told me last. He said that he wanted to find the perfect way of telling him that. So now hearing that he’s at the Moneigh Islands, I think it’s pretty obvious how he plans to do it.” Celestia leaned forward from her seat, “That does raise the question: what do we do now?” “By the looks of it,” Cadance said, “we have one of two choices to make. Either we leave those two lovebirds alone and hope for the best, or we could all go to the islands and continue on with our bet.” The three alicorns looked at one another for a brief moment before all three unanimously declared with one voice, “Islands!” _*_ On a beach underneath a starry dome, the Islanders were invited by Prince Blueblood for them to throw a luau for his consort. Fancy agreed for this because he never been nor seen one before, and the locals were eager to show them. As soon as word got out, a few temporary simple huts made out of bamboo, hemp rope, and palm leaves were constructed. And by nightfall, torches and a bonfire was lit on the beach, warming inviting ponies to the island feast. Fancy himself didn’t know what to expect from a real luau. He didn’t know what sort of expectations to bring by the time he and his coltfriend followed the line of lit torches along the beach. The older stallion was blown away at not just the crowd that had gathered, but sheer quantities of food they brought too. On a table underneath one of the huts were a wide range of tropical fruits from rows of papayas, to the forest of bananas, pyramids of oranges and limes to mounds of steamy rice, from trays of unknown desserts wrapped in banana, leaves to the kegs of beer – the blue-maned unicorn was thankful that they didn’t have dinner up to that point. Apart from the food, Fancy Pants witnessed a competition of entertainment by the bonfire. Native drums beat out the ocean’s rhythm for the hula dancers; the stallions that performed tricks with lit staffs; and younger ponies performed a mix of dance and martial arts. Combined with the flickering light of the bonfire and the torches, shadows moved about wildly upon the sand. “Aloha My Lord!” the couple quickly located the source of the voice that came from the Mayor of the Islands. He was holding a sliced coconut with a straw in it. “Have you tried the poi? They’ve made it really sweet this time.” “We just got here Mayor,” Blueblood replied. “And luckily for you, we haven’t eaten since we got here.” The older stallion chuckled, “Got distracted?” “In a sense,” Fancy answered. “But thank you for putting all of this together on such short notice.” He laughed, “Trust me, this is nothing, you should be around Hearths Warming. Now those are so much fun. But away, don’t mind me, eat something and enjoy the party.” One piling up mountains of food onto their plates later, Blueblood and Fancy sat in one of the huts, their feast sat beside them on the bamboo planks. They watched the entertainment as grass skirts shook, stallions twirl circles of fire, and there was even a group of ponies that were playing limbo. The older unicorn finished munching on a piece of pineapple when he commented, “You know, this somewhat reminds me of my college years.” “How so?” the Prince inquired as he held up a coconut. “Well, you have to understand that back then, when I went to Manehattan University for a couple of years that for the most part the students were mostly focused on school work. However, between semesters or around holidays, they would throw parties like this that depending on what the occasion was can get pretty wild. And I mean that by every definition of the word, especially when those said students invent all sorts of games and bets.” Fancy took another bite of pineapple before continuing. “I never told anypony this, but when my Frat found out that I’m gay, they immediately invented a game that if one of the guys happened to lose at something or got the lowest score or whatever, that stallion has to have sex with me.” The blond unicorn’s eyes went wide, “Wait, really?” His consort nodded, “It’s how I lost my virginity – to a straight bloke too. But I’m afraid that I’m getting off track. What I’m trying to get at is that in college, not all parties that I attended were about drunkenness and being a nymphomaniac. Sometimes the activities we did were started as a dare. Take this one time when I was dared to use my magic to help me walk on water. Needless to say, I keep falling into the pool,” he chuckled as he notices Fancy’s expression. It had a look of longing. “I assume that you haven’t done anything like that?” “Besides of pulling pranks with Auntie Celestia, you could say that I never really was a teenager.” Blueblood shrugged, “When my parents were alive like I said, I had to grow up pretty fast. So much so, that I had to learn how to be mature before I was fourteen. I was never allowed to do anything stupid or dangerous,” he snorted, “Couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Fancy looked around the luau and spotted something strange, after telling his coltfriend that he would be right back, he got up to investigate. Over by the bonfire, using some very long shovels, ponies started to scoop up the still burning coals from the pit and created a long, inferno black line. “Excuse me, sir,” he asked one of the stallions, “what is it that you’re doing?” “We’re setting out for firewalking,” was the reply. “It’s a kinda a rite of passage for us, there’s a couple of foals that have just come of age and we’re prepping this ahead of time.” “Maybe you should give it a try,” another native with a shovel suggested. Fancy was taken aback, “Wait a moment! Isn’t this dangerous?” “Sure, if you do it incorrectly.” The pony he was speaking with scooped up another shovelful of burning coals. “But there is a trick to all of this; that as long as you tread lightly and don’t think of what you’re stepping on, you should be fine.” The affluent pony snorted, “Especially when you are walking on red hot coals?” “Hey it works,” the other stallion said. Finding it preposterous, Fancy returned to the Prince and he asked him what he was doing. In turn, he told him how they’re setting a path off the fire for ponies to walk on as a sort of rite of passage. “I understand that it must be some sort of tradition but this is ludicrous. Walking on fire, did anypony account for somepony’s hooves getting burned?” Blueblood eyed the ponies that were paving the trail of fire. “I don’t know… Have you noticed there’s no ambulance or a first aid box anywhere? Maybe there is a safe way of doing this.” “I don’t buy it.” The more he watched those ponies laying down those coals in the sand, the more curious the blond unicorn became. “Let’s watch this rite of passage.” Several minutes later, the entertainment had stopped and ponies from the luau had gathered around the flamed road were at one end were a group of young ponies that looked like they just received their cutie marks. The mayor of the Islands stood behind them, patting the young ones on the back. “Fellow Islanders,” he said. “Tonight we hold a special occasion, apart of our surprise visit from his Lordship Blueblood; we also celebrate the coming of age of these ponies. As a tradition, as soon as they received their cutie marks, they are set to prove their maturity by walking across these burning coals. If they walk through without getting their hooves burned, they will be recognized as adults on these islands. To which, I will reward them with the mark of maturity, by giving them the lei of the sea.” The mayor held up several necklaces in which were made out of various sea shells with a sand dollar in the middle. He placed all of them around his neck and began walking forward. “Remember children,” he said, “the path to adulthood may be difficult to walk through. But the important thing that you need to do to get across,” as soon as the elderly stallion set hoof on the coals, Fancy gasped but was quickly astonished as the mayor walked on as if not realizing what he’s stepping on. “Is that you need to have a cool mind, and the determination to go forward at a pace where you won’t get burned.” At the other end of the trail, he looked down at his hooves to show that he wasn’t harmed. Turning around towards the group of fillies and colts, he said, “If you are brave enough, walk through this trail as I have.” For a solid few minutes, the children were uncertain at the scarlet, glowing path that lay before them. Words of encouragement were heard towards them until, finally, an Earth Pony filly began walking forward. Fancy and Blueblood tensed as they saw those little hooves touched the chard road, yet, she kept on walking calmly but quickly until she reached the other side. Cheers rang out as Mayor Nalu placed the lei around her neck. One by one, the foals walked over the coals and all of them came out without their hooves getting burnt. When the last pony that endured the rite of passage had crossed it, the Mayor of the Islands turned to the audience. “And now, I invite anypony who is visiting these isles to step forward and walk down this path as well.” There were murmurs in the crowd at first until a white hoof raises in the air, “I’ll do it!” To Fancy’s horror, it was Blueblood that volunteered. “Blue! What are you doing?” his coltfriend questioned in a hushed whisper. “Remember when I said that I never did anything so stupid and risky?” “But you’re going to get burned!” “They walked through it,” the Prince pointed at the recently turned adults. “And yet they came out of it okay. I want to do this.” “I won’t let you,” Fancy went around him until he stood face to face with him. Blueblood glanced between him and the glowing path. “Or… Maybe you can join me.” His consort blinked, “What?” “If you walk beside me, we would either get burned together or walk out just fine. I’ve studied how these children got out of there, and all we have to do is not to kick up the layer of ash, walk normally so that we don’t stomp into the coals and we’ll be fine.” He craned his neck forward, “Please, I think I know what I’m doing. But do you trust me?” The older unicorn looked nervously at the trail that was so hot that he could feel the heat coming off of it from a yard away. However, he saw that his Prince was confident and as nervous as he was, he knew that there was truth in what Blueblood has said. “Alright. But we get burned; I’m blaming you for it.” “Fair enough,” the Prince and his consort went up to the beginning of the inferno trail where it was so hot that they began to sweat. There were cheers from the crowd that offered them encouragement. But before anything could happen, the younger unicorn leaned up to his coltfriend, “Just keep by my side, and don’t look at the ground.” As much as Fancy was internally screaming in fear of what he was about to do, he heard his mother’s voice telling in to ‘Quit being a wussy,’ and started walking with Blueblood. Even though he knew exactly what he was walking on, the older unicorn kept his eyes on the pony right next to him as they walked across, step by step over the heat. He tried not to think that his hooves might be getting third-degree burns, but he was concerned about his prince above all else. And before they knew it, they were on the other side with cheers erupting louder than ever. Both stallions looked at their hooves to find that apart of a layer of gray ash, they were not burned. The mayor then proceeded to lay the seashell necklaces over them, “Congratulations sirs! You two just walked through fire.” Fancy looked behind at the still burning coals. “That… That was incredible thing I've ever done in my life!” “I know right!” Blueblood hopped in place like a joyful little colt, but then just as quickly regained his composer by coughing into his hoof. “What I mean to say is… that was new.” He sheepishly smiled at his consort, “Thank you for doing it with me.” “That was the most mental thing that I’ve ever done,” the blue-maned stallion adjusted his monocle. “Do you want to go do it again?” “Tartarus yes!”