Applejack's face reddened as she folded her new wings into her sides.
"Now Applebloom, every young filly has an accident at some point, really, it's nothing to be ashamed of!" she assured, but this just made Applebloom more embarrassed.
Rainbow Dash concentrated hard, sweat beading down from her forehead, panting wildly as she tried to get even the littlest spark of magic to come from her horn. Pinkie Pie wiped her brow and urged her on.
"C'mon Rainbow Dash, you can do it! Keep trying!" she cheered. Rainbow collapsed, panting, still not being able to perform the spell that she wanted to do.
Scootaloo tip-toed down the stairs as silently as she could, listening to the story as closely as she could.
"The pony put very few things in her bag. She put a matchbox, a lighter, and lots of cooking oil."
Scootaloo nodded as she packed her bags with the three things. "Wait, hold on a second." she muttered.
"Yes, Scootaloo?"
"What is your name?" she asked.
"My name? My name is Diabo."
"I like that name." Scootaloo smiled before strapping on her bag and listening to the story once again.
"The pony walked and walked through the deepest midnight darkness until she reached the River of Life, far away from her little home town."
Scootaloo sighed as she inhaled the midnight breeze, then, began to walk forward. It seemed like only seconds before she was at the edge of Ponyville, which she had only left once before on a train with Spike and the other Crusaders, but never alone. She took a deep breath, and continued on. Hours later, she arrived at the River of Life.
"The pony carefully removed the oil from her bag and unscrewed all of the caps. She dipped her hoof in the river, and let small drops of the water enter the oil, which began to glow orange."
Scootaloo nervously followed the instructions exactly, making sure to check the oil twice for the glow. Listening to more of the story, the then knocked over the oil bottles into the river, which was filled with oil in only a matter of seconds. Next, she pulled out a match box and her lighter. She carefully opened the lighter up, and poured out the lighter fluid into the river.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Scootaloo nervously asked aloud.
"Oh yes, Scootaloo, you will be very happy when it's finished, you will be very pleased with your work." Diabo replied proudly.
Scootaloo bit her lip and used her magic to swipe a match along the box, then, dropped it into the river. What happened next was the start of Scootaloo's new life. A wild flash appeared, and the lake burst into flames. Scootaloo felt the boiling heat against her orange coat. Her eyes grew much wider as she watched the flames fill the river for as far as she could see, her smile growing more and more openly wide.
"Diabo, it's amazing!" she shouted aloud. She stood, amazed as the fire leaped to a nearby tree, which began to burn to the ground. It was the most amazing thing she had even seen, and she never wanted to stop watching it. The smoke around her was like magic, the most amazing smell, look, feel, it was all so perfect.
As the morning came, Scootaloo rubbed her eyes, her dreams had been very persistent all night, saying strange things. She got up out of bed and sat down at her breakfast table, picking up the newspaper and smiling brightly at the headline.
RIVER ON FIRE, FOREST BURNS TO GROUND!
"Wait, Rarity, how on earth am I going to get those wings back on my body anyway?" Fluttershy asked.
Rarity was dumbstruck. Fluttershy was right. She raised a hoof to speak, but nothing came out, so she lowered it slowly again.
Pinkie Pie smiled at the little mark on her flank. Where once nothing had been, there was now a cutie mark. It was a good one too, she had worked hard for it.
"Princess Celestia, how are we ever going to fix this, it's a disaster!" Twilight moaned.
Princess thought for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, getting ready to say the one phrase she had never said before. "I have no idea how to fix this!"
Suddenly, a scream was heard from out the boutique window, then several more, then loud crackling. Both ponies leaped to their feet and raced to the window, shocked at what they saw next. Sugar Cube Corner was burning to the ground. Rarity stared in horror, and Fluttershy shrieked.
"Fluttershy! What if the Cakes were in there!? What about the twins?!" she rushed. Fluttershy began to sob as the sound of fire engines came through the window, it was extremely loud. Fluttershy sobbing, sirens roaring, ponies screaming, fire crackling, but what had caused the fire?
"Was that you, Scootaloo?" asked Diabola.
Scootaloo didn't answer, she couldn't, she was with the crusaders at the moment, watching the flames. Sweetie Belle was sobbing, Applebloom was pacing the floor of the clubhouse, but Scootaloo just stared on, then, when nobody else was watching, she nodded.
Suddenly, the sound of liquid on the clubhouse floor echoed into everybody's ears, then Applebloom went deathly pale.
"I...um...I...I..." she stammered, the broke down in tears and Scootaloo gawked at what Applebloom had just done. She had peed on the floor! Sweetie Belle's face turned bright red as she uttered some words. "Mop's in the corner." she choked out, turning back to the flames. Applebloom grabbed the mop and sobbed as she mopped up her puddle.
Sweetie Belle exhaled strongly, forgetting her powers for a second. She gasped and quickly swallowed the fire again.
Rainbow Dash moaned with displeasure as she looked for some other way to spend her time on the stupid ground. Suddenly, smoke reached her nostrils and she gasped, racing faster down the street to see where it was coming from. Sugar Cube Corner was almost completely gone. The Cakes stood watching, devastated as their lives were completely ruined, spark by spark.
"Mrs. Cake! Where's Pinkie Pie?! Is she alright?!" Rainbow screamed over the noise. Mr. Cake shook his head with tears in his eyes as he extended a hoof towards the ambulance. Dash screamed and raced towards it at full speed, only to find Pinkie Pie laying on a stretcher, completely black, and with extremely serious burns all over her body.
"Hello?" Pinkie called into the darkness. "Who's there?". She began to walk forward, not hearing a single sound, not even the sound of her hooves on the nothingness below. Eventually, she walked into a hospital, where she immediately became invisible. Her mother was laying on a hospital bed, looking worried. Pinkie looked to her left, only to see her newborn self being washed off by the doctors.
"Mrs. Pie, she has a horn." informed the doctor that had just cleaned her. Mrs. Pie instantly broke down in tears. "Is there any way you could...you know...remove it?" she sniffled. The doctor's expression turned grim as she nodded, and carried Pinkie to the surgery room.
Then, the scene faded back to nothingness. Pinkie Pie stood there, more angry that she had ever been in her life. She WAS born a unicorn, she was!
"Pinkie Pie! Wake up, oh PLEASE wake up!" echoed a raspy voice.
Pinkie Pie's eyes snapped open and she tried to move, but couldn't.
"They have you on this pill that temporarily paralyzes you, to stop you from freaking out when you wake up. You can't talk, so you can't really communicate ye - " Rainbow was cut off by the sound of magic. Pinkie Pie had spotted a fridge in the corner with little magnet letters on it. She had spelled out, "I know something."
Rainbow Dash gasped. "What do you know?" she asked desperately.
"I was born a unicorn."
"Talk to me Scootaloo, do you like what you did?"
Scootaloo stayed silent, she didn't want her friends to know about the voice.
"Answer me."
...
"ANSWER ME SCOOTALOO!"
...
"SCOOTALOO!"
That one scream of her name made her shiver, the word echoed through her, creating endless noise that didn't stop. She couldn't hear anything else over the screaming of her name, and finally, she screamed back.
"YES! I DID! I LOVED IT!" she screamed.
The other crusaders stared at her, shocked. She blushed, and finally decided to explain.
"Look, we've all developed some new problem in our lives now, Sweetie Belle breathes fire, Applebloom is...incontinent...and I hear voices...Her name is Diabo, and she speaks to me, she tells me stories, and she helped me learn something amazing..." Scootaloo sighed, and the other crusaders gasped and pointed to her flank. It was glowing.
Scootaloo stared in amazement as a flame appeared on her flank, and the other crusaders turned pale.
"You didn't....you wouldn't have....burned down Sugar Cube Corner...?" Sweetie Belle asked in a shaky voice.
Scootaloo swallowed hard.