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// Chapter 2: On The Ground 
// Story: The Day Everything Changed 
// by Replach 
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9:33 AM

Crimson Moon had only made it a few blocks from her dorm when she found herself in Bridleway Square. This was one of her favorite places in Manehattan, but she didn't care about that at the moment. She just wanted to get to the Crystaller Building. The square was filled with huge digital screens, part of the new technology that had rolled in within the past few years. Most showed advertisements for new Bridleway plays, the latest fashion, and local shops. In the center of the square, on a big light-up screen, the news was breaking: "Explosion at Crystaller Building, unconfirmed reports of bomb."
Crimson turned her camera back on and pointed it at the screen. She could barely hear her own thoughts; cries of "Dear Celestia!" and "Oh my goodness!" echoed from the ponies around her.
"Oh my gosh, what?" One stallion exclaimed beside her. He was white-colored with a grey mane & tail. His copper-brown eyes stared up at the board, trying to comprehend what was going on. Crimson turned her camera to him.
He turned to see the camera, and asked her, "You seeing this?" She pointed the camera back up at the board to show the breaking news again. "That's unbelievable", the stallion proclaimed, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I can't believe it either," Crimson replied, half to herself. She was still trying to shake off the fact that she had just watched her favorite building in the entire world explode in a ball of flames. If the bomb story were true, she'd be scared beyond belief.
"You know that's not the first time that's happened?" the stallion told her.
"Really?"
"About 20 years ago, another bomb in the Tower of Manehattan down that-a way," he explained, pointing his hoof towards the tallest building in Manehattan. "I was working there when it happened, the entire building nearly came down! Took 'em years just to fix the entire floor! Scariest thing to happen to me in my life."
"Uh oh!" a little colt exclaimed as he looked up at the board, before he was quickly whisked away by his mother.
"I feel really sorry for the ponies up on that floor, you know?" the stallion said to Crimson.
"Same here," she replied. "Do you mind if I ask what your name is?"
"Winter Gust," came the reply. "You?"
"Crimson Moon."
"Good to meet ya, Crimson. I better go. You stay safe, ya hear?"
"Will do!" Crimson called after him as he trotted away. He seems nice, she thought to herself. Shame I probably won't ever see him again.
As she tried to find her way towards the Crystaller Building, she came across a group of ponies sitting around a cafe table, one of them, presumably the store owner, leaning against a radio. As she started to film them, she could hear the report coming in:
"...gigantic hole in the North face of the building, about 5-6 stories tall, climbing diagonally from right to left. I can see paper falling from the building. It looks like confetti, as if the Manehattan Broncos have won the Hoofball championship. There's also huge amounts of smoke coming out of the tower. I don't know if you can hear it around me, but several emergency carriages have been arriving in the past couple of minutes. The police cordoned off the immediate area to civilians so that the personnel have a safe space to work..."
Crimson knew what she was getting into. She knew that it was going to be bad. But she also knew that with her camera, she could capture history unfolding. She trotted away from the group, and once again started making her way towards the burning building.

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9:35 AM

Fallen Angel had made it to the bridge across the Hoofson River by the time he realized Shining Star wasn't with him. In his rush to make it to the scene, he'd forgotten to wait on her. Now, she could be anywhere in Bronclyn for all he knew. Maybe this was a bad idea, he thought to himself. Maybe I should turn back.
"Dude!" he heard a familiar voice behind him. "When I tell you to wait, that means you wait!"
Angel turned around to see Shining Star, sweat pouring down her forehead, trudging up to him. He breathed a sigh of relief, then hugged her.
"My bad," he apologized, before turning to look at the building. Or at least what you could see of it. The thick cloud of smoke had almost completely hidden the brass horse's head at the top; only the mane was visible. He could see the outline of pieces of paper falling to the ground, and what looked like the occasional metal bar. Smoke seemed to pour out of every side of the tower, through any broken window it could.
"Well, that's what it looks like," Angel heard a police officer talking into his walkie-talkie behind him. He and Star turned to look towards him, a grey pegasus with a blue mane & tail. "I can see what appears to be a hole on my side, but there's so much smoke from my viewpoint that I can't really tell." The walkie-talkie blared back, but Angel couldn't tell what it was saying. However, the officer seemed to be an expert translator, as he replied back, "Yeah, because it looks like a lot more smoke is coming out of the one side."
Angel read the badge on his shoulder: Bronclyn Police. This officer couldn't do anything, at least outside of Bronclyn. Once he crossed the bridge, he'd be out of jurisdiction, and the Manehattan PD, as far as Angel knew, weren't calling for additional help at the moment. All the officer could do was stand and watch, at least until a call came in. If it ever did.
Angel told Star, "Let's go!" and the pair started to cross the Hoofson River bridge. As they galloped across, Star was becoming increasingly concerned as to whether the blast was on purpose. If it were, she would be the first pony back across the bridge. If it weren't, then maybe she'd stay. Whether a freak accident, or a planned attack, one thing was for sure: It wasn't good at all.

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9:39 AM

Firestorm was now within 3 blocks of the building. All she could see when she looked up was smoke. However, because of other tall buildings, she could barely see the tower itself. Only the top 10 floors, if that many, and the Brass Head were visible. The orange pegasus had a million thoughts on her mind, but the primary one was getting to the people inside. 
As she walked closer to the building, she heard another police officer talking with a maroon-colored unicorn. She turned to listen, and found her partner. The grey pegasus' name was Shiny Cloud, and he'd been with the force for years. His positive attitude had helped Firestorm fit right in after moving from Fillydelphia to be with her now-husband.
She stopped to talk to the officer, but waited on what the unicorn had to say: "I was walking down, um... Commerce Street, and saw the fireball. I ran back to my apartment over on 8th, because, you know, building just exploded above you, you don't know what it is..."
"Excuse me, one second," the other officer asked her, and turned to Firestorm. "What's up, Firestorm? Whatcha need?"
"Where's the command center for emergency services?" Firestorm asked the officer. 
"One more block down that way," Cloud started, "but I've already talked with them. For right now, they just want police to keep the civilians out of the area, so that Fire Rescue can get their trucks and equipment in, and get inside the building."
"You're kidding, right?" Firestorm asked. "They need all the help they can get in there! Especially with the blast as high as it was. There have to be hundreds of ponies trapped up there!"
"Sorry, Stormy," said Cloud, using her nickname to try to calm her down, "but I don't think you're going to change their mind. From what I've heard, they're gonna send pegasus officers in later for high-up rescues once the blast zone is secured. For right now, though, I think it's best for you to stick close to me, or at least find your own position to work from."
This frustrated Firestorm greatly. Why were the Fire Department the only ones going inside the building? As far as she could tell, only 5 fire carriages were underneath the building. Who knew how many more were on the other sides. But didn't look like it would be nearly enough for this kind of situation. 
Firestorm took a position on the crosswalk next to Cloud. All she could hope for, as she watched the cloud of smoke over her head, was that everything would be over soon.