//------------------------------// // Smoke // Story: Hoof Covers Bruise // by Arwhale //------------------------------// If there was a time where she’d felt more angry than she did right now, Rainbow Dash couldn’t remember. The conversation had lasted for quite a long while; they'd told her the whole story from start to finish. And after she'd promised not to do anything rash and to keep this a secret for the time being, Cheerilee had been more than willing to give her Scootaloo's address. But now that the anger had a chance to stew, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep her promise. The roaring of air in her ears was something she was familiar with. But this time, the sensation was not accompanied with the usual joyful thrill that came with a daring stunt. It was a high stakes race, one where the finish line was still far out of sight. Out of sight, that is, until she saw the steadily growing column of blackish gray smoke billowing in the distance. Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open, letting cool air cascade down her throat. As the Captain of the Ponyville Weather Team, Rainbow Dash had many responsibilities. Naturally, one of those was firefighting. And smoke like that could only mean one thing: something big was burning, and it wasn't a campfire. “Oh no... what in the…” Her wings flapped with newfound gusto, forcing herself to switch priorities "Not good, not good..." Even from her low altitude, it was obvious that the smoke could be seen from all around town. Rainbow Dash stretched her forelegs out in front to cut through the air, crossing over a row of tall houses along South Main Road. A breeze blew the smoke her way, bringing with it the smell of burning wood and plaster. She was almost... There. At a house just off of South Main Road, at the tip of a cul-de-sac. It was fully ablaze. "No..." Scootaloo's house, her address. It fit every description they'd given her. It had to be. "Oh my gosh..." It couldn't be. "Squirt!" ... While Cheerilee may not have had magic at her disposal, her long-held position as schoolteacher had made her good with a quill nonetheless. With practiced precision and speed, she clenched the feather between her teeth and penned the message while Twilight watched anxiously from a distance. "Almost done!" Cheerilee dipped the quill into an inkwell beside her and wrote the last few words onto the paper before setting the quill aside. She scooted the chair back "That's it. Now all I have to do is send it in. Should only take a couple of days for them to get it." Twilight nodded slowly. "Yes... Or, if you would like me to help speed up the process..." Cheerilee pulled an envelope out of her desk drawer, but hesitated at Twilight's insinuation. "Wait, do you mean... Spike? You think Princess Celestia would be alright with forwarding the letter?" "Of course!" Twilight affirmed. "Why wouldn't she be?" Cheerilee shrugged. She played with the envelope flap idly. "Oh, I don't know... Are you sure? " "Positive." Twilight stepped around the desk to take a quick peek at the letter. "I know it would be faster to deliver it that way than to do it with the regular mail service, and we want to make sure that Scootaloo's taken out of there as fast as possible. If there is something going on, that is..." Cheerilee closed her eyes for a moment in thought, and then nodded in agreement. The ink now dry, she folded the letter and placed it into the envelope before licking it closed. "If... oh, Twilight," she said, slapping the letter onto the hardwood, "I just have a really bad feeling about this. About everything..." Twilight draped her wing around Cheerilee's shoulders and surrounded the letter in a violet aura, "I know. But it's alright. Scootaloo's going to be okay. Once we get this letter to Foal Protective Services, they'll be able to find out what's really going on here. They're very quick in dealing with these sorts of things, I can assure you." She curled her feathers around the other mare's body in a comforting gesture and walked her toward the door. "I'll go and get Spike to send the letter, along with a personal instruction note asking Celestia to forward it to FPS, and it'll all be taken care of lickety sp--" Unexpectedly, the air of confidence in her speech faded away so that the last words she uttered came out as nothing more than a mumble. She smacked herself in the forehead. "What's the matter?" asked Cheerilee. Twilight sighed. "Unless Spike is back at the library, I have no idea where he is at the moment." She groaned. "Why he decided to 'take a break' after we'd only just begun working is beyond me." They stepped out into the schoolyard together. Cheerilee was about to make a reply when she froze. Twilight continued to walk forward a few paces until she noticed that her wing was sliding off of the other mare's back. She turned around. "What's wrong?" "Um..." Cheerilee stared distantly off to her left. She pointed with her hoof. "There..." Without any hesitation, Twilight turned to look where Cheerilee was indicating. She inhaled sharply through her nose. A blackish gray cloud of smoke billowed far into the sky like a plume of volcanic ash. It appeared to be coming from someplace in the city, and whatever was burning... it was big. "Uh-oh... that can't be good." ... Fear's cold claws dug into Rainbow's gut, bringing up bile which attacked the lining of her throat. She saw the glints of orange flame showing themselves from out of the rising smoke and through the cracked glass of the windows, and already a sizable, panicked crowd of ponies had gathered along the fringes of the house. Above it, she could see that some pegasi had already sprung into action, carrying over rainclouds to put out the blaze. Adrenaline coursing through her blood, she targeted one of them and raced over. "Is anypony inside?" She yelled to the black pegasus stallion carrying the cloud, barreling into it and digging her hooves into the damp fluff. "Please tell me nopony's inside!" The suddenness of her entry took him aback for a moment, but he didn't stay startled for long. With her help, he brought the heavy raincloud overtop of the house, turning his face away from the thick cloud of smoke rising up from it. "I dunno, I just got here! And nopony could get inside, the fire's too big!" Rainbow Dash bared her teeth, leaping up on top of the raincloud and bringing all four hooves smashing down on top of it, forcing the water out of it like she were squeezing a sopping wet sponge. She jumped up and rammed it again and again in a panic-induced frenzy. "Go get another one, quick! Go, go, go!" She slammed her hooves down with every syllable. The other pegasus didn't hesitate and flew away to do what he was told. She pounded every last drop of water out of the cloud until it had gone white, and then she busted it with a hard kick of her hind legs, evaporating it into thin air. No time was wasted; she zoomed off and returned back with another, and by that time several other pegasi had joined her in a collective effort to put out the blaze. One of the pegasi, whom she recognized as a part of the weather team, caught her eye. "Flitter! Where's the team?" Her voice carried over the fire's steady roar. Flitter positioned her cloud overtop a hole in the roof which was spouting tongues of orange and yellow flame. "They're coming! Cloudchaser's rounding 'em up!" She joined Rainbow Dash in jumping on top of her own cloud, forcing all of the water to stream into a gaping hole in the roof. "And is anypony still inside?" Rainbow's voice cracked with urgency. "There's nopony still in there, right?" The cloud below Flitter turned from gray to white. "We don't know! Sassaflash tried to go in, but the fire was too big!" Rainbow Dash bit her cheek so hard that she tasted metal. If somepony, if Scootaloo was still in there... "Did you see a filly come out? She's dark orange, purple mane, tiny wings? Did you?" The words came out so fast she sounded like an auctioneer. With Rainbow's description, Flitter's eyes widened with recognition. "Dark orange... Yeah, yeah, Thunderlane and Blossomforth found a filly like that laying outside the house when they came," she called back, wringing the last bit of water out of the cloud before busting it with a hefty kick. "She was with that dragon that's always at the library... and they took them outta here on a stretcher. I think they were hurt pretty bad!" She flew away to retrieve another cloud. Rainbow's heart did a somersault in tandem with her stomach. Relief, dread, and confusion all blended together into one; Scootaloo made it out. On a stretcher. With... Spike? When the cloud had turned white, Rainbow bucked it and went for another. And still, not too far below, the fire raged on. ... Dull, rhythmic thuds turned into hollow, echoing clops as Twilight and Cheerilee transitioned from dirt to cobblestone roads. They were very close... "It's not far away," Cheerilee observed. She looked for where the color of the smoke was darkest and continued down the street while several other ponies headed in the same direction. Twilight flexed her wings. "I'm going to see if I can get a better look!" she called back, taking to the air. She angled her torso to the right and aimed her sights downward, flying a wide circle around the growing cloud of smoke while Cheerilee cantered below. She was unused to running long distances, but Cheerilee pressed on. She hissed with discomfort through clenched teeth as a cramp knotted up in her side, but she kept her eyes fixed on the terrible prize, so close that she could smell the smoke drifting between the lines of houses. Up ahead, the road branched off into a three-way intersection. Two ponies galloped around the corner and disappeared from view, and they were soon followed by another. And then another. Cheerilee squinted, looking back and forth between the smoke and the road. The intersection branched off toward the right, toward the smoke. It was only when she saw this that she came to the realization. Details of Scootaloo's address were still fresh in her mind from the letter she'd only just written. Unease that was already residing in the pit of her stomach seemed to turn to heavy bricks. Could it be...? "Cheerilee!" Twilight came back to earth, landing in front of her on the road. Startled, Cheerilee dig her hooves into the cobblestone and came to a grinding halt. Only a moment of eye contact passed between them. But it was all the time it took for the horror and pain in Twilight's gaze to confirm Cheerilee's worst suspicions. "Ohmigosh... I think... it's Scootaloo," she panted, wincing at even the mention of the filly's name. "I think it's her house." ... A sizable group of pegasi had formed to combat the blaze, and Rainbow Dash was at its helm. "Get that one in there!" she barked to one of the team members who was toting a fresh raincloud. "Mash 'em!" One of the groups, which consisted of at least ten pegasi, all rushed to do what they were told. They compressed a collection of several rainclouds into one another until they became squished together like a mass of wet cotton balls. Rainbow Dash planted her forehooves firmly on top of the dripping mass and flapped her wings, pushing the cloud downward toward the smoke. "Get the whole thing lower! Closer to the house!" she shouted. The situation's high stakes coupled with her commanding tone inspired their cooperation right away, and they all followed her example until they had to turn their faces away from the smoke that cascaded upward. The rumble of the blaze forced Rainbow Dash to raise her voice to new heights. "Ram it!" Every pegasi charged shoulder-first into the cloud from all sides. The force caused all of the water to come shooting straight down like a waterfall and cascade through a large hole in the roof. They pressed in at every angle until it had gone from gray to white. "Get more! Go, go, go!" she urged. They all scurried away while she put together another team while several other pegasi Below them, the entire cul-de-sac had completely filled up with ponies from all over town, crowded together to the point where the pavement was no longer visible. But Rainbow Dash paid no attention to the audience that had formed; she only noticed that the flame's height had diminished, and that clear traces of milky white and light gray were beginning to show in the smoke. "The fire's getting weaker! Quick, bring that one over here!" She darted over to a trio of pegasi and snatched away an abnormally large cloud they had been carrying. She dragged it lower until she could feel the heat of the flames radiating onto her cyan coat and forced the water out of it. Some of it evaporated and turned to steam, but most of it flooded over the roof tiles and inside the building. When she looked up, she noticed that a great number of pegasi had followed her down with more clouds of their own, keeping up their relentless assault against the flames. "We got it now! Don't stop!" she shouted encouragement to the rest of the team, casting her cloud aside and flying off to survey the house while the others worked at a frenzied pace. Tongues of flame were no longer spitting out of the windows and roof, and thanks to their efforts, the fire was now completely contained inside the house. All they had to do was douse what was left inside... "We've got this! Bring 'em down closer!" she ordered. The fire's diminishing strength allowed her raspy voice to carry over longer distances, and every pegasi within earshot immediately complied with her command. The canopy of clouds lowered. So did the flames. Rainbow Dash joined in once more, aiming water where the fire was still the biggest. There were dozens of pegasi working alongside her now; some were from the weather team, but many others were not. In fact, it seemed like almost every pegasus in Ponyville was joining in the firefighting efforts. "Keep at it! We've got this in the bag!" ... It was very fortunate that the crowd was as large and as dense as it was. Otherwise, Miss Cheerilee may very well have tried to run straight into the burning building herself. Twilight kept at the other mare's tail, not letting her out of her sight. Cheerilee's eyes were practically popping out of her skull, and she drew in ragged breaths as she pushed, nudged, and shoved her way through the amassed crowd. Each individual flame she could see seemed to do a merry dance, reveling in their destruction of her student's home. "No, oh my gosh, please no..." Cheerilee begged in a low whisper to no one in particular. Every pony around her seemed to be in shock, horrified but still unable to look away. She bumped them off to the side and crawled her way through the crowd, scanning from side to side in search of Scootaloo. Twilight muttered hasty apologies as she bumped into several ponies, trying to keep up with Cheerilee. It was a difficult task; the schoolteacher was hell-bent on making it all the way up to the front. Twilight prepared herself to grab hold of Cheerilee with her magic, just in case... A rainbow streak in Twilight's peripheral vision caught her attention. She immediately directed her gaze above, to notice a considerable group of pegasi combating the blaze with a wide array of rainclouds held aloft. And sure enough, even from this far away, she could hear none other than the raspy voice of Rainbow Dash giving directions to the rest. "Right to left! Drown it!" she heard her friend cry. She watched as several pegasi formed a line of clouds and panned over the house from one end to the other, dragging a wall of water over the defiant flames. They were followed by a second group, and then a third. Their efforts brought the fire's roar down to a low rumble, eliciting cheers from the sea of ponies on the cul-de-sac. By the time Twilight looked back down, Cheerilee was nearly lost amid the bustling crowd. Twilight craned her neck, trying to keep Cheerilee in her sights. She jostled a stallion aside, ears flattening back on her head apologetically, and went in pursuit, moving as fast as she could through the sea of ponies, muttering half-sincere apologies to every pony she bumped past. "Cheerilee!" She called out, attempting to raise her voice over the loud chatter of the crowd. She thought she saw a glimpse of the other mare's pale gray tail up ahead, which sent her in the right direction. "Cheeri--" Without warning, she slipped past two more ponies and almost fell flat on her face. She stumbled forward, but found her balance at the last second, leaning back and using her wings to keep herself upright. When she looked around, her brow furrowed down with confusion; there was nopony else around her. That was when she realized that she'd made it to the front of the crowd. She whirled around, catching the perplexed stares of several ponies from the front row. She paid them no mind. "Cheerilee! Where did y--" she cut herself short when she saw Cheerilee emerge right after her. The other mare did not even appear to see her, looking up at the dwindling blaze with panic and fear clear in her face. "Where is Scootaloo? Did you see her?" Cheerilee bolted over to Twilight. "Did she get out? Do you know?" "I don't know! I don't see her anywhere!" Twilight answered. Oddly, her grim reply was met with another chorus of loud cheers from the audience. They both whipped around to look at the house. It was astounding; the house had gone from an inferno to little more than a smoldering ruin by the time they'd made it down the road. Visible through the shattered windows were glimmers of yellow and orange from where parts of the fire still remained inside, but the pillar of black smoke that had been visible from miles away was now reduced to less than a third of its former size. All it took were a few more sweeps of water, and at last the bright flickering was no more. Both Cheerilee and Twilight felt a surge of relief. "Are they going to go inside? Does it look like everypony made it out okay?" Cheerilee interrogated. Exasperated, Twilight shook her head. "I already told you, I don't know! We'll have to wait and see... hold on, there they go," she pointed to a group of four pegasi that were diving into the house. She almost found herself smiling, when she suddenly realized just how bad of a sign that was; there could still be somepony inside. "Twilight! Cheerilee!"" Twilight was jerked away from her train of thought by the familiar sound of her friend's voice. Rainbow Dash's hooves crashed into the asphalt pavement. Startled, Cheerilee brought her hoof up to her heart while Twilight gave a slight whoop of surprise, flaring her wings out. "Guys, oh my gosh, guys! I tried to put it out as fast as I could!" Rainbow Dash danced on the tips of her hooves, trotting in place. "I saw a bunch of smoke, but I came in late and the fire was already really big and I figured out this was Scoot's house and..." The words were flowing out so fast that they all sounded strung together. Twilight held up her hoof before Rainbow Dash could get any further. "Stop! Slow down a minute. Is Scootaloo okay?" she asked calmly. "Did ev--" "Did everypony make it out?" Cheerilee asked the question for her. Rainbow Dash shrank back, nodding her head once. The adrenaline still flowing in her veins caused her to shiver. "Scootaloo... yeah, she made it out, but..." Rainbow Dash grimaced, looking like she'd just been stabbed in the gut. She rubbed her right foreleg with her left, looking away from them. "...but it's not all good." Cheerilee's face lifted and fell in the span of one sentence. She wasted no time to ask for clarification, rattling off questions one after the other. "What do you mean? Did she get hurt? Is she alright? Please tell me she's okay!" Rainbow Dash wilted under every new question she was faced with. She took a deep breath, calming her nerves as well as she was able, and answered. "Scoots... I didn't see her 'cause I came in late, but... she got taken to the hospital." She turned to Twilight and took another deep breath. "I don't know how she's doing, but... Twilight," she made direct eye contact with her, "Spike was with her, a-and... and he got taken to the hospital, too." The only sound they could hear was the murmuring of the crowd. Twilight had to let the news sink into her brain for a moment, going slack-jawed with confusion. Cheerilee sat back on the asphalt, eyes welling up. "Spike? Wait, you said Spike was with her? He got hurt, too?" Images of Spike running in to save Scootaloo from the burning building entered Twilight's head. "They're both at the hospital?" Rainbow Dash nodded again. She bit her top lip. "Y-yeah, they are. Flitter said she saw them go..." One of the four pegasi who had went in to inspect the house came back out. She coughed and hacked a couple of times before making her way over to Rainbow Dash. The look of pain and disgust on her face was plain as day, and at seeing her, the formerly bustling crowd fell totally silent. "Dash..." She looked nauseous. "...We're going to need a stretcher--and a sheet." ... Somewhere in the recesses of his unconscious mind, he had the faint awareness of something vibrating beneath him. Attempts to hone his senses to investigate were only met with a swimming sensation that concentrated itself in his inner ears, and before his semi-conscious mind could attempt to inquire further, the waters pulled him back under, and he was lost to sight and to mind. Much time, or perhaps not much at all, passed before his senses became awakened to anything else. But when the ocean's cold waters at last brought him to shore and the tides rolled back, its soothing, numbing properties receded with the retreat of the waves. And in its place; a throbbing, searing ache. "Unh..." Spike awoke.