The Sun and Stars: Lightning Round

by JKinsley

Flaming - Ultra1437 - Feb. 8, 2015

By Ultra1437

“There’s more on your left, Tia!” Twilight called out as the pair galloped down Canterlot Castle’s hallways. A veritable storm of parasprites chased them, eating everything they could along the way, excepting the stone that made the castle. Their wings forced any conversation to be held at a shout.

“I see them!” Celestia took a drag of the cigarette in her mouth, letting the smoke out her nostrils as she stormed down the hallway.

A window exploded, more of the little balls flying in. They stopped only to munch on the fine carpeting. Both ponies sped past them, the newest swarm joining their comrades after snacking.

Celestia took the lead, her longer legs lending her more speed. “Follow me, we’ll sort this out in the Royal Armory.” She thundered down the next right, leaping down the staircase that followed.

“Right!”

At the bottom of the stairs were a set of double-doors, easily twice Discord’s height. Without slowing down, Celestia’s horn lit and the doors slammed open hard enough to leave them barely hanging on their hinges. She hit the bottom and slid, her hoofcovers sparking on the tile. After clearing, the doorway opened up into a massive barracks in which Celestia took wing, picking up even more speed.

Twilight followed suit, hot on Celestia’s fetlocks. She didn’t slide, instead opting to take wing and soar through the doors with her smaller wingspan. After Celestia took to the air, she struggled to keep up, having to teleport two dozen meters in half as many seconds.

Celestia homed in on her target. An unassuming door, more a thin steel plate, was yanked open and tossed behind her, to the right. She snapped her wings shut and slid through the portal, the waxed hardwood flooring letting her slide a little easier. Twilight followed suit, sliding through the doorway with ease.

The swarm steadily chewed their way through the barracks. Parasprites of all colors rampaged, tearing the room apart. A jet of fire erupted from the doorway, garnering the flooding parasprites’ attention.

Celestia stepped through the doorway, a long, grey tube in her magic. The tube wound behind her, to a pair of large tanks underneath her wings, one more that was larger still on her back. She noticed a pair of parasprites had started to eat the door. Twilight followed behind, a dozen more tanks held in her magic feeding three hoses.

Celestia lit her horn and her still-lit cigarette moved to tap against a small protruding tip on the hose she held. A small flame lit on the end, before it moved to tap against Twilight’s. After a second, all four hoses were lit. “Alright, Twilight. Now we’ve got their attention. Let’s get cookin’!” She smiled cockily, drawing her cigarette back to herself. With the worst Scoltish accent Twilight ever heard, Celestia yelled, “Theh canno’ have ouwa castle as lon’ ‘s weh stahnd!”

Despite the horrible accent, Twilight set into a defensive stance. “Just so you know, Tia, if we don’t make it through this… I love you.”

“I know. I love you too. We’ll just have to live to see that love blossom.” Celestia’s stance mirrored Twilight’s.

A parasprite screamed and charged, prompting a part of the swarm to follow. Celestia raised her hose and squeezed a small trigger. A liquid spurted from the hose, touching the fiery tip, before igniting and spraying all over the rushing parasprites. The group turned from devastating parasites to charred and flaming balls of fluff in seconds. The burning balls screamed before going still as the stench of burning flesh wafted through the air.

The rest of the swarm charged.

Twilight took the left side, three hoses spraying madly as Celestia took the right. Where Celestia only had one, she used her own magic to ignite entire sections at a time with fireballs and launching other streams of magickafire from her horn. Scores of the little things fell and started piling up around their hooves.

Queasy from the feeling of stepping over the dead parasprites, Twilight nimbly dodged those that made it through her three flamethrowers’ reach. Celestia’s swarm already waning, she spared a glance over at Twilight. What she saw left her cigarette forgotten, already down to the filter as she watched Twilight dance among the parasprites.

She was caught off guard as one made a daring move of going after Celestia’s flamethrower, chewing a hole in the hose. It was rewarded with gallons of fuel and Celestia’s weapon winking out.

Twilight looked over and her eyes widened. “TIA!”

Celestia whirled around just in time to see her flamethrower’s nozzle being eaten by a dozen remaining parasprites. Her ears pinned back and she moved for the first time, charging forward. She telekinetically threw the tanks at Twilight’s flaming swarm, grabbing Twilight herself. The parasprites ignored the ponies in favor of the discarded weaponry momentarily.

Celestia held Twilight in front of her as she made for the door they’d originally come in. Twilight wobbled in Celestia’s telekinesis, only able to see behind them through Celestia’s legs. As they crossed the threshold, Celestia pulled Twilight against her before slamming down onto the floor on top of the younger alicorn. A deafening explosion rang out in the room, before a wall of fire washed over the pair. As the air rushed to fuel the fire, both ponies could not breathe. Celestia did her best to shield Twilight from the fire with her body.

A few seconds later, air rushed back in, letting both ponies gasp and sputter for breath. Celestia shakily stood up and looked back into the room. Twilight moved to stand next to her, her breathing heavy.

“Is… is it over? Did we get them all?”

Smoke was still pouring from the room, but it wasn’t low enough to conceal the carnage. Where the epicenter occurred was nothing but blackened, melted stone. Not even parasprite corpses remained. The area around it was still flaming as the wood floors burned away to the stone underneath.

“It looks like it.” Celestia sighed, sitting down heavily. Cheekily, she leaned over to Twilight. “So, you love me, huh?”

Twilight turned beet red before sputtering incoherently. She turned away, kicking a hoof against the stone.

“Well, Twilight, I said I loved you too.” A hoof came over and touched Twilight’s chin, causing the younger mare to freeze. Closing her eyes, Celestia leaned in and spoke, “I think it’s later, and we can let that love start to blossom.” She lifted Twilight’s chin before planting a kiss on the younger mare’s lips.

Twilight was still frozen in surprise as Celestia pulled back. Her eyes opened and she noticed Twilight hadn’t responded at all. “Twilight… Twilight?” She poked one of Twilight’s forelegs with her own and garnered no response. A few seconds later, she noticed Twilight wasn’t even breathing. Acting swiftly, she pushed Twi back to the ground, a hoof compressing heavily over Twilight’s barrel. After three pumps, she touched her horn to Twilight’s barrel and administered a shock. Returning to the pumping, she forced her lips against the younger mare’s, for an entirely different reason. She forced air into Twilight’s lungs and with her hoof pushed it back out. After three more rounds of shocks, Twilight twitched.

“Wha… what ha-happened?” Twilight coughed heavily.

Celestia carefully scooped the mare up into a hug. “We won, Twilight. Between you and I, we beat the parasprites trying to eat the castle.”

“I remem-remember that, but w-what happened afterward?”

“I kissed you.” Celestia tightened her hug somewhat. “Then you stopped breathing.”

“I s-see.” Twilight coughed once more. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, love. You’re not dead, and that’s all that matters to me.” Celestia leaned down, fully intent on kissing Twilight once again.

Twilight buried her head in Celestia’s neck, sobbing softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Twilight, love, what’s wrong?”

“If I can’t remain conscious after a single kiss with you, how can I expect to do anything else with you?”

“With practice, love.” Celestia laid back, letting Twilight lay on top of her, wrapping her wings around her little love. “I will love you, no matter what, and if I kiss you into unconsciousness, then I will just have to help you build up a tolerance. Alright?”

Twilight sniffled once. “Alright.” She looked up at Celestia's face, smiling softly.

“There we go.”

“Now, we’re both filthy, my back is covered in soot from the explosion, and I know it stinks in here. How about we go get cleaned up?”

Twilight nodded once.

“Alright.” She leaned down and quickly pecked Twilight on the lips. Twilight remained conscious this time, moaning softly. Celestia lifted her wings, letting Twilight go, and both ponies quickly left the destroyed barracks behind them.

Comments

[sakuralovelight]

wait doesn't music beat parasprites and twilight knows this so why did this happen

[ultra1437]

5645334
Because why the hell not? The idea stuck in my head, and I wrote it. These are all inherently AU, so there's no reason I can't have Twi and Tia rock some flamethrowers agains a swarm of parasprites.

In short, because raisins.