Luna and the Dreamscape - Episode 8: Pyro Blaze

[Hippo]

Luna slammed open the dream room and closed the door behind her. It hadn't been the most pleasant evening so far. She didn't necessarily get enough sleep before sunset. A bird outside her bedroom window decided to sing the loudest mating call imaginable. The coffee Luna usually had was out of stock until morning, she might discipline somepony for it later. She also stubbed her left front hoof on a door that was normally locked open, but for some reason was left to swing closed by the guard who left it there. Unimaginable. Luna, at this point really was looking forward to her dreamscape walkthrough. On a night like this, the dreamscape is often more peaceful than the annoying troubles of the real world. The Princess sat on her chair, drank a mild sleep potion and attempted to lull herself to sleep.

But then, a bird decided to chirp a midnight song just outside the dream room's window. The white in Luna's eyes grew bloodshot as she turned to the window and opened it. She yelled, "Stop thine noises at once!" Immediately, the bird fell into submission, fearful of what might happen to her if it continued. Luna then tried to relax. Once on the chair again, she took a deep breathe and attempted to remove herself from the real world. She made soft grumblings as she fell asleep.

​

[PyroBlaze]

Well, that had certainly been a long day. Not only had he stayed longer at school to finish up homework, all his friends were busy once he had finished. That had left him with largely nothing to do. He had taken a couple walks, but they weren't very interesting, and they didn't really help. There hadn't even been a show to look forward to helping out at. The birds chirping happily outside his window didn't help his little mood either.

He was tired and just wanted the day to end. He trudged into his bedroom, putting his sunglasses down as he flopped onto the bed, closing his eyes as he drifted off to sleep. Hopefully his dreams would be a bit more exciting than his day had been.

[Hippo]

"Wake up. Come on, wake up!" A brown colt, young enough that he didn't have a cutie mark, tried to wake up a white pony with a fiery mane who seemed to be sleeping in the streets of Canterlot. "Princess Luna is walking this way!" The colt scurried away towards a crowd of ponies who were migrating around what seemed to be Princess Luna. However, the only clue that it was Princess Luna was the long horn that protruded from her head sticking up above the hieght of even the tallest ponies. The crowd was loud and obnoxious, asking a collection of questions to the Princess. However, no sound or evidence from the Princess could be heard.

​

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro groaned slightly at the voice of the pony trying to wake him up. He opened his eyes to see a large crowd heading in his general direction. Indeed, there was a large horn that he could see over the heads of the ponies once he got up from his laying position on the ground. Why had he even been laying there? He stood fully as he watched the crowd, unsure of what he should be doing. The crowd was certainly loud, asking a variety of questions to Luna. He simply stood to the side so that he wasn't in the way of their little procession.

[Hippo]

Another pony, one that was gleefully bouncing around the crowd of ponies, seemed awfully happy to be in the presence of the princess. The pony bounded from side to side, not really paying attention to where she was going. Eventually, a careless bound from her position landed her right on Pyro's flank, knocking him down to the ground. "Oh, sorry, hehe." She giggled, as if nothing was wrong. "I'm just so happy Princess Luna is here! Aren't you excited?" The pony, though cheerful, had an annoying sounding voice that would easily pierce through the ears of one who preferred not to be bothered.

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro simply stood still as the group walked past. He didn't really want to join up with them, even if Luna was there. He sighed slightly, not seeing the incoming pony until they collided, sending him to the floor with a grunt. He winced a bit at her voice, growling silently to himself at the pony's apparent lack of concern for the one she has just knocked over. He got to his hooves and gave her a bit of a glare.

"Yeah, whatever." He replied simply, looking at the crowd around the Princess.

[Hippo]

 

The excited pony leapt away to be closer to the group surrounding Luna like a paparazzi following a film star. As the group got closer, there were seen several ponies walking in front of the direction Luna was heading. Because of this, ponies who chose those angle walked backwards so that they could focus on the Princess who they were walking with. Princess Luna herself did not seemed annoyed, she did not bask in the praise they gave her either.

One pony, a stallion, who was grey with a blue mane was walking backwards. And then mistakenly, but bumped into Pyro, stepping on one of his hooves and falling over backwards on him. The stallion made an embarrassed grumble, but then smiled and giggled it off. "Heh, Sorry."

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro grumbled to himself as the pony ran off to rejoin the group headed towards him. He should probably just leave, especially with the ways things had been going for him so far. These ponies were making him angry, though it wasn't enough to be any sort of problem.

 

Of course, as he was lost in thought, another pony ran into him, this one stepping on his hoof as well. He grunted from the bit of pain, finding himself on the ground again with the stallion on top of him. He growled a bit to himself before pushing the stallion off and getting to his hooves again.

 

"Would it kill you ponies to watch where you're going?" He growled out, glaring at the stallion.

[Hippo]

At the short outburst of Pyro, the crowd of ponies split so that Luna could have full view of him. She looked unsatisfied, as if he had done something wrong. She stepped up to him and looked over him with a look of angery concern. She opened her mouth to speak, but Luna's voice did not come out of it. Instead, the voice of a stallion came out. "Are you going to do it or not? That was your cue!"

In the blink of an eye, Canterlot's streets became the backstage of a loud rock concert. Pyro had several controls and buttons and fuses in front of him, and that stallion who seemed to replace Luna's body was edging over him. He was dark green, wore a backstage hat, and wore a microphone headset. "You're the pyrotechnics guy right? This is the smoke part! And after the third verse is blue fireworks! Come on dude! What are we paying you for? This is the last time The Whooves is playing in Canterlot, and you're making it the worst!"

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro remained where he was as the crowd stopped, watching as Luna began looking him over. He stood tall as she did, feeling justified in his anger. It's not his fault these ponies wouldn't stop bumping into him. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as the voice of a stallion came out of Luna's mouth. He closed his own mouth, blinking in confusion as the scene melted away and he found himself in a familiar position.

"Sorry, got a little distracted." Pyro said to the stallion, his eyes quickly searching over the buttons before he hit the one for the smoke. This wasn't how he usually did pyrotechnics, but it's not like he had never done them this way. Usually he was getting lost in the music as his magic activated the things in time.

[Hippo]

When Pyro hit the smoke button, a plume of smoke came from underneath the performers, filling the stage with atmosphere that fit with the music. The lights hit the smoke just right and the audience was thrilled. Ponies could be heard awing at the visuals, even if they started to not be able to see through some of the smoke. The current song continued, but then suddenly stopped. Because of the smoke, it was hard to see why the band had stopped playing. But eventually the smoke dissipated, and from it revealed a monster of large proportion sharing space on stage with the band. The band was still there, but they were startled enough to stop playing. What was this monster even doing here? How did it get here?

This monster was enormous, about the weight of twenty ponies. He had three eyes and sharp claws. He growled as he walked around the stage but as soon as he saw the audience of music fan ponies, he roared, striking fear in everyone in attendance. It became really chaotic really quickly. There was little place to run, the exits from the concert being too narrow for everypony to escape in time.

​

 

if this is not what you had in mind, let me know

 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro looked towards the stage, tilting his head slightly as the smoke began to block the band from view. Wow, they set up a lot of smoke for this thing. Oh well, to each their own, he supposed. He shrugged to himself before he went back to enjoying the music, though that soon stopped, and it didn't sound like they had reached the end of the song. He stared at the smoke, puzzled as to what was happening, though when the monster was revealed, his eyes widened.

 

"Get out of here! Go!" He yelled at the band as he ran towards the monster, his horn already glowing to trap the monster in a shield while the others escaped. It didn't look good, there weren't too many exits for the crowd to escape through.

[Hippo]

 

The stage coordinator that previously cued Pyro for the smoke ran to the side out of sight. With Pyro out of the field of vision, the pony transformed into the princess of the night. Luna was stunned that this had occurred. This monster was not of her creation, nor was it something that seemed reasonably within the bounds of pony imagination. This dream was being powered by a deep subconscious and Luna was curious to find out what it was. Although she could neutralize the dreamscape's threat, she held back to observe.

The monster, meanwhile was caught temporarily in a shield that Pyro had shot from his horn. Unfortunately for Pyro, the ward only managed to inconvenience the creature for a short moment. Using its huge razor sharp claws and it's large penetrating tusks, it broke through the magic ward using brute strength, and to make matters worse, the monster appeared to increase in size slightly, as if it was feeding off the magical power. It growled again and then roared loudly. Ponies in the audience were stepping on each other trying to find a quick entrance, but the darkness of the auditorium left the crowd of ponies completely defenseless.

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro growled to himself as he held the barrier as long as he could, though that wasn't very long as the creature broke through the shield using it's brute strength. Great, and the crowd had gotten nowhere. With another angry growl he moved between the creature and the audience, snorting in anger and he pawed at the ground. 

 

"Leave them alone, you stupid beast!" He yelled, trying to get it's attention with his words and a blast of flame that he threw at the creature. He was not going to let this thing hurt anypony if he could help it.

[Hippo]

Luna saw Pyro throw magical fire at the beast. The fire was very impressive, although considering it was a dream, she confided to assume that it might be a wishful exaggeration from the real Equestria. However, it was not completely uncommon to see talented ponies who have the power to wield such a fire spell. And with these great spells, comes great responsibility, for much damage could be done if not used properly.

The fire hit the beast and staggered it, but the flame also bounced off of it and it a wooden support beam near the ceiling of the auditorium. The support beam was engulfed in flames almost immediately. And as it started to char, the beam burned off it's strength and fell to the ground. The beam nearly hit several ponies, but all of them managed to jump out of the way in time. The building was not on fire yet, but if more fire magic like that was shot, the building would surely burn up from the magnitude of the heat and flames.

Below, Luna started to grow very concerned about the situation and considered bailing the dreamer out of the situation, by way of extinguish, or overpowering the nightmare. But to better understand the internal mental workings of Pyro, she waited to take action in order to observe his next move.

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro cursed to himself at the unintended affect of his attack. Well, fire seemed out of the question. With the way his mood was going, it would've been out of the question soon enough anyways. He growled at the monster, facing it down and standing between it and the crowd behind him.

"Stay away from them, monster!" He yelled, charging the beast with a battle cry. He had no weapons, and he had to avoid using fire, but he had to do something. As he reached the monster, he began delivering blows with his hooves to keep it's attention on him.

[Hippo]

The large monstrosity growled viciously at anypony within its grasp, which soon would be few. But as Pyro ran up, the creature tensed up and growled him, using his paws to quickly swipe towards him, grabbing him with his over-sized claws. Pyro fit inside the creature's grip, his head sticking out. Another growl and his fist, and the creature was surely seen as upset. There was no telling what he would do.

However, there was a loose support beam just above the creature's head, torn from the beam that had been burnt off before. A direct hit could jostle the monster enough to let him loose, but it might also bring the entire venue to it's floors, trapping everypony inside, likely to their end.

 

Luna was waiting to see what Pyro would do, but she was almost at the end of her patience, she might intervene soon.

​
 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro growled from the creature's grasp, looking around for what to do. He noticed the loose beam, but when he realized what it might mean for the other ponies, he instead opted to bite down on the creature's hand as hard as he could. Some little bits of fire leaked out as well, like strong embers.

[Hippo]

The creature growled in pain as his hand was taken by Pyro.  With his other extremity, he picked up Pyro by the tail, grinning and laughing at Pyro's inability to move.  Luna bit her lip.

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro smiled a bit as he got himself free, though that didn't last long as he was grabbed by the tail. Letting out a yelp of pain, he glared at the monster. 

 

His eyes then widened as he felt his magic building. He tried to stop it, but he couldn't concentrate as much as he needed to through the pain from his tail. 

 

"No. Let me go! Let go of me!" He yelled, struggling as fire began springing up on his body. 

[Hippo]

 

As the monster immobilized Pyro, Pyro could be seen glowing magic from his horn, but also his limps.  The rage inside him seemed to grow and illustrate, at least in this dreamscape of a world, that his lack of control was causing him to radiate heat magic from his body.  Spits of fire began to fountain slowly from him at first, but appeared to increase.  The monster was confused and a little afraid of the increasing amount of heat.  But before the monster could even begin to retreat, the fire from Pyro's pelt started igniting the wooden structures that held the concert tend up.  Ponies attempted to flee, but as before there was not enough space for them to leave in time.

 

As several wooden panels fell down, and as fire started racing through the auditorium, a hurling could be heard for a second.  And with little warning, a blizzard gust of snow and ice coated the inside of the auditorium.  The ponies on the ground froze in place, being protected by a very large shielding spell.  And the monster, letting go of Pyro's tail, transformed into a small bunny rabbit, leaving a trail of pink dust behind itself before it scurried away behind the stage.  Luna walked up to Pyro.

 

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro was struggling to control his flames, but it was to no avail. He was helpless now as his flames lashed out randomly, catching the stage on fire and putting the audience in even more danger.

 

"Please, no... Not again..." He said quietly to himself, simply hanging there by his tail. His eyes widened a bit at the sudden blizzard, giving a grunt as he was dropped and landed on his back. Getting to his hooves, he blinked in confusion. Where did the snow come from? And why was the monster a rabbit? Well, at least the ponies were safe. He breathed a sigh of relief before he noticed Luna's approach. 

 

"Princess Luna!" He said in surprise, quickly bowing to her. "Not to be disrespectful, but what are you doing here?"

[Hippo]

 

Princess Luna casually used her magic to cause elements of the environment to slowly fade away, but the dreamer had her complete visual attention. "That depends on what you mean by here. Why are you here? Do you even know where you are?" Luna motioned to her side where one of the wooden beams used to hold the tent up swirled into nothingness. "Honestly, I'm not so worried about where either of us are in reality. But I'm very concerned with where you are emotionally."

 

Princess Luna had her fair share of anger issues. Even this evening while preparing for her nightly routine, she had been effected by inconveniences that gave her irrational bouts of frustration. And when she would overreact, it typically seemed to chain more events in which her temper would be tested. "You're dreaming, Pyro. Dreaming about many things, not the least of which is your inability to control your emotions. Tell me, when you are not dreaming, are you as talented at conjuring fire as you are when your mind's eyes are drawing fantasies during your slumber?"

[PyroBlaze]

Pyro blinked a bit in confusion at Luna’s response, not really sure what to make of it until it became clear they were in a dream. He remained silent though, letting the alicorn finish before he responded. 
 

“Dreaming? Wow, it felt so real...” The unicorn looked around at the disappearing scenery for a moment before looking back over. “Well yeah, I use it to add some effects to music acts like that one. Depends on the artist, but sometimes I even make the fire into shapes like creatures and have them move around. I’m good at using fire magic when I can remain in control.” He responded, about to start a demonstration when he realized that probably wouldn’t prove anything about his abilities in the waking world. At least he had his fiery cutie mark as some measure of proof. 

[Hippo]

Luna lifted her head and caressed her chin with a wing tip as Pyro explained his talents. "Hmm." She folded her wing back to her side. As the unicorn began explaining himself and his talents, Luna started using her magic to manipulate more of the space around her, removing artificial structures and replacing them with the natural growth of trees and grass. Soon, wooden beams would become fallen logs in a forest, stage lights hung above turned into owls and other tree critters, and crowds of frozen ponies turned into bushes and rocks. Over the course of thirty seconds, the event tent concert stage was erased into what one might see if they ventured for half a day into the darkest parts of the Everfree, and it became really dark.

 

Suddenly, Luna lit her horn and started a small fire at her tip, some sort of fire magic, perhaps the same kind Pyro wielded. Her blue complexion glowed against the lone candlelight emanating from her horn. "Fire used to be considered an illusion." Luna held an imaginary candle with holder and zapped the fire from her horn to the candle's wick. "It lights up, it seems to have some sort of energy, but you can't grab it or weigh it. You can only control it by changing where the fire sits. And of course," Luna throws the candlestick to the ground, where it bursts into a larger flame on the ground, "the first does not always obey our expectations." Luna used a calming spell from her horn on the fire and transformed it into a tamed campfire that would occasionally snap it's chaotic sparks. The princess materialized a few wooden logs and softly placed them in the campfire to kindle it. "But if we learn to respect it, it will allow us to use its energy for our needs." She sat back on her haunches near the fire and then proceeded to collapse her front hooves to maintain a forward reclining position.

 

 

She smiles. "Of course, you know all this don't you, Pyro. So why is it you deal with fears that you will not be able to control your own fire magic? I can't imagine you dream about these nightmarish scenarios if you hadn't felt the danger of a lack of respect of the fire we both know you're very good at wielding."