Fire, blue and luminous, filled the sky. The entire west edge of Ponyville was consumed, and it wasn’t stopping. The fire grew larger, brighter, consuming everything that stood in its path, mindlessly turning matter to ash.
My hooves pounded against the ground, splashing through puddles of water and mud from last night’s rainstorm. My lungs heaved as I galloped down the streets, my wide eyes darting left and right.
The stars weren’t visible in the night sky above, the sheer luminosity of the flames dominating the sky, bathing the houses, streets, and fleeing ponies in a bright blue light.
A sudden roar filled the air, making me flinch and duck my head instinctively. It came from behind me, and it came with a flash of more blue light. Risking a glance behind me as I ran, my eyes further widened.
More fire, now lit all across the east edge, growing rapidly in size. They were sealing us in. I didn’t know who they were, but their motivation was clear. To kill them all.
I yelped as I suddenly tripped over a forgotten cart, falling onto my side and rolling to a stop. I took a moment to breathe, staring up at the pitch-black sky above, bright blue flanking both sides of my vision. A pony jumped over me in wild fear, no doubt trying desperately to find some way out.
I slowly rolled back onto my stomach and pushed myself back to my hooves, shaking the dirt out of my mane. I stared down at my crown, debating on picking it up, but with a firm press of my lips, I decided against it and continued down the street.
My castle, I needed to get to it. But I couldn’t see it, not through the fire. Towering spires of fire danced through the air, blue embers fading off into the night sky like mock stars filling in the void above. To no avail, as they faded in mere seconds.
As I ran, I remembered my wings. Of course, I could fly and see from above! Spreading my wings, I bunched my legs and jumped into the air, flapping my wings and… crashing straight back into the ground, muzzle hitting the cobblestone beneath me.
The impact briefly sent stars into my vision, but that wasn’t my main concern. Immediately, I got back onto my hooves and spread my wings again. But instead of jumping, I flapped. I flapped as hard as I could, but my wings weren’t working. I was grounded.
Panic flared in my gut. Whoever had started this fire had thought much further ahead than I had initially anticipated. This wasn’t just rampant arson, this was planned townwide murder. Wasting no more time, I bolted back down the street, taking a sharp bend with as much grace as a fearful foal, my hooves scrabbling almost frictionlessly against the stone.
Once I righted myself, I looked up and straight ahead, and my eyes widened. My castle, the Castle of Friendship, was engulfed in the blaze. It stood tall and fast, only visible by its looming dark silhouette in the frenzying fire.
At the sight, my common sense abandoned me and I took off straight toward the ever-encroaching wall of flame, the beginnings of the heat making me squint my eyes. My friends, they were in here, no doubt, attempting to shelter from the fire.
It was smart, I had first thought, but then the nature of this fire dawned on me. It was not regular fire, it was magically enhanced fire, created by the sparks of a unicorn’s horn. With such magnitude, even the castle’s ambient magic wouldn’t be able to keep it out.
As the fire loomed in front of me, I braced myself as much as I could mentally and jumped right into the fire.
The agony was instant like a thousand snakes biting me simultaneously on every available section of my body. My first instinct was to scream and turn tail, to escape the fire and run as fast as I could away from it. But I did not scream nor run. Screaming would waste air, and in this precious environment where the fire stole it all to fuel its rampage, there was no room for wasting oxygen.
And running would abandon my friends, who needed me most now more than ever. Who I needed now more than ever. Blindly running through the fire, the immense heat eating through my coat and skin, I eventually slammed into my castle doors, the already weakened entrance collapsing against my impact.
With a firm thud, the doors collapsed, and with it, I did too. Only momentarily, however. In the castle, the fire was at a lesser amount than it was outside. It was everywhere still, but it didn’t make up my entire field of view.
“Girls!” I screamed into the roar of the fire, my ears swiveling intently to hear even the tiniest of noises above the crackling flame. There was nothing. I took a deep breath, nearly choking against the smoke and lack of oxygen, and chose the hall that called me the most.
I went left.
Once again, I found myself galloping as fast as I could, attempting to take breaths when I could. It was pain, raw and pure, as I ran through patches of fire that consumed both cloth and crystal alike. But that didn’t stop me.
My eyes swiftly scanned each door that I raced past, searching for any sign of entry. I always made it a habit to keep every door shut, so any open door might give me a clue as to where my friends were.
As I approached the bend leading to the stairs, I felt a sudden pulling sensation to my left. It gave me pause, causing me to skid to a stop against the charred carpet beneath me, and I looked at the door to my left. The door was ajar, only slightly, and nothing but fire raged from within. Something in my heart told me to check, to see if they were there, but something in my gut told me to not look, to flee the scene and get to safety.
Mom always said to trust your gut in uncertain times, and that listening to your heart, while courageous, was not always the right decision. But, Mom, I’m sorry. I’m going with my heart. Swiftly trotting toward the door, I pushed it open, wincing against the sudden increased intensity of the flames.
Inside, I saw the source of the more powerful fire. A shattered window, half-open, half-broken. Shattered glass was common in fires, as the glass couldn’t bear the heat of the fire. But my gaze fell downward and focused on the charred, blackened heap of flesh before me.
The roar of the fire only seemed to grow as the blood in my ears pumped faster, as all fight for my life left my system and was replaced by an unbridled sense of emotion. So powerful, I thought, as my mouth fell open and tears fell from my dry eyes, evaporating before they could even trail down my face.
It was an experience like no other, to stare at the corpses of the ones you held closest to you. To see their faces twisted in the agony you felt, to see their embrace even in death, to see the blue flames created by your unseen enemies licking at their flesh. Eating away at my friends.
And I screamed.
I awoke with a firm jerk, the desk underneath me shaking violently at the force of my awakening. A quill rolled off onto the floor with a quiet clatter, making my right ear swivel slightly. I slowly leaned off the desk that I had fallen asleep on, the pain in my back faint and yet so insistent. Of course, it didn’t beat the other pains in my body, the ones that trumped that one several times over.
I raised a hoof and pressed it against the edge of the desk, pushing me and the chair I was sitting on backward with a loud grating sound. Old wood and unpolished marble were two things that should’ve never mixed, and yet, here they stood before me.
Rising from my chair and onto my hooves, I didn’t bother to stretch. Why would I? My bones were blackened, my joints were charred. There was never a point to try and set something that would never be straight again.
I strode toward the door of my study, my hooves echoing loudly in the large expanse of this once-royal chamber. I reached out toward the handle with my magic, feeling the familiar electrifying pain as my pink magic crackled to life. A bolt of uncoordinated magic struck the door, leaving another black mark. One of many, many others, I noted with a mirthless smirk.
Regardless, my magic tugged the door open and I stepped out into the quiet, empty hall. The marble underhoof felt grimy, like years of dust and whatever other substance had been building up. Oh, right, there were no maids to clean them up. Not anymore.
“I wonder if anypony would live with me,” I said with a pondering tone, ignoring the way my broken voice reverberated off the walls. It was like speaking with two voices at the same time, and I never knew why. “Ha, of course not.”
“They’re all dead.”
My attempt at dark humor was futile. Nothing could cheer me up, not even my own attempts to cheer myself up. I continued to walk through the empty halls, occasionally feeling a flicker of familiarity once every 50 steps.
Ah, that was where I used to practice art magic. So many attempts to recreate masterpieces created by the hooves of long-dead painters had ended up with an entire wall plastered with arcane paint. The whole wall had needed to be repainted, much to my dismay.
Maybe now, I could truly create a masterpiece. But as I stared at the empty wall, I found myself not amused by the prospect. No painting, not even a hundred of them, could ever breathe life into this palace again.
I was nearing my destination now, just a few more corners and I’d be there. Along the way, I spotted the room that I had used to use as a safe room for practicing dangerous spells. Even the sign was still there, reading ‘Young Unicorns at Play - Enter at Your Own Risk!’. It was enough for me to crack a smile for just a second.
But as I pondered what it’d be like to use the room now, I realized there’d be no use in a missing section of the palace. So, I continued on, turning one final corner before arriving at my destination.
Rays of moonlight flooded in through tall, arched windows, the glass clouded and cracked in some areas, but clear enough to see through in many spots. I trudged down the hall until I got to the first window on the left side of the hall, and peered out.
Blue met my eyes, just as bright as ever, just as malevolent as ever. My lips curled upward with a quiet, painful chuckle. “You bastard,” I spat, shaking my head. “Refusing to be extinguished. Your masters kindled you well.”
The fire would never answer. It was fire, it wasn’t alive. But it was alive enough for me to hate it. To loathe its existence. Even after five centuries, it just didn’t go out. It still raged over Ponyville, even though the town had long since been reduced to ash. Even the ash was probably gone.
My castle was most definitely gone. As powerful as its magic was, any fire would’ve annihilated it after this much time. It both pained and angered me to look out upon the distant blue fire, to see it mock my eternal life with its own. But at the same time, it motivated me. As long as it burned, I would too, and so would my resolve to earn a position back in the past.
Turning on my hooves, I began to walk back toward my study. Well, it wasn’t my study. It was now, but it wasn’t always mine. I took it for myself. After all, the pony who owned it wasn’t around anymore. Not here to scold me, scorn me, or stop me.
And soon enough, all I wanted would be mine. The answers lay in the past, and to get them, I would travel there, no matter how long it took.
I would see my friends again, even if it meant suffering an endless eon alone.
