A Fire on the East

Chapters

1 | The Evacuation
2 | The Messenger Bird
3 | The Princess
4 | The Fire
5 | The Family

1 | The Evacuation

"Mama?" Beneath the glowing, ash-strewn sky, the butter-colored filly's voice did not carry far over the armored pegasi galloping past her, their hoofbeats pounding in her ears. "Mama? Where are you?"

"Fluttershy!" An ochre mare in golden armor spotted the filly beneath the confusion and raced over, tearing up bits of cloud as she went. No sooner did the mare reach her did she scoop her up and take off, pumping her wings for altitude.

"What are you doing out here?" the mare demanded. Though her peppermint mane fell into Fluttershy's face, the filly could see the fatigue hanging beneath those orange eyes. "Why aren't you with the other foals?"

"I—I couldn't keep up with them." Fluttershy's head drooped to her chest. "I w-wanted to, but I was scared, Mama. My wings won't carry me like everypony else's." She unfurled one of them as far as she could manage, and even for a foal her wings were tiny. Most of her primaries had yet to molt into pinions. Looking at them, how insignificant and weak they were, made her tear up. "I went to look for you," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

Summer Sky nuzzled her daughter's pink forelock. "Don't fret, my child. You're still growing, and Papa and I both know that one day you'll be a very strong flyer, just like the rest of us. For now, let's find Rivermay and get you safe with the rest of your friends, okay?"

Fluttershy's stomach did a funny loop. All of the other foals her age could fly, and even some of the younger ones hovered better than she did. Not all of them were kind to her about it. "Why can't I stay with you?"

"We've been over this, Fluttershy. Mama and Papa can't keep you safe while we work." Since Summer Sky kicked off from the outpost's central cloud, the homes and buildings were thinning out beneath them as they flew out west. "It's up to the ponies of Flamewithers to make sure the town holds to its name, no matter what comes over from the dragon lands."

Fluttershy looked east. Several miles out from the edge of Flamewithers, a wall of fire raced across swaths of rolling, barren land, the conflagration sustained by unknown forces. It lashed out in angry gouts of red, orange, and gold, casting ashes from its highest reaches. A formation of pegasi in gray armor flew between the outpost and the fire, their bodies like midges against the blazing landscape.

As she watched the fire spiral ever closer to her home, a chill began to pool behind Fluttershy's heart. She pressed her muzzle against her mother's collarpiece. "Will you be okay?"

"As long as you are ours to treasure, my love—I promise you that Papa and I will be just fine. We'll fly straight to Cloudsdale to pick you up as soon as we finish."

A tailwind lifted mother and daughter several stories into the sky. Up ahead, a team of five pegasi pulled a raft of foals behind them toward the main pegasus city. Fluttershy threw her hooves around her mother's neck.

Summer Sky chuckled. "Be brave for Mama, all right?"

"I—I'll try."

"How about, 'I will?'"

Fluttershy only tightened her hug.

Summer Sky pulled in next to a navy-colored mare, exchanged a few words, came to an agreement, and lowered her daughter to the raft. "Be brave, Fluttershy," she repeated. "I'll see you soon." She backwinged into the air with long strokes.

"Be safe," Fluttershy implored. By then, however, her mother had flown too far away to hear her. The filly followed Summer Sky with her eyes as the mare winged her way back to Flamewithers.

Fluttershy had never been this far out from her hometown before, so this was the first time she had a complete picture of it. The main settlement formed three descending cloud terraces facing out toward the blasted expanses of Drakkvarna, the dragon lands. Weather factories lined the rim of the upper terrace, each of them on their own little cloud. Yard after yard of inky thunderhead cloud churned forth from their slender stacks. At the far end of the high terrace, a tapered lighthouse flashed sequences of green and blue from its apex. Pennants emblazoned with Princess Celestia's solar insignia flew defiantly from the spires of watchtowers.

Home to no less than five hundred ponies, Flamewithers was still little more than a period against the burning page behind it. All Fluttershy could do was watch as the storm twisted closer and closer to her home—the formations had long since disappeared to her naked eye.

"Double time, ponies!" Rivermay barked from the front of the raft. "That fire's less than a mile out from the town."

Between the sudden acceleration of the other pegasi and the inherent curiosity of foals, Fluttershy disappeared underneath a pile of ponies as they kicked and squeaked for a spot on the back edge.

"Move, cirrushead. I wanna see the fire."

"Can anypony see my dad from here?"

"Hey! Whirlyloo kicked me."

"That's only because you have such a big head."

"Somepony... help..." Somepony's flank pinned her wing at a painful angle, and she couldn't break free no matter how much she tried to twist or roll away. There were too many foals on top of her, and a small, dancing triangle of light taunted her just beyond her muzzle. She pushed her way toward it as her vision blurred with tears—she couldn't hang on—

And then the mass of foals above her grew silent.

Fluttershy finally worked her head out into the open air and sputtered for breath, weeping. Then she too became silent. There was only the sound of pegasus wings beating the air.

In the distance, the front edge of the firestorm swept over Flamewithers. Houses evaporated into puffs of steam. Watchtowers buckled and fell, one by one, throwing up banks of mist as they toppled. The thunderheads clashed with the flaming wall but for a brief moment before, outsized and outmatched, they too dissolved into vapor. The lighthouse went dark.

All of this, in complete silence.

"Mom? Dad?" A colt near the top of the pile stared at the burning town with huge, disbelieving eyes. Others piped up under his lead just as the lowermost terrace began to sink away from the rest.

"My house..."

"Miss Rivermay? Are my mommy and daddy okay?"

"They told me they'd protect us..."

The voices of the other foals grew remote in Fluttershy's ears. Her eyes scanned the horizon for any signs of her parents as the blaze advanced toward the edge of the Everfree Forest. They were nowhere in sight.

"You said you'd be just fine," she whispered. "You promised."

She expected to see them, still—she held out for dots in the distance, even as the last house curled and withered into the flames.

"You promised you'd pick me up from Cloudsdale when you were finished."

It was not fair. She had had that moment of clarity. She had seen the smile on her mother's face. She knew her parents were going to do their jobs and keep everypony safe.

"Mama? Papa? I'm still here." Drops of anger like molten iron began to seep into Fluttershy's voice. "As long as I was yours to treasure, right?"

The weight crushing down on her decreased as a few foals clambered of her—if she had been listening, she would have heard them muttering in low voices. The front edge of the firestorm reached Everfree's eastern border and hurdled the first line of trees.

"I'm still here." The air around her shimmered as more foals rolled off of her back. Her eyes turned hard as she stared into the firestorm. "That means you're still there, too. Please. Come out."

The first embers of the Everfree blaze danced into the sky. The muttering escalated into something louder. Somepony cried out with something about how hot it was getting.

"Come out!"

The air shimmered and pulsed more intensely around her. The last pony hopped off of her back screaming—and now all of the other foals were watching as her hooves lifted a couple of inches off of the raft. Flecks of light sparked across her coat. Behind the firestorm, the remaining fragments of Flamewithers, charred, twisted, and vaporized, fell one by one from the sky.

"Summer Sky! Sundown!" she yelled. "Come out of there this instant! You promised you would be fine! You promised me!"

Something popped like a firecracker the instant she finished speaking. Then she heard the other foals scream—they dashed to the end of the raft as far away from her as possible. The escort pegasi gawked at her and burst into obscenities. Then a navy mare rushed in front of her—Rivermay's golden eyes glared into Fluttershy's.

"Stay still." Those were the only words the mare spoke.

But Fluttershy was not a soldier. She was a filly, and only had the discipline of one. She looked down.

Golden flames raced up her torso and over her wings. Her hooves flared as she flailed them about. Her mane threw sparks left and right. The air was hot and bright and she was burning, burning, burning.

"Miss Rivermay, help me!" she pleaded.

Two strong hooves drove into her abdomen, and she plunged back toward the cloud raft. Everything went white.

Wood and glass crashed on tile the instant Fluttershy snapped awake. For a moment, she could not remember where she was—the padded surface she lay on was not her bed, nor were the violet, filigreed walls those of her cottage. Her heart pounded against her ribs—how did she get here?

"Fluttershy!"

The pegasus jerked her head around at the call and regretted it when her neck spasmed in protest. She suddenly had a hard time seeing. But she knew that voice. "Rarity?"

"Good heavens, darling," said the unicorn, shaking slices of cucumber from her eyes. "That gasp of yours gave us quite the shock. Are you okay?"

"I—" It occured to Fluttershy that her friend was also lying belly-down on a padded table close by, with the hooves of a pink-coated, blue-maned mare pressed into her opposite flank. Both of them were wide eyed, their irises diminished to the size of buttons.

"Oh, Rarity, Miss Aloe—" Fluttershy's ears flattened in shame. "I'm so sorry to have scared you all." She turned to her other side, where the spa pony's sister stood against a nearby pillar, her chest heaving from recent exertion. "Miss Lotus—I'm so sorry. I—"

Yes, that was it. That was why she was here. She was at the Ponyville spa for her weekly get-together with Rarity.

She noticed an upended pedestal on the floor, the jars and vials it once held lying in jagged pieces as their former contents mixed into iridescent puddles of oils and scents. She smacked herself on the head. "I'm such a loudmouth." She turned to Lotus. "I promise I'll pay for all of this."

"Don't even worry about it," said Rarity. "It's on me this time."

Fluttershy's ears perked up in surprise. "But it was all my fault. I wouldn't feel right making you cover for me."

"'Fluttershy, you cut that out at once. You are here to relax and I will not have it any other way."

"But—"

"Ah! Zip it." This the unicorn said in a low voice she rarely used, and it won her the pegasus's compliance. Faint violet auras surrounded the glass fragments scattered over the tiles and lifted them over to a receptacle along the wall, while Aloe and Lotus mopped up the rest of the mess. It did not take them long. Lotus turned Fluttershy on her back, placed her hooves under her eyes, and began rubbing the area in gentle circles.

Strangely, the look the spa pony gave her was not one of irritation, but of worry. "Mees Fluttershy," said the spa pony, "if I may be honest? Eet does not appear that you have been sleeping well lately. Your eyes feel so tired."

"I-i-i-is i-it th-that d-d-d-dream ag-g-g-ain?" Rarity's voice vibrated under the tattoo of Aloe's hooves.

"I'm afraid so," Fluttershy corrected. A wave of woozy pleasure slithered down her spine as the spa pony slid her hooves up and around to just in front of her temples. Little by little, tensions she had not even been aware of melted away from her face and neck. The same thing was happening for her thoughts. "And yes, Lotus. Lately, my dreams have been—well." Her voice grew quieter with each word. "They haven't been very, um. Nice."

Lotus clicked her tongue. "I am sorry to hear that. Here—remember to breathe, yes?"

"Oh, sorry."

Rarity rolled onto her back like Fluttershy. "I don't understand what's going on with you, darling," she said. "Your parents are still happy and in good health the last time you told me about them, and you went to visit them just last month, did you not?"

"I did." The pegasus frowned. "They even asked about you, and how the boutique was doing."

"Then why do those dreadful nightmares keep coming back?" Rarity lifted a hoof into the air and let it drop a few moments later. "I can't even begin to imagine what I'd do if I had to see my business torched like that. I'm sorry I can't help you anymore with this. I feel so unhelpful here."

"It's okay, Rarity." Fluttershy dug deep into her mind, pushing the troublesome embers of her dreams aside, and came back up with a small smile. "I didn't think they would have come back, either. For now—I'm just happy to be here with you. We're here to relax, right?"

"That is the idea." Lotus's hooves moved to the base of her skull, where she gently lifted her head a few seconds at a time.

"You're absolutely right," said Rarity. "Let's put this dreadful business aside. In fact, I have a story that might cheer you up. Would you like to hear it?

"That would be lovely."

"Very well, then. Just the other day, I finished making a new summer dress when somepony walks into the boutique, and you'll never guess who it was. It was Applejack. Applejack, of all ponies. Wahahaha!"

The unicorn had given Fluttershy no time to guess at all, but that was the way Rarity spoke when she got rolling. The pegasus often got lost beneath all the words. At the moment, however, she was grateful to have someone fill the silence. She continued listening, inserting nods and affirmative noises at the appropriate times. Applejack had lost a bet with her brother—a bet that had apparently involved a fancy dress and a makeover...

***

Fluttershy stepped into her cottage just as the sun set below the horizon. Though Rarity had offered to put her up for the night after the get-together, the pegasus had declined. The unicorn was one of the most generous ponies she knew, and that generosity could push her too far for the sake of making others happy. She remembered asking her for a hat made out of bird's eggs, by Celestia. Rarity must have felt her career going to pieces while making that thing.

At any rate, the pegasus thought the last thing she needed was to stay up all night telling Rarity everything about her dreams, and why she thought they kept coming back. She shuffled through the living room into her kitchen, where a white rabbit with beady black eyes read a newspaper at the table. At the sound of her entrance, he set the paper down and waved.

Fluttershy smiled. The dishes were stacked in their shelves and the countertops gleamed. "Thanks for tidying up the kitchen while I was gone, Angel."

The rabbit stood on his seat and bowed low. It had been his pleasure.

The two of them then spent some time discussing some of Fluttershy's patients. "Mr. Mousey's still staying off his leg? Good... Cottontail's running a fever again, so you know the regimen... Well, I wouldn't be happy wearing a brace, either, but we need to make sure Bluebeak keeps his on until his wing gets better." Being Ponyville's resident veterinarian meant she shuttled between the different areas in and around her cottage most every day. Though many ponies did not realize this about her, Fluttershy rose just as early as Applejack on most days—many of her patients disliked daylight. She even cared for a manticore kit she had found on the edge of the Everfree Forest. It came for a bowl of milk twice a week and always waited for her beneath that one fallen tree. Celestia, had her work with that creature paid off that one time!

Angel poked a paw at a place setting on the other side of the table, asking if she had eaten already.

"Oh." Fluttershy cringed. "I had dinner with Rarity earlier. Sorry." The pegasus broke into a sudden yawn, and her wings flared out from beneath her saddlebags' straps. "Goodness, I didn't realize how tired I'd be coming back from the spa. I think I'm going to call it an early night. We've got lots of work to do tomorrow."

Angel saluted and made to put away the dishes on the table.

Fluttershy sighed as she left the kitchen. She could not be like Rarity and run her ad hoc clinic by herself—Angel took care of all the little details she overlooked, and he earned every letter of his name for it.

She reached her room at the top of the stairs. Birdhouses hung from the rafters around her her bed—much easier to clean that way. Earthen pots of medicine and aromatic herbs clustered in the corner near her bathroom, and several windows looked out into the purpling night sky. The floorboards squeaked as she made her way to her nightstand, where she pulled a pale green candle out from her saddlebags and lit it.

It smelled of cut honeydew and summer lavender, and the flame burned merrily in the dimness. The spa sisters had given it to her as a gift, despite her insistence on paying for it—oh, they did not have any of that. They told her it would help ease her dreams at night, and that it was the least they could do for a loyal customer. She fanned the candle flame with her wings to get the scents into the far corners of the room. If the candle did what the sisters said it would do, she would ask them for Rarity's "usual" the next time she visited them.

Just as she was about to climb into bed, a flash of bright red caught the corner of her eye from the cobblestone fireplace on the far wall. Perhaps it was because she was tired that she was prone to whimsical notions, but she shuffled on over anyway. A ledge above the fireplace held a variety of small items: an acorn cap, three mottled seashells, a pair of crossed porcupine quills, an ivory-veined obsidian, and countless others.

Rarity had come up with the idea of collecting mementos of her former patients. She had even made the first contribution to the collection with one of Opalescence's gem-encrusted collars, saying that just because Fluttershy's hard work sometimes escaped the other ponies did not mean it had to escape her.

But even though the fashionista was her best friend, Fluttershy's foremost keepsake rested upright in a glass case above the ledge. Its donor had been the only patient the pegasus had ever failed—but then again, nothing could have helped that patient but time. The memento was a pinion, one of the largest and most important feathers for flying, and it changed from a vivid orange at the base to a bold red at its pointed tip. It glowed from within, casting a warm tint over the gray stones behind it.

Very few ponies could say they had seen a phoenix—fewer still could say they possessed one of their feathers. As far as Fluttershy knew, she was the only pony in Ponyville to have one. It had not been easy to get. Philomena, after all, had been none other than Princess Celestia's personal pet—and, like her owner, she had a trickster side to her. Fluttershy could hardly believe a month had passed since their visit.

Thinking back, she wondered how she could have once lived on the borders of Drakkvarna, where fire was just another kind of weather, without recognizing what Philomena was sooner. The adults sometimes talked about firebirds who left trails of flame whereever they flew, and a few came to roost at Flamewithers during the winters. When the nights grew cold, having a firebird in the house was a blessing worth several midnight patrols. Then again, Fluttershy had never seen one close to death, much less how they burned when they died.

An uneasy feeling pooled in her stomach. Though Philomena's feather was hooves down one of the most beautiful things anypony was liable to own, she suspected its arrival had something to do with her recent dreams. They always happened at Flamewithers. They always had her parents. And they always ended the same way—an immense firestorm would rip through her dreamscape and she would jerk awake, sweating and huffing.

Being set ablaze, though—that was new.

She suddenly wished she had somepony else to talk to about those dreams. Rarity had listened to her long enough and did not need to be bothered about it. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie talked about their dreams from time to time, but all the prismatic pegasus ever dreamed about were the Wonderbolts, and most ponies turned their brains off for safety reasons whenever Pinkie broached the subject. She was the reason why no restaurant in Ponyville served oatmeal anymore.

Who did that leave? Applejack always treated Fluttershy kindly, but the farmer pony put as much stock into nighttime dreams as she did in the fashion industry. She would probably try and convince her to ignore them. That left her with only one option—and this one seemed the least suitable at all. She had come from the most prestigious unicorn academy in Canterlot, always carried a book or two with her whereever she went—and she had a stubborn skepticism against anything which could not be proven through scientific, methodical study. True, having Pinkie Pie as a friend taught her how accepting the unexplainable from time to time did not make her less happy or intelligent. But would she approach a dream with the same kind of openness?

She did live in the Ponyville library, however. And Flutteshy had no doubt that she had plumbed the depths of Canterlot's extensive archives during her studies. Even if she went about her days free from the concerns of dreams, she had to have a book or two on them somewhere. And even if they didn't answer all of her questions right away, at least they could point her toward an answer.

She was also a very close friend—one she had confided in during her brief foray into modelling, and one who enabled her to overcome her fear of fully-grown dragons. Yes. There was that.

That was it, Fluttershy decided as she slipped into bed. Come the next day, when she finished checking on her morning patients, she would head to the Ponyville library and speak with Twilight Sparkle.

2 | The Messenger Bird

The candle helped. She spent the night loafing in a field of sunny, summer grass as a lavender breeze drifted over her.

***

The next morning, Angel helped Fluttershy ready medicines for the early patients before they ate a quick breakfast of field greens and vinaigrette topped with watercress and cilantro. When the pegasus journeyed outdoors, the sky glowed with the warm purple of an early morning. She heard low thuds rumbling over from Sweet Apple Acres—probably Applejack, she thought, bucking her spring crop while most other ponies slept. Fluttershy's morning patients kept her too busy to visit the farmpony in the mornings, which was fine. Even though they had lived close to each other for years, she hardly knew what to talk about without feeling like a nuisance to the hard-working mare.

The pegasus began her rounds with a chipmunk resting beneath the eaves of her cottage. The gash on his paw was healing nicely and only needed a fresh bandage. A little paw tapped her back hoof as she finished wrapping the wound—when she turned around, one of Cottontail's kits looked up at her with huge, quivering eyes. She smiled, telling the little one not to worry about her mother before sending her off with a packet of herbs. Behind her, a horned owl with aged, milky eyes alighted on a nearby willow, just as Angel arrived with a bottle of eyedrops in his mouth.

Pegasus and rabbit made a slow tour around Fluttershy's cottage as they worked— they checked on the ferrets by the creek and left insects and nectar for the hummingbird nests. The number of patients Fluttershy tended to kept her on the tips of her hooves—after a couple of hours, her coat had picked up a good sweat. She saved the chicken coop for last, refilling the feed trough with a smooth pass from the feed bag while Angel scampered inside for eggs.
As soon as she re-entered her cottage, Fluttershy retreated upstairs for a well-deserved soak and brush. She scattered a cup of rose heads on the water and lowered herself in, drawing wisps of fragrant steam through her nostrils. Her mane meandered just beneath the water like roads, threading between the blossoms as they turned on the surface. She turned them into a game of sorts by pushing them around—every blossom she displaced drew two more in its wake. She continued playing with the flowers so long that only after she drained the tub did she remember—

"I was going to see Twilight today!" she gasped. She had nearly gone the entire morning without thinking about her dreams—but they were the entire point behind her visit, after all. She had no doubt her friend had the perfect book to put this terrible business behind her for good.

"Oh, I hope she's still there," said Fluttershy as she galloped through her front door. However, she did not get very far before looking up—and she ground to a halt so violently that she felt her teeth rattle in her skull.

"Wha—no, no. I—I must be seeing things. This can't be." The way between her cottage and the buildings of Ponyville opened before her—but the sky remained just as dark as when she first stepped out to make rounds. She glanced out at the clock tower at the edge of town wondering if she had finished ahead of schedule, as she sometimes did. However, both hands pointed straight at the sky studded with the pre-dawn stars.

This had happened before. Fluttershy's thoughts shuttled back to when she first met Twilight Sparkle, the Princess' personal protégée. In the course of one tumultuous night, she had ventured forth with five other brave ponies to confront an ancient, forgotten menace—one who would not rest until Equestria fell under eternal night. Even though they eventually triumphed, Fluttershy could never forget how small she felt under Nightmare Moon’s vendetta. If the events of that night were beginning to repeat themselves here?

She did what she felt any sensible pony would have done in her horseshoes. She screamed, sprinted back into her cottage, bolted the door behind her, and dove beneath her couch.

"Angel," she whispered as the rabbit joined her. "What do I do? I can't fight whatever's out there. I can't."

Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop!

"Ahhhhh!" Her head knocked against the underside of the couch.

"Fluttershy?"

Though the heavy wood muffled the voice on the other side of the door, Fluttershy recognized that country twang. "A—A—Applejack?" She rushed over and opened it. "Applejack? What are you doing here?"

The farm pony gasped for breath as the brim of her hat fell over her eyes. "We need to get to Twilight's place," she said, knocking her hat back into place. "Something ain't goin' right with the sun today, and I'm sure she's already tryin' to figure out why. She'll want us all there with her, I reckon."

Fluttershy's ears pinned back. "But—but it's dark out there," she whimpered.

"You were out there earlier this morning," said Applejack, frowning. "I heard you singing to a bunch of critters."

"Well, yes. But that was when it was supposed to be dark. It's not supposed to be dark now." Fluttershy sank to the floor. "I'm sorry. Tell Twilight I won't be able to make it out there. I'll only hold you all up, anyway, just like last time."

"C'mon, Fluttershy." Applejack let herself into the foyer and nudged her friend to her hooves. "I'll be right by you the whole way there. Ain't no other pony you can rely on better than ol' Applejack. 'Sides, there ain't no dragons out there this time—even though you sure gave that last one a good talkin' to, heh heh." The earth pony held out her hoof. "There ain't nothin' to be afraid of."

Flutterhy took it. "But—"

"I mean it. Get along, little pony! Yee-hah!" Applejack galloped out of the cottage, her hat bouncing on her mane.

"Applejack, wait!" The pegasus took off after her. "I'm taller than you," she muttered.

***

Ponyville was not boiling over in chaos—there were no singing duck heads bursting from the flowers, or buildings uprooting themselves for a stroll. But it was confused. Ponies milled outside with their heads fixed on the stars—to preventable, yet concussive results. A trio of silhouettes on the Carousel Boutique rooftop cried, "Cutie Mark Crusaders: Sun Saviors! Yay!" before a white hoof snatched them back indoors.

North of the main square, flashes of violet light erupted from various windows along the Books and Branches Library. Books flitted across the windowpanes like hummingbirds, only to be sent back seconds later by the outline of a unicorn rifling through the library's collection.

Despite making good time from the cottage to the library, Fluttershy and Applejack were not the first ponies at the front door.

"Pinkie! Rainbow! Rarity!" The pegasus pounced on the three ponies, wrapping them in her forelegs. "I'm so glad to see you girls here. Did Twilight call you over?"

"She didn't have to," said Pinkie Pie.

"We had a feeling she'd want us here," Rarity added.

"That's right," said Rainbow Dash. "I knew something was wrong the moment I woke up and it was still dark outside, and I knew Twilight would want my help to investigate." The colorful pegasus put on an ear-to-ear grin.

"You could've just risen early for once, Rainbow," said Applejack.

Rainbow gasped. "Are you kidding? I'd like to see you try that someday."

Applejack—the hard-working, hardly-tiring farm pony—let those words sink into her friend's brain. When it did was easy to tell—her eyes bulged wide, her mane went frazzly, and her ears peaked like mountains.

"You think you're so smart," Rainbow Dash growled as her features fell back into place.

Applejack knocked on the door. The top part swung open to reveal an out-of-breath lavender unicorn, her mane and tail ruffled like wrinkled saddles. The shock of seeing her five best friends on her doorstep canceled the shimmering glow around her horn, and everypony heard the thunder of hundreds of books hit the floor soon after.

"Girls!" The relief radiating from Twilight Sparkle's eyes alone could have wrapped up a small ice age. "Thank goodness you're all here. Get inside, quick."

The Books and Branches library resembled an evacuation site. More books lay scattered off the shelves than on them, papers and scrolls spilled from overextended drawers, ladders and tables lay on their sides. Candles contained within glass bowls burned everywhere, casting conflicting shadows on the ceiling and shelves.

"Sorry about the mess, girls," Twilight continued, levitating a book to flip through its contents. "I've been searching the library all morning about why the sun hasn't come up yet." Finding nothing, she tossed he book aside.

"We figured you'd be up to something like this," said Rarity, levitating a mane brush. "Be a dear and hold still, I'll get your mane sorted out in no time."
The unicorn smiled. “Thanks, Rarity. At the rate I’m going now, that’s probably the only thing I’ll get straight today.” She looked to her friends, her expression somber again. “Does anypony have an idea on what’s going on?

Nightmare Moon’s laughter echoed in Fluttershy’s mind. Some of the others provided their thoughts, but none of them sounded convinced. Her pulse quickening, the pegasus steeled herself to speak her mind.

"You don't think Princess Luna's turned into Nightmare Moon again, do you?" asked Rainbow. "We haven't seen her in a year. What if she spent that time coming up with a plan to take revenge on Princess Celestia?"

"I don't think that's the case." Twilight Sparkle summoned The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide from a nearby pedestal. "The book doesn't say anything about Nightmare Moon after she escapes from her prison."

"The book also didn't say anythin' 'bout us beating her, either," Applejack pointed out.

The unicorn had to admit she had a point, but her tight frown showed she was far from persuaded. "Princess Celestia has mentioned her sister in some of the letters she sent me, and Princess Luna was always doing fine. But before you go questioning my mentor’s perceptive capacity, do remember that she's ruled Equestria for millenia. She’s seen her share of conspiracy in her time, I’m sure. And, she has used the Elements of Harmony before, including the Element of Honesty. If Princess Luna was planning something, I've no doubt that her sister would have taken notice and asked us for help."

"Have you sent her a letter yet?" Finished with Twilight’s mane Rarity, moved down to straighten her tail.

"Spike sent it a couple of minutes before you all got here—oh, ouch, that’s a tangle."
“Sorry.”

"That means the Princess should have responded by now," said Pinkie Pie. Seeing the looks everypony gave her, she added, "What? She got back to you pretty quickly when she first sent you from Canterlot last year, right?"

Twilight suddenly looked like she wanted to strangle a bird—or else she was dying to ask her friend a question. Then she clamped her jaw shut and shook her head. With Pinkie Pie, it was sometimes better not to ask how she knew what she did.

"Pinkie's right," Twilight conceded. "The Princess doesn't take this long to answer, normally."

"So it is Nightmare Moon, then," said Rainbow Dash. "We gotta get outta here and beat her before she throws Equestria into eternal night. Again.” She primed her wings for flight.

"Whoa there, partner!" Applejack chomped on the tip of the pegasus's tail. "We can't rush to conclusions, Rainbow. What if the Princess is only sick? Happens to everypony." She let go of Rainbow. "Even if she's in charge of raisin' the sun every mornin', maybe a cold's keeping her in bed."

"Applejack's right as well," said Twilight. "I know the Princess has a good reason to keep the sun down. But until we get that letter back from her, we're going to have to get our hooves dirty."

"What? Count me out of this."

"Rarity, it's a figure of speech."

"But why that figure of speech?" the unicorn whined.

"Because—augh." Twilight rolled her eyes as she stepped away from her friend. "I appreciate the brush, Rarity, but there's too much going on for us to argue. Pinkie Pie, go find the book that'll give us the answer to this. You're the best out of all of us for that."

The pink pony gave her a blank stare. "Twilight, it doesn't work that way," she said, shaking her head. "You told me exactly what to look for the first time, and Dashie came zooming in and knocked everything over the second."

"So we need something really fast to hit the library again?" Rainbow Dash fired off a salute. "I'm on it."

"Nooo!"

The pegasus disappeared under a pile of ponies before she could fly out the window.

Having refrained from the ambush, Fluttershy took the chance to slip away to the upper floor. Was would her staying there accomplish? She had no hope of making herself heard above the others once they got arguing. She could, however, start sifting through the books for the answer to the darkness, her original fixation on her dreams forgotten.

The titles on the shelf before her were as random as they were obscure—How to Carpet your Walls, Volume 2; The Various Shapes and Styles of Confetti; Sea Ponies: Only a Conspiracy Theory? What the Princess Doesn't Want You to Know! No wonder Twilight had Spike organize the library most of the time. Then again, she suspected he did not do much organizing at all—he was a baby dragon, after all, and babies were not known for their work ethic.

She sighed as she moved onto the next shelf. The titles here were just as useless as those on the first. Just as she looked away, however, something flashed outside the window

Fluttershy almost shattered the glass knocking it open—she certainly got the attention of the other ponies downstairs.

"What's going on up there?" Twilight called.

The pegasus ignored her as she searched the sky—the sky? She was certain that, if what she had seen had even been there, it had been flying at the time. She found nothing out to the west, and the southern skies were just as empty.

"Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy shot a chilly glare over her shoulder. "Quiet, Twilight!" Her brain caught up with her a moment too late. "Oh my goodness," she said, ears flattened. "I'm so sorry about that. I don't know what came over me—"

"Arohhhh!"

That cry! Fluttershy almost toppled out the window. She managed to catch herself against the window ledge at the last moment, though the heaving ground beneath reminded her of how close a call she had.

But that cry! She had heard it before. Certainty rushed through her as she looked out to the east—even at a distance there was no mistaking it. The intense red and gold plumage, the whip-thin tail lashing in the air, the curls of flame trailing behind its wings.

"Philomena!" Fluttershy launched herself from the window and flew. What in Equestria was Princess Celestia's phoenix doing in Ponyville?

"Aroh?" At the sound of her name, the phoenix broke out of her loop, disoriented, before she spotted the yellow pegasus dashing right at her. "Ar-rr-aai!"

Pegasus and phoenix met midway, with the latter dropping into the former's outstretched hooves. Though Philomena did not burst into flames this time, she was in bad condition. The better part of her wing feathers showed cuts, frayed edges, and soot—in fact, many of her primaries and secondaries were outright gone. Scab lines covered her talons, and patches of feathers were missing from her chest.

Her breathing was slow, her pulse raced. Fluttershy could see her pupils. A charred stench fluttered across the pegasus's nostrils.

A horrible thought flooded over her. Was it possible for phoenixes to get burned?

"Fluttershy, would you mind sharing what the hay you're doing up h—ohmigosh." Rainbow Dash had rushed to her friend’s side bent on giving her a lecture, but she fell silent as soon as she saw the phoenix cradled in her hooves. She reached out to take Philomena, but Fluttershy drew the bird closer to her chest.

"She needs medical attention immediately," she declared, turning toward her cottage.

"Anooo..." The phoenix lifted a trembling wing in protest.

Fluttershy silenced the bird with a furious stare. "Philomena, this time, I will not take 'no' for an answer. This time, I am going to treat you right."

"No, hold it, Fluttershy—"

When Fluttershy leveled her stare on Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus's wings snapped against her sides.

"She's here to tell us somethiiing," Rainbow yelled as she plunged to the earth.

"Then it can wait until she's better," Fluttershy yelled back. Just before she could race off, however, a lasso snapped around her back hoof.

"I get the feelin' it's something she means to tell us now?" Applejack's voice called from below.

Fluttershy was not a very athletic pegasus. The farm pony's rope work made short work of her, grounding her in a matter of seconds. The rest of her friends gathered around and walled her off in the middle.

"What are you all doing?" she demanded, throwing her stare around. "The longer we wait, the worse she gets. Do you see how hurt she is? The others flinched as if they were being pelted by boulders, but they somehow stood firm against her onslaught.

"Fluttershy, please listen," Twilight Sparkle pleaded, stepping in front of the pegasus. "We know that it's odd Philomena came here, but she trusts you the most out of all of us—"

"She does,” Fluttershy snarled. “So step aside and let me—”

"Rohhh." Philomena jabbed her wing behind Fluttershy. Everypony followed its track east.

"The Everfree Forest?" Rainbow asked.

Philomena shook her head and jabbed twice more in the same direction.

"Beyond the Everfree Forest?" Rarity ventured.

Philomena nodded.

"Is that where you just came from?" asked Twilight.

“Raa.” Philomena nodded again, just before her head went limp and her eyes closed. Fluttershy determined the phoenix still had a pulse and was still breathing on her own—for the moment.

"Now may I take her?" Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed to slits.

"Hold on," said Twilight. She traced a gentle hoof across the phoenix's head. "We should figure out where she just came from. It's likely the Princess will be there, too. But I can't think of any places in Equestria beyond the forest—"

"Flamewithers."

"Huh?"

"The Princess will be at Flamewithers," the pegasus continued, rising into the air. "My hometown, Twilight." She kicked Applejack's lasso off of her hoof and flew off beneath the darkened sky.

***

Flutteshy dropped into her couch, utterly exhausted. She buried her muzzle into the velvety fabric while trying to hold back tears—Philomena had taken hours to stabilize, but she had finally dozed off, pain-free, in the little bed by the stove. Fluttershy was grateful the burn ointments she had on hoof worked just as well for magical creatures as it did normal ones—and that they had not given the phoenix hives this time.

Just before she could fall asleep herself, though, somepony knocked on her door. She stumbled over to it, almost tripping over a washbasin on the way.

"Twilight?”

"Hey, Fluttershy." The unicorn had her saddlebags on. Fluttershy wonder what they were for.
The two of them walked over to the pegasus’s newest patient. "She looks better,” said Twilight. “Did she put up any fights this time?"

"None at all." Fluttershy adjusted the phoenix's pillow. "I don't understand what happened to her. How does a phoenix get burned?"

Twilight frowned. "Is that what happened to her? My gosh. Your guess is as good as mine."

"It's not only the burns, either." Fluttershy rolled the covers back a little, just enough to reveal braces wrapped around both of Philomena's wings. "She tore a few muscles on her way over here, as well—and I had to set a broken talon. And if she came from Flamewithers..." The pegasus trailed off as her eyes looked far off in the distance. She trudged over to her couch and sat down.

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight settled in next to her. She swept her friend's mane to the other side of her head. "You mentioned Flamewithers was your hometown, if I recall correctly. I thought you used to live in Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash."

"That was only for summer flight camp," said Fluttershy. "I couldn’t fly very well, you see. My parents made me go there every year, and I hated it. The year I met Rainbow Dash, I was the oldest filly there, and they wouldn't take me for another year no matter how many bits Papa tried to pay them. So when I wasn’t in Cloudsdale, I lived in Flamewithers. Do you know what ponies out there do for a living?"

"You've got me."

"Flamewithers isn't supposed to be public knowledge." Fluttershy continued nonetheless, telling Twilight about its proximity to Drakvarna, and how her parents kept the fires of that land in check.

"Pegasi can manipulate fire?" Twilight exclaimed. "Fire's nothing but the immaterial product of an oxidation reaction."

"We can manipulate heat," Fluttershy corrected. "I can roll an updraft beneath my wings when I fly, and Rainbow can do it in her sleep. Fire patrols fly low to the ground, where fires burn the hottest, and channel their heat to shoot themselves extremely high into the air, killing the flames as they went. It was a lot like pulling weeds, if you want to think of it that way."

Twilight nodded. "That makes sense. So are the dragons are responsible for these firestorms, then?"

"Yes."

"And..." The unicorn sat up straight as it dawned on her. "You think Philomena got into a fight with a dragon."

Though it should not have been possible, Fluttershy sank even further into her couch. Her voice barely escaped past the cushioning. "Yes."

"This is all very strange." Twilight hopped onto the floor and paced back and forth. "First the sun doesn't rise. Then the Princess is out east instead of in Canterlot. And now we have a dragon-injured phoenix—and the dragon’s still out there, possibly hurting other ponies.” The unicorn rubbed her head and cringed. “None of this is making any sense—and the Princess still hasn't replied to my letter."

"Why haven't you and the others gone to Flamewithers yet?" asked Fluttershy.

"Why haven't you?" asked Twilight.

"Because Philomena is hurt too badly," said the pegasus, sitting up, "She is going to require my care for the next month or so, until she recovers I can't leave a patient like that. That's even worse than refusing to take her in in the first place."

"Don't worry about it," a boyish voice said from the front door.

"Wahhhhh!"

"Fluttershy, let go—I can't—breathe—! Ack!" Twilight's eyes rolled in opposite directions as Fluttershy released her from her inadvertent chokehold. Once her senses returned to her, the unicorn continued, "I asked Spike if he was willing to team up with Angel and take care of your patients for you, and he agreed."

"That's right." The baby dragon emerged from his hiding place and tried to calm the jittery pegasus with a few pats on her shoulder. "Don't you want to go back home again? It sounds like everypony could really use you out there."

"Oh.” Fluttershy lowered her ears. “Even if they could, Spike, my home is a full day's flight from here.” She paced across the room. "I can't just up and leave here like this."

"Sure you can, darling."

Fluttershy turned. Rarity and the rest of her friends stood by the doorway, all of them with saddlebags draped across their backs—and all of them with encouraging smiles on their faces. Even Rainbow Dash gave her a brief nod.

"Rarity?” She looked from one friend to the next unable to believe they were all standing there. “What's going on—why does everypony have their bags?"

"We're gonna have to be prepared if we're gonna help the Princess out," said Rainbow, striding over. "We don't know how long it's gonna take to get through the Everfree Forest, so we tried to cover all our bases. We even brought stuff for you so you can come along with us right away. Check it out."

The pegasus pointed out each pony as she listed their contribution—each in turn produced with a flourish. "Applejack's gotcha covered on food. Rarity brought her grooming supplies. Twilight got you a field journal in case you wanted to write anything down while we were out there. Pinkie has—well, I dunno what it's for, but it's funny, so we're keeping it. And I—"

Rainbow Dash unlatched one of her bags and drew something out with the speed of an Appleloosan triggerpony. It came down over Fluttershy's head—a leather strap circled around the back of her skull, and two heavy, round things settled on her forehead, just above her eyes.

"I got you my very own Wonderbolt goggles, from the first air show my parents took me to," the pegasus beamed. "Every time I wore them, I felt like I could do anything. Now that I can do anything—thank you," she said, bowing to absent applause, "thank you—it's time I passed 'em on to some other pony who needed them more."

"I—I—" Fluttershy removed Rainbow's goggles and turned them over in her hooves. They were surprisingly sturdy for a souvenir—the lenses were dense, and crack-free despite their owner’s best efforts—all enclosed within honest brass rims. Engravings along the top of each rim read, "THE WONDERBOLTS" in angular letters, with their motto, "FLY WITH YOUR DREAMS" inscribed along the bottoms.

"We've got a lot of ground to cover, sugarcube," said Applejack. "You're comin' with us."

It was not a question. Fluttershy looked to each of her friends, unable to believe the prodigious faith they put in her presence. She read the inscription on Rainbow's goggles a second time: "FLY WITH YOUR DREAMS".

She looked over her shoulder at Philomena, who continued to rest in peaceful slumber.

She was afraid of the journey. She was afraid of what the darkness meant. She was afraid she had no idea what was going on.

But more importantly, she was afraid of what would happen if she did not go with her friends. Philomena had come to her on the brink of consciousness. Though she wished she could stay behind and tend to the phoenix for however long her recovery took, she wanted to know the reasons behind why harm had come to the Princess's pet.

She wanted to know what she could do to prevent what happened to Philomena from happening to anybody else.

Her eyes flashed like newly-polished iron. "Give me a moment, girls," she declared, marching toward the staircase. "I'm packing my bags."

Soon afterward, Fluttershy returned with a curious amount of clinking coming from within her saddlebags.

"What did you pack in there?" asked Twilight.

"Medicine," the pegasus replied, "as much as I can carry. I don't know what lies ahead, so I thought I’d better be ready for anything."

"You said it, sister," said Pinkie, firing off a celebratory party popper.

The pegasus collected the other things her friends had brought her as well. "Ooof. Heavy."

"I can take some of your things if you like," Applejack offered.

"No. I mean, no thank you." Galloping for long stretches would be difficult, but Fluttershy thought she could maintain a trot without too much trouble. "I'll be fine. Spike?"

The purple dragon hopped on top of Twilight's head. "Yes, Fluttershy?"

"Please do your best to look after all the animals. Especially Philomena." Fluttershy had to resist the urge to look over—leaving the phoenix behind, and out of her care, was unbearable as it was. "I know you'll do a good job."

"No need to worry, sister," said Spike, jabbing his thumb into his chest—a little too forcefully. "I—Ow. Ow. Ohhh." He flopped over Twilight's head.

"Spike, you've got to be careful with your claws," the unicorn admonished. "Your scales are still developing, after all."

"Do y'all think Spike looks all right?" Applejack asked, walking over. "His eyes are goin' a little funny."

The farmpony was right. Spike's eyes floated in opposite directions, and then his spines stood up on end. His whole body tensed as a familiar bulging filled his cheeks.

Rainbow Dash was the first to figure it out. "Incoming!" she yelled.

Six ponies hit the floor as the dragon unleashed an almighty blast of green fire. When it dissipated, a heavy scroll wrapped in a crimson ribbon dropped on the floor.

"The Princess!" Twilight cried, unfurling the ending. The paper glowed violet as the unicorn's eyes darted over the lines, her expression growing darker and less certain the further she went on.

"What is it?" asked Applejack, leaning in. "What's it say?"

Twilight hesitated. Her ears pinned back as her lips mouthed words her lungs would not supply. "It's—It's not from Princess Celestia." She turned the scroll around for everypony to read.

"It's from Princess Luna."

Everypony crowded in to read the letter—the lunar royal's handwriting scrolled across the page in compact, orthogonal lines. Every letter possessed precise strokes and proportions, every word stood separated by perfect pacing. Rarity let out a squeak of admiration.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I regret to contact you under these circumstances, and under short such notice. I am Princess Luna, writing on behalf of your treasured mentor and my beloved sister. She is indisposed, but otherwise fine. However, we are certain her condition will not remain stable for long.

We have relocated to Flamewithers Outpost, on the border between Everfree and Drakkvarna, the land of the dragons. Whether you know of it is irrelevant. We require your immediate assistance, as well as the assistance of the rest of the Elements of Harmony, and have enchanted this sending with a teleportation spell to spare you an unpleasant journey through the forest.

Please make haste. Recent events along the east have us fearing for Equestria, but I fear even more for Tia.

Princess Luna

"How convenient," said Twilight, turning the scroll over. A circular lattice of arcane filigree glowed blue on the reverse side. "Is everypony ready?"

"We're ready," the Elements of Harmony chimed in unison. Fluttershy was surprised at the conviction in her voice.

"To Flamewithers, then," Twilight cried, her horn glowing with mystical energy. "Let’s go!"

A blinding flash of light engulfed Fluttershy's living room as Princess Celestia's protégée triggered the spell.

3 | The Princess

An instant of darkness, a universe of pressure, cold and unremitting against her coat. Immobilized in a drop of cosmic amber. Then the infinite dark pulled back like the snatching of a stage curtain, Fluttershy registered the supple give of a cloud beneath her hooves—and then the eastern breeze swirled across her face.

The breeze was hot like the blast of an opened oven: dry, and impatient.

“Ugh. Twilight?” Rainbow Dash was rubbing her mane back in place some ways off. “I wish you’d told us to expect that before you popped us up here.”

Applejack’s eyes had yet to stop rolling in opposite directions, but they were getting there. ““I’m with Rainbow on this one, sugarcube. A warnin’ would’ve been appreciated.”

“Pffft. Beginners,” Pinkie Pie sang to herself as she cartwheeled around, looking for all the world as if she had not suffered anything worse than a trip to the park.

Twilight, reaching behind her head with a hesitant laugh. “Sorry about that. I guess I’ve done this before, so I didn’t think I’d needed to say anything. But look! We’re here, everypony.” The unicorn extended a hoof behind the other ponies. “Look up there.”

She was gesturing to the Lighthouse, the immense, white tower that dominated the silhouette of Flamewithers from afar. A pair of square flags, one emblazoned with the golden sun on an orange field, and the other bearing a crescent moon on royal purple, flapped like the wings of great birds from their spires at the tower’s apex. Below the flags, a great glass globe pulsed with the light cast forth from the tower’s main lantern.

Twilight's brows went flat enough to support a drink. "You'd think Princess Luna would have saved us the climb," she deadpanned. "C’mon, girls. Let’s not keep them waiting.”

Fluttershy followed her friends toward the tower with a growing lump in her throat. For having lived in Flamewithers all of her life, she had never been this close to the Lighthouse before, much less inside of it. That privilege was reserved for members of the fire patrols only.

The rest of the tower was as featureless as it was smooth down to its base, where a pair of pegasi stood watch on either side of a modest double door. The one on the left wore the golden armor typical of a Royal Guardspony over a white coat. The other one...

Thank goodness Twilight had the sense to approach the first guard. Putting on her best smile, she presented her letter for him to read. “The Princesses sent for us.”

Fluttershy dove for cover as the other guard strolled over to read the letter as well. Her other friends did not react as dramatically to his presence, but even Applejack had taken a step back—and the farmpony was among the bravest ponies the pegasus knew.

The other guard, put simply, was a monster.

He was a pegasus as well, somehow—he had a shadowy gray coat accented by a set of lavender and purple armor. But his wings were those of a bat’s, and his golden eyes reminded Fluttershy more of a dragon than a pony. The same kind of eye, except light blue, anchored the midpoint of his chestpiece just above his sternum.

Those shoes, too—they were lavender versions of the kind normal guards wore. Fluttershy was almost certain they would have revealed claws instead of hooves if they were removed.

After exchanging a few whispered words, the guards nodded to each other and separated. It was the monstrous one, however, who addressed them. “That is indeed the Princess’s writing.”

Before Fluttershy (or the rest of her friends) recovered from the unexpected quality of the guard’s voice—cold, but softly spoken and smooth and not at all like the guttering she had anticipated—both of the stallions stamped a hoof into the cloud as one, creating a booming sound like staves hammered on a hardwood floor.

The doors they guarded opened behind them—except that they were not the same doors Fluttershy had expected would open. They were merely decorations on a much larger set of doors: paired, ivory monoliths as tall as Ponyville’s town hall, indistinguishable from the rest of the tower’s external surface, and the cloud trembled as they traced their long, lethargic arcs inward.

The echoes reverberated through the tower’s interior long after the doors came to rest. It was around that time when Fluttershy realized her organs had not decomposed, but were still whole and functioning. She gasped for the breath she had forgotten to take.

“New visitors,” quipped the grey-coated guard. “Always the same.” He bared double rows of pointed teeth at Fluttershy and her friends. Only for a moment, however—his demeanor dropped swiftly back into stern authority. “The Princesses will see you now. Do not keep them waiting.”

“Thank you, uh, sirs,” stammered Twilight, gesturing everypony inside. Her swizzled brows all but asked whether it was more apropos to be fascinated by the shadowy guardspony she had just met, or revolted by him. In the end, she posed no questions to the stallion and entered the Lighthouse last.

The interior occupied about the same amount of space as Ponyville’s main square, yet the sound of every hooffall bounced several times between opposite walls before dissipating into the air. A central staircase turned in smooth coils up the middle of the tower, sending out spokes to the many walkways ringing the inner walls at intervals. More flags bearing suns and moons in alternation hung on the walls beneath great arcs of swooping fabric, all of it illuminated by the lamps posted along the terrace rails.

But the most prominent feature within the Lighthouse was the pegasus statue rising in the middle of the staircase’s turns. Rearing on one hind leg, the mare immortalized on her elevated pedestal looked ready to leap into the very cosmos itself. On her head rested a helmet styled after a dragon’s head, all aggressive spines and barbs, and her chestpiece and shoes adopted those draconic motifs as well. Her mane appeared frozen in an unending gale, and her wings flared out wide from her sides, her pinions spread like honed blades.

The plaque on the statue’s base told Rarity who she stood before. "'The Grand Marshal'.” She gazed upward, her eyes narrowed in inspection. "I must say, she looks to be quite the impressive pony."

Rainbow Dash chose to examine the statue from the many angles the air provided her. “Look at this armor. I wouldn’t care what the pay was if my job let me wear something as awesome as this. And, I’d get to call myself ‘Grand Marshal Rainbow Dash.’ Oh boy, that’s tough. That sounds just as good as ‘Wonderbolt Captain Rainbow Dash.’” The pegasus brought a hoof to her mouth and pursed her lips in thought.

“I think grand marshals would outrank captains,” Twilight quipped, leading the way up the staircase. “But I think you’d better figure out what their responsibilities are before you ask for the job.” The unicorn turned to Fluttershy. “You said you used to live here. I’m sure you’ve met the Grand Marshal before. What does she do?”

Fluttershy beat her wings once. How was she going to explain this? “Well... it’s a difficult job,” she began. “It keeps you away from your family a lot. But you have to live with that. Flamewithers is but one of several outposts protecting the Everfree Forest from dragon-made fires, and it’s the Grand Marshal’s job to organize all of the fire patrols so that the forest remains safe.” The pegasus paused. Yes, that was a good start. “She’s also responsible for writing to Canterlot every week to report on the conditions out here.”

“You mean there’s paperwork involved?” Twilight shot a smug grin at the other pegasus, who had been listening to the conversation with one hoof braced behind her ear. “Rainbow Dash, you barely complete your monthly weather records for the Mayor on time. I dunno if you’re cut out for weekly reports.”

“Who said I couldn’t have assistants? Leave me to do all the firefighting while you take care of all the updates to the Princess.” Rainbow fired off a pair of quick jabs into the air in front of her. “Everypony wins.”

Even Fluttershy joined in on the subsequent chuckling. As long as her friends walked by her side, bantering and playing off of each other, she could pretend that they had only left Ponyville for some overdue leisure time. It had not been long ago that she had visited Cloudsdale to cheer Rainbow in her competition, where she witnessed a friend fall almost to her death. Or when that buffalo-pony skirmish broke out in Appleloosa. Or when she had frightened all of the poor animals at the Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot...

Beads of sweat emerged on the pegasus’ brow. Surely she had gone somewhere with her friends where everything had not gone to hay in a hurricane?

Lost in thought, she tripped on a step and fell flat on her face.

“Cider apples! You okay, hon?” asked Applejack, helping Fluttershy to her hooves again.

“W-why, of course,” the pegasus mumbled. “I’m just... thinking.”

Twilight nodded from the head of the group. “Thinking’s good. Oh, excellent, we’re at the top. Pardon me, sirs?”

The unicorn fetched Princess Luna’s letter from her saddlebags and floated it over to a similar pair of guards to those stationed at the Lighthouse’s base. These guards stood before a thick glass double door that looked as if it had been installed recently: the motif frosted onto its surface described the sun and moon from the flags outside super-imposed upon each other. Beyond these doors, a final staircase turned a quarter circle up to a raised platform.

This meeting proceeded quicker than the first, owing to the guards’ silence as they verified the letter’s contents and sender. Instead of stomping their hooves when they finished, the both of them simply pushed the doors inward and pointed their wings through the threshold.

Fluttershy moved with the others to catch up with Twilight. However, nopony seemed to notice the unicorn remained where she stood until Pinkie Pie crashed into her rump. Unable to avert their own tragedies, the other four collided with the first two soon afterward. A cymbal escaped Pinkie’s saddlebag and clattered across the floor.

“Hey, Twilight, what gives?” Rainbow craned her neck around the pony pile. “We’re tryin’ to move here!”

“Huh?” Being the only pony among her friends to remain on her hooves, Twilight spun around. “Oh, sorry. Here, let me help you girls up.”

Fluttershy squeaked as a magenta aura tingled across her coat. Quick as blinking, she was untangled from the other ponies, set on her hooves—and dusted off, too? The aura dissipated before she could be sure. However, she did catch Twilight stealing another look at Princess Luna’s letter while her other friends reacquainted themselves with their senses of balance.

“Twilight?” Rarity sounded like she had noticed the letter as well. “Is something wrong?”

“Wha? Oh, uh. It’s nothing.” Twilight rolled up the letter and stuffed it back into her saddlebag with a little more force than was necessary—at least to Fluttershy. The pegasus had no trouble spotting the tight, horizontal line the unicorn’s mouth had become.

“We’d best not waste any more time, then.” Applejack reminded everypony. “Y’all remember who’s waiting for us up there, right?”

With the farmpony taking the initiative to climb the stairs, Fluttershy followed after her. The pegasus passed Twilight, who still stood in the threshold, her eyes now locked on a spot on the ceiling.

No, not on the ceiling. Behind it. Above the floor on its other side. Up there, the Princesses awaited their arrival. Princess Celestia would receive them in her usual warm manner, and—

Princess Celestia. The words of the letter returned to Fluttershy’s mind. She is indisposed, but otherwise alive. However, we are not certain for how long her condition will remain stable.

Oh, dear. “You’re worried about the Princess, aren’t you?” she asked.

Because the others had gone up ahead, they had avoided having to look at Twilight’s face at that moment. Fluttershy had put that look on herself enough to recognize where it came from—the thin mouth, the huge, unblinking eyes, the folded-back ears—all the result of anticipating the worst of a new situation. Snatches of her brief stint as a fashion model, of Photo Finish forcing her upon crowds of unfamiliar ponies and their flashing cameras, crossed her mind.

“She... She’s going to want to see you, you know,” said Fluttershy, her sympathy bolstering her words with an assurance she had no right to possess. She put her hoof over Twilight’s shoulder. “Let’s head up.”

The unicorn said nothing, but the small smile dawning on her face conveyed her gratitude for her friend’s kindness well enough. Together, they climbed the stairs and joined their friends at the top, just along the western edge of the Lighthouse’s upper sanctum.

A huge brass lantern as large as a house occupied the center of the room, swathed in a swirling array of floating lenses and mirrors all at least the size of a pony, if not more, while formations of smaller lanterns circulated along the curve of the glass globe containing the room. Every pulse of the central lantern released a hum that settled against Fluttershy’s keel from the inside. An orange glow vaulted into the eastern night sky behind the lantern, but morning was still hours off yet.

“Somepony’s over there,” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, levelling a hoof toward a pacing silhouette against the orange glow. She shot off toward the pony before anypony could stop her. “Hello, somepony! My name is Pinkie Pie and I am super excited to meet you here because I always love meeting new friends—” and on she babbled as she galloped, her words per yard figure almost dense enough to condense her rambling into a literal contrail in her wake.

“—and I’m glad I brought all of these instruments with me because I totally came up with a song for you just no—”Her hooves suddenly squealed across the floor like the brakes of a racecar. “—wwwowit’snightmaremoon.”

The lantern pulsed once more, throwing the other pony’s features into sharp relief long enough for Fluttershy to recognize the essentials: the tall, elegant frame, the midnight-blue coat, the swirling mane of space and stars. Her horn tapered to a lengthy point, and her unfurled wings spread from her flanks like the terrible arc of the sky. Obsidian accents crowned her head, shoed her hooves, and encircled her collar, but it was her eyes that unsettled Fluttershy most—huge, teal-colored rounds able to track her and her other five friends all at once.

“I knew it!” cried Rainbow Dash. “You hurt the Princess, you monster!”

A thin lasso, quick and precise as a striking snake as it cinched around Rainbow’s mid-section, was the only thing that prevented the pegasus from charging the dark pony alone—though Applejack’s contracted pupils betrayed her desire to release her friend from her ropework. Somehow, some way, Nightmare Moon had risen from her defeat, had regained her powers, and was without a doubt looking for revenge.

Fluttershy fled screaming.

She had barely reached the bottom of the stairs when she jerked to a stop—only long enough to recognize the tingling on her coat—before the steps slipped out from under her as she was pulled back to the lantern room.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight’s face materialized before the pegasus’ muzzle, frowning in the magenta glow of her horn. “Girls! Hold your horses. You were all there at the old castle last year. Nightmare Moon is gone. That’s Princess Luna.”

“Miss Sparkle speaks the truth. The monster you speak of is no more. ‘Tis I, and I alone, addressing you today.”

Twilight’s head turned to the voice, apparently forgetting about the pony she was holding captive before her. The aura ceased, and Fluttershy dropped to the floor in a pile of limbs and swirling eyes.

“You’re Princess Luna?” Rainbow Dash slipped out of Applejack’s lasso with a challenging snarl.

The reclaimed royal had marched over from the other side of the room, a bouncing Pinkie Pie in tow. Every contour of her body towered over everypony with aggressive precision. “Verily, Miss Dash.” Princess Luna stopped, frowning. The gaze she swept over them was as chilly as a downdraft descending from a snowy mountain peak. “Have you all no manners? Why do you not bow before a Princess?”

Fluttershy had never gotten to her hooves so quickly, and the bow that followed came naturally—the position was not that different from cowering, really. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied the rest of her friends with their chins to the floor, though Rainbow Dash and Applejack were snorting a little louder than they needed to. A slight nod from the royal, and they were all standing again.

“Where’s my teach—” Twilight checked herself in time, biting her lip. “I mean, where is the Princess?”

Princess Luna frowned. “Here one stands.” The tone of her voice said the rest: Is my title forgotten so easily?

Twilight’s mouth contracted to the size of a sesame seed.

The younger Princess surveyed the ponies before her again, her expression like forged steel freshly quenched and hardened. Suddenly, something shifted within her posture: nothing so dramatic as a bended leg or a lowered head—not even a flick of the ear. But something shifted nonetheless, something like a castle settling too heavily on its foundation. Princess Luna sighed.

“So little has changed in the past thousand years,” she muttered. She turned to walk away, her precision replaced with a resignation so fluid that it took everypony a moment to realize they needed to follow after her.

Rainbow Dash touched down next to Twilight as they walked, cocking one of her brows and poking a hoof at the Princess as if to ask, Is that pony all right in the head? The unicorn’s ears peaked in response, and the glare she threw back got the prismatic pegasus to drop the issue like a glob of lava.

Princess Luna disappeared behind the curve of the main lantern, only to reappear as the group caught up with her. She knelt at the side of a tasseled cushion the size of three fully-grown buffalo against the lantern’s base. “Tia,” she whispered. “Tia. The Bearers have arrived.”

Perhaps the evolution of Princess Luna’s mane from its delicate newborn blue to its current shimmering state had proceeded exactly for this moment, when she could step aside with her mane trailing behind her like a theater curtain. But nopony’s thoughts sprang to plays or musicals when all was revealed. As for Fluttershy...

She remembered it had been a late summer’s day, the year before she was allowed to go to flight camp in Cloudsdale. She remembered the hem of her father’s white coat brushing her wing as they walked through the halls of Flamewithers’ hospital in the early morning hours, the warmth of his body against the sterile air and the tiny clip-clop of her gait echoing his, when the rescue team crashed into the emergency room with the patient. She remembered she had not reacted at first, not knowing what was happening. She did not remember much of what happened in those next few minutes other than her father shouting orders and nurses running back and forth with linens and ointments. It was only the day after, after her mother returned from the funeral, did she learn the stallion’s coat had been a golden hue, not mottled over with black and crimson.

Princess Celestia’s magic made her a stronger pony than Golden Gale, certainly—but Fluttershy could not recall a time when the prognosis of a dragonfire burn had ever worked in the patient’s favor. Whoever had bandaged the Princess commanded the pegasus’ respect as a fellow adherent of medicine, but the wrappings over the solar royal’s flanks, limbs, and neck betrayed the extent of the wounds their white yards concealed. Strange black shards circled around her body, while her mane and tail, once resplendent with the airy spectrum of a spring morning, now lay pink and sodden over her velvet bed.

“Princess?”

A whisper had never been so devastating. Applejack pressed her hat to her chest, Fluttershy lowered her head. She felt a wing drape across her back—there was Rainbow Dash, standing by her side with smoldering eyes.

It was Twilight who had whispered, and it was Twilight who broke away from them, all but tripping over herself in her haste to be at Princess Celestia’s side. For the moment, her eyes were dry, her voice quiet—just as Fluttershy had been while her father worked to save Golden Gale. The memory of that long-gone stallion coupled with the smallness of Twilight’s curling body against the Princess’ cushion, and though age hardly ever came up in conversation between everypony, it was hard not to dwell on the fact that the unicorn before them carried the fewest summers of them all upon her withers.

Nopony made the mistake of saying the Princess would be all right.

Nopony had anticipated the sound of shifting bandages, either—but then the Princess stirred, as if merely waking from a very deep slumber. Her front hooves tucked themselves beneath her barrel, and she propped herself up by degrees. A pulse of light from the lantern revealed the thick dressing laid over both of her eyes. Nevertheless, her head turned to face everypony—and, beyond expectation, she spoke.

“I hope you’ll all find it in your hearts to forgive the folly of an old mare. I haven’t had a day off in eons.” The line of her mouth turned upward at the corners in a small smile.

She might as well have raised the sun after a terrible nighttime blizzard—going on Princess Celestia’s voice alone, Fluttershy could not even tell the alicorn had suffered anything worse than a moment’s brush with a hot stove.

“Twilight Sparkle.” The Princess turned to gaze at her protégée despite her blindness. “I could not be happier to hear your voice again. And to the rest of your friends,” raising her head, “I am grateful to have you all here today.”

While the momentum of her awakening persisted, Princess Celestia launched into an array of pleasantries for each pony, asking after their daily lives, exchanging tidbits and tidings as the proper times arose. Yes, bearing the Elements of Harmony probably raised Fluttershy and her friends a little more in the Princess’s awareness over other ponies, but the intimacy of that awareness always took her by surprise. Even if she defied all prior experience, Princess Celestia’s words were quickly altering her own prognosis toward the positive in the space of a few minutes’ chat.

“Fluttershy? Are you there, my child? You’ve been very quiet tonight.”

The pegasus started, having let her mind wander away. The Princess was looking right at her. “I— I’m sorry, your Highness.”

“There’s no need to worry,” said Princess Celestia. “I’ve just been waiting for the right time to ask you this. Did Philomena find you all right?”

Fluttershy gulped as if she had just swallowed a very sharp icicle. She suddenly realized where this would lead. “Oh my goodness. I should never have come out here at all,” she fretted, pacing back and forth. “Yes, Your Majesty—I found her flying outside the library, and I took her to my cottage and put her to bed and did my best to make her healthy again, but then I left. Spike and Angel are dear friends, but I shouldn’t have troubled them with taking care of Philomena because it was my responsibility in the first place—why else would she have come to me if you hadn’t told her to? Ah, and she even had dragonfire burns from the fight. She could be getting worse, and it’d be all because of me. Oh, I really did it this time!”

Fluttershy spied Princess Luna standing off to the side with a puzzled look on her face. The idea struck instantly. “Your Highness!” she cried, dashing over to the younger Princess. “You’ve got to send me back to Ponyville to make sure Philomena’s okay.”

Princess Luna’s brow arched so high that it practically flew. She turned to her sister for counsel.

“Come now, my little pony,” said Princess Celestia, chuckling. “If Philomena were truly in trouble, I’d think Spike would send me a letter right away, wouldn’t he?”

“Oh, I don’t really keep parchment in the cottage...”

“This is my assistant you’re talking about.” Twilight smiled. “He always takes parchment and quills with him wherever he goes.”

A thunderclap boomed throughout the sanctum as the main lantern sputtered, only to recover and resume its pulsing a few moments later. Fluttershy’s gaze flew around the room, but the source of the interruption was not hard to spot. Princess Luna had driven her hoof into the floor so hard that cracks shot out from under it.

“Sister! Shall we cease these diversions and turn to the matters that weigh upon us all?” she demanded.

Fluttershy turned back to Princess Celestia, receiving a small nod from the elder alicorn. She and Twilight were right. Aside from herself, Fluttershy could not think of any other ponies (or dragons or bunnies, for that matter) she would rather have taking care of Philomena.

“You mentioned a fight earlier,” said the elder Princess. She paused to draw a slow breath through her nostrils. “You’re absolutely right about that.”

Everypony gathered around her cushion and lowered themselves onto their haunches.

“I first received word from the Grand Marshal one week ago,” the Princess continued. “Now, there’s always some kind of fire coming over from Drakvarna, but it grows stronger and harder to control as we approach the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Twilight smacked her hoof on the floor. “But the fires this year are especially bad, aren’t they?”

The Princess nodded. “Exactly. I promised the Grand Marshal I would speak with my old friend Raznavog to see what he could do to help.”

“What a weird name.” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. When her friends turned on her with scandalized looks branded on their faces, she scrambled to save her own. “I-I-I mean-n-n—oh, my,” she said airily. “That’s really cool of you to do.”

A cold shiver rushed over Fluttershy’s coat. She recognized that name. “Y-you know the king of the dragons, Your Majesty?”

Bad as the wide-eyed shock her friends shot in her direction was, the realization that she had cut Princess Celestia off skewered her so hard that she doubled over. She had done it, now! Banishment and imprisonment would be too good for her! The Princess would probably go and—

“Ah ha ha ha! Very good, Fluttershy.”

Laugh?

“You are absolutely correct,” the Princess continued. “We grew up together, actually: him, Luna, and me. How I still remember the nights we spent camping in the forest, telling stories and roasting marshmallows...” And, just as the light of fond recollection had brightened Princess Celestia’s features, a solemn resignation now fell over them like a veil. “He’s changed. I once knew him as a focused and understanding creature, but his demeanor the day we met was confused, and accusatory. When I asked him for help, he refused me.”

“That brute!” Rarity exclaimed. “How could he say no to you?”

“He told me the fires in his lands were beyond his control—and that we were responsible for them.”

Applejack stomped on the floor. “What? How in tarnation does he get to figurin’ like that?”

“If only I knew,” said the Princess, shaking her head. “What he said next, however, troubles me the most.” She sucked in a breath that refused to come voluntarily. “He was glad to see Equestria on the brink of burning.”

Silence settled over the room like snow on a house without a roof. The lantern continued to pulse with light, almost in time with everypony’s breathing—or, perhaps it was the other way around. A muted rumble sounded somewhere outside the glass.

“That was when I pressed him for answers,” said Princess Celestia. Her voice had dropped to a softness matched only by a mother’s love. “And that—that was when he attacked.”

It came to Fluttershy as if she had seen it with her own eyes: confined beneath the soaring dome of a massive throne room, the dragon unleashed blast after blast of fire at the alicorn pleading for reason as she flitted back and forth in the air. No nooks, no shelter—only cruelly smooth stone pockmarked by burns the size of trees. A swirling lance of flame caromed off a shield barely summoned in time, the second lance shattered it, and down the Princess fell...

“That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?” asked Twilight, turning to Princess Luna. “Your Highness, you called us the Elements of Harmony in your letter.” The unicorn rubbed her hoof on the floor as if she could not believe what she was about to say next. “Am I correct in understanding... that you want us to go to the dragon king, and sort this all out?”

The Princess of the Night nodded solemnly. “It seems my sister does not exaggerate the measure of your brain, Twilight Sparkle. We have the Elements of Harmony here with us so that you may repossess them, and discharge your duty to Equestria directly.” She sighed. “Ah, that the fate of our country—nay, the very world—lies in such young hooves...”

“Now hold on, there! Don’t you go cardin’ your cotton before you’re sure there ain’t ants in it,” said Applejack, snorting. “My friends and I may be young, and we may not be the most civilized of ponies—”

“Begging your pardon?”

“Shoosh, Rarity. As I was about ta say, there ain’t none among us who’s a shiver-liver scaredy-pony.”

Fluttershy wanted nothing more at that moment than to clamp her hooves over Applejack’s muzzle—but that would have been extremely rude of her to do.

“That’s right!” Rainbow Dash chimed in, flapping into the air so she hovered above the Princess. “We’ve saved each other and the world a couple of times already. I even bucked a dragon in the face once—and I’m still here, right? We’ll figure it out!”

“And I think I can speak for everypony else when I say we’re ready to do whatever it takes out there, for Equestria!”

Fluttershy’s lips had somehow welded themselves shut. She was with the rest of her friends in spirit as they repeated Twilight’s shout, and there were animals in the Everfree Forest who were on the verge of losing everything— but to confront the king of the dragons himself? Did nopony else have any idea of what they were getting themselves into?

“‘Tis well that your ardor evinces itself so,” said Princess Luna—but instead of smiling, her mouth only hardened along with her eyes. “But the task before you is not one you can attack on the wings of bravado alone. Let us observe the path ahead. Come!”

The alicorn’s mane rippled like the breath of the void as she made toward the eastern limit of the room. On the other side of the glass, the orange glow from earlier clawed higher into the sky.

Indeed, nopony knew what they were getting into. Even Fluttershy had to admit what she saw next exceeded the limit of her fears.

Below her hooves, the three tiers of Flamewithers curved around each other like the rows of an amphitheater. The stage, however, lay miles below the town in severe want of repair: its blasted and barren surface erupted in abrupt plateaus and crevasses.

Anchored on the horizon at both ends, a wall of roaring fire advanced westward over the jagged waste. The colors dancing within its edges were just as colorful as Rainbow Dash in places, maintaining their hue even as they linked together and flew apart. It was almost like looking into a dream—a terrible, terrifying dream, at that. Embers had already taken to the air in parabolic arcs, devouring circles of Everfree foliage wherever they crashed down.

“On the morn,” Princess Luna continued, never taking her eyes off the fires below, “I will send you beyond the reach of those fey illuminations to our embassy for counsel—I do not expect Raznavog to stand down peacefully in his own court. If some small comfort is to be gleaned from the journey ahead, it is that little remains behind the firewall to form a blaze. The worst of it whirls in Drakvarna’s western miles.”

“I... I see. We... we certainly have a lot to think about tonight. Thank you, Your Highness.” Having stood at Fluttershy’s side while Princess Luna spoke, Twilight gave the flames a final glance before turning back toward her mentor.

“Those flames are quite large,” Fluttershy overheard Rarity saying.

“Do you think I could bake cupcakes with ‘em?” Pinkie Pie had a hoof to her mouth in deep contemplation. “I’ve never baked with rainbow-colored fire before.”

“Twilight.” Princess Celestia’s voice beckoned the unicorn back over by the lantern. “There’s something else I need to let you know before you go out there.”

“Yes, Princess?”

The alicorn tilted her head up at the shards orbiting around her. “Do you recognize what those are?”

“Aren’t they...?” Twilight shut her eyes for a moment, tensing her body. She opened them a few moments later. “I couldn’t bring one closer for a look,” she explained, “but that meant that magic doesn’t work in their immediate vicinity...” Her ears peaked on the height of an epiphany. “Nullstones...”

The Princess nodded. “The very same material that keeps Everfree feral, no matter how we try to affect it. And—” She intercepted one of the stones with the tip of her horn, and it fell onto the cushion just before her. “The only reason why I am still here with you today. I haven’t figured out what else Razzie struck me with, but until Luna thought to bring me these stones, the pain I’ve felt in my dreams ever since has come close to overwhelming me. If something similar should happen to you or your friends when you meet him—” offering the stone, “you’ll have this.”

Twilight took it in her teeth and stashed it in her bag. “I’ve always wanted to play around with one of those,” she confessed with a sheepish smile. “But—did I just hear you call him ‘Razzie’?”

“You heard correctly, my faithful student,” said the Princess, “because I still believe King Raznavog is still my friend. I am merely sad for him,” pausing as her head drooped by a degree, “because I also believe he has lost his way. Redeem him, my little ponies. Prove to the world that the kind and intelligent dragon I grew to love as my own brother is not the monster I met out there, before it’s too late.”

4 | The Fire

Fluttershy and her friends stepped out of Princesses’ tower just as the last of Flamewithers’ shops closed for the night. With Twilight’s cloud-walking spell active on the non-pegasi of the group, Pinkie Pie wasted no time testing the springiness of the cloud beneath her hooves.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash!” she squeaked, flailing her hooves. “Look at me! I’m flying just as high as you are!”

The pegasus cackled. “Oh, yeah? How high can you go?” With three potent flaps of her wings, she ascended to a height halfway up the Princesses’ tower.

“Hey!”

While the others watched Rainbow and Pinkie play catch-me-if-you-can, Fluttershy found herself at the forefront of the group. The cloud beneath her hooves rumbled with the sound of distant explosions, and a persistent breeze warmed her wings as it blew in from the east.

She turned to the others. “Um, girls?”

A wild bounce sent Pinkie Pie tumbling end over end, releasing a shower of party props and musical instruments from her saddlebags. Only a quick sweep of Twilight’s magic kept them from crashing onto the cloud.

She had not been able to do the same for Pinkie. Always one to find the bright side to things, however, the earth pony seized the opportunity to show everypony her best impression of an ostrich upon landing.

Fluttershy had to admit it was a good impression. But her heart could not shore up the same easy laughter rippling from the rest of her friends.

She turned away, setting off along a route as familiar to her as a bedtime story. It took her past the weather factories and their spiraling cloudstacks, the lantern shop on the corner, past the old kitemaker’s store, past a row of east-facing benches. After a while, it brought her to a gated, two-story house. Columns rose along its front in geometric intervals, and statues of armored pegasi lined the path to the front door. When she looked back, her friends were still talking amongst themselves, but they were following in her hoofsteps.

Their chatter ceased as Fluttershy unlatched the gate to the house. She heard something rustle behind her soon afterward—Rainbow Dash was poking a well-groomed topiary.

“This place is weird,” she said, gawking around the front yard. “Whose house is this?”

Fluttershy squeaked as if struck. “M-my parents’,” she said. After seeing Rainbow’s ears peak, she continued. “We moved in here a few years after I was born.”

Applejack whistled as she glanced up at the house. “Hoo-ee, girl. I know you like visiting the spa with Rarity an all, but I never took you for growin’ up fancy.” The farmpony hitched a hoof at one of the statues.

“Come now, Applejack,” Rarity protested, looking up from an inscription on one of the statues. “It’s usually not all that expensive as you make it out to be. You should join us sometime; you are truly missing out on some world-class service.”

“I ain’t never steppin’ hoof in a place that calls mud a beauty product. Honestly, Rarity, I still don’t see the difference between my mud and yours.”

Fluttershy paused before the front doors, which were situated between a pair of unlit windows. She had not put much thought into where her friends were going to stay the night. Now that she had brought them along, though, she began to see little tells pass between her friends. The sidelong glances, the arching eyebrows, the underslung pointing of hooves--they were impressed.

She was not a pony used to impressing others.

“We could stay the night somewhere else,” she blurted. “My parents aren’t home right now, so we could go to the Fairfeather Inn instead. It’s a very nice place.” She tapped a hoof on the porch. “Has... beds.”

“What?” Pinkie Pie planted her hoof on Fluttershy’s scalp, and started rubbing at it as if it were a stubborn patch of dried frosting. “He-llo-o-o! Don’t be silly, you filly! Why do we need to stay at an inn when you have this super-ginormous house all to yourself? With your parents out, it’ll be just like a sleepover, you see!”

“Ouch. Ow.” Fluttershy ducked her head, but the hoof continued its violent crusade undeterred. “Pinkie, please stop that—Pinkie, that hurts—”

Twilight peeled the earth pony away before the latter turned Fluttershy’s head soft. The unicorn’s brows furrowed with concern. “Is something the matter, Fluttershy? I mean--yes, this is your house, and you have every right to ask us to go someplace else if you’re not comfortable with us staying here. Right, girls?”

“Ah--!” Fluttershy wiped a wing beneath her eyes. “No, it’s--I--oh, nevermind. I’m sorry. Please, come in.” She fished a key from her saddlebags and slotted it in the lock; the doors swung inward.

“Oooooh.”

The ponies had entered into a spacious atrium. Fluttershy nudged the chandelier hanging high above the center of the room, where crystals flared to life with soft white light. Wild Everfree blossoms reached for the air from a glass vase on a table toward the rear of the foyer. A pair of wide staircases ascended in arcs around the table to a mezzanine that wrapped around the foyer’s circumference. Open thresholds on the first floor split off to a sitting room to the left, and a kitchen and dining room to the right. The rooms of the second floor remained behind closed doors.

Along the walls hung portraits of various pegasi with groomed manes and lustrous coats. Rarity trotted over to a large painting of a stallion with dark eyes hidden behind thin-rimmed glasses and purred. “Oh my. You wouldn’t be my type normally, but...” The socialite clapped her hooves against her chest. “Say, Fluttershy. Do your parents entertain guests often?”

“Not really,” said the pegasus as she made for the kitchen. “It’s what you said earlier: they work very hard.”

“Are they on the fire patrols?” asked Rainbow Dash. “That’d probably explain why they aren’t here right now.”

“I dunno.” Twilight followed Fluttershy up the stairs. “This place looks a little expensive for a calling like that. I’ll bet they’re in administration.”

Fluttershy nodded. “You’re both kind of right.”

“We are?”

“Oh, yes.” Fluttershy gave the first two doors a pass. “As it turns out, Mother is a high-ranking officer with the patrols here, and Father is a senior doctor at the hospital.”

“Augh!” Rainbow Dash stamped her hoof on the floor as an open-mouthed smile stretched between her ears. “I remember you telling me about your dad at flight camp, but you never said anything about your mom! I had no idea that kind of awesome ran in your family! What about your relatives? Got any aunts or uncles out there fighting the fires?” She tapped a hoof on her chin. “Would any of them happen to know any of the Wonderbolts, by any chance?”

Fluttershy chuckled. “Sorry, Rainbow Dash. It’s only Mother, Father, and me.” She stopped before a door at the corner and pushed it open.. “Here we are. We have a couple of guest bedrooms on this side of the house, so everypony make yourselves at home.”

“Whoo-hoo!” A pink blur shot past the pegasus into the first bedroom. Before anypony could stop her, Pinkie Pie was improvising an acrobatic routine on the bed closest to the door. As the bed was little more than a block of cloud given some framework, it bowed in the middle like an overacting thespian with every bounce.

“Pegasus beds are the best!” cheered the pink party pony in the middle of a double backflip. “I’m totally getting one of these when we get back to Ponyville.”

“What’s in this room?” Twilight Sparkle had continued past the bedrooms, stopping in front of a pair of double doors. A pair of pegasi sculptures about to take flight rested on pedestals on either side.

“Oh.” Fluttershy left the other girls to settle in while she joined the unicorn. “This is Father’s library.”

Twilight’s eyes swelled until they were round as moons. “Can-- can we go in?”

No sooner did Fluttershy push the doors in did a lavender blur shoot past her. What was getting into everypony? It was only a house...

“For a private collection, your father’s doing really well!” Lighting her way with her horn, Twilight trotted back and forth in a lowered section of floor in the center of the room. A pair of high-backed chairs rested on either side of the reading table in the center of the floor, facing out toward a large, curtained window on the far side of the room. A glass and iron lantern sat on the table unlit.

Twilight skimmed row after row of low shelves, talking to herself in hushed excitement. Suddenly, she stopped, backtracked a little, and squealed. “Oh my gosh--Principia Arcana: A Brief History of Magic?” She levitated a well-worn tome from its shelf for Fluttershy to see--the book was easily half the unicorn’s height.

“My dad would always read this to me when I was a filly. Well, I made him read it to me.” A guilty smile seeped across her face as she flipped through the pages. “Even though Neighton focused on unicorn magic, he also looked into pegasus and earth pony magic, too. You can see his observations in the appendices here.” She turned the book around for Fluttershy to read. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“Um...” The pegasus’ eyes scanned the text in front of her. The way the unicorn philosopher described terms like “drag coefficient” and “meteorological potential” made it all sound like it was written in Canternese. “Well, it was very nice of him to think about the other ponies.”

“Very true.” Twilight closed the book. “Do you think your dad would mind if I borrowed it for the night? I always sleep better after some light reading.”

Light reading? The book had to be as heavy as a two-year-old filly. What did Twilight do when she got down and studied?

“I think he would be okay with that,” said the pegasus. “Father tries to keep his collection open to everypony. I bet he’d even be okay with letting you take a couple books on the road, as well.”

“You really think so?” Twilight’s lip twitched at the corner.

“Yes.”

“Ah-hahahaha!”

Fluttershy’s wings sprang free from her sides, but they had no chance to carry her away before Twilight’s hooves swept her up in a huge embrace.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” Twilight repeated. “Oh, this is so exciting! Where should I even begin? Ponyville’s a little lacking in pegasus material, and there’s so much of it here!” She scurried off to pick more titles off the shelves. “A Narrative Overview of Weather Control? Guess I’ll take that one—ooh! Flora of the Everfree Forest, yes, yes!” Books thumped on the floor by Twilight’s hooves. “And oh my—eleven volumes of The Complete Compendium of Pegasi Lore—wow!” By the time Fluttershy left the library, Twilight’s reading list had piled up past her cutie mark.

The pegasus took a few moments to turn off the chandelier before checking up on the rest of her friends. She bid goodnight to Rarity, who had claimed a bedroom for herself, just as the unicorn inserted one last roller into her mane. Rainbow Dash was also alone in the next room, fast asleep. One of her hooves draped over the side of her bed. Applejack had decided to room with Pinkie, and when Fluttershy came by, the two earth ponies were sharing horror stories of catering gigs gone wrong.

“So the mayor wasn’t as happy as I thought she’d be when Gummy burst out of the cake.”

“Well, I reckon she expected somethin’ a lil’ more classy for her party than ‘Happy Birthday on the Bayou’. But that’s just ol’ Applejack speakin’. That was a good party in my eyes.”

“She didn’t even stick around to watch Gummy play the banjo for her! I mean, it’s okay to be a little mad, but to walk out on your own party like that?”

“I hear you, sugarcube. That was awkward for everypony.”

Fluttershy crossed over to the other side of the house. Her eyelids grew heavier with each step, it seemed--was this really the same day she had started by tending to the animals back in Ponyville? The library, the letter, the tower and the princesses--they all felt so long ago.

She laid a hoof on her bedroom door. Her eyes floated through her house, taking in familiar details one by one--the smooth hoofrail running along the edge of the mezzanine, the chandelier and its crystals turning slightly on their threads, filigree sprouting from the bases of the unlit sconces along the walls.

Nothing had changed.

“Fluttershy?”

Twilight emerged from the library trailing a cloud of books large enough to fill a good-sized wagon. Even at this distance, her voice telegraphed her concern quite clearly. “Is everything all right?”

The pegasus snapped out of her trance, shaking her head. “Everything’s fine,” she said, letting her hoof fall from the door. Yawning, she made her way over to her friend in the guest wing. “Pinkie’s right,” she continued upon arriving. “This is a sleepover, and it wouldn’t be very thoughtful of me if I didn’t join you all over here. Right?”

Twilight smiled. “Glad to have you on board, Fluttershy.”

Bidding the unicorn good night, Fluttershy tiptoed past Rainbow Dash to the other bed in the room. As she nestled beneath the covers in the darkness, she listened to the other pegasus’ breath come and go in gentle waves.

***

“Aaaaah!”

Bits of leaf and dirt clung to her fetlocks as she galloped, and the gnarled trees surrounding her creaked in the stiff wind. Roiling clouds obscured what little sky peeked through the vine-choked canopy. Every time the path turned, a thorny tendril raked her legs, or a spider’s thread fell across her eyes.

Her lungs burned. Every time she heard something scamper through the undergrowth around her, she lost what little wind she still had to screaming. The Everfree Forest was ominous enough living on its fringes. How did she ever get herself this far inside?

“Hello?” she cried. “Hello? Anypony there? Can you hear me? Helllp!”

Suddenly, the trees pulled back from Fluttershy, and she skittered to a halt at the edge of a large clearing.

“Hello?” The pegasus crept around the open space, her ears flitting this way and that. “Where am I?” she asked of nopony. She looked over her shoulder on a hunch, expecting one of her friends to trot into view. But then her hoof collided with a rock, and she tumbled over it like an apple cart.

No, it was not a rock. It was too soft to be one, and it shifted beneath her barrel.

Fluttershy scrambled back on her hooves--she’d stumbled over a mare. A red mane spilled over her neck like filamentary flame, and her cream-colored coat showed no signs of dirt or distress. Both of her wings rested along her flanks, rising and falling with her breath. Fluttershy wanted to say she was napping, but she could not understand why anypony would want to do so in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

She fidgeted in place as a gust of wind rustled the leaves around her. What did she want to do? The greater part of her, including the part governing common sense, told her she did not want to wake the sleeping mare before her. The issue went beyond something rude—something about this pegasus nagged at her. Had they met sometime in the past? Those colors reminded her of something from long ago, for sure, but she was almost sure they had never met in person. And waking up a stranger was a dangerous business, indeed.

On the other hoof, so was staying in the middle of the Everfree Forest alone, in the middle of the night.

“Um. Excuse me?” she mumbled, poking the mare’s wing. Much as she hated to disturb the resting pegasus, she wanted to have some company, at least until she could figure out how to return to Ponyville. “Miss? Hello?”

The other pegasus stirred, and uneasy regret crashed into Fluttershy’s gut the next instant. There was something familiar about the mare, suddenly--and when things happened suddenly, those things rarely turned out for the better.

She took a step back as the pegasus rose to her hooves. The other mare was not quite as tall as Princess Celestia, but she was certainly taller than Princess Luna, and with her wings unfurled, she looked to be twice as large again. Despite returning to wakefulness, the red-maned pegasus kept her eyes closed, and her mouth traced a flat line across her face.

“I, uh...” Her ears flattened against her head as she took another step back, and another. Her heart was beating like the wings of a hummingbird. Yes, she was now certain she knew this mare from somewhere, but she could not remember where they met. “I--I’m sorry to bother you,” she stuttered. “Y-you can go back to sleep. Don’t even worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

The mare took a step forward, her face impassive.

“No! No, no.” A twig snapped beneath Fluttershy’s hoof. “Eeyahh! I mean, you don’t have to go anywhere. Please, feel free to stay where you are.”

The mare took another step forward. Her head came down to Fluttershy’s level.

“Ah!” The butter-yellow pegasus screamed as she backed into a tree trunk. Still the other mare approached.

Fluttershy sank to the ground and covered her face. “Um, okay. I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry for waking you. I’ll go back into the forest, and it’ll be like we’ve never even met.” A cream-colored hoof stepped into the space between her hooves. “How does that sound?”

The other pegasus halted just as the wind picked up. She looked toward the sky--no, how could she look with her eyes closed? She raised her head, prompting Fluttershy to do the same.

A hole spiraled into being among the clouds as they churned overhead, exposing the silhouette of a pegasus town against the starry sky. A dull orange glow tinted the town’s underbelly, while trails of light streaked behind some of its taller buildings. The tallest one caught Fluttershy’s eye in particular--even from several miles out, she thought she spotted something flapping at its apex. A flag, perhaps?

Her mind sprang back to when she first arrived outside the Princesses’ tower in Flamewithers. The flag flying from its spire had to be at least two or three stories tall.

A knot formed in the yellow pegasus’ throat as her pulse calmed a little. “That’s where I live.” She turned to the other mare. “So, you just wanted to show me how to get back? That’s what you wanted to do for me all along, right?”

The red-maned pegasus kept her head pointed toward Flamewithers. This was not the response Fluttershy expected--but what could she expect in the first place? She tapped her front hooves together and looked away.

“I was wrong about you. For a moment there, I was, well--I didn’t know what was going to happen. I got scared. So, I’m sorry.” She unfurled her wings and ascended above the canopy. “Thank you,” she called down, “whoever you are. My friends are waiting for me there, and I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

The other pegasus took a step toward her.

“Oh. Did you want to come with me? I wouldn't mind flying with someone else for n—”

A blast of air swatted her upward before she knew what was happening. The earth and sky convolved, a dizzy mess of green and gray—she stopped and reversed direction. The sky retreated behind a canopy of leaves as several branches broke beneath her back. One refused her; she tumbled.

Her left wing became trapped beneath her flank, and it drilled into the ground.

"Aaaaah!"

Fluttershy rolled over, her lungs unable to catch the breath surging through them. Her wing lay bent at freakish angles along the ground, like a marionette with severed strings. She screamed not because she was in pain—on the contrary, she felt no pain at all—but because she expected it would come at any moment.

"Please," she pleaded, turning to the other pegasus. "Help."

The other pegasus towered over her in silence. Deliberately, she lifted one of her hooves into the air. It touched the ground on Fluttershy's other side, and the pegasus stepped over her as one would step over a small puddle.

"Wait," Fluttershy called. "Where are you going?"

Little by little, the pegasus glided into the shadows of the Everfree Forest. There were no other words to describe the smoothness of her gait.

"Are you going to get someone?" A crawling feeling seeped into Fluttershy's heart. "That's a good idea. More help's always a good idea."

The last inches of the pegasus' tail melded with the darkness.

"That's right, Fluttershy. She's just going to get help. She's getting help." She forced her gaze skyward as her wing let off a dull throb. "Everything will be okay. She'll be right back with help."

She craned her neck to get a better view of Flamewithers through the hole in the clouds and gasped. Had it grown closer? It was bigger than before. She could make out the little houses on the terraces. They traded shadows with one another as the streaking lights from before descended upon the town, where little plumes of cloud jumped into the air from where they landed. One collided into the pillars holding up the roof of a market pavillion, and the roof tumbled amid a burst of glowing sparks.

Fluttershy fell silent. The ground quivered beneath her back with every new light descending upon Flamewithers.

What about her parents’ house? Her eyes darted over the town, and she found her parents' house standing alone and exposed on the third terrace—intact.

Before she could sigh in relief, however, she caught a glimpse of another light coming in from the corner of the hole in the clouds, and she was just in time to watch it drift closer and closer to the house...

The detonation hurled her from her bed against the wall in a tangle of legs and mane, but the twins of terror and adrenaline dragged her up on her hooves in the span of a cough. The two beds had scattered to the corners of the room in the blast, and sticking out from beneath one of the mattresses was a rainbow-streaked tail.

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy rushed over to her friend and hurled the mattress against the wall. Then she knelt and ran a hoof over the blue pegasus’s coat for injuries. To her relief, Rainbow was unhurt and woke quickly, but not without a little disorientation.

"Ugh... Fluttershy?" Rainbow rubbed her head and winced. Her rose eyes swept through the room. "Did somepony just drive a train through your house?"

"I have no idea.” Fluttershy looked over her shoulder. "I'll go check on Pinkie and Applejack. Can you go see Twilight and—"

"Gyaaaaaaah!"

Both pegasi jumped to their hooves. “Rarity!"

If ever anything existed to launch a pony from dreaming to flying in nothing flat, Rarity's brain-piercing scream would do just that. Rainbow Dash rushed through the doorway fast enough to suck the other bed straight from the room. “Hang in there, Rarity!” she cried.

While Rainbow Dash took care of the fashionista, Fluttershy scrambled over to the earth ponies' room. She caught flashes of little fires sprouting on the first floor--dancing on the paintings, creeping over the flower vase... “Pinkie! Applejack! You’ve got to wake up--”

Only an exceptionally athletic pegasus could hope to contest an earth pony in territorial disputes. Against two earth ponies, even the strongest pegasus would have more success rolling a boulder along a tightline. Because the scattered fires held her attention, Fluttershy had no chance of seeing her two friends in the doorway until she crashed into them, where they dismissed her into the far railing.

“Whoa, nelly!” Applejack ran over and helped the pegasus back upright. “You okay, hon?”

“I--I’ll be fine,” said Fluttershy.

“Where’re the others?”

“Kyaaaaagh!”

Applejack winced. “Hoo-ee. I guess that answers that for Rarity. Get along, now, girls!” The farmpony galloped off in the direction of the unicorn’s screaming.

Fluttershy tried to suppress the chill rising up her spine, but she may well have tried . “You don’t think she’s hurt, do you?”

“I sure hope not.”

Pinkie Pie lurched ahead of the other two ponies with a tremendous bound. The door to Rarity’s room was closed, but not for long--Pinkie seized the edge of the door in her jaw and yanked. “Never fear, Rarity! Auntie Pinkie Pie’s here!”

On the other side of the door, the only description Fluttershy could come up with was that somepony had blown up a beauty supply store. Curlers and mane products littered the floor, while a set of scissors embedded in the wall described the curve of a fan. Bathrobes and towels were scattered everywhere. Rarity sat upright in bed with her mane in wavy distress, flailing her hooves and wailing—but the unicorn lacked any sort of mark or wound on her body whatsoever.

“Hey!” Pinkie bounced over by the unicorn’s side. “What’s with the saddy-waddy? We thought something serious had happened to you.”

“Oh, I’ll be all right,” the unicorn gasped, falling back into her pillow. “You should be worrying about Twilight instead!”

Pinkie furrowed her brow. “Twilight?”

“Yes!” Rarity sat back up and clamped her hooves on the earth pony’s cheeks. “She came in here with books just before I fell asleep, but she told me she would be going back to the library for more!”

Applejack shook her head sighed. “That’s Twilight for you,” she said. “Girl can’t stop studyin’ even when she’s about to go savin’ Equestria.”

“You don’t understand, Applejack,” said Rarity, rounding on the farmpony.

“Why do you reckon?”

If the unicorn flapped her forelegs any harder, she would have floated off of her bed. “Whatever caused that huge explosion just now passed through the library first!” she roared. “That’s why!”

“Hellllp! Somepony, come quick!”

Fluttershy’s legs reacted faster than her brain, and she found herself back out on the mezzanine just as Rainbow Dash finished yelling. The chromatic pegasus pressed her back up against the wall just to the side of what used to be the library. In its place was a jagged, roaring hole, behind which lay the glowing maw of some infernal beast.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy grabbed her friend by the shoulders and snatched her further away from the library. “Are you okay? Where’s Twilight? Is she all right?”

“She’s in there, and she’s knocked out,” her friend snarled, throwing her friend’s hooves off. “I can’t get to her alone, but now that you’re here, we might have a chance to get her outta there.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “What are you talking about? We can’t go in there!”

“Hello-o-o?” Dash flared her wings as wide as they would spread. Fluttershy could not ignore the soot tipping her friend’s primaries. “Pegasi? If we treat the fire like a really big updraft, we might be able to drive off the heat long enough to get to Twilight.” She scrambled back to the mouth of the beast. Come on!”

Fluttershy’s hooves dug into the floor. “B-but—”

“I said come on—aaagh!” A gout of scorching air showered Rainbow with embers. She shook them off and threw a hoof in front of her face. “I need you here now, Fluttershy!”

The yellow pegasus skittered back. “I-I can’t.”

“Come on, ‘Shy!” Applejack’s muzzle pushed into her back. “Rainbow’ll never let anypony get hurt while she’s around. You know that’s the truth, so help her!”

“Raaah!” Rainbow Dash slammed her hooves on the floor, rowing forward with one long, powerful stroke of her wings. Fluttershy’s jaw dropped—in a single motion, her friend had kicked the blaze half a wingspan back into the library.

A sharp impact from behind jolted the pegasus to her friend’s side, and only adrenaline-spiked reflexes kept her on her hooves. She pulled a hoof to her face as purple swaths burned across her vision--she could not look into the library for more than a moment at a time.

“Do it, filly!” Pinkie Pie screamed. “Don’t be scared, now! You can do this!”

“Flap those wings!” Rainbow pushed her wings forward again. “They were built for this kind of thing!”

The explosion, the yelling, Twilight in peril, more yelling, fire, fire, fire--it was all too much. She fled somewhere deep beneath her thoughts where she was not about to go walking into an inferno--she was not about to be anywhere, really. Nowhere was better than anywhere, and she retreated as far down as she could go.

An agitated prod in her side opened her wings. Another prod got them flapping, though the wind they put forth would not have upset a house of cards, much less push away a fire. Still she advanced at Rainbow Dash’s side, the latter contributing the most to their progress.

Something crunched into flakes beneath her hoof, and a strange tingle chased up her fetlock shortly after.

“Hey, space cadet! You’re stepping on a flaming book!”

She lifted her hoof. A few slaps from her friend’s wing smothered any embers that may have stuck to it.

“Don’t go numb on me just yet—Hey! Hey!” The cyan pegasus poked Fluttershy’s head. “Look, Twilight’s right there. Could you stay with me a little longer?”

Fluttershy followed her friend’s pointed hoof. Either Twilight had extremely quick reflexes when the explosion happened, or else was very, very lucky. An armchair lay upended over her, forming an emergency shelter from burning debris. The only obstacles between the rescue party and the victim were the remnants of the other chair and table—the reading lantern lay shattered in the bottom shelf of a distant bookcase.

Rainbow Dash punched her friend in the leg. “Come on, Fluttershy! We’re here! Let’s grab Twilight and get the hay outta he—“

A sound like the popping of a cracked glass bottle from within sent a violet aura tearing through the room. The shock dragged trails of sparks over both the pegasi, and Fluttershy suddenly found herself back in the front of her head once more—her wings in pain, the air burning her nostrils.

“W-w-what was that?” she stammered.

“It sounded like it came from over there!” Rainbow Dash pointed to the broken lantern--or, rather, where the broken lantern had been. In its place was a circlet of violet-studded char, having blown through two of the bookshelves above it. With its lower supports gutted, the bookcase and its flaming contents began to tip into the center of the room.

Rainbow Dash’s wings shot up. “No!”

Fluttershy seized Rainbow’s tail in her mouth without thinking--one requirement of being friends with the Wonderbolt-wannabe was that one had to not only anticipate disaster, but what role Rainbow Dash would play in it. Had she not held her friend back at the last instant, a shower of flaming shelves and literature would have descended on her with remarkable force. When the collection crashed to the floor, no pegasus lay pinned beneath it.

The same could not be said for Twilight Sparkle. The flaming books piled all around the openings the armchair provided, and the fragments of the bookcase made the seal perfect.

“Twilight!” Her fire discipline forgotten, Rainbow Dash pulled herself free from Fluttershy’s jaws and thrust her hooves into the burning pile--only to draw them out just as quickly. “Hot! Hot! Hot!” She whirled on the pink-maned pegasus. “Don’t just stand there, Fluttershy! Do something!”

But all Fluttershy could do was stand there, her mind hazy—a million voices cried out at once with no consensus; another million demanded retreat. Meanwhile, Rainbow tried to fling more of the debris aside, ignoring the smoke rising from the tips of her wings.

“Hang on, Twilight Sparkle! We’re coming for you!” The cyan pegasus blew on her hooves and rubbed them over her coat, but her pace did not improve. “Fluttershy! Come on!”

She looks better. Did she put up any fights this time?

Twilight’s words from earlier that evening leaped into Fluttershy’s mind. She remembered, not hours before, how she had been relatively safe in her own home--free of fire and pain, surrounded by all of her best friends.

Pegasi can manipulate fire? But... fire’s nothing but a product of an oxidation reaction.

She had not thought much of it back then, the way Twilight listened to her words. She thought the unicorn was scratching an intellectual itch from the way she listened so politely. However, they had talked with each other plenty of times before that—she had even confided in her during her short time as a fashion model. No—when they talked, they talked about much more than just the academic.

To Flamewithers, then! Let’s go!

When Fluttershy thought about it, Twilight was usually the one encouraging her to go places. From defeating Nightmare Moon at the ruins of Castle Everfree to enjoying brunch with Princess Celestia at Sugarcube Corner--had the Princess’ star pupil not been there to let her in past the guards, she would have never met Philomena.

"Twiiilight!" Rainbow Dash kicked a piece of flaming shelf from the pile. "Wake up! You've got to get out of there! Do the teleporty thing, or whatever it was, just—gah!" With a snort, the pegasus leaped back from the blaze. "Just come out already!"

Something twisted the bottom of Fluttershy’s heart seeing her friend this way—the scalds on her hooves as she rubbed them down, the soot smeared all over her coat, the glare of unbreakable loyalty dismissed by impossibility.

Rainbow Dash did not believe in impossibility. If anything, to use her words, she made the impossible happen.

The haze in Fluttershy’s mind disintegrated, leaving one voice as inevitable as the changing of the tides. It told her, simply, that Rainbow Dash would try again, with her or without.

She concentrated on the fire before her and spread her wings wide, cupping the heat beneath her feathers. She tried to fix Rainbow’s technique in her mind--long rowing motions, Fluttershy, she told herself.

Her friends were depending on her. Knowing that gave her eyes a hard, iron-like sheen, and her brows slanted downwards. She leaned in with her body as she thrust her wings forward in the longest arcs she could manage, as hard as she could manage, ignoring how they wobbled and flexed in transit.

The flames covering Twilight’s shelter wavered, but did not shift.

“Again, Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash let loose a push of her own, and still the flames remained where they burned.

They did not take long to fall into the same rhythm. Backwinging, Fluttershy imagined her wings scraping the fire away, imagined how she would crawl beneath the arm chair and rescue the unicorn who had done so much for her. She pushed forward together with Rainbow, and the fire conceded a couple of inches.

Still, doubt crawled down the back of her mind like drops of water from a basement drainpipe. Updraft manipulation was one matter, but bending an inferno to her will? No flight school in Equestria taught ponies how to do that. What if, instead of blowing the flames away, she was only fanning them higher? The inches she and Rainbow Dash had pried away shrank before the roaring fire behind them.

“Don’t give up!” Rainbow had risen to her back legs. “Get closer!”

Even where she was, the heat felt like it was trying to scrape off her coat from under her skin. Still, Fluttershy put a hoof forward. The air around her began to shimmer, and a trail of light flickered around her leg.

We’re going to beat this fire, she told herself.

She reared up, spreading her wings until the air slipped between their feathers, and rammed them forward.

We’re going to pull Twilight out and get her to safety, no matter what it takes.

The fire retreated only a couple more inches, still well short of its apex. Fluttershy advanced upon its borders even as its heat turned into a wall—more trails of light spiraled around her barrel. The beating of her wings caught up with the beating of her heart, and their rhythm poured iron into her voice, even as the air seared through her nostrils.“Get— away— from my friend!”

Rainbow cheered at her side. “That’s it, Fluttershy! Don’t let up! You’re on f—”

A loud pop cut through the pegasus’ words. Fluttershy felt the concussion just behind her sternum, as if somepony had burst a balloon inside of her. The chill that followed it snap-froze her heart in a vortex of ice, and drove frigid tendrils down her limbs.

“Rainbow Dash!” she gasped. When she turned on her friend, the other pegasus reared precariously on one hoof, with her pupils collapsed to pinpoints.

“Fluttershy, get offa there! You’re on fire! You’re on fire!”

A wall of adrenaline slammed into her frozen midsection, and instants dilated and became large. Fluttershy became aware of a glow coming off of her hooves as they floated into her vision. When they shifted into focus, bright wisps swirled around them and up her legs like streamers, diaphanous and fluid. More of them danced around her barrel, weaving, flowing, and separating to the slow melody of an unheard air.

The flames magnified about her; she grew colder and colder. The sound of Rainbow yelling her name faded from her ears, the burning contours of her father’s library stretched into the distance, and the world lowered her onto her back.

She saw the sky. It held so many stars.

5 | The Family

What did you do when one of your best friends caught fire? The question was as ludicrous to Rainbow Dash’s mind as the actual situation. Flames rushed over Fluttershy’s coat as if she were doused in kerosene, and yet she did not budge.

“Fluttershy!” Even as she called the pegasus’ name, Rainbow suspected she might as well have tried to yell up to her friend in space. Her own voice sounded remote to her, like it was trying to cross a vacuum to reach her ears. But, short of burning herself as well, yelling was the only thing Rainbow could do. “Fluttershy!”

The other pegasus failed to respond, at least out loud. What took only a few moments seemed like hours before Fluttershy’s back left leg buckled. Like the toppling of dominoes, her other legs failed one after the next so that her body twisted toward the ceiling. Her eyes, wide enough to see into another world, did not blink.

Rainbow Dash could do nothing but stand by as her friend collapsed, the flames leaping to replace the space she had previously filled.

A flash, one as intense as the birth of a star, lit the air outside of the house. The thunderclap, just as savage, hurled everything that wasn’t bolted down backwards—books and loosed pages, shelf fragments, the table and chairs, flames, and a rainbow-maned pegasus, whose world screamed from a lurching blur to a sharp impact against the far wall. Her head rattled off the baseboard on its way to the floor.

Her thoughts only caught up to her after she tottered back on her hooves, drops of water christening her muzzle. At least she was not hurt badly—her ears sang like a gull with broken wings, but she would recover soon enoug—

Wait. Why was her muzzle wet?

Rainbow Dash craned her head up. Several banks of thunderheads wove dark patterns across the sky, and threads of lightning crackled between the clouds like the lash of a coxswain’s whip. This would have been fine by her were all this taking place, well, outside. It took her a few moments to determine that yes, she was still within a library. Well, what was left of it, now.

Where’d the ceiling go?

The incoming deluge made short work of the remaining flames scattered around the floor amid the gobs of soggy carbonized paper. Rainbow Dash scraped her wingtips through these gobs knowing full well how much trouble cleaning the gunk off of her pinions would bring, but better her wings were soaked through than burned away.

She froze up. Burned away—? Fluttershy!

Rainbow half-galloped, half-tumbled to where her friend lay, and her momentum took her where her balance could not follow. A confusion of hooves and heavy feathers later, her chin connected with the floor. She sprung back up, bracing herself for what was left of her first friend of summer flight camp. What she saw—

What she saw, with her ears still ringing...

Nothing short of the Princess’ intervention could explain the whole and unharmed pegasus lying before her. No patch of her coat bore any sign of charring, and no lock of her pink, flowing mane had disappeared to the fire’s appetite. She looked for all the world as if she had fallen asleep after a shower, having neglecting to dry herself off beforehoof.

Rainbow Dash’s reaction was automatic: her hooves wrapped around Fluttershy’s shoulders, and a blue ear, questioning, pressed itself against her chest. The rain falling on the two pegasi drowned out all other noise, and bits of water-weighted mane flopped across Rainbow Dash’s eyes. Her heart rose horribly against the base of her throat.

And just like that, it sank back into her breast—Fluttershy’s heart answered her with a strong, steady pulse. She slumped against her dozing friend and closed her eyes, the warmth of her coat oddly soothing on her cheek after what just happened...

“Does she yet live?”

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked at the remote voice, one she’d heard for the first time only the previous night. She sat up, coming face to face with a pair of solemn teal eyes. “I—uh.”

In the ongoing downpour, Princess Luna’s celestial mane undulated as if caught in nothing more than a small breeze. She disguised it well with her even tone, but the swell and ebb of her torso betrayed some manner of fatigue.

Stupid filly! Bow! Lowering her muzzle to the floor, Rainbow sputtered, “I-I think she’s fine.”

The Princess stepped past her, unaware of her tail brushing against the tip of Rainbow’s hoof. The pegasus flinched. Holy haystacks—whatever that stuff was, it was cold!

Her mind spun with questions, the foremost of them being, “Why are you here?” Of course, that hardly covered what she wanted to ask at all. She wanted to know why the Princess had come—what made her come, rather, to Fluttershy’s house, of all places, but that wasn’t a hard question to answer if Princess Luna had been the one to ask the Elements of Harmony to aid her sister. A small slice of her knew her arrival had something to do with the sudden rainstorm, even though the rest of her demanded proof that such a connection existed. Had she known Fluttershy was in trouble? If fireballs were landing everywhere in Flamewithers, did the Princess try to help the ponies there, too?

What did she need to ask?

“And what of your friend, Fluttershy?”

Rainbow twitched at the strangeness of the question. “I said she was fine, didn’t I? Who else would I be talking about?” she snapped, turning around.

The Princess was not even looking at the unconscious pegasus at her hooves. The corners of Rainbow’s mouth drew into a taut snarl. Was she blind? Who walks past the brightest colored thing in the room to look at a pile of burned, dripping books?

The pegasus blinked. Her eyes were faster than her thoughts—they knew to slide over to the middle of the room before she knew not to—for that was when Princess Luna dragged a silver-shoed hoof through the cinders before her. It encountered no resistance, and no pony cried in alarm at its touch. All that followed after it was a trail of silent char.

“Princess Luna?” Applejack was the first to trot through the threshold, with Rarity and Pinkie Pie bringing up the rear. She remembered to bow, of course, but she subsequent shiver told Rainbow she was having just as hard a time as the pegasus had figuring out how to ask after the reasons behind the royal’s appearance. Then Applejack’s eyes glanced over to the ashes, and Rainbow braced herself for the terrible question.

“Where’s Twilight?”

“Is she not behind you, fair Applejack?”

All heads followed the Princess’ gaze out to the mezzanine, where a familiar, straight-maned unicorn emerged into the doorway. The mild confusion lifting her brows as she looked from pony to pony turned to wide-eyed epiphany an instant later.

“Oh. Hi, girls.” She put a hoof behind her head. “Looks like I missed something.”

“Missed something?” Rainbow dashed over to the newcomer with enough speed to leave scuff marks on the floor. Jabbing a hoof into the unicorn’s chest, she said, “Yeah, you missed something. You missed all of us thinking you were a goner!”

Twilight frowned. It was an impressive frown, even for Rainbow Dash, and she’d gotten some serious frowns from the instructors at flight camp in her day. But before she could dwell once more on Amber Swift’s great ugly jaw poking out at her, swift hooves circled around her back and pulled her into a firm embrace. Nopony spoke as Pinkie Pie was the next to join the hug, followed shortly by Applejack and Rarity. A collective sigh of relief rose into the air the next moment, and the ponies separated as Twilight geared up for an explanation.

“I found this excellent compendium of pegasus mythology in here,” she began, approaching Princess Luna and bowing before her. “While I was reading, I noticed the light outside turning orange, which I thought was strange—morning was still several hours off. When I looked outside the window, I saw all of these fireballs raining down on Flamewithers, so I put the book I was reading away and teleported outside to get a better look at things. I thought I might have been able to help. And that’s when I ran into these two.”

At Twilight’s gesture, all eyes in the room turned to the doorway for a second time. Those closest to the door drew aside as a pair of ruffled pegasus ponies entered: one mare, one stallion. The mare was immediately recognizable as the model for the armored statue in the Lighthouse, except now she had color: dull ashed smudged parts of her light orange coat, while her mane and tail were streaked like strawberry creme candies. Her eyes were the color of sienna clay, and her cutie mark was a whirling hurricane of flame.

Unlike his companion, the stallion dressed himself in a tie and physician’s coat, and the sooty cast on the white fabric hinted at several flights through banks of smoke. His natural coat bore the color of rust, and his mane and tail ran with a warm shade of grey like the color of wildfire remnants. His eyes, however, were a shade of teal-green Rainbow knew she’d seen before, and confirmation arrived but moments later.

“Our daughter,” said the stallion, his eyes somber and his voice even—too even. “Where is she?”

“Be at ease, Sundown,” Princess Luna replied, standing aside to let him pass. “She is at peace.”

The stare the physician skewered the Princess with could have started a blizzard over the Mild West Desert. The alicorn actually backed away, her ears folded in contrition. “Have I spoken wrongly? Do ponies not wish each other to be “at peace” in this day?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Grand Marshal Summer Sky answered, escorting her husband by. “Unfortunately, the language—”

“—has changed since my return oh stars how many times must I hear that?” Princess Luna gouged the floor with her hoof as a bolt of lightning crashed through the clouds above. It did not take her long to recognize that the eyes of everypony on her were not where they needed to be, and she grimaced. “I suppose I shall have enough time to catch up eventually,” she concluded, retreating to the perimeter of the library to give the newcomers their space.

“As it turns out, Mother is a high-ranking officer with the patrols here, and Father is a senior doctor at the hospital.” What a difference there was between hearing about Fluttershy’s parents and seeing them in person. They were standing in the rain with a full wing of their house demolished while their daughter lay sprawled on the floor just yards away—and they walked over to her with such, well... Rainbow was not sure of what word she was looking for, so she settled instead for standing up and bowing out of the way as quietly as she could manage.

Sundown knelt by his daughter’s side, the hem of his coat sliding over a puddle as he held the back of his hoof over her mouth. He nodded at his wife as she took her place on Fluttershy’s opposite side. Raising a wing above his daughter’s body, he glanced over the rest of her for injuries and found none. This Rainbow knew beforehand, of course, but she wasn’t the pony in the room with a medical license.

Satisfied with his daughter’s physical condition, Sundown tapped her shoulder twice, brought his muzzle to her ear, and whispered. “Fluttershy?”

“Ahhhh!”

The physician pulled back just in time to avoid his daughter’s head as it shot up like a broken harp string. Rainbow had fallen over backward, Twilight, Princess Luna, and Applejack were staring, and Rarity had fainted on Pinkie Pie, who stood on her hind hooves with her front ones knifed against Celestia-knew-what.

Well, let all doubts fall with the rain, so the saying went. Fluttershy’s eyes thrashed side to side as she tried to figure out where she was. She started as she noticed the armored mare kneeling at her left side. “Mother?” She looked to her right and found her father there too, calling him by that name as well.

And then she surprised everypony when she was the one to reach out with her hooves and hug them. Fluttershy enjoyed songs, often to Rainbow Dash’s chagrin, but she was never one to initiate an embrace. Mountains would sooner flip on their heads singing showtunes before Fluttershy ever worked up the courage to ask, “Can I get a hug?”

“You’re safe,” she whispered.

“Because you’re still ours to treasure,” answered Summer Sky, nuzzling her daughter’s mane.

“It was all a dream, then.” Fluttershy let go of her parents and hunched over. “Thank goodness.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “‘Thank goodness?’ What are you talking about? Half your house just got blown away by a bunch of freaky fireballs.”

Fluttershy spun around to look at her with startling speed. “That’s not what I’m talking about, Dash.”

“Huh? Then what are you talking about?”

“Eep...” And as quickly as it had come, Fluttershy’s assertiveness left her behind with nothing but reddened cheeks. “I mean, I dreamed about something else that was kind of related to all this, but—.”

“Darling...!” Heads turned as Rarity sallied forth to Fluttershy’s side. “Everything’s going to be fine. Just try to concentrate on relaxing for now.” Her true motive for approaching became clear as a brush floated into the open from behind her back, though its wielder frowned at the sky a moment later. “Rainbow? Would you kindly pop into the sky and do something about this horrid rain? How am I supposed to tidy up our Fluttershy with this nonsense going on?”

“For cryin’ out loud, missy,” Applejack butted in, sticking her hat on Fluttershy’s head. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about than messin’ with the weather and brushin’ each other. The sooner we get out there and reason with this Razzie fella about all these darn fires, the better.”

“And you’re certainly one to talk,” the unicorn fired back. “Your older brother got a week off after hurting himself wearing your grandmother’s girdles, but there’s hardly a minute to tend to a pony coming out of a firetrap you sent her into in the first place? How can you be so insensitive?”

A violet ring of sparks swirled between the two ponies before their noses collided in argument, producing a very stern-looking Twilight with her hooves held out to both sides. “Girls, the slumber party was months ago,” she groaned. “You both have very good points, and you both have some very short-sighted ones, too. How about this, then? Rarity, you and Pinkie take Fluttershy downstairs and help her parents make breakfast. I think the kitchen’s still in one piece. Applejack, you and Rainbow can join the Princess and me while we discuss our plans for departure. Does that sound fair to everypony?”

Not a few quizzical glances wound their way toward the unicorn. Princess Luna’s eyebrow arched like a falcon preparing to dive; Summer Sky, on the other hoof, could not hide a small smile. A sudden rush of blood filled Twilight Sparkle’s cheeks.

“Iiii mean—far be it from me to tell you what to do in your house,” she said, nodding toward Fluttershy’s parents. More deliberately, “And your kingdom,” to the Princess.

“Actually...”

Everypony turned in time to see Fluttershy climb to her hooves. Her voice was quiet, but clear.

“Applejack’s right,” said the pegasus. “We can’t afford to stay here just because I’m weak. We need to leave for the dragon lands, and we need to do so today.”

She spotted the question forming on Rainbow’s lips and answered it. “The dragons aren’t the only ones to blame for these fires. Last night, I met the red-maned mare.”

Met the red-maned mare? Rainbow Dash glanced at her friends to make sure she’d heard that right. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity were exchanging confused looks, which wasn’t a surprise. On the other hoof, Twilight’s ears had perked up. The look she shot Rainbow, the kind that asked “you heard that too, right?” told the pegasus everything.

“Fluttershy?” Rainbow knew she had to phrase this delicately. Then again—delicate speech was far from one of her many amazing talents, so she grunted and forged on her own way. “You realize the red-maned mare is only something pegasus parents tell their foals about so they’ll stay in bed at night, right?”

Fluttershy looked as if she were being impaled. “Rainbow, please—”

“She’s right,” Twilight cut in. “Fluttershy, the red-maned mare I read about last night snatches up naughty foals and breaks their wings— ah...”

The unicorn took a moment to collect herself, as if she were trying to force unpleasant images out of her head. Rainbow could hardly blame her—the pegasi Bearers of the Elements drew their wings tighter against their flanks on reflex.

“Maybe I could’ve done without saying that,” said Twilight, apologizing. “But the fact remains that the red-maned mare is never once said or foretold to burn down all of Equestria. Unless you saw all of this happening in your dream, you’re better off leaving it at that—aaand the way you’re nodding your head right now’s telling me that’s exactly what happened?”

If it bounced any faster than that, Fluttershy’s head was gonna fly off into the clouds.

“Rrrright.” The tone of Twilight’s voice fell short of accepting her friend’s pleas for belief, but if Rainbow knew anything about the biggest egghead in unicorn history, that unicorn would be turning it over in the back of her head for the next several days. “I guess we’ll have more time to talk about this later. Are you sure you’re feeling well enough to leave home?”

“Yes.”

Rainbow wasn’t sure her friend from flight camp was all there in the head. Being on fire tended to do strange things to ponies! But she wasn’t sure she could argue with the results, either—anything that got Fluttershy to confront her problems, much less for her to do so on her own, couldn’t be all that bad.

“All right, girls.” Stepping up in front of the others, she spoke with authority while Fluttershy’s parents and Princess Luna stood out of the way. “Let’s be ready to leave for the dragon lands in one hour.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash saluted in unison. Applejack stomped the floor with gritted teeth, and Rarity let off a stiff nod. As for Fluttershy, she looked over her shoulder at her parents as they watched her from the demolished eastern half of the library.

Twilight began leading her friends back toward the bedrooms. “We’ve got a dragon to talk to.”