Tending Flames

It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville. Filled with the usual, sights and sounds of bright skies and birdsong. And absolute torment.

At Rosewood Cottage, Ditzy was dealing with a certain Pegasus made absolutely catatonic with strained wings.

Rainbow Dash found that she physically couldn't move her body from stiffness.

And Firestorm was cowering under his sheets, desperately ignoring the emotional hailstorm about to hit him square in the face.

Rarity was less that comforting in the regard. At sunrise, Firestorm heard the clattering of hooves on the stairway, and tried to sink into the mattress to avoid the day. Unfortunately, Rarity was quite insistent.

A short while later, Firestorm sat at the kitchen table, grumbling and nursing a severe bump on his head. The injury in question was more the result of his own flailing than that of Rarity's surprising attack, but it was her fault all the same.

The mare sat across from her cousin, giggling helplessly into her hoof while she watched him slurp at his oatmeal. "Hm hm...I...didn't mean for you to fall you know...Jumping out the window wasn't your...your brightest moment."

Firestorm glared at her. "Well, maybe you shouldn't have squirted water all over my head. Maybe you could have just, oh, I don't know, poked me, like a normal pony."

Rarity gave him a patronizing look. "Oh, come now, Where's the fun in that? Anyway, we need to prepare for our date later!"

A small fountain of oats found itself on the counter at her wording. Firestorm continued his stare. "It is not a date, if it was..."

"You would be happier, I assume?" Rarity raised an eyebrow. "you should have asked her out sooo long ago."

"Well that might have worked if I hadn't nearly shot her down first." Firestorm finished his meagre breakfast and stalked out of the boutique.

The beauty of mid morning was lost on the annoyed unicorn colt as he stepped out of Rarity's shop, hustled by his cousin into the bright and foreboding sunlight. Today is going to be painfull. Rarity had managed to get him into reasonably good shape. His coat was actually it's natural chestnut, his mane it's dark, almost salt and pepper colouration. his cutie-mark was not dusted with carbon and seemed to glow against his fur. Well groomed and shiny, Firestorm had never felt quite so out of place. He wasn't even allowed to wear his overcoat.

Ponyville was bustling as it ever was in the middle of the week. The talk of the town was some new declaration from Canterlot, something to do with military disarmament or something equally boring; The race from the day before being completely forgotten. Not that Firestorm found this a bad thing; he'd heard all he needed to know of that race. That being, nothing.

Rarity's stint of shopping could not be avoided, but she had planned for it. It wasn't long (That meaning that it felt like eternity) before the two unicorns found themselves standing outside of the town's foremost confectionery, Sugarcube Corner. Also to be noted was the absence of the two pegasi they had come to meet.

Firestorm sighed with relief from his position under the piles of Rarity's perchases. "Oh, darn, looks like they couldn't make it, we'll just have to head back to the boutique-"

"Hey! Hiya! We're over here, where it's safe! No Pinkie!" A chirpy and way too cheery voice called out over the bustle of the street. Firestorm stared straight ahead, desperately hoping that Rarity was too self absorbed to have heard it. "Ah, there they are, the Tulip Cafe. Come along."

Nuts.

Firestorm managed to turn around and walk across the street in a more or less controlled fashion. It took him all of five seconds to bottle up his nervousness into a small pit of depression in his stomach. By the time he got to the open air table where the two pegasi sat, he was so introspective that he didn't even notice their sorry state. He merely dropped the bags and sat.

Rarity, at least, was able to recognize the disheveled condition of her friends. "My word Rainbow! And Chasing, dear...Whatever is the matter?" Both ponies twisted and shifted constantly, unable to get comfortable. Chasing couldn't even close his right wing properly and had his head rested on the table. Rainbow Dash, who at least seemed functional, grinned impishly. "Yeah, that race yesterday was pretty serious. We kinda forgot the stretch it out afterwards, and...well, it's kicked us pretty bad. Chasing couldn't even get out of bed til Ditzy gave him a rub-down!"

Chasing snapped his head up from the table. "Hey! Don't make it sound weird like that, my wings were a bit locked up, and I needed a hoof, okay? And it wasn't as if you were any better. Fluttershy told me about your hiccup earlier."

Rainbow started, but tried to hide it under a cool gaze. "Oh, is that so?"

It was Chasing's turn to grin. "Yep, sure did, Miss Plankback." He turned to Rarity and Firestorm, continuing in a conspiratorial tone, "Rainbow was so stiff she couldn't even fly out here this morning. In fact, she fell clean off her cloud!"

Rarity, giggled as Dash changed colour, rapidly approaching beet red. "Oh my, Rainbow, was the race THAT hard on you?"

"No! O-Of course not...It's just hard to fly like that for a long time..." Rainbow tried to think her way out of her embarrassment.

Chasing suddenly gave up his teasing, rather following a new line of inquiry. "Oh, yeah, I have to say, if I flew like that for that long, I'd be totally broken. You have to show me how to do that."

Firestorm felt some unwanted curiosity rising in his throat. Before he could quell it, it burst forth in a question. "Fly how, now?"

His interjection was surprised the others, but he didn't care. He wanted to hear this. Chasing immediately jumped at the chance to explain. "Well, when we were racing I noticed Rainbow doesn't fly normally. You know, like normal pegasi raise their wings, angle them back and push the air away to move forward, then raise their wings and push down and back again? That's usual. Rainbow, though, when she raced yesterday, She pushed down, but when she pulled up, she reversed the angle of her wings and pushed back as well, so she was effectively powering on both the down- and upstrokes. That's skill, right there."

He looked over at Rainbow, who grinned under the praise, even standing up and attempting to demonstrate the movement. She grimaced though, and stopped after only three slow cycles. "Yeah, it's pretty hard, but nothing I can't handle!"

Firestorm thought for a second, intrigued, then said, "Oh, isn't that how a bumblebee flies?"

Silence. Rainbow threw him a deadpan gaze before sitting down again. Chasing held back a laugh, and Rarity was seriously beginning to wonder if her cousin was a social nutcase.

Firestorm, realizing his mistake, decided he had two options. One; sink back into morbid silence and allow the others to resume their conversation free of his input, or two; get a hold of his mouth and fix this, even if it meant pandering a bit. Rarity was right, after all, he had interests in this situation.

"I hear that scientists are still trying to work out how a bug manages to fly like that, but a pegasus like yourself learning a technique like that is astounding. In fact, if any other pony told me they had done it, I'd have called them a liar. It's remarkable, Rainbow." He trailed off there, his repertoire of complements being as low as it was.

Dash looked at him for a moment, raising and eyebrow. "Nice save, Fireball.'

"Firestorm"

"Whatever."

Chasing couldn't help himself. He burst into laughter, nearly falling over as his wing muscles twinged at the movement. It was just too much. "Haha! ow...Hahahaha, You tell him Rainbow! C'mon, though, he did try and fix it. Let's order something, hilarity makes my hungry."

Rarity heard Firestorm growl slightly, but luckily it was drowned out by Rainbow's loud order for some hay fries. Chasing Haze ordered a sunflower salad (A little odd, a stallion going for a salad). Rarity ordered the proprietary tulip sandwich, and Firestorm just ordered a coffee. Conversation died after that, an awkwardness falling between the four friends, the kind that could not be borne. Chasing quickly crushed it. "So, 'Storm, how did those fireworks you were working on turn out? You never did tell me."

Firestorm was about to answer, nicely, in fact, before Rainbow shot him another look. "More 'pegasus-terrors' I guess?"

Old memories die hard, especially that kind. He winced. "Listen Rainbow, I'm really sorry about that! How was I supposed to know you were there? The weather team had been told to avoid the test site anyway."

If he had bothered to look up, he would have seen the sparkle in Dash's eye. "But I'm not on Trottingham's weather team, now am I? And I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I didn't expect to be shot at, though."

FIrestorm sighed. Every time he had come to Ponyville, they had had this conversation. "Yes, I know, and now the field is up so everypony knows not to go there, so I fixed it, okay?"

"Not true!" Chasing crowed. "If those poppers had gone off, I coulda been hurt, too! lucky I rained on them though, so I was fine."

Rainbow guffawed through her fries. "You did what?! You have gotta tell me that story!"

Firestorm decided that plan one: Morbid Silence had become the better plan, and sank into his seat, vengefully drinking his coffee.

So lunch wasn't a total disaster. Rarity still couldn't believe how odd her cousin could act. She had seen him a few times with family, being a true gentlecolt, laughing and joking along with the rest. But put him in the same room as anypony he might like to impress, and he turned into a wreck. This was her main reason for getting Chasing Haze to help carry her packages back to the boutique. Getting Firestorm to interact as difficult as it was necessary for his sanity, whether he liked it or not.

Chasing walked along with bags hanging around his neck, smiling and greeting everypony around like an annoying conductor, while Firestorm plodded along, keeping his head down. He didn't even hear Chasing's question at first. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"What? Oh, yeah, why not?" FIrestorm grumbled.

"Okay. You and Rarity are family, right?" Chasing dropped his tone.

Firestorm flicked his ears. "Yes. Cousins tend to be considered family."

Chasing nodded slowly, not really hearing the reply. "Right. Well, I just wondering if it wouldn't bother you if I asked her out to dinner."

Firestorm very nearly swallowed his tongue. "What?! Okay, first off, why would you even think of asking RARITY out, and second, why ask ME about it? Not something I need to be involved with."

Chasing Haze looked across in mild surprise. "Well, I don't want to cause you any trouble, so I'm just letting you know, and I'm kinda hoping the she's one of those unachievable mares that no colt has the guts to ask out. I know it's a slim chance, but hey, why not, right?"

Firestorm felt an uncharitable glee when he heard this. He he gave a toothy smile. "Yeah, sure...why not? You go ahead, I'm sure she'll say yes."

By this point, Rarity had gone far ahead of them, and had already opened the boutique. The two stallions reached the door just as a whiff of smoke began to weave its way into the air. Rarity turned around in the door way, and was about to indicate where her goods should be placed, but Chasing saw the look of shock cross her face as she faced them. But she wasn't looking at them. She was looking over them.

Chasing gulped and turned around. there, in the distance, was a rising pillar of dark smoke. "Oh Luna that's my cue see ya guys gotta go BYE!" He dashed off, trying to get his wings to work and take off.

Firestorm felt a tightness settle into his chest. Everything else fell away as he worked out where the fire actually was. He saw Chasing take off, before dashing into the boutique and grabbing his heavy overcoat. He knew what this was worth. Time for some action.

Time to save Rosewood.