Weavertown was experiencing a few rare quiet hours that evening.

Streets that by day were busy and cheerful had calmed to a few patrolling ponies, night-time strollers, and late workers heading home to sleep after many long hours of travelling through the countryside to trade with the neighboring towns.

Little wisps of smoke rose from the chimney of the blacksmith's workshop as he closed up for the night, newly forged swords hung up on the walls, ready for use, and expertly repaired weapons glinted in the moonlight. The usually roaring fire dying to embers and red coals.

Outside the town's high wooden walls, resembling branch-less trees, were a pair of ponies digging a grave, their breath misting in front of their faces before getting pulled away by the cool breeze. The sounds of stubborn rocks scratching against the metal of the shovels echoed across the area sharply.

Glancing up to the nearby gate they could see the vigilant sentinels; veteran wall guards watching the horizon and patrolling the walls, ears twitching at every sound even as they nudged the younger guards awake, newer volunteers who were unused to the night owl ways, who would instantly jump to attention and return to their posts.

The residents of the village took their chance to rest while it was peaceful, feeling safer knowing that they were being guarded. Only a few candles remained lit, flickering in the windows and casting a gentle golden glow on the ground below.

Nearer to the west wall, a little yellow filly stirred from her dreams and awoke, sitting upright instantly in her bed and glancing around in confusion. It seemed to be far too early for her to be awake as the stars shone clearly overhead, she could see them through the little window to her left.

Thinking that since she was awake now she may as well enjoy the silent night while it lasted, she removed her quilt and approached the window, lifting it up and setting it on a hinge so it would remain open as she peered out into the darkness.

The filly rubbed her eyes, adjusting to the outside light, and looked out over the houses, just about able to see the guards at the gate through a gap in the buildings, with a brilliant view of the constellations directly above her.

However, as she inspected the night-time world, she spotted warmer colours peeking over the hills and mountains in the distance. She wasn't sure exactly how long she had been standing at her window, but when the guards began to pace faster along the walls and voices rose slightly, she grew suspicious. It definitely wasn't morning yet.

Glowing white lights suddenly appeared all over the village, the villagers had awoken, and the filly herself joined in the warning, her eyes shining bright as she too detected the heavy demonic presence that was swiftly approaching her home.

The sunrise split into a swarm of fiery singular lights, travelling through the air and growing in quantity. A fire demon swarm, led by the 'sun', the main cause of the daybreak-like glow, a much larger queen, her shape clear even from such a distance as she spread her wings and shrieked, announcing her arrival.

Before they could reach the walls, the unicorn guards and villagers that had already left their homes rallied their magic together to form a shield, completely containing them inside. The gates were closed behind the grave-diggers as they fled to safety and everypony prepared for the raid, fire demons already crashing themselves into the shield in an attempt to weaken it.

The queen had expected this, however, and in all her beautiful yet deadly power, sucked in all the heat that her fire-covered body produced, turning black-blue for just a second, and unleashed it upon the shield, heat passing through and knocking the nearest guards' concentration off instantly.

The shield began to crumble.
It only took seconds for chaos to descend.

The wall guards closest to the queen had taken the brunt of the first blast and had been thrown from the walls, immediately afterwards the flying demons had switched their attention from the now useless shield to the village itself, and even the pegasi could not stop them by air when protective fire coated their enemy.

Buildings burst into flames as the demons crashed into the roofs, falling debris and candles only spreading the fire even faster, trapping the slower ponies and those remaining inside and separating groups as they fled, bearing hastily grabbed weapons as they attempted to defend themselves.

With the queen remaining in the air, hovering over the village and blocking out the moonlight completely, she acted as an airship, both land and air demons dropping down from her back and heading straight for the glass dome roof of the town centre.

Over the sounds of shattering glass and plants burning to ash as the rooftop greenhouse was instantly destroyed were the cries of foals. On the ground floor of the town hall was the Elder of the village, a unicorn with a calming aura, who comforted the foals of the guards. She always took it upon herself to watch over them while their parents kept the village safe, but tonight she would be the one tasked with keeping them alive and soon guide everypony else to safety.

She held the foals close, whispering her promise that she would keep them all safe as long as they stayed together, and glanced up through the spiral staircase that circled the inside of the building to the high ceiling. Red light began to pass through the wood panels and they began to burn and crumble, it would not take long for the burning to reach the support beams, and then it would all cave in on top of them.

But once again, the groups eyes flashed white in warning, the Elder swiftly rose and turned, horn glowing as a small shield bubble sprang up around the fillies and colts, leaving the old unicorn exposed to the medium fire demons that had crashed through the windows and charged towards them, a blazing trail following them in.

It seemed their plan was to circle the ponies and allow the collapsing roof to bury them as they became trapped in a ring of fire. The Elder would not allow this as she summoned ethereal blades of magic which hovered above her head, spun, and then impaled themselves in the chests of the demons, who almost immediately faded to grey and were blown away as ash.

The shield was dropped and the Elder nudged the foals to draw them out of their shocked staring, guiding them outside quickly just as wood, glass and burning plant matter fell behind them. Once outside, more ghostly swords were created, slashing at any demon that approached the foals until the little group reached a surviving gang of guards that took over the job.

With one last smile at the foals, the Elder returned to the fiery rubble to locate any more ponies in need of her help and bring them to the edge of town where a secondary gate was being unlocked to free everypony. Carts were pulled past her, carrying whatever supplies the villagers had been able to grab on such short notice, rocking violently as they hit debris in their path.

Ears twitching at a thudding sound, she followed it to a doorway blocked by pieces of balcony and support beams. A pony must have been inside, trying to kick their way out. As she approached to use levitation to help move the blockade, her eyes flashed white again. She sensed a new fire demon aura, and as she scanned the sky a black feather floated down from above.

-

On the road between Diamond Dog territory and the little town of Appaloosa walked a lone cloaked unicorn. He wore a strange green amulet in the shape of his cutie mark, a fire-blast.

He always seemed drawn back to this part of the country. Maybe the heat reminded him of his real home, or perhaps ponies were more easily impressed by his magic here, or the emptiness of the desert was peaceful. Either one would make sense.

A wind that had swiftly picked up in just a few minutes carried a familiar burning scent, and as he looked to the North West, it blew his hood back to reveal green glowing eyes.

The pony looked to the source, it appeared there was a fire in the Ghastly Gorge area. Not too far out of the scrub-land actually, perhaps an investigation would be interesting.

He tucked his amulet into his cloak as he picked up the pace, his cloak billowing behind him, he kept his eye on the growing redness ahead, leaving the path to Ponyville to cut across the last bit of desert towards the neighboring river and grasslands.

Recently published maps that he had spotted during his visit to the new town did not mark anything in that area, of course it was not a sought after living area, the Gorge was dangerous, and the forest was not too far off either, but there was quite a large clearing beyond it, between the Applewood mountains and the Everfree.

He remembered the last time he passed that area, and what he had heard about it while he was at home. It definitely was a place to be avoided for somepony like him, though the fire had already gotten his attention and would most likely be a good sign that he could approach without being spotted.

He knew there was an unmarked old village there, filled with ponies who could kill him if he got too close.

As the desert thinned there was a caw from above and a large crow dived down, leveling out and flying at the unicorns side.
“Hello, Corvus,” the pony greeted, “you’re coming along too?”
Corvus cawed again, a yes.

For a short time they continued on their way, the edge of the gorge ahead of them and the signs of fire grew; embers carried by the wind blew over their heads and the blaze was now visible, and above the burning village was the obvious cause.

“A Queen is here? These ponies must have really got on the bad side of the fire demons.” He was not really too surprised though, relations between the hunters and these demons had always been tense, he had heard about it many times over the years, though it seemed it had finally reached a breaking point, one death of a demon too many had triggered a full on raid.

As he watched a new wave of demons leaped down from the Queens’ back and landed near an elderly pony who seemed to be trying to break down a door, though it was immediately taken out by a second armed pony. He could also see a group of foals and guards in the least damaged area, they were escaping through a hidden village exit, passing under the walls and reappearing above ground on the outside, galloping to safety before they could be spotted. Others were heading that way.

These hunters could handle themselves, and since he was not really wishing to cause problems between himself and the fire demons, the unicorn set himself down and continued watching, the crow landing on his shoulder.

However, even as he watched more and more ponies escape, enough to be almost the entire village population, he thought things through again and stood up. This wasn’t right. He could handle fire demons, but watching the younger villagers become targets was unfair.

Senseless killing was wrong.

Corvus, sensing his new idea, cawed and took off, circling the village with glowing green eyes, spotting any trapped ponies who had been left behind. The unicorn, horn glowing green with magic and mane and tail flowing with his pyro abilities, winced as blood burst from his back and raven wings sprouted there, his hooves and teeth grew sharper too. After a moment of adjusting and testing his new limbs, he too leaped from the hill top and headed straight for the nearest trapped pony.

The old mare and the guard had made progress on removing the collapsed beams, but there was still one trapping the younger pony inside, it had become lodged in the broken wall. Using a levitation spell, the flying unicorn forced it out of the wall. There was the sound of crumbling for a moment and then there was enough room for the villager to squeeze through and escape.

With Corvus alerting him to the next fallen building, they made their way around the village, freeing the last few ponies in just a few minutes before hovering above the crushed glass roof of what used to be the town centre.

One last caw, one last pony to be found. However, it seemed that they were a little late. This was one of the buildings hit earlier into the raid, and a foal had been left behind.

But as they hovered above the wreck he sensed a heartbeat, they weren’t too late.

Landing on the burning beams and roof tiles, he was unharmed by the heat as he began to free the foal with a combination of his magic and his own strength, revealing a damaged, ashen body in moments. He felt the creaking of the flooring as it weakened.
He had one choice. The village was almost emptied of other ponies and they probably would not be able to help with burns this severe, but he could…

Deciding to not leave the decision up to the fire and the dying pulse, he picked up the foal and took off after Corvus who had stayed out of the reach of the fire and done one last search of the village, discovering that both sides were making a retreat; the fire demons had done their jobs and did not pursue the fleeing hunters who carried whatever supplies they had left and their injured far away from the walls.

Leaving in the opposite direction of both sides, as they passed over the border towards the south-east, the unicorn felt a sudden sharp, pulsing pain along his spine, but in a moment it had faded away.

He paused to look back and investigate; nothing had hit him, and he didn’t think he’d overused his magic… Cawing drew him out of his confused thoughts and reminded him of the urgency of the situation. He could figure out what that was later, right now he was going to have to remember that he was looking out for two ponies.

The desert was swiftly reached, and ahead in the now peaceful darkness was the shadow of a small town, on the outskirts of which was the place that the unicorn and crow had called home for a while now.

They went unnoticed by the sleeping townsfolk below, or at least they slept for now, dawn would arrive fast and the desert would have plenty of noisy residents roaming around.

Time was not to be wasted, especially since they did not want nosy ponies with good intentions coming to their home to disturb them over the foal, they could handle things themselves. Besides, the unicorn preferred to be alone, he had enough company, maybe even too much, and that was before he had a foal to take care of.

Landing outside the building, the unicorn’s dark wings were removed with a flare of green magic, allowing Corvus to land upon his back as he unlocked the door with his magic and entered. It had been a long night.

Author's Note

Originally uploaded by friends requests, it counts as an origin story/crossover of the characters Acry and BlitzFire (Crazyhunterxiii).