//------------------------------// // Hunger by Fuzzyfurvert // Story: Magic of Love: A Twidance Prompt Collab // by ArguingPizza //------------------------------// by Fuzzyfurvert My Little Dynamite:Book One Part 7 ~~~ Pale green pin points of light glowed faintly in the early darkness of the night over Canterlot City. The rooftops flashed past as it moved with silent grace through the darkest shadows. They paused for a moment above an open air market just as the last stubborn merchant closed up shop for the evening. It turned it’s head, scanning the warren of streets and alleyways below, searching for its prey for a moment before it moved on. Its target, the one they called Princess Cadance, was somewhere in the city, hidden. It would find her and it would end the pathetic pony’s life. “I’m going to die tonight.” Twilight swallowed hard as she idly rubbed her coat down with a towel. “I just know it. I can feel it.” “Oh stop being so dramatic.” Spike crunched down on a small blue sapphire and ground the stone to a rough powder in his jaws. “She’s a girl, just like you.” “No, you don’t understand Spike, she’s a Princess, she’s an alicorn, she’s...she’s, Cadance!” Twilight shuddered and covered her head with the towel as she flopped bonelessly down at the small kitchenette table in the dining room of the safe house. “I grew up with her! We went to the same school and everything. I know we made that dumb foalhood promise to always be BFFs and stay together, but really, she’s taking that seriously!” Spike continued to grind the gemstone to dust for a moment more before he lifted the edge of the towel to look Twilight in the eye. “Are you saying it wasn’t serious? I have never known you to make a promise you don’t keep, Twilight.” “Yes,” Twilight grumbled from under the towel, “it was serious. But she’s made it plainly obvious that she not only wants to keep that promise intact, but that she is ready to move our relationship past childhood friend and right into romantic co-habitation!” Spike raised his eyebrow ridges at that. “Wow. Really? Cadance must have really missed you these last few years, huh?” “I guess…” Twilight sighed and tossed the towel aside since Spike wasn’t letting her sulk under it in peace. “How am I supposed to react to that? She’s been back in town for a few hours and she’s kissed me a half dozen times already - the last one was almost all tongue!” Spike grinned and held up a claw. “Wow! High four, Twi!” Twilight glared at him and frowned. “Oh come on, you’re gonna leave me hangin’?” Spike shook his head and fished out a second sapphire from the basket in the middle of the table. “Fine, be that way. See how I treat you when I finally get that seamstress to notice me. I’m just gonna slip out the back without a word. At least I’m supportive of your relationships.” “We do not have a relationship, Spike! We can’t! I’m a battle mage guard and she’s a Princess. There’s got to be a conflict of interest there. Especially when I work for - and am the star pupil of - another Princess.” Twilight huffed and crossed her hooves. “I’m supportive of your...relationships. I keep encouraging you to just talk to that mare. Don’t act like I’m the bad guy here.” “Ok, maybe that was unfair of me.” Spike popped the sapphire into his mouth and crunched loudly. “It’s just...if I had my lady friend upstairs, fresh from a shower and a long makeout session, I would give you a high four, dish a couple of details and then get my scaly tail back up there!” Twilight grumbled under her breath and sighed. “And I’d totally be happy for you…” “Thank you.” “This still doesn’t help me with my problem though.” Twilight lit her horn and opened the icebox and pulled out a bottle of dark liquid. She popped the cap and took a long pull of the sweet beverage. “Do you like her?” “What?” Twilight looked up sharply. Spike fixed her with a steady stare, his reptilian eyes unblinking. “Do you like her? It’s a simple question, Twi.” Spike leaned forward slightly. “You’re my sister, so you don’t have to answer that to me, but if the answer is even remotely ‘yes’, then I suggest you get your plot back upstairs and figure this out before some assassin or other political nonsense makes a decision for you.” Twilight blinked as Spike stood and stretched. “Also, because I’m your brother, I’m going to go check the gem stores in the basement again. Maybe I’ll sleep down there. It’s really hard to hear anything down there.” She watched him turn and walk deeper into the house, the wheels in her mind turning over their conversation until she jolted in her seat and leaned to the side to call after Spike. “The hammy wink you gave after saying that really oversold it.” Her target was close. The magic was in the air, like a scent on the breeze, drawing those green eyes to a run down section of Canterlot near the southern gate. She could feel it against her tongue like a second pulse that was getting stronger as she moved further south. The buildings here were tall and old and many had their own walls and courtyards, relics of past times of strife. The cobblestones here still held a trace of the daytimes’ heat and the smell of many creatures in a smallish space prevailed everywhere. Traditional tracking would be difficult at best here. She paused again atop a squat tower besides a sleeping drake that dwarfed her with its bulk and opened her mouth to breath deep. Scents and magic collided with each other in the back of her throat and painted a picture in her mind of all the active sources of magics around her. Every powered carriage and the path it’d woven through the streets below became clear to her as did the paths of every pegasi and airship that had passed recently overhead. The apartments were awash with the movements and lingering taste of unicorns and diamond dog mages. Amid it all, one flavor sung out above the rest. It tasted uniquely of all pony magics at once. She’d smiled as she’d followed it here, leaping from building to building without a sound or sign of her passage. At first, it was confusing that the flavor of Cadance’s magic faded in and out as it wafted down one street and then the next, but it soon became apparent that it was coming up at every stallionhole cover that lead to the sewers and run-off pipes. “Clever girl.” She smirked and breathed in the magic again. “Taste like a single unicorn guard is with you too. This will be too easy.” The great drake shifted at the sound of someone speaking and blinked sleepy eyes. He looked around and noticed a small black cat with green eyes looking at him from the ledge. “Oh, so it was you? Go home, cat. I have no cream for you.” The cat meowed at him and then jumped to a lower ledge and scampered off into the night. “Cadance?” Twilight pushed the door open to the master bedroom slowly. “I brought you a drink.” She held up two chilled bottles of sweet carbonated syrup. She paused as the door swung wide enough to see the see the king sized bed. Cadance was there, on her side and back turned as she flipped through Twilight’s spellbook. “Hey!” Cadance turned and looked over her shoulder with a playful grin. “What? I got bored waiting on you. What took so long?” Twilight felt herself blush again and looked away. “Quick patrol. I wanted to make sure we weren’t followed.” “I’m glad to see you’re still a terrible liar.” Twilight bristled and glared at Cadance for a moment before sighing and setting the bottle down on the bedside table. “Ok, I was talking to Spike.” “I’m glad he’s here.” Twilight blinked and looked at Cadance. “Really?” Cadance nodded. “Yes. Spike has been a good friend since he was old enough to start following us to class. He’s growing so much and it’s nice to have someone with teeth and claws here to help protect me rather than the otherway around.” “You’re really going to have to tell me what you’ve been up to, Cadance.” “I will, soon, I promise.” Candance sighed and rolled over to face Twilight, her spellbook still in Cadance’s grasp. Twilight lit her horn and tugged it away from the Princess. “Oh c’mon Twily, I was reading that! I want to know what spells and meta magics my guardian is packing. For security reasons.” “Yeah right.” Twilight sighed again and climbed up to sit on the bed next to Cadance. “It’s just a bunch of evocations and a few abjuration spells for safety.” “I saw the admixture equations. That’s what you used to beat aunt Luna, isn’t it?” Cadance put her hoof gently on Twilight’s. “I can’t claim to understand it. Evocation has never been a strong suit of mine.” Twilight looked down at the hoof resting against her own and recalled Spike’s words. She rested back against the pile of pillows on the bed and smiled gently at her princess. “Can I explain it to you?” “Only if you promise to go slow.”