Chapter 1: Blazing Away

Living in the city was alright, Blaze Burn guessed, though he felt like he wasn’t really living up to his full potential in his current situation. Not really.

He spent nearly all of his time sitting around at home, while his mother went out and did whatever it was that she had to do to keep them alive. He was stuck inside more than he cared to admit, but he knew that it could have been worse: they were breathing, for starters. So many ponies living in the capital were suffering because of the recent war with that demon, Discord, that he knew that he was lucky just being the position he was in. That knowledge still didn’t help him feel any better.

He had always felt like he was missing something: something that would show him his path in life, something that would earn him his cutie mark. Sitting there on the dilapidated couch that he and his mother had salvaged from a ruined building nearby, he stared at his snowy white coat, fluttering his wings and shifting in place to get a better view of his blank flank.

He had heard his mother whisper to herself on some nights about how he was reaching ‘that’ age and how she was worried he would be a late bloomer, or something like that. If only he knew what some of those words meant.

Still, even if his destiny remained clouded, he could still think of what he might do, and so he flopped over onto his back and stared at the crumbling ceiling, the flickering light of their sole candle serving insufficient lighting for the main living room. He got a strand of his mane in his eyes, getting him to pry it out with a hoof and glare at the stuff. He wondered just why he had this mane: it was red at the base, but slowly faded into white once it reached the tips. His mothers was a solid blue, much like he had heard Princess Luna’s to be. Though it was rumored that hers was similar to the night sky, complete with sparkling stars and constellations.

He doubted that, but it was fun to think about.

It was another starving night for him: mother hadn’t pulled enough money at work to pay off the roaming gangs that terrorized the neighborhood and to buy enough food for the week. Just like things had been for as long as he could remember, and likely how things would be for a long while. . .

The night passed into morning easily enough, and he always enjoyed the little time-skip that sleep offered, as inconsistent as his dreams were. And now for another day of doing whatever he really could.

He hopped off the couch with an exhausted smile, his normal face, and trotted into the ruined kitchen, though it was basically a glorified storage room, though there wasn’t really anything stored in there. What he found surprising was that the thing it did happen to contain now was his mother, looking considerably more tired than usual. Her ears perked up at his hoofsteps on the worn wooden planks, and she lifted her head off the table she sat at, her baggy eyes turning to him with what he thought to be surprise and happiness.

“Morning mom!” he chirped as he trotted over to the dried water basin, where he found the large glass bottle of purified water they had. He drank from it greedily, only returning it to its home when he had had his fill, and then he noticed that something seemed off with his mother. He turned to her, seeing her expression dripping to the usual weariness.

“Blaze Burn, sweetie. . . I don’t really know how to explain this to you, but you’re going to get a little sibling.” she sighed, and her pearly head lowered to the table as she began to rub a hoof over her stomach. He cocked his head to the side, not entirely believing that she was going to get him either a brother or sister.. That confusion was soon replaced by the excitement of soon having a new friend to play with, and a large grin broke out on his face. He darted forward and slammed into her side, trapping one of her wings under his grip and nearly throwing her off balance. He thanked her repeatedly for the gift he needed to relieve his boredom, but it came out as muffled noises loosely coming from his muzzle buried in her coat. “Yes, Blaze Burn, you’re going to have a sibling to take care of. But that means that you’re also going to have to help me watch over them, and you’re going to have to act more responsibly if they are going to be happy here.”

“I won’t let you down.” he stepped back and stood up straight and raised a hoof to his head in a strange mockery of a salute. “I’ll be the best big brother ever!”

He immediately set about trying to become an adult, and his first goals were going to be at a reasonable time, though his mother always seemed to leave for her nightly duties before he could pass out. He also tried to get a better, more adult-like attitude, but he was smart enough to know that he wasn’t really fooling anypony.

And so, that summer was probably the worst, best, most exciting, and most boring summer he figured he was likely ever going to have. The city celebrated the Summer Sun festival, though he wasn’t allowed to go, and his mother finally managed to return with a bunch of food, which made him think it was a perfect day. Then the days began to shorten, they began to cool, and his mother’s belly expanded tremendously, which made him start to question just where foals were supposed to come from: was she supposed to go to the Princesses and get one? Did she receive it from a bird? Did somepony deliver it? When he asked her the question, she simply looked down at her stomach, and sort of chuckled to herself.

“No, Blaze Burn. I’m growing the foal, and when it’s time for him or her to arrive, I’ll call over some of my friends, and we’ll do parenting things in my room. You’ll understand when you’re older.” he didn’t like that answer.

“But you want me to become a responsible pony, so isn’t this something that I should know if I want to be one?” she looked genuinely horrified at him for all of about three seconds, then she inhaled deeply and took a second to compose herself. Once she was ready, though it looked to him that she was simply done with this conversation, she opened her eyes and gave him a stern glare. Stern. . . but he could see the humor in her sparkling blue eyes.

“Nope. This isn’t something you need to know about for a very long time, sweetie.” and with that, she shooed him off, and his daily rituals were taken with greater enthusiasm than before. He was going to show her, show them all, that he was capable, he was responsible, and that he was the best pony to be a big brother. Ever.

The Everfree may have been an evil forest, but at least it followed the ponies’ weather cycles, most of the time, and when fall came, he could just barely make out the reddening leaves peeking over the crumbling city walls. He would go for quick flights around the block, or take a short run to the park and play with the very few foals, those were his cheat days, as his mother liked to call them. And as the time passed, his mother’s belly became absurdly large, leaving him overwhelmingly curious about what was happening.

Mother left one night for one reason or another, which he had found strange, as she had taken a break from work about three months prior. He wanted to ask her where she was going, but he was hesitant to break her rules about asking where she went at night: one of two rules she was absolutely adamant about enforcing.

That night, he tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but his stomach just wasn’t settling, and his mind was unusually active. He laid there, staring at the ceiling while his brain thought of everything that he was going to do with his new little brother or sister: teaching them all about flying, and playing games like tag and Red Rover. Maybe he would even earn his cutie mark in the process, and it would hopefully be something about flying.

He really hoped this new sibling would learn to fly quickly, so they could go out more often: the city was still dangerous, but he was starting to be able to go further and further from home. Last week, he had gone three whole blocks away to play with a group of teenagers!

His mind steadily returned to the things that he had hoped would come for his cutie mark, that special symbol that would appear on his flank, telling him what his true special talent would be. He had spent way too much time imagining what it would be, all the things it could be: from amazing stunts in the air, to being just an amazing pony. . . the possibilities were endless! He almost always seemed to come back to flying, as if something in his body was just screaming that he’d be airborne for a lot of his life, and that he’d likely get a cutie mark for being the best pegasus ever.

However, his mother came home that next morning, where he’d been completely unable to sleep with his troubled thoughts. And any dreams he had built up in those twilight hours had been crushed the moment he saw his new little brother, whom his mother had named Star Burn. He knew he’d do anything to protect him. When that tiny little bundle of joy was brought to him, all wrapped up and cozy in a blanket, he had a surge of resolve in his new dream: he would be his brother’s protector.

He would become Star Burn’s ultimate pegasus, a winged guardian.

Time seemed to both creep by, and soar passed them with frightening speed. In what felt like mere moments, that tiny, royal blue bundle of a pegasus that was Star grew rapidly, and had proven to take the extremes of Blaze’s dreams, flying the day after he was brought home, and never stopping to land. . . ever. It was the most exhausting thing ever. But Star was growing, he was learning, and he was becoming more than anything Blaze could ever hope for in a little brother. His relationship with his mother may have been rough, but the snowy pegasus felt it in the depths of his very being that this blue colt was all that he could ever need to love. He took to caring for the foal all day, and helped his mother at night when she got home, having returned to work immediately after bringing Star home.

It was during those long days and sleepless nights that he had started to formulate various ideas, accumulating dreams and hopes, and turning them towards how he would further protect Star, and how he could become the best big brother ever.

The city was built in the center of the Everfree, though the massive glade they were in was shrinking with every passing year. They had walls, but the entire city was crumbling: it was in ruins as a result of the war with Discord. The Castle of the Two Sisters had remained relatively untouched, as a result of the alicorns’ powerful magic, but everywhere else seemed to be collapsing under the needs of everypony’s needs. Discord may have been encased in stone, any more chaotic magic he might be capable of spreading may have ceased, but the damage was already done, and his magic had still destroyed so much of Equestria’s prosperous land.

This created a slight problem if he wanted to steal Star away for a better life: there were simply too few opportunities for him to get anywhere outside of the city. That forest was corrupted beyond containment.

Their mother barely managed to get by, and he could tell that Star wasn’t eating enough, even though he made sure to give the foal extra food, and mother had nursed him every night. The household basically consisted of the two colts, as their mother was gone so much working to make ends meet, and with the extra mouth to feed, she had started to work overnight completely, though it wasn’t everyday.

But Blaze was a determined pony, even if he was young and wildly inexperienced. He had made up his mind, and was going to run away with Star, so he just had to come up with some way of providing for the two of them. He couldn’t burden his mother anymore than they already were, and he knew that Star needed to live someplace better.

The more he thought about his situation, the more he found himself coming to the same conclusion: even if the rest of the country was totally collapsing around them, the Castle was still very sturdy, and was still a beacon of survival for the ponies. He knew that that structure had to have survived far worse events than just this most recent war, and he figured that it was likely to survive many more. With two Princesses reigning from within, it was going to be well off, stocked with excessive resources to cater to their every whim. . . food that would have been considered luxury down in the city. Food that could be passed around to the sick, the homeless, the starving, and the Princesses would have never even known it was gone.

Nobles and Royals always had plenty of food, right?

He knew his mother wouldn’t stand to see him steal from the castle, and if the current condition of the city was anything to go off of, he knew that the Princesses weren't going to just give out free food to anypony that asked. His plan was forming slowly.

All he needed to figure out was a way to get the two of them to survive long enough for him to force the Princesses to share the spoils of leading a country with the needy. But that was just the first roadblock he had encountered as he contemplated his options, which was soon joined by others. The days roiled on as he thought more and more about what he could do, and he just kept finding himself back at the Castle. . . and the problems he knew he would have to address.

Even if he had managed to find a way to keep both him and Star alive while he worked out a way to break into the obviously fortified structure, he had no idea of how he would go about sneaking to the kitchens and storerooms and then actually stealing from the Princesses. He had no idea how those things were supposed to work.

Still, if he just sat around and waited, he would become a failure, and there was just no way he could allow himself to fail at the only important thing he had ever been trusted with. He spent less than a week trying to convince himself out of it, trying to find any other solution that he could confidently pull off, but the answers seemed to elude him, and his determination to give his brother a fighting chance for a better life than what he’d been experiencing won against his hesitation.

Mid-day, in the middle of autumn, he darted from the kitchen, his heart and head finally coming into agreement that this was the necessary course of action. He entered the minuscule living room, decorated by the battered and weathered couch that he and Star had called their bed, and the torn and faded rug that was the best thing in this forsaken house. He looked around the room he stood in: how the walls were about ready to fall off the frame, how the foundation seemed to be crumbling into a pit of sand, how the walls themselves were giving under the relentless assault of the elements. He gritted his teeth that he had welcomed this as his home, and he dreamed of the day that he could give Star his own small castle to live in. Not some crumbling outhouse whose roof was leaking in at least a dozen places, and was the home to not only ponies, but a score of various different species of insects. He yearned for the day that Star would be able to wake up in his own bed, a real bed, and look around his own room, with his own door, and his own wardrobe. He would make that happen, somehow, he had to.

He glanced over at the couch, where Star was wrapped in his star-splattered blanket and snoring softly. He stopped for just another second to look lovingly at his little brother, and to let that seed of hope take root in his heart that things would be better. When he was happy, he turned and silently crept backwards until he was at the base of the stairs, well a set of steps that took him up to what might be considered the first-and-a-half story, which was home to his mother’s room, the only bedroom in the building.

He wondered how this place had ever been normal for him, how he had accepted it.

He trotted into her room, grateful that she had gone off to work early today, and walked over to her closet. He was looking for one thing and one thing only, so he rifled through the old rags and heaps of clothes that she had worn, clothes that reeked of scents he hadn’t a clue to the identity of. Then he found it: a dusty, ragged but sturdy knapsack that he’d used one summer to gather wildflowers in.

Smiling briefly at the memory, he bit down on the straps and tugged it out of the mess of fabrics, then dumped the crumbling bits that were left to fade to dust inside. He patted the remaining dust out then spun on his hooves and trotted down the five steps and back into the living room.

He trotted over to the couch and grabbed what few possessions the two of them owned, which basically consisted of two ragged winter jackets, some boots that barely fit, and his blanket. He shoved them all into the sack, then had to frown at the lack of things they had a claim to, and finally pulled the flap back over the knapsack, tying down the only things that they held onto in order to survive. He pulled the sack along as he worked his way to the tiny kitchen, hoping to find some kind of food that they’d have for the first day or two while they were gone. He just needed something to hold them over, as he wasn’t going to let Star starve, not when he was still just a growing colt.

He scavenged along the empty cupboards, his frustration growing with each successive barren pocket. He had to force it down before he started slamming things around to vent.

Then he found a sliver of hope tucked away in the last cupboard: a chunk of cheese wrapped in crispy paper, stacked on top of what was probably the last loaf of bread they had. He scooped the food up and moved it to the table, where he set about reorganizing the pack so the sparse food they were going to have with them wouldn’t get crushed.

Feeling his emotions rising, the tension in his guy clamping down with enough force to momentarily diffuse his lingering hunger, he rose from his seat and stepped over to the wall. There was a resounding thump when his skull connected with the dull wood, and he started to struggle to hold back the tears. “Oh Princesses, why do we suffer so? Why must life be such a struggle, such a constant fight for survival?”

He understood that the two Sisters were trying to fix the situation the entire country had fallen into, but there was still only so much progress that had been made, even in their own city! He knew that some things were already going to start improving, but all he had known was a city crumbling in on itself, and all he had ever seen were the struggles of the impoverished fighting over scraps. He could see that some had taken to the state of the country better than others: his mother worked by selling herself out, as he had learned. He’d had the misfortune of finding out that she worked in the surprisingly thriving sex industry, though she wasn’t at all living the glamorous lifestyle.

No, that privilege went to the rich, and to the royal, who had all the luxury and wealth, who desperately clung to their freedom from oppression.

He had to pound his head on the wall again to stop the errant thoughts. He didn’t need the added anger of the life fate had deemed him deserving of living, and directing those emotions to the better-off wasn’t going to solve any of his problems: he had to act if he wanted to go anywhere in life. And more importantly: he had to act if he wanted better for Star.

“Brother?” the voice resonated around him lightly, and he whipped back from the wall just in time to see that very same blue pegasus floating into the kitchen. He must have been more out of control than he thought.

He stared in fear as Star landed before him and began to wipe the sleep from his eyes, then he finally took control of his body and jumped forward, pulling the source of all his happiness in for a big hug. Star happily returned it, even patting his on the back, though the colt’s eyes wandered curiously around the room. “Are you going somewhere?”

Blaze realized that the knapsack was in plain view for the colt, so he let him go, looking down at the ground so he could gather his thoughts over what he wanted to say. He patted Star’s head lightly, then stood up and grabbed the sack off the table, slinging it over his shoulder and returning to his place before the tiny colt. “Well, yes, but actually no. What I mean to say is that we are going somewhere, and I was just making sure we had everything we needed.”

“We’re going somewhere? Where are we going?” Star looked at him with open, vibrant blue eyes that held nothing back: no emotion was filtered, not the wonder, not the excitement, not even the touch of worry. It was that last emotion that Blaze saw which made his ears fall flat against his head, and he looked out the cracked window, hoping to find a clear answer in the clear blue skies.

“Well, we’re going to go and leave this place behind, and we’re going to try to find someplace better. . . we’re going on a bit of an adventure.”

“Why do we have to leave?”

“So you can get big and strong, and so mom doesn’t have to worry about us. We need to go our own way.” he felt the weight of the decision hit him as if the house had collapsed on top of him, but he just barely managed to hold up his shoulders and keep himself from loosing his cool when he needed to show Star that he was strong. Weakness could not be tolerated, for that happy little colt’s sake, if not his own. “Mom isn’t able to feed the three of us, and you need all the food you can get, and the more sun you get, the stronger you’ll grow up to be.”

All the sleep that had stuck in Star’s eyes vanished at the promise to grow up big and strong, and he now beamed with excitement. “I want to be big and strong! Just like you!”

“And you will, I promise. But we have to leave sooner rather than later, and get this adventure going, or else we’re going to be stuck inside again, and have no way of exploring the world!” he smiled at his brother’s enthusiasm, and started leading him through to the living room. “Now grab you’re blankie and I’ll hold onto it so you don’t drag it on the ground and get it all dirty, and then we’ll be all ready to leave.”

Star beamed and bolted over to the couch, snatching his blanket and bolting back to him, offering the battered blue fabric with a innocent smile. The blanket was tucked around the pack as well as they could get it. “Should we leave mommy a note?”

“Already thought of that.” Blaze replied with a very fake smile, though he was grateful that Star took the smile at face value and nodded as he trotted to the door. He really hated that he would have to lie to Star, but the thought of breaking his heart to know that they were sneaking around behind their mother’s back would have been too much to handle. He was hoping that he could manage to get Star to trust that he was doing what was best for the two of them, and that he would become the provider so their mother would slowly fade away. He knew it sounded rough, heartless, and cruel, but he was banking heavily on the future pain of this to fade before the damage was done, or at least until Star was old enough to come to his own conclusion when he was old enough.

He stumbled after the energetic colt, finding the persistent weight of the knapsack already making itself known. The least he could do was to pull through, and the two pegasi slipped into the streets, leaving the house under the sole care of their mother, who he was trying desperately to put out of his mind. He could not afford to let any of those thoughts ruin everything he had been preparing for.

They stepped into the dirty streets, leaving behind the last remnants of what might have been considered their world of innocence, and began their blind adventure into the unknown.

The blindingly bright sun blinded their eyes for a second, and they stood there until their vision had adjusted. When they felt ready, the two took to the air, and even though he was weighted down by the sack between his wings, they stayed airborne enough to flutter above the cobblestone streets below. They steadily passed the only regions that Blaze had ever known, entering unknown territories in a city that felt uninhabited most of the time. Many of the streets they had flown over would have been considered busy if two ponies could see each other. The sun was reaching its zenith, with warm rays shining through the shambled cracks in the roofs of the standing buildings, while sharp shadows contrasted along the seams and pillars of the collapsed ones.

They pushed further through the city, welcoming an old friend of theirs that was exhaustion, following the battered and weathered trails that managed to snake between the crumbling ruins. Half an hour of arduous travel passed before they found any signs of significant life, as ponies started to gather in greater numbers, and it had become apparent that they were closing in on the parts of the city that had been used much more frequently.

Then the sounds of a living city began to carry through the patchwork of buildings that were steadily becoming more dense and inhabitable. They were closing in on the parts of the city that had yet to succumb to strife, and their excitement was returning from ragged restlessness. They had passed a few buildings that might have suited their purposes, but Star wasn’t really satisfied with the options they had come across. It was the housing district, after all, and that was the region that had suffered the most, so they had chosen to push forward.

With the hustle and bustle of city life making itself very well known, as the sounds of bartering ponies and creaking wagons filled the air, they landed and continued by hoof.

Setting his eyes on the largest street in the entire city, filled with ponies of every size and color, moving around and going about their lives was something that burned into his memory. It was something truly unique for both the brothers: so many ponies all gathered in one place, all talking relatively peacefully, where they weren’t trying to hurt one another. It was something special, they were sure.

Still, Blaze knew that they had a mission, and he wasn’t about to wait around just because there was something interesting before them: they would have more than enough time to check out this place once they had found somewhere to settle. So they crossed the street, not a single pony paying any mind to the two colts traveling around the city alone, obviously taking their few precious belongings with them as they traveled.

He considered it something of a blessing that nopony seemed to pay them any mind: it made moving around significantly easier than he was anticipating.

They crossed with ease, though they had stayed on the ground for Star’s sake, and had slipped into one of the smaller streets jutting off from the main thoroughfare. The moment they passed into the secondary corridor, the sounds of the bustling marketplace became muted, and the walls felt like they were closing in around them. This was someplace that wasn’t friendly to foals, but they had no choice.

They pushed onward.

Whatever place they were in, it had a much smaller number of ponies walking around, even though the central street was still so close. And the ponies that they did come across almost seemed to be worse off than the other side, as if the housing district really wasn’t that bad. The air smelled of smoke and ash, and as they trotted along, their wings far too tired to try flying again, it became clear that nopony was meant to live here.

At a whole hour of travel, they finally reached a building that looked to be intact enough to consider living in. And while Star wasn’t thrilled about the option, he wasn’t willing to complain anymore, not after the distance he felt like he had covered.

Blaze had him wait by the side, and he approached the very large warehouse, cautiously stepping up to the heavy, rusted metal doorway. The sheer size of the building daunted him a little, though the small stream of scented smoke drifting from any of the openings told him that this was no factory or normal warehouse. This was a community of ponies living in the refuge of a building that had been either abandoned or forgotten, and that was more than enough for him to consider it. When he was sure that there was no chance that something would happen to his brother, he pulled the door open a touch, and instantly felt surprised at the ease in which he had been able to do so. He stole a peek inside the shelter to get an idea of what he was dealing with.

And a peek was all he needed, as the full force of the sight of an adults-only shelter slammed into his eyes, whipping his head back as he shut the door behind him. He dashed back to Star and hurried him along, clearing passed the building and down a street to get away from that place. “We can’t stay there.”

“Why not?” Star asked, suddenly sounded very tired. Blaze stared onward as he led his brother down the street, until they came across a much smaller market, this one occupied by only a small selection of stalls selling various wares meant for either survivors or industrialists.

“Because. . . it’s. . .” he stopped so he could collect his thoughts, and he let his eyes drift around them: he needed some kind of excuse that would both satisfy his brother’s curiosity, and protect him from the absolute horrors he had just witnessed. Things that no colt should ever have to see. He eventually came up with an idea that he really hoped would be good enough: “. . . otherwise occupied.”

Star looked off-put by the answer, but he seemed to accept that it was what it was, and he resigned himself to even more trudging through the dirtied streets. They passed a few more potential shelters, though each one failed in one way or another: the next had a giant hole blown out of the back, while the third had rusted and dangerous metal parts scattered haphazardly. The fourth they had come across had been ‘occupied’ by more adults, though it lacked any of the funny scents or radiating warmth. The sun had dipped behind the cover of the tops of the tallest standing structures when the brothers decided to take a break, flopping onto the side of the road in exhausted heaps.

“This isn’t fun, brother.” Star complained, rolling onto his back and staring at the skies as he did what he could to stay awake. Blaze desperately wanted to mimic him, but his senses were feeling twitchy at the strange, and potentially dangerous environment they found themselves in: he wasn’t going to take any chances.

Of course, he was just too damned tired to care about anything other than the fact that Star was now homeless, and they were likely not going to make it passed the first night on their own. He had taken them away from the only shelter they had known, the only safety that they had been promised was guaranteed, and it was all his fault.

“I know, and I’m so, so sorry, Star.” he picked himself up off the cobblestone and scanned their surroundings, wondering just how many of the standing structures they were now facing were possible shelters. They had finally come across a section of this industrial district that had some decent-sized buildings that looked just run-down enough to have been neglected and abandoned. He lifted Star back onto his hooves and wiped the dust and grit out of his mane, offering him a reassuring smile. “Just a little bit more, okay. I think we’re almost at our new home: I can feel it.”

They tried each of the metal doors to the large buildings, finding many of the warehouses to still be in operation, and locked. But the few that weren’t didn’t offer that much in terms of survivable shelters, so they carried on down yet another side street, pulling away from any of the noise of the markets, and through a part of town occupied entirely by working ponies.

They turned to the next warehouse, one sandwiched between two collapsed buildings, and stepped up to the door: it was different than the others, in that the sheet metal door had been crushed shut by some fallen masonry from one of the neighboring structures. The door they had the option of going to was a tiny wooden door. . . well, tiny when compared to the usual doors. He looked to Star, then put his hoof to the door handle and opened it enough to peek through. Much to his relief, the second he pushed his muzzle through the door, he hadn’t had to snap his had back out. There were no dangerous materials just lying around, and the large space was still enclosed, if a little dirty. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

After many heartless attempts to find a safe-haven, and with so many failures, he had reason to feel hope.

He pushed the old, burnt door even more, and stepped through the portal, entering the spacious room that was empty of whatever had been stored before the ancient, great war. He stepped through hesitantly, unsure about just what dangers he might possibly find, but ultimately he had to know what lay within.

The first thing he noticed was the huddled ponies all curled against each other in the center of the room, all staring at him with exhausted, terrified looks. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi all clumped together as if they were a litter of newborn puppies, staring at him like he was some kind of strange animal they’d never seen before. He eyed them cautiously, though he stopped right at the doorway, taking in the rest of the building in his peripherals: the roof was shoddy and crumbling a bit from that war with the demon Discord, but at least it was intact. The four walls looked like they were built out of ancient, cracked stone, but didn’t let any light in, which meant that they might be whole enough to brave the elements.

The floor may have been made out of stone, but he wasn’t sure: it was so covered in filth that it could have been a pile of trash and he couldn’t have told the difference. He wasn’t about to test it with those ponies staring at him, as he wasn’t sure how they would have reacted to him just waltzing in on their home, though it didn’t really look like they were doing much of anything. Flanking the herd were four pillars jutting out of the filth and bearing the full responsibility of holding up the ceiling, their steel exterior coated in ash and dust, but otherwise appearing unharmed. He was just barely able to make out the lines running between the pillars, as if the group had attempted to set up some dividing walls by hanging fabrics from the lines, but didn’t have the materials to finish them.

He took the moment to get a better look at the ponies, his attention focusing on the individuals: though each pony looked to be at different stages of health, he noted that they were all following the same path. . . slipping away. The small herd of ponies produced an aura of utter deterioration, an effect he figured came from the cloak of death slowly wrapping around them. They were all obviously starving, as he could see ribs from across the large room, even showing through the little scraps of clothing a few of them wore.

Their manes and tails looked drier than straw, while he could feel the coarseness of their coats from where he stood, and on some of the ponies, he thought he saw patches where the fur was coming clean off. His first thought after the shock had cleared was that these ponies could not have been alive: he just knew that they were undead, until one of the ponies rose from her spot in the mix with a weathered frown on her muzzle.

The mare was a very dusty purple unicorn, her deep violet mane looked disingenuous, and her dull violet eyes bore into him with greater force than he thought possible. She may have appeared weathered and terrified, but as she approached, her stride grew more confident and purposeful until she stopped right before him, towering over him and reminding him of just how young and small he was. Draped over her back was a tattered garment that might have passed as a coat or dress maybe a year earlier, which only conflicted with the reserve of strength she had gathered to approach them.

She stared at him in silence until he shuffled in place.

“Excuse me, miss. . .” he shuffled around even more nervously as her unwavering gaze penetrated his very being, and he had trouble looking directly at her. “is there a couple of open spots here?”

She stared at him for another minute, then her gaze seemed to soften for a second, dropping all its edge the moment Star shuffled in and stood beside his older brother. Her stern, aggressively concerned expression fell into a look of complete sadness, and her eyes drifted between the two brothers for a few more seconds, emotions flying around in those hopeless purple orbs. “And why would two extremely young pegasi need a couple of open spots in a dump like this?”

He got the feeling that she knew the answer, but Blaze wasn’t about to lose the only option they had left: sleeping in the streets was a horrible idea. That much his mother had drilled into him. “Our. . . we need somewhere to rest our heads for the night. It’s getting late, and my brother needs to sleep.”

He pulled his brother in closer, hating that things had even come to this, but he desperately hoped that appealing to whatever honor and compassion this mare had left would garner them enough sympathy to get those spots.

“Oh, dear Princesses.” the mare sighed, her expression falling even deeper into sadness and depression. The depths of emotion in her gaze hit the brothers full force when she finally managed to lift her eyes to look at them. “More victims to this heartless world? Well then, I guess you might as well follow me: you’ll find that this place has just the things you are looking for, and more than you ever even wanted. I think we might have spare spaces for two lonely brothers.”

She turned around and led the brothers back to the group, who had lost most of their terrified expressions, though the vast majority of them had opted to continue staring suspiciously at them. He couldn’t blame them, not after seeing the kinds of places that this side of the city had to offer.

She didn’t lead the pair directly to the huddled ponies, but skirted around them and took the pair back to the furthest steel beam. She motioned to the general area and left them to get settled, worming her way back into the group, who huddled around here closer.

“Okay. . .” Blaze watched as the ponies all began to whisper back and forth, then he grew tired of that and turned to Star who was already looking comfortable sitting against the cold steel pillar. He shrugged to himself and walked over to his brother, agreeing with himself that he could deal with them in the morning. At the moment, his greatest concern was making sure they were safe, and the sooner Star was settled and asleep, the sooner he could get a more permanent plan set in motion.

The four pillars seemed to act like a boundary, as the herd of ponies pulled out tiny candles around them, making a small pocket of light as the ring of shadows slowly slipped from the darkest corners. He didn’t really mind the darkness, and he thought that it would offer the pair of them at least some measure of privacy through the night. He was still cautious of what might come to pass, but at least they were indoors, and had a group of equally lost ponies between them and the entrance.

Sitting down next to Star, he shifted his shoulders and let their knapsack fall to the ground, nearly falling down in the process. “Come on: let’s get you ready to go to bed, okay?”

Star smiled at him, though his eyes were dropping lower with every passing second. The smaller colt lazily nodded and tried to push himself forward to grab his blanket, resulting in him tipping forward, then collapsing in exhaustion beside Blaze. Chuckling to himself, as he understood the feeling all too well, Blaze just pried the blanket free and draped it over his brother, wondering how long they were going to have to sleep on the floor. He figured that as long as Star was comfortable, that it didn’t really matter, so he pulled the blanket up and slid under it, slipping his wing over his brother and pulling him in. He found himself asleep soon enough, even through the unfavorable conditions they were now entrenched in.

The blackness of night was suffocating everything under the overcast sky, where not even the moon was able to cast light to the streets below, when Blaze snapped awake. ‘What was that?’

He tried to peer around the room, but he saw nothing in the room devoid of light, so he switched all his attention to listening for anything. Silence dampened around him, and Star’s gentle breathing was barely reaching his ears, even as he strained. A minute passed, his chest locked tightly and his breathing coming in tense spurts as he tried to find the culprit that roused him.

Nothing.

‘Must have been my imagination.’ he thought to himself. He tried to let his muscles relax, to get his breathing back to normal, but he just couldn’t shake this trumpeting sense of urgency. He had managed to relax his ears, but his chest remained locked and alert. In an alley near the warehouse, a cat loudly meowed, briefly breaking the silence, but even that sparse audible life was snuffed out by the dominating sleep of the city. Adrenaline finally started to flow through his limbs, and he could feel himself getting restless, so he delicately pulled himself free from the blanket and left Star to blissful sleep. Even though he was blinded, every other sense was doing their best to make up the difference: he finally started to make out the cacophony of breathing coming from the slumbering herd of ponies, now encircled by dead candles. He could smell the charred wood from fires long past, overlaid by the heavy musk of ponies that had been stuck inside a building for untold days, weeks, or even months. He could feel the blood pulsing through his limbs with every step, with every beat of his quickening heart. He could taste the drifting dust, disturbed by some unseen force that he just knew was watching him.

Through a silent creep, he snuck to the door, using his experience sneaking around the house to aid his adventure. He needed fresh air, but he wasn’t going to ruin the sleep of his most gracious hosts, and when he was at the door, a subtle glimmer of moonlight filtered through the cracks. His vision so adjusted to the dark, it was nearly blinding, and he cast a final glance to the ponies huddled together in the middle, their shady silhouettes just barely splitting from the black background.

Content that he hadn’t disturbed them, he slipped out into the desolate streets.

The light shift left him blinking for a few seconds, until he was able to see clearly: the warehouses around him had taken a severely increased intimidating appearance without the light from the sun to illuminate them. He stared at the surroundings for a few seconds, breathing deeply and trying to get his breathing under control.

He couldn’t see anything, there wasn’t anypony anywhere near him: he was alone. . . so why did he still feel like something was watching him? He swept his gaze up and down the street, trying to reassure himself that they were barren, even checking the rooftops everywhere he could see. There wasn’t a soul around at this time: it was later than he thought, and the moon was just a light gray disk behind the clouds, steadily dipping towards the western horizon. He was definitely alone, and the watchful feelings refused to leave.

Shaking himself, he forced down the wary shivers and spread his wings, hoping that getting in the air would be better for him, until a new breeze washed over him.

It carried the faintest of scents, and he would have almost called it a natural breeze, with the brief hints of the crumbled and ruined city, and the forest around said city. Almost. He lifted his head and inhaled deeply, trying to pinpoint the specific scent that was out of place among the usual regulars. Whatever it was, it roared at the back of his head, trying to surface some memory that he had likely shoved into remission, and it was slowly driving him crazy to figure it out. Then the winds shifted, and moved around some building that had blocked them, and the scents intensified tenfold.

He recognized the scent now: the scent of death. Of rotting flesh, the scent that he blocked from the various ponies that had starved, and then were torn apart by scavengers, and the bones that had nearly been picked clean. He wanted to turn back to the warehouse, because he didn’t want to try to find some other dead pony, but then, as fast as it had come, the breeze died. Any memory it had resurfaced, he immediately shoved back down, not wanting any extra negativity than he was going to have thrust upon him.

He stuffed his wings against his sides, then thought about whether he even needed to stay outside, but the racing thumping coming from his chest, and the fear-laden adrenaline coursing thoroughly through his body answered that errant thought for him. He spotted a crumbling building that was completely missing the front door, as well as most of the second and third stories, and made his way over to it.

The stairs were right before the entrance, so he climbed up as far as he could, until he was overlooking the street from the second set of stairs, and he considered using the opening as a place to throw himself to the skies. He glanced to his right, and saw that he was just about the right height to use the rooftops as a sort of ramp, somewhere he could run off of.

He unfurled his wings and jumped up to the neighboring roof, touching down nearly silently on the decrepit ceramic tiling. He stretched his legs to get ready for a short sprint, and started flapping his wings to get some better airflow under them. He rolled his shoulders and stared at the fairly even runway he now had open to him, then cast a cautionary glance around him, just in case anypony was watching him.

He crouched down, then firmly planted his hooves against the tiles, dashing forward and sprinting the length of the first warehouse, which was longer than he expected. He still wanted some more speed, so he half-opened his wings and jumped the small drop to the next rooftop without missing his pace. His hooves clattered against the ceramic tiles with each flurry of steps, and he peeled to the ledge of the rooftop, where he could slide by the next building without needing to jump above it.

He hurled into the air, opening his wings fully and catching as much as as possible as he whipped passed the corned of the building. He pumped his wings to gain altitude, but he saw that he was about to crash into another warehouse that marked the end of this street. He pulled up, and readjusted his plan: he figured he knew how to do this. Galloping in the air, he prepared to use the roof to launch himself skyward even further.

It was at points like this that he wished he had more experience flying around back home: he hit the tiles harder than he thought, and he nearly tripped as one slipped loose, but he managed to catch himself enough to charge up to the crest, where he thrust his wings down and jumped into the air.

It was open skies from here on out, and he immediately took to relishing in the feeling of unhindered flight, complete with winds whipping his mane and tail to and fro. He admired the sights he had from up here, until a crosswind slapped against him, forcing a wing shut, and he found himself dropping rapidly.

He scrambled to get his flight under control, and once he did, he made a strong note to keep his flying closer to the city. He dropped down and did a tight turn to slip between two buildings, where he’d be mostly safe from any strong winds.

He tried to keep his attention on the path he was taking, even as he decided to try to find some kind of solution to their predicament. He knew that theft was morally wrong, but he also knew that his mother worked in an industry that was very hush-hush. ‘If she does what she has to to survive, then there is no reason why I can’t also do what I need to to keep Star alive.’

Sweeping upwards to avoid colliding with a chimney, though he was a hairs-breadth too close, he learned a painful lesson in speed and reaction times as his forehooves clipped against the edge, knocking a couple loose. He suppressed a pained cry, opting to hold his hooves against his chest as he pulled away from the buildings.

He knew that the thieves were more than able to get caught, well, the good ones were at least: and he had to be good if he was to get some of the wealth out of the castle. Stealth was something that he figured he was going to have to use more liberally if he was going to get anywhere with this. It was times like this that it would have helped for a pegasus to have a coat that matched the night sky, and he envied his brother’s beautiful blue coat: his stark white coat wouldn’t do him any favors sneaking around somepony.

He swerved around the rooftops, performing basic flying maneuvers in hopes of wearing down his nerves. At least his feelings of being watched had died down, even if his heart was still racing. An hour later, and the moon was dipping ever closer to the horizon, he had to call it quits: dawn was coming soon, and he still needed all the sleep he could get.

He landed at the wooden door, taking extra care to slip back inside, though the exhaustion now creeping into his limbs was making that progressively more difficult. He managed to work his way back to where Star was sleeping without disturbing anypony, a feat he felt immensely proud of, and crawled under the blanket. He just managed to wrap his wing around his brother before he promptly passed out, welcoming sleep after his spontaneous workout.

Author's Note

So, this little note here is coming out well, well, well past the actual date of posting this story, but I think that it needs to stay to serve as a little reminder for all of us.

For anyone who actually stopped by: thank you for spending some time here, and I really do hope you enjoy this story. This little monster is a long time coming, and has gone through so many variations over the years, and is so drastically different from my very first attempt at a legible story that the two ideas are pretty much separate stories. However, though I've gained a lot of skill and improved so much in that time, I'm still but a single man, and I can only catch so many mistakes in the writing process. Any and all criticism is greatly accepted and appreciated, and if you see anything that I might have missed, feel free to point it out, and I'll work towards fixing any issues.

Someone might have noticed that this little baby right here isn't exactly what I've uploaded before on some other sites, and that's because I decided that a new opening was needed. Years of writing left me cringing at what I'd originally put out, and so I'm systematically fixing a bunch of my earlier mistakes, hopefully to the effect of improving the overall story. As such, these first few chapters are likely to be a drastically different take on the origins of my characters, and some things might not flow exactly how I planned. Just know that, while the majority of this story is premeditated; I'm still really flying by the seat of my pants, and might need to make some last-minute adjustments here or there. Please, please be patient with me: I'm a terrible writer most of the time, and I'm obnoxiously picky about how I go about putting my thoughts into words. However, I've learned that, sometimes, the best way to go about these things is to just write the first thing that pops into my head, and to just roll with it. One character that should be coming up shortly is the product of just such a train of thought let loose!

Anyway! Things have slowed down as I tried to find some more passive ways of learning how to improve my skills, but the writer's block hasn't really been helping me actually put anything into proper words. Things had slowed down for quite a while, but things are finally looking up again! Expect chapters at disgustingly inconsistent intervals, but please take some solace in the knowledge that this is a project I WILL see through to the end.

Maybe someday I'll actually work on the four sequels I'd dreamed about for the Guardian series, but that's probably a bit too ambitious, even for me. :/