Blossom awoke with a yawn, stretching her hooves up in the air. "A good night fer doin' right!" She hopped to the ground. "But first." She was in another dark room. With a glowing horn, she snatched the paper she knew was waiting for her. "Thanks, bro." Not that Big Mac's form responded, nor did she expect him to.

If he did, she'd fall over asleep. That woulda been awkward... Still, she had the letter. She hopped back home and dropped it on her end-table. "Fill you out later." She could remember some of the questions, when Big Mac filled them out, but it was a lot of questions, and not all of the answers were fresh on her mind. "It'll be interestin'."

She wanted to know where they matched and, perhaps more importantly, where they did not.

Blossom reached back and poked herself in the side. Nope. She felt just fine. She was ready to work and make the world a better place! She casually ceased to be there, joining the streets of Baltimare that night to hunt for ponies in need of her particular skills. She fished out her microphone and announced she was going on duty. That was an important part.

The local police had to know, and with them knowing, other departments could call them, and then they could reach out to her if her help was desperately needed in another city besides the one she had appeared in.

"Agent PB Jump." That was one of many codenames she responded to. "Come in."

She floated her receiver up beside her head. "PB Jump here. Status?"

"10-34, Cloudsdale. Can you handle?"

Cloudsdale?! She'd never been... On the other hoof, she'd seen it plenty of times. It was hard not to see that big floating city. "10-76!" En Route. She lifted into the air and wasn't by Baltimare anymore. She was beneath Cloudsdale, at an angle she'd seen many times, as Big Mac. On those same wings, she lifted towards it urgently. "Ah'm comin'!" What had happened? A 10-34 was a riot of all things! That wasn't a common call by any measure.

Ponies don't riot! Well... that wasn't entirely true. She, as Big Mac, was part of at least one of those, chasing after Twilight's doll...

Good thing nopony got hurt in that mess.

She punched up through the clouds, emerging into Cloudsdale proper. "Princess Orchard Blossom, 10-23!" She got into her microphone. "Where's the trouble?"

"Weather Factory," came the dispatch. "Thanks for coming. Wasn't sure they weren't pulling a leg or two."

Blossom perked an ear, but didn't argue it. It was time to get to work, not argue with dispatch. She hung up the receiver on her breast pocket and took off with a fwoosh of feathers and will upwards. "Weather factory..." It wasn't hard to spot, being so large, and on fire. Curls of smoke rose up from it towards the night sky as fires and electricity cractled through it. Ponies were pouring free of it in all directions.

She had no idea what was going on there, but she had to help, and she was in front of it, landing just in front of the door where ponies were rushing out of. "Ah'm here to help!"

One of the fleeing ponies came to an uneasy stop, perhaps noticing Blossom's police attire. "Oh! Thank Celestia! The winter breaking machines are out of control!"

Blossom imagined what a winter breaking machine would look like... That could explain the fires at least. "Don't ponies wrap up winters on their own?"

The pony, a stallion, danced in place. "They were trying to make a machine to help. Didn't work!" Unable to hold himself any further, he fled away with a panicked yelp, leaving Blossom behind.

"Not sure ah'd count this as a 'riot'." Still, she didn't think it was a good time to go back to Baltimare and argue the specifics with dispatch. Machines gone wild at the weather factory probably didn't have a code. She burst through the front doors, kicking them open as she barged into the scene. "Woah..." There was fire and electricity in equally dangerous amounts. "If yer stuck, shout!"

Alas, there was plenty of shouting to go around. Ponies were caling for help in all directions. She hop-ported past a line of crackling electricity. "Ah'm comin'!" She shied back as flames rushed out, trying to kiss her snout. "Dangunnit... Comin'!" Part of being what she was, she had to charge towards danger instead of away from it. "Keep shoutin'!"

She found the first pony pinned beneath a whole pillar that had fallen on them. They had gotten so close to the exit. If not for the pillar, they probably would have burst free with the others. "Ah'm here." Blossom shoved herself under the pillar as her horn glowed with sparks and power, helping in the task of heaving upwards, lessening the pressure on the pinned pony. "Can ya stand?"

The stallion scrambled to his hooves, but it was no quick action, each part slow and obviously pained. "H-how do I get out?"

Blossom let the pillar slide free with a heavy thump of stone. "Hold on!" She wrapped a wing around the pony. "We're gettin' out!"

"B-but h--" He didn't get to finish asking. They were outside. Blossom was already charging back inside, leaving him. "Thanks..." He crashed to his belly, then his side, grunting in pain. "Ow..."

Blossom skipped forward to where she had left off, dancing around the then-flaming pillar. "Who's here?" She followed the calls towards a door that was hot to the touch. "Dangunnit.." She flipped around and lashed out her hooves, sending the door off to flop to the ground in several ragged pieces. "Who's in there?!"

"Help!" came the shrill cry of a mare, caught behind an electrical line of crackling fury. "Oh, please, help!"

Blossom wanted to hop next to the mare, but it felt off. The heat haze and billowing smoke was hard enough to make her, what, perception of it unreliable. She couldn't skip next to the mare. "Comin'!" Squinting into the obscured room. There was a chair, she could... no, that wouldn't work. The chair would probably just catch on fire, or become electric if it was metal. She didn't bother checking.

She advanced into the room despite the heat, imagining how bad it had to feel for the mare trapped in it. "Comin'!"

"Please." The mare reached out, but yanked the hoof back. Scared by electricity or fire, one couldn't easily guess.

Blossom heard a crash behind her. A window had exploded, but also a door thrown open. Other ponies were hurrying onto the scene, dressed in fire proof coats. Actual fire fighters! "Oh, thank Celestia..." she sighed out, but there was still a mare in front of her. She jumped, soaring over the electric line. Her wings sung with pain, feathers catching alit in the heat and flames, but she landed next to the mare. "C'mon."

"Come on where?!" demanded the Mare with wide eyes. "Are you even alright?" She could easily see Blossom's singed wings. "We're all going to cook in here..."

"No we ain't." She thumped in next to the mare. "We're get---" They appeared outside, next to the flopped stallion. "--ting out." Blossom staggered back, panting for breath.

"Thank you!" The mare looked ready to flee, but the smoke she inhaled and the heat she endured caught up with her and she crashed to the ground an in ungainly pile. Fortunately, paramedic ponies were already there, quickly rushing to treat her, and already working on the stallion.

"Ma'am." A nurse mare was looking at Blossom pointedly. "I am releiving you of duty."

"What?" Blossom pointed at the burning building. "There're still ponies in there."

"Ma'am. I am relieving you of duty," repeated the nurse without much room in the tone of her voice. "You are injured. You're just risking another pony needing rescuing. Thank you for your service. Sit down." She pointed at the ground firmly. She was a pegasus, like most of the ponies there. The ground was a fluffy cloud, which did just fine by them. "Let me do my part, ma'am."

As Blossom sank in defeat, she advanced to begin administering the princess. "That was very brave, but I think you're forgetting something."

"What's that?" Blossom kept glancing at the inferno she wasn't helping with.

"You're a police officer." She plucked off Blossom's uniform cap and got to bandaging Blossom's head. "Not a fire fighter. The ponies you rescued will be forever grateful, but if you got in over your head, the firefighters would never be able to forgive themselves, ma'am."

The nurse sat back. "Besides, you're a princess too. You'll make the whole country sad if you go getting hurt in a fire. Thank you for putting other ponies first, but you deserve some consideration, ma'am."

Blossom spread her wings slowly, wincing at the charred feathers displayed on either, electric bands of damage showing along with the heat charring. "Will... this get better?"

"You'll be fine," assured the nurse in a far friendlier tone. Blossom had become a patient, not a resisting officer. "I know it looks bad, but pegasi regrow their feathers all the time. You'll have to wait before you're back at full flight, but it'll happen if you take care of yourself." She slid in, getting patting at Blossom's wings. "Tell me if it hurts."

"Jus' a little..." It looked far worse than it felt as the nurse patted the whole set of wings down.

"What I hoped." The nurse sat back. "Mostly superficial pinion damage. Nothing time won't put right. Now, I want you to take a few deep breaths for me, as deep as you can." She popped a stethoscope in her ears and pressed the cup against Blossom's chest. "Nice and long."

Blossom drew in breath with a slow woosh, deeper and deeper. She was overwhelmed with a sudden itch that erupted in a coughing fit.

The nurse drew her stethoscope away. "I was worried about that. You inhaled some smoke. You'll be short of breath a while. Your body's doing its best to fix that, promise. I can't really help with that, but you can breathe, so you'll be alright."

Blossom smiled at the kindly nurse. "Thanks... How're they doin' in there?" She turned to fully face the fire. "Ah wanna help..."

The nurse bonked Blossom on the head. "Help by comforting the ponies out here. They could use a few kind words from a princess right about now."

Blossom perked her ears. She looked around slowly and saw the stallion she had dug out. They had a crude splint on his busted leg and he looked properly miserable. The mare was up on a table, looking worse with some kind of breathing mask on. "Oh..." She had rescued their bodies, but their minds could still use a hoof.

She went for the stallion first, leaving the nurse behind. "Hey. How ya feelin'?"

"Been better..." He looked to his treated leg, stiff and secure. "But I could be a lot worse. Thanks..."

"Yer quite welcome." She patted his shoulder. "Just glad yer out an' alright."

"Yeah... Yeah, could be worse." He patted her touching arm. "Thanks, really."

She flashed a smile and went to the mare, struggling to get in air. "Howdy... Sorry ah couldn't rescue you any faster."

The pegasus mare grabbed Blossom with a firm hoof. "Don't you... say that." Her speech was a lot slower, not worked up in the moment. "If you hadn't been... there, I mighta... I might not be here." She took a moment to just breathe, the rasping wheeze of her efforts against the mask. "Wish you got there faster, but I wouldn't trade you not being there... You saved me."

Blossom flipped her ears back and down. "Ah share that wish... They say ah got hurt." She lifted her singed wings into view. "Burns me up, literal like, not goin' back in there."

"Hero." She swatted at Blossom. "On with ya..."

Author's Note

Blossom does her job as a peacekeeping princess of the night. It's not always easy as jobs go.

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