//------------------------------// // Ch. 2, Fiery Fricket // Story: The Maretrix // by awesomeaustinv //------------------------------// Lilly watched the countryside pass on by as the train's wheels rumbled over the tracks. She didn't know how Strawberry managed to talk her into this... Adventure was always more her sister's thing. Lilly Valley picked flowers for a living, that was her special talent, that was what she did best. Flowers were always safe and predictable. Adventure is just a huge mess of danger and problems. But she had to admit... Ever since the mysterious ponies came and destroyed her sister's radio, things hadn't been the same. She no longer felt safe in her own home. If talking to this pony in Las Pegasus could help them find answers, then maybe she wouldn't have to worry anymore. Or at least she would know what it is she's worrying about. "Here we are! Always wanted to visit this place," Strawberry Sunrise said as the train pulled into the station in Las Pegasus. Grabbing her saddle bags, Lilly Valley stepped out of the passenger car and into a world that, as far as she was concerned, existed far outside her comfort zone. In the distance, crowds of ponies stood in line for thrilling rollercoasters, shocking curiosity shows, performances by Equestria's most daring acrobats, and more. As a costumed pony dressed as a timber wolf walked by, a group of young mares ran over to get their pictures taken with him. Lilly instead moved closer to Strawberry Sunrise, who was busy marveling at the flashy city's attractions. "What should we see first? I hear they have a world-class trapeze show, and a haunted house ride..." Strawberry asked as they walked. "Can we please just stick to the task at hoof? You wanted to find this Fiery Fricket pony, so let's find Fiery Fricket," Lilly said, grimacing as she kept her head down and eyes straight ahead. "Don't tell me you're scared of this place!" Strawberry replied. "It's just... Not my cup of tea, okay?" "Well, sorry she doesn't live in a bunny-filled meadow. Lets see if she works at any of the shows." Spotting a pony handing out pamphlets, Lilly Valley quickly trotted over and grabbed one, showing it to Strawberry. "Maybe she's listed in here?" Taking the pamphlet from Lilly and holding it in her wings, Strawberry began to flip through the pages. "Acrobatics... no... Magic tricks, no. She's not listed in any of these. "Maybe she's not a performer, she might work backstage," Lilly suggested. Flipping to the back page, Strawberry found a list of ponies that worked on the shows. "Pyrotechnics - Fiery Fricket!" She exclaimed. "What shows does she work on?" Lilly asked excitedly. "All the ones involving fire and fireworks, apparently," Strawberry said, reading the pamphlet. "F...fire? I don't want to see any shows involving fire!" "Of course you don't, why would I expect any less? Alright, we can try checking after the show," Strawberry replied, rolling her eyes. As they proceeded to visit several shows after the show ended, they encountered several ponies who said the same thing. "You just missed her, she works on all the shows with fire. She's gone to prepare the next one." With every show, they tried to get in as soon as possible after it ended, and were always just slightly too late. "Lilly, I think we're going to have to get in before the next show ends," Strawberry stated. "But..." "No buts! Fiery leaves immediately after the show, and we can't get in there fast enough when the audience is trying to leave. We can cut it close so you don't have to see much of the show, but we need to get in before it ends," Strawberry insisted, "Can you suck it up for once and just do it?" Lilly nodded, gulping nervously. As they walked to the next show, Lilly tried to convince herself it wouldn't be that bad. Just a little fire, like you see on those nice scented candles, no big deal. As they entered the auditorium, their ears were suddenly assaulted with the loudest, angriest music they had ever heard. Standing on a stage decorated to look like a volcano was a group of dragons holding various evil-looking instruments covered in decorative spikes and chains. "A burning dragon nestled somewhere in time A flaming rock - no warnings, no signs Judgment day and the lava arrives Eventually, they all commit crimes!!! The lead singer screamed into a microphone covered in studded leather. Behind each band member, a wall of flame appeared, flaring up in synchronization with the beat of the drums. Above the stage, the letters on a sign burst into flame, illuminating the band's name - "Flaming Fire." Strawberry Sunrise put her hoof to her face. As expected, Lilly was now curled up in a ball on the floor with her eyes shut tight and hooves over her ears, whimpering. "Come on, we have to sneak backstage now if we want to catch Fiery before she leaves!" "NO!!! I WON'T GO IN THERE!" "It's just a show, Lilly! What do you think they're going to do, pluck you out of the crowd and bite your head off? Now come on!" "GO IN THERE YOURSELF THEN!" Before Strawberry could protest, Lilly bolted out of the auditorium. "Sheesh, it's just a little dragon metal, what's the problem?" Strawberry muttered to herself as she began to step into the crowd, but then paused. Sighing, she walked back out of the auditorium to find Lilly sitting at a table with her head in her hooves, breathing heavily. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked. "Look, I just... can't do fire. I know it's just a show, but I've had very bad experiences with fire, okay?" Lilly Valley replied. "What hap-" "I don't want to talk about it." "Okay..." Strawberry scratched her chin. "I might have an idea to work around that." As the two ponies entered the auditorium once more, Strawberry put a wing on Lilly's back. "Are you sure a blindfold is a good idea?" Lilly asked, making sure the cloth was secure on her head. "No, I intended to ditch you in the crowd all along." Lilly did her best to give Strawberry a look with half her face covered. "Well, if seeing fire was the problem then it's worth a try at least," Strawberry said as she looked for a door that might lead backstage. Attempting to guide Lilly with her wing, she began wading through the crowd as the dragons performed their final song, "Burn Me Like A Fire." "These guys s-sure do like their f-fire, don't they?" Lilly remarked with a nervous laugh. "Hold on, we're almost there," Strawberry replied. Arriving at the door, Strawberry reached under her wing to remove a lock picking tool she bought earlier, while Lilly continued walking and bonked her nose on the wall. A few twists and clicks later, the door unlatched. "Come on," Strawberry said, yanking Lilly through the door as she was still rubbing her bruised nose. Once inside, they hid behind a rack of costumes. "How do I get this thing off? You tied the knot really tight," Lilly asked, fiddling with the blindfold. "Gimme a second," Strawberry replied, looking around to see what she could find. Nearby was a steel spiral staircase leading up to a gantry above the stage. Sitting on the gantry was a cinnamon-colored unicorn mare with a wild light purple mane somewhat resembling a flame. As a purple glow surrounded her horn, columns of flame surrounded the dragons, making for a spectacular conclusion to a successful show. Smiling as the flames lit up the entire room before dying down, the unicorn stepped down from the gantry and descended the staircase. "I bet that's Fiery," Strawberry said to herself. Nearby, Lilly continued struggling with the blindfold. "Hello!" The unicorn mare trotted over to a group of stagehands. "Would you like to hang out now that the show-" "Nice job with the show, Blazing Witch!" One of the dragons yelled after exiting the stage. The unicorn winced. "Please don't call me that," she began, but the dragons had already left, along with most of the stagehands. She stomped her hoof in annoyance and sat down. As the last of the stagehands left the room, the lights were turned off, leaving the unicorn mare sitting in the darkness. Suddenly, there was a loud crash. A stage light on a stand had fallen down after Lilly gave one last mighty kick to get the blindfold off. "Who's there!?" the unicorn shouted. A floating ball of magical fire ignited in the air next to her, illuminating her eyes as she glared at the darkness. "Don't kill us, we just want to talk!" Strawberry shouted in panic. Lilly's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates as she gazed in horror at the fire. "Show yourselves!" the unicorn demanded. Strawberry kicked the clothes rack aside. "Are you Fiery Fricket?" she asked. "...Yes." "Then you were the one who contacted Starlight Gli-" "Shh! We should talk somewhere else," Fiery stated, extinguishing her fireball and opening a door, gesturing for them to follow. Strawberry got up and noticed that Lilly was still staring wide-eyed at Fiery. "Come on," she said, waving her hoof in Lilly's face until she snapped out of her trance and followed, looking shaken. Fiery led them through Las Pegasus, darting through alleyways and frequently stopping to look around. Eventually she stopped at a caravan in a back lot that appeared to have been sitting for a long time. As they entered, Strawberry noticed that most of the furniture was peppered with burn marks. "Alright, who are you and why do you want to talk to me?" Fiery asked. "My name is Strawberry Sunrise and this is Lilly Valley," Strawberry replied, "We heard you speaking to Starlight Glimmer on the radio the night everypony's radios were taken. We just want to know what happened." "Well," Fiery began, "I had this radio and transmitter set up as a hobby... something to make my caravan feel less empty, since nopony ever... nevermind. Usually it takes a long time to contact another pony who wants to talk over the radio, but that night, someone actually reached out and asked for anyone. Whoever that Starlight pony was, she was the most interesting thing that had happened to me all month, and she sounded worried, so of course I tried to contact her. But then..." "Some mysterious ponies stole your radio?" Strawberry finished. "They tried," Fiery said with a smirk as she pulled a box of broken radio parts out from under a singed blanket in the corner. "How did you stop them?" Strawberry asked. "Fireball! My favorite spell!" Fiery said, beaming with pride. Lilly gulped nervously. "Oh, where are my manners? Make yourselves at home!" Fiery suddenly exclaimed, attempting to tidy up the messy caravan. "Sorry for the tense introduction earlier, I've just been feeling a little jumpy ever since those ponies came and broke my radio." "No problem," Strawberry said absent-mindedly as she began sifting through the radio parts. "Want a drink?" Fiery asked, pulling several bottles out of drawers and mixing the contents until she had a blue-green mixture. Lighting it on fire with a flash of magic, she offered it to Lilly, who backed into a corner. "You'll have to excuse her, she has this thing against fire," Strawberry said as she examined a hooffull of resistors. "Oh, sorry," Fiery said, seeming to wilt. "No... It's okay," Lilly replied, taking the drink shakily and blowing out the fire. "You didn't know." Fiery relaxed somewhat and turned back towards Strawberry. "Hey, what are you doing with that?" "Well, I could never afford a nice radio, so I've had to fix my old one dozens of times. This casing is smashed, but some of the parts inside look fine, so I'm trying to see if I can make it work," Strawberry replied as she started connecting some pieces, "Some of the wires are broken off though." "Here, let me try something," Fiery replied, "Place the broken wires where they need to connect." As Strawberry held a wire in place, with a dim flash of Fiery's magic, a small flame appeared on the tip of the wire and melted it in place. "That's perfect!" Strawberry shouted excitedly, "We could actually make this work!" "Are we sure contacting this Starlight pony again is absolutely necessary?" Lilly asked, sipping her drink. "...What do you mean?" Strawberry asked suspiciously. "Well, look how much trouble it caused last time!" Lilly reasoned, "Do we really want to risk that again?" "Oh no, I definitely don't need to talk to Starlight, it's not like this was important enough to justify a trip to Las Pegasus or anything." Strawberry rolled her eyes. "Important how? I want answers as much as anypony, but I'm afraid this is the kind of thing we'd be better off leaving alone." "Oh wow, another thing you're afraid of," Strawberry said as she continued to reassemble the radio, "Big whoop." Lilly winced. "Fine, ignore me if you want, but I still don't think this is a good idea." She then curled up on Fiery's slightly-charred couch and began to drift asleep. Strawberry continued working. As the night wore on, Strawberry and Fiery began attaching the parts of the radio and transmitter to parts of the caravan to keep them in place. Fiery repurposed a bent clothes hangar as the new antennae and attached it to the roof. Soon they began fiddling with the knobs and dials in an effort to pick up any transmissions. It wasn't long before Lilly woke up to the sound of radio static, and eventually voices... "Sunburst, wake up!" "Wha..?" Sunburst groggily opened his eyes to see a lavender unicorn with a giggling alicorn filly on her back jumping urgently. "The radio!" Starlight Glimmer shouted, "There are voices again!" Sunburst jumped out of bed and ran. Sure enough, in the reading area of the library where they had set up their radio, voices were coming through. "...Hello? Is anypony there? This is Fiery Fricket, and also Strawberry Sunrise, and Lilly Valley..." Quickly grabbing their microphone and turning their transmitter on, Starlight shouted, "Yes! We hear you! Are you okay? What happened? We haven't heard from you in weeks!" "...We're okay, some strange ponies came and tried to steal everypony's radios, but they only broke mine. Strawberry helped me fix it..." "Do you know if Twilight Sparkle and her friends are okay?" Starlight asked. "...Strawberry here, I've been watching those ponies, and they're acting a bit strange. Every time I see them, I get the feeling that they aren't reacting to situations the way they usually would. It feels unnatural..." "Unnatural how?" "...Well, one day, I saw them talking to some blue unicorn magician who was causing trouble, and they responded... violently. That's not like them, is it? I mean, the blue pony was annoying, but it didn't seem like she was a threat or anything..." "TRIXIE!?" Starlight shouted, "Is she okay?" "...I think so, she just ran away afterwards. Is she a friend of yours or something?" "Yeah, you could say that," Starlight said, suddenly quite worried. "...Sorry about that..." Strawberry paused. "...Who are you, Starlight Glimmer? What's going on?" "Oh, I'm Twilight Sparkle's pupil. I don't know what's going on, but a couple weeks ago, I woke up and everypony in ponyville had disappeared except me. Everywhere I've gone, everypony is missing, except for my friend Sunburst and Princess Flurry Heart," Starlight explained. "...Wait, Twilight has a pupil? And there's a fourth princess? What are you talking about?" "Well yeah, she let me stay in her castle and started teaching me about friendship after I was a villain. And there's actually five princesses... Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight, and Cadance's daughter Flurry Heart." "...Five... And Twilight's one of... What!?" "You mean that stuff hasn't happened yet in your world?" "...Either that or you've contacted entirely the wrong universe..." "But that can't be, the spell I-" "...Hold that thought..." "What is it?" "...Oh, Horseapples! Somepony get in the-..." The radio went silent.