Chapter 1
Sparkle stared at the charred corpses of her attackers in horror. She shrank back in pure fear, her focus fell on the other stallion lying on the ground. This one wasn’t burnt to a crisp but he had serious wounds on his legs and face. His horn had a crack going up it and was oozing blood.
Sparkle wrapped her hooves around the stallion, pulling the body close, staining her fur with blood. She could feel him breathing against her chest, but barely. She used her strength, which wasn’t much, and carried him out the alley. Immediately Sparkle collapsed. Luckily a mare saw her and screamed bloody murder, and before Sparkle could blink the stallion was being cared of to an hospital and she was in a police station.
The station was a large room, loud hums filled the air as air conditioners buzzed away.
“Clean yourself off ma’am,” the guard said, tossing a damp white towel toward Sparkle. She took it graciously, dragging it down her bloodstained fur. If I didn’t know any better I’d say this was a red towel, she thought to herself. Sparkle placed the towel down, which was levitated away.
The guard left and a stallion walked in, Sparkle could see a gun and taser in his belt. “Is that necessary?”
The stallion looked at his belt, “sorry. My name is Shooting Rifle and you are.
“I’m Sparkle…” Sparkle said.
“As of now, you’re a murder suspect. I need you to tell me what happened.”
Sparkle bit her lip, “I was...was coming home from shopping.” It was a flat out lie but the fact that she was homeless was something she didn’t want others to know. “And I heard screaming, and a saw….a pony...who was...he was...getting attacked. I rushed over to save him, but they just pushed me down.”
Shooting Rifle was writing down word for word what Sparkle was saying, she hesitated before speaking again.
“Then, they...pulled out...a knife. One of them said, ‘you’re gonna regret stepping in,’ then they tried stabbing me, I closed my eyes really tight. I expected to be stabbed but I only heard screams and fire crackling. I opened my eyes and he was burning, I didn’t know what had happened but another stallion screamed, ‘witch! She’s a witch!’ I was so scared, and there was more...fire.”
Rifle looked up at from his notes, “are you sure, that’s what happened?”
“Yes. I’m not crazy! Do I look crazy,” Sparkle said.
“I’m sorry, I understand--”
“NO! You don’t understand, watching those men burn right before your eyes. The power that you feel, it felt like fire was in my blood, like my blood WAS fire.” Sparkle squeezed her eyes shut, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I killed ponies, they might not of been innocent, they might of killed others, could of been planning more murders. Or they could of been innocent people doing what they had to to survive in this God-awful city.”
“I’m sorry,” Rifle said again.
“Is that all you have to say? You should be afraid of me, I’m a killer!”
“No you’re not. You were just doing what you had to to protect yourself.”
“Yeah. Let’s go with that,” Sparkle said.
“What?”
“They were begging for me to stop but I didn’t. I let them feel all the fear they made me feel and then some,” Sparkle explained. The stallion actually looked frightened.
He pressed the small walkie talkie on his shirt, “I’m done with the interrogation. We need to move her to her cell, maybe giving her a number.”
“Who is this?”
“This is Shooting Rifle, send in guards” the stallion said.
“Sending guards.”
Then the door swung open, and Sparkle flinched. The guards looked like they were expecting a fight, some even wielding weapons, but quickly calmed down as they saw Sparkle just sitting there. Sparkle flinched before following behind him.
She stepped inside her cell, in there was a cot and a dresser. On the dresser were books that a foal would read. Sparkle turned around as the cell door was closed and locked. Two guards were standing sentry in front her cell.
Sparkle slumped to the ground, she pulled a book:
The ball is red.
The doll is orange.
Sparkle let the book drop, “hey when are you gonna let me out? I’m not a criminal!”
“Not yet,” the guard said.
“Trust me! I did nothing wrong,” Sparkle said.
“We’ll see,” said the other guard.
“What are you going to do with me,” Sparkle asked.
“We cannot tell you what we don’t know,” the first guard said.
“What’s your name?” Sparkle asked.
The guards pursed their lips, ignoring her question. Sparkle groaned and stepped away from the cell door. She looked around, already planning her escape, she saw a air vent that was screwed to the ceiling. If she could just it open. Sparkle dug around what she had in her dresser -a paper, arcade tokens, chewed gum-. Sparkle dropped to the floor, feeling under her bed and felt a paper. She pulled it out:
Expected something useful? HAHAHA!
Sparkle crumbled it into a ball, then tossed it at the back of one of the guards head. He flinched but didn’t retort. Sparkle climbed out her bed, she stared at the vent. The screws seemed to be loose enough, she could tell by the whirring sound coming from them as they spun around. She looked at the guards, they weren’t watching her, instead listening.
She slowly raised out of the bed, carefully not to have it creak under her. She touched the vent and a screw came loose, it dropped to the floor in a loud clank. Sparkle flinched, the guards didn’t seem to notice, she unscrewed the rest. And slowly lifted the vent off, She climbed into the vent.
“HEY!” The guard shouted.
Sparkle began to panic and furiously climbed inside the vent, she felt something tug on her tail but since she was moving so fast, the hoof slipped off. Sparkle began to climb through the air ducts, loud clanks and bangs rang in her ears painfully. Inside the vent it smelled like dust and sweat. Sparkle’s hooves began to tire quickly, and her shoulders burned.
She began to feel scared, as if she was going to die up there. Her salvation came from a vent she felt under her hooves. Sparkle pulled herself up to look through the vents.
“She escaped,” a mare said.
“I’m sorry.”
“No! She can use Fire Magic. She’s another one of those fire freaks, we haven’t seen another one in years, if she leave…”
“What?”
“I heard something,” the mare said and looked around. Sparkle began to crawl again, her hooves bucking against the metal.
“Damn rodents,” a pony said somewhere.
Sparkle continued to crawl until her hooves gave away and she began to pant. Sparkle groaned and pushed her hooves out from her sides, she grabbed the bottom of the air duct and pushed herself forward. She found a vent and slammed her hooves at it with all her strength, she pulled herself into the hole. Sparkle looked around, it seemed to be some storage room, she let her body fall, her hooves hitting the ground first.
Sparkle looked at the boxes, finding bullets, taser, and tools. She took a lockpick in her hoof and flew back into the vent. Sparkle began to feel happy that her escape plan was working so well.
The next room she stopped at was the laundry room. Piles of police uniforms and inmate uniforms were in baskets scattered across the room, shirts and pants liad she found a dry police uniform and put it on, tying her brown mane into a braid. She used the lockpick on the door and pushed it open, Sparkle began to feel nervous, Sparkle bit her lip to avoid looking suspicious. “Ey you’ve seen Miss Sparkle,” a guard asked.
“No, I haven’t seen Sparkle,” Sparkle lied.
“Keeping looking, Chief Magnum isn’t letting anypony leave until she is found,” the stallion added.
“I’m sorry. I have to go,” Sparkle said. “Looking for Sparkle I mean…” Sparkle dashed off, finding a fire exit. She looked around briefly before pushing the door open. To her dismay it was one with a security alarm on it. A loud ringing echoed through the hallway. Sparkle cursed as she saw a guard run toward her.
“I know that face,” Shooting Rifle shouted. Sparkle took off at speed she never knew before. Sparkle quickly leveled off, she had just killed five ponies, then broke out of jail. This would be a crazy week.