Flamesoar tosses her loose mane; its fiery colour blocks her sister’s view.
"What are you doing?" exclaims Firebird and glares at her twin "How am I supposed to do your mane if you're tossing it like that?" says the Pegasus as she continues to straighten her sister's usually gelled up mane.
"Sorry, but I'm so nervous!" responds Flamesoar and scuffs a hoof along the porcelain tiles of her bathroom floor.
"Stop that! You'll ruin the tiles I spent five hours putting in; without magic, mind you!" teases Firebird and carefully grips the straighter in her mouth running it along a bright orange streak of hair.
Flamesoar grits her teeth and tries to stop moving, at least until her sister is done.
"Are you ready?" asks Firebird as she and Flamesoar wait in the temporary stadium in Baltimare, waiting for Flamesoar's turn to go on for her show jumping performance. Her mane is pulled back into a bun which she did herself after Firebird started complaining about how unfair it is that Flamesoar had magic and she didn't.
A loose piece of mane hangs down across her face and Firebird brushes it out of her sister's face with one orange hoof.
"I'll never be able to say that I am completely ready because I'm nervous, but besides that I am fairly ready," answers Flamesoar and the piece of mane falls back into her face.
"What number are you?" asks Firebird and Flamesoar peers back at the sticker stuck over her cutie mark.
"Sixty two," she replies and blows the piece away again.
"Twenty more to go, we're only on 42," says the Pegasus and looks up at the thin metal poles crisscrossing as they groan under the stress of holding up the stands.
Flamesoar sighs and lets her mind loose, thinking of their new shiny apartment back in Canterlot. The two roommates and sisters had taken the train to Baltimare for the jumping competition.
Flamesoar gives a beam a kick with one of her front hooves and it trembles, and so do the rest of the beams above it. She gazes up, "Does this look safe to you?"
"Not really. Somepony did say it was put up in a hurry..." Firebird looks up at the ceiling far above, which is simply a big white sheet stretched over several larger curved beams. "It would have taken a large team of peagusi to get this together, but I don't want you to worry about this I think you have other things to worry about sis."
Flamesoar wants to be able to watch the other entrants compete but is currently standing under the stands making it impossible to look out let alone be able to see through all the ponies waiting to go on.
"Will all ponies not competing and who accompanied numbers 50-70 please proceed to the stands to watch the remainder of the competition," comes the expected call.
"I got to go now," breathes Firebird, "I'm rooting for you tiger." And with that she pulls her twin into a good luck hug.
Flamesoar hugs her back and when they release she is smiling, "See you after the show.” And with that she trots off.
"Number 60," announces the loudspeaker and Flamesoar moves carefully to the front to get ready to go on soon. Only two more to go, she thinks and taps a hoof nervously against the grass covered ground.
Five minutes pass and then ten and then the inevitable call comes. "Number 62"
Flamesoar proceeds to the gate where she will start and takes a deep breath.
"You ready?" asks the pony operating the gate.
Flamesoar nods and leans forward into her starting stance.
The unicorn watches a little clock count down the seconds to the start. Her tail rises up and the clock ticks down.
Three, two, one, GO!
Flamesoar canters off towards the first fence which she clears, easily avoiding the four point penalty. She canters around the next clearing it as easily as the first. Her hooves hit the ground with a gentle thud.
Now most peagusi leave a trailing when they go really fast. But Flamesoar had been delighted all so long ago when she found she too would leave a flaming trailing that set the grass aflame before it went out leaving the grass or pavement, wood or cobblestones unscathed.
Now this trailing appears behind her as she takes off towards the third fence. As she approaches it she hears a faint groan. Not unlike the groan she heard earlier when she gave the beam a kick. A bit rattled she still clears the fence, as her hooves hit the ground on the other side she hears it again, a bit louder.
Picking up the pace a bit she canters at the fourth fence. She clears it a little less easily but this time when her hooves hit the ground a huge groan comes followed by a loud crash of metal on metal. Flamesoar jerks her head abruptly towards the noise and sees a section of roof supports crashing down onto the field behind her. With a start she gallops off as the beams are ripped from the sky and the sunlight pours in illuminating the dust lifting off the ground.
Panicking now, the orange unicorn tries to dodge metal beams before one plants it's self into one of her hind legs. With a blood curdling scream Flamesoar's word is fading to black and the last thing she hears is her twin calling her name.
Flamesoar flicks open her eyes and blinks several times to clear her murky vision, bringing into view the orange shape in front of her. "Firebird?" the wounded unicorn calls out.
"No sweetie it's your mum." says Flamesoar's mum just as she comes into view.
"Where's Firebird?" She looks around and a horrified look comes onto her face. "Forget that, where's my leg?" she shouts, startling her mother who flares her wings in surprise.
"Sweetie, they had to amputate it, but you get a prosthetic." responds her mother.
"I don't want it; I want my real leg back!"
"You're not thinking clearly Flamesoar, you can't have it back"
"No" she screeches and takes short quick breaths. "Where's my sister?" she snarls.
"I don't know sweetie, she disappeared after they released her from the hospital." a tear comes to the mother's eye.
"Just go, I want to be alone" mutters the flame coloured unicorn and rolls over in her hospital bed as her mother leaves.
"We're checking you out of the hospital Flamesoar!" exclaims her doctor.
"Now?" she growls, "I don't want to leave yet"
"Sorry Flame, but we need the space for other patients. Anyways you've been here too long already, time to put that master piece to work!"
Flamesoar looks at her leg where a mechanical one is attached at the thigh. "Fine, but five more minutes" and she rolls over to reveal to the doctor her blank flank.
"Bye Flamesoar!" calls the secretary who came aquatinted with the three legged unicorn when she was stumbling through the halls trying to work her new leg.
Flamesoar grunts, she never much liked the talkative mare back.
"You can't let you're lack of a cutie mark stop you from getting out of here" she says but Flamesoar pays no heed and pushes her way out the front doors of the Canterlot hospital.
Flamesoar bumps open the door to her apartment and looks around. It's stripped of all sign that another mare lived there once.
All of Firebird's stuff is gone and the thing that Flamesoar wishes that she hadn't taken was her phoenix named Louis. The three of them had had great times together and now it was just Flamesoar alone with her new medications.
The mare leaves her bag in the hall and moves into the bedroom where she breaks down for the first time since the incident crying.
END
Continued as "Broken"
