Sparkle's Fire

Within the aircraft, Twilight's fury was still at an all time high. Her body still was lit with fresh, raging flames, and her eyes showcased more anger than every part of her could. While she had lost her creation, she had not lost her flame. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, was almost entirely calm on the outside. Her expression was hardened, ready to face Twilight head on with all her might. She knew there had to be some way to calm Twilight down, but Twilight wasn't set on it just yet. As her horn lit up with magic, Rainbow took to her quick thinking as her best guide. She brought up her spear and deflected the beam of magic that Twilight fired at her, it fizzling out against the wall when it realized it wasn't going anywhere useful.

"You!!" Twilight hissed, lunging for Rainbow and lighting up her hooves with magic. "Why did you have to interfere?!"

"You were destroying the city!" Rainbow yelled at her as she brought her hooves up. Her hooves collided with Twilight's and froze the flames she had spewed. Twilight flapped her wings hard and flew herself backwards, slamming her hooves on the ground to free them from their icy prison. Shards of ice coated the ground, but quickly melted knowing the heat of Twilight's flames was too much for them.

"But I had Celestia where I wanted her!" Twilight snapped. "I could've put an end to this, and you stopped me!!"

"What good would killing Celestia do?!" Rainbow growled in retort.

Twilight launched herself forward again, snaking under Rainbow Dash. She rolled onto her back and bucked the mare into the ceiling, shooting flames at her from her back hooves. Rainbow coughed as the flames collided with her, and she forced her hooves down to freeze the flames around her. She kicked through the ice and watched it shatter on the ground around her before she flew to the other side of the room to look back at Twilight.

"If there was no Celestia, there would be none of her experiments!!" Twilight shouted. "There would be no murder and genocide, because no pony would be authorizing it! And you're allowing her to continue by stopping me!!"

"And you'd be no better for killing her!" Rainbow Dash retorted as Twilight leapt for her.

"You bitch!!" Twilight shouted as she tackled Rainbow Dash.

The ponies rolled together, firing quick kicks and punches of flame and ice at eachother. Rainbow ignored the searing pain burned into her coat that each hit brought to her, and the cold of the ice couldn't affect Twilight's flame-kissed form. When Rainbow rolled onto her back on the floor, she flapped her wings and launched Twilight into the ceiling. Twilight grunted as she hit the hard metal, briefly feeling pain flash through her body. She fell onto the floor in front of Rainbow Dash, and shook her head as she got back to her hooves. Rainbow looked back as some of the metal that made up her armor broke off onto the ground, but she looked forward to focus on Twilight before she could be attacked again.

"Twilight, don't you remember anything you've told me?!" Rainbow Dash flapped her wings hard. "Haven't you always stressed that Sparkle's Fire doesn't kill?!"

Twilight hissed and pinned her ears back, but very quickly paused as the sounds of mechanical creaking were heard. She and Rainbow stared down in unison at the floor beneath them, before it suddenly split in two and dropped them into the air. They were too shocked with the sudden motion to spread their wings and catch themselves.

"You two, calm down!" Pinkie shouted from the front of the aircraft. "Take a chill pill, ponies!"

Rainbow couldn't focus enough to unfurl her wings as she and Twilight began plummeting to the ground. Beneath them was the lake where Rainbow had first heard of the Burnish's hideout in the cave. The waterfall was still roaring strong beside them. Rainbow hissed as Twilight's body fully ignited in flames again, the heat concentrated around them both as they plummeted. When they hit the water, steam filled the air. Twilight's flames were hot enough to evaporate all of the water around, and send a massive steam cloud flowing through the area. Trees were blown to the side as the steam flowed free, blanketing the area in pure white vapors. Pinkie pulled up in her aircraft, the spinning blades that kept her in the air blowing hard enough to clear the steam from around her. As the vapors cleared, she could see the ponies laying at the bottom of the natural basin that once held the lake's water.

Twilight had finally returned to her normal state, panting and curled in on herself. The sleeves of her jacket had gotten burned away when she returned to normal. Her body was littered in bruises from her assault on the city, and her fight with Rainbow Dash. The pegasus mare in question groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. She had definitely landed on her head. She looked to Twilight, having to take deep breaths of her own.

"Twilight..." Rainbow groaned, getting to her hooves and stretching her back and wings. "Are you calmed down yet..?"

"Yeah..." Twilight sighed, using one of her wings to push herself into a sitting position, before she too stood up and stretched her aching limbs.

"Twilight, Dashie!" Pinkie shouted from above. The ponies looked up as Pinkie landed her aircraft. She opened the hatch that made up the windshield, and poked her head out. "Look!"

Pinkie pointed at where the waterfall had once been. The ponies turned to look, and noticed a massive cavern that had seemingly been behind the waterfall before.

"What the hell?" Rainbow scratched her head with her hoof.

"There's a whole computer system back there!" Pinkie said with sparkling eyes, motioning the ponies over to the aircraft. When they trotted over, she showcased the screen on board that she usually used for a GPS system. "It was hidden behind the waterfall, completely untouched. Dashie, did you know about this?"

"No, I didn't!" Rainbow shook her head back and forth. "I only slept here by the lake before finding Twilight, I had no idea that there was anything back there!"

"Neither did I," Twilight said. She looked back at the cavern with mild curiosity in her eyes. "What's it doing here..?"

"I can explain," A computerized voice suddenly spoke out of thin air.

"Wha-?!" Rainbow Dash's coat stood on end, and the trio of ponies bunched together, eyes glancing around the area in a panic.

The ponies stared at the waterfall as a shape manifested before them. It seemed like a pony, but their body composed was entirely of a pale blue substance, separated in diamonds and triangles; it looked just like the crystals Twilight could create with her flames. Their face was unrecognizable, and their eyes were a blank white. The pony moved their head, curly hair now sharp in their crystalline state.

"Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle," The pony said, voice now identifiable as that of a mare's. "I've been waiting for you both."

"Who are you?" Rainbow asked, her wings spread defensively at her sides.

"And... how do you know our names?" Twilight questioned, much calmer than Rainbow Dash.

"I'll explain things to you soon," The crystallized mare said, motioning with her hoof towards herself. "Come with me, there is something important I need to show the both of you. Pinkamena, you can come as well."

"Umm, it's Pinkie actually!" Pinkie stuck her tongue out and hummed. "But okie dokie! C'mon guys, let's go see what the funky crystal pony wants!"

Twilight and Rainbow stared at Pinkie, then the crystal pony, then at eachother. Their expressions showcased their confusion and the distrust of this situation, but they chose to follow anyways. The crystal pony walked to the mouth of the cavern behind where the waterfall would be flowing, her body occasionally glitching out and lightening as she walked. Rainbow and Twilight walked close together, while Pinkie happily bounced the entire way. The ponies let their eyes wander around the pitch blackness that made up the cavern. Twilight ignited the light on her horn, acting as a sort of lantern while they walked. The crystal pony ahead had disappeared, but they continued to wander in the hopes she was still leading them somewhere...

Celestia's Sunlit Tower, Whinnyapolis...

"Princess Celestia," Mayor Mare spoke to the Princess as she approached. She dipped her head in respect for the pony before she continued speaking. "The fires in Whinnyapolis have come to a full stop. Many of our buildings are destroyed, and Freeze Force is still trying to make notes of casualties in the city. Whatever had caused the fire has, supposedly, been dealt with, and activity is resuming as normal."

"Good," Celestia hummed, lifting her head and staring out at her city. "Then I want to make this order to you; find Tempest Shadow and Iron Will, and make them begin contacting the ponies still alive. The Eclipse will be taking off shortly."

"What?" Mayor Mare's eyes widened. "Princess Celestia, we're scheduled to be leaving in 6 months. Why now?"

"The reports already came back showcasing that the magma in the planet has increased beyond our original estimations," Celestia turned on her hooves, and walked past the pony to the elevator. "But, with this idiot Burnish's rampage, I'm sure that they are far worse now. There is no time left to prepare and test our plans. We need to leave before the planet splits."

"But... but the project is still unstable in its current state, your Highness," The mayor pressed. "We haven't had the opportunity to fine tune the engines just yet, and they are still being installed on the ship. You can't expect us to--"

"Tell the ponies in charge to work faster," Celestia said firmly, glaring back at the pony. "If they don't, we're all doomed, and no pony will survive. I'm going to save every pony, and I don't want to hear any excuses. Now come, we have work to do!"

"Y-yes ma'am..." Mayor Mare said sheepishly, walking to the elevator and joining Celestia inside, not uttering another word as it descended. When it reached the ground floor, the Mayor exited the elevator, looking back at the Princess still inside. Celestia gave her a curt nod before pressing another button on the panel, and descending into the laboratory below. Mayor Mare sighed and broke into a gallop. She headed outside of the building, on her way to search for the creatures Celestia had instructed her to.

Inside the waterfall cavern, the crystal pony finally appeared before the group again. She motioned to an elevator at the back of the room, glistening bright with golden light. Twilight shuddered seeing the light, reminded of the earlier events. Rainbow patted her on the back, a silent reassurance for her. Twilight looked up at her, saying nothing, before she walked into the elevator, and turned as Rainbow and Pinkie walked in after her. The crystal pony watched the doors close, and disappeared from the other side. The elevator began to descend, and lights lit up the outside as they went down. The elevator was made of glass, so they were able to see as the lights turned on during their descension. They had no idea where they were going, but Pinkie was the only one of the group who was excited. Rainbow and Twilight weren't quite sure how they should feel, but they weren't excited by any means.

They wobbled slightly as the elevator came to a stop. They still weren't sure where they were, surrounded in nothing but pitch blackness. Pinkie tapped the ponies on the shoulders and pointed to the elevator doors as they opened, revealing a stretch of circular lights in the floor that were turning on one by one. They were in a single row, continuing to light their path forward. They exited the elevator, walking along the path that the lights were creating for them.

"Where are we..?" Rainbow Dash mumbled as she looked around. "I've never seen any place like this."

"Beats me!" Pinkie laughed. "Whatever this place is, it's toootally giving me inspiration for my new party cave! I want to have funky lights in my floor too!"

"Is that really what you should be focusing on right now?" Twilight said to the mare, unamused with her antics.

"Nope! But it's fun to think about fun!" Pinkie clapped her hooves together. "But, in all seriousness... I'm not sure where we are at all. It feels like we're walking on metal, and there sure is a lot of mechanical noises in the walls. Maybe we're in some sort of lab?"

"Maybe you are," The crystal pony spoke, appearing out of nowhere beside them and frightening them all backwards. "This is my laboratory. I used to frequent this place when I was alive."

"When you were... alive?" Rainbow tilted her head.

"What does that mean?" Twilight asked, her eyes narrowed. She would never say it or show it outright, but her body was tense, and solid like rock.

"Look." The crystal pony lifted her hoof and pointed at the wall. The ponies looked up at where she was pointing, confusion on their faces. In a moment, the entire wall lit up, playing a video and revealing to them that it was a screen they were looking at. The video was old, and colourless, but showcased three ponies that they all knew well; the two sisters, and the ruler of the Crystal Empire.

"I don't understand," Celestia said on the screen. "What's so bad about using the Prometech pods?"

"They're dangerous!" Cadance, the pony that had lead them here, said firmly. "Burnish are going to die if we use them. There is no way we can use them safely."

"That's preposterous!" Luna said, her voice echoing in the room of the research lab. "Haven't you been working to fine tune the machine?"

"I have," Cadance admitted. "But to see if it works, I would need a Burnish subject to test on. I can't risk hurting them to test my machine, and I won't. The only way these pods are going to 'function' is if the Burnish use their flames, and using them in this state will kill them! We can't risk anymore lives for this project."

"I see..." Celestia said softly. "And no pony else knows about this?"

"No," Cadance said. "It is only us three who are aware of it. Even our top scientists are unaware of what I've been doing here. They would never truly accept any of my research if I told them about this. No matter if the device was fine tuned or not, no pony likes the insinuation of impure sacrifice."

"I understand," Celestia said with a nod. She turned to Luna, her expression invisible to the camera. "Sister, it seems we are just going to have to take things into our own hooves."

"What?" Luna said with shock, staring at Celestia with wide eyes.

"Celestia?" Cadance pinned her ears back. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means," Celestia hissed. "We need this research. If pony kind is to survive, we have to use the Prometech pods when the Eclipse is finished being constructed. I can't sit here waiting for the Earth to explode, and Equestria to perish, while the answer is right here. Regardless of what you say, pony kind must live on, and I won't let any cowards stand in the way of this race's continuation."

"Celestia--" Cadance's rebuttal was caught off by her own scream as Celestia lowered her head and lunged forth, stabbing her in the chest with her horn. Her horn emerged at the back of Cadance's neck, just barely. Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie's gasps filled the room. Pinkie covered her eyes, and Rainbow's wings spread wide in shock. Twilight felt her heart drop into her stomach as she stared at the screen, terror in her eyes, watching Celestia remove her horn painfully slowly from the wound she created.

When Celestia finally pulled back, her horn was covered in blood, and Cadance had collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were wide open, and her legs spasmed as she bled.

"Celestia!" Luna shouted at her sister before running to Cadance's side. "W-what have you done?!"

"Collect her research," Celestia ordered her sister. "Leave her here, I don't care what happens to her after this point. We're taking all of her research and returning home."

"B-but Cadance..." Luna let tears roll down her face, staring at Celestia with fear in her eyes.

"I gave you an order!" Celestia snapped as she cleared the blood from her horn. Few blood droplets rested around the base, soaked into her single coloured hair and making it appear darker around the horn. "Now collect everything and transport it back immediately. You will not tell a soul about the events that have occurred in this room, or I will ensure that no pony living on our new planet knows that you existed in our history."

Celestia caught sight of the camera recording the events that took place here. She glared up at the lens, her horn glistening with magic again. She curled her lips in a snarl as the camera glistened and sparkled, showcasing that she had took hold of it in her magic. The screen cracked and the glass shattered, and the video turned to static. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what had happened. In the end, Celestia had crushed the camera, and this footage was assumed to be lost... The ponies viewing the recording stared at the screen, eyes widened with shock.

"Celestia..." Pinkie's mane had fallen straight around her shoulders, and tears were welling in her eyes.

"She is a murderer," Rainbow whispered, shock in her eyes. "I-I thought..."

"I always knew," Twilight said, swallowing hard. Her ears dropped by the sides of her head as well. "I knew she was killing Burnish, but she even killed the Crystal Princess. But then... how did she lead us here?"

"There's an easy answer," The crystal pony, Princess Cadance, said as she appeared behind them, once more making them jump and spin around to face her. "After Celestia destroyed all the evidence of her murder, and Luna stole my research, I clung to what little life I still had. No matter how long Celestia would stay to ensure my demise, I held on. I was able to back up my consciousness into my super computer, so that I could live again, and meet with any pony that would be lucky enough to discover my laboratory."

"So, who are you really?" Twilight asked, holding her head high. "If you're really Cadance, what were you doing all those years?"

"I was the head scientist in the Crystal Empire's own anti-Burnish protection laboratory," Cadance explained, unblinking. "I worked in combination with Celestia's scientists and researchers, as the Burnish first appeared in my city before hers, despite what everypony now thinks. Nearly every weapon that you see these days being used against the Burnish was developed and tested by me."

The room around them lit up, showcasing training videos and testing logs. Every wall around them was a screen, revealing every invention that Cadance had helped to create. Guns, armor, shields and mechs... they all filled the screens.

"Fireproof armor, instant freezing bullets," Twilight named off few of the recordings as she looked around. "Those cuffs... they're the ones used by the Freeze Force to detain Burnish!"

"All of these were your inventions?" Rainbow asked, turning to the projection once again, and forcing her expression back into its usual state.

"I recognize them all, except I don't see..." Twilight looked around the screen again. "The... the Absolute Zero Bullets. They aren't here."

"I didn't make those," Cadance quickly said, shaking her head.

"But you said that--"

"Like I said, most of them are my inventions," Cadance said with a hum as she cut off Twilight. "Celestia did develop a few devices by herself, but that was only from referencing off of my own research. She gave her teams the ideas, and they were the ones who fine tuned them. By extension, I can only be credited for giving her the inspiration, and laying out the original blueprints."

"Wait," Rainbow looked back at Cadance. Her wings were fluttering, and betraying her tough expression by showing how afraid she really was. "If you died before the Eclipse was fully built, how did you know who we were?"

"By chance," Cadance chuckled, her voice still sickeningly sweet, even through the echo the computer had given her. "As a computer, I can do many things now. I can't run by myself, so I've been linked to Whinnyapolis's main database for many years. Every thing that you've done that's been important has been fed to my memory. I've heard of your attacks, your accomplishments, and Rainbow Dash's recent arrest of course."

"Can we not talk about that?" Rainbow Dash groaned.

"You were arrested?" Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash with surprise. "Why?"

"It's a long story," Rainbow sighed. "Celestia took me into her laboratory, showed me the Eclipse. It's a spaceship that she's been working on. And... while we were in the lab, she showed me what she was doing with the Burnish. She's been using the Prometech pods so that she can warp through space, and find a new planet for everypony to live. Apparently the magma in the Earth is going crazy, and pretty soon it's gonna go ka-BOOM!" Rainbow made a dramatic noise and spread her hooves wide before she went back to her serious explanation. " ...And it'll kill everypony on the planet. She's using the Burnish to power the engine of the ship, and over time, it's killing them. I saw it happen for myself."

"What...?" Twilight said, anger twisting her face again.

"The Prometech pods are unstable," Cadance said, anger taking form in her voice as well. "I refused to use them because the only way they could function is by feeding off of the pain of the Burnish, as you saw in the video. I was trying to push myself to develop a variation of the pod that wouldn't harm them, but Celestia didn't let me because I refused to bring them to the public eye before they were done. She took my research, she developed the pods anyways, and she's tormenting these poor creatures for her own gain!"

"That's worse than I thought," Twilight stared at the ground, her face clouded with guilt and rage. "How could she do this to us..?"

Rainbow could understand how she felt. She had felt the same kind of pain when she saw what Celestia was doing to Saffron. She had felt that kind of pain when she watched that mare die in the cave, despite Twilight's attempt to save her. To a degree, she could understand why Twilight was hurting, but she couldn't imagine living it every day. Being on the run, and knowing that her fellow ponies were being killed and tormented, and now being aware that they were being used as a pony fuel source? Rainbow tried to see into the mare's thoughts, but even she couldn't navigate them. If they were her own, she'd hurt her head trying to sort them out.

"Things are about to get much harder from here on out," Cadance said, staring at the screen on the wall again as it lit up.

"What do you mean by that?" Rainbow asked, ears pressing back.

Twilight lifted her head and stared at the screen, eyes going wide. Around one section of the city, towers were ascending into the sky and creating a rectangular shape. The pillars spread out from either side, creating walls and dragging that piece of the city into the ground. From where they once stood emerged what looked to be a massive rectangular spaceship, coated in black and glistening with neon blue streaks around the edges. At the very front of the ship, Celestia's Sunlit Tower stood tall, staring out over the ship.

"The Eclipse," Rainbow whispered, eventually bringing her voice to a yell. "They're planning to depart now..!"

"What?!" Pinkie gasped. "But didn't Cadance just say their engines are unstable because of the Prometech pods?!"

"Celestia doesn't care!" Twilight snapped. "She murdered Cadance, stole her research, and now she's killing my brothers and sisters!!"

The ponies were broken out of their yelling as the ground shook beneath them. They looked up at the screen again, the camera panning to showcase Celestia's Inferno in the distance. Magma shot out of the top of the volcano, and rocks broke from around the eruption point. Lava and solid stone collapsed all around the mountain, raining hell down on the world around and spilling down the sides like fresh water from a faucet.

"The magma in the core is beginning to spill," Cadance said. "The world as we know it is beginning to end."