Twilight bounced up and down on her sisters back. It was hard sitting still, this time. Usually, although it was a long time ago she got a piggyback ride, she would barely move as not to make it difficult for Sunset; this time however, she felt this strong urge to jump down and run on her own.

Sunset ran through a crowd of fleeing citizens in counter-current fashion. Twilight knew this didn't bode well. She had recognized the path they were on. It was one of the paths to their house but if people were running away from there... She felt her being squeezed by merciless hand. She really didn't know what to do if she something had happened to her parents. I guess, that was the whole point, there would be nothing she could do.

Twilight's hands held onto Sunset around her shoulders but she clasped her them together beneath Sunset's throat.

"Please, God," Twilight whispered to God but being essentially next to Sunset's ear made her pick up on it as well. "Please, let Mommy and Daddy be okay. Please pleaseplease-pleeeease. Owww. Ple-e-ease..."

Twilight whined and sobbed out the last parts.

Sunset gripped Twilight's clasped hands with on of her own.

"Shhh, Twilight, shhh," Sunset whispered back as she felt Twilight convulse irregular on her back while she would feel her wet cheek on the side of her neck. "Don't lose hope, yet they could be completely fine just as worried about us as we are about them."

Twilight breathing steadied itself and she hugged Sunset so hard that she started to constrict her throat somewhat.

"I-I'm sorry. *hiccup* I guess I'm just a little kid after all. *hic* Thank you, big sister." Twilight whispered into Sunset's ear so closely that her mouth and Sunset's ear were touching.

Sunset kept running. Letting the world around her become a blur as she knew the path home by heart. She pushed her cheek towards Twilight and soon found her cheek. They brushed against each other like that for a while. Both of them, even Sunset, shut their eyes in the act.

Sunset brought up her other side's hand up to Twilight's outer cheek and caressed it like one would a newborn kitten.

"Twi, you don't need to say sorry. I... It's me. I just... Can't seem to stop myself," Sunset said seemingly with much difficulty.

Twilight peered at her sister with glassy eyes, seeming about ready to overflow again. She opened her mouth but it was as if Sunset had a sixth sense regarding her speaking because she got interrupted before she even got a word in.

"But let's talk about that later, okay? Can you be on the lookout for the dragon in the sky?" Sunset rapped off.

Twilight nodded but then realized Sunset couldn't really see her without straining herself and said, "Yes, I can look for it."

She immediately looked to and fro up towards the sky. Meanwhile, she noticed that Sunset took the shortcut at the end of this path home in her peripheral. Sunset jumped and skipped a couple steps at staircase. During the landing, Twilight had glued her stomach and chest with Sunset's back to prevent her from hitting herself on her back. Sunset raced through a bunch of slithering, interconnected alleyways, which width was so short that Twilight had always felt threaten by the walls there since it felt like they could flatten her at any time. However, this time, even the crude graffiti on the walls felt reassuring.

Sunset turned a corner and grinded to a halt outside of the labyrinth of alleyways. Twilight's head spun in the direction of where she knew it to be, however, what she found wasn't the blue villa that was their house. Instead, she found a black brick foundation of a house with flames dancing on the house's grave sending off a pillar of black smoke rising with the wind.

The fact that the whole area had been burnt to crisp, didn't really register with Twilight as she completely tunneled on the corpse of her
home.

Not even Sunset could be the strong one this time.

"No!" Sunset yelled.

If Sunset had run fast before, she practically galloped now. It only took a brief two minutes to reach their home but in that time, Twilight lived for years. Like an earthquake had hit her, she trembled.

Sunset ran passed the shattered stone wall and gate, passed the piles of ashes that previously had been the home's garden, but then fell on her knees in front of the cracked porch. She been panting for a while now and her legs had been burning for a bit as well but it wasn't physical exhaustion that brought her to her knees.

She clenched her teeth together but her face did not display anger but despair. She sat there stunned.

Twilight hopped off her step sister's back and ran passed Sunset, on her way in the smoldering wreckage that was their house. The flames had been replaced by glowing and sparking embers in the ashes by now.

Sunset gasped and then snatched Twilight's hand with the speed of snake lounge.

Twilight tried to pulled herself lose but Sunset held so hard that she'd probably leave a mark. Sunset then, with one jerk of her hand, pulled Twilight off her feet and in close to her body. She then spun and then placed Twilight underneath, on the ground. Sunset's body formed a protective cocoon over Twilight.

"Sunset, what are you doing?" Twilight asked in anguish. "Let me go, or I'll bite you. Mom and Dad-"

"Could be dead. I'm not letting you see that," Sunset said.

Twilight ceased to struggle immediately.

"No, please. No."

Sunset gave her a soft hug.

"Hopefully, they aren't, but I'll check. Not you."

Sunset let go of her smaller sister. Despite what one might assume, Twilight didn't immediately rush towards the ruin of their old house but instead just laid there with her eyes shut. Her lip twisted into a grimace of pain. She clasped her hands again.

Sunset stood up, walked over to the wrecked porch, and, by threading carefully, stepped into what used to be the entrance hall. Well, the walls still stood but the it's small roof, the burnt remains of it, had fallen onto the floor.

"Mom! Dad!," Sunset shouted as she continue to on the still warm ashes around her.

If Sunset walked too fast, she'd kick it up in the air and get into her lungs. She pulled off her shirts, folded it and then tied it around her face like a mask.

"Twilight Velvet! Night Light!" Sunset placed her hands around her mouth to amplify her shouting.

Sunset entered what used to be the kitchen and found the legs of the dinner table stick out underneath the top floor that had caved in on top.

"Velvet! Light!" she shouted but this time closer to the caved in floor.

If they are here (and alive), Sunset thought, How I'm I suppose to find them in all this rubble?

She looked around in exasperation. She found that the few things that weren't burnt were the things that had been covered by something else that had. A cupboard had tipped over and most of the porcelain on it's shelves were broke. However, there were also a trio of perfectly intact stuffed animals: A grey horse wearing white polka-dotted blue shorts, a cute and demure looking hedgehog with soft, fuzzy fabric where the spikes would normally be, and a lion with goofy smile on its features.

It almost made, Sunset pause in her search seeing how her old bedroom friend had survived: Edgy, the hedgehog.

On the stove, Sunset saw that food had been splattered. She found the cauldron of responsible the floor leaving a trail of soup from there to the stove. An idea started to form in Sunset's head and a knot in her heart. It froze to a block of ice as she followed the trail back to the stove and saw soup drip of the stove onto the floor.

She crouched down and hooked hold of the ledge of the caved-in floor. She inhaled and then tried to stand up. Her leg muscles went from relaxed to tense to explosively flexed. The floor moved.

She could lift it just a bit and she managed to lift it on inch at a time with a lot of effort. She yelled through clenched teeth and a strained grimace. Her fingers felt flat by the weight they held up.

She got it up to her waistline before she stopped.

"I think I see... Mom!" said Twilight's voice from behind her.

Sunset nearly jumped but managed to restrain herself and still hold the weight up.

She had sort of figured that Twilight would eventually come in here if it took too long.

Twilight was on her all fours next to her as she crawled passed Sunset underneath the floor she was lifting with all her might.

"TWILIGHT! Get out of there," Sunset shouted.

Twilight paid her no heed and continued to crawl.

"Mom! Please, wake up," Twilight shouted from beneath the caved-in floor.

"What? Is Velvet there? Twilight?" Sunset tried to duck her head to see Twilight but it wasn't possible. Immediately, the strain of lifting the floor, returned in full force.

Twilight had crawled a broken wine bottle and some overturned chair. She had stopped next to an unconscious woman with striped white and purple hair.

Twilight's heart jumped up into her throat at the sight. She grabbed the woman's shoulders and shook them. There was no response.

"Mom. Do you hear me?" Twilight almost whispered towards the woman, then she didn't anymore. "Mom! Please wake up!"

Still the woman did not move.

"Ahh..." Twilight's scream turned into a whimper.

Twilight felt as if she was gonna fall in on herself that's when she hear Sunset call her name.

"Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!" Sunset called. "What is happening in there?"

"It's mom! She won't wake up!" Twilight crawled back towards Sunset. If anyone could help, it be her.

Sunset blew out steam on the regular but she kept the floor up. Twilight's desperation shone on her face.

"Can you pull her out of there?" Sunset asked.

Twilight gestured with both her hands in the direction of their mom.

"I don't know! I don't even know if she's alive and-"

"Stop it! Calm down, sis. Crawl back in there and check for a pulse. Try to pull her out if you can."

Twilight nodded with clenched teeth before worming back under again.

Sunset increased her frequency of exhales and inhales in preparation for what she had in mind. She closed her eyes and imagined falling down her throat and travel to her heart. The feeling of heat emanating from glowing coal spread out from her heart to every nook and cranny of her body. She could hear the crackle of glowing or burning.

She opened her eyes and saw her arms gleam in sweat and be red like a cooked lobster. She glanced into a pile of nearby ashes, it had come to life with a small glow.

Her muscles creaked as their skin seemed to peel of them and the tendon and flesh seemed to tangle in on itself.

The floor felt several times lighter than before. She pulled it passed her waist and up on her shoulders before pushing off again, standing tall with the floor resting on her hands of her upwards stretched arms. Now, when the floor had been pushed up so far Sunset's head was beneath it, even she saw Velvet.

Twilight stood on her knees next to the woman with her two fingers on her throat. When she saw Sunset, her eyes went wide. Her lip trembled.

Sunset saw Twilight's seemingly scared expression.

"Twilight? Twilight!" Sunset asked.

Twilight snapped out of it.

"I can feel her pulse. It's there," Twilight said.

"Okay, that's good. Can you pull her out of there?"

"I don't know." Twilight wrapped her arms around Velvet's stomach and grimaced as she tried to lift with her back. "I don't... Think."

Sunset nodded and closed her eyes.

"Okay."

She felt the palms of her hands sink into the floor she was holding up. A sizzling sound came from her hands along with trails of smoke slithering away from her hands.

Sunset lowered the floor onto her shoulders and lighten the load on of her hands, almost freeing it from the burden of holding up the floor. Then she slide that hand forward along the floor leaving a trail of smoke as her hand part the floor's underside's surface as she melts it slightly. Then she followed that hand with step forward. This way she began to raise the floor above her while moving forward, closer to the unconscious body of her foster-mom Velvet.

The closer she got, the heavier it got. After some heavy lifting, Sunset reached Velvet. She grabbed her shoulder only to release her grip immediately as she heard the, now familiar, sizzling sound of burning emanating from their contact.

That small contact alone left a light-pink hand print on Velvet's skin.

Sunset cringed and peered at Twilight. Twilight looked desperate. Sunset narrowed her gaze at Velvet before she grabbed the back area of her dress. The area was constructed in leather and strings, it clearly served the same function as a corset would. She used this as a handle for a her hands. She waddled back out from the floor while carrying the woman in her hands while holding up the fallen floor on her back.

Sunset felt the strain on all her muscles. Her muscles felt like knots that her limbs struggled against rather than what she pulled with.

When she reached the end of the floor, she fell out from it and collapsed behind her bringing Velvet with her.

Twilight pounced onto her mother's side, which made Sunset realize her job was not over yet despite her body wanting to give up.

"Move sis," Sunset said and Twilight moved to the side as Sunset rolled Velvet onto her back before placing both hands on her chest.

Sunset did not know what to do next. Velvet had a pulse so did Sunset need to compress her chest? Press she just needed air or was something wrong with her head. She decided to inhale a bunch of air before putting her lips together with her mother and blowing all out into her throat.

The sizzling sound returned again and Sunset broke the "kiss" quickly and began to pump Velvet's chest with a clumsy, untrained rhythm as per the next step by the CPR manual, as done by complete amateur.

"*Gluk* Haa!" Velvet choked before wheezing out.

"Mom!"

"Velvet!"

Twilight pulled her mom into a tight embrace, as much as her small arms could to the larger woman. She started to cry into her dress, leaving dark, wet spots.

Sunset wanted to join in and make it a group hug, however, since she practically on fire she refrained. She did feel a huge sense of relief as if a big weight had been removed from her shoulders.

Velvet blinked as her gaze danced groggily as she peered down at Twilight essentially burrowing into her side.

"Twily?" she asked as she sat up on her elbows and that's when she saw Sunset. "Sunny? Why are you so red? And, are those... Horns?"

Sunset blinked and looked over at Twilight with a puzzled expression.

Twilight's eyes stretched as they peer up at Sunset. Their gazes meet before Twilight looked away, scared?

Sunset pulled her hand through her hair only to stop when her fingers touch something hard. She began to feel and grip the rock-hard appendages she had encounter that despite peering upwards, she couldn't catch a glimpse of.

There were two of them she discovered and she traced their shape with her hands. It seemed indeed that growing from her scalp a pair of backwards-bending, long horns protruded, each with the girth of both her pairs of pointer- and long- fingers put together.

The fact that she had sprouted horns made Sunset question if she was dreaming or not but the fact that they also seemed to be shrinking in her hands, made her question everything even more.

Am I cursed?

Sunset shook her head.

"I don't know. But I'm alright though. We shouldn't worry about me right now, where's Nightlight and Shining? Are they in the house?" Sunset asked Velvet.

Velvet looked a her dumbly for a moment before she gasped.

"The alarm-bells! I was cooking and were about to leave to look for you but then I thought that Nightlight would do the same thing-and-I-thought-it-might-be-better-not-leave-so-if-you-were coming here so we'd not run past each other. I'm sorry, I should have just left," Velvet rapped off while her face trembled. She looked like she was reliving the moment.

Sunset motioned with an open hand downwards.

"That's okay. That's okay. We're fine. Where is Night and Shining?"

Velvet looked like her head was one of those IQ-puzzled with a little metal ball stuck in maze that needed to be tilted back and forth and side to side to be navigated. Eventually, she found the center.

"Nighty." She whispered. "Knowing him, he's probably on his way from the forge. And Shining..."

Velvet began to suck in air and did not stop. She looked like he son had died and now she was looking through her collection of baby-pictures.

"Argh! Why did you never listen to me? Always, with you dreaming about being knightz. Well, now there is a dragon here, what are you gonna do?" Velvet said pointed a accusatory finger at Sunset.

Sunset's face pulled all its skin to the point between her eyes in an instant.

"Ugh," Sunset exclaimed and smacked herself on the forehead. [color #FA3]"Of course, he's probably with his squad right now, looking to fight it, if not already..."

Sunset trailed off, she seemed to have lost herself in her head.

Velvet sat up and looked almost ready to move further and pounce on Sunset. Twilight clung to her arm and was carried along.

"How many times did I tell you to stop egging each other on. You're so tough, right? But now Shining will die because of all this stupid knightz crap!" Velvet yelled and stood up, almost looking keyed for a fight.

Twilight pulled away from her mom before cupping her ears, looking distressed.

Sunset eyes shut at first when she was yelled at, her mouth drawing a thin line as she was silently fuming. However, when she opened her eyes to retort and saw Twilight's uncomfortable expression, she growled.

"Grrrrrr- Stop! YELLLING!" As Sunset shouted this, a flame bloomed out of her mouth before fading away with accompanying sparks.

While the fire hadn't been that close to even lick Velvet, she still fell back on her butt as she reeled back from it.

Sunset blinked rapidly and brought her hand to her lips, Twilight's eyes expanded to the size of saucers, and Velvet had a look between confusion and disgust.

Velvet's looked changed to one of disappointment.

"What's becoming of you, Sunset?"

"I don't... What?" Sunset pulled herself away from the confusion she felt over having just spit fire with irritation.

Velvet put a hand to her chest.

"Are you going to use your weird powers to threaten me now?"

"Tch." Sunset clicked her tongue. "No..."

"You know, might doesn't make right. You do know that, right?"

Sunset grabbed a bundle of her hair and pulled.

[color #FA3]"I... Look, this is not the time! Twi is alive and well, Night is probably too. I just saved you, mom-" Sunset gave Velvet a glare and Velvet looked to the side, looking a bit guilty. "-and now I want to find Shining and-" Sunset abruptly cut herself off.

Velvet felt something cold grasp her heart and and she inhaled through clenched teeth.

"And what? Die together?" Velvet stood up and walked up to Sunset. She stood there a moment, quiet. Then she smiled despondently at Sunset before moving a lock of her long curly beacon hair to the side. "You still don't believe me, do you?"

Sunset just blinked and stood still. Her anger placated.

"When I tell you that I love you and that, to me, you're my daughter." Velvet sniffled and few tiny crystal drops welled up over her eyes. "I don't want to lose you, either."

Velvet then moved her hands and decisively grabbed hold of one of Sunset's horns.

"This still doesn't matter to me, so long as you don't use it to hurt anyone," Velvet continued and gave a Sunset a warm smile.

Sunset's mouth gaped and closed, like a fish. There was a pleasant tingling in her heart, like someone was tickling it with a feather.

"Vel- Mom, you'll burn yourself," Sunset said and gestured to remove her hand from her horn.

Velvet stroke it with a coy smile.

"It's fine. See? It's actually quite cool."

They looked into each others eyes for a moment. Twilight looked on, feeling hopeful that the fighting was over.

The moment was interrupted as they heard a scream outside.

"Aaahhhhhrrrrgh," a male voice yelled, starting from high-pitch and then rolling down transitioning into a growl of pain.

There was a pause then the voice was heard yelling again.

"Velvet. Velvet! VELVET!"

"Dad!"

Author's Note

Well, that's all folks. I might continue this sometime in the future but considering I wrote this like half a year ago, it's unlikely.