Magic of Love: A Twidance Prompt Collab

by ArguingPizza

Gems by Fuzzyfurvert

by Fuzzyfurvert

My Little Dynamite: Book Two
Part 4

~~~

It was dark and cold when Twilight woke up. Cadance was still a sleep in her hooves, the Princess’ legs and wings wrapped around Twilight’s middle. Vaguely, she remembered falling asleep as Zecora’s potions started to wearing off. But she wasn’t sure just how much time had passed, but the fire was out and she could feel the chill even though Cadance’s downy feathers.

Twilight slowly and regretfully extracted herself, stiffly rising to her hooves and stepping over to where they had stacked the extra kindling. Twilight rolled her shoulders, working a kink out before she grabbed a small stack of branches in her aura. Thankfully, before they had succumbed to the weariness in their bodies, Cadance had shown her how to cast the spell that dried the wood out.

She washed the magic over the wood and dropped it into the pit. She charged her horn, squinting in the wane light if her horn to aim her magic, when she heard a loud rustling and snapping noise from outside their small enclosure. She canceled the spell, her ears pricking up. Twilight tracked the sound, using just her ears and leaned to her right to tap on the end of Spike’s tail. The drake was curled into a ball around a small stack of half munched gemstones, breathing steadily, in pretty much the same spot he had been in before she’d passed out.

“Spike!” Twilight hissed, pressing into his scales with the edge of her hoof. “Spike, wake up!”

Spike groaned quietly, one eye cracking open and focusing on Twilight. “W-what is it?”

“Shhhh…” Twilight’s ears twitched, flicking and rotating as the crunching and rustling noises grew louder and multiple sources popped up around them. “I don’t know if it’s those crystal pony things we saw earlier or not, but something or somethings is out there just beyond the treeline.”

Spike picked himself up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Next to him, Zecora stirred and she lifted her head to listen to the growing noise. It even managed to wake Cadance a second later, her eyes snapping open.

“Twily.” Cadance rolled onto her stomach and grabbed Twilight’s staff from where it lay and tossed it to the Battlemage. “One of us needs to take a look out there. Whatever it is will find us soon enough.”

“Better to meet them than get overwhelmed right off the bat.” Twilight worked her jaw until it popped, her horn lighting up again as she moved some of the branches and needles that made their enclosure’s roof. Snow, several inches thick now, rained in through the small opening.

“Spike, give me a boost.” Twilight looked at Cadance and Zecora while Spike kneeled and held out his claws. “If I see something I don’t like, the first, and I mean very first thing you do is get out of this shelter. Use the pines and rocks for cover but don’t go far. We can’t protect you if you gallop wildly into the snow.”

Cadance nodded, straightening her peytral. She lit her horn, pointing it at each of them in quick succession. “There, that will handle the communication. Even if we do get separated, that spell will carry our voices to each other. So long as we don’t get more than a few hundred yards apart, that is.”

“Good call, Princess.” Spike grinned and gripped Twilight’s hoof. “Ready to do this?”

The Battlemage odded curtly, pushing off Spike’s shoulders with her forehooves when he lifted her to the low ceiling. Twilight craned her neck upward, sticking her head out into the open. The sky above her was still covered in heavy clouds, though the snow was no longer falling and the winds were still. What time is it? It feels like we’ve been here for hours but the sun is still up?

Twilight squinted at the sky for a second, then looked down, her ears moving around to zero in on the sounds. There were at least five distinct sources she could detect, all of them moving slowly through what seemed to be the outer edges of the copse of trees they were sheltered in. One in particular, the one to her left, seemed closest.

She grit her teeth, running the calculations in her head for destructive blast of fire magic. Remember your training, Twilight. Wait until you have a target...never attack blindly. She repeated the mantra over and over, neck muscles tensing. Whatever was moving through the trees was taking its time about it, moving slightly, then stopping for a moment.

What are they doing? Twilight forced her breathing to remain steady. It wouldn’t do to snap like a twig when the time came. She had to stay calm to react quickly and correctly. What if it’s not those crystal ponies? I don’t want to hurt anyone innocent.

Time seemed to stretch, the seconds ticking by at a snail’s pace.

Twilight’s ears were just starting to go numb in the cold when one of the nearer trees rustled, shaking some of the snow from it’s needles. She held her breath and a second later felted, broad antlers pushed the lower branches aside to reveal a very tall and wooly caribou, its mouth full of lichen. It froze when it noticed the hastily made shelter of felled fir trees and the unicorn head sticking out from the top of it.

“Twily!” Cadance’s whisper hissed in Twilight’s ear, thanks to the communication spell. “What’s going on? The noises outside stopped.”

“Uh...it’s a...caribou.” Twilight swallowed, her voice quiet as the caribou moved a bit closer, its eyes flicking back and forth from examining her to looking over the shelter. “I don’t know if it’s friendly.”

“Well, it’s probably not an enemy. If you see one, there must be dozens or more nearby, they move in migratory herds.” Came Cadance’s answer from below. “If there are caribou here, we are very far north! They almost never leave the tundra unless it’s for trading. What tribe does it belong to?”

“How am I supposed to tell that?” Twilight flattened her ears as the caribou got closer and came fully out of the trees. From her vantage point, it looked to stand taller than Spike, and though it was hard to tell with the shaggy coat, she assumed it was a male.

“Look on the antlers. They crave symbols there to denote their tribal allegiances.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, squinting in the poor lighting. Sure enough, when the caribou turned its head, there was a faint pattern traced into the broad side of its antler. “Um...it looks kind of like a tree...or a plant of some sort.”

Cadance was silent for a long second before saying anything else. “That’s the Borealis tribe...I think. But what are they doing here? They never came to the trade meetings. They stayed the farthest away from Equestria and didn’t leave their ancestral forests.”

“Could we hurry this up?” Spike groaned quietly. “This is murder on my back and shoulders!”

“Oh! Sorry, Spike!” Cadance tapped Twilight on the leg. “If they aren’t attacking us, they could help us get back home. Or at least not freeze to death.”

Twilight grunted lifted herself up a bit higher. The motion made the caribou freeze again, looking up at her. Twilight worked one hoof through the hole in the roof and waved cautiously. “Uh...do you speak Equuish?” The caribou blinked at her, raising an eyebrow. She tried again. “Er...sprechen Germane? Draconic?”

“Try this: ‘Halló, getur þú skilur mig?’” Cadance’s voice whispered in Twilight’s ear. Twilight opened her mouth and stuttered through the first few syllables until she gave up. “Sorry, but my mouth can’t do that. You’re gonna have to get out here, Cady.”

The caribou snickered and leaned against one of the standing trees while the pony in the pile of wood wiggled and wobbled about for a moment while louder and louder pained groaning came from inside. Eventually, snow and sticks fell from the top and the single pony head was joined by a second, significantly more pink colored pony head. This one smiled down at him and when it opened it’s mouth, words that he could actually understand spilled out.

<<Hello! I am Princess Cadance of Equestria, and I offer greeting to a member of the Borealis Tribe of the Wandering Nations!>>

The caribou snorted. <<And I’m the Spirit Elder for the whole Water Buffalo peoples.>>

<<Actually,>> Cadance grunted, struggling to work herself up higher and out of the hole. <<It’s the Bison that have Spirit Elders, but see?>> She heaved and pulled her torso loose of the hole, shoving Twilight to the side, the unicorn muttering complaints under her breath. <<I have wings and a horn! Real, legit Princess here.>>

<<Well...that is a horse of a different color.>> The caribou took a knee and bowed his head low. <<I am Forage Fortune. I am a gatherer for my people. It is an honor to meet a true Alicorn. What, if I may ask, are you doing out here, of all places?>>

<<It’s a long story.>> Cadance struggled to free herself completely and flared her wings for balance to descend to the ground next to Forage Fortune. <<Do you know where we are? I always thought your tribe stayed in the arctic forests?>>

<<That is how we do, yes. But the return of the Cursed Ones has forced us to join with our fellow tribes in migrating. Forgive me, but I would have assumed you knew that. We saw your airship sailing toward them just an hour ago.>>

Author's Note:

The complete chapter list for the My Little Dynamite series can be found here.

Comments

[Hobbestc]

More info for our heroes. Good deal!

[Vandratha]

Huzzah! I've finally caught up. This series has been fantastic, and it's the Main reason I've caught up as quickly as I have. Excellent job, and I can't wait to read more of it.

[Fuzzyfurvert]

6105104
Thanks! New chapters should be coming out roughly every week or so. The older chapters are currently being edited and cleaned up for publication sooner or later.