//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Curiosity // Story: Flicker // by Silicas //------------------------------// “Just what in Celestia’s name were you trying to do?” “I– I– I wanted to make a fire.” She had never meant for it to get out of control. “You actually tried to do that? You weren’t just messing around? That’s not what you told me before. This is really, really not okay, Flicker. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” Flicker’s eyes were pulled from the ground and her father lifted her chin with a hoof. The yellow filly fought his touch for a moment, but eventually let her gaze settle in her father’s eyes. “What am I going to do?” he repeated. The young pegasus had no answer. Her vision shot back to the charred ground under her hooves. Three hours ago, it had been her bedroom. After a few seconds, she asked, “Why did you bring me back here?” The light green stallion planted his haunches on the blackened flooring and leaned in close to his foal. “I brought you back here so you can see what you did. So you know what I have to fix. So you realize just what you’ve done.” “I’m so sorry,” the small pegasus sobbed. She was crying again. This time, though, she was not crying because she was sorry about setting the house alight. She was crying because she wanted to do it again. Not to the house itself, of course, but to something. She wanted to see something burn. She wanted to watch as flames danced against dry panels of wood, to feel the heat on her face, and hear the roar of the consuming flame. Flicker almost did not here her father as he said, “And if I ever, ever, so much as hear about you having another match in your hooves… Well… I don’t know what I’ll do.” The stallion shook his blue mane. “But it won’t be nice.” His foal nodded. She understood. He signed in relief. But he should not have. She was not going to let her passions flicker out like that. No. She was going to find something to burn again, just, with a little bit more caution next time. And maybe a bit of water. Okay, a lot of water. Twilight flipped idly through the pages of the Ponyville Premier newspaper that she held in her magic. She scanned over a few small articles on apple sales and the town hall, slowly making her way to the back pages of the document. Not much had happened in Ponyville. She looked out her room’s window. It was still raining outside. Sighing, she flipped to the last page of the paper. Beneath a garish advertisement for the Carousel Boutique was a section that she had not seen for a long time: the obituaries. There was only one short entry. Blueberry Lime, born Y.S.M. 974, passed away earlier this week. After losing his wife, he raised his daughter, Flicker, alone for three years. When a fire destroyed their second home, she ran away into the Everfree Forest and was never seen again. Though assumed dead, he waited for her return until the day of his death. His business, Lime Reagents, has been but up for public auction to pay debts. If interested, please contact… Twilight Sparkle stopped reading. Outside, somepony was screaming. The purple mare bounded down the stairs from her room and to the library’s ground floor. She paused for a moment, looking for Spike. The dragon was in a side room, busily organizing a shelf of books. Poking her head into the room, she said, “Stay here for a minute, okay? I’ll be right back.” Before Spike could answer, Twilight was already out the library’s front door and galloping through the muddy streets of Ponyville. The baby dragon shrugged and returned to the bookshelf. Spike did not understand why Twilight always burst out of the library at the slightest hint of distress. He could hardly recall a single time that it had been anything more severe than a bee sting that caused the yelling. Twilight Sparkle rounded the turn onto Stirrup Street, her hooves slipping a little on the muddy surface as she continued galloping down the path. At the end of the road, she could see a cheery-coated pony. She was still screaming. “Cheerilee!” yelled Twilight as she closed the distance between herself and the schoolteacher. “Cheerilee, what’s wrong?” Twilight Sparkle stopped a few meters away from the mare, her eyes suddenly realizing what was causing Cheerilee to scream. “Somepony, get over her and tell me what this thing is!” Cheerilee shouted again. The mare was pressing her saddlebags face-down in the mud. Something under one of them was wriggling. The purple unicorn watched the lump scurry beneath the fabric for a moment. She wondered, Could it be a parasprite? I sure did not look like one, though. The mass was oblong, and far too large. More curious than worried, now, Twilight stepped up beside Cheerilee and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m here,” the unicorn said, “What do you want me to do?” “Oh Twilight,” the earth pony said more calmly, “You don’t know how long I’ve been out in this rain waiting for somepony to come. I didn’t want to let this thing get away again. It’s already burned through one of my saddlebags. Do you think you can grab it with magic?” Twilight readied her horn. “Not a problem at all.” “Okay, on three,” Cheerilee said. “One… Two… Three!” As the cherry mare pulled her saddlebags off of the creature, Twilight sent a tendril of magic underneath the fabric’s folds. The covering pulled back to reveal a large reddish bug squirming in the glow of Twilight’s magic. The six-legged creature looked straight at the mare and hissed, his hinged jaws opening and closing rapidly. “Not a friendly one, is he?” Cheerilee said. “Be careful, too. It can catch things on fire.” “What?” “It burned straight through the first saddlebag I caught it under. That was inside, though. Only reason it didn’t do it again is because it’s so cold and wet out here.” Twilight pulled the creature close to her face, inspecting it more closely. As she twisted the snarling and writhing insect in her magic, she could feel a slight aura of warmth radiating from its abdomen. “Let’s get this thing back to the library,” Twilight said slowly, her brow furrowed. “I might have a book–” Twilight stopped speaking. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear another pony yelling. It sounded like Rarity.