Ugh, did anypony get the number of that train?

…

Um, where am I?

…

White ground, white chair, white walls. Okay this is really weird.

…

Why can’t I move anything else? Hnng… well, only being able to move my head is a bit of a downer. Oh, I can feel my horn! Maybe I can finally use magic again… nope, nothing is happening.

…

Well this sucks.

…

…

…

Heh, heaven isn’t nearly what it’s cracked up to be. Where are all the flowing arches of rainbows, clouds and holy ponies? If this is the afterlife then I think I’d prefer staying at home.

…

Home.

Do I even have a home anymore?

…

Twilight.

No, I do have a home, in Ponyville with Twilight, Spike and all the others.

…

I don’t want to leave them…

…

…

Hm?

“T------ -a-- -p“

What was that?

…

“Tr--i- -le-s- wa-- -p“

Ok, now I’m sure I heard something.

…

That voice, it sounded familiar, almost like-

“Trixie!! Please for Celestias sake wake up!!!”

Twilight!? Is that you!? Where are you? What’s going on? Cracks began to form around the walls of the white room. Trixie could see swirling orange and red light through the seams. Pieces began falling off the walls floor and ceiling as the room crumbled around her. Oh no no no no no no no no- Aaaaaaahhhhh! The floor gave way beneath her as she plummeted into the fiery abyss below.

…

“Please Trixie wake up!!” Twilight sobbed at the limp form before her.

The square had erupted into chaos immediately following the explosion. Fire had begun spreading across the square, instantly catching onto and burning all the joyous ornaments and decorations that had been placed. The crowd of ponies had become a flailing stampede, their only goal of escaping the monstrous inferno.

In the burning square was a single safe haven, a glowing purple bubble amidst the smoldering wreckage. Within the bubble were the faint silhouettes of two mares, one shaking over the other. However, nopony paid any attention to the tiny sphere or the ponies in it.

…

Mmmm… What’s going on now?

Oh. Twilight. Well, that’s a lot better than the first try.

I wonder- Hurk! Can’t breathe! All of Trixie’s senses rushed back into her in one fluid motion as she fought for her life against the smothering unicorn.

“Eurk, Twilight. Please-” Trixie gasped.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re awake!” Twilight cried, completely oblivious that she was choking the poor mare. It took a second for it to click, but Twilight finally got the message and released Trixie from her death grip. She blushed furiously and took a step back, bumping into the bubble around them.

“So uh, I’m guessing things didn’t go very well,” Trixie observed while peering through the shield. She could see the crumbling husk of the stage all around them with flames biting and hissing at the protective barrier.

“Heh, yeah,” Twilight meekly replied.

“Soooo, what exactly happened?”

Twilight took a moment to think before responding. “I’m not entirely sure actually. There was some kind of explosion that sent all of us flying off the stage. When I regained myself I saw a burning chunk of the stage falling towards you. Then I kind of dove on top of you and threw a shield spell over us.”

“Well, considering what just happened, you don’t look in too rough shape,” Trixie commented. Twilight’s mane and coat were disheveled. She had a couple cuts and burns along her legs and the tip of her tail was singed and blackened. Her horn’s glow was also slowly fading.

“Ugh,” Twilight grunted. “I wish. This shield is taking up a lot of my magic. I won’t be able to hold it up for very much longer.”

“And... and then what?” Trixie gulped as Twilight slowly looked down at her hooves. Neither had to say anything, they stood in silence as they both arrived at the same conclusion. Once the shield ran out there would be nothing between them and the raging inferno.

Without saying a word, Trixie wrapped a hoof around Twilight, who herself did the same. They stayed like that as Twilight’s horn began to fizzle out, waiting for the inevitable. There was a loud pop, barely audible over the flames as the bubble burst, but the heat never came. A huge typhoon of water washed over the two mares.

“EVERYPONY GET AWAY FROM THE STAGE RIGHT N-

*KABOOM*

Silver felt the explosion behind her as she was propelled into the air away from the stage. Unable to right herself in time, she tucked into a ball and barreled into a tree on the edge of the square. Her vision swam as she struggled to regain her sense of direction; it did not take very long.

“Ow,” Silver muttered while spitting out a mouthful of leaves. “I’m gonna feel that in the morning.” Brushing aside the discomfort, she shook loose the tangled limbs holding her and spun around landing hooves first on the ground below. Her brain finally caught up and began to process the scene before her.

The stage had been transformed into a huge flaming wreckage from the explosion. Fire had rapidly begun covering the town, spreading along all the flammable decorations. Ponies were running for their lives in sheer terror. Silver already began thinking of ways to smother the fires. “Okay... that won’t work... neither would that. Maybe if… no, I would need help for that.” Silver’s train of ideas was interrupted as she heard somepony calling her name.

“Silver!” somepony called behind her. She turned and saw Applejack running up to her with two other mares in tow, one a bright cyan pegasus and the other a white unicorn. “What in tarnation just happened!?”

“Yeah!” the pegasus interjected, “Why’d everything go boom!?”

“Listen, I’ll tell you all what I know after this is over because if we don’t do anything right now there’ll be nothing left of Ponyville to talk over,” Silver countered, “Now I don’t think I can snuff out everything by myself, so I might need you three to help me.”

“Of course darling,” the unicorn replied, taking a step forward, “What can we do to assist?”

Silver thought for a moment how each could help. She already had a basic plan, but it would require some tweaking and amplifying to work.

“Do you know any condensation spells?” Silver asked the unicorn.

“Um, I know a spell to fill a jug of water,” she shrugged while gesturing back at the square, “but I hardly think that would be enough to put this out!”

“Don’t worry about that,” Silver said as she turned to the brightly colored pegasus. “I need you to collect as many clouds as you can and bunch them together on the north side of town facing the square, the more compact the better.”

“On it!” the pegasus declared as she launched herself off the ground.

Silver turned back to the unicorn. “Follow her,” she pointed at the pegasus, “and when she’s gathered a large amount of clouds together use the condensation spell on them with as much magic as you can. Work quickly, we don’t have much time.”

“Alright, I hope you know what you’re doing,” the unicorn called as she ran after the pegasus.

“And what do ah do?” Applejack asked

“I need you to help get everypony that’s outdoors inside or behind some stable cover. Also, stay away from any windows when I pass through Ponyville,” Silver said.

“Got it,” Applejack replied, as an afterthought she added, “Yer not planning to do anything stupid now are yah?”

“No promises.” Silver smirked before blasting off into the skies high above Ponyville.

Applejack spun around and ran straight back towards the square. She began furiously directing ponies indoors and away from the fires. It didn’t take too long to get everypony indoors as most had already fled. By this time the damage has worsened considerably. Most of the town square was a burning hell; the fire was still raging and growing every second. Just when it seemed like the square was completely emptied out however, another problem arose.

Applejack could see Pinkie Pie calling from the west side of the square to her. “Hey AJ! Come quickly! I need your help!” the not-so happy looking pink pony yelled.

Applejack ran across as fast as her legs could carry her and found Pinkie hopelessly trying to kick at a huge wooden beam off of a pony wedged underneath it. Even with Pinkie’s strongest bucks, the beam wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Cheerilee got caught under this beam and it’s too big to move!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Move aside!” Applejack ordered as she spun around and planted her front hooves into the ground. With one solid buck the wooden debris was sent flying back, exposing the unconscious mare that had been held captive.

“Pinkie, get Cheerilee on my back and move! We have to get inside before Silver makes her pass over the town!” Applejack grunted as Cheerilee was placed on her back.

“C’mon! In here!” Pinkie waved at a nearby doorframe. Applejack gladly rushed inside and out of the oppressive heat. The inside of the building was pretty much intact, but Applejack didn’t want to take any chances. She and Pinkie took Cheerilee and moved behind the counter at the far end of the store. All three mares were covered with cuts bruises and burns, but no serious injuries.

It was quiet. The only sounds were the heavy breathing from the three mares and the crackling of fire out on the streets. But there was also something else. A soft high-pitch noise had begun invading the room.

“AJ, do you hear that?” Pinkie whispered, taking a peek over the counter. Both of their ears perked at the unusual, high pitched whine.

“Yeah, ah do, and ah don’t like it,” Applejack softly replied. The noise was steadily growing louder, as if it was something getting closer to Ponyville. Suddenly the sound grew exponentially louder into a high-pitch scream.

“Oh hay sticks! Pinkie get down!” Applejack yelled while ducking behind the counter.

The scream stopped for a split second, but was followed by an earth-shattering CRACK. Every window at the front of the store shattered into millions of pieces and the woodwork gave a loud groan of protest. After the crack, however, it sounded and felt as though a thunderstorm was washing right through the town. A wall of water poured through the street outside, dousing the flames and pushing back the relentless fires.

After a moment Applejack stepped out from behind the counter and slowly walked across the store. Carefully stepping over a large chunk of glass, she peered through one of the shattered windows into the street. “What in the hay was that!?”

“Position the clouds in the middle of Mane Street!” Rarity called out to the speeding pegasus. Rainbow banked left with another cloud between her hooves. She piled it into the large collection and simultaneously sent it sliding over the street.

“Alright Rarity, that’s all the clouds in the area! Use your water spell thingy!” Rainbow echoed back as she glided over the street for a better view of the town. The fire had continued spreading outwards from the square, devouring everything in its path. It did, however, look as though most ponies had made it out of the boiling streets.

“Oh I hope that this will be enough…” Rarity lowered her horn towards the mass of clouds and began to concentrate. Her hooves dug into the ground as blue sparks began shooting off her horn. Her horn began to glow brightly. Sweat started to drip down Rarity’s face as she concentrated harder. While she could do some decently strong magic, she certainly was no Twilight Sparkle.

With an exhausted cry, Rarity let loose a ball of concentrated blue energy at the clouds. The magic bolt was absorbed directly into the mass. Blue swirled with white and grey to form a glowing beacon of… well, something or another. Rainbow looked up at the creation, watching the colors move around each other while Rarity looked up at something different entirely.

“Rainbow, what is that?” Rarity asked as she pointed a hoof up in the sky. From their position, a single glowing light could be seen off in the distance. Rainbow took her eyes off of the cloud mass and rose a few hooves in the air for a better view of the far off object.
,

“Umm, that looks like a meteor. Hold on, meteors don't fly so close to the ground.” Rainbow answered.

A shrill cry pierced the slowly crackling of the distant fire. The object looked like a blazing meteor with a silver trail behind it. Rarity took a step back, worry in her eyes.

“Rainbow,” Rarity began, “do you think that is Silver?”

Rainbow looked back at the object. It was now as bright as the moon, lighting up the countryside as it passed. The cry rose into a high-pitched wail as the object suddenly sped up and became inexplicably brighter.

“Oh Buck! Cover your ears and get down!” Rainbow yelled over the deafening roar. The both of them dropped to the ground and without thinking about it Rarity quickly cast a low-grade muffle spell on their ears.

The flaring object was suddenly at Ponyville in an instance. Even through the muffle spell, both Rarity and Rainbow could hear the enormous CRACK as the object collided with the mass of clouds. It froze there for a split second, enough time for rainbow to steal a glance at the object. Within the blazing sphere she could see the silhouette of a pegasus pony.

The blazing ball then seemed to absorb the group of energized clouds. With a flash it shot over Ponyville, trailing the monsoon-sized storm of water behind it. Glass windows shattered as the ball passed overhead. The fire was no match for the storm as it was smothered instantly.

“Oh my gosh! What was that!?” Rarity exclaimed as she stood up and looked down the street towards the square. Broken glass and smoking wreckage littered the streets. Some ponies had begun looking out their shattered windows to see what in Equestria had just happened. The monsoon had stopped at this point and the bright red ball had come to a halt above the square.

“Hey Look! The thing is stopping!” Rainbow observed, “C’mon Rarity, I want to see just what, or who, it is!” Rainbow lifted right off the ground and flew full tilt down the street with Rarity close behind her. The streets were a complete mess. All of the houses still stood, but most of the decorations and outdoor objects had burned down to crisps. There were also huge puddles forming from the brief but intense storm. The square however was a complete disaster. The explosion had created a large crater in the middle and reduced the stage to a smoking junk heap.

Floating high above the square was a single glowing pegasus. She was not even flapping her wings, the pure magic radiating off was enough to keep her aloft. That magic was about to run out however. The glow suddenly disappeared and the pegasus dropped like a rock towards the ground. One of the first ponies back on the scene, Rainbow saw the falling pony and quickly sprang into action. She gave a strong flap of her wings and zoomed closer towards the falling pony. She outstretched her front hooves and latched onto her right before she hit the ground. Rainbow braced herself as the two of them landed and skidded along the dirt.

“Heh.” The pegasus heavily breathed. “Thanks for that.”

“Yeah. No problem,” Rainbow slowly replied.

As Rarity ran after Rainbow into the square, she could see three other ponies coming in from the opposite side. There was an orange mare being followed close by a light purple mare and a pink mare. Suddenly the light purple mare shouted something that Rarity couldn’t hear and changed course towards Rainbow in the middle of the square.

The other mare made it to Rainbow before Rarity did. When she got closer, Rarity could see that the light purple mare was Cheerilee. Looking up she saw Applejack and Pinkie following close behind. As she finally caught up to Rainbow, Rarity took a moment to catch her breath. She could hear the conversation that Cheerilee was having with the pegasus.

“Really Silver? I thought that you were trying to stay incognito this time,” Cheerilee half heartedly joked.

“Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” Silver replied with a weak laugh.

“Is everypony here alright?” Applejack asked as she and Pinkie stopped behind Cheerilee.

“Yeah, I think we’re alright here.” Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know about her though.” All of them turned to Silver.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some rest to restore my magic supply.” Silver sighed. “Applejack, were you able to get everypony out in time?”

“Yeah, ah think so. Ah don’t think ah saw Fluttershy anywhere though,” Applejack stated.

“She was not feeling well this evening,” Rarity interjected, “I believe she is back at her house right now.”

“What about Twilight and Trixie?” Pinkie said, “I haven’t seen them since everything went kablooee!”

“Come to think of it, ah didn’t see neither of ‘em during the evacuation!” Applejack said, getting slightly worried.

Ponies had by this point now began cleaning up the mess from the explosion and fires. There were some small groups removing debris and other removing glass. One pony was clearing away some burned decorations, slowly making her way closer to the crater where the stage used to be. She got a little interested and took a peek over the edge, and was shocked at what she saw.

“Hey!” she called out to everypony around her, “I think there’s somepony in the crater!”

Immediately upon hearing this, Applejack spun around and charged straight for the crater. Leaping over a large chunk of wood, she stopped at the edge. Within the crater she saw two mares, one of which she immediately recognized. Applejack yelled out as she jumped into the hole.

“Twilight!”

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for pre-reading/editing the chapter!