It was a nice and peaceful day in Ponyville, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, and everypony was going about there daily routine. Derpy Hooves, who had just recently married the colt, Dr. Hooves, that appeared in a strange machine he called the Tartus, was happily delivering mail to everypony she could. After stuffing a mailbox to the brim of it's limits she casually made her way to the next house where she then again began stuffing mail into the mailbox, not even reading the address or who the letter was to, she was about to go to the next house when a purple claw prevented her from proceeding.
"Oh! Hi, Spike how are you?" asked the blond mail mare with googly eyes
"I'm fine Derpy, but do you need any help?" asked the young drake, he was no longer a baby dragon but now a young drake on his way to adulthood.
"What do you mean? I'm delivering the mail?" said Derpy pointing to the exploding mailboxes and ponies scrambling to catch the letters
"Derpy, how many time do we have to tell you, you have to read who the letters go to." exasperated Spike, Derpy just scratched the back of her head sheepishly saying a cute "Oops, my bad."
*Sigh* "Don't worry about it Derpy, I'll help ya get this mess cleaned up." Thanks to Spike's expertise in paperwork he was able to transform the mail disaster into clean sorted bundles of mail, one bundle for every house in just a few short minutes. Spike wrapped each bundle in a rubberband so that the letters wouldn't get mixed up again then neatly sorted them into Derpy's saddle bag.
"Thanks Spike, I owe you one. Ooh! I know! How would you like a muffin when I deliver you and Twilight's mail?"
Spike chuckled lightly saying "Sounds good Derpy, I'll see ya around!" Spike called over his shoulder running towards the library
"Bye Spike! Say hi to Twilight for me!" Called Derpy, she then flew off to the next house where she stuffed five bundles of mail into the mailbox
Spike walked into the Library, ready for a day of hardcore study and chores that he would no doubt-ably have to do after he and Twilight were done. A few years earlier he and Twilight started to seriously get into studying, so serious that they often did it to pass time or actually have fun learning new spells and potions to make and test.
Last week Spike made a potion that turned what ever it touched into a ruby, you could imagine how happy it made him, now that potion lies locked in a box by Twilight, and is only used on special days like his birthday or the holidays.
"Twilight! You ready!?" called Spike
"Just a minute Spike! I'm just finishing my mane!" The purple unicorn called from upstairs
"Okay! I'll just set everything up then!"
"Ooh! Can we try manipulation spells today!"
"Uhh, are you sure? Last time we tried a manipulation spell I ended up in a ditch with half of Ponyville destroyed."
"Don't worry, it won't be on you this time, I was thinking of controlling a few rags and brooms to help spruce up the Library."
"Oh, well okay. You have gotten much better at those." Twilight finally came downstairs her mane and tail perfectly styled to her liking, she had also grown over the years now almost reaching Celestia's chin, but Spike grew the most. He stood a foot over her and was much wider than before but if she were to stand on her hind hooves she would be at eye level with him, Twilight's horn had grown longer as well now it was about eight inches in length.
"Okay, so what first? Brooms or rags?" asked Twilight
"How about brooms? We could sweep the floor before washing them, then clean the dishes." said Spike
"Okay, here goes." said Twilight, her horn began to glow as did three brooms as they simultaneously began sweeping the floor. Twilight stuck her tongue at slightly in focus as she imaged the pattern of each broom in her mind. In no time at all the kitchen, living room and library section were swept into one pile, then the dustpan flew off the rack covered in a purple aura and sat itself at the pile before the broom pushed it all on the dustpan and deposited it to the trash can
After all the cleaning utensils were placed back in there proper area the purple aura on them and Twilight's horn faded
"Whew! That was tiring."
Spike chuckled slightly before saying "Now you know how I feel"
Which Twilight retorted with "Yeah, except I did it three times as fast"
"Touchy, but were not done yet. We still have to scrub the floors."
"We? I swept, you get to scrub them."
"What!? But you used magic!" whined Spike
"Yeah, but it still makes me tired." she said walking out off the room
"Ans lifting boulders doesn't!" called Spike
"I can't hear you!" Twilight called back in a sing-song voice
Spike chuckled again before getting a bucket and a rag, he filled the bucket with warm water then added fragrant flowers into the water the same principles of making tea taking affect as the steam pushed the sweet aroma into the air.
Spike soon began cleaning the floors one room at a time, starting with the living room, as it has the most traffic, then the library section, and finally the kitchen. The once clean water now murky with dirt and dust. After dumping the water outside Spike walked back into the kitchen
Spike glanced at the few dishes in the sink and dismissed them for once, instead he would see what Twilight had been up-to since he started to wash the floors, heading up the stairs and towards there still shared room he herd voices coming from the other side of the door. Raising a brow Spike entered the room just in time to hear Twilight say "Thanks." before a cyan blur flew away in the window
"Was that Rainbow?" asked Spike
"Yeah, she was just warning me about a storm that was scheduled for today"
"How bad?"
"Pretty bad, we'll have to lock up, make sure the sign is brought in and the windows are shut tight."
"Alright, whens it gonna hit?"
"In a few hours, we still have some time to study before we have to prepare."
"Okay, so what do you want to study now?"
"Well I need to brush up on some elemental spells. I've got water and earth covered, we can't do any air spells until we get cleared by the weather ponies so how about fire?"
"Fire? Are you sure? That could be pretty dangerous." said Spike
"Don't worry, it'll be small stuff like candles or the fireplace."
Spike looked skeptical at first but seeing as how he could always put out any mishaps with a swipe of his claws he allowed it.
"Alright, but we have to be careful, fire is really dangerous, remember all the books I turned to ash?"
Twilight had a dramatic tear run down her face and sniffled slightly saying "How could I forget?"
"Oh, come off it. I replaced all of them remember?"
"I know I'm just teasing, so let's get started."
So Spike and Twilight went outside with a few candles and placed them on a rock twenty yards away. almost like target practice.
"Okay, now concentrate. Remember you just have to shake the molecules until they reach their flash point." Said Spike
"That's easier said than done Spike. I have to imagine every single molecule and vibrate them all at the same time."
"Hey, I'm just trying to help."
"I know Spike, and I appreciate it but right now I need silence." Spike said nothing more as Twilight began to try to light the candles, she stared constantly at the white sticks of wax, her horn sparking brightly and sweat ran down her cheeks from the great effort she was pouring into the spell. But the candle just sat there, unchanging.
After an hour Twilight finally took a break, gasping for air as if she had been sprinting laps around Equestria. Through all her effort all she was able to do was cause a single spark but not enough to light the candle. The sky had started to grow grey and Spike took notice of the winds starting to pick-up.
"Hey, Twi. I think we should pack it in, storms almost here."
Twilight looked up into the sky seeing the grey clouds rolling in and responded still slightly panting "You're right, let's get inside." Spike grabbed the candles off the rock seeing how exhausted Twilight was and took them inside the Library. He then began shutting and locking the windows making sure they were secure and brought in the library sign so it wouldn't fly away. Plus the loud bang it was making as it hit the side of the tree was rather annoying.
After closing the door and placing the sign next to it Spike went to see how Twilight was doing. He found her upstairs with a book of elemental magic in-front of her, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. Owlicious sat on his podium in the corner sleeping... wait Owlicious... pet... PEEWEE! Where was PeeWee! His panic was short lived when he herd the tapping at the window, Spike opened the shutters and glass frame allowing the grown phoenix entrance.
"That was close, almost lost you out there." Said Spike re-sealing the window, PeeWee landed on the nightstand beside Spike, and let out a screech towards the dragon. Spike had learned how to speak all of his friends pet's languages so that he could translate what they wanted to there owners and what PeeWee just said brought great annoyance to the young drakes mind
"Seriously? Now?" asked Spike, PeeWee just nodded in confirmation
"What'd he say?" asked Twilight from her book, she had improved on being more aware of her surroundings while studying from when Spike tried to serve his "Dragons Code" to Applejack
"Big Mac needs help pulling in a few wagons of apples before the storm hits."
"And he had to ask now?" asked Twilight also annoyed at the timing, the storm had practicably started!
"I know, but it shouldn't take long. If I hurry I can get back before it starts." he said heading towards the door
"Be safe!" Twilight called after him
"I will!" he called back before she herd the front door close.
Having nothing else to do Twilight resumed to try to figure out her problem
'Elemental magic similar to or contain the use of fire are for the highest level of magic users that should use extreme caution when practicing. When first learning how to control fire one should start small, and candle or lantern would be good for beginners. When attempting to ignite the wick or oil simply concentrate on extremely hot areas or things. (Ex.) If I want to light a candle I would envision the heat of magma, or the sun. The heat I feel in my mind will then be directed to the candle forcing it to light.'
"So that's what I'm suppose to do! I was just visioning the candle lighting instead of the heat!" exclaimed Twilight causing the sleeping owl to ruffle in his sleep
"Oops, I better do this in another room before I wake him." Twilight then proceeded downstairs to find something to practice on, upon reaching the living room she spotted a candle sitting on a shelf next to the window "Perfect!"
Twilight took her signature stance when casting a new stance, hooves apart and horn pointing straight forward, closing her eyes. She thought of the heat of an erupting volcano, the warmth of a fire place, and feeling of hot tea running down her throat, then pictured the candle on the shelf. Then, nervously opened one of her eyes to see if her spell had worked. It had! The candle was now burning brightly in the dark room
After realizing she had finally cast the spell correctly, her eyes flared open wide and a smile spread across her mawl. She yipped and cheered quietly in excitement but not loud enough to wake the sleeping owl upstairs
"Wait until Spike sees this!" Twilight cheered heading back upstairs, unaware that the heat she had released had not only lit the candle but the bottom of the curtain behind it slightly, but it was enough to catch fire soon after, the flame eating the cloth away before the curtain fell to the floor lighting the carpet ablaze next
Twilight proceeded to her room until her snout picked up a rather disturbing scent... smoke
Quickly rushing back down the stairs Twilight found her entire living room on fire, spreading all throughout the house. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no!" Twilight said in a panic, she quickly levitated all three brooms and started to beat out the flames, until the brooms themselves caught fire. panicking even more than before she tossed all three away accidentally spreading the fire even faster
"Not good, not good, not good!" Twilight exclaimed, the flames have now reached the ceiling weakening the support beams above. "Owlicious!" Twilight screamed
Said owl awoke at the yell and could smell the smoke spreading through the upstairs, knowing something was seriously wrong he began to fly towards the stairs, Twilight running towards them herself to try to get away from the flames, the front door was blocked by a wall of the deadly all devouring element as was the kitchen and back door. The only place left to go were the stairs but soon enough the beams collapsed from above blocking those off as-well, but Twilight was running just slightly too fast and slamed her head against the beam breaking her horn
"Ow!" Twilight cried in pain holding her broken horn with her hoof, the burning wood singed her hair but she didn't seem to care because now she was aware of a new problem she was now trapped on all sides and couldn't use her magic anymore.
Everywhere she looked, flames grew larger. Her precious books and photo albums were being turned into nothing but ash, and she was trapped with them. Owlicious made it to the bottom of the stairs but couldn't get past the burning beams to help his master, he was hooing as loud as he could and finally Twilight saw him past the flames
"Owlicious! Go upstairs and get out through one of the windows! Find Spike and take PeeWee with you! Hurry!" commanded Twilight
Owlicious only hooted in response before flying back upstairs where he found PeeWee trying desperately to fight off the flames but there was just to much for one phoenix to handle, Owlicious quickly unlatched the window and hooted to PeeWee that they had to go get Spike. PeeWee wasted no time and blazed out of the library, the windows on the first floor shattered from the intense heat and allowed the black smoke to escape the burning home and signaled to all the ponies near by of the emergency who soon began rushing to fetch water
Rainbow Dash herself saw the smoke coming from her friends house and began rounding up clouds over the home as fast as she could before kicking it as hard as she could, the cloud began pouring water onto the blazing inferno, but it wasn't enough as the fire spread to the top of the tree
"We need more water! Everypony double time! Use the storm clouds to put out the fire!" Commanded Rainbow Dash, soon after all the pegasus in town took flight, gathering clouds over the huge flame. As soon as they could they began bucking the clouds for water but only a few actually let it fall, most of the clouds weren't ready to persipitate so the most they could do was buy some time until the storm was ready
PeeWee flew straight to Sweet Apple Archers, in search of Spike, him being much faster than Owlicious got there first. He soon found Spike coming out of the barn about to head back into town. He was shielding his eyes from the powerful winds, but they didn't stop PeeWee. Flying right next to Spike he began screeching for Spike to hurry to the library
"PeeWee? What are you doing?" PeeWee began buzzing around Spike "Hey! Calm down! What's wrong?"
Giving up on explaining PeeWee shoved Spike forward causing him to stumble slightly but after regaining his balance Spike was looking right up into the sky where he saw the black smoke rising from what looked like the center of Ponyville
"A fire! Come on PeeWee! We have to hurry!" exclaimed Spike sprinting towards the pillar of smoke, PeeWee rolled his eyes before following after his master
Twilight was coughing a fit from all the smoke, her eyes burned and she felt as dry as a raisin, the fire was getting worse. All of the books were gone and she could hear the sound of all the ponies from outside, the water flying in through the windows told her they were doing all they could to try to help her and by pure luck the beam that blocked her way to the stairs had been doused with water, but in this heat it would soon relight.
Ceasing this opportunity ran towards the beams before hurdling over them onto the stairs, she ran all the way to her room but the smoke was even worse upstairs than it was down. Twilight was suffocating but now she had a little more time as the flames were further away from her now. She was coughing out ash as they filled her lungs causing them to feel as if they themselves were on fire.
Doing the only thing she could now Twilight snatched up one of the scarfs that had managed to survive the fire and use it as a filtration system to breath slightly better, then she proceeded to get as low to the floor as she could to stay out of the suffocating smoke. In her mind she was praying to Celestia that she would make it out of this alive
Spike was running down the main street of Ponyville, just up ahead was the library and now Spike could see that's just where the smoke was coming from.
"Oh no! Twilight!" Fear for his best friends life drove Spike to run faster than he had ever ran before, the scene that followed after looked as if Discord was here himself, Pony after pony carried buckets of water to the tree, up in the sky, Spike saw dozens of pegasus buzzing around the sky bucking and gathering clouds as some of them dropped rain from above.
But the large grey storm cloud still wasn't giving in, Spike frantically searched the crowd for the single lavender mare who's life he dreaded was in danger. He scanned the crowd for any sign of his friend but none of them were her. At that moment Spike knew that she was still in that raging inferno, but what he didn't know was wither she was dead or alive. Praying that he would find her somewhere in there Spike made a mad dash towards the library, sprinting past ponies left and right, some officer ponies were working on securing the area while the Firefighting Five worked on putting out the flames with little success.
The officer ponies kept the civilians at bay so that they wouldn't get in the way, but the drake easily broke threw the line
"Hey! Get back here! It isn't safe!"ordered the officer but Spike paid him no mind as he continued his way to the library, leaping through a broken window Spike's fireproof had went to work
*Cough* *Cough* "Twilight!" *Cough* "Twilight can you hear me!" called Spike but he didn't get a response, not seeing any sign of the mare Spike headed for the stairs that were blocked with the re-light beams of wood. Spike made his way through the flames as if they weren't even there but once he felt something sharp under his foot Spike saw something he hoped wasn't all that remained
On the floor were pieces of Twilight's horn scattered around, shaking himself from his thoughts Spike lifted the heavy beams out of the way, the heat actually bringing him comfort more than panic, but he pressed on heading up the stairs and towards there room, but then the house gave a loud creak and shook violently as more support beams came crashing down around him
The house wasn't going to last much longer, he had to hurry and find Twilight, so maneuvering around the flaming beams Spike finally reached there room, the door was half ash so he simply broke it down staggering into the room
*Cough* "Twilight! Where are you!" he called out again, then listening closely he could hear a faint moan coming from just a little further in the room, dropping to all fours Spike found her on the floor barely conchous but alive
"Twilight!" Spike exclaimed rushed to her side before shaking her awake "Come on Twi, snap out of it! I'm gonna get you outta here!" Spike yelled
Twilight stirred slightly before opening her eyes more to see the purple dragon "Ssspike..." she said weakly, her voice hoarse
"It's alright Twi, I'm here. I'm getting you out, but you gotta get up okay?" said Spike, Twilight soon started to get her hooves under her before standing, coughing more because of the smoke "How? The house is coming down." asked Twilight
"I'll think of something just stick with me alright?" Spike began looking around the room for someway for her to get out, all the normal exits were blocked by fire, sure he could get through but not Twilight, his eye then landed on the walls, "If you can't find an exit, make one!" Spike thought to himself standing up and taking a few steps backwards, Twilight raised a brow slightly
"Spike what are you doing?" she asked her voice still hoarse "Getting you out, like I said" he said before running straight at the wall, slamming into it using all of his weight, it seemed to be working. There was a huge indention from where he hit, a couple more and there would be a hole big enough to squeeze her through
Taking a few steps back again, Spike slammed into the wall for the second time, the process repeating a grand total of five time before finally the wall gave way and an exit was made. Sticking his arm out the hole Spike began to call out to pegasus outside
"Hey over here! I found her!" Spike called before retracting his arm and sticking his head out, looking into the sky he found the mare he was looking for "Hey! Rainbow Dash! Down here! I found her!"
The cyan pegasus looked over towards where she herd her name called and saw Spike's head sticking out a hole in the tree "Spike? What are you doing!" she yelled
"Nevermind that! Get over here! I found Twilight!" Spike yelled back, Rainbow Dash was there in an instant waiting to carry the lavender unicorn down to safety
"Alright Twi, you're all set. Rainbow Dash is gonna carry you down." said Spike helping Twilight to the exit
"But what about you? That hole doesn't look big enough." She protested, "Don't worry I'll just get out the way I came in, I can get past the fire. You just get some air alright?" Twilight was too weak to respond, in fact she could barely move, so Spike picked her up placing her and Rainbow's back carefully before she was carried down to safety now fully unconscious
Spike began to make his own way out but the house let out one of the loudest creaks yet and shook so much the bed began to slide across the room like a flaming bowling ball, then all of the items in the room began to slide to one side as the shaking increased, screams of terror could be herd outside, but the loud cracking sound blocked most of it out, but he was able to make out one part a faint "It's comin' down!" Right before the floor beneath him caved in, taking Spike down with it
The giant Treebraray snapped in half sending splinters of wood everywhere, some lodging themselves into the drakes thick hide, piercing it in the process, but the pain was nothing compared to what his body felt at the moment, Spike now lied on his back, his leg sticking out at an awkward angle and wooden shards sticking out of his body. Scarlet liquid mixed with the rain as it ran off his body, the entire top floor was suspended above him slowly sliding off the broken tree. Soon he would be buried under the entire top floor, flames still licked at the remaining dry wood as time went by agonizingly slow.
All was quiet, the only thing he could hear were the babels of the crowd, the harsh winds whistling, and finally the creaks of the remainder of his home sliding out of the tree to crush him. His eyes were glazed, his mind a blur as he watched the top floor fall towards him in slow motion. He was left counting the final seconds of his life...one...two...thre-...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...