Flaming Ember looked out the window. With the sky turning gray as the ash rose up, he felt a tear slowly trickle down his face. What had happened to his beloved city? Why had it burned? What made it catch fire?
Those were the questions floating around in his mind as he gazed over the city below, bright red mane whipping around him, a horrible, permanent reminder of his burned down home. His black coat was dully coated with ash and dirt, but his cutie mark, a small candle-like flame, still shone brightly.
He turned around and walked away from the castle window. “What must be done? We have to do something!” he cried, stomping his hoof. The city mayor glanced at him and shrugged. “I don’t know. What can we do? The city’s burned down. Only a few ponies survived. I’m not sure if there is anything we can do to,” the mayor turned around and walked off, his fat stomach bouncing with every step.
Ember scowled. Mayor? He was nothing like a mayor. The mayor hated the city, for no other reason than simply because he had to be in charge of it. The mayor never helped anypony, and very rarely said anything to anypony besides his secretaries.
Ember bit his lip and looked at the few hundred ponies who had gotten out alive. He shook his head. There must be an explanation for this. The city could not have just caught fire; there were no trees in sight, and there was a river only a few hundred feet away. Something weird was going on. Even if it was simply an accident, Ember knew he had to find out what happened to his beloved city.
He fought his way through the crowd, not noticing two other ponies following him, and four ponies behind them. The first two were brother and sister; Forest and Lilac Feather. A gray and white pair, trotting side by side. The four ponies following them were more secretive. They were wearing black sunglasses and black vests.
Ember ran outside and quickly looked over his shoulder before trotting away down the hill, back to where the ashen city lay. What he would do once he arrived, however, had still not been decided. Ember thought about where he'd first seen the flames. It had been, surprisingly, in the direction of Town Hall. Ember's face grew grim and he broke out into a canter, shooting through burnt pieces of wood and destroyed buildings. He didn't stop until he reached the Town Square.
The Town Square used to be where everything happened. The huge fountain was always full of crystal clear water, there were little stands where ponies could sell their things; mixes of fruit, jewelery, hats, flowers, sweets, anything. There were permanent hoofprints in the paved ground from where countless numbers of ponies had walked back and forth from stand to stand. At the front of the Square lay the biggest buildings in the city: Town Hall. The Equestrian flag waved on a pole above the building, and the large wide steps were spread far out so many ponies could stand on them at the same time. The building itself was made from stone, and had many windows in it, and a balcony on the second and third floors.
Currently, however, the Town Square was a total wreck. Pieces of the fountain and stands lay all around the Square, smoke still drifting upwards towards the sky. Ember grimaced and took a cautious step forward. Then another. Here were the stairs. As his hoof was coming down, he fell onto the steps face-first.
"Forest! I told you to slow down!" a soft voice came. Ember tried to say something, but his jaw was smashed against a step. He suddenly felt a huge weight lifted off him and he leaned up. Ember turned around slowly. He saw two ponies, Lilac Feather and Forest. He knew of them, had seen them around the city a couple times, but had never talked to them. He looked at them and raised his eyebrow, asking them silently why they were there.
Forest said, "Sorry, but I didn't want him to get out of sight," to Ember he replied, "Where do you think you're going? The mayor said we weren't allowed to come back here! You're going to get us in trouble!"
Ember responded, "I don't remember inviting you guys to come along."
Lilac looked at Ember and said softly, "Well, yes, but we were also curious as to why you would want to come back anyway," her periwinkle eyes looked up at him curiously.
Ember looked at the ground, pausing to try and see if he could trust these ponies. They seemed harmless, so he looked at Lilac and said, "I want to know what started the fire. And I remembered first seeing the flames coming from behind Town Hall."
Forest's dark green eyes widened in shock. "You're not serious. That's what this is about? I'm sure it was just a small accident! Somepony left an oven on or something. It's not that big a deal, is it?" He shared a look with Lilac.
Ember shrugged. "Again, I never asked you to follow me. I'm curious, and it raises suspicions with me. Why did it start behind Town Hall? You know that mayor is a lousy pony, maybe he's up to something. I don't know about you, but I want to know why my city was burned down."
Lilac nodded. "I'd like to know as well. I do think it's strange that the city suddenly caught fire," she looked past Ember and up at the Town Hall.
Forest shook his head incredulously. "Lilac, do you hear yourself? This is crazy! There's no need to go try and figure this stuff out. Let's just leave the ones in charge do their job, alright?" Lilac shook her head.
"No, Forest. I want to know. Don't you think it's weird that nopony has checked the fire out? And the mayor definitely doesn't seem to care about trying to find out, either."
Ember's eyes grew wide. "Um guys? We have company!" the two other ponies turned around to find that Ember was correct. There were four ponies running towards them.
"HALT!" one screamed. The ponies in front of Town Hall could only stand and stare. Forest was the first to react.
"RUN!" he yelled, and the others followed him into Town Hall.
The three ponies raced through the hallways. The carpet softened their hoofbeats, which was both good and bad for them, good because the other ponies couldn't hear where they were, but bad because that meant they couldn't hear where the four ponies were either. Ember said, "Maybe we can lose them in here and then go to the back of the building while they're occupied in here," the others could only nod, trying to save as much breath as possible. Ember slowed down and came to a stop outside a door that led to the second floor. He opened the door and slammed it shut. "Come on," he whispered, and walked quickly away from the door, the other two following closely behind.
Ember led them safely to the back of the Town Hall. The three curious ponies walked outside into a small courtyard. There, they found a small tunnel in a hill, a hill that nopony had ever been told of. They looked at each other. "Now what's down here?" Ember said. They slowly made their way to the tunnel, which they saw steeped downwards into the ground. Ember had a scowl on his face, Lilac was worried, and Forest looked bored.
"I'm sure it's just a place he keeps his more secret stuff. You guys must have been reading too much adventure novels or something," ignoring Forest's comment, Lilac and Ember approached the tunnel and slowly stepped into it, Forest having no choice but to follow.
Along the walls, at intervals, there were lit torches, guiding them down into the deep depths underground. The sound of rushing water soon found its way to the ponies' ears, and they walked in the direction of the unusual sound. Lilac shuddered. "This place isn't very happy. I don't really like it."
Suddenly the tunnel flattened out and opened up into a huge room, with a large gushing river on their left side and a number of doors on their right. In the center was a small building with carts and tracks leading into another tunnel at the other end of the room. Ember trotted up to the first door and opened it. There were empty file cabinets and a clean desk, but nothing else. The same scene awaited them in the next two rooms. In the fourth room, however, there was also a bookshelf, with three lonely books on the middle shelf. Each pony picked up a book and flipped through them. They each found something hidden inside.
Ember found a set of five keys, all on a little ring. Lilac found papers that had "Part 1" written on them, and Forest found at least a dozen rolls of bits. Ember turned to Forest and said, "Yeah, this is definitely where the mayor keeps his more secret stuff."