I remember being in bed, suddenly awake, and not for a good reason. My hoof had gone numb, that’s all. With a grunt, I flopped to my other side, shaking it loose, trying to get comfortable again. But no luck! The blanket had become bunched under my flank. I grunted as I bit for the edge, trying to yank it loose. Nothing. I was in such a nice sleeping position too...
I flopped up, magically straightened the blanket, and flopped down again, enjoying myself a nice, relaxing sigh.
Smoke.
That was odd. I stared into the dark, and breathed again. Was that really smoke? Once more, Twilight. Smoke… definitely smoke.
Jumbled, half asleep, I stared over the loft’s railing. Was there a fire in the library? It was an absurd idea. I double checked my triple check to make sure all the doors are locked and candles out, just so that kind of thing doesn’t happen. And there was certainly no light in my home to tell me I had done to the otherwise. But maybe… I heaved myself up again, dropping on the other side of the bed.
“Spike?” I mumbled, “You snoring again?”
The baby dragon did not respond, breathing evenly. He was still in his little basket, nose poking out from under his blankie, and not a lick of green fire to be seen. So it wasn’t his snoring… Good. Four ruined blankets was quite enough, um, ruined blankets.
I yawned, brain still jumbled up. Logic, Twilight, think this through.
It is smoke, right?
I rubbed my eyes and stared out the window. I thought it was getting close to dawn, but the sky was as black as ever. No stars or moon, they were clouded over, reflecting the street lights, tinting orange.
I blinked slowly. Ponyville didn’t have that many streetlights …
I flung myself out of bed, practically running to the glass. I heaved open my window, and a wave of hot and humid ashen stink rolled over me. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but what was there was hard to miss. A thick pillar of boiling black clouds, like a storm had touched the earth, tinted orange, drained from a solid sky. No, the clouds were rising, billowing slowly upwards.
A fire. A big one. Distant… right? The pillar of smoke was massive, but how massive? How far away could it… Shock shot up my legs as I bolted from the window, nearly falling down the stairs, suddenly far too awake. That was Sweet Apple Acres! Sweet Apple Acres was on fire!
~~~
Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh nonononononono!
I ran all the way to Sweet Apple Acres, air hot and heavy with an oncoming storm, tainted with the stink of ash. I swear to Celestia, it smelled like applewood! What if Applejacks entire farm burned down?! No, what if it was already gone?! Oh nononononoNO!
Finally, I reached the farm. The trees, the home, everything was illuminated in that horrible orange, but not a flame had fallen on the property. The blaze roared over the Everfree Forest, at least a mile in, far, far away from the orchard.
I panted and slowed my gait, a stich already jabbing at my side. I’m no rodeo pony, I’m not used to running that much!
Ponies milled around the outer border of Sweet Apple Acres, the picket fence. Some ponies were pulling and putting away plows, others had collected barrels of rainwater, and simple pumps, hoses held at the ready between ponies’ teeth. But most simply stood and stared, watching the raging fire.
I looked around the crowd, relived… Well, maybe I shouldn’t be relieved. Should I be fretting? I began fretting. I scanned the crowd, trying to spot Applejack’s hat. With how dark it was, that shape should stand out… Where is... Is that? No… THERE!
“Applejack!” I shouted, trotting up to my friend. Her ears flicked acknowledgement, eyes and mind rooted on the fire.
“Howdy, Twilight…” she muttered, distracted.
“What happened?!” I hastily demanded. “Heat lighting?! Careless picnickers?! Airship crash?!”
“Naw, don’t really have a good idea, but…”
“What do we do?! What can I do?!” I spun around, “Should I get a bucket?! No, I’ll grab the water tower! Hang on, I’ll be right back!”
“Naw, you don’t have to go that far.” Applejack waved a hoof lightly. “There’s nothin’ to do now but…”
“No! Applejack! How can you say that?! We can’t do nothing! Oh no… oh no no no,” I forced my eyes to meet hers. “Was it Discord?! What has he done to you?! Answer me!” I revved up my memory spell, preparing to fight this horrible depression that had overtaken my friend!
“Twilight! Heavens to betsy, it’s not Discord! It’s alright!” She yanked me into a tight one-armed hug. “Everythin’s, well, it’s not peachy, but it’s under control.” She laughed nervously and let me go. “Big Mac and a few o’ the other stallions are plowin’ a rut round the apple trees, but Rainbow Dash’s up with the weather patrol, and made sure not one hint of a gust’ll push the fire our way. They’re up buildin’ the rainstorm right about now, why the smoke’s so strong, gettin’ all trapped down here. Yep, everything’s fine and dandy. Minus the big fire, o’ course, but these things happen… Yep… They happen.”
“Applejack?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Are you okay?”
“Whoof! Well, looky here. Yeah…” She looked back over to the fire, fanning herself. “Gave me a mighty big scare, that fire! Knocked me all out of sorts!”
I chuckled nervously. “Me too… Goodness! Ah… I ran all the way here thinking, you know, the apple trees were on fire or something…”
“Well, good thing that ain’t gonna happen!”
“Yes! Definitely. But um… Really, do you need me to draw some water, or something?”
“Naw, the weather patrol’s got this handled. Just takin’ them a while to work up a big torrent, the Everfree Forest bein’, well, the Everfree.”
“Right… well… Glad to see that nopony got hurt.”
“Yep! Me too!”
I sighed. “I think I’m going to head home and… Wait.” I spun on my friend. “Wait a minute. Applejack? Applejack, we’ve forgotten somepony.” Applejack gave me a blank stare, not remembering. Oh no… I swallowed down a tight pang in my throat. “Have… have you seen Zecora?”
“Can’t say that I… have…” She gaped at the fire, massive, growing. “Oh lordy… ANY OF Y’ALL SEEN ZECORA?!” The other stallions looked up from their tasks, dumbfounded. “The Zebra! Did any of y’all pass her in town?!”
“Oh no… what if she’s still in her hut?! What if she… she’s already…”
Applejack took a few steps forward, staring at the out of control fire, jaw unhinged.
“Oh, no you don’t.” I threw out a hoof to stop her, “You can’t just charge in there!
“Wasn’t even considerin’… I mean, I know we can’t just run it, but, Twilight!” Applejack howled. “We can’t just leave Zecora! Oh Lordy…”
“We can’t, I know, but…“ I looked over the forest, scanning it. Where was Zecora’s hut? It was so difficult to tell from here! Why didn’t I ever look for it from the sky, I’ve flown over Ponyville enough times…! I didn’t even know how to get there from here! I only ever tried to get there from the road near Fluttershy’s…
Fluttershy’s house, of course!
“This way!” I began running once more, stich quickly ignored. “Maybe the fire hasn’t reached her yet… Oh please, let her be safe…!”
~~~
A part of me said that there was some logical way to do this, a procedure. Get one of the Pegasi to fly over and check. Find a map and try to place the fire, and her house. Something! It’s not reasonable to just charge into a burning forest! Frankly, it’s downright dangerous!
But when a friend’s in trouble this big… well, logic, reason, they become a little harder to use. All I knew was that I was running. I don’t even think I was breathing anymore.
We were further from the flames now, but smoke, and the thick, wet prestorm heat was still pervasive. Fluttershy’s house, usually so full of animals and life, was empty, and deathly still. Of course she would make sure the animals were safe first… And that’s one logical idea flung out the window. No other Pegasi would be anywhere near close enough. We barely hesitated as we charged into the forest.
If there’s anything I knew from the trips I did take through the Everfree, it was that the forest was alive. It was a creature, living and breathing, with a thousand different ways to trick the eye, to trap your mind and scare you silly. The air always felt like a warm breath. The sounds, the flashes of movement, they never ceased, nor ceased to startle.
But running through the forest now, its breath had suddenly turned dry, choking, and cloudy. Smoke hung low to the ground, fading everything away, winding between the trees. For the first time in their spooky lives, their branches were completely still. All the animals had fled, now all the trees could do is wait for the flames to overtake them. To die.
I shook the thought from my head and pressed on, right at Applejack’s heels. The fire wasn’t here yet, I assured myself, the fire is nowhere near here! The orange glow loomed on our left, but nothing seemed to be burning, not yet. Just the choking smoke getting thicker, and thicker… Blacker, and blacker.
“There it is!” Applejack shouted.
Relief rocketed down my spine as we saw Zecora’s hut, untouched by flames. Whole, intact, smothered in smoke, but fine. Fine!
“Oh, thank goodness!” I gasped. We didn’t even bother to knock, we just burst in, minds still racing even though our bodies had stopped. “Zecora!”
The Zebra stood at her workbench, surrounded by leaves and powders, rapidly beating a mouth-held pestle in a cup. She flinched as I called her name, and quickly set it aside.
“You’ve given me such a fright!” she exclaimed. “It’s good to see you, my dear Twilight!”
“Oh thank goodness, it’s great to see you too, Zecora…”
“Alright, hi, we’re fine, now you two, we don’t have time to stand around chit-chattin’!” Applejack spun around and waved the zebra to follow us out the door. “Zecora, we gotta get the heck outta here! Fire’s spreadin’, and I don’t know how long until it takes over the path!”
“Right! Right, sorry, Zecora, we’ve got to go!” I stumbled out after Applejack, but the zebra did not follow. She turned away from me, from us, from safety, to carefully root through her jars.
“I’ve just got one last thing to do—” she started.
“Leave it!” Applejack shouted, pushing past me. “We’ve got to get right the heck outta here!”
Zecora frowned, cautiously shaking a jar of leaves, letting a few fall into her cup.
“I cannot go, until my concoction is through,” she stated firmly, pounding at the mix with her pestle.
“This is no time to be preoccupied with work, Zecora!” I urged, stumbling over to my friend, gaping as the soothsayer calmly continued her work. “Your whole house could burst into flames at any second!”
“The danger's here, this I know,” Zecora snapped, “But if I can help then I will not go!” She waved a hoof out the window, frowning. “The fire burning is not a natural blaze, have you seen the properties it displays?!”
“It looks normal to me,” Applejack said with a single glance at the window. “Just one big fire.”
“No sparks or tender? Trees burning green? This is no true flame from what I've seen.” She walked to her bookshelf and yanked down a heavy red volume, gripping it tightly in her jaws. With a flick of her neck, she dropped the book on her workbench, flipping through it with her hoof. “Come here girls and take a gander, there is only one answer...” The zebra narrowed her eyes. “Salamander.” I stared at the page, minuscule text surrounding a rough sketch of a lizard standing in a bonfire. Zecora turned back to her work, adding another powder “The flames are unending, a sick pollution. This mixture is a vital part of the solution.” Applejack stared over my shoulders, squinting down at the words, nose wrinkling.
“How in Equestria is some powder gonna stop a big, out of control forest fire?” Applejack asked.
“Salamanders enjoy the smoke that makes other creatures cough and choke,” Zecora said as she returned to her shelves. “The powder mixes with the smog, and when they breath their lungs will clog. They will retreat to whence they came, and take with them their wanton flame.” She poked her nose through some of the flasks, drawing one out. “I need but one more addition, and with that—“ She gasped, a flask tumbling out of Zecora’s mouth, shattering.
From the window, a black and yellow face loomed, grinning wildly. A lizard, almost as big as a pony, fire sprouting up between its toes, burning through the window frame. It scurried upward, leaving behind a clear residue that quickly caught alight, its footsteps clearly visible as balls of flame burst to life across the straw roof.
Applejack reacted in a flash, leaping to the other side of Zecora, pushing her and shouting as the zebra reached back for her rows of ingredients, already burning. I magically grabbed the cup, snapped its cork into place, and charged out, followed by Applejack and Zecora.
The Salamander stood on the roof, peering down at us, grinning, flames blooming all around it, a bonfire. I shoved the jar in my mouth, and my head burst as sparks exploded from my horn, blasting the creature. It tittered and squealed, falling off the roof, squirming and flopping to to its feet, dashing into the forest. A trail of clear goo followed its footsteps, bursting and boiling into open flames.
I blasted a wave of soil over the trail. Magic fire was still fire. Taking away the air would stop it… right!? They sputtered, spat, and eventually smoldered out. I sighed, and quickly caught the jar as it dropped from my jaws. This is no time to be relieved! I spun around, facing the flaming wreck that was once Zecora’s hut.
Zecora sat, mouth agape as I struggled to put out her home. I managed… but her house was in shambles, beyond repair. She slowly walked towards the scorched remains, pawing through them quietly. The roof had collapsed, and belongings were coming up somewhere between untouched and completely destroyed. With a sharp hiss, she dug through the ashes of her ingredients. Some glass and clay was intact, but everything of use was charred beyond rescue.
And, more present than ever, the flames began to roar as the Salamander’s line of fire, sections still deep in the forest, blazed, burning a clear trail that lead right up to her home.
“Zecora?” Applejack asked behind me, hat held over her heart. “What do we do now?”
“Those seeds were what we needed last. But… they seem to have been lost in the Salamander’s blast…” She sighed, and turned to us, “The ingredient is not so rare. However, it can only be found… out there.” She nodded towards the forest, at the segments already entrenched in flame.
“I don’t think there’s much o’ ‘out there’ left to look in…” Applejack stated, staring at the ever-nearing flames.
“It may be challenging, but this we must do.” Zecora walked carefully out of the wreckage of her house, gently taking the cup from my aura. “To be rid of the fire, we must complete this brew.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, feeling my heart tighten as I stared at the ever swelling fire. “Applejack, we’ve got to do this.”
“I know Twilight, just… This’ll be mighty dangerous.”
We left the hut, hooves heavy. The line of Salamander’s fire had already turned the lush and green trees into a growing blaze, leading directly up to Zecora’s home. There was nothing I could do to save it a second time… I looked to my zebra friend, but she had steeled herself, eyes forward, never looking back. She dashed between the two lines of swelling bonfires, and we were off.
~~~
The air only seemed to get thicker and thicker, and breathing was becoming more and more labored. I wanted to suggest that we stop running, but I knew there was no time, none at all. We drew closer to the out of control inferno, and I could feel it, the raging heat, searing at my skin, burning without ever coming close enough to touch. I wanted to spin around, let it scorch my other side, and I wished desperately that I could remember a coolant spell. I know how to make a pony walk on clouds, but not how to help a pony breath through smoke? Not to resist the horrible, horrible oppressive heat? I knew there was a book somewhere in my library on the subject. Oh, why didn’t I take the time to memorize it?! Did I think such a useful spell would have no real-world applications?
Zecora stopped and stared at the burning wall of formless orange. Salamanders danced and squirmed among their burning creation, apparently unharmed, frolicking in the heat and smoke.
“My usual grove is gone. No matter, we move along.” With that simple rhyme, Zecora took another direction, still skirting far too close to the fire for comfort. Exhausted, I slowed, and saw myself falling behind.
I gasped for breath, “Guys, maybe we should—“
A Salamander darted from the flames, chasing another, blasting through our group. Trails of fire bloomed behind them, rising exponentially when compared to the flare of one, a wall of flame suddenly bursting between us. On my other side the two salamanders squealed and fought, flames sprouting from everything they touched.
“Twilight!” I heard Applejack shout.
I shot sparks at the fire before me, trying to uproot the flames, but my attempt only spread the fire further, thickening the wall. I cried out. Stupid, stupid! I corrected my method, shoving dirt over the flames, trying to put them out as they grew bigger and bigger, inching towards me.
I was burning. Fire was everywhere, closing in, and I was burning alive, not one flame on my body. Sobbing, I shifted and kicked the broiling dirt beneath me, dropping it on the fire, wished, hoping desperately that it could be put out, wishing for relief.
Too much life was in the soil, too many plants and small things, and picking them out only allowed time for the fire to draw closer, pressing up behind me, barely giving me room to turn around. Where did I come from anymore? Where were my friends? I could hear them screaming my name, yet there was nothing I could do to find them.
“Where are you?!” I screamed, “Save me!”
Something black, something fiery flew from my left, and I ducked, crying out. Were the branches already falling off the trees?! Was I going to be crushed to death by a burning branch? The object flopped to my other side, quickly smoldering into nothing, but not quick enough to be unable to tell what it was. Applejack’s hat, burned and ruined, leather and sweat reeking off it as it was reduced to ash. I heard her call to me, urging me in her direction. I slammed my eyes and mouth shut, tightly as I could, I charged through the flames.
And then, it was over. I stood on the other side, opened my eyes, and everything hit me at once, a whirlwind of everything gone wrong.
It felt like every hoof was bleeding, and each step popped hot welts, making every twig and leaf stand out individually in the worst of ways. My underside was tearing apart each time I moved, I tried to breath, to say nothing of the stench. My mane and tail will still releasing little tendrils of smoke, the sharp stink obliterating all other smells. I limped forward, sobbing quietly, trying to get away from the heat, unabated since I crossed through the wall of fire.
Applejack hugged me gently, and led me forward, walking as slowly as I walked, trying to talk me into continuing.
“You made it Twilight, you made it. Only a bit further now, you hear? We’ve almost won this. Jus’ keep walkin’, and we’ll make it.”
“I just want to go home!” I sobbed.
“We just gotta do this, and then we can go. We’re almost there, Twilight, just keep walkin’.”
“You’re supposed to be honesty, Applejack!” I sobbed, “Tell me the truth, do you think we’re going to make it?!”
“We’re already here, sugarcube.”
I dropped down in the clearing and sneezed on the ash that coated the field. The gray flakes made my underside irritated, inflamed, burning, but the weight was off my hooves now, and that relief was far greater than any pain the ashes could inflict on my welts. Zecora had begun digging, a shadow in the smog, and Applejack joined her, trying to find what we came for. Seeds, thick seeds that might have survived the fire’s wrath. The out of control bonfire was further away, but never abating its heat, its burning smoke. It raged all around us, black smoke our cage and coffin.
Rain had begun to fall while Zecora and Applejack searched, a gentle sprinkle. Not the torrents or buckets that the storm should have been releasing. Could these accursed flames stop the rain as well? I wished for every drop to be a relief from the red welts over my skin, but I was barely getting splashed, each drop a tease more than a reprieve.
There was a clatter, a loud smack of a hoof. Applejack had found a rock and pounded on it, black fragments splintering in the air, Zecora pushing the powder into her jar. Finally, the pair approached me, Applejack smiling, a sad reassurance.
“Twilight? Twilight, you doin’ alright, sugarcube?”
“No,” I moaned.
“Well…” Applejack hesitated. “Well, I guess I’m sorry for that, but we need you now. You think you can do a lil magic?”
“Maybe…” I hissed as I tried to stand, wounds throbbing. “What do I have to do?”
“Just make sure the power hits as much of the fire as possible,” Applejack pushed the uncorked jar towards me, ashes gently shifting around its base. “The more we get, the quicker the fire can be put out.” After a moment of silence, Applejack gave he a light hug, wrapping her neck around my own. “Twilight, as your friend, I believe in you. You’re one tough lil mare.”
I nodded, and took a few painful breaths as I hovered the jar towards me. Even as agony pounded up and down my middle, shooting up each hoof, I was not distracted from my purpose, my vital task. I drew out the powder, raised it high above me, and blew a soft, warm breeze across it. The solution circled and spun in spirals, wafting over the trees, a white and glittering rain.
The orange infernos that came into contact with the powder shot little jets of blue, roaring dulled, flames softening, warm and comforting as a winter hearth. As I stared up at the dark skies, I saw as the black pillar became streaked with white, eventually overtaken by what looked like ordinary fluffy clouds.
The hisses and spits of the Salamanders were multiplied by the hissing and spitting of the rain, finally torrential, drenching and dousing the magical fires, dimming them, revealing their blackened boughs.
I sat in the center of it all, ground beneath me turning into a gray slurry. Exhausted, I took the first fresh breath I had all night, and decided that I felt just safe enough to pass out among the puddles and pools of freshly fallen ash.
~~~
Soft pillows propped me up as I rested in Ponyville hospital, bandages crisscrossing over and around my flank. My favorite Daring Do book was propped between my thick hooves, Rainbow Dash glancing at the pages over my shoulder. The breeze from her wings was actually quite refreshing. Not that I could get much reading done, as my friends hovered around me, fretting and worrying.
“Oh, how did I manage to sleep through this entire fuss?!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Well, sheesh!” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes as she bounced over to Rarity. “I ran right up to your door and shouted ‘Rarity! Rarity! Wake up! There’s a big huge fire and it’s going to burn down the whole town!’ But you just moaned about your beauty sleep! I mean, come on! How can you sleep when danger’s right over there?!” Pinkie gasped. “Unless you’re some kind of super pony! Rarity, are you a super pony?!”
“Is having exquisite hair a super pony power?”
“Nope! Not quite!”
“I’m impressed…” Fluttershy spoke up, quietly looking between Applejack and I. “That must have been so scary…”
“Well, shucks! We’ve dealt with a lot worse haven’t we?”
“Nothing quite so painful…” I chuckled quietly, wincing anyway. “Next time we run into an out of control forest fire, maybe I should prepare a few more necessary spells…”
“You did great without em, Twilight! Told you that you were one tough mare!” Applejack punched my arm, thankfully one of the few places I wasn’t hurting. Oh, wait, ow, it’s bruising… I smiled her my pained thanks.
“Oh my…” Fluttershy looked up at the clock, “I’ve got to get going. We’re going to start constructing homes for all the poor little animals that got theirs wrecked by the fire…”
“Is the Everfree going to be all right…? ” I asked, remembering just how large that fire had seemed to get…
“Oh yes. It probably needed a little bit of a burn soon… Oh! But not like that! Not with big scary flames… But a proper evacuation of all the poor little critters…”
“And don’t you worry, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash punched the air above my head, “Me and the weather team have been blowing the anti-Salamander stuff all over the place, they won’t be coming to mess with us any time soon!”
Fluttershy nodded, and turned away, bobbing her head politely as she walked to the door, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go help now… Get well soon, Twilight.”
“Right, good luck with the animal homes!” I turned back to my book. Daring Do watched helplessly as the lava rose under her feet, trapping her on the pedestal. The heat almost overwhelmed her… How will she ever escape the scorching death trap? I laughed softly again.
Now that was something I could relate to!
