"Hey, Ditzy, over here!" Summer Showers waved from across the school lunchroom.

Seeing her friend, Ditzy Doo trotted over and took a seat next to the other gray pegasus. "Ugh," Ditzy said, poking tentatively at a greenish-white blob on her tray. "I can't tell if that's half a pear in juice, or a scoop of mashed potatoes with gravy."

Summer leaned over and gave a tentative sniff. "Pear in gravy?"

Ditzy chuckled. "At least there's never any question about the main course."

"Yep, good ol' Crispy Brown Thing #3."

The two mares raised their milk cartons and "clinked" them with another giggle.

"I sure hope the food is better at university," Ditzy said between bites of "Crispy Brown."

"Well, it can't be worse, can it?"

"Boo!" Ditzy shouted. "Don't jinx me like that!"

"Hey, at least you're going to university!" Summer said. "I'm stuck working at my dad's candle shop for at least a year before I can reapply."

Ditzy leaned in and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Awww, I know, but you can come visit me whenever you need to get away for a bit. Manehatten's only a couple of hours by train."

"Thanks, and I plan to. I still can't believe you got accepted to Manehatten Academy though."

"Yeah, well..." Ditzy hung her head.

"No no... I mean, you totally deserve to get in. You're super smart, and you worked your tail off studying. I'm just saying I'm impressed."

"Hey, you're smart too! You just..." Ditzy trailed off, not sure how to not insult Summer.

"Yeah yeah, I know, I should've studied. It's my own fault."

Ditzy smiled. She'd been friends with Summer since halfway through grade school, and by this point, both could usually tell what the other was thinking. They'd had quite some fun with it a few years ago, as they'd managed to convince half their classmates they were twins that could read minds. Now though, with only a few weeks left to go in their final year, it seemed fate was finally dragging them apart.

As they finished their lunch, Manny Orange approached them. He was captain of the JV hoofball team, and Summer had had a crush on him for most of the past year. "Hey girls, you hear about the party this weekend?"

Summer shook her head, then leaned in with a smile, "No, but do tell!"

Manny leaned in as well, lowering his voice to keep things a bit discrete. "You know that abandoned cannery down by the docks? Well, a bunch of us are chipping in for a barrel of cider, and Bass is gonna set up his turntables this Friday."

"Oh, sounds fun," Summer said, in her best, most flirtatious voice.

Manny ignored her, turning instead to Ditzy, "How about you, sweet stuff?"

"Umm..."

"Oh come on!" Summer said, thumping a hoof on the table. "It's practically the last party of the year!"

"Well, I should probably be studying for—"

"For what? You already got accepted!"

"Yeah, what do you say, Ditzy?" Manny smiled at her. "Let loose a bit!"

Ditzy took a deep breath and let it out through her nose. "Okay, fine. What could it hurt?"

"Yay!" Summer said.

"Cider starts flowing at sunset." Manny said, then slyly winked at Ditzy. "I'll keep a cup ready just for you."

The two mares waited for the colt to leave, and summer turned to Ditzy with a bit of a huff. "Did he just wink at you?"

"I think so." Ditzy seemed as surprised as Summer. Sure, Mandarin "Manny" Orange was attractive, but she'd never thought about him as someone to date. Doubly so once Summer had confided her crush on him.

"Ugh!" Summer slammed her forehead on the table. "Life is just not fair! Derpy, you're super smart. Derpy you got a scholarship to the best university on the east coast. Derpy you have a handsome colt after you... and you weren't even trying!"

The use of the childhood nickname brought back mixed feelings in Ditzy's mind. The first year they'd met, Summer had been teasing her just like all the other kids. But looking as similar as they did, the other kids turned on her as well, calling them the Derpy Twins. It'd been both a painful moment, but the root of their friendship as well. Now, Summer was the only pony she'd put up with calling her that, but as she did so, it was clear this meant a lot to her.

"Um, sorry?" Ditzy gave her best grimace. "He's totally yours... I'll stay out of it."

Summer raised her head. "Are you serious?"

Ditzy nodded, "Of course! I know you've liked him for a while now."

"You promise? You won't let him snog you, even if he asks nicely?"

Ditzy giggled. "Ewww, no! I don't even know him!"

"Promise?"

"Yeah, sheesh, I promise already! I won't snog Manny!"

Summer leaned over and wrapped Ditzy in a big hug. "Eee, thank you so much!"

"Hey, you still have to convince him to snog you though!"

Putting on her mock-devious face, Summer grinned. "Oh, I've got a plan for that!"

"Good." Ditzy smirked. "Just remind me to stay at minimum safe distance!"

----

Ditzy Doo dropped her bags off at the bottom of the stairs, before knocking on the open door of her father's study.

Steady Figure raised his head and peered at her over his half-moon spectacles. "Hey, Muffin, what's up?"

"Hey Dad, I was... well I was wondering if I could maybe..."

Steady set down his papers and let his glasses slip off his muzzle to hang on their chain.

"I know that look..."

"Daad..."

"What is it you just can't live without this week, and how much does it cost?"

"No, no, I don't need any money for anything, I just..."

Ditzy heard a light, feminine giggle sound from the hallway behind her, announcing the entrance of her mother.

"Are there going to be colts there, dear?"

Ditzy felt her cheeks flush. "What? I mean, Summer wanted me to go to her place and... What do you mean?"

"The party, dear," Carmine said, without missing a beat. "Are there going to be colts there?"

Knowing her not-so-clever ruse was already spoiled, Ditzy gave in. "Yeah, Mom, a few."

Steady let out a quick snort, standing from his chair to object. But he'd barely gotten his mouth open when Carmine raised a hoof gently in his direction. "Quiet dear, the mares are talking."

Steady figure slumped back into his seat.

Carmine turned back to her daughter. "How many?"

"I don't know, maybe a dozen?"

"And is there one you're specifically interested in?"

Ditzy blushed even more, the pink showing brightly on her inner ears and nostrils. "No!"

Nodding, Carmine continued. "I see. And are any of them are interested in you?"

Ready to emphatically declare "no" again, Ditzy found her mouth silenced by a gentle hoof on her muzzle. "Do not lie to me, dear." Carmine smiled a rather predatory grin. "A mother can tell."

Ditzy shut her mouth.

"I see." Carmine appeared to think for a moment, as Ditzy and her father sat in quiet. Both knew better than to interrupt the mare of the house.

Seeming to make up her mind, Carmine turned to Ditzy and said simply, "Come with me."

The mare made quick steps out of the office and up the stairs with Ditzy in tow.

Steady Figure, not quite sure what had just happened—but also comfortable with that common state of affairs where his wife was concerned—merely shrugged to himself, reseated his glasses, and went back to looking for financial irregularities in the files.

----

The next day at school, Summer and Ditzy met up for free period.

"So you can go?" Summer asked.

"Yeah," Ditzy said matter-of-factly, though her face seemed in a state of shock.

"Even after they realized you weren't just spending that night at my house?"

"Yeah..."

"How?" Summer exclaimed. "No offense, I love your parents, but they always seemed pretty strict to me."

Ditzy laughed. "And me!"

"So what happened?"

Ditzy shuddered at the memory.

"What? Tell me!"

"Okay, so you remember health class?"

"Oh no, she didn't..."

"She did! All of it!"

"But doesn't she know you already learned all the birds and bees stuff in that same class?"

"She said she wanted to make sure the school hadn't 'missed anything important'." Ditzy shuddered again. "She had books. There were diagrams! There were pictures!"

Shoving her hoof in her mouth, Summer made gagging noises.

"You don't know... you don't want to know. Do you have any idea how big a newborn foal is?"

"Uuugghhh... noooo... don't..."

"Do you know where it comes out of?"

"Stop stop stop!" Summer pawed at the air, trying to shoo away the horrifying thoughts.

"Okay, fine. I just want to think about anything else now."

"But the important part is, you can go, right?"

"Yeah, I can go. I just hope it was worth it."

----

The spring air was warm, but cooling rapidly as the two mares strolled down to the old docks. The seaside in Fillydelphia was never exactly scenic, but Ditzy reckoned it had a kind of old-timey charm. In the days before refrigeration, canning was the only real way to preserve most food (unless a pony liked chewing dried foods the rough consistency of bark.) Now that most ponies in a city could afford those simple boxes that kept food cold, canning had mostly gone out of style, leaving dozens of old facilities abandoned as the future rolled in like the tide.

In other cities, the dock-side facilities had often been repurposed, but for whatever reason, most of Filly had avoided other shipping-focused industries, so the half century old buildings sat unused, slowly decaying. It was probably a bad sign for the local economy, but if you were a teenager with an urge to get away from your parents, it was a godsend.

The venue for the party stood out rather obviously amongst the half-ruined buildings, as it was the only structure lit up from the inside. Moreover, the loud sounds of Bass Clef's sound system were literally shaking the entire pier.

"Hey, glad you made it!" Manny ran up to the mares as they approached the door. "Come on in, let's get you a drink!"

"Have you been waiting out here just for us?" Ditzy asked.

"I said I'd save a cup just for you." He winked, then made a show of producing a cheap plastic cup from somewhere behind his mane.

"Uhh, why don't you take that one." Ditzy said, shoving Summer forward. "I'm not thirsty yet."

Grabbing the cup before Manny could object, Summer thanked him.

"Uh, yeah, sure..."

"Wait!" Summer said. "It's empty."

"Well, duh. It's a kegger. You gotta go fill it."

Trying hard to flirt again, Summer begged him to show her where.

Manny, torn, tried to object, but Ditzy quickly shut him down. "Oh no, you go on ahead. I'm just gonna look around."

As Manny reluctantly trotted off with Summer, Ditzy relaxed. There, she thought. She'd done her best to shove the two of them together, and it wasn't her problem anymore. Now she just had to relax, enjoy some music, maybe a little dancing, and forget all about the horribly giant impossible responsibility of going to an elite school in a few months. Yup, she thought. No problem, just do that.

As the night wore on, Ditzy finally gave in and had herself a cup of cider. She'd only tried the hard stuff once before, and hadn't been a fan. Now it seemed... better. By the end of the cup, she'd had another. She'd promised her mom she wouldn't, of course, but... her mom probably knew better too. She had no desire to overdo it though, and paced herself, with plenty of water (like the books suggested) after that.

As the beats continued to drop, and the evening wore on, Ditzy found she'd had to parry and deflect Manny a couple more times, but each time he'd circled back to her like some slow comet, Summer had been there, doing her best to cling. Ditzy giggled, realizing if he was a comet circling her, then Summer was that comet's tail.

With a slightly fun and novel buzz in her brain from the cider, surrounded by body-shaking music, and dancing like nobody was watching, Ditzy felt the evening was turning out to be one of the best she'd ever had.

That is, of course, when it all went wrong.

----

It started small. A couple of colts had been smoking in the old foremare's office, high up over the entrance, so it had a view of the entire production-now-dance floor. One had ashed his cigarette into a filing cabinet, and it'd caught fire. At first, they'd laughed, and a drunken freshmen had smashed a bottle of some rotgut he'd stolen from home against it. The fire spread and—as these things do—got out of hoof.

The witness reports all agree up to this point.

----

Dancing with herself, lost in the beat, Ditzy didn't notice much of anything until ponies nearby were suddenly standing still instead of dancing along with her. When she stopped and turned to see what they were all staring at, she was taken aback. Orange and yellow flames were licking out of the windows of the foremare's office, some forty feet above the ground.

As she stared, she saw several colts scrambling down the metal stairs high above, who made it to a slightly lower catwalk before turning and starting to cheer.

The music stopped abruptly with a screech so cliche it belonged int a film.

All around Ditzy, ponies were talking in worried and urgent tones, when the sound system cut back in at full volume.

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!" The lyrics proclaimed in a loud and familiar beat. "We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn!"

A chorus of cheers went up throughout the party. Cups were raised in affirmation as the song continued, "Burn, motherfucker. Burn."

"No!" Ditzy found herself shouting. The haze of alcohol was doing unfamiliar things to her senses, but she was smart enough to know this was a serious situation.

"No!" She shouted again. "We have to get out of here now!"

A couple of nearby ponies seemed to nod in agreement and were moving toward the exit. She could see others across the production floor doing the same, though they were in the minority. The rest seemed content to stay and party in a burning factory.

Ditzy couldn't let that happen.

She bullied her way to the pallets that'd been set up as DJ booth, and forcibly grabbed a mic from Bass.

She started to shout into it, but it didn't work. "Turn it on!" she shouted, during to the DJ.

"Hey, hooves off the equipment! You know how much that—" She shoved her hoof down on the turntable, bringing the music to a stop. "Turn it no, NOW!"

This time, Bass acquiesced, and she immediately began giving orders. "Everypony, get out now! This is serious. Get outside as quickly as you can!"

Ditzy looked up at the spreading fire. The old building was basically a tinderbox, and already half the roof was on fire. More worryingly, the supports holding the foremare's office up had given way on one side, threatening to collapse directly down on the main doorway.

"Stick to the left," she shouted. "And hurry!"

It was amazing, Ditzy thought, how much ponies would simply obey when they heard it through a loudspeaker. Within seconds of her orders, nearly everypony in the building was moving humidly toward the exit.

Then the worst happened. The office collapsed.

Mercifully, it took several seconds. The supports crumbling and pieces falling, but nearly all the ponies underneath had time to run or dive out of the way before the bulk of it came down.

The downside was that this blocked the main doors.

The second downside, was that, being as this party wasn't exactly authorized, nopony had bothered to break the locks on any of the various, smaller mare-sized doors throughout the place. They were all completely locked in as the wall and roof began to collapse.

Behind her, DJ Bass, now taking things absolutely seriously, began shouting. She handed him the microphone.

"Everypony," he said. "This way, toward the water. We can swim for it!"

Ditzy turned, seeing he was right. The cannery had massive doors on the waterfront side as well, opening directly to the harbor. They only went to the water's surface, and everypony could swim under. It'd be cold as all get out, but it'd be doable.

Feeling a tug at her tail, Ditzy turned to find Summer. "Come on!" she said. "Let's go!"

"Not yet, we gotta make sure everypony gets out."

The next few minutes were frantic, as Ditzy and Summer both herded their classmates toward the cold, dark water, and tried to convince them it'd be all right. Several, it turned out, barely knew how to swim, and the drunken state of most didn't help matters either.

As the remaining ponies dwindled though, the warehouse became eerily quiet. The roar of the fire was there, but so close to white noise, high as it was up at the roof. Then they heard the calls.

The voices were a bit muffled, but with the other voices near them now gone, the two mares could clearly make out the screams of several colts.

Ditzy ran toward the blaze and Summer followed.

Moments later, they found two trapped colts, who'd been pinned beneath a collapsing staircase back in the smaller side rooms and offices at the far edge of the factory.

"Help me lift it!" Ditzy screamed, grabbing at the twisted metal and trying to raise it.

Summer leaned her shoulder into it and tried. "I can't!" She screamed back. Just as Summer was about to give up, one of the colts slipped free, and turned, scrambling to help lift. The three of them were then able to raise it enough to free their last classmate.

Before they could get back to the main floor, however, the roof began to collapse. Burning timbers fell like spears, and it was only luck that left them avoid being hit directly. One, however, fell just beside Summer, close enough that she crashed into it, causing the flames to melt the fur on her face and neck as she scrambled past.

Reaching the waterside once more, the mares showed the colts the point of escape, and they dove for it.

Then, one final scream was heard. Another pony, trapped, somewhere back among that burning, crashing roof.

"There's another!" Ditzy said, turning just as she was about to jump into the water. "That sounds like Manny!"

Summer put a hoof up in front of her. "No, you can't! It's too late."

Ditzy was emphatic. "We have to, Summer!"

"No, you'll die!" Summer screamed in her face. "I can't lose my best friend!"

The scream was heard again, and Ditzy knew her mind was made up. "We can't just leave a pony to die!"

"I..." Summer hung her head and the two advanced again toward the burning hallways.

Another piece of roof fell in, landing just hoofsteps in front of the pair.

"I'm sorry, I just can't!" Summer said, turning.

"I need your help!" Ditzy said. "We can't turn away now, or we'll never forgive ourselves!"

"I'm..." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm sorry!"

Summer ran to the edge of the water, before giving one last, tear-filled look toward her friend. Then she jumped in and swam away to safety.

Ditzy, for her part... She persisted.

----

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Carmine, but we just can't say." The doctor rubbed the bridge of his muzzle. "Your daughter has suffered a very serious brain injury, and it's simply too soon to know what will happen."

"Now, you listen hear," Steady Figure advanced on the doctor, thumping him in the chest. "That is my baby girl in there, and you will do whatever you have to in order help her."

The doctor, trained to deal with these worst of situations, was as meek as could be. "I assure you, Mr. Figures, we will. But you need to understand, her skull was cracked in nine places and there's severe injury to both the memory centers of the brain, and the visual cortex. She has a major orbital fracture around her right eye as well."

Steady Figure was anything but, and his shaking legs gave way beneath him causing him to collapse to the floor. Carmine Doo rushed to his side and wrapped her husband in a hug, before turning to look up at the doctor. "Thank you, doctor, I'm sure you are all doing your best."

The doctor nodded and looked away.

----

A week later, Manny finally returned to school, his leg finally healed enough to at least limp around on with the cast. He entered the lunch room hesitantly, and made his way over to a certain table, where only one of the Derpy twins was sitting.

"Hi Summer," he said.

Summer merely nodded.

"I just wanted to say... thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving me!"

"But I..."

"No, I mean it. I was rude to you that whole night, even though you clearly had a thing for me. I kept blowing you off."

"Yeah, well it was clear you were interested in Ditzy, not me."

"No... I mean..." Manny rubbed his neck. "That was a dare. A bunch of us on the team. Well, we had a pool of a hundred bits for whoever was willing to snog the Ditzy-know-it-all."

Summer was taken aback, feeling the first non-depression emotion she'd felt in the week sense the fire, when Manny continued.

"But you, you saved me. I saw you and Ditzy save Ox and Moose, but you... I was so sure I was gonna die, but then you came back for me."

"But that wasn't..."

Tears were showing in the corners of Manny's eyes. "I don't care if you didn't know it was me. You came back! That's all that matters! Thank you!"

----

Summer stepped quietly into the hospital room. She hadn't been to see Ditzy in the two weeks since the accident, but the doctors had said she was at least awake now. "Hi," she said, tentatively. "How are you?"

The bandaged head turned toward her. "Summer?"

"Yeah, it's me."

Summer looked into her friend's eyes... "Oh my gosh!"

Ditzy quickly looked away.

"Yeah, sorry. I know it must be... be... be..."

"You okay?"

"Yes, just I can't... think of certain words. Sometimes it's... hard. Weird!"

"What?"

"Weird... it must be weird.

"Ditzy?"

"My eyes, I mean, I know they... I had a mirror. It's... wrong now. They're wrong."

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Ditzy!"

"Why?"

"Well, because of the way I acted."

"But you saved so many ponies! You saved... ma...ma... Manny."

"I..."

"Don't be... ti...ti... shy. I saw the papapper. 'Heroine saves hoofball lineman!' They had your pi-pi-picture and everything."

"But that was... Wait, don't you remember what happened?"

Derpy turned rolled over to face the far wall. There was silence for a moment before she admitted. "No."

"You don't remember anything?"

"I remember da-dancing then... The fire, but... Not much after that." Ditzy paused. "I'm sorry."

"No no, don't be... you actually..."

"They told me you grabbed the mi-micro mi... speakers and made everyone get out in time. I'm sure Ma-ma-manny loved you being her-heroic."

"So you really don't remember anything yourself?"

Ditzy rolled back over and looked her friend in the eyes... at least, as best as she now could. "No, I can't remember much. Just what ponies told me. I guess I had too much to d-d-d-d-drink if I didn't get out. I thought I was sma-smarter, but I guess I'm just lucky you were the-there to save us all."

The two sat in silence a moment.

"Su-Summer..."

"Yeah, Ditzy?"

"Thank you! You're a gooo-goo-good friend! I hope Manny ap-ap-apri... likes what you did for him."

"I... I'm sure he does. But what about you. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll manage." Ditzy gave a smirk. "Though u-u-university will have to wait. I can't... you know," she tapped gently on the side of her bandaged head. "I can't remember so good now."

Summer left the room, before her tears or her conscience could betray her.