> Watching the World Burn Again > by Silver Butcher > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Because we still can > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville was lush with creatures going about their general business, a very typical sight for most everypony nowadays, but for one very specific pony, it was a sight to be held. "What even is that?" Sunset asked as a Hippogriff flew over them "Is that a Dragon riding a Yak? Is there a Griffin selling muffins over there?" "I told you," Twilight said with a smile "Thanks to my School Ponyville had become a center for Species to meet and greet." Twilight rubbed her hoof against her chest "So how have things been going for you?" "Oh, a few...magical things have happened at the school," Sunset said with a smile "But all the alternate versions of your friends and you are talking about colleges and their futures, and...I think when it's all said and done I'll be coming back to Equestria, the Human worlds nice but..." Sunset lit her horn and quickly reorganized the table with a grin "...I miss using my horn so much," as Sunset enjoyed using her magic without rhyme or reason Twilight's ear twitch when she heard whispering, she focused on it and upon making it out her head snapped to the right and looked at the roof opposite of her, Sunset noticed the sudden movement and followed her gaze to find an odd sight, Starlight was chilling on a lawn chair eating popcorn, on her right sat a Unicorn she realized must have been the Equestrian version of Trixie who was drinking a soda, and on Starlight's left sat Spike who was also drinking a soda, Before Sunset could even begin to wonder what they where doing Twilight filled her in. "Are you Three still doing this?" She demanded angrily, the trio stared at her for a moment before Starlight spoke up. "It's my day off," She said simply "I'm just trying to find something to watch," before Sunset could ask what was happening Spike suddenly spoke up. "Hey look!" His two companions all followed his gaze and so did Sunset, the Equestrian version of Fluttershy was looking through a notepad while calmly riding on the back of a pony-sized crab with baskets full of groceries in its claws. "What the hell?" Sunset asked in confusion as Fluttershy passed them, still looking through her notes. "See that," Spike called down the Twilight "That crab's here thanks to us," The Trio all cheered before immediately losing interest in Twilight and looking up at the space above Sugar cube Corner, Sunset was in a position so she couldn't see what they were looking at and, after the trio all gave a small cheer she gave in and teleported next to them, Twilight jumped at the action while the other three gave no reaction to her, She looked to where they were and say the Equestrian Pinkie doing the same thing they were on a different roof before actually noticing what they were watching, a grey pegasus was waving flags around and causing disarray in air traffic she watched as she caused a mini bird tornado that resulted in several other pegasi and a griffin to try and fix the ordeal only for more birds to crash into them as the grey pegasus directed them to go the wrong way. After a few minutes, Starlight spoke up. "Who keeps giving her this job?" She pondered as another birdnado started forming. "I bet it's Rainbow Dash," Spike said with a laugh. "Sunset," Twilight called getting the group's attention. "Please tell me you're not joining them in their absurd watch the world like a tv thing. Before Sunset could respond Spike spoke up. "We do end it off by actually watching a movie," He called back before rubbing his chest "My Marefriend gets us in for free," "Twilight" Sunset called down with a very serious look "I will have nothing but regrets if I don't do this," Twilight gave a very audible groan as Starlight smiled. "Well then, let's change the scenery," she lit her horn, and in a flash, the four of them were gone. The four sat in silence, all of them now having Popcorn and soda, before them was Fluttershy's animal sanctuary, Several Large crabs could be seen lazing about around it, the main spectacle was a Giraffe and monkey, a dog, a badger, and a mouse all playing what looked to be a card game with leaves and crackers. The Monkey was climbing up the Giraffe's neck to show it the hand before going back down and playing the Giraffe's leaf of choice, the Mouse threw its hand down in anger as it apparently didn't have any leaves to play, the Dog whined and the Badger, mad lad that he was put down a leaf and glared up at the Giraffe. "This is kind of intense," Trixie whispered "Even though Trixie has no idea what the fuck is happening," "Kind of like watching a show in another language," Sunset muttered as the Monkey and the Giraffe talked before the Monkey climbed down slowly, reached down, and quickly swiped most of the crackers before flipping the table, the Giraffe hightailed it with the Monkey and the Badger let out an angry scream and picked up a large stick, with the dog and mouse doing the same before giving chase to the thieves. "What the fuck is happening?" Spike asked as more animals joined one side or the other and an apparent animal gang war started up. "I think it's time to leave," Starlight said, "Fluttershy would be livid if she knew we saw this and did nothing to stop it." "Agreed," her three friends chimed back and with a flash, they were gone. The 4 sat munching on their dwindling snacks as they sat on ontop of a building watching two ponies arguing in the middle of the street. "No, we need to go left," one of the ponies said angrily. "No, it right, we need to go right," The 2nd pony said with determination. As the two argued the ponies around them just avoided them. "What are they arguing about?" Sunset asked as she ran out of Popcorn, "Where are they trying to go?" "I have no idea," Starlight replied with a shrug "They do this every day at the same time, in the same spot, and they always end up walking back the way they came still arguing. The four continued to watch as the two ponies tried to out loud one another. "Why do you watch this?" Sunset asked in confusion. "We really wanna know where they're trying to go," Trixie replied as they watched the two continue their bickering. "One day they're gonna realize they can just go both ways and it'll be amazing," Sunset looked at her companions before looking back at the duo. "You could just tell them that," She said plainly. "Yeah but that would spoil the fun," Spike replied simply "By that logic we could just ask them where they're trying to go, but where's the fun in that?" Sunset frowned and looked back to the two still arguing ponies, after about 5 minutes a pony emerged from the building they were sitting on and told the two to stop scaring her customers, the two left, Sunset assumed back the way they came, still arguing about who was right. "One more time?" Starlight asked happily. "One more time!" Spike and Trixie cried out, the three looked over at Sunset who blinked. "Oh, um, yeah let's go again," Starlight lit her horn, and the four disappeared in a flash. "Not this again," Trixie sighed as the 4 sat in a burning building. "Again?" Sunset demanded, "You guys are crazy, why are we just sitting in a burning building?" "This is fine," Spike and Starlight said in unison. "How is this fine?" Sunset demanded as a part of the ceiling collapsed on top of Starlight's magic ceiling protecting them from falling debris. "Why are you just letting this building burn? at least call the fire department or something!" "Relax," Starlight replied calmly "I teleported all the residents and most of the valuables out once I saw it was up in flames, just sit back and enjoy the sound of fire crackling in stereo," before Sunset could say anything else the floor around them started cracking, the watched as it slowly formed the shape of a star around them. "That's not natural," Spike noted, just as the floor fell Starlight teleported them all away. Sunset was ready for a lot of things, what she wasn't ready for was to find they were once again in Ponyville with the grey pegasus still making a mess of air traffic. "Why are we back here?" Sunset demanded. "You just don't sound like your having fun," Starlight replied with a shrug "You don't have to stay and watch stuff with us if you don't want to," "If I didn't wanna say I'd have teleported back here," Sunset said simply "I don't fully understand it but it's kind of fun," she leaned her head sideways before adding "mostly anyway, the sitting in a burning building was kind of weird, but I still feel I wanna ride this all the way to the end, we haven't gone to a movie yet so clearly you have more stuff you plan to do," "That is current," Trixie confirmed with a nod "We end at the movie's," "Well then," Sunset raised her hoof and the others smiled as she asked. "One more time?" "One more time!" The other three called out before Starlight lit her horn and in a flash, they were off to watch whatever came next. > Because we still will > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The four sat silently, watching the scene before them play out, they were sitting on top of the sweet apple acre's barn and watching Applejack and a pegasus argue as a massive amount of rain began to flood the farm and only the farm. "I am not paying for all of this," Applejack said angrily as did her best to walk through the muddy terrain, the pegasus was holding a clipboard and had a cloud over him acting as an umbrella. "This here says you ordered 10 hours worth of Rainfall," he said looking at this clipboard. "I ordered 10 minutes of rain, not 10 hours," Applejack said angrily before motioning around "And It was light rainfall, not a thunderstorm," As though to emphasize her point thunder boomed overhead and lighting stuck somewhere in the Apple orchard, most likely causing a fire that was quickly drenched by the booming rains. "Well I can't just pack these up and leave," The pegasus said as he motioned around "When a storm starts you can't just unstart it, the best we can do is unhook the cloud restrains and hope it blows away sooner rather than later," as Applejack made her way back to her home and the Pegasus got to work telling his team to unhook the cloud's from their restraints Sunset looked around. "We...should probably help," She said as she looked up at the swirling storm clouds. "Yeah...," Starlight agreed "We usually prefer to watch and not get involved, but I'd feel pretty bad if Sweet apple acres were flooded just cause we didn't do something as simple as making magic wind," Starlight and Sunset both looked out over the storming winds and waited for the Pegasui's to leave, next to them Trixie was strapping herself and Spike down for the incoming winds that would blow away the clouds and that could blow them all away as well. They watched as the Pegasui's all packed up and assured Applejack that she would not have to pay a bit for the storm and left, leaving Applejack still steaming with anger, before she could turn back to her home she heard a creaking and turned to it, and watched as Starlight and Sunset sent a massive wind over her farm, sending the storm away towards to ever-free forest. "Ponyville's gonna get a little wet but I'm sure they can suck it up," Starlight said as she stopped using her magic, the wind still blowing against them, she turned and Found Trixie biting into Spike's tail as he failed to keep his wings tucked in and was being sucked up in the wind. "One more time?" Sunset asked as she used her magic and put a wall behind them, saving Spike from the wind and Trixie from losing a tooth in her struggle to keep the dragon from the wind. "One more time!" The rest of the group agreed. "Thanks for the help," Applejack called up to them, they waved at her before teleporting away. "Well, this is adorable," Starlight declared as the group sat on the side of the roof of a building in the Crystal Empire, below them, a group of Crystal ponies were attempting to solve an adorable stampede of tiny ewe's, a Crystal pony holding a Shepard's stick was at the scene talking to Shining Armor, who looked like he couldn't decide if the situation was funny or irritating. "ok, but why?" Shining asked as he rubbed his face with his hoof. "why here of all places?" "Well one of the ewe's came this way, and I went to go get it, and then the rest started following me and...well I couldn't get them to turn back," Shining groaned and decided irritating was the correct term for his current situation. "Well can't you turn them around," "Can't turn around," The Shepard said indignantly "Have to loop back around," "What does that even mean?" Shining demanded angrily. "That makes Zero Scenes!" "Well I don't see you sheparding 100 tiny Ewe's!" The Shepard snapped back. "Funny," Shining snapped back "I don't see you doing it either," "I dunno about this one," Spike muttered "Seems kind of contrived, how did the ewe's even get this far before being noticed?" "Spike," Trixie whined "Why are you always pointing out Plot holes?" "You do it to," Spike snapped back "Like the first time we were in a fire," "The Floor broke in a circle around us, it was stupid and you know it," "Yeah, but you called it out just as much as I did," "Turn around," Shining demanded. "I have to loop back around," The Shepard insisted "Otherwise the flock will start splitting apart," "Can we watch something else?" Sunset asked "This feels like it'll take a while," "One more time," The other three whispered before teleporting away. The Team where sitting on a bench surrounded by screaming fans while two Luchador Ponies found in the ring. "Y la cara del puño de la Cena está siendo golpeada en la cara repetidamente por el Capitán Puma Ears!!!" An announcer screamed out, "Ojalá tuviera puños en lugar de lo que sea que sea la jodida pezuña en español," "What the fuck is happening?" Spike demanded as one of the Luchador's pulled a Fish out from under the ring and began slapping his opponent Mercilessly. "Y ese Luchador debido, cuál es su cara, acaba de sacar una puta Trucha" Another announcer cried out. "I have no clue," Sunset cried out "I Don't speak Spanish," The Luchador continued beating his competitor with the fish without stopping "El Puma Granda está siendo golpeado con un pez muerto, ¡oh espera, acaba de insultar a la madre de Face of Fist!" The one with the fish let out a gasp and fell to the floor, the other Luchador, Cheered. "Ese tipo se desmayó, El Gato uno gana, Para mal se olvidó de pagar sus impuestos, Aquí viene el IRS!!!" A group of Ponies with Brief cases all crawled out from under the ring and began beating the winner senseless while throwing Tax forms at him. "What the fuck?" Starlight cried out "What is happening," "Shit, it's the IRS, Get us out of here" Trixie cried out. "Just one more time please, Trixie can not let them see her," "ONE MORE TIME!" The Rest cried out before teleporting again. > Because we did it before > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So everyone's just cool with that colt selling Suicide Barrels?" Sunset asked with concern as they sat at the edge of Canterlot waterfall and watched as a Pony climbed inside a Barrel and shoved it into the water, letting out loud hooting noises as many ponies watched him float to his untimely demise. "That's the stupid part," Starlight laughed "If you try to save them then the idiot in the Barrel will try to shove you over the falls for destroying their stunt career'" "We pulled a guy in once and he shoved Trixie over the edge," Trixie said indignantly "Starlight caught me and Spike lit him on fire, a few moments later he ended up going over the edge either way," "They made it illegal to sell barrels to tourists once and there was a riot," Spike added. Sunset looked at her companions, who all stared at the colt drifting towards the edge screaming in excitement. "I can't just sit back and watch..." Sunset began only to be cut off by Spike. "By all means wait until he starts crying for help, pull him in, and watch as he shoved one of us over the side," Sunset looked at Spike for a moment when the screams of excitement turned to fear, on impulse Sunset lit her horn and recalled the barrel in. "Are you ok?" She asked, offering the colt in the barrel a hoof, only to have it smacked. "What's your problem?" He demanded "You just ruined my stunt bruh, This was my ticket to stardom and you just botched it," "Wha...you were screaming for help?" "Uh, no it was excitement, I had a lot of bits going into this and you've ruined outshot, you better pay up or things will get ugly lady," "How about, and hear me out on this," Spike cut in "You fuck off," Spike almost didn't react as the Colt shoved Spike aside with far too much force and sent Spike near the edge before Spike could slide off the edge Starlight grabbed him in her magic and Trixie very simple punched the Colt in the face and sent him screaming back into the falls. "It's a scam," Spike said with a groan as he dusted himself off and then pointed towards the Barrel Pony, who they saw teleport the colt back to him. "And an old one too, so many ponies think they can make it in Canterlot, things don't work out, they end up in debt, and by the end of it there involved in Barrel scams," "Am...am I on something right now?" Sunset asked in sincere confusion "Does that even work?" "In our experience, sometimes," Trixie shrugged "On tourists usually, Trixie almost fell for it herself once," "Well this has ruined the peace of the falls," Starlight sighed "One more time?" "One more time," Her three companions agreed before they disappeared in a flash "Ok explain," Sunset demanded as she and the others sat on top of the roof of a house while inside a dome that made them invisible and unhearable, before them a young filly was playing along in her backyard with her pet dog. Her Grand Father napping on the porch. "When we first started this one of the things we watched was open heart surgery," Starlight said calmly "After the surgery concluded we decided we'd stop back in to see how the patient was doing, then it escalated to use paying off her hospital bill, then it escalated further when they tracked us down, then it escalated beyond that when we were named the child's godparents," Sunset looked at them for a long moment before smiling. "I thought you didn't interfere," She said with a chuckle "But it sounds like you tried to save a guy from the waterfall, you helped this young girl's family, and if I remember correctly you congratulated yourselves on Fluttershy riding a giant crab," "In our defense," Spike retired without hesitation "we simply noticed it was always the same four colts being sent over the falls and were curious as to what was happening," "Also technically we used Twilight's Money to pay off the surgery," Starlight added quickly "It just so happens I accidentally used the card she gave to Spike that had his name on it," "And we just kind of felt bad about watching the Mother Crab get murked," Trixie finished, the trio all looked away from Sunset and turned to the foal, who was now rolling around with her dog laughing. "She's just so precious," Trixie cheered with a smile. "I'm gonna buy her so many unnecessary things," Spike agreed. "And we'll do it all with Twilights Money," Starlight finished happily. "Look I'm just saying this feels creepy," Sunset "Can we watch something else?" "I suppose it is getting late," Starlight noted. "Trixie declares it's time for the final act, the movie," "Sounds great to me," Spike agreed, "My Marefriend said some of her friends are dying to get to know me better, apparently she booked us a hotel room and everything so we can spend the night all getting to know each other," "I'm sorry what?" Sunset asked looking at Spike with confusion. "One More Time," The other three cried out in response before disappearing in a flash. Sunset happily munched on Popcorn while she watched what was clearly a poorly edited B-Movie at an Equestrian Drive-in movie theater. Starlight and Trixie were destroying a shared plate of Nachos, Spike had been dragged away by a large number of giggling waitresses and had just returned near the movie's climax. "You get yourself some more of that good-ass nothing?" Trixie asked casually. "So much more," Spike confirmed merrily. "So very much more," "Does Twilight know about Spike and that Waitress?" Sunset asked Starlight in mild confusion. "I dunno," Starlight replied confidently, without missing a beat she began eating a large amount of Popcorn to avoid the conversation. "Seems like you do, and the answer is no," Sunset muttered in response before being drawn back into the action of the movie, Sunset did her best to ignore as several waitresses walked up to their table, gave Spike a kiss, and informed him he'd already given them enough of a tip before moving along. "How much did you give them?" Sunset asked with mild concern. "I didn't," Spike whispered back with a chuckle. "out of casual curiosity, how much do you pay?" Trixie asked, Sunset immediately left the conversation and turned to Starlight, who simply shook her head. "I'm just here to enjoy my night, so long as they come home with me at the end I don't care what they do apart or together," Sunset did her best to ignore how out of control the night was becoming as more waitresses wished Spike a good night and told him they'd be happy to visit him in Ponyville anytime. Once the Movie credits began rolling Sunset took a deep breath as the trio all turned to her. "This was weird," She decided confidently "It was definitely fun and I can see myself wanting to do it again, but not too soon," "We do this every Thursday," Starlight said casually "From 9 am to 9 pm if you ever wants to join us we always spend 1 pm at Sugar Cube Corner, meet us there on Thursday Anytime, and you're welcome to tag along," Starlight lit her horn and in a flash, the group found themselves all together outside of Twilights Castle. "Welp you to have a good one," Spike said as he and Trixie began walking away from the entrance, "I'm spending the night at Trixie's," Starlight and Sunset simply shook their heads in Trixie's direction, who responded by holding her head up high. "Trixie is her own mare and does whatever she sees fit to do with whomever she seems fit to do it with. If they just so happen to pay Trixie a large sum of bits then that's just a cherry on top, now come Spike Trixie needs a new Wagon wheel and we have several payment plans to discuss," The Two hurried off into the distance and both Starlight and Sunset walked towards the front doors. "I forgot to ask," Sunset realized as they reached the door "Why do you guys do this?" "We like sitting back and watching the world burn," Starlight said simply "It's fun to divide whether to leave it to burn, fuel to flames, or smother them out completely," "That sounds kind of evil," Sunset noted. "Oh if it was evil would my sweet little god Daughter Cozy be coming to attend the school of Friendship next month? I think not,"