The Inferno Within

by torrentialCAM

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fluttershy, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 6656

Sometimes friendship is taxed and tested. Other times, it is forged in fire.

Sometimes life is easy, passive. But sometimes it takes the brink of peril for a pony to realize just how far she'll go for her friends.

Published 2012-03-06 18:23:25 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-18 18:14:01 UTC

The Inferno Within

Get out!

What are you doingGET OUT!

Twilight Sparkle, you maniacal mare, GET OUT NOW!

And normally the purple unicorn’s higher logic would have taken over: logic that dictated you should run away from fire. But not tonight.

The further Twilight galloped into the Everfree Forest, the more the sweet scent of Fluttershy’s cottage grass at the outskirts was replaced by the acrid smoke clogging her nostrils. Every breath was a challenge; the smoke flooding her lungs at several points caused Twilight to cough and gag, but still, against all higher brain centres screaming for her to turn back and wait for the pegasi squads to arrive with a legion of rainclouds, she pressed on.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight screamed, gagging out smoke as she did. Still no response. She picked up a second wind and dashed through the thicket, only for the sights beyond the branches to assail her eyes…

“Oh, sweet Celestia…”

Even from yards away, Twilight felt the heat of the blaze against her own skin as though it was inches away. The fire crackled and danced between countless trees, rising high into the sky and transforming Everfree’s nocturnal darkness into an impossibly vast pyre. Though it hadn’t spread yet to the outer reaches of the forest, the way it joined between the trees left very few routes to go. Embers fell from the fire to the grass, where like children of the vast inferno above, they flared up and streaked along the volatile grass. Twilight yelped and just barely dodged one by leaping aside, but her wide eyes were soon replaced by a determined scowl as she weaved through the fires and pressed on between the gnarled trees, into the towering inferno.

How in Equestria did the tumblers of happenstance stop on this? Why couldn’t it have been strong-and-sturdy Applejack who came to visit Fluttershy right when the timid young Pegasus declared in her own bashful-but-earnest way that she needed to check on her animals? And if those blasted bunnies hadn’t hopped off into the Everfree Forest…

A quiet evening at the library had been too much to ask for. Twilight had been eager to delve into a new text that examined the precept of ‘magical residue’ – the well-studied idea that all unicorns had magical charges flowing through their bodies at all times, and that magic was not an external force called upon by a pony’s horn, but that it was something inherent and bodily, and that it could exhibit itself in incredible ways, entirely subconsciously (which accounted for the seemingly random magic bursts in newborn unicorns).

Perhaps dry to some. But to Celestia’s star pupil, studying it made a much better time than-

“Augh!” Twilight’s train of thought was derailed by the fiery branch that crashed down inches from her hooves, causing her to stumble.

This is your brain telling you to STOP RUNNING! If you keep this up, you’re going to pass out from smoke inhalation! In the middle of a burning forest! The only medal for fifth place in THIS race is a headstone!

“Fluttershy’s…in there…” Twilight mumbled coarsely, coughing. Her eyes quivered as she blinked heavily in some attempt to clear the blurriness and dryness from her eyes. She wasn’t sure why she said it out loud, almost like she was trying to convince that cold, logical part of herself exactly why she was racing headlong into the biggest fire the Ponyville county and surrounding regions had seen for years.

Because her friend’s life was hanging by a thread, somewhere in this blazing darkness. Cold logic, self-preservation, even taking the time to plan out a course of action…all of it was soon overridden by that singular notion.

Get her out. Get her out. Get Fluttershy.

***

“We’re only as fast as our slowest flier! MOVE those wings, all of you!”

The cyan Pegasus mare led the formation of winged ponies on a beeline path over Ponyville’s streets. Below, countless ponies had been roused from their sleep by the commotion, only for their collective gaze to be drawn to the edge of town. The sky above blazed a bright orange, melting into a deep crimson as the skyline meshed with the highest trees of the Everfree Forest and the roaring fire spreading within. Each of the pegasi hauled a dark cloud bursting at the brim with a torrential downpour, and all active weather patrollers had been hauled from their regular duties to converge at Everfree.

“Swift Burst! Do we know what caused the blaze?” One of the fliers near Rainbow shouted over the wind beating at their faces.

The crimson Pegasus nearby shook his head in response. “Canter Cumulus spotted the smoke while doing her rounds about the edge of town. Says that she saw a yellow Pegasus in a clearing a ways in, and a purple unicorn going in after her, but by the time she found a way in to try and help, the blaze had clogged any retrieval options.”

“WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash suddenly shouted, “All of you, move! Hurry!” As she burst ahead of the pack with her raincloud in tow, she could only think, Please don’t be Fluttershy and Twilight…please don’t be Fluttershy and Twilight…who am I foaling, it’s Fluttershy and Twilight…

“I’M COMING!”

***

Though Twilight kept one of her front hooves over her mouth and nose periodically as she ran, she knew it was slowing her down. This forest had become a garish hybrid of sight-swallowing darkness and blindingly bright fire, but through that paradox, Twilight spied a familiar sight on the charred ground: the yellow Pegasus feather, lying peacefully in the grass. Her eyes widened. Just past the next stretch, she spied another feather of the same make.

Oh, by Celestia…if anything had happened to that timid, kind Pegasus…sometimes life felt absurd, or even scary. But the idea of Fluttershy, of all ponies, being placed in such sudden, mortal peril…Twilight couldn’t have it. Not while she had an ounce of strength left in her, physical or magical. She was going to change this. FIX this. Sometimes friendship was tested and strained, pushed to its very limits.

And sometimes, it was forged in fire.

“Fluttershy! Can you hear me?!” Twilight shouted hoarsely. She thought she heard an answer – but it was only the whining of a burning tree branch right before it gave way and collapsed to her right, flaking her with soot and ash. “At least I have a trail to follow…” Twilight cringed. She knew well enough to stay on as narrow a path away from the fires as possible, but she hadn’t been prepared for the residue heat from simply being here. The air itself sizzled like a mirage, but that very effect prompted a light to shine over Twilight’s mind. (It turned out to be another burning branch, but she dodged it in good time)

“Magic!” She shouted out loud, recalling one of the intermediate-level defensive spells she had been reading about last week. The Hydro-Field spell, according to Spiralus Honorous – the former Canterlot Archmage who had penned the theoretical text where she learned it – allowed the user to take in moisture from the surrounding atmosphere and expel it in a distilled form, creating a shield of concentrated water so long as there was moisture in the air and the user maintained their concentration.

As she galloped, Twilight focused her inward energies, allowing the specialized magical surge to come pulsing through her horn…slowly, she began to feel an odd slickness, as though her entire world was liquefying – and suddenly a spherical burst surrounded the unicorn. All at once, the fires crackling within a three-foot radius in any direction from the mare were beaten back by the watery surge. The protective bubble not only kept the fire at bay, but it also felt to Twilight as though she had been doused in a pool; the unicorn had been dangerously close to dehydration after running and sweating so much, but she finally breathed a sigh of momentary relief.

It was with this clearer head that Twilight peeled her eyes and discerned, through the embers burning beyond, as clear a path through the blaze as she was going to get. The unicorn hopped a log, ducked low under some twisted branches and broke into a gallop along the next straight stretch, following the feather trail. The hydration from the Hydro-Field spell propelled her onward, soothing her previously dry skin and feeling like an oasis as it rushed down her throat.

Yet, Twilight couldn’t shake the fact that she wasn’t all that comfortable being here, even without the fires blazing all around. The Everfree forest was feared for a reason – many reasons, actually. Reasons with fangs the size of the average pony, or reasons with very long drops down to oblivion, or reasons that could turn a pony to stone through their gaze alone…

Twilight shuddered, stopping in her tracks and making sure there were no noises but for the roaring of the fire. She recalled in a flash her encounter with the Cockatrice, what seemed like so long ago; being turned to stone was not unconscious hibernation, as some crypto-zoology theorists had speculated. It was lucid, frigid incarceration. It had lasted less than a day for her, but the sensation of total awareness and the lack of absolutely everything else…the occasional nightmare of that total rigid state still wormed its way back into her sleep.

No wonder Discord had such a bone to pick.

“C-Can’t think about it…” Twilight shook her head vehemently and started running anew, picking up the trail of yellow feathers. It had been Fluttershy who had found and saved her that night…otherwise, Celestia forbid…but this unicorn wasn’t about to let this forsaken forest take her friend from her.

Because the fire wasn’t just burning the trees – it was inside, with every beat of Twilight’s heart. When she had first come to Ponyville with the decidedly irritating, ‘make some friends!’ prompt, Twilight hadn’t understood what hanging around with a bunch of ponies who didn’t share her interests to a T could do for her…and she had found new understanding, time and time again. But this…this was like a new lesson entirely. It was the fire.

The idea that one of her friends, dear, innocent Fluttershy could perish here and now…it ignited a fire in the unicorn’s belly that she had scarcely felt before. It was a fire that propelled her on past this grove of burning trees, following the feather trail as it wound deeper into the forest. She felt alive, here at the precipice of doom and danger. Twilight used to take her collection of Daring Do novels as the immensely entertaining products of an imaginative mind, but fantasy none the less – ‘who would be able to function after running through ten deathtraps in five minutes?’

But this adrenaline rush, this desperation to save her friend that pushed her body to its natural limits…this was the fire that ignited the spirit.

Twilight felt a sudden surge of heat and noticed the hydrated bubble around her beginning to shimmer and give way. She had assumed that she had enough residue magical energies to carry this spell through the entirety of the forest and back, yet those variables were assuming a fully-grown unicorn with control over her situation, not hyperventilating and running.

As soon as the Hydro-Field spell snapped out of existence, the purple mare felt the lick of the heated air once more. But she had enough presence of mind to take stock of her surroundings. Even with the fires casting their garish red-orange glow all around, Twilight’s thoughts found their way off her tongue: “I haven’t been this way before.”

The unicorn spied an opening through the fiery trees that led deeper into the forest, with an incline steeping down. It was as though the fires had formed an archway for Twilight’s approach. The flames around the dark entrance crackled mockingly, as though to say, ‘Canter on inside. Tree bark and grass are a dainty taste, but nothing like a little pony laid to waste…’ The fire even seemed to laugh in her face, daring her to put one hoof closer.

“Nngh…” Twilight groaned. Her mind was beginning to play tricks on her. The unicorn’s analytical, scientific side began to rear its horn, as much as the emotional base in which she had undertaken this journey was screaming for it to shut up. And that analytical voice had much to say as she ventured through the flames, leaping as they lapped at her before landing on the other side, in darkness.

Your brain is playing tricks on you because you’ve been breathing in more smoke ever since the hydration spell wore off. If you even do find Fluttershy and she’s none the worse for wear, how exactly are you thinking that you’ll break out of this forest? Think about the cold math: counting both the to-and-from, you’re less than halfway to safety. You may be magical, but you’re not Celestia! What if you sprain something? What if the trees start collapsing? What if what if what if what about don’t forget what if-

“NnnnghQUIET!” Twilight shouted. In that moment, she was suddenly glad that there was nopony around to hear her yelling at herself. But then-

Two paths ahead, lit vibrantly by the blaze. One forked off to the left, and the other to the right. The unicorn spotted some yellow specks from a feather on the ground down to the left, and started down that way, until her peripheral vision picked up something else: the yellow feathers also lining the right-hand path.

Twilight slowly unleashed a drawn-out sound that may have been described as a cross between an annoyed moan and a shout. She groaned, “No, no, no, nononoNO!”

But then-

A trace of something, along the right hand path.

White bunny fur mixed in with the feathers? The left hand path had no such thing, only a smattering of feathers near the entrance. Twilight took a deep breath for courage (but soon regretted it with a fresh influx of smoke from the smoldering trees). A strange light-headedness was already starting to grip her, and the residue from the fires had already begun to turn the unicorn’s vision into…something less than optimal. The world swayed before her eyes, but still she pressed on down the right hand path.

But Twilight’s gallop was unsteady. More than once did she sway and bump into the trees that enclosed the narrow way, and only the occasional lick of the fire jolted her into a sudden, vivid lucidity – only for the blurry mind and sight to take over moments later.

The purple mare’s muscles felt like lead weights, and soon, so did her eyelids. Consciousness escaped her before she stopped moving; Twilight fell forward without a sound, her body simply no longer able to take the strain.

The fires all around crackled and howled, casting uncertain shadows that danced across the unconscious unicorn’s body. But her mind was drifting elsewhere, in the realms between the worlds…

…

“I don’t understand, Princess Celestia.”

The purple unicorn filly, small but with eyes bright with eagerness to learn and be taught, gazed up at the regal alicorn who stood before her. This secluded section of the library in Canterlot’s vaunted school for gifted unicorns had played host to many a late-night study session for Celestia’s little pupil in the past, so it had only felt natural for her to check in on her student in this special place.

“What is it that you don’t understand, Twilight?”

“The ending of this book.” Twilight said, using her blossoming magic to levitate it to the Princess’s eyeshot: Callow Hearts Divided. “I know it’s not on the reading list, but I had finished all this month’s books and I felt like spoiling myself.” Twilight grinned from ear to ear sheepishly. “But the hero, Callow Wingborn, does things that are so illogical…I just don’t get it.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“He rushes into places where he knows he’ll get hurt. Sometimes he doesn’t even use his magic, he just runs in. He doesn’t wait for help to come, he just runs into the deadly swamps, into the labyrinths, into the fire…even though he knows he probably won’t make it out. Why would somebody do that, Princess Celestia?”

The Princess gazed down at her student, smiling passively. “Why, Twilight, is there nopony you would do something wild and dangerous for?”

“Mom and dad say I should play it safe…” Twilight stared down at her hooves. “There are ponies out there who know what to do when folks are in trouble. M’not the unicorn to get you out of trouble…m’just not that up to it. So much can go wrong, and – and it’s just not me, and…”

The Princess knelt down, softly nuzzling her student’s purple cheek. “When you have a very close bond with somepony, you might be surprised at what you’re capable of. You’re an amazingly intelligent and talented young pony, Twilight Sparkle…but there are some lessons that books can only teach to a certain extent.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Twilight, I understand your hesitation about peer bonding. Do you know who else had difficulties making friends in his youth?”

“Wh-who?”

“There was once a little foal who wanted nothing more than to stow away in the pages of great tomes, practicing his magical art. And believe me, he did become great. Before his passage from foalhood, he wielded spells that held their own even in the royal courts of old, against much more experienced unicorns.”

“So…you’re saying I should keep studying? That just because m’not that interested in friends, doesn’t mean I can’t learn as much as I can about magic?”

“To keep a very long story – and one that I’m surprised you haven’t come across yet – short…that’s not quite what I’m saying, Twilight Sparkle. What I’m saying is this: a few years down the line, this unicorn did begin to make friends. They found ways to pry open that shell that he had built around himself for the sake of his studies, and he initially was quite hesitant, if I do say so myself…but soon, his friends helped to unleash elements of his talents, bringing his skills to new heights that he never would have attained otherwise.”

“Princess, I’m…I’m not sure I fully understand.”

“That is because I’m not talking about things that are tangible, or measurable in the literature of old. Theoretical, measurable magic is not the only transcendent force in this world. You see, when this young unicorn came to realize just how much his friends meant to him…they became an integral part of his life, fixed and permanent. For something to happen to them…it would have torn his very own soul asunder. And the magic he drew upon when it came to protecting his friends, drawn up from the deepest depths of his spirit…those are the spells that you read about in the tomes of old. Those are the spells that helped change the face of the pony lands.”

“I’ve…read his spells? He was a real colt, and it’s not just a story?” Twilight looked up at her mentor with wide eyes.

“Perhaps you have, my faithful student. As to the existence of this mystery stallion…I would say, perhaps, that the message of my tale is more significant than the medium, wouldn’t you?”

“…Yes, Princess. I…I would.”

…

In the hazy smoke from the fires burning all around, some sparks emerged from the fallen unicorn’s horn. First there was a mere glimmer, before a sudden surge. A few seconds more, and suddenly-

A brilliant flash burst from the narrow way, engulfing the surrounding region in a wide radius and snuffing out the fires nearby. When the brilliant white flash subsided, the silhouette at its epicenter had been lifted onto her hooves once more, in a determined, resilient stance.

Twilight breathed heavily, pupils dilated as she looked out at the magic burst afterglow that had cleared the way ahead of her. Without thinking, she broke into a fresh gallop. Her confusion lasted only a moment before her mind played back fragments of the text she had been readying to read right before being called to Fluttershy’s: a unicorn’s ability to use magic is not drawn from outside their body as one may draw water from a well, but from the internal energies that flow through their very soul. When brought out in emotionally intense circumstances, some unicorns may exhibit spontaneous magic, even on a subconscious level.

Twilight narrowed her eyes and grit her teeth as she galloped. The adrenaline countered the exhaustion, scrapes, bruises and smoke inhalation she had endured – fight-or-flight biological processes were just about magic, given the right circumstances – and she galloped as though the fires were lapping at her hooves. The only thing that existed – the only thing that mattered – was making sure Fluttershy was okay. Soon, her ears began to fill back up with the crackling sounds of fires – the magic burst that had knocked her from her unconsciousness hadn’t reached so far up as to snuff the flames that had made a pyre of the Everfree canopy.

As Twilight ran, it was becoming harder and harder to ignore the stitch forming in her side as the adrenaline began to wear off. But her weary eyes saw the path opening up to a larger clearing, where…

“Fluttershy?!”

Twilight gasped as she ran over the grass. There was the yellow Pegasus mare, who was huddling a number of animals near her. Twilight recognized Angel Bunny, whose normally passive-snarky demeanor had been swiftly replaced by the same panic that bled through the Pegasus’s eyes.

“T-Twilight?” Fluttershy managed in a whisper-shout, “What are you doing here? You should, well…it’s not really that safe for you to be here…”

“I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’m here!” Twilight said in between unsuccessful attempts to catch a deep breath. “What happened?!”

“Oh, um…please don’t be mad, Twilight…I didn’t mean for things to get out of hoof…really…I, um…I can explain, if you want…”

Though there were embers falling from the burning canopy all around, Twilight walked in slow strides to her friend. There was almost a sense of tranquility in this clearing, surrounded by fire like a halo from the stars, yet the blaze not outright encroaching yet…in this conflagration, this was a place just for them.

“…Please tell me, Fluttershy.”

“Oh, um, well…” The yellow pegasus glanced down at the ground, and spoke without making eye contact, “Y-You see, several of the bunnies ran off into the forest while I was talking to you at my cottage. I knew I couldn’t just leave them, so I ran off and followed along…I was going to get them and bring them back, and then I would fix them a lovely snack with a tea that would help soothe their tired muscles and let them get their beauty sleep easier…” The soft, deliberate way Fluttershy spoke was making Twilight a mite antsy; the lavender mare kept glancing to the canopy to make sure embers weren’t about to fall on anypony’s back.

But Fluttershy continued, “By the time I finally caught up with my little bunnies, they had already gone quite deep into the forest…it was very dark and, well, um…scary. They didn’t seem to like it very much…so I said to them, ‘hey, little friends, perhaps I should make you a small fire to warm your tootsies over before we head back to the cottage’…”

The gears in Twilight’s brain were beginning to churn one after the other. Her ears drooped as she put two and two in solid order. “Oh, Fluttershy…”

“I really, um, perhaps, somewhat, should have seen it coming…a stray ember from the flints hit a bush, and, well…I took the bunnies and I tried to run, but the fire disoriented me very much, and I guess I ran in the wrong direction…m’very sorry, if that’s okay if I apologize…I would have tried to fly out, but everywhere I go, the canopy is on, well…fire, and…every time I tried, my wings more or less, well, um, l-locked up…” Fluttershy turned her eyes up for just a moment, before looking back down at the ground as though a twitch reaction to keep from facing her friend after her confession.

“Fluttershy…” Twilight trotted over until she was close enough to wrap her front hooves around Fluttershy in a warm embrace. “Please don’t feel bad…this was an accident. An accident that happened because you tried to do good, and that is never something to be ashamed of.”

“B-But…th-the animals in the forest, the critters…the crawlies and the smallies, all the animals…” Fluttershy mumbled in a quivering cadence. It was then that Twilight noticed the streaks of tears down the pegasus’s face.

Twilight was silent for a moment. She knew well enough to approach this subject with the utmost caution…even the wrong word phrasing could do the unthinkable and send the delicate Pegasus into a fresh deluge of tears. Equestrian bomb squad…green wire, or blue wire?

“Fluttershy…for what it’s worth, on my way over here, I didn’t see a single creature. They know this forest better than we ever could…I’m sure they’ve all retreated deeper in, where there’s no fires.”

Wire snipped. Bomb reset, and diffused.

“I…I’m sure of it.” Fluttershy replied, nodding into Twilight’s shoulder. After a few seconds, she spoke again, “Y-You, um…you came all the way out here, well…it’s so dangerous, and…”

“You’re my friend.” Twilight said softly, unintentionally cutting her off by nuzzling her cheek. “And…I love you, Fluttershy, as I love all my friends. My every rational ounce was telling me to stay away from the fire, that I should send up magical flares and alert any emergency ponies in a ten-mile radius, but…but the idea of sitting idle and just watching things unfold…I guess something just…snapped. Life isn’t a story…life isn’t a book. I realized I couldn’t just let the narrative unfold…I had to BE the story. By Celestia, Fluttershy, I’m going to give this story a happy ending if it kills me.”

They were silent, there, for the longest of moments. Fluttershy said nothing…but the unicorn could have Pinkie-sworn that Fluttershy’s grip on her had tightened ever-so-subtly after she had spoken her peace. Twilight had almost forgotten why she had come this far, until the crackling from above snapped her out of her almost-peaceful trance.

“We have to get out of here!” Twilight said. In her mind on the way here, she had vaguely run over her plan of events for the rescue: find Fluttershy. Hoist the timid, weakened Pegasus up on her back, and fueled by two parts adrenaline and three parts hope, gallop on out of the forest seconds before a blazing fire engulfed the path.

The reality? When Twilight shot off a quick levitation spell and lifted Fluttershy (with her animals in tow) on her back, and began galloping towards the path from whence she had come, her knees buckled. The reality was that the haziness and blurriness, of mind and sight, were returning. No amount of spur-of-the-moment magicality could act as an easy fix for the fact – not the supposition, the cold, biological fact – that Twilight had pushed herself far beyond her physical limits, and was paying the price.

“I can…teleport us out…” Twilight grunted. She attempted to frame the library in her mind’s eye: teleportation required that the user have a crystal-clear view of where they were attempting to apparate to, which was why she couldn’t have simply teleported to Fluttershy to begin with. After all, unicorn foals would occasionally hear the story of one Flickward Shyner, who learned in an unfortunate way that teleporting unicorns can, in fact, get stuck in walls.

But as Twilight closed her eyes and strained, trying to activate the familiar spell…

Nothing.

She hadn’t used that many spells this night that would justify a magical drain like this…but if that text held true, and a unicorn’s magic potency was in part intrinsically tied to one’s body, then it made sense. Twilight looked down at herself, and nearly cringed at what she saw: she looked as though she had fallen into any one of the traps that Daring Do had escaped. Twice.

“T-Twilight…if, um…if it helps, I, well…I believe in you…if that’s okay…”

“Then we just have to…run!” Twilight coughed out, still in some small respect entertaining this notion that she was any less distressed and endangered here than Fluttershy was. But as she attempted a sprained gallop, embers from above fell before their eyes and lit the grass before them: Twilight gasped and reeled back as the fire billowed up, transforming their clear exit into a devastating ring of fire.

Twilight’s face contorted in shock: that was their exit. Their way out. The fire was spreading fast, too fast…the unicorn mare breathed faster and harder, doing herself a grave disservice by inhaling all the more smoke. She stumbled, at which point Fluttershy (with her animal friends on her own back and clinging to her mane) gave some tenuous flits of her wings and lifted, alleviating the unicorn’s weight-load.

Twilight had tried so hard…put so much of herself at risk, braved something that nopony should ever have had to brave…all for the friendship that at one point, she had believed was so inessential. The idea of succumbing to the blaze didn’t even cross her hazy mind as she began to sense a black iris around the core of her blurred vision. Only the idea that she had failed, for all that her friends had given her.

“…Twilight…” Fluttershy said. Her own breathing had changed as she looked down at her ailing friend: it was becoming steadier and more steadfast. “You ran into a fire this size, to save me…because I am your friend…nothing more…asking nothing in return…” The Pegasus’s shoulders began heaving up and down in time with her breaths. “Twilight Sparkle, we are getting out of here…”

With a determined grunt, Fluttershy hoisted up Twilight, clasping her in her front hooves. The unicorn was vaguely aware of the weightless sensation as she was lifted off the ground, but too drained to react to it. This lack of reaction only pushed Fluttershy’s mind further along this track.

Fluttershy could make no mistake: carrying Twilight and her animal friends while flying was no simple task for this less-than-strong Pegasus, and more than once, she strained in an attempt to keep everything together. But every time she looked at Twilight in her arms, her resolve strengthened: You can DO this, Fluttershy. This is worth going into a fire for. Twilight is worth going into a fire for. My friends are worth going into a fire for. This is WORTH THE COST.

As Fluttershy shot up to the blazing canopy, something wet dripped down on her nose. It was soon joined by many others of its kind, and soon thousands, in a constant stream. Up above the canopy, the night sky had been coated in a steady block of dark clouds: the pegasi weather squads had arrived at last. Rain from the storm clouds turned Fluttershy’s world into a rushing torrent of water that clattered and poured in a constant stream, but still she pressed on. Clutching Twilight to her chest like a lifeline and with her animal friends holding onto her mane for dear life, the Pegasus narrowed her eyes as she approached the canopy: though weakened, the inferno still blazed a red-orange glow across the skyline, crackling tauntingly in the rainstorm as she approached.

Let the rain fall. Just let the rain fall. You came so far…I have to do my part. I WILL do my part.

Tears streaked across Fluttershy’s face, mixing with the rain as she zoomed to the canopy, where the fire awaited, still enduring through the rain: one final gauntlet for two mares who had realized that their friendship was something greater than the sum of its parts: something worth living for.

Fluttershy shut her eyes. The enduring flame consumed her vision, and fearful thoughts rattled around inside her skull as colours in a rainboom. But – no – no – no-

Fluttershy burst through the flames, leaving a butterscotch blur through the canopy as she streaked to the storm clouds. She kept going, straight through the surface area of the central cloud, before-

“OOF!” The cyan Pegasus with the distinctive rainbow mane was practically knocked head over hooves by the collision with Fluttershy, where the two ended up rolling atop the cloud. Rainbow Dash snapped out of her disorientation swiftly when she saw the two who had burst from the canopy. Thank Celestia that Rarity wasn’t here to see these two ashen, scraped, exhausted mares…but right now, it seemed there were far more important things to thank Celestia for.

“…R-Rainbow Dash…” Fluttershy said, at first in subdued surprise, but then in determined repose, “We request medical treatment.”

Rainbow just stared. Her open mouth may have made a noise that approximated some variant of ‘buh’. That Pegasus who had just screamed from the burning canopy, with a passenger in tow no less, with enough force of wind to actually repel the fire? That was Fluttershy? Quiet, timid, scared-of-heights, apologizes-for-apologizing Flutterbuckingshy?!

Open-mouthed, Rainbow Dash just blinked.

Twice.

***

Though it was quickly made clear that the night’s two admissions would both make a full recovery, Ponyville General had its hooves full with enough commotion to make even a Fillydelphia hospital nervous. Reaction by the weather squads had quelled the Everfree inferno before it could blow over into Ponyville, and after Fluttershy had explained it to Rainbow Dash, the weather pony had been quite intent on spreading the news of bravery that had been ahoof in the forest this night.

Fortunately, the onlookers and press had been barred access by the staff to Twilight and Fluttershy’s shared hospital room. The only ones other than medical professionals in the room were the patients, as well as their four pony compatriots and one baby dragon.

“I say…” Applejack said, standing between the two beds and casting periodic glances between them. “Most folks tend to see fire and start runnin’ in the other direction…has to be somethin’ mighty powerful to make a pony do just the opposite.”

Twilight smiled a little through the clear mask that was strapped over her mouth and nose, pumping clean, fresh oxygen down her smoked system. With a tentative levitation spell, she lifted the mask off and set it on her chin. “Does anyone have a scroll and quill?”

“Why, I believe…yes, here,” Rarity said. The purple-maned fashionista dug through the bedside stand with her magic until she found a series of regulation-size scrolls and a quill with a basin of ink.

“Spike, take a letter.” Twilight smiled down at her number one assistant. Spike nodded enthusiastically; clearly the purple dragon would have been more than happy to do just about anything at the moment. Twilight and Fluttershy were okay, and that meant the world.

Twilight cleared her throat and began:

“Dear Princess Celestia,

When you first sent me to Ponyville to learn more about friendship, I was apprehensive. Scared, even. I didn’t understand why I was being dragged away from my books-“ She paused. “Wait, no. Scratch that. Say instead, ‘I didn’t understand why I was being diverted from my books and my studies.’ But the more I got to know my new friends, and the more adventures I went on with them, I started to realize something…there really are some kinds of magic that a pony can only learn through experience.”

Twilight thought a moment before continuing, “I have to admit, I’ve taken my knocks since coming to Ponyville, and that’s putting it lightly…but I’d do it all again if it meant having what I have now. There was a very real chance that I would have passed into the other world this very night, and yet, I feel it was worth it, because I was fighting for something much greater than myself…something much greater than me and my friends, yet something that could not exist without them. You were right, Princess Celestia. There are kinds of magic that do not come from the horn, but from the heart. My love for my friends gave me strength beyond what I ever thought I could have had…”

“And, um…well…” Fluttershy in the bed nearby leaned over ever-so-slightly. “If you don’t mind me interjecting…”

“Go right ahead, Fluttershy.”

“I, well…I feel much the same…when Twilight explained to me just why she came so far, something in me, well…if you don’t mind me saying, I felt like this thing, this bond between us as friends, it…it was feeding some kind of passion I didn’t know I had…if that’s alright with you.”

“That’s great, Fluttershy.” Twilight smiled and continued, “So in conclusion…what I’ve learned about friendship is this: in everypony’s life, there will be some conflict, or struggle, that arises. But when you feel like you’re being pushed to the edge, physically or emotionally, those bonds that you make with your friends can give you strength that you hardly could have thought possible. Sometimes it takes a brush with the precipice of losing everything to remind you what you’re living for.

Your faithful student,”

“I don’t believe a signature will be necessary this time, my faithful student.”

The six ponies and one baby dragon in the room suddenly turned to face the door. So wrapped up in Twilight’s narration, none of them had noticed the regal shadow moving up behind the door and letting itself in. They weren’t sure how long Princess Celestia had been standing there in the threshold so silently, and nopony was quite sure exactly how to ask.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am immensely relieved to hear of your safety…” The others cleared a path for the trotting Princess as she came over to favour her pupil with a warm nuzzling, before turning to Fluttershy. “The both of you have done an incredible thing. I will see to it that you are given the kind of respect and honours a good turn does deserve.”

“Oh, um…that’s really okay…” Fluttershy mumbled, hiding her nose below the covers just a smidgen.

“Princess…can I ask you a question?” Twilight said.

“Of course, Twilight.” Celestia came and leaned in over Twilight’s bed.

“Tonight, in the forest, I blacked out at one point, and…I had this dream. This memory came back to me. I don’t know why it came back to me right then, but it was when you were telling me the fable about the unicorn stallion who used to be a lone foal, but only started to learn his most famous and most noteworthy spells when he started making friends.”

“Why yes, Twilight? I do remember that day.”

“Something’s been bugging me a bit…just a silly question, but…” Twilight scratched the back of her heavily mussed mane. “I never did get a direct confirmation…was that just a fable after all?”

Celestia grinned warmly, and confidently answered, “Why, no.”

“Oh…I had always kind of wondered about that…if you don’t mind me asking, then who…?”

Celestia sat back, just the hint of a smile forming on her lips. “I believe you know him as Starswirl The Bearded.”

Twilight gasped lightly. The mighty Starswirl…it was incredibly difficult for this studious mare to see the Bearded One as anything less than a legend, but the idea that even the very magical lords of the old world started out in such a way…

She didn’t know why, but the thought filled her with warmth.

Warm. That was how she felt. That soothing, energizing fire had been ignited deep in her spirit. She knew, inside, that no amount of rain could ever dampen this flame.

The End