Furry Contraband

by UnweptSchlipps

She's On Fire!

The moment she saw that first blade of grass ignite, Rainbow knew she only had a few seconds to react. The raging orange inferno quickly began to spread throughout the dry brush, a massive chain reaction that was ready to wipe out everything in sight. The bright tongues of fire lit up the night, almost giving it the appearance of daytime. Dash could already feel the dry heat closing in on her, causing the ends of her fur to shrivel up.

Luckily for her, the guard that paralyzed Fluttershy was startled by the flames and had quickly galloped away. Unfortunately, that still left one stunned pegasus lying at her hooves in the middle of a firestorm. Moving quickly and urgently, Rainbow Dash managed to scoop up all the small animals and stuff them all into one pack. The otters began to chatter among themselves, to which the cyan pegasus shouted, “This isn’t the time for arguing, you guys! Could you shut up for just a minute?” The critters shrank back quietly into the bag, forced to snuggle with a scaly reptile and a box of mice.

As the flames got hotter and brighter, Dash found herself standing in front of two very large cages, realizing she simply didn't have the strength to carry both cages and her stunned friend. She turned her eyes to the manticore’s cage, and saw Fluffy looking like a frightened little kitten for the first time, his eyes watching the licking flames in fear. Heaving a sad sigh, Dash whispered, “Sorry, ‘Shy.”

She scooped up Fluffy’s cage onto her back, and with a swift kick of her hooves, she broke the birdcage holding the three phoenixes. The parents wasted no time flying out, their little chick in tow. By the time Dash looked back, they had already soared into the inferno, gone from her sight.

Wasting no more time, Dash grabbed Fluttershy’s tail in her teeth and began to drag her along. The frozen mare was about as useful as a boulder, dead weight that only served to slow Dash tremendously. Fortunately, the flames had burned a small path through the grass, leaving only a few glowing embers in her way. But the wildfire still carried on around her, the heat stinging against her flesh. Rainbow trudged slowly through the plain, trying to use her wings to give her as much lift as possible. But the weight of her load was too much, and she quickly began to tire as the smoke began to burn her lungs. It certainly didn’t help that the animals were panicking as well, ultimately making it too difficult for Dash to escape.

She soon realized that if she kept going at this pace, she, Fluttershy, and the animals would surely perish. The flames seemed to stretch on forever, and the only way out was straight up. And so, desperate and tired, Dash turned to her stunned friend and uttered, “I’m sorry for this, Flutters. But it’s for your own good!”

Digging in her front hooves, Dash reeled back her hind legs just as Applejack did. Then, with a shout that pierced her burnt lungs, she lashed out with all her strength, bucking her stunned companion straight in the face. After a few seconds of no response, Dash was ready to try again when a timid voice whispered, “—get the hang of…oww…why does my jaw-?”

As the splitting pain and double vision cleared up, Fluttershy began to focus on her bright red surroundings. But it wasn’t until she felt the searing heat blasting against her face that she realized what was going on, and needless to say, it wasn’t quite what she had expected. Her eyes widened, and she was about to scream something when Dash shoved her bag of animals into Fluttershy’s face and ordered, “No time to explain! Take the bag and fly!”

“W-what happ-.”

“Just fly!”

Dash quickly shot up into the air with Fluffy’s cage, surrounded by black ashes and smoke. Fluttershy, still in partial shock, swiftly followed suit, trying not to lose her friend in the chaos. Even though they were safe from the inferno, the smoke still threatened to wrap its hands around their throats and suffocate them. Already feeling lightheaded, Dash shot upward, putting as much strength she could into every beat of her wings. Fluttershy was somehow able to keep up despite the blurred vision from the Royal Guard’s spell, flying in a jagged path behind her friend.

Finally, just as the burning in their lungs became unbearable, the duo spied the clusters of stars in the night sky. They had finally broken out of the smoke cloud. They each took giant gulps of fresh air, breathing out sighs of relief. Rainbow Dash looked extremely disheveled, her rainbow mane darkened by soot and her ears drooping from exhaustion. Her head was pounding, and whether it was from tiredness or adrenaline (or both), Dash didn’t know. All she knew was that she was glad to be safe, and that her friend was safe too.

Fluttershy looked about the landscape in horror, the flames reflecting in her frightened eyes. Her mouth agape, she whispered, “What? How did we…what happened here?”

“I saved your butt, that’s what happened,” Dash replied tiredly. “I’ll be happy to tell you the story once we’re actually safe.”

“Rainbow, are you…okay?”

“Okay as I can possibly be considering the circumstances.”

Checking the animals in their possession, Fluttershy asked, “Wait, where’s the phoenixes?”

Dropping her chin to her chest, Dash gave a long sigh and replied, “Like I said...once we’re safe.”

xxx

It was a long while before the duo found a suitable place to touch down. The grassy fields expanded for miles, and the scorching inferno gladly ate up every inch of the dry plants. Luckily, a bit of a ways east, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash spotted a line of guards casting water spells on the flames, trying to contain the wildfire. The smoke allowed the pair to sneak by undetected, perhaps the only good thing Lady Luck had in store for them that night.

Finally, they came to the end of the grass plains, where the landscape slowly transitioned to rough dirt and gravel. By this time, the sun was beginning to peak over the distant mountains, providing a sliver of light amidst the dark sky. Their surroundings still smelled faintly of smoke, but the air was clear enough for them to light down onto the crunching rocks.

Rainbow Dash immediately fell onto her back, her chest heaving as she gasped for air. Fluffy was set down next to her head, rubbing his soft mane against hers. “Gosh, I feel like something crawled into my lungs and died,” she uttered, unconsciously petting the manticore’s head. “I don’t think my lungs have hurt this badly since Pinkie’s cinnamon fiasco a year ago.”

Fluttershy remained standing, kicking up dust as she rubbed a hoof timidly across the ground. She too was gray with soot, and parts of her long pink mane were singed black. She couldn’t take her eyes off the direction they had come, still able to see the faint glow of the flames over the horizon. That moment of waking up was still fresh in her mind, and she said quietly, “I’m so sorry you had to go through with that. I never thought…w-what happened?”

Still on the ground, Dash recounted, “One of the guards stunned you, and the phoenixes ended up causing a whole brush fire. I tried to carry you guys, but the fire was just too big. So I had to, well, whack you really hard to get you to wake up.”

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy replied, rubbing her hoof against her bruised cheek. “Where are the phoenixes now?”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh, sitting herself up on her haunches. “We...we lost them.”

“Oh my goodness!” the timid pegasus answered, starting to tear up.

"What? Oh no no! They didn't die! They just...flew away."

"Oh..."

For the next few minutes, the two stayed put in silence as the sun continued to poke its head over the distant mountains. With nothing else to do, Dash began to scratch Fluffy’s chin, the manticore seeming sedated after the excitement. Fluttershy was still visibly shaken, her mind still stuck on that moment when she woke up to the sight of bright tongues of fire crackling around her. She was so deep in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed Fang digging into her mane, or the otters playing tug-of-war with her tail.

Finally, after an unbearable period of awkward silence, Dash asked, “So…how’s your face?”

“It’s…it’s okay I suppose, considering it got bucked really…really…hard.”

“Sorry about that Flutters. I had to wake you up somehow.” The duo descended back into silence, with Rainbow giving a fake cough for good measure.

Ultimately, Fluttershy couldn’t bite her tongue any longer. She jolted up and began to pace around, dragging the otter triplets along the gravel. With grave sincerity, the pegasus muttered, “This is my fault.”

“What?” Dash answered, going up to put her hoof around her friend’s shoulders. “No, no, no. Don’t say that!”

“I should have been more careful. I knew there were guards around, and I didn’t do anything about it. I let myself get paralyzed, and I made the grass catch fire. Not to mention I was practically dead weight for you.” She shrugged Dash’s hoof away, and began to wallow about.

“’Shy, really, it’s not a big deal.”

“But it is! I put you and the animals in danger, not to mention we lost the phoenixes as well! We could have…you know…in the fire…” Fluttershy turned to the west, towards where they had come from, towards the smoke. After a long pause, she added solemnly, “Maybe…maybe we should turn back before anypony gets seriously hurt.”

Dash’s maroon eyes widened from the mere mention of such an option, and she immediately flew over to her pal. Hovering between her friend and the faraway flames, she insisted, “What? No! We can’t go back now! Heck, I got bitten by a snake and I’m still trucking along. We’re not going to let one teensy-weensy fire stop us, are we?” After receiving an upset glare, Dash waved her hooves and continued, “Okay, it was a huuuge fire, but you get my point. We’ve come this far together, there’s no reason to stop now.”

“I…I thought you’d want to go home.”

Giving a slow exhale, Dash gently descended onto the gravel. “Uh…well, a little I guess,” she admitted quietly. But then, thrusting her chin to the sky, she gave a dazzling smile and added, “But I’ve decided…we’ve gone through so much already, how could things possibly get any worse?”

“Considering our luck…”

“Yeah? Well, we’re just going to have to keep pushing on like we’ve done so far! After all, these animals gotta get outta here somehow.”

Dash pranced over to Fluffy’s cage, leaning against it with a sappy grin. Fluttershy ran her eyes over the remaining critters, all of whom seemed to watch her anxiously for her reply. But most of all, she could see a new-found spark in her friend’s eyes, something she hadn’t seen so far on this trip. With a tiny but sure nod, Fluttershy whispered, “Okay, Rainbow. Thanks.”

“There ya go, ‘Shy. No prob.” Being the first to pick up her cage, Dash called over her shoulder, “Let’s just try not to set anymore ecosystems on fire, yeah?”

Author's Note:

Guess those guards really brought the...

heat.

Yeah, I said it.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

The guards really
*puts on glasses*
Turned things up a notch

[Phoenix43]

2703101 No, just..., just.... Fuck you.