The rotten old plantation mansion blazed with roaring, devouring flames that consumed the old, dry wood with astonishing speed. As Sunset neared the front door, a part of the roof collapsed. She felt her heart leaping up into her throat and thudding just below the base of her tongue. As she pushed the door open, Sunset Shimmer ignited, her pyromantic nature springing forth as a natural defense.
The front entry was almost consumed in flames and smoke, making it very difficult to see. Sunset formed a protective bubble around herself, not to protect her from the intense heat and flames, but from the thick, choking smoke.
She stood, just inside of the door, focusing her magic, trying to get a feel for where the occupants of the house had gone, hoping to rescue them. She felt them below her, down in the cellar. Sunset could not figure out why they would set the house ablaze and bring it down upon their own heads.
With a burst of magic, Sunset Shimmer winked away, making a blind teleport down into the basement of the plantation mansion, hoping to save the occupants from their planned end.
Letting out a snarl of frustration, Sunset Shimmer raised a spell shield. She had not expected to be attacked. The spells of the unicorns weren’t particularly powerful, and Sunset Shimmer was able to block them with little to no effort on her part, but it was annoying.
“Our world has come to an end… let us face our end with dignity!” Blackwater shouted as he unleashed a telekinetic attack that fizzled against Sunset’s shields.
“It doesn’t need to be the end!” Sunset, almost panicked, looked around, trying to get a feel for the situation. Over a dozen ponies, adults, and three younger ponies, foals. One appeared to be a filly on the cusp of her teenage years, a younger filly, and the one eyed colt, Darkwater. The oldest filly was trying to shelter the other two, and she looked afraid. She was not attacking.
Sunset had to make a decision, and fast. There was no way she could subdue all of these ponies and save them. She could only teleport so much mass with her as she winked through the aether. The adults were actually making the flames burn hotter, hastening their end.
Knowing that she had to do something, Sunset Shimmer made a heartbreaking choice. Reaching out with her mind, she placed a shield around the oldest filly and and the two smaller, younger foals. She heard Blackwater shriek something, but she couldn’t make out his words over the roar of the fire, the crackling of the wood, and the creaking of the whole mansion as it strained to keep standing above them.
She felt the others also grabbing the filly and the two younger foals, trying to hold on to them, trying to keep them so they could all face the flames together. Sunset Shimmer let go of a powerful telekinetic pulse, a flat pulse that radiated outwards, not upwards. The force of the blow sent the adults flying. Knowing this was her only opportunity, Sunset Shimmer focused as much magic as she could and then teleported, dragging the considerable mass of three ponies with her through the aether. Just as she began to disincorporate, she heard a scream, a fierce screech of rage that was audible above the sounds of the raging fire consuming the plantation mansion.
Popping back into existence, Sunset, who had strained herself, tumbled down into the mud, her skull threatening to split open and spill her brains out onto the soft, sodden earth. She gagged, tasting smoke and bile.
With a thunderous roar, the mansion collapsed in upon itself, sending a pillar of flame and sparks into the sky. A wave of heat washed over Sunset as she tried to lift her head. She felt magic wrapping around her, shielding her, saving her from the force of the blast.
She coughed, still feeling as though she was going to be sick, and when she turned her head, she saw Mask looking after the three foals. Her stomach lurched and a powerful wave of nausea overtook her. It proved to be too much for her to deal with and a moment later, she vomited up the contents of her stomach. Almost choking, she snorted, trying to get chunks of vomit out of her nose, and then her stomach convulsed for a second time, spilling out another puddle of sick.
Lightheaded, Sunset Shimmer crawled away from her own mess, still gagging, still feeling as though she was going to be sick again. Her head was splitting and more than anything, she wanted to be someplace cool, quiet, and calm. She wanted to be someplace that she could lay down and recover.
But she was not in a place where she could do that. She rose up on her wobbling legs like a newborn foal, trembling, and she lifted her head. She snorted, trying to clear her nose, and her eyes stung from withheld tears and the acrid smoke filling the air.
Already, pegasi were flying overhead, watching as the mansion continued to burn and earth ponies were now cresting the hill, so they too could have a look at the terrific destruction. Sunset wobbled, her addled brain could only think of protecting Darkwater, the deformed one eyed foal, from the crowd. This was the most hated family in all of Granther’s Polder, but the foals were innocent. She heard Mask shouting something, but she could not make out the words.
Just as Sunset Shimmer shook her head, trying to clear it so that she could take control of the situation, everything around her turned to ice, a lovely cool breeze blew over her fevered, sweating skin, and with the cold, Sunset Shimmer knew that order would soon follow.
A reunion of sorts was taking place in the run down shack in the middle of the swamp. Bucky had just dropped them off and turned back into his pony form. Sunset Shimmer, still sick, her horn aching, stood on the mucky ground, and as awful as she felt, she was happy about what she was witnessing.
“Rill! Pond! Darkwater! I thought I’d never see you again!”
“Brook!”
“Pond, oh, how I’ve missed you! And Darkwater… no, stand still, you’ll fall into the muck, let me look at you!”
The sounds of somepony crying filled Sunset’s ears and her eyes glazed over with tears. The chaos of the past hour or so was proving to be too much. Sunset needed rest, she needed to recover. She needed food and something to drink.
“You’re fat.”
“I’m gonna be a mama!”
Almost swooning, Sunset felt somepony brush up against her, offering support. She blinked, turned her head, and saw Fever Cure. She felt herself being lifted in magic, the warm tingle felt good against her skin. She made no protests and allowed herself to be carried inside.
“Grandfather was mad… he was going to burn us.”
Sunset took a long drink of the water that had been conjured. It was cold, Bucky had chilled it and left ice cubes floating in it. There was nothing to eat, Brook had finished off the food while Sunset had been gone.
“I’m scared.”
“Hush, Darkwater, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll take care of you.”
“Okay, Rill.”
Head thudding, Sunset sat upon the decaying floorboards of the shack, glad to hear the voices of those she had saved, but also hurting with every word spoken. Each sound caused the headache to pound the inside of her skull.
“We’ll take care of each other,” Brook said as she rubbed her cheek against Pond. “Zoysia has been looking after me, I know he’ll look after all of you as well. He’s a good pony.”
This complicated things. Sunset Shimmer looked at the group, wondering what would be done. Now that she had rescued them, she worried that they might get pulled apart. Rill and Pond didn’t seem to have any problems with Zoysia, which was a relief. They had not yet learned to hate. Perhaps the seeds had been planted, but Rill and Pond seemed like kind, decent ponies, as of yet still uncorrupted by their family’s hatreds. As for Darkwater, the one eyed colt was blind and still very, very young.
There was no telling if the family would be able to stay together. She thought of Graham, Zoysia’s father, and wondered if he would help, he seemed kind enough. As she sat there, she watched the young filly, Pond, touch Brook’s rounded stomach.
“I want my mama—”
“Darkwater, hush, your mama is gone,” Rill said as she pulled the one eyed colt closer. “You just hush and be thankful that you’re alive. They were gonna burn us… you just hush and you stop crying.”
“But I want my mama…”
Even though she hated Blackwater and his family, Sunset hated everything they stood for and she loathed them for what they had done, she felt her heart breaking for the foals, who were innocent in all of this. Her head throbbed so hard that she saw white flashes in her vision. She saw Rill kissing Darkwater on top of his head, trying to comfort him. For Sunset, she took comfort in the filly consoling the deformed, one eyed colt.
“Tell me, what relation are you to one another?” Bucky asked.
The foals did not answer right away, but Brook, Rill, and Pond all stared at Bucky.
“Look, I’m not here to pass judgement. I just want to help you. You can tell me anything, anything at all. You are not to blame for anything that your parents might have done.” Bucky went silent for a moment, his ears drooping. “I had plenty of family problems myself, trust me.”
Turning and looking at the foals, Sunset’s blood ran cold. She understood what Bucky was getting at, and she realised that way out here in the swamp, there weren’t a whole lot of unicorns to pick from when it came to marriage. She felt sick again and her stomach began doing flip flops. She gagged and covered her muzzle with her fetlock.
“We’re not supposed to talk about this,” Brook said in a low voice, almost a whisper. “Blackwater said that outsiders wouldn’t understand. We have to keep it a secret.”
“They’re gone,” Bucky replied in a gentle, patient voice. “They can’t punish you.”
“I… we… I don’t think we should talk about it,” Brook said, almost stammering.
“Grandfather is gone… he can’t hurt us… he can’t hurt you.” Rill, looking at Brook, turned to look at Bucky. “Grandfather flew into a rage when Brook vanished. She was supposed to marry Uncle Rainwater.
“Rainwater is her cousin,” Pond said, correcting Rill.
“No, he’s her uncle.” Rill looked at Pond and blinked.
“He’s both, I heard it when I was eavesdropping.” Brook closed her eyes and a look of shame crept over her face. She shook her head, her mouth moving, but no words came out. She opened her eyes, which were now glassy with tears. “I didn’t want to be with Rainwater. He was mean and he had the shakes and he was not a nice pony.”
Coughing, Sunset Shimmer almost threw up. She had heard more than enough. She didn’t even want to think about what horrors lurked in the old mansion. She looked at Darkwater and wondered about the source of his deformities.
“We’ll need to sort this out later.” Bucky raised his talons, flexed them, and then looked around the room. “We need to figure out what to do next. I want to keep all of you together, but we need a better place to house you, we need to feed you, and look after your needs. I think poor Sunset needs some time to rest and recover. Mask, Fever Cure, I think it’s time we called in some help, what do you think?”
“I think that’s wise,” Fever Cure replied, his words a low whisper.
“We still need to find the cause of all of this suffering sickness. The swamp is full of strange, bad magic. This whole place festers like a boil. We’re in over our heads.” Mask reached up and rubbed his neck. “I think calling in a few friends would be wise.”
“Very well then, I shall make contact.”