Chapter 1: Blazing Away

Blaze Burn never really felt like he was living up to his full potential. Never. His single mother was always away, and he was left home alone more often than he cared to admit. He felt like he needed much more sunlight, his pearly white coat gleamed, but it was so bright, sometimes he blinded even himself. He was happy with his mane though, a radiating red-orange that faded into a white not that different from his coat.

He always felt like something was missing, something that would earn him his cutie mark. He spent most of his days dreaming about the awesome deeds he would accomplish. How he would become the best flier in all Equestria, and how he would be honored by the Princesses themselves. But he still felt like those dreams still needed something; he would become the best flier, the ultimate pegasus ever known.

However, the moment Blaze laid eyes on his baby brother, Star Burn, he knew he would do anything to protect him. When his mother came home with that little bundle of joy, he felt that hole in his dreams filling. He would become his brother's protector, a winged guardian.

After a short time, the small royal blue bundle of a pegasus that was Star began to grow. That was when Blaze decided upon a course of action. The area of the Everfree Forest, where the Castle of the Two Sisters resided, was slowly expanding, and the city was falling apart. Discord had been turned to stone, but his magic still destroyed much of the prosperous land. This made a slight problem for running away, there were just no opportunities for the brothers to get anywhere, and that was it. Mother barely made due, and their family really only consisted of the two tiny colts, since she was gone on her love business most days and often overnight,

But Blaze was a determined pegasus, though he may have been young and inexperienced. He had decided to run away, and he thought he knew how he could provide for themselves. Even though most of the country was in ruins, the Castle was still well-built. It had survived far worse events, and it would continue to reign through countless more. He knew that both the Princesses were well off. Royalty always had plenty of food.

That was the basis of Blaze's plan; to steal food from the Castle. But he knew he was still lacking in one major department; he had no skill in the art of theft. It took a few days of miserable contemplation, but he figured it out. He had a plan, and he was going to save himself and his little brother.

Flying as fast as he could, Blaze rushed into the shamble of a building they called a house. The foundation was falling into a pit of sand, all four walls were slowly crumbling under the constant wearing of the weather, and the roof leaked in at least a dozen places. The entryway was just the tiny living room that was home to a single couch. On that couch lived himself and his brother. But it was also inhabited by a score of various insect species. Star was still asleep on the couch, wrapped in his star splattered blanket.

Blaze only stopped for a moment to make sure that his brother was okay, though he tried to be as quiet as possible. Mid-day naps were going to be very important for the younger pegasus. So the white-coated brother dashed up the stairs, through the peeling hallway and into their mother's bedroom. The only bedroom in the house. Luckily for Blaze, their mother was out on "business", and would be gone most of the day.

Once inside the bedroom, Blaze grabbed the only suitcase he had ever seen in the family's possessions, and started grabbing anything he thought he would need. This included Star's favorite teddy, an awful, ragged thing that was missing an arm, an extra blanket, and the only jackets that weren't already in pieces. He shoved all their clothes in as well, making the suitcase thoroughly packed.

And after thumping the case down the stairs as quietly as he could, he then proceeded to go to the tiny area they called a kitchen. He grabbed a small wedge of cheese, one of the only things left that was edible.

"Why do we suffer, oh Princesses?" Blaze asked aloud, staring at the wall, willing the tears away. Theirs was a world of pain, of suffering, and it wore on the will of everypony. He understood that the Sisters were trying to fix the nation, but only so much progress could be made. Some ponies took the hardships better than others. His mother for example, she was forced into the sex business, and then there were the rich and royal. Those who had the luxury of freedom away from oppression.

"Stop." Blaze growled, slamming his head on the wall.

"Brother?" Star asked, weakly floating into the kitchen, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. This caused Blaze to freeze for a moment, before dropping the suitcase and rushing over to the small blue pegasus. "Are you going somewhere?"

"What? Well, yes, but no. We are going somewhere." Blaze managed a weak smile before wrapping Star in a hug. "It's all going to be alright."

"We're going somewhere?"

"Yeah. We're leaving this place behind. Going somewhere better."

"Why do we have to leave?"

"So you can get big and strong. And we can be free."

"I want to be big and strong. Just like you." Star forgot all about his sleepy eyes. He now beamed.

"Then let's go. Right now, grab your blankie, and we can leave."

"But what about mom?" Star's face dropped into a look of confusion.

Blaze hesitated, then looked down, pawing at the ground. "She won't be coming with us. She is too busy."

"Can we leave her a note?"

"Already did that." Blaze Burn hated to have to lie to his brother, but the thought of breaking his heart would not allow him to be completely honest. Besides, their mother would soon find out. Star just nodded happily and fluttered off to get his blanket.

Blaze watched Star leave the kitchen, smiling to himself; everything was working. They were leaving, and he had been practicing his skills against some of the local ponies. He had amassed a small pouch of bits, as well as a few snacks and smaller items that would go unnoticed.

His heart lifted, Blaze huffed and lifted the suitcase off the floor, cheese in his mouth, and holding onto the case with both front hooves. Floating into the living room, Star was already at the door, holding it open for his big brother. Blaze nodded and they left their world of innocence behind.

The sun blinded Star's eyes for a moment, and then the two pegasi floated into the hobble of broken and discarded buildings, without a single pony noticing two colts with their supplies flying by. After about an hour of searching the ruined parts of the city, the brothers discovered a small community of other homeless ponies taking shelter within a large warehouse. Blaze told Star to wait outside, while he peeked inside to scan the shelter.

A peek was all Blaze needed, he snapped his head out of the warehouse.

"We can't stay here." He said quickly, taking the suitcase and slowly floating towards the street.

"Why not?" Star asked, bobbing up and down, his wings tired from the flight.

"It's. . ., Blaze paused to think about how to explain it to his brother. Eventually, he decided to protect Star; "occupied."

Star seemed slightly disappointed, but didn't question his brother's authority. So the two continued through the ruined city, passing two similar homeless communities. Each one was "occupied". The sun was beginning to cross the western horizon when Blaze finally dropped the suitcase and heaved himself to the ground right next to it. Star had stopped floating an hour before, and stopped his pitiful crawl next to his brother.

"This isn't fun brother." Star huffed, barely audible as his face was concealed behind his pitch-black mane. If Blaze wasn't so Princesses-damned tired, he would have marveled at the opposing color schemes between himself and his brother. The young pegasus was so dark, while he was white and red, the colors just clashed whenever they were together.

Of course, Blaze Burn was too damned tired to care about anything other than the fact that Star was homeless and they were not going to make it. He was to blame, he had taken them away from the only shelter they had known.

"I know brother. I'm sorry Star." He grumbled, picking himself up. He quickly scanned the surrounding housing options. They had managed to pick a fairly intact place. That meant that they were in a region of town that still had real inhabitants, ponies that still owned their own housing.

"Just a little more." Lifting himself off the ground, Blaze picked up the case and made another glancing sweep of the area. He saw a potential alley, and swiftly flew over to it. Taking another of his peeks down the path, he saw something that had eluded the pair; another shelter. Rushing over to the case, Blaze urged them towards the final promise of shelter. Getting to the entrance, Blaze Burn repeated the process of taking a glance inside, only this time he didn't immediately snap his head back out, which instilled in them both a sense of hope. Something they hadn't felt since the beginning of the day.

Opening the old, burnt door a little more, Blaze Burn entered the old, shambled warehouse hesitantly. The place was falling apart, all thanks to Discord, but was still able to shelter those who need it. The roof was intact, it might have been the most structured part of the whole building, but the back wall was the best place to hide from the elements. That was also the favorite spot among the homeless, as countless ponies, pegasi, and unicorns huddled together to keep warm as the sun hid itself for the night.

The place had the feeling of total despair, and the others within looked like death itself. Many were malnourished, their ribs showing through whatever clothes they had on. Manes and tails were drier than straw, often literally falling out of their owner's bodies. Yet many were walking around with a purpose in their stride. The first though Blaze had was that they just walked into a horde of zombified creatures. Only when one stopped to frown at the two did he come to his senses.

"Excuse me," He began nervously, "is there a couple open spots in here?"

The frail grey-eyed unicorn frowned even more, gazing at Blaze, then shifting her gaze to Star. She swept her hazy eyes between the two for a moment, then suddenly dropped it. "Now why would two young pegasi need open spots here?"

"Our . . ." Blaze started, before shutting his mouth closed. How much could he tell her? "We need somewhere to rest our heads. It's late, and my brother needs to sleep."

Puffing out his chest, Blaze tried to look and sound confident. He wasn't sure he pulled it off.

"Oh, dear Princesses." The unicorn sighed depressingly, lifting her gaze to meet Blaze's full force. "Another victim of the tragedy. Well then, right this way. I think we can find somewhere that has a couple areas open."

With that, the unicorn turned, revealing a mottled brown coat, flecked with tiny black spots that probably shouldn't have been there. Her mane was almost gone, with what little remained being a dead blonde color. Blaze couldn't make out her cutie mark, she had a ripped-up skirt covering most of her flank.

"Are we finally going to bed?" Star asked, gliding up to Blaze's side, a look of confusion written across his face.

"Yeah." Blaze sighed. It was over, at least for now. They had a place to rest their heads, to recuperate for tomorrow. It was a long day, too much running around, especially with the heavy suitcase. Unfortunately, he was still dragging that damned case, but it was a short prolonging, as they got to a sparsely populated section behind a crumbling wall of stone. The wood was gone, but the roof was steel, and would keep out the rain.

"I hope this isn't too bad for you." The unicorn said, before disappearing into the shadows.

"Okay." Blaze was a little concerned that that was all, but decided to just shrug it off. He could deal with everything in the morning, because at the moment, he felt like he could sleep standing up.

The area was empty it seemed that they had privacy, though Blaze couldn't guess whether that was good or bad now. He dropped the case on the ground and almost collapsed, pumping his wings to stay up.

"Let's get our rolls out and go to bed, okay?" He stuttered, clumsily opening the case, not caring that it was upside down and most of the components were spilling out. He just rifled through the spreading items until he pulled out two bundles of cloth, their sleeping rolls. Soon both brothers were wrapped tightly in their bags and sleeping, even if it was an unfavorable situation.

The blackness of night was still holding the cloudy sky when Blaze snapped awake.

'What was that?' He peered around, but in the dim, he saw nothing. A minute passed, and when nothing but silence remained, he decided it must have been his imagination.

In the distance, a cat meowed, briefly breaking the silence, but soon the darkness dominated. And yet still Blaze couldn't shake this feeling of urgency. So he quietly stood up, glancing in the direction of Star. Nothing, no movement, no sounds, Star was a quiet sleeper. With this feeling clutching at his stomach, Blaze snuck outside for a breath of fresh air, not that the failing structure impeded on the flow of air as it was, he just needed to see the stars for which his brother was named.

The night was perfect, not a cloud in the sky, but the lights of the remaining city were dimmed. It seemed that nopony wanted to stay awake after the long days that life gave them. With such, the heavens appeared so brightly and alive that Blaze just stood there outside the door for a good several minutes, staring up. Snapping back, Blaze glanced around, making sure he was unseen, and then took several steps into the shadow of the crumbling buildings until he came to the stairs of an old house. Going up, he found the entire second story gone, he walked into a landing that led to an open area, light rather brightly by the moon and stars.

Bright reds and rich purples splashed themselves across the sky, painting a picture more beautiful than anything Blaze could imagine anypony could have ever painted. He silently thanked Luna for her imagination and perfect design of the night sky, and had to tear his gaze away from a star cluster several times. The stars made a shape of a heart, but the colors that bled together made it so eerie.

Flapping his wings to get some air under them, Blaze walked to the right-hoof side, where the buildings around gave a slight ramp for him to take off. He glanced down at the ground, making sure the coast was clear before he took off. Seeing that it was all empty streets below, he trotted to the other side and stretched his legs and wings for takeoff. Rolling his shoulders, Blaze sprinted the length of the building flaring his wings to catch as much air as possible.

Pumping his wings, Blaze gained altitude, though he saw he was heading directly for the slanted roof of a distance house, he knew the drill. Galloping in air, he prepared to use the roof to launch himself into the air.

At first contact, Blaze almost tripped, a bit of loose hay caused a slip in his step, but was an easy fix for him, he sprinted up the roof, then leaped into the open skies. He would have been invisible, if he had his brother's coat, as it was, white didn't blend with the night sky. Because of this, Blaze flew close to the rooftops. He wasn't worried about guards, he just needed to get good at being unnoticed.

He knew thieves never got caught, well the good ones that is. He had to be good, no, he had to be the best. Life was tough enough, but he was going to take from those who wanted to avoid that fact. They were going to be guarding their treasures with a jealous security. He had to prepare.

Blaze swept himself up to avoid a chimney stack, clipping his front hooves on the cracked bricks, knocking a couple loose.

"Buck! Pay attention Blaze!" He muttered angrily to himself, shaking his head clear of all thoughts.

After flying for an hour, Blaze felt sufficiently tired to sleep, in fact, he was so exhausted, returning to the warehouse was difficult for him. He had done an extensive flying workout, putting his wings to the test. He returned on shaking wings and trembling legs. Warily opening the door, he snuck back to his roll, and after a final look at his brother, promptly passed out.