Mysterious Arrival

The seconds were passing and yet nothing was happening. No burning, incinerating or exploding, so Twilight opened her left eye and than her rigt one. Spike still had his eyes closed, so she shook them. Confused, the dragon opened them and looked around, still seeing the snow.

" Why aren't we dead yet? " he wondered.

" Or are we... and this is the place where we go after we die? I preferred the tropics! " Spike shouted at the sky, but Twilight got a pretty clear sign that they weren't dead.

Sunset Shimmer was still standing there where she used to stand and the alicorn was sure she wouldn't just kill herself. The magic oreol had dissapeared from her horn and she was staring terrified at something next to her. When Spike and Twilight saw it they almost got terrified too.

Fiery was just hanging 6 feet over the ground without using her wings. Her mane and tail were spread as if there was no gravity and she was shining. The horrified Shimmer tried to do something about it, but her magic was somehow sucked into the shining Fiery as soon as it appeared on her horn. The sun looked less brighter than before and Fiery kept getting more shining and more shining, and eventually became so bright Twilight couldn't look directly at her. The only things she still saw, not caught by Fiery's blinding oreol, were the forest and Sunset Shimmer, who was desperately trying to run away, but was held in one place by a mysterious force. Strange streams of blinding light came out of Fiery and than returned, and Twilight suddenly remembered something about that from her books. Fiery was acting as a miniature sun and the alicorn surely didn't want to see what will happen. She told Spike to get quickly back on her back and quickly flew back towards Ponyville. It wasn't something a friend would do, but she didn't prefer to get toasted. There she stopped the Ponyville residents from going further and trying to investigate the mysterious light.

" What is happening, princess Twilight? " a concerne resident asked

" I wished I knew. " the lavender mare replied and turned around to watch what was going to happen.

And than it happened. The light, that surrounded Fiery exploded, sending enormous white flames, hotter than everything in equestria, in all directions, melting the snow in their way. The shockwave was so strong it tossed some of the residents in the buildings of Ponyville violently and all of the pegasi fell down from the sky. Luckily, the destructive inferno  stopped before it reached Ponyville and the ponies could now see the aftermath of what Twilight determined as a miniature supernova, explosion of a small sun. Twilight didn't want to think what would have happened if such thing took place in the town square. There would have been literally nothing and nopony in Ponyville left unincinerated. Such explosion could destroy Ponyville. Luckily, the flames didn't cause any damage, because they didn't reach Ponyville.

But unlike the others she wasn't currently wondering at the circle without snow. She was looking for a mare. A specific mare.

Fiery was lying in the center of a small crater, while Sunset Shimmer was on it's edge. Twilight had no idea how did she manage to survive such an explosion, probably it was... exterior magic.

And that caused Twilight to wonder. The spell she used to leave her helpless wasn't hers. She used an amulet to cast it and the spell had a totally different colour of magic than hers. Somepony was helping Sunset Shimmer, and it was somepony powerful. What pony had placed the defensive spells, that kept her alive during the supernova, had to be a very, very skillful magician and the alicorn wished to know who that was.

The only damage Shimmer had suffered, was that the nova had incinerated her mane, tail and coat, so she was currently just a unicorn with sin, completely covered with black ash. The dizzy mare got up before Twilight landed, looked at herself and fled to the Everfree forest, crying and yelling " Mommy! " .

The most strange thing was, that Fiery got up on her hooves before Twilight landed. She was still shaking a bit, but she looked OK. She evn got her mane, tail, coat and feathers.

" Are you OK? " Spike jumped from the purple alicorn's back as soon as she landed and ran to Fiery. The pegasus smiled and nodded.

" Well, I suggest we get out of here before they come here and start asking questions! " Twilight suggested and revealed the ponies, that ran to see who was she speaking with. Fiery's eyes widened in surprise and she frantically nodded. She got up in the air and flew it all the spped she had, flying towards the Golden Oak Library. Spike got back on her back and Twilight followed Fiery's example.

The pegasus was sitting in the coach and breathing heavily, while Twilight was locking the door and pulling the curtains in front of the windows. She certainly didn't want everypony to bump in the library and start asking her who was that pony she was talking to and is she somehow related to the blast.  The Ponyville residents had became quite worried about such thing after the last spring a " villain " , called the Mandarin, caused several unstable Extremis troops to detonate in almost all Equestrian cities, causing chaos. Of course, he was just an actor, but the blast were still real and Twilight was sure soon ponies would start speculating about her, and after asking A.I.M. if they had anything in common and Wanda denied such thing they would eventually head for the library and that was something Twilight wished to avoid.

" I'm sorry I didn't mention it earlier. " Twilight heard Fiery apologise , so she sat in the other armchair together with Spike and got ready for an interrogation.

" Did you cause that? " Spike was amazed.

" Yes. I did. " Fiery admitted.

" How? " the purple alicorn still didn't get how her body could hold such energy. It was pretty mysterious before, with the golden fork , but now it was up to impossible. Twilight wasn't sure anypony could perform such a blast... well, perhaps except Primal Shine and celestia, they were the sun rulers, after all.

But how did Fiery, a normal pegasus, create such thing? It was really a supernova, only it could unleash such power, such heat, such flames.

" At least now we know what your cutie mark stands for That was like.... a million times more spectacular than singing or cooking! " Spike told her, still very excited.

Fiery smiled to him and than spoke:

" Well, this is everything about me. No more to be told. Those were my greatest secrets: I turn things to whatever I want, I am Sunset Shimmer's sister and if I am angry enough I could wipe out an entire town. "

She said the last words with sarcasm, but it was sad sarcasm. Finally Twilight understood what was she worried about. If she got out of rails she could have destroyed everything in a huge radius. It required perfect self-control, and that was the reason Fiery didn't want to reveal herself, as Sunset Shimmer asked her to. It was too powerful.

" Can you control it? " the purple alicorn asked.

" That's the worst thing; I can't. If I am not so angry and I am lucky, it might just end up to be a small fireball. But if something like today happens, I... I don't know what I'll do! " the pegasus spoke with despair.

" The sound of that explosio echoed throughout the whole of Equestria. This is... the biggest explosion I've caused so far. Ponies will start asking questions and i just can't hide forever. The Princesses will be concerned... " suddenly Fiery was interrupted by Spike's belch. A scroll appeared from the green flames and fell on the ground. Twilight quietly walked towards it, her legs starting to shivver. She opened it and read it out loud:

Dear Twilight,

while I and Luna were having a conversation on the terasse we were syddenly surprised to see a big ball of fire on the field between Ponyville and the Everfree forest. Half a minute later the palace shook under the shockwave of this explosion and brought extreme heat with it. We would be grateful if you give us more information about this accident.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

" Information travels even faster than I think. " Fiery was overcome with grief.

" I must go. I will fly away through the window. I will be eternally grateful if you succeed to think of anther cause of the explosion than me. " Fiery spread her wings and got ready to fly, but Twilight put her left forehoof on her shoulder and told her:

" You're not going anywhere. You're staying here and we'll find a ay to deal with it... somehow. "

Fiery looked at her gratefully and folded her wings. She wasn't going to leave.

" But what are we supposed to do? " she asked the alicorn

" You can't just ignore the letter! "

" I can. " Twilight answered and threw the letter from the princess in the furnace. Both Spike and Fiery looked astonished from what she just did. Her lips formed a playful grin, as she spoke:

" Let's just say Spike was warming up from a cold day of playing outside, and was completely unprepared for the letter, sitting in front of the furnace, and before I could react, it had already burned. "

Fiery rushed at the lavender mare and hugged her.

" Thank you, thank you so much! I would be never able to repay you! "

" And that brings us to the question " What do we do? " again. " Spike noted.

" Spike, I think you know the answer to that. " the alicorn grinned, while Spike's expression became surprised at first, but than annoyed.

" The answer to everything is research? " he guessed with a monotonous voice.

" Exactly! To the lab! " the lavender mare exclaimed.

Nopony ever went downstairs. Nopony but Twilight. The ponies knew, that all the interesting books were on the ground floor, and there was only the bedroom upstairs, so the visitors kept to the ground floor. That left the underground room pretty useless... until Twilight turned it into her own laboratory, a place, where she could explain everything that bothered her ( or at least she thought so) . Fiery glared upon the big machine, that Twilight once used to find out what caused Pinkie Pie's Pinkie sence, and got really freaked out.

" Don't worry, this place is always creepy. " Spike pat her on the shoulder and went to Twilight, who was frantically mixing different liquids in the glasses. After she got satisfied with the resut, she suddenly poored it in the nearby plant pot.

" I am making an experiment about what would happen to a plant if it's only fed water, containing the exact proportion of every needed mineral. " she looked excited, and Fiery sighed in relief that water wasn't for her.

" Stand there, i'm going to scan you with my horn. " the purple alicorn instructed Fiery to stand still as she scanned her with her magic. After she had finished, she waved her head in confusion and spoke:

" I didn't detect any magic. I am riddled. "

" Perhaps the brain waves would reveal the answer! " she put the big cup, which was connected to the big scary machine on the wall, on Fiery's head and sealed the bands under her chin. Seeing Fiery was nearly freaking out, twilight got afraid she would explode again and devastate the equipment, so she calmed her down:

" Take it easy, nothing got hurt in that lab. Well, except for that plant. "

Twilight managed to calm her down - up to some point. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the plant.

The machine satarted working and a rumbling sound from the inside was heard. Fiery shivvered, but it was almost over. Twilight ripped the piece of paper off the other end of the machine and carefuly examined it. She knit her brows and reported:

" No significant difference to a normal pony mind, and the insignificant difference is caused by the fact, that everypony's mind is different. There is just no explanation! "

And in that exact moment somepony knocked on the door. The two mares and the dragon froze. It knocked again, and again, and finally there was heard:

" Open in the name of Equestria! "