We didn't mean to start the fire!

Out of all the possible ways that Applejack wanted to spend her weekend today, this was not one of them.

Throughout most of this week, the earth pony was doing her best to try and manage everything that was on her plate. If it wasn’t her duties as a teacher at the school of friendship that had her occupied, it was the amount of hard work she put at Sweet Apple Acres. Trying to balance the two of them was… difficult, but not quite impossible. Though, the farm pony always tried to make sure to take a break whenever she needed it.

For this particular weekend, she was invited by Rarity to come to a little tea shop in Canterlot. Nothing too serious about it and it was meant to be just a talk among friends. However, it was only when they arrived that they realized that Cinnamon Chai’s Tea and Cake shop was closed for the day due to emergency repairs.

It was as they were pondering why it was closed that one of the Royal Guards approached the two of them and asked them to come with him. When they asked why, he said something that not only shocked both of them, but also left Applejack puzzled.

Apparently, her friend Autumn Blaze was in Canterlot with one of her friends… and they had been arrested by the Royal Guard an hour ago.

Now, the earth pony was trying to understand what the hay she and her friend do to get her in so much trouble. It’s one thing to cause a mess, but to have the guard get involved? Well, for better or worse, it was rather rare.

“Darling,” Rarity said, breaking Applejack’s train of thought as she looked over at her, “Are you doing okay?”

“Hardly, but ah’m managing,” she told the unicorn, “Ah just having trouble making any sense of this. Autumn’s not the kind of creature who would get herself in trouble. Especially like this.”

“Well, hopefully, it’s just a misunderstanding. Let’s try and keep an open mind though,” She said, following the same guard that found them down a hallway. There were cells on either side, but all of them were vacant. All except the one on the far end as a familiar orange tail could be seen from under the bars.

“Here we are,” the guard said, before tapping on the bars a bit, “Hey, Miss Autumn? You have some visitors.”

“Huh, wha-?” the familiar voice said as Applejack saw the all too familiar Kirin on the other side of the bars in her cell. There was another Kirin there too in the back, who Applejack remembered as Cinder Glow, but it was Autumn that immediately took notice of her and Rarity. “Oh, hi Applejack! What brings you here?”

“You, obviously,” Applejack deadpanned, “Mah friend Rarity and I were told that both of you got locked up. What did you even do?”

“Oh, I’m sure it was a misunderstanding-”

Before the kirin even had the chance to finish what she was saying, the guard that accompanied them held out a clipboard and began to read what was on it. “Ms. Autumn, if I may remind you, you and your friend had been arrested on charges of arson, assault of a public official and resisting arrest.”

Immediately, both AJ and Rarity gasped, before immediately looking back at Autumn, “How-!?!”

“I-I can explain!” the kirin insisted.

“I’m no lawyer, but I’m pretty sure the charges explain everything, darling.”

“No no no! None of that was intentional, I’m serious.” Autumn quickly replied, moving her forelegs frantically from side to side, “The last thing either of us wanted was trouble.”

Applejack could only raise an eyebrow, glancing over at the guard by the cell and Autumn’s accomplice in the back that was oddly silent, before looking back to her friend, “Then why don’t ya tell us what exactly happened.”

Frantically, Autumn complied with the request as she looked at all of them, “Well, first things first, we’re here because Rain Shine wanted some kirin that were familiar with ponykind to come with her when she met Celestia today.”

That was followed by the kirin in the back of the cell getting up off the ground and clearing her throat, for she had a couple things to add to the conversation, “But when we arrived, Celestia insisted that we didn’t have to stay with her.”

“So, I thought that the best way to pass the time was to go to the tea shop in town to pass the time. We heard that it was a good place, so we thought why not?” Autumn shrugged. “Everything was… good to an extent. The tea and cakes were fabulous, Cinder and I had the chance to catch up on things, etc. However, it was as we were finishing up that things got… problematic.”

“Oh boy, here we go.” Applejack thought, bracing herself for what the kirin was going to say.

“Around the time that we were there, somepony else was already causing problems,” Cinder added, “There was this stallion there… I think he was a unicorn or something. Well, they were arguing with some of the staff members. Something about either getting an order wrong or some other thing. You know the kind of pony I’m talking about, right?”

“I believe we’ve had our fair share of experiences with non-compliant customers before,” Rarity remarked. “What’s so different about this one?”

“Well, trying to do the right thing, I tried to break things up peacefully so no creature should ever be treated like that,” Cinder was the next to speak, “Then, he shifted from harassing the staff members to harassing me. I said nothing, because I honestly wanted him to exhaust himself and then just storm out.”

“That’s reasonable-”

“Then he tried to grab me,” she deadpanned, “And I think Autumn can tell the rest.”

All eyes were now fixed on Autumn as the kirin nervously shook in her cell. “I-I… may have… t-turned nirik at one point.”

That answered almost any question that Applejack might’ve had. Though, Rarity seemed kind of lost. “I-I apologize. What’s a nirik?”

“Think if a kirin was angry and on fire, Rares.”

“That explains the arson charges.”

“I-I didn’t mean to set anything on fire,” Autumn quickly replied, “I-I was just so angry at how that pony w-was treating Cinder and just… set off. I-I only wanted him to leave her alone. But after hearing him just bully her like that, I had to do something.”

“Autumn, everything was fine until you ignited and gave him a haymaker to the jaw,” Cinder deadpanned. “I had everything under control.”

“He was trying to grab your flank!”

“How rude,” Rarity grimaced, “The more you talk about this fellow, the more unprofessional he sounds and I don’t like it one bit.”

“It didn’t help that many of the guards had no knowledge of what a nirik was and tried to apprehend us like we were monsters. I think there was a dozen of them that were holding us,” the kirin in the back of the cell continued, “We both had no idea what was going on and by the time Autumn had calmed down, we were asked to hold a plaque while they flashed a light at us and then brought us here.”

That answered some of the questions that they had. Though, Applejack and Rarity couldn’t help but feel that there were a few missing pieces. “Excuse me, Sir?”

“Yes?” The guard asked, looking towards Rarity as the unicorn began to speak again.

“You said that one of the charges was assault of a public official. Could you please clarify who that official is, darling? Perhaps we can try to reason with them-”

“I-I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to disclose-”

“White furred unicorn, same blonde mane as your friend, but very messy, and an overall attitude where he sees and treats others like trash.”

Just from that short description alone, that was enough to set off red flags for Applejack. The details in itself were enough to make her think of one specific pony in particular, which wasn’t exactly good. “Ah don’t know, Rares. Ah think reasoning with them is out of the question.”

“What do you mean, darling?” the unicorn raised an eyebrow, “Do you know who she’s talking about?”

“Mhm,” the earth pony nodded, “Remember the Grand Galloping Gala?”

“Uh, which one? We’ve been to many of them over the last few years, so it’s hard to-”

“No, Rares,” Applejack interjected, before giving her friend a stern look, “That one.”

It didn’t quite click at first for her. But once she realized what her friend was talking about, Rarity was not happy. “Oh… him.”

“You know this guy?” Autumn wondered.

“Know him?” Rarity retorted, her eyes twitching for a moment as she was forced to recall the horrid memories of that night, “He turned what was supposed to be a magical evening into a sheer mess!! To think he had THE AUDACITY to push a lady like that.”

Cinder blinked, a bit surprised by the sudden change in tone from the unicorn. “Huh. No wonder that guy was a real jerk.”

“Regardless,” the guard interjected, looking towards both of the kirin in the cells, “This is rather serious and if convicted, you could be spending the next few months in prison. These charges-”

“-are being dropped.”

Every creature in the room immediately stopped as they looked over at the new figure that entered the room. The guard that was originally there immediately froze up, dropping the clipboard they were holding before trying their best to speak. “P-Princess Celestia! W-when did you-?”

“A few minutes ago, actually,” the princess calmly replied, “I just so happened to finish up a rather delightful conversation with the leader of the Kirin’s just now, only to learn about what happened.”

Autumn was looking rather hesitant, while Cinder was just waiting for her to continue. “Despite the official statement, I was a bit skeptical since I know that my nephew has some of the guards on his payroll to cover up his mistakes,” she glanced over at the guard with narrowed eyes, before looking at the kirin in the cell with a more happier expression, “I was hoping to ask you a few questions myself. But I think everything I heard from you just now tells me everything I need to know.”

“So… you’re saying we’re free to go?” Cinder asked.

“You are,” she nodded, before raising a hoof, “On the condition that you would try to not have something like this happen again. I don’t think many of the creatures in Canterlot would be rather thrilled if anything they had would just randomly combust into flames.”

Another stern look from the diarch was enough to have the guard hastily hurry over to unlock the cell doors. Both of the kirin were quick to leave the cell, before Autumn stopped in front of Celestia. “T-thank you so much, P-princess!”

“Think nothing of it,” she reassured her, before turning around and heading outside, “Now, if you would excuse me, I need to have an important discussion with my nephew. Take care now.”

With a shimmer of golden light, the princess left the room as Applejack and Rarity left the holding area with both the kirin right beside them. Now that their friends no longer had to worry about being stuck in jail, there was only one thought on Autumn’s mind.

“So, uh… what now?”

“Well, I was going to treat Applejack to some tea earlier, but I’m afraid it’ll be some time before Cinnamon Chai’s store is open again,” the unicorn replied.

“Maybe it would be best to head back to Ponyville?” Applejack suggested, “Ah don’t think it would be good to stick around after… well, everything.”

“Hate to break it to you, but I think we should go back to see Rain Shine,” Cinder said, “I mean, we did come here with her. It might be ideal to tell her that we’re alright.”

“Eh, that’s a valid point,” Autumn shrugged, before looking at Applejack, “Still, thanks for helping us out. It was nice to see you again. Maybe next time, we’ll come see you.”

“Ah’m looking forward to it,” Applejack said, “Cider season’s coming up, and ah think you might enjoy it.”

As their friends left, Autumn and Cinder began to turn around and walk back towards the castle. Though, despite it being a friendly suggestion, a new question surfaced in the kirin’s mind.

“Hey Cinder, do you know what cider is?”

Author's Note:

A third random and silly piece from the same author no less.

The more that I think about it, this will probably end up as a series at some point. If I'm not lazy about it.

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