//------------------------------//
// 10 - A Spark 
// Story: The Everglow of a Twilight Sunset 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

It was mid-morning on the third day that they saw something. They had grown used to traveling, and to an extent, each other. Though they each had quirks that the others found odd, they learned to accept them. This came most naturally between Sunset and Twilight, having already been friends before the journey began, but it was hard to not like True Shot, and even Roll's odd mannerisms were starting to feel 'natural' to an extent.

That all seemed irrelevant as they spied a pillar of smoke, dark and menacing. It rose in the distance over some imagined fire, to the right of their planned route. Roll glanced towards the smoke with a shake of her head. "It is not in our path. We would be of little help and it is not of our concern."

"Little help?!" Twilight did not agree, scowling at the idea. "I have a built in firehose right here." She thrust a hoof up at her horn even as she conjured some water to splash across the ground.

Sunset made an uncertain noise. "Well, we should at least see what it is. I'm not sure Twilight's, um, water gun--"

"Hey!"

"Look, maybe you'll make more water with practice, but I wouldn't call that a hose just yet." Sunset shook her head. "Either way, a look couldn't hurt."

"In this you are incorrect." Despite her words, Roll turned towards the fire and they all began to approach it. Though she took up a light trot, Twilight was much more eager.

She broke out into a light gallop, sprinting ahead of the others as she come into sight of the source of the fire. A small wooden house was the origin of it, with what she assumed was a family of ponies around it, trying to put it out by the look of it, and doing a poor job. "Hold on! I'm coming!" Twilight rushed for the house and its occupants.

One of them, a lanky earth pony with a bright green cap peered at her. "Come to see it burn?"

Twilight blinked at his question. "Oh, what? You don't want to put it out?"

"Why would we?" asked a heavyset unicorn mare. "It's a cursed place. No matter how often we put it to the torch, it comes back."

The others arrived, looking around curiously.

The green-capped pony nodded to them all. "Thanks for being right neighborly. Always good to see ponies with good hearts, but this house should burn, so there's nothing to do here, really."

A cry came from within the fire that sent a shiver down all the spines present. It sounded young, like a little kid, er, foal was caught inside.

Twilight paced back and forth. "You heard that, didn't you? There's a kid trapped in there!" She pointed urgently at the flames.

The portly mare snorted. "It isn't the first time or, unfortunately, the last time the house made queer noises to try and distract us."

Despite the assurances, Twilight's horn began to glow as she gathered frost and water in equal volume and began to pepper the fire to little real effect outside of making a hissing sound and producing steam.

Sunset put a hoof on one of Twilight's shoulders. "If it's really haunted like they say, maybe we shouldn't mess with it?"

Twilight considered this with a frown. Alright, she was in a game, there was a house on fire, she heard a scream. It could be a ghost, or a kid, or... "Look, if it's a ghost or a curse or whatever, I'll deal with it when I find it. I'm not taking the chance that someone is roasting alive while we argue about it."

Roll set her packs on the ground. "You will not be convinced otherwise. I will help as much as I can."

Twilight nodded to Roll and saw True was already looking ready to follow her. She wouldn't be alone. The other ponies were peering at them as if they were mad, but didn't stop Twilight from blasting a narrow path through the fire and stepping forward. Every inch was hard fought, with the fire eager to come in and consume them and only her constant spray to keep it back. She wasn't sure how she was even moving forward, but she was, penetrating into the inferno.

Soon the group was lost to sight of the ponies. The fat mare shook her head. "Even burning, that place managed to take a victim..."

They reached the stairs, both up and down, but where had the voice come from? As if replying to the unspoken question, the cry came again, clearly from downstairs. The stairs down were made of stone. While the wood burned eagerly, the stone did not, making their steps easier as they escaped the worst of the heat.

True made an unhappy noise, his fluffy fur singed badly from the experience. The others didn't look any better, but still they pressed, descending quickly in a circle. The heat seemed to grow less intense with every step, oddly. There was no fire in the basement. Had the stone stairwell been enough?

"You don't look like the usual group," noted a wizened looking pony as they reached the bottom. The pony raised a brow as he looked over the group of them. "Are you with the arsonists?"

Twilight blinked softly. "Where's the kid?"

"Kid? Oh! That's just Steven. He tends to make that sound when things get, hmm, heated."

A goat stepped out from behind the pony and nodded. "S-sorry..."

Roll looked left to right in a smooth panning motion. "Then no one is at risk currently?"

"Oh, heavens no." The pony shook a hoof. "I long ago enchanted the downstairs to resist their futile attempts. I don't even keep anything I don't want burned upstairs anymore." He huffed softly. "Bunch of hooligans, interrupting my study with their petty arson..."

Steven cleared his throat softly before he smiled at the group. "Sorry for alarming you. That's rather brave, coming to rescue a child that is, that you couldn't even see. Um, if you don't mind my asking, who are you?"

Sunset nudged Twilight softly. "We're trying to reach the train, but somebody saw something that we could 'help' with, and here we are."

The pony nodded at Twilight. "You have a good heart. That shouldn't go without reward."

"N-no! You don't have to." Twilight blushed dark, feeling awful that she had dragged her friends through fire when nobody was in trouble at all.

"I insist. If goodness is not rewarded, well, who's to blame when goodness runs out?" He looked Twilight over critically. "And such an inexperienced kineticist too. You should be honing your art, not risking your life so quickly."

Twilight blinked. She hadn't heard the term before, not in her game at least. She paled a bit. "We're not in my game..."

"Game?" He raised a brow. "I should think you're not in any 'game' at all." He turned away. "But I'm being rude. I'm Under Score. My friend, as you know, is Steven."

"B-Before you ask, Wandering Note is my cousin... He's the big adventuring type. I avoid that."

Sunset moved to follow Under Score as he walked away. "Excuse me, why do the people outside seem to think this house is haunted?"

He waved a hoof at the idea. "A wizard can't work on his own without people around deciding the place is haunted, hmph." He kicked open a chest and buried his snout in it, digging around a moment. "Now where did I put that..." He pulled out a tiara and plopped it on Twilight's head without delay. "There, how does that suit you?"

She looked up at it as best she could. "Um, it's nice, but..."

"Don't know what it is?"

She shook her head.

"Ah, youth these days..." He gestured to the tiara on her head. "The diamond-like gem should help you focus water energies better. You are a water kineticist, are you not? And a new one at that, from your performance upstairs."

She tilted her head before angling it forward to let the tiara fall, though she caught it with her magic and spun it around to look over the curious bit of jewelry. "How do you know?" It was little more than a headband of steel, but the bright central blue diamond drew the eyes, and apparently water energy?

He shook his head. "I can't trust the brutes that burn my house down for sport to be sensible, so I have my ways to keep an eye on things. That was very brave of you. Foolish, but brave. I had to open the way for you so you wouldn't be crisped on the way."

Twilight blushed darkly as it was revealed her own efforts hadn't been quite enough. Roll shook her head. "I thought her water was insufficient to explain our successful venture."

"A clockwork." Under Score approached Roll. "I don't see many of your kind, especially outside your home village."

Roll deflected the curiosity by gesturing a hoof at True. "And here is a type of pony you've likely never met before."

Under lowered his vision to True Shot. "You are a curiously proportioned foal... No wait, you aren't a foal at all." He began to look quite intrigued. "What sort of pony are you?"

True tilted his head left and right and squeaked softly before he pointed at himself eagerly, as if that should be answer enough.

As it turned out, it was. "I see..."

Roll placed a metal hoof before True. "He cannot speak due to sustained injuries."

"That is a literal crime, hmm. Well, I shouldn't keep you, even if I wish to know more. You have the air of ponies with a purpose, and it's not mine." He gestured to the stairs. "If you're ready to go back, I'll make your trip back far less strenuous."

"Wait!" Twilight turned to Under and smiled up at him. "You're a wizard, right?"

"I am."

"Can you send us back?"

"Back to where?"

Sunset sighed. "We're not from here. Heck, she isn't even usually a pony." She waved a hoof at Twilight. "We're trying to get back to our world."

"Outsiders?" He raised a brow. "I admit I thought you were normal ponies at the looking.

Twilight bobbed her head. "We heard that word before. So, can you? Please."

"Sorry, that spell is beyond even me." He shook his head slowly. "Your purpose doesn't end here in either event. I can't say for certain, I'm relatively certain you have to continue. Magic that concerns travel between planes comes more naturally to divine casters. Hmm, if I had to guess it's because their power already makes that jump, whereas a wizard has to make do with what is around themselves."

Roll glanced at Sunset, then back at Under. "Since you are knowledgeable, might you identify the nature of her magic." She inclined her head to point at Sunset.

"Oh? Hmm." He circled around Sunset curiously a moment. "Can you cast a spell for me?" She did just as asked, banishing the soot and ash from the party. "Very nice, mmm, but something more... significant."

Sunset cocked a brow before she turned to Roll and waved her hooves with the alien words, expanding the metal pony by double in all directions. "How's that?"

"Perfect." He nodded. "And that spell came naturally?"

"Um, as naturally as the others..."

"Tell me, have you ever had dealings with the elemental plane of fire?"

Sunset looked confused. "This is the only, oh, uh, I guess I've been to two, but neither of them are that."

"Maybe an ancestor... Regardless!" Under nodded with confidence. "You put out the faint scent of the fire plane, but I don't think you're bound to it directly, but to a specific variant of it. The efreeti, or the ifrit as some put it."

Twilight looked amused by the answer. "Called it."

Sunset was less amused. "It was one time! One! I was more of a... demon thing anyway!"

Under rolled a hoof slowly. "Have you ever seen a efreeti?" Sunset shook her head. "Then you are ill-prepared to make judgement calls."

"Do they have wings?"

He raised a brow. "Not usually."

"Ha!" Sunset pointed at Under triumphantly. "I wasn't a efreeti and that proves it."

He shrugged softly. "I know not what time you speak of, but that you are of genie ancestry seems near-certain. If you discover your ties bring you elsewhere, find me again and tell me. I would like to know." He nodded at Sunset. "I don't mind being proven wrong. Meanwhile, the arsonists have left, so it's safe to go. I'll put out the fires as the sun sets, but until then, I'll safeguard your exit. That will be a lot easier from this end than the other."