"Damn!" Grey Shrine curses again, watching the small ponies down below rush out of the burning barracks and gather in a wide circle around, "Come!"
I don't have time to recover from my stupor as she puts a hoof on my neck, and teleports both of us into the growing crowd.
"Did anypony call the fire department?" Shrine yells. The guards aimlessly mill around, staring at their hooves and not answering, "Then don't just stand there, you morons!" some of the less singed and worn-looking ones wake up and rush off, "Good, the rest of you, form a bucket chain from," she looks around, despair obvious on her face when she realizes everything is too far to be effective, "uhh... the warehouse to here."
"My cat is still inside in a pet carrier," a guardsmare mumbles. The crushed stares of many paralyzed ponies tell me that many a guard had an animal companion in their room. The fire must have spread incredibly fast for them not to be able to get the pets out as well as themselves.
"A plushie my grandma gave me before she died while I was at the academy," a burly pegasus sniffles like a little foal.
"The fire came from the cellars, do you think he started it?" a quiet whisper comes from somewhere.
"STOP WHINING AND GO GRAB THE BUCKETS, THAT'S AN ORDER!" Grey Shrine roars, making everypony twitch at her magically enhanced voice, "Is anypony still inside, pets and toys not included?"
More shrugging and looking around.
Good. At least nopony is going to die due to my negligence. I still have too much to atone for, though. Broken memories, dead animals...
...all those mementos and little friends mean a ton to their owners. I caused this. I have no job anymore. I am of no worth to anpony now. Using simple logic, a thing of no value can be sacrificed for a chance at saving something greater. Plus, everything I own is in the boiler room which must now be a raging inferno of flames.
I'm not a courageous pony, I just can't live with the knowledge that I hurt this many ponies so much.
"GREYSCALE?!" Shrine screams when I bolt for the main entrance. Several guards look my way but not a single one moves to stop me. Good, no time to worry about me, they should focus on putting the fire out.
"Aaaaaah!" I jump through the burning door and roll on the stone floor to douse the fires in my coat. The long hall leading to the staircase up is fairly clear. 'Only' the doorframes, the rooms, the wooden ceiling, and the furniture in the hallway are bursting with flames. Come to think of it, that's a lot of ouch.
"Uh, ugh..." my mouth goes dry in an instant and my entire chest burns from the inside. Thick grey smoke makes me cry instantly. I shake my head. Staying here and choking to death doesn't sound like the best of ideas.
"Olrait, olrait," I croak, "Daun first."
The stone cellars are in a surprisingly good shape. Some ceilings in storage rooms must have burned through and set the ground floor on fire. Apparently, the stone floor up there isn't all just stone. Smoke bursts out of the boiler room when I open the door.
"AAAH!" I lick my burned underhoof. Touching anything made of metal is bad bad bad.
The furniture is charred, the furnace grate is open, and boiling steam is rushing from burst pipes leading out. Thank heavens for the stone floor! The steel cup is too hot and so is my shard of broken glass. Thankfully, the cloth bag of bits somehow survived under the wardrobe without catching on fire, although the gold coins burn me all the way back up.
Alright, now I have something small to chip in for the damages. It is a drop in the ocean since all this is my fault, but it's all I've got - twenty-two bits. My head spins as I trot up the stairs into the destroyed hallway. I can't stay here much longer. I must, though.
Part of the ceiling caved in while I was retrieving my things, singed beams slowing down my progress. The cracking and humming of flames blocks most of what I can hear, but I have to at least look for the cat. I owe it to the guards who were nice enough to me to let me stay here until my stupidity took the form of forgetfulness and caught up with me.
Room after room, I peek my head in, avoiding open fires. The ground floor yields nothing. Further up it is much much worse. The floor is full of holes, the ceiling is collapsing, and I can barely see through the veil of smoke.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!" I crawl under a fallen beam. My back burns like blazes.
Breathing in sparks bursting when the floor breaks down in front of me, I fall over, wheezing and coughing with my head dangling down the hole. I hear a creak of metal.
A deafening boom.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I roll to the side, narrowly avoiding a geyser of steam so hot it instantly boils the hair off my ear, "Ow ow ow ow ow," I whine as I crawl towards the safer-looking part of the floor.
A dead bird, burned inside its cage. A tank of goldfish, now basically a soup. Magazines, clothes, posters, pictures in frames, toys, everything turning to ash in front of my eyes.
A loud meow.
"Keetee!"
The little thing in a hot plastic box is somehow still alive among the burning wreckage. If cats have nine lives, this poor thing lost at least two today. I can't let it end badly for it. With the pet carrier in my mouth, I finish the first floor off and rush to the second. Since this one is in the best shape, the fruitless search takes much less time, although I can barely stand.
A shadow in the smoke. A unicorn shadow.
Was somepony stupid enough to try to save me? They can't risk themselves. I just clean stuff, and not even that anymore. They have a life, friends, and purpose.
"Get aut, ser or mem!" I cough.
The shadow comes closer, moving without any problems.
"Don't worry," it says pleasantly, "I will get out just fine. You should focus on yourself."
Who am I to argue with a unicorn?
"Deed yoo see eny aneemals around?" the shadow disappears, "Ser, ser?"
He must have recovered his things and teleported out already. Time for me to get going as well. The cat has stopped meowing, which means I can't dawdle anymore. I'll just have to think of a way to pay my dues to the other guards later.
The staircase leading down to the ground floor has collapsed, probably due to the boiler exploding underground. There's no way I can safely jump down into the mess of sharp wood and burning cinders. So, what now?
This is not a good idea.
I wrap a bed sheet around myself to fasten the pet carrier on my back and look out of the window for a clear place to land. A guard looks up at me and I point at the hump on my back.
"Ai -cough- Ai got d keettn."
Thankfully, the floors of the barracks are tiny compared to the castle floors and the three of the barracks are equal to about one and a half high white hallways. If I jump down on the grass I should survive.
My leap of faith is slowed down, and I see a bright glow of Grey Shrine's horn.
"WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, YOU MORON?"
"Ai... Ai got d keettn," I breathe out.
"What?" a guardsmare leaves the bucket line and starts poking my sheet in various places. She can't control her shaking hooves properly to untie the knots.
Grey Shrine's telekinesis rips the sheet open, revealing the pet carrier.
"Celestia's sunlight! My-" the mare stops.
No... please no... tell me I didn't mess even this up.
She starts crying.
"Celestia damn it!" Grey Shrine growls, and picks up the box with the limp furry body inside, and pulls the cat out. She nudges it in several places, and then her horn glows again. I breathe a whiff ozone and hear a crack of lightning.
The little thing starts wheezing and coughing.
"Just unconscious," the sargeant pushes the pet inside and closes the grate, "Give it some fresh air and it'll be fine. NOW STOP BAWLING AND GET BACK TO THE BUCKETS!"
"Umm..."
A loud creak and crash make everypony freeze. The whole ceiling of the barracks crumbles, taking most of the building with it.
I just lie there, taking in lungfuls of fresh air.
"If there was any justice in this world, then the idiot what started it would be buried there instead of my grandma's parting gift," I hear somepony spit on the ground.
"Aim soree," I croak, barely hearing myself.
If a guard says justice has not been served, then they must be right. They are trained to be right.
"Shut it!" Grey Shrine, barks his way, "We don't know what started the fire until the guys from forensics are done with it," she breathes a heavy sigh and turns away, "Keep going until the fire is out completely. Whoever can should stay in their friends' apartments in Canterlot or with their family for few nights. If you really have nothing, then report to my office and we will work something out. There should be a bunch of guest rooms in the castle empty."
"Ai deed eet," I whisper to myself.
Shrine leans down to me and helps me sit up.
"Ear completely burnt, minor other burns all over, a bleeding front leg," she raises an eyebrow, "You're in a shockingly good shape. Let me just administer minor anesthesia."
Her horn glows and I feel a little lighter.
"Tank yoo," I can even speak easier.
"Well, I don't know what to do with you, but it looks like we won't be needing a caretaker anymore. Rebuilding this will take months."
"Soree."
I can't tell her. She offered me so many things and she meant it. I can't make her feel stupid. I have to fix this somehow. After all, it almost was my job to fix things.
She lets me go, and I slink away through Canterlot. What whould I do?
"If there was any justice in this world, then the idiot what started it would be buried there."
"The fire came from the cellars, do you think he started it?"
"A plushie my grandma gave me before she died while I was at the academy."
Justice.
I can't fix the physical damage I caused, but I can ease the mental.
A dark alley by the side of Canterlot mountain shielded from wind and most rain greets me. There, next to a large dumpster with the metal sliding lid open to make an improvised roof, lie two cardboard crates lodged into one another. I COULD be sleeping on the cobblestones, but those are freezing this time of the year, and nopony seemed to need the boxes when I took them few weeks ago.
I still have over twenty bits to make things right, and now I have a plan.
On the way back to the castle, I purchase few little things and stash them into the double box balancing on my back. Nopony on the castle grounds gives me a second glance, most being too busy either gossiping about the event or doing their business.
The first thing I bought is a pencil with which I write a message on the side of my boxes that I put in front of the now dark ruins of the barracks.
"Dis eez mai houm end stuff. Yoo ken teik wot yoo wont and yoo ken hev reel justeets bai wotching mee end the seim wey yor preshus tinks deed. Ai em reely, reely soree for beeink too dum too bee a kleener."
The second item I bought is a canister of cheap lantern oil. It smells nasty and it itches everywhere I pour it over my charred coat, especially my muzzle.
"Ouch, ow ow ow..."
The final one is a box of matches. I strike one with my mouth.
"AAAH AAAAH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Justice. I hope the amazing ponies who gave me the chance to be around them for a while can sleep at least a tiny bit better tonight.