Twisted Little Fire Starter
Come on Filly, Light My Fire
Twisted Little Fire Starter
by
Luna-tic Scientist
Preread by IcehawkPrime and mm1145.
All the good stuff is theirs, everything else is mine.
===
The horror was on the move once more. The inhabitants of the forest knew that nowhere was truly safe, no hiding place so small or nondescript that it might not be investigated. The only real defence was to leave; clouds of birds took to the wing as the nightmare advanced. Those without the power of flight or the ability to run -- the small crawling, hopping or scurrying things -- secreted themselves into cracks and crevasses, hoping in their simple ways that the terror would pass them by. Some had too much invested in a home to simply abandon it; these fled to the dubious sanctuary of deep burrows, others to their tree-top fastnesses. All quaked with fear. The land's other embodiment of chaos was on the march.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders - Survival Experts!"
The joyful cry rang out at enormous volume from three deceptively small throats, shattering the calm of the cool green spaces under the trees. Off in the distance another flock of birds rose to the safety of the sky, while small furry creatures curled into tighter balls and held their collective breaths.
"So y'all didn't have any trouble getting the book, Scoots?" said the cream earth pony filly, her bright red mane with its over-sized bow bobbing as she trotted off the forest trail and into the clearing. Here the twisting, narrow path opened up to form a wide space of short, well nibbled grass, separated from the surrounding forest by a thick wall of bushes and drifts of dry leaves from last autumn. This was one of their semi-secret play areas, but the fillies didn't call it that. This was the Testing Ground.
"Nah, you should have seen me! I was in and out of the library like a ninja, nopony even knew I was there!" replied the young pegasus.
Scoots, more properly 'Scootaloo', flared her stubby orange wings and tossed back her short, purple mane as she struck a heroic pose on entering the sunlit clearing -- only to go muzzle first into the leaf litter as she was struck from behind by the third member of the trio.
"That's because Twilight was out and I asked Spike to find it for us," said Sweetie Belle, flicking her curly purple and pink tail to remove a few errant leaves.
Scootaloo sprang to her hooves and spat out a mouthful of twigs. "Why don't you watch where you are going, Sweetie Belle?" she asked the unicorn in an annoyed tone.
"Hey I was! You're the one who stopped in the-- " Sweetie retorted, narrowing her eyes, before being interrupted by Applebloom.
"Girls, please, we already know we're not getting our 'argument' cutie marks," the cream filly said, putting a hoof over each of the other ponies' mouths. "I think we're far enough away from Ponyville now. Let's see it, Sweetie."
The unicorn filly glared one last time at Scootaloo, then flicked open her exquisitely embroidered saddle bags and lifted out The Book. It wasn't a very large volume, it didn't have a fancy binding and it didn't have gold lettering. What it did have was a picture of the author on the cover, a well-built tan earth pony stallion, jumping from a pegasus chariot into what looked like an endless expanse of water.
"Wow," said Scootaloo, all anger forgotten. She and Applebloom gazed open mouthed as Sweetie flicked over a few more pages to show other images of the same pony doing other daring stunts.
"He's almost as cool as Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo breathed, staring at one image of the pony jumping a wide and apparently bottomless gorge.
"Ah don't know, he seems a bit... foolhardy," said Applebloom slowly, her brow wrinkling. "Couldn't he have found a safer place to cross?"
Sweetie looked over the top of the book at the picture. "Are we going to have to do that?" she said nervously.
Scootaloo waved a hoof at her airily. "Don't worry, it will be easy."
"Said the pegasus!" the unicorn replied in an outraged tone.
"You know I can't fly well yet," Scootaloo protested.
"Yes, but even chickens can glide!"
"I am not a chicken!"
Applebloom turned to the front of the book and looked again at the cover. “A Life In The Wild by Bobcat Griddles,” she read out. Then turning to the back of the book, “Bobcat Griddles, ex FOAL of the Equestrian Special Forces, reveals how YOU can survive the ponyless wilds with nothing more than your wits and some basic knowledge.” The back cover also had another image, this time of the stallion standing on a snowy mountain top with a faraway expression on his face. He wore a heavy looking jacket that covered him completely, with what appeared to be his cutie mark emblazoned across its padded side.
“Ah didn't know Celestia had any 'special forces',” she mumbled, squinting to try and get a better look at the rather odd cutie mark. What was that? A pony eating something with... legs? Is that a spider? Applebloom thought, then looked away feeling slightly ill. Not sure ah want a mark like that. “What's 'special' about them anyways?”
Scootaloo looked smug and opened her mouth to reply but Sweetie beat the pegasus to it. “He's an ex-foal? Isn't every adult an ex-foal?” she said.
The pegasus shook her head, dismayed at the ignorance of her friends. “No, F.O.A.L. - Fast Operations: Air/ Land. They're like secret agents, and they're not Celestia's, they're Luna's. They do lots of cool stuff, sneaking into crime gangs, rescuing ponies from monsters and everything! They've been around for years, in the shadows..." Scootaloo's voice trailed off into a hiss as she mock-stalked Sweetie, head low and stubby wings flared.
Applebloom looked doubtful at this. "Hasn't Princess Luna only been back fer six months? Are you sure this t'aint just from one of yer story books?"
Sweetie, having recovered the book, tuned out Scoot's reply -- and the inevitable bickering that followed -- looking instead at the list of chapters.
"What about this one?" she said in a loud voice. "After shelter, clean water is the next thing on a survivor's to-do list," she read. "In the absence of standing water, a simple solar still can be improvised from a sheet of thin, translucent material -- oiled silk is best -- and a hole in the ground. Anything containing water -- inedible plants, mud, wet sand or u..uri... Oh my." Sweetie Belle's voice ran down to a stop and her ears folded back, her muzzle twisting in an expression of disgust.
"Well we're not doing that!" she announced, dropping the book to the grass with a shiver. Scootaloo made an 'ewuuu' sound, but Applebloom only looked curious.
"We could, it would be like drinking rainwater," she said hesitantly, "ah think."
"No," said Sweetie Belle firmly. "Anyway, we'd have to go back to my sister's to get some silk -- and you know what happened last time. Unless you want to trot back and get your cape...?"
"Um... maybe not then."
"There must be something in here we can try." Scootaloo was back leafing through the book, a glum expression on her face. "Oh! Remember that camping trip? Well what about this?" She spun the book around to face the other two fillies, hoof tapping on one diagram.
"How to use a fire bow," Applebloom read, suddenly excited. "Sure, why not. We all saw how easy it was for mah sister -- Ah'm sure nothing that simple-looking could possibly go wrong!"
===
This part of the forest was an interface between the true 'wild wood' of the Everfree and the far more artificial pony-made landscapes near Ponyville. Nevertheless, it was still home to a wide assortment of wild animals and (very occasionally) a more dangerous creature. The three fillies scattered into the surrounding woodland, each hunting for a different part of the fire bow as described in Bobcat Griddles' instructions.
Applebloom was first back; she'd been lucky enough to locate a fallen tree with a fine choice of branches. A couple of quick bucks had broken off a long straight one about a quarter the thickness of her hoof, and she was soon back at their meeting point and trying to snap the thing off at the right length. Dry as it was, she had no trouble propping it up on a small rock and breaking it with a hard stamp of her hoof.
The second thing she was after was a flexible green stick; this she took from one of the few saplings that had escaped the dedicated nibbling of the clearing's rabbits. Biting the switch off at ground level she pulled off the leaves and side branches, leaving a short, bendy stick just like Bobcat had described. Pleased with her success she picked up the stick -- no, 'bow,' she thought -- and swished it around to strike the low bushes near the path's edge.
Thwack! Thwack! "Ouch!"
Applebloom dropped the stick in shock as the bush spoke to her in Scootaloo's voice.
"Opps, sorry Scoots," she said as the vegetation rustled indignantly. "Are you okay? What are you doing in there anyways?"
"Mmmm trrrnnng cu puuuu tis," there was a thump and a sigh. "I'm trying to pull this branch out, but it's stuck."
"Oh, that's a good one," said Applebloom, poking her head into the bush. "It's well an' truly wedged though... an' we probably don't need quite so much."
Scootaloo nodded, she'd been rapidly reaching that conclusion while trying to drag the bough -- almost four times her own body length and with lots of side branches -- through the bush. "Yes," she said sadly, "but it would be so cool if we could get a big fire going, we'd be sure to get our cutie marks then!"
Between the two of them they snapped off the smaller side branches and soon had a tidy pile of broken wood ready for their camp fire -- Scootaloo had even found some flat fragments perfect for the cap and base of the fire drill.
"Did you see Sweetie while you were looking for dry wood?" Applebloom asked.
"Yeah, she was collecting dry grass and leaves near a stand of pine over there," the orange pegasus replied, waving vaguely with one hoof, before trotting off into the bushes. "Come on, let's see if she needs any help."
===
"Well ah don't know, Sweetie, ah think that trees must hate you." Applebloom glanced at Scootaloo -- currently on her back, hooves in the air and quaking with uncontrolled mirth -- before turning back to study Sweetie Belle's predicament. "How did you manage that?"
The poor filly was well and truly stuck. She was hanging upside down about a foot off the ground with curly tail apparently glued to the trunk of a tall pine by a blob of sticky resin. As Applebloom watched another few strands glowed with a cream light and were unpicked from the tangle. The concentration on her friend's face was intense, even for this basic act; it was only in the last month that she'd been able to do any magic at all.
"Well, Mister Griddles says that pine resin makes the best tinder, and I saw this big bit and tried to climb up... I'm not sure what happened after that."
“Let's see, it looks like you're mostly just caught up in that stub branch, if ah just…” Applebloom reared up and gripped the offending branch with her teeth, then jerked downwards with all her weight. There was a loud 'snap' and Sweetie and Applebloom tumbled into a heap at the bottom of the tree.
“Thanks Applebloom,” said Sweetie, gazing wistfully up at the clump of purple hair still glued to the tree trunk while rubbing her tail root with one hoof. “That was starting to get uncomfortable.”
Applebloom turned and glared at Scootaloo, who had broken into fresh mirth at the sight of the pair of them covered in leaf litter. “Ah'm impressed at how calmly you're taking this Sweetie, Ah'd think the attitude of somepony might make you angry.”
“I was at first, but then I realised that Scoots had found where I left the rest of the resin I collected.”
“What!” The laughter abruptly stopped as Scootaloo jumped to her hooves and checked her back in dismay. Sure enough, sticky lumps of resin were dotted across her back, along with clumps of grass, dirt and distressed insects.
“Oh well, at least you won't have to carry much tinder back yourself!”
===
They didn't see it as it fell from one of the puffy clouds high overhead. The blue shape had traded altitude for speed and was flitting towards them through the trees with the silence of a ghost. It was only because Applebloom was looking in the right direction that she caught a glimpse of the pegasus' rainbow contrail at all, grabbing the others she hustled them into the shelter of a near-by bush. All three watched in awe as the blue pegasus wove through the trees in a complex, improvised slalom course, sometimes folding her wings almost completely to get through impossibly tiny gaps.
"Hey, Rainbow Da--," Scootaloo started to shout, before being jumped on by the other two.
"Shhh!" said Sweetie Belle. "We're not really supposed to be this far from Ponyville, remember? We'll never get a chance to try out the book if we get dragged back home."
"Fine," grumbled the orange pegasus, staring after her vanished idol.
After counting a slow thirty seconds to make sure Rainbow wasn't coming back, the three fillies -- dirtier, stickier, and in two cases, less furry -- returned to the clearing and set about assembling the drill.
After Sweetie had tied a piece of string to the now bent bow, Applebloom had quickly looped it around the bit of wood they planned to use as a drill and started to assemble the device. Sitting back on her haunches, still holding the bow in her mouth, she tried to hold the drill in place while simultaneously aligning it with the cap and base. The other two ponies shuffled backwards nervously as she became increasingly wobbly, until she finally lost control of the drill and it slipped off the base. Under tension from the bow, the drill stick did a fast end-over-end flip and caught her smartly across the muzzle.
Applebloom sat there stunned for a second. "Well, that looked a lot easier when big sis did it. Ah think Ah've shown you how not to do it," she said, rubbing the side of her jaw. "Anypony else want a go?"
===
“This is impossible,” cried Scootaloo, after they'd each tried several times to get the thing to stay together. “There's no way anypony can put this together without four sets of hooves!”
Applebloom's eyes widened in sudden realisation. “That's it!” she breathed. “Sweetie, you lean on the top to hold the drill upright, I'll use the bow, and Scoots you get ready with the tinder and keep the base still.”
After a round of enthusiastic 'yays' they set to work. With Sweetie keeping the pressure up on the drill, and Scootaloo stopping the base from slipping, Applebloom gripped the bow between her teeth and started to saw it back and forth. Before long the three fillies had figured out the correct combination of speed and pressure, and little wisps of smoke started to coil up from the bottom of the drill.
Being the closest and having her nostrils right next to the smoking embers was starting to cause Applebloom problems; closing her watering eyes, she wrinkled her muzzle and tried to ignore the building tickle. Finally it got too much and with an explosive sneeze she dropped the bow, which promptly unwound itself from the drill and caught Scootaloo in the stomach. With a surprised 'oof', the pegasus staggered back and swiped Sweetie across the nose with one wing, breaking the unicorn's balance and causing her to fall forwards onto Applebloom.
"We nearly had it that time, Ah just can't stand the smoke," Applebloom said, vigorously rubbing the end of her muzzle.
"Don't worry Applebloom, I can fix that," said the pegasus, unfolding her stubby wings and flapping them vigorously.
Applebloom smiled appreciatively as the blast of fresh air cleared the last of the smoke from her mane. "Perfect," she said while reaching for the bow. "One more time then."
Within a few seconds the drill was smoking again, but Scootaloo's wing beats kept the air clear and Applebloom had no problems getting the bottom of the drill glowing with the heat. She stared pointedly at the other two fillies, waggling her ears in an attempt to indicate that she was going to stop. Ah guess we should have arranged a signal, she thought ruefully. Sweetie was concentrating too hard on keeping her balance, tongue poking out the corner of her mouth, for Applebloom to attract her attention, but Scootaloo finally noticed her pointed stare.
Her eyes widened and she grinned ferociously. "Ready when you are. Hey Sweetie, Applebloom thinks it's ready," she said, shifting herself round until she was nearer the bundle of tinder.
With one quick motion Applebloom pulled the drill out of its friction created cup to leave behind a smouldering pellet of black dust. Sweetie, having released the other components, carefully pushed the ember into the tinder with little nudges of magic while Scootaloo blew air across it with quick wing strokes. The three crowded round the grass bundle, Scootaloo beating her wings faster and faster as the smoke grew heavier.
“There!” cried the sharp-eyed pegasus, spotting a flicker of yellow. “It's working!” As she said this she brought her wings up to their trade-mark humming-bird blur, the blast of wind causing the little flame to suddenly flare up, engulfing the whole bundle at once.
Sweetie, surprised by the unexpected flash of heat, shrieked and lost control of the burning grass. Her magic, very much a fragile thing, flickered out and the bundle promptly flicked up and away on the wind from Scootaloo's wings. The trio stared open mouthed as the flaming tinder sailed across the clearing and disappeared into the bushes beyond.
"What does it look like?" "Did we get them?” "I bet it's something really cool, like a fireball!"
The happy voices blurred together as the three danced around, trying to see through the dirt on their coats to those long sought-after symbols of adulthood and destiny.
It was Sweetie Belle who finally voiced the disappointing truth. "Aww, I was sure we'd done it that time." Then, looking over Applebloom's head, she pointed at a wisp of white smoke coming from the edge of the clearing. "Umm... is it supposed to do that?"
"This is bad, really bad," Applebloom whispered, then started to run towards the smoke. "Quick, unless you want arson as your special talent!"
“This is your fault Sweetie, why did you drop it?” Scootaloo yelled at the unicorn as the three fillies galloped towards their suddenly unwanted success.
“I didn't expect it to get all big like that! You were fanning it too hard!”
Applebloom concentrated on her running; of the three she was probably the only one who realised what a disaster this could be; one of the reasons their family apple orchards were kept so tidy was to reduce the fire risk. Here the ground was littered with dry wood, grass and leaves… Already that wisp of smoke had turned into a definite plume curling up from behind the bush where the tinder had landed.
“We can argue later, right now we've got to put this out before it spreads,” she panted.
Trotting round the bush the three fillies stared at the raggedly expanding ring of fire eating at the carpet of dead leaves between the trees. Already it was half a dozen feet across, much further and it would engulf the bushes that encircled their little clearing.
“Ah've seen mah brother do a bit of fire fighting,” said Applebloom. “Grab a green branch an' start hitting the flames,” she said, reaching out to snap a small leafy branch off a near-by bush.
The next few minutes were a blur of heat, sparks and smoke. While hitting the burning leaves definitely slowed the fire down, it also tended to scatter burning fragments when the fillies were a little too enthusiastic. Sweetie quickly abandoned her branch and spent all her time catching the flying embers and putting them into a small area she'd swept clear of anything combustible.
It was a close run thing -- all the fillies sported a collection of singed patches and a layer of soot -- but with their combined efforts they finally extinguished the blaze. Scootaloo ground out the last ember beneath one small hoof then joined the other two where they lay exhausted under a tree. As she sank to her haunches in relief her eyes suddenly snapped open.
"Oh! Did we get them?" she said excitedly, jumping up again.
"Get what?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Our Fire Fighter cutie marks!"
===
High above, a pair of wine coloured eyes studied the antics of the three fillies from the fringe of a grey cloud their owner was lounging on.
"I guess they won't need 'ol Dash's help after all," said the rainbow maned pegasus, fondly patting the rain cloud she'd moved into position just in case things had got out of hoof. Keeping one ear cocked to the voices below, she turned over and went back to dozing in the sun.
Author's Note
Change log
20130117 Punctuation corrections, edits to link to more recent episodes.
20120307 Stuff pointed out after the submission deadline had passed.
...unfolding his stubby wings... -> ...unfolding her stubby wings... (I can't believe I missed that!)
...caught a glimpse of the other pegasus' rainbow... -> ...caught a glimpse of the pegasus' rainbow...