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.
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.
The first thing she noticed when she woke up was that her throat hurt. Like, tried-to-drink-glass-shards painful. She opened her eyes slowly, and was surprised to find herself not in her room in her family’s apartment, but in a hospital bed, hooked up to some medical stuff. Determined not to panic, she looked around the room, and realized the quiet murmur she heard was that of a strange dark grey -almost black- pegasus stallion standing just outside the door to the room, talking to a nurse. Before she could begin to hear what was being said, the nurse glanced her way, and started when she realized her patient was awake. The stallion turned to look, smiled, and bid the nurse fare well. The nurse left, off to help some other poor sap stuck in another bed.
The stallion stepped into the room and closed the door gently. His eyes were white-blue, and his cutie mark was a pair of opposing lightning bolts inside the silver outline of a shield. His mane was the same dark grey as his coat. All in all, not much stuck out about him, with the exception of an earring bearing the Sun-and-Moon, the sigil of the Kingdom of Equestria.
“Good morning. I’m glad to see you're finally awake.” All with a kind, warm smile and gentle tone as he came to sit next to her bed.
The filly began to say something, but stopped when her throat flared up even more painfully.
“Shh, don’t talk, you inhaled a lot of smoke last night. Here, drink this.” He passed her a cup of water that had been sitting on her bedside table. “The doctor tells me you’ll be in a bit of pain for the next few days, but you should be fine after that. Now, I understand you must have questions, and I’ll answer everything soon, but please bear with me. My name is Sunny, I’m working with the guard.” He reached back to the table and grabbed a notepad and pencil which she hadn’t noticed. “Here, can you write your answers on this?” she nodded. “Good. Let’s start easy: What’s your name?”
Spitfire She turned the pad so he could see.
“Okay Spitfire, can you tell me where you live?”
4927 Puddinghead Blvd. Apt. 4D
“And who lives there with you?” His expression became a bit more serious with this question
My Mom, Dad, and Grandma Whirlwind At this, sadness flashed in his eyes, so quickly that Spitfire wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all. “I see…do you have any other family?”
Brother in Canterlot, Rapidfire “Do you know his address?” She nodded again. “Good. I want you to flip to the next page, and write down his name and address for me. Can you do that?” One more nod as she complied.
Once done, she offered the notepad to the guard. He accepted it, and tore out the page she had just finished. He then returned the pad to her lap, and stepped out of the room. It was a few more minutes until he returned without the page, a somber look on his face.
“Alright, hopefully your brother should be here in a day or two. I have one more question: What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up here? Any and every detail you can give me will help.”
Spitfire wracked her brain for answers, but the only thing her remembered was Dinner. Mom and Dad were fighting…something about Rapid…I was scared…they were in the living room…grandma was sitting in her chair, telling them to keep it down. They got louder and louder…and then this bright light just…appeared. That’s all.
He watched her as she wrote all of this, listening even though his mind was clearly elsewhere.
After a few moments thought, he looked at her again. “Thank you, that helps clear up quite a lot, actually. Now then: as promised, I will answer any questions you may have.”
It was true, she did have a lot of questions, not the least of which were What happened? Why am I in the hospital??
He hesitated, gauging her for how much of the truth she was ready for. The reply was quiet, hushed in remorse. “There was a fire last night at your apartment. As I said, you inhaled a lot of smoke. I believe you were unconscious for most of that time though, so you didn’t take in as much as you might have otherwise.”
There was another question she was afraid to ask…but she had to know the answer: Where are my parents?
At this, Sunless Dawn looked away, unable to hold the filly’s gaze. It took him a few moments to find his voice, and when he spoke again, it was with a heavy heart. “The doctors are still identifying all the remains from last night, but there’s little doubt in my mind; I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid your parents are dead.”
The world seemed to stop and fall away. Disbelief warred with confusion in Spitfire's young mind; Mom...Dad...dead? Gone? Was that even a thing? Could that even happen?? No she decided. He must be wrong. He's lying!
Without thinking she launched herself at the horrid intruder who thought he could take her parents away. She hit him full force, shoving him onto his back on the floor, mindlessly thrashing and screaming in fury.
It didn't do much good, since he immediately grabbed hold of her hooves and held her at arm's length. She quickly lost strength, and with it, her rage. Spitfire collapsed against the guard she had been trying to pummel, crying desperately under the realization that her parents truly were gone.
He held her there, comforting her as best he could, until she cried herself to sleep.
I was just a foal, playing happily in their old house. My parents were watching me over steaming cups of coffee. But something was wrong, the normally cool greens and blue of the house were different. Warm colors mixed with the normal cool ones, making the house take a sickly yellow-orange hue. I looked around, and realized that the walls were blazing with fire, and tongues of flame licked at the table Mom and Dad were sitting at. all at once, we were all engulfed. They never noticed.
It was my first day of school, and I was sitting at my first desk bouncing with excitement. I didn't know any of the other foals, but that was okay; they'd all be my new best friends soon enough. That's what happened at school, right? The teacher hadn't come in yet, and when the door opened we all turned to see. Standing in the doorway was a pony made entirely of fire, and as she walked in, the flames spread with every step. The others started looking concerned as the flames touched them. Right before the flames reached me, I saw her face.
In the living room of the family's apartment, Mom and Dad were arguing again. It must have been the millionth time by now, and they always just said the same old stuff; Dad worried that Rapid was becoming a no-account bum, Mom defending him, telling Dad to back off, at least Rapid has a paying job. As they argue, the flames slowly came back, slowly building as the argument became more heated. Suddenly, right as things came to a head, Dad finally lost his temper. As he reached out to slap Mom, a huge bright light flashed.
When it cleared, the room was charred black. Mom and Dad had been thrown against the wall, left as nothing but charred husks. Grandma Whirlwind was still in her chair burning, laughing, facing the corner. Then her chair turned, and her face was the same one I'd seen in my classroom
The hospital, me in the bed again. The guard who'd been there sat on the floor, watching me, waiting for something. I felt something brushing against my hoof, almost like cloth in a wind, and looked down. There were the flames again, brushing up against me like kittens. The sheets started burning, turning black. I looked back at the guard, and behind him, my family stood. Mom, Dad, and Grandma charred to the bone. Rapid behind them. And next to the guard, the same fire-pony sat, scorching the floor where she touched. She grinned with that same face, and lunged at me. The last thing I saw was her face flying at me hungrily.
My face.
