The Equestrian Heat Wave

Subject: Heat wave weekly letter #3
To: _________________

Dear Town Mayor of ___________, the heat wave is now the most severe heat wave in the modern history of Equestria.
With four of our biggest cloud factories malfunctioning, we are forced to delay your water deliveries with one day, starting next week. This week's deliveries should hopefully be on time.

Maintenance Status
Celestia Bin - The combined Rainbow and Cloud factory had to be taken down for decontamination after a Love Poison accident.
Planned to be back up in six weeks.
Cloudsdale Cloud Factory - Was already down for maintenance when the heat wave struck.
Planned to be back up in eight weeks.
Hoofington #8 - Couldn't handle the extra work, Customized parts expected to arrive in five weeks.
Trottingham Lulu - Couldn't handle the extra work, Customized parts expected to arrive in five weeks.

FAQ:
Q01: Why can't Celestia make some magical clouds/stop the heat/keep the sun down/etc?
A01: Clouds can't be created from nothing, some form of humidity is needed to create clouds. The cloud factories are using magical cloud gems to collect and transform humidity into clouds.
Celestia already moved the sun as far away as she dares, and leaving it down will seriously hurt the whole planetary ecosystem.

Q02: Why can't unicorns make some magical clouds?
A02: See answer 01, the heat wave gives us not enough humidity.

Q03: I've seen the Wonderbolts creating clouds in their shows, why can't they do it now?
A03: The Wonderbolts suits have small cloud gems sewed into them that require humidity to work.
The Wonderbolts are right now hunting clouds over the Big Northern Sea, which we turn into rainclouds and sending it out all over Equestria.

Mayor was sighing high in her office. 102 degrees Fahrenhorse outside, 98 inside.
She looked at the unmoving fan on her bureau.
If only that last shipment of spark batteries had not been hijacked and probably already sold on the Canterlot black market, then the hospital would still have a two months energy supply and nopony had been forced to donate their spare batteries.
She had always hated hot days. What she really really hated was to work on hot days. What she really really really hated was to make a budget ending in red numbers on a 100 degree day.
She gave out a small scream and threw her paperwork upward in the air.
Somepony knocked on her office door, opened it and a red head appeared.
"We got a problem Mayor..."
She knew that pony too well. Firemane was the Chief Firefighter in Ponyville, and Mayor could clearly see that something was very wrong. His face just screamed that her house had just burned down and they had had no water to put it out.
She gave out another sigh and told the stallion to come in. The tall stallion walked slowly in, his yellow hair giving an illusion of his mane being on fire. All mares in Ponyville had at least once dreamed about him as their very special somepony, and more than one were always flushing when he walked past them, not being able to take their eyes away from his cutiemark, a small fire on a stick.
"We have reports of a fire in the Everfree forest, and since we have a water shortage, I thought it was best to ask you what to do."
"If I know you as well as I believe I do, then you have already assembled the team and this is more a 'we are going to the Everfree forest to put out a fire, just so you know' call than asking for my permission."
"Am I really that predictable?" he answers with a big smile.
"Just call in the reserves and tell them to fill the extra firewagon from what's left in the river, you don't want to have the fire spread just because you didn't bring enough water. Hopefully we are getting our water ration tomorrow."
"Yes miss Mayor" replies the big stallion and starts leaving the room.
"Wait, leave half of the reserves in Ponyville, in case something else happen."
"Will do miss Mayor, have a nice day."
As the door closed, she gave out another sigh and starts walking to a photo on the wall.
She puts her right hoof on a photo showing the mane 6.
"Oh Twilight, I really need somepony with your organization skills. I guess it was kinda hard to continue with your friendship reports when your friends left one by one. You are at least helping ponies all over Equestria now..."
Her hoof goes from pony to pony on the photo when she mentions their names.
"Rainbow Dash... the best weather pony we have ever had. It was just a matter of time before the Wonderbolts got their eyes on you. I hope you don't fall asleep as often these days."
She gave a small smile.
"And to think that Scootaloo would also become a Wonderbolt, that was so unexpected."
She felt how a tear started to build up and moved quickly to the next pony.
"Rarity... you became so famous so you were almost forced to move to Canterlot. You tried to come back to the spa at least once a month, but we all knew that it couldn't continue that way. You alone kept that spa house alive, so it was just a matter of time before they were forced to close.
Thankfully you gave them job at your newly opened spa in Canterlot. And you are very generous in your yearly donations to keep your old Carousel Boutique in fine shape. Which reminds me that we really need to paint it once the heat wave is over..."
She took a quick look at her window and saw how the paint had started to peel off from the old building. She gave another sigh and returned to the photo.
"Pinkie Pie... your fate was grim. You spread so much happiness around you, only to be forced to return to your parents rockfarm when they became ill. You kept five stores alive with all your parties, of which only the Sugarcube Corner is still alive. I've heard that you are a totally different pony now when you visit the Sugarcube Corner once a month."
She thought she heard something and looked around. Nothing strange caught her eyes so she returned to the photo.
"Applejack... the most honest hardworking mare I've ever seen. You always put your heart in your work, and always did more than what you needed. When Ponyville's population started to shrink, so did your paying customers. And it cost too much to transport your apples to other cities to make it worth it. Luckily Hoofington started to grow around the same time and your relatives around there needed a extra hoof with their apples. Based on what I know of the Apple family, I had been really surprised if they had not accepted the help from you and your sister. And you keep sending money back to Big Macintosh so he can keep his Sweet Apple Acres. The world would be so much better if we had more ponies like you..."
Her head moved a little to the left, to another photo on the wall.
"The Cutie Mark Crusaders... It took a while before you discovered what you were good at. Always on the adventure. And you Sweetie Belle took Fluttershy away from us. Your singing career made you even bigger than Sapphire Shores, and you knew that Fluttershy couldn't say no to joining your 'hospitals for sick animals' charity world tour. I wonder if Rarity would allow me to turn her Boutique into a 'Sweetie Belle used to live here' tourist attraction..."
The office door is suddenly kicked in and a heavily breathing yellow mare appears where it used to be a door.
"What in tarna..." the Mayor starts, before she recognize the mare.
"You are Hot Flame, one of Firemane's firefighters. What's going on?"
"We have... we have... ghoulfires walking toward Ponyville" is the response while she tries to catch her breath.
This was not what Mayor needed. All her previous problems were all forgotten, this was a Celestia-tier catastrophe.
"How strong are they? Please tell me we don't have to waste water on them..." almost screamed the Mayor while shaking Hot Flame.
"They are weak, pegasi wings can put them out. But it's hot and they are getting tired, and no ghoulfires without a firemother..."
Firemother... a giant being all made of fire, around the same size of a Ursa Minor. Nopony had seen one in over 400 years, and most ponies believed it was just an old mare's tale. If it was real, then it would destroy Ponyville and slaughter all ponies it could see.
"I... I... we... we must do something. Go and ring the emergency bells while I write a letter. If you see Derpy, send her here immediately!"
Hot Flame stares at Mayor for a few seconds before she snapped out of it.
"Yes miss Mayor" she replies while running away.
Mayor put out another sigh and wondered how she could write for help without sounding too crazy.
Derpy stuck her head in the now doorless doorway at the same moment the emergency bells started to sound.
"Muffin?"
Mayor looked up from her just finished letter and gave a small smile. She put it in a envelope and started to walk to Derpy while talking to her.
"We have a big problem Derpy. We have ghoulfires walking towards Ponyville. And you will always find a firemother near ghoulfires. With this heat wave, I'm afraid that we can't defeat it so you must take this letter to the Wonderbolts Manager in Canterlot palace as fast as you can, do you understand?"
Derpy salutes, takes the letter and flies away.
Mayor turns around, takes a last look at her office and starts galloping to the town hall.
After a quick look around the crowd, it seems that most ponies have gathered, all except Big Macintosh who probably is up at his farm. The crowd mumbles highly, asking why they had to get there on this hot day.
She walks to the podium and everypony get silent.
"Dear Ponyville, we got an emergency. Our firefighters are fighting ghoulfires that moves towards Ponyville. They are relatively weak and can be extinguished by pegasi wings. Our firefighters are however getting tired fast in this heat so we need all pegasi to help them. We also expect a firemother to appear once we have put out all ghoulfires."
The crowd let out a big gasp.
"We have all heard stories about the firemother when we were foals, so I'm not going to say what will happen if we fail at stopping it. I have already sent Derpy with a letter to the Wonderbolts which hopefully will help us. When this meeting is over, I want everypony to run home and spend the next ten minutes to put all their liquids in a barrel, tub or anything and place it outside your door. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT put in cider or Wild Pegasus since they are flammable. If you have any thick blankets or rug, or a fire extinguisher, leave it outdoors as well."
Mayor looked out over the crowd and pointed her right hoof to the pony she mentions.
"Cheerilee, I want you to take all foals to the train. If the foal is younger than one year, I want one parent with her. I want everypony that's in the hospital on that train. Half the doctors should be on the train and the other half at the front. Bring extra supplies in case you must take care of evacuated hurt ponies. All senior citizens should be on that train as well. I want it to be ready to leave immediately in case we fail at stopping the firemother, hopefully it will attack the empty town instead of chasing the train."
If we are lucky, she thought.
"Caramel, I want you to pick ten earth ponies and gallop to Sweet Apple Acres. Tell Big Macintosh what's going on and bring back some of his bigger wagons. I want a shuttle service with earth ponies bringing the liquid and rags from outside our homes to town hall and one delivering it from town hall to the front. Each liquid-carriage should have a unicorn making sure it's not splashing over the barrel. I want one wing of unicorns draining what's left from the river, take the mud as well if it's wet enough. All other unicorns should be at the front, helping the firefighters to suffocate the ghoulfires with the blankets. When you fight the firemother, dip them in water first, hopefully the steam will hurt it. Roseluck, how many sacks of garden soil do you and the flower trio have?"
"Thirty, forty, maybe fifty?"
"Good, I want you three to deliver them to the front. The unicorns may use them to suffocate the ghoulfires until they get enough blankets."
She looked from one side of the room to the other.
"May Celestia have mercy on our souls..."

The Wonderbolts manager had his office just a stone's throw away from the castle. The manager, he simply loved to call himself the Manager, was a white unicorn with a light cyan mane. He was the kind of pony that easily got bored if he had nothing to do, and the hot weather made him lazy. He was sitting behind his desk half asleep when a loud beeping woke him up. He hated that sound, because it meant that somepony wanted to see him, and right now he was too lazy to do anything. He pressed a button on his desk and a voice started to speak.
"There's somepony with an important letter that wants to deliver it personally, Sir."
The voice belonged to his secretary, a good looking pegasus.
He lifted a microphone that stood on the right side on his desk and answered. He really loved using his microphone, he had always dreamt of working at a radio station.
"Tell her to come back in some hours, I got a few zed's to catch."
He placed the microphone on his desk, moved it around some and returned to his sleeping business.
He knew that it would be impossible to sleep when his nose started to itch, because it meant that his mind was too focused on that letter.
Hopefully his secretary had told that courier to wait a few minutes, she normally had a sixth sense about these things. He was just moments from pressing the button that would call her when he heard some disturbance outside his door. Two moments later, the door swung open and a gray pegasus with yellow mane wrestled down a royal guard pegasus. The gray pegasus took a quick look around the room and starts smiling when she sees the Manager.
"I brought you a letter."
The Manager is speechless. How can a pegasus, a very good looking pegasus with crossed eyes which kinda makes her very cute, get up here that fast and wrestle down the royal guard who is supposed to give his life to protect him?
"I... ehm... yeah, I can see that... come over here with it and I will read it immediately. Guard, you can leave us."
"But... Sir..."
"If she wanted me dead, then I would already be dead. Go and think how you can make the security better for the future."
"As you wish, Sir."
The guard closed the door behind him and Derpy walks up to the Manager to deliver the letter. He starts reading it and his right eyebrow starts raising.
"...you sure this is true and not some illusion by somepony that's been out in the heat too much?"
"The Mayor said so, and I trust her."
The Manager lifts his microphone, presses down two buttons and starts talking with a higher voice.
"Scoot, the Manager wants to talk to you."
He puts down the microphone, moves it around some and returns his attention to the mare in front of him.
"Sooooo... what's your name?"
"Derpy."
"Derpy? THE Derpy from Ponyville? The best malemare that Ponyville have ever had?"
Derpy nods her head and starts blushing.
"I've heard both Scootie and Dashie talking about you. I thought they exaggerated half of it, but after seeing how you got here... I know a few Wonderbolts that would never be able to get past that guard. Do you have any kids? I would love to see if they are future Wonderbolts material."
"Muffin is a unicorn..."
"I bet she is as beautiful as er mother, right?"
A light knocking is heard from the door and Derpy is blushing even more.
"Come in kid."
A yawning Scootaloo walks in.
"I know that we have to work harder during this heat wave, I still need my four hours of sleep so you have to... Derpy? Why are you here?"
"She wrestled a royal guard just so she could deliver a letter to me."
"WHAT!?"
"Scootaloo, if I, the Wonderbolts Manager, told you to go and get some sleep, and the Mayor of Ponyville told you that some monster from some old mare's tale is attacking your old hometown, what would you do?"
"What are you... wut..."
Scootaloo shakes her head before continuing.
"What kind of question is that, I would help Ponyville!"
"You are a good kid, you know that? The Mayor believes that the town is attacked by ghoulfires and soon a firemother. I can't tell you to chase some dreams caused by a sunstroke, your best bet is however to try catching up with Dashie. She is delivering a few rainclouds to the Hoof, and those rainclouds are the only ones you will find that's close enough to make a difference. She should come from a North-Eastern direction. Now hurry up and go to bed with you."
He ended the sentence with a big and slow blink with his right eye.
"Heh, thanks Manager, you are the best. And it's fun to see you too Derpy, wish I could stay and talk with you, but you know..."
Scootaloo quickly leaves the room without closing the door.
"Hey guard, can you come in here?"
Before Derpy realizes it, the royal guard is standing behind her.
"You called, Sir?"
"I want you to take Derpy here to meet Twilight Sparkle. I know that she is always busy and everypony wants to talk to her about the smallest things so it will probably take you the whole day. I also know that she wants to hear every news that's related to Ponyville, so try to use that to get closer to her."
He stares right into Derpy's eyes, he hopes that he stares right into her eyes before continuing.
"Trying to wrestle a royal guard in the royal palace will get you thrown in jail, and we don't want that, right?"
Derpy felt how she started to blush once again.

2 hours later, near the Everfree forest.
The ponies had moved all supplies near the forest and they extinguished the last ghoulfire almost 15 minutes ago.
It's been silent since then and there is a small hope that the firemother was just some old myth after all. The Mayor decides to break the silence.
"We haven't got all day, we must send in a team to investigate if there is still some fire going on in there and if we can find any signs of the firemother..."
She is suddenly disrupted by a loud roar, and a burning tree is suddenly thrown in their direction. It hits three unicorns. Somepony screams that they have to lift the tree and lift the injured unicorns onto wagons and evacuate them to the train. Mayor walks up next to Firemane and both stares into the Everfree forest. They can hear something moving closer, and they can smell the smoke of something burning. They can barely hear the wagon with the injured ponies leaving behind them.
The firemother slowly walks out from the forest, giving out another loud roar.
"Looks like it's only half the size of a Ursa Minor..." Firemane says almost disappointed.
"Maybe it is young or even hurt. Hopefully a smaller size means it will be easier..." the Mayor replies.
"Only one way to find out..."
Firemane turns around towards the other ponies.
"This is it. You all know what to do. For Celestia!"
The following battle was short but intense. Wings flapped, fire extinguishers extinguished, rags steamed and was put on fire, mud was thrown, and the firemother grew smaller for each attack. You could almost hear it scream as a bucket of water put out the last bit of fire.
It was quiet for a moment, which soon turned into a big cheering and hugging party.
Mayor knew that they needed to check if the firemother left any fires still burning inside the forest, but that could wait a few minutes.

It was always a long line of ponies waiting outside Twilight's working room. The royal guard had managed to move up Derpy a few dozen places in the line, being the Managers bodyguard did however not manage him to move past the higher ranked society members.
Twilight Sparkle's voice was suddenly heard from behind, and everypony looked at her direction.
She walks slowly towards her room while talking about stuff that sounds very important with two ponies taking notes. When she passes Derpy, Derpy just feels that she must do something to catch Twilight's attention.
"Muffin."
Twilight automatically replies with "Oh hi Derpy" while continuing walking.
"Wait a minute, Derpy?"
Twilight teleports back the small distance.
"Oh Derpy, it is you! What are you doing here at Canterlot?"
The higher society members in the line starts to murmur lowly.
"Mayor wanted me to deliver an important letter to the Wonderbolts manager."
"The Wonderbolts? Is there something wrong with Ponyville?"
"They saw some ghoulfires and there's always a firemother near ghoulfires, so the Manager sent Scootaloo to catch Rainbow Dash who delivered rainclouds to Hoofington."
"Ghoulfires? Attacking ponyville? And you mean there is always TWO firemothers near the ghoulfires?"
Derpy poked her head with her right hoof while thinking.
"No, the Mayor said ONE firemother."
The panic started to slowly build up inside Twilight.
"Oh no, they believe it's only one firemother, and they probably don't even have enough water to defeat one of them, and the Hoof is so far away..."
She shakes her head and turned to one of the note-taking ponies.
"Delay the rest of today's meetings. I'm sorry, but it's an emergen..."
Both Derpy and Twilight disappears before she managed to finish the sentence.
It took almost one minute before the silence was broken with a "Well I say!"

Firemane stared into the forest.
He could feel that something was wrong, his neck hair was standing out. He saw no smoke, and yet he could smell some kind of smoke...
They are two, he whispered to himself.
He turned around and raised his voice.
"They are two, another one is coming."
The cheering ponies seemed to take no notice of him.
"ANOTHER ONE IS COMING!"
The cheering died and everypony looked in his direction.
"I know my fires, I smell the smoke of another one. Something bigger."
The crowd started to panic, it can't come another one. They almost used up all their water on the last one, there is no way that it's enough to defeat another one, especially if it's bigger.
Mayor knew that it could only end in one way.
"Attention everypony! We all know that it's impossible for us to defeat another firemother, which leaves us with two options. The first one is to run around in panic while the firemother destroys everything it sees. The second one is that a few volunteers stay behind trying to delay it while the rest evacuates to the train. Whatever you choose, may Celestia have mercy on our sou..."
Before she could finish the sentence, it dropped down from the sky. The giant monster, this time almost bigger than an Ursa Minor, had taken a giant leap from within the forest and landed in front of the ponies. The shock wave threw away the nearest ponies, which probably saved them from being smashed by the giant burning tree that it was holding.
Mayor landed upside down away from the firemother, and felt pain in her whole body. She knew that she had to move, a moving target is always harder to hit. She opened her eyes and could only see a blurry mess. She blinked and her vision focused. What she saw made her smile.
One rainbow-colored streak of light was flying in her direction, followed by a pink streak of light that seemed to pull some dark clouds with a rope. The rainbow-colored light passed the firemother so fast so the wind draft reduced it's size by 20%.
The pink streak slowed down and stopped above the firemother. Scootaloo placed the clouds in a vertical ring and landed near the Mayor.
Out from nowhere the rainbow-colored streak appeared again, flying towards the cloud ring. Just as it passed the ring, it did a sonic rainboom. The clouds literally exploded and a small flood rained down on the firemother. It was too much for the monster which was reduced to nothing in two seconds flat.
The whole place was filled by slowly falling raindrops and a loud cheering was heard when Rainbow Dash landed next to the Mayor.
"Sorry I'm late, you know how I just love to make spectacular entries."
"Heh, if I know you right, then you probably slept when Scootaloo found you."
They both laughed when she helped Mayor stand up.
Mayor looked around and saw the ponies she needed to talk to.
"Firemane, I want two teams checking the forest for any more surprises now. Doctor Red, what is your verdict on the injured?"
"A few broken bones, a few burns, seems to be nothing worse than second-degree burns, a few concussions... seems like we will all survive."
Mayor smiled, that was the best news she had heard today. She closed her eyes, moved her head upwards and felt the raindrops hitting her face.
Suddenly she heard a noice she hasn't heard for years followed by a voice she hasn't heard for almost as long.
"Where is it? Where is it?"
Twilight Sparkle had teleported right in front of them, levitating three giant barrels filled with water.
"The firemother? We defeated it" The Mayor replied proudly.
"Nonononono, it's always a second firemother!"
"Rainbow Dash defeated the second one."
"I sure did! Wait, they were two?"
"Yes, we had just defeated the first one when the second attacked, and then you came and rescued us."
"So... I... this... WAAAH!"
Twilight let out a small scream.
Rainbow Dash and Mayor started to laugh, and it didn't last long until Twilight joined them.
"Hey Twi... that's a lot of water you got there..."
"Yeah, I had to pretty much empty the whole Canterlot water supply. What I knew, we could have two firemothers running around in a burning Ponyville."
"Speaking of Ponyville, we are all out of water now..." the Mayor said and started to smile a big smile.
"And the Hoof could need some as well..." Rainbow Dash said and copied Mayors smile.
Twilight stared at them. She knew when she was beaten. She lowered her head and said "Fine."
Both Mayor and Rainbow Dash jumped and cheered.
"This means no more water deliveries this month, you hear that?"
They started to look at the cheering ponies when Twilight suddenly realize that raindrops are falling around them.
"Where does the rain come from?"
"I did a sonic rainboom in the middle of the clouds, you should have seen how fast that defeated that firemother."
They all enjoyed the rain until it suddenly ended.
Rainbow Dash started to scratch her head.
"I guess I have to return to Canterlot..."
Mayor interrupted her.
"Can't that wait some? At least until we get a report that we don't have another firemother in the Everfree forest..."
"When you put it that way, it would be kinda awkward if we left and another firemother decided to attack the town..."
"I will teleport away and deliver these barrels, then return and see if I can do anthing for the injured" said Twilight and zapped away.
It didn't take long for Twilight to teleport everypony injured to the hospital, and all foals were happy to get the autographs from two Wonderbolts.

And that's how Hoofington got their big royal barrel.