Chapter 2: I've Got You Under My Skin

The smell of something burning drifted over the nose of a certain pony sleeping happily on the couch in a certain tree house library in a certain town called Ponyville.

“Baby, I think you’re burning the pancakes,” he mumbled, before shifting slightly in his sleep, sending him tumbling over the side of the couch. “WaaaAAA!” Brass shouted, flailing his arms wildly. His brain seemed to think he was falling out of an airship, despite it being a couch a foot or two off the ground. His eyes opened with a start when his head hit the floor, and he recalled the events of last night.

Right...saved Twilight, slept on her couch. Wait, what's that smell? he thought to himself as he slowly turned his head to the source of the smell.

What met his gaze was certainly not burning pancakes, although there may have been a recipe book or two there. Instead, he was met with a burning library, walls of books set aflame by green fire.

“Oh shit. Twilight? TWILIGHT?” he shouted, running upstairs into her bedroom and stopping right beside her bad. Thankfully, she was sleeping soundly; Before she was violently shaken awake, snapping her out of her peaceful dreamland, that is.

“Twilight, you have to wake up! The library is burning!” he said to her. Her eyes instantly went wide.

“Wha-wha? The library is...what?” Twilight asked, still sleepy. Brass Cloud pointed a hoof towards the smoke curling up into her bedroom. Her eyes widened, before they rolled up and she fell down, unconscious.

“No! No! Don’t faint! Not now! Come on, we have to get out of here!” he yelled, frantically looking back at the one exit of her bedroom. Sure enough, the green flames were advancing up the staircase at an alarming rate. The steamdragon, Spike, whirred to life in a frenzy of mechanical noises, before being consumed by the fire.

“Exterminate fire...” were the last words heard before the metal began to bubble and melt onto the library floor.

Think, Brass, think! Come on! Exit...window! Yes! The window!

“Come on Twilight, we have to break the window-” he said, looking back at where she should be, before realizing she was still on the floor, eyes still open in shock. Brass groaned. “Oooh, come on, you have to make this hard for me, don’t you?” he said, grabbing her by her front legs, and extended his wings, smashing the bedside window in the process.

“Alright, what was that song? Oh, right, hop, skip, and jump!” he exclaimed before he jumped out of the window, the very end of his tail turning black as the fire consumed the entirety of her beloved library. He glided gently down to the grass, taking in the fresh air before he set her down on the grass as well. Ponies in yellow and red fire-resistant suits were lined up in front of fire carriages, blasting the library with a huge stream of cold water from hoses. Brass Cloud sat there, next to the still-sleeping Twilight, watching as the fire slowly died down from the constant torrent of water mercilessly beating down on it. As the fire subsided, Twilight began to rise from fear-induced sleep, before turning her gaze to the charred carcass of a library they had left behind.

“Huh? Is that...is that my library?” she frantically shouted, pacing everywhere. She looked like she was about to faint again, before she was stopped by a red hoof.

“Twilight, please, calm down. Last time you did that, you fainted, okay? I had to fly you out of your bedroom,” he said, placing a hoof on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

“But-but...my library, all my books, everything I ever worked on...” she said before beginning to sob uncontrollably. She buried her face in her hooves as tears flowed down her face and wet the grass beneath her.

Brass Cloud didn’t feel the same she did. Of course, it was terrible that her library was gone. He loved reading as much as the next colt, but he didn’t have the attachment Twilight did to her books. Although, it was her house. Scanning the horizon, he noticed another plume of smoke rising from across town.

“Hey, Twilight, there’s another fire over there. I’m gonna go check it out,” he said to her. He stood up and extended his wings.

“O-okay, I’m going to stay here,” she answered quietly, still crying.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll be right back,” he said as he jumped into air with a strong push of his brass wings. The direction he was going worried him. The smoke was coming from awfully close to his workshop-house. As he reached the other side of Ponyville, he was struck with horror. It was his workshop. It was burning, just like the library.

Well, at least the stuff in there is mostly metal, it shouldn’t burn too fast-

No. It hit like a brick. No, not even a brick, a brick building. No, not that. Every brick in Equestria doubled, and smashed into him. The realization caused his wings to shut and fold into his sides, sending him into a freefall. He quickly caught his balance and brought his wings out, and he touched his hooves to the ground. A single tear formed and rolled down his cheek. He remembered Twilight’s steamdragon. It melted like an ice cube in a fire after only a couple of seconds. This strange green fire was stronger than anything he’d ever seen.

No! I have to save my things! Twilight’s books may be gone, but I can still save my work!

Without thinking, he dashed into the burning workshop. Almost instantly, he was having second and third thoughts. The heat was so intense he felt like he was taking a bath in a pool of lava. The sweat was appearing on his skin and nearly instantly evaporating. Suddenly, an orange aura surrounded his body as the flames tried to consume him. Normally it would have confused him, but he was too distracted to care. Whatever it was, it was keeping him alive, even if just barely. He took a couple steps forward, before collapsing onto the ground. His back was burning, and he could feel his wings slowly melting and the scalding hot, molten brass and running down his coat. He screamed out in agony. Outside, the sound of sirens wailed through the daylight. Four or five fire carriages pulled into the front of the house, and fire ponies poured out. In ten seconds flat they had their fire hoses hooked up and were spraying down the house. Brass was dragging his burning body back towards the front door. His vision was blurring, and he was beginning to lose consciousness. A sudden jolt of pain went through his back again, this time a cold, icy pain coming from his wing mechanism. Brass Cloud’s eyes glowed white for a brief second before he blacked out from pain on the workshop floor. The last thing he saw was a red and yellow clad fire pony sprinting up to him and grabbing him by his shoulders.

****

Back at the library, Twilight had stopped crying. She was still sad, of course, but the library was gone. Her books, her friendship reports, all her work...

Oh Celestia! My basement! The chemicals, they-

Her thoughts never finished. A huge explosion shook the entire town as the library erupted into another column of smoke. Wood, metal, glass, and other things rained down from the sky. A large branch nearly struck Twilight in the back, missing her by a foot or two. She yelped and dove away as more debris rained down from the sky. She was met with the most unpleasant thing she had ever seen. The upper half of a fire pony laid in front of her, his lower half, hind legs and all, somewhere else. That didn’t matter. She took one look at the mangled, charred body and let the contents of her stomach fly free from her body. Twilight fainted a second time, as sirens once again wailed through the air.

                    ****

“Nurse Redheart, how are they doing?” a calm, regal voice asked.

“Twilight is fine, Princess. She wasn’t damaged very badly, just a concussion from being hit by some very small debris,” the white pony answered back. “The other one, however...it’s strange, Princess.”

“How so, Nurse?”

“Well...see for yourself,” Nurse Redheart answered, took a scalpel into her hoof. She cut Brass’ right side in a long, 5-inch cut.

“Nurse Redheart, what are you doing?”

“Shhh, just watch.”

“I do not think you should cutting up the-” she was cut off as the wound began to glow, and mended itself back together. “-patients...Nurse...is that what I think it is?”

“Yes Princess, we think so.”

The Princess gasped, a shocked expression on her face.

“Magic...”