//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: A Hard Lesson to Learn 
// Story: The Day Everything Changed 
// by Replach 
//------------------------------//

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10:30 AM

"Dear Celestia," Crimson Moon murmured to herself as paper continued to rain all around her. She backed away from her position on the street, retreating to a position further away where she could still see the now-two blast zones on the Crystaller Building.
"Another one?" a stallion said aloud beside her. "That's gotta be on purpose."	
They continued to stare up at the tower. "I can't believe I just saw that!" 
Another stallion chimed in, "That was insane!", while another just kept shouting expletives.	
"What was that?" a mare chimed in, holding her young son, who had an ice pop in his mouth to soothe him. "Was that another bomb?"
"Nopony knows if that first one was a bomb," the 2nd stallion replied.
Crimson was getting increasingly frustrated. Not only could she not find a good spot to film, when she did, she had to move somewhere else, either by police making her, the crowd, or otherwise. At this point, she was stuck with a tough decision: film a few seconds from various locations, or head home and risk missing something on the way. And she really did not want to do the latter.
Then, she came up with an idea: so far during her filming, she had been picking up remarks from the ponies around her. While she was trying to find a new place, she'd take the time to film their reactions up close, to show how a tragedy like this one makes ponies feel! Even knowing that it was just an excuse to stick around was fine to her.
Crimson walked down what seemed to be a busy street, as it was filled with onlookers. As she walked by them, she turned her camera towards them. Most showed faces of disbelief, unable to comprehend what had occurred. A few were shedding tears, while another was kneeled down in prayer, holding her head in her hooves. Crimson sat down at the corner, and filmed the tower's first blast zone, about 80 stories up. She zoomed the camera in on the smoke pouring out of the hole on her side, which she believed to be facing west. This hole wasn't as big as the hole on the north side of the building, but it was still huge.
As she filmed, she saw another officer up the street, clearing out another building. She ran up and sat on the pavement there, getting what she believed had been her best shot all morning: a view of the burning building, with office workers leaving their building and seeing the burning Crystaller Building for the first time. Many reacted with shock & horror, a few even bursting out in tears, while others could only stare up at the tower and wonder what had happened. One stallion even asked Crimson himself. She could only tell him that nobody knew for sure as she looked up at the building. Nobody knew anything for sure at this very moment, including whether this day would end.

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10:37 AM

Fallen Angel & Shining Star had made it back to within 3 blocks of the building. Angel knew they could get even closer, but he didn't want to risk getting in trouble with an officer, including the one right in front of him on the corner. He couldn't believe anything that he was seeing. Then again, neither could Star, nor anypony else in Manehattan.
The radio on the officer's uniform was blaring loudly, but all Angel could make out was "floor 88." All the rest sounded like the dispatcher was babbling incoherently.
"What's the radio saying?" Star asked the officer. She figured he'd been in the force long enough to understand the gibberish language.
"The first blast zone was on the 88th floor," he told her, "so the fire crew has told police officers that are rescuing people to stay above that floor until they can get some men out there."
"Wasn't the 2nd blast lower than the first?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, that's why the officers are radioing back. They don't understand why they're limited to that region."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Star inquired. She didn't exactly want to help, and she forced her question out more than anything. She just felt that getting it out of the way would both help Angel in his "mission", and help her start to calm down, as she was still visibly shaking.
"Not for right now," the officer told her. "Until we've got the situation under control, I wouldn't be able to let any civilians into the area. What I would ask is, depending on where you live, if you have any clean water at home, maybe bring it down for the emergency personnel or the injured to drink."
"We live in Canterlot," Angel started, "but I'm sure we can get some water from somewhere, right Star?"
"Sure," Star replied. To tell the truth, however, she really didn't want to. All this running around was making her exhausted, and it wasn't even 11 AM yet! She needed to rest on a bench, not keep running all over Manehattan to find a few water bottles. However, she knew that Angel wouldn't like it if she stayed behind, especially so close to the tower, and she would rather stay with her brother than alone in an unfamiliar city, with a possible terror attack unfolding. So she hopped up from the ground, and the pair headed out to find any water they could.

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10:41 AM

Firestorm set the last of the ponies she'd rescued from the roof down onto the pavement, several blocks away from the danger. In total, she'd counted 11 ponies she'd rescued, including the jumper from earlier. 
"You alright?" she asked the young stallion.
"Yes, thank you!" he replied, shaking her hoof. "I thought I was dead for sure!"
"No problem, sir," she told him. "I need you to get out of this area. We don't know exactly what's gonna happen. There could be another blast, there could be a collapse of some sort. If anything happens, we don't want any civilians out here. Do you understand?"
"Loud and clear!" the stallion replied, holding his hoof up in a salute as he sprinted away. She could tell he was probably not a worker in the building, rather one of the tourists at the roof's observation deck. The way the building was planned out, there were 2 different observation decks; the indoor one, a few floors below the roof, was meant to calm ponies who had a fear of heights. Firestorm thought of it as smart, but a little unpractical, especially in her case of making rescues.
Firestorm turned her attention back to the tower. She need to find her partner, Shiny Cloud, who had been rescuing ponies on the floors below her. They had been told to stay above the 2nd blast zone until the fire crew could get to it. In Firestorm's mind, she had acknowledged the decision, but given that it was the stupidest decision she'd ever heard, as there was another blast zone they needed to get to, she and Cloud had elected to ignore it. They didn't care if they got punished for it; if it saved more lives, it was the more sensible option.
As Firestorm flew up, she saw Cloud trying to find a window to break about 75 floors up, between the 2 blast zones, and flew right up to him.
"Hey!" she yelled to get his attention. "You get anyone yet?"
"I got a few on the observation deck!" he yelled back. "Have you heard anything from the fireponies?"
"They're on 30 and climbing," Firestorm told him. "It's gonna be a while before they--"
"JUMPER!" Cloud yelled abruptly. Sure enough, through the smoke above them, Firestorm could see the shadow of something falling. She flew underneath it, and caught a white unicorn mare. The weight nearly sent Firestorm falling as well, but to even her surprise, she managed to hold the unicorn up.
"You alright?" she asked. 
"All good," came the reply from the mare, shaken but unhurt.
"Awesome!" Firestorm exclaimed. "Let's get you to safety shall we?"
Firestorm just happened to glance up as she said this. Before she started to fly down, however, she caught another shadow starting to fall.
"Cloud, look out!" she yelled at her partner, who looked up right as another pony fell past him. Cloud took off like a shot after them, and Firestorm watched as he disappeared through the smoke of the lower blast zone. She hoped that Cloud would catch the pony, but she couldn't wait to find out. She had to get her own jumper to safety.
Firestorm turned north and flew towards the roof of a building several blocks away. She carefully landed on the roof and asked the mare she'd rescued, "What's your name, sweetie?"
"Gleaming Diamond," the mare replied, not exactly wanting to let go of Firestorm.
"Okay, well Diamond," Firestorm told Gleaming Diamond, "I need you to head down that stairwell"-- she pointed to a door leading to the stairs -- "and get as far away as you can from this area. Okay?"
The mare only nodded, her whole body visibly shaking, as she turned to gallop towards the door. Firestorm calmly radioed into her mic, "72-Uniform to Ground."
After a moment, the reply came in: "Go ahead, 72-Uniform."
"Be advised, we have multiple ponies jumping from the building! We've been trying our best to catch them, but I'm sure we've missed a few."
Firestorm turned to fly towards the building, and saw Cloud leaning against the side. Her stomach started to tighten as she flew up. He had his head buried in his hooves, and no pony with him.
"Cloud?" She called to him as she got closer, her anxiety showing in her voice. "Everything okay?" She didn't exactly want to know.
Cloud just turned to her, a single tear falling from his eye. He wrapped his forelegs around her as he choked out the words, "I missed him."
Firestorm hugged him tighter than ever. "I'm so sorry, Cloud," Firestorm tried to soothe him. "We can't always get to them in time." That fact was one of the hardest lessons Firestorm had to learn in her career. No matter how hard you tried, not every ending was a happy one. And she could tell that Cloud was mad at himself.
"No, you don't understand," Cloud pulled away from her, anger in his voice. "I had him by the leg and I tried to fly back up, but I lost my grip on him!" He buried his face in his hooves again.
"Cloud, calm down," Firestorm pleaded with him. "Everything's okay. We can focus on this later, once the danger is over with."
Cloud lifted his head, a mix of anger and sorrow in his expression. "He hit a damn firefighter, Stormy!"
Firestorm froze. That was one of the dangers she hadn't considered. Anything falling from that height would destroy anything below it, including the firefighters and their equipment. Anyone hit by something that large was almost certainly beyond help.
Cloud turned around and smashed a window on the building behind him out of frustration. Firestorm silently thanked Celestia that it was the Crystaller Building, or he'd be in a lot of trouble. 
"Cloud!" she yelled at him. "This is obviously hurting you badly, and I don't want you to take it out on those around you. Why don't we head back down and get some rest?"
Before Cloud could reply, both of them heard a voice call out, "Help!"
Firestorm turned towards the broken window. It appeared that the lights were out inside, like most of the rest of the building, but through the shadows, she could see something waving back and forth. It was a hoof! Somepony was inside!
"Help me!" the voice called again.
Firestorm turned to Cloud, a smile on her face. "Don't just sit there, Cloud!" she yelled. "Go for it!"