WARNING: This fanifc is incredibly sad; readers with heart conditions or very vivid imaginations are advised to look away now.
It was nearly time for Celestia's blazing sun to make room in the sky for Luna's brilliant moon as the night quickly approached. Most ponies were already preparing themselves for a good night's sleep filled with pleasant dreams. Although one building in the town of Ponyville remained dimly lit from the inside to show its inhabitant was still awake.
Inside classroom 2 of the Ponyville Elementary Schoolhouse, a magenta coated earth pony quietly sat at her desk looking over her paperwork one last time. Her head drooped again as the long day of work was finally catching up with her. She would be at home getting ready for bed like every other teacher from the schoolhouse, especially with how hard she had been working for the past few days, but she always promised that she would put her students before herself. Shown by her cutie mark, a set of three daisies with smiley faces on them, she was dedicated to putting a smile on each of the young ponies' faces whenever possible through education.
This week in particular, Cheerilee came up with an idea to take her students on a field trip to Hoofington. One of her students had asked how trains were made. So instead of just giving another lecture on the subject, which all the students had anticipated and groaned about, she thought it would be a lot more fun to visit Hoofington, industrial city of Equestria and home to the locomotives museum. Though first, she had to get travel arrangements ready, parental consent forms checked for signatures, and other various paperwork done for the trip to approved, which has left her with little time for anything else up to today.
With yet another deep yawn, it was clear just how tired Cheerilee was, her eyes becoming heavier with each passing second. Had laid the pencil from her mouth down on her desk and gently leaned her head against her hoof, thinking to rest for just a moment before getting back to work. Off to the right corner of her desk, she watched the quiet dancing flame of a candle she used as a light source. The flickering candle light winked and wavered that slowly put the tired pony in a trance, lulling her mind and body further into a relaxed state. Her eyes finally slid shut, her head and arms sliding down and spaying out across the desk as peaceful rest took hold of her.
*Thunk, crackle, snap*
Cheerilee snapped awake, her eyes and throat burned. She tried to blink away her disorientation, her mind swimming in a sea of suffocating cotton. Her fur and skin were dry, being long depleted of sweat as the intense heat registered in her sluggish mind. When Cheerilee tried to breathe in which immediately forced her into a vigorous coughing fit from the smoke clogged air.
Smoke; it finally dawned on the magenta earth pony that the room was filled with the blanketing cloud of ash. Her heart furiously pounded, trying to shoot a desperate shot of adrenaline but at the same time threw her senses into a frenzy. Though she could still see the bright dancing lights of the roaring blaze that slowly encroached the room. The entire schoolhouse was on fire and Cheerilee was trapped inside. She had to escape or she knew she would either end up burning alive or suffocate to death very soon.
Cheerilee fumbled from her desk to the floor, falling over to her side on stiff, unresponsive joints. She could hardly breathe through the smoke that filled the air, hot embers licked her body singeing patches of fur and turning spots underneath raw red. Cheerilee squinted to see past the haze to find the exit. What she saw made her heart sink.
All of her students desks, projects, and gifts to her were ablaze, now blackened and more like just extra fuel to the hungry flames. Cheerilee found happiness in watching her students grow so much in her classroom, and now it was like watching them burn alongside her. She had barely anytime to really grieve as another chunk of burning rubble crashed down from the ceiling. Cheerilee jumped back to avoid the debris, but still another piece of her tail caught a few embers further singeing the edges of its colorful curls. Cheerilee wheezed heavily, desperately seeking the classroom door to escape. Through the blinding inferno, she stumbled to the door and cheered inside her heart, but the quick flash of hope died away in an instant.
The door was sealed shut; even with every ounce of Cheerilee's strength, she could only muster a small crack in the entrance. Just beyond that she saw that half the schoolhouse had already been reduced to cinders and much of the debris had toppled in front of her classroom door. Panic swiftly took hold of the magenta pony; she screamed and cried out for help as she bucked at the unmoving door. The gateway hardly budged and Cheerilee found the room starting spin and distort around her.
Her entire body felt like lead, Cheerilee's knees were shaky and finally gave out under her fatigue. She lay on the ashen covered floor coughing dryly with each wheezy breath. She was so tired and could barely feel the heat anymore, thankful for that. Deciding it was time to shut down and rest, Cheerilee bobbed her head upward one last time to look at Princess Luna's star filled night that surrounded the moon. Fading into unconsciousness from lack of oxygen, Cheerilee could have sworn she saw a bright, white light before her. Its warmth and radiance welcoming the dying pony into its embrace.
Later that night, the fire department arrived and extinguished the burning remains of the schoolhouse before it could spread to the rest of Ponyville. The morning after, all the newspapers had front lined the tragic incident for the rest of town to read. In it, it was reported that the cause of the fire was from a candle that must have gotten knocked over onto a flammable source.
…One pony did not survive after being trapped inside.