95 - Warm Welcome
The imperial mare looked over the group with undisguised wariness, "Good afternoon, travelers. Are you aware there's an unfulfilled following you at an alarmingly close proximity?"
Twilight tilted her head, "Of course they are. We're together."
The mare frowned as she took a nervous half-step back, "She speaks, great... Please take her somewhere else. We'll fetch the wizards if we have to."
Applejack raised a brow, "Now see here, we don't want no trouble."
"You brought it with you," retorted the gate guard, "Ghosts are pretty high on the no-entry list, stranger. It is our duty to protect the ponies of this city."
Soft Mane puffed her armored chest out, "This undead travels under my protection and control, by my word as an oracle of Lashtada."
"Who?" asked the guard, looking over Soft Mane, "That sounds official enough, but I never heard of that, little half-blood. Turn yourself around and find some other place to haunt."
Rainbow clopped her forehooves together, "Enough already! We just need to see the Queen, so stop being in the way."
"The Queen?!" squeaked the guard, "There's no way I will permit you to approach Queen Iliana with a cursed unfulfilled! Besides, she's not even here."
Spike sighed as he spoke in a much calmer voice than Rainbow, "Where is she? She knows us."
The guard shook her head, "I'm supposed to take your word on that? Last warning. You're not welcome here, so go, and take your ghost with you." She turned away from the party with a flick of her tail, marching back to the gate, "And don't follow me, or we'll take it as an attack."
Twilight sagged in place, "That could have gone better... Maybe they'll let you go in if I go away?"
Spike snorted softly, "That defeats the point, Twilight. We're here for you."
Twilight suddenly perked up, "Well, she can't actually stop me."
Applejack lowered her hat as she turned her head towards Twilight, "Ah don't like tha sound of that. What's on your mind sugarcube?"
Twilight shook her head, "Nothing complicated, just that I'm a ghost, as she was so kind to remind us. Walls can't keep me out of places. Besides, I can still teleport. I doubt those gate guards could keep me away, that's why they're so scared."
Rainbow shrugged softly, "Alright, so what are we waiting for? You go do your ghost thing and we'll meet inside."
Soft pointed along the wall, "We should go to the next gate first. These guards will never let us go past. Twilight can split and head over or through the wall, so long as she isn't seen. We'll all meet at the Seekers manor. They may have some ideas too."
Twilight gave a nod of agreement before fleeing away from the party in the direction of the wilderness before fading into the ground. Applejack huffed as she began hiking for the next gate, "Never going ta get used to that."
Spike shrugged softly, "Then don't. Let's get Twilight back in a real body."
The conversation simmered down to silence before they arrived at the next gate. Without a ghost following them, they were waved through with minimal difficulty and only the smallest bit of idle chatter, "Are you coming from down south? Why not take the Lightning Rail?"
Soft spoke truthfully, "Oh, we didn't have to walk far to get here." At least from the other gate, she thought to herself. "Besides, the Lightning Rail gets expensive after a while."
"Isn't that the truth," said the guard before waving them past with a gesture of their hoof.
The sun was well on its way towards the horizon as the group entered the capital. Rainbow and Applejack looked around at the grand Grecian architecture while Spike tried to keep them moving towards the Seekers.
"Guys!" came a harsh whisper before Twilight's head poked free of the wall of the building to their left, "Guys!"
Applejack smiled, "Good ta see ya made it, Twi, but why are ya hiding like that?"
"There's some kind of barrier around the Seekers," explained Twilight as she waved them into an alleyway and joined them there, "I can't get in."
Spike crossed his arms, "Figures, they ghost-proofed their headquarters. Not a bad idea, I guess, but that doesn't work for us."
Rainbow pointed up at the darkening sky, "Well it's probably too late to go asking for royal visits anyway. Why don't we go somewhere to sleep and worry about it tomorrow. Besides, I'm starving and we can get some good grub for a change."
Twilight licked over her lips. "I miss eating," she admitted with a wilting of her ears.
Soft gave an encouraging smile, "Don't worry, Twilight. We'll fix this." She pointed down the road, "Let's head in there. Twilight, duck out of sight and pop in after we get a room."
Twilight spat a sudden spell, vanishing from sight before her voice spoke, "Right behind you."
As they approached the tavern, Twilight whispered softly to Spike, "Thank you, for being with me, through thick and thin."
Spike made a dismissive wave of a claw, "What are friends for? Besides, we're family."
They entered the inn to find a sleepy-looking mare behind the counter. The mare jerked awake when they approached the counter, "Oh! Hello! Welcome to Drowsy Mare, I'm Drowsy, and I'm a mare," she greeted, "Would you like a room?"
Rainbow zipped up to the counter, "Biggest one you got for the bunch of us. You got some food too?"
Drowsy nodded her head, "Sure do. Ten gold for a night in the luxury suite, includes three meals while you're here." She grabbed a key in her mouth and set it on the counter, "I'll bring your food in a moment."
Spike surrendered a platinum coin to the counter and took the key. Drowsy suddenly jerked awake anew, staring at the space beside Spike. "Lost spirit, how can I help you rest?" she asked in solemn tone.
Twilight went stiff as Drowsy stared directly at her despite her invisibility spell. Being still didn't stop her from staring and waiting. The others didn't notice her hesitation, and were soon off to the room, leaving her behind with Drowsy.
"Don't be alarmed," spoke Drowsy, "My full name is Drowsy End. I know much of lost spirits. If you will not speak with me, go in peace."
Twilight shuffled nervously before she let the spell fade from her, appearing before Drowsy, "How did you see me?"
Drowsy shook her head, "I didn't, but I can feel your presence. You are pretty. Your desire for the material world must be a peaceful one to hold to your living grace so well."
Twilight blushed a bit as she ruffled her wings, "Thank you, I think. We're just trying to fix this."
Drowsy looked perplexed a moment, "To fix it, you simply must let go. You are too pretty to be wracked with true unfulfilled desires. Surrender to your rightly-earned rest and it will be--"
"No!" exclaimed Twilight, wings shooting out, "I don't want to fade away! I want to be alive. My friends need me, and I'm not done living yet."
Drowsy nodded slowly, "That will be difficult. No matter how pretty you may be, your soul is touched with the darkness. Only the most talented of divine workers could restore life to you."
Twilight worried her lower lip a moment before she perked up, "We know the Queen. She can help us, if we can find her. The guards said she wasn't in her castle. Where is she?"
Drowsy tilted her head, eyes half lidding with her namesake drowsiness, "She has the money, but she is no divine wielder. I suppose she would know of a few. Be wary of that one. She does not appreciate the plight of the dead and may bend her arcane might against you if she feels it right to do. You would stand little chance before her fury."
Twilight shrunk in place, "But... we're friends. She wouldn't just zap me."
Drowsy perked an ear, "You know her that well? Perhaps then, but the guard is right." She paused to yawn widely, sinking in place so her head rested on the counter, but her eyes rested on Twilight, "She left her castle centuries ago and doesn't live there anymore."
Twilight folded her wings up against her back as she started towards the room her friends had gone in, "I don't suppose you know where she does live?" Her voice carried doubt, and it was soon validated.
Drowsy gave a soft negative noise, "Only her most trusted know, and they don't speak of it. She is an empress in hiding. Just as well, she has many sins to hide from."
Twilight paused, "Huh? She seemed really nice when I met her. Kind, even-hooved and fair."
Drowsy snorted then, a quiet noise, "She gives that impression, but she can also take disastrously strong action at the word of those she calls friend, or stay her hoof when it is needed most. She is no perfect angel, despite what many would call her." Drowsy closed her eyes, "Please don't tell her I said that. I am attached to my head, and wish more years of sleeping yet before I descend to true rest."
Twilight shuddered powerfully and fled Drowsy, dashing through the walls to appear beside Soft Mane as she was changing into sleeping clothing. "Oops!" Twilight kept going straight ahead, pushing into the main room where the others were relaxing.
Rainbow spotted Twilight instantly, "Hey! Where were you hiding? We've been in here forever wondering where you ran off to."
Twilight shrugged, "The innkeeper could tell I was there, but she just wanted to talk. She seemed to know about ghosts, and the Queen. She really isn't here, but she didn't know where the Queen is." An angry huff came from Twilight, "We have to find her."
Spike stretched out before he flopped onto a bed, "Well we aren't finding her in the middle of the night, so let's get some sleep."
"I don't sleep," reminded Twilight with a light frown.
Spike sheepishly replied, "Oh yeah... Point stands though. We'll find her, Twilight."
"He's right," spoke Applejack, already perched on her own bed, "No reason ta get worked up any. Soon as the rest of us get some shut eye, we'll put hooves ta tha road and find that Queen!"
They weren't the perfect words, but they'd have to do. Twilight sat herself in the center of the room, watching as her friends settled to sleep. It didn't escape her notice that Soft slipped in with Spike in the same bed, though she was dressed at least, so Twilight didn't comment on it. She did watch as they snuggled and fell to sleep together, a tinge of jealousy running through her. She wanted a hug...
Deciding to distract herself with more useful thoughts, she cast her magic grip at her book, pulling it free of Spike's backpack and reviewing her magic through the night.
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
678 users online
994,441 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
"Half-blood" has a hyphen...
...and so does "ghost-proofed."
A bit of a thing here; "yea" is not the same as "yeah," either in pronunciation or meaning.
5669746 All fixed!
The guard sounds like the last time they called on Dan Ackroyd, they got Dan vs instead.
That first part of the sentence is worded awkwardly. Twilight "worried her lower lip"? Perhaps she worriedly bit her lower lip?
"Sleepy-looking" requires a hyphen.
Hyphen heaven!
5669928 Fixed
I suspect that he "made" a dismissive wave of a claw.
"Forehooves" is one word.
"rightly-earned" needs a...well, you know.
Unless "South" is a specific place, that shouldn't be capitalized.
Also, did Drowsy ever bring them that food she promised? It looked like she went right back to sleep after her conversation with Twilight.
There should be a period after the italicized "is," I believe.
5669951 Drowsy is best host.
"Half-step" should be hyphenated.
David, why do you fear the hyphen? What did it ever do to you?
5669957 They feel painfully arbitrary. What determines if something should have a hyphen or not?
Comma after Oh
"At least from the other gate" is sort of a quote from Soft Mane even if she didn't say it.
Soft spoke truthfully, "Oh, we didn't have to walk far to get here," At least from the other gate, she thought to herself, "Besides, the Lightning Rail gets expensive after a while."
Extra space before Soft
If she's sharing a bed with Spike she should probably keep her armor on too.
How old is Soft Mane exactly? It would be easier to interpret some of her actions if we knew that.
5669964 Today is the last day I let Drowsy edit a chapter.
5669959 This website summarizes it pretty well.
5669959 You use a hyphen when you are using a verb as part of a description: sleepy-looking, for example. Looking is not an adjective, but sleepy-looking is.
I disagree with Alzrius about half-step though. It should be half step, because step is a noun in this case, and half of a step is still a noun.
5669975 It may be a noun, but one of the many rules regarding hyphens is that you always hyphenate a spelled-out fraction, e.g. a half-cup of flour, a half-hour later, etc.
5669987 There's only room for one grammar Nazi in this town. *distant eagle cry*
Just kidding. I'll take your word for it.
5670001 Why do all the grammar mavens stare at me so balefully in their avatars?
5670001 Grammar Nazi, or grammar-Nazi? No, wait, there's no hyphen there.
In all seriousness though, you don't need to take my word for it - that's why I linked to that other website.
5670004 By the way, I wasn't asking rhetorically before. How old is Soft Mane? So far you've just said she's "young." If she's just 8 or so, then I would chalk her behavior up to being clueless, but if she's 12 or 13 she's getting a little creepy. If she's older than that, they really shouldn't have been treating her like a kid all this time, since she would be basically full-grown.
5670030 She's about the same age as Spike, which is around 14 so far I can research, as Twilight pointed out way near when they first met her. This hasn't stopped any of them from treating her like a kid. They also treat Spike like a kid. These ponies, they are cruel.
It would be entirely legal in Everglow for them to go off and get married, though that would be unwise for a wide and unsettling number of reasons.
5669987 According to that website, a spelled-out fraction would be "one-half" not "half-step." The fraction in half step is just the word half. Half modifies step, so it is a normal adjective-noun combination.
5670049 That's just the example that's listed; it applies to all spelled-out fractional values, even where the fraction in question is of an object or an action, rather than a number.
5670046 Spike always struck me as younger than being a teenager. Rather, he seemed like he was eight or nine, at most (certainly compared to those dragon teenagers he fell in with in "Dragon Quest").
Of course, that makes his pairing with Soft Mane rather awkward, but I imagine that'd be par for the course with a romance between a dragon and a pony satyr.
5670062 Physical age and mental maturity are also a thing to look out for. Spike has been shown with an alarmingly wide spectrum of maturities, from barely toddler to Twilight's better half.
5670046 Well sheesh, she's old enough to be married and have a kid already in a medieval culture like that.
A note though, she's also at the age where she would be the most self-conscious, but she didn't seem to have any inhibitions when she was in Equestria. Is that the influence of her pony half, or just years of practice being the "freak"?
5670068 A little of both, and being surrounded by a bunch of ponies suddenly that apparently had nothing against nudity. Even their queen didn't wear a thing to cover her 'royal treasure' as it were. Equestria was a strange place.
5670065 This is true. I won't press the point where physical maturity is concerned; the show sent way too many mixed messages about how Equestrian dragons age!
5670062
5670065
Since Twilight hatched Spike when she was a similar age to the CMC and she's only in her late teens now, Spike can't be much more than ten and might be as young as six.
5670085 It's never stated what her exact age is, but it has been said that the mane six are all young adults, not teenagers, putting Twilight far closer to 20.
5670073 Given that the city ponies in Everglow wear clothes, one can only imagine how many of them enjoy vacationing in the country, where the mares and stallions let it all hang out. Equestria, if they ever go there, will seem like a paradise (at least until they realize that, like so many nudist colonies, it's not considered "naughty" in the least).
5670094 60% less chance of orc raids and we get to frolic in the nude? Score.
5670089 "Young adults" are teenagers, especially in a pre-industrial society. She could have been as young as 14 in the pilot and the first three seasons were only one year. EQG would suggest that she is an appropriate age to blend in at a high school, so if she is 20, she carries it very well.
5670109 MLP is sending crossed signals? Say it is not so.
5670111 I don't know about that. You can make almost everything fit together if you work at it.
5670109 The first three seasons were only one year, and the fourth season was only six months (a la Rainbow Rocks), which would suggest that Twilight is a year-and-a-half older now than she was before.
EQG suggests - since nobody seems to bat an eye at people of their grade driving (e.g. Flash's car), and that it takes place in the fall - that Twilight and the gang are either juniors or seniors (I'm guessing juniors, since nobody is talking about post-graduation plans). So by the time of Rainbow Rocks (and, by extension, this fic), Twilight would be around seventeen.
However, there's no clear indication as to how old she was when she hatched Spike - even drawing a parallel to her age then with the CMC now doesn't help, since we don't know how old the CMC are. She could very well have been five years old, which would make Spike twelve or so. Throw in some uncertainty, and he could be thirteen, which is close enough to Soft Mane's being fourteen that it could work.
5670065
That... is a great line.
Alarmingly wide. Nice.
5670130 Well Spike's age wouldn't be an issue anyway. Reptiles (including dragons by most people's opinion) are born physically mature and only get larger with age. As long as he acts like a grownup, he is a grownup.
5670146 I suspect that's bringing a greater degree of realism into the equation than is warranted.
5670156 A little untrue as well, since MLP and Pathfinder dragons definately change in appearance as they get older. Pathfinder ones even pick up all kinds of crazy new powers.
Spike has a rare opportunity. If he lives to be thousands of years old, and keeps adventuring the whole time, he could very well multi-class his way to hundreds of class levels. In addition to being a CR 22 or 23 ancient dragon, he could also be fighter 20, barbarian 20, rogue 20, wizard 20, gunslinger 20....
All the Everglow deities would have to ask his permission to do stuff.
5670160 Well in Pathfinder humans also pick up new powers as they go, so that could just be attributed to practice.
5670163 The older he gets, the less there is to learn about, but even mechanically, 20th level is where it all stops. There is no 'go back to level 1' option like D&D 2nd edition had.
Hehe, it looks like 45 out of 47 comments are Alzrius, Silver and me.
5670160 Well, I was taking "physically mature" to mean "sexually mature," so maybe I misunderstood.
5670175 Spike is at least mature enough to know he likes females. This is a fact brought to us in no unclear terms by the show. He is also OK with cross-racial relationships. Spike, you amazing dragon you, you really have an open mind.