• Published 9th Jul 2015
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Twilight's journey - Skarsnik



Follow the story of Spike and his assitant helping a lost lavender alicorn

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Chapter 7 - Travel

Day three:
Spike told me she woke up in the middle of the night. He gave her some water, and she wanted to spend some time alone outside. I think Spike didn’t tell me everything, but I won’t blame him.
The rest of the day was uneventful. She just slept and ate but said nothing aside from some small conversation. She fell asleep again afterward.
I am impressed by the speed of her recovery. She’s already starting to look like a healthy pony, but she seems to lack stamina. Even if she manages to stay awake longer now, she still sleeps a lot. Maybe her mind can’t follow her body?

“Hurry, we need to leave before the sun rises,” Spike shouted at Emerald.

“Sorry, I was checking to make sure we don’t forget anything.” Emerald was carrying his luggage and some goods he bought for the alicorn. He placed them on a cart he had acquired the previous day and put the harness around his neck.

“You are sure you don’t want me to pull the cart?” Spike asked while putting his own luggage on the cart, carefully trying to not disturb the sleeping alicorn nested in an improvised bed of blankets and pillows.

“I did barely any exercise in the past few days and it’s not a long trek.” Emerald had spent most of his time staying in the house watching over Twilight and studying some books. He wasn’t an athlete, but he didn’t like staying indoors that much.

Once everything was ready, they departed before anypony was out, saying nothing more. Spike walked behind the cart to watch over Twilight.

When they were out town, Spike finally broke the silence. “I thought Lord Scroll would not want to do such a mundane task as pulling a ruffian cart.”

“I guess Sir Spike, Savior of the Crystal Empire, wanted to accomplish the heroic task of pulling the carriage of Lady Sparkle on a perilous one-hour trip across the peaceful land of Equestria.”

They both laughed at each other. Emerald was relieved. Since the day of Twilight’s return, they didn’t have many wordplays like that, too concerned about the alicorn. He was also happy, because Spike loved to use his noble lineage to tease him, and now he could make comebacks.

“Huh? Why the bed is moving?” said Twilight now awake, looking at Spike.

“Ho. Sorry, Twilight. We didn’t want to wake you up, and we didn’t know if you could make the trip by yourself, so Emerald bought an old cart from a farmer.”

“But, where are we going?”

“Oh, we forget to tell you. I am a traveling teacher. We are moving to the next town.”

Twilight looked at the sky barely seeing the sun “So early?”

Emerald stopped when hearing these words. Spike and Emerald were leaving the town earlier than expected from what they had planned. They couldn’t stand anymore the nearly silence of Twilight, and the stupid small house they were living, so they choose to leave the town hoping that will ease the situation.

They both had prepared letters for the families of the young unicorns they taught to help them in the growth of their foals and some recommendations for the local teacher. Usually, they would go meet them, but that took too much time. They were so caught in their preparation, they had forgotten to acknowledge if Twilight understood the need for secrecy. That’s why they left so early, to avoid other ponies seeing her.

Spike paused too, ‘If I lie to her, she will never trust me, but I don’t want to see her having nightmares like that. What can I do?’

Sadly for Spike, Emerald was faster to decide. He removed the harness around his neck with his magic, but kept a hold on it to keep the cart steady. He moved to the back of the cart near Spike and said, “Miss Sparkle, do you remember the content of the letter?”

“Yes.” Her ears dropped slightly.

“I am sorry for the bad memory it brought back. I am really sorry, Miss Sparkle, -” Emerald paused, “- and I don’t want to be rude to you. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you, but you have to understand it’s not easy for both of us either. We are like you, and we can only trust the contents of the letter.” He paused again. “I am a stranger to you, and I can understand that you don’t want to trust me, but can you trust Spike?”

Twilight turned her head to Emerald “I am sorry, I don’t know. Can I even trust myself? I’m not even sure of who I am.” Twilight’s gaze felt on her her wings and then to Spike. “So what choice do I have?”

Spike looked to Twilight. “It’s your choice Twilight. If you want, I will write to Princess Celestia and bring you back to Canterlot.”

“Thank you, Spike. You have been only kind to me.” she pointed a hoof at Emerald. “Both of you. I think I will trust you.”

“Thank you, Twilight, but I promise you, anytime you want, I will write to Princess Celestia.”

Emerald went back to the front of the cart and put the harness on himself again. Before he could start walking, he felt the alicorn’s gaze on him.

“I don’t want to be a burden.” Twilight slowly got out the cart with the help of Spike. “I will walk.”

The alicorn walked alongside the cart, following Emerald’s slow but steady pace. She didn’t speak, enjoying the sensation of just walking and taking in the landscape. There was a dirt road, following some farm land. The sun rose higher in the sky giving them more light, and farms were replaced by grass and trees the further they walked.

After half an hour, Spike broke the silence. “Twilight are you feeling tired?”

“Not really, actually. Why do you ask, Spike?”

“We are heading to a bigger town to take a train, and I just realized we can’t really carry a sleepy mare across the town. Oh, wait. You also haven’t eaten. Ok, let's take a break so you can eat, while I explain to you the whole trip.”

Emerald stopped. He opened one of his bag containing some fruits, and gave some of them to Twilight. “Sorry we left in a rush, but we can have a real meal in the town later if you like.”

Spike waited for Twilight to finish an apple before speaking. “Twilight, I suggest you try to rest for the rest of the trip, it will be better if you can stay awake while we wait for the train.”

“Also, I bought this for you.” Emerald levitated a linen cloak with a hood.

The alicorn eyed the outfit with a puzzled expression. “Huh, I don’t understand?”

“Sorry, if it’s not a proper outfit, but it should be enough for you to hide.”

“Everypony thinks I am dead. Why do I need to hide?”

“Hm. Do you know any alicorns outside the princesses?” This time, that was Spike who answered Twilight’s question.

“Ohh.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “And now I feel stupid. Thank you, Spike.”

“You’re welcome.”

They resumed their trip when Twilight agreed to rest on the cart until they reached the town.

---

Emerald, Spike, and Twilight were now on the train in a private cabin. Twilight was sleeping on one of the benches, while Emerald and Spike shared the other one. The alicorn had fought sleep as long as she could while waiting for the train, but she fell asleep the moment they put her on the bench. Their luggages were on the nets on top of their heads, and there was an additional suitcase for the alicorn. Spike had bought convenient necessities for Twilight such as a toothbrush, some brushes, and shampoo while Emerald and Twilight were waiting for the train.

Emerald was already staring at Twilight’s cutie mark for a few minutes when Spike finally spoke to him.

“Wondering what her special talent is? I already saw you staring at her cutie mark like that before.”

Emerald turned his head to Spike, a bit surprised, “Huh? Um - not really - I mean yes, in a way.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s probably nothing, but yes, can you tell me her special talent? I’m guessing it’s magic related.”

Spike chuckled, “Haha. Yeah, it’s magic related, but you probably won’t believe it. Do you know my study on cutie marks and unicorn magic?”

“Hm…” Emerald paused to think, then he said, “Wait, it was you who wrote Cutie Marks and Magic Use?”

“Yes, do you remember it?”

“At first, I laughed at the book. I thought it was a foal book with common knowledge, but I was surprised that it was the only serious book on the subject. I think I understand why now. I don’t think a pony would do a complete study about that.”

“Yeah, I got a lot of laughs about that when I submitted the idea, but that’s not the point. Do you remember the part about gifted unicorns?”

Emerald put a hoof under his chin, “Basically, all unicorns gifted in magic have a special talent related to magic. The closer to a field you are, the easier it is to learn and create your own spell in the field- Hey you’re giving me one your lectures again!”

“Sorry. I will get to the point. As you know, many young gifted unicorns think their special talent is just magic, but in the end, it’s only a specific field of magic like fire magic, illusions, or in your case magic signature. Even Star Swirl’s special talent was magic theory, not magic. But Twilight’s special talent is really just magic.”

Emerald looked at Twilight cutie mark again and almost laughed. “Are you kidding me? How can you be so sure?”

“I always believed in her, and if you want some proof. For the study, I compared students’ results at magic tests, and I learned two things. First, you don’t want to be Princess Celestia’s personal student. Her tests are really crazy. I always thought Twilight was freaking out for nothing when Celestia had a test for her. The second thing is that Twilight’s results were totally off the charts comparing to others.”

‘And I thought she was the Element of Magic just because she was the only magically trained unicorn among her friends.’ “I shouldn’t be surprised. Still, something bothers me, but don’t laugh at me.”

“No, go on.”

“I have a bad habit related to my special talent since I can easily identify who uses a spell. I tend to watch unicorns I don’t know until they use their magic so I can memorize their signature. Miss Sparkle hasn’t used any magic since she came back.”

Spike shrugged. “Maybe she is too tired.”

“Yes, I thought that for the first day, but there is something you might not realize since you aren’t a unicorn. Magic is one of the first things we check when we wake up, like after a hangover. But then again, she is probably too tired or too confused.” Emerald brought a hoof to his horn and took another look at Twilight’s cutie mark. “The thing that is really bothering me is that when I look at her cutie mark, it feels faded.”

“Faded?” Spike gave a confused look at the mare’s cutie mark. “Yeah, her fur is not quite the same as I remember it was.”

Emerald shook his head, “No, I mean it feels, not looks faded. I told you it’s crazy.”

“I don’t understand. Am I missing something because I’m not a pony?” Spike frowned.

“No, Spike. When I look at a cutie mark, it’s like looking at a drawing. You might wonder what the special talent of the pony is or you might think of something else if it’s an attractive mare. It’s just your imagination. I will not deny a fine piece of art can trigger some emotions.” He pointed a hoof at the sleeping alicorn.

“But when I look at her cutie mark, it’s a true feeling, and it feels faded. Sorry, I don’t have a better explanation.”

“Ok, I admit that sounds crazy,” Spike simply replied.

“Yes, I would rather not think about what that means for her.” Emerald stopped and gave a look at the suitcase that contained Spike’s books, “Did you find any books on alicorns at the bookstore?”

“Hm, no. I don’t think we can find anything on that subject outside the Canterlot Royal Archives. But from all I know from living with Cadance, they are like normal ponies, outside their magic.”

Emerald’s curiosity get peeked “What about their magic?”

“I never asked about that in detail. All I guess from what I saw is they are more powerful than normal unicorns, but being Princesses, they don’t really use their magic outside common tasks, if you count raising and lowering the sun and moon as common tasks.”

Emerald let out a small laugh, and looked at the sleeping alicorn “She seems to recover very quickly at least. Did you get the book I told you about? It was rather embarrassing for me to help her take a bath.”

“Yeah, about that. How did you know how to clean her wings?” asked Spike with obvious curiosity.

“What I did is probably the only thing a nonpegasus or nonprofessional can do for wings. I had a pegasus marefriend, remember. I tried preening her wings once. It was quite uncomfortable for her, even with her guidance, and it’s rather intimate.”

“Hm, preening wings. I don’t think I ever asked what that is it exactly,” pondered Spike.

“It’s the way birds, pegasi, and griffons take care of their wings. You have to use your teeth to remove or readjust loose feathers, and then you use your tongue to clean them up.”

“That doesn’t seem easy.”

“Trust me, it’s not, and feathers taste bland.” Both went laughing after Emerald’s last sentence.

They said nothing more for the rest of the trip, not wanting to wake up Twilight. Emerald spent most of his time looking out the window, and Spike prepared some papers for their arrival in the next town.