• Published 29th Dec 2014
  • 9,522 Views, 3,428 Comments

A Dangerous Sparkle - David Silver



Twilight Sparkle botches a spell and ends up in a whole new realm of danger and adventure, where the land is ruled by a much more pragmatic pony empire, ruled by a very mortal queen. A Ponyfinder crossover.

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47 - A Fresh Start

With payment in hoof and a new member to support, the team settled into Viljatown. While Twilight busied herself with practicing the art of artificing, Soft Mane was taken aside and instructed in the ways of being an Oracle, as well as practical lessons in religion, dealing with people, and general adventuring tips.

Her instructor was a strange middle-aged stallion that could not hear, but noticed everything about her. Despite his condition, he spoke quite clearly when he wasn't mumbling about something. Soft Mane enjoyed learning about her new path, but found the instructor a little creepy.

"I hope I never become like that," she told Spike and Long Road in the commons, chewing on a cookie.

Long Road shook his head, "You are not that sort of oracle, clearly. Besides, you represent love. It wouldn't make sense for you to be a hermit."

Spike nodded quickly in agreement before taking a big bite out of a hamburger in his claws, "Side note, griffon cuisine is amazing around here!" The great bite left splattered juices along Spike's snout, though he showed no signs of noticing or caring as he ate.

Soft made a little face, "Not my style, but you enjoy that." She drew out a handkerchief and dabbed Spike clean quickly, "Are you learning things too, or are you all waiting on me?"

Long Road glanced around the room, taking in the trophies earned in battle by other Seekers, "My road continues on. I've learned a few things from our adventure, and accompany Twilight at times in the library to read. I feel as if I have passed some sort of test, and the powers of good have taken notice."

Spike glanced sidelong at Long before sinking his teeth into his meal messily. Lightly spraying as he spoke he said, "Nothing that deep for me. I complained to the guild master that I was just scratching that golem and she gave me a teacher to work with and Twilight some advice on what to make next." He hefted up a new amulet with greasy claws. It showed an exposed claw, wickedly curved and sharp looking. "It helps me hit harder and better. I gave the old one to Pinkie Pie since she didn't have one yet."

Soft tilted her head, "Why not just wear two amulets?" She gently cleaned Spike's mess while eating her cookie with a free hand.

Spike made a half-hearted swat at her cleaning attempts, most of his attention on what was left of his burger. "I dunno. Twilight said it doesn't work. I don't know why, but I looked it up and yea, only one."

"It's not so bad," said a new voice as Pinkie popped up behind a chair and hopped up into it. "Spike's old amulet looks great on me." She thrust her chest out, showing off the bark disc she now wore.

Long Road raised a hoof to point at the top of Pinkie, "What is that on your head?"

Pinkie went cross-eyed as she looked up at the headband she had no hope of seeing while it was on her head. It was made of a pink enamled metal with Pinkie's brand of destiny set in the front proudly. "Oh! Twilight made it for me, isn't it the best? She said it would help me be a better party pony. Not that I need magic for that." she stuck out her tongue, "But every little bit helps, besides it's rude to say no to a friend. She made these too." She lifted her hooves, showing they were clad in new slippers. "She said what they do but I got kinda bored and wasn't paying much attention."

Spike gave a soft snicker at Pinkie's admittance, "At least you're honest about it." He wiped his claws against one another, his meal complete. "My new teacher is showing me how to make each hit count, instead of, you know, flailing."

Soft Mane frowned, "You do not flail, Spike. You are a fierce dragon, you... rip apart furiously." She nodded with confidence in her words.

Spike laughed softly even as his cheeks reddened a little, "Well, rip apart furiously or not, I was pretty sloppy." He confessed this as he reached for a napkin, cleaning off the remnants of the hamburger, "Hey, Pinkie, you got a teacher too?"

Pinkie shook her head quickly, "Nuh uh. Pinkie learned from the best teacher of all." She threw her hooves out wide, "Life."

"Amen," said Long Road in agreement.

The trotting of hooves brought Twilight to the group. Under her cloak was a new robe of dark purples and blues. "Ah, just who I wanted to see," she said, looking at Soft Mane, "I've been digging everywhere for information on Lashtada."

Soft Mane perked up in her seat, eyes glimmering, "You found something?"

"Well, sort of," said Twilight in less eager tones, "More like a hint of where to look next. The castle archives apparently have a section on all known religions, past and present. If anywhere would have a record of this Lashtada, that would be it."

Spike hopped up from his seat, "Well let's go take a look!"

Twilight held out a placating hoof, "Easy there. We're not agents of Queen Iliana, we can't just march in there and start reading anymore than a random pony could walk into the forbidden magic section of the Canterlot archives. I'm not a princess here."

Soft Mane looked all the more curious, "You never told me about being a princess. Your mother's a queen?"

Pinkie spoke up before Twilight could reply, "No silly! Twilight's a clever girl and became princess after she became the true element of magic and then we zapped her and boom! There she was, with wings!"

Long Road looked to Twilight expectantly. She sighed and nodded before giving her own version, "In our world, Equestria, there were only two alicorns for millennium, and they were the rulers as princesses."

"Why not queens?" asked Soft Mane.

Twilight waved a hoof, "She didn't want that kind of power over ponies. She thought they should rule over themselves where possible, so she took the princess title instead. Anyway, they were born alicorns, I was not. I was born a unicorn, but they saw a great destiny for me and kept testing me to get it out. Eventually it came to fruition. I passed every test, jumped every hurdle, and earned my wings." She spread the wings out behind her, "It wasn't until very recently before I left Equestria that I had my own little kingdom to rule over though."

Soft Mane bobbed her head, "Queen Iliana left everyone that agreed to join the empire with their old title. She thought they should rule themselves too. I heard there's even a few other queens out there, with a lower case q." She concentrated a moment and thrust a finger up, "That's where Princess Luminace came from!" she said with pride, remembering what she had read up on.

Twilight raised a brow, "I thought she was a princess like ours. She was the daughter of a queen?" Soft Mane quickly bobbed. "Wait, so she was mortal?" Soft Mane nodded more and pointed at Twilight. Twilight put it together and sighed, "Like me. Minus the queen for a mother. No wonder she was so taken with me."

Spike joined in, setting the used cloth aside, "Whatever happened to Dawn Event? He couldn't summon her again with a book that's not even there. Did the holiday get cancelled?"

Long Road had the answer, "It did, but the news of a new god had most of the crowd rushing around trying to look up anything about it. They forgot Dawn Event was there after that, and he got away without too much issue."

Pinkie stuck out her tongue a little, "I still wonder where that book is. Think we can go get it back?"

Twilight took a soft breath, "Pinkie, we're supposed to be... well... yes, eventually. Spike."

Her authoritative tone has Spike on his feet and a paper produced quickly. "Ready."

"It's time for a checklist."

Spike softly groaned but was ready to start the old tradition anew. Thinking ahead he added 'double check checklist' to the top of the checklist with an empty box.

Author's Note:

Ah weekends, enemies of writing! I run two games of Ponyfinder, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, which makes it hard to get in writing over weekends, but gosh darn it I'll try.

A cooldown episode with some wrapup, enjoy!

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