A Heart of Fire

by Web of Hope

Prelude: The Inferno

High in the skies above the glittering city of Manehattan, a beautiful cloudless night held a bright and shining moon. The moon’s prisoner shadow watched the land and skies, waiting for her chance to return. Flying in from the east, from the kingdom’s throne city of Canterlot, three pegasi traveled as they had the past hour, in silence. Two stallions, one with a white coat and blue mane so light it was almost white itself, the other with both mane and coat the color of the darkest storm clouds, and a younger colt, barely on the cusp of stallionhood and sporting a coat the blue of a clear sea shore. All three flew together with the ease of a practiced formation.

And beneath this serene night sky, downtown Manehattan burned.

The youngest of the three glanced between his companions, nervous concern shining through what little bravado he could muster. “This looks really bad, Sunny…what should we do?”

The dark flyer watched the emergency teams on the ground; squads of unicorns spraying the fires on the edges of the blaze, brave earth ponies dressed in fireproof suits ran in and out of burning buildings, searching for survivors. The pegasi tasked with bringing in rain clouds still hadn’t returned.

“The water teams are spread too thin…Wave, go to the north side and help them there.” The blue colt saluted, morale boosted by the confidence of his mentor, and sped off. “Frost, you’re with me. We need to get as many ponies out of those buildings as we can.” A nod from the white pegasus, never one for wasting words. “It looks like they’ve cleared the outermost buildings. Start two layers in, top to bottom. I’ll inform the local officers and meet you inside. Be careful, structural stability will be an issue here.”

With that, both stallions veered off to their tasks, and the long night ahead of them.

~{S}~

Several hours later, after the rain teams had returned, the fires extinguished, and all but the center building had been evacuated, Frostmane and Sunless Dawn carefully made their way into the rooftop entrance of the apartment building where the blaze had started. They made their way slowly and carefully, keeping alert for any signs that the structure might give way. Clearing room by room, calling for anyone trapped to stay where they were, and hearing no responses, the pair made their way down the building. With every passing floor their sorrow grew; the only ponies they found were the burned remains of those caught in the inferno.

Odd, though Sunny reflected as he checked the burned husks for any sign of life. They’re all sitting at dinner, or in lounge chairs…it’s almost as if they were caught completely by surprise and burned in a flash.

Finally, on the fourth floor, they came to a sight neither could have expected.

In the living room of apartment 4D, the floor was scorched in an almost perfect circle. The family that had lived here were nothing but bones, slumped against the far wall. But what caused the pair to trade uneasy glances was what lay in the center of the burn, where the blaze had started

At the epicenter of what would come to be known as the Manehattan Inferno, a lone pegasus filly lay unconscious, and perfectly unscathed.