Pyre's Reckoning

A village.

Engulfed in a flaming storm, ashes fell like snow and smoke billowed from remains of what was a house. A house that used to belong to a family. There was a doll on the ground by a rock. It was then picked up by a mare with a flame-like mane.

"I used to have a doll like this, Fire.... It had these same curls in its mane... and I would brush them all the time..." The mare brought it to her hooves using her magic. She petted the doll's mane, only for it to shrivel and burn up.

"AAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!" The mare incinerated the doll until there was nothing but ash and dust. The mare fell down to her hooves and began to cry, but no tears escaped her eyes. The fire around the mare started to join, and formed a figure that resembled an Alicorn. It moved towards the mare and petted her mane.

"You don't need such trifles...." The Fire spoke in a strange distorted voice, "You will always have me......, My Pyre....." The Flame engulfed her and vanished from the burning village in Saddle Arabia...

Celestia stood in the Hall of Ceremonies, the grandness of it unable to erase the sorrow that plagued her. She was standing in the gaze of light from one the most recent of stained glass windows. It depicted the final confrontation with the fiery manifestation that was created from the tortured mind of Candelle, a mare that could manipulate fire. She had convinced herself that she was Equestria's Pyre, and caused death and destruction throughout Equestria!

That was three months ago.

Reconstruction was taking more time than it should. The.... lack of workers.... made things harder, and recent reports from neighboring kingdoms distressed the princess further.....

"Your Highness...." A guard stepped into the hall, "Chief Flashpoint has arrived."

Celestia nodded, not turning from the beams of light shining through the window.

The guard opened the door to allow the guest to enter. Flashpoint walked in and the guard immediately left and closed the door behind him.

"Something tell me that this isn't a friendly chat...." Flash mumbled as he approached the princess. "Princess..." he bowed.

She sighed, "She's still alive...." Celestia turned and trotted over to the rise.

Flash watched as she walked away. "Who...," he turned to the window and realized who she meant...

"Pyre...." Flash whispered as he remembered when he spoke to her, before she disappeared in a torrent of fire. Her burning laugh was echoing in his mind.

"Yes..." The Princess sighed, "She's been spotted in Saddle Arabia, Germareny, and several small towns and villages outside of Equestria..."

"I don't understand..., wasn't she...., I mean, didn't the Elements...."

Celestia shook her head, "It appears the Elements had little effect on Pyre..." Flash noticed the helplessness in her voice. "Her strength was greater than I had originally anticipated...." Her voice left her as she was sent back to that final bout in her mind, "That....monster she became....it's strength was greater than Luna's and mine combined! I doubt the Elements will work on it again...." She sighed again, "If she attacks again....., I doubt we'd be able to stop her...."

Flashpoint looked again at the glass window; he could see himself, Twilight and her friends......, and the Fire Alicorn. He reached his hoof out to it, but something happened that made him jerk back. He turned away from the window and walked over to the princess.

"Princess.... I-"

"No, I'm sorry....... I should have done something more...."

Flashpoint stood silent.

"You remember me telling you that I had examined Candelle after she was found..."

Flash nodded.

"Afterwards, I met with the other higher officials of Equestria and gave them my opinion..." Another sigh, "But then disregarded me and sent Candelle to a special facility outside Equestria's borders...."

"Yes, you told us about that..." Flashpoint reminded her.

"I know... that's where you come in, Flashpoint. I want you to go to that facility and investigate."

Flash was taken aback, but only for a short time.

"I'll do my best, princess, but I'm not much of an investigator..."

"That is why I will be accompanying you."

Flash turned to the speaker; a light gray stallion. He had a blue/light blue mane with matching glasses. His cutie mark was an ice cube, like how Flash began feeling like being around him.

"Flashpoint," Celestia began, "I'd like to introduce you to Cold Facts..."

"Greetings, Chief Flashpoint." Cold said as he fixed his glasses. His tone was how Flash imagined it would be: bored and uninterested. "I will be joining you to the facility that my father ran."

"Your father?!?"

"Yes...." Cold replied as he looked down at the floor, "My father, Vast Minds, founded that facility several years before Pyre was sent there. He created it to help ponies and other creatures that needed psychological assistance."

"In other words, a 'nut house'..... Great..." Flash groaned.

Cold Facts looked away again and sighed, "Not originally...."

"You see, Flashpoint," Celestia started, "During the time Pyre was sent there, Vast had been through... emotional pain..." Celestia looked at Cold, who was looking back at the wall. "He became more aggressive with his patients, using practices I was unaware of until Cold Facts came to me." She moved her head towards Cold Facts, who was deep in thought. He snapped out of it and picked up where the princess left off.

"When the princess announced the cause of the fires.... and Pyre... three months ago, I figured that she was kept in my father's facility, so I decided to research further into it. Being a head scholar at Canterlot University, I was able to enter the archives and find those documents. It did take some time, and even more to convince the officials to grant me an audience with the princess...." Cold muttered some unintelligible remarks; Flash smirked.

Cold Facts cleared his throat and continued, "I found several letters and reports that Vast had made to the council. In them, I discovered that he had transformed the help center into an iron asylum, and used threats and force to keep his patients in line. All of them written after his spiral...."

Cold looked away again and stared down at the floor sorrowfully, still keeping his usual expression.

"This is why I need you and Cold Facts to go there," Celestia asserted, "What Vast did there was horrible and cruel, and what he did somehow changed Candelle into the crazed mare she is today, and I need know if there is any possible way to convince her to stop her rampage! Can I count on you, Flashpoint...?"

Flashpoint stood in thought, then smiled.

"Well..., since you asked so nicely..." Flash winked.

The princess smiled, "Thank you...."

"Don't mention it..., your Highness." Flashpoint bowed then walked towards the door. "Hey, Specs!" He called over to Cold Fact, who was staring at the window that Flash was earlier, "Ya comin'?" Cold said nothing and proceeded to follow Flashpoint out of the great chamber.

Celestia sighed and walked over to the same window and stared at the fiery likeness of herself Pyre created.

"Candelle........"

"For the last time, I don't know where she is! Just get away from me!!"

The stallion was screaming and writhing on the floor in his home; he had been visited by a strange hooded pony. All that he could see of his intruder's face was a small glowing purple light where his right eye would be. There was also a strange whirring noise whenever the purple light would move it's gaze. The intruder had bombarded the poor stallion with question after question, each of them involving the whereabouts of Pyre....

"So...., another dead end..." The intruder spoke in a low, raspy voice that sent chills down the tormented stallion's back.

"Yes! Please....just GO!!!" The stallion begged, but was ignored by the hooded intruder, who instead walked over to the fireplace.

"How lovely...." The intruder moaned as he looked at a picture of the stallion's family, "No..., I think I'll wait for your wife and son to return..."

"NOOO-Ummph-UMMPH!!" The intruder shut the stallions mouth using a magic spell.

"None of that now...." The stranger scolded. He walked to the sink and filled a glass of water, "Such exhausting work..." The hooded figure then removed his hood to the stallion's shock and horror. The purple light and the strange whirring all came from his right eye; it was mechanical! It buzzed as it telescoped back and forth on his face as he drank.

"Ahh....., much better...." The intruder slowly trotted back to his silenced victim and sat in front of him, the eye whirring as it fixed itself on the frighted stallion. "Before your family returns, I think we should get to know each other better..." He smiled.

"You may call me Psych-Optic..." The eye dilated on the disturbed stallion, "And from my observations, life's been very good to you...." The eye then flashed red, "Some ponies get all the luck..." Psych-Optic gritted his teeth in anger, but stopped when he heard hoof-steps outside. He smiled again, "Maybe they will be more receptive than you were....."