They journeyed south, finding a trade road and largely sticking to it.
"It will take some time to walk there, but this road will take us to the border city of Kadiston, and from there your paths are many, and your own," explained Dawn Event.
Spike hefted his shoulders, "You showed us this far, do you have something you need to be getting to?"
He nodded as he marched ever forward, "The gods will reveal the next leg of my own journey when they know the time is right, but I feel it is disingenuous to imply my path and your own will remain tangled."
Twilight hustled to keep up, finding the pony's pace harder to maintain as the hours passed. "Does," she asked, panting for breath, "that mean you might be? Still there, that is."
"It may," he replied, before gesturing to a log with a hoof, "but for now, let us rest. You look tired. The Sun Queen will watch over us as we have lunch."
Twilight heaved a loud sigh before crashing onto the log gratefully. "Thank Celestia," she sighed as she closed her eyes and panted to herself.
Spike hopped up beside her and looked to their native friend. "Do you get attacked a lot?" he asked, "You're dressed for it."
"A cleric," said Dawn as he took the other end of the log, "must be prepared to serve, in peace, or in war. My mistresses are many, and fickle. I can still come in peace armored, but it is foolish to march into battle naked. Your own mistress," He gestured with a hoof at the recovering Twilight, "is fortunate to still draw breath. Not many do battle with orcs, fewer without armor or a weapon. I gather she is a spellcaster, but the situation was strongly against her."
"About that," said Spike as he looked over at Twilight, "She's still got that horn thing on. Why haven't you taken it off yet?"
Twilight opened her eyes and crossed them, trying to see up to her horn. "That's a really good question, Spike. Please? It's very uncomfortable, to put it mildly."
Dawn did not answer them. Instead, he raised his fore-hooves and clapped them together. "Benevolent Sun Queen, bless us weary travelers and provide for us. We bask in your glory, and grow like the plants you shine upon. Provide us with sustenance as they draw from your golden rays." His prayers done, his hooves were forced apart as parcels of food wrapped in wax paper seemed to appear from nowhere. The food was quickly followed by little clay jars. All of the provisions fell in a little heap on the ground. "Find what is pleasing to your senses, and eat," bade Dawn Event. He took a package and a jar and helped himself.
Twilight shot him an irritated look before scooting closer. She stared at a package for a moment, and then huffed. She raised a hoof to tap at her neutralized horn, but then reached out to snag a package in her teeth. She quickly spat it out. "Ugh, this one has meat."
Spike perked up at the mention of meat and leaned over, sniffing it. "A little bland," he remarked before he snatched it up and began eating just as contentedly as if it were jewels.
Twilight gaped at him a moment, then slowly reached for another package. This one contained some kind of rice cake which, while equally bland, was far less objectionable. She pulled it over and began to eat quietly.
Dawn gestured at one of the jars. "Water,” he explained, “ You can't hike for long without it. Miss Sparkle, you were perspiring quite heavily, I suggest at least three, even if you feel full."
Twilight looked agitated, but pulled a jar over with her teeth. To get the cork off, she was forced to resort to both her teeth and hooves. "This would be a lot easier," she complained, "if I could use my magic."
Dawn shook his head. "The gods have whispered to me. You are too dependent on a force that will not behave as you expect it to. You are safer waiting until we arrive at the city, where you can be instructed in proper use of your magic."
Twilight's expression paled, then darkened. "How long is that? I'm not a foal! At least let me hold things," she huffed loudly, setting the first jar aside, "You could just ask me to not cast spells."
"And if you are startled?" asked Dawn, "You are a natural. You did not even reach for the food until you realized you could not get it with your power. Trust us -- me, and your familiar -- we will protect you for now."
Spike raised a claw, "I'm not a familiar. Why do you keep calling me that? And she's not my 'mistress', that sounds weird. She's my friend, and my boss, and..." He flushed darkly, but Twilight took up the baton with a smile.
"He's like a son to me," she said with pride, "I didn't conjure him with magic, so he's not a familiar."
"I could be mistaken," said Dawn, "Very well, how did you come about his company?"
Twilight took a slow breath, using the calming technique shown to her by her foalsitter. She let the breath out and moved her hoof along with it. "Alright, that's a happy enough story. When I was a little filly, my parents enrolled me in a very prestigious school for magic. As part of the entry exam, they brought in a dragon egg and asked me to hatch it. I tried as hard as I could, and the testers looked like they were going to flunk me," she sighed, thinking back on the moment with a nostalgic look in her eyes, "then boom! This great explosion of colors goes off in the sky and shakes the room. I was so startled that I had a magic surge, and it hatched Spike on the spot."
Dawn snorted in almost a chuckle, "So he was made by your magic."
Twilight opened a mouth to argue, then stopped, closed her mouth and tapped her chin with a hoof. Spike shrugged softly, "I think he has you there, Twi. Not that it changes anything. We're still friends and family before, uh, whatever familiars have? Is that like crazy magic bindings or something?"
With business settled for the moment, and energy renewed, Dawn Event encouraged the others to rise and resume. "Take the food and water. They're good through the day, and I'm sure we'll get thirsty again. The food we'll keep for any others we spot on the way."
Spike started collecting things as he asked, "Why wouldn't we eat the food?"
Twilight quickly chimed in, "I know this one! I've seen it done once before by a Saddle Arabian. Our stomachs will stay full for the rest of the day without eating, right?"
Dawn nodded at the princess, "Exactly so. I thought your world was lacking in divine magic?"
Twilight sprang to her hooves and moved to follow Dawn as they resumed their journey, "He didn't say any of the prayers you did. So that was...from your god then? The Sun Queen?"
"She is the highest of them," explained Dawn as they went, " How can she not be? Without a sun, there is nothing. Her power flowed through me with the proper prayer, but it is more than the words or the movements," he looked back at the lavender alicorn, "It is not arcane, bound by method. One must have sufficient favor with the divine, and learn to reach ever further into its depths. Your power comes from the universe, while mine reaches beyond it to other planes for power."
Spike raised a scaled brow at Dawn, "Sounds dangerous."
Dawn smiled, his entire face participating in the gesture, "Of course it is. Everything worth having comes with risk. You cannot become great without it. Imagine a warrior who is scared of being hurt, how useless would that be? I am a pony of faith, so I walk into the void with my head held up high, knowing those I follow will not allow me to fall." He suddenly turned and lowered his head so it was even with Spike’s. "My mistresses would tan my flank if I disappointed them, and I would learn my lesson soon enough."
Twilight cantered alongside the cleric with a thoughtful expression as Spike lagged back a little until Dawn turned his face forward again. "So," said Twilight, "are you saying divine magic is more powerful than arcane?"
Dawn snorted softly, "No. Every force has its place. Arcane magic is very skilled at ripping apart and changing things, while divine magic is better at healing and enhancing what is already there and driving out impurities. A wielder of either is better when properly prepared. If you were better trained in using the magic of Everglow, I would be delighted to have you at my side."
Twilight's expression fell at his words, "Well I can't practice while I have this... thing on me." A thought suddenly came to Twilight and she gasped, "Wait a minute. You're not even a unicorn! How are you doing any magic?"
"The gods care not for our adornments. Horns do not please or displease them," spoke Dawn, "Besides, one of my friends is a very talented earth-bound wizard. Under Score would be offended if he heard you saying he wasn't a proper wizard. Is it truly so where you come from, that only one tribe of pony can wield magic?"
Spike circled around the earth pony cleric, "I've never seen an earth pony do magic before, besides Pinkie Pie, but she follows her own rules. Hey, can pegasi do magic too?"
Dawn nodded, "Of course, as can gem, leather wing, clockwork, antean. You name the tribe, and they have spellcasters."
Twilight tilted her head, "I didn't catch half of those. Uh, are gem ponies made of crystals?" at his nodding she continued, "Alright, and I'm guessing leather wings are bat ponies?" At this, Dawn frowned a little. "I'm just describing them," Twilight quickly asserted, "They aren't really bats. I never heard of the other two, what are they?"
"There is much you do not know. That is why we are headed to a grand city, where you can be educated," explained Dawn in a patient tone. The conversation lapsed to the quiet sounds of hooves and feet striking earth.
They traveled for a week, praying for food when the sun was high and otherwise stopping travel only for sleep and breakfast. No beasts or raiders bothered their journey, and soon the city was spread out before them beyond the next hill. It was a wide metropolis, easily competing with Canterlot for size and scope, but its architecture was clearly off. Squinting, they could see oddly-shaped figures moving around in the distance.
"What are they?" asked Spike.
"Kadistonians," said Dawn as if it were obvious, "Kadiston is a border city. It lies between the might of the pony empire to the west," he gestured westwards with a hoof, "and the fledgling human city-states to the east," his hoof swung around to point the other way. “Here, you find both. Ponies, humans, even some elves and dwarves, depending on your luck. But that's not what we're here for."
Twilight gave a nervous smile, "Education?"
"Exactly so," agreed Dawn, "Have you heard of humans in your strange land?"
"Amazingly," piped up Spike, "Yeah, we went to a whole world of them, twice. What are elves and dwarves though?"
Dawn lifted his shoulders, "Elves are skinny humans with pointed ears and an affinity for trees, and Dwarves are squat humans with a love of alcohol, smithing, and fighting, not always in that order. They are both fine tribes, if you learn their ways."
The three hastened their steps as they came closer to the gates, eager, for their different reasons, to be out of the wilderness and enter civilization, as strange a society as it promised to be.