//------------------------------//
// Into the fray 
// Story: Lovie Dovie 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

Redflare, Flossy Cotton, and Cornwell waited for the day to darken to resume their searches. The day was always too populated to make an effective scanning of Ranchefort, but the night was the best time to do a search. It was easier to search for any evidence of malfeasance in the large town without having to worry about ponies confronting them about their practices or calling up law enforcement. That being said, not having much light came about as frustrating and made things more difficult for them.

For Flossy Cotton, observing the housing blocks didn't bring about much but neighbors fighting for stupid reason. Cornwell was having more luck in the poorer areas, especially in the bars, but Redflare, stuck with the markets, had to rummage through just about everything, and that was quite difficult considering his immense size. Hours passed and he eventually heard hooves clonking against the  ground, sometimes followed by a few ticking noises. Peeking around the corner, the paladin had found someone suspicious draped in a black cloak. It might have been chilly that night, but a pony's natural fur would have protected them from this light cold.

Being as stealthy as someone his size can be, Redflare peeked around corners to see that the figure was a pony caring around various papers on their back using rope to lock them down. Unaware of the spy, the figure punched the lock of a small warehouse and walked inside. Several minutes later, the figure reappeared, crumpled a piece of paper between their hooves, and tossed it into the warehouse. The red paladin expected them to leave afterwards, leading to something 'juicy', but instead, the figure chose to face the open warehouse and, much to the stallion's surprise, breathe a wave of fire onto the contents of the building. 

"They can breathe fire?! A dragon, perhaps?" Redflare whispered to himself. "No. That would be too convenient for this place, but just in-case."

He couldn't just sit around and do nothing, though, so the paladin charged forward, yelling 'Fire! Fire!' and tackled the pony, jettisoning them through some wooden stalls. Before the flames could gain traction, the paladin marched forward to take care of it, but the pony he had tackled rebutted with a plank of damaged wood to the side of Red's head, neck, and ribs.

"Sssstupid pony," the figure hissed. "You're going to ruin everything!"

It jumped to the side, spewing fireballs at Redflare, but the pony did not flinch one bit from the flames. While he recovered from the painful strikes from the plank, he stood up tall to stare the figure down. They were getting more and more frustrated that their magic wasn't working and audibly ground their teeth.

"Why aren't you hurt by the flames?!"

Redflare looked down at the figure, his face filled with determination and pride. He only answered with a frown, angering the figure even more. They strained their voice, incapable of talking properly and only making weird noises.

"What's wrong with you?" Red asked. "Can't stand the fact that you're going to be imprisoned for arson? Or that you attacked a member of Princesses' paladins of the Order of the Holy Light?"

The figured stopped their twitching and looked towards the pony. "Paladins? What are you talking about?!"

"I--"

"SSSSSSSSSTUPID pony! Stop looking down on me like that! All of you always do that! You always look down on me!" The arsonist stood up on their hind legs and, after a bit of bumbling, manage to keep their balance. "If you want to catch me, then you'll have to deal with my flames first!"

"Don't you understand that you can't hurt me with fire?"

A brief red spark barely illuminated the figure's face in the darkness before they pulled back, then leaned forward in one quick movement. A torrent of flame came from them, engulfing Redflare and a humongous portion of the block in flames. The figure's cloak caught fire as well, but they seemed less preoccupied with it than the paladin and everypony waking up to the send and the spreading of fire.

"Oh no!" Red was shocked. He bared his teeth and turned to face the arsonist. "What did you do?!"

"Took care of two stones with one bird," the arsonist chuckled. "If I know anything about paladins in books, it means you can't stop me without sacrificing the lives of all of these people."

The figure fell back down to four hooves, jumped atop several crates, and left on the roofs of the buildings. Redflare wanted to capture the arsonist, but he had more pressing obligations to attend to. The fire fighting lasted well into the late hours of the morning, with ponies crying at the loss of their homes and belonging. Some ignored them while others offered to help or house them if needed. Multiple town guards were investigating the scene to determine the cause while Redflare was reunited with his colleagues.

"What happened?" Flossy Cotton asked.

"Did a dragon come by here?" Cornwell added.

"No. I saw the pony with my own eyes," Redflare explained. "They stood on their hind legs and used some kind of spell to create a massive vortex of fire that engulfed everything so they could get away."

"What were they after?" Cotton asked. "What did they attack first, and did you see what they looked like?"

"I didn't see what they looked like because they were wearing a cloak."

Both Flossy and Cornwell rolled their eyes, looking at each other with disappointment and shaking their heads.

"That's pretty cliché," Cornwell sighed. "They haven't even thought of wearing a disguise or something. No. It has to be a cloak in the night."

"As for where they attacked, it was that warehouse and I don't know why."

While the three tried to understand the various elements at play, one of the town guards yelled to everypony present.

"Here! The fire originated from here!"

"What?!" Red huffed. "But the arsonist literally created fire inside of the--"

A regular pony looked at the scorched ground, tracing it with their hoof and following to the buildings that had been ignited directly. "He's right," she said. "The scorch marks trace from the warehouse."

"What was in there?" a town guard calmly pondered aloud. "Come on, let's have a look inside."

"What are they talking about?" Redflare complained.

Flossy Cotton put a hoof to his shoulder to grab his attention, then pointed towards the floor. "Look there. The scorch marks."

Redflare narrowed his vision, then his eyes slowly opened with realization.

"The clever bastard," Cornwell applauded. "Your arsonist made sure to make everything look like it came out of the warehouse."

"It's these!" a guard shouted from the warehouse. She came out with a charred box full of sparkling, red powder. "I found some of it intact. It's dragon spices."

"And judging by the manifesto we recovered, these were delivered to use two days ago," another explained. 

"The dragons tried to burn our town down!" an angered citizen bellowed. "They've been doing this for months now!"

Another pony stepped in. "She's right! Why are we letting them in here?!" He pointed angrily at the burnt warehouse. "They obviously sabotaged the crates of spices!"

"Don't be quick to judge the dragons!" the sergeant of the guards interjected. "It could be the acts of a pony trying to drive a wedge between us!"

"The sergeant is right!" a guard said. "This could easily be the actions of a group of ponies. The doors were clearly forced open from the outside!"

"Then how do you explain the massive torrent of flames that gave a new lighthouse to our town?!" an angered citizen shouted. "No pony aside from the princess and a individuals could cast a fire spell of this magnitude."

The three 'spies' looked at each other.

"That's it!" Redflare whispered-yelled. "If a regular pony couldn't cast something like that, and it wasn't a dragon..."

"Then that would mean that the one responsible is either a pony of significant magical prowess or in possession of an artifact of equal power," Flossy added.

"Then we need to find anypony in the area that could follow those criteria," Cornwell said. "I suggest we start with getting a list of registered ponies known as 'masters', or close to that, in magic."

"More specifically, stallions with an affinity towards fire magic," Redflare said.

"Stallion?"

"Yes. The pony in front of me was a stallion. I could hear it in their voice," the paladin explained.

"Then we have more to narrow the information request to. Stallion, strong magic caster of fire, and last known location," Flossy counted. "And they've been lurking around here, clearly."

"And they're affiliated with the Red Sun if they tried to involve the dragons and used their own..."

"What is it, Redflare?"

"How did he know that there were spices delivered in there? The guard came out with a wooden crate."

Cornwell nodded. "And we've seen the tags of trade boxes removed in favor of codes for the merchants and inspectors."

"You're right," Flossy realized. "But that can mean a number of things. We need more evidence to back it up."

"That's why we're here, isn't it?" Redflare stated.

The other two nodded, and the group set out into Ranchefort to make their requests for information and to plan their next moves against the Red Sun.