As the girls galloped towards the source of the scream, another unmistakable sound started to come into hearing range.

It was the sound of fire.

The smoke rising in the distance confirmed it.

“’Won’t create too much chaos’ you said!” Rainbow spat at Twilight furiously, glaring at her as they hurried towards the pillar of smoke.

“I said ‘hopefully’!” Twilight replied in a panicked tone.

“Yeah, yeah,” was Rainbow’s only reply before she flew up to round up some rain clouds to combat the blaze.

It turned out that a single house was burning, home to a very contrasting pair of musicians. Already, the fire brigade was working to extinguish the blaze and with Rainbow’s help, it would be put out in no time.

Only one of the musicians it housed could be seen safe outside the building though.

“Tavi’s still in there!” yelled Vinyl Scratch, one of the home’s occupants.

“Ah’m on it!” Applejack yelled, charging past the fire team to kick the door down and barrelling into the burning building.

“She’s a brave one, isn’t she?” said the human from beside Twilight, making her jump.

“What did you do?!” she yelled at him angrily. “You’ve put ponies’ lives in danger!”

“Whatever do you mean, princess?” he asked, putting a hand over his chest in shock.

“You know what I mean!” she answered, scowling at him fiercely. “You set a building on fire! Somepony’s still in there!”

“Oh, I didn’t start this fire, princess,” he replied with a sly grin. She raised an accusing eyebrow. “That’s the truth. Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“He pinkie promised, Twilight!” Pinkie whispered frantically, leaning close to Twilight’s ear. “Discord knew what it meant and now so does he!”

“Okay, okay!” Twilight replied, snapping back to face the fire. “Just help us put it out!”

“Now why would I do that?” he asked innocently, staring up at the burning building amusedly.

“Because two ponies are in there and in danger!” Rarity shouted, stepping in front of the human and snarling at him. “Our friend just risked her life and she’s a normal pony! You’re a spirit of chaos, aren’t you? So use the abilities that you have as a spirit of chaos!”

“Oh, suit yourself…” he replied quietly, looking down at the ground and snapping his fingers.

A giant, upside down glass appeared over the house, which dropped down to encase the whole building and the blaze it was fuelling. Several of the fire brigade shouted some angry protests and rounded on the human.

“What is this?!” yelled one of them, approaching aggressively. “We need to get that fire out!”

“The glass will starve the fire of oxygen,” the human replied calmly. “I’m helping put it out. You should be thanking me.”

Twilight thought to herself quietly, debating the human’s logic. After a minute, her eyes darted back up to the glass and she ran forwards, horn igniting. The human popped out of existence and rematerialized in front of her to deflect the bolt of magic she fired at the glass with a hand mirror.

“What are you doing?!” she screamed. “You’ll suffocate them too! And with the fire already burning up all the oxygen, they won’t make it out!”

“And what happens when fire is supplied with a sudden burst of oxygen?” he asked, tapping her horn disapprovingly. She looked down at the ground in shame before he continued, “Exactly. It blazes over. You’d kill them both instantly. And to think you’re the smart one of the group!”

She didn’t reply. Instead, she stared up at the dying fire with growing concern. She wondered if Applejack and Octavia were safe from the fire on its own. The human smirked cruelly at the building and crossed his arms expectantly.

After a few minutes, the last fiery embers vanished and the fire was out. Twilight looked up at the human hopefully.

“Now get rid of it please!” she pleaded. “The fire’s out! We need to get them out of there!”

“Let’s make sure the fire’s out first,” he said, raising a hand at her and keeping his eyes on the imprisoned house. “Give it another minute.”

“They’ll die!” Rarity shouted, spinning back to face the human. “There’s no air left in there for them to breathe!”

“Any fire that’s in there now won’t be large enough to cause any more problems!” Twilight added, sending a bolt of lightning up at the glass. It cracked slightly. “Let them out! Please!”

“I’m just making sure,” the human replied, waving at them innocently.

“Please, just let them out,” Fluttershy whimpered, drawing the human’s attention to her.

His expression shifted from one of cruel enjoyment to one of sorrow for a moment.

“Alright…” he breathed, approaching the glass and putting a hand against it.

As soon as he did so, it shattered into tiny pieces, showering the house with sparkling shards of glass. In a second, Rainbow Dash shot into the building, followed swiftly by three members of the fire brigade.

“You’d better hope they’re okay!” Twilight yelled, marching in front of the human. “If they’re not, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” the human snarled, leaning down to glare her right in the eye. “Because last I heard, your ability to do ANYTHING about me was put back into a tree to keep Equestria safe.”

Twilight shied away from him a little, eyes darting to anything else so as not to look the human in the eye. After a moment of glaring at her, the human stood up straight again and looked back to the building.

Despite Twilight’s growing fear, Rainbow Dash and the fire brigade emerged from the building, carrying two ponies between them. Twilight, her friends and Vinyl Scratch all ran towards them, all hopeful for their friends’ wellbeing.

“Applejack, are you okay?” Pinkie Pie yelled, leaning over her unconscious friend.

Rainbow Dash held her back before explaining, “She’s okay, but the fire put her out for a while.”

Pinkie Pie sagged a little, but managed a shaky smile.

“I know a spell that can wake them up!” Twilight announced, horn lighting up to cast it.

“I think it might be a better idea to let them recover naturally, ma’am,” a member of the fire brigade explained quickly.

Her horn went out and she put on a worried expression. The human stepped forwards, met only by the fire brigade forming a line to stop him approaching.

“Whoa, back off, buddy!” one of them barked, waving him back. “You’re the reason they’re in this state!”

“No, I’m the reason they’re alive,” he snapped back, glaring at the pony who’d spoken. “Now get out of my way before I get you out of my way myself.”

“What do you want to do to them?” the fire pony asked unsurely, taking a step back.

“Wake them up,” the human said seriously, stepping past the fire brigade slowly.

A container appeared in his hand and he popped off the lid, then leaned down and waved it by Applejack’s nose. She breathed in deeply and her eyes opened suddenly.

“What the…?“ she breathed, snapping back to consciousness. “What happened? Why am I out here now?”

“You blacked out due to lack of oxygen,” the human explained, moving to the other pony to rouse her from her unconsciousness.

The other pony mimicked Applejack’s reaction to the smelling salts. As soon as she was awake, the human smirked and vanished with a puff of smoke.

“Tavi, are you alright?” Vinyl asked, pushing past the other ponies in the crowd. “You’re not hurt are you?”

“Am I alright?” Octavia repeated, staring at her roommate incredulously. “Am I ALRIGHT?! Oh, that’s rich! Coming from the pony who started it all!”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Vinyl thought of what had just been said.

“You think I started that?!” she yelled at last, scowling. “I’m not the one who was playing around with the microwave!”

“I was cooking dinner, you stupid featherbrain!” Octavia screamed, standing up straight and pushing Vinyl away. “And I’m not the one who plays with pyrotechnics in her bedroom all the time!”

“Girls, calm down!” Twilight shouted, stepping in between the two of them. “It might just have been a machine malfunctioning!”

Vinyl pushed her away and snarled at her roommate.

“I don’t do that up in my bedroom!” she shouted. “And you’ve started fires with the microwave before!”

"That were small and easily put out!" snapped Octavia loudly, stepping closer to her roommate aggressively.

There was another crack and the crowd’s attention was suddenly drawn to the recently detonated firework in the sky. The human stared up at it with morose enjoyment before turning to the crowd.

“Your attention, please!” he yelled, raising his arms to draw the crowds full attention to him. “I have something I would like to say!” He cleared his throat to project his voice better. “I may have started a fire that may have led to the fire we just witnessed!”

“You…” Twilight breathed, shaking her head disbelievingly. “B-but… you pinkie promised! You’re a liar!”

“Oh no, princess,” he said, sneering, “I never promised that I didn’t start a fire, I just promised that I hadn’t started THIS one.”

“Why?!” Rainbow Dash roared, flying up to his face with a snarl on hers. “What’s in it for you, seeing ponies’ lives being put in danger?!”

“Chaos, my dear,” the human replied calmly, smirking at her. “That’s what I was tasked with creating, and that is what I intend to create to the fullest extent.”

“You…!” Rainbow yelled, swinging a hoof back to hit him.

He vanished before she could touch him.

“It’s okay, everypony!” Twilight yelled to the crowd. “We’ve got it under control! We’ll make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone!”

“Will we?” Rainbow hissed, turning to face Twilight with no good intention. “Because last I checked, we don’t have anything to use against him!”

“Rainbow, be quiet!” Twilight whispered, trying to keep good appearances for the worrying crowd. “Do you want to scare everypony?”

“Go back about your business, ponies!” Applejack yelled, heading over to join Twilight. “We’ll sort this out before it goes too far!”

The crowd began to disperse, albeit worriedly, leaving the fire brigade to clear up their equipment and make the building safe. The girls regrouped, some of them less pleased than others, and realised that they were one short again.

“Where did Fluttershy go?” asked Pinkie Pie, looking around for her missing friend.

“I think she needs some time on her own,” Rarity supplied sadly, looking off in the direction of Fluttershy’s home. “We’ll all go and check in on her later.”

-=-=-=-=-

Not far away, Fluttershy trotted slowly through the streets of Ponyville, her face pointed at the ground. There were some tears flowing from her eyes, but she didn’t wipe them away. She just headed back to her home in grim silence.

She sniffled lightly, eyes for nothing but the ground in front of her. It was then that she realised that she wasn’t alone. Nevertheless, her gaze remained on the ground.

“Hello, Fluttershy,” said the human solemnly, breaking the silence she had put herself into.

“Hello…” she replied sadly, glancing up at him quickly.

“Are you alright?” he asked, stepping in front of her and stopping her in her tracks.

“I’m fine…” she whispered, contradicting herself with how she’d said it.

“No, you’re not,” he said, slowly crouching down to her level. He put a hand on her cheek before continuing. “I know you’re upset, but I just want to know if I can do anything to help you.”

“Why do you want to help me?” she sobbed, moving her face away from his hand.

“Because you’re the closest thing to friend I have right now,” he replied sincerely.

She looked at him in puzzlement before asking, “You think of me as a friend?”

“You were Discord’s closest friend,” he explained. “Seeing as I have Discord inside my head, I feel an obligation to become your friend myself. I know you don’t want Discord to go, but he’ll have to soon.”

Fluttershy whimpered and looked down at the ground again. He squeezed her chin gently and brought her head back up to look at him.

“I really am sorry about this, Fluttershy,” he said gravely, a single tear dripping from his eye. “If it makes you feel any better, you weren’t the only one who lost something in all this.”

“Why would that make me feel better?” she cried, dropping onto her haunches. “Nopony should have lost anything…”

“Some of us had to lose something, Fluttershy,” he replied seriously, stepping closer to hug her warmly. “If we hadn’t lost something, everyone would’ve had to lose everything.”

Fluttershy sobbed into his shoulder and wrapped her hooves around him.

“I d-don’t like losing f-friends…” she wept, holding him tightly.

“He’s not lost,” he replied, pulling away to look her in the eye. “Not if you hold onto him.” He touched her chest. “In here.”

“Th-thank you…” she whimpered, pulling him back into a hug again.

It lasted a minute before she pulled away from him and sniffled again.

“Now,” he said, standing up straight, “dry those tears and we’ll take you home.”

He snapped his fingers and a handkerchief appeared in his hand, which he offered to her. She took it to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. When she was done, the human took it back from her and it turned into bubbles in his hand.

They set off towards Fluttershy’s home, neither of them saying another word.

Author's Note

This chapter was written in three hours so sorry if it's badly written