Harmony Divided

The sun rises. The windows light up and the ponies of Ponyville awaken. Twilight gets out of bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She looks around, still getting used to the new castle. Standing up, she walks around and makes a cup of tea to wake up even more. "Morning Twilight." Spike says walking by.

"Good morning Spike. How was your first night sleep in the new castle?"

"Same as the library, it just feels a bit more, I don't know, empty I guess." Twilight can't disagree. No books, no shelves, bigger building, it all seems like it grew overnight.

"Well, I think that-" banging comes from a window. Twilight opens the curtain and jumps back.

"Twilight! Town square, now!" Rainbow Dash flies off.

"Wait, why?! Ugh, Spike, I'll be back." She runs out of the house and into the square. Coughing and gagging, she looks up to only see a cloud of smoke. "Oh no." She sees ponies throwing water on the building. "Applejack!" She pulls her aside. "What's going on?"

"Twi', you've got to help. This building caught on fire. We thought it was cleared out but there is a filly inside screaming. RD flew in to save her but she hasn't come back out. We don't-" a crack comes from the building. Wood falls to the ground and a dusty, grey and partially burnt Rainbow Dash flies to the ground with a bundle of wood in her hooves.

"T-this isn't her?! No! Sky!" She gets in the air but is knocked back down onto the ground. The building collapses and the fire spreads across the grass. Rainbow sits there, her mouth wide open and eyes huge. Applejack runs over.

"RD, RD snap out of it! Rainbow Dash!" Applejack slaps her face. Rainbow flinches, but just barley.

"She, she's gone. She's gone and, and it's, it's all my fault."

"Rainbow now listen, I don't know what went on in there but you have to forget about it, or at least for now. Help us get this fire out and we will talk about it after." Applejack runs back over to help Big Mac.

Twilight trots over. "Rainbow, you need to get away from here. Just go and take a minute to yourself." Rainbow doesn't move. "Fine." Twilight levitates her to her own house. On the way she sees ponies with buckets of water running in the other direction, back to the fire. She puts her on the floor and Rainbow just sits there silent. "Rainbow, are you ok?"

"She, died. I failed her, I didn't save her. I could have but, but I, I didn't."

"Rainbow, please, what happened inside?" No response. "You don't need to tell me everything, just please tell me what happened in general." Rainbow takes in a slow, deep breath, then let's it out.

...

Rainbow flies into the building through a window. "Hello?!" She begins coughing and tearing up from the smoke. Flames surround the exit.

"Hello?" A quiet, small voice calls out.

"Where are you?!"

"The closet near the stairs." Rainbow walks over to a set of stairs and opens the door beneath them. Inside is a cyan-blue, red hair and tailed pegasus filly. "I'm scared, what's happening?"

"N-nothing, I'll get you out, I prom-" a pice of wood falls in between them. "Ok, ok, uh... think Dash think, ok. I'll..." She trails off, coughing and crying from smoke. "What's your name?"

"Sky falcon."

"Do you have a cutie mark?"

"Yes, it represents art and drawing."

"Alright, Sky, once we get out of here you can draw to your hearts content, okay?" She nods. "Just keep thinking of that picture, how about a nice scene with trees, and, and grass! Yeah, grass and birds." While talking, she moves wood out of the way to get to the filly. "Ok, now I need you to-" smoke is blown upwards and into her eyes. She is forced to close them. "Get in my hooves!" She closes her eyes which are now filled with tears to the point of zero visibility and are severely stinging. She feels something in her hooves after a crack. "Ok, here we go!"

"Wait!" Rainbow flies off, crashing through a wall. "No!" She crashes into the grass, coughing and wiping away her tears. She opens her hooves and wood falls onto the grass. It fell into her hooves from the roof after the crack.

"T-this isn't her?! No! Sky!" The building collapses.

...

"Sky! Sky please! Sky!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight yells near her ear. Rainbow's hearing goes for a second but returns.

"Rainbow, there was nothing you could have done. It wasn't your fault, don't blame yourself." Twilight sits across from her. "You could have died trying to save her, there is no shame in any of this."

"Except for the fact that I traded wood for a pony."

"But you tried, and that's more than anyone could have asked of you."

"You weren't there Twilight! You didn't hear her screaming as you left, and just kept going because you thought she forgot a teddy bear or something, just to find she was screaming because you forgot her!" It goes quiet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No no. It's fine, I understand. Just, please Rainbow, don't-" The door opens and Applejack walks in.

"Twi', the fire was started by a pony." Twilight slowly stands.

"Wait, what? But, how do we know for sure?" She asks.

"There is a trail of burnt grass going all the way back to the woods. At the end is a giant circle of burnt grass and dirt. A pony started this fire, and I intend to find out why. We have a murder mystery on our hands."