A Rumble in Appleoosa - (3) A Burning Sensation

       It was a hot summer's day on Sweet Apple Acres, and Applejack was on fire. Or at least, some of the wood that burned brightly above her was. Dust, soot, and smoke swirled around the hellish landscape around her as flames licked greedily at the dry wood. Her lovely baby blue hotel room had been replaced with wooden slivers and stakes which peppered the walls. In front of her, Silverback's barrel was speckled with debris, the stallion's lifeless eyes staring straight into hers. Applejack hated to admit it, but it would seem Silverback's enormous girth had saved her from the blast.

       "Blast...?" Applejack coughed, her lungs rejecting the poor excuse for air in the hotel. As the dazed mare started to orient herself upright, a frozen fear accompanied her. "Fluh-Fluttershy!" Applejack called out weakly, drawing herself up to all fours. "Fluttershy!?" Looking about, Applejack couldn't be sure what happened, but she knew she was alone in her room, and that the yellow pegasus was nowhere to be found. Struggling to keep on her hooves, Applejack pushed forward, her eyes looking everywhere for a strand of pink hair. A yellow pegasus plume. Anything.

       The door to her room embedded into the side of Silverback, Applejack easily found herself in the upper hallway of the burning hotel by bypassing a large hole in the floor. Keeping her head low, Applejack peered through the rising smoke. She could see into the floor below, splinters and debris filling the hotel room below. Thankfully, Applejack didn't see anypony down there. Taking a deep breath of what she hoped was cleaner air in some corner of her room, the farmer leaped over the hole, heading out unto the balcony hallway overlooking the foyer.

       The foyer itself was an inferno in every corner, and Applejack saw the entrance had been completely collapsed under the strain of some explosion. "Fluttershy!" Foregoing the need to save her breath, Applejack doggedly stepped through the smoke and ash.

       Suddenly, the floor under her forehoof gave way, the pony barely having time to rebalance her weight before a pillar of flame shot up through the exposed hole, lapping hungrily at the new oxygen Applejack had unwittingly provided. Sliding her hoof up to her head, Applejack reached for her hat to filter the smoke, drawing it over her mouth as she deftly avoided the roaring blaze at her feet.

       "Celestiadammit!" Black's voice cut through the smoke as the giant stallion of a pony barreled through a doorway, flames licking at his tail as the deputy clung weakly to his back, Butterscotch and Black Bull rolling out of the way of debris. The door behind them collapsed, leaving Black coughing for his next breath while Butterscotch struggled for her own through the gag over her muzzle. Applejack's eyes narrowed as she caught sight of black, her anger flaring as she took in the sight of Butterscotch, still bound, even as the building around them fell apart. "Silverback, you crossed your damn wires! I had the TNT go off –" Black stopped when he noticed Applejack, hat replaced on her head, standing above him on the stairs to the foyer. Black Bull's eyes danced about in his head. "Where in Tatarus is Silverback!?"

       "Dead. Where is Fluttershy." Applejack commanded.

       "Dead!?" Black shouted, his hoof stomping on the ground. "Well, I guess he triggered the door charge."
       Applejack shook her head, one hoof taking each step tentatively as she worked her way down. "Where is Fluttershy? Where is my mare?"

       "Your mare?" Black Bull echoed, his smile growing. "That little pegasus was your fillyfriend?" Somehow, despite the situation of a burning building with no available exits except second story windows, the coughing stallion laughed aloud. "That's too perfect."

       "Way Ah see it, Black, getting yourself trapped in a burnin' building ain't my idea of a perfect plan. Now." Applejack's hoof hit the last step as part of the stairs collapsed behind her. She didn't look. "Where is Fluttershy?"

       Black leaned down, his breath stinking of salt and strong cider. A smile curled past his lips. "Search me." Looking over Butterscotch, Black sniffed at the smoke as he disregarded her continued presence. "With any luck, some of the TNT turned her into a fine pink mist."

       Applejack felt her eyes narrow on instinct. "Y'all best take that back before I finish what my brother started." Shifting her hat, Applejack's tail whipped dangerously around.

       "Brother?" Black Bull shook his head. "Ya can't be..."

       "What, a little family resemblance not clicking for you? Big Mac sure hit you hard." Spurned on, Applejack ignored the little voice in her head. The one that told her the building was going to collapse, that her air was running low. The heat was oppressive. Applejack ignored all of that. "Now you're going to tell me where the love of my entire life is, and your going to release that mare, find us a way out, and then humbly accept the fate you've chosen for yourself, or you ain't leaving this building in one piece."

       Black's eye bulged as he looked over Applejack. "Your brother... ruined my life. I want him dead. He took Butterscotch. He took my freedom."

       "Y'all took the freedoms of everypony you met!" Applejack challenged. "Way I see it you ruined yourself."

       "No. I'm going to kill you." Black nodded at his own statement. Applejack took a step back as she noticed a change come over Black Bull. "Then, I'm going to kill your speck of a cousin." Black started to chuckle and laugh, filling the burning building with malevolent mirth. "And then, then I'm going to draw your brother out, and I'm going to kill him too!" Taking a step toward Applejack, Black Bull smiled ludicrously at her. "Then I'll have my revenge! First the sister, then the sheriff cousin, and then the main course himself. Then everypony will know what happens when you mess with Black Bull!"

       "Applejack!" Finally, the voice called through the burning wreckage of the collapsed entrance. "Oh dear, please oh please tell me you're okay! Oh my, Braeburn, please!"

       "Cousin! Are you okay in there!?"

       Black Bull whinnied loudly as he rushed Applejack down, the mare using her small stature to quickly move around the rampaging stallion, taking great care to be on the look out for any flailing hooves meant to hurt her. Leaping to the side, Applejack rolled across embers that littered the ground as the ceiling above cracked, sending new ash and flaming chips of wood down below. "Ah'm in here! Black's gone right crazy!"

       "Hold on, Jackie! I'll have you out of there in a jiff!"

       "Fluttershy, Ah can't tell you how good it is to hear your voice! I guess that goes for you too, Braeburn." Applejack shook her head, trying to clear the smoke that threatened her vision. Coughing, Applejack felt her knee give out a moment as the oxygen deprivation started to take it's toll on her. Before she could think on it, the charging madness that was Black Bull cleared through the smoke, steam pushing past his nostrils as he made to stomp on Applejack, the toned farmed having just a millisecond to leap out of the way, the experienced mare aiming a buck against Black's midsection. It connected gloriously, Black stumping into the burning wreckage of the entrance.

       Howling in pain as the fire licked at his coat, Black focused his pain-cleared mind on his opponent, taking the weakened Applejack off guard. Whipping his head about like a hammer, Applejack took the full force of the pony's weight to her barrel. Flown into the registration desk, the flame-weakened wood gave way against Applejack's weight, the wooden shrapnel cutting small gashes across her side as Applejack fought for win.

       "I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill your cousin." Black grunted, his heavy breath labored as he approached Applejack. "Gonna kill your brother. Then for kicks, I'm going to kill your fillyfriend." Applejack strained against the wood, prying herself back on to her hooves, her emerald eyes sharpening on Black.

       "No one hurts an Apple and gets away with it. Y'all took a cheap shot against my brother. Ya went to jail. Y'all broke out of jail to hurt my cousin, and now you're in a burning building." Looking over to Butterscotch, Applejack could only be relieved to see a slight breath in her chest, but the smoke in the building was billowing down now, and she hadn't much longer before all the oxygen was used up. "Ya buck me, and now part of yer coat is burned off."

       "And ya try to hurt Fluttershy. Ah'm gonna show you what happens when you hurt an Apple." Sliding her forehooves out, Applejack took a readied stance, her body wavering lightly in the intense heat. Sweat poured from under her brim, stinging her eyes. Smoke mixed with tears ran down her face.

       "I'll bruise all the Apples I want. I'll kill every last one of 'em!" Black roared. The stallion galloped toward Applejack, his body fueled by insanity. Applejack smiled weakly, her body twisting like lighting as Black drove himself forward, his mind reeling as he flashed back.

       Black Bull was galloping down the middle road of Appleloosa. Big Mac spun like lighting.

       Black Bull was galloping down the middle aisle of the hotel, Applejack spun like lighting.

       Their legs kicked out with the force to shake every single apple off a tree.

       And Black Bull went sprawling, his momentum reversed in an upward arc.

       Lain flat against the ground, Black Bull made no further movement against Applejack. Looking over her work, Applejack nodded weakly. "That one was just fer me." Looking around her, the muffled calls of the ponies outside the building barely reached her ears. "Sure is toasty in here. Ah'm feelin' right tired." Walking slowly over to Butterscotch, Applejack removed her hat and put it over her face, leaning over the mare, Applejack loosened the pony's bonds and ripped off the gag, resting it loosely over her mouth. To her surprise, Butterscotch moved.

       "Thanks...." she coughed, her hoof over the fabric to keep the air filtered. A loud crash interrupted the ponies as the upper floor balcony collapsed nearby, dusting the two mares full of hot embers. Applejack limply trundled backwards, supported by Butterscotch. "There has to be a way out!"

       "Ah'm right concerned there ain't a one." Applejack coughed, her knees giving out underneath her. The hard working pony stared at her legs in surprise, the last of her strength leaving her. "Black woulda left with you first chance he got. He must have left charges at all the windows, collapse 'em. Keep ponies from getting in or out." Wiping sweat from her brow, Applejack rested in the middle of the fiery expanse, her eyes loosely trailing the flames that licked against the ceiling. "Ah think he meant ta bury my cousin."

       "That's not the Black I knew..." Butterscotch murmured, shaking her head.

       Applejack made to huff, but instead ended up clearing her lungs of black smoke. Putting her head on her forehooves, she closed her eyes. "Don't tell me you're getting sentimental for the maniac."

       "Oh no,  he was a bastard," Butterscotch looked over to the entrance, where she could still hear Braeburn and some of the townsfolk screaming for them. Sighing, the deputy mare found a spot next to Applejack. "He was just a bully back then. This all seems a bit beyond him."

       "Ah guess prison changes a pony sometimes," Applejack murmured, her breathing becoming more labored.

       Butterscotch nodded, her eyes trailing across the stairs. "Hey AJ? Can I tell you something?" Applejack grunted in response, which Butterscotch assumed was an affirmative. "Your cousin is really hot."

       Applejack stopped breathing.

       Butterscotch blinked, leaning her head down next to Applejack. "AJ? Please don't tell me –"

       "Sweet on my cousin, are ya?" Applejack opened her eyes, pushing herself back onto her hooves. "Does he know?"

       Butterscotch looked up, a blast of heat washing over the two as the kitchen area collapsed. Above, one of the ceiling supports creaked dangerously. "I-I don't think so. He's... kinda the reason why I came back to Appleloosa. He an' your brother saved me."

       "Ah heard. Big hero, my brother." The irony of the statement was lost on Applejack as she stumbled forward to the door.

       "...lejack! Please! Say something! Anything!" Fluttershy's voice was screaming for her on the other side. "Please! Oh my goodness, Braeburn, please let me go in there, I can fly through the window again –"

       "Now listen up out there!" Applejack shouted for all she was worth. A sudden silence took over the outside. "Ah don't rightly know how much time Ah got in here, but it ain't lookin' mighty good."

       "Jackie, please, we're doin' everything we can-"

       "Ah know, Burnie. Ah know. But I got a mare in here who is mighty sweet on you cousin, and Ah really don't think it's right to keep a lady waiting," Applejack took a certain enjoyment at Butterscotch's scandalized expression. Looking over the flaming panels, Applejack watched a wooden plank fall over, letting in precious oxygen, in which the heat happily licked up, flaring near her and searing across her tail. "Celestia almighty!"

       "Careful, cousin! I'm coming to get you soon –"

       "Save it, Burnie. If Ah wait for you I might as well be vulture food." Sticking her nose toward the open planking, Applejack took in as much air as she could before the hair on her snout started to singe away. "Alright Butterscotch – " Spinning about, Applejack found that the poor mare had succumbed to the heat, her eyes closed. "Y'all make a good damsel." Grunting, Applejack felt her hooves move with a little less resistance, the oxygen returned to her blood. Shifting the mare onto her back, Applejack aimed herself for the plank on the wall. If the place was weak enough to have planks falling from the ceiling, Applejack guessed maybe the walls weren't all up to snuff, either. Aiming herself toward a flaming section of the wall, she braced herself. "Well, here goes nothing."

       "Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaw!" Headfirst, Applejack roared through the weakened, burning wall, smashing the weakened planks in a plume of fire as the pony shaped hole exploded forth. Applejack's hooves hit burning wood as she worked her way past the porch. Kicking up coals, Applejack leaped one last time into the dust and dirt of Appleloosa, Butterscotch rolling off her back and unto the ground. Stumbling, Applejack tried hard to keep herself upright, but eventually exhaustion took hold. Collapsing sideways, Applejack breathed in the cool, fresh air, blissfully unaware of the ponies busying themselves over stamping her tailfire out. Somewhere in her peripheral a pony had put water next to her face, and she stuck her tongue limply out to lap up the sweetest water she ever tasted. Taking her fill, Applejack coughed as she tried to blink away the burning smoke. "Fluttershy... where's Fluttershy?"

       "Oh my goodness, Applejack!" Rushing forward, the pegasus pried herself from the crowd, her eyes assessing everything about the farmer on the ground. Almost nothing remained of Applejack's orange coat, stained black from the soot and smoke that had permeated the building. Her blonde mane was singed, and her tail was significantly shorter, burned away from the fire. Her hat, however, seemed just fine. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,  I should have never left you –"

       "Sugar..." Applejack breathed, a cough escaping her lips in a smokey cloud. "Ah didn't know where you went. You got nothing ta apologize for." Taking in grateful breaths, Applejack pushed herself unto her four hooves.

       "I'm sorry, there was just... a huge explosion and Silver was flung into you and you shielded me. Suddenly there was fire everywhere and I couldn't lift you myself." Fluttershy hastily explained, the pegasus' hooves quickly setting to work helping a nurse pony who had appeared when Applejack hadn't noticed. "So I flew out the window to tell Braeburn where you were, but then the building started to collapse. I was so scared."

       Applejack minded the nurse pony who was busying herself with a bandage across her forehead where she had breached the wall of the hotel. Grunting, Applejack caught the attention of the nurse and shook her head. "Ah think Ah can handle myself for a few minutes." Fluttershy made as if to argue against Applejack's stubborn nature, but held her tongue. Looking about, Applejack's eyebrows, or what was left of them, fell upon the crowd of ponies. "What're y'all doing?"

       "Cousin?" Braeburn galloped up to his kin, but slowed considerably as Fluttershy moved herself between the two. Her face was a mask of caution, unsure if Applejack could take much more stimulus. Braeburn moved around the pegasus, taking great care not to put any strain on Applejack. "Y'all shouldn't be standing around, Jackie." With a confused gaze Applejack scarcely believed the words that came out of her mouth.

       "Where's Black?"

       Braeburn's face froze, his eyes flickering between Applejack and the burning building. "I-I'd believe he's still in there."

       Applejack snorted, her leaden hooves slowly taking a step toward the inferno. "Well what're y'all standin' around here for?" She sent a blazing look toward her cousin, pointing toward the hole in the wall she had made with her head. "There's a pony in there that needs saving!"

       "Jackie..." Braeburn started. "I don't think –"

       "Think nothin', Ah will not stand here when somepony can be saved." Taking another step forward, Applejack was surprised to see a flared yellow wing blocking her path. Her eyes followed the bone all the way to the bright cerulean eyes that she fell in love with. "Sugarcube?"

       Fluttershy retracted her wing, her eyes struggling to stay matched with Applejack's. "N-no."

       "Now sugar, Ah can't stand aside when somepony needs help-"

       "No!" Fluttershy said again, with more vigor. "I can't let you in there, I thought I lost you in there, I can't let you in there. The roof could cave in or–"

       "Well it ain't yet!" Applejack argued, her eyes growing hard. "Every second spent arguin' about it means another second lost until it does. Now Fluttershy, Ah lo–" The words died in her throat as a large crack roared out of the hotel, a section of the roof somewhere deep inside of the hotel giving away. "Ah ain't got time for this."

       Braeburn stepped forward with a shake of his head. "Cousin, Black tried to kill you–"

       Wheeling about, Applejack looked him hard in the eyes. "What of it? Ah am not a murderer!"

       "Murderer? Jackie, no one said you were a murderer."

       "Ain't I?" Applejack challenged, her eyes drawn to the blaze, the air around them growing hotter by the second. She had to admit, it was still a far cry colder than when she was inside the building. "Ah'm the one who laid Black flat, if he dies in there, then that's on mah head."

       "Y'all laid Black Bull flat?" Braebrun asked incredulously, the levity of the moment lifting with his eyebrows. "Shoot, there must be something about Ponyville Apples..."

       "Braeburn!" Applejack roared, her blood starting to boil. Another section of the hotel collapsed as Braeburn fell silent. Other ponies who had come out to see the fire were starting to back away, leaving just the fire brigade wetting the surrounding buildings to keep the fire contained.

       "Applejack!" Fluttershy shouted, refusing to be ignored any longer. Applejack returned her attention to Fluttershy, finally noticing the tears that fell from her face. "I'll go. You stay here."

       "Sugarcube, I can't ask you ta' do that." Applejack stepped forward, but Fluttershy back away, shaking her head.

       "No one asks you to do everything you do, Applejack. Now it's my turn." Fluttershy's wings flared, her voice shaky, but holding some lost sense of conviction. "I can't have your heart surrounded by guilt. Because I'd feel it too." Stepping toward the flames, Fluttershy winced as the flame bellowed at her.

       "Ah can't let you go alone, 'Shy!" Applejack leaped forward, her knees buckling as her weight fell on them. Despite her bravado, her body just wouldn't take the stress, her adrenaline from before starting to fade. "You go in, Ah'll chase you to the end." Alongisde the edge of the hotel, where Applejack had originally stayed this morning, some of the wall collapsed, the entire building leaning dangerously to the side. Both mares stared at the hole Applejack had made on her way out. "Ah wouldn't know what to do without you, Fluttershy."

       Braeburn had called his deputies around, relaying orders in a hushed voice as he started to push all the gawkers away from the fire. The rest he ordered to the other side of the building to keep the fire from spreading out into the shrubs and starting a bushfire. Approaching the two mares, Braeburn shook his hat. "Look, I know it's an unpopular decision, but..."

       "Ah'm not leaving a pony in there to burn away." Applejack started, but she was cut off by a chuckle and a well-placed hoof.

       "How about y'all let somepony whose job it is to go in and get that brute?" Braeburn suggested. Sure enough, a pony dressed in full fire brigade attire was already approaching the hole, the magically enhanced gear walking over the coals with no problem. "Ah swear, you Harmony gals have hero complexes or somethin'." Tittering his tongue, Braeburn walked alongside Applejack. Assessing her, he finally threw a hoof around his cousin and hugged her as soft as he could. His sheriff facade melted away, revealing the Braeburn Applejack grew up knowing. "Jackie, don't you ever scare me like that again, okay?"

       Fluttershy's hooves stayed glued to the ground, her wingtips still flared as she turned to look at Applejack and Braeburn, the former throwing a relaxed hoof over her cousin. "Genuine emotions from mah Burnie? Ah might start believing you'da missed me."

       "Shoot, Jackie," Braeburn sniffed, releasing his cousin, "Ain't nothin' like that. Imagine what I'd have to go through, telling Granny Smith you up and got yourself roasted like an Apple Pie." Chuckling away a stray tear, Braeburn reflexively ducked Applejack's weary retaliation. Braeburn gestured over to Butterscotch as she was placed on a stretcher, a small smile on his face. "Cousin, were you being, you know..."

       "Nah, she said she fancied you. Almost made it her dyin' words." Coughing harshly, Applejack couldn't help but keep a smile as she struggled to get the words out. "Celestia forbid. She gonna be okay?"

       Braeburn shrugged, Fluttershy trotting over next to Applejack, neither mare really detaching their eyes from the burning building and the ponies inside. "Worse she'll get might be in her head, dunno much. I'm gonna keep a good eye on her, though." Kicking a hoof on the ground, Braeburn struggled to match eyes with his cousin. Applejack raised an eyebrow, finally tearing her eyes away from the hotel.

       "Burnie? Y'alright?" Applejack breathed, but she felt Fluttershy's wing fall over her, bringing her close. "'Shy?"

       Fluttershy blushed, but she didn't say much as she leaned as hard as she could against Applejack. The farmer wore the most bemused expression on her face. "I just... need to know you're here. Next to me."

       Applejack's face softened. Braeburn gave them just a simple smile as he took in the sight of the burning hotel. "I don't think you knew how scary it was for us out here, with you in there."

       "Ah think Ah got an idea," Applejack said, her hoof running through Fluttershy's mane. She suddenly felt very tired, her rump sliding to the ground as she started to let the professionals handle Black. Fluttershy nuzzled closer, sitting next to Applejack as they overlooked the fire together. "Ah've been scared of a lot of stupid things this trip. Mostly mah stupid mistrust in how mah family might react to tha' love of mah life," Applejack sent an apologetic look over to Braeburn, her eyes meeting his for a moment, "but that wasn't important."

       "At least you didn't do anything stupid about it," Braeburn offered. Applejack gave an appreciative chuckle.

       "Didn't have time ta. Leave me to my own devices and Ah'm capable of anything." Fluttershy looked up, her eyes soft. Licking the side of Applejack's face, she rested her head on Applejack's.

       "I wasn't worried about any of that."

       Applejack exhaled long and soft through her nose, her eyes closing. "You're a stronger pony than I am, sugarcube."

       "Sir!"

       The shout came through clear, jostling the remaining ponies from their moment. Braeburn was the first to react, recognizing the voice immediately as his deputy in the building. "Heat Stroke, y'all okay in there?"

       The answer wasn't what he expected. In the next moment both Fluttershy and Applejack were nearly thrown back by the force of an explosion. Heat Stroke flew out of the building, the structural integrity of the main hall falling with his body as he was thrown across the ground, Braeburn moving to catch him as he slid. "Heat Stroke! Heat Stroke, what happened in there!?"

       Applejack could only watch on in horror as the rest of the hotel collapsed inward, the formally two story structure reaching it's previous heights in flame only. With a blast of heat, splintered wood and coals flew about, the collected ponies shielding their eyes from the embers.

       Heat Stroke groaned, his head moving slowly as he looked through his mask at Braeburn's face. "Black... Bull. He ain't..."

       Applejack felt the air drift back around her, giving her room to breath. Chancing it, she opened her eyes. Peering through the smoke and flames, a figure stood among the flaming wreckage, deliberately striding its humongous girth toward the ponies.

       His coat was replaced with burning embers. A once jet black mane had erupted into flames, burning brightly as every step brought the stallion closer. It heaved with the smoke, body rumbling with every breath. Applejack rubbed her eyes as Black Bull took a step onto the burned out porch, his eyes no longer sky blue, but a white expanse of pure heat. Stomping against the dusty ground, Black Bull's hooves brought fire with every step. Applejack and Fluttershy could only watch, frozen, as the last of what made Black Bull a pony burned away to something much different.

       "My... Prize..."