The Burning of the Town

Fillies ran about like cockroaches from light, screaming in fear of the evil ponies trotting after them in their grotesque forms, groaning like wild beasts and snapping their jaws hungrily. One of the little children, a colt by the name of Pipsqueak, tripped over a stone and looked back at the hungry zomponies about to eat him. Crying out in terror, he paused when the zompony walked toward him and then through him, following the other children and showing its true nature. Looking over to the entrance of the Ponyville cemetery, Pipsqueak saw a grinning alicorn with her horn aglow and smiled back.

"Great projection spell, Luna. The kids love it." Twilight smiled, standing beside the princess and observing the festivities of this year's Nightmare Night. The spell had only taken a moment to conjure, but Luna had been waiting for almost an hour before the children had flocked to the cemetery; entering the graveyard was a 'rite of passage' of sorts amongst the Ponvyille youth, so it was rather amusing for them to arrive and find the dead waiting for them with hungry eyes. The zomponies were of course illusions made by the princess and harmless, but they sure scared the fillies and colts out of their skin.

"It's a dying art, these spells, but one I know can be very entertaining should it be used correctly." Luna giggled, focusing on keeping the zomponies walking until the children were out of sight and the horrific projections poofed out of being. "And if it pleases the children, I believe it's being used correctly."

Twilight nodded before gasping as a bolt of rainbow-color slammed down in front of her. Rainbow Dash stood where it had struck, her face twisted in horror and her hair seemingly singed. Looking over the frazzled pegasi's shoulder, Twilight could see smoke rising from up the road. "What happened, Rainbow!?"

Rainbow Dash seemed almost frozen with terror. "It was horrible, Twi! First me and Fluttershy were hanging out at Sugarcube Corner, and then we started smelling smoke and then whoosh! the whole place started to topple down on top of us. The Cakes and us barely made it out; luckily Pinkie was able to bring the foals to safety." She looked back at the smoke. "Somepony lit that place up, and I wanna find out who!"

"Whoa Rainbow! You're hurt." The unicorn pointed to a series of smell burns and scratches across the pegasi's hide. "You should stay here with me. Luna, you can get Celestia right?"

"Of course, Twilight. I will back quickly." Luna nodded before taking flight. From the air, she momentarily scanned the town below, gasping when she saw more smoking rising from multiple buildings and ponies evacuating in fear. "I must help my subjects!" She blasted off toward Canterlot, hoping to reach her palace before the rest of Ponyville burnt to the ground.

In the streets of Ponyville, a pony dashed from the infernos surrounding him, gasping when a shop sign crashed down in front of him. He ran around it quickly, ducking burning timber and hay as the shop the sign once belonged to crumbled to ash and ruin. A unicorn bumped into the stallion, making him stumble and skid his chin across the coal and embers on the ground. Squealing at the white-hot pain, he pulled his head up and grimaced at the offending pony who simply ran past without concern. "Well buck you too!" The colt growled, bolting down a nearby alley to the center where one building stood firm - the town hall, where Mayor Mare was calling for everypony to calm down, her assistant ushering them into the building for shelter. Running past the brown earth pony and her intern, the stallion found himself amongst dozens of worried ponies now without homes or jobs.

"This is the worst catastrophe Ponyville has ever seen!"

"My filly's out there! Somepony please listen to me!"

"Go back to Cloudsdale, pegasus! There ain't enough room in here for everypony!"

"My mother's hurt! Is anypony here a doctor!?"

These were the cries that rattled in his ears amongst the ash-filled coughs of wounded ponyvillians and wailing foals. The earth pony who had called for a doctor held a badly-burnt mare in his arms, tears streaming down their faces as she whispered reassurances of her survival, words her child knew were naught but pipe dreams. Standing aside so more ponies could enter, his attention was piqued by a pink earth pony carrying twin foals, both whining for their moths, followed by the two local bakers, the Cakes. They looked glumly out the window at the burning remains of their hometown, the pink pony's mane letting out an odd deflating sound before drooping down like dead weight.

"Sir, are you hurt?" He turned when he heard a nurse ask him as she walked in. The stallion thought about showing her the burns on his chin, but decided not to waste time for those who hadn't much left. "I'm fine, but there's a colt with a mother in dire need of your attention." He replied quickly in a voice flowing with youth before leading the nurse to her patient.

"There's more on the way, I trust?" He asked concerned.

"Of course, Mr..."

"Skull Candy, ma'am."

"Nurse Redheart. I'll have this mare in good condition in no time. Just let me work my magic."

Skull Candy nodded, looking around. Noting the various ponies nursing their own wounds, he hoped there'd be enough medical attention to take care of everypony. Another pair of ponies came in, one of them a white unicorn filly with swirly lavender hair that rushed to her mother the moment she saw her, making Candy smile as another family was reunited despite the tragedies that surrounded.

"Sir! Sir! Have you seen my sister!?" A plum earth pony prodded Skull Candy's mint-green shoulder, her eyes narrowed and flowing with tears. Skull Candy instantly recognized her as Cheerilee, the local school teacher. He shook his head sadly, and she almost sniffled as the realization of losing her sibling filled her. The mint earth pony felt bad to see her like this, but he knew there was nothing he could do. Suddenly, a cry emerged from the crowd.

"Cheerilee!"

Cheerilee turned her head so fast Candy could swear she had gotten whiplash, but the teacher didn't care as her eyes locked onto a pink pony trying to get through the crowd. "Berry! Ruby!" She almost cried the name, rushing to meet her sister and the adorable filly following her. Candy smiled again, watching the teacher rub noses with her niece before Mayor Mare walked in and took center stage.

"People of Ponyville," She started in an almost business-like tone, "We must remain calm and wait here until the Princess and her guards arrive to find the arsonist who did this to our fair town." She glanced across the crowd, pouting at the small amount of ponies in the building in comparison to the town's population. Many ponies had ran out of town when the fires started.

"Wait..." A white unicorn with a swirly purple mane started up. "Arsonist!?"

Suddenly, everypony began to spew questions, reaching angrily toward the mayor for answers.

"Somepony lit those fires!?"

"Who the hay would want to burn down Ponyville!?"

"If he thinks he can just burn us without consequence, we'll show him what for!"

"Yeah! Let's burn him at the stake!"

It seemed like a full-blown riot had erupted, and Skull Candy quietly made his way to the back where the sensible ponies had gathered to wait out the storm. A lavender unicorn waved him over, her face curious. "Did you see anything weird before the fires? Anypony acting suspicious?" She asked, her voice scratchy from inhaled ash.

"Nothing. Sorry." Candy lowered his ears solemnly, feeling like he had failed the unicorn.

She nudged his side, smiling gently. "Don't feel so bad, sir." She reached out a hoof. "Twilight Sparkle." She introduced, leaving Skull Candy to stare in awe. THE Twilight Sparkle? The pony who saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon and Dis- well, he'd rather not think of the foul chaos god.

"Skull Candy." He responded, shaking her hoof.

"Pleasure to meet you...despite circumstances, that is." Twilight giggled sheepishly, and Candy chuckled in exchange.

"You new in Ponyville? I don't remember meeting you before." She raised an eyebrow before blushing. "I mean, I don't know many ponies so don't be offended if I don't remember meeting you."

"It's quite alright, and yes I'm new. I just moved here from Canterlot a week ago, matter of fact." Skull explained, looking around at the ponies surrounding Twilight. "You're the Elements of Harmony, right?"

The three surrounding ponies nodded, even the pink pony (whose mane had became puffy again) who bounced up and down while she nodded.

"Fluttershy." Said a cream-yellow pegasus, curtsying politely.

"Applejack." The orange earth pony tipped her hat, smiling calmly.

Glancing to the pink pony's place, Skull Candy raised an eyebrow when he didn't see her there. Looking around, he squealed when she was right behind him.

"SURPRISE!" The pony giggled, her grin stretching from ear to ear. She then got in his face again, shaking in her own hooves as she just couldn't seem to just keep still. "I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm AWFULLY happy to meet you! I mean, I'd be happier if my house hadn't burnt down and my pet alligator Gummy;" She pulled away, holding up a photo of an alligator wearing a party hat, "We celebrated his birthday a month ago. Isn't he cute?" She put the picture away before he could answer, pouting. "Well, he ran away before the fires started. Hopefully he's okay, because Gummy isn't as good at dealing with the heat like Spike;" She reached behind Twilight and gripped something before lifting it up, showing Skull Candy a small purple and green dragon. "He's a dragon, you see?" She dropped the dragon on his rear, leaving him rather upset. "Oh, sorry Spikey-wikey! Didn't mean to hurt ya!" She patted the dragon on the head, her head shooting to face the mint pony again. "Anyway, Gummy's not a dragon so he isn't good with fire because he's an alligator and alligators don't like fire because they like water." She stopped and pondered for a moment. "I don't know why they like water, but I do know that Gummy won't last long out there without his Momma Pinkie because Gummy has no teeth because he's STILL A BABY!" She nearly cried the last word, tears starting to drip down her cheeks.

Skull Candy just stared at the crying earth pony, allowing himself a minute to process her rambling. "A pet...alligator...named Gummy?" He muttered to himself, confused to no end. Shrugging, he patted Pinkie Pie on the back, smiling gingerly. "In any case, I hope you have good luck in finding your pet. Sounds like you love him a lot."

"A LOT a lot!" Pinkie wailed, the tears flowing at an almost comedic rate.

"I suggest just letting her cry it out. You'll just make it worse otherwise." Twilight whispered to Candy, and the mint earth pony took a step back to leave Pinkie to her own devices. "Any plans for where you'll stay?" She asked.

"I was planning on going back to Canterlot. My parents would surely understand why my job here in Ponyville went up in smoke...so to speak." He smiled sheepishly when he saw Twilight's annoyed expression.

As a savior of the awkward moment, the doors flung open and two alicorns trotted in, their eyes filled with concern as they saw the rioting ponies. "Everypony please calm down!" Cried the elder-looking sister, the white mare all of Equestria knew as Princess Celestia. The ponies seemed to settle as she made her way through a sea of faces to Mayor Mare's side. "I have grave news, everypony."

"Is it Discord, princess?" Somepony shouted in fear. The ponies started to mumble amongst themselves

"I fear it is so," Celestia started, "though not Discord himself. The incidents reported across Equestria point not to Discord, who has been so docile in his reformation, but instead a shard of his magic left unchecked."

Twilight looked confused. "A shard? That he can't control?"

Luna nodded as she trotted up to her sister. "A creature he crafted during the Discordian era. One that has been trying desperately to avoid our eyes since his master was sealed away."

"The Scarepony." A voice from the back of the room said, and everypony turned to see the dracoequus Discord himself. "Nasty little trickster. Always wanted to destroy things while I wanted to have fun. I didn't have enough time to put him away with the rest of my toys before the princesses used the Elements of Harmony on me."

Fluttershy trotted toward Discord, being the chaos god's only friend. "You don't know how to stop it?"

"Oh Fluttershy, you don't realize who you talk to! Of course I know how to stop him. I just...don't know how to find him. He's a very cunning shapeshifter." Discord seemed embarrassed, scratching the back of his head with his giant paw.

"So he can be anywhere.." Twilight started.

"And anypony." Luna finished, her tone serious.

"Surely, I can trust the Elements of Harmony to help in the search for the Scarepony?" Celestia asked, taking a step toward Twilight. The lavender unicorn nodded quickly, the other ponies joining in. "We'll do all it takes to ensure Equestria's safety!"

"Then I trust you'll accept Discord's help?"

Applejack seemed shocked, taking a step back. "Excuse me, princess, I don't think that's.."

"That wasn't a request, Applejack." Luna snapped, earning a stern glare from her sister.

"Yes you're majesty." The cowpony seemed ashamed for talking back to Celestia.

"Well then!" Discord clapped his hands together, approaching the six ponies. "It will be so easy hunting down that nasty Scarepony while we work together, right? I'll be sure to tell you everything I know about it, so he'll be easier to spot."

"Very well, Discord." Twilight sighed, not at all thrilled with Celestia's orders.

"This is going to be a looong adventure, isn't it?" Applejack asked Pinkie, who seemed scared to be so close to the chaos god.

"Eeyup."

Author's Note:

My Little Pony belongs to Hasbro.

Skull Candy belongs to me.

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