Author's Note

No Crimson POV for this one, she'll be back though!

Chapter 5: A City On Edge

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10:24 AM

Fallen Angel and Shining Star had left the firehouse and started running away. For how long, Star wasn't sure. She just knew she had to get out of there. After a while, Angel stopped to sit down at a bench, Star doing the same after noticing.

"How far do you think we ran?" Angel asked Star. "A half mile?"

From where they were now, they couldn't see the tower. Only the smoke, now with an extra ball from the 2nd explosion, was visible. Star was visibly shaking, while Angel was lost in a daze.

"Mommy!" a young colt cried to his mother beside him, tears flowing down his face. "Is the fire coming to us?"

"No, sweetie," she replied, an obvious aura of fright in her voice, "just go back up to your father. Everything's fine."

The colt did as he was told, climbing a staircase up to a door, and going inside.

"Did you two see it?" the mare asked Angel.

"Yes, ma'am," Star replied for him. "It was right in the middle of the tower."

The mare shook her head in disbelief. "I don't understand how they're going to help the ponies up there!"

Angel had the same concern. All at the same time, emergency personnel had to climb at least 60 flights of stairs, rescue people from the building, and fight a fire that was quickly burning out of control. He knew there had to be a way for him to help.

"Let's go," he said to Star as he got up from the bench. "We have to go back."

Star looked at him in as much disbelief as the mare. "Are you insane?" she cried. "You just saw what happened, right? You don't know how many times that thing could blow. For all we know, that tower could even come down at any moment!"

"I saw what happened, Star," he replied back, "but at the same time, I have the feeling that the ponies out there need all the help they can get. You can either come with me, or sit here and hope that I'm not dead. Either way, I'm going back."

Star pondered for a moment, then finally said, "Fine," and got up. Angel gave her a hug, told her, "I love you", then began to run back towards the tower. Star reluctantly followed behind, wondering if the day could get any worse, and hoping not to know the answer soon.

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10:29 AM

Firestorm was in the restroom of the cafe, weeping harder than she ever had in her life. She didn't even need to use it. She just needed time to herself. The stress was building up inside of her, and she was hoping the situation wasn't going to get any worse. The All Hands call that she had dreaded since joining the Manehattan Police Department had just gone out over the radio. Now, almost 2,000 ponies would be suiting up in their police uniforms and fire suits and heading to the scene of what was probably the worst tragedy in Equestrian history by now. How many of them would make it back, including herself, was a question to which Firestorm didn't know, and didn't want to know the answer.

After a few minutes, she stood back up and walked out of the cafe, staring up at the burning tower. Shiny Cloud was standing beside the door, waiting on his friend & partner.

"You OK?" he asked her. "You look like you've been crying."

As Firestorm nodded, Shiny Cloud gave her a hug. As he pulled away, he told her, "I know it's bad right now, but we've got to focus on getting our job done."

Firestorm turned away, and started to walk back to her position on crowd control.

"Where ya going, Stormy?" Cloud called to her. She turned around and saw the pegasus pointing up at the building.

"I think the rescues are that way!"

Firestorm just stared at him, both shocked, and confused. He didn't mean... did he?

"While you were in there, a radio call went out," Cloud explained. "All pegasi officers have a new assignment. We've got to go up there and make as many rescues as we can. Right now, we can only take the floors with no fire, while we wait for the fires to get put out."

"Better than nothing!" Firestorm exclaimed, already on her way up. Not only was her day getting more exciting, she was going to save more lives in the process!

Cloud followed her up, and flew up beside her. "You take the roof!" he yelled to her. "I'll start in between the blast zones and work my way up!"

"Got it!" Firestorm yelled back. Cloud stopped about 70 stories up, and started looking for a broken window. Firestorm, meanwhile, put on a mask to block the smoke and flew straight to the roof, where the Brass Head was barely visible, sticking out over the top. At a corner of the roof, where almost no smoke was passing over, several ponies were at the edge, trying to get clear air. Firestorm landed behind them and pulled her mask off of her mouth.

"Hey!" she called out to them as they turned around. "Who's first?"