Chapter 4: Ashes

Chapter 4
(This chapter takes place during chapter 3)

Sketch yawned as he poured his morning coffee, his senses slowly coming back to him from the aroma of the coffee. Today was gonna be busy he needed to finish a picture for a stallion who came in a few days ago he wanted a drawing of his wife done. Sketch tried very hard to remember his name, fancy something or other. Sketch sunk back into his chair as finished taking a sip from his coffee. He felt he was in heaven everything just seemed perfect and he was gonna savor this moment. After a few minutes Sketch was finally fully awake, so he got up from his recliner chair, He went downstairs and started to draw. He looked at the picture he was supposed to draw; it was a picture of a slender unicorn mare lying on pure white sheets. He had to admit it she was quite beautiful, but not what he was after, He then thought of when he saw her and in his honest opinion she seemed to be more of a trophy wife if anything. He focused back on his work putting the final touches on the rear half of her. Sketches work room was rather crammed, several sketch books, large canvas’s, large rolls of paper and sheets covered in doodles and sketches. He had shelves chalk-loaded with pencils, paints, brushes, and various other art supplies. From the ceiling hung several lamps and lights which illuminated the room with very bright light.

Sketch had put the lights on the ceiling because one day he thought “Why should everything be put on the floor, so he took some tools and various other materials and spent the next few hours bolting the lamps into the ceiling, the idea was brilliant and from then on he had more space where he worked…..for other objects to take their place. Sketch was however unaware that it was he accidentally nicked and cut open an electrical wire. So far nothing happened but today wasn’t the case, while Sketch was putting the final touches on the drawing, sparks started shooting from the open cord which ignited the dust from inside the ceiling. After a few minutes Sketch started to smell something burning, but disregarded it thinking it probably came from the construction site down the street, probably burning left over wood, or welding metal, but a few minutes later Sketch knew something was up when the lamps began to flicker and he heard cracking from upstairs, he had just gotten out of his seat and began to head for the stairs when all of the sudden the ceiling collapsed on where he had just been sitting mere seconds ago, Sketches eyes went wide as he ran upstairs only to find the entire upstairs full of smoke and flame. Sketch began to cough from the smoke and he couldn’t see through the thickness of the smoke, Sketch cursed under his breath wondering how he didn’t notice his ENTIRE HOUSE was engulfed in flames. The idea absolutely baffled him

“We have Arc welders, and advanced science yet somehow we haven’t invented a device that can let somepony know if their house is on fire”

This thought though was quickly wiped from his mind when a large chunk of the upper floors landed directly in front of him. He needed to get out but he couldn’t see where he was going through the smoke, just then he found an exit he slowly made his way to the open window but just before he could make it, just barely out of his reach another part of the ceiling landed on him knocking him unconscious.

MorningShine sighed in frustration as she moved a bulging rain cloud towards Ponyville, when she noticed large amounts of smoke coming from a small neighborhood area, At first she disregarded it but only until she noticed just how the plume was increasing, she looked aroud but no firefighter ponies were to be found. At that moment Morning had a conflict building in her mind

“No stick to your job Morning its not your problem” she thought while the other side of her nagged even harder to try and help put out the fire. She stopped and struggled with which she should do, then it hit. She took a quarter of the cloud she was moving and quickly flew towards the smoke. When she got there she found some fire ponies trying to extinguish it Morning automatically jumped in placed the cloud over th house and jumped up and down on it as hard as she could, while it reduced the flames sheer size it only delayed the inevitable, this house was gonna burn down. She landed near one of the ponies fighting the fire, and tried to figure out as much as possible.

“What happened”? she asked the fire pony with concern in her tone.

“Don’t know this place was half burnt down when we got here. We tried going in but its too dangerous for us to go in too much smoke and fire”

Morning’s worry grew more, and then she noticed the name on the mail box

Sketch.

Her eyes widened as she fully took in whose house this was. She nearly panicked as she asked where the resident of this home was, her question was answered with a shrug. That was all she needed to know completely disregarding the warnings of the Fire pony, Morning flew in to the house at full speed. She had to find him.

Mister Sketch, SKEEETCH?!? She shouted through the house she quickly scrambled through the house using the flapping of her wings to clear smoke around her, just before she was ready to give up she noticed a mass under some rubble, it was him.

Sketch! She gasped as she rushed over and tried to pull him from free from the rubble. She tried as hard as she could, but to no avail, Morning’s eyes began to tear up as she tried as hard as possible to get the rubble off of him, just then she heard a loud moan come from the rest of the ceiling above her. The place was about to collapse, this was it, all or nothing, she good a grip on the chunk of rubble which nearly covered all of Sketch and with all her might gave it one mighty push this time it lifted and Morning quickly pushed it to the side, without any hesitation she quickly threw sketch onto her back and flew out of the house as fast as she could. Just in time, just as she exited the front door, the whole house came down and what had once been a beautiful home was now a smoldering pile of rubble and burning ruin. Morning gently lowered Sketch to the ground his entire body was covered in burns and gashes. And just as quickly as she had gotten him out, a team of medical ponies began to tend to Sketch putting an oxygen mask on his muzzle and placing onto a stretcher, In a matter of minutes Sketch was in the hospital. Morning couldn’t help but follow along. She was there every step of the way until they brought Sketch into the ER. Morning decided to wait.

After what felt like an eternity, a doctor walked out of the ER and over to Morning. He stopped in front of her and cleared his throat to get her attention.

“Friend” She lied a little. Honestly she hardly even knew him, all she knew is what he looked like and what his name was, still she cared about him enough.

So, doctor, how is he, is he going to-“

“Well Ma’am he’s going to be fine his burns are only minor all thanks to you getting him out so quickly, and he should be able to leave in a week or two. His coat should grow back by then, and everything else seemed stable with him.

“Um excuse me, But can I go…see him”

“Yes by all means but only for a short time he needs to rest. He’s in the fourth room down that hallway on your left.

Morning smiled a little as she slowly excused herself and made her way to the room. When she reached the room she saw two beds inside one pony who was completely wrapped from head to hoof, and to the left, lay Sketch, his body almost seemed lifeless as he lie there limp, connected to IV’s and machines. She slowly walked over to Sketch bed, after a few seconds he noticed her.

“Hi” he managed to whisper with a dry raspy voice.

“Hey”

Sketch started to look around as he began to realize he was in the hospital. His eyes widened and he threw his head back in frustration.

“How bad was it, did they manage to put it out” He asked with hopeful eyes that pleaded her to tell everything was alright, but Morning couldn’t lie to him.

“Your house was burned to the ground, by the time they go their it was beyond saving”

This brought Sketch on the verge of tears, he lost everything, all his pictures, family photos, most of all though he couldn’t bear the thought, of his favorite photo with him and his brothers burning up. Sketch buried his face in his hooves. Morning felt for him as he slowly broke down in front of her. She placed a hoof on his shoulder as he let it all out. All his prized possessions gone, Items he could never get back he fell back as he finished his moment a face of worry and panic on his face. Then he stopped and turned to Morning. He then looked at himself, lifting is hooves in front of his face. He then looked back at her and asked.

“Why did you come looking for me?”

Morning froze stiff as she heard his question, she didn’t know why, with all honesty she didn’t really know why she went in and got him. She tried to formulate an answer.

“Well I guess I just felt that…I…I owed it to you” He cut her short though.

“Please is five bits really worth risking your own life for somepony you don’t even know, just change?”

This hit Morning even harder, it felt awkward being asked this she didn’t know how to answer but before she could speak, Sketch turned to her again.

“Hey, I just want to say thanks, its all I can do given the current situation”

Morning smiled at him, “No need” She replied.

At that moment a nurse came in and told Morning that Sketch was going to need his rest if he was going to make a quick recovery. Morning nodded and said goodbye to Sketch as she walked out of the room. Morning looked back on the craziness of her day when she noticed what time it was.

“Oh buck” as she realized it was almost time to go get Starlight from school, She quickly galloped out of the hospital as fast as she could, Morning decided with all that happened today, she was going to need to break out the chocolate ice cream tonight. She stopped in front of the school, and got ready as she heard the final bell toll in the school, and she put on a smile as she watched her little daughter run out of the school with a big smile, and face that said “Mommy guess what all happened today”