The Flames
The Flames
The curling fingers of orange and red flames licked at the walls, attaching themselves to the wood, and spreading, lighting up the night air as they did so. Their consumption of wood, straw, and the very oxygen in the air did not satiate its hunger, no, just the opposite. The inferno grew larger, demanding more fuel to satisfy its needs, until it finally burned itself out, having devoured all that it could. This town would suffice. Unless, of course, it were to be put out...
The yellow-helmeted fireponies continually hurled bucket after bucket of ice-cold water into the flames, but to virtually no effect, save, perhaps, and some hissing and some steam. The unicorns took to using magic, both to make the water colder, the flames smaller, and to help rescue ponies trapped inside. Five buildings were aflame by this point, and each one was being paid heavy attention to. A cerulean blur, the famous pegasus Rainbow Dash, shot inside and out of the roaring wreckages, each time returning with a panicked pony, and darting back in to repeat, until each and every soul was saved.
The flames had reached seven houses, and many more ponies were trapped inside. Rainbow Dash knew it, and the Fireponies knew it: they were not going to save anyone, even with all of the help that they were getting. But that didn't stop them from trying. Maybe with the assistance of a Princess...
*Pop!*
There was a blinding flash of white and purple that contrasted the roaring flames, if only for a second, and standing there was a tall, purple-maned Alicorn.
"Oh my goodness . . . "
Princess Celestia had sent her to help deal with a fire, but Twilight doubted that Celestia knew about the pure mass of it, otherwise she would have some herself.
"Princess! Princess Twilight! Thank Celestia you're here; we need help!" shouted a Firepony as he came near her, panic and fatigue in his voice.
The Princess, frowned in concentration, thinking rapidly. Her eyes lit up and she spoke, "How many buildings still have ponies in them?"
The heavy-set, mustached Firepony gestured to the end of the row of burning buildings, which was now up to nine.
"The first six have been completely evacuated!"
"Are you sure? Absolutely?"
The stallion nodded and called back, "You can trust me and my stallions."
"Alright," Twilight said to herself. She lowered her head and clenched her eyes shut. Her aura activated and spread across her horn. I just a few seconds, a series of purple forcefields appeared over each of the empty buildings.
"What are you doing?!" the Firepony shouted, alarmed.
"Calm down; these shields will block the oxygen and proceed starve the flames."
The Firepony's mouth formed an 'o' and he turned back, watching the flames with wonder.
"Now go! Work on stopping the spreading of the flames! They're almost at the town hall!"
The large stallion jerked in the realization and bolted off, calling for much of the other Fireponies to accompany him.
Many of them did, but enough stayed to help evacuate the trapped villainous ponies inside each of the unattended buildings. Far off, the flames had seemed to halt their deadly advance, at least for now, and Twilight bolted forward, ready to use her magic to help more of the ponies in distress. She succeeded in levitating three, two young mares and an older stallion from the next building and she dropped them next to her. All three were Earth Ponies.
"Is there anyone else inside?"
The three ponies all shook thier heads in unison, looking up from the ground at her wide-eyed.
"Go! Help the Fireponies! Now!"
The three bolted off without a word to comply, or to cower somewhere else, and the Princess repeated her process until she reached the last building. Using magic and a hastily-dug trench, the brave Fireponies had managed to halt the flames. The bonfire lept and crackled, whipping around like an enraged serpent, and hissed in a similar manner whenever it reached the water, angry at that is would be starved.
There was only one more house to go, and Twilight pulled out a mare, while the Fireponies went in with helmets and axes, to retrieve other ponies and perhaps some of the owner's material objects.
The mare that Twilight had saved, a pastel-green Earth Pony mare with a lighter-colored, curly mane and tail immediately hopped from the dusty ground where she was dropped and cried out to Twilight.
"My filly! She's still in there!"
The lavender Princess turned back towards the raging inferno and steeled herself. The foal was visible, from a collapsed section of wall, but she was surrounded on all sides with flames and rubble: not even Rainbow Dash could get to her, as the beams above her alight with flames.
A bead of sweat formed on Twilight's brow and trickled downwards as she concentrated on moving a few black, smoldering planks, her eyes closed once more.
"Momma!"
Twilight startled and opened her eyes, and, to her surprise, saw the little filly whom she was just attempting to rescue right in front of her.
The little filly was glad to see her mother, and hurried as fast as her little legs could over to her Mother, who stared off into the distance, a zombified look on her face.
"What...? Did you...? How did she...?"
The mare only gaped and slowly shook her head as she stroked her terrified child's mane.
"I don't know....she was there and I saw a blur of some sort...now she..she's here...."
Twilight frowned for a moment, but wrote it off to the mother's fear and distress.
But that doesn't explain how the filly got outside...
- - -
The dawn came quickly, and, frankly, everyone was in shock. The flames had just recently been extinguished, thanks to Twilight's quick thinking and the efforts of both the Fireponies and of everyone in Ponyville. Unfortunately, exactly eleven houses had been completely destroyed, and nothing remained but piles of smoldering wood, shattered glass, and still-hot stone.
No-one knew how many ponies had been killed yet, but Twilight felt in her gut that there had at least been a few. She tried to ignore the feeling, but it kept coming back, like some relentless form of cancer.
So much chaos, in the middle of the night, and so many houses....was it possible that they had missed somepony?
Twilight gasped and a hoof darted to her muzzle.
Maybe her shields had stopped somepony from escaping! But the Firepony, whom of which, Twilight found out, was the father of Sweetie Belle and Rarity, and the Chief of the Fireponies, said that he and his workers could be trusted....
But everypony makes mistakes...
Twilight shook her head. She supposed that she would see...
Twilight went off in search of anyone who needed help, as the Fireponies searched the wreckage for anything that had survived. And for bodies. Again, Twilight shook her head and continued onward.
"Hello! Is there anything I can do?"
"Not unless you can bring my house back, not really...," the slumped Stallion answered quietly.
"And, that's exactly what the we, that is, the Princesses will be working on! Probably for a while..."
The stallion looked up from the ground and at Twilight. He looked her in the eye for a moment, and then smiled.
"Thank you," he said with a raspy voice.
Twilight smiled herself and continued on. She spoke to a few more victims, calmed some of them, and made promises that she wasn't sure that she could keep. All to stall the inevitable announcement.
"Hey!"
Twilight turned and saw a Firepony running towards her, a massive smile on his face.
How can he be so happy at a moment like this?
Nevertheless, Twilight halted, curious to see what this stallion was so happy about.
"Princess! Fantastic news!" he called as he finally reached her. Both of his eyes were wide and glistening, and his grin would go unmatched by all but Pinkie Pie for years to come.
"What? What is it?"
"Everypony escaped! Everyone made it out alive! Not even a single body!"
Twilight froze.
Is it true? After all of that?
The Princess sighed and shook her head.
"I want to beleive you, but...that just isn't possible."
"Oh but it is! We combed the entire area, several times! Not a single body was found! By anyone!"
"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, still unsure.
"Princess, would I really risk making such a positive announcement, and then have it all be a lie in the end?"
"I suppose not..."
"Then come see for yourself!"
And she did. Twilight followed the ecstatic Firepony down to the site and she spent the next two and a half hours searching, hoping to confirm things for herself. Finally, when she went to move on to the next building, she almost walked directly into a ditch, residue of water still sinking into the dirt.
They had been right....
"Yes! Yesyesyesyesyesyes!"
All nearby eyes turned toward the excited Princess in surprise, but they soon lapsed into happiness; they too were in a similar mood.
When Twilight had finished celebrating, and being embarrassed towards her inability to control that particular outburst, she returned to the other ponies, who were being treated by the hospital staff for minor injuries and shock. The space that had been chosen had been directly in front of the Town Hall, mostly because it was the largest in Ponyville.
She walked up to the balcony, she would have to do without a podium, and proceeded to magically amplify her voice.
"Everypony! I have fantastic news!"
Fantastic news? Now? They doubted that, but they each gave the purple Princess their attention anyway.
"Not a single casualty has been found! Everyone survived!"
There was but a moment in silence, and then everyone broke into cheers. This was good news, to everyone, but Twilight couldn't help but wonder at it. That had been nearly impossible. And that little filly...
He stood on a thick tree branch, his hand grasping a similar branch above him as he watched the town through his dirty lenses. He startled a bit when an explosion of cheering boomed from amid the buildings, but he recovered easily enough; that just meant that he did his job.
He smiled under his mask and swung around the trunk, and into the Everfree Forest once more. He would returne when they needed him again. He promised.
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I DIDN'T READ THIS, BUT IM SURE ITS AWESOME. SO I LIKED AND FAVOURITED IT.
I clicked. I read. I liked. I favorited.
You got my attention towards this. The chapter wasn't that short to my standards. You were pretty descriptive with this as well. So I'll be looking forward to the continuation of tihis. It just sounds like itsk going to be pretty good.
How can A story with such classy dividers not be faved?
Intavesting. . . do go on.
Interesting...
Please do not hesitate to update. 
p.s I don't particularly like Princess Twilight in a story like this but i'll let it pass
Excellent!
Liked.Favorited.Memorized.
Who Could Turn Down Such An Interesting Tale With Classy Dividers To Boot
But...Shouldn't It Be Everypony?
2475852 I'm With Ya
i deem this worthy of my attention
A legal detective with experience?
Yes i want more of this story
2476498
But, undoubtedly, Twilight has read several books on the subject.
Good sell, but the flow of the story is hard to get into.
yeeeeee catman Adam west!
wait.... family guy and fairly odd parents both had a adam west played by the same voice actor... its a conspiracy...
Pretty good so far, though I do have one thing you should consider changing: The story description gives too much away. If it's not something that happens in the prologue chapter, then don't have it in the story's description. It's basically one giant spoiler for your story.
MOAR!
2480521
Huh...what you say makes sense...will do!
Hehe i really like it! I hope to see more
Pyro?
issat you?
You need a proof reader
found several small mistakes
Return is spelled wrong at the end.
Looked through the first chapter. Brain was forced to reboot after the following segment:
What.
Seriously, either my dictionaries are severely outdated or the sentence makes no sense.
'It', maybe? But then 'at' would be unneeded.
Maybe that's a legitimate phrase, but it is the first time I see it.
Not claiming to be terribly familiar with english tenses and grammar, but I have a strong feeling that it should be 'The space that had been chosen was directly in front of the Town Hall'.
'Return', I think. Also, 'when they need him again' is likely to be more correct.
In short - readable(even if some things break my suspension of disbelief - in such a small community even a single missing, and presumed to have died in fire, person/pony would have certainly been noticed by the time Twilight checked everything - she spent 2,5 hours on that. In daylight.), but author seriously needs someone to check chapters for mistakes.
There isn't a single use of the word "Anypony" in this chapter.... but I really like the concept
2741288 "whom of which" is finely valid, but I agree with you that "villainous" makes no sense.
2741288
Nearly 54 weeks later and still no corrections have been made. . .
Its is plural.
It's is possessive and a contraction.
I don't like the first paragraph. Unless the fire is sentient/sapient or we're seeing the point of view of some kind of pyromaniac, there's no reason to give it that much personality.
How the hell is saving everyone from the fires not possible? She says it with such conviction I find it odd that she reacted so positively upon being shown the proof, rather than act confused, suspicious or something else. Also slight typo right there.
Unless he actually promised it to someone, I think "he swore" would be better.
".....proceed to starve the flames." And I am sure that you double-spaced before the word proceed
Wow, this is so weird...I keep on thinking about in terms of Death Note.
(it's an anime where a guy finds the Death Note, a notebook that can kill anyone if you just write the person's real name inside. The dude starts killing hundreds of criminals with it)