//------------------------------// // #6. Brad Theft Auto // Story: The Bradical Adventures of Twilight Sparkle & Flash Sentry: The Book of StarSwirl // by Chelis //------------------------------// The reaction from the dragon and the princess was enough to attract the looks of everyone in the tavern. Most were looks of confusion. Gilda could have felt their eyes burning through her feathers and right into her soul, right before they decided to go back to their drinking and roughhousing. All four of them just sat there for a while, trying to think of something to make the entire situation as less awkward as possible. "Soooo, you all know each other?" Flash asked, being the only one clueless of what happened. "Gilda here was a friend of one of Twilight's friends. She showed up one day out of nowhere and was mean to everyone." Spike explained. "Hey! It's not my fault I'm like this!" Gilda answered. Spike laughed. "Was that supposed to be your best rebuttal?" Gilda gave Spike her death stare as the table fell awkwardly silent again, this time like when your crazy ex-girlfriend shows up at your wedding... and didn't even get a gift from the registry. "So if we leave now, will we be at the Capitol by nightfall?" Flash Sentry asked, trying to diffuse the tension. Gilda laughed before trying more of her mead. "It figures you dweebs would still be using the pony maps. Those maps of the kingdom suck Manticore balls because they can never get the distances right. But if we leave now, we definitely can make it to Parfondeval Village by sundown." The two ponies and the dragon looked at each other then shrugged. Making it to a village and closer to the capital was better than waiting a day and leaving before sundown tomorrow morning. "Alright Gilda, you have yourself a deal," Twilight said as she levitated a pretty big coin purse in front of Gilda. "This is half. You get the rest when we reach the capital. Drinks are on me," Twilight smiled Gilda had a large grin as she finished the rest of her drink. "Alright princess, Let's go then." *** "Hey Gilda!" Twilight Sparkle screamed, as the wind from fighting the morning offshore winds that funneled into the fjord not only slowed the three down, but also made communicating harder than usual. "What is it Twilight?!" Gilda screamed back. The Griffon motioned for the princess to fly next to her, which Twilight obliged. "Hey, you know Rainbow Dash still talks about you?" Gilda looked down into the water below for a second and took a big sigh. "Yea, I feel bad about the way we fell out, I've meant to write to her." "There's no time like the present," Twilight said in a soft but assuring voice. "What?!" Gilda screamed. "I said that there's no time like the present!" Twilight replied at the top of her lungs. "Oh! Okay!" Gilda screamed back. *** They cleared the Fjord hours ago, and landed on a small meadow deep in the endless expanse of the forest that covered the majority of the kingdom. Gilda happened to spot a little rabbit in the field and made the rabbit her lunch. Everyone else were on the opposite side of the field, or as far away from the carnivore feast as possible. Flash walked up to Twilight again, hoping, maybe, for a small miracle and have her talk to him. And once again the advance was met by a disinterested twilight going over a better map Flash returned to his spot dejected, but this time not alone. "Not working out, huh?" Spike asked. "Yea," Flash said as he looked at her. "She just wants to do the mission and go home. But, between you and me: talk about magic with her and she will talk to you," Spike advised as he walked away flash and towards Twilight. *** After using the grass to wipe the rabbit's blood, Gilda took off. She was followed by Flash with Twilight and Spike riding her back. "So Twilight, did you know that-" "Sorry Flash, I am looking out for bandits!" "My friend is a really distant descendant of Starswirl the Bearded?" Twilight's ears perked up the second she heard that wizard's name and her attention soon aimed to her pegasus bodyguard. "Oh really?" she asked. The talk turned from minutes to hours, and it eventually encompassed the entire day. Magic theory, spells, history, and of course Starswirl the Bearded was the conversation. Twilight was impressed by Flash's knowledge of magic, which he explained that magic was part of advanced training. Just in case he would have to fight magic in the battlefield. As the sun descended out of sight, the light smoke and candlelight of the Parfondeval became visible. It was all laughs and smiles as they dropped into the old world village.