A Dangerous Sparkle

by David Silver

32 - Lightning Rail

The crowd was gathering together, drawing Pinkie Pie and Spike easily. The party pony was having a great time, but curiosity demanded her presence, "Do you know what they're doing?" Spike just shrugged, but a bystander offered an answer.

"They're going to give out rewards for best costumes," explained the mare wearing huge springs with bees at the end that bobbed with every motion.

Pinkie reared up and moved her limbs stiffly as she put on her best robotic voice, "Excellent. Maybe I can win."

The mare squinted a little, "That is a very convincing voice, ma'am, but you look more like a clockwork than a robot."

Pinkie tilted her head in three clicking turns to the side, "There's a difference?"

She tapped at her chin softly, "Subtle, but yes. Clockwork are ponies, like us. They mostly sound normal, with a little metal rasp in their voice. I met one before."

Given the information she needed, Pinkie Pie switched vocal tracks smoothly, "More like this?" she asked, switching from her robotic monotone to a more natural but slightly rasped tone.

The mare nodded quickly, "You're almost there. Imagine the sound of talking through a very thin metal door."

Pinkie happily worked with the bee-costumed mare until they both felt she got it down.

---

Twilight and Long Road were leaned against each other. Both were mildly intoxicated and just watching the world go past without much interaction, until a small colt came rushing up to them.

"Ma'am, Sir!" he said excitedly in his cracking voice, "I have to bring you to the stage please."

Twilight blinked slowly then began to rise. Long wavered dangerously before he followed suit. They followed in the trail of the bundle of energy, losing him a few times before they managed to wander up to the stage in front of the gathered crowd. They were lined up to other ponies, though they were clearly in costume.

Twilight raised a brow and leaned over to whisper in one of Long's ears, "What are we here for? We're not wearing costumes."

A heavyset mare with a crudely fashioned gnoll dangling off her back end in a perpetual chase of her moved up to the podium and cleared her throat. Some enchantment or another amplified her voice across the voice. "Fillies and gentlecolts. It is with great pleasure that I declare this Star Bear festival a rousing success!"

The crowd erupted into cheers as hooves were clapped together or thundered on the ground in a communal stomping.

"As is traditional, we will now pick the best of the best costumes, voted on by the crowd. Only those who stay up to the end of the festival are qualified, as you know." She waved the first costume in line up, a pony dressed as a dragon with great googly eyes. The mouth of the costume opened, exhausting a burst of flames. "Let's hear it for this fearsome beast!" The crowd let their opinion known, cheering loudly, though not as loudly as before.

Long Road watched the procession, one costumed pony after the other going up for the cheers and boos of the crowd. "It must be a mistake," he murmured to Twilight. Before he could ask anyone about it, they were being waved forward together.

"Last but not least, a fascinating couple. A donkey paladin of the sun, and a hybrid wizard. A bold decision, wouldn't you say? A donkey paladin is a stretch for the imagination."

The crowd erupted into loud giggles and laughs, starting to stomp the ground with a unified approval. Shouts began to ring out from the crowd, some supportive, some taunting the very notion of it amid laughter.

Long Road's ears fell in shame even as the mare at the podium cheerfully declared them winners of the contest. She presented a cup like trophy filled with gold and candy and put it into Twilight's slack jaw where she clenched to keep it from falling. She turned to talk to Long Road, but he was already retreating off the stage. Lifting the cup into the embrace of her magic, she cleared her throat, "Um, thank you. My... friend is overwhelmed with emotion. I should go find him." She offered a quick wave, then dashed off to find Long.

Pinkie watched the whole thing, expression turning to an empathetic wince when Long Road's introduction was given, and his following retreat. "Come on, Spike. Somepony really needs a friend right now." She led Spike along as she bounded through the crowd. "Even if I didn't get to be on the stage. I bet I woulda won too." She stuck out her tongue a little, but despite her words, she was more focused on finding Long.

Spike drifted up into the air, "I'll find him. Man, that was really rough. Uh, how about we all meet at the tavern Dawn picked out?"

Pinkie quickly nodded, "Good idea! I'll see you there." She changed direction and was soon lost to the crowd.

Spike zipped over to Twilight, "Twi! I'm going to find him, you wait at the tavern," he quickly told her. She nodded tiredly and gave a sigh, but was soon heading off in the right direction.

This left Spike by himself. He quickly shot up into the night sky and looked down at the still well lit festival. It wasn't too hard to spot the long ears of the donkey amid the ponies, even if he was hiding behind a bush. Spike was at his side in a flash. "Gotcha," he declared, tapping him on the flank.

He jumped in place before turning to look at him, "Here to make fun of me too?"

"What, no?" Spike held up his claws placatingly, "We're your friends, remember? Heck, you're the best paladin I ever saw." A complete truth, being the only paladin he ever saw, "Twilight is worried about you. She's at the Three Horses, the place Dawn got us rooms at."

Long Road softly sighed and rose up to his hooves, "Lead the way."

Spike did lead, guiding the droopy-eared warrior of righteousness onward until they reached the Three Horses tavern. On stepping inside, the donkey was quickly assaulted by a blur of pink.

"Don't be sad," said the voice as Pinkie gave him a firm squeezing, "They just don't know how super awesome you are."

When Pinkie relented in the hug, a new form approached and embraced him. It was much softer and whispered in an ear. "You're fine the way you are," said Twilight, "Let's get some sleep and forget that happened."

Long Road gave a slow nod, looking between his friends with a half-smile, "You're all good people... I think sleep is a good idea. What did Dawn get for us?"

Twilight rolled her eyes as she backed up from Long a step, "They had two rooms, he claimed one for himself, which leaves us one to share. Let's take a look at it."

As one, they ascended the stairs. Twilight slid the key into place and pushed open the door, revealing a simple room with a single bed, a bathing tub, and a small mirror. It wasn't that different from the Seeker's bunk room, minus the double bed. Long gently nudged past, looking at the single bed, then moving to a corner where he started to strip off his armor, "I'll sleep here."

"Nothing doing," stated Twilight firmly. She set the trophy she was still holding aside on the dresser before moving over and hefting up all of Long in her magical grip, moving him to the bed and gently setting him on it despite his protests. "You're taking it," she said, turning up her nose, "And I won't take no for an answer."

Spike conspiratorially whispered to the donkey with a claw covering his mouth, "I wouldn't argue with Twilight when she gets like that. I never win."

Long fidgeted in place for a moment before he shook his head, "I can't... It's large enough, why don't we share?"

Pinkie was at his side in an instant, somehow falling asleep even as she got into pony loaf position with her legs tucked underneath her. Twilight was more hesitant, blushing softly. Spike shrugged and flopped at the front of the bed, curling up. Twilight swung the door shut and locked it before she came over and took up Long's other side, fidgeting a moment before she blew out the lights. Long's tension faded away in the pony pile. He hadn't ever slept with so much company before, and knowing they were all his true friends made the worries of the evening feel further and further removed until sleep came for him.

---

The entire party was gathered at the side of the great railway. Dawn looked them over, noting the mildly hung over expressions on most of his companions. With a soft sigh, he directed a hoof at the tracks, "The next train going in the right direction will be here in fifteen minutes. Once we are on, you will not be expected to do anything, so rest off your headaches." Soft groans of confirmation came from the rest of the group.

While they waited for the train, Twilight dug out one of the candies that had come with the trophy and suckled on it. "Honey," she noted. Pinkie held out a hoof, and Twilight placed another candy there for her to pop in her mouth eagerly.

"Ooo, this one is cherry," she said delightedly, seemingly forgetting her headache entirely as she gave the candy firm attention.

The ground began to shake softly with a low rumble coming in the distance. They looked up to see a huge long machine made of black metal coming down the tracks. It had wheels but they were not turning, instead riding on a bed of crackling electricity as it approached at a frightening speed.

"Ah," said Dawn Event, "It's running early. Excellent, be ready to board."

The train began to slow down, decelerating smoothly until it came to a gentle stop with its sides exposed to the station. It seemed quite long, with only a small portion of it available from the station. "In Viljatown," explained Dawn, "The stations are much larger. Here, we will have to move through the train to our car." Despite being stopped, the train hovered in air, bobbing like a ship in gentle waters.

Dawn presented the tickets for himself and his companions to the usher. The usher was humanoid, but squat. As they walked through the train for their car, Twilight moved aside Dawn to ask, "Was that a dwarf, or a short human?"

Dawn gave a soft laugh, "Never, ever, let a dwarf hear you ask that question. That was a dwarf, Miss Sparkle, learn them well. Much of their work went into making this railway a reality."

"Hey," said Spike, "How many rooms did you get?"

"Two," replied Dawn.

Spike frowned, "You're not going to hog up all of one again, are you?"

He raised a brow at the dragon, "Oh? I forgot when you paid for a room."

Spike frowned all the deeper, but couldn't think of a good argument, "Twi. You have those winnings, couldn't you get another room?"

Twilight shook her head, "We'd want to do that at the ticket station. It's too late for that now, Spike."

Pinkie grinned as she bounced along, "Sleepovers the whole way there!"

They soon found their rooms. Dawn moved to enter his with parting words, "I will collect you when we arrive in Viljatown. Until then, stay out of trouble." Then he was gone, door closing and locking behind him.

The rest filed into the other room. It had multiple bunks, and a window facing out into the countryside. It felt higher quality than the tavern, even in size. Spike was first to enter fully, zipping over everyone's head, "Hey, this isn't so bad," he commented as he pulled a bunk free of its nook, "I call dibs on this one."

Just then the ground lurched beneath them, sending the equines staggering in place before the train smoothed out and they felt like they were moving. Outside the window, the scenery began to move past at an increasingly faster pace. They had begun their journey on the Lightning Rail.

Author's Note:

This chapter's name is a bit misleading. I may have done that on purpose.

Long Road's shame may be about the typos hiding in this chapter, so help a donkey out by finding them.

Comments

[chronocrosser]

Love this Chapter!

While gold and Candy is not as exciting as a magic Item, it's more realistic.

As for Long Road this chapter helps show just how difficult adventuring as what some would call (not me mind you) a lesser race. It really helps build up all the characters as a whole. Also the whole pony Pile thing was a little hart warming hope to read about it again in later chapters.

In the next town they come to I hope they consider at least using some of those winnings to get Long Road some better equipment and or at least properly equip Pinkie. I know technically they are Twilights and Long Road's but Long Road suffered more to get it. And at the least he should get something good to help compensate for that humiliation.

[David Silver]

5491605 Candy, while being festive, also means less space you have to fill with gold. A win-win for everyone!

approves of candy rewards.

[chronocrosser]

5491620 True!

And some towns just can't afford to fill that trophy with gold. I mean really I would have been surprised if the prize was a second level wand. I am guessing the prize was no more then 500 maybe 300 gp am I wrong.

[David Silver]

5491631 Wands are tricky as prizes. The average commoner can't even use them, and even for an adventurer there's a good chance you'll get the wrong one. Nope, candy and gold, all the way.

[chronocrosser]

5491645 I was just using the wand as a reference for how much it would cost. Care to tell us the exact contents of said trophy, you know how many gold pieces and how many candies, and if you fell like it what kind of candies.

[David Silver]

5491657 All the spoilers! I'll have you know they included four different flavors. Honey, cherry, rootbeer, and chocolate.
Pinkie was sure to try at least one of each.

[terrycloth]

"Yes, it's a costume. I' m dressed as a paladin, but I'm really a barbarian. Rrrrrrarrrrrgh!"

[FanOfMostEverything]

They may laugh now. We'll see how they feel after Long gets a few missions under his belt.

A nice dose of levity after the haunted house. I especially loved Pinkie's first use of detect magic. I'm half expecting something exciting to happen on the train. Might, might not, it remains to be seen. In either case, looking forward to more.

[David Silver]

5492776 The train rolls on, literally? Wait, not literally, that thing is floating.

Either way, I hope I never disappoint, but don't hesitate to call me out on it if I do.

Pinkie is not entirely aware of the spells she knows, doing them on an instinctive level. She knew detect magic but never thought to actually cast it until she heard Twilight saying it and played sing-a-long.

[Spiritus Arcane]

Here's hoping Pinkie can at least loosen that stick Dawn seems to have up his plot.

[GMZ_Casper]

Poor Long, I want to hug the poor donkey. I also really want to give all those idiots a good slap in the back of the head. As for typos...well, it is less of a typo and more of an error, but you forgot to capitalize 'miss' before Twilight's name.

[David Silver]

5919681 Fixed!

[Rustled Pages]

5493027
Sounds like pinkie alright

She's at the Thee Horses, the place Dawn got us rooms at."

You mean "Three"

[David Silver]

5957940 Fixed!

[Vutava]

32 - Lightning Rail

House Orien lawyer: "Sir, I'm here to deliver a cease-and-desist order."

The ground began to shake softly with a low rumble coming in the distance. They looked up to see a huge long machine made of black metal coming down the tracks. It had wheels but they were not turning, instead riding on a bed of crackling electricity as it approached at a frightening speed.

House Orien Lawyer: "Sir, I'm warning you..."

They had begun their journey on the Lightning Rail.

House Orien Lawyer: "Right, send in the Deneith heavies."

They soon found their rooms. Dawn moved to enter his with parting words, "I will collect you when we arrive in Viljatown. Until then, stay out of trouble." Then he was gone, door closing and locking behind him.

You'd think a cleric would know better than to tempt fate.

[Autumn Maize]

Dawn presented the tickets for himself and his companions to the usher. The usher was humanoid, but squat. As they walked through the train for their car, Twilight moved aside Dawn to ask, "Was that a dwarf, or a short human?"

Dawn gave a soft laugh, "Never, ever, let a dwarf hear you ask that question. That was a dwarf, Miss Sparkle, learn them well. Much of their work went into making this railway a reality."

I may be misremembering, but wasn't it Dawn that told her that Dwarves are a tribe of humans earlier?

[David Silver]

8074828 Pony racism is real.