//------------------------------//
// Fire and Fury 
// Story: Upheaval: Breaking Point 
// by Visiden Visidane 
//------------------------------//

Upheaval: Breaking Point

Chapter 30: Fire and Fury

Three days had passed since the meeting between Fenrir and Terrato. With no quick victory in sight, the wolven settled down to a proper siege: bolter squads moved into strategic positions, ready to shoot down any pegasus attempting to fly in or out of the city. catapults fired upon the walls, miners dug tunnels to collapse them from beneath. Earlier, they had discovered tunnels already made, and tried to use those.

In response, the defenders of Bastion City dug in, and fought back. Unicorn magi guarded the walls in shifts to weaken catapult attacks. When wolven miners began to move in, the Legion counter-mined. They discovered the ready-made tunnels, and sent ponies to collapse them on top of the wolven.

The resulting clash of tactics brought a temporary stalemate that greatly displeased the King of Wolvengard.

At the heart of his army, Fenrir pawed the snow-covered ground, gouging deep lines into the soil. As far as he was concerned, "stalemate" meant that Terrato was winning. To make things worse, fair Luna's scent had moved far, far away. He did not put it beyond Terrato to have Luna nearby to tantalize him, then send her away as an insult. He had to strike a blow. It did not need to be the spectacular shattering of the city's walls, but it had to be a blow against cursed Terrato's Legion, to remind all of them, wolven and thunder-foot alike, that he had the upper paw.

A savage frontal assault, where proud wolven warriors could test themselves in the whirlwind crucible of carnage, would be the perfect way to take this city, but subtlety had its time and place. The defenses were still too strong. While he could overwhelm this city if he threw his entire army at it, he decided against the idea. This was a prolonged campaign, a march for cursed Celestia's capital, and the greatest prize of all. "Moon-Shadow!" he growled. The other wolven, even the mighty brachyurii that surrounded him, quailed at his voice.

At his command, his trusted ally appeared. Moon-Shadow's most recent mission had been a success, and Fenrir counted on that trend to continue. She appeared as a white, horned thunder-foot ablaze in black flame. Moon-Shadow always did have a preference for taking on the guise of their enemies, and this time was no different.

"I am here, Fenrir," Moon-Shadow replied. She addressed him as an equal rather than a servant, a privilege given to no one else.

"Does cursed Terrato know that you've returned?" Fenrir asked.

Moon-Shadow shook her head. "I've hidden my presence well."

"Good." Fenrir rumbled deep in his throat. "I want you to hurt his Legion. Sneak into their city, and hurt them. Remind the thunder-foots that they are not safe. Leave before Terrato catches your scent."

"I will."





As Moon-Shadow left Fenrir's presence, the other wolven backed away from her warily. They could still smell the scent of thunder-foot around her, but it was an odor tainted by something so unnatural that none of them dared to even stand close.

'You think that you can just dance your way into Bastion City?' Pyre Valor asked. She had allowed Nightmare Moon more control while they remained among the wolven. She didn't know how her hated enemies behaved, and she didn't want to do something stupid such as provoke their king.

"Of course not," Nightmare Moon replied. "But you can. You lived there before becoming a legionnaire, didn't you? You know a great deal about your city's mighty defenses."

'You've been peering into my memories.'

"No, but thank you for confirming what I thought."

They were a good distance from the sentries when Nightmare Moon spoke again.

"Angry again? You have the temper of a newborn volcano, Pyre Valor. I wonder how you managed to not incinerate your 'friends' for such a long time."

"You know nothing of friendship," Pyre growled. Out here in the open plain, Nightmare Moon allowed her to control. The mere term was not something she quite grasped even now. Being possessed was more than just carrying a passenger. Nightmare Moon didn't sit inside a room within her, fiddling away with metaphysical controls, and moving her body about like a puppet. They were…fused together, two wills sharing a single body. Even establishing, and maintaining control was a complicated affair. They didn't take turns. Pyre Valor felt as if she had complete control over her body at all times. Things became tricky when she decided to exercise that control. If Nightmare Moon had other plans for a hoof she wanted to move, she would experience some resistance. She guessed that it must be the same for Nightmare Moon. Moving at all required a degree of harmony. If they couldn't agree on what to do, then their body would be stuck. An unspoken system had developed over time. Nightmare Moon seemed content to allow Pyre to move most of the time, making suggestions on occasion. So long as Pyre behaved in a manner that aided the wolven, this would be the case. The sharing wasn't complete, however. Nightmare Moon heard her thoughts, and could use her magic, but the opposite wasn't true. Clearly, equality wasn't part of their bargain.

Pyre pushed out those thoughts for now. Fenrir had given them orders, and she was willing to do as he asked. She didn't have to do it alone either. Far away from the city and the wolven camp was a small tent. When the wolven made their way to Bastion City, Pyre had asked Blademane to run ahead and make camp away from the wolven army. He had complied without a single protest, as he had done since she decided to do this.

Blademane was tending a small fire in front of his tent. As soon as he spotted her, he stood at attention. Pyre felt a twinge in her chest whenever she saw that. Blademane continued to act that she was his captain even though it was clear that they were caught in circumstances where that title meant nothing. She had asked him already why he stayed. All he answered was "I am on your side."

"I'm going to infiltrate Bastion City through an old entrance I know," Pyre said. "From there, I'm going to launch a quick raid to shake them up a bit."

"Do you need assistance?" Blademane asked.

Pyre nodded. "It's a small passage where Vanguard and I played in as foals. It's well hidden, so it should still be there. I can't bring a large group, so you'll do as backup."

"Understood," Blademane said with a salute. "When do we leave?"

"Nightfall."





The past three days had been relatively easy for Twilight. She was starting to get the hang of boulder catching, and she didn't get into any new trouble. The Legion also gave her access to its surviving spell books, a chance she happily jumped at. Finally, she was going to read actual spell books from the Barrier Lands. The first one should be an eye-opener to the Barrier Lands approach to magic.

And it was. 

There were no mustache-growing spells here. The variety of ways the unicorns of the Barrier Lands had developed to hurt and kill was outright frightening. Fireball, with all its heat and intensity, was just the beginning. Just by flipping through pages, she found a spell that sucked all the water out of its victim, a spell that boiled the blood within its victim's veins, and a spell that filled its victim's lungs with poisonous gas. Was it really necessary to be so creative in order to kill an enemy?

However, Mage Captain Owlsight had her put away the advanced combat spells. "You have a reliable offensive spell, Recruit Sparkle, I suggest you pick up some defenses first. 'Shield' is a good starting point." he had said.

It was good advice. She knew a shield spell already, but having some options would be good. She started on some basic defensive spells, and worked on them whenever she had some free time. At the end of another day of routine, she made her way back for more studying.

"Hey, Sparkle!"

Some of the recruits in Twilight's group were waving at her. "We're off to get drinks over at Storm Brew's new place!" one of them called out. "Want to come along?" 

Twilight smiled, and shook her head. "I'll pass!" she replied. "I've got some more studying to do!"

The recruit grinned. "Bookworm!" They talked among themselves and moved on. Twilight rounded the corner of one street with a little hurry in her step. It was close to evening and she didn't want to waste any time before getting to sleep.

She was still a few more corners from her new home when she stopped. By the next corner stood Vanguard Clash and Scarlet Rabbit. "Vanguard!" she called out. The two saw her, and waved. "Are the two of you still on duty?"

"No," Scarlet said. "But the Captain here had a hunch, and wanted to check something out!"

Twilight looked to Vanguard. "There are ways into this city besides the main gates," Vanguard said. "I remember an old passageway by the western walls. I want to check it out in case it might turn into a problem later."

"Wanna join us?" Scarlet asked. Though it was Twilight he asked, he had flitted over to hover next to her, and looked to Vanguard.

"Scarlet, this isn't some outing," Vanguard said sternly.

Scarlet's shoulder's drooped. "Why not? We brought Applejack with us the last time!"

"That has nothing to do with this," Vanguard turned towards Twilight. "You should be resting. Your back hasn't fully recovered."

"You're the one with forty lashes still on you," Twilight replied. "Besides, I don't mind coming along."

"Great!" Scarlet crowed. "The more the merrier!"

"There is nothing merry about this," Vanguard said. "We're just going to check if that passage is still there. I'm not even sure if I'm remembering it right."

It was already dark by the time they made it to the western portion of the walls. Underneath the shadow of the larger buildings was a veritable maze of smaller, wooden, ramshackle houses bunched together in rows. Many looked abandoned, but there were still plenty with lights in them. Twilight stuck closely to Vanguard while he navigated the side-streets with ease. If she got separated from him now, she'd probably wander this maze for days. "So how do you know about this passage?" she asked.

"I used to play a lot around these parts when I was a colt," Vanguard said. "Pyre and I found that passage, and used it to sneak out of the city at times."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to sneak out of the city?"

"Survival camping when we were younger, dueling tournaments when we were a bit older." Vanguard snorted. "We were so convinced we were ready for the Legion back then."

"Dueling is illegal within city limits," Scarlet added with a grin.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Duels...as in you fought other ponies?"

"I thought it was a good way to test ourselves before we joined the Legion," Vanguard replied. "Pyre wanted to throw herself at every aspiring unicorn as soon as she learned her first combat spell."

"Did you ever get caught?" Twilight asked.

"The other participants had their routes discovered. Ours never was. Maybe somepony had already found it and closed it up. Or we could have a potential entry point to the city."

Twilight looked over the many ramshackle houses."There's a lot of--" Vanguard raised a hoof, interrupting her. They were in front of a deserted alleyway. It seemed that this place was used to store old construction equipment. Bits of wood were scattered about along with old pieces of scaffolding, and sacks of broken stones. These weren't why Vanguard and Scarlet had stopped, however.

At the end of the alley stood two ponies. One of them was a white unicorn with a long, wild, black mane. The other was a large, brown earth pony.

"Pyre," Vanguard growled. His hoof went to his two-bladed sword.

Twilight steeled herself for a fight. Pyre looked shocked at the mere sight of Vanguard, but the shock was replaced by an angry glare when Pyre's eyes focused on her. Blademane stepped forward protectively.

"Go for backup, Scarlet," Vanguard said before he clamped down on the hilt of his weapon.

Scarlet hesitated for a second before nodding, and flying off.

Blademane and Vanguard charged at the same time, and crashed into each other with a loud, metallic bang. Blademane had slammed his head against Vanguard's, and kept it in place to prevent the two-bladed sword from slicing him up. Pyre's horn flashed dark red before she disappeared. Twilight saw the same flash on top of a nearby building.

"Twilight, don't let her run around loose!" Vanguard shouted. "Be careful!"

Twilight nodded, and cast her own teleportation spell. She reappeared on top of the same building as Pyre. 





When Twilight left, Vanguard pushed Blademane away, and swiped. His blade cut between the plates of Blademane's barding, leaving a deep gash just between the right shoulder and foreleg.

Blademane jumped back, and hesitated. The narrow space would make it difficult for Vanguard to swing his massive weapon about, but Vanguard had fought in similar situations before. His best bet was to keep at the center of the two blades, and beat down Vanguard with his tramplers. The narrow alley should keep Vanguard's swings to short ones.

They charged at each other again. Blademane encountered another problem as he butted heads with Vanguard. Nightsteel fullplate was much stronger than regular barding. His champron dented on impact, and stars burst in his vision. He ignored the pain, and reared up to strike with his front tramplers.

Vanguard mimicked the move, locking them in a shoving match with their forelegs against each other's. The blades stuck out just above their forelegs. Blademane was bigger than Vanguard, but, no matter how hard he pushed, Vanguard refused to budge. As Blademane continued to push, Vanguard suddenly fell backwards. 

The lack of resistance sent Blademane falling forward. Beneath him, Vanguard put both hind legs against his belly, and kicked, knocking him into the air. Vanguard then turned his head to one side so that Blademane's unprotected belly would land on the weapon's edge.

Blademane twisted in mid-air to avoid being gutted. He collapsed clumsily on his back, just a foot from Vanguard, who had already rolled to his hooves. He rolled in time as the two-bladed sword thrust into the ground just where his exposed belly was. Panting, he got to his hooves. Blood continued to pour from his injured foreleg.





"You said that the only pony who knew of that passage was dead."

'That was him. We came upon the same idea at the same time.'

"We're going to have a discussion on how you see the word "dead"."

Pyre looked around. She didn't have much time to cause some damage. A few fire spells at a food storage building should give the Legion a wake-up call. Blowing the main gates up required a lot of empowerment from Nightmare Moon. With Prince Terrato so close, Nightmare Moon didn't want to risk it. And that was with the unprepared gates of Fangbreaker. Bastion City's gates were now heavily guarded, and magically reinforced. The Legion learned quickly from past mistakes, and Fangbreaker's fall was a very stark lesson indeed.

"Stop!"

Pyre's temper flared at the sight of the legion mage-coat on the miserable mare that followed her. She wasn't the only one to recognize this Night Sparkle, however. 

"This wretched unicorn will be the first to--"

'Stand down.'

"What? You do not command me, Pyre Valor!"

'I said stand down!'

Surprisingly, Nightmare Moon's presence did recede. Whether because of her fierce resistance or Nightmare Moon had some other agenda, her body was now under control. She took a step towards the nag in the mage-coat, her horn already glowing. She had a score to settle. "Take off that mage-coat!" she snarled. "I've never seen a bigger insult to the Legion! You're going to pay for this, Night Sparkle!"

"This coat is standard issue to every unicorn legionnaire," Night Sparkle replied, her horn glowing as well. "That includes me. By the way, it's Twilight Sparkle."

Pyre's snarl turned into a low, dangerous growl. "Take it off, or I will melt it until every inch fuses to your disgusting purple hide."

"You threatened a scared unicorn who stumbled into this land without knowing anything, Pyre Valor," Twilight replied. "I am not that same unicorn." 

The two of them faced off on a wide, flat rooftop, a couple of stories from the ground. A thin layer of snow covered the place, making it a bit slippery.

"Is that so?" A sphere of white-hot flames flew from Pyre's horn.  

Twilight answered with a fireball of her own. The two spheres collided between them, and exploded, bathing the rooftop in searing heat. Twilight stepped back, and raised a portion of her mage-coat to protect her.

Pyre Valor concentrated on another spell. "You think you've seen fire?" she shouted. "You haven't seen anything!"  Before the last explosion dissipated, she unleashed a barrage of meteors, each the size of a pony, and covered with glowing cracks. She wasn't done yet. As a precaution, she cast another spell, and hurled it behind her.

Half the roof top erupted in flames, scattering bits of stone and wood on the streets below. One of the boulders had missed its mark, and struck the building on the other side of the alley where Vanguard was. Smoke and flames began to spread from that building. When the explosion settled, Twilight had disappeared. Pyre already knew where to find her. She wasn't worried. The foal nag had yet to notice the trap.

On the ground, likely just beneath Twilight, would be a small, pulsing red gem: a delayed blast fireball. A couple more seconds passed before it erupted, all but destroying the other side of the roof, and leaving only the middle section intact. To Pyre's annoyance, Twilight reappeared by one side, her body smoking from several burns. Her teleportation had saved her life, but not without some of the flames actually reaching her.

Pyre quickly rushed Twilight, and knocked her down with a front hoof to the face. Twilight was still casting a spell even as Pyre closed in. Out of desperation, her foe engulfed her in a telekinetic grip.

Pyre's horn flashed, breaking the telekinesis. She slammed another hoof onto her prone opponent's face, rubbing it against the rooftop. "That was pathetic!" she snarled. She pounded Twilight's face repeatedly. Instead of satisfying, each blow only made her angrier. "Weakling! Chosen filth! They may as well let rats into the Legion!"

Pyre grabbed a hank of Twilight's mane with her teeth, and hurled the worthless nag to her opposite side. "Faced with an overwhelming attack, you so predictably teleported towards the opposite direction it was heading towards. Did you think I wouldn't expect that? And using telekinesis? The first spell any unicorn thinks of a counter spell to when facing another unicorn? Imbecile!"

Twilight covered her face with her forelegs as another assault of hooves rained down on her. Her horn flashed briefly, and her body was covered with an almost invisible screen of protective magic. Nevertheless, Pyre trampled her relentlessly, uncaring of what was happening to Vanguard and Blademane. "Armor" was a weak, basic spell. Yet more proof of how pathetic this nag was. "You stand against me as if you had a chance!" she snarled. "I've fought unicorns worth ten of you! When was the last time you looked at a unicorn, and thought to yourself 'How can I beat her?' Miserable--" 

Pyre Valor's left foreleg refused to move.

"That's enough!" Nightmare Moon hissed. "We've wasted too much time on this pony! Kill her, and let's go! We can't harm the Legion much as it is, and Terrato will be upon us soon!"

Pyre tried to lift her other hoof, only to encounter the same resistance.

"Enough trampling! She's helpless! Burn her to a crisp!"

Pyre's horn flared with dark red light. Before she could fire, she caught the distant sound of wing beats. On impulse, she jumped to one side. A crossbow bolt clinked against the stone next to her.

"Hold still while I skewer you, Pyre!" Scarlet Rabbit shouted. Behind him, several pegasi aimed their crossbows. Before they could fire, however, their target burst into black flames. A thick bank of black smoke quickly filled the burning remains of the rooftop. The pegasi fired their weapons at the smoke only to hit nothing. The smoke shifted towards the alley near the building, moving as if it were a living creature.





In the alley, the winner of the fight was becoming clearer and clearer. Blademane sported several cuts to his chest and forelegs. His barding was dented in several places, and he was panting heavily. Vanguard bled from one nostril, and had a several bruises just beneath the barding of his forelegs.

Vanguard was about to charge again when smoke filled the alley. Gagging, he stumbled out of the cloud. As quickly as it had appeared, the smoke flowed into the passageway, and disappeared. Blademane was gone as well. Above him, Scarlet hovered near the building Twilight teleported to. "Scarlet!" he called out. "How's Twilight?"

"Pyre beat the crap out of her pretty badly!" Scarlet replied. "But she'll be fine! Just some burns and bruises!"

Vanguard shook his head. That can't bode well. He was thankful that he had intercepted Pyre Valor and Blademane before they could cause anything beyond a  minor fire and some injuries. Now, he was torn with feeling stupid that he had gotten Twilight hurt...again, and feeling relieved that Twilight was there to delay Pyre until reinforcements came along. He sighed, and stepped out of the alley.





The following morning, Vanguard found Twilight by her desk with several open spell books. Her burns proved to be minor, but she was still bound in bandages. Her face was also badly swollen. Though it looked as if she had a hard time looking through her right eye, she continued to read. The look of determination on her face made him loathe to bother her. Around them, the rest of their friends were still asleep. The sun had yet to rise after all. "Have you slept an hour at least?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied.

Vanguard snorted. "Those spells are useless if you're too tired to cast them."

Twilight paused, and looked at Vanguard. "Then tell me what else I can do," she said, her eyes fierce. "You know her best. Tell me. How do I beat Pyre Valor?"

"Learning more spells is just part of the solution," Vanguard said. "You're a very book-smart pony. You need to translate that to fighting knowledge. Sharpen your reflexes, and learn all the little tricks that will help you win."

Twilight leaned closer, much to Vanguard's discomfort. "How do I do that?"

"The quickest way is to pit yourself against other unicorns. Throw yourself into combat often enough, and you'll get better."

Vanguard expected hesitation from Twilight, maybe even some revulsion. He didn't expect grim determination. This could be bad. Pyre lit more fires than just the ones he helped put out yesterday. "A word of caution, Twilight," he added.

"What is it?"

"If you walk Pyre's path, you'll end up where Pyre is."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Take it to heart. Keeping things in mind is why your face is a swollen mess."

Twilight didn't answer. She looked back to her spell books, and buried herself in her studies.