A New Perspective

by portaljumper339

Ch. 11

A New Perspective Ch. 11

We both agreed to return to the restaurant first, just to be sure everypony else was alright before returning to the town proper. I was expecting to see utter destruction, so you can only imagine my relief upon seeing that the restaurant was unharmed.

We landed at a gallop and ran into the restaurant, much to the surprise of the patrons and staff alike. Everything looked pretty much as we had left it, and a calming wave of relief rushed over my mind. Fluttershy looked just about as relieved as I was that her friends were alright, at least for now.

The two of us trotted over to the corner table, where the others were just finishing up their desserts.

"Well, it's about time y'all got back," said Applejack. "We were thinking that y'all had gone and gotten lost. We were even goin' to send out a search party for you."

"It's nice to know that you care so much. Say, did any of you notice anything odd, like a freak meteor shower or anything?"

"Nothing really out of the ordinary, why?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just that a meteor landed right next to Fluttershy and I while we were out stargazing. You know, nothing big," I added with a little sarcasm.

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Twilight, drawing a few stares from the patrons. "Are you two alright? There wasn't any collateral damage, was there?"

"We're fine," answered Fluttershy for me, "and we were out near the border of the Everfree Forest, so there were no buildings for it to hit. Odd thing is, though, that Evan noticed a glow on the horizon, and he was certain that the town had been hit, which is why we came running to make sure you were okay."

"Well, we're all alright, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure that the town itself didn't get hit. We are pretty far out of the way, so they might not have come this way."

"Possibly," I said. "I guess we should settle up here and go make sure the town's alright." We all pulled a few bits out of our pockets to help cover the bill, despite everypony's insistence that Fluttershy and I didn't have to since we hadn't eaten. Leaving the money on the table, we all walked out of the restaurant, at least until we were out of sight of it. We then all took off at a gallop, even Rarity to my shock.

We got back into town fifteen minutes later to find nothing out of the ordinary. There wasn't a soul to be found on the streets, everypony having turned in for the evening by now. Everypony else breathed out their collectively held breath, but my heart was still beating like a jackhammer. This didn't make sense.

Last I had heard from that unicorn, he had said that some big catastrophe was about to hit. Given that I was nearly ground into a fine paste by a meteor, and there had been a meteor shower that night, that should have been it. And yet, here I am, standing in the remarkably unruined Ponyville.

"Evan, you alright?" asked Fluttershy, jarring my mind out of it's trance. "You've been staring into space for five minutes."

"I'm fine, and so is everypony else in town, and that's what's bugging me."

"What do you mean? The town's fine. I thought that you'd be happy about that."

"I am, but it's gotten me thinking."

"What about?"

Horse-apples, how was I going to break this to her? It wasn't as bad as what happened when I had kept Rainbow in the dark, but I had kept this from her since she had gotten home. Best to just be straight with her and hope for the best.

"Promise you won't get mad?"

"I don't see why I would, but alright, I promise."

"When I got home from Canterlot last week, I pretty much fell straight asleep, and you can guess what happened afterwards."

"He showed up, didn't he?"

"Yep. Believe you me, the last thing I wanted to do was talk to him, but he apparently had something really important to say."

"Which was?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well... he told me that this was going to happen."

"What, the meteor shower?"

"Well, he said that 'the eyes of fate were going to look unfavorably on Ponyville' or something along those lines, and, well, it's not everyday that you're nearly crushed by space debris. I thought that this is what he meant, but it looks like I was wrong."

She had that skeptical look, and I was seriously hoping that she had taken this well.

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"To be honest, I didn't take him seriously. Guess my lassitude paid off, huh?" I added, trying for the humor gambit, and failing miserably.

"Hey, y'all alright?" asked Applejack, breaking the tension.

"Uh, yeah, fine. Since everything seems all hunky dory here, I guess we should all turn in for the night."

"That's 'bout the best idea I've heard tonight. I am plum tuckered out, and I need to make sure that Apple Bloom didn't win one over on Big Mac and stay up past her bedtime again. I tell you what, for a stallion that strong, he can be such a pushover at times. I'll let everypony else know."

"Thanks AJ. You have a good night."

Fluttershy and I turned to leave before I could hear her response, but it didn't really matter. The only pony's response that I wanted to hear was Fluttershy's to my next question.

"You aren't mad at me, are you?"

"No, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. You promised that you would be more open, and yet here we are, a week after I get out of the hospital, and I just now find out that you've been hiding things from me again."

"Look, I'm sorry, really I am, and I was going to tell you, but I just wanted to be sure that something was going to happen before I acted too rashly."

"There's nothing that you need to apologize for, just make sure it doesn't happen again, alright?"

"... Alright." We spent the rest of the flight back in sullen silence, which gave me time to plan a course of action should this get too out of hand. I still couldn't help but notice that unearthly glow on the horizon. It had an ethereal orange glow, like a sunrise, only brighter. On closer inspection, I could tell that it was coming from the southern edge of the forest, near the cottage.

It sure was going to make getting to sleep tonight hard, that's for sure. That and the gnawing anticipation and guilt eating me up, but let's deal with one thing at a time.

===============

Despite my previous misgivings, sleep actually came very readily that evening, much to my surprise and joy. Apparently nearly being crushed by a meteor takes a lot out of you. Another blessing was that that unicorn didn't appear again to disrupt my sleep cycle. It seems that he always appears after something big and catastrophic happens, so this was a very welcome change of pace. It seemed like I could get the first decent night's sleep that I'd had in a week, the rest of them clouded with thoughts of my impending exile.

You can only begin to fathom my irritation when I felt somepony shaking me awake at 4:00 in the morning.

"Evan! Evan, wake up!" came a frantic cry as I was jostled awake.

"Huh, uh, whu... what's going on?" I muttered as a thick, acrid scent hit my nose.

"Quick, we don't have much time. We need to get everything essential out of the house NOW!"

As annoyed as I was, the sense of urgency in her voice told me that something was terribly wrong. I stumbled to my hooves, and as I blearily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes I saw a bright glow coming from outside, not unlike the one I had seen on the flight home. I drew open the curtains to see what was making it while Fluttershy started grabbing up anything that wasn't nailed down.

Now I know what that scent was that had assaulted my nostrils, and the very thought of it made my heart skip a beat.

Before me stood the Everfree Forest in all of its glory and mystique, blanketed by a raging inferno that spanned my entire field of view. The flames licked at the trees, sparks flew up off the canopy, and wave after wave of heat assaulted the cottage. I'm surprised that the sod roof hadn't gone up yet.

"FWOOOOOM!!" went the roof, as if on cue. Fortunately there was a second story protecting us, but it wouldn't hold for long.

"OH NO!!" cried Fluttershy, barely keeping herself together. "Angel's still up there!"

"Who?"

"Angel, my little bunny. He was cold so she came in here and slept in my room. He's still up there, and I accidentally closed the door on him!"

"Don't worry, I'll get Angel, you just gather up any remaining supplies and essentials, then get outside and let the rest of the animals out."

"Oh, thank you," she replied, getting both of our saddle bags on her back and racing outside. I galloped up the stairs to the second floor, narrowly dodging a falling support beam as I did. Burning clumps of the roof were falling down, and it was like racing on a slalom course to avoid them.

Sure enough, the door to her room was closed, and locked up tighter than a bank vault. I reached out for the handle only to feel heat radiating off of it in waves, and thought better of burning myself. It took a few good bucks, but I finally managed to break the door down and found to my horror that her entire room was ablaze. The smoke was already getting to me, and I found that I had to put one wing in front of my face just to keep out a bit of the smoke. It would take nothing short of a miracle to find Angel in this.

Narrowly dodging fires that seems to spring up from under my hooves, as well as ones that fell from the ceiling, I made my way across the room to her bed. It seemed like the natural place for a frightened bunny to hide under, and sure enough there was a little white ball of fur, dusted with soot and ash, quivering under her bed. I reached out to grab her when I felt something land on my back. Something very hot.

I quickly ripped off my vest to find that a burning clump of sod had landed on it. I almost wanted to cry as I saw it wither and burn into an unrecognizable lump of ash, but there would be time for mourning lost articles of clothing later. I quickly grabbed Angel out from under the bed and made for the door, my eyes burning from the smoke and sweat thick on my brow.

At least I would have were it not for the pile of flaming wood that came crashing down from the ceiling to block my entrance.

Desperate to find another exit in this cauldron, I noticed the window just to the left of her bed. The lock had melted and fused shut, but it looked easily breakable at force.

"You've got to be joking," I muttered to myself upon realizing my options were jump out a second-floor window or burn to death. "Whelp, here goes nothing."

I maneuvered my way to the far side of the room, eyed up my proposed exit, flapped my wings, and barreled toward the window, keeping Angel tucked close to my chest so she wouldn't get cut by any glass. Hopefully.

The window shattered under the force of my body, but the damage caused was a two-way street. I had tried to minimize the damage to my face and other squishy, vital areas by ramming into it head first, but all that succeeded in doing was exacerbating my smoke induced headache and give me a mane full of glass. Well, at least I'm out of Burning-to-death-burg, and have moved squarely into Bleeding-out-ville.

I circled around to the front of the house to find Fluttershy releasing the last of her little animals. Her face lit up when she saw that I had Angel in tow, and appeared seemingly unharmed. Even better, she had both pairs of our saddle bags, laden with anything she could think to carry out of the house. I landed and handed Angel to her, taking a moment to cough out all of the smoke in my lungs.

"Oh, thank you, THANK YOU!" she exclaimed, punctuating it with a kiss on the cheek. "I never would've forgiven myself if Angel had been left in there. Are you okay?"

"Just dandy, even considering that I had to break a window to escape your room," I said in between bouts of hacking my lungs out.

"Are you sure? That sounds pretty ba- OH MY GOODNESS, YOUR HEAD IS BLEEDING!!" I gingerly placed a hoof to my head, and sure enough there was a thin trickle of blood draining through my mane and down my forehead. The cuts only felt superficial, fortunately, and they would probably clot in minutes.

"It's nothing, and frankly we have bigger trees to buck. We need to warn the town, and fast. Who would be the pony to see to round everypony in town together?"

"Probably the Mayor, but I really think you should let me deal with your head. Those cuts might get infected, an-"

"Look, there's no time. Those meteors are probably what set the forest on fire, and it looks like it's spreading pretty fast. We need to get Ponyville evacuated, and we need to do it now!"

"But-"

"No buts! If I can survive being struck by magic lightning, a few cuts on my head aren't going to do much. Where does the Mayor live?" I asked, hovering a few feet in the air.

"Right across from town hall, but I think-"

"What did I say about the buts?!" I yelled, my patience hanging by a thread. "We don't have time to think about this, we need to act NOW!"

"I- I'm sorry," she whimpered, covering her face with her bangs. "I was just trying to help." In the moonlight I saw a single tear streak down her cheek, and I knew that I had screwed up.

"Oh... oh, Fluttershy, I'm sorry," I hastily apologized, landing and wrapping a hoof around her neck. "It's just that, with all of this, and all the stress that I've- well, that we've been under, I just sort of snapped. Just, please don't cry," I added, wiping away her tears.

"*sniff* It's alright... I'm really more sad over losing the cottage. I had so many... so many memories in that house," she added, fresh tears falling down her face.

"Believe me, I'm just as sad to lose it too, but we can't dwell on it now, not if we want everypony else's houses to go up with them inside. C'mon, we need to go see the Mayor."

"But what about your head?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"Hmm... tell ya what, as soon as we get the town evacuated, I'll let you do whatever you want with my head. Sound fair?"

"Okay, but you had better not pull a fast one on me," she added as we took off as fast as our wings could carry us. While town square wasn't too far away, I thought it best to err on the side of caution and hoof it like tomorrow wasn't a thing.

Which was actually a pretty valid point, given the circumstances.

===============

Y'know, for the Mayor of an entire town, the Mayor of Ponyville (or Ivory Scroll, as Fluttershy had told me) lived in a pretty nondescript little cottage. It'd be quite the shame to see it go up in flames, but it'd be an even bigger shame if she were still inside of it. I knocked frantically on the door, Fluttershy rocking back and forth nervously.

The door opened to reveal a khaki mare with a well groomed, if slightly outdated, gray mane and tail, wearing an expression that could curdle milk and frighten small foals.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked, impatience dripping off of every word.

"Listen, I'm so sorry to disturb you so early, but there is a serious emergency."

"And that would be? I have to be at town hall in an hour and a half, so this had better be important."

"I know you're upset, so I'll cut to the chase. The Everfree Forest is on fire, and it's spreading into town. We need to get everypony evacuated as soon as we can."

"Preposterous! The Forest has never caught fire, even when trees have been struck by lightning." Definitely not the response I was expecting.

"Mrs. Mayor, I know it seems far-fetched, but it's the truth. Fluttershy's cottage just burned to the ground, and I barely escaped with my life."

"Do you have any proof?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You see these?" I said, parting my mane to reveal the cuts on my head. "I got these from having to jump out a second floor window to get out of that house."

"Well, perhaps you just left the stove on, and that's what started the fire."

Okay, now she's just trying to get my goat. The urgency of the situation demanded action, but she was just immovable. "Look, all I'm asking for is some cooperation here. If you aren't going to help me, then I will personally go to everypony in town and get them to believe me mys-"

"BLAAAAMMM!!!" A truly phenomenal explosion rocked the town, shaking the very ground that we stood on. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a huge fire ball rising from the western side of the forest.

"What the hay was that?!"

"The fire must've spread to Froggy-Bottom Bog," answered Fluttershy, visibly shaken. "There's a lot of methane gas there, which is what causes it to bubble like it does."

"And methane is extremely flammable," I finished for her. "NOW do you believe me?" I asked, turning to Ivory, who was completely dumbstruck.

"I... I... I..." she stammered.

"... I'm sorry I was such a jerk, and will give everything I have to help evacuate Ponyville?" I finished. I would have added even more sarcasm, were it not for the flaming hunks of tree that were raining down from the sky. A few ponies were looking disinterestedly out of their windows, wondering what all the commotion was.

"Listen, whoever you are," began Ivory, "I'm sorry that I doubted you, but we have more pressing concerns that petty one-upmanship. We need to warn everypony in town, and the only way to gather them all is to ring the bell in the tower of town hall. Think you can do that while I make sure everypony doesn't panic?"

"I'm on it. Fluttershy, I need you to get Twilight and the others, as well as Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. They told me that the three of them were spending the night at Scoot's place, and I just want to make sure that they don't get lost in the crowd."

"Mm-hm. Be safe," she added before taking off.

Ivory Scroll directed me up to the bell tower, but things were already getting hairy. Even before I started ringing the bell ponies were roaming the streets, some aimlessly while others with more of a sense of urgency. Some ponies were downright panicking, probably because of the flaming detritus falling from the sky.

I grabbed the thick pull cord in my teeth, and with a quick jerk of the head gave it a hard yank. My neck felt like it was going to snap from the sheer weight, but it got the job done, and I let gravity take over.

"BONG! BONG! BONG!" went the bell, each ring threatening to make my eardrums crawl out and throttle me. Fortunately, the strain my ears were putting up with proved worthwhile, as the ponies on the street as well as ones emerging from there houses made a bee line for town hall. I guessed I should probably fly down there and accompany Ivory to help explain the situation to everypony, seeing as how I was the one that even made it an issue to begin with.

Or I would have if I hadn't been knocked unconscious, had a black bag placed over my head, and been unceremoniously draped across another ponies back to be taken away.

Just when things were starting to look up, too.

Comments

[portaljumper339]

454737 Alright, let me just say that I found that comment funny, if a little crude. I would like there to be no ire in the comments section, so let's bury the hatchet before it has a chance to strike.

Thank you for your consideration.