Thud.

Kara had landed. She had jumped from one of the highest windows in Canterlot, and therefore she should have been dead, right?

Nope. For some insane reason, she was completely unharmed. This, understandably, confused Twilight to no end.

“B- Bu- H- How?!” Twilight sputtered, running out the front door alongside her friends, after seeing Kara was fine.

“Because, Princess…” Kara leant down to look the purple pony in the eyes. “This world can’t live without me.” She chuckled. “Nah, Nate gave Mike some hydraulics upgrades. Short of falling off the moon, I can take a drop.” She straightened up, ignored the sleepy “Michael…” from her armor, span in a circle, and started off in a random direction. “What’s down this way?” She asked.

“Um, the side of Canterlot. It’s on a big platform, and if you fall off you’ve got several kilometres to go.” Twilight replied, running after her. “I was thinking of taking you to Ponyville? If you’re going to fit in anywhere, it’ll be there. Or possibly Ramsey, but since that’s on the edge of Equestria it’d take too long to get there.”

“Sure. How do we get there?” Kara asked, stopping.

“By train. Follow me.” Twilight turned, and started walking towards the train station, Kara following behind her.

A period of time later

Kara stepped off the train, the ponies close behind her. She took one look at the dark, nighttime station, promptly pulled out her sword, and lit it ablaze.

“What’s that for?!” Twilight exclaimed, having nearly been caught by the burning blade.

“Well, it’s nighttime. We need to see.” Kara replied, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

“Well, yes, but we can do this.” Twilight responded, lighting up her horn.

“Oh.” Was Kara’s only response, before she put the blade away. While it was still on fire. Surprisingly, she didn’t even seem to notice. Luckily for all around, as soon as she let go of the hilt, the gas flow halted and the flame died.

“Well,” Twilight started, “How about we go back to my castle, and we can discuss each other’s worlds there? I’m still really curious, Kara, and I suspect you are too.”

“Nah. I just wanna burn things.” Kara was met with a chorus of shocked expressions. “What?”

“Why do you want to burn things?” Twilight asked carefully.

“I may or may not have pyromania, according to Angela. By the way, do you have any fireproof rooms in your castle?”

“Okay, that makes things… complicated.” Twilight replied. “And yes, the whole castle’s made of fireproof crystal, I’m sure we can find an unused room.”

“Great! Take me there, and I’ll answer most of your questions.” Kara stated, speeding up slightly.

“All right…” Twilight responded, hanging back slightly from the not-quite-stable girl.

Another period of time later, though this one was a bit shorter

Now sitting in one of the Big Crystal Palace of Friendship’s storerooms, the ponies intently waited for Kara to start.

“All right. So, I myself only have one question.” She suddenly rounded on Twilight. “Can I call ya Moira?”

“Um… Why?”

“Because, back home, there’s a girl called Moira Brown. She’s nice. Helped her write a book. She’s impossibly curious, and very enthusiastic. I think you two would love each other.” Kara stopped for a moment. “Or you might hate each other. I dunno.” She sat down on the floor. “Well? Go ahead. Ask me questions.”

“But, aren’t you going to ask us any?” Applejack questioned.

“Nah. I suspect I can learn as much as I want about your world just by wandering it. That’s what I do, anyway.”

“All right then. Well, can ya give us some pointers? We know nothin’ about your world.” Applejack continued.

“Sure, that’s fair. War, Megaton, Purity.”

“How about Megaton? Isn’t that a unit of explosive power?” Twilight questioned.

“Yup! Very good! Megaton was a town built around an undetonated nuke.” At the ponies’ blank expressions, she clarified. “Nuclear bomb.” Now, Twilight understood. “Wait. Nuclear energy, utilized as a bomb… Just a few of those, at strategic positions, could crack the world in half…” She whispered.

“Yup. Great lead in to the War, where humanity actually did that. They blew up the world.”

“B-b-b-bb-but if the planet were broken, the grav-“

“No, no, I don’t mean they literally blew the planet apart. I mean they managed to obliterate things so well that all that’s left is a wasteland. I won’t go into any more detail than that. Megaton was built around a nuke that failed to detonate upon impact. I defused it later, but I question why anyone would be enough of an idiot to build around one in the first place.” She received varying noises of agreement from around the room.

“All right, what about Purity, darling? That sounds much better than all these horrors you’re talking about.”

“It is. In a way. Ya see, rads, radiation, got into the water. Drinking it was unsafe, but it was all anyone had. The Brotherhood of Steel-nice guys and gals, bit obsessive over their tech though-decided that they’d had enough. So, they decided to get a big water purifier called Project Purity up and running. It was a thing my dad was working on.”

“Oh, yer father?” Applejack asked.

“Dead.” The coldness with which she said that unnerved the ponies for what, the seventeenth time that day?

“I’m sorry.” Twilight said, resting a hoof on Kara’s shoulder. “What about your mother?”

“Died in childbirth.”

Suddenly, the tone of the room had gotten a lot gloomier. “Uh, how about we finish the questions for today?” Rainbow asked, her usual brashness gone. She received hushed noises of agreement, and they filed out of the room, leaving the Firestarter alone to her thoughts.

Author's Note

So. This happened.

The title, 'Burning Things', was supposed to be a pun on 'Learning Things'. I already used the Curiosity joke, I didn't have any other material. A different name would be appreciated.

OH DEAR GOD I HATE MY MOUSE WITH A BURNING PASSION

UNINTENTIONAL PUNS YAY

Also, I'm starting on a sequel. Already. Because I'm so bored I don't have anything better to do.

DELETED SCENE

I was originally going to put this in as the ending, and then I hit on the idea I used in the actual chapter. However, I did write the later chapters before finishing this one, as I had hit on some writer’s block for this, so this was going to be an explanation for how Kara knows Discord in Fluttershy’s chapter.

ANYWAY, DELETED SCENE TIME

Suddenly, there was a hearty, dark chuckle. A section of the wall peeled off, before morphing and changing color to become a strange being. It looked like a cross between a dragon, a snake, a lion, an eagle, a pony, a goat, and other strange beings. He also had a massive cannon pointed at him, one that was being carried by Kara.

“Hey! Pulling things out of hammerspace is my job! And yay! I finally get a speaking role in this story!” yelled Pinkie.

“What radioactive hole did you crawl out of?” Kara remarked to Discord, not lowering the Tesla Cannon.

“Hey! I’ll have you know, it was only mildly radioactive!” The draconeqqus replied, hovering about a metre off the ground. “Though it was certainly a hole. Took me years to get to the top.”

“Hmm…” Kara pondered this for a moment… And fired the cannon. There was a loud buzz, a blinding light, and when it faded there was a large hole in Discord’s chest. It quickly filled in with cheesecake, which then remorphed into Discord’s chest. He didn’t say anything, while the ponies stared at Kara with looks of shock. “Huh.” The lady in question stated. “I like him. Can we keep him?”