A Fire on the East -5-What did you do when one of your best friends caught fire? The question was as ludicrous to Rainbow Dash's mind as the actual situation. Flames rushed over Fluttershy's coat as if she were doused in kerosene, and yet she did not budge."Fluttershy!" Even as she called the pegasus' name, Rainbow suspected she might as well have tried to yell up to her friend in space. Her own voice sounded remote to her, like it was trying to cross a vacuum to reach her ears. But, short of burning herself as well, yelling was the only thing Rainbow could do. "Fluttershy!"The other pegasus failed to respond, at least out loud. What took only a few moments se
A Fire on the East -4-Fluttershy and her friends stepped out of Princesses' tower just as the last of Flamewithers' shops closed for the night. With Twilight's cloud-walking spell active on the non-pegasi of the group, Pinkie Pie wasted no time testing the springiness of the cloud beneath her hooves."Hey, Rainbow Dash!" she squeaked, flailing her hooves. "Look at me! I'm flying just as high as you are!"The pegasus cackled. "Oh, yeah? How high can you go?" With three potent flaps of her wings, she ascended to a height halfway up the Princesses' tower."Hey!"While the others watched Rainbow and Pinkie play catch-me-if-you-can, Fluttershy found herself at the
A Fire on the East -3-An instant of darkness, a universe of pressure, cold and unremitting against her coat. Immobilized in a drop of cosmic amber. Then the infinite dark pulled back like the snatching of a stage curtain, Fluttershy registered the supple give of a cloud beneath her hooves—and then the eastern breeze swirled across her face.The breeze was hot like the blast of an opened oven: dry, and impatient."Ugh. Twilight?" Rainbow Dash was rubbing her mane back in place some ways off. "I wish you'd told us to expect that before you popped us up here."Applejack's eyes had yet to stop rolling in opposite directions, but they were getting there. ""I'm
A Fire on the East -2-The candle helped. She spent the night loafing in a field of sunny, summer grass as a lavender breeze drifted over her.***The next morning, Angel helped Fluttershy ready medicines for the early patients before they ate a quick breakfast of field greens and vinaigrette topped with watercress and cilantro. When the pegasus journeyed outdoors, the sky glowed with the warm purple of an early morning. She heard low thuds rumbling over from Sweet Apple Acres—probably Applejack, she thought, bucking her spring crop while most other ponies slept. Fluttershy's morning patients kept her too busy to visit the farmpony in the mornings, which was
A Fire on the East -1-"Mama?" Beneath the glowing, ash-strewn sky, the butter-colored filly's voice did not carry far over the armored pegasi galloping past her, their hoofbeats pounding in her ears. "Mama? Where are you?""Fluttershy!" An ochre mare in golden armor spotted the filly beneath the confusion and raced over, tearing up bits of cloud as she went. No sooner did the mare reach her did she scoop her up and take off, pumping her wings for altitude."What are you doing out here?" the mare demanded. Though her peppermint mane fell into Fluttershy's face, the filly could see the fatigue hanging beneath those orange eyes. "Why aren't you with the other foals
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