Elements of Discord, Chapter 1: Ignition

By Somber

(All credit for creation of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic world to Lauren Faust. This is just the first story that just popped into my head and I wanted to write it down. I hope no one minds my liberties… also given my lack of artistic skills, if some one actually wants to illustrate then feel free.)

(Also, the title at Equestria Daily is Perils of the Past, since 'Elements of Discord' was taken. ::sigh:: It's just too good a title to not use, huh?)

"Why are we in the forest, again?" Sweetie Belle muttered as she warily followed Scootaloo and Apple Bloom deeper and deeper into the Everfree Forest. The young unicorn hunched lower to the ground to avoid the bare branches that seemed to reach at them like bony hands ready to pluck them like overripe apples. "Nothing good comes out of going into a dark and scary forest."

Apple Bloom hopped atop a rotten long with a snort, "Oh come on Sweetie Belle. What if our cutie marks is 'explorers?' We could journey into the most deepest, most darkest darkest, most dangerest depths ever delved by ponykind!" She said as she could imagine herself standing on a rocky spire of stone, pith hat with goggles atop her head, and a compass firmly emblazoned on her flank. For a moment she assumed the pose, head thrust proudly forward… till she unbalanced and fell forward, hooves waving wildly in the air before landing in a heap on the other side of the log.

Scootaloo nimbly hopped over and tugged on Apple Bloom's hoof to help her up. Then she looked up at the white unicorn as she climbed up after them, "Besides Sweetie Belle, it's not like we've ever tried being explorers before. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Um, let's see? Cockatrices…. Hydras…," Sweetie Belle started to list as she trotted behind her friends.

"Yeah yeah..." Scootaloo said with an annoyed smile.

" Parasprites… Sea Serpents…"

Apple Bloom gave a sheepish smile, "Yeah, maybe, but…"

"Manticores… Dragons… Poison joke…" She continued as she trotted past her slightly less eager friends.

"Okay! We get it!" The pair shouted together at her.

"Well you asked," Sweetie Belle replied simply, looking back at them and swishing her tail.

"Sheesh…" Scootaloo said as the two hurried up next to her, rolling her lavender eyes. Then she paused, squinted, and raised a wing to shade out the sun's glare from her eyes. Something lay beyond the thick woods and tangled underbrush. "Hey! What's that?" she asked, pointing with her hoof.

The three fillies pushed through the bushes to the edge of a large wall. It looked cracked and half covered in vines. "It's some kind of wall." Apple Bloom said, looking along its length. It went as far as they could see in the dense wood. Admittedly that wasn't very far, but they'd never seen anything like this before. She looked up at the top with a curious cant of her head, "I wonder how long it's been here."

"I wonder what's on the other side!" Scootaloo said with a grin. Whatever it was, she had no doubt that it simply had to have something to do with their Cutie Marks!

"I wonder why anyone would build a perfectly good wall all the way out here," the unicorn said with a little frown, backing up a few steps.

"Oh stop being such a worry wart, Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo said with a smile as she crouched at the base, and then leapt up with her wings buzzing in the air. Up! Up… closer… clooooseerrrr… She almost made it halfway before her wings started to give out. Her hooves scrabbled at the side of the wall, showering her friends in a cascade of ivy leaves and tiny red Blooms. Then she fell and landed hard on her haunches with a loud 'Oooomph!'

Sweetie Belle helped the pegasus to her feet while Apple Bloom looked at the base. Then she scratched away at the heaps of leaves to reveal a dark crack in the wall. "Hey, look at this, girls!" She shouted and stuck her head in the hole. "I think this leads all the way through!" Her voice was slightly muffled by the sound of the stone. Then the dead leaves gave way beneath her and she started to slide through with a little shriek!

"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo shouted, leaping forward and biting her tail. It was for naught though as both of them disappeared into the hole in a cascade of dead leaves with a cry and a large cloud of dust.

Sweetie Belle stood there a moment and then walked to the hole slowly and looked in. "Does it go through?"

From the far side, Scootaloo groaned, "Yes, Sweetie Belle. It does." There was a skittering and clatter as the unicorn slid through as well with a fresh cloud of dust washing over the three ponies.

"Well, that's one way through a wall," Apple Bloom said, coughing at all the dust. Then she opened her eyes and her jaw dropped. "Woah…" Her friends also stopped coughing and looked as well. Sweetie gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves at the sight.

It wasn't just a wall. This was a ruined city! It stretched ten times further than Ponyville with great cracked buildings of strangely blackened stone. On a little mountain above them the three fillies could make out an actual castle! Sure, it was all falling apart, but that made it all the better! The three walked out into a court yard that had spots and patches of overgrown weeds and there were trees growing through some of the paving stones, but there was no doubt that ponies must have once lived here a long time ago!

"This…" said Scootaloo.

"Is…" added Sweetie Belle.

"So…" chimed in Apple Bloom.

"Cool!" the three cheered in unison.

The three set forth to exploring the ruin as best they were able. They found an overgrown park with crumbly pony statues and a large cracked fountain that still had a trickle of water pouring down on two unicorns. Somehow the trickle made it look like one of the two was crying. And there were blackened buildings that were all empty inside. Scootaloo noticed the black was actually soot. Sweetie Belle frowned at blackened stumps in neat rows. Still, it was Apple Bloom that noticed one of the flagstones had hoofprints in it!

"I wonder where all the people are. Seems like a perfectly good waste of a city." Sweetie Belle said with a frown as she surveyed the ruins.

"Something bad happened here," Apple Bloom said softly. "A fire…"

Scootaloo looked nervous, then feigned a snort and tried to sound a brave as she could, "Shyeah, right. Well whatever it was it happened a long time ago. There's nothing now that could bother us, right?" Her eyes looked from one to the other as she grinned, hoping for agreement.

Apple Bloom wasn't quite listening as she leaned forward and tapped at the flagstone with the hoof print. Suddenly there was a soft rumble as cracks spread across the street. Apple Bloom turned to run but suddenly the road fell in underneath her. She gave one yell as she fell into the deep shaft, barely missing old rotten timbers. Tattered spiderwebs ripped like silk as the fell through them. Suddenly she felt hooves grab her mane and her fall slowed as a loud buzzing filled the air. "I got you," Scootaloo shouted. Sweetie Belle clung to the pegasus's back, eyes clenched shut in fear.

They landed hard and in a heap once again. "Thanks Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said in a shaky voice.

"No problem." Scootaloo said in a pant, "But I think that's all I got."

It was so dim in the bottom of the shaft that they could barely see anything at all. Apple Bloom could see a big open room ahead of them. It was shaped like a big dome, with great big cracks in the floor and ceiling. Suddenly a faint glow emanated from behind her. She turned and there was Sweetie Belle. Her eyes were clenched as she concentrated, and then with a little poof a ball of light appeared at the tip of her horn. "Sweetie Belle! When did you learn how to do that?"

"Did it work?" the little unicorn asked nervously. She opened her eyes, looked at the ball with her own expression of amazement. "Oh! Wow, it actually worked! Twilight showed me… but I never got it to work before!" She said with a smile at the ball of light, forgetting they were stuck at the bottom of a hole. Then she turned to look at her flank, but there was no sign of a light bulb or lamp or anything. Oh well, for a unicorn, pulling off any magic was always great!

"Well, I'm glad you did." Scootaloo said in a nervous voice as she knocked a stone with her front hoof. It scattered across the cracked floor and disappeared into a crevasse. They looked over the edge, but not even Sweetie's little light could show the bottom. A few seconds later they heard a clack far below. "I don't think we're ever getting out if we fall down there."

"I'd just be glad to get out of down here." Apple Bloom said softly as the three ponies walked slowly through the huge domed room. Through the cracks and the soot they could see images of a black unicorn pegasus, the full moon with the dark silhouette of a unicorn cast upon it, and a pony that looked like they were on fire! All three girls gulped at the sight of that last one.

Then they looked ahead and all three girls screamed again. A horrible black monster stood before them, rearing with its hooves pawing the air. Apple Bloom was the first to notice it wasn't moving. "Girls…" she said, unheard over her friends' panic. "Girls." She tried again, louder. Her ears flopped flat before she snorted, and then shouted, "Girls!" They blinked at her in confusion. She trotted closer to the rock. "It's just a statue."

Both let out their breath and Scootaloo gave a nervous laugh, wiping sweat from her brow with her wing. "A statue. Of course it's just a statue. I knew that."

"It sure is an ugly statue," Sweetie Belle said skeptically as she walked carefully around it.

Apple Bloom certainly agreed, cocking her head with a little frown. It resembled a black misshapen hunk of rock carved roughly in the shape of a pony rearing up on its hind legs and pawing at the air with its front hooves. There were glittering diamond chains disappearing into the rock, as if trying to hold the statue in place. Still, as interesting as a creepy statue was, it wouldn't get them out of here. Fortunately, in the unicorn's wan light, the earth pony spotted an opening in the far side, and she said, "Hey look. Stairs going up!"

Sweetie Belle carefully navigated past the cracks to catch up with Apple Bloom, but Scootaloo gave the statue a sullen look. "Stupid rock," she snorted and kicked at the stone with her hind leg, cracking it. That brought a smile to her face; just like booting that scared right out of her head. But as she trotted towards her friends she heard it. Another soft crackle. And another. Slowly she glanced over her shoulder and saw her little chip was now starting to creep over the rock. "Oh no!"

Sudden the rock wasn't just breaking, it was moving! The whole statue started to stir its legs as pieces of stone flaked away. The diamond chains clinked and jingled as more stone fell away and they saw dark hide beneath it. The rock around its head fell away, and two eyes of flame opened wide as a plume of flame shot from its mouth! It screamed as it shook itself, a mane of fire spreading along it's back till its tail erupted in a crackling blaze.

"That's a… pony?" Apple Bloom said as she backed closer towards the stairs.

The flaming pony slammed its front hooves down, its feet also igniting as it shook off the rest of the rock. There were still metal plates chained to its shoulders and it wore a helmet of pitted smoking steel; both started to glow red from the heat as its angry red eyes looked at the three fillies. Perhaps most disturbing of all was where a cutie mark should be there was a burning red cloud shaped like a mushroom. All there were petrified in fear as it jerked on the diamond chains binding its legs and neck. The chains flashed crimson in the flames, but held. Instead, the chains broke free of the crumbling walls.

Suddenly the cracked roof crumbled and stones began to fall, and still the girls were terrified of the monsterous pony and couldn't move an inch. It wasn't until it reared up once more and screamed at them, its hooves slamming into the ground with a little explosion, that they started to run across the uneven, shaking ground towards the exit. The monstrous pony pursued, screaming and flaming after them. A large rock fell right at Sweetie Belle, but the bucking burning pony accidentally knocked it aside with its shoulder; the metal plates sparking as they deflected the stone. The ground fell out from under Scootaloo, a massive pit opening below her as the floor started to collapse as well. At that moment though a diamond chain swung past her, and she gripped it for dear life as it tossed her over the yawning pit and on to the stairs.

Apple Bloom raced towards the exit, her friends yelling and encouraging her as the flaming pony trotted along behind her. Even its breath had snorts of flame! With a rumble the wall tore free and heavy, jagged stoned fell in a wall between her and the way out! The burning pony raced up behind the filly, and she ducked just as the burning pony spun and bucked fit to make Applejack jealous! The flaming hooves hit the wall with a scream and an explosion that blew the rubble into smoking gravel. Then the pony looked down at Apple Bloom with its fiery red eyes. "Now run!" It screamed as it turned, crouching, as if about to pounce!

The creme colored pony turned and raced towards Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as the burning pony followed, the room collapsing behind them. Always the flaming pony seemed right behind them as they ran up the zig zags. Finally they emerged in the ruin above and sprinted, gasping, for the exit. Behind them the pony emerged under the sun and stood there amid the stones. Suddenly it began to roar and kicked at the blackened walls with its burning hooves! Explosions filled the air as its burning tail flicked a ball of fire at a towel and engulfed it in flames. It would be been so cool if she hadn't imagined Sugarcube Corner burning just like that.

The three found the crack and scrambled up the slippery leaves and into the woods.

"What was that thing?" Sweetie Belle panted as she looked up at the thick pall of smoke rising from over the wall, along with renewed muffled explosions.

Scootaloo looked at her in scorn. "Uh, how about 'a monster?' Duh!"

Apple Bloom didn't join in as she stared at the smoke a moment longer. "I dunno," Apple Bloom said as she caught her breath. "Applejack said something like that about Zecora." She remembered Pinkie Pie's ridiculous song about the zebra putting curses on all of them.

"Uh, Apple Bloom, Zecora wasn't on fire!" Scootaloo countered, and Apple Belle had to admit that was a good point. Still, she didn't know… had the flaming pony been trying to save her and her friends, or just wanted to chase them some more before cooking and eating them?

"Let's get home and tell Twilight Sparkle! She's gotta have a book or something that should know for sure!" Apple Bloom said as they trotted for the trail that would take them home. Then Sweetie Belle stopped short.

"Wait! We're forgetting the most important thing!" Her friends looked at her blankly a moment, then all three turned and examined their flanks. Their very bare flanks.

"Awww…" the three said in unison.

It would have to be a cake, Pinkie Pie thought as she tapped her hooves together, staring in contemplation and trying to look every bit of a super smart genius person. A special cake. A cake Rainbow Dash would never suspect of being a prank. They'd graduated long past whoopee cushions and a dribble glass was simply too old hat to ever be truly funny for the next year or two. Now she had to devise something truly sensationally unexpected to unleash on her unsuspecting uni… wait, that alliteration wasn't going to work! "Dang it! That would have performed perfectly if that pugnatiously perceptive pegasus pony were only a unicorn. Poo."

She hopped on her hooves with a sigh, but when she spotted the Cutie Mark Crusaders walking through Sugarcube Corner with heads hanging and tails dragging. Well, that would never do! She jumped right down besides them and asked, "Hey girls! What's shaking?"

They started, but then smiled. Well it was kinda a smile… the kinda smile you smiled when you didn't really want to smile but you thought you should smile even when smiling was the last thing you wanted to do. "Oh, hey Pinkie Pie," Apple Bloom said morosely, confirming Pinkie Pie's smile analysis.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Pinkie Pie asked with worried eyes, but kept her smile steady. A 'hey I know you're not really smiling cause you're happy but I really want you to be happy so I'll smile while you smile' smile. "How's the Cutie Mark quest coming along? Is that what's gotcha down?" She stood on her hind legs, about to launch into a song about never giving up, drawing in her breath.

"No, that's not it!" Apple Bloom said quickly, rising to cover Pinkie's mouth. Then the young tan filly backed away still looking upset. "We just got in a lot of trouble for going into the Everfree Forest… again."

Pinkie Pie winced. "Ooooh that's right. I remember Applejack saying something about that. I understand 'wrangling, hogtying, and trussed up like a turkey' was going to be involved with she caught you." Personally she didn't know why Applejack had been so worried, but then she'd never had a sister like Apple Bloom running into the forest for 'adventure.' "You know, I always wondered what would be the big deal with hogtying if they just wore clip-ons, you know?"

They tried to give her a smile, but all three resumed looking worried almost at once. Lots of people might think she was a scatter brain but… Oh! What if she used a candle connected to a firework inside the cake she'd give Rainbow Dash timed to explode just as it was blown out? That'd be perfect! Then she blinked and remembered the three fillies before her and focused. There'd be a time for pranks later. "Well why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

The three young ponies looked at one another and took a breath in unison. A deluge of information flooded forth from the three young girls. Pinkie twisted her head this way and that, stuck her tongue out to the side, furrowed her brows, trying to assemble all the bits and pieces. It seemed to involve a ruin, a flaming monster pony, a lot of falling, an exploding cake, and being chased around. Wait, no cake. That was hers. "So you found a ruin, let loose a big fire monster pony thing, and got chased out?"

"Yeah," Scootaloo confirmed as she fluttered her wings a little. "And then we thought… well… what if it came here?"

"Well actually we checked if we had our cutie marks first, but THEN we thought we should warn someone." Sweetie Belle clarified.

"And we went in to tell Twilight Sparkle," Apple Bloom said as she turned to look over towards the library but then hung her head, "But she told us flaming ponies didn't exist."

"Actually she asked us if it was a dragon, a phoenix, or a salamander… and then she told us flaming ponies didn't exist." Sweetie Belle said as she sat back down, rubbing her chin. "Though then she said that books written in gibberish didn't exist either… and that books were numbered for a reason…"

"Oh!" Pinkie Pie grinned sheepishly. "That was me. I sorta pranked two books she was in the middle of studying. One with scribbled pages and the other I mixed up all the pages." She shook her head sadly. "When it comes to reading, that pony has no sense of humor. Sheesh."

Then she got a weird sensation in the back of her head. Not a twitch, nor a flop, nor an out of place sniffle or an itchy sensation between her shoulder blades. This was like a pressure at the base of her skull… a dull pressure that only came when something bad was about to happen. Then she looked at the three Cutie Mark crusaders and narrowed her gaze. "Wait! You said you warned Twilight Sparkle?"

"Um… yeah?" Scootaloo offered, shying away from the look on Pinkie Pie's face.

"And she just blew you off like you had no idea what you were talking about?"

"Uh-huh…" Apple Bloom nodded warily.

She sat as stiffly as Pinkie Pie ever got… well as stiff as she could without her hair uncurling… and said in a flat and disgusted voice, "Twilight Sparkle…" Then she marched straight towards the library with the three in tow. And with as much drama as she could muster, and given Pinkie's proclivities it was a wonder she didn't knock and run away with a trapped cupcake on the welcome mat, she threw open the door and pointed right at the purple unicorn, "Twilight Sparkle! How dare you?"

Twilight, for her part sat in the middle of the library with a book binding before her, pages collected in near little piles to her sides, and a brush with glue floating in the air before her. Spike, her baby purple dragon, was doing his best to uncover some hidden secret in the pages of the joke book she'd scribbled on. The unicorn looked at her in even, and slightly terse confusion, "Excuse me?"

"Do you, like, have a problem with warnings or something? I mean, sure, you got to come here and try to warn everyone about Nightmare Moon escaping… but whenever anypony ever tries to warn you about something then you're all, 'Pshaw… can't happen, nope nope nope, no danger here!' The pink pony stalked closer towards her. "Do I need to remind you of the parasprites? How about Zecora warning you about the poison joke? Or maybe I need to twitch at you? Huh? Huh? Huh!" She said, getting closer to Twilight Sparkle with each hun till they were muzzle to muzzle.

Twilight Sparkle leaned as far back as she could without falling over, sweat on her brow at the reminders that she did have a tendency to dismiss other people's warnings till it was too late. She glanced over at the unhappy Cutie Mark Crusaders and sighed. "Okay Pinkie. I get your point."

"And another thing-" she started before she blinked in surprise. "You do?" She stepped back enough for Twilight Sparkle to get to her feet.

Twilight Sparkle looked at her books, and her horn glimmered as she pulled two red leather bound books with her magic, "Well, I asked them if it was any of the usual creatures in Flaming Fauna or the Combustible Codex…"

"Or something in Dragon's Digest…" Spike added as he tossed the prank book aside.

"…but there's not a flaming pony anywhere. They just don't exist." Twilight Sparkle concluded, looking over at the worried ponies as she set the books on a heap. "I believe you saw something, girls… but a monster flaming pony? There's just nothing in the books about that."

"Well have you ever thought that maybe it's something that's not in a book?" Pinkie Pie offered with a grin. "You know, most things books are written about were around before the book was written. It's not like there were dragons in books and one day, poof, the first dragon appeared going 'gwarr, where's my gold and jewels, gwar hiss!" She said as her mane tried to form dragon spines and she hissed in her best dragon imitation.

Spike rubbed his snout, "Actually dragons are more likely to fwoosh into being rather than poof. It's a dragon thing," he said, touching his chest in pride.

Twilight Sparkle frowned as she looked at all the books around her, clearly not comfortable with the idea that all of life's answers had to be in a book somewhere. "Still, a ruin… and a flaming pony with exploding hooves locked up beneath it? It just sounds too extraordinary."

"It's true!" Scootaloo said immediately.

"It was all on fire and screaming and everything!" Apple Bloom said, trying to add credibility through sheer willpower.

"Please believe us," Sweetie Belle asked with her round lavender eyes.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, "After the time with the Cockatrice I was hoping to avoid having to go back into the Everfree Forest for a time."

Pinkie Pie laughed, "Oh well you can go if you want, but I was thinking that maybe we know somepony that could go check a little… mmm… faster?" She said as she trotted to a window and pushed it open with her hoof. "Ooooohhhhh Rainbow Dash!" She called out into the sky. She then paused and then her eyes went wide and one lid twitched. She dashed to the closet, dug out a metal bucket, and filled it as quickly as she could. She was just about to set it on top of the window when her eyes met the stern look of Twilight Sparkle and she let out a huff. "Oh, you're no fun," she pouted as she took the bucket down.

A few seconds later there was a polychromatic streak and the window was pushed open to admit the azure pony. "Never fear, Rainbow Dash is…." She blinked at the sight of the Pinkie Pie holding the pail of water and the worried Cutie Mark Crusaders, "…here? What's going on?"

"The girls saw something strange in the Everfree Forest," Twilight Sparkle said as she looked at the three, giving them a smile that they returned. It was the same kind of smile Pinkie Pie had given them herself. The girls' smile was much more of a 'we are really glad somepony is actually believing us enough to do something about it' smile.

"Well duh. What isn't strange in that place?" Rainbow Dash said with a huff, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Well it's got them scared." Twilight Sparkle looked at the blue Pegasus firmly, and then Rainbow Dash dropped some of her scorn. The girls being scared just came from being young. They were still scared though, and that was what mattered.

"So we were wondering if you could fly out over the forest and just keep an eye out for anything unusual." Pinkie Pie offered with a grin, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Like….?"

"Oh nothing. Strange rocks? A particularly odd color apple tree? Annnnnd… maybe a ruined city with a fire breathing monster pony running around shooting fireballs from its tail and zapping lightning with its eyes? Pzow! Pzow!" Pinkie Pie offered, her hooves mimicking the lightning as she zapped indiscriminate books before she glanced at the confused faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "No?" Then she leaned over and whispered to the skeptical Rainbow Dash, "It only might have eye lighting. Stay alert."

"Rigggght…" Rainbow Dash said as she leaned away from Pinkie Pie. She looked at Twilight Sparkle, who gave a smile and a nod. Rainbow Dash sighed and then nodded, "Okay! I'll nip all the way across the Everfree Forest and back again. And I'll do it all before sunset too! Okay?" She asked as she hopped on to the windowsill, looking back. The Cutie Mark Crusaders all looked much happier that somepony believed them enough to check. Finally with a swoosh of her rainbow colored tail she hopped back outside the window and was gone at once.

Pinkie Pie and the Cutie Mark Crusaders walked out of the library. "Come on, girls. Let's go and see if we can get you three a cup cake eating cutie mark!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped after the three, closing the door. Well, mostly closing it.

"Do you really think there might actually be a flaming pony monster out there in the woods?" Spike asked Twilight Sparkle as she used her magic to carefully move the disassembled book to a table, returning the brush to the glue pot.

"Who knows? But Pinkie Pie had a point… I didn't like it when Princess Celestia seemed to ignore my warnings. I should have believed the girls a bit-"

Then Pinkie Pie shrieked from outside and Twilight Sparkle jumped to her hooves. She raced to the front door and jerked it open, "Pinkie Pie… what's…" and then there was a splash as the bucket fell from the door and landed atop her horn, drenching her mane and soaking her hooves.

Pinkie Pie and the girls laughed, the pink pony grinning at her friend and sticking her front hooves out infront of her. "What? I had a perfectly good bucket of water on hoof! I had to use it. There are rules to these things, you know!" And with that they trotted off towards Sugarcube Corner, the three fillies laughing at the prank and talking about cupcakes and cutie marks and not about flaming monster ponies.

Twilight Sparkle took the bucket off her horn and smiled at her friend. "Yeah, there is, isn't there?" Then she looked in the direction of the Everfree Forest in time to see the rainbow speck disappearing out of sight. "I just hope that this time the girls are actually wrong."

"Gee, Rainbow Dash, why don't you just fly over the Everfree Forest and go looking for a monster?" The blue Pegasus tried to imitate Pinkie Pie's voice as she swooped amid the clouds over the green trees and over the various lakes and streams. "Ok look! There's one." She said sarcastically, pointing off in a random direction. "Oh no. That's just a baskataur or whatever. See if you can find the right monster," she said in her best Twilight Sparkle voice. "Ugh... why did I agree to this?"

She huffed as she blasted through one of the forest's many odd clouds; the white vapor just getting her cold and wet rather than dispersing in a poof like real clouds did. She also knew why she was flying all the way out into the middle of no-where looking for who knew what: that scared look on the Cutie Mark Crusader's faces. It was the same look she'd had in Cloudsdale at the best young flyers competition. Whether it was real or not, this 'monster' had spooked the fillies. If a flight out and back put them at ease then it'd be worth it.

She popped out the other side of the large feral cloud and immediately started to cough at the haze filling the air. Her rose eyes clenched as she fought for her breath and circled closer to the earth. "Oh would somepony tell me what the heck is going on?" She asked as her eyes started to tear up from the junk in the air. She found a oak she could perch on, since she wasn't about to try standing on any of these clouds, and looked up at the spreading smog over head. It reminded her of when she and her friends had been forced to relocate a dragon.

There was more and more smoke in the air and she limited herself to hop from tree top to tree top, trying not to breathe too deeply and using her colorful rainbow tail to cut out some of the foul air. Below her saw animals fleeing as quickly as they were able. "For once I wish I had some of Fluttershy's talent." She muttered as she looked and fanned her wings to cut out some of the smog.

Then she saw the flames through the trees. It wasn't like a normal forest fire though; she'd seen a few of those. This was no crackling line of flame making its way across the summer dry forest. This was a single spear of fire making its way through the woods. From that point the fire fanned out like the biggest and most terrible pegasus wings ever. Worse, it came with a rush of hot hair and smoke that blew her from her perch. Rainbow Dash struggled for elevation. Altitude. Get away!

Instead she fluttered into a heap on the ground, lungs burning as she coughed and retched. She could hear the crackle and the ominous noise like an unending inhalation. At least down here the smoke thinned enough that she could catch her breath without coughing. But as she straightened she heard something else. Steps. Foot steps that crackled like the flame. And then on a rise above her it appeared: the Cutie Mark Crusader's monster.

Its black hide was partially hidden by red glowing armor chained in place like the princess' guard pegasi. A mane of fire ended at a plumed tail that cracked and snaked back and forth behind it. The stones the fire pony stood upon were turning red from the flaming hooves. Embers spread from its simple presence as it looked down at Rainbow Dash from the promontory. It snorted ruby flame, and for an instance Rainbow Dash was reminded of Spike, minus the cute.

"So. You're the monster." Rainbow Dash did her best to sneer, but a glance upwards into the thick smoke made her gulp. She wouldn't last long breathing that mess. She grit her teeth, "So why are you burning up the place?"

It jumped from the rise and landed in front of Rainbow Dash with a small detonation, and Rainbow Dash leapt back as embers showered out and new tongues of flame started to chew on the surrounding trees. She landed on her back and rocked forward to sit up, looking at the fire pony with wide rose eyes. The monster's glowing red eyes looked at her where she'd landed and it narrowed its gaze. "Princess?" it asked in a crackling mare's voice.

"Princess?" Rainbow Dash said as she took her feet and put a few more feet between her and the waves of heat coming off the fire pony. "I'm no princess." The fire pony just arched a burning brow that seemed to say 'no duh'. She slowly backed away step by step, trying to put some distance between her and the terrible heat coming from the fire pony. "You mean Princess Celestia?"

The name made the fire horse scream and slam it's hooves into the slag, sending hot chunks flying. "Where?" The fire pony asked. The burning mushroom cloud cutie mark seemed to glow with its own terrible light. One of the rocks under its burning hoof started to bubble and melt.

Rainbow Dash's eyes watered from the smoke and glare coming from the fire pony. "Give me one good reason why I should tell you anything?"

It glared at her and then snapped its tail. A ball of flame arched over Rainbow Dash and struck an oak, the explosion instantly turning the tree to a torch.

Another gulp. "Okay… Good reason…." She glanced behind her at a gap in the underbrush. Then Rainbow Dash grimaced and yelled, "but I'm still not telling you anything!" And she turned and plunged into the woods as quick as she was able. A fireball exploded where she'd been sitting seconds earlier as the fire pony pursued.

She might be grounded for now, but she'd beaten Applejack in the Running of the Leaves… or she should have. In either case, the blue Pegasus put her experience to good use. The fire pony screamed and raced after her. It wasn't easy given that there was no trail and she had to plunge through the underbrush while the fire pony simply burned a path right through it. Still, her wings and mane tangled in leaves and grasses, she finally lost track of the blazing monster.

"Oh yeah... even flaming pony monsters can't catch the Rainbow Dash," she said as she walked with a wary eye out for any flame. Last thing she needed to do was getting caught in some brambles or run across another monster that hadn't the sense to take off. Still, she'd gotten away once, so her ears perked up and she smiled in more confidence. "Now I just have to get out of here…"

Of course that was easier said than done. She might have had a good enough sense of direction to avoid going in circles, but she wasn't exactly sure how to get back to Ponyville. Every now and then she'd risk the smoke to jump up and see which direction the fire was travelling. It was certainly closer than she'd like, and by now had spread so that she couldn't guess which front was caused by the fire pony.

Then she stumbled upon a familiar trail. "Hey, this is how we get to Zecora's place. Sweet!" And she ran along it towards safety, before sliding to a stop and looking back in the direction of the fire… and Zecora's home. "Zecora's smart. She'll have gotten clear of the fire long ago." She said, trying to convince herself it was true. The zebra knew all about the Everfree Forest and could take care of herself, right?

"Ugggh…" she groaned before turning and reversing her course. "When I get back to Ponyville I'm getting my head examined!" She shouted, then broke into a fit of coughing. The smoke thickened and she heard that eerie breathing roar of the fire by the time she saw Zecora's tree. The door hung open and Rainbow Dash groaned, squinting through the haze as she masked herself with her tail. "I should have known she'd get clear…"

Then she saw one of the zebra's hooves sticking out of the door. "No…" she whispered, her eyes as she rushed in to see Zecora laying on the ground, unconscious. "Zecora! Zecora! Wake up!" She shouted as she shook the zebra. For the longest moment she was sure that… that… then the zebra stirred and coughed.

Zecora stirred and opened one turquoise eye, "Too... too much smoke. I fear we're gonna... choke..."

"Not today, we're not!" She said as she lifted the zebra over her shoulders and carefully positioned her between her wings. If the air'd been clear she could have flown both of them out in no time, but right now she felt lucky to be able to even carry her. As she started along the trail she didn't even want to look behind them to see how close the flames were. She tried to keep her mouth covered as she trotted along as quickly as possible.

Then she heard it. Footsteps and the crackle of flame. The underbrush besides her steamed, smoked, and burst into flame as the fire pony stepped through. It reared on its back legs, burning hooves pawing at the air, and brought them down in a detonation of ash and pebbles. "Okay…" Rainbow Dash said through clenched teeth as her wings tried to hold Zecora a little tighter. "Round two…"

This time though things were in the fire pony's favor. While the trail was easier to run along, the smoke, fatigue, and Zecora's weight slowed her down. It was like racing with an open oven. She sucked in each breath despite the smoke in the air to try and propel her a little faster. Her flank felt like it was on fire, but she didn't dare try to kick or fly and risk dropping the zebra. Not for anything… but she was about to lose this race. Then she spotted a large opening to the side of the trail and the dull reflection. "Okay then, Sparkie! Let's take this off road!" And she angled off, and leapt off the bank and into a shallow pond. The cooling water swirled around her shoulders and flanks as she kept Zecora's head above the water.

The fire pony tried to stop, but the bank crumbled away and its legs plunged into the water in a great hiss of steam. It screamed in pain and clambered out of the shallow pond. Suddenly it started bucking, leaping, kicking, and flicking fire from its tail and mane left and right. It raced around the pool, leaving a trail of spreading embers and a wall of fire in all directions. Neck deep in the pool they sucked in as much cool wet air as they could and stayed as close to the middle they could while the fire pony threw a veritable tantrum on shore.

Finally it stood back, panting and snorting plumes of flame, looking equally fatigued as it stared at Rainbow Dash with undisguised rage. It kicked at a tree next to it in sullen resignation. Then it straightened and turned, walking into the inferno and disappearing from sight. "I… I won. Yeah…" She said weakly as the waning adrenaline left her feeling like she would pass out as well.

The flapping of wings brought her back from the brink of unconsciousness and she struggled to raise one arm and wave it into the smoky sky as the fire crackled all around the pool. "Ditzy Doo, down there! I think I see her!" Then there was a pause, "No! Down Ditzy! Down!" From above appeared two pegasi with matching gray hides, one with a brilliant purple mane and the other with a bright golden mane. Wet clothes covered their muzzles and goggles covered their eyes.

"Ditzy Doo. Flutter Doo. Boy am I glad to see you ponies." Rainbow Dash said as she lifted Zecora enough for Flutter Doo to get a grip, the purple haired Pegasus lifting the Zebra clear with a great fluttering of her wings. Once Flutter carried her up and away Rainbow Dash tried to kick and flap her way into the air, but she was simply too tired. Ditzy hovered above, looking down at her as she extended her tail, eyes looking both at her and off towards shore at the same time. "Don't tell anyone about this…" she muttered.

Ditzy made an X with her hoof in front of her chest. Rainbow sighed, looking away, then bit the offered tail. Ditzy groaned and flapped her gray wings furiously as she was lifted into the air and away from the pond. Ditzy Doo moved besides her sister as they started back towards Ponyville. As grating as it was to be rescued, she was glad to be out of the fire and moving away from the smoke.

Then she glanced behind her back at the ring of fire surrounding the pond. There, standing on the edge, was the fire pony. It looked right at them through the haze. 'Oh no…' Rainbow Dash thought with a little sense of dread. Before her eyes she saw the point of fire start to crawl through the trees behind them… heading straight for Ponyville.