//------------------------------// // Pyrokinesis // Story: Wings of Friendship // by DemonBrightSpirit //------------------------------// Deep within the foreboding and dangerous Everfree Forest, three ponies trekked through the thick foliage. A saddlebag-toting Pinkie Pie led Twilight and Fluttershy into a familiar part of the treacherous forest. Rattling around in her saddlebags were the two molds of Rainbow Dash's wing. "Oh, do you really think this will work?" Fluttershy meekly asked as a bit of rustling caused her to cower against Twilight. "It's a fascinating idea Pinkie Pie came up with," Twilight replied. "It's at the very least worth trying." "It'll definitely work!" Pinkie asserted. "We need to get the mirror image of these," she claimed as she wiggled her hips, causing the fired clay molds to shake in the oversized saddlebags. "Of course the only way to make a mirror image of somepony is the magic mirror pond! It should work for these, too!" "O-okay," Fluttershy mumbled. Twilight giggled a bit at how frightened Fluttershy seemed to be. "Why are you so nervous?" she jovially asked in an attempt to assuage whatever fear was plaguing the shy pony. "Don't you come here often for your animal friends?" "Well, yes," the yellow mare meekly replied. "But something is wrong. Very wrong. I don't hear any birds singing, and we have yet to see a single snuggly squirrel or cute, little bunny or anything else." Hesitating at what amounted to genuine warning signs, Twilight looked around for some reassurance. She found it in a nearby, flitting insect. "I'm sure it's just kind of coincidence," she assured as the bug glowed a soft, red hue. "See? This firefly isn't at all worried." Initially pointing to it, she held her hoof out in hopes of coaxing the cute bug into landing on it. Again its abdomen flashed as it drew near to Twilight's outstretched leg. Pinkie breathed in an exaggerated gasp as she saw the red flash. "Don't touch it!" she warned as she tackled Twilight to the ground just before the insect had a chance to contact Twilight's hoof. The two halves of the mold went flying in the air, but Fluttershy managed to catch them. "Ugh, Pinkie!" Twilight groaned as she shoved the pink pony off of herself. "What was that for!?" "I don't think that was a firefly! It looked like a pyrefly!" she explained. "You never-ever-ever-ever touch a pyrefly!" "Why not?" Twilight earnestly inquired as Fluttershy dumped the molds back into Pinkie's saddlebags. Just then, the cute, little bug landed on the very tip of a leaf on an outstretched branch of an enormous tree. FWOOSH! A sudden, searing wind blew back the trio's manes, nearly knocking them off of their hooves as a yellow-orange light illuminated their faces. After just a second or two all that was left of the tree was a pile of glowing cinders. The adorable, little bug snuggled down into the ashes as it made a cute cooing sound, causing Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle to recoil in horror. "That's why!" Pinkie smiled as she pointed at the adorable little bug that just incinerated an entire tree in the blink of an eye. WOOSH! FWOOSH! Turning back the way they came, several pillars of fire marked a horrifying backdrop to dozens—no, hundreds—of blinking red lights. Through the trees and bramble even more red lights winked at them. As a grey smoke wafted over the trio, Twilight began to panic. "We're surrounded!" she stated the obvious as she stepped back until her flank met Pinkie's and Fluttershy's. Fluttershy may well have been screaming in horror, but the pegasus' normally quiet voice would have been entirely drowned out by the growing din caused by the roaring flames. "Hey! Over there!" Pinkie pointed a hoof at half a boulder sticking out of the ground. Following Pinkie's cue, Twilight used her magic to lift the rock—or at least she tried. The heavy rock seemed to be wedged into the ground. Redoubling her efforts, the rock budged slightly before rising out of the ground and tumbling away from the entrance. "Go! Go! Go!" Following Twilight's instruction, Fluttershy fled into the hole and Pinkie playfully jumped in after her. Twilight kept the boulder in her aura as she dove in. As she tumbled haphazardly into the tunnel she could barely muster the concentration to drag the boulder over the entrance. It sealed them in and the adorably terrifying pyreflies out. As Twilight tumbled out of the winding tunnel, she landed flat on her face. Sitting up and shaking her head, she scrambled to find her friends. "Everypony okay?" she asked as she found Pinkie and Fluttershy waiting for her. "Is it safe?" Fluttershy worriedly asked. "I-I think so," Twilight said as she looked back to the tunnel. "I blocked the path with a rock. Will that stop them?" "Hmm?" Pinkie tilted her head a bit. "Why are you looking at me?" Pinkie's words prompted Twilight to put up a force field at the end of the tunnel. "You seem to be the only pony that knows what those things are, Pinkie," Twilight pointed out. "You don't know if they can liquefy that boulder or anything? Do you at least know how long they'll be up there?" Pinkie shook her head. "All I know is an old rhyme my Nana Pinkie used to say:" "Beware of the swarms of winking red, in the forest the pyreflies bring dread! A single touch brings a fiery pillar, to bring their nest made of glowing cinder." "Nest?" Twilight pondered. "Please tell me this isn't some sort of breeding season. Who knows how long they might be out there!?" "Um, I've lived near the Everfree Forest for years," Fluttershy spoke up. "I've never seen anything like that. It was sooo scary." Twilight sighed as she looked over to her barrier. There didn't seem to be any flitting fire-starters lurking on the other side. "We might be confined here for some time. Pinkie, why don't you attempt to clone those molds?" "Okie dokie lokie!" the pink pony smiled as she trotted over to the still waters. "And into her own reflection she stared, yearning for one whose reflection she shared. And solemnly sweared not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!" To Twilight's amazement, a Pinkie Pie clone rose from the water as Pinkie hoofed her doppelganger up onto the shore. Tantalizingly, the clone also sported saddlebags with molds. Not wasting any time, Twilight floated all four pieces in front of her. A cursory glance elicited a smile as she jumped about excitedly. "It worked! It worked!" "What worked? Ooooh! What're these!?" Pinkie eagerly joined in the excitement as she poked one of the molds. "Did you make them with your magic?" She suddenly gasped as she took one of Twilight's wing in her hoof. "You're an alicorn! Does that mean you're a princess!?" Twilight sighed as she put the molds aside. "I can't help but to suspect that you aren't the original," she said as she grabbed her saddlebag and removed it. She didn't think to bring an extra saddlebag to carry back the cloned mold. "Sorry, but one Pinkie Pie is more than enough for all of Ponyville." Summoning her magic, she dispelled the doppelganger and banished it back into the pond. Sighing, she lied down as she sent a magenta orb of magic to reapply the barrier spell. "You two may want to consider getting comfortable. It's far too dangerous to try and venture out with those fire bugs swarming about." Pinkie giggled as she rejoined the duo. "Hey, that rhymed!" she noted in a sing-song manner. "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! If we're gonna be stuck here for a while you know what would be super-duper fun!? We should try to come up with new songs!" "No!" Twilight quickly denied, not having any appetite for Pinkie Pie's antics. Seeing the immediate disappointment in Pinkie's face, she struggled to come up with a reason that wouldn't hurt the party pony's feelings. "It, um… Oh! These pyreflies, or whatever they are, might be like parasprites! We can't risk attracting them with music, can we?" "Hnng, I guess not," Pinkie grumbled as she flopped down on her rear. "Twilight, do you really think this will work?" Fluttershy asked as she studied the fired clay. "You mean my spell for Rainbow Dash's wing?" Twilight clarified the abstract question. A lack of a correction from Fluttershy told Twilight that she had guessed correctly. "Well, I certainly hope so. It's, admittedly, not going very well so far, but hopefully this mold will help solve one of the big problems." Fluttershy let out a tiny sigh before turning to the alicorn. "Um… If your spell doesn't work… I mean…" she stopped and looked down as she reorganized her thoughts. "The problem with your spell is turning a fake wing into a real one, right?" Twilight nodded a bit as she stared questioningly at Fluttershy. "That's…probably the most formidable obstacle, yes." "W-well what if you started with-with a real wing? Fluttershy asked as she peeked at Twilight through her mane. "Would…my wing work?" she offered as she held up her right wing. "Wh-what!?" Twilight balked. "Fluttershy, nopony could ask you to do that!" "They don't need to," the yellow pegasus denied. "I volunteer. I-I mean, I like my wings, but being high up scares me. I don't…need them to be happy. Not like Rainbow Dash" Twilight stood up before walking over to Fluttershy and wrapping a leg around her. "I know how you feel," she sympathized. "I thought about using my own, but these things are a far cry from pegasus wings," the alicorn extended a wing for emphasis. "But…do you really think Rainbow Dash would be happy with a wing if it meant taking one away from one of her friends?" Fluttershy whimpered a bit as she lowered her head. That's when an idea struck her. "Wh-what if it came from a horrible pony?" she asked as she successfully hid her expression from Twilight and Pinkie under her pink veil. "A mean brute that doesn't deserve her wings?" "F-Fluttershy, I, um… I don't think that this is a very healthy train of thought. Let's just focus on getting Rainbow Dash a new wing without taking it from somepony else," Twilight suggested. Fluttershy just fell into silence. Tink! Tink! Tink! At first the sound didn't register with anypony, but as it got more fervent Twilight looked up to see several pyreflies crashing into her force field like so many flies trying to escape through a closed window. "They got through!" Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink! Buzzing around haphazardly, the pyreflies occasionally landed on the sides of the tunnel. Their touch would cause a mini-geyser of molten material to shoot out. They sometimes investigated the searing remains, but the lack of cinders caused them to make an annoyed sound before trying to get through the shield again. "They can't get through your barrier, can they?" Fluttershy fretted. Twilight shook her head, "I don't think so, but there's another problem. Look: they're vaporizing the tunnel walls! If this keeps up it will collapse!" "Yay!" Pinkie jumped up excitedly. "That'll bury the pyreflies alive! All our problems will fix themselves!" "Pinkie, that tunnel is our only way out. If it collapses, we'll be buried alive!" Twilight admonished. "Ohhh," Pinkie voiced her understanding. Before Twilight could reply, a deep rumbling preceded a violent shaking. Debris fell from the ceiling as Pinkie and Twilight struggled to stay standing. Fluttershy was already lying down and covering her head with her hooves as she cowered and whimpered. Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. "Everypony okay?" Twilight asked as she checked herself over. "A-okay!" Pinkie Pie asserted. Fluttershy kept her head covered as she nodded, "I-I-I think so. Wh-what was that?" "Destabilization of the structure, likely due to the…pyreflies…" Twilight trailed off as she turned to observe the destructive insects. Her barrier was still there, but behind it was a solid wall! The tunnel had collapsed! "We're trapped!" "No we're not!" Pinkie claimed as she pointed up to the source of the light shining down. "That has to be a way out, right?" Twilight nodded as she felt like an idiot. Worse still it was Pinkie that made her feel so stupid. "Okay, we just…need to get up there," the studious pony looked over to the still-cowering pegasus. "Fluttershy, can you fly up there and see if there is a way out?" Fluttershy whimpered as she slowly got up onto shaky legs. "B-but what if…those are up there?" she hesitated. Twilight pondered the implication a moment before responding, "Well, then there's nothing stopping them from getting in. If you see a way out you can go fly for help or at least tell me that they're out there so I can put a force field up there." "O-o-okay," Fluttershy agreed as she took flight. She slowly rose towards the center of the room towards the soft blue light. She entered the small opening and less than two seconds later she stuck her head back into the main chamber. "It's a dead end!" "What do you mean a dead end?" Twilight shouted up at Fluttershy. "That light has to be coming from somewhere!" "Well, it is… There's a big, glowing crystal up here. It's beautiful!" Twilight sighed as she hung her head. "Well, all right, you can come back down… We'll just…have to find another way out." "But, how?" Fluttershy asked as she landed next to the alicorn. "I'm not sure, give me a moment to think," she muttered as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. Just then, another rumbling nearly caused the trio to fall over again. "Wh-a-a-a-t's go-o-o-o-i-i-i-ng o-o-o-o-n?" Pinkie asked as her voice vibrated along with the ground. "The tunnel collapse may have disrupted the stability of the entire cavern!" Twilight warned as the shaking started to subside. "What?" "The whole cavern might come crashing down on us!" Twilight reiterated. A loud crack heralded part of the ceiling caving in. A huge mass above the pond fell, sending an enormous, glowing crystal crashing into the mirror pond. Once the dust and debris settled, the crystal slowly sunk beneath the surface. The light emanating throughout the cavern evanesced until all that remained was inky blackness.