//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Where There is Smoke // by Fizzy Orange //------------------------------// Trixie was panicking. She could hardly believe it: that idiot had jumped right into the inferno! Pokey Pierce, her loyal but irreverent assistant, was suddenly grasped by a bout of hero syndrome and decided to endanger his life foolishly. She wanted to save the foal as much as he did, but they could have come up with a much saner plan in ten seconds. Trixie herself could have her used her force field spell to enter safely, but now, after his ridiculous display, the entryway had collapsed. She looked frantically around - purposely ignoring the brisk and loud orders of the fire chief beside her - desperately trying to find something, anything, to help her in rescuing the foal and her grandstanding assistant. Maybe if she gathered the other unicorns nearby they could levitate a water tower together and dump it on the house? The cries of the phoenix made her realize the bird would probably attack before that could happen. She briefly considered calling in the Elements of Harmony but Pokey had the time to die three times before she could reach the schoolhouse and come back with Cheerilee. She also remembered she had sent Carrot Top to the various farms to warn them, how long would it take to track her down? Seconds felt like hours to Trixie as she kept inventing and dismissing plans. Meanwhile the volunteers had managed to extinguish a portion of the ring of flames, but that darn bird was way too aggressive to let them come much closer to the house itself. It was as if the phoenix was mocking the futility of their actions. That’s when the wall of the house exploded. The wall of the second floor just blew outward as a shape, surrounded by spiraling silver magic, propelled itself out of the house. Everypony in attendance stared in utter surprise as Pokey Pierce, with a little blue colt holding from dear life on his back, jumped out of the house. Just like he had done with the door, his magic extended from his horn to protect the rest of his body, but this time it seemed to spiral out in a much more impressive radius, giving him plenty of room to escape in style. Trixie quickly realized that Pokey would get hurt if he landed on his hooves from that height. She reached out with her telekinesis and grabbed his hooves at best she could. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead as she put everything she had into slowing the pair’s descent. Finally Pokey landed relatively softly and she could let her hold go. The stallion quickly rushed to the pleading mother. The two male’s mane and tail were darkened by soot and they had burned patches of fur all over, but on the whole they seemed in good condition. “Mommy!” said the little colt, jumping into his mother’s arms. “Shady!” replied the earth pony mare, hugging her son for all he was worth, giving Pokey a tearful smile. “Oh thank you thank you thank you! I don’t know how I could ever repay you!” “It was nothing,” he replied, before coughing. The little colt followed suit and began to cough. Nurse Redheart was beside the mother and colt in an instant, and to her urging, the pair headed to the hospital. “You should go too, mister Pierce,” she insisted. He shook his head. “I’ll go later, they might still need me.” The nurse rolled her eyes but let it go. Trixie walked up to her assistant and gave him a slap behind the head. He looked at her in confusion. “Ow! What was that for?” “That was for being an idiot! If you had held off for a few seconds we could have come up with a better idea than to stab things!” she said angrily. “You were worried about me,” said Pokey, somewhat amused. “That’s so sweet!” Trixie’s blushing face turned into a pout as she looked back to the burning house. “Of course I was: who would do my paperwork?” Trixie was saved from further embarrassment when Coconut and Marching Order came over. The tan earth pony stallion congratulated the unicorn on his ‘tubular rescue’, whatever that meant, while the military green pegasus simply gave him a salute. Once again Red Splasher decided to interrupt the moment be cantering up to Trixie. “You do illusions right?” he asked her, without actually letting her answer. “I need ya to distract that darn bird with some flashy stuff, the girls are ready to go!” Trixie raised an eyebrow. “Sure I can but…what do you mean by ready?” Red Splasher pointed a hoof to a part of the sky behind her. She turned to look and saw Lightning Bolt, Cloud Kicker and Raindrops adding a few more tuft of cloud to a giant formation. That thing was about the size of a house. “Can they even move that thing?” The unicorn asked. Trixie almost missed the small smirk that flashed over the fire chief’s feature, so obscured it was by his bushy mustache. “Trust me, they can. Just dazzle that thing!” Trixie pushed up the brim of her hat to better display her horn, and then she replied with a confident grin of her own. “Dazzle? My dear fire chief, the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t merely dazzle, she mesmerizes!” Trixie missed Red Splasher and Pokey rolling their eyes because she then stood on her hind legs, cape flaring out, and pointed her sparkling horn toward the flying creature now hovering above the blaze. Sparks of white, blue and purple loudly erupted in rapid succession around the phoenix, constantly turning up in its path wherever it tried to flee. The fire chief gave a signal to his pegasi team and Trixie risked turning to get a glance at the action. She was very curious to see thing supposedly risky thing Raindrops was about to perform. To her surprise she saw her pegasus friend shot upward at an angle, away from the cloudbank and toward the burning house. When she looked back at the cloudbank she saw Cloud Kicker turn around and buck the cloud with both hind legs. At that moment Trixie understood why she got that name, and why her cutie mark was a cloud moving to hide the glaring sun, because the entire cloudbank flew forward at a surprising speed! Before the phoenix could recover from her firework assault, the massive cloud ended up right above it. That’s when Raindrops gave herself a wing powered push and dived down hooves first toward it, at a speed exceeding terminal velocity. “Take this, bird brain!” shouted the jasmine pegasus just as she dissapeared into the cloud. In the space of a second or less the entire cloud, which had been white and calm so far, turned completely grey with a subtle rumbling sound. Raindrops emerged from its underside and drove both her hooves into the phoenix; just as she flared her wings open with expert timing. The impact caused all of her momentum to transmit into her target. Like a bullet the creature crashed through what remained of the thatched roof of the house below and disappeared into the inferno. A second later the dark cloud seems to crack open and pour all of its water content, drenching the house and almost instantly dousing the flames. Raindrops stood under the rain with a disturbingly big grin on her face. The torrential downpour didn’t last that long, but it was enough to turn the dirt beneath Trixie’s hooves into mud. With a series of creaking sound the battered house finally gave up. Damaged by the fire, Pokey’s assault on its walls, and finally the intense downpour, it just couldn’t stand up anymore. The blackened wood cracked and the building collapsed on itself. Luckily no debris landed much more than a few paces from the former house. “That…was impressive,” said Trixie. “No fooling,” added Pokey. A smirking Raindrops landed in front of the unicorns and Red Splasher. “Fire has been explosively suppressed.” “That was a pretty darn good field test girl. But ya shouldn’t have attacked that bird, you could have fallen down with it,” said the fire chief with a paternal tone. “Don’t worry chief, that was an technique I learned studying Iron Hoof. I wasn’t going to follow it,” explained Raindrops. “And you ever actually tried that move before?” asked Trixie, raising an eyebrow. Raindrops looked away and bit her lower lip. “Well we were field testing something in the first place…” “Not that this wasn’t a very cool display of rain making techniques,” began Pokey Pierce, “but what about the phoenix? If you killed it with that crash it’s just going to revive again!” Raindrops waved her hoof in dismissal. “It can resurrect all it wants, I’d like to see it try to dig its way out of that pile!” That’s when a beam of golden light erupted from the remain of the building, sending splinters of burnt wood and other miscellaneous debris rain down on the area and causing everypony present to take a step back. Trixie put a hoof to her face. “You had to tempt fate!” With a loud screech the phoenix flew up from the hole and hovered above the ruined building. It was once again bigger than before, and now almost all completely red save for some of its primary feathers, its tail and most of its face. It flapped its wings once and became engulf in a orb of light. It was like a miniature sun had just risen above Ponyville. Beams of the golden light began to shot outward at random, and everything those beams touched suddenly caught on fire. “This is bad, this is really bad! Please tell me someone has a plan!” said Pokey, looking terrified. “I don’t know!” replied Raindrops, as terrified but being somewhat more stoical about it. “We need a miracle at this point,” added chief Splasher, in awe at the power of the creature. Trixie was about to say something when a familiar dark mist flew through the air toward the golden orb of flaming death. “Philomena Equestris! Stop right now!” said Princess Luna as she materialized. Almost instantly the ball of golden light vanished and the phoenix hung its head down like a truant foal that had been caught doing something bad. Princess Luna hovered there, looking at it with an angry scowl on her regal face. “Bad bird Philomena! How many times do I have to tell you ponies aren’t fireproof? Your pranks are not funny!” continued the Princess. Trixie and the others could only watch in awe and confusion, as the phoenix that had terrified them seems to shrink before the withering gaze of their ruler. Trixie couldn’t hear but she guessed the phoenix had given the princess some sort of answer because Luna continued her dressing down. “That’s no excuse missy! I know you Philomena. You probably started it! Besides you’re supposed to be grounded for two more centuries because of last time! Who let you out?” Once again the phoenix meekly answered. “Well Tia isn’t in charge anymore, I am, and I say you still have two more centuries. Now you’re going to go back to that cave and if I see you out before those centuries are done you’ll be in big trouble!” The phoenix nodded and just… began to fly away. The Princess flew to intercept it. “Now hold on just a minute! I want you to apologize to these nice ponies first! And be glad I’m not giving you extra time off for all the trouble you’ve caused!” Princess Luna and the phoenix, Philomena, landed in front of Trixie’s little group. They all stared at the creature, not sure what to expect. The bird let out a few squawks that, when strung together, sounded vaguely like it was trying to say ‘I’m sorry’. The ponies stood in silence, staring at the bird, for what felt like a minute or two. “Apologies… accepted…?”finally said Red Splasher, unsure of how to respond. “Now you can go,” said Luna, apparently placated, as she teleported Philomena away. “What…what just happened?” asked Trixie. Princess Luna closed her eyes and sighed. “Philomena used to be, and I guess she still is, the royal pet. Well she was always more so my sister’s, but I stepped in to take care of her after, well… after banishing Corona into the sun. She has a very bad habit of playing pranks involving fire. It’s all fun and games until Trottingham is burnt to the ground. So I had to punish her by sealing her away to teach her a lesson.” Raindrops blinked a few times. “Those were pranks?” “Not at the end. Philomena also tends to burn things when she’s angry,” said the Princess, shaking her head. Princess Luna surveyed the damage caused by the wayward pet, and saw all the fires still burning all over. Her horn glowed and a wave of dark blue light washed over the entire town, extinguishing every leftover blaze in an instant. “I’ll personally make sure the family who lost their house will get a new home. Trixie, please forward any other damage claims directly to my office, I will take full responsibility,” she said. “I will Princess,” said Trixie, smiling at her mentor. “It’s nice to see you again, regardless of circumstances. I didn’t expect you to come personally.” Princess Luna bent down to give her student a subtle nuzzle. “It’s nice to see you as well, Trixie. I wouldn’t normally have come, however, when I found your note asking about how to deal with a rogue phoenix I quickly checked Philomena’s prison. I was surprised to find it breached. Philomena is no regular phoenix you see, she is much older than any other and is, in a fashion, related to regular phoenix in the same way I am related to regular ponies. There was no choice but to intervene personally.” Red Splasher walked up to his ruler and bowed before speaking up. “It’s an honor to meet you in person, your majesty. This here stallion,” he said, motioning to Pokey, “did something really brave today. It was foolish and dangerous, but still brave. He jumped right into that burning house to go save a foal. I think he deserves a medal.” Pokey blushed and looked away. “You don’t have to your majesty, I was just doing what I felt was right.” “It is my experience, and my experience is quite long, that that is what all heroes say. I think your heroism does deserve some recognition. Be sure to keep an eye on your mailbox.” Trixie nudged her assistant with her elbow. “Don’t get too excited, I bet it won’t be anywhere near as cool as mine.” “You mean the one you sleep with?” replied Pokey with a smirk. Trixie blushed and stammered. “Ho-how do you even know that?!” “I didn’t. I just figured it was the only reason you didn’t display it in your office,” said Pokey, a satisfied grin on his face. “You totally fell for my bluff.” Even Princess Luna had trouble holding back her laughter at Trixie’s annoyed expression. Corona stared dagger at the Diamond Dog. “What art thou doing sitting there?” The canine creature looked surprise. “Me am on break. Contract say we get ten minutes after two hours of work.” Corona closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “We…that is, I know the contract I have passed with your union by heart, the question is what art thou doing sitting on our… on my throne!” The Diamond Dog suddenly realized he was sitting on the golden throne he had been ordered to polish and quickly jumped off, sitting down on the stairs leading up to it instead. Corona rolled her eyes at the pathetic creature. She had hired these Diamond Dogs to carve her a new palace out of a sheer rock cliff. After a month or so in the dragon’s cave she had yearned for something bigger, grander, and more fitting of a Queen, and her minions had found her a wonderful volcano crater to inhabit. It had been a tad annoying to find that Diamond Dogs had unionized since she had last dealt with them, but she had gems to spare and they were excellent rock carvers and so she had endured their quirky notions of ‘working conditions’ and ‘task descriptions’. They also had an almost obsessive need to hide where they got their gems from, thus ensuring Corona a secretive work force that wouldn’t blab about her location. Corona went to inspect the two large circular pits that had been dug into the floor of her throne room. About a few stories below the two shafts opened into the main magma chamber of the volcano. The two pits had been adorned with mirrors to better reflect the glow of the hot lava bellow, bathing the entire throne room in hues of red and orange. They also made for some nifty trash disposal. Expertly carved stones adorned with a sunray pattern circled each pit, turning them into the center of two large sun emblems. Corona was running a hoof along the surprisingly delicate work when Zecora entered the throne room and bowed low to the ground. Her dragon companion quickly followed and he gave his nominal master a quick, but insincere, curtsy. “From your spy news I bring, I’m afraid Ponyville has stopped burning,” she said, producing a scroll. “What? How is that possible?” asked the mad alicorn, grabbing hold of the scroll with her white telekinesis. She unfurled the scroll and scanned over the message with her blank eyes. Once she was done she incinerated the scroll while growling in frustration. Corona stomped her hoof on the floor, cracking the tile below. “How dare my sister order around my pet? It is not fair! Philomena is my pet! Mine!” Corona closed her eye and took a deep breath, schooling her feature before her tantrum could get the best of her. Spike smirked. “Guess that’s what happens when you send a pet to do your own work.” Corona glared his way, and in a glow of white telekinesis she unceremoniously threw him down one of her lava pit. She had discovered not too long ago that the little dragon was lava proof, and she found throwing him down into the magma a most satisfying stress relief. There was a strange impact noise and the Diamond Dog hobbled over the edge of the pit. He seemed to wince in pain. “Oooh...belly flop. Not good. Him must hurt.” Exceedingly satisfying stress relief. It was a few hours later, and the sun was already setting over Ponyville, when Trixie finally sprawled down on her sofa. Raindrops and Pokey were likewise lazily laying on their back on the thick plush carpet and couch. All three of them sported traces of soot and mud, and Pokey and Raindrops also had multiple burnt patches of fur. After Princess Luna’s return to Canterlot, the trio had helped clear out what was left of the burnt house, as well as help out all over town with some temporary repair. They were all terribly exhausted after their crazy day. “My everything aches,” complained Trixie. “I feel pain in muscles I didn’t even know I had.” “You just need to workout more,” said Pokey. “You two don’t look so hot either,” replied Trixie, barely pointing a hoof at him. “We’re just tired, it’s not the same,” said Raindrops, looking at Trixie with half lidded eyes. Trixie couldn’t think of anything smarter to reply than “Oh yeah?” That’s when a knock came at the door. Trixie shot a pleading look at Pokey and Raindrops. The stallion rolled his eyes and with a sigh rolled back to his hooves. He went to open the door. “Inspector Audit! Did you come to see those files we talked about earlier?” she heard Pokey say. “Of course she’s in, she’s resting in the living room.” The two stallions arrived in the living room and Trixie managed to at least sit down to greet the bureaucrat. Though it still pained her to do so. “Hello Inspector,” she managed to say. “Representative Lulamoon,” he replied in greeting. “I was impressed by the heroism I’ve witness today, and your dedication to your town. Not many representatives would dirty their hooves like I’ve seen you do today after the incident. And you, mister Pierce, were quite impressive. I understand why your employer endures your somewhat…unconventional behavior.” Trixie was a bit confused by his change of opinion of her. “Thanks.” “I haven’t lived such a terrifying day since the event of the last Longest Night! All that fire and confusion, it was terribly frightening. Tell me, is life in Ponyville always this…exciting?” asked the inspector. Trixie sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.” “Oh my!” replied Serious Audit, his ears flattening. “If you are constantly attacked by minions of the Tyrant Sun, it is no wonder you are constantly in need of repairs!” Trixie was about to tell him that this was actually the first real attack since the escape of the Tyrant Sun, when another idea popped in her head. It was time for the Great and Powerful Trixie to take the stage. She glanced over to Raindrops and was happy to see the pegasus had apparently dozed off, and then she shot Pokey a wink. “Oh yes it is so terrible,” she said, making an effort to get off the sofa and stand up. “We’ve had to deal with griffons attack, fend off a pack of ursa minors, contend with an insane pied piper pony leading that Parasprite swarm, and even an evil magical clone of our own weather captain!” Audit raised an eyebrow. “A clone?” Trixie put a hoof to her forehead and sighed as if the weight of the world was on her shoulder. “Ah yeah, poor miss Rainbow Dash, so nice and friendly, has an evil clone who was sent by Corona to do nothing but pester and harass us with her mean-spirited pranks. Miss Rainbow Dash is the fastest pony in town, and thus no one can catch up to her evil clone. It constantly returns and we can very little to stop it since it never challenges us directly. It is the source of all those ‘rainbow related incidents’ you might find under ‘wild weather pattern’.” The stallion gasped in shock. “That sounds mighty serious! I understand why you and Princess Luna are keeping those events a secret from the public. Should word get out that the Tyrant Sun is applying such methods…why, it would be widespread panic!” Trixie nodded a little too energetically for her aching neck. “Indeed my dear inspector. Everypony in Ponyville is bravely putting up with all those attacks for the sake of the peace of all of Equestria. Sadly, while we can’t let even a single clerk in Canterlot know of those events, but we still require fund for the victims.” Serious Audit put a hoof to his mouth and looked deep in thought. “I can’t conduct a full investigation under these circumstances, and I fear I might get in the way of dealing with the recent crisis.” Trixie wrapped a hoof around his shoulder and slowly led him toward the door. “Why don’t you just head back to Canterlot then? I’ll have Pokey send you copies of those files you were talking about earlier today, and then you’ll be able to tell the officials that everything is fine in Ponyville. Tell them that the Everfree Forest is acting more chaotic than usual, due to the return of the Tyrant Sun obviously, and take a day off or two afterward,” she continued, opening the door with her telekinesis. “After all, you just had such a terrifying day, you truly deserve some calm and quiet.” Audit seemed to consider it before nodding in agreement. “That does sound like a good idea, Representative Lulamoon, but Viscount Blueblood sent me a note telling me he might be sending some more relevant files addressed to my temporary office at the town hall.” “Don’t worry about it, if those documents come I’ll be sending them along with the copies of our files! Just make sure you don’t mention Ponyville’s secret.” “Of course I won’t. I would not dare render useless all the brave sacrifices the folks of this town had to do for the sake of everypony else. Have a nice evening Representative Lulamon, and I hope we meet again in a more pleasant situation.” And with that, he was gone, and Trixie closed the door. With this little farce Ponyville wouldn’t be suspected of fraud, at least for the moment, and Blueblood’s incriminating document would never reach Serious Audit. Blueblood would never raise any fuss about it because it would mean admitting to those in the know that Trixie had bested him. Of course there was the possibility of him releasing those documents again, but after the report Audit was about to submit those files would be thoroughly checked and any sign of tampering would be noticed, meaning that only the originals could work. Blueblood couldn’t release the originals, as they would incriminate his own family in the Rainbow Dash scam. She let out a sigh of relief. She was surprised to hear a slow hoof stomp from behind her. Her assistant, who had stood silent during her little act, was giving her a genuine smile. “That was an impressive display of fast talk. Didn’t think you could keep it up until the end!” Trixie gave him a little pout. “It was nothing, it’s not like I’m a complete idiot you know!” Pokey chuckled. “So does that mean you admit to being a partial idiot?” Trixie groaned in frustration. “I’ll just take the fact you’re not denying it as admittance,” simply said Pokey, walking back into the living room. “What? Get back here!” shouted Trixie, cantering after him. “Shut up! I’m trying to nap here!” complained Raindrops. Cue end credits