695 years ago
"What a wonderful day again," she thought, "perfectly for the firework this evening."
Slowly, Burning Snowflake trotted through the streets of Canterlot's entertainment district, passing by a lot of ponies on their way to the main market square.
"They all want to have the best of view of it later," she thought while her gaze wandered to the sky. "Not a single cloud today, the weather ponies did a good job. But what else is to expect on Summer Sun Celebration day? Sure th... Uff!"
A little colt hadn't paid attention where he was running and had collided with her. Now he was laying on the ground and looked up to her with his big eyes. "Sorry officer," he mumbled.
"It is ok, kid," she said and ruffled through his mane with a hoof. "Just watch where you are going, ok?"
"Ye-yes ma'am, I'm sorry," he said, quickly rose and vanished into the crowd again.
"Ma'am" Snowy repeated in her head again with a sense of pride. It was not long ago she passed the test to become a full member of the firefighter team. Her yellow helm with the insignia of the fire department and her name on it proved that. To be fair, it wasn't her real name of course, but the one of the shape she used for her work, 'Waterdrop'.
Snowy remembered very well the words of the chief firefighter when he gave her the helm and her license, "Waterdrop, I never met a pony so bold to help others and with less brains that she doesn't fear fire at all. Either, and that is more possible, your lack of fear will kill you one day, or, you will become the first sergeant of Canterlot's Fire Department.”
A little smile formed at her mouth. It had been two weeks since this event and she still wasn't used to being called, respectfully, ma'am that came along with being a firefighter. She had calmed down a little bit and wasn't walking around with her head in the clouds anymore but still, during her patrols, she enjoyed the attention and respect from the other ponies a lot.
With being a firefighter there were duties of course, like in this case, she had not the free time to watch and enjoy the fireworks or join the others by the stands and try her luck at one of the games. She had to check for possible dangers and such around the area and later on she would have to see if the fireworks didn’t cause some fire in the city. The chance for that was really low, but someone had to do the job and she wasn't complaining.
"So far so good," Snowy thought. No stands were blocking the way and none of the artists who showed their talent in the street seemed to be causing any trouble. Normally the royal guard would take care for that but today, with the festival activities going on, they needed every city officer out there to make sure.
Snowy continued her patrol, giving a look here and there but with nothing uncommon in sight. It was a bit later that a little growl in her belly reminded her that she hadn't anything for lunch, so she watched out for a special one of these little sells stand with fresh baked bread filled with salad. "Ah, there it is," her gaze hung on a wooden stand which was painted green and red. A tasty smell drifted over to her and pulled her automatically nearer.
"Hey, Oatmeal, one of your delicious salad breads please," she ordered when it was her turn," with extra curry sauce please."
"Coming at once, Waterdrop," the slim stallion behind the counter replied. " Maybe a cup of cider too?"
"No thanks, today just the bread please."
“As you wish.” He turned around to the shelf and took one of the awaiting breads and added another drop of curry to it. “Here you go,” he said while he hoofed it over to her. “It’s one with peppers, I know you like them.”
“Thanks Oatmeal.” She took it, placed the bits on the counter and bite in it hungrily. “Delicious,” she added a second later when she has swallowed the first bite.
“You’re welcome, just...” he pointed at the left corner of his mouth with a hoof.
“Huh?”
“Curry sauce.”
“Oh.” With a quick lick she removed it from her lips. “Mhh, very good.” Another few bites followed and fast the bread was nearly eaten up.
“Maybe I should buy another? Will take some time till before I find the time to eat something again,” her thoughts started when she noticed an unpleasant feeling in her throat. “Oh no! Not yet!” she thought uneasy. She pressed her lips together and covered her mouth with her hooves.
“Everything alright, Waterdrop?” Oatmeal asked.
Snowy just nodded and waved with her hoof. “Everything's fine,” she whispered between grinded teeth.
“Really,” he asked again, “You look a bit uncomfortable, everything ok with your bread?”
Snowy wasn’t longer able to suppress it and released a little hiccup, “Just… a bit… spicy…”
The stallion gave her a surprised gaze. “Normally you love the peppers.”
“I do,” she said with still grinded teeth, then an idea came to her mind. Much louder she said, “but today your peppers are…” she choked a few times and then didn’t hold back the hiccup anymore. Snowy aimed for the sky and with a lance of fire the next hiccup broke free and forced the other customers and also Oatmeal to step back from it. “... far more hot than usually.” She supported that statement with an face expression from somepony who really had bitten on to hot peppers, let her tongue hang out and fanning air to herself.
Oatmeal was too shocked to reply to that, his mouth hung open, he blinked a few times and without a word he pushed a cup of cider over to her. “That...one...is on the house,” he slowly said.
Snowy took it and looked around to the other ponies that had seen her firelance. “Really hot peppers,” she explained, presenting the rest of her salad bread in the air.
The stallion next to her gave his bread a unsure look and then placed it back on the counter. “I think I’ll pass,” he said worried and left the stand. Several others did something similar.
“I am really sorry Oatmeal,” Snowy thought, then she said aloud, “I think they are delicious nonetheless.” She also added a smile by her last words before she drank the cider in one go. She really wasn’t thirsty but it would be suspicious if she would have denied it. Placing it back on the counter, also the remaining bread, she said, “Still I should go on with my patrol, see you Oatmeal.” And before he could say something she was quickly on her way again, away from the shocked stallion and his stand of salad breads.
“Well at least I didn’t burn down the stand… this time,” she thought when she stopped some side streets away. Snowy facehoofed by the memory when she found out the first time that she is able to spit fire and what had happened because of this. “I have to make it up to him somehow later, maybe buy him some ice cream or so.”
She shook her head, “Ice cream will not do the trick. Maybe should I ask Random Dice what I can do, she mostly knows how to make up for something.”
Still with her thoughts elsewhere she noticed something that brought her back to here and now, a little wagon filled with some fireworks, pulled by a griffon and another following a few feet from it, passed by and vanished down ‘Old Brick-Placer street’. After a moment of confusion Snowy raised an eyebrow and started to follow it quickly before it was out of reach. “Awesome, someone has made a mistake by sending them here, there are no fireworks planned in that area of the town.” She sighed, “Me and my luck again.”
When she reached the corner where the wagon had just entered the street a short moment ago, it already had made some distance. It seemed it had speeded up after she had lost eye contact to it. “Hey you!” Snowy shouted, “Wait for me!”
But the two griffons didn’t react to her yelling.
“Hey!” she shouted louder, “You two griffons!”
One of them, the one who didn’t pull the wagon turned around his head to her and gave her a look. Then he made a gesture with his claws, implying that he couldn’t hear what she was saying, just before he and his colleague entered one of the private properties through a massive stone-portal, throwing the iron-gate shut.
“Effrontery!” She galloped down the street to the gate, looking through it. The building was an old factory for bricks that had been abandoned when this part of town had become the entertainment district. All the machines, ovens and any other necessary equipment to make bricks had been moved to the new factory years ago. If the property hadn’t been so expensive or would have lain in a better, more public place, it surely would have been sold already.
At the moment, however, it was more important where the griffons were going with the wagon full of explosive firework.
The griffons were nowhere to be seen anymore, they had entered the building through one of the big gates obviously. For a moment, it occurred to Snowy, that these two might not be part of the firework team. After all, civilians weren’t allowed to carry dangerous explosives around town at will, and if they weren’t part of the festivities... she dropped that thought.
She pressed down the handle and jolted the gate but it didn’t open. Taking a step back, she gave the wall on both sides a gaze. “Easy to fly over but very hard to climb on. It is hard to be an earth-pony sometimes…” For a second she thought about changing back to her normal form to fly over the wall but that was far too dangerous, what if somepony saw her? “Of course I could melt the lock,” she sighed, “but that would also be hard to explain later. Maybe some magic can open the lock, let’s examine it a bit closer.” Unfortunately it was one of the locks that were specially designed to resist magical attempts to open it, the inner parts were completely invisible and without further knowledge the mechanics inside were a mystery to Snowy, meaning she wasn’t able to open it without destroying it.
Frustrated, she bucked against the gate without any effect.
Playing with the whistle around her neck, she considered to use it to get the attention of the griffons, but it was only for emergencies and until she could prove otherwise a “misplaced” wagonload wasn’t really one. “Left only climbing, great...”
The stonewall already had seen better years, still it was Canterlot so it was not dilapidated. Looking for some spot that qualified as a ledge, Snowy trotted along the hindrance. Eventually she found a fitting spot, or to be honest, a spot that looked more useful than the others, which wasn’t much.
Taking a few steps back, she galloped at the wall, jumped up, misplaced her rear hoof next to the spot she was aiming for and felt back on her flank. “Ouch!” She rose up and rubbed her flank. Another try followed which made her able to scratch over the edge of the wall with her hooves, lose grip and landing on the ground again. The third attempt was eventually successful and she was able to grab the top of the wall and pull herself over it. With far less elegance than intended she landed on the other side.
“Alright,” she adjusted her helmet to regain some confidence, “where are those griffons now?”
Giving the old windows and the few doors looks again and again she slowly trotted towards the nearest entrance of the building. Pushing the door open, some once orange snippet fell down and spread over the floor. “Been awhile since someone opened that door.”
“Hello?” she shouted. “Somepony here?”
Silence was the only answer.
“Helloooo!” Snowy repeated more loudly, but still no answer, so she trotted in.
She found herself in the far left corner of a spacious hall. How large exactly was hard to tell due to there being some extra walls to separate several parts of the hall, also dividing walls to subdivide some areas even more and a maze of galleries around the outer walls, leading from one level to another. To make matter worse, there were many doors and small corridors to help one get completely lost.
“I wonder which genius has sent them here. Starting a firework from here may burn down, not only this old facility, but the whole district too. Whoever is responsible has no clue how fast a fire can spread, also from building to building.”
Still annoyed by this recklessness Snowy started to explore the place further. With the wagon nowhere to be seen she decided to go for the next bigger part of the hall. While she trotted over, she saw a bunch of small critters alerted by the echo of her hoofsteps which quickly ran away. “This place is abandoned for too long already.”
Pushing another door open in between the walls, she saw the wagon with the firework standing in the next part of the hall. “There you are!” She sped up a bit and placed her hooves on the edge of it to examine its content. When she first had seen it, she has noticed it was filled with fireworks, what she didn’t notice on the first look however was how big these firework-rockets and explosives where. “These things are huge!” She carefully took a rocket from the wagon and gave it a look. “Are they crazy? Only one of these rockets fly in the wrong direction and it will blow away a complete roof of one of the houses!” Her gaze turned back to the other items on the load area, “And what is this?” She lay the rocket back down and picked up a small wooden box. After opening it, it revealed only pure explosive. “What the hay is this doing here?”
“It seems you gave yourself an overview of our stock of fireworks, officer. ”Scared for a second Snowy swiftly turned around to see who has spoken. A brown griffon with some stripes in yellow on his back had entered and walked towards her. Behind him the two griffons she already had seen, followed.
“May I ask what you are doing here anyway? I wasn’t aware somepony had asked for the support of the firefighters,” the griffon added in a polite but somehow bored tone.
“I am here because I saw your wagon filled with fireworks driving through the streets,” Snowy replied while she pointed at the wagon and after she recovered from the surprise completely, she added in a didactic tone which couldn’t conceal her annoyance, “It isn’t allowed for civilians to carry that kind of stuff around town, you know? So I assumed somepony has mislead your fireworks, but now, when I see them closer, it is also revealed they are the wrong type.”
“Don’t worry officer,” he gave her a smile, “these are the right kind of fireworks at the right place.” He stopped in front of her. “I have all the necessary documents,” he held out a claw to the griffon on his right side. Said griffon rummaged in his saddlebag and pulled out a little scroll which he clawed over to him. “There it is,” and with this words he gave her the scroll.
Unfolding it, Snowy read the instructions. It was written that a wagon filled with firework shall be placed at the brick facility on ‘Old Brick-Placer street’. Signed by the administration office of Canterlot. She turned around the scroll to see if there was more on it but there wasn’t.
“That is not correct. Neither is there a description what kind of firework, nor was the fire department informed about this.”
Lifting his claws he said, “that is not my fault officer, I was paid to arrange a nice firework starting from this building and that is what I am going to do.” He gave the other two a wave, “Store the rest of the boxes in the cellar and the rockets go in the west tower, hush, hush.”
“Wait, that is not right, somepony must have made a mistake,” Snowy interrupted. “You can’t fire these rockets over the town, what if one flies in the wrong direction and hits one of the houses? Somepony may get hurt!”
“Sadly I can’t help you with this. My orders are clear and I was already paid, so…” he stepped forward and pushed her aside a bit to make room for his comrades to continue emptying the wagon. “If you don’t mind, I would like to have my documents back.” He held out a claw.
“I think I’m going to keep them and speak with the responsible ponies about it, it’s far too dangerous to start a firework display here.” Pointing at the boxes she added, “And I really want to know what this stuff is doing here.”
“Sorry officer, but I need my orders back.”
“No, I keep them, there is definitely something wrong with them.”
His eyebrows narrowed, “I fear I have to insist,” he said. “Give them back,” he impatiently repeated his demanding gesture with his claw.
“No, I will show them to the administration ponies, they surely can tell what has gone wrong.”
He grabbed her free hoof, “Hey!” Snowy protested.
“As I said, I have to insist.”
“Who do you think you are! Keep your claws away from me at once!”
He only increased the strength of his grip while he reached out for the scroll with his other claw.
“I am an officer of Canterlot and you will take away your claw instantly!”
Something in his gaze changed, his face had become thoughtfully by her mentioning her rank. He didn’t let go, but didn’t tried to get the scroll either. “Well, you're right about one thing, as an officer, ponies have to show respect to you.”
“Finally he realised with whom he is talking.”
“You could cause us some trouble if you try too, don’t you? Maybe it is better if we make sure you don’t leave this building…” he said.
“What?” Snowy started, but before she could do anything the griffon already pulled her closer to himself and threw her headfirst into the wagon. Little stars were dancing around her head for a moment when she tried to get up again. But she didn’t have time to recover, shortly after her collision with the wagon four strong griffon claws grabbed her and lifted her up.
“Make sure our little officer here is locked away safely before you go on with the preparations, I don’t want her to disturb our plans.” The griffon ordered.
“Yes, commander,” the two other griffons said in unison and saluted.
Snowy shook off the stars and asked, “Commander?” She gave them all a closer look, “Who are you guys?”
“Oh, that you want to know, don’t you? You know what, it wouldn’t hurt if you knew, so,” he bowed with elegance, “Griffonstone’s secret service. Normally I would say a pleasure to meet you, but to be honest, it is not. You are an unwelcome interruption in our plans.”
Starting to struggle and trying to buck, Snowy tried to get free but it wasn’t successful. “What is the griffon secret service doing here? Let me go!”
“No way, you could do far too much trouble.” The ‘commander’ answered, “A civilian could have gone,” he made a repelling wave with his paw, “nopony would listen to them and if they did say something,” he shrugged his shoulders, “it would take forever to react. An officer on the other claw, that's far too risky. Maybe you’d really manage to get the official side involved and that, “he walked towards her till he was close enough to look her directly into the eyes, “we don’t want to happen, do we?”
“I don’t understand, what the hay are you doing here?”
“Don’t worry about that,” he replied and gave the griffon on her right side a nod. Without further warning, the griffon on her left pulled away her helmet, the other hit her with a brick and the world turned dark for Snowy.
***
A sharp pain at the back of her head pulled her back conscious, “Ouch, that hurt.” Snowy tried to rub the spot with her hoof but she wasn’t able to move it. Slowly she got back her senses and looked down at her hooves. A rope was wrapped around her forelegs, effective hindrance to moving them. When she tried to stand up she noticed two things, first her rear legs were bound too, second, it increased the pain in her head significantly when she tried to stand up. Letting herself slide back to the ground, she scanned her surroundings. The room she was in, was only slightly lighted. There was no window, the only light came from the cracks between the only door and the walls around it. As far as Snowy could tell, this room was once a storage room. She didn’t have a proof of it, still it seemed to her that the room was placed in the cellar of the facility.
With a groan she crawled to one of the walls and pushed herself upward so her back leaned against it. She paused for a moment till the pounding in her head was lowered to a level she could endure.
“What are these damn griffons planning? Why did they knock me down and what are they going to do with all these explosives? Whatever it is, it is nothing good, so much is clear.” She gave the room another short look, some barrels, a few tall wooden boxes and an empty shelf was to see. “I have to get out of here and get help.”
Setting up her ears, she tried to listen to any sound that could tell her if somepony, or griffon, was near by. When everything stayed silent for a moment she lifted up her forelegs as far as it was possible with the rope around them. “At least I can get rid of these,” she thought and spat a small cloud of fire above them. The old rope caught fire quickly and Snowy held it against the rope at her rear legs. Within a minute or two they were falling off and on the ground, spending a bit of light.
Using her now free hoof, she touched the back of her head and with another noise of pain she pulled it back. A small bit of dried blood clung to it. “That gives a bump.”
She rose completely and trotted over to the door. Pressing her ear at the wood, she listened again for some sign she wasn’t alone, still nothing was to hear. Carefully she pulled down the handle, trying to open the door silently but it was locked.
“Well that isn’t much of a surprise.” Suddenly another thought floated into her mind, “Where is my helmet? Another gaze around but it was nowhere to seen. “Hopefully they didn’t break it.”
Turning around to the door, she focused her attention on the lock. A simple one which had seen better years. Using a moment to get a feeling for her inner reserve of fire, she decided it would be the best to use magic this time to break the lock. Standing on her rear hooves, she made the gestures she had learned to use to summon magic. Moving her hooves from left to right and back again before the lock, Snowy got a magical ‘feeling’ for it. When the image was clear before her inner eye she let flow in her magic and manipulated the inner parts of the mechanism. It was like she was able to grab the parts with her hoof, they moved in the same direction she moved her hoof after she established the connection. A few seconds after the first movement, the door was unlocked.
“That is much easier if no griffon has tried to crack my head before. Hopefully nopony has heard that.”
Her pulse increased a good bit when she pushed the door open, luckily there was nopony or griffon on the other side. A quick glance right and left and it was clear this was the cellar. In both directions there were corridors, splitting up after a few steps and also had many doors along the walls. With her ears perked up she decided to sneak down the left corridor.
At the corners of the next intersection she stopped and peeked around them, twitching her ears around too, but she was alone. On the right side, the next corridor ended after a few steps with a door at both sides, the corridor at her left side had stairs at the end, leading upwards.
Snowy instinctively moved toward the stairs till she noticed one of the doors she was passing was open a gap. She stopped and peeked inside, in the darkness behind the door it was hard to see anything so she gave the door a push. With a slight creak it swung open, giving free the sight of a stack of the wooden boxes Snowy already knew and many, many more of similar appearance.
Unbelieving, Snowy walked closer, “This is enough explosive to blow up the whole building!”
Hastily she opened some of the other boxes but it was every time the same, they all were filled with explosives. Then her eye fell on a stack of empty boxes at the other side of the room. Some of the content already was unpacked and elsewhere now.
The unpleasant image of some of these big rockets flying around with extra explosive attached to them sprung up in her mind. “What are they going to do? Setting the whole district on fire?” One of her ears perked up, there was some noise from the top of the stairs… pawsteps! A second later the door already was opened and mix of the voices of three griffons made its way down to her. Panicked, Snowy swung around her head to find a spot to hide in, but there wasn’t anything here except the boxes, Without a choice she jumped behind the door, it was a very bad place to hide but there wasn’t any other option. Standing up on her rear hooves she leaned against the wall.
When the griffons got closer she was able to hear what they say, “I didn’t misplace them,” one of them complained, “Thirty-two boxes for the cellar and five for the roof, plus one painted dark yellow with the detonators in it. They forgot to paint it, it isn’t my fault.”
“Even if they forgot, it was your duty to check the load before you brought them here.” That voice was from the Commander.
“But…” the first voice spoke again, but was interrupted by a voice Snowy hadn’t heard before.
“Stop your excuses, Gobbo, you messed up.”
“That makes four griffons.” Snowy thought.
“I didn’t, you could…” the first griffon started again.
“Enough!,” the commander silenced them. “Just shut up and find the detonators!” He sighed, “For one time if I could only work with professionals, only one time…”
As they entered the chamber with the explosives, Snowy closed her eyes and tried to make no sound at all, she even put a hoof at her nose to suppress the sound of her breathing. Her heart was beating so loud she feared they could hear it.
In the following minutes, which felt like forever, they searched through the boxes. With every second passing by, Snowy got more and more nervous. “Just get the darn things you are looking for and leave!”
Finally, the griffon who wasn’t Gobbo or the leader yelled, “I got them!” A little rummaging followed.
“Good,” the commander said, “place one here and two more in the other rooms, then bring the remaining boxes up to the roof. Gobbo you will help him.”
“They are really going to blow up the whole building!”
“Yes, Sir.” They answered and a minute later they left the room. Their leader, however, didn’t move as far as Snowy could hear, he just stood in the middle of the room. Another few minutes passed by till the others were done with their work and walked towards the stairs.
“Sir?” one of them said questionly when they reached the room with Snowy and the Commander in it again.
“I’ll take a look at this firefighting mare,” he answered.
“What shall that be good for?” the third griffon asked.
“Don’t you have orders to fulfill?” the commander said in a displeased tone.
Without any more conversation the other two started to walk on, when they passed the exit door, the commander yelled at them to close it behind them.
Still he didn’t move. “What is he waiting for? Just leave now!”
He clicked with his claw tips rhythmically on the ground for a few seconds, “I wonder how you managed to escape,” he said and Snowy froze. “Really, I am surprised you not only got rid of the ropes, you also were able to unlock the door, impressive.”
“Snowy opened her eyes, the door was still in place and covered her from the light that he has with him, possible a lantern or something similar. “How can he know I am here?”
“If you wonder what has revealed you, your tail tip shows between the wall and the hinge.”
“Dammit!”
“You’re lucky the others are amateurs, otherwise they’d have noticed it too.”
Pushing away the now useless door, Snowy faced him. He simply smiled.
Falling down on all four hooves again Snowy asked, “And now?” She wasn’t able to suppress her worries completely. “You let me know all of your plans and where the detonators are, knowing you can’t lock me away…”
His smile got wider. “Yes, you see, reason number one,” he raised a talon of his claw, “could be that I have gone totally insane and my bosses just forgot to take me out of charge.”
The hair in Snowy’s neck started to stand up while she slowly placed her hooves, bit by bit, closer to him to be able to swing that door completely open without her staying in the way anymore.
“The second reason could be,” he raised the second talon of his claw and then moved it to his mane, “to make sure,” he pulled a dagger out of his mane, “you don’t make it out of here with that wisdom.”
While Snowy’s eyes widened in shock he already pushed forward without hesitation and horizontally struck at her. Snowy screamed in fear, raised her forelegs before her face to protect herself, followed by a scream of pain when he hit her, leaving a deep cut starting at her lower left leg to the middle of her right one. At once he pressed forward using his movement to hit her again with his elbow pushing her head aside and gave her another smaller cut over the right cheek.
“Stop!” Snowy screamed, her voice filled with pain, “Stop!”
But he didn’t listen. Barely she was able to dodge another strike but when she aimed for a counterstrike he just grabbed her hoof, flapped his wings to gain speed and threw her through the room into the stack of empty boxes.
“I was expecting a bit more to be honest,” he mocked at her.” After you managed to free yourself, I thought you would be a challenge, that was the only reason I wanted to do this myself and not let the others handle this. A shame you are such a disappointment.”
With a painful groan Burning Snowflake rose, swaying between the boxes and got on her hooves again, turning around to him. He played with his dagger and flipped it over in the air a few times.
“Ready for another round,” he asked, giggling.
She grabbed one of the boxes and threw it at him. He caught it and laughed, “Oh there is a spark of resis…” The rest of his sentence was cut of when the box exploded into thousand of splitters and something hit him forcefully in his left shoulder, kicking him back through the door and into the wall on the other side of the corridor. Falling down of it, dust trickled down on him.
Standing still a bit unsteady, Snowy pressed her right foreleg to her chest. “That hurts!” Doing the necessary gestures as quick as possible also wounded wasn’t the most pleasurable thing. She gave the griffon a look, he was already standing up again!
He coughed, then spoke, “I wasn’t aware all ponies can cast magic,” another cough, “that makes things much more interesting.” Flapping out his wings and moving the wings joints around a bit he regained readiness. “Alright, ready for the third round.”
“We don’t have too!” Snowy appealed, “Just get out of the way and let me go!”
“That is not up for discussion, it is you or me now and you know what? I am really excited about this.”
“Yo-you’re enjoying this?”
“Oh, of course I do, haven’t a good fight in a long time, but enough with the words, let’s keep going!” The last words he screamed at her while he threw his dagger at her, which he had picked up secretly.
Faster than ever before, Snowy moved her hooves past each other in front of her face and created a small blue jiggling shield, a split of a second before the dagger crashed into it. It held, but didn’t slow the weapon down much so the shield smashed right into her face, causing her to roll back over.
She heard her opponent roaring like a predator and knew what was coming, so without thinking she kicked out with her rear hooves in the air, hitting the griffon who tried to jump on her. That gave her a second to think, “How can I get out of this?” She considered to give him another blast of magic but even if she was fast enough for this, and he was stupid enough to get hit she wasn’t fast enough to outrun him as long as she was in earth pony shape.
“If I turn back… but if anypony knows about my ability…” her thoughts were racing, should she give up all her plans for the future, her home? or should she… “No! Better a life elsewhere then no life!”
She made her decision and let her cover shape fall, wounded as she was, there was no turning back. Green flames ran all over her body and restored her true self, and thank Celestia, that meant she had wings again!
The griffon had jumped on his paws and brought his claws in a defence position, “What in Tartarus are you?”
Ignoring him, she used his astonishment to push herself off the ground and catapult herself with a forceful flap of her wings towards the door. She was already flying over the fourth step upwards when he started to follow her.
“You can’t flee from me!” he yelled.
“I hope I can!” she hit down the door handle, “Ouch my leg!” and rammed the door open. Behind it laid the great hall she was in, when she entered the facility. A quick glance around, his helpers were nowhere to be seen, they must be at the roof. Another glance and she flew up to reach one of the windows. “If I can break through one, I will be safe!”
Half the way up, she dared to look back. Only a few feet behind her, her persecutor caught up. She gave everything and sped up a bit, but truth be told, she never was a fast flier. In the moment she started to gather her magic to blast one of the windows, he grabbed her leg and pulled her back down.
“No!” Snowy thought and kicked at him with her other leg but it was useless. He fended off her attempts to get rid of him and at her third kick he managed to also grab her other leg. Snowy pulled as hard as she could, flapping her wings like a hummingbird. Still, she first got pulled down slowly, then faster and faster. “He is too heavy,” panicked she now aimed her magic uncontrolled at him, shooting one blast after another downside.
One of her attacks hit some of the feathers on one of his wings but that didn’t shake him off, with most of her blasts hitting the ground and the walls below them, breaking splinters out of them.
“Let go!” she screamed.
“I told you, you can’t get away!” he pulled at her rear-legs again while he made a bigger swing of his wings too, so he was suddenly on the same level with her. Clinging to her, he used his claws and paws to injure her and rip out her feathers. Snowy tried to push him away and get free but only more and more orange feathers were falling to the ground, till the point she wasn’t really able to fly anymore.
Satisfied with the damage he had done, he let go and Snowy was falling to the ground only slightly slowed by her still flapping wings. With a ‘thud’ she crashed to the ground.
With far more elegance he took his time to land near her, approaching her in his own speed, knowing she wasn’t flying away anymore.
“At least this was some fun, don’t you think?”
When she weakly lifted her hooves again he rushed over to her, jumped on her and grabbed them, holding them away from himself. “Oh you don’t want to shoot at me again or? That would be so rude.” Struggling with her for a moment he added, “Even with all this being fun, I guess we should end it now, I have other things to do, you know?”
Tears formed in Snowy’s eyes, “Why?” she asked, “Why are you doing this?”
“I don’t have time to explain it to you,” he said while he pushed her hooves back bit by bit to reach her throat with his claws, “now just stop resisting and I’ll make it quick.”
Using all his weight, he shifted his body more and more forward, sweat formed on his face while he got closer to Snowy’s with each bit he pushed her hooves down. Close to defeating her he asked, “Any last words?”
Now Snowy let freely run her tears down, “I am sorry.”
“Huh? Sorry for what? Interrupting our operation?”
“No... for this!” and she spitted every last fire she had right into his face setting him on fire at once.
He jumped up and screamed and roared while Snowy rolled on the side, cried and watching him said, “I am sorry,” again and again.
In her guilt she realised too late where he was heading for in his agony, only when he reached the wagon with the last boxes of explosives she became aware of what danger she still was. Bringing up all her remaining strength she rose from the ground as fast as she could and stumbled away from the wagon.
Shortly after she made the first steps the griffon fell into the vehicle, a few steps later an explosion followed when the fire reached the boxes, blowing Snowy from her hooves. She rolled over the ground, bouncing a few times and come to a hold a good distance away from where the explosion has caught her.
Stones and glass splinters rained down into the hall but Snowy was not able to flee or protect herself at the moment. She didn’t even notice how close a few of the stones crashed right next to her into the ground. When she opened her eyes again the world was blurred and she had a ringing in her ears which made her nearly deaf. Snowy saw something hit the ground just next to her left front hoof but couldn’t identify it. More and more of that things landet next to her, she felt there was something more to this, wasn’t there something important she had to do?
“My head… why does my head hurt so much?” she lifted a hoof to press it on the hurting spot just to notice something red on it, “Is this blood? … it seems so, ... mine?” Suddenly the memory struck her, this was hers and she still was in this collapsing building! She shook off her disorientation and looked into the chaos her surroundings had become. There were flames around the center of the explosion, spreading fast all over the place, even the roof had caught fire, also some of the supporting pillars were gone. One laid across the ground, shattered, another just was blown away.
Snowy wasn’t an expert in architecture but surely it was bad that they were gone. Her ears weren’t normally functional still, but there was a dull sound coming from the walls which sent a shiver down her spine.
“I have to get out of here!”
She spread out her wings and jumped up just to fall back on her hooves, “My wings! …right!” She cursed the griffon for a second till she remembered what happened to him and guilt replaced her anger.
“Then on hooves!” she thought and galloped forward, ignoring the pain that this caused her. Unsure in which direction the distance to the exit was the shortest, she took the next best way.
The moment she passed by the next between wall, was the moment some of the ‘firework’ rockets started. Luckily, for Canterlot, they didn’t launch like planned, instead caught fire at the place and position they had laid. Causing them to fly around in the building.
They didn’t catch Snowy’s attention, till the point the first exploded and also caused the rest of the explosive on the roof to do the same. If Snowy wouldn’t be already nearly deaf, she would have been now. When she recovered from the impact of the shockwave, she risked a gaze at the roof, it was gone…
“Ponyfeathers!”
The new explosion gave the remaining building the rest, whatever part of it, which had stayed unaffected by the loss of some of supporting pillars, was now collapsing like the rest. This was supported by the parts of the roof that followed gravity and crushed back down to ground, some of it right back into the facility.
“I can’t make it out of here.” The realisation of that fact nearly let her give up, but there was a last option she clung too. She doubted it would work but what did she have to lose anyway? Snowy crouched down and focused on her magic, there was not much left. She took the rest of it and created a shield in form of a small box around herself. “I hope it will hold.”
Every second she got, was a second more to strengthen her shield. Stones, beams and everything else that the building was made from was crushing on her shield and created a heap around it and over it.
“Maybe it holds each other?” she hoped, “maybe I am safe…”
At this point, the fire reached the explosives at the cellar and the following detonation let her shield collapse...