//------------------------------// // A Fire in the Heart // Story: Origins of a Rainbow - A Dashie Tale // by Shorty Sparkle //------------------------------// A Fire in the Heart The morning brought oatmeal and silence. Rainbow was reflecting on the story from yesterday about yet another thing her father did to keep somepony safe. He had helped fight off two ships of pirates to keep one boat of people safe; her father had been so brave. Spitfire was thinking about her own father. He hadn’t had helped in the combat according to the pirate. Instead the first thing he had done was get control of the boat, he wasn’t that great of a fighter no doubt but he did do well with tactical support. After breakfast the Pegasi went up to get their things together and get ready to leave. “Hey Dash, I have to ask you. How are you feeling so far about all this?” “I am learning so much about my father, he was so brave. The only thing is; not many of these ponies have told us much about him, but instead more about the others in his squad.” She sighed. “Yeah, I noticed that about my father as well. I can’t wait to meet the next person though that will tell us about them.” “Yeah, who is it this time?” Dash poked her head out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. Spitfire went over to her pack and pulled out a piece of paper. “It looks like-“her voice was cut off by a scream from downstairs. She dropped the paper and ran outside, Rainbow Dash following right behind her. They ran down the stairs to the bottom floor where a fire had just started raging. The two ponies quickly got to work. The fire was already too strong to stop by themselves, so they started grabbing ponies, two foals at a time which allowed them to blast through fire at high speeds. Rainbow noticed a ripple in the flame as they flew at those speeds. An idea caught her mind and as she flew outside she let the two foals down. “Spitfire, I have an idea. I will be right back ok?” The other Pegasus nodded, she learned many years ago in wonderbolts training to always trust your partner. Dash flew off at speeds which made even Spitfire jealous. She didn’t have time to be jealous though and quickly got back to work. Rainbow flew straight for the water. When she reached it she dived straight into the shimmering water making sure to make her coat as soaked as she could and filling her mouth with water as well, blasting right out of the water as soon as she was fully drenched. Soaked to the bone she flew back to the hotel reaching it in ten seconds flat. She didn’t even stop outside the hotel, instead Dash flew in and started spinning her whole body as she flew through, making sure to spit all the water out as well. It worked; the water doused a large amount of the fire. The move didn’t stop the fire completely but it did help enough for everypony else to exit the building. Spitfire came from upstairs with two colts in her arms. “What did you do?” She asked Dash with a puzzled look at the now mostly doused fire. “How about we talk about it later? We have to get out of here!” Spitfire agreed and they flew out the building. Everypony else was already out watching the fire. It had spread to the second floor before Dash had arrived. Spitfire gasped as the room they were in exploded in flames. “The list!” She tried to fly to the window only to be stopped by Rainbow biting her tail. “Let go Dash! We have to get that list; we can’t afford to lose it!” Rainbow gave her a pleading look that asked her to stay, when Spitfire landed back down Rainbow spit out her tail. “The list is already gone. Don’t bother giving yourself up too. Hey, we still have that next person right? Maybe we can find out whom to go to next afterward and if not then we can go to my mom. She is bound to know of somepony else that was rescued by our dads.” Spitfire nodded, she knew that Rainbow was right about it. The list would be ashes by now anyway. Everypony cheered as a loud clap of thunder sounded and three Pegasi in wonderbolt costumes flew in, a raincloud in tow behind them which they positioned above the burning hotel. A few minutes of a combination of rain and unicorn magic and the fire was extinguished. Ponies eagerly trotted back inside to see what they could salvage from their things, with many parents thanking the two Pegasi that had saved their children’s lives. One of the wonderbolts flew down from the cloud and landed in front of Spitfire. “Hey Spitfire!” Soarin’s voice was coming from behind the wonderbolt mask. “Soarin, it is so great to see you again. How is the rest of the team doing with my absence?” “Oh, well, we did fine until we ran into a slight issue yesterday.” He hung his head in extreme shame. “I got lonely.” The two Pegasi laughed hysterically at Soarin who was blushing underneath the mask. After they calmed down Spitfire walked over to Soarin and nuzzled him. “It will be fine Soarin, I won’t be that long I hope. Just keep yourself together and buy yourself a pie to pass the time. I will be home before you know it.” Soarin grinned from ear to ear. “A Pie! Why hadn’t I thought of that yet?” He extended his wings and took off without even saying goodbye. “Hey Spit, I think you have some competition for your husband’s heart.” Spitfire glared at Rainbow before realizing she meant the pie. They trotted into the hotel in much brighter moods, though those moods were dashed as the reality of what they had lost sunk in. The fire had completely obliterated their room and all their things were burned to a crisp. The two Pegasi got what was left together and prepared to fly out. Luckily for them, clothes were optional where they were going. All that remained of their things was a toothbrush, a mane brush, half a bottle of shampoo, and Rainbow’s bag. They quickly realized they would have to restock on a few things before they left for sure. However, they had no money and nothing really to barter with. They decided to cross that bridge when they came to it. First thing was first, they would have to find out where they were going next. “So, who was next on the list?” Rainbow asked. “Her name is Trixie, a traveling magician.” Rainbow groaned. “Not Trixie, please anypony except Trixie.” “Dash, Trixie is the only other person I know for a fact is still alive and where she is right now.” The last pony Rainbow Dash wanted to ever see was their last hope of finding where to go next. Her luck seemed to get worse the longer she was away from her friends. She got ready to go though and they flew off to Trottingham. This time the flight consisted of them talking about the fire. “Dash, we saved so many ponies in that fire. You saved so many more than me as well thanks to your quick thinking and athleticism. I think that when your mind gets cleared you won’t have any issue getting into the wonderbolts.” Dash smiled, hearing that was good for her self esteem. She hadn’t even thought about making it into the wonderbolts since that day. Her father had completely filled her mind for the past couple of days and Spitfire’s complement had helped her feel better. “Thanks Spitfire, that really does mean a lot to me. I hope I can get my mind off my dad or maybe get it on him in a good way instead. I have a feeling though that Trixie is going to piss me off.” Spitfire gave Dash a disapproving glance. “What is so bad about this Trixie anyway?” “Oh Celestia, she is only the all time worst magician and most self centered pony I have ever met in my whole life! She is even worse than I am and that is definitely saying something!” The frustration in her voice was rising. “And before you say I am over reacting. She calls herself the ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ which is by far the most annoying thing in the world!” “Alright, alright, you got me, she is probably really self centered. I still plan on asking her what happened though. You never really know what she might be able to tell us. Heck, her story might even make you feel bad for her.” After that the conversation went into many different directions. After a few hours of flight the Pegasi were flying over Trottingham, the earth pony settlement was full of strange machines and factories. Not far away from the entrance was a crowd of ponies who were boggling over a magic show with a light blue, silver mane mare on the stage. All the stallions were boggling over her magical abilities. No doubt an earth pony settlement was a great place for Trixie. They landed just outside the crowd and came up with a plan of attack for this. It was difficult to concentrate with the Great and Powerful Trixie screaming in the background. “Alright, she won’t just talk to us so we will have to appeal to her good side. As much as it is going to make me gag, we are going to have to call her the Great and Powerful Trixie.” Rainbow advised Spitfire with the procedure they would have to follow. The performance ended and the plan went into effect. Spitfire walked up to Trixie and addressed her. “Oh Great and Powerful Trixie! What a magnificent show you put on there! Do you mind if we can ask you to tell us a specific story?” Rainbow Dash came up next to her. “Yeah, The Great and Powerful Trixie is great at stories!” Dash let out a smile that somehow managed to squeak. “Well, I am sure the Great and Powerful Trixie can manage a single story for you lowly Pegasi. What story do you have in mind?” “Well, I hope it won’t be too much for the Great and Powerful Trixie to tell us about the time you were rescued by the wonderbolts.” Trixie gasped at the request. “How do you… how do you know about that? The Great and Powerful Trixie never told anyone about that day.” A tear dropped from her eye. “That day, I owe my life to those Pegasi while at the same time I hate them.” ---{Story}--- Note: Funny thing about Trixie, writing in first person is EXACTLY the same as third person. You see, the Great and Powerful Trixie was just a small filly who was just learning magic with the Great and Powerful Trixie’s parents. One day, when the Great and Powerful Trixie was training her amazing magic abilities, we heard a noise from the forest. The Great and Powerful Trixie’s dad had walked over to the edge and peered into the forest. At that point an Ursa Minor had started looming over the forest, stepping into our clearing taking up almost the entire land. My mother had decided to run first. A scream belting from her which attracted the attention of the Ursa. The Great and Powerful Trixie guesses it annoyed the Ursa because it went over and grabbed her. My father launched a lightning spell at it which just seemed to anger it more. The Great and Powerful Trixie started running away being careful not to make any noise. I heard a crushing noise and another scream from my mother. I can only imagine that the monster had stepped on my father. I just ran as far as I could go which was most certainly not far. It grabbed me too and started carrying us back into the forest. At that moment a team of Pegasi flew from the sky and tackled the beast. It fell to the ground with a deafening thud, letting the Great and Powerful Trixie go from its grasp. I looked up and looked around for my mother. The Great and Powerful Trixie heard the battle going on next to me with a series of grunts from the Ursa. However, the Great and Powerful Trixie saw her mother under a tree. It seemed that she had been thrown there by the Ursa. The Great and Powerful Trixie ran to go assist her mother but was stopped by one of the Pegasi. He had a radar screen as his cutie mark and he wrapped the Great and Powerful Trixie up in a hug. “It will be ok there little one. You will be just fine.” The Great and Powerful Trixie had struggled to get free from the stallion and she managed to do so after much of a fight from him. She ran to her mother and knelt by her side. Her mother told her one last thing before she managed to pass away. “Remember, you are the Great and Powerful Trixie and nothing can stop you from being the best.” The Great and Powerful Trixie had cried next to her mother for hours and… I couldn’t stop. (Spitfire and Rainbow Dash gasped at her saying “I”) I must have fallen asleep there because when I woke up I was on a Pegasi’s back. The Pegasi carried me to his home where I lived for a few weeks. His eye was scary with a scare running down the length of it. He told me one day that he wanted a daughter as perfect as I was. A few days later the stallion had disappeared and I lost yet another dad. The mother couldn’t take the pain and moved out of the house to Cloudsdale, I couldn’t go with her though because I couldn’t walk on clouds. Everypony I ended up loving left me. The only things I had left were my hat, my magic, and my parent’s old cart. Since that day I lived on the road and tried my best to be the Great and Powerful Trixie. I… I think I got a bit carried away actually… ---{Main}--- “Trixie, I hadn’t known about that. I am so terribly sorry for thinking you were terrible.” Rainbow Dash had run up and hugged the unicorn. “No, it is I who should be sorry. I forgot what I had gone out to do, and that was make my father proud. I think that all the lies that I have told over the past few years have shamed him. From this point on the Great and Powerful Trixie, err, I will try to be a better person.” She returned the hug that Dash had been going for. And so they stayed the night with Trixie learning about the weeks she spent with Rainbow’s father. --- Phew! Longer chapter this time. Trixie is a pain to write too. Otherwise a pretty fun chapter. I have submitted the story to EQD and it took two days to get to the pre-readers. still no message back from them though so just cross your fingers everypony! Anyway, if you liked the story so far, which if you didn't I can't understand why you would still be reading this, then leave a like on the board which will get some more views for us! Don't hog the story everypony... Make sure you leave a thanks for penguin in the comments for his awesome editing! He is helping me get better along the way so I owe him big time. Well, keep an eye out for us on EQD today and maybe into tomorrow.