A Shadowless Day

by Ko the Wolf

Accord

Equinox awoke from his sleep, nuzzling into the soft pillows that his head was rested on. Something nagged at the back of his thoughts, but he was too tired to bother with it. He squeezed his eyes shut as it persisted, growing more and more troublesome. Suddenly, an awful foreboding gripped him. His eyes shot open and he looked around the room for any imminent danger. It looked exactly as it had when he had walked in. He cast out his mind as far as it would go, which was only about fifty feet here. It was a skill he had learn a long time ago, the basics of some foreign magic. Nope, nothing ominous here. Then why did he feel so anxious?

He jumped out of bed and opened the window. The air that blew in was cool, as expected in the autumn. But something was wrong. Then he found it; smoke. He opened the door quickly and made his way to the stairs. Walking quickly around the assorted displays, he made his way out the door and a good distance from the boutique before he found the rising tower of gray on the horizon. Taking off quickly, he ran towards it. As he got closer, a low rumble began to fill the air and the sound of many ponies all talking at once filled his ears.

He turned the corner and was assaulted by a wave of heat that blew over his face. The dancing light of ten thousand tongues of fire lit the clearing on the edge of town as well as the ponies in it’s light. He looked around frantically for somepony he knew. There!

Twilight Sparkle was reading a book frantically, her eyes darting over the page. Equinox ran up to her and tried to get her attention. “Hey! Don’t you think there’s a time and a place for this?” He yelled over the noise.

A powerful set of legs pulled him back and he looked into the green eyes of a blond maned, orange mare. “Ya’ll leave her alone now, She’s doin’ her best ya hear?”

Equinox snorted in disgust, pulling himself out of the mare’s grip he was about to give her a piece of his mind until he saw Twilight directing a large group of unicorns so that they all stood in a line. As their horns lit, the fire closest to them turned into a spectrum of colors and ceased advancing. “Keep this line! As long as you’re all in place the fire can’t get any closer!” the lavender mare encouraged.

A similarly large group of earthponies was readying a large mechanism that reminded the dark stallion of a cannon, except for the long tube that ran out of sight. Twilight ran up to it and began fiddling with a bunch of the dials and knobs. Finally she pressed a large blue button on the side and the massive pump on the back came to life. The machine shook and coughed until finally, a large burst of water sprang forth, hurtling itself at the wall of fire. It sizzled out of existence instantly. All the ponies cheered as the machine did its magic, defeating the flames at every turn.

Equinox ran up to Twilight, his eyes wide with wonder. “Twilight! This is amazing! Did you make this?”

She turned to him, yelling back over the rumble from the water-cannon, “Yeah! It’s a good thing I finally finished it a couple days ago too! Of course, it’s still the prototype and it isn’t meant for this but-” she stopped suddenly, looking around as her eyes registered something.

“Twilight! What is it?” Equinox prompted, shaking her shoulder.

“Applejack! Where’s Applebloom?” She yelled at the orange mare from earlier, running off towards the pony.

Applejack turned around, looked through the crowd and gasped. “Twilight! Macintosh is missing too!” her eyes were wide with worry and fear.

A filly ran up to Applejack, her red mane and yellow coat singed slightly, just like the pink bow in her hair. “Applejack! Please Ah’m sorry!” she said, her eyes running with tears. “W-we thought we’d try fire dancing but w-we knew nopony would let us so we went into the forest a-and-” she collapsed onto Applejack’s leg, crying hard.

Applejack bent over her and asked, “Sis, everything is gonna be okay ya hear?” She pushed Applebloom up so that the she was looking the filly in her eyes. “Do ya know what happened to Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo? Have ya seen Macintosh?”

Applebloom sniffled again, still crying, “M-macintosh was the first one who found us! B-but Ah haven’t seen him or the others since I ran outta there!” she fell forward back onto her older sister’s leg, crying still.

Applejack looked forward, her gaze blank. “Macintosh is...” tears welled up in her eyes before she squeezed them shut for a moment. Opening them back up with a snap, the only emotion they portrayed was fierce determination. Giving Applebloom one last hug she took off for the burning forest.

“Applejack, wait!” Twilight bolted after her.

Thinking quickly, Equinox called out to a yellow stallion with a brown mane and three horseshoes for a cutiemark. “Take care of this one for me!” He said, getting a nod from the stallion. Running fast after Twilight and Applejack, he tried his best to keep up with them.

Twilight grabbed Applejack with her magic, pulling her friend back just as she jumped for the burning forest. “Are you crazy?! What if something happened to you? Would you leave Applebloom all by herself?” Twilight shouted, straining to keep Applejack in her magical grip.

“Ya’ll don’t understand! Ah have to help Mac! He’s mah brother! Ah can’t let anypony else die! Not after what happened to Ma and Pa!” her eyes stared at Twilight, she looked ready to jump into the fire and just lie down and cry at the same time.

Equinox caught up just in time to hear Applejack, and he felt exactly what she did. The image of a small, tan filly with blue eyes came to his mind and he felt a fierce determination. No, he wouldn’t stand by and do nothing this time.

Charging forward, he could barely hear Twilight and Applejack call after him over the sound of the flames. His horn sparked as an iridescent ball formed around him, shading him in green light. Jumping over fallen trees, diving between the flaming trunks, he finally found what he was looking for; a small clearing. Small, but just large enough. Closing his eyes, he used desperation to fuel his concentration, he focused and let a green pulse out from his horn. In his mind, the pulse kept going and going, pinging off seemingly random objects until a trio of notes went off clearly.

Turning right, he continued along his path at a run, gasping for breath at the hot, dry, smoking air. Dodge, duck, swerve, jump, speed up, slow down, swerve, dodge, duck, jump, run. Everything seemed to blur in around him as he concentrated on his goal. Any moment now, they’re close, right there! He turned the corner sharply to find a large rock in the middle of a clearing. Atop the tilted slab of stone, a big, red earthpony sheltered two foals between his forelegs. He looked around desperately until Equinox ran up to him.

“Macintosh!” Equinox yelled up, deciding that this must be Applejack’s brother. “We need to get you and the foals out of her now!”

The big earthpony turned around and looked at Equinox, an irritated look in his eyes. “How do ya suppose we should manage that? Do you have a spell or something ta get us outta here?” Mac said, his eyes narrowed.

Equinox thought for a moment, his mind racing before he came up with a solution. Looking uncertain, he bit his lip a moment before the picture of the tan filly surfaced in his mind again. All that mattered was getting those ponies out of here. “Follow me,” he ordered Mac and the others. Oh for the sake of Progress he hoped that this worked.

Walking until he was almost ten feet from the point that he entered the clearing from, he took a solid stance. I have to be careful he thought, closing his eyes again and mumbling something to himself inaudible because of the wildfire and its roars. Letting out all the air in his lungs in a sigh, he took in a deep breath and concentrated again.

Let it all go, everything but the goal you have in mind. See it without your eyes, see it happening. A voice that wasn’t his spoke in his mind, the memory replaying as he recalled the lesson. It started with a spark, but very soon a single green flame burned at the end of his tail. The fire didn’t make his hair curl in blacken though, so was its nature. It grew until a fifth of the white tail glowed with the emerald flame. Macintosh looked down in shock, what the hay was that pony doing? The two foals with him looked in awe at Equinox, their eyes wide.

Now, let it go on its own- A cracking noise broke through his concentration like a knife, disrupting the memory and choking out the fire on his tail. A large tree was fall directly towards the four ponies. Equinox saw it fall in slow motion. I can’t move. Why can’t I move? I have to get out of here, I have to- His eyes found the foals staring up in horror at the ancient trunk falling towards them, frozen in place. No. It’s not going to end like this! He threw himself as hard as he could at the two foals, pushing them aside as the tree smashed down. Luckily there was enough opposite reaction so that he wasn’t crushed under the wood, but that didn’t stop it from hitting him and knocking him over.

Macintosh rushed around the log, looking Equinox over and trying to assess the damage. He had burns on his head, his shoulder and upper back, plus a nasty looking bump on his head. “Hey! Wake up!” Mac motioned to put the dark colored stallion on his back but Equinox stood on his own, his eyes staring blankly ahead. The large stallion looked at him in shock, were his eyes always blue?

A violet circle ran it’s way around all four ponies. Its light grew in intensity before a blinding flash engulfed them all.

--

I know what you’re thinking, “Oh I knew it! Equinox is a mary sue!” Please just give me some time. In a couple of updates it won’t look like it. Equinox is not an overpowered character, there’s a reasonable explanation for the weird magic.

Comments

[Crisslunarflame]

Wow.... dis is getting serious...

MOAR!!!